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People's only work in 1971 featuring Outkast's organist Yusuke Hoguchi and guitarist Kimio Mizutani, Adams's Hideaki Takebe, and percussionist Larry Sunaga. Produced by Naoki Tachikawa, it was created with the concept of Buddha + Rock.

It is full of unique psychedelia sounds, such as the sutra chanting "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo" backed by a fuzz guitar, the sound of monk's geta, bells, wooden fish, sitar, etc.

Although it uses a lot of sound effects reminiscent of Buddhism, it doesn't feel like a religious idea, and the work is overall easy to listen to.

In recent years, this album has been highly desired by DJs as a breakbeat material and as a spiritual record.

Emerging out of Amsterdam's vibrant squat scene in 1979, The Ex – a name chosen for the ease and speed with which it could be spray-painted onto a wall – have for four decades been an entirely self-sustaining musical entity, charting a course through the global underground with a spirit of freedom and radical exploration.

Blueprints For A Blackout, The Ex's fifth album and first double LP, combines caustic studio experimentations and loose songs from their gripping live-set at the time. The band consisted of singer G.W. Sok, guitarist Terrie Ex, two new recruits on bass, Luc and Yoke, and drummer Sabien Witteman, along with a plethora of guests including Mekons' Jon Langford and long-serving sound engineer Dolf Planteijdt, among others.

Originally released in 1984 on the band's own Pig Brother Productions, Blueprints veers from jagged punk explosions to sharply focused improvisations featuring field recordings that would become a hallmark of their subsequent forays into free jazz and experimental music. The overall effect is not unlike the menace of a slowly building winter storm.

Tracks like "Rabble With A Cause," "U.S. Hole" and "Scrub That Scum" stand out as exemplars of this phase of The Ex. Comparisons can be made to contemporaries Einstürzende Neubauten, NoMeansNo and Svätsox as well as later Crass label bands.

30th anniversary remastered edition - pressed 45 RPM - Side B vinyl etching - first time released as a 12-inch - includes the track "Alien Being" not previously available on the original 7" vinyl release - The House of Tomorrow EP marks the first release introducing vocals by Stephin Merritt // Cast your mind back to notable landmarks of 1992. Outside the Twin Cities, Mall of America opened to the public. Frank Gehry's enormous golden fish sculpture, El Peix, welcomed Barcelona Olympians. And The House of Tomorrow, a four-song 7-inch on a small indie label, ushered in a new era for The Magnetic Fields. When Susan Anway, who sang on early albums Distant Plastic Trees and The Wayward Bus, left the group, Stephin Merritt stepped up to the microphone. "This was my first time singing on record," he recalls. He sought to sound simple, subtle, and unobtrusive, à la the Japanese concept of shibusa. "But now, listening back, I hear a little too much vocal influence from the Jesus and Mary Chain. (I really should move to Scotland. I belong there.)" Likewise, the arrangements and production of The House of Tomorrow felt less polished overall than on its predecessors, even as the band's sound was evolving. "I wanted to have rock instrumentation, plus cello (so ELO without keyboards), but everyone was tracked separately so there was no question of sounding like we were playing together," explains Stephin. Instead, he chose to highlight the artifice. Voilà! "The drums are like Tusk only more so, the cello sounds like a synth, and the guitars might as well be programmed." The House of Tomorrow rose in stature upon re-release on compact disc in 1996, with a new addition, "Alien Being" (previously relegated to the flip of the "Long Vermont Roads" single), boosting its modest track list from four songs to five. The limits of technology had stymied plans the first time: "You can't fit five two-and-a-half-minute songs on a 7" record, even at 33rpm." From World's Fairs and Disneyland to Tex Avery and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, visions of the home of the future have long been popular. Although this new vinyl edition of The House of Tomorrow includes an etching of Buckminster Fuller's visionary D.I.Y. Dymaxion House, Stephin laments the sluggish pace of architectural innovation. What is his dream home? "I want to live in Barbarella's spaceship, with my neighbors being the Jetsons, floating defiantly over Edinburgh Castle."

Wild Wonderful Purgatory is Karma To Burn second album. Is their first fully instrumental album after the departure of former vocalist Jay Jarosz and it was released in 1999 by Roadrunner Records. After more then 20 years this piece of stoner rock history will have a new repress in coloured vinyls via Heavy Psych Sounds. Heavy metal has, too often, been a case of great music, shame about the singer. It’s been true since the cod-poetic warblings of erstwhile-hippy cock rockers, right up to the present-day offerings of sad white boy pseudo-rappers. So hats off to Yank rockers Karma To Burn, who had the sense, the taste and the balls (don’t forget the balls) to part with their tiresome vocalist, minutes before an important London gig... Wild Wonderful Purgatory is their first album in this new incarnation. And it rocks, hard. Tracks are numbered rather than titled, in the order in which they were recorded. So ’32’ is the slaughterhouse groove characterised by the wildfire barbed wire guitar breaks; ’25’ is the slothful Sabbath grind; ’30’ the colossal, feral beast with all the ferocity of a Rottweiler which has been chained up and fed nothing but raw, red meat for weeks. If there’s an overall stoner-rock vibe to the proceedings, then it is tempered by Karma To Burn’s discipline: not a single note is wasted, and there’s no big-haired egomaniac chundering artlessly along to distract you from the hypnotic beauty of the riffs. Sniff out the testosterone, strike that match, and stand well back. - NME

Wild Wonderful Purgatory is Karma To Burn second album. Is their first fully instrumental album after the departure of former vocalist Jay Jarosz and it was released in 1999 by Roadrunner Records. After more then 20 years this piece of stoner rock history will have a new repress in coloured vinyls via Heavy Psych Sounds. Heavy metal has, too often, been a case of great music, shame about the singer. It’s been true since the cod-poetic warblings of erstwhile-hippy cock rockers, right up to the present-day offerings of sad white boy pseudo-rappers. So hats off to Yank rockers Karma To Burn, who had the sense, the taste and the balls (don’t forget the balls) to part with their tiresome vocalist, minutes before an important London gig... Wild Wonderful Purgatory is their first album in this new incarnation. And it rocks, hard. Tracks are numbered rather than titled, in the order in which they were recorded. So ’32’ is the slaughterhouse groove characterised by the wildfire barbed wire guitar breaks; ’25’ is the slothful Sabbath grind; ’30’ the colossal, feral beast with all the ferocity of a Rottweiler which has been chained up and fed nothing but raw, red meat for weeks. If there’s an overall stoner-rock vibe to the proceedings, then it is tempered by Karma To Burn’s discipline: not a single note is wasted, and there’s no big-haired egomaniac chundering artlessly along to distract you from the hypnotic beauty of the riffs. Sniff out the testosterone, strike that match, and stand well back. - NME

Repress of the Josiah self-titled debut album in new coloured vinyls !!! Josiah is one of the few bands out there currently that really manage to capture the authentic '70s acid-rock power-trio sound, style and energy while also sounding fresh and modern. Take some Grand Funk Railroad, Cactus and Groundhogs energy and update it with some Monster Magnet, Nebula and Fu Manchu styles and you'd get something along the lines of Josiah's self-titled debut full length. Next to Queens of the Stone Age "Songs for the Deaf" this is my second favorite album of the year so far. If you're into the sound I've described above you really can't go wrong with this release. I strongly recommend it!! The overall feel is acid 70's psychedelic blues rock. Foghat and the James Gang crossed with Led Zep and Monster Magnet. Other bands that it reminds me of are Mammoth Volume, Five Horse Johnson...Hard aggressive grooves that maintain steadiness like no other. Yeah... - Stonerock.com

Repress of the Josiah self-titled debut album in new coloured vinyls !!! Josiah is one of the few bands out there currently that really manage to capture the authentic '70s acid-rock power-trio sound, style and energy while also sounding fresh and modern. Take some Grand Funk Railroad, Cactus and Groundhogs energy and update it with some Monster Magnet, Nebula and Fu Manchu styles and you'd get something along the lines of Josiah's self-titled debut full length. Next to Queens of the Stone Age "Songs for the Deaf" this is my second favorite album of the year so far. If you're into the sound I've described above you really can't go wrong with this release. I strongly recommend it!! The overall feel is acid 70's psychedelic blues rock. Foghat and the James Gang crossed with Led Zep and Monster Magnet. Other bands that it reminds me of are Mammoth Volume, Five Horse Johnson...Hard aggressive grooves that maintain steadiness like no other. Yeah... - Stonerock.com

Repress of the Josiah self-titled debut album in new coloured vinyls !!! Josiah is one of the few bands out there currently that really manage to capture the authentic '70s acid-rock power-trio sound, style and energy while also sounding fresh and modern. Take some Grand Funk Railroad, Cactus and Groundhogs energy and update it with some Monster Magnet, Nebula and Fu Manchu styles and you'd get something along the lines of Josiah's self-titled debut full length. Next to Queens of the Stone Age "Songs for the Deaf" this is my second favorite album of the year so far. If you're into the sound I've described above you really can't go wrong with this release. I strongly recommend it!! The overall feel is acid 70's psychedelic blues rock. Foghat and the James Gang crossed with Led Zep and Monster Magnet. Other bands that it reminds me of are Mammoth Volume, Five Horse Johnson...Hard aggressive grooves that maintain steadiness like no other. Yeah... - Stonerock.com

Never has a SONGS:OHIA album's process been so integral to its overall feel as in the case with "Didn't It Rain", the band's sixth proper full-length, which was recorded by Engineer Edan Cohen. The entire album was recorded live with no overdubs, the full band playing in one room with the players always within arms' reach of one another; singers Jason Molina, Jennie Benford and Jim Krewson sharing microphones singing live together. The result is a sound which resembles the warmth and personality of the classic recordings of the early- to mid 70s.Inspired by the Mahalia Jackson song of the same name, the titel track is a beautiful song about the shifting tides of life and the old circle of "a lot shit going down before shit clears up". Principal songwriter Jason Molina has created a record that is even more intensely personal and healing than any of his previous works. Neil Young had his "After The Goldrush", this is Molina's "Didn't it Rain".

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. Cover with sticker residue on the front. Copy overall closer to VG+

Re-release of “Strange Frame of Mind” the third album from Arabs in Aspic! Hailing from Trondheim in Norway, Arabs in Aspic has been mid-Norway’s flagship of 70s inspired progressive rock and proto-hardrock for the past 15 years. They’ve been described as a sweet mixture of loud, heavy guitars and drums, 12 string acoustics, funky bass and percussion, screaming Hammond organs, soft Rhodes, Mellotrons and 70s Synths, topped with plentiful vocal harmonies. After “Far Out in Aradabia”, the band played quite a lot of shows and also recruited Hammond virtuous Stig Arve Jørgensen on keys and backing vocals after seeing him perform “Hocus Pocus” by Focus. Hence, the new material became more technical and more progressive again, and in many ways “Strange Frame of Mind” from 2010 is the link between early Arabs in Aspic and the band we know today. The band overall changed a lot, and they had a hiatus for a couple of years. Erik Paulsen joined in on bass, and the sound changed to a more progressive and classic 70s style. The album was recorded at Studio Studio, run by TNT guitarist Ronnie Le Tekrø, but they were never pleased with the mastering job which was done by a guy who wanted them to sound like a 80s power metal band. Therefore, the album has been re-mastered by Jacob Holm-Lupo. This one has been out of print for a long time, and finally here’s a proper re-release. Enjoy!

Re-release of “Strange Frame of Mind” the third album from Arabs in Aspic! Hailing from Trondheim in Norway, Arabs in Aspic has been mid-Norway’s flagship of 70s inspired progressive rock and proto-hardrock for the past 15 years. They’ve been described as a sweet mixture of loud, heavy guitars and drums, 12 string acoustics, funky bass and percussion, screaming Hammond organs, soft Rhodes, Mellotrons and 70s Synths, topped with plentiful vocal harmonies. After “Far Out in Aradabia”, the band played quite a lot of shows and also recruited Hammond virtuous Stig Arve Jørgensen on keys and backing vocals after seeing him perform “Hocus Pocus” by Focus. Hence, the new material became more technical and more progressive again, and in many ways “Strange Frame of Mind” from 2010 is the link between early Arabs in Aspic and the band we know today. The band overall changed a lot, and they had a hiatus for a couple of years. Erik Paulsen joined in on bass, and the sound changed to a more progressive and classic 70s style. The album was recorded at Studio Studio, run by TNT guitarist Ronnie Le Tekrø, but they were never pleased with the mastering job which was done by a guy who wanted them to sound like a 80s power metal band. Therefore, the album has been re-mastered by Jacob Holm-Lupo. This one has been out of print for a long time, and finally here’s a proper re-release. Enjoy!

Vinyl with a couple of light scuffs. With original inner sleeves. Cover with slightly bumped corner. Beautiful copy, overall closer to NM.

"With the obvious homage the name implies, you'd expect Hanoi Janes to be a group of riot grrrl angnsty types, displaced in time by about 20 odd years. Having taken on the nickname given to Jane Fonda in the 70s because of her anti-war stance on Vietnam, these girls would be all bent up about, well you know, stuff. You'd expect that, but you'd be wrong. It is in fact primarily the work of one guy from Sachen, Germany - Oliver Scharf. But then Hanoi Janes' album, 'Year of Panic', is able to inspire all kinds of misconceptions. Name of the band aside, would you expect a German guy (who's a bit handy with an eight-track) to produce a series of beautifully lo-fi, sub two-minute, surf-pop tracks, full of buzzing guitar and bubblegum spirit. Maybe - maybe not. But that's just what Scharf has done. The sound is distinctly garage, reminiscent of a 70s surf sound, and like The 5. 6. 7. 8's, Hanoi Janes are able to launch into the genre with the luxury of being removed from the scene itself. Tracks like opener, 'The Boys Are Out' and 'Beach Kids' are unashamedly infectious, utilising catchy hooks, hand claps and the odd 'Ooo ooo ooo' to great effect. The production is fuzzy, but that only adds to the overall charm of the album. Because charming is what it is, as Hanoi Janes have packed 'Year of Panic' with some real gems. 'Summer of Panic' offers something tinted with psychedelic sounds; 'Our Lives' could have been an early track by The Strokes had they been influenced by the Californian sun rather than the New York shadows; 'Good Bone' is a track which can only be performed if there are several oversized surf-boards nearby. 'Year of Panic' is lo-fi, scuzzy garage surf-pop at its finest and it deserves to be the sound-track of your summer" -BOWLEGS, UK

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Cloud Nothings' seminal album, Attack On Memory, the band has announced a very special limited edition vinyl pressing. It’s housed in a foil jacket with all new colorized artwork, is pressed on Sky Blue vinyl, and includes two bonus flexi 7"s with two never-before-released tracks, "You Will Turn" and "Jambalaya" from the original sessions at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio. Including digital download and Steve Albini's “Fluffy Coffee” recipe. In 2009, Cleveland’s Dylan Baldi began writing and recording lo-fi power-pop songs in his parents’ basement, dubbing the project Cloud Nothings. His music quickly started making the Internet rounds, and fans and critics alike took note of his pithy songcraft, infectiously catchy melodies, and youthful enthusiasm. Baldi soon released a string of 7”s, a split cassette, and an EP before putting out Turning On—a compilation spanning about a year’s worth of work—on Carpark in 2010. January 2011 saw the release of Cloud Nothings’ self- titled debut LP, which, put next to Turning On, found Baldi cleaning up his lo-fi aesthetic, pairing his tales of affinitive confusion with a more pristine aural clarity. In the interval since the release of Cloud Nothings, Baldi has toured widely and put a great deal of focus on his live show, a detail that heavily shapes the music of his follow-up album, Attack on Memory. After playing the same sets nightly for months on end, Baldi saw the rigidity of his early work, and he wanted to create arrangements that would allow for more improvisation and variability when played on the road. To accomplish this desired malleability, the entire band decamped to Chicago—where the album was recorded with Steve Albini—and all lent a hand in the songwriting process. The product of these sessions is a record boasting features that, even at a glance, mark a sea change in the band’s sound: higher fidelity, a track clocking in at almost nine minutes, an instrumental, and an overall more plaintive air. The songs move along fluidly, and Baldi sounds assured as he brings his vocals up in the mix, allowing himself to hold out long notes and put some grain into his voice. Minor key melodies abound, drums emphatically contribute much more than mere timekeeping, and the guitar work is much more adventurous than that of previous releases. For all of early Cloud Nothings’ fun and fervor, Baldi admits that it never sounded like most of the music he listens to. With Attack on Memory, he wanted to remedy this anomaly, and in setting out to do so, Baldi and co. created an album that showed vast growth for a very young band.

Sun and Sail Club’s debut album “Mannequin” embarks on territory that is both new and exciting. Not surprisingly, “Mannequin” spearheads the obvious future and progression of hard rock fury, bringing to the table the true professionalism and mastery, and dynamic musicianship that has been on full display from Fu Manchu, Kyuss and The Obsessed in years past, but also adds a completely new level of precision, technicality and accuracy to make an album that is almost completely flawless from start to finish. "Overall, this record is heavy and dark. It’s Inspired by Devo, Voivod, Kraftwerk, Torche, Slayer as much as it’s inspired by Aswad, JOE Pass and WES Montgomery. I wanted a super heavy groove that would support angelic vocal harmonies. I think we achieved that." – Bob Balch. New artwork made by Mirkow Gastow.

Sun and Sail Club’s debut album “Mannequin” embarks on territory that is both new and exciting. Not surprisingly, “Mannequin” spearheads the obvious future and progression of hard rock fury, bringing to the table the true professionalism and mastery, and dynamic musicianship that has been on full display from Fu Manchu, Kyuss and The Obsessed in years past, but also adds a completely new level of precision, technicality and accuracy to make an album that is almost completely flawless from start to finish. "Overall, this record is heavy and dark. It’s Inspired by Devo, Voivod, Kraftwerk, Torche, Slayer as much as it’s inspired by Aswad, JOE Pass and WES Montgomery. I wanted a super heavy groove that would support angelic vocal harmonies. I think we achieved that." – Bob Balch. New artwork made by Mirkow Gastow.

Like the days of Steely Dan, Harry Nilsson or Prince releasing a classic every year (or less) comes Mac DeMarco’s Another One, a mini-LP announced almost one year to the date of the meteorically successful Salad Days. Conceived and recorded entirely by himself in a short period between a relentless tour schedule at his new place in Far Rockaway, Queens, Another One is eight, freshly written songs, expanding the arsenal of Mac’s already impressive catalog. There’s a bittersweet, romantic sensibility present. The overall feeling is lost love, or perhaps love never found, yet Mac embraces this without making it an overly somber experience for the listener. It’s at times haunting and warm, and a bit more refined and sophisticated, but still plenty playful, retaining the guts and soul of classic Mac.

Black Marble Release Their Second Full-Length, It's Immaterial. Their First For Ghostly, It's Immaterial Follows Up Their Highly Acclaimed Debut Full-Length A Different Arrangement (Hardly Art/October 30, 2012). Still Featuring Stewart At The Helm Along With Select Collaborators As Supplementation, The Band's Recent Shift In Locale From East Coast To West Coast Lends A Great Deal To The Overall Feel Of The New Album.Pulling From The Pre - "Simply Irresistible" Days Of Early Robert Palmer And First Wave Pioneers Such As Silicon Teens, Iron Curtain, Lives Of Angels, And Solid Space, Black Marble Dialed In On A Clear Understanding Of Its Own Specific Sound, Showcased Most Clearly On This New Release With Stewart Becoming More Comfortable In Being Clear With What He's Trying To Say, Both Subjectively, In Terms Of The Stories He's Telling And The Things He's Willing To Talk About, And Object...

Magenta Vinyl. Overall close to NM.

Just more than a year ago, Heaters shepherded the release of Baptistina into the world, which itself followed their debut album, Holy Water Pool, by less than a year. Now, the Michigan-made music machine is set to lay claim to a new parcel of mountainous terrain, in the form of their latest release on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond, entitled Matterhorn. Its a relentless pace, made all the more impressive not by the infrequency with which its met by Heaters peers, but rather by the lasting quality of each release. In this way, Matterhorn is more of the samethirty-eight minutes of propulsive, precisely sculpted sonic signatures. In other crucial ways, however, Matterhorn represents massive change for Heaters: first, in the form of a largely revamped line-up, and second, in the form of an album whose wave crests above even the bands previous high-water marks of consistency. Short of attending group therapy together, its difficult to ascertain exactly what contributions these new sparks have contributed to Heaters overall sound, just as its impossible to dismiss how utterly ignited by change Matterhorn sounds as a result. If Baptistina showed a picture of a band attaining greater control over their quite-rideable waves of reverb and rhythm, Matterhorn is the master-class in its execution. Its a full-screen image of dawn, dusk and darkness, never scanned-and-panned, and never less than mesmerizing. At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, the landlocked levitation previously made possible via Heaters psycho-surf majesty is luminously leavened on Matterhorn, with the bright light of the jingle-jangle morning (which may or may not come following youbut will likely lead to repeat listens).

Before you ancients out there turn your heads and scoff at the premise of a twenty-something rock-and-roll goofball calling himself an old-anything, consider this: Mac DeMarco has spent the better part of his time thus far writing, recording, and releasing an album of his own music pretty much every calendar flip. This Old Dog makes for his fifth in just over half a decade_bringing the total to 3 LPs and 2 EPs. According to the DMV, DeMarco is 26. But in working-dog years, ol' Mac here could easily qualify for social security. To stay gold, turns out all he needed was some new tricks.It was a little space_in time, location, and method_that inspired DeMarco while making the record. Moving from his isolated Queens home to a house in Los Angeles helped give the somewhat transient Canada-native a base, and a few more months on his calendar to create did their job as well. Arriving in California with a grip of demos he'd written in New York, he realized after a few months of setting up his new shop_complete with a few new toys_that the gap was giving him perspective (insert tooth joke here).Right off the bat, from the pops and clicks of the CR-78 drum machine and acoustic strums on the album-opening "My Old Man," the synth-drenched beauty of the second track, "This Old Dog," it's clear that DeMarco's bag is filled with new tricks indeed. This Old Dog is rooted more in a synth-base than any of his previous releases, but he is careful not to let that tactic overshadow the other instruments and overall "unplugged" mood of the work: "This is my acoustic album, but it's not really an acoustic album at all. That's just what it feels like, mostly," says DeMarco.Despite the changes considered during the creation of This Old Dog, Mac DeMarco's mid-twenties masterpiece, it's clear that the engine that motors him is in no danger of slowing down.

Vinyl LP pressing. 2018 release. As a follow up to 2016's For King and Country, World Service Project delivers another powerful punk-jazz manifesto with a sly grin on Serve, their second RareNoise release and fourth album overall. Showcasing their signature blend of discipline and chaos, the edgy London-based avant-funk quintet combines throbbing grooves, huge backbeats, grinding fuzz-bass onslaughts and ferocious free blowing on eight potent tracks, with just a dash of Monty Pythonesque's irreverence thrown into the mix.

I’m going to say “I” because I think I can’t write about my music other than in the first person. I’ve been playing drums since I was fifteen years old and I’ve always had bands since. Even if I always contribute artistically, to different degrees, my latitude of action, from a creative point of view, has always been limited by the fact that I am a drummer. Like many people, I learned to play very approximately the guitar and keyboard, and I spent years going over obsessions and recurring patterns, in my room and in my head, without doing any of that, and knowing that even though I was and still am extremely involved in my past and present bands (Skategang, La Secte du Futur, Marietta to a lesser extent, and ), the music we were making was only partially representative of me. I’ve always listened to a lot of reggae, dancehall, music from Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, and overall music that is based more on repetition and intention than composition, and that’s something I could never really develop in there.
In 2015 my brother and friend Benjamin Dupont, the human behind Bryan’s Magic Tears, moved into my flat share / Noah’s Ark at 35 rue Clignancourt, in the 18th arrondissement, and it was him who unlocked everything by showing me how to record music by myself ; and one September morning, lying on my back, I saw the light.
It’s really a new world that’s opened up to me, I started recording at a pretty intensive pace, just letting myself be carried away by what I’ve had in my head and fingers for years; I’ve accumulated a lot of material, including a lot of unfinished pieces, and I’ve tried – I’m still trying – to understand for myself what my point really is and to learn how to systematize and channel my obsessions to make it something personal.
Recording a lot, without any constraints of format, group or expectations, by letting myself be totally carried away by what was coming out in the moment, it allowed me to give myself a certain insight into myself; I am not one of the people who compose music by having an idea of where they want to go, but by repeating the exercise, something coherent ends up taking shape. I would say that it oscillates, for the music, between synthetic krautrock, dancehall lo-fi, Manchester sound recorded with toys, rock à la Velvet and Memphis rap for children; and between Les Négresses Vertes and Julien Gracq for the texts. I still write the basis of my lyrics without music, and I attach a lot of importance to it; French has become obvious because I want to say something true and I would not be able to do it otherwise – even if the text of “The Fur” is in English, but it was to seduce a girl (it didn’t work), and it won’t happen again. This is my friend Paula from J.C. Satan and Succhiamo, who sings on “Mariposa” and “Venera 16”, because I had no idea what to do about it; I sent her the songs and she sang on her phone, it was great so we recorded it.
This first album is a kind of best-of from 2015 to 2018, the songs that held up best, the ones I had lyrics on, the best finished drafts, basically. I owe its existence to my friends at the Megattera micro-label who, after hearing my songs at home at night, decided to release them confidentially on tape first; without them, they would still be on my hard drive. Under the spell, Born Bad Records then entrusted Olivier Demeaux de Cheveu/ Heimat with the mission of mixing the “best” tracks to give them the lustre they deserve and make these few crazy and scattered tracks a full-fledged album. I asked Adam Karakos, from Villejuif Underground, Guillaume Rottier, from Rendez-Vous, Nikolaj Boursniev, from Quetzal Snakes, and Milia Colombani, who plays in half the bands in Paris, to play live with me.
Pleasure Principle is located somewhere within a triangle formed by Francis Bebey, Add (n) To X and Ludwig Von 88; it is a solitary race to the outside, an ode to the forward flight, a way to escape in the peaceful expectation of the great liberating flash. I often find myself dancing like a monkey who forgets the world when I record at night in my room, and I hope to provoke the same reaction in people.
Paul Speedy Ramon

Daylight Moon is Yuzo Iwata’s first outing since his debut, Drowning In The Sky, got the green light in 1999 on the legendary Org label. While Yuzo’s been living stateside for a couple of decades, his roots, style and fluidity harken back to the Kichijoji Minor days of the late seventies Tokyo underground scene. He also put in some time as a member of Tori Kudo’s Maher Shalal Hash Baz early on and there’s no one else in Philadelphia who can make that claim. His pedigree is legit. As is his playing. For fans of Kousokuya and Hallelujahs especially and PSF and Org label output overall. Limited re-pressing of 300.

What happens when an abrasive rock trio trades guitars for synths, cranks up the beats and leans into the everyday anxieties of simply being a functioning human in the 21st century? The answer is Uneasy Laughter, the sensational second Sub Pop release from Los Angeles-based Moaning. Vocalist/guitarist Sean Solomon, bassist/keyboardist Pascal Stevenson and drummer Andrew MacKelvie have been friends and co-conspirators amid the fertile L.A. DIY scene for more than a decade. They are also immersed in other creative pursuits - Solomon is a noted illustrator, art director and animator, while Stevenson and MacKelvie have played or worked behind the boards with acts such as Cherry Glazerr, Sasami and Surf Curse. On Uneasy Laughter, they've tackled challenges both personal and universal the only way they know how: by talking about how they're feeling and channeling those emotions directly into their music. "We've known each other forever and we're really comfortable trying to express where we're at. A lot of bands aren't so close," says MacKelvie. Adds Solomon, who celebrated a year of sobriety during the Uneasy Laughter sessions, "Men are conditioned not to be vulnerable or admit they're wrong. But I wanted to talk openly about my feelings and mistakes I've made." Moaning's 2018's self-titled Sub Pop debut featured songs mostly written in practice or brought in already complete by individual band members. It garnered acclaim from Pitchfork, Stereogum and Los Angeles Times, who observed, "Moaning craft anxious music for an increasingly nervous local scene." But Uneasy Laughter is a collaborative breakthrough which significantly brightens Moaning's once claustrophobic sound, again abetted by producer/engineer Alex Newport (At The Drive-In, Bloc Party, Melvins). The trio points to first single "Ego," which features a costume-heavy video directed by Ambar Navarro, as an embodiment of this evolution. Solomon admits Uneasy Laughter could have gone in quite another direction had he not gotten sober and educated himself on such core subjects as gender and mental health. "I did a lot of reading in the tour van - authors like bell hooks, Mark Fisher, and Alain de Botton, all really inspired me. I don't want to be the person who influences young people to go get high and become cliche tragic artists," he says. "What I'd rather convey to people is that they're not alone in what they think and how they feel. 'Ego' specifically and the album overall is about those themes - letting go of your bullshit so you can help other people and be present." "We want to be part of a community," he adds. "I wrote online about being sober for a year, and I had kids from all over writing and asking for advice. One of them said, 'For the first time I can remember, I didn't drink last night.' I thought, for once, maybe we did something besides sell a record. That's a win. That's incredibly exciting."

n alternative soundtrack for Roy Andersson’s movie A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Emilie Zoé was invited in 2018 by the alternative film festival « 2300 plan 9 à Les Étranges Nuits du Cinéma » in La Chaux-de-Fonds, CH to create a live soundtrack for a movie of her choice. She asked Christian Garcia-Gaucher, who had recently produced her second album The Very Start, to join the project. They chose together Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence for its hypnotic rhythm and its overall contemplative atmosphere and worn out colors. Within a few days, they wrote a collection of delicate themes and slightly melancholic interludes that they could play along the original feature. The show sold out and it felt crucial to everyone that such an exciting project would not end there. They gathered few months later in Swiss producer Louis Jucker’s tiny attic studio to lay these sounds on rusty second hand tapes. These 11 demo tapes merged spontaneously into a rich collaborative album, that assembles lo-fi pop hits and intriguing field recordings into a surprisingly coherent whole.

Steve Gunn and John Truscinski's collaborations are point where experimental instrumental rock and cosmic jazz meet. This is their fourth album overall and first in three years. Gunn-Truscinski Duo fans are intense in their love of these records - they naturally spin off from Steve's solo work but also go in their own directions as well. This track - and album - will be rapturously received by the fans of this project as being cut from a similar cloth that they already know and enjoy but covering some different and previously unworn ground. The first release in the Three Lobed Recordings 20th anniversary series, this should be a title with multiple sales points (Gunn, Three Lobed, other participants in the 20th series).

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First Ep By New Band Routine That Consists Of Chastity Belt's Annie Truscott And Jay Som's Melina Duterte.When The Covid-19 Pandemic Hit The U.S., Chastity Belt's Annie Truscott Descended Into A State Of Mourning. Her Plan Had Been To Join Her Partner, Jay Som's Melina Duterte, As Violinist On Tour, A Privilege Rarely Afforded Since Both Maintain Busy Road Schedules, And For Truscott, The Prospect Of Spending Most Of The Year In A Van Wasn't Met With Exhaustion So Much As Exhilaration. At Long Last, She'd Be Making A Living Playing Music, No Side Hustle Needed. The Cancellation Of The Tour Represented A Sidelined Dream.Routine Was Born Of This Disappointment. Like The Phoenix Rising From The Ashes, Truscott And Duterte's Collaborative Project Offers A Glimpse Of The Creative Possibilities That Can Emerge From A State Of Defeat. Written And Recorded Over The Course Of A Month In Joshua Tree, Routine's Lush Debut Ep And Other Things Finds The Couple Trying On New Roles. Truscott, Who Plays Bass In Chastity Belt, Wrote The Bulk Of The Material And Sings On The Ep, While Duterte, Normally A Band Leader, Used The Project As An Opportunity To, In Her Words, "Take The Backseat," As Accompanist, Producer, And Engineer. Duterte Describes The Making Of The Ep As "Seamless." In The Mornings, Truscott Sat Outside Of The Cabin In The Not-Yet-Blazing Sun And Worked Out Chord Progressions On Guitar While Duterte Slept In. Staring Out At The Horizon, Truscott Could See A Smattering Of Houses And The Sharp Outline Of A Mountain Range, But Overall The Property Felt Remote, Far Removed From Home In Los Angeles. On Long Walks Truscott Admired The Recently Bloomed Spring Flowers And Pondered The Legacy Of Friendships And Experiences That Made Her. "I Spend A Lot Of My Time Thinking About The People Who've Impacted My Life," She Says. "Routine Gave Me An Opportunity To Explore Those Relationships Through Music." It Was On One Of These Walks That Truscott Began Writing 'Cady Road,' A Contemplative, Country-Tinged Pop...

The Deviants were an English rock group originally active in the late 1960s, and later as a project of the singer-songwriter and bandleader Mick Farren. The self-tiled third album was the beginning of the definite split between the band members. This record shows how they were still rocking in a wonderful mix between psychedelic, garage, blues, and rock. The overall vibe is amazing and it is a fascinating glimpse into the underground music of the late ‘60s. The album has aged quite well and is still a master of art.

The Deviants is available on black vinyl. The package includes a replica of the very rare & sought after booklet.

Classic Black Lps Housed In Gatefold W/ Special Canvas Cardboard Stock And Silver Hot Foil!Nordic Pop Diva Karin Park Of Årabrot Adds Her Ethereal, Mournful Voice And Keys To The Primordial Sound Of Legendary Electronic Pioneer Lustmord For This Sublime And Poignant Collaboration. Alter Is A Ritual Of Our Times.On The Pair's Frst Collaborative Work, The Nine Tracks That Make Up Alter Are Every Bit As Heart-Wrenching As They Are Terrifying, Mining New Sonic Territory, It Is A Fascinating Study Of Light And Shade That Delves Deep Into Vast Uncharted Darkness. Their Ability To Create Atmosphere On The Album Opener "Hiraeth" Is Second To None, Perfectly Assembling A Harrowing Backdrop For Park's Lilting Sound Of Longing. From There, Park's Vocals Add All Of Theemotional Depth And Power Found In Names Like Kate Bush, Maynard J Keenan And Elizabeth Frasier, Perfectly Playing Against Lustmord's Waves Of Dark Drama And Creating A Wholly Unique Record That Recalls Dead Can Dance, Massive Attack And Portishead At Their Greatest.Considering Park's Credentials, It Might Be Surprising That A Collaboration With Lustmord Would Ft So Seamlessly. Utilizing A Sound Comprised Of Elements Of Industrial, Synth Pop And More, The Celebrated Swedish Solo Artist And Member Of Norwegian Rock Band Årabrot Utilizes Experimentation In Her Work, Blazing Trails And Bringing To Mind The Work Of Her Peers The Knife, Scott Walker, Robyn, Depeche Mode And Burial With Her Darkly-Rich Compositions. Multiple Winner Of Norway's Spellemann Award, Park Co-Wrote The Norwegian Entry For The 2013 Eurovision, Fnishing Fourth Overall. But It Is The Sensibility Of The Sacred Music Of Her Youth That Park Adds To Alter, Contributing A Powerful Vocal That Guides The Listener Through The Cavernous, Mystical Depth Of Their Collaborative Work."Lustmord Is The Gustave Doré Of Music", Karin Park Ofers Pensively. "Painting Magical Pictures With A Sound That Is So Vast, It Gives Space For Your Own Imagination." Brian Williams Grew Up In...

With their new album Culture Shock Treatment, Round Eye, the Shanghai-based band of ex-patriots, turn their demented focus on their own place of residence, The People’s Republic of China, and fire on all cylinders. Physically released by Joey Shithead’s (D.O.A.) Sudden Death Records, Culture Shock Treatment acts as a lysergic, nightmare-drenched punk rock protest record and direct criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, shining a light on the oppression of Hong Kong and the Uygher people, Xi Jin Ping’s growing influence and power on a global scale, the Ministry of Culture and its methods of propaganda and surveillance—not seen since the cult of personality surrounding Mao Zedong during the Culture Revolution, and some comical cultural pitfalls one can experience while living in the “Pearl of the Orient.” The experimental, sax-wielding, freak punk outfit continue to accrue a loud and controversial name for themselves since forming in 2012, and has as of late been a crucial force in bridging a wide gap between the eastern and western hemispheres of DIY punk rock. Along with blazing a trail all over the globe, they’ve played host to visiting western punks and some legends as well. Culture Shock Treatment, the band’s third album and fourth release overall, continues the band’s genre bending acumen through cultural satire with great success, along with some pretty harsh levity, and, being that this release was produced by none other than Mike Watt (Minutemen) and Bill Stevenson (Descendents, Black Flag) to boot, it sounds pretty incredible as well. Captain Beefheart, Dion, Black Flag and The Dickies have got fingerprints all over this thing. Let one hundred punk flowers bloom in the wake of this album.

Over the last decade-and-a-half, C Joynes has ploughed a singular furrow through solo guitar, with a body of work incorporating English folk-tunes alongside North & West African music, and lifting proto-minimalist and improvised techniques from the European classical and avant-garde traditions.

His new release, ‘Poor Boy On The Wire’, is his first full album dedicated wholly to the electric guitar. Through a typically wide-ranging set, Joynes exploits the instrument’s potential by placing intricate parlour music alongside overdriven garage blues throw-downs, wiry electric folk and the brittle ringing tones of free improvisation. However, these explorations of the tones and timbres of close-mic’d guitars and amplification retain an overall coherence and unity through the deliberate use of a limited palette of budget instruments and vintage equipment.

From the dark psychedelic shadows of Bergen, Himmellegeme return with their second album “Variola Vera”! Himmellegeme's music is influenced by atmospheric prog rock, which together combine to create an otherworldly and timeless sound. With their heavy-hitting riffs, chilling melodies and melancholic lyrics, Himmellegeme creates music that depicts past events in their own lives, as well as in the lives of others. The overall themes of the album are the impact we humans have on planet earth, and the destruction we lay in our wake wherever we go. Not only in regards to the planet itself, but also to the people inhabiting it. It’s not a concept album per se - the lyrics are fictional with roots in reality, but based on newer and older events seen from different viewpoints. Their debut album “Myth of Earth” received rave reviews around the globe, and Prog Magazine said that “Aleksander Vormestrand has a high, clear voice full of unfulfilled yearning, akin to Thom Yorke when Radiohead still cared about melodies, matched by the soaring lead guitar of Hein Alexander Olson.” Variola Vera was recorded at one of Bergen's top studios, Broen Studios, and was produced by Anders Bjelland (Electric Eye / Hypertext) who also worked as a sonic wizard on the album.

Shy, Low Are True Masters Of The Exquisite Craft Of Stark Contrasts And Broad Dynamics, From Delicate Crescendos To The Grandiose Power Of The Riff_ A Craft That Lies At The Heart Of Every Outstanding Instrumental Rock Record. The Richmond, Virginia Based Four-Piece Has Made An Absolutely Incredible And Epic Album Brimming With Creativity, Groove, Heaviness And Truly Outstanding Songwriting- A Record That Is Intricate And Mature, Yet Gloriously Anthemic At The Same Time.The Fantastic Cinematic And (Surprisingly, So) Entirely Self-Produced First Music Video For The Track ,Helioentropy", Premiered At Roadburn Redux This Year, Was Only A Tastemaker For The 5th Studio Album And Pelagic Debut, Snake Behind The Sun.Recorded, Mixed And Produced At Vudu Studios In Long Island, Ny By Mike Watts (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Glassjaw, Hopesfall, Tides Of Man), The Album Pulls From Elements From Previous Eras Of The Band, But Also Pushes Into New Territory. The Result Is A Slicker, More Modern, Layered And 3-Dimensional Sound.,The Recipe For Achieving That Began With A Lot Of Pre-Production On Our End", Comments Guitarist Zak Bryant. ,We Demoed The Entire Record At Home Prior To Entering The Studio, Re- Working Some Songs Several Times Before Calling Them Done. From There, It Was Mike (Watts). After Hearing His Work With Bands Like O'brother, Lume, Glassjaw, And Others, We Grew Very Fond Of The Drum Sounds He Got, And His Ear For Overall Mix Balance And Production."The Other Important Ingredient Was Drummer Dylan Partridge, Who At The Time Of Recording Was A Commissioned Drummer And Is Now A Fix Band Member- And The Phenomenal Drum Room At Vudu Studios. These Two Elements Were Crucial In Creating The Overall Vibe And Atmosphere For The Record. ,Hunkering Down In The Studio For 3 Weeks To Track The Record Was Extremely Beneficial And Something None Of Us Had Done In The Past - It Gave Us The Ability To Really Fine Tune The Songs Alongside A Producer, And The Ability To Experiment With Various Gear N...

"Common Crusades" is the second full-length from French Nightwatchers, and the musical and lyrical continuity of their 2019 thematic debut "La paix ou le sable". Political lyrics dealing with the conflicts rooted in France's colonial era clash with melodic, subversive, and gloomy and soundscapes throughout the tracks of "Common Crusades". An album that is as musically captivating as politically current. "Common Crusades" offers 10 melodic punk rock tracks, all contributing to the overall story and theme of the album. Fast-paced, distorted, and punchy cuts are mixed with tracks highlighting a colder and post-punk influenced side of Nightwatchers. The sound is perfectly captured by studio engineer Mathieu Zuzek. "Common Crusades" tackles the same issues that shaped Nightwatchers debut album "La paix ou le sable", but from a different perspective. Both albums deal with events surrounding France's violent colonization and exploitation of their occurred territories. While the lyrics of "La paix ou le sable" is based on excerpts taken from two historical books and written with the objective of raising awareness of France's colonial violence, "Common Crusades" mainly focuses on the aftermath of these conflicts, and how the colonial era still affects modern day France. In particular, its Muslim population. All the lyrics of "Common Crusades" are based on speeches or writings of personalities who played a role in the colonization process, as well as those who currently play a role in the perpetuation of colonial logic within the French society.

At long last, a limited vinyl version of this album is about to be released. It comes as 180 gm white vinyl. For the first time ever, Peter has recorded a collection of cover versions. The songs come from a variety of musical worlds: Classical, American Songbook, Italian Pop and Tango. In all but three cases Peter has also translated the songs, from Italian, French and German. As strange a project as this might seem, there's an overall sense of cohesiveness to it and it's absolutely of this time. Two songs have lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein; the music for one is by Jerome Kern, the other by Richard Rodgers. Leiber and Stoller provided lyrics for "I who have nothing', originally an Italian tune. Three Italian songs are at the core of the album, written (and originally performed) by Fabrizio de Andre, Luigi Tenco and Piero Ciampi. The two tango pieces were composed by Astor Piazzolla. Finally, there are two classical songs, respectively by Faure and Mahler. In Peter's own words_. "This collection seems to fit together as a group, not least because most of these songs are to do with measures of dislocation, of loss, of some kind of imagined or anticipated future which didn't arrive. I was unfamiliar with several of these songs before I began this project. One discovery led on to another in some kind of paper trail. The back stories to the songs are interesting and some of the writers and singers had a spectacularly dramatic time of things. I doff my hat to these sometimes complicated lives. My approach has always been to make cultural rather than strictly linguistic translations, so that the spirit of the song rather than its precise narrative is rendered. I hope I've addressed the material, the writers, the original performers, with due and proper respect. Inevitably though there's spin here: mine all mine." "Finally, these recordings were made, of course, in the time of Covid and lockdown. But also in the knowledge that Brexit was fast approaching. So these performances of, for the most part, Europ...

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On August 27th 2021, The Third Sound will release their fifth album ‘First Light’ on Fuzz Club Records. Dealing in a hypnotic blend of neo-psychedelia, post-punk and new wave, The Third Sound is a Berlin-based band led by the Icelandic musician Hákon Aðalsteinsson, who is the guitarist in Brian Jonestown Massacre and formerly played in the cult rock’n’roll outfit Singapore Sling. A mainstay of the European psych underground in his own right, not just through his collaborations with the likes of Anton Newcombe and Tess Parks, The Third Sound has been Hakon’s primary solo endeavour since the release of his self-titled debut on Newcombe’s A Recordings a decade ago.

Arriving following 2018’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Shadows’ LP, ‘First Light’ marks an evolution into a brighter and at times uplifting sound. Marrying moments of light and dark, the result is The Third Sound’s most dynamic full-length to date. Talking about the album, Hakon said: “This album is definitely less gloomy than the previous one, although some ghosts from the past are lurking in the background. We always try to make something new on each album and never make the same album over again, but this feels like an even bigger change than usual, especially regarding the mood. Something new is beginning although the past is not forgotten. I think the title, First Light, describes the overall feel of the record pretty well.”

‘First Light’ is the fifth full-length from The Third Sound and arrives off the back of 2018’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Shadows’, 2016’s ‘Gospels of Degeneration’, 2013’s ‘The Third Sound of Destruction and Creation’ and their 2011 self-titled debut. With Hakon Aðalsteinsson leading the group on vocals and guitar, the rest of the band is currently comprised of Robin Hughes (Guitar / Organ), Fred Sunesen (Drums) and Andreas Miranda (Bass). With a number of European tours in tow, the band have previously shared the stage with the likes of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks, Singapore Sling, Crocodiles, Clinic, Tess Parks and more.

Like some kind of time-hopping wizard with preternatural melodic sensibilities, M Ross Perkins is back with his sophomore full-length, E Pluribus M Ross. The album, his first for Colemine/Karma Chief Records, is another masterclass in home recording with 12 shimmering slices of purely perfect psychedelic pop. In describing Perkins, it's not wrong to namecheck Rhodes and Nilsson, but you have to expand that list of influences to include pop-rock visionaries like Brian Wilson, Colin Blunstone, and even John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Let's also throw in the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Kinks as well. Perkins clearly learned plenty of helpful tips from these and other legends that made the late 1960s and early 1970s such a magical musical time, but he has charted his own singular path from the past and back again. The hooks, arrangements, and overall sense of songcraft are as sophisticated as the work of Wilson and Nilsson, which is remarkable when you consider Perkins not only produced all of the musical arrangements but also played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocal parts on the album. Even more impressive, Perkins is able to evoke all of these iconic figures in his songs without resorting to psych-rock cliches or outright thievery. It's an extraordinary balancing act, and what emerges is a shimmering tapestry of skillfully-woven musical threads, each harkening back to the past while simultaneously pointing toward the future.

Like some kind of time-hopping wizard with preternatural melodic sensibilities, M Ross Perkins is back with his sophomore full-length, E Pluribus M Ross. The album, his first for Colemine/Karma Chief Records, is another masterclass in home recording with 12 shimmering slices of purely perfect psychedelic pop. In describing Perkins, it's not wrong to namecheck Rhodes and Nilsson, but you have to expand that list of influences to include pop-rock visionaries like Brian Wilson, Colin Blunstone, and even John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Let's also throw in the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Kinks as well. Perkins clearly learned plenty of helpful tips from these and other legends that made the late 1960s and early 1970s such a magical musical time, but he has charted his own singular path from the past and back again. The hooks, arrangements, and overall sense of songcraft are as sophisticated as the work of Wilson and Nilsson, which is remarkable when you consider Perkins not only produced all of the musical arrangements but also played all of the instruments and sang all of the vocal parts on the album. Even more impressive, Perkins is able to evoke all of these iconic figures in his songs without resorting to psych-rock cliches or outright thievery. It's an extraordinary balancing act, and what emerges is a shimmering tapestry of skillfully-woven musical threads, each harkening back to the past while simultaneously pointing toward the future.

From Brest, France, this is the debut full length from Syndrome 81, who already left us with a handful of great singles and a couple of splits. This LP leans even further into the cold dark of traditional French Oi. Very melodic, catchy tunes with a layer of roughness mostly due to the anger in the vocals and rocking tempos. Like many things French, there is an underlying sense of existential hopeless despair layered with bursts of empowerment and perseverance. This is conveyed through dark anthemic lyrics and moody guitar leads that land somewhere between Camera Silens and later Blitz. A perfect soundtrack for a rainy day when you catch yourself questioning your existence in a doomed town. Though this album has an overall gloomy feel, in the depth of winter, you may find within this LP lay an invincible summer.

A creeping unpleasantness elevated by confidence... the clanging wallop of the Birthday Party, and the tongue-in-cheek swagger of Lubricated Goat.Party's over. Madison, Wisconsin's Sinking Suns have returned with Dark Days, their second album for Reptilian and third overall. The album title is an absolute indicator of what's to be found within: a creeping unpleasantness elevated by confidence and strut. This is not the spastic, bookish end of the noise rock spectrum, nor an over-distorted wallow in 90's kitsch, but an album of broad strokes and mature songwriting that cuts across genres - post-punk, post-hardcore, gritty rock, the clanging banging wallop of the Birthday Party and the tongue in cheek swagger of Lubricated Goat. It's a nod to something more enduring. There's a controlled swing to these nine songs. There's breathing space in the maelstrom. The drums aren't driving the songs off cliffs but cattle-prodding them forward. The bass isn't saturating every song with discolored thud but pushes a groove. Dark Days is not a sprint through fire, it's a long march to bloody victory chaperoned by Dennis Ponozzo's irreverent vocal snarl over haunting chord progressions and exquisite guitar figures. Sinking Suns really nailed it with this one. Their finest yet. This is the sound of men who've received the news of social collapse and are steeling themselves to tell the rest of us about the dark days ahead.

Who am I? This is the essential question that PENCEY SLOE explore on their sophomore full-length "Neglect". The Parisian dreamgaze rockers have dedicated their entire new album to the theme of identity. While founding-member, singer, and guitarist Diane Pellotieri is the main songwriter for PENCEY SLOE, her collaboration with new drummer and percussionist Clément Hateau has overall been much closer than with the previous line-up of the band. The result of this joining of musical forces is a more mature and complex sound. Although the French continue on their path of cinematic soundscapes and beautiful psychedelic colours, their occasional drifting into darker spheres and the perfect balance between Diane's vocals and meandering guitar textures create a sonic world of their own design. While the guest-contribution of ALCEST frontman Neige on 'The Run .I' is a welcome nod to the friendship that their compatriots have exerted on PENCEY SLOE, the inclusion of Justin K. Broadrick from among others GODFLESH and JESU is a more subtle pointer to an inspirational musician for the duo. PENCEY SLOE were conceived in the French capital of Paris in 2017. The name was in part inspired by J. D. Salinger's famous "The Catcher in the Rye". In the same year as the band's inception, a 5-track eponymous EP was self-released in 2017 and their acclaimed debut album "Don’t Believe, Watch Out" appeared in 2019. With "Neglect", PENCEY SLOE embark on a dream-like journey into the dangerous waters of identity. Who we are, who we want to be, and as who we want to appear to others might not be the same. Diane Pellotieri's voice offers musical guidance, driven by subtle drumming, and carried by a stream of guitars. Hoist the anchor, rig the sails, and listen diligently.

»Hallway Waverider« is Mikko Singh’s second album for Morr Music under his Haleiwa moniker. Blending the washed-out aesthetics of dream pop with a lo-fi take on modern psychedelia, it is a fuzzy record in more than one sense. The ten songs see the multi-instrumentalist explore the sonic idiosyncrasies of analogue recording equipment while also expressing a self-assured statement by a musician who has carved out a niche for himself and feels perfectly at home in it. “This record is like me telling my teenage self that I am OK,” says Singh. “Back then, I was recording my song ideas on cassette players but held the belief that music should be recorded in an expensive studio with expensive gear in order to be real.” As it turns out however, Singh had been right from the start, having come full circle as an established artist some twenty years later.

After exploring the affordances of vintage equipment for 2019’s »Cloud Formations« LP, Singh worked with a Tascam 244 4-track cassette recorder and Tascam 388 8-track reel-to-reel recorder to transform the sounds of his vintage synthesizers, bass, the occasional guitar part, and drums supplied by Svante Karlsson for »Hallway Waverider«. By experimenting extensively with the machines’ unique sonic qualities and constantly reworking the pieces in regards to their sound signature over the course of two years, Singh has found the perfect equilibrium of electronic music and lo-fi aesthetics while navigating with ease through styles like driving surf rock, gritty garage punk and ethereal dream pop. On his new record, he seamlessly integrates these influences into anthemic yet soothing songs.

The title of the album refers to Singh’s halcyon days as a teenager spent listening to punk music and—in wintertime—skateboarding in his own bedroom. The lyrics refer to surfing as a nod to both his own experiences with riding the waves and the music genre that has provided him with inspiration throughout his career as a prolific recording artist with three solo albums under his belt. However, surfing primarily serves as a metaphor for something bigger. “It’s about things in life that are important to me; things that make me feel good and soothe the mind,” he explains. It comes as no surprise then that »Hallway Waverider« is also dedicated to a key figure in his life. “The album is an ode to my mother who passed away in 2015,” says the artist. “She made it possible for me to have a good childhood and to be able to do what I love.”

This sense of closure and being at peace with himself is also expressed in lyrics like "A sea stroll. Going slower. Feeling featherlight,” expressing a calm that perfectly mirrors the music’s steady grooves and welcoming overall feeling. Starting with the upbeat »River Park/ Sleeping Pill«; to the almost ambient, synthesizer-heavy »A Bottomless Pit«; or short, punk-inspired and bassline-driven outbursts like »Watered Down« or »Halulu Lake«; to the blissful title track that closes the album, Singh opens up a whole panorama of different moods across a broad variety of musical styles. They are connected by that rare thing: a unique musical vision expressed by an instantly recognisable sonic signature.

Odd Men Out are something of a garage-psych international super-group, with members originally hailing from Italy, Spain and the UK. Lois (drums) and Alessandro (guitar, organ, vocals) had already been playing together in legendary freakbeat trio The Embrooks since '96, while bassman Bruno had served time with moody-psych-turned-spiky-British-Beat exponents The Liquorice Experiment and Looking Glass Alice. The untried 'x' factor in this equation is frontman, guitarist, songwriter Nicolino whose love of moody 12-string folk rock and florid psychedelia shapes the overall sound of the band. Late in 2019, the quartet gathered at North Down Sound Studios in south east Kent to record the material presented here. Tracked predominantly live with a bare minimum of overdubs, this is classic 60s-inspired garage-psych, with elements of The Lemon Drops, Basement Wall and The Baroques to name but a few, yet the four never let their influences get in the way of producing quality original material.

Wellington, New Zealand four-piece Hans Pucket writes nervy but effortlessly danceable rock songs about feeling bad. Their second full-length album, No Drama, which is out via Carpark Records, gleefully captures the all-too-common twenty-something anxieties of talking too much and then being unable to find the right words to say. When frontman Oliver Devlin sings, “I’m surfing a constant wave of alarm” on the title track, it’s a compass for the other nine tracks. This is inviting and relatable music for people who, despite their best efforts, feel uncomfortable about themselves, the state of the world, and their place in it.

Both lyrically and sonically, No Drama is a departure for Hans Pucket from their 2018 debut Eczema. “I realized I didn’t want to write any more real heartbreak songs,” says Oliver Devlin. “We were and still are a live band. We're still trying to make music that’s catchy and people can dance to, but also really interesting to us: songs about growing up and finding how you exist in the world.” Songs like “My Brain Is a Vacant Space” with its blistering guitars and ebullient hooks hone in on the feeling that you have nothing to offer while “Bankrupt,” a fuzzed-out punk track, boasts lines like “I don’t know if I’ll always feel like / I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”

Recorded with the band’s good friend and former tour mate Jonathan Pearce of The Beths at his Auckland studio, No Drama is full of big leaps, immaculate arrangements, and a ton of immediate grooves. “We were very ambitious when we first started recording this,” says bassist Callum Devlin. “Intentionally we left heaps of space in the track so we could add strings and horns. Because we were very measured and quite deliberate with the parts we had. It was a really fun process filling in the gaps.”

No Drama came together over several years and during its creation, the band added multi-instrumentalist Callum Passels, who provided all the horn arrangements on the LP. With Pearce producing, his other Beths bandmates like Benjamin Sinclair added string arrangements while singer Elizabeth Stokes provided backing vocals.

Overall it’s a remarkably eclectic record where the smooth pop of a track like “Kiss the Moon” can coexist perfectly with the Abbey Road freakout of “Some Good News.” “We didn’t want to be afraid of our 15-year-old self's influences,” says Oliver Devlin.” We really wanted to make an album that teenage us would just be amazed by.”

The result is Hans Pucket’s most sparkling and confident collection yet. While it’s danceable and fun, it’s also a thoughtful exploration of anxiety, a call for empathy in a turbulent time, and a relatable reminder that it’s hard to figure things out.

Limited edition on colored vinyl.

We've always done things our own way and without any outside pressure,” says Paul Isherwood of The Soundcarriers. “Making music like this keeps things fresh, you always lose something and gain something as you go along but I think of it as just another chapter.”

There have been many chapters in the life of the band to date and each one is defined by the singular approach and style of the group. Since forming in 2007 the band - comprised of Isherwood, Adam Cann, Dorian Conway and Leonore Wheatley - have released three albums that position them as a distinct and unique force in British music. Eschewing fads and trends that come and go, they have instead focused on honing their own sonic world that glides between woozy psychedelia, immersive grooves, subtle pop and rich, enveloping soundscapes. They’ve consistently moved at their own pace and on their own terms and on their fourth album, Wilds, they return after seven years since their last. “The sessions started in a cottage in the wilds so there's a literal meaning,” Isherwood says of the title. “But figuratively we've pretty much been in the wild for the last few years as far as a lot of people are concerned.”

The recording was staggered over a few different locations, from cottages to primary schools, before finishing in an art gallery. “The beauty of recording in non-studio studios is you have the time for the unexpected to happen,” says Isherwood. “Which is really what keeps you coming back for more.” As a result of the timeframe of the album, it’s one that has changed and grown a lot over the years. “The record has been through a lot of stages,” says Isherwood. “It's almost been circular. We started off wanting to do an album of more shorter, concise tracks and then sort of sidestepped into some more spacey ambient ideas so in a way the album is kind of a synthesis of the two phases, overall carrying on with many of the themes and influences of the first three but with a more focused approach.”

The opening ‘Waves’ leaps out the gate with an infectious hook kissed by a touch of French pop before leaping into a devilishly catchy chorus and into a mini prog-like flute breakdown. It sets the tone for an album that is rich in adventure and unpredictability that manages to balance experimentation with accessibility. ‘At The Time’ is almost unrelenting in its grinding charge, managing to create a groove that cracks and pulses at the same time, ‘Wilds’ is a gorgeously floating piece of music that skips along with strutting bass as Wheatley’s vocals merge melody with texture magically. The closing ‘Happens Too Soon gently stirs to life with an almost pastoral folk air to it, as it slowly builds into swirling psych pop rich in texture before reaching a rousing crescendo. “I feel this album sums up a lot of our influences,” says Isherwood. “There’s a strong folk influence in the sense of the actual songwriting but musically we wanted to create songs that were like those rare oddities you find on a bizarre charity shop record. A collection of "one offs" capturing a moment rather than trying to make a hit song.”

This sense of it being an album of unique songs is clearly apparent throughout but it also maintains a natural flow and cohesion. This is something that stems from the band’s approach to songwriting for the record. “A lot of the tracks started with a feel or groove,” says Isherwood. “Then building it into a more concise arranged piece. We were conscious that we didn't want the recording to sound too over-polished so although a lot of the tracks were quite painstaking in how they evolved we wanted the actual recording to be quite raw and not be reliant on cutting things up or overly editing things. We wanted it to sound natural rather than perfect.”

A Notwist concert is a Notwist concert is a Notwist concert. The band around the core trio of Cico Beck and the Acher brothers Markus and Micha usually takes its studio recordings as a mere starting point for their live performances, considering them to be possibilities that need to be explored further. This is especially true for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center,« a live record made under unusual circumstances. The band members rearranged songs from their ambitious 2021 album »Vertigo Days« in their studio in Weilheim to record and film a special performance. The songs took on a new life, becoming more psychedelic and intense when rearranged into a spontaneous, Krautrock-esque collage.

»Vertigo Days« was meant to transcend the conventional notion of a band as well as the creative and geographic boundaries inscribed into that concept. And even though life had other plans, this is precisely what the album did when it was released to both commercial success and critical acclaim in early 2021. Contributions by Tenniscoats singer Saya, Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay, Juana Molina, among others, as well as new member Theresa Loibl on bass clarinet, harmonium, and keyboard, expanded the band’s sonic palette, stylistic range, and even lyrical focus through the addition of different instruments, artistic approaches, and languages.

All of that was missing when the band retreated to their studio—dubbed Alien Research Center in response to, and in spite of, a nearby church called Christian Outreach Center—to further explore the possibilities of the source material. The band members considered this a challenge rather than an insurmountable problem and not only accepted, but fully embraced it. Trying to work as little as possible with the computers and samples—Saya’s voice on »Ship« being a notable exception—the band rearranged six tracks from »Vertigo Days« and a piece from the »One of Those Days« film soundtrack in order to allow themselves to improvise more freely, especially thanks to Loibl, who takes on a key role during these 45 minutes.

The intro sets the tone for what’s to come, contrasting loose jazz drumming with curious synthesizer rhythms in an abstract rendition of the first sounds that greeted the listeners on »Vertigo Days«. While the next four tracks—»Into Love / Stars«, »Exit Strategy To Myself«, »Where You Find Me« and »Ship«—follow the chronology of the album, they use the originals as a blank slate for further experimentation. The first track morphs into a feverish long-form jam that draws on the underlying groove to shift the dynamics from and leave behind the song structure of the studio version. It’s an exemplary piece in a recording that sees each individual musician leaving their mark on the overall sound, all while being perfectly attuned to what everyone else is doing around them. This continues up until the record’s triumphant finale, a whirring rendition of »Loose Ends.«

»Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« is at once a snapshot of a certain moment in the band’s history and the quintessential Notwist live record: a unique performance that both explores the untapped potential of the »Vertigo Days« studio recordings while also serving as an inspiration for upcoming live shows.

As with the studio album, the artwork for »Vertigo Days - Live from Alien Research Center« features photographs by Japanese artist Lieko Shiga, taken in the '00s.

Debt Rag, adult punk from olympia, wa~"no!" to settling on previous, riding laurels, what not. but the punk bonafides ARE in order: [members of Grass Widow, Preening, gSp].and SO-Max Nordile, Lillian Maring. Marissa Magic collaboration so easily fruitful and satisfying it had to be reanimated with geographic convenience in mind. revisioning composition, against nostalgia. successful? who knows, but it does bring joy!quality remains incidental, imaginary, rear viewed.themes - bodies, geological scale, infinite hillsthemes - anti-work, work, ecosystems"it looks good off paper"surfing disillusionment, meditations on the day-to-day. minimalist accretion - pointillist, not angular. an organic reduction of layers. and the pleasure of beaking the rind. parameter revamp! try the unfamiliar new thing! see the breaking glass in the underpass, etc. to honor accident: no toad left unstirred, no knowledge necessary, a whole novel everything.cooperatively generative, minus guitar. horns horning toodle doots, keyboard twinkles and splats/ bass calm thuds and dead ring/ collision sounds squeezed from a floor tom and cymbal and cowbell, unison drone, getting sloopy, keys still in the door. overall a thing to listen to and ponder.

“Late in 2021, Slow Season announced they’d become Westing, and that Ben McLeod (also of Nashville’s All Them Witches) was now in the four-piece on lead guitar alongside guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist Daniel Story Rice, bassist Hayden Doyel and drummer / recording engineer Cody Tarbell. Their new LP (fourth overall for Riding Easy), Future, is not coincidentally titled. “Says Rice, ‘We wanted to hit the reset button on some things and so we included a new band name to that list. Fresh start, for the psychological effect of it. We first met Ben in 2014 opening for All Them Witches in San Diego, and we did that again in 2016 and he and Cody corresponded about tape machines, music production, and other similar nerd stuff. We started swapping a few ideas early in 2021 and then flew him out for four days in August 2021. We got Future mostly down in that short span and did some remote stuff for overdubs, but nothing major. Obviously, our creative processes jelled pretty well to allow for such an efficiently productive session.’ “So the story of Westing, and of Future, is about change, but the music makes itself so immediately familiar, it’s so welcoming, that it hardly matters. For about ten years, the Visalia, California, outfit wandered the earth representing a new generational interpretation of classic heavy rock. The tones, warm. The melodies, sweet. The boogie, infectious. They went to ground after supporting their 2016 self-titled third album, and clearly it was time for something different. “Is Future the future? Hell, we should be so lucky. What Westing manifest in these songs is schooled in the rock of yore and theirs purely, and in that, Future looks forward with the benefit of the lessons learned across three prior full-lengths (and the accompanying tours) while offering the kind of freshness that comes with a debut. No, they’re not the same kids who released Mountains in 2014, and the tradeoff is being able to convey maturity, evolving creativity and stage-born dynamic on Future without sacrificing the spirit and passion that has underscored their work all along.” – JJ Koczan

Fans of the innovations and originality that sprang from the L.A. underground of the late 1970s and ’80s often ask, “What’s Paul B. Cutler been up to?” A vital participant in the Los Angeles music scene of that period as bandleader, songwriter, musician and producer, Cutler’s work—in particular his guitar playing—with The Consumers, 45 Grave, Vox Pop and The Dream Syndicate is still admired by fans and an influence on anyone interested in that period and the styles that developed from it. In 2014, “Ryan Adams contacted me and wanted to form a band. He loved 45 Grave, he wanted to do some goth / punk, whatever you want to call it. That’s right up my alley. He’s amazingly talented and inspiring to work with. We did that for a while, and I wrote a bunch of songs.” Enthused about his new material, Cutler continued recording songs with just his signature electric guitar style and vocals. As this was developing, another vet of the early L.A. scene—Brad Laner of Medicine and Savage Republic—got in touch with Cutler. Soon Laner was mixing, co-producing, playing keyboards as well as adding the rhythm section. The overall process took some time, with songwriting beginning in 2014. When reflecting on the music that comprises Les Fleurs, “To me, and it does not sound like it, but because of the philosophy I had while producing it, it’s punk. I come from the original punk, before it was a genre. Before it was a ‘sound.’ When I got to LA in 1977 there were about twenty, maybe thirty bands and they all sounded very different. The Screamers, The Deadbeats, so many different takes on what music could be. There was no chance for commercial success so we all just did what we wanted. I never stopped. So philosophically I consider this punk rock, made in its original spirit although nobody would recognize it as such. I am a punk to this day.” So that, dear reader, is the basic story. Now it’s up to you to see what you recognize in Paul B. Cutler’s Les Fleurs.

"During’s self-titled debut is a pipe bomb of originality, set to detonate and shake the foundation of the tired post-punk sounds of today when it hits via Chunklet on ______. And while some more obvious influences show across the ten track LP—like Devo, Sonic Youth and Gang of Four—its strength lies in some of it’s wilder ideas and influences, creating a wholly new approach as yet unseen in the otherwise very tired genre of post-punk. 'I've always been super influenced by post punk stuff. The Fall is definitely up there, as well as Wire and the Urinals, even the Gizmos,' says Fisher emphatically. 'The coolest thing about recording this LP was we didn't know what we were gonna end up with, it just sort of came out the way it came out. So while those influences are there because that's where we come from, none of it is totally clear because it’s jumbled up with so many of our other ideas.' Starting with a dizzying and frantic base, During's sound can best be classified using the hyper-cerebral approach of Devo, garnished with touches of their more frenetic speedfreak acolytes Minneapolis’ Uranium Club. It’s from there that things drift into territories unseen, with a cold vocal delivery not unlike Mark E Smith, a quirky and free-spirited approach like the Cardiacs, atonal riffing that recalls Sonic Youth, and a mildly funk-focused bed to tether down the madness a la A Certain Ratio or the Contortions. All that comes baked in with the care in songwriting found in the Wipers and nods to favorites like the Adaptors, Urinals and even This Heat. During's debut is boundary-pushing with limitless potential, visionary ideas and a sound that is ten steps ahead of the current legions trying to recreate The Fall and Joy Division. Despite all of the serious references and the nods to dizzying originality, During are quick to point out that this is a fun record at the end of the day. 'I'm not really capable of consciously making fun music but I feel like this record is fun, and much more than I knew I was capable of,' chuckles Cory Plump in response to the overall feel of the record. 'It’s just sort of upbeat—that may be the testament to the people in the band or it could just be because I’ve never done anything like this musically before, so I really extended myself in a way that I like.' Grab some headphones and crack open a coldie down by the beach to create the optimal experience for one of the most mind-bending and brilliant records of the year and in recent memory. A record like this doesn’t come around too often, but maybe a listen or two will conjure a few of your own ideas."—Fred Passaro, Creem Magazine

Uwanosora's alias unit, "Uwanosora'67", will finally release the "Portrait in Rock'n'Roll" series on LP! The two titles will be released simultaneously on August 23rd this summer from Kissing Fish Records!! The album "Portrait in Rock'n'Roll (2015)" was produced completely independently and distributed only at a limited number of stores. The style of Uwanosora's first album "Uwanosora" (2014), which was based on 70's pop music, has changed drastically, and now includes the essence of popular music such as Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, and the Niagara Sound, creating the Wall of Sound of the 10's. The overall sound is fresh, and this is the last work produced by vocalist Megumi Iemoto and guitarist and composers Hirohide Kadoya during their student days.

Since forming in 2004, Ohio rock band Smug Brothers have enjoyed a relaxed, almost nonchalant, approach to writing and recording, with most albums being minor Big Bangs - instant and electric. New LP In the Book of Bad Ideas, on the other hand, was a struggle against entropy - the disorder caused by plagues and departing personnel.

Singer, guitarist, and songwriter Kyle Melton wrote the majority of the tunes in "bunker fashion" during the miserable pandemic summer of 2020, then slowly started recording them with bassist Kyle Sowash, lead guitarist Scott Tribble, and drummer/Smug Brothers co-pilot Don Thrasher in 2021. That November, his contributions partially completed, Tribble decamped the band due to a new job and new demands. The exit was amicable, yet left the group in a lead guitar lurch. Melton had little choice but to enter the ring and play solos on some songs.

"That was both fun and frustrating," Melton admits. "Other than a handful of tracks over 15 years, I've not really done much lead playing with Smug Brothers. When Scott left, I was initially like 'Great. What now?' It took me a few weeks to psyche myself up to just go for it."

Finally, belatedly, both In the Book of Bad Ideas and its sister EP Emerald Lemonade were finished in the spring of 2022. And against the odds, the two-year slog produced pleasantly surprising results. On In the Book of Bad Ideas, the band's typical, semi-60s sound - boasting biting leads and breakneck jangles - is now fully integrated with synthesizers and crafted with a cool gloss, anachronistically creating the first Smug Brothers album of the early 80s. While all songs pop with Pac-Man vibrancy, tracks such as "Helium Drag" and "Enceladus Lexicon" could be lost classics by The Cars.

As Melton reveals, "I'm not sure it was a conscious move, honestly. We've been expanding our sonic palette significantly since [2017 LP] Disco Maroon; Scott had a lot to do with that push, especially with his keyboards. I just kept running with those moves. I was thinking more in terms of a 'slicker' sound on the tracks, adding more polish and really trying to get a better overall production."

Clearly the perseverance paid off. But album highlight "What Starts Out as Fun" begs an obvious question. "Yes, it's all still fun," Melton says with a laugh. "It's just more work now. We're really pushing ourselves, exploring new approaches. We are already working on new material, so we will just keep going forward and make it up as we go. Hopefully, In the Book of Bad Ideas gets a favorable reception that can give us a good headwind into the future."

It is hard to know how many times the mythology and mystery of Goat’s backstory can be written about, but new release ‘Medicine’ does away with any need to dwell on the past, returning with a more introspective, slightly mellower psych-folk sound that remains recognisably them.

There is a consistently restrained, warm feel across the whole work, and the band suggest that the overall theme of the album is about “the impermanence of life in different ways: sickness, relationships, love, death and how our time is finite”.

At times the album’s sound has nods to classic Swedish 70s psych/prog/folk acts such as Arbete & Fritid, Charlie & Esdor and Träd, Gräs & Stenar. ‘Vakna’ takes on this influence, progressing across nearly six minutes of swaying, warping guitar solos, without ever breaking out into chaos.

The ‘Medicine’ of the title may refer to a number of salves, or the value of relationships and love: “For our families, friends, society, this could be done through the use of psychedelics, through meditation, through learning from other people, staying curious and never settling for a ‘solid’ identity”.

Flute is foregrounded throughout, threading across several tracks from the opener ‘Impermanence And Death’. It duets elegantly with keening synth lines through the beautiful ‘You’ll Be Alright’, and leads the melody of the closing track ‘Tripping In The Graveyard’. ‘tsod’, with its backdrop of sitar and acoustic guitar, has an indelible vocal melody that could be a lost George Harrison recording.

The title of the full album version of first single, ‘I Became The Unemployment Office’, comes from an expression for someone taking advantage of you. The joyous, echo-laden groove of penultimate track ‘Join The Resistance’ bursts into life and continues to build to a moment of release with a huge Sabbath-esque riff.

Whatever your dosage, and regardless of your remedy, it is now time to take your medicine.

Formed in 2001, the psychedelic rock trio Circus Devils features vocalist Robert Pollard, backed by brothers Todd Tobias and Tim Tobias.

In their first album in six years, and their fifteenth overall, Circus Devils is back with Squeeze The Needle, a funhouse romp full of rock and roll swagger and childlike glee. The pounding psychedelia of the single “The Owl Presents…” harkens back to The Doors. Mixed into the twenty-track song collage are heavy rock thumpers (“Street Toughs,” “Mama’s Got A Brand New Snake”), cryptic interludes (“Age Of Transfusion”), and pretty acoustic pieces (“Difficult Dreamer,” “The Joke is Over”).

This record is massive and amazing. Nowhere To Go But Up is Guided By Voices’ third album of 2023 (and thirty-ninth overall) and is a sprawling, wild adventure. With virtually no choruses and just two repeated lyrics in forty minutes, GBV is audacious and unafraid.

One of the most fully realized works that Guided By Voices has created, Nowhere To Go But Up showcases an expert rock band at the top of their game. The band is on a roll and unstoppable. Following their monumental 40th Anniversary Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, GBV begins their fifth decade with a bang!

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.

Since 2011, Mike"s been a Drag City stalwart, first with Sic Alps, then as a solo and with The Peacers - but Mike "The Mighty Flashlight" Fellows has been a behind-the-scenes figure at Drag City since the early early days, playing live and on record with Royal Trux, Silver Jews and Will Oldham. Mike D"s music, in all phases, takes the form of a next-phase roots-pop: soaked in the traditional waters of rock and roll and passed through a variety of after-punk sonic sieves, highlighted with DIY and lo-fi values, and making a jolly hallucinatory racket, at that! He prefers a particular density of obtuse angles colliding sweet and hot noise, an arrangement he has perfected over all his Sic Alps/solo/The Peacers years; his innate understanding of the mechanics of a pop song wends purposefully through the junk-strewn landscape, sharing secrets with cipher in hand. Playing in this cracked kingdom of sound/garden of verse, Mighty Flashlight alternately accents and balances Mike"s eccentricities with his playing and knob-spinning - and with the Flashlight shining bright upon him, Donovan"s serpentine path becomes ever so much more elastic, heightened from line to line, change to change, its motility creating different shapes in our ears. Mighty"s own kind of stereo imagining informs Donovan"s smoky subterranea with additional depth of field, while still allowing all the wayward details within the arrangement to diverge as one. Mike and Mighty wind it all together: art punk utterance and top 40 radio junk of yore, the primitivity that formed recorded music in its youth, honkytonk romanticism, liminal chamber-folk and ever-present disassociated psychedelia, transformed via self-medication into a gleeful, extramusical ennui while giving the listener impetus to sing along with Mike"s patented unlikely combos of melody and lyric.

With Trouble Fête, Guilhöm reinvents himself with an uncompromising album that expands his musical horizons and makes a mockery of style. Twelve compositions nourished by numerous influences from pop, hip-hop, folk, rock, jazz, film music and world music. Six tracks in French or English, and six instrumental pieces give free rein to the emotions conveyed by the rich arrangements and numerous instruments: double bass, cello, guitars, pianos and keyboards, brass, electronic sequences, etc.It's a real voyage in sound, a journey through a rich, polymorphous universe, sometimes melancholic, but with a real overall coherence. A beautiful discovery.

Bob Balch here. In November of 2022 I went out to Joshua Tree for a day of jamming with the guys in Yawning Man with the intention of calling it “Yawning Balch.” No riffs were planned. We just plugged in and played. The only discussion beforehand was that Gary Arce and I wanted to mess with tons of guitar pedals. I knew that while we were jamming it sounded great, but it wasn’t until I got home and listened to it all that I realized we had something special. It’s hard to believe that we jammed for five hours and got two full length LPs and then some out of it. Every player killed it on these recordings and I’m beyond grateful to have my name involved with this legendary band. Fingers crossed they invite me back out annually for more jam sessions. I hope you enjoy these jams and please use responsibly. Side ONE A Moment Expanded (A Form Constant) ‘This is sort of a parallel piece to “Dreaming with Eyes Open” from Volume One. This is another totally improvised jam like the other songs. Although, I took this one back home and changed my guitar tones a little using different delays and reverbs. The overall piece of music remained the same though.’ Side TWO Flesh Of The Gods ‘This was actually the first song we tracked during the session. Just getting a feel for how we all played together as a band. I think it turned out awesome considering that. The main melody came quick and like the other tunes this one surfaced easily.’ Psychic Aloha 'This tune is the only song on the album that features any synth. For that reason there is a lot of different synth sounds as the song progresses. I overdubbed the synth parts after the fact but the other instrumentation remained untouched from the original jam.'

Bob Balch here. In November of 2022 I went out to Joshua Tree for a day of jamming with the guys in Yawning Man with the intention of calling it “Yawning Balch.” No riffs were planned. We just plugged in and played. The only discussion beforehand was that Gary Arce and I wanted to mess with tons of guitar pedals. I knew that while we were jamming it sounded great, but it wasn’t until I got home and listened to it all that I realized we had something special. It’s hard to believe that we jammed for five hours and got two full length LPs and then some out of it. Every player killed it on these recordings and I’m beyond grateful to have my name involved with this legendary band. Fingers crossed they invite me back out annually for more jam sessions. I hope you enjoy these jams and please use responsibly. Side ONE A Moment Expanded (A Form Constant) ‘This is sort of a parallel piece to “Dreaming with Eyes Open” from Volume One. This is another totally improvised jam like the other songs. Although, I took this one back home and changed my guitar tones a little using different delays and reverbs. The overall piece of music remained the same though.’ Side TWO Flesh Of The Gods ‘This was actually the first song we tracked during the session. Just getting a feel for how we all played together as a band. I think it turned out awesome considering that. The main melody came quick and like the other tunes this one surfaced easily.’ Psychic Aloha 'This tune is the only song on the album that features any synth. For that reason there is a lot of different synth sounds as the song progresses. I overdubbed the synth parts after the fact but the other instrumentation remained untouched from the original jam.'

Bob Balch here. In November of 2022 I went out to Joshua Tree for a day of jamming with the guys in Yawning Man with the intention of calling it “Yawning Balch.” No riffs were planned. We just plugged in and played. The only discussion beforehand was that Gary Arce and I wanted to mess with tons of guitar pedals. I knew that while we were jamming it sounded great, but it wasn’t until I got home and listened to it all that I realized we had something special. It’s hard to believe that we jammed for five hours and got two full length LPs and then some out of it. Every player killed it on these recordings and I’m beyond grateful to have my name involved with this legendary band. Fingers crossed they invite me back out annually for more jam sessions. I hope you enjoy these jams and please use responsibly. Side ONE A Moment Expanded (A Form Constant) ‘This is sort of a parallel piece to “Dreaming with Eyes Open” from Volume One. This is another totally improvised jam like the other songs. Although, I took this one back home and changed my guitar tones a little using different delays and reverbs. The overall piece of music remained the same though.’ Side TWO Flesh Of The Gods ‘This was actually the first song we tracked during the session. Just getting a feel for how we all played together as a band. I think it turned out awesome considering that. The main melody came quick and like the other tunes this one surfaced easily.’ Psychic Aloha 'This tune is the only song on the album that features any synth. For that reason there is a lot of different synth sounds as the song progresses. I overdubbed the synth parts after the fact but the other instrumentation remained untouched from the original jam.'

Firefriend Rcknrll ‘São Paulo is one of the largest, filthiest, and most violent cities of the world. And this is the music we make here’. Captured live at the No. 74 in São Paulo – brace yourself for a one way trip to the heart of darkness. Rcknrll is an transcendental psychedelic sonic assault, a lightning storm of guitar haze and drugged-out wailing. Mainlining an elegantly wasted take on two-chord avant garage rock that makes direct reference to Plastic Inevitable era Velvet Underground, where Yury Hermuche devotional fuzz layerd on top of Julie and Caca primal throbbing rythm - you will feel the effect as time and space start creasing and folding in at the edges. The overall music created at this venue on this night is so intense and claustrophobic that, at times it will pin you back into your seat – such is the physicality of Firefriends music. This is not just another live album - this is a mission statement. With a taste for hallucinogens and the drone Rcknrll is completely unyielding, it offers no concessions to listeners, demanding they embrace the distortion - . Do yourself a favour. Turn the music on, the lights off, and let yourself go.

Bay area textural pop group Torrey delve deep into a translucent dreamworld on their self-titled sophomore album. Bending classic shoegaze, rainy day indie rock sounds, and 90s alt rock flair into more intricate forms, the band uses these guitar-forward songs to shapeshift between gentle drifting and noisy breakthroughs. The overall effect is blissful, but never losing sight of the sturdy tunes underneath the fuzz. Some touchstones might include Lush, Drop Nineteens, Cocteau Twins and The Breeders, but Torrey have a deft grasp of their craft and a forward-thinking studio approach that places them very much in the NOW. Singles like No Matter How, Bounce and Moving are pure 2024 and place Torrey firmly alongside like-minded groups like Seablite, Winter and Alvvays who are enlivening a similar set of inspirations.

More than 10 years ago, Vincent Dupas, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy and Jérôme Vassereau created Binidu in parallel with their respective bands, Fordamage and Pneu, then very singular and of the most joyful french rock music. Their collaboration is a trek that started from green and sunny pastures to sink over time into mountains surrounded by storms. Binidu holds nothing back in composition, always ready to reinvent himself with each new album.

After "Yes", the first fresh and luminous one released in 2013, the second "Nouvel Ancient" in 2018, more adventurous and kind of lost in an apocalyptic world, the trio returns today just as adventurous but more in a peaceful way with "// ", a creation mostly focused on his appetite for the acoustics and electronics combination. A long-distance running music, which, from the top of the ridge lines, looks at the world with lucidity, embracing the entire landscape, valleys, towns, all the way to the sea.

It is their label, Kythibong, which, on the occasion of the festivities around his twentieth birthday, brings Binidu out of his brief hiatus. 2022 therefore sees the trio reunite and begin to compose a new repertoire with a strong desire to play at a low volume and thus be able to perform in a wide variety of locations. They then broached the composition of the third album changing their instrumentarium. The drums are now reduced to a split snare drum and a hi-hat, the modular synthesizers take an important place in the composition, Jérôme and Vincent play on small amps, the latter exchanges his electric guitar for an acoustic Parlor, and the sound of the voice is now devoid of any effect.

Over the course of rehearsals, Binidu starts to imagine “//” as an overall piece with five linked long compositions. Thirty-five minutes of music, alternating very acoustic phases and other electronic ones, creating supernatural spaces, moments of reflection, some pop, hypnotic and/or rhythmic bursts.

If you want to go to Jena, you first have to pass through this intimidating, massive wall of eleven-storey prefabricated buildings in Jena-Lobeda. And SNOW TRAIL from the same city provide the perfect soundtrack for sleepwalking through these or other concrete deserts at night with "Abandoned Capsule".On their debut album for It's Eleven Records, the rhythm drives the shadows forward with stoic composure, while the echoing guitar and pulsating bass meander through the darkness in melodic arcs. The vocals convey a subliminal aggression that manifests itself in occasional outbursts, but a brittle, flowing grace retains the upper hand overall. The trio acts minimalistically and...

Very dope.

With this EP an attempt is made at documenting the vibrant action happening during the late 1970s and early 1980s in the Pioneer Valley area of Western Massachusetts, US. The story is richer than the snapshot we present here, and a more detailed account is to be found in the accompanying book that can be purchased separately.

The Five Colleges in Hampshire County congregated a vast student population that inevitably interacted with the towns in the area. Bars, music and record stores, live music and a lot of experimentation and free thinking. Hampshire College, especially, promoted new approaches to teaching, subjects that might be considered radical by some even today, although a more favourable context would now surely exist for openly debating such topics as American Indians, Kayak Design, Black Oral Tradition, Food Management, etc. And the music? The immediate "punk effect" motivated the creation of numerous bands, many short lived, others evolving into New Wave / Power Pop territory, eventually crossing into Post-Punk experimentation. What is captured in "Noho EP" is a more electronic disposition, favoured by the existence of EMS gear and other equipment at Hampshire College and University of Massachusetts. We chose to focus on a group of musicians who, for a time, played together in different combinations under the loose umbrella of the Tekno Tunes label and the structure around it.

These musicians come from very different backgrounds and the nucleus portrayed here consisted of Christopher Vine, Elliott Sharp, James Whittemore and Nicholas Brown.

Of the several line-up changes The Scientific Americans went through, it was actually only the duo of Chris Vine and Jim Whittemore who recorded "Among Bodge Watt". Never before released, it is a companion piece to their track "El Salvador" available on the 1981 Roir tape-album "Load & Go!". The Sci Ams were founders of the Tekno Tunes label and also created the Tekno Tours "concert promotion agency", under which name they exposed local audiences to bands such as The Stranglers, The Slits, Pylon, Pere Ubu, The Psychedelic Furs, The Bush Tetras, Steel Pulse, etc. Their own sound kept progressing but at its best there's a solid dub undercurrent, pretty obvious in "Among Bodge Watt".

Human Error was born out of a collective jam by Chris Vine, Elliott Sharp, Jim Whittemore and Nick Brown. Elliott Sharp had moved to Northampton in August of 1978 and naturally became involved in the local music scene, hooking up first with Whittemore at a hi-fi audio store where he worked at the time. Basement jams followed stimulating conversations, and other musicians joined the sessions. "Clandestinator" sounds gorgeously loose, an effortless groove coming from a quasi-dub set-up. Nothing here seems calculated, the music just flows, contagious and irregular as the handclaps in the mix.

The Higher Primates later evolved into a "proper" band but started as Nick Brown's solo project. The Primates only ever released a (now sought-after) 7" single in 1980 (on the Tekno Tunes label, precisely). Both tracks on "Noho EP" were recorded the following year and never released until now. "Auto Music in the Disco Dub Style" is self-explanatory, with a steady, mid-tempo Tr808 beat running through, supporting synth squelches, echoes and reverbs, a fat bassline, dissonant melodic lines and odd vocal snippets. Kind of a DJ tool when the concept was barely in place. The more uptempo "Teresa Variations" adds a Fender Jazz bass and Selmer sax to the electronics. It actually sounds more "Disco", even with the robotic, unintelligible vocals. On top of this, the vibe is sealed by the overall Radiophonic Workshop analogue strangeness applied to a dance beat.

In one sense, it's easy for artists-songwriters, specifically-to express their feelings in their work. After all, that's what the lyrics are for! But it's much harder to convey emotional energy in how you play, slash at the guitar, and the structure of the music itself. That's precisely why Girl and Girl's Sub Pop debut, Call A Doctor, feels like such a vital, electrifying shock to the senses. Not since the early work of Car Seat Headrest or Conor Oberst's widescreen emotional brutality as Bright Eyes has indie rock managed to come across as this intimate and grandiose, as the Australian quartet led by Kai James lay a lifetime's worth of woes-mental health, the human race's planned obsolescence if you've been living on this cursed rock you know what we're getting at-across a canvas of indie rock that feels both timeless and in-the-moment. An audacious and aggressively tuneful blast of a record, Call A Doctor is an unforgettable first bow from Girl and Girl, whose origins lie in James and guitarist Jayden Williams jamming in his mother's garage in the afternoon after school. One afternoon, James' Aunty Liss headed down to their practice space after walking her dog and asked if she could sit in on drums. "It sounded really great," James recalls. "We begged her to stay, and she said, 'I'll stay until you find another drummer.' We wore her down, and she eventually became a permanent member." After bassist Fraser Bell joined to round things out, Girl and Girl hit the road and began to make a name for themselves beyond the Australian bush, eventually signing to Sub Pop off the strength of word of mouth. Call A Doctor came together quickly soon after, largely recorded in marathon sessions in a two-story industrial complex over the course of two weeks. "That added to the intensity of the album," James says about the frenzied creative process overseen by producer Burke Reid. "I can hear the stress in the record, which is good because that's what it's about-being tense, tied up, and in your own head." Call A Doctor's eleven songs-spanning sweeping guitar epics and wry acoustic shuffles to spiky punk maneuvers and the type of raw, adoringly unvarnished indie-pop associated with legendary PacNW label K Records-are literally plucked from James' personal history, as he reworked older recordings with newer lyrics reflecting his past struggles as well as new anxieties that emerged prior to the album's recording. "I've struggled with mental health for a lot of my life," he explains, "and I went through a particularly difficult patch when we were making the album; the band had started to get some attention, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to live up to it." "This record is about an individual who's too far in their head, trying to get out," James continues while discussing Call A Doctor's overall outlook-specifically the snapshot it offers of its creator. But even though this record deals with uneasy topics we all know well from within ourselves, it's important to emphasize how teeming with life Girl and Girl's music is. There's a brazen, bold sense of humor to this stuff, an undeniable brightness to the darkness that makes it impossible not to be drawn in as a listener. Feeling down never sounded so goddamn good.

“All this I do for glory” is a reasoning and exploration of the machinations of ambition and legacy, an examination of the concepts of afterlife, and the first half of a doomed love story in the model of the greek tragedies. As a narra- tive, it exists temporally somewhere between 2015’s “Never were the way she was” (with Sarah Neufeld) and the 1st volume of the NHW Trilogy.

With this, his first solo outing since 2013’s “To See More Light”, Colin Stetson ventures into territory both familiar and strange. Here still, is the dogmatically stripped down approach to performance and capture (all songs recorded live with no overdubs or loops) but there is an immediacy to the album that belies a more invasive and thorough miking of the various instruments being utilized and a seeming influence drawn from the early nineties electronica of artists like Aphex Twin and Autechre, evident in the more pointed role played by the instruments’ many percus- sive elements.

There are ancestries, motivic and timbral, woven through these six songs that plainly anchor them within the shared universe of his Trilogy, though the overall experience is one of extreme intimacy, the sounds and imagery more tangible and immersive than previous offerings. The brief and brutal “In the clinches” recalls (or presages) echoes of songs like “Judges”, though now feeling like one has fallen down the bell of Stetson’s ancient bass sax- ophone itself. “Spindrift”, crystalline and serene, calls to mind the ambient works of Aphex Twin, while “Between Water and Wind” with it’s “Immigrant Song” swagger, relentlessly carves it’s way into the bedrock here, paving the way with an increasing focus on the minute and the minimal, with a deepened sense of patience shared by most of the album’s six tracks.

Engineered and mixed by Stetson himself, this album represents a decidedly independent approach across the entire creative process and finds him at the top of his game, both as a composer and instrumentalist as well as a producer.

Upchuck are experiencing a moment. The Atlanta punk collective just came off multiple tour runs with their good friend Faye Webster. Their Ty Segall-produced second album Bite The Hand That Feeds, with all its buzzsaw guitars and high-speed rippers and headbanging sludge, arrived in October. Later this year, they’ll make appearances at multiple festivals including Coachella. In the midst of relentlessly barreling ahead, the band and their label Famous Class are taking a beat to revisit how they got here. After working with Segall on Bite the Hand That Feeds, the band floated the notion that they wished they could hear what their collaborator could do with the songs on their 2022 debut album Sense Yourself. Holed up in his studio over Christmas with Covid and nothing else to do, Ty Segall began toying with Sense Yourself, sifting through folders of unlabeled stems to find the best guitar parts, emboldening the drum sound, and bringing greater clarity to KT’s vocals, all while bolstering the urgency of the band’s overall attack. With Segall’s new mix, Upchuck’s intense and righteous debut now impossibly overflows with even more fuzz and fury. In Segall, they found a kindred spirit whose studio approach made sense for just how hard they wanted this music to hit. “When we first went to record with Ty for Bite the Hand That Feeds, Mikey and I walked into the guitar room and Ty said, ‘Don’t touch the EQs.’ We looked at the amp and everything was on 10 except the master volume,” Hoff said. Previously, the band had been encouraged to capture the unvarnished sound of the studio. They’d toured with Segall’s band Fuzz, so everybody had the same goal while recording together: Capture the electricity of their intense live set.

Asher White’s third album in two years (and fifteenth overall), Home Constellation Study is less a refinement of last year’s sly, quaint New Excellent Woman, and more an explosion of it. Her meticulous chamber pop has given way to resplendent swells of horns and squeals of noise, throbbing bass and queasy orchestral loops. The cover, painted by White, frames a burst of flowers against a dark blue abyss, mimicking the music: over-frenzied sambas, bleary slacker rock, hushed ambient meditations, and surprisingly slick disco, White mines her personal minutiae for tokens of political decay, alienation, and religious rapture.

The past year has found the prolific Providence-based singer-songwriter ascending through her city’s fertile experimental rock scene alongside the breakout synth-punk act babybaby_explores and her labelmates Or Best Offer. Live, White’s band plays riotous, unpredictable noise rock that nods to their city’s storied DIY scene; on Home Constellation Study, mid-album highlights like “Downstate Prairie” and “Hymn” nod to Providence’s bands of yore with their blistering sheets of feedback and pummeling drums, placing White, improbably, within the lineage of local heroes Les Savy Fav or the broken pop dispatches of Black Pus.

At its core, however, Home Constellation Study is the product of studied, monastic auteurism. Like New Excellent Woman, it was arranged, performed, recorded and mixed by White alone in her basement studio in Providence. “Happy Birthday” is an earnest psalm, a paean of devotion and remorse to God a la Beverly Glenn-Copeland that drifts along with Panda Bear haziness. White’s concept of “toxic femininity” undergoes further investigation on “Good Luck!” and “Runes,” both with Elliott Smith-like chord changes and the barbs of cynical romantics like Aimee Mann. Asher White’s vision has never been so expansive and unpredictable.

In the past 7 years Guppy has evolved from their In the Garage EP origins, releasing 2 albums - In Heat and their most recent album Big Man Says Slappydoo. Joined in the last 2 years by their newest member Kabir Kumar (Sun Kin) on lead guitar and backing vocals, the band has expanded their musicality, moving beyond their garage punk origins into the realms of power pop, disco, country, and surf rock. With this latest evolution of Guppy comes their most ambitious record yet Something is Happening… Guppy again teamed up with Slappydoo producer Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties / boygenius) for their third album ‘Something is Happening…,’ recorded at Elliott Smith’s old studio New Monkey in Van Nuys. The songs on this album are Guppy’s most collaborative e ort yet made up of equal contributions from all four members. The result is a sonic hero’s journey venturing from ambient wistfulness, to post punk irreverence, to sincere indie crooning, to playful garage rock, and returning back again to the beginning, but this time you’re changed. The themes of Something is Happening speak to a feeling of overall hopelessness born from the realization that the system is not here to protect us and an accompanying emergence of hope as we invest in and lean on our communities. Guppy rejects nihilism, relishes in absurdism, and ultimately agrees with poet Khalil Gibran that “the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain”. The album is made up of observations about absurd speci cs that either want to kill us or celebrate us and sometimes Guppy can’t di erentiate between the two: “Why does it smell like scrambled eggs when I’m driving on the freeway? What’s the di erence between love and hate when I feel it in my body?”

Coke Bottle Green vinyl.Who were the first punks? Do The Damned have more of a shout than The Sex Pistols? The Stooges or Ramones? Gregg Deal, the acclaimed visual and performance artist behind his new project Dead Pioneers, is making a claim that Indigenous Americans were the first real punks.Deal suggests that the overarching theme of the album is "an introduction to the band itself". Created with a DIY disposition and the "love of a scene that saves lives", they reel off a roll call of marginalised groups and protected characteristics: "Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond_". This is central to their identity and focus, saying that "with a North American Indigenous person as the vocalist, being unapologetically upfront on the social, political and cultural side of things doesn't seem necessary, but paramount to the overall tone of the band."This self-titled debut, coming in at a lithe 22 minutes with only one of the twelve tracks exceeding three minutes, is almost over before it begins, but covers a huge amount of ground in that time. Blistering opener 'Tired' sets out their stall; as with the whole album, it is passionate, but never preaching. Capitalised 'Political Music' can be hard to land without coming across as hectoring or earnest, but Deal's literary, humorous lyrics effortlessly cut through complex issues of marginalisation and colonialism.

Presenting 3+5, the long-awaited eighth album from Tokyo-based noise-rockers Melt-Banana on their own A-Zap label!

The album showcases the duo’s visionary musical approach and extraordinary abilities as performers: Yasuko Onuki’s giddy, hyperactive vocalizing and Ichiro Agata’s glitchy, cyberpunk guitar, delivered at dizzying speed, bathed in aggressive electronic sounds. Their aesthetic approach is exultantly experimental, fusing diverse genres imbued with chaotic energy. As on their previous works, the music on 3+5 is unpredictable, always filled with surprises and excitement.

3+5 synthesizes elements of a variety of extreme musics, hyper-pop, classic punk, vintage metal, and noise. It partakes of Japanese culture overall, especially the subcultures of gaming, anime and underground music.

Melt-Banana seek to offer possibilities to musicians who won’t start a band if they can’t find a drummer, young women afraid to express themselves in their own unfiltered and unique voices, bedroom musicians and egg punks seeking to blend electronic noise with live instrumentation. 3+5 provides a fresh experience and perhaps inspiration for all.

While Melt-Banana hasn’t explicitly explained the meaning behind the album’s title, 3+5, prime numbers symbolize mathematical integrity and independence, which could represent the band’s uniqueness and freedom. Why “3+5” and not “1 + 7”? One is left to ponder.

Neon pink vinyl, limited to 500 copies. Who were the first punks? Do The Damned have more of a shout than The Sex Pistols? The Stooges or Ramones? Gregg Deal, the acclaimed visual and performance artist behind his new project Dead Pioneers, is making a claim that Indigenous Americans were the first real punks.Deal suggests that the overarching theme of the album is "an introduction to the band itself". Created with a DIY disposition and the "love of a scene that saves lives", they reel off a roll call of marginalised groups and protected characteristics: "Indigenous rights, Black rights, Brown rights, Asian rights, Gay rights, Trans rights, Workers rights and beyond_". This is central to their identity and focus, saying that "with a North American Indigenous person as the vocalist, being unapologetically upfront on the social, political and cultural side of things doesn't seem necessary, but paramount to the overall tone of the band."This self-titled debut, coming in at a lithe 22 minutes with only one of the twelve tracks exceeding three minutes, is almost over before it begins, but covers a huge amount of ground in that time. Blistering opener 'Tired' sets out their stall; as with the whole album, it is passionate, but never preaching. Capitalised 'Political Music' can be hard to land without coming across as hectoring or earnest, but Deal's literary, humorous lyrics effortlessly cut through complex issues of marginalisation and colonialism.

Gatefold white vinyl LP!A rock'n'roll sensation from the word go, Danish-Brazilian The Courettes are back with their fourth and best album to date: "The Soul Of_ The Fabulous Courettes". And this time, they're bigger, wider and deeper than ever before as they add more to the blistering ramalama that's seen them cause pandemonium across the venues, festivals and airwaves of the UK, Europe, USA and Japan. Hitting the sweet spot that straddles garage rock, girl groups, doo-wop harmonies, heartache and all points in between, here The Courettes build on the momentum of predecessor 'Back In Mono' with a collection of songs that opens up their sonic scope while confronting dark, emotional matter to reveal 'The Soul Of The Fabulous Courettes'."We didn't want to do Back In Mono 2'," stresses drummer Martin Couri.Having evolved with each album release, "The Soul Of_ The Fabulous Courettes" draws inspiration from many of the duo's numerous idols that have only previously been hinted at."We wanted to show our love of the Spector Wall Of Sound and Motown," reveals Flavia. "It was a clear mission and we've absolutely nailed it."From the glorious opening beats and stabbing fuzz honks of 'You Woo Me' to the closing emotional tugs of 'For Your Love' via 'SHAKE!''s fuzzed-up urgency and 'California''s celebratory warmth, The Courettes have broadened their sound with an increased musical instrumentation and overall sophistication that's evident in both their sound and songwriting. And crucially, they've achieved this without sacrificing any of the rock'n'roll grit that's been scraped from Flavia's guitar strings and Martin's battered and pummelled drums. And aiding them in their quest for sonic perfection are a few guest musicians and back-room wizards playing some very specific roles.While the music has opened up to include acoustic and 12-string guitars, bass, E-bows, castanets and timpani, so have the kind of emotions that might not ordinarily be associated with The Courettes.The Soul Of_ The Fabulous...

A rock'n'roll sensation from the word go, Danish-Brazilian The Courettes are back with their fourth and best album to date: "The Soul Of_ The Fabulous Courettes". And this time, they're bigger, wider and deeper than ever before as they add more to the blistering ramalama that's seen them cause pandemonium across the venues, festivals and airwaves of the UK, Europe, USA and Japan. Hitting the sweet spot that straddles garage rock, girl groups, doo-wop harmonies, heartache and all points in between, here The Courettes build on the momentum of predecessor 'Back In Mono' with a collection of songs that opens up their sonic scope while confronting dark, emotional matter to reveal 'The Soul Of The Fabulous Courettes'."We didn't want to do Back In Mono 2'," stresses drummer Martin Couri.Having evolved with each album release, "The Soul Of_ The Fabulous Courettes" draws inspiration from many of the duo's numerous idols that have only previously been hinted at."We wanted to show our love of the Spector Wall Of Sound and Motown," reveals Flavia. "It was a clear mission and we've absolutely nailed it."From the glorious opening beats and stabbing fuzz honks of 'You Woo Me' to the closing emotional tugs of 'For Your Love' via 'SHAKE!''s fuzzed-up urgency and 'California''s celebratory warmth, The Courettes have broadened their sound with an increased musical instrumentation and overall sophistication that's evident in both their sound and songwriting. And crucially, they've achieved this without sacrificing any of the rock'n'roll grit that's been scraped from Flavia's guitar strings and Martin's battered and pummelled drums. And aiding them in their quest for sonic perfection are a few guest musicians and back-room wizards playing some very specific roles.While the music has opened up to include acoustic and 12-string guitars, bass, E-bows, castanets and timpani, so have the kind of emotions that might not ordinarily be associated with The Courettes.The Soul Of_ The Fabulous Courettes is an album aime...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

arottenbit is an electronic music project born in 2008 by Alessandro 'Otto' Galli (FOH Sound Engineer for Messa, Deafheaven, Pallbearer, Truckfighters, Bongzilla, Fuoco Fatuo).Playing solo with a 1989 NINTENDO GAME BOY or accompanied by hardcore punk drummer Guido Montanarini (PARADISE LOST, IMPLORE, THE SECRET), he soon found himself opening for some of his favorite bands like MELVINS, ATARI TEENAGE RIOT, THE BODY, MELT BANANA, AUTHOR & PUNISHER, FULL OF HELL and performing at major international festivals like ROADBURN 2022, HELLFEST 2022."You Don't Know What Chiptune Is" is a bold exploration of the chiptune genre, pushing the boundaries of 8-bit music with an experimental and innovative approach. Each track on the album is a unique specimen, meticulously crafted to showcase the versatility and depth of chiptune sounds.The album is characterized by its inventive use of 8-bit sound chips, evoking the essence of vintage gaming consoles like Game Boy. arottenbit skillfully manipulates these sounds to create a wide range of textures and atmospheres. The lo-fi, raw quality of the 8-bit era is preserved, while contemporary production techniques enhance the overall listening experience.

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.