Trouble In Mind HHV Records 47 Items

The duality of "man" is a subject that has been explored in art for centuries, from writingsof the Bible to Descartes, all the way up to filmmakers like Lynch, Cronenberg, & Carpenter.Who is your "true self" & what do they want? With their sixth studio album "Wish Defense"(again for longtime home Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, longlook in the mirror to face themselves. The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik - who stepped away from the group justbefore their debut album "Negative Houses" was released in 2018 - replacing longtimebassist Alianna Kalaba brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band's morerecent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways - the roles havechanged since Van Herik's original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhousedrummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group's guitarplayer and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This rolereversal has helped the band's dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective thanbefore, now revisiting the trio's long-going collaboration with some distance and time. Case notes that the lyrics on "Wish Defense" revolve around doppelgängers or "doubles",tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations. Look nofurther than the album's title track; "Enter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wishdefense / Is it real? / You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / Apublic / Performance". Case lays out the entire album's theme in one stanza; Are your actions& emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that "other" person you putforward? Case says that ultimately the sentiment is "_don't let the bastards get you down,there's something beyond this moment, like hope - but not in the naive belief that ultimatelypeople are good". "Wish Defense"s artwork is also a subtle reference to "Negative Houses"'a...

Chicago trio FACS return in 2021 with 'Present Tense', their fourth album & perhaps their sharpest statement as a band, honing & refining their stark, minimal scrape & clatter and effortlessly navigating through post-rock, industrial, dub, and cacophonous experimental detonations.

After the one-two punch release of a head-turning limited 10-inch EP in 2013, followed by an equally mezmerizing 7-inch (the "Traumhaft" single, reissued by TiM in Feb of '14), Swiss duo Klaus Johann Grobe finally unveil their full-length offering, "Im Sinne der Zeit ". In their short existence, members Sevi Landolt (organ/...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

Partners, Sisters and Friends. Partner Look are a Melbourne-based band made up of German sisters Ambrin (Cool Sounds) and Anila Hasnain (Studio Magic), who are joined by their partners Dainis Lacey (Cool Sounds) and Lachlan Denton (The Ocean Party). The members also share a history of friendship and musical bonds."By The Book" - the band's debut - is a twelve-track charmer that swoons and smirks with a scrappy, yet sophisticated take on sparkling indie pop.Partner Look first got together to write the song 'Jana', a virtual wedding celebration for their family friend whose wedding they couldn't attend in person. Wanting to believe that the hit single sent ripples through the Rhineland's music scene, Partner Look continued writing songs and playing live shows across Melbourne. "By The Book" was recorded in a short window in May 2020, when Melbourne's lockdown was loosened for a few months, allowing five people at home. It was recorded in a studio built by Lachlan and Dainis in Dainis' and Ambrin's garage in Brunswick. Lachlan recorded all his drum-parts playing with the whole band in one go. The rest of the band re-recorded and edited their parts in the following three weeks. Dainis engineered it and Liam "Snowy" Haillwell mixed and mastered all tracks. The band is a vehicle for all members to share their own song ideas and collaboratively progress them in an open and encouraging space. However, misunderstandings often underpin the creative process, as the band name exemplifies. Partnerlook is a German expression referringto two people wearing similar or matching outfits. After years of using the pseudo-anglicism to compliment friends wearing matching outfits, who must have been too polite to ask, Dainis and Lachlan finally wondered: 'what do you mean with Partnerlook?!' Partner Look's music often questions place, belonging and the relationship to `home' in a connected and sometimes disconnected world, focusing on where we differ and where we, as humans, are inherently similar.

Oakland's Naked Roommate have been slinking around the Bay Area lighting up stages, shaking asses & confounding listeners since 2018, when the group - originally just the duo of real-life partners Andy Jordan & Amber Sermeno (both formerly of The World) - self-released a cassette of demos (2018's "Naked Roommate"). Members Michael "Mig" Zamora & Alejandra Alcala (Blues Lawyer) joined soon after to augment the sound & live band with their proper full-length album "Do The Duvet", co-released in September of 2020 via UK label Upset! The Rhythm & Trouble In Mind. 2024 finds the lineup expanded even further to incorporate the horn section of Geoff Saba & Jeanne Oss on tenor & alto saxophones as well as percussion & marimba as the band readies their sophomore effort, the dizzyingly ecstatic "Pass The Loofah" Recorded by members Andy Jordan & Mig Zamora from 2021-2023 as time & restrictions allowed, "Pass The Loofah" retains the wild energy of their debut, but leans into the rhythmic throbs perpetuated by forbears like Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Lizzy Mercier Descloux & ESG; the signature sound of UK's On-U Sound & NYC's 99 Records, but with a decidedly West Coast irreverence & a knack for absurdist exposition. Make no mistake, this is music designed to make your body Move & Naked Roommate won't stop until they 've made sure every ass is shook. The band freely incorporates elements of the dancier side of post-punk (think A Certain Ratio or Liquid Liquid) as well as disco, funk, & house music. However, the group's uplifting melodicism belies a deeper subtext, understanding the importance of the sense of community of dance music & the culture surrounding it and leaning into a Neo-socialist lyrical context. Shit is fucked, & we get thru it by helping one another & acknowledging & addressing the failures of disaster Capitalism & tech-bro hegemony (a state the band is all-too familiar with, living in The Bay Area) Take the first single "Bus"; a four-on-the-floor banger & salutary paeon to the ups & downs of the people's transport that throbs & pulses with a late-night sashay (and a bridge that launches the tune into the stratosphere). Elsewhere, "Fight Flight "s funky horn stabs and Sermeno's slinky vocals swoon over Numan-esque synth squiggles that are fortified & funkified toward the dance floor. "Broken Whisper " edges into new territor y for the group, adding a Caribbean flavor a'la Kid Creole or The Specials that punctuates the persistent & synthetic beats underneath. Meanwhile instrumental interludes like "Ducky & Viv", "g-y pt. 1" & "g-y pt. 2" oscillate into zones of sci-fi meets soap opera soundtracks, sounding not unlike the electronic experiments of UK industrial pioneers Chris & Cosey. Album closer "I Can't Be Found" might be the album's secret weapon; It 's swooning synth melody & processed vocals recall early Daft Punk or Mgmt by way of Derrick Carter & The Au Pairs. It 's a beautiful song; perfect for the late night (or early morning) car ride home from the club. "Pass The Loofah" is released worldwide on October 25th, 2024 via Trouble In Mind Records digitally via most DSPs & on black vinyl & limited "disco ball " silver vinyl.

The current lineup of New Haven's long running Mountain Movers (guitarist/vocalist DanGreene, bassist Rick Omonte, guitarist Kr yssi Battalene, & drummer Ross Menze) have beenplaying together for over a decade now, making their recorded debut on a slew of singlesreleased from 2011-2013, but it wasn't until 2015's "Death Magic" (released on New Havenlabel Safety Meeting) that the potential of that iteration of the group became clear;Mountain Movers are a force of nature. The camaraderie & sensitivity to each others playinghas only grown over time, cr ystallizing on the group's trio of albums for Trouble In Mind; 2017'seponymous "Mountain Movers" served as a reintroduction of the group to a larger audience,while 2018's "Pink Skies" raged like a group confident in its strengths, and 2020's prescient"World What World" - written & recorded before the world shut down - slightly shifted focusaway from the jams & back toward the weight of guitarist/songwriter Dan Greene's poetic talesof magical realism. The band's ninth album "Walking After Dark" finds a happy medium betweenboth aspects of the band's strengths; Greene's lyrical compositions and the group's long-formimprovised jams.To those that are tuned in, that feeling of communion is evident in the Movers' playing. Themembers swap & cycle effortlessly through instruments without missing a beat, utilizing thedowntime of lockdown to write & record every jam in their practice space. Those piles oftapes would eventually get edited & sequenced into "Walking After Dark", a tour-de-forcedouble-album that balances fried, stony brilliance with outré excursions of experimentalserenity.Consider the opening track "Bodega On My Mind" that ambles in like a road-worn traveller,its lysergic folk strums peppered with acidic lead lines from Battalene's Telecaster, eventuallygiving way to "The Sun Shines On The Moon, where the group's sizzling guitars are buoyed byOmonte's pillowy bass & Menze's percussion. From there on out, tracks like...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

NIGHTSHIFT : a multi-directional audio ensemble from Glasgow formed in Summer 2019. Currently featuring artist Eothen Stearn, also of 2 Ply & Difficult, Chris White of Spinning Coin, Andrew Doig aka Robert Sotelo and of Order of the Toad and Georgia Harris of Slippy & Pelvis. They have been described as hypnotic punk and certainly employ repetition in their sound at times, as well as embracing a variety of other musical stylings be they hyper rhythmic, noise based, pop inclined or emotive. There is no preconceived idea to the band's identity. The band favours democracy and balance. Primarily dealing in humanist themes there is an optimistic, utopian slant to Nightshift's group persona. Never afraid to broach the absurdist strains of life that surrounds them, they revel in everyday confusion and find respite in the small wonders of the natural universe and beyond.Their recent 2021 album "Zoë" was released on Trouble in Mind from Chicago, the follow-up to a self-released cassette in 2019. "Made Of The Earth" represents the last document of the band's initial incarnation, with odds & sods as well as unreleased tracks combining to form a surprisingly cohesive whole. Surely a testament to the band's vision & execution.

London group The Tubs' full-length debut album entitled "Dead Meat". The band were formed in 2018 from the ashes of beloved UK post-punk band Joanna Gruesome by former members Owen 'O' Williams and George 'GN' Nicholls. By incorporating elements of post-punk, traditional British folk, and guitar jangle seasoned by nonchalant Cleaners From Venus-influenced pop hooks and contemporary antipodean indie bands (Twerps, Goon Sax, et al)."Dead Meat" is resplendent in hi-fidelity strum & thrum, incorporating fleeting elements of post-punk and indie jangle, but the group's penchant for trad British folk & Canterbury folk-rock takes a noticeable, caffeinated step forward. Echoes of Fairport Convention's decidedly English chime cross swords with singer Owen Williams' lyrics directing Bryan Ferry's "thinking man's libertine" persona into a more dolorous outlook. Many songs (like "Round The Bend" and "Duped") soar with an urgent strum under Williams' acerbic lyrics, recalling a younger fiery Richard Thompson. They languish in an aching, bitter resignation (of both the situations described & the protagonist's place in it), particularly near the album's second half. Others like the previously released "I Don't Know How It Works", "Two Person Love" and "Illusion" (re-presented...

The 6th album from the Ohio band finds them adding a member and polishing the jagged edges off their lo-fi pop anthems ever so slightly, letting the album's twelve tracks dance and shimmer like sun glinting off the waters of the Scioto river, perfectly capturing the undeniably midwestern attitude of melancholic joy. For fans of: Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Car Seat Headrest, The Men, Mike Krol, The Replacements, The Stevens.

"A Ragged Ghost" is the eighth full-length album from electronic producer Jonas Reinhardt. Following albums on Kranky, Not Not Fun, Constellation Tatsu, and more, his debut release for Trouble In Mind brings together 11 new pieces that explore themes of life & death, netherworlds, and the liminal spaces in between. Taken together as a single narrative, the album offers a stirring exploration of mortality and immortality in what Reinhardt describes as 'a dance of religious syncretism, navigating spaces between the living and the dead'."A Ragged Ghost" finds him synthesizing influences organically from familiar teutonic strains to the intense austerity of early 21st century electronic pioneers such as Biosphere and Susumu Yokota. A whisper of the Italo-disco-esque romps of Jonas' 2012's "Foam Fangs" EP & 2013's "Mask of The Maker" LP merge with his more kosmische leanings into a sinister, slightly funky, but also studious suite that at times feels like a lost sound library record from the KPM archives. Openers "Ape & The Universal Axis" and "In Lotto Commodore" decidedly sound like a selection from a lost film score while others like the bubbling "Sly Tomb" recall the works of Roedelius or Vangelis' serene soundscapes. Meanwhile, fans of the electro-ambience of Manuel Göttsching's strobe-light, proto-house (on his seminal "E2-E4") or the pulsing insistence of John Carpenter's visceral non-horror scores (i.e. "Escape From New York" or "Assault on Precinct 13") will find a lot to love about songs like "Tumb Tumb" and "Wretched Orchestra of Armistice".

Joys Union Group is a new Texas group that aims to blur the lines between new age, jazz and "New Weird America"-esque psychedelia and Trouble In Mind is honored to unveil "Boredom Euphoria", their stunning debut album. The group is led by Neil Lord (Future Museums) alongside Michael C. Sharp (Uniform, Sungod, Impalers), Kristine Reaume (Sungod) and Dailey Toliver (Molly Burch). The album was mixed by Ben Greenberg & mastered by Andrew Weathers.While the album still skirts the boundaries of the ambient & kosmiche zones Lord is known for is his solo Future Museums project, Joys Union Group fully feels like an organic, living entity, rather than a sequence of electronic signals; heady, deep, jammy & blissful. Leading off with the serene "Cloud Paint", the album arrives like a spring sunrise, as shafts of light peek through the treeline, leading into the title track "Boredom Euphoria", with its percussive swing driving under guitar & key splashes & embellished by a shimmering, cascading flute melody. "Shimmering Surface" & "Portrero" saunter forward next, both exuding the full weight of the Texas sun over their acoustic melancholy, feeling like an addendum to Bruce Langhorne's mythic "Hired Hand" soundtrack. "Fragile Chrysalis" kicks off side two, with its drums swells & horn punctuations sounding like Electric Miles jamming with Bardo Pond. "Laughter In the Sky" is a mellower affair, with the flute returning to season the song's lilting melody. "Fig" has echoes of the more studious outings from the post-rock era, while closer "Wiser" ambles home pleasantly atop a buzzing electric guitar lick that feels like the natural throughline from Fripp's guitar work with Eno.

Trouble In Mind Is Superemely Honored To Release The Tenth Anniversary Reissue Of Beijing Trio Offset: Spectacles Lonefull-Length Album; A Forward-Thinking, Captivating And Uncompromising Missive Meant To Subvert R'n'r Traditions; Drummerless, Lo-Fi, With Surrealist Lyrics Meant To Confound & Unnerve. The Band Was A Crucial Part Of The Rose Mansion Analog Label (Including Bands Soviet Pop, Hot & Cold, And Golden Driver) & The Scene That Spawned Around It. Since The Band'sdissolution, Guitarist Tom Ng Has Formed The (Even More) Minimalist Duo Gong Gong Gong (Wharf Cat Records) Andcontinues To Hone The "Phantom Rhythm" With Each Passing Release. The Offset: Spectacles Debut Album Is Presented Again In Glorious Black Vinyl, With Remastered Audio By Mikey Young,And Includes A New Insert With English Translations Of The Lyrics By Vince Li.

Limited "Dagger Danger" Clear Vinyl With Wisps Of Red "Blood Splatter" Mixed In.Pamplona, Spain's Melenas 2017 Debut Album Came Like A Shot In The Dark! A Breath Of Fresh Air Upon Its Release In Spain, The Album Went On To Sell Through Two Pressings, With Copies Barely Making Outside Of Europe (Much Less Their Home Country Of Spain). Trouble In Mind Is Honored To Be Reissuing Melenas' Eponymous Debut Album For A Fresh New Audience Wowed By The Group's 2020 Sophomore Effort "Dias Raros". Kicking Off With The Buzzing Bassline Of "Cartel De Neón", Melenas Debut Aimsstraight For The Indie Rock Pleasure Centers; Guitars Jangle, Synths Buzz & Drums Pound, Hitting The Listener Like A Ray Of Sunshine Piercing The Clouds. The Quartet Has A Knack For Catchy Tunes That Straddle The Line Between Joyous Rapture Andpoignant Melancholy Without Ever Seeming Rote Or Cliché, Be It Either In A Rousing Chorus Or A Hummable Melody (See The Melancholic "Gira" Or The Yearning "Una Tras Otra"). Tunes Like "Tú Me Haces Lo Mismo" Or The Boisterous "Sales" Inject Ashot Of Adrenalin Into Their Pop Narcotics, It's Garagey Organ Soaking The Song In Sound, While Others Like Side Two's "¿Dónde Estás?" Skip Along Like A Lost Go-Betweens Track & Closing Tune "Una Voz" Rolls In Like The Triumphant Closing Credits Toa Lost Indie Film, Showcasing The Group's Transcendant Vocal Harmonies. Melenas' Debut Album Showcases A Band Fully-Formed From Note One; United In Vision & Execution, "Melenas" Is A Stirring And Vital Debut From A Group Just Getting Started. Expect More From Melenas In 2022, But For Now Revel In The Joythat Is Their Introduction To The World!

Transcontinental, Experimental Duo Smoke Bellow Have Been At It Since 2012, Relocating From Australia To Baltimore, Md & Back Again And Then Back Again (Now Firmly Settled In Baltimore). The Duo Released The "Blooming/Middling" Lp In 2014, Followed By "Isolation 3000" In 2018 (Both On Baltimore Label Ehse Records) After A Line-Up Shuffle, They Eventually Recruited One Of Their Favorite Drummers And Dear Friend, Emmanuel Nicolaidis (Thank You, Oh Hang). Which Found The Duo Refining Of Their Sound Into A Dizzyingly Attractive Mixture Of Kosmiche Serenity, Minimalist Composition, Test-Card Psychedelia, And Highlife Guitar. With "Open For Business" The Three Members Set Out To Create A Set Of Songs More Immediate And Bare Than Previous Outings. The Album Title Itself Is A Cheeky Reference To Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's Less Than Inspired Motto "We're Open For Business". Half Of The Songs Were Written In A Room Together And The Second Half Via Email (For Obvious Reasons). At The Time They Were Listening To A Lot Of Post Punk And Were Struck With The Partnership Of Drums And Bass As Propulsive Instruments. The Trio Started Writing Songs Around That Idea - With The Rhythm As A Brace To Hang Their Decorations.Sonically, Smoke Bellow Are Inspired By Disparate Sources. The Heyday Of Compass Point Studios' Famed Rhythm Section Of Sly And Robbie Sustained Them For Months. Others Included Good Old Vu, Esg, Guitar Hero Zani Diabate, The Raincoats (Especially Their Under-Appreciated Second Album, Odyshape), The Frenetic Sound Collisions Of The Flying Lizards, The Ever Warm Blanket Of Yo La Tengo, The Evolving Repetition Of Stereolab, The Understated Genius Of Asa Osborne, As Well As Philip Glass And Steve Reich. The David Byrne/ Robert Wilson "Knee Plays" Reminded Them Of The Joy Of The Spoken Word Set To Music. Lyrically,Best & Mchugh Drew From Life In Baltimore, From Isolation (Again), Memories Of Life In Melbourne, Their Friends And Each Other. "We Wanted To Talk About Resilience And Resistance." Says Best. Record...

Guardian Singles hail from Auckland, New Zealand, home to (among many things) storied label Flying Nun and just about every great indie band of the last century. After seeing the band's livestream from Auckland for Gonerfest 17 in fall of 2020, Trouble In Mind is honored to welcome the band to the roster and reissue their excellent 2020 self-titled album outside of New Zealand for the first time. Formed in 2015, by Thom Burton on guitar (SoccerPractise, Moppy)and Fiona Campbell on drums (Vivian Girls, Coolies), the band hit the ground running, supporting touring bands in New Zealand like Metz, slots on the Chronophonium festival and tours in Australia. The band had recorded what would become their debut album in early 2018, simply as Campbell puts it "We just wanted good versions of the songs in our live set we were playing at the time." The addition of Yolanda Fagan on bass (Na Noise, Echo Ohs) and Durham Fenwick on lead guitar (Green Grove) solidified the current lineup in late-2018, and Auckland label Moral Support released it in a micro-edition of 150 copies in the spring of 2020. The debut album packs a wallop; driving guitar lines dance across the rhythm sections propulsive throb hearkening back to greats like Mission of Burma, The Wipers and The Sound. Opener "Tea Lights Exploding" does just that, with an instantly memorable hook and sticky guitar line written as Burton explains as "a sort of "Fuck you" to a certain kind of pervasive rape culture and culturally lobotomized idea of masculinity that I was seeing too much of ", followed by the moody "Being Alone". "Roll Undead" is next, with its persistent shuffle springing forth over a synth-siren before breaking open into an anthemic howl of a chorus. Side one closes with the crunchy stutter-step of "Never Gonna See The RainAgain". Side two doesn't let up, with aptly-titled opener "Can't Stop Moving"s ragged guitar sting hanging in the air before the band launches in with Campbell's drums skipping underneath like an arrhythmic heartbeat. Their vital cover of The Sound's "Heartbeat" (from 1980's "Jeopardy") is next, injecting a nouveau sense of modern urgency into Adrian Borland's post-punk rager. "Gold Plated Cars"s razor-wire sway comes next, with Burton & Fenwick's guitar squall waltzing over a robust bassline. Album closer "Midnight Swim" is the album's moody anthem, ratcheting up tension the old-fashioned way balancing jangle and drone with one guitar 's persistent strum and the other 's strategic punches, all while the rhythm section holds down a steady forward motion. "Guardian Singles" is a vital document of a band breaking out of the chrysalis near-fully formed; melodic, urgent and on the verge of greatness. Look for more from the band soon as they head into the studio in 2021 to record the follow-up.

Riyl: Hawkwind, Suicide, King Crimson, Stooges, Contortions, Sympathy Nervous.Writhing Squares - The Philadelphia Duo Of Kevin Nickles (Sax, Flute, Synth) & Daniel Provenzano (Bass, Vocals) - Have Been Refining The Nuts & Bolts Of Their Sound Over Their Previous Two Albums. Their Latest (And Second For Trouble In Mind), "Chart For The Solution" Is A Double Album Chock Full What Makes Them Tick; Heady, Progressive, Psychedelic Space-Rock-Cum-Minimal Synth Slop, Punctuated By Mackay/Chance-Style Blasts Of Brass & Woodwinds That Definitely Scratch An Itch. Over The Course Of "Chart For The Solution"S Four Sides, Nickles & Provenzano Utilize The Extendedformat To Stretch Out & Settle Into A Groove All Their Own. From The Relentless Synth Pulse Of Opener "Rogue Moon", Thru The Aggro-Throb Of "Geisterwaltz" & Four-On-The-Floor Scree Of "Ganymede", The Squares Have No Mercy For Your Weary Ears. After A Brief, (Slightly) Mellow Respite Thru Three Tunes ("The Abyss Is Never Brighter"/"A Chorus Of Electrons"/"The Library"), The Band Ratchets Up The Intensity With The Cacophonous Clatter Of "Nfu" (Featuring Philly Legend "Harmonica" Dan Balcer Ripping Thru Runs On His Harp) Leading Right Into The Album's Centerpiece; All Of Side Three's"The Pillar", A Near-Nineteen Minute Epic Suite That Launches The Listener Straight Into The Maw Of A Black Hole & Thru The Other Side. Side Four Closes Out "Chart For The Solution" Starting With The Slinky Stomp Of "North Side Of The Sky" Into "Resurrect Dead On Planet Whatever"S Unsettling, Cosmic-Funeral Dirge. Fittingly, "Epilogue" Closes Out The Album, With Nickles' Sax Dive Bombing Around Provenzano's Bass Throb Like An Alien Interpretation Of "Funhouse"S Howling Anarchy,Augmented By Live Drums By John Schoemaker & Organ By Alex Ward. Recorded By The Band Themselves & Utilizing Recordings Made From 2015 All The Way Thru Earlier This Year, "Chart For The Solution" Really Is A Zone, & The Perfect Auditory Cleanser To Scrub Away The Stain Of The Previous Year.

The band that became Nightshift formed in 2019 in the ecosystem of Glasgow's current indie scene. The city's fertile & creative group of musicians have been committed to pushing the boundaries of and blurring the lines between DIY, punk, experimentalism and indie pop for decades now; a home to bands like Shopping, Vital Idles, Current Affairs, Still House Plants, and Happy Meals as well as forebears like Orange Juice, Teenage Fanclub and Yummy Fur. Nightshift slot right in with all mentioned, featuring members from current indie stalwarts Spinning Coin, 2 Ply and Robert Sotelo. Initially formed by guitarist David Campbell and bassist Andrew Doig as a "No Wave/No New York/ early Sonic Youth/This Heat-esque" group, the addition of Eothen Stern (keyboards/vocals) and Chris White (drums) instantaneously transformed their approach (guitarist/vocalist/clarinetist Georgia Harris joined as the band was writing "Zöe"). The band self-released a full-length tape on Cusp Recordings in early 2020, laying the foundation of their sound; hypnotic, melodic, understated indie post-punk with hooks that stick around long after you've heard them. "Zöe" is the band's newest effort, and first for Trouble In Mind. Unlike the band's previous album, the songs on "Zöe" weren't conceived live in the band's practice space, but rather pieced together and recorded remotely during quarantine lockdown, with each member composing or improvising their parts in homes/home studios, layering ideas over loops someone made and passing it on. The isolation actually allowed for an openness and creativity to flow and many of the songs took on radically different forms from when they were originally envisioned. Vocalist & primary lyricist Eothen Stern says "The process of writing these songs separately during lockdown was a kind of exquisite corpse - I liked this gesticulation of reaching out to one another and responding. Building up the next layer and passing it on." Stern says "poetic restraints" to writing & Eno's Oblique Strategies concepts were on their mind when composing the words to the songs on "Zöe" and lists the influence of author Rosi Bradiotti's book "The Posthuman". "Zöe" means "live drive", derived from the word conatus. Bradiotti defines conatus as "an effort or striving, endeavour, impulse, inclination, tendency, undertaking, serving is an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself." and Stern views it as "...a kind of feminist re-claiming of communal public, anti- privatisation, looking to strive for social and environmental justice. Zöe kind of became a character of striving for me when writing.". "Zöe" kicks off with "Piece Together", a hypnotic song anchored by the band's chanted vocals and serpentine guitar licks. "Spraypaint the Bridge" showcases Harris' clarinet in an unexpected & delightful melodic shift during the song's anti-chorus. Elsewhere tunes like the swooning "Infinity Winner" and "Outta Space"s minimalist, slinky rhythm swirl in a late-night vibe, while "Make Kin" ruminates on "Looking to kinship as a way of engaging with entangled environmental and reproductive issues... how a band is a bond" and lurches forward with kinetic guitar strangling and staccato rhythmic percussion from White and Doig. "Power Cut" is the album's centerpiece, kicking off side two and lures the listener into its world over it's 7-minute runtime. Lulling them into involuntary movement with its waves of melodic harmonies, synth drones and metronomic pulse, until they all come crashing down in the song's dissonant midsection. The band acknowledges the whiffs of nostalgia prevalent in "Zöe"s songs (the title track in particular), and the nature of writing and recording the album is soaked in the self-work, reflection and reevaluations involved not only personally but creatively in each member's lives. Consequently, the album becomes a collection of sketches of hope, growth, awareness of the power of the world and the power of self, kith, kinship, friendship, resistance, and possibility.

Nebraska Songwriter David Nance Returns To Trouble In Mind With His Fifth (Proper) Studio Album "Staunch Honey", His Follow-Up To His Acclaimed 2018 Album "Peaced And Slightly Pulverized". Returning To The Home-Recorded Magic Of His Early Albums, "Staunch Honey" Was Recorded Entirely To Tape By Nance Himself At His Omaha Home With Scattered Assistance From His Longtime Live Bandmates Jim Schroeder & Kevin Donohue."Staunch Honey" Is The Culmination Of Two Years Of Hard Work - Nance Worked And Reworked The Album Three Times Over, Recording & Rerecording Songs Until They Sounded Just So - A Stunning Batch Of Sonic Manna That Hums With Feeling And Mood; Expertly Crafted, But Sounding Simultaneously Off-The-Cuff. Nance Dials Back The Squalling Feedback & Raging Guitars Found On "Peaced..." Into Something A Bit Mellower, Like The Soundtrack To A Late-Night Drive Or Late Night Hangs. Rusted & Dusted With Mid-Fi, Stoney Brilliance. "The Merchandise" Kicks Off The Album, Loping Into Earshot With An Off-Kilter Countrified Gait, Not Unlike A Front Porch Jam Session. This Vibe Permeates The Album, Other Tunes Like "Save Me Some Tears", "Gentle Traitor" & "When The Covers Come Off" Burn With Casual Intensity, While Rockers Like "My Love, The Dark And I" And "Sell It All Night" Sizzle With A Six-String Fury. "Black Mustang" - The Penultimate Number - Is A Real Standout, With A Subtle Banjo Plucking In The Background & A Palpable Yearning And Melancholy. Nance's True Gift As A Songwriter Lies In His Ability To Craft Poetry And Personas That Feel "Lived-In". There's A World-Weariness To His Lyrical And Musical Approach, But Rooted In Joy, Love And Above All; Passion. Many Of The Tunes On "Staunch Honey" Feel Like Classics, But That's Because In Nance's Hands - They Are. Not Content To Let The Album Go By Without The Rumble Of Guitar, "If The Truth Ever Shows Up" Closes Out The Album. It's An Instrumental Jam With Nance Wrangling And Riffing On A Gut-Punching Guitar Solo For 6-Plus Minutes That Feels Very Much Like The End...

After introducing themselves to the world with 2016's "BorrowedFloors" (Water Wing) and throwing down the gauntlet with 2018's"Mating Surfaces" on Kill Rock Stars, Lithics make the jump toTrouble In Mind for "Tower of Age". "Tower of Age" bristles with invention, wedging lyrical Dadaism into right angles of rhythmic minimalism. This is music in ellipses. A circular communication and a fusion of decades worth of musical insight into a singular refraction of thought & sound. Guitars plunk and scratch, and rhythms pulse and syncopate tightly wound around an imagist's philosophy to "use absolutely no word thatdoes not contribute to the presentation." The band's austereapproach to composition and wordplay elevates them aboveand beyond bands seeking similar sounds; it's not that they useless; it's HOW they use less.

New York quartet Sunwatchers drew a line in the sand with their last album "II", a powerful statement of the band's unique brand of spiritual, free-rock, gonzo attitude and a progressive socio-political worldview. "Illegal Moves" is their second album for Trouble In Mind. "Illegal Moves" is the band's most potent blend yet; a heady potion of free-jazz, psychedelia, punk & noise rock that is both tender and ferocious; the perfect soundtrack to smash capitalism and fix our broken system thru sonic catharsis and revolution. Songs like "Everybody Play" and "Beautiful Crystals" insinuate themselves into your brain with the rubbery synchronicity of bassist Peter Kerlin and drummer Jason Robira. Elsewhere "New Dad Blues" and "Greeneyed Pigmen (Get The Blade)" sting with a righteous fury beyond the piercing scree of guitarist Jim McHugh's electric phin or Jeff Tobias' saxophone skronks, and the band's cover of Alice Coltrane's "Ptah, the El Daoud" transforms her meditative elegy into a fiery protest march. The songs crackle with an energy informed by passionate disgust of the status quo realized on the album cover's illustration of the Kool-Aid Man battling the personifications of evil from across the world. A psychedelicized avatar for the general wrath and action that they believe in.RIYL: Guerilla Toss, Albert Ayler, Horse Lords, Sun City Girls, John Zorn. NYC quartet's third album, former mbrs of NYMPH, Dark Meat, Arthur Doyle's New Quiest Screamers

Auckland, New Zealand post-punk group Guardian Singles return to Trouble In Mind for their follow-up to 2021's debut with "Feed Me To The Doves", a ten-track socio-political burner addressing our collective spiritual chaos that pulls influence from across the history of punk & permeates it into something decidedly Aotearoan & uniquely their own in ways that are both personal & universal. "Feed Me To The Doves" is the first album to feature the current, long-standing lineup of Thom Burton (guitar, vocals), Fiona Campbell (drums), Yolanda Fagan (bass), and Durham Fenwick (lead guitar). The band has been playing live together now for a few years & it shows. The songs herein vary from the deeply personal, to sketches or postcards, as Burton says "_scribbled while watching the dregs of a delirious culture war play out through broken smartphones and praline vape clouds." Expertly recorded at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland by engineer Steven Marr, who Burton says had a "great sense of being able to keep the urgency of the songs while adding lushness and keeping things sounding like they're about to break at any second". Marr helped turn the album's scrappy beginnings into something more cohesive and beautiful.

Headroom first took flight in 2016 as the solo outlet for New Haven musician Kryssi Battalene, nAce of regarded noise project Colorguard & guitarist for psychedelic voyagers, Mountain Movers. "Head In The Clouds" showcases her molten-lava guitar shredding alongside an all-star cast from the New Haven underground. Part Twisted Village / PSF Records-influenced white noise maelstrom, part nuanced, beautiful six-stringed draperies, "Head In the Clouds" is an album meant to get lost in. Psychedelic, experimental and improvisational Indie Rock for fans of Bardo Pond and Heron Oblivion.

Omni - the band, not the hotel - are from the former home of the Braves: Atlanta. Playing lo-fi pop that channels the spectre of the late `70s and early `80s, Omni brings you back to an era where any sane person was reeling from the unfulfilled promise of the Space Age and Age of Aquarius bleeding into the looming threat of "Morning in America." Omni distills the buzz and grit that snakes through the best of Television, Devo, and Pylon into surprisingly danceable, hook-laden slabs of raw, angular, sonic bliss. It's still the summer of '78, and pushing the roots of rock & roll to its limits remains in vogue. "Deluxe" serves as a fresh reminder that rock music can work outside of blues rooted, formulaic progressions without playing it safe behind a wall of effects. Arty enough to impress record enthusiasts, yet melodically attractive enough to transcend to those who've never asked: "'Sister Midnight' or `Red Money'?"

The duality of "man" is a subject that has been explored in art for centuries, from writingsof the Bible to Descartes, all the way up to filmmakers like Lynch, Cronenberg, & Carpenter.Who is your "true self" & what do they want? With their sixth studio album "Wish Defense"(again for longtime home Trouble In Mind Records), Chicago trio FACS take a good, longlook in the mirror to face themselves. The return of original member Jonathan Van Herik - who stepped away from the group justbefore their debut album "Negative Houses" was released in 2018 - replacing longtimebassist Alianna Kalaba brings renewed vigor & a marked angularity from the band's morerecent output. The songs still hit hard, but the approach is sideways - the roles havechanged since Van Herik's original tenure & his previous time with Case & powerhousedrummer Noah Leger in Disappears; now on bass, Van Herik was originally the group's guitarplayer and features on the debut, while current guitarist Brian Case played bass. This rolereversal has helped the band's dynamic, offering up a different musical perspective thanbefore, now revisiting the trio's long-going collaboration with some distance and time. Case notes that the lyrics on "Wish Defense" revolve around doppelgängers or "doubles",tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations. Look nofurther than the album's title track; "Enter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wishdefense / Is it real? / You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / Apublic / Performance". Case lays out the entire album's theme in one stanza; Are your actions& emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that "other" person you putforward? Case says that ultimately the sentiment is "_don't let the bastards get you down,there's something beyond this moment, like hope - but not in the naive belief that ultimatelypeople are good". "Wish Defense"s artwork is also a subtle reference to "Negative Houses"'a...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

Oakland's Naked Roommate have been slinking around the Bay Area lighting up stages, shaking asses & confounding listeners since 2018, when the group - originally just the duo of real-life partners Andy Jordan & Amber Sermeno (both formerly of The World) - self-released a cassette of demos (2018's "Naked Roommate"). Members Michael "Mig" Zamora & Alejandra Alcala (Blues Lawyer) joined soon after to augment the sound & live band with their proper full-length album "Do The Duvet", co-released in September of 2020 via UK label Upset! The Rhythm & Trouble In Mind. 2024 finds the lineup expanded even further to incorporate the horn section of Geoff Saba & Jeanne Oss on tenor & alto saxophones as well as percussion & marimba as the band readies their sophomore effort, the dizzyingly ecstatic "Pass The Loofah" Recorded by members Andy Jordan & Mig Zamora from 2021-2023 as time & restrictions allowed, "Pass The Loofah" retains the wild energy of their debut, but leans into the rhythmic throbs perpetuated by forbears like Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Lizzy Mercier Descloux & ESG; the signature sound of UK's On-U Sound & NYC's 99 Records, but with a decidedly West Coast irreverence & a knack for absurdist exposition. Make no mistake, this is music designed to make your body Move & Naked Roommate won't stop until they 've made sure every ass is shook. The band freely incorporates elements of the dancier side of post-punk (think A Certain Ratio or Liquid Liquid) as well as disco, funk, & house music. However, the group's uplifting melodicism belies a deeper subtext, understanding the importance of the sense of community of dance music & the culture surrounding it and leaning into a Neo-socialist lyrical context. Shit is fucked, & we get thru it by helping one another & acknowledging & addressing the failures of disaster Capitalism & tech-bro hegemony (a state the band is all-too familiar with, living in The Bay Area) Take the first single "Bus"; a four-on-the-floor banger & salutary paeon to the ups & downs of the people's transport that throbs & pulses with a late-night sashay (and a bridge that launches the tune into the stratosphere). Elsewhere, "Fight Flight "s funky horn stabs and Sermeno's slinky vocals swoon over Numan-esque synth squiggles that are fortified & funkified toward the dance floor. "Broken Whisper " edges into new territor y for the group, adding a Caribbean flavor a'la Kid Creole or The Specials that punctuates the persistent & synthetic beats underneath. Meanwhile instrumental interludes like "Ducky & Viv", "g-y pt. 1" & "g-y pt. 2" oscillate into zones of sci-fi meets soap opera soundtracks, sounding not unlike the electronic experiments of UK industrial pioneers Chris & Cosey. Album closer "I Can't Be Found" might be the album's secret weapon; It 's swooning synth melody & processed vocals recall early Daft Punk or Mgmt by way of Derrick Carter & The Au Pairs. It 's a beautiful song; perfect for the late night (or early morning) car ride home from the club. "Pass The Loofah" is released worldwide on October 25th, 2024 via Trouble In Mind Records digitally via most DSPs & on black vinyl & limited "disco ball " silver vinyl.

Sometimes the best bands are just out in the world - waiting for you to discover them. Mirrorism formed nary a year ago in Ferrara, Italy & posted up some songs from their self-released cassette onto a message board late last year. The band's TiM debut snags two tunes from that blast of hot air & slaps 'em onto wax - where they belong! In their own words, Mirrorism are: "a philosophical, artistic and political movement based on chaos, disunity, multiple personality disorder and the refusal to make sense of any kind of artistic output." One gets a very real sense of the chaos lurking beneath these jagged stabs of post-punk fury - "Night Flight" kicks of the A-side with a rhythmic ticking of the drums, perhaps a warning of the musical time bomb about to explode thru your speakers! Short & sweet - it's over before it even began. "Exit The Loop" closes out the single with a ragged cacophany of garage scree & trebly guitar sirens! An exciting debut from this promising new band! The first edition of this single is pressed on randomly mixedvinyl & includes a download code!

Andrew Anderson is a prolific guy, having recorded two albums of dumb-punk ferocity with his band, Hipshakes & released three albums & a number of singles under his solo project moniker, "Proto Idiot". Proto Idiot's previous output has had one foot firmly planted in the Hipshakes school of frenzied, nervousgaragepunk intensity, & the other in a rickety, Kinks-ian,English-countryside gallop. His debut for TiM however is a step in a new direction, delivering smart & urgent pop tunes having more in common with the DIY smarts of bands like Television Personalities, Wire & The Soft Boys than The Oblivians or The Gories. "You're Wrong" yearns with the strummy confections of a lost classic & it's earworm melody will have a hard timegetting unstuck from your brain! "You Can't Hide" burns with the loping maudlin of guitars & careens into a head-bopper of sugary pop-perfection. The first edition of this single is pressed on randomly-mixed vinyl & includes a download code!RIYL: Wire, The Soft Boys, TVP, Tyvek, Hipshakes

Colored vinyl. Copy n° 321 / 500

Colored vinyl. Copy n° 396/500

Cover with hype sticker

In many ways, the music of Writhing Squares could have only originated in Philadelphia; the cityitself a microcosm of creatives, go-getters, freaks & weirdos that have coalesced into a supportive& boundary-pushing crew. Former Purling Hiss bassist Daniel Provenzano & Ecstatic Vision sax-player& vocalist Kevin Nickles' first musical missive was shot forth in 2013 (the self-released CDR "Live InSpace") & various singles, split releases, albums (and a double-album) later we arrive at the duo'sfourth full-length "Mythology", their third for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records."Mythology" picks up the pieces left shattered by their previous double-album "Chart For TheSolution" and reconnects the broken shards together like Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese techniquefor mending broken ceramics, infusing the breaks with powdered gold. The Squares themselves arelike mad-scientists, taking the ruined detritus populating junk shops & surplus outlets & constructingtheir own sonic laboratories in their New Jersey basements to record, mix & tweak "Mythology"seight tracks. Their new location allowed the band to regroup, reassess & reconstruct their soundfrom the ground up, shearing away the cosmic excess of 2021's "Chart For The Solution" to asharper point.Tracks like `Barbarians' & `LEM' are classic Squares; brutal, aggressive, unwavering assault ofMotorhead/Stooges-inflected sci-fi punk scree, while others like `Chromatophage's mutant funk &`Cerberus's techno-slink owe a serious debt to electric-era Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock & showthat the group has more to offer than bludgeoning you with sonic force. Provenzano's bass &electronics are like a tank rolling across the terrain - a gnarly construct of Hawkwind-ian headiness& `Vincebus Eruptum's snarl - uncaring of what gets in the way. Nickles' brass vacillates betweenStooges-influenced sleaze, jazzy no-wave stabs, & cacophonous sonic storms, strafing the listenerinto oblivion. The duo are joined on "Mythology" by drummer John Scho...

In many ways, the music of Writhing Squares could have only originated in Philadelphia; the cityitself a microcosm of creatives, go-getters, freaks & weirdos that have coalesced into a supportive& boundary-pushing crew. Former Purling Hiss bassist Daniel Provenzano & Ecstatic Vision sax-player& vocalist Kevin Nickles' first musical missive was shot forth in 2013 (the self-released CDR "Live InSpace") & various singles, split releases, albums (and a double-album) later we arrive at the duo'sfourth full-length "Mythology", their third for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records."Mythology" picks up the pieces left shattered by their previous double-album "Chart For TheSolution" and reconnects the broken shards together like Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese techniquefor mending broken ceramics, infusing the breaks with powdered gold. The Squares themselves arelike mad-scientists, taking the ruined detritus populating junk shops & surplus outlets & constructingtheir own sonic laboratories in their New Jersey basements to record, mix & tweak "Mythology"seight tracks. Their new location allowed the band to regroup, reassess & reconstruct their soundfrom the ground up, shearing away the cosmic excess of 2021's "Chart For The Solution" to asharper point.Tracks like `Barbarians' & `LEM' are classic Squares; brutal, aggressive, unwavering assault ofMotorhead/Stooges-inflected sci-fi punk scree, while others like `Chromatophage's mutant funk &`Cerberus's techno-slink owe a serious debt to electric-era Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock & showthat the group has more to offer than bludgeoning you with sonic force. Provenzano's bass &electronics are like a tank rolling across the terrain - a gnarly construct of Hawkwind-ian headiness& `Vincebus Eruptum's snarl - uncaring of what gets in the way. Nickles' brass vacillates betweenStooges-influenced sleaze, jazzy no-wave stabs, & cacophonous sonic storms, strafing the listenerinto oblivion. The duo are joined on "Mythology" by drummer John Scho...

Indie pop quartet Melenas hail from Pamplona, Spain, a picturesque region nestled just south of the Pyrenees. Such beauty can't help but inform the band's songwriting, but Melenas aren't content to just sit placidly & take in the scenery. Since they burst onto the scene in 2016, the band has hit the ground running, playing incessantly both locally & on the stages at national festivals like Primavera Sound & Eurosonic as well as releasing a debut full length (2018's "s/t" album) and a 7-inch single both triple-released on local labels Elsa, Nebula & Snap! Clap! Club. Trouble In Mind is honored to be releasing their new album Dias Raros and is the first label outside of Spain to release Melenas music to the world.Dias Raros hums right from the get-go, peppering their garage-pop punch with elements of lysergic dream pop, melancholic indie rock and strident guitar jangle. The album title translates to "Strange Days" an acknowledgement - according to the band - of "...those days where you spend more time inside than outside. Inside your own self, inside your bedroom and your own universe thinking about your wishes, dreams, memories, obsessions or fears." The lyrics - sung entirely in their native Spanish - reference "those interior dialogues where sometimes you fight to escape from a situation, you wonder what another person will be thinking about or feeling, you gotta say goodbye, or you just enjoy the time by yourself. Days that, for different reasons, you're feeling different, they are strange". Opener "Primer tiempo" buzzes with an urgent organ drone, unfolding into a yearning ballad of modern guitar-pop bolstered by the group's lush harmonies & sets the tone for the rest of Dias Raros. Songs like "No puedo pensar" "3 Segundos" and "Despertar" follow suit, with the rhythm section galloping headlong into an insistent guitar strum, while ballads like the tender "El Tiempo ha Padsado" rely on the band's melodious voices bolstered by a lilting guitar riff and gentle organ swells. Elsewhere mid tempo rockers like...

In the decade or so that hard-working New York quartet Sunwatchers have operated, the group has steadily & subtly refined their sound - a brain-blasting mixture of jazz, psychedelia, krautrock, punk, noise, & Saharan blues - into something that is avant-leaning enough to appeal to the discerning jazz & experimental music fan & weird & wooly enough to get the true heads' toes tapping. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is the band's 5th album, and fourth for Chicago-based Trouble In Mind Records, seeing the long-running lineup of Peter Kerlin (bass guitar), Jim McHugh (guitars), Jason Robira (drums), and Jeff Tobias (alto saxophone and keyboards) in prime form. Album opener "World People" is a classic Sunwatchers number whose title expresses their Anarcho-Internationalist ideology (and the atypically multi-culti make up of their crowds), with an underlying melodic resonance to New Orleans funeral marches à la Albert Ayler _ a triumphant call to arms to all peoples. Live fave "Too Gary"'s gang vocal shout punctuates a motorik rager named for a phrase often uttered by a badass eight year old skateboarder McHugh knew with a speech impediment (it means "that's too scary"). "T.A.S.C." (or "Theme For Anarchist Sports Center") is inspired by Sonny Sharrock's maligned 80's output & sounds exactly like a wrathful, mutant version of a prime-time athletic show theme, replete with the requisite "sitcom ending." The sun- scorched "Foams" - a longform piece intended to depict natural stuff like tides, nightfall, and time slowly passing, ancient, peaceful and slightly gross all at once - practically jumps out of the speakers, its palpable intensity crackling in your eardrums. The title of "Tumulus" might reference an ancient burial mound, but the music itself might be the group's most high-tech song to date, complimented by an arpeggiating sequencer, three different forms of tape delay and an electric saxophone; ecstatic, fiery & deeply spiritual. "There Goes Ol' Ooze" is a smoky creeper that lets Tobias & Kerlin take a walk for a while, with respectful nods to the Stones and Steve Reich. "Song For The Gone" closes out the album, showcasing a sincerely tender moment for the gang, as an expression of love and resolve for dear friends who had recently, tragically died. Its cascading, bluesy melody attuning itself to our own collective unconscious grief. Having the distinct pleasure of being the first band to record in John Dwyer 's new LA-based recording studio Discount Mirrors, "Music Is Victory Over Time" boasts a beefed up sound. The band worked closely with in-house engineer Eric Bauer - facilitator, troubleshooter, sonic obsessive, a legendary freak and a DIY lifer. The band also had full access to the studio's epic armory of gear: amps, axes (it's Dwyer's Eddie Harris model electric sax), synths, a bass guitar once belonging to Klaus Flouride of the Dead Kennedys. Crucial for the sounds and the vibe. The album art was created by Josh MacPhee, the activist artist, author, archivist and founding member of both the radical artist collective Just Seeds and Interference Archive, a public collection of materials from social movements based in Brooklyn. MacPhee's participation in the project works as a statement of Sunwatchers' progressive utopian intentionality, and organically underscores their involvement in revolutionary projects within and without of their hometown. Listening to "Music Is Victory Over Time", Sunwatcher's rebellious spirit & unbridled enthusiasm remain fully intact, but the secret sauce is their infectious irreverence in the face of the horrors of this world. Much of our best cultural commentary is Trojan-horsed to the general public via humor & satire & the band has a knack for lacing the ridiculous with the radical. It's good to have them back. "Music Is Victory Over Time" is released worldwide digitally via most DSPs, on CD, black vinyl & a limited "Sunflare" blue/red splatter vinyl while supplies last.

Anyone paying attention can see that Cincinnati, OH is a very real hotbed of musical creativity atthe moment, and the three members of The Serfs - Dylan McCartney (vocals, percussion, guitar, bass,elect...

Anyone paying attention can see that Cincinnati, OH is a very real hotbed of musical creativity atthe moment, and the three members of The Serfs - Dylan McCartney (vocals, percussion, guitar, bass,elect...

German post-punk band Onyon scrambled our brains when we heard them for the first time last year, so much so that we signed them & reissued their eponymous debut cassette EP (originally co-released in limited quantities by the Flennen/U-Bac labels) in June of '22. "Last Days On Earth" is the band's latest & first proper full-length for Trouble In Mind. The oddball, synth-soaked world of Onyon is disorienting at first - the band's herky-jerky rhythms may operate in a familiar fashion to bands like Devo, Kleenex/Liliput or label-mates Lithics, but Maria Untheim's woozy synth squiggles that populate & punctuate the band's songs keeps everything at arms-length. Flirting with the primitive cool of 80's minimal-synth and the wire-haired cretinism of 60s garage, especially on tunes like the manic `Dogman' or first single `Alien, Alien'. Guitarist Ilka Kellner's six-string salvos rage unpretentiously with edges torn & frayed, rarely (if ever) soloing, but never afraid to unleash a spindly lead-line over Florian Schmidt's rubbery bass lines & Mario Pongratz's stuttering drum patterns that phase in & out of time imperceptibly like drunks doing their best to seem sober. Kellner & Untheim share vocal duties (in both English & German - sometimes in the same song), but the real magic comes when the two sing together, voices merging in loosely harmonic gang vocals; one deadpan, the other slightly unhinged. The group's beguiling lyrics add to the mystique - inscrutable neu-world fables about egg machines, ghosts, worms that talk, and urges to consume newspaper that ooze a rural, old-world understanding of life & the imperceptible spaces in between reality & fiction, transmuted thru a modernist sci-fi lensflare. Recorded, mixed & mastered in late 2022 by Martin Müller, "Last Days On Earth" is released on CD, black vinyl & limited purple vinyl (while supplies last) as well as streaming via most digital platforms.

German post-punk band Onyon scrambled our brains when we heard them for the first time last year, so much so that we signed them & reissued their eponymous debut cassette EP (originally co-released in limited quantities by the Flennen/U-Bac labels) in June of '22. "Last Days On Earth" is the band's latest & first proper full-length for Trouble In Mind. The oddball, synth-soaked world of Onyon is disorienting at first - the band's herky-jerky rhythms may operate in a familiar fashion to bands like Devo, Kleenex/Liliput or label-mates Lithics, but Maria Untheim's woozy synth squiggles that populate & punctuate the band's songs keeps everything at arms-length. Flirting with the primitive cool of 80's minimal-synth and the wire-haired cretinism of 60s garage, especially on tunes like the manic `Dogman' or first single `Alien, Alien'. Guitarist Ilka Kellner's six-string salvos rage unpretentiously with edges torn & frayed, rarely (if ever) soloing, but never afraid to unleash a spindly lead-line over Florian Schmidt's rubbery bass lines & Mario Pongratz's stuttering drum patterns that phase in & out of time imperceptibly like drunks doing their best to seem sober. Kellner & Untheim share vocal duties (in both English & German - sometimes in the same song), but the real magic comes when the two sing together, voices merging in loosely harmonic gang vocals; one deadpan, the other slightly unhinged. The group's beguiling lyrics add to the mystique - inscrutable neu-world fables about egg machines, ghosts, worms that talk, and urges to consume newspaper that ooze a rural, old-world understanding of life & the imperceptible spaces in between reality & fiction, transmuted thru a modernist sci-fi lensflare. Recorded, mixed & mastered in late 2022 by Martin Müller, "Last Days On Earth" is released on CD, black vinyl & limited purple vinyl (while supplies last) as well as streaming via most digital platforms.