Pop & Rock News

At first, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes Our Girl so special, or why the Brighton-formed, London-based trio's music stands out within a busy crowd of fellow guitar-wielding-types. But if an explanation didn't jump out when they first emerged with a debut EP of mighty fuzz-soaked songs in November 2016, it surfaces with 'Stranger Today', a debut album of personal, emotional juggernauts that could have only been made by these three people: Guitarist / vocalist Soph Nathan, bassist Josh Tyler and drummer Lauren Wilson.

Since forming in Nathan and Tyler's Brighton home four years ago - Wilson joining as a late recruit when she was wowed by a demo of their self-titled debut track, and 'Stranger Today''s opener - Our Girl's members have only had pockets of time to work together. A day booked in a local studio here, a soundcheck there, full-time jobs and other projects meant the three rarely had a concentrated, collective patch. This changed in September 2017, when they stayed in Eve Studios in Stockport for a week, recording with Bill Ryder-Jones. Their week in Stockport became a crucial catalyst for what would follow. Ryder-Jones is a guitar virtuoso himself ('He did stuff neither me or Soph had ever seen anyone do before,' Tyler remarks), and he became an unofficial fourth member of the group.

'Stranger Today' is a special debut for several reasons: First, because it's the sound of a band beginning to grasp their own value and place in the world. Secondly, because you can hear the trio's hunger to finally get in the same room and put to tape years' worth of scrapbooks, half-finished ideas, and a slowly-forming feel for how their first album would actually sound. 'What band isn't itching to make their debut But it's quite frightening, knowing you're about to do it,' Wilson remembers.

The real clincher, however, is Our Girl's dynamic, and how it plays out across 'Stranger Today'. Best friends in person, the trio share the same close kinship and chemistry on record. On one side is Nathan's visceral lyricism, which has a habit of detailing and chipping away at precise moments; the first heart-flutter of a new crush; the moment a long-term friendship begins to ebb away. Around her, Tyler and Wilson's rhythm section carefully mirrors each feeling Nathan conveys. When she sings pointedly about love ('I Really Like It'), she's backed by a major-key afterglow. When the subject turns on its head ('Josephine'), out steps a wall of taut, earth-shaking noise. They each 'serve the song,' in Wilson's words, moving in sync but with their own personal slant. Not least on the closer 'Boring', where all restraint is thrown aside and the trio let out one final, violent thrash. They inhabit a space bigger than the first loves, sleepless nights and growing pains that define this record.

Nathan remembers being in Brighton four years ago, shortly after Our Girl formed, and realising, 'I was finally in the band I wanted to be in.' Almost half a decade later, and this eureka moment is sewn up on 'Stranger Today'. It's the sound of three friends totally at ease in their own space, discontent with being anywhere else; a vibrant document of what it's like to be young, invigorated and amongst people who feel the same.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

Released on the Sony Legacy label. If you sit and talk to many of the alternative rock artists dominating today's music you'll find that many of them pay homage to the The Psychedelic Furs. Artists as diverse as The Rapture, Annie Lennox and Buffalo Tom have all released cover versions of the band's singles. Led by front man and songwriter Richard Butler, the Furs won over fans and critics alike by combining poetic lyrics, innovative rhythms and melodies driven by an aggressive, punk desperation. Through it all, the band released seven studio albums to great commercial success and critical acclaim. The band are back playing sold out shows in the UK and return this summer for a series of gigs and festival appearances, notably as part of Meltdownon London's South Bank, curated by Robert Smith. By way of celebration Sony are reissuing all 7 of their studio albums on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in original, replica packaging, with download code insert. Promo & marketing activity.

The band's second album is a major advance on its first, featuring superior singing, playing, and songwriting, as well as a more unified sound, without sacrificing the element of surprise in the first record. Many of the melodies and even the riffs here (check out Gary Green's first guitar flourish on "Pantagruel's Nativity") have a pretty high haunt count, and all of the musicianship displays an elegance seldom heard even in progressive circles -- but the record also, amazingly enough, rocks really hard as well. Elements of hard rock and Gregorian chants mix freely and, amazingly enough, well throughout this album.

This band formed in 1970 in the aftermath of Simon Dupree and The Big Sound, which had centred around the three Shulman brothers Derek (Simon Dupree), Ray and Phil. This time the brothers teamed up with Kerry Minnear, a multi-instrumentalist who'd just graduated from the Royal Academy of Music; lead guitarist Gary Green and former Mojos' drummer Martin Smith.

The new line-up returned to the studio and emerged with the band's magnum opus, Octopus. An imaginative effort, it drew heavily on Minnear's knowledge of medieval music, particularly on Raconteur Troubadour. In contrast to earlier efforts Octopus was a great success both here and in the US.

'Yesterday Was Forever' is Kate Nash's fourth album and the first since her self-released 2013 LP 'Girl Talk', which she put out in a blaze of glory after being dumped by her record label via text.

Nash's history involves a helluva lot of highs and lows, as the youngest, loudest, sharpest new British ingenue back in 2007, she was launched as a major label product. A BRIT school graduate, she started writing pop aged 14. Those songs

went on to inform her #1 record and Brit-Award gleaning debut 'Made Of Bricks'. She sold-out huge gigs. It was a whirlwind; not one that always felt comfortable. At 20, she rebelled, changing tack on album two. Channeling

Kathleen Hanna and riot grrrl punk, she made the far less commercial album 'My Best Friend Is You' (2010), while also having her high-profile relationship be subjected to intense media scrutiny, it was ultimately a career shifting time.

Now aged 30, Nash finds herself in a great place, she's rediscovered her love for pop, launched a stellar acting career, (currently starring in the female wrestling series 'GLOW' - Series 2 has been nominated for 10 Emmys) and

found communities of intersectional activists and progressive new voices to get involved in.

Nucleus first attracted attention by winning first prize at the Montreux International Festival in 1970 for their improvised and integrated music which was an amalgam of jazz and rock. Elastic Rock was their most successful, actually climbing to N°. 46 in the Album Charts. Its cover was the first of many Roger Dean designed for the Vertigo label and it's content was well received by jazz critics. Ever restless Carr decided to opt for a change in direction after this and spilt up what was arguably the best Nucleus line-up of their time. Highly Recommended.













[L] Speaking For Myself, Personally, In My Own Opinion, I Think...

Nucleus first attracted attention by winning first prize at the Montreux International Festival in 1970 for their improvised and integrated music which was an amalgam of jazz and rock. They were originally formed in 1969 by trumpeter Ian Carr. He was joined by ex-Battered Ornaments guitarist Chris Spedding and Karl Jenkins and John Marshall (who both went on to Soft Machine) on the first three albums. Elastic Rock was their most successful, actually climbing to No 46 in the Album Charts. Their third album, Solar Plexus, was spacier than the two which preceded it and is particularly recommended. In 1972 Jenkins and Marshall both departed to join Soft Machine.

Nucleus are still considered to be one of Britain's top jazz-rock bands.

Living In America is the debut album by Swedish New Wave band The Sounds, released in 2002.

The Sounds embrace epic bands like Blondie, The Cars, Missing Persons and those obscure Garage Rock groups that make up the legendary Nuggets series. Their appearance even a band like Blondie, and they both look and play the part, with black T-shirts, faded jeans, and snappy three-minute songs with trebly keyboard vamps and tightly wound guitar riffs.

The album plays like a collection of A-sides, and indeed it spawned five singles; the second single, 'Living in America', reached #3 on the Swedish single charts and is featured in the 2010 video game, Rock Band 3. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) awarded the album a Platinum certification in 2003.

Long out of print and never reissued, this summer FUTURISMO proudly present a super limited Deluxe edition of DEVO's 1988 album - Total Devo, in time for it's 30th Anniversary! Over the years this totally underrated lp has become a true fan favourite, aswell as a prediction of these unsettling times we live in. So it seems only fitting it's right now that Total Devo gets it's first time reissue for all to hear.

Back in 1988, when the airwaves were being homogenized by vapid pop, DEVO set about creating their first album in four years. The result was this slice of overt irony, a dance orientated, back to basics, emotionally arch selection - including now classics 'Baby Doll' and 'Disco Dancer' - that twisted pop on it's head by imitating in part the very music it mocked. Despite it's industrial edge and unusual trademark quirk, the joke was so honest at the time that it was inevitably lost, but in the years since heinsight has this serving as a true testament to another of DEVO's misunderstood works of art.

This summer, FUTURISMO give every truly discerning DEVO fan the out of print release they've been been craving, a very limited edition pressing of Total Devo Deluxe. Each gatefold lp set includes 2x180g limited edition coloured vinyl in the choice of 'Defcon Disco', 'Totally Agitated' or 'Happy Sad' also available is a 2xCD gatefold digipak version. Included alongside the original album are remixes, demos and unheard tracks unearthed from the archives. The records come in a spot laminated gatefold sleeve that shows illustrations and logos when viewed in a certain light, it contains a huge double sided poster with unseen pictures and brand new liner notes by Gerald V. Casale of DEVO. The LP version also contains two collectable photographic postcards!

DEVO's Total Devo Deluxe is an essential addition to the collection of any agitated spud, on it's 30th Anniversary it's time to witness total de-evolution in action! You knew the time would come, and now it's here, so get totalled - only while stocks last

Long out of print and never reissued, this summer FUTURISMO proudly present a super limited Deluxe edition of DEVO's 1988 album - Total Devo, in time for it's 30th Anniversary! Over the years this totally underrated lp has become a true fan favourite, aswell as a prediction of these unsettling times we live in. So it seems only fitting it's right now that Total Devo gets it's first time reissue for all to hear.

Back in 1988, when the airwaves were being homogenized by vapid pop, DEVO set about creating their first album in four years. The result was this slice of overt irony, a dance orientated, back to basics, emotionally arch selection - including now classics 'Baby Doll' and 'Disco Dancer' - that twisted pop on it's head by imitating in part the very music it mocked. Despite it's industrial edge and unusual trademark quirk, the joke was so honest at the time that it was inevitably lost, but in the years since heinsight has this serving as a true testament to another of DEVO's misunderstood works of art.

This summer, FUTURISMO give every truly discerning DEVO fan the out of print release they've been been craving, a very limited edition pressing of Total Devo Deluxe. Each gatefold lp set includes 2x180g limited edition coloured vinyl in the choice of 'Defcon Disco', 'Totally Agitated' or 'Happy Sad' also available is a 2xCD gatefold digipak version. Included alongside the original album are remixes, demos and unheard tracks unearthed from the archives. The records come in a spot laminated gatefold sleeve that shows illustrations and logos when viewed in a certain light, it contains a huge double sided poster with unseen pictures and brand new liner notes by Gerald V. Casale of DEVO. The LP version also contains two collectable photographic postcards!

DEVO's Total Devo Deluxe is an essential addition to the collection of any agitated spud, on it's 30th Anniversary it's time to witness total de-evolution in action! You knew the time would come, and now it's here, so get totalled - only while stocks last.

 Care in the Community recordings release a 7" single of Lark's Can I Colour In Your Hair featuring a flip side dub version by renowned DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall, adding to past re-workings of Lark songs by artists such as Scritti Politti's Green Gartside, Erol Alkan and producer Brendan Lynch (Primal Scream).
The label released Lark's first two albums; the 'sharp and clever' (Quietus) debut ,Shop, and the  purely solo effort of song writer and front man Karl Bielik, I Don't Got, which Uncut noted  '...throws up myriad references - Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits' junkyard jazz, early Human League - but the wonky, unsettling world it creates is completely Bielik's own.' (4/5).
Can I Colour In Your Hair dates from the period that formed Lark's debut and was always intended for its own vinyl cut. While the Andrew Weatherall version that followed, a while later, featured in his BBC6 music 6 mix and gained traction in his club sets, the physical record has proved elusive until now.
Can I colour In Your Hair is coinciding with the release Larks next album, The Last Woman,on Standard Lamp Records. 
SELECTED PRESS AND RADIO:
Gideon Coe BBC6 Music plays Weatherall Version
Andrew Weatherall BBC6 Music plays both tracks
ALBUM FUNNY MAN 'A dark subcurrent of industrial noise runs under raspy vocals punctuated by driving basslines that fuel this idiosyncratic album' - 4/5 MOJO
" 'One of the albums of the year... one of the most exciting albums around' LOUDER THAN WAR 8.75/10
 ALBUM I DON'T GOT (CARE106)Lark are fronted by abstract painter Karl Bielik, who hollers and shrieks his way through these 15 tracks, sometimes resembling Nick Cave's baritone-voiced preacherman ('The Bible Rhymer'), sometimes lurching off into a demented falsetto ('Palucca'), and occasionally sounding like Mark E Smith fronting The Cramps ('The Scream').
His Beefheart-ish backing band maintain a similarly unhinged and studiedly amateurish variety of skronk - all squalling guitars, one-fingered basslines and plinky-plonky Casiotones. It throws up myriad references - Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits' junkyard jazz, early Human League - but the wonky, unsettling world it creates is completely Bielik's own.' John Lewis 4/5 UNCUT

18 tracks, inc Immigrant Song, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven & Whole Lotta Love

- 8LP Box Set

A bunch of stuff in here!

Originally from San Francisco, Matthew Larkin Cassell is a talented songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. During the '70s-80s, Cassell fronted a trio in the Bay Area, opening for major acts like The Tubes and Sylvester. Playing an unique fusion of funk, R&B, jazz and soft-rock, he recorded his first LP, 'Pieces' in 1977, followed by a 12' titled 'Matt The Cat' in 1978. Both were privately pressed and modestly distributed at the time.



Fast forward to the early '00s: Cassell's albums are discovered by beat diggers & hip-hop producers, which led to some his songs being sampled and included on mixes by people like Kon & Amir, Madlib and M.F. Doom. Famous labels such as Stones Throw and P-Vine reissue his music at the same time that his original albums reach outrageous prices in the collector's market.

SLASH Featuring MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS have now announced they will release their new album titled LIVING THE DREAM on 21st September 2018 on Roadrunner Records with the first single Driving Rain being unleased on Weds 25th July.

LIVING THE DREAM is SLASH's fourth solo album, and third for SLASH and his bandmates MYLES KENNEDY (Vocals), BRENT FITZ (Drums), TODD KERNS (Bass & Vocals) and FRANK SIDORIS (Guitar & Vocals). The band has also unveiled the album cover art and tracklisting for the album with the eye-catching front cover artwork being created by renowned visual artist Ron English.

SLASH describes the creation of 'Driving Rain'; 'This is a riff I specifically remember playing with the guys for the first time at a venue in New Hampshire on the World on Fire tour,' explains SLASH. 'It's a cool guitar part we ran though, and from that point forward the rest of the song started to come together in my mind while on the road. We put it all together this year and Myles came up with a great melody for it.' MYLES KENNEDY adds, 'The riff is very reminiscent of vintage Aerosmith. It's got a certain funk to it that's compelling. Lyrically, it's a story about somebody who works on the road--it could be a musician, and it could be a traveling salesman. What makes it interesting is this guy has an addict girlfriend or spouse who continues to relapse, and she ends up getting him to come home. She's miserable and falls back into bad old habits, and that compels him to head back to her to save the day.'

For LIVING THE DREAM, SLASH and his band re-teamed with producer Michael 'Elvis' Baskette (Alter Bridge, Iggy Pop, Incubus) on the powerful 12 song collection. The band's previous albums World On Fire and Apocalyptic Love, debuted in the Top Ten on 12 charts globally, spawned three #1 hit singles at U.S. Rock Radio and earned worldwide praise garnering SLASH some of the best critical acclaim of his career, with World On Fire debuting at number 7 in the UK album charts on its release.

With Transit, his new solo album, the indefatigable Bert Dockx has added a compelling new facet to his ever-expanding, deeply personal musical universe.

While in the past decade Bert's main projects - Flying Horseman and Dans Dans - have grown into two of the most eminent and devotedly followed bands in Belgium, he has always kept playing solo-shows on the side. Shows at which, along with his own compositions, he has occasionally offered adventurous interpretations of a variety of iconic songs. Transit contains the most remarkable of these interpretations in a naked and raw, yet subtly hallucinogenic production by Dockx' faithful accomplice Koen Gisen. The album was recorded live (and captured on camera by Philippe Werkers) in Gisen's intimate studio in Ghent, Belgium.









As we've come to expect from this always original musician, these are anything but servile 'covers'. In often unexpected ways, Dockx gives a voice to the deep connection he feels with this music. He pays tribute to the original song by radically making it his own. With his intuitive, genre-defying approach, Dockx exposes unknown layers and emotions in often overfamiliar songs (Albatross by Fleetwood Mac, I'm On Fire by Bruce Springsteen, I Shall Be Released by Bob Dylan), offering us glimpses beneath the surface of his own soul in the process.

Anyone who has seen Bert Dockx perform with Flying Horseman or Dans Dans, will know how riveting and atmospheric his performances can be. Impassioned vocals, intense presence, fierce and inspired guitar playing, room for improvisation, the ecstatic heat of the moment..

Record Store Day 2018 First Release Limited To 5000 Copies Worldwide.

Gatefold Sleeve.

Includes Download Card.

Next up, MAT8. "Passive Aggressive", the first collaborative album release from Jonny Nash & Suzanne Kraft.

Todres Records, the uprising middle eastern boutique label from Tel Aviv, is proud to present it's first official 7" reissue release: A double A side bombshell comprising of all the elements searched for by Dj Shadow, J Dilla & Kid Koala.

Led by Dj Todres (The Apples, CRuNCH 22), the label's vision is to expose the world to Israel's finest artists, past or present, all joined by the same common ground: the groove.

A Side:

Composed by organ and keyboard great Haim Shmueli, "Halilit Kesem" was the theme song of his group, "The High Voices", the famous house band at the legendary "Calypso Club" in Ramle, Israel, during the early to mid 70's. The psychedelic, spanish-phrygian flavoured track is built around the Sonata form, with Shmueli's captivating oriental synth solo is shining right at the middle, between beautiful Stop-Time breaks and the African triplet-feel segment. Inspired by Keith Emerson and Jimmy Smith, Shmueli's masterful playing and composing is a unique world to explore.

B Side:

Based on Bach's prelude no 1 in C Major, Shlomo Gronich's re-composing was created while he was under the influence of an Acid trip. The vicious drums, the fat bass line and the flying flute melody, illuminated the track in psychedelic colors, making it one the most unique arrangements a classical piece ever received.