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MAT is proud to announce the forthcoming release of ‘The Side I Never See’, by Hugh Small & Brian Allen Simon. Hugh forms half of Scottish post-punk duo Vazz, whose work was the subject of a recent retrospective by Belgian label Stroom. Brian is known best for his solo project Anenon, under which name he has released four full length albums and multiple remixes for artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto.

An improvised recording of Brian playing over the Vazz piece ‘Kazimierz’ catalysed this long-distance collaboration; 2000 feet up a mountain in Andalucia, Hugh heard the recording on a broadcast of Brian’s dublab LA radio show. Immediately taken in by Brian’s playing, the pair soon established contact and began discussing the possibility of working to create something new together.

The rest, as they say, is history: the results are fully realised in ‘The Side I Never See’, a shimmering suite of ten compositions for piano, soprano saxophone, synthesizer and guitar. In Hughs words… ‘so, what is it? It’s Ambient-Punk, Abstract-Jazz, Disaffected-Classical, it’s whatever the fuck you want it to be!’ :-)

‘The Side I Never See’ will be released on Melody As Truth in early August 2021, as always on vinyl and digital. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu, Artwork by Michael Willis.

In the Italian panorama of the '70s, Chrisma (Christina Moser and Maurizio Arcieri) skirted the common rules of Italian pop (the aura of progressive rock or the first wave of prolific folk singers); in fact, they created Italian new wave from scratch. After the release of their 1977 debut album Chinese Restaurant (SPITTLE 051LP) -- so far from the punk revolution and so deep into the algid dynamics of the Mittel-European sound -- came Hibernation, their creative peak on which they embrace the revelation of the man-machine and venture into the realms of incomparable robots Kraftwerk. Again the album was produced by Niko Papathanassiou (brother of the Greek legend Vangelis), and it features very sophisticated cover artwork created by famous photographer Mario Convertino. Chrisma, so far ahead of their time, crafted an opus that should be considered at the same emotional level as the most famous synth-pop bands from the UK and Germany. Highlights include "Vetra Platz," a long digital ride worthy of the most famous Kraftwerk singles; "Calling" and "Gott Gott Electron," a primeval couplet of furious post-punk numbers; and the lush "Lover," with Miss Moser still in top form. This reissue includes the original artwork with a silver background. RIYL: T. Rex, Nico, Kraftwerk.

Maeckes hat ein neues Album gemacht. “POOL” ist sein Of-Age-Moment: Die elf Songs handeln von der
Liebe, von der trügerischen Kraft der Gewissheit und vom Ankommen, das nie kommen wird.
Der Albumtitel ist dabei gleichermaßen Sinnbild und Mission Statement. Er steht für den Pool als losen
Vibe und konkreten Ort: ein Becken voller kleiner Sehnsüchte, in dessen unschuldiger Oberfläche sich
die großen Fragen unseres Lebens und die großen Ungerechtigkeiten unserer Welt spiegeln. “POOL” ist,
in radikaler Konsequenz, ein Pool an Liedern. Der rote Faden findet sich im Subtext; darüber erschafft
Maeckes in sich geschlossene Welten mit unterschiedlichsten Ästhetiken und musikalischen Referenzen auf
die eigene wie allgemein die Musikgeschichte: von den alten Franzosen über Yacht Pop und Punkrock bis
hin zu 808 und gebrochenen Herzen. Mit “POOL” schließt die Trilogie seiner Soloalben. Nach “KIDS”
von 2010 und “TILT” von 2016 repräsentiert “POOL” auch musikalisch ein Ankommen. Die Melodien sind
ausformulierter, die Worte klarer, der Vibe zärtlicher, auch versöhnlicher als je zuvor bei Maeckes. Das
Ankommen wird nie kommen. Es ist, als als müsste man genau das akzeptieren, um trotzdem irgendwie
anzukommen. Und zu erkennen, dass er vielleicht schon da ist. “POOL” erscheint am 11.06.2021 digital,
als CD und gelb transparente Vinyl (1LP).

The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds is the title of the new record from Bloody Head. Recorded mostly live at Stuck on a Name Studios by St. Ian Boult. Both wilder and more restrained than previous efforts. Punk? Noise rock? Psych? Sludge? All/none of the above, but the keen eared seeker of the weird may detect snippets of Les Rallizes Denudes, Kilslug, Brainbombs, Rudimentary Peni, Mainliner, Hawkwind, Donovan amongst the sonic morass. Lyrically it deals with big concepts, tumbling down. Dualism? Taoism? A beautiful garden or a broken jaw? Human endeavours losing track of themselves and getting lost in the clouds of their own creation. Ascend to Nirvana or fall into the Abyss. As above, so below....

Hominid Sounds is thrilled to be release The Temple Pillars Disappear Into the Clouds by Nottingham's finest, Bloody Head. The record will be out in Vinyl LP and digital in May 2021.

About Bloody Head
Any interpretation of these two words, collectively, leads to a singular conclusion: Something has gone wrong. This is the essence of Bloody Head; the acceptance, reflection, celebration and battle against things (mind/body/spirit) going very wrong. It is the manifestation of things getting wonky and breaking, revelry in destruction and decay. Broken (brain/dick/mind) blues. Bleak party

bangers as a soundtrack to our collective slow motion apocalypse. What does the future hold for Bloody Head? Fuck knows! Everything. Nothing. More/less of the same, whatever that is....

JPEG is the 4th album from German legends Digitalism, released on their own label “Magnetism". The Hamburg-based electronic music duo formed in Hamburg in 2004, consisting of Jens “Jence” Moelle and ?smail “Isi” Tüfekçi. Digitalism has released records on labels such as Gerd Jansons Running Back Records, Kitsune, Virgin, Dynamic Records, Boys Noize Records, Astralwerks and PIAS and has throughout the years played all over the world at famous venues, clubs and festivals. They are also highly regarded for their remixes for acts such as Daft Punk ,Depeche Mode, Superorganism, Mø and many more. Digitalism have became synonymous with unique electronic productions, a crossover sound with roots in both indie, techno and pop. Digitalisms music also appears in countless video games and syncs (Recent campaigns Nissan Leaf, past campaigns Vodafone, Fifa, Gran Turismo and many more).

A reissue of the 2016 demo tape by New Orleans band
Special Interest, who combine elements of no wave,
glam and industrial music. First time vinyl pressing with
bonus track, new sleeve designed by Studio Tape Echo
and 8 page risographed zine insert.
Four of the tracks here are raw early versions of songs
that would appear in slightly more refined form on their
debut album, 2018’s ‘Spiralling’. The other four pieces
are unique to this release, including a cover version of
Italian new wave band Chrisma, raging opener
‘Disease’, the over-saturated shoegaze-punk of ‘ATC’
and comedown lament ‘I’ll Never Do Ketamine Again’.
The band’s second album ‘The Passion Of’ (2020) was
widely acclaimed and appeared in many album of the
year lists. It was recently followed by a companion
album of remixes on Boy Harsher’s Nude Club label,
with all profits going to NOLA charity House Of Tulip.
“A blistering vision of punk as possibility.” - Pitchfork
“Members Alli Logout (vocals), Ruth Mascelli (synth and
drum machine), Maria Elena (guitar), and Nathan
Cassiani (bass), together manage to make their
instruments and vocals sound like a fight for our
existence.” - The Quietus
Recorded and mastered by Jasper Denhartigh at Bird
Island Recording March-May 2016. Originally selfreleased on cassette in 2016. Cut by Beau Thomas at
Ten Eight Seven. All songs by Special Interest except
‘Black Silk Stalking’ written by Chrisma.
Black vinyl in 3mm spine reverse board sleeve with 8-
page risographed zine, digital download card and
sticker.

Now as standard black vinyl unlimited edition! - The 10-track longplayer with eight re-recorded favourite songs from the band’s catalogue and two new tracks, one called "Passive Restraints" with guest vocals by Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God!

Beginning in the summer of 2019 Weathermaker Music started to release digital only Clutch covers and re-recorded songs from their own vast catalog as a way to keep the band in the mix and in the media. The campaign is called "The Weathermaker Vault Series" and it has been successful so far with the digital release of eight singles. An album of 10 tracks on CD format was released Nov. 27, 2020 and the limited edition "Opaque White" white LP was out on January 29, 2021 entitled "The Weathermaker Vault Series Vol. I". The album contains two unreleased tracks: "Passive Restraints" with guest vocals by Randy Blythe from Lamb of God and a Spanish language cover version of "Algo Ha Cambiado", an old punk rock track by an Argentinian legend, Norberto Napolitano. As vinyl is such a thought after item these days and since the limited edition "Opaque White" LP version sold out so very quickly Weathermaker Music decided to add another LP format, this time on black vinyl.

Back in 2019, Ravioli Me Away debuted their hyper-surreal operatic work 'The View From Behind The Futuristic Rose Tellis' across the UK, including two sold-out shows in London. Difficult to contain, and wound-up with a truant's sense of narrative, it presented a wondrous cacophony of erupting media and performances patched together with wit and existential alarm. A suite of songs circling themes of aspiration and the everyday run through the opera, and these were released in parallel by Wysing Polyphonic, one of the commissioning institutions. A selection of these songs were then reinterpreted and reshaped into forms that befit a club setting, debuting at Supernormal festival in the same year. Entitled 'Naughty Cool,' Alter now presents these collective club reworkings by HMS RMA for the first time on vinyl and digital formats. Uplifting and delightfully crooked throughout, the tracks are shuffled together and stitched as a 'DJ mix.' In six segments of vocal-led missives and soft drops, the sunniest hooks of early Chicago house are recalled, all cross-pollinated with the collective rhythms and tones of the UK's rave subconscious. A freeform, DIY rowdiness lurks around every corner, equally evoking punk's flings with disco. The familiar sound and presence of Ravioli Me Away's Alice Theobald, Rosie Ridgway, and Sian Dorrer aren't lost in the edits and adaptations, and they come backed-up with Tom Hirst (Design A Wave), opera singer and artist Siobhan Mooney, and Dean Rodney Jnr (The Fish Police), all of whom took part in the original opera itself. "Naughty Cool" was engineered by John Hannon at No Recording Studios and mixed and mastered by Amir Shoat in London. This record is dedicated to the memory of Donna Lynas.

Peter Hook and The Light are an English rock band, formed in May 2010 by bass guitarist/vocalist Peter Hook, formerly of the influential post-punk bands Joy Division and New Order.
The band is noted for performing the Joy Division and New Order albums live.Their setlists primarily feature the two Joy Division albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer or the first two New Order albums, Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies, depending on the respective tour.
The very concept is bound to stir up conflicted feelings -- bafflement, interest, cynicism, anger -- in any Joy Division fan. Here’s that band’s Peter Hook, singing lead and playing bass, supported by a guitarist, drummer, keyboard player, and additional bassist. In front of a Melbourne crowd, the band roars through the entirety of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures, book-ending the album with six additional reinterpretations. The musicians play their hearts out, and Hook is absolutely locked into the material. One can’t deny the man’s conviction. The moments of aggression are far more suited for his gruff, seething vocals than the likes of “Candidate” and “I Remember Nothing,” where he has some trouble dialing it down. As an in-the-flesh experience, this was probably quite thrilling. As a home listening experience, it seems unnecessary -- at best, a curiosity -- especially when the source material is a couple clicks away.

No other pairing in the history of Darkwave ever matched the unfettered creativity, resolve, and DIY attitude from the collaboration between the two creative minds that compromise Lebanon Hanover.

The meeting of the Swiss musician Larissa Georgiou, aka Larissa Iceglass and British artist William Maybelline a decade ago in the latter’s hometown of Sunderland in the UK, was a monumental occasion, reverberating throughout the European music scene and even across the Atlantic.

Lebanon Hanover would emerge from the peak of the world-wide minimal wave revival, with their 2011 split 7-inch record with La Fete Triste issued as the catalog debut of Europe’s most ubiquitous Techno-Industrial EBM labels, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe

With Berlin as their new physical home, William and Larissa would soon, however, join the Fabrika Records family. From here, they would go on to release two full-length albums through the Athens based label, starting in early 2012 with their winter debut LP The World Is Getting Colder, and it’s All Hallows Eve follow up Why Not Just Be Solo.

It was Lebanon Hanover’s 2013 third studio outing Tomb for Two that would go on to cement the duo’s legacy, with the album’s single “Gallow Dance” becoming a post-punk anthem for the times, with artwork became the band’s defacto logo. Not only that, the song “Sadness is Rebellion”, also featured on the album, became the band’s official Mantra.

Two years would pass before the release of 2015’s critically acclaimed fourth record, “Besides the Abyss”. In the intervening years, William and Larissa, initially a couple, would find other partners, and relocate to Athens.

Meanwhile, Lebanon Hanover as a live act would expand rapidly in popularity, exceeding capacity during their performances at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, and performing sold-out shows across Europe and the UK.

With the playful Babes of the 80s maxi-single released in the interim, three years would pass before the next record from Lebanon Hanover, with 2018’s Let Them Be Alien, the band’s fifth studio album.

At the dawn of the global pandemic, where dystopian nightmares that were only ever seen before within the pages of books and flashes of silver screen celluloid, has become a daily reality, a new kind of darkness envelops the world. It was at this Lebanon Hanover returned, sharing a glimmer of hope with the single “The Last Thing,” the duo’s first song from their forthcoming sixth studio album Sci-Fi Sky.

Spanning an epic journey across ten tracks that wander through industrial landscapes, and ascend beyond the atmospheric aether, Sci Fi Sky is Lebanon Hanover’s most cohesive artistic statement to date. With their icy hearts on their sleeves, this is the culmination of a decade’s worth of musical creativity radiating from the minds of both Iceglass and Maybelline, and altogether an otherworldly beacon of hope in a time of sheer darkness.

No other pairing in the history of Darkwave ever matched the unfettered creativity, resolve, and DIY attitude from the collaboration between the two creative minds that compromise Lebanon Hanover.

The meeting of the Swiss musician Larissa Georgiou, aka Larissa Iceglass and British artist William Maybelline a decade ago in the latter’s hometown of Sunderland in the UK, was a monumental occasion, reverberating throughout the European music scene and even across the Atlantic.

Lebanon Hanover would emerge from the peak of the world-wide minimal wave revival, with their 2011 split 7-inch record with La Fete Triste issued as the catalog debut of Europe’s most ubiquitous Techno-Industrial EBM labels, Aufnahme + Wiedergabe

With Berlin as their new physical home, William and Larissa would soon, however, join the Fabrika Records family. From here, they would go on to release two full-length albums through the Athens based label, starting in early 2012 with their winter debut LP The World Is Getting Colder, and it’s All Hallows Eve follow up Why Not Just Be Solo.

It was Lebanon Hanover’s 2013 third studio outing Tomb for Two that would go on to cement the duo’s legacy, with the album’s single “Gallow Dance” becoming a post-punk anthem for the times, with artwork became the band’s defacto logo. Not only that, the song “Sadness is Rebellion”, also featured on the album, became the band’s official Mantra.

Two years would pass before the release of 2015’s critically acclaimed fourth record, “Besides the Abyss”. In the intervening years, William and Larissa, initially a couple, would find other partners, and relocate to Athens.

Meanwhile, Lebanon Hanover as a live act would expand rapidly in popularity, exceeding capacity during their performances at Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig, and performing sold-out shows across Europe and the UK.

With the playful Babes of the 80s maxi-single released in the interim, three years would pass before the next record from Lebanon Hanover, with 2018’s Let Them Be Alien, the band’s fifth studio album.

At the dawn of the global pandemic, where dystopian nightmares that were only ever seen before within the pages of books and flashes of silver screen celluloid, has become a daily reality, a new kind of darkness envelops the world. It was at this Lebanon Hanover returned, sharing a glimmer of hope with the single “The Last Thing,” the duo’s first song from their forthcoming sixth studio album Sci-Fi Sky.

Spanning an epic journey across ten tracks that wander through industrial landscapes, and ascend beyond the atmospheric aether, Sci Fi Sky is Lebanon Hanover’s most cohesive artistic statement to date. With their icy hearts on their sleeves, this is the culmination of a decade’s worth of musical creativity radiating from the minds of both Iceglass and Maybelline, and altogether an otherworldly beacon of hope in a time of sheer darkness.

A fixture on Copenhagen's music scene for nearly two decades, Nikolaj Jakobsen, aka Sugar, has to date thrived on concentrating - usually to the point of obsession - on one type of music at a time. Early on, it was punk: from his mid-teens he lived in the legendary squat and artistic community Ungdomshuset, toured worldwide with punk and metal bands, and was completely immersed in and dedicated to the city's DIY punk and metal scene.

Then in 2012 he set foot in a techno club for the first time, and his laser-like focus turned in that direction. Jakobsen began producing fast techno under the Sugar alias, and co-founded Fast Forward Productions, an agency and party that has gathered together the city's previously disparate band of fast techno and trance producers, DJs and collectives. Fast Forward has been instrumental in launching the careers of the likes of Schacke, Repro, Funeral Future and Rune Bagge, as well as Jakobsen himself.

Now Jakobsen is launching a new label that, even down to its name, is an open challenge to himself to focus on multiple musical styles at once. Perfumery, of which the Eyes Cream EP is the inaugural release, will be a home for his productions under the Sugar name and other aliases, as well as collaborative efforts with others. The label's open remit defies definitive categorisation of is to come, but its second release will be an abstract, atmospheric album by the cimbalom and tuba player and composer Anders Bo Eriksen, aka OPICA. On that record's heels will be collaborative projects with D.Dan and HVAD, as well as an experimental-minded debut LP by Jakobsen as Sugar.

Though Perfumery will be a platform for the exploration of new musical territories, Eyes Cream comprises four fast-techno hardware jams in Jakobsen's signature style. As well as showing off his knack for punning in a second language, opener Bright Side Of The Spoon is a classic Copenhagen splicing of darkness and light, with insistent, ominous bass waves leavened by twinkling synth textures. On the surface the middle two tracks, Eyes Cream and Try Me, are harder, flintier, Detroit-referencing tools. Just beneath, however, lurks the texture and warmth that is one of Copenhagen techno's prime calling cards. Perhaps the greatest treat of the EP is saved for last: Once And For No One is a gorgeous, gauzy, end-of-the-night banger that packs a hefty emotional punch.

All proceeds from physical and digital sales of the first EP on Perfumery will go to Sea-Watch.Org, a German NGO dedicated to saving migrants trying to reach Europe on stricken vessels in the Mediterranean.

"I’ve had the pleasure of being a Fall fan since I was a teen.
I was lucky enough to have some guidance from my local record shop stoner-lords.
They turned me on to many of my heroes, but once I heard my first slanted and barky Fall song, I was part of the army for life.
The word prolific gets tossed around a lot.
It almost seems like a slag-off in the press, as if they wish the artist would produce less so they wouldn’t have to do their self imposed job of judging releases for the rabble.
The Fall is subjected to this lazy word often.
Yet I can honestly say that I am SO thankful for any nugget of Fall that lands at my feet and in my brain.
Live Fall performances are always a pleasure because they seem to take what already made the Fall great and push it even a bit more into the rough and bloody uncharted wasteland that is drug scorched proto-punk and heady political poetry.

So, it is with great pleasure that we introduce this Fall bootleg soundboard recording to you.
Recorded during one of the many strong points in the bands vast and mighty history.
They really burn bright here and bring every ounce of what you expect from this formidable force.

We have reached out to every surviving member of the band, the sound person, the bootlegger who recorded it and the photographer and received their blessings & help piecing it all together.
Castle Face will be donating 50% of our profits to Centrepoint which helps the homeless in the Manchester area get back on their feet, so the local and deserving Fall fans get a little, and give a little back, too.

Nothing but the hits here folks and as raw as you dig it.
This one really is exceptional in terms of live sound for The Fall.
All the stars were aligned over St. Helens that eve.
And it wouldn’t be complete with a bit of Fall fan saltiness so, fuck you too, Jason.” - John Dwyer

It’s out on Castle Face Records exclusively on vinyl (12” and a 7” in a gatefold jacket, including a digital download) on February 19th

Billy Nomates, the fierce, funny, outspoken force of nature who hails from Melton Mowbray and now flits between Bournemouth and Bristol, has arrived to rattle cages.

The songs on her debut album all come from a place of defiance. Rebellion against Brexit. Against soul-sapping, dead-end jobs and zero-hours contracts. Against gender inequality, sexual harassment and festivals with obligatory female acts hidden in the small print. Billy’s songs lampoon the same bleak reality satirised by her beloved Scarfolk website and explored so abrasively in the fringe theatre
she finds solace in.

Musically, there are snatches of Nick Cave’s rumbling sprechgesang; the “off-the-wall-ness of musicians like Captain Beefheart”; Sleaford Mods’ febrile post-punk; the groovesome lofi art-rock of Sonic Youth and the brassy Americana of Emmylou Harris. What dominates, though, is a feeling of release. Of letting it all out.

The track ‘Supermarket Sweep’ features guest vocals by Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods.

LP is pressed on yellow vinyl, housed in a heavyweight spined sleeve with gold foil text print. Includes printed insert with handwritten lyrics and digital download card.

BLACK vinyl with deluxe origami fold out sleeve & obi strip & DL Card. CD Wallet. The third album from Dutch punk-laced noiseniks adds new maturity and a conceptual feel that pulls the extremes of their sound together. A psyche-fuelled journey into the id punctuated with rhythmic kabuki modal mood swings, thunderstorms, digital beeps, traffic noise, and just plain old beautiful cacophonous reverb-drenched sound when needed. The 'third chapter' refers to the last five years that the Dutch band have spent creating their "difficult" third album. Each song spins a yarn; there are plagues, dreams, wind and fire, 'mythical' characters, and the search for the secret government warehouse. Lead single, Tokyo Music Experience, resonates with a conveyor belt-propelled modal guitar, reflecting the halcyon days of Japanese super-productivity; a mesmerising mantra, infected with news bulletin on-the-hour bleeps underlining its time-sensitive nature; a pristine super-commercial anthem to drive loyalty and reinforce solidarity with the party! Having been described as creating "underground noise with a bracing, warped pop appeal" (Mojo), their new album is a coming-of-age post-classic with a unique worldview - inspired by Van Dyke Parks (Song Cycle) Scott Walker (3 & 4), Moondog (Elpmas), White Noise (An Electric Storm) and Beach Boys (Smile). If their previous effort (Tape Hiss) was their very own sketch of a sketch for an incomplete concept album, a noisy reaction to their previous life, then 'Excerpts From Chapter 3..', with all its interlaced intricacies, is the realisation of their transition from punk-spiked-pop to psyche-pop protagonists. Evolving, testing, infectious...

Linus Hillborg’s solo debut Magelungsverket lures listeners through despaired soundscapes of justly tuned electroacoustic orchestral arrangements seeped in rich harmonic synthesis.

Magelungsverket is a rendering of materials from Hillborg’s own computer game hacking project, Orphan Works, where an obsolete game engine was modified to create an interactive installation in which participants drive through the purple midnight streets of a decrepit and abandoned Stockholm. The game's generative soundtrack interacts with the player’s haphazard navigation of a ceaseless digital void of factories, housing projects, run down bars, ditches and lakes. Displaced, uncanny narratives and depictions of both real and semi-fictional locations in Stockholm that could have existed - but do not - procures distinct sequences of sound constructed with the Buchla 200 system, programmed synthesis, bowed cymbals, metal clarinet and tape machines.

The rendered pieces on Magelungsverket have been adapted from Orphan Works’ interactive and generative material into separate, fixed compositions, bound by duration, each one named after a location in this fictional, virtual Stockholm. For instance, Vårbergsobservatoriet (The Vårberg Observatory), draws its name from an artificial mountain that exists in the outskirts of Stockholm, amidst the sprawl of residential areas far beyond the sparkling city center. It was built from garbage scraps left behind after the underground metro system was constructed in the 1970s. In this fictional version, a public observatory was wishfully imagined to have been built on top of it. However fictitious Hillborg has imagined these locations, it is a bittersweet reflection and fragmented mental image of a Stockholm that never existed. Magelungsverket will be released on the 4th of December in a limited run of 200 black vinyls and across digital platforms.

Linus Hillborg (b. 1989, Stockholm) is a composer, musician and sound artist based in Stockholm, operating in numerous fields, ranging from experimental musics and audio-visual installations to post-punk and noise formations.

In a time where everyone from Whitney Houston to Frank Zappa have been re-created in hologram form, where Grimes recently suggested in an interview that “we were at the end of human art”; there could scarcely be a better time for genre-shifting Leeds-based six-piece Team Picture to bring forth the thrillingly expansive synth-pop opus of their debut album The Menace of Mechanical Music.

Inspired by an early 20th century essay under the same name by American marching band leader John Philip Sousa, Team Picture take a look at the automation of creativity on this, their first record with a fully settled line up. Themes centre around the value of creative identity in an automated age, the increasingly disposable nature of art and where that leaves its creators. At twelve songs split into a three-part suite; The Menace of Mechanical Music is emphatically maximalist.

Tracks like the breathy, twinkling Flowerpots, Electric Beds and Handsome Machines’ Icarus-like striving for the sun are an antidote to a music world awash with digital production manipulation and songs written to algorithm. In debating the loosening of the human grip on creativity, Team Picture have poured every last drop of emotion into the recording process.

The group’s now trademark three-way vocal delivery and blurring of textures takes on new structure and purpose. They’ve always had a self-awareness to themselves, too. Initially grouped in with the guitar psych crowd, thanks to their fledgling repeato-rock, they were quick to disassociate themselves from that on 2018's mini-album Recital. With The Menace of Mechanical Music, they expand their sound further still, pirouetting from the likes of Sleeptype Auction – which glimmers like a late 80’s 4AD artefact – through various FX-laden dreamscapes, to the squelchy post-punk of closer Quit Reading. Yet the group were as much influenced by the work of the Early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, and his triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, as they were music touchstones ranging from Kate Bush, Cass McCombs and The Cure.

It’s Sousa words that resonate most deeply within the record however: “The fears of Sousa echo the fears of today's musician,” says Lewis of the late band leader’s 1907 text. “The re-appropriation of funds and support that the artist needs to survive, the gradual erosion of musicianship and self-improvement, that art will become disposable, and that our cultural identity will disappear.”

Recorded with producer Matt Peel (W.H Lung, Eagulls), half the group were unemployed during the session and a daily routine would see them undertake universal credit meetings and job interviews in the morning, before heading to the studio to work into the night. “It was an anxious process but an enjoyable one” says the band’s guitarist Josh Lewis. Indeed, beyond the increasingly golden gated idea of ‘making it’ as an artist, this new album is simply about surviving as one.
Sousa’s vision of a society that had deferred to automation, where babies were rocked to sleep by wheels and pulleys, and people no longer played piano with their own hands. Well over 100 years later and on the precipice of a technological shift never seen before, The Menace of Mechanical Music is the most human response that Team Picture could have given.

fter a small digital break, here is new record from the Comic Sans' vaults. First world appearance for Low Khey with 10 tracks exploring the 90-100 bpm side of experimental bass music. Call it mutant dancehall, deconstructed dub or industrial riddims, it's difficult to describe precisely in which genre the release falls.

Let's just imagine that Vybz Cartels' beats met Adrian Sherwood's punk dub sound design and that the whole thing was supervised by the evil twin of DJ Python. The big space left to the drums and the precise use of robotic sound-effects give a hyper-mechanical aspect to the riddim tracks which are aired by several interludes made of weird FX making it sound like futuristic commercials for spaceships or intergalactic bitcoin exchange.

The whole project has hidden references to artificial intelligence and problems that human are facing regarding the technology. The world in wich Low Khey lives is dominated by machines, and mankind is having a rough time to say the least! But there is hope for our Homo Sapien friend... If only he kept in mind this simple advice : Never. Trust. A. Cyborg.

BLIXA SOUNDS is releasing a Special Edition of Miami, the classic 1982 album by punk rock legends The Gun Club.
This Special Edition not only features a remastered version of the original classic album, but also includes a 2nd disc featuring the Miami demos. The 2LP set features a 2nd LP of demos of the 12 songs on the album and the 2CD set features a 2nd CD of the complete 18 song demos.
This classic 1982 album has been digitally re-mastered and comes in beautiful gatefold packaging with extensive liner notes and archival photos and other collectable images.
The Gun Club recorded a few albums after Miami, but this one with the original band is the one that is considered their masterpiece!
Classic 2nd Gun Club album with a complete 2nd CD & LP of the Miami demos, never before released.
Digitally re-mastered from the original tapes.
2CD & 2LP collections come in high quality gatefold packaging that includes extensive liner notes and archival photos and images.

Southern Lord announce Crush The Machine, the debut EP from West Coast hardcore punk collective D.E.A (Dead End America), formed by the late, great Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford of Poison Idea, with current and former members of Queens Of The Stone Age, Eyehategod, The Accüsed A.D, World Of Lies, Ape Machine, and more.

Captured before Hanford’s passing earlier this year, D.E.A's debut shall be released on 7" and digital EP on 30th October (Non-Returnable) Recording details, liner notes from Mark Lanegan and more info below.

Crush The Machine sees the primary writers, drummer/vocalist Steve Hanford and guitarist Tony Avila (World of Lies, Why Won't You Die, Aborted Cop, Here's Your Warning) joined by lead guitarist Ian Watts (Ape Machine, Minmae) and bassist/vocalist Nick "Rex Everything" Oliveri (Mondo Generator, The Dwarves, ex-Kyuss, ex-Queens Of The Stone Age), with additional lyrics and vocals from Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod, Corrections House, Outlaw Order) and Blaine Cook (The Accüsed A.D, The Fartz, Toe Tag).

"A perfectly appropriate title for this 7 inch EP of jack-hammering, oldschool style hardcore tunes released by Southern Lord, written and played by a rogues gallery of real deal music lifers as a condemnation of the criminal Trump administration and republican party, in the same spirit of those by-gone days when Ronald Reagan or George Bush was the crooked, self-serving president of the crumbling United States empire. Never before has there been a more obvious target, as Donald Trump and his mafia family cabinet rape the country while Rome burns. D.E.A. is Tony Avila, Ian Watts, Nick Oliveri, Mike IX, Blaine Cook and the legendary and beloved, late producer and drummer of Poison Idea, Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford. Dying shortly before the completion of this record, it stands as a final testament to his genius, one last hot-wired blast of his epic musical brilliance."

Mark Lanegan
Los Angeles
August, 2020