Label Review. 

Contains the remastered albums Winds Of Change, The Twain Shall Meet, Every One Of Us, Love Is, & Winds Of Change (Mono) plus 10 bonus tracks. Esoteric.

Our Overview. 

Eric Burdon And The Animals came together in December 1966 when the original Animals had ground to a halt. Vocalist Eric Burdon recruited Vic Briggs (guitar, piano), John Weider (guitar, violin, bass), Danny McCulloch (bass) and Barry Jenkins (drums) to form a new group which changed direction away from raucous Rhythm and Blues and embraced Psychedelic rock and the influences of the emerging counter-culture. Signing to MGM Records in the USA (where he became based) and teaming up with producer Tom Wilson (also famed for his work with Bob Dylan, The Mothers Of Invention and The Velvet Underground), the band’s debut single “When I Was Young” released in April 1967 was a powerful statement, featuring Weider’s violin and Briggs’ fuzzed guitar, becoming a hit in Europe, Australia and the USA. The B-side of the single “A Girl Named Sandoz” was a psychedelic ode to the Swiss pharmaceutical company which developed LSD.

The follow-up single, “San Franciscan Nights”, issued in August 1967, came hot on the heels of the band’s famed appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 and would be the band’s biggest hit, breaking the top twenty in the UK, Europe and the USA. The band’s debut album, ‘Winds Of Change’ was issued in October 1967 and featured the singles “San Franciscan Nights” and “Good Times”, along with an inventive cover version of The Rolling Stones “Paint It Black” and the psychedelic rockers “Yes, I Am Experienced” (a tribute to Burdon’s friend Jimi Hendrix) and “It’s All Meat”.

The album ‘The Twain Shall Meet’ was recorded in December 1967 but not issued until May 1968 and featured two further singles, “Monterey” and “Sky Pilot (Parts One & Two)”. Incredibly 1968 would see a further two album releases by the group in the USA and Europe; ‘Every One Of Us’, recorded in June and issued in August of that year, was a fine album which saw Zoot Money join the band on organ and piano, but inexplicably the album failed to gain a release in the UK. By the time of its release, Vic Briggs had departed to be replaced by Andy Summers (later with The Police) on guitar. This line-up recorded the double album ‘Love Is’ in Los Angeles in October 1968, issued only as a single LP in the UK, which featured imaginative cover versions of “River Deep Mountain High”, “Ring Of Fire” and Traffic’s “Coloured Rain”. Released in December 1968, it was to be the final album by the group. Burdon remained in the United States and joined forces with the group War in 1969.

Tracklisting:

Disc One: Winds Of Change / Poem By The Sea / Paint It Black / The Black Plague / Yes, I Am Experienced / San Franciscan Nights / Man – Woman / Hotel Hell / Good Times / Anything / It’s All Meat / When I Was Young / A Girl Named Sandoz / Ain’t That So / Gratefully Dead / Anything (Single Version)

Disc Two: Monterey / Just The Thought / Closer To The Truth / No Self Pity / Orange And Red Beams / Sky Pilot / We Love You Lil / All Is One / Sky Pilot (Part One) (Mono Single) / Sky Pilot (Part Two) (Mono Single) / Monterey (Mono Single Version)

Disc Three: White Houses / Uppers And Downers / Serenade To A Sweet Lady / The Immigrant Lad / Year Of The Guru / St. James Infirmary / New York 1963 –America 1968 / White Houses (Single Version)

Disc Four: River Deep, Mountain High / I’m An Animal / I’m Dying, Or Am I? / Ring Of Fire / Coloured Rain / To Love Somebody / As The Years Go Passing By / Gemini / The Madman (Running Through The Fields) / River Deep, Mountain High (Single Version)

Disc Five: Winds Of Change / Poem By The Sea / Paint It Black / The Black Plague / Yes, I Am Experienced / San Franciscan Nights / Man – Woman / Hotel Hell / Good Times / Anything / It’s All Meat

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. 

Official release recorded 19th December 1974 featuring songs from his first two solo albums. Hardback book package.

Our Overview. 

Bryan Ferry needs little introduction as the smartly attired singer and instrumentalist who not only was the head honcho in Roxy Music from 1972-82 but also ran a solo career initially concurrently with his main band. His debut solo album ‘These Foolish Things’ was released only one month before Roxy’s third: ‘Stranded’ at the end of 1973. The following year Ferry issued a second album: ‘Another Time Another Place’, again prior to another Roxy LP. Bryan used these two albums to expressly record cover versions and before Christmas 1974 he performed songs from both albums at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The setlist consists of fan favourites including the likes of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, “The ‘In’ Crowd”, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, and “I Love How You Love Me” and spans his influences from the 30s, 40s and 50s, including the records that shaped him growing up and throughout his formative years. The recording of this show is now being made available officially for the first time.

Tracklisting: Sympathy For The Devil / I Love How You Love Me / Baby I Don’t Care / It’s My Party / Don’t Worry Baby / Another Time, Another Place / Fingerpoppin’ / The Tracks Of My Tears / You Won’t See Me / Smoke Gets In Your Eyes / A Hard Rain’s a-gonna Fall / A Really Good time / The ‘In’ Crowd / The Foolish Things

Label Review. 

2020 album. Former member of Silver Mt. Zion. Constellation. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Rebecca Foon, the composer and musician behind Saltland and Esmerine (and former longstanding member of Silver Mt. Zion) presents a new album entitled ‘Waxing Moon’. While best known as an incomparable cellist crafting textural soundscapes and instrumental chamber-rock in the aforementioned projects (and more recently recognized for her creative and organisational work as cofounder of Pathway To Paris), this new collection of songs finds Foon emphasizing piano and voice with striking intimacy and elegance, showcasing a captivating evolution in her always resplendent songwriting.

The climate crisis has profoundly framed Foon’s political and artistic life for many years now, and ‘Waxing Moon’ finds her writing and singing her most arrestingly direct yet poetic words, tapping universal and personal heartbreak in both despair and hope. With ‘Waxing Moon’, Rebecca sets side the Saltland moniker - her electronically-tinged string-centric project from the past five years - to release this more personal new work under her own name.

The album’s ten songs are predominantly minimal and delicate, immersive and hauntingly beautiful - with vocal-driven tracks booked-ended by piano-based instrumentals, along with one up-tempo guitar-driven number (“Wide Open Eyes”) that closes out Side One. While piano figures most prominently on the record, Foon continues to play cello on several tracks, complemented by gentle touches from a close coterie of musical guests including Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) and Mishka Stein (Patrick Watson) on acoustic and electric basses, Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You Black Emperor) on violin, Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) on electric guitar, and Patrick Watson as co-vocalist on the dreamlike “Vessels”. ‘Waxing Moon’ is Rebecca Foon’s first eponymous release: a sublimely stunning, bracingly intimate, glimmeringly full-hearted new chapter in her celebrated musical catalogue.

Tracklisting: New World / Pour / Another Realm / Ocean Song / Wide Open Eyes / Waxing Moon / Dreams To Be Born / Vessels / This Is Our Lives / New World Reprise

Label Review. 

2006 live album from Chris Robinson and Rich Robinson (Black Crowes) also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

After a long hiatus that lasted for much of the first half of the 2000s, Chris and Rich Robinson started to reunite the Black Crowes in 2005, but before the full-fledged reunion really took flight, the siblings took off on a 2006 tour billed as Brothers of a Feather and releasing an album of the same name. 

Compiled of highlights from their three-night stint at the Roxy in Los Angeles, Brothers of a Feather does distinguish itself from the growing list of official live Black Crowes-related projects just by its intimate nature: hearing the brothers Robinson alone (it’s not quite acoustic, since Rich often plays an otherwise unadorned electric) is unique and surprisingly revelatory, illustrating that both Chris and Rich can be sensitive interpreters when stripped down to the bone. But even if there are many soft, almost folky moments -- including a good cover of John Martyn’s “Over the Hill,” Rich’s solo spotlight “Forgiven Song,” and a winding version of “Driving Wheel” -- there’s plenty of grit and good vibes here, best heard on the roaring opener, “Hosehead,” and a down-n-dirty “Darling of the Underground Press.” 

Most of Brothers of a Feather works a middle ground between the ruminative and the rowdy, whether it’s on a beautiful reading of Lowell George’s “Roll Um Easy” or an epic take on their own “Thorn in My Pride,” which proves that they can find a new spin on their old warhorses. And that sentiment applies to Brothers of a Feather as a whole: it’s familiar in its sound yet fresh in its approach and certainly worth a listen for Black Crowes fans, no matter if they’re hardened hardcore fans or fans who are a bit less dedicated yet no less enamored of the Robinsons’ old-time rock & roll. Never before available on vinyl. 

Tracklisting: Horsehead / Cursed Diamond / Over The Hill / Magic Rooster Blues / My Heart’s Been Killing Me / Forgiven Song / Someday Past The Sunset / Roll Um Easy / Cold Boy Smile / Driving Wheel / Leave It Alone / Polly / Darling Of The Underground Press / Thorn In My Pride

Label Review. 

63 tracks featuring Charlatans, Ocean Colour Scene, Saint Etienne, Lush, Spiritualized, Boo Radleys, Swervedriver, Slowdive, Sundays, Manic Street Preachers, Spacemen 3, The La’s and many more.

Our Overview. 

Following on from the compilations ‘C86’, ‘C87’, ‘C88’ & ‘C89’ comes ‘C90’, Cherry Red Records successful series of compilations charting the development of the UK indie music scene. Over a decade since punk rocked the British musical scene to its foundations and caused an eruption of independently produced records, the scene and a new generation of figurehead artists began to let ambition in and head overground, playing to increasingly large crowds, working with bigger budgets and selling more copies, finding a footing in the UK’s Top Forty, venturing into the USA and, ultimately, creating a mainstream audience now primed for credible, guitar-tinged pop. Meanwhile, an underground revolution in clubland began to push towards the commercial same space, resulting in an inevitable fusion of songcraft and dancefloor aesthetics.

‘C90’ captures perfectly the moment these tribes began to coalesce. From the opening, club-friendly rendition of The Charlatans’ “Polar Bear” to The La’s knowingly backward looking “Timeless Melody” and all in-between, this is the sound of a scene dropping the raincoats, dropping acid and aiming for domination. 1990 was the start of a new decade when the Indie scene was dominated by Madchester and the arrival of Shoegaze and with nods towards grunge and what would become known as Britpop, plus hints of a proto-laddism peering out from between the cracks in a post-Smiths aesthetic, the sound of 1990, it could be argued, set the tone for the remainder of the decade.

‘C90’ is a snapshot of a unique moment in time. A piece of history. The sound of a country putting the hard-biting 1980s behind it, embracing the Daisy Age and looking to move forwards.

Tracklisting: 

Disc One: Polar Bear - The Charlatans / Sway - Ocean Colour Scene / Perfume - Paris Angels / The Storm - World Of Twist / Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne / It’s On - Flowered Up / Get Higher - Moonflowers / My Rising Star - Northside / Wonderment – Thousand Yard Stare / Thoughtforms - Lush / Anyway That You Want Me - Spiritualized / Swansong - Boo Radleys / Juggernaut Rides – Swervedriver / Avalyn I - Slowdive / Half-Life, Remembered – Pale Saints / Something More (Ambient Version) - Chapterhouse / Can’t Be Sure – The Sundays / She Sings Alone – See See Rider / Please Let Me Go – The Popinjays

Disc Two: New Art Riot - Manic Street Preachers / Aim - Ned’s Atomic Dustbin / Pop Song - Th’ Faith Healers / Beam Me Up – New Fast Automatic Daffodils / To Kill A Slow Girl Walking – The Telescopes / Welcome To Dead Town – The Seers / Listen - Honey Smugglers / Seems To Me - Milltown Brothers / Big City (Waves Of Joy) (Demo) – Spacemen 3 / I Fell In Love Last Night – Heavenly / Sean Connery – James Dean Driving Experience / Take - Raintree County / Noah’s Ark – Brighter / Amnesia – Something Pretty Beautiful / Earthwheel - Sandkings / If I Could Shine - The Sweetest Ache / Mad As Love - Greenhouse / Crazy Mixed Up Kid - Mousefolk / These Things Happen – Action Painting! / Strange - All Over The Place / I Know - Bark Psychosis

Disc Three: Timeless Melody – The La’s / Highrise Love – The Darkside / Everything About You – My Jealous God / Sleep - Eternal / Potboiler - Penelope’s Web / Dead Like You – The Steamkings / Twenty-Fifteen – The Sunflowers / Beside The Sea – The Kennedy Pill / Little Valley Town - Jane From Occupied Europe / Sunday Never Comes Around – Po! / Good Morning – Jane Pow / Learning To Keep My Mouth Shut - How Many Beans Make Five / Lovesville Usa - Montgomery Clifts / She Made Everything Groovy – The Ogdens / Out Of My Mind – Avo-8 / Darkest Blue – Gentle Despite / My Heart Is Where My Home Is - The Chrysalids / When I Find You – Little Red Schoolhouse / Nothing In Your Heart – Life With Patrick / What Is More Than Life – Horse Latitudes / I Really Do Love You Penelope – Hey Paulette / Missing You – The Ammonites / Cheat On Me – The Emotionals

Label Review. 

2020 album. Johnny Lynch plays his unique brand of folk and electronica. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Pictish Trail’s new album ‘Thumb World’ is bold, weird, wild, wired, sonically luxurious yet never losing touch with its DIY-‘til-I-die roots, and is a voyage to the outer rings of Johnny Lynch’s mind at its darkest, funniest and most inventive – a plugged-in, fuzzed-out, fucked-up contemplation on, as he puts it, “life repeating and gradually degrading, the inevitable cyclical nature of things, and the sense of their ultimately being no escape.”

Expect alien abductions, thumping beats, Trump-haired pigs, paternal panic, astronaut sex, bad acid trips, worse hangovers, lashings of distortion and a lot of anthropomorphic thumbs. “Our opposable thumbs are the things that separate us from most other animals on Earth,” Pictish explains, of the fat digit symbolism, “they are also the things that we use to swipe on screens, to separate ourselves from our normal lives, but which in turn trap us within an artificial reality.”

Produced and mixed by Rob Jones, featuring string arrangements from Kim Moore and drumming from Alex Thomas (Squarepusher, Anna Calvi, Air), Thumb World is Pictish Trail’s most collaborative album to date. An audio-visual dialogue with Swatpaz, AKA Scottish artist Davey Ferguson – the man behind the Turbo Fantasy series and an entire episode of cult TV phenomenon Adventure Time – furnished Johnny with not just a graphic aesthetic for the album, but even helped him to shape the sound of the finished record. “I sent Davey a work-in-progress mix of the album,” Johnny says, “he came back with sketches in which he had reimagined Thumb World as an 80’s arcade game. Some of the songs are centered around specific visual images, inspired by Davey’s sketches.”

Tracklisting: Repeat Neverending / Double Sided / Pig Nice / Lead Balloon / Fear Anchor / Slow Memories / Bad Algebra / Heart Eyes / Turning Back / Thumb World

Label Review. 

2020 album

Our Overview. 

Julian Cope’s new album ‘Self Civil War’ heaves with unrest and the spirit of 2020. Pure Cope: compelling earworms of barbarian intelligence, crammed with songs that reach deep inside you, each possessed of its own micro-worldview, ‘Self Civil War’ showcases Cope’s songwriting at its most searching since ‘Jehovahkill’. Road-testing the zeitgeist with kitchen sink psycho-dramas like “A Dope on Drugs”, “Your Facebook, My Laptop” and “Billy”, ‘Self Civil War’ also showcases the insightful heroic ballads “Einstein”, “You Will Be Mist” and “The Great Raven”. In typical Cope style, the 13 songs of ‘Self Civil War’ brim with sound effects, enormous orchestral arrangements, timeless uprisings of Ur-folk and hefty near-Krautrock anthems.

It’s the first release in Cope’s ‘Our Troubled Times’ series, and he says it is “a fine temporary refuge from our daily bombardment by media luvvies and fuckhead world leaders who take us all for idiots.” Julian has now been carving his own unique brand of rock for 40 years now, starting with his band The Teardrop Explodes and further pop success on his own with the likes of “World Shut Your Mouth” and “Trampoline”. He quit major label acceptance in the 1990s and has since forged his own path with his label and website Head Heritage, releasing albums whenever he feels like it and pursuing his other passion as an antiquarian.

Tracklisting: That Ain’t No Way To Make A Million / A Cosmic Flash / You Will Be Mist / The Great Raven / Berlin Facelift / Immortal / Einstein / Billy / A Dope On Drugs / Your Facebook My Laptop / Requiemfor A Dead Horse / ‘Self Civil War’ / A Victory Dance

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

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

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

Label Review. 

2020 album. Nuclear Blast. Also available on CD, 2CD, Vinyl, and 2CD+Blu-ray. 

Our Overview. 

The Brazilian Thrash Metal icons Sepultura are back with their 15th album ‘Quadra’. While quickly establishing themselves as leaders of the second wave of Thrash already in the late eighties, to this day they never came even close to stagnation. ‘Quadra’, their mighty new undertaking, is proof of a will unbroken, a thirst unquenched and a quality so staggeringly high it’s a wonder this band doesn’t implode. Now three albums deep into what may very well be their strongest incarnation yet – uniting the talents of old-school members Andreas Kisser (guitars, vocals) and Paulo Xisto Pinto Jr. (bass), vocal force of nature Derrick Leon Green (vocals) and drummer Eloy Casagrande – Sepultura are an unleashed power to be reckoned with, uniting bucketloads of experience and youthful vigour in a totally revived way.“

On ‘Quadra’, we felt the urge to revisit that old thrash feeling of ‘Beneath the Remains’ or ‘Arise“,’ only seen through the eyes of today,” says Andreas Kisser. “Add to that the tribal percussion, the orchestral elements, the choirs, the melodies and the clean vocals and you get a thorough run-through of our entire career, backed by a very contemporary approach.” Fuelled by an energy almost uncanny for a band that has been active for so long, Sepultura storm through a contemporary thrash monument, backed by sublime melodies, a very eerie atmosphere and a fiendishly high level of technicality. Kisser is appreciating these compliments, still maintaining his very down to earth approach. “We don’t heed the past and we don’t try to be preoccupied by the future too much,” he shrugs. “We’re in the now, trying every day to make Sepultura a little bit better. That’s what keeping us strong.”

Tracklisting: Isolation / Means To An End / Last Time / Capital Enslavement / Ali / Raging Void / Guardians Of Earth / The Pentagram / Autem / Quadra / Agony Of Defeat / Fear Pain Chaos Suffering

Label Review. 

This anthology includes everything that the Bretts, Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs and Jona Lewis 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.

2020 album. Soul / R&B. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Son Little, the musical nom de plume of LA’s Aaron Earl Livingston, has announced his new album ‘Aloha’ which blends classic soul and old-school R&B into a timeless swirl fueled by gritty instrumental virtuosity and raw, raspy vocals. Recorded at Paris’s iconic Studios Ferber with producer Renaud Letang (Feist, Manu Chao), aloha is Little’s first album to be recorded with an outside producer. The result is his boldest, most self-assured statement yet. It’s an ambitious work of vision and reflection, and an ecstatic testament to the freedom that comes from trusting the currents of life to carry you where you belong.

“Letting go can be a scary prospect,” says Son Little. “But there’s beauty in it, too. Everything you leave behind opens up space for something new in your life.” 

That was certainly the case with his new album, ‘Aloha’, his third studio album. Recorded at Paris’s iconic Studio Ferber, the entire project was an exercise in letting go, in ceding control, in surrendering to fate. While Son Little still plays nearly every instrument on the album himself, he put his songs in the hands of an outside producer for the first time here, collaborating with French studio wizard Renaud Letang (Feist, Manu Chao) to create his boldest, most self-assured statement yet. 

Equal parts vintage and modern, the collection blends classic soul, old-school R&B, and adventurous indie sensibilities into a timeless swirl fuelled by gritty instrumental virtuosity and raw, raspy vocals. It’s an ambitious work of vision and reflection, to be sure, but more than that, it’s an ecstatic testament to the freedom that comes from torching the map and trusting the currents of life to carry you where you belong. 

Tracklisting: Hey Rose / About Her. Again. / Mahalia / Bbbaby / Suffer / That’s The Way / 3rd Eye Weeping / Don’t Wait Up / Belladonna / O Clever One / Neve Give Up / After All (I Must Be Wrong)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Pat Metheny’s ‘From This Place’ features ten compositions by Metheny, who is joined by his long-time drummer, Antonio Sanchez, Malaysian/Australian bassist Linda May Han Oh, and British pianist Gwilym Simcock as well as the Hollywood Studio Symphony conducted by Joel McNeely. Meshell Ndegeocello (vocals), Gregoire Maret (harmonica), and Luis Conte (percussion) are special guests on ‘From This Place’, Metheny’s first album of new material since 2014’s Kin (←→). Metheny, Simcock, Oh, and Sanchez begin an extensive international tour in 2020.

“From This Place is one of the records I have been waiting to make my whole life. It is a kind of musical culmination, reflecting a wide range of expressions that have interested me over the years, scaled across a large canvas, presented in a way that offers the kind of opportunities for communication that can only be earned with a group of musicians who have spent hundreds of nights together on the bandstand,” says Metheny.

Over the course of more than three decades, guitarist Pat Metheny has set himself apart from the jazz mainstream, expanding and blurring boundaries and musical styles. His record-setting body of work includes twenty Grammy Awards in twelve separate categories and in an amazing streak was the only bandleader to win Grammy Awards for seven consecutive releases; a series of influential trio recordings; award-winning solo albums; scores for hit Hollywood motion pictures; and collaborations and duets with major artists like Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Charlie Haden, Brad Mehldau, and many others. Oh, and David Bowie.

Label Review.

2020 live album and film. Ruf Records.

Our Overview.

The great Chicago bluesman Luther Allison lived by a simple philosophy that he was happy to share: “Leave your ego, play the music, love the people”. Now, twenty-three years after Luther’s passing, the great man would surely be proud to find that his ferociously talented son is sworn to the same mission, bringing soul-soaked, all-guns-blazing blues to audiences who need it more than ever.

‘Songs From The Road’ is a live snapshot so raw and real that hearing it feels like hanging off the security barrier of Dortmund’s Musiktheater Piano club when Bernard and his crack-squad band hit town last October 23rd. With an A-list crew on-hand - and a dynamic mix from industry legend Jim Gaines - this immersive recording catches every last flash of virtuosity, bead of sweat and drop of atmosphere.

Since he embarked on his acclaimed solo career with 1990’s ‘The Next Generation’, Bernard’s studio catalogue has been heavy with highlights, and that night in Germany, every fan in the house got something off their wish-list. This prolific songwriter reminded us that his recent output is his strongest to date, with five cuts from last year’s acclaimed ‘Let It Go’.

With Bernard leading the lineup on vocals and searing lead guitar, backed by Dylan Salfer (guitar), George Moye (bass), Mario Dawson (drums) and Jos James (sax/percussion), this is a live band whose chemistry lets them stretch out and shake up these classic songs.

Tracklisting:

CD1 : Night Train / Stay With Me Tonight / You’re Gonna Need Me / I Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind / Call Me Momma / Feels Kinda Funny / Cruisin For A Bluesin / Same Ole Feeling / Let’s Try It Again / Meet Me Half Way / Backdoor Man / Something’s Wrong / Slide Master

CD 2: Stanky Issues / Night Train / Stay With Me Tonight / The Way Love Was Meant To Be / I Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind / Call Me Momma / Feels Kinda Funny / Cruisin For A Bluesin / Same Ole Feeling / Let’s Try It Again / Meet Me Half Way / Backdoor Man / Storms Of Life / You’re Gonna Need Me / Something’s Wrong / Slide Master

Label Review.

1978 album. Nigerian Fuji. Soul Jazz Records.

Our Overview.

For those in tune with Fuji music in the 1980s, the names, Kollington Ayinla would be remembered as amongst the names that dominated the scene and this release is the first in Soul Jazz Records’ new series of vinyl-only Afro funk / Afro beat exact-replica, super rare albums that were previously only ever released in Nigeria.

The series starts with Kollington Ayinla’s celebrated 1978 album ‘Blessing’, a rare lost classic of Nigerian Fuji music, featuring Ayinla’s sharp political lyrics together with his new band Fuji ’78. ‘Blessing’ blends the heavily percussive style of Fuji music with a stunning array of modern instruments, including synthesizers, Bata drums and guitars, to create one of the most forward-thinking and heavily danceable sounds ever to come out of Nigeria - a highly successful mixture of profound Fuji rhythms and Fela Kuti-style Afrobeat.

Kollington Ayinla ranks alongside his friend and competitor Ayinde Barrister as the two most important artists to dominate Fuji music from its inception in the 1970s through to the 1990s by which time it had grown to become one of the most popular dance genres in Nigeria.

At the start of the 1980s Ayinla started his own record company, Kollington Records, to release his music and remains to this day an extremely prolific artist, having recorded over 50 albums, most of which have never been released outside of Nigeria.

Tracklisting: E Ye Ika Se / Oromo Adie Fo / Ko S’Ohun Tan O Le Fi / Gberaga / Adio Shile / Won Ti Gbe Oye Fun Mi / Pataki L’Omo / To Ba Jisoro Mi / Engineer Olatunji / Iya Suna / Odun Titun De / Ao Toro Emi Gesa Fun Enia / Ki Aiye Ma Gbagbe Mi

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

‘Dream Interpretation’ the latest album from Kazuya Nagaya is rooted in Buddhist (Zenzhu) philosophy and sensibilities unique to Japan. Concurrently, his work and interests are also contemporary and traverse a broad spectrum of cultures. Singing bowls, bronze bells and gongs resonate through the mindful layers of Japanese percussionist and ambient producer Kazuya Nagaya’s music. In Zen Buddhism, bells are believed to wash away the cares of the mortal world, as the listener follows the resonance of the bell into the silence and stillness within all beings. It is a penetration into the depths of one’s self.

Nagaya started out to pursue his talents in literature and is also an award-winning writer and a connoisseur on Japanese Literature, Buddhist Folktales and Zen Philosophical Works. These interests breathed life into his music, and the sensibilities and philosophical views which he developed during his literary years are now reflected in most of his music today. He spends half the week teaching courses at his University in Tokyo, and the other half composing and writing in his home in the Japanese Alps, where he resides with his wife, and many adopted cats and dogs. ‘Dream Interpretations’ was composed at a difficult time in Nagaya’s life. While he worked, he listened closely to the sound of the knocking that reverberated from the paths of his unconsciousness and transformed that into music. In other words, this music is his dream interpretation.

Says Kazuya: “There is one thing I have known all along. Someday I will have to face the messages from my unconscious. I will have to decipher their meaning and change my life accordingly. The messages from my unconscious are like a knocking on the door of my mind. For many years the sound reverberated, but I paid it no attention. There are dreams that I still remember. Although it has been decades since I had those dreams, they continue to pulsate, circulating their pellucid blood, vital and fresh as if dreamt just last night”.

Tracklisting: Thanatos / Mother Wading in the River / Dream Interpretation I / Tibetan Philosopher / Wolfman’s Dream / Dream Interpretation II / Heathen / The Book of Sunken Memory / Dream Interpretation I (Old Theatre Mix)

Label Review.

2020. Pop punk.

Our Overview.

If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that the Philly-based pop-punk outfit, The Wonder Years put their entire souls into each body of work they release. So if you can’t get enough of The Wonder Years then this should be right up your alley! The guys have announced their new acoustic album ‘Burst & Decay (Volume II)’ will be released on February 14, 2020 and will feature, yep you guessed it, acoustic re-worked tracks from their back catalogue.

Nearly three years ago, some of their most popular songs like ‘There, There’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Cave In’ were taken to crushing new heights on the first edition of the groundbreaking Philly band’s first acoustic EP, ‘Burst & Decay’. They were only just getting started.

Produced and engineered by Ace Enders (The Early November), ‘Burst & Decay (Volume II)’ truly takes this stripped-back The Wonder Years experience to an entirely new level. The new release features stunning string arrangements from Little Kruta String Quartet and guest vocals on ‘We Look Like Lightning’ from Alex Maniak of the band Shortly.

LP pressed on white vinyl.

Tracklisting: Washington Square Park / We Look Like Lightning / I Wanted So Badly to be Brave / Passing Through a Screen Door / It Must Get Lonely / Cul-de-sac / Hoodie Weather

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Brooklyn, New York based post-punk band Bambara - twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, singer/guitarist and drummer respectively and bassist William Brookshire - have been evolving their midnight-black noise into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut ‘Dreamviolence’. That process greatly accelerated on 2018’s ‘Shadow On Everything’, their first for New York’s Wharf Cat Records and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically.

The first thing that strikes you about ‘Stray’, Bambara’s fourth - and greatest - album to date, will be its pulverizing soundscape. By turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and, at times - on stand out tracks like ‘Sing Me To The Street’ and ‘Serafina’ - simply overwhelming.

However, ‘Stray’ is not merely another, better entry in a catalogue full of darkly thrilling, blistering experimental rock-via-punk. Rather, early on in its conception the band made the decision to experiment with new compositions and song structures. The resulting addition of backing vocals from Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivory- Block (Palberta) create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh’s drunken baritone on tracks like ‘Sing Me To The Street’, ‘Death Croons’ and ‘Stay Cruel’, while the Dick Dale-inspired guitar riffs on ‘Serafina’ and ‘Heat Lightning’ and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara’s ability to write songs thatimmediately demand repeat listens.

These are just a few of the changes that reveal this album to be the monumental step forward that it is. Here Bambara finally sound like they’ve locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.

“Beautifully dynamic nightmare” - NPR

“One of my favourite things I finally saw for the first time at South By this year” - Steve Lamacq

“Very few artists these days make rock and roll as threatening as Bambara” - Loud And Quiet

“An abrasive, awesome ripper” - Treble

Tracklisting: Miracle / Heat Lightning / Sing Me to the Street / Serafina / Death Croons / Stay Cruel / Ben & Lily / Made for Me / Sweat / Machete

Label Review.

2020 album. Indie.

Our Overview.

Terry Ohms is back with a new album almost a year to the date after his wonderfully eclectic ‘Terryfirma’. This time around, with ‘Cold Cold Shoulder’, Terry gives us eight stretched out, guitar-dominated tracks. Terry Ohms is the alter ego of Birmingham, Alabama native Wes McDonald – or maybe it’s the other way around. After spending time in their individual musical worlds and influences, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins, or where the rhythmic reach of one extends and the melodic ambitions of the other continues.

Led by Mr. Ohms shape shifting vocals, the songs on ‘Cold Cold Shoulder’ get pushed around by soulful and sizzling guitar that is at once tight and loose. There are keyboards and bass lines hung over drum grooves. A Corvette-station wagon of sounds smoothly swing and berate on ‘Cold Cold Shoulder’. As for the songs, Ohms offers a variety of occupants that inhabit the same spirited borough.

‘Cold Cold Shoulder’ is Terry Ohms’ eighth release. Terry Ohms is the alter ego of Wes McDonald, who was the singer/guitarists for Vulture Whale and The Ohms, and is currently the drummer for dream-psych-rock outfit, People Years. With the second full length album in as many years, McDonald looks to be plowing full steam ahead with this Terry Ohms guy. He’s been making records under one moniker or another since the year 2000. With a history of giving musical norms and predictable progressions the ole’ cold cold shoulder, he still manages to deliver a damn good song time and again. McDonald has a sharp tongue and a keen and playful musical sensibility that informs his music with power and personality. And as Terry Ohms, who is stretched out, settled in and here to stay for awhile, ‘Cold Cold Shoulder’, more than any of his previous records, satisfies and strikes as singular and meant to be.

McDonald engineered, produced and played all the instruments on ‘Cold Cold Shoulder’ at Terry’s House in Birmingham, AL. He also designed all the artwork and made all the sandwiches.

Tracklisting: King Of The Mountain / Rock Of Gibraltar / What Do You Mean, What Do I Mean? / IMO JSYK BTW / All In The Past / Where You Comin From / Making The Most / That Song

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

After a hiatus of 6 years, Grammy-winning and BRIT and Mercury-Prize-nominated artist La Roux aka.Elly Jackson returns with her first new album since 2014’s ‘Trouble In Paradise’ is released on her own label Supercolour Records, entitled ’Supervision’ and is her third studio album . 

From the cover to the contents, this is unequivocally the album Elly Jackson always wanted to make a claim that with some artists might ring alarm bells, but in this instance simply means that ‘Supervision’ sounds precisely, unmistakably, gloriously like La Roux. 

Debut self-titled album (2009) sold over 6 million singles worldwide. Chart: UK #2 (Platinum) / US #70 / Top 40 in Australia (Gold), Austria, Belgium, Canada, Ireland (Platinum), Norway, New Zealand Second album, ‘Trouble In Paradise’ (2014) landed La Roux her second top 10 record in the UK. Chart: UK #6 / US #20 / Top 40 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway, New Zealand Has collaborated with the likes of Tyler The Creator, Skream, Kanye West, and Major Lazer 

Tracklisting: 21st Century / Do You Feel / Automatic Driver / International Woman Of Leisure / Everything I Live For / Otherside / He Rides / Gullible Fool

Label Review.

2012 live album and concert film.

Our Overview.

Prolific collaborator and solo artist Steven Wilson, a four-time Grammy nominee, multi-instrumentalist, producer and founder member of Porcupine Tree, released ‘Get All You Deserve’ in 2012. Directed by long-time visual collaborator Lasse Hoile, the concert film was shot in Mexico City during the ‘Grace For Drowning’ Tour. This 3-disc release captures the spectacular live experience that Wilson and Hoile created for the tour, with the original concert film in high-definition on Blu-Ray, and the concert audio on two CD’s. Released just one month after his highly successful fifth solo album ‘To the Bone’.

‘Grace For Drowning’ - Wilson’s second solo album, following 2009’s exceptionally well-received ‘Insurgentes’ - saw tremendous support from the press, who have remained loyal to him ever since. The album tour was his first ever solo tour, and for it he assembled a virtuoso band featuring Marco Minnemann (drums), Nick Beggs (bass), Theo Travis (flute and sax), Adam Holzman (keys) and Niko Tsonev (guitars) to accompany him. The shows immersed fans in a rich sensory experience: rear speakers provide surround-sound effects, giant screens to show off Lasse’s films made specifically to accompany these songs, and cutting-edge lighting designs giving texture to each song. ‘Get All You Deserve’ captures one of the highlight shows from the tour, recorded at a sold-out Teatro Metrop litan in Mexico City and features songs from Wilson’s first two solo albums.

This 3-disc version of ‘Get All You Deserve’ is presented in an 8-panel digipack packaging complete with an 8-page booklet featuring extra photography.

“an immersive, ambitious project that demands repeated spins” MOJO

“Prog rock wrung dry of nostalgia, perfect not for drowning but immersion” ROLLING STONE

Tracklisting: No Twilight Within The Courts Of The Sun / Index / Deform To Form A Star / Sectarian / Postcard / Remainder The Black Dog / Harmony Korine / Abandoner / Like Dust I Have Cheated From My Eye / Luminol / Veneno Para / No Part Of Me / Raider II / Get All You Deserve / Intro ( Citadel ) / No Twilight Within The Courts Of The Sun / Index / Deform To Form A Star / Sectarian / Postcard / Remainder The Black Dog / Harmony Korine / Abandoner / Like Dust I Have Cheated From My Eye / Luminol / Veneno Para / No Part Of Me / Raider II / Get All You Deserve / Outro ( Litany )

Label Review.

2020 album. Folk (ex-Trembling Bells).

Our Overview.

Alex Rex is the nom de guerre of Alex Neilson- drummer to some of the most innovative musicians on the international underground including Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Shirley Collins, Jandek and Current 93 and he is releasing his new album ‘Andromeda’ an album which is a game of emotional snakes and ladders. It’s the product of two years spent in therapy, the gym and on Tinder. It opens with the voice of folk legend Shirley Collins in ”Song of Self Doubt” – a sparse assemblage of spoken words layered on bright chimes and birdsong. And from there we wander down corridors of cruelty, recklessness and recrimination.

Alex has synthesised the agonised self-invention and charismatic death-drive of these artists into his solo vehicle- abandoning the Folk Rock pomp of his previous band Trembling Bells for something darker and wilder. Following the critical acclaim of two previous albums- Vermillion and Otterburn- Rex is back with his most raw and adventurous album yet:' Andromeda'.

Featuring a consolidated line up of long-time collaborator Rory Haye, with Audrey Bizouerne (Rev Magnetic/ Bill Wells) and Georgia Seddon (Mike Heron/The Incredible String Band) along with guest appearances from Shirley Collins and Stevie Jackson, Andromeda is a gut-punch to the brain. Self loathing has never sounded so sexy.

Tracklisting: Song Of Self Doubt / Handful Of Hair / I Am Happy / Funeral Music For Alex Rex / Oblivion / Cowards Song / Rottweilers / Alibi Blues / Haunted House / The Uses Of Trauma / Im Not Hurting No More / Pass The Mask

Label Review. 

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Christopher Paul Stelling is a guitar virtuoso, a NYC based folk singer- songwriter and a touring troubadour. Simply put, Christopher Paul Stelling is a one-man powerhouse of roots music. His new album ‘Best of Luck’ was produced by Grammy award winning musician-producer, Ben Harper who comments “It’s not Americana or alt anything, it’s really just soulful folk music”. 

The album’s title, ‘Best Of Luck’, mirrored perfectly the emotional landscape in which it was created. “Depending on how you say it, it can either be a blessing or a dismissal,” Stelling says. “And that was exactly the point I was coming to with myself, my career as an artist, as a friend and as a person.”Harper and Stelling met a few years back when Harper invited Stelling to open a series of shows. “Ben gave me a true gift back then,” Stelling says. “I’d been on the road for a long time and he put me onstage in front of his fans. He took me to the Beacon, The Ryman, Massey Hall, all these legendary rooms. Just to see that what I could do would even translate in spaces like that was revelatory.” 

When Harper talks about his admiration for Stelling, “A guy that can play any instrument from any country and play it with real feeling. He crosses genres but manages to respect them; he is a folk singer with an unusual soulfulness. He understands where this music comes from and why it’s remains so essential. Of all the record’s I have produced, this is one I’m most proud of”. 

Tracklisting: Have To Do For Now / Lucky Stars / Trouble Don’t Follow Me / Until I Die / Made Up Your Mind / Blue Bed / Something In Return / Hear Me Calling / Waiting Game / Goodnight Sweet Dreams

Label Review.

1987 compilation of early recordings and Peel Sessions. This edition expanded to include all early singles plus unreleased material.

Our Overview.

British electronica band, The Beloved - founded by core member Jon Marsh - although more renowned as a 90s dance/electronica pop act, with hits like “Sweet Harmony”, “Hello” & “The Sun Rising”, The Beloved began in 1983 as a 4-piece guitar-based band. Two John Peel Sessions in 1985 were followed by 4 independent singles on the now-defunct Flim Flam label.

Their debut album ‘Where It Is’ was a compilation of these initially released as a vinyl LP in October 1987. The album was then released on CD in 1988 as an expanded edition, which now sells in excess of £100 on Discogs. Step forward to 2019. All the audio has been remastered from the original analogue tapes, by John Davis at Metropolis Studios, & is to be reissued with a 2nd disc containing previously unreleased demo tracks. At the time the material was recorded, the band comprised: Jon Marsh (Vocals/Keyboards), Steve Waddington (Guitars), Tim Havard (Bass) & Guy Gausden (Drums); sonically similar to peers on NME’s seminal C86 compilation.

The first 3 singles were produced by New Order’s studio engineer Michael Johnson, ‘Forever Dancing’ by the band themselves. CD1 is as per the original CD album with the addition of 3 tracks released on singles but not included on the CD, ‘Saints Preserve Us’, ‘Having Fun’, & the Stephen Street remix of ‘Forever Dancing’. It now comprises a virtual facsimile of all released singles. CD2 comprises 16 tracks. 3 were previously available on a limited edition 7” with the vinyl album of ‘Where It Is’, 2 were alternate versions of songs on CD1 (from the original vinyl single releases) and there is a 7” version of “Forever Dancing”. The remaining 10 tracks are completely unheard/unreleased demos from 1983-1987. Packaging wise, the release will be foil blocked digipack contain a 16 booklet with sleeve notes, photos & posters chosen by the band.

Tracklisting: A Hundred Words / Slow Drowning / In Trouble And Shame / This Means War / If Only / Let It Begin / Saints Preserve Us / Righteous Me / A Kiss Goodbye / If Pennies Came From Heaven Could Karl Marx Have Been Mistaken? / Forever Dancing / Surprise Me / Having Fun / Forever Dancing / If Only ‘88 / Disc 2: The Flame ‘83 / The Last Detail / Grin / Disgrace / Privacy (Sometimes) / The Flame ‘84 / Seppuku Glory / Falling On My Face / Each & Every Time / The Last Detail / Righteous Me / Forever Laughing / If You Ever Change Your Mind / On The Fence / Forever Dancing / If Only ‘87

Label Review. 

2020 album. Kscope. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Godsticks open 2020 with their new and most accomplished studio album, ‘Inescapable’. Their mix of heavy rock, progressive and alternative metal with a dynamic range of angular riffs and emotional depth will leave listeners reeling. The band’s sound has refined over their releases on Kscope, beginning with the technically astounding metal on ‘Emergence’ to the more industrial and progressive-influenced ‘Faced With Rage’. Now, with ‘Inescapable’, the band have channelled their energy and technical ability into the melody, phrasing and vocal performance, allowing emotion to take centre stage.

It is perhaps Charles’ vocals that have undergone the biggest change on Inescapable, largely as result of working closely with Kscope. Charles sings with more emotion and realises his ability to sing in higher registers, producing his best vocal performance to date. The band also invited the gifted TesseracT vocalist Daniel Tompkins to record vocal harmonies for lead track “Denigrate”, adding an extra layer of aggression and energy to one of the more powerful songs on the record. 

This edition of ‘Inescapable’ is presented as a digipack CD complete with a 12-page booklet featuring lyrics and additional photography. Godsticks are supporting the new material beginning in April with a UK tour followed by summer festival bookings.

‘Inescapable’ was produced by James Loughrey (Skindred) and recorded at the famed heritage Monnow Valley studio. The striking new artwork incorporates the album’s exploration of self-worth and insecurities. 

“The new studio album from the progressive purveyors of heavy rock and alternative metal Godsticks have such a strong identity and so many ingenious riffs” Metal Hammer 

Tracklisting: Denigrate / Victim / Relief / Surrender / Numb / Change / Breathe / Time / Resist

Label Review.

2020 album. Jazz vocal. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

American singer and songwriter of what she calls Vintage Pop Kat Edmonson has a story to tell. It’s a story for all those who dream of a different path in life, and you can hear it on her upcoming 2020 recording ‘Dreamers Do’. With a sweetly mellifluous soprano echoing Blossom Dearie’s lighter-than-air approach as well as her gift for evocative songwriting, Kat Edmonson is a rare artist who embodies the spirit of the past while remaining resolutely au courant.

The album explores the shared human struggle around daring to dream and it illuminates a range of emotional and psychological consequences that can happen along the way.  A question gets raised in Kat’s vulnerable original, “Too Late to Dream”: “Are the messages we receive as children about following our dreams relevant through adult life?”  The album is a mix of Edmonson’s original songs and re-imagined Disney songs from the mid-twentieth century and takes place over the course of one, sleepless night.

Her unusually charming and seamless blend of old and new has garnered attention on “NPR Tiny Desk Concerts”, “Austin City Limits”, and “A Prairie Home Companion”. The album blends original compositions and reimagined mid 20th century classic Disney songs, and tells a story which takes place over the course of one sleepless night. Dreamers Do follows the release of 2018’s ‘Old Fashioned Gal’.

Tracklisting: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes / Go to Sleep / In a World of My Own (With Duchess) / Night Walk - Interlude / When You Wish Upon a Star / The Parlor - Interlude / Chim Chim Cher-Ee/ This Old House - Interlude / Someone’s in the House / Carlyle - Interlude/ Very Good Advice/ Too Late to Dream/ A Little Night Music? - Interlude / All I Do is Dream of You / Be Careful How You Wish / The Second Star to the Right / The Age of Not Believing (feat. Bill Frisell) / Morning - Interlude / What a Wonderful World/ A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Reprise)

Label Review.

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Alt pop, London based four piece Gengahr announce their much anticipated return with their third full-length album, ‘Sanctuary’, released via Liberator Music (part of The Mushroom Group). More expansive and ambitious than ever before, Sanctuary is the experimental alt-pop band’s finest body of work to date, a DIY triumph which welcomes old friend Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club as producer, adding his distinct brand of symphonic sparkle to Gengahr’s complex, layered sound and pushing the band further into all-out pop territory than they’d ever dared stray before. Recorded at the brand new Propagation House way out in Bude in Cornwall, the album also recaptures the magic that old school friends Felix Bushe, John Victor, Hugh Schulte and Danny Ward felt when they were making their debut.

With mixing from the hugely in-demand Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Nilufer Yanya, Shame), additional production from John Victor and engineering from A Dream Outside’s engineer James Bragg, Sanctuary is vibrant, intoxicating, intimate and alive; the product of friends having a good time and seizing control of their own destiny.

Tracklisting: Everything & More / Atlas Please / Heavenly Maybe / Never A Low / Fantasy / You’re No Fun / Soaking In Formula / Anime / Icarus / Moonlight

Label Review.

2020 album. Americana. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Bad For You’ marks a time of growth for The Steeldrivers, a turn towards an edgier sound than previous recordings. This is the fifth SteelDrivers studio album, made up of all-new original material, and recorded in Nashville, TN at The Butcher Shoppe. 

The group continues its rich musical progression, conjuring music drenched in soul, blues, bluegrass, R&B, country, and rock ‘n’ roll. If the “blend of soul and slink, blues and country, mountain coal and red dirt,” as Peter Cooper characterised their sound, is timeless, the SteelDrivers have delivered another new classic. Fiddle-player, songwriter, and singer Tammy Rogers aptly describes the “realness, rawness, and edge” in the band’s sound. 

The eagerly-awaited album features eleven new songs, ten of which were co-written by Rogers, whose spirited and soulful voice and fiddle playing have been a hallmark of the band’s hard-driving sound throughout its existence. It also marks the band’s debut recording with Kelvin Damrell, the singer and guitarist who joined the band in early 2018. Few bands are as aptly named as the SteelDrivers: steel is known for its remarkable strength, but also for its resilience, and the same is certainly true of the SteelDrivers, as they have proven time and again. 

Tracklisting: Bad For You / The Bartender / 12 O’Clock Blues / I Choose You / Falling Man / Forgive / Glad I’m Gone / Innocent Man / Mama Says No / Lonely And Being Alone / When A Heart Breaks

Label Review.

30 tracks. Blues. Jasmine.

Our Overview.

Smokey Hogg was one of the most prolific and best-selling Blues artists of his era. This collection gathers together 30 of this post-war Texas blues and country blues musicians’ greatest recordings including the hits that made him so famous.

‘Smokey’ Hogg was an old-school Texas Blues guitarist and pianist who moved to the West Coast after WWII and had a couple of good R&B chart hits with a smooth piano Blues sound, alongside his dozens of country-style, guitar based records. His down-home delivery and eccentric sense of timing sounded old-fashioned in an era of frenetic Jump-Blues party music and the polished Blues-ballads of Percy Mayfield and Charles Brown but Smokey had ten prolific years as a recording artist, with his songs appearing on more than 20 different labels.

“Good Morning Little School Girl” and “Long Tall Mama” were the Top 10 hits that established him and both are featured here. Hogg was one of the stars of Jukeboxes and made a phenomenal number of recordings until his death in 1960. His records do stand up and still sound, in the main, fantastic up to 70 years after they were recorded. Includes fully detailed liner notes.

Tracklisting: Too Many Drivers / Unemployment Blues / Hard Times / My Christmas Baby / High Priced Meat / Golden Diamond Blues / (I Wonder) Where Did My Boogie Go? / Little School Girl / Long Tall Mama / Suitcase Blues (Lowdown Blues) / Nobody Treats Me Right / What’s On Your Mind? / Restless Bedroom Blues / Who’s Heah / Misery Blues / You Gotta Go / Going Back To Texas / Worryin’ My Life Away / You Won’t Stay Home / I’m So Lonely / Up Today - Down Tomorrow / Dirty Mistreater / Angels In Harlem / Size 4 Shoe / Highway 51 / Keep A-Walkin’ (Take 1) / Baby Don’t Leave / Up And Down / Train Whistle / Dark Clouds

Label Review. 

2020 album. Folk/country. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Canadian folk and country singer/songwriter William Prince returns with his second album ‘Reliever’ via Glassnote Records. For his eagerly-awaited sophomore album, William begins with single word, Reliever, which informs a collection of exceptionally rendered explorations of what, who and how peace is found. Relievers come in all forms; for Prince, it is song. With its emphasis on words and confidently unfussed accompaniment, Reliever puts Prince’s gift for sparking powerful emotions of both personal and communal relevance at the fore. A masterclass in skilful simplicity, Reliever works a generous and profound kind of magic.

Prince’s influences and references, from the gospel of his childhood to the pantheon of classic outlaw country singers, baseball and the great beyond, shape Reliever into a collection that approaches the big questions with humility and curiosity. At the edge of the ocean, between father and son, from stranger to lover, the album flows through the places and moments where real connections and healing happen. With the transformational power of letting go in songs such as “Always Have What We Had” and “Leave It By The Sea” to the all-consuming blaze of love in “The Spark,” Reliever finds many paths to the heart. 

The complicated emotions that charge idealisms and realities of fatherhood are a central theme throughout Reliever. “I want to live to the second last day that my children do, selfishly so I can see them through” Prince sings on “That’s All I’ll Ever Become,” a sentiment of seismic love and dedication. “Wasted,” another album standout, echoes this purest unconditional love inwardly, to the child who is told he is loved no matter which path he chooses, and outwardly, to the listener, who is gently – and directly – spurred not to take this shuffle for granted. 

To make Reliever, Prince reconvened with producers Dave Cobb in Nashville and Scott Nolan in Winnipeg, the team behind his JUNO Award winning debut and subsequent Glassnote Records reissue, Earthly Days. With the song “Breathless,” which found audiences worldwide and reached the B List at BBC’s Radio 2, Earthly Days introduced Prince’s poignant philosophy and rich baritone to the world. Prince’s trajectory from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, to opening for Neil Young, has seen the relative newcomer find esteem and career-changing opportunity wherever he performs.

‘Reliever’ is a series of pieces for healing. Alleviation. As the definition states, something that allows for relief from pain, discomfort or distress. I’ve been told my songs allow people to let out their hurt; reminiscent of bloodletting. Reliever takes aim at the moments where we as human beings feel we aren’t enough.Prince won a Juno 2017 Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year for his debut album Earthly Days. 

Tracklisting: The Spark / Wasted / Reliever / Always Have What We Had / Old Souls / That’s All I’ll Ever Become / Leave It By The Sea / Lighthouse / The Gun / Heaven And Hell / Great Wide Open

Label Review.

2020 album. Americana.

Our Overview.

Houston favorite, singer-songwriter Matt Harlan is a troubadour of the first degree, bringing his handcrafted songs to stages across his home state of Texas, the USA and Europe. Matt crafts sociopolitical narratives with an artist’s eye (“What We Saw”) and a poet’s elegance (“Mountain Pose”). His seamless new collection ‘Best Beasts’ spotlights a rapidly rising songwriter growing exponentially with each track. Political unrest maps the landscape.

“Best Beasts became much more political than I imagined,” Harlan says. “Everything I started to write ended up being about current events. The theme throughout the record is me trying to makes sense of our crazy world today.” Harlan frequently delivers keen insight with an everyman’s grace. “Another bad day, another scene that makes no sense,” he sings on the album’s poignant closing track, “Another Bad Day.” “Another angel on the fence/but maybe it’s the morning star/Another bad day/you know I tried to shake it loose/and find a different point of view/pretend the sky’s not falling.” “I understand things better when I separate myself and tell stories from someone else’s perspective,” Harlan says. “Narrative songs are like a gel-cap around medicine. Listeners can feel the same emotions even if they don’t know there’s something in a song that they might not agree with. We all have to deal with the world. We have that in common.”

Harlan’s vivid vignettes frequently feature blue-collar everymen struggling for purchase of their own hard-won happiness (“Heavy Steel,” “K&W”), which they occasionally find (“Mountain Pose,” “Catching On”). And there are pauses for reflection (“Like Lightning [Way Out of Town],” “Somebody Else”). “I hope folks can understand the issues from both sides,” the 37-year-old Houston native says. “I think these songs are about the changes and struggles we all face in one way or another. So that means they had to cover some ground I’ve never had to tread before but other people find themselves walking daily.”

“‘Best Beasts’ in the simplest sense can be filed under folk or singer-songwriter recordings. But Harlan on this record takes his biggest instrumental swing. He’s just subtle about it. So there’s the obligatory voice (and his is an achingly expressive one, yet conversational and never prone to excess) and guitars, but also colors of violin, banjo, keyboards, accordion, pedal steel guitar, cello, dobro… . The sound beautifully meets Harlan’s lyrics, growing in grandiosity when needed, receding to the background when a song is better served by simple silence. Andrew Dansby - Houston Chronicle

Tracklisting: What We Saw / Catching On / Gemini Blues / K & W / Heavy Steel / Low Pressure / Somebody Else / Like Lightning / Darla Mae / Mountain Pose / Gravity / Best Beasts / Another Bad Day

Label Review. 

1970 debut solo album remastered with his two solo singles for Reprise on CD for the first time: Heavy Heart, No Way Out, Beasts Of Burden, Uganda Woman. Esoteric.

Our Overview. 

Peter Green made his name in the original line-up of Fleetwood Mac and his acclaimed guitar playing and writing graced several albums and a succession of hit singles before he departed the group in 1970. He embarked on the recording of his first solo album only a month after leaving Fleetwood Mac, enlisting the assistance of Zoot Money (keyboards), Alex Dmochowski (bass), Nick Buck (organ) and Godfrey Maclean (percussion).

‘The End of the Game’ is an entirely instrumental affair, quite different in feel from Green’s work with Fleetwood Mac. Released to very little fanfare, unjustly so as it was an imaginative work with Green’s instantly recognisable guitar playing. Essentially the album was edited together from one lengthy studio jam The following year saw the release of a single “Heavy Heart” which received some airplay and saw Green perform the song on Top of the Pops. A collaboration with Nigel Watson followed early in 1972 for Green’s final single for Reprise Records, “Beasts of Burden”. He then promptly disappeared before his late 1970s comeback, acquiring mystique and legend along the way.

This new and expanded Esoteric Recordings edition has been newly remastered from the original Reprise master tapes, with the four single sides appearing on CD for the first time. It also features a booklet with new essay and an exclusive interview with Zoot Money on the making of the album.

Tracklisting: Bottoms Up / Timeless Time / Descending Scale / Burnt Foot / Hidden Depth / The End Of The Game / Heavy Heart* / No Way Out* / Beasts Of Burden* / Uganda Woman*

*Previously unreleased on CD.

Label Review. 

2020 album (Everything But The Girl). Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Completing a compelling trilogy of albums since his late-flowering return to solo songwriting and singing six years ago, Ben Watt releases his fourth LP, ‘Storm Damage’ and with it a new sound and fervency. “I needed a fresh approach,” says Watt. “The album came out of an intense period of personal anguish and political anger. Sometimes repeating yourself musically feels disrespectful to the sharpness of your feelings. You have to search for a new way to capture the energy.”

Across four decades Ben has maintained a committed forward-looking course, from the ardent echo-drenched folk of his early solo work with Robert Wyatt, through seventeen years as musical mainspring and co-lyricist in the best-selling Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn - and ten at the helm of his smart electronic label Buzzin’ Fly - to his recent moving non-fiction and mid-life solo albums, the award-winning ‘Hendra’ (2014) and ‘Fever Dream’ (2016).

New album ‘Storm Damage’ is no exception. Sonically adventurous, lyrically detailed and engaged, the album - written and produced by Watt - is a personal journey through anxiety and change cut through with an insistent defiance. “My closest half-brother died unexpectedly in 2016, only four years after my half-sister,” he says of events surrounding the album’s origins. “I got stuck for a year, angry inside and angry at the political world casually detonating around me. I felt half powerless, half driven. When the songs finally came, some were dark, yes, but there is always room for light. Always. I just tried to put that across.”

Sonically the album forgoes the acclaimed twin-guitar approach of its two predecessors, and boldly shifts focus onto - in Watt’s words - “a future-retro trio” of upright piano, double bass and hybrid acoustic-electronic drums, set against a half-lit backdrop of lone analogue synths, spiralling echo spins and impressionistic ‘found sounds’ adapted from online public-domain recording archives. Low’s Alan Sparhawk makes a guest appearance on electric guitar and harmony vocal.

Tracklisting: Balanced On A Wire / Summer Ghosts / Retreat To Find / Figures In The Landscape / Knife In The Drawer / Irene / Sunlight Follows The Night / Hand / You’ve Changed, I’ve Changed / Festival Song

Label Review. 

2020 album. Acoustic covers. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

A very special album from the newly inaugurated Steve Harley Acoustic Band. ‘Uncovered’ includes interpretations of nine painstakingly chosen songs created in many instances by peers and contemporaries of Steve, those with shared histories and some that he admired from afar. These are songs with heft and honesty that have always connected and resonated within him; this is material that he’s always wanted to perform and may even wish he’d written!

This diverse collection of Harley’s interpretations is in some ways an almanac rather than just a set of great tracks: Steve’s links with some of the song-writers go back to the very start of their careers: Bowie in Beckenham; Dylan throughout his early teens; Cat Stevens/Yusuf and Paul McCartney, both massive early influences. Added into the mix are two songs from Steve’s own incredible catalogue, reworked from the originals: “Love, Compared With You” which now boasts a newly-composed third verse, plus “Only You”, played Live for several years, but recorded here for the first time.

The band that performs this collection features Barry Wickens on viola, violin and acoustic guitar, Oli Hayhurst on double bass, Tom Hooper on percussion and the Roots Music Legend, Martin Simpson, on guitar. Steve also sings a duet with the amazing Scottish singer, Eddi Reader. The recording sessions for ‘Uncovered’ were a joy; full of passion, virtuosity and grit. As Steve says, “I was roaring with stamina and passion when I went in to sing the final versions. Sang all 11 in one and a half days. The hunger and desire to perform was almost primitive. Matt Butler (engineer) has recorded my voice up-close and unaffected. I sing out - but seem mostly restrained.”

Tracklisting: Love Compared With You (Your Eyes Don’t Seem To Age) / Absolute Beginners / Ae Fond Kiss / Emma / How Can I Tell You? / I’ve Just Seen A Face / Out Of Time / Lost Myself / Only You / Star Of Belle Isle

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The former member of Tangerine Dream (1985-1990) Paul Haslinger, has dropped ‘Exit Ghost’, an immersive and adventurous travelogue. Paul is a man who knows how to build tension, hold moods, illustrate contempt, lies, passion and pleasure; He can create fear, loathing and love - he’s been unlocking the nuances of such emotions in a hugely successful career as a TV and film soundtrack composer (‘Halt And Catch Fire’, ‘Underworld’ and the Golden Globe-nominated ‘Sleeper Cell’).

‘Exit Ghost’ is his long thought out opus, a moment caught in time, flicking through reference points, taking an ethereal excursion that permeates musical genres as it becomes awash with intricate sounds and cross-pollinating rhythms. Built originally from the warmth of his grand piano ‘Exit Ghost’ resonates with purity and power, from an eerie and evocative between world, that’s at once expansive and rolling, then intoxicating and suffocating in equal measures; modern composition at its most uplifting; cerebral, celebratory, intense and beautiful. “The soul searching in connection with this record was extensive. Finding places of resonance, giving a colour to your memories. It was more challenging because it’s not somebody else’s narrative. Finding the core of your own story can be the most difficult task of all.”

Created over the span of eight years and filled with literal and personal references, the album itself is a testament to the search - a quest filled with hints, particles and suggestions. Paul says: “I’ve never been happy staying in one particular school of musical thought. The fun has been turning things on their heads, to try something you were not supposed to do.”

Tracklisting: The Faltering Sky / Intrinsic / Room 3 / Exit Ghost / Valse I / August 2-22 / Berlin 86-11 / White Sun / Mayerling / FernDell

Label Review. 

2010 album with 10 bonus tracks. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

In February 2010 the late, legendary musician, poet and author Gil Scott-Heron released his thirteenth - and last - studio album. First conceptualised in 2005 and ultimately produced by XL Recordings head Richard Russell during New York recording sessions that commenced in January 2008, ‘I’m New Here’ was Scott-Heron’s first album in thirteen years and found him sounding as vital, boundary-pushing and insightful as ever before.

On the tenth anniversary of ‘I’m New Here’s release XL Recordings release an expanded version of the album. In addition to the original album, the ‘I’m New Here’ 10th Anniversary Edition features twounreleased tracks - a cover of Richie Havens’ ‘Handsome Johnny’ and a previously unheard Scott-Heron song ‘King Henry IV’ - as well as a selection of other recordings from the original ‘I’m New Here’ sessions that were only previously available on a rare, vinyl only deluxe version of the album.

A note on the recordings from album producer Richard Russell: “Ten years ago I was in the midst of recording ‘I’m New Here’ with Gil. There was a lot more to the experience than it was possible to process at the time, and there was some great material that never made it onto the album.

“Our cover of ‘Handsome Jonny’ was the last recording Gil and I made on the last day of the last session for ‘I’m New Here’, at Clinton Studio in Hell’s Kitchen, NY, on September 19, 2009.

“Gil had introduced me to the original version of the song, explaining how Richie Havens had performed it in his opening set at Woodstock some forty years earlier, and we added it to a list of material we were considering for the album.

“In the end we recorded some of these songs, like Bobby Blue Bland’s ‘I’ll Take Care Of You’, Bill Callahan’s ‘I’m New Here’ and Robert Johnson’s ‘Me and the Devil’, and didn’t get round to someothers, including Joy Division’s ‘Disorder’.”

Tracklisting: On Coming from a Broken Home (Pt. 1) / Me and the Devil / I’m New Here / Your Soul and Mine / Parents (Interlude) / I'll Take Care of You / Being Blessed (Interlude) / Where Did the Night Go / I Was Guided (Interlude) / New York Is Killing Me / Certain Things (Interlude) / Running / The Crutch / I've Been Me (Interlude) / On Coming from a Broken Home (Pt. 2) / Handsome Johnny / King Henry IV / Piano Player (Intro) / Home Is Where The Hatred Is / Winter In America / Winter In America Jazz (Interlude) / Is That Jazz / A Place To Go (Interlude) / My Cloud

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Constantly creative, Marc Almond’s new album ‘Chaos and a Dancing Star’ was made in collaboration with producer, songwriter and pianist Chris Braide, who also worked on Marc’s 2015 album ‘The Velvet Trail’. The title informs many of the album’s themes, and impermanence is also a recurring topic. It emerges in various forms: mortality in “Black Sunrise” and “Dust”, as well as saying farewell and leaving a legacy in “Cherry Tree” and “When The Stars Are Gone”. The jaunty “Slow Burn Love” provides light amongst the darkness, with its hope of finding an ever-lasting love rather than one that’s “over before you blink your eyes” - a counterpoint to Marc’s common premise that love inevitably proves to be a disappointment.

Inspired by writing in Los Angeles, Marc Almond also added some Americana to the album. Referencing the famous cemetery to the stars with which it shares its name, “Hollywood Forever” addresses suicide and the passing of the Golden Age. Meanwhile, “Chevrolet Corvette Stingray” is an unemotional, fetishistic love song about cold sociopathic beauty. All but beauty and love is meaningless and without it we are nothing. “Lord Of Misrule” features not only Almond’s fervent voice but a flute courtesy of Jethro Tull legend Ian Anderson and a searing guitar solo part of a characteristically larger-than-life anthem. Marc notes, “It’s probably fair to say that I wrote “Lord of Misrule” with Ian in mind as I’ve always thought there was a touch of pagan mischief about him. It’s a kind of alternative Christmas song.”

“I wanted to write romantic apocalyptic love songs and set the songs in the fatal end of days settings with a touch of mystic paganism yet hopelessness,” says Marc. “It reflects the out-of-kilter world in which we find ourselves living today. Crows are a symbolic recurring theme on this record. When their eyes turn blue their life is coming to an end. Maybe it is the end of days for all of us, and perhaps this is something we should acknowledge.”

An iconic and influential figure with a career that spans almost 40 years and more than 30 million sales, Marc Almond has enjoyed a fresh renaissance in recent years. 2017’s retrospective ‘Hit & Pieces’ saw him return to the Top 10 of the album charts, and it was followed by the critically acclaimed ‘Shadows and Reflections’ set, which became the highest-charting solo album of his career so far. He also reunited with David Ball to say goodbye to Soft Cell with an emotional sold-out show at London’s O2.

Tracklisting: Black Sunrise / Hollywood Forever / Chevrolet Corvette Stingray / Dust / Slow Burn Love / Fighting A War / Cherry Tree / Chaos / Dreaming of Sea / When the Stars are Gone / Giallo / Lord of Misrule / The Crows Eyes Have Turned Blue

Label Review. 

2020 album. Post punk. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Dutch band The Homesick have made a record impregnated with impressions that still fit neatly under the pop umbrella. The album title’s nod to Scott Walker - “the big exercise” is a phrase pulled from a passage in Walker’s biography ‘Deep Shade of Blue’ - isn’t an aberration either: straddling pop sonority and the cacophonous fringes is something well worth aspiring. ‘The Big Exercise’ and the bands first for Sub Pop - finds the group keenly second-guessing their core chemistry as a live unit, imbuing their angular post-punk workouts with baroque elements such as piano, acoustic guitar, percussion and even clarinet.

“It’s the opposite of trying to translate recorded music to the stage,” guitarist Elias Elgersma comments. “We were already playing these songs live for quite some time, so for this album, we wanted to unlock the potential of these songs further in the studio.”

Opening track ‘What’s In Store’ was in part inspired by bassist Jaap Van der Velde’s unprompted deep dive into the world of national anthems, making his own attempt to conjure a similarly timeless melody. The song seamlessly bleeds into the chivalrous prance of ‘Children’s Day’ and the fragmented ‘Pawing’, righteously encouraging Erik Woudwijk’s nimble, cerebral drumming to become the band’s driving force. The headstrong wanderlust of ‘The Big Exercise’ is fitting, given The Homesick’s exodus as a small-town Dutch band ready to trot the world.

Contrary to the quest for belonging, roots and provenance found on their debut album ‘Youth Hunt’, the band’s creative trajectory is now dictated by a sense of otherness and imagination. The sharp contrasts are ever-present; the music’s new sonorous depth is underpinned by wry meditations on family ties, alternate realities and commonplace encounters.

As the band’s chief lyricists, Elgersma and Van der Velde deliberately keep each other in the dark, allowing the syntax of words and music to entangle in surprising - sometimes delightfully absurd - ways. ‘I Celebrate My Fantasy’, for example, summons a mirage of creeping pianos, sylvan clarinet flourishes and cartoonish sprawls with mock-paranoia, as Elgersma documents a macabre vision he had duringa mild case of sleep paralysis.

True to the band’s method of holding the more mundane, fleeting moments under a magnifying glass, closing track ‘Male Bonding’ pulls a wide range of movements out of the top hat: the album’s rare heavy burst is promptly mediated by almost medieval-sounding prog rock-flirtations.

Tracklisting: What’s In Store / Children's Day / Pawing / I Celebrate My Fantasy / Leap Year / The Small Exercise / The Big Exercise / Focus On The Beach / Kaïn / Male Bonding

Label Review.

2020 EP also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Critically acclaimed artists Khruangbin and Leon Bridges are releasing their collaborative EP ‘Texas Sun’. Driving anywhere in Texas can cost you half a day, easy. For example, it’ll take you over four hours just to get from R&B singer Leon Bridges’ hometown of Fort Worth down to Houston, where the psychedelic wanderers in Khruangbin hail from. The state is vast, crisscrossed with rugged expanses of road flanked by limestone cliffs and granite mountains, forests of pine and mesquite, miles of desert or acres of sprawling grassland, all depending on what part you’re in. And it’s all baking under the Texas Sun that lends its name to Bridges and Khruangbin’s new collaborative release.

“Big sky country, that’s what they call Texas,” Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee says. “The horizon line goes all the way from one side to another without interruption. There’s something really comforting about that.

”On ‘Texas Sun’, these two members of the state’s musical vanguard meet up somewhere in the middle of that scene, in the mythical nexus of Texas’ past, present, and future - a dreamy badlands where genres blur as seamlessly as the terrain. It calls equally to the cowboys boot scooting at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth, the chopped-and screwed hip hop fans rattling slabs on the southside of Houston, the art-school kids dropping acid in Austin, the cross-cultural progeny who grew up on listening to both mariachi and post-hardcore out on the Mexican borders of El Paso. All of these things, overlapping in a multi-coloured melange, purple hues as vivid and unpredictable as one of the state’s rightfully celebrated sunsets.

A journey through homesick reminiscences, backseat romances and late night contemplations, the kind of record made for listening with the windows down and the road humming softly beneath you. Like the highways that inspired it, ‘Texas Sun’ is guaranteed to get you where you’re going - especially if you’re in no particular hurry to get there.

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges are critically acclaimed artists with extensive coverage in print and online, including the New York Times, NPR, FADER, four Grammy nominations (Leon Bridges), The New Yorker, Washington Post and Pitchfork, among many others.

Tracklisting: Texas Sun / Midnight / C-Side / Conversion

Label Review. 

2020 album. Psych pop. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Montreal psych-pop group Elephant Stone will release their sixth full-length, ‘Hollow’, on Fuzz Club Records. It arrives following their 2016 LP, ‘Ship Of Fools’, and a number of recent side-projects and collaborations, such as the Acid House Ragas project and new band Mien with members of The Horrors and The Black Angels.

The first Elephant Stone record made in frontman and sitarist Rishi Dhir’s own Sacred Sounds studio, ‘Hollow’ is an ambitious, dystopian sci-fi concept album which he says is inspired by The Who’s ‘Tommy’, and the Pretty Things’ ‘S.F, Sorrow’. Rishi says: “There are a lot of unhappy people out there who are trying to find a way out. They are looking for meaning and something to believe in… or nothing to believe in. We all want the same thing but are trying to achieve it in different ways. With this in mind, I set forth writing a song-suite telling of a world of unhappy souls who have lost connection with each other.”

From Side A (‘The Beginning) though to Side B (‘The Ending’), the story told through Elephant Stone’s renowned garage-psych alchemy takes place immediately after mankind’s catastrophic destruction of the Earth and what happens when the same elite responsible for the first world-destroying climate disaster touch down on New Earth, a recently-discover planet sold with the same life of prosperity as the one they’d just destroyed. As soon as the chosen few step off the Harmonia ship built for the journey, it’s clear that all is not what it seems and humanity appears destined to make the same mistakes: “The storyline touches upon the plundering/poisoning of their home, the elite, demagogues, false idols, the truth as seen by children, and, ultimately, the fight for the survival of their species.”

Tracklisting: Hollow World / Darker Time, Darker Space / The Court And Jury / Land Of Dead / Keep The Light Alive / We Cry For Harmonia / Harmonia / I See You / The Clampdown / Fox On The Run / House On Fire / A Way Home

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Mackenzie Scott - who has spent the 2010s making boundary pushing pop music under her Torres moniker - has chosen to call her fourth album, and first release on Merge Records, ‘Silver Tongue’. Named after a person whose words are so potent that they cause the people and beings around them to vibrate ‘Silver Tongue’ is a full-scale realization of the world Scott has created over Torres’ last few albums.

Even when singing in more subdued tones, Scott’s voice is fervent, her lyrics stirring and unyielding as she draws from both the divine and the everyday. It’s also the first Torres record produced solely by Scott. After having shared production duties on her first three albums, the latter two alongside PJ Harvey collaborator Rob Ellis, she found the process liberating: “I made exactly the record I want, and it feels very ‘me.’” says Mackenzie.

‘Silver Tongue’ fastidiously chronicles the impulses that make up desire from the dreamy first blushes of infatuation through the slightly terrifying wonder that accompanies connection with another. In between, Scott wrestles with the highs and lows of what “being in love” might mean over heady guitars and swirling synths. While potent vocal hooks punctuate songs like the sparkling “Dressing America,” which combines New Wave glitter with hovering frustration, and the brooding “Good Grief,” which gently pokes at the idea of fetishized sadness, the knottiness lurking underneath reflects Scott’s real time processing of her emotions while making the record.

‘Silver Tongue’s’ musical world is vast and at times seemingly infinite. Edge-of-the-world synths add gravity to the vulnerability of “Two of Everything,” and refracted guitars offer a gnarled counterpoint to Scott’s increased determination at the end of “Last Forest.” On “Gracious Day,” one of Torres’ most forthright love songs, Scott’s voice hovers over a starlit landscape in a way that transcends the mundane and enters the otherworldly as she sings. Torres’ music has long navigated the space between the physical and the metaphysical, and ‘Silver Tongue’ faces that conflict head-on, examining the ways in which the actions of others can stir up deep-seated feelings and seemingly alter the space in which one exists.

Tracklisting: A Good Scare / Last Forest / Dressing America / Records of Your Tenderness / Two of Everything / Good Grief / A Few Blue Flowers / Gracious Day / Silver Tongue

Label Review. 

Four albums 1967-1969 plus 7 bonus tracks. BGO.

Our Overview. 

The Box Tops were an American band who formed in Memphis in 1967 and their frontman was 16 year old Alex Chilton. They had instant success when their debut single “The Letter” went to No.1 in their home country and also scored in the UK making the Top 5. The young group traded in what was then called “Blue-eyed soul”, a term still in use today to described white singers tackling black soul. The first album which was un-imaginitvely titled after their first two singles and just contained covers as their management was unconvinced of the songs that Chilton was writing at the time. Most of their material was written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham.

They had another big smash in 1968 with “Cry Like A Baby” which was also the title of their second album. Their success began to dry up after this although they had one more big hit in 1969 with “Soul Deep”. Band members began to leave and by early 1970 having realised they had been fleeced and disrespected by managers, agents and tour promoters during their short career, Alex Chilton split the group but that didn’t stop their label Bell from issuing more singles from unreleased material. Chilton would go on to form Big Star who although failed to make an impact at the time are now revered as one of the early “Power Pop” groups.

Tracklisting.

Disc 1: The Letter / She Knows How / Trains & Boats & Planes / Break My Mind / Whiter Shade Of Pale / Everything I Am / Neon Rainbow / People Make The World / I’m Your Puppet / Happy Times / Gonna Find Somebody / I Pray For Rain / Cry Like A Baby / Deep In Kentucky / I’m The One For You / Weeping Analeah / Every Time / Fields Of Clover / The Letter / Trouble With Sam / Lost / Good Morning Dear / 727 / You Keep Me Hanging On / The Door You Closed To Me / Georgia Farm Boy / Take Me To Your Heart / Come On Honey / You Keep Tightening Up On Me

Disc 2: Choo Choo Train / I’m Movin’ On / Sandman / She Shot A Hole In My Soul / People Gonna Talk / I Met Her In Church / Rock Me Baby / Rollin’ In My Sleep / I Can Dig It / Yesterday Where’s My Mind / If I Had Let You In / Soul Deep / I Shall Be Released / Midnight Angel / Together / I’ll Hold Out My Hand / I Must Be The Devil / Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March / (The) Happy Song / Ain’t No Way / I See Only Sunshine / Rock Me Baby / King’s Highway / Since I Been Gone / Lay Your Shine On Me

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

British post punk trio Shopping return with their new album ‘All Or Nothing’, a record that speaks about commitment, leaps of faith and tests of courage. With their new album "All or Nothing" Shopping take a big leap into a vibrant and punchy production style that is closer to pop than anything they've ever done. The album has been produced and mixed by Nick Sylvester (Deerhoof) and it is a true expansion of the band's sound, adding synths and odd rhythms to their most accessible melodies and lyrics yet. While a few songs on the album nod to their angular late 70s punk beginnings, this is much more of a radio-ready pop record than you might expect.

“A lot has happened in our personal lives since we last recorded and we knew this album was going to reflect that exciting and scary feeling that comes with change, heartbreak and personal evolution,” the band explain.

Their previous album ;The Official Body’ was named by Pitchfork as one of the "Best Rock Albums of 2018," with an 8.1 rating. Since their last record the band are now spread across the globe with Billy in LA and Andrew and Rachel in Glasgow and the songs were written in a two-week intensive period while they were all together. 

Tracklisting: Trust In Us / Initiative / Follow Me / No Apologies / For Your Pleasure / About You / Lies / Expert Advice / Body Clock / All Or Nothing

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Rock & also roll band from Orange County, California, Super Whatevr - brain child of Styler McKee - are releasing their 12 song new album ‘don’t you want to be glad?’ is bursting with nervous energy, buoyant rhythms and earworm melodies. It's taken the Californian songwriter a long time to get to this place. When his parents' marriage unraveled, the cascading effects permeated virtually every piece of McKee's psyche, resulting in one of the darkest periods of his life. At times, the personal and spiritual growth ultimately found on Super Whatevr's sophomore LP don't you wanna be glad? seemed completely out of reach.

Produced by Courtney Ballard (Good Charlotte, Waterparks), the 12-song album follows the band’s 2017 ‘Good Luck’ EP and 2018’s ‘Never Nothing’ in both in time and theme. Composed as a linear narrative tracing McKee’s path from unrest to inner peace, ‘don’t you wanna be glad?’ calls back lyrical elements from Super Whatevr'sprevious albums to create as cohesive and deeply personal record as the duo - McKee and drummer Chase Vernon - have ever made. “This album is about the pursuit of joy,”McKee adds. “I had to spend time deconstructing what it is that makes me glad.”

“‘yours truly.’ is about my personal pursuit of happiness,” says Super Whatevr lead vocalist Skyler McKee. “I am singing to myself, like hey Sky, you literally pushed out bad relationships and are slowly forgetting the past trauma, why are you still not happy? I learned that there is more to emotional growth than just cutting off toxic people, it takes healing those wounds in order to be genuinely glad.”

“I used to have to say I was happy,” admits McKee. “But now I actually am.”

Tracklisting: better. / yours truly. / so am i. / sober. / i wanna be cool. (feat. Lost Boy) / unhealthy. / eternity complex. / life (i want u). / everything's new, / everything hurts. / wesleepwedream. / holy anxious. / melancholyism.

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

In the making of their new album ‘Darkness Brings The Wonders Home’, Smoke Fairies drew inspiration from mysteries both real and imagined: sea monsters, flocks of crows taking flight in extravagant formation, strange creatures dwelling in the mud near their new South London abode. With their mesmeric vocal presence and starkly poetic lyrics, singer/multi-instrumentalists Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies embed all that odd magic into songs that speak to the realities of modern times—isolation, insomnia, an overall unease with the state of the world—and ultimately uncover an unlikely sense of hope. Produced by Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, The Black Angels, The Shins), Darkness Brings The Wonders Home merges Smoke Fairies’ musings and meditations with a decidedly guitar-driven sound, the duo’s unearthly harmonies endlessly floating atop lead-heavy riffs. Over the course of a rigorous month-long session in Seattle, Smoke Fairies adopted a purposely intimate approach to achieving that singular sonic tone.

“Times of darkness are when people are often the most imaginative,” says Davies in reflecting on the album’s title. “It helps you to see all the wonders of the world you hadn’t noticed before—the things you’ve been blind to because you’ve been on autopilot for so long. We spent a long time trying to fathom the direction we wanted to take on this album. At times the options seemed overwhelming, but as new songs started to form we realized we needed to take them back to our core sound – our interplaying guitar parts’ says Davies. “So then we had to really step up and do it ourselves, without relying on a band to fill anything in, which was quite a challenge—physically, mentally, everything.”

While Smoke Fairies initially intended to return to the earthy folk of early work like 2011’s ‘Through Low Light and Trees’, the duo soon found themselves assuming a new boldness in their guitar style and, in turn, pushing into much wilder terrain. In doing so, Blamire and Davies spent much of their time perusing the guitar shop near Ek’s chosen studio, experimenting with countless guitars and amps to augment the album’s sonic palette. “It was like being in a sweet shop, getting to try all these guitars we’d normally never be able to afford,” says Blamire. “We ended up making friends with guitars we never thought to use before, like this weird vintage Kay that sounded great but was so hard to play—to the point where there were days when our fingers were bleeding, or we had blisters in places you didn’t even know you could get them.”

For Smoke Fairies, ‘Darkness Brings The Wonders Home’ signals a strengthening of the inextricable bond they’ve forged through the years. “So many of the songs are about these feelings of disconnection, but the irony is that Jessica and I have each other, and that means so much more than any of the other relationships that come and go,” says Blamire. And because of that connection, the two found the courage essential for bringing such an emotionally trying album to life. “I think what we’re attempting to show is that, in all this chaos that’s so tumultuous and overwhelming, there are always ways to change your perspective,” says Blamire. “Making this album, we conquered so many worries and doubts and felt so much stronger at the end—we went right into the darkness, and somehow brought something incredibly positive out of it.”

Tracklisting: On The Wing / Elevator / Disconnect / Coffee Shop Blues / Left To Roll / Out Of The Woods / Chocolate Rabbit / Chew Your Bones / Don’t You Want To Spiral Out Of Control? / Super Tremolo

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Indie. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Squirrel Flower - the moniker of Ella O’Connor Williams - releases ‘I Was Born Swimming’, her debut album, on Full Time Hobby Records. The album’s title was inspired by Williams’ birth on August 11th 1996 - the hottest day of the year - born still inside a translucent caul sac membrane, surrounded by amniotic fluid. Throughout the 12 songs, landscapes change and relationships shift. The album’s lyrics feel like effortless expressions of exactly the way it feels to change - abstract, sad and hopeful.

Squirrel Flower’s music is ethereal and warm, gushing with emotional depth that the listener can step into like a warm bath. The band on ‘I Was Born Swimming’ plays with delicate intention, keeping the arrangements natural and light. The album was tracked live, with few overdubs, at The Rare Book Room Studio in New York City with producer Gabe Wax (Adrienne Lenker, Palehound, Cass McCombs). The musicians were selected by Wax and folded themselves into the songs effortlessly.

At the heart of the album lives Williams’ massive, haunted vibrating voice and melancholic, soulful guitar. The sounds expand and contract over diverse moods, cutting loose on the heavier riffs of “Red Shoulder.” “‘Red Shoulder’ is a song about destabilization and dissociation,” explains Williams. “Something soft and tender becomes warped and sinister, turning into sensory overload and confusion. How can something so lovely turn painful and claustrophobic? The song ends with a heavy and visceral guitar solo, attempting to reground what went awry.”

Williams comes from a deep-rooted musical family tree. Her grandparents were classical musicians who lived in the Gate Hill Co-op, an artistic cooperative from upstate New York that grew out of Black Mountain College. Ella’s father, Jesse Williams, spent most of his life as a touring jazz and blues performer and educator, and lends his bass playing to the album (listen for his smooth solo on “Headlights”). Growing up in a family of hard working musicians fostered a love of music and started Williams down her own musical path. As a child, Williams adopted the alter ego of Squirrel Flower. A couple of years later, she began singing with the Boston Children’s Chorus while studying music theory and teaching herself to play the guitar.

Tracklisting: I-80 / Red Shoulder / Slapback / Eight Hours / Headlights / Honey, Oh Honey! / Seasonal Affective Disorder / Home / Street Light Blues / Rush / Belly of the City / I Was Born Swimming

Label Review.

This album is Acid Jazz's tribute to an eccentric, a charmer, an unsung Sixties hero who still has soul. Includes solo tracks and some that he produced. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘Carnaby Street Soul West Coast Vibes’ plays homage to English songwriter, musician, producer and A&R man. The character that is Graham Dee has lived one heck of a life, from surviving the blitzing of East London during WW2 to playing with Pink Floyd and Jimmy Page - Graham has done it all and this compilation hopes to look back at the story of his life through music.

Dee was the A&R at Atlantic Records, signing artists and producing their songs plus playing on sessions that included pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. One of his tracks, ‘A Love I Believe In’, narrowly missed being a Number 1 after Tony Blackburn proclaimed the single as his Record Of The Week, only for Blackburn to be playing the flip side, ‘The Bitter With The Sweet’.

Around this period Graham was working with the likes of Georgie Fame, Elkie Brooks and Mike Berry to name just a few and even filled in for the absent Syd Barrett on somePink Floyd shows. He eventually parted company with Atlantic after he damaged studio equipment whilst practising pistol fast draws and purchasing a hunting bow and accidentally firing it, flooding the office and terrifying the staff.

A lot of the tracks signal specific moments in Graham’s life that involve a lot of these stories. The stories provide the context for the tracks and this spreads a certain spirit throughout the compilation. Now in his seventies, Graham Dee is still writing, recording, performing and releasing solo records.

Tracklisting: Graham Dee - Another Night Alone / Graham Dee - Sampaguita / Maxine - A Love I Believe In (Horn Version) / Mike Berry - Soul Ride (Ascete Mix) / Graham Dee - Carrie / Graham Dee - Cheatin’ On Love / Graham Dee - As Long As I’m Close To You / Lenny White - Can’t Stop Thinking About Girls / Mick’s Bunch - I Just Wanna Be Your Friend / Tony Rivers - Tomorrow’s Children / Razor - It’s A Hard Way But It’s My Way / Graham Dee - Somethin’ Else

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview.

The new album from Canadian songwriter Dan Bejar aka Destroyer ‘Have We Met’, as Dan puts it, “came together in such a crazy way - all equal parts ecstasy and terror.” Initially conceived (but quickly ditched) as a Y2K album, Bejar was without a clear concept in mind. So he let it all rip while brainstorming at home. Culled from years’ worth of saved writing, set aside for projects “beyond music” and recorded at his kitchen table, ‘Have We Met’ harkens back to ‘Kaputt’-era Dan stringing together lyrics off hand while lounging on his couch. The resulting vocal sound exists in the sweet spot between two Destroyer worlds colliding: hints of the past, more strident Destroyer mixed in with a relaxed, new-aged Crooning one.

No re-recording. No cleaning up. Frequent collaborator John Collins was tasked with the role of layering synth and rhythm sections over a stream-of-consciousness Bejar, as Nic Bragg added “completely unexpected and somehow comforting” three-dimensional, shredding guitar. The Destroyer band-orientated approach was shelved; “The record could have gone on and on, and the mixes kept evolving up until about a day before we sent them off to be mastered, which was also 48 hours before John and his wife went to the birthing centre, where their first child was born; our true deadline!” says Bejar.

Opener ‘Crimson Tide’ is a six-minute journey that takes its rightful place among other Destroyer epics. It welcomes with a sparse rhythm until percolating synths and propulsive bass build and make it all a reality with unsustainable imagery - oceans stuck inside hospital corridors and insane funerals. It’s the sound of a somewhat eccentric and unorthodox recording process laid out and built up by three musicians exploring the depth to which they can take an idea.

On ‘The Television Music Supervisor’, trickling keys, glitches and ‘clickity click clicks’ (a variation on the standard Bejar ‘la da das’) focuses on how those who dictate our relationships with music and media are susceptible to error, a most 21st Century concern.

Perhaps the most audacious Destroyer track yet, ‘Cue Synthesizer’ steps back to address the rote and often-detached mechanics of music. Up next, the waltzy and woozy centrepiece ‘University Hill’ drifts even further and applies that logic more broadly, insisting “the game is rigged in every direction” and “you’re made of string.”

Thirteen albums in, ‘Have We Met’ manages to meet somewhere between trademarks and new territory - atmospheric approximations of feeling and place, wry gut-punches of one liners and the deluge of energy meets a thematic catharsis of modern dread, delivered with an effortless, entrancing directness. No need to expound any further - he’s got it all spelled out for you in the music.

Tracklisting: Crimson Tide / Kinda Dark / It Just Doesn’t Happen / The Television Music / Supervisor / The Raven / Cue Synthesizer / University Hill / Have We Met / The Man in Black’s Blues foolssong

Label Review.

1988 album.

Our Overview.

The Mancunian alt-rave rockers and legends of the late 80s indie music scene, the Happy Mondays are re- releasing ‘Bummed’. Like many an influential album in rock history, the cultural significance of Happy Monday’s ‘Bummed’ the bands’ second album, was apparent to precious few listeners upon its first release on 5 November 1988. Within a decade or two, ‘Bummed’ would be hailed as one of the best records of the 80s, often by the self-same publications that had slated it back in the day - a harbinger of the seismic shift about to take place in British popular music, away from the squeaky-clean, corporately ordained pop-radio fodder which had increasingly dominated the charts since punk and back towards the more aggressive, unruly and experience-hungry urges which had always pulsed through rock & roll. This album is on vinyl for the first time since its original release. Features the singles ‘Wrote For Luck’ and ‘Lazyitis - One Armed Boxer'.

This is nasty, nightmarish music delivered with a lascivious leer by Shaun Ryder, a hallucinatory accidental poet portrayed on the album's garish cover as some kind of harlot put out to pasture. Decadence has rarely sounded as dangerous as it did in the hands of the Mondays and this is where they reveled in that debauchery, pumping out stiff psychedelic funk as Ryder spat out rhymes of luck, lazyitis and fat lady wrestlers. Hannett’s bright, brittle production amplifies everything, creating a swirling hyper-reality that's almost a sonic black hole sucking everything into its vortex -- slide guitars, sound clips from "Performance," maniacally looped drum machines, Beatles melodies, drums that are pushed to the front of the mix so it all is a relentless assault, from the ears down to the loins. As jagged and lacerating as all this is, there's a sense of evil glee, that the Mondays want to drag you down to their level, but there's no sense of seduction here; you're either with them or not, as ‘Bummed’ is music for after you've already succumbed to the dark side.

Tracklisting: Country Song / Moving In With / Mad Cyril / Fat Lady Wrestlers / Performance / Brain Dead / Wrote For Luck / Bring A Friend / Do It Bett

Label Review. 

2020 album. Country/Southern Rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘The Unraveling’ is the acclaimed Georgia based alt-country outfit Drive-By Truckers’ 12th studio album and their first in more than three years - the longest gap between new Drive-By Truckers albums. ‘The Unraveling’ refers to the US collapse at the hands of the Trump Administration. The titles of the LP’s nine tracks, such as “Thoughts and Prayers”, “Babies in Cages”, and “Awaiting Resurrection”, further drive this theme home. The songs are among Drive-By Truckers’ most direct and pointedly provocative, tackling the myriad horrors of our new normal through sincere emotion and unbridled heart.

“The past three-and-a-half years were among the most tumultuous our country has ever seen,” co-founding member Patterson Hood remarked in a statement, “and the duality between the generally positive state of affairs within our band while watching so many things we care about being decimated and destroyed all around us informed the writing of this album to the core.” He continued:

“While a quick glance might imply that we’re picking up where 2016’s AMERICAN BAND album left off, the differences are as telling as the similarities. If the last one was a warning shot hinting at a coming storm, this one was written in the wreckage and aftermath. I’ve always said that all of our records are political but I’ve also said that ‘politics is personal’. With that in mind, this album is especially personal.”

Assisting Drive-By Truckers on the record are guests like The Shins’ Patti King, violinist/string arranger Kyleen King (Brandi Carlile), and North Mississippi All-Stars’ Cody Dickinson. It was recorded at the famed Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis by Grammy-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price) alongside longtime producer David Barbe.

Tracklisting: Rosemary with a Bible and a Gun / Armageddon’s Back in Town / Slow Ride Argument / Thoughts and Prayers / 21st Century USA / Heroin Again / Babies in Cages / Grievance Merchants / Awaiting Resurrection

Label Review.

2020 album. Synth pop. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘Mystic Familiar’, is the Baltimore based experimental composer and electronic- music iconoclast Dan Deacon’s new album. And it is the result of years of obsessive work, play and self-discovery. It’s at once his most emotionally open record and his most transcendent, 11 kaleidoscopic tracks of majestic synth-pop that exceptionally expand his sound with unfettered imagination and newfound vulnerability.

Since 2015’s ‘Gliss Riffer’, Deacon has branched out into an array of collaborative projects including film scores to Rat Film, HBO’s Well Groomed, ESPN’s 30 for 30: Subject to Review; collaborating with the NYC Ballet’s resident choreographer Justin Peck, LAPhil and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

While fulfilling, these projects lacked Dan’s singing voice. In the midst of that whirlwind of activity, he returned whenever he could to a personal oasis⁠—the songs that would become ‘Mystic Familiar’, informed by all these collaborations but built from within. Deacon’s writing took an exploratory new direction developed with therapeutic practices of self-compassion and mindfulness, daily prompts from Brian Eno’s deck of Oblique Strategies and the use of meditation. These techniques produced songs that paint life as a psychedelic journey brimming with bliss and disruption, darkness and light.

It’s a vulnerable shift in a songbook abundant with characters, metaphors, and modulations. This voice-focused album is also the first record in which each song was built around one central concept—the ‘Mystic Familiar’, a supernatural other being that we carry with us everywhere in our head, which only we can hear and with whom we live our lives in eternal conversation.  

Tracklisting: Become A Mountain / Hypnagogic / Sat By A Tree / Arp I: Wide Eyed / Arp II: Float / Away / Arp III: Far From Shore / Arp IV: Any Moment / Weeping Birch / Fell Into The Ocean / My Friend / Bumble Bee Crown King

Label Review.

2020 album.

Our Overview.

Prophet is the high-spirited machine funk alias of Anthony Butler, originally from Louisiana. The electro-funk musician from the San Francisco area, who until his debut Stones Throw album in 2018, had only released an obscure private-press LP called ‘Right On Time’ (1984, Treasure Records) a holy grail among boogie / funk vinyl collectors, which to this day has a dedicated cult following. After its release, Prophet disappeared for over 3 decades until Stones Throw’s founder Peanut Butter Wolf, a long-time fan, met him by chance encounter.

His first album on Stones Throw, ‘Wanna Be Your Man’, was co-written and co-produced by Mndsgn. Peanut Butter Wolf introduced Prophet to Mndsgn, and together they came up with ‘Wanna Be Your Man’ released on Stones Throw in 2018. The album was praised in publications including Vice, Q, and Mixmag, with Loud & Quiet calling it ‘not only a fondly stitched together photo album of funk’s heyday but an important release in its own right.’ Tyler, The Creator was also a fan, and remixed the title track into the song “Peach Fuzz”.

Whereas 'Wanna Be Your Man' was a collaboration with Mndsgn, 'Don’t Forget It' is entirely self-produced. Working on his own allowed Prophet to further explore his sound palette and whittle down over a hundred songs to 16 for this record. ‘Don’t Forget It’ is an album full of soul ballads and upbeat funk tracks.

Tracklisting: Intro / Don’t Forget It / Be the One for You / In My Ear / Do You Think / Think About It / Human Like / Game to Make Love / I Don’t Care / I Am I Is / Come on / Hard / Diamond Ring / Never the One for Me / Don’t Cry / Whatever / So Much Love

Label Review. 

1970 album with 5 bonus tracks. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Celebrating its 50th Anniversary, ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ by the Groundhogs is reissued with bonus tracks on CD. A hugely influential album cited as the embryo for punk, grunge and beyond. Featuring epic 1970 concepts from this far reaching trio much praised by Underworld’s Karl Hyde, Captain Sensible, Stephen Malkmus and a host of others. ‘Thank Christ For The Bomb’ is a visionary tale of cold war fear, alienation and everyday drama.

“This is a masterpiece!” sang the New Musical Express at the time. A thinking man’s rumination on alienation, the album is a game of two halves; side one tackling the thermo nuclear threat while side two traces riches to rags alienation in everyday London. Also featuring Radio 1 sessions and live versions of key tracks including a lengthy take of “Soldier” recorded for the BBC’s In Concert series. The first of a trio of ground-breaking albums that steered the band from the Blues into a heavier, more prog-based rock and a true reflection of their much-praised live sound.

Tracklisting: Strange Town / Darkness Is No Friend / Soldier / Thank Christ for the Bomb / Ship On The Ocean / Garden / Status People / Rich Man, Poor Man / Eccentric Man / Garden (Radio 1 sessions) / Eccentric Man (Radio 1 sessions) / Garden (Live At Leeds) / Eccentric Man (Live At Leeds) / Soldier (Radio 1 Sessions).

Label Review. 

2020 album also availble on CD.

Our Overview. 

When Minneapolis USA, synth-pop Poliça’s Channy Leaneagh fell off her roof while clearing ice in early 2018, she smashed her L1 vertebrae and battered her spine, leaving her in a brace with limited mobility for months. Yet Poli.a’s fourth album, ‘When We Stay Alive’, is not about one debilitating accident. It’s about the redemptive power of rewriting your story in order to heal and reclaiming your identity as a result.

‘When We Stay Alive’ possesses a new confidence in its sound, reflected in its fierce, determined songs and anchored by the heavy synths and punctuating beats of Poliça co-founder and producer Ryan Olson. Over the last several years Olson and Leaneagh have widely collaborated withmusicians from all over the world: both with Bon Iver; Leaneagh individually with Boys Noize, Lane 8, Sasha, Leftfield and Daniel Wohl; Olson with Swamp Dogg in addition to countless musicians from the Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon’s 37d03d collective. As a result, ‘When We Stay Alive’ features one of the largest musical casts of any Poliça record to date.

To create the album, Olson brought his favourite collaborators into his studio for all-night sessions. He’d then send Leaneagh the files to write lyrics to while recovering at home, which she’d record alone or with engineer Alex Proctor. Drummers Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu coloured the songs with a new approach - drastically changing the rhythmic dynamic from previous efforts by creating an indistinguishable hybrid of live and electronic instrumentation - and bassist Chris Bierden provided a melody-laden low end as well as more layered backing vocals than ever before.On Poliça’s first three albums, Leaneagh focused on restructuring the world and her relationships within it. On ‘When We Stay Alive’ she realises the power in restructuring her inner self. The album’s title references the idea of moving forward through life - our experiences, both good and bad - and what happens next with the strength we find. “I had been living unconsciously in past trauma,” Leaneagh says. “I don’t want to deny something happened - this is not about repression - it’s about taking the power back from the past, holding the power in the present, and creating a new story for myself.”

Tracklisting: Driving / TATA/ Fold Up / Feel Life / Little Threads / Be Again / Steady / Forget Me Now / Blood Moon / Sea Without Blue

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

Label Review. 

1989 debut album remastered. Also available on CD, 3CD, and Triple Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

London, in 1989 was a thrumming, restless, vibrant city that much like today, pulsed defiantly against a backdrop of increasing political doom, rocking to the joyful noise of culture leaping across boundaries, radically reordering itself. Rents are low. Soho hums to the chatter of poets, vagabonds and petty sex tourists drinking in the same elixir of possibility. The divisions between the queens of Old Compton and mods and punks of Carnaby Streets look huge but feel slight. A spirit of multiracial unity permeates the air. New York hip-hop and Chicago house continue their euphoric colonisation of nightclub culture.

Amid this maelstrom, Neneh Cherry emerges, capturing the entire, giddy rumble of this rolling community street culture in one record, ‘Raw Like Sushi’. With no interest in genre, Raw Like Sushi upsets and inverts everything you thought you knew about how pop can work, at its brightest and most effective. Widely regarded as one of the greatest debut albums of all time, born halfway between ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ and ‘Boy In Da Corner’, ‘Raw Like Sushi’ was ready to escort you right to the centre of its dancefloor, dripping hot sweat under a mirrorball at 3am – and its particular magic remains just as potent today.

The album features five of Cherry’s biggest singles – including the worldwide smash hit single “Buffalo Stance” as well as hit singles “Manchild” produced by Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, “Kisses On The Wind”, “Heart” and “Inna City Mamma”. It also features rare mixes of key tracks by Massive Attack, Arthur Baker, Smith N Mighty, and more.

Track Listing: Buffalo Stance / Manchild / Kisses on the Wind / Inna City Mamma / Love Ghetto / Heart / Phoney Ladies / Outre Risque Locomotive / So Here I Come

Label Review. 

1981 album remastered with 16 bonus tracks and DVD containing videos, Top Of The Pops appearances and more! Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Kim Wilde became an overnight sensation back in 1981 courtesy of the worldwide success of her single “Kids In America”, which offered a very British twist on the new wave energy and glamour of Blondie. The follow-up “Chequered Love” replicated the UK Top 5 success of the first single and her debut album cashed in on this early success. The songs on the album were all written by Kim’s father, the successful 1950s rock and roll singer Marty Wilde, and her younger brother Ricky Wilde and most of the music was played by the then current line-up of the symphonic rock band The Enid.[2] Production duties were fulfilled by Ricky Wilde. The cover portraits were taken by renowned British photographer Gered Mankowitz.

‘Kim Wilde’ was released by Mickie Most’s label RAK Records along with her next two albums: ‘Select’ (1982) and ‘Catch As Catch Can’ (1983). All three albums are reissued by Cherry Red Records, all with an extra disc of b-sides and remixes plus a DVD with BBC appearances.

Tracklisting.

Disc 1: Water On Glass / Our Town / Everything We Know / Young Heroes / Kids In America / Chequered Love / 2-6-5-8-0 / You'll Never Be So Wrong / Falling Out / Tuning In Tuning On / Shane* / Boys* / Water On Glass (7" version) / Tuning In Tuning On (7" version)

Disc 2: Kids In America [Luke Mornay Remix]+ / Chequered Love [Matt Pop Extended Version]+ / Water On Glass [Eddie Said & Luke Nutley Extended Version]+ / Kids In America [Popfidelity Allstars Remix]+ 5. Chequered Love [Matt Pop Alternative Mix]+ 6. Water On Glass [Project K: Project Kim]+ 7. Kids In America [Neutrophic Remix]+ 8. Kids In America [D-Bop’s Bright Lights Mix] 9. Kids In America [Popfidelity Allstars Instrumental]+ 10. Chequered Love [Matt Pop Instrumental]+ 11. Water On Glass [Eddie Said & Luke Nutley Instrumental]+ 12. Kids In America [Luke Mornay Instrumental]+

+ Exclusive new remixes for 2020

Disc 3: DVD (PAL) Promo Videos: Kids In America / Chequered Love. 'Kim At The BBC': Kids In America [On Top Of The Pops] 4. Chequered Love [On Top Of The Pops] 5. Water On Glass [On Top Of The Pops] 6. Kids In America [On Top Of The Pops - TOTP’s Christmas Party] Bonus Footage: Chequered Love [Unedited ‘Shower Version’]*

* Previously unreleased

Label Review.

1989 album. Contains a green vinyl LP, digipak CD, three 7 inch picture discs, a coke bottle, deck of cards, prescription notepad, drumstick pens, pins, guitar picks and band aids, all housed inside a leatherette satchel. Also available on CD and Vinyl.

Our Overview.

The biggest commercial success of the most notorious rock band of all time is being released in a 30th Anniversary Edition: Motley Crue’s 1989 album “Dr. Feelgood’ featuring demos, picture discs, pens, badges and more. 2019 has seen not only the release of Motley Crue’s critically acclaimed biopic ‘The Dirt’ - the film sparked a renewed interest in the band, with sales, streams and downloads of their back catalogue soaring as a result - but also marks the 30th anniversary of the album ‘Dr. Feelgood’, their biggest commercial success, the band’s fifth studio album was originally released on September 1, 1989, and featured Crue classics including which contains band classics such as ‘Kickstart My Heart’, ‘Without You’, ‘Same Ol’ Situation’ and the title track.

Bassist Nikki Sixx says: “After feeling robbed of a number one album with ‘Girls Girls Girls’, the band was hell-bent on topping ourselves on every level. 

“Bringing in Bob Rock to produce and push us musically and lyrically was just what the doctor ordered. The band was clean, lean and sober and this album has some of our proudest work.”

The anniversary edition will feature the full album along with studio demos, with the deluxe edition containing the album on ‘coke bottle green’ vinyl, CD, three 7-inch picture discs, a doctor’s bag, a prescription notepad, a deck of playing cards, a pair of drumstick pens, pin badges and guitar picks.

Tracklisting:


T.n.T. (Terror ‘n Tinseltown) / Dr. Feelgood / Slice of Your Pie / Rattlesnake Shake / Kickstart My Heart / Without You / Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.) / Sticky Sweet / She Goes Down / Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) / Time for Change / Dr. Feelgood (Demo) / Kickstart My Heart (Demo) / Without You (Demo)

Picture discs Tracks:

“Dr. Feelgood” Side A: Dr. Feelgood (Demo) Side B: Dr. Feelgood

“Kickstart My Heart” Side A: Kickstart My Heart (Demo) Side B: Kickstart My Heart

“Without You” Side A: Without You (Demo) Side B: Without You