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This 8 tracks album on double vinyl is a vivid depiction of the
Lithuanian artist top-notch production skills, his wise use of subtle
melodies and harmonic progressions, as well as his pointed dancefloor
instinct.

The first cut, 'Balboa' is a funky French touched house tune, while 'Next
Station' is a deeper excursion into esoteric atmospheres, laid back
drums and world of sounds.

'Rhapsody' is a fast paced ballad, evocative and profound, that
display Ten Walls´s trademark ability to deal with hypnotising
arpeggiated bass-lines, as in the slower disco-infected following
track, 'Rocky'.

The compelling 'Age Well' stretches out Jonatan
Bäckelie´s precious voice on a body of marmoreal drums and an
enchanting bass line .

The even slower reduced drums of 'Transition' and its bubble-chamber
dub gradually prepare us to the dreamy ride of 'INK' featuring the
vocals of Daddy was A Milkman).

Finally, the exquisite 'ReExtended' mix of INK melds an
orchestral score, Pop and electronic music with dazzling sensitivity.

With youthful exuberance and a catalogue of life-affirming slacker pop anthems, it's no wonder that The Magic Gang are at the forefront of 2018's breaking guitar bands. Recently nominated for Best New Artist at the NME Awards, The Magic Gang will release their self-titled debut album on March 16th on Yala! Records.

The announcement comes after the band's new single 'Getting Along' was premiered last night as Annie Mac's Hottest Record. Juxtaposing joyful melodies with lovelorn lyrics, the track's relentlessly infectious hook adds another contemporary-yet-classic anthem to The Magic Gang's burgeoning songbook.

Collectively the album presents a twelve-track snapshot of everything that The Magic Gang are about. The buoyant bangers that have been mainstays of their raucous live shows are represented by the likes of 'Jasmine', 'All This Way' and 'All That I Want Is You'. The latter song was inspired by tales from Brian Wilson's controversial autobiography 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', especially in regards to his reclusive years following the peak of The Beach Boys' success.

The majority of the album was produced by Jolyon Thomas (Royal Blood, Slaves), while James Dring (Loyle Carner, Jamie T) and former Maccabees guitarist Hugo White both produced a track each. Every song was written by the band - Paeris Giles (drums), Jack Kaye (guitar/vocals), Kris Smith (vocals/guitar) and Angus Taylor (bass).

Mehr als ein Jahr lang arbeitete Bunger an dieser Platte, produzierte und schraubte bis ins letzte Rauschen zusammen mit Tobias Siebert (And The Golden Choir, Me And My Drummer, Philipp Boa) im Radio Buellebrueck Studio in Berlin. Dabei entstand ein Werk, das geprägt von verschiedensten Musikgenres und Themen kaum abwechslungsreicher sein könnte. Der 28-jährige Künstler verknüpft Indie mit Folk und Klavierballaden mit Elektronik. Erfrischend, wie Bunger musikalisch überrascht. Dennoch klingt es immer nach Enno Bunger, der in seinem Wortgewand aus Poesie, Prosa und Punchlines endgültig zu den meistzitierten deutschsprachigen Künstlern gehören dürfte. Man darf das so sagen: diese Platte ist Bungers bisher bestes Album.

Swedish singer, songwriter, producer and filmmaker, ionnalee (Jonna Lee), brings the evolution of her ten-year creative career to a new peak with the release of her new self-produced solo album EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN on 23rd February 2018 on To whom it may concern.

Even considering Lee's past endeavors as the creator and frontperson of iamamiwhoami, who have captured the internet's attention since 2009, this is the most ambitious project which the Stockholm-based master of audiovisual artistry has embarked on.

EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN is a studio album and standalone filmic counterpart directed by ionnalee and cinematographer John Strandh, made in visual alliance with fashion and art trail-blazers, COMME des GARÇONS.

Breaking from tradition, the feature is not a sequential track-by-track visualization of EVERYONE AFRAID TO BE FORGOTTEN, rather its own separate organism, combining a dramatic plotline, music and art house cinematography with an avant-garde fashion slant.

John Strandh and I were discussing the format of what we do and how the online distribution arena affects that format', ionnalee says. Our work is predominantly regarded as a form of music video because there is music and movement in it. But, in reality, we have been at the very forefront of the audiovisual format and, in the past couple of years, a lot of other works have patently drawn inspiration from ours, so that the term visual album' is now part of common parlance and practice.' Consequently, ionnalee and Strandh wanted to try an alternative configuration, rather than treading the same old ground and to go closer to the feature film format'.

Young Jesus, an indie rock quartet from Los Angeles, looks to communicate the tensions between proximity and distance, chaos and order. On their upcoming record S/T, to be released by Saddle Creek, the band focuses on seemingly small moments in everyday life: phone calls with Mom, landscapes along the highway, crows in a tree. Yet with time these strange intimacies add up to a life. A life full of anxiety, confusion, sadness, joy, boredom, and ultimately wonder.

Young Jesus mixes the emotional intensity of bands like Slint, Pile, and Built To Spill with the quiet contemplation of Yo La Tengo, Mogwai, and Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk. They give themselves to moments of aggression and volume, balanced alongside near-silence.

Influenced by the writings of Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton, Wang An-Shih, Wang Wei, Joy Williams, and Marilynne Robinson, singer/songwriter John Rossiter hopes for a making-do with what we have, a sometimes wide-eyed learning process. Life may be too massive to grasp, but that does not mean we should shy away from it. Rather, Young Jesus tries to look toward the complexity and imperfection. As ever, the questions Rossiter and co. raise are too big to expect any sort of clear answer, but Young Jesus offer a model of coping, a way to remain hopeful and human within their jaws' (Various Small Flames).

Rossiter states, the ethos is to push each other to express things that are not common-- like ideas of love and trust within friendships-- through being extremely vulnerable and making mistakes. Hopefully those mistakes become framed as an important and necessary part of process. It's about communication between four people. Hopefully it is the sound of four very good friends who want to let other people into that space.' These may be small things, but observed with thought and care they come to make the world of Young Jesus

Smack Bunny Baby is the debut album from the band Brainiac, released in July 1993 on Grass Records. Long out-of-print, it is also the only album by the group to feature founding guitarist Michelle Bodine. After she left the band, John Schmersal filled in for guitar duties and stayed with the band until their break up in 1997.

Bonsai Superstar is the second album from the band Brainiac, released in 1994. It is the first album on which guitarist John Schmersal appears. Originally released through Grass Records, and long out-of-print, the album was recorded in Brooklyn, New York with engineering and production done by Girls Against Boys bassist Eli Janney. While the album received little critical attention upon its initial release in 1994, today it is considered one of the best recordings by the band.

Described by Clash Music as one of America's best songwriters', Brendan Benson has consistently unfurled unparalleled melodies and lyrics in his acclaimed career. Over twenty years in, he's still wowing folks and Half a Boy, Half a Man' is a powerful dollop of power chords wrapped into a tale of split personalities. Backed with an astute cover of Jules Shear's Big Kid Face' from his 1989 album The Third Party' in which Benson helps shine a light on this oft-overlooked but seminal songwriter.
Best known as half of the songwriting team at the heart of the Raconteurs (along with Jack White) Brendan Benson's career has never slowed across six solo albums, two Raconteurs full-lengths, countless collaborations and placements and a seat as one of the most respected and reliable writer, performers, producer, engineer and musical jack-of-all-trades.

Refrigerator's eleventh full length record High Desert Lows was recorded over a week in Omaha, Nebraska. Produced by Simon Joyner (who plays and sings on a number of songs on the record, along with members of his Ghosts band), the new record calls out to the more pastoral sounds of their Comedy Minus One album, with viola, cello, vibes, slide guitar and wurlitzer dotting the edges of nearly every song, a stark contrast to the loud squall of preceding record Temple City. The album begins with a song penned by drummer Chris Jones, bending to Barstow, and then bleeds into songs that skirt a number of counties from Apple Valley to Victorville before closing with a minor chamber orchestra and a vocalist shutting down the town. Twenty-seven years on, with all the original members (plus Daniel Brodo who joined in 1995), the band is still improvising and communicating without bowing to commerce.

Welcome to 2018 everyone—the year that will finally bring flying cars, robot butlers and a telepathy-based internet. It's been 11 years since the release of The Octopus Project's third album and perennial fan-favorite Hello Avalanche. As such, it felt appropriate to re-release the record in a deluxe incarnation—newly remastered, visually redesigned, and pressed on two 180-gram LPs in a gatefold sleeve. That second LP contains 2009's Golden Beds EP (9th anniversary alert!) and a full side of never-before-heard demos from that era, giving fans a look into an expanded Avalanche universe for the first time. This album represented a bold step forward musically and artistically for the band. With ragged, furious distorted guitars at one end of the spectrum and the pure, luminescent tones of the Theremin at the other, it mines a staggering variety of sound (via strings, synthesizers, drums, glockenspiel, trombones, etc.), filling the songs with brilliant contrasting colors and cascading waves of sonic bliss. While the band's previous records were mainly self-produced, for this outing they wanted to achieve the perfect blend between highend studio trickery and lo-fi home experimentation. It was recorded and co-produced by Ryan Hadlock (Blonde Redhead, The Gossip) at rural Bear Creek Studio outside Seattle in February, 2007, and mixed in various sessions by the band, Hadlock and Erik Wofford (Voxtrot, Explosions In The Sky). As the band continues to forge ahead into the telepathic-flyingrobot future, exploring new sound worlds with every album, take a look back to this major turning point in their ever-expanding body of work.

After the band Literature put out 2014's Chorus on Slumberland Records, lead singer/guitarist Nate Cardaci began to write songs that had similar energy, but required a fresh approach. To complete the songs, he teamed up with long time friend and original Literature member, Steven Garcia. After taking time to focus on their respective projects for a while, the two recruited Literature bassist Seth Whaland, and synth player / Waterloo Records employee Ian Jensen to complete the lineup for Trés Oui, and began playing shows around Austin in early 2016. The addition of drummer Doran Rawlinson on a 12-inch released on Square Of Opposition and Austin Town Hall Records garnered rave reviews and saw the band touring all of the USA, including stops at SXSW and Athens Popfest. On their debut record, Poised To Flourish, the band further defines their brand of stately pop music that wouldn't be out of place on Postcard or Factory Records—that doesn't make them a backward-looking nostalgia act. Check out the envelopes of noise that peer out from the corners of Song 4 U,' the King Tubby-dub underlining Alex To The Right,' and the horns that accentuate the ennui of One Track' to hear the band pushing the boundaries of dream pop. This is the rare debut record by a band fully in control of their faculties without losing any of the fire and passion of discovery of being in a new band.

NEON is undoubtedly one of the most influential and enduring bands of the Italian New Wave. From the beginning, the band's music was perfectly aligned with continental trends—integrating the attitude of early post-punk with certain types of electronic music that had timidly begun popping up on the club circuit, and an aesthetic that was a cross between late romanticism and decadentism. Inimitable bands like NEON breathed new life into even the most disagreeable and angular rock 'n' roll, flirting with war-like dance music, and creating musical scenarios that were unheard of up until that point, placing them in harmony with some of the most talked-about British and German bands of the time, in fact anticipating the advent of EBM.

This 4 piece vinyl boxed set contains the following releases: My Blues is You (1983), Dark Age (1984), Rituals (1985) and Red Light (1986). These are the finest examples of work from one of the 80s Italian scene's finest groups.

No Need To Argue' is the sophomore effort by Irish group The Cranberries that was originally released in 1994. Propelled by the hit song Zombie' about the Irish conflict, the album was a worldwide smash and helped make the band one of the biggest of the 90s. With a more mature approach to songs and subject matter the album features many highlights including "Ode To My Family", "Yeats' Grave" and "Ridiculous Thoughts" with a more lively rock sound than their much mellower debut album.

Limited edition of 660 copies on green vinyl in a gatefold cover with printed inner sleeve that includes the lyrics.

No Need To Argue' is the sophomore effort by Irish group The Cranberries that was originally released in 1994. Propelled by the hit song Zombie' about the Irish conflict, the album was a worldwide smash and helped make the band one of the biggest of the 90s. With a more mature approach to songs and subject matter the album features many highlights including "Ode To My Family", "Yeats' Grave" and "Ridiculous Thoughts" with a more lively rock sound than their much mellower debut album.

Limited edition of 1,000 copies on purple vinyl in a gatefold cover with printed inner sleeve that includes the lyrics.

Northern psychedelic punks The Lovely Eggs return with a mind-melting new album. The Lovely Eggs are one of the most unique, innovative and genuine bands on the British Underground music scene. Heavier and more in-your-face than anything they've done previously, Holly Ross (guitar/vocals) and David Blackwell (drums) bring together a fierce DIY ethos, surreal sense of humour and kitchen-sink realism. Working with a producer for the very first time, Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips) lends his magic dust to bring out the best of The Lovely Eggs' explosive blend of motoric krautrock, 60s psychedelia and punk rock attitude. They create their own world and invite us to join them in Eggland. The album title is a cheeky nod to Shane Meadows' series, This Is England. It is a comment on the current state of modern Britain. The album is about being an outsider and doing things differently, eschewing society's conventions as they have done. Since having their son in 2013, the pair have taken him on tour with them, racing round the UK with 2 fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window. They have also remained in their hometown of Lancaster, despite its cultural and geographical isolation. As Holly explains, On this album we're saying it's OK to live life differently, we're doing it and you can do it too! Living up here in Lancaster is kind of mad. It's a bit like the Twin Peaks of Great Britain.' The town has a rich history of the witchcraft, notoriously it was where the Pendle witches were hanged'. For the first time ever, the pair worked with a producer on the new album, welcoming in legendary Grammy award winning engineer Dave Fridmann to their world. We received an email from Dave Fridmann. He had got our answerphone message, listened to our stuff and wanted to work with us. It was just totally bizarre!' The album was self-recorded at Lancaster Musician's Co-op and the Eggs' own house. Dave Fridmann then produced it remotely. They then went out to Dave's Studio in New York State, for mixing. The result is a gratifyingly rich sounding record, which still retains the raw energy of the band's sound but harnesses a real power and dynamism. It's much heavier than anything they've done before. As Holly says: It's pretty relentless. It kind of sounds like a chip shop on fire. We still write about everyday life and the stuff that goes on in our world, it's just the new album is more fierce'. The Lovely Eggs have been nudging towards a heavier sound with their previous album This Is Our Nowhere, which was praised by the NME, who called them, One of the country's most beloved underground bands.' Having formed in Paris in 2006, they named themselves after a pigeon laid two eggs on an abandoned nest on the windowsill.To celebrate their 10th anniversary last year, they reissued their first three albums on coloured vinyl. The band have built up a cult following, selling out gigs across the UK, as well as gaining support from 6 Music and Radio One. This Is Eggland is a giant leap forward in their wild-ride of a career. The album is like listening in on The Lovely Eggs' own secret world, with philosophical songs about the mysteries of the universe ( Hello I Am Your Sun'), to abandoning the grass is always greener' mentality ( Wiggy Giggy'), to being on the wrong side of society or the music industry ( I'm With You') and several inspired by local witchcraft. Unashamed to be themselves and have fun while they're at it, The Lovely Eggs weave an intoxicatingly magnetic magic spell and we're helplessly and willingly falling under it.

- 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
- INCLUDES INSERT
- LIMITED EDITION OF 500 NUMBERED
COPIES ON COLOURED (CLEAR, BLACK & TRANSPARENT BLUE MIXED) VINYL

Standup '69 plays indie rock music, with both a poppy and noisey cutting edge. This Dutch trio makes a big impression live, having played 100+ shows in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. Think: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey, QOTSA and DZ Deathrays.

After a couple awards and two EPs, this debut full length is the culmination of their work until now. The first 500 copies are limited, coloured & numbered.

Following the two Marc Riley Session albums released for The Wedding Present in 2016/17 Hatch Records is proud to present this 10" from the band's alter-ego, Cinerama, featuring 4 tracks recorded for the same legendary DJ in July 2015.'

Blending upbeat dream pop with melancholy shoegaze, the band create a complex, layered sound. Wrapped in a warm glow of chiming guitars and compelling melodies, 'Southern Mind' soars with Lucy Buckeridge and Giles Simon's mesmerising dual vocals weaving astute harmonies. The band said of the debut single Alibi', "'Alibi' is about a relationship burning out - when the mundane has well and truly overshadowed the magical, but you're still stuck in it." The track was premiered by The Line of Best Fit, who wrote:

Having initially released their well-received self-titled debut album in 2014 via Lost & Lonesome, Lowtide then released that album internationally in 2016 via Opposite Number. They received support in the UK from Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music, Rough Trade Magazine and Album Club inclusion.

Originally known as Three Month Sunset, Lowtide came together in Melbourne in 2009. Following the release of their debut EP (2010) and the Underneath Tonight 7' (2011), Lowtide continued to refine their live show playing locally and all around Australia, as well as travelling to New Zealand. They played some of the biggest festivals in the region including Boogie! Festival and Applecore Festival in Victoria, before headlining Fasterlouder's Melbourne Music Week show in 2014.

Lowtide's debut album truly defined their sound and was met with critical acclaim, including a 4 Star review in Rolling Stone who wrote, The album houses a perfect mix of the driving and drifting, with songs changing shape right before our ears', and Clash wrote that it was a highly creative piece of dreamy shoegaze that fused a fondness for beautiful texture with sharply defined songwriting.' Lowtide was also nominated for The Amp (Australian Music Prize) in 2014.

The release of the 'Julia/Spring' 7 inch single in 2015 continued to increase Lowtide's profile both locally and internationally, with an East Coast tour and airplay support at Triple J and across national community radio. Both tracks have now received a combined number of 160,00 streams on Spotify alone.

The band are now eager to tour outside of Australia and will be bringing their engaging live shows to the UK/EU in Aug/September 2017.

Blending upbeat dream pop with melancholy shoegaze, the band create a complex, layered sound. Wrapped in a warm glow of chiming guitars and compelling melodies, 'Southern Mind' soars with Lucy Buckeridge and Giles Simon's mesmerising dual vocals weaving astute harmonies. The band said of the debut single Alibi', "'Alibi' is about a relationship burning out - when the mundane has well and truly overshadowed the magical, but you're still stuck in it." The track was premiered by The Line of Best Fit, who wrote:

Having initially released their well-received self-titled debut album in 2014 via Lost & Lonesome, Lowtide then released that album internationally in 2016 via Opposite Number. They received support in the UK from Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music, Rough Trade Magazine and Album Club inclusion.

Originally known as Three Month Sunset, Lowtide came together in Melbourne in 2009. Following the release of their debut EP (2010) and the Underneath Tonight 7' (2011), Lowtide continued to refine their live show playing locally and all around Australia, as well as travelling to New Zealand. They played some of the biggest festivals in the region including Boogie! Festival and Applecore Festival in Victoria, before headlining Fasterlouder's Melbourne Music Week show in 2014.

Lowtide's debut album truly defined their sound and was met with critical acclaim, including a 4 Star review in Rolling Stone who wrote, The album houses a perfect mix of the driving and drifting, with songs changing shape right before our ears', and Clash wrote that it was a highly creative piece of dreamy shoegaze that fused a fondness for beautiful texture with sharply defined songwriting.' Lowtide was also nominated for The Amp (Australian Music Prize) in 2014.

The release of the 'Julia/Spring' 7 inch single in 2015 continued to increase Lowtide's profile both locally and internationally, with an East Coast tour and airplay support at Triple J and across national community radio. Both tracks have now received a combined number of 160,00 streams on Spotify alone.

The band are now eager to tour outside of Australia and will be bringing their engaging live shows to the UK/EU in Aug/September 2017.

A lot of bands are trying what The Exorcist are doing, to make timeless, mind bending, dance music but they often fail in reaching all the way. The Exorcist is the band that seem to exist in a dimension, much like ours but that lacks time as we know it; time is stretchable backwards and forward, and being in this dimension allows you to travel while, still staying in one place. Call it time travel if you will or moving outside of time rather. The Exorcist does this. Also they reach our dimension.

The members who also can be found in Uran, Tentakel, and Sork among others, formed The Exorcist in 2012 and started by playing illegal techno clubs for the true undercurrent citizens of Gothenburg, Sweden. The reputation of this dangerous psychedelic band, who plays funk the way funk should be played soon reached Stockholm where they got a cult following just by word of mouth. Over the past four years their following has grown exponentially!

The recording of 'II' was a trip into the abyss and back, with a lot of time and money spent, outrage from the members and record label executives biting their nails down to the bone. But that is how The Exorcist works - tension is a vital part of this bands nature, hence it's sound. The tracks' aggressive approach and the feeling of being possessed by something evil lurking inside of you mirrors the process of making this album. But listening to the album back to back and hearing how the songs intertwine, lets the true face of The Exorcist shine brightly over you.

'II', released on Hoga Nord Rekords is dimension expanding and time dissolving music.

Following the re-release of their classic 'Magic Seed' album Easy release their brand new album.

After celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of their debut album with some live shows, top Swedish exports enjoyed writing songs again and with producer Charlie Storm they began recording once more..

Two of the songs are throwbacks to the early nineties from when they began: the Manchester groove of 'The Reincarnated' and the thundering 'Song To Remember'. Satisfied with what they had created they pressed some cds to give away to friends.

On a creative roll they decided to write some music to accompany the poems in Johan Holmlund's poetry collection: 'Swimming With The Beast'. Pop songs! The catchy joy of 'I Can Tell You Why', the shimmering Velvets of 'Little Boy', the Chills-esque 'A Picture'.

* Brand new album from Joan As Police Woman, which sees a return to the darker, sensual sound of her celebrated early releases. 'Damned Devotion' finds Joan Wasser at her rawest yet.
* Lead track 'Warning Bell' is a tender, bewitching song of regret Joan wrote about being a romantic and the naiveté that goes along with it,' and was premiered by Marc Riley and playlisted at 6Music.
* All LPs are pressed on 180g pink vinyl and include a digital download code.
* Headline tour in April, including the Royal Festival
Hall.

Repress!

Redolent with the spirit of such high priests of effects and delay as Loop, Spaceman 3, and My Bloody Valentine, not to mention a fair dollop of the Jesus and Mary Chain . Methodrone clearly is the sum of its influences. Thankfully BJM does a very solid job with them throughout the album's course of over 70 minutes.

Thirty years ago a young Northern band named Bradford were very publically handed the baton by Morrissey to blaze a trail in English indie music after the demise of The Smiths. Top British producer Stephen Street immediately signed the band to his brand new label and the scene was set for Bradford who in the words of Sounds magazine in may 1988 were
'' Five guys with strict haircuts - their image conjures up short, sharp shocks but their music tells a different story..creating intelligent and distinctive, finely crafted pop songs. There are no jangly jaunts through well- trodden paths of predictability - the image, the name, the songs, the intelligence and the voice see to that''

Alas two things destroyed their chances: the collapse of Rough Trade , sending Stephen Street's new label into ruin and the overwhelming avalanche in music that became known as 'Madchester'. Bradford's brand of sleek English pop was suddenly completely out of step with the times.

Thirty years on and it's time for a reappraisal. Here it is in its remastered form containing 3 top twenty indie singles, one being the renowned indie classic 'Skin Storm' which Morrissey also recorded and released in 1991.

This newly re-mastered re-release also contains 'In Liverpool' (a Record Mirror Single of The Week) their first single for Stephen Street's Foundation label, b sides, the eponymous French mini album and some never before released material. 30 tracks in all on gatefold double cd and vinyl with extensive liner notes by Fergal Kinney (Louder Than War), lyrics and photos.

Officially now a duo, Merrill Garbus is joined by long-time collaborator Nate Brenner. Their new album, 'I can feel you creep into my private life', tackles race, politics, intersectional feminism and environmental prophecies head on. In the billows of intense subject matter the album is their most immediate and upbeat yet - this is Tune-Yards' music to dance to. The follow-up to 2014's acclaimed album, 'Nikki Nack', much of 'I can feel you creep into my private life' was recorded at John Vanderslice's new Tiny Telephone studio in their hometown of Oakland, CA.
To help finish this stunning record, they enlisted mixer Mikaelin 'Blue' Bluespruce (Solange, Skepta, Kendrick Lamar) and mastered it in Harlem, NY with Dave Kutch (Jay-Z, Chance The Rapper). LP format includes poster and digital download card.

After their critically acclaimed 2016 EP, Support shows and touring with Balthazar, Battles and Furure Islands the German band Xul Zolar release their debut on Asmara Records.

Perhaps it is no accident that a painterly quality can be found in the music of Fear Talk, the debut-album of Cologne-based band Xul Zolar, given that their name is borrowed from a famed Argentine painter and sculptor. Constructing imaginary worlds is as central for their music as it was for the artist's works. But whereas the latter is best known for his surrealist watercolours, the band's craft tends more towards impressionism. Much like the paintings of the Impressionists, their music conveys a feeling of nostalgia and immediacy, an aura of romanticism.

This dialectic of adaptation and demarcation can be also transposed onto the relationship the band have with the past. Influences and inspirations are not simply repeated and repackaged, but rather refracted through various aesthetic prisms. Rather than broad, domineering brush- strokes of pure pastiche, small touches reminiscent of The Smiths, Talking Heads or Phil Collins are like specks of colour peaking through layers of forward-looking sound.

Emotion is ever-present in "Fear Talk", the title song and one of the record's singles. It serves as an example of the capacity for crafting infectious pop conveying emotional depth absent of cli- che´. "Soft Drones" would neatly fit on a contemporary, maximalist R&B hit record - were it not for lead singer Ronald's forceful yet fragile vocals which lend the track its distinctive mood.

Fear Talk was recorded and produced by Marvin Horsch (Woman, Keshavara) in the summer and autumn of 2016 at Gottesweg, Cologne. It was mixed by Marius Bubat (Coma) and Jan-Philipp Janzen (Von Spar, Cologne Tape) and mastered by Robin Schmidt.

* 'Transangelic Exodus' is a new landmark for the American singer songwriter Ezra Furman: Not a concept record, but
almost a novel, or a cluster of stories on a theme, a combination of fiction and a half-true memoir,' according to its author. A personal companion for a paranoid road trip. A queer outlaw saga.'
* The music is as much of an intense, dramatic event, full of brilliant hooks, with an equally evolved approach to recorded sound to match Furman's narrative vision. In honour of this shift, his backing band has been newly christened: The Boy-Friends are dead, long live The Visions. In other words, the man who embodies the title of his last album 'Perpetual Motion People' is still on the move... Or, in the vernacular of the new album, on the
run.
* The narrative thread,' Furman declares, is I'm in love with an angel, and a government is after us, and we have to leave home because angels are illegal, as is harbouring angels. The term 'transangelic' refers to the fact people become angels because they grow wings. The have an operation, and they're transformed. And it causes panic because some people think it's contagious, or it should just be outlawed.'
* The album still works without the back story, though,' he vouches. What's essential is the mood - paranoid, authoritarian, the way certain people are stigmatised. It's a theme in American life right now, and other so-called democracies.'
* LP pressed on lilac vinyl with digital download code included.

* Forget everything you think you know about Franz Ferdinand. 'Always Ascending' is nothing short of a rebirth. The album's ten songs are a triumphant recasting of one of everyone's favourite groups, bursting with fresh ideas and vigorous sonic experimentation.
* There have been substitutions but the team are playing stronger than ever. In case you missed the announcement last year, Nick McCarthy (guitar) left to raise his family and Julian Corrie, a much-loved figure in the Glasgow music scene, joined core members Alex Kapranos, Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson.
* With reclusive producer Philippe Zdar (Cassius, Phoenix, Beastie Boys), Franz Ferdinand have taken a knife to their old canvas, creating an album that is so foreign in its familiarity it could only be current.

Stef Chura's debut studio album, Messes, is born of her years of experience playing around the Michigan underground, setting up DIY shows in the area, and moving around the state. Right when it starts to feel like home/It's time to go," she sings on its opening cut, 'Slow Motion', a twisty, dim-lit guitar pop song where she curls and stretches every word. There are worlds of emotion in the ways Chura pronounces phrases with twang and grit, alternatingly full of despair, playfulness, and abandon. Chura calls her music emotional collage,' eschewing start-to-finish storylines in favour of writing intuitively about feelings, drawing from experiences and references related to a certain sentiment.

Originally from Alpena, Michigan, Chura moved to the Ypsilanti area in 2009, where she began playing shows before ultimately moving to Detroit in 2012. Chura has been home-recording and self-releasing her songs for six years, playing bass in friends' bands as well. With a trove of demos and 4-track home recordings, some of which she'd released on small runs of cassettes over the years, Chura says she wasn't sure what to do with her life before heading into the studio. One of my best friends passed away and I thought, what do I have to do before I die I have to at least make one record.'

She recorded the entire album with Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good To Me) throughout 2015. Thomas plays bass on most of the record, and a bit of guitar and drums. Drummer Ryan Clancy of Jamaican Queens and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. adds the bulk of the drums. Through intricate guitar work and warm, textured production, Messes finds her trying to make sense of life's ups and downs. It's about emotional mess, not physical mess,' Chura says. The title track is about knowing that you are going to do something the wrong way, but you're doing it anyway because you want that experience. I've had to do a lot of things the wrong way in order to figure out how to live my life.'

- Reissue of Stef Chura's critically acclaimed debut album.

- LP includes digital download

From the folk punk roots of Carry Me, through the anthemic One Way, Fifteen Years and Top 20 hits Hope Street, Just The One and Beautiful Day - more recent tracks such as Truth Is, The Cholera Well and The Recruiting Sgt show the Levellers' mix of scathing political comment and positive DIY attitude to life hasn't dissipated over the years.

Most exciting of all, there are brand new recordings of the Levellers collaborating with contemporary artists re-working some of their classic material. Imelda May is the Queen of all time on Beautiful Day, while Bellowhead and the legendary Billy Bragg help out on Just The One and Hope Street respectively.

Finally, lifelong Levellers fan Frank Turner joined the band in the studio - breathing new life into Julie - bringing us back full circle for another generation of the disenfranchised to discover the Levellers for the first time.

Unwound: New Plastic Ideas An album Maximum Rock 'N' Roll deemed not punk enough to review, Unwound's 1994 sophomore effort was a lethal depth charge aimed at major label grunge and independent hardcore alike. From the off-kilter, vertiginous rhythm of Entirely Different Matters' to the neck-snapping velocity of What Was Wound' to the relentless pounding at the end of All Souls Day,' New Plastic Ideas is the Sonic Youth-loving older sister to Fake Train's post-punk-obsessed little brother.

If you're seeking catharsis, here it is.' —Mother Jones

Beautiful... strange' - Prince
The two years since Field Music's last album, 'Commontime', have been strange and turbulent. If you thought the world made some kind of sense, you may have questioned yourself a few
times in the past two years. It's that questioning, that erosion of faith - in people, in institutions, in shared experience - that runs through every song on the new Field Music album.
The brothers' studio, on the banks of the River Wear, became a sanctuary away from everything political and personal, a cocoon of creativity. Conversely, making the album became an alternative way to connect to people, with a wide array of musicians invited to leave their mark, notably Sarah Hayes on flute and piccolo, Liz
Corney on vocals, Pete Fraser on saxophone, Simon Dennis on trumpet and flugelhorn, a Cornshed Sisters choir and the regular string quartet of Ed Cross, Jo Montgomery, Chrissie Slater and Ele Leckie. The result is a record that is bigger in scale and grander than anything Field Music have done before.

Heavyweight vinyl LP includes digital download code.

With her single « Vampire », illustrated by a music video full of summer vibes and blood, and which gives its name to her EP, Mai Lan ranks among the artists not to be missed this year. Comfortable with both French and English language, the daughter of the protest artist Kiki Picasso, has launched her musical career with the soundtrack of the movie Sheitan', in 2006. She now delivers a punchy electronic album, with a playful and phantasmagorical universe. After accompanying the band M83 on a world tour, with who she collaborated on the album Junk', the singer has taken the road solo for a series of concerts.