Pop & Rock News

Released on cassette last year, Katie Von Schleicher's Bleaksploitation took the tape world by enough of a storm to thunder demand for more formats. Consequence of Sound described her songs as like ghosts trying to communicate through a cassette deck', Paste claims they sound like a vintage girl group playing in the basement of a haunted house.' This is exciting music from someone we'll be hearing about for a long time to come. Bleaksploitation was recorded in a dark room on a Tascam 4-track cassette machine. The result is hazy, terrifying and playful. This is what happens when well-crafted songs are made in the moment, warped, drunk on themselves. Von Schleicher's voice sinks like anchors and rises like a phoenix, wrestling its way through its very own form of basement tapes. '70s piano rock provides the core, sad lyrics form the shell. The LP is limited to 300 copies, with silk-screened covers made by the asshole herself! They also come with liner notes by Jay Ruttenberg.

Released on cassette last year, Katie Von Schleicher's Bleaksploitation took the tape world by enough of a storm to thunder demand for more formats. Consequence of Sound described her songs as like ghosts trying to communicate through a cassette deck', Paste claims they sound like a vintage girl group playing in the basement of a haunted house.' This is exciting music from someone we'll be hearing about for a long time to come. Bleaksploitation was recorded in a dark room on a Tascam 4-track cassette machine. The result is hazy, terrifying and playful. This is what happens when well-crafted songs are made in the moment, warped, drunk on themselves. Von Schleicher's voice sinks like anchors and rises like a phoenix, wrestling its way through its very own form of basement tapes. '70s piano rock provides the core, sad lyrics form the shell. The LP is limited to 300 copies, with silk-screened covers made by the asshole herself! They also come with liner notes by Jay Ruttenberg.

"Woods have always been experts at distilling life epiphanies into compact chunks of psychedelic folk that exists just outside of any sort of tangible time or place. Maybe those epiphanies were buried under cassette manipulation or drum-and-drone freakouts, or maybe they were cloaked in Jeremy Earl's lilting falsetto, but over the course of an impressive eight albums, Woods refined and drilled down their sound into City Sun Eater in the River of Light, their ninth LP and second recorded in a proper studio. It's a dense record of rippling guitar, lush horns, and seductive, bustling anxiety about the state of the world. It's still the Woods you recognize, only now they're dabbling in zonked out Ethiopian jazz, pulling influence from the low key simmer of Brown Rice, and tapping into the weird dichotomy of making a home in a claustrophobic city that feels full of possibility even as it closes in on you.

Following her acclaimed debut 'Ett' (Editions Mego) and the subsequent Msuic EP (Peder Mannerfelt) Editions Mego is very proud to present the second full length lp by Klara Lewis.

Lewis' skill at sculpting the hermetic shines on Too as she twists her idiosyncratic vision into nine tracks of blurred rhythms and haunted backdrops. Too is a powerful statement where the individual works tread a vast landscape as dour and aggressive elements rub shoulders with warmer optimistic works. Neither looking behind nor forward these works spiral in a time of their own devising, presenting themselves as a most audacious theatre for the ear. With a strong momentum developed from an organic outset the works move into a logic of their own, forming themselves as abstract landscapes, jitered rhythms and even pop like structures.

Too is a deeply engaging display of sound and skewered sensibility which hovers the cusp of reason and eludes the concrete. The results are Lewis' boldest statement to date.

Following her acclaimed debut 'Ett' (Editions Mego) and the subsequent Msuic EP (Peder Mannerfelt) Editions Mego is very proud to present the second full length lp by Klara Lewis.

Lewis' skill at sculpting the hermetic shines on Too as she twists her idiosyncratic vision into nine tracks of blurred rhythms and haunted backdrops. Too is a powerful statement where the individual works tread a vast landscape as dour and aggressive elements rub shoulders with warmer optimistic works. Neither looking behind nor forward these works spiral in a time of their own devising, presenting themselves as a most audacious theatre for the ear. With a strong momentum developed from an organic outset the works move into a logic of their own, forming themselves as abstract landscapes, jitered rhythms and even pop like structures.

Too is a deeply engaging display of sound and skewered sensibility which hovers the cusp of reason and eludes the concrete. The results are Lewis' boldest statement to date.

This is the first vinyl rerelease of the classic Tarwater album "Silur" since 1998. One of the most important albums in german electronic music in the 90's. It was the real start of big international career of Tarwater. Now after 18 years Gusstaff Rec. is releasing the album again, as 180g heavy vinyl with downloadcode (with bonus tracks) in original cover-design. Limited to 500 copies worldwide. The Berlin-based electronic duo Tarwater (Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram) formed in 1995. They have produced twelve regular studio albums and various collaborations (eg with Piano Magic, Tuxedomoon, B. Fleischmann), as well as numerous film and theater scores. The Tarwater albums were released on many labels like Kitty-Yo, Gusstaff Records, Mute USA, Morr Music, Bureau B... Lippok also played in the band To Rococo Rot and Jestram in Rats Live On No Evil Star. In 2016 Morr Music has released a collaborative EP "Leaves Of Grass" between Tarwater, Alva Noto and Iggy Pop. Each of the seven featured tracks scores a poem by American wordsmith Walt Whitman. Iggy Pop contributes spoken word recordings, while Tarwater and alva noto create the music.

Hinter Anohni verbirgt sich Antony Hegarty, die Sängerin von Antony and the Johnsons. "Hopelessness" ist ein Dance Album mit Soul-Gesang und politischen Texten, die staatliche Überwachung, Drohnen-Krieg und Umweltzerstörung thematisieren. Indem Anohni zeitgemäße elektronische Musik mit politischen Inhalten kollidieren lässt, wirft das Album gängige Erwartungen an Pop-Musik über den Haufen. Passend dazu erschien die erste Albumauskoppelung, "4 Degrees", zur Pariser Weltklima-Konferenz im Dezember 2015, was der "Guardian" mit "Hugely affecting (...) instantly earns its place in the pantheon of great musical protests' kommentierte. Im selben Fahrwasser bewegt sich auch die zweite Single. Musikalisch wunderschön, inhaltlich erschütternd brutal: "'Drone Bomb Me' is a love song written from the perspective of a young girl in Afghanistan whose family has been executed by unmanned U.S. drones. She dreams of being annihilated." Visuell wird das Ganze von einem atemraubenden Clip des bekannten Musikvideo-Regisseurs Nabil (Foals, Bon Iver, Bruno Mars, Kanye West) unterfüttert, in dem Naomi Campbell in der Hauptrolle zu sehen ist. "Hopelessness" entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit Oneohtrix Point Never und Hudson Mohawke.

Die amerikanische Avantgarde- und New-Wave-Band Tuxedomoon wurde 1977 in San Francisco gegründet.
1979 unterzeichnete Tuxedomoon einen Plattenvertrag mit Ralph, dem Label der Residents. Kurze Zeit
später erschien das Debütalbum "Half-Mute". Anfang der Achtziger siedelte die Band von Amerika nach
Europa über und fand sich, nach einigen Zwischenstationen, in Brüssel wieder, dem Heimatort ihres
europäischen Labels Crammed Discs (Marc Hollander). Und genau in diesem Kontext ist auch die
Wiederveröffentlichung von "Half-Mute" zu sehen. Das Album kommt - remastert als CD und LP - erneut auf
den Markt, da die Originalmitglieder Steven Brown und Bruce Geduldig angekündigt haben, im Frühjahr 2016
die Albumstücke während einiger ausgewählter Konzerte in Europa einer zeitgemäßen Interpretation zu
unterziehen. Die Neuauflage des Debüts wird von einem Tribute-Album mit dem Titel "Give Me New Noise"
flankiert. Dieses enthält 13 Coversongs der "Half-Mute"-Titel bzw. albumzugehöriger Single-Tracks. Mit von
der Partie sind neben Foetus/Jim Thirlwell, Aksak Maboul (Marc Hollander und Vincent Kenis), Simon Fisher
Turner und DopplAr (Amatorski) auch drei der Tuxedomoon-Musiker, die vor 26 Jahren "Half-Mute"
einspielten, nämlich die beiden Bandgründer Blaine L. Reininger und Steven Brown sowie der Bassist Peter
Principle.

We Are Scientists, the Brooklyn, New York based power pop troupe are set to return this coming April 22nd with their fifth album. Titled 'Helter Seltzer' and released via 100% Records, it is preceded by the single release of 'Buckle', the album's opening track, available today for stream and download.

For this album We Are Scientists asked their ex-keyboard player Max Hart to produce. Max had just finished a three-year stint as the keyboardist for international super-mega-person Katy Perry, choosing as his final gig Ms. Perry's performance at the 2015 Super Bowl. After a number of small producing projects squeezed in between tours, he was ready to roll up his sleeves and dive in.

Max rented a studio space in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighbourhood, outfitting it with gear he had accumulated over a decade of obsessive internet shopping. In early March, the team got to work. At their disposal was a trove of new We Are Scientists demos as well as Max's inside-out familiarity with hits like 'Teenage Dream' and 'Firework' and 'Dark Horse.' Sifting through the options, a direction emerged: they would use the tones and trickery of radio pop to add a sweet sheen to the new crop of distinctively We Are Scientists songs. Months of toil and trial and error finally brought the right balance, and the finished recordings were shipped to mixer Chris Coady at Sunset Sound in L.A. Coady has quietly emerged in recent years as one of the finest mixers of glossy indie pop, with credits that include Future Islands, Beach House, and !!!.

In 'Helter Seltzer' he knew he had an album that should shimmer but also bang, and he applied all of the magic and sauce at his disposal to insure it did exactly that. Finally, the music was passed through the deluxe mastering machine that are the ears of Greg Calbi (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Noel Gallagher, Perfume Genius) to add a coat of heft and sparkle, and in January of 2016, nearly a year after construction began, the album was pronounced complete.

"We've always made overtures toward being a pop band, but we've generally had the inclination to obscure those pop leanings in grit and chaos — to screw them up with fuzzed-out tones and raucous performances," says guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray. "It's made us really think about what our musical genre is. We're not punk — we're too interested in making our songs as pretty as possible. We're not straight-up rock — our tastes our too left-of-centre. We're not indie-rock — our heads aren't far enough up our own butts. So finally, after putting as much time into thinking about it as we're apt to — about ten minutes, over beers — we decided that our genre is 'Helter Seltzer.'"

"Declaring a new genre is obviously douchey as hell, though, and impossible to deliver with a straight face," adds bassist Chris Cain, "so we did the noble thing and just made 'Helter Seltzer' the album title. It's especially apt for us these days, though. The songs here are more effervescent than we've ever managed to deliver, but they've still maintained a measure of that 'Helter Skelter' element — no matter how fizzy and refreshing the tunes are, they've always got a bit of that seamy, scuzzy, 'cult on Spahn Ranch' vibe."

We Are Scientists, the Brooklyn, New York based power pop troupe are set to return this coming April 22nd with their fifth album. Titled 'Helter Seltzer' and released via 100% Records, it is preceded by the single release of 'Buckle', the album's opening track, available today for stream and download.

For this album We Are Scientists asked their ex-keyboard player Max Hart to produce. Max had just finished a three-year stint as the keyboardist for international super-mega-person Katy Perry, choosing as his final gig Ms. Perry's performance at the 2015 Super Bowl. After a number of small producing projects squeezed in between tours, he was ready to roll up his sleeves and dive in.

Max rented a studio space in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighbourhood, outfitting it with gear he had accumulated over a decade of obsessive internet shopping. In early March, the team got to work. At their disposal was a trove of new We Are Scientists demos as well as Max's inside-out familiarity with hits like 'Teenage Dream' and 'Firework' and 'Dark Horse.' Sifting through the options, a direction emerged: they would use the tones and trickery of radio pop to add a sweet sheen to the new crop of distinctively We Are Scientists songs. Months of toil and trial and error finally brought the right balance, and the finished recordings were shipped to mixer Chris Coady at Sunset Sound in L.A. Coady has quietly emerged in recent years as one of the finest mixers of glossy indie pop, with credits that include Future Islands, Beach House, and !!!.

In 'Helter Seltzer' he knew he had an album that should shimmer but also bang, and he applied all of the magic and sauce at his disposal to insure it did exactly that. Finally, the music was passed through the deluxe mastering machine that are the ears of Greg Calbi (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Noel Gallagher, Perfume Genius) to add a coat of heft and sparkle, and in January of 2016, nearly a year after construction began, the album was pronounced complete.

"We've always made overtures toward being a pop band, but we've generally had the inclination to obscure those pop leanings in grit and chaos — to screw them up with fuzzed-out tones and raucous performances," says guitarist and vocalist Keith Murray. "It's made us really think about what our musical genre is. We're not punk — we're too interested in making our songs as pretty as possible. We're not straight-up rock — our tastes our too left-of-centre. We're not indie-rock — our heads aren't far enough up our own butts. So finally, after putting as much time into thinking about it as we're apt to — about ten minutes, over beers — we decided that our genre is 'Helter Seltzer.'"

"Declaring a new genre is obviously douchey as hell, though, and impossible to deliver with a straight face," adds bassist Chris Cain, "so we did the noble thing and just made 'Helter Seltzer' the album title. It's especially apt for us these days, though. The songs here are more effervescent than we've ever managed to deliver, but they've still maintained a measure of that 'Helter Skelter' element — no matter how fizzy and refreshing the tunes are, they've always got a bit of that seamy, scuzzy, 'cult on Spahn Ranch' vibe."

Fresh from playing with Actress at his sold-out London Barbican show as part of the London Contemporary Orchestra, acclaimed cellist Oliver Coates releases his album 'Upstepping'.
Fuelled by cafeine, nervous energy and early Orbital and Photek, 'Upstepping' is an album of new- classical electronic experimentalism where Coates pushes the boundaries of what a cello is capable of. As Coates explains, 'About 95 per cent of the sounds are derived from recording the cello and
processing it digitally. A hi-hat equivalent is ofen a distorted, compressed and heavily EQ'd horsehair-on-steel stroke. All the melodic pitched sounds, even the ones that feel like keys, are samples of the tail of a cello harmonic. For example, 'Perfect Love' is a study in grey, concealing the source - it's 100 per cent made from diferent types of cello atack.'
The result is an astonishing record rich in the sonic and rhythmic palete of dance and electronic music - with hints of early rave, garage and the sounds of 1980s London pirate radios - and one which re-defnes the possibilites of classical instrumentaton.

OREN AMBARCHI, STEFANO PILIA and MASSIMO PUPILLO (ZU) team up for an instrumental trip bridging post rock, drone and improvisation. "Aithein" is available as limited 180gr LP, housed in a silk-screened sleeve (artwork by SARA D'UVA) incl. DL code, and download on Karlrecords.

Since the late nineties Oren Ambarchi has been exploring new grounds as composer and multi-instrumentalist (mainly focusing on guitar), fusing a wide range of influences and inspiration from improvisation, contemporary music, modern electronics and rock, and has been building an impressive catalogue of solo or collaborative albums with acclaimed artists such as KEIJI HAINO, JOHN ZORN, OTOMO YOSHIHIDE, JIM O'ROURKE, PHIL NIBLOCK, EVAN PARKER or SUNN O))). Bassist MASSSIMO PUPILLO has gained high reputation as founding member of Italian jazz-core trio ZU and in different projects / collaborations with a.o. FM EINHEIT, MATS GUSTAFSSON, LASSE MARHAUG and both BRÖTZMANNS (PETER and CASPAR). Last but not least there's STEFANO PILIA on guitar, member of the BELFI / GRUBBS / PILIA trio, playing with MIKE WATT in IL SOGNO DEL MARINAIO and for ROKIA TRAORE and featured on collaborations with DAVID TIBET, JOHN PARISH or GIUSEPE IELASI. On "Aithein", recorded live in Bologna in april 2015, the three embark on a captivating trip that starts quietly with reductive sounds only to raise volume and intensity on its way towards an cathartic peak (or skywards, considering the album title that references different meanings of ether). Available as 180gr LP, housed in a silk-screened sleeve (artwork by SARA D'UVA) incl. DL code, or as download.

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals veröffentlichen am 08.04. mit 'Call It What It Is' erstmals seit neun Jahren ein neues gemeinsames Album. Als sich Ben Harper 2015 mit The Innocent Criminals traf, war der Band schnell klar, dass es ihm nicht nur um die bevorstehende Reunion-Tour gehen würde. Tatsächlich hatte er massig Material für eine neue Platte dabei und erste Aufnahmen fanden sogar noch vor den Proben für die vier ausverkauften Konzerte im Fillmore statt. 'I thought we would be more energized and revitalized by thinking outside the box and starting with new material in the studio before we dug into the old stuff,' erklärt Ben Harper. "It was meant to be a signpost that we're here to forge new ground musically and personally.'

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals veröffentlichen am 08.04. mit Call It What It Is' erstmals seit neun Jahren ein neues gemeinsames Album. Als sich Ben Harper 2015 mit The Innocent Criminals traf, war der Band schnell klar, dass es ihm nicht nur um die bevorstehende Reunion-Tour gehen würde. Tatsächlich hatte er massig Material für eine neue Platte dabei und erste Aufnahmen fanden sogar noch vor den Proben für die vier ausverkauften Konzerte im Fillmore statt. I thought we would be more energized and revitalized by thinking outside the box and starting with new material in the studio before we dug into the old stuff,' erklärt Ben Harper. "It was meant to be a signpost that we're here to forge new ground musically and personally.'

Mark Kozelek und Justin Broadrick veröffentlichen das Debütalbum ihrer Zusammenarbeit als Jesu/Sun Kil Moon am 22. Januar. Das Album ist 79 Minunten lang und enthält Gastbeiträge von Rachel Goswell, Low, Isaac Brock, Will Oldham und anderen. Zwei Songs gab es bereits vorab im Netz zu hören, einer davon, "Exodus" ist Nick Caves verstorbenem Sohn gewidmet.

Nachdenkliche Sammlung neun musikalischer Vignetten mit geheimnisvollen Geschichten aus dem Alltag.

Terry Lee Hale wurde in Texas geboren, gilt als einer der Paten der Seattle-Szene und veröffentlicht seit über drei Jahrzehnten Musik. Die Songs auf "Bound, Chained, Fettered" sind Lektionen fürs Leben - wahre Geschichten, getragen von Hales emotionaler Stimme, die Hindernisse überwunden und Weisheit erworben hat. Es ist ein Album, das Bilanz zieht und die komplexen Zusammenhänge unserer Gegenwart zu erforschen versucht. Die spärliche, aber immer noch detaillierte Produktion verstärkt diese nachdenkliche Stimmung zusätzlich. Doch was in den Liedern offenbart wird, ist positiv und menschlich. Hale geht es um Tiefe, nicht um bloße Wiederholung oder leichte Unterhaltung. Für die Albumproduktion reiste Hale nach Norditalien, um dort mit Produzent Antonio Gramentieri (Hugo Race, Dan Stuart) zusammenzuarbeiten. Hale nahm alle Parts live mit Gramentieri in dessen Studio auf. So gelang es den beiden, eine freie, ungezwungene Stimmung zu erzeugen. Im Gegensatz zum Vorgängeralbum, "The Long Draw", hat sich auch am Sound einiges geändert. Vielen der Songs unterliegen leichte Percussions und atmosphärische Geräusche. Ein subtiler Mix aus Piano, Hammond, dezentem Synthesizer-Einsatz, Bassklarinette, Baritonsaxofon, Mellotron und Gramentieris 6-saitigen Texturen bildet die Grundlage für Hales nachdenkliche Geschichten.

Nachdenkliche Sammlung neun musikalischer Vignetten mit geheimnisvollen Geschichten aus dem Alltag.

Terry Lee Hale wurde in Texas geboren, gilt als einer der Paten der Seattle-Szene und veröffentlicht seit über drei Jahrzehnten Musik. Die Songs auf "Bound, Chained, Fettered" sind Lektionen fürs Leben - wahre Geschichten, getragen von Hales emotionaler Stimme, die Hindernisse überwunden und Weisheit erworben hat. Es ist ein Album, das Bilanz zieht und die komplexen Zusammenhänge unserer Gegenwart zu erforschen versucht. Die spärliche, aber immer noch detaillierte Produktion verstärkt diese nachdenkliche Stimmung zusätzlich. Doch was in den Liedern offenbart wird, ist positiv und menschlich. Hale geht es um Tiefe, nicht um bloße Wiederholung oder leichte Unterhaltung. Für die Albumproduktion reiste Hale nach Norditalien, um dort mit Produzent Antonio Gramentieri (Hugo Race, Dan Stuart) zusammenzuarbeiten. Hale nahm alle Parts live mit Gramentieri in dessen Studio auf. So gelang es den beiden, eine freie, ungezwungene Stimmung zu erzeugen. Im Gegensatz zum Vorgängeralbum, "The Long Draw", hat sich auch am Sound einiges geändert. Vielen der Songs unterliegen leichte Percussions und atmosphärische Geräusche. Ein subtiler Mix aus Piano, Hammond, dezentem Synthesizer-Einsatz, Bassklarinette, Baritonsaxofon, Mellotron und Gramentieris 6-saitigen Texturen bildet die Grundlage für Hales nachdenkliche Geschichten.

John Bender recorded voraciously between 1978 and 1980 at his home in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not even song titles could slow down his creative pace, as he named all the tracks after their position on the original tapes. "36A2," for example, was cassette #36 side A, piece #2. To close the DIY aesthetic circle, Bender made sleeves by hand with no two covers alike and pressed the LPs in hyper-limited editions on his own Record Sluts imprint.

I Don't Remember Now / I Don't Want To Talk About It, Bender's first album from 1980, is the holy grail of minimal lo-fi electronics. Layers of fractured melodies, distorted synthesizers, hollowed-out rhythms and claustrophobic vocals unfold over the 40 minutes of this lost masterpiece. "It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl," one of Faust's greatest songs, is perfectly deconstructed by a distinct punk-meets-experimentalist sensibility.

While I Don't Remember Now is impossibly rare and the man behind the music remains shrouded in self-imposed mystery, the real surprise is that it has taken 35+ years for listeners to discover Bender's warm, art-damaged immediacy.

This first-time standalone reissue is recommended for fans of Pere Ubu, Brian Eno and Robert Ashley. Limited to 1,000 numbered copies. Red vinyl with hand-stamped jackets, each one unique. Liner notes by John Bender.

"Woods have always been experts at distilling life epiphanies into compact chunks of psychedelic folk that exists just outside of any sort of tangible time or place. Maybe those epiphanies were buried under cassette manipulation or drum-and-drone freakouts, or maybe they were cloaked in Jeremy Earl's lilting falsetto, but over the course of an impressive eight albums, Woods refined and drilled down their sound into City Sun Eater in the River of Light, their ninth LP and second recorded in a proper studio. It's a dense record of rippling guitar, lush horns, and seductive, bustling anxiety about the state of the world. It's still the Woods you recognize, only now they're dabbling in zonked out Ethiopian jazz, pulling influence from the low key simmer of Brown Rice, and tapping into the weird dichotomy of making a home in a claustrophobic city that feels full of possibility even as it closes in on you. City Sun Eater in the River of Light is concise, powerful, anxious—barreling headlong into an uncertain, constantly shifting new world." -Sam Hockley-Smith

Future of the left are a rock band from Cardiff, wales. They were formed in 2005 as part of a plea agreement following their involvement in an arms deal which left an actor playing tony blair dead, or at least pretending really well. They are made up of Andrew Falkous, jack Egglestone and Julia Ruziicka and have also included keelson Mathias and jimmy Watkins in their history. The forthcoming record will be their fifth studio album and the second to be released on their own label, prescriptions.
Recorded by Anthony Chapman at Monnow Valley studios in Monmouth it contains thirteen songs (you are welcome to call them 'tracks', only not near the band) and is, once again, their best one yet, obeying the universal law that the new album is always the best one, otherwise it wouldn't be released in the first place.

Future of the left are a rock band from Cardiff, wales. They were formed in 2005 as part of a plea agreement following their involvement in an arms deal which left an actor playing tony blair dead, or at least pretending really well. They are made up of Andrew Falkous, jack Egglestone and Julia Ruziicka and have also included keelson Mathias and jimmy Watkins in their history. The forthcoming record will be their fifth studio album and the second to be released on their own label, prescriptions.
Recorded by Anthony Chapman at Monnow Valley studios in Monmouth it contains thirteen songs (you are welcome to call them 'tracks', only not near the band) and is, once again, their best one yet, obeying the universal law that the new album is always the best one, otherwise it wouldn't be released in the first place.

Future of the left are a rock band from Cardiff, wales. They were formed in 2005 as part of a plea agreement following their involvement in an arms deal which left an actor playing tony blair dead, or at least pretending really well. They are made up of Andrew Falkous, jack Egglestone and Julia Ruziicka and have also included keelson Mathias and jimmy Watkins in their history. The forthcoming record will be their fifth studio album and the second to be released on their own label, prescriptions.
Recorded by Anthony Chapman at Monnow Valley studios in Monmouth it contains thirteen songs (you are welcome to call them 'tracks', only not near the band) and is, once again, their best one yet, obeying the universal law that the new album is always the best one, otherwise it wouldn't be released in the first place.

Sensationell! Liebe, Verlust und Sehnsucht, verpackt in Mariachi, Cumbia und Bolero.

In Mexiko gilt Morrissey als ehrenvoller Prophet. Seine mit kraftvollen Bildern und Metaphern aufgeladenen Lieder über Liebe, Verlust und Sehnsucht haben dort ein großes Publikum gefunden. Und furchtlose Apologeten, die sich nicht scheuen, stilistische Grenzen zu überschreiten. Womit wir bei Mexrissey wären. Einer Bläser- und Streicher-Combo, die sich in Mexico City zusammengetan hat, um dem Meister zu huldigen. In anderen Worten: Morrissey-Songs mit blutendem Herzen neu zu erfinden. Angeführt wird das Projekt von Camilo Lara (Mexican Institute of Sound) und Sergio Mendoza (Orkesta Mendoza, Calexico), die im Frühjahr 2015 eine Handvoll musikalischer Revolverhelden aus namhaften einheimischen Bands um sich geschart haben. Schon nach wenigen, triumphalen Auftritten in Mexiko, London, New York und Los Angeles war klar: ein Album muss her. Dieses hört auf den Titel "No Manchester" und nimmt den Hörer mit auf eine Reise zu den - wie sollte es auch anders sein - Morrissey'schen Themen Liebe, Verlust und Sehnsucht. Nur eben auf der Basis von Mariachi, Cumbia und Bolero, also mit Trompete, Akkordeon und Schmalz. Womit geklärt wäre, wie Manchester mit mexikanischem Flair klingt. Nämlich sensationell!

Primal Scream release their 11th studio album, 'Chaosmosis', on the band's own First International label through Ignition Records. Recorded in London, New York and Stockholm and written and produced by Bobby Gillespie and Andrew Innes, 'Chaosmosis' is the freshest sounding album the band have ever made.

The exhilarating first single, 'Where The Light Gets In' (produced by Bobby, Andrew and Bjorn Yttling), features a duet with Sky Ferreira.

Outer Heaven is a massive leap forward for Toronto post-punks Greys. Delivering on the promises made on 2015's Repulsion EP, the band tempers their trademark onslaught of discordance with new textures and subtle dynamics, building a more spacious and melody-driven environment atop their noise rock foundation. They fearlessly explore every extreme, simultaneously delivering their most intense and accessible moments, often within the same song. We never want to do just one thing,' says frontman Shehzaad Jiwani. We want to incorporate as many disparate sounds as possible, yet still have it sound like the same band.' This bold approach saw them return to Montreal to record at the hallowed Hotel 2 Tango studio (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) with longtime producer Mike Rocha, giving the songs unprecedented atmospheric depth while never compromising the band's characteristic cacophony. Each song contains a sweet-and-sour earworm that brings singer-guitarist Jiwani's characteristically self-aware, often satirical lyrics to the forefront, and his serrated shout is almost entirely swapped for a more tuneful approach. Almost. Lyrically, his focus has sharpened, moving from inward to outward. This is best evident on first single No Star,' wherein Jiwani addresses the aftermath of the shootings at Bataclan in Paris by declaring, Don't shoot/I'm not the enemy.'Outer Heaven filters its subject matter through Jiwani's wryly incisive perception of those topics, from a news story about a group of teens barbarically murdering their classmate on album opener Cruelty,' to the advent of technological singularity on closer My Life As A Cloud.' Elsewhere, on Blown Out,' the frontman confronts his own mental health by painting it in the context of a relationship with a partner who doesn't fully understand the unrelenting complexities of depression. The climax of the song sees him wailing, I want you to see/There's something wrong with me,' which would be a harrowing moment if it wasn't the single catchiest song Greys have ever written.The young quartet stretches its limbs like never before on more delicate tracks like Erosion,' where Jiwani sings softly over Cam Graham's delicate guitar, recalling the dream pop qualities of early Deerhunter or late-period Unwound. Elsewhere, on Sorcerer,' bassist Colin Gillespie and drummer Braeden Craig launch an unrelenting yet hypnotic assault that falls somewhere between Swans and Portishead. With ten tracks at just under forty minutes, Greys raise the bar for what is expected of a punk band in the 21st century.

Outer Heaven is a massive leap forward for Toronto post-punks Greys. Delivering on the promises made on 2015's Repulsion EP, the band tempers their trademark onslaught of discordance with new textures and subtle dynamics, building a more spacious and melody-driven environment atop their noise rock foundation. They fearlessly explore every extreme, simultaneously delivering their most intense and accessible moments, often within the same song. We never want to do just one thing,' says frontman Shehzaad Jiwani. We want to incorporate as many disparate sounds as possible, yet still have it sound like the same band.' This bold approach saw them return to Montreal to record at the hallowed Hotel 2 Tango studio (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) with longtime producer Mike Rocha, giving the songs unprecedented atmospheric depth while never compromising the band's characteristic cacophony. Each song contains a sweet-and-sour earworm that brings singer-guitarist Jiwani's characteristically self-aware, often satirical lyrics to the forefront, and his serrated shout is almost entirely swapped for a more tuneful approach. Almost. Lyrically, his focus has sharpened, moving from inward to outward. This is best evident on first single No Star,' wherein Jiwani addresses the aftermath of the shootings at Bataclan in Paris by declaring, Don't shoot/I'm not the enemy.'Outer Heaven filters its subject matter through Jiwani's wryly incisive perception of those topics, from a news story about a group of teens barbarically murdering their classmate on album opener Cruelty,' to the advent of technological singularity on closer My Life As A Cloud.' Elsewhere, on Blown Out,' the frontman confronts his own mental health by painting it in the context of a relationship with a partner who doesn't fully understand the unrelenting complexities of depression. The climax of the song sees him wailing, I want you to see/There's something wrong with me,' which would be a harrowing moment if it wasn't the single catchiest song Greys have ever written.The young quartet stretches its limbs like never before on more delicate tracks like Erosion,' where Jiwani sings softly over Cam Graham's delicate guitar, recalling the dream pop qualities of early Deerhunter or late-period Unwound. Elsewhere, on Sorcerer,' bassist Colin Gillespie and drummer Braeden Craig launch an unrelenting yet hypnotic assault that falls somewhere between Swans and Portishead. With ten tracks at just under forty minutes, Greys raise the bar for what is expected of a punk band in the 21st century.

Outer Heaven is a massive leap forward for Toronto post-punks Greys. Delivering on the promises made on 2015's Repulsion EP, the band tempers their trademark onslaught of discordance with new textures and subtle dynamics, building a more spacious and melody-driven environment atop their noise rock foundation. They fearlessly explore every extreme, simultaneously delivering their most intense and accessible moments, often within the same song. We never want to do just one thing,' says frontman Shehzaad Jiwani. We want to incorporate as many disparate sounds as possible, yet still have it sound like the same band.' This bold approach saw them return to Montreal to record at the hallowed Hotel 2 Tango studio (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You! Black Emperor) with longtime producer Mike Rocha, giving the songs unprecedented atmospheric depth while never compromising the band's characteristic cacophony. Each song contains a sweet-and-sour earworm that brings singer-guitarist Jiwani's characteristically self-aware, often satirical lyrics to the forefront, and his serrated shout is almost entirely swapped for a more tuneful approach. Almost. Lyrically, his focus has sharpened, moving from inward to outward. This is best evident on first single No Star,' wherein Jiwani addresses the aftermath of the shootings at Bataclan in Paris by declaring, Don't shoot/I'm not the enemy.'Outer Heaven filters its subject matter through Jiwani's wryly incisive perception of those topics, from a news story about a group of teens barbarically murdering their classmate on album opener Cruelty,' to the advent of technological singularity on closer My Life As A Cloud.' Elsewhere, on Blown Out,' the frontman confronts his own mental health by painting it in the context of a relationship with a partner who doesn't fully understand the unrelenting complexities of depression. The climax of the song sees him wailing, I want you to see/There's something wrong with me,' which would be a harrowing moment if it wasn't the single catchiest song Greys have ever written.The young quartet stretches its limbs like never before on more delicate tracks like Erosion,' where Jiwani sings softly over Cam Graham's delicate guitar, recalling the dream pop qualities of early Deerhunter or late-period Unwound. Elsewhere, on Sorcerer,' bassist Colin Gillespie and drummer Braeden Craig launch an unrelenting yet hypnotic assault that falls somewhere between Swans and Portishead. With ten tracks at just under forty minutes, Greys raise the bar for what is expected of a punk band in the 21st century.

Mogwai today announce the release of their new album Atomic on 1 April via Rock Action in CD and double gatefold LP formats. The album is composed of reworked versions of the music recorded for the soundtrack to director Mark Cousin's acclaimed documentary Atomic: Living In Dread and Promise, which first aired on BBC Four last summer. The band today premiere U-235, a new track lifted from the album.
Constructed entirely of archive film, Atomic is an impressionistic kaleidoscope of the horrors of our nuclear times - protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima - but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. Mogwai's soundtrack encapsulates the nightmare of the nuclear age, but its dreamlike qualities too. It is the latest in the band's series of impressive soundtracks and scores, following acclaimed albums Les Revenants (The Returned) and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.
Cousins says of Atomic, the film: I'm a child of the nuclear age, and in my teens I had nightmares about the bomb. But physics was my favourite subject in school, and I nearly studied it at university. Learning about the atomic world excited me. It was like abstract Star Wars.'
Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite says: The Atomic soundtrack is one of the most intense and fulfilling projects we've taken on as a band. Ever since we went to Hiroshima to play and visited the peace park this has been a subject very close to us. The end results, both the film score and the record are pieces I'm extremely proud of.'

Mogwai today announce the release of their new album Atomic on 1 April via Rock Action in CD and double gatefold LP formats. The album is composed of reworked versions of the music recorded for the soundtrack to director Mark Cousin's acclaimed documentary Atomic: Living In Dread and Promise, which first aired on BBC Four last summer. The band today premiere U-235, a new track lifted from the album.
Constructed entirely of archive film, Atomic is an impressionistic kaleidoscope of the horrors of our nuclear times - protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima - but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. Mogwai's soundtrack encapsulates the nightmare of the nuclear age, but its dreamlike qualities too. It is the latest in the band's series of impressive soundtracks and scores, following acclaimed albums Les Revenants (The Returned) and Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.
Cousins says of Atomic, the film: I'm a child of the nuclear age, and in my teens I had nightmares about the bomb. But physics was my favourite subject in school, and I nearly studied it at university. Learning about the atomic world excited me. It was like abstract Star Wars.'
Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite says: The Atomic soundtrack is one of the most intense and fulfilling projects we've taken on as a band. Ever since we went to Hiroshima to play and visited the peace park this has been a subject very close to us. The end results, both the film score and the record are pieces I'm extremely proud of.'

Erstmals auf LP Vinyl! Die beiden limitierten 12"/EPs der Battles aus 2004, die nur in den USA erschienen sind und später - kompiliert auf einer Doppel-CD - ihren ersten Warp-Release in 2005 bedeuteten, erscheinen nun erstmals als LP-Doppel-Vinyl inklusive Download-Card.

2LP+MP3/GATEFOLD/POSTER

LP-Reissue des offiziellen Debütalbums der Battles aus 2007, inklusive der massiven Clubhits "Atlas" und "Tonto". "Mirrored" entstand in einer kreativen Hochphase der New Yorker Szene, die uns 2007 weitere glanzvolle Alben-Klassiker von LCD Soundsystem, Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, !!! (Chk Chk Chk), Animal Collective oder Liars bescherte. Die LP war seit Jahren nicht mehr verfügbar und erscheint in neuer Doppel-Vinyl-Auflage im Original-Deluxe-Gatefold-Cover inklusive Poster und Download-Card.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the 10-piece musical collective from California best known for their singles 'Man On Fire' and the platinum selling 'Home', is back with their fourth album PersonA. We've been on for a while now,' frontman Alex Ebert wrote on a Facebook post when they released first track 'Hot Coals'. But it's like we just turned on a new page in the old book with the inscription: serve your power and work beyond reason.' Recording the music almost entirely in one room together in New Orleans, their approach was a far cry from the come-one-come-all production of their previous albums.

This is the first where the band contributed on the majority of the song writing while they maintained their DIY mentality. The ever-evolving group also had to deal with the departure of vocalist Jade Castrinos in 2014. We had long been a social experiment first and musicians second. Over time, though, we were emerging, by virtue of hours spent, into a group of musicians who could really play together. When Jade left, that confirmed our new fate - music first. We seem to be done for now with distractions from the music itself, the bones of it,' says Ebert.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the 10-piece musical collective from California best known for their singles 'Man On Fire' and the platinum selling 'Home', is back with their fourth album PersonA. We've been on for a while now,' frontman Alex Ebert wrote on a Facebook post when they released first track 'Hot Coals'. But it's like we just turned on a new page in the old book with the inscription: serve your power and work beyond reason.' Recording the music almost entirely in one room together in New Orleans, their approach was a far cry from the come-one-come-all production of their previous albums.

This is the first where the band contributed on the majority of the song writing while they maintained their DIY mentality. The ever-evolving group also had to deal with the departure of vocalist Jade Castrinos in 2014. We had long been a social experiment first and musicians second. Over time, though, we were emerging, by virtue of hours spent, into a group of musicians who could really play together. When Jade left, that confirmed our new fate - music first. We seem to be done for now with distractions from the music itself, the bones of it,' says Ebert.

Following the acclaim for their 2014 self-titled debut album and recent tours with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion and Palma Violets, on March 25th MING CITY R*CKERS will release their second album, 'LEMON'.

Recorded in summer 2015 and produced by Steve Albini (legendary producer of Nirvana's 'In Utero' and Pixies' 'Surfer Rosa'), at his Electrical Audio studios, in Chicago, 'LEMON' is an explosion of punk rock action, packed with fast tunes, monster riffs, and lyrical vitriol, chiefly inspired by the band's desperate background in the bleak Lincolnshire town of Immingham.

Kicking off with the raucous 'Sell Me A Lemon' (which may or not be a recessionary anthem, about the widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots), it's immediately clear Albini helped the band hone their sound, from the ramshackle excitement of their debut, into something punchier, heavier and more on-the-money. Tracks like 'All I Want To Do Is Waste My Time With You' showcase their pop smarts in a sleazily romantic, extra-melodic breed of punk reminiscent of Buzzcocks, whereas the yowling 'Christine', whose lyrics were inspired by the automotive heroine of the similarly titled Stephen King movie, skips through the annals of early rock & roll. 'Death Trap', a mean take on a Hawkwind nugget from '79, features oppressively dense guitar textures, doubtless reflecting the band's hometown of Immingham's hopelessness, different again, 'Trying To Find Pixies' is flat-out punky-reggae, influenced by Toots & The Maytals and The Clash.

The curious chemistry behind the Mings' central couple of Clancey Jones (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Morley Adams (lead guitar, backing vocals) is typified by 'I Don't Mind If You Don't Mind': Morley was trying to write something frustrated and angry, whereas Clancey was adamant it needed to have a happy chorus. The result is one of several rampant pop triumphs aboard. Elsewhere, the pointedly titled 'Don't You Want To Make My Heart Beat' deals in a whole new realm of swingeing dynamics, bringing the album to a breathless close.

'LEMON' retains Ming City Rockers visceral, balls-to-wall primal rock 'n' roll and infectious ability to write a hook and pop melody. It's the sound of a band pushing themselves to new limits, and having a right old gas while doing so. Like its predecessor, it clocks in at under 30 minutes, but achieves a good deal more in that running time.

'LEMON' will be available on digital download, CD and vinyl. 'Sell Me A Lemon' will be the first single from the album. The band will tour extensively throughout late March and April - details to follow very soon.

Following the acclaim for their 2014 self-titled debut album and recent tours with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion and Palma Violets, on March 25th MING CITY R*CKERS will release their second album, 'LEMON'.

Recorded in summer 2015 and produced by Steve Albini (legendary producer of Nirvana's 'In Utero' and Pixies' 'Surfer Rosa'), at his Electrical Audio studios, in Chicago, 'LEMON' is an explosion of punk rock action, packed with fast tunes, monster riffs, and lyrical vitriol, chiefly inspired by the band's desperate background in the bleak Lincolnshire town of Immingham.

Kicking off with the raucous 'Sell Me A Lemon' (which may or not be a recessionary anthem, about the widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots), it's immediately clear Albini helped the band hone their sound, from the ramshackle excitement of their debut, into something punchier, heavier and more on-the-money. Tracks like 'All I Want To Do Is Waste My Time With You' showcase their pop smarts in a sleazily romantic, extra-melodic breed of punk reminiscent of Buzzcocks, whereas the yowling 'Christine', whose lyrics were inspired by the automotive heroine of the similarly titled Stephen King movie, skips through the annals of early rock & roll. 'Death Trap', a mean take on a Hawkwind nugget from '79, features oppressively dense guitar textures, doubtless reflecting the band's hometown of Immingham's hopelessness, different again, 'Trying To Find Pixies' is flat-out punky-reggae, influenced by Toots & The Maytals and The Clash.

The curious chemistry behind the Mings' central couple of Clancey Jones (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Morley Adams (lead guitar, backing vocals) is typified by 'I Don't Mind If You Don't Mind': Morley was trying to write something frustrated and angry, whereas Clancey was adamant it needed to have a happy chorus. The result is one of several rampant pop triumphs aboard. Elsewhere, the pointedly titled 'Don't You Want To Make My Heart Beat' deals in a whole new realm of swingeing dynamics, bringing the album to a breathless close.

'LEMON' retains Ming City Rockers visceral, balls-to-wall primal rock 'n' roll and infectious ability to write a hook and pop melody. It's the sound of a band pushing themselves to new limits, and having a right old gas while doing so. Like its predecessor, it clocks in at under 30 minutes, but achieves a good deal more in that running time.

'LEMON' will be available on digital download, CD and vinyl. 'Sell Me A Lemon' will be the first single from the album. The band will tour extensively throughout late March and April - details to follow very soon.