Pop & Rock News

The last Happy Mondays album on Factory Records originally released September 1992 - reaching no 14 in the UK chart. Produced by Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design. Featured the singles "Stinkin' Thinkin”, “Sunshine & Love” and “Angel”.

Sam de la Rosa of the band Led Er Est, and with Karen Sharkey of The Coombe, is back on Mannequin Records with his third release with 4 stunning tracks blending the finest TR-606 driven electro cold wave with expressive spoken wordy minimal synth instrumentals.

Mixed by Marcos Cabral. Mastered by Rude 66. Graphics by Alessandro Adriani.

LTD. CLEAR VINYL

Repressed in quantity for the first time in years. Includes the hit single "Strange Harvest". Tempers, comprised of Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper, have carved out their own niche within dark indie, electronica and synth-pop circles. Their sound is about exploring tonal and emotional tension as much as it is about actual tracks or singular moments. Adrenalizing yet hypnotic landscapes layer mechanical and sensual impulses, as crystalline vocals weave fever dreams of yearning and alienation. Informed by both Golestaneh's involvement in musical performance and visual art and Cooper's electronic production resume, as well as their time in the States and abroad, they operate as a multi-disciplined entity in the spirit and ethos of Factory Records. Tempers describe their creative process as a telepathic kinship they've developed since they started making music together: "We have these sort of unspoken criteria when we're writing music. We never really need to explain what that is but we both know when it's missing or when we've hit it." After a string of critically acclaimed singles beginning in 2013 with "Eyes Wide Wider" b/w "Hell Hotline," the duo released their debut LP "Services" (2015) on cult imprint Aufnahme + Wiedergabe resulting in the underground club hit "Strange Harvest", extensive international touring and sold-out shows. The album's vinyl edition soon became a sought after collectors item. Their 2017 EP "Fundamental Fantasy" was released as a result of the Vinyl Factory's Volcano Extravaganza artist residency on the Aeolian island of Stromboli. Following their unique creative compass, in 2018 they indirectly moved from the dance floor to galleries, releasing "Junkspace" a conceptual collaboration with famed architect Rem Koolhaas. The record is available in the world's most select cultural hotspots, from The New Museum in New York to Walther Konig museum stores throughout Europe, a testament to Tempers' love for experimental output and unorthodox presentation. In 2019 Tempers signed with Dais Records, promptly releasing "Private Life" and the lead single "Capital Pains," a meticulous evolution of the dark pop that marked the duo's earlier output.

Berlin’ is the second single to be taken from the new A Certain Ratio album ‘ACR Loco’, a remarkable piece of work that is steeped in 40 years of ACR DNA.

Includes the original version of ‘Dirty Boy’.

7” single pressed on white vinyl.

Triptdes as the tdes of the ocean draw their power from the moon above, the music of Triptdes is fueled by the mind-bending inspiraton and wide-ranging creatve talents of Glenn Brigman (vocals and guitar), Josh Menashe (guitar and vocals), Dylan Sizemore (bass guitar) and Shaugnessy Starr (drums).
The trip began in the bohemian basements of Bloomington, Indiana in 2010, where Glenn and Josh shared ideas and infuences before evolving to craf a complex yet cohesive range of lush, psychedelic beach-pop' sounds. Two EPs and four LPs later, Triptdes are now an essental element of the Los Angeles psych scene, where they are preparing to launch their newest album, Aferglow. Inspired by the spirit of '60s and '70s West Coast pop and psychedelia, as well as legendary albums ranging from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn to The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Aferglow will be released this summer on French label Requiem Pour Un Twister and supported with a full European and North American tour.
This artefact is something especially nice to have and hold and sit alongside The Young Sinclairs, Silver Factory and Allah-Las in your collecton. They deserve far more atenton than has come along so far' ---Shindig
The soundtrack that will illuminate the summer.' ---Nouvel Obs
The romance that is begining with Triptdes will last more than this summer'. ---Rock & Folk

In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson. The Montreal trio Le Couleur, created by Laurence Giroux-Do (vocals), Patrick Gosselin (bass), and Steeven Chouinard (drums), delivers rich and irresistibly danceable performances. Le Couleur polished their sound until it shined as bright as the late Studio 54's spotlights with EPs Voyage Love (2013) and Dolce Désir (2015), and then P.O.P. (2016), their critically acclaimed debut album. Thanks to precious advice from Giorgio Moroder, with whom the band had the opportunity of sharing the stage, Le Couleur recorded their new album adopting a completely different approach. Concorde takes its name from the legendary Franco-British airplane from 1965, nicknamed the "beautiful white bird" for its sleek and modern design. This avant-garde project that ended in tragedy has always held a certain fascination for Laurence Giroux-Do ; a deadly "crash" that inspired in her a sense of macabre sensuality. In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson.

Stunning debut release from Confuso Editions, a new label operating out of NYC/Rio de Janeiro here venturing into the furthest realms of outsider pop with the first ever public airing of recordings by John Zieman, a student of electronic synthesis at Hampshire College and
collaborator with Nam June Paik, John Sanborn, and Dara Birnbaum. Distilling 80s midtown sleaze (digi-saxophones, drum machines, listless ballads), we’re once again reminded of the sheer volume and wealth of outsider brilliance lurking in archives, drawers and lofts across the world - there really is no end. Fans of Ariel Pink, John Maus, Vazz, Stano, James Ferraro, look sharp!
As far as we can tell the first compilation, or even release, of John Zieman’s music to the wider public, ‘New York City 1980-1984’ spans year of work created after-hours at Manhattan’s nowdefunct Intergalactic Studios, covering an era-consistent gamut of itchy new wave machine rhythms and guitars ranging from gangly to jangling and pop-tart, all embedded in cruddy and offcentre FX and synths.
It comes with an amazing backstory too; in April of 1980, Zieman began working at Intergalactic Studios in Manhattan, where he took up residence in the studio’s bathroom, using soundproofing foam as a bed in a demolished stall. During this period, Zieman began composing on the studio’s Fairlight CMI synthesizer-sampler. Over the following seven months, working commercially by day and recording by night, Zieman produced the tracks which would become the basis for this set of tracks before you.
Revolving the fizzing drum machines of lead single ‘Flying Nine (Dara)’, which first appeared on the soundtrack to Dara Birnbaum’s video piece ‘Damnation of Faust: Evocation’ (1983), the set sprawls out between something like an unzipped Woo with ‘Gamelan Skate’, to ohrwurming offbeat pop in another big highlight ‘Hi-tech Love Song’, alongside more solitary and melancholic charms in ‘Occasional Thing’ and the loping ‘Leave You In The Park’, and something that could have
almost appeared on a James Ferraro tape 10 years ago in ’Better When It’s Deeper’.
As Joshua Daube puts it “The compilation stands out as an uncanny reflection of New Wave, at once rooted in its time and place and yet deeply singular. Across the twilight of a smoke-filled bar, Zieman’s edgy synths fix us with a thousand-yard stare, hungry sounds from the wrong side of Port Authority: “can I go back to sleep?” confuso revives these overlooked hypnagogic gems in New York City 1980-1984, which shine across the decades like a streetlight in a snowstorm.”

12” of ‘Valleys’ featuring stunning remixes from
Confidence Man and Manchester legend Graham
Massey.
‘Valleys’ is taken from Working Men’s Club’s self-titled
10-track album. Talking about the track, Syd from the
band said: “‘Valleys’ is probably the most honest song
on the record and I guess sets a premise for the rest
of the album, growing up in a small town and trying to
escape. It was one of the last songs we finished, we
couldn’t quite get the right string sound despite
layering up about 4 synths up then Ross brought in his
fixed LE string synth and it sounded perfect for the
song. It’s the first track on the album and one of the
last songs I wrote before going into Sheffield to finish
off the record. Having been in lockdown since the end
of Winter in Todmorden it seems like there couldn’t be
a more appropriate time to release this song.”
“With nods to the Fall and Soft Cell, the urgent
Yorkshire indie band like confusing people, and
badmouthing Andrew Neil.” - The Observer
“Exuberant rock ‘n’ roll. This lot blend new wave, postpunk, motorick rhythms and hard-edged hard-edged
beats.” - Music Week
“High-voltage new wave, combined with a healthy
dose of audience-bating.” - Q Magazine (Shortlisted for
Q Best Breakthrough Act)
“Great for dancing but also works on a deeper level...
full of melodies that burrow into your brain.” -
Resident Advisor

limited Obi strip/White vinyl edition

''Ruyzdael presents Writers on Wax Volume 1: The Sound of Graffiti, a compilation album with 8 exclusive, primarily electronic tracks by producers from four different countries who are more (in)famous as graffiti writers than as musicians.''Letters on a wall, letters on a train. When you take it back to that essence, it?s really not so strange that graffiti writers call themselves and each other writers. With just a few letters ? a word, a name ? they write their mythology for a general audience. No huge vocabulary needed, just imagination and a need for expression. It can come as no surprise that those qualities extend to other disciplines as well. Graffiti has long been associated with musical styles (hip-hop, punk) that contain an abundance of imagination and expression. Less well known is the fact that graffiti writers have embraced the DIY approach of electronic music. Writers on Wax Volume 1 is a group exposition of beats and basslines, imagination and expression. Sometimes using a lot of words, usually none or very few. The dance floor has its own myths.

Red Translucent Vinyl, Gatefold, Photo Book Cover

limited red vinyl/gatefold edition ''Ruyzdael presents Writers on Wax Volume 1: The Sound of Graffiti, a compilation album with 8 exclusive, primarily electronic tracks by producers from four different countries who are more (in)famous as graffiti writers than as musicians.''Letters on a wall, letters on a train. When you take it back to that essence, it?s really not so strange that graffiti writers call themselves and each other writers. With just a few letters ? a word, a name ? they write their mythology for a general audience. No huge vocabulary needed, just imagination and a need for expression. It can come as no surprise that those qualities extend to other disciplines as well. Graffiti has long been associated with musical styles (hip-hop, punk) that contain an abundance of imagination and expression. Less well known is the fact that graffiti writers have embraced the DIY approach of electronic music. Writers on Wax Volume 1 is a group exposition of beats and basslines, imagination and expression. Sometimes using a lot of words, usually none or very few. The dance floor has its own myths.

This November sees the release of 50th Anniversary editions of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs on 4LP and 2CD. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1970 double album, the original has been given the ‘Half-Speed Mastered’ treatment by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios and is completed with a certificate of authentication. 4LP SET - Layla is often regarded as Eric Clapton’s greatest musical achievement. The album is notably known for its title track, an evergreen rock classic, which had top ten single chart success in the UK and features the dual wailing guitars of Clapton and Duane Allman. Alongside this are a further 2LPs of bonus material some of which has not previously been released on vinyl. All the bonus material across all of LP3 and LP4 is mastered normally (so is not half-speed mastered). The LP set includes a 12×12 book of sleeve notes taken from the 40th-Anniversary Edition.

The music of Alex Maas has always mesmerised. Now, on his soul-baring solo debut Luca, the Texan and Black Angels singer's journey is taking an equally hypnotic detour along the wild trails of his indigenous homestead. Driven by the force of nature, each phase of life is celebrated through songs of love, hope, human connection whilst navigating perils of modern society and tentatively facing the darkness.

“I’m trying to find balance in the insane world we live in,” reveals Alex. “Is shit scary? Yes. Is life beautiful and filled with hope and inspiration? Yes. You have to go into the dark to appreciate the light and vice versa. Everything isn't always peachy, one day you are walking through a beautiful field and get bit by a rattlesnake because you are blinded by the colourful flowers. It’s ok to be afraid, sad and fearful because you need it to appreciate all the beauty the world has to offer.”

Like the echoes of nature that Alex grew up around Luca dances like dandelions on a breeze but is spiked with a squint of suspicion as its percussion shimmers like that cautionary rattlesnake. His album crackles with the vintage warmth of Grace Slick or smoky melodies of Nico, rising like a campfire’s embers whilst taking cues from Beth Gibbons, Sam Cooke, Lee Hazlewood, Vashti Bunyan, Mississippi John Hurt, and Huun-Huur-Tu. “I like music that makes me feel like I’m entering a magical place. I’m drawn to those whose voice sounds like it’s coming from the forest,” he says.

Recorded at Space Flight Studios in Austin Luca was an evolutionary project with some early songs worked up from their acoustic origins whilst others were written more recently. Co-produced with long-time collaborator Brett Orrison, the record began its transformation from loner folk leanings to a worldlier embrace. Calling upon members of The Black Angels, Wide Spread Panic, Mien, the Sword, Jack White’s band the Eels.

Stepping out on his own Maas is walking along his own untrodden path, offering an honest and true account of what has passed and what may yet come. Luca sings from the soul, is believable and could well be everything the world needs right now.

Ars Subtilior (14th century) and the Noise: the two inspirations of Christophe Guiraud which are like two rivers which are woven in a writing of great power. The French young composer is the link between the most accomplished scholarly music and some radical aspects of noise. Born in Toulouse mid-seventies, he settles in Brussels - which becomes the crossroads of a continuous creation. Currently works and has been collaborating since several years with numerous European ensembles and musicians such as Ensemble Ictus, Phønix16, Tom Pauwels, Timo Kreuser, Ensemble 21, Sturm und Klang.

His most recent pieces intimately mix instrumental timbre and sound hybridization, cultivating a certain secrecy around this alchemy. Here more than everywhere else, Christophe Guiraud's new compositions create a dialogue between the times, from the polyphony of Ars Nova to Spectralism, while integrating his noise heritage. Resolutely an-historical, the last pieces presented here unfold in a trembling stagnation.

Prolific Cleveland indie rock outfit Cloud Nothings return with new album, The Black Hole Understands, the latest in their extensive and celebrated discography. Written and recorded during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Black Hole Understands is “a record born of this early quarantine anxiety and confusion,” according to vocalist/guitarist Dylan Baldi.

About a month into quarantine, Baldi and drummer Jayson Gerycz started sending files back and forth, with guitars, bass and vocals tracked in Philadelphia and drums and mixing undertaken in Cleveland. This remote recording process presented a new set of restrictions for Cloud Nothings, completely removing the element of interactive jamming and tightening the production around a set of streamlined summer pop songs.

Every Cloud Nothings record, from their 2010 debut Turning On through to 2014’s Attack On Memory and 2018’s Last Building Burning, has had its own distinct feel. But The Black Hole Understands eschews the noisy thrash and improv tendencies that emerged on later albums, in favor of dreamy, poppy vocals that float over fast, jangly songs. With clean hooks and uncluttered arrangements (a synth overdub from Bee Mask's Chris Madak is the album's only guest feature), the songs on The Black Hole Understands are the kind of concise, hook-heavy blasts the band was churning out in their earliest days, albeit a little more distant and weary.

Hyper-melodic and high-energy, The Black Hole Understands also shows a restraint that fits with the strange times that it was born of, carrying a sense of melancholy and cautious optimism that mirrors the restless dread of life on lockdown.

“Despite being recorded in an era of unthinkable instability, it is the most assuredly melodic Cloud Nothings has sounded in years.” - Pitchfork, 7.5/10

“Though much of lockdown has felt like the walls are closing in, the joyous ‘The Black Hole Understands’ sees Cloud Nothings help us feel like we can bust right through them into a brighter future.” - NME

Alexa! Is the Cool Greenhouse’s new single, the follow-up to their acclaimed debut album and, indisputably, the most powerful song ever made. Alexa! can phone your mum. Alexa! can set your alarm for ungodly hours. Alexa! is the first song in history capable of racking up its own streams and ordering copies of itself. Simultaneously a modern love song dedicated to the 14% of men who have found themselves aroused by their virtual assistants during lockdown and a characteristically sardonic investigation into the sly corporate invasion of domestic space, Alexa! is, above all, a stonker of a tune that further solidifies The Cool Greenhouse’s position as one of the most exciting and innovative bands around. Of their historic single, the band had this to say: “Don’t worry we don’t need any press for this one just stick a bunch of virtual assistants in a room and get one of them to play the track it should be able to get to number one on its own eventually, cheers.”

A limited pressing in transparent yellow of Eyedress's album, Let's Skip To The Wedding - a loved up remedy for uncertain times. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide

Previously known as the moniker Micachu and The Shapes, Good Sad Happy Bad named themselves after their last album Good Sad Happy Bad. Their record is called Shades. Shades is made up of 12 songs. Like the band name the songs are either good, sad, happy or bad and sometimes either slow, fast, heavy or light, and sometimes cold, hot, warm or freezing, and sometimes tasty, nasty, bland or spicy.

Minimal Wave compilation featuring 13 tracks by 13 bands around the theme "Kosmonaut"

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus
formed boygenius after booking a tour together
but the trio had subconsciously been in the works
for longer than that. Through a series of tours and
performances together and chance encounters that
led to friendships - including Bridgers' and Dacus'
first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia
festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly
comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email
chains and even a secret handshake between
Baker and Dacus - the lyrically and musically
arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got
to know each other on their own terms.

5TH ANNIVERSARY

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus formed boygenius after booking a tour together but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together and chance encounters that led to friendships - including Bridgers' and Dacus' first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus - the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms.

Jubilee is an album of selections from the last five years of multifarious output by the art collective FPBJPC, including Jonathan Gean, Michael Pollard, Ben Schumacher, and Peter Friel. Including 8-hand piano arrangements of Schiller’s “An Die Freude,” helpful techno, free guitar quartets, music from their film The China Chalet Group, and more, Jubilee is an incomplete picture of FPBJPC’s life-long research into ways of hanging out. Side A ends with an anthemic Interpol “cover” performed at the collective’s own Responsibility Festival, which took over southern Ontario’s Wolfe Island for a weekend in the summer of 2019.

Everything in FPBJPC’s oeuvre requires you to tilt your head to adjust where the glare obscures the picture. Or there’s no glare, but we’re accustomed to thinking there ought to be one. I was in the audience for the 2019 Recital Earth Day Gala concert, and during FPBJPC’s set someone in the audience muttered to me, “perfect music.” At the Interpol concert, I was also in the audience. I didn’t know the words and didn’t feel like crowdsurfing, but I was very happy to be there. This music helps me remember how to learn how to love. Maybe in the last seventy years or so the loveless mistrust of fucks given has become the cruel, background fuck whose givenness is a given. FPBJPC invites us to relieve ourselves of that cruelty and, thereby, invites us back into love. Perfect music.

Derek Baron, Sept. 2020

LTD. TRANSPARENT RED VINYL

On Palberta5000, Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser max out traditional pop forms_blowing the genre out into lush, kinetic extensions_to create their own hardcore style of popular music. Together these 16 adventurous, hyper-melodic tracks represent the band's most accessible album by far_one that is bursting at the seams with vocal hooks and exuberant playing. Palberta5000 was recorded with Matt Lambozza (PALM, Shimmer), whose Peekskill, New York, studio is located in the original home and family lamp-store of Paul Reuben (Pee Wee Herman). Lambozza's recording and mix capture the band's rollicking instrumentation and vocal precision with greater clarity than anyone has before. Tracks like the emotionally chaotic "Before I Got Here," which charges hard before turning on a dime into a hypnotic krout-surf outro, convey the panicked feeling of falling in love, while Palberta's ear for pop music makes itself apprent on heart-melting harmonies like those fround on "Corner Store." Adding variation to Palberta5000's well thought-out song cycle are lavish downtempo jams ilke the slow waltz that is "The Way That You Do," and the enchanting "Red Antz." Taken together, these songs create a full album experience, and one that is sure to excite the band's devoted following while welcoming new fans along for the ride.

LTD. CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL

THE LAST EXIT is the fifth studio album from Still Corners. With the shimmering desert noir sound the band has become known for, THE LAST EXIT takes you on a hypnotic journey, one filled with dilapidated towns, mysterious shapes on the horizon, and long trips that blur the line between what's there and not there. Greg says, "We found something out there in the desert - something in the vast landscapes that went on forever." THE LAST EXIT consists of eleven beautifully crafted songs with organic instrumentation, clean-toned guitar, spacious drums and the smoky croon of Tessa Murray. Album highlights include "The Last Exit", "White Sands" and "Shifting Dunes" all of which evoke the vast space of the desert and rolling unconcerned skies.

As the world plummeted into the COVID-19 pandemic, the four members of Black Stone Cherry were nestled deep in the woods of Kentucky, scrambling to complete their 7th album. There, they could feel the disease closing in as they watched the news daily, and it became apparent the album they were finishing featured lyrics that were eerily prescient. The resulting 13-track record is broadly emotive, and anthemic. It was finished just before the global lockdown was imposed, and it’s aptly titled, The Human Condition.
In the past two decades, Black Stone Cherry has set a new standard for Southern rock, revitalizing the tradition with burly riffs and stirring rock hooks. The four-piece band have blazed their own way in establishing a legacy.
The Human Condition was self-produced and tracked in bassist Jon Lawhon's recording facility, Monocle Studios, in March 2020. The guys went in with 4 songs, wrote new songs, and recorded some beloved unreleased favorites. For the first time, the band opted to not record basics live and instead meticulously multitracked. Each member endured grueling sessions to ensure the collective studio mindset of achieving "epic performances."
The results are stunning—the grooves feel organic, the riffs are mountainous, the performances are urgent, and the hooks shine through gloriously.

After a prolific year 2019 with two OSTs and a side project with Anton Newcombe and Emmanuelle Seigner (L’Épée), The Liminañas are back with a new single exuding the summer heat and the beach sun, ‘Calentita’, which features Nuria, a Spanish friend on the band, on vocal.
This sole vinyl edition is limited and includes 2 remixes as well as an alternative version.

Limited

Dark Day is the brainchild of Robin Crutchfield, a New York City based musician, performance artist, and writer. Robin’s musical path began in 1977 when he formed the no wave group DNA with Arto Lindsay and Ikue Mori. In 1979 Crutchfield left DNA to pursue his more synthesizer-based solo project. He released the ‘Hands In The Dark’ 7” followed by two albums, ‘Exterminating Angel’ in 1980 and ‘Window’ in 1982. In 1984 he re-launched Dark Day as an acoustic chamber ensemble performing ethereal soundscapes and self-released two cassette albums “Obsession” and “Beyond The Pale”.

‘Darkest Before Dawn' is a collection of 13 songs recorded between 1985-86, released on CD in 1989 that have never been pressed to vinyl before. The album is a lost medieval collection of pagan tunes for private ceremonies. Played on echoey pipe organ backed by saw-like rhythmic cello lines and melodic woodwind recorder, driven by the beats of rattles, bells, and drums. These simple, cyclical layered instrumental rounds owe much to the inspiration of Moondog as well as the efforts of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Dead Can Dance. The original press release stated, “Serious gothic organ works which cross Captain Nemo's Nautilus pipe organ with the standing stones of Stonehenge and reminisce Babylonian battle hymns and Egyptian burial ceremonies.”

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley. The vinyl comes housed in jacket featuring illustrations from Thomas Bewick’s ‘Vignettes’ and includes a double sided insert with photos and notes.

xDream is the re-awakening of the child spirit. The child spirit lives everywhere: in our memories, the corners of our emotions, moments of mischief and euphoria, and whispers in the trees. In our youth, it grew from a seedling into the shape of the internal conscience, that little voice in your head that tells you right from wrong. The debut album by Dasychira features contributions by fellow artists Malibu, Embaci, and Baby Blue, as well as live violin by Iglooghost collaborator Vivek Menon and voice acting by mirukii and daisyvoice. Dasychira completed an Asia tour this year performing A/V sets with Yikii in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hongkong, and Shenzhen before going to Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo. xDream was released digitally on Halloween 2019 via Blueberry Records x UNSEELIE with music videos by Awe Ix, Dante Capone, Slama & Delong, and others.

10th Anniversary reissue of Cloud Nothings acclaimed and beloved debut album.
Clear w/ Opaque Light Blue Marble LP - Uncoated Jacket with Spot UV Gloss on Cover Photo, w/ download card.

It’s been 10 years since the release of Turning On, Cloud Nothings’ debut album. Singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi was just 18 years old when he began recording the album, creating each track in his parents’ basement in Cleveland, Ohio. Over one winter, Baldi produced an album of taut, lo-fi guitar-pop songs, playing each instrument himself. His music gained traction in the increasingly popular music blog circuit, allowing Baldi to book his first shows in new places, like New York City. He gathered a band together to play live, and Cloud Nothings were on their way.

The band has accomplished a great deal since Turning On, signing to Carpark Records, releasing seven albums, and headlining numerous international tours. Yet, their debut isn’t dusted over in the band’s history. Turning On still remains the stripped-back core of Cloud Nothings style: raw and grungy, filled with catchy earworms that are surprisingly pop. The album carries all the stored potential of someone ready to venture off into the world, a feeling that bursts with energy even 10 years later.

All the tracks on Turning On are eruptive and restless, its lo-fi quality embodying the desperate need to record an idea by any means necessary. Songs like “Hey Cool Kid” encapsulate Baldi’s talent for churning, hook-filled guitar. The vocals on songs like “Can’t Stay Awake” are distorted, with scattered lyrics that echo the angst of a teenage diary. As a whole, the album delivers dissonance and edge, without sacrificing the authentic romanticism of someone who is on the verge of something big and doesn’t know it yet.

For a band that resists repeating itself, picking up lessons from a decade prior is the strange route Cloud Nothings took to create their most fully-realized album. Their new record, The Shadow I Remember, marks eleven years of touring, a return to early songwriting practices, and revisiting the studio where they first recorded together.

In a way not previously captured, this album expertly combines the group’s pummeling, aggressive approach with singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi’s extraordinary talent for perfect pop. To document this newly realized maturity, the group returned to producer Steve Albini and his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, where the band famously destroyed its initial reputation as a bedroom solo project with the release of 2012 album Attack on Memory.

Another throwback was Baldi’s return to constant songwriting à la the early solo days, which led to the nearly 30 demos that became the 11 songs on The Shadow I Remember. Instead of sticking to a tried-but-true formula, his songwriting stretched out while digging deeper into his melodic talents. “I felt like I was locked in a character,” Baldi says of becoming a reliable supplier of heavy, hook-filled rock songs. “I felt like I was playing a role and not myself. I really didn’t like that role.” More frequent writing led to the freedom in form heard on The Shadow I Remember. What he can’t do alone is get loud and play noisily, which is exactly what happened when the entire band— bassist TJ Duke, guitarist Chris Brown, and drummer Jayson Gerycz—convened.

The band had more fun in the studio than they’ve had in years, playing in their signature, pulverizing way, while also trying new things. The absurdly catchy “Nothing Without You” includes a first for the band: Macie Stewart of Ohmme contributes guest vocals. Elsewhere, celebrated electronic composer Brett Naucke adds subtle synthesizer parts.

The songs are kept trim, mostly around the three-minute mark, while being gleefully overstuffed. Almost every musical part turns into at least two parts, with guitar and drums opening up and the bass switching gears. “That’s the goal—I want the three-minute song to be an epic,” Baldi says. “That’s the short version of the long-ass jam.”

Lyrically, Baldi delivers an aching exploration of tortured existence, punishing self-doubt, and the familiar pangs of oppressive mystery. “Am I something?” Baldi screams on the song of the same name. “Does anybody living out there really need me?” It’s a heartbreaking admission of existential confusion, delivered hoarsely, with an instantly relatable melody.

“Is this the end/ of the life I've known?” he asks on lead single and album opener “Oslo.” “Am I older now/ or am I just another age?” Despite the questioning lyrics, the band plays with more assurance and joy than ever before. The Shadow I Remember announces Cloud Nothings’ second decade and it sounds like a new beginning.

For a band that resists repeating itself, picking up lessons from a decade prior is the strange route Cloud Nothings took to create their most fully-realized album. Their new record, The Shadow I Remember, marks eleven years of touring, a return to early songwriting practices, and revisiting the studio where they first recorded together.

In a way not previously captured, this album expertly combines the group’s pummeling, aggressive approach with singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi’s extraordinary talent for perfect pop. To document this newly realized maturity, the group returned to producer Steve Albini and his Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, where the band famously destroyed its initial reputation as a bedroom solo project with the release of 2012 album Attack on Memory.

Another throwback was Baldi’s return to constant songwriting à la the early solo days, which led to the nearly 30 demos that became the 11 songs on The Shadow I Remember. Instead of sticking to a tried-but-true formula, his songwriting stretched out while digging deeper into his melodic talents. “I felt like I was locked in a character,” Baldi says of becoming a reliable supplier of heavy, hook-filled rock songs. “I felt like I was playing a role and not myself. I really didn’t like that role.” More frequent writing led to the freedom in form heard on The Shadow I Remember. What he can’t do alone is get loud and play noisily, which is exactly what happened when the entire band— bassist TJ Duke, guitarist Chris Brown, and drummer Jayson Gerycz—convened.

The band had more fun in the studio than they’ve had in years, playing in their signature, pulverizing way, while also trying new things. The absurdly catchy “Nothing Without You” includes a first for the band: Macie Stewart of Ohmme contributes guest vocals. Elsewhere, celebrated electronic composer Brett Naucke adds subtle synthesizer parts.

The songs are kept trim, mostly around the three-minute mark, while being gleefully overstuffed. Almost every musical part turns into at least two parts, with guitar and drums opening up and the bass switching gears. “That’s the goal—I want the three-minute song to be an epic,” Baldi says. “That’s the short version of the long-ass jam.”

Lyrically, Baldi delivers an aching exploration of tortured existence, punishing self-doubt, and the familiar pangs of oppressive mystery. “Am I something?” Baldi screams on the song of the same name. “Does anybody living out there really need me?” It’s a heartbreaking admission of existential confusion, delivered hoarsely, with an instantly relatable melody.

“Is this the end/ of the life I've known?” he asks on lead single and album opener “Oslo.” “Am I older now/ or am I just another age?” Despite the questioning lyrics, the band plays with more assurance and joy than ever before. The Shadow I Remember announces Cloud Nothings’ second decade and it sounds like a new beginning.

Mit ihrem dritten Album "Screamadelica" aus dem Jahr 1991 rechtfertigte die aus Glasgow stammende Band Primal Scream ihren soliden Ruf als eine der innovativsten Rockbands der Nineties. Die Scheibe gewann 1992 den ersten Mercury Music Award und wurde 1996 von der Zeitschrift Select als bestes Album der 90er Jahre bezeichnet. Die 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition von 2011 wird nun als 4CD Bookset neu aufgelegt. Enthalten sind: vier CDs (auf CD1 das komplett remasterte Album, CD2 stellt einen Live-Set von 1992 vor, CD3 glänzt mit 14 Remixes der vier Singles plus zwei Bonus-Tracks und CD4 ist die remasterte Version der legendären "Dixie Narco EP" von 1992). Mit 20-seitigem Booklet mit Photos von Grant Fleming/Kevin Westerberg sowie Interviews mit Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes und Andrew Weatherall über das Making Of dieses legendären Albums.

The latest indie folk rock from Tokyo: ROTH BART BARON release their new album "Loud color(s) & Silence Festival".

The album's first single "Never Forget" has already been selected as one of the top 5 Japanese singles in September 2020. "Loud color(s) & Silence Festival" comes with soundscapes of gentle acoustic guitars, warm brass sections and fresh electronic sounds - dense and swarming waves of whistling atmosphere and well-constructed instrumentation, carving out the boundaries of Indie Folk.

Tokyo-based ROTH BART BARON are one of the current leading bands of Japan's vibrant indie scene. The band is the solo project of singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Masaya Mifune. With a band of seven and sometimes up to ten people, ROTH BART BARON have regularly played venues in Tokyo and all over Japan, and have performed in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Mongolia, China, Thailand and Taiwan.

ROTH BART BARON's previous albums have been welcomed with a warm reception and in April 2020, the band was awarded the grand prize at Japan's alternative music awards.

"Loud color(s) & Silence Festival", written, composed and recorded in 2020, centers around urging questions in these challenging times: what is the role of music without live concerts, music festivals and limited social interaction? How can we collect fresh colors into our hearts for long and dark days in a frozen world? Mifune's soft vocals and poetical lyrics and the band's keen eye for visuals and aesthetics may give some hints.

The album features several tracks mixed by Dan Carey (Kate Tempest, Black Midi) and Tim Pennells (Floating Points) and was mastered by Chris Athens (Drake, Kehlani). The track "Eve" features up-and-coming Tokyo-based singer HANA.

ROTH BART BARON is a Japanese indie folk band started in 2008 by singer-songwriter Masaya Mifune. Masaya independently released RBB's debut album The Ice Age in July 2014. The main part of the album was recorded at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia, with Brian McTear (Kurt Vile, the War on Drugs) as co-producer and mixing engineer Jonathan Low (The National, Sufjan Stevens).

In 2015, the band recorded at Montreal Hotel 2 Tango studio to produce their second album Atom, which received excellent reviews in Japan. The following year, ROTH BART BARON performed at major Japanese Festivals such as Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic.

They released their fourth album The Name Of The Beasts in 2019 to considerable critical acclaim. Upon release of The Name of the Beasts, the band was awarded the Japanese Apple Vinegar Music Award for the best new artist of the year in 2020. The award was established by Masafumi Gotoh, the frontman of Asian Kung-Fu Generation, a band which has been cited as one of the best modern rock bands from Japan.

The band has extensively toured Japan, as well as the U.S. and China. They also performed at Big Mountain Music Festival in Thailand and Playtime Festival in Mongolia. Besides his band activities, Masaya regularly performs solo, including a solo gig at the "Celebration David Bowie 2017 world tour" in Tokyo.

ROTH BARTH BARON will be touring Japan from November 2020 to February 2021.

Mesmerising, ghostly, seductive, urgent, poignant, “Decider” is about the ultimate endgame: death. This track draws you into its web and holds you there. There’s no escape. Is there anything after ‘the end?’ If there is, will it bring happiness, or just more pain? And, are we to be judged by The Decider when we get there?

The inspiration, if you can call it that, for the song comes from the band’s own recent experiences. “We’ve lost a few people recently that we were close to. It does tend to make you ponder the universe, and whether you get a second act,” says Butch Dante, guitarist.

Filmed on location in the Texas panhandle, the video will be the second of a triptych of films written by Butch, focused on the band’s main preoccupation: the fact that the world is ending and people should be kinder to each other while it does.

Now they’ve been remixed. By these people:

Deetron
This Swiss maestro has one of the most characterful sounds in modern day techno. Taking a big inspiration from the big expansive, moody sounds of Detroit, Sam Geiser also borrows percussive influence from Chicago House whilst instilling his very own atmospheric personality, making for one hell of a ride.

Benedikt Frey
For our money, one of the most exciting exponents of leftfield house and disco there is. His music is always pushing boundaries, with a unique experimental spirit that has indie and punk deep in its heart.

Fort Romeau
Everything from widescreen, deep house, and warm, bubbly acid right through to raw, driving Italo and ethereal disco house; the Cin Cin boss is one of the most exciting and elegant exponents of today’s underground electronic scene.

Today, The Wytches announce their third album Three Mile Ditch. The album features the recently released single “Cowboy” which marked their return after four years away and to celebrate the announcement they share new single “A Love You’ll Never Know”. The track is accompanied by a music video by Mark Breed and he explains,

“The music video format was a long process. Making the set was incredibly fun with Kristian crafting most of the miniatures.I then had to film the green screen band performance within the set before recording the edited version onto my VHS camera. Finally I shot the finished edit inside the view finder.”

The album recorded with Luke Oldfield at Tile House Studios will be released on their own label Cable Code Records on Friday 2nd October.

“This is the first thing that I've ever been proud of for longer than a week,” says The Wytches frontman Kristian Bell of the band’s latest album Three Mile Ditch. This sense of vigour and enthusiasm coming from Bell about the band’s third album is matched by its contents. The album is an explosive collection of 10 tracks that weaves seamlessly between gut-wobbling monster riffs, swampy rock, slick surf, and finely tuned songcraft. It’s also the result of a band coming back from the brink of collapse.

The band’s early trajectory was a steep and speedy one as they quickly established themselves as one of the country’s most exciting and pulverising new bands. Major festival slots stacked up at places such as Glastonbury, SXSW, Reading and Leeds, and British Summertime with the Strokes. As did the tours across the US with METZ, traversing Europe with Fat White Family and Death Grips. They garnered support from BBC 6 Music, DIY, MOJO, NME and more. However, when the ascent to the stratosphere is moving at such a speed, there’s a risk of burning out and imploding, and the band came close to this.

They were on the rocks for a while, unsure of themselves and if the band should - or even could - go on. “I had it in my head that this kind of thing only really happens once and to try it again might be a big waste of time,” Bell reflects. However, despite the difficulties, the powerful pull of the band was too great to ignore.

“We had an album’s worth of songs that was some of our best material. The mission became to complete a Wytches album rather than get The Wytches back on the touring circuit. This album helped us make the decision to try it again.”

With October 2nd, 2020 marking 25 years since Oasis released their iconic second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, Big Brother Recordings release a limited edition silver coloured LP with remastered audio to celebrate this milestone. Following only 14 months after Oasis’s classic 1994 album Definitely Maybe, widely regarded one of the greatest debuts of all time, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory is the UK’s 5th best-selling album of all time and best-selling album of the nineties. The album entered the UK Official Charts at No.1 with 269,000 sales, with a total of 10 weeks at the summit since release and almost eight and a half years in the UK Official Album Chart cumulatively. Worldwide, it went Top 10 in every major market in the world and became the band’s breakthrough album in the US, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with over 5 million sales, and a global total now in excess of 22 million. Produced by Noel Gallagher and Owen Morris, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? was recorded at the fabled Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales, completed in a staggeringly brief two-week period during May and June 1995. An undeniably superlative rock record, it includes several of Oasis’ biggest selling UK singles – the legendary, universally loved anthem ‘Wonderwall’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Roll With It’, ‘Some Might Say’ together with tracks like ‘She’s Electric’, ‘Morning Glory’ and ‘Champagne Supernova’, which are timeless anthems and radio staples known to every generation of music fan. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory established Oasis as a national and international phenomenon, the most universally popular British guitar band since the glory days of The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, and the album’s enduring and omnipresent appeal was demonstrated when it was awarded Best British Album of 30 Years at The BRIT Awards 2010. In the years since it’s release, the album has inspired thousands of young guns to pick up guitars and form bands, and is counted by dozens of successful bands and songwriters as a major influence on their careers.

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This limited edition set contains the original LP plus an 8 track bonus LP Includes a 12pp 12” x 12” colour booklet with sleeve notes by Released in February 89 ‘The World Keeps Turning’ indeed seemed to represent a heroic refusal to fall in step with the times. From it’s cover illustration to it’s musical content, which was essentially a continuation of what had been so masterly achieved on Storyteller. Tim’s words coupled with Gregory’s melodies resulted in some of the loveliest songs in the Razorcuts catalogue

Not a lot of indie rockers have a side gig as an ortho/neuro nurse, but there’s nothing typical about Lindsey Radice. Recording and performing as Pynkie, the New Jersey native brings her own distinct style, work ethic, and personality to her nursing and music career alike. Radice’s new album #37 is a breezy pleasure that runs deceptively deep, a rallying cry of joy and positivity. Lindsey Radice first came to the guitar at age eleven, sticking mostly to Led Zeppelin and AC/DC covers. But at eighteen, she began to write her own songs. They were mostly joke tunes, odes to her shower curtains, for example, with their little duck print pattern. As she began to record her songs, Radice discovered a deeper ambition, the need to tell her own story, though she never lost track of her playful side. “What I love most about music is writing and recording,” says Radice. “It’s fun and there’s no rules about what you can write about or how to play it. You can do whatever the hell you want. And you might even change the game accidentally!” Despite having no label, press, or publicity team, Radice’s first, self-produced album neoteny garnered her a substantial cult following. Her own “lofi” remix of neoteny standout “Dew” was streamed over 1.5 million times. The album caught the ear of Gorilla vs. Bear mastermind, Chris Cantalini, who featured it as one of the best of 2018. Her brand-new follow-up, #37, promises a continuation of that vibe, but also a significant step forward. “I’ve gotten opportunities to work in ‘real’ recording studios with ‘real equipment,’” says Radice. “But, this is the first time I’ve had my stuff mixed and mastered by somebody else. It’s definitely a step up.” Radice decamped on her days off to a small studio in Queen’s Rockaway Beach with bandmates John Messina and Josh Bartsch rounding out the lineup. They would meet whenever Radice’s nursing schedule would allow for it to experiment and find the perfect sound. “I really loved the place where I was recording, Rockaway Beach Hut,” says Radice. “It’s a fun, funky-looking studio with lots of cool and funny stuff sprinkled around it. Chris had this weird baby doll head that’s also a light sensitive oscillator.