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Belgian junk jazz trio schroothoop (which translates as 'junk yard') bring together multi-instrumentalists Rik Staelens (wind & string instruments), Timo Vantyghem (bass & thumb piano) and Margo Maex (percussion). Their new album called 'MACADAM' will be out April 7 via Sdban Records, home of many strongholds in the lively contemporary Belgian jazz and groove scene.

In 2020, schroothoop first emerged with their much-acclaimed and infectious debut album Klein Gevaarlijk Afval (Small Hazardous Waste). "Music on homemade instruments with a surprisingly good result" (De Standaard). "Schroothoop show that material limitation can be liberating and that sometimes the source of new sounds is just old junk."(Written in music). "We assure you that this "scrap heap" is worth gold!" (Le Grigri).

On their second album, to be released on April 7, schroothoop explore the vast sounds of discarded objects found on the macadam streets of Brussels. Wooden crates turn into guitars and lyres. Scrap metal becomes a thumb piano, a cimbalom, or percussion bells. Their compelling collection of semi-improvised songs is born out of several fruitful residencies and live performances during which Margo Maex, Rik Staelens and Timo Vantyghem dive deeper into the possibilities and unique timbres of their DIY instruments.

The junk jazz trio find inspiration in traditional Afro-Cuban and North-African rhythms, New Orleans second line grooves, and Arabic Hijaz scales. On Macadam, the band also explore the realms of electronic music, not shunning hints of drum and bass, dub riddims and ambient soundscapes, using pitch shifting delays or gauzy reverbs. The album delivers a mesmerizing trip through the most diverse capital of Europe, mixed and post-produced by none other than sound wizard Dijf Sanders.

The trio originally met in the Brussels street orchestra scene. One night they found themselves jamming on trash cans, buckets and other illegally dumped materials. Soon after, they started building their own DIY instruments from street trash. Imagine flutes made out of pvc pipes, a scrap metal drum kit, thumb pianos made out of old kitchen knives, a tin can violin, worn-out cutting discs as gongs, and a washtub bass. Delivering their own brand of "junk jazz", Schroothoop literally gives junk a second life by immortalizing a whole range of lost and found objects through music. The Brussels-based group effortlessly incorporates jazz, Northern African music, and Afro-Cuban rhythms, resulting in a danceable and hypnotic trip through the city's melting pot.

Eine Sammlung einiger der besten Live-Auftritte von Michel Petrucciani beim Montreux Jazz Festival! Der Ton wurde professionell restauriert und in erstklassigem HD-Audio neu gemastert.
"Michel Petrucciani: The Montreux Years" erscheint auf hochwertigem, audiophilem, schwerem Vinyl, auf CD in MQA-Qualität
und in HD-Digital. Die Veröffentlichung enthält brandneue Linernotes und seltene Fotos von seinen Montreux-Shows.

Remastered Deluxe-Ausgabe von Braids legendärem Album 'Frame & Canvas' (1998) zum 25-jährigen, ein genredefinierendes Grundnahrungsmittel und laut Rolling Stone US Rang #5 der Top40 Emo-Alben aller Zeiten. Im neuen Mix von Originalproduzent J. Robbins (The Promise Ring, Against Me!). Braids Einfluss auf zahlreiche Bands und DIY-Szenen, die in ihrem Gefolge entstanden sind, ist enorm und unbestritten. Silberfarbenes Vinyl im neuen Packaging mit zusätzlichen Linernotes von jedem einzelnen Bandmitglied.

Auf 'Onliness' blickt Josienne Clarke retrospektiv auf ihre Karriere zurück - mit Neuinterpretation von Fan-Favoriten, Perlen aus ihrem Katalog und mit einem neuen Song zum Abschluss. Durch eine neue Linse und mit Liebe zum Detail liefert sie eine 17 Tracks umfassende Platte von Herzen für ihre Fans. Erhältlich auf CD und in limitierter Auflage als Doppel-LP.

7A Records are proud to announce the 50th Anniversary
Edition of Michael Nesmith’s “Pretty Much Your Standard
Ranch Stash” album. The LP version is pressed on 180g
opaque grey vinyl and comes in a gatefold sleeve, includes
extensive liner notes and session details by Andrew
Sandoval and lyrics to all of the songs. Also included is a
bonus track, the 1973 alternate version of “Marie’s Theme”.

The Album:
Nesmith’s time with the Monkees was well and truly in the
rear-view mirror and he needed a new place to live and
work. He caught the ear of Jac Holzman, head of Elektra
Records, and a path forward miraculously appeared.
Realising that most of the record companies at the time
didn’t understand Country Rock, Nesmith convinced
Holzman to start a new label, Countryside. Nesmith would
run the label, put together a ‘house band’ and produce
albums by various up and coming country artists.
Unfortunately, most of the new label’s releases didn’t make much of an impression and Nesmith soon started to
contemplate his own music again. Aided by the power of his Countryside house band, he quickly crafted Pretty Much
Your Standard Ranch Stash, a full and final RCA album. Despite its commercial sheen, Ranch Stash wasn’t a success saleswise and it became the closing remark to a heavy chapter in Nesmith’s life, a final “adios” to Monkee Mike, to the cosmic
cowboy, and to his family, as he moved further on up the trail.

7A Records are proud to announce the 50th Anniversary
Edition of Michael Nesmith’s “Pretty Much Your Standard
Ranch Stash” album. The LP version is pressed on 180g
opaque grey vinyl and comes in a gatefold sleeve, includes
extensive liner notes and session details by Andrew
Sandoval and lyrics to all of the songs. Also included is a
bonus track, the 1973 alternate version of “Marie’s Theme”.

The Album:
Nesmith’s time with the Monkees was well and truly in the
rear-view mirror and he needed a new place to live and
work. He caught the ear of Jac Holzman, head of Elektra
Records, and a path forward miraculously appeared.
Realising that most of the record companies at the time
didn’t understand Country Rock, Nesmith convinced
Holzman to start a new label, Countryside. Nesmith would
run the label, put together a ‘house band’ and produce
albums by various up and coming country artists.
Unfortunately, most of the new label’s releases didn’t make much of an impression and Nesmith soon started to
contemplate his own music again. Aided by the power of his Countryside house band, he quickly crafted Pretty Much
Your Standard Ranch Stash, a full and final RCA album. Despite its commercial sheen, Ranch Stash wasn’t a success saleswise and it became the closing remark to a heavy chapter in Nesmith’s life, a final “adios” to Monkee Mike, to the cosmic
cowboy, and to his family, as he moved further on up the trail.

First solo LP by the talented Peruvian artist Betico Salas, lead trumpet player of the great Sonora de Lucho Macedo, one of the best ensembles playing Cuban repertoires in the early '60s. This 1966 album features Alfredo Linares on piano and sonero vocals by Benny del Solar, and combines a mix of guarachas, guanguancó and even cumbias. Betico Salas would later release two more albums and become a legendary trumpet player in Peruvian musical history. First time reissue.- DETAILS: Alfredo Linares on piano and sonero vocals by Benny del Solar stand out on this album. Benny del Solar sings lead vocals on the cumbia of Argentine origin 'Nos vamos a casar'; the Colombian 'Lo que pasa es que la banda está borracha', a continental hit since the early sixties; the guaracha 'A los muchachos de Belén', by Puerto Rican musician Tito Rodríguez; the guaracha 'Ritmo del amor'; the elegant Cuban guaguancó 'Así namá', also well known for Tito Rodríguez's rendition; and the cumbia 'Qué le digo a mi mujer'. Singer, César Gonzales, who would have an extensive career in Peruvian tropical music, sang lead vocals in the guaguancó by the Sonora Matancera 'Lindo Omelenko' and the bolero 'El árbol', a hit for the singer Roberto Ledesma, also recorded that same year by Peruvians Carmita Jiménez, Anamelba, Raul del Mar and Lucho Macedo himself, who decided to sing for his new record label. The mythical singer Johnny Arce, years later known as Mr. Macondo, also appears on the album on the two guarachas: 'La renga', a composition by Esther Forero, known as La novia de Barranquilla; and 'Yo soy candela', a composition by the Colombian Ray Rodríguez. Finally, 'La chola' is a cumbia by Peruvian composer Tomás Benítez; and 'Mambo Jazz' is a version of the descarga 'Yayi's instant mambo', an innovative instrumental track performed by Puerto Rican Willie Rosario, who recorded it in the United States at the start of 1966 with his own orchestra. Betico Salas would later release two more albums and become a legendary trumpet player in Peruvian musical history.

Following in the footsteps of "Mind Palace" and "Lost Spirits", respectively issued in 2018 and 2021, Hidden Empire return to Stil vor Talent with their eagerly anticipated third studio full-length, "Momentum". Going the same route that came to define their sound throughout the years, Branko Novakovic and Niklas Schäfers cook a savvy mix of deep electroid flavours and prog techno magnitude which flourishes in the long-playing format. Orbiting the frontier between proper no-nonsense, floor-focussed effectiveness and a trademark exploratory take on electronics, Hidden Empire here delivers one of their most accomplished slices to date, which not only spans the largest span of their many-faceted influences, from tribal anchorage to hypermodern escapology, but breathes a truly epic wind into it.

Draped in luscious, silken envelopes and easternmost ambiences, "Dawn" gets the ball rolling on a mystique-imbued note, halfway meditation-friendly material and square-shouldered club busting wares. Moving into Afro-infused house grounds, "Modesty" finds Branko and Niklas heading for the deeper end of the spectrum, as they pull out a clinically precise blender of rattling percussions, opaque incantations, lush synth swashes and verbed-out machine talk, tailored for nightly boogie rituals in the forest. "Avalanche" opts for a more brooding, deadlier approach. Cutting its path away from prying eyes, this one finds Hidden Empire pulling the stealth weaponry to absolute hypnotic effect - perfect for serious in-between peak time business with its thick, thriller-like tension, mist-shrouded atmosphere and surgical focus. Featuring Felix Raphael on vocals, "Who We Are", is a pop-influenced chugger that perhaps best defines Hidden Empire's ambivalent style, both hi-NRG and innervated with a melancholy that infuses down to the bass and most functional elements. Geared up for big-room traction with its seesawing synths and clinical drumwork, Raphael's moving timbre does more than offer a sensible counterpoint to the track's overall sturdy backbone, it takes it to a whole other dimension completely.

"Repeat The Good" ft. Wolfson balances out a fast-ticking groove with those subtle melodic lines Hidden Empire champion to astounding vibrancy, offering a particularly satisfying glimpse into their vortical imaginarium, whereas "Last Call" has us journeying to straight out Moroder-esque territories, flush with the aptly configured palette of fuzzy space disco bass, fast-paced Italo churn and vocodized talk for good measure. All in breaks and chopped-up euphoria, "Vivid" runs the hoodoo down in muscular fashion and with impressive levels of energy throughout, all set at cranking up the heat one notch further, while "Rebel" provides us with the kind of rough-around-the-edges EBM horsepower and neon-clad synth engineering that'll get the basement in a state of alert. Encompassing all of the pair's idiosyncratic merger of styles - from pop-laced Italo to spaced-out techno wares, through jagged motorik and heavily mecched-out jacking house, "Alright" shows off Hidden Empire's wide arsenal of pyrotechnics under the most compelling of lights. A more openly jagged and quirky weapon that hatches into a full-fledged solar number around the half, "Momentum" roars up the club's highway at full throttle, proving a formidable asset when it comes to plunging dancers into a state of weird, left-of-centre euphoria.

A stroboscopic eclipse is predicted as "Dark Sun" enters the room, deploying its obscure wingspan over the ravers, not quite a bad omen as it lets more light in with every bar, its brittle piano lines and heart-wrenching vocals cutting a path into the crowd's pulsating hearts. Graceful as Hidden Empire's music can be, a moment of utter exhilarating beauty. "Savasana" wraps up the voyage with a pure slab of cyphered 4x4 seduction, as an ASMR-like voice guides us across the soul-questioning haze that blankets our pathway onto a luminous finale. A piece of elusive nature, clearly designed for the club and yet telling a tale of off-piste initiation through twelve fascinating movements, "Momentum" will undoubtedly etch on the listeners' mind as one of the German pair's most strikingly powerful emanations.

Download:
1. Hidden Empire - Dawn Interlude
2. Hidden Empire - Modesty
3. Hidden Empire - Avalanche
4. Hidden Empire & Felix Raphael - Who We Are
5. Hidden Empire & Wolfson - Repeat the Good
6. Hidden Empire - Last Call
7. Hidden Empire - Vivid
8. Hidden Empire - Rebel
9. Hidden Empire - Alright
10. Hidden Empire - Momentum
11. Hidden Empire - Dark Sun
12. Hidden Empire - Savasana
13. Hidden Empire & Felix Raphael - Who We Are (Instrumental)

ARIA double-platinum six-piece act, Winston Surfshirt, are releasing their third full-length album, Panna Cotta .

A recipe of collaborative dreams, Panna Cotta sees Winston Surfshirt work with a wish-list of his favourite artists, seeing career-defining partnerships produce 15 tracks of accomplished and star-studded material. As Winston sings and swoons to ideas of love and life, a stand-out lineup of players and musicians step into the Winston universe, including Talib Kweli, Kimbra, Genesis Owusu, Dope Lemon, Young Franco, Ramirez, Devin the Dude, Milan Ring, and more, sending the signature Surfshirt sound into uncharted realms.

Winston says on the forthcoming album: “Panna Cotta is the last dessert on the table, something for everyone to try, a bunch of different ingredients mixed together. I’d say it is my dream album that I wanted to hear Winston Surfshirt make.”

Stay Up Forever on their 110th release and still going strong. Ciuciek teams up with Aggie Acid Line and Bassline Ben for a rousing Acid Techno anthem on the A1 track ACID ON THE DANCEFLOOR.

The same trio get darker on the A2 with HEAD FULL OF ACID, whilst Ciuciek and fellow Polish producer ErykkMTK deliver a pulsating dancefloor bomb on the B1 with RETURN TO ACID.

We are excited to announce the release of the second ISARN record N1A by up-coming artist NENDZA. With a versatile and pitch black groove that is both futuristic and rooted in the classics and a level of detail and polish that is rare in a newcomer, NENDZA is poised to become a key player of the label and the future techno scene.

a A1 Roter Drache In Ewigen Linien
b A2 Sigma Fixes Wasser
[c] B1 Beowolf [GRB 190114c]
[Ji-Tong]

Let's get it straight: "This is" is THE album by Ghia. It catches the band at its peak and features 10 songs, including not only their impeccable hit, "What's Your Voodoo?" but a full arsenal of yet unheard, timeless, and soulful music without equal. The songs on the album, which were recorded between 1988 and 1991, could be considered forerunners of the downtempo genre, with one foot in the late 1980s street soul direction but sparkling with touches of synth pop and contemporary jazz-funk. Genre limitations aside, all that Ghia ever wanted to do was create music-good music-and you will hear this in the depth of the compositions.
The album starts with "Keep Your House In Disorder," which has yet again become another classic song from the band's catalog since it was featured as the B-side of the "What's Your Voodoo?" reissue. The song is about a relationship in which the woman has trouble adapting to her boyfriend's turn in life. He tells her to "keep your house in disorder," meaning don't take things too seriously, don't stand still, and you will do better to take the sideroads in life.

"This Is" continues with the downtempo numbers "Crystal Silence" and "Close to You." Both are deep, one-of-a-kind, and previously unissued street soul ballads. On these two tracks, you can still hear the band's roots in jazz-funk. Hence, as a follower of the band's output may have yet recognized, instrumentals of these two tracks can be found on their first LP, "Curaçao Blue." In fact, "Close to You" was one of the band's first compositions. Earlier recordings of the song exist with different singers and different vocals, but it wasn't perfect until Lisa laid down the final version and a choir was added. It's difficult for us to recall any late-80s soul tune as beautiful and intriguing as this one. The final section, which begins with "so much baby we can say," sounds ahead of its time, reminiscent of mid-90s contemporary R&B.

Next up is "Eskimo," an equally brilliant and soulful downtempo composition, but with more focus on synth sounds than the previous tracks. Once more, it showcases the creative lyricism of the song writers, Boberg and Simon, imagining a train ride during a rainy and cold night: "feeling like an Eskimo in an igloo in New York."

Eskimo leads to the aforementioned classic, "What's Your Voodoo?" Originally released in 1991 on the small Mikado label, it was reissued on our label in 2019. We already called this "one of the most wonderful and mystic slow motion synth pop tunes ever recorded"-and we still mean it! Let's face it: this was done before British bands like Massive Attack, Tricky, and Portishead laid the foundation of trip-hop. Dare we call Ghia's music "proto trip-hop"? As a special bonus, the digital version of the LP features a previously unreleased mix of the song, which includes added samples; this should clarify how close Ghia actually was to the sound of the mid-'90s.

"Angel On Your Shoulder" and "L O M E" are two more completely unissued and great tracks from the band's shelved works. Being a bit more uptempo than the rest of the album, they fall between contemporary soul/R&B and synthesized pop music. And of course, another downtempo hit needed to be featured on the album: "You Won't Sleep on My Pillow." It was the original A-side of their single release in 1991, and since then it has been featured on various compilations.

The album concludes with a really strong ballad entitled "I Haven't Got The Power." Here we hear only pianist and keyboardist Lutz Boberg with Lisa Ohm, without further instrumentation. Basically recorded in a live session, this showcases once more the talent and ingenuity within the Ghia project.

Whether you agree or not, "This is" may easily be considered one of the best German late 80s/early 90s soul pop and downtempo albums ever recorded. Cautiously, it may even be submitted as the missing link between mid/late 80s soul by bands such as Sade, and later trip-hop groups like Massive Attack. Let us celebrate Ghia and their music, which had been shelved for more than 30 years but has now finally been released on The Outer Edge.

WRWTFWW Records is overjoyed to announce Ar Ais Arís, the third album by Irish producer Gareth Quinn Redmond, following his amazing Satoshi Ashikawa-inspired Laistigh Den Ghleo released in 2019 and this year’s ambient-meets-Irish-traditional-music soundscape Umcheol. The 8-track LP comes as a limited edition of 500 copies worldwide with an artwork by Dublin artist Barry Gibbons and liner notes from Gareth Quinn Redmond himself. It is available in digital format as well.

Ar Ais Arís is Gareth Quinn Redmond’s fortuitous love affair with the art of tape loops - a practice he discovered while performing with Ross Chaney and Myles O’Reilly in late November 2020. Fascinated, he spent months experimenting with the technique: "By cracking open the shell of a cassette, cutting the tape and splicing the ends together, I created repeating sound loops of varying lengths. After reassembling and slotting the cassette into the Tascam Portastudio, I recorded and played back the sounds of the tape loop. These sounds were then manipulated using the pitch wheel to make subtle and warbly inflections to the recordings. This is achieved by speeding up or slowing down the playback speed of the tape, which offers dynamic contrasts in both mood and texture."

The result is 8 deliciously enchanting minimalistic tape loops creating a very rare kind of daydreaming environmental music full of accidental miracles and dusty soothing backdrops. It’s a very very very pleasant listening experience inspiring a feeling of enveloping warmth and gentle coziness, with an uncanny touch of spellbinding magic. Press play.

Gareth Quinn Redmond’s previous albums, Laistigh Den Ghleo, an ode to the work of Satoshi Ashikawa, and Umcheol, mixing ambient with traditional Irish music instruments, are still available on WRWTFWW Records - perfect occasion to complete the collection!

Rapha Pico returns to the Jah Works label for Ulterior Motive, speaking out on the hidden agendas of the powerful. Beautifully moody horn lines by Arthur Flink & a strong bass foundation laid by 'King Kay' Hasselbaink support Jah Rej's drums on this stepper that'll set sound systems ablaze.

Platform 23 again explores to the dense voids, this time with a touch of the funk, with a reissue of Dutch experimentalists De Fabriek and two tracks from their "Music For" cassette series, this time calling all Hippies.

Featuring both original and reinterpretations from modern-day heads, Dunkeltier and Khidja, this double-pack is something of an oddity, showcasing the bands' expansive range, moving away from the noise, drone and industrial soundscape releases they had become known for and crafting here, free flowing, groovy longform jams.

Active since the late 70s to today, De Fabriek (The Factory) have never considered themselves a real band - being also a label too - with an evolving and irregular line up centred around Richard van Dellen, they present their music and output as a kind of work-union.

With literally four decades and dozens of releases across all formats, 1988's cassette release, 'Music For Hippies', has become something of a cult curio, with the long improvisational tracks, Lullabye and Coming Down eschewing the rougher, industrial experience for something completely different.

In opener Lullabye, we go full leftfield P-Funk meets Motorik undertones. An incessant beat is laid from the start and doesn't cease for over 10 minutes, while spoken vocals call closer to the Krautrock realms of Can and hark to Liebezeit's stylised grooving best.

Analog, echo washed, with touches of glam and wrapped in simple effects pedal work, the secrets are passed to Dresden / Berlin inhabitant Dunkeltier aka Sneaker DJ aka Thomas Smorek. His darker moniker, appearing on obscure edits for Macadam Mambo and the much-missed Bahnsteig 23, his 'Hey Robot' mix adds bass, percussion, strings and synth to remold Lullabye into a late night, red light, basement denzien. This is followed by an additional, bonus reimagining, creating an all-new time piece, an ear worm of the best kind with Tik Tok Goes The Clock.

The second slab presents in Come Down, a more resembling De Fabriek werk. Edited to fit, the darkness is entered as snapshot vocal quips, oscillations and synthesised mutations are laid over a lazy, relentless ostinato rhythm where cymbals crash on the bar. Inviting, calling, De Fabriek's aptly titled downer is in fact, a joyous journey.

To complete, label affiliates, Khidja take a break from finalising their debut album to unfold their 'Psychebabble Mix', a dozen plus minutes of warped, twisted, cassette machinations that suck the listener further along the trip. Added bass propels their edit suddenly to a new direction, a hook for mind and for the open willed, the body. De Fabriek's "coming down lullabye" arriving on vinyl for the first time, with a twist and shake, calling deeper to acceptance.

Emotional Rescue is delighted to debut a first. Rather than a straight reissue of an (obscure) classic or a collection of music by an artist or label, here presented is a compilation of various artists centered around a sound and movement reggae-tinged music and how it influenced and spread from the Caribbean and diaspora.

Drawn from the off kilter digging of archivist, DJ and collector Bruno (perfectliv.es), Nowhere Like Here is not a follow up, but a sideways accompaniment, to his recent and already cult like 'Perfect Motion' collection of left field pop and new wave, recently self-released with Flo Dill (NTS).

This is a special release to celebrate the label's 10th year and beyond, offering a treasure trove of lo-fi and often pop inspired reggae cuts, mixing heartfelt Lovers Rocks style paeans and quirky private press oddities, all guaranteed to 'make-a-move and tap', these are, in the main ridiculously rare or impossible to find alternative bombs, that are just as sound system rocking and massive bass line quaking showcases of the enduring legacy of this Jamaican music phenomenon.
As with much of the early 80s period, the music community was in the throes of a Do-It-Yourself cultural renaissance as small labels, where crazy limited, one off White Labels Onlys came and went. Songs like Avalanche 's 'Your Love is Such a Good Thing 'or Warp Speed's 'Take It To The Night' were part of the claiming the means of production in to their own hands, pressing up the records and self-distributing. This raw, naive exuberance can be heard in the songs themselves. This is not reggae or Lovers as known, but something more expressive. Musical, simply produced, but with intelligible and uplifting optimism that is just superlatively catchy.

While Paul Thompson's 'Can I Take You Home' and Ras Ibuna's 'Black Beauty' are more straight-ahead Lover's style cuts, there is the parallel dance pop private pressing vibrations of the two Keith Robinson songs and Majority's 'Caroline' included all part of a thread; a joining the dots that Nowhere Like Here is at its most basic, a warmth the whole album exudes.

This is not a Lovers Rock Hits of some, but a left-of-center versioning, spread across Double Pack and cut loud for DJ play, fitting the ethos of Emotional Rescue by presenting something most will not have heard before and all the better for it.

A Wednesday song is a quilt. A short story collection, a half-memory, a patchwork of portraits of the American south, disparate moments that somehow make sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter/ vocalist/guitarist at the helm of the project, is a story collector as much as she is a storyteller: a scholar of people and one-liners. Rat Saw God, the Asheville quintet's new and best record, is ekphrastic but autobiographical and above all, deeply empathetic. Across the album's ten tracks Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build a shrine to minutiae. Half-funny, half-tragic dispatches from North Carolina unfurling somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang, that distorted lap steel and Hartzman's voice slicing through the din. Rat Saw God is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in Greensboro while listening to My Bloody Valentine for the first time on an iPod Nano, past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu. Four Lokos and rodeo clowns and a kid who burns down a corn field. Roadside monuments, church marquees, poppers and vodka in a plastic water bottle, the shit you get away with at Jewish summer camp, strange sentimental family heirlooms at the thrift stores. The way the South hums alive all night in the summers and into fall, the sound of high school football games, the halo effect from the lights polluting the darkness. It's not really bright enough to see in front of you, but in that stretch of inky void - somehow - you see everything. The songs on Rat Saw God don't recount epics, just the everyday. They're true, they're real life, blurry and chaotic and strange - which is in-line with Hartzman's own ethos: "Everyone's story is worthy," she says, plainly. "Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." But the thing about Rat Saw God - and about any Wednesday song, really - is you don't necessarily even need all the references to get it, the weirdly specific elation of a song that really hits. Yeah, it's all in the details - how fucked up you got or get, how you break a heart, how you fall in love, how you make yourself and others feel seen - but it's mostly the way those tiny moments add up into a song or album or a person.