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M_SESSIONS - THE PROCESS

"M_Sessions" is offering a contemporary version of Mania D., Malaria and Matador’s music for the 40th anniversary plus the rare originals. Bringing the past into the now and into the future.
Monika Werkstatt seemed the perfect choice for new interpretations. Founded in 2015, comprising female electronic musicians and producers from the entourage of Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik. The loose collective played dozens of improvised concerts around Europe and released a studio album and live recordings in everchanging artist constellations.

The M_Sessions involved Pilocka Krach, Beate Bartel, Midori Hirano, Mommo G, Lucrecia Dalt, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Natalie Beridze, Annika Henderson and myself. Here the form of interpretation is focussing on keeping the freedom of their improvised work and adapting it to the collective appropriation of songs. I cannot imagine a better reinterpretation of the material with its real life ups and downs and with its enthusiasm.
The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and myself selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where we saw special relevance and beauty - these tracks are on LP2. We rediscovered live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from our times long gone. (G.Gut)

M_DOKUMENTE // THE BOOK - THE RECORDS - THE EXHIBITION

The project M_Dokumente focuses on the All Female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador in the West Berlin music and art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s. We celebrate this 40 years retrospetive with a big festival weekend from 21.-24.10.2021 at Silent Green from a explicitly female perspective.
The three bands around their members Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster and Gudrun Gut played concerts in different formations from 1979 on, released records and toured around the world. The self-determined appearance of the musicians was new, raised some eyebrows and was reflected both in the music and the lyrics, but also in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for the still important and necessary emancipatory movement in the music industry. Far beyond the borders of Berlin.

3Ms

The three, reunited: Malaria, Matador and Mania D, unter einem Dach, but gutted, replaced with electronic hearts, new beats, new beasts, the time has changed, yet the politics, the problems, the heartache remains the same. 2021 sees the anniversary of the 3 M’s and therewith the production of an album of songs, covering a selection of the bands’ finest output, this time assembled by a new set of feminist misfits; producers, fangirls, instrumentalists, under the strict guidance of original members Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. M-Sessions features: AGF, Lucrecia Dalt, Sonae, Midori Hirano, Islaja, Natalie Beridze, Pilocka Krach, Annika Henderson (Anika), Lupe, Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. Beginning in West Berlin, in 1979, with the inception of Mania D, spawning Malaria! and later Matador; in a time when music was essential to movement, to escape, to space, to the scene and to the rebellion of the people; three bands stood for trial and error, trial and terror, anti- conformity, and anti-consumerism, for girl power and sticking it to the man, and for just doing whatever the hell they wanted. The three, their existence slightly staggered, with different members, different grudges, different heartbreaks, different instrumental expressions, were joined by a string of barbed wire, piecing pigeon hearts, within the playground that was the desolate ex-capital, now again capital, Berlin; a place where artists and freaks could run free amongst the wrinklies and army dodgers; no microscopes, no rules, no property developers. (ANNIKA HENDERSON)

Biffy Clyro will release the surprise new project ‘The Myth of the Happily Ever After’ on October 22nd. The record is a homegrown project that represents a reaction to their #1 album ‘A Celebration of Endings’ and a rapid emotional response to the turmoil of the past year. It is the ying to the yang of ‘A Celebration’, the other-side-of-a-coin, a before-and-after comparison: their early optimism of 2020 having been brought back to earth with a resounding thud. It’s the product of a strange and cruel time in our lives, but one that ultimately reinvigorated Biffy Clyro.

“This is a reaction to ‘A Celebration of Endings’,” says vocalist / guitarist Simon Neil. “This album is a real journey, a collision of every thought and emotion we’ve had over the past eighteen months. There was a real fortitude in ‘A Celebration’ but in this record we’re embracing the vulnerabilities of being a band and being a human in this twisted era of our lives. Even the title is the polar opposite. It’s asking, do we create these narratives in our own minds to give us some security when none of us know what’s waiting for us at the end of the day?”

‘The Myth’ has been launched alongside the new track ‘Unknown Male 01’. In six adventurous minutes, the band explore every facet they’re renowned for, taking in the unguarded emotion of its introduction, a skewed off-kilter breakdown, and a jagged, spiralling riff that builds towards a cataclysmic crescendo. The song reflects on friends who have taken their own lives.

Black Country Communion the rock supergroup comprised of vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple Black Sabbath, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin, Foreigner), Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater, Billy Idol, Alice Cooper) and blues rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa.

Their fourth album, aptly titled "BCCIV" was originally released by Mascot Records in Europe in 2017. Just like its three predecessors, "BCCIV" was produced by Kevin Shirley, the band's unofficial 'fifth member'. Three Black Country Communion albums will be re-issued as part of the Black Country Communion Glow In The Dark Vinyl Series: On September 24, "Black Country Communion" and "2", and on October 22, 2021 their latest studio album "BCCIV".

The 10 songs on BCCIV will appeal to all fans of high quality hard rock, also those that admire singers of distinction. Hughes is not known as The Voice of Rock for nothing. In terms of content, 'BCCIV' expands upon the progression that took place between the first three albums. With an abundance of heavy riffs, undeniable hooks, melodic flair and infectious choruses, BCCIV is a spectacular album that gets bigger and bolder with repeated spins. Black Country Communion initially came to fruition when Kevin Shirley saw Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa join forces on stage in Los Angeles in November 2009 for an explosive performance at Guitar Center’s King of the Blues event. Shirley then recruited powerhouse drummer Jason Bonham and keyboardist Derek Sherinian. The band is named after the industrial area in the British Midlands where both Hughes and Bonham were born and raised.

Atmosphere have distinguished themselves from their peers by creating albums encompassing the entire spectrum of human emotion while tethering each piece to a central aural aesthetic. The Family Sign took this philosophy to new realms of solidarity with Slug metaphorically touching on themes of fatherhood, loss, love, disappointment and jubilation, and tailoring them to an

instrumental framework that draws emotion out of the listener, skillfully composed by producer Ant. The Family Sign was evidence that hip-hop wields the ultimate potential to address and convey life’s virtues and shortcomings.

GLASVEGAS return with their triumphant fourth album ‘Godspeed’, – the music we all need right now. The latest single Shake The Cage (für Theo) sums up the dazzlingly eclectic sound of Godspeed perfectly – this is an electronic barrage with devastatingly powerful spoken word lyrics which call to mind I’m Gonna Get Stabbed from the band’s astonishing debut.

The single is perfectly positioned at the end credits of Alan McGee’ new movie ‘Creation Stories’, written by Irvine Welsh and executively produced by Danny Boyle. Hand picked as the only current track to grace the music mogul’s biopic, it is a kind of


dystopian, free-associative ‘Choose life’ sermon (’Stand on a wave / calculate quantum mechanics / Surf, dance / Believe in chance”) set to the escalating dread and claustrophobia of a John Carpenter murder-chase.

UMC are proud to present two reissues of certified multi-platinum albums from DMX. Nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2001 Grammys, '...And Then There Was X' is the third studio album from DMX. Featuring the hits "What's My Name" and "Party Up (Up In Here)". Released in 2001, 'The Great Depression' was the fourth album by the American rapper. Featuring the singles "We Right Here", "Who We Be" and "I Miss You". Both packages presented as 2LPs on 180g vinyl.

"M_Sessions" is offering a contemporary version of Mania D., Malaria and Matador's music for the 40th anniversary plus the rare originals. Bringing the past into the now and into the future. Monika Werkstatt seemed the perfect choice for new interpretations. Founded in 2015, comprising female electronic musicians and producers from the entourage of Monika Enterprise and Moabit Musik. The loose collective played dozens of improvised concerts around Europe and released a studio album and live recordings in everchanging artist constellations. The M_Sessions involved Pilocka Krach, Beate Bartel, Midori Hirano, Mommo G, Lucrecia Dalt, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Natalie Beridze, Annika Henderson and myself. Here the form of interpretation is focussing on keeping the freedom of their improvised work and adapting it to the collective appropriation of songs. I cannot imagine a better reinterpretation of the material with its real life ups and downs and with its enthusiasm. The original core team of Beate Bartel, Bettina Köster, Manon P. Duursma and myself selected "Rare Originals" from the repertoire of the 3 bands where we saw special relevance and beauty - these tracks are on LP2. We rediscovered live tracks, living room recordings and demo versions from our times long gone. (G.Gut)

Der britische Sänger und Songwriter JP Cooper veröffentlicht sein zweites Studioalbum “SHE“, auf dem
unter anderem die in diesem Jahr erschienen Singles “Holy Water“, “If The World Should Ever Stop“, “Call
My Name“, “Need You Tonight“ und “We Cry“ zu hören sind.
Über das Album sagt er: “I can’t wait to share this music with you and tell these stories.”

Best known as Hot Chip's clear-voiced frontman, Alexis Taylor also pursues a solo career as an introspective singer/songwriter, exploring distinct themes and ideas with each record. Today Alexis announces the release of his sixth and strongest solo album to date, Silence,

Partly about silence - and how we intersect with it, observe it, try to record it, and how we feel about it when it’s gone, as we remember it - the record is also about religion, transcendence, giving oneself over to something bigger than you, or beyond this world. “I’m not religious myself,” adds Alexis, “but the songs which deal with the idea of gospel music or religion, look at it from a distance (rather like the shaky hand-held lens through which we follow the action in Pasolini’s ‘Gospel According To Matthew’) and try to uncover its influence on music and on people in desperate circumstances.”
The genesis behind Silence started a few years ago with Alexis ruminating on silence as a subject and making plans to make a record of the sounds you hear in public spaces as people observe moments of silence. He then lost his own personal access to silence as tinnitus began in his right ear in 2019 at a Hot Chip show. As Alexis explains, “I started to think about what it meant to me to lose quietness, solitude, meditative head space - as that was no longer available to me.”
Mostly composed in enforced isolation, Silence is a beautifully rich and unexpected conceptual album that is also Alexis’ most accomplished solo record and one that has seen early comparisons with a notably eclectic range of artists including Mark Hollis, George Michael, Big Star, Epic Soundtracks and Maher Shalal Hash Baz. This record sees the first time Alexis has collaborated with Sam Becker (double bass), Kenichi Iwasa (horn, trumpet) and Rachel Horton-Kitchlew (harp), who due to lockdown had to work in isolation from Alexis. In one case Kenichi recorded musical passages which were then superimposed on songs he had never heard - in effect keeping the songs themselves silent from the playing until the mixes were played to him.

We Are Vinyl release - fourth studio album by US rock/grunge legends, originally released on August 27th 1996 through Epic Records. Following a troubled tour working their previous album (Vitalogy 1994) the band went into the studio to record this follow up. The music on the record was more diverse than what the band had done on previous releases, incorporating elements of garage rock and worldbeat. Pressed on standard black vinyl (no download code). Super deluxe gatefold sleeve packaging which includes 9 insert cards. Marketing activity. Stock is limited/allocated.

Auf Deerhoof ist Verlass: 2020 veröffentlichte die Band "Future Teenage Cave Artists" und überraschte mit dem Gratis-Album "Love-Lore" (auf dem sie 43 Songs in 35 Minuten coverten!), schon lassen die experimentellen Indie-Rocker bereits ihr nächstes Werk folgen. Mit "Actually, You Can", ihrem insgesamt 18. Studioalbum, beweisen Deerhoof, dass - von der kreativen Neuerfindung nach 25 Jahren Karriere bis zur Selbstverwirklichung inmitten einer globaler Umwälzung - alles möglich ist. Das Ergebnis ist Deerhoofs "Barock goes DIY"-LP, die von der Band selbst produziert wurde und mit nur nur zwei Gitarren, Bass, Schlagzeug und Gesang auskommt. Dabei nutzen Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich und Greg Saunier ihren Witz und ihre Skurrilität, um eine neue gemeinsame Sprache der Revolution zu erschaffen. Eine, die von lyrischen Labyrinthen und thrashigen Melodien angetrieben wird. Das Album markiert außerdem Deerhoofs Rückkehr zu biblischen Referenzen, wie man sie von ihren früheren bahnbrechenden Noise-Rock-Werken kennt. Während das gefeierte "Future Teenage Cave Artists" märchenhafte Visionen der Post-Apokalypse und den Anti-Helden als Retter der Menschheit erforschte, schlägt die Band auf "Actually, You Can" optimistischere Töne an.

PAURA explores the horror repertoire from the precious CAM Sugar archives taking us on a hypnotic journey into the labyrinths of fear, through the different variations that Italian horror took on from the esoteric and supernatural to the slasher films of the early 1970s; to reinterpretations of Romantic literature and gothic fiction to the splatter films of the ‘80s; and from witchcraft to metropolitan horror. This is not a real “best of” but an eclectic menu full of mysterious voices, childlike lullabies, sweet melodies, obsessive music boxes, obstinate harpsichords, crazy distortions and threatening synthesizers, conceived as a succession of sequences, as if a film edit. The new collection includes some of the most creative music ever written and strives to do justice not only to some of the best known composers in this genre, but also to many great unsung composers: From celebrated composers like Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani & Stelvio Cipriani to long-forgotten personalities who fed the industrial backbone of Italian cinema such as Daniele Patucchi, Marcelo Giombini & Berto Pisano. The collection includes 6 previously unreleased tracks plus 3 tracks released on vinyl for the first time and 5 tracks available commercially for the first time (originally released only as a limited promo item).

Repress of Turnstile’s second album and debut for Roadrunner Records ‘Time & Space’. The album saw the band gain their first real acclaim including ‘Album of the Year’ for Kerrang Magazine.

Their most recent album ‘GLOW ON’ came out end of August and has seen the band’s reputation leap even further with amazing reviews across NME, Kerrang, DIY and more and charting in the UK Album Charts for the first time.

Grey Marbled Vinyl

VARIÁT is the new experimental metal one-man band of Ukrainian artist Dmytro Fedorenko. Through dissonant noise poetry, corrosive synthesis, and subtle seeds of interiority and folk song, VARIÁT creates a sound world of austere urban psychedelia, invoking themes of primitivism and mysticism within the volatile currents of a contemporary digital era.

Conceived in 2020 as a provocative creative outlet, VARIÁT is founded on ideas of transgression, reinvention, and liberation, the consequence of observing prescribed artistic boundaries and pursuing new depths of aesthetic freedom. The project began as an exploration of new recording techniques: metallic materials used as percussion and channelled through blown amps, toms played with a hammer, drilled cymbals, raw, dimensional textures produced from found objects.

For the project’s debut album ‘I Can See Everything From Here’ a library of recordings rooted in musique concrète initiated countless sessions of seismic, discordant guitar noise and overloaded detonations of low end. Synthesizers calibrated and treated to sound like traditional instrumentation, rhythms of deluge and disarray. Compositions constructed with an intent to preserve their original modality; the chaotic spark of their inception.

The artwork created for ‘I Can See Everything From Here’ is an aquarelle (watercolour) painting, an ink-based projection which mirrors the sound of the album with dense, fragmentary shades of black and extensive tendrils of detail. A microcosmic depiction of the graphic power that defines ‘I Can See Everything From Here’.

While meditating on the concept of our next album, we listened to the soundtracks of our favorite movies and dreamed of composing our music for the films. What could the film be like, what would be the story, what would be the idea? What would we like to say this time? 
 And one day such work appeared and suddenly for us, it was not a movie. The book “Star Corsair” by Ukrainian science fiction writer, philosopher, and dissident Oles’ Berdnyk emerged from our distant memories. We even remembered the original cover of the old edition of 1971, a copy of which was immediately found, as if sanctifying our idea and adding a touch of eternity to the process. We decided to read the book again and right after that make our soundtrack to it. 
 

 
 We began to dive. And it immediately became clear that in the case of Berdnyk it is impossible only to read his works without reading about his life. Therefore, the reading of “Star Corsair” and its sequel “Kamerton Dazhboga” turned into an in-depth study of a unique phenomenon in the Ukrainian spiritual, art, and political space – Oles’ Berdnyk.
 
 From the first pages, the book resonated as much as possible with our ideas about true freedom and personal development. An incredible concentration of powerful ideas, subtly set on multilevel spirals of the modeled future intersected with the myth-created past, in projections of bright explosions and degradations of societies and civilizations, in the unconditional possibility of impossible revolutions and eternal deep struggle with systems, in the fire and explosions of liberation ignited by the freethinkers. 
 
 “Star Corsair” naturally intersected with our feelings and understanding of the interdependence of personal development and inner freedom, with the vision of the world around us and the direct action. It naturally complemented our vision of how, through the inner realization, we can contribute to the implementation of freedom, and then live it in our own lives.
 
 And so, this album became not only music for the novel, but also our reflection of the work, observation of our own transformation in the process, and what new ideas and vectors we will formulate for ourselves and offer to those who want to listen to the album.

For Andy and Edwin White, the brothers behind Orlando’s Tonstartssbandht, a song is a living, breathing thing. Through constant touring, the Whites’ songs both take shape and change shape, becoming something a little different every night as they explore the possibilities inherent within them. With time, attention, and intention, these songs—long, languid, full of open musical questions and temporary answers—become distinct objects, and the process begins again. On Petunia, Tonstartssbandht’s 18th album and second for Mexican Summer, they bring us to the earliest moments of this process, showing off a barn full of hatchlings already decked with splendid plumage. Using little more than a 12-string guitar and a drum kit, Andy and Edwin weave together the gentle headiness of Laurel Canyon and the sweaty pacing of Cologne; like a gyroscope, its constant motion produces the illusion of stillness—and that stillness gives it a sense of intimacy and introspection, something that’s further illuminated by the new emphasis placed on the brothers’ vocals. It allows the quiet wisdom of the lyrics—what Andy self-deprecatingly calls “generic broad platitudes that I still think resonate when I say them”—to slip in almost unnoticed, delivering their emotional truths while preparing a feather bed for you to collapse into. “All roads will lead to the heart of town, when you’ve been running too long,” he sings in the album’s opening moments. “Being at peace only slows you down, but you’ve been running so long now.” If Petunia feels like a journey in the direction of peace, that, too, is a reflection of how it was made—the entire thing was written and recorded in Orlando in 2020, rather than pieced together in spurts over the years. This is an album built on level ground that shows what can happen when the artistic environment is stable, even while the world’s environment is anything but. Petunia is not Tonstartssbandht’s definitive statement on these songs, because how could it be? But it is a portrait of Andy and Edwin White at home in Florida, an artfully staged landscape rich in detail, its winding passages and airy environment waiting to be explored.

First new release from Lizard Music in over two decades Since their hiatus, band members have joined Wilco, become the musical director for Cat Power, been a featured guest on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and worked with artists including Lana Del Rey, Brian Wilson, The Monkees, and more! Available on CD, Digital, and double-LP What Lizard Music says about Arizone! This collection of buzzy, whirly pop songs from a parallel dimension is a testament to Martin Short, Martin Sheen, Sheena Easton, Tina Turner, and Tiny Tim. Arizone! is better than discovering never-before seen discs for a View-Master. Arizone! is the sound of four old friends who spent their formative years playing music, traveling, and learning about the world, reuniting after a 25 year hiatus to compare notes and wound up with a one-way ticket to Arizone! Lizard Music began in Atlantic Highlands, NJ in 1989 when high school friends Mikael Jorgensen and Erik Paparozzi started learning and writing songs with a four-track. They pillaged their parents' record collections and discovered the musical universes of The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, XTC, James Brown and The Meters. In the fall of 1990, Lizard Music (named after the book by Daniel Pinkwater) was hired to be the backing band for David Peel and The Lower East Side at the recently-closed Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ, which would serve as the unofficial home base for the band for the next five years.

A month before the pandemic hit Norway – and the rest of the world for that sake – Darling west released their fourth album, «We’ll Never Know Unless We Try». They managed to get through two or three shows before everything was canceled, and the country went into lockdown. It may sound a bit counterintuitive to records a live album while in lockdown, but that is exactly what Darling West decided to do. When Norway partly opened during the fall of 2020, the band recorded their gigs at Parkteatret in Oslo and at Folken in Stavanger, and these recordings make out the songs on «Live 2020». Even though the gigs were played at venues with restricted capacity, it’s nice to see that they can reach bigger a bigger audience with this recording. «Live 2020» consists of songs from Darling West’s entire catalogue, and you can almost hear that they’ve been longing to play live on a stage. It had been six months since they’d been in front of an audience when these recordings were made, and the energy in the rooms were very special. This record is a document of this.

After a four-year hiatus exploring ambient and meditation music, Danish multi- instrumentalist Anders Rhedin has returned to his indie roots. Dream Work, his third album as Dinner, is a lush collection of synth and guitar-laden indie pop that expertly channels Ryuichi Sakamoto, early British indie, and the sound of water.

Like most worthwhile pursuits, the path to Dream Work hasn’t been straight. After signing to Captured Tracks in 2014, he released a series of synth-based avant-pop albums and toured the world with the likes of Mac Demarco, Sean Nicholas Savage, Prince Rama, and King Gizzard, all while splitting his time be - tween Berlin, LA and his native Copenhagen. This whirlwind period ended when, following the release of 2017’s New Work, Rhedin relocated to Copenhagen and took a step back from the Dinner project in order to explore his long standing personal interest in ambient production and guided meditation. Over the last few years, he’s released a series of ambient releases under his own name geared towards meditation, sleep, and relaxation. He’s also led live guided sound baths and meditations at art museums, churches, and rooftops all over the world.

UMC are proud to present two reissues of certified multi-platinum albums from DMX. Nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2001 Grammys, '...And Then There Was X' is the third studio album from DMX. Featuring the hits "What's My Name" and "Party Up (Up In Here)". Released in 2001, 'The Great Depression' was the fourth album by the American rapper. Featuring the singles "We Right Here", "Who We Be" and "I Miss You". Both packages presented as 2LPs on 180g vinyl.

Die Erstauflage der LP erscheint auf umweltfreundlichen recyceltem Vinyl in "Mystery Colour"! Mehr als drei Jahre nach dem Release ihres gefeierten letzten Albums "Floating Features" und einer wunderbaren Soloplatte von Sängerin Shana Cleveland meldet sich die US-amerikanische Indie-Rockband LA LUZ zurück. Auf dem selbstbetitelten vierten Longplayer des Trios aus Los Angeles tauschen Shana Cleveland (Gitarre + Songwriting), Lena Simon (Bass) und Alice Sandahl (Tasten) ihren ausgelassen Surf-Noir-Sound gegen ein erdverbundeneres Songwriting mit psychedelischem Einschlag aus. Inspiriert von Clevelands Umzug ins ländliche Nordkalifornien spiegeln Tracks wie die bereits veröffentlichten Vorab-Single "In The Country" oder "Here On Earth" die neu entfachte Landlust der Bandmitglieder wieder. Das Album wurde im Linear Labs Studio in Los Angeles aufgenommen und von Adrian Younge (Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli, Jay-Z) produziert, der den Songs ein wunderbares warmes wie psychedelisches Soundbild verpasst hat.

Live at The Troubadour is a live album by James Taylor and Carole King, originally released in 2010. In November of 1970, the two rising stars first performed together at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. Thirty-six years later, James Taylor, Carole King and members of their renowned original band “The Section” (featuring guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russell Kunkel) returned to the Troubadour for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the venue’s 50th anniversary. These historic moments are documented in Live at The Troubadour. The remarkable recording features 15 songs and 75 minutes of stunning performances of their collective biggest hits including “You’ve Got A Friend,” “Fire and Rain,” “I Feel The Earth Move” and more.

Einen schönen Fang hat das Chicagoer Label Trouble In Mind vor Kurzem mit DUMMY gemacht: Das Quintett aus Los Angeles verblüfft auf seinem Debüt ,Mandatory Enjoyment" mit einem derart ausgereiften Noise-Pop-Entwurf, das man kaum glauben mag, dass es sich hier um ein Erstlingswerk handelt. Nach gerade einmal zwei veröffentlichten EPs aus dem letzten Jahr, haben DUMMY ihren mit einem wundervollen Groove ausgestatteten Sound auf ,Mandatory Enjoyment" sichtlich gefunden und bis zur Perfektion destilliert. Das spielfreudige Debüt kombiniert geschickt Einflüsse aus Krautrock, Dream-Pop, Ambient, Psychedelic und Shoegaze zu einem Soundgebräu, das sowohl avantgardistisch als auch immer noch genug im Pop verwurzelt ist. Songs wie "Daffodils" und "Fissured Ceramics" zeichnen sich durch unerbittlich treibende Energie und reichlich psychedelischen Lärm aus. An anderer Stelle gleicht Dummy die Aggression mit meditativen Synthesizerlandschaften aus, die sich auf Sounddesign und Studioexperimente konzentrieren, wie bei dem motorischen "X-Static Blanket". Das Herzstück "H.V.A.C." und der letzte Track des Albums, "Atonal Poem", versuchen schließlich, diese beiden Pole miteinander zu verbinden und bieten mehrteilige Reisen durch unbekanntes Klangterritorium. Im Gegensatz zu der glückseligen Instrumentierung untersuchen Dummys sardonische Texte die Last des modernen Lebens, den Konsumismus, den Zusammenbruch der Umwelt, die Entfremdung und andere Ängste, die aus dem Leben in diesem absurden Moment der Geschichte entstehen. Innenarchitektur, Meeresverschmutzung, die Psychologie kommerzieller Architektur und Atomtests sind Themen, die aufgegriffen werden. Die rastlose Kreativität von Dummy treibt die Band immer weiter voran, sie fordern sich selbst ständig heraus und treiben ihren Sound in aufregende und erheiternde Bereiche. Dies ist - wie der Albumtitel schon sagt - "Mandatory Enjoyment". ENG Los Angeles band Dummy refuses to slow down. After releasing two cassette EP's in 2020 (on Popwig and Born Yesterday respectively), Dummy's debut full-length album arrives via Chicago's Trouble in Mind Records. Employing pummeling guitars and celestial ambience within the same breath, the band folds a myriad of reference points into their drone-pop style. Influence from '60s melodicism and '90s UK noise pop can be found woven in with inspiration from spiritual jazz, Japanese new age, and Italian minimalism. Dummy dodges the brooding, dark, dramatic tropes of contemporary "artistic" music often found in punk, experimental, and electronic, instead insisting on joyous and euphoric sonic palettes. They refuse to be artistically stagnant, continuously shifting their approach to writing across 12 tracks. Shaped by performances around Los Angeles in 2019, songs like "Daffodils" and "Fissured Ceramics" feature relentless driving energy and ample psychedelic noise. Elsewhere, Dummy counterbalances the aggression with meditative synthscapes focused on sound design and studio experimentation, like on the motorik "X-Static Blanket". Finally, centerpiece "H.V.A.C." and the album's final track, "Atonal Poem", seek to synthesize these two poles, offering multi-part journeys through uncharted sonic territory. In contrast to blissed-out instrumentation, Dummy's sardonic lyricism examines "the burden of modern life, consumerism, environmental collapse, alienation, and other anxieties born out of living in this absurd moment in history". Interior design, marine pollution, the psychology of commercial architecture, and nuclear testing are all featured subjects. Dummy's restless creativity keeps them moving ever-forward, continuously challenging themselves and pushing their sound into exciting and exhilarating places. This is - as the album title suggests - "Mandatory Enjoyment".

Einen schönen Fang hat das Chicagoer Label Trouble In Mind vor Kurzem mit DUMMY gemacht: Das Quintett aus Los Angeles verblüfft auf seinem Debüt ,Mandatory Enjoyment" mit einem derart ausgereiften Noise-Pop-Entwurf, das man kaum glauben mag, dass es sich hier um ein Erstlingswerk handelt. Nach gerade einmal zwei veröffentlichten EPs aus dem letzten Jahr, haben DUMMY ihren mit einem wundervollen Groove ausgestatteten Sound auf ,Mandatory Enjoyment" sichtlich gefunden und bis zur Perfektion destilliert. Das spielfreudige Debüt kombiniert geschickt Einflüsse aus Krautrock, Dream-Pop, Ambient, Psychedelic und Shoegaze zu einem Soundgebräu, das sowohl avantgardistisch als auch immer noch genug im Pop verwurzelt ist. Songs wie "Daffodils" und "Fissured Ceramics" zeichnen sich durch unerbittlich treibende Energie und reichlich psychedelischen Lärm aus. An anderer Stelle gleicht Dummy die Aggression mit meditativen Synthesizerlandschaften aus, die sich auf Sounddesign und Studioexperimente konzentrieren, wie bei dem motorischen "X-Static Blanket". Das Herzstück "H.V.A.C." und der letzte Track des Albums, "Atonal Poem", versuchen schließlich, diese beiden Pole miteinander zu verbinden und bieten mehrteilige Reisen durch unbekanntes Klangterritorium. Im Gegensatz zu der glückseligen Instrumentierung untersuchen Dummys sardonische Texte die Last des modernen Lebens, den Konsumismus, den Zusammenbruch der Umwelt, die Entfremdung und andere Ängste, die aus dem Leben in diesem absurden Moment der Geschichte entstehen. Innenarchitektur, Meeresverschmutzung, die Psychologie kommerzieller Architektur und Atomtests sind Themen, die aufgegriffen werden. Die rastlose Kreativität von Dummy treibt die Band immer weiter voran, sie fordern sich selbst ständig heraus und treiben ihren Sound in aufregende und erheiternde Bereiche. Dies ist - wie der Albumtitel schon sagt - "Mandatory Enjoyment". ENG Los Angeles band Dummy refuses to slow down. After releasing two cassette EP's in 2020 (on Popwig and Born Yesterday respectively), Dummy's debut full-length album arrives via Chicago's Trouble in Mind Records. Employing pummeling guitars and celestial ambience within the same breath, the band folds a myriad of reference points into their drone-pop style. Influence from '60s melodicism and '90s UK noise pop can be found woven in with inspiration from spiritual jazz, Japanese new age, and Italian minimalism. Dummy dodges the brooding, dark, dramatic tropes of contemporary "artistic" music often found in punk, experimental, and electronic, instead insisting on joyous and euphoric sonic palettes. They refuse to be artistically stagnant, continuously shifting their approach to writing across 12 tracks. Shaped by performances around Los Angeles in 2019, songs like "Daffodils" and "Fissured Ceramics" feature relentless driving energy and ample psychedelic noise. Elsewhere, Dummy counterbalances the aggression with meditative synthscapes focused on sound design and studio experimentation, like on the motorik "X-Static Blanket". Finally, centerpiece "H.V.A.C." and the album's final track, "Atonal Poem", seek to synthesize these two poles, offering multi-part journeys through uncharted sonic territory. In contrast to blissed-out instrumentation, Dummy's sardonic lyricism examines "the burden of modern life, consumerism, environmental collapse, alienation, and other anxieties born out of living in this absurd moment in history". Interior design, marine pollution, the psychology of commercial architecture, and nuclear testing are all featured subjects. Dummy's restless creativity keeps them moving ever-forward, continuously challenging themselves and pushing their sound into exciting and exhilarating places. This is - as the album title suggests - "Mandatory Enjoyment".

In 1994 Come responded to the difficult-second-album stereotype with the hypnotic, intense and emotional masterpiece 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'. Featuring the original line-up of Thalia Zedek, Chris Brokaw, Sean O' Brien and Arthur Johnson, the Boston band broadened their sound by slowing down the tempos and creating a dense urban stream of consciousness that mixes noise, city blues and_ catharsis. The album hits you immediately as one of the greatest dissident records ever made. Lovingly remastered, this expanded edition includes 'Wrong Sides', an additional albums worth of b-sides and unreleased tracks, including the band's very first single 'Car' and their last recorded song, 'Cimarron', featuring this core line-up. These gems showcase the rawness and incredible growth of a band completely in command of their songwriting and at the same time paying homage to some of their punk roots with beautiful renditions of Swell Maps 'Loin Of The Surf' and X's 'Adult Books'. Also Includes new artwork with unearthed photos and fresh liner notes by the band. Dissident from traditional rock this is a band playing music that thematically and structurally seems to pull from old Europa, from Eastern folk and modernist classical music as much as US and UK rock. Dissident from traditional ideas about singing and songwriting Thalia's (ex of Live Skull) presence on songs like 'Yr Reign' and the astonishing closer 'Arrive' isn't the pushy self-aggrandizement of a lead singer but the internal voice of the eternal migrant, someone who knows about survival, hiding, how living between multiple worlds can become its own refuge of distance, its own sanctuary of unbelonging Don't Ask Don't Tell emerged from a period of cohesion, a break from the tight and hectic touring schedule Come had been plunged into after the acclaim accorded 11:11, and you can hear that increased focus in every moment the layers of guitars and feedback are even more precise, the structuring of songs takes on a new openness and ambition, and the whole narrative arc of the record from 'Finish Line' to 'Arrive' is more exquisitely realised and sequenced. "The songs on Don't Ask Don't Tell . . . had a kind of magic we didn't necessarily control ourselves." Chris Brokaw - interview with Neil Kulkarni, 2013. "Devastating, with slow, burning songs that shudder and wince" NY Times

”Live at The Troubadour” ist ein Live-Album von James Taylor und Carole King, das ursprünglich im
Jahr 2010 veröffentlicht wurde. Im November 1970 traten die beiden aufstrebenden Stars zum ersten
Mal gemeinsam im The Troubadour in West Hollywood, Kalifornien, auf. Sechsunddreißig Jahre später
kehrten James Taylor, Carole King und Mitglieder ihrer berühmten Originalband ”The Section” (mit dem
Gitarristen Danny Kortchmar, dem Bassisten Leland Sklar und dem Schlagzeuger Russell Kunkel) für drei
Nächte und sechs Shows in den Troubadour zurück, um das 50-jährige Jubiläum des Veranstaltungsorts zu
feiern. Diese historischen Momente sind in ”Live at The Troubadour” dokumentiert. Die bemerkenswerte
Aufnahme enthält 15 Songs und 75 Minuten atemberaubende Auftritte ihrer größten Hits, darunter ”You’ve
Got A Friend”, ”Fire and Rain”, ”I Feel The Earth Move” und viele mehr.
Das Album debütierte auf Platz 4 in den USA und bescherte James Taylor in jedem Jahrzehnt seit den
1970er Jahren ein Top-10-Album und Carole King ihr erstes Top-10-Album seit 1976.
Das Album ist nun erstmals in HiRes und auf Vinyl (2-LP-Set auf 180g-Vinyl, gepresst bei Quality Records
Pressing) erhältlich.

Over nearly 20 years, Howlin Rain may have become the quintessential independent American rock ’n roll band: a steam-spitting Hydra of cranked guitars, kicking asphalt dust through a kaleidoscoping travelogue of desert motels and dives, volleying forth transmissions of sci-fi poetry from the blacktop veins of this cracked and aching country.

Now, in America 2021, capping these strangest and sorest of times, the band returns with The Dharma Wheel, a six-track, 52-minute dive into a joyous fantasy realm of exaggerated present.

“I wanted The Dharma Wheel to be a portal from our everyday world, the one from which you stand on hard ground and hold the album in your hands and peer into the artwork, and into another universe,” says songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, Ethan Miller. “You enter into that universe with your eyes and ears and mind and take a ride through free-form meditation on these ideas — from big, fundamental concepts about our existence right down to the grease that rolls down the arm of a pulp novel killer as he eats a gas station hot dog in an old Dodge in an alleyway.”

Lyrically, Miller has completed his evolution into a mushroom-plucking Whitman of the West, singing outlandish tales in a topographic blend of Humbead’s Revised Map of the World and an inverted U.S. where downtrodden bodhisattvas roam the back streets and moonless country roads.

“Down in Florida swamps, run by nature’s law, standing in the water, Eden gone. Two men loading rifles, beasts making time, they shot a boy from an orange tree and watched the colored birds take flight, watch the colors as they soar and dive.” — ‘Under the Wheels.’

The band, Jeff McElroy (bass, backing vocals), Justin Smith (drums/percussion, backing vocals) and Dan Cervantes (guitar, backing vocals), again sounds hardwired into Miller’s vision, building tracks that swagger and sway in response to his verse. Lending a hand this time around is the legendary Scarlet Rivera (Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue) on violin, and the endlessly inventive Adam MacDougall (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun) on keys.

Songs were shaped via the blast furnace of endless gigs, then recorded often mere hours after the band slipped the stage.

“The captured sonic fact about this record is that it’s the sound of a band that rehearsed this material a lot and put a ton of work into its construction and was on the road a lot and recorded on days off in the tour schedule,” Miller says. “In some cases we were on stage on Saturday night playing these songs at quarter-to-2 in the morning and by Noon the next day we were sipping coffee in the studio playing them for the machine.”

Rivera’s violin is the first sound heard as the album dawns on the instrumental “Prelude.” Soon, the band joins, twirling the theme into a psychedelicized awakening. “Don’t Let the Tears” brings the boogie, with MacDougall’s madcap synth work and wah-wah guitars showering 70’s glitter upon a parquet dance floor of the mind. “Under the Wheels” and “Rotoscope” center the album with taut, compositional epics populated by murdering drifters and fuzz pedal explosions. The blue hour comedown of “Annabelle” meditates upon the weariness of lost love, with Rivera again amping the heartache via her violin strings.

“In the evening the trains go by, and shake the dust from dirty walls, sometimes I feel like a spider in an old mason jar, who threatens only convex light from down the hall. I’ve been lost to the world since the photos of the black hole, landed on my desktop screaming, perhaps the all and nothing all-in-one is just too much to take, for particles and matter that never found their way.” — ‘Annabelle’

The record closes with the 16-minute title track, a multi-movement suite which cycles from Crazy Horse-meets-Traffic jams through colossal, mass-moving funk stomp, eventually cresting and washing into a sing-along gospel lament.

The Dharma Wheel is an album of great depth, and one steeped in good vibes: a rich, glistening world of the ultra-vivid. As illustrated in Arik Roper’s cover art, the grand dharmachakra has been set in motion, churning off the California coast.

“We were trying to build a world big enough that the imagination won’t go soft on you after just a few listens and where our love for this music, and music in general — along with a good dose of audacity — create a magic carpet ride through the world of The Dharma Wheel,” Miller continues. “In pursuing that I think we also managed to make a record that has a lot of joy in it: the joy of playing music, the joy of experiencing music, the joy of storytelling and poetry, the kind of singular joy and extended ecstatic moment that only a real ‘band’ can express in just that way.”

And it’s this joy, this exuberance and dedication to the lines of cosmic expression — all centered in the exalted art of the everyday — that constructs the heart of the record. At its core, The Dharma Wheel is the triumph of a working band, a transmission from a never-paused before arriving for our strange, bruised, spectacular now.”

Over nearly 20 years, Howlin Rain may have become the quintessential independent American rock ’n roll band: a steam-spitting Hydra of cranked guitars, kicking asphalt dust through a kaleidoscoping travelogue of desert motels and dives, volleying forth transmissions of sci-fi poetry from the blacktop veins of this cracked and aching country.

Now, in America 2021, capping these strangest and sorest of times, the band returns with The Dharma Wheel, a six-track, 52-minute dive into a joyous fantasy realm of exaggerated present.

“I wanted The Dharma Wheel to be a portal from our everyday world, the one from which you stand on hard ground and hold the album in your hands and peer into the artwork, and into another universe,” says songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, Ethan Miller. “You enter into that universe with your eyes and ears and mind and take a ride through free-form meditation on these ideas — from big, fundamental concepts about our existence right down to the grease that rolls down the arm of a pulp novel killer as he eats a gas station hot dog in an old Dodge in an alleyway.”

Lyrically, Miller has completed his evolution into a mushroom-plucking Whitman of the West, singing outlandish tales in a topographic blend of Humbead’s Revised Map of the World and an inverted U.S. where downtrodden bodhisattvas roam the back streets and moonless country roads.

“Down in Florida swamps, run by nature’s law, standing in the water, Eden gone. Two men loading rifles, beasts making time, they shot a boy from an orange tree and watched the colored birds take flight, watch the colors as they soar and dive.” — ‘Under the Wheels.’

The band, Jeff McElroy (bass, backing vocals), Justin Smith (drums/percussion, backing vocals) and Dan Cervantes (guitar, backing vocals), again sounds hardwired into Miller’s vision, building tracks that swagger and sway in response to his verse. Lending a hand this time around is the legendary Scarlet Rivera (Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue) on violin, and the endlessly inventive Adam MacDougall (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun) on keys.

Songs were shaped via the blast furnace of endless gigs, then recorded often mere hours after the band slipped the stage.

“The captured sonic fact about this record is that it’s the sound of a band that rehearsed this material a lot and put a ton of work into its construction and was on the road a lot and recorded on days off in the tour schedule,” Miller says. “In some cases we were on stage on Saturday night playing these songs at quarter-to-2 in the morning and by Noon the next day we were sipping coffee in the studio playing them for the machine.”

Rivera’s violin is the first sound heard as the album dawns on the instrumental “Prelude.” Soon, the band joins, twirling the theme into a psychedelicized awakening. “Don’t Let the Tears” brings the boogie, with MacDougall’s madcap synth work and wah-wah guitars showering 70’s glitter upon a parquet dance floor of the mind. “Under the Wheels” and “Rotoscope” center the album with taut, compositional epics populated by murdering drifters and fuzz pedal explosions. The blue hour comedown of “Annabelle” meditates upon the weariness of lost love, with Rivera again amping the heartache via her violin strings.

“In the evening the trains go by, and shake the dust from dirty walls, sometimes I feel like a spider in an old mason jar, who threatens only convex light from down the hall. I’ve been lost to the world since the photos of the black hole, landed on my desktop screaming, perhaps the all and nothing all-in-one is just too much to take, for particles and matter that never found their way.” — ‘Annabelle’

The record closes with the 16-minute title track, a multi-movement suite which cycles from Crazy Horse-meets-Traffic jams through colossal, mass-moving funk stomp, eventually cresting and washing into a sing-along gospel lament.

The Dharma Wheel is an album of great depth, and one steeped in good vibes: a rich, glistening world of the ultra-vivid. As illustrated in Arik Roper’s cover art, the grand dharmachakra has been set in motion, churning off the California coast.

“We were trying to build a world big enough that the imagination won’t go soft on you after just a few listens and where our love for this music, and music in general — along with a good dose of audacity — create a magic carpet ride through the world of The Dharma Wheel,” Miller continues. “In pursuing that I think we also managed to make a record that has a lot of joy in it: the joy of playing music, the joy of experiencing music, the joy of storytelling and poetry, the kind of singular joy and extended ecstatic moment that only a real ‘band’ can express in just that way.”

And it’s this joy, this exuberance and dedication to the lines of cosmic expression — all centered in the exalted art of the everyday — that constructs the heart of the record. At its core, The Dharma Wheel is the triumph of a working band, a transmission from a never-paused before arriving for our strange, bruised, spectacular now.”

On Now Where Were We, The Exbats hit the ground running like
a dystopian garage rock version of the Shangri-Las, or like
a message to the future from the pre-Velvet Underground doowop
wannabe Lou Reed. The album rings bright, like a beacon
in the wilderness: eminently, effortlessly catchy, and loaded
with buoyant choruses that rank alongside the best chart-toppers
launched by the Brill Building or Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound.
Kenny McClain and his daughter, vocalist and drummer
Inez McClain, formed the nucleus of the Exbats over a decade
ago, when Inez was just 10 years old; today, Bobby Carlson
rounds out the group on bass. Despite their remote location in
Bisbee, Arizona, just eleven miles north of the U.S.-Mexican
border, the group quickly racked up accolades citing a wealth of
influences that run from cartoon quintet the Archies to punk rock
originators the Avengers, and from the so-sweet-it-hurts 1910
Fruitgum Company to Los Angeles antiheroes the Weirdos.
Truthfully, The Exbats embrace a wider swath of musical styles,
incorporating blue-eyed soul, tongue-in-cheek country, Brit
pop, psych, and R&B into their sound.
The McClains describe this album as “more ambitious” than
its predecessors. They tooled ninety minutes northeast to Tucson
to record, per usual, with Matt Rendon at Midtown Island Studios.
Months later, the Exbats emerged with an album imbued
with harmoniously cautious optimism—the musical equivalent
but psychological antithesis to the Brian Wilson-Tony Asher
masterpiece “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times.” While Wilson
was looking for “a place to fit in,” The Exbats have found
sanctuary via the brilliant “Ghost In The Record Store,” which
is “for all of us who need the joy of a little bit of plastic making
lots of noise.” Like the best records to croon along with, Now
Where Were We is captivatingly simple, yet hardly simplistic.
The Exbats are singing from their hearts—and they aren’t afraid
to bare their souls.

The Pineapple Thief, are one of the leading lights of Europe’s experimental rock domain, led by post-progressive mastermind Bruce Soord & reinforced by Gavin Harrison (King Crimson) on drums.
Following the release of their latest studio album ‘Versions Of The Truth’ in September 2020, the band were preparing to start the album’s live campaign, when like so many other artists, their plans were put on hold by the continuing global pandemic.
Eager to still perform & connect with their fans across the globe, in April 2021, The Pineapple Thief filmed an extravagant on demand live event entitled ‘Nothing But The Truth’ directed by band videographer George Laycock (Blacktide Phonic/Visual).
Bruce Soord explains” “The Pineapple Thief is equally about the studio & the stage, so it was hugely disappointing that we were unable to tour, especially as we were excited to be able to perform the
new album ‘Versions Of The Truth’ live for everyone. Being able to do this film, especially under the circumstances, was invaluable. We all knew we did not want to shoot a film of us standing on stage staring at an empty room. We wanted something special, something ‘cinematic’ so we have created something unique & something very, very special that I am proud to have been a part of. I can’t wait for people to hear it.”
Drummer, Gavin Harrison adds “Nothing But The Truth” is a highlight for this band in terms of captured performance.
The Pineapple Thief’s 2018 anthemic release ‘Dissolution’ garnered worldwide acclaim from both media & fans, earning them their first UK Top 40 album, #1 UK Rock & Metal album & #22 on the German album charts. It took them on two extensive sold-out European headline tours & their first ever tour of North America.
‘Versions Of The Truth’ raised the standard yet again by delivering, quite possibly, one of the most important rock albums of 2020.
‘Nothing But The Truth’ captures The Pineapple Thief at their very best performing songs from their illustrious catalogue including for the first time live, songs from ‘Versions Of The Truth’.
The release will coincide with the rescheduled UK & European live shows this autumn & continue into 2022 with more dates to be announced.
The soundtrack to ‘Nothing But The Truth’ will be released on a gatefold black vinyl double LP with an 8-page printed colour booklet.

Ein Weihnachtsalbum zwischen sentimentalen Pop-Balladen, Witz, Swing und Charme präsentiert Darren Criss, multitalentierter Sänger, Songwriter, Emmy- und Golden-Globe-prämierter Schauspieler und
Broadway-Star. Seine Fans lieben den gutaussehenden jungen Mann für seine Rollen in ”GLEE”, ”VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY” oder ”HOLLYWOOD”.
Jetzt erfüllt sich Criss einen Wunsch mit einem Weihnachtsalbum, das zwischen Pop und Swing a’la
Dean Martin allerbestes Entertainment unter dem Weihnachtsbaum verspricht. Sein erstes Album in voller
Länge besteht aus Originalsongs und kreativen Neuinterpretationen klassischer Weihnachtshits. Als Gäste
hat er Adam Lambert, Lainey Wilson und Evan Rachel Wood zur Weihnachtsparty geladen.

The Replacements’ 1981 Twin/Tone Records debut, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, heralded the Minneapolis-based band’s competing tendencies toward indelible genius and reckless abandon. With now classic songs including 'Takin' A Ride,' 'Shiftless When Idle,' 'Customer' and 'Johnny's Gonna Die,' the 'Mats' legendary founding line-up of lead singer/songwriter and guitarist Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars (drums) and brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (lead guitar and bass, respectively) unleashed a shambling, dynamic sound. Loose, live, and brimming with energy, Sorry Ma… is a lesson in chaos.

The 40th anniversary of Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash is celebrated this fall with a 4CD/1LP set that offers a remarkable document of The Replacements’ formative years. Of the set’s 100 tracks, 67 have never been released before, including the first demos the band recorded in early 1980, as well as a professionally captured concert from January 1981. Along with a newly remastered version of the original album, it also uncovers many unreleased rough mixes, alternate takes, and demos from the band’s first 18 months together. The LP included in the set, titled Deliberate Noise, presents an alternate version of the original album using these previously unreleased tracks.

CD Tracklist:

1. TAKIN A RIDE
2. CARELESS
3. CUSTOMER
4. HANGIN DOWNTOWN
5. KICK YOUR DOOR DOWN
6. OTTO
7. I BOUGHT A HEADACHE
8. RATTLESNAKE
9. I HATE MUSIC
10. JOHNNY’S GONNA DIE
11. SHIFTLESS WHEN IDLE
12. MORE CIGARETTES
13. DON’T ASK WHY
14. SOMETHIN TO DÜ
15. I’M IN TROUBLE
16. LOVE YOU TILL FRIDAY
17. SHUTUP
18. RAISED IN THE CITY
19. IF ONLY YOU WERE LONELY
1. TRY ME (Demo)
2. SHE’S FIRM (Demo)
3. LOOKIN FOR YA (Demo)
4. RAISED IN THE CITY (Demo)
5. SHUTUP (Demo)
6. DON’T TURN ME DOWN (Demo)
7. SHAPE UP (Demo)
8. I HATE MUSIC (Studio Demo)
9. CARELESS (Studio Demo)
10. SHUTUP (Studio Demo)
11. OTTO (Studio Demo)
12. GET ON THE STICK (Studio Demo)
13. OH BABY (Studio Demo)
14. RAISED IN THE CITY (Studio Demo)
15. SHIFTLESS WHEN IDLE (Studio Demo)
16. MORE CIGARETTES (Studio Demo)
17. YOU AIN’T GOTTA DANCE (Studio Demo)
18. DON’T TURN ME DOWN (Studio Demo)
19. RATTLESNAKE (Basement Version)
20. TAKIN’ A RIDE (Basement Version)
21. LIE ABOUT YOUR AGE (Basement Version)
22. WE’LL GET DRUNK/CUSTOMER (Basement Version)
23. JOHNNY FAST (Basement Version)
24. MISTAKE (Basement Version)
25. BASEMENT JAM (Rehearsal)
1. CARELESS (Alternate Version)
2. TAKIN A RIDE (Alternate Version)
3. SHUTUP (Alternate Version)
4. OTTO (Alternate Mix)
5. RAISED IN THE CITY (Alternate Version)
6. RATTLESNAKE (Alternate Mix)
7. LOVE YOU TILL FRIDAY (Alternate Version)
8. CUSTOMER (Alternate Version)
9. SOMETHIN TO DÜ (Alternate Version)
10. JOHNNY’S GONNA DIE (Alternate Version)
11. I’M IN TROUBLE (Alternate Version)
12. I HATE MUSIC (Alternate Version)
13. WE’LL GET DRUNK
14. MORE CIGARETTES (Alternate Mix)
15. GET LOST (Instrumental)
16. HANGIN DOWNTOWN (Alternate Version)
17. SHUTUP (Alternate Version 2)
18. SOMETHIN TO DÜ (Alternate Version 2)
19. DON’T ASK WHY (Alternate Mix)
20. KICK YOUR DOOR DOWN (Alternate Mix)
21. LOVE YOU TILL FRIDAY (Alternate Mix)
22. JOHNNY’S GONNA DIE (Alternate Mix)
23. LIKE YOU (Outtake)
24. GET LOST (Outtake)
25. A TOE NEEDS A SHOE (Outtake)
26. YOU’RE PRETTY WHEN YOU’RE RUDE (Solo Home Demo)
27. IF ONLY YOU WERE LONELY (Working Version/Solo Home Demo)
28. BAD WORKER (Solo Home Demo)
29. YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED (Solo Home Demo)
1. CARELESS
2. TAKIN A RIDE
3. TROUBLE BOYS
4. HANGIN DOWNTOWN
5. LIKE YOU
6. OFF YOUR PANTS
7. GET LOST
8. EXCUSE ME
9. CUSTOMER
10. I WANNA BE LOVED
11. MISTAKE
12. MY TOWN
13. SHIFTLESS WHEN IDLE
14. OH BABY
15. I’M IN TROUBLE
16. JOHNNY’S GONNA DIE/ALL BY MYSELF
17. MORE CIGARETTES
18. OTTO
19. DON’T ASK WHY
20. SLOW DOWN
21. SOMETHIN TO DÜ
22. LOVE YOU TILL FRIDAY
23. RAISED IN THE CITY
24. RATTLESNAKE
25. ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT
26. I HATE MUSIC
27. SHUTUP

Echo & The Bunnymen formed in Liverpool back in 1978, with Ian McCulloch on vocals, Will Sergeant on guitar, bassist Les Pattinson with Pete De Freitas on drums. Their first release came in the form of the single The Pictures On My Wall, with the B-side Read It In Books. Both tracks would appear on their debut album Crocodiles, released in 1980. Released amid the growing wave of post-punk, Crocodiles cemented the band amongst the best around, with the NME at the time describing it as “probably the best album this year by a British band” and featuring amongst many greatest ever debut album lists.

The lead single from the album, Rescue, was produced by Ian Broudie who would later produce more Echo & The Bunnymen material, as well as later forming The Lightning Seeds in 1989. The single would enter the UK charts, with the album breaking into the top 20 and going on to be certified Gold. The original cover was shot by Brian Griffin near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. The atmospheric, moody aura of the sleeve sets the tone for quintessential post-punk.