Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Latest signing by Dan Auerbach (Black Keys). Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Early James, an Alabama native and the latest signing to Dan Auerbach’s (Black Keys) Easy Eye Sound roster, releases his debut album, ‘Singing for My Supper’. The album spans hard-charging blues, wistful folk, and ages-old pop crooning, anchored by the singer’s voice that oscillates from gravel-gruff shout to a honey-smooth whisper. James’ inspirations run from Fiona Apple and Tom Waits to the Southern gothic poets, as heard in the album’s darker themes and in the wry humour with which he writes about them.

The album includes first single “Blue Pill Blues”. American Songwriter calls Early an “emerging alt-folk star” and say of the song: ‘‘“Blue Pill Blues” is a stellar first track and one that showcases the unique — and quick — transitions that James’ vocals can make. He deftly switches from a melodic whisper to a gravely, if not guttural, growl to drive home his all-too-relatable lyrics.” Auerbach, who decided he needed to produce the singer’s debut album after watching just two seconds of a video of James performing, says: “Some people are good singers, and some people are better than good singers; they just have this great form of expression.”

Early James’ debut features ten wide-ranging songs and full of world-weary wisdom. “Blue Pill Blues” details a period when James, who was being treated for depression, quit his anti-psychotic medication cold turkey. “High Horse” is a lament of the ways his adolescent excitement faded with the arrival of the vices of adulthood, while “Easter Eggs” finds the songwriter coming to terms with some of the darker sides of his heredity.

As soon as he was old enough, Early James moved from Troy to Birmingham, Alabama, where he’s become an integral part of the city’s thriving music scene over the past half-decade. His diverse experience in the Birmingham scene has helped mould him into a singular talent whose sound remains uncategorizable. Mother Jones says, “Early James is the type of guy that might have walked into Sun Studios in the 1950s to record an unhinged rockabilly single with Sam Phillips. James sounds like an obscure, ribald 1920’s crooner time-warped into a 1990s heavy-alternative band.”

Coming out of a local music scene as first-rate as Birmingham has also helped sculpt James into a songwriter who obsesses over the craft and texture of every word he’s ever sung. “Every line has to mean something to him, personally,” says Auerbach. “It’s not good enough to just write a good song, it needs to have a deeper meaning. He’s unlike any person I’ve ever worked with. He’s not writing a song to be universal; he’s writing a song for him.”

Tracklisting: Blue Pill Blues / Stockholm Syndrome / Way of the Dinosaur / Clockwork Town / Easter Eggs / It Doesn’t Matter Now / High Horse / All Down Hill / Gone as a Ghost / Dishes in the Dark

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. Also available on CD and 2CD. 

Our Overview. 

The originators of Rap Metal, Body Count are back with their latest album ‘Carnivore’ lead by the legendary rapper Ice-T. This is the 30th anniversary since the band’s formation and they continue to issue uncompromising and yet critically acclaimed albums in pairing Ice-T’s angry and socio-critical lyrics with thick guitar riffs and nods to metal and hardcore greats like Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies and Rage Against The Machine.

Bangers like “Thee Critical Beatdown”, “The Hate Is Real” and the title track will please old school Body Count fans, while “Colors” is a killer metal version of Ice-T’s 1988 hit single of the same name. With Motörhead’s classic “Ace Of Spades” Body Count are again paying tribute to one of their major musical influences. “When I’m Gone” shows a new side of Body Count and features guest vocals by Amy Lee (Evanescence). Other guest musicians include Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer), Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) and Riley Gale (Power Trip).

This isn’t your parents’ Ice-T, the mild-mannered star of television’s Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, who takes his charm to affable new heights while selling lemonade alongside precocious kids in a current Geico commercial. No, this is Body Count, the gangster-metal collective that made music fearsome to mainstream America, their renegade track “Cop Killer” sending politicians, parents and law enforcement officials into a proverbial tailspin when it was released unto the world a quarter-century ago. That’s not to say Ice-T and Body Count have been silent over the past 25 years, but as Ice is quick to point out, you can’t start a movement if people aren’t willing to move. “Music happens in climates,” the Body Count frontman says. “Groups like Rage Against The Machine and Korn were born when the world was in turmoil, then music went into this delusional period where hip-hop became about nothing more than poppin’ bottles. Now we have impending doom again, racism is at an all-time high and it’s our season again. This is the optimal time for a Body Count record.”

Tracklisting: Carnivore / Point the Finger / Bum-Rush / Ace of Spades / Another Level / Colors (2020) / No Remorse / When I’m Gone / Thee Critical Beatdown / The Hate Is Real

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. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Amalie Bruun aka Myrkur releases her third album ‘Folkesange’ which moves away from the black metal of the first two records towards a traditional folk sound journeying into the Scandinavian culture that marked her childhood. ‘Folkesange’ offers an emotional sanctuary, from the opening track “Ella” and its heartbeat, frame-drum percussion and crystalline vocals that become the grounding for a rapt, richly textured awakening, to the gentle carousel of the closing “Vinter”, with its nostalgia-steeped connotations of seasonal, snowfall-bewitched awe.

Although the album looks backward using traditional instruments throughout, such as nyckelharpa, lyre, and mandola, the album is no museum piece; it resonates in the here and now, aided by the spacious production of Heilung member and musical collaborator Christopher Juul. Cinematic yet intimate, ‘Folkesange’ exists in a state of boundless reverie, bourne by string-led drones, cyclical, elegiac rhythms and Amalie’s frictionless voice, all carrier signals for deep-rooted, ancestral memories, and associations felt on an elemental level.

An immersive experience in its own right, but also belonging to a wider, pagan folk-based renaissance that has attracted a devoted following worldwide, ‘Folkesange’ answers a need that has become ever more pressing in turbulent times. A zeroing in on a resonance that is both intrinsic and enduring, it’s a rediscovery of personal grounding, and an experience that reaches beyond culture to remind us of a shared, deeply rooted inheritance. A tuning fork that binds the personal and the universal, ‘Folkesange’ is a reminder that the most transcendent experiences are those closest to home.

Tracklisting: Ella / Fager som en Ros / Leaves of Yggdrasil / Ramund / Tor i Helheim / Svea / Harpens Kraft / Gammelkäring / House Carpenter / Reiar / Gudernes Vilje / Vinter

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Deluxe CD & Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Undeniably one of the best voices of our generation, Grammy award-winning singing sensation Gregory Porter has made his eagerly-awaited return to the studio with his sixth studio album ‘All Rise’.

Following on from 2017’s ‘Nat King Cole & Me’ album, Porter’s forthcoming record marks a return to his beloved original songwriting – heart-on-sleeve lyrics imbued with everyday philosophy and real-life detail, set to a stirring mix of jazz, soul, blues, and gospel. First single, “Revival”, sets the tone, kicking off with Gregory’s signature hand-clapping. “Yes, you could say that I went big,” says Gregory about the track, which features a handpicked horn section and 10-member choir. He explains, “For me, it’s the message of walking into this life and having some fear and self-doubt, and the point where you grab onto something that you know is real, the silent and real things, the truth… Once you can wrap onto the truth then this fearlessness comes.”

Since his 2013 debut, ‘Liquid Spirit’, which won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album, Gregory hasn’t let down his legion of fans, whether collaborating with Disclosure on ‘Holding On’, releasing his dance hit ‘Liquid Spirit – Claptone Remix’ which became one of the most popular tracks in Ibiza, scoring another Grammy for ‘Take Me to the Alley’ (2016), or telling his life story through Cole’s songbook. Porter is still surprised by his runaway success, but he has a theory: “I was soothed by my voice as a child and I think that’s the same thing others get from it. I’m trying to heal myself with these songs.”

Tracklisting: Concorde / Dad Gone Thing / Revival / If Love Is Overrated / Faith In Love / Merchants of Paradise / Long List of Troubles / Mr. Holland / Modern Day Apprentice / Everything You Touch Is Gold / Phoenix / Merry Go Round / Real Truth (bonus track 1) / You Can Join My Band (bonus track 2) / Thank You

Label Review. 

2020 album. Electronic. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

‘Cyan’ is the third full length LP from San Francisco Bay Area-based band The Seshen. Taking its name from a colour that is both strong and soft, the LP unravels the progression that has been made since 2016’s ‘Flames and Figures’, both as a band and as individuals “Since ‘Flames and Figures’, a lot has been taking place both internally and externally.” lyricist and vocalist Lalin St. Juste recollects, “we were on tour for the last album during the 2016 US election. There was an intense heaviness, a familiar one, one that extends generations and it just sunk in even further.” The battle to overcome this heaviness, felt as a result of political and social issues and through Lalin’s own experiences with combating depression, fuels ‘Cyan’. “I was at the edge of myself,” she confesses. “This album is about pulling back the layers of who I am in order to push through sadness and grab onto what’s underneath”.

From the opening lines of the album on “Take It All Away”, these ideas are displayed - “I think it’s been too long that I’ve been your puppet / Cut these strings, I don’t want any of it”, she sings. Led by exposed yet bold musical endeavours from bassist/producer Akiyoshi Ehara, the album sees The Seshen delve into uncharted eclectic realms; “I think that there’s a lot more rawness on this record” Aki muses. Anchored by Lalin’s sly, silvery vocals (which draw frequent comparisons to Erykah Badu) and cerebral yet playful rhythms from producer-bassist Aki, The Seshen’s music pulls from a deep well of electronic influences, R&B, and indie rock. Drummer Chris Thalmann, keyboard/synth player Mahesh Rao, percussionist Mirza Kopelman and sequencer Kumar Butler make the music three-dimensional, blending live and digital instrumentation for a mercurial, transportive sound. Since 2012, the Seshen’s live show has earned them critical acclaim and a dedicated fanbase on multiple continents, as they’ve shared stages with the likes of Hiatus Kaiyote, Petite Noir, tUnEyArDs, and Thundercat.

Tracklisting: Take It All / 4AM / Still Dreaming / Head To Head / Close Your Eyes / 1000 Lights / Faster Than Before / Don’t Answer / Can’t Pretend / Dive / Stones / Wander

Label Review. 

2020 album. Afrobeat and horns. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Black Market Brass release their second album ‘Undying Thirst’. Founded in Minneapolis, USA in the spring of 2012, BMB came together when two guitar players discovered each other’s almost identical Craigslist ads aimed at starting a funk band influenced by, among other things, the sounds of Fela Kuti, K Frimpong, and King Sunny Ade. Over the next three years the band would relentlessly rehearse, fine tune, and develop their sound. What started as a funk band playing obscure covers eventually blossomed into a creative collective of musicians that writes, arranges, and performs original music that builds on the sounds of Nigerian Afrobeat by tastefully blending it with other styles. Their first album ‘Cheat And Start A Fight’ from 2016 was laden with endless polyrhythms driven by intricate percussion, intertwined guitar parts, and rock-solid bass and drums. And horns.

The bands press release says of the new record: “‘Undying Thirst’, is a noxious brew of diesel and bleach; a special long-player full of wasteoid rippers for skullduggerous hover-bike gangs peddling fugazi relics and snake oil tinctures. Hellacious guitars, nitrous-charged percussion, a brass section harsher than paint-thinner, and a special batch of short-circuited electronics and synthesizers will leave your head buzzing into the 31st century. Blasting ‘Undying Thirst’ from your home speaker system is like going over a waterfall in a rusted out oil barrel, long after the sun has boiled the falls dry.”

Tracklisting: Cheat And Start A Fight / N.B.T. / War Room / Into The Thick / Intro / Undying Thirst / So Who (pt 1) / So Who (pt 2)

Label Review. 

2020 album with 2 bonus tracks. Nuclear Blast. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Swiftly reaching album number three are the Swiss quintet Burning Witches, an all-female band feverishly committed to the true, real, galloping thunder of traditional heavy metal. They are an inseparable unit, an alliance whose all-weekly Thursday rehearsal is their innermost sanctum. Their holiest rite that they simply never miss, with their rehearsal space being their cathedral.

“I simply wanted to have a band of close friends. Of people you can tell absolutely anything and you just want to spend as much time with as possible”, guitarist and founding member Romana Kalkuhl states. It wasn’t long before people began to notice this remarkable Swiss force: Their eponymous demo quickly gained accolades such as “Demo of the month” in major metal magazines like Metal Hammer and Rock Hard, and not long after their self-released debut they came to the attention of Nuclear Blast where they signed, without hesitation, and in 2018 released “Hexenhammer”, one of the strongest heavy metal albums of the 21st century.

Still, resting on their laurels never was their thing, really. “We always have the urge to go on. To be on the move. We don’t just want to look back and feed upon what we already achieved. We’re hungry for more, for every new day. We want to find out how far we can take it.” And after one listen to ‘Dance with the Devil’ we can safely assume: Far. Very, very far. Their third record is embodies the momentum of its predecessor and their countless live shows, propelling their sound onto a whole new level. The opening force of “Lucid Nightmare” is accelerates at breakneck speed, riff bombardment and double-bass fire; “Dance with the Devil” is a massively steel-plated stomper with bewitching melodies; the first single “Wings of Steel” sounds as massive as its name; “Black Magic” could have been written by Jefferson Airplane and the viciously thundering “Sea of Lies” simply is one of the best heavy metal songs 2020 will have to offer.

Track Listing: The Incantation / Lucid Nightmare / Dance With The Devil / Wings Of Steel / Six Feet Underground / Black Magic / Sea Of Lies / The Sisters Of Fate / Necronomicon / The Final Flight / Threefold Return / Battle Hymn (feat Ross The Boss & Michael Lepond) / Mansion In Darkness / Black Magic (Acoustic).

Label Review. 

2020 album. Alt folk. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The second album from Californian duo The Saxophones, following 2018’s ‘Songs of the Saxophones’. “It’s so easy to stay where we are; it’s a miracle anything ever changes”. Words you might not expect from somebody who has recently welcomed not just a second album but a second child into their world. Then again, change and movement come quite naturally to The Saxophones: this is a band who wrote their first album on board a boat, and who have called their second album ‘Eternity Bay’, fusing physical place with a spiritual sense of time.

The Saxophones’ band name, however, started out as a half-joke for the song-writing project of Alexi Erenkov, then a disillusioned jazz student who’d recently ditched the instrument. Jazz didn’t offer the room for self-expression that he sought. To song-writing he turned, its straightforward, limber form a liberation from the complex musical arrangements of his university studies. The solo project became a band when Alexi’s wife Alison joined the ranks on percussion. Their debut album, ‘Songs of the Saxophones’, pitched up just before the birth of their first son in 2018.

Written aboard the boat they lived on together, amid the incessant rain of a northern Californian winter, the record established The Saxophones’ style. Drawing from fifties exotica, west coast jazz, and seventies Italian lyricism, drama seeps into their deceptively simple sound, transforming dreamy surf pop into thoughtfully textured pieces, with a spaciousness at their core. But where ‘Songs of the Saxophones’ interrogates the nooks of interpersonal relationships, the gaze of ‘Eternity Bay’ is wider, as hinted by the album’s title. “My music has always grappled with mortality and the meaning of existence”, says Alexi, “but the birth of our first son and the imminent arrival of our second has greatly heightened my sensitivity to these themes.”

Tracklisting: Lamplighter / New Taboo / Forgot My Mantra / Take My Fantasy / Anymore / Zendo / Flower Spirit / Living In Myth / You Fool / Eternity Bay

Label Review. 

2020 album 

Our Overview. 

‘Dream in Colour’ by Franc Moody is the experience of letting loose together. ‘Dream in Colour’ also explores the way in which modern life constantly oscillates between online and offline realities; from the world we navigate inside our phones to the one we explore each day with our physiological senses. Franc Moody see themselves as a collective, and have countless members once you include the musicians, guest vocalists, producers and animators that all play a part. But at the core of the band are the two ringleaders and songwriters: Ned and Jon. While Jon was born into a family of classical musicians and grew up on oboes, cellos and violins, Ned was musically educated by the stereo in his parents car, blasting old soul, 50s/60s New Orleans music, and the rock n roll sounds of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran. “I loved the melody and the groove of that music, but I think really I loved the energy of it as well,” explains Ned.

Like a Franc Moody live show, ‘Dream in Colour’ is a life-affirming experience. As a band who came up via the tight-knit warehouse rave scene of London, their performances are all about community and chaos. Each gig feels like a gigantic house party, packed with scenes of crowd surfing, mosh pits, mass sing-alongs and chants of “MOODY! MOODY!” This is where the band feel most at home and it informs one of the many themes running through their debut album, What separates our emotional experience of things like friendship, love and community online versus those we experience in real life “Sometimes,” says Ned, “that experience of switching between those two worlds can feel like changing from black & white to colour. We wanted to explore that phenomenon on this record.” A truly feel-good DIY success story, ‘Dream in Colour’ also perfectly encapsulates the phenomenon that is Franc Moody themselves.

Tracklisting: Dream In Colour / Terra Firma / Skin On Skin / Charge Me Up / Flesh And Blood / Night Flight / She’s Too Good For Me / Grin And Bear It / Night Flight Reprise / This Is A Mood / A Little Something For The Weekend

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Disq have assembled a razor-sharp, teetering-on-the-edge-of-chaos melange of sounds, experiences, memories, and influences. ‘Collector’ ought to be taken literally—it is a place to explore and catalogue the Madison, Wisconsin band’s relationships to themselves, their pasts, and the world beyond the American Midwest as they careen from their teens into their 20s. This turbulence is backdropped by gnarled power pop, anxious post-punk, warm psych-folk, and hectic, formless, tongue-in-cheek indie rock.

‘Collector’, like the band itself, is defined and tightly-contoured by the ties between the five members. Raina Bock (bass/vocals) and Isaac deBroux-Slone (guitar/vocals) have known each other from infancy, growing up and into music together. Through gigging around Madison, they met and befriended Shannon Connor (guitar/keys/vocals), Logan Severson (guitar/vocals), and Brendan Manley (drums)—three equally dedicated and adventurous musicians committed to coaxing genre boundaries.

Produced by Rob Schnapf, ‘Collector’ is a set of songs largely pulled from each of the five members’ demo piles over the years. They’re organic representations of each moment in time, gathered together to tell a mixtape-story of growing up in 21st century America. The songs are marked by urgency, introspection, tongue-in-cheek nihilism, and a shrewd understanding of pop and rock structures and their corollaries—as well as a keen desire to dialogue with and upset them.

Tracklisting: Daily Routine / Konichiwa Internet / I’m Really Trying / D19 / Loneliness / Fun Song 4 / Gentle / Trash / I Wanna Die / Drum In

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

The third album from London-based, Tokyo-born experimentalist and former frontman of cult psychedelic-punk group Screaming Tea Party Koichi Yamanoha offers more than a hint of the famous Grimm brothers’ twisted fairy-tale folklore to ‘Ginormous’. Recalling a childhood with Humpty Dumpty and Mother Goose by his side, his latest offering marks the next chapter in a trilogy of self-discovery; a compendium of sonically astute storytelling where nightmares and dreams meet via French y -y and Casio beats.

An outlet for his fragile, haunted, otherworldly forays into baroque folk, futurist lyricism and electro-acoustic oddities, stories have always shaped Koichi’s world. Whether channelling the wonder of nursery rhymes from his youth to megalophobic thoughts of monolithic objects, ‘Ginormous’ turns to the next page of Koichi’s sonic journey so far; its lyrics and melodies culled from the notes on his phone whilst travelling alone on trains across Europe.

Between shows with Cate Le Bon, Simon Finn, Dinosaur Jr, Thurston Moore, The Undertones, Green Man Festival and Edinburgh Fringe, each note offers a monumental moment in time from every passing experience of Koichi’s emotional world; such as his feelings upon seeing the imposing Yugoslavian monuments of World War II (Spomenik’), or hearing from his many friends made along the way. The album was recorded in his room at home and Total Refreshment Centre in North/East London, Koichi enlisted award-winning producer Marta Salogni (Bjork, The Orielles) and Capital K’s Kristian Craig Robinson.

Tracklisting: Ginormous (Feat. Paz Maddio) / In A Glass Jar (Feat. Paz Maddio) / Kyowa Amenohidesu / The Ghost Of Madame Legros (Feat. Laetitia Sadier) / Something In Your Way / We’ve Never Been This Far Before / We Will Meet Again, The Cleaner Said / Death & Scenery / Hey Graeme, Pass Me The Rotten Gun / Spomenik / Oh! Omen

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. 

2020 album. Jazz. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

It’s Julia Biel’s voice and piano playing that feature on her fourth album ‘Black and White, Volume 1’ which is a solo recording that comments on the binary concepts of ‘black’ and ‘white’ in what she feels should by now be a post-’racial’ world. An award-winning original artist - singer, songwriter, piano player, producer, guitarist - whose neo mellow sound combines an indie jazz approach with art-pop sensibilities.

Using just the black and white keys of the piano and her mixed ‘black’ and ‘white’ heritage, the British-born dual British/German national with South African roots seeks to reach beyond the polarising concept of division along skin colour lines, to remind the listener of and to confront them with their own emotions - to take these two colours and transform them into a landscape of sonic colour in the process. “Because on the level of shared emotion is where everyone connects,” says Julia. “Skin colour, background, political persuasion or any other societal construct should have no bearing on our ability to empathise with each other nor should these things be allowed to deny someone their right to expressing anything less than the full spectrum of human emotion.”

Recorded in her own studio, produced by long-term partner Idris Rahman and mixed by Emre Ramazanoglu, the result is a set of intimate and raw solo recordings rendered spell-binding in large part due to hers being a voice like no other. Unhurried and unmistakeable, her unique tones wrap around deceptively simple songs dealing with confusion, pain, insecurity, joy and the power of words and love to uplift us but also to constrain us. All are imbued with her trademark poetic storytelling, revealing an ever-sharper perspective on life and love with repeated listens.

Tracklisting: Broken Little Pieces (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Diamond Dust (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Room With A View (Interlude 1) / The Wilderness (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Three Little Words (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Shhh... (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Licence To Be Cruel (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Little Girl (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / Onwards (Interlude 2) / Say It Out Loud (Solo Piano and Voice Version) / You Could Turn A Rainbow Grey (Solo Piano and Voice Version)

Label Review. 

2020 album 

Our Overview. 

Lisa Loeb releases her fifteenth record to date, ‘A Simple Trick To Happiness’, that finds her putting forth her most poignant and profoundly personal album in an exceptional body of work. For the entirety of her nearly three-decade-long career, globally acclaimed singer-songwriter Lisa Loeb has been exploring a variety of styles of music, moving seamlessly between creating family-friendly albums, including her 2018 Grammy-winning ‘Feel What U Feel’, and adult-focused studio albums like ‘Tails’, ‘Firecracker’, and ‘The Way It Really Is’.

Dallas native Lisa Loeb is a singer songwriter, touring musician and philanthropist who started her career with the platinum-selling Number 1 hit song “Stay (I Missed You)” from the film ‘Reality Bites’. A trailblazing independent artist, Lisa was the first pop musician to have a Number 1 single while not signed to a recording contract. She followed that remarkable feat with several hit singles and six albums, two which were certified gold. Not only does she also act, appearing in film and on TV with credits including ‘About a Boy’, ‘Hot Tub Time Machine 2’, ‘King of The Nerds’ but often recognized for her iconic cat-eyed glasses, Lisa also has her own eyewear line. As an entrepreneur, Lisa oversees the business and eyewear design of Lisa Loeb Eyewear. And she still has time to write and record a new album!

Tracklisting: Doesn’t It Feel Good (feat. Michelle Branch) / Skeleton / Another Day / This Is My Life / For The Birch / Most of All / Shine / Sing Out / I Wanna Go First / The Upside / Wonder

Label Review. 

Compilation of tracks by the Quatro sisters (including Suzi) recorded in the late 60s. Sundazed. 

Our Overview. 

The archetype for the ‘60s-era girl group was etched indelibly into stone, like a commandment: three pretty girls with matching outfits and bouffant hairdos would sing, with musical backing supplied by a bunch of guys standing in the shadows. The three Quatro sisters shattered that archetype forever with the Pleasure Seekers, an all-girl teenage rock & roll group who played all the instruments themselves and were fully capable of wiping the stage with any male band that crossed their path.

They never recorded a full length during their heyday but here is a compilation of various tracks they recorded some issued as singles at the time. “Never Thought You’d Leave Me” / “What a Way to Die.” released in March 1966 is now regarded as the greatest “girl garage” single of the era: “Dave brought lyrics, and we put the songs together quickly,” remembers Patti Quatro. “We felt very legit in making this record at a small local studio. Nan was the sexy voice on ‘Never Thought You’d Leave Me,’ and there was lots of laughter as Marylou added the screams on ‘What a Way to Die.’” Suzi Quatro remembers the recording as “very important and memorable”. Although the group never broke through in the end, following a band name changed to Cradle, Suzi was spotted by UK music producer Mickie Most who signed her to his label RAK in 1971 and before long she was a huge solo star.

Tracklisting: Intro By DJ The Lord / Gotta Get Away / Never Thought You’d Leave Me / Light Of Love / Good Kind Of Hurt / What A Way To Die / Elevator Express / Locked In Your Love / White Pig Blues / Brain Confusion / Where Have You Gone / Mr. Power

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

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. 

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 also available on CD.

Our Overview.

Jonathan Wilson, the American critically-acclaimed artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer (Father John Misty, Laura Marling, Dawes) spent most of 2017-18 on Roger Waters’ epic US+THEM tour as musical director, guitarist and vocalist, singing the David Gilmour leads. Following the tour, Wilson chose to temporarily leave his Los Angeles-based home and studio and head to Nashville to work with a revered group of musicians and co-producer Pat Sansone of Wilco, to create his new album ‘Dixie Blur’, his most personal, accessible and fully-realised work to date.

The North Carolina native, singer-songwriter and producer’s mellow style echos the Laurel Canyon sound of the late 60s. 15 years ago he moved to LA where he became an integral part of the music community as a respected artist and producer. It was there he recorded and played most of the instruments on his celebrated albums Gentle Spirit (2011), Fanfare (2013) and Rare Birds (2018), building each project over time, piece by piece.

Wilson chose a completely different path for Dixie Blur in both writing and recording. The songs hark back to his Southern roots, both musically and personally. The multi-talented artist went to Nashville to record at Cowboy Jack Clement’s legendary Sound Emporium Studio and worked with a core group of exceptional players that included Mark O’Connor (fiddle), Kenny Vaughan (guitar) Dennis Crouch (bass), Russ Pahl (pedal steel) and Jim Hoke (harmonica, woodwinds), Jon Radford (drums), and Drew Erickson (keyboards). Wilson and company recorded everything together live with very few overdubs, a full 360 from his past methods. Jonathan then mixed the record at Jackson Browne’s Groovemasters Studio. The result is a stunning album filled with warm, thoughtful, melody-rich songs that have an immediate impact upon first hearing and continue to grow with further listening.

Jonathan Wilson masterfully strikes a balance as he reaches back to the musical foundation of his upbringing while simultaneously moving forward by infusing the music with modern textures and aesthetic soundscapes, thus producing in the aptly titled, ‘Dixie Blur’.

Tracklisting: Just For Love / 69 Corvette / New Home / So Alive / Heaven Making Love / O' Girl / Pirate / Enemies / Fun For The Masses / Platform / Riding The Blinds / El Camino Real / Golden Apples / Korean Tea

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 CD.

Our Overview. 

American singer songwriter Stephen Malkumus is releasing his third solo album (without the Jicks or Pavement) entitled ‘Traditional Techniques’ which is new phase folk music for new phase folks, with Stephen Malkmus as attuned as ever to the rhythms of the ever-evolving lingual slipstream. It’s packed with handmade arrangements, modern folklore and 10 songs written and performed in his singular voice. An adventurous new album in an instantly familiar mode, Traditional Techniques creates a serendipitous trilogy with the loose fuzz of the Jicks’ ‘Sparkle Hard’ (2018) and the solo bedroom experiments of ‘Groove Denied’ (2019). Taken together, these three very different full-lengths in three years highlight an ever-curious songwriter committed to finding untouched territory.

The versatile Malkmus is most renowned for the work he has done with his highly influential and critically acclaimed band, Pavement, but he has also participated in other side-projects that are notable. He was a former member in David Berman’s band Silver Jews, he has played in a band with Sonic Youth members Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, and most recently he has been performing his solo material with his band the Jicks. But his strengths lies in his ability to switch and evolve his music palette from indie, blazing guitar rock, 70s prog and psychedelia and now to his unique take on folk sound is encapsulated in ‘Traditional Techniques’.

Malkmus took on Traditional Techniques as a kind of self-dare. Conceived while recording Sparkle Hard at Portland’s Halfling Studio, Malkmus had observed the variety of acoustic instruments available for use. The idea escalated within a matter of weeks into a full set of songs, and shortly thereafter into a realized and fully committed album. When he returned to Halfling, Malkmus drew from a whole new musical palette--including a variety of Afghani instruments - to support an ache both quizzical and contemporary. The resulting Traditional Techniques is expansive and thrilling. Alongside gorgeous folk music, there are also occasional bursts of flute-laced swagger, straight-up commune rock (“Xian Man”), and mind-bending fuzz.

Centred around the songwriter’s 12-string acoustic guitar and informed by a half-century of folk-rock reference points, ‘Traditional Techniques’ is the product of Malkmus and Halflingengineer/arranger-in-residence Chris Funk (The Decemberists). Additionally, Matt Sweeney (Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Chavez) plays guitar throughout, creating gorgeous folk music, with the occasional bursts of flute-laced swagger and straight-up commune rock.CD in printed inner wallet and 8-panel poster booklet.LP with 2-page insert and black poly-lined inner sleeve.

Tracklisting: ACC Kirtan / Xian Man / The Greatest Own In / Legal History / Cash Up / Shadowbanned / What Kind Of Person / Flowin’ Robes / Brainwashed / Signal Western / Amberjack

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. 

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. 

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 debut album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Honey Harper - aka William Fussell - on his new album ‘Starmaker’ seeks to revitalise country music for people who don’t like country music, described as “Weightless in sound and heavy in feeling… owes as much to Spiritualized as it does to Merle Haggard” - Pitchfork. The name ‘Starmaker’ is inspired by the Joni Mitchell classic ‘Free Man in Paris’, which is an ode to the stresses of having to play the game of the music industry. Cowritten with his wife, Alana Pagnutti, the album is not a commentary on Mitchell’s words but it explores similar ideas about fame, fortune and failure. “I'm the starmaker,” he offers. “These songs are primarily about my journey to create them. The album as a whole, is about my relationship with my wife and loved ones in the search of this success and fame.”

The majority of songs on ‘Starmaker’ embrace contradictions and dichotomies in both subject matter and style. Love and sadness, melancholia and happiness, success and failure, come in and out of focus. ‘Something Relative’ is an elegantly simple ballad about a friend of Harper’s that died of an overdose. The sparse picked guitar contrasts the flowing, melodic strings as Harper hopefully sings about his lost friend. ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’, a Big Star meets The Eagles turned Krautrock instant classic, speaks to the early days of Harper and his wife’s long-distance relationship; the happiness of finding someone you love tarnished by the eventuality of having to say goodbye. In Dido Building Carthage, a tragic story of love and suicide is contrasted with the hope of building a new empire. The juxtaposition is mirrored in the surface of Tuner’s painting where classically-painted figures appear and simultaneously fade into a looser, more abstract handling of the landscape.

Born William Fussell in 1989 in Adel, Georgia (a small town near the Okefenokee Swamp) Harper’s family quickly relocated to Hollywood, Florida where he immersed himself in the arts more readily available in southern Florida: disco and country music. His father was an Elvis impersonator who introduced him to Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline and Hank Williams and his mother watched ‘Grease’ with him every month introducing him to his lifelong style icon, Olivia Newton John. At the age of 10, Harper’s family returned to Georgia, this time to the suburbs of Atlanta, where he would spend his teenage years performing in both church choirs and punk bands. On the day of his eighteenth birthday, Harper left home, beginning his journey to become the Starmaker celebrated in his album’s title.

“‘Starmaker’ has classic written all over it” - Long Live Viny

l“Magical… Honey Harper drags country into the 21st century” – The Line of Best Fit

“A glimpse into another gorgeous dimension” - Clash

“Long story short: It’s fantastic.” - Stereogum

“A gorgeous kind of spaced-out country that’s anchored by the musician’s clean, androgynous voice. It seems right at home in a setting that feels hallucinatory by nature.” - FADER

“Honey Harper is on a country music mission […] this music transcends any sort of inherent Americanness associated with the genre.” - Noisey

Tracklisting: Green Shadows / In Light Of Us / The Day it Rained / Forever / Something Relative / Tired Tower / Suzuki Dreams / Vaguely Satisfied / Someone Else’s Dream / Tomorrow Never Comes / Strawberry Lite / Starmaker

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.

Re-released 2006 album.

Our Overview.

American musician and artist Houston Jr. - who calls himself ‘Black Cherokee’ - a raconteur and quick-witted wordsmith, has so much to say that when there is a groove, he doesn’t want to let it go but rather float around and experiment. Influenced by Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and the like, his strong voice and natural ability to use slogans give this album a cunning stance. Juxtaposed by the highly visible time stamp of mid-aughts DIY R&B production, ‘America’ sounds sometimes like worlds colliding, smooth improvisations, quick turnarounds and soul bearing truths.

Otis Houston Jr. can frequently be found making art, performance, poetry and social commentary at his long-held spot in New York City at the entrance to the FDR drive at 122 Street. Over the years, he has come to occupy and claim this marginalised stretch of the FDR as gallery, studio and public forum. Since 1997, following a period of incarceration and his mother’s death, Houston Jr. has set up shop weekly at this self-anointed soapbox under the Triborough Bridge, where he stages impromptu performances and displays an arrangement of signage, drawings and found object assemblages that critique racism, poverty and addiction and also celebrate health, education, happiness and freedom. As he says, “We not in the same boat, but we all in the water.”

The works of Houston Jr., are made primarily with discarded objects that he collects from the street and the dumpster at his job and creates in his East Harlem apartment of 30 years, or in the basement of the office building where he works in Midtown Manhattan.

Houston Jr. recorded the songs for ‘America’ in three locations around Harlem and the Bronx in 2006, the year the album was originally self-released on CD. Makeshift studios that no longer exist provide a telling context for his autobiographical storytelling. Pre-recorded beats made by studio owners were picked based on which suited his cadence-laden poetry best and often times on ‘America’ the songs repeat, with different lyrics, transforming themselves.

‘America’ opens with a song not written by Houston Jr. - the only song on the record penned by someone else. In ‘Soul Brother 27’, he explains “…It was given to me 30 years ago, 1975 by my cellmate… but has been such a part of me I wanted everyone to hear it”. He goes on to read this poem that sets the tone for his story laid out in 14 tracks. Songs about Incarceration for drug charges, his short stint as a boxer, getting shot, being in the hospital and his positive approach to life and desire for change in his community. In the song ‘The Children’ he spells it out: “We need to raise up a new generation. We need to use video, rap music, pop sounds and any and everything all around. We need to sing it, play it, sew it, picture it, draw it, wave it, and shout it everywhere.” This touching and unsuspecting underground classic finally gets the release it deserves.

Tracklisting: Soul Brother / The Children / Me / One More River To Cross / Who’s The Fool / This Real Man Black / Cherokee / My Books I Read / The Thang / Sugar Ray Get Out Of My Way / Thanking The Lord / I Like Where I Stay / AMERICA / My Name And My Word / Red-Yellow-Black-White

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 album also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

The Orioles who hail from Halifax, UK are an indie band but in a way that reminds us that indie used to be something to aspire too. The trio: Sidonie B Hand-Halford (drums), Esmé Dee Hand-Halford (bass, vocals), Henry Carlyle Wade (guitar, vocals) are quite noughties: they do the girl-group-go-garage-rock thing that was de rigueur a few years back especially in Brooklyn, NY and there’s a chillwave glaze and surf pop shimmer over some of their tracks, but they’re also quintessentially indie reminiscent of the C86 scene.

Voyaging through cinematic samba, 70s disco, deep funk boogies, danceable grooves and even tripping on 90s acid house, ‘Disco Volador’ is set to propel The Orielles spinning into a higher zero-gravity orbit. Written and recorded in just 12 months, it captures the warp-speed momentum of their post-‘Silver Dollar Moment’ debut album success; an unforgettable summer touring, playing festivals like Green Man and bluedot and deepening their bond whilst witnessing the sets of their heroes Stereolab, Mogwai, and Four Tet.

‘Disco Volador’’s library catalogue vibes stem from a band lapping up and widening their pool of musical discovery whether nodding to Italian film score maestros Sandro Brugnolini and Piero Umiliani, or the Middle Eastern tones of Khruangbin and Altin Gün. “All the influences we had when writing this record were present when we recorded it, so we completely understood what we wanted this album to feel like and could bring that to fruition,” tells drummer Sid. “This is the sound of where we are at, right now.”

Returning to Stockport’s Eve studios where the band cooked together, went swimming, took walks and relaxed in the soundwaves of an occasional gong bath, Henry, Sid and Esme called a family reunion under the watchful whisker-twitching of studio cat, Adam (“He was probably a producer in a past life,” they say). With keysman Alex now adding texture through his classically trained know-how, they rejoined engineer Joel and producer Marta Salogni (Liars, Bj.rk, The Moonlandingz) - whose vast expertise of drones, delays and mad effects were so intrinsic to their ‘Disco Volador’ vision - sketched out by the band in Sharpie doodles on the studio wall.

Built from instrumentals around the concept of “boogie to space, space to boogie,” ‘Disco Volador’’s energy comes from the melodic fission of tension and release. Recurring motifs explore space, not only of earth’s celestial atmosphere but also what happens within the gaps and how sound manipulation has the power to carry, or displace, its listener. “We like throwing in wide curveballs by taking the music somewhere different then figuring our way back… like jumping off,” says Henry. “Jez from ACR taught us about pauses and that’s massive on this record; space can be the most beautiful part of a song.”

At times haunting and unsettling, ‘Disco Volador’’s film-like structure flows from fact to fiction. Its tales are culled from waking life as easily as they become a soundtrack for lucid dream sequences.Initial LP pressing on orange with brown blob coloured vinyl plus digital download code.

Tracklisting: Come Down On Jupiter / Rapid i / Memoirs Of Miso / Bobbi’s Second World / Whilst The Flowers Look / The Square Eyed Pack / 7th Dynamic Goo / A Material Mistake / Euro Borealis / Space Samba (Disco / Volador Theme)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Glasgow’s hitmakers Deacon Blue release their new album ‘City Of Love’. They have enjoyed major worldwide success since their formation in 1985 and have since kept on that path of greatness. Their first album ‘Raintown’ was released in 1987 to massive critical acclaim and went on to achieve over a million sales. The album was quickly followed up with their number one, double platinum album ‘When The World Knows Your Name’. Since then, the band has sold over 7 million albums worldwide and their last three albums returned the band to the Top 20 of the UK album charts.

The cornerstone of the new album revolves around the singular belief that hope can prevail even in the darkest corners of life. Together they form a beautiful composition of the different silhouettes of life and are sure to be a hit amongst fans to sing along and indulge in. From the first song “City Of Love” right through to the closer “On Love”, the new album is filled with breathtaking compositions from Ricky Ross and Gregor Philip, among others. The smashing title track “City Of Love” includes an array of melodic guitar riffs and beautiful keys that perfectly fit into the intended message of love and serve as an anthem for hope.

Tracklisting: City Of Love / Hit Me Where It Hurts / Weight Of The World / Take Me / In Our Room / Intervals / Keeping My Faith Alive / A Walk In The Woods / Come On In / Wonderful / On Love.

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. Country record from R&B Legend. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

‘Sorry You Couldn’t Make It’ is the long awaited “country album” from the legendary Swamp Dogg. Recorded in Nashville, featuring John Prine, Justin Vernon, Jenny Lewis, and others. Jerry Williams’ aka Swamp Dogg first love was country music, listening to it as a Navy family kid growing up in Portsmouth, Virginia. “My granddaddy, he just bought country records out the asshole,” Swamp remembers. “Every Friday when he came home from the Navy yard he’d stop off and get his records. His first time performing on stage, in fact, was a country song at a talent show when he was six years old: “I did Red Foley’s version of ‘Peace in the Valley.’”

While the 77 year-old Williams’ most enduring persona is the psychedelic soul superhero Swamp Dogg a musical vigilante upholding truths both personal and political since 1970’s immortal album, ‘Total Destruction To Your Mind’ he will tell anybody who will listen that he’s considered himself country this entire time. “If you notice I use a lot of horns,” Swamp says. “But actually, if you listen to my records before I start stacking shit on it, I’m country. I sound country.”

Swamp began his professional singing career as Little Jerry Williams back in the ‘50s before working as an A&R man for Atlantic Records in the late ‘60s. His biggest hit is actually a country song: 1970’s “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got)”, written with his best friend Gary U.S. Bonds. Following 2018’s critically acclaimed, Ryan Olson-produced ‘Love, Loss, And Auto-Tune’, ‘Sorry You Couldn’t Make It’ allows Swamp to finally dive into the sound he grew up playing. With the support of Pioneer Works Press, they recorded the album at Nashville’s Sound Emporium with Olson as producer once again, and backed by a crack studio band led by Derick Lee, a keyboard virtuoso who worked as the musical director of BET’s (Black Entertainment Television) Bobby Jones Gospel Show for nearly four decades. Nashville guitar firebrand Jim Oblon combusts his way through lead duties, while frequent collaborator Moogstar and special guests Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), John Prine, Jenny Lewis, Channy Leaneagh and Chris Beirden of Poliça, and Sam Amidon join the action throughout. A band of 14 players, including Vernon, Lee, Beirden, and Moogstar, among others, provides the background for Swamp’s devastating new take on “Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got).”

Lead single “Sleeping Without You Is A Dragg” is one of Swamp’s most heartfelt songs to date and features Vernon on piano as well as backing vocals by Lewis and Leaneagh. He duets with country-folk legend Prine on two songs. Originally written and demoed in his forties, “Please Let Me Go Round Again” is a plea for one more chance at life, sung with acute emotional connection. “I was looking for a new way for Swamp Dogg to go,” he explains. “Apart from me singing and writing most of the songs, I didn’t participate—in other words, I told ‘em, ‘Don’t ask me, I wanna see what happens without my influence.’ It was hard for me to do, ego-wise.” ‘Sorry You Couldn’t Make It’ sees Swamp come full circle, and closes what has felt to him like unfinished business. “They didn’t have any blacks in country until Charlie Pride came along,” he says. “But in time, all things change and that’s what has happened to country music.”

Tracklisting: Sleeping Without You Is a Dragg / Good, Better, Best / Don’t Take Her (She’s All I Got) / Family Pain / I Lay Awake / Memories (feat. John Prine) / I’d Rather Be Your Used To Be / Billy / A Good Song / Please Let Me Go Round Again (feat. John Prine).

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘Beat Poetry For Survivalists’ is the new collaboration between Peter Buck & Luke Haines. Peter Buck was the guitarist for R.E.M. Luke Haines was the guitarist for 1990s UK indie band the Auteurs. The press release says: “[R.E.M. were] ...the biggest band in the world. The Auteurs were not the biggest band in the world. They were pretty good though.”

Luke Haines also does paintings of Lou Reed. One day, Peter Buck bought one of Luke Haines’ Lou Reed paintings.They had never met before but decided that the fates had brought them together and they should write some songs together and make an album. ‘Beat Poetry For Survivalists’ is that album. With songs about legendary rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons, The Enfield Hauntings (of 1978), a post-apocalyptic radio station that only plays Donovan records, Bigfoot, and Pol Pot.

Buck’s last main project was his collaboration with Joesph Arthur as Arthurbuck in 2018. Peter says that the pair have a follow-up also lined up for release this year. Luke Haines meanwhile, although less well known than his new musical partner has a long discography starting with his 1990s outfit The Auteurs. Despite being critically lauded, they failed to garner more than a cult following in their native UK. He scored his only ‘hit’ in with the song “The Facts of Life” by his next group Black Box Recorder in 2000. Since 2001 Haines has released albums under his own name as well as publishing a few books and has a regular column in Record Collector magazine.

Tracklisting: Jack Parsons / Apocalypse Beach / Last Of The Legendary Bigfoot Hunters / Beat Poetry For The Survivalist / Witch Tariff / Andy Warhol Was Not Kind / French Man Glam Gang / Ugly Dude Blues / Bobby’s Wild Years / Rock ‘N’ Roll Ambulance

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

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. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl and Red vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The Shires are the biggest selling UK country music act. Formed in 2013, they are the first country act to score a Top 10 album with their debut release ‘Brave’ in 2015 and its follow up ‘My Universe’ becoming the fastest-selling British country album of all time following its release in 2016. Paving the way for British country artists, Crissie Rhodes and Ben Earle were the first UK act to have received a highly coveted award from the American Country Music Association. 

Their new album ‘Good Years’ has been recorded in Nashville. The first single “New Year” is “a soaring ballad set around the festivities and the countdown, and how you wish you could be with your previous lover. It’s heartfelt, and thought provoking and really showcases Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes’ divine vocal harmonies.”

Ben says of the new album and tour: “Honesty and storytelling has always been such an important part of our songwriting. We’ve poured some of the incredible experiences and life we’ve lived into these songs. We can’t wait to hit the road next year and play these live across the country. The songs mean so much to us personally, but there really is nothing like looking out at our fans in the crowd and seeing how much of an impact they can have in someone else’s life. It’s truly a very special thing”.

Tracklisting: Lightning Strikes / On The Day I Die / Good Years / No Secrets / About Last Night / New Year / Only Always / Independence Day / Thank You Whiskey / People Like Us / Better Place / Crazy Days.

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 Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Over the last decade, New Jersey band the Real Estate have crafted warm yet meticulous pop-minded music, specialising in soaring melodies that are sentimentally evocative and unmistakably their own. The bands fifth studio album ’The Main Thing’ dives even further into the musical dichotomies they’re known for—lilting, bright guitar lines set against emotionally nuanced lyrics, complex arrangements conveyed breezily— and what emerges is a superlative collection of interrogative songs as full of depth, strangeness and contradictions as they are lifting hooks. ‘The Main Thing’, delivers the band’s most inspired and self-aware set of songs to date, created over the course of a year at upstate New York’s Marcata Sound.

Following his work on 2011’s Days, engineer Kevin McMahon returns as producer and, for the first time ever, Real Estate have brought in outside instrumentalists and special guests like Sylvan Esso, whose vocalist Amelia Meath features on ‘Paper Cup’.Across the album’s 13 interrogative tracks - as full of depth, strangeness, and contradictions as they are lifting hooks - the band balances existential, environmental and political anxieties with fatherly sentiments, self-satirising lyrics, forever-lively guitar lines and shimmering strings.

Tracklisting: Friday / Paper Cup (ft Sylvan Esso) / Gone / You / November / Falling Down / Also A But / The Main Thing / Shallow Sun / Sting / Silent World / Procession / Brother

Label Review.

2020 album also avaiable on Double Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Following their critically acclaimed collaboration with John Grant on last year’s Creep Show project, American trio Wrangler announce their new album, ‘A Situation’, released via Bella Union. This collection of warm, reverberant, amped up tracks, that land somewhere between future music, synth pop, industrial dance, classic techno and rigid electro, captures the ambiguities of the group perfectly. Just as they use the ageing outmoded equipment that other people once chose to throw away in order to make tomorrow’s music, they are the paranoid group who (just about) dare to hope that things still might turn out OK. They cast a doleful eye across the hellscape of 2019 and state, if the end is truly nigh, then it’s never been more important to celebrate the little time we have left. And if a revolution to save ourselves is possible then we’re all in need of a revolutionary party, with a revolutionary soundtrack to match.

When Wrangler first formed they had a very simple modus operandi. The clue was in their name. Ben ‘Benge’ Edwards (The Maths), Stephen ‘Mal’ Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) and Phil Winter (Tuung) would get together with a very select kit list of careworn analogue synthesisers and vintage digital sequencers. Their task? To wrangle new music from the ancient equipment. These self-imposed restrictions helped produced two classic long players: ‘LA Spark’ (2014) and ‘White Glue’ (2016).

However, the times have changed and so have Wrangler. The coming decade, which looks set to be dubbed the Terrible Twenties, may be the last time that bands actually get to release albums. Ecological collapse, climate crisis, food shortages and the disintegration of the fabric of society will mean that the slow devolution of the musicindustry isn’t even one of the main things that musicians (or anyone else) should be worrying about, so the trio have thrown everything into their third (but hopefully not their last) album. The result - ‘A Situation’ - is simultaneously their bleakest and funkiest release to date.

Double LP pressed on 140g vinyl with digital download code.

Tracklisting: Anthropocene / How To Start A / Revolution / Machines Designed (To Eat You Up) / Mess / Knowledge Deficit / Rhizomatic / Anarchy Of Sound / Slide / A Situation / White Noise

Label Review. 

2020 covers album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Pete Astor, the indie legend responsible for bands The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Wisdom of Harry and Ellis Island Sound. returns with an album of other people’s songs. It was recorded with producer Ian Button and features Dave Tattersall (Wave Pictures) playing guitar and Andy Lewis (Spearmint, Blow Up) on bass and synth, with Pam Berry (Black Tambourine, Withered Hand), Sean Read (Edwyn Collins, Pretenders, and a mass of brilliant others) and Nina Walsh (Woodleigh Research Facility, Fireflies) joining on vocals.

From the pure pop ache of Gen X’s “Dancing with Myself” to the stoic heartbreak of Cat Power’s “Manhattan”, via the shadowy rider in Elvis Presley’s “Black Star”, to the teenage ’50s gangster of Richard Thompson’s “Vincent Black Lightning”, ‘You Made Me’ marks some of the way stations of a life in music, songs to make sense of time passing and what that passing time can mean. Pete Astor shares his thoughts on ‘You Made Me’: “Like everybody, my life has been sound-tracked by the songs I listen to and sing along with. And a bit like a collection of photographs, I’ve lost some while some never even got taken. Nonetheless, some really good ones did get through.”

Tracklisting: Dancing with Myself (Gen X) / Black Star (Elvis Presley) / Chained to an Idiot (Pete Astor) / Manhattan (Cat Power) / Nitcomb (Joe Strummer) / Vincent Black Lightning (Richard Thompson) / Solid Air (John Martyn) / Can’t Hardly Wait (Replacements) / Courage (Villagers) / Suffering Jukebox (Silver Jews) / One Man Guy (Loudon Wainwright III).

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Thomas Oliver new album ‘Brightest Light’ is a combination of Soul, Roots, Folk and Pop, but it certainly carries some of the energy and diversity of Berlin. He says “I had set out to write a new record in New Zealand where I lived, but I had the distinct sense that I needed to change my surroundings in order to write music that was inspired in a different way. So I moved to Berlin, Germany, and set up a studio soon after completing a 19-date European tour. Berlin is unconventional, colourful, and sometimes challenging, which is what made it the perfect place to base myself while I wrote this music. I started writing songs as soon as I touched down; I couldn’t help it.”

Thomas Oliver represents the openness of the mind and the heart, both as a musician and as a human. He touches people’s lives in all corners of the globe as he draws a connection between various forms of music that could otherwise be considered polar opposites. His warm demeanor and story-telling on stage are as much a part of his musical identity as his unmistakable falsetto-singing range, his award-winning songwriting (he was awarded the APRA Silver Scroll (Song Of The Year) - award in New Zealand in 2016), his world-renowned touch on the lap-slide guitar, or his celebrated vocal contributions to the genre of Drum & Bass for which he was recently a finalist for the Best Vocalist Award at the Drum & Bass Arena Awards.

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Grammy-nominated The Secret Sisters’ - Laura and Lydia Rogers - new album ‘Saturn Return’ sees the Muscle Shoals, Alabama based folk/country duo grapple with love and loss on their new album which was produced by Brandi Carlile and her frequent collaborators Phil and Tim Hanseroth. Also this new release also features the real-life sisters singing individually for the very first time instead of relying solely on their trademark soaring harmonies—something producer Brandi Carlile challenged them to do.

The elements that made listeners fall in love with the band’s 2010 self-titled debut album—sweet, strong voices, carefully crafted musical arrangements, and soul-baring songwriting—are still present, but there’s also newfound confidence and individuality.

Recorded in Carlile’s home studio in Washington state, Saturn Return heralds the arrival of a new era of The Secret Sisters, who both experienced their first Saturn returns while making the record. Carlile challenged the sisters to sing as individuals instead of relying solely on close harmony singing, and for the first time, Laura and Lydia performed separately in the studio. This is also the first album in which The Secret Sisters composed all the songs without any co-writers. 

With Saturn Return, The Secret Sisters have truly come into their own as artists, songwriters, and singers. “I’ve come to feel like this is what we were meant to do,” said Lydia. “That’s a really good feeling.”

The album is named after an astrological occurrence in which the planet Saturn returns to the same place in the sky that it occupied at the moment of a person’s birth. During this phase, which happens approximately every 29 ½ years, said Laura, a woman “comes into her own and has this awakening in herself about who she is as a person. It can also be a very traumatic time where your whole world just seems to radically shift.”

“As we age, we face obstacles that are beyond our control. Some forces are internal: insecurity, anxiety, fear. Some are external: the loss of loved ones, an unjust system and the fragility of time. Yet the mark of maturity is how you respond when you realize you’re not in control. Where do you find your resilience?

“This album is a reflection of us coming to terms with how to find our power in the face of an unfair world. These songs lead listeners past ‘where happy man searches, to a place only mad women know.’ We question our purpose, our relationships, our faith. Trading the fears of our youth for the dread that rages within us as mature women.

"With ‘Saturn Return’, our hope is that women can feel less alone in their journey through the modern world. We need each other more than we ever have; the less competition and the more inclusiveness and understanding, the better. We are southern women in the 21st century, convicted by our beliefs.” - The Secret Sisters.

Tracklisting: Silver / Late Bloomer / Cabin / Hand Over My Heart / Fair / Tin Can Angel / Nowhere, Baby / Hold You Dear / Water Witch / Healer In The Sky

Label Review. 

2020 album. Experimental pop. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The Welsh band Islet return with the release of their long-awaited new album. A Powys trio whose free-spirited invention and exuberant intensity flows through experimental pop: hypnotic, exhilarating and defiantly unique. ‘Eyelet’ was recorded at home tucked away in the hills of rural Mid Wales. It took form the months following the birth of band members Emma and Mark Daman Thomas’ second child and the death of fellow band member Alex Williams’ mother. Alex came to live with Emma and Mark, and the band enlisted Rob Jones (Pictish Trail, Charles Watson) to produce.

“Caterpillar” described by Emma as “a song for my unborn child”. It’s followed by syncopated lullaby “Good Grief” with its haunting keyboard hook and icy percussion thawed by Emma’s yearning vocals about the quiet strength of generations of women. With nods towards Arthur Russell and Jenny Hval, “Geese” is a mini symphony of driven electronica inspired by Welsh cultural theorist Raymond Williams’ novel People Of The Black Mountains. Young Fathers inflected rhythm can be heard on “Radel 10” that accompanies the multi-tracked variations of Emma and defiant lyrics that were inspired in part by The Good Immigrant - the landmark anthology of essays on race and immigration by BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) writers.

Tracklisting: Caterpillar / Good Grief / Treasure / Geese / Sgwylfa Rock / Radel 10 / Clouds / Florist / Moon / No Host / Gyratory Circus.

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Fire! is a Nordic experimental supergroup formed in 2009 by the core trio of Mats Gustafsson (sax), Johan Berthling (bass guitar) and Andreas Werlin (drums) who joined together to develop a fresh approach to improvised music drawing on influences from free jazz, psychedelic rock, and noise. In 2013, the group went massive — cherry-picking 28 members from the Scandinavian jazz, improvisation, and avant-garde rock music scene to supplement the core band’s sound for a concert at Stockholm’s legendary Fylkingen venue which resulted in the first Fire! Orchestra record ‘Exit!’.

‘Actions For Free Jazz Orchestra’ was written by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki in 1971. This new, extended reading by Mats Gustafsson and Fire! Orchestra was commissioned by the Sacrum Profanum festival in Krakow, Poland in 2018. The idea was to place this classic piece in a contemporary setting, with a new approach and a new body of sound. However, the original score was used as a platform for the new reading, connecting history with the present. A score in this context is most often of a graphic nature to present reference points, visualized on the sleeve by Kim Hiorthoy’s cut-up adaption of Mats Gustafsson’s score. It’s also worth noticing that the instrumentation is more or less identical to that of 1971, the main difference being a tuba replacing one of the trombones. Finally, this new reading clocks in at 40 minutes, and is thus considerably longer than the 1971 version.

Tracklisting: Actions.

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Warrington and London combo Extradition Order launch their post punk/Motown album on the life of J Robert Oppenheimer and the atomic bomb, with the aid of 5 associated indie labels. ‘American Prometheus’ is a co-release between the labels: Gare Du Nord, Blang, Jezus Factory, Helen Llewelyn Product 19 and I Blame The Parents.

“A Northern Soul album about the atomic bomb” is how the band have referred to it during its creation. After their astute post-indie dissection of the Kennedy dynasty on their previous album, the bands obsession with US politics and history turns to the life and career of J Robert Oppenheimer around the Manhattan Project and the development of the first A-bomb. The songs cover the science a little, but also Oppenheimer’s private and political life and legacy - the album concludes with the reminder that he was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times but never won it.

Musically the band have taken their often angular dramatic post-punk energy and concentrated it into concise indie beat music that has clear Motown influences, as well as some of the barely contained but danceable terror of bands like The Pop Group or more recently Black Country New Road. On top of that, the unisex lead vocals (Alastair Harper, Anoushka Kenley and Rosie Beard) can conjure up moments of sheer gothic rock and roll abandon - think The Rocky Horror Show meets the B-52s. The album is dedicated to Extradition Order founder member Nick Boardman who sadly passed away in 2018 but whose bass hooks and singing run through this record at its foundations.

Tracklisting: Daddy, Give Me Your Money / I Wanted More / Baby, What Have You Done For Me Lately? / A New Set Of Rules / America First / I’ve Got A Gang, I’ve Got A Club / Manhattan / Fat Boy, Thin Man / Pills And The Party / Do I Love You? / No Nobel

Label Review. 

Previously unreleased live recordings from his early 1977 tour. Official. Also available 2CD.

Our Overview.

In the years that have passed since Rory Gallagher’s death, aged 47 on June 14 1995, his true stature has become ever more clear. This soft spoken Irishman, characterised by his flowing locks and trademark working man stage clothes, was far from ordinary. Gallagher was a self taught virtuoso who forged a musical revolution in his native land, shunned the traps of fame and stardom yet became a universally acclaimed international folk hero.

Following on from the highly successful ‘BLUES’ album, Chess/UMC are proud to be releasing ‘Check Shirt Wizard- Live In ‘77’. Rory Gallagher’s most successful albums are his live ones, such as “Live! In Europe” and “Irish Tour ’74”. He was an artist that came alive when onstage and this album covers a previously undocumented live period. This 20-song, previously unreleased, set is culled from four shows (London, Brighton, Sheffield and Newcastle) during an early 1977 tour across the UK in support of Rory’s then latest album 'Calling Card'. Featuring fantastic live versions of tracks from that album as well as songs from the 1975 'Against The Grain' album and other live favourites.

This new album has been mixed from the original multi track tapes from the Rory archive, which were recorded by the Rolling Stones and Jethro Tull’s mobile studios and mastered at Abbey Road.

The cover painting is by a young Irish graffiti artist Vincent Zara who has stencilled Rory’s image across his home country.

His influence has and will continue to be immense. His legacy lives on.

• Johnny Marr “The man who changed my musical life was Rory Gallagher, I picked up a guitar because of him.”

• Slash “Rory didn’t sound like anybody else…He had a very individual, independent kind of tone and approach and everything. He’s always been a big hero to me.”

• Brian May “He was just a magician, he’s one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything it seemed. It just seemed to be magic. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking “how does that come out of there?”

• Ritchie Blackmore “Rory was probably the most natural player I’ve ever seen. In all the gigs we did together I don’t think I ever heard him play the same thing twice… He was the ultimate performer.”

• Ed Sheeran “’A Million Miles Away’ was the first song I learned on guitar. The story goes that when Jimi Hendrix was asked how it felt to be the greatest guitarist in the world, he answered, “I don’t know. Go ask Rory Gallagher.”

• Eric Clapton “The man who got me back into the blues.”

• Jimmy Page “I really liked Rory, he was fine guitarist and singer and lovely man”

• Peter Frampton “When I was with Humble Pie and
we were all just beginning to feel like we were getting it together, Rory was the one 
to measure yourself against. To be able 
to play like that with such intensity was awesome and really the only other guitarist that had that ability was Hendrix.
I could never get a sound like that from 
my Strat no matter how hard I tried. 
He was a real credit to music and pushed it to another level altogether.”

• Alex Lifeson “It is truly remarkable how many guitarists over the years have cited Rory Gallagher as an influence.  I was introduced to his playing during the Taste years but it was during one of Rush’s early tours opening for Rory in the fall of 1974 that left the greatest impression.  He oozed passion in his playing and I envied his ability to transcend the moment.  I learned a lot from him as a guitarist but it was his character that touched me most.”

• Ace Frehley (Kiss) “Rory Gallagher he was a great player. I’ve seen him perform several times he just used to use a little Fender amp and that beat-up old Strat, but boy, he could make that guitar talk. He was another guitar player who never got the credit he deserved, it’s incredible.” • Joe Bonamassa “As soon as I heard Cradle Rock, I was hooked. I thought, ‘This is what I want to be when I grow up.’”

• Bill Wyman “There’s very few true blues people. Rory stood out because he did it all the way through his life, that’s what he did. Who else is there? I can’t think of anyone that stands out as a real true honest follower of the blues and singer of the blues as Rory was.”

• Larry Coryell “There’s blues players, you know some guys who play some blues licks but was like improvising with that scale. He was improvising on the quarter tones, improvising on the feedback, improvising on the vibrato. If you close your eyes and take out the rhythm section and hear him playing it’s right up there with avant grade jazz music. I see a strong similarity between the approach to improvising over the blues between Rory and Jimi Hendrix. They were both virtuosos who were able to manipulate even the minutest aspect of the blues and do things that had never been played before.”

• Bob Geldof “It’s not too much to say that what like Hendrix did for the electric blues, Rory did in an Irish context. You know Hendrix was the great originator, he sought of did field hollers for the pace age you know. But Rory absolutely injected some Irish thing into it.” •

Tracklisting:

SIDE A; Do You Read Me (Live From The Brighton Dome, 21st January 1977) / Moonchild (Live From The Brighton Dome, 21st January 1977) / Bought And Sold (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977)

SIDE B: Calling Card (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977) / Secret Agent (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977) / Tattoo’d Lady (Live From The Brighton Dome, 21st January 1977)

SIDE C: A Million Miles Away (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977) / I Take What I Want (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977) / Walk On Hot Coals (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977)

SIDE D: Out On The Western Plain (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977) / Barley & Grape Rag (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977) / Pistol Slapper Blues (Live From Sheffield City Hall, 17th February 1977) / Too Much Alcohol (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977) / Going To My Hometown (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977)

SIDE E: Edged In Blue (Live At Newcastle City Hall, 18th February 1977) / Jack-Knife Beat (Live At The Hammersmith Odeon, 18th January 1977) / Souped-Up Ford (Live From The Brighton Dome, 21st January 1977)

SIDE F: Bullfrog Blues (Live From The Brighton Dome, 21st January 1977) / Used To Be (Live At Newcastle City Hall, 18th February 1977) / Country Mile (Live At Newcastle City Hall, 18th February 1977)

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

One of the best selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide, the exceptional American singer-songwriter James Taylor is releasing his new album ‘American Standard’.

'American Standard' marks Taylor’s 19th studio album and comes almost five years after the release of his album “Before This World”, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 to become the first US No. 1 album of his long and distinguished career. The new release has him reimagining some of the best-loved compositions of the 20th century, music in which he was steeped as a young man. The new album will feature 14 classic songs reimagined and adapted to fit Taylors’ stripped down guitar-centric style. The record features reimagined versions of timeless songs from throughout the 20th century, making them characteristically James Taylor. ‘American Standard’ will have fresh perspectives on classics like Oklahoma!'s "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top," Bing Crosby's "Pennies From Heaven," Audrey Hepburn's "Moon River" and many more.

“I’ve always had songs I grew up with that I remember really well, that were part of the family record collection - and I had a sense of how to approach, so it was a natural to put ‘American Standard’ together,” Taylor said in a press statement. “I know most of these songs from the original cast recordings of the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, including “My Fair Lady, Oklahoma”, “Carousel, Showboat” and others.”

“In terms of how they were performed and recorded before, we paid attention to the chords and melody, but we were interested in doing something new, and in bringing something new to it, we’ve reinterpreted the songs, that’s what makes it worth doing.”

Tracklisting: My Blue Heaven (Walter Donaldson-George A. Whiting) / Moon River (Henry Mancini-Johnny Mercer) / Teach Me Tonight (Gene De Paul-Sammy Cahn) / As Easy As Rolling Off A Log (M.K. Jerome-Jack Scholl) / Almost Like Being In Love (Frederick Loewe-Alan Jay Lerner) / Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ The Boat (Frank Loesser) /  The Nearness Of You (Hoagy Carmichael-Ned Washington) / You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught (Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II) / God Bless The Child (Billie Holiday-Arthur Herzog Jr.) / Pennies From Heaven (Arthur Johnston-Johnny Burke) / My Heart Stood Still (Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart) / Ol’ Man River (Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II) / It’s Only A Paper Moon (Harold Arlen-Yip Hardburg-Billy Rose) / The Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview. 

‘Manchester Calling’ boasts all the hallmarks of Paul Heaton’s beautifully bittersweet songwriting – effortlessly catchy melodies allied with an everyman’s biting exasperation at the modern world alongside some truly heartfelt love songs alongside Jacqui Abbott’s warm voice.

Produced by long time collaborator John Williams who produced both Housemartins albums and the previous three Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott albums the record was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Salford, Manchester. As is Paul Heaton’s habit the lyrics were written in various locations in North Holland and Belgium while the music was composed in a hotel in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria and in Limburg An Der Lahn in Germany.

Says Paul: “I’ve lived in Manchester for 17 years now and recording an album here for the first time, was looking forward to cycling to work. That was never possible as Manchester is now being turned into a business centre for the rich, which I can’t stand. If there’s a theme to the record, it’s anti growth, anti greed, against the continuous tearing down of old buildings and sticking up soulless offices, and the disappearance of local accents on TV, along with the creeping spread of Americanese. So, some curmudgeonly moans, plus some hopefully uplifting love songs. Originally it was set up to be a double LP like ‘London Calling’ but alas the double album has also become a victim of time.”

Says Jacqui: “I’m so pleased and excited about the new album, it was wonderful to work on new songs and even more so that we did double what we have done for the last few records. It’ll be a joy to see others react to something we took such pleasure out of making.”

Tracklisting: The Only Exercise I Get Is You / If You Could See Your Faults / Somebody’s Superhero / Big News In A Little World / You And Me (Were Meant To Be Together) / The Outskirts Of The Dancefloor / So Happy / A Good Day Is Hard To Find / Fat Of The Land / All Of My Friends / The Prison / House Party 2 / He’s Got What I Had / New York Ivy / MCR Calling / My Legal High

Label Review. 

Career anthology.  Also available 5CD Box.

Our Overview. 

Legendary American blues rock band The Allman Brothers Band formed in 1969 with founding members Duane Allman, Jaimoe, Berry Oakley, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, and Gregg Allman.  The band’s very first informal jam together was a Muddy Waters song “Trouble No More” which shortly after became the very first song they officially demo’d together, has remained unreleased until now and starts off this 50th anniversary collection. ‘Trouble No More 50th Anniversary Collection’.

The Allman Brothers Band essentially are the fathers of the southern rock sound; that acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top and The Marshal Tucker Band soon became widely known for; along with the jam band scene due to their larger than life instrumental jams. After their first two albums, The Allman Brothers Band and Idlewild South, the band recorded and released their first live double album At Fillmore East which has become the live album that all other live albums are measured. Just four days after At Fillmore East was certified gold, Duane Allman suffered a motorcycle accident and died.  The band was determined to carry on, but a year later, their next band leader Berry Oakley suffered the same fate as Duane not three blocks from the location of Duane’s accident.  The band’s members evolved from these unfortunate moments in their history through thirteen incarnations and in 2014 the band decided to retire from touring officially. The very last song performed by The Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre was the very first song they ever jammed together “Trouble No More” which this performance beautifully closes our 61-song boxset.

The boxset was produced by Allman Brothers historians and aficionados Bill Levenson, John Lynskey and Kirk West.  The 10-LP packaging consists of a wood veneer wrapped slipcase with gold graphics, 5 gatefold jackets and a 56-page book.  The 5-CD edition includes a 88-page booklet and is housed in a 12-panel softpack with a slipcase.  Each CD is a thematic overview of the various stages of the band’s recording and performance history as noted in the below track listing.  Both the 10-LP & 5-CD editions feature an 8,900+ word essay on the 50-year history of the band by John Lynskey, unreleased band photos along with newly shot photos of memorabilia from the Big House Museum in Macon, GA and a recap of the 13 incarnations of the band line-up.5CD Box | 88-page booklet and is housed in a 12-panel softpack with a slipcase. Includes an 8,900+ word essay on the 50-year history of the band by John Lynskey, unreleased band photos along with newly shot photos of memorabilia from the Big House Museum in Macon, GA

10LP Deluxe Box | Black 180g vinyl. Packaging consists of a wood veneer wrapped slipcase with gold graphics, 5 gatefold jackets and a 56-page book. Includes an 8,900+ word essay on the 50-year history of the band by John Lynskey, unreleased band photos along with newly shot photos of memorabilia from the Big House Museum in Macon, GA

Tracklisting:

LP 1: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part I: Trouble No More (Demo)* (Side A) / Don’t Want You No More (Side A) / It’ Not My Cross To Bear (Side A) / Dreams (Side A) / Whipping Post (Side B) / I’m Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town (Live at Ludlow Garage) (Side B) / Midnight Rider (Side B) / Revival (Side B)

LP 2: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part I: Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ (Side A) / Hoochie Coochie Man (Side A) / Please Call Home (Side A) / Statesboro Blues (Live at Fillmore East) (Side A) / Stormy Monday (Live at Fillmore East) (Side B) / In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (Live at Fillmore East) (Side B)

LP 3: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part II: One Way Out (Live at Fillmore East) (Side A) / You Don't Love Me / Soul Serenade (Live at A&R Studios) (Side A) / Hot ‘Lanta (Live at A&R Studios) (Side B) / Stand Back (Side B) / Melissa (Side B) / Blue Sky (Side B)

LP 4: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part II: Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More (Live at Mar y Sol) (Side A) / Wasted Words (Side A) / Ramblin’ Man (Side A) / Southbound (Side A) / Jessica (Side B) / Early Morning Blues (Outtake) (Side B)

LP 5: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part III / The Arista Years 1980 – 1981: Come And Go Blues (Live at Watkins Glen) (Side A) / Mountain Jam (Live at Watkins Glen)* (Side A) / Can’t Lose What You Never Had (Side A) / Win, Lose Or Draw (Side B) / High Falls (Side B)

LP 6: The Capricorn Years 1969 – 1979 Part III / The Arista Years 1980 – 1981: Crazy Love (Side A) / Can’t Take It With You (Side A) / Pegasus (Side A) / Just Ain’t Easy (Live at Merriweather Post Pavilion) (Side B) / Hell & High Water (Side B) / Angeline (Side B) / Leavin’ (Side B) / Never Knew How Much (I Needed You) (Side B)

LP 7: The Epic Years 1990 – 2000: Good Clean Fun (Side A) / Seven Turns (Side A) / Gamblers Roll (Side A) / End Of The Line (Side A) / Nobody Knows (Side B) / Low Down Dirty Mean (Live at the Beacon Theatre) (Side B)

LP 8: The Epic Years 1990 – 2000: Come On Into My Kitchen (Live at Radio & Records Convention) (Side A) / Sailin’ ‘Cross The Devil’s Sea (Side A) / Back Where It All Begins (Side A) / Soulshine (Side B) / No One To Run With (Side B) / I’m Not Crying (Live at the Beacon Theatre)* (Side B

LP 9: The Peach Years 2000 – 2014: Loan Me A Dime (Live at the New World Music Theatre)* (Side A) / Desdemona (Live at the Beacon Theatre)* (Side A) / High Cost Of Low Living (Side B) / Old Before My Time (Side B)

LP 10: The Peach Years 2000 – 2014: Blue Sky (Live at the Beacon Theatre)* (Side A) / Little Martha (Live at the Beacon Theatre)* (Side A) / Black Hearted Woman (Live at the Beacon Theatre) (Side A) / The Sky Is Crying (Live at the Beacon Theatre) (Side B) / “Farewell” speeches (Live at the Beacon Theatre) (Side B) / Trouble No More (Live at the Beacon Theatre) (Side B).

* Previously unreleased

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

In the latest of a series of albums that have mirrored the exceptional story of the band itself, British alt-pop group Cornershop return with their ninth album ‘England Is A Garden’ on Ample Play Records. It is an album that strides in an upbeat fashion, to deliver a full listening experience, bringing songs of experience, empire, protest and humour, steeped in the way only band leader Tjinder Singh would come with.

First single off the album “No Rock: Save In Roll”, that is to say that there is not one without the other, that rock, for all its focus on death is the saviour of life, offer the band. The anvil here is music itself, and a celebration of Tjinder’s birth place - The Black Country, which also gave birth to heavy metal that has gone on to influence the world to dirty rock, whether the streets are lined with pylons or palm trees, the Black Country has allowed us to see things differently. The sound here goes back to Englands’ Midlands with two thumbs up to the feeling of hearing heavy metal from the back of a stage, as we all ride on and await the female backing vocals of the song to come in.

“Many people have asked what does ‘England Is A Garden’ mean, what does it stand for?” they say on their website. “Well, as usual its thought provoker, and whilst you provoke thought it grows on you, whether you like it or not. Or is it that there are many types of garden, and the thought is about which – green and tendered or weed and London brick ridden? Maybe it is a garden with a door that leads you to other albums, for as usual the album is peppered with lines and words that have been used before?”

Tracklisting: St Marie Under The Canon / Slingshot / No Rock: Save In Roll / Everywhere That Wog Army Roam / King Kongs / Highly Amplified / England Is A Garden / The Cash Money / Morning Ben / I’m A Wooden Soldier / One Uncareful Lady Owner / The Holy Name

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

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. 

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. 

The Elektra & Atlantic Recordings 1968-1969 remastered. Both albums: 'Ars Nova' & 'Sunshine And Shadows'. Esoteric.

Our Overview. 

Formed in New York City in 1967 by two former students from the Mannes College musical conservatory, Wyatt Day (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Jon Pierson (trombone, vocals) and Maury Baker (drums). The line-up was expanded by the addition of Jonathan Raskin (bass, backing vocals, guitar) and Giovanni Papalia (lead guitar). After spending some time rehearsing in rural Vermont, the band added Bill Folwell to their ranks on double bass and trumpet. Coming to the attention of manager Arthur Gorson (who also managed Phil Ochs and Judy Collins) the band secured an audition for Jac Holzman’s Elektra label and secured a contract soon after.

The band’s self-titled debut album was recorded at Sunset Sound studios in Los Angeles and was produced by Paul Rothchild (noted for his work with The Doors, Love et al). The ‘Ars Nova’ album was certainly ground-breaking for its use of unconventional instrumentation and for taking influences from the worlds of rock, ethnic and classical music. One fan of the album was Roy Wood of British band The Move (who would record a cover of Ars Nova’s “Fields of People” on their 1970 album ‘Shazam!’) ‘Ars nova’ was issued in 1968 to much critical acclaim, but the band’s line-up made it difficult for the music to translate well on the concert stage. Appearances opening for The Doors failed to boost the band’s fortunes and the initial line-up of the band broke up soon afterwards.

With Jonathan Raskin joining the band Rhinoceros, Day and Pierson gathered together a new line-up featuring Sam Brown (lead guitar), Joe Hunt (drums and percussion), Art Koening (bass), Jimmy Owens (trumpet) and Warren Bernhardt (keyboards). This revamped version of Ars Nova would record their final album, the equally imaginative ‘Sunshine And Shadows’ for Atlantic Records in late 1968 in New York City. The album release was inexplicably delayed for nearly a year by Atlantic Records and any momentum gained by further critical praise was lost. Increasing management problems also took their toll and Ars Nova disbanded soon after the release of ‘Sunshine And Shadows’.

Tracklisting: 

Disc One:  Pavan For My Lady (Fall, Winter, Summer And Spring) / General Clover Ends A War / Enacte: Le Messe Notre Dame / And How Am I To Know / Enacte: Dancer / Album In Your Mind / Zarathustra / Fields Of People / Automatic Love / I Wrapped Her In Ribbons (After Ibiza) / Song To The City / March Of The Mad Duke’s Circus

Disc Two: Sunshine And Shadows / I Was Once / Temporary Serenade / She Promises Everything / Well, Well, Well / You Had Better Listen / Round Once Again / Walk On The Sand / Rubbish / Please Don’t Go Now

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

‘Color Theory’, the second album from Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, is a distillation of hard-won catharsis. The album confronts the ongoing mental health and familial trials that have plagued the 22-year-old artist since pre-pubescence, presenting listeners with an uncompromisingly honest self-portrait, and reminding us exactly why her critically-acclaimed debut, 2018’s ‘Clean’, made her a hero to many. Wise beyond her years, Allison is a songwriter capable of capturing the fleeting moments of bliss that make an embattled existence temporarily beautiful. With color theory, Allison’s fraught past becomes a lens through which we might begin to understand what it means to be resilient.

‘Color Theory’ investigates a traumatic past in exacting detail; in doing so, Allison finds inroads for healing through self-acceptance, and occasionally, humour. (“I’m the princess of screwing up!” she declares at one point.) This isn’t a quest to uncover some long-since forgotten happiness so much as it is an effort to stare-down the turmoil of adolescence that can haunt a person well into adulthood. Allison is a gifted storyteller, one who is able to take personal experience and project it to universal scale. On ‘Color Theory’, she beckons in outsiders, rejects, and anyone who has ever felt desperately alone in this world, lending them a place to unburden themselves and be momentarily free.

Tracklisting: Bloodstream / Circle The Drain / Royal Screw Up / Night Swimming / Crawling In My Skin / Yellow Is The Color Of Her Eyes / Up The Walls / Lucy / Stain / Gray Light

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. 

This anthology includes everything that the Bretts, Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs and Jona Lewie recorded for Sonet (including 1993 CD ‘Boogie Street’, financed by Sonet UK’s later incarnation Habana Music), confirming that the bands had few equals in the Thames Delta country blues stakes, while Jona was an individual talent long before his late Seventies association with the Stiff label.

Our Overview. 

Their name may have made them sound more like rock’n’roll revivalists, but during the late Sixties and early Seventies, Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts were one of the most highly regarded of the grassroots British country blues bands. Led by virtuoso guitarist Graham Hine, and featuring pianist and occasional vocalist John Lewis (subsequently better known as eccentric popster Jona Lewie), the Bretts – as they were known to their coterie of admirers – regularly backed visiting American bluesmen as well as being a popular live act in their own right.

After two fine albums for the Sonet label, they scored an unexpected hit single with Lewie’s jaunty “Sea Side Shuffle”, which, credited to alter-ego Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs, reached the No. 2 spot in the summer of 1972. Lewis/Lewie then left, recording as a solo act for Sonet before joining Stiff, while his former band continued without him, issuing a third album and sundry stand-alone singles before gradually scaling down operations.

Containing all the band’s albums, single releases, studio outtakes and live recordings as well as Jona Lewie’s pre-Stiff releases, plus 36 page booklet this is the most comprensive collection of this group’s work and off shoots ever put together.

Tracklisting:

Disc One: Dust Me Broom / Too Many Hot Dogs / Haven’t Any Hay / Walking Blues / Eyesight To The Blind / Shave ’Em Dry / Drop Down Mama / Calcutta Got Beggar / Don’t Start Me Talking / Cincinnati Cream / Highway 61 / Hairy / Bye Bye Baby / Shave ’Em Dry (Single Edit) / Standing On The Platform

Disc Two: Take Your Money / I’m Coming / Southbound Lane / Love In Jest / Thoughts On You / I’m Ready / Milk Cow Blues / County Jail / Little Red Caboose / Come On In My Kitchen / Goin’ Back / Coming Back

Disc Three: Thunderbolt Rag / Bank Holiday / Bye Bye Baby / Wrong Man / Bay Roller / Drinking Song / She Walked Right Out Of The Blue / You Got Me On The Hook / Doo-Dah-Doo-Dah / The Clown / Make It To The Woods / Boys In The Band / Thunderbolt Rag (Alternative Version) / Caribbean Zob-Rock / Blow Me Down / Hawaiian Honeymoon / If You Need Somebody Call On Me

Disc Four: Roll And Tumble / Short Woogie / Nervous / Walking Blues / Don’t Start Me Talking / Cincinnati Underworld Woman / Milk Cow Blues / Come On In My Kitchen / Little Red Caboose / Take Your Money And Go Down The Road / I’m Ready / Hot Weather / Too Many Hot Dogs (A.K.A. Chicken A La Blues) / Walking Blues / Make It To The Woods / Spoonful / Phonograph Blues / Brian Matthew Trailer / Brian Matthew Intro / Goin’ Back / Too Many Hot Dogs

Disc Five: Crossroads / No Worries / Be Ready When He Comes / Hurry Up Train / How Many More Years / You’re Gonna Need Somebody By Your Side / Little Red Rooster / Big City Beat / Free Again / Phonograph Blues / Greedy Woman / Devil And The Deep Blue Sea / Lost Lover Blues / Tough Times / A Change Is Bound To Come / Big City Beat (Remix) / King Bee / Hurry Up Train / Miss You / Dust Me Broom

Disc Six: Sea Side Shuffle / Ball And Chain / On A Saturday Night / Going Round The World / She Left I Died / Too Self-Centred / Piggy Back Sue / Papa Don’t Go / The Swan / Custer’s Last Stand / Hallelujah Europe (Parts 1 And 2) / Come Away (Bate O Pe) / Cherry Ring / Rocking Yobs / After We Swun

Label Review.

All four original studio albums remastered each with a bonus disc of remixes. Exclusive bonus disc of remixes by Frankie Knuckles and David Morales. DVD 1 featuring all the bands promo videos and a new interview. DVD 2 includes live performances (some previously unreleased) from 1993, 1994 and 1996 in their hometown of Manchester. 48 page colour booklet with images of the early line up through to later years and never before published images.

Our Overview.

‘Renaissance’, is a spectacular 11-disc M People career-spanning box set that features albums, remixes, rarities and two DVDs and includes bonus disc of remixes by Frankie Knuckles and David Morales, plus promo videos, band interviews, and previously unreleased live performances.

M People emerged out of the club scene in Manchester in the early nineties and became one of the world’s biggest dance acts selling more than 11 million records. With the unmistakable voice of Heather Small joining Paul Heard, Shovell and founder Mike Pickering, M People released 20 Top 40 singles, including 10 Top 10s including inspirational national anthems like "Moving On Up", "Search For The Hero" and "One Night In Heaven". They won two BRIT awards and a Mercury Prize and released four studio albums, the last being ‘Fresco’ in 1998. All of them are included, newly remastered, in this new box set and each comes with a bonus disc of remixes. The ninth CD in the package is an exclusive bonus disc of remixes by Frankie knuckles and David Morales.

The first of two DVDs features all the band’s promo videos (plus new interviews with members Paul Heard, Mike Pickering and Shovell) while the second features live performances.

This box set comes with a 48-page colour booklet and the exclusive edition comes with a print of a ‘Search For The Hero’ lyric sheet signed by Heard, Pickering, and Shovell (no Heather!). These are limited to 500 units.

CD1– NORTHERN SOUL: Colour My Life (Perfecto Mix) / How Can I Love You More? / Inner City Cruise / It’s Your World / Sexual Freedom / Kiss It Better / Tumbling Down / Landscape Of Love / Life / Someday / Excited (M People Master Mix) / Man Smart / Platini

CD2 – NORTHERN SOUL –REMIXES: How Can I Love You More? (Sasha’s Master Mix) / Someday (Sasha’s Full Master) / How Can I Love You More? (Edit) / Colour My Life (Edit) / Someday (Edit) / Excited (Radio Edit) / Colour My Life (Original Mix) / Excited (M People Remix) / Someday (Part One) / Colour My Life (Part One) / Excited (Judge Jules Remix) / How Can I Love You More? (Sasha’s Ambient Dub) / Someday (Sasha’s Dub) / Colour My Life (DJ’s Rule Mix) / Excited (MK T Mix) / How Can I Love You More? (Sasha’s QAT Mix)

CD3 – ELEGANT SLUMMING: One Night In Heaven / Moving On Up / Renaissance / You Just Have To Be There / Love Is In My Soul / Don’t Look Any Further / Natural Thing / ittle Packet / La Vida Loca / Melody Of Life / One Night In Heaven (Hi Gloss Mix) / Renaissance (M People Master Mix) / Moving On Up (Tee’s Freeze Mix) / Don’t Look Any Further (Danny D Mix)

CD4 – ELEGANT SLUMMING -REMIXES: One Night In Heaven (Master Edit) / Moving On Up (M People Master Edit) / Don’t Look Any Further (M People Master Edit) / Renaissance (Radio Mix) / One Night In Heaven (K-KlassKlubMix) / Moving On Up (NY Underground Mix) / Renaissance (Roger S Revelation Mix) / One Night In Heaven (The Chicken Head Mix) / Moving On Up (MK Mix) / Renaissance (John Digweed’s4AM Mix) / One Night In Heaven (Pharmacy Dub) / Moving On Up (Roger’s Harddub) / Renaissance (The S-Man’s Dub Lift) / One Night In Heaven (M People Dub)

CD5 – BIZARRE FRUIT: Sight For Sore Eyes / Search For The Hero / Open Your Heart / Love Rendezvous / Precious Pearl / Sugar Town / Walk Away / Drive Time / Padlock / .… And Finally / ItchycooPark (M People Master Mix) /Search For The Hero (M People Master Mix) / Love Rendezvous (M People Master Mix) / Search For The Hero (Dave Hall Remix) [aka ‘US Remix by David “Jam” Hall’]

CD6 – BIZARRE FRUIT –REMIXES: Sight For Sore Eyes (Radio Mix) / Open Your Heart (Radio Mix) / Search For The Hero (Radio Mix) / Love Rendezvous (Radio Mix) / ItchycooPark (Radio Edit) / Sight For Sore Eyes (Lee Marrow Remix) / Love Rendezvous (Paul Masterson Mix) aka (Wand’s Uptight Mix) / Padlock (Junior Vasquez Tribal Vocal) / Open Your Heart (LuvdupDouble Bangin’ Dub) aka (LuvdupDub) / ItchycooPark (HedBoys Post-Op Mix) / Love Rendezvous (Uno Clio Vocal Mix) / Open Your Heart (Armand’s Sour Cream Mix) / Sight For Sore Eyes (E-SmooveDub Mix)

CD7 – FRESCO: Just For You / Fantasy Island / Never Mind Love / Last Night 10,000 / Smile / Red Flower Sunset / Angel Street / Lonely / Rhythm And Blues / Believe It / Bohemia / Avalon / Testify (Radio Edit) / Dreaming / What A Fool Believes (Full-Length Version) / Baby Don’t Change Your Mind (Live)

CD8 – FRESCO -REMIXES: Just For You (Radio Edit) / Fantasy Island (Radio Edit) / Angel Street (Radio Edit) / Dreaming (Radio Edit) / Testify (Rae & Christian Remix) / Just For You (MM’s R&B Edit) / Fantasy Island (D-Influence Dimensional Mix) / Angel Street (Joey Negro’s Extended Disco Mix) / Dreaming (Genius 3 Underground Mix) / Fantasy Island (M+S Fantasy KlubMix / Just For You (Way Out West Remix) / Testify (Pablo’s Dub) / Dreaming (Jimmy Gomez 6AM Dub)

CD 9 - THE FRANKIE KNUCKLES & DAVID MORALES MIXES: ItchycooPark (Morales Classic Club Mix) / Just For You (Frankie’s Sanctified Anthem) / Fantasy Island (Classic Mix) / Dreaming (Morales Mix) / One Night In Heaven (The Heavenly Club Mix) / Fantasy Island (Def Club Mix) / Just For You (Hipshakers’ Delight) / ItchycooPark (Morales Beat Of Dubs) / Dreaming (Morales King Dub) / One Night In Heaven (The Late Night Dub)

DVD 1 – PROMO VIDEOS: How Can I Love You More? / Colour My Life / Someday / Excited / One Night In Heaven / Moving On Up / Don’t Look Any Further / Renaissance / Sight For Sore Eyes / Open Your Heart / Search For The Hero / Love Rendezvous / ItchycooPark / Just For You / Fantasy Island / Angel Street / Testify / Dreaming / How Can I Love You More? (1993 Version) / Excited (US Version) / Open Your Heart (US Version) / Excited (MK Mix) / One Night In Heaven (Morales Mix) / Coming Home (Mike, Paul and Shovellin conversation, 2018)

DVD 2 – LIVE:

Live at the Manchester Academy 1993: Moving On Up / Natural Thing / Love Is In My Soul / Someday / 1993 Interview (part 1/ 2/3/4) /

Come Again Live In Manchester 1994: Opening Montage / Love Rendezvous / Excited / Drive Time / Colour My Life / Walk Away / Little Packet / One Night In Heaven / Sight for Sore Eyes / Moving On Up

The Crowd Are On The Pitch: Live at Old Trafford 1996: Sight For Sore Eyes / Moving On Up / Search For The Hero / ItchycooPark / One Night In Heaven