Aldous Harding has announced that her fifth LP, Train on the Island, will arrive on May 8th via 4AD Records. The news arrives alongside first single “One Stop,” which was released with a music video directed by Michelle Henning. “One Stop” kicks off with an interlocking piano and plucked guitar melody. Harding sings of having met John Cale, which is something I would do, too, if I a) met John Cale and b) could sing like Aldous Harding.
Train on the Island was co-produced by Harding’s long-time collaborator John Parish at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Wales, where the pair recorded the New Zealander’s previous bodies of work, Party (2017), Designer (2019) and Warm Chris (2022). Joining Harding and Parish on “Train On The Island” were pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte, harpist Mali Llywelyn, synth artist Thomas Poli, drummer Sebastian Rochford (Polar Bear) and Huw Evans (H. Hawkline) on bass, vocals, acoustic/electric guitar and organ.
Peter Gabriel has shared the third track in the long rollout for his 11th studio album, o/i. Like 2023’s i/o, which reactivated his recording career after a 21-year hiatus, the iconic singer-songwriter’s new project is steadily unfolding with this year’s lunar calendar, with “Dark-Side” and “Bright-Side” mixes by Tchad Blake and Mark ‘Spike’ Stent to be steadily released on the full moon and new moon of each month.
“Been Undone,” the newly completed track traces its roots back to a fragment from another era of Gabriel’s career, this recalling the 2012 retrospective tour that saw him reviving 1986’s So in its entirety, in the company of the musicians that originally supported the ground breaking record on the road. “On the Back to Front tour, along with Playing for Time, it was one of the songs that was played without words, as a work in progress,” the artist reflected in a lengthy release. “The song actually began with a melody that my son Isaac was playing with and I thought, oh, that’s really nice – I could build that into something.”
“On that tour, we had our wonderful Scandinavian contingent of Jennie Abrahamson and Linnea Olsson who was also playing cello. I’d always liked Linnea’s cello line so it ended up on this final recording. John Metcalfe added some other elements for the orchestral sessions in 2022.
There is also more of the magnificent Orphei Drängar choir, another Scandinavian element, who also featured on This Is Home on the i/o record. It’s a very strange mood that they create, powerful and emotional and it’s a great way to start a song – which was Brian Eno’s suggestion. I’ve always liked spiritual, inspirational music because sometimes people get to a different place when they remove themselves and are just present with this feeling of something else out there. Although I’m not religious myself, I definitely have the feeling for it and that’s what I was hoping we would have with the choir at the front, that you go straight away into this other world…
“What Lies Ahead” strikes a ruminative tone over the low hum of the orchestra and choir as Gabriel ascends by inspiration to evoke hope and possibility in tender reaches to falsetto. Six decades into his recording career, the image of the inventor cuts a compelling parallel to his own measured, steady sonic tinkering, with a wisened perspective lending uncommon stability to his curiosity. The unique artwork that Gabriel selected for the third single’s cover is “Birth Tear / Tear”, 1982 embroidered fabric work by feminist artist and educator Judy Chicago.
“‘Birth Tear / Tear’ shows the pain of birth and, clearly, no man will ever have an understanding of what that really is, but giving birth to an idea has many (less painful) parallels,” Gabriel said. “I’m delighted that she was happy to let us use it.”
Wu Lyf have announced their second album, 15 years after their debut. After a flurry of activity since teasing reunion shows last March, the band will release “A Wave That Will Never Break”, produced by Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, on April 10th. Listen to a new song, “Love Your Fate,” below. The band has also added a European leg to the North American tour announced in April; scroll down for the dates.
The band is planning to release the album through its L Y F community, according to a press release. It will not be available on any of the major streaming services. “The vision for the L Y F has been with us since the start,” the group wrote in a statement.
“Way back in 2010 when we first sold the white on white bandana with the Heavy pop / Concrete Gold 12″—We foresaw a community of like-minds that would gather around the flame of our music, and through whose direct support we could operate with freedom, autonomy & the truth; to play our own (infinite) game—alas we were young, foolish, and didn’t have the means or the infrastructure for the impulse to reach its full potential. Now 15 years later here we are—the initial version of the L Y F membership platform has been an experimental proof of concept—we have learnt a lot from it over the past year and behind the scenes we have been building Version 2.0.”
Bill Callahan has built a reputation for intricate lyrics and sparse, richly textured soundscapes. His upcoming album continues that tradition, and lead track “The Man I’m Supposed To Be” is a testament to that.
“Improv/unpredictability/the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music,” the singer-songwriter confessed. On his first solo album in four years, Bill Callahan tapped the touring musicians behind his 2022 album “YTI⅃AƎЯ“—guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, and drummer Jim White—to improvise in the studio.
The resulting 12 songs on “My Days of 58″ are roving journeys, from the driving kosmische folk of “The Man I’m Supposed to Be” to the wayfaring curiosity of “Lonely City.” You can hear Callahan prepared the songs in separate, one-on-one sessions with each musician—part draft, part spontaneity. As Callahan puts it, “a lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes—making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.”
‘My Days of 58’ is the eighth Bill Callahan album, his first since 2022. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. With ‘My Days of 58’, he applies the living, breathing energies of his live shows to the studio process, sharpening his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper than ever before.
“English bands are so hesitant to ever admit ambition, but I am ambitious with this record,” Wolf Alice’s drummer Joel Amey said as “The Clearing” was announced – and sure enough, this was a huge step up and out for a band who were already one of British indie’s biggest. There’s something symphonic about the heft of it and not just because of the string sections, thanks to superb production by Greg Kurstin: the bass and toms are heavy yet warm, the piano pounding yet not overbearing.
Ellie Rowsell sings about suitably big themes, too, from universe-bending love on “Leaning Against the Wall “(“it really, really made the room sing, the way you said my name”), invaluable friendship on “Just Two Girls”, and “The Sofa’s” uplifting manifesto for being wild and indolent instead of toeing the line.
When critics previewed the new Wolf Alice album “The Clearing” ‘soft rock’ (whatever that means), some fans were surprised. But it contains some of their best work so far, and it also shows just how much Ellie Rowsell has grown as a singer and songwriter. Absolutely lush, ‘The Sofa’ became one of my most played tracks of the year, meditatively on boredom, life and female desire “I wanna settle down/I want to fall in love/sometimes I just want to fuck” .
Her vocal performance is exquisite, and the harmonies spiral to the heavens; the instrumentation is richly drawn, framed in airy strings, and layered with dappling pianos. There is a self-awareness sailing through these words where our dreams meet reality, where our hopes meet our fears, its both wistful and life-affirming at once. American publications may be obsessed with the latest indie rock thing in the states, Wolf Alice had just proved there was reason to look to Seven Sisters rather than LA too…
“Bloom Baby Bloom” by English alt-rock band Wolf Alice, consisting of Ellie Rowsell on lead vocals, Joff Oddie on guitar, Theo Ellis on bass and Joel Amey on drums. The song is the lead single from their fourth studio album “The Clearing”, to be released August 29th.
April 1975 was an excellent time for fans of unhinged blues-jazz-rock freakouts as Frank Zappa and the Mothers joined forces with Captain Beefheart for a two-month tour of the US. The tour was commemorated by the album “Bongo Fury“, mostly taken from two shows at the magnificently named Armadillo WorldHeadquarters in Austin, Texas, on 20th and 21st May 1975 and released in October that year.
Though Zappa and Beefheart had shared the stage on occasion and worked together in the studio (Zappa produced the Captain’s weird triumph “Trout MaskReplica“, while Beefheart provided snarling and wild-eyed vocals to ‘Willie The Pimp’ on “Hot Rats“), the tour marked the first time the old high school chums had toured together. They were backed by a group of dyed-in-the-wool Mothers – Terry Bozzio (drums), Napoleon Murphy Brock (tenor sax, vocals), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), Bruce Fowler (trombone) and Tom Fowler (bass) – along with newcomer Denny Walley (slide guitar, vocals), a friend of Zappa’s younger brother Bobby.
Though the original “Bongo Fury” focused on new material, mostly sung by Beefheart, the tour featured plenty of material from the Mothers’ 1974 repertoire – including ‘Florentine Pogen’, ‘Stinkfoot’ and ‘I’m Not Satisfied’ – as well as a few golden oldies, such as ‘Sleeping In A Jar’ and ‘A Pound For A Brown (On The Bus)’, both of which hadn’t been played since 1971. There were also a couple of new songs played on the tour which, till this point, have remained unreleased – ‘The Velvet Sunrise’ and ‘Portuguese Lunar Landing’. Meanwhile, the regular encore was a blast through ‘Willie The Pimp’.
This new anniversary set marks the first time that 1975 recordings of all of these and more have been officially released. The only other song released from the Armadillo shows to date is an early take on “Zoot Allures’ ‘The Torture Never Stops’, released on 1991’s 2CD live compilation “You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol 4”.
The new 50th anniversary super deluxe edition expands the original album with five CDs of material (roughly 80% unreleased) including studio outtakes and live tracks plus the two Armadillo concerts complete and remixed from the original 16-track masters. The blu-ray features new Dolby Atmos, 5.1 mixes, and high-resolution stereo audio with “bonus surround experiences” from Zappa’s vault. The set also includes a book including unseen photos and sleevenotes from Walley and the Zappa estate’s ‘Vaultmeister’, Joe Travers.
Vinyl collectors have the choice of a 2LP set – featuring an all-analogue mastering of the original album by Bernie Grundman plus a bonus disc featuring highlights from the super deluxe set – or a single LP featuring the new Grundman master, available on black or ‘orange & black galaxy vinyl’. All vinyl formats include a lithograph print and booklet.
The classic collaboration between Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart during May 1975 resulted in a flurry of new compositions, a tour, and eventually an album.
The album is a memorable addition to the Zappa Catalogue and the last to feature the band name “Mothers” before it was retired in 1976.
This new 50th Anniversary Edition presents 5 CDs of material (roughly 80% unreleased) including studio outtakes and live tracks plus the two Armadilloconcerts complete and remixed from the original 16-Track Masters.
This 50th anniversary reissue of “Bongo Fury” is released on 20th March 2026, via UMR.
“Talon of the Hawk” is a fan favourite that includes “Twin Size Mattress”, “Skeleton” and “Funny You Should Ask”.
At the core of the Front Bottoms new album “Talon of the Hawk”, is the crazy hybrid of slamming rock drumming and acoustic guitar The Front Bottoms are known for, but this time the band augments their sound with electric guitars, synths, even a little accordion.
Over top is Brian Sella’s confident heartfelt vocals that will have you laughing one minute, crying the next and then maybe pumping your fist and singing along when you least suspect it.
“Talon of the Hawk” rocks harder than their debut and it is more complex in both subject matter and arrangements. Once this sucker gets it’s claws in you’re going to soar. Rock and roll? The Front Bottoms wonder if you know what that means. Their mix of punk, folk and pop always has that rock n roll thang riding just above the surface looking for it’s prey
The Guest List is a Manchester-based five- piece band known for their melodic guitar riffs, thoughtful lyrics, and energetic live performances.
The Guest List consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Cai Alty, lead guitarist Tom Quigley, bassist Sid Wallace, drummer Angus Gilchrist, and rhythm guitarist Leio Hunter. They have quickly gained recognition in the Manchester music scene and beyond for their mature lyricism and authentic sound, blending melodic indie rock with elements of dream pop and sludgy desert rock influences reminiscent of Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys.
The band’s EP “When the Lights Are Out” features tracks like Mary, Weather Man, and the title track, which have been in development for several years. Their earlier songs, London and Loose Tongue, produced by James Skelly of The Coral, significantly boosted their profile, earning recognition on BBC Radio 6 Music. Their music often tackles lofty themes such as male suicide and climate change, reflecting a thoughtful and socially conscious approach.
The Guest List has built a strong live reputation, sharing stages with acts like Two Door Cinema Club, The Wombats, Inhaler, Blossoms, and Seb Lowe. They have sold out their first UK headline tour and are scheduled to appear at major festivals including NBHD Weekender, Kendal Calling, Truck Festival, Y-Not Festival, and Victorious Festival.
The band maintains an active online presence, with over 400,000 followers and nearly 8 million likes on TikTok, and a growing Spotify audience with tens of thousands of monthly listeners. This digital engagement has helped them connect with fans worldwide and expand their reach beyond the UK.
Glad to finally have this one out for you all to listen. Massive thanks to Matias Tellez and Marius Elfstedt for all the hard work in the studio and to Ewan Ogden for directing this amazing music video
We’re proud of this song and hope you all enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it
Uncut is now in shops, featuring a deep dive into Bob Dylan’s wild 1966, as well as new interviews with Genesis, Manic Street Preachers, Snail Mail, Billy Childish, Sex Pistols, The Black Crowes, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Soft Machine – plus Arctic Monkeys, Alex Harvey, Zappa vs Beefheart, Charlotte Cornfield and much more!
Each issue comes with a free 15-track CD including tracks by Flea feat. Thom Yorke, Courtney Barnett, Tinariwen and The Long Ryders.
The Fat Angel Sings 