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• Although the album was produced by David Tickle, Belinda’s sole album for the Chrysalis label in 1996
saw her re-united with the writers of her biggest chart successes, Rick Nowels, Ellen Shipley and fellow
Go-Go Charlotte Caffey. Nowels’ “In Too Deep” reached # 6 and Roxette’s Per Gessle’s “Always
Breaking My Heart” was another Top 10 hit. “Love In The Key Of C” followed them into the charts,
while the fourth hit “California” features backing vocals from none other than Brian Wilson.
• The two bonus LPs feature seventeen tracks: non-album B-sides, including covers of “Jealous Guy” and
“The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan”, plus “I Won’t Say I’m In Love” – Belinda’s contribution to the soundtrack
of the Disney film “Hercules”, a cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Submission” recorded with Radiator for a
compilation album, plus live and acoustic versions of her earlier hits, and three very rare remixes.
• This anniversary box set contains three LPs pressed on 180g vinyl, in individual outer and inner sleeves,
plus a 12 x 12 booklet, all in a lift-off lid box.


















r d1. Remember September JPO Club Pipes
s d2. Remember September [Beam’s Club Mix]
[t] d3. Remember September [Beam’s Vocal Mix]
[u] e1. Big Scary Animal [live]
[v] e2. I Get Weak [live]
[w] e3. Leave A Light On [live]
[x] e4. Live Your Life Be Free [live]
[y] f1. In Too Deep [live]
[live]
[xa] f3. In Too Deep [acoustic live version]
[xb] f4. Circle In The Sand [acoustic live version]

Jorja Smith returns to announce a new 8-track project. ‘Be Right Back’ is due May 14th and is the first body of work from Jorja since her 2019 critically-acclaimed, Mercury Prize nominated debut album ‘Lost & Found’, for which she won her second BRIT Award for ‘Best
Female’ and earned herself a nomination for ‘New Artist’ at the GRAMMY Awards.
The project finds Jorja delivering some of the most emotive and imaginative songs of her career. Over string-heavy production, she unveils a collection of songs that are diverse in their range but still extremely cohesive as a body of work - “It’s called be right back because it’s just something I want my fans to have right now, this isn’t an album and these songs wouldn’t have made it. If I needed to make these songs, then someone needs to hear them too.” - Jorja says of the project.
To coincide with the announcement, Jorja is sharing new single ‘Gone.’ Highly anticipated,
Smith states that “There’s something about being able to write about one thing and for it to mean so many different things to others. I love that this song, well any of my songs really, will be interpreted in different ways, depending on the experiences of the people listening.
This one is just me asking why people have to be taken from us.”
‘Gone’ follows in the footsteps of Jorja’s stunning March release ‘Addicted’, which also appears on ‘Be Right Back’, alongside 6 additional unheard tracks including a feature from
rising South London rapper, Shaybo on track 3, ‘Bussdown’.
Over the past three years, Smith has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through the world. Smith has graced multiple magazine covers,
performed at awards ceremonies and on late night TV, and sold out shows across the globe, now surpassing over one billion global streams. Her 2019 hit single ‘Be Honest’ featuring Burna Boy has become her biggest song to date at almost 250M streams worldwide. Smith continues to hone her craft and ‘Gone’ serves as a much-anticipated prelude for the release of ‘Be Right Back’ on May 14th.

There is a moment near the top of jaimie branch's FLY or DIE LIVE, the new album recorded by the trumpeter's quartet at in Zurich, Switzerland on January 23rd, 2020, which feels like it bears the weight of both that specific pocket of time, and a prophecy for all that was soon to come. branch and her Fly or Die crew - cellist Lester St. Louis, bassist Jason Ajemian, and drummer Chad Taylor - had just kicked off the concert at Moods, with the opening tracks off their then-new studio album FLY or DIE II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, the second of which, "Prayer for Amerikkka" is among the best political songs written during the Tr*mp Era, and when the moment in question pops off.

Runnner's Always Repeating yearns for a sense of place. The project of the now LA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Noah Weinman, Runnner's poignant reflections on the isolation and anxiety caused by a sense of rootlessness radiate with wit and charm. Self-produced and recorded wherever he called home at the time, Always Repeating documents this cycle of looking back and moving forward, of alienation changing to reconciliation. For Weinman, Runnner is primarily a solo endeavor with an ever - expanding musical community of musicians collaborating on his albums and shows, which at times have been known to feature up to a 7-piece live band (he also has a burgeoning career as a producer, notably working on Skullcrusher's critically-acclaimed debut EP for Secretly Canadian). Weinman completed Always Repeating last fall in Western Massachusetts and Woodstock using a mobile studio set-up. He played the majority of the instruments himself, including guitar, bass, trumpet, banjo, piano and synth. The goal was to create the perfect balance of intimate and melancholy songwriting through the lens of hi-fi/lo-fi dynamics, inspired by his favorite artists like Bon Iver, the Microphones, and Julien Baker. The 10-track collection is composed of five re-recorded versions of songs that appeared on Runnner's 2017 debut, Awash, and 2020's One of One EP. Although the songs were written over the course of three years, all find Weinman grappling with the same thing: feelings of uncertainty about his life. Always Repeating ultimately tells the start of Weinman's journey as Runnner, and his cyclical feelings of being connected and then disconnected from the world over and over again.

#1 debuts for the digital single in US, Germany, Israel and France +7 million
streams on the video in the first three weeks of release Massive buzz on social
media including +5,000 creations on Tiktok, top trending on YouTube and Instagram Shazam chart activity in San Francisco, Costa Rica, Netherlands, Romania
Instrumental version exclusive to vinyl 12-inch release
The single is setting up the debut album from Spice “Ten” coming this summer!

This is music by four strong individual players with room for eruptive solo-parts, but always held together by intense communication and beautiful interwoven melodies. The quartet's second album A History of Nothing (Trost records/TR170) got a huge number of excited reviews: A superb quartet outing. The music is all improvised, but it's firmly rooted in jazz, with superb interaction between all of the players, both on ripping, high-velocity blowouts and more delicate forays. (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader) Freedom is clearly a responsibility as well as a joy, and it's emphasized here by the group's shared commitment: each musician is constantly working in two directions, stretching further and creating cohesion. The music is improvised with such an ear to complementary detail that it's literally being collectively composed. (Stuart Broomer, Free Jazz Collective) Together, this quartet is dynamite. It's exciting to hear a European musician along with three Americans, and notice that they communicate so well. (Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts) Recorded by Klaus Hedegaard Nielsen at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, March 2nd, 2017 Mixed by Joaquim Monte and Rodrigo Amado, CD Master by Simon Wadsworth / LP Master by Martin Siewert

This is music by four strong individual players with room for eruptive solo-parts, but always held together by intense communication and beautiful interwoven melodies. The quartet's second album A History of Nothing (Trost records/TR170) got a huge number of excited reviews: A superb quartet outing. The music is all improvised, but it's firmly rooted in jazz, with superb interaction between all of the players, both on ripping, high-velocity blowouts and more delicate forays. (Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader) Freedom is clearly a responsibility as well as a joy, and it's emphasized here by the group's shared commitment: each musician is constantly working in two directions, stretching further and creating cohesion. The music is improvised with such an ear to complementary detail that it's literally being collectively composed. (Stuart Broomer, Free Jazz Collective) Together, this quartet is dynamite. It's exciting to hear a European musician along with three Americans, and notice that they communicate so well. (Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts) Recorded by Klaus Hedegaard Nielsen at Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, March 2nd, 2017 Mixed by Joaquim Monte and Rodrigo Amado, CD Master by Simon Wadsworth / LP Master by Martin Siewert

Demon Records presents the narrated TV soundtrack of a ‘lost’ four-part adventure set in ancient
Greece, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor.
When the TARDIS lands on the plains of Asia Minor, not far from the walled city of Troy, the
Doctor is hailed as the great god Zeus. He’s enlisted by the Greek army – led by Odysseus and
Agamemnon – to come up with a strategy for defeating the Trojans. With his companions already
prisoners of the opposing side, the Doctor draws his inspiration from the legend of a certain
wooden horse…
Presented across two 140g vinyl Trojan Sunset splatter discs, this 1965 TV soundtrack – no
episodes of which survive as film recordings - is narrated by Peter Purves, who co-stars as the
Doctor’s companion Steven, with Maureen O’Brien making her final appearance as Vicki. The
guest cast includes Max Adrian as King Priam, Barrie Ingham as Paris, Frances White as Cassandra
and Ivor Salter as Odysseus. Incidental music is by Humphrey Searle, and the familiar strains of
the Doctor Who theme are courtesy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
The coloured LPs are presented in a gatefold sleeve with fully illustrated inner sleeves. Original
episode billings, and full cast and credits, are included.
Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dummedy-dum, Dum-dum…

New Kscope CD Edition Of 1997 Top 30 Album This Strange Engine
“Atmospheric, melodic music that played to all of that band’s strengths... Marillion’s finest album of the last 15 years” - Classic Rock Marillion formed in 1979 and have sold over 15 million albums worldwide.
Rightly regarded as legends of progressive rock, the band have continued to evolve and have been keen to embrace the possibilities of the internet, using innovative ways to interact with listeners resulting in an incredibly loyal legion of fans around the world.
Originally released in 1997, ‘This Strange Engine’ was a top 30 hit in the UK and reached #10 in the NL album charts. The album features the singles “Man Of A Thousand Faces” and “80 Days” and shows the band exploring a revitalized sound featuring more acoustic elements.
‘This Strange Engine’ is the first of three recordings that Marillion made on a contract with Castle between departing EMI in 1995 and eventually going independent in 2000. Widely regarded as one of the most well produced Marillion albums, it finds the band in transition, ditching some of the lengthier compositions of previous albums in favour of a more succinct, commercial sound.

Only Up is the second Breeze album by producer and artist Josh Korody
(Nailbiter, Beliefs).
Enlisting a whirlwind of performances from Tess Parks, Cadence Weapon and
an array of the Toronto music scene, including members of Orville Peck, Tallies,
Vallens, Zoon, Sauna, Fake Palms, Rapport, Praises, Civic TV, Moon King, Blonde
Elvis, For Jane, Ducks Ltd, TOPS and Broken Social Scene. Only Up sees Korody
digging through and channelling three decades of anthemic British bands.
From the angular guitars of late 70”s post-punk (Gang Of Four, Wire), to the
lush gloom of 80’s electro-pop (Tears for Fears, OMD), with the dance floor
psychedelia of the Manchester sound (Primal Scream, Happy Mondays), and
through the late ‘90s and early 2000s post-punk / new wave revivalists.
When originally tasked with making this album, Korody and his long time music collaborator Kyle Connolly (Orville Peck, The Seams) quickly threw down
ideas in a session, however with Connolly embarking on a world tour, and with
Korody’s demanding schedule at his Candle Recording Studio, the project sat
unattended.
Somehow, by the time of the album’s delivery deadline, Korody not only orchestrated a creative ensemble of friends and collaborators, he wrote, recorded and mixed the entirety of the album in two weeks without a single regret
or compromise.
“It was the best way I could have done it. A strict deadline to make decisions,
move on and focus on things that matter the most. Every decision was made in
that headspace. The ease of technology to endlessly tweak with, it sometimes
can end up destroying records until there is no soul in it, no happy accidents
and it’s completely sterile. You can have a well produced record without going
down that dark rabbit hole.” Only Up is out via Hand Drawn Dracula.

Canadian collective The Hello Darlins, dubbed “the Broken Social Scene of
Americana”, release their first full-length LP Go By Feel on June 11, 2021.
With over 500,000 combined Spotify streams for their initial three singles, it’s
safe to say there’s a lot of anticipation for their debut album. The buzz began
building almost immediately after the Calgary, Alberta-based Americana collective debuted on the scene in early 2020, with American Songwriter calling the
group “the product of a talented pool of session musicians craving more,” while
Americana UK stated, “It’s great to see a band put together by the talented
folks who would usually be ‘behind the scenes.’”
So, who exactly are The Hello Darlins? The seeds of the band took root in 2016
when vocalist/producer Candace Lacina crossed paths again with keyboardist/
producer Mike Little after first meeting at a recording studio years earlier. Once
reconnected, they soon found themselves making music together in between
their work with other artists, an impressive list that ranges from Shania Twain
to Charlie Major, The Road Hammers to George Canyon as well as the late B.B.
King.
In short order, the couple began inviting others within their circle to participate, including Murray Pulver (Crash Test Dummies), Clay- ton Bellamy (The
Road Hammers), Matt Andersen, Dave and Joey Landreth (aka The Bros. Landreth), Russell Broom (Jann Arden), and ace fiddler Shane Guse.
On Go By Feel, this incredible collection of talent has forged a hybrid of country,
gospel and blues like no other, from the heart-wrenching ballads “Aberdeen”
and “Prayer For A Sparrow” to the classic country-rocker “Mountain Time” and
the album’s soulful title track.
Making music influenced by times of joy and sorrow is natural for Candace and
Mike, as both come from families with long musical traditions within Canada.
It all adds up to The Hello Darlins preferring to add “North” to the Americana
genre, a more than symbolic gesture that’s in line with a musical vision that will
continue to evolve as soon as the band gets a chance to play live with a lineup that could potentially consist of anywhere between five to nine players on
stage.
Until then, audiences will now be able to fully savour the tunes, musicianship
and production of Go By Feel, proof positive that teamwork ultimately leads to
exceptional results.

WALES WALLACE – was riding high in the Billboard Hot 100, as part of the Chicago group The Steelers, when he signed to Brunswick Records in 1969. The group had hit with “Get It From The Bottom” but Wallace fancied a solo career. He recorded three discs for Brunswick subsidiary’s Bashie, Dakar and in 1972 he launched the BRC label with “Somebody I Know”. This fabulous slice of Chicago crossover soul was produced by Eugene Record and has soared in demand in recent years.
WALTER JACKSON – signed to Columbia in 1962 and released a slue of records, initially on the parent label, and then its subsidiaries Okeh and Epic including “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” and the awesome “It’s An Uphill Climb To The Bottom”. After label hops to Cotillion, USA and Wand, Jackson found himself at Brunswick in 1973 where, later that year, he released the amazing “Let Me Come Back”. This rare, crossover-delight, was written by the legendary Jeff Perry and produced by Carl Davis and Sonny Sanders, add to that Walter’s supreme vocals and you have one of the finest Chicago mid-temo recordings of the early Seventies.

Norway’s inventive Rock mavericks LEPROUS return with their seventh studio album, “Aphelion”. Although unmistakably the work of the same band that made “Pitfalls” in 2019, “Aphelion” immediately stands out as a radical statement: Veering from some of the most intense material of their career to some of the most delicate music in the LEPROUS career, “Aphelion” is an album of beautifully crafted and meticulously arranged mini-masterworks. Recorded at three different studios (Ghost Ward / Sweden, Ocean Sound Recordings / Norway and and Cederberg Studios / Norway), mixed by Adam Noble (Placebo, Biffy Clyro, Nothing But Thieves) and mastered by Robin Schmidt (The 1975, Placebo, The Gaslight Anthem, etc.), “Aphelion” is available from InsideOutMusic as limited Mediabook CD with two bonus tracks, as Standard Jewelcase CD and as Gatefold 2LP on 180gr. vinyl with two bonus tracks and the entire album on CD as bonus.

Runnner’s Always Repeating yearns for a sense of place. The project of the now LA-based songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Noah Weinman, Runnner’s poignant reflections on the isolation and anxiety caused by a sense of rootlessness radiate with wit and charm. Self-produced and recorded wherever he called home at the time, Always Repeating documents this cycle of looking back and moving forward, of alienation changing to reconciliation.

For Weinman, Runnner is primarily a solo endeavor with an ever-expanding musical community of musicians collaborating on his albums and shows, which at times have been known to feature up to a 7-piece live band (he also has a burgeoning career as a

producer, notably working on Skullcrusher’s critically-acclaimed debut EP for Secretly Canadian). Weinman completed Always Repeating last fall in Western Massachusetts and Woodstock using a mobile studio set-up. He played the majority of the instruments himself, including guitar, bass, trumpet, banjo, piano and synth. The goal was to create the perfect balance of intimate and melancholy songwriting through the lens of hi-fi/lo-fi dynamics, inspired by his favorite artists like Bon Iver, the Microphones, and Julien Baker.

The 10-track collection is composed of five re-recorded versions of songs that appeared on Runnner’s 2017 debut, Awash, and 2020’s One of One EP. Although the songs were written over the course of three years, all find Weinman grappling with the same thing: feelings of uncertainty about his life. Always Repeating ultimately tells the start of Weinman’s journey as Runnner, and his cyclical feelings of being connected and then disconnected from the world over and over again.

Fractal City, the latest Cubenx album is a collection of terrestrial jams and arachnean ambient ballads that are particularly apt for urban listening. If its predecessors cracked the musical codes in force and shone by the versatility of their references, this new opus offers its listener an intense and symbolic sound environment.


The raw material of Fractal City was first conceived as a series of sound patches, designed to run in parallel with Canadian digital artist Maotik's installation. Broadcasted in real-time by generative patches reacting to various external and non-human data, those musical excerpts have been rendered in hundreds of nuances and extended over infinite durations. This unusual approach confers to the recording of the finished album's outstanding immersive strength.

Recorded live on a single track over a short period of a few weeks, the nine compositions of Fractal City capture the obsessions of its author for postmodern urban landscapes, and the revelation of new perspectives on the city of Paris.

The opening piece `Ssarg´ seems to hide the figure of the Mexican ambient producer Jorge Reyes. Cubenx built a cocoon of energetic layers, a new home of the mystical kind harmoniously integrated in a flourishing rainforest ecosystem.

`Transect ´refers to the urban development model of the same name, which is based on a division of the city into autonomous "fractal" zones. It also echoes the concept of "metro polarities" which considers the city as a mosaic of social groups. "By cycling in the evening with a friend, we could get away from the city centre to the suburbs of Paris. The contrasts are striking. You move from chic districts to bedroom communities, from industrial zones to improvised caravan camps. But there is a kind of energy in this heterogeneity that pushes you to always pedal further."

A few miles away, it would look like Art and urbanism have tried to level the cultural and social discrepancies of the outskirts of Paris. "Architectural sites like the Arcades of Bofill are splendid. There are completely extravagant projects, which seem to emerge from nowhere."
These buildings with ambitious aesthetics off the beaten tourist track, deteriorate over time and often remain far from the expectations of the local population. A feeling of nostalgic beauty is particularly perceptible on the slowest and most introspective ballads of the album as 'Urban Decay', 'Hagel' or 'Axe Majeur'. The producer leaves nonetheless no room for melancholic emptiness. "Every time, I have the impression that urban culture is taking its rights back and that young people appropriate the places in one way or another."

Just like `Transect', ` Quantified' and `Fractal City' present themselves as mirrors of a daily urban life in constant motion. All three are empowered by an overheated factory, which dispatches hypnotic beats and burst of analogue compressors with a clinical precision and direct them straight away to the reptilian areas of their listener's brains.

The sequencing leaves however space and time to take breath and makes way for aerial sonic excursions of spiritual and enlightened nature. On `Human Dilemma', Cubenx shows some concerns to opening the Pandora's box of transhumanist theories. While a long cosmic wave gives the listener a feeling of perfect fullness, a dizzying guitar distortion cast doubts on long term outlooks. `Smash Other' on the other way alternates gentle dissonances over an ocean of white noise and concludes the album on ethereal note.

With ´Fractal City", Cubenx eludes his irreconcilable love for shoegaze pop song and techno to concentrate exclusively on the production of mutant experimental materials. The result is an uncanny musical object, rich in image and sensation. Cubenx give us a guiding framework, enthralling enough to engage the listener to a tour of town. But he leaves it to the sole listeners to design their own projection of the city.

Over the last 3 years, original 90’s D&B imprint Odysee has been steadily building its profile, both through its ‘Remix/Remaster’ series as well as a growing number of new releases. Label Partner Andy Odysee continues to develop his own unique sound with this third solo E.P. All three tracks work together as a triptych, whilst simultaneously maintaining their own unique identity.

Ruthless (In Purpose): Insidious (In Design) immediately establishes an ominous mood of brooding menace with its creeping bass stabs. As the drums enter, the track builds towards a drop of deep subs and driving breakbeat fury, punctuated by the ripped synth basses and curling drum edits that are fast becoming characteristic of Andy’s productions. There are subtle nods to the later Hokusai releases such as Sculptures Hide and even Black Domina; with eerie chiff-flute phrases, and those signature Mirage-style film-noire and dark avant-garde Jazz sounds nestling amongst the tapestry of beats and basslines.

As a contrast, Provocateur has a sweeter, almost sexier feel. A dreamy oscillating pad soon gives way to razor-sharp curling Jazz breaks and deep subs. The vocals border on the ‘saucy’ with their tantalising suggestions of ‘who thinks the technique is to make love to me’ and ‘the sexiest thing about me is my a**!’ There is a subtle darkness nonetheless to this track, with its plethora of dark film-noire samples. Although the framework of breaks & bass is strident enough for the dance floor, it is also the kind of track that is loaded with all those little production details that will reveal something fresh with each hearing.

The third track Status Anxiety is a frenetic, tense piece of music. Underpinned by a relentless bass synth stab that slips and slides throughout the track, the drum patterns are more elaborate, cutting between several different breaks, with abrupt stops to expose dark string sweeps, hammered Rhodes strikes and shimmering china cymbals. Again there is a subtle reference to the Hokusai releases, but with a fresh twist on that darker Jazz-infused style of Breakbeat D&B.

DJ Support
Source Direct, Law & Ben Repertoire, Mister Shifter, Basic Rhythm, Voodoo & Sensenet

After his first adventure in the endless universe of instrumental music where he made known “Man With a Plan” in 2018, Minus & MRDolly now presents the new EP Broken Hearts Make Broken Beats. This new work is the result of a recording session at the Groove-Wood studios promoted by João André - who mixes two of the three originals of the EP - to which Hugo Danin joined on drums and Sérgio Alves on keyboards and electric piano. In trio, Minus, Hugo and Sérgio rearranged and explored the original sketches, previously composed by Minus & MRDolly.

Floating, or as if to say, with one “foot inside and the other outside” of his so familiar home that is Hip Hop, “BHMBB” is the reflection of some musical references previous to that house, where “Britfunk” or “Broken Beat” serves as an example. This EP intends to marry the acoustic character of the interpretation with the aesthetic and electronic universe of dance music.

“Salame”, “The Break” and “A Thousand Miles”, the three originals that make up the EP Broken Hearts Make Broken Beats, also count on the participation of percussionists Manu Idhra and Rui Ferreira, the voice of Mary Raisekings, and the Pardal saxophone. The theme "The Break" has remixes by Pedro and Max Graef.

The redoubtable renaissance man Barrie K Sharpe is back with a scorching vinyl 45 showing he’s lost none of his edge or ingenuity in producing a potent fusion of funk, soul jazz and beyond. This effusive cut sounds utterly unlike anybody else and is testament to his flamboyant superfly style cementing why he is considered to being one of the burgeoning spearheads in the Acid Jazz movement of yesteryear.

It’s interesting to note he hasn’t stood still either and has been extremely prolific releasing three exceptional albums under the banner of Rhythm Rhyme Revolution and this slow burning dance floor groove is the perfect distillation of his recent body of work.

‘BaDThingz’ falls between the sensual and the spiritual like all good dance music and the direct ‘come on’ lyrics becomes an injunction to move on the facts not just suppositions!

The groove is the epitome of seduction itself with a funkified blessedness as clear as a bell. A fantastic homily signalling the virtues of sexual chemistry whilst highlighting the modern era of cutting edge studio production to sonic perfection. The groove is simply total atomic explosiveness and DJ Tabu is someone you’d definitely want cooing in your ear!

Aided and abetted by multi instrumentalist Gareth Tasker and trumpeter Kenny Wellington it seems your man is riding his groove to glory - with a bit of added polish from Fritz Catlin. This is going to have untold longevity in any DJ’s trunk of funk. Grab it now for a shock of pure pleasure. (Emrys Baird – Blues & Soul)

Featuring Joep’s first three releases + bonus material, as a special Super Deluxe Vinyl Box Set of 7 LPs.

With or without a drink in hand, moderate temperature, no need to jump into the wet. One night AT the pool, not inside. Palm trees or succulents - not far from here, the vegetation has adapted to the situation. A soft rustling: Possibly crickets, probably also the wind. No traffic and certainly no civilization, which right now would probably only disturb with its long agenda of responsibilities. HYPNOSIS AND MUD - Healing hypnosis, healing mud. The half-frustrating, half-liberating feeling of saturated soil between the toes. A state of inner peace. Instead of a voice, you hear primitivist percussive explorations. A groping and grasping of the bare feet, with delicate toes. Abstraction is followed by the concrete: a walk through the ORCHIDEENGARTEN RUSE, an orchid garden close to the Bulgarian town and not far from the Romanian border. Digitally, but not unreal. Perhaps even better than reality - anyone can do that. The (unofficial) soundtrack to this would not only make the Canadian composer Mort Garson happy. A lady‘s shoe kindly looks at us. If you turn around, you arrive on the other side: A LINE HAS TWO SIDES. Conundrum-like images, dissolved one-dimensionality. Candid narrative ambiance. A clarinet calls to duty. Civilization and traffic after all? SUNBEAMS ON YOUR CAR. Urgency, a clamor of voices - both in their best form. Yet again – the clarinet, the blunt reality: ONE NIGHT AT THE POOL. We are still standing here, we probably never left. A three-part journey – with delicate transitions. Three destinations: Now forever united. Dissonant and yet pensive. In the far distance the advertisement for the collected works of Meredith Monk. Hair erect, the little skin nerves contract, goosebumps - at last!

After recording debut album The Return of the Durutti Column with producer Martin Hannett in 1979, virtuoso guitarist Vini Reilly purchased a TEAC four-track recorder from Bill Nelson and began producing his own material. These evocative demos were perfected by Reilly at Graveyard Studio with co-producer Stuart Pickering, with additional drums and percussion from Bruce Mitchell. Originally released by Factory Records in November 1981, LC is a key album in a body of work described by David Stubbs of Uncut magazine as ‘unique in rock, with Reilly’s scampering, watercolour guitar style building a tentative bridge between post-punk and the chamber sketches of Debussy and Ravel.’
On this expanded Factory Benelux the original ten tracks are supplemented by no less than 9 bonus cuts, including rare Sordide Sentimental single Danny/Enigma, and the three tracks Reilly contributed to A Factory Quartet in 1980 - his last recordings with Hannett, which feature Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio on drums.
The remastered double disc set is housed in a gatefold sleeve printed on matt reverse board, with liner notes and archive images. The package also includes an exclusive 7-inch single featuring live versions of Sketch for Summer and Requiem for a Father, recorded at Leeds Polytechnic in October 1980. These are the earliest surviving professional live recordings of Durutti Column in concert.

Originally released on cassette by Good Person Recordings in 2016, Impressive Almanac is the culmination of Dan Shaw's bedroom experiments making minimalist post-punk. The entire album was tracked by himself at home shortly after moving from Seattle to his hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Dan did not yet have any backing band at the time. The album shines with his raw and unfettered creativity, repetitive DI'ed guitars, and disaffected yet deeply personal lyrics about the banality of modern life.

Shaw says of the record: "Sharing this tape with friends in the Western Mass DIY scene soon led to the formation of Landowner as a full band. Even though we're a real band now with a real drummer and everything, the drum machines and repetitive riffs of these songs still serve as an important reference point for the vibe we strive to attain in our music today."

The album was quite formative for Born Yesterday Records. Co-owner and now Deeper bass player Kevin Fairbairn met Dan at a show in Western Massachusetts. Dan gave him a cassette of Impressive Almanac. When Kevin returned from tour, he was eager to show it to me and I quickly became obsessed with it. A year or so later when we were discussing starting a record label, we both knew that Landowner had to be one of the bands we talked to first. This release will roughly mark the three year anniversary of Born Yesterday's first release, Landowner's Blatant.

"King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have always greeted creative boundaries with the same respect bulldozers visit upon anything foolish enough to stray into their path. Over 11 years and across their 17 studio albums to date, the sui generis sextet have turned their many hands to luminous acid-rock daydreams (I’m In Your Mind Fuzz), gritty western horse operas (Eyes Like The Sky), never-ending science-fiction song cycles (Nonagon Infinity), dystopian death-metal epics (Infest The Rat’s Nest) and winningly mellifluous jazz-folk (Sketches Of Brunswick East). They’ve even invented their own musical instrument – a hybrid electric guitar sharing much of its DNA with the traditional Turkish bağlama – to explore the notes between the notes (a mission that’s yielded three albums thus far: Flying Microtonal Banana, K.G. and L.W.).
But their 18th album, Butterfly 3000, might be their most fearless leap into the unknown yet: a suite of ten songs that all began life as arpeggiated loops composed on modular synthesisers, before being fashioned into addictive, optimistic and utterly seductive dream-pop by the six-piece. The album sounds simultaneously like nothing they’ve ever done before, and thoroughly, unmistakeably Gizz, down to its climactic neon psych-a-tronic flourish. "

In James McMurtry’s new effort, ‘The Horses and
the Hounds’, the acclaimed songwriter backs
personal narratives with effortless elegance
(‘Canola Fields’) and endless energy (‘If It Don’t
Bleed’).
This first collection in seven years spotlights a
seasoned tunesmith in peak form as he turns
toward reflection (‘Vaquero’) and revelation (closer
‘Blackberry Winter’). Familiar foundations guide
the journey. “There’s a definite Los Angeles vibe to
this record,” McMurtry says. “The ghost of Warren
Zevon seems to be stomping around among the
guitar tracks. Don’t know how he got in there. He
never signed on for work for hire.”
‘The Horses and the Hounds’ is a reunion of sorts.
McMurtry recorded the new album with legendary
producer Ross Hogarth (Ozzy Osbourne, John
Fogerty, Van Halen, Keb’ Mo’) at Jackson
Browne’s Groovemaster’s in Santa Monica,
California. Hogarth recorded McMurtry’s first two
albums - ‘Too Long in the Wasteland’ and
‘Candyland’ - and later mixed McMurtry’s first selfproduced album, ‘Saint Mary of the Woods’.
Another veteran of those three releases, guitarist
David Grissom (Joe Ely, John Mellencamp, Dixie
Chicks), returns with some of his finest work.

One can’t overstate the size of the Fear Factory boot print on the neck of heavy metal. Unleashing influential albums with devastating anthems for over 30 years, Fear Factory is widely recognized as both crucial and innovative in extreme metal circles. Fear Factory manufactured, demanufactured, and remanufactured a sound that reverberates across several subgenres. They perfected an explosive blend of staccato paint-stripping riffs, industrial-tinged drums, electronic flourishes, and a scream/sing dichotomy, all of which became staples in heavy music, ever since the group first emerged in L.A.

Fear Factory headline major festivals; earned several awards from the international sales charts; toured with Black Sabbath, Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Metallica; and influenced generations of bands. But it’s the group’s commitment to unrelenting extremity and creative authenticity which ensured its place in heavy metal history, from the highly-revered Demanufacture to the similarly dominating Genexus. Songs like “Zero Signal,” “Shock,” and “Fear Campaign” are instantly recognizable anthems, as much a part of the musical DNA of modern metal subculture as the riffs and scream/sing style within them.

Fear Factory records are cinematic in scope; sonic landscapes, echoing the dystopian post-apocalyptic futures found in classic sci-fi literature and films, from Ray Bradbury to Blade Runner. Aggression Continuum, the tenth studio album, is the culmination of three decades of unforgettable songs, performances, and forward-thinking storytelling concepts, while simultaneously rebooting Fear Factory onto a brilliant and excitingly unpredictable new path. Like the liquid metal T-1000 in the Terminator franchise or the Academy-Award winning reboot of Mad Max, Aggression Continuum is a turning point where what “was” transforms into what will be. It’s Fear Factory’s own Fury Road.

Aggression Continuum boasts the definitive attack of songs like “Recode,” “Distruptor,” and “Purity.” The riffs, concepts, and passion remain strong, as Fear Factory celebrates its past, present, and future. Whatever may come, Fear Factory will be there, a soundtrack to humankind’s uncertain times ahead.

Necronautical have always been about exploring the darkness. Their very name means ‘To explore death’. It’s fitting, then, that on their fourth album, Slain In The Spirit, the Manchester band are pushing both their sound and their concept to the outer limits. Since forming in 2010, Necronautical’s name has become well respected among the British black metal underground. Across three albums –2014’s Black Sea Misanthropy, 2016’s The Endurance At Night and 2019’s Candlelight Records debut Apotheosis –their sound has become one rich in its skill with the dark side of metal. Ambitious and grandiose in its symphonic touches, this velvet glove hides beneath it an aggressive iron fist. On Slain In The Spirit, this is truer than ever. Everything has been taken to a degree beyond where the band have trodden previously, with the symphonic elements swirling even more dizzyingly above a metallic attack that hits with an almost machine-like ferocity. So much so that the band have transcended black metal altogether. Available on CD, trans amber 2 LP vinyl and trans amyethyst 2LP.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive, very often simply referred to as BTO, were a Canadian rock band active in three different intervals from 1973 until 2018, with the latest incarnation performing under the name of Bachman & Turner. The original line-up consisted of Randy Bachman (lead guitar, lead vocals), Fred Turner (bass guitar, lead vocals), Tim Bachman (guitar, vocals) and Robbie Bachman (drums).

MOV proudly presents new Collected compilation albums in collaboration with Universal Music. Collected is a compilation featuring the band’s greatest songs released between 1973 and 1996. Some of the hits included are “Let It Ride”, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, “Hey You”, “Down to the Line” and their rendition of the traditional folk song “The House of the Rising Sun”.

Whether you’re a new listener or a long-time fan of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, this compilation is essential and captures the band’s early career beautifully. The Collected package comes with liner notes and photos.

Revolving around three Magma members (Jannick Top, Joel Dugrenot et Yochk’O Seffer), Speed Limit has put out two cult albums during the 70’s, paying homage to Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew as well as Nucleus’ Elastic Rock. Mixing jazz, progressive rock, avant-garde pop, classical and Zeuhl music has never been a problem for the French septet, and even though its name sounds pretty obscure for the mainstream amateur, every French underground music lover sings praises about the band

Fragments, The Debut Album From Trifecta (Beggs, Holzman, Blundell)
Trifecta, a new addition to the Kscope roster, features 3 of the contemporary
music scene’s most lauded and revered musicians - bassist and songwriter Nick
Beggs, keyboardist extraordinaire Adam Holzman and completing the line-up,
Craig Blundell - one of the world’s most celebrated drummers.
Having performed together as part of Steven Wilson’s band, the three would
jam together after soundchecks and from these sessions the fledgling ideas for
Fragments were born. Nick Beggs comments “after the last tour with Steven
finished, we had a handful of tracks ready to work on and as we moved through
our various separate projects we agreed to work on Trifecta.”
The record primarily leans toward a fusion of jazz rock, being instrumental except for the first single (the wonderfully titled “Pavlov’s Dog Killed Schrodinger’s Cat”), the lyrics of which, Beggs states, “are written from the perspective of
a layman trying to understand quantum mechanics...and failing.”
Each band member completed the recording and engineering of their own
contributions in their various home studios, helping to bring their individual
production ideas to each track. Adam Holzman mixed the record at his New
York home studio with the mastering handled by Andy VanDette (Rush, David
Bowie, Deep Purple, Porcupine Tree, Beastie Boys) in New York.
Asked what fans of the musicians can expect from Trifecta, Beggs says, “Fission!
It’s like Fusion but less efficient and more dangerous.”
The debut album resulting from this “fission” of these extraordinary musicians
is entitled ‘Fragments’ and will be released on Kscope on 20th August 2021.

B2 Recordings founder Bengoa returns to the label this July with his ‘Sun Dub’ EP, comprised of three originals from the Greek producer and DJ.

The past year has been Bengoa unveil an array of material on his B2 Recordings imprint, ranging through a variety of style under the umbrella of House, from deep and intricate sounds by Peter Grummich, twitchy acid from fellow Greek artist Zak, Disco tinged material from Lex and of course dubbed out sounds from Bengoa himself.

Here, the head honcho returns again with a fresh three-tracker, opening with title-track ‘Sun Dub’, a high octane house workout fuelled by swinging drums, choppy bass stabs, airy dub chords and a classic Hammond organ hook line. ‘Negligence’ then opens the b-side, stripping things back to cavernous low-end pulsations and swirling stabs atop a robust drum machine jam. ‘Physique’ then wraps up the release on a deeper tip, bringing shimmering bell tones, a stab-led bass sequences and murky vocal chants into the forefront, while skippy drum hits and modulating hats carry the subtly nuanced, hypnotic groove.

LTD. BLUE SEAGLASS WAVE TRANSLUCENT VINYL

Last spring, Devendra Banhart and Noah Georgeson started to make a record that was like nothing they had made before _ an ambient album that would be both a haven from a suddenly terrified world and a heartfelt musical dialogue between two artists who have been friends and collaborators for over two decades. Refuge is an album of profound meditative beauty which offers the listener a much-needed sense of peace and renewal. But while it was recorded in 2020 its roots go back much further _ all the way to the start of their friendship and, beyond that, to the shared sounds and ethics of their childhoods. Devendra grew up in Venezuela while Noah, six years older, is a native of Nevada City, California. But as they got to know each other, they realised that they had a similar history in the New Age subculture of the 1980s: a world of meditation, Eastern music, the Bhagavad Gita and The Whole Earth Catalog. Childhood memories were coloured by the aromas of health food stores and the sound of New Age labels like Windham Hill Records. Noah, whose production and mixing credits include Joanna Newsom and the Strokes, came on board as co-producer of Devendra's 2005 album Cripple Crow and they have been working together ever since. It was while making Devendra's 2019 album Ma that the pair finally decided to make their ambient record. Despite complicating logistics, 2020 created an emotional craving for music with this contemplative, therapeutic quality. Inspired by both memories of the past and the needs of the present, Refuge is an act of companionship and generosity which gives the listener room to breathe. "We're hoping to create a sense of comfort and coming back to the moment," Devendra says. "It's really important to have a little bit of space between us and our anxieties and impulses. What you do with that space is up to you." Dorian Lynskey May 2021

For this release Ellende was a core of three original members plus a guest musician. The album was recorded between May to August 2020 in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tokyo, and London. The release contains a twelve page booklet with artwork by Richard Hart. The autobiographical text in English and Afrikaans is of a trip taken to Cape Town in the mid 1970’s where two teenage cousins are confronted with the consequences of their shared family history.
The music can be described as ambient; the sounds are multilayered, often a bit dusty and slow moving. Some of the tracks sound like they have been recorded on old tapes giving the whole album a nostalgic atmosphere. Often a piano acts as the leitmotif, there is plenty of droning and throughout the tracks bits of texts from old French movies float in and out. Most of the music is made with vintage analogue synthesisers such as the Arp Solina, Prophet 5, ARP Solus, Juno 6. Most of the piano’s, Rhodes and Wurlizters are from the late 70’s as well. All the tracks have been recorded on tape, often played back on half speed. Mastering again was done by Rafael Irissari, whose own ambient work we greatly admire.

Unintentional Consequences is the second part of a trilogy of which Ellende’s previous release the double 10” album Odyssey, A Sentimental Journey from 2019 was part one.

For RE:WARM 006 we present a collection of music from one of San Francisco’s best kept secrets, Dr Robert Blackman. “The Unimaginable DreamWorks” is a collection of five tracks from three musical masterpieces he put out between 1983-1985 on his own ‘Riverwinds’ imprint. A practising chiropractor by day with his own holistic health centre in San Francisco, these songs became his love, passion and focus. Together with Michael Pluznick, a very accomplished percussionist they painstakingly put together an ensemble of musicians to bring the tracks to life. The melting pot for this body of work was Hyde Street Studios which still today is based in deepest San Francisco and has seen names such as Neil Young, Earth Wind & Fire and John Waters to name a few grace its studio space. Singers and musicians alike came together from all over the world to bring Robert’s vision to reality. This included an Australian didgeridoo player, an electric violin and piano player from Paraguay as well as singers and a choir from the surrounding local churches. Together through Dr Robert Blackman’s eyes they created a fabulous sound of twisted disco punk funk like no other that still sounds relevant today as it did back in the eighties. The energy and the stories are clear to hear throughout the five tracks which make up “The Unimaginable DreamWorks” of Dr. Robert Blackman 1983-1985. Artwork was key to the releases and the “Peace Is Alive” painting incorporated on the label of the release appeared in TIME magazine in 1984 when Dr Robert Blackman was treating combat vets, suffering from PTSD and this was the name of the job fair for veterans he set up. To promote the album at the time Dr Robert Blackman flew up over San Francisco in a single engine prop airplane loaded with 50,000 leaflets

Flunk is a quartet from Oslo making downbeat acoustic music. From their debut in 2002, they have built a steady following around the world. They have about 55K followers on Spotify, with the top 5 countries being USA, Turkey, Germany, UK and Poland. Flunk is known for their downbeat version of New Order's Blue Monday (their best selling track by far).

Flunk is now building up towards their next album, their seventh ordinary album. They released two digital singles in the autumn of 2020, and three more are out or planned winter/spring as a buld-up towards the album. The singles are pushed by targeted pre- and post-release world wide promotion in social media. The album will be markeded the same way. Their new album will be out on digital, vinyl and CD. The album patches together trademark elements of soul-healing downtempo electronics and naive pop, infused in Nordic mystique and faded Americana tropes.

Bjarki’s bbbbbb records welcomes its first-ever non-electronic project as Icelandic rock band Skrattar joins the label to unveil their thirteen-track album, ‘Hellraiser IV’.

Four-piece outfit Skrattar can be described as cigarette rock with an electronic vibe that makes your upper lip sweat. Having already developed a loyal fanbase in Iceland as a powerful live act with an energetic and provocative stage presence, the band now look further afield to global horizons as they reveal their latest album, ‘Hellraiser IV’.

With the release of ‘Hellraiser IV’, bbbbbb broadens its catalogue beyond dance and electronic music. While the label’s primary focus will remain electronic, several other genres will also feature - the connecting factor being that the music is Icelandic, experimental and fresh... the best that grassroots has to offer.

‘Good music should be heard, and this is my take on delivering probably the best music coming from Iceland at the moment. It’s an honest, wild love story of true friendship and creativity coming together in one album’ - Bjarki

‘Hellraiser IV’ contains thirteen tracks written over three years, with the oldest songs composed the year the band was founded, 2016. In 2019, when a good foundation for an LP had been laid as the band gained followers and honed its sound, they locked themselves in the studio until they completed the album. With many of the tracks composed in the dead of night, containing both lyrics written over a long period as well as improvisation, the final product is a record made by them from A to Z, in line with the band’s endearing DIY ethos.

‘Skrattar’ is Icelandic for a specific type of demon that you can’t control, but in Swedish, it means ‘to laugh’ - with laughter involved across many of the tracks on ‘Hellraiser IV’ as if to mock the dualism of seriousness. Their subject matter is chaos and anarchism - but their humour and satire are never far away. The music is an ode to the eternal void, while at the same time laughing in its face.

In addition, a remix album will be released digitally alongside Hellraiser IV, reimagined and reworked by a host of fellow musicians, producers, and artists. Among them, label regular Kuldaboli, bbbbbb boss Bjarki, DJ Flugvél og Geimskip, russian.girls, KGB and Anton Newcombe - the founder of The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive,’ the new album from
Los Angeles-based Media Jeweler, is a three-dimensional reckoning with
the contradictions of life in all its manic altitudes and claustrophobia.
Recorded over three chaotic weeks in Omaha, the band’s elaborate sonic infrastructures carry the same sense of studied experimentation as Palm, Guerrilla
Toss or Deerhoof, rollicking across an energetic spectrum that parlay the band’s
post-punk roots, jazz rhythms and art punk choruses into something greater
than the sum of its parts.
The most fully-fleshed release yet, a myriad of musical collaborators were enlisted uniting a finely-tuned sense of adventurousness that roves between the
personal and political to frame an acute portrait of modern day societal revelation.
‘The Sublime Sculpture of Being Alive’ is out on Fire Talk (Dehd, Deeper, Mama

Nadja is a duo of multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff—active since 2005—and making music which can be described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, or metalgaze. Nadja’s signature sound combines the atmospheric textures of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music with the heaviness, density, and volume of metal, noise, and industrial.
For their new album, Luminous Rot, the duo retain their overblown/ambient sound, and explore shorter and more tightly structured songs reflecting their interests not only in metal, but post-punk, cold-wave, shoegaze, and industrial.

Thematically, Luminous Rot explores ideas of 'first contact' and the difficulties of recognising alien intelligence. This was in part inspired by reading such writers as Stanislaw Lem and Cixin Lui -- in particular, theories on astro-physics, multi-dimensionality, and spatial geometry in "The Three Body Problem" -- as well as Margaret Wertheim's "A Field Guide To Hyperbolic Space," about mathematician Daina Taimina's work with crochet to illustrate hyperbolic space and geometry.
The album was recorded between their home studio, Broken Spine Studios, or Nadja’s live rehearsal studio, both in the district of Lichtenberg, Berlin. Luminous Rot marks the first album mixed by someone else, who in this case was David Pajo. The band comment, “as big fans of Slint, we thought he might fore-front the more angular, post-punk elements of our music - the mix is quite different from our previous albums. But, as usual, we had James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, etc) master the album as we trust his ears and aesthetic, as he's mastered numerous records of ours.”

MEDWAY GARAGE UPSTARTS! 2nd LP! The Shadracks are a three-piece rock n’ roll group hailing from Medway, Kent. With timeless and expert precision the Shadracks play from 37.3 years in the past 33.7 years into the future. The actual origins of the group date back even further with their cultural appropriation of Babylonian 'Rhythm and Punk. A mere 3 years ago Huddie Shadrack and Elisa Abednego had a brief encounter in deserted parkland. Discovering sheared an interest in vacant park benches, herbaceous borders and beat music it became paramount that they form a group - and quickly. After the release of there self titled debut LP, a subsequent live BBC 6Music session for Marc Riley and a fast selling EP, Elle Meshack retired from The Shadracks to peruse a career as a Poly Styrene impersonator aboard a Tahitian cruise liner: SS Honolulu Baby. Fortunately for the bass bereft Shadracks an advert placed in the window of a local stationers was answered by a certain Rhys ‘King Nebuchadnezzar’ Webb. A meeting issued and after proclaiming "Oh merciful Marduck, may the house that I have built endure forever” Their followed a two-hour induction ceremony (in which to learn all the new tracks for their forthcoming long player From Human Like Forms and Webb, for it was he, was sworn into The Shadracks fraternity. From Human Like Forms sees The Shadracks achieving giddy new heights in their song writing and performing abilities - pushing their ancient sound 3.7 years ahead of the current lunar time module. Councillor Duxbury. 2021

Limited Coke Bottle Green vinyl, 250 copies only for the UK. Any future pressing will be on black vinyl. Massage feature Alex Naidus from Pains At Being Pure At Heart. Recorded by Lewis Pesacov (Fool’s Gold, Foreign Born, Peel’d). Massage was supposed to be low-stakes, no big deal "anti-ambition," as Andrew Romano, guitarist and vocalist, put it. The L.A.based jangle-pop group's first album, 2018's Oh Boy, was a sweet and simple weekend warrior's affair, or more specifically, an every-other-Monday one, as the band members gathered to bash out songs that offered messy but heartfelt tribute to their chosen heroes: The Feelies, the Go-Betweens, Twerps, Flying Nun. For Romano, not taking things too seriously is a dead-serious affair: “Nothing kills the kind of music we want to make faster than the sense that a band is trying too hard,” he says. The kind of music Massage makes sunny, bittersweet, tender is less a proper genre than a minor zip code nested within guitar pop. Take a little "There She Goes" by the La's, some "If You Need Someone" by the Field Mice; the honey-drizzled guitars from The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love," a Jesus & Mary Chain backbeat, and you're almost all the way there. Indie pop, jangle pop, power pop whatever you call it, pushing too hard scares the spirit right out of this sweet, diffident music, and Massage have a touch so light the songs seem to form spontaneously, like wry smiles. Still, on their sophomore effort, Still Life, they manage to take a quantum leap forward in songwriting, production, and depth, all somehow without seeming to try. These 12 deft songs are full of late-summer sunlight and deep shadows, pained grins and shared jokes, shy declarations of love and quietly nursed heartbreak. Still Life resurrects a brief, romantic moment in the late-'80s, right after post-punk and immediately before alt-rock, when it seemed like any scrappy indie band might stumble across a hit. When Andrew Romano and Alex Naidus first met in 2007, Naidus had just joined a band with his friends Kip Berman and Peggy Wang that was about to stumble into many of them. When Naidus finally left Pains for L.A. in 2013, two hit albums and a few world tours later, he started playing with Romano to recapture the no-stakes, suburban-garage joy of making music for its own sake. It was "friendship incarnate," Naidus remembers. The other members came from within the friend circle Gabrielle Ferrer (keyboard/vocals) is Romano's sister-in-law, Michael Felix (drums) is one of Naidus’ best friends, and David Rager (bass) is a childhood friend of Felix’s. When Felix moved to Mexico City in early 2020, Naidus’ wife, Natalie de Almeida, stepped in. The result is the finest batch of songs they've ever produced. From Naidus' velvet-lined JAMC tribute "Half A Feeling" to Ferrer's Let It Be-era Replacements-tinged lament "The Double" to Romano's "In Gray & Blue," these are gold-standard indie-pop gems from emerging masters of the form. Still Life glows with the sincerity and unfakeable warmth of the era they so lovingly channel. Like the best Gin Blossoms chorus you still remember, the songs on Still Life stir big, pure emotions, but beneath them, uneasy truths about adulthood linger, just below the surface. Maybe the exact mix of ringing guitars and two-part harmonies can chase those feelings away, or redeem them, for at least a minute or three. Massage won't stop trying.

LTD. BLUE SEAGLASS WAVE TRANSLUCENT VINYL

Last spring, Devendra Banhart and Noah Georgeson started to make a record that was like nothing they had made before _ an ambient album that would be both a haven from a suddenly terrified world and a heartfelt musical dialogue between two artists who have been friends and collaborators for over two decades. Refuge is an album of profound meditative beauty which offers the listener a much-needed sense of peace and renewal. But while it was recorded in 2020 its roots go back much further _ all the way to the start of their friendship and, beyond that, to the shared sounds and ethics of their childhoods. Devendra grew up in Venezuela while Noah, six years older, is a native of Nevada City, California. But as they got to know each other, they realised that they had a similar history in the New Age subculture of the 1980s: a world of meditation, Eastern music, the Bhagavad Gita and The Whole Earth Catalog. Childhood memories were coloured by the aromas of health food stores and the sound of New Age labels like Windham Hill Records. Noah, whose production and mixing credits include Joanna Newsom and the Strokes, came on board as co-producer of Devendra's 2005 album Cripple Crow and they have been working together ever since. It was while making Devendra's 2019 album Ma that the pair finally decided to make their ambient record. Despite complicating logistics, 2020 created an emotional craving for music with this contemplative, therapeutic quality. Inspired by both memories of the past and the needs of the present, Refuge is an act of companionship and generosity which gives the listener room to breathe. "We're hoping to create a sense of comfort and coming back to the moment," Devendra says. "It's really important to have a little bit of space between us and our anxieties and impulses. What you do with that space is up to you." Dorian Lynskey May 2021