Grails - the experimental rock institution who have cultivated a quarter-century career out of crate-plunging cultural curiosities - returns a mere two years after the lauded Anches En Maat with their most personal and emotionally resonant album to date. While the band still revel in rearranging bizarre and obscure sources into something often revelatory and surreal, Miracle Music does so with an ascendant melodic power that feels hallowed. The Miracle Music lineup includes cofounders Emil Amos (Om, Holy Sons, Lilacs & Champagne) and Alex Hall (Lilacs & Champagne), alongside returning members, AE Paterra (Zombi, Majeure), Jesse Bates, and Ilyas Ahmed. Produced by Amos, Miracle Music reunites the group with recording engineer Jason Powers and his Type Foundry studio in Portland, Oregon, where the earliest Grails records were made more than two decades ago. Replete with acoustic and electric guitars, synths, woodwinds, brass, samples, percussion - and featuring horn arrangements by Kelly Pratt (David Byrne, M. Ward) - Miracle Music unveils an exquisite new horizon for Grails. Creatively tireless as ever, Grails balance the boundary-pushing claustrophobia of early Industrial music with the airy melodies of Classical compositions to craft the heavy mood that is Miracle Music. In a catalog defined by mercurial departures, this is Grails' most sentimental and high-minded trip yet.
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- Metalhorse
- Nothin Worth Winnin
- The Test
- Override
- Dark Horse Friend
- Life's Unfair
- Plans
- Gas
- Comedic Timing
- Strange Gift
- Moon Explodes
Blue Galaxy Vinyl[28,36 €]
"Metalhorse" ist das dritte Studioalbum von Billy Nomates, nach dem von der Kritik hochgelobten "Cacti" von 2023 und ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt von 2020. Ein Konzeptalbum, das sich um das Bild eines verfallenen Jahrmarkts dreht und für die Turbulenzen des Lebens steht - Risiko und Vergnügen, Gefahr und Rausch. Die 11 neuen Songs erkunden Blues, Folk und pianobetonte Arrangements, die Billy Nomates' starken Punk-Sound in eine pastoralere Richtung lenken. "Metalhorse" ist das erste Billy Nomates-Album, das in einem Studio und mit kompletter Band aufgenommen wurde. Zur Besetzung gehören die Bassistin Mandy Clarke (KT Tunstall, The Go! Team) und der Schlagzeuger Liam Chapman (Rozi Plain, BMX Bandits), dazu gab es einen speziellen Gastbeitrag von The Stranglers-Frontmann Hugh Cornwell zu dem Song "Dark Horse Friend". "Metalhorse" ist eine Balance der Extreme. Verlust, materielle Unsicherheit und der Versuch, sich selbst treu zu bleiben, vor dem Hintergrund eines zunehmend unvorhersehbaren globalen Chaos - die Waage hätte leicht in Richtung Dunkelheit kippen können, aber je mehr Tor Maries durchmachen musste, desto wertvoller wurden die kleinen Momente des Glücks. "Metalhorse" fordert den Hörer auf, seinen eigenen Rummelplatz zu finden; es wird immer Dinge geben, die sich gefährlich anfühlen. Gleichzeitig muss man die Lichter bestaunen, solange sie noch brennen. "Metalhorse" tanzt mit diesen Gefühlen von Ungewissheit und Freude und ist von Schmerz und Ausdauer durchdrungen.
- A1: Fee Fi Fo Fum
- B1: Dub
This was Don Thigpen's first recording as an artist, but he was no stranger to the studio. In fact he was the individual behind many heavy tunes that came out of the Jackson area. He and good friend Sam Anderson also cut a record on his CJR labelb (Capitol Jackson Records) called "Shirley Baby", also a highly coveted record if you got a copy to sell or record let us know). The name "LEO" became Dons preforming pseudonym. Leo was also his zodiac sign, which he deemed edgy enough to marquee this electro heavy track "Fee Fi Fo Fum". The inspiration for the song came from the computer craze of the 80s. Much like Zapp & Roger's track "Computer Love" an inanimate object is worshipped and then romanticized by a love affair. The song literally depicts a computer falling in love with a woman and attempts to communicate with her by seductively flashing the words "Fee Fi Fo Fum" on the screen.
Mit ihrem siebten Studioalbum katapultiert die Berliner Band Kadavar ihren Sound in neue Dimensionen. Inspiriert von einem Zitat ihres Bassisten Simon 'Dragon' Bouteloup, „Ich will einfach nur ein Sound sein“, schaffen sie ein Manifest für Freiheit, Transformation und radikale Präsenz. Keine Konzepte, keine Grenzen: Das Album ist ein musikalisches Ritual des Übergangs, das sich nahtlos zwischen Rockhymnen, Balladen und epischen Momenten bewegt - immer voller Schwung und Veränderung.
Unterstützt von Produzent Max Rieger und begleitet von Gitarrist Jascha Kreft zelebrieren Kadavar die ewige Verwandlung des „Ewigen Jetzt“. Ein Soundtrack für die Widersprüche der Zeit, der alles hinter sich lässt, was nicht Musik ist - kraftvoll, verletzlich und immer bereit für einen Neuanfang. Es ist ein Liebesbrief an den Moment, an Berlin und an das Leben selbst - voller Liebe, Verlust, Narben und dem bittersüßen Gefühl der Vergänglichkeit. Kadavar laden uns ein, loszulassen und eins zu werden: mit der Musik, mit dem Jetzt, mit dem Klang.
"Metalhorse" ist das dritte Studioalbum von Billy Nomates, nach dem von der Kritik hochgelobten "Cacti" von 2023 und ihrem selbstbetitelten Debüt von 2020. Ein Konzeptalbum, das sich um das Bild eines verfallenen Jahrmarkts dreht und für die Turbulenzen des Lebens steht - Risiko und Vergnügen, Gefahr und Rausch. Die 11 neuen Songs erkunden Blues, Folk und pianobetonte Arrangements, die Billy Nomates' starken Punk-Sound in eine pastoralere Richtung lenken. "Metalhorse" ist das erste Billy Nomates-Album, das in einem Studio und mit kompletter Band aufgenommen wurde. Zur Besetzung gehören die Bassistin Mandy Clarke (KT Tunstall, The Go! Team) und der Schlagzeuger Liam Chapman (Rozi Plain, BMX Bandits), dazu gab es einen speziellen Gastbeitrag von The Stranglers-Frontmann Hugh Cornwell zu dem Song "Dark Horse Friend". "Metalhorse" ist eine Balance der Extreme. Verlust, materielle Unsicherheit und der Versuch, sich selbst treu zu bleiben, vor dem Hintergrund eines zunehmend unvorhersehbaren globalen Chaos - die Waage hätte leicht in Richtung Dunkelheit kippen können, aber je mehr Tor Maries durchmachen musste, desto wertvoller wurden die kleinen Momente des Glücks. "Metalhorse" fordert den Hörer auf, seinen eigenen Rummelplatz zu finden; es wird immer Dinge geben, die sich gefährlich anfühlen. Gleichzeitig muss man die Lichter bestaunen, solange sie noch brennen. "Metalhorse" tanzt mit diesen Gefühlen von Ungewissheit und Freude und ist von Schmerz und Ausdauer durchdrungen.
- 1: Salvage Title
- 2: Tree Of Heaven
- 3: Betty Ford
- 4: Free Association
- 5: Hollow Skulls
- 6: Artex
- 7: Love Vape
- 8: Wildwood In January
- 9: Resident Evil
- 10: All Over The World
- 11: Fantasia
An album for sleeping and waking, walking and driving, hunting and fishing, for loitering outside a roadhouse on the haunted tundra. Okay in elevators, not great for dinner. On Caveman Wakes Up, Friendship’s new album and second for Merge Records, the band’s historically capacious definition of country music grows wider still. Shambolic guitars are offset by flute pads, bleary poetry is set against a Motown rhythm section, a song about Jerry Garcia and First Lady Betty Ford fades out with a drum solo, like if Talk Talk came from a dingy Philadelphia basement and was fronted by James Tate. Songwriter Dan Wriggins’ ragged baritone cuts through eleven murky, swirling country-rock songs with profound lyrical substance and sincerity. Like an alarm clock incorporated into the edge of a dream, Caveman Wakes Up belongs equally to the conscious and subconscious mind, fraught with background, steeped in reference and experimentation, delivered casually and as a dire warning, dedicated, above all, to music’s creative soul. Over the years, dedication has paid off. Friendship has become a kind of reverse supergroup,
wherein the band itself and each individual member are located centrally in an increasingly prominent scene of young folk and country musicians and songwriters. Drummer Michael Cormier O’Leary leads the instrumental collective Hour and, along with bassist Jon Samuels, runs Dear Life Records, home to friends and peers who count Friendship as a major influence including MJ Lenderman, Florry, and Fust. (Samuels also plays lead guitar in MJ Lenderman and the Wind). Guitarist Peter Gill’s band 2nd Grade records prolifically. Wriggins began writing the songs of Caveman Wakes Up on a downtuned classical guitar of Lenderman’s and finished on a barely tuned piano in an apartment he shared with Sadurn’s G DeGroot.
In the summer of 2023, Wriggins had just left the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where his love for poetry and mistrust for the academic poetry world grew in tandem. A relationship fell apart, and Wriggins crashed for several weeks at Lenderman and Wednesday’s Karly Hartzman’s home in North Carolina, where he recorded the first demos of “Resident Evil,” “All Over the World,” and “Love Vape.” Wriggins returned to Philadelphia, and the band got to work on new ideas, finally tracking the album in five days with engineer Jeff Ziegler (Mary Lattimore, War on Drugs). Wriggins recorded vocals with Love the Stranger engineer Bradford Kreiger, and organ, violin (Jason Calhoun), and flute (Adelyn Strei) were recorded by Lucas Knapp in a West Philadelphia church.
"Sebastian Mullaert has always favoured the long arc: of tracks, of creative cycles, of artistic trust. His next chapter unfolds in the form of a new vinyl only label, born in close collaboration with Ulf Eriksson - his longtime friend, ally and the steady pulse behind Kontra Musik, a label that's been both home and launchpad for many of Mullaert's most vital releases. K-Files is built on two foundations: singularity and multiplicity. Every release will present a single track refracted through three or four different versions - each one approaching the core idea from a distinct creative angle. These are tools not just for DJs, but for listeners who hear dance music as more than just rhythm - as mood, as exploration, as transformation. The first release, K-FILES 01, sets the tone: deep, dubby, and spacious, it invites patience and immersion. But like all good rituals, the process will shift. Future releases are already poised to explore other territories: sharper energies, stranger grooves, unexpected colours. In a world increasingly defined by instant access and digital saturation, K-Files stands intentionally apart - a slower offering. A return to physicality, to process, to the tactile rituals of listening, selecting, and playing music with care. K-Files is a sublabel for those who play records not just to move bodies, but to open space. A platform for sonic evolution, variation, and perspective. A place where dance music is not pinned down - but opened up. Each record will be released exclusively on vinyl."
Kindred spirits Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land embody the essence of play - charting a new chapter and reinvigorating the environmental music and electronic landscape.
Passepartout Duo is formed of Nicoletta Favari (IT) and Christopher Salvito (IT/US), who since 2015 have been on a continuous journey travelling the world's corners, engaged in a creative process they term "slow music". Having been guests of many notable artist residencies and with live performances in cultural spaces and institutions, their evocative music escapes categorisation. With no fixed abode their musical pilgrimage brought them to Japan first in 2019, which prompted a deep connection to Kanky? Ongaku 'environmental music', a genre in which Inoyama Land is often associated with, soundtracking the duo's first immersive experience. In 2023 the duo revisited Japan and set out to reconnect in particular with the music of Inoyama Land, performed by Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita. The highly revered album 'Danzindan-Pojidon' (1983) produced by Haruomi Hosono amongst other well publicized and acclaimed reissues (Light in The Attic Records' Grammy-nominated compilation 'Kanky? Ongaku'), produced a global resurgence and admiration of the environmental music movement. Nicoletta took the lead to seek out Inoyama Land and in making contact successfully their intrigue and eagerness to meet was warmly reciprocated, and the group scheduled to meet in the form of a spontaneous improvisation session. "We're deeply concerned with what it means to be a duo, and what it means for people to connect through music."
Radio Yugawara is a unique one-off transmission from a specific place and point in time, unlikely to ever occur again. The respective duo's approach can really be described as "tuning in", a tuning into each other, to themselves, and to the surrounding nature of Yugawara. Like waves that travel off-world, sounds travel through the universe and can be lost forever if we don't seek them out. In finding a harmonic affinity within their instruments and a spiritual kinship in their interwoven performance, Radio Yugawara at its core is an interpretation of feeling, of close human interaction and the true essence of discovery.
"The album is both a transmission from a location, but also a tuning into the surroundings and to each other. Music in this kind of ephemeral moment is much less about active creation and more about discovering something which is already there in the air."
- A1: Submarinobambino
- A2: Frontera Extraterrestre
- A3: Elafuhr Oliasson (Defog Remix)
- A4: Vltimodespiroriuita
- A5: Vltimodespiroriuita (The Exaltics Digital Zen Remix)
- B1: Submarinobambino (The Exaltics Double Groove Treatment - Slow) 04 48
- B2: Submarinobambino (The Exaltics Double Groove Treatment - Fast) 04 21
Many of the greatest artists of all time found inspiration in their dreams... and pdqb is known to be an absolute pro when it comes to creatively exploiting the REM cycles.
Recently, for example, he dreamed of Gunnar, who had witnessed the rise and fall of electronic dance music, which had once held simple-minded creatures in its thrall. The beats had a peculiar effect on them, drawing them into euphoric trances. But Gunnar, allergic to its hypnotic frequencies, stood apart, unaffected. However, eventually, in a hidden enclave in the highlands of Reykjavík, he met Dr. Amara El-Amin, a neuroscientist fascinated by his unique immunity. Together, they discovered that Gunnar's resistance was a gift, offering insights into human consciousness and the power of music. With this knowledge, Gunnar inspired a global movement celebrating frequencies that resonate...differently. Though EDM had become a relic, Gunnar Oliasson remained a legend - a bad taste survivor who embraced a symphony of pure electrical potential, a language of circuits and oscillations beyond sound.
He woke with a jolt, the phantom music still echoing in his mind. He scribbled furiously, equations and diagrams mixing with strange, abstract notations. The dream, he knew, was a glimpse into a world where his inventions would dance, not just function.
For Synaptic Cliffs, it is an extraordinary honor to be able to offer you, dear listeners, the soundtrack of pdqb's world-changing dream: Four beautiful genre-defining Electrocognition tracks, embracing the depths of the human wetware. And three jaw-dropping sonic remodels from a human-like being called The Exaltics.
- A1: I Won't Back Down
- A2: Solitary Man
- A3: That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
- A4: One
- A5: Nobody
- A6: I See A Darkness
- A7: The Mercy Seat
- B1: Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)
- B2: Field Of Diamonds
- B3: Before My Time
- B4: Country Trash
- B5: Mary Of The Wild Moor
- B6: I'm Leavin' Now
- B7: Wayfaring Stranger
- A1: Somewhere Only We Know
- A2: Bend And Break
- A3: We Might As Well Be Strangers
- A4: Everybody's Changing
- A5: Your Eyes Open
- A6: She Has No Time
- B1: Can't Stop Now
- B2: Sunshine
- B3: This Is The Last Time
- B4: On A Day Like Today
- B5: Untitled 1
- B6: Bedshaped
Get ready for a sonic onslaught as A Place to Bury Strangers and The Serfs collide on a blistering new split 7” from Dedstrange, out May 9. APTBS delivers "Let It All Go", a searing blast of fuzzed-out guitars, pounding rhythms, and raw catharsis. On the flip side, The Serfs reimagine their darkwave pulse with "Time Leaks Away (Dub)", a hypnotic, reverb-drenched descent into dub-infused post-punk. Pressed on classic black vinyl—this is pure underground dungeon metal.
Get ready for a sonic onslaught as A Place to Bury Strangers and The Serfs collide on a blistering new split 7” from Dedstrange, out May 9. APTBS delivers "Let It All Go", a searing blast of fuzzed-out guitars, pounding rhythms, and raw catharsis. On the flip side, The Serfs reimagine their darkwave pulse with "Time Leaks Away (Dub)", a hypnotic, reverb-drenched descent into dub-infused post-punk. Pressed on classic black vinyl—this is pure underground dungeon metal.
- A1: Let The Guitar Play (Radio Version) Feat. Darryl "Dmc" Mcdaniels
- A2: Stranger In Moscow (Sentient Version)
- A3: Whatever Happens (Sentient Version) With Michael Jackson
- A4: Please Don't Take Your Love (Sentient Version) With Smokey Robinson *Previously Unreleased
- B1: Get On (Sentient Version) With Miles Davis & Paolo Rustichelli
- B2: Vers Le Soleil (Sentient Version) With Paolo Rustichelli
- B3: Coherence Feat.. Cindy Blackman Santana) *Previously Unreleased
- B4: Blues For Salvador
Carlos Santana ist der große musikalische Kollaborateur, der seinen einzigartigen Gitarrenstil und seine weitreichende musikalische Vision mit einer großen Vielfalt von Künstlern verbindet, um etwas Neues, Einzigartiges und Transzendentes zu schaffen. Santanas Vision für Sentient war es, seine jüngsten Kollaborationen aus einer neuen Perspektive zu betrachten und sie zu einer klanglichen Pilgerreise durch Jazz, Hip-Hop, Soul, Rock und lateinamerikanische Rhythmen zu verweben. Er hat die Songs nicht nur so arrangiert, dass sie seiner Vision entsprechen, sondern viele von ihnen auch neu interpretiert und einige Aspekte der Tracks verbessert, um ein kohärentes Hörerlebnis zu schaffen. Die Songs auf Sentient reichen von aktuellen Hits und Kollaborationen mit Superstars bis hin zu seltenen, unveröffentlichten und übersehenen Tracks, die Carlos in einem neuen Kontext präsentieren wollte. Das Ergebnis ist eine spirituelle Reise durch die unendlichen Möglichkeiten der Musik, geführt von Santanas kompromissloser Muse.
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)
2025 Repress
Mutual Rytm welcome back Swiss DJ/producer Chlär for a bustling, high-octane return as he unveils his latest six-track EP, 'Intrinsic Drive'.
Swiss artist and mastering engineer Chlär's last outing on Mutual Rytm, his 'Optimized Grooves' EP, was a standout success that made an impact far and wide across the techno realm. It was another big step for the fast-rising producer, who is also a dexterous DJ that plays across three and even four decks in the club. A craftsman of sounds, his take on techno is full throttle and has come on labels like Iceland's NIX and Stranger's Self Reflektion imprint. Always looking to improve his sounds, he hits a perfect sweet spot with a fresh and visionary approach across six fresh productions with his 'Intrinsic Drive' EP, again showcasing exemplary creative progression in his ever-impressing production skills.
Up first is 'Dopamine Rush', a quickened techno pumper with synths peeling off the straight-ahead drums and locking you into a state of hypnosis. The title track 'Intrinsic Drive' is a tightly woven mix of drums, hits and bass that never lets up, while the supple rhythm is overlaid with alien sound designs to up the intensity. 'For Marco' takes a heavier path with darkened and more weighty kick drums under eerie synth loops. There is a real swing in the drums of 'Steady Pace' as the crisp hits and vocal fragments all up the ante, before 'Greedy Man' delivers a tough panel beater with skewed synths and an industrial undertone. Digital bonus 'May I Dance?' rounds things out with raw textures and unhinged loops that take you to the heart of a strobe-lit dance floor, shaping up another
mighty fine statement of intent from the ever more vital Swiss native.
Spincycle records presents the second imprint on their label – a two track split EP from Neil E & Big City Bill on 180g heavyweight vinyl.
Bill and Neil met deep in the mountains 20 years ago.
With work drying up in the mountains, they tobogganed into the city to find their calling.
For years in dim garages, they studied with diligence strange hieroglyphs projected on the wall by the reflection of fluorescent lamps through emptied vessels.
At first, none of it made sense. All they knew was that it was important.
They began posting their findings online, and after a time of thinking they may have gone crazy, they began to receive anonymous messages: “Click here to join a guild of amazing artists: link redacted.”; “Follow me, and I’ll follow you back. Let’s grow together!”; “Do you want 10k+ follows? We can help!”
This was the encouragement they had been waiting so eagerly for. And so on they went. They joined a few guilds and continued to hone their practice, mining their depths, searching for that ineffable thing, whatever it was, wherever it was locked away.
After years of deep contemplation, the breaking of sacred tools, fiddling around, and the collection of various bevelled talismans, a revelation struck.
Two fantastic thoughts struck them both simultaneously.
These are those thoughts.
Ltd edition Sine TEAL Vinyl, DL card with Bonus Tracks. Vanishing Twin's seminal LP, The Age Of Immunology, receives a LTD edition re-pressing, this version is sine teal vinyl with matching sleeve colour. As essential take on psych-pop futurism and a must for fans of Broadcast, Sun Ra and Ennio Morricone. Establishing the band as innovators in their field, the record was declared "a masterpiece" by The Line Of Best Fit, while The Quietus asserted Vanishing Twin as "one of the most original and exciting acts of the moment". This was the group's first LP for Fire Records, at the time of recording the band's evolving lineup consisted of songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti, bassist Susumu Mukai, synth/guitar player Phil MFU and visual artist/film maker Elliott Arndt on flute and percussion. The album was produced by Lucas in a number of non-standard, non-studio settings. 'KRK (At Home In Strange Places)' summons up the spirit of Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio and was simply recorded on an iPhone during a live set which crackled with psychic connectivity on the Croatian island of Krk. The magical Morricone-esque lounge of 'You Are Not an Island', the blissed-out Jean-Claude Vannier style arrangement of 'Invisible World' and burbling sci fi funk ode to a 1972 cult French animation, 'Planete Sauvage', were all recorded in nighttime sessions in an abandoned mill in Sudbury.
BERG AUDIO presents a second collection of beautiful club tools previously released digitally, now finally available on vinyl, in response to the high demand. Including M -High’s mega hit “Soulseeker”, that stayed at the top spot (N1) of download platforms for more than two consecutive months. LIMITED COPIES !
- Wild Waters
- All Good Things Will Come To Pass
- Down On The Freeway
- Sleep Through The Long Night
- Come On
- Tell Me How To Be Here
- New Ages
- All Is Never Lost
- There From Here
Lael Neale's minimalist drone pop draws inspiration from the Transcendentalists, the alienation of modern life, and a rich array of musical influences-ranging from Dionne Warwick and John Lennon to primitive American gospel and Spacemen 3. Her expansive new record, Altogether Stranger, due May 2, was written and recorded in the early morning quiet of Los Angeles. Clocking in at just 32 minutes, the 9-song LP covers an unexpected breadth of musical and lyrical terrain-from garage rock nursery rhymes and creation myths to Motorik dance dirges and solitary Omnichord meditations. A brilliant lyricist, Neale has a unique ability to uncover the extraordinary within the mundane, tackling themes of polarity that recur throughout her work-country vs. city, humanity vs. technology, isolation vs. society. This album is her third collaboration with producer Guy Blakeslee who helps expand the tonal palette while staying true to Neale's commitment to the raw immediacy and hand-made intimacy of home recording. Altogether Stranger - a stunning album filled with dreamlike reverie, Neale's crystalline voice, and echoes of the Velvet Underground - was conceived after four years of oscillating between rural solitude and urban chaos. It finds Neale perched at the piano in a hilltop bungalow, looking down on a rare curve of Sunset Blvd. Here, in this daily ritual of writing, singing, and painting-what David Lynch referred to as "the Art Life"-she creates the space for her most adventurous work to date. Born and raised in Virginia's idyllic countryside, Neale brought the high-lonesome sound of her home state with her when she moved to California to pursue music. After years of writing songs on guitar and playing small venues in Los Angeles, she discovered the Omnichord in 2019, which sparked a new creative direction. This led to her 2021 Sub Pop debut album, Acquainted With Night. That album's 2023 follow-up, Star Eaters Delight, deepened the collaboration with Blakeslee, infusing minimalist soundscapes with a heightened electric energy. The album found a devoted audience, and Neale's subsequent tour included sold-out shows in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Paris, multiple trips across Europe, and a West Coast run supporting kindred spirit Weyes Blood. This marked yet another return to Los Angeles. Indeed, Los Angeles is not just the backdrop of Altogether Stranger but a lead character. The album's accompanying film - created with Neale's faithful Sony Handycam - builds on her ongoing series of videos, telling the story of Neale as an alien in a suit of mirrors stranded on Earth. Wandering through modern-day LA, she finds both absurdity and beauty in our fragile, untenable way of life. Over the long year it took to write Altogether Stranger, Neale vacillated between childlike optimism and existential melancholy. While she may not have been able to reconcile these opposing states, Altogether Stranger represents an ambitious breakthrough for this singular, self-sufficient artist.




















