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Erotica Veronica - Miya Folick’s third full-length album - delves deeper into intimate, sensual, and existential themes; challenging cultural taboos and advocating for a broader, more playful understanding of eroticism that goes beyond mere sexuality. “It’s about richness of experience, a connection, an open approach to each day,” she explains, adding that sharing her fantasies feels like “an act of tenderness and intimacy.” Erotica Veronica is Miya’s first self-produced album with contributions from talented writers/producers Jared Solomon (Remi Wolf, Chappell Roan, Paramore), Brad Hale (Grimes, The Naked and Famous), and Sam KS (Lizzie McAlpine, Shawn Mendes) Through her music, Miya Folick continues to evolve as an artist, blending delicate vulnerability with bold musical experimentation, tackling complex emotions with honesty and grace. From quiet folk leaning ballads to giant distorted guitars, it’s intimate, powerful, and cathartic.

Standard weight white vinyl remastered from the original tapes, restoring the original album on vinyl for the first time since 1995, including its original artwork. Includes download code.

In 1991, four kids from the suburbs of Chicago, IL formed Cap’n Jazz, arguably one of the most influential rock bands of the last 30 years. Those kids, brothers Tim & Mike Kinsella, Victor Villarreal, and Sam Zurick, were joined by Davey von Bohlen in 1994 and recorded their only full-length album before calling it quits - Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped on, and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over - often referred to as Shmap’n Shmazz. Originally released on the Man With Gun label, the album quickly fell out of print after the band’s breakup, with the songs eventually making their way to the Analphabetapolothology compilation, released in 1998 via Jade Tree Records.

As a testament to this legendary debut, Polyvinyl is thrilled to announce the vinyl reissue of Shmap’n Shmazz, which has been remastered from the original tapes - restoring the original album on vinyl for the first time since 1995, including its original artwork. With the unmatched intensity heard in the opening track, “Little League,” coupled with eccentrically poetic lyrics, this iconic album has influenced countless artists since its release and unintentionally sparked a new genre. Pitchfork calls the album “a touchstone of Midwestern emo,” while Vulture placed “Little League” at #3 on their 100 Greatest Emo Songs of All Time list. Musician Devendra Banhart has also expressed his love for the band in a 2017 Joan of Arc documentary, describing Tim’s powerfully striking vocals like "going to the zoo on quaaludes, but all the other animals are on speed."

In addition to the band’s influential legacy, Cap’n Jazz was the catalyst to the formation of other notable bands featuring the original members, including American Football, Joan of Arc, The Promise Ring, Owls, Owen, Make Believe, Ghosts and Vodka and many more.

A maelstrom of music and metaphysics, a crushing conduit for connection, contemplation and catharsis; ritualistic sludge-metal juggernauts Pothamus return to this plane of existence with new album `Abur', the highly anticipated spiritual successor to their colossal debut, `Raya'. The search for meaning stands central as a pillar of belief in the enigmatic world of Pothamus. Whilst blending eastern philosophy and western esotericism into a unique ontology, the band stay true to the fundamentals of music: sounds, instruments and bodies coming together just as they too drift away. To experience Pothamus is to open yourself to an immersive, out-of-body experience that transcends the ordinary and delves deep into the profound. `Abur', Pothamus' sophomore full-length is an odyssey of truly epic proportions. As well as honing their already formidable live sound in the intervening years, the band have widened their musical palette in order to explore a truly original take on heavy music that steers them ever further away from well-trodden post-metal paths. On `Abur' the Pothamus' signature ritualistic sound is elevated by the glacial sounds of the Surpeti, an drone instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent traditionally used for mantra singing, whilst drummer Van Hulle adds his voice in harmony with guitarist Coussens' to create an astounding richness and depth. Capturing Pothamus at their creative zenith was musical contemporary and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Psychonaut, Hippotraktor) who recorded, mixed and mastered `Abur'. A 44-minute pilgrimage through nature, animism and the depths of the human soul, `Abur' is Pothamus' answer to the big, existential questions that keep us all awake at night. Titanic, all-consuming heaviness is met with ethereal, airy beauty as the band contemplates the interconnectedness of all things, creating a singular sonic universe balanced perfectly between cosmic creation and absolute destruction. FOR FANS OF: Amenra, Heilung, Om, Wardruna, Briqueville, The Black Heart Rebellion 3-panel gatefold CD + 28 pages booklet, gatefold LP + 28 pages booklet

Ivory coloured vinyl! A maelstrom of music and metaphysics, a crushing conduit for connection, contemplation and catharsis; ritualistic sludge-metal juggernauts Pothamus return to this plane of existence with new album `Abur', the highly anticipated spiritual successor to their colossal debut, `Raya'. The search for meaning stands central as a pillar of belief in the enigmatic world of Pothamus. Whilst blending eastern philosophy and western esotericism into a unique ontology, the band stay true to the fundamentals of music: sounds, instruments and bodies coming together just as they too drift away. To experience Pothamus is to open yourself to an immersive, out-of-body experience that transcends the ordinary and delves deep into the profound. `Abur', Pothamus' sophomore full-length is an odyssey of truly epic proportions. As well as honing their already formidable live sound in the intervening years, the band have widened their musical palette in order to explore a truly original take on heavy music that steers them ever further away from well-trodden post-metal paths. On `Abur' the Pothamus' signature ritualistic sound is elevated by the glacial sounds of the Surpeti, an drone instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent traditionally used for mantra singing, whilst drummer Van Hulle adds his voice in harmony with guitarist Coussens' to create an astounding richness and depth. Capturing Pothamus at their creative zenith was musical contemporary and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Psychonaut, Hippotraktor) who recorded, mixed and mastered `Abur'. A 44-minute pilgrimage through nature, animism and the depths of the human soul, `Abur' is Pothamus' answer to the big, existential questions that keep us all awake at night. Titanic, all-consuming heaviness is met with ethereal, airy beauty as the band contemplates the interconnectedness of all things, creating a singular sonic universe balanced perfectly between cosmic creation and absolute destruction. FOR FANS OF: Amenra, Heilung, Om, Wardruna, Briqueville, The Black Heart Rebellion 3-panel gatefold CD + 28 pages booklet, gatefold LP + 28 pages booklet

"Flowerdust" is a very classic gothic rock album with all its gothic rock attributes, yet with
a very dynamic sound. Catherines Cathedral managed to combine very aggressive rock
(hardcore punk almost) hand in hand with piano and acoustic guitar ballads. Because of the
sometimes massive use of keyboards there is also a New Age feel and the urge to make
intelligent and thoughtful music, almost poetry is ever present.
Catherines Cathedral was formed by M. Valley, S. Morgana and D. Hansevi in 1992 with the
plan to play gothic rock. They almost immediately recorded what would later become
"Flowerdust", the album that Preachers Cath Records would release in 1993 and then again
digitally in 2015. The album impressed many others and they moved to House Of Kicks
Records and Noxious Records.

Rose City Band"s music is sun-kissed timeless country rock whose seemingly effortless momentum carries the joy of its creation without ignoring the darkness pervading our consciousness. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson, the music of Rose City Band is rooted in his love of private press records of the mid to late 70"s. The band, in addition to Johnson, features pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, keyboardist Paul Hasenberg and drummer John Jeffrey who enmesh a keen sense of rhythmic drive and melody with gentler, sumptuous atmospheres. Nuanced performances and interplay between players unfurl like desert flowers splashing color onto an arid landscape. The ensemble"s buoyant moments still glide with ease, but there is room to revel in respite of the shade of a dark cloud. Across the album, Johnson"s tasteful guitar interjections and soothing voice are met in kind with the versatile playing of Walker, Hasenberg, and Jeffery, with special guest performances by synthesist/vocalist, Sanae Yamada. Album closer "The Walls" perfectly captures the band"s explorative and expansive songs, Hasenberg"s soulful organ driving the album to an emotionally cathartic conclusion. Throughout his prolific career with Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo and now Rose City Band, Johnson"s music has consistently centered around exploration and discovery. Sol Y Sombra imbues his penchant for space and resplendent tonality with a denser amalgam of his influences through a delicate balance of the somber and the serene, of subtle evolutions and familiar sounds, Sol Y Sombra makes for a holistically joyous experience, finding solace in both sun and shade.

Rose City Band"s music is sun-kissed timeless country rock whose seemingly effortless momentum carries the joy of its creation without ignoring the darkness pervading our consciousness. Led by guitarist/vocalist Ripley Johnson, the music of Rose City Band is rooted in his love of private press records of the mid to late 70"s. The band, in addition to Johnson, features pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, keyboardist Paul Hasenberg and drummer John Jeffrey who enmesh a keen sense of rhythmic drive and melody with gentler, sumptuous atmospheres. Nuanced performances and interplay between players unfurl like desert flowers splashing color onto an arid landscape. The ensemble"s buoyant moments still glide with ease, but there is room to revel in respite of the shade of a dark cloud. Across the album, Johnson"s tasteful guitar interjections and soothing voice are met in kind with the versatile playing of Walker, Hasenberg, and Jeffery, with special guest performances by synthesist/vocalist, Sanae Yamada. Album closer "The Walls" perfectly captures the band"s explorative and expansive songs, Hasenberg"s soulful organ driving the album to an emotionally cathartic conclusion. Throughout his prolific career with Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo and now Rose City Band, Johnson"s music has consistently centered around exploration and discovery. Sol Y Sombra imbues his penchant for space and resplendent tonality with a denser amalgam of his influences through a delicate balance of the somber and the serene, of subtle evolutions and familiar sounds, Sol Y Sombra makes for a holistically joyous experience, finding solace in both sun and shade.

Tours (France) -based post-psych and deep-shoegaze powerhouse Stuffed Foxes are set to release their third LP, Standardized, on December 6th, 2024, via Bristol’s Stolen Body Records and French labels Reverse Tapes and Figures Libres. Songs / Revolving and Songs / Motion Return, a discographic diptych released in 2022, established Stuffed Foxes as accomplished ambassadors of the French rock scene. True to its predecessors, Standardized was recorded live in the Rennes studio of producer and musician Thomas Poli (Laetitia Sheriff, Dominique A). Mastering was entrusted to Matt Colton (Spiritualized, Swans, Shame). Early on, the six members transformed their youthful camaraderie into an adventure, embracing communal living (sharing a leaky roof had to be an integral part of the ride) and diving into the underground with their label, Reverse Tapes, a source of endless exciting music. They also adopted a democratic approach to creation fueled by endless jams, with the sexted striving to compose together from the outset. It is from this collective spontaneity that the unique expression of their music is born: long, hypnotic tracks, swirling mists of noise, and moments of vocal urgency that should be experienced in person during their invariably cathartic and incendiary concerts. It is a band that strives to stay true to its ethos, its soul haunted but never enthralled by the ghosts of its musical ancestors and battered icons. Their influences create joyful chaos: the musical walls of noise of My Bloody Valentine, the No-Wave drones of Swans, the psychedelic vapours of Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Post-Shoegaze eclecticism of Six-By-Seven. Standardized opens with Biting the Dawn, a Noise elegy that builds with relentless intensity. Léo's recitative voice soars above a searing blend of saturated guitars and echo-drenched drums. Next, Merry Xmas unleashes sharp, incisive guitar riffs reminiscent of Gang of Four and Fugazi, only to surprise with a dramatic twist that builds to a breathtaking, soaring climax echoing the brilliance of Ride’s most epic moments. Rough Up emerges as a Velvet Underground-inspired ballad, built on two simple acoustic guitar chords and an organ, showcasing a more subdued and vulnerable side of the band. In contrast, Standardized plunges into a powerful trance, unleashing a massive, deliciously primal wall of saturation with raw, unfiltered intensity. With Standardized, Stuffed Foxes appear to have reached an aesthetic milestone, transcending the semantics of the genres that once defined them. They have ‘de-standardized’ their sound and embraced a sense of freedom, opening up to the possibilities of a wider creative spectrum. Stuffed Foxes - Pretend to Be a Dog (Gamelle) (Official Video)

Zum ersten Mal alle großartigen Songs von Vladimir Cosma auf einer Doppel-Vinyl.

Darunter die berühmten 80er Jahre Titel "Dreams" und "Your Eyes". Vladimir Cosma (* 13. April 1940 in Bukarest) ist ein rumänisch-französischer Filmkomponist, Violinist und Dirigent. Vladimir Cosma wurde in eine Musikerfamilie geboren, sein Vater ist der Dirigent Teodor Cosma. Nachdem Vladimir Cosma am Bukarester Conservatorium den ersten Preis in den Fächern Violine und Komposition gewonnen hatte, setzte er sein Studium ab 1963 am Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris fort, wo er mit Nadia Boulanger zusammenarbeitete. 1966 lernte er den Filmkomponisten Michel Legrand kennen, der sein Interesse für die Filmmusik weckte und für den er zunächst als Arrangeur arbeitete. 1967 begann seine langjährige Zusammenarbeit mit dem Regisseur Yves Robert, die bis zu dessen Tod im Jahr 2002 andauerte. Im Laufe seiner Karriere hat er eine Reihe von Regisseuren mehrmals die Filmmusik geschrieben, für Yves Robert (13 Filme), Pierre Richard (fünf Filme), Pascal Thomas (elf Filme), Claude Zidi (zehn Filme), Gérard Oury (fünf Filme), Édouard Molinaro (sechs Filme), Claude Pinoteau (sieben Filme) oder Francis Veber (sieben Filme). Er vertonte außerdem drei Filme von Louis de Funès und zwei von Jean-Paul Belmondo.

'Mei Semones' sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. "Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new - that's what feels most natural to me," says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singersongwriter and guitarist. "It's what feels most true to who I am as an artist." `Tsukino', Mei's debut, self-released EP, is being released physically for the first time ever on Bayonet Records! The EP will be released by itself on CD & Tape formats, and will be included in a vinyl pressing on the B-side of Semones' landmark EP, `Kebutomushi'! Plinking guitar tones and asymmetrical time signatures exemplify Semones' forays into angular indie rock more now than ever before. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music. College is where she met her current bandmates, including string players Noah Leong and Claudius Agrippa, whose respective viola and violin add softness and multidimensionality to Mei's intricate guitar work. After releasing a slew of singles and an EP in 2022, coinciding with her move to New York City, Mei and her band have since gone on to collaborate with post-bossa balladeer John Roseboro and embark on their first-ever tour with the melodic rock outfit Raavi. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete with sweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English and Japanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genrefusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on the universalities of human emotion.

As a key representative of French neo-soul with ambitious intentions, the singer, songwriter, and composer Enchantée Julia has truly made her mark on the French scene with her second EP LONGO MAÏ, released in 2022 and available on vinyl for the first time. On this cathartic yet hedonistic project, whose title is a nod to her southern origins, she collaborates with the Saint-Etienne duo Terrenoire and rapper Benjamin Epps.

Julia places even more emphasis on vocal harmonies and sophisticated arrangements, whether on upbeat, sunny tracks or delicate, intimate ballads like "MOUSSA" (produced by The Hop), a personal and sensitive ode to the one she shares her life with—a mix of cathartic song and a message of hope, referencing the tough challenges they’ve faced together. The fear of happiness and love slipping through her fingers is also present in "VÉNUS," composed and arranged by Bastien Cabezon and Oscar Emch. As the opening track of the EP, it showcases Julia’s mastery in blending the French language with neo-soul influences from across the Atlantic, laying the foundation for a unique universe that unfolds throughout the project. The second single, "PLUS FORT QUE MOI," breaks down genre barriers: Julia’s enchanting voice is wrapped in a pop-driven production with electronic hints, crafted by Terrenoire. She continues this pop momentum with "QUESTIONS," where she releases her torments—both trivial and profound—over a groove-laden production with sharp percussion, courtesy of the much sought-after Parisian producer Crayon. Julia's bewitching voice shines on the bittersweet "SOS," which bears the scars of a past relationship. On "LONGO MAÏ," a dreamy ballad with trap-inspired rhythms, Enchantée Julia invites rapper Benjamin Epps for an anthem about brighter days ahead, reminding us of the importance of familial love. To close this second EP, Julia reunites with long-time friends, brothers Théo and Raphaël Herrerias, who form the duo Terrenoire. "TOUCHER TOI" forms a diptych with the track "MOUSSA" and reveals Julia's full potential, as she shines here in a French chanson style that she has previously explored less.

“Music is my forever cove,” writes Portland, Oregon’s Luke Wyland of the ideas that give shape to Kuma Cove, his latest album under his own name. Though named after a real place on the Oregon coast, Kuma Cove casts its gaze far beyond the sightseer’s line of vision. Recorded live in the studio and blurring obvious lines between computer-based composition and electro-acoustic instrumentation, it is an album about flow, borders, transitory states, and shelter. Composed of discontinuous ripples and repetitions (“I’m forever searching for a better descriptor than looping, which feels too simple and flattened by overuse,” Wyland says), shaped into richly emotive arcs, and informed by his experience as a person who stutters, it is also an album about identity, self-expression, and the energies that sluice through and across what we perceive as linear time—like floodwaters seeking an exit, like streams running into the sea.

Artist’s Statement:
I made this record while spending significant time in the woods by the Sandy River in Corbett, Oregon,
where I've had my studio for the last five years. It is a diary of spontaneous live recordings edited to highlight the moments of clarity that emerge from long-form improvisations. These compositions express a slowing internal rhythm. An unwinding. A somatic recalibration as I enter middle age. A newly empowered vulnerability.

Here are the internalized cadences of my stutter, flowing freely from my fingers. The musicality of my disfluency is revealed in its frictions, elongations, and foreshortenings. Disruptions in linear time, where the bubbling cadences of my stutter find unexpected pathways, reveal the elasticity of the present moment. This is my idiosyncratic language, shaped and inspired by my disability. Subliminally mirroring internal processes, neural firings, cognitive entanglements...

The title, Kuma Cove, refers to a beloved cove on the coast of Oregon my wife and I return to yearly. There has always been something so magnetic about coves. The way they cradle one from the overwhelming enormity of the ocean beyond, muting a primordial fear. I experience these improvisations as ecosystems I'm able to inhabit for stretches of time, embodying the particular rhythms and sensorial textures within each. Music is my forever cove. Everything you hear is created live in Ableton on a setup I've been honing for 15 years. I celebrate MIDI and computer music as an extension of self and strive to make it as expressive as any analog instrument. I was a visual artist for the first half of my life and quickly adapted those skills to composing and producing on a computer. The transition felt natural within the landscape of DAW's interfaces, especially as a synesthete. Ableton and its community of Max creators continue to surprise me with its expansiveness.

I'm forever searching for a better descriptor than looping, which feels too simple and flattened by overuse. I envision sonic loops as tangled masses of time, three-dimensional knots spinning on tilted axes, or overlapping wreaths refracting out a myriad of colors. My practice is continually refocusing my ear to what is revealed in the repetitions, searching for the fingerprint of each. I find it incredible how technology lets us manipulate time like this. Nothing on this record is quantized or locked to a universal bpm. Experiencing numerous tempos at once feels important. Recordings as mirrors. Freedom from expected (conversational) flow as we hold time for each other.
-Luke Wyland, August 2024

Artist Bio:
Luke Wyland is an interdisciplinary artist, composer, and performer based in Portland, OR (USA). Wyland has been releasing critically acclaimed records for the past 20 years in the groups AU and Methods Body, as LWW, and under his own name, working with such labels as New Amsterdam, Beacon Sound, Balmat, The Leaf Label, and Aagoo Records. As a person who stutters, Wyland’s approach to music is informed by his idiosyncratic relationship with language. Wyland believes deeply in the cathartic power of live performance as a means for collective healing. Through an interdisciplinary art practice that focuses on improvisation, somatic embodiment, bespoke tuning systems, the cadences of disfluent speech, and time manipulation technologies, he’s collaborated with choreographers, high-school choirs, filmmakers, sound designers, and renowned musicians such as John Niekrasz, Holland Andrews, Colin Stetson, and Abraham Gomez-Delgado. He’s also the co-creator of the “It’s A Fucking Miracle” dance class with Tahni Holt.
Wyland has toured nationally and internationally and performed at the Whitney Museum, Ecstatic Music Festival, Issue Project Room, PICA’s Time-Based Arts Festival, End of the Road Festival, and Les Nuits Botanique, among others.

LP Ltd vinyl picture disc version w/ DL card, 500 pressed. Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome. Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas' left-field song-craft, Magaletti's singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai's long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop. These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album's title track and the constrained minimalism of "Subito", to the ambitious heights of pieces like 'The Down Below' and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker. Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date.

Just under a year after their acclaimed self-titled debut, dreampop duo deary release a brand new six-track EP – Aurelia – via Sonic Cathedral on November 1. It includes the singles ‘The Moth’, ‘Selene’ and ‘The Drift’ and features Slowdive drummer Simon Scott playing on three songs. It will be available on three different vinyl variants, a CD with three bonus tracks and digitally. It’s a stunning record, which displays a new-found maturity in terms of production as well as musically and lyrically. The band – singer Rebecca ‘Dottie’ Cockram and guitarist/producer Ben Easton – have had to grow up in public since the release of their debut single at the start of 2023, supporting legends such as Slowdive and Cranes and TikTok sensations like Wisp along the way. An aurelian is a rare old term for a lepidopterist – someone who studies and collects moths – derived from the Latin aurelia, meaning chrysalis. The perfect title for an EP which is based around the theme of metamorphosis and change. “It leans on the natural world, the human body, the earth and sky as well as human emotion,” says Ben of how the EP represents physical and metaphysical growth. “Change can be daunting but equally exciting, which is something we’ve come to learn.” “While writing the EP, I found a letter I had written to myself when I was 22,” adds Dottie. “I was fresh out of university and had moved back in with my parents as Covid was in full force. I was uninspired and lost and reaching out to my future self for some hope. It was a physical representation of what can happen in a few years; how much can change and how you never know what’s coming next. “I found it interesting that – at the age of 26 – here I was looking back to my younger self for hope or just some comfort in the fact that things will and do move on. It was important to me to bring both of these versions of myself into the new songs.” “Personally, I had noticed a change in myself; a new level of social anxiety, a strange disassociation to things that once brought me joy as well as negative repetitions in my daily life,” reveals Ben. “I began the year sober which allowed me to finish the writing process as a letter of care to my own mental health. There are motifs throughout the EP – for example the riffs in ‘The Moth’ and ‘The Drift’ being reminiscent of each other – which are like musical reflections of these repeated cycles.” It’s musically where the change deary have undergone is most obvious. ‘The Moth’ mixes howling guitars atop a strident breakbeat making it more Curve than Cocteaus; ‘Selene’ is a slow-building wall of noise; ‘The Drift’ combines a perfect pop melody with an incredible sense of urgency. These three singles are balanced by the brief but beautiful ‘Where You Are’ which leads into the Portishead-style trip-hop of ‘Dream Of Me’. The title track has been a staple of their live sets for about a year as ‘Can’t Sleep Tonight’, but its mix of The Cure circa Disintegration and Mezzanine Massive Attack has grown and evolved so much that they renamed it ‘Aurelia’ as the embodiment of the change they have been through. “We’ve allowed deary to naturally grow over the past year, we didn’t want to force it to take a certain shape or sound,” explains Dottie of the duo’s slow and steady approach. “A lot of the last EP was written by sending ideas back and forth over WhatsApp, but this time we were able to sit in the same room and I think that really shows. We know each other a lot better now as we have experienced this journey together and that benefits the writing process as we are more open with each other and can be vulnerable.” “Aurelia definitely feels a lot more collaborative, more personal and more fully realised than the first EP,” concludes Ben. “It feels like a real document of what has been a very important time in both of our lives. Ironically, the band has changed and matured even more since the recording, so we’re both excited to document the next stage

This Autumn sees the release of Gavin Friday’s much-awaited new album, Ecce Homo, his first in over thirteen years, and via BMG. It is a work that heralds a fuller, more sonorous, form of expression for this ever-evolving artist, one that transcends the prescribed conventions of genre, breaks new ground and brooks no compromise. Where loss, filial grief, remorse and existential disquiet were the more conspicuous tenets of Friday’s 2011 release, catholic, the presiding spirit of Ecce Homo is altogether freer, less shackled, and sovereign — indomitable, too. Self-tyranny and its capitulations have here been sublimated into strength and enduring triumph. The credo is that of a man beheld, yes, but never beholden. Recorded in Dublin and London, Ecce Homo is produced by Dave Ball (of Soft Cell), Michael Heffernan and Riccardo Mulhall. Featuring the singles ‘Ecce Homo’ and ‘The Church of Love’, the album will be available as a Limited Edition 1LP Transparent Blue, 1CD & Digital.

Vanishing Twin furthers their exploration of decidedly experimental territories with Afternoon X. Crafted with a playful balance of humour and rigour, with each member embracing the role of the multi-instrumentalist and process, over outcome. Following a series of line-up changes, Vanishing Twin is now the tightly honed collective of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti (Holy Tongue, Tomaga, Moin) and bassist Susumu Mukai (Zongamin). Harnessing the diverse touchstones of its members; Lucas’ left-field song-craft, Magaletti’s singular approaches to experimental percussion, and Mukai’s long history in the production of electronic music, the band has refined a hypnotic sound at the juncture of minimalism, kosmische, post-punk, and dream-laden, psychedelic pop. These eight fluttering abstractions, culled, collaged, and built upon from a vast constellation of instruments, samples, and unclaimed sources. Lucas employs her voice as an instrument and a generator of raw sound, weaving surreal imagery and uncanny juxtapositions amongst the dance and propellant drive. From infectious grooves of the album’s title track and the constrained minimalism of “Subito”, to the ambitious heights of pieces like ‘The Down Below’ and Lazy Garden, which unfurl a psychedelic avant-gardism on the scope and scale of David Axelrod and Scott Walker. Vanishing Twin embark upon a new multifaceted journey that collectively culminates as the bands most forward-thinking and groundbreaking release to date

Xylitol is the alias of Catherine Backhouse, producer and DJ under the name DJ Bunnyhausen. She was a resident DJ at Kosmische, the now dormant Krautrock club and is a fan of jungle and hardcore. She currently co-hosts the radio show Slav To The Rhythm, which focuses on vintage central and eastern European pop and electronica and she's also co-writing a book on Yugoslavian pop culture. 'Anemones' is a total project from the cover to the music. Backhouse is fascinated by early botanical illustrations of anemones and other aquatic fauna, and how the act of taxonomy reveals as much about human psychology, desire and sublimation as it does about the organic specimen as a thing in itself. Each track is a microcosm of this 'other life', an allegory for the extraordinary potential latent within bodies that the dancefloor has the power to activate. Using early jungle and garage as starting points to connect dots and open up contrasts between dance music and vintage electronics, Backhouse finds a sweet spot which, in her words "feels like something that's simultaneously still and ancient yet propulsive and ecstatic." Not afraid of letting the the hiss and flutter of the music show, 'Anemones' holds attention with ancient bubbling synths and gracefully drifting arpeggiations, occasionally brought to heel by charming melodies, all accompanied by breakbeats that explode like fireworks. 'Anemones' has a lively and unpolished aesthetic that's a kindred spirit to Nondi_'s 2023 album of smeary, water-damaged footwork, 'Flood City Trax'. 'Moebius' pits the spaced out neon chords of the track's namesake against absolutely tearing breaks, allowing time for this almost overwhelming combination to become near enough transcendental, while the bleeping melody and sad slavic chorus motif in 'Okko' feels like an artifact from an alternative future. The Drexciya meets 2-step garage of 'Dobro Jutro' creates a welcome respite at the album's midpoint before the flow builds up again to 'Daša' with its glassy sounds from a lost radiophonic workshop miniature meeting bruising kicks and snares. Meanwhile 'Iskria' has purring synth chords and 8-bit melodies evoking the cosmonaut age. The subliminal influence of the Yugo era is felt in DIY synthesis and Mitteleuropean melody and seen in song titles such as 'Jelena', 'Miha', 'Daša' (named after novelist Daša Drndič) and 'Iskria' (taken from the fictitious Balkan region in Ottessa Moshfegh's bleak fable 'Lapvona'). 'Anemones' very effectively folds experimental genres from different times and places into a very enjoyable new sound.

The Congos were formed by Cedric Myton (born 1947 St Catherine, Jamaica) and Roydel ‘Roy’ Johnson (born 1943 Hanover, Jamaica), around the mid-seventies, a time when the Rasta message coming out of Kingston and other pockets of the Jamaican Island was at its most prominent. Cedric Myton’s singing career began back in the rocksteady era in Reggae’s musical story.

He formed the ‘Tartans’ group taking lead vocal duties alongside Devon Russell, Prince Lincoln Thompson and Lindbergh Lewis. They cut ‘Dance All Night’ (1967) and ‘Coming On Strong’ (1968). The line-up reduced to a two piece, Cedric and Devon Russell, when tracks like ‘What a Sin Thing’ and ‘Short Up Dress’ were cut. This line-up became the Royal Rasses, Cedric formed The Congos, on meeting Roydel Johnson. Roydel previously sang as a member of Ras Michael and the Sons of Negas, cutting such tracks as ’Go To Zion’ (1973). As we can see Cedric’s and Roydel’s Rasta roots were firmly in place by the time they had formed The Congos sometimes called ‘The Congoes’.

The Congos possess what all bands look for,that unique sound that draws the listener to them.Lead singer Cedric Myton’s style and phasing, with his distinctive Falsetto voice makes this just the case.Built on a foundation of classic rhythms and with the aid of then Producer, Lee Perry, the groups statement of intent was laid down with one succinct message. The Congos mighty 1977 ‘Heart of the Congos’ album, is quite simply one of the best reggae albums ever recorded.

Producer Lee Perry had wanted to record a classic Jamaican vocal group in his newly built Black Ark Studio. The voice of Watty Burnett was added at the time to cover baritone vocal duties. The studio after various changes in equipment etc. was finally finding its way. A sound built in Lee Perry’s back yard in Cardiff Crescent, Washington Gardens, Kingston, but existing until then in Mr Lee Perry’s mind. The album they cut would be the defining group release to come out of The Black Ark studios, when the vital elements, vibes, musicians, songs and singing would gel to form ‘Heart Of The Congos’. Come the time of it’s release 1977, Lee Perry was in dispute with Island Records and opted to release the record on his own ‘Black Art’ label. Without the high-profile push of a major label, the record undersold and caused a split between producer and band. Under different circumstances maybe this album would be sitting in thousands of homes alongside the Bob Marley, Culture, Burning Spear releases. Cedric Myton went on to release albums with the French arm of the CBS label and Roy Johnson records and tours as Congo Ashanti Roy.

Cedric Myton the central force carries on the mantle of the Congos and we at Kingston Sounds are proud to pick up the story with another set of vocal statements, which sees Cedric cut some of his finest tunes. Helped along by another reggae legend Brent Dowe, lead singer of the Melodians (Rivers of Babylon), over some classic 1970’s rhythms. Yet again we find that magic formula of strong statements working alongside classic rhythms making the balance work. The Rasta message is still strong on modern classics like ‘King Rastafari Is His Name’, ‘Rasta Congo Man’ and the injustices of the world dissected in tunes ‘Some A Thief’, ‘Watch & Pray’ and the prophetical, ‘Citizen Of The World’.

Once touched by magic it does not fade away, but resurfaces as it has with what we believe to be some of the Congos most heartfelt and meaningful set of songs ...... Let the feast begin.

Red in Clear Vinyl. First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness.Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)").Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future."The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice.The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From post-industrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive. The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic. Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth. Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars _ alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring _ ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album - a winding, almost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile - is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self-awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical _ and ultimately as forgiving _ of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death. Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree California, and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of old and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve into superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that interrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts its sacredness. Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock song meditation: an ode to the form and its practitioners. This genre that _ typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be _ somehow still has the power to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I love rock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a song guided by faith _ if the medium helps us proclaim our love today, it's worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where music seems to love hitting its head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red Mile is the sound _ the feeling! _ of the bricks giving way.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive. The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic. Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth. Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars _ alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring _ ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album - a winding, almost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile - is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self-awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical _ and ultimately as forgiving _ of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death. Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree California, and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of old and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve into superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that interrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts its sacredness. Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock song meditation: an ode to the form and its practitioners. This genre that _ typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be _ somehow still has the power to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I love rock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a song guided by faith _ if the medium helps us proclaim our love today, it's worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where music seems to love hitting its head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red Mile is the sound _ the feeling! _ of the bricks giving way.

Tristen Colby's Rhinestone Pickup Truck races ahead with Self-Deprecation At Hourly Rates, refining his garage rock sound with sharp hooks and personal lyrics. The album balances polish with raw energy, drawing from Nirvana to newer acts like Bass Drum of Death and amidst the vigor lies introspection, as Colby navigates personal struggles, making this album a cathartic journey. As Colby gears up for 2024 tours, Self-Deprecation At Hourly Rates establishes him as a force in American garage rock. The vinyl edition is a cloudy pink 12'' vinyl limited to only 300 copies worldwide via PNKSLM Recordings.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

"Remembering is not the opposite of forgetting," Casey MQ sings at the start of Later that day, the day before, or the day before that, his new LP and Ghostly International debut. It's a phrase fittingly misremembered from something the LA-based, Canadian-born composer came upon as he spiraled into unconscious and subconscious-led writing sessions at the piano. Casey's known for his 2020 breakthrough release babycasey, which gave voice to songs seen through the lens of childhood, various film score work and collaborations with artists such as Oklou (who returns here), Eartheater, and Vagabon. His gifts as a producer and songwriter are rooted in textural world-building and the excavation of personal truth. With Later that day... he questions what is true entirely, understanding our mind's tendency to bend and project onto pictures of the past. Across vivid, baroque pop balladry, Casey MQ reorients his recording project and point of view under the notion that memories are malleable. All the joy, pain, love, and loss housed within remembrance is open to interpretation and deconstruction, which he does deftly, with curiosity and complete artistic freedom. "It's a memory album," Casey puts it simply, winding up for the deeper unpacking, "and it might be a breakup album, too_there are more questions than answers." Engaging his dreams and sitting with sheet music at his newly acquired piano, he looked to new and old inspirations including the works of Claude Debussy, Joni Mitchell, and Joe Hisaishi's beloved Studio Ghibli film scores. "Since I was young, I always wanted to write a piano album." babycasey's studied electronic sound isn't wholly abandoned on Later that day... instead, it comes through like an atmosphere, giving Casey's more spacious, minimal arrangements a distinct luster and sheen. The textures and tones shift from song to song as if mirroring the way our minds constantly recontextualize, remember, and forget. Cathartic opener "Grey Gardens" _ its title derived from a dream abstractly related to the Toronto restaurant, but not the 1975 film, which he cites as another coincidental false memory _ presents the record's plaintive, haunted feeling. "Even if not reading into lyrics, sonically I wanted it to feel like you're being pulled into a universe. Not fantasy or otherworldly per se, something more tangible, of the body and mind," Casey says. "Hearing it back, I realized this track was the key to unlocking it." His tender falsetto hovers above ambient washes and echoed keys, each word falling carefully in the crevices. "Asleep At The Wheel" unfolds on arpeggiated synth before a burst of symphonic color; the synth returns inverted to harmonize with the outro, "I love a car crash, I love a story, I love a memory, I swear it's real..." Casey leans into digital imagination on the warm, introspective "Me I Think I Found It." Subdued, stuttered percussion underscores the singer as he cycles through pixelated imagery _ screenshots, smiles, streetlights _ searching for higher meaning through love. Built on ascendent chord distortions, "Dying Til I'm Born" gives the record one of its boldest pulses of emotion. The back half stretches out; "Is This Only Water" is sparse and foggy, "Baby Voice" is intimate and desperate for something to remain. "Words For Love" grooves on guitar, and "Tennisman9" aches in heartbreak. French musician Marylou Mayniel, aka Oklou, appears as the collection's only guest for the closing duet, "The Make Believe," a bright and buoyant send-off that gives Later that day... both a sense of resolve and cyclical-motion. "We are young, under the sun," they sing together, a parting image brimming with lightness.

"Remembering is not the opposite of forgetting," Casey MQ sings at the start of Later that day, the day before, or the day before that, his new LP and Ghostly International debut. It's a phrase fittingly misremembered from something the LA-based, Canadian-born composer came upon as he spiraled into unconscious and subconscious-led writing sessions at the piano. Casey's known for his 2020 breakthrough release babycasey, which gave voice to songs seen through the lens of childhood, various film score work and collaborations with artists such as Oklou (who returns here), Eartheater, and Vagabon. His gifts as a producer and songwriter are rooted in textural world-building and the excavation of personal truth. With Later that day... he questions what is true entirely, understanding our mind's tendency to bend and project onto pictures of the past. Across vivid, baroque pop balladry, Casey MQ reorients his recording project and point of view under the notion that memories are malleable. All the joy, pain, love, and loss housed within remembrance is open to interpretation and deconstruction, which he does deftly, with curiosity and complete artistic freedom. "It's a memory album," Casey puts it simply, winding up for the deeper unpacking, "and it might be a breakup album, too_there are more questions than answers." Engaging his dreams and sitting with sheet music at his newly acquired piano, he looked to new and old inspirations including the works of Claude Debussy, Joni Mitchell, and Joe Hisaishi's beloved Studio Ghibli film scores. "Since I was young, I always wanted to write a piano album." babycasey's studied electronic sound isn't wholly abandoned on Later that day... instead, it comes through like an atmosphere, giving Casey's more spacious, minimal arrangements a distinct luster and sheen. The textures and tones shift from song to song as if mirroring the way our minds constantly recontextualize, remember, and forget. Cathartic opener "Grey Gardens" _ its title derived from a dream abstractly related to the Toronto restaurant, but not the 1975 film, which he cites as another coincidental false memory _ presents the record's plaintive, haunted feeling. "Even if not reading into lyrics, sonically I wanted it to feel like you're being pulled into a universe. Not fantasy or otherworldly per se, something more tangible, of the body and mind," Casey says. "Hearing it back, I realized this track was the key to unlocking it." His tender falsetto hovers above ambient washes and echoed keys, each word falling carefully in the crevices. "Asleep At The Wheel" unfolds on arpeggiated synth before a burst of symphonic color; the synth returns inverted to harmonize with the outro, "I love a car crash, I love a story, I love a memory, I swear it's real..." Casey leans into digital imagination on the warm, introspective "Me I Think I Found It." Subdued, stuttered percussion underscores the singer as he cycles through pixelated imagery _ screenshots, smiles, streetlights _ searching for higher meaning through love. Built on ascendent chord distortions, "Dying Til I'm Born" gives the record one of its boldest pulses of emotion. The back half stretches out; "Is This Only Water" is sparse and foggy, "Baby Voice" is intimate and desperate for something to remain. "Words For Love" grooves on guitar, and "Tennisman9" aches in heartbreak. French musician Marylou Mayniel, aka Oklou, appears as the collection's only guest for the closing duet, "The Make Believe," a bright and buoyant send-off that gives Later that day... both a sense of resolve and cyclical-motion. "We are young, under the sun," they sing together, a parting image brimming with lightness.

repressed !

Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.

Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.

Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.

Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.

“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”

In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.

Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.

On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”

Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.

Cathartic avant-rock, literate DIY folk & experimental composition exploring displacement, love, climate change, belonging & the places we call home - RIYL Jim O’Rourke, Richard Youngs, This Heat, Richard Dawson, Flying Nun. ‘Real Home’ is the new album by the Manchester-born, London-based artist Kiran Leonard. His sixth album proper (not including innumerable tour-only CD-Rs and short-run cassettes), since his precocious debut in 2013, ‘Real Home’ finds Leonard invigorated by inspiration and experience, making passionate, literate, and mercurial music that explores displacement, love, memory, climate change, connections to home and more. Encompassing songs recorded after moving to South London, ‘Real Home’ reflects on ideas of belonging and domesticity through folkloric, stream-of-consciousness songwriting. Across nine tracks, Leonard traces lived impressions of the household and the city, expressing sentiments of dislocation, alienation and stasis, but contentment too. Infusing the avant-rock effervescence, terraced dynamics and visionary lyricism of his music with what he defines as a greater sense of openness, Leonard is as versatile, fervent and imaginative as ever on ‘Real Home’, yet his music is somehow more intimate, affecting, and acutely expressive. Shaped by dual considerations of simplicity and formalism, ‘Real Home’ is by turns beautiful, allusive, and ruminative, an album on which Leonard considers what his songs have resembled in the past and what they mean now. In recent years, Leonard has crafted eloquent chamber music inspired by the likes of James Joyce and Clarice Lispector (‘Derevaun Seraun’), responded to contemporary politics and communication breakdown in the digital age (‘Western Culture’), and compiled solo works and ensemble recordings for a longform ode to Jonas Mekas and to one of Leonard’s enduring themes; home (‘Trespass On Foot’). On ‘Real Home’, Leonard reiterates this abiding thematic focus yet ascends to new, different heights, in music of cathartic delicacy and dissonance where all the myriad dimensions of his work to date seem to crystallize. There are sinuous songs about struggle and defying the pace of city life through drift and diversion (‘Pass Between Houses’), stirring songs of intense feeling and crescendo, described as a form of speculative detective fiction (‘Theatre for Change’). There are touching solo piano ballads (the title track), symbolic contentions with carbon capture and climate change (‘Utopia of Bog’), modes of experimental minimalism (‘Void Attentive’), and other profuse feats of compositional range, embroidered with wild tendrils of narrative and lyrical depth. A record to pore over, and get lost in. Exemplifying the vast aesthetic scope of Leonard’s music, lead single ‘My Love, Let’s Take The Stage Tonight’ is inspired by country lodestar Hank Williams, Russian poetry and a late period love poem by William Carlos Williams. Yet for Leonard, the song signals a sense of accessible materiality, and is the product of a more linear approach to writing songs: “My imitation of the great Hank Williams, in spirit if not in substance…This is one of the best efforts on Real Home at a song-as-object. Looking at it now I realise I was trying to write a song that made itself known as a song to the listener, and I wonder whether that’s crucial if you want a song to transcend its context. And that this is either accomplished through a total openness – by being inviting, by laying the tricks of the song out plain to see, as Williams and his many ghostwriters did so well – or by adopting a knowing aloofness, positioning oneself against the listener but letting it be known that that’s what it’s doing. In this song I try both, but mostly the former: as in, I wanted to write a song where every line follows on from the next.” Imbuing the endlessly elaborate and inventive qualities of his music with a newfound streak of candid, clear-cut melodicism, Leonard has reached a special place in his artistry, on a record that feels familial, and expresses closeness. Assembled with affiliates including Lauren Auder, Otto Willberg, Jasper Llewellyn (caroline), Tom Hardwick-Allan (Shovel Dance Collective), Magda McLean (caroline, The Umlauts), Alex Mckenzie (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective), Isabelle Thorn (Dear Laika) & more, the recording process had a significant influence on the subject matter of ‘Real Home’, in sessions defined by close-knit camaraderie and artistic eccentricity: “The theme of the home obviously recurs throughout the record; the album was mostly recorded in domestic spaces with friends, and the name of the album is Real Home. I like the qualifier ‘real’, like you’re getting past the cloak of the word and towards the thing-itself…also nearly all the percussion in this record was recorded on items from my dad’s shed (jam jars, sandpaper, blocks of wood, etc). Real home record!” ‘Real Home’, like anything by Kiran Leonard, is a record of dazzling multiplicity. Yet it’s a companionable prospect with a central premise; a collection of songs where listeners old and new can find a home. An album led by a scene; of Leonard standing at the threshold, ready to welcome you inside. “Exceptional songs that linger” - The Guardian // “An autodidact of amazing talent & energy” – Pitchfork // “A ridiculous amount of talent…confrontational, celebratory, provocative or perverse – he manages all of these emotions & more” - The Quietus /

1000 copies worldwide. Deluxe 30th anniversary re-issue of cult Boston band's 1992 debut. Featuring the intense guitar interplay of Thalia Zedek and Chris Brokaw. Acclaimed by Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis, Husker Du's Bob Mould and Kurt Cobain. An awe-inspiring collision of noise via American blues-rock with thunderous rhythms holding together every six-string duel. A cathartic and euphoric hail of noise that's succinctly tailored for maximum effect. An album that defined Zadek and Brokaw's songwriting partnerships as one of the most original bands of the 90s, tirelessly meshing their blues-infected ballads with feedback and epic instrumental breakdowns. "A uniquely sludgy, electric, and strong fusion of sounds and styles, combining extreme angst and commanding power." AllMusic // In addition, the nine original tracks are extended with the 'Fast Piss Blues' single and its flipside, a cover of The Rolling Stones' 'I Got the Blues'. The re-issue package also includes a download link to 'Live At Vermonstress Festival' recorded on the 10th on November 1992. "Like watching someone howl into a rainstorm."" Entertainment Weekly // "A suitably visceral live recording." Record Collector

A humanity-reminding suite of miracle moments, Someone Like Me unites a geographically unbound cast of real people in pursuit of a meaningful connection. Taping their lived experience in economic studios in quiet English counties, Pacific Northwest woodland retreats and the big city bustle of Sydney and Los Angeles, these kindred spirits rendered sheer beauty in the process. Custom pressed folk songs of love, loss and the lord saviour.

Illuminating minor works from seasoned players such as former Syndicate Of Sound chart-topper Sharkey and late-era Canned Heat lynchpin James Thornbury, the collection simultaneously honours the fleeting amateurism of hobby musicians. With their one shot at tangible vinyl, freshman Lynne Ann Kingan realised her loose bubblegum rocker on campus time, while U.S. Navy recruit Fred Potts cut his unconditionally serene ballad remotely stationed on a Spanish naval base. Spartan production continues to reign with Jon Betmead’s hair-raising gospel, howling into infinite space, and Goldrust’s stripped back garden hymn.

Throughout the hour-long reflection, faith has an intermittent yet revelatory presence, most overtly with the divine choral soul of Seventh-day Adventist quartet Remnant. More subtly, Gary Ramey and Jim Kennedy both turned to song in their spiritual quests, offering their all to a universal power. An irrefutable compilation cornerstone, the National Office For Black Catholics showcased Charles Murphy’s lionhearted account of the Black experience at a 1971 concert. Five years earlier, high school seniors The Superwomen would use their hauntingly angelic harmonies to address racial inequity with a breathless take on ‘Lowlands’.

Reaching the furthest corners, Someone Like Me secures the inaugural licence of three homespun masterpieces. Discovered by fluke in the digital haystacks of Youtube and Soundcloud, Jim Huxley’s bedroom pop earworm melds peacefully into Charlie Webster’s synthesized reverie. Meanwhile, Hollywood’s John Agostino introduces us to the bizarre world of tax scam records, with the artist only now learning that his tender psych-folk demos were leaked via a 1977 bootleg.

Compiled and lovingly restored by armchair digger Mikey Young (Eddy Current Suppression Ring/The Green Child), Someone Like Me pays due service to seventeen rarefied journals of truth and devotion. Adorned with visual artist Chris Fallon’s figure and flora dream extractions, the uniting songbook is further detailed by expansive track-by-track liner notes and a forward from San Franciscan poet Rod Roland.

Limited edition - 180g vinyl - deluxe gatefold sleeve, remastered from the original tapes by Rinaldo Donati, Maxine Studio, Milano. Cut and pressed by German audiophile specialist, Pallas Group. 1985 was perhaps the best year of the last phase of Baker's career and his recordings with Philip Catherine and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse are clear proof of this. These, in general, are of great artistic standing and show that the trio, born almost extemporaneously, had turned into a real group, in which the musicians conversed with each other, but also had ample spaces to express themselves as soloists. A trio without piano and drums in which the lyricism of Baker's trumpet, Catherine's nervous guitar phrasing, as well as the solidity of Rassinfosse's constant rhythmic drive, ensured the music a surprising balance based on contrasts.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.

Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.

Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.

Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.

“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”

In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.

Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.

On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”

Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.

Khôra is the medium Matthew Ramolo uses to delve deeply into initiatory world-building by way of sound, image, and lyrical prose. Figuring wholly realized art-myths which distill and rouse the numinous while provoking the visceral and cathartic, Khôra intricately collages studio documents of ritualized instrumental performances, introducing overdubs by transient, heteronymic personae which dismantle stable points of reference in the music and open uncommon planes of consciousness.

"Gestures of Perception" is Khôra’s first double album with a supporting artbook and features a fascinating array of sources subjected to patterned assembly, poetic layering, and the elevations of the heart. Deft handling of modular synthesis is palpably central, while feedback, erhu, keys, flute, contact electronics, guitar, field sounds, and various percussion objects (rattle and frame drums, seed pod sticks, random metal objects, meditation bowls, kalimbas, bells) all serve to provide breathing structures and energetic contours that guide and scaffold inner and outer journeys into the far-near. Prominent across the record's span is a home-built, solenoid drum machine, responsible for the alive and askew techno-archaic flows and conceived as the album’s "rhythm seed”. The music on Gestures is teeming with organic and alien textures, soaring drones, inter-dimensional noises, and emotionally resonant melodies; balanced on the fringes of exotica and meditative trance, with capacities that untether the listener from the ballast of limited reality.

Operating hermetically in the penumbra of Toronto's cultural scene for well over a decade, Khôra has been invested in self-publishing handcrafted editions of spiritually driven recordings which led to the LP/CD reissue of inaugural album "Silent Your Body Is Endless" by Constellation. Khôra has toured extensively in North America and Europe both solo and in collaboration with Picastro, Nick Kuepfer (Hrsta,1/4 Tonne), and Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Lido Pimienta), generated over a hundred hours of unreleased, bewildering drone through durational performance with experimental outfit Nidus (Marc Couroux, Jason Doell), composed for live dance and independent film, been commissioned by MaerzMusik, and seeded and co-run the now defunct music and art venue Ratio in Toronto.

Janis Joplin wouldn't be denied on Pearl. The powerhouse vocalist had kicked her addictions, teamed with a stupendous band, and partnered with a producer that knew how to best showcase her voice on record. She came to the sessions with an armload of astonishing songs, and a burst of creative energy that mirrored her rejuvenated emotional state and undeniable spirit. You can hear it on every note of the 1971 record. Ranked #135 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, Pearl sold more than four million copies and stands as the first female rock superstar's definitive studio work.

Mastered from the original master tapes, cut at 45RPM, and pressed on dead-quiet vinyl at RTI, the iconic audiophile label's reissue takes Joplin and Co.'s stupendous performances to newly transcendent levels. Boasting a fidelity that further magnifies the singer's passion and producer Paul A. Rothchild's clear production, this pressing benefits from increased spaciousness, dynamics, and openness afforded by the wider grooves. Joplin's husky, strong, and penetrating singing has never sounded so vibrant or made deeper connections. Warm, organic, and free of any artificial ceilings, this version lets you step into Sunset Sound Recorders with the performers, such is the degree of realism and authenticity. Indeed, few, if any words, describe Joplin better than "authentic," and her spirit comes to life on this 2LP set in positively transcendent fashion. Like its headliner, this pressing leaves it all on the floor.

While Joplin's electrifying vocal prowess is universally lauded – she's recognized as the greatest white female blues singer the world has ever seen – her mix of compassion, confidence, and charm play as large a role in attracting listeners and keeping them ensnared more than four decades after her tragic death. And on Pearl, she burrows into deeper stylistic veins, teasing out sides of her persona and craft she'd never previously displayed. Her signature desperation, sadness, and vulnerability remain – the harrowing, lonely wail that begins her soul-ravishing take on Jerry Ragovoy's "Cry Baby," underlined with a Wall of Sound-like piano accompaniment, could only come from a person severely scarred by loss and disappointment – yet Joplin also reveals a sense of humour and beatnik innocence that helped propel the album to the top of the charts for nine straight weeks.

Playfully introduced as "a song of great social and political import," the acapella "Mercedes Benz" reflects Joplin's throaty timbre as well as her enhanced, sunnier mood. Similarly, her definitive read of Kris Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee" signals a laidback demeanour and a move into country strains, with the delivery as natural, carefree, and loving as any in the rock canon. As she does throughout the record, Joplin invests her all in the narrative so that there's no line between the performer and the song. She makes everything on Pearl feel autobiographical, and by extension, gut-wrenchingly honest, and devastatingly intimate. Joplin achieved these feats often during her brief career, yet there are differences on Pearl, chiefly among them her balance of impeccable timing and raw emotion. Heart-aching anthems such as "A Woman Left Lonely" offer both grit and control, subtlety and attack, resulting in cathartic releases distinguished with originality, personality, and instinctual passion.

Pearl remains Joplin's finest hour, with credit also owed to the Full Tilt Boogie Band – the only group she ever considered to be her own – as well as the Doors alum that sat behind the boards. Joplin and Rothchild both admitted to sharing a common bond and understanding, with the latter inheriting the role of teacher and Joplin, a willing student ready to discover how she could use her voice in new, more expressive ways. The fruits of the pair's labours fill Pearl, be it the guardedly optimistic "Get It While You Can" or assertive, fleet-footed "Move Over."

Experienced in the new light brought to fore by this definitive Mobile Fidelity edition, Joplin's swan song is no longer about a masterpiece that its creator never lived to see finished. Rather, it's about a once-in-a-lifetime vocalist realizing mammoth potential and wringing passion out of every note. It's not a tragedy, but a triumph. Get it while you can.

Aural architect Skygaze follows his 2022 ‘Astral Trip EP’ for Flumo Recordings, offering an advanced fusion of house, broken boogie, and future jazz, with five brand new reinterpretations from the extended Flumo family.

Skygaze’s diverse sound, breaking down barriers between house and techno, broken beat, jazz, ambient, hip hop, jungle, and even esoteric IDM, has been showcased across a growing catalogue of releases across Guayaba records, Riverette, Flumo and Thirty Three Circular, and remixes for Ed is Dead and Contours & Yadava; earning the producer support from the likes of Mr. Scruff, Simbad, k15, Bandcamp’s Andrew Jervis, and Gilles Peterson.

Feted singer, musician and producer Alysha Joy, rising producer Divorce From New York, ones-to-watch, Footnote and Karmasound, and Skygaze himself under his Jailed Jamie guise, joined by Lorenzo Soria, put a new spin on ‘Astral Trip’, whilst staying true to the originals’ spirit.

The multi-talented Allysha Joy, of 30/70 Collective & LCSM fame, remixes ‘’Night Heat’’, enhancing the groove with broken beats and her undeniable first-rate vocals.

Jailed Jamie & Lorenzo Soria, reshape ‘’Gimme Five’’ with rough synths and jacking bassline driven “Think” beats.

Divorce From New York boosts the tempo and infuses ‘’Wagwan’’ with Latin rhythms, perfectly balanced by high-energy synth lines.

Italian producers, Footnote and SofaTalk, delve deeper into ‘’Minor Mood’’, adding softer, retro-infused sound structures in a broken boogie mould.

Barcelona’s Karmasound explores the ruminating nature of ‘’City Cathedratics’’ and its counterbalance between broken beat and house.

The diverse but complementary set of remixes is sure to move bodies on sophisticated dance-floors this year and shed further light not only Skygaze’s production but also his talent for melody and song-writing. A feather in his and Flumo’s bow.

DJ Support:

Ashley Beedle (Back To The World Records)

Bolam (Lobster Theremin)

Crazy P (Hot Toddy / 2020 Vision)

Dan Curtin (Mobilee)

Fouk (Heist / Toy Tonics)

Joshua James (XOYO, Glorias, Rinse)

Laurent Garnier (F Communications)

Severino / Horse Meat Disco (Strut / !K7 Records)

Speaking Minds (Circoloco, Italy)

First compiled as a double CD in 2002, Moon's Milk (in Four Phases) is a suite of four EPs that Coil released seasonally via their in-house Eskaton imprint across 1998. The line-up for these sessions were John Balance, Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, Drew McDowall, and William Breeze. Recorded primarily at their home studio in Chiswick, London on the eve of a permanent relocation to the small seaside town of Weston-Super-Mare, the collection has long loomed as a pivotal and pinnacle work in the group's discography, but has never been officially reissued, or repressed on vinyl. Time has only ripened its tapestry of regal strangeness. Arranged sequentially in tribute to the equinoxes and solstices, Moon's Milk captures Coil at a revelatory crossroads, leaning deeper into improvisation, spontaneity, and sound design. "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull" initiates the proceedings on Spring Equinox, a two-part netherworld organ séance woven from vocal drones, cathedral keys, seasick strings, and opiated undertow. From there, Summer Solstice skews lighter but no less incantational, with Balance embracing his voice-as-instrument across lucid dream torch songs ("Bee Stings"), purgatorial spoken word ("Glowworms/Waveforms"), sultry chamber pieces ("Summer Substructures"), and falsetto ravings ("A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz)"). Autumn Equinox exudes more of a pensive and twilit mood, from the Rose McDowall-sung folk ballad "Rosa Decidua" ("I hear your voice sing near to me / I've put away the poisoned chalice (for now) / And lie down amongst the flowerbeds") to hall-of-lords hallucination "The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant" to the liminal string-plucked classic "Amethyst Deceivers," featuring excellent alien guitar by Breeze layered with Balance's oft-quoted couplet: "Pay your respects to the vultures / For they are your future." The album's final chapter, Winter Solstice, is its most swooning, remote, and ceremonial. Opener "A White Rainbow" stirs strings, layered choral vocals, and shivering rhythm into an imploding burial hymn. "North" oscillates bleakly, a ghost in the machine murmuring opaque prophecy ("This black dog has no owner / This black dog has no odour"), while "Magnetic North" is its inverse, a guided meditation of gently flickering software and surreal chakra poetics ("Red rose filling the skull / Yellow cube in the lower pelvis / Silver moon crescent below the navel"). The suite fades to grey with a traditional English carol ("Christmas Is Now Drawing Near"), rendered like an executioner's song by Rose McDowall's doomed, beautiful voice. The Dais box set includes the entirety of the rare Moon's Milk Bonus Disc CD-R / 2019 Threshold Archives Copal CD, which includes three collaborations with Thighpaulsandra. This material is as rich and intoxicating as the previous four phases, ranging from electro-acoustic singing bowl rituals ("Copal") to dissonant electronic recitations of visionary Angus MacLise poetry ("The Coppice Meat") to ominous classical melancholia ("Bankside"). Once again, Coil confirm the vastness of their confounding, infinite alchemy, explored and refined across decades of experimentation - both sonic and bodily. From postindustrial to post-everything, theirs is an art untethered, in the wilds of its own design.

Randy Rice mixed accoustic singer-songwriter songs with electrifying acid guitar in his marvellous privately pressed double album from 1974.

Offered here in a much needed reissue so you do not have to spend over a grand for an original copy.

Housed in it's original minimalist hand made artwork with the little upgrade twist of silk-screen printing.

· First ever vinyl reissue of ultra rare privately pressed double LP!

· Remastered sound!

· Reproductions of the two original inserts!

· Plus a new one with liner notes by Randy Rice himself sharing his memories of the recording!

I was between the ages of 18 and 20 when I wrote the 22 songs found on To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else. They express the thoughts and frustrations, hopes and fears of a young man coming of age in a world that was full of upheaval and transformation. I was a product of that period in America we call the sixties—those years between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 and the resignation of President Richard Nixon in August 1974. In fact, this record was released that same month Nixon resigned. Over the next five years, I toured the country as an acoustic artist performing at clubs, coffeehouses and colleges. During that time, I watched the idealism and social consciousness of the sixties slowly fade away. In its place emerged a cynicism and materialism that still seems to be with us so many years later. More than anything else, I think To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else is a time capsule that speaks to us from a past era. A period when, above all other things, we asked questions. We questioned our country, we questioned our faith, we questioned the very purpose of life itself. I am very excited to bring those questions and these songs to a new generation on a new continent. Special thanks to my friends Jordi Segura of Wah Wah Records who took the initiative to release this 50th Anniversary Re-issue of To Anyone Who Ever Laughed at Someone Else and Michel Veenstra Klinkhamer, who introduced us.

A1.Hello
A2. Mr. Dumpty, Before The Fall
A3.The Song
A4.Mrs.Bitch
A5.Students From Marian Catholic High School
A6.Will You Still Love Me When You're Twenty-One
A7.To Anyone Who's Ever Laughed At Someone Else
B1.The Other Day
B2.SPQR Part 1 - I Wish That Fly Would Land So I Could Swat Him
B3.SPQR Part 2 - Sorry
B4.SPQR Part 3 - My Last Question
B5.SPQR Part 4 - Gosh, Darn, Golly Gee, or Those Canadians Can Sure Tell It Like It Is
B6.SPQR Part 5 - All American Girl
B7.SPQR Part 6 - Let Me Grow
C1.For Me, For You
C2.The New Testament, Or A Good Samaritan Will Never Jew You · Matthew: Love Means Never
Having To Say You're Happy
C3.The New Testament, Or A Good Samaritan Will Never Jew You · Mark: Jesus Was A Capricorn, But
Then So Am I
C4.The New Testament, Or A Good Samaritan Will Never Jew You · Luke: Morning Meditation
C5.The New Testament, Or A Good Samaritan Will Never Jew You · John: Mother Mary, Let Me Be
C6.The New Testament, Or A Good Samaritan Will Never Jew You · Fred: Post-Mortem Dirge
D1.Everyday People Revisited
D2.Filler Song
Out Of Here
D5.The Continuing Story Of A Square Peg In A Round Hole Part 3: Footnote To The Preceding Nineteen Songs, And Is It Really Necessary
D6.The Continuing Story Of A Square Peg In A Round Hole Part 4: I Hope I Always See You
Smiling
D7.The Continuing Story Of A Square Peg In A Round Hole Part 5: My Song
D3.The Continuing Story Of A Square Peg In A Round Hole Part 1: The Ballad Of Uthage
D4. The Continuing Story Of A Square Peg In A Round Hole Part 2: I Think It's Time For Me To Get

The Body & Dis Fig are a natural pair. Each has pioneered instantly recognizable worlds of sound all their own that defy any traditional categorizations or boundaries. The Body, Lee Buford and Chip King, continually challenge any conventional conception of metal, collaborating with myriad artists and from the folk-leanings of their work with BIG|BRAVE to their groundbreaking work with the Assembly of Light Choir to the intensity of their collaborations with OAA or Thou. Dis Fig, aka Felicia Chen, pushes electronic music into dark extremes, from warped DJ sets to avant production, from being a member of Tianzhuo Chen’s performance-art series TRANCE to being the vocalist with The Bug. The Body and Dis Fig find kinship in reimagining what it means to make “heavy music”. Their debut Orchards of a Futile Heaven is the perfect synthesis of two forces, twisting melodicism and intoxicating rhythms, layering a dense miasma of distortion with intense beats and a soaring voice clawing its way towards absolution.

Orchards of a Futile Heaven’s walls of sputtering texture and tectonic booms are soaked in the reverence and melancholy of sacred spaces brought to life by palpable intensity by Chen’s voice. Crafted during a time of personal fragility, the album’s devastating force lies beyond any of the expected noise and abrasive textures typically associated with both The Body & Dis Fig. Suffused with a raw vulnerability and a longing for catharsis, Chen’s voice searches for escape in the midst of oppressive atmospheres as if determined to find relief from guilt. “Eternal Hours” patiently unfurls waves of surprising sounds, whispered undulations that are punctuated by sudden crashes, all beneath Chen’s haunting harmonies. “Dissent, Shame” evokes grief and shame with a minimalist drone dirge that gradually builds to an enchanting choral passage. King’s guitar on “Holy Lance” matches the uncanny drone of Chen’s accordion in an all-consuming blast, Chen’s voice transforming the moment from anguish to defiance and empowerment. The album’s arc finishes with “Coils of Kaa” acting as a kind of propulsive exorcism, breaking through a suffocating air before the funeral procession of “Back to the Water” lays the album to rest.

While sampling has long been essential to each, The Body & Dis Fig deftly meld their differing approaches to sampling and creating extreme sounds until the boundaries are entirely blurred. The two found kinship in their desire to find new avenues to make heavy music that looked beyond tropes of metal and electronic music by merging the two. “I always wanted the heavier stuff but I also didn’t really like heavier guitar music,” says Buford. “None of it really felt quite heavy enough to me. A human can’t be as heavy as a machine.” Chen counters, “I love the balance. You could never connect to just a machine as well as you could a human. Which is why the combination is so potent for me. I don’t want to hide. I think nothing connects you more empathetically than another human's voice.”

Orchards of a Futile Heaven affirms The Body & Dis Fig as skilled sound sculptors who have an exceptional ability to make deeply affecting music, bracing as it is touching, harrowing as it is awe-inspiring. Together, the two have harnessed their expansive artistry to make music that is profoundly emotional, and staggering in its beauty.

Harm’s Way is Duck Ltd.’s most intuitive and organic album yet, the result of keen observation, self-possessed songwriting, and a collaborative spirit. Building on the successes of their previous releases, the deeply relatable album displays a band operating at a nuanced, lyrical and musical best.

Ducks Ltd. make inviting and frenetic guitar pop for when life feels overwhelming. While the band’s songs are ostensibly breezy, a palpable anxiety boils underneath that communicates something deeper about everyday existence. On their latest album Harm’s Way, the Toronto duo of Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis hones in on interpersonal and societal collapses, urban decay, and the near-impossibility of keeping a level head when everything around you seems to be falling apart.

“They’re songs about struggling,” says singer and lyricist McGreevy (who also plays bass and rhythm guitar). “About watching people I care for suffer, and trying to figure out how to be there for them. And about the strain of living in the world when it feels like it's ready to collapse.” 

Even with its often dark subject matter, Harm’s Way is Ducks Ltd.’s most vividly rendered and collaborative collection yet. It’s an undeniable evolution for the band, not just in how these songs soar, but in their entire writing and recording processes. Composed on tour while supporting acts like Nation of Language, Illuminati Hotties, and Archers of Loaf, the album displays the band’s finely tuned songcraft and well-earned, road-tested confidence. “When we got signed, we had played maybe five or six shows ever. After last year, it’s in the hundreds. That experience can change your perception of your own music and songwriting,” says McGreevy. “In the past when we got stuck on a song we had a tendency to look at our favourite records to see how they tackled it. But now, instead of asking ‘what would Orange Juice do?’, we’d ask, ‘what would we do?’.” Lewis adds, “We have this really great thing where every decision with the band is filtered through both of us. Here especially, we really figured out how to make something that truly sounds like us.”

The band, fortified by this strong sense of sonic identity and a self-assurance in their new material—and in contrast to their critically acclaimed 2021 debut Modern Fiction and 2019 EP Get Bleak, both self-recorded and self-produced in a Toronto basement—wanted to bring Harm’s Way to life in a new city, with an outside producer, and with some of their favourite musicians. “We realised that so many of our favourite bands who are making guitar music right now are from Chicago,” says McGreevy. Working with producer Dave Vettraino (Dehd, Deeper, Lala Lala), they enlisted a marquee cast of Windy City collaborators to round out the tracks on Harm’s Way, including: Finom’s Macie Stewart (violin, string arrangements); Ratboys’ Marcus Nuccio (drums on most tracks); Dehd’s Jason Balla (who helped arrange the backing vocals, to which he also contributed); and backing vocals from Julia Steiner (Ratboys), Nathan O’Dell (Dummy), Margaret McCarthy (Moontype), Rui De Magalhaes (Lawn), and Lindsey-Paige McCloy (Patio). The band’s touring drummer, Jonathan Pappo, and bassist Julia Wittman also appear on the LP.

Ducks Ltd. are a band that already thrives on skirting the edges of buoyant jangle pop and driving power pop, and the duo credits these collaborators with helping to push their sound even further. “Historically our process has been really tightly controlled and insular. On this record, we worked with people who we trusted with a pretty wide range of musical backgrounds and they had approaches and ideas that helped open up the record's sonic palette,” explains McGreevy. “Jason thinks about backing vocals in a totally different way than I do and is super intuitive with melodic ideas. Julia and Margaret have a really deeo understanding of harmony. Macie and Dave were comfortable with the idea of improvising string parts which took some of those layers in some surprising directions. Dave also has an amazing ability to create atmosphere on a recording, and encouraged us to use a bunch of different techniques, tones, and processes to achieve that.”

Harm’s Way’s lush, melodic swagger is clear from the first notes of opener “Hollowed Out.” A song about living with decline (inspired by a Toronto sinkhole), its bright, indelible catchiness serves in contrast to its lyrical unease. Anchored by Lewis’ shimmering electric guitar, “The Main Thing” laments growing apart from a person whose views you once shared while managing to toss in references to both the unglamorous lives of middle relief baseball pitchers and the occult. Other songs split the difference between country and krautrock, like the rollicking “Train Full of Gasoline,” which uses the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster in Quebec as a metaphor for self-destructive patterns. Meanwhile, “Deleted Scenes” mourns the absence of someone no longer in your life (even if for very good reasons) and recalls The Cure at their most direct, and closer “Heavy Bag” employs enveloping, mournful strings to evoke a sense of how misery frequently loves company.