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The tenth official full-length by St. Petersburg synth savant Vladimir Karpov aka X.Y.R. is a liquid suite of surreal tranquility, divined and designed to soundtrack the shimmering mysteries of underwater life: Aquarealm. Inspired by vintage Soviet cartoons, nature documentaries, and his own colorful aquarium fish, the album’s seven songs share a mood of contemplative depths and dizzying beauty, adrift in deepwater currents and bioluminescent tides. Hazy tones swell and swirl while crystalline keys, loops, and echoes swim in the periphery, rising like bubbles to the surface. Karpov describes these compositions as flights of fantasy, born of an oceanic muse as idyllic as it is infinite. It’s music simultaneously serene and cinematic, conjuring blue horizons of kelp forests swaying above rainbow reefs, casting shadowplay on sandy floors. A realm both real and imagined, submerged but transcendent, rippling from the mind’s eye to the great beyond.

Great Spans Of Muddy Time Is The Fourth Album From Mercury Music Prize Nominated Artist William Doyle, And The Second Under His Own Name (Having Dropped His Earlier East India Youth Moniker). Born From Accident But Driven Forward By Instinct, The Album Was Built From The Remains Of A Catastrophic Hard-Drive Failure. With His Work Saved Only To Cassette Tape, Doyle Was Forced To Accept The Recordings As They Were - A Sharp Departure From His Process On The Previous Record, 2019's Your Wilderness Revisited, Which He Crafted Over Four Long Years. (Line Of Best Fit Described It As "A Dazzlingly Beautiful Triumph Of Intention" And Metro Declared It An Album Not Only Of The Year, But "Of The Century".)"Instead Of Feeling A Loss That I Could No Longer Craft These Pieces Into Flawless 'Works Of Art', I Felt Intensely Liberated That They Had Been Set Free From My Ceaseless Tinkering," Doyle Says Of Great Spans. These Unedited, Often Improvised Pieces, Free From Fine-Tuning, Plunged Him Into Uncharted Waters. What Remains Is Doyle's Unique Exploration Of Pop, Art-Rock, Ambient And Idiosyncratic Compositions, Married With A Voice That Deftly Glides From Tender Restraint To Soaring Peaks, But Its Expression Is Rawer And Less Polished Here."It's A Kind Of Englishman-Gone-Mad, Scrambling Around The Verdancy Of The Country's Pastures Looking For Some Sense," Doyle Says. "It Has Its Seeds In Robert Wyatt, Early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, And Syd Barrett," He Adds, Crediting Also Bowie's Ever-Influential Berlin Trilogy, And Highlighting A Far Less Expected Muse: Monty Don, Presenter Of Gardener's World, Doyle's Lockdown Addiction. "He Once Described Periods Of Depression In His Life As Consisting Of 'Nothing But Great Spans Of Muddy Time'," Doyle Says. "When I Read That Quote I Knew It Would Be The Title Of This Record. I Would Also Be Lying If I Said It Didn't Chime With My Mental Health Experiences As Well." What Results Is A Beautiful Ode To The Power Of Accident, Instinct And Intuition.Riyl: Brian Eno, Roby...

Originally known for his sculpted electro (he recently remixed Camilla Sparksss amongst remixers such as Rebeka Warrior or Dälek), Vadim Vernay is also proving himself as the frontman of a demanding indie rock with "Hang Tight" his fourth album to be release on 14th October. Co-produced by Hugo Cechosz (Eiffel, Miossec, Tété) featuring Gustine (Fakear) and numerous guests, Hang Tight is above all a voice and lyrics album. Twelve songs deeply inhabited, revealing the large range of a musician in a constant quest : trip-hop made of contained anger, luminous folk ballad, lo-fi pop song, rough and neurotic rock track. If the lyrics, the storytelling, the voice in the foreground convey artists such as Leonard Cohen or Nick Cave, the music is also looking at Tricky or Tindersticks. A rich and outstanding album which resonates with its title : Hang tight!

HIGHLIGHTSFirst compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1988, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music.Collect unpublished and loss pieces from artists such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones and Corina Bartra. Rescued from private archives and limited editions on cassette.DESCRIPTIONFirst compilation brings together the Peruvian experimental scene from 1975 to 1988, a period was the most prolific for a generation of Peruvian artists who, based on musical conceptions derived from modern jazz and techniques inherited from avant-garde music, sought to integrate the sounds of Andean, Afro-Peruvian and Amazonian cultures in search of a new musical universe. Native instruments and folk melodies were used in compositions that demanded modern recording techniques and electronic sounds. This generation was articulated in Lima and was made up of musicians such as Omar Aramayo, Manongo Mujica, Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, Miguel Flores (Ave Acústica), Douglas Tarnawiecki (Espíritus), Luis David Aguilar, Chocolate Algendones and Corina Bartra.But more than a movement, it was a set of individuals from dissimilar origins, who came from rock, jazz, contemporary classical and popular music, but also from the visual arts and poetry, and who had in common the cultural climate of the late seventies and early eighties in a country marked by a series of social and economic transformations, as well as the emergence of new visions and insertions of Andean culture and folklore in the city. The appearance of a mythical substrate connected the work of these musicians and defined an aesthetic, based on the deconstruction of folklore and the exploration of the possibilities that indigenous instruments offered. From there, these mus...

There was plenty of genuine discontent in Britain at the tail end of the 1970s, and it had little to do with bin strikes or dark rumours about overflowing morgues. In the world of popular music, the most liberating after-effect of the Sex Pistols was that anyone with something to say now felt they could make a 7” single. “Winter Of Discontent” is the sound of truly DIY music, made by people who maybe hadn’t written a song until a day or two before they went into the studio. It’s spontaneous and genuinely free in a way the British music scene has rarely been before or since.

“Winter of Discontent” has been compiled by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, the latest in their highly acclaimed series of albums that includes “The Daisy Age”, “Fell From The Sun” and “English Weather” ("really compelling and immersive: it’s a pleasure to lose yourself in it" - Alexis Petridis, the Guardian). The era's bigger DIY names (Scritti Politti, TV Personalities, the Fall) and the lesser-known (Exhibit A, Digital Dinosaurs, Frankie’s Crew) are side by side on “Winter Of Discontent”. Mark Perry’s Sniffin’ Glue command – “Here’s one chord, here’s another, now start a band” – was amplified by the Mekons and the Raincoats, whose music shared a little of punk’s volume, speed and distortion, but all of its obliqueness and irreverence.

The discontent was with society as a whole. No subject matter was taboo: oppressive maleness (Scritti Politti); deluded Britishness (TV Personalities); gender stereotypes (Raincoats, Androids of Mu); nihilistic youth (Fatal Microbes); alcoholism (Thin Yoghurts); self-doubt and pacifism (Zounds). The band names (Thin Yoghurts!) and those of individual members (Andrew Lunchbox!) had enough daftness to avoid any accusations of solemnity.

“Winter Of Discontent” is the definitive compilation of the UK DIY scene, and a beacon in grim times.

Take a tour through Ty Segall’s musical psyche with his new solo album, Fudge Sandwich, a collection of Segall’s take on eleven songs that were originally done by other people. These aren’t just cover versions. Cover versions happen at weddings and high school band battles. The songs here are what happens when someone loves a song so much, they need to get inside it and let it propagate and transform into what it would have been if they had actually written it.

Equal parts reverence and reimagination, this album shows Segall inhabiting the world of a song’s intent, filtering it through the muse that drove this year’s exceptional Freedom’s Goblin. Cluttered, passionate and inspired, the songs are barely recognizable, irresistible and by album’s end, present a cohesive collection that stands proudly alongside the best of Segall’s considerable output.

The trio Topsy Turvy is the latest discovery from the seemingly inexhaustible pool of the new Viennese indie scene. On their debut album, Theresa Strohmer (guitar), Lena Pöttinger (drums) and Victoria Aron (bass) manage to combine the energy of 80s British post-punk with driving surf influences and beautifully quirky indie pop melodies. On their almost thirty-minute debut album "Butt Sore", which was produced by their Siluh label colleague Peter T. from Euroteuro, the three mus...

Sun Racket' is the brand new album from legendary Boston trio Throwing Muses, consisting of Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo and Bernard Georges. The follow up to 2013's 'Purgatory/Paradise' is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristen Hersh's well-thumbed notebook of storylines. A ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that's at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos. When Throwing Muses wrote their last album, they were shattered. Pieces were coming and going, elements repeating and charging the whole. "It sounded beautiful jumping around like that". Two-minute songs reappearing as twisted instrumentals or another song's bridge. They mimicked the effect live which kept them on their toes. Whatever was happening was already over in other words. 'Sun Racket' is the opposite. It refused to do anything but sit still. It says, "sit here and deal". "All it asked of us was to comingle two completely disparate sonic vocabularies: one heavy noise, the other delicate music box. Turns out we didn't have to do much. Sun Racket knew what it was doing and pushed us aside, which is always best. After thirty years of playing together, we trust each other implicitly but we trust the music more" - Kristin Hersh And so, they continue. Business unusual. "A ground-breaking band who changed the face of alternative music rather than follow the rule book." MXDWN "Pioneers of the 80s/early 90s college rock sound" Pitchfork "One of America's finest guitar bands" The Quietus

RSD First, Limitation: 2000

The Warning infuse rock music with a much-needed shot of adrenaline. The Monterrey, Mexico trio of sisters—Daniela “Dany” [guitar, lead vocals], Paulina “Pau” [drums, vocals, piano], and Alejandra “Ale” Villarreal [bass, piano, backing vocals]—charge forward with head-spinning riffs, unpredictable rhythms, stadium-size beats, and skyscraping vocals. Through a series of independent releases, The Warning garnered the respect of countless fans and musicians from across the globe before signing with Lava/Republic to release their 2021 MAYDAY EP. The band’s single “CHOKE” surged them to the forefront of hard rock. The 3-piece powerhouse have already played alongside rock legends such as Muse, Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Royal Blood, The Pretty Reckless, Three Days Grace, and more.
After generating millions of streams on their MAYDAY EP alone, everything just set the stage for their full-length debut ERROR, in 2022. On the album, the band explores themes such as technology, society, the generational gap, anxiety, suppression, and love over a soundtrack of eloquently constructed thrash, stadium-shaking choruses, and empathetic lyrics. Now, ERROR represents a new beginning for hard rock. This RSD Black Friday edition, pressed on Cobalt (LP 1) and Ruby (LP 2) vinyl variants, Includes three live tracks never before released on vinyl.

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personalterritor y while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It 's a true level up album whichsees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything fromsoulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop(Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a `vast world of moods and muses' andCotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in theprocess.This is in no small part down to Owen `O' Williams' vocal performance- often compared to a youngRichard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into hisfavourite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behaviour, and the humiliations of being amusician in London. This time around, however, there's a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions.No more so in the track's closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaningsocial interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer CharlotteGreig.) As Williams says: "I'd tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed eithermawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because itlooked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, actedafter the dust settled." The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greigin a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which wasfeatured in The Guardian in 2023.)The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams' lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blastsof pop perfection. This is largely down to th...

GrooveNet/Treblephone Records is proud to announce the release of Palace of Sin, the first release in more than thirty years by Dallas band THE Trees Songwriter/vocalist Patrick Mckanna and guitarist Matt Swaney have created a landmark LP which encapsulates rock, country and power-pop influences, combined with solid, insightful lyrics. Patrick McKanna has followed his own muse throughout his entire music career and has steadfastly refused to bow to current styles and influences. His work relies on classic songwriting skills. Matt Swaney’s hookful, melodic guitar ensures that the songs stick in your memory after the album is over. Palace of Sin delivers on the promise of 1986’s Locomotion Vs. Hittin’ The Brake, a seminal record in the development of the Dallas, Texas 1980’s Deep Ellum music scene. The band also appeared on the Island Records 1987 release The Sound of Deep Ellum, a musical snapshot of the fertile mix of styles and influences existing on the Dallas music scene. [Their musical pedigree goes back to the dawn of punk/new wave—Patrick appeared on a local 45 rarity by the U.S. Mods, and Matt was a member of Dallas punk band THE Assassins]. Proving that stellar songwriting and classic production values never go out of style, Palace of Sin will be an album that is destined to remain on ‘repeat’ on your playlist” Released August 2018, but being made available for distribution for the first time.

The Slow Readers Club follow their 2020 Top 10 album 'The Joy of the Return' with the release of their new record 'Knowledge Freedom Power. 'Knowledge Freedom Power'is a sizzling synth-rock beast of a record akin to White Lies, Muse and modern-day Bloc Party, and a rallying cry of emancipation, both stylistically and socially. It's a righteous punch of the air, a surge towards the future. Frontman Aaron Starkie says, "The world had got so bleak it felt a little indulgent to paint apocalyptic pictures when they were out in the real world. I thought people would probably want to hear more uplifting things, it was my intention to be a bit more positive. There's still a lot of melodrama in there and it's still dystopian in places but there's more positive shades in this record." That positivity powers to the fore with the album's lead single and title track, an instantly addictive hybrid of the band's new pulsating synth style with their anthemic alt - rock roots. As much as the record finds The Slow Readers Club channelling a brighter spirit, there's no dumbing down of their famously ferocious and insightful lyricism. A beam of hope shines throughout 'Sacred Song' : part in the form of a spiritual saviour, but also embracing the power of love as a force for good, something which can also be achieved by the friendship and community spirit infused in 'Lay Your Troubles On Me'. Yet a darkness still looms large, whether it's within the warmongering satire - and ultimately individual powerlessness - of 'Seconds Out' or the steady march of automation over the human workforce on opener 'Modernise' 'Knowledge Freedom Power' is the band's sixth album and the latest giant leap in one of the greatest self-made success stories in recent British rock history

Each LP release consists of the original remastered album, cut at Abbey Road, packaged with a download code for the album and bonus tracks. The LPs are heavyweight black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve accompanied with photos, credits and Neil's liner notes.

Fire Records will be reissuing SOS JFK , the one and only album from folk two-piece The Children's Hour, which featured Josephine Foster and Andy Bar. Initially released in 2003, the album introduced audiences to Foster's enchanting vocals and poetic folk, which would be developed to staggering effect in her later solo recordings, such as the recently released critically acclaimed album Blood Rushing (Fire Records).The Children's Hour were an acoustic duo comprised of members Andy Bar and Josephine Foster. The two friends first connected in 2000 in a short-lived rock trio called Golden Egg, and then on a lark formed the pop song-writing duo oriented toward more naïve themes. Foster was a rec...

This new, expanded version of Texas Is The Reason's groundbreaking album includes the last two songs the band wrote before splitting up, but had never released. These two songs, which fit right into the band's canon, were finally put to tape this year with "Do You Know Who You Are?" producer J. Robbins - making this, for the first time, a complete career retrospective. Fully remastered by Vlado Meller (Muse, Jeff Buckley, Kanye West, Weezer). New pressing now available on opaque brown vinyl with a gatefold cover.

A first-time on vinyl reissue of the band's early singles (1991 - 1995) collected together on one album, originally released as a CD by Siltbreeze in 1996. Remastered by Aussie knobs legend Mikey Young with a new fuller sound. The record is pressed on 180gm choice vinyl and features lyrics and photos of the singles on the inner sleeve. "Gobs on the Midway collects some of the earliest small-format output of Philadelphia’s mighty Strapping Fieldhands, and this first ever vinyl edition serves as both the single best place for a novice to dive in or a handy device for old fans with either too little patience for endless side-flipping or a lack of operational cd player. You can track the band's evolution in chronological order, from their beginnings as a duo crafting creaky acoustic Appalachian Gothic to the double-drumming, boozily romantic swirling psych pop monster they became. Each and every song is a glorious jumble of the haphazard and the innovative, bound by dazed melodies and the knowledge that nobody else could possibly sound like them. Includes printed inner with Bob Malloy's lyrical magic for all to behold."—Max Milgram

Ever Crashing, the second LP by Kennedy Ashlyn aka Srsq [pronounced `seer-skew'], is the summation of a nearly three-year journey of soul searching, songwriting, and self-discovery: "I became myself in the process of making this record." From the first choral swells of opener "It Always Rains," it's clear this collection exists on an ascendant plane, capturing an artist in super bloom. Every song hits like a single, heaving with guitar, synth, strings, live drums, and oceans of Ashlyn's astounding voice, balletic and illuminated. The tracks gleam with detail, often assembled from as many as 100 separate tracks, all of which were written and played solely by Ashlyn - a feat of world-building as daunting as it is devastating. For her, however, the process is intrinsic and intuitive - even a matter of survival. Her 2018 solo debut emerged in response to the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which took the life of her bandmate and best friend Cash Askew. Similarly, Ever Crashing began materializing in the wake of an Adhd and bipolar disorder diagnosis, prompting a profound personal overhaul. Ashlyn cites such periods of turmoil as a muse of sorts, when "songs begin to echo within me," gradually reverberating clearer and more vividly. As melodies and arrangements come into focus, the songs act like containers, vessels in which to externalize and exorcise tumultuous emotions, a transformation she memorializes in the climax of "Élan Vital:" "Reeling in and out of deep despair / I am saved by song." From swooning end credits balladry ("Dead Loss") to orchestral slowburn torch songs ("Abyss") to dizzying shoegaze heavens ("Someday I Will Bask In The Sun"), the album exudes a sense of aching grandeur and bewildered joy, rich with triumphs hard won and lost loves never forgotten. Melodies pirouette and crescendo in dazzling, elevated acrobatics, somewhere between Kate Bush and The Sundays, threaded with ethereal undercurrents of shimmering shadow. Riffs brood and sparkle over crystalline synths, buoyant bass, and patient percussion, steadily building to holy moments of tidal power, finessed to perfection by producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Slowdive, Zola Jesus). Ashlyn's is a dream-pop of questing catharsis, vulnerable but orchestral, as dense with hooks as heartbreak. The album's title refers to Ashlyn's recurring sensation of being trapped in the crest of a wave, turned and churned in the surf, mirroring the cycles of self-flagellation and surrender that she battles being bipolar. But as the poetic raptures of these songs attest, her creative process thrives at transmuting trauma into potent music of arresting beauty and hidden divinity. Ever Crashing is an aching, rare work, shaded with gradients of reverie and regret, loss and letting go, "mourning the person I thought I should be, mourning the person I never was." But even in its pain, Ashlyn's voice exerts a redemptive gravity, yearning to transform and transcend: "Even on the inside / I'm bracing for impact / I'm waiting to destroy my life / To become sunlight."

Ever Crashing, the second LP by Kennedy Ashlyn aka SRSQ [pronounced `seer-skew'], is the summation of a nearly three-year journey of soul searching, songwriting, and self-discovery: "I became myself in the process of making this record." From the first choral swellsof opener "It Always Rains," it's clear this collection exists on an ascendant plane, capturing an artist in super bloom. Every song hits like a single, heaving with guitar, synth, strings, live drums, and oceans of Ashlyn's astounding voice, balletic and illuminated. The tracks gleam with detail, often assembled from as many as 100 separate tracks, all of which were written and played solely by Ashlyn - a feat of world-building as daunting as it is devastating. For her, however, the process is intrinsic and intuitive - even a matter of survival. Her 2018 solo debut emerged in response to the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, which took the life of her bandmate and best friend Cash Askew. Similarly, Ever Crashing began materializing in the wake of an ADHD and bipolar disorder diagnosis, prompting a profound personal overhaul. Ashlyn cites such periods of turmoil as a muse of sorts, when "songs begin to echo within me," gradually reverberating clearer and more vividly. As melodies and arrangements come into focus, the songs act like containers, vessels in which to externalize and exorcise tumultuous emotions, a transformation she memorializes in the climax of"Élan Vital:" "Reeling in and out of deep despair / I am saved by song." From swooning end credits balladry ("Dead Loss") to orchestral slowburn torch songs ("Abyss") to dizzying shoegaze heavens ("Someday I Will Bask In The Sun"), the album exudes a sense of aching grandeur and bewildered joy, rich with triumphs hard won and lost loves never forgotten. Melodies pirouette and crescendo in dazzling, elevated acrobatics, somewhere between Kate Bush and The Sundays, threaded with ethereal undercurrents of shimmering shadow. Riffs brood and sparkle over crystalline synths, buoyant bass, and pati...

While still rounding up Squid’s modern anxieties into electrifying songs, O Monolith is a more refined experience, deep in thought yet buzzing in a freshly post-isolation world.

Circular synth arpeggios and pendulum-swinging guitar licks open with laser focus on ‘Swing (In A Dream)’, subtle yet frantic as a driving beat kicks in and Ollie Judge sings “I worry in my sleep” to right-angled riffs tossing and turning. Themes of displacement and friction run throughout the record, with domesticity and the environment rubbing against each other, and our relationships with violence and being witness to endless streams of it.

Guitar plucks on ‘Devil’s Den’ stalk suspiciously against a baroque backdrop of brass and horns, lilting until theatrical thrashes drop in. ‘Siphon Song’ lurches into a smooth jazz-adjacent vocoder ballad, with spellbinding vocal tapestries intensifying and collapsing under gravitational weight. ‘Undergrowth’ enters a post-punk-funk groove, tense with guitars scribbling viscerally down the frets, exploring reincarnation and animism in the mundane set to music that is anything but. Heavy footsteps lumber on ‘After The Flash’, Judge muses “How hard can it be to live a normal life?” before crashing into the track’s unending ascension.

The world hasn’t gotten any less turbulent since Bright Green Field was released in 2021. Squid’s debut was a definitive outcry in a hyperpolitical era: punk in all senses with its witty defiance of the present shouted over upfront, rocking thrill ride, yielding fierce experimentalism powered by varied instrumental palettes and non-sequitur structures. It didn’t take long for the band to start formulating their follow-up; just two weeks after their debut’s release, their second album O Monolith began to manifest and swerve even further leftfield.

Ever restless, Squid have knocked it out of the park once again on O Monolith, grounded in post-punk but taking off into something entirely new.

While still rounding up Squid’s modern anxieties into electrifying songs, O Monolith is a more refined experience, deep in thought yet buzzing in a freshly post-isolation world.

Circular synth arpeggios and pendulum-swinging guitar licks open with laser focus on ‘Swing (In A Dream)’, subtle yet frantic as a driving beat kicks in and Ollie Judge sings “I worry in my sleep” to right-angled riffs tossing and turning. Themes of displacement and friction run throughout the record, with domesticity and the environment rubbing against each other, and our relationships with violence and being witness to endless streams of it.

Guitar plucks on ‘Devil’s Den’ stalk suspiciously against a baroque backdrop of brass and horns, lilting until theatrical thrashes drop in. ‘Siphon Song’ lurches into a smooth jazz-adjacent vocoder ballad, with spellbinding vocal tapestries intensifying and collapsing under gravitational weight. ‘Undergrowth’ enters a post-punk-funk groove, tense with guitars scribbling viscerally down the frets, exploring reincarnation and animism in the mundane set to music that is anything but. Heavy footsteps lumber on ‘After The Flash’, Judge muses “How hard can it be to live a normal life?” before crashing into the track’s unending ascension.

The world hasn’t gotten any less turbulent since Bright Green Field was released in 2021. Squid’s debut was a definitive outcry in a hyperpolitical era: punk in all senses with its witty defiance of the present shouted over upfront, rocking thrill ride, yielding fierce experimentalism powered by varied instrumental palettes and non-sequitur structures. It didn’t take long for the band to start formulating their follow-up; just two weeks after their debut’s release, their second album O Monolith began to manifest and swerve even further leftfield.

Ever restless, Squid have knocked it out of the park once again on O Monolith, grounded in post-punk but taking off into something entirely new.

Since its formation in 2018 by like-minded Calarts students Alex Kent (guitar, vocals), April Gerloff (bass), and Sylvie Simmons (guitar), as well as the recent addition of Clint Dodson (percussionist), Los Angeles-based quartet Sprain has honed its signature flavor of experimentalism to a razor-fine point. Gradually moving from twisting conventions in its early works of minimalist slowcore to now transcending the confines of genre altogether, Sprain’s evolution over the past several years has encouraged the band to embrace a sound true to its muse. With its latest record, The Lamb As Effigy or Three Hundred And Fifty Xoxoxos For A Spark Union With My Darling Divine, the band has translated this intent into an ambitious work that pairs its resplendent scale with uncompromising honesty towards the band’s artistic and conceptual essences.

The most extraordinary of art isn’t created without its fair share of trials, of which Sprain faced numerous during the recording process of The Lamb As Effigy, with the sum and circumstances of them nearly sealing the album’s fate in limbo. With obstacles including session reschedulings as a result of a line-up change and a major studio electrical failure at the last possible moment, a mixing process that demanded the organization of several years of material across four separate studios, and the recording of the actual songs pushing the members of Sprain to their own physical limits, there were several times where the band considered scrapping the whole thing altogether. But Sprain persevered, applying the knowledge and willpower derived from those struggles to get The Lamb As Effigy across the finish line.

Clocking in at nearly two hours, The Lamb As Effigy resembles an aural parallel to the human experience itself, with all the glorious beauty, crushing brutality, and unexplainable chaos that comes with it intact. Explosions of earth-sundering guitars, angelic keys, swirling strings, and bursts of improvised electronic noise coalesce to weave a visceral yet unique sonic tapestry bearing hints of no-wave, sound collage, 20th-century avant-garde, and free jazz. Spanning bellowing howls, emphatic spoken word, and nuanced croons, Alex Kent’s dynamic vocal delivery adds texture to these eight meditations on otherwise immaterial topics and the meaning or the lack thereof they embody.

Spiderland (remastered) LP pressed on 180 gram black vinyl, 12 page photo book, includes coupon for full album download with bonus material!Slint's 1991 album, Spiderland, remastered from the original analog master tapes by our friend Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service. This is the same version as was included in the Spiderland (remastered) Box Set.A download coupon for 14 bonus outtakes and demos personally selected by Slint and mastered by Bob Weston, as well as downloads of the entire Spiderland (remastered) album itself . The 14 bonus songs are not included on the vinyl album; they are included in this vinyl package as digital downloads only. Packaged in a heavy weight "tip-on" gatefold LP jacket, including a large format, 12 page book of photos including a foreword by Will Oldham and printed in the USA at Stoughton.Packaging concept and design by Louisville native Jeremy deVine (of Tempor...

Learn To Die is a bold new step for a group of musicians, artists, and writers that has at least nominally been considered a punk band. A stylistic overhaul. For those who have been following along, it’ll carry some surprises. Slender began over a decade ago as a semi-improvisational cassette recording project, a casual collaboration between a few friends that was initially documented by two self-titled cassette-only releases released in 2014 and 2015 respectively, now both unavailable and out of print. Most fans, however, will know Slender for their two most recent releases, Walled Garden (2017) and Time On Earth (2019), both released on the tastemaking London art-punk label La Vida Es Un Mus. Their prior work has earned them comparisons to anarcho-punks Crass and The Snipers, lo-fi flagbearers Swell Maps and Pink Reason, and artrockers Cromagnon and Amon Düül. Here, however, such comparisons feel largely unfounded and the band feels somewhat peerless. Moments of artpunk brutalism, lo-fi experimentalism, and kosmiche detours grace the fabric of Learn To Die, but the album reaches for more than pastiche. Teasing the rarified worlds of chamber music and musique concrete, Slender manages something intangible and strange. A vocoded voice intones multi-lingual poems alongside tinny guitars and sampled strings and flutes. Three chord janglepunk anthems arise suddenly out of a cosmic mist crafted by analogue synths reciting the poetry of machines. The album moves in ways reminiscent of works by artists as varied and singular as Nobukazu Takemura, Chuquimamani-Condori, Coil, and Robert Wyatt, but it doesn’t necessarily occupy the same realm as any of them.”—Leah B. Levinson

"The Veiled Sea" is easily one the most viscerally satisfying records in the Six Organs of Admittance discography. As always, Chasny finds the invisible threads between incongruous sound worlds. Here it's American (electric) guitar heroics and galactic postpunk, Popol Vuh-ish pastoralism and heavy psych. But these disparate musical regions are here rendered so fully and tangibly, one is struck by the sheer mass of them. It is an improbable universe, but somehow it all connects. This is a record a little outside of the standard Six Organs catalog but no less a perfect part of it - one where big, beefy extended electric guitar solos stand proudly on one track and extraterrestrial-seeming rock on the next. Chasny is always one to boldly follow his own muse and the audience has always had the privilege of following. "The Veiled Sea" is no exception and a grand addition to the 6Ø catalog.

From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

Awareness Edition: Amber Galaxy Vinyl + Laptop Sticker.From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

Awareness Edition: Amber Galaxy Vinyl.From the off, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory issonically different from Van Etten's previous work. Writing andrecording in total collaboration with her band for the first time,Van Etten finds the freedom that comes by letting go. The resultof that liberation is an exhilarating new dimension of sound andsongwriting. The themes are timeless, classic Sharon - life andliving, love and being loved - but the sounds are new, whollyrealized and sharp as glass.Reflecting on this new artistic frame of mind, Van Etten muses,"Sometimes it's exciting, sometimes it's scary, sometimes you feelstuck. It's like every day feels a little different - just being at peacewith whatever you're feeling and whoever you are and how yourelate to people in that moment. If I can just keep a sense ofopenness while knowing that my feelings change every day, thatis all I can do right now. That and try to be the best person I can bewhile letting other people be who they are and not taking itpersonally and just being. I'm not there, but I'm trying to be thereevery day."Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is a quantum leap inthat direction.- Lol Tolhurst

What might appear to be the most unlikely collaboration of 2024 proves also to be one of the most invigorating listens of the year! Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance are in full aural/metaphysical alignment in their mutual effort to become Jinxed By Being.On first listen, it becomes immediately clear that this fusion of Shackleton"s bass heavy cosmic dread and Six Organs" ritual folksong makes total sense. Longtime listeners know that both Shackleton and Six Organs of Admittance have been unafraid to pursue their muse into any and all encroaching depth of darkness or outer boundary of potential dissonance - in fact, that has always been their default mode, finding more of resonance way out there in the process.They also share that ol" maverick psychedelic ritual transcendental music vibe, don"t they? And a fascination with repetition and cycles. And a mutual inspiration drawn from alternative tunings and literature...all this considered, it"s been basically inevitable that Ben Chasny and Sam Shackleton would work together.It took a while for them to find each other-and once they did, it was almost eerie, how preordained it felt. When the music started coming, though-that"s when it got really eerie. The mood rises from the music like smoke, a sure signal of total integration. Jinxed by Being finds Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance delighting in their synthesis. Reveling in the unique sonic textures found in the collage, they launch small details that unfold into a massive space and often multiply into lines of dimensional space, crossing the stereo spectrum with enervating motility.Here lies all the proof you need against the danger of categorizing by perceived genre rather than intention-encounters like Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance might never have found the linear space in which they sit next to each other, beyond alphabets and other institutional organizing principles. Rearrange your libraries-or you might miss getting Jinxed By Being.

Australian only single by this St. Louis duo. Includes a Silver Apples cover. Released in 1994. The duo of Bruce Cole and Jon Ashline have been one of the truly mythological groups in the fringes of America's lo-fi detritus. If not their best work, it is one of the few available...

"Home" is a tough thing to pinpoint for someone who's constantly in motion. Scout Gillett knows this well, but since relocating from Kansas City in 2017, she's found one in Brooklyn's DIY scene, playing in multiple live bands and even starting her own booking company to organize local shows. Her intrepid nature results from a childhood spent running barefoot through rural Missouri and coming of age in Kansas City's punk scene. Her debut solo album no roof no floor is a bold and spirited yet warm, intimate meditation on trust, surrender, and what makes a home. Following the sudden overdose of a lover in 2018 and the onset of the 2020 quarantine, Scout returned to Missouri in search of reprieve. Instead, she was dismayed to find that her hometown was suffering; friends and family members were caught in the grips of drug and alcohol addiction. Overcome by grief and helplessness, she retreated inward, channeling her fears and frustrations, as she always had, into songwriting. The resulting songs were more vulnerable than any of her prior work, and it was a while before the notion of sharing them even occurred to her. Then Nick Kinsey, the album's producer, called from his recording studio The Chicken Shack in Stanfordville, New York to tell Scout that his friends Ellen Kempner (Palehound) and David Lizmi (MS MR) had relocated upstate, and were interested in working on an album with her. Recorded in a big wooden barn with the doors wide open, there's a sense of spaciousness on no roof no floor befitting its title. On some songs, there are even audible cricket chirps. The arrangements, too_ which feature contributions from Kempner, Lizmi, and Kevin Copeland (The Big Net)_reflect Scout's rural roots and her indie spirit; a fusion of upbeat, guitar-driven melodies and folk/country instrumentation like pedal steel, harmonica, and tenor banjo. All of these elements are underpinned by Scout's signature soaring, velvet vocals and open- hearted lyricism. She arrives at her thesis on the haunting six-minute centerpiece "hush, stay quiet": "you can only save yourself," she muses over a resolute guitar. We can't always know what to expect, even in a place we've been before. With a little trust, though, we can find a safe place within. No roof required.

Rose City Band is celebrated guitarist Ripley Johnson. A prolific songwriter, Johnson started Rose City Band to have an outlet to explore songwriting styles apart from Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, where he is often not the lead songwriter. Rose City Band allowed him to follow his musical muses as they greet him and not be bound by the schedule of bandmates and demands of a touring group. Stepping out from behind the psychedelic haze that envelops his other output, Rose City Band's lean yet richly textured arrangements lay bare the beauty of his songcraft. On Earth Trip, Johnson reveals more of himself than ever before, coloring the project's country-rock twang with a melancholic, wistful undertone. It charts a journey of personal growth and introspection with surprising honesty, from pining for summers spent with friends to meditations on space, stillness and the splendor of the natural world. It continues Rose City Band's celebration of summer warmth and the great outdoors, seen from a new vantage point, and with newfound appreciation for the freedom and joy that nature provides. Earth Trip was written during a period of sudden shocks and drastic lifestyle changes for Johnson. Forced to cancel extensive touring plans for 2020, the guitarist found himself home for an extended period for the first time in years. No longer in constant motion, he was able to experience and enjoy the simple pleasures of home life, of being in one place: hikes in nature, bathing outside, and waking with the dawn. Forming new connections to his surroundings, from tending to a garden to sleeping out under the stars, Johnson found hope and healing in a more mindful relationship with the natural world. Themes of recalibration and finding personal space are equally mirrored in Earth Trip's lean production. Recorded at his home studio in Portland and mixed by Cooper Crain (Bitchin' Bajas, Cave), Johnson makes deft use of space while experimenting with new sonics. Shimmering pedal steel, woozy harmonica melodies, and stately piano enhance the album's introspective tone without ever clouding arrangements. Psychedelic elements that nod to Johnson's other projects and influences still appear throughout, but hover at the edge of perception, a subtle halo adding colour and texture to Johnson's songwriting rather than taking centrer-stage. He elaborates: "I told Cooper I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on - maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you're not fully tripping yet. He got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling." Johnson's lithe guitar playing throughout treads a fine line between country and cosmic, taut melodies spiralling out into long reverb trails or free-form solos buoyed by a breeze, radiating summer warmth. Through its daring honesty and masteful arrangements, Earth Trip cements Johnson's place as a singular songwriter of inimitable skill. It's message of mindfulness and our interconnectedness to the environment expands on a long country and blues music tradition that draws a symbiotic relationship between storyteller and the land, capturing the beauty of the natural world while also emphasising our responsibility in preserving it for future generations

West coast new romantic icon Riki returns with her 2nd simulacrum of pitch-perfect synth-pop, aptly titled for the precious substance it is: Gold. Inspired by notions of symbolic power, letting go, and transmutable realms of the heart, the album further refines her rare gift for making swooning melancholia as anthemic as it atmospheric. Working with Telefon Tel Aviv co-founder Josh Eustis at his Pasadena studio, the sessions unfolded fluidly and fruitfully, focusing on "quieter moments" and refining the record's palette and voice. Occasional interruption from a nearby flock of wild parrots infused a mood of California dreaming, purple sunsets dissolving into deepening neon night.Like all the most elusive pop, Riki's songcraft is simultaneously direct and oblique, dynamic and detached, shifting from sparkling chorus to elliptical outro according to its own poetic logic. She characterizes her lyrical muse as "very much what's going on in my life, things I wanted to say but didn't have the platform." This subcurrent of dream fulfillment animates the melodies with a specificity and immediacy that transcends her pantheon of 80's influences: from Saâda Bonaire and Strawberry Switchblade to Bryan Ferry, Bananarama, and beyond. Gold skews less dance floor than her instant classic 2020 debut but taken as a collection it's equally stirring, stylish, and exquisitely produced. Evocatively layered arrangements of drum machinery, sequencer, fretless bass, grey sky guitar, saxophone, and FX, anchored by Riki's singular voice, alternately widescreen and wounded, yearning beyond time for ecstasies both fleeting and forever: "Thought I knew you, but you've gone far away / it's not in your nature to stay / but the thought that I need you, grows stronger every day / the colors begin / to change."

This would be the first proper Quintron & Miss Pussycat full-length since 2011’s Sucre Du Sauvage, and the duo’s third for Memphis Tennessee’s weirdo-rock label Goner Records. Produced by Greg Cartwright (The Oblivians / Reigning Sound) and recorded on 2-inch tape at Gainesville Florida’s Pulp Arts studio, Goblin Alert picks up where Sucre Du Sauvage left off: snotty, semi-political, trash-anthems like, “Teenagers Don’t Know Shit”, “Stroller Pollution”, and “Buc-ee’s Got A Problem”. Also, for the first time ever, Quintron and Pussycat have ditched the drum machine in favor of New Orleans jazz-basher, Sam Yoger (Babes, AJ Davilla) on drum kit, and slinky Florida man, Danny Clifton (Room 13, Jane Jane Pollock) on hollow-body guitar. The resulting vibe is some kinda tweaked-out Miami disco dipped into a Mississippi mudslide, especially the tracks featuring Biloxi talk-box master, Benny Divine (aka Benni). And for the mystery lovers, there is 3/4 power-ballad entitled, “Where’s Karen”, featuring backing vocals by Heather Lee (Room 13, Jane Jane Pollock), about a troubled girl who vanished on Mardi Gras day.

Franco-Belgian singer, songwriter, and producer Penelope Antena presents James & June, her third-full length album in collaboration with Brooklyn-based record label Youngbloods and Parisian imprint Parapente Music. Accessing the joy of newfound love, Penelope explores romance, intimacy, and the safety of partnership across eleven piano-driven compositions. James & June stands as Penelope’s most personal work to date, calling on her shapeshifting, multidimensional production stylings to mold a collection of soulful hymns and warm electroacoustic musings. Penelope’s previous solo releases, Antelope (KowTow Records, 2019) and Beamorose (Youngbloods, 2021), displayed her artistry beyond the shadow of her creative legacy, underlining her unique interest in experimentation and propelling her family’s musical tradition into a modern era. The granddaughter of pianist and jazz-rock pioneer Marc Moulin (Placebo, Telex) and daughter of electro-samba icon Isabelle Powaga (Antena), Penelope’s musicianship was deeply influenced by loved ones as they encouraged her to practice her craft and stand out from her peers. James & June synchronizes the introspection and range of musical influence in Penelope’s previous records while offering a newfound simplicity in its composition. Biographically, this record is about falling in love; it follows Penelope processing the feelings of excitement, hopes, dreams, insecurities, and goals that come with being head over heels as an adult with an already full life. Penelope looks to explore a newly discovered corner of her life, searching for answers by collecting the butterflies in her stomach and bringing them into focus - a tender bullseye in the scope of her eighty-eight keyed weapon of creation. Whether through the implicitness of her songwriting or the explicitness of her lyrics, there is a clarity in Penelope’s work that suggests a new phase of her personal and artistic growth; one that rings true to herself, while making room for others to join her in creating harmony. More simply put, love is a most powerful muse.

As Patois Counselors close in on a decade of existence, they are back to confirm their standing as one of America’s most consistently forward-thinking rock units. Although it’s been an entire presidential term since the Counselors acclaimed sophomore album The Optimal Seat came out, Bo White’s group hasn’t been lying fallow. Over the last few years, the seven-person line-up has been busy writing, recording and gigging, resulting in Enough: One Night at the Daisy Chain, a live-in-the-studio document captured in Brooklyn while on tour. Released at the beginning of 2024, Daisy Chain works splendidly as both a greatest hits primer and a forthcoming album teaser. Alas, the teasing is over with the arrival of Limited Sphere, the third album from Charlotte, NC’s Patois Counselors. Once again, Ever/Never steps up to the plate to demonstrate their confidence in this hard-working crew. In most contexts, a septet band configuration signals either a jazz ensemble or a mishmash of madcap noise. Beholden to no rules, Patois Counselors pluck from a selection of tactics as needed. Even augmented by extra players, each member reinforces their specific role, performing exactly what is needed for the track at hand. White’s post-modern muse needs plenty of room to stretch out and breathe and the big band spreads out the tent as far as it will go. White’s songs are rife with earned skepticism, sly asides and deft twists of tongues and licks. The manner in which the little details accumulate into the structure of the whole keeps the listener engaged. In other words, this is pop music for benevolent, discerning brainiacs, but regular people can dig it too. For Limited Sphere, Patois Counselors relax their grip on the tense post-punk that they mastered long ago. Songs like “Fountain Of UHF,” “Serious Rider” and “Ranking Set” still touch on this style, but now White’s voice shares the air with woodwind instruments that add even more depth and texture to his songs. The effortlessly groovy, vaguely loungey “Marge Attack” conjures fond memories of early Stereolab, while “Return To Sensitivity” evokes the magic hour of twilight, insects buzzing and zipping through dusky sky. Foregrounding the haze and mist in these songs, you can detect traces of Eno’s Another Green World in Limited’s atmoSphere, particularly on the closing “Cathy Music.” For their third proper album, Patois Counselors have crafted another seamless set of songs for practical fantasists and head-in-the-clouds cynics. The sphere outlined here may be limited, but the boundaries have been expanded significantly. —Erick Bradshaw

Circus of Desire is the much anticipated third studio album from Grammy-nominated folk singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney. Worked up over five eventful years, this collection of lovingly wrought songs was recorded in NYC with long-time collaborator, producer and musician Thomas Bartlett (David Byrne, the Magnetic Fields, Sufjan Stevens, The National, St. Vincent, Father John Misty)

Consisting of ten originals and one cover (a revoicing of Dory Previn’s haunting ballad ‘Lady with the Braid’), this album is Olivia set free. Taking their departure from real life experiences, these songs strain towards the universal. The title track blends the carnivalesque and meditations on ancient wisdom with an anthemic, dancy refrain. ‘Calliope’ is a tribute to Olivia’s daughter, named after the Greek muse of music and epic poetry, picturing this little life as part of the ever-revolving cosmos. ‘To the Lighthouse’ tells the story of her sister who left the capital to live on a remote island. Like ‘Mirror, Mirror’ and ‘Why’, a pair of tracks about erotic love, this song reflects upon our capacity to flee and transcend inherited trauma. ‘Zero Sum’ is a setting of a metaphysical number poem by Olivia’s grandfather, a mathematician and poet. ‘I Wish’ - the album closer, is the ultimate breakup song.

Whilst staying true to her folk roots, Olivia enters new musical territories with Circus of Desire, venturing into the realms of pop and dance. The record features cameos from a number of friends, including string arrangements by Nico Muhly and banjo and guitar from Sam Amidon. The result of this rich blend of musical influences is an album that looks honestly, sometimes despairingly, but primarily hopefully at the carnival that is life - ‘we’re in a dance with death, with fire…we’re all in a circus of desire’.

Fully remastered and licensed, ltd to 500 copies on 180 gr. vinyl After the 1974 release of The End…the magnetic and controversial Warhol muse went on a fruitful partnership with French director Philippe Garrel, for almost seven films. Back in New York in 1979 she started to perform again live, appearing firstly at the Cbgb with John Cale and musical partner Lutz Ulbrich (former guitarist of Agitation Free and Ash Ra Tempel)… Back in France, she met young and talented Corsican bassist Philippe Quilichini who produced her comeback, Drama of Exile, in 1981. The album was released twice, in two different versions. Hereby we present the second, appearing in 1983, after a legal controversy was settled with Aura Records that released the first issue. While the first press was a 9-track offering, this second issue excludes “Purple Lips” but adds the tracks “Saeta” and “Vegas” released on a 7″ single in 1981. For this album, Nico recorded covers of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man” and David Bowie’s “Heroes”.

New 90-minute brainbath by rogue cosmic bookie New Mexican Stargazers takes as its muse a surreal, smoke-soaked gambler’s paradise two centuries in the future: Casino 2223. Part soundtrack and part summoning, the collection sprawls and stumbles through sparkling caverns of slots, neon, video portals, and tape hiss, alternately devotional and desolate. Cracked astral keys slipstream over cheap metronomes, zoned voids, and decayed haze, disappearing into outer reaches, backrooms, and nights that never end.

Nnf’s expanded edition also includes five outtakes from the C2223 sessions (originally digitally self-released in 2023), capturing NMS at their most sublime and subliminal, away from the noise, tracing ancient dunes lit by spheres and pyramids beaming columns of light straight into the stars.

Special 10th Anniversary Edition In Brown Card Artboard Sleeve With Additional Lyric Print Insert Slowdive singer and songwriter's third solo album, which was originally released in November 2012. It is a stunning record and one which, upon its release, underlined the claims that Neil was one of the finest and most underrated British songwriters of recent times. It's also a very special release in the Sonic Cathedral catalogue; the shoegaze label licensed the record from Jack Johnson's Brushfire imprint for the UK and Europe and it was the start of a relationship that also gave us the Black Hearted Brother album in 2013 and, ultimately, brought about the reformation of Slowdive in 2014. But Palindrome Hunches is a very different beast. Both stately and understated, this moody and mesmerising collection of peculiarly British folk songs was made with the Band of Hope, a Wallingford, Oxfordshire based collective consisting of Ben Smith (violin), Drew Milloy (double bass), Paul Whitty (piano) and Tom Crook (guitar). Together with producer Nick Holton, banjo player Kevin Wells and backing singer Aimee Craddock, they recorded the album to tape over a few weekends in the music room of their local junior school. "At first we were going to record in a studio, but everything seemed too clean," said Neil at the time. "We just went through the songs and recorded them live without very much rehearsal. We wanted to be spontaneous and simple and to keep the little mistakes that sneaked in." This goes a long way to explaining the album's humanity and intimacy, and also why it has had a quiet life of its own over the past decade, gradually growing in stature alongside Neil's more high-profile activities with Slowdive; copies of the 2012 original and even the 2017 repress currently fetch up to triple figures on Discogs. Praise for Palindrome Hunches on its original release: ""Nope, it ain't shoegaze as it's been codified and re-codified. But why be disappointed in someone following his muse to a logical conclusion when that path was always the one he walked on?" - Pitchfork An exquisite set of dark folk music" - The Times "Draws from the same understated, reflective well as John Martyn" - Mojo "'Tied To You' doesn't merely evoke Nick Drake but withstands the comparison - evidence of the songs' quality" - Financial Times "Halstead's songs breathe the sort of honesty and goodness that's harder and harder to find in the iTunes age" - The Independent "Given the chance, they could be songs that continue to enchant for many years to come" - The Line Of Best Fit

"I just wanted to be honest about everything, from my musical influences to my story," muses Neal Francis. After years of dishonest living - consumed by drugs, alcohol, and addiction - such sincerity is jarring from the 30-year-old Chicago-based musician. Liberated from a self-destructive past and born anew in sobriety, Francis has captured an inspired collection of songs steeped in New Orleans rhythms, Chicago blues, and early 70s rock n' roll. There is a deep connection between Francis's childhood - his obsession with boogie woogie piano, his father's gift of a dusty Dr. John LP - and the songs he's created. The result is an astonishing collection of material without parallel in the contemporary funk and soul scene. The influences are unmistakable: the vocal stylings of Allen Toussaint and Leon Russell; the second line rhythms of The Meters and Dr. John; the barroom rock `n' roll of The Rolling Stones; the gospel soul of Billy Preston; the roots music of The Band. Francis pays tribute to the masters but has his own story to tell: "It's the life I've lived so far." After playing his first live show in November 2018, Francis was signed by veteran agents Joshua Knight and Phil Egenthal of Paradigm Talent Agency. 2019 brought a North American tour supporting Australian band The Cat Empire as well as radio play on KEXP, KCRW's The Morning Becomes Eclectic, and BBC Radio 6. Francis and his four-piece band performed at festivals such as Summer Camp and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and shared the stage with The Meters and Lee Fields & The Expressions. Francis continues to tour relentlessly to promote his own music. "I'm doing this to fulfill a drive within myself, but also to pay tribute to the gifts I've been given. And it comes from a place of immense gratitude. I've been given so much in my life, especially in the last two years, that this feels like a bonus."

Grammy Award winning English rock band Muse will release their long-awaited ninth studio album Will Of The People on August 26th via Warner Records. Of the album, Muse frontman Matt Bellamy says, “Will Of The People was created in Los Angeles and London and is influenced by the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world. A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilization of the global order all informed Will Of The People. It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened. This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next.”

With Muse being Muse, there is NO bowing to any singular genre. The album’s title track “Will Of The People” brings playful provocation to a dystopian glam-rocker while there is an innocence and a purity to the nostalgic electronic textures of “Verona.” From the visceral thrill of “Won’t Stand Down,” to the industrial-tinged, granite heavy riffs of “Kill Or Be Killed,” or the lightning-bolt rush of “Euphoria,” the album concludes with the frenetic finale of the brutally honest “We Are Fucking Fucked.”

On the band’s new single “Compliance,” Bellamy says, “‘Compliance’ is about submission to authoritarian rules and reassuring untruths to be accepted to an in-group. Gangs, governments, demagogues, social media algorithms & religions seduce us during times of vulnerability, creating arbitrary rules and distorted ideas for us to comply with. They sell us comforting myths, telling us only they can explain reality while simultaneously diminishing our freedom, autonomy and independent thought. We are not just coerced, we are herded, frightened and corralled to produce a daily ‘2 minutes of hate’ against an out-group of their choosing and to turn a blind eye to our own internal voice of reason & compassion. They just need our Compliance.”

“Compliance” is immediately addictive, embellished with sleek synths and elements of off-kilter alt-pop. As Bellamy sings, “We just need your compliance / You will feel no pain anymore / No more defiance / Just give us your compliance,” the crashing of the drums and intermittent bass cause the song to swell with power. The accompanying video (directed by Jeremi Durand and shot in Poland) was inspired by the film ‘Looper’ and follows three children wearing masks destroying their future selves in order to escape a dystopian and oppressive world. Watch HERE.

Will Of The People was produced by Muse. Key collaborators include mixing on eight tracks by the multiple Grammy Award winner Serban Ghenea; mixing from Dan Lancaster on “Won’t Stand Down,” and additional mixing on “Kill Or Be Killed” from Aleks von Korff;

Will Of The People is now available to pre-order HERE, with “Compliance” and “Won’t Stand Down” provided as instant downloads. It will be released on digital, black vinyl and CD, as well as a selection of collectible formats. These include a marbled double-vinyl which is available exclusively from the band’s official store.

About Muse

Muse is Matt Bellamy, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme. Their last album, Simulation Theory, debuted at #1 in multiple territories and marked the band’s sixth straight album to debut in the U.K top spot. Their previous studio album, Drones, went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, the band’s second.. Since forming in 1994, Muse have released eight studio albums, selling over 20 million units worldwide.

Widely recognized as one of the best live bands in the world, Muse have won numerous music awards including two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, five MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, eleven NME Awards and seven Q Awards, amongst others.