The Fat Angel Sings

These tracks are mostly early iterations of the songs released on “Caroline 2″. Minimal acoustic versions of  ‘Coldplay cover’ and ‘U R UR ONLY ACHING’; an impromptu version of ‘When I get home’ recorded in Peckham Rye park in 2022 ); We have also included a recording of the club track from the first half of ‘When I get home’. This was recorded from the front bathroom of Avalon Cafe and is a track produced by our friends Daniel S Evans and Jennifer Walton.

We have always loved the quality of phone and portable mic recordings: both how casual and informal they feel, but also because they tend to capture freer and more explorative playing in that precious writing stage, before a song congeals into something solid. It feels like there is almost something mysterious at work in these recordings that can never be replicated or mimicked.  ‘greek2go’ – is also a phone recording. It was recorded in what was then the empty shell of a former Greek dark kitchen, but has since become our studio – and is an improvisation with three guitars and singing in an empty, reverberant room. It never made it onto the album but it is a piece of music we are really proud of.”

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released November 11th, 2025, , Rough Trade Records Ltd

The Power Station’s self-titled debut album is being reissued for its 40th anniversary in 4CD and 2LP variants.

The band ( a supergroup of sorts) came about during Duran Duran’s hiatus (which also saw Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor form Arcadia) and featured Robert Palmer, Tony Thompson (from Chic) and Duran members John Taylor and Andy Taylor. Bernard Edwards produced the album (with “informal assistance” from Nile Rodgers) which features the hit singles ‘Some Like It Hot’ and ‘Get It On’.

The new 4CD reissue comes in a clamshell box and features a remastered version of the album, remixes, ‘raw instrumentals’ (taken from the original studio sessions) and unreleased live tracks (from The Spectrum in Philadelphia on 21st August 1985, newly remixed by Richard Whittaker) and Live Aid performances.

It should be pointed out that Robert Palmer would only perform with the band live once (‘Saturday Night Live’ in February 1985) and left the band shortly after album came out. They toured with Michael Des Barres who also performed with them for Live Aid – these are the recordings on the reissue.

The box includes a 12 page booklet with a new interview with John Taylor and Andy Taylor (by John Earls).

A 2LP black vinyl edition features the remastered album, single remixes and Live Aid recordings. Both formats will be released on 23rd January 2026.

Drop Nineteens are working on their follow-up to great comeback album “Hard Light”, but meanwhile singer/guitarist Paula Kelley has announced her first solo album in 20 years. It’s titled “Blinking as the Starlight Burns Out” and will be out March 27th 2026 via Wharf Cat.

The first single from the album is the dreamy track “Party Line,” and Paula says it “made me think of Spiritualized with Telescopes doing the vocals. It’s the requisite post-Cold War influenced track.” She adds, “When the song came to me it presented nearly fully formed- a pedaling bass line, a four part vocal harmony, an expansive soundscape. Sometimes songs sound great in your head but then don’t translate well into reality. I was lucky with this one. As I was recording part upon part, it felt as though the song was writing itself. It’s a dreamy song about dreams—not the kind that come during sleep, but rather wishes, anxieties, projections—as a way to work through and reconcile an unhappy past.”

Drop Nineteens have a few live dates in November,

Aussie alt-rock greats The Church were supposed to be on The Singles Tour this summer, but the tour got postponed to 2026, Meanwhile, The Church have shared a new single. “Bleak and yet beautiful, ‘Sacred Echoes (Part Two)’ is unlike any previous Church song ever with its almost orchestral climaxes and its sombre mood,” says frontman Steve Kilbey. “The lyrics and voice are the weariness at the point where hope and hopelessness merge. The music is by turns delicate and sparse turning into a churning monstrous racket. Intense, forlorn and exultant!”

“Bleak and yet beautiful, ‘Sacred Echoes (Part Two)’ is unlike any previous Church song ever

FEATURING LABEL FOUNDER MARTIN MILLS PLUS GARY NUMAN, TIM BURGESS, BRIX SMITH, BILLY DUFFY, ROBERT FORSTER, DANIEL ASH & MANY MORE
Listen here: https://pod.link/1836129705

States of Independence is a new music podcast that explores the hidden histories of the world’s greatest independent record labels with the people that know them best – the founders who built them and artists who grew them.

Hosted by music journalist and podcast producer Rob Fitzpatrick, Season 1 goes deep into the story of one of the world’s leading record companies, and the last truly great punk-era independent label still in existence: Beggars Banquet. Two years in development, this is a huge story told over 13 episodes. It begins with the one person without whom none of this could have happened, the founder and chairman of the Beggars Group, Martin Mills.

States of Independence launches with episode one on September 11th, with guests Martin Mills, The Lurkers, and Gary Numan.

Beggars Banquet’s first superstar came in the form of Gary Numan, who gifted the label a number one single with ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ in 1979.

“With Gary, it felt like the Beatles,” says Mills, but success left the tiny label scrambling to learn on the job. “There definitely was no instruction manual.” Nor was there one for the 21 year-old Numan. “I thought it was gonna be more fun, I didn’t expect all the hostility that came with it… You know, people writing things about you as if you’ve just done the most evil thing.” That first brush with mega stardom would set the template for many of Beggars Banquets’ now iconic acts: The Cult, The Fall, The Go Betweens, The Charlatans, Peter Murphy, Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, Gene Loves Jezebel, Buffalo Tom, The Bolshoi and more – all of whom appear in States of Independence Season 1.

States of Independent host Rob got a job at the Beggars Banquet Records shop in Kingston, Surrey when he was 20 years old, calling it “the most incredible musical education”. He left in 1996, to make and write about music, but he’s always remained fascinated by – and, he’d be the first to admit, curiously emotionally attached – to the label.

Beggars Banquet began life as a West London record shop in 1974.  ”We had 2000 pounds each,” says founder Martin Mills. “It got us a lease in Earl’s Court. It got us some stock. Steve [Webbon] knew how to buy new records. I knew how to buy old records, and Nick [Austin] knew how to bullshit.”

With the arrival of punk in 1976, their second shop, in Fulham, found its powerful remit. ‘“Suddenly it was all about going down to Red Cow and getting spat on,” says Mills.

In the spirit of punk rock opportunism, Mills and Austin launched the Beggars Banquet label with the debut release from The Lurkers  – “a very good two-chord punk band. Though they learned a third chord eventually.”

Today, the Beggars Group of labels includes iconic imprints like 4AD, XL, Matador, Rough Trade and Young – a veritable indie empire. But this is a story marked by both triumph and turbulence, with the label staring down the barrel of extinction at multiple points during its five-decade history. Of The Cult, and their explosive run of 80s and 90s hit albums, Mills remembers: “They were the band that literally stopped the cheques from bouncing.”

Episode List

EP 1: Martin Mills, The Lurkers, Gary Numan [Launch Sept 11th]

EP 2: Martin Mills, Gary Numan, Peter Murphy (Bauhaus/Solo), John Rocca (Freeez) [Launch Sept 11th]

EP 3: Martin Mills, Billy Duffy, Aki Nawaz [Launch Sept 18th]

EP 4: Martin Mills, Jay Aston (Gene Love Jezebel) [Launch Sept 25th]

EP 4a: Michael Aston (Gene Love Jezebel) [Launch October 2nd]

EP 5: Martin Mills, Brix Smith (The Fall) [Launch Oct 9th]

EP 6: Martin Mills, Tim Burgess (The Charlatans) [Launch Oct 16th]

EP 7: Martin Mills, Lindy Morrison (The Go Betweens) [Launch Oct 23rd]

EP 7a: Robert Forster (The Go Betweens) [Launch Oct 30]

EP 8: David J  (Bauhaus, Love And Rockets/Solo) & Daniel Ash (Bauhaus, Tones On Tail, Love And Rockets/Solo) [Launch November 6th]

EP 8a: David J  (Bauhaus, Love And Rockets/Solo) & Daniel Ash (Bauhaus, Tones On Tail, Love And Rockets/Solo) [Launch November 13th]

EP 9: Martin Mills, Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom) Natasha Atlas (Transglobal Underground/Solo), Aki Nawaz (Southern Death Cult/Transglobal Underground/Fundamental Records) and Trevor Tanner (The Bolshoi) [Launch November 20th]

EP 10: Series Finale – with Martin Mills and more [Launch November 27th]

Buffalo Tom’s 1990 J Mascis-produced breakthrough still burns with heart and volume

I’ve been enjoying the new podcast States of Independence, which in its first season shines a light on the record label Beggars Banquet — the goth-leaning label that struck early gold with Gary Numan and became one of the coolest UK indies of the ’80s and early ’90s before evolving into an empire as the Beggars Group, home to 4AD, XL, and Matador.

This week’s season penultimate episode featured an interview with Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom, one of the first American groups to sign with the label, which made me want to revisit their second album — also their first for Beggars Banquet.

With a raging, fuzzy, and deafeningly loud guitar attack, Boston’s Buffalo Tom earned the affectionate nickname “Dinosaur Jr Jr” in the late ’80s — not least because J Mascis produced their first two albums: 1988’s self-titled debut (released on SST) and this one, their 1990 college radio smash “Birdbrain“. While there was a definite sonic kinship with Dino Jr’s ragged squall, Buffalo Tom hit from the heart, with Janovitz writing deeply affecting songs like “Skeleton Key,” “Fortune Teller,” and “Enemy.”

This and the first album are like 2 peas in a pod. Both have that Dinosaur Jr Jr thing about them. Both where co-produced by J Mascis, although he doesn’t play on this one, and both have that bruised battered and smashed guitar sound with the broken vocals of Bill Janovitz lashed over the top.

This is a headier ride than the previous excellent album adding a few more twists and turns; especially with the barnstorming opener of “Birdbrain” with it’s abrasive jagged riff and obscure lyrics about hanging out in bushes etc. The brakes are instantly put on to great effect with the next song, “Skeleton Key”. It is here where you can hear the sparseness of the production and really hear the quiet in the songs.

“Caress” carries on with more of the same, drums, bass and vocals before a jangly guitar joins in. It is so simple but it works so well. More like Nirvana in their simplicity than say, Dinosaur Jr. The solos are still absolutely blistering, just like the first album, and this is probably where the tag comes from, the solos made with waves of distortion and bleeding notes. They’d go on to make more nuanced records like “Let Me Come Over” and “Big Red Letter Day”, but “Birdbrain” collision of noise and emotion makes it an all-timer — one that might’ve been even bigger if it had landed just a year or two later, after “Nevermind” broke.

Buffalo Tom – “Birdbrain” (Beggars Banquet, 1990)

A Greek detour inspires Westerman’s breezy, transportive third album, Will Westerman’s third album was inspired in large part by his “failed attempt” to move from London to the Greek isle of Hydra. In a couple of instances, it’s quite literal: the rolling, synth-powered “Adriatic” sounds like someone aboard a schooner, riding the waves and in awe of where they call home. It’s also an album he made almost immediately after his second, “An Inbuilt Fault”, a record he feels he took too much time with.

As good as his previous album is, the looser, breezier nature of the quickly recorded “A Jackal’s Wedding” feels like a breath of fresh seaside air in comparison, reflecting the brief five weeks he spent in Hydra.

Produced by Björk collaborator Marta Salogni, it features drummer Stella Mozgawa and Big Thief’s James Krivchenia (who also produced “An Inbuilt Fault“). Guitar-based songs like “Mosquito” and “Nevermind” are lovely, but it’s the synthesizer creations — including “PSFN” and “Weak Hands” — that are the most transportive.

Westerman has since relocated to Milan; we’ll see how the fashion capital of the world influences his next chapter. Westerman’s third album release, “A Jackal’s Wedding”, became a document of leaving and arriving, on going transformation, and the liminal spaces between shadows and the lights that cast them. The collaboration with producer Marta Salogni (who mastered “An Inbuilt Fault“) created a woozy and dreamier work than the two previous Westerman albums. Recorded in a 17th century mansion, converted into an art space on the island of Hydra; the album reflects the chaos and limits of the space and uses it as a collaborator.

Westerman‘s new album A Jackal’s Wedding is out November 7th and here’s the second single from it

Meanwhile, Westerman has shared a new single from the album, “About Leaving,” which is both melancholic and groovy. “I wrote the lyrics in different places: London, America and Greece,” he says. “They were always written in a fleeting way, and that became an animating principle of what kind of imagery is contained. There are different ways of looking at that, right? You can look at that from the perspective of loss, or you can look at it from the perspective of opportunity, or you can look at it from the perspective of excitement or fear. I tried to play around with all of those things in an enveloping way. I was reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner over and over and I had an image of this person on the sea, not understanding where they’re going and not in control of anything, but unlike in the poem, finding that exciting and enjoying it for what it is.”

“A Jackal’s Wedding“, out November 7th, 2025 on Partisan Records

This band featuring members of Pill and Eaters throw one last dance party before the lights come up on their third and final album, “Oh!” is P.E.’s danciest record by far, mixing elements of techno, synthpop/new wave, city pop, mid-’00s DFA, and more — with great songs to boot. “Color Coordinator” is a slinky banger featuring the immediately recognizable vocals and poetic verbosity of Eleanor Friedberger; “Wandering Eye” feels like a long-lost electroclash classic; “Moonface” is a stripped-back house jam; and the title track floats on a light, driving beat and Jonny Campolo’s fluid saxophone (which is all over the record). Campolo — nodding to his new project, pets — lends his dulcet voice to “Purple on Time,” a smooth duet with main singer Veronica Torres.

It’s sad to see them go, but “Oh!” is a terrific way to bow out.

In 2024, Saul Adamczewski had bottomed out. The co-founder of the infamously debauched Fat White Family had, according to a press release, spent “months in a cupboard in Tulse Hill amid severe psychosis and opioid addiction.” He called his mother, and with her help made it through withdrawal, got straight, reconnected with old friends and bandmates, and started making music again.

Saul was always the most pop-oriented member of the Fat Whites and took that sensibility even further with Insecure Men, the group he formed with Warmduscher drummer Ben Romans-Hopcraft. Their self-titled debut album was one of 2018’s best, but their sophomore effort was rejected by the label — which Saul has since admitted was probably for the best. Clean and sober, he reunited this spring with Romans-Hopcraft and members of Warmduscher, Mozart Estate, Primal Scream, and more to make the second Insecure Men record. It’s a very worthy follow-up.

Despite the clear-headed circumstances of its creation, “A Man For All Seasons” still has that swarthy, haunted last-call feel, mixing woozy lounge and VU chug with early-’80s mutant pop and Saul’s thoughtful, vulnerable lyrics. The new wave-y “Cleaning Bricks” might be the catchiest song he’s released with any of his bands, while the dreamy “Alien” and “Weak” rank among his most affecting.

He’s still capable of a good creep-out, too — the clanking, menacing “Butter” proves that. Saul has come out the other side with his wits, voice, and melodic instincts intact, and it’s great to have him back making records this good.

“A Man For All Seasons”, which is out this Friday. “I’ve had this song since before the Fat Whites,” Saul notes of “Cleaning Bricks,” the album’s new single. “Me and Nathan (Saoudi, Fat White Family keyboard player) had a job at Camberwell Grove where we used to have to go and wipe the cement off a huge pile of old London bricks. We’d just sing this chorus song about cleaning bricks. But over the years, people kept saying it was really catchy. I always thought it was a joke. Every time I’d see (producer and Speedy Wunderground label head) Dan Carey, he’d say: have you done that “Cleaning Bricks” song yet? I’m glad I did it because it sounds pretty good. It’s a pop song, it’s fun. I wanted it to be like Jessie’s Girl. Real cheese but good cheese.”

from the upcoming album “A Man for All Seasons” (Fat Possum)
Fat White Family co-founder Saul Adamczewski returns from the brink with Insecure Men’s beautifully haunted second act

Midlake’s most Midlake-y album yet; a very satisfying mix of ’70s folk, rock and prog. “Days Gone By,” the opening song on Midlake’s sixth album, sounds like a woodland sunrise in June, as the light cracks across the ridge and the flora bend their leaves to catch the rays. Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler and Joey McClellan.

A cyclical song about the cyclical nature of, well, nature, “Days Gone By” blankets you in gently strummed acoustic guitars, fluttering flutes, tinkling ivories, delicately crashed cymbals, and gorgeous harmonies. Building with each stanza, it’s an exceedingly cozy, welcoming start to what may be the most Midlake-y Midlake album yet. Sonically, at least, “A Bridge To Far” is a near-perfect distillation of everything these Denton, TX baroque folk-rock vets have been making for more than two decades.

After working with John Congleton on their fantastic 2022 comeback album “For the Sake of Bethel Woods”, frontman Eric Pulido said he never wanted to make a record again without a producer. For this one, they tapped Sam Evian, who proves to be a perfect match.

“This album, we leaned into our own past in a way where we weren’t referencing some new find or some new path,” Pulido told us. “It was just kind of pulling from the collection of every place that you’ve been. And then you have someone like Sam, objectively kind of going, yeah, let’s go further down that road.”

“A Bridge To Far“not a typo, just one “o” in “to” —has all the Midlake earmarks: proggy bangers (“The Ghouls,” “The Calling”), spectral folk wonderlands (“The Valley of Roseless Thorns,” “Days Gone By”), groovy pastoral rock jams (“Make Haste,” “Eyes Full of Animal,” and the Madison Cunningham duet “Guardians”), more flutes and lush harmonies, Fleetwood Mac-y moments, and more. Yet it never sounds like they’re treading water. By embracing themselves, Midlake have made their most satisfying record since “The Trials of Van Occupanther”and maybe, with time, their best yet.