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Limitiert auf 1.000 Exemplare!

Die schwedischen Progressive Death Metaller SCAR SYMMETRY haben die Wiederveröffentlichung von vier ihrer klassischen Alben angekündigt. Pitch Black Progress (2006), Holographic Universe (2008), Dark Matter Dimensions (2009) und The Unseen Empire (2011) werden alle am 14. April zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl erhältlich sein.

1.000 Exemplare!

Die schwedischen Progressive Death Metaller SCAR SYMMETRY haben die Wiederveröffentlichung von vier ihrer klassischen Alben angekündigt. Pitch Black Progress (2006), Holographic Universe (2008), Dark Matter Dimensions (2009) und The Unseen Empire (2011) werden alle am 14. April zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl erhältlich sein.

Repress!

Using an old door, 17 strings, chopsticks and combining them with phasers, echo units and amplification, the new device was to become his signature sound, mixing Irish folk influences with Asian and North African sounds in a mesmerising and soulful new way that brought him to the attention of the leading improvisers of his day - Alice Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, Don Cherry and more.

A logical follow up to AllChival's recent reissue of Stano's debut LP, Michael O'Shea's self titled LP was originally released on Wire's Dome Imprint in 1982.

The background to the album is as interesting and inspiring as the artist who created it - born in Northern Ireland but raised in the Republic, O'Shea was keen to travel and escape the troubles of his home.

Wandering throughout Europe and the Middle East, O'Shea found himself living and working as a relief aid in Bangladesh in the mid Seventies where he learned to play sitar while recovering from a bout of hepatitis. A later period spent busking in France accompanied on zelochord by Algerian musician Kris Hosylan Harp led to O'Shea's idea of combining both instruments as a homebuilt instrument - Mo Chara (Irish for "My Friend").

He later described the process on the back of the LP himself saying:

"Having sold my sitar in Germany and being desperate for money to travel to Turkey, I conceived of the idea of combining both sitar and zelochord. The first Mo Cara was born, taken from the middle of a door, which was rescued from a skip in Munchen"

A combination of dulcimer, zelochord and sitar, O Shea would play it with a pair of chopsticks, striking the strings softly using Irish folk rhythms mixed with the rich, nostalgic sounds of of the many Asian artists he'd encountered on his travels.

It was a pan cultural sound standing at an unusual crossroads of folk, traditional, rock, progressive, jazz, electronic and post-punk worlds without hesitation.

Perfecting the instrument on the streets, there were further spells spent busking in the underground stations and cafes of London's West End and Covent Garden during the heady days of the 1970s when they were full of eccentric street entertainers, jazz improvisers and musical pioneers.

His work with Rick Wakeman never saw the light of day but O'Shea's contact with the world of post-punk London ensured his name would live on.

Introduced to Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis via cartoonist Tom Johnston, O'Shea eventually acquiesced to an open invite to record at their studio. Turning up unannounced in the summer of 1981 the LP was recorded in a day in the legendary Blackwing Studios and released on Dome the year after.

The first side features the fifteen minute masterpiece "No Journeys End" with the B side featuring more input from Wire in processing the Mo Chara sound.

Lewis himself said years later of the forgotten masterpiece: 'I always said it was the best job we ever did.'

After an aborted LP with The The's Matt Johnson the following year, O'Shea quietly disappeared from the formal recording world and his brief but unique contribution to the music world came to a sad end in 1991 when O'Shea was struck by a post van and died a few days later in hospital in London.

This repress on All City's AllChival imprint has been remastered and reissued with the approval of both Dome and his surviving siblings.

All the best music has a community underneath it. The extended family around London’s Total Refreshment Centre (TRC) connects continents and generations, creating the rich relationships in full effect on Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre. It’s an eclectic and electric collection that draws from new school jazz, hip hop, dub, soul, funk, and drill: sounds you’ll hear trailing out of cars as they spin up the Kingsland Road or spiraling out of doorways like so much smoke. Turn it up loud to hear the widescreen young cousins of Guru’s landmark Jazzmatazz in full effect: top players from London, Chicago, and Melbourne seeking out new collaborations, new ways of working, or just new tunes, always coming back to that central truth – that we all need each other.

Everything eventually turns to dust. Everyone knows this, but few want to acknowledge that our time on this mortal coil is fleeting, preferring to remain in stasis, in hopes that "the end" will pass them by. Chicago trio FACS (guitarist Brian Case, bassist Alianna Kalaba & drummer Noah Leger) have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic post-punk over the course of four ever-evolving albums, beginning with 2017's "Negative Houses" thru 2021's landmark "Present Tense', which saw the trio dig deep into the gaping maw of a black hole & pulling back whatever debris they could grasp onto. Their newest "Still Life In Decay" comes as an addendum to the last album - a "post-event review" if you will. "Still Life In Decay" starts with a squall of white noise before collapsing into the band already locked into "Constellation"s lumbering groove, with Case's guitar a ghostly presence, appearing & disappearing in washes of gauzy feedback throughout the track. FACS have never been more locked in as a unit, and "Still Life In Decay" is a decidedly more focused effort. The apocalyptic chaos that defined their previous album "Present Tense" is waved away in favor of an examination of events with cumbrous clarity. FACS are a heavy band, but they don't necessarily FEEL like one (see side two's "Still Life", where Case's fluttering, melodic guitar lines are buoyed by the insistent, underlying pulse of the bass & drums). As a rhythm section, Kalaba & Leger dance & twist around each other like a double helix, forming the DNA of what makes FACS special. Collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove as opposed to inside it, creating a lattice where Case weaves guitar lines like creeping vines, which makes the moments on "Still Life In Decay" where the band DOES lock in even more powerful. When the guitar punctures the lock-step swing of "When You Say", it hits like a hammer. Case utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia; repeating phrases & holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touching on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity & meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload. The album is a decidedly local affair; recorded once again at Chicago's famed Electrical Audio by renowned engineer Sanford Parker & mixed at his Hypercube Studio in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood & mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.

Everything eventually turns to dust. Everyone knows this, but few want to acknowledge that our time on this mortal coil is fleeting, preferring to remain in stasis, in hopes that "the end" will pass them by. Chicago trio FACS (guitarist Brian Case, bassist Alianna Kalaba & drummer Noah Leger) have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic post-punk over the course of four ever-evolving albums, beginning with 2017's "Negative Houses" thru 2021's landmark "Present Tense', which saw the trio dig deep into the gaping maw of a black hole & pulling back whatever debris they could grasp onto. Their newest "Still Life In Decay" comes as an addendum to the last album - a "post-event review" if you will. "Still Life In Decay" starts with a squall of white noise before collapsing into the band already locked into "Constellation"s lumbering groove, with Case's guitar a ghostly presence, appearing & disappearing in washes of gauzy feedback throughout the track. FACS have never been more locked in as a unit, and "Still Life In Decay" is a decidedly more focused effort. The apocalyptic chaos that defined their previous album "Present Tense" is waved away in favor of an examination of events with cumbrous clarity. FACS are a heavy band, but they don't necessarily FEEL like one (see side two's "Still Life", where Case's fluttering, melodic guitar lines are buoyed by the insistent, underlying pulse of the bass & drums). As a rhythm section, Kalaba & Leger dance & twist around each other like a double helix, forming the DNA of what makes FACS special. Collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove as opposed to inside it, creating a lattice where Case weaves guitar lines like creeping vines, which makes the moments on "Still Life In Decay" where the band DOES lock in even more powerful. When the guitar punctures the lock-step swing of "When You Say", it hits like a hammer. Case utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia; repeating phrases & holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touching on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity & meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload. The album is a decidedly local affair; recorded once again at Chicago's famed Electrical Audio by renowned engineer Sanford Parker & mixed at his Hypercube Studio in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood & mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.

Everything eventually turns to dust. Everyone knows this, but few want to acknowledge that our time on this mortal coil is fleeting, preferring to remain in stasis, in hopes that "the end" will pass them by. Chicago trio FACS (guitarist Brian Case, bassist Alianna Kalaba & drummer Noah Leger) have been perfecting their brand of intense, cathartic post-punk over the course of four ever-evolving albums, beginning with 2017's "Negative Houses" thru 2021's landmark "Present Tense', which saw the trio dig deep into the gaping maw of a black hole & pulling back whatever debris they could grasp onto. Their newest "Still Life In Decay" comes as an addendum to the last album - a "post-event review" if you will. "Still Life In Decay" starts with a squall of white noise before collapsing into the band already locked into "Constellation"s lumbering groove, with Case's guitar a ghostly presence, appearing & disappearing in washes of gauzy feedback throughout the track. FACS have never been more locked in as a unit, and "Still Life In Decay" is a decidedly more focused effort. The apocalyptic chaos that defined their previous album "Present Tense" is waved away in favor of an examination of events with cumbrous clarity. FACS are a heavy band, but they don't necessarily FEEL like one (see side two's "Still Life", where Case's fluttering, melodic guitar lines are buoyed by the insistent, underlying pulse of the bass & drums). As a rhythm section, Kalaba & Leger dance & twist around each other like a double helix, forming the DNA of what makes FACS special. Collectively they approach rhythm from outside the groove as opposed to inside it, creating a lattice where Case weaves guitar lines like creeping vines, which makes the moments on "Still Life In Decay" where the band DOES lock in even more powerful. When the guitar punctures the lock-step swing of "When You Say", it hits like a hammer. Case utilizes his lyrics like a person suffering from anterograde amnesia; repeating phrases & holding onto old memories in a desperate attempt to avoid the slide into oblivion. Freeform poetic missives touching on themes of resignation, cynicism, class warfare, and a search for identity & meaning in a crumbling society; A primal desire to hold onto anything in a post-pandemic barrage of sensory overload. The album is a decidedly local affair; recorded once again at Chicago's famed Electrical Audio by renowned engineer Sanford Parker & mixed at his Hypercube Studio in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood & mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service.

Nach dem Erfolg des offiziellen Anno 1800-Vinylsoundtracks feiern Black Screen Records und Ubisoft Mainz die populäre Aufbausimulation mit "The Four Season": Der opulente zweite Soundtrack entführt in die lebendigen musikalischen Welten der vier Erweiterungssets des Spiels und erscheint pünktlich zum 25jährigen Jubiläum der Traditionsmarke am 31.03.2023, natürlich auf audiophilem 180g Doppelvinyl. Alle neuen Musikstücke werden zur gleichen Zeit auf Spotify verfügbar sein. Das Album wird erneut in wunderschönem Klappcover mit Artworks von Ubisoft Mainz ausgeliefert und kommt mit kostenlosem Download-Code für den digitalen Soundtrack, inklusive 8 Bonustracks. Musikalisch dokumentiert die Doppel-LP nicht nur die enorme inhaltliche Abwechslung der vier Anno 1800-"Seasons", sondern auch die stilistische Bandbreite der Komponisten Steffen Brinkmann, Jochen Flach, Armin Haas, Alexander Röder, Tilman Sillescu und Matthias Wolf (Dynamedion). Die Stücke erzählen von versunkenen Schätzen und reichen Ernten, von Expeditionen in die Arktis und ins gefährliche Land der Löwen, von der Eroberung des Reichs der Lüfte oder dem überwältigenden Ausblick von den majestätischen Dächern der Stadt. Kurzum: Die Welt von Anno 1800 und der facettenreichen Spielerweiterungen wird als akustische Reise erlebbar gemacht. Anno 1800 ist eine von Ubisoft Mainz entwickelte und von Ubisoft veröffentlichte Aufbausimulation, in der Spieler die industrielle Revolution anführen, Metropolen errichten und mit Diplomatie, Handel oder Krieg um die Vorherrschaft wetteifern. Das erfolgreiche PC-Strategiespiel begeistert mehr als 2,5 Millionen Spieler auf der ganzen Welt mit einer Kombination aus bewährten Spielelementen, innovativen Neuerungen und dynamischem Spielverlauf in einer der spannendsten Epochen der Menschheitsgeschichte.

Red Vinyl

Super smooth and funky 2 track EP, limited red 10 Inch. UK Duo Flying Mojito Bros have their unique sound, mixing several US styles together to make their own brand: Disco, Westcoast and Swamp/Stoner Rock become: Swamp Disco! (side b of our release is an edit for none other than the Grateful Dead!) They have a huge following and just released their debut album. The duo has their boots firmly planted in dusty 70s sunsets, their pan-USA productions take cosmic country funk and rock to modern dancefloors via NYC latin disco and baggy acid house - on a bed of hefty contemporary rhythms. Their music has turned party people loose in clubs, parties and late-night festival tents at Glastonbury, Bestival, Pikes Ibiza, Austin City Limits and beyond. In addition to residencies at The Social, Spiritland and Nobu, they've been invited to work their hoodoo on remixes of Flamingods, Raf Rundell (The 2 Bears), Black Peaches, Jouis, 77:78, Scott Hirsch, James Matthew VII, Katy J Pearson, Jeffrey Silverstein, Rudy Norman and more - releasing on prestigious independent labels such as Heavenly, Paper Recordings and Ubiquity. The Flying Mojito Bros have seen over a million streams worldwide and a mushrooming US fanbase.

LORI finds Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam drawing from the songbook of noted singer-songwriter and multiple Grammy winner Lori McKenna. Recorded at the famed Sam Phillips Studios (Memphis, TN) with producer Matt Ross-Spang, Beam takes on four of his favorite McKenna tracks with help from Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart, known collectively for their work in the indie-art-pop band Finom (formerly known as Ohmme.) Beam came to McKenna’s music a few years ago on the suggestion of a friend. As the lock down dragged on, Beam found himself, like so many, turning to music for comfort. McKenna’s catalog of work was never far from reach. Taken by her heart-on-your-sleeve confessional style storytelling, Beam admits it’s a trait that draws him to McKenna and something not often found in his own songwriting. As a well-known interpreter of other artists’ songs, when the time came for him to shake off the pandemic cobwebs and record, McKenna’s songs were as fresh and familiar to Beam as his own. Traveling to Memphis in March of 2021, Beam invited Cunningham and Stewart to join him in the studio. During the three days of recording, Ross-Spang was a logical choice to take the helm as he had handled Iron & Wine’s 2019 collaboration with Calexico, the twice Grammy nominated Years to Burn, and had also worked on two of McKenna’s own records. Having enjoyed successful solo careers outside of Finom, Cunningham and Stewart bring their own touches to LORI and helped Beam find even further depths to McKenna’s songwriting. Together the trio sonically re-interpreted her plaintive odes into a tapestry of sounds effortlessly blending their signature singing styles and breathing fresh life into the lyrics

The highly-anticipated third studio album from critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Greyson Chance, released through Lowly. Available on black vinyl with gatefold sleeve, featuring "My Dying Spirit”, “Homerun Hitter,” "Athena" & more.

“The album comprises three acts," says Chance. "The first one is rebuilding and growth. The second is absolute pride. The third is a realization. Life will kick you in the ass no matter what happens. It feels timid at points, but there are big confident moments. At the end, the hero falls down a few pegs. I’ve been writing my own songs since I was a kid, and that’s the story behind it.”

Nach fünf langen Jahren seit ihrer letzten Veröffentlichung sind die finnischen Metaller Suotana mit ihrem neuen Album ''Ounas I'', das am 17. März 2023 erscheinen soll, aus dem ewigen Eis erwacht!

Diese Full-Length-Veröffentlichung ist eine epische Fortsetzung
der Reise, die der Vorgänger ''Land of the Ending Time'' im Jahr 2018 begann, und katapultiert die Band zu einem neuen Höhepunkt.

''Ounas I'' enthält 41 eisige Minuten Musik, darunter fünf brandneue Suotana-Tracks und eine "suotanisierte" Version von Summonings "Land of the Dead".

Musikalisch führt das Album neue Nuancen ein, bleibt aber fest im vertrauten SuotanaSound verankert, einschließlich melodischem Death Metal, melodischem Black Metal und einer Prise Power Metal.

Die bemerkenswertesten Unterschiede sind die Gäste auf dem Album. Keyboarder Veli-Matti Kananen (Kalmah) und Sängerin Mora steuern
ihre eigenen Talente bei.

Critically acclaimed rock group EELS announce
vinyl reissues of earlier records ‘End Times’, ‘Hombre Lobo’ and ‘Tomorrow Morning’, released via E Works / PIAS.
EELS will hit the road this Spring for the longawaited Lockdown Hurricane tour of Europe and North America, starting in March in Nottingham. The reissues follow EELS’ critically acclaimed
2022 record, ‘Extreme Witchcraft’, which found
praise at MOJO, NME, The New York Times,
Stereogum, SPIN and more. EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing
project of principal singer / songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, ‘Beautiful Freak’. In 2008, E published his highly acclaimed book,
‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’, and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh
Everett III. Single LP on standard weight black vinyl in a
gatefold sleeve with matt machine varnish.

Critically acclaimed rock group EELS announce
vinyl reissues of earlier records ‘Hombre Lobo’,
‘End Times’ and ‘Tomorrow Morning’, released via
E Works / PIAS. EELS will hit the road this Spring for the longawaited Lockdown Hurricane tour of Europe and
North America, starting in March in Nottingham. The reissues follow EELS’ critically acclaimed 2022 record, ‘Extreme Witchcraft’, which found praise at MOJO, NME, The New York Times,
Stereogum, SPIN and more. EELS have had one of the most consistently acclaimed careers in music. The ever-changing
project of principal singer / songwriter E (Mark Oliver Everett), EELS have released 14 studio albums since their 1996 debut, ‘Beautiful Freak’. In 2008, E published his highly acclaimed book,
‘Things the Grandchildren Should Know’, and starred in the award-winning ‘Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’ documentary about the search to understand his quantum physicist father, Hugh
Everett III. Single LP on standard weight black vinyl in a
gatefold sleeve with matt machine varnish.

Future Jazzers, notorious experimentalists and outfield eccentrics stumble onto the dancefloor. In the 90s. In the UK.

From an electronic music perspective, the period 1992 to 1996 in the UK that this compilation celebrates, was one of dizzying sonic diversification.

It was also a particularly turbulent time in the UK, not only politically and economically, but also culturally too. Economic catastrophe in ‘92 was followed by widespread poverty, a cost of living crisis and countless political scandals. Meanwhile, John Major’s Tory government pandered to its political base via unpleasant, authoritarian legislation that seemingly sought to crush rave culture, alternative lifestyles, and traveller communities. The UK was not so much a ‘Happy Land’ – to quote the name of this compilation – as an angry and divided one. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Throughout, the music created by producers based across these Isles remained uniquely British, speeding up a process begun in the late 1980s through the emergence of street soul, bleep & bass and breakbeat hardcore – musical styles whose roots in multicultural inner-city communities made them distinctly different from the Black American sounds that had inspired their creators. It was here, rather than in the indie pubs of Camden, that real musical revolutions were taking place.

This deep diving selection brings together some truly adventurous and original electronic music from this period, much of it very hard to find. Major label outings connect with white label oddities with ease. Perhaps it could even be argued that many of these unearthed gems fit more easily into DJ sets in 2023 than they ever did at the time. The off-kilter swing of Richard D James’ obscure and highly sought after Strider B outing, ‘Bradley’s Robot’ is joined by further rare cuts from Cabaret Voltaire and the Black Dog, and artists as diverse as Ultramarine, Herbert, Fretless AZM, and Radioactive Lamb, amongst others.

This collection has been lovingly selected, compiled and mastered for maximum sonic playback. This very special release boasts sublime pastoral themed artwork, as well as informative and passionate liner notes by celebrated music scribe Matt Anniss (‘Join The Future’).

Since its incarnation as a string of tapes and CDRs for the band to sell on tour in 1999, the Sad Clown series has taken on numerous forms, including 4-track demos, live shows, a DVD, a mixtape, and 7" singles. While preparing for 2007's When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold, Atmosphere launched the next phase of the series, releasing Sad Clown Bad Summer Number 9, the first of four EP's dedicated to the four seasons. These seasonal releases were the first in the Sad Clown series to receive distribution, being made available on both vinyl and CD. Showcasing Slug and Ant at their best, the four Sad Clown seasons encompassed fan favorites such as "Don't Forget," `The Rooster," "Not Another Day," "Happymess," and "Sunshine," Atmosphere's biggest song to date. These four iconic EPs are now packaged into one 2xLP vinyl release titled Sad Clown Bad Year, complete with an 8-page activity book of custom coloring pages, connect-the-dots, a word find and a maze. The entire package comes housed in a reverse board jacket featuring black & white illustrations with an uncoated finish so you can color and customize yours anyway you like!

Pop Matters said that "Nnamdï's sounds are a testament to the continual melting away of genre distinctions in the current era of (particularly Black) music." His extensive catalog includes covers significant ground in hip-hop, pop, rock, punk, orchestral, and experimental music. In 2021, NNAMDI expanded his freewheeling sonic explorations for an entrée into the world of pop-infused dance and electronica with the release of the Are You Happy EP on November 12, 2021. Notably, Are You Happy is the only NNAMDI project to date that he did not produce, perform, and record by himself. To the surprise of his fans, NNAMDI bucked that self-imposed precedent to work with Chicago producer Lynyn. Lynyn is the alias of composer Conor Mackey, NNAMDI's longtime bandmate in the jazz-fusion quintet Monobody. Are You Happy released shortly before Lynyn's 2022 debut electronic LP lexicon (Sooper Records), which went on to garner significant acclaim. DJ Magazine said that "lexicon is likely to set him apart as one of IDM's next visionaries".

Roadrunner United war ein Projekt des berühmten
Hardrock-Labels Roadrunner Records, das 2005 zur Feier
des 25-jährigen Bestehens organisiert wurde und seinen
Höhepunkt in den "All-Star Sessions" fand, einem Album,
das für Chart-Platzierungen in Deutschland, den USA,
Großbritannien und weiteren Ländern sorgte. Vier
"Spielführer" (Joey Jordison von Slipknot, Robb
Flynn von Machine Head, Dino Cazares von Fear
Factory und Matthew K. Heafy von Trivium) wurden
auserkoren, sich mit 57 Artists aus 45 ehemaligen und
aktuellen Roadrunner-Bands einzufinden. Ein
Metal-Familientreffen der besonderen Art!
Ab dem 10. März 2023 sind sowohl das Original-Album
der "All-Star Sessions" als auch das Konzert selbst in
Vinyl wieder erhältlich.

THE SUBWAYS remain one of the most exciting live bands on the current touring circuit, thrilling crowds with their explosive rock sound and wild stage performances.

Back in 2005, with an average age of just 18, Billy, Charlotte and Josh crashed onto the international music scene with their debut album ‘YOUNG FOR ETERNITY’, and their rock-club floor-filling single ‘ROCK & ROLL QUEEN’. The NME proclaimed them “The sexiest thing to sweep rock n roll off its feet in years!”. An appearance on American smash teen drama THE OC and in Guy Ritchie’s London Gangster flick ‘RocknRolla’ has helped make the track a Spotify Rock Playlist mainstay.

The band have released four albums to date. Their sophomore, ‘ALL OR NOTHING’ (2008), was recorded in LA with heavyweight producer Butch Vig and, is “Buoyed with emotional heft and supernova guitar riffs, wired around a maturing song craft” (MOJO). The tracks were written at a time when Billy was battling to save his voice following surgery to remove nodules from his vocal cords. ‘MONEY AND CELEBRITY’ followed in 2011, filled with “brilliantly anarchic punk-pop vignettes; each being a big musical finger that sticks it to financial greed, the mediocre mainstream and the fame fetishists” (ROCKSOUND) and included the Radio 1 A-listed single ‘WE DON’T NEED MONEY TO HAVE A GOOD TIME’. Their self-titled 4th album saw the emergence of singer and songwriter Billy Lunn as a producer, as he took control of engineering and mixing duties and is "On Par with the best things they have ever written... and finds the band energized, focused and battle-ready" Q Magazine.

The global pandemic, though cutting short their 40+ date international ‘Young For Eternity Anniversary Tour’, has kept Billy busy in his newly-established Hertfordshire studio, with Charlotte and Josh in their respective homes focused on remotely recording Album 5. Makeshift under-stair vocal booths were constructed, and the album is now ready for a summer, 2022 release alongside a full European Tour

In April 2021 the band signed to ‘Alcopop’ and released the politically-charged, Black-Lives-Matter-inspired single “Fight”, which they describe as “a letter in two parts: a gesture of solidarity with the Black community and communities of colour as they face their daily oppression at the hands of systemic racism, and a wake-up-call to the white community that such oppressions do in fact exist, and that we must acknowledge these oppressions and fight alongside marginalised communities as allies.”

The two full-length records that Jeff Mangum made as Neutral Milk Hotel sound both in and out of time. Like translations of a shared subconscious, 1996's On Avery Island and 1998's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea give voice to the perennial spirit of youthful epiphany, of beginning to see the world clearly, to process and express it-no matter when you encounter them. With lo-fi indie rock, accordion, singing saw, tape collages, the so-called "zanzithophone" and beyond, Neutral Milk Hotel created an eternal entry into their Elephant 6 scene and an enduring feeling of possibility. Mangum was born in the small city of Ruston, Louisiana, in 1970, coming of age within the '80s and '90s indie and punk undergrounds, a movement of teenagers recording in their bedrooms, sharing zines and trading tapes, listening to hardcore and experimental music on college radio. For all the mythology Mangum's elusive persona has accrued-particularly during the 15 years immediately following Aeroplane, when he abruptly left the band behind-it's the beguiling songs themselves that have resonated so deeply for generations. In 2011, Mangum collected nearly all of the band's recorded output in a limited-edition box set (self-released under Neutral Milk Hotel Records, a small operation helmed by Mangum and his mother) which is now re-pressed by Merge. // CONTENTS: Black matte box is a 2-piece telescoping casewrapped package. Outer shrink-wrap includes a front sticker with "Neutral Milk Hotel," and a back sticker listing box contents. The box set includes 2 folded posters, each printed one side and each 24 x 24 inches when flat, and 1 postcard, printed front and back with box set information and sized 3.75 x 5 inches. Vinyl records: 1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea: LP is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to black vinyl in a gatefold jacket + printed insert for full album download. --- 2. On Avery Island: 2-LP is 12 tracks pressed to double black vinyl in a gatefold jacket + 11 x 11 printed insert + printed insert for full album download. Sides A, B and C pressed 45RPM. Side D pressed 33RPM. --- 3. Live at Jittery Joe's: 12-inch picture disc is 11 tracks pressed 33RPM to a full color picture disc in a heavyweight poly jacket + printed insert for full album download. --- 4. Ferris Wheel on Fire: 10-inch is 8 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert + printed insert for full album download. --- 5. Everything Is: 10-inch is 7 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + postcard insert + printed insert for full album download --- 6. "Little Birds": 7-inch is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download 7-inch housed in a heavy-weight poly jacket. --- 7. "You've Passed": 7-inch is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download. 7-inch housed in a heavy-weight poly jacket. --- 8. "Holland, 1945": 7-inch is 2 tracks pressed 45RPM to black vinyl in a printed jacket + printed insert for full album download. 7-inch housed in a heavyweight poly jacket.

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

Antti Lötjönen says:

"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."

Circus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. The artwork displays a freeform graphic score of the music by We Jazz artistic director and designer Matti Nives. The vinyl versions are housed in heavy duty tip-on sleeve with silver-embossed lettering, and the CD comes in a matte digisleeve with silver-embossed lettering. Antti Lötjönen Quintet East performs live in Finland in January and February.

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen's inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

Circus/Citadel is essentially a coherent album, rather than a series of loosely connected compositions. There's plenty of diversity within Lötjönen's compositions and the band's dynamics, yet it all flows into one effortlessly, creating a suite of sorts, even outside of the title composition which consists of three parts. During the course of the album, the quintet often gets together in smaller formations: in trios and duos of different combinations of the players. The music breathes and maintains its energy at all times, leaving plenty of headroom for the all-out quintet "attacks" when needed. It all comes together in a shape that feels unified and cyclical, leaving the listener hungry for repeated listens in order to get deeper into the many layers found within.

Antti Lötjönen says:

"These compositions vary in terms of form and density, with each player having enough room to re-invent and expand on the music within the pieces. I wrote this music over a relatively brief time span. This, I think, is something you can also hear on the album, as the temporal closeness of the ideas brings with it a certain kind of unity. The world we live in sometimes feels like and absurd circus, from which you need to get away from to get new ideas and energy. Everyone needs their citadel, whatever it may be. This pairing of the two words Circus/Citadel is inspired by a poem by the Romanian-born German-language poet Paul Celan (1920–1970)."

Circus/Citadel is released by We Jazz Records on 24 February, 2023, as white and black vinyl editions, on CD and digitally. The artwork displays a freeform graphic score of the music by We Jazz artistic director and designer Matti Nives. The vinyl versions are housed in heavy duty tip-on sleeve with silver-embossed lettering, and the CD comes in a matte digisleeve with silver-embossed lettering. Antti Lötjönen Quintet East performs live in Finland in January and February.

Tricky is back. Back with a new studio album, False Idols, and his own label (also bearing the False Idols name), but also back in a personal sense. I was lost for ages, he says. I was trying to prove something to people, trying to do something to please other people and also myself at the same time, which is never going to work. To be honest with you, Ive been floating around since Chris Blackwell and Island. My last two albums, I thought they were good, but I realise now they werent. This album is about me finding myself again.
It opens with a cover of a Van Morrison song, Somebodys Sins, which sees Tricky and vocalist Francesca Belmonte whispering Jesus died for somebodys sins, but not mine over a sparse groaning bass. The lead single Parenthesis, which features a vocals from Peter Silberman of The Antlers, has more rhythmic grunt, which gives a different dimension to the dark gothic atmosphere that pervades the record. No-one does this kind of thing better.
The resemblance to Maxinquaye is undeniable, though the material on False Idols is gentler; more mature. Many of the songs feature artists signed to Trickys new label, including 24-year Londoner Francesca Belmonte and Fifi Rong. The album also includes collaborations with Nigeria's new global star Nneka, the afore-mentioned Peter Silberman. In the months before the albums release, False Idols will also release an EP "Matter of Time" showcasing the labels roster on new non-album material produced by Tricky.
Why the name False Idols Because theres so much bollocks going on at the moment mate, Tricky fires back. People follow celebrities and read every little thing they do. Its living vicariously through someone else. Get your own life. All this stuff is false idols. In this new album Ill stand behind every track, Tricky says. I dont care whether people like it. Im doing what I want to do, which is what I did with my first record. Thats what made me who I was in the beginning. If people dont like it, it dont matter to me because Im back where I was.

160-gram heavyweight Vinyl LP with gatefold jacket displaying the painting series that inspired the music, and the story of Newtok. Newtok is a remote Alaska Native village situated on the Ningliq River, near the west coast of Alaska. Although a very remote and quiet place, Newtok has come face-to-face with climate change. Due to a combination of thawing permafrost, low levels of sea ice, and strong storms, the coastal land of Newtok is eroding dramatically. In 2016, Chicago visual artist Jennifer Cronin embarked on a trip to Newtok to document this changing environment. Upon returning, she spent the next several years developing a series of paintings and screen prints titled Seen and Unseen that captured this eroding landscape. In 2019, Cronin and musical Artist Patrick Mitchell (a/k/a Dusty Patches) began discussing the project after Cronin asked him to perform at the Gallery opening for the series. As a result, Mitchell created this album, Newtok - inspired by Cronin's Seen and Unseen series and the story of Newtok, Alaska. Mitchell is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter and producer from Chicago who has led numerous past projects in the Chicago DIY community including De Triomphe, New Color, and Whiskey Wise. He dove headfirst into synths in 2017 and adopted the electronic alias Dusty Patches. Dusty Patches released his debut project Filthy Four Track Machine: Volumes I & II (2018, Sooper Records), largely made with the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators and OP-1. In 2020, he released Nocturnal Emissions from the Dablatory, his first project fully realized with modular synthesis. In approaching Newtok, Mitchell composed all of the constituent musical elements of the work and then recorded and live mixed the album during a single live performance on modular synthesizer. The album draws heavily on sprawling ambient synths, electric and acoustic post-punk guitar motifs, cryptic vocal sampling, vintage drum machines, and modular patches that often sound like birds or the sea. The subject matter of the album, the complexity of its arrangement, and its execution as a single live recorded performance makes Newtok a unique musical experience. About Newtok, Mitchell says: This record was an exploration of themes. When faced with the immense canvases Jen Cronin produced upon her return from the village of Newtok, one can't help but feel awe. With the sheer size of the works towering above you, you are compelled. There is overwhelming beauty, desolation, a sense of urgency, and a sense that it is, in fact, far too late. These visual themes, and the emotions they evoke, were connected to the sounds and compositions of this record. There is a coldness to the digital soundscape, but organic sounds of nature and humans tether and steer the album through a journey of musical storytelling. Newtok is a journey of musical storytelling about the tragedy of the Anthropocene in the age of climate change. FOR FANS OF: Mother Earth's Plantasia, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Boards of Canada, Bibio

The heavy metal, dark, madcap visionaries collectively known as AVATAR — vocalist Johannes Eckerström (vocals), guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and drummer John Alfredsson — have emerged from deep within the Swedish forest in which they have been working on their ninth album to grace fans and listeners with a brand new song, "Valley of Disease".

LTD PICTURE DISC

This 2016 vinyl edition comes in LP picture disc with Gatefold Jacket, limited to 400 copies. Reissue on picture disc of Character, the seventh album in one of the creators of the Gothemburg Sound, Dark Tranquility. A comeback to their origins as shown in the previous Damage Done from 2002. Including the hit "Lost To Apathy", Character is, without hesitation, one of the greatest works in DT's wide and career and Swedish Death Metal.

Perth-based artistic hub 823, led by producer / creator-extraordinaire Taku, joins forces with producers Idealism & Lucid Green for “Undone,” a genre-melting LP that bridges sonic comfort, textured tones and lush timbres into one serene, 10 track experience. LP arriving February 3rd, 2023 via 823 x Jakarta Records.

Finnish-born producer and pianist Idealism (1.5mil Spotify Monthly Listeners - SML) and French transplant Lucid Green (568k SML) are no strangers to each other’s subtle, yet potent productions. Having worked together on a number of past releases, their upcoming, fully collaborative LP “Undone” is a natural journey into the beautiful ambient, downtempo, lo-fi worlds they’ve each created. Through visits to Lucid’s flat in Paris and ideas being exchanged remotely, the duo experimented with different sounds, instruments and aural environments, in the process crafting a natural partnership that sits in a comfortable, melancholic pocket. With lulling guitar and poignant piano progressions that provide a pillow to rest your ears, and downtempo percussions that keeps you ebbing and flowing along on a subtle current, unsure where one wave ends and the next begins, only the albums progressions dictate the head-nod. Featuring the likes of Yutaka Hirasaka (220k SML) and Charlie Kurata (aka Charlie – 200k SML; Duumu – 109k SML), the album soars, reminiscent of life’s simple, yet wholly memorable moments that bring you a nostalgic pause.
As with all 823 releases, the project is a visual one as much as it is a musical project. The first singles visualizers are a fusion of Hopes & Dreams Club & 823’s design aesthetics with personal super8 footage captured by Idealism & Lucid Green, beautifully expressed from Hopes & Dreams Club member Mindi Ossi. Each visualizer and single art will easily stand on its own, transporting you to worlds familiar, yet undeniably groovy and sonically comfortable.
823 is a multifaceted Perth-based record label, fashion brand, and artistic community, founded by Australian producer and all-around creative, Ta-ku (852k SML). With an astute attention to detail and an ethos that appreciates the everyday things in life, 823 doesn’t stick to any particular genre. Past 823 releases include “So Far To Go” EP via Cabu (753k SML), Ta-ku and matt mcwaters’s duo project “Black and White,” featuring Masego collaboration “Flight 99” (17mil streams on Spotify), the “All Things Considered” compilations, a curated, collaborative series featuring both budding and wellestablished artists around the world and have included Idealism, Wun Two, pastels, L.Dre, Flobama, SwuM, Jinsang, Tenderlonious, among a host of others, as well as multiple sold out clothing capsules.

THUGWIDOW & Bruised Skies land on Hooversound with a new EP

“music for everybody, to think to, to dance to.”

The 12th release on the Hooversound imprint sees THUGWIDOW and Bruised Skies come together for ‘Blimey’ (HOO12), cultivating an evolving new sound: a dark and deep soundscape - ready to immerse, whether on the dance floor or at home. The release also features two remixes from Denham Audio and Response which will be available on the digital version only.

THUGWIDOW is the ambient jungle project of Alex Lowther-Harris, who’s sound is a formation of tastes, otherworldly guidance and obligation, evolving organically from nothing more than an adolescent love rebirthed in a new millennium.

Bruised Skies (Matthew Heywood) creates layered, visual music that captures a melancholic isolated landscape, oceans of sound lapping against shores; guiding the listener. With previous releases on Blank Editions, Intervention and Astral Black his solo music is a cross between season 3 of Twin Peaks and John Carpenter’s experimental scores; beautifully dark, bleak and isolated in its journey throughout.

1000 black vinyl LPs. London-based ‘indie-supergroup’ SUEP announce their long-awaited debut mini-album Shop, a collection of 6 oddball, car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling. Led by Georgie Stott (of Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey, SUEP was born out of a near-decade of playing in sheds and barns with like minded personnel, holding a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves. Following a move to London from Brighton, the pair added George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Will William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman (Boil King) to the line-up. The 5 piece take turns writing songs and taking the lead vocal duties in a wonderfully playful but coherent collaboration, with their debut being a kaleidoscopic off kilter pop ride, taking the listener through haunted castles, deprived encounters, days lost to the imagination in bed, and through the integral friendships that give SUEP the energy to keep dancing to their own beat. The album was arranged and recorded in the Red Lion Boys Club, an ex-youth centre in which Georgie and Josh both lived. Using equipment collected by Josh in his travels as a bootsale and market trader, the sports hall was transformed into a makeshift studio for a few days, with sessions conducted by producer Matthew Green (Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs, etc.) Mark Riley (BBC 6 Music) described SUEP’s debut single and album opener, ‘Domesticated Dream’ (2021) as “perfect pop music.” The joyfully kitsch track brims with a 70s Yamaha disco beat, deep bass, nostalgic drum machines, and hooky melodies. Possibly the most psychedelic and infectious track born out of lockdown, it tackles homelife, drinking too much, and making big plans that never come to fruition, but with a big technicoloured positivity for the future of the human-race, with the chorus’ refrain, “the psychedelic 4000s,” predicting the return of the psychedelic Age of Aquarius in a couple of millennia time. The following single ‘Misery’ (2021) is pure cosmic swing-pop wizardry in part inspired by spy music and The Supremes. Ollie, The track’s baritone vocalist, describes it as “A love song disguised as a song about loss. It's about cherishing the things that matter but it’s also about having the courage to say goodbye,” with each line of the song a small story about a different character. Whilst latest Shop taster ‘In Good Health’ is darkly euphoric like a pleasantly strange meeting of Siouxsie Sioux and Jona Lewie. It’s a playfully discombobulating mix of 80s jangly guitar, chirpy keyboard and moody post-punk tackling mental health, drug addiction, and the power of friendship, written after the song’s vocalist Georgie came out of hospital following a mental health crisis. “I wanted to write a song that encapsulated how important my relationships with my friends and boyfriend were at that time” she explains “…and one that also felt dark like I did at the time. I couldn’t go outside due to anxiety surrounding my health so I stayed inside for weeks. People would visit and watch films with me or let me tattoo them or make music with me. My community helped me recover.” Elsewhere on Shop is ‘Just The Job’ fronted by Harvey and described by him as “About the relief of accepting a menial existence, and allowing life to be boring - but (within that) how the small things are the important ones, how pulling a sicky or extra long lunch break are important things to do for yourself. It’s an anthem for working people who’ve had enough - and a crowd favourite at SUEP gigs. The darker undertones and post-punk angles of the Georgie-fronted ‘Onions’ is inspired by the crapness of cliques, with the band calling the song “A cry of welcome to all;” and finally the hooky ‘Friend of Mine,’ described as “A love letter to all the people that come and go throughout your life no matter how long you know them”. SUEP have received coverage in Independent & Clash, (among many others), with big support from Mark Riley and Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music) for early singles.

LP (180-gram vinyl, clear) in a thick (350gsm) card stock sleeve with matte varnish, black poly-lined disco bag, a thick (300gsm) printed insert and protective PVC outer sleeve

Duality was recorded in Los Angeles with producers Brandon Paddock Avril Lavigne, Christina Perri, Timeflies, Tommy English [We Came As Romans, Megan & Liz, Black Veil Brides], and Matt Appleton [Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Foxy Shazam]. Set It Off displays a more refined pop sound on Duality, offering the perfect blend of bright sing-alongs, inspiring anthems, and sinister breakup ballads. Vocalist Cody Carson shines on the new album with his soaring croons and dynamic range, impeccably framed by standout guitarwork, bold horns and driving rhythms. With Duality, Set It Off has expanded upon their signature cinematic sound, creating their most memorable and cohesive work to date. The forthcoming album also features impressive guest vocalist spots from Jason Lancaster (Go Radio) and William Beckett, and was included in Alternative Press’ ‘Most Anticipated Music of 2014’ Issue.

Cutting their teeth as teens in a West Bromwich bedroom, The Sea Urchins were nothing like the heavy metal that seemed to fill every bar in the UK Black Country. Fringe haircuts, perfect trousers, suede jackets and infectious tambourines gave plenty of hints as to their youthful ambition, but nothing could fully prepare you for just how utterly spellbinding these songs would be. Compiling their fanzine-only flexi material with the full complement of singles for Sarah Records, Stardust runs chronologically from late 1986 to the middle of 1989, beginning with the singles split for Clare Wadd’s Kvatch and Matt Haynes’ Sha La La, before hitting the first of what would be an even hundred releases from the new label Wadd and Haynes would form - Sarah.

The song that launched a legendary label and defined a sound, a scene, a place and time; “Pristine Christine” still rings out as immediate and magical today as it did on first listen. What a glorious jangly rush racing around the corners of pop’s history! The band would reach such heights time and again over the course of this three year burst. The melancholy swinging folk of “Everglade” and it’s wonderfully yearning vocal; the organ-fueled british invasion garage rock sing-a-long of “Solace”; the playful psych pop of “A Morning Odyssey”; the acoustic sweep of “Wild Grass Pictures”; the perfectly named “Summershine” leaving you with a ramshackle smile out on the dancefloor. All of it is just so filled with delicate humanity, yet somehow absolutely perfect.

As Bob Stanley said about the shimmering ballad “Please Rain Fall” while bestowing it with NME Single Of The Week (an honor also bestowed upon “Pristine Christine”), “think of some variations on the word marvelous and you’re most of the way there.”

In their time, they might have seemed wildly out of step, but it’s not crazy to say that things could have been very different for the likes of Radiohead, The La’s, and Oasis without The Sea Urchins. Liner notes by Television Personalities legend Dan Treacy.

Orange Vinyl

Cutting their teeth as teens in a West Bromwich bedroom, The Sea Urchins were nothing like the heavy metal that seemed to fill every bar in the UK Black Country. Fringe haircuts, perfect trousers, suede jackets and infectious tambourines gave plenty of hints as to their youthful ambition, but nothing could fully prepare you for just how utterly spellbinding these songs would be. Compiling their fanzine-only flexi material with the full complement of singles for Sarah Records, Stardust runs chronologically from late 1986 to the middle of 1989, beginning with the singles split for Clare Wadd’s Kvatch and Matt Haynes’ Sha La La, before hitting the first of what would be an even hundred releases from the new label Wadd and Haynes would form - Sarah.

The song that launched a legendary label and defined a sound, a scene, a place and time; “Pristine Christine” still rings out as immediate and magical today as it did on first listen. What a glorious jangly rush racing around the corners of pop’s history! The band would reach such heights time and again over the course of this three year burst. The melancholy swinging folk of “Everglade” and it’s wonderfully yearning vocal; the organ-fueled british invasion garage rock sing-a-long of “Solace”; the playful psych pop of “A Morning Odyssey”; the acoustic sweep of “Wild Grass Pictures”; the perfectly named “Summershine” leaving you with a ramshackle smile out on the dancefloor. All of it is just so filled with delicate humanity, yet somehow absolutely perfect.

As Bob Stanley said about the shimmering ballad “Please Rain Fall” while bestowing it with NME Single Of The Week (an honor also bestowed upon “Pristine Christine”), “think of some variations on the word marvelous and you’re most of the way there.”

In their time, they might have seemed wildly out of step, but it’s not crazy to say that things could have been very different for the likes of Radiohead, The La’s, and Oasis without The Sea Urchins. Liner notes by Television Personalities legend Dan Treacy.

PETE MOLINARI is a country blues singer, songwriter from the Medway Delta. He was born into a large Maltese/ Italian/ Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, where he was discovered by Billy Childish.
He’s got five critically-acclaimed albums’ worth of timeless folk, blues, rock and alt- country songs to his credit, plus a bunch more EPs.

THIS IS THE FIRST PHYSICAL RELEASE OF ALBUM ONLY RELEASED DIGITALLY IN 2020 DURING THE PANDEMIC…AVAILABLE ON BLACK VINYL AND INDIES-ONLY PALE BLUE VINYL (NON-RETURNABLE) WITH NEW ARTWORK.

Just Like Achilles is the distillation of everything Pete has learned since those years on the road as a travelling troubadour, playing tiny theatres and coffee houses everywhere from London, to New York, Paris to Nashville and around the world, eventually taking him to the most celebrated venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

Just Like Achilles brims with big songs and huge choruses. After a first listen, it’s like you’ve known and loved this record forever. Although surprising for some who think he is the lone songwriter with his guitar, Pete is a big fan of Pop. Yes, somewhat of a dirty word today, but it is that timeless and well-crafted pop that created so many hit songs in the past that we still adore today.

Pete’s songs always cut straight to the heart of the matter. No fat, no artifice, no histrionics. The sound is real. Live. Real people playing real instruments. Front and center are Pete’s own majestic guitar chops and unique, soulful voice. Even on Achilles’ sadder songs, there’s a buoyancy and potency to them, an infectious effervescence that imbues life is for living, and it is that loving of life that we find celebrated in every song, arrangement and composition.

To coincide with Just Like Achilles highly anticipated release, Linda Perry organized an extraordinary event. She booked out the legendary Capitol Records’ Studio A and hit her contacts list to pull together a supergroup to join Pete in performing his new songs live in the studio. It included legends Ronnie Spector and Don Was, plus Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey from the David Bowie band. Evan Rachel Wood also came along to sing on a couple of songs, while Jakob Dylan duetted with Pete on a very special version of “Waiting For A Train”.

So, everything was ready to go, ready for release. This was the beginning of 2020. And then .... well, as we all know, everything stopped. Now, two more years on, this is Take Two: Just Like Achilles is finally set to receive the release it always deserved.

Blue Vinyl

PETE MOLINARI is a country blues singer, songwriter from the Medway Delta. He was born into a large Maltese/ Italian/ Egyptian family in Chatham, Kent, where he was discovered by Billy Childish.
He’s got five critically-acclaimed albums’ worth of timeless folk, blues, rock and alt- country songs to his credit, plus a bunch more EPs.

THIS IS THE FIRST PHYSICAL RELEASE OF ALBUM ONLY RELEASED DIGITALLY IN 2020 DURING THE PANDEMIC…AVAILABLE ON BLACK VINYL AND INDIES-ONLY PALE BLUE VINYL (NON-RETURNABLE) WITH NEW ARTWORK.

Just Like Achilles is the distillation of everything Pete has learned since those years on the road as a travelling troubadour, playing tiny theatres and coffee houses everywhere from London, to New York, Paris to Nashville and around the world, eventually taking him to the most celebrated venues such as The Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall.

Just Like Achilles brims with big songs and huge choruses. After a first listen, it’s like you’ve known and loved this record forever. Although surprising for some who think he is the lone songwriter with his guitar, Pete is a big fan of Pop. Yes, somewhat of a dirty word today, but it is that timeless and well-crafted pop that created so many hit songs in the past that we still adore today.

Pete’s songs always cut straight to the heart of the matter. No fat, no artifice, no histrionics. The sound is real. Live. Real people playing real instruments. Front and center are Pete’s own majestic guitar chops and unique, soulful voice. Even on Achilles’ sadder songs, there’s a buoyancy and potency to them, an infectious effervescence that imbues life is for living, and it is that loving of life that we find celebrated in every song, arrangement and composition.

To coincide with Just Like Achilles highly anticipated release, Linda Perry organized an extraordinary event. She booked out the legendary Capitol Records’ Studio A and hit her contacts list to pull together a supergroup to join Pete in performing his new songs live in the studio. It included legends Ronnie Spector and Don Was, plus Mike Garson and Gail Ann Dorsey from the David Bowie band. Evan Rachel Wood also came along to sing on a couple of songs, while Jakob Dylan duetted with Pete on a very special version of “Waiting For A Train”.

So, everything was ready to go, ready for release. This was the beginning of 2020. And then .... well, as we all know, everything stopped. Now, two more years on, this is Take Two: Just Like Achilles is finally set to receive the release it always deserved.

Singer-songwriter Amos Lee draws inspiration from soul music, contemporary jazz and 1970s folk artists such as James Taylor. The Philadelphia native honed his song writing skills while waiting tables and bartending after graduating from the University of South Carolina with a degree in English. He eventually landed some high-profile gigs as an opening act, including an extended tour with pianist/vocalist Norah Jones, whose bassist, Lee Alexander, agreed to produce Lee's first album.

With Alexander's help, Amos Lee released his self-titled debut on Blue Note in 2005. The album won Lee a small following for his blend of acoustic funk, folk, and light jazz. Norah Jones herself plays the piano on two tracks; "Keep It Loose, Keep It Tight" and "Colors."

A notable debut like Amos Lee deserves the Analogue Productions reissue treatment. This beauty was cut by Bernie Grundman in Los Angeles from the master tape, and is now pressed at 45 RPM on two glorious sides of 180-gram vinyl by Quality Record Pressings, makers of the world's finest-sounding LPs. QRP is noted for deep-black backgrounds and pristine clarity. If you're already familiar with Amos Lee, get ready — you've never experienced it with such lifelike sonics and premium richness. This is how all vinyl should sound.

The songs on the album incorporate themes of folk, soul, gospel and jazz. Amos's style is a mix of Bill Withers, Arthur Lee, and James Taylor. Amos has recently toured with Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Adele, Dave Matthews and many others.