Pop & Rock News

It’s auspicious that Sonic Boom—the solo project and nom-de-producer of Peter Kember (Spectrum, Spacemen 3)—returns in 2020 with its first new LP in three decades. Kember’s drawn to the year’s numerological potency, and this intentionality shines into every corner of All Things Being Equal. It’s a meditative, mathematical record concerned with the interconnectedness of memory, space, consumerism, consciousness—everything. Through regenerative stories told backwards and forwards, Kember explores dichotomies zen and fearsome, reverential of his analog toolkit and protective of the plants and trees that support our lives.

Sonic Boom’s second album and first for Carpark began in 2015 as electronic jams. The original sketches of electronic patterns, sequenced out of modular synths, were so appealing that Stereolab’s Tim Gane encouraged Kember to release them instrumentally. “I nearly did,” confesses Kember, “but the vibe in them was so strong that I couldn't resist trying to ice the cake.” Three years later, a move to Portugal saw him dusting off the backing tracks, adding vocals inspired by Sam Cooke, The Sandpipers, and the Everly Brothers (which he admits “don’t go far from the turntable pile”), as well as speculative, ominous spoken word segments. His new home Sintra’s parks and gardens provided a different visual context for Kember’s thoughtful observations, and he thematically incorporated sunshine and nature as well as global protests into the ten resulting tracks. “Music made in sterility sounds sterile,” he says, “And that is my idea of hell.”

Over the vivid, calculating arps of opener “Just Imagine,” Kember nudges listeners to do as the title suggests. It’s based on a story he read about a boy who healed his cancer by picturing himself as a storm cloud, raining out his illness. “The Way That You Live,” a rollicking drone powered by drum machine rattles and bright chord beds, morphs political distrust into a revolutionary mantra about ethical living. “I try and live my life by voting every day with what I do and how I do it, who I do it with and the love that I can give them along the way,” offers Kember.

An unusually curated gear list accompanies each song, unexpected layers reinforcing the monophonic skeletons. Mystery soundscapes and grinding sweeps were teased from EMS synths, synonymous with and evocative of ‘60s BBC scoring and ‘70s Eno. Pacing basslines oscillating into warbling heartbeats came from a cheap ‘80s Yamaha. A modern OP-1 generated subtle kicks and eerie theremins, while his toy Music Modem—an unused holdover from sessions Kember produced for Beach House and MGMT—finally found its recorded home.

It’s rare to see liner notes where synthesizers rather than humans are credited (other than guest vocal stints from “co-conspirators” Panda Bear and Britta Phillips), but Kember is masterful at finding the unique personality in his machines. “I tried to find the deepest essence of the instruments & let them play,” he offers. What emerges from these considerations on technology and humanity is a honed collection both philosophical and grooving, spacious even as it fills to its brim. It’s distinctly Kember—more than that, it’s distinctly Sonic Boom.

Oracolo is Skinshape’s second full length originally released in 2015 and now remastered for 2020. The album plays out like the soundtrack to a psychedelic Spaghetti Western. ‘Old Days’ is one of a handful of vocal-lead tracks on the release that along with ‘Summer’ and the cinematic album title track, ‘Oracolo’ conjure references to bands like Can, The Bees or modern pysch pioneers Tame Impala. The instrumentals peppered throughout like the Quentin Tarantino-esque gem ‘Mandala’ and Motown reminiscing ‘Rubber Gloves’ highlight Dorey’s superb talent as an arranger and composer. Don’t let the vintage sound fool you either. All of his magic is original, without a sample in sight. Every instrument either played by Dorey himself, or his array of guest friend musicians. For the Oracolo artwork, Skinshape joined forces with acclaimed New York based artist Jared Buschang. This is one of Buschang’s early pieces simply named ‘Untitled’. The Picasco-esqe style makes the perfect visual representation for the music within.

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.

British electronic band Blancmange return with a new album and extensive UK Tour. Mindset is the 3rd album to be written and co-produced by Neil Arthur with Benge (Wrangler/John Foxx And The Maths) at his Memetune studios in Cornwall, following the critically acclaimed Unfurnished Rooms in 2017 and Wanderlust a year later. “Growing up in Chicago British synth pop was hugely influential in the burgeoning house music scene and Blancmange was a big part of that. To remix a song that was a big part of that soundtrack is a true honour.” Honey Dijon (recently remixed ‘Blind Vision’) Opening with the free-flowing, wistful Neu! uplift of the title track, the album’s themes of truth and misinformation are immediately explored in the emotional wordplay of the chorus. ‘Warm Reception’ comes in with powerful vocals and a propulsive drum machine, its icy electro-pop exterior worn like a blank mask. The cut-up vocals and Bossa nova beats of 'This Is Bliss' are a real joy, one of many moments on the album where there’s a refreshed dance-pop swing to Blancmange in the 2020s! ‘Antisocial Media’ stomps in gleefully, like Human League’s ‘Being Boiled’ but with a contemporary bass thrust, ‘Clean Your House’ is a break-up song which whizzes along with a lightness of touch revealing Arthur’s pop instincts and slightly disguising the lyrical twists (at least on first hearing), while ‘Insomniacs Tonight’ is about surrendering to a lack of sleep which leads to a half dream state becoming the norm. ‘Sleep With Mannequin’ is like a dead-eyed twin to ‘Warm Reception’, ‘Diagram is the most beat-driven track on an album which keeps the tempo of a runner, as does ‘Not Really (Virtual Reality)’ which riffs on all the album’s themes while adding some edgy guitar, by Arthur himself, to the mix. ‘When’ slows to a heartbeat and asks the question, ‘when is anything about what it’s about?’ . We’ve all been there - the emotional outbursts that seem to come from nowhere because they’re actually rooted in something else completely, but it’s also a question that hovers in the air throughout the album. Blancmange - originally a duo with Stephen Luscombe - first broke through in the early 80s with their mix of synthesizers and surrealism, fused in ground breaking singles such as 'Feel Me’, Living On The Ceiling' and 'Blind Vision’. The epic synth pop of 'Waves' and a cover of Abba's 'The Day Before You Came' illustrated a band who were always willing to change and adopt new styles within their electronic framework.“They were one of my favourite Bands when I grew up as a teenager in the 80’s. Listening to their music walking around with my Walkman back then was adventurous. Mainly because I was already in love with the aesthetics of synthesisers and drum machines. But also because it was unusual pop music with an extraordinary energy that made it in the charts. Remixing a favourite band is challenging but I’ve tried to keep the free spirits and playfulness in my mix that makes Blancmange still so special after all these years.” Roman Flügel (recently remixed ‘Living On The Ceiling’) Since Stephen Luscombe was forced by illness to stop touring or recording after 2011’s Blanc Burn, the band’s evolution has continued at a rapid pace through a new album almost every year with Arthur at the helm. These days you can hear Blancmange’s influence in everything from La Roux to LCD Sound System to Hot Chip and they’ve have also been reaching new audiences within the dance music scene via collaborations with Kincaid, John Grant, Disco Halal and this year’s remixes from Honey Dijon and Roman Flügel on London Records.

XL are proud to announce the 9th studio LP from Oxfords finest.. Radiohead... A Moon Shaped Pool will be releases on LPX2 and CD June 17th..

Repress on white vinyl!

XL are proud to announce the 9th studio LP from Oxfords finest.. Radiohead... A Moon Shaped Pool will be releases on LPX2 and CD June 17th..

Losing someone close to you creates an almost phantom limb-like effect. Often, it feels like they’re a phone call away. But that instant between when you reach for the phone and when your brain delivers the new reality to you is a strange, momentary eternity. It’s both an
uncompromising void and maybe as close as you’ll ever come to
communing with that loved one again. On her new song “Sandwiches,” Gordi harnesses all the sadness and glory of this feeling into a soaring, post-new wave anthem. One of the first true Gordi “guitar songs,” it shimmers with the lush-yet-fragile momentum of The Cranberries’ classic “Dreams.” Gordi wrote “Sandwiches” as a tribute to the matriarch of her family. Her late grandmother was, in Gordi’s words, “a great feeder of people.” So when she fell ill, Gordi and her mother took it upon themselves to nourish the visitors gathered around her hospital bed. As they passed around sandwiches, “someone called out that she was gone.” The gravity of the moment was poignant for its softness and mundanity. Gordi approaches the totality of a loved one’s life as measured in the
small memories that stay with us. She sings, “When I think of you a
movie-reel of moments plays / We’ll be in the car or after mass on
Saturdays / You’ll be walking down the driveway, you’ll be in your chair / You’ll say ‘See you round’ or ‘Say your “Three”’ / And now you’re everywhere.”
Gordi called on long-time collaborators and Bon Iver production duo
Chris Messina and Zach Hanson to make “Sandwiches” at her family
home in Canowindra, Australia — an old cottage littered with some of
Sophie’s favourite pieces of musical arsenal combined with some flown in from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The tiny farm town where her family has lived for over a century, Canowindra, and the heart of the matriarch, is embedded in this song. “Her whole life was in Canowindra…we made it in a house that’s a hundred meters from her house.” First pressing on limited-edition crisp white vinyl.
‘Reservoir’ over 22M streams RTD. Over 600,000 Monthly Spotify
listeners over two years after release. Previous tours & collaborations
include Bon Iver, Tallest Man on Earth, Troye Sivan, S. Carey and others. Strong sync history including The Walking Dead, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, High Maintenance and more.

What new can be said about this incredible band? They have played the most danceable electronic death disco on the planet since 2012…or was it 2112? The past and the future melts together, trying to draw their timeline but anyways, right now their new 7” ”Stonerdisco”/”Superstandard” is out on Höga Nord Rekords.

Exorcist have embraced hard rock more obvious than before, especially on the A-side, which is a boogie nightmare with fuzz bass and totally freed from guitar solos. The rhythm section with Osynlige Mann on bass and Tentakel on drums, plows in usual manner down space and time while Vesslans synthesizers shoots gamma rays through Exo-universe. The B-side is haunting, unsentimental dystopic disco.

The Exorcist prove that they still hold the powers of making supersonic dance music!

Handmade box: includes 7” adapter, rolling papers and enamel pin

The Mothership has come! It has arrived in the form of the strictly limited collection box “Upwards at 33 1/3 Degrees” (50 copies), containing all singles released on the label between 2017 and 2020. The Höga Nord – galaxy resounds of all good between strict electro and loose jams, fluffy krautrock and moist world music to underwater techno and space funk. Although, what it is that defines the Höga Nord sound is not genres, instead it is, to cite Mathias Nilsson, founder of and boss for the label, music “strongly connected to fantasy, to the creative world.” Creativity over profit!

The collection is an overview on Gothenburg’s underground music and on an international scene that breathes similar air as the local Swedish acts that Höga Nord Rekords has chosen to highlight. The kinship between Pardon Moi’s 80’s varnish sports car-electro and DRUK 11000’s more traditional mountain sound can appear distant but the artists come together in their free spirited approach to their own productions – what all acts on this collection has in common is that they move toward something new, something beyond the genre they are in.

“Upwards at 33 1/3 Degrees” mark the closer for Höga Nords first run. The 2010s are over and the 2020s lies open for further investigation of the cream of the Swedish and international of underground scenes!

Picture-Disc Version of the Album.

After much anticipation, our Belgian disco diamonds Rheinzand present their debut full-length album. On their self-titled record, The Belgian trio wraps the human heart in synthetic threads of modular electronic disco. 9 songs writhing on timeless dancefloors, morphing in and out of shapes of luxuriant melody and vivid instrumentation.

The album is full of classic disco and electro sounds, wielded with imposing prowess by multi-instrumentalist Reinhard Vanbergen. It’s both an exploration ofdance music’s electronic genealogy and the vintage cool that has defined its different eras. Still, an organic atmosphere pervades as the blend of real instrumentation fixes a sort of retro-futurism, imagining an alternative timeline that’s a bit more exciting, more sensuous and libidinal, maybe more human, too, than our current outlook.

We start the engines with Break of Dawn, a compelling beat rises from the basement and soon we’re submerged by the pulsing bassline. Dark sunglasses on, we cruise through the night, letting flashing city lights flow into unbroken torrents of color. Blind awakens us, a splash of handclaps in the face, vivid strings and Charlotte’s trademark slick vocals enter the stage. Tantalizing sunbeams power up circuits of electronic synths blipping and beeping away.

Later down the road, we hit the Latin part of town. Porque fits enchanting vocal spells in beautiful Spanish on playful flamenco rhythms. Fourteen Again is a throwback to early electro, playing around with knobs and buttons. An oscillating synth imagines new worlds of plastic emotion. Still disco and still very cool, though. A constant velocity is sustained throughout the album bythis recurring locomotive synth, trudging away beneath the action. Once in a while, we hear the deep, mighty, trembling voice of Mr. Rheinzand speaking to us in incantations. Someone’s pulling the strings here.

On Slippery People, the trio cover the Talking Heads classic in a characteristic procedure of bouncy funk. We’re swirled around by the delirious glasswork of You Don’t Know Me into the hypnagogic funk noir of Strange World. Drifting through the house of mirrors after the fourth mojito.

Obey collects all these threads in a full-bodied future classic disco anthem, before Queen of The Dawn wraps up the show with a sky-bound epic of operatic choirs and ceremonious drums that lands somewhere between Kate Bush’s Aerial and Peter Gabriel’s most bombastic.

The Imaginary Museum is the debut album by Dublin’s Autre Monde. Released through Strange Brew Records (Junior Brother, Squarehead, Daithi), the long-player follows a run of singles and an EP stretching back to 2017. Put together over several sessions with Girl Band's Daniel Fox as producer, the album's 9 songs mark a definitive statement from a band who have evolved their earlier interpretations of post-punk/art-pop to arrive at a richer, more expressive moment, often taking folk-ish melodies and structures as a launchpad.

Touchpoints include Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Roxy Music, Harmonia, Fairport Convention circa ‘Liege & Leaf’, Grace Jones, the Human League, Alex Cameron - and most especially the orgainsing principle to make a record “by a band who were playing esoteric post-punk in 1979 but who are now transplanted to 1986 where a hit is demanded”. It is a darkly tuneful record, dotted with moments of outright pop - see recent single On the Record with its exuberant sax break, for example (“a bright delight of a song” - Nialler 9), or the pulsating, mutating Fever in May. Elsewhere, the record stretches out confidently: luxuriating in baths of vintage synthesizers on The Operator, descending into something wild and uncertain in the final minutes of Brain Upon Your Pillow, mixing the pastoral with the robotic on Balls of Your Suit and Three Mandolins. Truly Glowing is a euphoric finale.

Autre Monde emerged from the ashes of the Popical Island collective as its headquarters fell victim to the city’s relentless purge of cultural spaces in 2017. Indeed, the first Autre Monde rehearsal was on the last day of the Pop Inn’s existence as a venue/rehearsal/recording space on Little Britain Street. They quickly gained attention for their early singles and stirring live performances, with The Thin Air insisting they were “one of the very best bands in the country”. The Irish Times noted that Autre Monde were “mining Television, ESG, Suicide and the The Slits”, and that’s about right. A murky, exploratory self-title EP followed (with 8-minute Can via Pentangle-channelling highlight Your Name still a favourite in live sets) before the band set out to make The Imaginary Museum in summer 2018. The signed to Strange Brew in 2019 in time to release the first fruits of those sessions.

The album title is taken from a line in Fredric Jameson’s ‘Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Captialism’ where he writes: “in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum”.

Autre Monde are Paddy Hanna (vocals), Padraig Cooney (bass, synth, vocals), Mark Chester (guitar) and Eoghan O’Brien (drums, synth, backing vocals). Three of them are from Dublin and Mark is from Cumbria. They met through their involvement together in a network of bands that at one stage or another were central to the Popical Island collective (Skelocrats, Grand Pocket Orchestra, Ginnels, No Monster Club).

Pink Vinyl

C. Lavender is a New York based sound artist and sound healing practitioner whose third full-length album explores meditative physical rituals of sound with binaural recordings from inside a geodesic dome in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

"The future is a choice between utopia and oblivion," noted architect, futurist and geodesic dome theorist Buckminster Fuller. Myth of Equilibrium delves into these divergent paths by featuring equal parts of pastoral raw acoustic percussion combined with C. Lavender's signature "devastating caustic drones" (Ad Hoc) via her custom bass guitar and synthesizers.

An assistant to the late pioneering electronic composer and Deep Listening founder Pauline Oliveros, C. Lavender's astute editing and the binaural recording process places the listener within the heady fluctuating underworld she has created on this album. The recording environment of the geodesic dome allowed for sounds to transfer out beyond the confines of the walls as well as allowing outside sounds from the surrounding wilderness to permeate in like that of a mutating cell. The album suggests "headphone listening" for the full hypnotic experience Myth of Equilibrium presents to the listener.

C. Lavender is a 2020 Pioneer Works (New York) Music Artist-in-Residence.

Second outing from Jaeger and O'Rourke following the release Wakes on Cerulean on Editions Mego in 2017. Covering a vast terrain with delicacy and poise this new release unveils a spectral showcase for all manner of deep abstraction. The first side positions itself somewhere between stoned komische synth and more nuanced electroacoustic tactics, all weighted by a melancholic undertow. The second side builds on the tension of the former as an undulating drone teases all variety of matter to rise and fall amongst the foreign space it inhabits. The effect creates an enormous sense of deep space before subsiding into a smaller more anxious flickering world. All manner of machines fold into play; digital machines, industrial and analogue machines. The seemingly random yet ordered nature of events is reminiscent of the behaviour of the natural world providing this machine driven release a convincing organic feel. Whether invoking mirrors, distant galaxies or a pond of frogs it is a delightful challenge to focus and locate what is nature and what is nurture. To play this loud is to immerse oneself in a fascinating journey which carries the listener through an array of dizzying emotional states.

“I’d work on it when everyone else at home was in bed,” says Aidan Moffat of his latest musical project as Nyx Nótt. “I don't sleep very well and I'm very much a nighthawk, so the music I made was naturally nocturnal.”
The essence of night and Moffat’s moonlit tinkerings became such a prominent role in the creative process that his new alias had to reflect this too. “I originally planned to release the album anonymously and tried to think of a convincing, exotic name that suited the nocturnal themes of the album. Nyx and Nótt are two mythical goddesses of night, Nyx from the Greek and Nótt from old Norse.” The album title translates as "At the Feet of Night", so this is an album not simply of, or from, the night, but an ode to it - a sonic worshipping of the night’s pull and allure. Crepuscular music.
The result is an album that pulses like the quiet hum of night; the production is clear and crisp with every movement, note and sound augmented with stark clarity - like the amplified sound of a creaking floorboard as you move through the house in darkness. It’s a deeply percussive album, resulting in gentle rhythms that often give way to moments of real stillness and tenderness that stem from the rich orchestration and composition - one that glides from strings to brass to quietly purring electronics. The album moves through jazz, ambient and electronic to result in something that sounds like it might be a score to Moffat’s dreams. “It’s made with samples, sound effects, keyboards, and the occasional toy,” says Moffat. “All but one of the tracks started with drums – I'd been collecting jazz drum samples and sessions for a while and I would layer a few kits on top of each other to create rhythms, then add music and samples from there.”
When Moffat says “the occasional toy” he means it quite literally. “For ‘Mickey Mouse Strut’ the music began with a recording of a singing Mickey Mouse toy I bought in Japan,” he says. “Its mouth opens when you squeeze its belly and it's quite sinister.” Elsewhere there’s references to Edgar Allen Poe on ‘Long Intervals of Horrible Sanity’, a haunting tribute to the horror writer Shirley Jackson via ‘Shirley Jackson on Drums’ and ‘Theme From’ is a track that Moffat plucked from another project which was going to be an album of twenty 90-second theme tunes for imaginary Netflix shows.
However, for someone as revered a lyricist as Moffat - be it with his own solo work, Arab Strap or when working with Bill Wells and RM Hubbert - he’s in entirely instrumental mode here, much like he was with his now defunct L.Pierre alter ego. It results in a fundamental shift in creative approach for Moffat when operating in this format. “For me, making instrumental music is like working with your favourite tool missing,” he suggests. “It's more of a challenge and a bit more risky. It relies more on instinct than songwriting does, or at least it does for me. It requires a bit more trust in yourself when there's no-one to bounce ideas off – in that way, these sorts of records are probably more personal than those with my voice.”
Also, given the album was made in such a personal and intimate way by Moffat as the world was catching z’s, it also succeeds in being a transformative experience for him. “There's an element of escapism in this album – there are no crickets in Glasgow, for instance, but I couldn't resist using recordings of them, I've always loved the way they sound.”
Those nighttime sessions and plucking albums from experiments are not an anomaly in Moffat’s life however. “I'm always working on something to varying degrees,” he says. “Right now, I'm working on another three albums that will appear over the coming years. It keeps me sane and happy. I'm very lucky to have a job that's not only enjoyable but is actually a way of winding down too. I live in a sort of backwards world these days where work functions as a stress reliever.”

‘Rejoice’ is a very special collaboration between Tony Allen, the legendary drummer and co-founder of Afrobeat, and Hugh Masekela, the master trumpet player of South African jazz.

Having first met in the 70's thanks to their respective close associations with Fela Kuti, the two world-renowned musicians talked for decades about making an album together. When, in 2010, their touring schedules coincided in the UK, the moment presented itself and producer Nick Gold took the opportunity to record their encounter. The unfinished sessions, consisting of all original compositions by the pair, lay in archive until after Masekela passed away in 2018.

With renewed resolution, Tony Allen and Nick Gold, with the blessing and participation of Hugh Masekela’s estate, unearthed the original tapes and finished recording the album in summer 2019 at the same London studio where the original sessions had taken place.

‘Rejoice’ can be seen as the long overdue confluence of two mighty African musical rivers – a union of two free-flowing souls for whom borders, whether physical or stylistic, are things to pass through or ignore completely. According to Allen, the album deals in “a kind of South African-Nigerian swing-jazz stew”, with it's roots firmly in Afrobeat.

Allen and Masekela are accompanied on the record by a new generation of well-respected jazz musicians including Tom Herbert (Acoustic Ladyland/The Invisible), Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Mutale Chashi (Kokoroko) and Steve Williamson.

Generation Terrorists is the Manic Street Preachers debut album, originally released in 1992. Blending glam rock, punk, and alternative influences, the album delivers politically charged lyrics, explosive guitar riffs, and youthful rebellion. Featuring standout tracks like Motorcycle Emptiness, Slash 'n' Burn, and You Love Us, it established the band's ambitious vision and outspoken identity. A landmark in '90s British rock, Generation Terrorists remains a cult classic, capturing the raw energy and ideological fervour of a generation.

Ltd. 25th Anniversary- Edition: Heavyweight, Silver Coloured Vinyl- Gatefold Sleeve! Includes Download-Code for Album, rare- and unreleased Tracks, also Mustique-Demos! Printed Inner-Sleeves,
4-Pages Booklet!

Exclusive Green Coloured, Heavyweight Viny! Record-Store Day, 2018.
PRINTED INNER SLEEVES WITH LYRICS- AND SESSION PHOTOS!










m D3 It's A Beautiful Thing - Vocals [Additional] – P.P. Arnold



[c] A3 Travellers Tune - Vocals [Additional] – P.P. Arnold









[m] D3 It's A Beautiful Thing - Vocals [Additional] – P.P. Arnold

Heavyweight Box-Set, containing Suede’s five Studio-Albums from their Original Incarnation & 2 Post-Reformation Albums- issued on Warners in 2013- and 2016. Everything: 180 Gram Vinyl!

"Mutable Set is Mills’ fourth Studio-Album, crafted as a Soundtrack to the emotional Dissonance of modern Life! The record reflects the push- and pull of opposing Forces: Harmony- and eerie dissonance, orchestral crescendos & Moments of near Silence, melodic yet unresolving Chord-Progressions. The Sonically warm Album holds Mills’ guitar fingerpicking, gentle Piano- and Melancholy tenor at its Center!

“This Record deals with an awareness of two things—people and experiences in life that are precious, and whatever waits down the moat for something to drop,” says Mills. “I’ve seen the phrase ‘mutable set’ used to describe theater backdrops and set props, things like that. And ‘mute’ might be one of the best musical terms ever invented ...

So ‘Mutable Set’ is a term that deals with anything that could change or be lost all together.” Lyrically, Mills partnered with his friend, the songwriter Cass McCombs, for parts of Mutable Set! Ranging from narrative to impressionistic the songs address the multiplicity of modern life. Quiet dissatisfaction segues to bracing optimism... And, often, back again. Uncut: 8/10 album review in new issue. "

After humble lo-fi beginnings in the Australian Art-Pop Underground, Donny Benet has expanded his cult-like following across the Globe with a resonant Array of danceable Repertoire dealing with Love- and Affection. New album "Mr Experience" marks a new chapter, informed by a wealth of musical- and personal development.

For Mr Experience, Donny envisioned a Soundtrack to a Dinner-Party- Set in the late 1980's. While his earlier Recordings drew Inspiration from DIY Pop Conspirators such as Ariel Pink & John Maus, Donny channelled the Stylings of Bryan Ferry & Hiroshi Yoshimura as the Impetus for new Material, evident on the Intimacy found on ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ and it's lush production- with a soothing whistle-along Chorus for good Measure!

Sincerity has been a key component of Donny Benet’s output since the beginning. His songs deal with genuine Emotion served on a kitsch Platter. An alter-ego manifested in the beginning of the 2010's, Donny has blurred the Lines of Artifice to create a back- Catalogue that can embrace- and challenge, often simultaneously, - the notion of Irony in Art.

"Mr Experience" moves further away from ironic Notions as Donny explores lyrical- and musical themes which embody Observations of Maturation in his audience, his tightknit musical Community- and himself. While ‘mature’ is a term that often rings hollow as an album descriptor, the term couldn’t be more apt for Mr Experience.

Previous album The Don was created with the luxury of time. The phenomenal Response to that Album across Europe- and the United States - fuelled by accompanying Music Videos clocking in Views in the Millions- meant that there were scant Windows of Opportunity to write- and record a follow-up.

With a legacy in Sydney’s music community, working with Sarah Blasko, and tightknik collaborators Jack Ladder & Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benet is accustomed to collaboration on the Stage- and in the Studio, mostnotably on the 2014 full-length release Weekend At Donny’s.



“There is such immense talent evident in every aspect of the Donny Bene experience - the vision of the character, the steadfast adherence his narrative and the musicality of Benet himself all combine to makesomething truly genius.” - Double J, Australin.

“Donny Benet makes feminine music for everybody” - Vice, Netherlands.

“The Don does not sound like amusical copying machine”. - 3voor12 National, Netherlands.

“The set was punctuated with virtuosic solos and exquisite harmonies, and added another layer of genius to the show.
We almost couldn’t handle it... Donny for president!" - Indie Berlin.

“Everyone loves Donny Benet” - Feature in Gonzai, France.

“Phenomenal Australian Showman... Offers Top-Class Dance Music with Virtuose-Bass Guitar- and Keyboard Parts & incredible Sound-Colour feel.” - Podujatie.sk, Slovakia.

Donny has toured Europe five times since the start of 2018 and has played in the UK, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Greece and Sweden. The Don will revisit Europe twice in 2020, once for his own headline shows in May then back again in August for festivals!

"Band of Gypsys" was originally released in March 1970, at a time when Hendrix was at the peak of his powers. Featuring a new line up consisting of drummer Buddy Miles- and bassist Billy Cox, it was recorded across two performances at the Fillmore East on New Year’s Day 1970. The resulting Live-Album captured an incendiaryMix of Blues, Rock- and Funk.

The 50th anniversary edition of Band of Gypsys features an 8-Page book featuring rare archival photos & an essay by Hendrix Archivist John McDermott- it also has been remastered from the Original Analogue-Stereo Tapes by Eddie Kramer, long time engineer to Jimi Hendrix.

Pressed on Dark-Red Marble-Effect Vinyl!

Tracklist, Side A: Recorded January 1, 1970 Early Show- and Side B: Recorded January 1, 1970 Late Show

We are Legacy/CMG reissue the 2nd studio album from American Rock, Pop- and Punk Band! Originally released in 1999, RCA Records.
"19439734451" Vinyl, 12-Song Album which includes the singles 'My Own Worst Enemy', 'Zip-Lock' and 'Miserable'. Pressed on White-Coloured Vinyl with Download-Code! Marketing Activity.

(Disclaimer: release notes refer to the combined CD double-album release "Hot Flash: Best of The Voltags" on which all tracks appear together. "Electric Nightmare" and "Danger High Voltag" are released separately on vinyl format)

It does not happen that often any more that unreleased music from 40 years ago surfaces. Even more unlikely it is that the songs put on tape are such treasures. The Voltags were right at the forefront of the local Washington DC New Wave/Punk scene of the late 1970s. Influenced by Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Clash, and The B-52's, they have released only one 45rpm single during their existence. But during the time span of not even 18 months, they had recorded enough material for an entire album - but the songs remained in the can.

This is the story of The Voltags, a short-lived band which could have become famous and mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned music legends of that era - if their songs had been released back in the day. Dive in and enjoy the sound of The Voltags, it is truly special. We here at Perfect Toy are thrilled to be label to finally release their work and we sincerely hope that they are finally getting the appreciation they so richly deserve.

Detailed information:
Dave Bennett and Hangnail Phillips grew up in Brookside Park, Newark, Delaware, USA, a small suburban college town nestled midway between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Their first band project evolved into Pump Productions (Pump) under which they released their only 45rpm single in 1970 (one of the two songs, "Pappy's Rug", can be heard on "Down & Wired 3", Perfect Toy Rec.). Soon after the recording of the single the two graduated from High School and disbanded Pump. Both moved on to form two new Newark bands. Dave was a founding member of "Snake Grinder & The Shredded Fieldmice" and Hangnail co-founded "Rudy Baker & The Vegetables".

In early 1979, two friends of Dave's, Nick Norris and Mike Fisher, became partners in a music production company, White Clay Productions. One of White Clay's first artists was Dave Bennett who had just written two excellent songs: "Electric Jungle" and "Son Of Sam". White Clay set up a recording session and Dave assembled a group of friends to record the songs. Before the recordings were even mixed, Dave asked Hangnail if he would join in a band to support the single and other songs he had written. When James Keesey (drums) and Rick Reid (bass) were added the line-up was complete. For a while they didn't have a name and then one day Nick Norris was looking at a photo of Dave standing next to a "Danger High Voltage" sign. Dave's head was in front of the E in Voltage and Nick laughed "Danger High Voltag" and so it was soon suggested that the band should be called "The Voltags" (pronounced Vol'-togs). After months of preparing a repertoire they were ready to play out. Their first gig was (October 20, 1979) at a gay disco in nearby Wilmington called The Backstage. On December 30, 1979, White Clay decided to put on a big show at the State Theater to celebrate the end of the Seventies ("The End Of The Decade Bash").

For the next year, with the help of White Clay, they recorded 19 songs, both studio and live recordings with White Clay's mobile unit. If not for these "off the board" recordings, many of their songs would have never been recorded. There was always talk of a second Voltags single but the strains of working so closely together were taking their toll on them and Dave decided to leave the group in December of 1980. The Voltags couldn't be The Voltags without Dave, and by the end of 1981, Hangnail, James and Rick, too, were ready to disband.


- all songs previously unreleased
- mastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes
- limited vinyl release

Tim Burgess has announced news of his new solo album I Love The New Sky released via Bella Union.  How inspiring it is to hear Tim Burgess conjuring up exciting and life-affirming sounds as he, almost inconceivably, enters his fifth decade on public duty.

 Frontman, singer, label boss, DJ and author, he’s been instrumental in so many great records over the years, always bringing enthusiasm, positivity and diversity of influence, which altogether light the way for those who hold him dear.

 While in The Charlatans, Tim’s indefatigable energy has been a consistent fuel for the band across thirteen high-charting albums, his solo adventure has been no less extraordinary, scaling new heights in 2020 with his fifth solo release to date: ‘I Love The New Sky’.

 Released via Bella Union, it features wonderfully connective songs of everyday minutiae and universal experience, of love and anger, of loss and belonging, all united by elaborate yet natural arrangements and an effortless but deceptively expert way with melody.

 Available as digital, CD and 180g LP (transparent splatter vinyl with DL)

Los Angeles, CA's Weezer will release their eleventh album, Pacific Daydream on Crush Music/Atlantic Records on October 27th, 2017. Produced by Butch Walker, Pacific Daydream is the follow up to the critically acclaimed album Weezer (The White Album), which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album at the end of last year.

Following the release of Weezer (The White Album), the band began working on what they called The Black Album,' but as they worked, they found the songs they were writing felt more like reveries from a beach at the end of the world. Instead of forcing a different direction, they began an entirely new album, Pacific Daydream was born. Frontman Rivers Cuomo brings this decision back to a Chinese proverb he says inspired the design behind the entire record:

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Chou, dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was Chou. Soon I awaked, and there I was, veritably myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man.

Pacific Daydream - an album full of the melodic mastery and craftsmanship for which Weezer are known - is a record that navigates the uncertainty between reality and dreams, blurring the line between the listener knowing if they are daydreaming the world of the album, or if the world of the album is daydreaming them. It's a record about finding the gray area between the black and the white, about escaping the everyday into the fantasy of what may be just down the line, but also maybe isn't. It's an album that sounds like the Beach Boys and The Clash fell in love by the ocean and had one hell of an amazing baby. It's Weezer doing all the things they do best and then some.

A track listing for Pacific Daydream is still forthcoming, however the album's current single, Feels Like Summer,' released in March, has steadily become the dark horse hit of the summer season, currently at #2 and closing in on #1 at Alternative radio, with nearly 20 million plays across streaming services and YouTube. The song is Weezer's biggest radio hit in a decade, and will be the band's fourth #1 at Alternative radio.

On her third album U kin B the Sun, Vancouver-based singer/songwriter Frazey Ford inhabits an entire world of shapeshifting rhythm, elevating every beat and groove with the subtle magnetism of her mesmerizing voice. At turns ecstatic and heavy-hearted, gloriously shambolic and deeply purifying, U kin B the Sun is the outcome of a certain personal transformation that Ford has experienced in recent years. With its graceful collision of soul and psychedelia and sometimes ’70s funk, it’s a body of work that invites both self-reflection and wildly joyful movement, and ultimately sparks a quiet transcendence. A departure from the guitar-driven and largely solitary songwriting that’s defined Ford’s previous work, both in her folk bluegrass trio The Be Good Tanyas and her solo albums Obadiah (2011) and Indian Ocean (2014), much of U kin B the Sun took shape from spontaneous collaboration with her longtime bassist Darren Parris and drummer Leon Power. Over the course of several late-night sessions in the thick of summer 2019, the three musicians joined producer John Raham (Destroyer, Stars, Dan Mangan, Said The Whale) in dreaming up a brilliantly untethered sound, recording as they improvised and continually tapping into their potent camaraderie.

The highly anticipated Live At The Forum album by The Teskey Brothers will now be officially released on all services on Friday May 15 – The live album was recorded to analogue tape during the band’s sold-out four night stand at the beloved Melbourne venue last November. Live At The Forum features songs from the band’s two critically acclaimed albums, Run Home Slow (2019) and Half Mile Harvest (2017), as well as a special cover of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’. Alongside the CD & digital release, the live album will be available on vinyl. The album release date news comes in the middle of The Teskey Brothers’ “Stay Home Slow” virtual tour – where in lieu of live shows, the band have been premiering exclusive live performances at scheduled times. So far, they’ve released ‘Jealous Guy’ (John Lennon cover), ‘San Francisco’ and today, their 2019 hit ‘So Caught Up’ – which premiered on YouTube.

Libreville Records is proud to present a focus on legendary electronic swiss project Mega Wave Orchestra in the form of a compilation LP including unreleased material.Originally released privately in Geneva in 1988 as a box set containing five LPs by The Mega Wave Orchestra and five prints by the artist H. Richard Reimann. The Mega Wave Orchestra, the brain-child of musician, mathematician and composer Christian Oestreicher, was conceived as an multi-media electronic music big-band. It was comprised of seven multi-instrumentalists Christine Schaller, Vincent Barras, Jacques Demierre, Olivier Rogg, Rainer Boesch, Roger Baudet, and Benoit Corboz, with Oestreicher as arranger and producer.The Mega Wave Orchestra created a new hybrid music. It was a music with roots in the jazz and classical traditions, but one which also drew on the sonic freedom of musique concrete and the kind of total experience offered by psychedelia. The diverse backgrounds and specialisms of each of the band leaders/writers resulted in a wide variety of music across the five discs: from austere drones and granular aural detail to warm oddball fusion and gorgeous but cracked vocal jazz. There are useful contemporary comparisons to be made: zoned synth jazz like the Azimuth LP on ECM or Karin Krog’s Freestyle; Larry Heard’s sequencer dreamtime; the Valium minimalism of Pep Llopis or Jun Fukamaki; Dexter Wansel’s shimmering arrangements for Loose Ends, or even the FM sheen meets cold war threat of Donald Fagen’s Night Fly. Here, too, is the sound of music technology about to snowball and define its own aesthetic, unknowingly prefiguring auteurish bedroom producers like Black Dog or The Detroit Escalator Company.Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered from Master tapes. 600 copies.

Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but The Cool Greenhouse are about to shatter glass ceilings with their self-titled debut LP.
Having caused a stir on the underground DIY label circuit with their inimitable, infectious brand of lo-fi post-punk in 2019, The Cool Greenhouse’s debut album shows off a newly developed, fuller sound, taking their signature style to previously unexplored heights while doubling down on their tried and tested formula of angular motoric riffs and no holds barred biting social commen-tary. The muffled 16-bit drum loops have been replaced with a full kit, the nonchalant vocal delivery has found a new edge and the sparse instrumentation has been augmented by the band’s finally agreeing to leave their bedrooms and enter the studio, yielding a fully-realised vision with fresh clarity and depth that makes their earlier recordings seem like mere blueprints.
A large part of what makes this a winning formula is frontman Tom Greenhouse’s way with words. Frequently topical and clearly political in some sense, Greenhouse’s lyrics side-step the on-the-nose delivery of traditional yawn-inducing political rock in fa-vour of a strange idiosyncratic blend of pop culture snippets, patchwork narratives and oblique literary references. Bursting with humour and irony, the album deftly meanders from Rotary Club jumble sales to Margaret Thatcher’s living room to futuristic voy-ages into musical VR, taking aim at the gammon classes, rural conservatism and a host of other late-capitalist absurdities with razor-sharp wit along the way.
Discovering The Cool Greenhouse’s first 7” (which coincidentally mentioned his own surname) ace producer, sound engineer and mixer Phil Booth (Sleaford Mods) invited the group to his JT Soar studio in Nottingham. The old potato-packing warehouse of-fered an idiosyncratic working method for the band, who recorded the album over 7 days as live between kipping on its couch-es, 4am whiskey-soaked sessions and Mario Kart ’64 on demand. “Phil’s got all the kit and know-how, but the studio is rough around the edges with great character,” Tom tells. “There were weird little synchronistic miracles… discussing a song then seeing its title on a shop window, finding things in pubs straight out of our songs… these zapped me onto some sort of Jungian plane where I didn’t need sleep and knew just what to do.”
Blissfully instinctive, Tom’s lexicon flies across the album with the agitation of an internal monologue that won’t quit. From pop culture to cautionary tales, anything deemed too musically extravagant was swiftly removed before being mastered by Mikey Young (Bodega, Amyl and the Sniffers); “we added a tympani and clarinet but ended up taking it all off again” At times the Tru-man Show-trappings of ‘Trojan Horse’ or ‘Gum’s unsettling cowbell hint at the motoric. For now, whatever it is that gets you go-ing, let’s just call it The Cool Greenhouse effect.

On May 15th, Baltimore’s Truth Cult will drop their debut LP “OFF FIRE” on Pop Wig Records. Stemming from a community with no boundaries, and a family tree with endless branches, Truth Cult’s unique personality shines bright in these 10 tracks. Following up their debut 2018 EP, this LP is a flame that is just getting sparked. Be on the lookout for this band in motion.

Either Light is the new album from Boston band Vundabar. It marks their first album since 2018’s Smell Smoke which received wide critical acclaim from the likes of NPR, Pitchfork, FADER, Stereogum, and many more. Either Light was recorded in 2019 with producer Patrick Hyland (Mitski’s Be The Cowboy, Puberty 2, Bury Me at Makeout Creek) across sessions in Philadelphia and New York City. The album sees guitarist/vocalist Brandon Hagen and drummer Drew McDonald exploring new themes and sounds throughout the collection of songs.

Gawk is the sophomore album from Boston band Vundabar. Gawk, released in 2015 on the band’s own Gawk Records, was the highly anticipated follow up to the band’s debut album Antics. The album received widespread praise from critics and fans and quickly became the band’s breakout album. Pitchfork called Gawk a “a charming, chaotic pile-up of surf-, math-, and art-rock.”

Smell Smoke is the third album from Boston band Vundabar. Smell Smoke, released in 2018 on the band’s own Gawk Records, was the highly anticipated follow up to the band’s previous album Antics. The album received widespread praise from critics including NPR, SPIN, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound and more. Pitchfork said “Smell Smoke is dynamic and riveting, a guitar-forward mosaic that pieces jagged edges of art rock, math rock, punk rock, and pop together...Vundabar have brilliantly crafted an album that feels like it resonates with joy and sorrow both here and in the hereafter.”

An album of our times, ‘Sad Happy’ is formed of two diametrically distinctive sides. Written and produced in full by frontman Kieran Shudall and mixed by Grammy winners Dan Grech-Marguerat and Matt Wiggins. The follow up to last April’s Top 10 charting album ‘What’s It Like Over There?’. Discussing the themes behind the record, Shudall says: “We live in a world split into two extreme halves. One moment you’re filled with the existential crisis of climate doom and the next you’re distracted by another piece of inconsequential content that has you laughing aloud. I find this close proximity of immense sadness and happiness so jarring, bizarre and fascinating.” The prolific nature of Shudall’s writing, coupled with Circa Waves’ relentless appetite for playing live and their own label imprint, are cementing the Liverpool four piece’s reputation as one of the UK’s
most dynamic and exciting bands.

2LP format pressed on gold vinyl and housed in a gatefold sleeve.

It starts like an alarm. 'Deleter' is the lead track from Grouplove's forthcoming fourth album Healer, and it is an emergency opener. It's fuelled by pounding keys, squalling guitar lines, and lightning drumming before the voice of Christian Zucconi questions everything around him: faith systems, his sense of belonging, communities, his own psyche. “All this time I thought you were a leader/It turns out you're only a deleter.” It could be interpreted as a political statement, but it's also highly personal. “All this time been burning with a fever / It turns out I've always been my healer,” is also switched in as a rhyming line, and in the end sees Zucconi and his collaborator, wife and frontwoman Hannah Hooper realizing that amid every progression and every regression you always come back to yourself for the answers. They're already within you.

New Dreams is the second record from Icelandic singer, songwriter multi-instrumentalist Jófríður Ákadóttir aka JFDR. New Dreams deals variously in heartbreak, gratitude, habits, intuition, delusions, innocence, loneliness, meaning, empathy, vulnerability, security, identity, dependency, longing, beauty, love and, yes, dreams, old and new