Search "Rhys Chatham" 185 Items

Still sealed. Yellow vinyl edition. Numbered copy. Tiny corner wear.

Gruff Rhys is pleased to announce his new album "Sadness Sets Me Free" which will be released by Rough Trade Records on 26.01.2024. This incredibly will be the 25th album he has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. "Sadness Sets Me Free" is also the follow up to 2021"s "Seeking new Gods", his first solo top ten record. The album will be available in a range of formats including a unique Dinked edition on "honeycomb neo-neapolitan" vinyl, an LP sleeve with "container doors" and a bonus 7" with exclusive audio for the first 1500 copies. A gatefold soft pack CD also includes a pull out poster. Lead-off single "Celestial Candyfloss" is a telling four minute glimpse of the forthcoming album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale. "Celestial Candyfloss" is, Gruff says, "an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life & managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that"s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I"ve had a hand in writing I"ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness." And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager "Dr" Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked "Sadness Sets Me Free" in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff"s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain"s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. "At this point I quite like working with serendipity," he says. "Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I"m around 25 albums in I"m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record".

Gruff Rhys is pleased to announce his new album "Sadness Sets Me Free" which will be released by Rough Trade Records on 26.01.2024. This incredibly will be the 25th album he has released in his 35 year career individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands. "Sadness Sets Me Free" is also the follow up to 2021"s "Seeking new Gods", his first solo top ten record. The album will be available in a range of formats including a unique Dinked edition on "honeycomb neo-neapolitan" vinyl, an LP sleeve with "container doors" and a bonus 7" with exclusive audio for the first 1500 copies. A gatefold soft pack CD also includes a pull out poster. Lead-off single "Celestial Candyfloss" is a telling four minute glimpse of the forthcoming album, revealing the heady wonders and classic pop sounds within. Soaring strings carry the sweet melodies along, anchored by just enough necessary melancholy to add emotional ballast. The eye-popping video was created by long-time collaborator Mark James and compliments the scope and style of the song on a galactic scale. "Celestial Candyfloss" is, Gruff says, "an attempted pocket symphony about the cosmic lengths that people will travel in the pursuit of love and acceptance. Mark James has brought the Sadness Sets Me Free album cover to life & managed to place me watching TV interference in a shipping container that"s lost in space. For what is apparently the 25th album I"ve had a hand in writing I"ve reverted to a rich seam of inspiration relating to shedding some light on sadness and the general terror of cosmic loneliness." And so it was that Gruff and his band - Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager "Dr" Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked "Sadness Sets Me Free" in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff"s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain"s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. "At this point I quite like working with serendipity," he says. "Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I"m around 25 albums in I"m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record".

Ulrika Spacek is a British experimental rock band formed in Berlin by Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams, relocated to Homerton, London. Work on debut album 'The Album Paranoia' began in the summer of 2014 in the band's shared house KEN, and was finished there last month. In conjunction to the making of he Album Paranoia', the band has curated a number of nights under the name ysterland' combining their first live performances with a series of exhibitions. The band's music has drawn various interpretations, a cross pollination of hypnotic fuzz, Verlain-Malkmus guitar idiosyncrasies and intertwining feelings of both angst and melancholia.

Release Info //Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several avantgardistic electric string instruments for a bunch of artists including Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Liars, Blood Red Shoes etc. This release is a colloboration of him with JadFair (Half Japanese) & avantgarde sound artist Philippe Petit.Bio // YURI LANDMANYuri Landman (1973) is an experimental instrument builder and musician. After a career as a comic book artist as well as a musician in the bands Zoppo and Avec-A, Yuri Landman began designing experimental musical instruments. Based on prepared guitar techniques, he built his first instrument in 2001 to solve the inaccuracy of instant preparations. In 2006 he got in contact with Liars. Developed over six years of prototyping, he fully realised the Moodswinger for them with commissions from numerous other musicians to follow. Yuri has custom built derivatives for such musical luminaries as Sonic Youth, Half Japanese, Enon, Lou Barlow, dEUS, The Dodos, Blood Red Shoes,Liars, HEALTH, Liam Finn, The Luyas, The Veils, Melt- Banana, Micachu & The Shapes, The Go! Team, These Are Powers, Kate Nash, Women, Action Beat, Peter James Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Dustin Wong, Philippe Petit and others.Around 2008 he started giving lectures and presentations with his instruments, leading to a request in 2009 for a practical building workshop. This became the rise of the Home Swinger project. A Gesamtkunstwerk consisting of a DIY-workshop where people build their own electric instrument and often followed by an afternoon rehearsal on the second day and a 40 minute ensemble performance with multiple Home Swingers, drums, basses, and guitars in the tradition of the Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca compositions. Soon after the rise of the Home Swinger project, other building workshops followed. Events have taken place in AU, BE, CH, DE, FR, UK, IR, NL, SV and US. He recorded the musical pieces with the Rotterdam based musicians Arnold van de Velde and René van Lien (both formerly acti...

Billy & The Loins reunite for a tribute 7" to founding Singing Loins member Chris Broderick!Billy recorded the first two Singing Loins LPs with Chris Broderick and Arf' Alan in his bathroom at May Road, Rochester in 1991 and 1993. The lads then decided to record an LP of folk variations of Billy's own tunes, called At The Bridge. The Singing Loins then went their own way recording many LPs. Fast forward to late 2021 and the singer Chris was diagnosed with blood cancer. Before his passing in January 2022, he let Arf (and later Loin Rob), know that he wished them to carry on the group. That said Billy proposed a memorial 45 (and an LP to follow). "Song of the Medway" is about their hometowns of Rochester, Chatham, Strood and Gillingham, all on the banks of the River Medway. Chatham's ancient Dockyard was where Nelson's Victory was built. "The Broken and the Lost of the Old Long Bar" celebrates a drinking hole on Chatham High Street (which once boasted more pubs and brothels in a single mile than anywhere in the world). Especially written by Billy for this return of The Singing Loins, the songs are at once brand new and ancient.

Named after a run-down lodge in New Jersey near where he grew up, Solar Motel was the first full-band project from Chris Forsyth. Originally released in 2013, it was considered his most ambitious and sublime work of "Cosmic Americana" to date, and the idea of the Motel also figured into a band where vacancies would open and close. "'Solar Motel' is the first record on which I overtly took rock tropes and twisted them into new shapes, incorporating so many of my interests and influences - the twin-guitar elegance of Television, the sprawl of West Coast psych, the boiled down Rock Minimalism of Rhys Chatham, the abstract tangles of free improv, an undercurrent of ecstatic jazz energy, and the studio textures of Eno/Cale/Roxy '70s art rock. 'Solar Motel' basically set the template for much of what I did for the remainder of that decade. Expanded 2xLP includes two studio outtakes from the original sessions, and a side-long live session recorded at WFMU.

Screen Time is a series of instrumental guitar pieces recorded during the summer of 2020 as the world confronted the pandemic shutdown and as the people of good conscious stood up against the oppression of racist police oppression and murder. How much screen time does a parent allow a child? How much screen time does a child need to realise a world which has the means to coexist as a community in shared exchange? The cover image of Screen Time is of a youngster curled into a book, the pages vibratory with text radiating through the skin, blood and bone – an aspect entirely missing from digital media, though the actuality of transparency in our daily lives through streaming etc we can only hope leads to the awareness of fairness. Screen Time is in reflection to dream time, a state of meditation, hypnagogia and pillow talk.

Thurston Moore born 1958, moved to NYC 1976, started Sonic Youth 1980, edited the fanzines Killer, Sonic Death, and Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, started Ecstatic Peace records + tapes label, senior editor of Ecstatic Peace Library, and Flowers & Cream, edited books at Rizzoli and Abrams, on faculty at the Naropa University summer writing program since 2011, published through various imprints, worked collaboratively with Yoko Ono, Merce Cunningham, Cecil Taylor, Rhys Chatham, Lydia Lunch, John Zorn, Takehisa Kosugi and Glenn Branca, composed music for films by Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, and Allison Anders, records and tours both solo, with various ensembles and with his own band, resides everywhere. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug for Southern Lord.

Creating what Iggy Pop described to Jim Jarmusch as “symphonies for people that don’t have a lot of time,” Sarah Lipstate has emerged as an innovative and defining voice in the world of music under the name Noveller. Wielding a guitar as her main instrument, Lipstate has pioneered a transcendent approach to composition through her mastery and integration of effects pedals and technology. Forming unexpected sonic routes, her songs are vivid and cinematic, telling intricate tales with each tone and swell.

Raised on a strict piano technique, the discovery of the guitar late in her teens allowed for an escape from formalism and unlocked the hidden realms of her creativity. Taking an anti-theoretical approach, suddenly music was no longer a series of notes, rests, and time signatures, but a means of intuitive expression. Her deepened interest in experimental music, fueled by the discovery of the bold noise of Sonic Youth, the epic scope of Glenn Branca, the delicate formularies of Brian Eno and the no wave discordance of Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, only furthered to inspire.

A yearning to explore and feed that creativity took her from Louisiana to Austin, then Brooklyn to LA. Arrow is her first album since the move to the edge of the canyons of Los Angeles, and one can hear the destabilizing effect this had on her in the music. Out of her comfort zone in a new city, with a rolling expanse in front of her and an urban sprawl over her shoulder, Lipstate built her new album as she contemplated this change in her life.

With her ability to add such unique sounds and textures, Lipstate has been sought out as a frequent collaborator, recently writing songs with Iggy Pop and performing as a member of his band on his worldwide tour. Past partners in crime have ranged from JG Thirlwell to Lee Ranaldo and she has performed as part of Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army, Nick Zinner’s “41 Strings”, Ben Frost’s “Music for 6 Guitars”, and Glenn Branca’s 100 guitar ensemble. She has also toured in support of big fans in St. Vincent, Wire, U.S. Girls, The Jesus Lizard and Helium.

Thee Alcoholics are the brainchild of Rhys Llewellyn, a longtime Rocket Recordings alumnus whose background leans as heavily into the bassbin-shaking realms of electronic music as it does the tinnitus-inducing world of howling, cranked-up ampstacks. Not content with hammering drumskins for numerous floor-shaking records on the Rocket discography from the likes of Hey Colossus and The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, he’s also been responsible for brain-rearranging electronic works under the Drmcnt and Acidliner monikers. Thee Alcoholics, however - which initially gestated as a result of Rhys himself wanting to pursue the somewhat hostile sound in his own head during lockdown - maps out a collision course between all of the above. Cranky and cantankerous yet lysergically aligned, Feedback is mesmeric rock with swagger, warped into sci-fi shapes by the spirit and sonics of bass and soundsystem culture. The psychedelic shapes here are redolent of the ur-klang of The Fall and the monolithic lurch of The Heads, the motorik malevolence less an uplifting trip to the heavens than a drill down to the earth’s core. Discernible in these jackhammer beats, grimly murmured vocals and delirious dirges to certain heads may be the trash futurism of Chrome, the decomposed stomp of unsung legends Earl Brutus and the electro-punk attack of Six Finger Satellite, yet all of the above co-ordinates are waylaid effortlessly by a balls-out intensity and a 6 fearsome intent on aural oblivion at all costs. Feedback may be elemental and primal, yet this is no psych comfort-blanket nor retrofetishism, rather a repetition-driven journey headlong into intimidating territory unknown. Get on board and strap yourselves in for a bumpy ride

Tresor (Treasure) is Gwenno Saunders’ third full length solo album and the second almost entirely in Cornish (Kernewek). Written in St. Ives, Cornwall, just prior to the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and completed at home in Cardiff during the pandemic along with her co-producer and musical collaborator, Rhys Edwards, Tresor reveals an introspective focus on home and self, a prescient work echoing the isolation and retreat that has been a central, global shared experience over the past two years. The wider project also includes a companion short film made on Super 8, written and directed by Gwenno in collaboration with Anglesey based filmmaker and photographer Clare Marie Bailey.

Tresor diverges from the stark themes of technological alienation in Y Dydd Olaf (The Final Day) and the meditations on the idea of the homeland on the slyly infectious Le Kov (The Place of Memory). Accessible and international in outlook, peppered with moments of offbeat humour, Le Kov presented Cornish to the world. The impact of Le Kov was resounding, providing for the Cornish language an unprecedented international platform that saw Gwenno touring and headlining in Europe and Australia, and supporting acts such as Suede and the Manic Street Preachers. Her performance of ‘Tir ha Mor’ on Later with Jools Holland was a triumph, and the album prompted wider conversations on the state of the Cornish language with Michael Portillo, Jon Snow, and Nina Nannar. After Le Kov, interest in learning Cornish hit an all-time high, and the cultural role of the language was firmly in the spotlight.

The Daggermen all went to Rede Secondary School in Medway, Kent. It was a school for those that failed their 11 plus, or who passed it but decided to go there anyway (as Jon pretends). Being in some of the same classes we became friends and found we liked the same music; The Who, The Small Faces, The Kinks, The Beatles and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. We started going to Carnaby Street, wearing Beatle boots and generally being a bit Moddy. Dave's older brother, James Taylor, played organ in The Prisoners and we'd listen to cassette tapes of them along with other local band, The Milkshakes as we bounced on the trampoline during P.E. After watching both bands play live in local venues such as the M.I.C. club in Chatham we formed The Daggermen, working out who was going to play which instrument as we stood next to the now demolished school sports hall. No one can quite remember who thought of the name, The Daggermen (it was me) or how comes Jon was playing bass on a guitar in the band at the very start and then Terry took over when we started gigging (it was because he had a real bass guitar and a car). But the next thing was that we were supporting The Prisoners both in Medway and places such as the 100 Club in Oxford Street. Then, one sunny day at around the age of 17, I bumped into Billy Childish walking across a field. I formally introduced myself and told him that he should definitely come and see our band that night because we were "fucking brilliant". He did turn up and bought us a tray of whiskies whilst we were on stage, a sure sign that he had liked it. This led to him and Russ Wilkins, bass player in The Milkshakes alongside Billy, asking us if we wanted to record an E.P. for Russ's label, Empire Records. This was our first ever recording called Introducing The Daggerman which was made in a brick arch under Rochester bridge that we rented for £2 a week to rehearse in and lovingly referred to as 'The Hole'. We got ourselves a "manager" (our mate, Vic Templar) and started playing up and d...

All Of This Awaits You Swami John Reis

Limited blue, black, and gray colored vinyl LP pressing. Texas hardcore behemoths Kublai Khan Tx return with their brand-new album, Exhibition Of Prowess. Featuring singles "Theory Of Mind," "Low Tech" and "Supreme Ruler," the album sees the band at their brutal, pummeling best. Hot off a sold-out US tour in the spring of 2024, Kublai Khan Tx will be supporting death metal sensations Lorna Shore in the US in the fall. They also have sold out headline tours of the UK, EU and Australia lined up in support of the album. Available on tri-color smush vinyl.

Promo.

Blue Marbled Vinyl

A compilation to celebrate the release of the brand-new book - "To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish" written by Ted Kessler. When the idea for the book was mooted Billy wanted to put a succinct double album compilation together to summarise his 47 years of making music. This is the result. My name is William Ivy Loveday, aka Steve Hamper, aka Guy Hamper, aka Jack Ketch, aka Billy Childish. I was born on the Medway, Kent, where I still live. I left school in 1976 when I was 16. Because I have no qualifications I was turned down by art school so went to work in Chatham dockyard as an apprentice stonemason. I later managed to get onto a painting course at St. Martin's School of Art on the basis of my paintings. Me, Bruce, big Russ, and little Russ formed The Pop Rivets in 1977 and made our first recordings. Our inspiration was punk rock, TV21 and The Swinging Blue Jeans. I learned to play guitar then in 1979 I worked for four weeks at Oakwood Mental Hospital as a ward porter, then me, Mick and Bertie formed The Milkshakes. Our inspiration was Link Wray, the Beatles Live at the Star Club LP, the track 'Gotta Get the First Plane Home' by The Kinks and our hatred of new romanticism. Then I was expelled from St. Martin's School of Art for writing what was described as "the worst type of toilet wall humour." I beat my father up on his release from prison for drug smuggling. We never paid ourselves in The Milkshakes and put all the money back into making our own records. I kept the money in a bank account under the name of Kurt Schwitters. I lived on the dole for 12 years. In 1985 we formed Thee Mighty Caesars. Our inspiration was Bo Diddley and The Troggs. I became a member of Greenpeace. In 1989 me and Bruce formed Thee Headcoats. Our inspiration being Son House and Downliners Sect. In 1999 me, Wolf and Johnny Barker formed The Buff Medways. Our inspiration was Jimi Hendrix in Beatle boots and The Who before Roger Daltry started wearing his nan's curtains. Ar...

Astrel K is Rhys Edwards of Ulrika Spacek. Astrel K's debut single 'You Could If You Can' was released via Duophonic Super 45s - a label which has a history of releasing limited edition abstract releases from Stereolab, Broadcast & Yo La Tengo. 500 copies of the 7" were made, hand stamped and numbered, quickly selling out in selected record shops. Following the loss of KEN, a shared house in which Ulrika Spacek band members lived and worked from, Edwards relocated to Stockholm, Sweden where he began making music on his own: "At this time, I didn't really know anyone in Stockholm so kinda retreated into making music just by myself. The album title definitely reflects this period; I was on my own making music and sometimes nothing would be happening and sometimes there would be little sparks of ideas that could keep me going" Edwards would spend nights writing and recording in a shared rehearsal space producing music rich with layers and texture, synonymous with the work of Ulrika Spacek but with perhaps a greater focus on the art of 'song writing'. Tracks with verse's and chorus's are surrounded by instrumental interludes; inspired by old library music and compositions for film as well as being reminiscent of bands such as Broadcast. The album doesn't sound like one made in either London or Stockholm, rather somewhere in the nether region. Written pre pandemic but mixed in the past year, the music led Edwards to finding like minded musicians from the Stockholm music scene: "Though I'm now glad I can say I wrote an album by myself, I was definitely confronted with my own musical strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes when you have an A/B decision you want some perspective and you'd be in the studio, turn around and no one is there. It really made me curious to bring in more people into the fold, not to compromise any original vision or anything, but to have other energy in the room, to exorcise out any lazy tricks I may fall into". Stockholm musicians (including Lili Holényi, Milton Öhrström, Niklas Mellbe...

Hugo Race (Dirtmusic, Fatalists, ex-Bad Seeds) and Michelangelo Russo (True Spirit), fuse rock, blues, ambient and electronic sounds on their raw, compelling new album "100 Years".In 2017, the duo released John Lee Hooker"s World Today (Glitterhouse/Gusstaff Records), a tribute to the blues legend"s delta blues legacy reinvented in a swirling mix of analog grit and deep trance pulses.100 Years showcases the duo"s sonic chemistry against Race"s stark songwriting. Inspired by the raw majesty of early blues recordings, the album was recorded in two days in a non-stop live Hugo Race & Michelangelo Russo - 100 Years session. Amplified harmonica, open-tuned guitars, smoky vocals and primal foot beat walk us through a landscape of dreamlike devastation, a hypnotic wall of sound suspended in time and space celebrating endurance and redemption, hand-made from ancient roots. "Tradition does not mean passing the ashes, but the fire."

2022 Coloured Vinyl repress.

Everybody knows that the Devil has all the best tunes. From Robert Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads to the blood-soaked black metal of Norway, Satan has long loomed large over the music world, striking fear into the hearts of the sanctimonious. But nothing that has gone before will prepare you for the arrival of Twin Temple: Los Angeles’ one and only purveyors of Satanic Doo-Wop. Devout Satanists and meticulous preservers of rock’n’roll’s ancient, timeless spirit, this black-clad and effortlessly stylish duo have created a sound that blends their Satanic ideology with the irresistible sass and melody of classic ‘50s and ‘60s rock ‘n’roll. The result is Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound...Satanic Doo-Wop), a debut album that not only serves to salute the Dark One, but also delivers some of the catchiest and coolest music to emerge from any genre in years.

First time vinyl reissue of Univers Zero's legendary Crawling Wind, originally released in 1981 on the Japanese 'Chaos International Series' label, with the original cover artwork has been beautifully redesigned by Thierry Moreau.

Toujours Plus à l'Est, as the title suggests, is heavily influenced by the traditional music of Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria., and paying tribute to the iconic catchphrase of Professor Calculus (Tournesol), the character from the Belgian comic series Tintin. Before The Heat, played live a few times, is an ambient composition by Andy Kirk, who is part of the EP's lineup alongside Daniel Denis, Guy Segers, Alan Ward, and Dirk Descheemaeker. Central Belgium in the Dark is a live improvisation from a period when Univers Zéro dedicated part of their concerts to complete improvisation. What makes this recording unique is that one of Andy Kirk's effects pedals picked up and emitted the sound of a mysterious radio signal, seemingly coming from "nowhere," especially noticeable at the end of the piece. The title of this improv is a nod to contemporary composer Charles Ives' work Central Park in the Dark. Central Belgium refers to the concert venue where the piece was recorded (Haine-St-Pierre).

Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music - most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

Active from the late 1980s through to the present day Contrastate have released several critically acclaimed albums. Their early experiments in music were heavily influenced by the industrial and experimental music and art scene of the 70's and 80's. Contrastate's idiosyncratic take on challenging, industrial tinged music has certainly changed and evolved through the years. Their current sound insinuates itself inside the dark ritual ambience of the electronic avant-garde shot through with a vein of experimental noise and stentorian vocals that are strewn amongst touches of industrial surrealism and sonic soundtracks. "Contrastate achieve an amazing equilibrium between organic sound and brooding electronics." - Heathen Harvest "Contrastate covers a bit of everything in their sound, and that black humor component_makes for a project that I can never predict what they will sound like next, but I know it will be fascinating no matter what" - Brainwashed.com

Third album (1981) by the Belgian band Univers Zero. The title alludes to the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft; the players read the story in studio, then proceeded to record the piece. A key release for the band. »Ceux du Dehors« sometimes suggests a darker and more complex version of the motorik minimalism of classical music contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

Outer space has always seemed like a pleasing alternative to the relentless shitstorm of planet Earth. As a result, rock ’n’ roll has regularly ventured into the stratosphere, often with mind-bending results. With 2019 coming to its end, only one band can guarantee you a safe and sensational intergalactic trip. Interplanetary Craft will make your head vibrate like Woody Allen’s Orgasmatron. Imagine New Age-era Blitz (Manchester’s raw early 80’s Skunk Punks during their electro/synth pop phase) colliding with Planet Earth-era Duran Duran and you might find yourself on the correct galactic path. Backed with a connoisseur’s cover version Life’s Too Long by cult UK indie-glam legends, Earl Brutus, this 45 is an absolute must. Grab it while you can!

There is no brash egotism at play here, just a rough-and-ready honesty which permeates in what these three guys do. Their songs haven't washed in weeks, far too busy spinning crackling Budgie vinyls, knackered Motörhead live albums played at a sluggish RPM, and snorting self-inflammatories to do anything hygienic.

The cover has small seam split.

7" is missing. Vinyl is close to NM. With insert.

Vinyl is close to NM.

Univers Zero's new album (since 10 years) follows the lineage of 'Phosphorescent Dreams', originally released only on CD in Japan in 2014, and reissued as an LP on the Sub Rosa label in 2019. Lueur is the fruit of two years' work and reflection, the foundations of which were laid by Daniel Denis (keyboards, drums, percussion...), then enriched by the contributions of Nicolas Dechêne (guitars), Kurt Budé (clarinet / bass clarinet) and Nicolas Denis (bass, percussion, vocals), all three present on Phosphorescent Dreams.

With this reduced line-up, Lueur offers a dense journey, rooted in the balance between power and calm, raging and serene sound. A balance, too, between complex arrangements and more contemplative moments. While this album continues the avant-rock tradition of Univers Zero, it also features some very short pieces, more electronic, tribal and haunting sounds, and voice work that is new to the U.Z. universe. Between tradition and subtle evolution, Lueur is a major new contribution to the discography of this band, which will be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2024.

Univers Zero represents one of the longest-living bands in Belgium. It was established in 1974. Drummer Daniel Denis had the brilliant idea to gather together a team of professionals sharing the same taste for music. The band has adopted an instrumental progressive style. Over the last couple of decades, the band has also implemented a series of influences from chamber music - most commonly, chamber music from the 20th century. Even if the line-up changes a lot over the years, the overall sound of UZ remained fairly consistent.

Lasting two seconds short of 72 minutes, Ágætis byrjun was a seismic shift from their previous record, Von: more melody, drama and tone, more accessible and anthemic. Twenty-one years after its release, it hasn’t remotely dated, lacking any relationship to grunge, industrial, ambient, pop or any other genre — not even Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai, points of comparison that cropped up in reviews. Perhaps the album’s unique DNA is simply Iceland’s environment, the community, the people. This, after all, was not a band, just music. Or just, perhaps, a force of nature. And like the aftermath of a hurricane, the landscape out there is very rarely the same again.

( ) - Sigur Rós’s celebrated third album, and for many people - especially in US where it remains their biggest selling work - the most quintessentially “Sigur Rós” record of their career to date. It is the only album where Jónsi sings entirely in the wordless lyrics of Hopelandic. A desire to elide meaning and allow the listener to bring their own interpretation to the music, extends to the eight songs, all of which are nameless. The music is broadly divided into two halves, divided by a critical 36 seconds of silence. The first half of the album being lighter and more optimistic, and the second half bleaker and more melancholic, culminating in the thundering climax of Untitled #8, the closing song of every Sigur Rós show since the song was written in 2000.

( ) was recorded at the band’s own studio Sundlaugin, in Mosfellsbær outside Reykjavik, in 2002, co-produced by the band with Ken Thomas, who also helmed their break through second album, Agætis Byrjun. Completely out of print, the vinyl album now comes in its full Grammy-nominated artwork, including die-cut sleeve and spot UV varnish inner bags.

Ten blistering performances from Tokyo's legendary High Rise. Recorded live in 1992, Disturbance Trip is a previously unreleased, distortion-saturated gem recorded in the same era as their third studio album, Dispersion. Guitarist Munehiro Narita's unmatched ability to channel the pure energy/spirit of rock and roll and hard psychedelia is on full display; his riffs are heavy and propulsive, his solos dizzying and transcendent. Nanjo's fuzz bass lays down hypermobile lines that swing and thunder as he intones lyrics that echo in the distance. Disturbance Trip is the first release on the resurrected La Musica Records, Asahito Nanjo's mystifying, apocryphal cassette label started in the 1990s and documenting the most obscure reaches of the Japanese psychedelic underground. Deluxe double LP housed in custom Unipak-style gatefold jacket and printed inner sleeves with spot metallic inks and gloss UV coating. Featuring: Nanjo Asahito {bass, vocals); Narita Munehiro (guitar); Dr. Euro (drums). Recorded Live in 1992, Tokyo, Japan.

A year out from the release of Rise Against’s chart-topping, critically acclaimed ninth album Nowhere Generation, the Chicago band returns with Nowhere Generation II: a propulsive, five-song follow-up that serves to continue a critical dialogue between themselves, their fans, and the world at large. The new EP, written and recorded alongside the material for Nowhere Generation, looks beyond its full-length counterpart’s scrutiny of the chronic social, economic, and political instability and inequality that pervades the modern age. II is as biting as it is hopeful, and is a further testament to the resonance of a band that continues to defy the status quo of modern rock.

Nashville’s Caitlin Rose will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of her debut album ‘Own Side Now’ with a deluxe, fully remastered version of the record, due out on Cloudy Clear vinyl with Bonus 7” October 1. Rose released ‘Own Side Now’ in 2011 to instant acclaim from critics, who praised her crystal-clear vocals and her ingenious lyricism - equal parts heartbroken and defiant - and compared her to her musician heroes Stevie Nicks and Linda Rondstadt. The album also features two unreleased bonus tracks - “Only Lies” and “Whatchoo”.

Sam Russo goes holiday beach pop! Our favorite Brit-Folk balladeer has a sack fulla surprises with these new songs. It’s as if Shane MacGowan went into Phil Spector’s workshop and crafted some surf-y crooners. It’s smoky like chestnuts a-roastin’ and silky like Mrs. Claus. To add to all the cheer, we’re doing a limited pressing of a 7” that will fit nicely under the tree and on the turntable. Eat your heart out, Bing Crosby.

A beloved Olympia/Portland group at the height of their powers. They genre-hop with ease—skirting the edges of dream-pop, art rock, alt-country, and electro-pop—while singer Olivia Rose's elastic voice plumbs the depths of the human soul, full of existential yearning, tales of life on earth.

This album is about having to focus our collective energies on the small things around that we can control to find joy. A distraction from the the larger systemic problems that feel so overwhelming and are so very out of our collective hands... for now...” Love As Projection is the new album by Frankie Rose, her fifth studio LP and second for Night School following the reissue of her interpretation of The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds. Frankie Rose has forged an enviable musical legacy, from playing with bands like Crystal Stilts and The Vivian Girls but on Love As Projection she takes a bold step into electronic pop production. A sumptuous recorded statement, it dances in ecstasy and broods on the tumult of the western world’s decay in equal proportion. At the heart of the album is glowing, confident songwriting, resplendent in hooks and choruses but still touched with an optimism undimmed. After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent music circles, Rose re-emerges after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos. Celebrated over the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal melodies and harmonies, Love As Projection is a reintroduction of her established style through the lens of contemporary electronic pop. Recorded with producer Brandt Gassman and mixed with long-term collaborator Jorge Elbrecht this is the album Frankie Rose has been building up to her entire career. More than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence, Love As Projection boasts a widescreen scope: a long- form project heavily considered for half of a decade, culminating in the most personal and accessible collection of art-pop that Frankie has ever written. When Rose aims for the pop jugular as in first lead track Anything, the result is unstoppable. A majestic pop song built for radio, it erupts into an irresistible chorus that marries classic epic 80s American pop with the cult effervescence of Strawberry Switchblade “It’s like a prom scene in a John Hughes movie. It’s a hopeful song about abandoning fear even if the world is quite literally on fire.. In the end, at least we have each other,” says Rose. Sixteen Ways further boasts a propulsive, massive chorus, though tempered by a cynicism built in global post-truth, global malaise. “It’s about getting your hopes up, but simultaneously making lists in your head about how it will never work out in your favour.” The big anthems don’t let up there. On DOA some massive, rolling drums lathered in big mid-80s gated reverb dovetail with a syncopated baseline for the ages as Rose’s vocal sails effortlessly above. The effect isn’t unlike ethereal vocalists Clannad circa Howard’s Way or Enya jamming with Simple Minds in their stadium-conquering heyday. Rose tempers the adrenalin with heart-tugging bittersweet tones and there are plenty of them. Sleeping Night And Day takes its time with an off-the-cuff chorus, swirling around in harmony and chorus-bass. Saltwater Girl picks up the balladeering baton with another nod to album track-mode Switchblade, deep space opening up in the mid-tempo drum track and soupy, digital atmospherics. Album closer Song For A Horse, reimagines modern Pop production a-la-PC Music but shorn of the meta-atmosphere. Pianos, swelling synths, minor keys cut through with major. These moments, also seen in Feel Light offer ballast to the soaring pop choruses. Moments like these are big oceans of emotion to fall into before being led out by Rose into a bright new day.

The time is now for Caroline Rose. Her last record, Superstar, was released on March 6, 2020. The record was critically acclaimed and positioned Rose as the next big breakthrough in music. Needless to say, the resulting pandemic grinded all momentum to a halt while at the same time throwing Rose’s personal life into turmoil. The result of that turmoil is the fuel that fired the creation of her latest album, The Art of Forgetting. With The Art of Forgetting, Rose took on the dual role of writer and producer. The album encapsulates the feeling of experiencing recent memories, having them turn into old ones and then ultimately forgetting those memories altogether. There is a romantic nature within the sonic landscape of this record. Tape effects and loops emulate the feeling of aging while the juxtaposition of modern acoustic-electronic textures, like lo-fi tape next to hi-fi granular synths result in some of her most mature and honest work to date.

The time is now for Caroline Rose. Her last record, Superstar, was released on March 6, 2020. The record was critically acclaimed and positioned Rose as the next big breakthrough in music. Needless to say, the resulting pandemic grinded all momentum to a halt while at the same time throwing Rose’s personal life into turmoil. The result of that turmoil is the fuel that fired the creation of her latest album, The Art of Forgetting. With The Art of Forgetting, Rose took on the dual role of writer and producer. The album encapsulates the feeling of experiencing recent memories, having them turn into old ones and then ultimately forgetting those memories altogether. There is a romantic nature within the sonic landscape of this record. Tape effects and loops emulate the feeling of aging while the juxtaposition of modern acoustic-electronic textures, like lo-fi tape next to hi-fi granular synths result in some of her most mature and honest work to date.

Bahía Blanca is a mid-size city in the southern extreme of the Buenos Aires province that has a pretty active cultural life but rarely gets noticed by the rest of the country; as a result of this, we almost never hear about bands coming from there achieving international recognition. Siete Rayos might end up changing that. All the four members did some time playing in the hostile Argentina’s capital underground scene as members of different bands until they decided to relocate back to their hometown and form a band there, where they belonged. It was then that they were noticed by Calar Music, a San Francisco-based boutique record label that releases vinyl exclusively, and their music reached the international arena skipping the mandatory step of succeeding first in Buenos Aires. Even though Siete Rayos didn’t formally exist until 2011, their musicians claim to have been brought up in the pre-Internet era, when the traffic of cultural influences happened in a slower, more organic way, with the hand-to-hand passing of the few bootlegged tapes that would reach their town as the main way to find out about new music. That, they say, influenced them more than any particular band or scene. However, their gloomy, almost claustrophobic sound commands references proto-punk giants like Velvet Underground and The Stooges and some of the ’80s avant-garde.