Search "Brenk Sinatra Morlock Dilemma" 1424 Items

Rat Saw God Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / CZ – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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A Wednesday song is a quilt. A short story collection, a half-memory, a patchwork of portraits of the American south, disparate moments that somehow make sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter/ vocalist/guitarist at the helm of the project, is a story collector as much as she is a storyteller: a scholar of people and one-liners. Rat Saw God, the Asheville quintet's new and best record, is ekphrastic but autobiographical and above all, deeply empathetic. Across the album's ten tracks Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build a shrine to minutiae. Half-funny, half-tragic dispatches from North Carolina unfurling somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang, that distorted lap steel and Hartzman's voice slicing through the din. Rat Saw God is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in Greensboro while listening to My Bloody Valentine for the first time on an iPod Nano, past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu. Four Lokos and rodeo clowns and a kid who burns down a corn field. Roadside monuments, church marquees, poppers and vodka in a plastic water bottle, the shit you get away with at Jewish summer camp, strange sentimental family heirlooms at the thrift stores. The way the South hums alive all night in the summers and into fall, the sound of high school football games, the halo effect from the lights polluting the darkness. It's not really bright enough to see in front of you, but in that stretch of inky void - somehow - you see everything. The songs on Rat Saw God don't recount epics, just the everyday. They're true, they're real life, blurry and chaotic and strange - which is in-line with Hartzman's own ethos: "Everyone's story is worthy," she says, plainly. "Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." But the thing about Rat Saw God - and about any Wednesday song, really - is you don't necessarily even need all the references to get it, the weirdly specific elation of a song that really hits. Yeah, it's all in the details - how fucked up you got or get, how you break a heart, how you fall in love, how you make yourself and others feel seen - but it's mostly the way those tiny moments add up into a song or album or a person.

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Wednesday

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Dead Oceans)

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Dirt Cult)

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Daydream

Mystic Operative

20,99 €*

I Go To The Railroad Tracks And Follow Them To The Station Of My Enemies

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Holy shit, Portland punk, chuck me in a rock grinder and turn the motor on supersonic, guillotine the king, chuck his carcass off the end of the plank and let the hammerheads rip it apart. Don’t let the name of the band fool you into thinking this’ll lullaby your brain into a state of theta. This is gamma-wave punk rock and roll, divergent binaural fuzz ripping into focused rapid-fire slash and burn, clear cuts the cop in your head like a chainsaw running on trichlorethylene, short loud and fast like you like it. Pounding your eardrums like a maniac on Benzedrine, slashing your brain like a whipping of razor wire. And when it’s all said and done, maybe you will indeed settle into a theta state of mind. Clear cut the riot police from your brain and give the pine trees room to grow. To free your head, feed the heads of state to the hammerheads, decapitate the heads of state in your mind and bring the dream into the light of day, make your own head the head of state. To understand how something works, sometimes you gotta take a hammer and break it. Mystic Operative manages to balance the unpredictability of post-punk with the groove of garage rock, the fury of hardcore and the recklessness of classic punk. Roll those ingredients into a ball, then watch it roll down the hill and wipe out everything in its path. – Scene Point Blank If you’re into dense, angular, and inventive post-hardcore, this record is a stunner. – Sorry State Records Daydream from Portland deftly maneuver through eleven songs of noisy punk with obvious anarcho leanings and a call for higher consciousness. I do love it when a band incorporates so much into their art and sound that, while it makes my job harder, it only proves that some things just can’t quite be described with mere words. I’m getting hits of everything from Crass, the Wipers, and the Shitty Limits but even then I’m probably shortchanging the band, of which members have previously kicked around in PDX greats such as Physique and Dodlage as well as the Chinchees from Minneapolis. Suddenly, it makes sense why this record is so fucking good. - Razorcake There’s a lot going on, but the hyper-propulsive drums, DEVO-lved guitar stabs, and urgent vocals clatter together in an explosive concoction of progressive punk noise. Thick-necked, spiraling bass riffage and off-kilter weirdness remind me of (a less brooding) Dead AND Gone, or an anarcho-BOREDOMS. Get your ’90s fix without succumbing to nostalgia. Great stuff. – Maximum Rock N Roll

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Tongo Eisen-Martin

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Rocks In Your Head)

20,99 €* 29,99 € -30%

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Maple Death)

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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"I came across Tongo saying something in passing in an interview with Mayor London Breed. It was so insightful, poetic and deeply felt I wanted to know who he was. I devoured the poetry books that were available and then set out to invite him to make a recording. I had no idea what the session would be like. We were strangers. He showed up, there was no small talk, and he went to the microphone. He then created a 22 minute poem, no notes in his hands, and I looked at the engineer, and our minds were blown. It was flawless, and it was meaningful, and it was channeled from some other place. I said, do you have anything else to say? And he began another piece that lasted another 22 minutes or so. And it was also flawless,and incredible. And so I looked at the engineer and I said, 'I think we have a record.' Now I’ve never seen a record cut in one sitting, I figured it was reserved for geniuses like Thelonious Monk or Robert Johnson or something. And so I realized Tongo is a genius too. The poetry is so loud and crisp and clear and fueled with energy. It has a connection back to Gil Scott Heron, The Last Poets, Langston Hughes but it is also not derivative in the least, but new and of it’s own time."—Sonny Smith, Rocks in your head records “Tongo’s words are bricks-with which he builds houses, breaks windows, and - strangely- enticesyou to take a bath in. I first heard his poetry and got scared of dying. Like- I better figure shit out because this is the new shit and he’s on somethingI’m not. He’s noticing shit that I better notice if I want to experience life in color. He knows that to live- you gotta make shit aroundyou move. You can’t just watch. I’m thrilledthat this album is coming out so y’all can be scared of not living too.”—Boots Riley "Words are a kind of architecture – where the bricks exist on page or spoken into the either. A form is built and becomes a body that will not soon wilt… the spoken word is timeless and immortal. Here in this collection Tongo kicks the new jazz – a classic sense of form ad stylethat is dare I say it smolderingly masculine, drumming, with someone who clearly has an old ear for dialogue. This coolection read icadest and with a heavy hand in the past not withstanding, still boasts verbage that is very very fresh. Bravo."—Brontez Purnell

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Whitney K

Two Years

19,99 €*

April March / Kelley Stoltz

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie, Pop

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Rolling through life, an open mind like an ocean, an infinite ride that comes furiously crashing to a halt. This is Whitney K’s ‘Two Years’, a deep dive into the Canadian songwriter’s journey through vulnerability, change and ultimately letting his guard down.

Whitney K is the wandering stalwart Konner Whitney, a Whitehorse Yukon resident who has spent time in Vancouver, Montreal, Burnaby and Los Angeles. We met the character in 2016 through his intoxicating 4-track recorded manifesto ‘Goodnight’, a head on collision into 24 hours of illusioned romance and modern day escapism. Fast forward to 2021, lift those curtains, aptly titled ‘Good Morning’ is the opening track on ‘Two Years’, a different cracker, a deliberate record about transformation, where to put it simply, Whitney K has arrived. Enlisting the aid of main collaborator and bandmate Josh Boguski and drummer Avalon Rossignol-Tassonyi, the focus has been shifted, folklore and realism becoming reckoning and truthfulness, what was outsider folk is now political poetry, life in motion delivered through a freeway ridden baritone voice that transforms the mundane into extraordinary. Written with a completely different mindset and a conscious effort to break with the traditions of a corrupt, hypocritical, and hateful society/lineage, Konner’s pen is precise and daring, uniting the earnestness of Willie Nelson and the comedy relief of Harry Nilsson on the beautiful ‘Me Or The Party #165’, or when painting Canada’s colonial past and heartland image on the primitive rock’n’roll anthem ‘Trans-Canada Oil Boom Blues’. There is no avoidance, no excuses, whether your self portrait in the mirror resembles a five dollar caricature sold on a boardwalk, the John Cale-esque opener ‘Good Morning’, or whether you learn you are worthy of love like on the poignant vignette ‘Maryland’, the beautifully arranged album closer that echoes Tin Pan Alley with Lou Reed’s grit. ‘Two Years’ also presents plenty of fun, the perfectly stumblin’ garage rocker ‘Last Night #2’, the honky tonk blues coming-of-age episode ‘Cowboy City Rocker’ and the cello/violin belter ‘Hit This Pipe’. One of Whitney K’s many gems is ‘The Weekend’ a minimalist spectral ode to hope where the band’s restriction brings out the pure force and vocal command of the ramblin’ troubadour. Time to open your arms, he’s coming out of no fun city and aiming straight for you.

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April March Sings Kelley Stoltz Record Store Day 2024 Edition

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Agitated)

21,84 €* 22,99 € -5%

Sounds Of Green & Blue Transparent Orange Vinyl Edtion

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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4 special tracks recorded by April March and Kelley Stoltz, whereby April sings Kelley Stoltz songs in french, and also in english; Music by kelley, vocals by April! A one off meeting of undrground pop legends, and overground garage rock royalty. Mixed / Masterd by Warren DeFever at Third Man. Red Color Vinyl version. Ooh La La! C'est Magnifique April March: I was in Nashville with Olivia Jean on a little break from shooting our "Allons Y" video at Third Man. I got in her car and she cranked up her playlist. Out jumped "Double Exposure". I went bananas right there in the passenger seat. "Kelley Stokes!", she smiled wide. It reminded me of something I'd heard in a dream. I went around singing songs from "Double Exposure" for a few weeks zeroing in on "Are You My Love" and "Your Face". I thought to myself cover-wise there's nothing to add here, they're perfect as is but maybe some French versions would be a kick so I asked for an intro. A few months later I was in San Francisco kicking out the Bonne Mamans with Kelley in his studio. Lucky me and thanks to Agitated Records lucky you too. Kelley Stoltz: “Like almost everyone in the world I was dazzled by April March's take on "Chick Habit" back in the late 90s. It was such an up feeling and joyful sound in the music and vocals. At odds with the manly wails and bleak outlooks that were standard song fare of those days. You can develop a crush on the voice in your speakers, you know! I did anyway. I was so pleased to hear from her in person and out of the blue, years later, and find out she wanted to do her own versions of my songs. I soon got to re-recording the music bits, and as she asked, stayed pretty true to their original form… maybe even improving on them just a tad. She appeared at my door one day and we instantly hit it off and laughed and sang and climbed on an elliptical machine. We did some recording and then took a walk and ate tacos. She even gave my daughter her first book. We're just friends, but I'll always have that crush when I hear her voice! I hope you enjoy April March Sings Kelley Stoltz as much as I did working on them.”

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The Lunar Effect

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Svart)

Sounds Of Green & Blue Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Lunar Effect, sonic architects known for their gravitational pull of fuzzy, snarling riffs and psychedelic visions, proudly announce the release of their latest album, "Sounds of Green & Blue," available to pre-order now through Svart Records. “Sounds of Green & Blue” is a galactic journey through sound that showcases The Lunar Effect’s evolution and marks a pivotal chapter in their musical odyssey.

Formed in 2016, The Lunar Effect burst onto the scene with a distinct blend of grunge and retro hard rock. With a flair for hair and a penchant for barbed and growling riff work, the London-based quartet quickly garnered attention for their dynamic sound and Blues rock reverence. In 2019, they crash-landed onto the Stoner Rock scene with their debut album, "Calm Before the Calm,” firmly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with.

"Sounds of Green & Blue" sees The Lunar Effect expanding their sonic scope and bending all the elements and eras of Classic Rock into their own unique mold. The album is a testament to their musical growth and willingness to explore new territories while maintaining the brooding vintage sound that defines them. Each track is propelled into orbit by the low-end buzz of distorted chords, powerful enough to blow the moon-dust off your amp.

The first single from the album, "Pulling Daisies," is a bristling sojourn that encapsulates the band's celestial rock influences. The track combines classic Blues tones, fuzzy guitars, swirling ethereal vocals, and a dusty, hypnotic rhythm that transports listeners from the past into a screaming, paisley, future wonderland. "Pulling Daisies" sets the controls for the heart of the moon, showcasing The Lunar Effect's ability to craft immersive and soul side musical experiences. From the heyday of The Beatles, Floyd, Zeppelin and Sabbath to newer artists like Graveyard, Radio Moscow and Red Fang, The Lunar Effect have created a masterclass in Psychedelic Rock that takes you firmly by the collar. With a palette that also includes shades of the 90s Grunge scene like Nirvana and Soundgarden into their heady mix, The Lunar Effect paint their own trippy world, where genres blur into their unique brew of heart-felt space rock.

"Sounds of Green & Blue" by The Lunar Effect is proudly released by Svart Records, a label known for its commitment to uncovering high-quality, diverse, and boundary-pushing music. Svart Records continues to be a platform for artists who defy conventions, push the boundaries of their respective genres, and break out of the underground.

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The Lunar Effect

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Svart)

Tape | 2024 | EU | Original (Svart)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Messa

14,99 €*

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Spittle)

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Messa’s rising trajectory hits the stratosphere on their immense new album “Close”. Soaring up out of the Italian Doom Rock underground in 2014, Messa have been rapidly garnering a frenzied throng of devotees, in thrall to their monumental and broad-ranging sound craft. Releasing two widely celebrated cult records, the latest of which “Feast For Water” in 2018 was a critical breakthrough success, with Rolling Stone calling the whole album “captivating, wringing maximum drama out of its savvy stylistic clash,” Messa have had everyone on tenterhooks, waiting for what was next.

New album “Close” draws us further into Messa’s spellbinding textures and immersive dynamics. Described as “Stevie Nicks fronting Black Sabbath,” singer Sara’s colossal voice omnipotently carries the listener on an emotional rollercoaster ride where the sonic cauldron of Iommi guitars gives way to Arabian oudh and progressive solos in a masterful style-clash that well befits Messa’s incendiary reputation.

The hushed Fender Rhodes piano intro on opener “Suspended,” picks up where Messa left off on their previous album “Feast For Water” but then collapses gloriously into Jazz guitar and widescreen impassioned crushing riffs, lighting our way for the odyssey ahead. The scene is set magnificently for the journey that “Close” expertly takes the listener on, with Messa’s obvious care and passion for the album as a pilgrimage of sonic experience. Heavyweight tracks like “If You Want Her To Be Taken” or “0=2” are modern Doom Rock classics that expertly upgrade and leave the genre reeling in their wake. “Pilgrim” and “Orphalese” are woven with tapestries of Mediterranean sounds where oudh and eastern chord phrasings expand Messa’s cinematic palette with a panache that is all their own. Atmospheric and grandiose belters like “Rubedo” and “Dark Horse” build into an almost limitless climax of discord and harmony where blast beats and saxophones descend into a thrilling cacophony that’s a masterclass in artful cutting edge Doom.

Referencing bands like Dead Can Dance, Swans and Om, Messa have created an album where song, experience and atmosphere are focused into a crystalline modus where high art flawlessly embraces good old fashioned riff-worship. Transcending the occult and noir-tinted atmospheres of their past works, “Close” confidently weaves Messa’s multifarious influences into a singular breath-taking sound that leaves the listener enthralled. Perfection or something extremely close, Messa’s “Close” is not just a Metal record, but it’s definitely one of the best things to break out of the confines of Metal in a long time.

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The Sex

Unmask Yourself

The Reds, Pinks And Purples

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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My adventure buddies? The silent, enigmatic Patti, former singer of the mysterious No Suicide, and the young, faithful Chris, a passionate Police fan, we met on the battlefield and he immediately became my brother. For him, learning to play the bass was a way to get close to Sting, in other words, just one step below Paradise. Patti instead played keyboards as an extension of her mysterious and glacial presence, so still and distant that the audience sometimes wondered if she was real. And then there was my fixation for the drum machine, a futuristic device which could transform the drumming sweat into an invisible, yet physical, dreamlike pulsation. A particular combination of characters and a special astral conjunction, that’s what you need to get a nucleus source of sonic emotions, and in some ways this is what we were. You could clearly feel it during the concerts. When at the end of ‘81 My Mercenary God lost their drummer and had to disband, I felt clearly that the music had already changed. Our old 70’s rock ‘n’ roll sound was no longer representative of the day. We were like some sort of yesterday’s newspaper. Thus I Sex was born (later The Sex). According to Freudian thought that sees sexual instinct as the driving force behind every (creative or destructive) human act. And in fact we immediately started creating, destroying, assembling and deconstructing our sound. Suddenly “tomorrow became now”. It was an outburst of creative independence in the form of homemade cassettes put together with makeshift tools, at least until the arrival of the legendary 4 track recorder. I was 19 years old, Chris was only 17. Nothing more than kids after all. Yet we were already veterans, veterans of a lost war. Wise, naive, disillusioned dreamers, everything and the opposite of everything. But, above all, we were totally devoted to our creative delirium up to the point of losing touch with reality, crossing limits, breaking down barriers and almost bordering on madness. Perhaps we were just too involved, especially if in relationship with what we could receive in return. We always spread our energies as if there was no future. We unconsciously felt that we had to live in the moment, now or never, and in retrospect it really was like that, and this is why these songs exist now. Songs created with the intent to tell an inner universe that is, now as then, far from any convention.

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Unwishing Well White Vinyl Edition

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Tough Love)

27,99 €*

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Morr Music)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The cinema of the scenes as told from the heart and spirit of the omniscient narrator shines through the awe-inspiring oeuvre of Glenn Donaldson's canonical titan that is The Reds, Pinks & Purples. The storied and esoteric histories of every underserved underdog becomes immortalized in records and poignantly penned paeans that evoke the eras and underachievers that became synonymous with their own respective corresponding localized micro-movements. Donaldson channels that psychic spirit and journeyman earned wisdom to provide contemporary era rock operas that eulogize tales of infinitely influential rises and falls. Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — the latest sortie of the sensational and spectacular takes aim at the threads of hope and an untethered abandon into the intimacy and dualities of idolatry and isolation with Unwishing Well.

Ever since its emergence from the harried late 2010s — The Reds, Pinks & Purples have become the absolute encapsulation of Donaldson's own proliferation and prestige. From a musical legacy that chronicles a long list of minor successes and major tragedies; Glenn distills the timelines of distinction from yesterday, today, tomorrow and whatever may be into a musical phenomenon that embodies something more than all of its analogous inspirations. Beyond the clamor about the retro cult pop artistic allusions and tropes that can be found in those spirit expanding kaleidoscope chord chimes; Donaldson takes you on a guided tour through the San Francisco underground movements that would have been, could have been or perhaps never were at all from the start. The Reds, Pinks & Purples’ coveted catalog inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously, offers an authorized and anonymous history of imperfect and ambitious debutantes, dilettantes, auteurs, et al. The lauded visionaries whose volition informed the big money touring stage headliners, but only enjoyed a fleeting jaunt through the glorious corporate clad carnival canopies from the touring circuit routes and tech funded festival tent tabernacles. Unwishing Well is a eulogy for the buzz bands that crashed, the wily one hit wizards, and omnipresent (and often uninspired) eternal aesthetes who work the lucrative outlets of licensing media markets.

Glenn pulls no punches with the promiscuity of the pop machines and their exploited propped up brand ambassadors on the cutting "Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit" that tangles with the lumbering and inescapable creatives and careerist trajectories that trade in boardroom playbooks and verticals. Expressions and influencers break out into the collective commissaries of commerce exhibitionism on “Public Art”, to auditing the forums of fandom that pertain to developed affinities and the roads to rabid infatuation with the obsessive in earnest, “Learning to Love a Band”.

And while the Glenn spins many yarns on the under-appreciated secret histories of DIY, Unwishing Well offers cathartic hymns of modern malaise. Sighing in lamentation of regressive trends, “What’s Going on with Ordinary People'' balks with concern over contemporary states of devolution, while “Faith in Daydreaming Youth” questions what vestiges of hope and valor can be found in the new vanguards of political bodies that govern the world’s sovereign daydream nations. The dustbins of dastardly discontinuity are imbued with desire and grief on the dramatist tragedy of “Dead Stars in Your Eyes”, to basking in the discarded ditches of the damned below in voids of obscurity on “Nothing Between the Lines at All”. The human addiction to languishing in anguish, misery and negativity tussles, tosses and turns on “We Only Hear the Bad Things People Say”, the penultimate ode to inherent human infallibility as Donaldson rides the audience out into the gilded sunset glow of “Goodbye Bobby”.

The central set piece of Unwishing Well revolves around the title track that wrestles with wellness and wishes tempered by the sobering reality of ultra pragmatic skepticism. Donaldson shows the audience where the dream falls short, an indictment on the fickleness of wants and the life/work/art balances of making it all work. It's the group that never makes it, the idea that never gets off the ground, the recognition that never arrives, the raise that is never awarded, nor the promotion to the next ladder rung that remains laughably inaccessible. Glenn has the gift of bridging the divide between the hunger artist, their adoring cult public and the common threads that connect these local and global communities through the humanist cause of collective commiseration.

As increasingly found in the continued adventures of The Reds, Pinks and Purples canon — Glenn circles the drain of surrendering to unabashed sentimentality in passions worthy of being showcased as the top headlining spot that your favorite revered then later reviled pop act never even had the chance to claim or ascend. Unwishing Well uplifts and uproots the undercurrents that carry the commonalities between the spectators and the spectacles. Donaldson pays homage in heart to everything and everyone that never got their due or to the lucky ones that made the grade, but paid an ultimate price. The cycle of these pop vignettes depict successes and failures in the same sentences, existing within the same stanzas, where the stories of making it and breaking it operate as events that live on different sides of the same coin. Unwishing Well is a reflection of us, the icons we adore, the Adonises we worship, the false prophets that proselytize the edicts from theses cults of personality, the fallouts, the third acts and the artistic fabrics that spool these sub-sects of artful dodgers into the stuff of legend.

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Spirit Fest

Bear In Town

Close Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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For their fourth album, »Bear In Town«, indie avant-pop supergroup Spirit Fest made a virtue of distance, with group members split across Europe, and recording sessions taking place after a brief 2021 tour of Europe. It’s an object lesson in perseverance and commitment, as the music here is some of Spirit Fest’s most moving yet. The six songs on this album illuminate different aspects of the transnational quintet’s character – lovely, heart-rending pop songs; melancholy chants; the joys of simple repetition – with the group’s guitar pop tended by gentle flourishes of piano and electronics.

Some of those flourishes were spirited onto »Bear In Town« across the waves, with Mat Fowler (Bons, Jam Money) contributing from Britain, while the body of the music was recorded in a small apartment studio in Munich by the other members of Spirit Fest: Saya and Ueno (Tenniscoats), Markus Acher (The Notwist) and Cico Beck (Joasinho, Aloa Input). »Bear In Town« is concise and powerful, the infectious joy of the spirit communicated, beautifully, by melodies that balance the heartfelt with the melancholy. Reflecting on those sessions, Acher says, »I think the album captures how well we played together at that time.« It’s all the more impressive given this material was put down live in the studio, with a few vocal overdubs. The depth of feeling at the core of Spirit Fest’s music is evident from the opening notes of »Bear In Town«.

»Kou-Kou Land«, the first song on the album, recalls several earlier Tenniscoats songs, like »Baibaba Bimba«, in the way the musicians weave gentle complexity around a simple, repeated chant; the stop-start structure of »Kou-Kou Land« builds anticipation, while Saya’s simple melody is lovely, delivered in an absent-minded hum that’s deeply affecting. »Lost & Found« revolves around a delightful descending chord change that breaks up the swaying, folksy verses, gorgeous electronic whirrs and purring winds floating through the song. The following »In Our House« possesses such sweet sadness, it’s one of Spirit Fest’s most moving songs yet.

»Like A Plane« repurposes a song that Markus Acher originally wrote and recorded for his solo EP of the same title, released on a 2022 10-inch single on Morr Music. The original was a gentle, introverted lament, but the version on »Bear In Town« has a widescreen tenderness, its melancholy framed by raindrop piano. The album concludes with two moments of playful splendour, the bossa-inflected »Hill Blo«, and the driving title track, both led by Saya, who is in stunning voice on this album; on »Bear In Town«, her awestruck wonder perfectly captures the sense of possibility in the song’s capacious chords. Like the rest of the album, it’s full of kindness, rich with psych-pop splendour… a balm for troubled times.

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Messa

2LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Svart)

Bitter Reflections Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Svart Records to release new album by rising stars of eclectic heavy rock, Messa on the 11th of March 2022.

Messa’s rising trajectory hits the stratosphere on their immense new album “Close”. Soaring up out of the Italian Doom Rock underground in 2014, Messa have been rapidly garnering a frenzied throng of devotees, in thrall to their monumental and broad-ranging sound craft. Releasing two widely celebrated cult records, the latest of which “Feast For Water” in 2018 was a critical breakthrough success, with Rolling Stone calling the whole album “captivating, wringing maximum drama out of its savvy stylistic clash,” Messa have had everyone on tenterhooks, waiting for what was next.

New album “Close” draws us further into Messa’s spellbinding textures and immersive dynamics. Described as “Stevie Nicks fronting Black Sabbath,” singer Sara’s colossal voice omnipotently carries the listener on an emotional rollercoaster ride where the sonic cauldron of Iommi guitars gives way to Arabian oudh and progressive solos in a masterful style-clash that well befits Messa’s incendiary reputation.

The hushed Fender Rhodes piano intro on opener “Suspended,” picks up where Messa left off on their previous album “Feast For Water” but then collapses gloriously into Jazz guitar and widescreen impassioned crushing riffs, lighting our way for the odyssey ahead. The scene is set magnificently for the journey that “Close” expertly takes the listener on, with Messa’s obvious care and passion for the album as a pilgrimage of sonic experience. Heavyweight tracks like “If You Want Her To Be Taken” or “0=2” are modern Doom Rock classics that expertly upgrade and leave the genre reeling in their wake. “Pilgrim” and “Orphalese” are woven with tapestries of Mediterranean sounds where oudh and eastern chord phrasings expand Messa’s cinematic palette with a panache that is all their own. Atmospheric and grandiose belters like “Rubedo” and “Dark Horse” build into an almost limitless climax of discord and harmony where blast beats and saxophones descend into a thrilling cacophony that’s a masterclass in artful cutting edge Doom.

Referencing bands like Dead Can Dance, Swans and Om, Messa have created an album where song, experience and atmosphere are focused into a crystalline modus where high art flawlessly embraces good old fashioned riff-worship. Transcending the occult and noir-tinted atmospheres of their past works, “Close” confidently weaves Messa’s multifarious influences into a singular breath-taking sound that leaves the listener enthralled. Perfection or something extremely close, Messa’s “Close” is not just a Metal record, but it’s definitely one of the best things to break out of the confines of Metal in a long time.

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Body Of Light

LP | 2023 | CZ | Original (Dais)

Bitter Reflections Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / CZ – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The latest by Arizona desert brotherhood Alex and Andrew Jarson aka Body Of Light further hones their smoldering strain of tempestuous synth-pop into a transformative suite of anthems, reveries, and reckonings: Bitter Reflection. Written in the wake of 2019's neo-EBM classic, Time To Kill, they sifted inspiration from hidden moments within their own arcana - childhood tapes, home movies, abandoned demos - asking themselves the question: "How can we make this grow?" Sampled snippets of voice, noise, synth, and field recordings flicker in the periphery of these 11 tracks, murmuring like nostalgias half-forgotten, or displaced memories. It's music pulled between twin flames of truth and desire, romanticization and reality, catharsis and control, born of a bond sealed by years, dreams, and blood. Working with Telefon Tel Aviv co-founder Josh Eustis in Los Angeles, the brothers incorporated an expanded array of live instrumentation - piano, bass, saxophone, acoustic guitar - in addition to vintage Akai samplers, Moogs, and archaic hardware, giving the album an eclectic, unpredictable palette. Opener "Get It Right" showcases their impressive refinement: sleekly cold drum machinery builds to a swooning chorus of synths and piano, then suddenly slips into a dream sequence bridge of strummed guitar and echo-shrouded vocals, before surging back to the main melody. Throughout, the songs shift gears and moods in evocative ways, as if bending to fleeting thoughts or lengthening shadows. Simmering synth lament "Strike The Match" captures the Jarsons' unique technique of co-crafted lyrics, accruing meaning as the world turns; though written long before, the track ended up being recorded the day Russia invaded Ukraine ("I fall asleep to the candlelight / things will be different but not tonight / it wouldn't be like you to strike the match / over and over, I can't understand"). A trio of intriguing instrumentals deepen the album's scope, echoing the duo's early experimental era as part of the influential Ascetic House collective. "Fortia," "Hyena," and "Deepcolorlights" drift in a prismatic gauze of whispered synths and oblique minutia, in the spirit of Boards of Canada at their most hushed and haunted. Elsewhere the record spins through a gallery of the band's ongoing fascinations: Depeche Modeesque declarations of dread and excess ("This Conversation"), brooding dance floor epiphanies ("Out Of Season"), smooth Thomas Dolby city skyline melancholias ("Never Ever"), lovesick looking glass ballads laced with Art Of Noise orchestral stabs ("On This Day"). A new age demands new waves, and Body Of Light belongs at the forefront of a resurgent generation fusing modern methods with the sounds of futures past. Singer Alex Jarson sees their muse clearly, at the axis of anguished transition, temporal collapse, and, just possibly, the brink of hope: "Time is dysphoric. The dream breaks down. Everyone's beginning to panic, but in the end something will come from it."

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Body Of Light

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Dais)

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Company)

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Tanukichan

Gizmo

23,99 €*

Kibitzer Dinked Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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When the pandemic hit, Hannah van Loon adopted a dog named Gizmo, who became a much-needed companion while the Bay Area musician wrote her second album as Tanukichan. Aptly named after her new four-legged friend, Gizmo is an exercise in release, whether from situational hindrances—a forced lockdown, for one—or from self-imposed hedonistic coping mechanisms.“ A theme I always had floating around was escape,” van Loon explains of her follow-up to 2018’s Sundays. “Escaping from myself, my problems, sadness and cycles.”

To channel the more uplifting spirit she wanted for Gizmo, van Loon turned to the radio pop-rock of her childhood: “I was struck by the in-your-face positivity of the lyrics,” she adds, referencing artists like 311, The Cranberries, and Tom Petty. “I wanted to bring that positivity while writing about the sad and helpless emotions I’d been grappling with.” But Gizmo’s lightheartedness doesn’t make it shallow: “I think that I could let it go, as beautiful as snow,” she murmurs on “Don’t Give Up,” a nu metal-meets-Cocteau Twins groove about the sudden awareness that all the relationships you depend on could vanish instantaneously. Van Loon’s main collaborator on Gizmo was Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear, and the jangly pop earworm “Take Care” showcases the heavily distorted, in-your-face guitar work reminiscent of Bear’s own psych joints What For? And Mahal. On the hypnotic, wall-of-sound-rocker “Thin Air” featuring Enumclaw, van Loon channels the triumphant grit of The Smashing Pumpkins as she ponders the impermanence of even the most impactful relationships: “I’ll always have the memories/Of how you used to make me see/Until they fell in the ocean/They’re not swimming/They’re not floating.”

Existentialism aside, Gizmo also sees van Loon break out of her sonic comfort zone. “One of the main changes of how I’m approaching music now is that I want to have more fun in the process,” she says, and she walks the line between melodrama and whimsy gracefully: “I can learn something because I’ve been here before,” she sings on the soaring, bittersweet “Been Here Before.” Deftones-inspired thrash drums and screeching electric guitars are gracefully contrasted with van Loon’s hypnotic, almost deadpan vocal style and a crystal clear acoustic guitar she describes as “cute.” Gizmo the dog suddenly passed away right as van Loon finished the album, but he’s immortalized with his photo on the cover—a fitting emblem of this new era of Tanukichan.

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Vintage Crop

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Upset The Rhythm)

2LP | 2022 | US | Original (Western Vinyl)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Running with the ball that 2020’s “Serve To Serve Again” punted forward, this album marks another energetic break towards the goal for Vintage Crop. ‘Kibitzer’ sees the band define their field of play, more melodic at times, still bruising, forever droll. These ten tracks of ‘snappy as elastic’ Australian punk are packed with tensile riffage, hefty beats and witty refrains of everyman curiosity.

‘Kibitzer’ was written in quick response to their critically lauded ‘Serve To Serve Again’ album. Harsh guitars, a brutish rhythm section and a knack for always having the right words at hand are still abundant, but this time Vintage Crop’s songs expand upon their forceful nature with greater harmonic arrangement. It was recorded by Jasper Jolley in one single session on a former apple orchard in Geelong, a backdrop that mirrors the band’s own organic growth whilst highlighting their willingness to approach capturing their own sound their own way. The album was then mixed and mastered by Mikey Young.

‘Kibitzer’ delves into themes of identity, resilience and acceptance; some of the more upbeat notions that the band have dealt with to date. ‘Casting Calls’ opens the record, slamming through the speakers with gusto and setting the tone for the following 30 minutes. “It’s rolling, we’re rolling, we’re winding back the tape, we’re getting better with each take” sings lead songwriter Jack Cherry. Accepting your limitations and taking pride in your work are key themes on ‘Kibitzer’. In fact ideas around learning, growing and being able to take things in your stride are strongly felt through their entire body of work. These themes hit home with the album’s title too, with Cherry feeling that ‘Kibitzer’ is an apt way to describe a lot of the band’s focus. “I feel like a lot of our lyrics over the years have been our unsolicited opinions on other people’s situations, the very definition of the word Kibitzer. So for this record we wanted to lean into that tendency by acknowledging it and even go as far as stamping it on the album cover.”

Musically the band have expanded their palette on this album; exploring a world of rhythmic harmony and a newfound vocal melodicism. There’s also greater lyrical elaboration and considered song structures at play. ‘The Duke’ is a mob of rollicking chants and heavy hitting, catchy to the core. ‘The Bloody War’ is a more sanguine reflection of tumbling drums, struck chords and shrill keyboard warble. “He’s got the keys to the universe and they’re hanging from his belt loop, his wit is as quick as lightning, his disapproving gaze is the thunder that follows” pipes Cherry on ‘Double Slants’, guitars chiming through the hubbub. ‘Hold The Line’ turns the wry amusement of dealing with cold callers into a fidgety anthem of knowing frustration. Whilst ‘Switched Off’ even welcomes the introduction of horns (courtesy of Heidi Peel) to the group’s repertoire, ushering in an unexpected serenity into their tough sound.

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Old Fire

Voids

Kibitzer Sky Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Voids employs the vocal talents of Bill Callahan, Emily Cross, Adam Torres, and Julia Holter across twelve genre-fluid, yet impressively cohesive tracks that span baroque dream-pop, filmic ambient, raga-like drones, avant-country, and even spiritual jazz, all imbued with poetic heft and seared by the West Texas sun. It was beneath this same sun that Lapham lost both of his parents, mourned a withering relationship, and shouldered the fallout of the pandemic, turning his life into the rusted-out scraps he then used to build Voids from the ground up. There is no better narrator for Lapham's story than fellow Texas resident Bill Callahan, whose iconic delivery perfectly personifies the core themes of Voids. By the time Callahan appears, he does so over a saw-blade drone that sounds like machinery echoing off the corrugated steel walls of a nearby workshop, which then breaks open into a loose yet pained confluence of violin and upright bass that recalls Joe Henderson's 1974 spiritual jazz album The Elements. On "Dreamless" the album crystallizes into its most straight-ahead moment as Lapham trains his compositional lens on a brilliant piece of pop songwriting. Featured vocalist Adam Torres soars over John Mark's punctual arrangement of stomping drums and rapturous string-work to anthemic, and gently psychedelic consequence. Voids concludes with the pleasant clatter of "Circles" wherein Lapham throws all his ingredients into a pot of celebratory catharsis. Drum sets collide with one another gleefully, and harmonized textures scatter and roll about the floor like a dropped bucket of ornate marbles. Lapham's collage-work, which up to this point has been smartly restrained, comes unglued as he transmutes grief into relief within a moment-of-death montage of aural imagery. Across Voids, that same awareness of tragedy and loneliness is made palatable by the album's exciting and varied topography, which stands insubordinately against Lapham's real-life surroundings. The settlers who established West Texas towns like the one he calls home must have done so with a sense of hope despite the hostility of their surroundings, however inevitable the withering. Similar spirits speak through John Mark Lapham's work, and he welcomes them as fascinating old friends. "That more than anything inspired a lot of what I try to express through Old Fire, faded memories, former glories, places lost in time," he discloses. "Whatever I was trying to express with Old Fire wasn't finished with the first album, like a story that was only half-read. It seemed like that was only the beginning, and there was a lot more ground to cover." If there is ground still uncovered for Old Fire after Voids, it's sure to be lush in spite of - or perhaps because of - the dusty soil beneath it.

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Vintage Crop

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Upset The Rhythm)

22,99 €*

II: The Ground Below Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Famyne

II: The Ground Below Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Garden-fresh trail-blazers from the UK, Famyne drag Doom kicking and screaming into the 21st century on epic new album “The Ground Below”. Svart Records unleashes heart-rending game-changer “The Ground Below” from melancholic crushers Famyne on Friday the 13th, May 2022.

Svart Records is proud to present “The Ground Below”, the stellar new album from UK Progressive Doom Rock band Famyne. Hailing from the heart of the garden of England, Canterbury gloom-fathers Famyne slug and soar their way up and out from the underground, shaking off any shackles of genre constraints on their new album “The Ground Below”. Since their inception in 2014, Famyne have been rapidly building an incendiary reputation for themselves, and an epic universe all of their own, magnetising more souls into the orbit of their unique expansion of masterful Doom metal. From their ‘Famyne EP’ in 2015, earning a place at Bloodstock Open Air 2016, to their break-out self-titled debut in 2018, Famyne have been constantly turning heads as a promising new light in the darkness. “The Ground Below” is a brave and inimitable statement which re-draws a line in the sands of Metal tradition. Famyne boldly march over the limits, re-riffing the rules, washing listeners in pristine waves of hypnotic melody on 8 tablets of stone-carved ageless songs that “The Ground Below” lays on the altar. Tracks like For My Sins and Babylon conjure paragon English Doom with a long line of lineage like country-mates Warning, Paradise Lost, Pagan Altar and Cathedral to songs like A Submarine where warm oceans of sweeping guitars and wide-screen desperate euphony bring to mind genre-changing pioneers like Anathema and Porcupine Tree. Mind-blowing Lead vocalist Tom Vane’s omnipotent vocals deliver the shivers in dynamite doses, unearthing perfect hair-raising emotions that are at once timeless and freshly captivating. It is an understatement to acknowledge how exceptionally unforgettable Famyne’s distinct voice is. The guitars of Martin Emmons and Tom Ross range from an Iommi masterclass to Åkerfeldt progression in a heart-beat, delivering breath-taking riff-mountains that are sumptuously original and catchy in both style and opulent panache. It is Famyne’s canny confidence to re-mould traditional Doom metal artistry with their own wave of emotive progression that makes “The Ground Below” a brilliant restoration of the craft, reminding us how crushing and poignant innovative Doom Metal can be if done with passion. Fans of everything from Opeth, Katatonia to Soundgarden and all the trad legends of Sabbath, St Vitus and Solitude Aeturnus will be suitably wowed in Famyne’s wake. “The Ground Below” is a modern classic, reverential but so supremely powerful that Famyne have securely carved their own place on the monoliths of the future.

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Famyne

22,09 €* 25,99 € -15%

Kuusumu Gold Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Kuolemanlaakso

Kuusumu Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Finnish death doom spearhead Kuolemanlaakso, starring vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow the Sun), are about to release their first album in eight years. The band’s third full-length Kuusumu was co-produced, mixed, mastered and engineered by the Triptykon and Dark Fortress guitarist V. Santura, with whom the band has worked with on all of their releases. Kuusumu will be released in 2022 via Svart Records.

“The recording break streched unforgivably long, but in doom there’s no rush. It was great to get back to business with the guys and have the opportunity to invite a couple of old friends to help us out, too. Kuusumu’s keyboards were produced and co-arranged by Aleksi Munter (Swallow the Sun, Insomnium, Ghost Brigade), and Lotta Ruutiainen (Luna Kills) did some amazing singing on a couple of tracks. In my humble opinion we took many steps forward on Kuusumu”, says guitarist-songwriter Laakso.

Kuusumu’s texts are loosely based on the sudden global cooling that began in 535, leading to a 10-year long winter, loss of crops, famine and mass deaths of cattle and other animals. The climate change was most likely caused by massive volcanic eruptions, the fog of which darkened the sun for 1,5 years, causing loss of light and intolerable coldness. Moreover, the bubonic plague that began in the Byzantine Empire in 541 swept across Europe, killing tens of millions of people during the climate crisis.

“I see our previous releases as autumn albums, so this time we decided to make a winter album. I came across some literature about the catastrophic events by chance, and got immensely inspired by them – especially the contemporary writings of the 530–540 era. It didn’t take long for me to write the album after that. It’s spine-chilling to ponder that a deadly climate change and a pandemic raged also 1,500 years ago when medical knowledge, information flow and living conditions were in their infancy. And there was no electricity, of course. People thought that they have angered the gods and the darkness will last forever,” says Laakso.

On Kuusumu, Kuolemanlaakso stretch their artistic boundaries even further. The album contains the trademark Kuolemanlaakso heaviness, but also more bombastic, fast and meticulously arranged material. The first single Katkeruuden malja, featuring Lotta Ruutiainen, represents the catchier and lighter side of the album.

“Katkeruuden malja draws its inspiration from grief and misery. Musically it’s almost tripping in the landscapes of recent day Tribulation, but with melancholic and Kalevala-infused melodic influences, that sound very Finnish to me. The music video sort of mixes and matches the frost theme of the album with the color palette of the cover artwork,” states Laakso.

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Kuolemanlaakso

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Cobblers / Bad Omen)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Diagonal

Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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‘4’ captures Diagonal in full creative flow and with a new twist to their sound as they incorporate elements of space rock, kosmische and post rock to bolster their well-established progressive rock roots. That adage of waiting ages for a bus and two or more come along at the same time seems applicable to their recent productivity. Returning only two years after the release of their previous LP ''Arc'', this is a notable break from tradition, having left five and seven year gaps before the previous two. And after much deliberation, the band settled on following in the footsteps of Soft Machine and Led Zeppelin in naming the album after its chronological appearance. The band returned to the studio only a year after the sessions for 'Arc'. The result is an assured work that functions wonderfully as a logical progression from 'Arc' yet at the same time has enough shift in sonics to illuminate a different facet of the band. Opening cut ‘Amon’ (a working title that ended up sticking) makes perfect sense as a reference to the German experimental rock band Amon Düül II. Its solid guitar riff foundation careens over an ever-evolving time signature, the three-part structure decreasing in intensity until it dissolves in a cloud of bubbling ambient textures. 'Chroma' explores the band’s interest in jazz. One of the two instrumental tracks on the LP, it showcases the effervescently emotive sax work of Nicholas Whittaker with an intricately crafted solo that unfurls itself over a fluid 5/4 rhythm. 'Spinning Array' is in many ways the track that acts as most of a connecting bridge to the previous album. The stridently crisp bass and drum syncopation of the opening bars giving way to long unhurried guitar lines and vocals. Vocalist/saxophonist Whittaker incorporates some intriguingly different sounds into proceedings with the use of Chinese wind instrument, the Hulusi, as well as the more traditional recorder. The keyboard presence on this album is less pronounced owing to an instrumental/personnel swap. 'Stellate' is a shining example of this shake-up and demonstrates the band at their heaviest in what emerged as a controlled jam. The woodwinds carry the Middle Eastern-tinged melody over a bed of thick guitars, as the time doubles and moves towards a maelstrom of pulsating rhythms and fearsomely lysergic guitar soloing courtesy of David Wileman. The album is expertly rounded off by the appropriately titled 'Totem'. Beginning with a repeating 5 note guitar figure, it slowly brings to the boil a bed of miscellaneous percussion and wordless vocals. The culmination is a finale of searing guitar and crashing drums, recalling the most ecstatic work of Japanese cosmic rockers Acid Mothers Temple. Diagonal’s fourth album clocks in at a punchy 37 minutes and will certainly be leaving listeners wanting more. But, who knows? Maybe those proverbial buses will be adhering to a more reliable timetable in the future.

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Man Man

Tape | 2020 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

12,99 €*

Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between Loser Edition

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Honus Honus (aka Ryan Kattner) has devoted his career to exploring the uncertainty between life's extremes, beauty, and ugliness, order and chaos. The songs on Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between, Man Man's first album in over six years and their Sub Pop debut, are as intimate, soulful, and timeless as they are audaciously inventive and daring, resulting in his best Man Man album to date. The 17-track effort, featuring "Cloud Nein," "Future Peg," "On the Mend" "Sheela," and "Animal Attraction," was produced by Cyrus Ghahremani, mixed by S. Husky Höskulds (Norah Jones, Tom Waits, Mike Patton, Solomon Burke, Bettye LaVette, Allen Toussaint), and mastered by Dave Cooley (Blood Orange, M83, DIIV, Paramore, Snail Mail, clipping). Dream Hunting...also includes guest vocals from Steady Holiday's Dre Babinski on "Future Peg" and "If Only," and Rebecca Black (singer of the viral pop hit, "Friday") on "On The Mend" and "Lonely Beuys." The album follows the release of "Beached" and "Witch," Man Man's contributions to Vol. 4 of the Sub Pop Singles Club in 2019. At the end of 2015, Man Man went on an unexpected hiatus, and thus began a period of creative reinvention for Honus Honus. He worked in music supervision and on scores (The Exorcist, Superdeluxe, Do You Want to See a Dead Body?). He acted in the indie film Woe ("I played a park ranger, a nice guy in a sad movie."), So It Goes, a short musical film with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and starred in the award-winning tour documentary Use Your Delusion. He also developed an animated series, wrote film scripts, a graphic novel, a neo-noir TV pilot, and briefly penned a music column for The Talkhouse all while continuing to work on new music, such as an unreleased kids' record, another Mister Heavenly album, a self-released Honus Honus record, and a conceptual art/noise project Mega Naturals. In the midst of this surreal exile from Man Man, Honus began piecing together what would become Dream Hunting in the Valley of the In-Between. He recruited longtime-collaborator Cyrus Ghahremani to help him produce. Written in a friend's LA guesthouse that had "an old upright piano, a thrift store lamp, and nothing else," it was an arduous, three-and-a-half-year process, "I had chord progressions that looked like chicken scratch and lyrics on pieces of paper stuck all over the walls. It looked like I was about to break the big case, catch the killer," he says, laughing. "There was a lot of self-doubt, fighting the urge to throw in the towel. It wasn't fun but it definitely forced the best album of my career out of me. Sometimes you just gotta tear it all down to rebuild things the right way. Trust the process."

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Man Man

2LP | 2020 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

Dream Hunting In The Valley Of The In-Between

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Man Man

2LP | 2020 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye Black Vinyl Repress Edition

Release: 2020 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Hibushibire

LP | 2023 | UK | Reissue (Riot Season)

Here's Tom With The Weather Oxblood Color Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Osaka based psych-rock three piece Hibushibire return after a long break, with a new line up and a stunning third album.

Following the successes of their debut album 'Freak Out Orgasm!' (2017), the follow up ‘Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out’ (2019) and two very well received UK tours. The band headed home to Osaka, Japan and then, the pandemic hit.

During this downtime, guitarist/vocalist Changchang decided to create a new power trio. Enter Tetsuji Toyoda (Bass/Vocals) & Aoi Hama (Drums/Vocals). The new trio have spent the last three years writing new music, playing live and honing their sound in Japan, and a short well received tour of Taiwan with Riot Season labelmates Dope Purple. And now finally, Hibushibire mark 2 is born properly.

“Hibushibire has returned after a change of members. A psychedelic, progressive work, suitable for a new beginning"

Entering the studio with Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata in the producer chair (and also as a guest musician) once again, the band recorded album number three, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’. Makoto also adds some of his own trademark guitar howls through out the album, perfectly complimenting Changchang’s own growing prowess.

Here the band have taken their trademark psych-rock blasts and blended them perfectly with some more trippy, dare I say sweet progressive psychedelic sounds.

“The idea of this album is based on the theme of "occultism and mysticism". But it's not a serious thing, it's about the things we like (UFOs, pyramids, psychic phenomena, shamanism etc) and we all had fun while making it. In terms of what makes it different from the previous Hibushibire albums, it’s where AOI HAMA's vocals are present. I had wanted to use a female vocalist for a long time, so it was a good feeling!”

Like the bands first two albums, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’ is very much an album of two halves. Side one again is full of killer shorter tracks, while side two is reserved for a blinding majestic 20 minute epic ‘Ayahuasca Witch Abduction’.

Perhaps the biggest musical surprise here though is probably track two, the beautifully mellow tripped out ‘We Won't Go Back To The Past’, which sounds like it’s been beamed straight out of the late 60s/early 70s.

The band also tip a nod to the Beatles psychedelic classic ‘Tomorrow Never Ever Knows’, but with their own twist of course.

It’s clear with the line up changes, Changchang has decided to expand the bands musical pathway, and he’s achieve stunning results.

The band plan to return to the UK and Europe in 2024 to see friends old and new.

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Shack

LP | 2003 | UK | Reissue (Shack Songs)

33,99 €*

Here's Tom With The Weather Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2003 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Shack story is one of music’s greatest legends. It incorporates hardship, bereavement and chaotic misadventure, but above all it tells the tale of beautiful music triumphing over trouble and tragedy.

‘Here’s Tom with The Weather’ boasts a majestic and fresh form. These are magical songs, psychedelic folk songs of the finest Head vintage. Sleepy-eyed, wistful and mystical, yet crafted with a cunning and acute dexterity beyond just about anybody you can think of.

The two profoundly Liverpudlian brothers Mick and John Head have made several brilliant albums together , but none as quickly as ‘Here’s Tom…’ which was completed in seven weeks at Brynderwen Studios in North Wales along with drummer Iain Templeton (rip) , bassist Guy Rigby and producer Jay Reynolds in 2003.

In the 80’s , the two brothers from the notorious Kensington estate in north Liverpool were singer and guitarist with The Pale Fountains , an effervescent pop group which imploded under the weight of two albums in 1986. The Heads returned in ‘88 as Shack and a debut album Zilch. In 1991 , Shack made ‘Waterpistol’ , an inspirational guitar jewel that would have proved just as influential as any British album in that era had the studio not burned down, taking the master tapes with it. Four more years passed , but by the time it was finally released on Marina it had developed ‘lost classic’ status.

The Heads battled on. They toured as their hero Arthur Lee (rip) of Love’s backing band. In ‘97 , they created

a new group called The Strands and recorded the delicate, dreamy masterpiece ‘The Magical World Of The Strands’ . They spent a long time making another classic ‘hms Fable’ , and then decided that next time they wouldn’t take quite as long recording. Enter ‘Here’s Tom With The Weather’.

Showcasing John’s slow , shy emergence as a songwriter to challenge his brother (on the sparkling, heartbreaking ‘Miles Apart’ and ‘Carousel’ , and the spun-out ‘Kilburn High Road’ ) , toasting Mick’s newest confirmation as the most unrecognised genius of his or any other generation (the ode to his bro, ‘Byrds Turn To Stone’ , the mariachi horns that break open the slow folk fog of ‘Meant To Be’ , the two lullaby bookends ..and on , and on) .

“The journey we’ve had together has been beautifully turbulent”, laughs John. “But there’s times when we glide and we’re gliding forward now”

Mick agrees. “Making this album has been frantic, chaos, carnage, intense : the normal way with us. But it doesn’t sound like that. That’s all that matters. The story is what it is. But so are the songs and so are the records. Because we’re good.”

Nobody could disagree with that.

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Shack

LP | 2003 | UK | Reissue (Shack Songs)

27,89 €* 30,99 € -10%

LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Mr Bongo)

Release: 2003 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Project Gemini

The Children Of Scorpio

22,99 €*

7" | 2023 | US | Original (Alternative Tentacles)

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Good things come to those who wait. The album 'The Children of Scorpio' by Project Gemini aka Paul Osborne is a result of his steeped 30-year musical journey that’s seen him dig deep, study his record collection and re-emerge to fine-tune his craft.

A cinematic musical journey that plays out like a long-lost soundtrack (think cult B-movies of the 60s and 70s); 'The Children of Scorpio’ was formed from Paul's love of a myriad of genres; from European library music, acid folk, psych-funk, vintage soundtracks and the contemporary breaks scene. The album draws on iconic classics such as the masterful cinematic funk of Lalo Schifrin's 'Dirty Harry', Ennio Morricone's 'Vergogna Schifosi’ and Luis Bacalov’s 'The Summertime Killer’, to name but a few. You can also hear the folk sounds of Mark Fry's iconic 'Dreaming With Alice', the Britsh folk-jazz of The Pentangle and the David Axelrod-produced 'Release Of An Oath' by The Electric Prunes, woven into the cultural tapestry of this gem. The influence of these vintage productions of the 60s and 70s is evident; however, it could be argued that there’s also echoes of the funkier psychedelic moments of bands such as The Stones Roses and The Charlatans, alongside contemporaries such as The Heliocentrics and Little Barrie, thus giving the album a broader crossover potential beyond the world of crate digging and vintage soundtracks.

A bass player and musician since the age of 16, the arrival of his first child in 2010 saw Paul move away from live performance and retreat to his home studio, recording a wealth of music that was destined to never be heard. One of the first tunes to be made was a demo entitled ‘The Children Of Scorpio’, inspired by his long-time obsession with Lalo Schifrin’s soundtrack to violent Clint Eastwood cop classic 'Dirty Harry'. Recorded for fun, the track was fated to sit in the archives untouched. However, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, connections to a wealth of inspirational musicians and labels would re-ignite Paul's musical fire and give him the impetus to develop his slept-on ideas into something more concrete. Firstly resulting in releasing two limited 7'' records on Delights Records and now the long-player for Mr Bongo.

Assisting in the recording of the record were several close friends that have helped spark Paul's musical creativity along the way, including well-renowned guitarist and Little Barrie frontman Barrie Cadogan (who contributes killer six-string guitar to four tracks), Delights Records head-honcho Markey Funk (who adds spooked out keyboards to ‘Path Through The Forest’), Kid Victrola, the chief songwriter and guitarist with French psych girl group Gloria who added wild 12-string to ‘Scorpio’s Garden’, Haifa-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Shuzin who brings the heat behind the drum kit, and Paul Isherwood, co-founder of Nottingham’s The Soundcarriers, who mixed the album on his wealth of vintage gear.

We are delighted to be releasing this slowly-brewed timeless classic that manages to achieve that rare feat of keeping one foot firmly in the past whilst still sounding totally contemporary.

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Kultur Shock

King / Country Mohammed

8,99 €*

Kröflueldar Red Vinyl Edtion

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Yet another rockin’ new direction from the label that can’t stop expanding its….well,…Tentacles! Meet Kultur Shock—multinational ‘Gypsy Punk’ pioneers, led by irrepressible ball of energy and good cheer, Gino Yevdjevich. Gino was quite the mainstream pop star in his native Bosnia (and the Balkans), when the shelling of Sarajevo began, trapping him in his family’s apartment for two years. He was finally able to flee, first to New York, then on to Seattle. Instead of reviving his pop career, Gino chose (a full plunge) to reinvent himself, reaching deeper into his heart and Balkan roots, and Kultur Shock was born! They began playing slightly electrified Traditional Folk, to a growing refugee audience, including many a dancing Serb. The fan base quickly widened to Krist Novaselic and Vic Bondi, among others, who then drew in Jello Biafra. - Then something happened - A year or two later, they debuted in San Francisco to a sold-out audience at the Bottom of the Hill, packed with almost all refugees and migrants - and a much louder, heavier Kultur Shock. Lineups hail from all over Eastern Europe, Seattle, and even Japan; with a much wilder, more theatrical Gino as ringmaster of all he surveys. A more punked-out, direct version of their close friends and cousin, Gogol Bordello, Kultur Shock mixes Balkan folk melodies and bizarre meters with face-melting metal and blood-pumping punk rock in a pagan cauldron of lyrical, obnoxious, and politically irreverent music stew since 1996. The band released its first three studio records produced by FNM’s Bill Gould on his KoolArrow Records – Fucc the INS (2001 and 20th-anniversary re-master in 2022), Kultura- Diktatura (2003), and We Came To Take Your Jobs Away (2006). Since 2007, Kultur Shock is self-produced and self-released on its own label, Kultur Shock Records. It released Live in Europe (2007), Integration (2009), Ministry Of Kultur ( 2011), Tales Of Grandpa Guru, vol. 1 EP (2012), IX (2014), Live At Home ( 2016), and D.R.E.A.M. (2019). So here to start is Kultur Shock’s Alternative Tentacles 7” debut. To break the ice and dangle the carrot for our eclectic Tentacle fan base, and reintroduce the now post-Covid Kultur Shock, as they head back across the Atlantic, for their main audience and festival dates, and Stateside down the road. “King” and “Country Mohammed” have been live show favorites for some time, and Alternative Tentacles is pleased to showcase them to our audience. With an all-new album is in the works, with hopefully more vinyl reissues of their past CD-only albums to follow, Kultur Shock is here to stay. We love them so much, it’s the Second band with this name on Alternative Tentacles: Dick Lucas’ Culture Shock is the first!

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Altari

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Svart)

Kröflueldar Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Fire and brimstone from Icelandic Black Metal band Altari, as their volcanic new album Kröflueldar erupts via Svart Records on 14.04.23. Named after a series of eruptions that happened at Krafla in Iceland in 1975, Kröflueldar represents the constant threat of ash that Altari’s music lives under. Kröflueldar was a 9 year series of eruptions, and since the album took almost 9 years to create, Altari felt that it was a fitting title for their scalding and ferocious music.

Fans of Craft, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and the more well known Icelandic Black Metal bands like Misþyrming and Sinmara will revel in digging into Kröflueldar’s rotten soil, but there is something far more experimental and avant-garde to be reaped within the whirlwind of sound that Altari produces. With their foundations of sound in the classic eras of early Judas Priest, songs like Leðurblo?kufjandinn call to mind the discordant soundclash of bands like Voivod, Virus and even Sonic Youth in the interplay of melody and disharmony. The bewildering, but utterly charming frenzy of taking the raw sound of metal to the limits breaks through from Altari’s literal geological location in a landscape in constant upheaval. Guitarist and Vocalist Ó.Þ.Guðjónsson notes that; “bands such as Blue Öyster Cult, Interpol, Killing Joke were a big inspiration for us as well for the use of clean guitars as the sound for leads. I expressed a desire to find some balance between the overdriven rhythm and melodic yet clean leads. These bands helped us find that.”

It is through these uncommon and almost blasphemous influences that Altari proves to be a rare gem in the much vaulted Icelandic Black Metal crown, giving Kröflueldar the dna of a band that feels they have so much potential and fervor brewing up in their molten kiln. Tracks like Sy?rulu?ður with the vocals of Gyða Margrét are as delicate and subtle, cloaked in smoky atmosphere, as they are dark and brooding, giving hints of bands like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins.

When Guðjónsson states that the intention was an “overall desire for us to get away from the sound that has been a gateway for others here in the scene” they imbued Kröflueldar with a beguiling essence that’s hard to pin down, but magnetically unique. The co-production work of Stephen Lockhart, a staple of the Icelandic Black Metal scene and sound, is of quality but something very different from his signature work, born from what Guðjónsson describes as a need for a “new sonic approach,” Kröflueldar’s sonic eruptions, from the low earthy rumblings to the cacophonic and epic high notes, feels thoroughly worked but raw enough to be unsettling in the new ground it uncovers. Svart Records head honcho Tomi Pulkki expands on the reasons behind his new signing, saying that; “I found their approach refreshingly idiosyncratic in the way it mixes cleaner sounds with distortion. Altari brings something new to Black Metal and that is a rare thing these days”.

Adorned with the psychedelic album cover by guitarist K.R.Guðmundsson, which evokes the storms that come when a volcano erupts, Kröflueldar is a worthy song of praise to the wild and destructive threat of nature unleashed.

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Altari

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Svart)

We Salute You, You, And You Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Pelagic)

CD | 2022 | UK | Original (Mr Bongo)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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After five years of radio silence Sweden's most accomplished cinematic post-rock ensemble EF return with a stunning comeback studio album which channels the band's raw emotion and aptitude for melancholia, capturing their signature sound in unprecedented clarity and richness. We Salute You, You and You! is the picture capturing a thousand words, like the first light of day falling on your face or the exuberant smile of a young lover_ it is the dance of eternity in the single moment: a warm "welcome back!" for long-time fans and a resounding "nice to meet you!" for those who yet have to get to know the great four-piece from Gothenburg. For over 20 years EF have been bridging the divide between the sublime and the fragile with magistral compositions characterised by moments of emotional catharsis and marked human frailty. Combining the indie rock mannerisms of Explosions IN THE SKY with the hardcore attitude of Mogwai and the orchestral approach of Godspeed YOU! Black Emperor, EF capture the magic of post-rock around the turn of the millennium, when the genre was still young and freshly exciting. Their 2006 debut album Give Me Beauty_ Or Give Me Death! is an underrated post-rock classic that marked the start of a storied career with many seminal studio albums ahead of them. However after 15 years that fabled career seemed to come to an end as: after one last performance at Pelagic Fest in Berlin in 2018, the members of EF became quiet and little was heard of them since. Mastered by Magnus Lindberg, We Salute You, You and You! is a veritable celebration of the grandeur of post rock. From the giant ringing piano intro of album opener Moments of Momentum to the massive syncopated bass lines of Wolves, Obey! all the way to the enchantingly beautiful lone horn break on Apricity and the intricate union of horn section, strings and band in the climactic build-up of Chambers. Sprinkled throughout the record are countless instances of these little grand moments and gestures. EF have opened their treasure trove to show what's still in it, and it is full of riches. But We Salute You, You and You! is not just induging in past glory, it is also transcending the narrow realm of instrumental rock: almost all tracks on the album have vocals this time around, and even screamed vocals make a debut in EF's discography here. "We've previously had pretty heavy aggressive parts in songs, but we've never screamed," explains A°strom once more. "With this album we've tried to be more direct, more consistent. Maybe take it back a few notches to rhyme better with our youth as hardcore musicians. The screaming just came naturally." EF have tremendously broadened their sonic palette with this album, while at the same time staying true to their charismatic formula of sound which we love them for. With a host of immediately memorable melodies and truly sublime compositions, the four from Gothenburg have once more delivered an overwhelming experience of glorious wistfulness and melancholia - an album which is right up there with the classics that have inspired them.

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Project Gemini

The Children Of Scorpio

14,99 €*

Silver Flames Red Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Flaming Sideburns

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Svart)

Head Of Roses Loser Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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It might’ve taken 20 years but here it is: the original line-up of the Flaming Sideburns unleashes a brand new album “Silver Flames”. It can be seen as a follow-up to their now legendary debut “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah”, which was released two decades prior in 2001. “Silver Flames” is an album nobody expected to happen. Most certainly it’s out of time and out of place in 2021 but that has never stopped the Flaming Sideburns on their mission. Instead they launch a rock’n’roll assault at full throttle. It’s all there from straight-ahead rockers (“Silver Flame”, “Searching Like a Hyena”) to deep psychedelia (“Niburu”, “Reverberation”) and from classic rock (“A Song for Robert”) to pop-tinged choruses (“Perfect Storm”, “Cast out my Demons”). The album is wrapped-up by “Trance-Noché” and its unusual combination of Latin American madness and Arctic hysteria — topped with the lyrics en Español. ”Silver Flames” might be versatile but all of the tracks have a common goal: to make it on the album they had to be good enough to stand on their own as a single release. “Hallelujah Rock’n’rollah” gave us seven singles and “Silver Flames” is well on its way to top that. “Soulshaking”, “Trance-Noché”, “Neverending” and “A Song for Robert” are already out on 7” vinyl and there’s more to come later this year. The Flaming Sideburns started out in Helsinki in 1995 and soon found themselves touring both sides of the Atlantic. Their early releases were compiled on “It’s Time to Testify” but it was the launch of “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah” that put the band on top of the early 2000s garage rock revival. Stateside the record was released under a new moniker “Save Rock’n’Roll”. “Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah” kept the band busy touring across the world and sharing the stages with their original inspirers like The Sonics or The Stooges. It also gained them exposure on U.S. television: “Loose My Soul“ was featured on HBO’s “The Wire,” “Flowers” made it to Fox’s “The O.C.” and “Street Survivor” was picked up by Toyota for a tv commercial. The break-through album also meant the end of the original line-up. Soon after the release, the guitar player Arimatti Jutila moved to the United States and the band was forced to soldier on with various line-ups. After two more albums, “Sky Pilots” and “Keys to the Highway,” and hundreds of shows, the Flaming Sideburns found themselves inactive for the first time in their career in 2016. That was not bound to last long. In 2018 the five original members — four Finns led by Argentine-born vocalist Eduardo Martinez — joined forces for a string of shows in The UK, Spain and The Nordics. As soon as they hit the road, the new songs started coming out. Soon the band hit the studio and the old gang was completed by Jürgen Hendlmeier who’s been serving as the producer for the Flaming Sideburns since day one. “Silver Flames” makes the comeback complete. Enjoy.

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Flock Of Dimes

LP | 2021 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

Silver Flames Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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On her second full-length record, Head of Roses, Jenn Wasner follows a winding thread of intuition into the unknown and into healing, led by gut feelings and the near-spiritual experience of visceral songwriting. The result is a combination of Wasner's ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator. Simply put, Head of Roses is a record about heartbreak, but from a dualistic perspective. It's about the experience of having one's heart broken and breaking someone else's heart at the same time. But beyond that, it's about having to reconcile the experience of one's own pain with the understanding that it's impossible to go through life without being the source of great pain for someone else. "Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I'm in a lot of pain through some behavior or action of someone else. If I'm expecting to be forgiven for the things I've done and the choices I've made and the mistakes that I've made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that's required to forgive others the pain they caused me." Showcasing the depth of Wasner's songwriting capabilities and the complexity of her vision, Head of Roses calls upon her singular ability to create a fully-formed sonic universe via genre-bending amalgamation of songs and her poetic and gut punch lyrics. It's the soundtrack of Wasner letting go - of control, of heartbreak, and of hiding who she is: "I think I've finally reached a point in my career where I feel comfortable enough with myself and what I do, that I'm able to relax into a certain simplicity or straight forwardness that I wasn't comfortable with before." Head of Roses puts Wasner's seismically powerful voice front and center. Those vocals help thread it all together -- it's a textured musicality, quilted together by intentionality and intuition. Wasner and producer Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak) assembled Head of Roses in the same way you'd put together a mixtape, painstakingly and carefully melding disparate parts into a whole, transcending genre to weave a story of heartache and healing together. And in the same way a homemade, painstakingly-crafted mixtape plays out, with the maker's fingerprints left all over its songs - so goes Head of Roses. Carefully curated and culled from the depths of Wasner's heartbreak and healing, it's deeply, intensely personal. But just as we change ourselves by embracing the pain of loss and uncertainty, so too are the purpose of these songs changed through the act of creating them. Having succeeded in healing the person who made them, they now exist for those who find them in their own moments of need. Always in motion, the original spirit of creation has already flown from this place-but it's left behind a blueprint, a tool for you, to lean on, too.

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The Flaming Sideburns

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Svart)

20,99 €*

LP | 2024 | Original (Regain - Helter Skelter)

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Beastmaker

Body & Soul

35,99 €*

Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye Yellow Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records) announces a partnership with cult kings Beastmaker for an extensive reissue campaign of the band's many (and crucial) EP releases. In lieu of this announcement, Beastmaker also confirm that they have returned from their self-imposed hiatus and will be recording new music and playing shows again - as always, on their own terms.Formed in 2014, Beastmaker began with a flurry of activity and only intensified that activity over the next five years. Following two demos and an EP, the power-trio then released two albums - Lusus Naturae (2016) and Inside the Skull (2017) - through Lee Dorrian's esteemed Rise Above Records. Naturally, that pairing proved fruitful, for Beastmaker were indeed cut from a doomed cloth, but Beastmaker founder Trevor Church (who'd soon form the equally prolific Haunt) showed he had so much more to his vision than sticking within scene boundaries. Thereafter, between 2017 and 2019, the band released a staggering 11 EPs before breaking up, with another EP - Body and Soul - released posthumously in 2020.Now, longtime fans Helter Skelter Productions step forward to reissue this goldmine of Beastmaker godliness. The reissue campaign will include Body and Soul joined with the bonus material on the Who Is This? compilation, thereby making it a full-length, and which will be released on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. Then, EP. 1 and EP. 2 will be joined together on CD and tape formats, followed by the pairings of EP. 3 and EP. 4, EP. 5 and EP. 6, EP. 7 and EP. 8, and finally EP. 9 and EP. 10: thus, full-length releases for all, and each on vinyl and tape formats. All ten of these EPs will also be available on a special 5xCD boxset. This reissue campaign is tentatively slated to start in April and then conclude by November; release dates and preorder info to be revealed in time.A statement from Church reads as follows: "I'm very excited to announce that the EP collection from Beastmaker will see a new pressing from Helter Skelter / Regain Records. This collection of work shows the artistic vision of horror I had writing in my home studio during 2015-2018. I was watching so many old horror movies during these times to inspire the song craftsmanship. Mario Bava always a huge inspiration in my music. The imagery of poster lobby cards also played a part of the writing process during these times. I've booked a festival for 2024, and Beastmaker will rise from the coffin once again. Thanks to all the fans that have supported us during our hiatus. We are not gone! Rather, we have descended further underground waiting for the right time." 1. Body and Soul2. Global Domination3. Ritual4. Lady of the Water5. Night of the Devil6. Who is This7. Why Can´t you See8. Cataclysm9. Fortune Thief10. Time Wizard

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Hibushibire

LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Riot Season)

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Groovie)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Osaka based psych-rock three piece Hibushibire return after a long break, with a new line up and a stunning third album. Produced by Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata who also guests on the album.

Following the successes of their debut album 'Freak Out Orgasm!' (2017), the follow up ‘Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out’ (2019) and two very well received UK tours. The band headed home to Osaka, Japan and then, the pandemic hit.

During this downtime, guitarist/vocalist Changchang decided to create a new power trio. Enter Tetsuji Toyoda (Bass/Vocals) & Aoi Hama (Drums/Vocals). The new trio have spent the last three years writing new music, playing live and honing their sound in Japan, and a short well received tour of Taiwan with Riot Season labelmates Dope Purple. And now finally, Hibushibire mark 2 is born properly.

“Hibushibire has returned after a change of members. A psychedelic, progressive work, suitable for a new beginning"

Entering the studio with Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata in the producer chair (and also as a guest musician) once again, the band recorded album number three, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’. Makoto also adds some of his own trademark guitar howls throughout the album, perfectly complimenting Changchang’s own growing prowess.

Here the band have taken their trademark psych-rock blasts and blended them perfectly with some more trippy, dare I say sweet progressive psychedelic sounds.

“The idea of this album is based on the theme of "occultism and mysticism". But it's not a serious thing, it's about the things we like (UFOs, pyramids, psychic phenomena, shamanism etc) and we all had fun

while making it. In terms of what makes it different from the previous Hibushibire albums, it’s where AOI HAMA's vocals are present. I had wanted to use a female vocalist for a long time, so it was a good feeling!”

Like the band's first two albums, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’ is very much an album of two halves. Side one again is full of killer shorter tracks, while side two is reserved for a blinding majestic 20 minute epic ‘Ayahuasca Witch Abduction’. Perhaps the biggest musical surprise here though is probably track two, the beautifully mellow tripped out ‘We Won't Go Back To The Past’, which sounds like it’s been beamed straight out of the late 60s/early 70s.

The band also tip a nod to the Beatles psychedelic classic ‘Tomorrow Never Ever Knows’, but with their own twist of course.

It’s clear with the line up changes, Changchang has decided to expand the band's musical pathway, and he’s achieved stunning results.

The band plan to return to the UK and Europe in 2024 to see friends old and new.

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The Giant Robots

Fuzz You!

15,99 €*

2LP | 2021 | EU | Reissue (No Coincidence)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Here is "Fuzz You", the 4th LP from The Giant Robots, the Swiss garage rock quintet ready to make all the gramophones on the planet roar. After “Invasion” (dab Records), “Too Young To Know BeVer. Too Hard To Care” (Voodoo Rhythm) and “DelighYully Refreshing” (Soundflat), the new opus of the giant robots is released by Groovie Records, the so exciting groovy label from Lisbon. This new album was mixed in Gijon by maestro Jorge Explosión (Doctor Explosión) and mastered by the US citizen guru Mike Mariconda, in Barcelona.

The LP begins with the pure garage-punk instrumental entitled "Fuzz You". A contagious theme with the very important organ in the foreground, while keeping very tasty melodies. Then comes the first single, a total hit in Italian entitled "Avant La Macchina", reminiscent of Cynics, Fuzztones or Chesterfield Kings. Remember that the group comes from this multicultural Switzerland where Italian is the 3rd national language. But the Italian language pays tribute above all to the true love of the garage carried by the public of the south, of Italy, of Spain, Greece or Portugal. A heavier atmosphere follows in "No Way To Hide", with very sixties voices, contagious choruses, a brutal break and even a prodigious organ solo. "PartyPartyParty" you can probably already guess what it's all about... You have to party at all costs, that's all that's enjoyable.

Then the Giant Robots rebound in their native tongue, French in "Schizophrenie" with its very danceable guitar riff, its wild drums, its prominent harmonica and its tribal groove with very sixties refrains. Finally, the last hit on side A will be the first of the three covers of this LP, this one by The Uncalled Four. "Do Like Me" is rather low tempo, played in a super relaxed way and filled with nonchalant "Yeah" at will. "We All Love Peanut Butter" starts the B side and sounds like the classic it is, covered in a casual and energetic way.

The original version was the work of One Way Streets. The vocals on of the Giant Robots has never been to be a cover band par excellence, seeking perfection, their versions always being alternatives to the originals, but with this characteristic spontaneity of that time.

Then comes the second single 'She Don't Like Me' with a captivating chorus, a looser version of the guy looking for love. 'Leave Me' is probably the strangest track on the album, with a very strident farfisa that accompanies a solid (even sordid) rhythm and unmotivated vocals.

'Panam' is a fun instrumental version for non-stop dancing, guided by a clear analog keyboard and also features a striking guitar. This is a cover of the Swiss group The Sevens who had the audacity to create this piece in 1966. Finally the album ends with... "Terminé" in a joyful way to dance all night long. A good combination of farfisa as well as a rhythm section that provide the backing for piercing guitar in just over a minute and a half. Real garage rock.

Enjoy ! And Fuzz You Babe.

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Goose

Shenanigans Nite Club

37,99 €*

Release: 2021 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Connecticut-based quartet Goose _ Rick Mitarotonda [vocals, guitar], Peter Anspach [vocals, keys, guitar], Trevor Weekz [bass], and Ben Atkind [drums] _ shimmy through the cracks between jam, funk, alternative, and rock with head-spinning hooks, technical fireworks, and the kind of chemistry only possible among small-town and long-time friends. After selling out theaters coast-to-coast and a series of seismic festival performances, the musicians welcome everybody to this place on their 2021 second full-length, Shenanigans Nite Club. "In many ways, Goose is a conglomeration of music from the town we grew up in, and the songs are a collection of many different experiences and influences," observes Rick. "Where we come from has inevitably informed and enabled our music. We get these four defined seasons in rural Connecticut, and there's a powerful stillness.""Our area is a very reflective place," agrees Peter. "We're in the woods, and we all find peace from the setting. Being in the sticks positively affected what we're trying to do.""While we've been touring, the record has been happening in the background," says Rick. "We've done our fair share of sweating it out and paying our dues on the road. There was a natural progression until we really got on the same page creatively. It's been a long, weird trip. At times, it was tumultuous. The record is a companion to those growing pains."Goose introduce the record with "So Ready" and it's counterpart "(s?tellite)." Just shy of ten minutes together, the tracks twist and turn through synthesizer "emitting hilariously sexual vibes," jazz-y bass, and a chantable hook."Labyrinth" dives down "a deeper rabbit hole" as warm guitar wraps around shimmering piano originally culled from Rick's school days."`Labyrinth' is one of the only pieces I wrote in my latter high school days," he recalls. "It's got this thematic relevance with the weird sense of humor, rambunctiousness, and partying from back in the day."As the first proper Goose song, "Spirit of the Dark Horse" originated after a "twelve-minute meditation" between Rick and Trevor back in 2015. It unfurls as a captivating trip in and of itself and "holds a lot of meaning." The same could be said of the album title. As legend has it, Shenanigans Nite Club really popped off in the eighties. Rick's uncle worked as a bouncer and manager for the iconic haunt and shared all manner of wild stories with his nephew. He even gave Rick a sign from the original club, which overlooks the basement where the boys jam."Shenanigans has always been around," Rick elaborates. "It became the idea of the record. It celebrates this element of nostalgia and good memories as we move forward."In the end, Goose chart their own course and ultimately encourage everyone else to do the same."In the end, our dream is to inspire people to step off the beaten path," Rick leaves off. "There are a lot of voices that tell you to play it safe. I think the coolest thing in the world is when someone breaks free and goes for whatever weird shit they dream of doing."

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Blending White & Orange Smash Vinyl Editoin

LP | 2022 | CZ | Reissue (Dais)

Release: 2022 / CZ – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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High Vis were formed in 2016 from the ashes of some of the UK's best hardcore bands. Gild-toothed frontman Graham Sayle's anguished lyrics about life in working class Britain were familiar to fans of Tremors' full-throttle thrash, but alongside his former bandmate Edward `Ski' Harper and veterans of Dirty Money, DiE and The Smear, High Vis sought to transform that energy and intensity into something entirely new.Like scene-mates Chubby and the Gang did by pulling in unlikely source material from classic doo-wop or Micromoon have by combining everything from psychedelia and metal into their high potency mix, High Vis' 2019 debut album, No Sense No Feeling showed the band were never going to be constrained by any sense of genre rules or regulations. Its claustrophobic rattle bore traces of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Crisis, The Cure and Gang Of Four lurking in the shadows. 2020's synth-driven EP, Society Exists, was further evidence of the band's restless creative MO.High Vis' second album Blending sees them open their viewfinder wider than ever before. Alongside longstanding favourites such as Fugazi and Echo and The Bunnymen; Ride and even Flock Of Seagulls were shared reference points as the band worked on the album together.From the anthemic sweep of opener "Talk For Hours", through the title track's psychedelic swirl and "Fever Dream"'s baggy groove, it sees High Vis' sound blossoming into something with an unlimited richness. The hazy drift of "Shame" or the melodic jangle of "Trauma Bonds" may take them until uncharted waters, but they still have all the power and bite that made No Sense No Feeling so remarkable.Lyrically, the album represents another leap forward too. Talking frankly about poverty, class politics, and the challenges of everyday life, Sayle's lyrics have always addressed the downtrodden and discarded communities across Britain slipping below the waterline. This time around, Sayle's lost not of that social consciousness, but he's looked at himself and his own emotional landscape, and in the process created something that feels more universal, that reaches a hand-out to people and ultimately gives a message of hope."To me, the lyrics are less selfish," reflects Sayle. "In the past, I couldn't see past whatever was going on with me. It's about accepting things and being open to conversations and learning to talk to people rather than just thinking that we're all doomed."The song "Talk for Hours" is a prime example of that. Born out of an afternoon meeting up with an old group of mates "repeating the same thing and not actually learning anything about each other" it offers to actually break the cycle and to listen and speak frankly about shared feelings and experiences. "Trauma Bonds", meanwhile, traces the broken lines of those living in lost communities, but ultimately realises that despite our shared scars, there's still hope to move on to a better future."The message of the album is you're not who you're told you are," Sayle summarises. "You're not your class background. Whatever it is, you're not that. Don't resign yourself to thinking you can't be this and you can't be that."It's a vitally important message right now, and one that could be the motto for not only Blending, but for High Vis themselves.

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Blending Black Marble Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | US | Reissue (Dais)

LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Sticky Buttons)

Release: 2022 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Carlos Fire Aguasvivas

Eclipse Of The City

21,99 €*

Love Is A Flame In The Dark

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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First ever repress of the sought after psychedelic tinged funk rock private press album 'Eclipse of the City' from 1980 New York. Originally recorded between 1975 and 1977 in Manhattan's garment district. Eclipse of the City lay dormant on a reel to reel player whilst frontman Carlos Fire Aguasvivas muddled through life working as a data entry clerk away from his fellow band members. It wasn't till he rediscovered the tapes that a sudden life affirming moment drove him to get the music pressed. Putting pen to paper Carlos created the artwork as a homage to his love of comic art and brought the band to life on the reverse with his spindly characters engrossed in the jam. Only 300 copies were pressed at the time leading to eye-watering prices for a copy. with a recent digital re-release from Indian Summer's Anthology Records, Sticky Buttons stepped up to repress the record with a limited run of 500, lovingly manufactured in the UK in all its vinyl glory.

Arriving in the Bronx from the civil unrest of Santo Domingo in the early 60's Aguasvivas was surrounded by the raucous sounds of rock, jazz and prog. Absorbing the humdrum atmosphere of life in New York, Eclipse of the City came from the minds of close friends Carlos Aguasvivas, Steve Garcia and Eddy Garcia. Meeting at Monroe High School the three of them quickly formed a strong bond over their shared interest in music. It wasn't long after that they began rehearsing in a basement under a neighbourhood cleaners and in the attic of Steve and Eddy's family home piecing together their extended sessions of tripped out cinematic psychedelia.

Recording got off to a rocky start as a car accident left the three band members in A&E after taking an early morning cab ride through Manhattan to watch the sunrise on their way into the studio (a theatrical artistic statement of intent conceived by Steve Garcia) - as Eddy mentioned "Eclipse was forged from a lot of pain". Their recording sessions were postponed but a few weeks later they were back and with the added energy of John Ortega on Bass and Vincent Anderson on electric piano and organ - with just a few microphones and a reel to reel recorder, Eclipse of the City was laid down as the stark bold homage to New York's downtown.

Influences ranged from the cinematic behemoth Jaws to the UK prog rock bands of Genesis, Yes and Emerson Lake & Palmer but only could Eclipse of the City take its unique form in the attics and basements of New York with the full band adding their Puerto Rican and Dominican slanted New York energy. Side one includes 3 fully formed tracks breaking out into eerie moments of calm before diving into well timed jolts of reprise as each element weaves over the top of one another whilst side two presents a 30 minute narrative work following the night adventures of a young group of friends exploring the vibrant nightlife of downtown New York. A rumbling half hour of wobbling guitar, tight drumming and synth organ licks jutting out from the glistening lights of the night before the sun rises down Manhattan's East-West axis as the lilt changes and the organ lulls the friends back home. A truly idiosyncratic take on the heady world of New York in the 70's and one that still resonates with our urban landscapes and love for the nights they bring today.

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Karl D'Silva

LP | 2024 | Original (Night School)

Every Acre Orange Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Love Is A Flame In The Dark is the debut album by experimental songwriter Karl D’Silva. A raw labour of love, a towering
spire of twisted steel, tenderness and becoming, it’s a body of songs that belies the virtuoso talents of an artist whose
reputation has been built on collaborating with various avant garde underground luminaries. Self-recorded at home in
Rotherham and pulsing with the conviction of a true believer, these songs burst out of their self-consciousness to meet life
head on, bristling with energy, 10 glimpses of the human spirit in the darkness.
Recorded throughout 2021 - 2023 and mixed in Leeds with engineer Ross Halden, D’Silva has constructed a Pop language for
himself. Mutated songs that owe a small debt to the post-Industrial music of Cabaret Voltaire, Nine Inch Nails and Coil,
they’re nonetheless powered by a vigorous tenderness, earnestness and D’Silva’s knack for melody. Each song is meticulously
sound-designed, using synthesised sounds created from scratch married with D’Silva’s virtuoso playing on saxophone and
guitar. The songs on Love Is A Flame In The Dark are unabashed, earnest love letters to living, requiems for a world fading away
and small gestures of solidarity in the face of entropy.
Until now, D’Silva’s fingerprints could be found on live dates with Thurston Moore, Oren Ambarchi, Hardcore pioneers Siege
and Rian Treanor as well as recordings by previous groups Trumpets Of Death and Drunk In Hell. Primarily associated with
the alto saxophone in his improvisation work, Love Is A Flame In The Dark features a dizzying array of instrumentation, all
played by D’Silva. D’Silva’s current membership of the group Vanishing may be a good touchstone for the dense, sonically
thrilling world-building on the album but the most striking instrument, perhaps, is D’Silva’s voice. With a soulful, rasping timbre
resulting from prolonged intubation as a new-born, his vocal is both fearless and tender. On the soaring, electronic body mover
Wild Kiss, thundering percussion is in service to Karl’s voice full of desire, arching up into a flayed falsetto. It’s a trick repeated
on Flowers Start To Cry, where it’s deployed against the backdrop of layers of ripping alto and thudding drum programming
that recall Nine Inch Nails’ visceral production, if they were covering a Prince hit. These songs capture the essence of 2024’s
Karl D’Silva music; pure physicality breaking down to reveal a shining, compassionate vulnerability.
The full breadth of Karl D’Silva’s instrumental prowess is in evidence from the off. On The Outside imagines blooming out of
personal apocalypse with a soundscape of synth, saxophone worthy of any late 60s Free Jazz blower and crushing sound
design. Entropy is planet-sized synth pop, Nowhere Left To Run uses midi-string orchestration to tell a story of light emerging
from the dark. It’s a theme picked up throughout the album: The Butcher is a political parable, the narrator holding power to
account with grotesque, brutal imagery. It’s on a track like Real Life that the true message emerges, however. D’Silva is peering
through the layers of artifice, struggle and the fog of daily living to find a life full of energy, connection and light. Each song here
is a route into this light, out of the darkness.

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H.C. Mcentire

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Merge)

Every Acre Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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If naming is a form of claiming, of being claimed, how is one tethered to both the physical landscape that surrounds us, as well as our own internal emotional landscape_at times calm, at times turbulent, and ever changing? H.C. McEntire's new album Every Acre grapples with those themes_themes that encompass grief, loss, and links to land and loved ones. And naming_claiming land, claiming self, being claimed by ancestry and heritage_permeates the hauntingly beautiful landscape that is this poignant collection of songs. The songs straddle the line between music and poetry. In "New View," McEntire cites poets "Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds"_fixtures in the world of writing, whose works are beacons of light over bleak horizons. The beginning of the song is backed by soft guitar plucks that fall on the downbeat and spangle like stars, and, throughout, guitar, bass, and drums swell together gently, mimicking ebbing and flowing tides under the moon. McEntire's voice (at once tender and fierce) intones the truth of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming: "Bend me, break me, split me right in two. Mend me, make me_I'll take more of you." Permeated by heartbeat-like drums, "Shadows" develops quiet ruminations on surrender and loss_reminiscing, moving on. This ponderous, dreamlike song asks the question of how "to make room." How does one make room, for self and for renewal and surrender, when it is so difficult to leave what you know behind? Playing with slivers of descending chromatics, along with the occasional downward-stepping bass, here McEntire yearns for home, and for nesting. Perhaps one of the more grief-stricken songs, "Rows of Clover" is a lamentation, one that touches on the loss of a "steadfast hound." The lone piano in the beginning of the song is rhythmically hymn-like. The stark verse arrangement gradually leads to a chorus that reads like a moody exhale, swollen with lush guitar strums and a Bill Withers-esque understated soul groove. But what stands out the most is an image of being "down on your knees, clawing at the garden"_the only explicit mention of a person in the song. "It ain't the easy kind of healing," sings McEntire, seemingly from further and further away as her voice echoes; and healing ta;kes time, time takes time_truths that linger painfully. "Dovetail" is a song that tells of various women. The song moves back and forth between solo piano and the addition of bass and drums under vocals. McEntire's gentle, trembling vibrato_harmonized in thirds in a celebratory manner_calls to mind a rejoicing psalm and shines through these images, leaving the listener cuttingly fraught with emotions_such as wonder, sadness, nostalgia_that can only arise with these juxtapositions. Gracious (and graceful) with its lilting melodies and lush harmonies, Every Acre ex - plores the acres of our physical and emotional homes. These songs are reaching for the kind of home that we all seek: one where we can rest and lay down (or tuck away) our burdens of loss. And maybe, moving through every acre of a world that often tries to tear our sense of identity and heritage down, McEntire sheds light on what it is to be human in this life_both stingy and gracious, both hurtful and kind.

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H.C. Mcentire

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Merge)

Psychic Ills - Songs For Tres Clear Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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V.A.

LP | 2022 | US | Original (Sacred Bones)

Glovemaker Red Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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On the tribute album Songs for Tres, Psychic Ills band members come together to commemorate the late Tres Warren who passed away just as the world turned upside down in March of 2020. Isolated, feeling helpless and lost by the death of her musical soul mate and collaborator of 18 years, bassist Elizabeth Hart found making music to be her only outlet in a time where people were unable to be physically together to mourn. So, she reached out to Adam Amram, Jon Catfish DeLorme and Brent Cordero, the main players in the Ills line up since the release of their last full length album Inner Journey Out (2016), to ask if they would embark on this cathartic journey with her. This was a different kind of production endeavor for Hart driven solely by "the aching need and urgency" to do something to honor her friend. Keeping the project in the Ills family, Hart produced the album alongside Iván Diaz Mathé, the long-time Psychic Ills sound engineer. The album consists of five original tracks and four cover songs. Initially, learning the covers was just a method for the musicians to "break the ice" and play together again for the first time without their band leader. However, those tracks became just as important to include as the originals because of their essential role in the process of coming together to make the album. The cover songs were chosen because of their unique connections to the band's memories of Warren. Dennis Wilson's "Rainbows" and Fleetwood Mac's "Station Man" come from two of Warren's favorite albums, Pacific Ocean Blue and Kiln House. The band also recorded Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons" and Powell St. John's "Right Track Now." The idea for the latter was suggested by Amram. Warren once sent him a clip of Roky Erikson singing a moving rendition of that song in the film Demon Angel and it had stuck with him ever since. Hart wrote "I'll Walk With You" on the day of Warrens' passing, at the time not knowing what it meant. When she got the call with the heartbreaking news, it became clear to her what the song was about. Relying on a gently lilting string arrangement to set the tone, this duet features Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval alongside Hart. Sandoval previously collaborated with Psychic Ills accompanying Warren on "I Don't Mind" (2016). The ideas for "Home" and "Walk Around," two other songs on the album by Hart, started simply with an acoustic guitar and lyrics, a hopeful exercise to connect with her lost friend. Brent Cordero's instrumental "Whole Lotta Piece of Mind" is nothing short of a transcendental experience. By running his pedal steel through a Leslie speaker, Jon Catfish DeLorme crafts the unique tone showcased on Wonderful Feeling, a moving example of studio experimentation combined with old school techniques. DeLorme describes it as "an attempt to highlight the musical experience I shared with Tres both sonically and thematically. What resulted is the unguarded exaltation I feel lucky to have shared with my fellow bandmates." Adam Amram's "Into the Sea" was composed spontaneously the week Warren passed. The melodic tune has a hopeful lightness and Amram describes it simply as "a song to my brother". Their connection shines through. A majority of the proceeds from the album will be donated to Raices, a charity who aids children who have been displaced at the Texas/Mexico Boarder.

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Loren Kramar

LP | 2024 | US | Original

32,99 €*

Glovemaker Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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If the Chateau Marmont could sing. This would be it. Loren Kramar's voice vibrates with the shameless hum of a room after a celebrity exits Ecstatic aspiration. Doubt. Proximity. Desire. The album "Glovemaker" is about the skins we craft to be seen by the world, and Loren reminds us that we are all in drag. All exposed. No matter what gloves we slip on. "I'm a slut for all my dreams", Loren Kramar sings with Patti Smith brashness, "I'm a whore for them, I've got more of them". Loren's lyrics move like tinsel, shimmering bravely, then just as quickly, curling, fragile under the spotlight. Loren has always been obsessed with fame. Not with famous people, but with the electricity that perverts attention - the crushing desire to be truly seen. And all of Loren, and this obsession, is in this album. He grew up in the Valley, forced to hide his Barbies from his father, so the closet was a gorgeous Spanish ranch house on a gilded cul-de-sac crawling with celebrities. Naturally this gay boy wanted to be a child star so his mother secretly shuttled him to tap and jazz and figure skating lessons. "I've got hands and feet to put in the concrete", Loren croons, in "Hollywood Blvd", a song which clangs with brawny bravado. But "Gay Angels" reminds us that Loren's infatuation with stardom is inextricably linked with his queerness and his own desire to live outside of fear. To be famous is to be out. To be known. To be himself. "Glovemaker has become a kind of code for art making itself. A glove as a covering or mask that follows the contours of the life beneath it. As a song and a symbol, this is an album about studying and tracing a life - and then sharing what's there," Loren says. And his desire to share truth feels urgent. To listen to Loren is to understand there is no choice; the songs must tear through the air right now. This very second. "I see myself tearing and splitting and becoming a trampoline", he belts in "No Man," breaking our hearts right alongside his. Part poet, part theatrical diva, Loren loops together the tragedy of breathing on this planet, because like Eartha Kitt or Cat Stevens, Loren is at his core - an incredible story teller. This whole album is a shrine, a mantle atop a blazing fire of life, spread with the memorabilia of Loren; all of the pain and lust dazzling on unabashed view. This is a songwriter's album. Loren's lyrics are all his, and you feel it with every bright, Maraschino-cherry-like word that falls from his lips. "Like a lover, You scream and I shatter, I hit like a hammer" Loren sings. And we get to feel what Loren feels We live in his brain, riding his genre bending emotions, on a wave of modern pop. And the songs lift, they are anthems of belief, "Hollywood Blvd", "I'm a Slut", "Euphemism", "Gay Angels", are all odes to triumphing over the corroding powers of fear and doubt. And on this ride, Loren's voice is the guard rail, ever eager to stretch and transform, belting, talk-singing, multiplying, keeping us safe. "Glovemaker" slaps and soars. The album is an ecstatic overture to love and loneliness, to dreams and promises, to everything Los Angeles dangles. Buckle up. Loren knows how to craft space, how to move us through darkened bars, strobing arenas, beige carpeted bungalows and yellow lit highways. "How do you like LA?" Loren asks. I hope you love it.

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Loren Kramar

LP | 2024 | US | Original

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Sub Pop)

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Corridor

Mimi Blue Vinyl Ediiton

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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You get older, you have a family, and you start to slow down-that's how things are supposed to go, right? Not for Montreal band Corridor, who have returned on their fourth album, Mimi, with a sound and style that's more widescreen and expansive than anything that's preceded it. The follow-up to 2019's Junior is a huge step forward for the band, as the members themselves have undergone the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time; even as these eight songs reflect a newfound and contemplative maturity, however, Corridor are branching out more than ever with richly detailed music, resulting in a record that feels like a fresh break for a band that's already established themselves as forward-thinkers. Mimi immediately recalls the best of the best when it comes to indie rock-Deerhunter's silvery atmospherics immediately come to mind, as well as the spiky effervescence of classic post-punk-but despite these easy comparisons, Corridor remain impossible to pin down from song to song, which makes Mimi all the more thrilling as a listen. "The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album-to build something in a new way," Robert explains. "This time, we took our time." And so in the summer of 2020, Corridor's members-Robert, vocalist/bassist Dominic Berthiaume, drummer Julien Bakvis, and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux-holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi's ultimate creation. Corridor tinkered with the songs' raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years, with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth (Dummy, Automatic) lending their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. The process was a byproduct of not having access to their rehearsal space due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but also a result of the four-piece leaning harder into incorporating electronic textures than on previous records. "For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that," Berthiaume states. Berthiaume also describes Mimi as a record about "getting older" and "figuring out new parts of life"-but despite any claims of transitional growing pains from the band, Mimi is a record bursting with new energy and life, a vibrance that's owed in no small part to Gougoux joining the band full-time after pitching in on live performances in the past. "I come more from a background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with the band more," he explains, and Mimi contains a distinct rhythmic pulse reminiscent of classic era-post-punk's own melding of dance and rock textures. Over bright, chiming guitars and ascending synths, Robert addresses his looming mortality on "Mourir Demain": "I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance," he laughs. With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, 'Oh shit, from now on I'm slowly starting to plan my death." Don't mistake this as music about dead ends, though, as Mimi embraces and champions unfettered creativity while paving a way for Corridor's own bright future. "We just focused on making a record that sounded the way we wanted," Gougoux exclaims while discussing the band's aims. "There were no limitations when it came to what was possible."

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Blending Transparent Cloudy Clear Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | US | Reissue (Dais)

Release: 2022 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Blending Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl Edition

LP | 2022 | US | Reissue (Dais)

Wild At Heart Red Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Noémie Wolfs

12" | 2023 | EU | Original (542 Label)

23,19 €* 28,99 € -20%

Good Luck Metallic Silver Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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On March 26, 2015, a surprising announcement sent shockwaves through the Belgian music scene. Noe?mie Wolfs declared her departure from Hooverphonic, the band she had fronted as the lead singer for over five years. She described it as the end of an incredible chapter in her life and expressed her desire to forge her own musical path, which she did by releasing her critically acclaimed debut album "Hunt You" a year later.

In February 2020, the long-anticipated second solo album by Noe?mie arrived, titled "Lonely Boy's Paradise," brimming with melancholic hues. Taking her time to craft and record this album, Noe?mie delivered a collection of songs that resonated even more deeply with her. At the production helm was Yello Staelens (also known as Yong Yello). With "Lonely Boy's Paradise," her confidence grew, allowing her to embrace risk and unconventional ideas. However, the international lockdown soon threw a spanner in the works, as the society shut down a day after her celebrated sold-out release show at the Ancienne Belgique. Rather than sit by, she therefore retreated to her home studio to work on new music.

Making music from the heart has always been in the DNA of Belgian singer Noémie Wolfs and yet this time it is a tad different as she's gearing up to release her third album, "Wild At Heart," in November. This time around, she joined forces again with her partner in crime, Simon Casier (of Balthazar and Zimmerman), to write and produce the album in their home studio. Despite being in the business for years, the upcoming project also immediately presented a challenge for her because this time she was involved both as a writer, but more importantly as a producer, giving the album an even more personal touch. Everything was done from an emotion or a vision, you notice and hear the love for enchanting arrangements immediately.

The ten tracks on "Wild At Heart" promise a distinct sound, enriched with meticulous attention to detail. The melodies are interwoven with dreamy, melancholic strings and an array of synths, revealing a new facet of Noémie's musical evolution. The new sound of Noémie evolved from a hip-hop-oriented use of samples on her second album "Lonely Boys Paradise" to a more electronic approach, where danceable beats with analog synths join forces with big orchestrated strings to capture the different facets of a love story.

"Strings are actually very hopeful or often form a warm blanket for many people, but can also be very frightening, oppressive, dark, and sad. It might even be my favourite instrument, which is why I definitely wanted to use them on this album. Sometimes you can even hear 42 violins at the same time, with which we wanted to capture the grandeur of Hollywood," she says about including strings.

The upcoming album is not a sonic continuation of her previous albums, but a deliberate exploration of what has always inspired her. "Wild At Heart" tells the story of two lovers who cannot live with each other, but also cannot live without each other. The dramaturgy of the album also reflects itself musically, which is immediately evident with the first single "Lonely Heart". In almost eight minutes, you feel the matchless passion in her music and her voice remains the narrative thread that makes you forget time and space around you for a moment. Noémie Wolfs' new music is therefore the perfect way to take a break from the daily grind and digs deep into all forms of romance.

"Wild At Heart" is Noémie Wolfs' reintroduction and her most personal project so far. For dreamers, lovers, and travelers.

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Debby Friday

LP | 2023 | US | Original (Sub Pop)

LP | 2022 | UK | Original (Kitchen Label)

Release: 2023 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The usual boom-and-bust cycles of growing up -- breaking down, gathering the strength to get up, fumbling hard, doing it all over again - can feel unmooring, to say the least, but, and according to Debby Friday, its tragedies and glories need savoring. Losing illusions, gaining expectations; getting deep into the private, soupy kaleidoscope of what's possible and what's futile -- Good Luck, her debut, and supernovic, full-length album, is built on welcoming the journey's complicated drops and mountain highs with something more like grace. Nigerian-born, then an emigré to bits of Canada - from Montreal to Vancouver to Toronto - Debby Friday's roamings through space and time really began when the sun fell. Nightlife was her emancipation from the toughness of home life, and she fell into it, body and soul, totally seduced. Raves til sunrise; house music in unknown basements and warehouses -- the lure of the party was the perfect escape. Things that feel good sometimes do fall apart, though. In 2017, after DJing for less than a year, nothing was going the way that she wanted it to go. So she gathered her things and embarked on what would turn out to be the first of a few of her coming-of-age stories. After making the decision to stop herself in her tracks, she pulverized new paths for herself forward. Late-night YouTube tutorials on music production led to an EP, Bitchpunk, and Bitchpunk led to her first public performances, and all that gave way to a second EP, Death Drive. Her art endowed her with the strength she needed to move on. "This is what I was born to do," she goes. "It came to me so naturally and instinctively." So what does it take to hone that power? Discipline - routines, rituals; an MFA, practices of writing and filmmaking, and music-making that guide a person from one day to the next - but something close to mysticism, too. Debby'S serious study of astrology, psychology, and philosophy allow her to move through the world, relate to others, and get closer to what's inside her. She believes in what emerges. She believes in making the unconscious conscious. She wants to be in dialogue with the darkness. It's why Good Luck works like such a study in entropy. On the surface, you'll hear smears of Santigold's dub dazzle, the MIDI-crush of Death Grips, but less obviously the plaintiveness of directors like Eric Rohmer, or the grotesque decadence of later-era Sylvia Plath. (Juno Award and Polaris Prize-nominated composer Graham Walsh adds a sort of heft and pull to the genre-flexibility on parade here: think of it a little like Sevdaliza meets FKA Twigs.) Few do it like her, though, and Good Luck spans from lucid, acid housey, high-BPM tracks to melancholia and darkness to striking falsetto pop with assuredness and aplomb. The album Good Luck is being co-released with a short film of the same name, co-directed by Friday and Nathan De Paz Habib (past work includes Eroica, based on Chino Amobi's novel of the same name). It's a story of individuation It's a love story about a woman and her masked beloved, but outside of the accompanying-but-stand-alone visual, it's all a willing, yearning investigation into what goes on behind the veil of sadness, of cruelty. Because knowing the darkness is the only way to understand the light, but also the greys and the blues and the in-between states. Friday's explorations in Good Luck -- delving down into the muck of nuance - are a kind of courage.

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Aspidistrafly

A Little Fable

Plastic Ono Band Deluxe Edition

Release: 2022 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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“I went mourning without the sun; I am a companion to owls.”

In the autumn/winter of 2010, Singapore-based April Lee and Ricks Ang of Aspidistrafly (also founders of Kitchen. Label) embarked on the recording of their second album A Little Fable in Japan in collaboration with several artists. Fascinated by the patina of time and themes of folklore, A Little Fable narrates a surrealist procession of tales, twelve compositions simmering one into the other lyrically and picturesquely. This album sees the duo returning to a warm, organic palette of closely-whispered vocals, fingerpicked guitar, string arrangements and their trademark texture-focused arrangements. Featuring guest collaborators Kyo Ichinose, Seigen Tokuzawa, haruka nakamura, Junya Yanagidaira (ironomi), honagayoko, Akira Kosemura, Janis Crunch and more.

A dusty bottom drawer of forgotten memoirs is unlocked, and the album opens with a mourning, solitary cello while a harmonium drone forebodes an oscillating motif of glockenspiel tones, or sprinkled stars if you will. In Landscape With A Fairy, a tale of loss and longing during the earliest dawn mist – the world in its daily transition – is daubed in the hues of intensified sunlight, foliage or shadows, only to be diffused and faded by time, not unlike Andrei Tarkovsky’s polaroids of the Russian countryside. April Lee’s intimate vocals and acoustic guitar gently break the silence of a cold morning, backed by graceful string flourishes arranged by Kyo Ichinose. Kitchen. Label’s very own haruka nakamura and Junya Yanagidaira (ironomi) add harmonizing colors of the guitar and piano respectively.

Tracing the mysterious migration routes of nocturnal animals, Homeward Waltz skips home along a breadcrumbed-path with ephemeral glimpses of forest sights, ornamented by violins and other curious sounds before fulminating into a amorphous guitar drone, as Seigen Tokuzawa’s improvised cello strokes drift and wander with split-second apparitions in the night sky. Sounds of wooden creaks and early morning spoon-in-coffee stirrings permeate the spontaneous atmosphere of Cocina. honagayoko’s quaint and chopped piano phrases waltz with spliced vocals and flute.

Emerging from the darkened foliage into a vast, cryptic hemisphere, the second half of the album teeters on the frailty and transitoriness of the world. A Little Fable’s voyage reaches a turning point by SEA OF Glass. Ricks Ang constructs a prolonged arpeggio of sonorous looping guitar motifs that float in and out of focus, reverberating almost like a narcotic percussion across tumultuous oceans. Now distanced and gauzy, sounds of surging waves open Countless White Moons in a misty indefiniteness, yet held together charmingly by Akira Kosemura’s luminous piano. The elusive narration in Language OF Flowers tells of a deliberate escape from the passage of time with a folkloric enchantress who wordlessly casts her spells. In Gensei, April Lee relates an unspoken anguish in her tender, wavering vibrato while Janis Crunch’s somber piano and chorus vocals loom like a harbinger of death. The last chapter Twinkling Fall, the second track to feature haruka nakamura, now shuts the drawer of secrets, dissipated monochrome colours restored once again to full bloom.

A Little Fable is available on CD and the digital format on 15th December 2011. The physical CD copy comes in a 48-page artbook edition (21 x 15cm) featuring photographs and collages by April Lee and Miu Nozaka, with styling by Rika M. Orrery, who have, from their expeditions during the making of this album, directed a dream sequence around the encompassing atmosphere of a secluded hilltop cottage, a forest hued in the splendor of autumn and distant, rocky shores.

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John Lennon

2LP | 1970 | EU | Reissue (Universal)

42,99 €*

A New Directive From The Bureau Of Compulsory Entertainment

Release: 1970 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Plastic Ono Band was the debut solo album by John Lennon. Released on December 11th 1970, John and Yoko had started writing and demoing at Abbey Road (emi Studios) in the summer, with recording sessions during September/October

After the break-up of The Beatles that year, John and Yoko embarked on a period of self-reflection and experimentation, with the results that the songs and sessions for Plastic Ono Band were heavily influenced by his immersion in Arthur Janov’s primal therapy. John was able to find emotional depth and honesty within himself that few artists had ever done before, with John saying to Rolling Stone “now I write all about me and that’s why I like it. It’s me.” . The result is perhaps the most honest and emotionally raw album that anyone has ever released, let alone someone who was one of the four most famous musicians on the planet. With a small core band comprised of just Ringo Starr on drums and old friend Klaus Voorman on bass, co-produced by Phil Spector, the album peaked at 8 in the UK charts and 6 in the USA. It has come to be regarded by many as John’s finest solo work and has continued to grow in stature and reverence and has often featured in various Best Of lists through the years since. Not only does this album feature some of John’s best-loved and most impactful songs – Mother, Working Class Hero, Isolation, God – but this new set also includes the singles Give Peace A Chance, Cold Turkey and the classic Instant Karma! (We All Shine On).

Released on the same day was Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band album, the couple regarding the release as a pair of albums rather than two entirely separate projects, albeit of course it not achieving the same sort of coverage or chart success as John’s.

Coming as this does hot on the heels of last year’s much loved and well-reviewed “Gimme Some Truth” set and “Imagine” before that, the audio has been completely remixed from the original studio tapes as part of the ongoing John Lennon Ultimate Mix series. The aim for this mix process is to achieve three things: to remain faithful and respectful to the original recordings; to ensure that the sound is sonically clearer overall and to increase the clarity of John’s vocals. As Yoko says, “it’s about John” and this new mix shows that it is his voice that brings the biggest emotional impact of the album.

This multi-format release included a Cd/bd Super Deluxe Box with 130 page book featuring many exclusive and new photos, track-by-track notes in the words of John and Yoko, lots of tape boxes and full breakdown and descriptions of the audio content. As well as the new Ultimate Mix, we have 5 further CD discs, each focusing on different and new aspects ,including: original outtakes, demos, Elements Mixes (focusing on individual aspects of the songs to reveal unheard elements), Evolution Mixes (the story of each song from demo to complete recording), Raw Mixes (unadorned studio takes that place you inside the room almost sitting alongside the band) and a further disc of studio Jams. There are two Blu-ray Audio discs that feature hi-res stereo (192/24) versions of all the above as well as surround mixes in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. Further material only available on BD includes the Yoko Ono Band/Plastic Ono Band Live Sessions from the original recording sessions and featuring Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman.

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Jonny Dillon

Tape | 2023 | EU | Original (All City Dublin)

13,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Habibi Funk)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Ace Cassette version (with 2 Extra Songs) of the recent LP from contemporary Irish guitarist Jonny Dillon. Beautifully recorded blues / folk guitar pieces. TIP!

Jonny Dillon’s debut acoustic album ‘Songs For A One-String Guitar’ took the listening public by surprise and the critics by storm when it dropped out of the blue on All-City in 2019. It represented a departure for an artist who was renowned for having the Midas touch when it came to coaxing dance floor fire from all manner of hardware. But fortune favours the brave and temporarily setting the machinery aside and following an acoustic path to the waterfall has already reaped rich rewards for Jonny Dillon. He’ll never say it in so many words but here’s a man on a mission: “Fail as I may, I have to go back and try again every time, to wait in hope for a glimpse of the spirit that hovers over the face of the deep, and to keep watch for the Light that shines in the darkness.”

The generosity of spirit which is the linchpin of all great music is something that can neither be cheaply conjured nor ever easily faked, god forbid. It’s the elusive emotional conductor in the spinal cord of sound - a foundational component of that mysterious feeling of connection we as listeners are seeking every time we put the needle on the record or press play on a song. The very essence of the thing we seek, in short. The holy grail. When sweet music hits, it’s the spirit that moves us and it’s both the source of the power within it as well as ultimately the place where it resides inside of us too, once heard. This is how music works. Journeying. Spirit to spirit. From the makers and dreamers of the dream to dreamers in general. The indomitable spirit inherent in the instrumental guitar compositions and distinctive finger picking style of Jonny Dillon is a case in point. This is spiritful music of a rarer kind made by an artist as inherently attuned to the troubling times we are living through as he is to the value of carving out new paths to the waterfall through the medium of sound on our behalf. Boom and there it is. Much needed guidance. A priceless new navigational tool of the imagination to help us all through the maze.

Just like the debut offering, this a path inherently worth following too, every step of the way. This time Jonny’s singular playing style finds true expression in a sound world expertly shaped by a master of the production craft, John ’Spud’ Murphy in Hellfire Studio. Masters at work, times two. Like all dream productions, it quickly assumes three dimensional proportions and becomes a place to go in and of itself, worth returning and retreating to, time and again. On A New Directive From The Bureau of Compulsory Entertaintment, his mode of expression is as clear and impactful as the immediate impression the sound makes on us. His is a strong game. He rises to the occasion and fulfils a great need on our part in so doing. We have to give thanks where it’s due. Balms for the soul are hardly two-a-penny in these challenging times but this is a timely one and of a lasting kind too. In stripping everything back and breaking his sound down into the bare component parts of reverberating steel strings on resonant wood, he has tapped into a kind of universal music of the spheres. It’s in tune with the times and more. Big picture sound with heart and soul to match. The iridescent sound he conjures from that same deep is a joyous thing to behold imbued as it is with a kind of light that never goes out. A dozen jewels adorn this timeless creation, each one a glimpse of eternity. They will shimmer forever. Man gets tired. Spirit don’t.

Dónal Dineen, January 2023.

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Maha

Orkos

LP | 2024 | EU | Original (Alien Transistor)

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Completely unknown album by Salah Ragab's Cairo Jazz Band vocalist Maha, recorded in Cairo in 1979. Features productions by Hany Shenoda of Al Massrieen. Maha’s “Orkos,” originally released on cassette, is one of these standout musical diamonds that combines Jazz and Egyptian vocal traditions with Funk, Latin and Soul.

Maha’s “Orkos” immediately catches your ear as a unique album. A strong and energetic voice, equally grounded in jazz as well as Egyptian vocal traditions, Maha sings over instrumentals that offer a wide palette of influences, sonically emblematic of the cultural changes that were occurring in the country. The album features rich compositions and productions by renown Egyptian musician Hany Shenoda, who’s group, Al Massrieen, Habibi Funk worked with in 2017 (the release led to sync placements in Hulu’s “Ramy” TV Series).

At the time of its release, however, the “Orkos” cassette quickly faded away among the growing number of releases populating the Egyptian musical soundscape. For more than 40 years, it sat in near obscurity before being given new life in the form of a properly licensed vinyl release. Habibi Funk and Disco Arabesquo are honored to play a part in sharing Maha’s story. Below is a bit more context around the release as well as the campaign schedule.

The arrival of the cassette brought a seismic shift in how music was produced and consumed around the world. Smaller bands and labels were able to release music without the logistical and financial barrier present in vinyl manufacturing. At the same time, in Egypt, a new crop of musicians and composers made their way into the scene, seeking to bring something fresh to what was perceived as the widely monophonic musical traditions of Egypt. Hany Shenoda, Mohamed Mounir, Magdy El Hossainy, Omar Korshid, Salah Ragab and Hamid El Shaeri are some names that come to mind. Many built their sounds combining their own musical upbringing with influences coming from the outside. The success of these projects varied widely, but for each there were numerous lesser-known bands and singers. Many of these often-short-lived projects would release their music on cassettes on tiny labels only to fade into the musical ether.

Maha’s “Orkos” album fits this category. Put out in a small run of cassettes, it’s fair to say that the singer’s sole recording outing was not a financial success when it was originally released by Egyptian label Sout El Hob in 1979. While it may not have found an engaged and open-eared audience upon its release, the first few bars of the album indicate this is a special, timeless album that transcends the musical boundaries that many artists were seeking to break through at the time.

From the funk sounds of “Law Laffeina El Ard” (Single 1, out September 1 with Pre-Order announcement); the moody, mellow sounds of “Kabl Ma Nessallem We Nemshy” (Single 2, out September 23) or “We Mesheet;” to excursions into Latin sounds in the title track “Orkos,” and disco with “Ana Gaya” (Album Focus Track, out October 10) the album is an amalgamation of genres that stands out from the immense creativity present in Egypt at the time.

We connected Maha in late 2021 and she was clearly surprised to have someone call about music she recorded more than 40 years ago. She also seemed interested in the idea in bringing her music back to people’s attention. A few weeks later we were speaking with our friend Moataz, who runs the Disco Arabesquo project and showed him this great new album we found and to our surprise he knew the album, having found a copy of it a year or two before, in Cairo. It was then obvious to team up for a collaboration for this project. You can find Moataz’s story about Maha and her music, as well as extensive interviews with Maha herself, in the booklet accompanying the release.

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o'summer vacation

Electronic Eye

Ecuatoriana - El Universo Paralelo

Release: 2024 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Readers of encyclopedic tomes are obviously familiar with exploding animals – there are numerous reports of torn-apart toads (even in Hamburg, Germany!), actual ants exploding altruistically – but humans that decide to jointly detonate, and with no harm done, that’s rare: Kobe’s own o'summer vacation are unique (and volatile) like that, and they’re back to light the fuse for the second time, presenting 13 more musical quarter sticks that have already blown up venues in Europe and Japan.

“Keep it lean, keep it mean,” they say, and that’s what this band loves to take to the extreme: breakneck concision and collective combustion meet freeform noise punk hazards on o'summer vacation's second (not quite) full-length – as the Kobe-based three-piece’s “Electronic Eye” is set to arrive on October 11, 2024. Following a bunch of trips to Berlin, Munich etc., the Japanese fire starters have found a new home with Alien Transistor, and it’s the perfect launch pad for their latest set of guitarless pyrotechnics. Going right for max q (maximum dynamic pressure), “Electronic Eye” is (unlike those Starships) actually supposed to explode right after lift-off ;)

Even though there have been some line-up changes since the group recorded its sophomore album, the energy caught by producer Shinji Masuko (dmbq, Boredoms) is still unmatched: a very physical and hard-knocking barrage of mosh-inducing madness that leaves you speechless + inevitably twitching towards the pit. Mastering was done by Masaki Oshima aka Watchman (Melt-Banana).

Opening with sizzling hi-hats and heavy ripples of breathless bass, singer Ami presents a non-sequitur kind of lullaby over the math rock-style interlocutions of “宿痾 (Shuku - A)” – which at 6+ minutes makes up more than a quarter of the album. A shapeshifting frenzy of voice (Ami), unbridled, pedal-powered bassline insanity (Mikkki, formerly Mikiiiii), and hot-blooded drums (Manu, meanwhile replaced by Karry), the album features mosh-inducing blows (previously released “Luna,” “Anti Christ 大体 Super Star”), 30-sec mini noise punk anthems (“竦(shou)”, “Days Go By Fast”), and continues to surf at breakneck pace up and down scales (“@ The”), which often feels like catharsis served with a hammer (“Ultra”). Whereas some tracks are bigger more song-y than others (“Song#2,” that full-throttle “Poodle”), “Vs I” is on time like Tierra Whack (exactly 60 seconds of pick-grinding action), and “Rage” indeed feels like Zack is about to join the party – only to see Ami wipe the floor with pure onomatopoetic fire. Finally, “Aloooooone” and “Humming” (that opening lilt!) are sure going to be live favorites, shifting up and down via hardcore speeds and various break-downs.

Quite hotheaded and terminating things on a high note, o'summer vacation point out that the quick-fire lyrics of their “songs have no meaning. It’s called onomatopoeia in English. Ami, our vocalist, does not like to communicate her thoughts through her music.” Although she considers her contribution “a part of the instrumentation,” they still have strong messages and concerns (unrest, discontent, willingness to shake, wake up, enliven anyone near the audible bomb crater): “That doesn’t mean we don’t have a point of view, but we choose to express ourselves through sound rather than words. Generally, but not exclusively, we are anti-racism, anti-war, gender-free, angry at the companies we work for and their bosses, etc., which are very common sentiments held by so-called rock bands.”

It’s only three ingredients, just like sonic gunpowder: bass, drums, voice – but they tend to explode a few bars into each new track. In a perfect world, there’d be giant colorful clouds of dust gracing the sky over each venue they descend upon.

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V.A.

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Analog Africa)

32,99 €*

LP | 2018 | US | Original (Innovative Leisure)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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On 12 February 1949 an angry mob stormed into the centre of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, burning the offices of the city’s main newspaper and its oldest radio station to the ground.

On that tragic day Radio Quito had just broadcast a local adaptation of H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds. The novel – first published in 1898 and famously adapted into a radio series by Orson Welles – is one of the earliest stories to depict a conflict between mankind and a hostile race of extra-terrestrials. The large audience - not understanding that it was pure fiction - believed that intergalactic intelligence had invaded the country as all hell broke loose. Thousands began running the streets of Quito looking for shelter, chaos broke out, causing a deadly stampede. People blamed the broadcaster for the tragedy, formed a dense crowd and stormed Radio Quito, setting it ablaze. Several musicians, who were there performing, were killed.

In the decades after the second world war, outer space was on everyone’s mind and the ‘space race’ of the 1950s and 60s not only produced groundbreaking efforts to launch artificial satellites, send space probes to Mars and land a human on the moon, it also had a huge impact on the movie and music industry which was taking advantage of the world‘s fascination with space voyages and lunar missions to create instruments capable of mimicking imaginary interstellar sounds. These synthesised space effects that captivated the imagination of a whole generation of young Ecuadoreans coincided with a period in which workers and musicians from the provinces started flocking to Quito and to the commercial port of Guayaquil, some hoping to find regular work, others looking to break into the musical big leagues by getting hired by one of the prestigious urban radio station. These artists brought riches of rhythms to the major Ecuadorian cities who would soon witness the explosion of what would be known as “Andean Cumbia”.

That fusion, of tropical electronics mixed in with Andean melodies and lyrics describing the cruel reality of migrant workers, achieved massive success. And so while budding Ecuadorian UFOlogy lead to widespread extraterrestrial sightings, Ecuadorian musicians began released various albums consisting of traditional music combined with synthesisers in order to bring their traditional music into the space age. One of these musicians is Polibio Mayorga who had travelled 160km from his hometown of Chisalata to Quito where he showcased his talent as he championed the art of modernising his region’s ancestral rhythms - Huaynito, Sanjuanito, Albazo and many others - using the latest in electronic instruments.

After 4 years with Los Locos del Ritmo, one of Ecuador’s most popular bands, Polibio joined Fadisa (Fabrica De Discos S.A) in 1973 as a solo musician and songwriter before becoming their musical director a year later. While there he would team up with saxophonist extraordinaire Olmedo Torres, and for 10 years they would compose and arrange hits, not only for themselves but also for their fellow artists in the Fadisa family. Although Fadisa had countless labels in their roster, the jewel in their crown was Rondador and it was on that imprint that Polibio would release “Ponchito de Colores” and his famous album “La Farra Está Aquí”. With their novel use of Moog synthesiser, both become huge hit records and were broadcast constantly by Cosmopolita and Marañón de Quito – the two major radio stations of the capital. This led to a surge of interest in Andean cumbia, and the subsequent record sales helped to revive the country’s flagging music industry, turning Polibio into Ecuador’s most influential musician.

Polibio has never considered his music to be “tropical psychedelia” - although he thinks it would make a good name for a band. He has the sense of humour of a genius and the ability to make anyone laugh, yet he remains discreet, eloquent and humble … but as a musician he is daring and visionary, with an intrepid, vigorous style almost impossible to imitate. More than perhaps any of his peers, Polibio Mayorga established a unique place for himself at the vanguard of tropical music.

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The Molochs

Flowers In The Spring

23,99 €*

LP | 2024 | US | Original (Merge)

Release: 2018 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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First, let’s meet back up with the Molochs—you remember them, right? Their America’s
Velvet Glory was the earliest burst of light and energy to hit in 2017, an album of electrified
rock ‘n’ roll like Dylan and Lou Reed by a band named after the Ginsberg-ian glutton god
who demanded the sacrifice of all things good and pure. But now it’s 2018 and Moloch
himself is fatter and happier than ever, so the Molochs couldn’t just make another record.
After Glory showed the world who they were, they needed to make an album that showed
what they could do. So Flowers In The Spring is where the Molochs worked harder, thought
harder and fought harder to be the kind of band that the times demand: “I like to think the
world just needs some good solid songs out there,” founder Lucas Fitzsimons says. “It’s
simple. It’s not easy … but it’s simple.”
America’s Velvet Glory, their first-ever record for L.A.’s Innovative Leisure label, had sparked
their first-ever U.S and European tours, first-ever festival sets, first-ever international press
and more. (Top music mag Mojo even said they’d made one of the year’s best albums—“Any
year!”) Follow-up Flowers bloomed almost exactly a year later at Long Beach’s Jazzcats
studio between December of 2017 and January of 2018, where Fitzsimons and longtime
band member Ryan Foster had recorded Glory. By the time they’d returned, they had a slate
of songs that had come to Fitzsimons in flash moments, written on nerve-wracking
transcontinental flights or on isolated nights in an L.A. apartment, captured at once in bursts
of insight or rescued from almost-abandonment in discarded notebooks.
As on Glory, inspiration from Syd Barrett, Dylan, Nikki Sudden and kindred spirit Peter Perrett
of the Only Ones was at work, but the Molochs are endlessly (appropriately?) ravenous when
it comes to things to read and listen to and learn from. On Flowers they’d refine and
recombine their sound, working in that long tradition of poets who cover (or discover)
themselves in pop songs. “To Kick In A Lover’s Door” blows Flowers open with the wit and
precision of the Go-Betweens, and “I Wanna Say To You” draws more from some of
Creation Records’ dreamiest dreamers than it does from any esoteric 60s howlers. “Flowers
In The Spring” and “Pages Of Your Journal” could be two lost Kinks singles from two
different Kinks eras—that Ray Davies-ian venom stays the same, of course—and the
charming/disarming “Too Lost In Love” makes feeling down sound like cheering up, just like
the Clean did.
Yes, they do have their first-ever string section here, and that could confuse some people.
(“People go, ‘Wow, it sounds more mature.’” says Fitzsimons. “What kind of boring shit is
that?”) But Flowers isn’t a grown-up album or a show-off album or a break-up album or a
just-had-to-make-another-album album because the Molochs don’t pick targets that tiny.
Love and disgrace and life and death blur and bleed into each other, but at the core of
Flowers is a story about standing against the inhuman by being more human, however
messily honest that needs to be. (Or like Fitzsimons sings at the end of the record: beware
that “determination by a whole / to destroy the human soul.” Funny how that comes in a
song where he claims he can’t explain everything that happens to him, because he sort of
just did.) So consider their new Flowers In The Spring a meticulously plotted counterattack
against all things Moloch-ian, with clear, concise, immediate, undeniable, simple, direct pop
songs, says Fitzsimons, each sharpened enough to cut through anything it touched. That’s
what he needed to do, he says, because that’s what felt most true. Maybe it really was that
simple, even if it wasn’t easy. Like he’d explain in a song with just seven words: “There’s
something I wanna say to you.”

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Mary Timothy

Untame The Tiger

Next Wave Acid Punx Deux - Chapter 2

Release: 2024 / US – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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For more than 30 years, singer-songwriter and guitar hero Mary Timony has cut a distinctive path through the world of independent music, most recently as vocalist and guitarist of acclaimed garage-pop power trio Ex Hex (Merge) but also as a member of seminal postpunk band Autoclave (Dischord), celebrated leader of the deeply influential Helium (Matador), multifaceted solo artist (Matador, Lookout!, Kill Rock Stars), and a co-founder of supergroup Wild Flag (Merge). Described by Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein as "Mary Shelley with a guitar" and dubbed "a trailblazer and an innovator" by Lindsey Jordan a.k.a. Snail Mail, Timony has distinguished herself as one of her generation's most influential. Although she has remained a cult hero and critical favorite since the early '90s, Timony's many triumphs have long been counterbalanced by crippling doubt and self-nullification. Her fifth solo album, Untame the Tiger, approaches these emotions head on. Her first solo release in 15 years is a startling document of an artist fully coming into her own power during the fourth decade of her career. It is the product of lessons learned during life-altering struggle. The mystical, acoustic-driven Untame the Tiger emerged after the dissolution of a long-term relationship and was bookended by the deaths of Timony's father and mother. The album was recorded during a two-year period during which she was the primary caregiver for her ailing parents. The tectonic psychic shift Mary experienced due to this loss informs many of her lyrics. Standout track "No Thirds" "is a song about losing everything and having to keep on going," says Timony. "I wanted the verses to sound like a wide-open barren space, like driving across a desert, because that is what the song is about - losing people and the feeling that your future is a giant, wide-open blank space." The stripped-back acoustic instrumentation of "The Guest" conjures Sweetheart-era Byrds. Timony describes it as a song sung directly to loneliness: "I was imagining loneliness as a house guest who keeps knocking on your door. I thought it would be funny to say loneliness is the only one who always comes back." Untame the Tiger does not eschew Timony's guitar hero reputation; in fact, "Summer" relishes in it, a straight-up banger that you'd be half tempted to call "no frills" until its initial garage rock stomp breaks into the unexpected bliss of a twin guitar solo conclusion. "I wanted the recording to have the energy of the Kinks, early Dio and Elf, or Rory Gallagher," she explains. "I was also listening to a lot of Gerry Rafferty's first solo album and was inspired to have two simultaneous guitar solos." Untame the Tiger picks up the thread woven through Timony's freak-folk-anticipating solo albums of the early '00s. Basic tracks were recorded at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, with Timony backed by Dave Mattacks, drummer of legendary British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. "Mattacks is a hero of mine and one of my favorite musicians of all time. He is a true legend. I never in a million years thought he'd agree to play on my record," says Timony. "Before the session, I had a panic attack and had to go sit alone in the parking lot_ Once we started playing together, it felt so great that the fear subsided and turned into excitement. His playing felt instantly familiar, which makes sense because it's the foundation of many of my favorite records." Untame the Tiger was produced by Mary Timony, Joe Wong, and Dennis Kane. The album was recorded over the course of two years at Studio 606, Magpie Cage, 38North, and in Mary's basement Additional engineering by J. Robbins (Jawbox, Burning Airlines). Musicians include Chad Molter (Faraquet, Medications), David Christian (Karen O, Hospitality), and Brian Betancourt (Cass McCombs, Devendra Banhart, Hospitality). The album was mixed by Dave Fridmann (mgmt, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), Dennis Kane, and John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, Waxahatchee).

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Curses

2LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Eskimo)

LP | 1993 | UK | Reissue (Mute)

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Next Wave Acid Punx Deux is the second compilation for Eskimo Recordings compiled and curated by Berlin-based Musician and DJ Luca Venezia, aka Curses, to explore the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs Next Wave Acid Punx Deux features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial.

Where the first Next Wave Acid Punx compilation was a personal journey for Luca, a lockdown inspired exploration of his record collection to find the thread that ran through the music that had soundtracked much of his life, Deux is a celebration of that music let loose on the world, the thrill of music performed live, the smoke and strobe filled clubs you'll hear it in and the artists you'll find on those stages.

"After our enforced break, getting back out there and playing live again really brought home to me so much of what I love about the scene I'm in but also just how important live music has been and is to club culture over the years," Luca explains. "Too often we think of club nights and live gigs as these separate things, but throughout the years it's where the two meet, the friction that can cause, that you'll find the most vibrant scenes."

"There's an energy, an atmosphere that you get with live music, an unpredictability where at any moment something can go wrong or even better right in a way you never expect. I think about a live set we played at a Lebanese festival where our MPC drum machine froze up because of all the dust and sand trapped in the pads. We had to improvise half our set, jamming bass and guitar and pedal FX and vocals, embracing this surreal environment and experience, something that could only happen in the moment."

"With Next Wave Acid Punx Deux I wanted to celebrate those bands and artists, past and present who, to me, represent that spirit. Both full live bands and makeshift electronic duos alike, the kind of acts that you might have found wedged between DJs back in the day at The Hacienda in the 80s, Trash in the 00s or today at nights like Berlin's Milk ME, Exbtn in Paris, Night Terrors + Sc&p in London, New York City's Synthicide or Ukraine's Worn Pop.

So I've put this compilation together much like my favourite kind of night, going out to see some bands play, hitting up a club where live music and DJs blur together, before the serious business of the after party. On Chapter 1 you'll find bands like Vicious Pink, DAF and Cabaret Voltaire, some of these acts are more obscure than others, some flirted with pop and even the charts but they were all embracing new ways of working in the late 70s and 80s that both set them apart and set the scene for much of what we think of as club music.

Chapter 2 moves the night on, and this is the sound of the clubs I love to both play and just hang out in these days, clubs where the people involved put a lot more time into digging through the crates than working on their Instagram Reels. These are places where you're as likely to find a band on stage as you are a DJ, where 80's German electro pop by a band like Boytronic seamlessly flows into tracks like Silent Servant's Non Fiction. Timeless music that can be romantic, dreamlike and ethereal one moment, then veer into dark, industrial sounds the next.

Then finally we get to that part of the night where you probably should go home but if it's too late for good decisions there's still time for good music. Things are a bit wilder here, the drums a bit harder, the synths are more aggressive, tracks like The Hacker's Monopoly, Zanias' Tryptamine Palace or EVA's Industrial Hope that don't let up, don't let you go, just subjugate you to the beat and keep you there till you stumble out blinking into a new day."

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Inspiral Carpets

Devil Hopping

LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Jolly Roger)

Release: 1993 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Limited to 500 copies with obi strip. P-funk classic from 1978. Solo Album By Parliament/Funkadelic co-founder Fuzzy Haskins. Featuring a Tom Moulton Mixed Track. First ever vinyl reissue. Comes with insert/liner notes, A co-founder of the P-Funk movement, Clarence Eugene 'Fuzzy' Haskins was born in West Virginia in 1941 and started as a singer in the doo-wop vocal group The Parliaments, led by George Clinton in the late 1950s. He was a founding member of the groundbreaking and influential 1970s funk bands Parliament-funkadelic. Fuzzy Haskins toured and appeared on P-Funk albums as a singer, and occasionally as a guitarist, throughout the 1970s. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997.

Despite the success of Mothership Connection, Fuzzy Haskins was growing frustrated that his songs were no longer being featured on albums by Funkadelic and Parliament. He also watched as Bootsy Collins, a relative newcomer to the family, embarked upon a solo career. This added to Haskins’ frustration and at the height of P-Funk's popularity, Fuzzy left the ensemble to pursue a solo career.

Fuzzy Haskins released two landmark solo albums on Westbound Records: ‘A Whole Nother Thang’ in 1976 and ‘Radio Active’ in 1978. With his brand of earthy & heavyweight funk, Fuzzy Haskins’ solo works fits right in with many of the other great P-Funk side projects and was sampled by renowned artists and acts from the likes of Prince, The Prodigy, N.W.A and Fatboy Slim.

On the album we are presenting you today (Radio Active from 1978) you’ll find eight sublime tracks written (or co-written) by Mr. Haskins himself and recorded by Richard Becker at the legendary PAC 3 Recording Studios in Dearborn, Michigan where classic albums from Norman Feels and Dennis Coffey were born. One of the tracks (Woman) was personally mixed for the album by Tom Moulton (the originator of musical revolutions like ‘the remix’, ‘the breakdown section’ and the ‘12inch single vinyl format’).

Fuzzy switched between drums and guitar, while taking charge of the lead vocals and production, he was accompanied in the studio by an all-star musician line-up of P-Funk family members such as Jerome ‘Bigfoot’ Brailey (drums), Cordell ‘Boogie’ Mossom (bass), Gary Shider & Michael Hampton (guitars), Glen Goins (piano, drums & guitar)…and of course the fantastic Mr. Bernie Worrell on keyboards. Besides these Parliament/Funkadelic alumni, also present on the recordings are Bruce Nazarian (The Temptations) on Moog and Jazz pianist Gary Schunk (known for his collaborations with Marcus Belgrave & Wendell Harrison).

The result of all this musicianship was a record that oozed quality. Despite the quality of the music (and just like with ‘A Whole Nother Thang’) the album didn’t sell the vast quantities that were projected and didn’t reach the audience it deserved.

‘Radio Active’ is filled with keyboard-driven spacey funk, sharp hooks, popping bass-lines, JB styled soulful (yet sexy) vocals, a hint of disco, fantastic guitar build-ups and breaks that make you shake…a true gem that deserves a place in your record collection (mint vinyl copies are hard to find and pricey these days). If you are a Funkateer…this one’s for you!

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the First ever vinyl reissue of ‘Radio Active’ since 1978 (the year the record was originally released on Westbound Records).

This unique album comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition (strictly limited to 500 copies) with obi strip and features the original artwork created by virtuoso Ronald Edwards (known for his graphic work with Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, Fred Wesley, George Clinton, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, Fishbone…and countless others). To top it all off, this release also includes an insert featuring the original liner notes written in 1994 by renowned author and producer Rob Bowman (Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Marvin Gaye) who reflects on Fuzzy Haskins’ two solo albums. Released exclusively for Record Store Day 2022 (UK & Europe) and available in participating stores on April 23, 2022. This Rsd22 release is not available to stores located in the US. There will be a regular North American edition for this album coming out as well in May!

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Grave Digger

Symphony Of Death

LP | 2024 | UK | Original (Taxi Gauche)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The beginnings of Grave Digger date back to 1980. After various appearances at small festivals, the band recorded a song for the compilation album “Rock From Hell” in 1983. A year later, Grave Digger released their debut album “Heavy Metal Breakdown”, second album “Witch Hunter” in 1985. Then some changes happened in the line-up. Further festival appearances, a tour as the supporting act for Helloween, and a triple headlining tour with Celtic Frost and Helloween, followed before the release of the third album “War Games” in January 1986, still on Noise Records, as the previous ones. Then Uwe Lulis on guitar joined the band in 1987 and the band's name was changed to Digger, the name under which they released the album “Stronger Than Ever”. This album hardly had anything in common with the earlier music of Grave Digger. It was more an attempt to reach the masses with mainstream rock like that of Bon Jovi or Van Halen. The album flopped, as it was not readily accepted by fans nor the mainstream. As a result, Chris Boltendahl declared the break-up of the band at the end of 1987. However, the band partially reformed in 1991. Chris Boltendahl and Uwe Lulis, along with two newcomers, Tomi Göttlich and Jörg Michael (Rage, later in Running Wild, Stratovarius), released a comeback record, “The Reaper”, returning to the true roots of Grave Digger. “Symphony Of Death” followed in 1994, with the same line-up of “The Reaper”. In the meantime, Grave Digger, now with new drummer, Frank Ullrich, toured Germany, playing as the supporting act for Manowar. In 1995, the album “Heart Of Darkness” was released, considered one of the best of the band. In 1996, Stefan Arnold became the new drummer. This year also marked the release of the concept album “Tunes Of War”, which dealt with the early history of Scotland. The second album, “Knights Of The Cross”, with Jens Becker (Running Wild) on bass, was completed in 1997 and was about the rise and fall of the Knights Templar. The third and final part of the middle-age trilogy, “Excalibur” (1999), explored the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Shortly after the band embarked on a world tour and was joined by keyboardist Hans-Peter Katzenburg, who later became a permanent bandmember. In 2000, Grave Digger celebrated their 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, they performed a sold-out concert at the Zeche in Bochum. This concert marked a defining chapter in the band's history, as Uwe Lulis left the band shortly before the show due to both personal and business-related differences. A replacement was found in ex-Rage guitarist Manni Schmidt, who first appears in “The Grave Digger” (2001) with lyrics of the album inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's books. Their first live album, “Tunes Of Wacken”, was released in 2002. About a year later new album followed, entitled “Rheingold” inspired on the opera “Der Ring Der Nibelungen” by Richard Wagner. After the successful Rheingold-Tour the band recorded a new album, “The Last Supper” (2005). All these last 4 albums were released under Nuclear Blast. 2007 saw the release of “Liberty Or Death” (on Locomotive Records) and later that year, Grave Digger performed at the legendary Wacken Open Air. In October, a new member joined the Grave Digger family, Thilo Hermann (Running Wild) became the second guitarist. Grave Digger split with Locomotive, dealing with Napalm Records. “Ballads Of A Hangman” was released in the summer of 2009 entering the charts in Austria and Switzerland, it reached number 31 in the German Media Control Charts. Fueled by the tremendous feedback, they embarked on an extensive tour, also playing selected shows at numerous European festivals. Due to personal and musical differences, both guitarists Thilo Hermann and Manni Schmidt left the band, prior to entering the studio. Axel Ritt took over all guitar duties on “The Clans Will Rise Again.” With lyrics returning to the Scottish Highlands. To mark their 30th anniversary, Grave Digger invited many guests on stage at the Wacken Open Air 2010 to join in the celebration. The amazing reaction of the fans and the outstanding chemistry of those involved led to the fantastic double package “Ballad Of Mary” and “The Clans Are Still Marching”. On their latest album “Clash of the Titans”, Grave Digger entered the legendary realm of Ancient Greek and its gods and creatures. After this release the band recorded, always for Napalm Records, 3 more albums "Return of the Reaper", "Healed by Metal", "The Living Dead" and "Exhumation, The Early Years" compilation.The new recording is planned for 2020. With this long discography in over 35 years of career, Grave Digger shows to be one of the most longeval and appreciated band devoted to classic and old school HM.

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Laena Myers

Luv (Songs Of Yesterday)

21,99 €*

LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Elevation)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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On 23 February 2024 wildly creative free-form L.A. singer-songwriter and multi instrumentalist Laena Myers is set to release her highly anticipated debut solo album, ‘luv (Songs Of Yesterday)’. Released on Taxi Gauche Records, the 11-track collection is the first to feature the genre-spanning composer, in-demand session player/singer and classically trained violinist putting her own name to her recordings.

Formerly known as Laena Geronimo and L.M.I. / Laena Myers-Ionita, Laena is perhaps best known as lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of critically-acclaimed and internationally touring rockers Feels, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. She’s also known for her time as bassist for goth-punk band Numb.er as well as the Motown-inspired pop outfit The Like, and as the go-to-violinist for a myriad of artists from the L.A. music scene and beyond - contributing to released recordings by John Frusciante, Jhené Aiko, Ty Segall, Shannon Lay and The Allah Las to name a few.

Describing herself as “An awkward, shy kid who played in the Jr. Philharmonic Orchestra of California and wore headphones blasting NIN, The Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth all the time”, Laena cut her teeth in a busking band, performing purely improvised

material on street corners in Hollywood and spent the entirety of her young adulthood as a supporting player in countless L.A. bands - at times as many as five simultaneously, while working full time and sleeping in her car during lunch breaks.

Inspired as much by the soft weight of Hope Sandoval and Patsy Cline’s dramatic powers, Patti Smith’s poetic punk and Nico’s avant-garde musings as she is by contemporaries like Angel Olsen, Aldous Harding and Cate LeBon, her musical roots run deep. She is the daughter of American drummer Alan Myers (devo, Skyline Electric, Jean Paul Yamamoto) and Romanian singer/songwriter and visual artist Greta Ionita (Babooshka).

As a solo artist, Laena's punk background of guitar-based songwriting and swagger merges with her innovative classical/experimental roots and love for singing ballads, and this is shown throughout ‘luv (Songs Of Yesterday’), leading to a depth of emotion that cuts to the heart of even the most hardened, revealing a more tender side to her vocal and lyrical prowess over lush string arrangements.

The album’s opening track ‘luv’, with it’s only lyrics “When I say I’m in love you best believe I mean love L.U.V.” is a nod to The Shangri-Las and New York Dolls, and was used to evocatively soundtrack fashion brand CELINE’s Spring 2020 campaign. “Half the songs on the album are about relationships in which I thought I was in love - true love - but it turned out to be something else”, Laena explains, “so ‘luv (Songs of Yesterday)’ seemed a fitting title: sounded like love, looked like love, but it wasn’t real love.”

“The overarching theme of the album is strength in vulnerability” Laena explains, “it’s a collection of songs that were too personal and dreamy for Feels, songs of haunted love, melancholy and hope, selected and woven together with instrumental segues and field recordings into a whole experience.”

The record’s first single, ‘Give ‘Em Hell’, written six months after her father passed away, is about keeping the flame alive and having the courage to believe in yourself. “We were very close” she says. “One night before I got on stage he stopped me and said “Give ‘em hell, kid”, and this phrase has become a mantra to me, to not hold back and give it my ALL. Many of these songs come from heavy times”, she continues, “but there is always the glimmer of a brighter tomorrow. Reach out when you need to, move through the gears and you’ll come out the other side.”

The songs contained in ‘luv (Songs Of Yesterday)’ are picked from over the course of a decade, written purely from a place of honest expression and filled with texture, depth, and meaning. They were recorded between tours mostly in sweltering summer bedrooms by friend and co-producer Scott Cornish (Angel Olsen, Big Thief, No Age), and mixed during the pandemic. The album features Laena’s vocals, guitar, bass, and violin playing and huge-sounding, lush string arrangements supplemented with drums and percussion by Nick Murray (Cate Le Bon, White Fence, Thee Oh Sees), synths by Jeff Fribourg (Numb.er, Froth), lap steel by Cole Berliner (Kamikaze Palm Tree), and sax by Gabe Flores (Grave Flowers Bongo Band), as well as field recordings — birds singing at daybreak, footsteps and bells making their way into a cave, the wind on a peak in Angeles National Forest.

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Gombloh

Sekar Mayhang

Take The Cake Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Gombloh’s forgotten masterpiece

What if you have Brian Wilson and Bruce Springsteen rolled into one? And what if he came of age as an poor buskers in in Surabaya, Indonesia, but then summoned enough strength to record six albums that flew in the face of everyone in the country’s rock scene back in the early 1980s?

Genius, be they Brian Wilson or Soedjarwoto “Soemarsono” Gombloh, don’t conform to rules written for us mere mortals. They have their own way of doing things and in the case of Gombloh, writing music, conducting recording session and spending cash from his music, must be conducted on his own terms and his terms only. Studio time was expensive back in the early 1980s, yet Gombloh could be three-hour late for his session, and while engineers, session musicians and producers were jittery about the prospect of another botched session, Gombloh took his time for a nap before the recording begun.

Yet, some of his greatest works came into being in the wake of this napping session. Recording session for Sekar Mayang is no exception, despite the fact there’s foreboding sense of doom with Gombloh being unsure about the possibility of selling enough units to help his label break even. This is, after all, this is his last record with his band Lemon Tree’s. No one knew that Gombloh was operating with all his cylinders running and what came out of this Indra Record session, in the waning days of 1980, were some of the best compositions ever committed to magnetic tapes (to wax, if now you’re holding this on vinyl).

This is Gombloh at the peak of his creative genius. You can argue that his debut album Nadia & Atmospheer (what’s with the spelling mistake?) is the most sprawling and complex album (both sonically and thematically), but Sekar Mayang certainly had the best songs and I can make the argument that this album’s 10 songs are strong contenders for biggest hits in blues, country, psychedelic rock charts. “Prahoro & Prahoro” is one of those impossible song which appears to have sprung from a bottomless well of inspiration, encompassing King Crimson’s sprawling epic, Deep Purple’s deepest blues and Genesis’ most progressive tendencies. Or “Sekaring Jagat”, which begins as Lennon-McCartney lullaby before launching a thousand ships traveling to the end of the rainbow with children choir singing heavenly melodies backed by droning harpsichord and synclavier, while a buzzing Hammond B3 tightly locks with Gombloh’s guitar strumming.

For many of his fans, Gombloh is known as generous man of the people. A Robin Hood type if you please. He spent his royalty checks to buy foods for beggars and buskers and dish out some more to buy undergarments for Surabaya’s prostitutes. In Sekar Mayang, Gombloh went full Springsteen mode in “Mitra Becakan,” a social commentary that cut so deep you can end up with tears in your eyes and lump in your throat (even if you don’t understand any of its Javanese language lyrics). This is one the most devastating social commentary ever recorded for a pop song, and even if you discount the greatness of its musical composition, you chalk this up as a great social-realism poetry. His years of hanging out with pedicab drivers, street vendors and street-bound prostitutes certainly gave him enough insight into their (in)human condition.

Yet, a record this stellar was largely forgotten. First, this record was a flop upon its release in 1981. Indra Records reportedly only did one pressing on cassette tape and be done with it. For those who were lucky enough to have come across one of songs from this album on the radio were likely growing up in East Java, where Gombloh had a massive cult following early in the 1980s. Nothing was heard from this record again.

There were only a handful of cassette tapes from the first pressing found on second-hand market and I recently stumbled upon one online with a price tag of Rp 50 million (US$3,500). It’s no longer available now.

In Sekar Mayang, Gombloh harbours an obsession for a long-lost utopia, Java’s distant past, where farmers have their barn full of rice and corn, where blacksmith working around the clock making tools and children singing and dancing in their seminaries. Or the fact that he opens the song with stanza from Serat Weddhatama, arguably the most monumental poem in neo-classic Javanese literature, could be his pledge of allegiance. The question for him is should a modern-day Indonesia, rife with poverty, corruption and environmental degradation not be an anathema to that utopia?

In the end, you don’t need to be someone fluent in Javanese to enjoy this majestic record. And if this record turns out to be the last in Elevation Records catalogue and we shut down this label tomorrow, we will be very happy. Mission accomplished!

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Packs

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Fire Talk)

27,99 €*

U.F.O. Blue Splatter Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Toronto’s Packs make music that’s like leafing through a diary entry of a time without visible movement, a subtle beauty that appears only when paying close attention. A series of intriguing, lo-fi singles trickled out on Bandcamp, and on the strength of these demos alone the band began sharing stages with artists such as Odetta Hartman. Less a band that is a product of the internet than one whose quiet and acute observations make them impossible to be ignored, the quartet led by Madeline Link has carved out a growing space past the Canadian country lines where their initial demos were born. Written in two different settings, between the city limits of Toronto where Link was living in 2019, and the Ottawa suburbs where she was quarantined with her parents in the spring 2020, both remain complementary emblems of self-reflection and wry observation of the mundanity of daily life.

“The album is a meeting of old and new,” says Link. “Old songs from a year ago where I'm having really horrifyingly awful days at work, getting doored while biking in Toronto and flying into the middle of the street, or going on dates with guys who I'm either instantly in love with, or who end up creeping me out a bit. Those songs are more packed with that feeling of hurtling-through-time-and-space-at-breakneck-speed, manic energy. The newer songs are infused with a foggier, slower-paced disillusionment, and deal with the strangeness of a reality morphing before my eyes every day. I still try to be optimistic obviously, but these songs are really glorified coping mechanisms.”

Initially a solo songwriting project of Link’s that she pursued between gigs as a set dresser for commercials, the band blossomed into a four piece, composed of Shane Hooper (drums), Noah O’Neil (bass), and Dexter Nash (lead guitar). Anchored by Link’s voice, which brings such an easy charm to her songs that it’s easy to miss her keen ear for acrobatic vocal lines, together they turn Link’s melodically adventurous and introspective songs into the purest and brightest kind of indie rock. The band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wide-eyed wonder of the first Shins LP. It will be released in partnership with buzzy Brooklyn label Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mamalarky), and Toronto mainstays Royal Mountain (Alvvays, Wild Pink, Mac Demarco).

It’s an enchanting record with a transportive quality. The songs communicate Link’s perspective acutely, with details that stand out in their specificity yet feel naturally at ease with melody and a loose charm that make the album feel timeless, like one that could have emerged from any of a number of “golden ages of indie rock.” Packs’ songs have a way of creeping up on you, and showing new depth with each listen. Be it a subtle harmony, a zig-zagging melodic turn, or Link’s lyrics, which wring a commandeering poetry out of every-day building-blocks as she navigates the growing pains that linger beyond adolescence — finding your bearings after a breakup, feeling directionless, processing loss. “My guts are wrapped in clingfilm / my guts are wrapped up tight / and if you’re going to put me in your backpack I will putrefy” goes a particularly arresting lyric on “Clingfilm,” articulately describing in Link’s own incisive language the alienating experience of dating after a break-up Each razor-sharp nugget of wry wisdom depicts its own scene of sonic touchstones: on the dreamy “U Can Wish All You Want,” she sings about moving in with her sister and struggling to adjust to living in the city around a neatly subverted butterfly metaphor, where on “Two Hands” she poignantly describes the eeriness of walking around the neighborhood she grew up in after the world has changed around it, while in the same turn referencing the Simpsons.

Recently completing an artist residency in Mexico, Link’s aptitude and enthusiasm for a myriad of multidisciplinary subjects all trickles back to her overarching approach towards the subject matter she ruminates on in her songs. “While in Mexico, I constructed paper maché objects and documented myself destroying them. I also wrote and presented PowerPoint presentations juxtaposing the most disparate chain of research/ideas together to activate that part of your brain that’s constantly trying to make logical connections where there are none.” Call it world-building on a miniature scale: a more apt way to describe it would be a careful collaging, making sense of catastrophic loss and tiny signposts that point to something greater than the sum of its parts.

Throughout the chaos of everyday life, it’s impossible not to feel charmed by Link’s innate understanding of the little things that make the universe tick, and her sonic accompaniments make the simple task of getting from point A to B a journey that lends a little more spring to your step. Most daydreams feel less realistic; in Packs’ world the two are just what you make it. As society begins to open back up, Take the Cake is a reminder that sometimes a little gentle introspection is all we really need to get by.

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Jim Sullivan

LP | 1969 | US | Reissue (Light In The Attic)

32,99 €*

U.F.O. Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 1969 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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* Newly Remastered!* Ultra rare 1969 private press psych-folk-rock masterpiece – featuring the legendary Wrecking Crew (Beach Boys, Phil Spector) * Lacquers cut by John Golden Mastering * Plated at Record Technology Inc. (rti) * Includes deep booklet with liner notes by Andria Lisle, rare photos, archival materials and full lyrics (LP: 16-pgs, CD: 48-pgs) In March 1975, Jim Sullivan mysteriously disappeared outside Santa Rosa, New Mexico. His VW bug was found abandoned, his motel room untouched. Some think he got lost in the desert. Some think he fell foul of a local family with alleged mafia ties. Some think he was abducted by aliens.

By coincidence – or perhaps not – Jim’s 1969 debut album was titled U.F.O. Released in tiny numbers on a private label, it too was truly lost, until Seattle’s Light In The Attic Records begun a years-long quest to give it the full release it deserves – and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened.

For record collectors, some albums are considered impossible to get hold of, records so rare you could sit on eBay for years and not get a sniff of a copy. U.F.O. is one of those albums. A seventh son, Jim Sullivan was a West Coast should-have-been, an Irish-American former high school quarterback whose gift for storytelling earned him cult status in the Malibu bar where he performed nightly. Sullivan was always on the edge of fame; hanging out with movie stars like Harry Dean Stanton, performing on the Jose Feliciano show, even stealing a cameo in the ultimate hippie movie, Easy Rider.

Friend and actor Al Dobbs thought he could change all that, and founded a label – Monnie Records – to release Jim’s album, enlisting the assistance of Phil Spector’s legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew to do so. That’s Don Randi, Earl Palmer and Jimmy Bond you can hear, the latter also acting as producer and arranger.

U.F.O. was a different beast to the one-man-and-his-guitar stuff Jim had been doing on stage; instead, it was a fully realised album of scope and imagination, a folk-rock record with its head in the stratosphere. Sullivan’s voice is deep and expressive like Fred Neil with a weathered and worldly Americana sound like Joe South, pop songs that aren’t happy – but filled with despair. The album is punctuated with a string section (that recalls David Axelrod), other times a Wurlitzer piano provides the driving groove (as if Memphis great Jim Dickinson was running the show). U.F.O. is a slice of American pop music filtered from the murky depths of Los Angeles, by way of the deep south.

With no music industry contacts, the record went largely unnoticed, and Jim simply moved on, releasing a further album on the Playboy label in 1972. But by 1975, his marriage breaking up, Jim left, for Nashville and the promise of a new life as a sessioneer in the home of C&W. That’s where it gets hazy.

We know he was stopped by cops for swerving on the highway in Santa Rosa, some 15 hours after setting off. We know he was taken to a local police station, found to be sober, and told to go to the local La Mesa Motel to get some rest, which he did. Some time later, his car was spotted on a ranch belonging to the local Genetti family, who confronted him about his business there. The next day his car was found 26 miles down the road, abandoned. His car and his hotel room contained, among other things, his twelve-string guitar, his wallet, his clothes and several copies of his second album, but no note, and no Jim. It was as if he had simply vanished into thin air.

Jim’s family travelled out to join search parties looking for him, the local papers printed missing person stories, but the search proved fruitless. Around the same time, the local sheriff retired and the Genettis moved to Hawaii. Jim’s manager Robert “Buster” Ginter later stated that during the early morning hours of a long evening Jim and Buster were talking about what would you do if they had to disappear. Jim said he’d walk into the desert and never come back.

Tracking down the truth behind Jim’s mystery became an obsession of Light In The Attic’s Matt Sullivan (no relation) when he happened upon a copy of the album and fell in love. He took on a cross country pilgrimage in search of master tapes and truth, and came back with neither, despite hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes, private detectives, telepathy, palm readings and meetings with Jim’s wife, son and producer. Thanks to superb digital mastering techniques, Light In The Attic is still able to present a clean, near perfect copy of Jim’s masterpiece for general consumption for the first time. Enjoy. And remember, beyond the mystery, there’s the music.

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Jim Sullivan

LP | 1969 | US | Reissue (Light In The Attic)

LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Shapes Of Rhythm)

Release: 1969 / US – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Mldva & Cinar Timur

20,99 €*

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Proto)

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Shapes of Rhythm is proud to present the self-titled debut LP of Turkish psychedelic pop from Mldva & Çınar Timur. This record is a celebration of the classic music and culture typically of the 70s and 80s, but which also leans into western jazz funk and soul jazz moments. If you're into the Turkish music legends of the 70s and 80s such as Barış Manço and more recently Altın Gün or Derya Yıldırım & Grup Şimşek, you've come to the right place.
Mldva were formed in Krakow, Poland in 2013 as a DJ and production outfit. Under the influence of Greek and Turkish folk and psych-rock music they began to transform into a band, taking up instruments including the Saz which is one of the most recognisable trademarks of the Turkish sound. Two years later in 2015 they invited Turkish instrumentalist Çınar Timur to join them and this completes the line up on their debut. This electric album is packed with excellently-recorded expansive tracks which are full of energy, psychedelic deep grooves, hard-hitting breakbeats and everything else you'd expect with classic Turkish sounds.
The instrumental double-header of Neşat Erkaş' Zülüf Dökülmüş Yüze, moving into the time-honoured traditional Kozan Dağıis the perfect opening track. The introduction is an overture of sorts with two minutes of Çınar Timur's pondering guitar. This tees up the record perfectly before heading into a break-beat driven workout with the band matching Çınar's evocative and energetic riffing. The result is a tight sound and a heavy groove that sets the tone for what's to come.
With the band unveiled, Sarı Çizmeli Mehmet Ağa, written by Barış Manço (a legend in Turkish popular music), hits a relaxed, deeper and more psychedelic groove, dominated by Wojciech Długosz's dreamy Rhodes piano, set against choppy wah-wah guitar licks that characterize that classic electric Turkish pop sound. We're introduced to Ulaş Çıbuk's vocals for the first time, telling the historic tale of a charitable village lord Mehmet Ağa from 19c Anatolia known for his generosity. He shared his fortune with people inneed and as a result, died penniless. This track also features the unique sound of Çınar's Mictrotonal electric guitar.
Bir Adım Öte is Mldva & Çınar Timur's magnificent mellow moment, marking the halfway point in their debut. The group shows that it's not all about the frenetic in a nod to western Soul-Jazz constructs. They showcase restraint, emotion and that joy in repetition of a wonderful guitar refrain. Not content with holding this down, Wojciech Długosz's Rhodes solo steps into a world that's US-influenced Soul jazzand is a lesson in reduction and feeling. Çınar Timur then takes a solo turn, keeping it western-influenced with an on the spot improvisation. When the three minutes of solos are over, we're brought back out of thedream and towards the East again.
Adımız Miskindir Bizim kicks off like a hip hop/funk crossover tune, until the chord changes muscle in, to remind you where you are in the world. As with other tracks on the debut, the tune is marked by recurring motifs, this time from Çınar's microtonal electric guitar. We've more solo Rhodes action, thist ime busier and more urgent. The lyrics–originally written by Yunus Emre – criticizevalues such as holding grudges that destroy ideas of love, friendship and peace among people which causes hostility. Adımız Miskindir Bizim concludes with an uplifting vocal vamp which switches it up unlike any of thetracks on the LP.
In Fesupanallah– made most popular by Erkin Koray – Ulaş Çıbuk sings about the simple subject ofbeing patient with never ending problems in life, and trying to find a solution for them. This cut takes a rhythmical side-step to the rest of the album. The kick drum maps out a solid four-four, but the vocals and guitar lines move around it to impose Fesupanallah as being the record's most traditionally Turkish-sounding cut.
The album's closing track Ölüm Allah'ın Emri (another Manço classic) was recorded live in the band's more familiar surroundings of Krakow's Cheder Cafe during 2020's Jewish Culture Festival. The lyrics tell the tale of someone who has accepted death but cannot accept the separation that comes with it. We open with a dreamy, psychedelic mood before progressing into a heavy-riffing rock feeling with probing synths. Ulaş delivers his vocals over the top of a stripped back, shuffling groove. As the track progresses towards a frenetic conclusion, drummer Szymon Piotrowski cuts loose, combining with Grzegorz Dąbek's synth lines.
Mldva & Çınar Timur's debut LP is not the sound of a band starting out. Taking time to hone their craft and let influences across the global spectrum of music mature, this is the result of years of jamming, gigging and collaborating. Now, after prestigious festival appearances and their place on Saz Power – an essential modern Turkish music compilation – they're making a lasting contribution to a rich, time-honored culture. Mldva & Çınar Timur releases Friday 30 June 2023 on limited edition vinyl LP and digital download/streaming services on Shapes of Rhythm. Global distribution by Kudos Records.

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Big Mountain County

Klaus

15,99 €*

Fat Pop Standard Black Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Two years after the release of their last album Somewhere Else, BIG Mountain County releases a new EP. That's Klaus, the result of an evolution in sound and style that the band has carried out during the long months of forced absence from the scene. Unlike the past, the artistic production was in fact entirely in the hands of BIG Mountain County, which, never as this time, feel perfectly represented their soundscape in the tracks engraved on vinyl, available here from April 22. To open the dances there is (literally) What?, already released digitally last July. It is a song that, despite its attitude rooted in punk, is about artifice, about pushing the sounds to reach new landscapes. The super groovy bass lines, the crunchy drums, the connection between the synths and the vocals, raw, edgy but also refined and elaborate, push the band's style beyond the garage-psych overtones to which they have been associated. The lyrics are about a personal relationship, centered around someone very close who can turn into an unbearable person, leading us to a definitive reaction. But the song is also a vehicle for emotional release, so yell "What?" it becomes an indomitable will to move forward, to go through these absurd times that we are all living, a cry of anger against any kind of impediment. For What? was shot a video, released last July, signed by Paolo Sfirri. It follows the title-track THE Klaus Crossing, the unique track not yet unveiled. It is the track closest to the old production of BIG Mountain County, who speak of it as follows: “In such a "chaotic and fragile" period we need to dream even more strongly. On a heartbeat marked by the arpeggiator, a weave of guitars is being created to send the present to an other side, where we are stripped of material consistency and imagination takes the power. These days are too grey, some relationships are too worn out, there are no expectations, only the prospect of sinking. So we hurry: energies fade, time runs fast, but spring is just around the corner. And to be born it is necessary to die.” Side A is closed by Where ARE YOU?, released as a single in January. Here the contamination of psych sounds, exquisitely analog, with rhythmic and melodic lines with a more synthetic flavor is evident. Over a skeleton of a reiterated rhythm that is not afraid to refer explicitly to the krautrock of Can, we hear guitars and synthetic riffs that remain around Berlin, but look towards California, remembering The Brian Jonestown Massacre. In the middle of this combination, a synthetic arpeggio breaks in, to soon gets stuck in the pressing rhythm, and finally get confused in the closing explosion, BIG Mountain County's trademark. The band's "flirt" with Berlin and California doesn't end with the A-side. Side B, in fact, features the two remixes of Where ARE YOU?, both already released digitally last March. The first one is signed by AL Lover, , cult name of the international psych scene, known for his unique approach to psychedelic and experimental electronic music. Already author of remixes for bands such as Thee Oh Sees and Night Beats, he has collaborated with several labels (Stolen Body Records, The Reverberation Appreciation Society, Fuzz Club Records, Hoga Nord Rekords, Pnkslm Records and Crash Symbols) and artists such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre, White Fence, Goat and Cairo Liberation Front. He has also been the official DJ for festivals such as Levitation and Desert Daze. When Big Mountain County approached the California-based producer about remixing Where ARE YOU?, these were his words: "I really love this track! Been jamming it loud! I love the vibe of the original track and the production value. I tried to preserve some of those elements but with a different twist. I was able to sit down with this over the last few days. Really digging the results, I went with a mix of krautrock / shoegaze / chopped and screwed trip hop vibes." The result doesn't betray his words, but according to the band it goes even further: “The Californian producer Al Lover puts the music of Big Mountain County on film. He projects it on the big screen, cleverly uses photography and rewrites the plot with a very personal editing. Colors of the East, no longer intended as a lysergic space, but as a chaotic traffic of men, vehicles and animals on any given day in the Indian subcontinent (in Mumbai). In this marasmus the echo of what has been, or what could be, is there to re-propose the question that led to writing the screenplay: "Where are you?”. With the second remix, which closes out the EP, Big Mountain County are infected with a tropical disease in this remix masterfully produced by Tropicantesimo, aka UGO Sanchez, metropolitan prophet of slow rhythms and star of nights with no end, if not in hallucinated dawns front of the sea. Big Mountain County talks about it like this: “Here, more than hangover, that's "saudade" . So, the sense of lack becomes a curse - How does it feel to live so far away for me? - to be shouted, shared and cried. But outside, in some crowded city in the South of the world, it's Carnival and Summer is still there to be lived and danced, perhaps at a slower and more rhythmic pace.” An experiment, that of the remix of their songs, long in the band's wish book, finally fulfilled by Hugo Sanchez, cult Rome-based DJ and producer, recently protagonist of the recording declination of Tropicantesimo, a musical ritual dilated in time, through the celebration of sound and dance. This is a party, which over the years has become a real experience of listening, sharing and discovery out of time and space, finding home among the records and recordings of Pescheria, space-studio, but also record project, which sees Hugo Sanchez at the center of a collective of artists of various forms, musical, visual and sound installation. After having premiered two tracks by Klaus at the last Esns in Groningen (nl), Big Mountain County will return to play from April 23rd, in a tour with more than twenty gigs in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and UK. In July they will be back in Berlin for the Fusion Festival 2022.

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Paul Weller

LP | 2021 | EU | Original (Polydor)

Fat Pop Limited Standard CD

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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We may be cursed to be in the midst a global pandemic, buffeted by all of its stresses and pain. But everyone knows that art provides succour, that music is the most reliable balm. And for many there is further significant comfort to be drawn from the knowledge that Paul Weller is in the midst of an unbelievably prolific purple patch. Paul Weller will not let us down when we need him most.

On May 14th, Paul Weller releases his 16th solo album since his self-titled debut in 1992, his fourth in as many years and his second in just under twelve months following June 2020’s magnificent, chart-topping On Sunset. It’s not hyperbole to state that this new album, titled Fat Pop (Volume 1), is among his most compelling collections, bar none, including all of his era-defining work in the 1970s and ‘80s with The Jam and The Style Council. It’s an absolute scorcher.

When lockdown was declared in March 2020, Paul Weller decided immediately that he wanted something to focus on, since it seemed unlikely he’d be able to tour On Sunset as planned that summer.

“I had lots of ideas stored up on my phone,” he explains down that same handset, speaking from outside his London home, “and at least this gave me an opportunity to develop them.” So he started to record songs on his own, doing just vocals, piano and guitar, then sending those sound files to his core band members such as drummer Ben Gordelier, Steve Cradock on guitar and various other instruments, and bassist Andy Crofts for them to add their parts. “It was a bit weird not being together, but at least it kept the wheels rolling. I’d have gone potty otherwise.”

The band reconvened at Weller’s Black Barn studio in Surrey during the summer when restrictions were lifted to finish the work, with several of the songs being cut live. By this stage, the shape of the album was clear to all. Weller wanted to deliver an album of singles, twelve short, distinct blasts, each strong enough that they could stand alone if so desired.

“That was a conscious decision,” he confirms. “I even thought about putting every song out as a single first then gathering them all on an album, but that wasn’t practical at the moment. They all have that strength and immediacy, I think, and they’re all short, three minutes or so maximum.”

Producer Jan ‘Stan’ Kybert was so taken with the concept that he half-jokingly suggested that the album be called Greatest Hits. “I quite liked the idea and every song does stand up as a single, I think,” chuckles Weller, “but no, we couldn’t do that really.”

Instead, he plumped for Fat Pop (Volume 1). “I thought we’d add Volume 1 to it just to keep my options open in the future for a second volume!” The title track, a tight, heavy blast of ultra-modern funk, is itself the conceptual key to the whole album. “It’s a celebration of music and what it’s given us all. No matter what situation you are in, and we’re in one now, music doesn’t let you down, does it?”

As ever, Weller’s sonic masterplan was to avoid whatever had recently preceded it. “After [2018’s] True Meanings I thought I wouldn’t have any acoustic guitars for a little while, so I’ve largely avoided those with On Sunset and with Fat Pop,” he says. “But more than anything I wanted something vibey, something we could play live.” He laughs ruefully at the irony of that. “God knows when that will be, bearing in mind where we are with the virus. But in the imaginary gig in my mind I can see us playing all of the songs on Fat Pop live, along with the songs from On Sunset, blending them with some of the old favourites too. What a great set that would be.”

Live is where he imagines On Sunset and Fat Pop (Volume 1) working in tandem, because they don’t act as companion piece albums otherwise. “On Sunset was quite lavish in places, whereas with this one I wanted to limit it in some ways, make the production less expansive.”

Beyond that desire to keep it frill-free and tight, sonically Fat Pop (Volume 1) is a diverse selection of sounds. No one style dominates. There’s the synth-heavy, future-wave strut of Cosmic Fringes, the stately balladeering of Still Glides The Stream, Testify’s moving-on-up soul, and the kind of dramatic three minute pop symphonies on Failed, True and Shades of Blue with which Paul Weller has hooked in generation after generation of devotee.

More than sonic plans, though, Weller set himself the same task as he does before any recording. “Whenever I make an album I’m always just trying to at least match what’s gone before because each time I think the bar’s been raised. If all goes to plan, sometimes I manage to go over that bar too.”

Sometimes he does, sometimes he really does.

Fat Pop (Volume 1), the story behind each song:

Cosmic Fringes

A dramatic entrance to Fat Pop (Volume 1). Cosmic Fringes pairs a minimal, pumping electro swing with a deadpan vocal that detonates an unspecified poseur and blowhard. “I’m a sleeping giant, waiting to awake/I stumble to the fridge/then back to bed”.

“It’s not about anyone in particular,” suggests Weller, “but I suppose it could be about a keyboard warrior, someone who is constantly brainstorming ideas but never gets around to doing them. Someone talking the talk, but never doing anything.”

“When I first did the demo it was quite punky, a bit like The Stooges. It doesn’t sound anything like that now because then I had the idea of stripping it all back to just the drums and bass, putting those synths on it. It’s got a bit of motoric feel to it and a little bit glam rock too, I think.”

True

A song with all the attributes of the greatest Paul Weller numbers: fire in its belly, questing lyrics, boss horns, flashes of guitar fury and a yearning melody you awake humming daily. It’s also a tremendous vocal, shared between Paul and Lia Metcalfe, the young Liverpudlian singer with The Mysterines.

“I really like her band and I really like her singing,” he says. “It makes a massive difference that we sang it live, in the same room. She’s got a really powerful voice and I wanted to write something for us to sing together, so I did. Then I just sent the phone demo to Lia and two weeks later we cut it. That was one of the last things we did for the album, in around September”.

Fat Pop

That brilliant, heavy bassline? “I did that. When we recorded it I was actually thinking about Cypress Hill, doing something that sounds like a DJ Muggs production. It’s got a bit of that. It’s my favourite song on the album, I think, about all the times music’s been there for me.”

Shades of Blue

A classic three-minute English pop kitchen sink drama, written by Paul Weller and his daughter Leah, who joins him on vocals. “Leah wrote the chorus for it and helped me finish it up. I wrote the verses. Reminds me of a suburban drama, a play.”

Glad Times

Sweeping, wistful, sparkling in shades of blue, Glad Times’ winning melancholia has been in the back of Weller’s mind for a while. “I wrote this with Tom (Doyle) and Ant (Brown). They usually send me a backing track and we work on it from there. It’s been around for a while, nearly made it onto On Sunset but didn’t quite fit. I really liked it, though, so I’m really glad it made it on to this album instead.”

Cobweb / Connections

Pastoral introspections, featuring a lovely acoustic solo by PW and a string score by Hannah Peel. “I think the song is saying that the more you can be yourself and be happy with yourself, the more you change into something better. It’s not just good for you, it’s good for everyone else as well. ‘Save yourself and save everyone around you too.’ It’s from observation but I suppose it’s about me too.”

Testify

Superfly strutting, cut live in the studio with Andy Fairweather Low adding distinctive vocals and Jacko Peake on fine flute and saxophone. When allowed out of the house, it’ll be a future live favourite.

“We had actually done it live two or three years ago,” says Weller, “but while I loved the groove I never really got a grip on the song. Then I did this charity gig in Guildford, one of the last things I’ve done probably, some Stax songs with Andy Fairweather Low. Our voices sound so good together and he’s such a lovely fellow, so I sent him the backing track. As soon as lockdown was lifted he came down to the studio for the afternoon. We cut it live and that was it.”

That Pleasure

In amongst those soulful strings there is some barely contained rage in Weller’s voice as he sings ‘Lose your hypocrisy.’ “I suppose it’s my reaction to the whole Black Lives Matter movement,” he explains. “You’re always on tender ground writing about that, but, regardless of my colour, any human being should be disturbed. You should be appalled and disgusted and shocked by those images of George Floyd being killed in the street. It has to stop. It’s a question for everyone.”

Failed

‘All the things I never get/and all the things I never meant/and all the things that make no fucking sense…I’ve failed.’

“Yes, I’m asking myself the question,” admits Weller, a man who has never been afraid of self-reflection in his songwriting. “It’s an angry song because I wrote it right after a massive row with my wife. But I like it. It’s honest. It’s not how I feel all the time, but it is how I feel some of the time. I’m just talking about me as a man. We all measure success in different ways.”

It’s also one of his favourite songs on the album, a stand-out.

Moving Canvas

A chunky, percussive groove, with the feel of Traffic but updated for the here-and-now.

“It’s going to be great live that one. I wrote it about Iggy Pop. I hope he likes it if he ever gets to hear it. It’s my tribute to him, even though it doesn’t sound anything like him. Aside from all the great records he’s made, as a performer he’s high art. It’s all about the Igster.”

In Better Times

A plaintive plea with some beautiful sax and guitar breaks. “Cold in your eyes, don’t you know you break my heart in two”.

“It’s me talking to a young person who is going through something, addiction or mental health pressure, or whatever, and just saying it’ll be alright. Just get through this bit and there’ll be better times to come, you’ll look back and you’ll see it differently.”

Still Glides The Stream

A stately collaboration between Weller and long-time guitar foil Steve Cradock.

“I had the chords and possibly the melody, which I sent to Cradock. And he sent me back a poem and I edited that, then we sent it back and forth by phone. Lockdown songwriting. I just liked the poem. In my mind, I was thinking about our road sweeper who’s a lovely fellow. I started thinking that there’s so many people in this country who form the infrastructure of it and without whom we’d be fucked. But they’re looked down upon, not really noticed. So I was imagining their story. I did find out that there’s a book of the same name (by Flora Thompson) and Cradock said he had seen it in a shop, so that’s where the title comes from. I just liked the poetry of it. Steve’s a very soulful fella.”

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Paul Weller

CD | 2021 | EU | Original (Polydor)

12,09 €* 21,99 € -45%

Empty Country II Pink Vinyl Edition

Release: 2021 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Empty Country

2LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Tough Love)

31,99 €*

Even The Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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As the front person of celebrated indie band Cymbals Eat Guitars, guitarist and singer Joseph D’Agostino spent over a decade setting autobiographical, emotionally vivid lyrics against a backdrop of soaring and compositionally ambitious rock. After four critically acclaimed LPs that solidified D’Agostino’s reputation as a gifted songwriter, he chose to break from his long-term band and debut a new project: Empty Country. On 2020’s self-titled debut, D’Agostino’s storytelling lens shifted away from personal narrative and toward fiction; psychopaths, apparitions and deplorables populated a bleak and uncanny parallel version of American dystopia. Empty Country’s sprawling and sonically adventurous arrangements—filled out by collaborating musicians including Rachel and Zoë Browne (Field Mouse), Kyle Gillbride (Swearin’), Zena Kay (Angel Olsen), and former CEG drummer Charlotte Anne Dole—ranged from luminous jangle-pop to scorching emo-punk to narcotized Americana. Though the pandemic curtailed planned touring, a seven-piece iteration of the band played one packed Brooklyn show in May 2022, supported by Charles Bissell (The Wrens) and Field Mouse; Empty Country also backed Bissell on several classics from The Meadowlands. “It was a wonderful return to live music for all of us,” says D’Agostino. “So many folks reached out to me and told me how Empty Country offered them comfort during those first several months of being stuck inside. I’m happy that it came out and connected with some people and that I was able to establish this universe I could continue to build on.”

Empty Country II, the project’s second full-length, is a thrilling expansion of that world. D’Agostino pushed himself to new places as a songwriter, crafting a collection of short stories set to music that grapple with the biggest questions now hanging over America—gun violence, the addiction epidemic, and generational hopelessness among them. In 2020, he’d moved from Philadelphia to small-town New England to be closer to family, and his new locale, coupled with the dread of lockdown, inspired him to return to the haunted world from the first LP. “It’s pretty jarring to leave a city—where you can safely assume you’re aligned with your neighbors on many political and social issues—for somewhere more rural and conservative,” says D’Agostino, noting the Trump flags and Blue Lives Matter hood wraps that dot his new dirt road residence. Across the new album’s nine tracks, D’Agostino introduces us to a bevy of characters: three generations of West Virginia clairvoyants, crushed by the weight of their secret knowledge; a group of drag queens and misfits in early ‘80s New York City; a pill mill doctor’s daughter who dabbles in necromancy; a convicted killer; a bullied kid injured and alone in the forest as night falls. Through the stories of these characters, Empty Country II delivers an engaging and deeply moving rumination on time, family, and the disintegration of America.

Despite the stoicism of its storytelling, Empty Country II cuts the darkness with beauty, humor, and an earnest belief in the transcendent power of rock music. It was recorded over two weeks at Fidelitorium, the renowned studio in Kernersville, NC, belonging to R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter. Legendary recording engineer John Agnello, whose previous collaborations with Cymbals Eat Guitars resulted in their 2014 high-water mark, Lose, brought his trademark clarity and nuance to the process, helping Empty Country II crackle with a vital energy that imbues these stories with genuine lifeforce. Dole returned on drums for the record, her virtuosic performances lending raw power and immediacy; her twin brother Patrick joined on bass, his decades of experience uplifting the songs with subtle melodicism and formidable technicality. The group's chemistry and deep personal history are palpable, allowing them to approach the record’s complex story with subtlety and dynamism. “Mitch has collected an astounding array of weird mics, amplifiers, and oddball orchestral instruments: organs, Buddhist temple bells, bar chimes, tubular bells,” enthuses D’Agostino about the studio. “FLA,” a gripping portrait of a queer tour boat pilot in the Florida Keys pining for their absent lover, was arranged from the ground so the group could incorporate Easter’s timpani. D’Agostino considers it a high point of his lengthy discography and lauds that song’s harmonica solo as “my favorite 30 seconds of music that I’ve ever been a part of.”

Empty Country II also features some of D’Agostino’s most danceable songs—like “David,” a tribute to D’Agostino’s late friend David Berman. Featuring a lyrical tapestry of Silver Jews references and surreally beautiful images, head-nodding Philly soul grooves collapse into cosmic freeform jazz-inspired sections, ornamented with inventive hand percussion, marimba flourishes, and toe-tapping piano chords. “Recite a poem as the day vibrates,” D’Agostino sings. “I finally wrote this song for you / But I don’t know who I’d show it to.” It’s a paraphrase of W.S. Merwin’s famed short poem “Elegy”, written after the passing of his own mentor, John Berryman. On “Bootsie,” a runaway girl from West Virginia explores the crumbling, glorious 1980s New York City of Paris is Burning, finding community in a scene of drag queens who offer her a new way of thinking about what makes America—and rock music—great. Based on his own mother’s experiences at the height of the Aids epidemic, the song has deep personal meaning to D’Agostino. “The men you thought were brave / are arrogant and depraved,” he sings against the damaged disco beats of the Dole siblings’ rhythm section. Inverting the chorus of the Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” the lyrics of “Bootsie” celebrate the underdogs and misfits: “Hell is the place where everything happens / The band’s playing all the songs ever written at once / Shape the chaos, make your little story / Baby, this life’s perfect purgatory.”

Though Empty Country II is a record about the forces that drive Americans apart, it’s also imbued with empathic love and an understanding of what binds people to family and country—in spite of the darknesses we encounter. The concept of a Great American Rock Album might scan as outdated in 2023, but with this sprawling and uncompromising epic, D’Agostino and Empty Country shatter ambivalence and confront the horrors with a community-minded sense of cautious optimism. “We may be staring into an abyss,” says D’Agostino. “But we’re all staring together.”

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V.A.

2LP | 2024 | US | Original (Light In The Attic)

55,99 €*