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Continue As Amery is the debut album by Montreal-based artist Amery. Formerly recording under the moniker Alpen Glow, Continue As Amery sees the songwriter step out into a bold, colourful world full of pop hooks, snagging feelings of abandon and the mornings after.

Amery Sandford began releasing as Alpen Glow in 2020 after years playing in punk groups in Newfoundland and as half of Montreal pop duo Born At Midnite (Arbutus). Recorded in Montreal by David Carriere (tops, Marci), Patrick Holland, and Kristian North, Continue As Amery is a blast of melodic joie de vivre. On her debut Sandford brings her punk and DIY credentials into sharp focus on 8 perfect pop odes to city living, making mistakes and figuring it out as you go along. Suffuse with powerful imagery and an almost uncanny talent at spinning out hooks brimming with humour and spirit, Amery’s soundworld is informed by friendship, experience and by her day job as a renowned illustrator and visual artist. Beginning Alpen Glow in a spirit of fun and now shedding the alias, Amery’s ready to hotwire the nite.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

Scottish trio Lylo emerge from a six year hiatus today with news of a new album, Thoughts of Never, a pristine body of work built on foundations of vulnerability and cinematic pop sensibilities, set for release May 10th, 2024 via El Rancho Records. The announcement comes paired with a first look into the album through a fusion of downbeat pop-club, Balearic beats and soul grooves in the form of ‘Hush’, featuring Esmé Dee (The Orielles), along with a string of UK live dates.

Thoughts of Never, engineered and co-produced with friend Joel Patchett (Billy Ocean, King Krule), was written with the members residing in both Berlin and Glasgow, directly affecting the album's motifs.

Present in the album are topics of emotional communication, melancholy in metropolis and the willingness to (re)connect, which are all explored through a wonky Japanese inspired pop soundscape, with new and obvious nods to R&B soul intertwined with ambient pads. The album is littered with an abundance of influences from musicians and movies alike, stretching from names such as Sade, The Blue Nile, The Pet Shop Boys, Eddie Chacon to The Great Beauty (2013) and Hana-Bi (1997), the latter in which the band would mute and play their songs over each day, “treating the album mixes as a soundtrack”, which in turn, heavily influenced the tracklisting composition.

The album includes several features and collaborations from artist friends, with the likes of Cassandra Jenkins (Lylo were Cassandra’s backing band on her last Uk/eu album tour), Gerard Black (Babe), Esmé Dee Hand-Halford (The Orielles) and spoken word poet alore,, all making an appearance on the captivating new record.

‘San Vito’ is the new album from the Ivor Novello award-winning & multi-platinum selling UK indie-pop band The Feeling.

The album was written and recorded in Southern Italy and saw the band decamp there to self-produce the record as a band together. What began as a short writing trip, turned into a full album project with the Italian sun, food and culture seeping through into the sounds on the record. The band brought in local brass, strings and pizzica / tarantella percussion players – the result being very much an album by The Feeling but with a subtle Salento flavour mixed-in.

The title ‘San Vito’ is influenced by the name of the local town San Vito Dei Normanni where the band spent their time off from the studio soaking in the local culture, food and pizzica music. Highlights include lead single ‘The Right Wrong’ – a driving indie-pop anthem about freeing yourself from judgement, a gorgeous duet with US-based country singer Lucie Silvas & plenty of the flamboyant, upbeat 70s-inspired harmonised indie-pop that the band are adored for.

Glim Spanky, a male-female rock unit consisting of Remi Matsuo and Hiroki Kamemoto, is releasing two popular songs released in 2021 as limited 7".

The Moon and the Melodies is a singular record within the Cocteau Twins" catalogue - unusually ethereal, even by their standards, and largely instrumental, guided by the free-form improvisations of Harold Budd, an ambient pioneer who had drifted into their orbit as if by divine intervention. Building on the atmospheric bliss of Victorialand, released earlier the same year, it signalled a possible future for the trio, yet it was a path they"d never take again. Now, almost forty years after it was fi rst released, it"s being reissued on vinyl for the first time - remastered, from the original tapes, by Robin Guthrie himself. Over the ensuing years, The Moon and the Melodies has attracted a passionate fan base. Its most atmospheric tracks routinely turn up in ambient DJ sets. "Sea, Swallow Me" is one of the Cocteau Twins" most streamed songs on Spotify, having found a new life on TikTok, where it serves as the soundtrack to innumerable expressions of hard-to-express melancholy. For such a low-key aff air, the album casts a long shadow - but Raymonde believes the record"s uniqueness stems directly from its humble, unpremeditated origins. "It captured a moment in time between friends that are enjoying making music together. Really, that"s the essence of it."

After years of reluctance, finally a new album from Dada Pogrom. The Icelandic musician Kenneth Walter Balys has created a masterpiece of elaborated synth passages with wonderful pop melodies. His performances are few and far between, but in March 2024 he had already played some of the new songs in front of a full sold out house at the Kernkrach Festival. The audience was thrilled and demanded encores.

Legendary Danish band HOLA GHOST’s previously released EP’s compiled on a 12-inch vinyl by Svart Records

“Chupacabra, Hate & Fight” includes two bonus tracks, out worldwide in August 2024

Hola Ghost is probably the only band in the world that combines ROCK, Mexican folklore, country, flamenco, disco, surf, goth, punk, spaghetti western soundtrack music, pop and psychobilly, in their own unique blend. With their mariachi death surf have attracted a growing cult following around the world since their haunting debut. The band appears with painted skull masks, sombreros and mariachi styled gear. Hola Ghost is an explosive cocktail musically and visually, combining all that you love. Don’t miss this dark extravaganza bonanza mariachi death surf.

Hola Ghost started out as a duo in 2007 when making the soundtrack for the American horror comedy movie Cannibal Flesh Riot! by Academy Award winner Gris Grimly. The band was formed by Peter Sandorff (ex-Nekromantix) on vocals + guitar and Jeppe B. Jessen on bass, with the haunted drum machine Ghost 707. Drummer Kristian Sandorff (ex-Nekromantix) later took over drum duties skillfully replacing the machines haunted beats. The band have since added the horn section “The Haunted Horns” to the live and recording crew. The band is a reputable live band that have toured around the world playing venues and festivals of all genres. You simply can’t label the band in one genre.

Hola Ghost have released two albums with a new one in the making, contributed to several compilations, released singles and the two EP’s Chupacabra (2014) and Hate & Fight (2018). On this new vinyl release these two EPs are compiled on one album, with two bonus tracks, a rare single B-side, and the brand-new song Iron Reich.