The Fat Angel Sings

Hozier’s new ballad ‘Unknown’ is ready to set your heart ablaze! The Irish singer-songwriter continues to captivate audiences with his soul-stirring melodies and thought-provoking lyrics.

‘Unknown’ is a poignant ode to love, a testament to the lengths we’d go to, crossing seas and fires, for the ones we hold deal. It’s a song that resonates deep within, reminding us that love is not a product of loneliness, but a longing to be truly seen and know

Don’t miss out on this heartrending exploration of love’s profound depths. Listen to ‘Unknown’ now and let Hozier’s masterful storytelling take you on an unforgettable sonic journey!

“Unreal Unearth” is packed full of poetic lyricism, heavyhearted remorse, hopeful anticipation and an honest expression of the joys and sorrow of being a human. This is undoubtedly his best work. The more straightforward tracks may be too saccharine at times, but Hozier’s gravitational artistry more than makes up for any slight missteps off the path. The song order is an improbable hero, as the pacing and experience the listener goes through only accelerates the impact. There is a sharp balance across the entirety of “Unreal Unearth” it’s never top-heavy nor is it ever stagnant, the sonic IV constantly dripping musicality into your body. From choir swells to poetic lines that find a way to hit you unexpectedly, the album is a tremendously soulful experience.

After these past few years of writing, recording, working, pacing, scribbling, and ample time staring out the window, i’m feeling immensely proud to announce the release of the new album, “Appaloosa Bones”, which comes out august 18th. the first single, “The Fall,” , “Appaloosa Bones” is Isakov’s first album in five years, and it feels like a homecoming in more ways than one. Many of the musical textures which defined Isakov’s early corpus dominate his new record: spacious, grand pauses, uncomplicated stylistics, disarming sincerity and an unassuming, affecting joie de vivre. It’s not that his music is energizing or jumpy—often the opposite, really—it’s that it’s almost entirely free of cynicism, instead embracing the sort of romantic, humanist mindset that feels so far removed from 21st-century reality.

It’s a comforting thing, especially if you tie Isakov’s thematics with the lush Americana that girds his aesthetic landscape. He makes music for an uncorrupted country, one scattered with swaying fields and rushing brooks, straightforward heartbreaks and neatly-ending stories.

“The Fall”, debut single from the new album, “Appaloosa Bones”, coming August 18th

I discovered Margaret Glaspy by way of her Tiny Desk concert six years ago. She’d just released her debut record, “Emotion and Math”, in 2016 and was establishing herself as one of the most formidable guitar players much of what Glaspy was making back then. It was her guitar-playing—which was gravitational like an unshakable center-piece—that pulled me in; it was her storytelling that convinced me to stick around. “Emotions and Math,” album Glaspy masterfully takes pop instrumentation and employs a raucous blues top coat. Glaspy spent a long while on the road, performing “Emotions and Math” for audiences across the globe.

“I’ve gotta get out of this tree, off of this limb,” she sings across the chorus of “Emotions and Math.” “I’m a woman acting like a kid, a skinny mess that’s breathless from telling you all the things that I’m gonna do.” On her second LP, “Devotion”, released in 2020, her lyricism got thwarted into focus in an even greater way, as she muted her guitar just a hair and turned aglow a distinctive, enchanting realm of synth-rock and piano-pop.

“Echo the Diamond” is a revelation from the hermetic roars of lead single and album opener “Act Natural” to the bare-bones, solemn and otherworldly “Memories,” Glaspy is circumventing doing too much by trusting her gut.

What comes of it is her best work yet, a monolithic reaction to and document of grief, love and an unbounding sense of self-actualization. “Echo the Diamond” is spiritual in that way, as it lets every moment arrive organically. Many of the songs we hear on the final cut are either first takes or rehearsals yet they sound divine and worn-in. “Echo the Diamond” was recorded in three days, though its impact will stretch much, much further than that.

Steve Miller is honoring the 50th anniversary of his chart-topping, Platinum eighth studio album, 1973’s “The Joker”, with a new set chronicling the artistic journey that led to its creation. “J50: The Evolution of The Joker” showcases Miller’s process as he expands and reimagines his craft, ultimately finding a strikingly original new sound that brought him to a wider audience than ever before and set the stage for even greater successes to come. It arrives September 15th, 2023, via Sailor/Capitol/UMe on 2-CDs or 3–LPs + 7”.

“J50” dives deep into the creative process of writing and assembling “The Joker” and amplifies its enduring magic by chronologically placing the original album tracks alongside 27 previously unreleased recordings from Miller’s personal archive – including songwriting demo tapes made by Miller on his TEAC 4-track in hotel rooms on the road and at live performances, plus studio outtakes and rehearsals – as well as six audio commentary tracks from Miller and exclusive liner notes from both Miller and journalist Anthony DeCurtis. The vinyl version includes a reproduction of a vintage “The Joker” iron-on and a limited-edition lithograph.

Hear some of the previously unreleased recordings below. The Gangster of Love had already had several successful albums but hadn’t sniffed a hit single when this was released in October 1973. It topped the chart on January 12th.

“J50: The Evolution of The Joker” is highlighted by “The Joker Suite,” an extended piece showcasing the musical path to the album’s hit title track, “The Joker,” with the previously unreleased “Lidi” and “Travelin’.

Miller shared how “Sugar Babe” evolved, with a series of three audio clips. “[The song] turned into a powerful electric riff in the studio, but in this first recording it’s just a small seed of an idea,” says Miller. “Eventually it got defined on the stage and in the studio and that’s what you hear.”

“The Joker” was originally released worldwide in October 1973 and quickly became a hit in the United States crossing over from FM underground radio to the AM pop radio of the day. Shortly thereafter, the song went to No#1, first in the USA and the rest of the world followed.

This mainstream breakthrough success was certainly fuelled by dramatic shifts in both the line-up and Miller’s own approach to songcraft. “J50” kicks off with acoustic live renditions of “Children of the Future,” “Brave New World” and “Space Cowboy,” recorded while on the road in 1972. Miller had long nurtured his still-growing audience with constant touring, routinely visiting hundreds of cities each year. Backed by Dickie Thompson on keyboards, Gerald Johnson on bass, and John King on drums, the lineup marked the Steve Miller Band’s first iteration as a quartet. Fuelled in part by Thompson’s B3 organ and electric Hohner clavinet, the band developed a distinctive new sound, blending Miller’s signature psychedelic blues with a focused songcraft that expertly merged his many inspirations and influences into something wholly original and all his own.

Their lengthy sets were highlighted by covers of R&B gems like Young Jessie’s “Mary Lou” and The Clovers’ “Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash,” both of which would be featured on “The Joker”.

Energized by his band’s nightly workouts, Miller spent his late-night hours recording on a TEAC 4-track tape machine in hotel rooms across the nation, working on new songs largely on 12-string guitar. In July 1973, the band hit Capitol Records’ Studio B in Los Angeles and quickly got to work, recording, mixing, and mastering the album in just 17 days with Miller producing.

When you go into the studio, be ready to do the whole performance the first time you do it, because that’s going to be the best time you do it,” Miller says. “The whole thing is to capture the first performance. That’s a lot of what “The Joker’s” about. It was all first takes, and first takes are always better than perfect takes.

Like if you take ‘The Joker.’ ‘Some people call me the Space Cowboy.’ What the hell was that? Then it continues and it gets your attention again: the slide guitar, the chorus, the harmony, the wolf whistle. It all adds up. All of these things are just elements of writing. You learn those elements, and you’re always playing with them.”

Miller’s new songs, from the album-opening “Sugar Babe” and longtime live favorite “Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma,” to the easygoing blues shuffle, “The Lovin’ Cup” (extended by a driving, live acoustic version of Robert Johnson’s “Come On In My Kitchen,” with foot-stomping percussive accompaniment) and the devastating, slow-burn “Evil,” the latter recorded on stage at Boston, MA’s Aquarius Theater. “Something To Believe In” closes “The Joker” on a warm, reassuring romantic pop lullaby. “Like clear water in a mountain stream,” he sings, “l will come to you in your dreams/Like pictures reflected in a mountain lake/I will be with you when you wake.”

Released as a single in October 1973, “The Joker” proved, in Miller’s words, “a real, no kidding, non-stop hit.” With its title track seemingly everywhere (as well as its indelible masked album cover by famed photographer Norman Seeff), The Joker album positioned Miller for the next, vitally important stage of his career.

Released in 1996, this album definitively answers a question that has occasionally plagued the Cowboy Junkies: yes, they sound good, but do they rock? Though still laden with the melancholia that has marked previous efforts, this release is sonically dense, guitar-drenched, and good at high-volume levels. Margo Timmins’ voice has never been more expressive, and the lyrics shimmer with intensity. Although the band has occasionally touched on quiet moments reminiscent of fellow Canadian Neil Young, little they have done before this album approached the emotive wail of his louder efforts. The Cowboy Junkies have proven their versatility while retaining their unique sound.

For the first time Ever, “Lay It Down” is now available on vinyl. This is a very special album for us. It was the first with our new label Geffen Records and it set us on a trajectory away from the nascent Americana scene and towards something that was, once again, uniquely our own. It also contained our biggest radio hit, “A Common Disaster” (which was a trajectory of a different sort). We’ve teamed up with Real Gone Music and they have done a beautiful job with the re-release. It looks great and more importantly it sounds great.

The lyrics consider serious topics such as aging and death – so while it goes up tempo at times it falls back to the typical mid tempo mild downer over bass guitar sound that is after all the Junkies bread and butter. I have or have heard all of their releases, and it’s right at the top with “Whites Off Earth Now”, and in my mind better than the “Trinity Sessions”. Timmins voice has never been captured better than on this LP. She’s in control of the material, and spins it out with confidence and vigor.

‘Nostalgia’s Glass’ is the eleventh studio album from cult Manchester-born, Berlin-based post-punk group The Underground Youth, due out August 18th on Fuzz Club Records. “Nostalgia’s Glass” looks back at the music of The Underground Youth, forming new songs in a style reminiscent of the band’s past”, band leader Craig Dyer writes: “The aim became to create a collection of songs that paid homage to our back catalogue and attempted to dissect not only the positive but the negative elements of nostalgia, primarily the romanticisation of the past – be it the politics of a country, the controversial legacies of film and musical icons or the sentimental idealisation of long dead toxic relationships.”

The Underground Youth began in 2008 as the creative project of Craig Dyer. The band – Craig now joined by Olya Dyer (Drums), Leonard Kaage (Guitar/Producer) and Samira Zahidi (Bass) – have now released 11 albums and 4 EPs over the years, developing their unique sound which has ranged from cinematic lo-fi psychedelia to a raw and noisy, albeit romantically melancholic, form of post-punk. Shrouded in a dark aesthetic and the imagery of various art film movements, The Underground Youth have established a devoted global following, continuously built upon by their extensive touring schedule through Europe, Asia and North America.

Released August 18th, 2023

North-East London singer, songwriter and producer Fran Lobo has announced the release of her long-awaited debut album ‘Burning It Feels Like.’ Released on August 18th via Heavenly Recordings.

Visceral, beguiling and dense with yearning, sometimes she glimmers like flames and sometimes she lets us fester in the ashes with her. An unflinching debut, Fran Lobo will have you feeling that burning too.

It is this sentiment and internal struggle which “Burning It Feels Like” ruminates on; interrogating, reflecting and making fun of herself for it. “I’m accentuating this slightly comical idea that, ‘oh, this person will save me!’”, she says. It’s a vividly drawn concept that plays out through her brilliantly mellifluous, elastic, looping voice over strange and stunning experimental pop that pulls from post-punk to lo-fi to shiny pop; touchstones include Kate Bush, Mariah Carey, Björk, Prince, Mica Levi, Tirzah, the warm spirituality of Alice Coltrane – and, of course, those starry-eyed Disney musicals.

Of Goan and Maharashtrian descent, Fran spent a lot of her childhood absorbing the sounds around her: her mum’s pop, Bollywood and R&B obsessions, her dad’s love of rock and country, her brother’s metal and nu-metal, alongside her own adoration for Spice Girls and TV shows like Girls Aloud-spawning Popstars: The Rivals. The result is that Fran’s own work is collagist and kaleidoscopic in nature, often taking unexpected twists into unfamiliar places, with songs sometimes imploding in on themselves. “Within every track, it became a theme of turning everything on its head; having an outro you wouldn’t expect, flipping the words a bit 

The record was written and produced by Lobo, Released August 18th, 2023

On August 12th, 2011 Sonic Youth played their final US show on an outdoor stage overlooking the East River at the Williamsburg Waterfront in Brooklyn. Fitting that their storied career would bookend with a panoramic view of New York City where it all began 30 years before, having left in their wake one of one of the most powerfully influential careers in rock music.

Following incredible sets from Kurt Vile and Wild Flag, the band took the stage. As the sun went down over the city, Sonic Youth ripped through a 17 song set that spanned from deep cuts off their first studio album and highlighting many other albums all the way through to their last, like a band with everything to prove. Or as Brooklyn Vegan’s Andrew Sacher said at the time: “While most bands who are thirty years into their career are either fading away or living off of the nostalgia of their older material, Sonic Youth continue to sound and perform as fresh as ever.”

Steve Shelley explains the uniquely career spanning set list of “Live in Brooklyn 2011” and how it came to be, as well as the importance of outdoor NYC summer shows in Sonic Youth’s legacy:

“This show was a culmination of a run of really special outdoor summertime shows in New York City for us, starting in ’92 with Summerstage in Central Park when we played with Sun Ra. For the Williamsburg Waterfront show I wrote out the set list to present to the band and it was a lot of material we hadn’t played in a while, a lot of deep cuts, so I wasn’t sure if everybody would feel like doing it. After worrying about which songs the band might say yes or no to, I threw those concerns out the window and I just made a list of songs that I thought would be a great set. We practiced the week of the show at our space in Hoboken and put the set together. First we’d try and make sure we had a guitar in the song’s tuning, then we’d try to remember the arrangement and try and put it together, sometimes re-learning bar by bar. In the end I think the whole song list made it through. Even as early as ’86 and ’87 we stopped playing ‘Death Valley 69’ and ‘Brave Men Run’ with any regularity. We’d just get excited about new material coming into the set and songs would get ‘retired’ and wouldn’t get played again for years. So on this particular night in Brooklyn a lot of those retired songs and deep cuts got dusted off and played for this show. It turned out to be a pretty special event with a really special song list.”

The band would go on to fulfill a contracted festival run in South America a few months later but, by then, the group’s center was severed beyond repair and the festival appearances didn’t hold the same kind of weight.

“The stage was facing the East River from the Williamsburg, Brooklyn waterfront, and I recall the sun going down in the west during our set. It was a pretty magical, if kinda weird day. Fitting, somehow, that our ‘last show’ should be in New York City, our home and where it all began…” Lee Ranaldo

The Williamsburg Waterfront show would fondly become referred to as ‘The Last Show’ by fans and band alike, equally for its triumphant high energy performance, its unique and expansive set list and locale.

Newly remixed and remastered, “Live in Brooklyn 2011” is presented for the first time on 2xLP, 2xCD and 2xTape on Silver Current Records and digitally on Goofin,’ August 18th, 2023. 

‘Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)’ is the latest entry in the Grammy-winning series exploring the vast untapped archives of rare Joni Mitchell recordings — a project guided intimately by Joni’s own vision and personal touch. ‘Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)’ will be available both in a 5CD / digital version and a 4LP cut-down version, both with an accompanying book featuring photos and a conversation about this period between Joni and longtime friend Cameron Crowe.

Come 1972, Joni’s singular song-writing talent and poetic gifts were undeniable. Fresh off the back-to-back Platinum-certified releases of 1970’s “Ladies Of The Canyon” and 1971’s “Blue” — totemic albums whose artfulness and ubiquity would influence generations of songwriters Joni had grown wary of mounting media scrutiny. Everything from her style choices to romantic partners became the subject of far more gossip column inches than were ever dedicated to the lifestyle minutiae of her male counterparts. 

In response, she had pulled back, announcing an early retirement from the stage in 1970 and moving to the quiet expanses of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. It was a fruitful change of scenery. Inspired by her proximity to nature and refreshed by the peaceful seclusion, she began constructing the songs that would become “For The Roses”. This respite thrust Mitchell into a remarkably fertile creative period, yielding a run of albums — 1972’s “For The Roses”, 1974’s “Court And Spark”, and 1975’s “The Hissing Of Summer Lawns” — that would simultaneously expand and refine the scope of her music. Her adventurous, intricate arrangements and growing formidability as a bandleader injected these songs with a clarity of purpose, a potent muscularity, and a sense of possibility — it is among the most exciting eras of a near peerless career.

This era comes into even greater focus on ‘Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)’ . It’s the latest entry in the award-winning series exploring the vast untapped archives of rare Joni recordings — a project guided intimately by Joni’s own vision and personal touch. The collection begins with an early cut of “Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire,” one of two songs (along with “For The Roses”) test-driven during a visit to a Graham Nash David Crosby recording session at Wally Heider’s in Hollywood.

From there, you’ll be treated to early demos and alternate versions from sessions from “For The Roses”, “Court & Spark”, and “The Hissing Of Summer Lawns”; historic live show recordings, including the entirety of Mitchell’s triumphant 1972 return to Carnegie Hall and a definitive gig with her “Court And Spark” backing band Tom Scott & the L.A. Express; and tracks from sessions cut alongside James Taylor, Graham Nash, and Neil Young.

Joni Mitchell – “Help Me” (Demo) from “Court And Spark Demos” on the “Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975)” coming October 6th on 5CD, Digital, and 4LP box set.

King Crimson pioneer’s to the Progressive style. And like many bands, there are definitive and specific periods of their existence that highlight their expansive history. Their first album “In The Court Of The Crimson King” was offered in 1969, and quickly gained a deep and devout following. By 1973, Fripp had gone through multiple line-up changes in the span of five albums. With “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic“, four new members were in on the creative experiment that is King Crimson. 2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic“.

“This band is more King Crimson than it’s ever been. All the original ideals and aspirations are there – love respect and compatible ideas. It’s a magic band!” – Robert Fripp, July, 1972

When, in July 1972, Melody Maker revealed that Bill Bruford & John Wetton were joining King Crimson – from Yes & Family respectively, it was front page news. Also joining were Jamie Muir – a key figure in London’s jazz scene & David Cross – from the band Waves. Fripp’s claims about the band’s ‘magic’ were to be put to the test that autumn when, following a three night stint at the Zoom Club, Frankfurt &  TV appearance on Bremen’s Beat Club, the band undertook an extensive UK tour, which ran from the end of October through to mid-December. With the exception of the encore “21st Century Schizoid Man”, the material was all new, with a heavier emphasis on improvisation than had ever been utilised by any major UK rock group on a headlining tour. The developing material for “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” was premiered to a succession of audiences who, for the most part, had bought tickets expecting to hear something else entirely (encore notwithstanding) but who responded to the challenging set with enthusiasm. 

Recorded from mid-January to the beginning of February & released in late March of 1973, “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic” became one of the most acclaimed of King Crimson’s albums as well as establishing its reputation as a key album from one of rock music’s most significant years. After a handful of further UK concerts, Jamie Muir left the band with the remaining quartet working with ever greater success until Summer 1974 when Fripp placed the band on indefinite hiatus.

Almost half a century after its release, Steven Wilson undertook the job of mixing the album for Dolby Atmos and, in the process, prepared new stereo & 5.1 mixes. The new stereo & 5.1 mixes – no doubt informed by the more adventurous mix techniques allowed by the Atmos process – are quite different in approach, more expansive than the earlier mixes as released in 2012, while still retaining and enhancing the core power of the original material. 

While Steven was working on this aspect of the material Alex R. Mundy and David Singleton at DGM were mixing every single take of the original studio sessions. These unreleased early takes are presented not as traditionally blended pieces, but with maximum separation, mimicking the experience of sitting in the studio with the individual elements being performed around you. The “Elemental mixes” apply this same approach to the main album takes. An excitingly fresh view on the familiar, with the focus often falling in unusual places, some originally hidden, some unused. Four of the album’s core tracks feature: extended mixes of “Larks’ 1″ and “Talking Drum” along with “Easy Money” & “Larks’ 2”. 

On October 13th, King Crimson celebrates the anniversary with a new set of remixes that will embody the upcoming classic reissue. The new reissue will provide new 2023 Stereo remixes by Steven Wilson, as well as David Singleton. All told, there will be 2CD/2BD sets as well as a 2LP package. Included on the BD will be 5.1 Surround mixes that include Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD

This 50th Anniversary set of “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic” packages will include a booklet with new notes, essay, and photos. The 2LP package offers Larks’ Tongues In Aspic pressed on 200g-weight industry black vinyl. LP1 will contain the Steven Wilson 2023 Remix while LP2 contains the 2023 David Singleton Elementals remix.