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Mastered from the original analog tapes
Deluxe Stoughton “tip-on” jacket with debossing
Vinyl pressed at RTI
All tracks previously unreleased
Booklet with liner notes and rare archive photos

On March 4, 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. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even 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 Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…

Light In The Attic’s reissue of U.F.O. introduced the world to an overlooked masterwork and won Sullivan, posthumously (presumably), legions of new fans. Those new admirers are in for a real treat: a lavish, first-time release of a previously unheard 1969 studio session.

If The Evening Were Dawn contains 10 acoustic solo recordings that have never seen the light of day. Whereas U.F.O. was bolstered by legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew, this is Jim Sullivan on his own terms, stripped down and soulful as ever. Recorded at a Los Angeles studio circa 1969, the session contains acoustic versions of a handful of U.F.O. tracks alongside a half dozen previously unheard songs. This, then, is the closest thing to those fabled Malibu bar performances at which Sullivan was first noticed.

According to his widow, Barbara, this was the album Jim always hoped to record. It serves as an unprecedented glimpse into the mysterious, larger-than-life figure who’s become the stuff of legends.

While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue. This recording serves as an unexpected missing piece of the puzzle; this is Jim Sullivan’s true swan song.

Mastered from the original analog tapes
Deluxe Stoughton “tip-on” jacket with debossing
Vinyl pressed at RTI
All tracks previously unreleased
Booklet with liner notes and rare archive photos

On March 4, 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. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even 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 Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…

Light In The Attic’s reissue of U.F.O. introduced the world to an overlooked masterwork and won Sullivan, posthumously (presumably), legions of new fans. Those new admirers are in for a real treat: a lavish, first-time release of a previously unheard 1969 studio session.

If The Evening Were Dawn contains 10 acoustic solo recordings that have never seen the light of day. Whereas U.F.O. was bolstered by legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew, this is Jim Sullivan on his own terms, stripped down and soulful as ever. Recorded at a Los Angeles studio circa 1969, the session contains acoustic versions of a handful of U.F.O. tracks alongside a half dozen previously unheard songs. This, then, is the closest thing to those fabled Malibu bar performances at which Sullivan was first noticed.

According to his widow, Barbara, this was the album Jim always hoped to record. It serves as an unprecedented glimpse into the mysterious, larger-than-life figure who’s become the stuff of legends.

While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue. This recording serves as an unexpected missing piece of the puzzle; this is Jim Sullivan’s true swan song.

Originally formed in 1968 under the name The Silencer, Nagoya, Japan progressive rock band Cosmos Factory didn't change their name until their 1983 debut on Nippon Columbia with "An Old Castle Of Transylvania". Loaded with heavy psychedelia and prog rock guitar moments, experimentally blended with the use of Hammond and Mellotron, the band lead by keyboardist / vocalist Tsutomu Izumi takes you on an adventure throughout the dark forests of Transylvania. Throughout the years, the album has become an very rare and sought after gem in the history of Japanese prog rock, this is the very first reissue ever, complete with OBI strip and insert, officially licensed by Nippon Columbia Co. Ltd. and now available worldwide through Holy Basil Records.

The absolute king of lo-fi basement psychedelia, originally released as a private pressing in 1974 by this duo from Ohio. From dreamy melancholic tracks to insane fuzzed-out heavy psych ones.

“Two multi-instrumentalists creating a melancholic dreamlike state with songs fading in and out of the speakers, cavemen drums, primitive electronics and murky fuzz lurking in the background. The best tracks go into places no other albums reach” Patrick Lundborg (Acid Archives). " ‘Emerges’ as in slowly from the primordial sludge of the universe. 'Emerges' like a slow, slouching spectre hauling itself out of the swamps. But then what's a boy to do?

It's 1974, you're young and have a head full of Hawkwind and Roky and the Elevators, old brutalist blues in the Hound Dog Taylor / Fred McDowell backwoods whisky-fucked mode, freakfolk and LSD; you're stuck in Hicksville, USA - that's Youngstown, Ohio to you lot; the music scene sucks; glam's dead or dying slowly; punk a good year of so from even starting to get itself born. Town's too damn small to even muster up a band in. It's just and your buddy and that's it, man.

So you grows your hair and wear satin, wander wide-eyed and tripping across small town railway tracks and hang loose at the weekend in your basement. You gather a bunch if cheapo instruments on the never-never and you start cutting low-fi bedroom demos. Slowly, slowly Stone Harbour emerge.

Stone Harbour were Ric Ballas - electric, acoustic and slide guitars; organ; piano; synthesizers; bass guitar percussion and voice - and Dave McCarty - lead vocals, drums and percussion... and out of nowhere and nothing, at entirely the wrong time, they cut an LP that will blow your head clean off. This is a trip into the true dark heart of psychedelia.

The music? What can I tell you? ‘You'll be a star’ shimmers and aches in the midnight; cymbals wash over you, Dave McCarty's vocals emerge from some subterranean cave and the keyboards flicker, flicker, flash across the periphery of the song; ‘Rock & Roll Puzzle’ is dark, twisted fried garage punk blues brutality in the same mould as 'White Faces' or 'Cold Night for Alligators', pre-empting The Gories and Pussy Galore by a good ten years!!

"Who invented rock & roll? And who invented soul? Was it you or was it me?" Indeed. Songs fade in and out; finger-picking blurs into screaming squeiching synths; guitars melt in the mid-summer heat. ‘Grains of Sand’ frazzles like The Stooges through a fucked-up amp and filtered through a transistor radio with the valves burning out.

‘Thanitos’ is the freak-out ending of ‘Julia’s Dream’ lost in suburban downtown US of A with the taillights cutting on the freeway... whilst ‘Summer Magic is Gone’ is the most haunted, haunting song I've heard in many a long strange moon. Shimmers like stars in the 2am fug and haze and bleeds lost and lonely and bruised into the heat-warped dawn. You're still awake though the brain don't work like it used to. Blurred and bleary and exhilarated and stoned the very core of the soul. Best record I've heard all year." Hugh Dellar (Shindig!)

This is a release known mostly by Italian progressive rock lovers, since its sound can be easily associated to the jazz-rock delivered by the way more popular Napoli Centrale and Perigeo - but also to the ‘fundamentals’ Dedalus, Arti & Mestieri, Uno, if not Maad, Nadma or Aktuala, or even the lesser known Bauhaus for instance. But playing this kind of music and trying to release an album in the first half of the ’70s in Italy was also incredibly hard and courageous: Spirale, in fact, was one of the many bands that lived a very short life, before splitting up and disappear forever.
Spirale were an Italian quintet from Rome, consisting of Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, ute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums) who released a single eponymous album in 1974.
Spirale was originally released on the International King record label, thanks to Mario Schiano, a free-jazz saxophonist who discovered the band, and producer Toni Cosenza, who included the album in the ‘King Jazz-Line’ series. Consisting of just four tracks, most of which taken by the 13-minute long “Cabral, Anno 1” and the marvellous 17-minute “Peperoncino (Cose vecchie, cose nuove)”, Spirale is an incredibly balanced and owing record that sounds still fresh and inspired even today, and it’s a shame that it has remained hidden and overlooked for such a long time. Moreover, it is characterized by that undescribable and particular Mediterranean avour that only Italian musicians were able to obtain.
This beautiful album is of course immensely rare in its original edition, and is now nally reissued on Dialogo record label in a faithful restored version that will finally satisfy any collectors who have waited for years for this beauty to see the light again!
Italy has proven to be a treasure trove of obscure, archival sounds. For decades, the products of its free-wheeling sonic countercultures - spanning numerous musical genres - remained as overlooked from within as without, until being uncovered by diggers searching for treasures in the shadows of time. Thankfully, those efforts have morphed into countless revelations via the reissue market. Leading the way is the Milan based imprint Dialogo, who have made their name by diving far from the predictable path. Their latest, the first ever vinyl reissued of the lone, self-titled LP produced by the Rome based quintet, Spirale, in 1974, stands among their most exciting offerings to date. A visionary hybrid at the juncture of rock and jazz, it was so ahead of its time that it remained almost entirely overlooked for decades, before ultimately ascending to holy grail status among lovers of Italian prog. Creatively thrilling - filled with emotive highs and lows - it’s a crucial piece in the puzzle of Italy’s wild and wonderful history of radical sound.
Founded in Rome by Gaetano Delfini (wind instruments, vocals, percussion), Giancarlo Maurino (saxophone, flute, percussion), Corrado Nofri (piano, marimba, mbira, siren, Jew’s harp), Giuseppe Caporello (contrabass, guitar, percussion) and Giampaolo Ascolese (drums), Spirale is among the most obscure projects to have emerged from Italy during the first half of the 1970s. Almost as soon as their lone, self-titled LP was issued by International King Record in 1974, the trial goes dark. Members turn up on recordings by Gaetano Liguori Collective Orchestra, Folk Magic Band, and numerous other projects over the years, but in this incarnation the music on Spirale seems to be all we have.
Spirale’s fate seems to have rested with the simple fact that they were too ahead of their time, producing a music that would subsequently come to find broad favour among audiences of popular music only a year or two down the road. Their lone, self-titled LP, carving out uncharted territory between Bitches Brew era Miles Davis and mid-70s Soft Machine, pushed progressive rock into a near undefinable realm; not rock enough to be called rock, not jazz enough to be called jazz.
Across the two sides of Spirale, comprising four works, a band of uncompromising talent stretches out, laying down cycling rhythms and bass lines that channel the modalism of John Coltrane, the funkiness of Donald Byrd, and hypnotic psychedelia, before embarking upon melodic excursions - peppered with Mediterranean sensibilities - into the outer realms.
Joyous, engrossing, and the product of exacting musicianship, how Spirale remained overlooked for all these years is one of the great mysteries of Italian music. An absolute revelation of the highest order brought to us by the capable hands of Dialogo, the first time ever reissue of this 1974, obscure masterstroke is an absolute must for any fan of prog, jazz, or Italian music at large. Beautifully pressed with fully restored and remastered audio and issued in a facsimile gatefold sleeve, reproducing the stunning original design, Spirale is just about as good as reissues get.

There are many dreamed-of and a number of dreamy records which reflect the American idea of freedom from a musical point of view. One of these was presented by frontman Lowell George and his superb group Little Feat in what the musical experts praised as a »symbiosis of anarchistic primitive folklore and rock finesse« (rororo Rocklexikon). The high standard which the musicians maintain over the two sides of the LP is established with "Hi Roller", a funky, energetic opening number. The multi-part title number "Times Loves A Hero" follows on with a more subdued tempo but with great dive and sophisticated percussion, which proves itself to be the most important element and governs the whole album.
Little Feat conjures with traditional forms, gets you on the dance floor with "Old Folks Boogie" and serves up a tasty mixture of honky-tonk and blues, which is refined with powerful guitar solos.
Just like a picture puzzle, rhythmic figures and figurettes dart hither and thither out of the background of this handcrafted and stalwart filigree rock ("Red Streamliner", "Keepin‘ Up With The Joneses"). But simplicity and softness is also possible: The message in "Missin‘ You" needs nothing more than chords on the acoustic guitar and men’s voices with a southern sound.

"By the mid-1990s, there was a quietly thriving underground in Wellington, New Zealand, made up of a number of loosely aligned operatives - Surface of The Earth and their World Resources imprint; Fever Hospital and 8 Dec, and the music made by the members of The Garbage & the Flowers after that group temporarily dissolved in 1992..." One of those rather short-lived groups was Dress, who on record consisted of Yuri Frusin and Helen Johnstone from The Garbage & the Flowers and Kristen Wineera from Entlang. Their sole release was a lathe cut 10" released in 1995 on their own label Hell On in a total run of 120 copies. Fördämning Arkiv here presents those wonderfully puzzling tracks to a wider audience, now pressed as a 45rpm 12" with the original recordings remastered for vinyl by Ben Wright Smith. While the ambience is kind of similar to what was going on in the early The Garbage & the Flowers stuff, the music that was made by Dress was very different: improvised and non-song-based but kept in place by repetition and odd melodies. Hypnotic and perplexing music that existed in its own parallel universe for a brief moment in time. The 12" is packaged in a sleeve with slightly reworked artwork though staying very close to the original 10" cover and comes with a 16-page booklet featuring extensive liner notes by Jon Dale, lots of photos and a reprint of the interview with Helen Johnstone and Yuri Frusin published in Opprobrium #1 in 1995. Edition of 500 copies. Fördämning Arkiv 7, October 2022.

During a European tour by HADES, it became apparent that the band would soon disband. Guitarist Dan Lorenzo formed NON-FICTION with Dan Nastasi (MUCKY PUP, DOG EAT DOG), who subsequently recorded an EP. However, the line-up carousel was to turn again and HADES and WATCHTOWER singer Alan Tecchio and bassist Kevin Bolembach (later SEVEN WITCHES, JACK FROST and others) came on board.In 1991, the debut 'Preface' was released on Grand Slamm Records, in Europe on Steamhammer/SPV. At the time, the band's doom metal leanings must have puzzled many fans of HADES and WATCHTOWER, while fans of this style remained ignorant at a time without the Internet. It is astonishing that certain trademarks of HADES can still be found in the music of NON-FICTION (see also the 1995 reunion album by HADES). In 1992, the second album 'In The Know' was released, which is considered a fan favourite and was only released on CD at the time. Once again, the cover artwork is reminiscent of the art of Hipgnosis (Pink Floyd, UFO etc.), which also applies to 'It's A Wonderful Lie', released in 1996. The band's third and final album is a little more experimental, but otherwise continues the familiar style.As HADES were active again at this time, the subject of NON-FICTION was regrettably shelved. Both HADES and WATCHTOWER (with Alan Tecchio) are - sporadically - active again today and quite a few fans hope that NON-FICTION will also make another appearance. The musical continuation, albeit a little more modern, is currently Dan Lorenzo‘s band PATRIARCHS IN BLACK, which is successful in the USA. 1. INTROFUCTION2. PICTURE IMPERFECT3. LOVE, LIKIN, NOTHING4. BIG BLUE FLU5. BLACKENED BLUES6. FURIOUS MAN-GO7. SOMEHOW8. A VERSION9. SOCIAL LIES10. CHIPMUNK FUNK11. DECEPTION VS. REALITY12. SAD & DONE13. INTO THE GROUND14. WAXING PATHETIC15. REASONS16. TRUE / FALSE17. SPENT

After working together in Skinny Puppy, Pigface, and Ministry—ogre and Martin Atkins made their own album together back in 1998. The project was supposed to be called Ritalin but the drug company complained so it was changed to Rx. Now on vinyl for the first time ever. It's like the missing piece of the puzzle between Skinny Puppy and the "ohGr" project that would start a couple years later.

It's our 6th album now and the firs album with the Amazing Clone Drum Set !!!, we started in 1986 the recordings and the songs went trashier and more Fuzz and Feedback every year _.. for this record we bought our own home made studio with mixing desk and a 1 inch tape machine and microphones from the trashcan, Pumi our Live Mixer and Janosh recorded it in a week, for the first 1000 copies we did a 1000 pice puzzle and a pox as a sleeve_ but that item is sold out already now we present you the official version of this TRASH PICE, when we started making the songs for this record I had no lust to write any lyrics to that so we made up most songs free and I sung what I felt like to sing.. it's anyway all about killing killing some more the falling in love and get killed go to hell and having fun down there_THIS RECORD IS FULL TRASH, I DON'T THINK THAT ANY SERIOUS RADIO STATION GONNA PLAY THIS BUT IF SO_ THEN WE HAVE A CHOISE TO GIVE YOU ON YOUR WAY_ PLAY LOUD AS POSSIBLE_we recorded is loud as fuck, so the neighbours came over a view times while we recording that record..but even better is if you come to our shows and we blow your brain away in one second !!!

It's the 10 Year Anniversary of The Front Bottoms' self-titled debut, a beautiful alchemy of anthemic hooks andquotable confessions achievable only by the closest offriends, Brian Sella and Mat Uychich. Their songs are immediately recognizable, lyrics and riffs cleverly and effortlessly spun together into songs surprisingly real. LyricallyBrian Sella fires off scattershot images that the listener cangather up and make sense of like working puzzle pieces onthe floor. Romance, freedom, paranoia, partying and somehow getting clean all tumble together from song to song.The album includes fan favorites like "Flashlight," "Swimming Pool," and "The Beers," where Sella recalls beefingup for a Jersey Shore summer of steroids "because youlike a man with muscles and I like you."

Cuts from essential albums like Cowboy In Sweden Features duets with Suzi Jane Hokom, AnnMargret and Nina Lizell Audio remastered from original tapes Unreleased song “I Just Learned To Run” Indepth liner notes & unseen photographs As a true legend of the great American songbook and a rebellious pioneer who left behind a lengthy trail of echo laden pop masterpieces, Lee Hazlewood’s influence continues to reverberate today. Between 196871, Hazlewood not only released his finest solo work, but produced numerous artists on LHI. From acidfolk and countryrock to poppsych and soul, LHI issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. This series will include material from LHI (remastered for the first time from the original analog tapes), along with Lee’s output for other labels, rarities, and unreleased gems.

With his handlebar moustache and booming baritone, Lee Hazlewood was one of the defining stars of the late ‘60s. Though he’s perhaps best known for his work with Nancy Sinatra (including writing megahit “These Boots Are Made For Walking”), Hazlewood did stunning work away from that particular glamour queen and found latter day champions in Beck, Sonic Youth, and Jarvis Cocker. Now, for Record Store Day 2012, we are kicking off our excavation of the Lee Hazlewood archives with this anthology, Singles, Nudes & Backsides, collecting the best of Lee’s solo songs and duets from his LHI (Lee Hazlewood Industries) imprint.

As a true legend of the great American songbook and a rebellious pioneer who left behind a lengthy trail of echo laden pop masterpieces, Lee’s influence continues to reverberate today. Between 196871, Hazlewood not only released his finest solo work, but produced numerous artists on LHI. From acidfolk and countryrock to poppsych and soul, LHI issued dozens of long forgotten 45s and LPs. This series will include material from LHI (remastered for the first time from the original analog tapes), along with Lee’s output for other labels, rarities, and unreleased gems.

See the sleeve: surrounded by nude girls, each wearing a fake moustache, Hazlewood wears a suit, eversoslightly awkwardly playing the role of the ‘60s playboy. Just like the picture, the songs present a man conflicted; he’s the tenderhearted romantic, the brokenhearted loser and the rugged cowboy, all in one. It’s there in the western swing of “Califia (Stone Rider)”, the loneliness of ”The Bed” and the bleak beauty of ”If It’s Monday Morning.” Hazlewood’s tremulous voice was made for duets (indeed, he wrote ”Some Velvet Morning”, one of the greatest of all time); here, Suzi Jane Hokom, AnnMargret and Nina Lizell play counterpart to his manly tones.

In the wonderful liner notes, written by British journalist Wyndham Wallace, the writer describes his friend Hazlewood as “a curmudgeonly, unpredictable sort at the best of times, as impatient with his own talent as he is with other people.” The Hazlewood Wallace knew was puzzled by the growing interest in him in the last two decades of his life, which was ended by cancer at age 78. That late flurry of interest saw him perform at the Royal Festival Hall in 1999, his first ever solo performance in the UK.

A natural wanderer, Lee lived a big life, fighting in the Korean War, working as a radio DJ in Phoenix, Arizona, setting up Viv Records in the ‘50s, working as a bigshot LA producer in the ‘60s, signing Phil Spector to his Trey Records label and prematurely announcing retirement in the wake of the mid‘60s British invasion. He didn’t: Nancy Sinatra came along, the hits started flowing and he continued producing characterful solo albums into the ‘70s, which saw his move to Sweden. By 2007, Hazlewood was living in Vegas, and begrudgingly enjoying that flurry of latterday interest in his work. This landmark compilation promises to create many more converts.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra came to life in basements and bedrooms, the musical vision of Portlander-via-New Zealand Ruban Nielson that fused guitar-god riffs, choppy percussion, soul and funk. II, the sophomore album from UMO, emerged in an era rampant hedonism and isolationism and became the blueprint for everything Nielson has become renowned for. It was, and is, the solidification of Unknown Mortal Orchestra as an endlessly intriguing, brave and addictive band. Ten years on, it's back with an expanded edition. Written during a punishing, debauched touring schedule during which Nielson feared for both his sanity and health, II illustrates the emotional turmoil of life on the road, painting surrealist, cartoonish portraits of loneliness, love and despair. These conflicting themes are evident immediately; on the album's sleeve is an unnerving image of Janet Farrar, the famous British witch, Wiccan, author and teacher of witchcraft. The chilling refrain of opener "Into The Sun" sees Nielson deliver the line "Isolation can put a gun in your hand," softly, his words starkly intelligible above a warm, slow-burning melody that quickly brands itself onto your brain. His playful imagery ("I'm so lonely I've gotta eat my popcorn all alone") mirrors the melody, before a solo that borders on psychotropic ends II`s introduction. UMO is unafraid to dig deeper than the rest, their intoxicating, opiate groove bringing rock'n'roll's exaggerated myths to life. And as it unfolds, II does find Nielson reenergized. "One At A Time" and "Faded In The Morning" boast dizzying choruses and instrumentals; these crusty hunks could have been excavated from a lost 1960s treasure trove. "Monki" unravels over seven minutes like the yarn from a stoner's cardigan with an eye-frying pattern. "Dawn" is a minute of disconcerting noise that stands out between the nooks and crannies of the choruses, guitar solos, groove-heavy bass and drums that were recorded live by newly-recruited drummer Greg Rogove and Kody Nielson in a move away from the electronic percussion employed on album one. II closes with "Secret Xtians," a tender observational puzzle that fizzes to a satisfied end. In celebration of the album's 10th anniversary Nielson's complete collection from the II era is finally available in one compilation, and features the five acoustic tracks from the Blue EP as well as two additional B-sides. Unknown Mortal Orchestra was once Nielson's closeted concern. With an album that uses his singular musical imagination and extraordinary talent to parade his emotions with unyielding honesty, it is now a fully realized band operating at the peak of its powers ten years on.

Recorded in a little bedroom studio out in Durham, North Carolina, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn's debut LP as Sylvan Esso arrived in 2014 at the juncture of pop and experimental. Even now, years later, the LP remains an urgent and fitting introduction to a push-and-pull that would go on to inform the duo's sound - a thoughtful headiness that also wants you to get out on the dance floor. A blend of analog and digital, Meath and Sanborn were two unexpected puzzle pieces fitting together with singular ease, producing a ten-track LP that was both minimalist and shimmering, with dark undulations rippling beneath the synthy-surface and crystalline quality of Meath's voice. Before all of the international touring and festival headlining and critical acclaim, Sylvan Esso was just a shot-in-the dark of musical chemistry gone right. The original album bio for the self-titled presciently sets the stage for the thesis that has gone on to guide Meath and Sanborn's writing since then: "a collection of vivid addictions concerning suffering and love, darkness and deliverance" arriving as "a necessary pop balm, an album stuffed with songs that don't suffer the longstanding complications of that term." And so, even as the band continues to evolve and becomes amorphous, there's still that argument about what pop can be at its core. This is just the beginning of that conversation captured on tape.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2014

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2015!

If you had to characterize Raised Fist - one of Sweden's hardcore scene's longest-running and most vital acts - with just one word, respect would be it. Want proof? Lou Koller of Sick Of It All described Raised Fist as "one of the world's three most progressive hardcore bands", Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden fame played them on his radio show and Jona Weinhofen (I Killed The Prom Queen, ex-Bring Me The Horizon) cites them as a huge influence. Speaking of the album, front man Alexander "Alle" Hagman says, "this time, everything has connected, like pieces in a perfect puzzle. You know when you have a classic album recorded." He continues, "when you do something with your heart, and the timing is right, there is magic. That is what happened with 'From The North'. From The North is where we are from, and we do shit differently up here! We do it hard, whether it's on stage or in the studio."

The title "il-lūdĕre" is a word pun made of the Latin verb "lūdĕre" (play) and the prefix "il", considered as the first part of the verb "illudere" (create an illusion). Hence the conceptual dualism of the disc, in which we wanted to analyze life in a simple and at the same time deep way, from everyday to the use of language and the fusion of ancient cultures from different parts of the world. The cover also graphically represents the concept of "ludus": to see the subject you must nudge the spaces marked with the dot (as in the well-known puzzle game). Let's play!

Puzzling collage of Tibetan Buddhist rites

At its purest, there is little that can match the visceral thrill and empowering spirit of hardcore. As front-man of New York City hardcore kings Cro-Mags, this is something John Joseph knows very well, and with Up In Arms, he and his Bloodclot compatriots deliver a furious collection that hits hard on every level. "In this band we're doing what each of us have always done: give it our all," he states plainly. "We work hard, and we have a lot to say. Look around the planet - people are fed up with the corrupt ruling class. They destroy the planet and kill millions for profit, and the formula for our response is simple: Anger + applied knowledge = results. Don't just bitch. Change it." The results reflect the roots and passions of the individual members. Danzig/Murphy's Law guitarist Todd Youth was the first piece of the puzzle. "We've always talked about doing this record together, Todd had songs written and I had notebooks full of lyrics. In late September 2015, I went out to LA to do a triathlon and injured my calf muscle, so I couldn't race, and Todd said he could get some studio time. So, we went in and cut the demo. While there are things we may perceive as a negative in our lives, in fact the universe has a bigger plan, and that experience ultimately resulted in the record." Having been friends with Queens Of The Stone Age and Danzig powerhouse drummer Joey Castillo for three decades, the two musicians had long admired each other's work, and their collaboration has been a long time coming. Following Castillo's suggestion of bringing in Nick Oliveri (Queens Of The Stone Age/The Dwarves) to handle bass duties, the lineup was complete. The songs that comprise Up In Arms manifested after the quartet plugged in and let the music speak for them. "We didn't decide to try to play anything, these are the songs that happened when we started jamming, and I love this band because there are no egos involved. Our goal is to make the best music possible, period. I love it when those guys contribute with melodies, etc., and I've even helped with some of the arrangements. Because we all think alike, our lyrics deal with the issues of the day, and that makes for better songs." Every track on Up In Arms lives up to the rallying cry of the album's title - the bursts of high energy hardcore act as the perfect accompaniment to Joseph setting his sights on injustice and the seemingly endless flaws of the contemporary world. The breakneck thrashing of "Slow Kill Genocide" is an anthem for everyone sickened by those responsible for "killing the planet and all its inhabitants through industry and war. They're fucking maniacs and must be stopped." The suitably titled "Manic" attacks with bared fangs, Joseph making it clear that you can only push someone so far before they will react with violence - a call to arms for the disenfranchised who want tomorrow's world to be better than today's. Tracked at NRG in Los Angeles, the raw, old-school production that leaps out from the speaker comes courtesy of producer Zeuss (Hatebreed, Revocation), and the record was mixed by Kyle McAulay at NRG. From the moment the opening title track explodes to life, it's clear that everyone involved is having a blast and playing from the heart, and that this is no frills / no bullshit music at its most passionate - every song evoking mental images of utter chaos in a heaving mosh pit. For anyone approaching the album for the first time, Joseph has only this to say: "Turn the volume way the fuck up!" And with plans to tour everywhere, Bloodclot will be getting in a lot of faces in 2017 and beyond. "We are already writing material and the next album is in the works. But, for now, all we want is to hit the stage to support 'Up in Arms', and every single night leave every ounce of ourselves up there."

Mastered from the original analog tapes
All tracks previously unreleased
Booklet with liner notes and rare archive photos
Deluxe die cut Stoughton “tip-on” jacket with embossed lettering
Vinyl pressed at RTI

On March 4, 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. Some think the mafia bumped him. Some even 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 Light In The Attic Records began a years-long quest to re-release it–and to solve the mystery of Sullivan’s disappearance. Only one of those things happened, and you can guess which…

Light In The Attic’s reissue of U.F.O. introduced the world to an overlooked masterwork and won Sullivan, posthumously (presumably), legions of new fans. Those new admirers are in for a real treat: a lavish, first-time release of a previously unheard 1969 studio session.

If The Evening Were Dawn contains 10 acoustic solo recordings that have never seen the light of day. Whereas U.F.O. was bolstered by legendary sessioneers The Wrecking Crew, this is Jim Sullivan on his own terms, stripped down and soulful as ever. Recorded at a Los Angeles studio circa 1969, the session contains acoustic versions of a handful of U.F.O. tracks alongside a half dozen previously unheard songs. This, then, is the closest thing to those fabled Malibu bar performances at which Sullivan was first noticed.

According to his widow, Barbara, this was the album Jim always hoped to record. It serves as an unprecedented glimpse into the mysterious, larger-than-life figure who’s become the stuff of legends.

While Sullivan’s disappearance remains unsolved, his music endures and is finally gaining him the recognition he deserves, albeit long overdue. This recording serves as an unexpected missing piece of the puzzle; this is Jim Sullivan’s true swan song.

Rupture", Hifiklub new album - recorded during quarantine - with French producer Daffodil, experimental jazz trumpet player Reuben Lewis and Pearl JAM / SOUNDGARDEN’s drummer Matt Cameron. In a way, spring 2020 has offered us the luxury of time. Eight unforeseen weeks of creation during which french experimental rock band Hifiklub was able, on the one hand, to provide the single "Staying At Home" with Jad Fair (Half Japanese) for Joyful Noise Recordings compilation 'Safe In Sound - Home Recordings From Quarantine' but also, on the other hand, remotely record this brand new album with producer Anthony "Daffodil" Belguise, drummer Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden) and trumpet player Reuben Lewis (I Hold the Lion's Paw). That, while reformatting the internal balance of the group, returning to an “open trio” formula - and no longer a quartet around permanent members Pascal Abbattucci Julien, Jean-Loup Faurat and Régis Laugier. All this, above all, by having only the means at hand in such circumstances. The instrumental character of this new discographic stage, made up of six distinct movements, is only shaken by rare vocal interventions supporting passages where the music becomes more intense. This real sound puzzle assembled by Daffodil reveals the darkness and modernity characteristic of his latest productions. His meticulous mixing work allows this 25-minute musical piece, thought of as a whole, to evolve in the sandstone of unexpected rhythmic and harmonic breaks during which the trumpet and electronic sounds constantly revive the machine.

Pressed up on his own label, Chuffed! And we’re chuffed as ever to have more Kelley on our racks.. 17 Incredible tracks! This time Kelley genre plays in the Power-pub world, with dashes of Undertones, Stiff Records, 80's Iggy evenly applied. A chance buy of a $75 Japanese Electric Guitar conducive only to power chords, and repeated spins of the Mick Trouble LP made for a wild week of recording this edgy delight. Recorded Fall 2019 at Electric Duck Studios SF, CA. Mastered by Sir Mikey Young. Brought to you by Chuffed Records, a Puzzling Records Company.

Kiwi Jr. Is A Phenomenal "Rock" And/Or "Punk" And/Or "Indie-Rock" (Whichever You Like More) Band From Canada, Made Up Of Jeremy Gaudet (Mic, Guitar), Brohan Moore (Drums), Mike Walker (Bass), And Brian Murphy (Guitar). Cooler Returns Is Their Second Album, And Their First For Sub Pop. Despite Being A Snapshot Of The Pandemic-Infused Beginnings Of This Decade, Cooler Returns Is Truly A Whole Lot Of Fun. Riyl Indie-Pop From Down Under, Things That Are Smart/Exuberant/Catchy All At Once. Buildings Burning In Every Direction; Macabre Unknowns In Your Friendly Neighbor's Basement; Undecided Voters Sharpening Their Pencils: Under Pressure We Could Call Kiwi Jr.'S Cooler Returns "Timely." But What Year Is It, Again? On Cooler Returns, Kiwi Jr. Cycle Through The Recent Zigs & Looming Zags Of The New Decade, Squinting Anew At New Year's Parties Forgotten And Under-Investigated Small Town Diner Fires, Piecing Together Low-Stakes Conspiracy Theories On What's Coming Down The Pike In 2021. Put Together Like A Thousand-Piece Puzzle, Assembled In Flow State Through The First Dull Stretch Of Quarantine, Sanitized Singer Shuffling To Sanitized Studio By Streetcar, Masked Like It's The Kind Of Work Where Getting Recognized Means Getting Killed, Cooler Returns Materializes As A Sprawling Survey From The First Few Bites Of The Terrible Twenties, An Investigative Exposé Of Recent History Buried Under The Headlines & Ancient Kings Buried Under Parking Lots. Not So Long Since Their Debut Football Money In Archaeological Time, Unending Gray Eons Later In The Dog Years Of Quaran-Time, Spiritually Antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr Return To Disseminate This Year's Annual Report To The Shareholders, Burying The Incriminating Numbers In The Endless Appendices Of A Longform Narrative Record, A 3,000 Word Tract For Stakeholders To Pore Over. These Stories - Memories Of Augusts Past, Unrepressed & Transcribed Fast - Go Down Easier Thanks To Meaningful Changes Enacted In 2019's Kiwicares Pledge: Delivering On A Promise To Transition F...

Kiwi Jr. Is A Phenomenal "Rock" And/Or "Punk" And/Or "Indie-Rock" (Whichever You Like More) Band From Canada, Made Up Of Jeremy Gaudet (Mic, Guitar), Brohan Moore (Drums), Mike Walker (Bass), And Brian Murphy (Guitar). Cooler Returns Is Their Second Album, And Their First For Sub Pop. Despite Being A Snapshot Of The Pandemic-Infused Beginnings Of This Decade, Cooler Returns Is Truly A Whole Lot Of Fun. Riyl Indie-Pop From Down Under, Things That Are Smart/Exuberant/Catchy All At Once. Buildings Burning In Every Direction; Macabre Unknowns In Your Friendly Neighbor's Basement; Undecided Voters Sharpening Their Pencils: Under Pressure We Could Call Kiwi Jr.'S Cooler Returns "Timely." But What Year Is It, Again? On Cooler Returns, Kiwi Jr. Cycle Through The Recent Zigs & Looming Zags Of The New Decade, Squinting Anew At New Year's Parties Forgotten And Under-Investigated Small Town Diner Fires, Piecing Together Low-Stakes Conspiracy Theories On What's Coming Down The Pike In 2021. Put Together Like A Thousand-Piece Puzzle, Assembled In Flow State Through The First Dull Stretch Of Quarantine, Sanitized Singer Shuffling To Sanitized Studio By Streetcar, Masked Like It's The Kind Of Work Where Getting Recognized Means Getting Killed, Cooler Returns Materializes As A Sprawling Survey From The First Few Bites Of The Terrible Twenties, An Investigative Exposé Of Recent History Buried Under The Headlines & Ancient Kings Buried Under Parking Lots. Not So Long Since Their Debut Football Money In Archaeological Time, Unending Gray Eons Later In The Dog Years Of Quaran-Time, Spiritually Antipodean Canadians Kiwi Jr Return To Disseminate This Year's Annual Report To The Shareholders, Burying The Incriminating Numbers In The Endless Appendices Of A Longform Narrative Record, A 3,000 Word Tract For Stakeholders To Pore Over. These Stories - Memories Of Augusts Past, Unrepressed & Transcribed Fast - Go Down Easier Thanks To Meaningful Changes Enacted In 2019's Kiwicares Pledge: Delivering On A Promise To Transition F...

Extremely rare, under the radar afro-psychedelic LP from South Africa. This mysterious band was produced by African funk master, composer, guitarist and producer Almon Sandisa Memela, who was active since the mid 1950s, first as a musician and guitar teacher and then also as a producer. He is famous for his 1970s Afro funk works Funky Africa and the very sought after Broken Shoes.

Action features a cool mixture of incipient afro-funk and garage pop/psych, with one of its songs having been compiled on the famous Next Stop... Soweto compilation series that helped ignite the current fever for African music.

Riyl: Ofege, Blo, Aktion, The Apostles, Sjob Movement, Soweto and the likes.

First ever vinyl reissue, reproducing the original sleeve artwork and with remastered sound. 500 copies only.

Limited Edition Picture Disc. Only 3500 made! It's the 10 Year Anniversary of The Front Bottoms' self-titled debut, a beautiful alchemy of anthemic hooks and quotable confessions achievable only by the closest of friends, Brian Sella and Mat Uychich. Their songs are immediately recognizable, lyrics and riffs cleverly and effortlessly spun together into songs surprisingly real. Lyrically Brian Sella fires off scattershot images that the listener can gather up and make sense of like working puzzle pieces on the floor. Romance, freedom, paranoia, partying and somehow getting clean all tumble together from song to song. The album includes fan favorites like "Flashlight," "Swimming Pool," and "The Beers," where Sella recalls beefing up for a Jersey Shore summer of steroids "because you like a man with muscles and I like you."

Water From Your Eyes' Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their "confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica" in their review of 2019's Somebody Else's Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure - with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like "My Love's," to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like ""Quotations"" - may just seem like a further refinement of the duo's idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE's prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker. Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener "When You're Around," which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there's an underlying eeriness that's not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos' advice for navigating Structure's sonic terrain is to "remember that this is weed music," while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like "solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers." Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

Water From Your Eyes' Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are no strangers to contradiction, with Pitchfork making note of their "confidence in splicing different genres and feels from acoustic twee to indie-electronica" in their review of 2019's Somebody Else's Songs. So, upon first listen, Structure - with its tendency to turn on a dime from the buzzsaw synths and string arrangements that sonically bookend tracks like "My Love's," to the subtle, almost Squarepusher-esque rhythms that round out electronic compositions like ""Quotations"" - may just seem like a further refinement of the duo's idiosyncratic approach to making music. However, repeat listens will reveal that, even though the album zigs and zags in a manner consistent with WFYE's prior releases, its line of best fit trends in a very clear direction away from the quaint affectations of their prior work and towards something more deliberate and half a shade darker. Even on ostensibly cheery tracks like album opener "When You're Around," which, with its saccharine melodicism sounds like it could be a lost song from The Apples in Stereo or one of their Elephant 6-era labelmates, there's an underlying eeriness that's not immediately apparent until the song is listened to in the context of the full album. Amos' advice for navigating Structure's sonic terrain is to "remember that this is weed music," while his counterpart Brown offers that that the album is like "solving a puzzle with a ton of different answers." Although these varied descriptions of how to approach listening to Structure may accurately reveal it to be another exercise in contradictions, the clear intent with which the pair approached creating the album can only be appreciated with repeat listens, and is likely what makes it, by far, their most compelling entry to date.

After the promising, Norwegian Grammy-nominated debut Puzzler (2016), and the more ambitious follow-up Mjusic (2018), it would've been easy for Hilma Nikolaisen (formerly of Serena Maneesh) to continue in the same vein. After all she's perfected her own kind of groovy guitar rock built on catchy riffs and jammy psychedelic excursions. Instead, Heritage represents a surprising step to the side.

Toxic Waste Represent The Hardest End Of The Crass Milieu. While Most Anarcho-Punk Bands Of The Time Sang About A War They'd Only Seen On Tv Toxic Waste Were Being Politically Active In Belfast During The Troubles. They Played Militant Punk With Melody And Aggression. Borderline Hardcore At Times With A Clear Peace-Punk Message. Angry, Intense And In Your Face. They Were Involved In The Warzone Collective And Shared Stages, Experiences And Activism With Bands Such As Stalag 17, Conflict , Asylum And Antisect. "Belfast" Was Originally Released In 1987 On Vocalist Roy Wallace's Belfast Records And Has Been Out Of Print For 30 Years. It Was A Compilation Of Previously Released Tracks And Newly Recorded Versions Of Old Tracks With Dino And Gary From D.I.R.T Doing The Female Vocal Parts And Guitars. The 12 Tracks On "Belfast" Are Nuggets Of Raging Pissed Off Diy Anarcho Punk With Hard Hitting Lyrics And Dual Vocals. The Recordings Are Raw And Passionate And Stand The Test Of Time. The Band Released An Iconic Split 12" With Stalag 17 On Mortarhate (1985) - The Tracks Are Included On "Belfast" And Then The Following Year A Split Lp Called We Will Be Free With Stalag 17 And Asylum Before Calling It A Day And Becoming A Lost Piece Of The Anarcho Punk Puzzle. This Reissue Comes With Replica Sleeve And Fold-Out Lyric Insert.

Bristol punk quintet the Cortinas began as an R&B covers band, but soon sped up their repertoire when punk arrived, making them local pioneers. A slot supporting the Stranglers at the Roxy brought them onto Miles Copeland and Mark Perry’s Step Forward label and they later signed to CBS before imploding, guitarist Nick Sheppard then joining the Clash and drummer Daniel Swann San Francisco’s the Sneeches. This ace compilation gathers the best of their early work, including the immortal debut ‘Fascist Dictator’/‘Defiant Pose,’ as well as ‘TV Personalities,’ both in the studio and live. Another crucial piece of the Bristol puzzle!

Outerwear were a more primitive, less ambitious offshoot of Cleveland's Spike in Vain, which means the rhythm section was so crappy that simple songs were a necessity and they took an inordinate amount of pride in just badly they sucked. In fact, sucking was so much the point that once the band had become "kind of good," they mummified themselves in gauze at their final shows so their hands couldn't function nor could they see their instruments. This, along with painfully long versions of their slowest songs were enough to drive more than 200+ audience members from a hall show when opening for Social Unrest. Perhaps Outerwear's finest moment, aside from the day they were somehow allowed into a recording studio to record their 1983 cassette album, The Outerwear Limits, which against all odds, is fairly compelling. Given that Chris Marec of Spike in Vain sang, played guitar, and wrote all the songs, there's six string insanity in spades, and the morbid tales of amateur coroners and being buried alive somehow contain genuine hooks. Yes, you will find yourself singing along to "Bloody Toilet Paper," banging your head to "Fountain of Scuz," and then scratching it as you puzzle through the backwards guitar and trombone of "Piss II." But wait, there's more! Power tools! Tuba! Cello solos! Or how about the absolute worst version of the Ohio Players' "Fire" ever recorded by man? Amateur home lobotomy may become an attractive new hobby, because you'll want to remove the parts of your brain that might remember this track. That, or listen to their cover of the Doors' "The End," which could do the job on its own (and doesn't include any of the actual music from the song). These are just a few among the many torturous pleasures the listener will "enjoy" on a great aural adventure, as they experience the awe and mystery of The Outerwear Limits.

Nowadays, voice memos, videos, and pictures chronicle our lives in real-time. We trace where we've been and reveal where we're going. However, Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as singer, songwriter, actress but you'll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Memories of unrequited love, fits of longing, instances of anxiety, and unfiltered snapshots interlock like puzzle pieces into a mosaic of well-worn country, '90s-style alternative, and unassuming pop. She writes the kind of tunes meant to be grafted onto dusty old vinyl from your favorite vintage record store, yet perfect for a sun-soaked festival stage. Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can't Let Go, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter. In Suki's words: "The album is called I Can't Let Go because for years it felt like I was wearing heavy moments on my sleeve and it just didn't make sense to do so anymore. There's so much that I've never spoken about. Writing music has always been where it felt safe to do so. Every song for the record was a necessity. In many ways, I've been observing my life as an outsider, even when I've been on the inside. It's like I was a visitor watching things happen." Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music's magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple, and Oasis held a special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently. Nylon hailed her debut track, "Brutally," as "what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides, Now' would sound like." In addition to raves from Garage, Vice and Lemonade Magazine, Dujor put it best: "Suki Waterhouse's music has swagger." Suki is constantly consuming artists of all stripes, and, in the lead-up to making I Can't Let Go, she was particularly drawn to the work of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. After falling in love with Hiss Golden Messenger's Terms of Surrender, she reached out to its producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) to help define the sound of I Can't Let Go. On I Can't Let Go, Suki not only catalogs her life up to this point, but she also fulfills a lifelong ambition. "When I've been stuck or feel out of touch with a sense of inner meaning and outer purpose, I've found both through searching my memories and finding those events buried in the shadowy areas of the psyche where they were ignored," she says. "So many times of change in my life have required return visits-especially at the transitions through to the next stages. The album is an exploration of those moments when there is nothing left to lose. What is left and can't be thrown away is the self."

Nowadays, voice memos, videos, and pictures chronicle our lives in real-time. We trace where we've been and reveal where we're going. However, Suki Waterhouse catalogs the most intimate, formative, and significant moments of her life through songs. You might recognize her name or her work as singer, songwriter, actress but you'll really get to know the multi-faceted artist through her music. Memories of unrequited love, fits of longing, instances of anxiety, and unfiltered snapshots interlock like puzzle pieces into a mosaic of well-worn country, '90s-style alternative, and unassuming pop. She writes the kind of tunes meant to be grafted onto dusty old vinyl from your favorite vintage record store, yet perfect for a sun-soaked festival stage. Her first album for Sub Pop, I Can't Let Go, is a testament to her powers as a singer and songwriter. In Suki's words: "The album is called I Can't Let Go because for years it felt like I was wearing heavy moments on my sleeve and it just didn't make sense to do so anymore. There's so much that I've never spoken about. Writing music has always been where it felt safe to do so. Every song for the record was a necessity. In many ways, I've been observing my life as an outsider, even when I've been on the inside. It's like I was a visitor watching things happen." Growing up in London, Suki gravitated towards music's magnetic pull. She listened to the likes of Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple, and Oasis held a special place in her heart. She initially teased out this facet of her creativity with a series of singles, generating nearly 20 million total streams independently. Nylon hailed her debut track, "Brutally," as "what a Lana Del Rey deep cut mixed with Joni Mitchell's 'Both Sides, Now' would sound like." In addition to raves from Garage, Vice and Lemonade Magazine, Dujor put it best: "Suki Waterhouse's music has swagger." Suki is constantly consuming artists of all stripes, and, in the lead-up to making I Can't Let Go, she was particularly drawn to the work of Sharon Van Etten, Valerie June, Garbage, Frazey Ford, Lou Doillon, and Lucinda Williams. After falling in love with Hiss Golden Messenger's Terms of Surrender, she reached out to its producer Brad Cook (Bon Iver, War On Drugs, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee) to help define the sound of I Can't Let Go. On I Can't Let Go, Suki not only catalogs her life up to this point, but she also fulfills a lifelong ambition. "When I've been stuck or feel out of touch with a sense of inner meaning and outer purpose, I've found both through searching my memories and finding those events buried in the shadowy areas of the psyche where they were ignored," she says. "So many times of change in my life have required return visits-especially at the transitions through to the next stages. The album is an exploration of those moments when there is nothing left to lose. What is left and can't be thrown away is the self."

Destroyer’s 2022 album brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing.

More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through unfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following spring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the mythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes a Thief” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth from disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top madcappery. “Our version may have been punk clubs, but our touchstones for the album were more true to disco,” says Bejar.

Destroyer’s 2022 album brims with mystic and intoxicating terrain, the threads of Dan Bejar’s notes woven through by a trove of allusions at once eerily familiar and intimately perplexing.

More than an arcane puzzle for the listener, LABYRINTHITIS warps and winds through unfamiliar territory for Bejar as well. Written largely in 2020 and recorded the following spring, the album most often finds Bejar and frequent collaborator John Collins seeking the mythic artifacts buried somewhere under the dance floor, from the glitzy spiral of “It Takes a Thief” to the Books-ian collage bliss of the title track. Initial song ideas ventured forth from disco, Art of Noise, and New Order, Bejar and Collins championing the over-the-top madcappery. “Our version may have been punk clubs, but our touchstones for the album were more true to disco,” says Bejar.

Deer Scout’s debut full length Woodpecker is a record about memory and the subconscious. And like an unforgettable dream that keeps you puzzling over its riddles for days, it’s as packed with direct symbols as it is with ruminative haze. “I approach songwriting as a process of boxing things up, or putting away a time capsule,” explains front person Dena Miller, who wrote the album over a period of six years. It’s a culminating collection of the project’s many sounds and influences to date, from Philly’s punk cooperatives to Oberlin’s conservatory experimentalism to New York’s DIY history. At the center is Miller’s assured guitar fingerpicking and boldly clear voice, firmly grounded even as it gently probes uncertain emotional and musical terrain.

Raised by two folk musicians in Yonkers, Miller began recording songs as Deer Scout her freshman year of college in Philadelphia. There, she wrote Woodpecker’s earliest song “Synesthesia” about a train ride home from a basement show: “Night in the city / Big house on the corner / Her voice has the timbre of summers ago,” recalls Miller resonantly. After Miller’s transfer to Oberlin College, Deer Scout began touring DIY venues around the country and sharing stages with favorite artists including Waxahatchee and Told Slant. The twinned intimacy and intricacy of those two influences is reflected in the carefully adventurous arrangements on Woodpecker, which features, among other contributors, bass from close collaborator Ko Takasugi-Czernowin, cello from Zuzia Weyman, drums from Madel Rafter, and guitar from Miller’s father Mark—who also wrote the song “Peace with the Damage” and originally released it with his band Spuyten Duyvil in 2011.

Many of the songs on Woodpecker were written during periods of grief or change. “I used to sing myself to sleep as a baby and I think music still plays the same role in my life—it’s a way of self-soothing or seeking comfort,” explains Miller. “But there’s also part of it that comes from wanting to connect with people." Recorded and mixed primarily by Heather Jones at So Big Auditory in Philly with overdubs by Miller at home, Woodpecker is an exercise in portraying the incommunicable. “Cup”—about a relational psychology test called “a walk in the woods” that turns encounters with symbols into meaning—uses watery arpeggios, wintry strings, and roving bass to create a liminal sonic space, optimistic but tense. “Cowboy,” with airy layers of acoustic guitar riffs and Miller’s charmingly double tracked voice, takes its little fish, big pond inspiration from the character Joe Buck in Midnight Cowboy. And “Afterthought,” with its unexpectedly bright resolutions, is about God, love, and the complexity of empathy; “Heaven isn’t watching us,” sings Miller candidly over pedal steel.

Though Woodpecker is a record about uncertainty and the unknown, it’s also about compassion and connection—as Miller was able to find over the course of writing and recording this next chapter for Deer Scout and first release for Carpark, which she’s excited to at last share with the world.

Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer's shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. "A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length," says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. "I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest." Having made music together since their teenage years, the London four-piece piqued press attention in late 2019 with their first gig as a newly solidified group, a raucous outing in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. Debut single "House of York" followed with a blistering critique of monarchist patriotism, and they were signed to Sub Pop for their debut album. When Uppers arrived in the height of a global pandemic, it reaped praise from critics and fans alike for its "dystopian doublespeak," but the band - Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, producer, bass and keys player Nic Bueth and drummer Ed Kelland - were at home like the rest of us, drinking cups of tea and marking time via government-sanctioned daily exercise. As such, the personal and professional landmark of its release felt "both colossal and minuscule" dampened by the inability to share it live. "It was a real gratification and really cathartic, but on the other hand, it was really strange, and not great for my mental health" admits Drinkwater. "I wasn't prepared, and I hadn't necessarily expected it to reach as many people as it did." As such, My Other People maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using "Saintless" (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. "Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well," he says. "There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments.Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in." "It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful," agrees Bueth. "Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening." This tension between existential fear born from the constant uncertainties of life, and an affirmative, cathartic urge to seize the moment, is central to My Other People, a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero in which you're welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound.

Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer's shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. "A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length," says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. "I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest." Having made music together since their teenage years, the London four-piece piqued press attention in late 2019 with their first gig as a newly solidified group, a raucous outing in the warehouse district of Hackney Wick. Debut single "House of York" followed with a blistering critique of monarchist patriotism, and they were signed to Sub Pop for their debut album. When Uppers arrived in the height of a global pandemic, it reaped praise from critics and fans alike for its "dystopian doublespeak," but the band - Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, producer, bass and keys player Nic Bueth and drummer Ed Kelland - were at home like the rest of us, drinking cups of tea and marking time via government-sanctioned daily exercise. As such, the personal and professional landmark of its release felt "both colossal and minuscule" dampened by the inability to share it live. "It was a real gratification and really cathartic, but on the other hand, it was really strange, and not great for my mental health" admits Drinkwater. "I wasn't prepared, and I hadn't necessarily expected it to reach as many people as it did." As such, My Other People maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using "Saintless" (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. "Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well," he says. "There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments.Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in." "It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful," agrees Bueth. "Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening." This tension between existential fear born from the constant uncertainties of life, and an affirmative, cathartic urge to seize the moment, is central to My Other People, a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero in which you're welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound.

Following the breakup of Cream, lyricist/vocalist Pete Brown formed his Battered Ornaments with guitarist Chris Spedding, drummer Rob Tait, bassist Butch Potter, percussionist Pete Bailey and saxophonist Nisar Ahmed Khan, but during the recording of sophomore album Mantle Piece, Brown fell out with Spedding, resulting in his departure. The resultant spacey venture has jazz and blues shades, riding the sonic waves under Spedding’s direction, with Khan’s sax and Potter’s bass fitting foils to Spedding’s guitar and keyboards. This is another great piece of the Spedding puzzle, with pleasantly meandering interludes.

Seaside Swirl Vinyl, limited to 500 copies.In the two years since their last full length outing, Let There Be Nothing, JUDICATOR have returned from collective and personal turmoil brought on by both the Covid-19 pandemic and foundational lineup changes. The US power metal group are now primed and proud to release their triumphant sixth studioalbum, The Majesty of Decay, via Prosthetic Records. Refreshed and revitalized, JUDICATOR are eager to let this beastly album out of the gate and into your stereos.Whilst the album's story remains somewhat shrouded in mystery, JUDICATOR utilizes compelling plot devices as a means to encourage fans to piece together the album's meta- contextual threads. What we do know, however, is that The Majesty of Decay explores the subjects of love, family, and the transformation of suffering into something meaningful. JUDICATOR invites you to step into this world and contemplate how the story might relate to you. The album is a carefully constructed puzzle of mirrors and metaphor that cries out for Judicatorfans everywhere to solve it.What began as a humble homage to their favorite band quickly grew into something that had fans begging for more, and JUDICATOR is happy to oblige.The band has produced a catalog of music that spans multiple sub-genres and breaks conceptual boundaries. With this latest offering, The Majesty of Decay, JUDICATOR have delivered yet another thought provoking album that fits nicelyinto their discography.

First-ever vinyl release of the long rumored 1969 studio album (plus related acetate and 45 only tracks) from pre- Hotlegs/10cc duo Godley & Creme, during their days as Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon. Classic UK late 60s psychedelic/folk/pop sound recorded at Advision Studios with support from future 10cc colleagues Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart. In mid-1969, legendary British R&B/psychedelic entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky signed two Manchester-based art students, renaming them Frabjoy And Runcible Spoon. Envisaging the pair as a British Simon And Garfunkel, Gomelsky recorded an LP with them for release on his Marmalade label. A pre-LP single appeared, but sadly the album’s release was aborted. 53 years later, Grapefruit Records released on CD this missing piece of the pre-10cc jigsaw puzzle. Now we’re lucky to present a vinyl version. *Insert with liner notes by David Wells and rare photos / memorabilia Recommended if you like Pete Dello, Graham Gouldman, Bee Gees, Simon & Garfunkel, Beatles, Rubble and Fading Yellow comps…

As Night Beats, Texas-born, LA-based artist Danny Lee Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle. The Western psychedelic auteur builds his work from one moment, an initial spark, that must fit a certain criteria: it must give him goosebumps. If that sensation arrives, Blackwell will pursue the idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song.

On his sixth Night Beats album, 'Rajan', the songwriter is at his strongest, creating works that shine with captivating melodies and hypnotic rhythms, but are underscored by subtle choices of craftsmanship that can only be achieved after countless hours in the studio. Blackwell creates a work that lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych-pop opus, a career-defining album that reveals much about Danny Lee Blackwell’s artistic philosophy while keeping that ever crucial air of mystery intact.

As Night Beats, Texas-born, LA-based artist Danny Lee Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle. The Western psychedelic auteur builds his work from one moment, an initial spark, that must fit a certain criteria: it must give him goosebumps. If that sensation arrives, Blackwell will pursue the idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song.

On his sixth Night Beats album, 'Rajan', the songwriter is at his strongest, creating works that shine with captivating melodies and hypnotic rhythms, but are underscored by subtle choices of craftsmanship that can only be achieved after countless hours in the studio. Blackwell creates a work that lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych-pop opus, a career-defining album that reveals much about Danny Lee Blackwell’s artistic philosophy while keeping that ever crucial air of mystery intact.

For over two decades Jonathan Katsav has used his Crave project to fray rap at its fringes, using Memphis and Houston's low-and-slow legacy to inform sounds that have as much in common with Merzbow as they do Tommy Wright III.Working under a variety of different monikers such as Lieu Noir, Sniper Bait and Soul Collector, the French producer is most prolific as Crave, and "Inner War Delirium" is a substantial and broadly cinematic addition to his canon. Katsav approaches each track as if it's a scene from a movie, using real life experiences to explore separate characters and contrasting emotions. Using different narrators and disparate vocal styles, he navigates grim, blown-out landscapes, driving neon drenched trap synths and horror choirs against overdriven kicks and waterlogged industrial atmospheres.Mangled field recordings, squealing static and gurgling synthesized bass opens 'PHYLLIS', goading the cautious with serrated, carnival synths and cacophonous vocals that sway lugubriously between rap and grindcore.The relationship between dark and light, death and rebirth, is at the heart of "Inner War Delirium", rippling through every track's oozing amalgamation of inebriated hip-hop and buzzsaw noise.Katsav's sounds are an attempt to subject us to the physicality of his own life's puzzle, and he cuts them into vignettes like a director. On the album's final track, listeners are swiped from in front of the speakers and bundled into the trunk of a car, rain rattling on the metal and the album playing on in the distance. It's a way for the producer to turn the camera back on the audience and ask them to consider their own complicated reality - it's Crave's story, but everyone's a part of it.

Disorder are a hardcore punk band formed in 1980 in Bristol, and still going strong today. The Singles Collection compiles their first and fieriest recordings in one place, comprised of 3 7' EPs and the 8 track l2' EP Perdition - recordings which John Peel allegedly referred to as sounding like shit' (possibly a compliment) - this LP of long out of print recordings would be a welcome addition to any punk collector's shelves. Another essential piece of the UK punk puzzle.

Formed in 1978 in Derry, a Republican city in Northern Ireland, power-pop-punk trio the Moondogs mixed the energy of the Clash with the melodic bent of the Beatles. Gigs with the Undertones led to a 45 for Good Vibrations, plus a few more for Real Records, and by the time they cut debut LP That’s What Friends Are For in New York with Todd Rundgren for Sire, they were at their most accomplished; somehow, the band split mid-way through its creation, rendering the album a frozen moment in time, rather than a leg-up to world domination. A great listen and another missing piece of Northern Ireland’s punk puzzle.

AUDIOBOOK, the new project from prolificmulti-instrumentalist Sam Gendel and visual artist/filmmakerMarcella Cytrynowicz, is comprised of 13alphabetically-named tracks and corresponding illustrationsthat feel like dispatches from outer space, or unearthedancient runes. At points melodic and cartoonish and atothers glitching and somewhat unnerving, it's a visual workand instrumental album rooted in a strange in-between, in ashadowy and vivid chasm between terrestrial andotherworldly. A puzzle that doesn't ask to be completed, butinvites you to play.Cytrynowicz and Gendel have been consistent collaboratorssince 2020, with Cytrynowicz providing photography as wellas music videos and visuals, including for Gendel's DRMand their AE-30 documentary, and with Gendel contributingsnippet scores to to her own short-form video work.AUDIOBOOK is the meeting of something distinctly analogweaving into a soundscape that could be at home in a 90ssci-fi soundtrack, th...

I was hanging out with Bill Orcutt at the 930 Club nearly 30 years ago, watching a famous post-rock band (who shall remain nameless, but whose moniker contained two-and-a-half times more articles and conjunctions than nouns) when he said: 'This band is like my band in college—all major 7th and 9th chords.' I relate this to emphasize that in the case of Bill Orcutt and Harry Pussy, the seemingly untutored ooze of 'Please Don't Come Back From the Moon' and 'Girl With Frog' had its genesis in something far more Apollonian than is usually understood. It's debatable whether or not Watt, the duo of Orcutt and drummer Tim Koffley featured on Recorded in Miami, is the above referenced grad-school band. Watt is not resplendent with jazz chords, but it's certainly more tutored, offering a mannered link between the contemporaneous Thunders-esque punk of Orcutt's Trash Monkeys and Harry Pussy's mayhem. The continuity with Harry Pussy is more than temporal. Recorded in Miami is Orcutt's first use of the four-string guitar, and Harry Pussy claimed the same amp and drum kit. The resemblance more or less ends there. To further put Recorded in Miami—made on Orcutt's Walkman, Rat Bastard's North Miami studio, and South Miami's Natural Sound (total bill $289)—into context, consider the fecundity of the underground music world as the '80s rolled into the '90s. It's hard to relate to those who missed it, but it was a time when post-hardcore hadn't quite given way to the bloat of grunge, when the Minutemen held sway (for the moment) over Led Zeppelin. The indie world was ruled by an ever-propagating compost heap of jagged guitar bands like Tful282, Truman's Water, and (to crank it back a couple years) Phantom Tollbooth. And in some ways (although Orcutt swears Watt's prime influences were James Blood Ulmer and Fred Frith's Massacre ), this record seems very much cut from that decade-ending cloth, seemingly only one vocal overdub away from a Homestead catalog number. Track after track (mostly titled after episodes of Art Clokey's slyly Buddhist TV masterwork, Gumby), Recorded in Miami 's tracks spill over with right angles, rockist tropes, and verse / chorus structures, from the Minutemen oid funk of 'Band Contest' to the stroked Moore-Ranaldo-isms of 'The Young and the Decoding.' Yet Orcutt's fretboard-spanning angular melodic runs are right up front in the latter, and the final two tracks introduce a bit of the explosive chaos that would follow when Adris finally claimed the drum kit. Consider 'Wattstock,' where Koffley forms the bedrock for an extended Orcutt hotbox of instantly-composed harmolodics. Or 'God Are You There, It's Me, Watt,' where we can hear the spontaneous vocal bursts (the only vocals on the album) that would re-emerge on Orcutt's early solo records. Watt began to crumble when Koffley, as drummers will do, yearned for rhythmic grids of increasing complexity, while Orcutt instead wanted to 'smoke more pot and improvise.' For a few records with Harry Pussy, Orcutt would get his wish (though some of the structuralism of Watt would creep into later records). But we shouldn't regard Recorded in Miami as mere transitional scraps of juvenalia, or stunt-rock delivered for the mere thrill of pulling it off. Rather, it's an early, major piece of the unfolding and complex puzzle of Orcutt's music. A foundation. And without the earth beneath our feet, how can we ever reach the sky?"—Tom Carter

With time, we come to understand the way the joy of connection is mirrored by the void of loss, how the constancy of love is matched only by the impermanence of life, the simple idea that we could not create light if we did not risk the dark - we'd never need to. So it is with Metz, a band once known for blowing out eardrums with songs of joyous rage who have, over their past few records, begun exploring ways to turn abrasiveness into atmospherics, the evolution of their sound not only a reflection of the maturing of the band themselves but also of a changed world that demands nuance and compassion to comprehend and to survive. It was a journey already underway on 2020's Atlas Vending, but one that reaches new heights on Up On Gravity Hill, where the Canadian trio creates a kaleidoscopic sonic world as tender as it is dark, aided once again by engineer Seth Manchester (Mdou Moctar, Lingua Ignota, Battles, The Body). Deep, detailed, and unyieldingly personal, it is not only Metz's most powerful record to date but also their most beautiful. Still three punks from Ontario at heart, guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins, drummer Hayden Menzies, and bassist Chris Slorach waste no time as opener "No Reservation/Love Comes Crashing" sweeps in like a wave, sonically and thematically setting the scene for the record to come. A dynamic song about feeling suspended in stasis, layers of dissonance melt into a restlessly heady outro marked by escalating crescendos of shimmering noise that reach for the stars - and is that a violin quivering brightly beneath those elegant swells of guitar, those charging drum fills, those intricate bass lines? It is indeed, courtesy of composer Owen Pallett; his presence an immediate indicator that Metz are thinking more cinematically than ever before. The change is partially inspired by Edkins' work as a scorer for film and television and his pop-leaning solo project, Weird Nightmare, where, he says, he learned to write more intuitively, letting his emotions lead the way. But make no mistake: Up On Gravity Hill is a total band effort, the work of three musicians who have been playing together for over a decade, with all the trust that entails. For those who believe in the power of the rock band to exemplify the highest resonance of human connection, there is much on Up On Gravity Hill to lift the spirit, a puzzle worth repeated listening to unlock or just to get lost in again and again. Rather than the music being flattened into a single plane, the band explores "the space above the cymbals," resulting in some of the most spacious, sympathetic, and accessible songs - could we call them pop? - of their career. If this seems contradictory, well, Metz has always been something of a contradiction. "We've never been heavy enough for metal or hardcore purists, but we're way too heavy for indie rock. We just don't have a lane - and that's okay. We exist outside the lines of delineation. I think this record is even more like that," says Edkins.

Corum's work avoids the mere emulation of exotica and it's tropes through the sense of adventure that his landscapes present. This is most evident on Never Use The Same Door Twice, originally released prior to the Beguiling Isles trilogy in 2011. Comprised of six parts, these pieces are heavy with slow-moving tension and fuzzy as though scathed by repeated replication. A compelling listen and an engaging early piece of the Psychic Sounds puzzle."—Spenser Thompson, Wire Magazine

Black/White Split Color Vinyl.Recorded in a little bedroom studio out in Durham, NorthCarolina, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn's debut LP asSylvan Esso arrived in 2014 at the juncture of pop andexperimental. Even now, years later, the LP remains anurgent and fitting introduction to a push-and-pull that wouldgo on to inform the duo's sound - a thoughtful headinessthat also wants you to get out on the dance floor. A blend ofanalog and digital, Meath and Sanborn were twounexpected puzzle pieces fitting together with singularease, producing a ten-track LP that was both minimalist andshimmering, with dark undulations rippling beneath thesynthy-surface and crystalline quality of Meath's voice.Before all of the international touring and festival headliningand critical acclaim and Grammy nominations, Sylvan Essowas just a shot-in-the dark of musical chemistry gone right.The original album bio for the self-titled presciently sets thestage for the thesis that has gone on to guide Meath andSanborn's writing since then: "a collection of vividaddictions concerning suffering and love, darkness anddeliverance" arriving as "a necessary pop balm, an albumstuffed with songs that don't suffer the longstandingcomplications of that term." And so, even as the bandcontinues to evolve and becomes amorphous, there's stillthat argument about what pop can be at its core. This is justthe beginning of that conversation captured on tape.In honor of the record's ten year anniversary, NorthCarolina-based indie label Psychic Hotline will release adeluxe reissue, complete with previously unreleasedmaterial. Featuring essential singles "Coffee", "Hey Mami,"and "H.S.K.T.", the expanded edition also includes remixesfrom J Rocc, Rick Wade, Helado Negro, Dntel, and more.The deluxe 2LP package sports an all-over foil inversion ofthe original album's iconic foil "SE" logo.

During a European tour by HADES, it became apparent that the band would soon disband. Guitarist Dan Lorenzo formed Non-Fiction with Dan Nastasi (MUCKY PUP, DOG EAT DOG), who subsequently recorded an EP. However, the line-up carousel was to turn again and HADES and WATCHTOWER singer Alan Tecchio and bassist Kevin Bolembach (later SEVEN WITCHES, JACK FROST and others) came on board. In 1991, the debut "Preface" was released on Grand Slamm Records, in Europe on Steamhammer/SPV. At the time, the band's doom metal leanings must have puzzled many fans of HADES and WATCHTOWER, while fans of this style remained ignorant at a time without the Internet. It is astonishing that certain trademarks of HADES can still be found in the music of NON-FICTION (see also the 1995 reunion album by HADES). In 1992, the second album "In The Know" was released, which is considered a fan favourite and was only released on CD at the time. Once again, the cover artwork is reminiscent of the art of Hipgnosis (Pink Floyd, UFO etc.). Many fans have been waiting for an LP version, which is now available 32 years later.After the release, Non-Fiction successfully toured with Savatage and Overkill, where they could also be seen in Europe. Both HADES and WATCHTOWER (with Alan Tecchio) are - sporadically - active again today and quite a few fans hope that Non-Fiction will also make another appearance. The musical continuation, albeit a little more modern, is currently Dan Lorenzo‘s band PATRIARCHS IN BLACK, which is successful in the USA. TBC

Emerging once again from the unending waves crashing upon our fragile time-craft (adrift on the eternal ocean, and taking on water), Dirty Three are (a) back, (b) tangled in seaweed, rank with saltwater and possessed of three rather ominous thousand-mile stares (at least!), and (c) not wasting another minute – as nothing is guaranteed. For their first album in over a decade – yep, it’s been since 2012’s Toward the Low Sun – they flew in, got together and started playing. End of story. What else is there to say or do but that? Music’s their language, their true love; they never stop listening to that. And like the label says, Love Changes Everything.

The Dirty Three – Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White – formed up in Melbourne in 1992, to play with guitar drums and violin or viola, and within a couple years, they’d broken out – out of Australia, out of anything else they might have been inside of, to boot – and got worldwide. Over the next ten years, they toured over and over the planet, ceaseless like, and cut seven albums out along the way. After this, their unique style of play, fitted together like puzzle pieces, was decoupled, more often than not, and pieced together in many other, fruitful collaborations with many other esteemed talents. Over the past 20 years, they’ve gotten together a few times, renewed the vow, revved the engines and played some shows, or made an album. Like now

New King Gizzard box-set ‘Live In Chicago’ available to pre-order now. Recorded live at The Salt Shed in Chicago, it captures 40 tracks across 9 LPs. Includes 132-page hardcover photo book.

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Fuzz Club presents another huge King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard bootleg box-set, in the shape of the 9LP monster 'Live In Chicago’. Recorded over three nights of the Aussie psych-rock polymaths raining down on The Salt Shed in Chicago, this bootleg captures 40 tracks of live Gizz spread across 18 sides of vinyl. Live In Chicago was recorded live June 11, 12 and 13 2023, mixed by the band's Stu Mackenzie and Sam Joseph and remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin exclusively for this edition.

Each of the three nights comes in its own 3LP slipcase, all housed together in one giant hand-numbered slipcase alongside a 132-page hardcover photo book, including photos licensed exclusively for this vinyl release. All 9 LPs come on 180g multi-coloured vinyl (with a unique effect configuration for each night) in their own heavy card jacket with 3mm spine and premium archival rice paper inner-sleeves by Mint. The artwork for each jacket works as a puzzle and forms one giant artwork. Exclusive collage album art and design by Elzo Durt with metallic silver laminated detailing through out all slipcases, jackets and the photo book. Includes large poster with the original cover art by Jason Galea. The box-set is packaged in a bespoke foam-lined box to protect it during shipping.

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and touredNorth America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home.That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released onOctober 4th via Hellcat."SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers,and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Modeand The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense fontof inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barnwhere the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, anart studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one.Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere younotice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got alot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have inLondon."RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al -bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producerStephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.

“Afterlife”… Planet of Zeus’s sixth album finds them reinventing themselves rather than the wheel. After their prophetic, pre-Covid release “Faith in Physics” and the consecutive postponements of their European and North American tours, the band took a deep dive into its own vulnerability and managed to come back stronger and more dangerous than ever before. No matter how far humanity and technology has reached, people always seem to be puzzled by the same old questions. From the ancient Greek philosophers, to Dostoevsky, Hesse and the average bloke on the corner. A blend of failed relationships, parenthood, sobriety, the constant search for a higher purpose and the thin line between “beneficence and rascality” with a unique and adventurous modern heavy rock sound, “Afterlife” is a perfect musical representation of the beauty and the curse of the human condition. A heavy rock must-have for fans of Queens of the stone age, Foo fighters, Mastodon, Clutch, Monster Magnet, Hellacopters and Royal Blood. Available in a limited edition, clear transparent 180g gatefold Vinyl by ihaveadrum records.

Heith is the alias of Milan-based artist and musician Daniele Guerrini who crafts a mesmerising and ritualistic subterranean soundscape, a resonant and eclectic collage of distinct sonic elements: from celestial percussion intertwined with jarring, mechanical oscillations to haunting vocals atop murky dubbed-out beats.Exploring the textures of consciousness through research into the ritual animism, he kept an omnivorous and universalist approach to cultural and sonic influence. This is central to X, wheel, Heith's debut album and first release on PAN. It's a deep dive into his creative and spiritual practice, one where art and life are inextricable. The Liars Tell..., on the other hand, feels like a kind of respite, a moment of meditation and pause from the fatigue of dimension-hopping. As if the traveller dismounted their carriage and, standing puzzled on a crossroad, listened to the echoes of distant places. Occupying a liminal space and letting thousand of contradictory tales form the lyrics to one unfathomable song.