Buscar:mary

Chart topping British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters returns with much anticipated third studio album ‘Florescence’, co-produced with 2x Grammy Winner Ian Fitchuck with collaborators including Marcus Mumford and Julia Michaels. Florescence reflects on how the right love can help heal the wrong ones. It’s an album about perspective, self-realisation, healing, and ultimately, learning how to flourish. This lands as Maisie’s first new LP since she became the youngest solo British female artist in almost a decade to land a UK No.1 album with ‘The Good Witch’ back in 2023. Since then, she’s had the A-list co-signs via Phoebe Bridgers, Sam Smith and Olivia Rodrigo. She’s had a fiercely devoted fandom flock to headline tours around the world. And she’s played shows from Wembley Arena, to Glastonbury, to stadium slots with Taylor Swift and Coldplay.


“Florescence means ‘the process of flowering, of developing richly and fully’ and to me, this album describes exactly that. These 15 tracks depict a blossoming of myself from ages 23 to 25 and a blossoming of a true real love that anchors both me and this record. It tells the story of the last few long winters, with all of their villains and thorns, heartbreaks and rains, and it leads you, by the end, into a perfect English spring, into the hope and catharsis that comes when the first wildflower blooms. It’s a true representation of healing, of finding hope and peace and strength not just in somebody else, but in yourself. It is clear skies, cherry pits on the grass, windows flung open - it is Sussex country roads and London corner shop wine that leaves a stain when you kiss. It is the feeling of flying, then falling, then flying again. It is knowing that there was a point to all the sadness of before, and the point is the woman you see in this mirror now, and the person you see by her side. Love is weaved into every strand of every song on this album and for good reason - love is timeless, love is pure, love is organic and simple and effortless and real. I hope you find this album to be that as well.”

Release week Focus Track: Paint the Rain RELEASE TIMELINE 12/10 - TMR signs Natalie Bergman Announcement with video on Youtube: I Will Praise You (Live) 01/27 - Announce w/ PreSave/PreOrder IG1: Talk to the Lord + (music video) 02/24 - IG2: Shine Your Light On Me + (music video) 03/24 - IG3: I Will Praise You (album version) 04/21 - IG4: I’m Going Home Potential Video Asset - Live set of all the IG tracks released 05/05 - IG5 and Official Music Video: Paint the Rain 05/07 - STREET DATE w/ Focus Track: Paint the Rain Mercy is Natalie Bergman's debut, a self-produced solo album recorded in the strangest of times, during a personal period of profound sadness and reinvention. It's startling, and often beautiful — a rush to the edge of the cliff, with an unflinching look below Recorded at her brother's home studio in Los Angeles, CA, Bergman has already had a lengthy, successful career as one half of the brother-sister duo Wild Belle, but this is the first time she wrote and played all the material. This record absolutely pulses with redemptive power; it is replenishing and original, and deeply cathartic. And before we go any further, you should know that this is kind of a gospel record. It should also be said -- Natalie made this record because she absolutely had to. The music of Mercy began to germinate a few months after she lost her father in a wrong-way, head-on collision. He and her step-mother were killed by a drunk driver. Shortly after, Natalie visited a monastery in the southwestern desert, and there she began to embark on this album. "The first song I wrote on Mercy was 'Home At Last,'" she says. "It is the best song I have ever written. I sing a lot about home on this record. Believing in that place has been my greatest consolation. I had an urgency and desperation to know that my father was there. His sudden death was a whirling chaos that assaulted my mind. This album provided me with my only hope for coming back to life myself. Gospel music brings hope. It is the good news; it’s exemplary. It can bring you truth. It can keep you alive. These songs have kind of written themselves, and they rely on me to sing them.” Natalie Bergman made one of the first great albums of 2021.

third album, "Magic Seeds". The record represents his most personal and collaborative work and blends live recordings and analogue synths to create an organic, rhythmic sound reminiscent of trip-hop and hip-hop.

"Magic Seeds" explores themes of growth and reconnection, featuring unexpected musical moments and influences from 90s electronic music to neoclassical. Tracks like "Smoke in the Air" and "Inner Child" highlight his ability to balance emotional peaks with deep, moody atmospheres. The album’s dynamic range and authenticity reflect James's commitment to musical freedom and societal reflection, making it a compelling sonic collage of his recent experiences.

Over the past few years, Leifur James has steadily built a reputation as a vital new voice in electronic music on both sides of the Atlantic. He’s played prestigious London venues like the Barbican and Village Underground in London and toured Europe, as well as being named Pitchfork and KCRW’s ‘best new music’ in the US, and his music has been championed by the likes of tastemakers Gilles Peterson, Mary Anne Hobbs, Bradley Zero and actor Cillian Murphy, and from BBC 6Music to NTS via KCRW and RMC Italia. James has also enjoyed further flagship press support from Consequence of Sound, Clash, CRACK, Passion of the Weiss, XLR8R, Complex, MixMag, DJ Mag, The Vinyl Factory, and more

“One foot out the door, another in the otherworld…”
So begins Hannah Lew’s debut, self-titled solo record, soaked in imperious, wide-eyed pop songwriting and a girl-group/post punk aesthetic that belies the artist’s history in the U.S. underground. A towering, hook-laden album, it’s infused with an optimism and surrealism that conversely deals with the times we find ourselves in.

Recorded at home in Richmond, CA and in The Best House studio with Maryam Qudus in Oakland CA, with the assistance of a crack team of West Coast musicians, this album sees Hannah Lew stepping out from behind the legacy of her two groups Grass Widow and Cold Beat. While musically bearing similarities with her previous work, “Hannah Lew” is a bold leap into direct pop territory, making ample use of a vocal style that teases out the inherent melancholy in her melodies. Mastered by Sarah Register, each song is a perfectly honed nugget that frequently pulls the heart in two directions at once.

Themes of change, breaking up, shattering old ways of being are shot through the record. For the front cover, a photograph of the artist’s face was printed, ripped up and re-assembled, resembling the creative process embarked upon by Lew for her first “solo” material. The album feels instinctual, almost dream-like in its assemblage of sweeping synths and pulsating, propulsive drum machine beat patterns with Lew’s vocal performances sensitive and caressing over the top. Increasingly relying on the subconscious and dreams to guide her creative process, Hannah Lew frequently abandons literal interpretations or linear narratives, the songs seeming to exist in a swooning, effortless flow-state while remaining emotionally hard hitting.

On an album where every song could be a single, there are kaleidoscopic shades and varying emotional tones in abundance. First single Another Twilight is carried along a pumping, Italo-disco-style 4/4 beat and mono-synth bass line, the low end pulling at the heart and body. Lew’s vocal melody teases the track before swan-diving into a gorgeous chorus as she sings “it’s all over baby and I don’t mind… in decline, I take my time…” The album is suffused with moments like this. On slow builder Damaged Melody, an arpeggiated synth elongates the verse before a cascading synth showers down melodic glitter. The stunning Replica uses dual swirling synth patterns before a driving, synthpop chorus for the ages carries Hannah Lew’s vocal into the stereo field, sailing in on a high register singed with the embers of a break up.

In a departure from previous groups, her solo songs are guided by dreams and free association inspired by Dada and the Surrealist movement and sculpted afterwards. As such, the songs reveal themselves on repeated listens, revealing traces of heartbreak inspired by both personal and global elements - Hannah Lew regards the album “a wartime album.” On Move In Silence, Lew intones “there’s a war outside, just out of view,” revealing the dichotomy at play throughout. With the songs evolving naturally and in a flow state, the pressures and sadnesses of the modern age bleed through, mixed in with Lew’s inherent love, sensitivity and fractured-but-intact optimism. On the swooning, sublime Sunday layers of Numanoid synths open up for the commanding vocal performance pontificating on grief, love, pain as she “feels the ache on Sunday…” As the chorus builds and Lew’s call-and-response vocal adds to the emotional tension, it almost feels like too much to take.

Elsewhere, there are echoes of Hannah Lew’s previous work. On Time Wasted a bass guitar comes in with a heavy, punk attack before the synths and vocal harmonies reminiscent of later Cold Beat elevate everything. The glassy, sweetly resigned closer The Clock sounds like so classic it could be cover, a sweetened Jesus & Mary Chain tune perhaps, before it erupts into volcanic chorus that could only come from Hannah Lew in 2026.

Hiroshi Sato’s landmark solo debut album, recorded at Electra Studios in California with the support of local musicians including Amos Garrett and Joe Carrello.
The album features a self-cover of “Rainbow Sealine”, originally written for Minako Yoshida, as well as “F.W.Y.”, later covered by Chu Kosaka.
Original Release: LQ-7008 (May 25, 1976)

REVIEWS
"Utterly gorgeous. This magnificent album is the gift that keeps on giving. Downright essential"
Electronic Sound (No. 6 Album Of The Year 2022)
"A cosmic swoon that plays with closeness and distance in the realm of revelation"
Pitchfork - 7.6
"Gloriously introspective"
Sunday Times
2022 Album Of The Year
The Thin Air

Die Original Vinyl-LP von 1984 wurde in einer kleinen Auflage neu aufgelegt. Die Songs wurden von Barrington Levy im Channel One Studio eingesungen, mit den Roots Radics als Backing Band, um dann von Soldgie Hamiltion, Scientist und Sylvan Morris im Harry J und Channel One Studio abgemischt zu werden, als Produzent zeichnete Henry "Junjo" Lawes verantwortlich. Das Titelstück "Prison Oval Rock" war als Single bereits 1982 erfolgreich in Jamaika erschienen und ist hier neben dem Original auch in der Dubversion zu hören, und wurde später von Collie Buddz in "Hustle" (2001) und von Mr. Vegas' "Mus Come A Road" (2008) gesampled. Als weitere klassische Reggae Riddims wurden identifiziert "Skylarking" ( Song"Good Loving"), Pressure And Slide (Song "Please Jah Jah") und "Boops" (Song "Rip & Run Off").

• “Guerrilla Girls!”, Ace Records’ much-anticipated first release of 2023, takes us on a thrilling ride from punk’s mid-70s origins, via the left-field post-punk groups, jangly female combos, grunge bands and vigilante Riot Grrrls of the 80s and 90s, to the she-punk bands of recent years – a five-decade alternative to the macho hegemony of rock.

• The collection highlights songs that emerged out of a dynamic underculture of female creative expression. What unites the featured artists is a healthy disregard for the way the music industry ties up its female performers into pretty, neo-liberal packages. From Patti Smith, universal mother of the punk movement, to the Bags, Bikini Kill and Skinny Girl Diet, this music is anti-A&R. Including lesser-known names such as San Francisco street punk Mary Monday and London-based experimentalists pragVec, it shows that, rather than being a few novelty bands existing on the margins, these performers represent a stronger, more three-dimensional version of the female experience.

• Glorious resistance was on display in the first wave of UK female-fronted punk bands. Poly Styrene’s charged vocals on X-Ray Spex’s ‘Iama Poseur’, for instance, were a deliberate refusal to be a pretty punkette. With 15 year-old Lora Logic on saxophone, X-Ray Spex epitomised a fearless, self-defined agency that was at odds with the pastel shades and flowery, submissive Laura Ashley version of 1970s girlhood. By the early 80s, there was a hugely vibrant scene propelled by the diverse rhythms and voices of post-punk feminism. Lora Logic had left X-Ray Spex to form the interweaving textures of Essential Logic, the Mo-dettes mangled ska and off-kilter pop, and Birmingham band Au Pairs sliced political rigour into their lyrics and funky guitar work.

• Some female artists took that elemental energy into pop, creating pop-punk with a twist. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! made a statement on music technology and female power with a cheeky play on words. Their song ‘Rules And Regulations’ shows that what Guerrilla Girls do well is debunking – taking genres of popular song and turning them inside out – like the way the Pandoras and the Pussywillows would amp up the driving beat and high vocals of the 60s girl group style, and subvert it with a DIY garage element.

• In its fanzine culture, use of montage and DIY music, 90s Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile drew direct inspiration from 70s punk, articulated through the prism of Third Wave feminism. Too often, Riot Grrrl gigs were invaded by men intent on heckling “the enemy”. Liz Naylor, manager of British Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, says that their concerts became war zones. From the US grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes emerged more female instrumentalists, with bands such as L7 and Babes In Toyland proving that it was possible to recruit cutting-edge drummers, bass players and guitarists. Lori Barbero, whose relentless power drumming is a major element of Babes In Toyland, took the one instrument that has been a staple of male rock’n’roll and made it her muse.

• In the 2000s a new generation of girl-punk bands drew on the Riot Grrrl underculture to form their own sound. London trio the Tuts refashioned C86, Riot Grrrl and lush dream pop on songs like the ironically titled ‘Let Go Of The Past’, while the Regrettes injected shots of ska and doo wop into their explosive West Coast pop-punk. What began with Patti Smith and 70s punk has grown into a vast, spikey infrastructure of girl music. Many take inspiration from their foremothers, like Skinny Girl Diet whose vigilante feminism and punk distortion has been championed in return by Viv Albertine of the Slits. As long as these female artists stay aware of their musical vision and what they are trying to express – in a sense, A&R themselves – the underculture will continue to grow and flower. And this “Guerrilla Girls!” compilation is a celebration of that power.


• The back sleeve of the release features a scene-setting introductory essay by Lucy O’Brien (author of She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music). Each of the two discs come in a swanky inner bag containing a track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick (Ace Records’ long-serving champion of female artists of all persuasions) and exclusive interviews with many of the featured artists by Vim Renault and Lene Cortina (founders of the Punk Girl Diaries webzine).

Tucked in the heart of Koreatown, Los Angeles, lies The Libra Hotel—the titular architecture of Nick Malkin's new album and site of his musical and psychogeographic exploration. Unlike most musical "site-specific" studies, Malkin remains wholly ambivalent to the documentarian approach, instead sharpening an auteur-like focus on the site as a conceptual and highly expressive backdrop. The Libra is musically explored as a space that houses a noir fragmentation of identity—the exhausted trope of a complicated protagonist walking through rain-soaked street corners and fumy neon lights—where an inner monologue is rendered in both miniature and at a cosmic scale. Casting aside stifling tropes around field recording, ambient, and improvised music, Malkin's work finds its own unique fidelity and emotional core through the assembly and reassembly of memory. Nearly every sound on the album—from frayed saxophones, lambent pianos, and dissected jazz drum kits—are multiplied, shattered, and reconstituted into shapes that adorn The Libra in a motion-blurred fog. The narrative of the Hotel suddenly appears as if out of the mist, with intersecting characters interacting within its walls by happenstance. Adminst the languid set pieces, wraith-like sonic grains gravitate around wide subbass beams that give structural form to The Libra, a narrative tension like when a scene is shot from hundreds of different perspectives: an image both luminous and veiled.

Much like Frank Sinatra's own spatial residency immortalized on "Live at The Sands," "At The Libra Hotel" showcases an exuberant view of entertainment, hospitality, and a form of masculinity, one that can quickly detourn into darkness. Knowing this, Malkin extracts a melancholic core out of The Libra locale. The flickering shadows of American decadence are shown in their ephemeral honesty, lines that trace how even in everyday life virtue is tested, sanity is tested, even reality is tested within the confines of desire, within the night. The album is draped in fleeting textures, carefully arranged with a trance-like microtonality, the faint inflections and articulations of a jazz band cascading into dissipated stillness. Voicemails about changed locations and covert eavesdropping on guests' whispered conversations provide an atmosphere of missed connection and voyeurism—a purloined letter of desire receding into a vanishing point. Like the music itself, The Hotel, a chapel perilous at the intersection of desolation row, the center of it all, yet simultaneously at the edge of town, becomes a structure between libidinous virtuality and actuality—our inevitable half-light.

Ultimately, the pensive atmosphere of "At The Libra Hotel," powerfully asserts a plea for the kinds of intimacy only possible in transient spaces. Here, memory cascades into a force that feels like something supernatural, perhaps even religious, yet always subject to the infidelity of our imagination. Here, the album opens into its primary psychodrama, the transient nature of subjectivity itself and how this becomes fractured in the tumult between our commitments and desires. Within this nocturnal space, to quote Louise Bourgeois, "you pile up associations the way you pile up bricks. Memory itself is a form of architecture."

The borderless, tropical band “of Tropique,” whose core sound blends funk and rock-infused exotica, releases a 12-track full-length album on vinyl LP!!
This work maximizes their core lineup as a guitar-less trio, featuring a diverse array of 14 guest musicians to construct a rich sonic landscape.
This landmark release in the history of domestic exotica and tropical music features Mutsumi Kobayashi of the Minyo Crusaders, Rockin' Enocky of Jackie
& The Cedrics, to global talents like Joshua Camp of CHICHA LIBRE and MIRAMAR, the standard-bearer of US new wave Latin bands, and more!
It's a masterpiece that delivers the full thrill, excitement, and pleasure of encountering unknown music.

Marvin Gaye always dreamed of being a smooth crooner, “sitting on a stool, possibly behind a piano,” delivering velvety songs like Nat King Cole. But Motown had other plans. Pushed between raw R&B and polished pop, Gaye fought to find his own voice, eventually rising to become one of the greatest soul singers in history.

Motown Records released the first Marvin Gaye record in 1961 "(I'm Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over", a single intended for (radio) promotion from the singer's debut album. This was followed up by the officially released "Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide" a week later. Gaye scored his first real hit with "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" in 1962, which he had co-written himself, joking about his alleged stubbornness. He found his own unique style with the single released at the end of the year: "Hitch Hike". The foundations were now laid for an enormous series of chart successes: "Pride And Joy", "Can I Get A Witness", "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "Ain't That Peculiar" are all Motown classics from 1963-1965 which are still being regularly played today after all these years. The duets he recorded with Kim Weston ("It Takes Two"), especially Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross were certainly at least as good.

He scored his biggest ever hit with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" in 1968. "What's Going On" from the same titled album became a number 1 hit in the USA. The album was received as a masterpiece and is regarded as one of the most important records in pop history. In 1973, the artistically and commercially very successful, "Let's Get It On" album was mainly a musical ode to Marvin's love for his new muse Janis Hunter. His journey continued after a turbulent relationship, addiction and a dramatic creative rebirth in Belgium, where he crafted the global hit “Sexual Healing in 1982.

Marvin Gaye left behind timeless hits, groundbreaking albums, and a legacy that shaped the sound of modern soul. His story, from ambition to artistry, from struggle to brilliance, remains as powerful as the music he created.

Music On Vinyl proudly presents a special coloured vinyl edition of the Marvin Gaye Collected album which is available as a limited edition of 10.000 individually numbered copies on white (LP1) and silver coloured vinyl (LP2) and includes a booklet with liner notes.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

Greg Mendez war schon immer ein sparsamer Songwriter - er nutzt Zurückhaltung und Einfachheit als Werkzeuge, um den Kern seiner Songs zu schärfen. Auf Beauty Land, seinem neuen Album und Debüt-LP für Dead Oceans, werden wir von einem ironischen, aber nachsichtigen Erzähler begleitet, einem Underdog, der gelernt hat, Zynismus und Glauben in Einklang zu bringen. Diese Songs sind zurückhaltend, ohne selbstmitleidig zu sein, sorgfältig konstruierte Altäre der Unvollkommenheit, vermittelt durch Pop-Melodien, schimmernde, aber eindringliche Gitarren und eine Stimme, die nach der Unschuld eines Chorknaben strebt. Der Großteil von ,Beauty Land" wurde direkt auf Band aufgenommen, fast ganz allein in Mendez' provisorischem Heimstudio in Philadelphia - einem kleinen Raum ohne Tageslicht. Es ist sein erstes Album in voller Länge seit seinem unerwarteten Durchbruch mit dem selbstbetitelten Album im Jahr 2023, das nach 15 Jahren des Schreibens und Aufnehmens von Musik in relativer Unbekanntheit zwischen Philly und New York ein langsamer Erfolg wurde. ,Beauty Land" knüpft dort an, wo wir vor drei Jahren aufgehört haben - es lotet die Tiefen von Trauer, Liebe und Sucht aus -, aber seine intensive, ruhige Klarheit zeigt Mendez von seiner besten Seite als Songwriter. Teile von ,Beauty Land" fühlen sich wie ein luzider Traum an, in dem angeschlagene Charaktere sich ihren Weg durch eine karikaturhafte und verzerrte Welt bahnen - der gebrochene Uhrentakt von ,I Wanna Feel Pretty", das klingende Spielzeugklavier in ,Gentle Love". ,Mary / Dreaming" beginnt als spärliche, fingergezupfte Klage, bevor es abrupt zu einer enttäuschten, Beach-Boys-artigen, aber verkorksten Auflösung übergeht, die sowohl Melancholie als auch Freude hervorruft; ein Gefühl, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig wahr sein können. Keiner der 14 Tracks ist länger als drei Minuten, aber sie erzählen Geschichten, die ein ganzes Leben umfassen. Der Tod schwebt durch das Album, sei es als Erinnerung oder als Bedrohung. Alles fühlt sich prekär an. Die Art und Weise, wie diese Songs aufgebaut sind, hat etwas Zerbrechliches: die Art und Weise, wie die Begräbnisorgel neben dem Morphium in ,Looking Out Your Window" erklingt, die verheerende Einfachheit von ,Frog" mit seinem verlangsamten Keyboard und dem nackten Refrain: ,Bitte vergib mir meine Fehler." Beauty Land fühlt sich manchmal unmöglich einsam an. Umso mehr zählt es, wenn das nicht der Fall ist - wie zum Beispiel, wenn Mendez gegen Ende von ,So Mean" im Duett mit seiner Frau und Bandkollegin Veronica singt und es sich wie ein lang ersehntes Wiedersehen anfühlt, wie ein flüchtiger Moment der Erlösung, wie eine vorübergehende Teilung der Meere.

FELT wade deeper into the murky waters of contemporary Scandinavian electroacoustic music following the recent reissue of Johan Wieth’s Health & Safety project on sub-label LEFT and established gems from the likes of Civilistjävel!

Gintė Preisaitė, a Lithuanian artist and graduate of Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory, reveals her first solo release under her own name, following a collaborative effort with Toshimaru Nakamura in 2025 and a number of cassettes as “Baraboro”. The deliberately genre-blurring sound Preisaitė deploys works with composed pop vignettes, sustained drones, FX manipulations and guttural bursts of noise. Sparse piano movements, sample-laden psychedelia and moments of big beat/trip-hop rhythms gel with crowd noise, close mic’d intimacy and experimental percussion with a focus on instrumental timbres and extended techniques.

With a background in composing for large ensembles, Preisaitė's multi-instrumental approach is evident across the eight tracks, moments of dense concrète-style sound collages anchored by the human voice never being far away. She laments on fantasy, absurdity and relationships as a cast of players contribute string, brass, accordion, and guitar parts. Passages move from delicate acoustic folk motifs through to wide-eyed, cut-and-paste glitch electronics and spectral melodic riffs, making the album an unorthodox and welcome addition to Denmark's current world-class music scene.

In the world of Smote, going further out means going inward. Less a metaphysical journey into inner space, more a physical journey into the ground itself, converging with its roots and vibrations. What's more, a journey right to the heart of its principal architect's daily experience. Smote's fifth release for Rocket Recordings, and their deepest, most fully realised to date. Forged from repetition and mantric intensity and possessed of formidable psychic fortitude, this album prove that the only retro-chic Smote indulge in is liable to go back several centuries. The megalithic monomania of last year's A Grand Stream set a formidable precedent, and Smote's live shows in its wake have gradually built a reputation as visionary seers building audial monuments by cranked amplification and atmospheric intensity alike. Yet these five gnostic serenades offer portals and paradigms anew. Continuing Smote's exploratory mission into heaviness in all its forms. Songs From The Free House sees Foggin exploring a variety of new avenues. Therefore, whilst listeners might align the pantheistic forays into drone-based abandon with previous travellers like Earth and Om, the influence of folk songs and legends, as well as electronic music make their presence felt. "I've been listening to heavy electronic stuff like Puce Mary and The Body" adds Daniel, "Stereotypically guitars are often seen as the instrument for "heavy" music, but the sheer force that's available from electronics is something that will crumble most guitar centred music." Elsewhere a more melodic vocal based structure is writ large amidst these rites and revelations, particularly on The Linton Wyrm, which proceeds from devotional chant to a potent conclusion, also inspired by Foggin's everyday surroundings. Wrought from the earth, transposed to the ether, and now shared with the world at large, this album marks a transcendental journey where Smote render ancient and modern indivisible. Just as traditional music is passed down through generations, Songs from the Free House is where the primal collides with the eternal.

Following Parnell March’s Back Bar Grooves EP in February and November’s release of the Dust Tears (lead song from Sarah/Shaun’s debut) remixes, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label returns with a second EP of dream pop from husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), alias Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced McLochlun), who wooed hearts and wowed critics with debut EP ‘It’s True What They Say?’ last year.

‘It’s True What They Say?’ attracted fans across the board: Artist Of The Week in The Scotsman, rapturous reviews from The Skinny and Tokyo's Ban Ban Ton Ton blog, BBC 6Music airplay courtesy of Nemone (Mary Anne Hobbs' Morning Show), more radio play from Radio Scotland's Roddy Hart & Vic Galloway, plus Simone Butler (Primal Scream) and Jim Sclavunos (Bad Seeds) via their respective Soho Radio shows, not forgetting ringing endorsements from the likes of David Holmes, Youth, Kevin Bales (Spiritualized), Brent Rademaker (Beachwood Sparks) and Julian Corrie (Franz Ferdinand).

They played gigs supporting Glasgow's huge Glasvegas, at festivals (Kendall Calling, Dunbar Music, Hidden Door), plus a slew of venues across the Scottish capital, ending the year with a trio of shows supporting Glaswegian 80s pop legends The Bluebells at Aberdeen’s Tunnels, Dunfermline’s PJ Molloys and Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, while The List magazine tipped them among their Ones To Watch For 2025, with journalist Fiona Shepherd suggesting they were “blending the starry-eyed pop of Sonny & Cher with the electronic experimentation of Chris & Cosey.”

Very much the companion piece to the debut EP but arriving a full twelve months later, Someone’s Ghost is emblematic of the duo’s desire not to rush things or release anything half-baked.

“I’ve always wanted to create the perfect pop record and I do really feel that we’ve achieved that with this one,” says Shaun. And he’s clearly not the only person who thinks so.

REVIEWS, FEEDBACK ETC:

"I LOVE that! Dreamy dreamy pop." ROY MOLLOY (Marvellous Crane/Alex Cameron) on BLAST RADIO, Sydney
“the Scottish music scene’s cream of the cool... buzzy drum beats, high, distant chimes, and heavenly electronics…. very ethereal.” THE SKINNY

"Listening to Sarah/Shaun is like eavesdropping on a noir dreampop, long-distance phone call between them both, across two separate sonic locations. On this stunning 4-song EP, Sarah’s voice, effortlessly mesmerising, draws you into these big beautiful and haunting passages of perfect dream-pop. All beautifully produced in a multi-layered-scape of low-fi analogue textures, epic cinematic crescendos, intense electro-pulse grooves and warped psycho-pop guitar riffs. Within the songs lurk a sense of unresolved emotions, longing and pathos. There are shades of classic Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra but also Post-Punk Electronica and Beach House. But what a unique sound they’ve created of their own. I love it" DAVID MCCLUSKEY (The Bluebells)
"Absolutely beautiful" SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"Lovely stuff here! Total quality." MARTYN 'MASH' HENDERSON
"Ooooh. Everything the last record promised is here. Well done" GEORGE T aka George Demure (Accident Machine)
"Vince clark Era Depeche Mode in places" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized)
"Sounds cool. Well done" PETE KEMBER (Sonic Boom, Spacemen 3)
"Glorious, it (Debbie Harry) grabs hold of you and doesn't let go." IAIN DAWSON aka RAVECHILD (Everyone Wants To Play The Hits Podcast)

SOMEONE’S GHOST

Born out of an incredibly anxious, stressful time, the songwriting process for these recordings has been something of a personal tonic for Shaun…

“There was a period when I was having nightmares,” he reveals. “Apparently I was saying there was someone in the room, I was talking to that person and Sarah was seeing all this while I was still asleep.

So, I was thinking that this was my ghost. I started writing songs because I was going through something and I was dealing with something and writing songs was a comfort. My ghost was a comfort, whether it was real or not. The idea of it was a comfort.”

“I firmly believe that everyone has someone who watches over them but all of the songs are essentially about being there for someone,” he says. “Everybody needs someone but also everyone needs to stay real and keep what you have, keep it close, never let it go. If you don’t have it, continue to tell people you’re there for them. It’s about loving and hoping people will be good to you in return.”

While Shaun took the songwriting lead on Filter Of Love and EP closer The Sound Which Stresses The Sound Of My Ears, Debbie Harry was originally instrumentally conceived by producer Jaguar Eyes, alias Ali Chisholm, later lyrically completed by Shaun, and the EP’s lead track, Anhedonia, and one of its stand-outs (much like Starbed on the debut) was conceived by Sarah, as a result of experiencing a bit of a spiritual epiphany of her own.

“When I first heard the word Anhedonia, I didn't know what it meant but when I found out I thought about it quite a bit. How sad it would be to have no enjoyment in anything,” she explains. “This song is really about my own personal beliefs. When I have been down, that's one of the things that helps me the most. It talks about trying to make amends but realising, for some things, you can't. But I think with any kind of faith comes hope… which is always a good thing.”

A record about hope, truth, honesty, a belief in something bigger than oneself… and all set to a soundtrack that wouldn’t feel out of place in a David Lynch or Eighties feature film. What more could anyone ask for, really?

There’s equally a desire to offer something universal and positive to anyone who tunes in. The labels for the 12” edition reveal the dual mantras “Who just wants to survive?” and “It’s about time to live a little”, with both messages also engraved in each record’s run-out grooves. T-shirts accompanying debut EP It’s True What They Say? bore the slogan “Kill Them With Kindness” - leading caps intentional. Shaun carries the acronym KTWK everywhere he plays, as a reminder: it’s stitched into his guitar strap. And this particular wee pebble has already caused a few ripples: people have been approaching him at gigs to acknowledge their appreciation and respect for it.

"We feel we have made an honest, open, colourful, body of work,” say the duo. “We hope to go out and play the songs with the guys (our band) and then potentially make more records. We are taking things as they come. Everything has been organic so far, after all. We are looking forward to whatever this brings."

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

DMV-born rapper and producer kuru is already a veteran among their contemporaries. Spurred by the online renaissance that accompanied the pandemic, they began to foster a cult following while in high school, their Soundcloud releases leading to production work with artists such as Black Kray and Destroy Lonely. Over the past few years, as Kuru began to prioritize their own voice, they prioritized their solo endeavors. Growing up in Maryland, kuru was inspired as much by the work of Future, Hikaru Utada, Yuyoyuppe, and the sounds of Japanese math rock as he was by his native DMV’s rap scene. He first began making music in 2019, garnering buzz with early tracks like “clueless”, “typo” (4M Streams), and “atmosphere” (9M+ Streams) — cuts brimming with the catchiness you’d expect out of a mainstream pop hit, but uncharacteristic of the internet rap landscape at the time.

The forthcoming sophomore album is a summation of all of kuru’s work in both electronic and hip-hop. It’s the artist’s most focused effort to date, and touts credits from Lucy Bedroque, frequent collaborator xaviersobased, and a rolodex of Soundcloud’s most cutting-edge producers. “Backstage Hologram” ties together a mosaic of the current internet underground’s landscape with a veneer of dusky futurism, and panoramic wide post-production.