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Music From Memory is thrilled to introduce Dead Sound, the collaborative project of Marco Sterk (aka Young Marco) and Berlin-based pop-auteur John Moods. Both artists are no strangers to the label; Sterk forms one third of the trio Gaussian Curve, while Moods released the 2022 album ‘Hidden Gem’ with The Zenmenn.

Their collaboration was both planned and spontaneous; Sterk initially reached out in 2022 expressing his desire to work with Moods. The pair finally got together in 2024 to produce ‘Into The Void’, an album that burst into life over the course of a few creatively charged days in each other’s company.

Moods’ dream-like, emotionally charged music wears its heart on its sleeve; its very human vulnerability makes it a perfect match for Sterk’s strong sense of melody and textural sonic visions.

‘Into The Void’ carries these psychedelic traits in its DNA, but they exist layered deep amongst the shadows. Painting on a wide canvas that effortlessly skips between genres, the pair weave anything that inspires them into a truly unique tapestry; a bold attempt to touch at the beyond.

Exploring the space between perception (level of the mind) and the nature of the universe (actual level of reality) seems traditionally like an impossible task. But there’s gotta be a time and a space for the profound and this album invites the listener to go deep, letting go of concepts such as love and opening oneself up to one’s own authentic journey. This transformative force of healing is a central theme of ‘Into The Void’, a path that is lined with light and darkness in equal measure. But, as Moods says, “do not skip the darkness, let that door open and swallow you. And maybe you’ll find, it's not as dark as you perceived at first."

Sleeve art by Michael Willis.

For their fifth long player, Tite return with a sound that is familiar in its use of distortion, drive, echo and swirling melodies, but refreshed with an embracing of vocal hooks and harmonies, often absent in the world of psyche and shoegaze. It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine: ‘Asylum Harbour,’ named for a maritime safe-haven, symbolizes resurfacing from the darkness of 2022-2023 and the pandemic. (Band leader) John Treanor says the album reflects a journey out of a dark place, focusing on voices and harmonies over layers of fuzz. ‘The record marks, to my mind, a further evolution of the band with the voice(s) becoming a main feature rather than being used as another instrument.’” Jammerzine: “The term ‘shoegaze’ gets thrown around more and more, to the point that it’s beginning to become an assembly line genre, with Tite, and ‘I’m Not Like That’ we get a solid progression of original music with a true purpose. That purpose is to inspire.”

“Do you still believe it?” John Ross asks that question after journeying through the wreckage. The genesis of Dulling The Horns goes back to late 2022, when Ross began workshopping new material during soundcheck on the ILYSM tour. Last summer, Wild Pink decamped to western Massachusetts to reunite with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato. Ross decided to record Dulling The Horns live in the room, in an effort to capture Wild Pink’s onstage style — rawer, grainier. Gone are the glimmering atmospherics and studio affectations of recent Wild Pink outings. Instead, Ross’ voice is haggard against the humid distortion coating every song. “I wanted to make economical songs,” Ross explains. “Music that is very much at its core three or four people rocking.” If before, Wild Pink took notes from Springsteen and Petty, they’ve now entered their Crazy Horse era. On Dulling The Horns, you can hear him rediscovering the fire in real time. Tropes discarded along the roadside, songs pulled from the formative DNA of rock music, all filtered through years of messy fog. “There is no answer to these problems,” Ross says, having eventually yielded. But as far Dulling The Horns is concerned, there’s at least one path forward: Burn it all away, and keep moving. The album was mixed by Alex Farrar in Asheville NC, mastered by Greg Obis in Chicago, IL and is out in October on Fire Talk.

“Do you still believe it?” John Ross asks that question after journeying through the wreckage. The genesis of Dulling The Horns goes back to late 2022, when Ross began workshopping new material during soundcheck on the ILYSM tour. Last summer, Wild Pink decamped to western Massachusetts to reunite with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato. Ross decided to record Dulling The Horns live in the room, in an effort to capture Wild Pink’s onstage style — rawer, grainier. Gone are the glimmering atmospherics and studio affectations of recent Wild Pink outings. Instead, Ross’ voice is haggard against the humid distortion coating every song. “I wanted to make economical songs,” Ross explains. “Music that is very much at its core three or four people rocking.” If before, Wild Pink took notes from Springsteen and Petty, they’ve now entered their Crazy Horse era. On Dulling The Horns, you can hear him rediscovering the fire in real time. Tropes discarded along the roadside, songs pulled from the formative DNA of rock music, all filtered through years of messy fog. “There is no answer to these problems,” Ross says, having eventually yielded. But as far Dulling The Horns is concerned, there’s at least one path forward: Burn it all away, and keep moving. The album was mixed by Alex Farrar in Asheville NC, mastered by Greg Obis in Chicago, IL and is out in October on Fire Talk.

Back with a second album of thoughtful new themes, Sun Airway's Soft Fall takes us to an ethereal layer between worlds. The sonically inspiring sub-strata of Soft Fall began insongwriter/producer Jon Barthmus' house in Philadelphia. Classical foundations were chopped, dissected, and sewn back together by a string quartet in one recording studio, w...

RSD Exclusive, Limitation: 1500

Special two-disc RSD Black Friday variant of the sixth studio album from GRAMMY-nominated OneRepublic with special Gold & Pure Cloudy vinyl LPs, featuring eight new acoustic versions never-before-pressed to vinyl.
OneRepublic is comprised of singer/songwriter and lead vocalist Ryan Tedder, guitarists Zach Filkins and Drew Brown, Brian Willett on keys, bassist and cellist Brent Kutzle, and drummer Eddie Fisher. The album features breakout platinum single, "I Ain't Worried," which was synced to Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick, breaking single "I Don't Wanna Wait (w/ David Guetta)," and much-loved hits "West Coast," "Sunshine," and more. Frontman Ryan Tedder is a 3x GRAMMY-winner for his songwriting work with Adele and Taylor Swift. He has also had huge, global hits for The Jonas Brothers, Ed Sheeran, Tate McRae, Miley Cyrus, 5SOS, OneDirection, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and more.

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open.It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality_these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid_hence the record's title.with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

180g 2LP 45rpm

Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series)
Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Atlantic Records!
Final Velvet Underground album featuring founding member and songwriter Lou Reed
180-gram 45 RPM double LP
Pressed at Quality Record Pressings
Tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing

After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970.

Label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result. It was the group's swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. Still, AllMusic gives the album 5 Stars and Pitchfork calls it a "perfect rock 'n' roll record — 40 minutes long, five songs to a side, and not a single wasted note."

Loaded is the sort of proper album that feels like a greatest hits collection, with each track thoroughly inhabiting and mastering a dominant rock archetype. Although the songs "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" distinguished the band as a "seminal proto-punk" act, "The trifecta of 'Who Loves the Sun,' 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock & Roll' is among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record," wrote Paste contributor Jeff Gonick

Analogue Productions has given Loaded the deserving full reissue treatment: Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings, and housed in a tip-on old style gatefold double pocket jacket by Stoughton Printing.

Trees Speak are releasing their new album TimeFold worldwide on 15 Nov 24 on Soul Jazz Records.

Trees Speak return with TimeFold, their sixth release on Soul Jazz Records, further expanding their ever-evolving sonic universe. This new album builds on their signature blend of hypnotic krautrock rhythms, post-punk angularity, and experimental soundscapes while venturing into new terrain by blending influences from avant-garde electronics to ceremonial sound forms.

On TimeFold, Trees Speak (comprised of the Tucson-based duo Damian Diaz and Daniel Martin Diaz) push their musical boundaries from expansive, intergalactic landscapes to eerie, imagined 1970s Italian and French sci-fi horror film scores. The album seamlessly weaves John Carpenter-esque synthesizer motifs with ambient sound sculptures, conjuring immersive worlds that are both cinematic and otherworldly.

The album also incorporates the duo’s deep-rooted influences, which span across electronic pioneers like Jean-Michel Jarre (Oxygene), Tangerine Dream, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Drawing on the revolutionary techniques of Musique Concrète, TimeFold features experimental track splicing, looping, and collage work that harkens back to the golden age of avant-garde music. At times, the album channels the ceremonial tones and hypnotic rhythms reminiscent of early 1970s krautrock, fusing these sounds with organic instrumentation like dulcimers, adding an earthy, drone-like ritual quality to the experimental electronic framework.

A new element in this release is the inclusion of spoken word by Ashley Christine Edwards, which lends the album a haunting, apocalyptic edge. Her contributions evoke a tone reminiscent of the 1970s avant-garde scene, recalling literary and conceptual artists like Ruth White. The spoken words create a sensory experience akin to ceremonial chants, adding to the atmospheric intensity of the album. These vocal elements tie into the overall theme of TimeFold, which continues Trees Speak’s exploration of futuristic technologies and the communication of nature, with the evocative concept of trees and plants acting as organic hard drives storing data and knowledge.

Drawing further influence from Italian and French horror cinema, Trees Speak explore cinematic tension throughout TimeFold, creating a layered listening experience. The record transports the listener from the haunting, desolate beauty of Southwestern desert vast landscapes to an auditory space that melds early electronic experimentation with the contemporary urgency of conceptual art.

Since their debut Ohms in 2020, Trees Speak’s prolific output on Soul Jazz Records has continually redefined genre boundaries. TimeFold solidifies their position as visionaries in experimental music, offering an album that is as much a meditation on future technologies as it is a tribute to the avant-garde traditions that have come before.

Trees Speak are releasing their new album TimeFold worldwide on 15 Nov 24 on Soul Jazz Records.

Trees Speak return with TimeFold, their sixth release on Soul Jazz Records, further expanding their ever-evolving sonic universe. This new album builds on their signature blend of hypnotic krautrock rhythms, post-punk angularity, and experimental soundscapes while venturing into new terrain by blending influences from avant-garde electronics to ceremonial sound forms.

On TimeFold, Trees Speak (comprised of the Tucson-based duo Damian Diaz and Daniel Martin Diaz) push their musical boundaries from expansive, intergalactic landscapes to eerie, imagined 1970s Italian and French sci-fi horror film scores. The album seamlessly weaves John Carpenter-esque synthesizer motifs with ambient sound sculptures, conjuring immersive worlds that are both cinematic and otherworldly.

The album also incorporates the duo’s deep-rooted influences, which span across electronic pioneers like Jean-Michel Jarre (Oxygene), Tangerine Dream, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Drawing on the revolutionary techniques of Musique Concrète, TimeFold features experimental track splicing, looping, and collage work that harkens back to the golden age of avant-garde music. At times, the album channels the ceremonial tones and hypnotic rhythms reminiscent of early 1970s krautrock, fusing these sounds with organic instrumentation like dulcimers, adding an earthy, drone-like ritual quality to the experimental electronic framework.

A new element in this release is the inclusion of spoken word by Ashley Christine Edwards, which lends the album a haunting, apocalyptic edge. Her contributions evoke a tone reminiscent of the 1970s avant-garde scene, recalling literary and conceptual artists like Ruth White. The spoken words create a sensory experience akin to ceremonial chants, adding to the atmospheric intensity of the album. These vocal elements tie into the overall theme of TimeFold, which continues Trees Speak’s exploration of futuristic technologies and the communication of nature, with the evocative concept of trees and plants acting as organic hard drives storing data and knowledge.

Drawing further influence from Italian and French horror cinema, Trees Speak explore cinematic tension throughout TimeFold, creating a layered listening experience. The record transports the listener from the haunting, desolate beauty of Southwestern desert vast landscapes to an auditory space that melds early electronic experimentation with the contemporary urgency of conceptual art.

Since their debut Ohms in 2020, Trees Speak’s prolific output on Soul Jazz Records has continually redefined genre boundaries. TimeFold solidifies their position as visionaries in experimental music, offering an album that is as much a meditation on future technologies as it is a tribute to the avant-garde traditions that have come before.

Thurston Moore's forthcoming album is his ninth solo recording...

Thurston Moore's forthcoming album is his ninth solo rec...

Thurston Moore's forthcoming album is his ninth solo recordi...

Eight 7inches and a flexi disc.

Chunklet Industries is proud to announce a breakthrough in broadcasting technology. For the first time, the BBC working hand-in-hand with intergalactic audio pioneers Man…or Astro-Man? present to you seven volumes of their famed U.K. radio sessions recorded between 1994 and 1997.

"Even at the time, it felt implausible that Man...or Astro-Man? would do over a dozen sessions at the mighty British Broadcasting Company. Initially it was the legendary John Peel who had the band on his Radio 1 show—six times between 1993 and 2000—after Birdstuff sent him a postcard ordering him never to play the band. Peel allegedly had a shrine to our Auburn heroes at his country estate, and while we believe that to be true, we’ve yet to see photographic evidence. The list of bands that recorded a session for Peel (neé Ravenscroft) is mind boggling and estimable. Most American bands would be lucky to record a single Peel session. For Astro-Man? to have played as much as they did at his request is an indisputable testament to the band’s fevered devotion to performing. But also, let’s be honest: John Peel had pretty great taste. As reference, The Fall performed on Peel’s show more than 25 times between 1977, a year after the band was formed, and the death of leader Mark E. Smith in 2018. The fact that a decidedly obtuse and dorky band from Auburn, Alabama, would perform on Peel’s show more times than The Jesus Lizard, Fugazi, and Nirvana combined is proof positive that Astro-Man truly put in the work... especially on the British airwaves. What the BBC documented in its studios peppered across the country was a band that evolved in plain view from a spazzy surf band into a shit-hot post-punk powerhouse.

More than a decade ago, with my daughter, still in diapers, resting on my lap, I had a sit-down with Coco. He gave my outrageous idea of doing an extended Astro BBC retrospective a cautiously enthusiastic thumbs-up. Flash ahead to 2024: my daughter is now a teenager, and that preposterous idea is finally materialized. Thank the heavens. Thank the stars. The first (and hopefully not the last) Astro box set is now a full-blown reality. To see this completed is a thrill and a privilege, and a highlight of my charmed lifetime as a die-hard Astro fan."—Henry H. Owings (aka The Boo Yaa Boy)

Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water, the self-titled debut from the duo of trumpeter Will Evans and guitarist, synthesist, producer and multi-instrumentalist Theo Trump, arrives like a vault revelation. It feels like a decades-old yet newly unearthed masterwork of gorgeous ambient improvisation, the sort of thing scholars live to research and shepherd into deluxe reissue.

The patient, crystalline chords that swell and resonate like a series of confessions; the textured brass murmurs that suggest a ’60s or ’70s Fire Music master at their most poignant. Provocative found-sound experiments threading arcane religious recordings through dystopian soundscapes. Ear-shattering free-noise tumult. Where and when did this music come from? Who are these voices?

As it turns out, Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water springs from an engrossing human story, though it isn’t necessarily the one you’d expect. This work of stunning maturity is in fact an entrance by two little-known explorers in their early 20s, who grew up together in Virginia, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It documents one of those perfect, sparkling moments in post-adolescence when big decisions and responsibilities are right around the corner, but for a spell, two young artists are able to create among the comforts and nostalgia of their shared past.

It also represents a reunion of sorts, as Evans and Trump connected as toddlers, became inseparable as boys, then pursued independent lives and creative paths as young adults. “Theo is my oldest friend,” Evans says, “and I feel like that’s what this band is — us meeting right in the middle of our interests.”

Now, having conjured this magic, they’ve detached once again: Evans, whose other works include the indie/avant-jazz unit Angelica X, is currently based in New York City. Trump recently moved to England, where he’d participated in his family’s theatre company, to go to school and further his solo ambient project. “This album didn’t start out as something super ambitious,” Evans explains. “It was more just an excuse to spend time together again and make music.”

***

In conversation, Evans and Trump are a delight, especially for cynics who might think that Gen-Z is only capable of doomscrolling. They come across as kindly young intellectuals who grew up using the internet as it was intended, for exposure to ideas and art across genres and generations. Trump points to indie-folk and the oracular post-rock of late Talk Talk, Bark Psychosis and Gastr del Sol. Pressed for his guitar heroes, he cites Bill Orcutt, Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot, and mentions his devotion to alt-country. Heyday electro-industrial stuff like Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails also meant a lot to him.

Evans is equally intrepid, though his background has a greater jazz focus. Ambrose Akinmusire, among today’s most thoughtfully commanding trumpeters, is a favorite. As for the soulful murmur he offers throughout Forgetting You, Pharoah Sanders’ wistful and lyrical contributions to Floating Points’ work is a touchstone.

The two grew up down the street from each other in the northern Piedmont town of Batesville, Virginia. Their families were friends, holidays were celebrated together and they became the most loyal of pals. As children they had a pretend band.

Then life unfolded, they attended different schools and their paths diverged. Evans discovered John Coltrane and became a jazz obsessive, as Trump found punk and hardcore and later began making ambient music. As a dedicated jazz trumpeter, Evans studied formally and widely; Trump was an autodidact, teaching himself guitar and absorbing synthesis and production techniques. The late teens and very early 20s brought moves away from home and back to home, as well as plenty of listening and learning. The Covid pandemic meant an opportunity to reconnect on long walks. Through it all, together and apart, they remained reverent of each other.

By early 2023, they found themselves living again among the Blue Ridge Mountains. In the evening, after giving trumpet lessons in Charlottesville, Evans would make the eerily beautiful trek “over the mountain” to Trump’s home in Staunton, Virginia. They’d talk and eat and begin to improvise, deep into the night. Evans played trumpet and sometimes drums. (Given the wee-hours recording schedule, the neighbors didn’t appreciate the latter.) Trump plugged a rickety, junk-store Telecaster-style guitar into a cheap solid-state amp and explored open tunings; he also layered on lap steel, electric bass, synths and electronics.

They locked in and relished each other’s gifts. In Trump, those include patience and intentionality and sonic decision-making; for Evans, a distinctive trumpet sound that both musicians think of as a singer’s voice. “Will’s playing is so thoughtful and well placed,” Trump says. “My goal from a producer’s mindset is that the trumpet will occupy the space that vocals would take.”

Often, they got lost in the best way. “The thing I look for most when I’m playing is that feeling of disappearing into what you’re doing,” Evans says. “Usually when that happens, the music is good.”

Vinyl reissue! Tri Danielson!!! "(Alpha/Omega)" has been 33.3% remixed and 100% remastered and makes its vinyl return dressed up in a brilliant new gatefold jacket along with a very special bonus track.

We've thought a lot about rock-music. One selects one's influences and moves from there, a process madesimpler in the networked age. The result often resembles a collage, unified by the aesthetic leanings of its maker.Music writers and peers in conversation map out the references and citations made by their favorite new bands - "just like early SST punk" or "frigid cold-wave resembling...

Damien Jurado is the sort of songwriter who straddles rock's past and future, and with each record contributes a new chapter to an ever-fruitful body of work. Before we move onto the nextchapter, we look back at his first album with Secretly Canadian. An instant classic when released in 2003, "Where Shall You Take Me?" was his fifth full-length, and is a beautiful collection of ten Raymond Carver-esque vignettes terror and bliss inMiddle America. Arriving two decades afterSpringsteen's "Nebraska", Jurado put the darker, more complicated side of the heartland back on the map with his tales of young love (some requited; some not), innoc...

- Exclusive recording from Aidan Baker (Nadja) and touring partners Plurals (Brighton UK)- 500 hand packaged CDs and 500 180g blue vinyl with foil blocked sleevesIt's rare with Latitudes that we have an artist grace our studios more than once. Notable exceptions would be our dear and revered friends Daniel O'Sullivan (Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horses and Grumbling Fur) and Alexander Tucker(his solo session, Grumbling Fur and Bardo Pond) and Josh Graham (A Fallen Black Deer, A Storm Of Light, Blood & Time). When Aidan Baker let us know he was back in the UK doing his solo material, we obviously had to ask him to join the exclusive club of repeaters and follow up his exemplary 2010 Nadja session with something entirely different. Aidan brought British tour-mates Plurals to the studio with him. Over the two tracks the collaboration has bore some beautiful and exoticfruit. A gradual unfurling of intricate layers of soundbuilds and envelopes the listener over "Dead Foxes In The Street"'s twenty minutes, creating a warm and uplifting aural atmosphere. The second half of the session is an entirely different affair. "Turning Children Into Mice" is a brooding, decidedly sinister beast, weaving a repetitive and increasingly dark threat, until it explodes into a hive of noise, and then slowly and poignantly dies a hero's death. This is truly a collaboration that makes the most of the musicians touring synchrony.

As the old saying goes, empires must fall! And so we bid one last salute to another world crumbled to piecesunder the feet of time. But this time, it was a world we held dearly and close to our hearts and recordplayers.So we wrote sweet swansongs on battered accoustic guitars with two rusty strings, hummed in harmony inkitchens at the end of long winter nights and whistled softly into the wind out of half open train windows. Onour way to the sea. All this to hail the golden ages of indie music. To pay the respect that is due, to all ourforefathers who tried as we tried. Guided By Voices, The Lemonheads, The Pastels, Teenage Fanclub andcountless others. And we pressed it on the black gold, known to mankind as the vinyl. So join in and sing withus and maybe the clocks come to a shrieking halt. At least for one last night. For one last hurrah. For ourPompeji!

News from Austrian noisepop-slackers KILLED BY 9V BATTERIES. Their upcoming third album "THE CRUX" is due in fall 2011. It really took us label-guys by surprise when those boys with their undeniable Sonic Youth background disclosed they will join forces with Vienna techno pioneer and producer of the latest Hercules and Love Affair record Patrick Pulsinger to tweak and refine their very own "Neuhass"postnothing - school. The results were more pop than the Batts ever had sounded. Whilst songs like "WORST OF TOTAL ANARCHY" with broad synth layers reveal an yet unheared twist in the bands artistic development the first single "IMPULSE CONTROL" still feeds all those nerds crowding the planet, hungry for the old days of Subpop and AmRep outfits, virtuously spiced up with a knack for contemporary bands like Male Bonding, No Age and Japandroids.

The duo Spill Gold blends drums, synths and vocals into a sonic journey that invites listeners to explore realms of energy exchange. Nina de Jong on drums and Rosa Ronsdorf on vocals and synths joined forces in a collaboration that transcends genres. The music of Spill Gold serves as a woven tapestry of (unheard) voices, inviting you to lean in. The result is a fusion of psychedelic echoes, danceable rhythms, and intricate percussive layers.
Their newest album is a result of a need for hope that longs for an anti-anthropocentric and non-patriarchal world. The duo’s compositions navigate through cyclical patterns, echoing snakes biting their own skin, volcano’s starting to errupt, witches fingers that crumble towers and birds of steel and feather. They invite you into a world where the concept of ‘the first’ or ‘the best’ fades away and to join them on their musical journey with no clear beginning or end.

RIYL: Silver Jews, Bill Callahan, Lambchop, Cass McCoombs, Sparklehorse.Originally released via Ryan's own label, Sophomore Lounge, in the US late 2023, it picked up some incredible reviews: best of 2023 in both Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, 9/10 lead review in Uncut, and a raft of other notable publications. "At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana - just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky - multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter Ryan Davis'' Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded State Champion, long-running member of Tropical Trash, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper 'solo' release with Dancing On The Edge, a rich, 2LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It's a pure collage of modernity and heritage.After a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing & painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis' sea change was imminent. "I wasn't sure I would ever make another record of 'song' songs," he says, "but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material. It felt virtually impossible to complete for a bulk of the time I spent trying to enter into it, but the process pulled me out of a strange place. I was eventually able to live inside of the songs enough to understand the world within them - to ultimately help shape them into what I understood them to be." Indeed, there's a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan's unfiltered, folk-traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.Recorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like Joan Shelley, Catherine Irwin (Freakwater), Will Lawrence (Felice Brothers, Gun Outfit, John Early), Jenny Rose...

"A 'Pear' of albums on one vinyl LP... a combo of heavy psychedelia, drum and bass grooves, bouncy boogie, catchy tunes and sprinkles of tastee horns, keys and strings thrown in... kinda like a thumb over the genre-hose nozzle, something for everyone and nothing for someone... guaranteed!'Grow A Pear' has been in the works for 5 years. What started as my contributions for the 'new' Butthole Surfers' album that was not to be... turned into a solo album I recorded with contributions from some of my favorite flavor players to create an album that most represents where I came from and bridges to where I'm at right now. My wishes for the future, is that everyone in the world will finally 'Grow A Pear'" - JD Pinkus'Grow A Pear' features a veritable cornucopia of American Indie music radicals: Åsa Söderqvist and Lina Ericcson of Shitkid, Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers, Sam Coomes of Quasi and Jon Spencer's Hit Makers, Mike Savino of Tall Tall Trees, Walter Daniels of Bigfoot Chester, Mike Alfred of Shed Alford, Jed Willis of Khandroma, Michael Brueggen of Honky and Syrup, and Billy Sheeran.

Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects, an almost sold-out London launch show at The Lexington on May 4th, and they are confirmed to play Portals Festival Saturday May 25th in East London. After nearly quarter of a century, Billy Mahonie are very much back.

Formed in the first wave of British post-rock alongside the likes of Mogwai in the late 90s, John Peel favourites Billy Mahonie are set to return with the first new music from their original line-up in some twenty-four years. Whilst their debut album ‘The Big Dig’, released in 1999 on Too Pure Records, is considered a classic of the post rock genre, Billy Mahonie always crafted their intricate music with memorable hooks and melodies and performed it with energy and gusto. Theirs was not an aimless, meandering sound, instead the songs and attitude were rooted in punk rock, and still are. Billy Mahonie put the rock into post-rock.

Set for release this coming May 24th via Whistling Sam Projects, ‘Field Of Heads’ sees the band returning with their classic original line-up of Gavin Baker (guitar), Howard Monk (drums), Hywell Dinsdale (bass and guitar) and Kevin Penney (bass and guitar). Whilst this line-up has been semi active for a few years, no new material came to fruition. After their last gig in 2017, however, the band decided it was time to get back

into the studio, but with two members living abroad new challenges were faced, but ideas were shared, old ones were resurrected and finally in October of 2019, Billy Mahonie were back in the studio.

Recorded over two long weekends on either side of the Covid 19 lockdowns, the band tracked at The Church studios, owned by their former collaborator and front of house engineer Paul Epworth, with senior engineer Luke Pickering at the controls, allowing ‘Field Of Heads’ to quickly take shape.

New single ‘Kaiju’ gives the music world the first taste of ‘Field Of Heads’ and right from the off, it’s classic Billy Mahonie. Immediately bursting into life with the energy and melody that is so unique to their sound, Howard’s driving drums thrust the music ahead as the guitars and synths weave their way around them. Intricate and shifting, but never at the expense of a tune that sticks in your head.

“This one came from a chord progression myself and Gav first tried out jamming in 2010,” explains drummer Howard. “Needless to say, when Hywell and Kev got their hands on it, it became something no-one ever envisaged. Kev's great title is, of course, the Japanese name for the subgenre of monster-based science fiction. A frenetic riff opens the song and for a counter guitar part only two options remain, play in the minimal gaps or find an overarching theme. We chose both. Kaiju films influence the additional Synths, echoes of those early Japanese movie themes. Some people we have played this to in advance have suggested this track is one we should lead with, as it is kind of where we left off. We agree. It rocks pretty hard. And is a bit funky too. What’s not to like?!”

Furthermore, Billy Mahonie now have their own label, Whistling Sam Projects, set up for global distribution through SRD, an almost sold-out London launch show at The Lexington on May 4th, and they are confirmed to play Portals Festival Saturday May 25th in East London. After nearly quarter of a century, Billy Mahonie are very much back.

Following the label’s 9 minute sell out of it’s recent Mark E. Smith BBC “football results” lathe cut, Feral Child return with a cracker. A split LP featuring two of mainland Europe’s finest experimental electronic artists, Germans Phantom Horse and Belgiums’ Innercity. 2 side long epics of rich exploratory, kraut tinged Electronica. Phantom Horse offer up “Pink Star”, a side long slowburner (with production by Kohn’s Jurgen de Blonde) built around opening drones and sporadic kosmische themed synth flourishes. We’ll mention Cluster again in a moment, but this has its head pointed firmly towards the legendary work of Moebius and Roedelius. A lovely track, kinda cleaner and more sonically polished than it’s flip, but that juxtaposition increases the records’ appeal here. For these ears, it’s Innercity’s epic “Ali” that steals the show here and is easily worth the proverbial price of admission on this one. A monumental, moody, side long piece of lo-fi drum machine enthused electronica recalling some imaginary dream collision of the very finest Conrad Schnitzler flavoured K/Cluster or first 2 LP Kraftwerk with latter day industrial, electronic pioneers of our own, early Cabs, Clock DVA, Throbbing Gristle, Robert Rental et al. Just magnificent and we don’t say “hike it right up” lightly…. Label head Dom has long had Hans Dens -and his Innercity project- pencilled in for releases on his previous labels Deep Distance and Polytechnic Youth which -for one reason or other- never materialized but their coming together here is exquisite and the track is a monster, my “new” track of the year thus far; talk about it being worth the wait…. A lovely record, in a limited one time pressing on vinyl through North London’s homespun Feral Child label.

12” Orange Smoke Vinyl, Gatefold Sleeve Edition Of 500. 6 Panel Digifile CD. Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop. May 2024 sees the release of their fourth album Here on Fika Recordings. After 2019’s big, bold and confident There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, and the initial shock of the global pandemic cancelling a trip to Sxsw in 2020, the band returned to the studio in the summer of 2021 to start recording. The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track. The sound builds on the band’s first album, Hide and Seek, which was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna POP! in 2015. The follow-up LP John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death only to return years later, expanding well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples. The ‘Penguins have been smashing it at some high-profile support slots in the lead up to this album release, including at Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever 3 London show (Dec 2023). They play the Leicester Indiepop all-dayer and Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on tour in support of the new album in May. Those big singalong choruses need your voice shouting back from the crowd with joy and defiance. Mammoth Penguins are Emma Kupa (guitar, vocals), Mark Boxall (bass, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, vocals). Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indiepop with spiky guitars and Emma’s frank confessional songwriting. “wonderfully awkward indie pop with a literate flair, sounding a lot like a Weezer record or even a more feminine Wedding Present” Clash // “eminently relatable earworms” Brooklyn Vegan // “one of the finest examples of simple and true indie rock around” All Music // “her characterful voice still carrying masses of charm and the messier, grungey approach bringing a strength all of its own, aided by a clutch of cheerful hooks and riffs that contrast nicely with lyrics dealing mostly with heartbreak and misery” Drowned In Sound

It's been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood's great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green's trilogy of Halloween reboots. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they've struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as "soundtracks for the movies in your mind." On the fourth installment in theseries, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs "noirish" is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it, as in connected in an emotional way.The trio's free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine_the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John's own Christine. It's a chemistry that's helped power one of the most productive stretches of John's creative life, and Noir proves that it's nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.

Deluxe edition available on limited tan and black marble vinyl, includes clear 7" with exclusive bonus track "Black Cathedral" and screen printed B-Side.It's been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood's great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green's trilogy of Halloween reboots. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they've struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as "soundtracks for the movies in your mind." On the fourth installment in theseries, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs "noirish" is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it, as in connected in an emotional way.The trio's free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine_the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John's own Christine. It's a chemistry that's helped power one of the most productive stretches of John's creative life, and Noir proves that it's nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.

Red Vinyl.It's been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood's great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. In the years since, Carpenter, Carpenter, and Davies have released close to a dozen musical projects, including a growing library of studio albums and the scores for David Gordon Green's trilogy of Halloween reboots. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they've struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as "soundtracks for the movies in your mind." On the fourth installment in theseries, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs "noirish" is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone. The noir quality, then, is something you understand instinctively when you hear it, as in connected in an emotional way.The trio's free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine_the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John's own Christine. It's a chemistry that's helped power one of the most productive stretches of John's creative life, and Noir proves that it's nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.

Today, the Toronto-born-and-raised singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Day Wilson announces her highly-anticipated sophomore album Cyan Blue out May 3rd via Stone Woman Music / XL Recordings Along with the announcement of her new album comes the release of first single, "I Don"t Love You", a stark and devastatingly beautiful confessional, highlighting Wilson"s immaculate production skills and chill inducing vocals laid atop smooth groove piano chords and soft drums. The track also arrives with a visual directed by Dani Aphrodite featuring layered low fi footage of the artist and producer performing at home, living every day life and having moments of solitude in her car, a theme that comes up throughout the album. Cyan Blue finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she"s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful innocence. "I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again," Wilson explains of making Cyan Blue. "Before there wasn"t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her." Working with producers like Leon Thomas (sza, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (HE.R, Daniel Caesar), Cyan Blue demonstrates Wilson"s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on Cyan Blue, she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies. "Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity," Wilson reflects. "But that was a bit stifling, like, "Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure." Now, I think I"m getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I"m more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment." While this is only her second album, Wilson"s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, CDW, followed by 2018"s Stone Woman and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released Alpha. Over the past decade, she"s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson"s 2016 breakout single "Work." Additionally, she"s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, Badbadnotgood, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there"s no sound Wilson can"t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over.

Today, the Toronto-born-and-raised singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Day Wilson announces her highly-anticipated sophomore album Cyan Blue out May 3rd via Stone Woman Music / XL Recordings Along with the announcement of her new album comes the release of first single, "I Don"t Love You", a stark and devastatingly beautiful confessional, highlighting Wilson"s immaculate production skills and chill inducing vocals laid atop smooth groove piano chords and soft drums. The track also arrives with a visual directed by Dani Aphrodite featuring layered low fi footage of the artist and producer performing at home, living every day life and having moments of solitude in her car, a theme that comes up throughout the album. Cyan Blue finds Wilson crafting a smoothly woven cyan tapestry of her eternal influences; thumping gospel piano, warm soul basslines, atmospheric electronics, and penetrating R&B melodies. Yet, it possesses a sense of vastness that rings in a new era for Wilson, one in which she"s embracing collaboration and newfound creative openness tinged with wistfulness and yearning and a reflection on youthful innocence. "I want to look through the unjaded eyes of my younger self again," Wilson explains of making Cyan Blue. "Before there wasn"t as much baggage, before so much life was lived. But I also wish that my younger self could see where I am now. It would be nice to be able to impart some of the wisdom and clarity that I have now onto her." Working with producers like Leon Thomas (sza, Ariana Grande, Post Malone), and Jack Rochon (HE.R, Daniel Caesar), Cyan Blue demonstrates Wilson"s sonic expertise while also showcasing the next evolution of her time-bending songwriting. Through 13 hypnotizing tracks, she continues to use music as a vessel for unpacking relationships, which in turn allows her to meet and understand herself in life-spanning, panoramic focus. But, on Cyan Blue, she challenged herself to kick her perfectionist tendencies. "Before, I was extremely intentional about creating music with a strong foundation, a bed of artistic integrity," Wilson reflects. "But that was a bit stifling, like, "Let me just make a great piece of art that will stand the test of time, no pressure." Now, I think I"m getting out of this frozen state of needing everything to be perfect. I"m more interested in capturing feelings in the moment as they happen and leaving them in that moment." While this is only her second album, Wilson"s influence in music has made a major mainstream impact. Wilson broke out in 2016 with her critically acclaimed EP, CDW, followed by 2018"s Stone Woman and made her debut studio album an official coming out moment in 2021 with the critically acclaimed, self-released Alpha. Over the past decade, she"s been sampled by Drake, John Mayer, and James Blake, while Patti Smith has recently praised and covered Wilson"s 2016 breakout single "Work." Additionally, she"s collaborated with artists like Kaytranada, Badbadnotgood, and SG Lewis, demonstrating that there"s no sound Wilson can"t adapt to and sprinkle her cyan-colored magic over.

Recalibrating her singular journey in the British musical landscape with her most open-hearted, direct and intimate collection of material yet. Love In Constant Spectacle evokes spectacular imagery and distills the artists’ vision in its purest form, elevating her inimitable sound and poetic vision to new heights.

Recapturing the melancholy of her early work whilst propelling it forward, she sketches scenes as we watch new colours, shapes and languages emerge and fill the frame. Love In Constant Spectacle sees her take measured steps towards a vivid, dreamlike record, that offers resolve in the face of life’s inevitability.

The foundations of Weaver’s sound are still evident – lush motorik drums, pulsating bass, custom modded synths and exotic fuzz pedals - but the stream is awash with scrabble piece poetry and Letraset lullabies leading to lush escapism, the free abandon that you’d associate with free jazz and the avant-garde. But, as determined and visionary as Weaver might be, Love In Constant Spectacle wasn’t executed without assistance. Here we find a long mooted unison with Jane’s first ever producer, John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), who has shared Weaver’s process in the surrounds of Rockfield Studios and Geoff Barrow’s Invada studio.

Love In Constant Spectacle is otherworldly, it is both intimate yet distant, a surrealist interpretation of the foundations that make us human – the stories and landscapes it paints are habitats of their own. A voyage into undisclosed pastures, it’s a heartfelt manifesto from an artist that continues to boundlessly evolve with each chapter in her career.

Pulp’s debut and one of their most honest recordings - capturing a band at
the beginning of their startling career. ‘It’ is a gentle, mainly acoustic album that hints at the musical directions Pulp would later pursue.
The album touches on the majestic, theatrical ballads of Scott Walker, as well as the stark, folky song poems of Leonard Cohen.
Certainly an album by a young band trying to pinpoint their direction, and absorbing many an influence from all around, ‘It’ has aged
beautifully into a charming collection. Fire are to reissue Pulp’s 1983 debut album ‘It’ as part of the Fire reissue series with bonus
material. Liner notes by Everett True. Featuring 4 Bonus tracks including single version of ‘My Lighthouse’ and alternative mix of ‘Blue
Girls’, ‘Sink Or Swim’ and ‘Please Don’t Worry’ from Pulp’s John Peel session in 1981.

Recalibrating her singular journey in the British musical landscape with her most open-hearted, direct and intimate collection of material yet. Love In Constant Spectacle evokes spectacular imagery and distills the artists’ vision in its purest form, elevating her inimitable sound and poetic vision to new heights.

Recapturing the melancholy of her early work whilst propelling it forward, she sketches scenes as we watch new colours, shapes and languages emerge and fill the frame. Love In Constant Spectacle sees her take measured steps towards a vivid, dreamlike record, that offers resolve in the face of life’s inevitability.

The foundations of Weaver’s sound are still evident – lush motorik drums, pulsating bass, custom modded synths and exotic fuzz pedals - but the stream is awash with scrabble piece poetry and Letraset lullabies leading to lush escapism, the free abandon that you’d associate with free jazz and the avant-garde. But, as determined and visionary as Weaver might be, Love In Constant Spectacle wasn’t executed without assistance. Here we find a long mooted unison with Jane’s first ever producer, John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), who has shared Weaver’s process in the surrounds of Rockfield Studios and Geoff Barrow’s Invada studio.

Love In Constant Spectacle is otherworldly, it is both intimate yet distant, a surrealist interpretation of the foundations that make us human – the stories and landscapes it paints are habitats of their own. A voyage into undisclosed pastures, it’s a heartfelt manifesto from an artist that continues to boundlessly evolve with each chapter in her career.

4 track 7” on green vinyl . Individual hand painted sleeves. Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Includes poster.

Part of the Optic Sevens 5.0 Reissue Series.

Originally released in 1986 on Australian label Voyeur Records.

This is the first time that the single has been released in the UK.

Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in the mid 1980s, founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar) were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals.)

After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band’s ‘Goes So Slow’ Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records.

The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top 5 of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.

This is long overdue. A solo album by Jim. The trap kit - so straightforward, so mysterious. What"s inside those things? Air and light - from which century? Which continent? Which planet? Depending on how and when you hit them it can be a vibration sent through a prehistoric breath, particles of Saturn"s atmosphere, the dead, wet leaves you walked through on the way to the first day of school. These are the memories of the drums on this record. Infinite and personal. Editing each other as they muscle to the front or soft shoe to the shadow. Cymbals can override/cancel everything out - wipe your memory clear or make the memory clearer. Drums are the instrument where you can feel the presence of the player the most - the full body - and sense the thoughts of the player the most. The instrument with the most choices to be made sends out the most brainwaves. A bouquet of brainwaves is on this LP. Jim oversees it all, surveys from the lost place we"re in, the void - the drumless song. We trust. We trust, Jim. His big green eyes search for the right tool (mallet, brush, etc), eyes that search you like you"re a song he wants to join, wants to see if he can add to or understand. Before humans, drums were playing - these drums. Genesis was a solo drum piece. After humans, these drums, this album. Someone - the last man - is out in a spaceship at the edge of space. He plays a single chord on a synth to set time free from its bind and then lets go. This album sets time free, lets it frolic, lets it graze, lets it remember. This is a record of thoughts, memories, surgery. A deft surgical operation you may not even realize is happening as it"s happening but you"re back on your feet when it"s over. Memories refreshed. Did you really even listen to it? -Bill Callahan, November 2023

Perhaps known as the frontman of Sunfruits and as the drummer for Jade Imagine, Winter McQuinn’s solo music explores psychedelic country and folk rippling with a free-ness similar to Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and more modern 70s soft rock purveyors like Michael Rault and Drugdealer. His impressive 2021 debut album ‘A Rabble Of Bees’ marked the beginning of Winnie’s solo wanderings, showcasing his songwriting talents and DIY inventiveness. Winter McQuinn’s sophomore solo album 'Move To The Trees' is set for April 5th via Third Eye Stimuli Records and Echodelick Records (usa). McQuinn recorded the new album in April 2022 over one weekend in Anglesea, Victoria with Jesse Williams (Leah Senior, Grace Cummings, Traffik Island) as engineer and producer. 'Move To The Trees' showcases a more refined and sonically sophisticated side to Winter McQuinn’s solo music. Featuring talented musicians Jack Kinder and Lewis Mosley from fellow Third Eye Stimuli family, Hot Apple Band, as well as Elena Jones from Sunfruits and Jaspar Robinson, McQuinn and co create a unique space through their artful intersections of hope and tragedy. A series of anthems for the future, settled in a post psych-folk and 70s soft rock energy, McQuinn takes influence from the new-wave of 70s folk and rock influenced artists from the USA's West Coast such as Sylvie, Cut Worms, John Andrews, Anna St Louis, The Lemon Twigs and more. This album showcases a step up in songwriting and production for Winter McQuinn who’s ever evolving style and commitment to creating is inspiring. The album cover design was hand painted by renowned folk / baroque pop artist Leah Senior and portrays McQuinn in different settings around Anglesea and the studio.

Machine Ronde celebrates guitars. The roots of black musicmusic. The roots of rock. Blues. And even country musicof "En découdre", one of the ten tracks on this devilish fourthalbum. This warm, round galette (sic) was recorded and mixed in justbetween June 2022 and spring 2023 under the guidance of guitaristguitarist and grand sorcerer Yan Péchin (Alain Bashung, Hubert-FélixThiéfaine, Brigitte Fontaine), composer of the ten songs. With themusicians of the late author of L'Imprudence, including bassistbassist Bobby Jacky and Arnaud Dieterlen. We almost forget to mentionmention that Machine Ronde was mixed in Paris by Jean-CharlesVersari (Warren Ellis, Erica Nockalls, Oiseaux-Tempêtes...) and mastered in Londonin London by Pete Maher (U2, The Pixies, Nick Cave...). And that theblack and white cover is by Lara Herbinia, photographer andHerbinia, photographer and Bertier's female voice.

Creators of eclectic music, The Everminds explore several rock colors in this album, not hesitating to combine the azure blue of Californian rock à la Tom Petty, the dazzling red of English pop-rock à la Blur, and the darker tones of Peter Gabriel or Radiohead. Contradictory inspirations for some, but they accept it. No surprise then that their album is called “Colliding Spaces”. Taken from a phrase from the last song, the name of the album underlines that there can be a coherent and viable project despite the meeting of varied sound worlds.There is a strong underlying message in this opus: The group expresses a desire to fight against everything that locks us in, alienates us and prevents us from raising our eyes to the sky. Lesson from the confinements suffered. Lately, Surely, Lonely, the song that opens Side A, is a saturated pop-rock track that invites us to break away from our daily lives to seek happiness in Nature. 21 grams of Insta is a breathtaking and dark title which stigmatizes our digital confinement. As for the title Fuck around, which opens the B side of the Vinyl, it is a song which offers us a beginning with Brazilian intonations and very quickly rushes into an electric and vengeful chorus. The title proclaims the refusal to resolve to submit to the pressures of everyday life, to on the contrary act to create and escape from oneself. Sometimes, The Everminds decide to take us completely out of the gray: California is a perfect example. All in color, it is an undisguised tribute to one of their deceased musical heroes mentioned above. The title Penniless takes place on the banks of the Thames and lasts for the duration of a Beatlesian romantic declaration. To stop there would be to miss a facet of the group, and listening to the titles Morning Sun, Some words hurt more than others, or Song for Everyone take us back to the essential influences of the trio: moving, organic compositions, punctuated by silences and heroic climbs, a musical rock like we don't do much anymore.An album recorded in their analog studio, at the helm of their Ssl4000g console, the trio is surrounded by a large-scale team with Antoine Reininger (B. Lavilliers, P. Bruel, A. Bauer) on bass and the famous Michael Brauer on mixes. (Coldplay “Parachutes”, Jonh Mayer “Continuum”).To listen urgently therefore,

While the work of the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and composer has often explored memory and dreamlike futures in the past, her latest album is more grounded in the present. Her production and arrangements form a continuum of fretless electric bass tones in counterpoint to gliding vocal melodies, while glissading Yamaha CS-60 lines play around the reeds like warm winds. "I've tried to create a world that sounds fluid and water-like, reminiscent of the inner sound world of the body," says Holter about her flowing harmonic universe.

The last few years have brought an existential focus on human connection for Julia Holter, amidst the shattering changes that have come with the deaths of loved ones (including her young nephew, to whom the album is dedicated) and the birth of her daughter. On Something in the Room She Moves, Holter vividly processes the complexity, gravity and awe of this confluence of experiences.

After a string of dream-pop albums - from her breakthrough Ekstasis (2012) to Loud City Song and Have You in My Wilderness - Holter released the sprawling and thrillingly experimental Aviary in 2018. Since then, she has scored films such as Never Rarely Sometimes Always, performed a commissioned piece for The Passion of Joan of Arc with the Chorus of Opera North and collaborated with her partner, musician Tashi Wada, who plays synthesizer and bagpipes on her new album. Something in the Room She Moves is a remarkable step forward in Holter's work, combining her free improvisational energy with her characteristic eloquence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next full length up on Feral Child sees a welcome reunion for both label and artist; having teamed up lots in the past, James Toth and label head Dom, join forces for another beauty. This time round, 11 previously (and mostly- certainly in these forms) unreleased home recordings and demos from a 10 year period between 2012 and 2022. Titled “Demon Stations”, it’s a beautifully seamless collection, mercifully saved from the relative oblivion of bandcamp / digital only demos and released on vinyl this February. Many of course know James best from his Wooden Wand moniker, alongside his work with the likes of Michael Gira and Thurston Moore etc, then one would hope last years’ “Birthday Blues” 33 artist tribute / comp covering songs from various points of James’ career (feat Meg Baird, Lee Ranaldo, Six Organs of Admittance amongst others) will only have raised his star further…. On this collection, James says ““Demon Stations” is a compilation of songs from five different digital-only demo collections I released on Bandcamp between 2021 and 2023. I relied on the ears and judgment of my old friend Dom to curate this comp, allowing him to choose his favorites from over 60 songs. While I might have chosen an entirely different batch of tunes, I was happy to defer to Dom, as I’ve never had much perspective when it comes to assessing my own material. All of the songs were recorded at home, mostly on the same day they were written. Most are first takes, intended to provide a template for a theoretical band to follow if and when the songs were to be re-recorded “properly” at a later date. A few have since been re-recorded for studio records, and a few others remain in contention for future studio records.

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

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

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

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

Family is important. Feeling good, relaxed, loved, listened to, within a community of close friends who share the same vibe, the same interests, the same sensations. Franck & Damien love and share the amber sound of the lapsteel, the intoxicating slide, the roundness of the six-string and the freshness of the banjo. Blues, country music and folk-rock born in the barns of Laurel Canyon... Harmonies, warm voices, fortunate encounters… Simplicity, humility, sharing... Surfing, deserted beaches, California, wild Australia.

You would know the members of this merry band: Xavier Rudd, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Donavon Frankenreiter, John Butler Trio, Tash Sultana, John Mayer, Mason Jennings... Yes: family is essential. Between cousins or adopted children, we understand each other so well! What's more, we speak the same language: in this case, English, carried by melodious, laid-back, never-pressed voices on songs that are often gentle, often punchy, always powerful, always hard-hitting. Franck and Damien don't see their tribe that often: they're in Bordeaux, in their beloved Médoc, a land of vineyards, sandy strips, pristine waves and good vibes; the others are in Hawaii, Los Angeles or the Australian bush. But that's all right. The signs, the codes, the vibes are the same. So we decide to get together when we have to, when we feel like it. Why not in Los Angeles, where the duo love to recharge their batteries, between strolls down Sunset Boulevard and ballads recorded at sunset?

Here, for their second album after the warm You Can Find Your Way, it's Donavon Frankenreiter, surf prodigy and international icon of American folk, who has come along to enchant the nervous and captivating California, of which he himself is the embodiment. Feel alright with the high tide! Earlier, it was on the subtle, nonchalant acoustic live version of Home that Donavon’s bassist Matt Grundy slipped in with his sweet harmonica. And with good reason: the Piñon Hills local from San Bernardino is also the producer of this album! Not forgetting, on Spread Love, a visit from Joaco Terán, their freesurfer brother and Argentinian musician. For Juniper Road, the album of maturity, is also one of plenitude and serenity. Franck's voice is full and vibrant, the harmonies chiseled, the atmosphere warm and inviting.

Family is fundamental. So is luck. When they hear the story of Damien picking-up Franck hitchhiking on the side of the road, a meeting so fortuitous it seemed fated, their buddies are still laughing.

The duo complement each other so well, the osmosis and connivance so blatant, Franck's voice and guitar, Damien's string picking and percussion, that this anecdote, so real, sounds fabricated. Okay, it didn't take place on the Pacific Coast Highway in a Cadillac, but more likely in a Renault Clio on the road to Lacanau (a beach town in the South-West of France).

Just like the video for Home, which, like some of their other clips, was not shot in the USA, but in the Spanish desert of the Bardenas Reales.

Franck & Damien have never needed to prove their identity and legitimacy, especially through clichés. From now on, with this second twelve-track album polished in Matt's Super Bloom studio, Franck & Damien know exactly where they're going: back to their Anglo-Saxon and South American cousins who have long since adopted them, to continue touring and performing, distilling their road songs with messages as simple as they are rich and direct, like a true philosophy of life: love, friendship, sharing, fulfillment, such as on the energetic, raging Fire And Soul (much juicier than the Cranberries'), but also hope and melancholy, as on Another Way: an emotional tale of a sailor in perdition, supported by a round bass sound, acoustic drums and an electronic organ.

Not forgetting, of course, their sense of humor. Because behind their music, practiced with the seriousness and meticulousness that characterize them, Franck and Damien like (love) to have a laugh and make those around them and their audience laugh with (and at) them. In the video for California, the third in their mini-series of music videos developed in reverse chronology around four singles and following on from Home and Another Way, they appear as two-bit metalheads. Then, in Blind, dressed-up as priests. Never afraid of the right joke, the right disguise, the witty comeback that sticks out like a sore thumb, on and off stage.

Love, balance, fulfillment, good humor and family, of course. Family is fundamental. Franck and Damien's family continues to grow: Matt and Donavon, other artists with whom were shared songs and experiences on tour… Their audience too, getting bigger by the minute, drawn in by their groove but also by their personalities. Raise Your Voice for Franck and Damien!

Alain Gardinier

Something is looming on the horizon, a flickering presence, a sparkle in the twilight, hardly visible at first, then slowly taking shape and finally coming into view: "I will depart/I see, I will, I won't go far," Stefanie Boehm (Couch) sings on "Sirens", one of 10 tracks Ms. John Soda have recorded for "Loom", their first album in eight years – and it's true: It's a return that often feels like yet another departure, like it's time to say farewell once again, one last hug and off it goes into the valley, where life is already waiting.

A lot has changed since Ms. John Soda released the first 7" back in 1998, since Micha Acher (The Notwist, Tied & Tickled Trio, Alien Ensemble) joined Stefanie Boehm and completed the creative nucleus of this band around the turn of the millennium; day-to-day life indeed feels different some 16 years later (and half as many since the release of their sophomore album, "Notes and the Like"), but the basic chemistry, the intricate balance of electronic and analog molecules that orbit this nucleus – and thus, the resulting mood and vibe -, they're still recognizable, still undeniably Ms. John Soda: Whether it's the dense, intensely rushing soundscapes of "Hero Whales", numerous layers pushing and taking off into the same direction, the propelled clatter of "Sirens", a track like "Millions" that blows off more and more steam, a glistening, wheezing sort of madness even (though there is a tender side to it as well), the perpetual, magic lantern-like motions of "Name It" (think Trish Keenan and Broadcast) or the gradually descending melodies of opening track "In My Arms" – they're all lined with a certain tension, underpinned by a certain atmosphere, a unique brand of melancholy that never quite gives in, keeps searching for new outlets and answers.

The album title Ms. John Soda have chosen for their third full-length, "Loom", obviously hints at this feeling of re-emergence, gathering and looming, but according to the singer, it also refers to a weaving loom: It's about "weaving and combining a vast number of influences, ideas, instruments, melodies, rhythms, and layers to create a whole," says Boehm, whose vocals span these new tracks like thick, reliable ropes that glow with marine luminescence. "It's about weaving individuals into a group ('Millions'), weaving and merging former ideals and hopes with reality ('The Light'), combining 'hi' and 'bye', beginning and end ('Hi Fool'), interweaving opposite or contradicting concepts, such as pushing forward vs. being pushed ('In My Arms')." And while the weaving, just like life itself, can easily get out of hands, "because you lose track, and yet life goes on ('Name It')," a lot of these songs – e.g. "Hero Whales", the billowing "Sodawaltz", "Fall Away" – revolve around a shimmering sense of something we can't quite grasp or put a finger on just yet: "Intuitions, hopes, dreams, wishes, affinities, distances, temptations…"

Whereas Cico Beck aka Joasihno (drums, electronics), also part of Aloa Input and the latest addition to Ms. John Soda's live band, and drummer Thomas Geltinger helped out on various tracks they recorded with Oliver Zülch in Weilheim, Boehm and Acher were also joined by Karl-Ivar Refseth (percussions) and Matthias Götz (trombone). Together, they keep feeding the loom with countless spools of yarn, until epic piano closer "Fall Away" seems to offer a temporary respite: "find your way/take the dry suit off/for a night". Time to rest, to take a deep breath. Or is it already the first rays of dawn looming on the horizon?

Off World presents the final album in its trilogy of surreal and spacious leftfield electronics."A stellar project headed by Sandro Perri, one of the most singular producers in contemporarymusic" (Boomkat), this third volume is another distinctive collection of tracks constructed fromsemi-improvised ensemble recordings made over the past decade with a varied cast of coconspirators.Drew Brown, Matthew Cooper, Susumu Mukai and Andrew Zukerman join Perriagain on a variety of synths and machines, along with violinist Jesse Zubot (Tanya Tagaq, FondOf Tigers). Perri also continues to add organ and piano to the mix, while Volume 3 notablyfeatures first-time Off World contributors Nicole Rampersaud on trumpet and Martin Arnoldon guitar, both mainstays of Toronto's vibrant improv and out-music scenes.The Quietus calls Off World "genuinely explorative_the musical equivalent of a Dali-esquelandscape" which through all sorts of genre-defying twists and turns, at times evokes "offkilter,late Miles Davis ambience". Off World 3 doubles down on that jazz-adjacent trope incertain respects, while holding fast to Pitchfork's dictum that Perri "cultivates his own genrelessbrand of futurism." Marked by longer tracks than previous collections, three of the album'sfive songs clock in around the 10-minute mark, where overtly improvised instrumental playingwends its way across alternately bubbling and woozy electronic beds. "Impulse Controller" isa languidly skewed rhumba where ambling melodic undercurrents and dubby electronicpointillism provide a dulcet promenade for Rampersaud's Miles-esque trumpet excursions."Ludic Loop" see-saws along in a slow synthy two-step, punctuated by Perri's restrained pianochords and Arnold's fried electric guitar. "Empasse" is perhaps most reminiscent of earlier OffWorld collections, though again slowed and stretched, with oozing synth bass ostinatoscounterposed by ambient layers of viola and violin filigree from Zubot.These three centerpiece longform tracks e...

This Sub Pop Loser edition is clear vinyl LP plus 7" including bonus tracks.METZ, our own widely-adored and delightfully noisy 3-piece punk band from Toronto (ON, CANADA), have been laying waste to stages around the globe for over 10 years. During that tumultuous chunk of time METZ, comprised of Alex Edkins, Hayden Menzies, and Chris Slorach, have cemented their reputation as one of the planet's most exhilarating live acts and trusted providers of bombastic outsider rock. Along the way, they've earned enthusiastic support from The New Yorker, Mojo, NPR, The New York Times, KEXP, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The AV Club, Q, Uncut, Exclaim, and a bunch of others. Referring to the trio's tireless tour regime and unquenchable thirst to bring their music to the people, John Reis (Hot Snakes, RFTC, Drive Like Jehu) once said, "your ambition is really unflattering, chill out." They did not listen. In...

***on Limited Clear With Black Swirls Vinyl!!! The electric eels were the first punk band, full stop. They may not have “started” the genre, but they were the first to tick all the boxes. The eels rejected every 1970s rock convention—professionalism, virtuosity, subject matter, image. Dave E.’s caustic vocals, complete with an aggressive lisp and a head full of snot, would become de rigeur a few years after the group disbanded. Meanwhile, the songs’ focus on car crashes, suicide, neuroses, and generally hating people were as far out of the mainstream as possible. The two eels tracks that do approach the subject of romance couch it in terms of not really caring that much about it (“Jaguar Ride”) or placing it in the context of a grisly murder (“Silver Daggers”). Also consider John Morton’s signature guitar sound, a nails-on-chalkboard tone with brutally free soloing inspired more by Albert Ayler than the blues or aspirations to technical facility. Ditto Dave E.’s clarinet playing and affection for lawnmowers and vacuums during live performance. They were notoriously violent not only among themselves, but towards audiences, police, and anyone unfortunate enough to be around them when things went south. Then of course there are the leather jackets, the clothing festooned with rat traps or safety pins. And no bass player, why bother. There is simply no other “proto” band to have had all these pieces in place circa 1973-1975. Yet it is a mistake to consider the eels exclusively in such a context. Yes, the eels could and did shock anyone who encountered them, but they also had great songs. While both Dave and John were visionary writers, they also had rhythm guitarist Brian McMahon, a melody and riff machine who wrote many of the band’s signature songs. And they were no one-trick pony. Although much of the band’s material is appropriately high-energy, there is also the downer eels—morbid, harmonically risky, and in full existential crisis. Although it’s not a focus of this compilation, the eels also had a penchant for completely free improvisation. Over the last forty plus years, there have been several electric eels compilations. Spin Age Blasters is quite simply the best one ever assembled, every single key track is here in its best version, properly mastered by John Golden, and sequenced with an eye towards both flow between tracks as well as individation between sides. A true monster of an album.

After the demise of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Lydia Lunch launched her solo career with Queen Of Siam, arguably her greatest LP. In true No Wave style, the album is a mishmash of irritants, but her palette is far broader here, lurching from slow dirges, excessive feminist exhortations, and raucous personal purges to a touch of disco and lounge music exoticism, as conjured by Voidoids/Lou Reed guitarist Robert Quine, Contortions bassist Jack Ruby, and John Cale’s drummer, Douglas Browne. Spirited, surprisingly broad and defiantly dissonant, Queen Of Siam’s dense layers were designed to provoke and inflame; listen closely to fully decode.

Recorded in 1995 and 1996, mostly in John Fahey"s room at a Salem, Oregon boardinghouse, the performances on Proofs and Refutations prefigure the ornery turn of the page that marked Fahey"s final years, drawing another enigmatic rabbit from his seemingly bottomless musical hat. Cloaked in the language of dogma - what is he proving? refuting? - this is Fahey dancing a jig in the Duchampian gap, jester cap bells a-jingling. True believers? He"s got something for you: an uncompromising vision that you can sneer at ("guy can"t play anymore and refuses to concede!") or embrace as evidence of his genius ("the reinventor does it again!"). Skeptics? He"s there with you, too: sending up the fallacy of certitudes altogether. Institutions, systems, accepted wisdoms. Heroes. Alternative facts, indeed. Right out of the gate, Fahey re-materializes before us, somewhere between Oracle of Delphi and Clown Prince at Olympus. Mounting a thundering dialectic from on high, "All the Rains" resembles nothing else in his extensive discography - betraying roots in everything from Dada to Episcopal liturgical chant - and contains nary a plucked guitar note. You can"t fool him! When the lap steel of yore appears on "F for Fake," it serves more as soundbed for an extended sequence of vocal improvisations, running the gamut from wordless Bashoian caterwauling to free-form (but decidedly fake) Tuvan, even revealing a burnished falsetto in the process. Fahey takes on a different kind of provocation in the two acoustic guitar-based tracks closing Side 1 - "Morning" parts 1 and 2 - the first of 4 recordings in this session that have him wrestling with the ghost of Skip James, perhaps Fahey"s effort to wrench the "bitter, hateful old creep" (his words) back into the grave. Anchoring Side 2 is the two-part "Evening, Not Night," the second half of his extended cathexis on James (and the latter"s avowed castration complex - another story for another day, perhaps). Bit of a chill in the air - where"s the impish Fahey from earlier? Unmistakably working through some psychic wounds here, we might think: the unheimlich rendered in glistening viscera. Or is he playing with our notions of authenticity, of his reputation as troubadour of raw emotional states, a pilgrim of the ominous, the simmering unconscious? These cards are kept decidedly close to the vest. The opening and closing pieces again feature Fahey"s guitar as drone soundbed - employing distortion, oscillation, and an altogether absurd quotient of reverb to create texture and harmonics that are - if we wanna go there - not dissimilar to the sustained tonic clusters of Tibetan singing bowls, the hurdy gurdy, Hindustani classical music, or La Monte freaking Young. Portions of this material appeared on obscure late "90s vinyl in the 7" or double-78 rpm format, but as a "session" it has lain dormant more than a quarter century now. Taken together, we can now see these tracks as secret blueprints to latter-day Fahey provocations, several years prior to records like 1997"s City of Refuge and Womblife.

This collection of material shows the roots of a concept which the world knows as Creedence Clearwater Revival. John, Tom, Doug and Stu went on to tour the world and make innumerable hit discs, but these records remain a fascinating example of the birth of a band.

SKA Legend Mike Park AND Rising Stars Catbite Join Forces FOR A Generation Spanning Second Installment IN THE BAD Time Records ‘wavebreaker’ Series ON Limited Edition SEA Blue Vinyl If you’ve ever dipped a toe into the world of ska, vinyl, or DIY punk music from the past 30 years... there’s a good chance that the name Mike Park has come up. Founder of Asian MAN Records, Skankin’ Pickle, THE Bruce LEE Band, and a wealth of solo material and side projects, Mike has been pairing his love of punk and ska with damn good song writing throughout his career. On Wavebreaker #2 he brings us two ska instant classics, starting with “I couldn‘t wait out through the night”... a more traditonal track with a heavy groove and soulful sax, featuring vocals by the equally legendary Karina Denike of Dance Hall Crashers. He follows it up with “Lose With Me”, a speedy ska punk dance-floor filler that’s sure to please all generations of Park’s fans. It’s clear that he’s got an ear for great songwriting when you listen to these songs (or even just take a look at the AMR roster)... but when asked who is favorite modern ska band is, Mike says without hesitation... “Catbite!” If you’ve dipped a toe into the re-blossoming world of ska over the past 4 years, there’s also a good chance that the name Catbite has come up. Hot off of their 2021 sophomore LP “Nice One”, Catbite has been bringing their unique spin on two-tone style ‘garage punk’ ska across America. Fresh off of tours with Jeff Rosenstock and Streetlight Manifesto, Catbite is poised to bear the torch for the next generation of ska bands and fans. “Spiral” is an rhymitcally upbeat but lyrically dark aural fistfight with depression and self deprecation, played with a vigor and venom of a band totally locked in and all topped off with a staggering vocal performance from singer Brittany Luna. “Everybody Talks” certainly lightens the mood, and makes you instantly realize why the band would choose to cover this Neon Trees hit... it’s executed perfectly. Born out of mutual respect and a love of ska music, Wavebreaker 2 showcases two artists at the top of their game giving an under-appreciated genre just the jolt of addrenaline it needs and deserves.

"A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence" is the fifth album in a series of six solo efforts that John Frusciante undertook from June 2004 to February 2005. It is an album of mostly electronica based material, and was a joint collaboration between John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer, who following Frusciante and joined the RHCP as guitarist in 2010, staying until 2019. Both of them perform vocals; John Frusciante sings lead vocals on "Afterglow", "Walls" and "My Life", and shares vocals with Josh Klinghoffer on "Surrogate People". Josh Klinghoffer performs lead vocals on "Communique", "At Your Enemies" and does the backing vocals for "Walls". John Frusciante calls Sphere in the Heart of Silence "a record of electronic music," but it's not nearly as "electronic" as that statement makes it sound. It's really more an allusion to the fact that his other releases of this year have been mostly comprised of guitar, bass and drums, and that there is some programming, synth-work and overdubbing on this one.

Five years after the release of their last studio album, legendary UK musical institution, Soft Machine, return with a brand new CD/LP, Other Doors. Boasting new material and two numbers drawn from their extensive historical repertoire, Other Doors finds the band on their usual fiery form.

Featuring John Etheridge (guitars), Theo Travis, (saxes, flutes, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics), Fred Thelonious Baker (Fretless bass), John Marshall (drums), Other Doors also features two guest appearances from long-serving bassist Roy Babbington, who retired from the band in 2021.

Other Doors was recorded at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman during July and August 2022. It’s a location of which the band is particularly fond, explains John Etheridge. “Working at Jon Hiseman’s studio was special, especially with Ru Lemer who is a brilliant engineer. He’s fantastically quick and that’s very good as we record mainly live in the studio. It’s come out really well and I think it sounds great.”

That ability to work quickly on takes as an ensemble has resulted in a fresh-sounding series of top-flight performances whose typically knotty and sometimes complex themes frequently give way to explosively discursive improvisations. As Theo Travis observes, “The interesting thing about recording free improvisations is you're not playing to a plan or a grid or a blueprint, so you don’t know what's coming, and you don't know what's coming until it's gone. At which moment you're thinking about the next thing.”

The album is brimming with that fast-moving creativity including the title track, whose outline was initially composed by John Etheridge in the Lake District during 2021’s lockdown. Crooked Usages’ ’ slow-weaving machinations and the prowling inquisitiveness pursued during Fell to Earth are similarly imbued with a dextrous yet melodic bite that defines much of the band’s approach. Within this framework, John Etheridge’s supple interrogations across the fretboard’s range coupled with Theo Travis' tightly focused sax and flute alongside his impressionistic keyboard washes encompass a musical language that can be as cerebral as it is emotionally direct.

The Visitor at the Window, The Stars Apart, and the elegiac Back in Season unfurl into more reflective states of being, variously contrasted by mediative percussion, flute, solo guitar, or swarms of electronica and echoing clusters of electric piano. All coalesce to build into the beguiling atmospherics which forms a vital layer within the Soft Machine sound world. It’s been a kind of tradition with the group to include new arrangements of older Soft Machine numbers from the band’s illustrious back catalogue. These have included numbers as varied as Chloe and the Pirates, Kings and Queens, Out-Bloody-Rageous, etc.

On Other Doors they’ve revisited the very first album, originally released in 1968, to include Kevin Ayers ‘Joy Of A Toy. Fred Baker, makes his studio debut with Soft Machine. A well-known figure on the Canterbury Scene not only is he the perfect choice for the group but he’s also is a long-term fan of the repertoire.“The way I look at it is that this is all great music which we’re continuing to preserve and keep alive as we play it but also we’re adding to it all the time,” he explains. The idea for revisiting the number was Theo Travis’ he says and has been part of the band’s live setlist for a while. “I’ve added some extra harmonies and other things to it, so it’s got my stamp as well as going back right down to Kevin Ayers's original. It somehow fitted in with all of the new material as well as the older tracks we do. It’s amazing the amount of young people coming along to gigs who are liking the wide range of music we play.” The album also contains Penny Hitch, a track originally heard on 1973’s Soft Machine Seven. This features the first of two appearances of Roy Babbington who provides the bass lines underpinning Karl Jenkins’ composition while Fred plays the sinuous lead melody on his fretless bass. The pair also worked together as a duo on Now! Is The Time, a number originally based on a theme Babbington brought into the sessions, with Fred and Roy both adding and expanding the scope of the piece.

If the album ushers in a new member in the shape of Fred Baker, it also acts as a fond farewell to drummer John Marshall, who joined Soft Machine midway through the recording of 1972’s Fifth. At the age of 81 Marshall has decided to retire making Other Doors his final studio album with the group. “I’ve known John since 1975 when I first joined Soft Machine and of course, we’ve worked through the years together intermittently ever since. His drumming always meant a lot to me,” says Etheridge. “We worked over three days in the studio and John played great. It sounds terrific.” Indeed, Marshall is on whip-cracking form throughout the album bringing his trademark musicality and decisive presence. With Other Doors, he brings his distinguished career to a rousing conclusion.

Intense, celebratory, and consistently impressive. Other Doors is the sound of a group determined to press forwards with an integrity and sense of purpose that’s quintessentially and definitively Soft Machine.

In this album the artist tries to unite the different universes that they currently inhabit.An aesthetic that took up the synthwave of the 80's and the legacy of groups like Opa (Hugo y Osvaldo Fattoruso, Ruben Rada).The leather and organicity of candombe, the wood and improvisation of jazz, the synthesizers, and the repetition of electronic music.From inspiration and challenge, he generates mantric landscapes and a strong dose of Uruguayan instrumental music.A jazz musician who is not only that, but who works in constant dialogue with various genres. A drummer who with his instrument pursues a Montevidean identity, built on candombe and jazz; and that with the synthesis of electronic sounds he builds hypnotic instrumental passages that invite the ear to venture into them. Mateo Ottonello is a talent that is no longer an open secret and his prestige among local musicians is growing and is unquestionable. The drummer, producer and teacher has a long musical career that dates back to 2018 and is also characterized by constant collaboration and exchange with different musicians.El camino por dentro starts with Regreso that plunges us into arpeggios of guitars, percussion, and trumpets in a mysterious and candombero cadence. Seven minutes that towards the end "melt" between digital sounds and open the door to Void. Synthetic, happy and pop, the song feels almost like a car ride, caressed by the wind and the sun's rays of its synths. In contrast, in El Camino por Adentro (feat. Hugo Fattoruso), intensity appears in all its splendor. As if wanting to leave everything, the band made up of Ignacio Correa on bass, Maximiliano Nathan on vibraphone and synthesizers, Juan Olivera on trumpet, Santiago "Coby" Acosta on percussion and Marcos Caula on guitars, join Fattoruso to attack hard with their maximum volume and expressiveness. Together they build nine minutes of multiple parts, layers and colors that are continued by the tension in Brujo and the relaxation in La Salvadora. For its pa...

HHV Exclusive edition limited to 500 copies.

On June 9th 2023 Capitane Records will re-issue the 20th Anniversary of Adam Green's Friends of Mine. For fans of Green and his band The Moldy Peaches, it may be hard to believe that it has been twenty years since those early days of the 2000s when the indie rock world was set ablaze by a new generation of artists, composers, and songwriters. Within what felt like only a few months, bands like The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Libertines, and The Moldy Peaches, provided indie music audiences with fresh iterations and interpretations of the rock and roll canon, with influences that included both standard-bearers like The Velvet Underground, Television, The Stones, The Doors, The Stooges, Leonard Cohen, The Modern Lovers, and Bob Dylan, and also more recent artists like Beck, Daniel Johnston, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, Pavement, and The Silver Jews. The results varied between straight-up rock and roll and punk rock with a songwriting, folk-inspired, consciousness. Gone were the ripped-up jeans and flannels of yore. Tight trousers and leather jackets ruled the day.

It was on the heels of the success of his band The Moldy Peaches (who signed along with The Strokes to Rough Trade Records in 2001 and subsequently toured alongside them) that Adam Green wrote and recorded Friends of Mine, the seminal album that would define a new direction in his career. Diverging from the home-recorded, 8 track-analog framework of his previous albums, Green adopted what then seemed like a distinctly hi-fidelity sound, complete with a full band, crooning vocals, and a string section (with arraignments by Jane Scarpentoni). Friends of Mine drew on the work of Serge Gainsbourg, Scott Walker, and Frank Sinatra, while its lyrical content felt as if derived from symbolist poetry and the surrealism of Brecht and Dylan. The result was something altogether new, a record that could feel both touchingly sad but also sardonic, satirical, louche, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Songs like "Jessica" would become anthems to a new generation of young indie rock fans both in the United States and Europe.

Capitane is proud to release Friends of Mine as a double LP, with a second disc of outtakes, B-sides, and live versions. This deluxe edition features notes on the songs by Green, a text which provides new insights into his often cryptic lyrical methodology, along with anecdotes from the days when these songs were composed. Also featured is a conversation between Green and Dan Myers (producer), Steven Mertens (bass player), Matt Ramono (drummer) and Larissa Brown White (Adam's manager at the time). The five old friends do a deep dive into the production of Friends of Mine, as reflect more broadly on that bygone era. The 2023 edition of Friends of Mine is a testament to an artist and an album that stand the test of time.

Sarabeth Tucek emerges from a decade-long hibernation with a new double-album Joan of All under the new moniker SBT – a longtime nickname given to her by the many musicians she has worked with throughout her career. After retreating from the fevered pace of the record business to concentrate on other creative endeavors, Sarabeth began to piece together the music that would eventually become her most ambitious, personal project yet – the sprawling double-album Joan Of All, which will be released world-wide on 19th May 2023 via her own freshly-minted imprint Ocean Omen. Sarabeth Tucek officially broke onto the music scene 2003 performing a series of spellbinding duets with Bill Callahan on the acclaimed Smog album Supper. This was swiftly followed by a memorable appearance in the prize-winning Brian Jonestown Massacre documentary DiG! Sarabeth also contributed material to their 2005 EP release, We Are the Radio. One of Sarabeth's compositions covered by the band on that EP, "Seer," would later be retitled and released in 2006 as Tucek's debut single, "Something for You”, which became Steve Lamacq’s Single Of The Week on BBC Radio 6 Music. Her self-titled debut album produced by Luther Russell and Ethan Johns hit stores the following year and garnered rave reviews in the press, leading her to supporting Bob Dylan and unfaltering support at the BBC. In 2011, Sarabeth followed up her extraordinary debut with a raw, uncompromising album entitled Get Well Soon, praised as an unflinching meditation on the subject of grief. This release made many year-end lists and the title track was featured on the first season of HBO’s Girls.

"Fictions" (1967) by Los Vidrios Quebrados is released now on vinyl, from the original IRT masters! Los Vidrios Quebrados were pioneers in Chile in adopting psychedelia as a musical aesthetic, due to the influences gathered mainly from British groups. Although they bequeathed only one LP, this one is a permanent reference of research and applause, for having been worked with their own material (without covers, as was the norm of local rock at the time) and combining their electric flight with opinions of social observation. "Fictions" (1967) is one of the most important rock albums made in Chile. The 1966 single "Friend" and "She'll Never Know I'm Blue" gave way the following year to the recording of "Fictions", their only LP, under the RCA Victor and Ues Producciones label. Without merely copying their influences, the songs on the album feature smooth and fine instrumental arrangements by Héctor Sepúlveda (guitar and vocals), who also acted as the album's musical director. Those who were lucky enough to hear them live say that they were much more rock than what we can appreciate on the album. And the music on the "Fictions" album was even more sophisticated than what was being done at the time, there was a musicality that was quite anticipatory, even foreign. If you listen to the harmonies in "Introduction to Life..." or "Concerto in A Minor", they are quite complex compared to what was heard at the time. That's why they also had a place in radio stations more accustomed to playing classical music, like Radio Andrés Bello. There was a certain intellectual taste, something like an "intellectual arrogance", like the quotations to Oscar Wilde in the lyrics of the songs, for example. For the recording of "Fictions", Los Vidrios Quebrados had very little time, as was customary in those days. And despite the technical limitations of the recording studios (two tracks -vocals on one side and all the instruments on the other-, bottle cap tambourines and homemade instruments), when listening to the album, the result is surprising and, considering that in Chile the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones was already known, the reception of "Fiction" was quite good. After the success of "Fictions" and with a promising future, Los Vidrios Quebrados decided to go to Europe in 1969, but the idea was rejected by the parents of two of the members, who only saw music as a hobby. Different life choices and musical tastes led months later to the end of the band.