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Ava Mendoza has never made an album quite as personal as her second solo full-length, The Circular Train. Through her decades of collaborations with Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, William Parker, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, and Mick Barr—plus years leading her power trio Unnatural Ways and playing in Bill Orcutt’s quartet—the guitarist’s name has become synonymous with virtuoso technique, raw passion, and visceral resonance, a player pushing the edges of the guitar’s possibilities. Along the way, from 2007 to 2023, Mendoza was writing these slow-burning, incandescent songs. The Circular Train is comprised solely of her single-tracked guitar playing and, on two songs, her corporeal singing. Her first solo LP of original material since relocating from California to New York City a decade ago, much of The Circular Train was honed amid pandemic years that clarified the virtues of slowing down.

This expressive avant-rock is a definitive introduction to one of the most uncompromising and inquisitive visions in creative music. Mendoza’s thrilling melange of free jazz, blues, noise, classical training, and blazing experimental rock’n’roll all coheres with ecstatic feedback, with picking and solos that crest with shimmer. Sometimes she sounds like a one-woman Sonic Youth with guttural and poised vocals that equally evoke Patti Smith and blues greats like Jessie Mae Hemphill. Conceptually, The Circular Train is presented as a psychogeographical train ride through certain of Mendoza’s musical homelands. The songs draw on ancestral and recent familial memories, notably of her parents’ roots in mining towns—in her father’s home country of Bolivia and mother’s hometown of Butte, Montana, each country with its own history of colonialism, racism, forced labor, the eradication of culture and the subsequent excavation of it.

These adventurous songs were composed in cars and planes, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, in Los Angeles and upstate New York—which is to say in motion. “Ride to Cerro Rico,” named for the mountain and silver mine at the center of Potosi, Bolivia, was inspired by Mendoza’s great grandmother’s life there in a Quechua mining family. “Dust From the Mines” drew from that history as well as Mendoza’s familial lineage of miners in Montana, building up to stunning swaths of shredded iridescence. “Pink River Dolphins” was inspired by a visit to the Amazon rainforest, swimming with dolphins alongside her father—the pink bufeos that inhabit both Bolivia and Columbia—and the song is dedicated to the memory of Mendoza’s late friend, the Colombian-American trumpeter jaimie branch. They shared a fascination with those intelligent and agile creatures who often communicate by echolocation. “Make a sound, it comes back around,” Mendoza sings, and later, “Echo, echo/The answer in a sound,” evoking what branch knew well: through music we navigate life.

The Circular Train contains one cover, “Irene, Goodnight,” composed by Gussie Lord Davis and popularized by Leadbelly; Mendoza has been performing it for over 20 years. Almost as deeply embedded in her repertoire is the penultimate track, “The Shadow Song.” “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you good,” Mendoza sings on this song that she’s been reworking for over a decade, an emblem of devotion. “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you right,” she repeats, becoming a blues mantra. What is a shadow self if not one’s secret world, which, once laid bare, awaits an echo, a return?

In August 1982, Limbo District—percussionist Jerry Ayers, vocalist Craig Woodall, bass player Davey Stevenson, Farfisa player and vocalist Dominique Amet, and guitarist Tim Lacy—traveled from Athens, GA to Winston-Salem, NC to record at Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio. The session took place just two months after fellow Athens band R.E.M. had gone there to record their debut Chronic Town EP.

With Easter, Limbo District recorded a five-song set of bewitching rhythms and guttural poetry, chants, and howls that culminated in a Dionysian, avant-garde pulse.

These songs later accompanied photographer Marlys Cox’s images brought to life in Jim Herbert’s experimental film, “Carnival.” Aside from the few seconds of “Carnival” that appeared in Tony Gayton’s documentary “Athens, GA: Inside/Out,” Limbo District has remained unheard by anyone who wasn’t there to witness the band's powerful blend of music and performance art as it happened.

Carnival offers a glimpse behind the curtain, revealing a contemporary of the B-52’s, Pylon, R.E.M., the Method Actors, Love Tractor, and more, and presents a thread to unravel a perfect mystery.

Limbo District’s significance is matched only by its obscurity, and the complete Mitch Easter session has remained unreleased until now.

"When I moved to Georgia in 1991, the only Athens band I was looking for was Limbo District. For decades, I remained empty handed. And now, the crown jewel of the Limbo story is unearthed: Carnival. Chunklet is proud to have excavated this apparition and it is now time to celebrate the band's delirious, cryptic and in-the-moment existence. Behold: Limbo District!"—Henry Owings, Chunklet Industries

“It was exactly the kind of thing that I wanted to be doing. … Limbo District stood tall as being absolutely their own thing, and not remotely concerned with commercial music at all. Still, the songs were catchy.”—Mitch Easter (original producer, owner of Drive-In Studio, Let’s Active)

“Everything about Limbo District is kind of a surprise. Their music is its own category. What struck me was the uniqueness of it. In a college town music scene, there are so many creative young people who tend to wear their influences on their sleeve. Limbo District's music is not easily pegged.”—David Barbe (2023 producer, Chase Park owner, Mercyland)

“Michael Stipe championed Limbo District because he connected with Jerry. They were such close friends back in those early days. He helped Michael see a vision for himself that he would not have seen on his own, and things wouldn't have been the same for R.E.M.”—Lady Clare Butler, The Now Explosion

Formed in Philadelphia during the Covid days of fall 2021, Bitter Wish is a psychedelic power trio comprising guitarist John Comune, bassist Clint Takeda (Bardo Pond/Double Wig) and percussionist Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek/ Heavy Lidders). While the band doesn't stray far from its Bardo Pond and Kohoutek roots, they incorporate more repetition and minimalism into their fuzzy vibe. Freeform psych—the children of Fire Music parents secretly raised on Sabbath... Candle Finger, Bitter Wish’s debut full-length, is comprised of two side-long jammers. Both sides are untitled, with side A starting out with nearly 10 minutes of psychedelic bass swells, light percussion, and soloing guitar, guiding the listener down the tunnel, just in time for the proverbial freight-train heading their way. It eventually builds into a faster-than-mid tempo scorcher, with heavily phaser-drenched bass, steady drumming with just the right number of fills, and that soloing guitar, still leading the listener on through to the other side of the mountain pass, before chilling things out before its time to flip the record. On the other hand, side B puts it right out there. Right off the bat, this is a thick, heavy, and plodding slab of awesomeness. Destroying everything in its path, before taking a slight breath for a bit, and then cranking up the speed to a manic frenzy. The last 5 or so minutes are spent winding things down, encouraging the listener to flip the record and start things all over again. Recorded live at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn NY, in July 2023. Mastered by James Plotkin. Edition of 284 copies.

Only 10 measly months has passed sinceAlien Nosejob released their Garage Rock record “The Derivative Sounds of…Or… A Dog Always Returns to its Vomit” (Goner / Anti Fade). Since its release, there’s been two international tours, two interstate tours and a bunch of chillaxing on the beach. ANJ is now back in the office and the next record is fast approaching.

“Turns the Colour of Bad Shit” will be Jake Robertson’s seventh solo record under the extremely vast and evolving umbrella that is Alien Nosejob. On September 20 Anti Fade Records (au), Total Punk (us) & DrunkenSailor (uk) join forces to split the shit pie into three different shades ofBad Shit and feed the 5000 hungry fans across the globe.

Taking musical inspiration from the late 70’s punk sounds of J.T. IV, Elton Motello, X-Ray Spex, ‘Bad Shit' came to life in April 2023 when Jake occupied friends’ Mikey and Raven’s home studio for a weekend and took to the controls on his own.

The album opens with the gut-wrenching terror that is 'Bird Strike’. A song made up of a hypnotic riff, haunting saxophone line (courtesy of Alannah Sawyer) and grotesque lyrical imagery that parallels Revee Bendixen's mutilated album artwork. 'Trapped in Time' lightens the mood with an upbeat tempo and words that poke fun at those stuck living in the past, while 'Annoying Riffs' points the finger at almost all of society (including himself). Jake reminds us that he can most certainly play a guitar solo (In case anyone forgot the Stained Glass record) on 'The Ostrich’ before the blistering 24 minutes wraps up with ‘Medical Treatment’; a 3 minute, minor chord Birdman worship. This record has a little something for everybody.

Next up on Feral Child sees a reissue of a 45 that initially came and went in a day, last July. A beautiful pair of instrumental gems from two of label head Dom’s musical heroes; Will Sergeant and Paul Simpson. Released as a limited 7” clear vinyl repressing. Wills' “Toy Piano Mantra” is a beautifully meandering, slow building, multi layered piece- more melodic than some of his previous more experimental solo work; of its back story and creation, Will says: “I’m not really one for acoustic guitars, I have played them on Eatb records, but the electric guitar is my weapon of choice. So I set myself a little task -for no other reason than it being a bit of fun- and thought “Why don’t I make a collection of acoustic tunes, purely to see if I could?”. All my acoustic guitars are very cheap, which never stopped me using them. I had bought a Chinese pedal harmonium in London in the ’80s, and scrounged the use of a good ukelele, my Auto Harp was an obvious component, then I remembered the toy piano I had bought in a pop-up flea market in a vacant New York lot, back when New York still had vacant lots. Deliberately deciding against having any tunes ready, everything was set up and with the help of Andrea my engineer and pro tools wizard, we kept the good bits and expanded with these instruments until I felt it was finished. It was all off the top of my head and my fingers created music like some automatic drawing that Austin Osman Spare might have conjured up on one dark and ritualistic night. I added the toy piano and christened it “The Toy Piano Mantra”. Paul’s side features the previously unreleased “Ghosts of the Karelia Forest” recorded in 2006, a beautifully simple piano piece which again slowly builds, and distorts with added moog and so on. Paul says of the piece: “The higher harmonics of the tuned wine glasses used on this piece, sent the VU meters on the mixing desk at The Gossamer Dome studio into the red, but Producer Henry Priestman and I both liked what that distortion added to the atmosphere of the piece, so chose not to correct it. ….I await its use in a disturbing art house movie”. When the single was first released, both Will and Paul were embarking on next / first instalments of their books; Will’s “Echoes” and Paul’s “Revolutionary Spirit: a post punk exorcism”- both are now long since out, selling well and receiving rapturous reviews both here and overseas. Releasing this one is firmly in honour-to-do territory for the label, and initial copies are available from Feral Child HQ but mostly via shops courtesy of Forte Distribution.

L’étrangleuse is two girls and two boys who play a form of undefined minimalist rock and four-part free song, amplifying the dialogue between a pedal harp in bird's-eye maple and a djéli n'goni in goatskin, underpinned by the archaic grooves of a rhythm section adorned with trinkets.L’étrangleuse’s shelter is a Touareg tent lost in the immensity of the frozen tundra, where the spirits of The Ex and Brigitte Fontaine stir up secret hymns of a new structure for the world, finally governed by poetry.Elusive and irresistible, the music plunges us into a darkness which owes as much to the twilight of the old world as to the dawn of the wide-open spaces where furious dances of joy are crackling and popping. Squeaking bows and materials stuck between the strings, saturation and percussion of incongruous objects, feverish spinning and psychedelic choruses are the charms of this nuanced trance.Poems, manifestos, dreams or nightmares, it could ultimately be that the songs only speak of reality. As Philip K. Dick said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away”.

"One of the best bands to come out of NYC since who gives a shit." -CVLT Nation. When you enter White Hills' lair in Brooklyn, the duo's insatiable desire for music and art is immediately palpable. Crates of vinyl from floor to ceiling line the long hallway. Guitars appear at every angle, one lying across a sofa in obvious mid-play with others in cases tucked beside amplifiers into every conceivable corner. Synthesizers and cables cover the purple satin bed while gouache paintings in various stages of progress strewn the floor. Album covers, movie posters, books, paintings, prints and souvenirs of subversive culture occupy the remaining wall space. A sanctuary of adoration, creation and imagination, it's also the nerve center of their record label Heads on Fire Industries and the site where the final mixes of their latest album Beyond This Fiction took shape. For nearly two decades, White Hills have been blowing minds with their sonic alchemy: a unique mix of neo-psychedelia, art rock, and post-punk- at once original and recognizable. Their cult reputation emblazoned in celluloid following their performance in Jim Jarmusch's sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, the duo has toured vigorously since their inception. With a vast catalogue that astounds and a relentless punk ethos, time seems to energize the duo, making them increasingly daring and prolific. "Music creates a bliss beyond sex and drugs," professes one-woman rhythm section Ego Sensation. "We'll never stop making music. It's the highest high to be had in life." Founding member Dave W, whose signature other-worldly guitar sorcery defines the White Hills sound, grabs his Les Paul to record a melody lingering in his head from last night's dream before it escapes. Outside, the sound of passing sirens, honking horns and bits of conversation remind you that you're in the middle of New York, a city so flush with rock legacy and artistic innovation it would take lifetimes to drink it all in. A voice from outside shouts, "This shit is going...

"One of the best bands to come out of NYC since who gives a shit." -CVLT Nation. When you enter White Hills' lair in Brooklyn, the duo's insatiable desire for music and art is immediately palpable. Crates of vinyl from floor to ceiling line the long hallway. Guitars appear at every angle, one lying across a sofa in obvious mid-play with others in cases tucked beside amplifiers into every conceivable corner. Synthesizers and cables cover the purple satin bed while gouache paintings in various stages of progress strewn the floor. Album covers, movie posters, books, paintings, prints and souvenirs of subversive culture occupy the remaining wall space. A sanctuary of adoration, creation and imagination, it's also the nerve center of their record label Heads on Fire Industries and the site where the final mixes of their latest album Beyond This Fiction took shape. For nearly two decades, White Hills have been blowing minds with their sonic alchemy: a unique mix of neo-psychedelia, art rock, and post-punk- at once original and recognizable. Their cult reputation emblazoned in celluloid following their performance in Jim Jarmusch's sultry vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, the duo has toured vigorously since their inception. With a vast catalogue that astounds and a relentless punk ethos, time seems to energize the duo, making them increasingly daring and prolific. "Music creates a bliss beyond sex and drugs," professes one-woman rhythm section Ego Sensation. "We'll never stop making music. It's the highest high to be had in life." Founding member Dave W, whose signature other-worldly guitar sorcery defines the White Hills sound, grabs his Les Paul to record a melody lingering in his head from last night's dream before it escapes. Outside, the sound of passing sirens, honking horns and bits of conversation remind you that you're in the middle of New York, a city so flush with rock legacy and artistic innovation it would take lifetimes to drink it all in. A voice from outside shouts, "This shit is going...

Jon Spencer teams up with Kendall Wind and Macky Spider Bowman - the rhythm section from Woodstock NY punk rock wunderkind The Bobby Lees - to chew bubblegum and kick ass.

Two years after “Spencer Gets It Lit” (Marc Riley’s BBC6 Music Album of the Year, “hugely entertaining”**** MOJO, “a sonic witchdoctor who’ll blow your mind” UNCUT****) there is still more work to be done saving rock'n'roll music.

“Sick of Being Sick!” will be released on limited clear 45rpm Super-Stereo cut vinyl.

Jon Spencer has been innovative force in the independent music scene since the mid-80s. An acclaimed live performer, he has toured all the continents except Antarctica and has amassed a dizzying discography as the leader of Pussy Galore, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Heavy Trash, and Jon Spencer & the HITmakers, as well as with Boss Hog, The Honeymoon Killers, The Gibson Brothers, and Taxi Girls.

His collaborations include (but are not limited to) working with Steve Albini, Add N To X, Nicole Atkins, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bomb The Bass, R.L. Burnside, James Chance, Coldcut, Chuck D, Dan The Automator, Jim Dickinson, DJ Shadow, Einsturzende Neubauten, Guitar Wolf, GZA, David Holmes, Japanese Popstars, Dr. John, Calvin Johnson, Steve Jordan, Khan, Moby, Money Mark, The Muffs, The North Mississippi All Stars, Princess Superstar, Puffy AmiYumi, The Sadies, Nancy Sinatra, Solex, Solomon Burke, Speedball Baby, Rufus Thomas, UNKLE, Unloved, Andre Williams, and Bernie Worrell.

His production credits include: Cheater Slicks, Demolition Doll Rods, Experimental Tropic Blues Band, Perrosky, Mike Edison, Jesper Munk, Sunshine & The Rain, The Bobby Lees, and Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton.

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

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On their seventh long player The Breaks - their second for Joyful Noise Recordings - Suuns are lost in limbo. For some artists, being caught in flux may result in songs that are either naive, out of touch or both, simply as a consequence of being cut off from human civilization. But for Suuns, a band who have grown more than comfortable in the oblique and the intermediate, it actually had the opposite effect. The Breaks marks the Montreal experimental rock outfit's most emotionally resonant and tonally rich collection of music to date. The trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush and Liam O' Neill leans more zealously than ever into their pop instincts. Yet remarkably enough, with that same dauntless abandon, Suuns have mined a more extreme sonic palette this time around, one that stretches far beyond their core fundamentals as a band. The Breaks finds Shemie, O'Neill and Yarmush gleefully experimenting with loops, synths, samples and MIDI-instruments like a post-millennial Tangerine Dream messing with downtempo triphop beats. O' Neill took point in the producer's chair for The Breaks, arranging, structuring and editing many of Shemie and Yarmush's ideas from sporadic rehearsal sessions into Pro Tools, reimagining the songs over and over during a two-year time frame. Forged between countless plane rides, road trips, van tours and text threads, The Breaks became a product of endurance and a lot of trial-and-error. It's a record forged in tight fissions of freedom, where spells of whispered intimacy - like on the stunning ballad "Doreen" - are allowed to branch out into the vast glacial dreamscapes of the album's majestic title track. It captures Suuns at their most panoramic, curious and exuberant: a constant relay of being adrift and enlightened anew, geared up to eleven. And guess what: the wheels keep on spinning.

Horse Jumper of Love thrive on patient and pummeling songs.Since 2013, the Boston trio of singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos,bassist John Margaris, and drummer James Doran haveslowly stretched the fringes of indie rock across five full-lengthLPs. Their music unwinds with gutting emotional intensity thanksto Giannopoulos' impressionistic lyrics and how the arrangementsviolently lurch from delicate to bludgeoning. Disaster Trick, theband's new album out August 16 via Run For Cover, is their mostdirect and uncompromising LP yet. Its 11 songs tackle self-destructivenessand healing with jolting lucidity.Where the band's last LP 2023's Heartbreak Rules excelled withquiet, bare-bones songwriting, Disaster Trick cranks up the volumeand boasts some of the most expansive arrangements of theband's catalog. Recorded at Asheville, North Carolina's Drop ofSun Studios with producer Alex Farrar, the recordings soar withsearing guitars and a thunderous rhythm section. "I tried the quietthing on the last album and I realized there's definitely two parts ofme: I like really heavy music, and I like really gentle music," saysGiannopoulos. "The two albums I was listening to the most, whilewe were in the studio were the Leonard Cohen's Songs From aRoom and Hum's Downward is Heavenward."Disaster Trick is a dark record but it's never dour. There's a glimmerof hope and humor throughout these 11 songs, written with thegrace that only time and growing up can bring. As he sings on"Death Spiral," "I know it sounds dramatic / But I must describe /The way that it felt." There's catharsis when it's needed most. "Thisalbum is a reflection on destructive behavior from a lens of moreclarity," says Giannopoulos. "A lot of the songs came out of thispoint where things in my life were going well but I couldn't accept it.I was being a brat. Disaster Trick is me cleaning up my act a bit andreflecting on it."

Horse Jumper of Love thrive on patient and pummeling songs.Since 2013, the Boston trio of singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos,bassist John Margaris, and drummer James Doran haveslowly stretched the fringes of indie rock across five full-lengthLPs. Their music unwinds with gutting emotional intensity thanksto Giannopoulos' impressionistic lyrics and how the arrangementsviolently lurch from delicate to bludgeoning. Disaster Trick, theband's new album out August 16 via Run For Cover, is their mostdirect and uncompromising LP yet. Its 11 songs tackle self-destructivenessand healing with jolting lucidity.Where the band's last LP 2023's Heartbreak Rules excelled withquiet, bare-bones songwriting, Disaster Trick cranks up the volumeand boasts some of the most expansive arrangements of theband's catalog. Recorded at Asheville, North Carolina's Drop ofSun Studios with producer Alex Farrar, the recordings soar withsearing guitars and a thunderous rhythm section. "I tried the quietthing on the last album and I realized there's definitely two parts ofme: I like really heavy music, and I like really gentle music," saysGiannopoulos. "The two albums I was listening to the most, whilewe were in the studio were the Leonard Cohen's Songs From aRoom and Hum's Downward is Heavenward."Disaster Trick is a dark record but it's never dour. There's a glimmerof hope and humor throughout these 11 songs, written with thegrace that only time and growing up can bring. As he sings on"Death Spiral," "I know it sounds dramatic / But I must describe /The way that it felt." There's catharsis when it's needed most. "Thisalbum is a reflection on destructive behavior from a lens of moreclarity," says Giannopoulos. "A lot of the songs came out of thispoint where things in my life were going well but I couldn't accept it.I was being a brat. Disaster Trick is me cleaning up my act a bit andreflecting on it."

Originating from Riverside, California, the BellRays have been mixing punk, rock and soul with the unique authenticity that has made them who they are in today. "We created a band and music based on what we love." - explain Lisa Kekaula and Robert Vennum, the founding members of The BellRays. The tradition that the band continued over the last thirty years inspired them to infuse their influences. It's in their DNA. The sound can be described by one simple formula: Emotion + energy = excitement. Their latest album, Heavy Steady Go! Strictly follows this rule but also, provides new coloring and shades to the well-beloved formula. "We've heard ourselves described by some variation as 'Tina Turner fronting AC/DC' or 'Motorhead meets Aretha Franklin' which comes with an expectation to be that every time." - explains Robert Vennum. "We are expected to be something that does not exist." This recording is split by two cities, two years and two badass rhythm sections: Mark Cisneros (bass) and Ron Miller (drums) both from Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds in Tucson, AZ and later the return of past drummer Craig Waters (Cody Chestnut, Andre Williams, the Countdowns) and newest arrival, Nico Miles on bass recording in Riverside, CA produced by Lisa and Robert. Heavy Steady Go! #is described by the two as 'a festival in album form'. It's contrasting style mashups and musical collaborations between each quartet is powerfully concentrated rock and roll." Robert and Lisa explain that with these songs "we pay homage to Tom Petty, Bon Scott, Fleetwood Mac, Howlin' Wolf, Cheap Trick, Betty Davis, and dozens of others that inspired this album. We wrote and crafted these songs looking at ourselves through the lens of the iconic sounds we heard growing up. Pressed on 180g vinyl / Gatefold jacket.

Presenting the first vinyl release of Dreamloops, a collection of long-form tracks that form a stunning two-and-a-half-hour suite over four LPs. The box set has been created, mixed, and designed by Dennis Huddleston, who, as 36 (“three-six”), is among the most celebrated electronic musicians operating today. Praised for his ability to imbue songs with strong, relatable undercurrents, Huddleston achieves a new level of subconscious connection with Dreamloops.

First appearing in 2019 as a series of cassettes, Dreamloops was revisited by Huddleston in 2023 to bring newfound clarity, focus, and cohesion. There are eight pieces, each an 18:00 minute standalone self-contained work. In each song, time slows as an ensemble of sounds builds on themes and develops emotional power. Much like epic works such as The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars, LaMonte Young’s Well-Tuned Piano, Daughters Of Darkness by Natural Snow Buildings and Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II, each fragment of Dreamloops culls developing melodies towards hauntological steps forward. Sound spectrums don’t spread wide but instead focus on a precise musical statement, exploring its absolute potential.

That said, Dreamloops does not exist in its own idealized sphere. Deep listening reveals tape hiss, oversaturation, wow and flutter, and similar imperfections. The fingerprints deepen part of these tracks’ emotional impact. Henryk Gorecki’s humanity meets Max Richter’s sense of grandeur meets Deathprod’s absolute sound mining, as Huddleston deftly maneuvers his songs toward momentous epic impact. “Emotions get tied in our mind with specific sounds,” Huddleston says. “The whole point of creating music is to explore and discover those frequencies.” A simmering nostalgia is ever present.

Writing music, for singer-songwriter and producer Fine, “feels like being entrusted with a secret.” On Rocky Top Ballads, the Copenhagen-based musician’s debut album, these secrets take the form of minimalist compositions that search for glimpses of beauty in the everyday. Recorded, produced, and mixed by Fine, the album is a mystical soundtrack to a captivating songwriter’s explorations of process and intuition.

“The whole album is about the moments when you see a crack in something,” Fine explains, “where you briefly see another side of yourself or of someone you've known forever.”

Fine grew up in Denmark’s rural Northern Jutland; there, her father’s guitar and banjo playing formed the sonic backdrop of her childhood. In the years since, her musical curiosity has led her to work across a range of styles and sounds. In her early twenties, she became part of Danish electronic trio Chinah, which released three albums. You might also have caught her sampled vocals on the joyfully rollicking Two Shell song “Home,” from 2021. Then, last year, she — along with Erika de Casier and Smerz — co-wrote three songs for the massive, critically lauded K-pop group New Jeans. Fine is also a part of Clarissa Connelly Canons group back home in Denmark, and writes music under the moniker Coined with composer and songwriter Astrid Sonne.

But Rocky Top Ballads is a turn back towards a more personal, stream-of-consciousness songwriting style. Fine wrote and recorded these songs sporadically over the course of the last few years. In light of Chinah’s collaborative, piecemeal production style, Fine craved a more organic, intuitive process for these songs. Her work on the record combines sample-based production with the sounds of instruments she and her collaborators could hold in their hands, ones that inspired free-flowing improvisation: electric and acoustic guitar, even the Ensoniq keyboard that was in her childhood home. The resulting songs are equally inspired by the country and folk of her childhood, the hazy beauty of Mazzy Star, the avant-garde pop of Dean Blunt, and the songwriting of ’90s singer-songwriters like Suzanne Vega.

Fine describes her songwriting process as a “magical thinking method”: being in contact with the present moment and pretending as if she already knows the song she’s about to write. Many of the songs on Rocky Top Ballads use the original takes of Fine’s vocals, an attempt to capture a song’s initial essence and avoid disturbing the song’s generative idea as much as possible. You can hear that well-preserved spark on songs like “Losing Tennessee,” a minimalist and wistful reflection on the inherent loss and change of growing older. She wrote other tracks, like the piano-led “Whys” and the woozy “Coasting,” through a process of cutting and layering her improvisations, carefully merging multiple musical snippets into newly seamless compositions. And the stunning closing track “A Star” is the product of a slow process of evolution: beginning as an understated expression of sincerity before dissolving into a rich, distorted guitar-driven exploration.

As a songwriter and producer, Fine’s work often peers into the universes of experience that can be hidden inside a fragmentary moment. Sometimes she explores this literally — as in “Days Incomplete,” which she built off a short sample from “A Star.” This impulse — to zoom in, to recontextualize, to excavate — threads throughout her lyrics, too. What happens, her songs ask, when we pay close attention to those everyday images and physical realities we might otherwise ignore: the sky, the rain, the sun, the sea? On the spacious and swoony “Big Muzzy,” with its gentle sway and Cocteau Twins-inflected vocals, Fine sings about watching the “summer turn blue”; the grooving, propulsive “Remember The Heart” is a love letter to the sea where she grew up. In her airy voice, Fine traces meandering melodies that continually unspool with fresh insights.

A particular mantra guided Fine’s songwriting throughout the creation of Rocky Top Ballads: “Everything has potential.” In these songs, small moments are worthy of deep contemplation, and gentleness can evoke worlds of emotion. The resulting songs offer a gift of momentary pleasure, flowing and unhurried as a gentle breeze.

Tanukichan, the musical project of Oakland, CA’s Hannah van Loon, has been a prominent figure in modern shoegaze music since 2016, when she first collaborated with Chaz Bear of Toro y Moi. Together, they released an EP and two full-length albums under Bear's Company Records, culminating in 2023's Gizmo. With her new EP Circles, out September 20th, 2024, via Carpark Records, van Loon ventures into new territory by teaming up with a new producer for the first time – Franco Reid.

The genesis of their partnership dates back to the Gizmo campaign, when Reid noticed van Loon wearing an Incubus shirt in a press photo on Instagram. Intrigued by whether or not van Loon was a genuine fan, he sent her a DM. Their shared musical interest sparked a dialogue that eventually led to the creation of the single "npc" in 2023.

Lead single “City Bus,” offers a reflection on van Loon's childhood bus rides in San Francisco, evoking the stop-and-go rhythm of commuter life through hard-hitting drums and heavy guitar feedback phasing in and out of the mix. Themes of self-reflection and societal belonging permeate the track, echoing van Loon's ongoing personal journey.

While much of Circles delves into internal struggles, “It Gets Easier” takes on a more celebratory tone as van Loon realizes she’s developed a heightened sense of maturity when dealing with hardship. “It feels easier to let go of situations or people that don’t serve me,” reflects van Loon, “Or if they can’t be avoided, at least I don’t have to dwell on the sadness or discomfort I feel when letting someone down.” Introduced by Reid, nu-gaze sensation Wisp, contributes a verse in her similarly ethereal vocal style.

There is a notable shift on Circles when you consider the first three Tanukichan releases were produced by a pioneer of the chillwave genre. With van Loon’s consistently dreamy songwriting and Reid at the helm, Tanukichan enters new sonic territory that feels larger, arena-ready, and more like a highspeed night drive than the hazy summer dream of its predecessors.

Limited edition "Coke Bottle Cloud" color vinyl with etched b-side. Australian duo Armlock make music for having your head in the clouds. On new album Seashell Angel Lucky Charm, Simon Lam and Hamish Mitchell bring you on a steady ascension throughcompressed and heavenly sonic realms. The band's second properrelease, and first for Run For Cover Records, showcases thesongwriters' experimental electronic roots through an indie rock lens. Free from distortion or overindulgence, Seashell Angel Lucky Charm is a collection of consistent rhythms decorated with clean guitar tones and eccentricities. Through playful layers of vocal harmony and minimal arrangements, Armlock capture the inventive and uncomplicated essence of Pinback or Alex G. Self-described as "indie rock with a touch of spirituality and emo", Armlock's journey into a higher realm is seeped with the looming confusion that comes with exploring the unknown. With an introverted demeanor, Armlock explores the human desire to find guidance in a world much bigger than its people. Every sound on Seashell Angel Lucky Charm feels precise and intentional, making the anthemic choruses on tracks like "Fear" and "El Oh Ve Ee'' feel expertly placed and pop-oriented. These two songs show Armlock's savvy with harmony as they use octaves of angelic sounds to stretch a simple one-word chorus until it soars with meaning. Unlike most indie rockers, Armlock use guitar as a tool in their belt rather than a vessel for songwriting. Where their 2021 EP Trust set foundations in downtempo acoustic guitar, Lam and Mitchell's evolved songwriting is a testament to where an electric guitar can amplify a song's groove, or usher in sonic space.

For more than two decades, Dr. Dog have maintained a shared devotion to theunruly alchemy of making music. When it came time to create their eleventhstudio album, the Philadelphia-bred band adopted an entirely new way ofworking together, embracing a multilayered process designed to foster adeeper synergy among its five members (bassist Toby Leaman, lead guitaristScott McMicken, rhythm guitarist Frank McElroy, keyboardist Zach Miller, anddrummer Eric Slick). After beginning that journey with a close-knit session atLeaman's uncle's cabin in the Pennsylvania woods, Dr. Dog steadily madetheir way toward the joyfully unfettered psych-rock of their new self-titled LP.Mi...

In the years since the release of Water From Your Eyes’ groundbreaking effort, “Somebody Else’s Song,” the duo have taken the world by storm, becoming one of the most consistent and beloved experimental pop bands of the era. They’ve toured with Interpol, Squid, Palm, Real Estate, and Pavement, earning a reputation as critically acclaimed songwriters and a stellar live act with a boisterous presence. This October marks five years since the release and Exploding In Sound Records are celebrating with a limited edition reissue on green vinyl with purple and black splatter!

Back in 2019, Brooklyn’s Water From Your Eyes had been evolving and experimenting with their sound. With “Somebody Else’s Song,” the band felt that they had found their place, the album an amalgamation of their past releases, honing in previously explored aesthetics but combining and rearranging ideas to capture feelings of self-reflection and personal growth. At their core, the duo of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown make experimental pop music, songs you can dance to, songs that will stick in your head long after you’ve heard them. The sound of Water From Your Eyes is far more expansive however, and “Somebody Else’s Song” is blissfully unclassifiable.

The lines of genre have blurred beyond recognition. The landscape flickers between haunting ambiance and noisy immersion, electronic and acoustic elements expressing emotional and mental states that are ever changing. “Somebody Else’s Song” was their first true “New York album” since the band’s relocation from Chicago, and much of the weight comes from the personal change inherent from living in a new place as life continues to whir around us. The duo took their time, the ideas coming into formation over the course of two years. That patience is apparent as the album unfolds, a balance between vulnerability and enormous shapeshifting rhythms.

Facta returns home to his own Wisdom Teeth imprint with ‘So is the sun’ - a bold EP of artful club reductions that distill his unique and playful approach into some of his most assured and direct works to date. As ever with Facta’s output, there is a moreish push-pull between functionality and creativity on display here. Infectious hooks are sculpted out of warping, plasticine sounds, whilst melodic splashes of colour are painted in broad, bright brushstrokes. Bleeping FM synths fizz into shot before oozing out of frame again, dripping splashes of neon colour over the record’s skipping, nimble rhythms as they go. There are a few key reference points at play here - in particular the light-footed grooves of early 00’s minimal house and the space-age synths of artists like DBX and S-Max - but these influences are totally refracted and subverted to create something fresh, contemporary and of its own. Produced and honed across a year, the tracks took shape slowly alongside regular club play from the label crew and a clutch of trusted DJs who road tested the tunes at various demo stages. The result is one of Facta’s most decisive and focused club records so far. The EP marks the Londoner’s first solo outing in over a year, following on from his acclaimed 2023 EP, ‘Emeline’, which was released on Anthony Naples and DJ’J’s Incienso imprint. It forms part of Wisdom Teeth’s busy schedule of 10 year celebrations, which includes a string of releases from new and existing label members, merch drops, and a global run of live showcase events. Vinyl copies also include two exclusive locked grooves for the adventurous DJ!

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

Glasgow based Seated Records return with more 1980s Scottish Post-Punk / New Wave material. In this 8-track mini compilation the label introduces the work of Stirling band 22 Beaches, offering a deep dive into music recorded between 1980-1984 - the majority of which has never seen the light of day! 22 Beaches formed in Stirling in the late 1970s as an evolution of the short lived group ‘Alone at Last’ - drummer Fred Parson’s and guitarist Stephen Hunter being the two who spanned the divide. Out of the six members of 22 Beaches, many were school friends, and the rest naturally fell together. The band toured extensively and played at a truly diverse set of venues across the UK: from a local swimming pool boiler room, to small nightclubs and university parties, to several fundraisers for the miners strike. Maybe most notably of all, drummer Fred Parsons described playing at what he calls “the Grangemouth International”, organised by local promoter Brian Guthrie and which featured an all-star lineup of 22 Beaches, The Exploited and the first incarnation of The Cocteau Twins. A coach was hired to ship the audience to Grangemouth from Stirling, the cost of which was included in the ticket. The gig then paused halfway through for a 'help yourself' buffet. Young promoters take heed. This is how it's done! Over the course of the 80s the band released music on three different, and now sought after, various artists compilation cassettes. “What Day Is It?” and “Sadie When She Died” were released on a compilation of local Stirling artists 'The A.N.K.L.E File'. The track from which the current record takes its namesake - “Dust” - was initially released on a compilation-tape for the fanzine 'Another Spark'. And ‘‘Zoo” (also featured on this record) was first released on Glasgow label Pleasantly Surprised via compilation, 'An Hour Of Eloquent Sounds', where 22 Beaches rubbed shoulders with early music from Scottish names Primal Scream, Cocteau Twins, The Wake and Sunset Gun. Unfortunately, 22 Beaches never met the same level of commercial success as these others and decided to retire the project in 1984 - leaving their recordings and demos to gather dust (hehe)…until now! This compilation, “Dust: recordings 1980-1984” follows the band's journey and the changes in their sound over the years. It moves from the raw, punk energy of early DIY recordings through to the A Certain Ratio style Balearica of their later pieces. The record's opener and title track “Dust” is perhaps the most shining example of the latter. Characterised by the plenitude of sonic space in the mix, “Dust” has an almost dub sensibility that is communicated through centrality of Parsons’ drums, McChord’s percussion, and Fildes’ Bass while the harmonising vocals of Sharkey and McGregor chant over the top to give the track its distinctive psychedelic edge. This is an atmosphere only exacerbated by the lofi quality of the recording which sits the vocals in the same aural realm as much 1960s psych-folk. On “Cartoon Boy”, the band strips things down further. A droning bass line persists through the tape fuzz and is accompanied by the sounds of a sole looping guitar chord sequence and McGregor and Sharkey’s vocals - respectively and carefully dancing around one another before harmonising in the most beautiful way. The result is a haunting and abstract Marine Girls style heartbreaker. ‘That Girl’ again delivers a dub adjacent rhythm section similar to that of “Dust”. However, on this instance crisp guitar chords, a distant, phased organ and blue-eyed soul vocal delivery, produce a track that could easily have been a lost Orange Juice recording from their sessions with Dennis Bovel. On “Somebody Got It Wrong” and “One Of Us” the band employ a more macro approach where a jangling guitar with an almost highlife-influenced tone, vocal ad-libs and syncopated percussion give the music a Talking Heads-esque swagger. Taken together these tracks illustrate a clear trajectory in the band's sound, moving from from the high energy no-wave quality of early recordings towards a more dub influenced, and stripped-back sound - a sonic trajectory followed by so many bands of the time, not least those emerging from the diaspora of Manchester’s Factory Records. On “Breathing’’ we hear the beginning of this transition, with the strong influence of the oddball NYC disco styles of Was (Not Was) and ZE records. All of this is meshed together with the residual punk rock energy of 1980s UK. This combination is employed to excellent effect with the addition of the distinctly Scottish (and what the band confirmed to me to be spontaneous) vocal delivery of: “Do you love me? Do you want me?” “Aye!” “Do you love me? Do you need me?” “Naw!”. On the record’s closing tracks, “Zoo” and “Talent Show”, we hear early examples of the band’s work, playing with their rawest all-in-one-take live energy where Hunter’s spiralling guitar riffs and McGregor's distorted vocal exclamations lead the charge. The band recalls that these initial-forays did not always translate so well into multitrack recording and overdubbing: “the deconstruction took away some of the band's natural feel”. On “Talent Show” the record ends with Sharkey delivering an almost unintelligible spoken word section over the top of the track, making for one final, disorientating, almost manic slice of post-punk. These tracks from 1980-1984 chart the progress of a unique contribution to the world of Scottish Post-Punk and New Wave, encapsulating not only the musical trajectory of 22 Beaches but also echoing the broader sonic landscape of 1980s UK, a testament to the adaptability and creativity of the UK’s underground music of the time.

“Everything’s been fucked since David Bowie died or they started up the Hadron Collider” say The Janitors. This feeling is epitomised in the title of their riveting new album: An Error Has Occurred. Marking over two decades of activity for the Swedish psych-rockers, the recording is informed by heartbreak and loss as well as the dismal state of the entire planet. For The Janitors, these two polarities intertwine constantly: “What’s personal is political and vice versa.” To channel their frustration and anger, the band revived certain songs they’d shelved during the pandemic when working on the acclaimed Noisolation Sessions. They added others, written since, that suited the mood of sticking a middle finger up to the oppressive world around us. Whereas previous recordings were often layered up gradually, this time the full band (Henric Herlenius, Jonas Eriksson, Anders Thorell and Wilhelm Tengdahl) rehearsed intensely together before laying down everything live, over two days and nights, in a converted missionary church. The songs on Side A have the menace of Melvins, the swagger of The Stooges and the cosmic heft of The Heads. These are the more simply constructed and poppier pieces... or so the band believe. (One friend of theirs did consider this “delusional”.) ‘In A Bliss’ acts as the album’s radiant centrepiece. A palette-cleansing love song which recalls The Jesus And Mary Chain at their most starry eyed, it finds The Janitors searching for solace and strength in straightforward companionship. After this come the dronier numbers, drawn out with soundscapes and textures influenced by The Velvet Underground’s sonic experiments and the equally immersive atmospheres of electronic acts like Massive Attack. Hence, ‘Operator’ swings threateningly like a space-rock Swans, while the approach on ‘Farewell Spacegirl’ is jazzier and more meditative. “It can be hard to muster up some, or even any, positive energy at this point in time,” says Henric. “We are eternally grateful to have the creative output that this constellation gives us. Neither me or Jonas would probably be here, or be the same people we are, if it wasn’t for The Janitors. We’ll leave you with a quote from an old anarchist: ‘Every society gets the criminals it deserves.’”

Listening to The Softies has always felt like peeking into a diary, with no personal detail spared. Lyrically the band documents a lovelorn heart in every manifestation, and hope is the bright silver lining adorning each song. As the third Softies album, Holiday in Rhode Island [KLP119] presents a more accessible view to the humble honesty of their emotive universe.When Holiday in Rhode Island was originally released in Sept. 2000, it had been three and a half years since The Softies previous album Winter Pageant [KLP061]. In that time Jen and Rose's introspective musings are reborn, sparkling with renewed vision, both musically and spiritually. The trademark harmonies between Jen Sbragia (All Girl Summer Fun Band) and Rose Melberg (Tiger Trap, Gaze) simply shimmer, brighter than ever before, benefiting from strong yet simple arrangements and excellent production (at a house on Galiano Island near Victoria, British Columbia) by Dave Carswell and John Collins. Thebeautiful surroundings and supportive production crew inspired The Softies to extend their minimalist blueprint of two delicately jangling guitars and two crystalline voices to include acoustic guitar embellishment on "Just a Day," "You and Only You;" piano and sparse drums on "Me and the Bees;" a xylophone makes subtle appearances here and there. Holiday in Rhode Island is a stunning artistic accomplishment from these two much heralded pop icons.

The follow-up to Kee Avil's acclaimed 2022 debut Crease: "A stunning debut" (The Quietus); "A whiplash style of uninhibited exploration" (The Wire); "Kee Avil's debut is a force" (Foxy Digitalis); "A work of Frankensteinian wonder" (Electronic Sound); "A tightly coiled, finely wrought vision of avant-pop" (Exclaim); "A debut of fiendish creativity" (Bandcamp Album Of The Day / Albums Of The Year) Kee Avil's music is both adventurous and intimate, intellectually challenging and emotionally resonant. The Montréal guitarist and producer's 2022 debut LP Crease garnered plaudits from outlets like The Wire, The Quietus, Mojo and Foxy Digitalis, picking up a Canadian Juno Award nomination and Bandcamp Album Of The Day and Albums Of The Year along the way. Its intricate construction, unnerving atmospheres, and knife-edge take on avant-pop prompted comparisons to early PJ Harvey, This Heat, and Gazelle Twin. A remix EP with work by claire rousay, Ami Dang, Cecile Believe, and Pelada brought collaborative perspectives to four Crease tracks, offering new pathways within those songs. With Spine, Kee Avil strips back her heavily textured compositions, opening up a much rawer sound. She calls it folk… and while traditionalists might scoff, this is urgent music that reflects the precarity of modern life, as well as the jarring mixture of electronic and real-world interactions that have become the fabric of our day-to-day experiences. There's a hypnotic post-punk somnambulance to it all, using the repetition and fracturing of melodic phrases interwoven with delicate electronics to create curious and persistent hooks. While not a concept album, themes of time's passage, remembrance, and decay crop up across multiple tracks. Each track intentionally only has four elements - guitar, electronics, and two other instruments, with Kee's voice and guitar pushed to the front. Within this minimalist framework, the juxtaposition of beauty and discomfort that is key to the Kee Avil sound stands out in skin-prickling relief. "We're shaped by many versions of ourselves," says Avil. "I was looking back at these versions of myself and what could have been, what didn't end up being and what did end up being, and going back like that through time. Seeing the future, the past." Spine was written in Kee Avil's home studio after a lapse in writing while touring Crease and working on other projects. She is a well-known and respected member of the Montréal experimental scene, and formerly ran Concrete Sound Studio with Zach Scholes, who continues to work with her as a producer on Spine. Compared to the three years that went into making her debut, Spine emerged in a matter of months - a process that may also be a factor in its intensity and sharpness: "This record was much harder, like it was really discovering everything from scratch." In her desire to not simply replicate or extend the sound of Crease, she felt she had to rip up the rule book, write in a different way, and pare back songs against her usual instincts. Sometimes, when we work against our ingrained habits, we get to the core of who we really are. Spine is an exercise in that process. Without over-intellectualizing or being didactic, it hits immediately and emotionally, especially if you are a person who has spent much time in the process of self-examination. Kee's voice hisses, whispers, and chants; her guitar bends and rings; electronics skitter and crackle; violin creaks like a door in the wind. There is something so evocative about the atmospheres she creates that it's easy to overlay one's own feelings onto her work, but to do that wholly would be to overlook one of the most important things about Spine: Kee Avil's clear and thoughtful vision. This isn't just the next step forward in her artistic trajectory; it's a stunner of a record that stands on its own, a bracing and thrilling listen that has much to reveal about the contradictions inherent in being human. - jj skolnik

Cats and mice seem to be real enemies in real life – one is chased and eaten by the other. With „Cat & Mauss“ (Maus is the German word for mouse), love is involved. Romana Lezaic and Torsten Mauss met 4 years ago, got married immediately and started their musical project during the disruptive time of the lockdown. In the meantime, they have found their sound: somewhere between old western movies, a David Lynch soundtrack, analog rhythm machines and psychedelic songwriting, their debut album „Tales from the desert, tales from the sea“ has now been created, which will be released digital and on vinyl in May 2024 on the German label _less records from Düsseldorf. On February 2, 2024, the two will release their first single and their video „Sinking deeper“, followed by a series of concerts in Germany and Denmark. Torsten G. Mauss, born in New York, has already released four solo albums under his solo project TG Mauss and previously had the electro-pop band „Tonetraeger“ together with Oscar winning composer Volker Bertelmann (Hauschka) and played and toured as a part of drummer Thomas Klein ́s Sølyst. (of the Düsseldorf avant-garde band Kreidler). Romana Lezaic-Mauss is a Croatian singer living in Germany. She started singing and dancing traditional Croatian „Folklore“ as a child. Now with her own music she sings in English and learns and plays Tabla and Theremin

Superb 45 featuring two Hammond-led instrumentals!We caught up with Mr Guy Hamper for an insightful Q&A_ Q: What a cracking single this is! 'Instrument of Evil' in particular has a very eerie vibe. What was the inspiration for it?A: The track is the sequel to '7% Solution', which featured on the last Guy Hamper Trio LP with Thee Headcoats standing in as rhythm section. A 7% Solution being the amount of morphine Dr Watson administered to Sherlock Holmes. For 'Instrument of Evil' I took Sherlock Holmes' later designation of his syringe as "an Instrument of Evil". This is originally a quote from the bible: "Wicked men do at times reject God's purpose for the state, transforming the good of civil government into an instrument of evil." Point of interest: Morphine addiction happens to tie in with another aspect of the song. In the section that nods to Elmer Bernstein's main title theme to the film of the book The Man With the Golden Arm, in which the main character is also a morphine addict. Another ingredient - we added six-string bass to that section in tribute to Jet Harris - he formerly of top group The Shadows, who recorded a great version of Bernstein's classic. To top it all off the record sleeve references the fine graphics of the great Saul Bass. Phew!Q: The track features contributions from Tom Morley (trumpet) and Anna Jordanous (sax). What's it like working with them?A: They are great and easy to work with. I basically make a playground and let them loose in it with very little direction, apart from pointing out the swings and location of the roundabout. I told Tom "You're a Spanish trumpeter stood on a hill in Spain." For Anna, I think we said "go low and nasty." Q: On the flip side you have 'Incense Rising From a Censer'. A very evocative title for an evocative track. Do you have lyrics in mind for this for a possible later release?A: No lyrics have sprung to mind as yet - but it's always possible. The title is from The Elders observation in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, a b...

The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours was made with the black watch bandmates and producers/engineers Rob Campanella (Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Tyde, The Warlocks) and Andy Creighton (The World Record, Parson Red Heads). Ben Eshbach, formerly of The Sugarplastic, arranged the strings. Kesha Rose guests on lead vocals on the second single, Oh Do Shut Up. And the great Lindsay Murray once again lends her beautiful backing vox to a number of tracks.

the black watch songwriter/frontman John Andrew Fredrick wrote the ten songs on this, his Los Angeles-based band's latest album, entirely unselfconsciously, with no set goal in mind other than to revel in the joy of songwriting, and, eventually, the luxury of recording his music with his more-than-accomplished band. The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours, produced separately and together by Rob Campanella and Andy Creighton evinces the black watch's often stunning ability to, as Andy Gill once observed in The Independent, "find chaos in the calm, melody in the miasma."

Fredrick, who has also published four comedic novels and a book on the early films of Wes Anderson, jovially describes himself as "a recovering Anglophile--one who'll never, one hopes, fully recover." From his home studio in the Angeleno Heights district of L.A., he waxes eloquent about how being branded, as it were, as a too-ardent lover of British music, film, and literature has left him as bemused as has the tag "prolific" that is often affixed to reviews of his work.

"I just don't think it's all that interesting to note that we've made so many records. Looked at one way, it's a sort of deflection from talking about the timbre if not the quality of the individual songs. Though I know it can be intimidating for fans who've just discovered us--a sort of 'My goodness, where do I start with this band that has put out LPs since 1988?' I get it. I do. I picture someone standing at our slot at a bin at a record store becoming overwhelmed at the prospect of picking the 'wrong' title. And then walking away and not picking up anything from us!" Fredrick laughs. "What can you do indeed?"

He started his career as a songwriter as a result of an American Football injury that left him bedridden in the home he grew up in in Santa Barbara, California. The year The Beatles immortal double-album came out at Christmastime he broke his leg so badly that he had to be home-schooled for an entire year. His parents, ex-teachers themselves, refused to let him watch telly for more than an hour a day. He propped a Silvertone acoustic on top of the massive cast that screamed all the way up to his thigh from his toes, and began to write little melodies and lyrics that, doubtless, did not in the least mask his love for the Fabs, The White Album in especial.

And he read and read and read--histories of the American Revolution and Civil War, mostly, and as many Dickens novels as his mum and dad could bring him. "That year," Fredrick observes, "surely made me who I am today. Proof that intensely unfortunate-seeming events can prove most fortunate. As a sport-mad kid, it made me absolutely mental that I was exiled from the activities I loved most and the school teams I played on. What a blessing undisguised that injury was! Not that I'd like to experience anything like it ever again, mind you."

Fredrick can even recall a few of the melodies he wrote as boy ("Utterly trite, of course, completely jejune"); and in a way, The Morning Papers Have Given Us the Vapours showcases a kind of get-back-to-where-you-once-belonged sensibility. "I didn't intend, this time, to make an album per se. I write both songs and fiction in order to find out what happens, to find out what I might want to say," he notes. "Rob often asks me what a particular song is about; and I often reply that I either don't know, or would prefer that others say. Same thing goes for when people ask me where they should start with our discography. I never know what to say. Our LP from 2011, Led Zeppelin Five (remastered in 2021 for its tenth anniversary), has been our best seller, I think--but that may be because some stoned Zepheads thought their gods had perhaps put out a record they'd missed!"

Despite being deadly serious about music-making, TBW's been known to either whimsically or perversely title their albums. Examples: Jiggery-Pokery (an allusion to John Lennon assessing George Martin's productions), After the Gold Room (a pun on the Neil Young classic plus a local eastside L.A. watering hole), Sugarplum Fairy, Sugarplum Fairy (echoing Lennon's famous count-off to A Day in the Life), Fromthing Somethat (a garbled spoonerism/lyric while doing a vocal), Brilliant Failures (the 2020 release that, along with Fromthing Somethat, was named Album of the Year by venerable indie rock magazine The Big Takeover), and the aforementioned LZ5.

For the new LP, the band recruited longtime friends and allies Ben Eshbach (the Emmy-Award-winning frontman of The Sugarplastic) and Lindsay Murray (Gretchens Wheel) to compose and arrange strings and sing heaps of lovely backing vocals, respectively.

And the result? A collection of songs that Fredrick, in his quite-but-not-quite self-deprecatory way, might call another set of brilliant failures. "Every song, every LP we do, is a failure of sorts--no matter how powerful or beautiful or pleasing-to-us it turns out," John concludes. "I have often said that my aim is to write songs as good as anything on The Beatles... and I will never achieve my goal. And thus I'll have to keep at it, keep trying. And chin-chin to that!"

And now your attention's been brought to a band (or you've heard of them or heard a track or two down the years) that has been pegged by The L.A. Weekly as "a national treasure" as well as "the most criminally-neglected indie pop group imaginable."

So here's to the prospect of that ostensible neglect becoming as much of a thing of the past as John Andrew Fredrick's year-long stint in bed.

After making waves with their 2020 self-titled debut LP (championed by the late, great DJ and synth/wave connoisseur Silent Servant), Toronto’s Analytica return to Suction Records’ minimal synth sub-label Ice Machine, for the second full-length LP, “Strategy Of Tension”. Comprised of kosmische synth artist Gabe Knox and electro-industrial performer David Lush, Analytica is a synth-pop duo who confront the race-to-the-bottom ethos of our time, but utilizing sounds and tools from the early ‘80s synth-DIY era. The album was recorded to a 6-track cassette portastudio in a two week session in Summer 2022, and mixed down live to tape in an afternoon. Analytica pair classic, holy grail analog synthesizers like the ARP Quadra, Roland System 100, and ARP 2600, with uncommon analog rhythm machines including the Univox Sr-95, Soundmaster St-305, Roland Tr-77, and Korg Kr-55b. The result is Strategy of Tension: a stinging rebuke to cynical political actors and a reminder that the only thing to fear is fear itself.

Riyl: early Depeche Mode, Factory Records, Minimal Wave label reissues.

The mind-flowing 'Dices' somehow did not make it onto the Grupo Pan's only album and instead found its home on the B side of a long-forgotten 1972 single. One can only wonder why this great song with a devastating guitar riff and an irresistible rhythm section was not granted a place in the grooves of the LP of the Venezuelan band_ Late 60s hard rock sounds made by salsa musicians! On the flip, a rare hard psych gem from Peru by the one and only Jean Paul "El Troglodita". First time single reissue! The few records released by Venezuela's most prolific percussionist, Nené Quintero, and his first band sound like a somewhat artisanal classic rock recording from the end of the 60s but made by "salseros" (as involved in Salsa music). Their only LP "Pan" (recently reissued for the first time on Vampisoul) succeeded in overcoming through its grooves the eternal rivalry between the followers of the hard rock sounds and those who, on the contrary, were devotees of salsa. Grupo Pan also released a bunch of 45s mostly comprising LP tracks. However, the mind-flowing 'Dices' somehow did not make it onto the album and instead found its home on the B side of a 1972 single. Enrique Tellería (aka Jean Paul) was nicknamed "El Troglodita" (The Caveman) due to his wild performances in his native Peru. Screams, extreme body shaking and, quite often, stage destruction were part of his energetic shows. His hard psych gem 'Fuera de Atracción' was originally released on a much sought-after 45 on the tiny Peruvian label Rey Record. We thought it would be a perfect pairing with the stunning A side to finish off this single. First time single reissue!

The music of Atlanta trio Omni has always swung fast and hit hard. And Souvenir, their fourth album and second for Sub Pop, packs their biggest punch yet. Inactive during the majority of the pandemic-the longest downtime in their history-they approached this recording with lots of pent-up energy. Guitarist Frankie Broyles, singer/bassist Philip Frobos, and drummer Chris Yonker converted their creative fuel into sharp, driving songs that land immediately, sporting chopping riffs, staccato beats, and wiry melodies. Why does Souvenir sound so sharp? Because each track is a compact unit that stands on its own, reflecting the time and place in which it was created. That's why Omni called the album Souvenir: it's a collection of audio objects, a stash of musical miniatures. Think of it as a family photo album, a binder of rare playing cards, a shoebox holding precious gems. Take "Plastic Pyramid," the first song Omni wrote after coming out of lockdown. Filled with twists and turns, it's a journey unto itself, charged by clanging chords, spinning rhythm, and Frobos trading lines with Izzy Glaudini of Automatic, with whom Omni toured with last fall. (Glaudini sings on two other Souvenir tracks, the first guest vocalist the band has collaborated with). Or take opener "Exacto," a slicing web of intertwined guitar and bass. Its razor-fine notes and syncopated beats perfectly match pointillist Frobos lyrics such as "Exacto, de facto, concise, quite right"-a line that could well be an Omni mantra. The precision and clarity of Souvenir comes from some new Omni developments. For one, this is their first album with Yonker as their full-time drummer, and his forceful playing adds exclamation points to every pointed moment on Souvenir. In addition, the trio worked with Atlanta-based engineer Kristofer Sampson for the first time. Sampson pushed the band to a higher degree of power, with Frobos's vocals more upfront in his pulsing mix and the rest of the music leaping out of the speakers. You might notice that Frobos' singing is a bit more emotional and even nostalgic this time around. In crafting his vocals, he was inspired by the early college radio rock of formative favorites like REM, the Cure, and Big Audio Dynamite-the kind of bands whose melodies could have been top 40 hits in an alternative universe. The lyrics on Souvenir are also by turns funny, absurd, and even cryptic. A wry humor has always coursed through Omni's songs, and this time, it comes in shades of both dark and light. In "Granite Kiss," an "astronomical" love story concludes with the hope that "we can decay together," while in "PG," a romantic walk in the park includes a rose-colored mugging. Immediacy rushes throughout every moment of Souvenir, making it the band's most powerful album to date. Omni has truly crafted a musical keepsake-a set of songs that you'll want to keep close, an aural memento you'll cherish for the rest of time.

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo studio LP recorded by J Mascis since 1996. This is obviously not a very aggressive release schedule, but when you figure in the live albums, guest spots, and records done with his various other bands (Dinosaur Jr., The Fog, Heavy Blanket, Witch, Sweet Apple, and so on), well, to paraphrase Lou Reed, "J's week beats your year." What Do We Do Now began to come together during the waning days of the Pandemic. Utilizing his own Bisquiteen Studio, J started working on writing a series of tunes on acoustic with a different dynamic than the stuff he creates for Dino. "When I'm writing for the band," he says, "I'm always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I'm thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it's just what happened." Two guest musicians are playing this time out; Western Mass local Ken Mauri (of the B52s) plays piano on several tracks. Since J himself has some experience with keys, when asked why he needed a hired gun, he says, "Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I'm really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it's kind of limiting. [laughs] Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it's harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones." Mauri has no such qualms and plays all the keys very damn well. He sounds especially great on "I Can't Find You," where he is Jack Nitzsche to J's Neil Young, creating one of the album's loveliest tunes. The other guest musician, Matthew "Doc" Dunn, is also prominent on this track. Dunn's steel guitar manages to both widen and soften the musical edges of the music, giving it a full classicist profile. Dunn is an Ontario-based polymath who J met through Matt Valentine. After J played on Doc's great 2022 Sub Pop single, "Your Feel," he figured it was time for payback. Both Dunn and Mauri add beautifully to the songs here, helping to transform them from acoustic sketches into full-blown post-core power ballads. What Do We Do Now is the finest set of solo tunes J has yet penned, and the way they're presented is just about perfect. Asked if he would be touring to support the album, J says he'll be doing some weekend dates, but he probably won't be putting a band together. And I'm sure these songs will sound great solo and acoustic, but the arrangements on this album are truly great and put a cool, different spin on Mascis' instantly Recognizable approach to making music. So, what do we do now? Not sure. But apparently, what J does is to make one of his most killer records ever. Hats off to him. - Byron Coley

Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Elena Setién uses her multi octave vocal range and delicate arrangements to create a universe where dream worlds converge with reality. Setién"s masterfully allegorical songs are both emotionally immediate and provoking. A musician"s musician, Setién has drawn collaborators from far and wide, from her improvisational duo Little Red Suitcase to more recent collaborations with Steve Gunn, Mary Lattimore, and fellow Basque musicians Xabier Erkizia and Grande Days. For Moonlit Reveries, a hallucinatory promenade of mood and rhythm, Setién is joined by renowned drummer/percussionist Glenn Kotche of Wilco. At the core of Moonlit Reveries is the inspiration that Setién and Kotche found in one another. The two met while Kotche was touring Spain with Wilco, Kotche having been a fan of Setién"s 2022 album Unfamiliar Minds. Immediately the two started discussing collaboration which Setién began by using a series of unique drum patterns from Kotche"s "A Beat A Week" series as the basis for tracks like "Surfacing" and "Asking". Kotche then sent in fresh drum takes for select pieces that embellished the frameworks set by Setién. The songs of Moonlit Reveries also make use of more guitar than Setién previously had ever explored, which Setién traces back to Steve Gunn introducing her to the music of Bridget St. John. "What fascinated me right from the beginning, was the calmness in her voice and her low register. Her music inspired me to ..write songs with a guitar: there"s more space for the voice and the sound qualities of both voice and guitar kind of melt into each other." The winner of several Basque music awards, Elena Setién"s beautiful voice, creative arrangements, and both improvisational and compositional experience make for sophisticated songs with singular textural approaches. Her otherworldly sounds are perfectly complimented by Kotche"s light and agile syncopations throughout.

Emotional Rescue dives back into one of its specialties, the formative years of Post Punk and Dub influenced music, presenting the, to date, unheralded Skinbat Scramble. The rarity of the unknown, the discovery of rich, lost music, it is a delight to release a compilation of the band's previously unreleased recordings. A snapshot of time, a journey that covers several decades of friendship but is concentrated here on the fertile 80's scene.

Forged around the friendship of Mark Eason and Fergus Crockford, but with ever changing line-ups, flowing in and out during misspent youths, self-taught playing, falling in and out of bands, travelling that well-worn journey from Home Counties boredom to the excitement of a rough edged London, taking in as music as possible, from Motown on to the The Velvet Underground, The Rolling Stones, Bowie, Pink Floyd, Gong and Fripp & Eno, before Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hotrods and a dose of John Peel led to discovering Dub and Punk and witnessing that short-lived burst of creativity at the Roxy Club, Marquee or Vortex and exploring back to early Rock'n'Roll, Rockabilly and old Surf'n'Soul, alongside the likes of Wire and Suicide.

As the Post-Punk sounds mixed simultaneously with Two-Tone, local Art College gave way to university and the early struggles of finding a way in the late 70s / early 80s of Thatcher's Britain. Music was central, Skinbat Scramble finally appearing, morphing from numerous teen bands, early studio excursions of tape loops and effects leading to the first recording sessions in 1981.

The slower tempos, introspection, open structures, and shimmering experimentation of Post Punk were pivotal. John Foxx's early Ultravox, Siouxsies' "Lord's Prayer" period and The Electric Chairs seminal "So Many Ways", influenced to a freer future. PIL, ACR, Section 25 and Pink Military let imaginations briefly roam.

'Far out and weird', those first recordings made at Leeds Uni's Fine Arts Dept utilized Revoxes, Tandberg, MiniMoog and even a borrowed drummer. This was followed up with completed sessions at Elephant Studios in London, forming the basis of this compilation.

The tight scattergun rhythms on opener Submit, in both Vocal and short Dub mix, bely an unreleased band. Taught and crisp, it's like a song you've heard propelling open-minded, leftfield dancefloors for years.

The writing, musicianship and studio mastery displayed on North By Northwest and Skiddadle should not be music unreleased for almost 40 years. In North Dub and closer, Pixie Boot Dub their understanding of the opportunities of dub Reggae are clearly apparent, ethereal music wormholes for late night smokers.

However, it is in Basement Voltaire that the band step out time. Recorded in 1986 this is a 9-minute proto-techno wonder that mixes all their psychedelic meets punk youth in a crescendo of crashing claps and rolling toms that is of a time and so far ahead of its time.

And that was that, after 6 gigs, including a couple at the infamous St Martins, to an audience total you can fit on one hand, the band's first incantation closed and the master tapes were stored for several decades, waiting for "The Psychedelic Pirates" to finally surface.

"released October 11th, 2024. 140 gram SANDWICH BLUE vinyl with printed innersleeve lyric page. Chris Acker's latest collection of songs, Famous Lunch is, in his words, a "growing pains album." When writing the record, Acker found himself hunting for a voice that wasn't just an imitation of the one he'd been using on the last 30 songs he'd made. "At the same time, I worked hard to find a certain voice for myself over the previous 3 records and I didn't want to abandon that." While the album finds him continuing to transcribe life's fleeting and provocative banalities with refreshing grace, the songs on Famous Lunch are intentionally more absurd, stylizing his lyricism as both poetic and disarming simultaneously- commencing with "Shit Surprise"-an earworm with a vernacular that stays true to it's title. Inspired by George Saunders and Sasha Pearl (and wanting to make a song that sounds like Eagles saying the word "shit" over and over), "Shit Surprise" is the most Chris Acker song possible, in that it's earnestness arrives in spades and comes varnished with a one-of-a-kind, spectacular gnarliness. "We'd match our breath in the upstairs room and we'd hold together 'til I smelled like you," Acker sings, before nose-diving into that unforgettable chorus about stepping in a smelly, disgusting pile of shit. "It was definitely the first record I had to make while working and trying to be a real musician," he says. Across the record's 10 songs, Acker is joined by his Growing Boys bandmates Zach Thomas (bass), Nikolai Shveitser (pedal steel), Dave Hammer (guitar, vocals), Sam Gelband (drums, vocals), and Howe Pearson (piano). They made the album in December 2023 in the same place where their debut Re-Runs was recorded on a reel-to-reel more than seven years ago. "It's a fun full-circle moment," Acker says. "We really wanted to do another fully live record in that room, but, we're a way different band now, so it was especially cool." Many of these 10 songs are about an appreciation for closeness, no doubt a product of Acker having written many of them in pieces while on the road and during a two-week residency in Butte, Montana in the spring of 2023. On a track like "Swimming in My Calvin's," Acker takes a pause from musing about making swimtrunks out of underwear to meditate on the intimate warmth shared between lovers ("When I come home and lay down and you turn your body into me, I hold you below your belly button and you make the softest sound"). Album centerpiece "Wouldn't Do For You (Buddy)" Acker sings about "drawing my finger along your spine, crossing the room in your underwear" and a face next to a candle that looks like "a corner house under turning headlights." Though none of the songs on Famous Lunch came to Acker in a dream like "If I Needed You" did to Townes Van Zandt, the music sounds like the environment it was composed in: in-between self-booked gigs and late-night crashes on cross-continent couches, with different routines in different cities for years. When Acker sings about "doing dishes in the glow" or "follow[ing] whims like birds carry seeds" or "the inevitable ever when we're no longer together," you can hear the pages and pages of Moleskin journals being ripped through. He calls it "frankensteining" songs, the act of cobbling together memories-both drunken ramblings and clear-eyed yearnings-into poems with new lifespans, tape-hiss fadeouts, and plucky introductions. Famous Lunch contains some of his best work yet ("Stubborn Eyes," "Wouldn't Do For You (Buddy)," "Eyelash") and some raucous, bar-ready new joints ("Don't You Know (Who I Think I Am)," "Cursive Proverbs"). Caught someplace in-between the cowboy laments of Jerry Reed and the tender-hearted annals of Gram Parsons, Acker puts his world on a clothesline and let's it dry out in the sun. Famous Lunch is full of confusion and fragility, but it's also full of love not taken for granted and a profoundly familiar ache for domesticity and a clock turned ba

Following the news that all three Lush albums are going to be reissued, Emma Anderson, the band’s co-founder, has announced her debut solo album, Pearlies, which will be released by Sonic Cathedral on October 20, 2023.One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life. It arrives fully formed with a burnished beauty (aided by the mastering skills of Heba Kadry) that belies its somewhat protracted creation, which began with Emma feeling disillusioned after Lush’s 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. Left with songs and bits of music originally intended for the band, she began working with cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley and Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, both of whom encouraged her to sing her own songs. Covid put a temporary halt on proceedings, but the decision had been made. When Sonic Cathedral introduced her to James Chapman at the start of 2022, Pearlies quickly took shape and blossomed into a masterpiece, the perfect mix of Emma’s incredible, idiosyncratic songwriting and James’ electronic production nous. Plus, a little extra guitar magic on four tracks courtesy of Richard Oakes from Suede. The finished album has somehow written its own narrative. By her own admission, Emma tends to write words and “see what comes out”, but Pearlies seems to tell the story of her decision to go it alone, with opener ‘I Was Miles Away’ posing the question: “See if I make it on my own”. The rest of the album provides the answer as it takes in everything from the unexpectedly funky first single ‘Bend The Round’, to folky finger-picking and film theme references, via psych leaning electronic pop reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Melody’s Echo Chamber. It concludes with ‘Clusters’, a stunning, Stereolab-style groove which begins with the line “and now the party’s over, the music’s at the end”. Thankfully, that is not the case. This incredible album is just the start of Emma’s long-awaited solo journey.

Everything clicks on Safe to Run, the fourth album from singer, songwriter Esther Rose. It’s the quiet culmination of years spent fully immersed in a developing artistry, and presents Rose’s always vividly detailed emotional scenes with new levels of clarity and control. As with previous work, her songwriting transfigures the chaos and uncertainty of a life in progress, but here she introduces a newfound pop element that attaches unshakably catchy hooks to even the darkest stretches of the journey.

Rose takes an unblinking look at her own vulnerabilities as well as more universal concerns, somehow never taking herself too seriously in the process. This manifests as a critique of the insidious sexism of the music industry on “Dream Girl,” but quickly melts into a hazy memoryscape of the dive bar drama and suspended hovering of her early 20s on “Chet Baker.” The song “Safe to Run” (a gorgeous duet with Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra) directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief. Rose breathes in the ecstasy of the natural world in one line and makes fun of herself a few bars later. There are ghosts in the room for most of her songs, but she’s invited them in and is cracking jokes with them over a drink or two.

Ultimately all of these new advancements become twinkles of light in the background as they fold into the big picture impact of the songs themselves. Esther Rose translates her world into eleven curious and captivating scenes. While the songs are stunning one by one, absorbing Safe to Run as a whole feels like witnessing something taking shape, experiencing the headspins of the elevation and the slow return to equilibrium as the clouds start clearing.

Osaka based psych-rock three piece Hibushibire return after a long break, with a new line up and a stunning third album. Produced by Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata who also guests on the album.

Following the successes of their debut album 'Freak Out Orgasm!' (2017), the follow up ‘Turn On, Tune In, Freak Out’ (2019) and two very well received UK tours. The band headed home to Osaka, Japan and then, the pandemic hit.

During this downtime, guitarist/vocalist Changchang decided to create a new power trio. Enter Tetsuji Toyoda (Bass/Vocals) & Aoi Hama (Drums/Vocals). The new trio have spent the last three years writing new music, playing live and honing their sound in Japan, and a short well received tour of Taiwan with Riot Season labelmates Dope Purple. And now finally, Hibushibire mark 2 is born properly.

“Hibushibire has returned after a change of members. A psychedelic, progressive work, suitable for a new beginning"

Entering the studio with Acid Mothers Temple/Mainliner guru Makoto Kawabata in the producer chair (and also as a guest musician) once again, the band recorded album number three, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’. Makoto also adds some of his own trademark guitar howls throughout the album, perfectly complimenting Changchang’s own growing prowess.

Here the band have taken their trademark psych-rock blasts and blended them perfectly with some more trippy, dare I say sweet progressive psychedelic sounds.

“The idea of this album is based on the theme of "occultism and mysticism". But it's not a serious thing, it's about the things we like (UFOs, pyramids, psychic phenomena, shamanism etc) and we all had fun

while making it. In terms of what makes it different from the previous Hibushibire albums, it’s where AOI HAMA's vocals are present. I had wanted to use a female vocalist for a long time, so it was a good feeling!”

Like the band's first two albums, 'Magical Metamorphosis Third Eye’ is very much an album of two halves. Side one again is full of killer shorter tracks, while side two is reserved for a blinding majestic 20 minute epic ‘Ayahuasca Witch Abduction’. Perhaps the biggest musical surprise here though is probably track two, the beautifully mellow tripped out ‘We Won't Go Back To The Past’, which sounds like it’s been beamed straight out of the late 60s/early 70s.

The band also tip a nod to the Beatles psychedelic classic ‘Tomorrow Never Ever Knows’, but with their own twist of course.

It’s clear with the line up changes, Changchang has decided to expand the band's musical pathway, and he’s achieved stunning results.

The band plan to return to the UK and Europe in 2024 to see friends old and new.

Not many heroes of indie folk have won an Oscar or created the basis of a successful stage musical, but Glen Hansard is an artist who can wear both of those feathers in his cap. As a member of the Frames and the Swell Season, Hansard won acclaim for his literate, intelligent, and passionate songwriting and his nuanced vocals, and he’s gone on to win similar accolades as a solo artist. Hansard first gained an audience for the limber but emphatic indie rock he created as a member of The Frames, then gained international fame with fellow singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová in the duo The Swell Season, whose emotionally open, primarily acoustic indie folk became the centerpiece of the award-winning independent romantic drama Once. After going out on his own with his 2012 solo debut, Rhythm and Repose, Hansard has shown a stylistic diversity as he embraced the sound of ‘70s singer/songwriters on 2015’s Didn’t He Ramble, vintage soul on 2018’s Between Two Shores, and an eclectic swing between subtle folk and noisy indie rock on 2019’s This Wild Willing. Glen Hansard now presents All That Was East Is West Of Me Now, his first solo album in 5 years. The album demonstrates the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter’s unique ability to blend Irish folk with modern rock & the punch of his storied live shows, of which The Guardian says, “Hansard’s powerful voice, whether raw with passion or tender with regret, shines above arrangements bursting with swagger”.

GUB—debut full-length from the two-headed beast of Beau Wanzer / Champagne MIRRORS—is a low-boiling cauldron aswirl with glurpy synthscapes, hypnotized rhythms and eerily dubbed-out electronic discharge. A timeless collaboration from two of Chicago’s finest exports.

“The heavy and intense brand of noise-rock that’s spat out by London’s Modern Technology is so dense and ferocious, it’s hard to believe the band consists of only two members.” JR Moores, The Quietus Human Worth are proud to present the stunning new full-length from London/Brighton noise rock duo Modern Technology, with a portion of proceeds donated to charity.

"How two players can make this much racket just has to be heard to be believed. The bass guitar and drums duo Modern Technology sound deceptively larger, louder and noisier than one could expect. The duo of Chris Clarke and Owen Gildersleeve (Old Mayor) present their second full length album Conditions OF Worth through rising leftfield heavy label Human Worth. Encapsulating influences of ‘90s Touch & Go era noise rock, the grubby grit of sludge metal, and the ferociousness of post-hardcore - Modern Technology hit you with the same energy and volume as their lauded live shows. Marching forwards as thoughtful as they are sonically unhinged, ‘Conditions Of Worth’ takes the duo’s voiced concerns and socially conscious outlooks further and louder, tackling issues including mental health, the effects of austerity, societal degradation, and the ever increasing climate emergency.

Conceived behind closed doors within a world locked down throughout 2020, and finally recorded with Misha Hering at London’s Holy Mountain Studios in the winter of 2022 (which has also housed Green Lung, Idles, 40 Watt Sun, Old Horn Tooth and many more) – ‘Conditions Of Worth’ is a contemplative surge of seething fury, slowly boiled until the duo could no longer contain their exploding proverbial lid. Hering majestically reins in Modern Technology’s acidic aggression, capturing the duo’s most dense, textured and atmospheric offerings to date, perfectly finished off by Stephen Kerrison, adding his mastering magic touch. This record truly showcases the band at their largest, wildest and most empowered, and the effects are electrifying.

‘Conditions Of Worth’ will be released through Human Worth on 13th October as a limited edition Transparent “Utility Yellow” Vinyl in a stunning package designed by @rackle. 10% of all sales proceeds will be donated to charity Choose Love, helping to provide humanitarian aid, search, rescue and legal advice to refugees and displaced people across the globe.

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.'

As the front person of celebrated indie band Cymbals Eat Guitars, guitarist and singer Joseph D’Agostino spent over a decade setting autobiographical, emotionally vivid lyrics against a backdrop of soaring and compositionally ambitious rock. After four critically acclaimed LPs that solidified D’Agostino’s reputation as a gifted songwriter, he chose to break from his long-term band and debut a new project: Empty Country. On 2020’s self-titled debut, D’Agostino’s storytelling lens shifted away from personal narrative and toward fiction; psychopaths, apparitions and deplorables populated a bleak and uncanny parallel version of American dystopia. Empty Country’s sprawling and sonically adventurous arrangements—filled out by collaborating musicians including Rachel and Zoë Browne (Field Mouse), Kyle Gillbride (Swearin’), Zena Kay (Angel Olsen), and former CEG drummer Charlotte Anne Dole—ranged from luminous jangle-pop to scorching emo-punk to narcotized Americana. Though the pandemic curtailed planned touring, a seven-piece iteration of the band played one packed Brooklyn show in May 2022, supported by Charles Bissell (The Wrens) and Field Mouse; Empty Country also backed Bissell on several classics from The Meadowlands. “It was a wonderful return to live music for all of us,” says D’Agostino. “So many folks reached out to me and told me how Empty Country offered them comfort during those first several months of being stuck inside. I’m happy that it came out and connected with some people and that I was able to establish this universe I could continue to build on.”

Empty Country II, the project’s second full-length, is a thrilling expansion of that world. D’Agostino pushed himself to new places as a songwriter, crafting a collection of short stories set to music that grapple with the biggest questions now hanging over America—gun violence, the addiction epidemic, and generational hopelessness among them. In 2020, he’d moved from Philadelphia to small-town New England to be closer to family, and his new locale, coupled with the dread of lockdown, inspired him to return to the haunted world from the first LP. “It’s pretty jarring to leave a city—where you can safely assume you’re aligned with your neighbors on many political and social issues—for somewhere more rural and conservative,” says D’Agostino, noting the Trump flags and Blue Lives Matter hood wraps that dot his new dirt road residence. Across the new album’s nine tracks, D’Agostino introduces us to a bevy of characters: three generations of West Virginia clairvoyants, crushed by the weight of their secret knowledge; a group of drag queens and misfits in early ‘80s New York City; a pill mill doctor’s daughter who dabbles in necromancy; a convicted killer; a bullied kid injured and alone in the forest as night falls. Through the stories of these characters, Empty Country II delivers an engaging and deeply moving rumination on time, family, and the disintegration of America.

Despite the stoicism of its storytelling, Empty Country II cuts the darkness with beauty, humor, and an earnest belief in the transcendent power of rock music. It was recorded over two weeks at Fidelitorium, the renowned studio in Kernersville, NC, belonging to R.E.M. producer Mitch Easter. Legendary recording engineer John Agnello, whose previous collaborations with Cymbals Eat Guitars resulted in their 2014 high-water mark, Lose, brought his trademark clarity and nuance to the process, helping Empty Country II crackle with a vital energy that imbues these stories with genuine lifeforce. Dole returned on drums for the record, her virtuosic performances lending raw power and immediacy; her twin brother Patrick joined on bass, his decades of experience uplifting the songs with subtle melodicism and formidable technicality. The group's chemistry and deep personal history are palpable, allowing them to approach the record’s complex story with subtlety and dynamism. “Mitch has collected an astounding array of weird mics, amplifiers, and oddball orchestral instruments: organs, Buddhist temple bells, bar chimes, tubular bells,” enthuses D’Agostino about the studio. “FLA,” a gripping portrait of a queer tour boat pilot in the Florida Keys pining for their absent lover, was arranged from the ground so the group could incorporate Easter’s timpani. D’Agostino considers it a high point of his lengthy discography and lauds that song’s harmonica solo as “my favorite 30 seconds of music that I’ve ever been a part of.”

Empty Country II also features some of D’Agostino’s most danceable songs—like “David,” a tribute to D’Agostino’s late friend David Berman. Featuring a lyrical tapestry of Silver Jews references and surreally beautiful images, head-nodding Philly soul grooves collapse into cosmic freeform jazz-inspired sections, ornamented with inventive hand percussion, marimba flourishes, and toe-tapping piano chords. “Recite a poem as the day vibrates,” D’Agostino sings. “I finally wrote this song for you / But I don’t know who I’d show it to.” It’s a paraphrase of W.S. Merwin’s famed short poem “Elegy”, written after the passing of his own mentor, John Berryman. On “Bootsie,” a runaway girl from West Virginia explores the crumbling, glorious 1980s New York City of Paris is Burning, finding community in a scene of drag queens who offer her a new way of thinking about what makes America—and rock music—great. Based on his own mother’s experiences at the height of the Aids epidemic, the song has deep personal meaning to D’Agostino. “The men you thought were brave / are arrogant and depraved,” he sings against the damaged disco beats of the Dole siblings’ rhythm section. Inverting the chorus of the Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” the lyrics of “Bootsie” celebrate the underdogs and misfits: “Hell is the place where everything happens / The band’s playing all the songs ever written at once / Shape the chaos, make your little story / Baby, this life’s perfect purgatory.”

Though Empty Country II is a record about the forces that drive Americans apart, it’s also imbued with empathic love and an understanding of what binds people to family and country—in spite of the darknesses we encounter. The concept of a Great American Rock Album might scan as outdated in 2023, but with this sprawling and uncompromising epic, D’Agostino and Empty Country shatter ambivalence and confront the horrors with a community-minded sense of cautious optimism. “We may be staring into an abyss,” says D’Agostino. “But we’re all staring together.”

Following the news that all three Lush albums are going to be reissued, Emma Anderson, the band’s cofounder, has announced her debut solo album, Pearlies, which will be released by Sonic Cathedral on October 20, 2023.One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life. It arrives fully formed with a burnished beauty (aided by the mastering skills of Heba Kadry) that belies its somewhat protracted creation, which began with Emma feeling disillusioned after Lush’s 2016 reunion came to an abrupt end. Left with songs and bits of music originally intended for the band, she began working with cellist and string arranger Audrey Riley and Robin Guthrie, formerly of the Cocteau Twins, both of whom encouraged her to sing her own songs. Covid put a temporary halt on proceedings, but the decision had been made. When Sonic Cathedral introduced her to James Chapman at the start of 2022, Pearlies quickly took shape and blossomed into a masterpiece, the perfect mix of Emma’s incredible, idiosyncratic songwriting and James’ electronic production nous. Plus, a little extra guitar magic on four tracks courtesy of Richard Oakes from Suede. The finished album has somehow written its own narrative. By her own admission, Emma tends to write words and “see what comes out”, but Pearlies seems to tell the story of her decision to go it alone, with opener ‘I Was Miles Away’ posing the question: “See if I make it on my own”. The rest of the album provides the answer as it takes in everything from the unexpectedly funky first single ‘Bend The Round’, to folky finger-picking and film theme references, via psych leaning electronic pop reminiscent of Goldfrapp or Melody’s Echo Chamber. It concludes with ‘Clusters’, a stunning, Stereolab-style groove which begins with the line “and now the party’s over, the music’s at the end”. Thankfully, that is not the case. This incredible album is just the start of Emma’s long-awaited solo journey

Iconoclastic Afghan-American street music project Naujawanan Baidar makes its long anticipated return with "Khedmat Be Khalq," its third album and first new release in three years. Originally planned as a "studio debut" in the classic sense, a veritable avalanche of setbacks tangled and delayed the recording process over a span of several years as compounded tragedies - both international and personal - disrupted the project's intended transition from simply being a ramshackle demo/home-recording outlet for founder N.R. Safi (The Myrrors, et al) into a properly working band. At the end of the day the process of assembling what would eventually become "Khedmat Be Khalq" became a lot like that of the previous two releases: gnarled and sun-baked tracks cut up and collated into a blown out collage of sound. If there is any obvious difference this time around it is perhaps to be found in the increased focus of the material. Whereas the group's previous two projects ran the gamut from sparse acoustic improvisations to tape-loop-inspired noise, "Khedmat Be Khalq" presents a more unified hybrid of Afghan folks styles and electric energy, further exploring Safi's "maximalist minimalism" approach. Tape-saturated and over-amplified Afghan rubab, armonia, and ghichak meet pounding multi-layered rhythms that at times hint at 1970s-1980s industrial music or the heady throb of German krautrock groups like Faust or Amon Düül. Perhaps nowhere is this unique combination more striking than in Naujawanan Baidar's swirling re-arrangement of the Afghan folk classic "Raftim Az Ayn Baagh" that closes the album. The rubab melody that serves as the song's core is warped into something that in all honesty wouldn't sound particularly out of place spun between early Savage Republic and Crash Worship. Lyrically the album moves away from the more abstract and impressionistic style of Safi's earlier material towards a concrete attempt to address the struggle of the Afghan masses from the complicated perspective of the international diaspora. The songs here work to draw out and examine the contradictions and challenges faced by a people once again locked in the talons of a sociopathic religious fundamentalism, connecting the country's position to the current global fight against imperialism, militarism, and resurgent fascism, and attempting to recover obscured historical fragments and lessons surrounding the proud radical history of Afghanistan's diverse population over countless decades of intensive struggle. It is here that Naujawanan Baidar's "street music" aesthetic blossoms into a sort of avant garde agitprop - a militant soundtrack angling at a revolution.

The B-52s, R.E.M., Pylon, Love Tractor... The roster of early Athens legends is quite distinguished, but one of their closest peers never so much as put a record out. That band is Limbo District. Active from April 1981 until their unceremonious disbanding in May 1983, there was a grand total of one movie made of them by Jim Herbert entitled Carnival while they existed. "They were the band's band," as Mark Cline from Love Tractor so eloquently put it on NPR. While the "Encased" track is on this, the band's first session in the summer/fall of 1981, two other tracks ("Knock Knock Lobo" and "Rhythm Forward") are included. The lyrics were written by vocalst Craig Woodall and songs were arranged and written by the band that included former Factory star Jerry Ayers (neé Jeremy Ayers, Silva Thin) on percussion, from northern France, Dominique Amet on Farfisa organ, Spaniard Margarita Bilbao on guitar and from Dublin, Georgia, Davey Stevenson on bass. This line up of the band existed no more than a few seasons and then went away to be reborn with TIM Lacy (later of ART IN THE Dark) and Kelly Crow both replacing Margarita on guitar in their own time. Behold the greatest ghost to ever haunt Athens, GA: Limbo District. Expect more. Much more.

Tin Fingers takes on a darker, melancholic direction on their second full album. Felix Machtelinckx' weeping vocals, preaching, searching, and trying to understand God, form the leitmotif. With rich melodies, haunting piano sounds, improvisations, first takes and no overdubs, Tin Fingers is searching for pureness and keeping things human and simple. The band is playing together intuitively, without a computer, without ego, just for the sake of music

The creation of the album was very fluent and spontaneous. Singer Felix wrote the backbones of the songs and the lyrics on acoustic guitar and piano. He wanted to have songs ready in order to be able to record and write arrangements fast. With an eye for details but without overthinking, keeping the ideas fresh. 'I wanted to stay in love with the music.' he explains. 'It needed to go fast, very fast, in just two weeks the entire album was recorded and ready to be mixed.'

In the studio, the band especially focused on picking the right mood rather than playing the right notes.

They were fed up with working on a computer for many hours, overthinking production choices, and adding instruments on top of each other as if they were Lego blocks. This time they decided to work in a more traditional way, going for first takes, jams, and essentially working with analog gear. No computers, no screens, no distractions. Only four humans in a studio trying to make a sound together by keeping things spontaneous and raw. They said goodbye to perfection and worked towards an unfinished product, a snapshot.

Tin Fingers also didn't want to sound like any other artist on this record. They decided not to listen to music during the sessions, and to never express ideas by referencing other bands. Just before the studio session, however, bass player Simen Wouters broke the rules and shared Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's, I See Darkness. Its dark and searching sound ended up inspiring the band unmistakably.

Once the recording was finished, the band decided to keep the volatile rhythm going and asked reputable NYC-based mixer and producer D. James Goodwin to finish the job. Goodwin, known for his analog folk productions with a real American punchy sound but a tender touch, proved the right man for the job. He opened up the songs and kept things poetic, minimal but impressive.

Yellow / black marbled vinyl.The Sensitives is a rough-haired mixed race dog of punk, rock'n'roll, SKA and folk! It's been touring around Europe, playing over 300 shows, spreading its musical wild oat resulting in a solid fanbase of people who, to their knockout punk, raises their middle finger to racism and sexism.The band have always kept the energy on a constant high, jumping between different styles and switching between the two singers Martin and Paulina, driven by the never resting Magnus behind the drums! The new album, Patch It Up and Go! is no different!The frustration from no touring during the pandemic and the emotional shock from a year of heavy touring as soon as the restrictions were lifted resulted in a worn out and damaged band coming home to lick their wounds. But they did what th...

Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had a great run. Shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey. Went from being teenaged kids in Boston to mid twenty somethings with an MTV video under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Greg Ackell felt content, music was a closed chapter. That was until 2021. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Ackell felt compelled to pick up a guitar. He immediately called up Steve Zimmeran, the band's bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. "We were off to the races," he says. "But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today? Enter Hard Light, the band's stunning third record. It's the band's proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision. The first task making Hard Light, was of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell's primarily the lyrics writer, and he collaborates with Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting. The guitar reverb is expansive as ever. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are crystalline. "Scapa Flow," is triumphant. An excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide like clouds on a blue sky day, drums shuffle in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are cool toned and dreamy, bound up in a haze of reverb. It's unquestionably lovely. You could say the same for the whole of the record. Hard Light is so lovely. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and as dedicated to their craft as ever.

Not many heroes of indie folk have won an Oscar or created the basis of a successful stage musical, but Glen Hansard is an artist who can wear both of those feathers in his cap. As a member of the Frames and the Swell Season, Hansard won acclaim for his literate, intelligent, and passionate songwriting and his nuanced vocals, and he’s gone on to win similar accolades as a solo artist. Hansard first gained an audience for the limber but emphatic indie rock he created as a member of The Frames, then gained international fame with fellow singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová in the duo The Swell Season, whose emotionally open, primarily acoustic indie folk became the centerpiece of the award-winning independent romantic drama Once. After going out on his own with his 2012 solo debut, Rhythm and Repose, Hansard has shown a stylistic diversity as he embraced the sound of ‘70s singer/songwriters on 2015’s Didn’t He Ramble, vintage soul on 2018’s Between Two Shores, and an eclectic swing between subtle folk and noisy indie rock on 2019’s This Wild Willing. Glen Hansard now presents All That Was East Is West Of Me Now, his first solo album in 5 years. The album demonstrates the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter’s unique ability to blend Irish folk with modern rock & the punch of his storied live shows, of which The Guardian says, “Hansard’s powerful voice, whether raw with passion or tender with regret, shines above arrangements bursting with swagger”.

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

German post-punk band Onyon scrambled our brains when we heard them for the first time last year, so much so that we signed them & reissued their eponymous debut cassette EP (originally co-released in limited quantities by the Flennen/U-Bac labels) in June of '22. "Last Days On Earth" is the band's latest & first proper full-length for Trouble In Mind. The oddball, synth-soaked world of Onyon is disorienting at first - the band's herky-jerky rhythms may operate in a familiar fashion to bands like Devo, Kleenex/Liliput or label-mates Lithics, but Maria Untheim's woozy synth squiggles that populate & punctuate the band's songs keeps everything at arms-length. Flirting with the primitive cool of 80's minimal-synth and the wire-haired cretinism of 60s garage, especially on tunes like the manic `Dogman' or first single `Alien, Alien'. Guitarist Ilka Kellner's six-string salvos rage unpretentiously with edges torn & frayed, rarely (if ever) soloing, but never afraid to unleash a spindly lead-line over Florian Schmidt's rubbery bass lines & Mario Pongratz's stuttering drum patterns that phase in & out of time imperceptibly like drunks doing their best to seem sober. Kellner & Untheim share vocal duties (in both English & German - sometimes in the same song), but the real magic comes when the two sing together, voices merging in loosely harmonic gang vocals; one deadpan, the other slightly unhinged. The group's beguiling lyrics add to the mystique - inscrutable neu-world fables about egg machines, ghosts, worms that talk, and urges to consume newspaper that ooze a rural, old-world understanding of life & the imperceptible spaces in between reality & fiction, transmuted thru a modernist sci-fi lensflare. Recorded, mixed & mastered in late 2022 by Martin Müller, "Last Days On Earth" is released on CD, black vinyl & limited purple vinyl (while supplies last) as well as streaming via most digital platforms.

Debut album from Italian sensation Whistling Head, quite a surprise in the british post-punk egemony. Teenage Cliché fast, fresh and edgy, brisk and dodgy, quivers like a carefree kid sneaking around responsibilities, just two minutes that stick like gum under the counter, as short and insatiable as the interval you wish would never end.... The graceful song form represents in a brio that pure sense of evaporating idealism, a track you could listen to the point of exasperation because of its potential structure and the leisurely moments it offers while never concealing that veil of restlessness, disorder and dissatisfaction. ‘Shoot Shoot. Work, eat, sleep, repeat.All work and no play, I'm a dull boy, I'm a dull boy.’ Shoot Shoot is a modern-day Greek tragedy, versifying their conception of the modern horror of routine, homologation and bewilderment, letting out, in a liberating spurt, all the accumulated irritation. The song's verse is held up by a crushing, gloomy and repetitive rhythm section accompanied by a guitar as distorted and sharp as a litany scratching at your brain. The track moves between more noise sounds close to the explosive emotionality of Unwound. A cathartic experience emerges from the sum of alienating, annihilating verses and explosive, angry refrains. Peaceful Warning shows the softer, more vulnerable, but still biting and dynamic side. Alternating between noisy phrasing and melodic refrains, Peaceful Warning sounds like a call to be oneself and to never change, despite the mutability of everything around us…

Los York's became the epitome of Peruvian garage sound and the kings of the multi-group concerts which teenagers flocked to on Saturday and Sunday mornings in Lima's main movie theaters. Their second LP was released featuring their classic beat-influenced go-go twang guitar garage psych tone throughout. It includes some stunning covers of Don Covay, Cream, The Monkees or The Kinks' songs, as well as a bunch of originals and a new, longer and fuzzier version of their hit 'Abrázame, Baby'. - At the beginning of 1968, Los York's was the most popular group in Peru at morning shows, parties and on tours, and had a legion of fans who found the answers to their youthful concerns in the band's songs. The bulk of the quintet's repertoire were Spanish versions of their favorite rock songs in English, where they took advantage of free translation to speak openly about freedom, drugs and hippy love... Their supportive fans would follow them to every gig. That same year Los York's would announce the new album was in the makings and would comprise two of their own songs and eight cover versions ranging from well-known hits to vinyl rarities. In a world without the internet and global communications, it would be interesting to know how South American bands found about little-known groups like The Downbeat, The Music Machine, Flavor or Kim Fowley, achieving equal or even greater impact with their cover versions than the original songs did. How did those vinyl singles travel so far south? "68" was finally released in October of that year, with cover art based on the album by the American band The Other Half, recreated by designer Estanislao "Zanahoria" Ruiz.