Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

London based experimental producer and composer, Leifur James announces his return with the release of his highly anticipated second album ‘Angel in Disguise’. Driving, melancholic electronica, the first single “Wise Old Man” is a nod to what can be expected of James’ second album, showcasing a more experimental side to his production. Traversing through musicality, progressive synths and introspection, this first single unveils the producer’s distinct sound with disorientated vocals; speaking of the interplay between reason and emotion, the lyrics repeat “Wise old man in my brain, soul bursting through my veins”, opening the gates to this captivating electronically steered opus.

This news comes after an incredible few years for the artist. 2018 saw James release his esteemed debut album ‘A Louder Silence’ which captured the attention of key tastemakers including Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Mixmag, Electronic Sound and Future Music UK.

‘Angel In Disguise’ promises to explore the themes of love and loss through a masterful blend of harmonic vocals from James himself, nuanced electronic soundscapes and vibrant percussion - punctuated by bespoke visuals, directed by Balázs Simon. This exciting project is expected to make waves and see James step up, exhibiting his discerning ear and painstakingly honed production craft.

Tracklisting: Circles / Black Lens / I Ran With You / Wise old man / Angel In Disguise / Ritual / Alien (feat. Coby Sey) / Strange with you / Rebel

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Doomshakalaka is a new project by Paul Rafferty, former vocalist and bassist for Liverpool indie rock band Hot Club De Paris. On his 30th birthday, Rafferty came up with the name as it sounded like “Boomshakalaka!” (a snippet of in-game commentary from the video game NBA Jam) but with a D, giving a usually celebratory exclamation a paradoxical sense of dread. He set about concocting an album’s worth of songs that embraced this juxtaposed vision - a glistening collection of indie pearls exploring memory, nostalgia and loss.

Over the following years, Rafferty worked to fulfil this uncertain vision and wrote hundreds of fragments of music, melodies and lyrics and slowly distilled them down into 10 songs of stirring, nostalgia-tinged indie rock. Influenced by luminaries such as Television, Big Star, Wings-era McCartney, Deerhunter, Pavement and Stephen Malkmus’ solo work, Rafferty divided himself between the roles of writer, performer, engineer, producer and mixer and took about the task of making physical the sounds that had long lived unsatisfied in his head. “Some of the songs off this record started life in 2011”, Rafferty explains, “but without a band or the capital to record, they waited in the wings until I could beg, borrow or buy the gear to record them exactly how I thought they should be heard”

Doomshakalaka is constructed of chord sequences that conjure longing, sadness, desire and hope in equal measure. With strange and surprising arrangements that avoid the ancient and familiar beaten paths of guitar music, Doomshakalaka seeks to tell Rafferty’s stories in a playful and inventive manner and provide a platform to showcase the album’s central theme of the unfinished business of youth. Paul says “It’s largely a record about remembering moments from my teens and 20s and what those moments mean to me now. I love the texture that ageing brings to an artist’s output. I like the sound of a big hole dug deep.”

Tracklisting: One Last Saturday Night / The Curse / James Asleep / I’ll Kill You, Motherfucker / This Is War (And I’m So Bored) / Werewolf Shadow / The Lost Homework of Isabella Perez / The Fate of the Hero Montage / Skinhead Suit / Black Balloons

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Dreamy Psychedelic Synth-pop band from Austin, Texas Night Glitter is the duo of Thievery Corporation vocalist LouLou Ghelichkhani and multi-instrumentalist John Michael Shoepf. "Taking the influences from every corner of her life and turning them into a distinct musical style is something Loulou Ghelichkhani (Thievery Corporation) does with ease, all en français. In this iteration, her and partner John Michael Schoepf (The Happen-Ins) are putting a slacker rock twist on dream pop. " KUTX

For the past two years, Ghelichkhani and Schoepf (Roky Erickson, Hayes Carll, The Happen-Ins) have been sporadically writing, recording, and releasing singles with various collaborators and engineers to serious acclaim in Austin. When Thievery Corporation decided to go on an extended hiatus after 2019, the duo collected their various recordings for this self-titled full-length record. Schoepf came up with the name Night Glitter with his young daughter when they would explore the river near their Central Texas home on hot Summer nights. The twighlight sky would fill with glittering fireflies. Similarly, Night Glitter songs deliver a dreamy, magical sonic landscape with Ghelichkhani layering her beautiful lyrics (often drawn from her childhood growing up in Iran, Paris and America) atop fuzzed out guitars, analog synths, and catchy electronic beats.

Tracklisting: Higher / Transparency (La Transparence) / Music For Clouds / Hanging On A Dream / Blame Game / Space / Radio (Tous Vas) / Static / Tunnels (Serpentine)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Pop. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

LA Priest is Sam Eastgate who was previously former frontman and guitarist of English Dance punk band Late Of The Pier. His second solo album ‘GENE’ arrives five years after he thrilled the world with the cosmic pop of his debut Inji’. ‘GENE’ was produced alongside London based artist, producer, DJ and founder of Phantasy Sounds records, Erol Alkan, and also follows the 2016 project ‘Soft Hair’ in which Sam teamed up with Connan Mockasin for an instant cult-classic album.

The new record offers a one-way ticket into a dimension entirely of Sam’s own making. ‘GENE’, the album, is named after a brand-new analogue drum machine Sam dreamt up and built alone. Working in isolation for more than two years in California, Wales and England’s south coast, soldering iron in hand, Sam developed the inners of 'GENE' using dozens of electrical circuits he made up himself. The creation came after a search for an alternative to the structure and rigor of standard drum machines. Its unique rhythmic patterns are the focal point for the album, which is coloured by lush, pastoral tones, paired with the influence of his environmental changes.

Tracklisting: Beginning / Rubber Sky / What Moves / Peace Lily / Open My Eyes / Sudden Thing / Monochrome / What Do You See / Kissing Of The Weeds / Black Smoke / Ain’t No Love Affair

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Australian indie rock band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever have turned their gaze inward, to their individual pasts and the places that inform them, on their second full-length, ‘Sideways to New Italy.’ Led by singer-songwriter-guitarists Tom Russo, Joe White and Fran Keaney, the guitar-pop five-piece returned home to Australia after the relentless touring schedule that came following their critically regarded 2018 debut ‘Hope Downs’.

The New Italy of the new album’s title is a village near New South Wales’ Northern Rivers – the area drummer Marcel Tussie is from. A blink-and you’ll- miss-it pit-stop of a place with fewer than 200 residents, it was founded by Venetian immigrants in the late-1800s and now serves as something of a living monument to Italians’ contribution to Australia, with replica Roman statues dotted like alien souvenirs on the otherwise rural landscape.

The parallels to the way the band attempted to maintain connections and create familiarity during their disorienting time on the road was apparent to Russo. “These are the expressions of people trying to find a home somewhere alien: trying to create a utopia in a turbulent and imperfect world.” The record’s geographic identity emerged from the band losing their grip on their own, whether that was through the pressure of touring, the dissolution of relationships, a frustrating distance from their daily lives – or some combination of all three – that came from being slingshotted all over the world, playing sold-out headline tours and festivals including Coachella, Governors Ball, Primavera Sound, All Points East, and Pitchfork Music Festival.

The notion of crafting, in Russo’s words, “a utopia of where your heart’s from,” permeates Sideways to New Italy, in which early attempts at writing big, high-concept songs about The State of the World were abandoned in favor of love songs, and familiar voices and characters filter in and out, grounding the band’s stories in their personal histories. There’s something comforting, too, in knowing the next time they’re buffeted from stage to stage around the world, they’ll be taking the voices of their loved ones with them, building a new totem of home no matter where they end up.

Tracklisting: The Second Of The First / Falling Thunder / She’s There / Beautiful Steven / The Only One / Cars In Space / Cameo / Not Tonight / Sunglasses At The Wedding / The Cool Change

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Muzz, the new project of Americans’ Paul Banks (Interpol), Josh Kaufman (producer/multi-instrumentalist and one third of Bonny Light Horseman), and Matt Barrick (drummer of Jonathan Fire*Eater, The Walkmen, and Fleet Foxes’ touring band), have announced their self-titled, debut album, out on Matador Records.

Muzz was born out of longstanding friendship and collaboration. Banks and Kaufman have known each other since childhood, attending high school together in Spain before separately moving to New York. There, they independently crossed paths with Barrick while running in similar music circles. They kept in touch in the following years: Barrick drummed in Banks + Steelz and on some of Kaufman’s production sessions; Kaufman helped on Banks’ early Julian Plenti solo endeavour; various demos were collaborated on, and a studio was co-bought.

The self-titled debut album, written, arranged and performed by all three, is dark and gorgeous, expansive and soulful. No matter the sonic direction, Muzz goes there effortlessly and with maximum emotional charge.

Tracklisting: Bad Feeling / Evergreen / Red Western Sky / Patchouli / Everything Like It Used To Be / Broken Tambourine / Knuckleduster / Chubby Checker / How Many Days / Summer Love / All Is Dead To Me / Trinidad

Label Review. 

1960 album. New stereo mix. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Originally released on Capitol Records in July 1960, the ‘Nice ‘n’ Easy’ album topped the US charts for nine weeks. The album was nominated for multiple Grammys, including Album of the Year, Best Male Vocal Performance, and Best Arrangement (Nelson Riddle). Since its original release, Sinatra’s body of work still resonates with fans and critics today. Recorded during the Nelson Riddle session at the Capitol Studios, Room A, “The Nearness of You” was initially intended to be the title track of the planned album. Once ‘Nice ‘n’ Easy’ was delivered, the album title changed, and the track did not appear on the original LP.

Now, the original master of “The Nearness of You” (2020 mix) will be made available for the first time on the CD and digital versions of the album for which it was intended. The CD and digital formats add the new stereo mix “The Nearness of You” (2020 mix) and sought-after bonus tracks: previously unreleased session takes of “I’ve Got A Crush on You and “Nice ‘N’ Easy.”

“Frank would ad-lib something each time he got to the tag line. Remember, the song was new to him at the time; the last take was terrific. Frank got that tune into the American songbook for us. Years later we wrote a second chorus that other singers recorded but, to us, Frank’s version is definitive.” – Alan & Marilyn Bergman

“By curating his albums with songs that told a story he wanted to tell, and by singing each word as if he wrote it, Sinatra introduced a level of personal expression to the recording process that reached literary heights.” – The New Yorker

Tracklisting: Nice ‘N’ Easy / That Old Feeling / How Deep Is The Ocean / I’ve Got A Crush On You / You Go To My Head / Fools Rush In / Nevertheless (I’m In Love With You) / She’s Funny That Way / Try A Little Tenderness / Embraceable You / Mam’selle / Dream // Bonus Tracks: The Nearness Of You / I’ve Got A Crush On You – Session takes – previously unreleased / Nice ‘N’ Easy – Session takes – previously unreleased

Label Review. 

2020 album on 5 seven inch singles. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Nonesuch Records releases the Magnetic Fields’ ‘Quickies’, a set of five vinyl EPs that features twenty-eight new short songs by Stephin Merritt, ranging in length from thirteen seconds to two minutes and thirty-five seconds. Merritt explains his thinking behind the ‘Quickies’ concept: “I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long. Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.”

To date, Stephin Merritt has written and recorded twelve Magnetic Fields albums, including the beloved ‘69 Love Songs’ and the 2017 critically acclaimed Nonesuch box set, ‘50 Song Memoir’, which chronicled the first fifty years of the songwriter’s life with one song per year. New York magazine called the box set “a celebration of Merritt’s sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it … a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rock’s most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.” Merritt has also composed original music and lyrics for several music theatre pieces, including an off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman’s novel ‘Coraline’, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of public radio’s ‘This American Life’. Stephin Merritt also releases albums under the band names the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes.

Tracklisting: Castles of America / The Biggest Tits in History / The Day the Politicians Died / Castle Down a Dirt Road / Bathroom Quickie / My Stupid Boyfriend / Love Gone Wrong / Favorite Bar / Kill a Man a Week / Kraftwerk in a Blackout / When She Plays the Toy Piano / Death Pact (Let’s Make A) / I’ve Got a Date With Jesus / Come, Life, Shaker Life! / (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang / Rock ‘n’ Roll Guy / You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub / Let’s Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced) / The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee / When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit / The Price You Pay / The Boy in the Corner / Song of the Ant / I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail / Evil Rhythm / She Says Hello / The Little Robot Girl / I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again

Label Review. 

The story of Iggy’s 1977 on seven discs and 40 page book. CD1: The Idiot. CD2: Lust For Life. CD3: TV Eye Live. CD4: Demos & Rarities.* CD5: Live at Rainbow Theatre - Finsbury Park, London 7th March 1977. CD6: Live at Agora Cleveland 21st March 1977.* CD7: Live at Mantra Studios, Chicago 28th March 1977.* All remastered. *Exclusive to the box.

Our Overview. 

This new box set from punk legend Iggy Pop is the first time his first two solo albums recorded with David Bowie have been remastered and expanded. Iggy was the lead singer in the trailblazing Detroit band The Stooges who issued three albums between 1969-1973 which were largely ignored at the time but their legend grew and helped by Iggy’s solo reappearance in 1977, are today renowned as undisputed classics and seen as inspirational not only to Punk Rock’s ascendance in the late 1970s but to countless bands ever since.

In 1976, Iggy Pop was experiencing drug issues and David Bowie who was a big fan and wanting to kick his own drug problem collected him and decamped to Berlin. Together they fashioned ‘The Idiot’ which would become Iggy’s debut solo album and Bowie got Iggy a record deal with RCA Records who he was with at that time. ‘The Idiot’ was a complete departure from the sound of the Stooges and was if anything a dry run for Bowie’s next album ‘Low’ which was recorded straight afterwards but released first. Bowie’s rhythm section played on ‘The Idiot’ and the overall sound could best be described as “icy” with Bowie’s keyboards offering a cold sheen against Iggy’s baritone vocals. The albums best known track, “China Girl” was re-recorded by Bowie himself for his 1983 album ‘Let’s Dance’ where it became a single and a big hit.

The follow-up came quickly with ‘Lust For Life’ and again Bowie produced although a more orthodox rock sound was heeded for this one and the rhythm section of brothers Tony & Hunt Sales propelled Iggy through what is still seen today as his best solo album. The title track and “The Passenger” are Iggy’s most popular songs and belatedly became hits in their own right in the 1990s after their use in the British film ‘Trainspotting’.

Both the albums are remastered in this new package alongside a disc of previously unreleased alternate mixes and rare single mixes. Also included is his final album for RCA: ‘T.V. Eye Live’ a rather roughly recorded live album plus three live performances all released officially for the first time. This set has been mastered from the best possible sources, and contains a 40-page booklet written by the Guardians Michael Hahn with contributions from the musicians who played on the records and fans who talk about the influence the albums had on them.

Tracklisting.

Disc 1. The Idiot: Sister Midnight / Nightclubbing / Funtime / Baby / China Girl / Dum Dum Boys / Tiny Girls / Mass Production

Disc 2. Lust For Life: Lust for Life / Sixteen / Some Weird Sin / The Passenger / Tonight / Success / Turn Blue / Neighbourhood Threat / Fall in Love with Me

Disc 3. T.V. Eye Live: T.V. Eye / Funtime / Sixteen / I Got A Right / Lust for Life / Dirt / Nightclubbing / I Wanna Be Your Dog

Disc 4. Demo’s and Rarities: Sister Midnight - Mono Single Edit / Sister Midnight - Single Edit / China Girl - Single Edit / Dum Dum Boys - Alt Mix / Baby - Alt Mix / China Girl - Alt Mix / Tiny Girls - Alt Mix / I Got A Right - Single / Lust for Life - Edit / Interview with Iggy about Recording the Idiot

Disc 5. Rainbow Theatre - Finsbury Park, London 07/03/1977: Raw Power / TV Eye / Dirt / 1969 / Turn Blue / Funtime / Gimme Danger / No Fun / Sister Midnight / I Need Somebody / Search and Destroy / I Wanna Be Your Dog / Tonight / Some Weird Sin / China Girl

Disc 6. Agora Cleveland 21/03/1977: Raw Power / TV Eye / Dirt / 1969 / Turn Blue / Funtime / Gimme Danger / No Fun / Sister Midnight / I Need Somebody / Search and Destroy / I Wanna Be Your Dog / China Girl

Disc 7. Mantra Studios, Chicago 28/03/1977: Raw Power / TV Eye / Dirt / 1969 / Turn Blue / Funtime / Gimme Danger / No Fun / Sister Midnight / I Need Somebody / Search and Destroy / I Wanna Be Your Dog / China Girl

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD and Coloured Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘On The Widow’s Walk’ is the new studio album from The White Buffalo, the touring / recording persona of Jake Smith – singer, songwriter, guitarist, teller of tales; the Emmy nominee whose voice, a timber-shakin’ baritone, seems fuelled by a greater truth. Of the half-dozen albums released under The White Buffalo banner, this latest 11-tracker – a loosely linked collection of dark thrills produced by Shooter Jennings, who also provides piano and keys – is the most collaborative and organic.

From the beginning, Oregon-born Smith has wilfully side-stepped genre, touching on a variety of musical threads – from Americana to punk, from brooding folk to driving rock ‘n’ roll – whilst maintaining a strong, signature style. His spontaneous delivery and narrative lyrics are at the heart of it all, instilling the songs – effectively, mini-movies – with a cinematic, hand-crafted quality, and this very much holds true for ‘On The Widow’s Walk’. At one point, the idea of a concept album was considered, but Smith didn’t want to leave out quality songs just because they might not fit a specific concept; hence, these recordings have water and the ocean as underlying rather than dominant themes, a sense of longing too, something also reflected in the cover art – a portrait of Smith by UK painter Jack Browning.

Other reference points include living for the moment, the march of technology, the force of mother nature, plus what happens when the moral conscience spins out of control. Simply, ‘On The Widow’s Walk’ is a compelling statement from an artist whose activity between the musical lines has seen his star very much on the rise.

Tracklisting: Problem Solution / The Drifter / No History / Sycamore / Come On Shorty / Cursive / Faster Than Fire / Widow’s Walk / River Of Love and Loss / The Rapture / I Don’t Know A Thing About Love

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Pop. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘Trinidad’ marks the Merge Records debut of Sweet Spirit, this mighty sextet from Austin, Texas, and their third album in total. The songs are stripped down yet more intricate than ever before. It’s a pop record made by punk rockers sonically happy but lyrically bitter. Lustful, sassy, and passionate. Touting inspirations as varied as Prince, T. Rex, William Onyeabor, ABBA, Roy Orbison, Shintaro Sakamoto, Francoise Hardy, and Robyn, Sweet Spirit have created an album that pulsates with more ‘LinnDrum’ and synth than guitar.

The six members of Sweet Spirit like pranks, glitter eyeshadow, and good stories. They also enjoy making music, as evidenced by the 12 bands they collectively play in. But above all, they love dancing, that place between exorcise and exercise. Sweet Spirit’s famously raucous and sweaty live shows satisfy both their own and their audience’s need for connection and release. “When people dance, they are fulfilling a human desire where instinct and culture meet. Dance and music are built into the mechanics of being human. We are born instinctively with these impulses. To dance is to speak unspoken agreements,” says Sweet Spirit front person Sabrina Ellis.

From the opening riff of “Behold”, Sabrina, Andrew, Danny, Josh, Jon, and Jake establish their slightly cynical world of fantasy, hard truths, and all manner of longing. “No Dancing” bemoans the lack of magic in the club, while live favorite “Fingerprints” sets out to “get you away from your lover.” Author/composer Mark Mallman of Minneapolis says, “Those who believe in demons see demons. In music, the demon is silence. In nature, snakes that appear to dance are actually fighting. Palm trees that kiss the beach during hurricane winds appear to dance when set to music in a video. There is no genre to dancing, only to its cause. In this instance, the cause is called Sweet Spirit.”

Tracklisting: Behold / Fear Is a Lie / No Dancing / Fingerprints / Llorando / Y2K / Only Love / Coincidence / Empty Bottle

Label Review. 

One Nite Alone (1CD) / One Nite Alone Live! (2CD) / One Nite Alone: The Aftershow It Ain?t Over Yet (1CD) / Prince Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas (DVD). Recorded and filmed 2001/02.

Our Overview. 

‘Up All Nite With Prince: The One Nite Alone Collection’ is an electrifying set from the pint sized, consummate purple performer, himself. Prince has left a legacy and the American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker is regarded as one of the most influential musicians in the history of popular music.This beautiful package will immerse fans old and new and brings the electrifying power of Prince’s 2002 studio and live releases together in one stunning package. This 4CD/1DVD set includes One Nite Alone…, Prince’s striking piano-and-vocal studio album (in its first commercial CD release); the double-disc One Nite Alone…Live! featuring recent jams (“Muse 2 The Pharaoh,” “1+1+1 Is 3”) and classic favorites (“Raspberry Beret,” “Nothing Compares 2 U,” “When U Were Mine”); the high-energy One Nite Alone…The Aftershow: It Ain’t Over! with guest appearances by George Clinton and Musiq Soulchild; and the Live At The Aladdin Las Vegas DVD. The ultimate Prince concert experience is here!

Tracklisting:

DISC 1: One Nite Alone… (Solo Piano and Voice by Prince) / One Nite Alone… / U’re Gonna C Me / Here On Earth / A Case Of U / Have A Heart / Objects In The Mirror / Avalanche / Pearls B4 The Swine / Young and Beautiful / Arboretum

DISC 2: One Nite Alone… Live! / Rainbow Children (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Muse 2 the Pharaoh (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Xenophobia (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Extraordinary (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Mellow (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / 1+1+1 is 3 (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / The Other Side Of The Pillow (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Strange Relationship (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / When U Were Mine (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Avalanche (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002)

DISC 3: One Nite Alone…Live! / Family Name (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Take Me With U (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Raspberry Beret (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Everlasting Now (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / One Nite Alone… (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Adore (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / I Wanna B Ur Lover (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Do Me, Baby (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Condition Of The Heart (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Diamonds & Pearls (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / The Beautiful Ones (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Nothing Compares 2 U (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Free (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Starfish & Coffee (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Sometimes It Snows In April (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002) / Anna Stesia (Live from One Nite Alone Tour 2002)

DISC 4: One Nite Alone: The Aftershow… It Ain’t Over! / Joy In Repetition (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / We Do This (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow)Medley: Just Friends (Sunny) / If You Want Me To Stay (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / Alphabet Street (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / Peach (Xtended Jam) (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / Dorothy Parker (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / Girls & Boys (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow) / Everlasting Now (Vamp) (Live from One Nite Alone Tour… The Aftershow)

DISC 5 - DVD: Prince Live at The Aladdin Las Vegas: Intro/Soundcheck (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Pop Life (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Money Don’t Matter 2 Night/The Work (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Push and Pull (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / 1+1+1=3 (Inc. Live Rollercoaster / Housequake) (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Strollin’ / U Want Me (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Gotta Broken Heart Again (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Strange Relationship (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Pass The Peas (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Whole Lotta Love (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Family Name (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Take Me With U (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / The Everlasting Now (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / Sometimes It Snows In April (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002) / The Ride (Live at the Aladdin, Las Vegas, 12/15/2002)

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Indie. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk also perform together in Canadian Art-rock outfit Fucked Up and ‘Harmony Avenue’ is the debut album by their side project Jade Hairpins. They sneaked onto the scene in late 2018 with a mysterious 12-inch on Merge Records and a couple of poetic sentences about hiding in trees. The label remained tight-lipped while touting ‘Dose Your Dreams’, a truly epic new Fucked Up album released on the same day. Fast forward to 2020, when Jonah and Mike burst out of the proverbial trees with ‘Harmony Avenue’, a collection of songs written and recorded in real time. Pop foraging with analog acoustics and electronic landscaping.

As the project expanded, Falco took on frontman and main lyricist duties for the first time and is building a live band based in his adopted hometown of London, England. He describes the new record as “straddling the post-post-punk of something like New Order, Scritti Politti, and Orange Juice, with a primordial sense of humour and absurdity not unlike Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Television Personalities, or the Monks.” Each Jade Hairpins song was conceived in studio, then edited and crafted to become ‘Harmony Avenue’.

Each vocal approach was different—first focusing on creating stories for character-based writing, and then on less absurd emotional/thoughtful/personal reflection. The LP was originally conceived as a potential addendum to the universe of ‘Dose Your Dreams’, but the end result was more exciting than Falco and Haliechuk anticipated and deserved its own spotlight. The themes of ‘Harmony Avenue’ mostly focus on contradictory behavior and double entendres as well as regret and control, revelation, support, and complete absurdity. Jade Hairpins are here to challenge, confound, and sparkle their way into listeners’ hearts and keep them coming back for more!

Tracklisting: J Terrapin / (Don’t Break My) Devotion / Father Coin / Yesterdang / Post No Bill / Broadstairs Beach / Dolly Dream / Mary Magazine / Truth Like a Mirage / Motherman

Label Review.

2020 album.

Our Overview.

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are Indigo Girls - the folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States and now they have finally announced their first studio album in five years ‘Look Long’ which is a testament to their storied career. With a devout base of fans, together they have written, arranged, recorded and performed music which over the course of 40 years has become a vital part of the lives of their legion of devoted fans around the world.

Their 1989 Epic Records eponymous debut sold over two-million copies with “Closer To Fine” (on this album) perhaps their best known song. Over the course of their ongoing career, ‘Emily Saliers and Amy Ray’ recorded fourteen studio sets, four live albums, two compilations, and an EP. Their last album, ‘One Lost Day’, was released in 2015.

‘Look Long’ was produced by John Reynolds at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio in England, Look Long, features 11 brand new tracks all written by Ray and Saliers. LP version will be available in June

Tracklisting: Shit Kickin’ / Look Long / Howl At The Moon / When We Were Writers / Change My Heart / K.C. Girl / Country Radio / Muster / Feel This Way Again / Favorite Flavor / Sorrow And Joy

Label Review. 

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

After years of success in the world of neo-classical music with his Texas based band Balmorhea since 2006, leader RG Lowe took an artistic sharp turn leading to his soulful 2017 debut, ‘Slow Time’, which Stereogum called “impossibly smooth.” Three years later, Lowe returns with ‘Life of the Body’, produced by David Boyle - known for his work with Glen Hansard, Patty Griffin, and Okkervil River.

This wide-angle collection of songs invites us to reconnect with ourselves and our world through the senses by illuminating our intrinsic connection with the physical world, and the freedom found therein. Echoing the ardor of Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’, and channelling Talk Talk’s Mark Hollis, Lowe asks us each to “feel the wind blow on your face, camerado.” At once intimate and epic, opening track “Sorrow” sets a tone of longing and malaise, from which Lowe expands and breaks out of, over the next 8 songs.

As the album progresses, he explores myth, desire, love and the mystery of art, concluding with the ethereal, acoustic guitar-driven “Beauty Finds Forever,” on which it’s clear he’s transformed. He’s found the deepest nourishment; an enrichment of the soul found through a saturation of his physical senses, an antidote to our anguished age.

Tracklisting: Sorrow / He Done Her Wrong / Sendai, Unknown / My Body / Soap / Tulip Ave / Salpetriere / Life-World / Beauty Finds Forever

Label Review. 

2020 album also availble on CD.

Our Overview. 

First collaborative album by GRAMMY Award winning American banjo player Abigail Washburn and Chinese guzheng master Wu Fei. Produced by Bela Fleck, it’s a testament to the connective power of music across seemingly disparate cultures. Abigail Washburn and ’s Wu Fei duo project is as unlikely, perhaps, as it was inevitable--a manifest sonic consequence of politics and vibrations commingling across continents. There is a directness in the musical duo format that makes it such a good vehicle for melodic conversations between close friends who obviously listen to each other with an athletic respect matched by their respective virtuosity. For the listener, it means a gift of unhurried music drawn freely from streams of raised consciousness, waves which met from halfway across the world to find they shared the same shake.

Merging American old-time music and Chinese folksong, Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn features gorgeous, impressionistic renditions of traditional material from the hills of Appalachia to the prairies of Xinjian province, each tune flowing seamlessly into the next. The effervescent resonances of Wu’s guzheng zither dance around Washburn’s expressive banjo playing, their voices intertwining English and various Chinese dialects. This album recasts “world music” as music of our shared world, highlighting our shared humanity and the transformative power of song.

Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn’s duo is a musical resolution to their specific and differing issues about home. For Fei, it means an opportunity to assimilate elements of her musical argot—Chinese classical, folk and opera—into song forms while leaving room for the free associative tendencies she developed in the practice of free improvisation. In short, it marks a return to a thrown-out rule book with a changed perspective. For Abigail, it means musical collaboration with a sister from another Mister who speaks all the same languages. Someone with whom she can create brave, intimate music.

“[Washburn is] something of an unofficial musical ambassador to China. She constructs cultural bridges, one note at a time.” - CBS Sunday Morning

“A daring, definite talent, whose feel for the folk idiom results in moving material. Soulful is the word.” - Wall Street Journal 

Trackslisting: Water Is Wide / Wusuli Boat Song / Four Seasons Medley: Four Seasons / Dark Ocean Waltz / Ping Tan Dance / Banjo Guzheng Pickin’ Girls / Who Says Women Aren’t As Good As Men / The Roving Cowboy / Avarguli / Weaving Medley: Busy Weaving / Julianne Johnson / Open Little Hand / Back Step Cindy / Bu Da Da / Ho Hey / Cluck Old Hen / Pretty Bird

Label Review.

2020 debut album. Pop. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Prolific singer-songwriter Ashe continues to build on her electrifying momentum in 2020, after her hit single, “Moral Of The Story” was featured in the Netflix hit sequel “To All The Boys...PS I Still Love You’. Despite her cheery, shining exterior, there's a storm brewing inside singer-songwriter Ashe and her latest EP, ‘Moral Of The Story: Chapter 1’, gives us insight into her not-so-perfect life. At only 24 years old, the California native has experienced every stage of love, from the first moments of attraction to the bitter end of a marriage.

Graduating from Berklee College of Music, Ashe quickly fell in love and got married. The love was quickly lost, or maybe it was never there at all, and she went through a terribly messy divorce – which resulted in the focus of title-track "Moral Of The Story." She proceeded to surround herself with an amazing support system of family and friends, including musical genius FINNEAS, learn from her mistakes, and move on through the creation of stunning pieces of music.

Just like a book, ‘Moral Of The Story: Chapter 1’ is filled with different chapters taken straight from Ashe's life. Although she is on track to become pop royalty, there is something aggressively human and relatable about our favourite pop princess. Ashe has the greatest superpower of all: the ability to effortlessly tell an entire story in the span of three minutes. In this extremely digital age, Ashe's ingenious songwriting has the ability to grab fans' attention, make them put their phones down, and actually listen. Her stellar songwriting and dreamy vocals shine in ‘Moral Of The Story: Chapter 1’.

The track “Moral Of The Story” features contributions from grammy award winning producer FINNEAS and lyrical contribution from Billie Eilish. Since then, the track accumulated over 100 million streams (5.4 million per day) in less than a month, landed on 54 Spotify viral charts and 758K Shazams.

The track was added to Spotify’s largest pop playlist Today’s Top Hits (25M followers) and Apple’s Today’s Hits. ‘Moral of the Story’ is impacting pop and alternative radio now with early adds from iHeart USA, KYSR Los Angeles, Entercom USA, KITS San Francisco, National SiriusXM and Alt Nation. This summer Ashe will be performing in 20K capacity venues alongside AJR, Quinn XCII and Hobo Johnson.

Tracklisting: Figured Out / Bachelorette / Shitty Places, Pretty Faces / Moral of the Story / In Disguise / Cold in California / Immature / Not How It’s Supposed To Go

Label Review. 

2020 posthumous album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Circles’ is the American rapper and singer-songwriter Mac Miller’s sixth and final studio album and first posthumous album after his passing on September 7, 2018 due to an accidental drug overdose. ‘Circles’ is an optimistic epilogue to the life of an aspirational artist. It’s the culmination of a career spent improving, a fitting epilogue to an aspirational life.

When Mac Miller sought out Jon Brion - American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist - to help produce the music that would become last year’s ‘Swimming’ and this month’s ‘Circles’, even Brion thought it was an odd pairing. The renowned producer and film composer was 30 years the senior of the late rapper, part of a different generation and scene, and someone whose extensive list of credits included scarcely any hip-hop (Kanye West’s ‘Late Registration’ and Graduation are notable exceptions). “I think he [Miller] presumed, quite honestly, that I’d had some sort of musical prejudice against hip-hop or people who made beats or something?” Brion recently told Vulture. “These were his exact words: ‘Oh, yeah. Hi. I really wanted to meet you, but I don’t know if you’d even consider what I do as music.’ ”Miller’s supposition, of course, was nonsense. Brion may be best known for his work with distinguished singer-songwriters like Fiona Apple and Aimee Mann, but he harbored no such musical prejudices. When you got past their surface-level differences, the pairing actually made quite a bit of sense. Brion is talked about like a musical savant, but Miller—who played the drums, guitar, and piano and had bona fide production chops—was every bit his match. Emotionally, Miller fit in the Brion sonic universe, too. 

The magic of Brion’s scores is that they convey disorientation while also counterbalancing it. It’s hard to listen to Circles without wearing what Brion describes as “loss goggles.” Dying can elevate an artist’s mythology. But it also robs them of any semblance of control. They can’t push back against false interpretations (something Miller found futile even while he was alive). With a posthumous release, especially, death becomes the dominant narrative. The conceit of ‘Swimming’ and ‘Circles’ is that together they form a portrait of a man, you know…swimming in circles. But on ‘Circles’, what Miller frames as stagnation actually sounds like incremental progress. Against the dreary sonic backdrop, Miller is self-critical and also full of resolve. He may have still been making mistakes, but on songs like the standout “That’s On Me,” he takes responsibility for his actions (“That's on me, that's on me, I know / That's on me, that's on me, it's all my fault,” he sings on the chorus). These might have been hopeful moments had Miller lived, but instead those loss goggles render them even more tragic than the album’s downbeats: He was trying.

Impossible as it is to divorce the material from its author—and more specifically, the fate of its author— we’d still be celebrating ‘Circles’ if not for the fog of death. Brion has described being moved to tears by some of these songs before Miller passed. The concision and complexity with which Miller articulates his mental currents and emotional tides makes it tough not to sink under their weight. There’s only one other voice on all of ‘Circles’; for most of the album, Miller is left to grapple with himself. “I wonder what they know,” he sings on the album closer, “Once a Day.” “I wonder if they ever even cared at all / I wonder, do they see their own reflection in the rain / And look away?” Time and again, Mac Miller doesn’t look away. He faces down his demons, flaws, and insecurities. It’s one of those rare times you’re left aching for a sequel.

Tracklisting: Circles / Complicated / Blue World / Good News / I Can See / Everybody / Woods / Hand Me Downs / That's On Me / Hands / Surf / Once A Day / Bonus Track 13 / Bonus Track 14

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Steve Earle is one of the most respected names in the US country/Americana genre after spending his twenties as a session musician and songwriter in Nashville he finally got a solo break in 1986 with his debut album ‘Guitar Town’ and his third album ‘Copperhead Road’ was a big hit two years later. After a few years away in the early 1990s nursing drug problems, Steve hasn’t looked back and has been incredibly productive rarely going more than a couple of years without a new album. His latest ‘Ghosts of West Virginia’, with his backing band The Dukes, is his 20th studio album. It was mixed entirely in mono, lending a sonic cohesion and punch. In recent years, Earle has experienced partial hearing loss in one ear and can no longer discern the separation that stereo is designed to produce. The recording features his latest incarnation of his backing band The Dukes; Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & vocals, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel, guitar & dobro, Brad Pemberton on drums & percussion, and Jeff Hill on acoustic & electric bass.

‘Ghosts of West Virginia’ centers on the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion that killed twenty-nine men in that state in 2010, making it one of the worst mining disasters in American history. Earle started working on the album after being approached by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, a playwright team that would create ‘Coal Country’, a theater piece about the disaster. They interviewed the surviving West Virginia miners, along with the families of the miners who died, and created monologues for their characters using those words. Working closely with Oskar Eustis, the Public Theater’s Artistic Director, they workshopped the songs and text for nearly four years. Earle functioned as “a Greek chorus with a guitar,” in his words. He was on stage for the entire play and performed seven of the songs that lead ‘Ghosts of West Virginia’, including the powerful “It’s About Blood,” in which Earle blazons the names of all the men who died. The songs provided personal, historical and social context for the testimony of the play’s characters. Opening to critical acclaim on March 3rd, the production was postponed indefinitely after only two weeks due to restrictions and safety concerns because of COVID-19.

In ten deftly drawn, powerfully conveyed sonic portraits, Earle explores the historical role of coal in rural communities. With 'Ghosts of West Virginia', Earle says that he was interested in exploring a new approach to his songwriting. “I’ve already made the preaching-to-the-choir album,” he says, specifically alluding to his 2004 Grammy Award winning 'The Revolution Starts...Now'. As anyone politically attuned as Earle understands, there are times when the faithful need music that will raise their spirits and toughen their resolve. But he came to believe that our times might also benefit from something that addresses a different audience, songs written from a point of view that he is particularly capable of rendering.

Steve Earle & The Dukes suffered a major loss when, not long before the band went into the studio, bassist Kelley Looney, who had played with Earle for thirty years, passed away. Beyond the death of a longstanding musical partner, Earle was faced with the prospect of finding someone who could share the telepathic musical communication so characteristic of the band. Happily, Jeff Hill, recently of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, joined the band on bass. “Earle says, “Jeff stepped into the breach, but it was hard. It was really hard.” In addition to the 29 miners killed at Upper Big Branch, Ghosts of West Virginia is dedicated to the memory of Kelley Looney.

Tracklisting: Heaven Ain’t Goin’ / Nowhere / Union, God and Country / Devil Put the Coal in the Ground / John Henry was a Steel Drivin’ Man / Time is Never on Our Side / It’s About Blood / If I Could See Your Face / Again / Black Lung / Fastest Man Alive / The Mine

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Hot English band The 1975 have cued up their fourth album ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ for release in the Spring 2020. In 2019 they played a “will they won’t they” game regarding whether the album was coming or not, teasing fans with chatter online but finally in July they put out “The 1975” the first single from the album which featured the climate activist Greta Thunberg reading a mission statement. At the time of writing in January 2020, a total of four songs have now been trailed from the thumping “People” to the jittery Burial soundalike “Frail State Of Mind”.

“Me & You Together Song” with its indie rock feel shows the new album will be another diverse collection from the talented and highly popular four-piece who’s first three albums all went to No.1 in their native UK. Frontman Matthew Healy explained that the album would be inspired by British nighttime culture, adding that it contains references to “the beauty of the M25 and all those lights and going to McDonald’s and listening to garage records in a haze in a Peugeot 206.”

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis:Aksak Maboul - the seminal Crammed band - return with a brand-new opus entitled ‘Figures’, a double album containing 22 tracks: it took no less than that to accommodate the flow of ideas which arose after such a long gap and is set to be released through Crammed Discs, the label set up by Marc Hollander in 1981. And this is their first new album in 40 years.

Drawing again from the multiple sources which have always inspired the band (from electronic music and pop to experimentation, jazz, minimalism, contemporary classical etc), Aksak Maboul reconfigures them with its inimitable style. The album was wholly written, conceived and produced by Marc Hollander & Veronique Vincent, and features contributions by the band’s current live line-up (Faustine Hollander, Lucien Fraipont & Erik Heestermans, and by guests including Fred Frith, Steven Brown (Tuxedomoon), three members of Aquaserge and more.

As summed up in 2017 by writer Mikey IQ Jones, “the roots of Aksak Maboul's appeal and longevity lie within the collective's shapeshifting lineup and their chameleonic aesthetic abilities; the group's ever-mutating sound is akin to a sonic möbius strip, always digesting and recontextualising itself, where seams and edges show but continually fold in upon themselves as the madness evolves. The best part? That evolution hasn't yet ceased.”

Tracklisting:

CD/LP 1: Among The Naeporu / C’est Charles / Taciturne / Silhouettes / True”,” False”,” Fictive / Histoires De Fous / Sophie La Bevue / Formerly Known As Defile / How Should One Read A Book? / Spleenetique / Sgraffites

CD/LP 2: The Untranslatable / Retour Chez A / Dramuscule / Excerpt From Uccellini / Un Caid / Martial Arts For Boys / Un Certain M / Ins Bleistiftgebiet / Fatrasie Pulverisee / Qu’est-ce Que C’est Mot? / Tout A Une Fin

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Hailing from Birmingham, England and spawned in the punk scene of the late 1970s as The Prefects whose claim to fame was as one of the support acts on The Clash’s ‘White Riot Tour’ in early 1977 - four members of that band became Nightingales in 1979. An air of the unsettled is a staple of leader Robert Lloyd’s career, from The Prefects’s dank dexterity and jittery paranoia of the first Nightingales’ single, “Idiot Strength”, onward through four decades of top-notch recordings. If the unique persona of Lloyd and crew always came across on their ten albums and countless line-ups, it was largely as an acquired taste of the musical cognoscenti. Labels good and bad seemed to feel, at one point or another, a public duty and a point of pride to release a Nightingales album before returning to the business of business.

Label Review.

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Jim Elkington, Chicago based guitarist and songwriter moved to the United States in the late ’90s from his native England with the intention of making himself absolutely essential to the Chicago music scene. Twenty years later he’s contributed to a staggering volume of records and shows and projects both in Chicagoland (see Jeff Tweedy; Tortoise; Eleventh Dream Day; Brokeback) and far from it (see Richard Thompson; Laetitia Sadier; Michael Chapman; Steve Gunn; Joan Shelley; Nap Eyes). The 2017 release of the wonderful ‘Wintres Woma’, his first so-called solo album, seemed to be a logical, healthy respite from assisting with the creative needs of others that would allow him to serve his own. The record certainly sounded as though James found in it every reason to be satisfied—among much else, it effectively reconciled his personal and musical mongreltude as a child of Britain and a man of America—and thus could return his focus to bettering other folks’ records.

2020 and now Jim is releasing ‘Ever-Roving Eye’ which is even more elaborate, shrewd, thoughtful, and confessional than its predecessor. Though it sounds like a line culled from a murderous Child ballad, the title has everything to do instead with the slipperiness of satisfaction, and the equal parts virtue and vice that is being your own mule and driver. The album features previous collaborators Nick Macri (bass) and Macie Stewart (violin). The album also includes new collaborators Lia Kohl (cello), Spencer Tweedy (drums), The Weather Station's Tamara Lindeman (vocals), and Paul Von Mertens (Brian Wilson) on woodwinds. 

The latest track off ‘Ever-Roving Eye’ is called “Late Jim’s Lament.” Its title has a double meaning, alluding to never being on time but also dying before getting to everything a person is setting out to do. “No matter how I drive I know I can’t out-drive the hearse, ’cause it’s too late in my mind and getting later all the time,” Elkington sings. Like his other work, “Late Jim’s Lament” manages to conjure up folk traditions, psychedelic guitar sojourns, and Chicago’s idiosyncratic rock classicists all at once.

The album’s lead single/video, “Nowhere Time,” is a call to take up arms against procrastination, and features some of Elkington’s most daring guitar-wrangling. “A more cosmic acquaintance of mine once told me that when your life is going in the direction you want it to, it’s the universe’s way of telling you that you are in the place you’re meant to be,” Elkington says. “Does that sound likely? Not at all, but the song asks the question anyway…” The track’s accompanying video, directed by Tim Harris, features James, Spencer Tweedy on drums, and Nick Macri on upright bass.

Tracklisting: Nowhere Time / Sleeping Me Awake / Leopards Lay Down / Moon Tempering / Rendlesham Way / Late Jim's Lament / Carousel / Go Easy on October / Ever-Roving Eye / Much Master

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy ‘Banana Skin Shoes’ is the English indie singer-songwriter Damon Gough’s ninth album and his first in 10 years so exciting news. The album is comprised of 14 tracks including previously released track ‘Is This A Dream?’ and sees Gough pushing forward yet again both musically and lyrically whilst retaining some of his classic trademarks. The bulk of the album’s production was completed at Eve Studios in Stockport last year with producer Gethin Pearson (Kele Okereke, JAWS) who also mixed the whole record. Damon had previously worked on tracks for the album with legendary producer Youth (The Verve, Paul McCartney) at his studio in London, Keir Stewart (ex-Durutti Column) at Inch Studios and Seadna McPhail at Airtight Studios. 

Always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, Gough’s ‘Banana Skin Shoes’ is a truly personal & heartfelt collection of songs, a huge statement of intent & the most glorious, colourful warming, honest pop record you’ll hear this year.

Tracklisting: Banana Skin Shoes / Is This A Dream? / I Just Wanna Wish You Happiness / I’m Not Sure What It Is / Tony Wilson Said / You And Me Against The World / I Need Someone To Trust / Note To Self / Colours / Funny Time Of Year / Fly On The Wall / Never Change / Appletree Boulevard / I’ll Do My Best

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

English singer-songwriter Darren Hayman’s latest album ‘Home Time’ is an autobiographical album about break ups, the record is tender, honest and frequently funny. When Darren Hayman made his debut in 1997 with the acclaimed indie band Hefner (DJ John Peel was an ardent supporter) his lyrical remit was the broken hearted. His early songs told the story of the lonesome and lost, and broken dreams of love on the back streets of London. After Hefner, Hayman’s palette grew to include a unique take on place and memory. In the early 2000s he wrote a trilogy of albums around the history of Essex. In 2012 he made an instrumental album describing the tranquillity of Lidos.

In 2016 he was awarded ‘Hardest Working Musician’ by the Association of Independent Music for his epic project on ‘Thankful Villages’, the 55 villages that survived the Great War with no casualties. Darren is continually obsessed with the idea of what songs can be, and the stories they can tell. As he explains, “With projects like ‘Thankful Villages’, I became interested in what a record could be, using field recordings, interviews and songs to make sound collages. I wanted to return to the stricter art of song writing and try and make the twelve best compositions I could. I wanted to make useful songs, words that could be comfort, not just thoughts that would depress.”

Darren set an 8 track, acoustic rule for the record. and everything sounds warm, close and intimate. His own love-worn, London voice is joined on every song by the sweet antipodean tones of Hannah Winter and Laura K, recording artists and songwriters themselves with Common or Garden and Fortitude Valley. The songs for ‘Home Time’ were written over a three-year period but recorded quickly, and with love, in Darren’s home. ‘Home Time’ is a fragile, subtle slice of prettiness. “I Tried and I Tried and I Failed”, a song about the endless, circular nature of being human. “I Was Thinking About You”, is a song about the uncontrollable nature of memory and how it continues to haunt us even when we consider the long buried, and “The Joint Account”, about how when trying to negotiate matters of the heart and mind, it is sometimes the physical objects that anchor us down in the mire.

Tracklisting: Curl Up / I Was Thinking About You / Because We Were Impossible / I Am The Noise / I Want To Get Drunk / I Tried and I Tried and I Failed / I Love You, I Miss You, Come Back / Dinosaur Plate / The Joint Account / Kissing A Cloud / A Girl That I’m Seeing / Wrap Yourself Around Me

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Tim Burgess (of UK legends The Charlatans) is releasing his fifth solo album ‘I Love The New Sky’ and is his first on the acclaimed Bella Union label. Frontman, singer, label boss, DJ and author, he’s been instrumental in so many great records over the years, always bringing enthusiasm, positivity and diversity of influence, which altogether light the way for those who hold him dear. While in The Charlatans, Tim’s indefatigable energy has been a consistent fuel for the band across thirteen high-charting albums, his solo adventure has been no less extraordinary and began nearly 20 years ago with his West Coast influenced debut album ‘I Believe’ where he worked out his love of Bob Dylan, The Byrds and The Beach Boys, which he couldn’t fully express with his main band.

It wasn’t until another gap in The Charlatans schedule that Tim put out another solo effort - 2012s ‘Oh No I Love You’ which mined similar territory as his first. Since then he has alternated a Charlatans album with one of his own although as they’ve been quiet since ‘Different Days’ in 2017, ‘I Love The New Sky’ is his second solo album since then It features wonderfully connective songs of everyday minutiae and universal experience, of love and anger, of loss and belonging, all united by elaborate yet natural arrangements and an effortless but deceptively expert way with melody.

In the Spring of 2020, Tim started ‘#TimsListeningParty’ on Twitter promoting classic albums from over the years, encouraging music lovers all over the world to listen to the same album at the same time and tweet comments as it’s playing. A unique idea and a fantastic way to connect with fans!

Tracklisting: Empathy For The Devil / Sweetheart Mercury / Comme D’habitude / Sweet Old Sorry Me / The Warhol Me / Lucky Creatures / The Mall / Timothy / Only Took A Year / I Got This / Undertow / Laurie

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

A very special acoustic album from vocalist and co-founder of legendary ‘80s hard rock group Great White Jack Russell ‘Once Bitten Acoustic Bytes’. An acoustic album revisiting the band’s 1987 multi-platinum masterpiece ‘Once Bitten’ featuring some of their biggest and most recognisable hits including “Save Your Love” and “Rock Me!”

Aided by the likes of guitarist Robby Lochner (who also produced and mixed the album), longtime Great White bassist Tony Montana (now on guitar), bassist Dan McNay and drummer Dicki Fliszer, these songs have been stripped to their emotional core, spotlighting the intensely passionate story at the heart of each song. Just check out the new version of the unforgettable ballad “Save Your Love,” which has been shorn of all rockstar pomp to reveal a heartfelt hymn yearning, love and loss.

Jack Russell explains “‘Once Bitten’ is one of my favourite albums that we did. I always wondered what it would sound like done acoustically. The experience recording this unplugged version was really neat. It brought back a lot of memories of the original recording session, things I had forgotten about. Interestingly, the songs that I thought wouldn’t translate acoustically like ‘Livin’ On The Edge’ and ‘Never Change Heart,’ the heavier songs, came out the best. Now, I’m looking forward to doing it again for …Twice Shy!”

Includes powerful, stripped down versions of the band's hit singles "Save Your Love," "Rock Me" and many more!

These all-new studio tracks will be available on both CD and in limited edition BLUE vinyl pressing!

Russell was with Great White from 1981-1996, then took 3 years off to record and release his 1st solo album, entitled ‘Shelter Me’, then rejoined in 1999 until the band broke up in 2001. He then tried touring solo under his own name briefly, then changed the band name to "Jack Russell's Great White" & toured from 2002-2005 & also released a 2nd solo album entitled ‘For You’ in 2002. "Jack Russell's Great White" was the official name of the band that performed at The Station nightclub fire in 2003, not under the official "Great White" moniker.

Tracklisting: Lady Redlight / Gonna Getcha / Rock Me / All Over Now / Mistreater / Never Change Heart / Fast Road / Livin’ On The Edge / Save Your Love / Babe (I’m Gonna Leave You)

Label Review.

2020 album. Jazz.

Our Overview.

With a sweeping collection of new music, acclaimed American trumpeter/composer Charlie Porter gathers a dynamic group of forward-looking musicians to celebrate America’s rich immigrant history. The Portland-based trumpet player and composer, gathers a dynamic group of forward-looking musicians to celebrate America's rich immigrant history and has composed and recorded an ambitious suite of original music titled ‘Immigration Nation.’

In a time when policy has become a heart-wrenching polarising topic, Porter felt compelled to reclaim the uniting power of the word “immigrant” through art, knowing its healing capacity can be great when crafted with intention. Porter, saxophonist Nick Biello, pianist Oscar Perez, bassist David Wong, and drummer Kenneth Salters, present ten original compositions in two sets, “Leaving Home” & “New Beginnings.” The ensemble burns and soars while embracing many global influences that have found their way into the music, including elements from Porter’s Lebanese/Greek/Italian heritage, all while fully living in the essence and language of jazz

.“...an incredibly proficient instrumentalist, with a fluid and expressive style that feels like a fresh twist on the hard-bop establishment” - Jazz Society of Oregon.

“...technical wizardry patiently unfolding.” - DownBeat

Artists: Charlie Porter - Trumpet Nick Biello - Tenor Saxophone Oscar Perez - Piano David Wong - Double bass Kenneth Salters - Drums Sabine Kabongo - Vocals

Tracklisting: Immigration Nation / Contradictions Within / Divergent Paths / Flight / Second Chance / The Unexpected / The Privileged Few / A New Vernacular / Survival Of The Fittest / A Deepening Sense / Belonging / Chant

Label Review.

2020 album. Indie.

Our Overview.

After recording and performing for many years under the name of Mantler, Toronto’s Chris A. Cummings changed his band name to Marker Starling in 2012. A solo performer for much of his career, Cummings was frequently seen playing Melancholy Party Jams on a Wurltizer electric piano, with drum machine accompaniment. Following up his 2018 release ‘Trust An Amateur’ Chris updates his signature laid-back grooves (what he describes as "melancholy party jams") with the more ambitious ‘High January’. Swapping persistent hi-hats and vibe-y, albeit somnolescent, melodies for brighter dance-pop tunes, ‘High January’ plays with more layered instrumentation and diverse melodies. 

Consisting of eight brand new compositions, ‘High January’ can be viewed an ode to ‘pastness’, music that sings to the sound and style of what’s come before - without ever submitting to pastiche and without imitating any one style. The songs here are rich and alive, made with the conscious decision to not use any strings or orchestral instruments, carried instead only by the live band and their specific instruments.

These melancholy party jams are for life's subtler moments — understated, elegant and wistful. These songs are more likely to be played at the end of a party rather than in the middle of it. It opts for cuteness over sexiness, romance over passion, tenderness over vulnerability, and melancholy over sadness. High January is a triumphant step forward for Marker Starling.

High January’ finds beauty in new terrain, thanks to the influence of Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas and Stereolab, who produced the new record and helped form it’s idiosyn-cratic shapes.

Released this Spring via Tin Angel Records, ‘High January’ is the first record that Cummings has recorded in the UK, and British live-band members Joe Carvell (bass), Euan Rodger (drums) and Andy Whitehead (guitar), alongside the aforementioned O’Hagan, and a special-guest appearance from Stereolab’s inimitable founder Laetitia Sadier. Rounding out the Sterelab imprint, the album was recorded at Press Play, the South London studio founded by Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay, who also engineered the album.

Tracklisting: High January / Wait The Night / Drop And Pierce / Waiting For Grace / Move It On / Starved For Glamour / Coin Of The Realm / A Little Joy

Label Review.

2020 album. Rock.

Our Overview.

Hailing from Wnfield, Alabama USA, garage pop/rock band Dirty Clergys’ 3rd new studioalbum marks a decade into their musical careers. The album is seamlessly vacillating between shoegaze-esque ruminations on love and struggle and more straightforward garage numbers that surge into ecstatic cacophony all accented by eerily laconic vocals. The Dirty Clergy (featuring vocalist/guitarist Brian Manasco, bassist Ky Carter and drummer Cody Moorehead) are looking to expand their already respectable discography with their upcoming full-length, the aptly titled ‘In Waves’.

The inspiration for their music and the roots of the band certainly lie in the heart of when rock and roll was at the forefront of music. The Dirty Clergy's catchy choruses, smooth harmonies, and pop hooks recall the youthful exuberance of the 50's and early 60's, when rock 'n' roll was synonymous with rebellion, while the punkish, grungy rhythm guitar, active drumming, and impassioned singing provide an urgent, hard edge.

The 12-song collection represents the band’s second collaboration with producer Les Nuby (Verbena, Holiday Gunfire, Vulture Whale and co-owner of Ol’ Elegante Studio in Birmingham), who had engineered the Clergy’s previous album, 2016’s Rattlesnake, a release which would go on to be nominated for “Indie/ Alt Album of the Year’ at the 2016 Independent Music Awards, get played on LA’s legendary KROQ station and Alice Cooper’s Nights with Alice Cooper, receive multiple accolades from AL.com and land the band two placements for the songs “Decades” and “Strange Love” on the tenth season of SHOWTIME’s Shameless.

Tracklisting: Trials / Born To Lose / Young Lovers / Wonderland / Homesick / West Coast / Lucy / Whiplash / Parades / Dead To Me / Dreaming / Too Good To Last

Label Review.

23 tracks features Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Lonnie Donegan, Joe Harriott, Pat Halcox and Ian Wheeler. Upbeat Records.

Our Overview.

Mike Pointon has compiled a wonderful CD of English trombonist and bandleader Chris Barber. His unmatched musical career spanned 65 years. Chris Barber retired from bandleading in August 2019 and this CD is released as a tribute to his stature within the jazz world.

The eloquent Belfast-based jazz broadcaster Walter Love assessed Chris’s major contributions to the European jazz scene over the years by stating how much he’d inspired a generation or two of jazz enthusiasts.

This is album is a must for fans of 1950s and 60s jazz and fans of Chris Barber and also features Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Lonnie Donegan, Joe Harriott, Pat Halcox and Ian Wheeler.

Tracklisting: Bourbon Street Parade / Stockyard Strut / Double Check Stomp / Railroad Bill / Lost John / Bogalusa Strut / Whistling Rufus / Reckless Blues / Maple Leaf Rag / Black & Tan Fantasy / I Can’t Give You Anything But Love / Ory’s Creole Trombone / Alligator Hop / Blue Blood Blues / Shout ‘Em Aunt Tillie / Heavenly Sunshine / Creole Love Call / Market Street Stomp / Revival / Oh Baby / I Know Somebody/I’ve Got My Mojo Working / Stevedore Stomp

Label Review.

Earliest recordings from 2007. Norweigian black metal.

Our Overview.

The earliest raw recordings of the new rising titans of Norwegian black metal, including three additional tracks. Presented on vinyl for the first time.

Mork was created by Thomas Eriksen in 2004 & was primarily a side-project from inception until the debut album, ‘Isebakke’, in 2013. Since then the band has rightly earned their accolade as one of the top Norwegian black metal acts of recent years, receiving strong endorsements from their peers, as well as notable guest appearances from members of Darkthrone, Dimmu Borgir & 1349 on studio releases.

Harking back to the earliest period of the band, ‘Rota Til Ondskap’, from 2007, captures Mork at its most primal during those formative years, with a collection of raw demo tracks fuelled by masters of Norwegian black metal such as Mayhem, Darkthrone and Burzum, as well as Eriksen’s own interpretations & expansions of the black metal riffing style fused with twisted melodic passages, with a series of recordings draped in a thick layer of hellish, swirling chaos.‘Rota Til Onskapt’ is presented on black 180gm heavyweight vinyl, & receives its first release on the format, plus includes three additional tracks from the ‘Rota Til Ondskapt’ sessions.

Tracklisting: Vandring Inn I Morket / Hull I Skogbunn/ Hedningfolge Over Viddene / Brenn I Helvete / For Kristen Tid / Reise Til Dodsriket/ Rota Til Ondskap / Vi Jakter Kun I Maneskinn / Blod Og Kvist / Etterfulgt Av Skytsengler / Marevise ( Original Version ) / Det Gamie Og Det Glemte

Label Review.

Fusion of Western and Indian cultures, pop, soul and funk arrangements, syncopated polyrhythms, saturated guitars, psychedelic organs and Creole vocals. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Killer 13-track compilation of 70s music from Mauritius that evolved from the original sega genre - the music of the slaves as well as their descendants, sung to protest against injustices in Mauritian society.

Created at the crossroads of Afro-Malagasy, the 70s strain fused Western and Indian cultures, pop, soul and funk arrangements, syncopated polyrhythms, saturated guitars, psychedelic organs and Creole vocals.

Although the exact origins of sega remain unknown, it contains vocal and percussive practices that originated from Madagascar, Mozambique and East Africa. A social escape and a space for improvisation, satire and verbal jousting, it transcended everyday life and made room for the expression of conflicts and the transgression of taboos. The main instrument of sega is the ravanne, a large tambourine-like drum made of a large wooden frame and goat skin. It is accompanied by the maravanne, a rectangular rattle filled with seeds, and other homemade forms of percussion.

Eric Nelson a solo guitarist and arranger, set up the band Features Of Life which, in the mid 70’s, gave birth to a new sound. Fuzzy distorted guitars and funky beats invite each other to play over the unbridled beats created by fabulous drummer Raoul Lacariate. The band accompanied a new wave of singers, including the atypical Joseph Roland Fatime aka Ti L’Afrique, a hyperbolic and hyperactive character, a fan of blues and James Brown who launched an explosive raw, and funky style of sega.

Tracklisting: Harold Berty - Django / Ti L’afrique - Pop Soul Sega / Claudio Veeraragoo - Qui Fine Arriv / Paul Labonne - Ti Malgache Ti Madras / Georges Gabriel - Pop S ga / The Features Of Life - Soul Sabattah / Roland Fatime - S.I.L.V.I.E / Jean Claude Gaspard - Machin Sex / Jos Henri - Apolo Pop 76 / Coulouce - Beau-P re / John Kenneth Nelson - Change To Mani re/Missi Coutou No2 / Lelou Menwar - Capito / Daniel Delord - Maria

Label Review. 

2020 album. Nuclear Blast. Also available on CD, Deluxe CD and Deluxe Box Set. 

Our Overview. 

Obsidian… dark, reflective and black: it’s a pretty decent description of the music that Paradise Lost have been making over the last 32 years, even though this most resilient of British metal bands have stoically refused to be pinned down to one easily defined formula. Powered by a lust for creativity and a stout devotion to haunting heaviness, Paradise Lost have defied the odds by coming back stronger than ever over the past decade.

Formed in Halifax, West Yorkshire, in 1988, Paradise Lost were unlikely candidates for metal glory when they slithered from the shadows and infiltrated the UK underground. But not content with spawning an entire subgenre with early death/doom masterpiece Gothic nor with conquering the metal mainstream with the balls-out power of 1995’s ‘Draconian Times’, they have subsequently traversed multiple genre boundaries with skill and grace, evolving through the pitch-black alt-rock, to muscular but ornate grandeur. Consistently hailed as one of metal’s most charismatic live bands, Paradise Lost arrive in this new decade as veterans, legends and revered figureheads for several generations of gloomy metalheads. In keeping with their unerring refusal to deliver the expected, 2020 brings one of the band’s most diverse and devastating creations to date.

The sixteenth Paradise Lost studio album, ‘Obsidian’ eschews its immediate predecessors’ gruesome, myopic approach in favour of a richer and more dynamic deluge of black shades. From the deceptive elegance and dual atmospheres of opener “Darker Thoughts” through to the crushing, baroque doom of war-torn closer “Ravenghast”, ‘Obsidian’ reveals a band in masterful control of a broad array of vital ideas. Most noticeably, the record boasts several songs that draw heavily from the much-loved, Kohl-encrusted days of ‘80s gothic rock: in particular, newly-minted PL anthems “Ghosts” will be a guaranteed dancefloor-filler at any discerning goth nightclub.

As they march through their fourth decade as a band, Paradise Lost have never sounded more potent or unified in their determination to bring the darkness to life. Obsidian is yet another glowering career peak, not just matching the imperious form of The Plague Within and Medusa, but artfully outstripping it with greater depth, colour and emotional power. While many bands of their vintage have embraced the nostalgia business, Paradise Lost remain a vibrant, vital and endlessly classy force for creative metallic good. 2020 will see the band hit the festival circuit with a vengeance, before touring Obsidian in earnest next year. Like the man said, this is a good time to be in Paradise Lost.

Tracklisting: Darker Thoughts / Fall From Grace / Ghosts / The Devil Embraced / Forsaken / Serenity / Ending Days / Hope Dies Young / Ravenghast

Label Review.

2020 posthumous album (The Residents composer).

Our Overview.

American musician Hardy Fox was the co-founder and primary composer of avant-garde band The Residents that playfully subverted the conventions of rock music for decades while insisting on anonymity, which the group maintained by performing in outlandish costumes. He created an incredible body of work, using all kinds of names other than The Residents, amongst them Combo De Mechanio, Sonidas De La Noche, Dead Eye Dick, Charles Bobuck or Black Tar And The Cry Babies. During the last months of his life, Hardy submitted several recordings to be released after his death. ‘Killing Time’ is one of them.

Hardy first stopped touring with The Residents due to health issues. Soon afterwards, he left the group completely to concentrate on his solo work. After several albums as Charles Bobuck (later only Bobuck), the name given to him when still a member of The Residents, he later dropped all pseudonyms to work as Hardy Fox.

Fox began a characteristically prolific solo recording career following his retirement from The Cryptic Corporation, which continued until shortly before his death on October 30th 2018 following a short battle with glioblastoma.

His first self-titled solo recording was an album full of minimal love songs, a portrait of the young Hardy Fox. The second, ‘Nachtzug’ was about his last days touring with The Residents. It was followed by ‘Rilla Contemplates Love’, a concept album about the thoughts and feelings of a gorilla. A week before his death, Hardy recorded the very touching farewell recording to his fans, ’25 Minus Minutes’.

Tracklisting: A From Elsewhere / B From 1/31 / Blues / Cherrio / Creeper / Killing Time / Mark It Up / Melody / Quite Alone / Scary / Spooky Noise / Tank Tank / Theme / Took Away / Traveling Music / Vlam / Wharck / Who

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Featuring guest appearances from Greg Dulli, Warren Ellis, John Paul Jones, Ed Harcourt and more, Mark Lanegan’s new solo album ’Straight Songs Of Sorrow’ - which is closely aligned to his forthcoming memoir - is a swift follow-up to last year’s Somebody’s Knocking’.

When considering any great work of art, it’s natural to wonder what might have inspired it: ‘the story behind the song’. Mark Lanegan’s new album, ‘Straight Songs Of Sorrow’, flips that equation. Here are 15 songs inspired by a story: his life story, as documented by his own hand in his new memoir, ‘Sing Backwards And Weep’.

The book is a brutal, nerve-shredding read, thanks to Lanegan’s unsparing candour in recounting a journey from troubled youth in eastern Washington, through his drug-stained existence amid the ’90s Seattle rock scene, to an unlikely salvation at the dawn of the 21st century. There’s death and tragedy, yet also humour and hope, thanks to the tenacity which impels its host, even at his lowest moments.

‘Straight Songs Of Sorrow’ combines musical trace elements from early Mark Lanegan albums with the synthesised constructs of later work. The album feels both definitive and unique, a culmination of its creator’s arc yet also indicative of the energy that drives him onto future horizons. No wonder Lanegan is proud.

“Writing the book, I didn’t get catharsis,” says Lanegan. “All I got was a Pandora’s box full of pain and misery. I went way in, and remembered shit I’d put away 20 years ago. But I started writing these songs the minute I was done, and I realised there was a depth of emotion because they were all linked to memories from this book. It was a relief to suddenly go back to music. Then I realised that was the gift of the book: these songs. I’m really proud of this record.”

As well as the musicians mentioned above, ‘Straight Songs Of Sorrow’ also features Portishead’s Adrian Utley, Simon Bonney of Crime & The City Solution and Mark’s wife Shelley Brien, who co-writes two songs as well as duetting on the ballad “This Game Of Love”. “Let’s put it this way,” says Lanegan. “Every girlfriend I’ve ever had, for any amount of time, left me. All the good ones left me! Until my current wife. It was great to sing that with Shelley, it really shows she’s a great singer. And it has a depth of emotion that I’m not used to. This is a more honest record than I’ve probably ever made.”

Tracklisting: I Wouldn't Want To Say / Apples From A Tree / This Game of Love / Ketamine / Bleed All Over / Churchbells, Ghosts / Internal Hourglass / Discussion / Stockholm City Blues / Skeleton Key / Daylight In The / Nocturnal House / Ballad of A Dying Rover / Hanging On (For DRC) / Burying Ground / At Zero Below / Eden Lost And Found

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Japanese psychedelic guru, Masaki Batoh’s solo career continues to rise up with his 5th solo album, and second in the last two years, ‘Smile Jesus Loves YOU’. In all-analog production, Batoh decries the existential opacity of our latter-day faith, drawing from the traditions of all countries, fused into new music for this century.

As long time listeners of Ghost and The Silence are well aware, Batoh’s music is of the world and for the world . . . it exists as part of the conundrum of the world, for us to hear and form thought or feeling. We have no way of knowing it, other than to listen. The defiance of a fixed notion in Batoh’s world and music is made clear, as with the ambiguities of last year’s mortality meditation Nowhere, by the title of his new album. This shouldn’t be taken at face value. It might be a politically bitter statement. It might not be political at all, in this time of insane corrupt leaders who clearly believe in nothing except what they can use. It is a question for anyone who believes, or doesn’t believe. Listeners must come up with their own understanding, based on their own sentiment and where they find themselves in their evolving form.

Following the mostly solitary activity of making’ Nowhere’, Batoh has invited several guests to play with him for parts of ‘Smile Jesus Loves YOU’. Like family members, collaborators from The Silence and Ghost make guest appearances, including, for two songs, ex-Ghost and legendary percussionist Hiroyuki Usui (Fushitsusha).

For the journey of this new album, Batoh takes us a great distance, singing in Japanese, English, Spanish and Latin, including an amazing cover of one of his heroes, Atahualpa Yupanqui, with lyrics translated from Spanish to Japanese, giving them a haiku-like feeling.

Batoh plays a variety of stringed instruments throughout, as well as mellotron and shanai, supported at times by the playing of others on flute, piano, lap steel, saxophone, contra bass and drums. The songs expand amoebically, with music styles of the world shifting and merging to form their whole. Through phases of dark and light, including some new musical discoveries in Batoh’s world, we travel through the multipart epic title track to salvation.

This world is a difficult place, whether or not the gods will come to save us, but there is a happy ending for us if we accept and make it so. As with all of Batoh’s recent releases, Smile Jesus Loves YOU is a 100% analogue recording of absolutely human playing, with no digital copying and pasting. This allows us to hear and feel the air around the recording as if it is our own.

Tracklisting: In the Hour of Serpent / Pobrecito Mi Cigarro / Speculum Banjo Suite * / Shrine Coke * / Uzumaki / No Momento / Sarabanda / Smile Jesus Loves YOU / Are You Experienced? ** * Digital-only ** Non- LP/CD

Label Review. 

2020 album. This Is Not A Safe Place reimagined. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

British Indie rock band Ride handed the entirety of their highly acclaimed 6th studio album, ‘This Is Not A Safe Place’, to mysterious London act Pêtr Aleksänder, who stripped the songs back to just the vocals and added their customarily beautiful string arrangements, keys and synth textures beneath them.

The results take Ride deep into the neo-classical / ambient territory that a couple of the remixes of their previous album hinted at and will appeal to fans of those musical styles, as well as those who consider themselves a part of the band’s die-hard fanbase.

Tracklisting: R.I.D.E. / Future Love / Repetition / Kill Switch / Clouds of Saint Marie / Eternal Recurrence / Fifteen Minutes / Jump Jet / Dial Up / End Game / Shadows Behind the Sun / In This Room

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overiew.

Portland-based Portuguese-American musician, record producer and Grammy-winning artist RAC (Andre Allen Anjos) has performed live at festivals across the globe with highlights including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Electric Zoo Festival, SXSW, Ageha (Tokyo), Ultra Music Festival, Cakeshop (Seoul) and Paris Social Club and now RAC returns this year with his highly anticipated new album “BOY”, which will be released on Counter Records following his 2017 release ‘Ego’.

The melody-driven indie-electronica that RAC has made for 'BOY', washes over you like faint memories. The songs are soft, light, warm, and comforting, as though revisiting old photo albums and recalling years gone by without any of the day-to-day struggles. It's at peace with the past, while lodged in the present. André Allen Anjos (aka RAC) is originally from Porto in Portugal. He's 35-years-old now, and has lived in Portland, Oregon for the past decade with his wife and cats. And even though it's more than two decades in the past, he's never reconciled with his own childhood. He's decided to do so now…

Three years ago, Anjos began to make 'BOY'. He had achieved so much in his career, between DJing, soundtrack work, and his own album releases. He felt more comfortable in his own skin, and in a place of security, to really delve into his formative years. “I didn't have a major concept, I just wanted to see what happened,” he says, of the longest record-making process he's ever committed to. He found himself more prolific than ever. “I was just writing and writing and writing. I wrote so many demos, and I kept coming back to this theme of childhood. So that's why I called it 'BOY'.”

Over his 10 year career, RAC has proven himself as one of this decade’s most prolific remix artists with over 200 remixes to his name, including reworks of Lana Del Rey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Weezer, Foster The People, Phoenix, Bob Marley, Imagine Dragons, New Order, Two Door Cinema Club and The Shins.

Following the 2016 Grammy nomination for RAC’s remix of label-mates Odesza’s “Say My Name”, Anjos won a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording of Bob Moses’ “Tearing Me Up” in 2017. RAC’s 2017 album ‘Ego’ featured collaborations with Rivers Cuomo, Rostam, MNDR, K.Flay and St. Lucia.

Formats: 2LP: Gatefold 2LP - 320gsm matte, 140g vinyl for the standard, plain black paper inner sleeves - without poly lining, label and matte insert

LPX: Gatefold 2LP - 320gsm matte, 140g opaque pink & white splatter, limited edition indies only. Plain black paper inner sleeves - without poly lining, label and matte insert.

CD: Matte gatefold remus spine CD, CD label, matte 2PP insert (similar to LP insert) plus product sticker.

Tracklisting: Rapariga / Boomerang (ft. Luna Shadows) / MIA (ft. Danny Dwyer) / Passion (ft. Louis The Child) / Sweater (ft. Maddie Jay) / Next To You (ft. Emerson Leif) / Toulouse (ft. Minke) / Gomas / Stuck On You (ft. Phil Good) / Together (ft. Evalyn) / Carefree (ft. LeyeT) / Oakland (ft. Winnetka Bowling League) / Arcoíris / Solo (ft. Gothic Tropic) / Get A Life (ft. Instupendo) / Change The Story (ft. Jamie Lidell) / Dolores Park / Better Days (ft. St. Lucia)

Label Review.

2020 album. Folk rock. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

New album from kosmiche Scottish folk-rock quartet Modern Studies, who unite pastoral chamber pop and folk with a gently experimental approach. Incorporating lush harmonies, jazz-tinged rhythms, and subtle electronics, the band produce elaborate full-lengths such as 2018’s ‘Welcome Strangers’. “There is a calmness in its melancholy, a beauty in its blues. These are songs that see the mystical beyond the material, abstracted folk ballads awash in memory.” Mojo

A glorious compendium of haunted disco hallelujahs, mercurial krautrock chorales, cosmic pop adagios and euphoric, resilient, anthems. ‘The Weight of the Sun’ sees principal songwriters Emily Scott and Rob St John further their warm, esoteric field studies with Pete Harvey and Joe Smillie, as previously reconnoitred on ‘Swell To Great’ (2016) and ‘Welcome Strangers’ (2018).

Modern Studies formed in 2015 around the songwriting of Glaswegian musician Emily Scott. Having recently written a set of songs on an antique pedal harmonium, which she was about to donate to her friend Pete Harvey’s studio, Scott’s material soon became the center of a new collaboration with Harvey, Joe Smillie, and Rob St. John. The group of multi-instrumentalists assembled at Harvey’s Pumpkinfield studio in rural Perthshire and adorned Scott’s thoughtful tunes with cello, analog synths, double bass, drums, and a variety of other tones, emerging with their full-length debut, ‘Swell to Great’.

“The exact point where Fairport Convention meet Jim O’Rourke at a remote Scottish railway station.” Tim Burgess.

“Melancholic magic… recalls Johnny Marr’s hazier reveries and the febrile, electrified folk of Polly Harvey’s Let England Shake.” UNCUT

“Setting the standards for intelligent pop” Record Collector.

Tracklisting: Photograph / Run for Cover / Heavy Water / She / Corridors / Signs of Use Side B / Brother / The Blue of Distance / Back to the City / Jacqueline / Spaces / Shape of Light

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Six years since their last studio album, I Break Horses today announce news of ‘Warnings’, their long-awaited third LP. If I Break Horses’ new album holds you in its grip like a great film, it’s no coincidence. Faced with making the follow-up to 2014’s plush Chiaroscuro, Horses’s Maria Lindén decided to take the time to make something different, with an emphasis on instrumental, cinematic music. As she watched a collection of favourite films on her computer (sound muted) and made her own soundtrack sketches, these sonic workouts gradually evolved into something more: “It wasn’t until I felt an urge to add vocals and lyrics,” says Lindén, “that I realised I was making a new I Break Horses album.”

That album is ‘Warnings’, an intimate and sublimely expansive return that, as its recording suggests, sets its own pace with the intuitive power of a much-loved movie. And, as the title suggests, the sumptuous sound worlds – dreamy mellotrons, haunting loops, analogue synths – and layered lyrics crackle with immersive dramatic tensions on many levels. “It’s not a political album,” says Lindén, “though it relates to the alarmist times we live in. Each song is a subtle warning of something not being quite right.” 

As Lindén notes, the process of making ‘Warnings’ involved different kinds of dramas. “It has been some time in the making. About six years, involving several studios, collaborations that didn’t work out, a crashed hard drive with about two years of work, writing new material again instead of trying to repair it. New studio recordings, erasing everything, then recording most of the album myself at home…”

If making ‘Warnings’ was a slow process, so be it: that steady gestation was a price worth paying for its lavish accretions of detail and meaning, where secrets aplenty await listeners eager to immerse themselves. “Nowadays, the attention span equals nothing when it comes to how most people consume music,” Lindén says. “And it feels like songs are getting shorter, more ‘efficient’. I felt an urge to go against that and create an album journey from start to finish that takes time and patience to listen to. Like, slow the fuck down!” Happily, Warnings provides all the incentives required.

For Lindén, ‘Warnings’ is a remarkable re-routing of a journey begun when I Break Horses’s debut album, ‘Hearts’ (2011), drew praise from Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, The Independent and others for its luxurious grandeur and pulsing sense of art-pop life. With the electro-tangents of 2014’s ‘Chiaroscuro’, Lindén forged a new, more ambitious voice with total confidence. Along the way, I Break Horses toured with M83 and Sigur Rós; latterly, U2 played Hearts’ ecstatic ‘Winter Beats’ through the PA before their stage entrance on 2018’s ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour. Good choice.

A new friend on ‘Warnings’ is US producer/mixing engineer Chris Coady, whose graceful way with dense sound (credits include Beach House, TV on the Radio) was not the sole reason Lindén invited him to mix the album. “Before reaching out to Chris I read an interview where he said, ‘I like to slow things down. Almost every time I love the sound of something slowed down by half, but sometimes 500% you can get interesting shapes and textures.’ And I just knew he’d be the right person for this album.”

Tracklisting: Turn / Silence / l a r m / I'll Be The Death Of You / d e n l i l l a p å s e a v l y c k a / The Prophet / Neon Lights / I Live At Night / Baby You Have Travelled / For Miles Without Love / In Your Eyes / Death Engine / a b s o l u t a m o l l p u n k t e n / Depression Tourist

Label Review.

2000 album

Our Overview.

New York based Bebel Gilberto’s magical voice and her soulful blend of Brazilian and electronic music took the world by surprise with the release of ‘Tanto Tempo’ in 2000. Bebel was born to a family of illustrious musicians. Her late father was the bossa nova co-inventor Joao Gilberto, her mother is singer Miucha and her uncle is Chico Buarque.

Originally she didn’t have any intention of following in her parent’s footsteps but having moved to New York, she started developing her own unique style by collaborating with artists as varied as David Byrne, Caetano Veloso, Towa Tei (Deee Lite) and Thievery Corporation. In 1999, when Bebel was ready to record her debut album, she joined the Crammed Discs’ fledgling Ziriguiboom sub-label which was dedicated to Brazilian music. Bebel joined forces with another new Ziriguiboom artist, the late Sao Paulobased Serbian musician/producer Suba, with whom she proceeded to record the “Tanto Tempo” album, which went on to become one of the most globally successful albums of Brazilian music ever.

Bebel recalls her father's own classic recordings on ‘Tanto Tempo’, with a sure sense of pitch. Bebel Gilberto is hardly less charming for that, though, and the album entices with hushed passion. Relying mostly on acoustic instruments and some muted orchestrations, Tanto Tempo is nonetheless smartly paced to allow for some tasteful dance-club electronics to augment a few tracks, and ends on a celebratory note with "Close Your Eyes"--all but an invitation to Carnival.

Tracklisting: Samba Da Bencao / August Day Song / Tanto Tempo / Sem Contencao / Mais Feliz / Alguem / So Nice (Summer Samba) / Lonely / Bananeira / Samba E Amor / Close Your Eyes

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

American jazz singer-songwriter/saxophonist Curtis Stigers new album ‘Gentleman’ offers a set of wry yet hopeful songs about love, loss and elegant masculinity. When Stigers recorded his latest album he had no way of knowing that his planned release date would coincide with a global pandemic. A true gentleman remains unflappable in the face of any adversity; so Stigers straightened his tie, adjusted his cufflinks, and set about supplementing the album with one new song that speaks to our tumultuous moment in history with hope, empathy and humour.

‘Gentleman’ addresses the question: What does it mean to be a gentleman in this day and age? Stigers found himself confronting that question from a variety of angles as he was preparing for the album. On a personal level, he was watching his daughter leave home for college, beginning a new chapter in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp. Back at home, Stigers was reinventing his own life with a new romance and marriage.

On a grander scale, Stigers found himself, like so many others, enraged by the lack of role models in public life. From the divisive and openly corrupt dealings of politicians to the exposed underbelly of the entertainment industry, it became increasingly difficult to find an example of manhood worth looking up to.

“Is being a gentleman about wearing a tuxedo and using the right fork for your salad?” muses Stigers. “Or is the idea just being a decent human being and taking care of your family?"

‘Gentleman’ is an album about being a good man from one who aspires to that title and seems to exemplify its finer aspects in his tasteful choices and expressive delivery, fully capturing the standard of humanity that we all should reach for and cleverly chronicling the myriad ways that we fall short on a daily basis. The result is Stigers’ most personal, resonant, and vibrant collection to date.

Stigers finds the perfect mood for each tune on ‘Gentleman’, with a stellar band - pianist and organist Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Peyroux), bassist David Piltch (k.d. lang), drummer Austin Beede (Alastair Greene Band), trumpeter John “Scrapper” Sneider (Madeleine Peyroux), percussionist Doug Yowell (Duncan Sheik) and cellist Jody Ferber (Esperanza Spalding). ‘Gentleman’ features jazz arrangements of modern standards by Nick Lowe, Tom T. Hall, John Fullbright and David Poe, plus four new original songs.

Tracklisting: Lately I’ve Let Things Slide (Nick Lowe) / After You’ve Gone (Turner Layton & Henry Creamer) / A Lifetime Together (Curtis Stigers & Larry Goldings) / Gentleman | 4:08 (Curtis Stigers & David Poe) / As Usual (Larry Goldings & Bill Demain) / Remember (David Poe) / She Knows (John Fullbright) / Here We Go Again (Larry Goldings, Curtis Stigers & David Poe) / Shame on the Rain (Tom T. Hall) / Under the Snow (David Poe) / Learning to Let You Go (Larry Goldings, Curtis Stigers & David Poe) / Shut-Ins (Digital Bonus Track) | 2:40 (Larry Goldings & Bill DeMain)

Label Review.

Early 80s Igbo Highlife masterpiece. BBE Africa.Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘Ozobia Special’ was originally released in 1981. It is a Gospel-tinged feast out of Ghana which highlights sharp brass, energetic percussion and distinctive guitar work. Certainly one of the best of the West African productions of the era, the album now sees a re-issue on BBE Africa. Nkem Njoku & Ozzobia Sound’s one and only album, ‘Ozobia Special’, is an early 80s Igbo Highlife masterpiece, drawing on Ghana Highlife as well as traditional Ogene 6/8 bell tempos.

Nkem Njoku’s only album as leader, this LP epitomises the feel-good, gospel-tinged party atmosphere of Igbo Highlife, with John Kante’s soukous guitar scales interweaving the sharp sax/ trumpet line-up, which includes the legendary Ray Stephen Oche, whose two scarce albums with his band Matumbo are big afro-jazz collectors’ items, reissued several times over the years.

Percussion section includes the prolific Smart ‘Friday Pozo’ Thompson, whose session credits read like a ‘who’s who’ of contemporary West African music and include many gigs on Tabansi artists’ albums. The razor-sharp production sound, as so often on the best Tabansi Highlife and boogie sessions, is down to multi-keyboardist Jake Sollo.

Tracklisting: Ozobia Special / Ofu Obi (Onye Achuna Uwa Nike) / Osula Nwa Eje Ubi Eje Oba / Ije Eluwa / Akwa Obi / Egwu Oyoliba

Label Review.

2020 album. Rock. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

British pop punk band Boston Manor’s third full-length ‘Glue’ is the sound of a band questioning the state of the world around them. “I want people to listen to it and feel something and think about things,” says vocalist Henry Cox. “The aim of the whole record is to make people angry. It's to make them go ‘Well, this pisses me off, how can I change it? What is one thing that I can personally do – that I can start doing today – to make a difference?’ Because we can do better than this. We just need to start.” Inevitably, in a critical examination of the modern world, it comes from a dark place, but one that fuelled the five-piece to create a body of work that elevates their craft further than ever before.

Its 13 highly charged songs came out of a process that singer Henry Cox describes as “very chaotic”, but the result is a truly ferocious album - one that both draws and moves on from what they’ve done in the past, incorporating the gloomy atmospherics of 2018’s ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ with the highly charged yet melodic punk of 2016’s debut ‘Be Nothing’.

Yet while Glue’ consolidates the different musical avenues Boston Manor have explored since forming in 2013, it’s very much an album that represents who they are – and reflects the state of the world – right now in 2020. That, Cox admits, isn’t particularly pretty. “It's a lot more abrasive and a weirder record,” says Cox. “My parents don’t like it as much as the last one, but I don't think they’re really our demographic, so I'm not too worried about that. It's just new territory for us. The whole point was to throw away any preconceived notions of what the band is and push ourselves out of our comfort zone.”

Tracklisting: Everything Is Ordinary / 1’s & 0’s / Plasticine Dreams / Terrible Love / On A High Ledge / Only1 / You, Me & The Class War / Playing God / Brand New Kids / Ratking / Stuck In The Mud / Liquid / Monolith

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Blending her own recipe of classic soul and experimental influences the wildly acclaimed Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Joan As Police Woman returns with her new album ‘Cover Two’. This is Joan’s second album reinterpreting songs by The Strokes, Prince, Talk Talk, and more and once again, the choices are unpredictable and intriguing.

Joan says, “I began working on new covers ever since the release of the first covers album 11 years ago! I’ve been performing “Kiss” by Prince and my version of “Out of Time” by Blur throughout last year’s Joanthology Tour and finished the record as soon as I returned home this winter. Recreating existing songs is a gratifying creative challenge for me, especially with songs I adore. I start with the question ‘WHY, exactly, do I love this song’? I take those elements and reform them, sometimes removing much of the remaining material to refocus them through new glasses. I re-harmonize the chords, radically change the feel or shift the hook or the phrasing to rebuild the composition.”

On making the album Joan worked with a variety of friends and influences on the album including Meshell Ndegeocello, Justin Hicks, Thomas Bartlett (Doveman, The Gloaming), Shahzad Ismaily (Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Tom Waits), Jim White and more.

Joan said in a statement, “I just want to be making music all the time.” This has led to a large and diverse list of co-collaborators: Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, Lou Reed, Beck, Afel Bocoum, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, David Sylvian, Benjamin Lazar Davis, Sparklehorse, Laurie Anderson, Sufjan Stevens, John Cale, Aldous Harding, Woodkid, Justin Vivian Bond, RZA, Norah Jones, Lau, Doveman, Rufus Wainwright and Daniel Johnston.

“A voice so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone else’s seem ordinary and mundane” - The Guardian

“Beautiful” - Q

“Joan As Police Woman is one of the 21st Century’s best musicians” - The Economist

Gatefold CD with fold out booklet. Red vinyl with digital download card.

Tracklisting: Kiss (Prince) / Spread (Outkast) / Under Control (The / Strokes) / Not The Way (Cass McCombs) / I Keep Forgettin’ (Michael Macdonald) / Life’s What You Make It (Talk Talk) / Out of Time (Blur) / On The Beach (Neil Young) / There Are Worse Things I Could Do (Warren Casey and Jim Jacobs) / Running (Gil Scott-Heron)

Label Review.

2020 album. Folk.

Our Overview.

American singer-songwriter Grant Peebles is a self-described “tree-hugger that watches NASCAR, and Buddhist with a gun below the seat,” Grant Peeples is known for his axe-sharp socio-political tunes, raucous humour and heart-gigging ballads and now he is releasing his new album ‘Bad Wife’ a very current, interesting, and important folk record.. 2020 will mark the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, when American women wrestled their right to vote from a Constitution historically reticent to grant the equality it precisely extolled.  Research shows this album might be the first effort by a male artist to record a collection of women’s songs.  Though its intent was not to earn that distinction.  Instead, this record, Grant’s 10th, was made in recognition of the courage and fortitude of those brave women, as well as the continuing struggle for women’s equal protections under the law.

When Grant released his ‘Settling Scores vol. II’, in an interview, Peeples cited the social and political upheaval caused by the last presidential election, and responds with, “I feel like I was born for times like this...to make a record like this...” and now he wants to let you know “WHAT THE HELL THIS RECORD IS ABOUT:“

"It is a personal collection of songs I’ve been gathering over the years. All were written by women I’ve worked with in one way or another during my tenure in this loopy damn enterprise known as ‘the music biz.” Each song was originally heard in a live setting, where it entered me, worked me over, and never left. As I began the project, I didn’t go looking for songs; they had already found me. My learning and recording them was an exercise of re-discovery, a search for those original nerves they had struck. A woman has produced three of the records I have made. All my records have been studded with women players. But this one, by design, has none. This is all guys trying, as it were, to carry the mail. Nor did I rewrite any story lines or change any pronouns in order to square with my gender; i.e., first line of the first song is: “When the lights are off, I need a man to touch””

''Peeples is unusually honest, unusually literate. He’s the only songwriter I have ever thought to call "ruthless".... "  John Conquest, Third Coast Magazine  

Tracklisting: Crying Out / 3:52 / Unsustainable / Slow Dancer / Iris / Bad Wife / Venezuela / Keep Trying / Rich Man / Good Actress / Market Town

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Making A Door Less Open’, the new album from Car Seat Headrest - the indie rock band formed in Leesburg, Virginia, who have gone from being a bedroom-project, internet sensation to a fully fledged live rock act - and the first set of brand-new songs since 2016’s ‘Teens Of Denial’.

Created over the course of four years, ‘Making A Door Less Open’ is the result of a fruitful ‘collaboration’ between Car Seat Headrest (led by Will Toledo) and 1 Trait Danger, a CSH electronic side project consisting of drummer Andrew Katz and Toledo’s alternative persona, ‘Trait’. To realise this, the band recorded the album twice: once live with guitars, drums and bass and once in a MIDI environment using purely synthesised sounds. During the mixing process, the two approaches were gradually combined using elements of each, with additional overdubs.

In this way, ‘Making A Door Less Open’ sees Toledo embarking on new and imaginative roads to songwriting and recording, placing emphasis on the individual songs, each with its own “special energy,” rather than attempting to draw a coherent storyteller narrative through the album as he has in the past, resulting in his most dynamic and open-ended work to date.

Comprised of Will Toledo, Andrew Katz (drums), Ethan Ives (guitar) and Seth Dalby (bass), Car Seat Headrest have either released eleven or three albums to date, depending on the way you look at it. A prolific songwriter, Toledo took his moniker from making early recordings in the private environment of his family’s car, releasing a dozen self-recorded and produced albums online and building a tightknit following.

Toledo has since gone from an empty five-seater to selling out tours and filling festival main stages. 2015’s ‘Teens Of Style’ was a collection of songs from his early years. The band’s proper Matador debut, ‘Teens Of Denial’, followed in 2016 and catapulted them to overnight commercial success and widespread critical acclaim, as well as highlighting Toledo as a prodigious lyricist. 2018’s ‘Twin Fantasy’, an epic re-imagination of an album originally released in 2011, demonstrated newfound scale, depth and ambition.

The album will be available on vinyl and CD featuring distinct tracklists and mixes for each format.

Tracklisting: Weightlifters / Can’t Cool Me Down / Hollywood / There Must Be More Than Blood / Hymn / Deadlines / Martin / What’s With You Lately / Life Worth Missing / Famous

Label Review. 

Sweary country songs! Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Wheeler Walker, Jr. has been bringing his critically acclaimed type of country music to the world for years. It was a little over a year ago that the foul-mouthed country act perpetrated by comedian Ben Hoffman known as Wheeler Walker Jr. went MIA after an internet brushup. Walker Jr. found himself on the wrong side of the contentious issue involving kids from the Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky who were initially accused of accosting an older Native American gentlemen, when further video footage revealed a deeper story. 

Wheeler Walker Jr. said to his fans, “If you know this little shit, punch him in the nuts and send me the video of it and I’ll send you all my albums on vinyl, autographed.” The tweet from Wheeler Walker Jr. and a repost on Instagram immediately went viral, but also stimulated a strong backlash from people concerned that Wheeler Walker Jr. was encouraging violence against a minor. The post on Instagram was removed by the social media company after complaints, Walker Jr. claimed in a subsequent post that he was not backing down, but later the second Instagram post was also removed, and then his accounts appeared to be deleted entirely. 

Now Wheeler Walker Jr. is back with his Greatest Hits compilation: “I’ve already made some of the greatest country albums of all time. So I started thinking… what if I put all the best stuff on one album? Wouldn’t that be the greatest country album of all time? So I did and it is,” Wheeler Walker Jr. says. In typical Wheeler Walker Jr. style, the album is titled ‘Fuck You Bitch: All Time Greatest Hits’. 

Wheeler Walker Jr. released three albums between 2016 and 2018, which is apparently enough to justify a Greatest Hits collection. With all music produced by Dave Cobb, Wheelers starpower is undeniable and connects on a multitude of levels with an array of people.

Tracklisting: Fuck You Bitch / Puss In Boots / I Like Smokin' Pot (A Lot) / Beer, Weed, Cooches / Finger Up My Butt / Save Some Titty Milk For Me / Drop 'Em Out / Summers In Kentucky / Rich Sumbitch / Ain't Got Enough Dick To Go Around / Sit On My Face

Label Review. 

2020 album. Americana. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Chatham County Line, North Carolina’s cherished Americana band is back with a new look and feel! ‘Strange Fascination’ marks a turning point in CCL's steady growth and evolution. It's the final release with co-founding banjo player Chandler Holt, the first line-up change since 2001, and the first w/ drums on all songs. The core — Dave Wilson (guitar/vocals), John Teer (mandolin/fiddle/vocals), and Greg Readling (bass/pedal steel/piano)—now add percussion to its line-up - Dan Hall on drums. 

“Well, I guess we’re not a bluegrass band anymore because once you lose the banjo, you fall right out of that one,” says Dave Wilson, the guitarist, lead vocalist, and chief songwriter of Chatham County Line. He laughs because the North Carolina string band has been far removed from that genre’s confines for years, despite topping the Billboard bluegrass charts with its last three releases. On the band’s ninth studio album, Strange Fascination, they stray even further from bluegrass conventions in the midst of a lineup change that features dedicated percussion for the first time. “We’ve always seen ourselves as an Americana band that breathed through instruments that are conventionally considered to be bluegrass, so we’re replacing the banjo with drums and hoping we can up the ante a little.” 

Fiercely dedicated to originality and honesty, Chatham County Line draws from a deep well of American roots traditions as often as a decade-spanning array of rock, pairing Wilson’s timeless songwriting—which often examines the human condition through a personal lens—with clever and skilled instrumental work. Twenty years into the band’s lifetime, Strange Fascination marks an important point in their slow and steady evolution, serving as both the final release with co-founding banjo player Chandler Holt— the first change to their line-up since 2001—and their first to feature drums throughout. Despite the potential for a radical shift in style, the album finds the veteran group reinvigorated by broadening their palette rather than attempting to completely reinventing their sound.

Chatham County Line’s 12th studio album, ‘Strange Fascination’ features newly added drums and modern effects that drive a revamped sound. From the dreamy shuffle of ‘Oh Me Oh My’ to the bold acceptance of ‘Leave this World,’ the group demonstrates their sharp self-awareness with a good dose of humour. Further representing a new era for the band, Sharon Van Etten's guest vocals on the title track mark the first guest vocals since the band's debut. The title track also inspired the group to move away from their signature single microphone set up in live shows. A beautifully crafted album, Strange Fascination highlights the band’s exceptional songcraft and musicianship, as well as their continual innovation.

LP Single jacket, tip-on, plus poster [w/ download card]

Tracklisting: Oh Me Oh My / Station To Station / Strange Fascination / Free Again / The Eagle And The Boy / Leave This World / Guitar (For Guy Clark) / Queen Anne’s Gold / Nothing

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Its been 20 years since ‘I Am Shelby Lynne’, the album which earned her a Best New Artist Grammy nod. This time, Shelby Lynne, with her debut Thirty Tigers release, removes the “I Am” and gets direct to the heart of the singer-songwriter-instrumentalist who gives it her name. This is an album of mostly solo, spare but emotionally rich, original torch songs done the only way this idiosyncratic artist knows how at once tortured and vulnerable, with intimate feelings laid bare, but ultimately offering hope that there’s a light in the darkness.

Recalling her 2008 Dusty Springfield tribute, ‘Just a Little Lovin’, recorded with the late Grammy-winning producer Phil Ramone at the same Capitol Studios where the new album was mixed, the soulful Shelby Lynne is her most personal, autobiographical statement yet on the dual, push-pull nature of love: at once close enough to touch, but also a frustrating tease that can both seduce and abandon.

The album itself proceeded from a collaboration between Lynne and lyricist/director /screenwriter Cynthia Mort that morphed into an unreleased, full-length feature film, ‘When We Kill the Creators’, featuring several live recordings made right on the set of the production, which explains their raw immediacy. Starring Lynne representing not just her alter ego, but all endangered musicians and artists, the movie makes a strong case for the ever-going conflict between art and commerce, and how dangerous it can be to muzzle creativity for the corporate buck. Songs like the opening, ominous “Strange Things” (with lyrics by Mort), the aching “Revolving Broken Heart” and the climactic self-declaration “Here I Am” (another collaboration with Mort) all recorded live during filming, take on a narrative arc that exists on its own.

Shelby said of the album: “When we met, I wanted to go someplace else with my writing, get out of my own head. I just loved her words, her landscape, her mind, the visions I got. I found songs and stories in her lyrics. They drove me to different musical places. It’s been a fun journey.” The Detroit-born Mort, a lifelong music fan best known for creating and producing the HBO series ‘Tell Me You Love Me’, wrote the original screenplay for the film and the lyrics for ‘Here I Am’ before she ever met Shelby.

Tracklisting: Strange Things / I Got You / Love is Coming / Weather / Revolving Broken Heart / Off My Mind / Don’t Even Believe in Love / My Mind’s Riot / Here I Am / The Equation / Lovefear

Label Review.

2020 album. Indie folk. Also available on CD.

Our Overview.

Critics commended Jakobsen for her ability to create beautifully atmospheric and honest songs, void of any sort of emotional filter, whilst also receiving comparisons to legendary artists such as Nick Drake and now the Norwegian indie-folk singer-songwriter Siv Jakobsen is back to follow-up her under-the-radar 2017 success ‘The Nordic Mellow’ with her new album ‘A Temporary Soothing’.

This is her second LP, and it features collaborations with a handful of great musicians Siv has come to love such as producer Chris Bond (Ben Howard, Nick Mulvey) and mixing engineer Zach Hanson (Bon Iver, Tallest Man on Earth, Waxahatchee).

The record is a beautifully intimate exploration of feelings of fear, anxiety, change and the struggle between being healthy and being a productive artist that represents a huge step forward for the burgeoning singer-songwriter. Siv’s exploration of these themes is never more relevant than in a time where just existing represents a constant battle with feelings of anxiety and fear. With her music she makes you feel seen, feel understood and temporarily soothed. “a storm of lyrical tension, sung over a sea of instrumental calm” - Bob Boilen, NPR

“ ...arresting and forceful. It is folk music at its best.” - Earmilk Siv Jakobsen first caught the public’s attention back in 2015, with the release of her beautifully intimate EP “The Lingering”. She quickly began earning favourable comparisons to renowned singer-songwriters such as Ane Brun and Damien Rice, catching the attention of folk-music fans all over the world. After spending the best of two years touring extensively around Europe and the UK, supporting several acclaimed artists including Bear’s Den, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Damien Jurado , Jakobsen entered the studio in the summer of 2016, to record her debut album The Nordic Mellow.

The 10-song collection was a testament to Siv’s bold lyricism and stunning vocal ability, transporting the listener into her world from the very first note. After being praised by music critics, including NPR, Earmilk, Paste Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit and Clash Magazine, receiving airplay on several internationally renowned radio stations, including the UK’s BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music and XFM, and with well over 20.000.000 streams on Spotify alone, this young Norwegian is steadily making waves in the singer-songwriter world.

Tracklisting: Fear The Fear / Fight Or Flight / Shine / A Feeling Felt Or A Feeling Made / Fraud, Failure / A Temporary Soothing / Anywhere Else / Island / Only Life / From Morning Made To Evening Laid / Mothecombe

Label Review. 

2020 album. World from Ghana. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘Alewa’ is the stunning debut album from Santrofi, a Ghanaian band from Accra, founded by bassist and producer Emmanuel Ofori. “Santrofi was the unexpected highlight of the WOMAD 2019 festival. The young Ghanian band stormed the stage with an energy that was electric and left us wanting more.” - Paula Henderson (Womad)

Even without an album out: they have already set the world on fire freaking out audiences all over Europe on their 2019 summer festival tour including Sines in Portugal, WOMAD in UK, Roskilde and WOMEX in Tampere. This young all star band from Ghana brims with gifted musicians and energy on stage.

The 8 piece collective is made up of a young generation of awarded musicians who have backed anyone in Ghana from Azonto sensation Sarkodie to Nigerian superstar 2 Face Idibia, but their passion isn’t local pop but Highlife. And their mission is to bring it back; not only to the world but also to Ghana, where the young generation has forgotten all about this great music.

Santrofi’s debut album ‘Alewa’ now brings you a new wave of fresh highlife rooted in the past with a knowledge of the future directly from the streets of Accra. Santrofi was founded by bassist and producer Emmanuel Ofori who rose from the source having played with Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band and has now formed his own band collective: Santrofi. The 8 musicians are deeply rooted in vintage Ghanaian highlife music in all its forms. The influences range from the riveting fast-paced pulse of 70s dance-guitar highlife, or the other-worldly sound of Highlife funk to the polyrhythmic beats and melodies that took Afrobeat across the globe. The members have toured the world with legends like Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, Osibisa, George Darko and many, many others. They have learnt from the masters and are now ready to take highlife into the future.

Santrofi in Akan mythology is a rare and precious bird, identified by its bright colours and four wings. It is so unique, it was forbidden to be hunted. Attempting to catch and lock up the bird will bring you bad luck. If spotted and left to fly away, great luck and fortune can be expected.

‘Alewa’ is a metaphor for a popularly known local black and white striped sweet. It symbolizes the need to recognize, accept, tolerate and embrace racial diversity to build a world with love and unity. This spirit also shows in their D.I.Y. band approach. The album was composed arranged, produced and recorded in Ghana in a joint effort by Santrofi. On stage Santrofi breaks down hierarchies, the musicians alternate their roles each growing on the other’s talent while harmonizing as a whole.

Tracklisting: Kokrokoo / Alewa / Kwaa Kwaa / Africa / Odo Maba / Cocoase / Adwuma / Kwabena Amoah / Konongo Kaya / Mobo

Label Review.

Radio Broadcast. John Peel sessions and two tracks from Dutch TV.

Our Overview.

Rock and blues band Taste (originally "The Taste") was formed in Cork, Ireland, in August 1966 as a trio consisting of Rory Gallagher on guitar and vocals, Eric Kitteringham on bass, and Norman Damery on drums. In 1968 Taste began performing in the UK where the original line‐up split up. The new line‐up formed with Richard McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums.

The new Taste moved permanently to London where they signed with the record label Polydor. In April 1969, Taste released the first of their two studio albums, the self‐titled ‘Taste’, with On the Boards following in early 1970, the latter showing the band's jazz influences with Gallagher playing saxophone on numerous tracks. Taste recorded three sessions for John Peel’s Top Gear programme between 1968 and 1969. Nine songs from those sessions are featured on this disc. In addition, two live recordings broadcast on Dutch television on 22 August 1969 are also included.

Tracklisting: Blister on The Moon / Dual Carriageway Pain / Norman Invasion / Sugar Mama / Leaving Blues / Born on The Wrong Side of Time / Wee Wee Baby / Same Old Story / I'm Moving On / Blister on The Moon (live) / Sugar Mama (live)

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

With 8 studios albums under their belt and a musical career spanning 21 years, the Grammy nominated band Trivium - att Heafy[vocals, guitar], Corey Beaulieu [guitar], Paolo Gregoletto [bass], and Alex Bent [drums]- have quietly claimed their place at the forefront of heavy music in the 21st century and the Florida-based band is pleased to announce that its ninth full length, ‘What The Dead Men Say’ via Roadrunner records.

“’What The Dead Men Say’ is everything that is Trivium," explains Heafy. "On this album, one can hear the proper ingredients of past, present, and future Trivium. The Trivium sound is having everything the band does - on one album."

"With the new album, we took what worked on the The Sin And The Sentenceand dialed it all up to 11," says Gregoletto. Beaulieu echoes that sentiment, saying, "We wanted to build on the foundation hat we established with the last album. The record has all the elements that are Trivium - along with all of us wanting to keep pushing ourselves creatively. This led to a highly-inspired and fast-paced writing and recording process that really captures the energy of the band."

Trivium released its now-canonical album Ascendancy in 2005. It was recognized as KERRANG!'s "Album of the Year," achieved a gold certification in the UK, and eclipsed sales of 500,000 worldwide. Metal Hammer placed it in the Top 15 of "The 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the 21st Century." It ignited a string of six consecutive Top 25 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 and five straight Top 3 debuts on the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart, culminating on 2017's benchmark The Sin And The Sentence. That album elevated the group's total stream tally past a quarter-of-a-billion. Additionally, "Betrayer" received a GRAMMY® Award nomination in the category of "Best Metal Performance." Unanimous acclaim followed from Decibel. Loudwire, Ultimate Guitar, MetalSucks, and Metal Hammer who dubbed them, "quite simply one of the best bands in modern metal." Not to mention, they performed alongside Metallica, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and many others and graced the main stages of Download, Bloodstock, KNOTFEST, and more. After two decades, eight albums, and hundreds of sold out shows, Trivium actualise the all-encompassing ambition they first set in motion back in 1999. On their ninth full-length album, What The Dead Men Say [Roadrunner Records], the Florida quartet ascend to an inimitable nexus of masterful melody, hypnotic hook-craft, tight thrash, black metal scope, and cinematic extremity.

After the album’s release, Trivium will spend most of the remaining months of 2020 supporting the aforementioned tour with Megadeth and Lamb of God.

Tracklisting: IX / What The Dead Men Say / Catastrophist / Amongst The Shadows And The Stones / Bleed Into Me / The Defiant / Sickness Unto You / Scattering The Ashes / Bending The Arc To Fear / he Ones We Leave Behind

Label Review.

Long-lost vintage 60s-70s proto-metal and stoner rock singles.

Our Overview.

Ten editions in and the series ‘Brown Acid’, as always is packed in the highest highs of the dankest hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal tracks previously lost to the sands of time. As usual, all of these tracks were painstakingly licensed legitimately and the artists were paid. It’s hard to believe we’re already up to 10 volumes of this lysergic neanderthal wail, but the long-lost jams just keep-a-coming like Texas crude to fuel your rock’n’roll engine and melt your metal mind. As the celebrated series reaches landmark double-digits, there are no indications it will slow down in the near future. The 'Brown Acid' series is curated by L.A. label RidingEasy Records and retailer/label Permanent Records.

This Trip kicks off with the Hammer of the Gods howl of “Plastic Thunder” by Bitter Creek. The Atlanta, GA quintet’s lone single from 1970 on Mark IV Records is rated #6 of the Top 50 Heaviest Songs Before Black Sabbath by GuitarWorld Magazine. You can hear why in the ominous riff and larynx-ravaging chorus that merges the deepest of Deep Purple sludge with The Who’s rollicking psychedelia.

Not much is known about The Brood’s 1969 bluesy paean to dirtbag weed consumption “The Roach” on the It’s A Lemon imprint, except that it’s a big, growling rocker with a crazed in-the-round blowout of wailing guitar solos, screeching organ blasts, wildly overlapping vocals and drum rolls for days.

Nova Scotia, Canada sextet Brothers and One’s double-entendre laden single “Hard On Me” certainly pushes the boundaries of what would be acceptable at the time (especially amongst their ever-polite Canadian brethren.) Their lone full length was released in 1970 on short-lived Audat label, the group featuring two sets of brothers (hence the name) recorded the album while all members were between age 13-18-years-old. This glam-influenced single was privately released on the band’s own label nearly 4 years later.

Louisville, KY quartet Conception’s excellent revision of Blue Cheer’s “Babylon” (1969, Perfection Records) adds heavy phaser effect on the guitar and a more driving rhythm to make the song entirely their own. Lead guitar and high harmony vocals by Charlie Day (not to be confused with the Sunny Philadelphian actor) are assertive and commanding as he implores listeners onward to hallucinagenic nirvana.

Not exactly a typically psychedelic band name for the era, but First State Bank’s “Mr. Sun” (1970, Music Mill) pays hearty dividends of boogie bustle. The Central Texas band led by guitarist/vocalist Randy Nunnally released only 3 singles in its career from 1970-1976. For those keeping score at home, their song “Before You Leave” was featured on The Third Trip back in 2016. “Mr. Sun” is the heavy B-Side to “Coming Home To You.”

Clearly inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Tucson quartet Frozen Sun topped the local charts in 1969 with this barnstorming rocker “Electric Soul” (Capt. Zoomer Records.) The song is replete with guitarist/vocalist (with big Hendrix hair) Ron Ryan’s spoken interlude, “Well have you been electrically stoned? You know, living in the danger zone?” We say yes.

Ralph Williams and the Wright Brothers took flight with “Never Again” on Hour Glass Records in 1972, and apparently never landed after this 45 with “Dark Street” on the A-side. The serpentine riff and sexually-charged backing vocal grunts drive this archetypical tale of a young man’s chemical odyssey… or, should we say, trip?

Sounds Synonymous pretty much epitomized heavy fuzz from Michigan with their 1969 single “Tension” on the Wall Productions label. The Hendrix “Fire” meets Arthur Brown’s “Fire” track lunges and lurches with glee throughout its 3-minutes and change of unbridled crunch. Tabernash’s “Head Collect” (1972) is the suburban Denver quartet’s only release following the name change from The Contents Are and a move from Davenport, IA. This more stately psych-rock chune features Byrds-like harmonies, twangy reverse-looped guitar soloing and Keith Moon-esque drumming that should’ve made it a chart-topper, but we all know there’s no justice in rock’n’roll.

The Tenth Trip closes, appropriately, with the “War Pigs” reminiscent fuzz of New Orleans quartet The Rubber Memory’s 1970 tune “All Together.” The band self-released only 110 copies of their lone album, making it an incredibly sought-after rarity for decades. Alongside a limited edition reissue in 2000, the group reformed for a one-off show before quickly bouncing back into our collective cosmic consciousness.

Tracklisting: Sounds Synonymous - Tensions / Ralph Williams & The Wright Brothers - Never Again / Conception - Babylon / Bitter Creek - Plastic Thunder / The Rubber Memory - All Together / First State Bank - Mr. Sun / Brothers And One - Hard On Me / Frozen Sun - Electric Soul / he Brood - The Roach / Tabernash - Head Collec

Label Review.

2020 album. Rock.

Our Overview.

Sean Sprecher — who previously went by Sean Bean — has been a cornerstone of the Boston music scene for a while now, first releasing music as Fat History Month before transitioning over to Bad History Month back in 2014 is in the wings with his new album ‘Old Blues’. What does ‘Old Blues’ mean to you? For Bad History Month’s Sean Sprecher, ‘Old Blues’ is many things.

The title of the Boston based musician’s sophomore album (since the dissolution of duo Fat History Month) refers to ‘macro and micro scale Bad History, childhood trauma dragged into adulthood, the self-doubts and anxieties of aging, problems people have been fighting wars over since the ancients,’ and most naturally, ‘the tradition of channeling hard times into good music.’ The record is an extremely personal yet relatable album, an assertion of the hope that there are parts of ourselves and each other that we can push towards being better than our common weaknesses would have us believe. An influential fixture on the east coast DIY scene and beyond, Bad History Month has been creating profound and sincere music that deals with unhappiness and its absurdity in equal measure since 2007. ‘Old Blues’ is a welcome return from one of our generations brightest songwriters.

“Though I’ve become fairly cynical about the human spirit, I still do write songs that strive for hope more than anything,” he said in a press release, continuing:“There’s always a reach towards a punchline or a way forward at the end because all laments and complaints should be leavened with humor and optimism. Acknowledging and laughing at our personal and collective failings is a path towards self-awareness and productive engagement with ourselves and the world. It’s also a path away from the numb escape of endless internet addiction, the anaesthetic mental armor of knee-jerk political thought, and the gossipy inanities and complaints-for-their-own-sake that pass for Social Life much of the time. It’s also Aspirational Music in that I don’t currently have the strength to live up to my own values.”

Tracklisting: Waste Not / The Road To Good Intentions / Grudges / Childlike Sense Of Hatred / Low Hanging Fruit / A Survey Of Cosmic Repulsion / Want Not

Label Review. 

2020 album 

Our Overview. 

After a 9-year pause, Bill Gould (Faith No More), experimental artists Jared Blum and Dominic Cramp (Gigante Sound) release the follow-up to their 2011 debut album ‘Talking Book’. While ‘II’ shares the DNA of the original, its diversity is driven further: concrete - ambient drone collage forms are offset with traditional instruments and song arrangements. In other words, this is an album of further extremes in all directions.

Genre is experimental but only in the broadest sense of the word - “visual” would be more apt. Once described as “yoga meditation for masochists,” this will appeal to fans of Eno’s early ambient projects and Bowie collaborations, 60s Czech soundtracks, early 80s industrial, English prog and dusty electro acoustic tape pieces. Talking Book II’ is a total listening experience. meant to be digested as two complete pieces, preferably in headphones. All tracks are meant to flow, one into the other, without gaps. Vinyl release contains an entire piece per side.

“We had originally thought this would be an easy follow-up to our debut album from 2011,” said Gould. “But in fact, this was a journey that took years. It was a wild ride, but in my opinion was totally worth the effort, it enabled us to really dig deep, and get this the way we wanted it. I feel like we have created a soundtrack to a film that can only be seen through listening.”

Tracklisting: Blood Aurora / Thermal Drift / The Land Upright / A Crumbling Mind Smiles / Zastava / Early Sorrows / The Last Time She Died / They Came At Dawn / A Sea Turned To Stone / Heritor / Lost In Glass / The War Was Better / The Dying Light / Absent Horizon

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

“This is an examination of madness and loss,” says Brian Christinzio, the inimitable force behind BC Camplight. “I hope it starts a long overdue conversation.” Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ is the final and finest chapter of what Christinzio calls his ‘Manchester Trilogy’, following 2015’s ‘How To Die In The North’ and 2018’s ‘Deportation Blues’. All three albums were created after the native Philadelphian had moved to Manchester, England.

Like ‘Deportation Blues’, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ spans singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and ‘50s rock’n’roll, with Christinzio’s similarly distinctive, flexible vocal carrying a fearless approach to lyrical introspection but the new album is a major leap forward in songwriting sophistication and lyrical communication. “It’s important to stress that this isn’t a redemption story,” he says. “I’m a guy who maybe lives a little hard and I’m in the thick of some heavy stuff. But as a result, I think I’ve made my best record.”

The ‘heavy stuff’ has come thick and fast for Christinzio. Just days before ‘How To Die In The North’ was released, he was deported and banned from the UK because of visa issues. Estranged from his new home, his girlfriend and his dog, unable to promote his album and back home with his parents, Christinzio sunk deep into the dark. An Italian passport, care of his grandparents, eventually allowed him to re-settle in Manchester but then just days before ‘Deportation Blues’ was released, his father Angelo unexpectedly died. “I went into a spiral that was worse than any time since my twenties,” he recalls. Hence the title ‘Shortly After Takeoff’: the feeling of being suddenly thwarted by what life throws at you. Making matters worse was a neurological disorder that returned after years in remission: “I see TV static, and it messes with how my brain interprets everything from sound to my own feelings.”

Christinzio says his love of stylistic shifts is also linked to a, “pretty low attention span. I’m always stirring the pot, I never let it settle.” His personal life is similarly restless. Few might risk everything and abscond from the safety of home in Philadelphia, where he had released two albums, occasionally played live with local faves The War On Drugs - whose current members Dave Hartley and Robbie Bennett were part of the original BC Camplight live band - and guested on Sharon van Etten’s ‘Epic’ album. “If I’d stayed, I’d be dead. Period.” he once mused and what was Philly’s loss became Manchester’s gain. There, Christinzio has his friends and his band. On record, ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ is “95 percent” Christinzio, plus Adam Dawson (drums) and Francesca Pidgeon (backing vocals, sax, clarinet) and guests on cello and violin. Dawson and Pidgeon are also members of the current live BC Camplight, alongside Tom Bellini (guitar), Stephen Mutch (bass) and Luke Barton (synths, acoustic guitar).

Tracklisting: I Only Drink When I’m Drunk / Ghosthunting / Back To Work / Cemetery Lifestyle / I Want To Be In The Mafia / Shortly After Takeoff / Arm Around Your Sadness / Born To Cruise / Angelo

Label Review. 

1989 album with 22 bonus tracks. Includes Live at Zeppelinhalle, Kaufbeuren, West Germany 22nd September 1989. Also available on Double Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Sepultura’s acclaimed third album, ‘Beneath The Remains’, originally released in 1989, marks the band’s major label debut on Roadrunner. Widely regarded today as a thrash-metal classic, the album perfectly distilled the Brazilian band’s potent mix of piercing melodies and pummelling rhythms.

In December 1988, brothers Max (guitar/vocals) and Igor Cavalera (drums), Paulo Jr. (bass) and Andreas Kisser (guitar) recorded ‘Beneath the Remains’ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with producer Scott Burns. Soon after its release, the album was hailed by fans and critics alike for standout songs like “Inner Self,” “Primitive Future” and the title track. The album has been remastered especially for this collection.

The Deluxe 2CD Edition also features nine unreleased “mixdown” recordings taken from the Beneath the Remains sessions at Nas Nuvens Studios in Rio de Janeiro. Highlights include versions of “Lobotomy” and “Mass Hypnosis,” as well as instrumental versions “Slaves Of Pain” and “Sarcastic Existence.” The studio tracks are complemented by unreleased recordings of the band performing live on September 22, 1989 at the Zeppelinhalle, West Germany. The concert features songs from Beneath the Remains (“Primitive Future” and “Inner Self”) and the band’s previous albums (“Troops Of Doom” and “Escape To The Void”), along with covers of Black Sabbath’s “Symptom Of the Universe” and the Dead Kennedys “Holiday In Cambodia.”

Founded by the Cavalera brothers in 1984, the group recorded two full-length albums – Morbid Visions (1986) and Schizophrenia (1987) – before signing with Roadrunner Records in 1988. Since then, Sepultura’s dynamic studio recordings and intense live performances have earned it fans everywhere. The current version of Sepultura (Derrick Green, Paulo Jr., Andreas Kisser, Eloy Casagrande) released a new album in 2020, ‘Quadra’. Former members Max and Igor Cavalera perform together in the band Cavalera Conspiracy.

Tracklisting:

CD1: Beneath the Remains / Inner Self / Stronger Than Hate / Mass Hypnosis / Sarcastic Existence / Slaves of Pain / Lobotomy / Hungry / Primitive Future // A Hora E A Vez Do Cabelo Nascer / Inner Self (Drum Tracks) / Mass Hypnosis (Drum Tracks) / Slaves Of Pain (Mixdown) [Instrumental] / Inner Self (Mixdown) [Instrumental] / Hungry (Mixdown) [Instrumental] / Stronger Than Hate (Mixdown) [Instrumental] / Sarcastic Existence (Mixdown) [Instrumental]

CD2: Lobotomy (Mixdown) / Mass Hypnosis (Mixdown) / Primitive Future (Mixdown) / Beneath the Remains (Mixdown) / Primitive Future (Live) / Inner Self (Live) / Escape to the Void (Live) / Sarcastic Existence (Live) / Slaves of Pain (Live) / Mass Hypnosis (Live) / Troops of Doom (Live) / Holiday in Cambodia (Live) / Beneath the Remains (Live) / Symptom of the Universe (Live)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

In the week that their eighth studio album, ‘Giants of All Sizes’, became their third consecutive UK Number One album, elbow played a series of special acoustic shows for select audiences in Leeds, Kingston and Manchester. Combining tracks from the new album with songs from their extensive and ever growing back catalogue, the shows offered fans a rare opportunity to see elbow in small venues, with the recordings emphasising the special bond that exists between the band and their fanbase.

The short tour included two sold out, hometown shows at Manchester’s Ritz, a place that looms large in the band’s history, being the site of a legendary headline show on the release of their debut album ‘Asleep in the Back’ in 2001 that had the Manchester Evening News display their fortune telling skills when they suggested ‘elbow are on the verge of something big’.

The Ritz set reminded fans of that history with versions of both “Newborn” and “Scattered Black and Whites” from that debut album alongside versions of “Grounds for Divorce” from ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’, “Magnificent (She Says)” from ‘Little Fictions’ and “Great Expectations” from ‘Leaders of the Free World’. As befits an album from a band so intrinsically intertwined with their hometown, the show also saw Guy Garvey quote John Cooper Clarke and pay tribute to various Manchester luminaries lost along the way.

Tracklisting: Puttin’ on the Ritz / Empires / Magnificent (She Says) / Salome Maloney / Newborn / Great Expectations / A Choice of Three Drinks / Seven Veils / Scattered Black and Whites / Weightless / Grounds for Divorce

Label Review. 

2020 debut album from Ed O’Brien (Radiohead). Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As a guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative and influential musical forces of our time, he thought his artistic side had its outlet and was happy to spend any downtime from Radiohead with his family. Plus, he wondered, would it really be necessary? “Thom, Jonny and Phillip are making music,” he says, “and I’m like, ‘The last thing the world needs is a shit album by me.’"

But suddenly a switch was flicked and the songs came pouring out of him. That creative surge resulted in an album of rediscovery and adventure by O’Brien under the moniker EOB that deftly veers from moments of delicate folk to euphoric house, its songs seamlessly pinned together by unswerving melodic hooks and candid lyricism. A spirit of collaboration runs through it, from the production team of Flood, Catherine Marks, Alan Moulder and Adam ‘Cecil’ Bartlett to the extraordinary musicians O’Brien assembled to help bring these tracks to life; Omar Hakim, Colin Greenwood, David Okumu, Laura Marling, Adrian Utley, Nathan East and Glenn Kotche.

But every group of collaborators needs a leader, and this album is all O’Brien’s vision. “I wanted to make a record from the heart,” he says. “I wanted to make something direct. I wanted to talk about love, your family in the immediate and the wider sense, where we are on the planet, the bigger picture, life and death. I wanted to make a big hearted, warm and colourful album… something hopeful and full of love.”

It all started in Brazil. Ed and his family moved out to the Brazilian countryside at the end of 2012. After setting up a home studio and dabbling with the idea of making an electronic record, a listen to Primal Scream’s landmark 'Screamadelica' was O’Brien’s eureka moment. “I thought, this is it… I want my music to have that joy, that light, the depth and breadth of that album… elements of dance, soul, ambient… Uplifting in parts.” He immediately picked up an acoustic guitar and started writing, the new direction further influenced by a trip to Rio Carnival. “Carnival was another eureka moment… an extraordinary explosion of rhythm, melody, dance, light and joy… I felt there was a thread right through 'Screamadelica', rave and carnival.”

The O’Briens returned home in summer 2013 and Ed hunkered down in a remote cottage in the shadow of the Cambrian Mountains in Wales to begin writing songs. After working on and promoting the last Radiohead album ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’, Ed got started for real and over three weeks, in the Autumn of 2017, O’Brien and his house band got down the bones of the record. A year of tinkering and re-working followed at Assault & Battery Studios in Willesden, London. “The house band was so good for some tracks – but other stuff needed a different approach. Any record that I’ve been involved with, that’s been of any merit, is always a journey.”

Tracklisting: Shangri-La / Brasil / Deep Days / Long Time Coming / Mass / Banksters / Sail On / Olympik / Cloak of the Night

Label Review. 

2020 album. Psych rock. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Finland’s Psychedelic forest folk-rockers Hexvessel return to Svart Records with new nature-mystic opus ‘Kindred’. Taking a darker and more esoteric path, ‘Kindred’ sees Hexvessel re-forge their eclectic melting cauldron or vessel of sound into a potent hex of spell-binding songcraft. Blues-laden psych-rock and progressive structures harken back to King Crimson, giving way to dark earthen balladry reminiscent of early Nick Cave and the doom-laden atmospheres of Dead Can Dance.

The band returned to their original studio in Tampere, Finland, where they recorded their cult classic ‘No Holier Temple’, which fused Hexvessel’s folk roots with an occult undercurrent. Through Kindred’s 10 song rites of passage, Hexvessel cover Coils “Fire Of The Mind” live from a mental institution and delve into the Druidic sacrificial swamps with songs like “Bog Bodies”, which conjures the deep Lynchian night with muted trumpet and foggy rhodes piano. Adorned by cover artwork by artists Thomas Hooper (who has worked for Neurosis, Converge and Doomriders) and Richey Beckett (who has created work for Metallica, Foo Fighters, Robert Plant), ‘Kindred’ is an album which calls you on a journey, both intimate and richly enlightening.

The first single for ‘Kindred’, entitled “Demian”, a sub-arctic occult blues number, with western-noir guitars, Demianis a paean to the work of Herman Hesse and is about opening up our subconscious to reach our human potential. Singer/song-writer Mat McNerney says “‘Demian’ is in a sense the true message in everything we do with Hexvessel. It’s about finding the sense of holiness within and discovering the magic in the universe, which is within us all. It’s about breaking on through to the other side.”

Tracklisting: Billion Year Being / Demian / Fire of the Mind / Bog Bodies / Sic Luceat Lux / Phaedra / Family / Kindred Moon / Magical & Damned / Joy of Sacrifice

Label Review. 

2020 album. Blues/folk/country. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

“The man singing these songs isn’t exactly the same man who wrote them,” says American singer-songwriter Pokey LaFarge of ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’, his eighth and latest studio release. “This album is about the story of who I used to be.” 

In early 2018, the eccentric troubadour LaFarge - searching for the sort of artistic freedom and inspiration he wasn’t finding in the Midwest - relocated from his longtime home base of St. Louis, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California. New songs came quickly to LaFarge in his new environment but new temptations soon found him, as well. Though he declines to get into specifics, LaFarge admits that he experienced a significant “fall from grace” during the last months of 2018. “Things sort of started to unravel in my mind.” Shortly before the recording of ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ began, LaFarge experienced a spiritual awakening - and the faith he re-embraced in his hour of darkness helped to buoy him through the making of the album.

Though he was struggling for spiritual equilibrium at the time, LaFarge at least had some rock-solid musical support to lean on. Recorded primarily at Reliable Recorders on Chicago’s Northwest side, ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ was produced by LaFarge’s friend and collaborator Chris Seefried (who also cowrote several of the album’s tracks) and features the considerable talents of guitarist Joel Paterson, keyboardist Scott Ligon, upright/electric bassist Jimmy Sutton and drummer Alex Hall.

Musically, LaFarge continues to mix and match a wide variety of styles and traditions, while never losing track of his own vision “This record is kind of like Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan hanging out with chanson singers and French jazz bands in like the forties, but I was never trying to make it sound like a particular person.”

Despite the trying period that preceded its recording, ‘Rock Bottom Rhapsody’ is ultimately far more uplifting and life-affirming than its title would suggest. “That desperation, that struggle,” LaFarge ponders, “Did it add something to the record? It certainly did. I mean, I don’t know if it made it better; it just is what it is. It’s not up to me to decide if people are going to feel that…”

Tracklisting: Rock Bottom Rhapsody / End Of My Rope / Fuck Me UpBluebird / Rock Bottom Reprise / Lucky Sometimes / Carry On / Just The Same / Fallen Angel / Storm-A-Comin’ / Ain’t Comin’ Home / Lost In The Crowd / Rock Bottom Finale

Label Review.

Original album released 2009. A document of virtuoso banjo player Bela Fleck's remarkable journey across Africa to explore the banjo's roots, is available for the first time as a complete film and music set, with the addition of a brand new duo album with kora master Toumani Diabat.

Our Overview.

‘Throw Down Your Heart’, a document of the influential American virtuoso banjo player Bela Fleck’s remarkable journey across Africa to explore the banjo’s roots, is available for the first time as a complete film and music set, with the addition of a brand new duo album with kora master Toumani Diabat , ‘The Ripple Effect’ (also available separately on 180-gram 2-LP gatefold vinyl).

‘Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions’ brings together Béla’s Grammy-winning 2009 album ‘Tales from the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3—Africa Sessions’ along with ‘Africa Sessions Part 2: Unreleased Tracks’ as well as ‘The Ripple Effect’ with kora player Toumani Diabaté. The kora is a forerunner and cousin of the banjo. The collection, including three discs of music and a DVD, document Fleck’s journeys in Africa to discover the roots of the banjo.

“I knew that my beloved instrument had originally come from West Africa,” Fleck wrote in a statement. “And from time to time I found tantalizing tidbits of African acoustic music that gave me the confidence to know that there was a phenomenal amount of incredible stuff going on under the radar.”

Then, Flecktones saxophonist Jeff Coffin played Béla a recording of renowned Malian singer Oumou Sangare. “I was literally stunned,” Fleck remembers. “I’d had this reaction only a few times — when music was so compelling that everything had to stop while I listened. Earl Scruggs’ banjo did it to me. Chick Corea’s music did it to me. And so did this.”

As fate would have it, one of Fleck’s old bluegrass friends managed Sangare and the singer invited Béla to Mali which kicked off a three-nation journey Fleck described as “a nonstop set of intense, powerful and joyful musical interactions. Every day for five weeks, I was meeting musicians, and filming pieces with them in their homes, other unconventional locations, and even on rare occasions – recording studios. We recorded/filmed over 30 pieces so it came out to something like a tune per day while we were there.”

This is the first time it will be available as a complete set. Its release is timed to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of Rounder Records.

Tracklisting:

CD DVD 1: Tulinesangala / Kinetsa / Ah Ndiya / Kabibi / Angelina / D’gary Jam / Throw Down Your Heart / Thula Mama / Wairenziante / Buribalal / Zawose / Ajula / Mbamba / Pakugyenda Balebauo / Jesus Is The Only Answer / Matitu / Mariam / Djorolen / Dunia Haina Wema / Thumb Fun

CD DVD 2: Spirit Song / Salam Aleikum / Chant / The Rights Of Man / Ya Fama / The Rights Of Man / Ya Fama / Kamungoro / Kandjo / Obughangwa / Soumauro / Furaha / Mar Rano / Jesus Of Banjul / Mali Jam / Kayi Ni Wura / OldJoe Jatta

CD DVD 3: Bamako / Nashville / Snug Harbor / Elyne Road / Matitu/Buribalal / Manchester / Throw Down Your Heart / Kauonding Sissoko / Katmandu / Dueling Banjos

CD DVD 4: Anania’s Song / Kinetsa / Aida Ganya Kitenge Bero Yoti / Awomiso / Tulinesangala / Wairenziante / Fatina Mbaya / Jesus Is The Only Answer / Tulinesangala / My Name Is Anania / Furaha / Dunia Haina Wema / Sunrise / Throw Down Your Heart / Matitu / Gogo / Zawose Vocalizations / Tudumishe Utamaduni Wa Tanzani / Nightclub Open Song / Nightclub Song / Cha Cha’sTune / Leele / Ndapari / Duna Haina Wema / Throw Down Your Heart / Jatta Family Song / Remy Jatta Solo / Home Sweet Home / When Strings Collide / O Susannah / Ajula / Mbamba / Harouna Jam / Djelimady Solo / Kayi Ni Wura / Bb Jam / Daman Ndiaye / Harouna’s Groove / Yafama / Mariam / Bassekou Solo / Mariam / Ah Ndiya / Djorolen / Throw Down Your Heart / Children Of Nakisenyi / D’gary Jam / Bampa Di Da / Gambian Fantasy In Blue / Spirit Song / Matitu And Cha Cha / Bagamoyo Song / Dunia Haina Wema / Throw Down Your Heart / Lost Luggage / Press Conference / Old Joe Jatta / Jesus Jah Jarju And B la Fleck / Bb Jam (Extended Version) / Trilok Gurtu At The Hotel Wassulu / Buribalal Akibar / N’guatu / Harouna Jam

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock n roll. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Formed in 2010 on top of a dirty fried chicken shop on London's Holloway Road, multinational band MFC Chicken play raw, sax-fueled rock and roll tunes about fast food and broken hearts. When tenor sax player Spencer Evoy arrived in London fresh from Canada, little did he know that his quest to reignite the spirit of the rock'n'roll sound of the American Pacific Northwest would start outside a chicken shop on the Holloway Road. 

Since those early days, this poultry-power rock and roll group have released four award winning LPs and a fistful of instantly collectable singles on Dirty Water Records (UK) and FOLC Records (Spain).  The band - Spencer Evoy (Sax/Lead Vox), Ravi Low-Beer (Drums), Zig Criscuolo (Bass/Vox), and Dan Criscuolo (Guitar/Vox) - have set the UK and Europe alight with 100’s of live shows presenting their own red hot take on "the music the Sonics and The Wailers were listening to", cementing this globe-spanning gang into the finest purveyors of Pacific Northwest rhythm and blues in the land. 

2020 sees the 10th anniversary of the band and the release of their newest slab of vinyl presenting 14 brand new slabs of rock and roll, frat rock and rhythm and blues. Highlights include “KFC Called The Cops On Me”, “Breakfast ‘Taters” and “Fuck You, Me”. If you love dancing but hate contemporary music…  if you are desperate to hear rock'n'roll taken back to its roots… if you are hungry for the greasiest item on the rhythm and blues dance menu,  then you are most definitely ready for the indescribable, unstoppable sound of MFC Chicken - the best in the land! 

Tracklisting: Always, Always, Always / KFC Called The Cops On Me / Who Gave What To Who? / Shell of a Man / I’m Lost / Couldn’t Say No / Fresh Chicken, Straight From The Trash / Spy Wail / Spontaneous Combust / Breakfast Taters / Fuck You Me / Free Range Man / Tipa Tapa / Waste Of Space

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Joe Satriani releases his 17th album ‘Shapeshifting’ and he co-produced it with Jim Scott (Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) and with longtime associate John Cuniberti on board handling the mastering duties. Joe enlisted a wide range of collaborators, both old and new, to help him bring his latest musical concoctions to life. Legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff (John Fogerty), bassist Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction) and keyboardist Eric Caudieux were the core musicians on the new album with additional contributions coming from Lisa Coleman (The Revolution) and Christopher Guest (Spinal Tap).

The retro feeling sounds of first single, “Nineteen Eighty” finds Satriani spiritually revisiting the time period when he was working with his first band, the Squares. The future guitar hero the world came to know less than a decade later, would have to wait. He recalls that in those early days, they “dialed back the guitar solos and histrionics to try to create a cooler new wave vibe.” Decades removed from those goals, he was free to go forward and attempt to recapture what was on his mind in 1980.

Staying true to the sounds of the time, he even used a vintage MXR EVH phaser. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Eddie Van Halen,” Satriani says. “In my mind, he just crystallized that era. The late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he kind of saved rock guitar. So that’s what I would have been doing.”

Tracklisting: Shapeshifting / Big Distortion / All for Love / Ali Farka, Dick Dale, an Alien and Me / Teardrops / Perfect Dust / Nineteen Eighty / All My Friends Are Here / Spirits, Ghosts and Outlaws / Falling Stars / Waiting / Here the Blue River / Yesterday’s Yesterday

Label Review.

2020 album. Jazz.

Our Overview.

Where the era of jazz orchestras ended in the 1940s, today a pleasingly large number of young big bands are starting from scratch. The pianist, keyboarder and organist Matthias Bublath is now also putting his musical passions into practice on a large scale. And since he likes it brawny, his jazz orchestra also bears the appropriate name: Eight Cylinder Big band.

What gives this musical engine unusually large displacement, torque and pulling power is the fact that Bublath has tailored this project not only for the big band but also for the Hammond organ: the largest line-up in jazz meets the instrument, which itself is almost an orchestra in its own right.

Tracklisting: Big Band Intro Joint / Matight Intro / Nice Green Bo / Eight Cylinder / Gospel Song / Home Cookin’ / Return To The Source / Dump The Goose / Sad Belt / Mr. Scales / Outro Blow / Bolero

Label Review. 

2020 album. Richard Russell. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Friday Forever’ is the second album from multi-artist project Everything Is Recorded, helmed by producer artist Richard Russell. This follows the critically acclaimed and Mercury Music Prize nominated debut of 2018, ‘Everything Is Recorded’ by Richard Russell. ‘Friday Forever’ takes on a multi-lensed perspective of a classic night out, followed closely by the sobering reflections of the next morning.

The album features an array of new collaborators - in British rappers Aitch, FLOHIO and Berwyn, Irish singer songwriters Maria Somerville and Kean Kavanagh, the inimitable voices of A.K. Paul, James Massiah and returning vocalist Infinite Coles - as well as established names like Ghostface Killah and Penny Rimbaud.

Also released in April 2020, via White Rabbit, Richard Russell’s ‘Liberation Through Hearing’ - available in hardback, ebook, audio - is a spiritual journey through music by the Mercury Prize nominated musician and the man behind some of the world’s biggest recording artists including Adele, Dizzee Rascal and The Prodigy. ‘Liberation Through Hearing’ sees Richard Russell telling the remarkable story of XL Recordings and their three decades on the frontline of innovation in music; the eclectic chorus of artists who came to define the label’s unique aesthetic and Russell’s own story; his highs and lows steering the fortunes of an independent label in a rapidly changing industry, his celebrated production work with Bobby Womack and Gil Scott- Heron on their late-career masterpieces and his own development as an artist as 'Everything Is Recorded'.

Always searching for news sounds and new truths, ‘Liberation Through Hearing’ is a portrait of a man who believes in the spiritual power of music to change reality. It is also the story of a record label that refused to be categorised by genre and in the process cut an idiosyncratic groove which was often underground in feel but mainstream in impact.

“Writing this book was an opportunity for me to reflect on the last few decades. I hope people will get something from it. I’ve tried not to compromise in anything I’ve done, and that includes writing ‘Liberation Through Hearing’” - Richard Russell

Tracklisting: 09:46PM/EVERY FRIDAY THEREAFTER (Intro) (feat. Maria Somerville & Berwyn) / 10:51PM/THE NIGHT (feat. Berwyn & Maria Somerville) / 12:12AM/PATIENTS (FUCKING UP A FRIDAY) (feat. Aitch & Infinite Coles) / 01:32AM/WALK ALONE (feat. Infinite Coles & Berwyn)/ 02:56AM / I DONT WANT THIS FEELING TO STOP (feat. FLOHIO) / 03:15AM/CAVIAR (feat. Ghostface Killah & Infinite Coles) / 04:21AM/THAT SKY (feat. Maria Somerville & James Massiah) / 05:10AM/DREAM I NEVER HAD (feat. A. K. Paul) / 09:35AM/PRETENDING NOTHINGS WRONG (feat. Kean Kavanagh) / 10:02AM/BURNT TOAST (feat. Berwyn & A. K. Paul) / 11:55AM/THIS WORLD (feat. Infinite Coles & Maria Somerville) / 11:59AM CIRCLES (Outro) (feat. Penny Rimbaud)

Label Review.

2020 release. Recorded live in 2017 at the JFK Center in Washington DC. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Formed in the summer of 1995 at Washington D.C.'s Eighteenth Street Lounge, Rob Garza and Lounge co-owner Eric Hilton were drawn together over their mutual love of club life, as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records and together as Thievery Corporation, have thrived for 20 years without a radio hit, a big budget video, or major label backing? Moreover, have managed to do high-profile TV appearances, own and operate their own independent label since day one, sell several million albums and continue to expand their fan base across the globe each year. On 2017 Thievery Corporation played a historic concert at The JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The show saw their songs re-imagined with orchestral arrangements from some of today’s leading young classical composers.

The show is now legendary, and those fortunate to attend heard Thievery Corporation in an entirely new way. To honour this show and inspiration it provided, Hilton and Garza have created ‘Symphonik’ - recorded with Prague’s FilmHarmonic Orchestra along with Thievery Corporation’s live band and engineering and co-production by Gianmaria Conti.

Thievery Corporation have collaborated with such uniquely famed artists David Byrne, Perry Farrell, The Flaming Lips, Anushka Shankar, Femi Kuti, Seu Jorge, Bebel Gilberto, and been featured on major film soundtracks such as Garden State. They’ve headlined top music festivals, such as Coachella and Lollapalooza, and have influenced a whole generation of electronic producers and DJs. If you add these elements together, you can arrive at only one conclusion: Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, aka: Thievery Corporation.

Tracklisting: Heavens Gonna Burn Your Eyes / Love Has No Heart / Ghetto Matrix / Passing Stars / Until The Morning / Depth Of My Soul / Sweet Tides / Lebanese Blonde / Weapons Of Distraction / The Forgotten People / Marching The Hate Machines

Label Review.

2020 album. Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) and Australian composer Anthony Pateras. Also avavailbel on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘necroscape’ is the sophomore release from the bi-continental outfit formed by Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) and Australian composer Anthony Pateras. ‘necroscape’ synthesizes a lot of territory: odd-time rock, musique concrète, otherworld grooves, soul, industrial noise, microtonal psychoacoustics… seemingly strange bedfellows on paper, yet in the ears they surprisingly coalesce into 13 songs which playfully challenge our notions of sonic logic and make you move at the same time.

Five years in the making, ‘necroscape’ mushroomed organically from Pateras’ production based on tape loops, analogue synthesis and rarified keyboard instruments in combination with Patton’s dense vocal arrangements, Erkki Veltheim’s exploratory violins and drummer Will Guthrie’s unique percussive strategies. The result is a handmade, kaleidoscopic tour-de-force which re-imagines songwriting as something other.

Pateras and Patton "created an intelligent but ferocious mixture of avant-garde experimentalism, world music accents, and heavy metal velocity" (All Music) within the confines of their 11-track, 2014 debut, "Geocidal". NME described the collection as "Roni Size getting spiked with GHB and fed through a woodchipper" while Alternative Press said, "once you are acclimated, it will leave you tingling." The pair, joined by Will Guthrie (percussion) and Erkka Veltheim (violin), both of whom appear on "Necroscape" as well, made their live debut, fittingly at the Tasmania Mona music and art festival. The Guardian said of the outing: "TĒTĒMA didn't enrapture with anthems or token festival rock gestures, they enraptured with mood, with surprises, and with evocations rarely felt by audiences…"

Packaging features noted artist Talitha Kennedy’s sculpture work, packaged in super gloss digipak (CD) and embossed extra glossy gatefold sleeve (white vinyl).

The track ‘Funerale’ is a cover of the Ennio Morricone classic.

Tracklisting: Necroscape / Cutlass Eye / Wait Till Mornin' / Haunted On The Uptake / All Signs Uncensored / Milked Out Million / Soliloquy / Flatliner's Owl / Dead Still / Invertebrate / We'll Talk Inside A / Dream / Sun Undone / Funerale Di Un Contadino

Label Review. 

2020 album. Americana. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

As our culture grows increasingly isolated and selfish, Seattle-based roots group Western Centuries believes that the way forward is better together. ‘Call the Captain’, the band’s third full-length record, is a cosmic, genre melding testament to the power of collaboration and humility. Mutual admiration are what Cahalen Morrison, Ethan Lawton, and Jim Miller cite as the heart of their project. Western Centuries celebrates their third album as a “band’s band” (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the band’s lack of hierarchy). Unsurprisingly for such an egalitarian outfit, the collection offers harsh criticism of dogmatic belief systems, all while leading by example with a unique, genre-defying sound.

Teaming up again with Band of Horses veteran and GRAMMY-nominated producer Bill Reynolds, ‘Call the Captain’ is rife with topical songwriting, deftly woven into a crazy quilt of country, rock & roll, and classic R&B sounds. ‘Call the Captain’s’ twelve tracks delve into issues contemporary and timeless, be it the arrogance of the powerful, the search for purpose, or the ever-sorrowful pain of lost love. The band’s three songwriters (Ethan Lawton, Jim Miller, and Cahalen Morrison) question dogmatic authority and institutional thought throughout, with both an earnest, introspective approach as well as brilliantly executed humour and satire.

Similarly, the band’s kaleidoscopic sonic choices make it nigh on impossible to pigeonhole the group, adding a subtle undercurrent of subversion to the country music establishment. The core makeup of the band (Lawton, Miller, Morrison, Nokosee Fields, and Thomas Bryan Eaton) are embellished with special guests along the way, including Americana legend Jim Lauderdale and former Stray Birds fiddler Oliver Bates Craven. Western Centuries will have you questioning your deepest assumptions, but don’t be fooled: with ‘Call the Captain’, you’ll have a damn good time doing it.

Tracklistng: Lifeblood Sold / Every Time It’s Raining / Barcelona Lighthouse / Heart Broke Syndrome / No Cure / All The Things That I Could Say To You Right Now / The Sentinel / Long Dreadful Journey / Dynamite Kid / Space Force / Sarah And Charlie / Before That Final Bell

Label Review.

2020 album.

Our Overview.

Maya Rae has been described by CBC as “One of Canada’s Top 35 Jazz Artists Under 35…a supremely gifted artist who is able to phrase like Sarah Vaughan but write a lyric like Joni Mitchell." Poised at the crossroads between innocence and experience, Maya Rae’s voice communicates with an immediacy and commitment that most artists never attain. In an age when so much music feels overproduced and lacking in genuine emotion, Maya’s songs come like a breath of fresh air. Vital, committed and uplifting, the upcoming sophomore release from Maya Rae, ‘Can You See Me?’ is the real deal.

With a group that included Kai Welch, (keyboards/trumpet) Jamie Dick (drums), John Estes (bass) as well as The Birds Of Chicago on supporting vocals and Dawson on guitars, Canadian Maya Rae dove right into five days of intense recording and ‘Can You See Me?’ is the result. With only one vocal retake in the whole session, the group recorded live off the floor.

Maya and her brother, Gabriel, started writing songs together in the summer of 2018. Inspired by classic singers like Carole King and Nina Simone, iconic performers such as The Beatles and Joni Mitchell as well as modern-day artists like Ed Sheeran and Adele, Maya felt ready to record an album of original material. That’s where veteran roots musician and producer, Steve Dawson came in. On the strength of the demo she sent him, Dawson invited Maya to come to Nashville, saying that he had time to record the very next week. She flew down a few days later and almost immediately found herself at Black Hen Studio, surrounded by some of the hottest young musicians in Nashville with whom Steve had gathered to collaborate with Maya on the new material.

In Maya’s words, ‘Can You See Me?’ became a tribute to human cooperation and the merging of artistic visions with all the contributions from the musicians coming together. But, as good as the music supporting Maya is, her voice and songs are always the central focus. Melodically challenging, lyrically compelling and beautifully phrased, Maya’s songs reflect on experiences with an insight one would usually expect from a much more seasoned performer. “All of the songs are relevant to my own life. The title track, ‘Can You See Me?’ is about choosing to remove the masks we wear to reveal our true selves.

Confident and vulnerable, soulful and revealing, the songs on her new album are as impressive as you will hear anywhere. Produced by veteran roots musician and multiple Juno Award winner Steve Dawson, Can You See Me? takes the listener on a journey through the soul of a deeply talented young artist.

Tracklistng: Can You See Me? / I Get By / The Sun Will Come Out Again / New For Me / Picture Frame / Storm Leaf / Freedom Fighter / Mountain Angel / Moon Girl / Lonely Ones / Goodnight River

Label Review.

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also avavailble on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

With recurring themes of isolation, weariness and longing, the songs on Michigan based indie pop/folk musician Anna Burch’s new album ‘If You’re Dreaming’, deliver that emotional arc with a delicate but uncompromising execution. Anna’s intrinsically catchy songwriting dials down the urgency of her debut a notch, taking a turn towards airy, jazz-voiced chords, floating reverb and an expansion of the sonic palate with unexpected instrumentation. The soft-rock bass grooves and understated saxophone lines of ‘Not So Bad’ push an impressive pop structure into exciting new territory and the sweetly melancholic “Tell Me What’s True” centres around muted electric piano, its languid but metered vibe recalling the gentler side of Carole King.

The nuance of arrangements that could sometimes get buried on debut ‘Quit The Curse’ rises to the surface on patient, opulent tunes like ‘Every Feeling’ and in the twelve-string guitar hooks of ‘Party’s Over’. The album drifts dreamily as much as it hones in with a sharper clarity on some of Burch’s most personal songs.

Even at its most introverted, ‘If You’re Dreaming’ is always warm and present. It’s a deliberately drawn chapter of Burch’s work, trading in the wild-eyed and sometimes neurotic party hopping of ‘Quit The Curse’ for a more solitary walk after midnight. Daring and clearheaded, these songs cut deeper in their subtleties. ‘If You’re Dreaming’ moves with intention, taking its time revealing new layers of sophistication and growth in Burch’s always charming songcraft.

‘If You’re Dreaming’ was tracked with producer Sam Evian in his home studio in the Catskill mountains of upstate New York. Where the first album had been a rush of inspired songwriting followed by a drawn-out process of arrangement and mixing, Burch and Evian worked with self-imposed time limitations to establish a sharper focus and get to the core of the new songs. The work was swift but somehow more relaxed, locking into a groove of tracking the basic elements and then expanding on the arrangements with overdubs and auxiliary instrumentation. The end goal was to present not just an assortment of new songs but craft an album that moved dynamically through an interconnected emotional arc.

Initial LP pressing on purple vinyl with digital download code in spot varnish sleeve.

Tracklisting: Can't Sleep / Party's Over / Jacket / So I Can See / Ask Me To / Keep It Warm / Go It Alone / Tell Me What's True / Not So Bad / Picture Show / Every Feeling / Here With You

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Ren Harvieu has come a long way from the 17-year-old who was signed to Island Records and release her debut album ‘Through The Night’ (2012), and who had no intention of becoming a singer-songwriter. And now the British singer-songwriter announces her long-awaited new album ‘Revel In The Drama’, via Bella Union. The album is a brilliant, bolder and broader take on her timeless pop classicism, a compelling diary of a struggle with self-belief and a celebration of liberation and survival, seven years after her Top 5 debut album and having overcome a life-threatening injury. Think of ‘Revel In The Drama’ as Harvieu’s second debut album; a new beginning.

Harvieu’s defiance against the odds and her willingness to lay herself open to make what she believed was within her is baked into every groove of the record, across every stylistic turn: the giddy pop of ‘Strange Thing’, the gothic swoon of ‘Cruel Disguise’, the smoky seductiveness of ‘Yes Please’ through to the stirring torchsong finale ‘My Body She Is Alive’.

It wasn’t until 2015 to be exact, when she met Romeo Stodart, the Magic Numbers frontman and songwriter who had emailed after seeing her perform on Later… With Jools Holland, to ask if she’d consider writing together. “When we started, the energy was immediately different to anyone I’d worked with before, there was this insane instant musical connection” she says. “I loved that Romeo really embraced who I was and encouraged it, I was starting to realise that I didn’t have to be anything other than myself.”

The pair spent the next two years co-writing: “I wasn’t in a massive hurry, because at last I was having fun” Harvieu says. “We’d stay up all night drinking, dancing and playing music, I felt like I was re-discovering a girl who had been hidden, quietened. I’d tell Romeo, I don’t just want to paint pretty pictures I want to revel in the drama of my life, the good and the bad, before I was afraid to say something in my lyrics, but no longer. I felt free.”

The album was co-produced by Romeo Stodart and Dave Izumi Lynch, owner of Echo Zoo studio in Eastbourne where recording took place. “It was a truly magical experience working with Dave & Romeo, they are two absolute nurturing musical wizards.” says Harvieu.

Harvieu’s lyrical confidence is evident throughout the album and has you leaning in to absorb line after line. Her voice, soaring and caressing in equal measure, is matched in force by her flirtatious personality. From the album’s opening lyric “Let me put my paws on you, strange thing” through to the feminine bite of ‘Curves And Swerves’ - “I’ve got some curves and some swerves, what you gonna do about it?” which crackles with sexual tension and an aching vulnerability.

Tracklisting: Strange Thing / Teenage Mascara / This Is How You Make Me Feel / Curves And Swerves / Cruel Disguise / Yes Please / Spirit Me Away / This Is Our Love / You Don’t Need Me / Tomorrow’s Girl Today / Little Raven / My Body She Is Alive

Label Review. 

1982 album with 3 bonus tracks. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Recorded in 1982, not long after she moved to Paris, ‘Fodder On My Wings’ was one of Nina Simone’s personal favourites of her own albums and yet has remained one of her most obscure. Originally recorded for a small French label and only sporadically available since its initial release. The album is one of Simone’s most introspective and personal works, with songs about her father’s death and her (not always pleasant) stay in Liberia, Trinidad and Switzerland.

‘Fodder On My Wings’ also features similarly personal and autobiographical songs such as “I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them” and a searing lyrical improvisation about the death of her father, on a remake of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)”. Simone’s loneliness at the time of her Parisian stay exacerbated her mental illness, and her family life was fractured. From her despair, the near-title track “Fodder On Her Wings” was forged.

Pitchfork, in their analysis of Simone’s most memorable work, said that the song “Fodder On Her Wings” “captured with startling intimacy the pain of this period, and she returned to it frequently through the next decade, cutting another studio version three years later (the synth-heavy take on ‘Nina’s Back!’) and including it on several live albums, including an awe-inspiring performance on 1987’s ‘Let It Be Me’. Simone’s vocal makes a song of weariness and defeat carry an air of defiance, a wise word from someone who survived to tell the tale.”

Tracklisting: I Sing Just to Know That I’m Alive / Fodder in Her Wings / Vous Etes Seuls, Mais Je Désire / Etre Avec Vous / Il Y a Un Baume À Gilead / Liberian Calypso / Alone Again Naturally / I Was Just a Stupid Dog to Them / Color Is a Beautiful Thing / Le Peuple En Suisse / Heaven Belongs to You / Thandewye / Stop / They Took My Hand

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Critically acclaimed Canadian indie rock mainstays Born Ruffians return with their new studio album, ‘Juice’, on Yep Roc Records filling our airwaves with their energy driven, wit-filled lyrics. Hailing from Midland, Ontario, Canada who formed in 2002. Since their debut, they have released five studio albums along with two EP's, and become one of the most exciting and intriguing bands on the famously fertile Canadian indie rock scene.

Born Ruffians—guitarist/vocalist Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier, and drummer Steve Hamelin—are proof that a group of friends with a tireless work ethic and fierce, grassroots commitment to their labour's integrity and vision can still go a long, long way. 15 years into their career, the trio isn't slowing instead, they're doubling down on those designations with ‘Juice’, their 6th full-length record. It's a hyper, earnest, and affecting collection of rock and roll songs, written and polished over a three-year span then sewn together into a cohesive and uniquely enjoyable experience. It's Born Ruffians as they've always been: on their own terms, heads against the wind until their work is done.

‘Juice’ finds the band moving into a more confident and polished direction, bringing to mind 1970s songwriting prowess with layered, and mature production sensibilities. The album was produced by Graham Walsh, known for his work with Alvvays, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), and Holy Fuck.

‘Juice’ is a testament to where Born Ruffians have come from, and a bold, pulpy mission statement for the future. However weird and overwhelming things get, Born Ruffians close out the record by reminding us that they're in this for the long haul, as Lalonde sings, "You see a light come shining from behind, reminding you that kid is always on your back."

Tracklisting: I Fall In Love Every Night / Breathe / Dedication / The Poet [can’t Jam] / I’m Fine / Hey You (Feat. Maddy Wilde) / Squeaky / Hazy Wave / Wavy Haze

Label Review. 

2020 album. Synth pop/hip hop. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

After more than five years, Canadian electronic music duo Purity Ring return to announce their third album. ‘WOMB’ - which is the follow-up to 2015’s ‘Another Eternity’- is released via 4AD and is entirely produced and recorded by the band of vocalist Megan James and multi-instrumentalist/producer Corin Roddick, the Edmonton native pair is known for blending electro-pop, synth-pop, and hip-hop with rather gory song lyrics.

‘WOMB’ chronicles a quest for comfort, the search for a resting place in a world where so much is beyond our control. The striking vulnerability of ‘rubyinsides’ - “If I could, I would let you see through me” - charts a course that’s both intensely personal and deeply connected to those close to us, our kin whether by nature or nurture.

As the ground shifts beneath their feet, ‘WOMB’’s characters help one another face death, despair andworld-altering discovery with resilience and grace. For all the terrain it encompasses, ‘WOMB’’s quest culminates in ‘stardew’, a glittering, transcendent invitation to “just be where you are” - to experience the kind of powerful peace that can only be found by truly coming home.

‘WOMB’ follows Purity Ring’s 2012 internationally acclaimed and highly influential debut ‘Shrines’ and 2015’s ‘another eternity’. On ‘another eternity’, The New York Times praised the songs as “only a few steps removed from radio hits by singers like Ariana Grande and Ellie Goulding” while Rolling Stone called them “lustrous synth pop plus cavernous hip hop” and The New Yorker lauded the duo, stating that they “create electro-pop that is as warm and human as it is cold and alien, an intoxicating combination that feels boldly futuristic.”

On their own prior headlining tours, the duo accompanied their live set with a dazzling sequence of pulsating lights. The pair have also teamed up together to strike a series of crystal shapes that rested upon tall poles to generate sounds during the show. Incorporating these mesmerising lights and sounds into their show is part of Purity Ring’s mystique.

Tracklisting: rubyinsides / pink lightning / peacefall / i like the devil / femia / sinew / vehemence / silkspun / almanac / stardew

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD, Picture Disc and Pink Vinyl.

Our Overview. 

Thundercat is the stage and recording name of esteemed American R&B, jazz fusion, electronic, and psychedelic, bass player Stephen Bruner, hailing from Los Angeles, California, U.S. and now the artist drops his new album on Brainfeeder Records ‘It Is What It Is’, a unique voice transcending style and genre: “This album is about love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that,” says Thundercat.

Bruner grew up in a creative and musical family, with his father Ronald Bruner Sr., an established drummer known for his work with Diana Ross and the Temptations, and his brother Ronald Jr. known as a Grammy-winning drummer, who has worked with the likes of Kenny Garrett and Stanley Clarke. Bruner’s earliest musical excursion was in the boyband No Curfew before joining his brother as a member of the L.A. metal band Suicidal Tendencies.

Thundercat’s new LP ‘It Is What It Is’ picks up where his last full-length, 2017’s ‘Drunk’, left off. Like that record It Is What It Is intersperses more fully-formed tracks with scene-setting vignettes.

A quick glance at the tracklisting shows several of the entries here clock in at under two minutes, but this does not reflect a paucity of ideas. Rather, the shorter interludes add light and shade to Thundercat’s already colourful combination of neo-soul, fusion-funk and R ‘n’ B - for instance, the spiritualised cooing of ‘How I Feel’ sets the scene perfectly for the astral yacht-rock jam ‘King Of The Hill’ that follows it.

As is often the case on Thundercat albums, a variety of guest stars appear on 'It Is What It Is'. It’s an intriguing mix of talents here, one that simultaneously expands and refines the album’s sonic universe. The likes of Steve Lacy and Childish Gambino are easy bedfellows for Thundercat’s sound, and along with Steve Arrington they help to construct one of the record’s poppiest joints in ‘Black Qualls’. However, the meeting of Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B on the ultra-smooth ‘Fair Chance’ is delightfully unexpected. KNOWER’s Louis Cole and rap prankster Zack Fox are the other features on It Is What It Is.Thundercat’s ‘It Is What It Is’ is both another soulful triumph for the artist and also the sort of record that only he could make.

CD in softpack.

Deluxe 140g picture disc LP housed in a 6mm spined gatefold sleeve with gold foil detail and OBI strip. Includes digital download code.

Deluxe 140g pink clear vinyl LP housed in a 6mm spined gatefold sleeve with gold foil detail and OBI strip. Includes digital download code.

Red 140g vinyl LP housed in a 3mm spined sleeve with OBI strip. Includes digital download code.

Thundercat will play his biggest UK shows to date in April.

Tracklisting: Lost In Space / Great Scott / 22-26 / Innerstellar Love / I Love Louis Cole (feat. Louis Cole) / Black Qualls (feat. Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, & Childish Gambino) / Miguel's Happy Dance / How Sway / Funny Thing Overseas (feat. Zack Fox) / Dragonball Durag / How I Feel / King Of The Hill / Unrequited Love / Fair Chance (feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Lil B) / Existential Dread / It Is What It Is (feat. Pedro Martins)

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Migration Stories’ is a spare and spacious 11-song album. It’s written, says M.Ward - a Souther California based prolific singer-songwriter writer, producer and performer - from the point of view of people living their day-to-day amidst political chaos, relying on faith and hope to keep going to try and find better lives. Ever since early human history, people have migrated, immigrated and emigrated. So, Ward thought, he should tell some of their stories. And he does so in his signature restrained, hypnotic style.  “I love concise, short songs,” Ward says, citing The Beatles and The Minute Men as examples. “I’m inspired by songwriters that are able to say a lot with as little as possible.”

M. Ward’s music has always felt intricate, intimate and other worldly. With ‘Migration Stories’ he breathes beautiful life into vignettes of human flight, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy as it reckons with a world that feels more divided than ever before, even as its inhabitants grow more inextricably linked by the day.

For Ward, who wrote much of his new album amidst the contemporary torrent of terrible news headlines swirling the country of late, his processing involves music, often used as a filter. “The first thing that inspired the record were the articles that I’ve been reading in the newspaper and hearing about from friends when I travel,” he says. “It’s the story that’s impossible to ignore right now. The music comes out in a way that, to me, sounds like my brain is still processing the injustices I’m reading about.”

M. Ward has established himself as one of modern American music’s most unique and versatile voices. For his tenth album he journeyed to Quebec, Canada to work with Arcade Fire’s Tim Kingsbury, Richard Reed Parry, producer/mixer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Florence and the Machine) and Teddy Impakt who opened up a new world of synthesisers and keyboards for the music.

Tracklisting: Migration Of Souls / Heaven’s Nail And Hammer / Coyote Mary’s Traveling Show / Independent Man / Stevens’ Snow Man / Unreal City / Real Silence / Along The Santa Fe Trail / Chamber Music / Torch / Rio Drone

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Nashville, Tennessee-based singer-songwriter, Lilly Hiatt felt lost. She’d just returned home from the better part of a year on tour in support of her acclaimed third album ‘Trinity Lane’ and, stripped of the daily rituals and direction of life on the road, she found herself alone with her thoughts for the first time in what felt like ages.

So Lilly - daughter of legendary songwriter John Hiatt - did what’s always come most natural to her in times of questioning and uncertainty: she picked up a guitar. Over the course of the ensuing winter, she wrote a mountain of new music that grappled with her sense of self and place in the world, reckoning with issues that had been bubbling beneath the surface of her subconscious in some cases for years.

The result is ‘Walking Proof’, Hiatt’s fourth and most probing collection to date. Produced by former Cage the Elephant guitarist Lincoln Parish, the record walks the line between Hiatt’s rough, rock and roll exterior and her tender, country roots, exuding a bold vulnerability as she takes a deep and unflinching look in the mirror. What emerges is a newfound maturity in Hiatt’s writing, an abiding sense of calm in the face of chaos as she learns that sometimes, you have to let go in order to get what you want most. By the time she headed into Parish’s Nashville studio in May, Hiatt had piled up more than twenty-five new songs and, with the producer’s help, she pared it down to a tight and cohesive eleven.

After capturing the core performances live with her band over the course of roughly a week, Hiatt devoted the early part of the summer to finishing touches, which included contributions from friends like Amanda Shires and Aaron Lee Tasjan along with a guest appearance from her father, John Hiatt, who joins his daughter on record for the first time here.

Lilly Hiatt’s not feeling so lost these days and, with ‘Walking Proof’, she’s crafted a roadmap to share with the rest of us.

Tracklisting: Rae / P-Town / Little Believer / Some Kind of Drug / Candy Lunch / Walking Proof / Drawl / Brightest Star / Never Play Guitar / Move / Scream

Label Review. 

2020 album. Drum & Bass also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

UK based drum & bass, hip-hop and R&B producer/emcee Degs’ hit single ‘Poveglia’ and 8-track ‘Mixtape Sprayout’ has made him a drum & bass fan favourite, now he takes centre-stage to unveil his highly anticipated debut album, ‘Letters From Ndgewa’.

As well as producing, writing and singing on his tracks, Degs has brought in an all-star collective with S.P.Y, Logistics, Unglued, LSB and Pola & Bryson. His unmistakable charisma is injected across 14 tracks, including his previous singles ‘Levitate Your Mind’ (ft Unglued) and ‘Killer’. ‘Sleepless’ showcases Degs’ versatility as a vocalist. This deep, atmospheric number, produced by Shogun Audio’s Pola & Bryson, wields the art of spoken word and unique lyrical flowfor a mesmerising late-night stepper. Degs’ bittersweet soul shines through on ‘Head Trip’ with the production finesse of Phil:osophy. Haunting piano work serves as the foundation for Degs’ silky flows, tear-out rap and snappy hooks. Hospital heavyweight Logistics, a master of liquid D+B, joins the fray on ‘Colour My Soul’ for a sublime track that takes you back to the original Hospitalloungecore sound. Degs’ meteoric rise has taken him worldwide, performing alongside his touring DJ, Lens, at huge summer hotspots like Audioriver, Sun & Bass and Hospitality In The Park.

He continues to shine when hosting for some of D+B’s biggest names - London Elektricity, Hybrid Minds, Danny Byrd - and has already received support from BBC Radio 1’s Rene LaVice, Kiss FM’s Andi Durrant, Charlie Tee and Mollie Collins, and Worldwide FM’s Laurent Garnier.“ 

‘Letters From Ndegwa’ is a culmination of life experiences and thoughts since signing with the Hospital family back in 2018. For me, it represents the unpredictable nature of life. I’ve been blessed to work with some of my heroes on this project and having my little brother feature on this is the icing on the cake, he was the catalyst to all of this happening in the first place.” - Degs

LP 1: “Driving Under Lights” / “Sleepless Feat. Pola & Bryson” / “Levitate Your Mind Feat. Unglued” / “4 Days” / “Head Trip Feat. Phil:osophy” / “Trade Places Feat. Lsb & Phoebe Freya” / “Colour My Soul Feat. Logistics”

LP 2: “K Soul Interlude Feat. Muriuki” / “Killer” / “Do Not Pass Go Feat. Unglued & Javeon” / “She Feat. S.P.Y” / “The Roots Feat. Missing” / “Crusade Feat. In:most” / “Pamoja Forever”

Label Review.

2020 album. Blues. Ruf Records.

Our Overview.

Enough manufactured pop princesses. The 26 year old, Croatian born, Vanja Sky is the real deal: a fire voiced blues-rock gunslinger, armed with a troublemaking new album of modern classics. Building on the momentum, ‘Woman Named Trouble’ debuts eight original songs penned by Sky with guitarist Robert Wendt, plus three classic covers - and a fistful of attitude.

We’ve already seen the Croatian-born bandleader blow up Ruf’s 2018 Blues Caravan with songs from that year’s acclaimed ‘Bad Penny’ album. Now, Sky returns with a hard-rocking second release that dares you to be her partnerin- crime. “If you asked people close to me,” she says, with a mischievous grin, “they’d say ‘Woman Named Trouble’ is describing me.”

For heavy riffage, try opener “Rock ‘N’ Rolla Train”, complete with a bee-in-abottle lick worthy of Angus Young’s playbook, and “Turn It On”, whose vicious intro breaks into a seductive vocal. But Sky and Wendt’s songcraft goes far beyond blues-rock. Myriad genres are explored here, from the gorgeous Stonesy country-blues chime of “Hard Times”, to “What’s Going On’s” leap into trilling folk, and the mesmerising bass-led funk of “Troublemaker”. Elsewhere, there’s the stormy “Voodoo Mama” and the heartache of “Call Me If You Need Me”, while the rockabilly rave-up of “Let’s Go Wild” will make you do precisely that.

Still just 26, Vanja Sky’s early career has been just as wild. From dive bars and dead-ends to headline tours and supports with the mighty UFO, the highlights since 2017 would make that young Croatian gunslinger pinch herself. Now, ‘Woman Named Trouble’ leaves no doubt there’s plenty more trouble to come. “Besides being tons of fun to make,” she reflects, “I think we did a great job with the music. I’m very proud of this album...”

Tracklisting: Rock ‘n’ Rolla Train / Hard Times / Turn It On / Life Is A Bitch / Trouble Maker / What’s Going On / Call Me If You Need Me / Let’s Get Wild / Oh Well / Voodoo Mama / Shadow Play

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on standard CD and Clear Coke Bottle Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Canadian indie rock band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nap Eyes’ latest full length, ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’, is proof that sometimes the late bloomers bloom brightest. It took Nap Eyes a long time and a long practice to reach this artistic zen, but one gets the feeling throughout 'Snapshot of a Beginner' that this balance is going to hold. Eight years and four albums into it, the artistic arc of Nap Eyes finds itself tracing a line alongside frontman Nigel Chapman’s daily tai chi practice. Those first years and albums are the cold mornings in the park: the measured movements, the joint aches, the self-doubt. With each new release, an incremental and invigorating step forward. And with the end of each album and tour, a return to the beginner’s practice. And now, ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ - Nap Eyes’ boldest, most concentrated and most hi-fi album to date - a study of that repeated return and all that it can teach you.

Almost all the songs of Nap Eyes are whittled into their final form from Chapman’s unspooling, 20-minute voice-and-guitar free-writing sessions. Each member - drummer Seamus Dalton, bassist Josh Salter or guitarist Brad Loughead - then plays a crucial role in song development, composing around the idiosyncratic structures and directing the overall sound and feel of the songs. Until now, that final song construction and recording has been mostly done live in a room. But for ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ the band went to The National’s neuvo-legendary upstate NY Long Pond Studio, working with producers Jonathan Low (Big Red Machine, The National) and James Elkington (Steve Gunn, Joan Shelley), the latter of whom also did pre-production arrangement work with the band.

It took Nap Eyes a long time and a long practice to reach this artistic zen but one gets the feeling throughout ‘Snapshot Of A Beginner’ that this balance is going to hold.Previous album ‘I’m Bad Now’ was described by Uncut as “as much a modest masterpiece as ‘Spring Hill Fair’ [by The Go-Betweens] or ‘Tigermilk’ [by Belle and Sebastian].”

Available on CD, ‘Coke Bottle clear’ coloured vinyl and black vinyl LP.

Tracklisting: So Tired / Primordial Soup / Even Though I Can’t / Read Your Mind / Mark Zuckerberg / Mystery Calling / Fool Thinking Ways / If You Were In Prison / Real Thoughts / Dark Link / When I Struck Out On My / Own / Though I Wish I Could

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

“Stevens remains at the height of his powers - capable of work as individual, compassionate and powerful as any American composer working today.” - The Washington Post commented on ‘Aphoria’ the new album from New York based singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and his step-father and record label co-owner, Lowell Brams.

The 21 songs on ‘Aporia’ are tightly crafted, resonating with a gem-like intensity, in the spirit of the New Age composers who sanded off the edges of their synths’ sawtooth waves, ‘Aporia’ approximates a rich soundtrack from an imagined sci-fi epic brimming with moody, hooky, gauzy synthesiser soundscapes.

The album may suggest the progeny of a John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos and Mike Oldfield marriage but it stands apart from these touchstones and generates a meditative universe all its own. This is no mere curio in the Sufjan Stevens catalogue but a fully realised collaborative musical piece.

“Sufjan Stevens is one of the most prolific and absolutely gifted American songwriters of the 21st century.” - NPR

Available on CD, first-run yellow coloured vinyl and cassette.

Tracklisting: Ousia / What It Takes / Disinheritance / Agathon / Determined Outcome / Misology / Afterworld Alliance / Palinodes / Backhanded Cloud / Glorious You / For Raymond Scott / Matronymic / The Red Desert / Conciliation / Ataraxia / The Unlimited / The Runaround / Climb That Mountain / Captain Praxis / Eudaimonia / The Lydian Ring

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Little Dragon - the pioneering Swedish four-piece fronted by enigmatic vocalist Yukimi Nagano, with multi-instrumentalists H.kan Wirenstarnd and Fredrik Wallin on keyboards and bass respectively and Erik Bodin on drums and percussion - return with their sixth studio album, ‘New Me, Same Us’, their first album release since signing with Ninja Tune.

Entirely self-produced and recorded at their long-time studio base in Gothenburg, the album represents another chapter in the continuing evolution of Little Dragon, finding new direction in their unique style of unhurried, off-kilter r’n’b, pop and electronics, they sound as rejuvenated and energised as ever.

The album is accompanied by the release of a photographic book by David Uzochukwu (has worked with FKA Twigs, Pharrell and Ibeyi) called ‘Yerba Mates’. Shot during their latest US tour, David captures his journey with the guys in a surrealistic style. Release date around album release.

This year Little Dragon play a huge run of headline shows in March/April 2020. A 32- date tour across the UK, EU and North America that will see the band playing in front of over 40K fans, including the Hollywood Palladium (5K) and London’s O2 Brixton Academy (5K). The band has previously remixed the likes of Rhye and Childish Gambino. Additionally, artists such as NAO, Lianne La Havas, Nick Mulvey and Rosie Lowe all have covered Little Dragon. ‘Tried’, their recent collaboration with BADBADNOTGOOD, received great support from the likes of Pitchfork, The FADER,NPR and Annie Mac. Yukimi has previously lent her trademark vocals to Gorillaz, Flume, SBTRKT, Kaytranada, Christian Rich, De La Soul, DJ Shadow, Tinashe, Mac Miller, Big Boi, Faith Evans and ODESZA.GRAMMY nominated for 2014’s ‘Nabuma Rubberband’, Little Dragon have long been seen as one of the most sought-after groups to work with.

CD in gatefold sleeve with gloss finish. LP in gatefold sleeve, 140g black vinyl in black paper inner and 12” lyric booklet plus product sticker in silver foil embossed back cover.

Tracklisting: Hold On / Rush / Another Lover / Kids / Every Rain / New Fiction / Sadness / Are You Feeling Sad? / Where You Belong / Stay Right Here / Water

Label Review.

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

American bluegrass singer-songwriter, mandolinist, and guitarist Sierra Hull’s ‘25 Trips’ further establishes her as a powerhouse instrumentalist, vocalist, and esteemed song-writer. It’s a genre-transcending album emerging from the world of folk-pop, bluegrass, and acoustic music. This 13 song album is a testament to Hull’s virtuosic prowess, and showcases her as the singular talent that she is.

Those familiar with Hull’s bluegrass history might initially hear the never-before-included elements on this record – namely drums, electric guitar, and electric mandolin – as mildly out-of-place. However, as sonic symbols for the flow of time, personal growth, and a sense of openness fostered from the former, these new instrumental additions merely provide a welcoming opportunity to witness the continuing transformation of Hull’s perspective as a person and musician when reflecting on her past, present, and future.

“When I started digging through songs for the record, they seemed to tell a story in a way, that led to being able to put this particular group of songs together – both in terms of, yes, musical approach but also whether it be the story of being kind of open minded as a musician and being able to take multiple approaches to recording something,” says Hull.

’25 Trips’ shows that what music looks and sounds like for Sierra Hull from here on, is only limited by her own sense of adventure. Listeners new and old can take heart that no matter what, she certainly seems to be at peace with trusting herself to figure things out as they come.

Produced by Shani Ghandi (Parker Millsap) and featuring guest appearances by the estimable talents of Katie Pruitt, Mindy Smith, Angel Snow and Molly Tuttle, ‘25 Trips’ is offering up some of Hull’s best collaborations to date.

Tracklisting: Beautifully Out Of Place / Middle Of The Woods / How Long / 25 Trips / Ceiling To The Floor / The Last Minute / Escape / Poison / Waiting / Everybody’s Talking / Envy / Less / Father Time

Label Review. 

2020 album. Members of I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and R.E.M. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview. 

The No Ones , a bi-continental collaboration featuring Scott McCaughey, Frode Str mstad, Peter Buck and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, is a band that stretches from the southwest of Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the USA, consisting of members from I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and R.E.M.

As this pedigree almost dictates, they wield Fender and Rickenbacker guitars, cutting, chiming and fuzzing their way through songs dealing with abduction, interstellar mysteries, witchcraft, and more mundane fare like climate change, gentrification, and the desolation of the soul. The vocal harmonies and psychedelic flourishes fuse the sunny turbulent sounds of the ‘60s with the darkness and decay of today.

LP Yellow Vinyl with Purple Splatter; bonus 45 featuring 2 new songs on Purple Vinyl with Yellow splatter.

Tracklisting:

LP 2: Apples / Slow Century

Label Review.

2020 album.

Our Overview.

Original member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention, Iain Matthews and his latest incarnation of Matthews Southern Comfort release their new album ‘The New Mine’, featuring 12 tracks, with which they continue their musical successful recipe: somewhere between traditional British folk-rock and Americana, strong songs, excellent playing and arrangements and perfect production all add up to make this a supremely enjoyable listen again.

Two years ago the country rock/folk rock musician Matthews Southern Comfort celebrated a much acclaimed musical comeback with their album ‘Like A Radio’. In a new and younger lineup, the album of the singer/songwriters was at the cutting edge - it sounded fresh, absolutely modern and innovative. The musical skills of the new MSC members, their engagement as well as their unbridled joy of playing were still unparalleled and the polyphonic flowing vocal harmonies evoked the original version of the band.

‘The New Mine’ features an extraordinary and remarkable version of Joni Mitchell’s “Ethiopia” from the “Dog Eat Dog” album, which the popular American singer and songwriter had released in 1985. Remember: Matthews Southern Comfort had their biggest chart success exactly 50 years ago with their million-selling version of Joni’s “Woodstock”. Maybe history is repeating itself!

Tracklisting: Ethiopia / The Hands Of Time / Feed It / Patty’s Poetry / Working In The New Mine / Starvation Box / C’mon Amigo / The Hole / A Secret Is Gone / The Sacrificial Cow / Inbetween / In My Next Life

Label Review.

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview.

Jennah Barry is one of Atlantic Canada’s surest sirens. Her music effortlessly moves between folk, country, and indie-rock, and places her at the forefront of women making music as strong as it is sentimental. Hailing from the coastal haven of Mahone Bay, NS, the 31-year-old has a knack for crafting true-to-life vignettes with a twist of honesty that smarts. She has also been careful to surround herself with a stable of collaborators who are consistently elevating her work to its instantly classic status. Her debut album, ‘Young Men’ (2012) showcased Jennah’s uncanny ability to write the world and sing it so assuredly to life and after a 8 year hiatus she is releasing her sophomore album ‘Holiday’.

On the south shore of Nova Scotia, in a house she helped build, Jennah Barry wrote, arranged, and recorded the songs that comprise Holiday,her second album. With Colin Nealis, her “greatest musical partner” and partner in life she made the album in 20- minute pockets, whenever their brand-new daughter would sleep, resulting in a piece of art that’s focused, delicate, of its own time while seemingly of one past.

The title is a hallmark of Barry’s trademark wit and the truth of that progress is found in the gentle mundanity of everyday spiked with big life events like vocal surgery, and a baby. The truth is, Barry simply needed the time. “I make Grand Canyons in my brain I can’t escape,” she says. “The only time I can write about it is when I find a way out. The whole record is about ruminating.”

You can hear the ruminating from the very beginning, starting with the rueful waltz “No Dancer, on which Barry sings, “He sure can move / but he’s no dancer” before a swell of backing singers adds “Board the door / for one more night.” It’s followed by the first single “Roller Disco,” steeped deep in nostalgia, strings, and gentle sadness, a lost AM radio hit. “Ever since I wrote that song I had a visceral idea of how I wanted the whole album to feel,” she says. “I wanted people to feel very far away, and lonely but okay with it.”

Touring UK for Focus Wales and The Great Escape with additional dates in London and more TBA. UK Tour, May 2020

Tracklisting: No Dancer / Roller Disco / The Real Moon / Big Universe / Are You Dreaming / Rocket / I See Morning / Pink Grey Blue / Stop The Train

Label Review. 

2020 album. Jazz vocalist. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Robin McKelle, the Paris based vocalist from New York, is setting and singing such new standards. With influences ranging from classic R&B to vocal pop to swing her ninth solo album ‘Alterations’ sees the 43-year-old interpreting favourites by those female songwriters, who inspired and moved her to become the “powerful and expressive alto voice” she is today (Blues & Soul). ‘Alterations’ makes for perhaps Robin McKelle’s most personal work speaks volumes about her abilities and her artistry. An album where the savvy Robin delves into the catalogue of some of the most celebrated women of song, interpreting these masterworks through the lens of the jazz idiom.  On Alterations, McKelle follows in a long tradition of female song interpreters, lending her sultry vocal stylings to classics by a diverse list of female innovators.

Robin‘s new album is her first album of cover songs featuring the work of artists like Sade, Lana Del Ray, Adele, Dolly Parton, Billie Holiday, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, or Janis Joplin. Pianist Shedrick Mitchell has helped her co-produce and arrange the album of which Robin says: “The energy and connection with the musicians was so powerful. They lifted me up and made it feel effortless. I’ve never felt so confident in the studio.” The songs were actually recorded live with the band.

Robin starts off the album with a slightly subdued, very soulful take on “Back To Black” by Amy Winehouse, complete with a fancy Latin backdrop and great organ playing by Shedrick. She is also backed by Richie Goods on bass and Charles Haynes on drums. Robin’s voice has taken on yet another quality improvement on this album, sounding exquisitely intense and secure and her version of “Rolling In The Deep” sounds much more urgent and compelling than the original. Nir Felder was asked in here to play some fierce guitar lines.

Tracklisting: Back To Black / Rolling In The Deep / Head High / Don’t Explain / Born To Die / Jolene / River / No Ordinary Love / Mercedes Benz / You’ve Got A Friend (Bonus Track)

Label Review.

2020 live album.

Our Overview.

American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Watermelon Slim is one of the most authentic bluesman in the world today. With an ever-expanding career of ramshackle grandeur, Bill “Watermelon Slim” Homans has built a remarkable reputation with his raw, impassioned intensity. HARP Magazine wrote “From sizzling slide guitar…to nitty-gritty harp blowing…to a gruff, resonating Okie twang, Slim delivers acutely personal workingman blues with both hands on the wheel of life, a bottle of hooch in his pocket, and the Bible on the passenger seat.” Paste Magazine writes “He’s one hell of a bottleneck guitarist, and he’s got that cry in his voice that only the greatest singers in the genre have had before him.”

Slim’s compelling live solo performance is captured on this brilliant double CD. Featuring Watermelon Slim on vocals, harmonica and electric slide guitar, and produced by Slim & Chris Hardwick, ‘Traveling Man’ is a stunning mix of original & classic blues tunes (including Fred McDowell’s “61 Highway Blues”, Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” and Muddy Waters’ “Two Trains Running”) covering topics both personal and political. ‘Traveling Man’  features Watermelon Slim at his finest — alone with his slide guitar and powerful rough-hewn vocals.

Watermelon Slim’s critically acclaimed previous release, 2019’s Church of the Blues, has just been nominated for two 2020 Blues Music Awards — “Album of the Year” and “Traditional Album of the Year.”  The Blues Music Awards will be announced in Memphis on Thursday, May 7, 2020. “A knowing observer of all those things that define the blues at its very essence, he provides a stirring reminder of what craft and credence can deliver when served up in sync.”  (Living Blues)

This is Watermelon Slim at his finest’ alone with his slide guitar and amazing vocals .‘Traveling Man’ is the ultimate in a Watermelon Slim live performance: a brilliant double CD featuring the best of two shows. Watermelon Slim is Mensa-smart and possesses the acute powers of observation that makes his songwriting so seductive. But whether he’s using a mini-bar bottle, one-inch socket or a seashell as a slide, his bottleneck and singing style set him apart in today’s roots & blues world.

Tracklisting:

CD 1: Blue Freightliner (Live) / Truck Driving Songs (Live) / Northern Blues (Live) / The Last Blues (Live) / Scalemaster Blues (Live) / 300 Miles (Live) / Jimmy Bell (Live) / 61 Highway Blues (Live) / Smokestack Lightning / Two Trains Running (Live) / Frisco Line (Live) / Holler #4 (Live)

CD 2: Let It Be In Memphis (Live) / Into The Sunset (Live) / John Henry (Live) / Archetypal Blues (Live) / Oklahoma Blues (Live) / Devil’s Cadillac (Live) / Dark Genius (Live)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Activity release their debut album ‘Unmask Whoever’ and they are an avant four-piece featuring Travis Johnson, and drummer Steve Levine, both from the band Grooms, bassist Zoë Browne from Field Mouse, and guitarist Jess Rees from Russian Baths. Produced by engineer Jeff Berner of Psychic TV, it forms a casually menacing framework for lyrical themes of paranoia, exposed character flaws, and the broader human capacity for growth when an ugly truth is laid bare.

Lead single “Calls Your Name,” establishes the record’s spectral aura with nauseated electronic bells, and a relentless Geoff Barrow-esque drum beat beneath a half-sung, half-spoken lyrics inspired by C.S. Lewis’s 1945 novel The Great Divorce. In the novel, characters stuck in a grey, joyless conception of hell repeatedly deny opportunities to be taken into heaven, instead making excuses as to why they should remain in their embittered purgatory states. Allegorically, this speaks to the kind of opportunity for metamorphosis and positive change that’s possible when the depths of disillusionment are reached, an idea which permeates much of the album. Despite recurrent aches of discontentment, each track glows with radiant waves of catharsis while elegantly evoking jubilation and anguish within the same breadth, showing that the two are always around the corner from one another.

Tracklisting: In Motion / Calls Your Name / Spring Low Life / Nude Prince / Looming / Earth Angel / The Heartbeats / I Like the Boys / Violent and Vivisect / Auto Sad

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

‘Saint Cloud’ is Katie Crutchfield’s, a.k.a.Waxahatchee’s fifth album and she spent much of 2018 asking “What do we hold on to from our past?”, and “What must we let go of to truly move forward?” She revisied her roots for answers and the result is ‘Saint Cloud’, an intimate journey through the places she’s been, filled with the people she’s loved.

Written immediately in the period following her decision to get sober, the album is an unflinching self-examination. This raw, exposed narrative terrain is aided by a shift in sonic arrangements as well. While her last two records featured the kind of big guitars, well-honed noise, and battering sounds that characterized her Philadelphia scene and strongly influenced a burgeoning new class of singer-songwriters, ‘Saint Cloud’ strips back those layers to create space for Crutchfield’s voice and lyrics.

The result is a classic Americana sound with modern touches befitting an artist who has emerged as one of the signature storytellers of her time. Many of the narratives on ‘Saint Cloud’ concern addiction and the havoc it wreaks on ourselves and our loved ones, as Crutchfield comes to a deeper understanding of love not only for those around her but for herself. This coalesces most clearly on the song “Fire,” which she says was literally written in transit, during a drive over the Mississippi River into West Memphis, and serves as a love song to herself, a paean to moving past shame into a place of unconditional self-acceptance.

Over the course of ‘Saint Cloud’, which was recorded the summer of 2019 and produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver), Crutchfield peels back the distortion of electric guitars to create a wider sonic palette than on any previous Waxahatchee album. It is a record filled with nods to classic country, folk-inspired tones, and distinctly modern touches. ‘Saint Cloud’ marks the beginning of a journey for Crutchfield, one that sees her leaving behind past vices and the comfortable environs of her Philadelphia scene to head south in search of something new. If on her previous work Crutchfield was out in the storm, she’s now firmly in the eye of it, taking stock of her past with a clear perspective and gathering the strength to carry onward.

Tracklisting: Oxbow / Can’t Do Much / Fire / Lilacs / The Eye / Hell.. / Witches / War / Arkadelphia / Ruby Falls / St. Cloud

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Manchester-based indie music stalwart Harry Stafford’s new album ‘Gothic Urban Blues’, is an album about the Metropolis, the naked city, the urban sprawl and the need to get back to the ripped back streets when you’re far away. If there are a million stories in the naked city, here are a few to keep you warm. Lead track “She Just Blew Me Away” is dedicated to Jim the singer, who would tell me stories of his love affairs. He would begin with. “I mean, she just blew me away”. And and how did it end? I would ask. “Ah well, she just blew me away,” says Harry Stafford.

Harry Stafford is best known as founder, guitarist and vocalist of post-punk gothic rockers Inca Babies. The band’s core includes drummer Rob Haynes (The Membranes, Inca Babies), trumpeter Kevin Davy (Lamb, Cymande), guitarist Andy Mills, and Vincent O’Brien on Weisseborn slide guitar. Formed in the early 1980s, Inca Babies released four albums and multiple singles and Peel sessions. Much of his musical career has been spent with Inca Babies, playing across Europe and the world but in 2015, after 35 years with Inca Babies, Stafford decided to release untamed solo material that echoes his love of blues piano and barroom ballads.

The new album ‘Gothic Urban Blues’ and debut solo album ‘Guitar Shaped Hammers’, released in 2017, are the inevitable result, reflecting a multitude of ideas around a driving yet lilting punk-piano blues. The idea was for Stafford to leave his noisy electric guitar behind - abandoning everything he held and cherished - to make some new music with a piano and a head full of ideas. The new album, features a more defined sound of a band finding its stride. The band is hereforth called Guitar Shaped Hammers to reflect this cohesion of musical unity - with more guitars from Vincent O’Brien, and an additional layered sonic blast from Nick Brown (The Membranes). With intense percussion from Rob Haynes and a truly masterful trumpet contribution from jazz supremo Kevin Davy, the result is very much the soundtrack of a basement radio station stumbling across a new genre they’ve tagged Gothic Urban Blues.

Tracklisting: She Just Blew Me Away / Cruel Set of Shades / Gothic Urban Blues / Painted Ocean / Infinite Dust / Black Rain / Sideways Shuffle / Disappearing / Man in a Bar / Into The Storm

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Cable Ties are releasing their second album ‘Far Enough’. They are a fierce, tense rock’n’roll trio and they take the three-minute punk burner and stretch it past breaking point to deliver smouldering feminist anthems. Post-punk and garage rock hammered together by a relentless rhythmic pulse. Jenny McKechnie channels her struggles into songs that resonate deeply, giving voice to feelings often buried in modern life. Shauna Boyle and Nick Brown are a rhythm section anchored in Stooges primitivism, relentlessly hammering out a bedrock for McKechnie’s guitar pyrotechnics and vocal wallop.

Three friends summoning a rhythmic tide to deliver anthems that turn latent anxieties into a rallying cry. The band has been committed to an inclusive feminist and political outlook since its inception in 2015, exploring issues of gendered violence, colonialism, and sexual assault. The band members are dedicated to their local community and independent networks, and to playing diverse and inclusive shows. They have toured Australia a number of times and have developed into a lean and efficient touring band who deliver powerful and meaningful shows.

Tracklisting: Hope / Tell Them Where to Go / Sandcastles / Lani / Not My Story / Self-Made Man / Anger’s Not Enough / Pillow

Label Review.

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Norwegian artist Kai Gundelach heads the project Gundelach. Synth, emotions, percolating anxiousness – all combine into the hazy iridescence, in which is demonstrated in ‘My Frail Body’. A paladin worth of grifting waves, it signals the unknown, as does the identifiable deference. Ambience, corporality and our connection to the natural world make up the defining themes of Gundelach’s sophomore LP, ‘My Frail Body’.

A calmer, more contemplative affair than 2018’s acclaimed Baltus, the record opens with an atmospheric collage built around a set of field recordings made by the artist last summer in the Dutch nature reserve of Het Twiske. There, surrounded by green meadows and dense, verdant forest, Gundelach had his first encounter with psychedelic mushrooms. “I was suddenly opened up to nature in a way I had never experienced before", he recalls.

As cliche as that sounds Kai was coming off a period of prolonged illness and the experience left a profound impression on him. Long after the haze had cleared he couldn’t shake his interest in how our bodies are deeply intertwined with our surroundings - that there are forces that we can yet explain that impact our lives and our bodies everyday “It really altered my perspective and ended up setting the conceptual framework for the entire album,”.

'My Frail Body' came together during an intense summer and fall touring and recording in Europe. At the time, Gundelach’s girlfriend was pregnant with the couple’s first child - a life event that has helped permeate the record with a new sense of clarity and direction. While his previous output has centred on the melancholy undercurrents of love and longing, the artist says he is now at a point where things feel more grounded. That was particularly true for “Stay in the Water”, Gundelach’s soft and humble homage to his newborn daughter, which took him only a few hours to write. The track features his signature falsetto vocals laid over gently levitating chords and the sound of chirping birds. “There was a sense of physicality on so many levels during this period, which I found incredibly inspiring”

“Norway’s Gundelach spins a tale of love, loss, and depression into a bright and tender piece of synth-pop that is nothing short of comforting.” - Nylon

Tracklisting: Forskjellige Steder / My Frail Body (Feat. Bendik Hk) / Rainstorm (I Worry ‘bout You Always) / Stay In The Water / Red / Moon Perfume / Bolder / Silver / Cynical Mind (Feat. Aurora) / Obuli

Label Review. 

2020 album. Double LP with 3 sides + 1 etched & 28 page booklet. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Seven years after ‘Lightning Bolt’ Pearl Jam are releasing their much-anticipated eleventh studio album, ‘Gigaton’. Produced by Josh Evans and Pearl Jam, ‘Gigaton’s cover features Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and marine biologist Paul Nicklen’s photo “Ice Waterfall.” Taken in Svalbard, Norway, this image features the Nordaustlandet ice cap gushing high volumes of meltwater..

“Making this record was a long journey,” explains guitarist Mike McCready. “It was emotionally dark and confusing at times, but also an exciting and experimental road map to musical redemption. Collaborating with my bandmates on Gigaton ultimately gave me greater love, awareness and knowledge of the need for human connection in these times.”

2020 also marks Pearl Jam’s 30th anniversary - formed in 1990 from the ashes of Mother Love Bone which featured guitarist Stone Gossard and bass player Jeff Ament. Before their completed debut album was released , lead singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose. The album was released anyway but the band broke up - however Gossard and Ament built a new band with lead guitarist Mike McCready and singer Eddie Vedder to form Pearl Jam. They caught the Grunge Rock wave and hit big with their debut album ‘Ten’ in 1992 and haven’t looked back since. Although they struggled with various drummers during the 1990s, Matt Cameron picked up the sticks in 1998 and their line-up has remained unchanged ever since.

Tracklisting: Who Ever Said / Superblood Wolfmoon / Dance Of The Clairvoyants / Quick Escape / Alright / Seven O’Clock / Never Destination / Take The Long Way / Buckle Up / Comes Then Goes / Retrograde / River Cross

Label Review. 

2020 live album. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Also available on Vinyl and Blu-ray. 

Our Overview. 

US rockers Tesla release their new live album, ‘Five Man London Jam’ which was recorded and filmed in 4K high-definition as an homage to their critically acclaimed and highly influential Top 20 platinum album ‘Five Man Acoustical Jam’. It was recorded at the famed Abbey Road Studios for a one-night musical event capturing the band performing songs from their legendary arsenal including “Love Song” and “What You Give” along with their classic covers of “Signs” and “We Can Work It Out”. Additionally, the band performed live for the first-time-ever tracks from their latest album ‘Shock’ including “California Summer Song”, ‘Tied To The Tracks’ and ‘Forever Loving You.’

One of the world’s most celebrated and enduring rock bands with a die-hard, loyal fanbase, Tesla have enjoyed international chart, radio, and tour success for nearly 35 years, with multi-platinum albums and global album sales topping 15 million. That they are still roaring and soaring should be no surprise. That’s just how they are built. Tesla may have been born in the mid ‘80s eruption of excess, but this band has never been about those things. Their bluesy, soulful sound is strongly embedded in the roots of organic, authentic 1970s rock and roll. The same roots that produced bands like the Allman Brothers, Grand Funk Railroad, AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aerosmith. Tesla’s legacy is alive and well as they continue to record and sell out venues all over the world.

Tracklisting: Cumin’ Atcha Live - Truckin’ / Tied To The Tracks / We Can Work It Out / Signs / What You Give / California Summer Song / Forever Loving You / Miles Away / Paradise / Call It What You Want / Stir It Up / Into The Now / Love Song

Label Review. 

The Hit Sound Of (with 5 bonus tracks), Sing (with 9 bonus tracks) & Roots (with 7 bonus tracks).

Our Overview. 

With an Americana music pedigree born of their Appalachia roots The Everly Brothers ably crossed over from the pop charts to the country music charts during their hit-making heyday. During the mid sixties however they suffered a lean spell for commercial success all the while trying to update their sound. This box set focusses on the following period from November 1966 – November 1968 when the Everlys recorded mostly in Los Angeles rather than Nashville with the duo searching for a musical direction. Eventually achieving a musical cohesiveness with the release of ‘Roots’.

Disc 1 presents the ‘The Hit Sound’ album, recorded from December 1966 onwards, with contemporary rock’n’roll and pop covered in Everlys harmony style updated with the cream of the LA session crew including Glen Campbell, Larry Knechtel, Ray Pohlman, Hal Blaine.

Disc 2 presents the ‘Sing’ album, the Everlys and their label Warner’s response to the prevailing ‘youthquake’ band sound straddling the transatlantic. On the album are songs by The Buckinghams, Patrick Campbell Lyons and Procul Harum.

Disc 3 presents the ‘Roots’ album, pieced together from the LA sessions at studios like Goldstar, conducted by Lenny Waronker during April-September 1968, with the ace studio musicians known as ‘The Wrecking Crew’ aided by Van Dyke Parks and James Burton. The Everlys took the chance to pay homage to their country roots with songs by contemporary country writers Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, George Jones as well as more from their own pen. Unreleased tracks include compositions by Neil Young and Dolly Parton.

Tracklisting:

Disc One (The Hit Sound Of): Blueberry Hill / Movin’ On / Devil’s Child / Trains And Boats And Planes / Sea Of Heartbreak / Oh, Boy! / (I’d Be A) Legend In My Time / Let’s Go Get Stoned / Sticks And Stones / The House Of The Rising Sun / She Never Smiles Anymore / Good Golly, Miss Molly // Bonus Tracks: Even If I Hold It In My Hand (Hard Luck Story) (Take 2) / When Eddie Comes Home / Nothing But The Best / A Little Bit Of Crazy / Bowling Green (Demo)

Disc Two (Sing): Bowling Green / A Voice Within / I Don’t Want To Love You / It’s All Over / Deliver Me / Talking To The Flowers / Mary Jane / I’m Finding It Rough / Do You / Somebody Help Me / A Whiter Shade Of Pale / Mercy, Mercy, Mercy // Bonus Tracks: Love Of The Common People / You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today / My Elusive Dreams / Lord Of The Manor / Love With Your Heart / Love With Your Heart (Version 2) / It’s My Time / Empty Boxes / Milk Train

Disc Three (Roots): The Everly Family (1952) / Mama Tried / Less Of Me / T For Texas / I Wonder If I Care As Much / Ventura Boulevard / Shady Grove / Illinois / Living Too Close To The Ground / You Done Me Wrong / Turn Around / Sing Me Back Home / Montage: The Everly Family (1952)/Shady Grove/Kentucky // Bonus Tracks: Lady Anne (Vsn 2) / Shop Girl / Human Race (Mix 1) / Omaha / Mr Soul (Mix 1) / Down In The Bottom (Aka Meet Me In The Bottom) (Mix 1) / In The Good Old Days (Mix 1)

Label Review. 

56 tracks.

Our Overview. 

By 1965, the British R&B boom was over. Cyril Davies was dead, Alexis Korner was employed as MD on a children’s TV show, and the legion of young acolytes the two men had inspired had drifted away from the blues and into mainstream pop stardom. The more “purist” individuals were out in the cold: Brian Jones was marginalised in the Stones by the emergence of the Jagger/Richards songwriting team, while Eric Clapton had stormed out of the most blueswailing Yardbirds in protest at their recording of winsome pop ditty “For Your Love”.

But things were about to change. In April 1966, club band John Mayall’s Blues Breakers – prominently featuring a still-simmering Clapton – recorded their debut studio album with the aid of producer Mike Vernon. Released in July, the LP was a huge, entirely unexpected success, reaching the UK Top Ten and remaining in the charts for an impressive 17 weeks.

Suddenly, an astonishing number of virtuoso young British (and Irish) blues guitarists, all of whom rejected the trappings of pop success as fervently as the young Eric, were inspired to form their own bands. In the wake of Clapton, his Yardbirds replacement Jeff Beck and Peter Green (Eric’s replacement in Mayall’s band after he’d split to form Cream) came the likes of Kim Simmonds, Jeremy Spencer, Stan Webb, Paul Kossoff, Alvin Lee, Clem Clempson, Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore and Mick Ronson. Within a year or two of Mayall’s unexpected breakthrough, the second wave of the British blues boom was in full, glorious bloom.

Featuring all of the above names, ‘Crawling Up A Hill’ chronicles the development of the British blues scene during that relatively brief but halcyon period, covering both the electric blues bands (Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After etc) and the acoustic country blues acts (Jo-Ann Kelly, Mike Cooper, Ian A. Anderson and others). ‘Crawling Up A Hill’ is a fascinating document of a genre that, though relatively short-lived, would have a seismic influence on the subsequent development of rock music.

Tracklisting:

Disc One: All Your Love – John Mayall’s Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton / Crawling Up A Hill – The Zany Woodruff Operation / Louise – Anderson Jones Jackson / I Love You – The Graham Bond Organization / I’m A Man (Live) – The Yardbirds / Don’t Want You No More – The Spencer Davis Group / I Can’t Keep From Crying, Sometimes – Ten Years After / Jumping At Shadows (Demo Version) – Duster Bennett / Charlie – The Deviants / You Shook Me – Jeff Beck / Ain’t Nothin’ In Ramblin’ – Jo-Ann Kelly / Love That Burns – Fleetwood Mac / Wang Dang Doodle – Love Sculpture / Operator – Alexis Korner Featuring Robert Plant / Can Blue Men Sing The Whites? – The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band / Walking - Dr. K’s Blues Band / Little Woman You’re So Sweet – Shakey Vick / A Stranger In Your Town – The Climax Chicago Blues Band / Lord Of The Rings – Downliners Sect

Disc Two: Sweet Tooth - Free / Death Letter – Mike Cooper / Blister On The Moon – The Taste / I Just Can’t Keep From Crying – Levee Camp Moan / Sometime Girl – Sam Apple Pie / Skin Game (Live) – John Dummer Blues Band / Diamond Joe – Quiet Melon / Nobody By My Side – Killing Floor / Dear Jill – Blodwyn Pig / There’s An Easy And A Hard Way Of Living - Icarus / Tears In The Wind – Chicken Shack / Bring It On Home - Bakerloo / The Same For You - Jaklin / Train Comes, Train Goes – Frozen Tear / Telephone Blues (Aka Talk To Me Baby) – The Rats / Madison Blues – Angel Pavement / It’s You I Miss – Christine Perfect Band / This Love Of Old – Medicine Head / Baby Please Don’t Go - Jasper

Disc Three: I’ve Got Those Fleetwood Mac Chicken Shack John Mayall Can’t Fail Blues – Liverpool Scene / Ride With Your Daddy Tonight – Brunning Sunflower Blues Band featuring Peter Green / Time To Move – Red Dirt / A Hard Way To Go (Live) – Savoy Brown / Mean Blues – Jeremy Spencer / Chauffeur – Black Cat Bones / Gardener Man - Siren / Dupree Blues – Blue Blood / Passing Through – Steamhammer / Raining In Your Heart – Stone The Crows / Old Gopher – Edgar Broughton Band / Roadrunner – Stack Waddy / Take Me Down To The Water – Heavy Jelly / The Man Who Never Was – Skid Row / Take Your Money – Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts / The Sun Is Shining – Mungo Jerry / Backlash Blues – Linda Hoyle / Railroad – Status Quo

Label Review. 

Three albums remastered: 'Oh How We Danced', 'Whale Meat Again' and 'Short Cut Draw Blood' plus 6 bonus tracks. DVD contains two Old Grey Whistle Test appearances 18th Nov 1975 & 30th Mar 1976.

Our Overview. 

Jim Capaldi was also a successful solo artist, enjoying a series of hit albums and singles in his own right aside from his work as a founder member with the acclaimed band Traffic (a group for which Jim co-wrote most of their classic songs with Steve Winwood), His solo career began with the album ‘Oh How We Danced’, recorded whilst Traffic was on hiatus whilst Steve Winwood was recovering from peritonitis. Mainly recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, the album featured the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section of Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass) and Barry Beckett (keyboards), along with a host of guests such as Steve Winwood, Chris Wood, Paul Kossoff, Dave Mason, Ric Grech, Jim Gordon, Mike Kellie (Spooky Tooth) & Trevor Burton (The Move / Steve Gibbons Band). Featuring tracks such as “Eve”, “Don’t Be A Hero” and “Open Your Heart”, ‘Oh How We Danced’ was a superb debut.

Jim’s second solo album was the 1974 release ‘Whale Meat Again’, an album that tackled a variety of lyrical subjects, including environmental issues. Once more he utilised the services of Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Barry Beckett, along with Steve Winwood. Featuring tracks such as “It’s Alright”, “Whale Meat Again” and “Summer is Fading”.

With the disbanding of Traffic in 1974, following a troubled US tour, Jim embarked on his next solo project (and final album for Island Records of the 1970s), ‘Short Cut Draw Blood’. The album would prove to be one of his most successful, featuring the singles “It’s All Up to You” and “Love Hurts” (a cover of the Everly Brothers hit), both of which enjoyed chart success. Aside from these tracks the album also featured the emotive “Boy with a Problem”, featuring Paul Kossoff (of Free) on guitar, and other classics such as the album title track, “Goodbye Love” and “Seagull”. Once again Jim Capaldi assembled a stellar cast of musicians to contribute to the album such as Steve Winwood, Chris Spedding, Roger Hawkins, David Hood and Barry Beckett and Chris Wood.

This boxed set has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and features an additional 6 bonus tracks, (four previously unreleased on CD), all drawn from single releases and also includes a bonus DVD featuring previously unreleased live appearances by Jim Capaldi on BBC TV’s ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’; a session from November 1975 (featuring Steve Winwood on piano) and a 50 minute concert by Jim Capaldi & the Space Cadets at the BBC TV Theatre in March 1976. The boxed set also includes an illustrated booklet with a new essay. ‘Open Your Heart – The Island Recordings 1972-1976’ is a fitting tribute to a fine and much missed musician.

Tracklisting:

Disc One (Oh How We Danced): Eve / Big Thirst / Love Is All You Can Try / Last Day Of Dawn / Don’t Be A Hero / Open Your Heart / How Much Can A Man Really Take / Oh How We Danced / Going Down Slow All The Way (bonus)

Disc Two (Whale Meat Again): It’s Alright / Whale Meat Again / Yellow Sun / I’ve Got So Much Lovin’ / Low Rider / My Brother / Summer Is Fading / We’ll Meet Again / Tricky Dicky Rides Again (bonus)

Disc Three (Short Cut Draw Blood): Goodbye Love / It’s All Up To You / Love Hurts / Johnny Too Bad / Short Cut Draw Blood / Living On A Marble / Boy With A Problem / Keep On Trying / Seagull / Sugar Honey* / It’s Alright* / Talkin’ About My Baby* / Still Talkin’*   *Previously Unreleased On CD)

Disc Four (DVD) The Old Grey Whistle Test: Short Cut Draw Blood (Live 1975) / Goodbye Love (Live 1975) / Low Rider (Live 1976) / Love Hurts (Live 1976) / Goodbye Love (Live 1976) / Elixir Of Love (Live 1976) / Boy With A Problem (Live 1976) / Short Ends (Live 1976) / Talkin’ About My Baby (Live 1976) / Keep On Trying (Live 1976)

Label Review.

2020 debut album. Frontman of Klaxons. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Frontman of the Mercury Prize-winning Klaxons, recording artist with Arctic Monkeys and creator of his Shock Machine project, English musician James Righton is now set to release his debut solo album ‘The Performer’.

‘The Performer’ stands in stark contrast to the electro-hedonism of Righton’s work with Klaxons. Instead, it spins through various points from 1970 onwards. It touches on the suave art-lounge of Roxy Music, the jangly grooves of R.E.M., the sumptuous psychedelia of latter day Beach Boys and the songwriting gift of Nick Lowe. In short, it uses classic elements as the groundwork for something which feels a natural fit for 2019.

The album flits between two core themes. Fatherhood has changed Righton’s life. It’s altered the relationship with his wife Keira Knightley, which he explores on the 90s-tinged pop-rock of ‘Start’ and the crescendo that soars through ‘Lessons In Dreamland, Pt2’. But there are simpler emotions too, with the unrequited love and sweet harmonies of ‘Edie’, a song he wrote for his daughter when she was just a few days old.

‘The Performer’ was written, performed and produced by James Righton, with the help of some select collaborators. James Ford (The Last Shadow Puppets, Simian Mobile Disco) performed drums throughout and bass on two tracks; Sean O’Hagan (High Llamas, Microdisney) contributed string arrangements; saxophone was provided by Jorja Chalmers (Bryan Ferry) and Josephine Stephenson (Thom Yorke, Ex:Re) contributed additional piano and string arrangements.

Tracklisting: The Performer / Edie / See The Monster / Devil Is Loose / Lessons In Dreamland, Pt. 1 / Start / Are You With Me? / Heavy Heart / Lessons In Dreamland, Pt. 2

Label Review. 

2020 album. Paul Webb (formerly of Talk Talk). Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Former Talk Talk and O.Rang bassist Paul Webb made his first record under the moniker of Rustin Man eighteen years ago with Beth Gibbons, on their collaborative album ‘Out Of Season’. Fast forward to now and he’s putting out his second solo album ‘Clockdust’; the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Drift Code’ and his second release in two years.

The roots of ‘Clockdust’ can be found in the same extended sessions that birthed ‘Drift Code’. “Early on I realised I had two albums worth of material,” Webb explains. “The first tunes I wrote were electric guitar based, with long arrangements that built up in layers to something sonically quite dense. These became the bulk of ‘Drift Code’. As a reaction, I wrote a batch of songs that were tighter in their structure but had more feeling of space. These make up the bulk of ‘Clockdust’.

“I think of the album as containing stories from people who’ve reached their present situation through many years of experiences,” he adds.

‘Clockdust’ draws upon an armoury of instruments, some, like the euphonium, unfamiliar in such contexts and plenty - the kokoriko, the okónkolo - with even more unfamiliar names. Each track, too, indicates Webb’s fondness for the path less travelled, its twists and turns at first jarring but soon intuitive. That they’re embellished by a voice which has seemingly endured many lifetimes emphasises their mysterious nature. That its recording was soundtracked by Jacques Brel, Jet Harris and Kurt Weill no doubt contributed too. That many songs are inspired by old movies enhances their ageless atmosphere yet further.

Tracklisting: Carousel Days / Gold & Tinsel / Jackie’s Room / Love Turns Her On / Rubicon Song / Old Flamingo / Kinky Living / Night In The Evening / Man With A Remedy

Label Review. 

1968 debut album remastered in mono and stereo plus 10 bonus tracks. Features pre-fame Jeff Lynne.

Our Overview. 

Emerging from the ashes of beat boom hopefuls Mike Sheridan and The Night Riders, by late 1966 Birmingham band The Idle Race were looking for a new guitarist. The successful applicant was local teenager Jeff Lynne. By the time the band signed to Liberty Records, the prodigiously-talented Lynne – several years younger than his new colleagues – had been promoted to frontman status, blossoming as the band’s chief songwriter while also taking lead vocals.

After “Skeleton And The Roundabout” had attracted much airplay but fallen just short of the charts, the band cut their debut album. Issued in October 1968, the idiosyncratic ‘The Birthday Party’ gave notice of a major new talent on the British pop scene. A dazzling creation that matched Beatle-ish melodic flair and witty, surreal vignettes with the heightened ambition of psych-era British studio pop, the set attracted rave reviews and the support of Radio One DJs including Kenny Everett. Sadly, however, ‘The Birthday Party’ failed to sell in any great quantity after Liberty mysteriously chose not to issue a single in support of the release and the wider world wouldn’t notice Lynne until he joined The Move in early 1970.

Now acknowledged as a classic album of song-based British psychedelic pop, ‘The Birthday Party’ finally gets the attention that it deserves with this definitive new 2-CD package. The original stereo album is joined by alternative versions, stand-alone singles and, most notably of all, the first-ever official CD release of the original, substantially different mono version of the LP, taken from the original masters. This also features a 24-page booklet containing numerous rare photos and memorabilia as well as a new essay on the album.

Tracklisting:

Disc One (Mono): Skeleton And The Roundabout / Happy Birthday / The Birthday /I Like My Toys / Morning Sunshine / Follow Me Follow / Sitting In My Tree / On With The Show / Lucky Man / Don’t Put Your Boys In The Army, Mrs. Ward / Pie In The Sky / The Lady Who Said She Could Fly / End Of The Road / (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree / My Father’s Son / Imposters Of Life’s Magazine / Knocking Nails Into My House / Lucky Man (Alternative Version) / Follow Me Follow (Alternative Version) / Days Of The Broken Arrows / Worn Red Carpet / Days Of The Broken Arrows (Alternative Version)

Disc Two (Stereo): Skeleton And The Roundabout / Happy Birthday / The Birthday / I Like My Toys / Morning Sunshine / Follow Me Follow / Sitting In My Tree / On With The Show / Lucky Man / Don’t Put Your Boys In The Army, Mrs. Ward / Pie In The Sky / The Lady Who Said She Could Fly / End Of The Road / Sitting In My Tree (Alternative Version)

Label Review. 

Featuring the independent demos, singles and abandoned album sessions, three full albums (Lovely, Pure and Galore), singles and related B-sides, cover versions, BBC sessions and material recorded live at Bath Moles. 118 tracks in total.

Our Overview. 

During the mid-late 1980s, few bands navigated the transition from indie darlings to mainstream hit-makers as slickly and successfully as The Primitives. Armed with a pocketful of two and a half minute, hook-laden songs and a loyal fanbase, the group found themselves catapulted from obscurity to the pop charts, via magazine covers and glowing reviews, and became a significant live draw around the world. Fronted by the enigmatic Tracy Tracy, and driven by chief songwriter Paul Court, the group experienced the heady highs and frustrating lows of mainstream success, producing an excellent run of singles and albums along the way.

‘Bloom!’ has been produced in conjunction with the band, and captures every period of a career which spanned seven years in its first incarnation. Including albums, B-sides, cover versions, demos, BBC sessions and live recordings, alongside four recordings recently unearthed from the archives, this set showcases a group who delivered catchy, high-quality material at will, and who remain loved and respected today.

Tracklisting: 

Disc One (The Lazy Years): Crash (Demo) / Across My Shoulder (Demo) / Spacehead (Demo) / Really Stupid (Demo) / Nothing Left (Demo) / Thru The Flowers / Across My Shoulder / She Don’t Need You / Lazy / Really Stupid / We Found A Way To The Sun / Where The Wind Blows / Stop Killing Me / Buzz Buzz Buzz / Laughing Up My Sleeve / Ocean Blue / Shadow (Guitar Version) / Thru The Flowers (New Version) / Everything Shining Bright / Nothing Left (Sounds Version) / I’ll Stick With You (1987 Version) / Dreamwalk Baby (1987 Version) / Buzz Buzz Buzz (1987 Version) / Nothing Left (1987 Version) / Out Of Reach (1987 Version) / Carry Me Home (1987 Version) / Don’t Want Anything To Change (1987 Version)

Disc Two (Lovely): Crash / Spacehead / Carry Me Home / Shadow / Thru The Flowers / Dreamwalk Baby / I’ll Stick With You / Nothing Left / Stop Killing Me / Out Of Reach / Ocean Blue / Run Baby Run / Don’t Want Anything To Change / Buzz Buzz Buzz / I’ll Stick With You (Single Version) / Things Get In Your Way / Crash (Live In The Studio) / Out Of Reach (Single Version) / Dreamwalk Baby (Live) / Really Stupid (Live) / Crash (Live) / I Wanna Be Your Dog (Live)

Disc Three (Pure): Outside / Summer Rain / Sick Of It / Shine / Dizzy Heights / All The Way Down / Secrets / Keep Me In Mind / Lonely Streets / Can’t Bring Me Down / Way Behind Me / Never Tell / All The Way / Down (Beat Version) / Way Behind Me (Acoustic Version) / Noose / I’ll Be Your Mirror / As Tears Go By / I Almost Touched You / Secrets (Demo) / Secrets (Zeus B Held Version 12” Mix) / Secrets (Zeus B Held 12” Dub) / You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care)

Disc Four (Galore): You Are The Way / Lead Me Astray / Earth Thing / Give This World To You / Slip Away / Cold Enough To Kill / Hello Jesus / Empathise / See Thru The Dark / Kiss Mine / Smile / The Little Black Egg / In My Dream / Sunpulse / Flow / Stop Killing Me (Acoustic) / You Are The Way (September Mix) / You Are The Way (Re-Ravishing Mix) / You Are The Way (God’s Own Garage Band Mix – Alternate Version) / Under My Spell / Haunted

Disc Five (BBC Sessions 1986-1987 / Live At Bath Moles): Really Stupid / Nothing Left / Run Baby Run / I’ll Stick With You / Where The Wind Blows / Across My Shoulder / Spacehead / Crash / Stop Killing Me / Shadow / Buzz Buzz Buzz / As Tears Go By / Dreamwalk Baby / Ocean Blue / Everything’s Shining Bright / She Don’t Need You / All The Way Down (Live) / Sick Of It (Live) / Give This World To You (Live) / Outside (Live) / Slip Away (Live) / You Are The Way (Live) / Earth Thing (Live) / See Thru The Dark (Live) / Stop Killing Me (Live) / Way Behind Me (Live)

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Clear Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘Night Chancers’ is the sixth-studio record from the ever engaging, talented British singer-songwriter Baxter Dury - son of Ian Dury and Betty Rathmell. The new ten-track record was inspired by the sleazy creatures and characters of the night. And we’re happy to report Baxter hasn’t missed a beat, not afraid to evolve as an artist rather than staying in a safe musical sweet spot.

As ever with Dury his lyrics are candid, sometimes bordering on the confessional. ‘Night Chancers’ is another sonic step forward for Baxter. He’s retained his unique sound, yet managed to add more strings to his bow in terms of vocal nuances. It all combines in a work that’s sort of splendidly scuzzy and all we’re certainly not complaining.

Baxter describes this recent delve into darkness as, “a bit Kubrick-y, a psychological journey through the maze bit in The Shining.” He sees the album in a filmic sense with different tracks introducing us to varying characters and blurry-eyed vignettes riffing on real-life, whether taking aim at social media stalkers with ‘I’m Not Your Dog’ or self-satirising on title track ‘Night Chancers’. From thrilling affairs that dissolve into sweaty desperation to the absurd bloggers, fruitlessly clinging to the fag ends of the fashion set (‘Sleep People’), via soiled real life (‘Slum Lord’) and new day, sleep-deprived optimism (‘Daylight’), the record’s finely drawn vignettes are all based on the corners of world Dury has visited.

Again Baxter has turned to his regular collaborators, with The Night Chancers including backing vocalists Madeline Hart, Rose Rose Elinor Dougall and Skinny Girl Diet’s Delilah Holliday. There’s also guitarist and new musical writing partner Shaun Paterson, and Dury’s long-term collaborator and friend, producer Craig Silvey (Arcade Fire, John Grant, Arctic Monkeys) who’s helped create a soundtrack infused with classic disco, Italian pop, ’80s hip hop beats and smart strings that give each micro-narrative a soundtrack that forms a wider mood across the album.

Tracklisting: I’m Not Your Dog / Slumlord / Saliva Hog / Samurai / Sleep People / Carla's Got A Boyfriend / The Night Chancers / Hello, I'm Sorry / Daylight / Say Nothing

Label Review. 

The 25-Year Retrospective Concert / Indeterminacy / Double Music / Cartridge Music / Fontana Mix.

Our Overview. 

“If my work is accepted, I must move on to the point where it is not.” John Cage.

"Without John Cage, much of what happens in modern music and art would not be possible.” Frank Zappa.

John Cage (1912-1992) was an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and amateur mycologist (study of fungi). A pioneer of percussion, chance, and electronic music. Cage was one of the most influential American composers of the twentieth century. His influence on the popular arts of the 1960s was considerable; the Beatle Paul McCartney and Frank Zappa of the Mothers of Invention being numbered among his disciples. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance in America, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition ‘4’ 33”’, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played.

The late 1950s, early ‘60s was the period in which the works of John Cage first began to be represented by a quantity of recordings. This edition combines two important large-scale performances, the indispensable ‘25-Year Retrospective Concert’, which so admirably showcased the composer’s broad spectrum of interests (and the first recording to include audible audience disagreement since the riot at the premiere of Déserts by Edgard Varèse in Paris in 1954), with ‘Indeterminacy: New Aspect of Form in Instrumental and Electronic Music’, which finds Cage reading 90 short Zen-like stories, each punctuated by piano and tape interjections by his long-time musical collaborator, David Tudor.These works are complemented by the original tape realisation of the ‘Fontana Mix’ sound collage, assembled by the composer in Italy; ‘Double Music’, which explores the percussive qualities of metal; and the challenging ‘Cartridge Music’, a manipulation of phonograph cartridges, where, Cage warns, “all sounds, even those ordinarily thought to be undesirable, are accepted.”

Tracklisting:

Disc One: The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage - Six Short Inventions For Seven Instruments (1934) / First Construction In Metal (1939) / Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) / The Wonderful Widow Of Eighteen Springs (1942) // She Is Asleep (1943) Quartet / Duo // Sonatas And Interludes (1945-48) - Sonata I / Sonata II / Sonata III / Sonata IV / First Interlude / Sonata V / Sonata VI / Sonata VII / Sonata VIII / Second Interlude // Music For Carillon No.1 (1952) / Williams Mix (1952)

Disc Two: The 25-Year Retrospective Concert Of The Music Of John Cage (Continued) - Concert For Piano And Orchestra (1957-58) // John Cage And Lou Harrison - Double Music (1941) // John Cage And David Tudor Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music - Part One / Part Two

Disc Three: John Cage And David Tudor Indeterminacy: New Aspect Of Form In Instrumental And Electronic Music (Continued) - Part Three / Part Four // John Cage: Cartridge Music (1960) / Fontana Mix (1958)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Roger Eno and Brian Eno together and individually are among the foremost innovators in experimental ambient music and will release their first album on Deutsche Grammophon Records: ‘Mixing Colours’. Brian and Roger Eno have revolutionized many concepts of music production and performance, from pioneering treatments of pop music by Brian Eno to younger brother Roger Eno’s ambient synth/piano recordings reminiscent of Erik Satie. These qualities resonate on this new release.

Each brings his unerring sense of place and mood to the album. The timbre in each title deepens and opens up with each listening. Specific yet abstract titles guide listeners through the collection created over several years in a unique collaboration by both artists. The result is deep dive listening and landscapes of sound bearing titles like abstract art: "Obsidian", "Deep Saffron", or "Wintergreen".

Their debut DG release will reach a wide new audience still unfamiliar with their artistry. The poetic and ambient anthology reveals two celebrated ambient musicians at the height of their artistry. Roger says “There’s a huge commonality between what we’re interested in.” while Brian adds “These pieces are very Impressionistic and very much to do with sonic quality, sonic colour.”

Tracklisting: Spring Frost / Burnt Umber / Celeste / Wintergreen / Obsidian / Blonde / Dark Sienna / Verdigris / Snow / Rose Quartz / Quicksilver / Ultramarine / Iris / Cinnabar / Desert Sand / Deep Saffron / Cerulean Blue / Slow Movement: Sand

Label Review. 

1986 album. 

Our Overview. 

‘In From The Cold’ was the final shot at success by 60s influenced British garage rock band The Prisoners, the only problem was they didn’t want it. Signed by Eddie Piller to his Stiff-backed subsidiary Countdown they were put in the studio with Troy Tate (Teardrop Explodes / The Smiths) and made this astounding album which they then disowned. This long overdue reissue on coloured vinyl is the first time the album has been issued in its original form since 1986 when, due to Stiff’s imminent demise, it was deleted very quickly.

Formed in 1980, Kent England, The Prisoners, were a regular live fixture in London’s underground “psychedelic revival” and “mod revival” scene of the early 1980s, as well as a linchpin of the Medway scene. That are one of the most influential bands of the 1980s, an astounding live act whose records were the opposite of what pop radio demanded in that era. Raw where they were smooth and full of character where those records needed to be blandly conformist. They hardly sold a record and yet they can count the likes of Noel Gallagher and political journalist John Harris as their fans. Steve Lamacq devoted a whole chapter of his book to his love of them whilst Tim Burgess of The Charlatans once said that at that time he only checked for The Prisoners and New Order. At least two UK hits used their arrangement on Joe South’s ‘Hush’ as their basis.

By 1986 they were an incredible live band and had released three albums of their distinctive 60s influenced garage rock. A four-piece featuring Johnny Symons on drums, future Acid Jazz hitmaker James Taylor on organ, Allan Crockford on bass and backing vocals and the compellingly soulful Graham Day on vocals. Graham also wrote fantastic songs. Ten years later and they would have been lauded as heroes in Brit Pop land but the mid-80s had no place in the mainstream for a band with their influences.

‘In From The Cold’ is full of amazing songs from the hard edges of ‘All You Gotta Do Is Say’, ‘Ain’t No Telling’ and ‘The More That I Teach You’, to the mournful ‘Wish The Rain’ and ‘Be On Your Way’. It is no surprise that Mojo journalist Lois Wilson described this as her favourite album by the band.

Tracklisting: All You Gotta Do Is Say / Come Closer / The More That I Teach You / Mourn My Health / I Know How To Please You / Deceiving Eye / In From The Cold / Wish The Rain / Be On Your Way / Find And Seek / Ain’t No Tellin’ / Main Title Theme (The Lesser Evil)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Unfinished sessions from 2010 and completed with the blessing of Masekela’s estate. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘Rejoice’ is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz. Having first met in the 70s thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in the archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018. With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with its roots firmly in Afrobeat. Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland / The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.

Tracklisting: Robbers, Thugs and Muggers (O’Galajani) / Agbada Bougou / Coconut Jam / Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same) / Slow Bones / Jabulani (Rejoice, Here Comes Tony) / Obama Shuffle Strut Blues / We’ve Landed

Label Review. 

1974 album remastered with 5 bonus tracks. Includes Live at The Academy of Music in New York City on 17th May 1974. Plus 5.1 mix of the original album. Esoteric.

Our Overview. 

Formed in 1969 from the ashes of The Yardbirds, Renaissance would become the renowned prog rock act they are today. Back in 1974, with all the founding members gone a new line-up had become established and the album they released that year - ‘Turn Of The Cards’ was an artistic triumph and heralded the band’s commercial breakthrough in the United States.

Featuring highly gifted vocalist Annie Haslam, Michael Dunford (acoustic guitars), John Tout (keyboards, vocals), Jon Camp (bass, vocals) and Terry Sullivan (drums, percussion), ‘Turn Of The Cards’ was recorded in March 1974 at De Lane Lea studios in Wembley, North London and featured the band incorporating symphonic orchestral arrangements into their material extensively on classic pieces such as “Running Hard”, “Things I Don’t Understand” and “Mother Russia”. The album would also feature the evocative “Cold Is Being” and the celebrated “Black Flame” which would result in ‘Turn Of The Cards’ being praised as one of the finest works by Renaissance.

This expanded edition has been newly re-mastered from the original master tapes and also features an entire concert at The Academy of Music in New York City on 17th May 1974 (with a 24-piece orchestra) over two bonus CDs which has been newly mixed from the original 16-track master tapes, including live versions of songs from the album, along with classics such as “Can You Understand”, “Carpet of the Sun”, “Prologue” and a 25 minute version of “Ashes Are Burning” featuring guest Andy Powell (of Wishbone Ash) on lead guitar. The fourth disc is a DVD which features a new 5.1 Surround sound and high-resolution stereo mix of ‘Turn Of The Cards’. The set also includes the previously unreleased song “Everybody Needs a Friend”, recorded during the sessions for the album and the rare single edit of “Mother Russia”. The release also features an illustrated booklet with a new essay featuring interviews with Annie Haslam, Terry Sullivan and Jon Camp.

Tracklisting: 

Disc One: Running Hard / I Think Of You / Things I Don’t Understand / Black Flame / Cold Is Being / Mother Russia / Everybody Needs A Friend (Previously Unreleased) / Mother Russia (Single Edit) (Previously Unreleased) / Things I Don’t Understand (New Stereo Mix) / Black Flame (New Stereo Mix) / Mother Russia (New Stereo Mix)

Disc Two: Can You Understand (Live 1974) / Black Flame (Live 1974) / Carpet Of The Sun (Live 1974) / Cold Is Being (Live 1974) / Things I Don’t Understand (Live 1974) / Running Hard (Live 1974)

Disc Three: Ashes Are Burning (Live 1974) / Mother Russia (Live 1974) / Prologue (Live 1974)

Disc Four (DVD): 5.1 Surround Sound & High-Resolution Stereo Mixes - Running Hard / I Think Of You / Things I Don’t Understand / Black Flame / Cold Is Being / Mother Russia

Label Review. 

2020 album. Mystic folk rock. Also available on standard CD and standard Black Vinyl.

Our Overview. 

Arbouretum’s mystic folk-rock uses English folk, country blues, Americana and 70s psychedelia as touch points in their singular and distinctive sound and they’ve perfected the craft of storytelling, using a delicate interplay of melodies and prosaic lyrics.

‘Let It All’ In is their most accomplished and evocative album yet. Guitarist and vocalist Dave Heumann’s melodies and solos remain a central focus, bolstered by the hypnotic rhythms of bassist Corey Allender and drummer Brian Carey, enhanced by Matthew Pierce’s substantial yet understated keyboard figures. Each song a vivid scene or tale; Heumann’s deep sense of spirituality and command of storytelling through myth and metaphor transports the listener to another world and time.

The album features guest performances from Mike Kuhl, Hans Chew and Dave Ballou, and was mixed by Steve Wright at the iconic Wrightway Studios. Arbouretum will be touring in 2020.

LP available on light blue vinyl. LPs include digital download cards.

Tracklisting: How Deep It Goes / A Prism In Reverse / No Sanctuary Blues / Night Theme / Headwaters II / Buffeted By Wind / Let It All In / High Water Song

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

There’s a wealth of lost bands that outpaced their more high-profile brethren from the era of brotherly love, but fate and fortune lost them to time until a voracious reissue market snatched them back from the brink of obscurity. Wax Machine lives in the creases and cracks between these reinvigorated volumes, tripping easily among the children of the sun without ever feeling like tourists. They are kindred spirits, or perhaps the channeled chosen brought back to life for a new era. Their sound coalesces within ‘Earthsong of Silence’. They skirt the blade like full force psych-folk warriors, but also skitter through more OUT territory — clattering odysseys that resolve to map nowhere and everywhere are nestled next to propulsive grooves that lap at head-nodding ecstasy.

Brighton UK’s Wax Machine are a band so steeped in the kernel of psychedelic seep that there’s every indication they may have slipped through a side door in space-time and sprouted anew a few years back on the UK coast. However, for all intents and purposes it’s best to believe that they truly sprang from the fertile mind of Brazilian-born, Italian/English-raised Lau Ro (Guitar/Vocals). Lau’s international upbringing served as the wellspring for some of the eclectic taste that informs the core of Wax Machine’s sound. On ‘Earthsong of Silence’, that eclecticism incorporates Spiritual Jazz, Krautrock, Tropicália and Library Music while filtering them all through a psychedelic lens. Per Lau, “The album is an exploration into paradoxes, meditation and magic, predicated on the underlying idea of becoming one with nature and in harmony with the environment.” It borrows from dreams and trances to give life to a psychedelic experience that feels hauntingly familiar, yet strikingly new. On his journey Lau met up with fellow Brighton musicians and birthed Wax Machine with members from local bands Rokurokubi, Hill, Strange Cages and singer-songwriter Woody Green. Ro’s fellow travelers include Isobel Jones, who adds soaring vocals and provides Wax Machine’s entrancing flute work alongside Toma Sapir who locks down a groove on the kit that keeps ‘Earthsong of Silence’ from floating into the ether. 

The band’s laid down a couple of great EPs over the last couple of years, awash in the same smoke curls that surrounded Ivory, Fifty Foot Hose, and The United States of America — a distinctly more nuanced niche than most of their peers are filling. They pick up right where their last EP’s title track, “Mind Palace,” left them —growing into the mossy eiderdown of the English countryside, delightfully dosed and drenched in the sun that filters through the trees. The flutes, wandering guitars, and jazz touches come rising through the mists once again, but this time they’ve given the album an aura of mystique not quite present in their early offerings. Along with a guiding hand from Kikagaku Moyo’s Go Kurosawa behind the boards, they add a new dimension to their sound, further exploring both their English psych-folk roots and mining a deeper appreciation for a West Coast sound dipped in sun, peace and serenity. They add splashes of Serpent Power’s quieter moments to the languid grooves of “Sun Dance,” channel the mystic melancholy of Susan Christie on “Birdsong” and tap into the sunshower psych of Sapphire Thinkers and Sarofeen & Smoke on “Truth.” Their love of lush arrangements brings to mind The Millennium and The End in subconscious snatches. Wax Machine aren’t passing travelers on the path to psychedelic oblivion, they are full-fledged guides, so maybe take a few notes. 

Tracklisting: Shhh... / Shade / Truth / Sun Dance / Time Machine / Patterns / Birdsong / Turiya / Mysty Mountain

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Now active for over 30 years, a bona fide legend of the acid jazz / jazz funk scene, James Taylor returns with a new James Taylor Quartet record, ‘People Get Ready (We’re Moving On)’. It ties together the effortless melodic funk of the quartet, the fullness of sound that only an orchestra can bring, high quality commercial song-writing and the staggering vocal talents of Noel McKoy and Natalie Williams. Renowned for his Hammond organ sound, James Taylor recorded this “dream project” at London’s Abbey Road Studios with a string orchestra and two UK soul sensations in Natalie and Noel, the latter with who he previously worked when helping to carve out the Acid Jazz sound back in the early 1990s.

James himself says: “Along with a desire to develop the breakthrough sound of JTQ + orchestra debuted on Soundtrack of Electric Black, I also wanted to make a record to showcase outstanding soul voices. Reaching back and re-examining the crossover work I did thirty years ago with the UK’s finest soul singer Noel McKoy, combined with the discovery of the stunning soulful vocal talent in the form of Natalie Williams, I was drawn to write a funk vocal album for these outstanding voices, but now incorporating these new orchestral ideas. I hope you enjoy this album half as much as we did making it! People….Get Ready….We’ve moved on!“

Tracklisting: A Giant Leap / Who’s Gonna Break The News? (feat. Natalie Williams) / People Get Ready / (We’re Moving On) / Get Out And Walk / Boogie On Through The Night / Street Hustle Interlude / Smokin’ The Future (feat. Noel McKoy) / Living On The Front Line (feat. Natalie Williams) / Newsflash / Baby Come Back (feat. Noel McKoy) / Tomorrow’s Sun

Label Review. 

This four LP box set contains three studio albums Bigger Than America, Before After and Naked As Advertised as well as the concert album How Live Is. Demon. Also available ‘Another Big Idea (1996-2015)' on 9CD Box.

Our Overview. 

Glistening 80’s electro-pop trio, from Sheffield, UK in 1988 after their fifth album for the Virgin label, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn Gregory decided to rest Heaven 17. Fast forward to the present and the band are releasing ‘Another Big Idea 1996-2015’ , nine-CD and 4LP vinyl box sets that follow the band’s work from when they regrouped and returned from a six-year hiatus in 1996 with the album ‘Bigger Than America’. 

The nine-disc CD version of ‘Another Big Idea’ features the albums ‘Bigger Than America’ (1996) and ‘Before After’ (released 2005 – the last album to feature Ian Craig Marsh). There’s also the 1998 remix album ‘Retox/ Detox’ where various then-contemporaries took the band’s earlier hits down the rave-up, 2008’s ‘Naked As Advertised: Versions 08’ where they offered acoustic/ stripped back versions of their and The Human League’s catalogue, and 1999’s ‘How Live Is’ – taken from their first live appearance. The box also hoovers up covers of songs by U2 (‘With or Without You’), Prince (‘Sign O’ The Times’) and Madonna (‘Holiday’) which the band had recorded for various tribute albums.

More intriguing is the previously unreleased ‘Space Age Space Music’. An instrumental album recorded in 1998, where they’d planned to get various singers to write their own lyrics to the tunes, but never got around to fully realising it.

In total, there are 48 bonus tracks and remixes, and like last year’s ‘Play to Win’ set, ‘Another Big Idea’ comes packaged as a large format (12″ x 12″) book. This contains 28-pages of photos, new notes and interviews with the band.

The 4LP coloured vinyl version of ‘Another Big Idea (1996-2008)’ brings together the three studio albums – ‘Bigger Than America’ (opaque blue vinyl), ‘Before After’ (white vinyl) and ‘Naked As Advertised’ (transparent green) – and ‘How Live Is’ (process blue vinyl).

Tracklisting:

LP 1: BIGGER THAN AMERICA: Dive / Designing Heaven / We Blame Love / Another Big Idea / Freak! / Bigger Than America / Unreal Everything / The Big Dipper / Do I Believe? / Resurrection Man / Maybe Forever / An Electronic Prayer

LP 2: HOW LIVE IS: Fascist Groove Thing / Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry / We Blame Love / Come Live With Me / Freak! / Let Me Go / Let’s All Make A Bomb / Penthouse And Pavement / Designing Heaven / Temptation / Being Boiled

LP 3: BEFORE AFTER: I’m Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me / Hands Up To Heaven / The Way It Is / Freedom From Love / Don’t Fear The Reaper / Into The Blue 2. Deeper And / What Would It Take / Someone For Real / Are You Ready?

LP 4: NAKED AS ADVERTISED [VERSIONS ’08]: Being Boiled / Geisha Boys And Temple Girls / Temptation [featuring Billie Godfrey] / Penthouse And Pavement / Party Fears Two / Don’t Fall / (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang / We Live So Fast / Empire State Human

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Manchester four-piece rock band The Slow Readers Club have announced their fourth album, ‘The Joy Of The Return’, via Modern Sky UK. Recorded at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and produced by long-standing collaborator Phil Bulleyment, and featuring 11 brand new tracks, ‘The Joy Of The Return’ marks a significant change in the band’s process, with their extensive touring allowing them time to write and develop tracks and arrangements through soundchecks and back-of-van jams. "Their sound is timeless and classic, so big and anthemic. Most of their songs are instant anthems, you can see them playing stadiums in the future" John Kennedy, Radio X

“I think it’s definitely our most interesting and accomplished record musically,” says singer Aaron Starkie. “Lyrically the album covers love, alienation, the rise of right wing populism and comments on algorithm driven propaganda. And as always, I try to deliver those lyrics with uplifting melody.”

Throughout the album, the band explore a vast swathe of sonic territory, from the passionately delivered “All The Idols”, to the poppier tones of “Jericho” that power through with bright indie guitar lines and ethereally melodic choruses. The dark power-pop that defined their previous releases holds a strong influence, with the brooding “No Surprise” providing a powerful dose of evocative lyricism amid immersive soundscapes, while the unsettling “Paris” is an undulating exploration of observational songwriting and eclectic musicality. 

Tracklisting: All I Hear / Something Missing / Problem Child / Jericho / No Surprise / Paris / Killing Me / All The Idols / Every Word / The Zero Hour / The Wait

Label Review. 

This box set represents the band’s first two albums: On Through the Night (1980) and High N Dry (1981) and has been prepared in conjunction with singer Joe Elliott who has acted as executive producer on the set. The mastering has been done by the band’s long serving sound engineer Ronan McHugh. It consists of the original albums, various B-sides and re-mix versions, Radio One sessions, Live from Reading and the first ever appearance of an unreleased and newly mixed show from Oxford in 1980.

Our Overview. 

Def Leppard emerged in 1979 with their own self financed and released EP and with the help of airplay from legenardary DJ John Peel, the band’s commercial heavy rock sound lead them to a deal with Phonogram and ‘On Through The Night’, the band’s debut album, was released in 1980 and immediately put the rock world on notice. The band were destined for big things with the album charting at No. 15 in the UK and No. 51 in the US. Produced by Tom Allom (Judas Priest, Black Sabbath), it featured many of the band’s live favourites and some updated versions of early singles. The album achieved platinum status in 1989.

‘High ‘N’ Dry’, the first of Def Leppard’s albums to be produced by Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange (then AC/DC’s producer), was released in 1981. It reached No. 26 in the UK charts and No. 38 in the US, further cementing the bands status. The Early Years 79-81 box set includes a history of the band’s first two albums written by Mojo and Classic Rock writer Paul Elliott (no relation) featuring personal insights from the band on the making and releasing of those early records as well as rare photos and memorabilia.

Lead singer, Joe Elliott says, “Well the fans asked, and we listened! Really excited to have our early years reworked with a load of rare material including the newly unearthed Live at the Oxford New Theatre, recorded on the 1980 UK tour …. It’s been a trip putting this box set together!”

Tracklisting:

CD1 (On Through The Night): Rock Brigade / Hello America / Sorrow Is A Woman / It Could Be You / Satellite / When the Walls Came Tumbling Down / Wasted / Rocks Off / It Don’t Matter / Answer to The Master / Overture

CD2 (High N’ Dry): Let It Go / Another Hit and Run / High N Dry (Saturday Night) / Bringin’ On the Heartache / Switch 625 / You Got Me Runnin’ / Lady Strange / On Through the Night / Mirror Mirror (Look into My Eyes) / No No No

CD3 (When The Walls Came Tumbling Down – Live In Oxford 26/04/1980): When the Walls Came Tumbling Down / It Could Be You / Rock Brigade / Satellite / Medicine Man / Answer to the Master / When the Rain Falls / Sorrow Is a Woman / Good Morning Freedom / Don’t Matter to Me / Overture / Lady Strange / Getcha Rocks Off / Hello America / Wasted / Ride into The Sun

CD 4 (Too Many Jitterbugs – B-Sides And Rarities): Ride into The Sun / Getcha Rocks Off / The Overture / Wasted / Hello America / Rock Brigade / Glad I’m Alive / Good Morning Freedom / Let It Go / Switch 625 / Bringin’ On the Heartbreak / Me and My Wine / Bringin’ On the Heartbreak (remix) / Me and My Wine (remix)

CD5 (Raw – Early BBC Recordings): Glad I’m Alive (07/06/1979) / Sorrow Is A Woman (07/06/1979) / Wasted (07/06/1979) / Answer to The Master (07/06/1979) / Satellite (03/10/1979) / Rock Brigade (03/10/1979) / Wasted (03/10/1979) / Good Morning Freedom (03/10/1979) / Satellite (03/10/79) / When the Walls Came Tumbling Down / Medicine Man / The Overture / Lady Strange / Getcha Rocks Off’ (Live at the Reading Festival – 24/08/1980)

Label Review.

2020 album. Folk.

Our Overview.

Songs are central to Scottish folk band Salt House. New songs that sound as if they’ve always been here. Ancient ballads woken up. Poems given the tunes they’ve long deserved. Songs about place, politics, landscape and birds. The new album from Salt House sees them solidify their reputation as fine interpreters of words both old and new. ‘Huam’, (Scots for “the call of an owl”) is their third collection of songs, and the second pairing with producer Andy Bell.

The trio - Jenny Sturgeon, Ewan MacPherson and Lauren MacColl - continue their love of recording ‘on location’ with this album, taking themselves to rural Argyllshire to finish writing and recording the songs which were crafted between their homes of Inverness-shire and Shetland. Singer, guitarist and harmonium player Jenny has a PHD in seabirds. Described by R2 Magazine as “a singer-songwriter who brings together the old and new with a rare skill.” Her songs are earthy and wise; she sings them with beauty and power. Singer and guitarist Ewan brings to Salt House a wealth of understanding and experience gained from collaboration with musicians from all corners of the scene. His songs are poetic and layered; his voice plaintive and from the heart. Fiddler, viola player and vocalist Lauren’s arrangements hold a rich, deep, darkness flecked with gold. You can hear the Highlands in Lauren’s elegant bowing, and a knowledge of how to weave around a narrative. She plays with warmth, wisdom and soul.You’ll also hear echoes of Pentangle, a touch of Dick Gaughan, murmurs of Scandinavian and Scots, all woven into a music that’s traditional and new. The group’s meticulous attention to detail, shared passions and care for their craft sees Salt House soar.

Tracklisting: Fire Light / All Shall Be Still / Mountain Of Gold / William And Elsie / Hope Is The Thing With Feathers / If I Am Lucky / Lord Ullin s Daughter / The Disquiet / The Same Land / Union Of Crows

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

With four of the original six members, The Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats are back together with their first studio album in over 35 years ‘Citizens Of Boomtown’. Formed in 1975, the group led by Bob Geldof, swept into the Irish and UK charts in 1977 with “Lookin’ After No.1” arriving off the back of the burgeoning punk/new wave scene. They hit their peak of popularity between 1978-80 scoring a brace of hit singles in both countries whilst broadening their sound - “Rat Trap” and “I Don’t Like Mondays” were back to back No.1s in the UK and the latter track was a smash all over Europe.

As the hits began to dry up Geldof tried his hand at acting appearing in the lead role of “Pink” in the film adaptation of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ in 1982. Of course, he became best known as the driving force behind Band Aid and Live Aid in the mid-1980s raising money and awareness for African people short of food and medicine. The band called it day after this and Geldof went solo while the rest of the band went off in other directions forming other groups and moving into production.

And now the group have finally played the “get back together” card after resisting the temptation until now. The first song to be aired from the new record sound like the title suggests: “Trash Glam Baby” evoking the spirits of 1970s both the Glam Rock sound and the loosness of New Wave. It owes a debt to 1990s band Suede to our ears as well!

Tracklisting: Trash Glam Baby / Sweet Thing / Monster Monkeys / She Said No / Passing Through / Here’s a Postcard / K.I.S.S. / Rock and Roll Yé Yé / Get a Grip / The Boomtown Rats