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1971 was very successful for the Faces, and this LP is 1960's Records' first selection of high quality broadcast material recorded that year. Five songs from a John Peel live radio concert combined with a brace of appearances on the Top Of The Pops TV program. You can hear the variety in the band's live set, ranging from a stomping cover of "(I Know) I'm Losing You" through to Ronnie Lane's solo acoustic version of "Richmond". Comes with full sleeve notes and recording details.

The German pioneer of electronic music Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011) amassed a vast archive of sounds for use in combination with each other in live performances. In 2011 the idea came up of con-structing new compositions, not remixes, from this material. The Con-Struct series was born. This release features con-structions by Baal & Mortimer who writes about it in the linernotes: It was exciting to break open existing material, peeling something out of the past and thus transgressing it and opening portals. Or like Wolfgang Seidel, a fellow musician of Schnitzler, quoted to me from Schnitzler"s archive: "Music is not the sound waves that reach our ears, but what we make of them." Wer ist Conrad Schnitzler Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011), Komponist und Konzeptkünstler, ist einer der wichtigsten Vertreter deutscher Elektronikmusik-Avantgarde. Er studierte bei Joseph Beuys, gründete 1967/68 den legendären Berliner Subkultur-Club Zodiak Free Arts Lab, war Mitglied bei Tangerine Dream (mit Klaus Schulze und Edgar Froese) und Kluster (mit Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Dieter Moebius) und veröffentlichte unzählige Soloalben. Über Baal & Mortimer Seit 2014 ist Baal & Mortimer das Projekt von Alexandra Grübler, welches musikalisch und sprachlich an Fragen von Widerstand, Autonomie, Materie und Spekulation forscht. Das Debütalbum "Deixis" wurde 2020 auf Bureau B veröffentlicht und die EP "The Torso Tapes" 2021 auf Italic. Im selben Jahr veröffentlichte sie die 7"" Single "And the Sky gave up the Dead" für die Ausstellung "Journey through a Body" in der Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Nach einem Master in Kunstwissenschaften und Philosophie lebt Baal & Mortimer derzeit in Berlin, in den Räumen zwischen Klang, Sprache und Körper. Baal & Mortimer hat mit Black Merlin, Musiccargo und Rupert Clervaux zusammengearbeitet und war 2018 Mentee von Laurel Halo im Berliner Amplify Programm.

Naomi Alligator is fed up. She’s sick of trying to make relationships work that have already run their course, and tired of sitting in a wintry apartment waiting for her life to kick into gear. On »Double Knot«, the modern folk singer/songwriter from Virginia attempts to unwind her life from all that is holding her back. In a way, it’s a coming-of-age record about shedding what no longer serves you and, ultimately, finding something like deliverance.

On the opening track, “Seasick,” Naomi Alligator is already in the midst of a sort of awakening. Right off the bat, she sings, “I don’t know what’s happened to me / It’s like I turned 16 / It’s like I grew to be 6-feet tall.” This is the announcement of a wide-eyed artist coming out of hibernation and into their own. Still, Naomi’s vocals ache with guilt and longing, belying the track’s playful catchiness. Longing for what? Maybe attention from a crush, but mostly a sunnier place to call home.

Naomi Alligator began writing Double Knot while living in Philadelphia during the height of the pandemic and the deterioration of a longterm romance. “I scream: How’d the hell I end up here? / I’m 1-inch tall, it’s crystal clear,” she chants on “Neighborhood Freak,” returning to height and size as an emotional barometer. When asked though, Naomi rejects the notion that Double Knot is a breakup album, or autobiographical at all. Moreso, she says, it’s a personal reckoning in which, “the minute before you make a big decision, you tally up the reasons why you don’t want to do what you’re doing anymore.”

That desire to turn the page expands to the production of the album as well. Naomi Alligator generally houses her narratives in beds of minimal, home-tracked instrumentation—influenced by the stripped-down poeticism of Joan Baez and Liz Phair’s Girly-Sound tapes. Double Knot finds Naomi continuing to hone the winning combination of guitar and banjo she established on 2021’s Concession Stand Girl EP. For Double Knot though, Naomi wanted a fuller, more dynamic sound: more instruments, more harmonies, more layering, more, more, more. Inspired by the impressionistic melodies of Animal Collective and Mgmt, Naomi peppers in computer-generated synths throughout the album, most notably on the song “Burn Out.” These electronic flourishes augment the more grounding string instruments, arriving somewhere more ethereal than Naomi’s earlier work while still maintaining her warm songwriting.

If anything, Double Knot is a reminder that you can always pack up your bags, try something new, and change your life. As for Naomi Alligator herself? She moved west, to California.

David Gedge says: "The songs we recorded for the August single in our series are almost what you might call old ones! A demo version of `Each Time You Open Your Eyes' was first recorded in 2018, but it wasn't until over three years later that we finally played it live. By then, we'd made it huge! We wanted to cover all parts of the audio spectrum, so Melanie tuned her bass from E all the way down to C to make Terry de Castro's original bass line sound extra-bassy, and I used an octave pedal, on the recommendation of Jon, to add additional layers to my own part with both higher and lower versions. There's also a note in the vocal part that I hold for sixteen seconds; it's like everything had to bigger on this track! `That Would Only Happen In A Movie' - which we first played on a live stream in March 2021 - sounds almost restrained, in comparison, with its acoustic guitar and virtually a capella middle eight. But then, sometimes, less is more! A semi-acoustic version of that song also appears on our `Locked Down And Stripped Back Volume Two' album." This year The Wedding Present will be releasing a new 7" single every month, #7 is available for indie record stores now! This fascinating project - which goes under the name of 24 Songs - comes thirty years after the band's similar Hit Parade series of 7"s in 1992 and features - you may have already guessed - one WP original as well as one cover version. Each of the records comes in a beautifully designed sleeve featuring brutalist photography by Jessica McMillan. Each single will be limited to 2,400 copies ww. -

Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek could hear the staggering differences in the songs they were writing for their third album as Whitney, Spark - the buoyant drum loops, the effortless falsetto hooks, the coruscate keyboard lines. They suddenly sounded like a band reimagined, their once-ramshackle folk-pop now brimming with unprecedented gusto and sheen. But could they see it, too? So in the ad hoc studio the Chicago duo built in the living room of their rented Portland bungalow, a shared 2020 escape hatch amid breakups and lockdowns, Julien and Max decided to find out. Somewhere between midnight and dawn every night, their brains refracted by the late hour and light psychedelics, they'd play their latest creations while a hardware store disco ball spun overhead and slowed-down music videos from megastars spooled silently on YouTube. Did their own pop songs _ so much more immediate and modern than their hazy origins _ fit such big-budget reels? "We'd come to the conclusion we weren't going to be filming Super 8 videos to this stuff anymore," Julien remembers with a grin. "How about something more hi-fi, cinematic?" When the footage and the tunes linked, Julien and Max knew they had done it, that they'd finally found Whitney's sound. Spark reintroduces Whitney as a contemporary syndicate of classic pop, its dozen imaginative and endearing tracks wrapping fetching melodies around paisley-print Dilla beats and luxuriant electronics. What's more, Whitney reduces three years of extreme emotional highs and lows into 38 brisk but deep minutes, each of these 12 tracks a singable lesson in what it is they (and, really, we) have all survived. The recalcitrant ennui of opener "nothing REMAINS," the devastating loss of "TERMINAL," the sun-streaked renewal of "real Love": However surprising it may sound, Spark is less a radical reinvention for Whitney than an honest accounting of how it feels when you move out of your past and into your present, when you take the next steps of your lives and careers at once and without apology. Spark maintains the warmth and ease of Whitney's early work; these songs glow with the newness of now. Listen closely, and you'll notice frequent references to smoke and fire throughout Spark, itself a double entendre for inspiring something new or burning down the old. Max and Julien were indeed in Portland for the Fall of 2020, when smoke from nearby fires choked the city at record levels. It was terrifying and tragic, but they pressed on. "We found a way to live while the world was burning/Real life was caving in," Julien sings almost merrily during "back THEN," an anthem for finding out what's on the other side of hardship. In these dire days, scientists speak increasingly of scrutiny, an evolutionary miracle that causes some trees to release seeds only amid a season of fire. That is how Spark often feels _ Whitney's circumstances were so fraught on so many levels that they hung "the past_out to dry" and began again, finding a fresh version of themselves, their relationship, and their band after the blaze. Max and Julien are back in Chicago now, sharing a cozy walk up with a little studio, where they're already building songs for the next Whitney album. They're both in happy romances, too. Now that they let the past burn, everything is new for Max and Julien. Spark is not only Whitney's best album; it is an inspiring testament to perseverance and renewal, to best friends trusting each another enough to carry one another to the other side of this season of woe.

Blacklab are back. The self-proclaimed 'Doom witch duo from Osaka' are set to drop their 3rd album 'In A Bizarre Dream' this summer.Their debut 'Under the Strawberry Moon 2.0' saw them taking Sabbath inspired doom, mashing it with a Japanese sensibility and a fuzzed-up groove. It certainly caused a stir, but only hinted at their potential. Album two 'Abyss' added to the mix. A Stooges like squalor to the riffs, dollops of lo-fi hardcore punk and loose riffing, pointing the way towards a signature sound. -Blacklab are: Yuko Morino, guitar and vocals. Chia Shiraishi, drums and percussion. -So what of the 'difficult' third album? Not so difficult at all it seems. 'In A Bizarre Dream' ups the ante considerably, to let rip and define what Blacklab are about. The combined talents of Jun Morino on production and Wayne Adams (Big Lad, Green Lung, Pet Brick, John, Cold In Berlin) on the mix have conspired to produce a towering beast of a record. A real step forward for the 'Doom Witch Duo '.The drums have a humungous 'Fugazi' like welly, and the guitars are a boiling maelstrom of fuzz dense riffola and warped psychedelics, with added synth. Yuko's throat shredding snarls are as mean as a pissed off Satan, and melodious, often within the same song. This is doom meets hardcore punk, hooky melodies, and killer riffs, all cranked up to the max. Japan has always had a special take on 'noise' and 'heavy' and with 'In A Bizarre Dream' Blacklab add their own spin to that tradition.Gone is the lo-fi approach, here is Blacklab in full effect. -Yuko has said before that the band's name is a combination of her two favourite bands, Black Sabbath and Stereolab. Odd bedfellows to be sure, but if you want to know what that combination might sound like ... here it is. Track 'Crows, Sparrows and Cats' actually features Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab, no less, providing the lead vocal, adding a layer of cool over Blacklab's Hawkwind meets krautrock sludge. It's a stoner groove with pop at its heart ...Sludge Pop even...

14 track vinyl version of the 2012 CD compilation. Pressed on pale blue vinyl, with printed lyric inner sleeve. First time on vinyl. Includes poster and postcard. A swish compilation LP featuring fourteen of the most memorable songs in the career of the top notch indie band THE HIT Parade. Entitled ‘pick OF THE Pops (vol1)’ the LP collects together the most poignant moments in the career of THE HIT Parade, and includes their thoughtful recording for Sarah Records “In Gunnersbury Park”, their tubthumping single for Minty Fresh USA “Hitomi” as well as other cuts, both cheerful and desolate in style, that feature Cath Carroll (Factory Records), Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly and Talulah Gosh) and Harvey Williams (Another Sunny Day and The Field Mice). THE HIT Parade was formed by Julian Henry with his school friends Matt Moffatt and Raymond Watts in 1984 when they released their first single ‘Forever’ on JSH Records. Since then they’ve clung to the sensibilities of pure pop and have become a curiosity item with their retro attitudes and songs about dead writers, disused swimming pools and failed love affairs. Their early vinyl singles were lauded by John Peel, the NME and Melody Maker, the now defunct weekly paper that published Julian Henry’S writing. In the 1990s the band toured alongside Edwyn Collins, The Milkshakes and Sarah Records notables, and signed to Japanese and US labels, releasing a sequence of albums that have since become collectible.

The final album released by the composer-performer Jerry Hunt before his death, Ground: Five Mechanic Convention Streams is a rare and foundational audio document of Hunt's compositional process. The record collects five pieces from the artist's 'Ground' series, translating his characteristically variable and spatial scores into "recorded fixtures of activity using mechanic musical instrument arrays," to eerie and mesmerizing results. Originally released by experimental label OODiscs in 1992, it is now available on vinyl for the first time from Blank Forms Editions. Its tracks are dense and unpredictable, a miscellany of arrhythmic bursts, fragments of spoken and whispered words, soft then fevered rattles and shaking, and a rare return to pianoforte for the virtuoso player. The unstable quality of these tracks belies the rigor of Hunt's procedures; each of Ground's five pieces, their "common ground core," is derived from the angelic tables of sixteenth century English philosopher and occultist John Dee, adapted by Hunt as frameworks to layer, adapt, and renew in his compositions. With a complex arrangement of sensors and equipment, which the artist called "interrelated electronic, mechanic, and social sound-sight interactive transactional systems," Hunt realized these derivative systems in the techno-shamanic performances for which he is best known. Ground distills these procedures into fixed songs, producing a vital and critical record of Hunt's singular approach to composition.

"Babygirl" is the new album by CTM out on Posh Isolation. In its composition channels a sensuous consciousness. The music is like a prism reflecting tactile perceptions, light, movements and memories. Relations between the composed structures and the undetermined of the improvisations, the cracks in the form and the digital glitches, create a poetic and open elsewhere. With a sensibility of pop, the musical landscape moves from nostalgic popballads through the austere pomp of a deconstructed baroque menuet for solo cello, to lingering piano ornamentations and distorted guitars. There is a soft and wild intimacy to the music. Common collective musical languages are weaved effortlessly into the musical canvas, while the form and perspective change and move. With a profound emotional resonance in the music, tenderness and devotion are reflected in the narrative. The sense of nostalgia comes like glimpses of pastimes revisited, when life cycles reveal themselves repeating in the now. Babygirl continues in the track of her latest album "Red dragon", exploring feverish dreams and personal material through a digital ephemera. Digital effects splinter the intimacy and transform into something more than human, shaking the balance between the codes of the popsong and the unexpected digressions, guided by the voice of CTM that is central throughout the album. The album is produced by Holger Hartvig, Malthe Fischer and Cæcilie Trier. It features vocal and instrumental contributions by Ydegirl, Coco O., Johan S. Wieth (Iceage), ML Buch, Jakob Littauer (Yangze), Emil Elg, Claus Haxholm among others. The album, containing bits and pieces of recordings and compositions made over several years, is like a musical platform with expressions of many voices, and with relations and time weaved into the compositions. Trier is a Copenhagen based cellist, singer, and composer, with her classical training apparent across her many and varied projects and collaborations. Having received critical acclaim from the earliest moments...

Everyone’s favorite (and only existing) punk rock all-star cover band ME First AND THE Gimme GimmeS are back with their latest offering, Go Down Under. Instead of enhancing (or disgracing, depending on who you ask) one specific genre of music, as is their typical approach, this time they’ve decided to take on the music of an entire continent. As you may have guessed from the album’s title, Australia is the lucky recipient of the Gimmes latest musical makeover. Crikey! Five tracks from proud Aussies the likes of Inxs, Olivia Newton-John, and Air Supply, are belted out with the boisterous fun-loving style that only the Gimmes know how to pull off. Didgeridoos be damned, these tunes are all brimming with ripping guitar leads, up-tempo rhythms, and the signature silky smooth vocals of Spike Slawson. Go Down Under is their first newly recorded material since 2006 and from the opening riff it’s blatantly clear the guys haven’t lost a step. Just to add to the excitement, the vinyl version of the album is available for the first time on 10- inch vinyl! Originally released as a double 7”.

A reawakening for the Swedish visionaries, Sincere solidifies their impressive trajectory in a fuzzed out haze of dark and arresting shoegaze pop. An expansive trip through noisier, bittersweet pop realms that recalls My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Deerhunter.Underpinning everything there's a continuing sense of drama throughout; richly textured crescendos, chiming guitars and delicate melodies are guided by Caroline Landahl's tender yet sharpened vocals. Sincere is joyously effervescent, but with a dark underbelly where fury manifests in a swirl of entrancing and propulsive percussion.A gorgeous and dazzling piece of aching romanticism, destined to feature on a thousand mixtapes.Recorded last year in Malmö, Hater welcomed two new band members and those early day sparks saw them quickly turning demos into fully-formed new songs that appear on the record. Sincere was produced by long-time collaborator Joakim Lindberg and was mixed and mastered by John Cornfield, whose credits include Ride, The Stone Roses and Robert Plant."One of the best bands in the world" Gorilla vs Bear"Your next Scandinavian indie pop obsession." Flood"Stunning" StereogumBlack Vinyl, DL card. CD Capacity wallet

Jon Porras draws a staggering array of atmospheres out of even the simplest instrumentation. Across his work as one-half of psych-drone duo Barn Owl and his solo releases, Porras welds monoliths and ether into propulsive music that is deeply felt. Arroyo, named for the Spanish word for "stream" in a nod to Porras' heritage as a first generation Colombian?Japanese American, drifts gently from one tributary to the next in unhurried contemplation and euphoria. The portentous weight and abrasive textures of Porras' previous work give way to the trickle of richly detailed acoustic instruments slipping in and out of the fold. On Arroyo, Jon Porras evokes a distinct sense of resplendent anticipation and calm with a fathomless flow and softly gorgeous colors. For Porras, Arroyo became a rumination on simplicity and simple truths, a work of complete immersion and continuous motion where separate elements coalesce into an ever-changing whole. Porras spent the year leading up to 2020 living nomadically across Europe where he was able to soak in a deep appreciation for the effortless beauty of overgrown gardens, the basic principles of classical architecture and a more transient sensibility. The album was written and recorded in a time of even more change for Porras: after the birth of his daughter. Like a stream's steady glide across bedrock that waxes and wanes with each gradual turn, the music of Arroyo exhibits a transportive stillness. The compositions take on a light, gaseous buoyancy as discreet drones swell with measured fluctuations and ripples of piano rest atop the surface. Arroyo borrows harmonic concepts from modal jazz to create a unique sense of ease and endlessness. Each of the four pieces on the album centers around a single suspended chord, a chord most commonly associated with devotional music which embodies a space between harmonic tension and resolution. Porras embellishes that liminality with arrangements that feel less like distinguishable layers of instruments and more like one undulating nebula of sound. In the past decade of Porras' solo work, his music has grown increasingly engaged with elaborate synth textures and detailed processing. With Arroyo, Porras consciously takes a step back from those more intricate compositions and focuses on more organic, unadorned textures and places each sound with the same precision. Stark piano and guitar patiently hover over modest currents of Hammond organ and Yamaha DX7 with the sustain of each chord and phrase acting as a natural guide to the album's subtle rhythm. The four pieces that comprise Arroyo each encompass their own idyllic channel, slowly weaving their way in and out of the album's elegant stir. Porras' reflections on simplified elements take shape in gorgeous arrangements that impart clarity amidst a tranquil mist. Arroyo is an album that unearths splendor in a unified feeling of space, serenity in perpetual renewal

Limited to 1800 copies with obi strip & sleeve notes. Rare Soul-Jazz-Funk album from 1985. First ever vinyl reissue. Jazz guitarist Calvin Keys is a legend among soul-jazz-funk fans for both his work as a session & touring musician and for the catalog of classic releases under his own name. Key’s playing style is lean & muscular and his unique phrasing balances sophisticated jazz harmonics with funky R&B & soul grooves. Since the 1960s Calvin Keys has performed/recorded with renowned artists such as Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson. He is also a mentor to young talent, offers private lessons, and is a frequent teacher at the yearly happening ‘Jazz Camp West’.

Calvin Keys was born in 1943 in Omaha, Nebraska. His first musical influence was his father Otis, a well-known drummer in the city's music scene…he passed the music bug on to Calvin, who picked up the guitar early. Keys landed his first notable gig as a member of Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson's band when he was 17 and then went on to play with Preston Love (of the Count Basie Orchestra). Later on, he would also join The Jimmy Smith Trio and then worked through the rest of the 1960’s with legends such as Jimmy McGriff, Richard 'Groove' Holmes and Brother Jack McDuff.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970’s, he signed to Gene Russell's now-legendary Black Jazz label where he cut his first two albums: Shawn-Neeq (1971) & Proceed with Caution (1974). Next to his own output on Black Jazz Records, Calvin Keys also did session work for the label and played on several of its hit records. At this point in time Keys also auditioned for the Ray Charles Orchestra…his unique phrasing and his ability to balance sophisticated jazz harmonics with tough R&B and soul grooves were showcased nightly in Charles’ band. Before relocating to San Francisco in 1975, he also played on Billy Brooks' jazz-funk classic ‘Windows of the Mind’ (1974) and focused on more live and session work. Keys then joined Ahmad Jamal's group and spent close to a decade with the pianist, touring the globe and recording six albums with him.

The 1980’s and 1990’s also proved similarly fruitful for Calvin Keys…he was a ‘first-call’ studio & live sideman and amassed massive credits for touring with all-stars from the likes of Tony Bennett, Pharoah Sanders and Sonny Stitt. He released two more fantastic solo albums: Full Court Press (1985) & Maria’s First (1985), this time on Olive Branch Records. In 1991 he was featured on the recordings for the original score of the film ‘Dying Young’ composed by James Newton Howard. Next to all of this, his session and live work with his own trio continued at a relentless pace. He settled down in the Bay area and played a multitude of gigs throughout the 1990’s.

After being sidelined in 1997 by heart surgery, Calvin Keys entered the new millennium with a bang! He released five widely acclaimed Jazz-charting albums & worked with major players from the likes of Taj Mahal (Santana, Miles Davis), Chester Thompson (Tower Of Power), Big John Patton (Blue Note), Phil Ranelin (Tribe), Sonny Fortune (Roy Ayers, Strata East), Buell Neidlinger (Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones), Peter Erskine (Joni Mitchell, Weather Report) and Lonnie Smith. There’s no such thing as ‘slowing down’ for Mr. Keys!

On the album we are proudly presenting you today (Full Court Press) you’ll find seven sublime tracks recorded in 1984 and released in 1985 on the Olive Branch label. This was Calvin Key’s first solo album since his recordings for Black Jazz Records back in the 1970’s. Full Court Press features an impressive arsenal of working road dogs that Keys had shared the stage with over the years. Included are: Maxayn Lewis (The Ikettes, Morris Day), Mike Thompson (Freddie Hubbard), James Gadson (Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock), Donny Beck (Buddy Miles, Bobby Lyle)…and many others.

Full Court Press is THE dictionary definition of smooth (yet funky) soul-jazz, with washes of warm, laid back grooves pinned under Keys’ endless dancing up and down the fretboard. The playing is ‘deep in the pocket’ and comes off elegant and effortless. Fluid rhythmic fingerpicking that makes you forget all about time and space. This essential release deserves a prominent place in your record collection!

Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the First ever vinyl reissue of “Full Court Press” (originally released on Olive Branch Records in 1985). This rare record (vintage copies are not easy to come by) now comes as a deluxe 180g vinyl edition, strictly limited to 1800 copies worldwide with obi strip and features the original artwork by John Heard (Azar Lawrence, Count Basie) & sleeve notes by Sherman Ferguson (Pharoah Sanders Quartet). Released exclusively for Record Store Day 2022 and available in participating stores on April 23, 2022.

Riyl: Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC, Flying Nun. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, Levity, serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. Levity, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise Levity continue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection. Whereas the group's debut LP Whoosh! demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop, Levity takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. While the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. "The restrictions around Covid really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. "It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we've worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution." This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting. The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through Levity the Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos.

OMGay, Team Dresch is releasing an actual NEW Song! It's been 19 years since the band has released new material - 25 years since the making of Personal Best, when this particular configuration of players (Jody Bleyle, Donna Dresch, Kaia Wilson and Marcéo Martinez) recorded together. Your Hands My Pockets: Donna Dresch, in her typical Team Captain spirit, busts out riffs that are rife with her awesome signature grunge/punk/melodic catchiness, Jody and Kaia trade off on vocal duties like they're in some frantic singing relay race, and Marcéo slams the toms around like he learned to drum from both Mel Brown and bam-bam (please note, Marcéo actually took drum lessons from Mel Brown in the 80"s). While 'Your Hands' is an undeniable pop/punk song, it is also brimming with bristle and depth, conjuring feelings of longing, angst, desire. When Jody sings 'Oh I wanna want to be wrapped around, to wrap around' there is NO ONE who can't relate to this feeling of reaching out to one another for connection, touch, and love. Team Dresch Keeps IT Real (gay) with their harmonious musical chemistry, queercore spirit, and attention to detail in their musicianship - the alchemy of these humans is clearly still alive and dancing, you know it baby. Produced and Recorded by Larry Crane at Jackpot! Recording Studio, March 2019 Mixed by John Goodmanson

Black Diamond Heavies is a punk-ass blues duo from the South featuring John Wesley Myers a.k.a. James LEG (vocals/keys), and VAN Campbell (drums/vocals). 'All To Hell - Their Baddest and Greasiest' includes 3 tracks released on vinyl for the first time and 2 previously unreleased live tracks featuring founding member Mark 'Porkchop' Holder (guitar/vocals). All the material on this release has been remastered. 'Their attack of drums and keyboards is a mean, f*cked up, gospel punky hybrid and rocks with ragged, soulful passion.' ' Rock Sound

Just like many other Scandinavian bands that rose to fame in the nineties Tiamat has gone through important stylistic changes in its impressive career. The band around singer and guitarist Johan Edlund who also plays keyboards and theremin on some occasions, has evolved from a sinister doom metal band with dominant death metal influences into a gothic rock act flirting with extremes like pop music but also its own extreme metal roots. Releasing a compilation of the band’s first decade and a half of activities in chronological order makes sense in such a context as it helps us follow and understand the development of the Swedish quartet. The release starts with the raw ‘’Where the Serpents Ever Dwell’’ that comes around with miserable and creeping doom metal riffs meeting raw and terrifying vocals. The track is taken from the band’s ambitious conceptual debut record Sumerian Cry when Johan Edlund still called himself Hellslaughter. As soon as the group’s third album gets covered by this compilation, the already imaginative music gets a more melodic and mysterious touch such as in the wonderful ‘’A Caress of Stars’’ taken from the underrated Clouds record that is often overlooked between the doom metal milestone The Astral Sleep and the popular gothic metal record Wildhoney that helped shaping this new genre of music. The latter release included at times cinematic, epic and progressive elements such as in the imaginative ‘’Gaia’’ that requests multiple spins to unfold. Later in its career, Tiamat’s sound became simpler and mellower. The surprisingly uplifting ‘’Vote for Love’’ from the Judas Christ record is a track that jumped on the bandwagon of the success of numerous commercially successful gothic rock acts like HIM. The bittersweet melancholically melodic ‘’Cain’’ from the band’s Prey record became a career highlight that defines Tiamat just as much as the Wildhoney era and its hits. Commandments is a release filled with sixteen imaginative, diversified and atmospheric songs shifting from gloomy doom metal with death metal grunts over progressive gothic metal with female backing vocals to short and sweet gothic rock songs with a strong commercial appeal. Some new material would have been great for fans of old date but the running time of eighty minutes is very generous and offers value for money nonetheless. Commandments is an excellent way to understand everything Tiamat is about and honours the still underrated Swedish gothic metal pioneers appropriately. This double album comes out in deluxe gatefold edition, in two colors (Gold / Red) 500 limited edition each.

Growing up in the Californian sprawl and the vast suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, Caleb Dailey largely dismissed the country and western music that surrounded him. Instead, he was drawn to independent rock, experimental zones, and other genre-defying forms, which led him to create skewed rock music with Bear State and establish the “minimal art label” Moone Records with his brother Micah Dailey in 2013. But in the early half of the 2010s, Dailey began to hear things differently. Drawn into the left-of-center works of artists like Gram Parsons and Blaze Foley, a more idiosyncratic take on country, folk, and roots music began to swirl in his imagination.

Wandering into the form’s cowboy chords and lonesome scenes, Dailey found himself wondering what his own country album might sound like. The result is his debut solo album, a collection of covers called Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings; Beside You Then. Produced by John Dieterich of Deerhoof, Keiko Beers, and Dailey himself, it’s a melancholy charmer, rooted in traditional ideas but free roaming in its scope. Laced with synths, pedal steel, acoustic guitars, and commanded by Dailey’s full and woozy voice, it owes as much to the busted waltzes of Lambchop and the homespun lo-fi folk of Little Wings (whose Kyle Field appears on the album via a spoken intermission) as it does to the songwriters and performers who provide its source material, which include Parsons, Foley, Elvis Presley associate Chips Moman, steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, and others.

“The subversive nature of country music isn’t as much at the surface as some other genres,” Dailey says. “But the deeper down the ‘country hole’ I went, the more I wanted to be part of it. It is truly a strange world.”

The hands of Dailey and his collaborators, which includes a wide roster of DIY experimentalists like James Fella of art punks Soft Shoulder, Jay Hufman (Gene Tripp), Lonna Kelley of Giant Sand, Japanese DIY hero’s Koji Shibuya and Tori Kudo, Nicholas Krgovich, Markus Acher of The Notwist, and more, that strangeness is accentuated. Dailey doesn't aspire to retro Nashville fetishism or sanctioned notions of “realness” so much as a genuine outsider authenticity. Take his version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” for example: a highlight of the record, it pairs familiar genre signifiers like pedal steel and guitar strums with warbled synths. Then there’s his read of “Dreaming My Dreams,” originally made famous by Waylon Jennings (who also did time in the Arizona desert), which morphs from a mournful ballad into a wash of far-off sonic noise.

The attention here is on the songcraft itself, with Dailey inhabiting these songs and turning them inside out to reveal unexpected tenderness and playfulness.

Recorded at home with an acoustic guitar and 4-track, Dailey began open correspondences with his collaborators, who fleshed out ideas and added touches, often working with skeletal frames before Dieterich and Dailey shaped it into a cohesive whole. “John is the reason this album exists,” Dailey says. “He sculpted all these parts together in such an otherworldly way. He is truly a magician.” Deeply allergic to insincerity, Dailey avoids any trace of irony. He’s created a cohesive gem out of disparate parts, uniting Americana songcraft with experimental disassemblage. From this bric-à-brac, he’s made something touching and beautifully strange.

The Senior Service returns with a brand new 10" EP for 2022. A year or so ago, The Senior Service decided that it wanted to add a little more to its well-honed instrumental sound. On one slightly drunken night out, they approached local songwriter and chanteuse Rachel Lowrie and asked if she'd like to perform guest vocals on some specially written new material. By this time, Rachel had supplied impressive 'pipework' on quite a few Medway records so the band was confident that she'd be able to deliver - the band was right.Following a lengthy hiatus in activity due to lockdown restrictions, The Senior Service was finally able to get together to record the new songs, so they piled into Ranscombe Studios to crack on. It soon became apparent that they'd lost none of the chemistry that had made them such a powerful musical collective and the instrumental backing tracks were laid down with relative ease. It was when Rachel arrived and sprinkled vocal sugar over the tracks that they really began to shine! Intuitively, she understood the approach needed and delivered a made-to-measure performance for each song.This collection includes four original tracks penned by the band plus two rollicking covers of lesser-known instrumentals; John Schroeder's take on 'Lovin' You Girl' - a slinky slice of lounge grooviness, given a slightly chunkier sound, informed by the band's musical aesthetic, and 'Mysterious Land' - The Chris Lamb Orchestra's little heard filmic masterpiece; a track seemingly tailor-made for the band to get its musical chops around. So, we invite you to spend 'A Little More Time with The Senior Service'.

Deluxe edition in wooden box set.

The ultimate reissue of one of the world’s most important albums in the field of Exotica, Jazz and even Proto Psychedelic Music from 1960 - and the first official reissue ever!

Eden Ahbez was said to be "the first Hippie on earth", his enchanting life and his amazing music laid the foundation of the Hippie movement.

This reissue of Eden Ahbez' sole album includes 20 almost unreleased bonus songs from different sessions, carefully restored and remastered from original master tapes by prolific grammy nominated sound engineer Jessica Thompson.

Co Produced by movie maker Brian Chidester, who now, after 20 years of research, completed the full time documentary movie

Remastered and released for the very first time! Blue & Transparent Tan vinyl - limited to 1000 copies Riyl: Kids In The Hall, Devo, Butthole Surfers, Ween, John Waters, Yoko Ono Mouth Congress - friends Paul Bellini and Scott Thompson of Kids In The Hall fame - wrote and recorded hundreds of songs in the 0s without ever putting out a proper release. Alongside various cohorts and conspirators, the band drew on their experiences as gay men to craft hilariously crude punk songs that run the gamut of strange characters and taboo subject matter. Their rag tag approach to songwriting blended various styles from noisy punk to lo-fi new wave and DIY disco, all with a very gay bent. Without trying, they were surprisingly cutting edge. Mouth Congress did dozens of live shows through the mid-80s that gained a reputation for being theatrical, combining props, sets, multiple costume changes, unusual song choices, guest stars, and Scott's stand-up comedy. In 1988, they recorded a 7-song demo tape. The tracks were recorded quickly, as the Kids in the Hall were about to go to New York City to develop their material. Then, caught up in the excitement of the Kids in the Hall being signed to television, Mouth Congress activities slowed to a crawl. In 2011, Paul dug out an old VHS tape of one of the live shows. The sight of one of the Kids in the Hall covered in sweat, writhing on stage like Iggy Pop, was something he felt comedy fans might enjoy seeing. Naturally, Scott agreed and they uploaded everything - over 600 recordings - onto Bandcamp. One day in 2019, Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks stumbled upon the Bandcamp page, got in touch, and suggested assembling a compilation of the best recordings to be officially released for the very first time. Waiting for Henry is a collection of 29 tracks over 2 LPs with a booklet of interviews and ephemera from one of the 0s last queercore bands.Who is Henry? We don't really know, but we certainly hope he shows up soon.

On the fringe of chaos, in the Year of the Pandemic, the Cannabeast has awoken!! Bongzilla is back with a new full length album, 16 years since their last record. These Pioneers of Weed Metal would like to present “weedsconsin” to the universe. An album written by the three long standing original members of Bongzilla - Muleboy (bass, vocals), Spanky (guitar), and Magma (drums). Recorded and mixed by the late John Hopkins at Future Apple Tree Studios in Rock Island, Illinois in October 2020. The six brand new tracks will blow your mind! In a single instant you are contaminated by the classic Weed-Infected sounds the band is known for, while also finding new elements mixed into the bowl. In the unique piece that is Weedsconsin, Bongzilla delivers heavy doses of Crushing Stoner Doom and Psychedelic Space Rock that sets it apart from earlier material. (That’s why HPS Records is the perfect label to release this stuff). This record travels down a path of heavy riffs, mind-expanding jams, sonic tones, and stomping beats in the band's first release as a thunderous three piece, with Muleboy moving from guitar to bass. Approaching these songs as a three piece has created more space musically and allowed the band to showcase their musicianship in a different way. It results in a sound that is very heavy, along the lines of Gateway tone-wise, but sonically more clear. The album is mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago, Illinois, and Eli Quinn (Madison, Wisconsin) is the artist behind the astounding new cover art. Weedsconsin is dedicated to the memory of John Hopkins.

180 Gsm Vinyl Gatefold Sleeve With Great Period Photos. Limited Edition Of Only 670 Pressed. The Classic Second Line Up Of The Fall, Classic Material Too. Mark E. Smith (Vocals), Martin Bramah (Guitar), Tony Friel (Bass), Una Baines (Keyboards), Karl Burns (Drums). Tony Friel' S Last Gig Before He Went Off To Join Dick Witts In The Passage. The Fall Set Was Recorded On Cassette By Chris Hewitt , A Copy Was Given To Bernie Wilcox Rar Gig Organiser Who Passed It On To Mark. Mark Thought It Was Such An Important Gig Recording Despite Not Being Brilliant Quality That He Asked Chis Could The Fall Release It - So It First Appeared On Cd In 1999. In 2013 Mark E Smith Told Chris Hewitt It Was Now Due A Release On Vinyl And Would He Sort It Out On Ozit. It Has Taken A Bit Of Time Since Mark's Suggestion But Here It Is.

An Earth Mirror is a magical device. Found in German occult literature, it is a clod of earth sandwiched between layers of glass. Gazing into the Earth Mirror is said to reveal the locations of hidden treasures. Magical visions and the revelation of mysteries in the landscape are two prominent features of Earth Mirror, the new album by Layla and Phil Legard alias Hawthonn, and their second for Ba Da Bing. Somewhere between moon musick and ethereal pop, the songs of Earth Mirror reflect the band’s transition from studio project to live performers in the wake of 2018’s Red Goddess (Of This Men Shall Know Nothing). The themes for the songs on this latest reflect the Legards’ experiences, magical and mundane, in the wake of Red Goddess and as the world then headed full-tilt into pandemic. On Earth Mirror, Layla’s heavenly voice accompanies a sonic palette encompassing field recordings of ice cracking on an ancient Corpse Road, mysterious hymns sung in disused medieval chapels, spectrally processed horse shrieks, rumbling organ, crystalline electric piano, electronic textures, and modulated jaw harp. No guitars appear on this album. Nor do conventional song-structures: the compositions here organically developed from dreams (“Dream Cairn”), experiments with inducing magical visions (“Odo Galse”, “Vehiel”), ruminations on lunar beings (“Crowned Light”, “Circles Of Light”), and ecological anxiety (“Cat’s Cradle”). Their literary influences include English witch Andrew Chumbley, nihilist philosopher Emil Cioran, the Enochian language of John Dee and Edward Kelly, and even Kurt Vonnegut. As true practitioners of niche occultism and sound manipulation, Hawthonn could easily have been an inscrutable project. However, under the careful guidance of the Legards, Earth Mirror feels close and immediate, minimal and expertly atmospheric.

Mood Taeg (Pronounced Mood Tag) Is A Three-Piece Scottish/German Musical Project Split Between Düsseldorf And Shanghai. The Band Name, A Term In Functional Linguistics, Is A Reference To Their Day Jobs, While The Album Title Anaphora, Meaning Reference To That Which Preceded, Or Came Before, Is A Further Nod To Linguistics, And Their Own Musical Evolution. Mood Taeg Have Been Described As Neo-Krautrock, Combining A Contemporary Take On The Lange Gerade Drumming Style Of Klaus Dinger And Jaki Liebezeit With The Melodic Sensibilities And Tones Of Michael Rother And Kraftwerk. However, Outside Of Their Krautrock Roots, They Also Cite John Carpenter, Philip Glass, Mastermind Herbie, The Beach Boys, Isao Tomita, Lfo, Roy Ayers, Ennio Morricone, And Airto Moreira As Musical Influences. Production-Wise, They Look To The Work Of Conny Plank, Greg Wilson, And Brian Eno For Inspiration.The Band Self-Produce All Of Their Music Back And Forth Between Their Shanghai And Düsseldorf Studios And Are Part Of The Wider Mood Taeg Kollektiv Which Includes Musicians, Graffiti Artists, DJs, Photographers, Painters, And Video Artists. They Also Maintain Their Scottish Connection Through Collaborations With Artists Such As Dundee Poet Andrew French. On This New Album, Mood Taeg Have Built On Their Well-Received Debut, Exophora. And While Some Motorik Elements Remain, Patterns Generally Eschew Repetition And Evolve Organically Within Tracks. Emphasis Has Also Moved On From The Subtle Vocal Textures Found On Exophora, To Stronger, More Prominent Vocal Elements Featuring Poets (Christopher Logue), Cultural Critics (Michael Parenti), Film Makers (Alan P. Chilchier), And Trade Union Activists (Jimmy Reid), Who Reflect Their Political, Social, And Cultural Views. The Debut Album 'Exophora' Received Acclaim From The Likes Of Prog, Electronic Sound Magazine, The Dorf, Last Day Deaf, The Electricity Club, Freq Joyzine And More With Radio Play On Bbc Scotland And Bbc 6 Music. The Band Will Be Playing Their Debut London Show On 28th O...

Echolocation Is The Debut Album By Pamela Z, The Pioneering Bay Area Intermedia Composer And Performance Artist. Written And Recorded Over Three Years, And Self-Released And Distributed On Cassette In 1988, Echolocation Is A Genre-Defying Document Of Z's Earliest Experiments With Live Voice And Delay, And The Impetus Of An Artist's Three Decade Search For Sounds Yet Unfelt. A Pioneer Of Live Digital Looping Techniques, She Processes Her Voice In Real Time To Create Dense, Complex Sonic Layers. For Fans Laurie Anderson, Holly Herndon, Coil, Meredith Monk, Diamanda Galas, Joan La Barbara, Pauline Oliveros.This First-Time Vinyl Edition Of The Album Is Remastered From Original Sources And Expanded With Liner Notes. Includes High Quality, Multi-Format Digital Download.In Addition To Her Solo Work, Pamela Has Been Commissioned To Compose Scores For Dance, Theatre, Film, And Chamber Ensembles Including Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, The Bang On A Can All Stars, Ethel, And San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.Üpamelaü's Interdisciplinary Performance Works Have Been Presented At Venues Including The Kitchen (Ny), Yerba Buena Center For The Arts (Sf), Redcat (La), And Mca (Chicago), And Her Installations Have Been Presented At Such Exhibition Spaces As The Whitney (Ny), The Diozesanmuseum (Cologne), And The Krannert (Il).

On the fringe of chaos, in the Year of the Pandemic, the Cannabeast has awoken!! Bongzilla is back with a new full length album, 16 years since their last record. These Pioneers of Weed Metal would like to present “weedsconsin” to the universe. An album written by the three long standing original members of Bongzilla - Muleboy (bass, vocals), Spanky (guitar), and Magma (drums). Recorded and mixed by the late John Hopkins at Future Apple Tree Studios in Rock Island, Illinois in October 2020. The six brand new tracks will blow your mind! In a single instant you are contaminated by the classic Weed-Infected sounds the band is known for, while also finding new elements mixed into the bowl. In the unique piece that is Weedsconsin, Bongzilla delivers heavy doses of Crushing Stoner Doom and Psychedelic Space Rock that sets it apart from earlier material. (That’s why HPS Records is the perfect label to release this stuff). This record travels down a path of heavy riffs, mind-expanding jams, sonic tones, and stomping beats in the band's first release as a thunderous three piece, with Muleboy moving from guitar to bass. Approaching these songs as a three piece has created more space musically and allowed the band to showcase their musicianship in a different way. It results in a sound that is very heavy, along the lines of Gateway tone-wise, but sonically more clear. The album is mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago, Illinois, and Eli Quinn (Madison, Wisconsin) is the artist behind the astounding new cover art. Weedsconsin is dedicated to the memory of John Hopkins.

Unmaker, the 3rd album by Copenhagen's LLNN, is a stupefyingly unforgiving affair: abrasive and vile, at times effervescent and escharotic, and finally absolutely smothering, suffocating, terminal. LLNN burst onto the scene with 2016's critically acclaimed debut album "Loss“, a sheer display of "absolute raging rawness“, as Terrorizer put it... But there is more to their sound than that: „the wavering drone synths that are effortlessly merged with a raw hardcore-driven darkness define the subtle idiosyncratic nuances of LLNN's very unsubtle, painfully overwhelming sound“ (The Sludgelord). After European tours with Bison, performances at festivals like Roskilde, Roadburn and Arctangent and a split EP with WOVOKA, LLNN returned with sophomore album "Deads“ in 2018, an album that felt more compact, yet more complex and organic all at the same time. The band further explored the coalescence of the guitar & bass - axis with keys player Ketil G. Sejersen's synth layers – a direction that is now further pursued on Unmaker. In fact, LLNN’s contemporary heaviness is not just “dense, suffocating tracks that build and crash“ or "buried vocals coming from under thick guitars and pounding drums” (Decibel): it’s also the very dominant synths that evoke the feel and vibe of dystopian, post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies, inspired by composers like Brad Fiedel, Vangalis, John Carpenter and Stanley Kubrick as much as by Sci-Fi / horror games like Silent Hill, Dead Space, Halo & Limbo.
"I’m obsessed with music that explores what sound can do to our body, to our mind, to our imagination. LLNN 's new album is one of the most overwhelmingly intense records I’ve heard in quite a while and the way it blends abstract ambient sounds, shattering rhythms and extreme noise is both hypnotic and powerful. The sense of sonic detail is staggering and for each spin I hear new elements, echoes, textures and my mind gets new visual associations. Sometimes it feels like the soundtracks of Apocalypse Now and Eraserhead has been melted together and blasted through a ferocious guitar amp - these songs have both a sense of impending doom and an extraordinary combination of raw energy and gritty beauty“ - Movie soundtrack composer award-winning Peter Albrechtsen

Dormant for nearly a third of a century, originally formed in 1982 by (then) bassist Damian Thompson & drummer Andy Baker (joined by Freaky Freeman on vox & Anarchy Mole on guitar).Warwound spat & cursed out three demos of 'fast, no bullshit, hardcore punk' through late 82/early 83.Heavily influenced by the sounds of the time (Discharge, Crass, Rudimentary Peni, Motorhead, Bad Brains etc) the band played a handful of gigs around the midlands area of the U.K. before in the autumn of 1983 Damian & Andy were enlisted to join the Varukers. Warwound as it was, ceased to be. During their time in the Varukers, the pair recorded two Warwound numbers which were to be featured on the classic Varukers album 'Another Religion, Another War'. Since that time some thirty years ago, the original Warwound demo tapes have been copied and circulated many times through underground circles of D-beat noise enthusiasts. The emergence of Sacrilege in 1984 also added to keep interest alive in the old Warwound material. These hugely influential recordings (25 tracks, 15 songs in various versions) are made commercially available for the first time, and with a brand new version of the band (featuring original member Damian Thompson alongside past and present members of Varukers, Discharge, Stamping Ground, Decadence Within , Sacrilege and others)