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Now is a DIY recording & performing pop group from the SF Bay Area with a predilection for 80s UK cassette culture, pulp novels, beat groups, and b movies. "Now Does the Trick" all too well. With balance, harmony, and simplicity, Now slips their hand into the pocketbook of modfathers without being nicked by nostalgia. Harmony on every corner. "Beat Girl" playing on late night TV. The fantasy soundtracks People doing handstands at a party with Syd Barrett. Where the Soft Boys play in the background and no one crosses a picket line. Like a long walk next to the train tracks on Ringo's day out with Sunlight Bathed in the Golden Glow: A little blood in your teeth of an Andy and Edie bubblegum Dream. RIYL (Recommended If You Like): Big Star, Feelies, Felt, Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock, Sharp Pins.

UK Salford band The Ting Tings released their first catalogue of hits in 2008, with global success taking them on an immediate 6-year world tour. That’s Not My Name, Shut Up & Let Me Go, Great Dj & Hands, still regular fixtures on playlists and syncs worldwide.

They vowed never to make the same record twice, 5 albums in, they are sticking to their word.

Their new album ‘Home’ was recorded in a wooden decked analogue studio is an easy breezy yacht rock album committed to traditional songwriting inspired by their all-time favourites, Fleetwood Mac, Dire Straits, The Eagles, The Carpenters, Cosby Stills & Nash, Supertramp, Christopher Cross, best heard in a car, preferably with the sea in view and the windows down.

I must admit to being a sucker for two-guitar bands. Ok, Hendrix pulled off a trio. But I don’t care what anybody says: The Yardbirds were a better band than anything that came out of them (Ok, maybe not Zep. But Cream?).

Maybe the reason I go back so far in my references is that, within the two-guitar band format, original new roles are difficult and rare. There’s the classic (socially problematic and often boring) “rhythm/lead” solution. There’s the JB’s or Nile Rodgers’ chicken pickin’ vs comping solution (which avoids chordal clashes by relegating one of the guitars to the role of single-note percussion instrument). There’s Ornette’s Prime Time division between Bern Nix’s rolled-off “jazz” tone and Charles Ellerbee’s trebly wah. Almost everything else is a variation on one of these.


In Ches Smith’s record Clone Row, each piece is built around a different concept for guitar interaction. The delightful and gifted weirdness of Mary Halvorson’s playing is counterpointed, contrasted, unisoned with, played off, juxtaposed (that is to say, enters every relationship possible) with Liberty Ellman’s equally amazing sound palette, chops, and imagination. This definitely ain’t your father’s guitar band.
The overall vibe of the record—despite Halvorson’s occasional noise outbursts or Ellman’s distorted guitar lines (see Mixed Fridge) is neither punk/funk, nor Zorn-ish metal—and certainly not the looser parameters of Ornette’s improvised harmolodics. Smith’s vibraphone playing, Halvorson’s guitar tone (whammy pedal squiggles aside), the brilliant electronics, and (most of all) the compositions themselves are somehow strangely West Coast cool. It’s as if I’m hearing a Jim Hall concert in which one of us did a lot of mushrooms, or (dare I write this?) some post-punk post-Dave Brubeck post-trip-hop experiment with classical form.

This recording is, most of all, about Ches as composer. He’s picked up a lot on his long, strange trip of the last few decades. The Haitian funkiness of his work with We All Break is audible—but deeply buried, encoded in the polyrhythms (check out Heart Breakthrough). His long-running side musician collaborations with John Zorn and Tim Berne are also evident but sublimated here into something new.

Not that improvising is absent. Check out the compelling collective statements in Sustained Nightmare and Ready Beat. Check out the brilliant interplay and bass soloing on Abrade With Me (a Weather Report for the age of extreme weather?) Nick Dunston is my favorite bassist of the new generation, and he plays brilliantly throughout. And Ches’ drumming here has all the groove, energy, and incredible range that have kept him in demand from Saturday night Vodou services to jazz and new music recording sessions (…the thinking man’s rock barbarian?).
The sus chords in Abrade With Me do build, for a moment, towards a fusion type of climax...but just at the moment I was gritting my teeth in anticipated defense against some horrible synth solo, the drums drop out, and we’re transported to the ambient lounge at the rave, and we suddenly understand we’re in the hands of a composer with the power to transport us just about anywhere.
So, this is a composer’s record most of all; a composer’s record performed by musicians who happen to be great improvisers. Ches Smith builds here on his reputation as a gifted new voice with an important vision, while showcasing some of the most creative musicians of our time.

Mit 'Under a Familiar Sun' veröffentlicht The Vernon Spring alias Sam Beste ein faszinierendes Album zwischen Jazz, Ambient, experimentellem Pop und elektronischem Songwriting. Beste, einst Pianist in Amy Winehouse’ Band und Kollaborateur von u. a. MF DOOM, Joy Crookes und Beth Orton, entfaltet hier ein vielschichtiges Werk voller emotionaler Tiefe und klanglicher Finesse.

Entstanden in seinem Heimstudio in Brighton, verarbeitet das Album persönliche Themen wie Vaterschaft, Verantwortung und Selbstverortung in einer instabilen Welt - getragen von Beste’s charakteristischem, improvisationsnahem Klavierspiel und feinfühliger Produktion. Mitwirkende wie Autor Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers), Cellistin Kate Ellis und die in Brooklyn lebende Künstlerin aden verleihen dem Album zusätzliche Tiefe.

Ein durchkomponiertes, atmosphärisches Werk mit klarer Handschrift - für Fans von Bon Iver, James Blake, Nils Frahm oder Moses Sumney.

"Something of a love letter to New Orleans," Alec Ounsworth's Mo Beauty is finally available again on vinyl redesign featuring gatefold, spot gloss varnish, and marble smokey vinyl. The Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) produced "Mo Beauty" features Ounsworth's trademarks alongside New Orleans finest musicians (George Porter Jr., Stanton Moore, among others). The songs were written in conjunction with CYHSY material but, with this material, Ounsworth tried a different look. The limited deluxe reissue is being released in the wake of the 20th anniversary of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the classic self-titled debut album, and its celebratory 2025 worldwide tour.

Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 is the first ever archival release from Repetition Repetition, the “two-man electric minimalist band” consisting of Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton hailing from Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s. Repetition Repetition’s unique blend of cosmic art-rock minimalism / maximalism was self-released across a series of cassettes produced in micro editions, and while garnering the attention and participation of luminaries such as Harold Budd, remained under the radar during the band’s existence. Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 collects select material from across the duo’s catalog.

It was over a plate of Mexican breakfast food when Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton first told Harold Budd of Repetition Repetition and the worlds they intended to explore by respective way of synthesizers and guitars --- a rendezvous instigated by the former’s fan mail to the legendary composer. If the upstarts entered this restaurant from a one-way street of admiration, they would leave with not only Budd’s interest but, sometime later, a blessing in the wake of many hours shared by the three in Garcia’s Los Angeles home recording studio: “This is going to be difficult, but God help them, I think they’re great,” noted Budd in a USC lecture in 1985. Now several degrees removed from prior rock music aspirations, the real game was afoot.

Between 1984 and 1988, Repetition Repetition operated within something akin to the underground of the experimental underground, although even that designation perhaps overstates the case. The duo’s sparse output consisted of three cassettes self-released on Garcia’s Third Stone Music label: Repetition Repetition (1985), Lakeland (1987), and The Machinist (1987). Their songs would also be included during this period on Trance Port Tapes’ vital scene-scanning compilations assembled by A Produce. Live performances occurred with similar infrequency, but Garcia and Caton counted converts in quality over quantity, numbering among them the aforementioned Budd, a Chambers Brother, and, judging by a memorably drop-jawed reaction following a rare Repetition Repetition gig, Jackson Browne.

Likewise, critical support materialized in the form of KCRW deejays Brent Wilcox and Dean Suzuki, whose steady airplay positioned Repetition Repetition’s music amidst fearless company like Jon Hassell, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Richard Horowitz. Yet, to hear fellow Trance Port featured players like Tom Recchion and Bruce Licher of Savage Republic tell it, Garcia and Caton moved as ghosts --- a notion more vexingly endorsed by the silence of record companies that failed to come knocking --- and therein lies an overarching truth to the work itself.

Journey to the heart of Repetition Repetition and one discovers a collective ear impossibly attuned to the hypnotic possibilities of stylistic convergence, the resulting music possessed of seamless multimodalities which beckon to a glimmering plane of the disembodied. Where Caton sought his artistic fixes at an intersection of popular genres, Garcia zoned in on the sonically spare, drawing from the same wellspring as the Enos and Rileys of his personal avant-garde pantheon, and in their coming together the two tapped into a deeper cosmic source. Synthetic walls of keyboard sound in forever states of reprise met waves of shimmering --- and at times even punishing --- guitar in reply, their soundscapes hovering convincingly between, as suggested in fittingly dualistic fashion in a press kit assembled by Garcia, such disparate sensations as bird flight in one song and oil drilling in the next.

But don’t call it a push-pull dynamic, as this was a creative partnership founded upon fluidity and organicism by way of, naturally, repetition. In contrast to, say, the Bressonian ideal of repetitive motion as a great stripping away, the concept in the hands of Garcia and Caton equated to ascendancy via continuous unfolding, a maximal route to minimalism. To be sure, their recording philosophy morphed over the course of the act’s short history, and what started as a process defined by consistent in-person interplay developed into a more isolated method formulated by Garcia, who eventually took to his own one-man bedroom-studio sessions in order to fully chart any and all potential ostinato-loaded paths which he could travel down, the Tascam-captured resonances subsequently provided to Caton as blueprints from which to take flight himself, adding layer upon layer of steel to the proceedings.

If the practice and execution changed, however, the evidence certainly didn’t rest in the results: The seamlessness remained, and, despite the brevity of their time together, so has Repetition Repetition. With this finely calibrated collection of songs in Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987, Freedom To Spend sees to it that the private worlds of Garcia and Caton can now be visited by all rather than just the count-‘em-on-both-hands lucky few whose musical endeavors or collector vocations carried them into this once-distant dimension.

Repetition Repetition’s Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 will be released on Freedom To Spend in vinyl and digital editions on May 30, 2025. The collection includes extensive liner notes from Bill Perrine, and wil be offered alongside Over & Over, a supplemental collection of music available exclusively as a mail order cassette from Freedom To Spend and RVNG Intl.

handsigniert & nummeriert

Wir schreiben das Jahr 2025 und FEINE SAHNE FISCHFILET kündigen ihr neues Album „WIR KOMMEN IN FRIEDEN“ an:„Alle gegen alle, im Krieg mit sich und untereinander und natürlich immer exklusiv mit der alleinseligmachenden Offenbarung im Gepäck.

Jeden Tag passiert so viel, so viel Scheiße, so viel Dummes, aber auch immer die guten Sachen mit den Freundinnen und Freunden, der Familie, mit all denen, die noch nicht komplett im Arsch sind. Zeiten, in denen man sich nur umdrehen muss und einem die Idee für das nächste Lied an den Kopf geworfen wird. Und so erscheint am 30. Mai unser neues Album mit einer Menge neuer Songs. Wir kommen in Frieden. Das ist unsere letzte Warnung.“

Angetrieben durch ihren ureigenen Signature Sound - High Energy Melody-PunkRock mit Trompete – gelingt den fünf Musikern mit ihrem neuen Werk eine hinreißende Bestandsaufnahme und gleichzeitig Ausblick auf eine der ungewöhnlichsten Band-Karrieren der letzten Jahrzehnte dieses Landes, ein wilder Trip, der sie aus der vorpommerschen Provinz durch viele Irrungen und Wirrungen bis an die Spitze der deutschsprachigen Musikszene geführt hat.

Produziert wurde der Longplayer erneut von Philipp »Philsen« Hoppen, der auch schon bei Alben von Die Ärzte, Kraftklub, Deichkind und K.I.Z. seine versierten Finger im Spiel hatte.

»Ich denke immer wieder aufs Neue darüber nach, wie ich mich als Schlagzeug-spielender Bandleader so positionieren kann, dass das Instrument eine tragende Funktion einnimmt, dies aber auf eine musikalische Weise geschieht und auf keinen Fall als Zurschaustellung von Virtuosität«, sagt Wolfgang Haffner. Diese Haltung zieht sich als roter Faden durch seine gesamte Karriere - und auch durch »Life Rhythm«, sein zehntes Album auf ACT.

Und obwohl Haffners Musik gängigen Vorstellungen virtuoser Schlagzeug-Leader ganz bewusst widerspricht, steht das Instrument diesmal besonders im Fokus. Ausgangspunkt dafür war Wolfgang Haffners allererstes Solokonzert im Jahr 2022 auf Schloss Elmau. Er erinnert sich: »Das war eine Wahnsinns-Herausforderung bei der ich auch vor der Entscheidung stand: Spiele ich jetzt eine Stunde Schlagzeugsolo? Natürlich nicht! Also habe ich habe eine Menge melodisch klingender Perkussionsinstrumente eingebaut, Passagen live geloopt, mit Echos und Delays gearbeitet – im Grunde wie im Studio, nur eben auf der Bühne.« All dies brachte Haffner dazu, sich noch einmal auf ganz intensive Art mit dem Thema mit dem Instrument zu beschäftigen, welches ihn sein Leben lang begleitet. Und so haben alle Stücke auf »Life Rhythm« diesmal ihren Ursprung, nicht wie sonst bei Haffner, am Piano, sondern am Schlagzeug.

Das Ergebnis dieses Prozesses kann man gleich zum Auftakt von »Life Rhythm« auf dem Titeltrack erleben: Das Stück basiert auf einem hypnotischen Groove, bei dem nicht die Becken, wie sonst im Jazz üblich, die Time angeben, sondern vor allem die Trommeln. Das dieser Groove direkt Phil Collins und besonders an dessen Stück »Take Me Home« erinnert, ist kein Zufall: Collins' Art, Drum-Parts zu elementaren Teilen des Songwritings zu machen, ist bis heute eine von Haffners größten Inspirationen. Und auch jedes weitere der elf sehr kompakten, Song-haften Stücke auf »Life Rhythm« öffnet eine eigene Welt des musikalischen Schlagzeugspiels: Mal mal trocken-reduziert mit Besen wie auf »Balance«, poppig bei »Joy of Life«, mit filigranen Becken-Grooves, dezenter Elektronik und Percussion auf »Eternity« oder minimalis-tisch bis kurz vor der Stille in »Silence and Sound«.

Das aus all diesen Stilistiken ein so stimmiges Ganzes ent-steht liegt daran, das Wolfgang Haffner diese im Laufe seiner Karriere bis in die Tiefe durchdrungen hat - an der Seite von stilbildenden Charakteren wie Al Jarreau, Chaka Khan, Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek, Esbjörn Svensson, Nils Petter Molvaer, Albert Mangelsdorff, Ricardo Villalobos und vielen, vielen mehr. All diese Kollaborationen haben Wolfgang Haffners Voka-bular am Instrument und auch als Komponist geprägt und die da-mit verbundenen, unterschiedlichsten Stile sind gleichermaßen Teil seiner musikalischen Persönlichkeit.

Vielseitigkeit und höchste Musikalität sind auch die Eigen-schaften, die Wolfgang Haffner und seine Mitmusiker auf »Life Rhythm« verbinden. Die Basis bildet ein bestens einges-pieltes Trio zusammen mit Keyboarder Simon Oslender, selbst auch Drummer und Bandleader, und Thomas Stieger, einem der gefragtesten deutschen Bassisten in Pop wie Jazz. Dazu kommen Trompeter Sebastian Studnitzky, Mitstreiter Haffners seit seinem ACT-Debüt »Shapes« und der Finne Arto Mikälä, eine echte Entdeckung in Sachen Klangvielfalt an der Gitarre. Diese Band herausragender Allrounder erweitert Haffner um eine Reihe musikalischer Charaktere, die der Musik ihre ganz eigene Farbe verleihen: Nils Landgren, Freund und Weggefährte seit mehr als 20 Jahren, Saxofon-Ikone Bill Evans, Sting-Gitarrist Dominic Miller, Balkan-Beat-Star Shantel, Bass-Feingeist Nicolas Fiszman, Oud-Virtuose Thomas Konstantinou und Bruno Müller, einer der besten deutschen Jazzgitarristen.

»Life Rhythm«, sagt Wolfgang Haffner, »ist für mich eine Fortsetzung, keine Wiederholung«. Die Musik trägt mit ihrer Wärme, Kraft und Klarheit die charakteristische Handschrift, die Haffner mit seinen Alben und auf tausenden von Konzerten in mehr als 100 Ländern zum wohl populärsten Schlagzeug-spielenden Leader Europas gemacht hat. Und gleichzeitig ist es eine Evolution seiner Musik. Gut möglich, dass Haffners Erfolg genau darin begründet ist, dass seine Musik immer etwas Ver-trautes und etwas Neues beinhaltet und dass Haffner sein Publikum so immer »mitnimmt« im Fluss seiner Ideen - und in einem gemeinsamen »Lebensrhythmus«

Wenn drei visionäre Köpfe der elektronischen Musik aufeinandertreffen, entsteht ein Sound, der Grenzen sprengt. Demise Of Love ist das Projekt von Daniel Avery, James Greenwoods Ghost Culture und Working Men’s Club – eine Kollaboration, die aus gegenseitiger Wertschätzung und dem Streben nach neuen Klängen entstanden ist. Demise Of Love verbindet rohe Energie mit klanglicher Präzision. Das Ergebnis ist eine Fusion aus industriellen Klanglandschaften, pulsierendem Acid-House und melancholischen Melodien. Ihre Musik fordert heraus, fesselt und bleibt haften. Die EP, abgemischt von Alan Moulder, bringt das Beste der drei Musiker zusammen: Synthesizer, die den Raum aufbrechen, intensive Refrains und eine Soundästhetik, die sich nicht einordnen lässt. „Strange Little Consequence“ wechselt spielerisch zwischen Acid-Groove und monumental anmutendem Rock-Refrain. „Carry The Blame“ fängt die Weite des Detroit-Techno ein, „Be A Man“ verbindet Industrial-Punk mit düsterer Melancholie, und „Like I Loved You“ hebt mit hymnischem Gesang in elektronische Höhen ab. Auch inhaltlich geht die EP tief: Texte über Entfremdung, Kontrollverlust und die Suche nach Verbindung verleihen der Musik zusätzliche Schwere. Zeilen wie „Dead peasants excite you / Rewards of the plight fall / Into your hands“ aus „Strange Little

Consequence“ oder „Your ways are antiquated / And I’m bored now“ aus „Be A Man“ spiegeln das Unbehagen unserer Zeit wider. „Demise Of Love“ ist keine bloße Zusammenarbeit, sondern eine Verschmelzung dreier einzigartiger Klangwelten zu etwas völlig Eigenem. Hier trifft Innovation auf Emotion – kompromisslos, intensiv und von zeitloser Eleganz.

Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEATHRASH ASSAULT is available on Svart exclusive black & white marble vinyl, limited natural vinyl, and classic black vinyl. Includes Slayer's Black Magic cover as a bonus track.

Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEATHRASH ASSAULT is available on Svart exclusive black & white marble vinyl, limited natural vinyl, and classic black vinyl. Includes Slayer's Black Magic cover as a bonus track.

Mia Zapata was the greatest rock singer of her time. She may have likely been the greatest blues singer in punk rock history, the woman who married the 78 and the '78. Tragedy did not make this true. Mia Zapata made this true, and the ferocious, spring-loaded shrapnel frame that was built around her by Andy Kessler (guitar: metronomic and furious), Matt Dresdner (bass: fluid, punching, beat-addicted and melodic), and Steve Moriarty (drums: martial and explosive) - who, with Mia, combined to form The Gits - made it true. The Gits were formed at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio in mid-1986, grabbing and swapping pieces of art, thrash, noise, punk rock, classic rock, and all the sorts of magical silly and bookish jingle bells that an old-school liberal arts education handed you; for the next few years they worked on turning it all into something tough, sensitive, both brutal and kind. Andy, Matt, Mia, and Steve moved to Seattle in middish 1989, landing in a house on Capitol Hill where they (and fellow travelers) wood-shedded and rehearsed for the next few years. The Gits put out three EPs in 1990 and '91 before signing with C/Z Records and releasing their first full-length album, Frenching the Bully. Seattle quickly claimed the quartet as their own and embraced the Gits blend of ferocious fangs and soft heart, the slug/slap of the guitars, and the gorgeous, soft underbelly of the poetic emotions. These qualities not only fit in with the doe-eyed/sharp-clawed grunge ethos but earned the Gits the respect of their peers, including Nirvana, who tapped them to open a major local show in 1990. Then other stuff happened, and their frantic, confessional barbed-heart snowball began rolling up hill very, very fast; the Gits "quickly" (hah! After half a decade learning to implode and explode hearts and stomping their boots on manifold beer-softened, Marlboro-weeded wood stages!) inspired rapture, awe, and the levitation that happened when peak emotion meets peak grindage in front of amps spitting out something that sounded like the mad marriage of Bolan swagger and Dischord tension_ all fronted by a genuinely incomparable woman who held her heart in her mouth and shared it, in all its celebration and fear, without hesitation. The Gits were an angry, inflamed slinky fully in tune with and tuned by the Bessie Patti Smith of her time, truly the only singer who could summon Joplin, Poly Styrene, Sam Cooke, Iggy Pop and Ian MacKaye all in the same goddamn song. In 1993, less than four weeks after accepting an offer from Atlantic Records, Mia died. I leave it at that, because this is not about death; it's about an extraordinary life. I do not say, "You should have been there," I say, "We are lucky so many of us were, and I am so glad we have this extraordinary evidence of the power and gifts of Mia and the Gits that you now can hold in your hands." And I note that Frenching the Bully, this extraordinary testament to the soul, shock, fury and feeling of the Gits, has been long out of print on vinyl and CD, and this new edition - remastered by legendary Seattle engineer Jack Endino - joyfully rectifies that. -Tim Sommer

Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEADMEAT DISCIPLES is available on Svart exclusive green & yellow marble vinyl, limited transparent green vinyl, and classic black vinyl.

Deathchain’s early albums reissued on vinyl for the first time in May via Svart Records Finnish death-thrashing maniacs Deathchain’s debut and sophomore albums will be available on vinyl for the first time ever on May 30th, 2025 via Svart Records. Deathchain, hailing from the city of Kuopio, was formed in 2001 from the remains of Winterwolf when the band’s guitarist Corpse moved from the countryside to the city to kick things off, and they continue their illustrious and wild axe wielding path to this day. DEADMEAT DISCIPLES (2003) and DEATHRASH ASSAULT (2005) were originally released by Dynamic Arts Records only on CD. The debut gained a lot of great reviews in Europe, paving the way for the band’s substantial touring around Central Europe, Netherlands, and Belgium. The sophomore album DEATHRASH ASSAULT, which ended in the 18th place on the Official Finnish Album Chart, unleashed Deathchain on the Hellhoundz of Doom and Thrash -tour with Candlemass and Destruction, playing live shows in thirteen countries across Europe. The Japanese version of the album was later released on CD in 2006, featuring a bonus cover track of Slayer’s Black Magic. Corpse comments the reissues: ”It's been over two decades since we recorded our first two albums, and finally they will be unleashed to haunt in the format that is closest to our hearts. Both of these albums were recorded in Kuopio at Studio Perkele, which was the beating heart of the underground back then. We were young and handsome alcohol fueled bastards aiming to make music that is fast, furious, and riff driven. The legendary Valhalla metal bar scene was our home and starting point, and surely you can hear the echoes of North Sawonian madness within these albums. Those times were full of insanely good times, and we did our best to catch the spirit of the old school within our music. Finally with the help of Svart Records we are proud to present you these buried gems of death thrashing metal.” DEADMEAT DISCIPLES is available on Svart exclusive green & yellow marble vinyl, limited transparent green vinyl, and classic black vinyl.

We have had the honour of reissuing the work of Italian sonic polymath J.P Energy via our collaborative label with Transmigration, Sound Migration, over the course of the past year. Our third outing with J.P Energy is ‘Prima Dell’ Alba / Forbidden Planet’ - two sophisticated and sinister percussive tracks from 1997 that sit at the boundaries of Techno & Trance, indicative of the fruitfulness of creativity in underground dance music from Italy during this time. We are very pleased to bring this, until now, very difficult to obtain record into the hands of appreciative music lovers, complete with with a modern revision of Forbidden Planet by J.P Energy himself.

Kommt als LP + Flexi 7" auf limitiertem "Yellow and White Splatter on Crystal Fuchsia" Vinyl. Eine frische, kreative Neuinterpretation des Artworks des klassischen Albums anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums und einer 2025er Welttournee, die in den USA beginnt und sich über Südamerika, Europa, Asien und Australien ausbreitet. Die limitierte Deluxe-Gatefold-Vinyl-Edition verkörpert den DIY-Geist des Albums mit abziehbaren Gecko-Stickern für die eigene Kreativität, eine Bonus-Flexi 7" mit der Originalaufnahme von "Heavy Metal", und atemberaubende Splatter-Vinylscheiben in einem raffinierten Redesign, als Hommage an eine der einflussreichsten Indie-Rock-Platten aller Zeiten. Alec Ounsworth hat einige der erbaulichsten und feierlichsten Songs dieses Jahrtausends geschrieben und auf einem Album von beständiger Exzellenz versammelt, das bis heute zu Recht dafür gelobt wird, dass es die Regeln dafür, was es bedeutet, ein unabhängiger Künstler zu sein, neu auslotete. Eine berauschende Mischung aus unkonventionellem Pop und melodischem, überschwänglichem Indierock, enthielt das Album eine Reihe klassischer New-Wave-Referenzen für eine neue Generation von Musikfans. Der raue, verwahrloste Sound der Platte war ein wesentlicher Bestandteil ihres Reizes; die Zeit hat diesen Charme nur noch verstärkt.

Following ‘No Closer To Heaven’, The Wonder Years released ‘Sister Cities’, their most transformative work to date.
Recorded at Sunset Sound with Joe Chiccarelli (Manchester Orchestra, The Shins, Spoon) and Carlos de la Garza (Jimmy Eat World, Paramore), ‘Sister Cities’ is an album about distance, connectivity and the way humanity towers above boundaries.

What The Wonder Years do so effortlessly on ‘Sister Cities’ is no small feat; through poetic lyricism, ambient guitar swells and Jimmy Eat World-levels of crashing momentum. On ‘Sister Cities’, they take a massive, unexpected leap forward both sonically and thematically, now speaking confidently to the world at large.

Vocalist Dan Campbell on the inspiration behind ‘Sister Cities’: “It started with journals and photos. We started by documenting. We didn’t know where it would go or if it would go anywhere at all, but we wrote it all down. We took photos of everything. And
then when it came to put it altogether, we had this catalog of how we felt and what it looked like and sounded like and we built from there. Figuring out what the moments were that stayed with me the most. When did I feel most connected to the people around me and why? What did being in this place during this moment teach me? It was a difficult year personally and globally and we experienced that through this lens of being everywhere but home, kind of floating through places and seeing how being there altered our perspective.”
The album is housed in a 200-page, 13”x13”, full-colour book that includes photos, artwork, journal entries and lyrics. LP pressed onto Shinjuku Street Splatter coloured vinyl.
An overpowering sense of earnestness and vulnerability.” - Pitchfork
There is a lifetime yelled in every punk song, captured in the desperate and catchy ‘Sister Cities’.” - NPR MusicFrom the first notes, it’s already clear that The Wonder Years are stepping into uncharted territory.” - UPROXX

"Instant Holograms On Metal Film" ist das erste Stereolab-Album seit 15 Jahren mit 13 neuen Studioaufnahmen. Eingespielt wurde das Werk von Laetitia Sadier, Tim Gane, Andy Ramsay, Joe Watson und Xavi Muñoz, mit Gastbeiträgen von Cooper Crain und Rob Frye von Bitchin Bajas, Ben LaMar Gay (Komponist/Jazz-Multiinstrumentalist), Holger Zapf (Cavern Of Anti Matter), Marie Merlet (Monade) und Molly Read, und weiteren. Die Band wird das ganze Jahr 2025 über live spielen - in Europa, Nordamerika, Südamerika und Großbritannien. Das neue Album folgt auf "Not Music" aus dem Jahr 2010, remasterte und erweiterte Neuauflagen von sieben ihrer Alben im Jahr 2019 sowie die Bände 4 und 5 der "Switched On"-Reihe, die 2021 bzw. 2022 erschienen.

A collection of The Handsome Family covers.

Jones hat mit "Piano Solos For Friends And Loved Ones" (2003) und "Vol. 2" (2007) bereits zwei Solo Piano-Alben veröffentlicht, die es physisch nur bei Konzerten oder über den eigenen Webshop gab. Das vorliegende neue Werk – auf CD und LP jeweils auf unterschiedlichen Instrumenten eingespielt – erscheint in beiden Versionen mit einem Poster mit Sleevenotes vom Künstler. Ein QR-Code auf dem Poster gewährt Zugriff auf ein 36-Seiten Booklet und Notenblätter zu 5 der Songs.

"I loved Julia Sabra’s Natural History Museum—it was released at the end of the year and is quietly devastating. Her lyricism and sensitivity in timbre and harmony is akin for me to the great Linda Perhacs. The songs are intimate and infinite feeling at the same time—I love the raw and soft poetic settings of love and death." Julia Holter (Best album 2024- Fader)

“This album is a collection of songs written between 2020 and 2024 in Beirut. I wanted to capture them the way they were written by keeping the rawness and fragility intact, like the late-night voice memos I send to my bandmates as soon as I have a first draft of a song. Fadi and I decided to record them live on tape, with no overdubs, barely any effect - with all the imperfections. Most of the tracks were done in one take only. Some were recorded in the studio, and some in the church I grew up going to every summer in Dhour Shweir.

This is a collection of songs that slipped through the cracks, and some of the most personal ones I ever wrote. Songs about the port explosion, its aftermath, picking up the pieces and trying to move on, coming to terms with the past, regret and nostalgia for a childhood that lives only in memory, the uncertain future, learning to love, getting married, watching a genocide unfold on my phone screen, having it fill my every waking moment, imagining a better send off for all the dead, processing the violence and terror, and finding solace in community.
These songs would’ve probably stayed in my “songs in limbo” folder on my laptop had it not been for Pascal and Fadi, who pushed me to release them. And for this I’m eternally grateful.”









[h] 8.Dis, quand reviendras-tu? [Barbara cover]

Inspired by Abba, early AC/DC, Beefheart and the dark heart of outsider pop, The Beyond and the Better Way is a record featuring warped orchestrations, extended autobiographical rants and sumptuous performances by a collection of Glasgow's (and Ireland's) finest musicians and singers The Gorgeous Pouting Mr AR is a pseudonym for Ronan Breslin - a recording studio owner, composer and academic who teaches sound and music at The Glasgow School of Art.

Ronan comes from an Irish family of musicians, with the most notable being his brother Niall Breslin, who helmed the iconic Irish band "The Blizzards" before becoming a highly regarded mental health podcaster and now presenter on BBC Radio 3. Niall's stellar guitar playing features on many of this record's tracks. The recording will be released on the 23rd May via Strength in Numbers Records on vinyl and digital platforms and will be accompanied by an online collection of song- related essays (aka rants). The album is distributed by Last Night From Glasgow. "The songs explore OCD, politics, anxiety, grief, regret, rage, lost love, but also reflect on joyous moments that define the transition from fearful child to fuck- you adolescence and finally reluctant adulthood. The album title song 'The Beyond and the Better Way' is morbidly confessional; however, it is also a statement of resilience, positivity and optimism for the human condition. There is always a better way." - Ronan Breslin

“Less than a month after one of the most violent fire events in the history of the continent, new shoots had burst through the scorched hardpan, nourished by the still-vital roots of those flayed and blackened trees.” John Vaillant, Fire Weather.

Loscil (aka Scott Morgan) returns to kranky with Lake Fire, a nine-track offering of ash-laden sonics that mine the tension within the cycle of destruction and rejuvenation.

Lake Fire is the result of a disjointed creative process. Originally conceived as a suite for electronics and ensemble, most of the original compositions were deserted, save for Ash Clouds, featuring James Meager on double bass. The remaining tracks were reshaped and remixed, built anew out of the remnants of the abandoned work. The result is a phoenix, an album burnt to the ground only to be reassembled out of its cinders. Fragments of the original lurk beneath a densely overpainted canvas of sound.

Infused into the resulting rearrangements are impressions from a road trip into the mountains marking a personal half-century milestone, surrounded by the ominous proximity of wildfires and dense smoke; celebrating life while the world burns. The album’s title comes from the striking irony that forest fires are often named after regional lakes - perhaps subconsciously referencing ancient lore. The cover photos were taken from this same trip, while sitting in a rowboat staring into the grey abyss of an opposing mountainside outside of Revelstoke, BC, obfuscated by smoke from a nearby lake fire.

Press quotes for previous solo release “Clara”:

"The sound sculptor Scott Morgan continues to astound.” Pop Matters

"A beautifully nuanced work, Clara is both revealing and mysterious -- and loscil fans wouldn't expect anything less.” Allmusic

press quotes for previous collaboration release with Lawrence English “Colours of Air”:

"As you might expect from the steady hands at the tiller, this is a cortex-hugging drone record of beauty and depth.” The Quietus

"One of the thrills of listening to this record is how its initially predictable veneer fades on subsequent listens to reveal layers of mischief underneath.” Resident Advisor

12-inchers from Dublin disco messers Fatty Fatty only come along once in a while, but this summer they've got 2 biggies lined up for festival messing, sunset disco joy and eyes-down dirty basement feel...

Pablo and Shoey's 'Raw Human Emotion' EP features 3 tracks never before seen on vinyl and showcases the range of their productions neatly. First up you've got 'Raw Human Emotion Part 2', a track they provided for a Paper Disco compilation many moons ago. Chopping up sections of an old disco-soul stomper and getting deep inside the loops before rising to a joyous hands in the air climax, this is a peak-time winner that brings everyone together.

Flip over for two lost gems from the 'Do It Backwards' EP for Sprechen, which got lost in the chaos of the first Covid lockdown.

'Shoey's Acid Trip' is a peak time, hands aloft, laser reacher - acid preacher style slammer that builds like a bastard, while Pablo's 'Air Raid Dub' of the title track melds a wonky as heck bassline with a wicked boogie breakdown before slamming back in, rave sirens and all. Serious 3am tackle all round...And the likes of Justin Robertson and Severino of Horse Meat Disco agreed at the time, with the latter proclaiming 'Now this is something different...'. The whole EP fits that bill, and should do some serious damage around the place this summer...

2025 Repress

Jim Coles once again turns the tide towards a new horizon and travels further into the echo chamber. Leading on from the much-lauded ‘Secret Location’ mini-album with Seekersinternational, one-offs such as ‘Open Palms dub’ (Dub Stuy) and other teasings, ‘Acid Dub Studies’ is the fully-fledged result of the merging of the calligraphic expression of the 303 Acid bassline with the stern sway of Dub Reggae and the hazier edges of Dub Techno and Ambient music.

For those who have been paying close attention, this project will come as a welcome return to the vulnerability and playfulness of early Om Unit records such as his sub-radar single from 2010 ‘Lightgrids/Lavender’ (All City Records) or the unearthed chugging ambience of ‘Friend of Day’ (Idle Hands) and indeed in some sense draws from similar wellsprings as moments on 2013’s Bass classic ‘Threads’.

Whilst being perhaps an ‘interim project’ this is still a vital and important expression of exploration and playfulness. A study in the true sense and borne out of a subtle but pervasive frustration with the rigidity found in musical words he has up to now been cohabiting, Acid Dub Studies comes from the pressing need to break with perceived expectation and to explore an honest and natural space away from the genre labels and tags that had been often lazily applied to his sizeable catalogue of music.

With no desire to reinvent the wheel, rather to paint pictures in an honest framework, the LP was crafted using a medley of classic analogue mixing techniques inspired as much by the adventurous dubbing of Adrian Sherwood as by the inward-delving haze of Scott Monteith’s Deadbeat project. Created during a period of lonely introspective walks through his home town of Bristol, the cover art is a photograph of some of the iron kerbstones that are found almost exclusively in the characterful and hardy city which were installed in the late 1800’s to protect pavements from cart wheels. Something about the permanence of those iron slabs and cobblestones inspired a sense of comfort and determination.

Acid Dub Studies is due for release as yet another self-released label-free project leading on from recent EP titles ‘Violet’ and ‘Submerged’ both of which hinted at some of the shapes found in this full length album.

Once again Jim has shown a rare convincing adaptability that few electronic artists can embody. Another step on the journey of personal and creative curiosity that fans are sure to appreciate.

AAA Gripper have seemingly dropped out of nowhere but the story goes back. The idea was conjured in the summer of 2023 at the first Wrong Speed Records festival in the town of Glastonbury. Inspired by a weekend of radical sounds and fine company a decision was made - 'let's try something'.
Recording hours and hours of bass and drums in deep Somerset then editing it down to a sharp and concise 32 minutes. From Can's Lost Tapes boxset to No Means No's 0+2=1 via a thousand song structure decisions. Wild guitar strafe and precise hyper vocal added. Nine tight tunes magically appeared. The band raised a glass of tea. The band was born. The 'something' had worked.
We Invented Work For The Common Good is a deep dive into the world of the working person. How we end up. Why we climb onto the conveyer belt and never get off. The front cover is one of many of the same photo taken every day, on the walk to work, the dark mills looming - KEEP THEM BUSY, THEY WON'T RISE UP.
Music is therapy. They think it's part of the bread and circuses. We know it's armour. We know it's weaponry.
Gigs being planned.

Notoriously spirited, hard parrtyin’ West Coast rap trio Tha Alkaholiks have returned with their first new studio album in over 10 years!

Combining fresh takes on some of the band’s best known singles including “Daaam!” and “Make Room” PLUS several new songs, this album hits that ‘90s rap nostalgia spot! Features special guests Planet Asia and spookybands!

"Kindred spirits and loyal soldiers on the frontlines of the dub war Detroit's 2Lanes and Los Angeles' Cromie link up to present to the world, Destiny Cloud. With a project name inspired by a mystical vacant storefront in Cromie's neighborhood of Altadena (still standing after the fires, bless), the guys formed like a storm after being intro'd by a notorious LA promoter and hotboy producer matchmaker. Funnily enough, the first session was foiled by a missing cable, so it wasn't until the sexy summer of 2023 that the cloud seeds that went on to become Sun Phase/Moon Phase were planted. From the jump, their vision was lucid and their objective collective: lock in at the stu(s) to make the most jiggy, psychedelic, tripped out club shit they could muster. Fast forward to today, Destiny Cloud is proud to bring you the latest missive on 2Lanes' Auto Shop imprint.

On the A side, Sun Phase sets it off with searing stabs from the hands of session killer Ji Hoon on a heavenly Jupiter-8 (sorry not sorry, the real thing does sound better) before a bassline straight off the Adriatic's Argonaughty comes in to funk up the flow over a bed swung hi-hats and drum circle conga lines the Wickedest west coast house heads can appreciate (no hippy shit, but we ARE on Hipp-E's dick). A keep-it-simple-stupid *muah' organ line plays nice with a gang of embellishments to take this one through its duration (Joey pressed record and said "ooh-wah" into the vocoder; no lie, I was there). With his Toxic Love remix, NYC upstart DJ John Brooklyn injects the tune with the highest grade octane to up the revs. The aforementioned organ becomes a timeless trance lead, and new pipes are inserted reminding us all that house music is forever.

Day turns to night on the B Side with Moon Phase, where booming kicks let you know off the rip that this is some real deal late night trunk funk. We're talking dualities here y'all; Cromie's deep-as-the-Pacific bassline meets Joey's frozen-lake-cold Detroit stabs as the drums speak in tongues with those on the other side of the slab. Reverb ghosts and rhythmic acid have this one veering more psychedelic without losing the jiggy factor, while diving proggy synths will have the Global Underground saying, "yea this is our shit, for real." With a run time that allows for maximum fun time, the ambient outro gives you a kiss on the forehead to put that ass to sleep. The iconic DJ Miss Parker takes the wheel on the remix, taking this one straight down the Tunnel with new-school/true-school Tenaglia-isms that wouldn't sound out of place in 2000, 2005 or 2025.

Like all the work we do, this one's a team effort. Salar Ansari put's his deft touch on the mixdowns and Jack Anderson blesses the center of both sides of the disc. Out mid-May, just in time for when things start heating up

Coming from Northern Ireland, Domhain is a new band brought by four
experienced musicians from the Irish metal scene
With their emotional mix of post black, blackgaze and atmospheric black metal,
featuring omnipresent vocal harmonies and cello (featuring guest Jo Quail),
Domhain's debut EP "Nimue" is a work of mythical and ethereal beauty.

Full throttle from Vancouver, BC to wherever the open road takes them The Vicious Cycles are BACK with their new LP Get Wrecked on Pirates Press Records! Before you even get the shrink wrap off the gatefold jacket, you can guess what kind of party you're in for. "Our pal Shakey Deal is the cover model," says Cycles head honcho Billy Bones. "A tuff looking scrub on a minibike says a lot about who we are." And who is that exactly? "We play garage/punk rock and roll songs about motorcycles. We like to have a good time." The promise of debauchery carries over into song titles like "Naked On a Beach," and "On Fire in the Hot Tub." As rip-roaring, danceable party music goes, it's second to none, and rest assured there's plenty of bike enthusiast inside baseball, but the lyrics often go deeper than a superficial glance might indicate. For example, the lead single, "Hold On Tight," is about, as Billy puts it, "the physical feeling of riding with your favorite person on the back of your motorcycle - easily one of the best feelings a human can have." So, a classic biker anthem? "But also," he's quick to add, "a metaphor for life and relationships. We're gonna make it." Waxing philosophical with motorcycles as allegory over chrome-plated punk rock 'n roll? That's The Vicious Cycles' songwriting in a nutshell. Another album highlight, "Daddy Was a Gambler" references Billy's father - an ex-preacher who regularly hauled his kids to Circus Circus in his '57 Chevy - and his mother, a nurse and, as Billy puts it, "as close to an actual saint as anyone in the world. The song is an appreciation for the two of them, and how their differences made me who I am." "Naked On A Beach" sounds like a party, but Billy explains it's "a critique of capitalism and the tiny lives we're expected - and sometimes content - to live." Even the title track, "Get Wrecked," is more than just a statement of defiance; it's a message to Billy's son about dealing with the conformist naysayers of the world. Longtime fans & newcomers alike will be stoked for the straightaways, but stick around for the twists and turns, just like any good ride. The band brings in pals on strings & saxophone for a 60s Wall of Sound-inspired production on "Black Boots, Black Leather Jacket," and try their hands at their first murder ballad on "Pretty Hands." There's an instrumental tune ("Blowing Smoke") and hell, there's even a deep cut cover of "Trouble Again" - originally performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police - which only the biggest nerds of a certain age will recall as the theme song to the 80s Star Wars animated series Droids! In the end, no matter the detours, the band - along with Jesse Gander (Territories, Comeback Kid), & Mariessa McLeod at Rain City Recorders - kept their eyes on the prize: sing-along choruses, handclaps, and short songs that get the job done and don't overstay their welcome. "I didn't want us to write a record that you could dance to." quips Billy. "I wanted us to write a record that you couldn't not dance to."

"So the bad news is, in a fit of pique, I asked Chat GPT (nicely) to compose a one-sheet for the new Shit and Shine double album, Mannheim HBF. The even worse news (yes, even worse than resorting to such tactics) is that the resulting biography is halfway passable and on some levels, superior to the sort of thing being published by what’s left of our weekly coupon-shoppers. But for fuck’s sake my friends, Craig Clouse did not get to where he is today today by settling for halfway passable and neither should you. That Shit and Shine’s discography is vast and dizzying is already well established; what’s not nearly as established are these recordings being specifically dizzying. I don’t know if there’s anyone else in modern music as skilled in waltzing around the periphery of so many disparate idioms ('noise', being one of the least prominent this time around) and somehow, against all odds, tying ‘em together in the most intricate of knots. And who doesn’t love knots? We all have our favorite ways to experience music that’s all-engulfing, but whether your preferred method is thru a stadium sized sound system or ear buds affixed as you’ve leapt off the tallest building in Bastrop, TX (the Jerry Fay Wilhelm Center for the Performing Arts, since you asked), not for the first time, Shit and Shine is entirely appropriate in either instance, possibly every instance. There are moments where I think this is a club record. The Friars Club, however. Far be it from me to provide guidelines for how and when you take in Mannheim HBF. 'No interruptions', 'no distractions' are merely suggestions on the label’s part, though we cannot be held responsible for what happens if you ignore ‘em. Thank you."

In 2005, the Grand Rapids band Still Remains dropped their first studio album Of Love and Lunacy, and since that time its reputation has only grown as one of the great lost classics of the metalcore genre. Now, with full support of the band, we at Real Gone are releasing Of Love and Lunacy on vinyl for the first time to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It’s not just the musicianship that sets this record apart, though this band’s ability to punctuate pummeling passages with fantastically progressive melodic interludes is definitely one of its calling cards. It’s also the impassioned poetry of the lyrics, which often employ startling, spiritually-tinged imagery to express extreme states of emotion. Too sensitive for some? Maybe. But it also rocks like all get-out, especially in this remastered-for-vinyl (by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision) edition. Jungle swirl pressing at Gotta Groove Records, limited to 750 copies, complete with a color printed inner sleeve with lyrics.

The Scream, Siouxsie & the Banshees' first album, was released late enough in the punk era to bear some claim as the first post-punk album, with only a minor traces of 'punk' (one lingering early song, "Carcass" comes to mind) and enough hints of what had come even earlier, Andy MacKay-like saxophone flourishes - to feel utterly new. Not to mention the effort producer Steve Lillywhite must have put into the album, his first fully-credited major label production. Siouxsie was clearly the focus of the band, with her unique vocal style and lyrics, but the real star, we've always known, was John McKay, who wrote most of the album's music (as well as singles like "Hong Kong Garden"), creating a wholly new guitar sound - harsh and brittle, yet melodically intoxicating . . . best articulated by a somewhat confounded Steve Albini years later ". . . only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs". McKay's influence lives on; many of the most influential guitarists of the past four decades credit him as a major influence - Geordie from Killing Joke, Jim Reid of The Jesus And Mary Chain, U2's The Edge, Thurston Moore, Johnny Marr and even the two guitarists - The Cure's Robert Smith and Magazine's John McGeoch - who followed him in The Banshees. McKay's burgeoning status as the anti-guitar hero was halted when he and Banshees drummer Kenny Morris - at odds with Siouxsie and bassist Steve Severin - fled the band just after the start of a tour supporting the group's second album, Join Hands. It was a weekly music paper scandal, later the subject of a BBC documentary, and Siouxsie's vitriol working its way into the lyrics of a later Banshees b-side, "Drop Dead / Celebration". Aside from a solitary single on Marc Riley's In Tape label nearly a decade later, no music was heard from McKay again. So it comes as a major surprise to learn of a pile of excellent recordings made in the years just after he left The Banshees, unheard by all but a very few, some of which feature drummer Kenny Morris, plus Mick Allen from Rema Rema, Matthew Seligman of the Soft Boys and longer-term collaborator Graham Dowdall and John's wife Linda . . . the latter three of whom now all sadly deceased. Sixes And Sevens is an historic lost album. Brazenly genius and bearing fair claim as the lost treasure of the post-punk era, the album collects eleven studio tracks, carefully mastered from original tapes. It's a masterpiece which best speaks for itself.

The Scream, Siouxsie & the Banshees' first album, was released late enough in the punk era to bear some claim as the first post-punk album, with only a minor traces of 'punk' (one lingering early song, "Carcass" comes to mind) and enough hints of what had come even earlier, Andy MacKay-like saxophone flourishes - to feel utterly new. Not to mention the effort producer Steve Lillywhite must have put into the album, his first fully-credited major label production.
Siouxsie was clearly the focus of the band, with her unique vocal style and lyrics, but the real star, we've always known, was John McKay, who wrote most of the album's music (as well as singles like "Hong Kong Garden"), creating a wholly new guitar sound - harsh and brittle, yet melodically intoxicating . . . best articulated by a somewhat confounded Steve Albini years later ". . . only now people are trying to copy it, and even now nobody understands how that guitar player got all that pointless noise to stick together as songs". McKay's influence lives on; many of the most influential guitarists of the past four decades credit him as a major influence - Geordie from Killing Joke, Jim Reid of The Jesus And Mary Chain, U2's The Edge, Thurston Moore, Johnny Marr and even the two guitarists - The Cure's Robert Smith and Magazine's John McGeoch - who followed him in The Banshees.
McKay's burgeoning status as the anti-guitar hero was halted when he and Banshees drummer Kenny Morris - at odds with Siouxsie and bassist Steve Severin - fled the band just after the start of a tour supporting the group's second album, Join Hands. It was a weekly music paper scandal, later the subject of a BBC documentary, and Siouxsie's vitriol working its way into the lyrics of a later Banshees b-side, "Drop Dead / Celebration". Aside from a solitary single on Marc Riley's In Tape label nearly a decade later, no music was heard from McKay again. So it comes as a major surprise to learn of a pile of excellent recordings made in the years just after he left The Banshees, unheard by all but a very few, some of which feature drummer Kenny Morris, plus Mick Allen from Rema Rema, Matthew Seligman of the Soft Boys and longer-term collaborator Graham Dowdall and John's wife Linda . . . the latter three of whom now all sadly deceased.
Sixes And Sevens is an historic lost album. Brazenly genius and bearing fair claim as the lost treasure of the post-punk era, the album collects eleven studio tracks, carefully mastered from original tapes. It's a masterpiece which best speaks for itself. John McKay will be made available for a limited number of interviews . . . and yes, there are surprises in store.

Remember: you could be dreaming. Sinking or flying, sound-catching or singing. Witnessing a distant storm in silence, how it exposes purple clouds in unpredictable flashes. Hearing a submarine eruption and finding natal comfort in the warm, fragrant smoke that only wants to sheathe all your edges. The circus has left, only placards remain. And the snow. Look how the flakes sway to your feet without effort - any distance is misleading, illusory. There’s only dream and memory – the two wings of a bird that flaps with an ocean wave, blinks with an eye of a lighthouse. Fragile, you could be dreaming not alone, holding hands with the core of things. The molten core, like touching ice. You could be dreaming. Dreaming in perfect memories of shapes imperfect. Dreaming of the earth raining from the sky, of the wind inside the sea, of the lighthouse & the ship kissing, of exotic fishes in the bay of your ear. Everything is real. If you play. If you dare to ignore the margins. Echoes go on forever. They play with themselves in a stream of mirrors. Echoes of a forgotten language, of a language unwritten - a soothing, indifferent creole that reconciles feeling with understanding. Bathe in the fountain at the source of resonance. Bathe in the clouds on the eyes of intimate strangers passing. Disappear. Disappear and be seen, like the moonlit mist behind your eyes. And sway between hope and wisdom.

All songs written, performed and produced by Sasha Vinogradova and Alina Anufrienko
Recorded in Garnet village, Dmitrovsky region, Russian Federation (February 2020)

‘Zeitgeist’, the debut LP from celebrated Italian electronic music producer Dukwa, begins with a timeless dancefloor equation; swung drums, a clattering cobwell and flickering hi-hats lurch forward into a serious bassline. Within seconds, dancers are flung into the house anthem ‘You Don’t Want It’ that’s equally raw and charismatic, sensual and powerful. For the next forty-five minutes of rhythm, melody and studio trickery, ‘Zeitgeist’ continues to bend time, eras and bodies.

Having released EPs on respected labels including Numbers, Gudu and Diynamic Records, invariably with the support of Jackmaster, Peggy Gou and Solomun, Dukwa folds into the Slacker85 philosophy with ease, laying down a statement of intent that’s squarely for the dancers. Indebted to a youth digging in Florence’s record stores, embracing the peerless Italian rave scene, as well as his recent appearances at Circoloco and Kappa Future, ‘Zeitgeist’ subverts it’s knowing title to dance between styles with an urgency you can feel in your heels.

Before long, Dukwa is smoothly oscillating between acid overdrive and weightless house on ‘Catch All’, while the balance between softness and severity is refined even further on ‘Show Me’, showcasing the record’s first euphoric breakdown, a heads down, hands up moment that sacrifices none of his organic flow. Ably mastering many corners of his record box, ‘Avec Moi’ makes a confident left turn into tunneling trance, interspersed with a sensual french vocal.

‘All You Need’ provides the record’s beating heart, Dukwa’s overarching philosophy front and center around layers of synthesised groove, build and release: “The world is full of fighting, ignorance and greed, but right here on the dancefloor - the rhythm’s all you need”. Meanwhile, ‘My Turn’ channels more cinematic instincts, zoning in on an elegant piano riff in order to unravel a quietly epic deep house trip.

As ‘Zeitgeist’ heads toward its conclusion, Dukwa effortlessly squeezes the most emotive juice from his well-oiled studio. ‘Sad Eyes’ possesses the emotional punch of many vintage end-of-night anthems, still driving yet touched with a wistful ecstasy. Finally, for closing passage ‘Stck1’, Dukwa truly lets the machines sing, capturing a brief symphony of harmonising modulations that dip into weirdo electronica, without ever skipping his signature beats.

Emma-Jean Thackray, the visionary producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, releases her highly anticipated second album, “Weirdo” on April 25th via Gilles Peterson’s celebrated label, Brownswood Recordings / Parlophone Records. Known for defying musical boundaries, Thackray's latest work is a deeply personal and utterly original exploration of selfhood, grief, and gratitude.

Drawing on an eclectic mix of influences—grunge, pop, soul, p-funk, and jazz— “Weirdo” is a triumphant celebration of survival and individuality. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, produced and arranged entirely by Thackray in her South London flat, the album stands as a testament to her extraordinary musicianship and fearless self-expression.

Mainltd009 got repressed. Originally released in 2013 , now back again after 12 years.

Limited handstamped blue vinyl reissue.