Archive for the ‘THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES’ Category

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES – 26th February 2016

Posted: February 27, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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QUILT –  PLAZA

‘​Plaza’ is the third album by Quilt; a name implying a meeting place, a crossroads, a coming together. In the space of ten songs, ‘Plaza’ clarifies Quilt’s musical stance of a congregation, mixing folk, pop-psych, and wanderlust into a common ground where each form takes on the characteristics of one another to create something wholly satisfying, styles and sentiments hand in hand, the purest and sharpest distillation of Quilt’s group aesthetic to date.
On ‘Plaza’, Quilt has pivoted their sound on a new foothold. The guitars shimmer, squawk, warble, swell, and tense up. The organs and synths flow in the background as mood-enhancers. The drums dig in a little deeper. We hear flutes and harps, a string quartet, grand pianos and Casios, feedback and distorted violas. Among all these sounds the group’s shared and solo vocals showcase some of the strongest lyrics and hooks the band has made to date. Plaza showcases a tighter, more concise version of Quilt, particularly as the members have learned to encourage each other’s strengths and allow each other to confidently exist as distinct voices cooperating within a very intimate creative space; their songcraft has tightened up, their singing now crystal clear, vis a vis personal experiences of loss, frustration and isolation.
LP – Black Vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve with Download.
LP+ – Limited Clear Vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve with Download.

MOTHERS  –  WHEN YOU WALK A LONG DISTANCE YOU ARE TIRED

Limited Copies come with a Bonus CD ‘Demos and Early Cassette Recordings’ which contains four previously unreleased musings written and recorded solo by lead singer Kristine Leschper before Mothers as a band existed. Beautifully delicate and captivating, it is an intimate record of a songwriter navigating the future foundations of what Mothers were to become. ‘When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired’ is the debut album From Atlanta’s Mothers who were the toast of CMJ 2015. Produced by Drew Vandenberg – who has worked on albums by Of Montreal, Deerhunter and Porcelain Raft – at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia in December 2014, ‘When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired’ features collaborations with Josh McKay of Deerhunter on vibraphone as well as McKendrick Bearden of Grand Vapids, who played bass and provided string arrangements throughout. Comprised of eight songs – the majority of which were written while Leschper was finishing art school in early 2014 – Mothers’ debut LP is an introduction to the foundations of the young band, a snapshot of a particular period of their genesis that maps both where they began and where they are heading.
LP – Limited Green Vinyl With Download plus digital bonus track.
BLOSSOMS –  AT MOST A KISS
2015 proved to be something of a seminal year for Stockport five-piece Blossoms. Hotly tipped for this year, the band have been announced as number four on the BBC Sound of 2016 list as well as being included in MTV Brand New for 2016. Blossoms release their brand new EP ‘At Most A Kiss’. James Skelly and Rich Turvey produced the EP at Parr St. Studios in Liverpool. The emphatic, fast paced title track sees Blossoms channel their unique pop-rock sound with shimmering synths, crashing drums, a catchy bass line and Tom Ogden’s now unmistakable vocals. ‘At Most A Kiss’ is released on 10″ Single. It’ll come on standard vinyl in a striking purple and black sleeve.

PINKSHINYULTRABLAST –  GRANDFEATHERED

Pinkshinyultrablast are a five-piece band from Saint-Petersburg in Russia. They’ve been compared to Lush among others. But this is no mere throwback tribute. Second album ‘Grandfeathered’ is a more experimental listen compared with the debut album ‘Everything Else Matters’, it’s the sound of a band unafraid to try new things and embrace those fine lines between visceral noise and restrained subtlety. The band saying of the new sound. The new album has been recorded and mixed much faster than the previous one. The songs have more density to them and are generally more complex. Recent single ‘Kiddy Pool Dreams’ features on the album. Described as “A flashback to the glory days of ’90s alt-rock, which builds into thundering instrumental interludes. In between are trickling synths and echoing vocals backed by a rhythmic danceable guitar.” If that single offers a glimpse of what to expect from the rest of the record, it’s only the smallest of hints – this is an album that consistently demonstrates diversity and eclectic ambition. Influences on this record certainly suggest a new direction for the band, Lyubov claiming “Hardcore, metal and afrobeat” were all instrumental in its formation.

DMA’S –  HILLS END

Australian Britrock enthusiasts DMA’s release their debut album. Called ‘Hills End’, the band recorded the album in guitarist Johnny Took’s bedroom in Sydney, with noted producer Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Oasis, Madonna) coming on board to mix it. The twelve track album showcases the band’s unique talent in writing both anthemic and heartfelt tunes which manage to sound like immediate classic guitar-pop songs. The album is looking to be one of the most exciting releases of 2016 and can only further the buzz the band have already created. The album includes such exciting hits as ‘Lay Down’ and ‘Too Soon’ sitting next to tender ballads such as the Radio 1 A list ‘Delete’, ‘Step Up The Morphine’ and ‘So We Know’. For fans of Oasis, The La’s and Stone Roses.
LP – Heavyweight vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve and download card.

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES – 19th February 2016

Posted: February 19, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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WILD NOTHING – LIFE OF PAUSE
Wild Nothing, a.k.a Brooklyn-based musician Jake Tatum, released his debut album ‘Gemini’ in 2010 to critical acclaim. Five years on, with an equally impressive sophomore release and a series of EPs under his belt, Tatum is pleased to announce his third-studio album and self-proclaimed most “mature and honest” work to date, ‘Life of Pause’, which is released via Bella Union. ‘Life of Pause‘ is an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran TK, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan’s home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of ‘Reichpop’ to the sugary howl of ‘Japanese Alice’ to the hallucinogenic R&B of ‘A Woman’s Wisdom’, the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment.
​LP – Limited first pressing on Silver Vinyl Housed in Gatefold Sleeve With Download.

BABA NAGA – SOMOS LOBOS / ODMIENCE

Baba Naga release the first in a series of three sonic offerings. Double A side EP Somos Lobos / Odmieńce are songs that take you on a journey and pick up on aspects of where the late sixties left off and straight into the future – a different kind of psychedelic. Produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys/ Drenge/ God Damn) with Artwork by Detroit illustrative artist David Medel.

COVES – PEEL

Coves return with new album ‘Peel’. The band’s second full length, the LP isreleased via the newly re-vamped 1965 Records imprint. Marked by Coves‘ shift from Leamington Spa to London, the record is seemingly “split between fury and misery.” When their touring schedule wound up in March 2015, Beck ran into producer Cam Blackwood (George Ezra, London Grammar). Keen to work with the band, he took the home recordings that Beck and John had made during ‘red wine holidays’ at John’s East London spare room studio to Studio Voltaire in Clapham and honed the pop side until it was as sharp as their psychedelic garage edge. The result was a second album, and cleaner, harder and just as fiery as ever. For fans of The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Raveonettes and Hope Sandoval.

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES 5th February 2016

Posted: February 5, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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DIIV  –  IS THE IS ARE

“There are plenty of bands that have served as their own worst enemies. DIIV had all the makings of a band banging on the door to stardom—hooks for days, a distinctive aesthetic in a crowded field, an edgy frontman who has acquired his own mythos. So the wait between their debut and sophomore efforts was an unwelcome wrinkle. After curating one of the finer entries into the Captured Tracks discography, the Brooklyn genre-melders hit a few snags, most notably Zachary Cole Smith’s arrest in late 2013 and drummer Colby Hewitt’s departure due to drug addiction. It all made a one-and-done affair seem like a real possibility. Is The Is Are’s opening line captures this sentiment perfectly: ‘You’re out of sight/And out of mind.’ DIIV were essentially off the grid for three years, more than enough time to be supplanted by a new rival. But rather than a distraction, the tabloid drama surrounding the band became the fodder for their new album. Is The Is Are takes everything that DIIV did well on Oshin, deepens it, broadens it, fiddles with more permutations, and does it all to excess.

2LP – Rough Trade Exclusive – 500 Copies on White marble Coloured Vinyl. LP One with red swirls and LP two with Pink Swirls. This is a different Colour to the US Version. Plus Two 12’x12″ – 12 page Lyric / Art Books.

ULRIKA SPACEK – THE ALBUM PARANOIA

Ulrika Spacek is a British experimental rock band formed in Berlin by Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams, relocated to Homerton, London. Work on debut album ‘The Album Paranoia’ began in the summer of 2014 in the band’s shared house KEN, and was finished there last month. In conjunction to the making of ‘The Album Paranoia’, the band has curated a number of nights under the name ‘Oysterland’ combining their first live performances with a series of exhibitions. The band’s music has drawn various interpretations, a cross pollination of hypnotic fuzz, Verlain-Malkmus guitar idiosyncrasies and intertwining feelings of both angst and melancholia. For fans of Mercury Rev, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Deerhunter and Atlas Sound.
CD – Digipack.
LP – Limited White Vinyl with Download.

PALEHOUND –  MOLLY

Debut UK release on Heavenly Recordings from Boston’s Palehound – the vehicle for Ellen Kempner who on ‘Molly’ shows her inimitable songwriting skills while playing it a bit fast and loose with hooks. ‘Molly’ features the same kind of seasick, pointed instrumentals of a
 song, and the caustic lyricism to match. Limited 7″ only.

THE PARROTS  –  I DID SOMETHING WRONG

The Parrots are an unstoppable garage-surf party-machine. They have been causing a stir in the scene in recent months with their bewildering shows and their already sold out ‘Weed For The Parrots’ EP (out last June on Luv Luv Luv Records and on Burger Records in the US), and after the sweaty success of their London multi-venue residency at The Shacklewell Arms, The Waiting Room and The Lock Tavern at the start of the summer (all packed in the same week, with a memorable stage invasion at The Shacklewell), The venue issue the Spanish trio on a very limited, exclusive 7″ single that also marks the launch of Shacklewell Records, a newborn imprint linked to the Dalston venue and its pop-up record shop, Black Wax. This 7″ features two early demos that are among the most celebrated tracks in their live shows – ‘I Did Something Wrong’ (with more than 90,000 plays on YouTube yet still unavailable physically) and drunken show-closing chant ‘Somebody To Love’.

Dr. Dog – The Psychedelic Swamp CD/LP+MP3 (ANTI-)
“Philly’s Dr. Dog made their first record, The Psychedelic Swamp, in 2000 but never officially released it. Sure, there’ve been bootlegs, and any long-time Dr. Dog diehard can list the LP’s songs — but the collection never got a chance to really shine. Now 15 years later, the album has gotten a complete makeover. The strange thing is not that the band is returning to the first thing they ever created together, but that returning was their intention all the while. ‘The concept behind it is that we were always going to redo it and make it super-accessible pop, which was built into the concept of The Psychedelic Swamp. Part of the original record that is so unlistenable is that,” he pauses to laugh, ‘it was trapped in a psychedelic swamp.’” – Charleston City Paper

GAME THEORY –  LOLITA NATION

When Game Theory emerged with their fourth full-length release in 1987, there was not only a new line-up of the band, but it took two LPs to capture all of the magic. Once again produced by Mitch Easter (R.E.M., Pavement, Let’s Active), ‘Lolita Nation’ was the culmination of all that had come before, and pushed the boundaries farther than they had ever gone. ‘Lolita Nation’ became their most critically acclaimed work – grabbing a Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) nomination for Outstanding Independent Label Album in 1988. Revered for decades, and – sadly – out of print for many. As Omnivore Recordings continues to reintroduce this seminal band to the masses, ‘Lolita Nation’ now requires a second CD to collect alternate mixes, live recordings, and radio sessions. The original’s 27 tracks are joined by 21 bonus performances! In addition to the highly sought after 8 minute version of ‘Chardonnay’ and alternate mixes of other album tracks, the bonus material features covers of David Bowie, The Modern Lovers, Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, The Smiths, The Stooges, Joy Division, The Hollies, and Public Image Ltd. classics. Truly as eclectic and all-encompassing as ‘Lolita Nation’ itself, and just as revolutionary. All formats feature new liner notes from Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, interviews with the band and original album contributors and previously unseen photos. As the world reawakens to the incredible Game Theory, it is truly a new time and a new day. It’s time to return to ‘Lolita Nation’ – if even for your first visit!
This expanded reissue of Game Theory’s ambitious fourth album adds a disc of alternate mixes, live recordings, and radio sessions – 48 tracks total. “Game Theory leader Scott Miller has never made much of a secret of his fondness for Big Star, but while Real Nighttime favored the sound of #1 Record and The Big Shot Chronicles suggested the harder-edged tone of Radio City, Lolita Nation sounded like Game Theory’s variation on the themes of Big Star’s masterfully damaged swan song, Third/Sister Lovers. Certainly Game Theory’s most ambitious album, Lolita Nation was a two-LP set that combined some of Miller’s most user-friendly power pop with dark, moody ruminations on betrayal, failed love, and mortality, bursts of avant-garde noise, and fragments of unclassifiable studio doodling, all thrown into a sonic Cuisinart through Miller’s aggressive use of aural montage.”
2CD – Double CD Set with 21 bonus tracks.
2LP – Double LP on Green colored vinyl for first press with download card for entire CD program.

G.L.O.S.S.  –  DEMO 2015

Without a doubt, one of the most hyped punk groups of recent years, G.L.O.S.S. are different in that they deserve the column inches 10 times over.
With an acronym translating as Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit, the four piece from Olympia took the punk and hardcore world’s by storm in early 2015 with their demo of blistering, stomping, meaty and breathtaking hardcore. Sounding not unlike Japanese hardcore pioneers Bastard mixed with prime Tragedy and even some wilder Italian influences, G.L.O.S.S. approach the punk status quo from the role of self-declared outsiders. Helmed by the immensely powerful vocals of Sadie Switchblade, the politically and hyper-aware lyrical content of the group set them apart from the staid pre-occupation of a predominantly macho and male hardcore scene. It’s a testament the group’s power and compositional prowess that, on the opening spoken-raged-word intro to their first wax statement, you can’t help feeling enraged, pumped up and ready to destroy two thousand years of patriarchal culture before the first minute is out no matter your angle or political persuasion. We’ve been waiting for this for so long it already feels like the 7″ of the year.

PORCHES  –  POOL

‘Porches’ debut full-length for Domino and a major step forward for frontman Aaron Maine – as an evolving singer / songwriter, and as a nascent producer. Written and recorded almost entirely in the Manhattan apartment he shares with his partner and frequent collaborator, Greta Kline a.k.a Frankie Cosmos, ‘Pool’ is an elegantly drawn set of gorgeous synth-driven pop songs, and an expansive re-articulation of the melancholy we’ve come to expect from him; from the pristine harmonies of ‘Hour’ to the undulating R&B of ‘Underwater’ to the Auto-tuned majesty of the title track. “I feel like I naturally gravitate towards the more melancholic experiences in life,” he says, “but this time around I tried to dissect those moments and somehow extract what was so beautiful about them.” The result – recorded twice, and eventually mixed by Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Tobias Jesso Jr.) in his Los Angeles studio – is a sophisticated and fully immersive listening experience, with Maine’s voice at its center. “I want people to feel dark, beautiful and strong when they hear this new record,” he adds, “I want them to fall in love.”​Pool marks a major step forward for Porches frontman Aaron Maine—as an evolving singer/songwriter, and as a nascent producer
LP – Heavyweight Black vinyl with spot gloss detail on jacket, includes 12″x12″ insert and MP3 download card.
LP+ – Heavyweight Clear vinyl with spot gloss detail on jacket, limited to 750, includes 12″x12″ insert and MP3 download card.

SUNFLOWER BEAN  – HUMAN CEREMONY

As a band, Sunflower Bean have grown exceptionally fast. On the heels of strong live shows around their Brooklyn hometown and festivals like CMJ, the three-piece dropped an EP earlier this year. Since then, they’ve nailed down tours with the likes of Wolf Alice, DIIV, Best Coast, and others, leading to a staggering 100 performances in the span of just one year. That’s a lot for a fresh outfit. Recorded in just seven days, Human Ceremony sees them refining their psych rock ways into something with a bit more of a fuzzy pop edge, with a press release referencing influences like The Cure, The Velvet Underground, and The Feelies.”

Rough Trade exclusive with a Bonus 4 Track CD featuring covers of Neil Young, T-Rex, Jonathan Richman and Spiritualized. New York City’s Sunflower Bean release their full-length debut album, ‘Human Ceremony‘ via Fat Possum Records and it’s a joyous pop nugget from start to finish. The 11 tracks are urgent, flowing and demand repeated listens. It emerges at the intersection of dreamy modern psychedelia and urgent fuzzed-out bliss. On ‘I Was Home’ and ‘Wall Watcher’ the riffs rage, whilst on ‘Creation Myth’ they sound like a sugar sweet 80’s Indie Pop band with delicate female vocals. Seriously, this is everything and more, we could have expected from the debut Sunflower Bean album. For fans of Early 90’s Creation Records, Tame Impala and Veronica Falls.
LP+ – Rough Trade Exclusive. 500 Copies Only on Coke Clear Coloured vinyl with Download.
LP – Indie Shops Red Coloured Vinyl with Download.
LP+MP3 – Black Vinyl with Download.

TELEGRAM  –  OPERATOR

Limited Copies on all formats come with a bonus CD featuring four extra new tracks. London four piece Telegram release their eagerly awaited debut album on Gram Gram. ‘Operator’, Recorded in London with Rory Atwell, features twelve tracks including the forthcoming single ‘Taffy Come Home’, and a new version the band’s long deleted seven-inch debut release ‘Follow’ from October 2013. A stunning set of songs, the album will more than confirm Telegram’s early promise as one of the most exciting bands around right now. Formed just over two years ago, the Telegram line up of Matt Saunders (vocals / guitar), Oli Paget-Moon (bass) and Jordan Cook (drums) have recently recruited new guitarist Pip Stakem to the fold. Effortlessly combining a love of Roxy Music, Syd Barrett, krautrock and late proto-punk to great effect, they’ve built up an ever growing fanbase of critics and public alike with extensive touring and a clutch of fantastic and much sought after seven inch singles, ‘Follow’, Regatta’, ‘Inside Outside; and most recently ‘Aeons’.
CD – Digipack.
LP – Black Vinyl.
LP+ – Limited edition coloured vinyl.

I DON’T CARES (WESTERBERG AND HATFIELD) –  WILD STAB

Paul Westerberg and Juliana Hatfield are the I Don’t Cares and they don’t care.The I Don’t Cares is Westerberg’s first new music since The Replacements disbanded earlier this year – for the second time.Back in a May 2014 feature for Paste magazine, Juliana Hatfield admitted to only ever writing three fan letters to other musicians: One to the band X, one to Elliott Smith, and the first, when she was a teenager, to Paul Westerberg.
Now Hatfield and the Replacements’ singer/guitarist have apparently formed a new group, called the I Don’t Cares, and they released their first song, a jangly guitar-rock nugget called “1 / 2 2 P, at the end of 2015.The song is to be included on the I Don’t Cares’ debut album, titled Wild Stab, out on Dry Wood Music. At the very least, the album is a victory for the lost art of fan-letter writing!

THE PRETTIOTS  – FUN’S COOL

NYC’s The Prettiots (Kay Kasparhauser and Lulu Prat) release their debut album, ‘Fun’s Cool’ via Rough Trade. Packed with catchy melodies, memorable hooks and heart on the sleeve lyrics, ‘Fun’s Cool’ acts as a thoughtful, funny, and catchy-as-hell state of the union address from young women living in a big city and watching life unfurl in fits and starts before them. They’ve got a playful aesthetic and a sweet pop sound, but their observations are scalpel-sharp, and the emotional gut-punch their music packs is real. For Kay (vocals and uke) and Lulu (bass), simple instrumentation and no-frills vocals aren’t useful because they’re easy or cute.

FIELD MUSIC –  COMMONTIME

‘Commontime’ is the first album of new songs from North East siblings Peter and David Brewis since ‘Plumb’ in 2012 and their fifth album ‘proper’ since their debut in 2005. After four years threading a way through one extra-curricular project after another, the space that Field Music vacated still appears to be empty and Field Music-shaped. No one else really does what Field Music do; the interweaving vocals, the rhythmic gear changes, the slightly off-chords, but with the sensibility that keeps them within touching distance of pop music. All this is present again but things are different this time. Where ‘Plumb’ was an album of vignettes and segues, ‘Commontime’ edges towards what people might call “proper songs”. Field Music have never shown off their unashamed love of choruses quite like they do on this record.  Lyrically, Peter and David continue to mine that inexhaustible seam wondering how on earth we ended up here, in this situation, as these people. Over fourteen songs, conversations are replayed and friendships are left to drift. And all the while, that thing you were trying to remember has changed while your head was turned.
2LP – Black Double Vinyl with Download.
LP+ – Neon Orange 180 Gram Double Vinyl with Download.

Love Supreme & <b>Rough</b> <b>Trade</b> - News - Love Supreme - Love Supreme

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES – 15th January 2016

Posted: February 1, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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Image of Daughter - Not To Disappear

Daughter  –   ” If You Leave “

Nearly three years after the release of their debut ‘If You Leave’, Daughter – the London-based trio of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella – will return in 2016 with a new album, entitled ‘Not To Disappear’.

‘Not To Disappear’ is Daughter’s second album and finds the band making confident strides forward both sonically and lyrically. Elena, Igor and Remi spent a summer in New York recording ‘Not To Disappear’ with Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, War On Drugs, Animal Collective) at his Rare Book Room studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Image of Fat White Family - Whitest Boy On The Beach

The Fat White Family  –   “Whitest Boy On The Beach”  

The Fat White Family announce details of ‘Whitest Boy On The Beach’, the first track from their forthcoming second album.

The single is released on the band’s own Without Consent label.

The track is accompanied by a video shot at Beachy Head and directed by the acclaimed artist Tim Noble.

The band release their second album, ‘Songs For Our Mothers’, early 2016. It follows their hugely acclaimed debut album ‘Champagne Holocaust’, released in 2013.

Image of Mystery Jets - Curve Of The Earth

The Mystery Jets  –

Of all the acts that sprang into life in The Libertines’ Fagin-like wake, Mystery Jets were always the hardest to pin down. A Syd Barrett-enthralled troupe fashioning delightfully skewed, potting shed psychedelia out of playful wonky pop and unashamedly proggy flourishes from their Thameside hideout of Eel Pie, the South London island that played midwife to the British R&B boom in the early ’60s.On Curve Of The Earth, Mystery Jets have changed tack again, only this time it’s been to strip back some of their more shapeshifting tendencies and distil the essence of what makes them such a great band. Arguably their strongest, most personal and most coherent set of tracks to date, it highlights what the kids down the front of their shows shouting “Zoo Time!” have known all along, that at their centre Mystery Jets simply write amazing songs.

 

Image of Sauna Youth - The Bridge

Sauna Youth are an evolving band of future humans making truly irregular punk, not quite comparable to anything else. ‘Weird’ is a meaningless platitude, and ‘art punk’ is a classifier that shouldn’t be required. This last year has been an amazing time for the band, seeing them release their widely applauded ‘Distractions’ album, a split record with their sister band Monotony, embarking on several tours, radio sessions and even appearing on Marc Riley’s ‘All Shook Up’ TV show for BBC iPlayer.

To celebrate all of this Sauna Youth have decided 2015 has just enough room left in it for one more 7” and video. ‘The Bridge’ is taken from their album and accompanied with an exclusive brand new song called Blurry Images’ on the flipside.

Beginning and ending in squalling feedback ‘The Bridge’ is the song that rings longest in your head when listening to ‘Distractions’, it’s full of the desire to set yourself apart, to connect and hold fast. “I am the source of the overflow, a torn neck, an effervescent glow, I am the route to the heart of it” sing Ecke and Boon in everyman unison. It’s keen and brisk, tireless and smart as a whip. ‘Blurry Images’ prefers to jog on the spot, its drumbeat and bassline pinned down by throbbing keyboard jabs. “Ancient warning, or invitation, what’s it look like to you?” question the vocals, drawing the song into focus before upping the contrast. It’s a tour de force and a fitting home for one of the most unhinged guitar solos the band have committed to tape so far.

Image of Sheer Mag - I/II CD

Sheer Mag

Limited CD containing Sheer Mag’s first two EPs (originally released on Wilsuns Recording Company in the USA and Static Shock in UK/Europe) to coincide with the bands first European tour. Eight tracks in twenty seven minutes. In 2014, Sheer Mag seemingly came out of nowhere with possibly Static Shock’s favourite release of the year. They are the only band of recent times that manages to sound like a mix of a classic Seventies rock record, power pop and an obscure English DIY 7″ from the late 70’s.

Everything sounds scrappy, fuzzy and scuzzy and it’s all the better for it. The riff packed guitar work and fuzzed female vocals sit perfectly together whilst the crude rhythms just adds bounce and basic beats. Think a mix of the power pop delight of Protex, the lo-fi nature of The Seize, the riffs of Thin Lizzy and the powerful female vocal of Suzi Quatro. The CD comes in a reverse board digipack and with a double sided lyric insert.

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES 29th January 2016

Posted: January 28, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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MONEY –  Suicide Songs

In 2013, Money released their acclaimed debut album ‘The Shadow Of Heaven‘, following only a handful of concerts that felt more like communions in out-of-the-way venues, advertised only by word-of-mouth. The record sounded similarly crafted – all haunted melody and atmosphere, invested with an unusually ambitious and uncompromising lyrical zeal. This was a band that invested as much in what they meant as how they sounded. Two years on, the new Money album, ‘Suicide Songs’, takes you deeper into their sound and vision. It feels more advanced and yet simpler, more perfected and yet more open. It is, by turns, a tender, barren, cavernous, smouldering, despairing and inspirational piece of work. It’s a long day’s journey into night, but it pays huge dividends when you arrive, drawing you in and casting a spell that won’t let go. The album finds the band gelling as never before, framing Jamie’s poetic vision with an intuitive grasp of the album’s dignified and despairing themes. There are strings and brass, gospel-style backing vocals, and the (Indian stringed) dilruba on the opening ‘I Am The Lord’. This collectively adds more divine dimensions to the band’s sound, embellishments that Money didn’t have the confidence to try out on their debut.
LP – With Download.

VARIOUS ARTISTS –  STILL IN A DREAM – A STORY OF SHOEGAZE 1988 – 1995

‘Shoegaze’ was a term invented circa 1990 to describe a new breed on UK Indie guitar bands inspired by the likes of 4AD Records, My Bloody Valentine and US acts like Sonic Youth. Bands like Ride, Moose, Lush, Pale Saints and The Telescopes married dreamy, off-kilter melodies, skewed, heavily effects-laden guitar riffs and psychedelic production values. Although ‘Shoegaze’ was initially a somewhat derogatory term to pigeonhole a clutch of new acts, the term quickly evolved to become an accepted genre of music which has influenced successive generations of bands, especially those outside of the UK. Housed in a lavish ‘book’ set, ‘Still in a Dream’ pays tribute to that seminal period with numerous classics, cult favourites, rarities and tracks new to CD. Across five discs, the evolution of the sound labelled as ‘Shoegaze’ is charted from the bands who inspired it on Disc 1 to many of the US and other non-UK acts on Disc 5. Awash with rare memorabilia, 12,000 words of sleeve-notes from journalist Neil Taylor and band biographies, ‘Still in a Dream’ is the ultimate tribute to what was also called ‘The Scene That Celebrated Itself’! It features 87 cuts from the Pale Saints, Spectrum, AR Kane, Loop, Ride, Lush, Ultra Vivid Scene,Telescopes, Cocteau Twins, Swervedriver, Luna and more.

WET  –  Don’t You

Columbia Records release ‘Don’t You’, the long-anticipated album from the trio of friends known as Wet. An astonishingly lucid and heart-wrenching collection of 11 tracks. Much has been made of the utopian merging of indie and traditional pop worlds in recent years, but ‘Don’t You’ is an album that takes this fusion to an unprecedented place. This is a benchmark record that delicately sews together the clean songwriting of big-pop, the melodic sensuality of R&B, and the faint twang of country with touches of experimental production and precise instrumentation to create a bold and effortless-feeling new space. Wet, comprised of singer-songwriter Kelly Zutrau, and multi-instrumentalists Joe Valle and Marty Sulkow, make songs that resist easy categorization and invite every listener to bask in its intimate glow. But despite their wide-ranging sensibilities, Wet never compromises its core: sturdy pop songwriting and piercing lyrics.
LP – Limited to 500 Copies.

NIGHT BEATS –  Who Sold My Generation

Night Beats third album, and first for Heavenly Records, follows the release of their self-titled debut in 2011 and ‘Sonic Bloom’ in 2013. Recorded on old two-inch tape in Echo Park, Los Angeles at the home of producer Nic Jodoin and featuring co-production and guess bass playing from Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, new album ‘Who Sold My Generation’ goes beyond merely being a retreading of well-worn garage / R&B path. Instead it offers a contemporary take on the psychedelic experience, a heady set of hoodoo voodoo songs. Very much a record in the great Texan musical tradition of acid-drenched outlaw music, ‘Who Sold My Generation’ picks up where the likes of The Elevators, The Red Krayola, pre-ZZ Top band The Moving Sidewalks, The Butthole Surfers and The Black Angels – whose record label Reverb Appreciation Society released the band’s second album – left off.
LP – With Download.

TELEGRAM  –  Taffy Come Home

Limited copies are signed. Recorded in London with Rory Atwell, ‘Taffy Come Home’ is one of their finest moments to date and comes backed with ‘It’s Not Very Easy’ which is only available as a bonus track on special editions of the album. The track utilises everything we love about the band – a rich, pulverising melody that sounds as compressed and tight as prime-time Buzzcocks, and a healthy nod to Roxy Music courtesy of frontman Matt Saunders.

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES 22nd January 2016

Posted: January 23, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC, THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL PURCHASES
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SAVAGES –  Adore Life

It’s about change and the power to change. It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognizing your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliche. It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It’s about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away. It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It’s about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying. But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love. Love is the answer. Savages’ second album ‘Adore Life’ was recorded in RAK Studios, London in April 2015. Johnny Hostile was the producer and Richard Woodcraft the engineer. Anders Trentmoller took care of the mixing in Copenhagen.
LP – Gatefold Sleeve With Download.

 

SUEDE –  Night Thoughts

Brand new studio album ‘Night Thoughts’ from Suede. ‘Night Thoughts’, which features a full string section, was produced by long-time Suede collaborator Ed Buller. It was recorded at SARM studios in London and ICP in Brussels. This is Suede at their best, grand, theatrical, unfraid of an overblown lyric or a hook (the jubiliant, ‘Coming Up’-esque ‘Like Kids’ even has a “na na na”), but it’s been filtered through the wisdom of age. There’s less of the superficial swagger, more mature contemplation and reflection.
CD –  12 Tracks.
CD/ DVD – 12 Track CD accompanied by a feature film directed by acclaimed photographer Roger Sargent on DVD
CD+ – 12 Track CD accompanied by a feature film directed by acclaimed photographer Roger Sargent on DVD and housed in a hardback bookset.
2LP – Double 180 Gram Gatefold LP with Download.

 

FAT WHITE FAMILY  –  Songs For Our Mothers

Fat White Family release their second album, titled ‘Songs For Our Mothers’. Say the band: “While our first LP might be considered an assault, a spasmodic outpouring of disdain generated by the utter tedium of life when it is found unlivable, ‘Songs For Our Mothers’ is an invitation. It is an invitation, sent by misery, to dance to the beat of human hatred. In it we ask that you take us gently by the hand as we lead you on a journey, a journey that leads us from the blinding white heat of a midday Mediterranean shore, to the embattled boudoir of Ike and Tina Turner, from the clotted grey droll of Dr Harold Shipmans waiting room, to the final hours of the Third Reich in the Berlin bunker”. So that’s nice. They continue: “It is as much a catalogue of our obsessions as it is a sensual odyssey; sex, drugs, politics, death, the Northern Irish A-lister Sam Neil, it’s all here, all that’s left to do now is breathe it in”.
LP – With Limited Poster and Download.

TY SEGALL  –  Emotional Mothers

As usual, Ty Segall has been keeping himself busy. In the past four months alone, the California garage-rock king has formed two new bands and released a ripping new album with his band Fuzz. But it’s been over a year since his last solo LP, the glam-rock opus ‘Manipulator’, which means it’s about time for a new one. ‘Emotional Mugger’ proves that Ty Segall can do no wrong. This is electric blues that has been put through an experimental post-punk blender, laced with heavy doses of prog, punk, glam, psych, rock and metal. ‘Emotional Mugger’ is a funky as it is it is twisted – a heavy record that truly grooves.

ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER –  New Line

‘New View’, the third solo album by Eleanor Friedberger, was rehearsed in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Echo Park and recorded in upstate New York. In the past, she was a member of the much loved Brooklyn two-piece, The Fiery Furnaces. The songs were recorded live to tape with simple instrumentation: drums, bass, Wurlitzer and 12-string acoustic guitar on almost every track. These come courtesy of the band Icewater (Malcolm Perkins, Jonathan Rosen, Michael Rosen, Noah Hecht), with Dorian DeAngelo contributing a handful of well-placed guitar solos. Producer Knieper (son of Jurgen Knieper, the German composer whose credits include the score to Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire) gives the album a classic sound, like something that’s existed forever on a record collector’s shelf, wedged in with Dylan’s New Morning and John Cale’s Vintage Violence. For everything new about ‘New View’, it still fits comfortably in the continuity of Friedberger’s work. Songs like ‘Open Season’ recall the Furnaces at their most magisterial. The wry, plainspoken ‘Because I Asked You’ builds on the style Friedberger first polished on her solo debut ‘Last Summer’. And then there’s ‘A Long Walk,’ the sun-striped finale that lends a memorable afterglow to ‘New View’. She’s never lacked confidence – this is someone who once took a fractured nine-minute ballad about the international blueberry trade and put it across like it was ‘Thunder Road’ – but there’s a new kind of confidence on this record. It’s a sweet, aching goodbye from an album that seems full of them.
LP – With Download.

KIRAN LEONARD  –  Pink Fruit

Kiran Leonard has signed to Moshi Moshi, and shortly will release his new album ‘Grapefruit’. Lead single ‘Pink Fruit’ – the album’s 16 minute long centerpiece is released as a strictly-limited one-sided etched 12″ vinyl single. ‘Pink Fruit’ is a knotty, complicated and meandering piece of work that twists and turns and sits somewhere between the Dirty Projectors and Broken Social Scene.

BONNIE PRINCE BILLY  –  Pond Scum

There are no Peel sessions anymore – that tradition was buried in the pyramids with John Peel himself upon the great man’s passing. Of the thousands left in the wake, six are ascribed to Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – and of those six, three have been combined to form the deeply congruous experience of Pond Scum. A span of eight years is covered, in reverse, and many chestnuts are rolled out, freed of former contexts with sparse arrangements. ‘(I Was Drunk at the) Pulpit’ feels, ten years from inception, more vividly worn; ‘Death to Everyone’ is loosed from its frame, the bones decoupled and spread out, giving the song a reflective air (as opposed the biting declamation of the original); ‘Arise, Therefore’ adapts its metronomic base, the evangelic twist of its roots made palpable. With the centre of the performance in stark relief, the gnomic qualities of two ‘Get On Jolly’ pieces are intensified. Further accenting the devoted spirit of this collection is the inclusion of Bonnie’s take on Prince’s ‘The Cross’, as well as the previously-unreleased original ‘Beezle.’ Bonnie’s lone shadow casts over this lot, accompanied on the first four tracks by David Heumann, but otherwise playing solo through a set of original songs (and two covers) representing a decade of progress in the almost unbearably intimate-yet-unknowable manner that was so often the vibe of those strange and wondrous days. Layers peel to reveal the subtle artistry and refinement contained within these sessions.

SHEARWATER  –  Jetplane and Oxbow

This is definitely Shearwater’s biggest and loudest record – it’s easy to imagine these songs roaring from the stage – but it’s also their most detailed and intricate one. Frontman Jonathan Meiburg and producer / engineer Reisch (who also recorded 2012’s ‘Animal Joy’ and the off-the-cuff collaborations of 2014’s ‘Fellow Travelers’) spent two years crafting ‘Jet Plane and Oxbow’ with help from drummer Cully Symington, longtime Shearwater associates Howard Draper and Lucas Oswald, and tour mates Jesca Hoop, Abram Shook, and Jenn Wasner. But their secret weapon this time is film composer and percussionist Brian Reitzell, whose soundtracks include The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, The Bling Ring, and 30 Days of Night. Reitzell’s arsenal of strange instruments emphasizes ‘Jet Plane and Oxbow’s cinematic depth and scope, and reflects the band’s choice to anchor the record in the era when digital technology was just beginning to transform the world of recorded music. In Shearwater’s hands this doesn’t feel like nostalgia; the racing synths and hammered dulcimers of heart-pounding opener ‘Prime’ or the addled motorik of ‘Radio Silence’ sound more like a metaphor for our own bewildering moment.
2LP – Black Vinyl with Download.
LP+ – Loser Edition Blue Coloured Vinyl with Download.

TINDERSTICKS  – The Waiting Room

Tindersticks release their new album ‘The Waiting Room,’ a milestone not just numerically, but musically and creatively. Their first studio album since 2012’s critically acclaimed ‘The Something Rain’ is the most ambitious, diverse and elaborate album you’ll have heard from Tindersticks in recent years. 2 decades into their musical voyage Tindersticks, established masters of restraint and poetic human emotion, are a band now confidently making the best songs of their career. ‘The Waiting Room’ breathes gravity and features guest appearances by Jehnny Beth of Savages and a particularly poignant duet with long time friend of Stuart Staples, Lhasa De Sela. Not just an album but also an elaborate collaborative artistic project, each track is accompanied by a short film, each one a visual interpretation by it’s own director. Christoph Girardet, Pierre Vinour, Claire Denis, Rosie Pedlow and Joe King, Gregorio Graziosi, Richard Dumas and Gabriel Sanna.
CD –  Standard 11 Track CD.
CD / DVD – With DVD Version
LP – Black Vinyl with DVD Version.
LP+ – Limited Coloured Vinyl with DVD Version.

PROMISE AND THE MONSTER  –  Feed The Fire

Billie Lindahl, the woman behind the name Promise and The Monster, brings a vivid landscape to life on ‘Feed The Fire’, her first album for Bella Union. ‘Feed The Fire’ was recorded in Stockholm, where Lindahl lives, at Labyrint, a small basement studio run by her friend Love Martinsen who produced the ‘Feed The Fire’ album and shares most of the instrumentation with Lindahl. “We aimed at combining the elegance of old Sixties recordings with something darker and more mechanical,” she recalls. “Like you would play a Lee Hazlewood song on top of Nico’s late Eighties records.” Duality sits at the core of ‘Feed The Fire’, likewise the name Promise and The Monster. “To feed the fire can be seen as both constructive and destructive,” Lindahl concludes. “You keep the fire burning, the spark alive. But fire can kill you. To see, listen and feel is quite a violent and confusing experience, and I think my lyrics often evolve around that, blurring boundaries between dream and reality, and between sanity and insanity.”
LP – With Download.
CD – Digipack.

 

HIGH LLAMAS  –  Here Come The Rattling Trees

Melodiously receptive ears rejoice! The High Llamas, the best in the game at warmly wonderous pop song, arrangement and harmony, return with a new album! With witty, artful musical strokes, Sean and the High Llamas have crafted deft musical sketches with the signature ‘Llamas’ sound that has evolved over ten album releases since 1992. A colourful array of electric, acoustic, and synthetic instruments, alongside Sean O’Hagan’s gentled vocals, are deployed to transport the listener to the low-key highs and lows of the British working week – an incisive, sympathetic view to the wonders slipped in between the pages and too often passed over in everyday life.

THE VRYLL SOCIETY  –  Pangea EP

The Liverpool band’s debut EP Pangea (derived from ancient Greek for whole of the earth) showcases Mike Ellis’ ethereal vocals and occupying territory from Neu and Air to early Verve and Stone Roses. They undoubtedly deliver a unique blend of styles which they are making their own. The EP starts with Coshh’ – a melodic Kraut-rock juggernaut, lodged in lyrical realism and a howling lead line that stretches the senses. Followed by next track ‘Air’- think funk meets electronica, in this tribal beat driven collage of sound. Next up is ‘Metropolis’ – inspired by the 1920’s silent classic ‘Metropolis’ using hip hop drums, gypsy guitar lines, medievall Gregorian vocals and bombastic solos to create something truly unique. Finally ‘The Egg’- creates a feeling of isolation, using World War 2 style SOS sounds under a richly satisfying chord progression, leading into a jam that continues to rise and rise

THE BESNARD LAKES  –  A Coliseum Complex Musuem

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. (Echoing prime FM they actually now have two girl/boy couplings in the line-up, keyboard player Sheenah Ko and guitarist Robbie MacArthur joining powerhouse drummer Kevin Laing and non-touring studio axe hero Richard White.) Imagine dreamy Beach House riding Led Zeppelin dynamics, with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies. This melodic yet mountainous soundworld was sculpted at Breakglass, their own modest Paisley Park. As the longterm sporter of a Love Symbol tattoo, Prince’s pop alchemy is especially potent for Jace. Channelling their obsessions with the paranormal – Jace was a teenage ghost hunter – as well as the dark arts, ‘A Coliseum Complex Museum’ is populated by cryptozoological creatures (The Bray Road Beast, Golden Lion) while also luxuriating in natural phenomena and beauty (The Plain Moon, Nightingale). These themes are sincere yet good-humoured. The LP’s title jokily refers to a landmark-heavy road sign spotted on tour in Texas, the varied emotional impulses within reflected by its environmentally warped artwork.
LP – Black Vinyl with Download.
LP+ – Limited Coloured LP with Download.
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