Pop & Rock News

Post Punk Pioneers GRAMME release their long awaited second album on 2nd august 2019. Working closely with the team at Love Vinyl the band are set to release on vinyl & CDl via specialist targeted stores following up with a digital assault in early June 2019. Cited and favourite by the likes of LCD Sounds System, ACR and Hot Chip this eagerly awaited ‘Disco Lovers’ is set to establish the band where many believe they should have been for years.

Jeffrey has received jaw-dropping praise from practically every major news and music outlet over the years, as well as awed testimonials from the likes of David (Silver Jews) Berman, Jarvis (Pulp) Cocker, Ben (Death Cab For Cutie) Gibbard, Will Oldham and others… and this new album “Bad Wiring” makes it completely clear why. In all of indie-rock there is no force like Jeffrey Lewis. Although mostly recognized for his lyrical skills (as well as his illustration/comic book skills), the secret weapon in Lewis’s arsenal has been his slow evolution from DIY folkie in the late 90s to barn-burning indie-rock live sensation. New band name The Voltage is a bit of a slight-of-hand, as the musicians are the same bassist, Mem Pahl, and same drummer, Brent Cole (also of the Moldy Peaches), that Jeffrey has been touring the world with for the past four years as “Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts.” But Jeffrey continues his tradition of using a new band name for each release… and as Jeffrey says, “everybody knows most good bands have a ‘v’ in their name… Velvets, Nirvana, Pavement, Vaselines, Violent Femmes, Camper Van Beethoven, Modern Lovers, etc!” Recent Jeffrey Lewis band names like “The Rain”, “Los Bolts” and “The Voltage” are also in reference to the fact that Jeffrey’s middle name is Lightning, the result of being born on the Lower East Side in the 1970s to hippie parents. It was almost his first name but got moved to the middle name when he was born!

The album was recorded and produced in Nashville by Roger Moutenot, the man responsible for producing all of the classic Yo La Tengo albums. Moutenot, who also worked on Lou Reed’s “Magic and Loss” album, and Sleater Kinney’s “Hot Rock” album was definitely the right man to capture these twelve new Lewis songs in the studio. As Lewis explains, “As an experience of working with a producer, it was a dream come true. I obviously worship a number of the records Roger had produced in the past, so I specifically sought him out. The fact that he’s in Nashville was just accidental, we would have traveled to record with him anywhere. Now when people hear we made our album in Nashville, everybody’s like, oh, I guess this is your country album…”

Stars Are the Light, the luminous seventh album by the American psych explorers Moon Duo, marks a progression into significantly new territory. From a preoccupation with the transcendental and occult that informed Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada’s guitar-driven psych rock, and reached its apotheosis in the acclaimed Occult Architecture diptych, Stars Are the Light sees the band synthesize the abstract and metaphysical with the embodied and terrestrial.

Branching out from Occult Architecture Vol. 2, the album has a sonic physicality that is at once propulsive and undulating; it puts dance at the heart of an expansive nexus that connects the body to the stars. These are songs about embodied human experience — love, change, misunderstanding, internal struggle, joy, misery, alienation, discord, harmony, celebration — rendered as a kind of dance of the self, both in relation to other selves and to the eternal dance of the cosmos.

Studies for live electronics by New York composer John Also Bennett. All three tracks are single-take recordings from a performance at AB Salon in Belgium. Each of these improvisatory works document psychoacoustic aspects of JAB's approach to synthesis and sound design. Using a single digital oscillator and minimal effects processing, the resulting pieces playfully mimic nature to evoke sonic representations of galloping horses, chirping birds, and buzzing insects. Issued as a limited edition 7" stereo lathe-cut record, the release stands as a snapshot of JAB's commitment towards the exploratory potential of process and reduction.

John Also Bennett is a composer, flautist and synthesist based in Brooklyn. He is a member of the trio Forma and founding member of the duo Seabat. His debut solo album Erg Herbe, which uses flutes, microtonal synthesis and field recordings, was released via Shelter Press in 2019. He has collaborated with Jon Gibson, Christina Vantzou, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Theatre Of Voices, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma, Peter Burr, Zin Taylor and many others, and performed internationally at festivals such as Big Ears, Moogfest, Meakusma (Belgium), Jue (China), The World Minimal Music Festival (Amsterdam) and Nostos (Greece). His work as a composer for animation and short films has been screened at international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, 25FPS International Experimental Film/Video Festival, London International Animation Festival and ESP TV.

Founded in 2015, Tears|Ov are sound artist/self-taught musician Lori E Allen, classically trained cellist/mixed media artist Katie Spafford and illustrator/prison psychotherapist Deborah Wale. The trio first collaborated on Lori E Allen's 'Tears of the Material Vulture' cassette on The Tapeworm, a re-imagination of a brief collaboration with Madame Chaos of cut-up cablecasts, 1995-1996, on Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Television in New York City. That release served to resurrect a hibernating creative practice between the three friends.

Their writing process takes the form of structured improvisation. Allen will create a bed of loops, field recordings or a full framework. She then shares this base with Wale and Spafford who embellish or delete, the three building the pieces through long improvised sessions in London, playing late into the night. During these sessions, the feeling of a songs' words or the emotional tone of a sound can spark sudden mood changes, altering the arc of the compositions. 'Crucially the music is improvised – it is never the same twice. There are triggers and moments that signal moving to another part of the music, but the timings and lengths largely depend on our moods and interpretation on a given day/performance. Because of this, the album was recorded with ambient mics capturing multiple instruments. It wasn't possible to record all the instruments separately as we respond to each others improvisation. Even if the changes are very minor, they really affect the emotion of each piece' Spafford says.

'A Hopeless Place' was initiated by a commission from Wolfgang Tillmans to perform at the Tate Modern's South Tanks, part of a concert series curated by the artist in parallel to his 2017 retrospective at the gallery. 'We were asked to play a gig at the Tate in March 2017' recalls Lori. 'I'd already started on some of the tracks, but it gave us an opportunity to present them as a composition around their connected themes. Sometime after the gig we decided to capture the work and turn it in to an album.'

For Lori, the album is about loss, 'especially grief around the edges of growing out of something in order to move toward something else. It's about transformation through love, not knowing how to hold on to everything while wanting desperately to let go of all of it, craving new shapes but feeling warped in the process of shapeshifting. It's also about how love changes you, if you allow it to. It can't be apportioned. And this is the biggest mistake of all – which we all joke about in vain grasping for control over the pleasure of losing control – that's what the gameshow track represents – the compulsion to break taboo.'

Tears|Ov's debut is presented as a continuous journey, devised to be heard as a whole. 'Though I'm interested in attaining a peaceful hold on mixing emotions on a personal level, the compositions seem to come out all sideways, morose and capricious,' Lori says. 'I like to change the mood slowly and sometimes suddenly – like how it happens in your heart.'

Debbie notes how the albums' different movements work for or against each other. '"Dancing Without" is about finding a book about nothingness, just lying there on the street, and having gratitude for nothing being nothing yet still somehow falling out of the sky as an object – not just a concept. For "Overstimulated Arcade Rat", the inspiration was about the feeling of being on a new psychotic substance, endlessly playing video games – a metaphor for being forced into addiction by society, for getting lost in the pressure of finding your way. "Trapdoor Ant" is about the protective survival mechanism of the trapdoor ant. They have the fastest moving predatory appendages within the animal kingdom, used as a catapult to eject intruders or ping themselves backwards to escape threat. The peak force is 300 times the body weight of the ant…'

In Katie's opinion the album represents an emotional journey, 'often one started by Lori and shaped by the band. Through my cello melodies, I seek to create a story throughout the album, like a voice. The way the tracks are stitched together is akin to how a symphony is structured, with its different movements; each one with its own story, building to a greater whole. The emotions that Lori describes – of loss, grief and love – are echoed in the romantic and often heart-rending cello melodies. As I am not the one who creates the initial concepts or ideas, for me it's much more about how I absorb and feel the raw emotion of each track, then voicing and interpreting what I feel through the cello.'

The Elbow is Taboo was Renaldo & The Loaf's fourth and last album of their initial phase prior to their return in 2010. Released by Ralph in America and Some Bizzare in the UK in 1987 this work represents a development in the overall sound as they utilize an 8 track recorder along with early digital effects. A large arsenal of acoustic instrumentation gives the record an additional unsettling atmosphere. Recorded over a 3 year period this remains the definitive statement by the group in this early period.

As clarified by Brian from the band, the themes remain as obtuse and alluring as ever with each song containing it's own story. "be it a child's desire to control (A Street Called Straight), the ridiculous purdah of an innocent part of the body (The Elbow is Taboo), a call for help in times of angst (Here's To the Oblong Boys), the rigours of a bread fetish (The Bread Song), the anger of a dance teacher to the terminally inept (Critical/Dance) or a ritual call to prayer, somewhere (Extracting the Re-re)".

Disorientating and delightful this is a must for all fans of the Loaf and for those tickled by the more deranged spectrum of song.

The first album of the new duo G.A.M.S. (ANDI STECHER / drums and GUIDO MÖBIUS / feedback) - with special appearances by MICK HARRIS (EX-NAPALM DEATH, PAINKILLER SCORN a.o.) and YUKO MATSUYAMA (HULA HUT & THE SEVEN SEAS). Avaliable as 180gram LP & DL.

Feedback leads a life of it's own. It is an uncontrollable sonic accident, usually ear-numbingly loud but sometimes also delicately ethereal. The essence of feedback is being released from bonds, its path is always one of intensification and escape. Its a physical phenomenon and hard to predict.

The duo G.A.M.S. makes music on the edge of losing control. A restless drummer works his way through waves of feedback, which span the full spectrum of frequencies from pumping bass to the highest tones. With the pulse of the feedback ANDI STECHER's drumming, at times feverish and driven, then distanced and abstract, creates polyrhythmic structures. What comes into being is a maelstrom of sound and rhythm - music beyond every style, the power of which lies in its rawness.

STECHER and MÖBIUS switch the roles of desired and undesired sound and thereby create pieces like archaic sculptures.Their music is raw and powerful, but can also be soft and etheric. Sometimes it feels like a delicate organic painting. But here's one thing that G.A.M.S. music certainly isn't - predictable. The duo uses freely improvised spaces and reacts to unplanned sonic events. And despite all it's seeming randomness, G.A.M.S. still manage to compose clearly structured pieces and to reconstruct these in their live program.

Through a cut-up technique patterns of feedback sound fragments are juxtaposed and interlocked in varied combinations. These hypnotic loops move between rhythm and melodies, a web that is carried along by a driving drum set, accents of sub-bass and layers of feedback drones.

The playful drum style ofANDI STECHERis far from conventional rock drumming. Instead he experiments with various materials - for instance by preparing his cymbals with chains or putting different objects on the skin of his drums. He makes offbeat meters and complicated grooves sound easy and light. The same goes for changes in timing or dense textures comprising ghost notes. On the other hand he plays straight forward beats dynamically and with power.

STECHER's partner in G.A.M.S. is GUIDO MÖBIUS who (with the help of a guitar amp, a microphone and effects) creates live feedbacks which can be massive and noisy but also fragile and gentle. Fleeting and concrete sounds join into dense textures. Feedback is never static rather always in a process of change.

Musical guests on the album are ex-NAPALM DEATHdrummer and eletronic producerMICK HARRIS(SCORN, FRET) contributing drones and field recordings and the versatile singerYUKO MATSUYAMA (HULA HUT & THE SEVEN SEAS).

LLOVAGE
OLO WALICKI / double bass, electronics
JACEK PROŚCIŃSKI / drums, electronics
LLovage is not just a fragrant, green-leafed aphrodisiac from the celery family – it's also the most impossible electronic duo for double bass and drums. Carefully measuring proportions, as if they were preparing a herbal mixture, Walicki and Prościński create their own electroacoustic organism formula. The live electronics layer is produced in real time, with the two musicians simultaneously performing classical double bass and drums parts. As a result, they sometimes sound like a quintet or sextet. The intricately woven compositions and
spectacular arranged parts are supplemented by a set of original sound amples, featuring Kira Boreczko-Dal, soprano and Mikołaj Trzaska, reed instruments. The structure of the album tracks leaves room for improvisation and interpretative freedom of the compositions.
The duo's greatest strength is the amazing exchange of energy that takes place between them on the stage – it's not a coincidence they fell in LLovage at first sight!
Before their debut album was recorded, the duo worked out their own language of sound communication. LLovage became instilled with the acting (Marcin Czarnik) and literary element (Magda Grzebałkowska) and prepared Gra w Komedę (Playing Komeda), a performance combining literature and music. The artists also made a live radio drama based on fragments of Łucjan Kamieński's fascinating musicological dissertation from 1936.
LLovage's first album will be released on vinyl and CD by Gusstaff Records on October 25th 2019.
The live premiere will take place on 27 October at the Jazz Jantar festival in Gdańsk.
The recording session took place at the legendary S4/6 Polish Radio Studio in Warsaw. The full process was documented on several cameras. Work is currently underway on a featurelength documentary presenting the recording process of all tracks on the album.

Culled from an Olympic studios demo session and rehearsals in Detroit for the band's 1973 tour, Move Ass Baby runs the gamut from full-fledged, ready-to record tunes to the types of swampy jams that the band has claimed indicative of their studio songwriting process. This album explores the creative process that gave birth to nearly all the Stooges albums. Starting with a jam session, an oldie or two, or maybe a blues riff, the songs gradually took shape and were refined from there. Here we find the Stooges in rehearsal, messing around with songs by Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan, Cream, and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. We hear the beginnings of songs that never went any further, such as Old King Live Forever', I Come From Nowhere' or Wild Love', which had as much potential as any of their best material. And we have some very impromptu jams such as Move Ass Baby' and a fascinating James Williamson solo performance. Much of this material has never been heard before and this is the first time this collection has been released on vinyl!

Sparrows aka Ryota Miyake is one-second of Tokyo-based synth outfit CRYSTAL. The band was discovered by French house legends JUSTICE and Surkin and collaborated with Teki Latex, former member of French rap outfit TTC and co-founder of Sound Pellegrino Records, which released CRYSTAL's Crystal Station 64 in 2013 featuring Teki Latex and Hyperdub's Ikonika. Garnering support from the likes of The Fader ("retro-futurist mayhem") and The Guardian ("playful, exuberant, joyous"), being part of CRYSTAL put Miyake on the way to making waves himself. As of 2013 Miyake, under the moniker Sparrows, is an alumnus of the Red Bull Music Academy, played at Sónar 2017, and supported Thundercat on his 2017 US tour as Sako and Uno. His latest release Berries shows the fruits of his labour in a global way way; inspired by his travels, and with feature spots from global artists, Berries takes hints of CRYSTAL-like synth goodness and mixes them with cosmic jazz and Beta Band-style pop for an album that bursts with road trip sweetness and a mellow psych atmosphere.

Aaron Turner is a musician and artist based in Vashon, WA, publicly active since 1995. Most widely recognized for his role as a founding member of the metal bands SUMAC and Isis, and has also participated in projects such as House of Low Culture, Jodis, Old Man Gloom, and Mamiffer. Active primarily as primarily a guitarist, he has maintained an abiding interest in tethering conscious content to subverted uses of the instrument. His output has been informed by lifetime involvement with underground metal/punk, often materializing in highly abstracted forms utilizing improvisation and longform composition. He has collaborated with artists such as Tashi Dorji, Justin Broadrick, Masami Akita, Caspar Brцtzmann, Keiji Haino, Daniel Menche, Stephen O'Malley, Kevin Martin/The Bug, James Plotkin and many others. Turner is the founder/art director of Hydra Head Records, and more recently the co-founder SIGE Records with partner Faith Coloccia. Current projects include ongoing work with the bands SUMAC, Mamiffer and Old Man Gloom, as well as solo performances/recordings, and collaborations with Jon Mueller and Jussi Lehtisalo of Circle.

And we used to be such a nice record label .... BKV 026 swells up from the Bristol swamp in the forms of post-human industrial duo Bad Tracking. Here they have assembled variously, one spacious black metal intro (with original screams), an industrial-pop earworm not unlike Depeche Mode imploding in a feedback tunnel, two itch-tek dancefloor riddims namecheking local venue bans and I just don't know what to call 'Wellspring' really, the end of days? Well you had it coming anyway…..


Known in town for upsetting local MPs and lisencees with their live performances as 'naked technology sex slaves' think cassette-induced self harm, total nudity, blood from ears, Bad Tracking are the most visceral thing we've seen in this new wave of Avon experimental - a breath of life into the longstanding tradition of industrial performance art (and an antidote to idle BR club culture). Lyrically touching on censorship and tech // sonically they use feedback as a punishing instrument of anguish and expression.Widower EPis truly chewed nail sonics, more human than all your noise records, genuinely more scary than your edgelord power electronics nonsense, more forward than all yer government funded experimental think-records.


You may remember Bad Tracking from their remix of 90s soundsystem legends Bush Chemists on Bokeh last year. It sounded like they played the original through 1,000 knackered tape decks and added one kick drum. It was total sacrilege and we loved it. Bad Tracking is Gordon Apps aka reputed jungle/drumfunk producer Relapse (who also moonlights as Avon Terror Corp's Olivia Mutant John, buy his shit) and poet / VHS video artist Max Kelan (who has lent his visuals to MVs from Hodge, The Pop Group, OM Unit, Young Echo to name only 4). They've released on tRewdindForward family labels like Mechanical Reproductions and champions of bad taste and good music - Fuckpunk.

Sensible Soccers is a 4 piece live band. Their music faces no categorization and their debut album named “8” was acclaimed in Portugal as one of the most popular records of the year. The first vinyl pressing sold out through domestic direct selling and a 2nd pressing is almost out of stock with a part of it now being finally available for worldwide distribution.

L'Épée is a four-piece band comprised of Emmanuelle Seigner (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle), Anton Newcombe (The Brian Jonestown Massacre) and Lionel + Marie Limiñana (The Limiñanas).
The collaboration came about last year, when husband and wife duo The Limiñanas recorded an album ('Shadow People') with Anton Newcombe. A track featured French musician, actress, model and muse Emmanuelle Seigner on guest vocals. When she came into the studio to record the group dynamic clicked and a natural collaboration ensued.
Inspired by melancholic movie scores and the mythology of Rock'n'Roll music, from Lou Reed to the Rollin Stones, 'Diabolique' is infused with light, shadows and layers of psychedelic fuzzy guitars.
It was recorded between Lionel and Marie's home place Cabestany (FR) and Anton's Cobra Studio in Berlin.
The collective have named themselves L'Épée, meaning "the sword" in English, after it came to Anton in a dream.
They will be touring Europe later this year.

Dominik von Senger is a Cologne-based German musician, principally a guitarist, and has released or contributed to multiple records from the early 80's onwards. Chief amongst those being the three albums released by each of his post-punk, dub-infused, post-Can bands Dunkelziffer and the Phantom Band. Both groups featured an assortment of Can alumni, in Jaki Liebezeit, Damo Suzuki and Rosko Gee, with whom he worked extensively during the decade.

Prior to this in the late 70's, he lived in Amsterdam as a professional musician, contributing to and touring with the Jango Edwards Roadshow, a musical and theatrical cabaret act, throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1983 he released a solo album entitled "The First" on veraBra Records, which has become something of a cult, influential and highly sought-after entry into the krautrock pantheon. A subsequent solo offering, "The Second", followed in 1995.

In the last 10 years, he has added several singles and an EP to his discography, including a collaboration with Montezumas Rache.
He can currently be seen performing with Drums Off Chaos, contributing guitar to the percussion ensemble co-founded by Jaki Liebezeit.

In 1985, I started working as a sound engineer in the famed Far Studios of German hit producer legend Frank Farian in Rosbach near Frankfurt, and there had an array of gear at my disposal that not many producers could afford, and know how to use in consequence. In the center a high-end Neve studio desk, but also the finest machines created by mythic brands like Linn, Kurzweil, Publison, or Quantec. Confronted with this considerable amount of opportunities on a daily basis, I soon decided to use what I was surrounded with for my own musical ideas, and started experimenting with it in my spare time. My perception of sounds quickly surpassed what I had known before. The equipment offered me many possibilities to position sounds within a song and I learnt how to compose by filling up all the places in between the speakers. There was not only left and right but near and far as well, and even up and down. My preferred perspective grew to be that of standing in front of the speakers, "looking down" on a song from a slightly higher position. The material was recorded on analogue reel-to-reel audiotape, which I subsequently edited and deconstructed manually with a razor blade, an edit block and a roll of audio splicing tape.

A1. from The Triple J broadcast. Live at The Palace, Melbourne, 1992.
B1. recorded at The Pier in Seattle, 1993 and broadcast from MTV USA, except B6 & B7 from Saturday Night Live, 1992.

Mit »There Will Be No Intermission« veröffentlicht Amanda Palmer 2019 ihr neues, drittes Studioalbum.

Mithilfe von Crowdfunding hatte die amerikanische Singer-Songwriterin die Platte finanziert, die sie schließlich mit Produzent John Congleton (John Grant, Swans, Sigur Rós, Conor Oberst) innerhalb eines Monats aufnahm.

Die insgesamt 20 Songs von »There Will Be No Intermission« sind Palmers ganz eigener Weg, um Erlebnisse wie Tod und Verlust zu verarbeiten.

Wie das klingt, verriet sie bereits mit den Singles »Drowning In The Sound« und »Voicemail For Jill«.

Und die zeigen: »There Will Be No Intermission« ist ein bewegendes, trauriges aber dennoch kraftvolles Album.

Originally released in 1985, "Saunetic Fraction" finally gets a reissue (limited to 100 copies), and staying true to the original, once again on tape! A collaboration of France's M.NOMIZED (aka Michel Madrange of No Unauthorized) and Belgium's UNOVIDUAL (aka Henk Wallays of Micrart Group / co-founder of the 3rio tape label with Magisch theater and Dirk Ivens of Absolute Body control) . The 18-track album is a diverse beast, but affirms itself among the grandees of Minimal Synth and Electropunk, whilst maintaining a unique twist. At times coming across as the French / Belgian version of Chris & Cosey, there are also elements of the early cut-up Dadaist experimental oddness of Cabaret Voltaire. A much sort after tape, that was originally released in a ludicrously small edition, on Unovidual's own label.

*Please not that the tracks: "Aerial Waves" + "My Geisha", do not appear on the cassette, due to side length issues.

MORE INFO:

M.NOMIZED: Synthesizers, Tapes, Treatments, Loops. / UNOVIDUAL: Synthesizers, Vocal, Drum Box.

Music composed and played by: M.Nomized & Unovidual. Thanks to Peter De Middeleir (Belgium) and Fraction Studio (France) for recordings. All rights reserved. P. 1985.

Recorded at GRM Studios, Paris May 2018
Edited & mixed by François Bonnet at GRM studios, Paris August 2018
Mastering by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin January 2019
Written & Produced by François Bonnet & Stephen O'Malley

Art direction : Stephen O'Malley
Portrait photographer : Eléonore Huisse
Engraving : Pottery: a kiln, horizontal and vertical sections. Lowry, 1814, after Sylvester.

Tea Bowl made by Raku Kichizaemon XV
Projection image by Shiro Takatani
Photographed by Takashi Hatakeyama

First time outing from two ardent explorers of peripheral sound tactics. Cylene is the first collaboration by François J. Bonnet ( Kassel Jaeger) and Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) ). Laid bare we have a subtle and nuanced study of their individual practices forming a titanic whole. O'Malley's guitar inscribes a void that patiently opens up a spacious universe for Bonnet to discreetly alter with perception re-orientating studio maneuvers.

Cylene is infinitely rewarding for those that succumb to its delicate detours. A vast glacial plain unfurls slowly upon the listener invoking a mood similar to the stillness found following despair. As Joseph Ghosn succinctly outlines in his liner notes, "Stephen and François deal in those moments and instants that happen after the violence, and the ugliness and the mess. Their music is about chaos being summoned and ordered. It is about the noise that nurtures your ears after a long heartbreaking pain. I have heard the sounds of wars being fought and the noises of hearts being broken, and I have never found a shelter as soothing as this music which makes me think of sunken ships and beauty found in the depths of oceans long forgotten".

Sanctuary Lakes present their debut, self-titled album, out 21 June on Cutters Records. It is a new project featuring members of Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, forged out of lo fi folk psychedelia, instrumental library records and delicate electronic sounds.

Opaque soundscapes forged from fluid basslines, aqueous guitar, naturalist field recordings and vague incantations, the Sanctuary Lakes sound values feeling over form, intention over intellect, imagination over the explicit, a faded watercolour image offering an ocean of interpretation in which to swim.

Borne in Brooklyn during idle time improvising in front of the meditation station on television, Tim Hoey sent rough sketches of his noodling to Andy Szekeres in Melbourne, initially to see what his old friend made of them. Beyond merely offering feedback, Szekeres went ahead and added to the songs, initiating a workflow than became an almost wordless conversation between the two, as files drifted back and forth with the currents until deemed done.

Arrangements are left loose, choruses never come - or that’s all there is, extended instrumental passages emphasise atmosphere over action, and field recordings of the channel whisper low in the mix. Production across the album has a gently edgeless, soft-focus feeling akin to being submerged in a boundless body of water, at once engulfing and instinctively comforting.

As two musicians with years and albums of experience under their belts, Sanctuary Lakes came together during a period of reflection and faint anxiety that their best ideas might be behind them. Work on the album acted as a form of therapy and confirmed that the stream of creativity still runs strong.

Tim Hoey is most widely known for his work in Cut Copy, Andy Szekeres in Midnight Juggernauts. Together they are Sanctuary Lakes.

“In a sea of love, you and me belong, endless together.”

Funeral Parade Of Roses marks the end of innocence. Harsh times require harder words.

Tan LeRacoon is an activist and chooses to speak up, once more, to waken the world, shake the world up, no less. There is war, there are lies. Education is in shatters. People need to seek shelter in foreign countries, there is a gender gap still to be addressed, morality turns corrupt, and the churches still lie. In all naiveté, Tan addresses these actual topics. For the lyrics, Tan chose words more harsh, speaking direct, and yes, he might offer solutions, if you ask for it, the good will and good mind.

He is she is it, gender does not matter, failures of all politics cry for action. Tan LeRacoon is tired rather than paralyzed but also disgusted by a world that does offer sort of happiness to everyone. Did anything change in the last 40-50 years? What you think is real is false and what you think is fiction is real.

As Yoko Ono says, let's have a vision of a society that has ridden itself off any social injustice. How much longer do we tolerate? The Pop Group asked. We did waste decades with talks and talks but no action did create progress. A generation of talkers created a world as fucked up as ours. Yes we offer more words, but it is ours to follow these with action.These are not times for subtlety.

Therefore, Tan LeRacoon returns with an album full of battle songs. Two years ago his acclaimed album Dangerously Close To Love gained respect with its 'weird' approach to Indie, Rock n Roll and whatever recipients tended to call this very individual breed. After a Christmas single, Just Another Christmas Wish, received even greater acclaim and airplay in the US college circuit, touring and the odd session, Tan took his live band into a remote studio to savage the souls of these reputable musicians.

He had the vision of the complete recording, yet let his gang participate in their own fields, even though they were puzzled as they could not hear the final piece that was stuck in Tan's head alone, him trying to explain to the musicians more or less successful in moods, colors, historic events. A bunch of musicians in one room leaning on the talent of each other, with absolute musical trust. The musicians are stressed, hurt, cryful. Sometimes they cannot understand the whys and hows, but the result convinces the idea. It is not easy being Tan LeRacoon, individual or band. Some months later, brass section, vocals and the mix made things clear. Tan's vision became an audible piece of art, a consequent piece of uneasy listening still with a unique pop approach. The production is lush, but at the same time rough, Phil Spector meets Rick Rubin, but always Tanju Boru. This is his vision of a post punk soul record. Spooky, uncomfortable and deep. You can dance to it, too.

Success? Attitude over finesse. Love over hate. Peace over war. Sex over pet sounds. Love should still be the answer. Rock n Roll may be still the only answer. If Dangerously Close To Love was Tan's Swedish White Album, this might be his Detroit Soul Album, though it sounds anything but. Consequently it will be released by legendary European Soul stalwart Légère Recordings.

Lyrically, Tan responds to the unacceptability of today's societal struggle. Leaving his comfort zone of poetic storytelling but getting to the core of a song: "if you have a chorus, you better use it". Economic wars, the fight for accepting refugees, the ongoing disaster of capitalism, the failure of socialism so far, right wing politics of a so-called mid-of-society or his ever recurring religious imagery - he is thoughtful, but also ready for any dispute, yes, also to fight for an utopia of a better world, where water is a right, where hygene is a right, where a safe home is a right for everyone. The UN's SDG certainly does not reach far enough as it still protects the industries. Tan on the other hand acknowledges there is no mere black and white but thousands of shades in-between. These are the spaces we need to look for. Yes, we are optimistic.. Even though the world lies down in shatters this is a positive album. Pro peace, pro freedom of individuality (which is not a contradiction to socialist theories), pro digital freedom, pro diversity, pro inclusion, pro sustainability. Pro gender equality, better: gender egalité, pro heritage and migration equality, pro visibiltyof all love preferences, and it's pride, and consequently pro pansexuality. Beauty of the soul, beauty of the difference and, yeah well, anti war, anti hate, anti nationalism and anti facism, anti arms, anti discrimination of all sorts. Celebrate love and life.

Funeral Parade Of Roses features Tan LeRacoon with Linus Lindvall (Golden Kanine), Jens Fricke (Staring Girl, Gundermann movie, Gisbert zu Knyphausen), Diazpora Horn Section, Dino Joubert, Caroline Blomqvist (MinRu), Felix Roll (Torpus & The Art Directors), Gabor Bertholini (Golden Kanine, The Great Bertholinis), Mattias Larson (Cub & Wolf), Robert Weitkämper (Dr. Ring-Ding, Staring Girl).

Produced by Tan LeRacoon, mixed by Gregor Hennig at Studio Nord.

This album is an artist's action. Play it loud.


(Bernd Renner, 2019)


Funeral Parade Of Roses features Tan LeRacoon with Linus Lindvall (Golden Kanine), Jens Fricke (Staring Girl, Gundermann movie, Gisbert zu Knyphausen), Diazpora Horn Section, Dino Joubert, Caroline Blomqvist (MinRu), Felix Roll (Torpus & The Art Directors), Gabor Bertholini (Golden Kanine, The Great Bertholinis), Mattias Larson (Cub & Wolf), Robert Weitkämper (Dr. Ring-Ding, Staring Girl).

Produced by Tan LeRacoon, mixed by Tan LeRacoon and Gregor Hennig (Studio Nord, Rhonda, Die Liga Der Gewöhnlichen Gentlemen)

TOPS:

Gothic Soul & Glam Dub

Like a Punk Rock Van Morrison

Germany's finest Rock n Roll record.Ever.

Bio (excerpt):

· Early Punk Rock fanzine (1979-1984)

· Bassist for Nikki Sudden (1985-1986)

· Rock n Roll mayhem in New York (1989-1993)

· "Truth Of The Matter Is…" (unreleased solo debut, 1990)

· Art Noise collective in Los Angeles (1993)

· Das Weeth Experience (1994-1997)

· "Near By The End Of The Rainbow" (a novel, 1998)

· DJ around the world

· Manager and collaborateur for Ari Up (The Slits)

· Hasenschaukel (legendary club & bar, 2004-2016)

· "Dangerously Close To Love" (acclaimed double 12" vinyl album, 2016)

· "Just Another Christmas Wish" (7", a minor hit on US college radio, 2016)

Sie haben es wirklich nochmal getan...Calexico und Iron & Wine haben sich fast 15 Jahre nach ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Geniestreich - In the Reins' (2005) für ein überraschendes, zweites Mal zusammen gefunden, in ein Studio eingeschlossen und acht mal die Engel singen lassen. Am 14. Juni wird das Album namens - Years to Burn' erscheinen, und natürlich wird dies ein Feiertag für die Fans der Bands, für alle Freunde von Alternative, Americana, Folk und Roots Music.

LTD Edition!

Sie haben es wirklich nochmal getan...Calexico und Iron & Wine haben sich fast 15 Jahre nach ihrem ersten gemeinsamen Geniestreich - In the Reins' (2005) für ein überraschendes, zweites Mal zusammen gefunden, in ein Studio eingeschlossen und acht mal die Engel singen lassen. Am 14. Juni wird das Album namens - Years to Burn' erscheinen, und natürlich wird dies ein Feiertag für die Fans der Bands, für alle Freunde von Alternative, Americana, Folk und Roots Music.

The Music from Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 is a soundtrack created by Björk in collaboration with her then-partner Matthew Barney for his film of the same title.

For this project Björk traveled to Japan to study ancient Japanese music. Several tracks are made with the sound of the shō, a Japanese instrument which contains 16 various reeds; the shō performances are from Mayumi Miyata, one of the world's greatest shō players.

She also appears in the film, playing her instrument. The song "Holographic Entrypoint" features a Noh score and vocal performance by Shiro Nomura. Björk brought "Nameless" back from her 2003 tour, and, with the help of Leila Arab, looped and edited it to create the track "Storm".

Alternative folk singer Will Oldham (also known as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy) is featured on the first track, "Gratitude", singing a letter from a Japanese fisherman to General Douglas MacArthur set to a melody by Matthew Barney. Björk's vocals feature only on the tracks "Bath", "Storm", and "Cetacea". "Gratitude", "Shimenawa" and "Cetacea" feature harp player Zeena Parkins, who previously collaborated with Björk on her 2001 album Vespertine. "Hunter Vessel" was later re-used on her album Volta for the tracks "Vertebræ by Vertebræ" and "Declare Independence".

Repress in now. “Kids, everyone, this is required listening. This is their peak....” Punk Planet. Finally back in print! This is where it all began for the Butthole Surfers. Brown Reason to Live is their very first release; it came out in 1983. Here it is on vintage thick wax; their first classic slab, still as crazed and lysergic as ever! As a follow-up, the band went to a bar in their hometown of San Antonio and recorded their set for the Live PCPPEP. These acid-casualty reality trippers paid tribute to and killed American hardcore once and for all while single-handedly ushering in a new Post-Everything era. Many feel these EPs were the best records the band ever recorded.

Repress in now. Re-pressed on vinyl!!!! Finally back in print! This is where it all began for the Butthole Surfers. The Live PCPPEP is their second release; it came out in 1984. Here it is on vintage thick wax; still as crazed and lysergic as ever! The EP was recorded live in a bar in their hometown of San Antonio and released as a follow-up to their Brown Reason to Live 12". These acid-casualty reality trippers paid tribute to and killed American hardcore once and for all while single-handedly ushering in a new Post-Everything era. Many feel their two early EPs were the best records the band ever recorded.

• Durham born Ruth Copeland was an unusual signing to the Invictus label but her folk-funk albums have become cult items in recent years

• Collaborations with her husband Jeffrey Bowen, George Clinton and members of Funkadelic, this is her highly acclaimed second album and is hard to find on original pressing

• Funk/Rock classic, ‘I am What I Am’ has never been available on vinyl since its 1972 initial release and features the club classis ‘Gimme Shelter’

• Demon Records are proud to reissue on 180g heavyweight vinyl with printed inner sleeve and original artwork

In his third release on Editions Mego, Jung An Tagen continues to expand his unique vision of oblique electronic music mixed with future dance club sound. In "Proxy States" techno is evolving into another realm.

"Proxy States" is his most formulated attempt to combine modern composition techniques with ritualistic techno aesthetics. Here he takes his obsession with structure to a more narrative build-up, creating new paths and textures around his infectious beats. With this structure, Jung An Tagen develops an emotional relationship between repetition and dissonance.

It's addictive music. Music in constant explosion. The 12 seconds of the first track, "Spill (False)" sound like a recreation of The Big Bang, creating the perfect intro for this molecular-polyrhythm adventure. It also creates the connection/disconnection with his previous work, "Agent Im Objekt", bridging the two but also creating a space to embark on a new sonic trip. This self-contained explosion offers the right coordinates and propels the listener to Jung An Tagen's sonic realm.

All of this is done with his usual fearless but mindful approach. His unique exercises with structure, time and sound create an ecstatic familiarity with the sounds while at the same time inducing a creeping physical alienation. In other words, some parts may be rhythmically infectious, others will give you no chance to immerse. The stimulation is astute and continuous, encouraging an out-of-this-world experience.

The main arc of "Proxy States" consists of a 16 against 17 poly-rhythmic synth line that through different intonations of the kick drum always transforms its syntax. This synth line always scales up 1 key, in the middle of the track, foreseeing the upcoming structure. While these tracks (3, 4, 5, 6: "Wreath Products") follow an almost obsessive-compulsive order, the remaining tracks seem to blow up the structure entirely like the last scenes of the 1970 Michelangelo Antonioni's film "Zabriskie Point", creating an event inside the event.

"Proxy States" was impossible to press on vinyl but the fast, sharp and wild grooves of Jung An Tagen's new album are incredibly synched with the concept of an ever accelerating future.











clip

Cassette edition of Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series.

"A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."

Cassette edition of Death Is Not The End's contribution to the Blowing Up The Workshop mix series.

"A trip across the frequencies of Bristol's pirate radio stations via cut-ups of broadcasts, taken from the late 1980s to the early 2000s ~ also a love-letter to my childhood, an audio document of the years I spent growing up in the city."

What to say about THE PRESENT MOMENT? they are just one of the best synthwave bands of XXI century, and everyone knows that, maybe that's why some of their previous releases are being sold at obscene prices. After 5 years of painful silence, they are coming back with their 4th studio album, probably their most professional studio project to date, a very mature production where they play with their usual raw synthpop and ebm style but as well with more italo synthesque and even progressive rock ambiences. A truly masterpiece from any point of view. All tracks have been specially mastered for LONG CUT vinyl by Eric Van Wonterghem at Prodam Berlin.

Vinylization of the recent home fi cassette (originally released on the Australian Brierfirld Flood Press label) by this magnificent New Zealand singer/songwriter. We were never able to score a copy of the tape, despite the fact we released Maxine’s last LP, Silk FTR 410), so we figured we would perform the public service of making it generally available to the whole wide world. That’s just the kind of guys we are!

Recorded in stark and simple terms, home fi represents Ms. Funke working mostly with just acoustic guitar accompaniment. And it’s a classic. Most often, I’m put in mind of the Dandelion era recordings of Britain’s Bridget St. John. There’s a plainspoken quality to the songs and an equally straight forward approach to the musical bits that may not be indicative of the scope of Maxine’s musical art (which has lots of space for odd noises and techniques), but it sounds just gorgeous.

Hard to imagine anyone who actually likes music not falling for the sound of home fi. But hey, there’s a clown born every minute. Not you of course. But look around sometime.

-Byron Coley, 2019

All Your Sisters was conceived in 2011 in Reno, NV by Jordan Morrison as an outlet to process the suffering that Morrison witnessed while working graveyard shifts as a paramedic. The primal state of debased humanity certainly left a blistering mark that can be heard in the project’s third full-length, Trust Ruins. Morrison also mines themes from his fundamentalist Christian upbringing as well as a series of paramount life events—both devastating and blissful—that preceded the album’s inception.

In the final two months of 2016, then residing in San Francisco, Morrison experienced the elation of becoming engaged in tandem with the fatal drug overdose of his brother-in-law, as well as the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland that claimed the lives of many in the Bay Area music scene. Compounded with the recent presidential election, a sense of inescapable doom and dystopia lingered, forcing Morrison to re-examine the direction of his life. He explains, “This record is about making hard life choices, living with those decisions, and the struggle to live life on life’s terms. If I die tomorrow, I don’t want to have any regrets.”

Engineered by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker, Bosse-de-Nage), Trust Ruins is the score to a series of de-indoctrinating sermons, armed with marching protest beats. Drawing on the energetic industrial and post-punk influences of the previous Uncomfortable Skin (The Flenser, 2016) and Modern Failures (2014) albums, this latest is a dark, dynamic assortment of songs that pushes far past nostalgia to create something new. Punchy electronic drums provide a foundation for layers of dreamy piano, howling guitars, brooding synths, and Morrison’s commanding croon that often unravels into a yell. While Trust Ruins may seem hopelessly bleak, it is anything but with its moments of beauty and raw emotion that offer a sense of hope in a crumbling world.

A lot of people flipped out over how amazing Mako Sica’s last album, Ronda (FTR 409), was. Ronda was a 2LP set whereupon the Chicago trio collaborated with legendary local percussionist Hamid Drake. This pairing seemed like a natural to us, but for some reason people have been woefully unaware of Mako Sica despite the fact they’ve been releasing killer records for a decade, and playing live shows that submerge your brain in a sonic soup that recalls the Sun City Girls at their most psychedelically Eastern.

The band’s approach to music feels almost alchemical. Trumpet, voice, guitar, drums and keys blend together in mysterious ways. The vocals are always more abstract than declarative, the guitar lines are sinewy, the rhythms roll and splash like a mirage oasis made real, and the trumpet arrives (when it does) sounding almost more like a shofar being played in a temple.

The sound of Manifest Being is celebratory and so fully freaked you’ll be soaking in it for years to come. The songs played are similar to the live set Mako Sika were polishing last year, and the results are stunning.

-Byron Coley, 2019

The re-edition of the third Job Karma album, which was originally released in 2003 by Amplexus rec. in limited edition 470 copies.
Re-mastered by Marcin Bocinski in 2019.
First time on vinyl (Vinyl is 180g, contains free CD).

Job Karma is audiovisual project established in Wroclaw (Poland) in 1997. The members are Maciej Frett and Aureliusz Pisarzewski, with Arkadiusz Baginski in charge of the visuals. The group hails from the post-industrial scene but with every new album the musicians cast their net wider into the extended field of dark electronica - from ambient to techno, dark wave and EBM. What remains unchanged is the quality of their music that, as the critics say, makes it "a movie for your ears": picturesque and expressive, it is an ideal soundtrack for the never made film that the listeners can 'see' using their imagination.

The group is famous for their suggestive live performances that combine music with the elements of animation and video art.

Since 2001 Frett and Baginski, as Industrial Art, have been organising WROCLAW INDUSTRIAL FESTIVAL, showcasing contemporary industrial music and culture and dark electronica.

" No, this is not happy trippy ambient. Think Deutsch Nepal and the very first album from Black Lung ('Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars') and you get some idea of this album. Sounds rather desolated, less psycho, like after an apocalypse. Creepy minimal ambient with voice samples, and repeated deep listening can affect your mood. But it has a very strong vibe, if you can jump over the desolated landscapes. It deals with human emotions, in his own way. Perfect movie music."



"What you can discern in this amalgam are the whines and sighs from various electric devices Maciek Frett and Aureliusz Pisarzewski have been collecting for years , subtle synths melodies, looped electroacoustic noises, unequivocally industrial ironwork-type rambles and crashes, and of course samples and voices. The impressive skills isn't the end in itself, for Job Karma apparently plays emotion and seriously so it fails to be just enjoyable listening. Great work! "
Eld Rich Palmer fanzine

"Job Karma's fourth release is the latest highlight in the industrial scene"
Paul Bijlsma - Phosphor Magazine

NYC author/writer/actor Larry "Ratso" Sloman has collaborated with some of the most dynamic figures in pop culture from Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cale and Leonard Cohen. Ratso also wrote the best-selling memoirs for Howard Stern, Anthony Kiedis and Mike Tyson. Now at 70, Ratso announces debut LP Stubborn Heart.

Ratso explains, 'If you would have told me when I was covering Dylan's Rolling Thundertour for Rolling Stone Magazine that forty-four years later, I would be releasing my first album I would have laughed and asked for a hit of whatever it was you were smoking. Guess I'll take that hit now.'

For the last forty-four years Larry 'Ratso' Sloman has forged an impressive career as a writer of books, lyrics and most recently screenplays. Credited with writing features on Lou Reed, George Harrison and Leonard Cohen for Rolling Stone, Sloman was also personally invited by Bob Dylan to join his 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue as the tour's official scribe, which led to Ratso's first book On The Road With Bob Dylan (dubbed by Dylan as "The War and Peace of Rock and Roll'). On tour he was given the moniker 'Ratso' by Joan Baez for his disheveled appearance.

Ratso has collaborated with Howard Stern, Anthony Kiedis, David Blaine, and Mike Tyson on their best-selling memoirs. He was asked by Leonard Cohen to preface On Tour with Leonard Cohen and Ratso's biography of Houdini will soon be a major-motion picture.

Ratso has paid his dues in the tower of song, having written the lyrics for over thirty tracks with Rick Derringer (McCoys) and ex-Velvet Underground founder John Cale, including "Dying on the Vine," which became Cale's signature solo song (inspiring not one, but two novels). Ratso has also acted in films as diverse as the award-winning short The Black Balloon, the horror film Satan's Little Helper and has a large role in Martin Scorsese's upcoming Netflix documentary on Dylan's Rolling Thunder tour, out in April.

What hasn't Ratso done His own album. At 70, Ratso is releasing debut album Stubborn Heart, produced by his close friend Vin Cacchione (of Soft Black and Caged Animals) at his studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Stubborn Heart blends a classic songwriting approach with a contemporary sophistication.

The album features Ratso singing on eight originals (including songs that were co-written with John Cale) and what he describes as an 'audacious' Bob Dylan cover, along with the generous talents of his friends Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Sharon Robinson (Leonard Cohen's co-writer, producer and back-up singer), Yasmine Hamdan, Imani Coppolla and more.

Reminiscing on the album Ratso says, 'Everything about this project was fun. And it was always about the songs. They had been lying dormant since 1984. They deserved a life.' Each track carries a significant and often astonishing history. For instance, the John Cale collaboration "Dying On The Vine," was originally conceived in hotel room off Sunset Blvd. whilst trading lines with Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss, whereas Sharon Robinson was convinced to sing on the record in exchange for Ratso writing the aforementioned Leonard Cohen preface for free, described by Ratso as an 'old school barter.'

Stubborn Heart is an album that is fittingly autobiographical, harking back to various stages of Ratso's accomplished career and life, sung by a guy who witnessed the counter-cultural explosion of 1970's NYC and birthed forty years later within the DIY confines of Brooklyn.

His Rolling Stones fan club card long gone, Ratso's now a card-carrying member of the American Association of Retired Persons but he's determined to ride this new career wherever it takes him. 'Maybe I can be the Jewish Susan Boyle,' he muses. 'The oldest best new artist ever and if that doesn't pan out, I can always perform on subway platforms. Hey, I can get in for half-price!'

Die Geschichte von Lambchop ist die der steten Veränderung und Weiterentwicklung. Was vor fast 30 Jahren im Keller von Kurt Wagner begann und von ihm selbst scherzhaft als 'most fucked-up country band in Nashville' bezeichnet wurde, hat sich inzwischen nicht nur als eine der dienstältesten sondern auch innovativsten Bands der US amerikanischen Musikszene etabliert. Seit jeher verbinden Lambchop unterschiedlichste Genres wie Folk & Country, mit Soul und Urban Electronica zu einem ganz eigenen, unnachahmlichen Sound. Kein Lambchop-Album klingt wie das andere, aber jedes klingt immer unverwechselbar nach Lambchop. Nach ihrem wegweisenden Album - Flotus' (2016) hat die Band aus Nashville jetzt ein neues Album für den 22.03.2019 angekündigt. Für 'This (is what i wanted to tell you)' arbeitete Kurt Wagner mit Matthew McCaughan (Bon Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger) zusammen, der ihn auch als Teil des Lambchop Live Ensembles im April auf Tour begleiten wird.

Im Sommer 2017 machte sich Wagner auf, über die Blue Ridge Mountains in Richtung North Carolina, zum Geburtstag seines langjährigen Freundes und Chef des Merge Labels: Mac McCaughan. Dort traf er auf seinen jüngeren Bruder Matt McCaughan, der das letzte Jahrzehnt als Schlagzeuger für Bon Iver und Hiss Golden Messenger verbrachte. Matt und Kurt kannten sich schon viele Jahre, aber erst an diesem Abend beschlossen sie zusammen an Musik zu arbeiten. Wagner schickte Mac neue Songideen und McCaughan schickte Wagner Synthesizer-Stücke zur Inspiration. Schließlich gingen beide gemeinsam in Nashville ins Studio, Pedal Steel und Piano und der Harmonika von Nashvilles Legende Charlie McCoy, die diesen schwarz-weißen Skizzen Leben einhauchte.

- 180g heavy, black Vinyl, extra-großes, gefaltetes Booklet, Cover Sleeve mit Mittelloch auf der Rückseite

Das Ergebnis ist This (is what I wanted to tell you)", ein Album, ergreifend ehrlich, atemberaubend, wunderschön und überraschend. Aber Lambchop sind nicht immer nur für eine Überraschung gut, sondern überraschen immer wieder mit verdammt guten Songs. Wenn Kurt Wagner etwas zu sagen hat, hören wir natürlich hin, das sollten sich alle zu Herzen nehmen. Diese Platte muss man einfach hören!

Heute gibt es die erste Single aus dem Album: 'The December-ish you' eine verblüffende Mischung aus bewährt emotionalen Slide-guitar und Pianoflächen alter Lambchop-Schule und effektiven PVC Pop Beats, Claps und Samples, über die Kurt Wagner die melancholischste 'Friday Night Fever' Ballade der Dekade croont.