The Fat Angel Sings

Off the back of his collaboration with Morrissey on the latter’s first post-Smiths album “Viva Hate“, the Mancunian guitar wizard Vini Reilly crafted what many fans hail as his definitive solo album as The Durutti Column in 1989. “Vini Reilly” includes some of his best-loved tracks like ‘People’s Pleasure Park’, ‘Otis’ and ‘Requiem Again’.

This thirty-fifth anniversary edition comes with a welter of bonus tracks, including the “Womad Live” EP from the same year, plus a DVD of a live show in Porto in 1988, and is presented in the famous ‘rejected sleeve’ from the then-influential London design company 8vo.

35th Anniversary edition of the seminal 1989 album ‘Vini Reilly’, Produced by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur, The Cranberries, New Order).
Remastered and heavily expanded 5 disc version, featuring over 75 tracks:  Expansive booklet includes new essay by Durutti Column / Factory Records expert James Nice, liner notes by band member Bruce Mitchell, liner notes from Anthony Wilson, interview extracts with Vini Reilly and restored images and outtake images.

“The Moon and the Melodies” is a singular record within the Cocteau Twins’ catalogue—unusually ethereal, even by their standards, and largely instrumental, guided by the free-form improvisations of Harold Budd, an ambient pioneer who had drifted into their orbit as if by divine intervention. Building on the atmospheric bliss of “Victorialand”, released earlier the same year, it signaled a possible future for the trio, yet it was a path the Cocteau Twins would never take again. Now, 38 years after it was first released, it has been reissued for the first time—remastered, from the original tapes, by Robin Guthrie himself.

The album was never actually meant to happen; no one can even recall exactly how it came about in the first place. As both Guthrie and Simon Raymonde remember it, the independent television station Channel 4 approached 4AD about a film project pairing musicians from different genres. In interviews in the 1980s, however, Budd, who passed away in 2020, believed that his music publisher had linked him with the Cocteaus after the group had expressed interest in covering one of his songs. In any case, the film never happened. “But we’d spoken to Harold, and we were all quite excited about it—in a very sort of downbeat Cocteau Twins way, where we were rarely excited about anything,” Raymonde recalls. “We’re like, well, let’s carry on and do it anyway—you’ve already booked your flight, let’s just hang out in the studio and see what happens.”

“There was a lot of hilarity,” Guthrie says. “It was strange to have an older man in our life, because Liz and I saw everybody around us—the contemporary bands, the people running record labels, the journalists—as grownups. We were literally kids. I thought, ‘Oh Christ, he’s going to be some pompous, you know, into his classical music,’ and he wasn’t. He was just a big man-child. We clicked in that respect.” 

The Cocteau Twins had recently built their own recording studio in North Acton, in West London. It was the first time they’d had their own space, and they relished their newfound freedom. “We were in this lovely little bubble of making our own music,” Raymonde says. Budd fit right into their bubble world; all four musicians got on immediately. Over pints at the pub, they talked about everything but music, and in the studio, Raymonde and Budd both say that very little, if anything, was discussed, save perhaps for questions of tempo or key.

“Harold would sit down at the piano and start playing something, and then maybe I’d pick up a bass and start playing along with him,” Raymonde says. “They were very much noodles rather than songs. That was the way we tended to work anyway. Work out what kind of mood are we feeling, get a drum beat going, just a two-bar pattern; Guthrie would plug his guitar in, I would plug my bass in, and then we’d just jam for a few minutes and go, ‘Yeah, that was cool, let’s carry on doing that thing or that thing,’ really casually, and then all of a sudden we’d have a song. I know that sounds ludicrous, but that is how we did it, and with Harold it was exactly the same.”

Budd played a Yamaha CP-70 electric grand, and the group came armed with a growing arsenal of gear, like the Yamaha Rev7 multi-effects processor and Lexicon PCM60, perhaps an Ensoniq Mirage. Guthrie used an EBow on his guitars, along with a Gizmo, an electromechanical device invented by Godley and Creme. Guthrie remembers endless experiments in search of new sounds: “Lots of messing around, tuning the guitar strings all the same, getting droney sorts of things—really big, loud, sort of Metallica-like feedback sounds, but then put in the mix so quietly you can hardly hear them the first time you listen. All these psychoacoustic sort of tricks that I liked. It’s all in there, you know. Just being fearless—if it didn’t work out, it was never going to be a record anyway.”

The musicians’ contrasting approaches ended up shaping the album’s somewhat curious format—four instrumentals in Budd’s meandering style, more tone poems than actual songs, and four more structured pieces with verses, choruses, drum machine, and, of course, Elizabeth Fraser’s inimitable singing, as bold and inspired as anywhere in the band’s catalogue. There was no conscious decision to have Fraser only sing on four songs. “That’s just what came out of the sessions,” Guthrie says. “It was a lightweight atmosphere making it, because we didn’t actually feel that we were making a record at the time. We were trying out some stuff in the studio, and it just evolved into what it did. Which is, essentially, a recorded version of some people trying out some stuff in the studio.”

The sessions were over in two weeks, maybe three. “And that was already getting a bit long,” Guthrie says, “because some of our earlier records had taken just a couple of days.” They fleshed out the material, he adds, with one more song that the trio wrote in Budd’s absence, after they realized they didn’t have quite enough material for a full album. (“Was I that drunk?” Budd asked, upon hearing the final version of the album, which included a song he had no recollection of making.) As much as it may pain fans to hear it, there is no more extant material from the sessions—no outtakes, no rough drafts, no alternate versions. “For the 13 years I was in the band, we have no spare tracks at all,” Raymonde says. “If after an hour or two a track wasn’t coming together, we’d just get rid of it. If it wasn’t good now, our attitude was, it’ll never be any good. So we’d think, tomorrow’s another day—let’s go to the cinema and come back tomorrow, and see how it goes. Let’s go bowling.”

The other curious thing about the album—the fact that it was credited to all four players under their individual names—followed the same intuitive logic as everything else that went into the record. “It’s because it wasn’t a Cocteau Twins album,” Guthrie says. Raymonde concurs: “It was simple. All four of us have gone into the studio and done something, but it isn’t a Cocteau Twins album.” But perhaps the passage of time has changed matters. These days, on streaming services, you’ll find the album filed chronologically alongside the rest of the band’s work. “What’s interesting,” Guthrie adds, “is that I got the tape boxes from the studio, and guess what it says on it? ‘Cocteau Twins plus Harold Budd.’” Perhaps, he seems to suggest, the group got hung up on a detail that never really mattered. In any case, Raymonde says, “The more credit that Harold gets for the work he did, the more people that find his music because it’s in the Cocteau environment, the better.”

Despite all its quirks, The Moon and the Melodies has attracted a passionate fan base over the years. Its most atmospheric tracks routinely turn up in ambient DJ sets. “Sea, Swallow Me” is one of the Cocteau Twins’ most streamed songs on Spotify, second only to “Heaven or Las Vegas’ “Cherry-coloured Funk”; it has also found new life on TikTok, where it serves as the soundtrack to innumerable expressions of hard-to-express melancholy. For such a low-key affair, the album casts a long shadow—but Raymonde believes the record’s uniqueness stems directly from its humble, unpremeditated origins. “It’s always about making something that’s pleasurable,” he says, “capturing a moment in time between friends that are enjoying making music together. Really, that’s the essence of it—the music was just a reflection of how nice a time we were having in the studio.”

U2 – “ZOO TV: Live In Dublin 1993” [12″ EP] Limited Edition / Available on vinyl for the first time, this limited edition 12″ EP is pressed on neon yellow vinyl and features five tracks from one of U2’s two legendary open-air performances at the RDS Arena, Dublin in August 1993 – the hometown stop on their worldwide industry-defining ZOO TV Tour.

While much sought-after bootlegged copies of the RDS show audio have been in circulation for years, this marks the first official release, making it a highly covetable collectible for fans and collectors alike.

Mostly, the tracks were taken from 1991 album “Achtung Baby“, produced by Brian Eno.

Kim Deal of The Breeders and Pixies has announced that she will be releasing her first solo album. It is called “Nobody Loves You More” and will be out on November 22nd via 4AD Records. She has also released a video for her new song “Crystal Breath” which was directed by Alex Da Corte.

“Nobody Loves You More” is Kim Deal’s debut solo album, although it’s technically not her first release under her own name – she self-released a 5-part, 10-song 7” vinyl series in 2013, and beyond that, she’s earned her stripes as early as the late 80s with bands Pixies and The Breeders. The long-awaited record’s creation began with its oldest songs, “Are You Mine?” and “Wish I Was,” which were written and originally recorded in 2011 and included in said vinyl series, shortly after Deal concluded Pixies’ ‘Lost Cities Tour’ and relocated to L.A.

In the years since, the record took shape in pieces, coming to light with a variety of collaborators, including Breeders past and present (Mando Lopez, Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson, and Britt Walford), as well as new friends like Jack Lawrence (The Greenhorns) and Savages’ Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan.

Tracked over the last several years, the record’s last recording was helmed by iconic engineer and Deal’s close friend Steve Albini, tracking “A Good Time Pushed” with Jim and Kelley in November 2022.

Sonically versatile and propulsively infectious, the resulting record is a celebration of Deal’s unmatched artistry, nodding not only to her career highlights with celebrated bands across the alternative landscape, but also to her immovable cultural weight.

releases November 22nd, 2024

The Last Dinner Party have today announced a new album of covers and acoustic versions. The collection, which includes a soaring rendition of Sparks‘ “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us” will arrive on October 11th.

The band’s cover of Sparks’ 1974 single arrives alongside a tour montage video that’s been put together with footage shot over the band’s recent trips to Japan, The US & their recent performance at Reading Festival.

The band have been performing the covers during their recent festival appearances & tour dates…

Bruce Springsteen’s cover of Jesse Malin’s “She Don’t Love Me Now” taken from the upcoming multi-artist benefit album “Silver Patron Saints: The Songs of Jesse Malin” has been released as a single, Springsteen recorded the song with Malin’s band, plus Jake Clemons on saxophone. Other contributors to the album, which will be released on September 20th, include Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Tom Morello, Willie Nile, Ian Hunter, Susanna Hoffs, Low Cut Connie, Graham Parker and Gogol Bordello.

Proceeds will go to Malin’s Sweet Relief fund, supporting him as he continues to recover from the spinal stroke he suffered last year.

Malin originally released “She Don’t Love Me Now” on his 2015 album, “New York Before the War”. In a press release, he said that “Bruce gave it that Stax-soul-thing that we were dreaming of when we recorded the original. It’s so surreal to me.”

He also said, “Bruce’s generosity, honesty and support are equally as powerful as his song writing and performing” and that “Bruce is one of the guys. He walks it like he talks it. You spend some time with him, and it feels like you’ve known him for years. He’s like my friends in Queens, sitting around talking about Sinatra, the Clash, and the Pogues. He has that passion and excitement for life.”

Malin said that hearing the songs from “Silver Patron Saints“, and “especially” this one, “took me out of a dark time. I felt excited about life again, in a way that only music can do.”

Malin also said, on a taped message that was played on WFUV before the station premiered the song, last night, that Springsteen’s contribution to the album “blows my mind. It’s so flattering. He did such a soulful take. And, being one of my favorite singers and writers, and a hero, just to hear him do my song is just unreal. It’s a real huge emotional boost.”

Two benefit concerts for Malin will take place at The Beacon Theatre in New York, December 1st-2nd, with Lucinda Williams, Jakob Dylan, The Hold Steady, Rickie Lee Jones, Adam Duritz, Willie Nile, Adam Weiner and others. Malin and his band will also play a full set.

This past Saturday, Jeff Lynne’s ELO kicked off “The Over and Out Tour” with a sold-out performance at Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms, CA. The 31-date trek, produced by Live Nation and set to travel to major cities across North America through the end of October,

Jeff Lynne began his “Over and Out” tour on Saturday (August 24, 2024), his first concert since last November. Jeff Lynne’s ELO, in what is billed as his final tour. The maestro behind the Electric Light Orchestra sat out not only the pandemic but also the years that followed. It’s thus his first tour in five years.

Lynne made his first stage performance in four years when he played a 10-song set at Joe Walsh’s VetsAid benefit concert on November 12th, 2023.

On this evening, Lynne and company performed a 21-song set with some fairly significant additions. While the ELO hits were there “Evil Woman,” “Livin’ Thing,” and “Turn to Stone” among them, the group also played such favourites as “Calling America,” (from 1982’s Balance of Power) “Strange Magic” and “Twilight.” .Lynne traditionally performs while wearing his trademark sunglasses and rarely speaks to the audience during his concerts. He now leaves the high notes to other members of his band. (He turned 76 last December.)

This performance was the first time Lynne had performed “Strange Magic” since 2016. The brief “Fire on High,” (from 1975’s Face the Music). which led into “Livin’ Thing,” was a good opportunity for the 12-piece band to step out a bit.

The original Electric Light Orchestra, acclaimed for its fusions of prog-rock, pop, and classical music, disbanded in 1986. From there, Lynne went on to become one of the most sought-after producers in rock music. The singer/guitarist/producer is the only remaining original member of Electric Light Orchestra in the line up and has led the band through two albums of new material—2015’s “Alone in the Universe” and 2019’s “From Out of Nowhere“

Orlando Weeks’ new album “Loja” (Portuguese for ‘store’) was written in both London and Lisbon. Recording began in earnest in January 2023 at the beautiful Chale Abbey Studios with long time live collaborator Sergio Maschetzko as producer, supported by co-producer and engineer David Granshaw. In its latter stages, Nathan Jerkins (Bullion) contributed additional production and mixing.

Lead single “Dig”, featuring Rhian Teasdale (Wet Leg), is 3 minutes of half argument, long worn-out promises being remade and road weary offences being retaken. The record features a number of other key collaborators including Katy J Pearson, Tony Njoku, Oliver Hamilton (Caroline) and Alejandro Aranda (Scary Pool Party). The core musical contributions come from long standing live collaborators Sami El-Enany, Luca Caruso, William Doyle and Alexander Painter.

A love letter to his new home, lyrically “Loja” toys with both the fantastical and stark realism. There are sleeping giants in “Best Night” and the final song on the album, “Beautiful Place”, tells the story of a beach death. The novelty of a new city afforded Weeks the opportunity to romanticise his present and re-evaluate his past.

the new album, ‘Loja’: Out 6th June on all digital platforms.