The Fat Angel Sings

Leeds art-rock group Mush (Dan Hyndman – vocals / guitar, Phil Porter – drums, Nick Grant – bass, Myles Kirk– guitar) are set to return with album ‘Down Tools’ via Memphis Industries. The new record marks the prolific band’s third album in as many years, following hype- building early singles ‘Alternative Facts’ and ‘Gig Economy’, 2020’s debut LP ‘3D Routine’ and 2021’s acclaimed ‘Lines Redacted’, which pushed their sound further and, as Uncut wrote, saw them become “kindred spirits to Wand and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, two other bands prolifically honing their sound and approach, steadily developing their voice.”

On ‘Down Tools’, this voice grows again into a more brilliantly singular sound. It sees Mush getting loose, moving away from the defined moods and textures of ‘Lines Redacted’ with a musical openness, straddling genres while avoiding pastiche. Hyndman says of the lyrics on ‘Down Tools’ that “there was a conscious decision to retreat further from an observational approach” with vocals being ad-libbed lending the record a more abstract feel. Hyndman continues: “this album is less dark than the previous one. The Armageddon obsession has eased, or at least the symptoms have become milder due to saturation. Musically there’s a lot more chill on the record – there’s a few more mellow tracks out there and the most astute listener may even be able to decipher some of the words, fingers crossed.”

While grief and work balance form themes on the record, Hyndman’s approach is largely made up of abstract, disconnected streams of consciousness and lines liberally taken from books, paintings, films and beyond. On ‘Human Resources’, Hyndman dramatically retells a battle he had with an HR department at a job in a David and Goliath style. The song ‘Group Of Death’, a phrase chillingly familiar to any football fan, is emblematic of the turn towards softer, more considered sounds. Hyndman says: “In my warped imagination it just sounds like a Paul McCartney song,

but it won’t to others. I initially had the idea of doing a World Cup song called ‘Group of Death’, but by the time it was written nothing beyond the title had any relevance to football. Anyway, the next World Cup is in Qatar so fuck that shit.” Northern Safari meanwhile is a song about the way the North of England has been portrayed in the media and used as a mirror to reflect some of the nastier elements of what’s going on in society, in particular vox pops around Doncaster, portraying a particular narrative of the collapse of the red wall and the disgruntled ex-miners. ‘Down Tools’ then sees Mush idiosyncratically ping-pong from finger picked looseners to noise-rock bangers to brilliantly entertaining effect, avoiding post punk saturation with an easy style and
wit.

Two-Piers, the label that brought you ‘Pop Psychédélique (The Best of French Psychedelic Pop 1964-2019)’ bring you the second instalment in the series ‘Garage Psychédélique (The Best of Garage Psych and Pzyk Rock 1965-2019)’. A thrill a minute dive into the crazy awesome world of Garage Psychedelic Rock.

From the Psych sound explosion onto the Underground club scene in the US and UK in the mid 1960s, its discovery by a wider audience via the exceptional Nuggets and Pebbles compilation series in the 1970-1980s. Through its mainstream revival with the Garage sound of the late 1990- early 2000s, to the current crop of exceptional bands flying the Garage Psych flag today, ‘Garage Psychédélique’ takes you on a journey and gives you a little taste of some of the finest music from the scene and the bands that blazed a trail for others to follow…..Sit back and enjoy the ride!

From the opening bars of The Sonics ‘Have love Will Travel’ through the Psych workout that is Count Five’s ‘Psychotic Reaction’ to the joys of 60s Beat Psych groups from the US such as The Paragons, The Preachers, The Strangeloves, The Squires, and the eccentric stylings of The Monks. The album careers along at a blistering pace of Garage Psych brilliance, jammed packed full of Underground floor fillers a plenty.

US legendary underground acts such as The Electric Prunes, The Chocolate Watch Band and MC5 all deliver classic tracks for the cause, and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson even makes a foray into the psych rock sound with ‘Jump into the Fire’.

In recent years such bands as Thee Oh Sees, Moon Duo and Allah-Las from the US have taken the Garage Psych influence and 60s sound and made it their own. A whole crop of bands such as White Hills, Gnod and Goat from the scene have evolved the music into a heavier ‘Pyzk Rock’ feel with a darker and heavier vibe, but crucially still with the joyous undertones that the scene brings to its devotees.

The Garage Psych sound has influenced groups from around the globe with bands like Liverpool’s The Stairs ‘Weed Bus’, Scotland’s finest The Poets with ‘That’s the Way It’s Gotta Be’, The Bogeymen, a largely undiscovered 90s Psych Hammond band from France with ‘Electrocution’. Hailing from Sweden Goat bring us ‘Gathering of Ancient Tribes’ and The Hives their dance floor anthem ‘Main Offender’. From Perth, Australia Pond’s Psych leanings on ‘Fantastic Explosion of Time’ are clear to see. Finally, Kevin Parker’s band Tame Impala were very influenced by the whole garage psych sound in their early band incarnation, as perfectly showcased here on the epic wig out that is ‘Half Full Glass of Wine’ that closes the album.

This isn’t meant to be a ‘crate diggers’ album or a compilation of ‘obscure hard to find tracks’ to out-do your mates. It is quite simply a celebration of the Garage Psychédélique scene and a chance to revel in its brilliance and dance around your kitchen. If it means you go down a rabbit warren of discovery to unearth more gems and brilliant bands from the Garage Psych scene then job done!

Tracklisting:

A1. The Sonics – Have Love Will Travel
A2. Count Five – Psychotic Reaction
A3. The Paragons – Abba
A4. Kim Fowley – The Trip
A5. The Preachers – Who Do You Love
A6. The Strangeloves – Night Time
A7. The Monks – Oh, How To Do Now
A8. The Bogeymen – Electrocution

B1. Harry Nilsson – Jump Into The Fire (Single Version)
B2. The Eyes – When The Night Falls
B3. 13th Floor Elevators – Reverberation (Doubt)
B4. The Poets – That’s The Way It’s Gotta Be
B5. The Squires – Going All The Way
B6. The Electric Prunes – I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
B7. The Chocolate Watch Band – I’m Not Like Everybody Else
B8. MC5 – Gotta Keep Movin’

C1. The Stairs – Weed Bus
C2. The Hives – Main Offender
C3. Pond – Fantastic Explosion Of Time
C4. Novella – Somethings Must Change
C5. Thee Oh Sees – Web
C6. Allah-Las – Catamaran

D1. Moon Duo – Eye 2 Eye
D2. White Hills, Gnod – Run-a-Round
D3. Goat – Gathering Of Ancient Tribes
D4. Tame Impala – Half Full Glass Of Wine

Sony Legacy are to reissue “Combat Rock”, the last ‘proper’ Clash album, with a bonus disc of rare and early versions of songs.

Originally released in May 1982, “Combat Rock” is the final album from the Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon line-up. The album features three singles, including ‘Rock The Casbah’ and ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’. The latter got to number 17 in the UK charts but reached number one in 1991, when it was re-released.

This deluxe reissue includes 12 bonus tracks collected under the banner ‘The People’s Hall’. Having returned to London following their pivotal 17-show residency at New York’s Bond’s Casino in 1981, This is a reference to the hall where the band camped up to rehearse and record before heading off on a tour of the East and South East Asia (Pennie Smith captured the album cover photo on this tour when they were in Thailand). “The People’s Hall” was in the so-called Republic of Frestonia an area of West London which was a creative hub for artists, musicians, writers, actors and activists. Many squatted there (the name came from Freston Road) and the residents eventually set up a housing trust with the local council.

The tracks on ‘The People’s Hall’ chart the period from what was their last single ‘This Is Radio Clash’ right up to the release of “Combat Rock“, and includes unheard, rare and early versions of tracks. Broadly speaking we are talking about late 1981 and early ’82.

The bonus cuts include a new version of ‘Know Your Rights’ and the previously unreleased instrumental ‘He Who Dares Or Is Tired’. Other tracks include ‘Futura 2000’, an unreleased original mix of ‘The Escapades of Futura 2000’, Mikey Dread’s ‘Radio One’, and the outtakes ‘The Fulham Connection’, previously known as ‘The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too’ as well as ‘Idle in Kangaroo Court’.

This deluxe edition of “Combat Rock” is a 2CD set or a 3LP vinyl package (with “The People’s Hall” requiring two LPs, although side D contains no music so it’s either etched, or just blank). Both editions come with a poster.

“Combat Rock/The People’s Hall” will be released on 20th May 2022 by Sony Music.

Mo Troper is one of the premiere power pop songwriters of our time. Since his tuneful, fuzzed-out solo debut “Beloved” in 2016, the Portland-based musician has been steadily releasing LPs that have added muscle definition and ornate arrangements to his classic throwback hooks and witty-but-withering lyrics. For his latest release, Mo Troper undertook a challenge worthy of lofty songwriters from Elliott Smith to Booker T and The MG’s and R. Stevie Moore alike: recording a full covers album of The Beatles’ “Revolver”, with all of the proceeds going towards Defense Fund PDX and Austin Mutual Aid.

Released in the summer of 1966, “Revolver” saw the Fab Four transition from the reigning pop mop-tops of the first half of their career to the countercultural trailblazers that would solidify them as arguably the most influential and certainly most documented and scrutinized rock band of all time. John Lennon’s comments earlier that year about the group becoming “more popular than Jesus” sparked an apoplectic response from the social and religious Right—the Ku Klux Klan picketed Beatles shows, records were ceremonially burned, and their songs were pulled from radio stations. They would never tour again. As such, the album has developed an enigmatic mystique, and many modern listeners consider it to be the ultimate Beatles LP.

More than a rote imitative exercise or novelty tribute, Mo really absorbs himself in what makes “Revolver” actually special: That in its heart of hearts, even for being inarguably peak Beatles, it’s the mother of all DIY bedroom pop albums.

Released March 12th, 2021

Mo Troper: vocals, guitars, bass, keys, drums, programming, Tyler Blue Broderick: vocals on “Yellow Submarine”

recorded and mixed by mo troper at home in late 2020/early 2021,  Top Beatles album covers but I love the homemade jangly vibe. Wafts of Olivia Tremor Control. Giving all the funds to charity too. 

all songs written by Lennon-Mccartney, with the exceptions of “Love You To,” “Taxman” and “I Want To Tell You,” written by George Harrison. recorded and released with permission from sony/atv music

Shortly after their “bigger than Jesus” remarks rocked the United States, The Beatles released “Revolver”. They never toured again after that, maintaining a credibility and untouchability that gets reissued and remastered every three years. Mo Troper, after releasing his full-length cover of “Revolver”, announced and abruptly cancelled a tour because something much bigger than Jesus was rocking the planet. You’d hope it was Mo himself. It wasn’t, but Mo’s rocking, anyway.

“Dilettante” also known as Mo Troper IV—combines decades of power-pop worship, scholarship, and penmanship into a 28-track collection of sprints. The playlist-as-album pundits might call it a data dump, but Mo brands it as a relaxed way to finish song sketches in unprecedented times. IV is a work that some of his friends call a musical, but this claim remains unverified. If there’s anybody aching to spin up a limiter-drenched production centered around scrolling a cluttered inbox for serotonin, prototype theme songs for public access shows plugged into the scene, and gasp-long dips into math rock, 1990s video game cheese, and medieval revelry, get in touch. (You might have to cut Mo’s rejected jingle for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, even though the stage needs to hear it.)

For those less dramatically inclined, there’s plenty here to pick up the slack. Mo gushes about “The Perfect Song” with syrupy, undeniably guitar pop that’s a remarkable stand-in for the gold he describes. False showtune “Sugar and Cream” goes medium about the wizardry found in a cup of coffee. Clipped moments like the sub-minute love song “Skyscraper Sized Bong” are as ephemeral as they are effective, shoving callouts to Big Star and Teenage Fanclub into pocket- sized arrangements.

“I think that’s the thing about this album – I don’t even really care about touring or making vinyl anymore, I’m generally pretty sick of the PR rigmarole, I just want to release as much stuff as I can before I’m dead,” Troper explains. Call it information overload or a heaping of odds and ends, but “Dilettante” finds Mo Troper at his most sincere, present, and challenged. It doesn’t take fifty million screaming fans to prove him right.

Originally released in digital version on October 15th, 2021, vinyl version ready by April 8th, 2022.

Unique among their furrowed brow peers, The Besnard Lakes are unafraid to marry textured, questing headphone sonics to the honeyed pleasure of radio hits past: the rapture of My Bloody Valentine entwined with the romance of Fleetwood Mac. Imagine dreamy Beach House riding Led Zeppelin dynamics, with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies.

Following the triumphant, epic “Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings” album released in early 2021, The Besnard Lakes have shared a new track recording during those album sessions in the form of “She’s An Icicle”.

“The original had many parts strung together and it was all a bit goofy,” say the band.

“We eliminated most of the other parts and then Oggy said it was too boring so we reworked one of the parts to make it less goofy and shoved it in the middle of the track.” The song starts off sounding like it was beamed in from those early Spiritualized records, morphing then into that signature Besnards sound, with Jace Lasek’s falsetto gliding over the widescreen psychedelic shimmer – all of which making us very excited for the band’s forthcoming European tour dates, kicking off on 19th April in Belgium.

Full Time Hobby  “She’s An Icicle” Released on: 2022-04-07

May
Sun 1: Glasgow (UK), Hug & Pint
Tue 3: Leeds (UK), Brudenell *
Wed 4: Liverpool (UK), District *
Thu 5: Guildford (UK), The Boileroom *
Fri 6: London (UK), Oslo *
Sat 7: Wrexham (UK), Focus Wales

Last Sunday Johnny Marr and his band played in Cardiff, Wales. To pay a tribute to Taylor Hawkins,
the Foo Fighters’ drummer who passed away recently (March 25th at the age of 50), he played
a classic Smith’s song he wrote with Morrissey for his former band.

Before going into “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” Marr said: “This is a song
that we’d like to dedicate to our friend Dave Grohl. Lots of love going out to you guys and
all the Foos family. We miss you Taylor, we won’t ever forget you. God bless you. This is
from all of us.”

Johnny Marr – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (BBC6 Music Festival 2022)

Neal Francis’ sophomore album ‘In Plain Sight’ offers up a body of work both enchanting and painfully self-aware, recorded entirely on tape with his bandmates. Mixed by Grammy Award-winner Dave Fridmann (Spoon, Tame Impala, Flaming Lips), the album spotlights Francis’s refined yet free-spirited performance on piano, an instrument he took up at the age of four. The album came to life over the course of a tumultuous year spent living in a possibly haunted church in Chicago. The result: a portrait of profound upheaval and weary resilience, presented in a kaleidoscopic sound that’s endlessly absorbing. ‘In Plain Sight’ ultimately reveals the possibility of redemption and transformation even as your world falls apart.

“When I started the process of writing these songs, I was so emotionally out-of-sorts and really kind of hopeless that I’d be able to come up with anything,” says Francis. “But then I sat down and started working, and embraced whatever inspiration came my way. Sometimes it felt like beating my head against a wall, but I tried to trust that it would lead somewhere. The whole thing was like a weird dream—this very strange time of terrible, wonderful isolation.”

Released November 5th, 2021

Regarded as the greatest, most influential debut release from any artist!, “…sonically (prior editions) can’t touch this new Bernie Grundman mastering using the original tapes and pressed UHQR flat profile on 200g Clarity vinyl at QRP. I compared this new version to the original and to all of the other Experience Hendrix reissues and Bernie’s got them all beat in terms of dynamics, three-dimensionality and especially transparency — a quality I never thought to assign this recording but one listen will convince you that it’s there. I’ve been playing this record in one version or another since August of 1967 and I knew there was a ‘mouth pop’ on ‘Purple Haze’ but nonetheless when it came I jumped and adrenaline flowed so present and 3 dimensional was the ‘pop.’ This is one of the classic albums from the rock era and it’s never sounded this good. This version will most likely never be bettered” —  Music = 10/11; Sound = 10/11 – Michael Fremer, AnalogPlanet.com.

Analogue Productions presents another UHQR classic title — Jimi Hendrix’s classic “Are You Experienced”. And working together with Quality Record Pressings, this reissue is a true collector’s gem — an Ultra High Quality Record (UHQR) release!

This stereo UHQR reissue will be limited to 20,000 copies, with gold foil individually numbered jackets.

When it was first released in 1967, “Are You Experienced” turned the music world upside down, as Hendrix showed everyone exactly what it meant to be “experienced.” Hendrix synthesized various elements of the cutting edge of 1967 rock into music that sounded both futuristic and rooted in the best traditions of rock, blues, pop, and soul. It was his mind-boggling guitar work, of course, that got most of the ink, charting new sonic territories in feedback, distortion, and sheer volume. It wouldn’t have meant much, however, without his excellent material, whether psychedelic frenzy (“Foxey Lady,” “Manic Depression,” “Purple Haze”), instrumental freak-out jams (“Third Stone from the Sun”), blues (“Hey Joe”), or tender, poetic compositions (“The Wind Cries Mary”) that demonstrated the breadth of his song writing talents. Not to be underestimated were the contributions of drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, who gave the music a rhythmic pulse that fused parts of rock and improvised jazz.

Jimi’s thoughts on the recasting of his debut album in the U.S. by Reprise Records, who added “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Purple Haze” and “Hey Joe” to the original 11-track list, aren’t entirely known. But Jimi did vocalize his frustration during later stage performances that “Red House,” his superb original blues composition, had been pulled from the U.S. album.

The U.S. track version released in August 1967. Included are the group’s first three U.K. singles “Purple Haze,” “Hey Joe” and “The Wind Cries Mary.”

This UHQR is remastered by the legendary Bernie Grundman from the original analogue master tapes. Each UHQR will be pressed at Acoustic Sounds’ industry-leading pressing plant Quality Record Pressings (QRP) using hand-selected Clarity Vinyl® with attention paid to every single detail. These records will feature the same flat profile that helped to make the original UHQR so desirable. From the lead-in groove to the run-out groove, there is no pitch to the profile, allowing the customer’s stylus to play truly perpendicular to the grooves from edge to center. Clarity Vinyl allows for the purest possible pressing and the most visually stunning presentation. Every UHQR will be hand inspected upon pressing completion, and only the truly flawless will be allowed to go to market. Each UHQR will be packaged in a deluxe box and will include a booklet detailing the entire process of making a UHQR along with a hand-signed certificate of inspection. This will be a truly deluxe, collectible product.

Dublin quartet Pillow Queen chase last fall’s “Rats” EP with “Leave the Light On“, a 10-song collection that digs further into the group’s fuzzy, guitar-driven sensibilities. According to singer Pamela Connolly, album opener “Be by Your Side” is “about the mechanisms that are used to hide your vulnerabilities and carry on,” as well as the catharsis of letting out emotions. 

Two years on since the release of “In Waiting”, Pillow Queens release their new album “Leave The Light On” on Royal Mountain Records.

“Leave the Light On” is an exploration of the uncertainty of emotions as they are in process, and an intuitive outpouring of ideas as they form. It’s about being intimately honest with yourself, and as a band. It’s about trusting that this state of vulnerability can be held as it emerges, by you, by us.

What do queer dream blues sound like? More importantly, what do they feel like? Leaving home at night, driving through the black back roads until the tungsten light starts to glow. “Uaigneas an chaldaigh”, the Irish sense of loneliness experienced on the shore. The confusion and discombobulation of waking and feeling unfamiliar. The liminal space between dreaming and being conscious. The unmooring that happens when a sense of self is being explored and sometimes slipping away.

But gravitating towards the unknown and the ambiguous can often yield the kinds of sounds and feelings that provide creative certainty, where the art is coming to you, as much as you going to it. “Leave the Light On” fills vast new sonic plains for Pillow Queens. It’s an album that encourages duality; to be soft and hard, delicate, and muscular, intimate and anthemic, alone and together. Collaborating on lyrics, a shared emotional experience fills these songs of hope and home, insecurity and estrangement, songs that track time passing and a sense of reflection grows deeper every day.

When real movement is stillness, when to be stationary feels transitionary, and when the most vital journey in life is to go within, then it’s time to leave the light on, and open up. For fans of PJ Harvey, Big Thief and Waxahatchee.

Released April 1st, 2022