Pop & Rock Vinyl New Releases - News

After years of compulsive listening, fantasising about its story, and tracking down the people who made it, it is a treat for Hot Mule & Secousse to finally share this well-kept secret amongst Caribbean music lovers in its entirety.

Composed, written and arranged by esteemed producer Alex Dorothée, this eponymous solo album of Meliza, an amateur singer hailing from Guadeloupe island, was recorded in 1984 in Paris. A Lo-fi, synth-heavy gem that is hard to categorise: Is it early Zouk? Biguine? Kadans? Calypso?

Nach der Veröffentlichung ihres hochgelobten zweiten Albums Sister im März diesen Jahres, legen Ultraista - Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker und Laura Bettinson - nun nach mit einem Remix-Paket. Floating Points, FaltyDL, Zero 7, Crate Classics und Leifur James, sie alle haben dem Song ihren ganz eigenen Stempel aufgedrückt.

California Black Vows’ chronicles the groups’ move away from the comfort zone straight into the
dark heart of the west. Since their last album, the band relocated from the suburbs of the Midwest
to the sinister shine of Los Angeles. The cover’s icicle is the last remnant of their time in familiar
surroundings. More change was to follow. A duo for most of its existence, Clay Rendering’s core
of Mike and Tara Connelly chose to invite two allies into their closed circle. The enlisted are Sera
Timms of Black Mare on bass and Joe Potts of Sollilja on drums.
The album reveals itself slowly for the first minutes of “Blood Into Wine”, until the refrain opens
wide and dives headlong into the deep. It’s a statement of intent. Whatever happens after this, we
are in it together. From there, things rev up with uncertainty and a nervous edge. “Another Roll of
the Iron Dice”...whose number is up? Tara takes on more vocals than previous records, haunting the
nocturnal ocean with “Once in the Well,” “Black Vows” and “Take Hold.” Strangers come and go and
dance and die in “We Wait.” Questions remain unanswered in “Don’t Understand You.”
With Dylan Neal (Thief) on production duties, Clay Rendering have delivered their fullest and
most fleshed out album to date. The immediacy of the recording gives the feel that these songs
are taking shape as you hear them. Guitars melt over the keyboards and synths throughout
the proceedings. The record is filled with a noir life force that transitions back and forth from
desperate wails to moonlit hymns.
The vocals are clearer and more direct than ever, letting you know exactly where Clay Rendering
stand. The bass provides the heartbeat of the mission. The drums ensure everything lands in its
place. Insomnia, frantic flailing, body language, staring into the forced and artificial landscape,
finding solace among the chaotic foliage...all these things play a role. The comfort has been shed.
Foreboding stars in the western lands bring out the strangest parts in us all. “California Black
Vows” is the howling cry to let those parts show their teeth and the soothing voice to let you know
it will all be over in the morning.

Soundway present something completely different, they are pleased to announce another Dutch artist to their roster, Felbm.

Having previously released more electronic music under the moniker Falco Benz, the multi-instrumentalist Eelco Topper moves towards a more acoustic, instrumental and sketch-like approach with the Felbm project.

The two-part project is being released as 2 separate digital EPs ("Tape 1" and "Tape 2"), the first of which will be released on 21 September. The second digital EP "Tape 2" will be released on the same date as the vinyl, 26 October.

Recorded direct to two cassettes, which comprise each side of the vinyl album, the cover art also reflects this - with both sides of the sleeve acting as separate front covers.

Liar, Flower is the reincarnation of Ruby Throat, consisting of artists KatieJane Garside (Daisy Chainsaw, QueenAdreena, Lalleshwari) and Chris Whittingham. As Ruby Throat, the duo released four albums and an EP between 2007 and 2017, as well as their 2018 compilations Stone Dress, and Liar, Flower.
It began with Daisy Chainsaw in 1991 when KatieJane Garside emerged as a furious icon of the alt-girl underworld in a torn dress and matted hair howling ‘Love Your Money’ a confused and violent mixture of lust and loathing, then came QueenAdreena bolder, darker, louder, unpredictable and violent
Garside and Whittingham have been living together on a small sailboat while raising their young daughter and have spent the past few years out at sea. In recent years the pair have lived a life of isolation, and the album reflects those experiences, coincidently fitting for the current times

Special double vinyl from the annual Nachtdigital festival. Tracks by Giegling, KLM, Pandt, Cologne Tape & the Nachti crew.

‘All We Grow’ was and is a convergence of S. Carey’s young lifetime spent immersed in music: his ‘Waltz For Debby’-era Bill Evans inflected jazz tendencies; his performance degree in classical percussion from the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; his central role in the gale-force power of the Bon Iver live show; his hints of Mark Hollis’ Talk Talk. In his downtime on tour with Bon Iver, Sean would spend time pining for his life at home, dreaming and composing in that headspace.
 ‘All We Grow’ also retests the waters of modern classical composition, investigating the moodiness generated by percussive repetition in a manner familiar to fans of Steve Reich. For as spacious as they are, Carey’s compositions are incredibly dynamic, with moments of bombast held right next to moments of subtle depth and texture. How apropos, then, that this anniversary edition of ‘All We Grow’ adds a cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Take It With Me’, a timeless lullaby from another artist whose voice strikes us in bracing, unexpected ways.
 Ten years ago, S. Carey and ‘All We Grow’ crept into our world like a seedling - delicate and unassuming but putting down roots that would deepen and grow whether we saw them or not. Ten years later, S. Carey and ‘All We Grow’ endure as a part of our soil, an earthen, inextricable part of planet Jagjaguwar. At a time when serenity feels particularly scarce, ‘All We Grow’ stands as a classic album - born without expectation and met with adoration - a cathartic result of Carey’s extraordinary and vibrant life experiences that resonates loss, dreams and heart in a manner so instantly relatable, you feel as though you can touch it.

The Last Broadcast was the second studio album from the Doves. Released in 2002 the album went straight in to the #1 spot in the UK album chart. Also nominated for the Mercury Prize the album features three UK top 40 singles ‘There Goes The Fear’, ‘Pounding’ and ‘ Caught By The River’. This is the first time the album has be reissued on 180g black vinyl. DL code included

Some Cities was the third studio album from the Doves. It was also the band’s second consecutive #1 album in the UK album chart. This is the first time the album has be reissued on 180g black vinyl. DL code included.

"Lost Souls is the debut album by Doves. Originally released in 2000 the album was nominated for a Mercury Prize of that year. The album contained three UK top 40 singles ‘The Cedar Room’, ‘Catch The Sun’ and ‘The Man Who Told Everything’. This is the first time the album has be reissued on 180g black vinyl. DL code included

2015 Vinyl reissue incl CD

*** REPRESS VINYL *** Edition of 500 Clear Vinyl ***

The Space Lady began her odyssey on the streets of San Francisco in the late 70's, playing versions of contemporary pop music an accordion and dressed flamboyantly, transmitting messages of peace and harmony. Following the theft of her accordion, The Space Lady invested in a then-new Casio keyboard, birthing an otherworldly new dimension to popular song that has captured the imaginations of the underground and its lead exponents ever since, with the likes of John Maus, Erol Alkan and Kutmah being devotees.

Of her early street sets, only one recording was made, self-released originally on cassette and then transferred to a home-made CD. "The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits"(LSSN020) features the best of these recordings - mostly covers but with some originals - pressed on vinyl for the first time and features archival photographs and liner notes from The Space Lady herself. “Greatest Hits” contains The Space Lady’s personal favourites; her haunting take on The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night),” a frantic “Ballroom Blitz” amidst other reconstructed pop music. Included are also 4 originals that easily match for the Pop canon. Following the release of this archive, The Space Lady will be issuing new material and travelling the world to present her message outside the United States for the first time.

In the mid 90's The Space Lady packed away her Casio synth and silenced her distinctive voice, retiring from the streets of San Francisco. Now, more than 30 years after her initial forays on Haight Ashbury, she has surfaced with the first ever official release of her timeless, startling music and, even more remarkably, has re-started her live career. Now in Colorado, The Space Lady continues to spread her message of peace, harmony and love.

Red Vinyl

Gothic vocals shrouded by synthesized atmospherics greet you upon entering the world of Xymox. While their album Twist of Shadows isn't exactly industrial in its sound, the bpm's run mid-tempo and sound totally danceable in a New Order-ish way. This expanded remastered double vinyl release includes the club hits "Obsession" and "Blind Hearts," along with several rare 12" mixes and B-sides. A couple of the tracks have string arrangements by famed producer Tony Visconti, who was responsible for several of David Bowie's landmark releases. The two LPs are housed in a gatefold jacket complete with lyrics, and the artwork was designed by Vaughan Oliver of 4AD fame. Originally released in 1989, this is the most accessible Xymox album, selling over 300,000 copies, and their first on a major label.

When Yiğit Bülbül knocked on our door and put his debut album on the table, Fever took our hearts in a storm. The Turkish born, London based musician and producer knows how to craft his own contemporary avant-garde pop projections with a rich musical heritage shining through from the 1980s and 90s. His style erupts into silly, absurd moments of synth blurps, percussive extravaganza and psyched horns, It’s always colourful and trippy, but in a light way. It’s exactly what we want to release in a year of distress. The album is framed by two contemplative tracks, which are reminiscent of Holger Czukay’s oeuvre. The saxophone in the opening track "The Heath" undulates like an introvert leading voice in a meditation. The long and meticulously crafted ambient outro "Txalaparta" features a spoken word sample by the Basque folk musician Txomin Artola from 1978. The four tracks at the heart of the album are beat driven, percussion-heavy, loaded with synths and random horn samples. "Alo?" sounds like Snakefinger tries to get on a Skype call with Serge Gainsbourg. "Cacti All Over My Head" could well be a Ween instrumental with long arching synth lines over a slowed down bossa nova beat. Fever is a frivolous album which bursts with exalted charm and guest musicians. This is not another greetings-from-the-lockdown album, but with the obvious reference in the title it’s almost a tongue-in-cheek name about creative obsessions of our times. It's the debut album by the multi-instrumentalist Y Bülbül who has learned his trade working with various interesting artists and bands in London in the past 10 years. He is also a passionate crate digger and DJ. His own radio show is unerringly titled "Bülbül's Gemüsement Park", which airs on Netil Radio, a community broadcasting station in Hackney. Bonus fact, Bülbül is the Turkish name for a brown-eared passerine bird, one that's into singing.

Flaming Tunes' sole release is perhaps the finest elegy to the '80s home recording ethos that you've never heard. Originally released in 1985 on cassette (with individually hand-colored covers), this self-titled album grew out of the collaboration between childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie.

Williams is best known as a member of English art-rock band This Heat. After leaving the group in the early '80s, he travelled to India where he studied classical Kathakali dance – an experience that would profoundly shape the music of Flaming Tunes.

In an old Victorian house in South London, the duo recorded during the day while Currie's young son attended school and Williams conducted tape treatments at night. They were joined by various guests including This Heat guitarist Charles Bullen as well as long-term collaborators Martin Harrison and Rick Wilson.

Using whatever instruments they had on hand (clarinet, piano, bells, etc.), Flaming Tunes create lo-fi melodies around simple arrangements, oblique rhythms and densely layered natural sounds. The results are a mesmeric collage of instrumental daydreams and sideways pop songs, floating into one another in a hazy confluence of late '60s Canterbury psych-folk and early Residents experimentation.

All of these beguiling elements converge in a personal manner, quietly insistent in listeners' ears like the blood pulsing in one's veins on a warm summer day.

The last Happy Mondays album on Factory Records originally released September 1992 - reaching no 14 in the UK chart. Produced by Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. Artwork lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design. Featured the singles "Stinkin' Thinkin”, “Sunshine & Love” and “Angel”.

Sam de la Rosa of the band Led Er Est, and with Karen Sharkey of The Coombe, is back on Mannequin Records with his third release with 4 stunning tracks blending the finest TR-606 driven electro cold wave with expressive spoken wordy minimal synth instrumentals.

Mixed by Marcos Cabral. Mastered by Rude 66. Graphics by Alessandro Adriani.

LTD. CLEAR VINYL

Repressed in quantity for the first time in years. Includes the hit single "Strange Harvest". Tempers, comprised of Jasmine Golestaneh and Eddie Cooper, have carved out their own niche within dark indie, electronica and synth-pop circles. Their sound is about exploring tonal and emotional tension as much as it is about actual tracks or singular moments. Adrenalizing yet hypnotic landscapes layer mechanical and sensual impulses, as crystalline vocals weave fever dreams of yearning and alienation. Informed by both Golestaneh's involvement in musical performance and visual art and Cooper's electronic production resume, as well as their time in the States and abroad, they operate as a multi-disciplined entity in the spirit and ethos of Factory Records. Tempers describe their creative process as a telepathic kinship they've developed since they started making music together: "We have these sort of unspoken criteria when we're writing music. We never really need to explain what that is but we both know when it's missing or when we've hit it." After a string of critically acclaimed singles beginning in 2013 with "Eyes Wide Wider" b/w "Hell Hotline," the duo released their debut LP "Services" (2015) on cult imprint Aufnahme + Wiedergabe resulting in the underground club hit "Strange Harvest", extensive international touring and sold-out shows. The album's vinyl edition soon became a sought after collectors item. Their 2017 EP "Fundamental Fantasy" was released as a result of the Vinyl Factory's Volcano Extravaganza artist residency on the Aeolian island of Stromboli. Following their unique creative compass, in 2018 they indirectly moved from the dance floor to galleries, releasing "Junkspace" a conceptual collaboration with famed architect Rem Koolhaas. The record is available in the world's most select cultural hotspots, from The New Museum in New York to Walther Konig museum stores throughout Europe, a testament to Tempers' love for experimental output and unorthodox presentation. In 2019 Tempers signed with Dais Records, promptly releasing "Private Life" and the lead single "Capital Pains," a meticulous evolution of the dark pop that marked the duo's earlier output.

Berlin’ is the second single to be taken from the new A Certain Ratio album ‘ACR Loco’, a remarkable piece of work that is steeped in 40 years of ACR DNA.

Includes the original version of ‘Dirty Boy’.

7” single pressed on white vinyl.

Triptdes as the tdes of the ocean draw their power from the moon above, the music of Triptdes is fueled by the mind-bending inspiraton and wide-ranging creatve talents of Glenn Brigman (vocals and guitar), Josh Menashe (guitar and vocals), Dylan Sizemore (bass guitar) and Shaugnessy Starr (drums).
The trip began in the bohemian basements of Bloomington, Indiana in 2010, where Glenn and Josh shared ideas and infuences before evolving to craf a complex yet cohesive range of lush, psychedelic beach-pop' sounds. Two EPs and four LPs later, Triptdes are now an essental element of the Los Angeles psych scene, where they are preparing to launch their newest album, Aferglow. Inspired by the spirit of '60s and '70s West Coast pop and psychedelia, as well as legendary albums ranging from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn to The Notorious Byrd Brothers, Aferglow will be released this summer on French label Requiem Pour Un Twister and supported with a full European and North American tour.
This artefact is something especially nice to have and hold and sit alongside The Young Sinclairs, Silver Factory and Allah-Las in your collecton. They deserve far more atenton than has come along so far' ---Shindig
The soundtrack that will illuminate the summer.' ---Nouvel Obs
The romance that is begining with Triptdes will last more than this summer'. ---Rock & Folk

In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson. The Montreal trio Le Couleur, created by Laurence Giroux-Do (vocals), Patrick Gosselin (bass), and Steeven Chouinard (drums), delivers rich and irresistibly danceable performances. Le Couleur polished their sound until it shined as bright as the late Studio 54's spotlights with EPs Voyage Love (2013) and Dolce Désir (2015), and then P.O.P. (2016), their critically acclaimed debut album. Thanks to precious advice from Giorgio Moroder, with whom the band had the opportunity of sharing the stage, Le Couleur recorded their new album adopting a completely different approach. Concorde takes its name from the legendary Franco-British airplane from 1965, nicknamed the "beautiful white bird" for its sleek and modern design. This avant-garde project that ended in tragedy has always held a certain fascination for Laurence Giroux-Do ; a deadly "crash" that inspired in her a sense of macabre sensuality. In the album's music we find vintage influences, recalling the faded charm of 70s erotica, warm tones also rooted in psychedelia, disco, yéyé, and French chanson.

Stunning debut release from Confuso Editions, a new label operating out of NYC/Rio de Janeiro here venturing into the furthest realms of outsider pop with the first ever public airing of recordings by John Zieman, a student of electronic synthesis at Hampshire College and
collaborator with Nam June Paik, John Sanborn, and Dara Birnbaum. Distilling 80s midtown sleaze (digi-saxophones, drum machines, listless ballads), we’re once again reminded of the sheer volume and wealth of outsider brilliance lurking in archives, drawers and lofts across the world - there really is no end. Fans of Ariel Pink, John Maus, Vazz, Stano, James Ferraro, look sharp!
As far as we can tell the first compilation, or even release, of John Zieman’s music to the wider public, ‘New York City 1980-1984’ spans year of work created after-hours at Manhattan’s nowdefunct Intergalactic Studios, covering an era-consistent gamut of itchy new wave machine rhythms and guitars ranging from gangly to jangling and pop-tart, all embedded in cruddy and offcentre FX and synths.
It comes with an amazing backstory too; in April of 1980, Zieman began working at Intergalactic Studios in Manhattan, where he took up residence in the studio’s bathroom, using soundproofing foam as a bed in a demolished stall. During this period, Zieman began composing on the studio’s Fairlight CMI synthesizer-sampler. Over the following seven months, working commercially by day and recording by night, Zieman produced the tracks which would become the basis for this set of tracks before you.
Revolving the fizzing drum machines of lead single ‘Flying Nine (Dara)’, which first appeared on the soundtrack to Dara Birnbaum’s video piece ‘Damnation of Faust: Evocation’ (1983), the set sprawls out between something like an unzipped Woo with ‘Gamelan Skate’, to ohrwurming offbeat pop in another big highlight ‘Hi-tech Love Song’, alongside more solitary and melancholic charms in ‘Occasional Thing’ and the loping ‘Leave You In The Park’, and something that could have
almost appeared on a James Ferraro tape 10 years ago in ’Better When It’s Deeper’.
As Joshua Daube puts it “The compilation stands out as an uncanny reflection of New Wave, at once rooted in its time and place and yet deeply singular. Across the twilight of a smoke-filled bar, Zieman’s edgy synths fix us with a thousand-yard stare, hungry sounds from the wrong side of Port Authority: “can I go back to sleep?” confuso revives these overlooked hypnagogic gems in New York City 1980-1984, which shine across the decades like a streetlight in a snowstorm.”

12” of ‘Valleys’ featuring stunning remixes from
Confidence Man and Manchester legend Graham
Massey.
‘Valleys’ is taken from Working Men’s Club’s self-titled
10-track album. Talking about the track, Syd from the
band said: “‘Valleys’ is probably the most honest song
on the record and I guess sets a premise for the rest
of the album, growing up in a small town and trying to
escape. It was one of the last songs we finished, we
couldn’t quite get the right string sound despite
layering up about 4 synths up then Ross brought in his
fixed LE string synth and it sounded perfect for the
song. It’s the first track on the album and one of the
last songs I wrote before going into Sheffield to finish
off the record. Having been in lockdown since the end
of Winter in Todmorden it seems like there couldn’t be
a more appropriate time to release this song.”
“With nods to the Fall and Soft Cell, the urgent
Yorkshire indie band like confusing people, and
badmouthing Andrew Neil.” - The Observer
“Exuberant rock ‘n’ roll. This lot blend new wave, postpunk, motorick rhythms and hard-edged hard-edged
beats.” - Music Week
“High-voltage new wave, combined with a healthy
dose of audience-bating.” - Q Magazine (Shortlisted for
Q Best Breakthrough Act)
“Great for dancing but also works on a deeper level...
full of melodies that burrow into your brain.” -
Resident Advisor

limited Obi strip/White vinyl edition

''Ruyzdael presents Writers on Wax Volume 1: The Sound of Graffiti, a compilation album with 8 exclusive, primarily electronic tracks by producers from four different countries who are more (in)famous as graffiti writers than as musicians.''Letters on a wall, letters on a train. When you take it back to that essence, it?s really not so strange that graffiti writers call themselves and each other writers. With just a few letters ? a word, a name ? they write their mythology for a general audience. No huge vocabulary needed, just imagination and a need for expression. It can come as no surprise that those qualities extend to other disciplines as well. Graffiti has long been associated with musical styles (hip-hop, punk) that contain an abundance of imagination and expression. Less well known is the fact that graffiti writers have embraced the DIY approach of electronic music. Writers on Wax Volume 1 is a group exposition of beats and basslines, imagination and expression. Sometimes using a lot of words, usually none or very few. The dance floor has its own myths.

Red Translucent Vinyl, Gatefold, Photo Book Cover

limited red vinyl/gatefold edition ''Ruyzdael presents Writers on Wax Volume 1: The Sound of Graffiti, a compilation album with 8 exclusive, primarily electronic tracks by producers from four different countries who are more (in)famous as graffiti writers than as musicians.''Letters on a wall, letters on a train. When you take it back to that essence, it?s really not so strange that graffiti writers call themselves and each other writers. With just a few letters ? a word, a name ? they write their mythology for a general audience. No huge vocabulary needed, just imagination and a need for expression. It can come as no surprise that those qualities extend to other disciplines as well. Graffiti has long been associated with musical styles (hip-hop, punk) that contain an abundance of imagination and expression. Less well known is the fact that graffiti writers have embraced the DIY approach of electronic music. Writers on Wax Volume 1 is a group exposition of beats and basslines, imagination and expression. Sometimes using a lot of words, usually none or very few. The dance floor has its own myths.

This November sees the release of 50th Anniversary editions of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs on 4LP and 2CD. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1970 double album, the original has been given the ‘Half-Speed Mastered’ treatment by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios and is completed with a certificate of authentication. 4LP SET - Layla is often regarded as Eric Clapton’s greatest musical achievement. The album is notably known for its title track, an evergreen rock classic, which had top ten single chart success in the UK and features the dual wailing guitars of Clapton and Duane Allman. Alongside this are a further 2LPs of bonus material some of which has not previously been released on vinyl. All the bonus material across all of LP3 and LP4 is mastered normally (so is not half-speed mastered). The LP set includes a 12×12 book of sleeve notes taken from the 40th-Anniversary Edition.

The music of Alex Maas has always mesmerised. Now, on his soul-baring solo debut Luca, the Texan and Black Angels singer's journey is taking an equally hypnotic detour along the wild trails of his indigenous homestead. Driven by the force of nature, each phase of life is celebrated through songs of love, hope, human connection whilst navigating perils of modern society and tentatively facing the darkness.

“I’m trying to find balance in the insane world we live in,” reveals Alex. “Is shit scary? Yes. Is life beautiful and filled with hope and inspiration? Yes. You have to go into the dark to appreciate the light and vice versa. Everything isn't always peachy, one day you are walking through a beautiful field and get bit by a rattlesnake because you are blinded by the colourful flowers. It’s ok to be afraid, sad and fearful because you need it to appreciate all the beauty the world has to offer.”

Like the echoes of nature that Alex grew up around Luca dances like dandelions on a breeze but is spiked with a squint of suspicion as its percussion shimmers like that cautionary rattlesnake. His album crackles with the vintage warmth of Grace Slick or smoky melodies of Nico, rising like a campfire’s embers whilst taking cues from Beth Gibbons, Sam Cooke, Lee Hazlewood, Vashti Bunyan, Mississippi John Hurt, and Huun-Huur-Tu. “I like music that makes me feel like I’m entering a magical place. I’m drawn to those whose voice sounds like it’s coming from the forest,” he says.

Recorded at Space Flight Studios in Austin Luca was an evolutionary project with some early songs worked up from their acoustic origins whilst others were written more recently. Co-produced with long-time collaborator Brett Orrison, the record began its transformation from loner folk leanings to a worldlier embrace. Calling upon members of The Black Angels, Wide Spread Panic, Mien, the Sword, Jack White’s band the Eels.

Stepping out on his own Maas is walking along his own untrodden path, offering an honest and true account of what has passed and what may yet come. Luca sings from the soul, is believable and could well be everything the world needs right now.

Ars Subtilior (14th century) and the Noise: the two inspirations of Christophe Guiraud which are like two rivers which are woven in a writing of great power. The French young composer is the link between the most accomplished scholarly music and some radical aspects of noise. Born in Toulouse mid-seventies, he settles in Brussels - which becomes the crossroads of a continuous creation. Currently works and has been collaborating since several years with numerous European ensembles and musicians such as Ensemble Ictus, Phønix16, Tom Pauwels, Timo Kreuser, Ensemble 21, Sturm und Klang.

His most recent pieces intimately mix instrumental timbre and sound hybridization, cultivating a certain secrecy around this alchemy. Here more than everywhere else, Christophe Guiraud's new compositions create a dialogue between the times, from the polyphony of Ars Nova to Spectralism, while integrating his noise heritage. Resolutely an-historical, the last pieces presented here unfold in a trembling stagnation.

Prolific Cleveland indie rock outfit Cloud Nothings return with new album, The Black Hole Understands, the latest in their extensive and celebrated discography. Written and recorded during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Black Hole Understands is “a record born of this early quarantine anxiety and confusion,” according to vocalist/guitarist Dylan Baldi.

About a month into quarantine, Baldi and drummer Jayson Gerycz started sending files back and forth, with guitars, bass and vocals tracked in Philadelphia and drums and mixing undertaken in Cleveland. This remote recording process presented a new set of restrictions for Cloud Nothings, completely removing the element of interactive jamming and tightening the production around a set of streamlined summer pop songs.

Every Cloud Nothings record, from their 2010 debut Turning On through to 2014’s Attack On Memory and 2018’s Last Building Burning, has had its own distinct feel. But The Black Hole Understands eschews the noisy thrash and improv tendencies that emerged on later albums, in favor of dreamy, poppy vocals that float over fast, jangly songs. With clean hooks and uncluttered arrangements (a synth overdub from Bee Mask's Chris Madak is the album's only guest feature), the songs on The Black Hole Understands are the kind of concise, hook-heavy blasts the band was churning out in their earliest days, albeit a little more distant and weary.

Hyper-melodic and high-energy, The Black Hole Understands also shows a restraint that fits with the strange times that it was born of, carrying a sense of melancholy and cautious optimism that mirrors the restless dread of life on lockdown.

“Despite being recorded in an era of unthinkable instability, it is the most assuredly melodic Cloud Nothings has sounded in years.” - Pitchfork, 7.5/10

“Though much of lockdown has felt like the walls are closing in, the joyous ‘The Black Hole Understands’ sees Cloud Nothings help us feel like we can bust right through them into a brighter future.” - NME

Alexa! Is the Cool Greenhouse’s new single, the follow-up to their acclaimed debut album and, indisputably, the most powerful song ever made. Alexa! can phone your mum. Alexa! can set your alarm for ungodly hours. Alexa! is the first song in history capable of racking up its own streams and ordering copies of itself. Simultaneously a modern love song dedicated to the 14% of men who have found themselves aroused by their virtual assistants during lockdown and a characteristically sardonic investigation into the sly corporate invasion of domestic space, Alexa! is, above all, a stonker of a tune that further solidifies The Cool Greenhouse’s position as one of the most exciting and innovative bands around. Of their historic single, the band had this to say: “Don’t worry we don’t need any press for this one just stick a bunch of virtual assistants in a room and get one of them to play the track it should be able to get to number one on its own eventually, cheers.”

A limited pressing in transparent yellow of Eyedress's album, Let's Skip To The Wedding - a loved up remedy for uncertain times. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide

Previously known as the moniker Micachu and The Shapes, Good Sad Happy Bad named themselves after their last album Good Sad Happy Bad. Their record is called Shades. Shades is made up of 12 songs. Like the band name the songs are either good, sad, happy or bad and sometimes either slow, fast, heavy or light, and sometimes cold, hot, warm or freezing, and sometimes tasty, nasty, bland or spicy.

Minimal Wave compilation featuring 13 tracks by 13 bands around the theme "Kosmonaut"

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus
formed boygenius after booking a tour together
but the trio had subconsciously been in the works
for longer than that. Through a series of tours and
performances together and chance encounters that
led to friendships - including Bridgers' and Dacus'
first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia
festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly
comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email
chains and even a secret handshake between
Baker and Dacus - the lyrically and musically
arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got
to know each other on their own terms.

5TH ANNIVERSARY

Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus formed boygenius after booking a tour together but the trio had subconsciously been in the works for longer than that. Through a series of tours and performances together and chance encounters that led to friendships - including Bridgers' and Dacus' first in-person meeting backstage at a Philadelphia festival, greenroom hangouts that felt instantly comfortable and compatible, a couple of long email chains and even a secret handshake between Baker and Dacus - the lyrically and musically arresting singer-songwriters and kindred spirits got to know each other on their own terms.

Jubilee is an album of selections from the last five years of multifarious output by the art collective FPBJPC, including Jonathan Gean, Michael Pollard, Ben Schumacher, and Peter Friel. Including 8-hand piano arrangements of Schiller’s “An Die Freude,” helpful techno, free guitar quartets, music from their film The China Chalet Group, and more, Jubilee is an incomplete picture of FPBJPC’s life-long research into ways of hanging out. Side A ends with an anthemic Interpol “cover” performed at the collective’s own Responsibility Festival, which took over southern Ontario’s Wolfe Island for a weekend in the summer of 2019.

Everything in FPBJPC’s oeuvre requires you to tilt your head to adjust where the glare obscures the picture. Or there’s no glare, but we’re accustomed to thinking there ought to be one. I was in the audience for the 2019 Recital Earth Day Gala concert, and during FPBJPC’s set someone in the audience muttered to me, “perfect music.” At the Interpol concert, I was also in the audience. I didn’t know the words and didn’t feel like crowdsurfing, but I was very happy to be there. This music helps me remember how to learn how to love. Maybe in the last seventy years or so the loveless mistrust of fucks given has become the cruel, background fuck whose givenness is a given. FPBJPC invites us to relieve ourselves of that cruelty and, thereby, invites us back into love. Perfect music.

Derek Baron, Sept. 2020

LTD. TRANSPARENT RED VINYL

On Palberta5000, Ani Ivry-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser max out traditional pop forms_blowing the genre out into lush, kinetic extensions_to create their own hardcore style of popular music. Together these 16 adventurous, hyper-melodic tracks represent the band's most accessible album by far_one that is bursting at the seams with vocal hooks and exuberant playing. Palberta5000 was recorded with Matt Lambozza (PALM, Shimmer), whose Peekskill, New York, studio is located in the original home and family lamp-store of Paul Reuben (Pee Wee Herman). Lambozza's recording and mix capture the band's rollicking instrumentation and vocal precision with greater clarity than anyone has before. Tracks like the emotionally chaotic "Before I Got Here," which charges hard before turning on a dime into a hypnotic krout-surf outro, convey the panicked feeling of falling in love, while Palberta's ear for pop music makes itself apprent on heart-melting harmonies like those fround on "Corner Store." Adding variation to Palberta5000's well thought-out song cycle are lavish downtempo jams ilke the slow waltz that is "The Way That You Do," and the enchanting "Red Antz." Taken together, these songs create a full album experience, and one that is sure to excite the band's devoted following while welcoming new fans along for the ride.

LTD. CRYSTAL CLEAR VINYL

THE LAST EXIT is the fifth studio album from Still Corners. With the shimmering desert noir sound the band has become known for, THE LAST EXIT takes you on a hypnotic journey, one filled with dilapidated towns, mysterious shapes on the horizon, and long trips that blur the line between what's there and not there. Greg says, "We found something out there in the desert - something in the vast landscapes that went on forever." THE LAST EXIT consists of eleven beautifully crafted songs with organic instrumentation, clean-toned guitar, spacious drums and the smoky croon of Tessa Murray. Album highlights include "The Last Exit", "White Sands" and "Shifting Dunes" all of which evoke the vast space of the desert and rolling unconcerned skies.