“Deep Is the Way” is the sophomore album from Australian singer-songwriter and horticulturalist Gena Rose Bruce. The album finds her working with long time collaborators and forging a new wildcard relationship. Through lockdown Bruce corresponded with the iconic songwriter Bill Callahan, their connection resulting in them writing two songs together: “Foolishly In Love” and the title track to the album, “Deep Is The Way” (which also features the two of them duetting). “Working with Bill was very poetic and brought a feeling of nostalgia.
We have only ever had written correspondence, sending lyrics back and forth to each other, with sometimes weeks in between responses, just analysing lyrics, there was no small talk, just keeping it about what’s important – the music.”
Bruce’s 2018 debut album was much praised and resulted in her being invited to play SXSW and a UK tour was planned. Then there was COVID. In the absence of touring, she has relished nature’s therapeutic qualities, through her newfound love of gardening, which she’s now studying.
The follow up to recent single, “Nothing Left To Lose”, which won over a million streamed on Spotify, and NME called it ‘a massive dance single’ after it secured A-list rotation at BBC Radio 6 Music.
“Lyrically, “Caution To The Wind” is a simple song about arrival and seizing the moment, so with the music we tried to capture the feeling of a perpetual point in time,” says vocalist Tracey Thorn.
The new album was written and produced by Ben Watt and Thorn over the spring-summer of 2021, which they say is a modern take on the lustrous electronic soul the duo first pioneered in the mid-90s. Thorn’s affecting and richly-textured voice is once again up front in Watt’s landscape of sub-bass, sharp beats, half-lit synths and empty space.
“I let the words quickly collapse and loop inside the production,” notes Ben Watt. “The drums emerge and repeat, and everything then starts to unfold in cycles of anticipation and release. I guess it’s just classic nightclub tension and euphoria.”
The pair recorded in secret at home and in a small riverside studio outside Bath with friend and engineer Bruno Ellingham.
Everything But The Girl broke through on the UK indie scene in 1982 with jazz-folk cover of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” then going onto release a string of UK gold albums throughout the 80s as they experimented with jazz, guitar pop, orchestral wall-of-sound and drum-machine soul. A
After Watt’s near-death experience from a rare auto-immune condition in 1992, the pair returned unbowed with the million-selling ardent folktronica of “Amplified Heart”. That record included “Missing”, which New York DJ-producer Todd Terry’s remixed unexpectedly as it made the leap from heavy club play to global radio success reaching Number 2 in US Hot 100, and Number 3 on UK Top 40.
“Caution To The Wind” is the second single released from Everything But The Girl’s comeback album “Fuse” out on 21st April.
The National released a new song called “New Order T-Shirt” and an actual New Order t-shirt along with it.
In April, the National will release their ninth album, called “First Two Pages Of Frankenstein”, and it features guest appearances from Taylor Swift, Sufjan Stevens, and Phoebe Bridgers. Upon announcing the new-album news, the National shared a lead single, “Tropic Morning News.” Today, the band is following up with another track from the album: “New Order T-Shirt.”
“To me, the line ‘I keep what I can of you’ means something about everyone I’ve ever known or loved,” Aaron Dessner says in a statement. “There’s a simplicity to ‘New Order T-Shirt’ that reminds me of our earlier records, but with the full maturity and experience we have now. It feels like a really important song for the future of our band.”
What’s especially cool, too, is that the National have teamed up with the New Order on a limited-edition New Order T-shirt. Proceeds from the sale will benefit a charity of New Order’s choice.
‘New Order T-Shirt’ is taken from forthcoming album ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’, out April 28th via 4AD Records.
To many, Blur are the definitive BritPop band. Certainly, the London-born quartet were responsible for many of the movement’s most memorable and iconic moments and songs; they were the first band from that scene to truly crash the mainstream, and one of the first to eschew the early ’90’s obsession with grunge and American-isms, and instead embrace England’s musical past, drawing inspiration from jaunty ’60’s pop and quirky, quintessentially British ‘characters’.
When they adopted this approach, anyone saying that they knew this was a style that would become a massive cultural obsession is a liar, but Blur paved the way for that scene’s dominance. When the movement ran out of ideas and was clearly dying, Blur refused to die with it, instead embracing art-rock, awkward mathy punk and African rhythms to create one of indie rock’s most diverse and eclectic back catalogues.
Blur at their most experimental, and their their punkiest, Blur at their boldest and simultaneously broadest, Blur at the peak of their creative powers: that’s “13”and it’s why it tops our list as the best Blur album.
Having skilfully avoided the BritPop trapdoor two years prior, Blur doubled down and went even further into art rock territory; moving to Reykjavik for a spell, bringing in dance producer William Orbit to work with them for the first time, and quite pointedly and deliberately indulging in the members even widening musical palettes.
During this period Damon Albarn’s much-publicised relationship with Elastica’s Justine Frischmann had ended, inspiring much of the mood of “13”and giving his lyrics a downbeat and sombre quality that is the emotional core of the record. That’s not to say that thisis a dour or depressing album.
Opening track “Tender”is a classic, full of real heart, depth, and when the choir come in to back Albarn on the chorus it is still a spine-tingling moment. “Bugman” has Coxon’s fingerprints all over it, like a more assured “Song 2”, and the cowboy slide guitar of “Swamp Song”is a delightful, curled lip garage rock banger.
It’s clear though, that the band really excel when the pace does drop; the nearly 8-minute trip-hop of “Battle”is exceptional, the slight yet mechanical Sigur Ros meets Kraftwerk of “Caramel” utterly at odds with anything Blur had ever produced before and Coxon’s fabulously resigned, sighing vocal performance on the otherwise upbeat “Coffee & TV”is filled with ennui.
But the finest moment is the chilling “No Distance Left to Run”, which is unquestionably one of the finest break-up songs ever recorded: over a single chiming guitar Albarn’s voice and lyrics paint a picture of a man heartbroken, beaten and tired. It’s poignant, moving, effortlessly gorgeous and the highlight of the most complete album in the career of one of British music’s most endlessly fascinating bands.
The sole Blur album that doesn’t feature Graham Coxon, “Think Tank” finds the band pretty much unrecognisable from the chirpy Brit-poppers of the early ’90s. It’s a politically minded, experimental, often angry, often sombre record, influenced by Afrobeat and Albarn’s time in Morocco, and featuring production credits from electronic artists such as William Orbit and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim).
As such, it often gets overlooked somewhat when the Blur discography is being discussed, and while it is far from their strongest effort, there is much to admire about the album. First single “Out of Time” is wonderfully minimalist psychedelic dream and Blur can dart between “Sweet Song’s” hypnotic and delicate melody, the one-minute punk blast of “We’ve Got a File on You”and the country dub of “Brothers and Sisters”without losing your attention. A bit of a lost gem, truth be told.
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of their debut release, Blur’s last (to date) album “Think Tank” has now been expanded across two discs, cut on heavyweight 180 gram, audiophile vinyl and housed in a replica of the original sleeve artwork.
we recently dropped a new single entitled “Starlight”. You can listen to it on all streaming platforms. The whole album drops on February 24th! We also have a few tour dates coming up this spring. Tickets go on sale this Friday, Feb 3rd, at 10am. We hope you are doing will. Take care – Hodera
Hodera is a four piece from Butler, New Jersey. The band has been around for nearly a decade, debuting with the 2014 EP, “Reset to Default”.“Dear Friend” is the first LP the group has released in nearly six years,
New Jersey’s Hodera our latest album “Dear friend”, with our new song “Trying” the third single from their upcoming album, “Dear Friend”. The band’s sound is somewhere at the intersection of The Gaslight Anthem and American Football, blending the folksy twang of Americana with the heartfelt confessions of emo.
Their latest track is a plea to reconsider suicidal thoughts and find reasons to keep pressing on. “If suicide is how I’m supposed to die, well, then I better get to living faster,” singer Matt Smith laments. “But I’m hoping I’ll get better.“
“This song is my truth about having a mental illness and planning for the future,” Smith says of the song. “Sometimes I have my mental illness under control. Other times I am close to suicide. Regardless of the current state of my mental health, there is always that looming thought that one day it might get so bad that I’ll end up taking my own life. It’s not a pretty thought, but it is something that I think needs to be talked about more.”
“Dear Friend” is ultimately an exploration of mental illness, addiction, and grief. And while songs like “Trying” are tackling upsetting thoughts and harsh realities, there’s also a lot of hope contained within the unrelenting honesty. Hodera not only walks the line between Americana and emo,
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Doug Gallo Music and lyrics by Matthew Smith Guitar by Paul Singh Bass by Wyatt Rydlewski Drums and Backup Vocals by Andrew Moore Drums on “Closer” by Scott Tilley
I hope you like it! The band and I are very excited to release the full album.
What you are doing is working. Every night, people queue up to show you that it’s working. But you decide to change it anyway. You stare down your trusted processes and instead follow instincts that are new and raw. You know you could be passing over great ideas because they appear too familiar, but you have to keep moving. You are the Murder Capital making “Gigi’s Recovery”.
Only a short while on from the release of their debut “When I Have Fear’s”, the Dublin post-punk band junked the approach that had sustained them since the start, pushing away from grinding intensity and towards colour and melody. While assembling their second album, they dug their heels in when they needed to, testing the tensile strength of creative relationships just a few years old.
Before the pandemic did its horrible thing, the Murder Capital had cultivated a name as an uncommonly intense live band. There was no posing involved, and very little in the way of theatrics. Just songs that were thematically heavy performed with a ring of truth and conviction. “Gigi’s Recovery” is a different proposition. It offers light and shade, and a sort of surrealist playfulness that is a whole other thing. There is no fear from Tuit and Roper, though. They’re in it with this new material.
“Sometimes we just weren’t delicate about it at all,” says guitarist Damien Tuit, his tangle of curls almost filling a Zoom window. “It gets to a point where it’s worth fighting over. It’s worth trying to get to that place. You can only be delicate around it for so long before you’re like, ‘Well, this is important, we need to get this right’.
A loose concept piece, “Gigi’s Recovery” benefits enormously from this sense of friction. At a time when the market is saturated by moody boys with guitars who love Joy Division and Gang of Four, it offers something different. Much of that stems from vocalist James McGovern, whose more traditional approach allows Tuit and co-conspirator Cathal ‘Pump’ Roper to pass on some of the hook-based responsibility that can weigh so heavily on guitarists who back talky singers. “It allowed what we were doing to be over the whole phrase, or adding a harmonic element rather than having to just do the melody,” Tuit observes.
For the listener, this shift will be immediately apparent. “Gigi’s Recovery” is a rich, detailed guitar record defined not by its sharp edges but by loops and washes of sound. “I know I’m really bad at minimalism, I just want to fill in all the gaps,” Tuit admits. But it took a while for the band to hit this point. They took their time with these songs, bringing ideas to the table and allowing them to ferment, refusing to let go of things they rated and trusting that their message would eventually resonate with others.
“There was a lot of learning how to write together while also going for new sounds,” Roper says. “When someone brings in something different that maybe you’re uncomfortable with, or not as well versed in, there’s a lot of learning on that side of things. All five of us had a different sound in our head of what it would be. It just took a while for us to understand how to do that, and how to trust each other in those moments.”
From the squalling dissonance of table-setter “Existence” emerges the juddering guitar loop and nagging, high-pitched synths of “Crying“, the first song proper. When “Tuit” and “Roper” made the demo it was essentially an ambient piece, and it got its name because it was making Tuit cry. “We’d put it on regularly, we were so excited about that idea,” Roper says. Eventually, McGovern caught its drift and penned a set of lyrics that give it a suffocating quality; a genuine sense of tension that they gleefully break open with a chorus that’s as direct as anything they’ve ever put to tape.
“I felt like we had a lot of time to harvest ideas,” Tuit says. “I was really inspired by the Line 6 HX Stomp. There’s like 200 effects in there, and they’re all pretty different and nuanced. Maybe every month you find a great thing, and it’s having maybe seven or eight tones that you’re starting to draw from consistently. But then the post-punk thing is a really functional sound for driving stuff. It was nice to be able to go back to that when needed – at the start we were afraid to go there at all. But after we found the other sounds, it was more comfortable. We are good at that, so why not use it?”
Both Tuit and Roper are firm believers in the idea of gear as a creative outlet. Here, they pushed away from the dock and let the current carry them for a while, finding that they were able to pull songs from patches or experiments that forced them to abandon their usual methods. “I love ring modulators, or things that make the note that you’re playing not the regular pitch,” Tuit says. “Your fingers, the relationship isn’t there. It totally gets rid of all that entrenched muscle memory and habits.”
“Gigi’s Recovery” was recorded with John Congleton, who in 2022 alone helped get records by Death Cab for Cutie, Sharon Van Etten and Ezra Furman over the line. The producer has a well-earned rep for making defiantly odd pop records alongside abrasive rock albums, and is spoken of fondly by musicians in terms of his ability to catch hold of an idea and see it through, realising sounds that previously felt out of reach.
“Oh, he’s spot-on,” Roper says. “He’s such a balance for all five of us, because he has those people like Xiu Xiu and Swans under his belt, and he’s then doing an Angel Olsen album and making it sound incredible. That immediacy was what we wanted. The part we struggled with the most on the record is hearing exactly what the song is doing, but then getting that across. He was our bridge to doing that. It’s funny, these things that we deliberated over in trying to get to that place, and trying to translate that feeling, how quickly he would just get that out of us.”
With plenty of work having gone into establishing the record’s palette during writing, Congleton served more as a guiding hand than gear-head facilitator. He wasn’t reaching into a bag of tricks every few minutes. “There was once or twice, with like things like the drums on “A Thousand Lives” or the guitar part on “We Had to Disappear”, where we had a discussion about tones and he was able to guide it and approach how we were going to record it, but overall it was more about mentoring the decision-making,” Tuit says.
“I threw the vinyl on and I was like, ‘Oh, fuck, I can’t wait to hear those songs live’”: The Murder Capital say on their second album
The Murder Capital are back out in the world, toting an obsession with their new music behind them. It’ll be intriguing to see how they blend a setlist in the coming months, and even more interesting to see if their next move involves another left turn into something fresh. They are rolling forwards with the understanding that they’re not the finished article and probably never will be. “That won’t ever go away,” Roper says. “You hope to improve yourself.”
The Murder Capital’s “Gigi’s Recovery” is out January 20th on Human Season.
1996’s “On Avery Island” and 1998’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” give voice to the perennial spirit of youthful epiphany, of beginning to see the world clearly, to process and express it—no matter when you encounter them. For burgeoning Gen Z indie rock fans, a Neutral Milk Hotel phase is a right of passage. I stumbled across “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea” early in my musical journey and quickly went from thinking “this guy’s voice sounds weird” to “there is no other music that matters.” From there, I dove into the underrated debut album “Avery Island”, the admittedly mixed bag “Everything Is” EP, and the wonderfully intimate live set “Live At Jittery Joe’s”.
Neutral Milk Hotel, the indie rock project led by the reclusive Jeff Mangum, have released a new archival box set, titled “TheCollected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel”, for release on February 24th via Merge Records.
The vinyl compilation includes the group’s two full-length LPs, 1996’s “On Avery Island” and 1998’s “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, as well as two 10-inch EPs, three 7-inch singles, and an exclusive 12-inch picture disc of the concert album “Live atJittery Joe’s, which features a 1997 performance by the band originally released in 2001.
“The Collected Works” marks the digital debut of several tracks initially included on a 2011 compilation self-released by Mangum, and expands on the previous offering with a double LP edition of “On Avery Island”, a remastered and extended track list for the 1994 EP “Everything Is”, and previously unreleased recordings for the singles “Little Birds,” “You’ve Passed,” and “Where You’ll Find Me Now.” A 7-inch single for “Holland, 1945” / “Engine” also comes in black vinyl with new artwork.
The elusive rarity “Little Birds” stands as the first preview of the Neutral Milk Hotel box set, with the collection touting a 1998 demo and an unreleased live recording from the band’s 2014 reunion tour. The song was written after Mangum confronted an anti-LGBTQ street preacher, and later gained mythic status in the band’s catalogue thanks to a long-circulated live recording from 1998.
So, I combed the internet for unreleased rarities and live demos; songs like “My Dream Girl Don’t Exist” or “Little Birds” became just as important as “King of Carrot Flowers.” Luckily, for the spoiled future fans of Jeff Mangum’s one-of-a-kind tunes, all of these threads have been brought together for a long-overdue digital and vinyl release.
There are fans of Neutral Milk Hotel who will argue that their 1996 debut, “On Avery Island”, is the better of Jeff Mangum’s two official LPs. It’s certainly less spoiled by exposure. “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” thematic ambitions can make it feel bigger than any one person: It’s an album about death and loss and evil, and about how human beings keep searching for the good in ourselves despite our long history of being awful to each other. “On Avery Island” scope is narrower. Mangum sings about himself and the people he knows. Instead of mountaintops and oceans, he sets his songs in bedrooms and public parks.
In the mid-’90s, Jeff Mangum had moved into a house in Denver where he had dreams of women in fur coats drinking champagne, yelling at him to get out of their house. During a snowy Colorado winter, the Louisiana-born songwriter and his childhood friend Robert Schneider set about recording what would become Neutral Milk Hotel’s debut album. They worked feverishly, going out to smoke cigarettes when they hit a roadblock, until, in May of 1995, they had a finished record. The North Carolina indie label Merge scooped up the young band and quietly released “On Avery Island” the following March.
The record industry was in the best shape it’s ever been in, and even majors were willing to take chances on messy, ramshackle bands that took cues from the 1972 psych-rock compilation Nuggets.Neutral Milk Hotel didn’t set their sights on breaking through to the mainstream. They subsisted happily as part of the Elephant 6 collective, a group of psychedelic musicians based first in Denver and then in Athens, Georgia, who played unlikely instruments like the singing saw and the accordion in each other’s bands. Alongside Neutral Milk Hotel, the collective included the Apples in Stereo, the Olivia Tremor Control, and Elf Power.
“On Avery Island” earned a handful of positive reviews from music magazines, and after its release, Mangum got a band together and toured steadily. In February 1998, Merge released the band’s second album, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”, expecting to move about 7,000 copies. It sold modestly at first, receiving warm reviews in the music press. Mangum kept touring, and the band’s profile grew; fans showed up at NMH gigs knowing every word to his songs, and often sang them louder than the frontman did. Music magazines started asking for interviews, and Mangum found that he hated explaining himself. By the end of 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel turned down the opportunity to open for R.E.M. Disturbed by the unexpected success of his project, Mangum withdrew from music and spent a few years in a state of panic. Neutral Milk Hotel vanished almost as soon as it had arrived. That the band was in stasis and Mangum gone from the public eye only added to the record’s mystique. It was just a few years old, but it felt like an artifact unearthed and shared covertly among those in the know.
“Aeroplane” might be an offbeat record—its unwieldy title, its songs about cum and communism, Mangum’s brassy, abrasive voice—but its songs are simple and tuneful enough to be played at expensive weddings. In 2005, the teen drama “The O.C.” featured a cover of the album’s title track in an episode, causing a mild uproar over possessive fans who didn’t want normies in their midst. But the word was already out, and “Aeroplane” became something of a sensation, a living record of an extinct band.
“On Avery Island” is the better of Mangum’s two official LPs. It’s certainly less spoiled by exposure, and certain songs, like “You’ve Passed” and “Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone,” easily rank among NMH’s best. In “Gardenhead,” Mangum sings about a roller coaster that crashes into the ocean, and there’s a B-side from 1996, a fan favourite, called “Ferris Wheel on Fire.” “On Avery Island” is a theme park plopped down on a city: “On Avery Island” served as a throttle between “Aeroplane’s” broadening pop appeal and the sprawling collection of bootleg concert tapes that could be easily snapped up via file-sharing programs. It offers a glimpse of a pivotal songwriter in transition, moving from making shoddy cassettes for his friends to making art rock that spoke to untold thousands of lonely teens listening to pilfered mp3s late into the night.
The seeds of “Aeroplane” can be heard scattered throughout “On Avery Island”. Mangum already balanced the gross and the transcendent in his lyrics: On “A Baby for Pree,” he imagines a pregnant woman full of bees who spews infants until they fill up her bedroom. Throughout the course of the rambunctious, trombone-heavy opener “Song Against Sex,” the speaker kisses another boy while the apocalypse sets in, complains about the porn he hates and the drugs he won’t take, and then lights himself on fire.
Certain songs hit closer to the bone than anything on “Aeroplane”. “You’ve Passed” envisions a woman’s spirit coursing away from the hospital where she’s just died, while “Three Peaches” articulates an uncanny emotional register between mourning and celebration as Mangum sings to a friend who survived a suicide attempt. It’s one of the hardest NMH songs to endure; Mangum sings from the very bottom of his diaphragm as if dredging up muck from beneath the earth’s crust, dragging out the words “I’m so happy” while sounding like he’s about to keel over with grief.
There are love songs here, too, like the effervescent “Naomi” and “Leave Me Alone,” and there are spooling, chaotic instrumental tracks: “Marching Theme,” which rolls along on a breathing drone, and the 14-minute closer “Pree SistersSwallowing A Donkey’s Eye,” which rides the album’s final triumphant burst out into a slow-growing silence. The abrupt transitions between perfect pop melodies and gaseous balls of noise lend the album a certain wildfire charm. It has less varnish than “Aeroplane”, and that raw face makes it a little easier to see into the mind of the guy who wrote it.
“Aeroplane’s” thematic ambitions can make it feel bigger than any one person: It’s an album about death and loss and evil, and about how human beings keep searching for the good in ourselves despite our long history of being awful to each other.
Neutral Milk Hotel would become a beacon for a glut of aughties bands who never quite achieved Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolf Parade, and Beirut all sprang up on the ground Mangum had cleared, mixing boisterous vocals with antique instrumentation.
Full Contents:
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea LP is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to black vinyl in a gatefold jacket + printed insert for full album download.
On Avery Island 2LP is 12 tracks pressed to double black vinyl in a gatefold jacket + 11 x 11 printed insert + printed insert for full album download. Sides A, B and C pressed 45RPM. Side D pressed 33RPM.
Live at Jittery Joe’s 12” picture disc is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to a full color picture disc in a heavyweight poly jacket + printed insert for full album download.
Ferris Wheel on Fire 10” is 8 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert + printed insert for full album download.
Everything Is 10” is 7 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert + printed insert for full album download.
“Little Birds” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.
“You’ve Passed” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.
“Holland” 7” is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download. 7” housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.
2 folded posters, each printed one side and each 24” x 24” when flat.
1 postcard, printed front and back with box set information and sized 3.75” x 5”
All of above assembled in a 12″ two-piece telescoping case-wrapped box.
The Strokes have shared an early version of “The Modern Age” from their forthcoming box set “The Singles – Volume 01“.
Entitled “The Modern Age (Rough Trade Version)”, this version was first issued on an EP of the same name through Rough Trade in January 2001, six months ahead of the release of their debut album ‘Is This It’. It also opens their new box set which is set to drop on February 24th, 2023 via RCA Records/Legacy Recordings.
The collection features every 7″ inch vinyl single from their debut, 2003 follow-up “Room On Fire” and 2006’s “First Impressions of Earth” as well as rare B-sides from the original single releases.All ten singles will be pressed on black vinyl, with the artwork from each original release replicated in the package.
Videos for all ten A-sides, including “Hard To Explain”, “Last Nite”, “Reptilia”, “Juicebox” and “Heart In A Cage”, were also recently released in high definition.
Meanwhile, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. recently discussed the “magical” experience of working with Rick Rubin on the band’s upcoming new album.
The Strokes recently completed a recording session with the legendary producer in the mountains of Costa Rica.
“I don’t think if I told you what it looked like and what it was, you’d fully understand the ‘magical-ness’ of where we were and how it was to record like that,” he said.“It felt really touching that one of his favourite recording experiences was this one he just had right now.”
Of the band’s future, Hammond added: “I really think what excites me about wanting to play music and continue doing it is, I don’t think we’ve written our best songs yet. I really feel that in my gut.”
Utilizing the original single’s artwork, the boxset will include standard black 7” vinyl of “The Modern Age,” “Hard To Explain,” “Last Nite,” and “Someday,” off of Is This It (2001), “12:51,” “Reptilia,” and “The End HasNo End” off Room On Fire (2003), and “Juicebox,” “Heart In A Cage,” and “You Only Live Once” off First Impressions Of Earth (2006) with their accompanying b-sides.
Wishbone Ash– “Argus” – a 50th Anniversary multi-format super deluxe box set will be released by Madfish on 14th April 2023 to celebrate one of the most pivotal entries in the history of great British rock and prog albums. Celebrating one of the most pivotal entries in the history of great British rock and prog albums, Wishbone Ash’s legendary LP “Argus” Complete with its indelible Hypgnosis designed album sleeve, 1972’s “Argus” saw Wishbone Ash (Andy Powell, Martin Turner, Steve Upton & Ted Turner) mix hard rock, blues, folk and elements of prog to create an anthemic album of resounding quality.
Wishbone Ash achieved considerable success in the 1970s, during which they were among England’s most popular hard rock acts, achieving an incredible eight top 40 albums. Often regarded as one of the premiere UK live acts of the 1970s, the band toured throughout this period and into the following decades.
1972 was one of rock music’s most memorable years for regal releases – a golden age of classic albums – Exile on Main Street, Machine Head, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, All the Young Dudes, Roxy Music, Can’t Buy a Thrill, Sailin’ Shoes, Foxtrot, Demons and Wizards, Transformer and Barnstorm – by rock royalty – The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Davie Bowie, Mott the Hoople, Roxy Music, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Genesis, Uriah Heep, Lou Reed and Joe Walsh. Not least among these amazing artists and records was Wishbone Ash – and their award-winning ‘Album of the Year’ – “Argus“
“Argus”was the group’s third studio LP and undoubtedly the classic album within the band’s ‘70s cannon. It is not only the biggest selling album of their career, featuring the beloved fan-favourite ‘Blowin’ Free’, but full of memorable and timeless tunes such as ‘The King Will Come’, ‘Time Was’, ‘Warrior’ and ‘Throw Down The Sword’. Widely considered a vital moment in the progression of twin-lead guitar harmonization, Andy Powell and Ted Turner’s pioneering twin lead attack left an indelible stamp on the likes of Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
As they reigned supreme through the 1970s, Wishbone Ash was centred on inspired musicianship, joyful spirit and inventive songs. Their concerts were uplifting and their recorded work sublime. “Argus” remains a stunning highpoint in the band’s startling repertoire.
This special anniversary edition features 2 LPs, 3 CDs, 7” single, DVD and 48-page book with rare photographs and extensive liner notes & contributions from Andy Powell, Martin Turner & Steve Upton.
Each “Argus”50th Anniversary multi-format Box Set contains:
3 CDs: Martin Turner’s Argus remaster, Live at The Alexandra Palace 1973 & Memphis 1972. Also features 4previously unreleased early version demos.
2 LPs: Original “Argus” replica, remastered for this release + “Argus Live” on yellow vinyl (selected recordings from Alexandra Palace & Memphis).
DVD: French & Swiss TV footage, Live from the Rainbow 1973 & RTS Broadcast from 1974.
7” Red vinyl Single of ‘Blowin’ Free’.
Featuring a 48-page book with rare photographs and extensive liner notes with contributions from Andy Powell, Martin Turner & Steve Upton.
Jethro Tull has released “The Navigators,” the latest single from their upcoming “RokFlote” album.
With references across several of the band’s musical eras, Ian Anderson and the band present a lively and almost playful take on rovers of the high seas, with flute and synth emulating the motion of the waves. It’s a new take on a lifestyle Anderson has explored before; this time it’s a tribute to the many types of people who “live to roam” and return with “tales of valor, harsh and virile.”
The song follows “Ginnungagap,” Jethro Tull’s first preview from “RokFlote”. Frontman Anderson revealed how he devised the title for Jethro Tull’s 23rd album.
“I started with the idea of a predominantly instrumental album for rock flute – as in rock music,” he explained in a press release. “When the subject material of the album presented itself, I was drawn to the term Ragnarok from Norse mythology – their version of apocalyptic end times or Biblical Armageddon. The ‘final showdown’ scenario is ubiquitous and inherent in Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, for example.”
He added that “Ragnarok translates as ‘destiny of the Gods,’ the ‘rok’ part meaning destiny, course, direction. With umlaut firmly in place, courtesy of the Germanic origins of Old Norse, Flute became ‘flote’ in keeping with the spelling. With me so far? I just can’t miss the glorious opportunity for a good and legitimate umlaut.”
