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Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited ep Was It Ever Real?, The Soft Pink Truth releases a super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?, Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go "deeper" prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia.Throughout, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? aims for a kind of psychedelic poolside take on disco, using the steady 120 bpm rhythmic chassis of the music as a launchpad for reverie rather than big room EDM bluster. Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard"s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz-funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish. At once catchy and spacey, poppy and perverse, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? shows a restless musician trying to square the circle of dance music and meditation, repetition, and change.

Hot on the heels of the sold-out limited ep Was It Ever Real?, The Soft Pink Truth releases a super catchy, sexy contemporary disco banger Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This?, Throughout the ten songs of the album, the provocation to go "deeper" prompts promiscuous moves across the genres of disco, minimalism, ambient, and jazz, sliding onto and off of the dancefloor, sweeping higher and lower on the scale of frequencies, engaging both philosophical texts re-set as pop lyrics and wordless glossolalia. Throughout, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? aims for a kind of psychedelic poolside take on disco, using the steady 120 bpm rhythmic chassis of the music as a launchpad for reverie rather than big room EDM bluster. Sidestepping retro kitsch but paying homage to highly personal interpretations of disco such as Arthur Russell, Don Ray, Dr. Buzzard"s Original Savannah Band, and Mandré, or the jazz-funk of Creed Taylor and CTI Records. Its emphasis on slowly morphing deep house grooves will also appeal to fans of DJ Sprinkles, Moodymann, and Theo Parrish. At once catchy and spacey, poppy and perverse, Is It Going To Get Any Deeper Than This? shows a restless musician trying to square the circle of dance music and meditation, repetition, and change.

An 18 track compilation featuring the best of Croydon's punk and post punk scene 1977-1985!Are They Hostile? Is a new documentary film about the Punk, New Wave and Indie scene in Croydon in the late '70s and early '80s. It takes its name from the first single by Croydon band Bad Actors. To coincide with the film's release Damaged Goods Records are releasing a compilation vinyl LP and CD featuring bands from in the film including Johnny Moped, The Marines, The Daleks, Case, Fanatics and also bands such as The Straps who played Croydon many times usually at The Star Pub in West Croydon. The CD version also features a specially recorded introduction by the legendary ex-Croydon Greyhound DJ Peter Fox.It's been argued that Croydon was the birthplace of Punk in the UK, largely due to The Damned and Johnny Moped. But there was a group of other, less well-known bands who were part of that scene, or who came just after, but who didn't achieve the same success or recognition. The film and album attempt to set the record straight by shining a light on bands such as Bad Actors, Case, The Daleks, The Heroes and Fanatics.The music still fizzes with the energy and enthusiasm of youth and the punk ethos of just doing it. And the participants, if a bit older and slightly less slim than forty years ago, come alive in the current interviews as if connected to the mains. As the saying goes, "old punks don't die", but they do remember.The documentary film takes us through the history of these bands, the people in them, the places they played and, through current interviews with "a bunch of old punks", what they did next, and how formative and important being in a band was for them growing up.The film is the brainchild of Bad Actor Griff Griffiths and Mark Williams and will premier at the David Lean Cinema in Croydon on 2nd September with a Q & A afterwards by Griff and Mark, and an aftershow party nearby with special celebrity guests TBC.Griff explains: "It's also a film about being young, being passionate, being...

In their relatively brief lifetime, between 1996 and 2002, Hefner enjoyed an incredibly productive four-album, multi-EP career. Their beautiful, concise, intelligent songs earned a fiercely loyal, cult audience and the long-term support of legendary DJ John Peel, for whom they recorded innumerable sessions. Originally released in 2001, their final album, Dead Media, found Hefner reaching out and taking risks. Keen to break free of their indie-folk roots, they cocooned themselves in a home studio with broken analogue synthesizers, antique drum machines and battery-powered amplifiers. The band's naivety and guile produced some curiously engaging music, with frontman Darren Hayman's precise, economic, poetic dissections of quotidian romance draped over awkward, fuzzy beats: something like Cat Stevens covering Warm Leatherette. Dead Media caused confusion at the time and ultimately lead to the band's break up. However, the songs like 'Junk', 'The Night's Are Long' and 'When The Angels Play Their Drum Machines' are among Hayman's most adult and affecting essays and stand out among the finest of Hefner's achievements. Classic black vinyl!

Fourth instalment in The Wedding Present's popular 'Marc Riley Sessions' series. The Wedding Present are a band with a history that's inextricably intertwined with the BBC and, in particular, the late DJ John Peel, an early champion of the band. Having received critical acclaim for releases 1 - 3, Marc Riley Sessions Volume 4 goes on to feature nine songs recorded for the award-winning BBC 6 Music show in 2017 and 2018. The first four tracks on the album were recorded with a string quartet and trumpeter and include a remarkable reimagining of 'Bewitched', originally from the band's 1989 album Bizarro.

Debut LP from beloved mainstay PDX rockers, THE Coolheads! Synthy, poppy, new wavey rock n’ roll hits that conjure up many influences from Eno or Bowie to Ramones or a less quirky Devo. The whole album gives one a feeling of one hell of a Saturday night at a loud crowded rock n’ roll bar. It feels like taking the fourth shot of whisky on a very festive evening out with your best friends, as some alien DJ plays your favorite party tunes. So, yes, this is a very aptly named record. This is total pop, brilliantly written and magically produced/recorded. Clear vocals sang beautifully over some true head bobbin’, hooky as hell verses and chorus’, complete with wild guitar solos and great musicianship all round. The world could benefit from more bands sounding like this in 2022, though that is what makes Andy Place and company so unique. If ever you find yourself passing by a bar populated by a Coolhead, you know that is the spot to be, and these ten songs reflect that.

Patrick Holland is no stranger to ghosts. In the last several years, the Montreal-based musician/producer has become accustomed to odd noises, electronics breaking, misplaced items, and, on a recent occasion, a glass shattering spontaneously next to him. Annoying, to be sure, but he's made peace with it; the unknown, after all, is only frightening if we allow it to be. This attitude is at the heart of Holland's new album - addressed in part to an unnamed, pseudo-paranormal "other," You're The Boss is his first foray into guitar-driven indie pop, full of upbeat reflections on relinquishing control. Like most touring musicians, 2020 found Holland at a crossroads. Known primarily for his electronic releases under aliases such as Project Pablo and Jump Source, he'd spent the last several years traveling the world playing DJ sets and festivals. Behind the scenes, he was also working as a mixing engineer, producer and remixer, lending his technical prowess to Tops, Copy, Jacques Greene, Homeshake, and more. Over a period of several months, Holland wrote and recorded the album in tandem, playing most of the instruments himself as well as writing and singing lyrics for the first time in his recorded work. The resulting record is a fitting re-introduction to Holland as an artist. Singles "Sinister Bell" and "Nice Try" feature earworm arrangements of sunny guitars and velvety vocal harmonies (including backing vocals from Tops' Jane Penny, David Carriere and Marta Cikojevic). Elsewhere, Holland mixes his otherworldly synth textures with saxophone solos, by Chris Edmondson, on tracks like "Sink to Dusk" and "The Shame Of It All" creating a moody, contemplative atmosphere reminiscent of his past work. Despite covering a lot of sonic ground, You're The Boss also sounds remarkably cohesive, a testament to Holland's airtight production and mixing capabilities. It's ironic, in a way, that an album about relinquishing control would turn out to be such a masterful display of creative faculty.

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album 'Cosmic Joke' on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records. A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover's is a kaleidoscopic sound that's J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover's music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, 'Cosmic Joke' - a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It's my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It's been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world."

Los Angeles-based experimental producer Al Lover will release his new studio album 'Cosmic Joke' on May 27th via Fuzz Club Records. A staple of the global psychedelic scene, Lover has spent nearly a decade fine-tuning a broken, abstracted form of electronica that pools together a tapestry of trip-hop, synthesised krautrock, dub and dark ambient. Utilising an arsenal of samples, drum machine, analogue synths and live instrumentation, Lover's is a kaleidoscopic sound that's J-Dilla, DJ Shadow and Lee Scratch Perry by way of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk and Kluster. Central to Lover's music is a desire to explore the fringes of psychedelic music and the common threads that run through its far-reaching styles, drawing elements from the past and connecting them to the future. Through the years he has released a number of studio albums and beat tapes, remixed the likes of Osees and Night Beats, been resident DJ for the Levitation and Desert Daze festivals and collaborated with the likes of Goat, Anton Newcombe, Cairo Liberation Front and White Fence. Now, Lover returns with his latest studio album, 'Cosmic Joke' - a series of synthesised philosophical meditations on modern life, in all its tragicomic absurdity. "'Cosmic Joke' came from observing the rising, compounded absurdity in recent years and seeing structures of normalcy dissolving. It's my attempt to view these things as part of a higher-order process, through a metaphysical lens rather than an ideological one. It's been an exercise in holding the paradoxical relationship of comedy and tragedy, joy and pain, growth and decay, scale and decline as part of an interlocked system that, at a deep level, is essential to how we interface with the world."

I Love It When A Band Comes Together…The one thing that has kept most artists sane during the pandemic is writing and creating. In an attempt to apply this logic Red Ant Records maestro Pete Bones decided to recruit the talents of a bunch of cool cats he had met whilst traveling the globe and put a band together. Having often wondered after 30 odd years as a DJ/Producer how the band would sound had he not been swept up by Acid House in the late 80s, six months later, plenty of file bouncing and numerous edits, and The Stones Of Convention were ready to wreak havoc. The first album, Wild Moose Chase, featured seven original tracks, and a cover of the Talking Heads classic Pull Up The Roots. For the new LP, Hyena Hopscotch, Pete recruited two new members, including a new vocalist, Jazzi Sirius. Pete gives some context on the album itself: “The concept of The Stones Of Convention was always intended to be fairly fluid; given the virtual nature of the project and the location of the band members. I wanted to write that awkward second album that was both a sequel to Wild Moose Chase, and a more complex and diverse LP in its own right. I hope I've still ended up with a record to dance to, wherever you may feel the urge. It contains tracks that have a definite pop feel, some industrial funk and even a ska-house hybrid. We can't make music specifically for the late great Andy Weatherall to play any longer, but we can make tunes I hope he would have loved. I am joined on the album by a new vocalist and co-writer, Jazzi Sirius, who is an immense talent, Paul Withey who lays some warm fuzzy guitar down, and my regular bandmates, Duncan Gray, Pierre Davis and the two Jeffs, Richey and Ward. They are at their incomparable best of course, and last but not least, the amazing mixing skills of Justin Drake.”

Inspired by the intensity of lockdown, the self-titled debutalbum by electro-pop project Gates of Light, is the result of acollaboration between five artists across four cities, threetime zones and two continents. Hailing from Glasgow, singer-songwriter Louise Quinn and producer Bal Cooke teamed up with London-based DJ and producer Scott Fraser; Parisian musician, DJ and producer Kid Loco; and film director and photographer, New York's Tim Saccenti - who has previously worked with Run The Jewels and Pharell- to create a sublime, electro-pop reflection on the grief, insularity and peculiar highs of lockdown. Immediately after hearing the album, revered post-punk musician and producer Kramer offered to release the vinyl edition on his iconic cult label Shimmy-Disc, which boasts an impressive back catalogue of artists including Daniel Johnson, Low and Galaxie 500. A project grounded on collaboration - born from a period of disconnect - Gates Of Light perfectly amplifies the longing, confusion, lucid dreams and appreciation of the outdoors that the pandemic ignited in so many over the last couple of years. Originally written and recorded by Louise and Bal from their bedroom studio in Glasgow whilst their one-year-old twins slept, the tracks were then sent to Scott and Kid Loco who remixed the tracks from home studios in London and Paris before Tim created the artwork and a video for the track `When The Leaf Falls'. Gates Of Light is the latest project from Louise and Bal who have released music in the past as A Band Called Quinn and DAWNINGS. Louise and Scott Fraser have also previously collaborated following a chance encounter at a nightclub in Glasgow. Their single `Together More' was released on Andrew Weatherall's renowned Birdscarer vinyl imprint in 2019 and featured a remix by the Guv'nor himself who described the track as "sublime magik".For Fans of: Air, Nico, St Etienne, Kid Loco, Young Marble Giants, Sandy Denny, Vashti Bunyan, Andrew Weatherall, Robert Wyatt and Serge Gainsbourg.

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

"decade", the sixth album by Calibro 35, the legendary cinematic funk combo sampled by Dr. Dre and Jay-Z, gets a reissue on ltd edition Crystal Yellow vinyl edition with bonus tracks.

Record Kicks presents the reissue of Calibro 35's sixth acclaimed album "decade" on limited edition Crystal Yellow vinyl and digital deluxe edition with 3 bonus tracks on April 29th2022. The publication is part of "The Record Kicks Trilogy" that follows the reissue of the first three albums of the band, released in 2020. This time, Milan label Record Kicks will repress on wax of three different colors and on digital deluxe edition, the fourth, fifth and sixth legendary studio albums of the Italian cinematic-funk cult band. The deluxe digital edition of "decade" includes 3 bonus tracks: "Gomma", "Polymeri (Afro-Utopia Version)" and "Travelers, Explorers (feat. Elisa Zoot)".

Released in 2018, "decade"marked 10 years of Calibro 35's career and it's the very first album recorded by Calibro with an orchestral-inspired enlarged line-up that features horns, strings and percussions. Mixed and recorded by Calibro's usual suspect and Grammy Award winner Tommaso Colliva, on the album all the influences collected by the band during their last ten years' journey like music, collaborations, movies, gigs, books find their space. "decade" is Calibro 35's "time capsule" and it is as rare and complex as a timeless work.

Musically Calibro 35's inner influences like Ennio Morricone - listen for instance to the epic journey of the album's end credits "Travelers" - Luis Bacalov and David Axelrod are still there but are now mixed with elements from afrobeat or cosmic jazz. "Psycheground" sounds like Tony Allen involved in writing a score for a vintage Hollywood production while Sun Ra lurks on "Modo". Everything is mixed up with new influences from modern musical languages. References to Jaga Jazzist, Budos Band or Alternative Jazz and Alternative Hip Hop new acts such as Makaya McCraven, Yussef Kamaal, Oddisee can all be found on the album. In tracks such as "Modulor" you realize that "decade" is certainly not a point of arrival and expresses the ambition of the band to look further and evolve. All classic Calibro's vintage instruments such as clavinet, eco, analog synths, fuzz guitars are now supported by new ones such as Dan Bau, Balafon and Waterphone ("Polymeri") in the band's new wall of sound. Thanks to the enlarged line-up and the orchestrated parts involved, which pushed the band to experiment new methods of composition, Calibro 35 on "decade" sound strong, full and tight as never before.

Active since 2008, Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. During their fourteen-year career, they were sampled by Dr. Dre on his Compton album, Jay-Z, The Child of lov & Damon Albarn; they shared stages worldwide with the likes of Roy Ayers, Muse, Sun Ra Arkestra, Sharon Jones, Thundercat and Headhunters and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others, PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish and Stewart Copeland and Nic Cester (The Jet). Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that happened to Italy in the last years", Calibro 35 now count on a number of aficionados worldwide including VIP fans such as Dj Food (Ninja Tune), Mr Scruff and Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals) among others.

"It's been 37 years since the release of Poor Little Critter on the Road, the debut album from The Knitters, the original Alt-Country band comprised of three members of X, one Blaster and a Red Devil. It was in 1985 that Exene Cervenka, John Doe and DJ Bonebrake joined Dave Alvin and Jonny Ray Bartel to record the critically acclaimed debut for a sound that Alvin described as 'It's like if the guys at Sun Records dropped LSD and made a record with Lead Belly and the Carter Family. That's what The Knitters sound like.'"—Michael Major. Pressed on blue vinyl.

Russia's most influential cult art-indie rock band drop this 5 track remix 12". After the original album mix we get KITO JEMPERE's nu wave revision. On the flip we get remixes from KTO DJ?, NACHTBRAKER (DIRT/HEIST), and SCHIER (BONFIRE) with an industrial/teutonic remix, a smooth tech house remix and an anthemic techno dub remix (definitely one to check) respectively. (GLENVIEW-KITO JEMPERE RECORDS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes he does, sometimes he really does.

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

Cosmic Fringes

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

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

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

True

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

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

Fat Pop

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

Shades of Blue

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

Glad Times

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

Cobweb / Connections

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

Testify

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

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

That Pleasure

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

Failed

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

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

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

Moving Canvas

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

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

In Better Times

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

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

Still Glides The Stream

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

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

Today, London Born And Raised Artist Parris Announces His Much Anticipated Debut Album, Soaked In Indigo Moonlight. The Full Length Release Is Due Out On 19 November Via Can You Feel The Sun, The Label He Co-Founded With Berlin Based Producer And DJ, Call Super. Regarded In The Scene As A Slow-Burning Unique Talent, Parris' Discography Includes Releases Via The Trilogy Tapes, Wisdom Teeth, Idle Hands And Hemlock All Of Which Helped Him Carve Out His Own Distinctive Place Within The Contemporary Electronic Music Landscape. The Album Is A Sharp Piece Of Storytelling That Weaves Together Stripped-Down, Club Rooted Pop, Expansive Experiments In Rhythm And A Sense Of Air And Space That Allows Collaborations To Flourish. In A Eulogy To Friendship And Skateboarding, Eden Samara Turns Skater's World Into A Carefree Anthem. James K's Vocals Breathe A Frayed Hopefulness To Closer Falling In The Waves. Alongside These Two Rising Talents, Carmen Villian And Call Super Contribute With Symbiotic Visions That Underpin The Ideas And Spontaneity At The Heart Of The Record. It Is An Album That Is Difficult To Imagine Ever Coming From Anywhere But London Steeped, As It Is, In The Wilful Desire For Idiosyncrasy That Lies At The Heart Of The Best Of Uk Culture. As The Fog From Over A Year Of Lockdowns Lifts, This Talented Producer Is Stepping Out With His Most Impressive Body Of Work To Date And A Whole New Sense Of Direction And Purpose.

Limited edition, expanded 10th anniversary pressing which contains the original album pressed on ‘sky blue’ Colored Vinyl. The release also includes a bonus 12” featuring all 12 B-sides from the Jump Into The Fog, Anti-D, Techno Fan (which world renowned DJ, Diplo is a big fan of) and Our Perfect Disease singles pressed on ‘golden sand’ Colored Vinyl. Includes two art prints featuring the album cover plus the alternative cover shot that featured on the original deluxe boxset at the time.

Nanocluster Vol 1. Is An Album With Some Serious Pedigree. It Sees Immersion (Aka Malka Spigel And Colin Newman Of Influential Groups Minimal Compact And Wire Respectively) Collaborating With Some Of The Finest Left Field Artists Of Our Era: Tarwater, Laetitia Sadier, Ulrich Schnauss And Scanner. The Project Was Born Out Of A Brighton Based Club Night, Also Called Nanocluster, Run By Spigel And Newman Alongside Writer, Broadcaster And DJ Graham Duff, And Promoter Andy Rossiter. The Club Features A Range Of Influential And Cutting Edge Music Acts. But The Unique Aspect Of The Evenings Is That Each Show Climaxes With A One Off Collaboration Between Immersion And The Headliners. The Songs Having Been Written And Recorded In The Studio In Just Three Days Prior To The Performance - Or One Day In The Case Of Schnauss. "It Could Have Just Been A Series Of Performances." Says Newman.? "But The Fact That We Had Built The Tracks In The Studio For The Performances Means We Had These Recordings." Says Spigel. The Recordings Have Since Been Developed With Immersion Heading Up Pro- Duction Duties. The Result Is A Beautiful And Unique Album.? "I Think The Really Interesting Thing Is How Different Everybody Is," Says Spigel. "Both As People And Creatively." - Immersion And Tarwater: The German Duo Of Ronald Lippok And Bernd Jestram Have Created An Impressive Body Of Work. Yet Their Involvement With Immersion Has Opened Out Their Sound, Creating A More Panoramic Soundscape. The Opening Instrumental 'Ripples' Is A Gentle Breathe Of Optimism, All Purring Tones And Sun Dazzled Synths. Meanwhile, 'Mrs. Wood' Is A Dubby Psychedelic Shuffle, Lippok's Vocal Cool And Assured Over A Fat Bass Line And Skybound Eastern Melodics. It Feels Like A More Spacious Take On The Tarwater Of Albums Such As 'Suns, Animals And Atoms'. The Four Musicians' 3rd Collaboration Is Nanocluster's Most Pop Moment: With A Heartfelt Yet Unsentimental Lyric Unfurling Over Feline Rhythms, 'All You Cat Lovers' Is A Feel-Good Anthem For Cat Lover...

Released on October 2nd 1995, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is the band’s most commercially successful album selling a record breaking 347,00 copies in its first week and has sold 22 million copies worldwide. The iconic album cover includes producer Owen Morris and DJ Sean Rowley walking down Berwick Street in London. Produced by: Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher

Swedish rockers go wham bam glam and wring the clock back to 1973! Velvet Insane were formed in 2013 as a four-piece outfit but by the time of their self-titled debut album they were billed as a duo. The first album took them around the world touring Europe, Japan, USA & Australia. Their critically acclaimed debut was a fresh mix between classic rock, pop, inches of folk influences and it also contained traces of early 70's British glam rock. And the band kept walking that glam track and now they're back as a trio and this time it's glam glitter boogie all over. They hired the cult glam rockers Diamond Dogs frontman Sulo as a producer and together they have created a bright shining monster. The 11 track long "Rock 'n' Roll Glitter Suit" album sounds, breathes and swaggers like it was made in London 1973. Smooth pop harmonies pumped up by heavy drums and barbed wire guitars and singer that wear it well. It brings back memories of a time when Slade, Trex, Bowie & Roxy Music we're topping the charts. From the catchy singalong choruses of the pop gems "Velvet Tongue", "Riding the Skyways" & "Sound of Sirens" to the frantic boogie energy in barroom stompers "Driving down the mountain", "Backstreet Liberace" & "Spaceage DJ", it's the real thing. You also get a glimpse of Ziggy Stardust in the acoustic ballad "Midnight sunshine serenade". Velvet Insane are a band that plays with their hearts on their sleeves and it's satisfaction guaranteed. Dregen and Nicke Andersson from The Hellacopters jumps in the backseat in "Backstreet Liberace" and just like Rolling Stones honoured the tradition of Muddy Waters blues Velvet Insane takes on the job to keep rock 'n' roll alive.

Director David Lynch once said "I long for a kind of quiet where I can just drift and dream. I always say getting inspiration is like fishing. If you're quiet and sitting there and you have the right bait, you're going to catch a fish eventually. Ideas are sort of like that. You never know when they're going to hit you." Inspired by this quote in both name and spirit, Hollie Kenniff's The Quiet Drift is an ambient gallery of cloudlike synths, seraphic strings, echoing guitars, and other celestial textures guided to cohesion by Hollie's own wordless singing. Though the album certainly creates (and originates from) the kind of space where Lynch's proverbial "fish" can be caught, The Quiet Drift is a fitting title for Hollie's own history, both recent and distant. During the course of the album's creation, Hollie and her family moved cross-country from an island in Washington state, to an island in Maine before ultimately relocating to Canada. "As a child I visited Ontario year-round," she explains in her own words. She continues "More than any other landscape, I think the lake, rivers, and woods there left the most enduring impression on me. The landscape and pace of life of these places will always stay with me." But the reverberant spaces Hollie crafts need no physical headquarters. Instead of conjuring views of nature at the ground level, her sound more readily evokes a top-down perspective, with the distinct features of the land shrinking underfoot as the listener becomes untethered from geography altogether. The Quiet Drift belongs more to the liminal spaces between life and afterlife, memory and fantasy, landscape and dreamscape, than any mappable locale. Describing her formative years, Hollie says "As a dual US/Canadian citizen who spent my childhood in a rural town-- one that I haven't returned to in many years - I have a sense of not entirely belonging anywhere. When I was a teenager my close friends were male musicians, so I was also an outsider to the degree that they were wild and anarchic in a way that I wasn't. I was a quiet book reader and avid music listener who enjoyed being around a creative group. I was also a radio DJ for alternative and punk music throughout high school." In this light, The Quiet Drift attests that creativity is placeless, and calls into question the stereotype of artists as scene-centric city dwellers. Having come of age in the absence of metropolitan sensory overload, Hollie learned to spot the muse in nature, and within herself, instead of the echo chamber of a frenzied peer group. On The Quiet Drift Hollie Kenniff wholly escapes from such pop-culture feedback loops into transcendent, shimmering realms, and she brings the listener along with her. In this age in which we have all been called to reevaluate our relationship to indoor spaces, and seek refuge in the great outdoors, The Quiet Drift provides an apt soundtrack for such rebalancing.

Hot electro and neo-high energy synth-disco on the Disco Disco debut album of anarcho-electro-punk duo Fivequestionmarks & Produkkt from Rome. Fivequestionmarks is a DJ and singer with a dark and heavy style who effortlessly assembles industrial, acid, and EBM into wild raves. Together with Produkkt they literally rock the disco with their sharp productions, reminiscent of the synthwave and electro-pop of the eighties with a raw punk edge. On Disco Disco, Fivequestionmarks renders the surrealistic, political, and profound lyrics in her distorted voice with a dramatic Italian touch. Raw electro-punk in the vein of Miss Kittin & The Hacker and Adult. Recommended!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sometimes he does, sometimes he really does.

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

Cosmic Fringes

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

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

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

True

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

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

Fat Pop

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

Shades of Blue

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

Glad Times

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

Cobweb / Connections

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

Testify

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

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

That Pleasure

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

Failed

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

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

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

Moving Canvas

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

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

In Better Times

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

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

Still Glides The Stream

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

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

Where are the Lemons now? Who are the Lemons now? Are you a Lemon or a Lime? Somewhere deep within the Seventeen Seas, DJ Lorelei is broadcasting 300 Hz of heavenly joy from the SS Scout radio transmitter, sending out the latest missive from the Lemon World.

Following a chance encounter with Sailor Lou, the intrepid DJ Lorelei is in possession of acetates containing never-before-heard recordings from the Lemons and has been broadcasting them non-stop for the past 213 days.

The archivists at We Are Busy Bodies were lucky enough to tune in to the signal one clear night and record a brief snippet of DJ Lorelei’s transmission, preserved here as “wlmn” to be released to the world on April 23, 2021.

Special Request continues his impeccable run of form with a typically fervent entry into the DJ-Kicks mix series. His adventurous 25 track mix takes in personal favourites, new school classics and of course a selection of his own brand new and exclusive edits, dubs and reworks next to some overlooked gems. Leeds based Paul Woolford dares to go where few others do. He can do face-melting underground bangers, peak time piano anthems, ambient cinematics or chart climbing crossover hits. What unites his work as Special Request across labels like Houndstooth and R&S, though, is precision engineering, but never at the expense of real, raw emotion and visceral impact. He is an artist who very much pours his heart into everything he does, and has been on such a prolific run in recent years that it has been impossible to keep abreast of all his many projects. Even in this mix, he hints at yet more new sides and sounds. As always with Special Request, this is an emotional, full spirited ride through the musical mind of one of the most accomplished artists of the day.

'The Extra Ordinary' EP is the debut release from London based musician, composer, producer and singer Emilee. Also known as Moggli, Emilee boasts a vast back catalogue collaborating with the likes of Maya Jane Coles, Andrea Oliva, Shlomi Aber and Marc Romboy. This release welcomes five dreamy originals packaged alongside a pairing of club focused remixes courtesy of Maya Jane Coles and Andrade & Sam Clarence.
Maya Jane Coles fully digests the original work before totally revamping 'Rodeo' in a truly unique way as warming rich chords billow around a chugging masterpiece of house rhythms. Andrade & Sam Clarence continue the dreamlike state with Memory Land, once again taking the ethereal voices from Emilee and pairing with a rich, punchy bass line.
DJ support : Carl Craid, Rone, Joris Voorn, Joyce Muniz, Shlomi Aber, Fred P
Remixes Premiere confirmed with: Mixmag - DJ Mag spain and LA- Verzila - Upfront Beats - Moskalus
Premieres wise, Mixmag are running MJC on 25th
Radios : BBC Radio 1 show - MJC remix plays on Friday 15th Jan. Rinse FM - Pat from Slothboogie to play MJC remix on his Rinse FM show Monday. 11th Jan.
Good reviews: DJ Mag Spain supported with a news piece: https://djmag.es/the-extra-ordinary-es-el-ep-debut-de-la-productora-londinense-emilee/
Upfrontbeats supported with a review:https://upfrontbeats.com/track/emilee-the-extra-ordinary-remixes-ft-maya-jane-coles-andrade-sam-clarence
Dubkiks https://dubiks.com/2021/01/06/emilee-debuts-with-remixes-from-maya-janes-coles-and-andrade-sam-clarence/

"I Like The Drive As Much As The Scenery". Buckle Up As Producer, DJ, And Archivist Cherrystones (Gareth Goddard) Takes You On A Return Trip To Critical Mass! He Has A Life-Long Obsession With The Soundtrack And Was Also Gripped Early By A Love Of Rap (A Trusted Mpc 2000 Never Far From His Side). The Channeling Of Context, Underscore, Timing And Placement Has Always Fuelled The Distinctive Flavour Of Cherrystones' Output. This Open-Eared And Open-Armed Approach Is What Makes 'Critical Mass Vol.2' Another Stunning Compilation. As Goddard States: "This Is Not A Rare-For-Rare-Sake Appendix Of Bands Designed To Showcase Exclusivity And Superiority". These Are Tracks That Have Lived With Him, And He Has Lived Within, Gathered Over Travels Throughout Europe - Living, DJ-Ing, And Creating. Five Years On From The First Volume, This Eighteen Track Compilation Once Again Fully Outlines The Breadth And Possibility Of The Post-Punk And New Wave Era. "Many Of These Artists Fell By The Wayside As Underdogs Or Were Just Too Ahead Of Their Time. These Selections Have Strong Rhythmic Undertones - Percussively And Tonally - And You Can Hear The Subtle Influence Of Dance Music And The Dance Floor As A Reference Point." On Our Journey We Hear Hyped Up Punk-Funk From The Netherlands In The Form Of Kone?, The Cosmic Synth-Stomp Of Daniele Baldelli Approved Italians - Neon, The Gonzo, Outsider Shrieks Of England's Loco Lotus, Through To The Dark, Dance Floor Groove Of Belgium's Siglo Xx And, Of Course, There's A Whole Heap More Outré Excursions On The Way. "From One Of The Last True Originals - A Personal, Passionate Draft Of A "Scene" That Could Have Been. As Far As Possible From Diggers' Wet Dreams - Most Of The Music Here Is/Was Hidden In Plain Sight. So Take One Step Back And Figure Out What Might Have Gone Wrong." Vladimir Ivkovic

Cinema Was An Experimental And Avant-Garde Piece Released In Early 1985. In Many Ways It's An Example Of The New Brazil That Was Reborning After 21 Years Of Darkness Under Military Dictatorship. Musically, It Was A Pioneer Album For Brazilian Music, Mixing Acoustic And Synthetic Sounds.The Track "Sem Teto" Was Included In Outro Tempo (Electronic And Contemporary Music From Brazil 1978-1992), Compilation By DJ John Gomez Released By The Dutch Label Music From Memory.This Rare Adventure In Brazilian Music Was Released Independently In 1985, Financed By The Artists Themselves. The Original Small Press Sold-Out, Belonging Now To Record Collectors Around The Planet. For The First Time Cinema Is Re-Released On Vinyl, With Two Extra And Unreleased Tracks Found After Decades.Remastered From The Original Tapes, This Reissue Includes Reproduction Of The Original Art, By Waltércio Caldas And Miguel Rio Branco, An Eight Pages Color Booklet Full Of Photos, Images And New Testimonials From The Four Members Of The Project And A Long Article Signed By Bento Araujo, Author Of The Book Series Lindo Sonho Delirante, Which Investigates Audacious And Fearless Music Created In The Brazilian Underground.Info:1985 Was One Of The Most Important Years In Brazil's Recent History, When The Country Was Freed From More Than 20 Years Of Military Dictatorship. The Youth Took The Lead And Finally Brazil Entered The World Show Business Circuit With Rock In Rio Festival. But The Real Revolution Was Happening In The Underground And This Record Is A Proof Of That.One Of The People In Charge Was The Musician, Composer, Poet, Writer, Scriptwriter And Speaker From Rio De Janeiro Ronaldo Tapajós, Who Was Always Involved With Experimental And Avant-Garde Music. His Trajectory Begins In The Mythical 1968, When, As Part Of The The Duo Rô And Carlinhos, He Released An Emblematic Single Containing The Song "O Gigante" - Perhaps The First Brazilian Bad Trip Recorded On Vinyl And A Shrewd Criticism Of The Society's "Square...

Pyramid was an underground / homemade label created by Toby Robinson and his friend Robin Page (the Fluxus artist) while they were living in Cologne, Germany, in the ‘70s. Toby - aka The Mad Twiddler, aka Genius P. Orridge – is well-known to Krautrock collectors as one of a number of engineers working at Stockhausen’s WDR and Dierks Studio in Cologne in the mid-1970's, where he assisted on recordings by many famous Kraut bands such as Can, Birth Control, Mythos or Dzyan. Pyramid was home to a series of fascinating homemade albums by impossible and lost-in-time kraut-kosmische bands like Cozmic Corridors, Golem, Nazgul… all of them reissued by Mental Experience in the last years. One of the most celebrated tracks from the Pyramid catalogue is “Interstellar Shortwave” by The Astral Army, originally included on the “Cologne Curiosities” comp. It’s a heavy-disco-kraut-groove, DJ friendly, Hawkwind-inspired track recorded circa mid-70s, and it’s presented here in its original version - pressed at 45rpm for maximum and expanding sound quality - and also as an edit by Gareth Goddard aka Cherrystones, who also offers another edit of “The Dead Marshes”, one of the tracks included on The Nazgul album. Here, Cherrystones transforms the spooky, avant-garde sound of the track into a kind of cinematic, horror Spaghetti Western soundtrack. To round up the 12”, there’s an experimental Cherrystones rework of “Daruber”, a dark ambient / kosmische classic by Cozmic Corridors.

Birthed at the turn of the ‘80s, synth and wave music has remained a constant force over the last four decades, with a recent spike in interest in the sound offering further proof of its’ timeless, out-of-this-world quality. It’s against this backdrop that Dutch DJ Interstellar Funk presents his celebration of the style, “Artificial Dancers – Waves of Synth”.
A bumper compilation bristling with obscure and hard-to-find gems, the set sees the Artificial Dance label founder joining the dots between synthesizer and drum machine-driven tracks in a variety of subtly different styles. It’s the result of hundreds of hours spent digging through dusty old records, tapes, and the Bandcamp accounts of DIY musicians who have been active since the sound’s first boom in the early 1980s.
The 11-track set draws on tracks made and released at different times over the last 40 years, with the earliest cut committed to tape in 1978 and the most recent in 2018. While the tracks date from the ‘80s, ‘90s, noughties and 2010s, the showcased cuts are united by a primitive but futuristic quality that makes dating them difficult. In many cases, it’s hard to tell which tracks were made in the early 1980s and which were conjured up in 21st century studios.
As you’d expect, highlights are plentiful with a number of the most unknown or sought-after cuts appearing on vinyl for the first time. In this category you’ll find the Human League’s odd but inspired early number “4JG”, a near mythical 1982 live version of Liasons Dangereuses’ “Dias Cortas” (previously only available on a VHS video) and Chris and Cosey’s “Hybrid C”, a brilliant mid-’90s cut plucked from their CD-only album “Skimble Skamble”. You’ll also find a rare demo version of Clan of Xymox’s Dutch darkwave classic “Stranger”, which became a club smash across Europe in 1983.
Interstellar Funk has also chosen to showcase tracks by a range of DIY producers and lesser-known artists. These include Californian band Batang Frisco, who self-released a sole private press album in 1986 (their contribution, “Sewing Machine”, is dedicated to founder member Bill DiMichele, who passed away this year), Matthias Schuster’s Im Namen Des Volkes project – which contributes the previously unreleased 2014 track “Alles Ist Gewinn” – and Zahgurim, a short-lived early ‘80s act who reunited in 2018 to record their first new material since 1983.
If that wasn’t enough to set pulses racing, the compilation also showcases a solo track by sadly departed Psyche member Stephen Huss. Nobody is quite sure when Huss recorded “Infinity Sign”, but we can confirm this is the first time that one of his solo productions has ever appeared on vinyl.

Culled from Paul Collins' personal archives 'Another World - The Best Of The Archives' compiles previously unreleased material going back to 1978 and the early days of the Paul Collins' Beat. None of the songs have been released before in any form and all have been carefully remastered. Complete with extensive liner notes by the man himself, this is an album for rock & roll lovers everywhere. The Vinyl comes with an insert, while the CD version includes a 6 page booklet and 4 bonus tracks not on the vinyl.

One of the most treasured French minimal wave records is back on vinyl (and first time on CD!)
Comix, a duo of guitarist/composer André Demay and DJ/singer Natan Hercberg, are a one album project. Their first single “Touche Pas Mon Sexe”, recorded in 1979, has been refused by several record companies, but duo finally found home on French branch of Virgin. They released two singles and one full length LP in 1981, and appeared on “BIPPP: French Synth-Wave 1979/85” compilation a few decades later. The music was composed by André with a legendary Roland TR-808 (Marvin Gaye, Kraftwerk and Afrika Bambaataa used the same drum machine for their hits at the same time). Natan wrote the lyrics, filling comic speech bubbles. Their production was somewhat different to mainstream “nouvelle vague” artists: much more positive and ironic than their chart mates. However, Comix didn’t have much success with their songs in 80s, but was rediscovered in 21st century with the strong interest in original minimal wave/coldwave artists. Here they are again, young and bold, as nearly 40 years ago.

The former Oasis star spent two years collaborating with producer, DJ and composer, David Holmes on the record, which also features guest appearances from Paul Weller and Johnny Marr. Said to be inspired as much by French psychedelic pop as it was classic electro, soul, rock, disco and dance, the follow-up to 2015’s acclaimed ‘Chasing Yesterday‘ has been described as an “exhilarating” collection of “placid instrumentals, hypnotic, eastern-influenced grooves, gutsy balcony-shakers and widescreen, cinematic walls of sound”.

2024 restock. Sky Girl is a mysteriously unshakeable companion, a deeply melancholic and sentimental journey through folk-pop, new wave and art music micro presses that span 1961-1991. It's a DIY collection of different genres, from different countries across different decades, that are all bound by the same longing sentiment. A concept compilation! A seemingly disparate suite of selections of forgotten fables by more or less never-knowns, Sky Girl forms a beautifully coherent and utterly sublime whole deftly compiled by French collectors DJ Sundae and Julien Dechery. From Scott Seskind's adolescent musical road movie to Karen Marks' icy Oz-wave, the charming DIY storytelling of Italian-American go-getter Joe Tossini and the ethereal slow dance themes of Parisian artists Nini Raviolette and Hugo Weris, Sky Girl resonates on a wide spectrum historically, geographically and stylistically. It unites in a singular, longing, almost intangible ambience. If the names sound wholly unfamiliar that doesn't matter, the nature of the compositions swiftly nurtures an intimacy with these lonely, poignant, openhearted wanderers. Most were available in a very limited capacity at the time of their release, some were never really released at all - Gary Davenport declined to release "Sarra" after he split with the girl for whom the track is named - years later a friend convinced Davenport to allow him to put 100 copies online to sell and DJ Sundae was quick enough to snare one. Beyond their scarcity, these tracks are bound together by a certain raw beauty that's achievable when music is made and no one is listening. Sky Girl comprises of fifteen officially licensed songs, a two year international scavenger hunt through long-folded home label operations, the depths of internet forums and traceless acetates. Both compilers are well trained record sleuths - DJ Sundae's labels Hollie and Idle Press have reissued Arthur Russell affiliate Nirosta Steel and DIY relic Pitch, while Julien Dechery previously compiled Fire Star, a retrospective on Tamil film composer Ilaiyaraaja, for Bombay Connection. Released by popular NTS show "Noise In My Head" offshoot Efficient Space, Sky Girl is enriched with artwork from Perks and Mini mutant Misha Hollenbach and appropriately elegant sleeve notes courtesy of Ivan Smagghe. Includes digital download. Also features: Linda Smith, Bruce Langhorne, The Seraphims, Some of My Best Friends Are Canadians, The Rising Storm, Warfield Spillers, Joyce Heath, Angel, Nora Guthrie and Once.

Earlier this year, Light In The Attic released the mysterious, bewitching L’Amour, a 1983 private press record thought to be the only release by one of music’s true lost talents: Lewis.

So lost, in fact, was Lewis, he eluded every effort to track him down. Scant details were known: just a series of possibly apocryphal stories about a sports car-driving Canadian with a model on his arm and a habit of skipping town when there were bills to be paid.

Deciding that Lewis’ spider web-delicate songs demanded to be heard, we put the album out anyway, offering to present the due royalties to anyone who could prove they were Lewis.

One sure thing was this: Lewis was a man of many names: Randall A. Wulff among them. Now we have either found another alias – or perhaps even his real name – on the sleeve of a completely unknown album.

Sourced soon after the re-release of L’Amour, Romantic Times is the 1985 follow-up to L’Amour – and it’s released as Lewis Baloue. The name may be slightly different, but this is absolutely our man: a familiar blond posing on the sleeve, a familiar, tortured voice pouring his heart out over languid synths and synthetic waltz beats.

Remastered from a sealed, vinyl copy of the ultra-rare album, the album was discovered in the vaults of DJ and collector Kevin “Sipreano” Howes in Vancouver, BC. It’s so rare that what is, at present, the only other known copy – found in the same Calgary store where Aaron Levin discovered a batch of sealed copies of L’Amour – is presently soaring into quadruple digits on eBay.

Even engineer Dan Lowe, credited for working on the album at Calgary’s Thunder Road Studios, remembered little about the session other than that Lewis seemed to be “under the influence”. Yet the music is utterly captivating.

The album further fleshes out the Lewis myth – we see him pictured in that white suit with his famous white Mercedes and a private jet too; we hear him focussing more intently on matters of the heart, and appearing to unravel in the process. “I felt like I was witnessing a full-blown exorcism of a phantom clad in the finest linen,” writes filmmaker and historian Jack D. Fleischer in his brand new liner notes. “This record went further [than L’Amour ]. It was a personal plea, of sorts. Something had gone wrong. Nerves were clearly exposed.”

It paints Lewis, then, as being more like a David Lynch character than even his debut did, exposing the darkness beneath the sheen. The album is presently being readied for release to the throng of new fans Lewis has found, willingly or not. The man himself remains a total enigma.

Limited 2011 Record Store Day release! In early 2009, tired of being virtually the only two people in attendance at some of the most exciting rock shows to come through town, Seattle music fans Aubrey Nehring and Darlene Nordyke founded the Portable Shrines Collective, a DIY organization devoted to the promotion of psychedelic, garage, and experimental music. In addition to assembling local bills for nationally touring bands and providing custom projections and poster art, Portable Shrines currently hosts a bi-weekly DJ night, publishes a blog, and produces Escalator Fest, an annual multimedia happening bringing together bands, psych DJs, video artists, and enthusiastic crowds.
The collective’s first compilation—the first ever Seattle-based comp of its kind—Portable Shrines Magic Sound Theatre Vol. I is an exquisitely curated treasure trove of rare or exclusive tracks from eighteen of the most lucid acts currently working in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The compilation features heavy hitters AFCGT and Kinski (Sub Pop), Eternal Tapestry (Thrill Jockey, Not Not Fun), Prince Rama (Paw Tracks), Master Musicians of Bukkake (Important Records) and Diminished Men (Abduction), as well as tracks by a host of up-and-coming Northwest psych acts including Night Beats, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Midday Veil, This Blinding Light and Brother Raven, all of whom have performed at Escalator Fest or another Shrines-curated event.

Mastered by Mell Dettmer at Seattle’s Aleph Studios and pressed on virgin audiophile vinyl, Portable Shrines Magic Sound Theatre Vol. I is being issued in a limited vinyl-only run of 1000 pieces in gorgeous gatefold packaging featuring original artwork by collective members Aubrey Nehring, Emily Pothast and Steve Quenell.