Following up their EP releases “Suburban Hell” and “We Might Not Make Tomorrow”, Girls In Synthesis once again join forces with London-based label Blank Editions to release the “Fan The Flames” EP. Building on the subtleties apparent on their previous releases, it can be said that “Fan The Flames” is the most varied and experimental of the trio of EP’s. Amongst the piercing guitars, pounding drums and harsh, spitting vocals, the EP finds time to include improvised, spoken word poetry and groove-based sparseness on “Howling” and “Internal Politics“, respectively. The title track lyrically looks at the dichotomy of moral and political beliefs while “You’re Doing Fine” deals with self-doubt and anxiety, backed by a rapid and edgy musical backing to match.
Released once again in their now familiar fold-out sleeve, the vinyl edition is typically a labour of love; 125 copies only, all hand-stamped and numbered which come in the aforementioned sleeve featuring lyrics and a reproduction of the forthcoming “Fan The Flames” tour poster. Also included is an exclusive 4 badge set and this limited release will no doubt follow suit and sell out on pre-orders like its predecessors.
The framework for “Quiet the Room” was laid two years ago, when Ballentine wrote and recorded a song of the same name. Unlike most other Skullcrusher songs, it was written on piano, her childhood instrument. While writing the rest of the album in the summer of 2021, visions of Ballentine’s youth flocked like bats from the attic as she wandered her Los Angeles apartment in the sticky, sweltering heat. The image of a house emerged as she merged the interior world of her songs with the exterior rooms that contained her. She was thinking of her childhood in Mount Vernon, NY, which she calls the biggest inspiration for the record.
“It’s like layers of tracing paper, like someone is trying to make a drawing and you’re seeing the entire process,” Ballentine says of the album’s construction. Looking back through home videos, she became struck by seemingly benign shots captured through the window—her at the piano or walking in the yard. There was a weight that extended beyond the edges of the frame, a darkness hovering just out of view: her parents were fighting, on the road to divorce. The house was failing to contain them all. What she set out to capture on “Quiet the Room” was not the innocence of childhood, as it is so often portrayed, but the intense complexity of it. The result is a stunning and quietly moving work that reflects the journeys we take through the physical and spiritual realms of ourselves in order to show up for the world.
“We wanted every song to have that little twinkle, but also a sense of crumbling,” she says. These songs thrum with moments of anxiety that boil over into moments of peace, as on lead single “Whatever Fits Together,” which chugs to a ragged start before the gears catch and ease. On “It’s Like a Secret,”Ballentine struggles to connect and let people in, recognizing that no one can ever fully know our inner worlds and that to understand each other is to cross a barrier and leave a part of ourselves behind. And yet, on closing track “You are my House,” she finds a way to reach out. “You are the walls and floors of my room,” she sings in perfect, hopeful harmony.
As the album cover invites, these are dollhouse songs to which we bend a giant eye, peering into the laminate, luminous world that Ballentine has created. Like a kid constructing a shelter in a patch of sharp brambles, she reminds us that beauty and terror can exist in the same place. The complexities of childhood are so often overlooked, but through these private yet generous songs, she gives new weight to our earliest memories, widening the frame for us—even opening a window.
On Skullcrusher’s (aka Helen Ballentine) debut album, she wastes no time teaching a master class on vulnerability. The songwriting is rooted in the confusion of childhood, examining Ballentine’s own through vaguely told memories and home-video voice memos. The guitar builds itself a home in the ambient, wide production. This is certainly not an album to be pigeonholed into one genre—the influences on this album range all over the board, and include a lot of electronic artists. It peels back the curtains from the culturally romanticized image of childhood, revealing it as a time with the same pain and confusion, as well as abstract joy as any other part of life.
Being young is anything but simple, and those dreams and experiences spin around in Ballentine’s mind years after moving away from her childhood home in New York state. In describing the songwriting process involved on the album, Ballentine says, “I viewed my younger self through a wash of emotions: anger, sadness, pity, confusion, all reaching for a kind of compassion. I tried to capture the contradictions that comprise my past and define who I am now. As I looked back, I saw my life in pieces: some moments blacked out, some extremely vivid, some leading nowhere.” The resulting LP is a shivering look inside yourself through the memories of another.
Exclusive Pink Glass Translucent Vinyl, Black LP, CD and Limited Edition ‘Quiet The Room’ Tote Bag and Tea Towel now available at the Secretly Store.
The Winterland Ballroom was packed in 1968 to see the first of a three-night run by the Jimi Hendrix Experience must have been feeling the anticipation: Hendrix & Co. were less than a week away from the release of their third album. The power trio got a classic poster from a power duo: Rick Griffin and Victor Moscoso teamed up on this work of art — so popular it’s been reprinted eight times — to promote the shows.
The following week, on October 16th, the Jimi Hendrix Experience released “Electric Ladyland,” the trio’s last album together and the final studio album Hendrix would release before his death in 1970. Though the double-LP received some mixed reviews at the time, “Electric Ladyland” has become about as classic as a classic album can be. On the strength of the Bob Dylan cover “All Along the Watchtower,” the Hendrix Experience’s top-selling single, “Electric Ladyland” became the trio’s only album to top the charts in the U.S. (it reached No. 6 in the UK).
Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell recorded the album in several blocks, laying down tracks in sessions between July 1967 and January 1968 at studios in the U.S. and England. Soon after the Record Plant recording studio opened in March 1968, Hendrix moved in, recording the rest of “Electric Ladyland” there between April and August of 1968. A perfectionist in the studio, it’s said that Hendrix and Mitchell recorded 50 takes of “Gypsy Eyes” before the singer and guitarist was satisfied. “Electric Ladyland” is also notable for contributions from several high-profile guests, including Steve Winwood, Buddy Miles, Al Kooper and the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones.
Athens supergroup the Bad Ends pack a lot of punch. In the collective are: Mike Mantione of Athens staples Five Eight (guitar/vocals), Dave Domizi (bass/vocals), Geoff Melkonian (keys/vocals), ChristianLopez (guitars, mandolin), former R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry. In fact, this will be Berry’s first band since his R.E.M. days. the Bad Ends have announced their debut album, “The Power And The Glory”, out January 20th via New West Records. They’re also premiering a rollicking lead single, “All Your Friends Are Dying,” which comes with a video directed by Lance Bangs.
The “All Your Friends Are Dying” video also features cameos from Athens-based personalities such as Mike Mills of R.E.M., Vanessa Briscoe Hay from Pylon, Jody Stephens of Big Star, producer David Barbe, and more. The band will also play their first-ever show on November 27th , which will be at Nuci’s Space — the same place where R.E.M. played their first show in 1980.
Here’s what Mike Mantione had to say about “All Your Friends Are Dying”: The song and the video are a celebration of Athens. The song is also a tribute to Big Star and The Glands. I’m really singing it to a friend who missed this special performance of the Big Star Third album and I’m warning my friend not to miss stuff because life doesn’t last very long. We thought there was only cell phone footage of the show, but our friend Dan Jordan ended up having three cameras rolling that night. We were able to grab shots of Jody singing ‘Thirteen’ and Frank playing his guitar (which was a telecaster that night, which is why he plays an SG in the van, as namechecked in the song).
The cameos were just the most fun. I got to drive around Athens with so many awesome friends. We were supposed to look glum, but once they got into the van with me, laughter would erupt. Athens had an incredible, beloved local vegetarian restaurant called The Grit which closed a day before we shot the last of the cameos. We do a drive-by of The Grit as sort of a farewell nod.
In very early 2017, a chance pedestrian encounter in downtown Athens found me face to face with one Mike Mantione. At that point it had been over 2 decades since I’d involved myself with the record making process and here was a man Peter Buck recently described as “the unsung hero of Athens rock and roll” offering an opportunity to play in the game again. It was energizing to once again play with top notch musicians. This record is unique for me in that it was the only one, with which I was involved, that was written, rehearsed, recorded, produced and mastered in Athens!
With the Neil Young camp as busy as beavers, it’s no surprise that in addition to new albums being released, there are also 50th Anniversaries to account for. And Neil Young is no slump in the archival territories that are his. With a history as rich as Neil Young‘s released music, it’s great to hear that “Harvest” has come to a grand age. Released in 1972, this classic yielded not on an album full of gems but also the well-known hits of “Old Man”, and “Heart Of Gold”.
On December 2nd, Reprise Records and Neil Young will move into glorified territory with the several Boxed reissues of “Harvest“. Inside, the boxes will contain either – depending on your choice of acquisition – 3CDs of music, or 2LPs and a 7″ vinyl press of outtakes. Both will add in two DVDs of filmed works that include a previously unreleased 2-hour documentary filmed in 1971 that covers the making of “Harvest“, and an unreleased 1971 “BBC In Concert” show.
The sets will include three outtakes from the “Harvest” sessions, as well as the original album. A book is included to complete the box that will become a fixture on many Neil Young fans’ shelves, especially those fans of the album itself. The 2LP box will add in a lithograph and a poster, while the 3CD set will contain the poster.
Few songwriters are able to pinpoint difficult emotions and address them with such devastating clarity and disarming humor quite like Field Medic. The long-running musical project of Los Angeles-based musician Kevin Patrick Sullivan, he makes music that’s so startlingly honest that it can cut the tension in any room. He’s excelled at self-reflection and making deceptively simple folk songs about loneliness, sobriety, and growing up. But for his latest LP, “grow your hair long if you’re wanting to see something you can change”, which is out October 14th via Run For Cover Records, Sullivan decided to completely reinvent his approach to recording.
Most of Sullivan’s catalogue as Field Medic has come from bedroom recorded moments of pure inspiration typically with just an acoustic guitar and a simple drum loop from a boombox. For his 2020 LP “Floral Prince” and other albums, he had employed what he lovingly calls his “full-time freestyle” method of song writing: where he records as he writes and focuses more on stream-of-consciousness candidness over studio perfection. With these new songs that would eventually become “grow your hair long”, Sullivan needed a change. “I didn’t want to write the same song again,” says Sullivan. “I have songs about being on tour, I have songs about drinking too much, and falling in love. I needed a different approach to feel inspired to create.”
Where the recording process had always been a solitary affair for Sullivan, he decided to finally relinquish control and enlist producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabe Goodman to help him add a new feel to these songs. He decamped to Goodman’s Los Angeles studio and began tracking songs, allowing Goodman and a team of collaborators like steel guitarist Nick Levine of Jodi and drummer Nate Lich to flesh out the arrangements. The first track Sullivan brought to record was the LP opener “always emptiness” and the finished product is by far his most immaculately arranged and ambitious song yet. Hearing the track in a new context with a full band felt like a lightbulb moment for Sullivan. “Before the studio, I had been dealing with a lot of existential anxiety and a lack of inspiration,” says Sullivan. “But hearing these songs in this way was so exciting for me and it energized me to keep mining and writing.
Lead single “i had a dream that you died” came about from one of these late-night moments of clarity. “I rolled over in bed and did a voice memo with that melody and then wrote the whole track out because I woke up from a dream that one of my friends died,” says Sullivan. “Very literal.” Despite being written over a couple of minutes, the track showcases his keen knack for a cohesive narrative.
He sings, “I had a dream that you died / somehow made it about me.” This vision serves as a vessel for deeper self-reflection, recalling visions of being happy during his childhood contrasted with his darkest moments in depression in which he keeps “fighting each day / against this maelstrom / i feel like a chia pet / the way my hair looks dumb / and my heart is made of stone” This dichotomy between joy and despair is where Sullivan thrives both as an artist and a lyrical soothsayer, able to dive into these brutally dark moments with a smirk and a joke.
On single “Stained Glass,” he makes this anxiety tangible: “it’s a bad trip / crisis on top of crisis / it’s like stained glass / when the light hits.” But for Sullivan, this darkness isn’t for wallowing, it’s for clarity. It’s naming these persistent feelings, addressing them, and finding catharsis or healing.
“grow your hair long” is a triumphant picture of an artist diving deep into himself and coming out stronger than ever, both as a songwriter and as a person. It’s an example of Sullivan putting himself out there and laying bare the most devastating thoughts and emotions. Within these delicate and lovingly made songs, there’s an underlying and tangible hope someone finds their own struggles.
Before The Reds, Pinks & Purples started getting noticed by a larger audience, the “I Should Have Helped You” 4 song EP snuck out on Swedish experimental label I Dischi Del Barone and quickly disappeared, becoming a little-heard but often whispered about piece of the RPPs discography.
Recorded around the same time as the material that ended up on his breakthrough LP “UncommonWeather,” it contains some of the best examples of Glenn Donaldson’s melancholy but wry take on indie pop. Needless to say, it’s terrific.
The original 7″ is now a white whale for collectors, trading for silly prices on Discogs when it shows up at all. This music *needs* to be heard, so we’ve put together this limited reissue that adds six more tracks to make it a mini-LP length grab bag of hits. It has songs about record shopping, religion, worker’s rights, dysfunctional holidays, and of course heartbreak sung over a maze of shimmering fuzzy guitars and drum machine beats — an essential chapter of the Reds, Pinks & Purples story.
On 14.10.22 Rachael Dadd is to release her new studio album ‘Kaleidoscope’. Her hope is that when people listen “they will feel held and find space to breathe, grieve and celebrate.”
Wildly creative free-form songwriter Rachael Dadd releases her brand new studio album “Kaleidoscope” via Memphis Industries and follows 2019’s “Flux“, which was released to much acclaim and which she was touring when the pandemic struck. Like so many people disconnected from their communities and struggling through the lockdowns, Rachael Dadd turned inwards, seeking escape through music and connection through song writing, and her hope is that when people listen to ‘Kaleidoscope’ “they will feel held and find space to breathe, grieve and celebrate.”
This album is a lot more honest and personal than ‘Flux’” she shares, “but I feel the songs are universal as they are largely rooted in truth and love. If I had to pick a favourite album it would be this one because of the magical rekindling of human connection when me and my band got back in a room together again. All that magic went into these songs.”
Co-produced “intuitively, boldly, and playfully” by Rachael and Rob Pemberton(The Staves, Emily Barker, Maja Lena), “Kaleidoscope” includes musical collaborators such as Maja Lena(Low Chimes), long-time collaborator Emma Gatrill(Willy Mason), Alex Heane(bass), Charlotte West(synths), Alex Garden(strings) and “Flux” producer Marcus Hamblett (Villagers, James Holden, The Staves), giving the record “just the right colour combination, just the right pattern of shapes, plenty of space where needed and finally landing in a sound world that feels fresh and open and true” reflects Rachael.
Japanese aesthetics absorbed from her time spent living there are subconsciously woven into Rachael’s songs. “I first stepped foot in Tokyo in 2008, sparked by the adventure of such a rich and different culture and later on I lived on a small island and experienced an appealing and balanced way of life: the aesthetics, the art and the traditions,” she recalls. “There was a lot of caring for each other, a lot of gentleness, and a lot of simple living in harmony with nature. Japan left its cultural mark on me and is now part of my inner world and I’m sure this comes out with the words and music I write”. But overall” Rachael explains “this is an album of homecoming and reconnecting to my own truth, to my community here, to the earthy land that I love and to the sky that I know”
‘Kaleidoscope’, including a limited ed. DINKED vinyl with bonus EP of featuring This is the Kit, follows Rachael’s critically acclaimed ‘Flux’.
Preorder Kaleidoscope DINKED edition (splatter vinyl + bonus EP), indie only yellow vinyl, black vinyl and
Musicians Rachael Dadd – electric guitar, voice Rob Pemberton – drums, rhodes, voice Alex Heane – electric bass, voice Charlotte West – synthesizer, voice Marcus Hamblett – fuel horn Emma Gatrill – clarinet Alex Garden – violin Written by Rachael Dadd
A misery intent on taking all down with it and its cacophonous chaos on its own terms as opposed to idly accepting its otherwise assured fall. This is what the end of the world sounds like.
For fans of Jesus Lizard, Melvins, Korn, Nick Cave, and The Flenser.
Melody’s Echo Chamber will release Unfold, a “lost” album of songs recorded in 2013 that were originally intended for her second album, this Friday. Before the whole thing drops, she’s shared one more song. “Norfolk Hotel” is spiraling psych, with Melody’s distinctive high harmonies and a big trippy crash at the end.
Melody’s Echo Chamber – “Norfolk Hotel” out now on Domino / Fat Possum. On 30 Sept 2022, the 10th anniversary edition of ‘Melody’s Echo Chamber’s’ self-titled debut will be released alongside ‘Unfold,’ the lost follow-up album from which seven rare and unreleased tracks will be made available.
A tenth anniversary edition of “Melody’s Echo Chamber“, the eponymously-titled debut album from French musician Melody Prochet. Recorded and co-produced with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in Perth, Australia, and finished in the South of France, the album became a cornerstone of the new wave of psychedelia on its release in 2012.
The tenth anniversary edition is released alongside “Unfold”, the lost follow-up album from which seven rare and unreleased tracks will be made available. In their unexpurgated and unvarnished states, sometimes almost finished and sometimes in fragments, “Unfold’s” seven tracks demonstrate a splurge of righteous creation cut off at an inopportune moment and preserved like the ruins of Pompeii.
“Unfold”: featuring seven rare and unreleased tracks, it is the first time of what could have been the follow-up to Melody’s Echo Chamber have been available. The beautiful title track, featuring a euphonious electric guitar and Melody’s trademark falsetto tones, is released today alongside a nostalgic feel-good video by Australian videographer Matt Sav (Confidence Man, POND).
The Fat Angel Sings 