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Loosely based on a story by Ken Hensley, The Magician's Birthday continues Uriah Heep's adventurous immersion into fantasy worlds at a time when similarly sci-fi pop-culture releases such as Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons were still years away. Influential in concept, appearance, and sound, the 1972 record remains a thematic bookend to Demons and Wizards, released the same year and, akin to this set, recognized as the group's high-water mark. Both records resonate with a newfound vitality in a 21st century engrossed in a resurgence in comic-book superheroes and gothic tales.

Pursuing a more streamlined, cleaner sound that scales back harder arrangements and accentuates prog-rock and blues elements, the British band accentuates texture and hooks throughout. Uriah Heep attains a dynamic balance between brief, punchy fare and spooky, cosmic piano balladry, with guitarist Mick Box supplying versatile leads and underlying narratives with exceptional tonal shadings. Space-rock synthesizers and subtle xylophones help in further setting the moods.

Boasting arguably the strongest production of Uriah Heep's career, The Magician's Birthday exudes early 70s warmth and organic sonics. As soon as your turntable's needle hits the grooves, an era renowned for wood-encased receivers, tube amplifiers, and vintage instruments will emerge in front of your eyes. Complete with a faithful replication of the original gatefold sleeve, and replete with dead-quiet surfaces, this Wax Cathedral reissue is pressed at RTI, America's best record plant. Better still, it's on colored vinyl, to boot!










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Emotional Response is delighted to release our second album of the summer, with Dusseldorf duo Musiccargo's beautiful masterpiece.

As one of the bands that inspired the setting up Emotional Response, this project has been literally years coming to fruition. However, crafting an album of such beautiful musicianship cannot be rushed, so to now have them on the roster is fitting.

With just 3 releases over an 8 year period this elusive duo are certainly in no hurry. Their cult debut album, Hand In Hand, was so scarce outside of their native Dusseldorf, let alone Germany, personally imported copies were the only way to delve in to their contribution to their Cities musical cannon.

This sophomore album takes the Krautrock sound of their forebears, Neu!, La Dusseldorf, Cluster and Harmonia and welds in to a modern cohesive whole. A series of songs that play as a single piece rather than as individual tracks. No crass concept album though, this is love of the craft of making music, the use of live instrumentation and of the studio as a central instrument, to create a pure sound they term 'Adult Kraut'.

Like their friends and peers, Kreidler and Land of Light, there is no one defining piece, no hit, just an overall feeling, vibe, whatever you want to name it. Take a trip in Harmonie.

As per usual, the LP format will be beautifully presented and printed on reverse board inner and outer sleeves, featuring silver printed artwork and limited to 500, making this a collectable vinyl piece

Mannequin Records is proud to present a true pearl of the Italian Minimal Synth from the 80's. Tommy De Chirico founded the post-punk band Politburo in Turin during 1981 togheter with Maurizio Rubinetti (Sick Rose) and Massimo Aluffi (Ivan Siberia). On his own, he released the 7" "Close Your Eyes / Flower Into The Factory", produced and recorded at TKS Studio by the Monuments' Mauro Tavella between 1982 and 1983 and subsequently released by Turin's Shirak Records in 1984.

When Politburo split in 1986, Tommy continued to experiment with various projects and sounds, including Thugs, Quiet (with members of Monuments and Deafear), Noxeda and Lacrimal, with whom he still plays today.
Presented here are also 3 bonus demo tracks: a rare version of "Close Your Eyes", and 2 out-takes from 1983, "Vuh-Ya" and "Tuxedo Dance".
The original graphic cover was realized by Bruno Zanichelli aka Pennarex, an underground artist from Turin, who died prematurely some years after.

- 12'' EP on black vinyl, 33 RPM
- Limited edition of 300 copies
- 3 Bonus Tracks
- Artwork designed by Mushy and Alessandro Adriani
*Strongly recommended to fans of Martin Dupont, Oppenheimer Analysis, Das Kabinette, Victrola, Neon.*

Fourth studio Album for this italian progressive Band. They prefer the definition of 'Progressive Rock Orchestra' , and they concentrate their music to J.R.R. Tolkien histories. From Ancient Times (2006), Children of Húrin (2007) e Lay of Leithian(2009) are their previous Albums, all produced by Beppe Crovella and Electromantic Music. Now the new one, orchestral / acoustic, and present few previously released tracks in a new re-edit version.

ANGELS AND DEMONS is the new album of singer and musician Emilia Rigo ( bassist of Ligabue ) , containing 13 tracks that talk aboutl a world of contrasts between the male and female , between good and evil. The music and the voice of rock Rigo are to interpret the stories told by texts written by young Sara Del Popolo. Antonio " Rigo " Righetti (Modena , January 5, 1964 ) is an Italian rock bassist and singer , former member of the Rocking Chairs , and collaborator of Ligabue and other musicians . After the classic apprenticeship , Righetti in 1986 joined the Group of Rocking Chairs , with whom he recorded 4 albums : " New Egypt " (1987) , "Freedom Rain" (1989) , "No sad goodbyes " (1990) and " Hate and love revisited" (1991 ) .

10" transparent "blue monday" coloured vinyl
Debut EP by ex-Air Formation 'You Walk Through Walls'.

Elf Power formed in 1994 and over the last 19 years have released twelve albums, two eps, a handful of singles, while touring North America, Europe, and Japan many times. Albums such as 1998's Dave Fridmann-produced "A Dream In Sound" and 2008's collaboration with the late Vic Chesnutt, "Dark Developments" have cemented the bands' reputation as the finest purveyors of modern melodic psychedelic folk rock around. Their latest album, "Sunlight On The Moon" combines the scuzzy, sleazy recording qualities of their early lo-fi masterworks with their powerful live bombast, with experiments in Kraftwerk-styled/Eno-esque drum machine minimalism, into a seamless, perfectly flowing whole. The album's release in October coincides with American tour dates with the recently revived Neutral Milk Hotel, with whom Elf Power did their first big national tour 15 years ago in 1998! Many more headlining shows throughout America and Europe are planned for the fall and spring. Singer/songwriter Andrew Rieger and longtime collaborator multi-instrumentalist Laura Carter are joined by James Huggins (Of Montreal/Great Lakes) on bass, and Peter Alvanos on drums, though all the members play a wide variety of instruments on the recordings. Longtime collaborator Bryan Poole (Of Montreal) still joins the band on guitar at live shows. The band recorded the latest record in a variety of settings ranging from singer/songwriter Andrew Rieger's home studio, to Athens, GA's The Glow studio, to Lavonia, GA's Gypsy Farm Studios, a long derelict country music theatre located in rural Georgia. Newly renovated and transformed into a recording studio, the beautiful auditorium hosted concerts from the likes of Dolly Parton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and George Jones throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The album's title originates from accounts Rieger read of astronauts who described their experience of walking on the moon as disorienting and hallucinatory due to the utter darkness of the shadows on the moon, describing their own shadows as "pieces of night following them around". Some of the songs sprung from a return to Elf Power's original mode of songwriting, writing and recording the song simultaneously without rehearsal. Songs like "Lift the Shell", "A Grey Cloth Covering My Face" and "Things Lost" were recorded as they were being written with Rieger playing all of the basic instrumentation and other band members later embellishing the creations with their own flavors. Often, a more fully rehearsed "full band" version was recorded as well, but the more minimalistic original versions were preferred for their stranger, looser qualities. Some songs like the title track and "Total Annihilation" reflect the band's muscular and melodic live sound, while other songs like "Transparent Lines" and "Grotesquely Born Anew" combine drum machines with real drums and percussion to create a unique melding of artificial and organic elements, recalling early experiments like the classic track "Finally Free" from the band's 1994 debut "Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs". This return to the group's murky roots are directly acknowledged in a lyrical nod on "A Grey Cloth Covering My Face" as Rieger sings "And now I feel it starting all over again, Here I am still vainly clutching at those phantom limbs"

Following their 2012 split 7" with Pete Swanson on Blackest Ever Black's Confessions sub-label, the furtive Moin deliver their debut proper, a three-track 12" on BEB proper. More information to follow.

In between progressive, Rock in Opposition and contemporary music, finally the debut album of composer Stefano Giannotti. A 'variable geometry' ensemble, innovative and independent from commercial logic, searching for a metaphorical 'dry land' . Special guest: Thomas Bloch. "Dry land is made of islands, continents to explore, where as we explore them we might be able to find familiar places, but also strange, unusual ones. Our land is areas where things happen not exactly straight: there are backgrounds of creative research and contamination. Observatory is a kind of laboratory, many of the musicians who took part in it are young and trained to contemporary art in a long enough, tiring, but fun path." Thus Stefano Giannotti introduces us to his project OTEME - Observatory on land: a workshop, open to the connections between the various musical and cultural areas, characterized by eclecticism and especially by elasticity, movement, an independent area, free from the logic of the markets. The debut album "The Disenchanted Garden" is a first, and full testimony. OTEME is a chamber ensemble whose amplitude and texture vary depending on the songs and the language adopted: The Disenchanted Garden is a courageous and poliedrical experience which display different souls. From progressive art-rock to the achievements of classical and contemporary classical music, from songwriting to musical to the rigors of Rock In Opposition: unusual instruments (componium, teponatzli, the glass harmonica played by the authoritative Thomas Bloch, already guest for Radiohead, Tom Waits, Gorillaz, John Cage etc.), humor and surrealism from Battisti - Panella to Stravinsky, from King Crimson to John Cage. Giannotti says: "The idea behind the Garden is the creation of songs not meant to be disposable; in almost all of the tracks the listener seems to stand still but moves, or vice versa, just because there isn't a tonic and dominant, but it moves about in ways soiled by curiosity dissonance and sound." Stefano Giannotti (1963) is a composer from Lucca, Italy, much admired abroad - particularly in Germany - for its long experience in the field of radio art: the OTEME experience is complementary to his work, with a particular attention to the 'union between cultural and popular, for an idea of renewed listening. "Music, sometimes even the educated kind, favors the idea of an immediate play: most of the productions have a strong impact noise but little substance, because thanks to technology and busy life, we have become accustomed to superficiality, listening to music while you do other things. Much contemporary art based his thinking on the multiplicity of impulses: partly I adhere to this view, but I think it would be nice to start listening again."
01. Mattino
02. Caduta massi
03. Dal recinto
04. Palude del diavolo
05. Tema dei campi
06. Ed io non c' ero
07. Dite a mia moglie
08. Il giardino disincantato
09. Sopra tutto e tutti
10. Per mano conduco Matilde
11. Terre emerse ( Bolero primo )

ELF POWER formed in 1994 and over the last 16 years have released ten albums, two eps, a handful of singles, while also touring America, Europe, and Japan.

The Athens, Georgia pioneers have readied their tenth studio album for release - a self-titled, dozen-song sonic totem, representing the group's spiritual endurance and their continued relevance as the flagship band of the celebrated psych-rock scene which they helped forge over a decade and a half ago. The new record conveys a unique synthesis of expansion and space, as deft rhythmic interplay, thoughtful instrumental flourishes, and subtle hands at the mixing-board frame all contribute to the Elves' lithe, powerful folk-rock, and the frank, beautiful lyrical exposition that's come to be expected from head songwriter Andrew Rieger.

The new record is dedicated to the memory of dear friend, mentor, and close collaborator Vic Chesnutt, who committed suicide in late 2009. Chesnutt was long a guiding light in the close-knit Athens community. The Elves recorded a collaborative album, DARK DEVELOPMENTS, with Chesnutt in 2008 and toured extensively with him through the years. Elf Power's latest album found shape in the vacuum caused by Vic's loss, and finds the band exploring the void created by his departure.

Tracked initially by Andy LeMaster (REM, Bright Eyes, Drive By Truckers) at his studio Chase Park Transduction, then brought to bassist/engineer Derek Almstead's home studio out in the Athenian sticks for overdubbing, rumination, and general tweaking, this double-faceted strategy proved beneficial for the development of the album as a whole. LeMaster's nearly-transparent sheen lent the record a fundamental sonic purity and muscularity that makes for great listening in the car. A return, however, to the familiar realms of home-recording encouraged the Elves to harken back to their initial experimental and communal forays. Freedom from the tyranny of the ticking studio clock allowed for key contributions from old Elephant 6 pals Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss of the Olivia Tremor Control and some characteristically esoteric instrumentation: Circulatory System's John Fernandes' and Heather McIntosh (recently of Gnarls Barkley and Lil Wayne's touring bands), contributing string arrangements; the beautiful Mellotron they borrowed from REM; and Laura Carter's contagious Moog and drummer Eric Harris' experiments with fidelity and texture. This duality in production makes for a layered and varied listen.

Opening track THE TAKING UNDER is an otherworldly collision of warped 1950s balladry and tripped out, cavernous drumming, pinned together by majestic string flourishes. WANDER THROUGH is a frantic explosion of joyful noise, filled with wild riffing and bizarre sound effects. Songs like TINY INSECTS and GHOST OF JOHN conjure a meeting between the heavy, dark and prog-informed pop of The Soft Boys' UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT and the fuzzed-out, giddy bedroom psych of New Zealand weirdos and Elf Power associates Tall Dwarves. Gentler, more pensive moments like the country-tinged, yet simultaneously futuristic, STRANGER IN THE WINDOW and the heart-tearing LITTLE HAND allow the Elves to dive headlong into folk music that sounds at once both modern and traditional. In terms of unlikely sonic execution, ELF POWER makes literal what Andrew Rieger sings overtop of the cut-loose garage pop of GOLDMINE IN THE SUN: "the ending is hard to conceive." Easy thumbnail comparisons such as these are handy; this record, however, is very much its own entity within a wider pantheon and the band's formidable discography. ELF POWER finds the group exploring darker places melodically and texturally in what might be their most fully conceived and rewarding album ever.

The new ELF POWER sees release on September 14, 2010 on Orange Twin Records. The label works in conjunction with The Orange Twin Conservation Community, 155 acres of beautiful land on the outskirts of Athens that has initiated fundraising for a development of a highly progressive, self-sustainable and ecologically-minded cluster village and nature preserve.

The band will embark on a world tour upon the album's release, touring America in September and Europe in November.

Jeff Mangum 'Live at Jittery Joe's' is the first live recording of Jeff to be released to the public. The solo acoustic show took place at a local coffee house in Athens, GA in 1997 and was recorded onto high 8 video by R.E.M. cameraman and independent film maker, Lance Bangs. The CD consists of both audio tracks (playable on any CD player) and the video image (viewable on both Mac and PC computers using Quicktime movie viewer). Jeff Mangum is well known as the lead singer and songwriter for Neutral Milk Hotel, but he has previously never released any of the solo performances that were so enjoyed by the local community in his home town of Athens. This record contains both solo versions of songs that were used on 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' and previously unreleased songs that were never played by the band. Highlight's include an amazing version of Phil Spector's 'I Love How You Love Me' as well as the swooning children's song 'Engine' (written by Mangum). The video image shows Mangum in 'the Starlit Crypt', a room covered with Christmas lights, performing a highly intimate show with a small child dancing at his feet. For all of those persons who were never able to see Jeff Mangum and/or Neutral Milk Hotel play live, and even the one's who did, this album will be a real treasure

"This is Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum spinning his unique, beautifully tangled web of visceral flesh imagery, odes to Anne Frank, and cryptic, vivid storytelling." -Pitchfork

"Live at Jittery Joe's documents a less refined, more casual side of Mangum, and does a pretty damned good job of it. I get the feeling that this show wasn't recorded with "live album" in mind, and that element of candidness makes it essential for Neutral Milk Hotel fans such as myself, who weren't lucky enough to see Jeff in concert." -Pitchfork

What is the Major Organ Or rather who is this elusive character Well let me tell you. The "Major" as he is referred to by friends and family resides in a small town just outside of Denver, Colorado. After many years of wandering and travels the Major started to compose his thoughts and dreams onto sheet music. For many years the Major searched for a suitable vehicle to carry out his musical transmissions. Lacking the ability to play these notes on musical instruments, he acquired the help of the Elephant Six Orchestra. Now, for the first time, the Majors' music has been documented on CD. With help from members of Neutral Milk Hotel, The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Of Montreal, and many other friends, the Major's music has begun to be cataloged. So far The Elephant Six Orchestra has recorded nineteen of his transmissions. Listen as the Major spins his delicious tale of Madam Truffle and her pastry making art (consumed by the town's more tasteful pastry connoisseurs). Rejoice as Francisco the angel comes to release the town's children from their beds (You're free to go, you're free to go!). So take a journey when your mind is not quite fit (and father is away) with the Major and his Orchestra!
1. When Father was Away on Business
2. His Mister's Pet Whistles
3. Kissing Behind the Rubbery Grinder
4. Un, Deux, Trois
5. Your Moonpie Eye
6. Madam Truffle
7. The Fireman's Guitar
8. Moonpie Eye Sensation
9. Swimming, Laughing, Playing
10. Barry's Lung
11. Water Dripping on Bread Makes Bread Taste Not So Tasty
12. Walking in the Sun
13. Transmission
14. Abe Lincoln's Moustache
15. The Snack Bar
16. Francisco's Victory
17. Powdered Abe Lincoln
18. Do the Moonpie Eye
19. Life Forms (Transmission Received)

This EP was originally released on Fire Records in the UK only. It quickly went out of print and became yet another rarity. For the re-release of this classic, Orange Twin has added the bonus track "Tuesday Moon" (previously only available on the Hype City soundtrack).

Vic Chesnutt's collaboration with Elephant 6 originals Elf Power, "Dark Developments" was released in the fall of 2008. As intriguing as this combination may seem for hardcore fans of either act, the final sonic results reveal a daunting sum much greater than even the involvement of such esteemed parts would imply; the Elves' lived-in dexterity as a live band goads Vic's vocal delivery to a menacing new muscularity, imbuing this batch of songs with a sinister vibe not dissmilar to John Cale's black classic "Fear," the harsh, articulate sleaze of Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" or the defeated low key soul-music of Nick Lowe's last few records. And Chesnutt's songwriting retains its trademark literary bent; central songs carry the narrative weight, sturdy construction and lexical mystery of a longlost Raymond Carver story. And as he still woos you with his squelched, beautiful melodies, his sonic turns-in-the road take an even stranger tack with the aid of the psych-pop veterans.

Recorded over the course of a winter by Vic and Derek Almstead in Chesnutt's own attic studio, "Dark Developments" revels in the intimate, home-recorded atomosphere you'd expect from an Athenian union like this. Elf Power's tripped-out pop-smarts provide the contradictory musical notions that never allow the album to sway too far in one bleak direction or another: it's that friction extant between Chesnutt's shadowy worldview and the inventive bounce and bray of the band's joyful chemistry that buoys the album, provides its freshness, and makes for highly rewarding repeated listening. "Dark Developments" stands as a classic addition to the legendary local pantheon, and, most importantly, as a brilliant statement endemic of a natural partership between two separately-evolved and vital musical entities that never feels forced, flashy or false.

(right down Santa Claus lane)

(for me)

Gatefold Heavy black vinyl with diecut sleeve!
Scheming Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy), a bigoted and corrupt policeman, is in line for a promotion and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Enlisted to solve a brutal murder and threatened by the aspirations of his colleagues, including Ray Lennox (Jamie Bell), Bruce sets about ensuring their ruin, right under the nose of unwitting Chief Inspector Toal. As he turns his colleagues against one another by stealing their wives and exposing their secrets, Bruce starts to lose himself in a web of deceit that he can no longer control. His past is slowly catching up with him, and a missing wife, a crippling drug habit and suspicious colleagues start to take their toll on his sanity. The question is: can he keep his grip on reality long enough to disentangle himself from the filth

James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class) gives the performance of his career and he is joined by a fantastic cast, including Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin), Imogen Poots (Fright Night), Oscar winning actor, Jim Broadbent (The Iron Lady), Joanne Froggatt ('Downton Abbey'), Shirley Henderson (Trainspotting), Eddie Marsan (The Illusionist), Emun Elliott (Prometheus), Martin Compston (Sweet Sixteen), Shauna Macdonald (The Descent) and Gary Lewis (Gangs of New York).

Written by Jon S. Baird who also directs, Filth is produced by Ken Marshall, Will Clarke and Irvine Welsh.

Girlseeker keyboard player and prolific musician Jonas Frederiksen's cassette deck fantasy, Toekomstje, finally comes to life on vinyl. Includes a colour insert/lyric sheet and sticker.... Very Ltd Edition...

Huge 6-tracker feat six of the biggest hits from Noir Desir, one of Frances greatest rock bands.

A natural pairing. Hawk & Deer share this 12" both dropping sublime slices of kraut inspired chug... BIG TIP!

1000 COPIES WORLDWIDE, 6x7" BOX SET on BLUE VINYL

A7
Do You Love Me (Seattle Radio)

B1
Plateau (Acoustic Version)

B2
Lake Of Fire (Acoustic Version)

B3
Here She Comes Now (From The Tribute LP)

B4
Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam (Live)

B5
Son Of A Gun (Alternate Mix)

B6
Love Buzz (1st Sudio Version)

Die Künstlerin Tonia Reeh, auch als Monotekktoni bekannt, experimentiert normalerweise mit modern kontroversen, analog verzerrten und zudem opulenten Elektroniksounds. Tonia Reeh verbindet akustische Popmusik mit klassischer Moderne ohne das Gefühl von süßer Künstlichkeit zu hinterlassen. Wahrscheinlich ist es deswegen so schwer treffende Referenzen für sie zu finden. Mitunter erinnert die emotionale Tiefe ihres Gesangs an Künstler wie P.J. Harvey oder Diamanda Galás. Auch ihr Pianospiel ist einzigartig: trotz der Kombination klassischer und jazziger Elemente wird es durch die rhythmische Härte der Independent Rockmusik geprägt, die Tonia immer noch begeistert. Durchzogen von tiefer Melancholie scheint der Geist von Aufruhr und Eigenwilligkeit durch ihre teilweise komplexen Kompositionen hindurch. Vor allem dem Gesang wird viel Raum und Klang gegeben. Mit gewohnt archaischer Härte und Ironie lassen ihre Texte die ein oder andere Träne gefrieren. Und der alltägliche Wahnsinn schlägt mit seiner Pranke rücksichtslos auf die jahrhundertelang aufgebauten musikalischen Harmoniestrukturen.

2012 LP version sold out immediately, remains highly sought after, and landed on numerous year end lists.
*Previous album 'Eleven Fingers' 8/10 on Pitchfork, #7 Metal Album of 2011
*Previous releases on such labels as Hospital Productions, Northern Sky, and Cocainacopia

'They are, after all, a band that has remained interesting across several dozens of quickly made, quickly sold-out
releases by avoiding easy circumscription-- lyrically, stylistically or ideologically. In a market of one-sheets auto-
posted to hundreds of music blogs, Circle of Ouroborus offers a proud, stubborn vortex of the undefined.'

A monumentally influential classic, and the first of any Lycia to be issued on vinyl, archived on 180gram in
polylined innersleeves.

*This edition of 600 (300 audiophile classic black, and 300 milky clear with brown haze) is the newest installment of the Handmade Birds Dark Icons Series, and comes with a digital download that includes the track 'Antarctica' from the forthcoming new album entitled 'Quiet Moments' (their first in over a decade).
*Mastered for vinyl by James Plotkin.

'Founding member Mike VanPortfleet, bassist David Galas and vocalist Tara Vanflower come off as spiritually glued to this music' - Dusted

'These abundant layers are like a frozen waterfall, offering the beauty of a captured cascade—trapped forever in a single moment.' - Stylus

*This is the first new Lycia album in 13 years and follows the vinyl re-issue of their classic album Cold (HB-DIS054)
- Icons of dark indie music since their groundbreaking 1991 release "Ionia".
- "Quiet Moments" joins the Handmade Birds Dark Icons Series.
- Part of the original wave of Projekt Records artists.
- One time pressing of 1000 CDs.
- Mastered by James Plotkin

Troller mine classic death rock, but slow it down with a heavy shoe-gazing doominess. You can tell the female singer has a voice as big as Zola Jesus, or Siouxsie, but what we like most about it is that she restrains her delivery from overwrought passion up front in the mix, instead letting it moulder at times in a dour misanthropic mire with the chilly synths and the booming plod of the drum machine patterns. The band has a knack for sculpting dark ambient soundscapes that are alien, pensive and luridly bleak

Magic spells, time-traveling futurists, sword-bearing horse riders, mountain-residing sorcerers, possessed journeyman,

ominous warnings: Demons and Wizards lives up to its title as a collection of fantasy-based narratives rooted in dreamy,

gothic-minded arrangements. Universally recognized as the finest effort of Uriah Heep's four-decade-plus career, the 1972

LP also perseveres as a prog-rock landmark that influenced countless of bands ranging from Metallica to Styx. And now, it

sounds better than ever on this extremely cool green-vinyl gatefold pressing from Wax Cathedral.

The first album on which founding members Mick Box, Ken Hensley, and David Byron are joined by staple drummer Lee

Kerslake, Demons and Wizards captivates by way of taut songwriting and instrumental execution. Rather than function

as the primary attraction, make-believe lyrical themes augment a formidable assembly of folk-derived melodies, sharp

medleys, and powerful hooks. Acoustic guitars weave webs of finite textures through which crackling, church-like organ

passages and space-conscious bass lines maneuver. Songs come across with an ethereal, powerful feel.

Glowing with old-fashioned tube-amp warmth, concise and punchy fare like 'The Wizard,' 'Traveler In Time,' and the hit

'Easy Livin'' touch upon garage-rock basics. Epics such as 'Circle of Hands' and 'Paradise/The Spell'—a multi-part sonic

excursion whose choral grace and spiritual glide evoke distant lands, misty cloud forests, and peaceful eternities—cling to

a sensitivity underscored by deft piano touches. No wonder Uriah Heep spent the remainder of its lifespan trying to again

capture such a balance.

Wahnsinn!!Bereits3GOLDALBENinDeutschland!!

Blackest Ever Black release Deformed Worship, the second album by New York's Raspberry Bulbs, on August 5. Since their debut LP Nature Tries Again (Hospital Productions, 2011) RB has grown from the solo project of M. del Rio (HWCT from Bone Awl) into a five-piece of extraordinary force and focus. The first studio version of Deformed Worship was scrapped, and its songs re-recorded by the band on cassette 8-track in November 2012, before being mixed and mastered by Kris Lapke (Alberich). Stomping, vicious and unrelenting. 9 songs. 30 minutes. Raspberry Bulbs defies the constraints of classification but is often mistakenly labelled as a black metal band. It is not a black metal band.

God is an Astronaut's seventh full-length album, Origins, is their first as a five-piece and cements their place as one of the world's most intense, musically- and visually-inventive post rock bands. Renowned for their searing live shows in which the music is married with provocative projected imagery, GIAA consider each of their albums to be a sonic 'photograph or snapshot of who we are in that moment of time' and Origins is perhaps their most saturated, striking snapshot to date.

*Origins is notable also in GIAA's return to Rocket Girl records, who licensed the band's breakthrough album, All is Violent, All is Bright in 2005. In the eight years since then, GIAA have continued to release albums and an EP on their own Revive Records (A Moment of Stillness EP, 2006, Far From Refuge, 2007, God is an Astronaut, 2008 and Age of the Fifth Sun, 2010), amassing a vast following on social media sites (150,000 fans on Facebook, half a million listeners on ) and touring extensively, establishing themselves as Ireland's most intense, incandescent live act.

*Comprising a dozen tracks, Origins fluctuates from controlled ferment ('Calistoga') to plaintive, piano-led reverie ('Autumn Song') to rhapsodic, unapologetically melodic fever ('Signal Rays') while never losing its focus.
Experimenting with 'a multitude of stompboxes', the newly bolstered line-up gives the songs an added richness, apparent on Origins perhaps most obviously on the first single, 'Spiral Code' which has already received numerous radio plays on specialist radio.

God is an Astronaut's seventh full-length album, Origins, is their first as a five-piece and cements their place as one of the world's most intense, musically- and visually-inventive post rock bands. Renowned for their searing live shows in which the music is married with provocative projected imagery, GIAA consider each of their albums to be a sonic 'photograph or snapshot of who we are in that moment of time' and Origins is perhaps their most saturated, striking snapshot to date.

*Origins is notable also in GIAA's return to Rocket Girl records, who licensed the band's breakthrough album, All is Violent, All is Bright in 2005. In the eight years since then, GIAA have continued to release albums and an EP on their own Revive Records (A Moment of Stillness EP, 2006, Far From Refuge, 2007, God is an Astronaut, 2008 and Age of the Fifth Sun, 2010), amassing a vast following on social media sites (150,000 fans on Facebook, half a million listeners on lastfm.com) and touring extensively, establishing themselves as Ireland's most intense, incandescent live act.

*Comprising a dozen tracks, Origins fluctuates from controlled ferment ('Calistoga') to plaintive, piano-led reverie ('Autumn Song') to rhapsodic, unapologetically melodic fever ('Signal Rays') while never losing its focus.
Experimenting with 'a multitude of stompboxes', the newly bolstered line-up gives the songs an added richness, apparent on Origins perhaps most obviously on the first single, 'Spiral Code' which has already received numerous radio plays on specialist radio.

* Tracklist: 1) The Last March 2) Calistoga 3) Reverse World 4) Transmissions 5) Weightless 6) Exit Dream 7) Signal Rays 8) Autumn Song 9) Spiral Code 10) Strange Steps 11) Red Moon Lagoon 12) Light Years From Home