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Albert’s Favourites label founder Scrimshire is set to release bold new album 'Paroxysm'. In the last few weeks of October 2022, Scrimshire wrote a new collection of songs with the descriptive working title "Scream". A direct response to the absurdity of the breakdown in the UK government, the horror of the treatment of refugees arriving on our shores and the callous disregard for the trauma being caused to low-income people or anyone considered "other". While self-preserving Conservative MPs fought for their jobs, record profits were announced by energy companies as they were gouging crippling amounts of money from people's pockets. The anger, sadness, mourning, and frustration he felt was poured into these recordings.

Originally named “Scream 8”, ‘Unity Gain’ was one of the early outpourings from those sessions. Piano and drums bubble up until it fully boils over with huge stabbing synthesiser and string sounds in an outburst of frenetic energy. "Division seems to characterise our daily experience”, says Scrimshire. “How does a society stop the callousness and corruption from seeping into its bones?".

Singer Faye Houston features on both ‘Eyes Shut’ as well as, alongside saxophonist, composer, and multi-wind instrumentalist Tamar Osborn, on ‘Flames’. About the latter Scrimshire explains, “One person can breathe fire into your life and the world, leaving an indelible mark. The album was influenced hugely by a friend we sadly have lost. I think of it like the heat you still feel after a fire has gone out”.

London-based poet and emcee The Repeat Beat Poet captures moments of time, thought, and feeling on ‘What Is The State Of Our State’, a furious yet succinct stream-of-consciousness diatribe in two parts. From afrobeat and reggae-influenced London band Soothsayers, clarinetist and saxophonist Idris Rahman features on ‘Your Invasion Is A Lie’, an ever-progressing, cosmic-jazz track.

The elegiac ‘Unforgotten, Unforgiven’ features saxophonist Nat Birchall, on which Scrimshire says "This is dedicated to the politicians who have forced refugees into life-threatening decisions. Pushing people into the hands of traffickers, into small boats and too many beneath the waves of our seas. Who force the lives of men, women, and children into more danger, in the hope of escaping war, poverty and persecution only to meet more cruelty and persecution. It won't be forgotten, and it won't be forgiven".

Scrimshire’s last album, 2021’s 'Nothing Feels Like Everything', received an Album of the Year nomination at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards and last March he was named by the Guardian as one of three producers behind the new wave of UK soul, alongside Inflo (Michael Kiwanuka, Sault, Lil Simz) and Swindle (Joel Culpepper, Greentea Peng, Kojey Radical). Albert’s Favourites was formed by Adam, Dave Koor, and Jonny Drop, who designed the logo and artwork, and has released records by The Expansions, Hector Plimmer, Huw Marc Bennett, Pie Eye Collective, Qwalia, Ronin Arkestra.


Early support from Huey Morgan, Amazing Radio specialist playlist, Gideon Coe. Previous support from Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Jamz Supernova

3 Feet High and Rising is the debut studio album by hip hop trio De La Soul and was released on March 3, 1989

It marked the first of three full- length collaborations with producer Prince Paul, which would become the critical and commercial peak of both parties. Critically, as well as commercially, the album was a success. It contains the singles, "Me Myself and I", "The Magic Number", "Buddy", and "Eye Know".

The album title came from the Johnny Cash song "Five Feet High and Rising". It is listed on Rolling Stone's 200 Essential Rock Records and The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums. When Village Voice held its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1989, 3 Feet High and Rising was ranked #1. It was also listed on the Rolling Stone's

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Released amid the 1989 boom in gangsta rap, which gravitated towards hardcore, confrontational, violent lyrics, De La Soul's uniquely positive style made them an oddity beginning with the first single, "Me, Myself and I". Their positivity meant many observers labeled them a 'hippie' group, based on their declaration of the 'D.A.I.S.Y. Age' (Da. Inner. Soul. Yall).

Sampling artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and The Turtles, 3 Feet High and Rising is often viewed as the stylistic beginning of 1990s alternative hip hop (and especially jazz rap).

The Other Maria represents the character trait each of us has inside within ourselves. The silent part of us that we try to regulate, keep restrained from others and managed just beyond reach from the rest of the World. It represents the compartmentalized potential to do, say and respond with great chaotic harm, despite all unfortunate consequences. It is a full release feeling that we sometimes quietly envy as we witness with disgust and disapproval.

Widely considered a character flaw to many, yet, some would relish in the opportunity that could summon such an unpredictable internal animal. Every life has two parallel parts. The one for "them", the version of yourself that abides by all the acceptable and expected rules of engagement - often a side that is given credit on face value. The side that achieves progress through peaceful and less confrontational means. The one you use to survive.

And the other side, the one for you. An uncompromising, unthinkably ruthless version that knows no limit. That knows no fear. The side of yourself that tells you yes, when you know that "no" is the better answer.

The Other Maria isn't about comfort. It is about hard truth, but also recognizing raw emotions that stem from feeling undeniably free.

And what could one do with such a dark, yet wonderworking ability - when the absence of fear and consequence presides over the judicious process leading to an enviable fate - convinced that all actions are pure, justified, direct, but conniving. The feeling of relieved of all guilt and accountability?


But as diabolical as it can be and appear. Along with the negative static, there can be progress. As true imposes are exposed, so does the transparency of reality. A precious truth that's needed to fully understand the severity of the situation.
And with this, comes a valuable knowledge from a low level in which one once descended. Dreadfulness is softened to predictability.

- Jeff Mills, April, 2023

Colin McCann didn't pick up a guitar for nearly ten years. The Northern-California-based songwriter, previously performing under Long Dog Bird, had been creating music with longtime friend and collaborator Brian Gossman for much of their adult lives with early-00s Baltimore-based band Wilderness. So what would cause such a stagnant period? And how could McCann find his way back to the joy that music had once so easily conjured? The answer was to go back to the very beginning, where the kinetic forces that urged McCann to make music in the first place could emerge once again. But first, he had to make space in his internal world; a kind of silence where he could hear the exhale of his past, and the blossoming of a new song. That blossoming would soon become the first songs for McCann's latest project Vulture Feather. The band's debut album Liminal Fields exists on an intangible plane: a crack in the concrete, a gauze between worlds. For as long as McCann can recall, he's been using music as a vehicle to try and connect with an underlying, indescribable nature that only the sonic world seems to be able to reach. "There's a feeling of ecstasy that comes when one merges with music," he says. "It's what calls us all back again and again to listen, to sing, and to play." McCann had been striving to reach this outlying environment throughout his career, often stretching in ways that eventually came to negatively impact his life, and his health. The wake up call came when McCann suffered a near-death experience, eerily predicted by a friend through a dream she had had almost a year earlier. Newly awoken to the beauty of being alive, McCann strove to slow down, to listen to the inherent nature in all living things, and to rediscover our mutual connectivity. He stopped playing and listening to music, and instead soaked himself in the cacophony of silence. Then without any epiphany or grand catalyst, something urged McCann to pick up a guitar again. Ideas flowed more naturally than ever, and he soon realized that the liminal space he had been searching for was there all along--he only had to listen. McCann tentatively reached out to Gossman to collaborate and the friends found themselves once again jamming together, in an off-grid quonset hut where they now practice. "It was like no time had passed," McCann says. "That feeling of ecstatic joy, of forgetting your own name, came flooding back." They were soon joined by another old friend, Eric Fiscus, who completed Vulture Feather on drums.

"As long as you come to my garden", the sixth release in the cherished Die Schachtel’s series “Decay Music” as well as the debut of the duo Damāvand (Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro CIccarelli) on the prestigious Italian label, is a tribute to the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, through his lyrics and freely inspired by the cult movie about his life The Color of the Pomegranates (Nřan guynə, 1968, USSR) directed by Sergei Parajanov. The feature film tells the life of the poet, who lived in the 17th Century, from childhood in the royal court, to retirement until his death in the monastery of Haghpat, through a series of episodes, static like paintings that do not tell but show, evoke, they suggest through metaphors, analogies, surrealist flair, dreamlike landscapes, liturgical pauses.

The six tracks are inspired by the dreamlike imagery contained in the movie, weaving sound textures ranging from ambient to noise, to references to the musical tradition of the Middle East.

Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli alternate, without fixed roles, with analog synths, drones, amplified common objects, generative music, audio samples from the film and acoustic instruments such as the tar - a stringed instrument of Persian origin, the trombone and the cornet. In addition, two of the songs on the album contain Sayat Nova’s poems recited in Persian by Nahid Rezashateri.

The sound materials are revealed gradually like episodes, evoking the visual suggestions staged by Parajanov in the movie. As long as you come to my garden is intended as an imaginative journey to distant spaces and indefinite archaic times.

DAMĀVAND is a musical project by Gianluca Ceccarini (electronics, electroacoustic objects, tar) and Alessandro Ciccarelli (electronics, electroacoustic objects, trombone, cornet)

Gianluca Ceccarini, guitarist, electroacoustic experimenter, luthier specialized in the restoration and construction of plucked musical instruments for early music. In 2021 his first album Starving Night was released for the netlabel Laverna and in 2022 the Sarab Label published a CD version. He also works in photographic research, video-art, graphics and independent publishing with the Sarab collective.

Alessandro Ciccarelli is an author who ranges between different languages: photography, video, sound. He is involved in several collective research projects in the musical and theatrical fields. His solo records are released under the nom de plume Elnath Project. The latest work, after six years of silence, from Italian berlin-based composer, performer and publisher (Black Letter Press) Claudio Rocchetti, and a welcomed return on the Die Schachtel imprint after the brilliant Another Piece of teenage wildlife (2008), Labirinto verticale (Vertical Maze) takes its origin from the four years long collaboration of Rocchetti with the Parma-based Fondazione Lenz, a contemporary theatre research collective/organization.

”The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte” ist Sparks’ erste Veröffentlichung seit fast fünf Jahrzehnten, nach Klassikern wie dem 1974 erschienenen Erfolgsalbum ”Kimono My House”, mit der Hit-Single ”This Town Ain’t
Big Enough For Both Of Us”. Das neue Album wird von Ron und Russell Mael als eine Platte beschrieben, die ”so kühn und kompromisslos ist wie alles, was wir damals gemacht haben, oder auch zu jeder anderen Zeit unserer Karriere”.

Das Album enthält fesselnde neue musikalische Elemente wie „Mona Lisa’s Packing, Leaving Late Tonight“ und „Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is“, Songs, die Sparks’ unermüdliche Fähigkeit unter Beweis stellen, in perfekten dreieinhalbminütigen Pop-Meisterwerken vollständige und detaillierte Geschichten zu erzählen.

„The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte“ ist sowohl charakterlich zeitlos als auch modern und bekräftigt einmal mehr, dass Sparks nach mehr als einem halben Jahrhundert, in dem sie solche Meisterwerke geschaffen haben, originell, genial und wie immer absolut einzigartig blieben.

Das Album ist erhältlich auf Vinyl und als CD.

Recycled Col. LP

McKinley Dixon calls the late Toni Morrison the greatest rapper of all time; and the way he tackles topics like survival, violence, and religion within the expansive landscape of the Black experience, evokes her novels. It is from the title of Morrison‘s Beloved trilogy where he finds the title of his new album with City Slang Records: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!? Musically his household was defined by “artists whose first name was Mary,” including Mary J. Blige and gospel duo Mary Mary. Discovering Outkast was formative for Dixon, deepening his love for hip-hop while he also grew curious about the more theatrical rock of groups of the day, bands like My Chemical Romance and Panic! At The Disco that his Maryland friends introduced him to. “Those groups also helped me with my sense of longing, since their music reflected a sense of longing,” he says. Eventually he channelled these competing influences into a debut EP he released in 2013. With time, his music became his primary means of self-expression, whether discussing Blackness or his own relationship with healing. Across his next releases, his style evolved and his confidence grew, especially when it came to live instrumentation. His 2021 debut album For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her was a game changer, as Dixon set his sights on heartache and grief. “I was making these really dense and chaotic songs, stuffing whatever thought I had into five and a half minutes,” Dixon says of that project. Beloved! Paradise! Jazz?! is an attempt at channeling different impulses. Sometimes rough and other times delicate, this record is a journey into is a journey into the psyche of McKinley Dixon, with all of the of the attendant peaks and valleys.

Warehouse find!

Teenage Fanclub have announced news of their tenth studio album, Endless Arcade, released 5th March. Even if we weren’t living through extraordinarily troubling times, there is nothing quite like a Teenage Fanclub album to assuage the mind, body and soul, and to reaffirm that all is not lost in this world.

Endless Arcade follows the band’s ninth album “Here”, released in 2016 to universal acclaim and notably their first Top 10 album since 1997; a mark of how much they’re treasured. The new record is quintessential TFC: melodies are equal parts heart-warming and heart-aching; guitars chime and distort; keyboard lines mesh and spiral; harmony-coated choruses burst out like sun on a stormy day.

In the 1990s, the band crafted a magnetically heavy yet harmony-rich sound on classic albums such as “Bandwagonesque” and “Grand Prix”. This century, albums such as “Shadows” and “Here” have documented a more relaxed, less ‘teenage’ Fanclub, reflecting the band’s stage in life and state of mind, which Endless Arcade slots perfectly alongside. The album walks a beautifully poised line between melancholic and uplifting, infused with simple truths. The importance of home, community and hope is entwined with more bittersweet, sometimes darker thoughts - insecurity, anxiety, loss.

Such is life. But the title track suggests, “Don’t be afraid of this endless arcade that is life.”

A preview from the album came in February 2019 with Raymond’s ‘Everything Is Falling Apart’, an online single released at the outset of a six-month tour and a highlight of Endless Arcade.

Everything is falling apart? Well, yes, but the song was written long before COVID-19 arrived. Neither was Raymond’s inspiration political or social, but more, “the entropy in the universe, the knowledge that everything eventually decays,” he explains. But Raymond says relax. Or rather, “Relax, find love, hold on to the hand of a friend”.

Fortunately, Endless Arcade was virtually finished by the time lockdown was announced, bar the odd tinker under the engine hood. It seems timely, given how everyone had to initially stay home under lockdown, that the album starts with Norman’s ‘Home’, though it was chosen in part because of its opening line: “Every morning, I open my eyes...” The album’s longest track (at seven minutes) typifies TFC’s relaxed groove, culminating in Raymond’s peach of a guitar solo.

Norman’s search for ‘home’ could be literal: after all, he’s been living in Canada for the last 10 years. But it’s also figurative. Like Norman’s other Endless Arcade songs – The Sun Won’t Shine On Me’, ‘Warm Embrace’, ‘I’m More Inclined’, ‘Back In The Day’ and ‘Living With You’ – his words on ‘Home’ are etched by loss and yearning. “Without going into too much detail, the last eighteen months have been challenging for me on an emotional level,” he admits. “But it’s been cathartic channelling some of these feelings and emotions into song.”

In contrast, Raymond’s songs – he’s also responsible for ‘Come With Me’, ‘In Our Dreams’, ‘The Future’ and ‘Silent Song’ – are philosophical and questing. As he sings in ‘The Future’: “It’s hard to walk into the future when your shoes are made of lead”, but he’s still going to try, “and see sights we’ve never seen.”

In the band’s own near future, they’re already planning another new album given they can’t yet tour the one they’re releasing now. Welcome back, Teenage Fanclub, unafraid of this endless arcade that is life.

Warehouse find!

Teenage Fanclub have announced news of their tenth studio album, Endless Arcade, released 5th March. Even if we weren’t living through extraordinarily troubling times, there is nothing quite like a Teenage Fanclub album to assuage the mind, body and soul, and to reaffirm that all is not lost in this world.

Endless Arcade follows the band’s ninth album “Here”, released in 2016 to universal acclaim and notably their first Top 10 album since 1997; a mark of how much they’re treasured. The new record is quintessential TFC: melodies are equal parts heart-warming and heart-aching; guitars chime and distort; keyboard lines mesh and spiral; harmony-coated choruses burst out like sun on a stormy day.

In the 1990s, the band crafted a magnetically heavy yet harmony-rich sound on classic albums such as “Bandwagonesque” and “Grand Prix”. This century, albums such as “Shadows” and “Here” have documented a more relaxed, less ‘teenage’ Fanclub, reflecting the band’s stage in life and state of mind, which Endless Arcade slots perfectly alongside. The album walks a beautifully poised line between melancholic and uplifting, infused with simple truths. The importance of home, community and hope is entwined with more bittersweet, sometimes darker thoughts - insecurity, anxiety, loss.

Such is life. But the title track suggests, “Don’t be afraid of this endless arcade that is life.”

A preview from the album came in February 2019 with Raymond’s ‘Everything Is Falling Apart’, an online single released at the outset of a six-month tour and a highlight of Endless Arcade.

Everything is falling apart? Well, yes, but the song was written long before COVID-19 arrived. Neither was Raymond’s inspiration political or social, but more, “the entropy in the universe, the knowledge that everything eventually decays,” he explains. But Raymond says relax. Or rather, “Relax, find love, hold on to the hand of a friend”.

Fortunately, Endless Arcade was virtually finished by the time lockdown was announced, bar the odd tinker under the engine hood. It seems timely, given how everyone had to initially stay home under lockdown, that the album starts with Norman’s ‘Home’, though it was chosen in part because of its opening line: “Every morning, I open my eyes...” The album’s longest track (at seven minutes) typifies TFC’s relaxed groove, culminating in Raymond’s peach of a guitar solo.

Norman’s search for ‘home’ could be literal: after all, he’s been living in Canada for the last 10 years. But it’s also figurative. Like Norman’s other Endless Arcade songs – The Sun Won’t Shine On Me’, ‘Warm Embrace’, ‘I’m More Inclined’, ‘Back In The Day’ and ‘Living With You’ – his words on ‘Home’ are etched by loss and yearning. “Without going into too much detail, the last eighteen months have been challenging for me on an emotional level,” he admits. “But it’s been cathartic channelling some of these feelings and emotions into song.”

In contrast, Raymond’s songs – he’s also responsible for ‘Come With Me’, ‘In Our Dreams’, ‘The Future’ and ‘Silent Song’ – are philosophical and questing. As he sings in ‘The Future’: “It’s hard to walk into the future when your shoes are made of lead”, but he’s still going to try, “and see sights we’ve never seen.”

In the band’s own near future, they’re already planning another new album given they can’t yet tour the one they’re releasing now. Welcome back, Teenage Fanclub, unafraid of this endless arcade that is life.

Lucky For You is Bully's most close-to-the-bone album yet. It's an album that's searing and unmistakably marked by its creator's experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on-and it's all soundtracked by Bognanno's rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that's impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored. These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno's put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them. Work on Lucky For You began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. "Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it," she explains while discussing their recording process together. "It was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what's actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant alot to me." The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date, but that time allowed inspiration to emerge in new ways. The result is a kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk's grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for. Lucky For You's thematic focus zooms in on grief and loss: The record is largely inspired by Bognanno's dog and best friend Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis. The oceanic first single "Days Move Slow" was written shortly after Mezzi's passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno's incisive wit in the face of adversity. "There was nothing I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good." And then there's the passionate opening track "All I Do," which kicks in the door with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety. "Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it's still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I've moved on from?" In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. "I'm so overly emotional and sensitive, it's a blessing and a curse" she says with a laugh, but there's no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it's the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

Lucky For You is Bully's most close-to-the-bone album yet. It's an album that's searing and unmistakably marked by its creator's experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on-and it's all soundtracked by Bognanno's rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that's impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored. These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno's put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them. Work on Lucky For You began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. "Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it," she explains while discussing their recording process together. "It was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what's actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant alot to me." The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date, but that time allowed inspiration to emerge in new ways. The result is a kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk's grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for. Lucky For You's thematic focus zooms in on grief and loss: The record is largely inspired by Bognanno's dog and best friend Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis. The oceanic first single "Days Move Slow" was written shortly after Mezzi's passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno's incisive wit in the face of adversity. "There was nothing I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good." And then there's the passionate opening track "All I Do," which kicks in the door with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety. "Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it's still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I've moved on from?" In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. "I'm so overly emotional and sensitive, it's a blessing and a curse" she says with a laugh, but there's no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it's the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

Lucky For You is Bully's most close-to-the-bone album yet. It's an album that's searing and unmistakably marked by its creator's experiences, while still retaining the massive sound that Alicia Bognanno has become known for over the last decade. Her fourth album draws from personal pain and the universal struggle that is existing, learning, and moving on-and it's all soundtracked by Bognanno's rock-solid melodic sensibilities and a widescreen sound that's impossible to pin down when it comes to the textures explored. These ten songs are simply the most irresistible Bognanno's put to tape yet, making Lucky For You her greatest triumph to date in a career already packed with them. Work on Lucky For You began last year, when Bognanno brought some in-progress demos to producer J.T. Daly in his Nashville studio to see if they could strike creative kismet. "Authenticity is always on my mind, without even knowing it," she explains while discussing their recording process together. "It was great with J.T., because I could tell he was a genuine fan who wanted to emphasize what's actually good about my writing instead of changing it. I could tell how much he cared about the project, and it meant alot to me." The album came together over the course of seven months, the longest gestation process for a Bully record to date, but that time allowed inspiration to emerge in new ways. The result is a kaleidoscopic rock record spanning punk's grit, the crunchy bliss of shoegaze, explosive Britpop, and the type of classic anthems Bully has been known for. Lucky For You's thematic focus zooms in on grief and loss: The record is largely inspired by Bognanno's dog and best friend Mezzi passing away, at a time when her life already felt as if in metamorphosis. The oceanic first single "Days Move Slow" was written shortly after Mezzi's passing, reflecting the persistence of Bognanno's incisive wit in the face of adversity. "There was nothing I could do except sit down and write it, and it felt so good." And then there's the passionate opening track "All I Do," which kicks in the door with huge riffs atop her lyrical reflections on three years of sobriety. "Once I stopped drinking, I felt like I was still haunted by mistakes and things that had happened when I was drinking, and it's still taking me a long time to forget about that while existing in this house. How do I shed the skin from a path I've moved on from?" In that vein, Lucky For You is a document of perseverance in the face of the big and the small stuff. "I'm so overly emotional and sensitive, it's a blessing and a curse" she says with a laugh, but there's no downside to her expressions of vulnerability on this record; it's the latest bit of evidence that nothing can hold Bognanno back.

Black Light Smoke is the electronic music moniker of Jordan Lieb - producer, songwriter, and award winning film and TV composer. A Chicago native, Jordan transplanted to New York City in 2001, where his career as a multi-disciplined musician has taken flight in many forms.

Currently residing in upstate New York, Black Light Smoke returns to Scissor and Thread for his first full length debut-album: Ghosts.
The 12 tracks (plus three digital bonus tracks) span everything from 90s house, smooth and deep soulful beats, dusty grooves and thoughtful treaties on the state of creativity, capitalism and identity.
It’s a collection that sits together as a listening experience perfectly, building peaks and sliding into serene troughs, all with a strong sense of radical thought and creative experimentation. Tracks bend and warp in unexpected directions, while gritty, distortion and overdrive counterpoint classic rave stabs and vocal samples. Taken as a whole, the album could be the soundtrack to a night drive through the city, as much as certain tracks will no doubt find themselves woven into the sets of the more leftfield and genre pushing DJs. Either way, it’s an essential release from one of the most exciting and vital producers out there and the first artist signed to Scissor and Thread back in 2011.

The album title, Ghosts, tells two stories. One is personal - an artist embracing the shadows of his past in order to move forward and complete a body of work. The second story is a search for the original meaning of house music - not just the usual sample, appropriation or casual nod to the originators of house - but a meditation on the living story of Black America in which house music is an inseparable chapter. Both stories are a reflection on grief and the transformation of trauma into celebration.

100% of Jordan Lieb’s personal proceeds from this record will go to Little Bit Foundation, empowering students living in poverty to achieve their academic goals.

Deerhoof's fan-favorite breakthrough album, Apple O', gets a 20th-anniversary edition after years of being out of print in the physical realm. They say the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge was actually a pomegranate. But Pomegranate O' did not sound as catchy. Of course, knowledge of what, exactly? Could be the serene and orderly discipline of music, it could be the ability to instantaneously destroy the entire species in an apocalyptic fireball. This album is a love story. It is about Satomi's mom being a Japanese girl when Truman got that ecstatic glint in his eye and blew up chunks of her country in a mushroom cloud, and next thing you know Satomi has moved to San Francisco and taken over an American noise-rock band. It is also about a different US president with an ecstatic glint in his eye, selling a criminal invasion with lies about weapons of mass destruction. This edition of Apple O' is on vinyl the color of cotton candy accompanied by a bonus 7" of previously unreleased live recordings.

A pivotal record for contemporary times; bright, free, adamant, optimistic. Brain Worms is RVG's fullest, most pristine album yet. All throughout Brain Worms, it's apparent that this is a band in very fine form. Album opener 'Common Ground' sets the tone for what's to come; a shiny, thrilling, punch of an album, with all the beloved RVG hallmarks. Vager's voice is unfiltered and commanding as ever when delivering her clever, not-quite-ironic lyrics. Here, though, those lyrics feel so much less resigned to yearning, and so much more defiant and joyous. 'Tambourine' is the only Covid song Vager wrote when "trying not to write Covid songs", and it's a painfully honest portrait of grieving mid-isolation. 'Brain Worms' tells the all-too-familiar story of a person falling down the internet rabbit hole and finding comfort in conspiracies. 'Nothing Really Changes' is a keys-heavy new wave-ish thing, while closer 'Tropic of Cancer' sparkles with Vager's self-assured new manifesto: I know what I'm like, and I know how I get. If you think I'm strange, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Bloxham, Nolte, and Wallace are flawlessly adept in bringing Vager's songwriting to life. Recorded in London at Snap Studios with James Trevascus (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, PJ Harvey), all ten tracks surge with lush sounds and clear intentions and the magic of an acoustic guitar once owned by Kate Bush, given to her by Tears for Fears (who, legend has it, wrote 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' on it). Between the four bandmates lead singer and guitarist Vager, guitarist Reuben Bloxham, drummer Marc Nolte and bassist Isabele Wallace this is the most confident they've ever felt in RVG. They've moved past their influences, pushed themselves, and tried new things. And they have made a record they can, by all accounts, call their best. "Brain Worms feels like the antithesis to what a post-pandemic record could easily be. For a band who were already writing music about being reclusive "we were depressed and not going outside on our first two albums" the enforced isolation and time to think gave Vager space to write about anything she wanted. And, it turned out, she was ready to write about acceptance. "If we could only make one more album, it would be this one," says Vager. "Easily one of the most vital bands on the Aussie scene today" Rolling Stone "A calling card for outsiders... dynamic and vital post-punk" The Guardian

Die Benjamins ist ein intergenerationelles Projekt mit Wahnsinnsmelodien. Max Gruber aka Drangsal, Charlotte Brandi, Julian Knoth (Die Nerven) und Thomas Götz (Beatsteaks) haben gemeinsam mit der legendären Hans-A-Plast-Sängerin Annette Benjamin eine erste EP aufgenommen, sie erscheint am 2. Juni 2023. "Ich habe hier so eine Supergroup für dich zusammengestellt", sagte Drangsal eines Tages am Telefon zu Annette Benjamin, nachdem sie jahrzehntelang - nach Hans-A-Plast - ein bürgerliches Leben geführt hatte. Als erstes fragte Drangsal Julian Knoth von der Gruppe Die Nerven. "Ich wusste, dass Julian Hans-A-Plast-Fan ist", sagt Gruber. Knoth wiederum trifft kurz darauf auf einem Konzert den Beatsteaks-Schlagzeuger Thomas Götz. Schließlich kam die Songwriterin, Pianistin und Sängerin Charlotte Brandi dazu, die Gruber bei einem Tristan-Brusch-Konzert getroffen hatte. 2022 nahmen DIE BENJAMINS die fünf Songs der Benjamins-EP in drei Tagen in Thomas Götz' Studio auf. Produziert hat Max Rieger von Die Nerven, das "Mastermind des deutschen Indie-Rock" ("Der Spiegel") hat unter anderem mit Casper und Stella Sommer gearbeitet. Wie gesagt: Supergroup.(Torsten Gross) Die Benjamins is an intergenerational project with insane melodies. Max Gruber aka Drangsal, Charlotte Brandi, Julian Knoth (Die Nerven) and Thomas Götz (Beatsteaks) have recorded a first EP together with the legendary Hans-A-Plast singer Annette Benjamin, it will be released on June 2, 2023. "I've put together such a supergroup for you here," Drangsal said one day on the phone to Annette Benjamin, after she had led a bourgeois life - after Hans-A-Plast - for decades. The first person Drangsal asked was Julian Knoth of the group Die Nerven. "I knew Julian was a Hans-A-Plast fan," Gruber says. Knoth, in turn, meets Beatsteaks drummer Thomas Götz at a concert shortly thereafter. Eventually, they were joined by songwriter, pianist and singer Charlotte Brandi, whom Gruber had met at a Tristan Brusch concert. In 2022 DIE BENJAMINS recorded the five songs of the Benjamins EP in three days in Thomas Götz's studio. Max Rieger from Die Nerven produced, the "mastermind of German indie rock" ("Der Spiegel") has worked with Casper and Stella Sommer, among others. As I said: Supergroup.(Torsten Gross)

20th Anniversary Edition of the long-deleted fifth album by THE PEARLFISHERS from 2003.
Deluxe 2-LP set in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with enhanced artwork and all lyrics. The album has been remastered and features four previously unreleased bonus tracks. Non-Returnable.

Masterful, melody-laden classic pop music, driven by main man DAVID SCOTT’s exceptional songwriting which has often been compared to PAUL MCCARTNEY, BURT BACHARACH, JIMMY WEBB, TODD RUNDGREN and BRIAN WILSON

Originally released in 1996, Come's third album 'Near Life Experience' was the sound of a band heading into new territory, refining their dense mix of hypnotic noise-rock, blues and rock'n'roll song-writing. Lovingly remastered, this new version features three incredible bonus tracks 'Prize', 'Strike', 'Hurricane II' stemming from the same era, additional liner notes and photographs. After Come's seminal 1994 release 'Don't Ask Don't Tell', bassist Sean O'Brien and drummer Arthur Johnson left the band to pursue other careers. Remaining members Chris Brokaw and Thalia Zedek recorded Near Life Experience with two different rhythm sections: one half of the album was recorded with drummer Mac McNeilly of the Jesus Lizard and Bundy K. Brown of Tortoise and Gastr Del Sol, the other half recorded with Kevin Coultas and Tara Jane O'Neil of Rodan and The Sonora Pine. Other contributors to the album included Edward Yazijian from Kustomized and Jeff Goddard from Karate, both rock bands hailing from Boston, MA. The title of the album resulted from "a slip of the tongue, as Zedek states, she "was telling someone she had had a 'near life experience,' but meant to say near death experience. Chris [Brokaw] was cracking up at the imagery of that. Thus, the phrase was chosen as the album's title. "Near-Life Experience is heavier, and at the same time prettier, than Come has ever sounded." CMJ New Music Monthly. "Come is a re-energized, even more powerful band than they used to be, and Near Life Experience is their most concise and affecting release yet." All Music. Zedek and Brokaw might have compensated the loss of band members by recruiting new blood but the reward was huge, 'Near Life Experience' is Come's most cinematic, diverse and accessible album.

Sorry Girls have danced out of the darkness into the light. Since forming in 2015, the Montreal duo of Heather Foster Kirkpatrick and Dylan KonradObront have transformed an eerie, dream like sound into lush, pleasure seeking pop. Expanding upon their debut album, Deborah, the band’s deftly arranged sophomore LP, Bravo!, sings to the back rows of the stadium, drawing listeners inward with a newfound focus on personal lyrics. “These songs are all about self-acceptance, self-affrmation, personal freedom, and letting go,” says Kirkpatrick. “There are a lot of lyrics about the creative process itself, identity shaping, and how those things intertwine.”

Returning after three years, the husband and wife duo of Alexi Erenkov and Alison Alderdiceaka. The Saxophones have announced the arrival of their third album, To Be A Cloud, for 2nd June 2023. Out today is the first single to be taken from it, Desert Flower, featuring a video directed by Rainbow Tunnel. "Alison wants me to try therapy, "says Alexi. “She’s a therapist herself, but I’ve never been to one. The idea of going makes me very uncomfortable. I don’t like being vulnerable in front of strangers. So, instead of confronting my discomfort, I look for an easier path. It’s never easier and it’s always unsatisfying or destructive. “Desert Flower” is about avoidance and fear impeding personal growth and the deepening of relationships. The album itself was recorded at Phil Elverum’s (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA last autumn. A former Catholic church where the pair lived during 24/7 recording sessions, time was no object as they experimented and developed the sound of the record. Its magical setting and ample space provided natural acoustics for Alexi’s arresting vocals which were recorded live to 24-track tape, suspending them in an ambiguous historical and chronological context between analogue and digital. Enhanced by Alison’s percussion alongside the bass and keys of Richard Laws, together they made the most of the studio’s many instruments which fill out and bookend their exploration of the billions of years of evolution that have led to this moment in time.