Pop & Rock News

Marching Church, formerly an outlet for the mostly solo musical experiments of Elias Bender Rønnenfelt (Iceage, Vår), metamorphosed into a full band during the sessions for a 2014 LP on Sacred Bones, This World Is Not Enough. The installation of a permanent supporting cast of collaborators did nothing to tame the project's wild spirit, and that record was an eclectic, eccentric mix of post-punk, improv, soul music, and more. With Coming Down: Sessions in April, Marching Church reaches even further afield, backing an intensely personal A-side with a fully instrumental 21-minute free jazz odyssey.

It's an excerpt from a two-hour long improv session,' Rønnenfelt said of the track. Which I guess was an attempt at playing jazz music, though no one involved had any experience playing jazz.'

Following the success of Sub Lingual Tablet, The Fall is proud to announce the Wise Ol' Man EP a mixture of old and new material from the legendary Manchester band
The Fall are an English post-punk band, formed in Manchester in 1976. The band has existed in some form ever since, and is essentially built around its founder and only constant member Mark E. Smith. Initially associated with the punk movement of the late 1970s, the group's music has gone through several stylistic changes over the years, characterised by an abrasive guitar-driven sound and frequent use of repetition, and is always underpinned by Smith's distinctive vocals and often cryptic lyrics.
"They are always different; they are always the same."

The Old Waldorf, owned by legendary Bay Area concert promoter Bill Graham, originally opened in 1976 and was host to some of the Bay's most important early punk shows featuring The Avengers, The Dead Boys, Bad Brains, and more. Though their debut album wouldn't be released until the following year, Dead Kennedys were already local legends by 1979, and they played The Old Waldorf on October 25th of that year for a live college radio broadcast for KALX FM in Berkeley. With live early versions of some of their most famous songs, including their classic first single, "California Über Alles", as well as "Holiday In Cambodia", "Kill The Poor", "Back In Rhodesia", and more, this is a crucial early SF punk live broadcast finally available on LP!

Es ist ja nicht so, als wäre die Formation Leland Sundries erst seit gestern aktiv. Tatsächlich ist die New
Yorker Band schon seit 2010 am Musizieren. Nur hat man das hierzulande noch nicht mitgeschnitten und
deshalb sind auch die EPs "The Foundry" und "The Apothecary" nur ausgewiesenen Spezialisten bekannt.
Das sollte sich mit "Music For Outcasts", dem Debütalbum für den europäischen Markt, nachhaltig ändern.
Mit seiner dynamischen Mischung aus Garage, Indie-Rock und Americana bieten sich Vergleiche zu Lou
Reed, Jack Oblivian und Ezra Furman geradezu an. Dabei steht Leland Sundries durch und durch in der
Rock'n'Roll-Tradition von New York. Schließt man die Augen und schaltet die Phantasie ein, führt "Music For
Outcasts" vom Fillmore East des Jahres 1968 und Max's Kansas City von 1969 über das 1977er-CBGB und
das Coney Island High von 1992 bis zum Brownies in 2002 und dem Death By Audio von 2008. Willkommen
in der Gegenwart des Rock.

Der Legende nach gründeten Mark Stewart (Gesang), Gareth Sager (Gitarre), Simon Underwood (Bass) und
Bruce Smith (Drums) im Anschluss an ein Konzert der Sex Pistols die Pop Group. Das war 1979, im Jahr der
"eisernen Lady". Ein kreativer und folgenreicher Entschluss - schon 1980 veröffentlichte das radikalpolitische
Quartett aus Bristol mit "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder" seine zweite LP.
Standesgemäß auf dem eigenen Y-Label mit Rough Trade als Partner. Das Album verbrachte 20 Wochen in
den britischen Indie-Charts und stieg dort sogar bis zur Nummer 1 auf. Wie der Titel bereits vermuten lässt,
handelt es sich hier um eine revolutionäre, dem antiimperialistischen Zeitgeist verpflichtete Veröffentlichung.
Angesichts der kurzen Bandgeschichte darf man "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder"
ruhigen Gewissens als die Quintessenz dessen ansehen, was The Pop Group auszeichnete:
schwerverdauliche, aggressive, paranoide und mit einer ordentlichen Prise Funk gewürzte Sounds einerseits,
hochpolitische, kompromisslose und moralische Botschaften andererseits. Die remasterte
Wiederveröffentlichung von "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder" erscheint als 180-Gramm-
Vinyl mit Downloadcard sowie - erstmals! - als CD im Digipak. Parallel erscheint die Single-Auskoppelung
"We Are All Prostitutes" als limitierte 7" mit farbigem Vinyl im Original-Artwork.t

Der Legende nach gründeten Mark Stewart (Gesang), Gareth Sager (Gitarre), Simon Underwood (Bass) und
Bruce Smith (Drums) im Anschluss an ein Konzert der Sex Pistols die Pop Group. Das war 1979, im Jahr der
"eisernen Lady". Ein kreativer und folgenreicher Entschluss - schon 1980 veröffentlichte das radikalpolitische
Quartett aus Bristol mit "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder" seine zweite LP.
Standesgemäß auf dem eigenen Y-Label mit Rough Trade als Partner. Das Album verbrachte 20 Wochen in
den britischen Indie-Charts und stieg dort sogar bis zur Nummer 1 auf. Wie der Titel bereits vermuten lässt,
handelt es sich hier um eine revolutionäre, dem antiimperialistischen Zeitgeist verpflichtete Veröffentlichung.
Angesichts der kurzen Bandgeschichte darf man "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder"
ruhigen Gewissens als die Quintessenz dessen ansehen, was The Pop Group auszeichnete:
schwerverdauliche, aggressive, paranoide und mit einer ordentlichen Prise Funk gewürzte Sounds einerseits,
hochpolitische, kompromisslose und moralische Botschaften andererseits. Die remasterte
Wiederveröffentlichung von "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder" erscheint als 180-Gramm-
Vinyl mit Downloadcard sowie - erstmals! - als CD im Digipak. Parallel erscheint die Single-Auskoppelung
"We Are All Prostitutes" als limitierte 7" mit farbigem Vinyl im Original-Artwork.

Third album by Hamburg's TELLAVISION who calls her original aesthetic "hardware post-pop", deconstructing borders between (anti-)pop and avant-garde, hi- and lo-art.

Deeply rooted in DIY culture right from the start in 2007, TELLAVISION alias FEE R. KUERTEN delivers her third album after "Music On Canvas" (released on FEEDING TUBE RECORDS, run by SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN's TED LEE) and 2014's "Funnel Walk" which was recorded with TOBIAS LEVIN (TOCOTRONIC, MUTTER, JA, PANIK). Developed and produced during a stay at the Whitehaus, one of Boston's self-governing cultural centers, the tracks play with TELLAVISION's reception across different genres: too "punk" for an arty audience, too arty for the punks, KUERTEN who studied arts at Hamburg's HFBK (attending classes a.o. by JUTTA KOETHER and FELIX KUBIN) follows her interdisciplinary approach which combines visual arts, film and music, taking in a wide range of pop-cultural references, rejecting them to finally mash them up for new positions in contemporary arts that defy conventions. Defied too the concept of the classical A / B side - instead "The Third Eye" splits into 2 sides that each carries its own name with "Ease Tikky Tab" continuing / refining TELLAVISION's atonal, dub-infected trademark sound while "Cryptic Snash Man" crystallizes as an oscillating field of krauty repetition and industrial ambiances. Oppressive, dissonant soundscapes, created by a reduced set-up of analogue synthesizers, percussive elements and fragmentary field recordings that go along perfectly with KUERTEN's elegic, soulful voice. A unique sound that the 27 year-old baptized "Hardware Post-Pop" and which situates the young artist among like-minded lofi-advocates ARIEL PINK and JOHN MAUS, the rhythmic grooves of ESG and a newer generation of female artists such as FATIMA AL QUADIRI, INGA COPELAND (whom she recently supported), GAZELLE TWIN or KLARA LEWIS on the other hand.

Prolific Japanese artist Masami Akita, aka Merzbow here teams up with session musician, producer, and singer-songwriter Eiko Ishibashi for anew work which showcases yet another side to Akita's monumental catalogue

Kouen Kyoudai consists of two side long tracks that could be read as a contemporary take on the traditional avant-garde. Skittering electronics, percussion, piano, doom and noise all feature as exponents in this epic release which seamlessly incorporates many strands of experimental thought and practice.

The tension that arises from the human use of the tool is made explicit as these works unfold in a storm of ecstatic human/instrument/machine interaction. Drums hammer alongside an ecstatic drone. Notes on a piano jostle with a storm of splintered electronics.

Kouen Kyoudai highlights the pull between beauty and chaos, structure and the abyss leaving behind a thrilling display of human and technological interplay whilst opening up new paths for both musicians involved.

Clutch's DVD "Full Fathom Five" is an excellent choice for the Clutch fan who's never managed to make it to a live show. Unlike so many band DVD's that are chalked full of interviews, behind the scenes footage, and generally drab use of film time, "Full Fathom Five" is all about the music!

"Though there aren't any new tracks on the release, since the DVD came out before Clutch's newest album, there is a good sampling of the rest of the band's discography, from the '95 album "Clutch," all the way through their 2007 release "From Beale Street To Oblivion." But, the songs are not in chronological order, and the performances end up being a good variety of the hard rock, punk and bluesy styles Clutch has played with over the years.

The series of live shows takes us from Pittsburgh to Sayreville, New Jersey, over a course of time from August 2007 to March 2008. There isn't really one performance that's any better than the rest, but each one is solid, and well-orchestrated. The instruments are on, Neil Fallon's vocals are on, and the shows are just plain good. Sure, there aren't any amazing laser lights or excessive glam, but Clutch isn't exactly a glam band, either.

And unlike a lot of band DVD's, there aren't any amateurish web cam shots or shaky handheld camcorders. The recording is professional grade, with split screens, close-ups, and excellent sound quality. So while "Full Fathom Five" may not be an all-encompassing journey through time with the band members of Clutch, it is an excellent DVD for those who just want to see a band put on a really good show.

Bottom line: This DVD is the perfect solution for those who've always wanted to but never quite made it to a Clutch show."

Clutch's DVD "Full Fathom Five" is an excellent choice for the Clutch fan who's never managed to make it to a live show. Unlike so many band DVD's that are chalked full of interviews, behind the scenes footage, and generally drab use of film time, "Full Fathom Five" is all about the music!

"Though there aren't any new tracks on the release, since the DVD came out before Clutch's newest album, there is a good sampling of the rest of the band's discography, from the '95 album "Clutch," all the way through their 2007 release "From Beale Street To Oblivion." But, the songs are not in chronological order, and the performances end up being a good variety of the hard rock, punk and bluesy styles Clutch has played with over the years.

The series of live shows takes us from Pittsburgh to Sayreville, New Jersey, over a course of time from August 2007 to March 2008. There isn't really one performance that's any better than the rest, but each one is solid, and well-orchestrated. The instruments are on, Neil Fallon's vocals are on, and the shows are just plain good. Sure, there aren't any amazing laser lights or excessive glam, but Clutch isn't exactly a glam band, either.

And unlike a lot of band DVD's, there aren't any amateurish web cam shots or shaky handheld camcorders. The recording is professional grade, with split screens, close-ups, and excellent sound quality. So while "Full Fathom Five" may not be an all-encompassing journey through time with the band members of Clutch, it is an excellent DVD for those who just want to see a band put on a really good show.

Bottom line: This DVD is the perfect solution for those who've always wanted to but never quite made it to a Clutch show."

Sauna Youth are an evolving band of future humans making truly irregular punk, not quite comparable to anything else. 'Weird' is a meaningless platitude, and 'art punk' is a classifier that shouldn't be required. This last year has been an amazing time for the band, seeing them release their widely applauded 'Distractions' album, a split record with their sister band Monotony, embarking on several tours, radio sessions and even appearing on Marc Riley's 'All Shook Up' TV show for BBC iPlayer.
 
To celebrate all of this Sauna Youth have decided 2015 has just enough room left in it for one more 7' and video. 'The Bridge' is taken from their album and accompanied with an exclusive brand new song called 'Blurry Images' on the flipside.
 
Beginning and ending in squalling feedback 'The Bridge' is the song that rings longest in your head when listening to 'Distractions', it's full of the desire to set yourself apart, to connect and hold fast. 'I am the source of the overflow, a torn neck, an effervescent glow, I am the route to the heart of it' sing Ecke and Boon in everyman unison. It's keen and brisk, tireless and smart as a whip. 'Blurry Images' prefers to jog on the spot, its drumbeat and bassline pinned down by throbbing keyboard jabs. 'Ancient warning, or invitation, what's it look like to you' question the vocals, drawing the song into focus before upping the contrast. It's a tour de force and a fitting home for one of the most unhinged guitar solos the band have committed to tape so far.

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by 'Punk Professor' Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* CD includes full album plus 6 bonus tracks



By the time bohemian singer/poet/artist Lizzy Mercier Descloux recorded her fifth album, 1988's Suspense, she'd enjoyed a recording career that was as far from the clichés of music lore as is possible, flitting between genres, continents and collaborators, enjoying great success and equally great failure and even stealing the final breaths of master trumpeter Chet Baker for 1986's One For The Soul. When she came to make Suspense - reissued here as the final album in our series - she was, for the first time, working without her longtime muse, partner and manager Michel Esteban, with whom she'd first moved from their native France to New York, where it all began.



The pressure was on to repeat the success of 'Mais Où Sont Passées Les Gazelles', a smash hit in France, and Descloux's label were keen to make a conventional artist of her, pairing her with John Brand, an in-vogue producer with a style geared to a big, shiny 1980s chart sound—an approach Lizzy had never experienced before, nor intended to. Recorded in Oxfordshire and Wales, it features songs recorded in both French and English, with lyrics by Mark Cunningham, the trumpet player of the avant-garde band MARS, and James Reyne, the Australian artist who co-wrote much of One For The Soul.



In Vivien Goldman's new liner notes, Esteban notes that Suspense sounds "less Lizzy than the other records, less open," but in splitting herself into two - English and Francophone - the album has two personalities too; oddly, it shines a light on the real Descloux that her cultural experiments never did.



Though the initial aim was to make a folky, acoustic album, the pop sound suited the singer, and 'A Room In New York' is as fine and sparky as AOR gets. But when early single 'Gueule D'Amour/Cry of Love' stiffed, EMI lost confidence and buried the LP. Bound by her contract to the label, Descloux moved away from music and focused on painting. She eventually settled in Corsica, the French island, where she died, aged 48, of cancer. Descloux's musical career ended, therefore, with the aptly titled Suspense. It was only a matter of time before this furiously creative artist's work was re-evaluated, and with these deluxe reissues, that time is now.

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by 'Punk Professor' Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* CD includes full album plus 2 bonus tracks

By the time poet, singer-songwriter, and artist Lizzy Mercier Descloux recorded 1984's Zulu Rock, she'd marked herself out as both a globe trotter with more passport stamps than Tintin and a musical innovator whose loose, arty spirit could be applied to styles as varied as no wave, Bavarian oompa and Soweto jive. She'd also established a tight-knit threesome with muse/former lover Michel Esteban and producer/on-off lover Adam Kidron, who all reunited to follow Zulu Rock - a surprise hit in her native France - with something that, once again, represented a complete about-turn.



The location, this time, was Rio De Janeiro, a suitably exotic location to follow their sojourn in Soweto given that Brazil had recently emerged from twenty years of dictatorship. But unlike Zulu Rock's broad appropriation of the local sound, One For The Soul borrows very liberally from Brazilian culture. The aim, says Kidron, was to "reimagine the blues", but Lizzy's musical essence was in flux. 'A Word Is A Wah" meshes reggae with her beloved accordion, 'Women Don't Like Me' is wild, new wave pop, and she even wanders into soul territory, with whispery lounge versions of Al Green's 'Simply Beautiful'. Most notable is the album's foray into jazz, and the fact that Chet Baker, the master jazz trumpeter, blew his last on 'Fog Horn Blues' and the sensuous 'Off Off Pleasure'.



Rio was to be the last great hurrah of Lizzy and Michel's global recording adventures, and although work proceeded apace, the experience was often quite tense. "The sessions were tough work,' says Kidron, in the new liner notes by Vivien Goldman accompanying this deluxe reissue. 'Lizzy never quite got singing, no matter how much she drank, and no matter how hard she tried. Chet was very much at the drug-ravaged end of his life and had very little stamina or dexterity left... but there is a deep, sad, lyrical tone to his performances on the album.'



So fraught were the sessions, it's a miracle that such a cohesive, sparky record emerged. The record-buying public did not agree, and as the album crashed and burned, so did the relationship between its three heroes. Lizzy was, for the first time, about to take on the world alone - and there was but one album left in her.

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by 'Punk Professor' Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* CD includes full album plus 5 bonus tracks
In the course of three albums, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, the rogue poet, artist, and singer-songwriter, travelled on a musical voyage from Manhattan (1979 debut Press Color) to The Bahamas (1981 follow-up Mambo Nassau) and apartheid South Africa (1984's Zulu Rock) - a controversial cultural boycott in protest of the nation's racially divided society.



One place Descloux had never visited was the pop charts, but that changed when 'Mais Où Sont Passées Les Gazelles (Where Have The Gazelles Gone)' - a reworking of a South African Shangaan disco hit - went all the way to the top spot in her native France, giving her a platform and a profile in the land she'd fled many years before. Recorded at Satbel Studios in Johannesburg, the album followed what her mentor Michel Esteban describes as "an extraordinary adventure" through eastern Africa following the footsteps of 19th century poet Rimbaud through Sudan, Ethiopia, the East Coast.



A socially conscious person, Descloux wanted to use her music to draw some attention to the situation in South Africa, even obliquely, but there were musical motivations too - she was tapping into a hot and little-heard dance music in the aforementioned Shangaan disco, Soweto jive and mbaqanga, the style Malcolm McLaren had mined for his mash-up hit "Duck Rock" a year before.



The music of South Africa seduced, subsumed, and molded Lizzy, who sounds surer and more swinging than ever before throughout Zulu Rock, but credit must also go to British producer Adam Kidron, then best known for his work with Scritti Politti, who joined Esteban and Descloux for the entire African journey. Lizzy and Adam's was a battle of wills from the start, but his insistence on getting Lizzy to sing in a more conventional, tuneful way resulted in an emotional, ambitious, creative power struggle that delivered arguably her best vocals yet.



In Vivien Goldman's new liner notes for this reissue, Kidron says: 'My first impression of Lizzy was that she couldn't sing but that she had that crazy Madonna, Neneh Cherry, Nina Hagen attitude thing going on and a magical way with words — a marketer's gift for getting to the essence of a feeling or idea.' And for once, on this album, the marketing did itself.

* Remastered from the original tapes
* Essay by 'Punk Professor' Vivien Goldman, interviewing key players
* CD includes full album plus 6 bonus tracks

After 1979's Press Color - reissued by Light In The Attic - Lizzy Mercier Descloux went tropical. Mambo Nassau, released in 1981 on Philips Records, saw the vagabond Parisian poet, artist and musician decamp from New York to the Bahamas with her manager and sometime lover, Michel Esteban.



The effect on her music was not as expected. Press Color had been an album of dissonant, distorted disco influenced by the New York no wave scene, but Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios provided a hermetically sealed environment into which the island's relaxed atmosphere did not seep. Instead, music from within those four walls - made by Tom Tom Club and Grace Jones - had the effect of a feedback loop. The album, meanwhile, reflected the growing confidence of Descloux as a musician, an increasing interest in African music and the input of two new collaborators: synthesizer innovator Wally Badarou and Jamaican engineer Steve Stanley, the album's de facto producer.



'Since 1975, we had spent seven years in New York and it felt like the end of a cycle,' says Esteban, who co-founded ZE Records, on which label Descloux's first album was released. 'We wanted to get out of Manhattan and move towards Africa. We needed new adventures and change. Mambo Nassau was our next stage.'



Mambo Nassau's skip through styles is like a tour of Lizzy's musical DNA, embracing not just mutant funk, disco and punk but a pastiche of Bavarian oompa music ('Milk Sheik') and even cocktail jazz chanson ('Les Baisers D'Amants"), a duet with DJ Philippe Krootchey.



Mambo Nassau did speak to the mavericks enamored of Lizzy's free spirit but it did not sell well. "We never were commercial," notes Esteban. The album is presented now with bonus tracks including "Mister Soweto", "Corpo Molli Pau Duro" and a cover of Bob Marley's 'Sun Is Shining', all of which were intended to help score a record deal that would allow her to record in Soweto, South Africa. It worked. With the follow-up, Zulu Rock, on the horizon, Descloux's African adventure was only just beginning...

There are few voices of meaningful dissent left in rock music. Even fewer play with the savagery, subtlety and melody of Melbourne-based newcomers Gold Class. Armed with only a handful of songs, Gold Class quickly drew heads to their live shows when they appeared mid-2014, just a couple of months after getting together. Characterized by attacking rhythms, bristling garage guitar lines and the deep vibrato of singer Adam Curley, the band were soon mixing art-space and basement gigs for their debut seven-inch, Michael'. Life as a Gun' and Michael' will be included on Gold Class' forthcoming debut album. Stay tuned for more details. Gold Class formed quickly. Guitarist Evan James Purdey recruited fellow creative-writing students Mark Hewitt (drums) and Adam Curley (vocals) to elaborate on guitar ideas he'd recorded to a Dictaphone over the course of a summer. Jon Shub, who worked late-night bar shifts with Purdey and Curley and who builds and fixes guitars out of a workshop, made an instrument for himself and joined on bass. The initial philosophy was simple: each member would write his own parts with reverence given to the whole. We write everything together in a small room, which is a recipe for tantrums, but we also look out for each other's interests and we're pretty dedicated to that way of working,' Curley explains. The album was intended to be a document of the live set we wrote in a short amount of time, recorded quickly and released soon after. It's our opening statement as a band in a way.' In the autumn of 2015, Gold Class went into Melbourne's Head Gap Studio for four days with producer Simon Grounds (GOD, Twerps) to record ten songs to tape. The result is the band's debut album, It's You, led by first single Life as a Gun', with its firing lyrical offering, You can hold your finger on the trigger.'Elsewhere on the record, political protest meets Australian kosmische; proud perversion rubs against lo-fi jangle, and outsider longings become rallying choruses as Gold Class play out the push-and-pull of their first album's title.

Formed in 1981 in Sunderland, also home to the more famous Red Alert (with whom they shared plenty of members and gigs), Red London were the left-wing skinhead band that most of all mixed socialist ideas with the working class mentality. Anthemic OI! with nods to early protest folk and the new wave atmospheres that were so popular among their contemporaries. A masterpiece of political punk rock which needed to be rediscovered.

Following their first release on Darla, Eternal Horse is the ninth album of the Icelandic ambient rock band Stafraenn Hakon. On Eternal Horse, Stafraenn Hakon move away from the DIY experimental drony ambient and the lo-fi indie-rock sounds of their last albums, Prammi and Kælir Varðhund, and revisit the sound-spectrum of their previous Darla album, Sanitas (2010). Eternal Horse contains nine pop-oriented and vocally driven melodies. The album builds on certain elements heard on Gummi (2007) and Sanitas (2010), filled with soft and floating guitars mixed with heavier guitar sounds, layers of acoustic instruments and vocals. Vocals and lyrics on the album are in the hands of Magnús Freyr Gíslason and At The Close Of Everyday frontman, Minco Eggersman, who again collaborates with the band, providing his deep and soothing vocals to three songs on the album. As heard on the opening track Bræla, Stafrænn Hakon combines heavy sonic pallette of guitars mixed with airy melodic vocals. On Frigid/Bag a familiar tone is presented, heard on his highly acclaimed album from Ventill/Poki (2004). The journey continues with poppier elements and almost doomy sounds of the composition "Rene Russo". The band´s current line up consists of guitarists Ólafur Josephsson and Larus Siguðsson, bass guitarist Árni Þór Árnason, drummer Róbert Mar Runólfsson and singer Magnús Freyr Gíslason. Eternal Horse is the first Stafrænn Hakon album featuring the whole band collaborating on the songs in their studio, making the compositions more organic and fuller. Longtime and now previous member of the band, Samuel White contributes two songs. Recorded at Vogor Studios between 2011-2015. All songs by Stafrænn Hakon. Mixed by Daniel Lovegrove. Mastered by Finnur Hakonarson.Produced by Ólafur Josephsson and Daniel Lovegrove. Stafrænn Hakon: Árni Þór Árnason: Bass guitar Larus Sigurðsson: Electric Guitar, Acoustic instruments.. Magnús Freyr Gíslason: Vocals on Bræla, Kaos, Sót and Rene Russoi. backup vocals on Burning at both ends, I´m the beholder and Light. Ólafur Josephsson: Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitar, Pianos, Organ, programming, percussion Róbert Runólfsson: Drums With.. Samuel White: Electric Guitar on Light and Falkor Minco Eggersman: Vocals on Burning at both ends, I´m the beholder and Light Additional Musicians: Frank Aarnink: Vibraphone Nói Steinn Einarsson: Drums on Falkor Tumi Árnason: saxaphone Þórður Hermannsson: Cello Þröstur Sigurðsson: Trombone Fredrik Robertsson Boulter: Additional piano on Burning at both ends Artwork by Árni Þór Árnason

Heather Leigh: pedal steel guitar, vocal
All music composed and performed by Heather Leigh Recorded and engineered by Joe Gubay, Surrey October 2014 Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin May 2015 Photographs by David Keenan
Spiritual adviser: Dean Roberts
'I Abused Animal' is Heather Leigh's first proper solo studio album after solo releases on labels Golden Lab, Not Not Fun, Fag Tapes, Wish Image and Volcanic Tongue. Renowned as a fearless free improviser, I Abused Animal is a breakthrough work showcasing Heather Leigh's songwriting prowess, foregrounding her stunning voice and her innovations for the pedal steel guitar. Warmly recorded in a secret location in the English countryside, the album transmutes the power of her captivating live performances to a studio setting, capturing her tactile playing in full clarity while making devastating use of volume and space. Heather Leigh explores themes of abuse, sexual instinct, vulnerability, memory, shadow, fantasy, cruelty and projection. I Abused Animal is a personal, idiosyncratic and deeply psychedelic work, ranging from almost Kousokuya-scale black blues through the kind of ethereal electro-ritual of Solstice-era Coil. At times the intimacy of the recordings makes you feel like she's singing directly into your ear, playing just for you. The daughter of a coal miner, weaving a trail from West Virginia to Texas and now residing in Scotland, Heather Leigh furthers the vast unexplored reaches of pedal steel guitar. She's performed and released music since the 1990s as a solo artist and with a wide range of uncompromising collaborators from Peter Brötzmann to Jandek and has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Her playing is as physical as it is phantom, combining spontaneous compositions with a feel for the full interaction of flesh with hallucinatory power sources. With a rare combination of sensitivity and strength, Leigh's steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar and deforms it using hypnotic tone-implosions, juggling walls of bleeding amp tone with choral vocal constructs and wrenching single note ascensions. She's played/performed/released music with Ash Castles On The Ghost Coast, Charalambides, Scorces (a duo with Christina Carter), the Dream/Aktion Unit (a group with Thurston Moore, Paul Flaherty, Chris Corsano and Matt Heyner), Taurpis Tula, Jailbreak (a duo with Chris Corsano) and Jandek, as well as collaborated with Peter Brötzmann, Lynda (as Termas), Stefan Jaworyzn (as Annihilating Light), Richard Youngs, Blood Stereo, MV & EE, Robbie Yeats of The Dead C, John Olson of Wolf Eyes, Smegma, Jutta Koether, Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Baer and many others.
"Pedal steel guitar player from hell. Not for the faint-hearted." The List Magazine

Major Accident's very first recorded material, back from 1981. A warm-up of sorts before their classic first studio album 'Massacred Melodies', chronicling these 'clockwork punks' as they fine-tuned themselves on originals like 'Sidelines' and 'Self Appointed Hero', along with cover versions of the Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Ramones, and Sham 69. This is Major Accident at their rawest and most primitive: 100% fun and fast-paced punk rock from the glory days!

A collection of the earliest singles ('Yesterday's Heroes', 'One Law For Them', and ' Low Life', from 1981-1982) along with a few of the most representative hyhmns from the most epitomal OI! band ever, all packed onto one vinyl LP. A full retrospective on their early era, this is 4 Skins at their absolute top, and a must for all skinheads out there.

Born at Scotland's post-Punk crossroads in 1979, Boots For Dancing kicked down the boundary walls of a played-out scene and introduced the UK to a more funky way of doing Punk. Hugely popular as a live act, often wiping the floor with the bands they were supporting, Boots was something genuinely ahead of the epoch's curve and played an important part in the vanguard of the burgeoning Post Punk and Punk-Funk movements. Sadly, Boots For Dancing's light shone brightly but briefly. Though the band had connections with, and cross-pollinations between, better-known acts such as The Rezillos, The Human League and Josef K.
Their boundless energy and undeniable talent never proved quite enough for great success. Great songs, even bolstered with good looks, are no guarantee of success in the fickle music business. Ultimately, business got in their way and the group disbanded in 1982 with just a few single releases in its canon, though a wealth of potential hits had been put to tape. Athens of the North is proud to present the band's 1982 album-that-never-was - an album that surely would have made them. It still sounds as fresh as it was when recorded.
- The holy grail lost scottlish post punk LP - Extensive Sleeve Notes by writer Neil Cooper
- Additional Sleeve notes by Jo Callis (Human League /Rezillos) and Mark Hagen (BBC Radio)

A compilation CD of fresh tracks by new and heritage artists to mark 35 years of Les Disques du Crepuscule, the boutique independent label founded in Brussels in 1980.
Curated by Michel Duval and James Nice, Ni d'Eve, Ni d'Adam gathers together recent songs and instrumentals from Crepuscule favourites such as Antena, Paul Haig, Anna Domino, Blaine L. Reininger, The Names and 23 Skidoo, as well as more recent collaborators Marnie, Marsheaux and Ultramarine. In addition the collection features new songs by guests including Clou, Wrangler, Spleen, Pascal Comelade and Les Panties, plus an acclaimed version of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet by Gavin Bryars, performed by pianist Maxence Cyrin.
The closing track is a previously unheard instrumental performed by Vini Reilly in 1980, now dedicated to the memory of Crepuscule and Factory Benelux co-founder Annik Honoré.
Cover art by Clou. The CD is sleeved in a 6 panel matt board digipack, with notes by Michel Duval.


















 

The Soft Pink Truth is the solo alter ego of Drew Daniel, one half of Matmos. Why Do the Heathen Rage whose subtitle 'Electronic Profanations of Black Metal Classics' reveals its agenda as an unrequited love letter to a justly divisive genre. A gleeful queer travesty of black metal's undying obsession with kvlt authenticity, Why Do the Heathen Rage is also a formally precise homage executed with a scholar's obsession

On 28th August, Nirvana's self-titled 7 x platinum-selling posthumous collection Nirvana makes its debut on Deluxe 45rpm double LP on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl with a digital download card for 24-bit 96kHz HD audio, as well as a standard 33rpm single LP 180-gram heavyweight vinyl edition which will feature a download card for 320kbps MP4 audio. Nirvana will also be released as a Blu-Ray Pure Audio in high resolution 24-bit 96kHz in three stereo audio formats: PCM, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD stereo.

Originally released in 2002, Nirvana features the rare and previously unreleased studio version of You Know You're Right', the last song the band ever recorded, available exclusively on this compilation. Also among the 14 classics on Nirvana: 1991's breakthrough Smells Like Teen Spirit', and fellow Nevermind singles Come As You Are', and In Bloom', In Utero singles Heart-Shaped Box' and Pennyroyal Tea', as well as deep cuts including About A Girl' from first album Bleach, Been A Son' from the Blew EP, the non-LP single Sliver', and live acoustic versions of All Apologies' and David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World' from the GRAMMY® winning MTV Unplugged In New York.

At last reissued on LP (180-GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL!), it's the third and final studio album from Holland's ultimate psych legends GROUP 1850! 'Polyandri' was originally issued in 1974, when psychedelic rock had already lost its momentum. That unfortunate timing must be the only reason why this is a somewhat overlooked album, because the music itself is absolutely killer! On offer is a wild fusion of psychedelia, jazz-rock and progressive space rock, at many times dominated by band leader Peter Sjardin's home-built keyboard, The Organizer. There are guest appearances from Barry Hay (Golden Earrings) on flute and well known jazz musician Hans Dulfer on sax. The LP comes with remastered sound, a heavy gatefold sleeve boasting restored artwork, rare memorabilia, pix and liner notes by Mike Stax (Ugly Things).

A superb compilation of Dutch heroes LES BAROQUES, featuring A- and B-sides and albumtracks from the years 1965-1968. Les Baroques, founded in the town of Baarn in 1964, are appreciated by connoisseurs for their smart lyrics, compelling melodies, consistently inventive arrangements and unusual instrumentation. With songs ranging from garage-rock to (freak)beat, and from r'n'b to psychedelic pop, this imaginative collection will keep you glued to your stereo from start to finish, over and over again! pRESSED ON 180-gram vinyl and featuring remastered sound (from the original tapes) and a deluxe, heavy gatefold sleeve (incl. many single covers, rare photos, liner notes and interviews), this is an essential release for any fan of energetic, unpolished and slightly odd mid-late '60s music. Edition of 500 copies!

A unique DOUBLE-VINYL reissue of a classic Dutch punk-LP, originally issued in 1978 by both Philips and Universe Records, and recorded by well known radio dj Alfred Lagarde. Named after a classic British motorcycle (the Triumph Speed Twin) and with a notable special interest in S&M, the Speedtwins were the very first Dutch punk band to release a full-length album. Also noteworthy is the fact that the band actually supported the Sex Pistols! Indeed, this stuff is as classic as classic punk gets! And things get even better, since the reissue includes an awesome second vinyl platter featuring 13 previously unissued cuts from the same era. Edition of 500 DOUBLE-LP's (on 180-GRAM vinyl), presented in a gatefold sleeve.

A superb vinyl collection of early DUTCH PUNK and NEW WAVE from the NO FUN and PLUREX labels, two independent companies that released a handful of -by now highly collectable- singles in 1978, paving the way for DIY generations to come. This is essential stuff for anyone interested in (not only Dutch) punk history! The two tracks from Ton van der Meer, a singer from The Hague, weren't released back in the day and appear here for the first time. Edition of 500 LP's, presented in a gatefold sleeve.

Peter J. Birch: His real name is Piotr Jan Brzezinski. Peter J. Birch lives and composes in Wolów, small town in Poland near Wroclaw. Peter J. Birch is currently one of the most active polish artists. This 24-year-old singer/songwriter has given over 350 concerts, not only all over Poland, but also in 18 other European countries. He played at Heineken Opener Festival (Poland) 2011 and 2013, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe, at OFF Festival 2013 (Poland), Melodica Festival 2012 (Germany), Poke Festival 2013 (Slovakia), Sound of Bronkow 2014 (Germany) and much more. Solo and with the band. In 2013 his full lenght debut album "When The Sun's Risin' Over The Town" was released and got very positive press reviews in Poland and all arround Europe. His second album "Yearn" was released in September 2014 and had a good press as well. The third album "The Shore Up In The Sky" (Gusstaff Records) will hit the stores in November 2015 and is a new path chosen by the arist from Wolów. This time the young musician decided to record an album the way his idols did in the old days - live at the studio. The accompanying musicians are members of the band Two Timer from Poznan: Ernest Kalaczynski (guitar), Lukasz Rudnicki (bass) and Max Psuja (drums). The guys met on a first rehearsal and it worked right away so the musicians decided to register with them the whole album, which will be released this fall. There are also some special guests as well like Ania Brachaczek (BIFF) and Gosia Siara Witkowska (Qlhead + Siara) On "The Shore Up In The Sky" Peter is looking for some another sounds close to his soul so you'll find it all on this album. Not only acoustic indie folk and alternative country but some more paths, from rhythm & blues till psychedelic garage rock. Peter J. Birch websites:

The Underdogs from Leeds, were a prolific band of the second batch of UK Punk. They recorded two brilliant demos between 1982 and 1983. The band were formed in 1981, and their name was inspired by the song of the Mancunian legends The Drones. Although some pundits likened them to the The Clash, SLF and Dead Kennedys their own preferences were varied. That said, all four members were fans of The Clash. They rehearsed at the Windmill Youth Club in Rothwell (Leeds), which was also the launching pad of fellow Riot City Punksters, The Expelled.

They recorded their first demo in 1981, which included the songs 'Big Brother' and 'Make It Last'. However, it was their second visit to the studio in 82/83 (this time funded by Riot City, that saw their finest hour), the production of 'East of Dachau' EP, which, with 'Johnny Go Home' and 'Dead Soldier' announced their arrival on the Punk scene.

Despite limited success, mainly due to lack of gigs, Riot City persevered with the band and an 8' track Mini-Album was planned for the following year. Sadly, Riot City fell into financial difficulties at this time and so those 8' tracks, which included 'Never Gonna give Up', 'Hate Bomb' and 'Paint It Red' never saw daylight. During the following year they managed to do a few gigs, supporting The Toy Dolls, Angelic Upstarts and Subhumans among others but they never got the chance to play outside the UK.

The very last line-up was: Bill and UG (The Underdogs) and Macca and Tim (The Expelled). By this time they had changed their name to Paradise West. They played one gig supporting the Upstarts then disbanded, permanently. 'Riot In Rothwell' was released posthumously... Using the tracks from the 8" track EP that never was. (UG 2015)

The 3CD Soundtracks And Singles 1963-1966 compiles the original soundtrack albums for Zulu and Four In The Morning, both composed and conducted by John Barry, together with other recordings he made for the Ember label. Barry (1933-2011) was one of the best known composers of film music in the world. His early career found him working as in-house arranger for EMI, leader of hit instrumental combo the John Barry Seven, and composer, arranger and conductor on the first UK soundtrack album (the Adam Faith vehicle Beat Girl). After Barry's involvement as arranger on the first James Bond film Dr No in 1962, he was appointed as primary composer for the film franchise.
The BAFTA-nominated Zulu (1964) was directed by Cy Endfield with a cast including Stanley Baker, Michael Caine and Jack Hawkins. The film depicts the heroic defence of Rorke's Drift mission station during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Originally released in 1964, and here mastered from original stereo tapes, the album comprises soundtrack music (with two of the tracks incorporating narration by Richard Burton), followed by A Selection of Zulu Stamps', essentially southern African-influenced beat instrumentals, performed by the John Barry Seven.
Anthony Simmons' Four In The Morning (1965) won the Golden Sail award for best feature film at the Locarno International Film Festival, and earned Judi Dench a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer of 1966. Originally released on Ember, the soundtrack album comprises John Barry's original haunting score, plus four excerpts of dialogue featuring Dench, Ann Lynn, Norman Rodway, Brian Phelan and Joe Melia. The dialogue only exists in mono, so we have presented the entire album in mono, followed by the music-only tracks in stereo, again mastered from original tapes.
Both soundtrack albums were originally released on British independent label Ember, where John Barry was associate producer and head of A&R in the early sixties. A third disc spotlights other John Barry recordings for the label. These include two UK hit singles: the From Russia With Love theme (here also in an alternative version with organ) and the Barry-produced Christine', a satirical commentary on the Profumo affair, credited to the mysterious Miss X, as well as Fancy Dance', which served as the theme to the BBC's twice-weekly soap The Newcomers from 1965 to 1967.
John Barry went on to score many notable soundtracks, including the award-winning Born Free, The Lion In Winter, Midnight Cowboy, The Cotton Club, Out Of Africa and Dances With Wolves. In 1999 Barry was appointed OBE for services to music,and in 2002 he received the GoldenEye award, courtesy of the Ian Fleming Foundation.

01. Main Title Theme - Isandhlwana, 1879
02. News Of The Massacre - Rorke's Drift Threatened
03. Wagons Over
04. First Zulu Appearance And Assault
05. Durnford's Horse Arrive And Depart - The Third Assault
06. Zulus' Final Appearance And Salute
07. The VC Roll And Men Of Harlech
08. Stamp And Shake
09. High Grass
10. Zulu Stamp
11. Big Shield
12. Zulu Maid
13. Monkey Feathers

01. Four In The Morning
02. River Walk
03. Coffee Talk
04. Lover's Clasp
05. Norman's Return
06. Cupboard Love
07. River Ride
08. Four In The Morning
09. Lover's Tension
10. Declaration And Rejection
11. First Reconciliation
12. Norman Leaves
13. The Dawn Discussion
14. Moment Of Decision
15. Judi Comes Back
16. Four In The Morning - stereo
17. River Walk - stereo
18. Lover's Clasp - stereo
19. Norman's Return - stereo
20. River Ride - stereo
21. Four In The Morning - stereo
22. Lover's Tension - stereo
23. First Reconciliation - stereo
24. Norman Leaves - stereo
25. Moment Of Decision - stereo
26. Judi Comes Back - stereo

01. Christine (Miss X)
02. S-E-X (Miss X)
03. Kinky (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
04. Fancy Dance (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
05. 007 (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
06. From Russia With Love (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
07. Elizabeth (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
08. The London Theme (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
09. Zulu Stamp (The John Barry Seven)
10. Monkey Feathers (The John Barry Seven)
11. The Loneliness Of Autumn (The John Barry Orchestra)
12. Troubadour (John Barry and His Orchestra)
13. Aliki (The John Barry Orchestra)
14. Kinky - stereo (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
15. Fancy Dance - stereo (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)
16. From Russia With Love - organ version (The John Barry Seven and Orchestra)

This is a compilation of 16 UK 7" singles recorded between 1978 and 1982, compiled by JD Twitch, that showcases the DIY spirit of those times.

"If Punk was the nuclear detonation, the fallout that came after was where a lot of the most interesting music of that era was made. People who would never have thought to release a record before realised it was something they could do, and the end result was a DIY explosion. I've always loved music that doesn't try to fit in a particular genre, that is anti-canonical and doesn't care what else is going on in music at that time, that takes risks and is full of imagination and ideas that may or may not make any logical sense but that resulted in something unique, that ignores conventions about how a record SHOULD be produced and that was created simply because its creators felt the urge to express themselves and share the results with some other people. This compilation compiles 16 tracks that fulfil all those criteria. None of them had any success, most are (unjustly) obscure but every one of them has inspired me and would be in my ultimate 7" singles box." - JD Twitch.

This release has been a real labour of love involving tracing long-lost artists to far-flung corners of the globe, persuading them that the modern world needs to hear the music they made several decades ago, tracking down lost masters, lovingly restoring 7"s in the case of those where the masters were lost and then conceiving an elaborate package with detailed sleeve notes to house the double album package.

*NOTE - Due to legal problems with the original title a new version of the sleeve has had to be designed and manufactured. We still hope to make the original packaging available in a modified form but in the meantime this will be released in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves containing all the info and notes from the original.

The original 2 x LP vinyl edition was to come in a super deluxe package combining a double-sided black and white four x 12" panel sleeve, hand-folded into an LP sleeve with a colour insert containing colour photos of all the sleeves all inserted in a bespoke pvc wallet. The four x 12" panel sleeve contains sleeve notes and detailed overviews of each individual track by JD Twitch, and an introduction by New York's DIY expert Dan Selzer. Due to the huge amount of work involved putting the sleeve together, it would only ever exist in an edition of 500 copies.

"Empty Airport", Chra's first LP on Editions Mego may be read as a reference to Brian Eno's ambient classic, though this time we find ourselves in a territory of transit that sounds like a dystopian swan song on civilizatoric debris - a heteropia in which the listener restores himself in a surrounding that is emptied of human remains, having left just some ghostly echoes behind. Chra aka Comfortzone-Labelfoundress Christina Nemec has traced out a post-anthropocene area in which acoustic entries of field recordings are stratified in layers of deconstructed noisescapes. Partly interspersed with clunky technoid bass-lines, an introspective space is opened, which excavates in a discreet and subtle manner, layers of abandoned wasteland. Nemec, who is a member of various band projects like Shampoo Boy (together with Peter Rehberg and Christian Schachinger) or the female berzerker formation SV Damenkraf as well as Pasajera Oscura, has succeeded in producing a significant LP, that merges dark techno and industrial with found sounds and ambient scapes, resulting in a compositoric minimalism that is ushering us in a state of existential trance.

Bellingham, WA punkers THE ACCIDENT are the epitome of a 'killed by death' punk band. Released one killer 7' in 1979, and disbanded less than two years after leaving almost no trace of their existence. With originals going up to $500 among die-hard collectors, 'Kill The Bee Gees' is the perfect anti-disco single, and a must in any punk rock collection!

Limited edition of 500 copies on black wax from this classic punk rock release. Originally released in 1985 by DOJO RECORDS, 'Bootlegs And Rarities' collected an old live set filled with early-era Upstarts' classics, along with some rare early outtakes. 'Last night Another Soldier', 'Solidarity', 'Teenage Warning'... this is pure punk rock mayhem. Includes A3 size poster of the band.

We are more than proud of the re release of that famous Scottish band we 've always been massive fans of ! Through over 35 years of punk rock, EXTERNAL MENACE has left its mark twice : in the early '80s with several EPs worthy of the best first Exploited titles ; then, in the mid '90s, by successfully getting the band back together. For the first time ever, « Coalition Blues » includes all first '80s EPs, available on vinyl. For those who are not familiar with the band, take our word for it, it's magnificent, pure British eighties punk rock ! Every now and then, the band still plays few festivals. 14 tracks on orange vinyl and a folding sleeve. Released in september 2013, 700 copies.

As a major group of the 90's punk scene, Oxymoron definitely is a street punk heavyweight. They re-released the English punk sound of the early eighties as if it was the nineties. Virtually the creators of that street punk wave, they opened the way for loads of other bands. After hundreds of gigs all around the world, 4 LPs ,a few EPs, and some tracks on various compilations, the band eventually split up in 2002, And guess what These rare tracks are all gathered together on this double vinyl, matching the « Best before 2000 » CD, which was never released as a vinyl at the time. 18 tracks, practically all hits!

Here we come again with one of the last cult albums from the '80s which hasn't been pressed ever since. SHERWOOD POGO, an outstanding Parisian band which used to reign from 1981 to 1986. The album, so rare and so sought after, has just undergone a new vinyl processing, pressed in 700 copies, with an unfolding sleeve. And, just as the two previous pressings dating back from 1986 (a black one and a yellow one), the colour of the sleeve is different. 12 tracks, absolutely identical to the original ones (same matrix).