The Fat Angel Sings

“A real life adventure…” ISO Records and Parlophone Records are proud to announce the release of two very special David Bowie limited edition vinyl/CD E.P.s for Record Store Day 2022, on 23rd April.

“Brilliant Adventure” (E.P.) and “Toy” (E.P.) (You’ve Got It Made With All The Toys). Both feature unreleased versions, live tracks and mixes from the era covered in the recent “Brilliant Adventure” and “Toy:Box” boxsets. LIMITED EDITION RSD 2022 RELEASES OUT 23rd APRIL FEATURING PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED VERSIONS, LIVE TRACKS & MIXES

“Brilliant Adventure” E.P. (12” Vinyl / CD) & “Toy” E.P. (You’ve Got It Made With All The Toys) (10” Vinyl / CD) The Brilliant Adventure E.P. has four previously unreleased tracks from the “Outside” era. ‘Johnny Downloader’ is an early version of ‘I’m Afraid Of Americans’ recorded during the sessions with Brian Eno for the album and mixed in November 1994. An alternative single mix of ‘I Have Not Been To Oxford Town’. The “Brilliant Adventure” ep has four unheard tracks from the 1Outside era; ‘Johnny Downloader’, an early version of ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ recorded during the sessions with Brian Eno for the album and mixed in November 1994 but not released on a Bowie album until 1997’s Earthling, an alternative single mix of ‘I Have Not Been To Oxford Town’ and two tracks, 1.

Outside’s ‘A Small Plot of Land’ and the Jacques Brel cover ‘My Death’, performed by Bowie and pianist Mike Garson at a fundraiser for the New York public theatre at the Shakespeare festival in New York on 18th September, 1995.

DAVID BOWIE – “Brilliant Adventure” 4 Track E.P. (12” VINYL / CD) – All Tracks Previously Unreleased Tracklisting: Side 1: 1 – JOHNNY DOWNLOADER (AKA I’M AFRAID OF AMERICANS EARLY VERSION) 2 – I HAVE NOT BEEN TO OXFORD TOWN (ALTERNATIVE SINGLE MIX)

Side 2: 3 – A SMALL PLOT OF LAND (LIVE AT THE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, NEW YORK, 18th SEPTEMBER, 1995) 4 – MY DEATH (LIVE AT THE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, NEW YORK, 18th SEPTEMBER, 1995).

The 6-track 10” vinyl and CD Toy E.P. (You’ve Got It Made With All The Toys) features the following…

“Shadow Man” (Vocal and Piano Mix)’, a previously unreleased alternative stripped back mix of the Toy album track. Three tracks previously only available as streaming singles making their physical debut: ‘YOU’VE GOT A HABIT OF LEAVING’ (RADIO EDIT), ‘SILLY BOY BLUE’ (ALTERNATIVE ENDING MIX) and ‘CAN’T HELP THINKING ABOUT ME’ (LIVE MARK RADCLIFFE SHOW BBC RADIO 1 SESSION).~ Live versions of ‘I DIG EVERYTHING’ and ‘THE LONDON BOYS’ recorded at the Glastonbury warm-up BowieNet show at the Roseland Ballroom, New York on 19th June, 2000.

SIDE 1 TRACK 2 AND SIDE 2 TRACKS 2 AND 3 ARE PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED. ALL TRACKS ARE PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE ON CD AND VINYL

SIDE 1: 1 – YOU’VE GOT A HABIT OF LEAVING (RADIO EDIT) 2 – SHADOW MAN (VOCAL AND PIANO MIX) 3 – SILLY BOY BLUE (ALTERNATIVE ENDING MIX)

SIDE 2: 1 – CAN’T HELP THINKING ABOUT ME (LIVE RADIO SESSION) (Mark Radcliffe Show 1999) 2 – I DIG EVERYTHING LIVE (LIVE) (Roseland Ballroom 2000) 3 – THE LONDON BOYS (LIVE) (Roseland Ballroom 2000).

“Brilliant Adventure” E.P. (12” VINYL / CD) Toy E.P.(You’ve Got It Made With All The Toys) (10” VINYL / CD)

Released By ISO Records/Parlophone ON 23rd April 2022

Arab Strap started out as an intimate project with home-recorded tapes shared between friends,and soon became one of Scotland’s most cherished bands. The pioneering duo of Moffat & Malcolm Middleton called it a day in 2006 but are now back from the grave and are ready to rave! 

Two ‘runaway loners’ from the album’s recording sessions (‘Aphelion’/’Flutter’) are available now on ltd coloured vinyl 7″ – available from all good record shops.

Released March 4th, 2022

This split 7” is a dogged, startling response to today’s spoilt life. Adulkt Life and METZ are paired perfectly: their shared, resolute force carries an urgency that belongs to this era alone. Both are capable of goading listeners, both are capable of unearthly moments of alloyed beauty. And both bands are made for that unflinching space between the truths that can’t be absorbed and the truths that can’t be forgotten.

METZ are undisputable. Their warning, an unflinching assessment of the vastness and insignificance of this life, is precisely counterbalanced by their lesson, which models the resilience that this understanding demands. “Demolition Row” is persistent, concise, and alarmingly physical. But its punch is escorted by this hypnotizing, un-strained vocal. “It’s quite singular,” in the words of METZ’s guitarist/singer Alex Edkins, “we’ve never sounded this way before.”

Adulkt Life’s debut LP, “Book of Curses”, was a highlight of 2020, a contorted, forceful declaration. Adulkt Life’s song, “Book of Curses,” was intended for the LP, but didn’t quite fit. Singer Chris Rowley describes it as a “belligerent satellite” for the end of time: “like in a few weeks.” It’s matched here with the blip of “Ants & Lions,” a near-joke that instead feels accusatory. Atop the carnival swells of the song, only that voice could make “yabba dabba doo time” burn like acid.

The impact of these two sides, taken together, reveals a shared, defiant intention. “When you’ve made yr small space attack ship mostly from sharp sticks and dashboards and recycled fuel stuffs METZ ship looks clean and tended for battles to come,” in the words of Adulkt Life’s Rowley, “very happy to be sharing crew n rink with them.” For METZ, this record lives within their legacy of complimentary projects including splits with Mission of Burma and Clipping. and their collaboration with John Reis. “It’s because we are fans of the music,” explains Edkins. “METZ are mighty aren’t they?” replies Rowley.

Earlier this year, Michael le Riche, Zach Bines and Braeden Craig — of Fake Palms, Weaves and Greys, respectively announced plans for their debut album as Sauna. Ahead of releasing “Dose Yourself” on May 20th through their own Sauna Records, the band have doled out another dose of tunes for us in the form of a new single titled “Float.”

The track arrives alongside a psychedelic throwback-style lyric video from collaborator/director Justis Krar of IMMV Productions, who described the creative process as such: “The goal was to get out of the way and let the words and groove take the video to where it needed to be.” Krar continued: “Like finding a VHS at a thrift store with the words FLOAT UP written on the side. What kind of disco space odyssey will you go on?”

It’s the second single (following “Only Luck”) to arrive from the album, on which the band have yet to shed further details. It will mark the second batch of tunes from the Toronto trio following 2019’s EP.

New Album ‘Dose Yourself’ out Spring 2022

Neutrals return with a stunning new 4 track EP on Static Shock, after an album on Emotional Response in 2019 and two 7”s on Slumberland and Domestic Departure in 2020. Each song on this EP is a golden nugget of DIY indie pop with clean and jagged guitar work, tunes at every corner and a joyous naivety. Go straight to “Gary Borthwick Says” – a song about a full time bullshitter with lyrics akin to to I, Ludicrous’ “Preposterous Tales” with music which has the charm of prime The Television Personalties and The Times. “New Town Dream” is another gem and if it had come out in 1979 as an obscure DIY/post punk 7″, the kids would be paying £200 for it. Honestly, it’s love at first listen and pure infatuation after repeated plays. This EP will not leave your turntable.

Vinyl on Static Shock Records, London, England. Available where all good records are sold.

releases March 25th, 2022

Allan McNaughton – Guitar/Vocals
Phil Benson – Bass/Vocals
Philip Lantz – Drums/Vocals

From the “Bus Stop Nights” E.P. Released on Static Shock Records 2022

Widowspeak’s new album “The Jacket” is out next month, and ahead of its release they’ve shared one final advance single, the title track. It’s a dreamy track, and the band say, “‘The Jacket’ is about things we choose, dress up in and adopt as symbols of who we are. Things that become objects loaded with meaning until we eventually lose or discard them, grow out of them. It’s a literal jacket in the song, and in the context of the storyline represents all the cliches (imagined and real) of being in a band, rock and roll, youth, projecting ‘cool’ (or thinking you do), and believing in the power of symbols and costume to help find and define your true self.

Eventually you move on from the moment, and the sorts of places and experiences and relationships tied to that time, when the jacket was your favourite thing in the world and felt like a part of you. It’s hard to let go. But you notice you aren’t that person anymore. “The jacket”, and everything it represented, was left behind somewhere along the way.”

“Written in the months before and after the release of their critically acclaimed 2020 album “Plum”, “The Jacket” feels like a full-circle moment for the duo of Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas. Thematically, it considers Plum’s broader questions about the values ascribed to one’s time and labour through the more refined lens of performance and music-making. Sonically, “The Jacket” finds the band at their usual and best: the album breathes deeply, balancing moments of open lushness with a straightforward, Velvets-y approach. Dynamics shift seamlessly between gentle, drifting ballads and twangy jams, built up from layered guitars, dusty percussion and ambling bass lines. 

The follow-up to the band’s acclaimed debut album, “Endless Scroll” (2018), and 2019’s “Shiny New Model” EP, “Broken Equipment” was inspired by a book club. In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. The album’s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. On ‘NYC (disambiguation)’, they break down how the Big Apple was “founded by a corporation” and history remains alive in the present. The poetic ‘Pillar on the Bridge of You’ is the first love song Ben ever wrote for Nikki, while ‘All Past Lovers’ gazes back to the “southern belle” and “chat room suitor” who still live inside him today.

Armed only with a killer wit and sticky refrains hammered out with complete confidence. Luckily for us, we’ve already heard three great singles from the album, “Thrown,” “Doers” and “Statuette On The Console” (along with two killer b-sides), allowing time for each subsequent earworm to work its way into our systems and leave us to wait impatiently for our next adrenaline rush courtesy of Bodega.

“It’s making me bitter, harder, fatter, stressed out,” they sing of daily life in recent (constantly “unprecedented”) times on “Doers,” reflecting how a bunch of us feel right now, but thankfully doing it in a way that we can dance it all out to.

To accompany the propulsive pace of ‘Statuette on the Console’ and its lyrics about switching perspectives, Nikki recorded alternate versions in eight different languages. “I used God in that song as this arch overlord character, but it could also be a real estate developer,” she explains. “It’s about anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around.” In that song, Nikki also wryly states that although she doesn’t have faith in this particular “God,” she is still “living life with (my) platitudes.” On ‘Territorial Call of the Female’, Nikki playfully quips that “when the man is around that’s when I’m putting you down,” highlighting how in the past she unknowingly reinforced patriarchal values by turning against other women to attract men. It’s moments like these where Bodega most exemplifies their self-professed motto that “the best critique is self critique.”

When last we heard from Tamara Lindeman and her band The Weather Station, she had made the 2021’s critically acclaimed album “Ignorance“, though filled with the contemplation of the slow ravaging of our planet, It made way for a new sound from the band, one that was bigger, louder, and more instrumental. Simultaneously, Lindeman was writing a collection of ballads, companion pieces to what would make the cut for “Ignorance”, and ultimately songs she was unsure she wanted to share.

“How Is It That I Should Look at the Stars”, Lindeman self-funded the album, got a new band together, and evaded any potential influence from a label (it was released, however, via Fat Possum). The result is as aesthetically far from “Ignorance” as possible, with wind instruments and piano where driving percussion and guitars once were. These songs, sung in Lindeman’s clear, breathy voice, play like vignettes. The melodies are improvisational, spontaneous in how they rise and fall, and unafraid of pauses, but always guided by Lindeman’s lyrics, like entries from a diary no one was ever meant to read.

“Stars,” from which the album’s title comes, finds her in the desert on New Year’s Eve, pondering the purpose of fireworks, “As though they’re celebrating all another year has cost. Or is it carelessness?” she asks. “Send another star into the sky / Only to watch it die / Fall across the black in a shining arc / I swear to god / This world will break my heart.”

Lindeman takes comfort in intimacy with a lover (“Sway” and “Loving You”) and quiet moments alone in nature, watching the colours and textures unfolding around her (“Marsh” and “Ignorance”). Lindeman reminds us why we trust her to help us make sense of a world crumbling around us, searching for bright spots and meaning among the rubble.

The Weather Station from the album, “How Is It That I Should Look At The Stars” on Fat Possum Records, out March 4th, 2022.