MONEY – Suicide Songs
In 2013, Money released their acclaimed debut album ‘The Shadow Of Heaven‘, following only a handful of concerts that felt more like communions in out-of-the-way venues, advertised only by word-of-mouth. The record sounded similarly crafted – all haunted melody and atmosphere, invested with an unusually ambitious and uncompromising lyrical zeal. This was a band that invested as much in what they meant as how they sounded. Two years on, the new Money album, ‘Suicide Songs’, takes you deeper into their sound and vision. It feels more advanced and yet simpler, more perfected and yet more open. It is, by turns, a tender, barren, cavernous, smouldering, despairing and inspirational piece of work. It’s a long day’s journey into night, but it pays huge dividends when you arrive, drawing you in and casting a spell that won’t let go. The album finds the band gelling as never before, framing Jamie’s poetic vision with an intuitive grasp of the album’s dignified and despairing themes. There are strings and brass, gospel-style backing vocals, and the (Indian stringed) dilruba on the opening ‘I Am The Lord’. This collectively adds more divine dimensions to the band’s sound, embellishments that Money didn’t have the confidence to try out on their debut.
LP – With Download.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – STILL IN A DREAM – A STORY OF SHOEGAZE 1988 – 1995
‘Shoegaze’ was a term invented circa 1990 to describe a new breed on UK Indie guitar bands inspired by the likes of 4AD Records, My Bloody Valentine and US acts like Sonic Youth. Bands like Ride, Moose, Lush, Pale Saints and The Telescopes married dreamy, off-kilter melodies, skewed, heavily effects-laden guitar riffs and psychedelic production values. Although ‘Shoegaze’ was initially a somewhat derogatory term to pigeonhole a clutch of new acts, the term quickly evolved to become an accepted genre of music which has influenced successive generations of bands, especially those outside of the UK. Housed in a lavish ‘book’ set, ‘Still in a Dream’ pays tribute to that seminal period with numerous classics, cult favourites, rarities and tracks new to CD. Across five discs, the evolution of the sound labelled as ‘Shoegaze’ is charted from the bands who inspired it on Disc 1 to many of the US and other non-UK acts on Disc 5. Awash with rare memorabilia, 12,000 words of sleeve-notes from journalist Neil Taylor and band biographies, ‘Still in a Dream’ is the ultimate tribute to what was also called ‘The Scene That Celebrated Itself’! It features 87 cuts from the Pale Saints, Spectrum, AR Kane, Loop, Ride, Lush, Ultra Vivid Scene,Telescopes, Cocteau Twins, Swervedriver, Luna and more.
WET – Don’t You
Columbia Records release ‘Don’t You’, the long-anticipated album from the trio of friends known as Wet. An astonishingly lucid and heart-wrenching collection of 11 tracks. Much has been made of the utopian merging of indie and traditional pop worlds in recent years, but ‘Don’t You’ is an album that takes this fusion to an unprecedented place. This is a benchmark record that delicately sews together the clean songwriting of big-pop, the melodic sensuality of R&B, and the faint twang of country with touches of experimental production and precise instrumentation to create a bold and effortless-feeling new space. Wet, comprised of singer-songwriter Kelly Zutrau, and multi-instrumentalists Joe Valle and Marty Sulkow, make songs that resist easy categorization and invite every listener to bask in its intimate glow. But despite their wide-ranging sensibilities, Wet never compromises its core: sturdy pop songwriting and piercing lyrics.
LP – Limited to 500 Copies.
NIGHT BEATS – Who Sold My Generation
Night Beats third album, and first for Heavenly Records, follows the release of their self-titled debut in 2011 and ‘Sonic Bloom’ in 2013. Recorded on old two-inch tape in Echo Park, Los Angeles at the home of producer Nic Jodoin and featuring co-production and guess bass playing from Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, new album ‘Who Sold My Generation’ goes beyond merely being a retreading of well-worn garage / R&B path. Instead it offers a contemporary take on the psychedelic experience, a heady set of hoodoo voodoo songs. Very much a record in the great Texan musical tradition of acid-drenched outlaw music, ‘Who Sold My Generation’ picks up where the likes of The Elevators, The Red Krayola, pre-ZZ Top band The Moving Sidewalks, The Butthole Surfers and The Black Angels – whose record label Reverb Appreciation Society released the band’s second album – left off.
LP – With Download.
TELEGRAM – Taffy Come Home
Limited copies are signed. Recorded in London with Rory Atwell, ‘Taffy Come Home’ is one of their finest moments to date and comes backed with ‘It’s Not Very Easy’ which is only available as a bonus track on special editions of the album. The track utilises everything we love about the band – a rich, pulverising melody that sounds as compressed and tight as prime-time Buzzcocks, and a healthy nod to Roxy Music courtesy of frontman Matt Saunders.
