Label Review. 

2020 album. Soul. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Nick Corbin releases his debut solo album ‘Sweet Escape’ Until February 2018, Nick was the singer and main songwriter of New Street Adventure, who released two albums on the legendary Acid Jazz label: ‘No Hard Feelings’ in 2014 and ‘Stubborn Sons’ in 2017. Nick was brought up with soul music constantly playing in the background, thanks to his Father’s love for the genre and obsessive collecting of rare records.

Over the years New Street Adventure received critical acclaim from the likes of Q Magazine (4/5 stars for album two) and The Guardian’s Tim Jonze, who praised Nick as having “an innate understanding of classic soul songwriting”. Despite the plaudits and a deal with a legendary record label a fluctuating line-up hampered the bands progress and Nick ended the group.

His first album on his own was produced by Gavin Monaghan (Editors, Paolo Nutini, OCS, The Twang, Robert Plant) at Magic Garden Studio in Wolverhampton and despite the soulful roots in Nick’s music, his voice remains distinctive and unmistakeable. Q’s Paul Moody referred to him as “a mod Mike Skinner”, whilst comparisons to Paul Weller and, more recently, Tom Misch have frequently been made.

Tracklisting: Sweetest Escape / Long Long Gone / Can We Do It Again? / Sunshine In / Gotta Get Back To You / Never Did Look Like Love / Thought It Through / Don’t Break The Mould / It’s Alright To Change Your Mind / I Need Reminding / Can’t Say Goodbye

Label Review.

35 Songs / 18 Previously Unreleased Performances.

Our Overview.

3 CDS / 35 Songs / 18 Previously Unreleased Performances. The Beastie Boys when describing Brian Auger said it best; ‘Those who remain oblivious to the obvious delights of Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express do so at their own risk!’ The legendary Brian Auger has returned with this 3 disc 50 year career retrospective.

Since the early ‘60s Auger has proven to be a restless, wandering musical spirit, and this collection is the proof in the pudding that his enormous talent and vision have warranted -- and continue to warrant -- his participation in multiple genres as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and arranger who has successfully and effortlessly blurred the lines between jazz, blues, R&B, funk, soul, fusion, and rock.

His voice is clearly recognisable to his millions of fans. With over 20 albums to his name, Brian Auger has accumulated Grammy Nominations, 10 albums charting in Billboards Hot 100, a #1 single, and the title of ‘The Godfather of Acid Jazz’. His tracks have been sampled by Mos Def, Common, the Beastie Boys, Air and Kid Loco; his original compositions covered by Sarah Vaughan, Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes and The Main Ingredient.

Brian’s bands over the years have featured Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Julie Driscoll and even Jimi Hendrix. In addition, Brian has recorded with great luminaries as The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Eric Burdon, Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney and more.

'Introspection' is an indispensable compendium for the collector and a welcomed introduction for the novice. This is the Auger collection everyone needs to own.

Tracklisting:

CD1: Freddie’s Flight / It Burns Me Up / Butterfly / Isola Natale / The Lady’s In Love / Midnight Sun / Season Of The Witch / Inner City Blues / Light My Fire / Happiness Is Just Around The Bend / Fanfare For The Common Blue Turkey

CD2: Planet Earth Calling / Sea Of Tranquility / This Wheel’s On Fire / Just Me Just You / The Road To Cairo / Indian Rope Man / Sundown / Second Wind / Somebody Help Me / We Three Kings / Whenever You’re Ready / Future Pilot

CD3: Ella / Pavane / Cry Me A River / Birds Of Paradise / Lament For Miss Baker / Jam Side Down / If You Could See Me Now / Homeward / Looking In The Eye Of The World / Dawn Of Another Day / Voices Of Other Times / I’ve Gotta Go Now

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

After a remarkable two-year run that saw them earn a GRAMMY Award nomination for their last chart-topping studio album while touring the world from Nashville to New Zealand and back again, Larkin Poe have returned with what is undeniably their most wide-reaching, artistically adventurous, and self-determined work to date.

Once again taking the producer reins and releasing on their own Tricki-Woo Records label, ‘Self Made Man’, sees the multi-instrumentalist sister duo, comprised of the Atlanta-bred, Nashville-based Rebecca and Megan Lovell, pushing their music and message towards hitherto unexplored terrain, inspired by their epic world travels yet still powerfully rooted in the creative heritage of their beloved American South. From the thunderous power of the album-opening “She’s A Self Made Man,” through the nostalgic “Tears of Blue to Gold” and fierce Chicago blues of “Scorpion,” to the front porch jubilation of “Easy Street,” the album is ambitious in both its eclectic, energetic sound and its resolutely welcoming mission, its universal lyrical approach fuelled by tradition, invention, and Larkin Poe’s remarkable ability to touch the hearts and souls of their fellow humans worldwide.

Tracklisting: She’s A Self Made Man / Holy Ghost Fire / Keep Diggin’ / Back Down South / Tears Of Blue To Gold / God Moves On The Water / Every Bird That Flies / Scorpion / Danger Angel / Ex-Con / Easy Street

Label Review.

2020 album. Singer songwriter. Also available on Black Vinyl and Blue/Green Vinyl.

Our Overview.

This is ‘Punisher’ in a nutshell: devastating elegance punctuated by a moment of deeply campy self-awareness. Phoebe Bridgers doesn’t write love songs as much as songs about the impact love can have on our lives, personalities, and priorities.

‘Punisher’, her fourth release and second solo album, is concerned with that subject. To say she writes about heartbreak is to undersell her blue wisdom, to say she writes about pain erases all the strange joy her music emanates. The arrival of ‘Punisher’ cements Phoebe Bridgers as one of the most clever, tender and prolific songwriters of our era.

Bridgers is the rare artist with enough humour to deconstruct her own meteoric rise. Repeatedly praised by publications like The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Pitchfork, The Fader, The Los Angeles Times and countless others, Bridgers herself is more interested in discussing topics on Twitter, deadpanning meditations on the humiliating process of being a person, she presents a sweetly funny flipside to the strikingly sad songs she writes. Fittingly, ‘Punisher’ is fascinated with, and driven by, that kind of impossible tension. Whether it’s writing tweets or songs, Bridgers’s singular talent lies in bringing fierce curiosity to slimy and painful things, interrogating them until they yield up answers that are beautiful and absurd, or faithfully reporting the reality that, sometimes, they are neither.

Bridgers pulls together a formidable crew of guests, including the Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Christian Lee Hutson and Conor Oberst as well as Nathaniel Walcott (of Bright Eyes), Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Jenny Lee Lindberg (of Warpaint), Blake Mills and Jim Keltner as well as her longtime bandmates Marshall Vore (drums), Harrison Whitford (guitar), Emily Retsas (bass) and Nick White (keys). The album was mixed by Mike Mogis, who also mixed Stranger In The Alps. On the album’s epic, freewheeling closer, “I Know The End,” Bridgers orchestrates wails and horns, drums and electric guitar into a sumptuous doomsday swirl, culminating in her own final whispered roar.

Tracklisting: DVD Menu / Garden Song / Kyoto / Punisher / Halloween / Chinese Satellite / Moon Song / Savior Complex / ICU / Graceland Too / I Know the End

Label Review.

2020 album. Singer songwriter.

Our Overview.

Chicago-based Michael McDermott’s vocals and songwriting style easily invite comparisons to Bruce Springsteen. His wordplay lets you know he’s listened to plenty of Dylan and The Boss, but he’s got his own well-established place among those that appreciate terrific songwriting.

Singer-Songwriter Michael McDermott is anything but a reserved, obedient, listen to your producer kind of musician, instead he presents a rugged and insistent side of Americana music. Hailing from the streets of Chicago, McDermott has a few strong opinions about the current social climate and he does nothing short of shouting them loudly on his latest single “What in the World”. The single comes from McDermott’s anticipated record ‘What in the World’ out on Pauper Sky Records/Continental Song City.

The outspoken title track is a rally song, calling people to listen and presents McDermott’s politics in straight-forward lyrics like: ‘Hey hey what do you say/ tired of hearing everything will be ok/ what in the world is happening here?/ Hey hey what do you say?/ Dark days are coming for the USA.

The bluesy-rock guitar licks and accented chord transitions are what empower the stark lyrics, adding an outlaw country/rock vibe which work perfectly to portray the fed-up and angry character of the song.

Tracklisting: What In The World / New York, Texas / Blue Eyed Barmaid / The Things You Want / The Veils Of Veronica / Die With Me / Contender / Mother Emanual / No Matter What / Until I Found You / Positively Central Park / What InThe World (acoustic)

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Electropop. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Equally at home on and off the dancefloor, it’s wave-kissed dreariness dripping with cold sensuality is both vibrant and brooding. Showcasing her unique sound in the saturatedworld of electronica, Touch successfully draws from electropop and disco influences, combining 80’s vintage synths with industrial soundscapes, delivered with a visceral post-punk snarl.

Introduced to 80’s pop and new wave via her father’s extensive collection of Human League, Karat and Duran Duran, she honed her trademark sound with the likes of The KLF, Karen O and PJ Harvey motivating her early productions.

The results led to releases on Catz ‘N Dogz’ Pets Recordings and Lunatic Records, as well as making regular appearances on Riotvan, the Leipzig-based record label run by Peter Invasion and co-owned by Panthera Krause.

‘Behind the Wall’ opens with the dark and powerful ‘Imaginary Boys,’ a soundtrack to Touch’s long journey through the city to the studio each day. It is followed by ‘Attic,’ which she describes as the “driving point of the whole album.”It’s an invitation to dance with me, a lullaby, aconsolation,” she says. “Like a mantra.” And that is exactly what this record feels like.

Tracklisting: Imaginary Boys / Attic / Daria / The Wall / Teflon / I Love You, Let’s Go / Iggy´s Sight / Flatlands / Chemistry (Album Version) / Supersize / Your Dawn

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The mysterious California based Healing Potpourri want to create songs that make you feel good and that’s what they achieve on their third full length album ‘Blanket Of Calm. It’s not often that we take a moment to appreciate music that specifically exists to comfort and rejuvenate – music that aims to sound as pleasant as its intentions. ‘Blanket of Calm’ is a collection of 11 effervescent songs to soundtrack better days—and hopefully inspire more of them.

While not every moment of ‘Blanket of Calm’ is perfectly sunny, they are all very human. Songs like “Think About Us” and “Dustin’s Rain Tape” touch on interpersonal relationships and longing; the latter an ode to a childhood friend, while the former explores the sometimes fleeting nature of connecting with another person. The album’s closing song, “Glittery Sidewalks,” pulls many of these lyrical themes together along with returning musical cues. It’s a fitting way to end “Blanket of Calm”, an album that reminds us that sometimes a musical salve is exactly what we needed.

Tracklisting: Dream Vacay / Blanket of Calm / Think About Us / Moment Alone / Laney / Dustin’s Rain Tape / Camellia / Pieces / The Page / La Vida Tranquila / Glittery Sidewalks

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Garage pop. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

One of the best new bands to come outta Fremantle, Spacey Jane are releasing their debut album ‘Sunlight’. As most bands do, Caleb, Kieran, Ashton and Peppa came together through blooming friendships and lucky connections. A few jams later, the bond was cemented and the debut gig in Caleb’s dad’s backyard kicked it all off for indie-rock, garage Australian band Spacey Jane.

“Not many bands currently on the circuit out has much energy into their performance as Spacey Jane do. Their sets are electric and infectious; even if you don’t know a song, you’re moving by the time it’s finished” - NME

In the year that followed, Freo’s very own garage pop outfit Spacey Jane went from backyards to bright lights, sharing the stage with the likes of Car Seat Headrest, Nothing But Thieves, Alex Lahey, The Jungle Giants & more, along with Australian festival appearances at Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival, Yours & Owls and WA Day’s SOTA Festival.

For relatively new kids on the block, they’ve had a very impactful start, with growing support from industry and fans alike. Their upcoming single tour for new release is already becoming a sold-out affair.

“Every time it comes on, I helplessly fall in love with it even more” - triple j 

“Glorious” – Clash

Tracklisting: Good For You / Head Cold / Skin / Good Grief / Wasted on Me / Booster Seat / Love Me Like I Haven’t Changed / Weightless / Straightfaced / Trucks / Hanging / Sunlight

Label Review. 

2020 album. Symphonic Metal. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

German Metal group Beyond The Black return with their fourth album ‘Horizons’. Led by vocalist Jennifer Haben, the band unbolts their unequalled, differentiated spectra of symphonic and melodic rock spiced with sonorous melodious metal soundscapes in 13 manifold songs. The album kicks off with a heavy, yet atmospheric title track, spanning the range of intumescent soundscapes and Haben’s crystal clear, striking vocals.

Followed by their first single, “Misery”, Beyond The Black prepares a powerful manifesto of self-confidence and draws its listeners into a wide melodic range between symphonic mellifluousness and uncompromising energetic metal fragments. Beautiful yet strong harmonies, emotional storytelling and powerful vocal lines weave throughout “Wounded Healer” (feat. Elize Rhyde out of Amaranthe) and will light your way in gloomy times. Dark subliminal grooves coalesce with harmonizing guitar lines and form the prevailing nexus of “Human” and its unmistakably catchy chorus.

Another facet rises with “You Are Not Alone”, which is dominated by electronic influences as well as symphonic sounding violins. ‘Horizons’ atmospherically dark harshness creates the stylistic bow over the distinctive melodic rock meets pop sound in symbiosis with fragile yet strong fragments. The charismatic outfit persuades with a rousing, emotional clout and their strong, confident message off self-assertion. This is a multi-layered, metallic offer proving Beyond The Black’s standing in the scene and look to breaking beyond Germany and Austria which they have already conquered.

Tracklisting: Horizons / Misery / Wounded Healer / Some Kind Of Monster / Human / Golden Pariahs / Marching On / You’re Not Alone / Out Of The Ashes / Paralyzed / Coming Home / I Won’t Surrender / Welcome To My Wasteland

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Kiss the Sky’ is the fourth release from New Wave of Classic Rock favourites Bad Touch. Following on from the success of ‘Shake A Leg’, Bad Touch continue to develop their infectious blend of rock, country and blues.

Having just completed their fourth album at the legendary Rockfield Studios with Nick Brine (The Darkness, Thunder, Ash), the New Wave of Classic Rock favourites will release ‘Kiss The Sky’ in June 2020 on Marshall Records, Bad Touch are gearing up for a busy year of touring, including a main stage appearance at Ramblin’ Man Fair.

After signing to Marshall Records in 2018, Bad Touch released third album ‘Shake A Leg’ which featured Planet Rock Radio favourites ‘Lift Your Head Up’ and ‘Too Many Times’ and critical acclaim across the board and built upon the reputation the band had cemented with tracks like their duet with Mollie Marriott (daughter of Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Humble Pie), a cover of Ike & Tina Turner’s classic ‘Baby Get It on’ and crowd pleaser ‘99%’ from 2016’s ‘Truth Be Told’. Bad Touch have extensively toured the UK and Europe, being seen at festivals such as Download Festival, Ramblin’ Man Fair and Planet Rockstock. They have toured with Skid Row, The Answer, Broken Witt Rebels, Those Damn Crows, The Quireboys, FM and more.

Bad Touch are Stevie (Vocals), Seeks (Guitar/Vocals), Rob (Guitar), Michael (Bass) and George (Drums, Vocals).Recorded at the legendary Rockfield Studios with Nick Brine (The Darkness, Thunder, Ash), ‘Kiss the Sky’ is released on Marshall Records on CD, Digital and White vinyl.

Previous Bad Touch singles from ‘Shake A Leg’ have spent a total of 15 weeks on Planet Rock Radio playlist. ‘Shake A Leg’ entered the UK Charts in the Top 200 Massive support from Classic Rock Magazine, Planet Rock magazine, Fireworks Magazine, Powerplay Magazine The band has had support from BBC Radio 2 and Planet Rock Radio.

Tracklisting: Come A Little Closer / I Get High / Let Go / Strut / I’ve Got The Music In Me / Can You Save Me / Kiss The Sky / See You Again / Before I Die / Read All About It / Too Much Of A Good Thing / Sun And The Moon / Something About Your Kiss (bonus Track)

Label Review.

Rare single sideslate 60s/early 70s soul singer.

Our Overview.

First ever release of Deniece Chandler’s toddlin’ town album includes all of her toddlin’ town and subsidiary lock 45rpm releases plus previously unreleased and bonus recordings 4 x Grammy award winner.

Deniece Chandler was born June 3rd, 1950 in Gary, Indiana and grew up rubbing shoulders with the Jackson 5. Her uncle William Blakely was the Bishop of Indiana and her sister sang back-up for Lou Rawls!

She successfully auditioned for Toddlin’ Town Records from neighbouring Chicago, while still at high school and Eugene Record and Barbara Acklin penned her first single, “Love Is Tears” / “I’m Walking Away”, which opens our set. The song enjoyed some modest local success, but more importantly, it caught the ear of Stevie Wonder!

She recorded a total of six singles for Toddlin’ Town, and its associated Lock label, including a duet with Michigan soul singer Lee Sain. The twelve sides were intended to form her solo album, but sadly Lock went out of business in 1970 & Deniece returned to college. A year later the call came from Stevie Wonder and she joined his backing group Wonderlove (the inspiration for our album title). Her big break came in 1975 when she met Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire who took her to Columbia Records and produced the album “This Is Niecy” which spawned her self-penned single “Free” scoring a top 40 stateside hit and a No.1 in the U.K. Williams would go on to win four Grammys, twelve nominations and become a worldwide household name.

Here, for the very first time, we present her complete early body of work including unreleased and bonus tracks that showcase her exceptional four-octave range which, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “would make Mariah Carey quiver”.

Tracklisting : Love Is Tears/ I’m Walking Away / Yes, I’m Ready / You’ve Hurt Me Now/ I Don’t Wanna Cry / Good Bye, Cruel World / Come On Home To Me Baby / Shy Boy / Mama, I Wished I Stayed At Home / I’d Believe Him / Deniece Williams “Just One Time” / Deniece Williams “I’m Not Like The Others”/ The Lovelites “How Can I Tell My Mum & Dad ?” / Deniece Chandler & Lee Sain “Glorious Feeling” / Deniece Chandler & Lee Sain “Hey, Baby” / The Teques “Shy Boy”

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Hailing from Calgary, Canada, Art-rockers Braids have been taking the time and space necessary for little miracles to occur. Burrowed in their Montreal studio, the band has spent the better part of three years crafting ‘Shadow Offering’, their fourth album. Unlike previous albums, Braids decided to stay close to home for the recording of the album. Taking over a spacious sound recording studio tucked in an old warehouse, the band were able to slow down and creatively rediscover themselves.

“With this album, we wanted to give ourselves time to achieve a higher calibre of artistry and collaboration,” drummer Austin Tufts says. No longer riding the novelty of youth, the band deliberately took time to recommit to themselves and their craft, and channel new energy into their music. They wrote 40 songs. The band sketched and re-sketched new material for eighteen months before lucky circumstance found Chris Walla (Death Cab For Cutie) renting out space in their studio. “Young Buck”, the lead single, sees Braids at their most playful and confident. An effervescent ode to impossible love, it exudes an undeniable magnetism reminiscent of the band’s breakthrough works “Lemonade” and “Plath Heart”.

The creative process saw Tufts exploring groovier and more supportive rhythms, while Standell-Preston and Smith picked up their guitars in a serious way, something they hadn’t done since Native Speaker. With ‘Shadow Offering’, Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s voice is visceral as always, conveying a new confidence and rawness we’ve yet to hear from her. Fans of commanding 90’s songwriters like Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette will relish in her voice’s strength and lyrical aptitude. ‘Snow Angel’, an unhinged performance from Standell-Preston, has her leaning passionately into her anger. “You’re allowed to be angry, don’t shy away from it because you feel you have to,’” Standell-Preston recalls Walla saying. Validated and encouraged, Braids’ frontwoman dove deeper into her frustrations and anxieties about her internal and external worlds. ‘Snow Angel’, in effect, is the album’s core. Across its sweeping 9-minutes is a diary entry literally exploding beyond the boundaries of the page.

Although the album recounts pain, heartbreak, anger, it also lifts the heart towards hope. “There’s more hopefulness in this record than anything else I’ve written. I think the songs are more human, more tangible, more honest,” Standell-Preston says, referencing therapy and her transcendental meditation practice as helping her through the rhythms of her life. “I showed up for my heart on this record. I really showed up. From the start to the finish.” No better is this reflected than in “Eclipse”, an album standout. Dedicated to the singer’s best friend Ashley, it’s a song that sinks deep into a feeling of reverie for nature, the love found in friendship, and the vital nature of personal reflection.

Tracklisting: Here 4 U / Young Buck / Eclipse (Ashley) / Just Let Me / Upheaval II / Fear Of Men / Snow Angel / Ocean / Note To Self

Label Review. 

2020 album. Folk. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

On her new record Entre nous, Jill Barber reaches a new level of intimacy with the French language. An unabashed francophile, it all began at the Montreal Jazz Festival over a decade ago: she surprised her audience with a French translation of one of her songs, and the room exploded into applause and a chorus of bravos.

Quebec was charmed. In response, Jill was inspired to record her debut French album, interpretations of classics from Piaf to Gainsbourg on 2011’s Chansons. Soon millions of listeners worldwide were discovering Jill’s music through her french material, and she continues to earn spots on top french playlists with songs from Chansons across streaming platforms. In a bold move for an Anglophone, Barber now releases Entre Nous (2020), her first collection of original French songs, written with Francophone collaborator Maia Davies and produced by Montreal born, NYC based, Gus Van Go.

Inspired by french pop music of the 1960’s, Entre nous invites the listener on an musical rendezvous through champagne-soaked love songs like the title- track, cheeky y y -inspired songs like “Chat domestique”, the psychedelic “Commes les fleurs” reminiscent of the Velvet Underground, the hooky pop song “Le monde est beau”, a haunting interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”, and a steamy duet with Quebec chanteur Yann Perreau on “Les t s de Montreal”.

Much like her predecessors, anglophones Jane Birkin and Gillian Hills, the more Barber sings in French, the more she is embraced for her unique and pleasing accent. Singing in a second language lends a quality to her voice that is more vulnerable, tender, playful and passionate: it’s simply charming. As a songwriter, Jill Barber is beloved in Canada and abroad for her talent and impressive body of work in English; in French she is irresistible and her star is only just beginning to rise.

Tracklisting: Entre nous / Chat domestique / Joue avec le feu / Le monde est beau / Les t s de Montreal / Commes les fleurs / La pluie / Reflets / Suzanne / Nos retrouvailles / Coeur de ma jeunesse

Label Review.

2020 debut album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Born in New York City, 21 year old Maya Hawke is an actress, singer and lyricist. Hawke was most recently seen in the third season of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things,’ as well as in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ and Amanda Kramer’s ‘Ladyworld.’

Following the release of her independently released A and B side singles in 2019, she returns with a deeply personal full-length album ‘Blush’. Hawke, who wrote the lyrics, continued her collaboration with Grammy Award-winning songwriter Jesse Harris, who wrote the music for the album. On creating the album, Hawke says, ‘This album happened accidentally’ Jesse and I started working together accidentally... we kept writing, kept collecting songs because it brought joy into both of our lives.

Collecting them into an album and releasing it comes from a crazy, if not pathological desire to share that joy with others. From my point of view, ‘Blush’ is a collection of secret messages, hidden communications with the people in my life. ‘By Myself’ was a secret message to myself, that I hope I’ll receive someday soon.’

Tracklisting: Generous Heart / So Long / By Myself / Animal Enough / Coverage / Hold the Sun / River Like

Label Review.

2020 debut album. Pop.

Our Overview.

Filmmaker, musician and cartoonist Paul J Bolger began writing and performing his songs at an early age. Moving between the arts since leaving college he has made a successful career in publishing and film, most recently as Art Director on the forthcoming animated Riverdance movie.

Latterly however, he’s returned to recording and releasing new music for the first time after a number of years the self tilted release ‘Paul J Bolger’. Like a musical fox PJB has returned to his song-writing den. The songs contained on this album are a mix of old and new. They were worked up from ideas and demos PJB brought with him when he went to visit producer Hugh Christopher Brown on Wolfe Island, Ontario in summer 2018.

While the songs are not connected as such the underlying motifs of personal loss, tongue in cheek bravado and astutely observed stories tie the album together. Whether the writing reflects hidden or slightly vague truths or flights of fiction the songs work on singular concepts. The lyrics are clear and often conversational - a person recalling a past event, asking a question or speaking direct to a loved one lost or won. If there any recurring themes to the record they might be love, life, death and most important of all - survival.

Celtic Rock legends Horslips coined the term “Bog Gothic” to sum the genre PJB explores with his song writing. This album is a testament to that - even if we are not quite sure what the genre is other than to say it more than tips its hat to Old World sensibilities set to New World sounds.

Tracklisting: Swim / How Many More Tears / Wedding Gown / Pillar Stone / Two Wrongs / All Those Things / Unkind / I Believe

Label Review. 

1969 album. Produced by Frank Zappa.

Our Overview. 

The GTOs a.k.a. Girls Together Outrageously, were an a cappella girl group from Los Angeles & The Sunset Strip scene. The group was only active for two and a half years (1968-1970) and were connected by their association with Frank Zappa, who encouraged their artistic endeavours despite their limited vocal skills. The group performed live “only 4 or 5 times”, although they created a strong impression at their December 1968 performance at the Shrine Auditorium opening for The Mothers of Invention, Alice Cooper and Wild Man Fischer. A mix of theatrics, singing, dancing, wild costumes, and unusual lyrical content were staples of their act.

Their only album, ‘Permanent Damage’, was produced in 1969 by Zappa with the assistance of Lowell George and Russ Titelman on two tracks and guitarist Ry Cooder on another. The songs are mixed in with conversations between the members of the group, friends, and others, including Cynthia Plaster Caster and Rodney Bingenheimer. The album features songwriting contributions from Lowell George, Jeff Beck and Davy Jones. A young Rod Stewart (Jeff Beck’s singer at the time) pops up on one track too.

The GTO’s soon fell apart and the album is largely of interest to Frank Zappa fans. While a majority of the GTO’s garnered no further significant successes, the most infamous member to have come through the ranks is Miss Pamela (aka Pamela des Barres), whose tell-all novel I’m With the Band (1987) was an international bestseller.

Tracklisting: The Eureka Springs Garbage Lady / Miss Pamela and Miss Sparky Discuss Stuffed Bras And Some Of Their Gym Class Experiences / Who’s Jim Sox / Kansas & the BTO’s / The Captain’s Fat Theresa Shoes / Wouldn’t It Be Sad If There Were No Cones? / Do Me In Once And I’ll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I’ll Know Better (Circular Circulation) / The Moche Monster Review / TV Lives / Rodney / I Have A Paintbrush In My Hand To Color A Triangle / Miss Christine’s First Conversation With The Plaster Casters Of Chicago / The Original GTO’s / The Ghost Chained To The Past, Present, And Future (Shock Treatment) / Love On An Eleven Year Old Level / Miss Pamela’s First Conversation With The Plaster Casters Of Chicago / I’m In Love With The Ooo-Ooo Man

Label Review.

2020 album. Hip hop. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘Blinded By The Neon’ is a rap tribute to the art of storytelling. The contemplation of a man alone in the twilight hours, plus a bittersweet emotional cocktail of self-doubt comprised of equal parts love, the side-effects of success and the life of an artist, are the chief inspirations behind this conceptual debut LP by jazz/hip-hop group Ferge X Fisherman aka German/American vocalist Fritz Fisherman and the German producer Ferge.

“A sublimely accomplished modern day gem. My favourite hop hop album of 2020 thus far. Fresh as spring air 5/5” MUSIC REPUBLIC MAGAZINE

Citing legendary platters such as ‘Heart Of Saturday Night’ by Tom Waits and ‘In The Wee Small Hours’ by Frank Sinatra as influences for their own modern masterpiece, ‘Blinded By The Neon’ revolves around a central character and his shifting feelings of self-awareness and ambivalent relationships with his own art and with himself as an artist. Musically, the arc of the album sweeps from sweet melancholy and tasteful strings to freak beat maker-aesthetics and on to melodic gospel and soul.

The concept of the record determines the musical route and takes the listener on a journey through our hero’s complex inner world. With an expanded lineup, Ferge X Fisherman have been making a name for themselves as a live act in Germany, demonstrating how the balancing act between electronically produced hip hop and live instruments can succeed. Here, they combine the best of both worlds and make this album a dynamic, varied pleasure for the listener, retaining its attraction even after repeated plays. Let yourself be blinded by the neon.

Tracklisting: Head On Stage / Backstage / One Of My Best Friends (feat. Maniac) / Role / Reflections On My Windshield / Call You / Anna Nicole (feat. Florian Heimbuchner) / Playin’ Different (feat. Spiritchild & Felisha George) / City Serenade / Drunk On The Moon / Stumbling (feat. Ki’Luanda) / In My Shoes

Label Review. 

1993 album remastered. Also available as a Deluxe 2CD+Book set. 

Our Overview. 

One of the biggest bands to ever come out of Wales in the last 30 years Manic Street Preachers turn their attention to the only one of their five albums to be released in the 1990s to have not received the “Deluxe” treatment. ‘Gold Against The Soul’ is the bands oft-overlooked second album, sandwiched between the hyped debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’ and the critcially acclaimed third - ‘The Holy Bible’ - which became the last will and testament of fourth member Richey Edwards who went missing shortly after its release. The bands next two albums ‘Everything Must Go’ and ‘This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours’ saw them become commercial successes with hit singles, sold out-stadiums and millions of records sold.

Bass player and lyricist Nicky Wire said of the release “We moved our studio a few years ago and I unearthed a lot of demos and pictures from the ‘Gold Against The Soul’ era and thought it would be a shame not to let them see the light of day. We haven’t always been the most complementary about this album in the past, but with hindsight it was a strange and curious record with many fan’s favourites on it. James always gets a huge response when he teases the riff to ‘Sleepflower’ live.”

‘Gold Against The Soul’ entered the Top 10 on release just over a year after their debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’ and saw the band shift musically to a classic rock sound.  Lead single “From Despair To Where” was followed by “La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)”, “Roses In The Hospital” and “Life Becoming A Landslide”, all UK Top 40 hits. Produced by Dave Eringa who had been working in various guises with the band and continues to do so to this day, the album was recorded over six weeks at Outside/Hookend Studios.

Available as a 120 page A4 book featuring unseen images from the bands’ long time photographic collaborator Mitch Ikeda, many personally annotated by Nicky Wire and original typed and handwritten lyrics from the bands own archive. It will contain two CD’s featuring the remastered album, previously unreleased demos, b-sides from the era, remixes and a live recording of The Clash song ‘What’s My Name’.  There will also be a 180g vinyl version of the original album with download codes to the extra tracks on CD1 and a digital version featuring all the songs. 

Tracklisting: Sleepflower / From Despair To Where / La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) / Yourself / Life Becoming a Landslide / Drug Drug Druggy / Roses In The Hospital / Nostalgic Pushead / Symphony of Tourette / Gold Against The Soul

Label Review. 

2020 album. Nuclear Blast. Also available on CD and Deluxe box set. 

Our Overview. 

Now in their 20th year as Lamb Of God, the American Heavy Metal legends release their eighth album ‘Lamb Of God’. Within heavy music circles, a new album from Richmond Virginia’s Lamb Of God is a monumental event. Worldwide, the band has continued their steady march to the highest levels of the rock world, so much so that a band this unapologetically aggressive are now even a fixture at the top of mainstream album charts - the band’s last album ‘VII: Sturm Und Drang’ debuted in the Top Five on US, UK, Canada, Australia national charts, and was nominated for a Grammy.

“We never head into anything with an idea of what we want it to sound like,” guitarist Mark Morton says. “All we know is we want to keep surprising ourselves and doing stuff we like. That excites us because we’re the ones that are going to have to play the songs over and over.” ‘Lamb of God’ sounds a bit like all of the group’s previous albums. “Checkmate” is old-school LOG, melding rapid-fire riffs with tumbling beats and roaring vocals. By contrast, opening track “Memento Mori” offers a new shade of darkness, starting with eerie sound effects and atmospheric guitars overlapped by baleful, melodic vocals reminiscent of Sisters of Mercy’s Andrew Eldritch before bursting into a surging rhythm augmented by asymmetrical, staccato guitar licks. “Bloodshot Eyes” finds Blythe upping the ante by harmonizing with himself before returning to screaming.

A band that has never shrunk from it’s role in channeling the turmoil and crisis on display in this world, into cathartic, aggressive, and modern heavy metal. Musically, Lamb of God know no equals in the modern heavy world, combining metal, punk, and groove in a devastating and signature attack. Lyrically, vocalist Randy Blythe pulls no punches, with so much to confront at this moment in history.

Tracklisting: Memento Mori / Checkmate / Gears / Reality Bath / New Colossal Hate / Resurrection Man / Poison Dream (feat Jamey Jasta) / Routes (feat Chuck Billy) / Bloodshot Eyes / On The Hook

Label Review. 

Four albums 1986-1990: Rising Sun, Rockers Comes East, One Step Dub, and Blowing With The Wind.

Our Overview. 

‘Ancient Harmonies’ is a new collection from Augustus Pablo - a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, best known for popularising the melodica (an instrument at that time primarily used in Jamaica to teach music to schoolchildren) in reggae music. His album ‘King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown’ (1976) is often regarded as one of the most important examples of dub.

Augustus was a prolific survivor from the classic reggae era, and he released four new studio albums through Greensleeves Records between 1986 and 1990, the critical years when the new sound of reggae was finding its feet. The change in music production technology in the 1980s opened doors to new sounds and experiments from producers around the world. In Jamaica, producers who built their name on the live studio sound with a drum and bass foundation either adopted to syndrums or full digital drums by the mid-80s, or they dropped out of the game.

Recorded at Channel One, Tuff Gong, Dynamic, HC&F & Creative Sound with engineers including Scientist, Soldgie, Phillip Smart & Steven Stanley, the hardcore steppers and nyabinghi meditations were keenly embraced by the new age sound system culture in Europe, and Pablo backed the releases with hugely successful tours of Europe and Japan showcasing many of the tunes a selection of his original rockers.

Tracklisting:

CD1: Blowing With The Wind / Twinkling Star / Ancient Harmonies / Creation Blues / Zion UFO / Eastern Code / Twenty-One Years After / First World Call / This Song / Drums To The King / Pablo Meets P Smart In L.I. / Progression Dub / Revelino Dub / Babylon Losing Dub / Sun Ray Dub / Jah D Special / Rockers Comes East / Dubbing The Oppresors / Zion Seals Dub

CD2: In The Red Dub / Hanging Dub / Riot Dub / One Step Dub / Zion Way Dub / Sunshine Dub / Dubbing King James / Rastaman Dub / Good Looking Dub / Night Patrol Dub / Dub Wiser / Hop I Land / Rising Sun / Fire Red / Jah Wind / Pipers Of Zion / The Day Before The Riot / African Frontline / Melchesedec (The High Priest) / Signs And Wonders

Label Review. 

2020 album. First new collection of original songs in eight years. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

For nearly sixty years, Bob Dylan is one of the biggest and influential songwriters and musicians in the world and releases his 37th studio album (depending exactly what counts!) ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’ in 2020. It is his first collection of original material since ‘Tempest’ in 2012 although he hasn’t been idle since then nor has his fanbase around the world been starved of product. He has released three albums of American songbook standards in the interim as well as a further six vault combing ‘Bootleg Series’ sets. On top of this Bob keeps up a constant touring schedule although that has been scuppered in 2020 due to the Covid crisis. There is also the matter of his Nobel Prize for Literature he collected in 2017.

Fans had been wondering if Bob had the ability to come up with a new album but on 27th March 2020 with no warning he announced the unveiling of an “unreleased” track “Murder Most Foul” a 17 minute “gift to fans for their support and loyalty over the years.” It was seen as a possible response to the Covid-19 pandemic while more hopeful fans felt that maybe a new album was finally in the offing. Ostensibly about the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in 1963 over a delicate instrumental backing of violin, piano and hushed percussion, Bob moved onto a roll call of musicians, movie lyrics and other pop culture references. Ann Powers and Bob Boilen of National Public Radio analysed the song and identified over 70 songs referenced in the work.

Three weeks later a second song “I Contain Multitudes” dropped - a more convention length but instrumentally cut from similar cloth as the first and again referencing pop culture icons like The Rolling Stones and David Bowie in his lyrics. Another three weeks down the line a third song, the more upbeat and bluesy “False Prophet” came with the end of the suspense and the announcement that a new album was indeed on the way. On the evidence of the songs issued so far and assuming the quality holds up this promises to be the best Bob Dylan in many years.

Tracklisting: I Contain Multitudes / False Prophet / Murder Most Foul / (7 more tracks to be announced)

Label Review. 

Unreleased album from 1975. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

The ever prolific Canadian singer songwriter Neil Young finally releases one of his most talked about unreleased albums - ‘Homegrown’. He has said this album is “the unheard bridge between [the albums] ‘Harvest’ and ‘Comes a Time’”, which perfectly describes the warm, semi-acoustic feel of these twelve songs. Originally intended to be released in 1975, the album has remained unreleased since then, and has a legendary status among Neil’s fans.

Chronologically speaking, ‘Homegrown’ was due to be the follow-up to his 1974 album ‘On The Beach’. Largely acoustic in nature it would have been seen at the time as a return to the sound of ‘Harvest’ his biggest selling album. However once it was completed in January 1975 he had a playback party and an another unreleased album ‘Tonight’s The Night’ recorded in 1973 was on the same reel. Hearing both, Young decided to issue that album instead feeling that ‘Homegrown’ was too “down” and “personal”.

Seven of the songs are previously unreleased on any album, and different versions of the other five songs would appear on later Neil Young albums. Neil plays guitar, piano and harmonica on the album, and is accompanied by a stellar group of musicians including Levon Helm, Ben Keith, Karl T Himmel, Tim Drummond, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson. ‘Homegrown’ was so close to being issued at the time the artwork had already been prepared. That original sleeve is being used for its long awaited release.

Tracklisting: Separate Ways / Try / Mexico / Love Is A Rose / Homegrown / Florida / Kansas / We Don’t Smoke It / White Line / Vacancy / Little Wing / Star Of Bethlehem

Label Review. 

2020 album. Prog rock. Also available on CD & 2CD. 

Our Overview. 

Haken are an English progressive metal band formed in 2007 and they release their sixth album the topically titled ‘Virus’. Since releasing their last album ‘Vector’ in October 2018, Haken have completed headline tours the world over, played sold-out shows across Europe and North America as support for Devin Townsend and picked up a Prog award for their efforts too! All the while, they have been quietly, secretly working on the follow-up album.

All the initial ideas were created back when they were writing ‘Vector’ at the end of 2017. The album title generated surprise as it was announced during the COVID-19 pandemic, but vocalist Ross Jennings said it was just coincidental. The singer also remarked that “whilst ‘Virus’ can absolutely be enjoyed as a stand-alone work, it is thematically and conceptually linked with ‘Vector’.

The band comments: “[The track] “Prosthetic” was the first song we completed during the ‘Virus’ writing sessions and we always felt it would be the perfect opener for the album. It’s a very guitar heavy track with its roots in 80s thrash riffing, but with the unconventional rhythmic twists and turns we often like to explore in Haken. We sadly never had a Jeff Hanneman and Robert Fripp collaboration, but this song at least draws on inspiration from them both! Lyrically the song is a bridge between our two albums ‘Vector’ and ‘Virus’. The message was brilliantly brought to life by video director Vicente Cordero, who also beautifully captured the live energy of the band in a way that both enhances the song, and perfectly sets the scene for what’s to come.”

Tracklisting: Prosthetic / Invasion / Carousel / The Strain / Canary Yellow / Messiah Complex i: Ivory Tower / Messiah Complex ii: A Glutton for Punishment / Messiah Complex iii: Marigold / Messiah Complex iv: The Sect / Messiah Complex v: Ectobius Rex / Only Stars

Label Review. 

Chocs Away (1975) / The Great Artiste (1976) / Golden Mile (1976) / Five Live Kursaals (1977) / A Former Tour De Force Is Forced To Tour (1988) plus bonus tracks. RPM.

Our Overview. 

Kursaal Flyers were an integral element of the ‘Thames Delta’ music scene emerging from the late 60s clubs into the bright lights of the 1970s pop world. Alongside contemporaries, and in some cases old schoolmates, in bands such as Dr Feelgood and Eddie & The Hot Rods , the Kursaal Flyers (named after a Southend amusement park carnival float) were a regular fixture on the Pub Rock and College circuit of 70s Britain.

Their sound was more diverse than their R&B contemporaries. Being influenced by American Country Rock, the band included banjo and pedal steel guitar as fixtures in their musical oeuvre. They toured Europe with The Flying Burrito Brothers. The Kursaals were also notable for a wry observational sense of humour which the band’s songwriters, Will Birch and Graeme Douglas, regularly injected into the material. Complemented by the chameleon-like vocal styles employed by front man Paul Shuttleworth.

Disc One contains the two complete albums made for Jonathan King’s UK Records label in 1975, ‘Chocs Away’ and ‘The Great Artiste’. Presented in a gatefold wallet to show the original artwork for both of the original LPs, these are the greatly enhanced remixed versions from 1991.

Disc Two has their first CBS album from 1976 ,’Golden Mile’, produced by Mike Batt, including both versions of their hit single “Little Does She Know”, the single edit, and the “kitchen sink” LP version which comes on like the 1812 Overture involving as they do the London Symphony Orchestra. Plus the non LP A+B-sides, and an unreleased track “The Questionnaire”.

Disc 3 has their live album recorded at The Marquee, ‘Five Live Kursaals’ released by CBS in 1977. As live albums tend to do, these recordings highlight how the band truly were on stage, a highly energetic rock band with a raw sound belying their country roots. A particular image in the booklet gives further rise to their mood depicting the moment Paul would smash up TV sets on stage with an axe (in an homage to The Move). Plus three tracks which were unreleased at the time, from recording sessions with Muff Winwood aimed at a second CBS studio LP which was never finalised.

Disc 4 is their third studio LP, ‘A Former Tour De Force Is Forced To Tour’ recorded in 1988 and exhibits a very strong country rock groove, which would not be out of place if released to today’s Americana market. The bonus tracks include a four song 1975 countryfied radio session, and a 1975 live recording in Southend of “Route 66” which is interestingly somewhere between Bobby Troup’s nightclub jazz original and Chuck Berry’s RnB version.

Tracklisting:

Disc One: Chocs Away / The Great Artiste: Pocket Money / Hit Records / Kung Fu / Tennessee / Chocs Away / Speedway / Brakeman / Now I’m Back / Yellow Sox / Silver Wings / Cross Country / Ugly Guys / The Great Artiste / Fall Like The Rain / Cruisin’ For Love / Back To The Book / Palais De Danse / Pain And Misery / Hypochondriac / Television / Drinking Alone

Disc Two: The Golden Mile: Little Does She Know / One Arm Bandit / Drinking Socially / Two Left Feet / Modern Lovers / Street Of The Music / Radio Romance / When The Band’s On The Stand / Detroit Tin / Third Finger Left Hand / Ready To Go / Little Does She Know (Edit) / Girl Talk / The Questionnaire / The Sky’s Falling In On Our Love / Revolver

Disc Three: Five Live Kursaals: Original Model / Yellow Sox / Pocket Money / Cruisin’ For Love / The Sky’s Falling In On Our Love / Little Does She Know / Street Of The Music / Tv Dinners / Speedway / Revolver / On My Mind / Anna (Go To Him) / Friday On My Mind / Television Generation / Girlfriend Kinda Girl / Everything But A Heartbeat / Girls That Don’t Exist

Disc Four: A Former Tour De Force Is Forced To Tour: If You Would Only Talk To Me (Like You Talk To The Dog) / Pre-Madonna / Tonight Before Tonight / Man In Mohair / A Former Tour De Force Is Forced To Tour / Luxury Lane / My Sugar Turns To Alcohol / Paranoid Weekend / Old Men Need Some Lovin’ Too / Monster-In-Law / Cruisin’ For Love (Remake) / Slimmin’ (For The Women) / Walking To School / Route 66 (Live) / Tennessee (Radio Session) / Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Radio Session) / Yellow Sox (Radio Session) / Route 66 (Radio Session)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

British band The Spitfires unveil their fourth album ‘Live Worth Living’. Fronted by creative lynchpin Billy Sullivan, this startling three-piece – augmented by three other musicians when playing live - have cemented a loyal fanbase since their inception some five years ago and alongside Sam Long, bassist and drummer Matt Johnson whilst initiating album sales in excess of 20k and a tour itinerary approaching nearly three hundred gigs. ‘Life Worth Living’ is a contrasting melting pot of unadulterated joy and melancholy, laughter, tears, frustration and peacefulness. Quiet and introspective moments collide with loud and angry times and no less powerful. At its heart is a sense of hope that things can be better, the title reflects that aspiration.

From the infectious brass-infused opener, “Start All Over Again”, the Nutty Boys-esque title track “Life Worth Living” to “Tear This Place Right Down” bathed in soul overtones, the ballad-like wonder of “How Could I Lie To You?” to the ska riffage of single “(Just Won’t) Keep You Down” and the magnificent finale of “Make It Through Each Day”. Produced by Simon Dine, who was behind the desk for Paul Weller’s ‘22 Dreams’ and ‘Wake Up The Nation’ amongst a varied CV - has harnessed the undoubted vibrancy and swagger of the band’s live show helping create an ambitious album – a vehicle for the talents of Sullivan, Long and Johnson.

Tracklisting: Start All Over Again / It Can’t Be Done / Life Worth Living / Tear This Place Right Down! / How Could I Lie To You? / Kings & Queens / (Just Won’t) Keep Me Down / Tower Above Me / Have It Your Way / Make It Through Each Day

Label Review. 

Four albums 1968-1976. Morello.

Our Overview. 

Born Stuart David Cohen in the US in 1941, he became an integral part of the New York Greenwich Village scene and in the early 1960s and was present when Bob Dylan was writing the song that would become the great folk anthem “Blowin’ In The Wind”. Bob asked David to play the chords while he would create the verses. It was performed that night at Gerde’s Folk City. Once Bob Dylan made it, record companies came looking around Greenwich Village for potential artists. However, there was already a Dave Cohen performing in the village, who later joined Country Joe and the Fish. Our Dave Cohen told folk singer Eric Andersen that he would have to change his name and Eric said, “You’ve got such blue eyes. You should be David Blue”.

David was finally picked up by the fledging Elektra label who issued his first album in 1966 (not present here). After that album failed commercially he moved to Reprise and ‘These 23 Days In September’ was released in 1968. Skipping his third record (where he attempted to revert to his real name), he switched labels again and his first album for the newly-formed Asylum label – ‘Stories’ (1972) – had a self-portrait on its cover. The album featured some magical slide guitar from Ry Cooder while other guests included Rita Coolidge, Chris Ethridge, Milt Holland and Russ Kunkel.

Graham Nash, then a superstar with Crosby, Stills and Nash, produced the album ‘Nice Baby And The Angel’ in 1973. Background vocals included Graham Nash, Dave Mason, Glenn Frey and Jennifer Warren. Glenn Frey was so taken with the track “Outlaw Man” that he took it to The Eagles and it was featured on their album ‘Desperado’ and became Blue’s best known song. Jumping another album (1975’s ‘Com’n Back For More’) this collection ends with David’s seventh and final album ‘Cupid’s Arrow’ released in 1976. Blue moved towards acting after this and sadly died suddenly while jogging in 1982. Despite his extensive catalogue and connections he has never been more than a footnote in rock’s annals but this 2CD set from Morello Records should help bring his attractive take on folk rock to a wider audience.

Tracklisting:

These 23 Days In September: These 23 Days In September / Ambitious Anna / You Need A Change / The Grand Hotel / The Sailor’s Lament / You Will Come Back Again / Scales For A Window Thief / Slow And Easy / The Fifth One

Stories: Looking For A Friend / Sister Rose / Another One Like Me / House Of Changing Faces / Marianne / Fire In The Morning / Come On John / The Blues (All Night Long)

Nice Baby And The Angel : Outlaw Man / Lady O’lady / True To You / On Sunday, Any Sunday / Darlin’ Jenny / Dancing Girl / Yesterdays Lady / Nice Baby And The Angel / Troubadour Song / Train To Anaheim

Cupid’s Arrow: Run, Run, Run / The Ballad Of Jennifer Lee / Tom’s Song / I Feel Bad / Cordelia / Maria, Maria / Cupid’s Arrow / Primeval Tune / She’s Got You

Label Review. 

2020 debut album. Folk soul. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

‘Float Back To You’, is the debut full length album from Holy Hive. Homer Steinweiss, the Brooklyn, New York based soul/funk drummer, always had a soft spot for folk music. Paul Spring, a young idealist folk singer traveling the country with his guitar, always had a beautiful falsetto in his back pocket. A family introduction would lead to Homer producing a few solo records of Paul’s, which would eventually lead to the creation of Holy Hive. The two enlisted Joe Harrison on bass and started out recording their first tunes as a group. A tour with soul legend Lee Fields would turn out to have an unexpected effect on their sound as they played their material to crowds of soul fanatics looking to dance. It was this realization that forced the next step in their evolution and gave birth to a sound unique to Holy Hive, a sound that walks a line so perfectly it necessitated a new genre, Folk Soul.

Listening to their debut album, their different experiences and influences have all shown up. From the heavy downbeat of the lead single “Broom” to their intimate cover of Honeybus’ “Be Thou By My Side”, ‘Float Back To You’ showcases their songwriting prowess as well as their impeccable musicianship. Spring’s fondness for ancient mythology shows up in a few places on the album as well adding another level to their work. They adapt the Greek poet Sappho’s “Fragment 31” to music on “Embers To Ash” and completely rework the Irish folk tune “Red Is The Rose” into a modern day two stepper. Another standout track is the already classic “Oh I Miss Her So,” which first showed up on their 2018 ‘Harping EP’ and features accomplished harpist Mary Lattimore and trumpet by Dave Guy of The Roots. The symbiotic relationship of Homer and Paul has been likened to that of an oxpecker and a black rhino. Paul’s delicate falsetto and fluttering guitar rests atop Homer’s brawny drums in perfect harmony.

There are many levels to Holy Hive, some of them show up on the surface, but some of them are like the album’s title track; you listen to a gorgeous love song only to find out later it is about coming home to your cat. This is perhaps the most telling of Holy Hive, they are easy to like on first listen but spending time with their music will reveal a much deeper experience.

Tracklisting: Broom / Hypnosis / Blue Light / Oh I Miss Her So / Float Back To You / Be Thou By My Side / Didn’t You Say / Embers To Ash / Cynthia’s Celebration / Red Is The Rose / You Will Always Be By My Side Forever / Sophia’s Part

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

San Francisco based indie band Deerhoof have been making music for nearly 30 years now and release their 16th album ‘Future Teenage Cave Artists’. Over the past couple of years while making their new album, Deerhoof have been asking themselves if there was any music they could create that expressed how our rapidly emerging future might actually feel. The band envisioned an album about people haunted by memory of a lost world and of every failed attempt to save it. People already living outside the system, already having practiced new ways of life required for survival - these hopeful heroes are Deerhoof’s inspiration. These are the FTCA.

Faithful listeners will recognize a certain alienated but transformational figure who shows up in Deerhoof songs going back to their earliest days. Take the narrator of “The Perfect Me” from 2007’s Friend Opportunity: an orphaned but eager soul attempting to entice other wounded wanderers who might lack a home, a clan, a family, a history. But on FTCA our protagonist is threatened by terror lurking around every corner. Add to that the fact that our ‘cast-off queen,’ our ‘maniac,’ our ‘terrible daughter’ is watching themselves get orphaned in real time, by an older generation in power that would seemingly rather see life on Earth destroyed than let go of archaic systems of capital.

Like a lot of the music they have released over the last quarter-century, the Deerhoof of FTCA (Satomi Matsuzaki on bass and vocals, Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich on guitars, and Greg Saunier on drums, vocals and piano) stitches together fragments of ‘r&b’ and ‘classic rock’ and transforms them into a new language of revolution, forgoing verse-chorus structures for dream logic and blind intuition. But what makes this album different is its intimacy, the blues riffs and slide guitars are joined by rusty pianos and whispered three-part harmonies. In this sense, FTCA inverts the formula of Deerhoof’s last album, ‘Mountain Moves’, which invited a wide community of collaborators to band together in an open celebration of solidarity.

The new one, on the other hand, is borne of self-isolation and deprivation. It’s the sound of a sparkling, manic musical intelligence being disconnected from a nourishing public and devouring itself inside its own cocoon, attempting metamorphosis. Guitar pedals malfunction mid-take, reverbs chop off mid-tail, drum fills get abandoned mid-phrase. Some musical moments, as gorgeous and touching as anything Deerhoof has ever written, stop short for no apparent reason, giving way to queasy smudges of sound. This is a record about resilience and the persistence of hope in a future beyond any reasonable justification for it. Like so many young people today, Deerhoof seems to be already living in that future.

Tracklisting: Future Teenage Cave Artists / Sympathy for the Baby Boo / The Loved One / O Ye Saddle Babes / New Orphan Asylum for Spirited Deerchildren / Zazeet / Fraction Anthem / “Farewell” Symphony / Reduced Guilt / Damaged Eyes Squinting into the Beautiful Overhot Sun / I Call on Thee

Label Review. 

1982 debut album remastered. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Diamanda Galas’ debut album ‘Litanies of Satan’, originally released in 1982, is finally reissued on her own Intravenal Sound Operations label. Born in 1955 to a Greek American family in San Diego, California, Galas began playing piano at the age of 3 and encouraged by her father took to other musical instruments such as cello and violin. She began playing gigs at 13 with her fathers band.

During the 1970s Diamanda studied biochemistry at the University of Southern California but returned to music at the end of the decade and by 1982 unveiled her debut album ‘The Litanies Of Satan’. It’s a challenging listen, Galas had honed her voice into a sonic weapon covering four octaves and merging this with her command of electronics created what writer Louis Pattison called a “whirlpool of cacophony”. The text for ‘The Litanies of Satan’ is taken from a section of ‘Les Fleurs du Mal’ by Charles Baudelaire and in her original liner notes she explained the piece “devotes itself to the emeraldine perversity of the life struggle in hell”.

Tracklisting: The Litanies Of Satan / Wild Women With Steak-Knives

Label Review. 

2020 album. Indie. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Kidbug’s roots date back to December 2018 at Joyful Noise Recordings’ Indianapolis label headquarters for their annual holiday party. Born from the romance of Croatian-born, Netherlands-based artist Marina Tadic and Australian transplant Adam Harding who met at said gathering, they make self-described “cuddlebug sludge”, the harmoniously spiky offspring of Harding’s fuzzy guitar grunge-gaze and Tadic’s dreamy left field pop.

“We all convened at Postal Recording in Indianapolis to record Christmas songs for the label, and it just sort of grew from there,” Harding explains. When Tadic learned that Harding was also an accomplished video maker, she asked if he would make a video for Eerie Wanda before she was due to leave town. According to Tadic, the creative sparks started flying immediately, inspiring a series of long-distance musical love letters. The initial results were raw, personal, and naked in their emotional honesty, with a purity of expression that Tadic and Harding were eager to preserve. “We made a pact that whatever came out, we wouldn’t second guess it,” says Harding. Adds Tadic: “We were inspired by the honesty and purity of John and Yoko singing love songs to each other. We wrote these songs for each other, and there was no reason to overthink them or purposefully obscure the lyrics, which made both the writing and recording process really fun and spontaneous.”

To achieve full cohesion, strong rhythmic components were required: Best Coast’s Bobb Bruno was recruited for bass and additional guitar, and 2019 Joyful Noise Artist in Residence Thor Harris was tapped for drums and percussion. “Thor was the glue that brought everyone together. He was our first and only choice for a drummer,” Harding emphasized. The album was recorded in 3 days at Postal Recording in Indianapolis, with Tadic once again flying out from the Netherlands, and Thor Harris coming up from his home in Austin, Texas.

Melvins’ legend Dale Crover makes a special guest appearance behind the kit on the album’s closing track “Dreamy.” Kidbug’s debut LP is fueled by a deeply charged electrical love, and the band hopes to return that magical energy to listeners. “This album is a celebration of love. All of my songs with [previous band] Dumb Numbers have been about endings, but Kidbug is about beginnings,” Harding shared. “We hope to bring love into the world with this album,” Tadic adds. “We dig love.”

Tracklisting: Now Let’s Go To Sleep / Lovesick / Good Inside / Moonglue / Never / Woozy / Theme from Kidbug / Together / Stay / Yesterdays/ Dreamy (feat. Dale Crover).

Label Review.

2020 album. Digital rumba.

Our Overview.

Using musical motifs from Africa and Colombia’s Caribbean coast such as the gaita, call-and-response vocals, and an array of hand drums and rhythms, coupled with the elegant electronic production of Techno and House, Ghetto Kumbe creates an Afro-futurist soundscape with lyrics to motivate, elevate, and inspire. This has not gone unnoticed and they’ve played Barranquilla’s world famous Carnival, Boiler Room, and have even opened for Radiohead.

Raised on Colombia’s Caribbean coast and united by it’s capital, Bogota, Ghetto Kumbe combine the rich musical heritage of their home, to invoke the spirit of digital rumba in audiences all over the world.

The secret behind their irresistible electronic sound lies in their powerful percussion base; Caribbean house beats and traditional afro-Colombian rhythms inherited from West Africa. The album’s co-producer, The Busy Twist, adds all the legacy of the UK’s Bass scene to the Afro-futuristic sounds of the 3 Colombians.

Inspired by the different revolutionary movements emerging all over the world, their self-titled debut is visceral, committed, and rebellious, denouncing through frantic rhythms the inequalities and abuses imposed by corrupt governments, while simultaneously enticing listeners to join in the fight. Dance mingles with awareness to create a global community, where family, friends, and strangers come together through our shared love of music and activate change amongst themselves.

Tracklisting: Intro / Sola / Vamo A Dale Duro / Djabe / Interludio / Pila Pila / Cara A Cara / Tamb / Esta Pillao / Pide Mas / Lengua Ri Suto

Label Review. 

16 tracks. (Bid from Monochrome Set). Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

The world of Scarlet’s Well was conceived in 1998 by Bid, the lead singer, guitarist, and main songwriter of UK New Wave/Indie legends The Monochrome Set, after they had disbanded for a second time. Lavishly illustrated albums emerged quietly, all set in and around Mousseron, “a sickly village situated somewhere east of the Azores and only slightly north of the Styx” populated by howling wolves, seductive mermaids and a bawdy captain with his crew of beer-swilling pirates and off-kilter animals with disturbingly human characteristics.

In Bid’s words, “I wanted this to be an ‘atmosphere’ rather than a band, and thought I’d have greater freedom using a variety of different singers, musicians and writers. The identity of the albums had to be strong enough to allow these changes, without them seeming like compilations. It’s akin to an open-ended musical with a partly ever-changing cast.”

Between 1999 and 2010, Scarlet’s Well released seven albums on Spanish-based Siesta Records. It was originally designed as a studio project, with a vague idea that a live band may follow. In the event, four albums were made where nearly all the instrumentation was performed by Bid, Orson Presence (keyboard player of the 90s Monochrome Set), and Toby Robinson (producer of most of the 90s Monochrome Set albums). Bid’s voice took turns with an enchanting cast of young ladies, of whom only Alice Healey was a permanent member. Soon after the fourth album, a live band was formed, though without Orson Presence, who was now living in Canada. A slightly changing line-up then recorded three more albums, with live performances, before Scarlet’s Well disbanded in 2010. The third rebirth of The Monochrome Set then followed, and is still going.

Archaic and arcane, literate and witty, cinematic and surreal, the Scarlet’s Well songs feature gorgeous, timeless, intoxicating melodies with wide range of rich and multi-layered instrumentation. Although there is a conceptual thread that runs through the albums, each song still stands alone, an oddly shaped trinket from a treasure trove. Lyrics leap from cryptic literary allusions to pert whimsy, and although there is a certain obscure quality there is also an air of familiarity: a morphic memory magic, bringing on a parallel universe that reveals itself to those who are open to getting lost with new acquaintances down strange cobbled streets, wooded glades, uncharted waters or the dark tunnels of the underworld.

Tracklisting: Sweetmeat / Willy Whispers / The Captain’s Song / Isle Of The Blue Flowers / Dark Dreams Aboard The Hesperus / Lord Fishgarlic’s Last Expedition / Night Of The Macaw / The Ballad Of Johnny Freak / The Dream Spider Of The Laughing Horse / Big Dipper On The Spearman’s Floor / Savage / Black Tulip Wings / Golden, It Is, Beautiful / My Little Doll / Supernatural Services / The Vampire’s Song

Label Review. 

2020 album. Electronic. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Los Angeles composer, artist, and producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has chartered a pioneering career with multiple critically-acclaimed albums since 2015. Following the release of ‘The Kid’ in 2017, Smith focused her energy in several directions. She founded Touchtheplants, a multidisciplinary creative environment for projects including the first volumes in her instrumental Electronic Series and pocket-sized poetry books on the practice of listening within. She’s continued to explore the endless possibilities of electronic instruments as well as the shapes, movements, and expressions found in the physical body’s relationship to sound and color. It is this life-guiding interest that forms the foundational frequencies of her latest full-length, ‘The Mosaic of Transformation’, a bright, sensorial glide through unbound wave phenomena and the radiant power discovered within oneself.

“I guess in one sentence, this album is my expression of love and appreciation for electricity,” says Kaithlyn. While writing and recording, she embraced a daily practice of physical movement, passing electricity through her body and into motion, in ways reflecting her audio practice, which sends currents through modular synthesizers and into the air through speakers. Not a dancer by any traditional definition, she taught herself improvisatory movement realizing flexibility, strength, and unexpectedly, what Smith calls “a visual language” (the term was introduced to her by filmmaker Sean Hellfritsch) stemming from the human body and comprised of vibrational shapes. Understood as cymatics, as she says, “as a reference for how frequencies can be visualized,” much like a mosaic.

As it has arrived, in a completed state, The Mosaic of Transformation is a holistic manifestation of embodied motions. Airy organ and voice interweave with burbling Buchla-spawned harmonic bubbles. If the record could be summarized in a single movement, it is the 10-minute closing suite, a rapturous collage called “Expanding Electricity.” Symphonic phrases establish the piece before washes of glittering electric peals and synthesized vibraphone helix into focus. Soon, Smith’s voice grounds it all with an intuitive vocal hook, harmonized and augmented by concentric spirals of harp-and-horn-like sounds. Smith’s music doesn’t capture a specific emotion as much as it captures the joys of possessing a body, and the ability to, with devotion and a steady open heart, maneuver that vessel in space by way of electricity to euphoric degrees.

Tracklisting: Unbraiding Boundless Energy Within Boundaries / Remembering / Understanding Body Messages / The Steady Heart / Carrying Gravity / The Spine Is Quiet In The Center / Overflowing / Deepening The Flow Of / Expanding Electricity

Label Review. 

2020 album with 5 bonus tracks. Also available on CD and Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Paul Weller releases his 15th studio album ‘On Sunset’ which features another batch of classic yet modern songs. ‘On Sunset’ is a soul album. At the same time it’s also an electronic album, an orchestral album, an album packed with masterly pop songs and heart-tugging ballads, and an album filled with touches of experimentalism. It’s also an album that sees Weller taking a rare glance into the rear-view mirror as he speeds into the 2020s.

Weller started work on ‘On Sunset’ soon after finishing 2018’s masterpiece ‘True Meanings’. Opening track “Mirror Ball” was from the TM sessions and originally slated as a b-side. Thankfully it was rescued for ‘On Sunset’ as it’s shimmering opener. As ever, Weller retains a rigorous forward-looking focus when it comes to seeking out the best contemporary sounds and music. But lyrically, Weller – back on his old home, Polydor Records for the first time since the Style Council days – is also starting to look back on the past with the insight of age especially on songs like “Old Father Thyme”.

Most of the album sees Weller multi-tasking on various instruments with accompaniment from his regular band - Ben Gordelier appears on all tracks and Andy Crofts on most whilst Steve Cradock pops up with his guitar on four songs. An eclectic and sometimes surprising gathering of guests appear on On Sunset including Slade’s Jim Lea contributing violin to the Bonzos-esque “Equanimity”, and Paul’s old Style Council chum Mick Talbot adds his signature Hammond Organ sound to 3 tracks. The beautifully lush “More” features a verse sung by French singer Julie Gros, from the band Le Superhomard (whose album Meadow Lane Park was one of Weller’s favourites of 2019) as well as the return of The Strype’s guitarist Josh McClorey. English folk trio The Staves contribute backing vocals for 3 tracks. Once again Hannah Peel sprinkles her magic over the album with string arrangements and The Paraorchestra were invited to add their expertise to four tracks.

Tracklisting: Mirror Ball / Baptiste / Old Father Thyme / Village / More / On Sunset / Equanimity / Walkin’ / Earth Beat / Rockets

Label Review. 

2020 live album. Includes solo and Oasis songs. With original Oasis guitarist Bonehead and a trio of backing singers and string arrangements performed by the 24-piece Urban Soul Orchestra. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Last summer Liam Gallagher joined the list of all-time greats (Paul McCartney, Page and Plant, Nirvana and many more) who have filmed a prestigious MTV Unplugged session. Having missed Oasis’s 1996 session through illness, the show at Hull’s City Hall found Liam fulfilling some unfinished business entirely on his own terms. The show’s electrifying atmosphere is palpable from the very beginning with a phenomenal reaction as Liam takes to the stage with “Wall of Glass”. Material from Liam’s solo career such as his personal favourite “Once” and the joyous “Now That I’ve Found You” resonates in this stripped-back format, with his vocal shining alongside a trio of backing singers and string arrangements performed by the 24-piece Urban Soul Orchestra.

Original Oasis guitarist Bonehead features on performances of “Some Might Say”, “Stand By Me”, “Cast No Shadow” and Liam’s first ever live vocal performance of the ‘Definitely Maybe’ bonus track “Sad Song”. The show concludes on a crowd-pleasing high with an emotive take on the classic “Champagne Supernova”.

Tracklisting: Wall Of Glass / Some Might Say / Now That I Found You / One of Us / Stand By Me / Sad Song / Cast No Shadow / Once / Gone / Champagne Supernova.

Label Review. 

2020 release. Recorded and filmed over two nights at the famed London venue 3rd/4th May 2019. Also available on Blu-ray and Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

In 2018, guitarist with The Blockheads (Ian Dury’s backing band) convinced Pink Floyd’s drummer Nick Mason to come out of performing retirement to form a new group dedicated to celebrating the early material from the Floyd’s illustrious catalogue. Joining them were later Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt, Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and completing the line-up, keyboard man Dom Beken. The quintet made their debut at some low-key dates in the spring of 2018 and since then have performed a handful of tours around the world to a rapturous response.

The set-list for the dates throughout 2018 & 19 have been largely static but seeing Nick bash his kit to songs he hasn’t performed for nearly 50 years abetted by his band who exude sheer joy at breathing new life into these esteemed compositions has seen another surprising and pleasing chapter in the story of one the rock world’s biggest bands.

A total of seven songs by original leader Syd Barrett prove his bright but brief period of creativity garnered a crop of material that remains startingly original today. Meanwhile after he left, the band took several years to work out where to take their sound and although these songs are not as well known as the ones that populate albums such as ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’ they retain a vitality perhaps missing from the aforementioned classics.

This live album recorded at the Roundhouse, where Pink Floyd cut their teeth in 1966/67, is expected to only be the first recorded document from Nick’s new group. Let’s hope there will be more to come - Mason has hinted in interviews that there will be more to come from outfit - it definitely seems they are having more fun than the Floyd anyway!

Tracklisting: Beginnings / Interstellar Overdrive / Astronomy Domine / Lucifer Sam / Fearless / Obscured by Clouds / When You’re In / Remember A Day / Arnold Layne / Vegetable Man / If / Atom Heart Mother / The Nile Song / Green Is The Colour / Let There Be More Light / Childhood’s End / Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun / See Emily Play / Bike / One Of These Days / A Saucerful Of Secrets / Point Me At The Sky.

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Roachford, whose most famous song “Cuddly Toy” has been a mainstay of radio airplay for over three decades now, is back with what is assuredly the best album of his career in ‘Twice in a Lifetime’. It’s the sound of someone at the top of their game, of one who knows his craft inside out. Produced by Grammy award winning Jimmy Hogarth, who has previously worked with Paolo Nutini, Duffy and Amy Winehouse, and featuring several members of Winehouse’s band, it’s full of grit and the most tremendous sonic energy, tracks like “Are You Satisfied?” throbbing with Stax-era musicality and soul. Lyrically, meanwhile, the album reveals an artist who has unambiguously Lived A Life.

Since "Cuddly Toy" reached number four in the charts back in early 1989 - Andrew Roachford has carved out a career for himself as one of the most compelling, and consistent, rock and soul artists the UK has produced. He has released 10 studio albums, several greatest hits collections, has been approached to write for various other artists including Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson and Joss Stone, and toured with contemporaries including Terence Trent D’Arby and The Christians. For the past nine years, he has been part of Mike + the Mechanics, recording with Mike Rutherford’s post-Genesis band, playing live with them across the world. He is someone who channels the energy of James Brown before going on stage each night, and who, on record, summons up the spirit of everyone from Al Green to Joe Cocker. When he sings, you listen.

Tracklisting: High On Love / Love Remedy / Too Much To Lose / Give It Up And Let Go / What We Had (with Beverley Knight) / Won’t Think Twice / So Long / Are you Satisfied? / The Truth Hurts Too Much / Gonna Be The One / Once In A Lifetime / Written In My Heart / You’re The One

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Seasick Steve is set to release his new album, ‘Love And Peace’, which sees Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a fresh new record that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live. Full of hope for the future, it’s a great mix of boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk – all delivered in Seasick Steve’s unique style. It’s a sizzler of an album that he can’t wait to release.“In these crazy times seems to me there just ain’t enough love and peace to go around,” says Steve. “I ain’t exactly sure what this here record got to do with love and peace, but I figured I’d call it that anyways!”

Produced and written by Seasick Steve, this album sees him breaking with tradition. While some of it was recorded in his barn, the majority was recorded in Los Angeles at Studio 606 and at East West Studio 3. The album was mixed by Vance Powell (Jack White, Chris Stapleton) and Steve at East West.Steve’s long-term drummer Dan Magnusson (a.k.a. Crazy Dan) is of course featured on the record, along with some amazing contributions from guitarist Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and harmonica player Malcolm Arison (The BossHoss).

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

Tracklisting: Love & Peace 2. Regular Man / I Will Do For You / Clock Is Running / Carni Days / Church Of Me / Toes in the Mud / My Woman / Ain’t Nothin’ Like The Boogie / Travelling Man / Ready Or Not / Mercy.

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD and Deluxe CD.

Our Overview. 

Pioneering pop perennials Sparks – Ron and Russell Mael – return with their new studio album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’. Since storming into the charts, minds and airwaves in 1974 with “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us” from their 3rd album ‘Kimono My House’, the musically vital pop pioneers have created a unique legacy both on record and in their live performances.

‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’ follows Sparks’ 2017 album ‘Hippopotamus’, an extraordinary record which saw them return to the Top 10 and was universally acclaimed with many critics declaring it to be one of the finest albums of the year and the pinnacle of the band’s career -until now. First single from the new album “Please Don’t Fuck Up My World” is the closing track on the new collection and sees the brothers address a broad sentiment we can all relate to - to look after our planet - against a sweeping keyboard and orchestral backing before a big vocal chorus comes in to repeat the message and then back to Russell for a final plea. Other tracks previewed sees more usual Sparks fare - guitars and keyboards and catchy pop melodies proving the duo still haven’t lost their touch after nearly 50 years in the game.

Tracklisting: All That / I’m Toast / Lawnmower / Sainthood Is Not In Your Future / Pacific Standard Time / Stravinsky’s Only Hit / Left Out In The Cold / Self-Effacing / One For The Ages / Onomata Pia / iPhone / The Existential Threat / Nothing Is Faster Than The Speed Of Light / Please Don’t Fuck Up My World

Label Review. 

Remastered albums: Class Of ‘55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming / Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town / Water From The Wells Of Home / Classic Cash: Hall Of Fame Series / Boom Chicka Boom / The Mystery Of Life. Also available on CD (with bonus tracks). 

Our Overview. 

In 1986, after almost 30 years on Columbia Records, Country music legend Johnny Cash released his first album on Mercury Records – ‘Class Of ’55’, in collaboration with fellow Sun Records alumni Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Seven years later, his last recording before signing with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings would be another collaboration, “The Wanderer”, with U2.

In the years that span those recordings, Johnny Cash released a total of six albums for Mercury. Despite significant focus and attention around his Columbia and American recordings, his Mercury catalogue has never been revisited… until now. UMe / Mercury Records are proud to announce that 2020 will see the release of ‘Johnny Cash: The Complete Mercury Studio Albums (1986-1991)’ – a 7CD/ 7LP boxed set featuring newly remastered audio for the very first time, using the original Mercury master tapes.

Notably, the album ‘Classic Cash: Hall Of Fame Series’ is presented in a 2LP format for the very first time. With brand new liner notes by music writer Scott Schinder, ‘Johnny Cash: The Complete Mercury Studio Recordings (1986-1991)’ represents the very first deep dive into the Country music legend’s Mercury catalogue, and reveals its importance as the bridge between his better known catalogues on Columbia and American.

Tracklisting: 

Class Of ‘55: Memphis Rock & Roll Homecoming: Birth Of Rock And Roll / Sixteen Candles / Class Of ‘55 / Waymore’s Blues / We Remember The King / Coming Home / Rock And Roll (Fais-Do-Do) / Keep My Motor Running / I Will Rock And Roll With You / Big Train (From Memphis)

Johnny Cash Is Coming To Town: The Big Light / The Ballad Of Barbara / I’d Rather Have You / Let Him Roll / The Night Hank Williams Came To Town / Sixteen Tons / Letters From Home / W. Lee O’Daniel (And The Light Crust Dough Boys) / Heavy Metal (Don’t Mean Rock And Roll To Me) / My Ship Will Sail

Water From The Wells Of Home: Ballad Of A Teenage Queen (With Roseanne Cash & The Everly Brothers) / As Long As I Live (With Emmylou Harris) / Where Did We Go Right (With June Carter Cash and The Carter Family) / The Last Of The Drifters (With Tom T. Hall) / Call Me The Breeze (With John Carter Cash)That Old Wheel (With Hank Williams, Jr.) / Sweeter Than The Flowers (With Waylon Jennings) / A Croft In Clachan (The Ballad Of Rob MacDunn) (With Glen Campbell) / New Moon Over Jamaica (With Paul McCartney) / Water From The Wells Of Home (With John Carter Cash)

Classic Cash: Hall Of Fame Series: Get Rhythm / Tennessee Flat Top Box / Long Black Veil / A Thing Called Love / I Still Miss Someone / Cry, Cry, Cry / Blue Train / Sunday Morning Coming Down / Five Feet High And Rising / Peace In The Valley / Don’t Take Your Guns To Town / Home Of The Blues / Guess Things Happen That Way / I Got Stripes / I Walk The Line / Ring Of Fire / Ballad Of Ira Hayes / The Ways Of A Woman In Love / Folsom Prison Blues / Supper Time

Boom Chicka Boom: A Backstage Pass / Cat’s In The Cradle / Farmer’s Almanac / Don’t Go Near The Water / Family Bible / Harley / I Love You, Love You / Hidden Shame / Monteagle Mountain / That’s One You Owe Me

The Mystery Of Life: The Greatest Cowboy Of Them All / I’m An Easy Rider / The Mystery Of Life / Hey Porter / Beans For Breakfast / Goin’ By The Book / Wanted Man / I’ll Go Somewhere And Sing My Songs Again (with Tom T. Hall) / The Hobo Song / Angel And The Badman

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

“Everybody wants to know / how I feel and what I think,” Margo Price sings in her emotive, bittersweet twang, halfway through her third full-length record. On ‘That’s How Rumors Get Started’, Margo has committed her genre-bending rock-and-roll show to record for the first time, stretching out into sky-high soft-rock, burning psychedelic rock ballads, stomping road songs, and sprinkles of pop. “Twinkle Twinkle” is an anti-nostalgia anthem of sorts, about the polarization of becoming a more well-known artist, and the wild ride that was Margo Price’s last few years. It traces her trajectory: she gets by, gets high, racks up debt, can’t pay the rent, plays dives to stay alive. “If it don’t break you, it might just make you rich,” she sings, with heroic sass.

The song was inspired by a back-stage encounter with Marty Stuart and the Superlatives at a music festival that was otherwise pretty bleak. (Price has played with Superlatives guitarist Kenny Vaughan over the years.) After the show, in Stuart’s trailer, while he tuned his guitars, he said to Price, “So, you and the band have been on the road a lot lately, do you all hate each other yet?” As Price recalls it: “I said, ‘No, well, I mean, our marriages are falling apart and our health’s deteriorating. But other than that, we’re great.’ And he looks at me, and he gets this gleam in his eye, and he says, ‘You wanted to be a star.. Twinkle twinkle.’”

Tracklisting: That’s How Rumors Get Started / Letting Me Down (featuring Sturgill Simpson) / Twinkle Twinkle / Stone Me / Hey Child / Heartless Mind / What Happened To Our Love / Gone To Stay / Prisoner Of The Highway / I’d Die For You

Label Review. 

2020 album. Americana. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

'Magdalen Accepts The Invitation' is the 2020 full-length by the husband and wife-duo comprising Mark Olson (ex-Jayhawks) and Ingunn Ringvold. The husband-and-wife duo's third collaboration mines a "Death Valley isolation chamber folk/pop sound" that is awash with darkness and light. A roller coaster in a long-closed Lake Minnetonka amusement park, walks through historic orthodox churches, a fossil-collecting canoe trip along the Niobrara River, and an isolated pizza place in South Africa. Old memories swirling in the warm Joshua Tree breezes provided them with the inspiration for the set of intriguing, imagistic songs that lovingly fill their latest outing, Magdalen Accepts the Invitation. The album's ten tracks draw upon the couple's recent adventures together and their earlier adventures apart as well as tapping into, and stretching out, their own individual musical influences. 

While continuing along the Americana-cobbled roads they took on their first two albums, Olson and Ringvold explore lesser traveled musical territories on this release. Without exactly knowing where they were going, the two were emboldened by each other's company and unafraid to push forward. As Olson describes it: "The recording sessions occurred during the heat of summer at Thermometer Shelter Studios, located not too far from Death Valley National Park." The Armenian Qanon, the Mellotron, the dulcimer, and djembe drums are among the world of instruments that the multi-talented Ringvold contributed to Magdalen's sound. The variety of arrangements on the album act, she explains, "like a different color in an impressionistic painting." Ringvold also is thrilled about being able to weave elements of her family's musical heritage into her own songs and the interesting ways that her work blended in with Olson's original material. All of Magdalen's original track recordings were done on a Nagra field recorder, which further enhanced the album's unvarnished sonic textures.

Mark Olson was born and raised in Minnesota by a family of mostly farmers and schoolteachers. Predominately a self-taught musician, Olson is well known for his use of alternate tunings and two-part unison singing that then breaks into harmony. He co-founded (and was a principal songwriter, singer and guitarist) the Jayhawks in 1985 in Minneapolis. Upon leaving the Jayhawks, he formed the Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers in 1997 with Victoria Williams. That band, later called the Creekdippers, made seven albums. 

Ingunn Ringvold comes from Larvik, Norway (also the home of Thor Heyerdahl, the famed explorer and Kon Tiki author). Blessed with a naturally beautiful voice, she began singing in public at a very young age. Ringvold hears music in her heart and writes emotionally moving string arrangements. She studied the Armenian Qanon with Arax, a master musician in Vanadzor, Armenia, where she learned how to harness great strength in her performance style. She has released four solo albums in addition to her collaborations with Olson. Olson and Ringvold live now in the California desert, and they tour off and on internationally almost every year. 

Tracklisting: Pipestone I Won't Be Back / You'll Find the Morning / Excelsior Park / Christina Hi / 31 Patience Games / Children of the Streetcar / Silent Mary / Elmira's Fountain / Black Locust

Label Review. 

2020 album. Nuclear Blast. Also available on CD, 2CD and Box Set.

Our Overview. 

Sweden based rock band Blues Pills are back and ready to give the world another helping of their heavy rockin' tunes with their third studio album ‘Holy Moly’. Of which the band say “This album is something we’ll be proud of even after death. These songs are from a very dark period of our lives. So much loss, anger and anxiety. Sadness and change. A separation into reincarnation. We stand behind every note and every word. This album was created in darkness and it guided us into the light again. One can only hope it will give you comfort too.” ‘Holy Moly!’ can be a deceptive album. On first listen it seems like a great blues/rock album with classic songs and great vocals. On repeated listens though you start to appreciate the layers and nuance. Not often do you get a record that makes a great first impression but is still a grower!

The history of Blues Pills can seem simple. The rock quartet formed in the Midwest in late 2011 by the bands songwriters Zack Anderson and Elin Larsson went straight from playing at dirty, crowded bars to play at some of the biggest festivals such as Download, Rock am Ring and Wacken Open Air. A true success story. Or? Not really. Under the layers of heavy psychedelic blues-rock and Elin Larsson's soulful and powerful voice, the core of Blues Pills has always been the restless search for change. Change in the human mind and the musical influences they embraced themselves with, from blackened soul to the trippy rides through 60s garage rock music and the devils blues. During their break, BLUES PILLS has been through some kind of reincarnation. A reincarnation that lead to the new self-produced and recorded album “Holy Moly!” mixed by Grammy Award winning Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chill Peppers, Iggy Pop, Adele, Black Sabbath, Rival Sons,Hozier a.o.). 

If you were blazed by heaviness of their first self-titled album, and tripped to the psychedelic soul of “Lady In Gold” (#1 Germany) you won't be immune to the effects of this third dose of the pills. Empowered by the definition of a cool bass player Kristoffer Schander, their banana-loving drummer André Kvarnström, Elin Larssons haunting voice and Zack Anderson now on lead guitar the band has gone back to their roots. Back to the raw power of rock’n’roll and blues with a pinch of soul. During the bands short break they built their own studio, Lindbacka Sounds, in an old factory in the rural area of Närke, Sweden and filled it up with analog recording equipment, and their own personal demons haunting them in their sleep. Exhausted and empty after the long years of touring all over the world they went back to basics, and the last years of highs and lows lead to a more autobiographical album. Elin, Zack and André spent most of their waking hours writing songs, recording and changing. Over and over, until they were all completely satisfied. 

Label Review. 

2020 debut album from Mike Campbell (Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers). Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

While 2020’s ‘Wreckless Abandon’ is their first official release and occasion to tour, The Dirty Knobs first came together 15 years ago after Mike Campbell met guitarist Jason Sinay at a session and liked the way their guitars sounded together. After adding the acclaimed rhythm section of bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Matt Laug, The Dirty Knobs became an outlet for Campbell to work on some of the other songs he was writing between Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers records and touring.

They got together when schedules permitted, playing music without an agenda, expectations or deadlines, without worrying about outcome or hits, pushing boundaries of taste, imagination, and genres and creating some of the most brutally confident yet psychically dangerous rock and roll since sonic-renegade juggernauts the Yardbirds first sauntered onto a London stage and ripped into “For Your Love.”

They recorded the album at Campbell’s home studio, Hocus Pocus Recorders, in just three weeks’ time, before the guitarist went out on the road in 2018 as a member of Fleetwood Mac. The Knobs tapped legendary producer George Drakoulias, who had also produced Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ 2002 album ‘The Last DJ’, to co-produce,with all songs written by Campbell.

The album features further contributions from Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Stapleton as well as fellow Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers founding-member, Benmont Tench. Additionally, Klaus Voormann, who is best known for doing the art for The Beatles’ Revolver, created the album artwork.

Tracklisting: Wreckless Abandon / Pistol Packin’ Mama (feat. Chris Stapleton) / Sugar / Southern Boy / I Still Love You / Irish Girl / Fuck That Guy / Don’t Knock The Boogie / Don’t Wait / Anna Lee / Aw Honey / Loaded Gun / Don’t Knock The Boogie (Coda)

Label Review. 

2020 debut album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Emerging from the ashes of Shield Your Eyes in the summer of 2018, Stef Kett (guitar/vocals) and Henri Grimes (drums) started to jam on the concept of soul-spray music, enlisting bassist Marion Andrau before their first gig in October of the same year. From that first airing, it was clear something special was coming together. An untethered, emotive deconstructing of romantic soul ballads played freely at high volume. Interweaving blasts of vibrato style guitar, stirred drumming and expansive bass propel Kett’s emotive, almost strained renditions of self-penned love songs. ‘Yeah Well’, the debut album from London UK based Reciprocate, is music with soul, rather than “soul music” in the classic sense, but it delivers the same emotional elevations. 

Kett explains the approach to ‘Yeah Well’s’ creation, “I write our songs as sort-of ballads, but we disguise that with up-tempo arrangements. We play at high-volume but it's not ever supposed to sound brash or thoughtless, the emphasis is always on playing with good feel and sensitive touch. The intention is it should create a sense of some sort of wrenching emotional drama, and that Marion's long-held bass notes hold your hand through the arrangements, and add a sense of calm and gravitas and clarify that it's songs and not just music.” 

While many bands avoid the simplicity of love as the sole theme of their work, Reciprocate unburden their music by embracing it exclusively, like all great pop music it grabs you immediately and completely. “I love the pursuit of trying to write love songs and, actually, I think it's become a very contrary thing to do nowadays,” explains Kett. “It's like it has been disgraced and is some kind of a no-no for an underground band to pursue writing overtly romantically themed love songs and put them to rock music. That adds a certain kick to doing it and I feel really inspired to keep writing like this.” 

Recorded at Spatch, London and mastered by James Plotkin, the band produced the record themselves to keep a grasp on their vision, focusing on vibe as much as perfection, while recording the tracks live. Recording more songs that are contained on the final album, those not fitting the vibe were discarded, while opener ‘Pray Tell’ was re-recorded to get it right. This relentless focus on what the album needed to be has paid off, ‘Yeah Well’ jumps out as a great rock n roll record. Take the funk-meets-no wave explosion of ‘Marion Andrau’, or the sweet, slightly distorted balladry of ‘Marble Arch’ as a case in point. ‘Yeah Well (Part 1)’ is classic blues collapsing in on itself, ‘Yeah Well (Part 2)’ is a reversed take on electric guitar from another realm which leads into ‘Hold’s bluesy, alt-rock. ‘Tascam’ is something else entirely, all sound manipulation and spoken word introduction. Nothing is as simple or predictable as it seems in the world of Reciprocate and that makes ‘Yeah Well’ a unique expression of love in rock form. 

Tracklisting: Pray Tell / Tascam / Marion Andrau / Marble Arch / Yeah Well (part 1) / Yeah Well (part 2 / Hold

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Norah Jones will release her seventh studio album, ‘Pick Me Up Off the Floor’, via Blue Note Records. She has previewed the record with lead single “I’m Alive”, a collaboration with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. The laid-back track, which Tweedy co-wrote and produced, features the Wilco leader on acoustic guitar, electric guitar and bass. His son and frequent collaborator Spencer Tweedy plays brushed drums. “Just sit and wait, don’t move — just hesitate/You can hope and pray; you can moan; maybe things will change,” Jones croons over her warm, languid piano. “You feel your soul get hollowed out/While the world implodes, you just live without.”

‘Pick Me Up Off The Floor’ which also includes the Tweedy-assisted “Heaven Above” marks Jones’ second collaboration with the Wilco frontman, who co-wrote and produced two tracks on her 2019 LP, ‘Begin Again’. “Norah’s been a great friend for a long time and she’s one of the most effortless musicians I’ve ever played with,” Tweedy told Rolling Stone.

Norah detailed the inspiration and creative process behind the album, which sprung from a productive session with her regular drummer Brian Blade. “Living in this country - this world - the last few years, I think there’s an underlying sense of, ‘Lift me up. Let’s get up out of this mess and try to figure some things out,’” she said. “If there’s a darkness to this album, it’s not meant to be an impending sense of doom, if feels more like a human longing for connection. Some of the songs that are personal also apply to the larger issues we’re all facing. And some of the songs that are about very specific larger things also feel quite personal. I don’t know if I was just in a zone or if this process turned it on, but I’ve felt more creative in the last year than I ever have.”

The project also features contributions from bassists Christopher Thomas, John Patitucci, Jesse Murphy, and Josh Lattanzi; drummers Nate Smith, Dan Rieser, and Josh Adams; keyboardist Pete Remm, pedal steel guitarist Dan Iead, violinist Mazz Swift, violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Paul Wiancko, percussionist Mauro Refosco, background vocalists Ruby Amanfu and Sam Ashworth, trumpeter Dave Guy and tenor saxophonist Leon Michels.

Tracklisting: How I Weep / Flame Twin / Hurts To Be Alone / Heartbroken, Day After / Say No More / This Life / To Live / I’m Alive / Were You Watching? / Stumble On My Way / Heaven Above

Label Review. 

2020 live release. Recorded in 2018 at the final two shows of the Global Spirit Tour at the Waldbuhne in Berlin. Visual content features documentary and full concert. Also available on 2CD and 2CD+Blu-ray. 

Our Overview. 

This special four-disc (two video discs plus two audio discs) configuration presents the definitive Depeche Mode: ‘Spirits In The Forest’ experience at its most immersive, and will be available in both DVD or Blu-Ray formats. The package’s two video discs contain the ‘Spirits In The Forest’ documentary, alongside ‘Live Spirits’, a full-length Depeche Mode concert performance filmed at the final two shows of the Global Spirit Tour at the Waldbühne in Berlin. This footage has never been previously released or broadcast in its entirety. In addition to the two video discs, the package includes two CDs containing the ‘Live Spirits’ soundtrack, the live audio recording from the performance. The package promises to be essential for collectors, longtime fans, and newcomers alike.

‘Depeche Mode: Spirits in the Forest’ set “the new gold standard for concert films,” according to Forbes. Re-envisioning the very concept of a music documentary, director and longtime Depeche Mode collaborator Anton Corbijn focused the narrative on six super fans from different regions of the globe. The film zeroes in on their lives – all extremely different save for their love of Depeche Mode’s music and the way that music has shaped their experiences – intercut with the final Berlin show, held at the iconic Waldbühne (“Forest Stage”) on the record-breaking two-year Global Spirit Tour in 2018, which saw them play to over 3 million fans at 115 shows around the world. The music, including several of Depeche Mode’s biggest hits, and the Spirits’ stories entwine seamlessly, illuminating the enduring power of Depeche Mode and the power music has to cross boundaries and borders and ultimately unite us.

Tracklisting: Intro / Going Backwards / It’s No Good / A Pain That I’m Used To / Useless / Precious / World in My Eyes / Cover Me / The Things You Said / Insight / Poison Heart / Where’s the Revolution / Everything Counts / Stripped / Enjoy the Silence / Never Let Me Down Again / I Want You Now / Heroes / Walking In My Shoes / Personal Jesus / Just Can’t Get Enough

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Asian Dub Foundation are a genre unto themselves. Their unique combination of tough jungle rhythms, dub bass lines and wild guitar overlaid by references to their South Asian roots and militant high-speed rap has established them as one of the best live bands in the world. During their long and productive career Asian Dub Foundation have shared the stage with the likes of Rage Against The Machine, the Beastie Boys and Primal Scream also collaborating on record with the likes of Radiohead, Sinead O’ Connor, Iggy Pop and Chuck D.

Their 9th album ‘Access Denied’ finds them as uncompromising as ever. The album showcases ADF in full spectrum mode from the tough Jungle Punk sound of “Stealing The Future” and “Mindlock” through to the orchestral meditation of “Realignment” and the reggae lament of the title track. With guestspots from Greta Thunberg, incendiary Palestinian shamstep warriors 47 Soul, Chilean revolt’s rap main figure Ana Tijoux and radical UK comedian Stewart Lee, Asian Dub Foundation continue their sonic opposition to the powers that be and ‘Access Denied’ kicks harder and higher than ever.

ADF formed from a music workshop in East London in the late 1990s at the institution which is their spiritual home, Community Music. Their unique beginnings marked out both their sound and their wider educational aspirations, as showed by their early involvements with Roma Youth in Budapest, hooking up with the legendary Afro Reggae in the favelas of Rio, and setting up their own education organisation ADF Education (ADFED), not to mention their campaigns on behalf of those suffering miscarriages of justice.

Tracklisting: Can’t Pay Won’t Pay / Stealing the Future / Frontline / Access Denied / Realignment / Comin’ Over Here (feat. Stewart Lee) / Human 47 (feat. 47 Soul) / Mindlock / Swarm / Lost in the Shadows / Youthquake Part 1, Greta Speaks / New Alignment / Frontline Santiago (feat. Ana Tijoux) / Smash and Grab the Future (feat. Dub FX).

Label Review.

2020 album. Folk.

Our Overview.

‘Making Sand’ is the new release from the unique talent of Mr. Padraig Jack. Hailing from the Aran Islands - 10 miles off the west coast of Ireland - singer-songwriter Padraig writes and sings in Gaelic and English, songs that are authentic, soulful, honest, celtic music inspired by his environment and its people. He was born and raised 10 miles off the west coast of Ireland on the Aran islands. Music and words are in his blood as his dad is bilingual songwriter Barry Ronan and he is the nephew on his mothers side of the Irish poet and Aosdána member Mary O’Malley.

His music is influenced by his surroundings as much as it is by James Taylor, Van Morrison, Shane McGowan and The Eagles. Padraig has won second prize at the Pan Celtic National Song contest and his song ‘Minnie’ was shortlisted for the final of the Christie Hennessy song contest. He has also received numerous Gradaim N S Award nominations. Making Sand was producer John Reynolds (Sinead O’Connor, Brian Eno, Damien Dempsey). 24 Jul WOMAD Festival, UK 26 Jul Deer Shed Festival, UK Orchestrate PR will be plugging the album in Ireland. Manilla PR will be plugging in the UK.

Padraig supported Sharon Shannon on her 2 UK tours in the UK in 2019 and did many BBC Regional interviews. He has been heralded in Ireland’s Hot Press magazine and Joe.ie.

Tracklisting: Let It Shine / Gospel Of Matthew / Streetbed Ridden / Making Sand /Minnie / Black Drapes / Hello Mum / Long Goodbye / Smaointe Cailte

Label Review. 

2020 album. Jazz/electronica. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

GoGo Penguin – the instrumental trio from Manchester, England – released their self-titled sixth album. Sometimes referred to as the “Jazz Radiohead”, they have fielded plaudits and rave reviews for inspiration and originality at every turn since 2013, when they settled on their dream line-up of Chris Illingworth (piano), Rob Turner (drums) and Nick Blacka (bass). Fusing jazz, classical and electronic influences (amongst others) with a thirst for innovation, they’ve been garlanded as makers of one of the Mercury Prize album of the year (in 2014) and have enjoyed success on record and in the live arena matched by precious few vocal-free groups post-millennium.

GoGo Penguin’s music has always defied categorization. In their sound, there have been detectable traces of latterday developments in jazz, such as Sweden’s free-thinking Esbjörn Svensson Trio (aka EST), or minimalist classical composers like Steve Reich, John Adams, even Erik Satie. Yet, all in their mid-30’s, you can hear that they have grown up in the golden age of electronica, with echoes ranging from rarefied techno (think Aphex Twin; Carl Craig’s Innerzone Orchestra), and the emotive melodies and crescendos of European house, through to Roni Size’s jazz-infused drum ‘n’ bass.

After that prestigious Mercury nomination for 2014’s ‘v2.0’ album, Chris, Nick and Rob worked hard, consolidating their musical bond across a further two albums, which were written and recorded while juggling hectic touring commitments. For GoGo Penguin – their fourth album together (and the third to be released by the legendary Blue Note label following ‘Man Made Object’ and ‘A Humdrum Star’) – they decided to jump off the rollercoaster and devote the majority of their working time in 2019 to pushing at the limits of their music.

Tracklisting: 1_# / Atomised / Signal in the Noise / Open / F Maj Pixie / Kora / Totem / Embers / To the Nth / Don’t Go

Label Review. 

2020 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Gaslighter is the brilliant new album from the Dixie Chicks (the fifth studio album to be released by the band). After a long hiatus the country pop trio are back with their first new album since 2006’s ‘Taking The Long Way’ which won five Grammy Awards including “Album Of The Year,” “Record Of the Year” and “Song Of The Year.” 

Band member Natalie Maines explained, the album was inspired by her divorce from actor Adrian Pasdar. “When I started getting a divorce, I had a lot to say, so that sparked me being ready. Songwriting is really hard for me, and for many years I didn’t want to analyze life or my relationship. I was just in it, and dedicated and devoted, and if I had started writing songs about it, that might not have been good. I was just in a … I don’t want to say ‘survival mode,’ but I was just not ready to open up. And then when my relationship fell apart, I had a lot to say.”

The new album will also coincide with a 2020 tour, and marks the trio’s final album under contract with Sony. “We thought we would do a covers album, just do it real easy, turn it in and get the money, and be free agents. And then my relationship fell apart, and I had a lot to say. So Gaslighter is not a covers album. Our last album was the most personal and autobiographical we’d ever been, and this one is ten times that.”

Gaslighter is produced by Jack Antonoff with the Dixie Chicks. Superstars, renegades, innovators, heroes, villains, and moms, the Dixie Chicks have grown from a band into a cultural phenomenon. Since the release of their debut album ‘Wide Open Spaces’ in 1998, the Dixie Chicks’ music has stirred emotions in fans across the world, making them one of the biggest and most influential bands of our time. 

Tracklist: TBC

Label Review.

2020 album also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

Scottish rock trio Biffy Clyro are releasing their much anticipated eight album ‘A Celebration Of Endings’ of which frontman Simon Neil explains “This is a very forward-looking album from a personal perspective and a societal perspective. The title is about seeing the joy in things changing, rather than the sadness. Change means progression and evolution. You can retain everything you loved before, but let’s lose the bad shit. It’s about trying to take back control.”

The band made an instant impact with ‘Instant History’ blending their explosive attack with apocalyptic synths and bombastic beats, the track was premiered as BBC’s Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World. The band’s approach to opus eight was simple. Keep things fresh and maintain the wide-eyed wonder of what they do. Surprise themselves and each other. Push things to their furthest extremes. Their first building block in embracing the new was to turn to an old friend. In came Rich Costey, producer of ‘Ellipsis’.

Sonically, Biffy Clyro playfully push the outer reaches of their sound to the extreme – often in the case of the same song. Opening track ‘North of No South’ hits hard before finding the space for the Johnston brothers to unleash some soaring Queen-style vocal harmonies, before ‘The Champ’ throws piano, cinematic strings (conducted by Bruce Springsteen collaborator Rob Mathes at Abbey Road) and Biffy’s prototyped jagged rhythms into the mix without ever losing any of its sleekness.

Other songs are far more direct. ‘Tiny Indoor Fireworks’ is the best direct rock anthem they’ve ever written, somehow snappy, melodic and light on its feet while feeling so natural you could imagine it was conceived in minutes.  Meanwhile, ‘Space’ is a natural successor from previous lighters-in-the-air highlights ‘Many of Horror’ and ‘Rearrange’. It’s a sincere message of reconciliation for someone you love, and Biffy’s most tender, unguarded moment from the sweet spot of their catalogue.

How can you conclude an album of such esoteric diversity? Biffy launch headfirst into ‘Cop Syrup’. There’s the rush of ‘The Vertigo of Bliss’, a detour into Sub Pop-style grunge and manic shrieks which wouldn’t sound out of place on a Liturgy record. But then it contorts again, first into ethereal orchestration and then with a final burst of violence. It’s an ending to celebrate.To coincide with the album’s launch, Biffy Clyro have today shared the new track ‘End Of’. The aggression is old school Biffy, but the out-of-nowhere piano break and a final rally of rampaging riffs matches their current unpredictable flair.

Tracklisting: North Of No South / The Champ / Weird Leisure / Tiny Indoor Fireworks / Worst Type Of Best Possible / Space / End Of / Instant History / The Pink Limit / Opaque / Cop Syrup

Label Review. 

2020 album. The Doors guitarist. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Robby Krieger the legendary guitarist and songwriter of The Doors and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Robby Krieger will be releasing his first solo album in a decade ‘The Ritual Begins At Sundown’. The Doors weren’t just one of the most iconic bands of their generation, but one of the most influential bands in rock history and Robby Krieger was responsible for writing some of their biggest hits in “Light My Fire,” “Love Me Two Times,” “Touch Me” and “Love Her Madly.”

Krieger returns for his ninth solo album, and his first since 2010s Grammy nominated ‘Singularity’, once again with his long-time writing partner and co-producer Arthur Barrow. Barrow worked with Frank Zappa through the 1970s-80s as well as Giorgio Moroder, Joe Cocker, Diana Ross and Janet Jackson, and worked on soundtracks for Top Gun andScarface. The album also features other Zappa alumni Jock Ellis (Trombone), Sal Marquez (Trumpet) and Tommy Mars (Keys), as well as AeB Bryne (Flute), Vince Denim (Sax), Chuck Manning (Sax), Joel Wackerman (Drums) and Joel Taylor (Drums).  Krieger shares, “I was hanging out with my buddy Arthur Barrow and we had some songs we had been fooling around with then we got some other friends involved.”

'The Ritual Begins At Sundown' is a ten-song instrumental record which was recorded at his own Horse Latitudes Studio in Los Angeles and features nine originals and one cover, the Frank Zappa song “Chunga’s Revenge.”  To understand where he is for the album now, you need to go right back to the beginning when he was on the exploding jazz scene.  Krieger explains, “When I wrote songs for The Doors, it was always the music first. I think you have to have some musical ability to really understand Jazz.  When I was young, I didn’t really understand it.  It took me a while. I was going to the clubs with John Densmore – before The Doors – to really get an appreciation of Jazz. We used to go see Wes Montgomery, Roland Kirk, Miles Davis, stuff like that. At first, I didn’t really get it, but after a while it sank in and I always loved it after that.”

The album really is a return to friends with his relationship with Barrow and Sal Marquez dating all the way back to his first solo album. “After The Doors I started becoming interested in Jazz and started hanging out with a guy called Sal Marquez,” he says. “So, we put this band together and that was the first Robby Krieger band and we played at the Whiskey A-Go-Go with Don Preston, Zappa’s keyboard player. Arthur Barrow who was a huge Zappa fan –  this was before he worked with Frank – he decided that, after graduating from North Texas State music school that he was gonna come out to LA and try to get into Frank’s band, which was pretty brash of him,” he laughs. “He started hanging out with Don and with Zappa, Don was in my band so we decided to put Arthur in charge of the mixing at the Whiskey for our shows, that’s when I first met him in the 70s.”

Krieger’s influence spans generations, from Alice Cooper, who when playing the Sunset Strip for the first time in the 70s, was taken under the wing of The Doors and said of Krieger, “I never heard a guitar player like this, he did things with the guitar that nobody’s ever done.”  William Duvall (Alice in Chains) has proclaimed that “Robby Krieger is one of my absolute heroes,” whilst John Garcia (Kyuss) got the opportunity to have Krieger guest on his album in 2015 and said “I will never forget that experience for the rest of my life, it truly made the song better, not to mention the entire record.” Other plaudits have come in from Ritchie Sambora who said “People do not know how good he is.”

Tracklisting: What Was That? / Slide Home / The Drift / Chunga's Revenge (Frank Zappa cover) / Hot Head / Yes, The River Knows / The Hitch / Dr Noir / Bianca's Dream / Screen Junkie

Label Review.

Official 22 track best of to celebrate her 100th anniversary. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

The commanding Peggy Lee was one of the great female song stylists who sits among iconic female sonic alumni such as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Smoky, sensual, sultry, confident, commanding…there has never been a voice quite like that of Peggy Lee. A triple threat singer/songwriter/actress, Lee had a remarkable career in music spanning over fifty years.

Inaugurating Peggy Lee 100 is a new collection from UMe and celebrating an artist who never goes out of style, ‘Ultimate Peggy Lee’ is primed with 22 indelible performances including classic hits, five of her own compositions, and one previously unissued track, “Try a Little Tenderness,” from 1963. Whittling down Lee’s discography to one CD or 2 vinyl LPs is no easy task; she wrote over 200 songs and recorded more than 1,100. But the selection here is a fine cross-section of the songs that made Peggy Lee a one-of-a-kind superstar.

Drawing on her original Decca and Capitol recordings, the anthology boasts such timeless favourites as “Fever” (reinvented by Lee from Little Willie John’s original), the alluring “Big Spender,” “Black Coffee,” “Why Don’t You Do Right,” “The Folks Who Live on the Hill,” and two powerful anthems from Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller: “I’m a Woman” and “Is That All There Is?,” the latter with a Randy Newman arrangement. Peggy’s own songs here include “It’s a Good Day,” “I Love Being Here with You,” and “He’s a Tramp.”

Peggy scored her first chart-topper in 1942 and her final recordings were released in 1995, seven years before her death in 2002.  She was an Academy Award-nominated actress (Pete Kelly’s Blues), a 13-time Grammy nominee (and two-time recipient), and a talented songwriter whose collaborators included the esteemed likes of Harold Arlen, Cy Coleman, Duke Ellington, and Lalo Schifrin.  Lee was also a fierce advocate of artists’ rights, winning a highly-publicised lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company over home video exploitation of Lady and the Tramp, the 1955 film for which she supplied songs (including the immortal “He’s a Tramp” and romantic “Bella Notte,” both co-written with Sonny Burke) and the voice of – who else? – Peg. This week, The Peggy Lee Estate announced Peggy Lee 100, a centennial campaign honouring the late, great songstress and her influence across the spectrum of popular music.

Tracklisting: I Love Being Here With You / Fever / Things Are Swingin’ / I Don’t Know Enough About You / I’m A Woman / Just In Time / Hallelujah, I Love Him So / Sweet Happy Life / Alright, Okay, You Win / Too Close For Comfort / Why Don’t You Do Right (Get Me Some Money Too) / It’s A Good Day / You Deserve / Heart / Big Spender / He’s A Tramp / I Wanna Be Around / Black Coffee / I’ve Got The World On A String / The Folks Who Live On The Hill / Is That All There Is? / Try A Little Tenderness*

Label Review. 

2020 album. Reggae. Also availble on CD.

Our Overview. 

Acclaimed The Hempolics return with ‘Kiss, Cuddle & Torture: Volume 2’, the follow up to their triumphant 2017 album which won them accolades including a BBC 6 Music ‘Album Of The Year’ selection and they are out to put those organic rootsy vibes back into music; with their fat radio-friendly hooks, bumping soundsystem bass and a wanderlusty, ineffably real sound all of their own... 

The new release builds on their trademark mash-up sound of reggae, dub, soul and pop but explores new territories with elements of hip-hop, shoegaze and trip-hop welcome additions to the mix. As with Volume 1, the release is underpinned by the masterful production of main man Grippa - an engineer who cut his teeth working with Faithless - and he’s once again joined by unmistakable Hempolics vocalists Dandelion and Nubiya, who continues to turn heads with her Amy Winehouse meets Hollie Cook timbre. Highlights of the album include the upbeat soul and reggae hit ‘Play On’, the trip-hop meets dub-influenced single, ‘Full of Surprises’, and the British reggae-funk stomper ‘Bongadashi’. ‘Gotta Thing’ sees the band deliver a fast hip-hop house track laced with classic Hempolics’ reggae flavours, vocals courtesy of Miami rapper Cojack, whilst ‘Place Is Here’, written by Grippa alongside Faithless vocalist Pauline Taylor, is a 90’s shoegaze influenced cut with a languid psych groove.

Sounding like the i-pod of the attention-deficit generation and swelled by guest appearances from various international talents The Hempolics have a storm brewing that promises to tear up the UK music scene. Recording underground style throughout the bedrooms and home studios of the band The Hempolics have created an infectious mash-up of Reggae, Electro, Hip-Hop, Soul, Rock and Pop. Although the weather out might be dull London-side it’s strictly sunshine vibes, resplendent with huge hooks and festival friendly choruses. These are tunes that people will be bopping to across festivals, clubs and car journeys for years to come. 

Tracklisting: Full Of Surprises / Strange Feeling / Place Is Here / Bongadashi / MoonStars / Play On / Forever / In The Night / Get It Right / Gotta Thing / VaporizeMy Dream / The Enemy

Label Review. 

Recorded 1982. CD contains 6 extra tracks not on the vinyl. 7a Records. Also available on Double Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Micky Dolenz travelled to Japan in early 1982 to give his first ever tour as a solo performer, towards the end of a massive Monkees resurgence that had sparked there in the fall of 1980. Dolenz’s Japanese concerts marked the closest thing he had ever done (up to that point) to a solo concert tour. While he had toured extensively in 1975 and 1976 with Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart, he had seldom set foot on the concert stage post-Monkees ‘on his own’.

Dolenz employed a Japanese group of musicians for his backup band, hiring an outfit called Marlboro. The tour provides a revealing look into what he himself, only fifteen years removed from the original Monkees phenomenon, may have considered the crème-de-la-crème of their catalogue. While the practice of playing deep cuts for diehard fans has become more common in recent years, at this early juncture Dolenz makes some captivating choices, including: 1969’s “Pillow Time”, written by his mother Janelle Scott and two killer Nesmith compositions from Headquarters, “Sunny Girlfriend” and “You Just May Be The One”.

Also included are the Davy Jones staple “I Wanna Be Free”, “Shades Of Gray” and what might be the first ever concert performance of “Zor And Zam”. The CD + DVD version includes five bonus tracks, including the first ever release of “I’m Your Man” from 1978s World Popular Song Contest in Tokyo, and the first ever reissue of “Tomorrow” from the West End play Bugsy Malone, which Dolenz directed.

Tracklisting: (Theme From) The Monkees / Sunny Girlfriend / Last Train To Clarksville / You Just May Be The One / I’m A Believer / Randy Scouse Git / Zor And Zam / Mary, Mary / I Wanna Be Free / Pillow Time / Shades Of Gray / No Time / Daydream Believer / (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone / Goin’ Down / Pleasant Valley Sunday / Beverly Hills / To Be Or Not To Be / I’m Your Man (Semi-final) / I’m Your Man (Final) / Tomorrow (from ‘Bugsy Malone’) / To Be Or Not To Be (Single Ver.) / Beverly Hills (Single Ver.)

Label Review. 

2020 album. Rock. Also available on CD and Deluxe Box Set. 

Our Overview. 

Grey Daze, Chester Bennington’s pre-Linkin Park band, have announced ‘Amends’, the Phoenix-born band’s eagerly-awaited album featuring newly recorded music with re-mastered vocals from the group’s long out-of-print, and largely undiscovered catalogue.

‘Amends’ is the origin story of one of modern rock’s most recognizable voices and also a full circle moment among friends. The album is the fulfillment of a planned Grey Daze reunion that Chester had announced prior to his untimely passing. The remaining band members - Dowdell (drums), Mace Beyers (bass) and Cristin Davis (guitar) - along with Talinda Bennington (Chester’s widow) and his parents, made it their mission to see the project through with assistance from Tom Whalley, the founder of Loma Vista Recordings and former Warner Bros. Record Chairman during Linkin Park’s tenure at the label.

Dowdell, Beyers and Davis selected the tracks from the band’s mid-‘90s, but largely unknown catalogue and re-recorded the music in 2019 to accompany Chester’s re-mastered vocals. Produced by Jay Baumgardner, several musicians leant their time and talent to the album, including Korn’s Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer, Paige Hamilton (Helmet), Chris Traynor (Bush, Helmet, Orange 9MM) and singer-songwriter, LP.

“We started Grey Daze in 1993, the band ended up breaking up in 1998,” explains Dowdell. “Fast forward to 2016, Chester’s on the road and says, ‘I think we should put Grey Daze back together.’ Obviously, what happened, happened and Chester was tragically taken from us. Of course, as soon as he passed, it was like ‘oh my God, I lost my friend, my friend’s wife is now a widow and my friend’s kids are now fatherless.’ There were all of these emotions. About six or seven months later, I started some conversations and said I really want to finish this album. We’re not going to accept mediocrity, we’re going to do our friend proud, we’re going to make Chester proud and we’re going to make sure this is something he would have been elated to put out.”

Tracklisting: Sickness / Sometimes / What’s In The Eye / The Syndrome / In Time / Just Like Heroine / B12 / Soul Song / Morei Sky / She Shines / Shouting Out

Label Review. 

2020 album. Also available on Deluxe CD & Vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

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

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

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

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