The Fat Angel Sings

Hatchie, the dream pop project of Australian musician Harriette Pilbeam, released a new album, “Giving the World Away”, on April 22nd via Secretly Canadian. She shared its fourth single, album opener track “Lights On,” via a video for it. Long-time Hatchie collaborator and guitarist Joe Agius (who also releases music as RINSE) directed the video.

Pilbeam had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Lights On’ was one of the first songs written for this album and set me on a path of writing more honestly and personally than previously. I don’t often write about physical attraction, but wanted to peel back the layers of a certain type of relationship. The video was conceptualized around a blend of our favourite sci-fi influences from the last 30 years relating to the title of the song.”

“Giving the World Away” includes “This Enchanted,” a new song Hatchie shared in September via a video for it. “Giving the World Away” was announced Hatchie shared a new song from it, “Quicksand,” Then Hatchie shared its third single, title track “Giving the World Away,” via a lyric video for it.

“Giving the World Away” is Hatchie’s second full-length album, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, “Keepsake“, which came out via Double Double Whammy.

Jorge Elbrecht (Sky Ferreira, Japanese Breakfast, Wild Nothing) produced the album, which also features Agius and Beach House drummer James Barone.

Hatchie is featured on Under the Radar’s 20th anniversary compilation album, “Covers of Covers”, where she covers HAIM’s “FUBT.”

“Lights On” by Hatchie from the forthcoming album ‘Giving The World Away’, out April 22nd on Secretly Canadian & Ivy League Records (for AU & NZ).

Few bands make it to album number seven with the same energy or passion they had in “the good ol’ days”, but sporting their stickiest hooks, tightest playing and sharpest song writing, ‘Weirder & Weirder’ is Ball Park Music’s best record yet. The band wrote it at their lowest point, yet it’s inescapably upbeat, and although it landed at the start of a brutal winter, it feels tailor-made for summer festivals, road trips and beaches. Even its subtlest flourishes – like the grit spiking the otherwise beautiful pop melodies, or the twinkly atmospherics that add an extra dash of magic to the soundscape – make ‘Weirder & Weirder’ a home run for Ball Park Music.

“Stars In My Eyes” by Ball Park Music is out now via Prawn Records.

First time on vinyl. Originally released as a CD only album on Riot Season back in 2008 and out of print ever since. Fourteen years later it’s finally getting the double vinyl release it fully deserves. It’s a pretty big gamble doing gatefold double vinyl releases these days, as the manufacturing costs have gone through the roof in some instances. But you’ve got to follow your gut instincts and get it done

Now expanded, and with new artwork ‘Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Outer Space’ really could be Acid Mothers Temple’s first ‘summer album’. Here, Acid Mothers Temple’s most representative song ‘Pink Lady Lemonade’ is dismantled and reconstructed as a blissful ecstatic psychedelic trip where chaos and silence intersect.

These were the first AMT&TCI studio recordings since the addition of Pikachu, drummer and vocalist with Osaka grenade-girl duo Afrirampo. The popular Acid Mothers Temple’s standard “Pink Lady Lemonade” showcases a 21st century acid rock update on the 60s San Francisco psychedelic sound.

This one doesn’t reach in the red status often – it’s a more out-there trippy ride. But when it does finally soar, Kawabata’s guitar has never sounded more alive.

“Pink Lady Lemonade, You’re from space, You’re soooooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!”

Releases June 17th, 2022

Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno :

Pikacyu : drums, voice, cosmic shaman
Tabata Mitsuru : bass, voice, malatab
Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, dancin’king
Shimura Koji : drums, latino cool
Kawabata Makoto : guitar, voice, electronics, speed guru
Audrey Ginestet : voice, cosmos

Preoccupations have announced a new album, “Arrangements“, and shared its first single, “Ricochet.” The band has also announced some fall tour dates.”Arrangements“ is due out September 9th. In Canada Flemish Eye will be putting “Arrangements” out and the band will self-release it in America and the rest of the world.

“The lyrics are pretty conspicuous and self explanatory on this one, but it’s basically about the world blowing up and no one giving a shit,” says vocalist/songwriter Matthew Flegal in a press release, in regards to “Ricochet.”

“Arrangements“ is the band’s fourth album (and their third under the name Preoccupations). It follows 2018’s amusingly titled “New Material”. Flegal, guitarist Danny Christiansen, and guitarist/keyboardist Scott Munro convened in 2019 at Munro’s Studio St. Zo in Montreal to start work on the album. Then drummer Mike Wallace joined in. COVID-19 derailed continued in-person work on the album, so the band finished the album remotely, with Munro recording at a makeshift studio he set up at his parents’ house. Graham Walsh (Holy Fuck) mixed “Arrangements“, and Mikey Young (Total Control) mastered it.

After completing a UK headline tour which included a triumphant four-night run at London’s Olympia in front of a combined audience of 40,000 people, Foals are set to take the sun-kissed sounds of their ‘Life Is Yours’ album to an array of major festivals this summer. As the June 17th release of ‘Life Is Yours’ approaches, Foals  unveil their new single ‘2001’ elevates the disco and funk influences that permeate Foals’ recent tracks ‘Wake Me Up’, ‘2am’ and ‘Looking High’. Yannis Philippakis’s falsetto soars as high as the sky he references in the song’s opening lyrics, accompanied by a riff that bounces with groove and precision, and a popping P-funk bassline. While ‘2001’ finds Foals stepping boldly into the most electrifying example of their new sound, lyrically it’s pure reflection.

Yannis says, “‘2001’ feels like a postcard from the past. We moved to Brighton around that time, we were a young band, and there was the feeling of the first taste of independence. The moment you get those freedoms, you’re surrounded by temptation. The references to beachside candy and Brighton rock are symbols for drugs and hedonism. This was written in the depths of the pandemic winter, and there’s an escapist desire to break out from the feeling of being cooped up, both in terms of the pandemic and adolescence.”

The ‘2001’ video transports those themes to Costa Brava, Spain to place the song’s nostalgic ambience firmly in the here-and-now. Two young men lug their sofa from their apartment to soak up some rays on the beach. Other vignettes of coming-of-age experiences follow their every move, from the effortlessly cool group of young women who observe their struggle with nonchalant indifference to a couple kissing. When one of the men chews a sweet that everyone seems to be consumed by, his summer day takes on a new hallucinogenic edge.

The video’s modernist nostalgia is heightened by its aesthetic – a washed out palette and Polaroid-style framing. It was directed by ESTEBAN (Arca, Peggy Gou) for the creative production company CANADA.

‘2001’ was written by Foals – Yannis, Jack Bevan and Jimmy Smith. The track’s production is one of a number of songs on ‘Life Is Yours’ that benefit from an experimental approaching of mixing up different configurations of creative voices. On ‘2001’, production was led by A.K. Paul (co-founder of the Paul Institute with his brother Jai Paul) and John Hill (Cage The Elephant, Florence + The Machine), with co-production from Miles James. It was then mixed by the ten-time Grammy Award winner Manny Marroquin (Post Malone, Kanye West, Rihanna).

A portion of “Crest of the Wave” existed in 2011, and we had demoed it in Australia and just left it for years. But it was one of those songs which had always been at the back of our minds, like there was some unfinished business there. As we were playing around with it with some of the themes on this record, we cracked it open and really revelled in adding lots of layers to it in the studio. It’s another transportive song. It’s set in St. Lucia, which has always struck me as being very powerful visually, with the mountain plummeting into the sea.

‘Life Is Yours’ is available to pre-order HERE and is already in phenomenal demand – its beautifully realised zoetrope format sold-out its entire 5000 copy pressing in a matter of days. Another essential release for vinyl connoisseurs and Foals collectors comes with  the long-awaited vinyl repress of their debut album ‘Antidotes’, which will be manufactured using recycled vinyl records – a process that ensures that each individual record is unique. Both ‘Life Is Yours’ and ‘Antidotes’ are also available as specially priced bundles.

Foals performed on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer on Saturday, June 11th. They will also play an array of key UK festival dates including headline sets at Latitude and Sounds of the City, plus Radio 1’s Big Weekend, Glastonbury and TRNSMT. 

Los Angeles-based project Drugdealer shares the new single “Madison,” their first musical offering since their 2019 album “Raw Honey“. Led by frontman and primary songwriter Michael Collins, Drugdealer expands on their 1960s and 70s-inspired sonics with the new song, which features a newly discovered vocal range from Collins and pays homage to musicians like Van Morrison and Nick Lowe. The visuals paired with the track see Collins and friends riding around in their cream vintage Mercedes. “Madison” is the first taste of new music to come from Drugdealer in 2022.

Speaking about the new song, Collins says “Madison was the first song I wrote in the period after “Raw Honey“. I hadn’t been feeling very confident about my voice for a while, when a chance encounter with an older artist, Annette Peacock, happened. She helped change my perspective, and style. She told me I wasn’t singing in my correct range, to modulate it up. She was right and it shifted my perspective on singing.

“Madison” is the first time I felt like I was hearing what I really sounded like, after years of defaulting more towards numerous collaborators who I knew had their voices. It was pretty surreal and I’m really thankful for her advice.”

A throwback, Van Morrison-style anthem from LA-based band Drugdealer. “Madison” instantly feels like it could’ve been on the Anchorman soundtrack with its warm retro keys and harmonies. If you dig it, the band’s 2019 album “Raw Honey” is full of similar tunes.

“Madison” follows Drugdealer’s latest full-length album, Raw Honey, which Pitchfork described as “a pristine portrait of early-’70s AM radio” and includes the tracks “Honey,” featuring Weyes Blood and “Fools,” along with their 2016 debut album, “The End of Comedy“, which houses their hit track “Suddenly,” featuring Weyes Blood.

Check out “Madison” above and stay tuned for more from Drugdealer coming soon. 

Brooklyn 5-piece Been Stellar cement their status as one of the best new bands around, with their new track ‘My Honesty’. A song about the search for authenticity in oneself, ‘My Honesty’ is the sound of a band seizing their own future and cutting through the tension.

With Steve Lamacq’s endorsement already under their belt (he made them one of his spotlight artists), Been Stellar embark on a UK and European tour this September.

Formed somewhere in the last five years, Been Stellar (Sam Slocum on vocals, Skyler St. Marx on guitar, Nando Dale on guitar, Nico Brunstein on bass, and Laila Wayans on drums) is our favourite new addition to the enticing coven of NYC post-punk bands interested in creating music that has the melody, vigour and rawness of the city. Been Stellar play stylish, confrontaonal indie rock. Coming together from around the globe to reside in Brooklyn, the 5 piece share their honest account of a city hyper-saturated with commercialism, consumerism, and aging cultural touchstones.

Indie folk/dream pop band The Deer have announced a new album, “The Beautiful Undead”, due September 9th via Keeled scales. Lead single “I Wouldn’t Recognize Me” is fuelled by a guitar melody that borrows more than a little from Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My,” and it’s a gorgeous, airy song that frontwoman Grace Rowland calls a letter to her younger self.

New single out now from The Deer’s new album “The Beautiful Undead” – out 9/9 on Keeled Scales!

Horsegirl are best friends. You don’t have to talk to the trio for more than five minutes to feel the warmth and strength of their bond, which crackles through every second of their debut full-length, “Versions of Modern Performance”. Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) do everything collectively, from song writing to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design. “We made [this album] knowing so fully what we were trying to do,” the band says. “We would never pursue something if one person wasn’t feeling good about it. But also, if someone thought something was good, chances are we all thought it was good.

”Versions of Modern Performance” was recorded with John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.) at Electrical Audio. “It’s our debut bare-bones album in a Chicago institution with a producer who we feel like really respected what we were trying to do,” the band says.

Horsegirl expertly play with texture, shape, and shade across the record, showcasing their fondness for improvisation and experimentation. Opener “Anti-glory” is elastic and bright post-punk, while the guitars in instrumental interlude “Bog Bog 1” smear across the song’s canvas like watercolours. “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)” and “World of Pots and Pans” have rough, blown-out pop charm. “The Fall of Horsegirl” is all sharp edges and dark corners.

released June 3rd, 2022

2022, Matador Records

PRINCE – “The Gold Experience DELUXE” RSD22

“The Gold Experience” was the first full-length Prince album to be credited to his unpronounceable symbol, (SYMBOL ICON), and was released at the most public, heated stage of his battle with the major label industrial complex. With the word “SLAVE” written on one cheek, Prince shined on the opulent ballads “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” and “Gold” and the defiant single “Eye Hate U,” and the album earned widespread critical acclaim. The Record Store Day re-release of “The Gold Experience” is an homage to the rare US-only promo version of the album that was released in 1995. The two-LP set is pressed onto translucent gold vinyl with a bonus suite of “Eye Hate U” remixes on Side D.

The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset

All tracks mono and remastered. This 55th anniversary release of the classic Kinks single features 6 tracks with artwork from the original French 1967 release.

The Who – Its Hard

It’s hard celebrates its 40th anniversary with a 2-LP expanded vinyl version, disc one a ½ speed master contains a re-mastered version of the album while disc two continues the rest of the album but also has a disc of rare and unreleased material.

Pearl Jam – Live on Two Legs

Originally released in 1998, Live On Two Legs documents that year’s US summer tour in support of the Yield album. Sixteen tracks on crystal clear vinyl, in double LP gatefold packaging.

Sandie Shaw – Hand In Glove

Originally released in 1984 and unavailable for almost 40 years, this was a collaboration between one of the most successful (UK) female stars of the ‘60s and indie darlings the Smiths, who were big fans.

It features three Morrissey/Marr originals on which Sandie is backed by Messrs Marr, Rourke and Joyce.

Peter Gabriel – Live In Blood

Recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, 23rd & 24th March 2011 and originally released the following year, Live Blood is exactly what its name suggests – the live incarnation of Peter Gabriel’s New Blood project where he reworked a chunk of his back catalogue for a 46-piece orchestra. The album has been Half-Speed Remastered and cut to lacquers at 33RPM, across 3x heavyweight LPs, pressed on blood red vinyl.

The Heartbreakers – The LAMF Demo Sessions

The Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure, Billy Rath and Jerry Nolan) with four studio demo sessions from 1976 and 1977, compiled onto one album for the first time. Two sessions were recorded in 1976 in New York, including four tracks in their early incarnation with Richard Hell and later six tracks after Billy Rath had joined on bass. In London in 1977, they recorded one session just prior to signing with Track Records, and another after L.A.M.F. had been released, with The Clash’s Terry Chimes on drums replacing the newly departed Jerry Nolan.

Pressed on transparent magenta vinyl, it comes with a 12” poster of the Roberta Bayley cover photo, an outtake from the L.A.M.F. cover session, and an inner bag with Walter Lure interviewed by Johnny Thunders’ biographer Nina Antonia in 2005.

The album shows the development of the band building towards their classic 1977 ‘L.A.M.F.’ album (recently reissued with a newly found original master), and further points to the direction they would have gone had they not split up.