The Fat Angel Sings

The freshly minted label Nanoq release a new album by David Sylvian titled “The Distance Between The Killer and the Killing“. It’s the first album Sylvian has released in 15 years. composed of sessions recorded between 2012 – 2025, the album is based on recomposed improvisational sessions with a variety of artists ranging from Otomo Yoshihide, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bilianna Voutchkova and Miako Klein, to Jamie Drouin, Lance Austin Olson and more.

The 46 min instrumental is unlike anything tackled by Sylvian before and is seen by Sylvian himself as the official follow up to his 2009 album “Manafon“. In Pauline Nadrigny’s essay on the album, she describes something of the listening experience. ‘… voices surge that belong to no one in particular. One that hoots and hums across a violin, worked until it loses its voice, becomes mere matter among other matter. A voice inside the breath of a clarinet or a recorder. Grunts, gurgles, distant cries, somewhere between man and bird, woman and nuthatch. Fragments of choirs, far off, snatches of a song long since lost. Too far to be recovered.’

‘What a remarkable piece of work. At times it feels like listening to a symphony; at others, as though (Sylvian’s) voice is speaking through the music. At first, I was trying to find my own sound, but somewhere along the way I completely forgot about that and became utterly absorbed in the music. Hearing Ryuichi’s presence emerge here and there throughout the piece also brings a very special feeling for me. Thank you for creating something so extraordinary.’

“The Distance Between the Killer and the Killing will be released on 26th February 2027 and is available to preorder now on a variety of formats and special editions, art directed by Sylvian and designed by Chris Bigg. Alongside the standard vinyl LP and plastic-free gatefold CD, there are two limited editions: a marbled vinyl housed in a mirror-board sleeve; and a deluxe CD in case-bound book packaging.

David Sylvian returns with ‘the distance between the killer and the killing’,

The Clash have announced a new compilation, The World According to The Clash, set for release via Sony Music on November 13th.

The compilation, which features 11 of their most celebrated tracks, was originally distributed in 1982 to US-only radio stations and has never been made publicly available… until now. Before the release of “Combat Rock” in 1982, which went on to become their biggest-selling release, “The World According to The Clash” was prepared for US radio DJs as a means of pulling together and easily disseminating standout tracks from their history.

Therefore, the forthcoming release draws together many of their most beloved and most influential tracks, including ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’, ‘Rock the Casbah’, ‘London Calling’, ‘Clampdown’, ‘Train in Vain (Stand by Me)’, ‘Lost in the Supermarket’, ‘The Guns of Brixton’ and more.

The music hails from the brief five-year period, wherein vocalist and guitarist Joe Strummer, vocalist and guitarist Mick Jones, bassist Paul Simonon and drummer Topper Headon played incessantly, wrote and recorded prolifically, and released five albums of the most expansive and influential music of the era. 2026 has marked a year of jubilant celebration for the iconic band, who earlier this summer celebrated 50 years since their first-ever gig with a fan event in Sheffield, where the show took place in 1976.

Officially deemed their 1977 album, “London Calling“, the best project in their discography, writing, ” The Clash’s third effort proved their most fondly remembered, their most assured and, indeed, their finest work. This album remains our desert island record, an extraordinarily diverse catalogue only a band at this creative level could produce.”

“The World According to The Clash” will be made available via limited edition red vinyl and orange vinyl, alongside CD and digital formats.

Foreigner is also expanding “Head Games” with a newly unearthed complete concert from the accompanying tour, along with outtakes and alternate versions.

Foreigner will release an expanded version of “Head Games” on October 30th.

The box set version of the 1979 album, which features concert staples such as the title track and “Dirty White Boy,” will include a disc of outtakes and alternative versions, as well as a newly unearthed complete concert from the Head Games tour.

The previously unreleased song “Trouble” has been remixed and released as the first taste of the “Head Games” set, with a newly added guitar solo from none other than Peter Frampton.

Featuring the hits “Dirty White Boy” and “Head Games”, this new edition features the original 10 track studio album newly remixed, a disc of outtakes and alternative versions, plus a previously unreleased show from the Head Games tour that includes Foreigner classics “Cold As Ice” and “Feels Like The First Time”, among many others.

The set is completed by a Blu-ray featuring an Atmos remix of the studio album. This new collection has been overseen by Jeff Pilson and Wyn Davis, and features a new essay by Ken Sharp detailing the history of this iconic record.

You can hear “Trouble” and check out the complete four-disc “Head Games” Super Deluxe Edition

Originally released on DVD 23 years ago, Barcelona 2002 has not been available in any audio format until now. This new 2026 mix from the original multitrack master recordings supplants the DVD soundtrack to provide the best audio document to date of the Rising tour. The 24-song set includes ten songs from the album, the tour debut of “Spirit In The Night,” a solo piano performance of “Incident On 57th Street,” “Born In The U.S.A.,” “Dancing In The Dark,” “Night,” “Ramrod” and “Land Of Hope And Dreams” before closing with “Thunder Road.” 

Barcelona joins Helsinki 2003 as the second concert from the Rising tour released in the Live Archive series, though the two releases stand apart in meaningful ways

As outlined in the essay that accompanied its release, Helsinki was liberated from a proprietary DSD recording system used across the 2002-03 tour, though curiously (and fortunately) not Barcelona.

The Palau San Jordi show was captured on half-inch digital multitrack tape, like the format used on the Reunion tour. Why the change? Perhaps because the show had been earmarked for a live television broadcast and a future DVD. That would explain why Brendan O’Brien, who produced “The Rising“, was on hand (this night only, it seems) to record the concert on what we’ll assume was his preferred format.

The resulting “Live in Barcelona” DVD audio mix was made to complement the video, and as such was never released in a non-video format. That 2003 disc also prioritized a 5.1 surround mix for home theatre viewing, embracing the ambience of the venue and keeping a fair amount of distance between the listener and the stage. The stereo mix for DVD was secondary to the 5.1, as was customary at the time.

This 2026 Archive release was transferred from the original digital master tapes and newly mixed by Jon Altschiller. It’s an upgrade to the “Live in Barcelona” DVD audio, with considerably closer, clearer, and more detailed sound, excellent instrument separation, and a wide stereo soundstage.

Barcelona was an arena show, contrasted with a stadium gig in Helsinki that also happened to be Springsteen’s debut performance in Finland. Both shows feature heavy helpings of “Rising” material (Barça features one more track than Helsinki, “Countin’ on a Miracle”), but long-time-listener, first-time-caller Finnish fans got seven songs from “Born in the U.S.A.” The Barcelona variants not featured in Helsinki are tonally tough and hard to quibble with: “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “She’s the One,” “Spirit in the Night,” “Incident on 57th Street,” “Night,” and an electric “Born in the U.S.A.”

The pairing of “Prove It All Night” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town” delivers early in the set. The former is fueled by call and response from Springsteen and Stevie Van Zandt along with gritty solos, while the latter gets an extended prelude marked by subtle guitar phrasing and novel line readings. “Darkness” is one of several songs across the night that tap new vocal approaches Springsteen used on “The Rising”, particularly in his upper range and falsetto voice. When he reaches for those notes, the poignancy rises.

“She’s the One” and “Night” (by request) step forth with the diamond-hard look of a cobra. They aren’t here for fun, bearing an edge found in their ’70s models and not heard often since. The Big Man, Clarence Clemons, is sharp and his saxophone shines in a “Born to Run” doubleshot that couldn’t sound this vital in a stadium.

Barcelona also features the tour debut of “Spirit in the Night,” summoning more rotary-phone era vibes, as does the beloved epic “Incident on 57th Street,” sung with a slightly modern feel but still shooting on Kodak color film. Both are performed solo piano by Springsteen — somewhat common for “Incident” but rare for “Spirit,” which is charmingly rendered and includes a lyrical glitch that Springsteen handles graciously with rapturous support from the crowd.

Where Helsinki opened with an acoustic “Born in the U.S.A.”, Barcelona gets a blistering, full-band take in its encore. One of those winning high-note moments comes at the end of the line, “I got a picture of him, in her arms.” This high-voltage “U.S.A.” carries an extended guitar solo like its 1988 counterparts, but the playing is more somatic in expression. At 4:12, leading up to the song’s crescendo, Springsteen strums the same short chord locked in with Max Weinberg’s snare hits to thrilling effect for a good 20 seconds before the legendary breakdown and reprise finale.

The addition of the E Street Horns and Choir on later tours brought its own power and soul to Springsteen’s shows, but there’s something deeply moving about “Rising” tour performances by the core E Street Band and Soozie Tyrell. “The Rising” material was beautifully arranged for the stage; it not only showcased the instrumental breadth of the musicians, but their voices as well.

Like great graphic design, the use of negative space in “Empty Sky” and “You’re Missing” gives these versions emotional gravitas as they shift from spareness and solitude to deeper expressions. “Into the Fire” is a vocal tour de force, with Springsteen’s thoughtful phrasing, rich solemnity and fragile falsetto matched strength for strength by Patti Scialfa’s ethereal background vocals. Their work is supported by Tyrell, whose voice and emotive violin playing adds another empathetic layer.

Most stirring of all is “My City of Ruins,” which starts intimately with Springsteen on piano, then grows in scope and hope as he moves to the front of the stage and the band meets the moment in a soaring rendition. It’s more great work from Clemons and E Street’s full voices.

“Land of Hope and Dreams” winds down the show with another dose of optimism. Listen to Springsteen rise up on “You’ll need a good companion, for this part of the ri-EEED.”). He tags the song’s progenitor, Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready,” connecting to that which we have attempted to overcome before. The night ends with “Thunder Road,” reminding us why we got on board the E Street train in the first place.

Is this technically a “new” Rising tour recording? No. But while we keep vigil outside the laboratory waiting for a cure for the tour’s Genex recording system contagion, let’s enjoy a great indoor 2002 performance that sounds better than ever 24 years later.

Bruce Springsteen – Lead vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica; Roy Bittan – Piano, keyboards; Clarence Clemons – Tenor and baritone saxophones, percussion, backing vocal; Danny Federici – Organ, keyboards, accordion; Nils Lofgren – Guitar, lap steel guitar, backing vocal; Patti Scialfa – Guitar, percussion, backing vocal; Garry Tallent – Bass; Stevie Van Zandt – Acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, backing vocal; Max Weinberg – Drums; Soozie Tyrell – Violin, acoustic guitar, percussion, backing vocal

Recorded by Brendan O’Brien

Guitarist Slash will release his seventh solo album, “Flying Blind”, on February. 26th, 2027.

It will be the Guns N’ Roses guitarist’s first new album since 2024’s blues covers collection “Orgy of the Damned“, and his first collection of all-new music since 2022’s “4.” For the fifth time Slash is joined by singer Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators – Todd Kerns on bass, Brent Fitz on drums and Frank Sidoris on rhythm guitar.

“It’s a really fun, kind of spontaneous rock ‘n’ roll record,” Slash said in a press release announcing “Flying Blind2. “It’s very straightforward and down-to-earth and raw.”

The creation of the title track was a prime example of that spontaneity. “While we were standing there in pre-production, a riff came to me and started developing,” Slash explained. “I had nothing of that song prior to those guys coming in, and then we started up a night of rehearsal and played that riff. It came together really quickly. As for it being the first single, you never know what the first single is going to be until you’ve recorded it. When I started thinking about it, ‘Flying Blind’ just seemed to have the right kind of melodic sensibilities and a hook to make it single material.”

Slash, Kennedy and the Conspirators will embark on a massive world tour in support of “Flying Blind” in April 2027.

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators Flying Blind

Two decades after the Raconteurs arrived with “Broken Boy Soldiers”, Third Man Records is opening the vault. The label has announced Vault #70: The Raconteurs – “Broken Boy Soldiers XX“, a 23-track 20th anniversary companion to the band’s 2006 debut. More than 20 of the tracks have never been released, including nine demos and outtakes and a recording of the Jack White-led group’s very first live performance, captured March 20th, 2006, at Liverpool’s Carling Academy.

“Over 34 incisive minutes, the Raconteurs — White and his longstanding Detroit compadre Brendan Benson, plus drummer Patrick Keeler and bassist Jack Lawrence from Cincinnati garage rockers the Greenhornes — take a joyous sprint through the parts of their record collections devoted to the late ’60s and early ’70s, referencing the Who circa Tommy, early Led Zeppelin and the English blues rock quartet Free,” In its original review of “Broken Boy Soldiers” Spin magazine said. “There’s also a dash of the ornate musical form once known as progressive rock, not least in keyboard passages that cry out for cringe-inducing words like arpeggio.

The album spawned the favourites “Steady, As She Goes,” “Hands” and the title track, while establishing the Raconteurs as one of the era’s most intriguing supergroups — or, as its members initially put it, “a new band of old friends.”

The new set digs deep into the sessions behind that debut. Among the highlights are a studio demo of “Level,” an early version of “Steady, As She Goes,” the previously unheard “Mech Royal” and an alternate take of “Blue Veins” that stretches past seven minutes.

There’s also a glimpse of the band before the album even existed, as the previously unreleased Liverpool concert runs through the Broken Boy Soldiers track list and adds covers of Love’s “A House Is Not a Motel” and the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Headin’for the Texas Border.” White later recalled the peculiar novelty of playing with the new band, joking that he wasn’t used to being able to take a sip of water in the middle of a song.

The physical package is suitably elaborate. The 23 tracks are spread across three 180-gram colored-vinyl LPs — Metallic Copper, Grand Green and Coke Bottle Clear — housed in two gatefold jackets and a slipcase. The set also includes a film strip from the “Steady, As She Goes” video shoot, featuring individual shots of the band captured on 35mm film, plus one of four collectible cards from Third Man’s Tripppl imprint.

Vault #70 is available exclusively through Third Man Records,

R.E.M.’s 2001 album Reveal will be reissued in November for its 25th anniversary.

The band’s 12th studio album spawned two hits in the UK, including the top 10 single ‘Imitation of Life’ and ‘All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)’. The band’s commercial fortunes remained in decline in the US where ‘Imitation of Life’ stalled at No 83.

Despite both singles offering demos, alternate versions of album tracks, live cuts and non-album B-sides (‘2JN’, ‘Yellow River’, ‘165 Hillcrest’) none of these are included on any format of the anniversary reissue, with bonus audio content reserved solely for “The Black Sessions Revealed”, a 2001 concert recorded for Radio France.

The formats are 2CD+blu-ray and 2LP vinyl of “The Black Sessions Revealed”. The album is also available on vinyl although availability seems limited (at least for now). The official R.E.M. store also has exclusive coloured vinyl versions of both. There is no word on remastering, which suggests the album hasn’t been remastered.

The 2CD+blu-ray edition features the album on CD 1, “The Black Sessions Revealed” on CD 2 and a blu-ray which includes the album in 5.1 Surround and hi-res stereo. Presumably these are the same mixes that were put out 21 years ago on the CD+DVD-A reissue.

Live track taken from “The Black Sessions Revealed”, a previously unreleased 17-song performance recorded for Radio France in Paris on May 7, 2001! The collection is being released in conjunction with the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of the band’s studio album “Reveal”.

The lack of Dolby Atmos needs to be commented upon. Back in 2017, “Automatic For The People” was only the second pop/rock album to be released physically in Dolby Atmos (INXS’ Kick being the first). R.E.M. were pioneers of sorts, and looked to be setting the bar for the emerging spatial audio scene. Or so we thought. They quickly abandoned Atmos for the 2019 “Monster” reissue (despite the stereo version getting a remix) and have not created Atmos Mixes of any of their albums as the subsequent reissues have been chalked off (“New Adventures in Hi-Fi”, “Up” and now “Reveal“).

Ignoring non-album material from singles already marks this reissue out as imperfect, but not bothering to embrace modern immersive audio and just trotting out a 21-year old 5.1 mix (admittedly, a good mix) does not cut the mustard. It’s not the end of the world as we know it, but it’s disappointing.

“Reveal” will be released on 20th November 2026 via Concord.

For the past decade, Personal Trainer has served as the ever-evolving creative outlet for frontman and songwriter Willem Smit, growing from Amsterdam’s underground scene into an internationally successful touring band. An electrifying force in modern indie rock, Personal Trainer blend sharp wit, chaotic energy, and irresistible hooks. Their upcoming third album “Human Assholes” balances playful absurdity with a quiet undercurrent of doubt, Smit has been ever reluctant as the quote unquote frontman of a band.

Previously absorbed in meticulous, detail-driven recording, Smit and producer Casper van der Lans changed their approach. This time, they shifted toward immediacy—writing on acoustic guitar and recording live as a full band. The result is a warmer, more organic sound, heard in irresistible tracks like “Tyres Skid,” “Scrambled Egg,” and “Punch Drunk Love.” Shaped by years of touring, the band embraced imperfection and spontaneity. For Smit, “Human Assholes” ultimately reaffirms music as both a shared, collaborative process and a personal refuge.

New album “Human Assholes” out on Bella Union on September 4th 2026

Talking Heads have announced an expanded super deluxe edition of the 1979 album “Fear of Music“, featuring rarities and previously unreleased music.

Available as a three CD/Blu-ray or six LP vinyl set, the collection boasts an assortment of musical goodies sure to excite Talking Heads fans.This was Talking Heads’ third album, 1979’s “Fear of Music“, is the bridge between the angular art rock of the band’s early work and the P-Funk-inspired modalism of their early-’80s output.

“Fear of Music” is more than just a bridge, though. It’s the water under the bridge, the air, the animals, the cities the river flows through, and the heaven on top of it all: “…a place where nothing ever happens.”

Each edition includes a remastered version of the original album, along with two complete concerts from the band’s 1979 “Fear of Music” tour – one recorded at Boston’s Berklee Performance Center (8/24/79) and the other at Capitol Theatre in New Jersey (11/17/79). Almost all of the live material has never been previously released. Other highlights include alternate versions of “Life During Wartime,” “Cities” and “Drugs.”

The Blu-ray includes a new mix of the album in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround sound, along with rare footage of Talking Heads performing two songs on the English TV show, Old Grey Whistle Test. One of those performances – the band’s rendition of “Life During Wartime”

Talking Heads perform “Life During Wartime” on the BBC’s Old Grey Whistle Test in 1979. Taken from Talking Heads’ third studio album “Fear of Music”.

Originally released on August.1979, “Fear of Music” garnered rave reviews and elevated Talking Heads to new commercial heights, peaking at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and becoming their first album to be certified gold.

Talking Heads “Fear of Music” (Super Deluxe Edition) will be released on November 13th

“Fear of Music” (Super Deluxe Edition) is available to pre-order now as a 6LP, 3CD/1BR and remastered 2LP

The second album by South London seven-piece Fat Dog is titled “Cancel Me (I’m Tired)”. After releasing their debut album “WOOF”. in 2024 and becoming one of the U.K.’s most exciting breakthrough bands in the process, they have a good reason to be tired. They’ve spent the period since “WOOF.’s” release spreading their raucous, infectious and irresistible bark around the world. The reason that they want you to cancel them is that they’ve been around the world and they’re tired.

But if Fat Dog — Joe Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, Ellis Dickson, Michael Dunlop, Dillon Harrison and Jed Bevington — are tired with the world, the world is not tired of them. In fact, the world can’t get enough of them. With “Cancel Me (I’m Tired)“, they have created an exhilarating, swaggering, panoramic, inventive, re-inventive, re-re-inventive electro-punk-art-pop-rock ’n’ roll-space-country triumph that deserves all the adjectives.

Over 10 mind-bending and melodic tracks, it blends electro-pop anthems, cascading rave bangers, cowboy-tinged pitstops and swirling psychedelia. Into its lyrical orbit, the record pulls mentions of addiction, family ties, love, AI, ancestry, extra-terrestrials, S&M, B&M, H&M and M&Ms. “Cancel Me (I’m Tired)” possesses all the rabid frenzy and electrifying excitement of their debut but now delivered on a grand and glorious scale. Big, big things are ahead. Fat Dog are only just getting going.

Fat Dog – “Call It What You Want” taken from the album ‘Cancel Me (I’m Tired)’ out on the 2nd October 2026 on Domino Recordings