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For any collaborative project to succeed, the artists involved need a creative unifier – a meeting point, if you will, of their disparate interests and experiences. In the case of Mondo Love & Betrayal, the joint project of Nottingham musical mainstays Neil ‘Nail’ Tolliday and Henry Claude Scott, there were two creative unifiers: a mutual love of classic 1980s synth-pop, as well as shared admiration for each other’s work.

Even so, such shared interests and respect for prior mutual endeavours is no guarantee of success. Yet as their eponymous debut album emphatically proves, the duo’s disparate experiences, characteristics and musical strengths have not only dovetailed beautifully, but also resulted in serious sonic gold. Put simply, Mondo Love & Betrayal is a stunning debut album rich in emotive songs, colourful melodies, atmospheric chord progressions and infectious grooves. Throw in the sun-splashed warmth and saucer-eyed, loved-up tactility of late 80s dance beats, and you have a breakthrough album whose timelessness is evident from start to finish.

The project’s roots lie in Tolliday’s desire to work with Scott, a virtuoso guitarist, talented producer and secret songwriter best-known for his work alongside Huw Costin as Torn Sail, and John ‘Ming’ Thompson as Brown Fang – both projects known for prioritising organic instrumentation and sunset-ready soundscapes over dancefloor-rooted beats.

Tolliday, of course, is one of British electronic music’s true polymaths – a long-serving house producer best-known for his long-running Bent project alongside fellow Nottingham resident Simon Mills. He initially approached Scott with the idea of providing vocals on a house track he was working on, but quickly suggested something else: an exploration of a classic synth-pop sound inspired by his love of Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Depeche Mode and the producers who worked with them – the likes of Martin Hannett, Arthur Baker, Stephen Hague and John Robie.

Scott accepted the invitation, seeing it as an opportunity to explore a different side of his musical personality. Their first recording session resulted in the ear-catching and memorable brilliance of ‘Correspondence’ – a tongue-in-cheek breakup song inspired by the death of landlines and the rise of mobile communications – and soon they were working on their debut album.

The resultant 10-track set is simply sublime, with Scott’s expressive delivery of his own lyrics on life, love, heartache and rejection working in perfect union with Tolliday’s kaleidoscopic and pleasingly authentic backing tracks – gorgeous and beautifully rendered instrumentals rich in memorable melodies, bittersweet chords, and subtle nods to ‘80s and early ‘90s dance-pop culture, from Shep Pettibone style remixes and Bernard Sumner guitar licks, to Beloved-esque piano parts and Chris Lowe chord progressions. Some listeners may also draw favourable comparisons with 21st century synth-pop practitioners, particularly Parcels, Private Agenda and the deeply emotive songs showcased by Junior Boys.

For proof, wrap your ears around such album highlights as opener ‘Boo Boo’, where Scott warns that “love and betrayal will haunt you” atop sparkling synths and Vince Clarke style grooves, the Behaviour-era PSB melancholy of recent single ‘Your Latest’, the mid-tempo dreaminess of ‘Beyond The Rainy City’, the early Depeche Mode chug of ‘Whatever Happened To Me’ and the tactile warmth of ‘Across The Plane’.

We could go on. In truth, the whole album is – in Scott’s words – “magical musical alchemy”. Wherever they choose to go next, Mondo Love & Betrayal is a seriously good sonic statement of intent.

Space-surf-psych-rock quartet Japanese Television’s album ‘Automata Exotica’ has been remixed by invited friends and peers; including Goat Fool from GOAT, Factory Floor’s Gabe Gurnsey, and Edgar Breau from cult band Simply Saucer. Informed by UFO encounters, ritualism, robots, Northern Soul, and nuclear weapons, ‘Automata Exotica’ was released in March 2024 and was described as “Heavy but also joyful” by The Quietus, “A fuzzy blast of space-surf energy”in Shindig and “A remarkable and unique proposition” by Louder Than War.

Rather than having been transformed out of all recognition, “reimagined” is a more apt term to describe this new version of ‘Automata Exotica’. With the album’s eight tracks presented via considered, alternative mixes with pertinent sonic application, it hangs together incredibly coherently - albeit as a wild and feverish psychedelic experience.

JTV toured with GOAT while writing ‘Automata Exotica’, with the fat fuzz tones and extended middle percussion section of ‘Typhoon Reggae Police’ heavily influenced by their time watching and learning from side stage. Starting life as an uneasy mixture of scratchy 60s garage rock and 70s Afghan psych folk, Goat Fool from GOAT ripped the song apart and stitched it back together. Recognisable but weird and uncanny, it’s a stripped down, oppressive, shimmering voodoo nightmare.

“We used to go and see Gabe’s weird, excellent band Factory Floor playing dark little club nights in Shoreditch years ago and marvel at the racket” says JTV. “Gabe’s been a long time collaborator of ours, in fact he’s the only person to not only do more than one remix for us, but has featured on every remix release we’ve done. Our most ecstatic, cathartic song, ‘Tabadaboum’ was the perfect match for Gabe - the motorik krautrock bassline fits right in with the pneumatic grind of his vintage drum machine loops and synth flurries”.

It's hard to measure the impact cult 1970s Canadian space rock proto punk psych band Simply Saucer had on the formation of Japanese Television. The band reached out to Edgar Breau - the band’s founding member and guitarist - who guitarist Tim says was “really generous with his time, and really kind to an overly keen and slightly awkward Simply Saucer mega fan. It's a real honor to have him playing guitar on one of our records”. His cosmic reimagining of ‘Golden Birds’ layers on the delay, reverb and screaming guitars, launching the track into outer space.

‘Automata Exotica (Remixed)' is set for release on 6th June 2025 on limited edition LP and digital formats. Japanese Television tour in Europe through March and April. The album is released by cult underground label Tip Top Recordings (Jim Wallis, Mandrake Handshake, Pearl & The Oysters), run by Ben Rimmer and David Warn.

Hailing from Ancaster, Ontario, Carl Didur has been an enigmatic fixture of Toronto’s underground music community for close to two decades. Originally traversing the Golden Horseshoe with The Battleship, Ethel, a band which sprung from his first outfit CEDRUMATIC, Didur soon moved to Toronto. Throughout the mid-2000’s he could be spotted playing his trademark ace-tone organ as a member of No Dynamics and Rozasia in the city’s crammed rogue venues, such as The Bagel and the infamous and transient Extermination Music Night. During these years The Battleship, Ethel continued to tour, often performing as backup band for Damo Suzuki, while at other shows inviting Dave Byers (Simply Saucer) and Bob Bryden (Spirit Of Christmas) to perform alongside the band. Perhaps the most enduring legacy of "The Battleship, Ethel", which dissolved in 2009, is that it laid the creative foundation for Carl and bandmate Michael McLean's next project, the prolific, studio focused, Zacht Automaat. As Zacht Automaat released music at a frantic pace, Carl continued to collaborate with members of a tight-knit group of Toronto’s downtown scene including touring with U.S. Girls and Slim Twig, performing and recording with Colin Fisher as Fake Humans, guesting on Absolutely Free’s Currency EP and producing New Fries’ most recent album The Idea of Us. Throughout the last decade Didur’s purely solo output has served to document his unimpeachably singular approach to music making. I Cannot See You Too Well (2011), Nothing is the Secret to Anything (2014) and Is It Yesterday? (2020) all released on cassette were followed by a digital album of gentle minimalism called Natural Feelings Vol I (2020). His solo shows consist of multiple tape machines running loops through various analog devices (a Certified Electronics Technician Didur now spends his non-piano playing hours of the day repairing all manner of tape echoes and synthesizers) or solo Wurlitzer electric piano improvisations, his performances gracing both stage and gallery. With his latest release Maybe Next Time, Didur further establishes himself as a singular artist with a unique methodology honed from years of music-making and listening. The album’s compositions swing from lush Axelrod-ish affairs filled with Mellotron strings to the album’s spiritual jazz influenced centerpiece The River Meets The Sea. “I was inspired by Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets, Crazy Horse but only when they are sad, Alice Coltrane, Jessica Pratt, McDonald and Giles, and so many others…” states Didur. Infused with a melancholic tone throughout, tracks such as Close My Eyes and Autumn’s Here invoke cinematic memories with tape echo and reverb applying a softened focus to the proceedings. Carl explains the context for the tone and the setting for the record’s gestation: “Maybe Next Time is a record I made after the world lost a sweet person that many in our community loved. Unlike most of my albums this one never seeks to shock or surprise you. It is about sadness, confusion, dissolution, transformation and ultimately a deeply forgiving sense of love. It is a concept record about being a human being!”

Clear vinyl LP edition of 500 copies. Vacant Gardens is Glenn Donaldson (of The Reds, Pinks and Purples and a hundred others) and Jem Fanvu, collaborating on music and with the latter responsible for vocals and lyrics. The project began with the idea of combining heavy fuzz and slow-mo drum machine beats with Fanvu's gentle almost trad-folk style vocals. Almost all of Donaldson's otherworldly sounds are achieved through layers of guitar fuzz and copious delay, while Fanvu offers an ideal counterpoint, taking the listener on a celestial melancholy trip with her opaque poetry and melodies. So inspired were the duo by this blend of styles, they immediately recorded at least two albums of material, Under the Bloom and Obscene, released in quick succession in 2020 and 2021 in swiftly-disappearing micro editions on the secretive Tall Texan label. With those records close-to-impossible to find at an affordable price, Tough Love are now reissuing both LPs. From Reds Pinks and Purples' Glenn Donaldson, Vacant Gardens is an interstellar recording project that combines celestial, shimmering guitar on the verge of breaking like a massive, emotive wave and an ethereal vocal style from Jem Fanvu (visual artist, Minor Ghost Band also, plus collaborating with Tune-Yards, Cavity Fangs and many more) recalling Hope Sandoval or Liz Fraser that sails in its wake. Simply put, this is some of biggest, heart-tugging guitar music you'll hear in recent times. Sold out at once debut Under The Bloom, is followed now a continuation and development of the group's sound on Obscene: a frayed tapestry of Slowdiving, Flying Saucer Attack guitar noise wall married with an angelic vocal from Fanvu that glitters in counterpoint to the stringed distortion like Hope Sandoval or, in the way it shines bright in the fog, like Jonsi's surfing the surging waves of emotion in early Sigur Ros. Originally released in February on digital formats, Obscene gets a vinyl press and is sounding massive. Vacant Gardens' music suggests oceanic feelings, a hazy intergalactic consicousness that burbles beneath the surface of everything while also touching the visceral points in the human heart that makes groups like Galaxie 500, Yo La Tengo so timeless.

12 years after their self-title debut this is the "lost" second album from Coconuts (the NYC duo of Tim Evans and Jordan Redaelli). "Coconuts, as I have known them, cracking bunk PAs in NYC hovels, is simply inertia; steam-propelled on the hot guts of rock's past. They mainline into a legacy of pop obfuscation, in which sheer sonics and the sensuality of the guitar-as-tractor-beam blinds any sort of lyrical message or rock narrative. The sound is dire and low and vaguely menacing, like the pulse of an opiated Ritchie Valens slow dancing with the Dead C or the saucer-eyed paens of Japanese mopers The Jacks. And though the 'Nuts are lauded for their no-mind electric antic, their craft reveals a collective instinct honed over countless late nights of bleary deep listenings." - Daniel Lopatin / Oneohtrix Point Never // Also Available From Coconuts:

Cardinal Fuzz (Europe) and Feeding Tube Records (N.America) present to you - A vinyl issue of the killer CD comp that SS Records released way back in 2004 with a couple of added treats. Brace yourself for some steller hair singeing full throttle wipe outs across 4 slabs of heavy black vinyl. Comes with a folded A3 double sided insert.

Monoshock was one of THE best bands of the 90s and if they were from Seattle and not Illa Vista & Oakland, California you would already know that. During their six years they released a handful of 7"s, served as a backing band for Von Lmo, and created one of the classic psych albums of all time, Walk to the Fire. In the last few years they received praise from around the globe, raved up by Julian Cope as one of the great unknown bands of the 90s and cited as an influence by current heavy faves, Comets on Fire, as well as a whole slew of Japanese psych bands. Monoshock is fuzz-fuel, wah-wah damaged, riff-crazed punk rock which draws in Hawkwind, the Stooges, Simply Saucer, and other psych-punk gods. This double LP collects all their 7"s and comp tracks together with 7 previously unreleased tunes and two songs from their ultra-rare 1989 demo tape and 2 added digi bonus Live tracks from their reunion shows. Fans will be overjoyed. Virgins will become fans.
The band's stellar Walk to the Fire has been acknowledged as one of the classic psych albums of all time.