Cargo Direct Best Of 2014
-
Visit product page →Initial copies of the LP ship with a limited edition Risograph art print and bookmark designed by Allo Darlin' guitarist Paul Rains.
The 3RD full-length recording from the much loved Anglo-Australian four-piece is made up of smart, beautiful pop music, with lyrics that resonate with experience and melodies that chime, echo and soar.
The album combines the eagerness, urgency and immediacy of their 2010 debut with the contemplation, sophistication and ambition of their 2012 follow-up Europe, and yet it goes beyond either both sonically and in song. It was written at a time of considerable change for songwriter Elizabeth Morris, a time during which she fell in love, moved to Italy and got married - not that that seems to have hindered the songwriting process. They then returned to their spiritual home of Soup Studios.
The intention was to capture a more instinctive and fluid live studio sound and to play as well as possible while the red button was on, a different approach to the more piecemeal recording of their previous two albums. Or as Paul Rains put it, We've used three years of touring to try and get some of that sweat and grime and togetherness and sweetness and anxiety onto a record. One of the themes of the new record is new beginnings and things drawing to a close. Nothing feels the way it did before and I am grateful for that, sings Elizabeth on "Crickets in the Rain", a song written after her move to Italy and which she describes as anti-nostalgia. Built along the same lines is the gorgeous History Lessons, of which Elizabeth says, I guess at some point I became a bit tired of everything seeming better in the past, from music to relationships to buildings to societies. We're a bit obsessed with it and it can become overwhelming.
We don't live in the present. This song is trying to express that frustration. Among the highlights of the album is Bright Eyes, a duet with guitarist Paul Rains. Elizabeth again, I wanted to write another duet, but the only problem with doing that is that when you play live it's very rare that the person you recorded it with can be there. So I thought it would be great to write a song with Paul singing the other part. Another standout is the Twin Peaks-referencing Half-Heart Necklace, based on a true story from Elizabeth's hometown. There had been some murders, and this girl who was my age was missing and presumed killed. It turned out she had been hiding for years in her boyfriend's cupboard, and she was charged for wasting police time.
Other notable tracks include the rollicking Kings and Queens, inspired by a show they played in the USA with their friends and kindred spirits The Wave Pictures, and Romance and Adventure, originally earmarked for a film soundtrack and written in response to a challenge from Paul to write a pop song in a minor key. Allo Darlin' were formed by Elizabeth Morris, fellow Australian Bill Botting (bass), Paul Rains (guitar), and Michael Collins (drums).
Their debut album was named No. 2 record of the year by eMusic. Their second album 'Europe' scored 8.1 on Pitchfork, was made USA Today's Album Of The Week, and garnered praise from Uncut, Q, NME, The Quietus and The Guardian. It was named Rough Trade Shop's Album Of The Month and was their biggest selling album of the year. The band have been playlisted at BBC 6Music and have recorded many sessions for 6 Music & XFM, as well being Steve Lamacq's personal pick for BBC Introducing. Allo Darlin' have produced a wonderful record - thoughtful and exciting and exquisitely played ' that will please their existing army of fans and newcomers alike.
"Breezy rom-pop brilliance." 8/10, NME
Classic indie pop... doesn't rewrite the formula for wistful bedsit charm as much as show that it can still be carried out masterfully. Pitchfork
A masterclass of modern cult pop. The Guardian -
Visit product page →Transparent Green Vinyl with single sleeve second press available now.
Exclusive t-shirt design black with white logos front and back limited to 100.
Black Moth rose from the Leeds underground scene at the end of the last decade, indulging their love for both Sabbath sulphur and Stooges squalor.
Their debut 'The Killing Jar', which was released in 2012, was hailed by many as 'one of the best debut album's you'll hear all year' - it even made it onto Kerrang's top 50 albums of the year. Now with an expanded (guitar) lineup to expand the riffage comes the follow up, 'Condemned To Hope.'
Their long awaited second album, produced like their first by Jim Sclavunos (Grinderman, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Cramps) takes their kaleidoscopic heaviosity and sepulchral style to a whole new plateau of riff-driven dementia. A turbulent brew with just as much 60s garage rock bite, head-spinning psychedelia and '1991-The-Year-That-Punk-Broke' grit to offer as Vinum Sabbathi riffage. 'Condemned To Hope' is where Black Moth truly render themselves a glimmering presence in the firmament of 21st century rock. A band just as comfortable sharing the Temples festival bill with the likes of Electric Wizard and Neurosis as they are alongside Nick Cave, Iggy Pop and Deborah Harry on the forthcoming Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions album 'Axels And Sockets'.
As with all NHS releases the album package will be something very special, with some very special cover art.The one and only Roger Dean has created a brand new painting to adorn the cover of the album. Designer, architect and artist, his iconic work for Yes, Uriah Heep, Budgie, countless Vertigo sleeves and much more, has almost come to define 70's sleeve art. It's the Roger Dean you know and love, yet as you've never seen him before. -
Goat return with Commune, the eagerly awaited follow up to their astonishing debut album World Music. Commune continues on with World Music's acidic grooves, hypnotic incantations, and serpentine guitar lines but also introduces a darker, more angry edge to the band, not seen before on previous releases.Visit product page →
Starting with the layered percussive groove, Eastern guitar flourishes, and convoking vocals of Talk To God, it re-establishes the trance-inducing rhythms and exotic blaze of guitar that characterized their debut so well.
That spellbound pulse delves into darker and more propulsive territories on Words and Goatslaves, while Goatchild veers towards the transcendental pop of '60s Bay Area rock. The vintage psychedelic vibe permeates through songs like The Light Within and To Travel The Path Unknown'?tracks that suggest that these rural Swedes operate on the same wavelength as the Turkish psych-folkies recently rediscovered by reissue labels like Finders Keepers. Commune reaches its apex when Goat's hymnal invocations meet a heavy doze of proto-metal fuzz on Hide From The Sun and Gathering of Ancient Tribes.
Tracklisting:
1. Talk To God
2. Words
3. The Light Within
4. Travel The Path Unknown
5. Goatchild
6. Goatslaves
7. Hide From The Sun
8. Bondye
9. Gathering Of Ancient Tribes -
Visit product page →New Heavy Sounds gives you the self titled debut album from London Doom/Sludge monsters Limb. Limb have been a band to catch by those in the know on the Doom/Sludge scene since their formation in 2011.
The underground metal label 'Witch Hunter Records' was hooked enough to release the band's early demos, as well as a recent split EP with fellow sludge merchants Gurt, on which Limb cover and truly demolish Queen's 'Son and Daughter'.
They are also a crushing live outfit, that have shared stages around the country with bands like Conan, Witchsorrow and label-mates Black Moth and Throne. Championed by Metal Hammer, Terrorizer and the rest, 'Gift Of The Sun', Limb's first release for NHS, even made onto BBC radio and that perhaps highlights Limb's singular vision.
Their sound is shot through with an alternative twist on the Doom/Sludge theme. The record's dynamics and approach are akin to Slint in many ways, though post rock it most certainly isn't. It's deliberately stripped-down. Stark, bleak and visceral. As dark and menacing as Joy Division 'de-tuned', though post-punk it most certainly isn't.
There are moments of sleazy psychedelics, blasts of cosmic rock and brushes with hardcore. This is one heavy record. For this release we have some very special cover art, created by the super talented (and super hot) Richey Beckett, fresh from his work with Metallica and Mastodon.
It's pretty special: intricately detailed and darkly beautiful. The super deluxe vinyl edition will come in a gatefold sleeve, with a heavyweight 180g, green and black vinyl record, plus an insert of the cover art and a free download of the whole album.
Vinyl is limited to just 300 copies. -
Visit product page →Hailing from Pity Me near Durham, vegan straight-edge pop group MARTHA have just signed to Fortuna POP! and will be releasing their new album 'Courting Strong' at the end of May. Providing energetic, impassioned pop punk, Martha are informed by 90s indie rock and Scandinavian anarcho noir. The album, produced by MJ from Hookworms, is laden with harmonies and interchangeable vocals whilst still retaining the energy and excitement of the band's live shows.
Formed in 2011 by siblings Naomi (bass, vocals) and Nathan Griffin (drums, vocals) with J. Cairns (guitar, vocals) and Daniel Ellis (guitar, vocals), Martha have fast become a staple of the UK DIY pop scene. There are many competing stories as to the origin of their band name but it's a fact that the very last passenger pigeon on earth was called Martha. When she died, the whole species became extinct.
Decamping from the North East to record the album at Suburban Home Studios, Leeds, the band enjoyed the freedom of being in the studio and experimenting with MJ's equipment to produce unexpected sounds. The process saw them opening up to new ideas and, feeling more confident in their own abilities, allowing a wider range of dynamics.
Taken from a line in the song Gin and Listerine, the album title Courting Strong is an expression that was used to describe couples who were getting really serious. There's the old cliché that when you're young you think you're invincible and that everything will last forever - the album is about looking back and reflecting on past moments in your life, past friendships and relationships, accepting the uncertainty and fragility of those things and moving forward positively.
The overarching theme of the album is 'growing up weird'. It's a semi-autobiographical story about growing up in a small town, with a sense of not fitting in but on the way finding people who share that feeling and forming really strong bonds. It's about clinging to a sense of belonging and about being proud of who you are and where you are from, as well as the community of which you are a part. It's an album for the people who stayed in their hometown, and for the people who still go back and visit.
Martha's melodic punk pop celebrates being an outsider whilst being part of a community. The album touches on uncertainty, fear and loneliness whilst exuding an effervescent sense of excitement and joy. There's darkness beneath the pop surface - but there are also songs about teenage antics, drinking, courting and having your heart broken ' everything a good indie record should have.
Tracklisting:
1. Cosmic Misery2. 1997, Passing in the Hallway3. Present, Tense4. Dust, Juice, Bones & Hair5. Bubble in My Bloodstream6. Move To Durham and Never Leave7. Gin and Listerine8. Sleeping Beauty9. 1967, I Miss You I'm Lonely10. So Sad (So Sad) -
Sold out2 track 12 with etched side.Visit product page →
Fizzy is a studio recording and was recorded in the summer of 2012 , 'Urine Mate' (welcome to the club) was recorded live at the German club Skalitzer Berlin August 24th 2013 featuring John Paul who does the introduction to the song . Anton Newcombe met the band online and as a fan of the band wanted to release a single on his label , 'Urine Mate' (welcome to the club) is an exclusive version of this track to this release, Fizzy can be found on the album Austerity Dogs released 2013 on Harbinger Sound.
Jason says 'Fizzy' was inspired by the many thousands of psychopathic managers and supervisors that terrorise low paid workers throughout the world on a daily basis. I've modelled this song on one cunt in particular but it is by no means an isolated experience. As for 'Urine Mate' (welcome to the club) Jason comments describes in detail Nottingham's Mansfield Road.
A haven for the actual results of modern England. Destitute, full of characters and betting shop drug traders. -
Visit product page →Available on 180grm translucent & opaque coloured vinyl 2LP and CD.
Revelation is the first album that was fully recorded & produced at Anton's recording studio in Berlin . It is the 14th full length release from the Brian Jonestown Massacre recorded from late 2012 to early 2014, with Anton Newcombe refining the 13 tracks that appear on the album.
Featuring appearances from: Ricky Maymi (an original member of the band), Joachim Alhund (Les Big Byrd), Constatine Karlis (Dimmer), Ryan Van Kriedt (Asteroid #4) as well as a vocal performance in Swedish by Joachim Alhund (Les Big Byrds) on the opening track.This album brings the traditional Brian Jonestown Massacre sound mixed with eastern influences & bringing it up to date with the benefit of all the additional weirdness that's been discovered in the past 40 years.
Two dozen band members later and numerous ups and downs (some have been famously sensationalized in the media ), the one thing that has always remained consistent for this psychedelic collective, is front man Mr. Anton Alfred Newcombe.Tracklisting:
1. Vad Hände Med Dem? Â
2. What You Isn'tÂ
3. Unknown
4. Memory Camp
5. days, weeks and moths
6. Duck and Cover
7. Food For CloudsÂ
8. Second Sighting
9. Memorymix
10. Fist Full Of BeesÂ
11. Nightbird
12. Xibalba  Â
13. Goodbye (Butterfly) -
Visit product page →The long awaited second album New Gods by WITHERED HAND (aka Edinburgh based folk-rock troubadour Dan Willson) will be released in March via Fortuna POP! (UK/Europe) and Slumberland (US/Canada).
The eleven meditations on love, fidelity and transience therein see Willson's songwriting hit dizzying heights: by turns confessional and melancholy, raucous and life-affirming; his trademark dark humour turned down a wee notch; life, in all its many facets, turned up to full.Active in the world of visual art and dabbling in music for many years, Dan Willson came late to singing and songwriting at age 30, in a period of reflection between the death of a close friend and the birth of his first child. The resultant material, much of which went on to become the album Good News, was praised for its depth and startling honesty, and won him accolades from the likes of Rolling Stone and Mojo, as well as fans from Jarvis Cocker to Marc Riley.
The ensuing years saw him embraced by the now defunct Fife-based musical powerhouse the Fence Collective and his songs picked up by MTV and cult series Skins.A prolific live performer, recent Withered Hand shows have included Pam Berry of seminal 90s US noisepop band Black Tambourine (who also contributes vocals to the new album) amid a rotating cast of musical friends embellishing Dan's exuberant and original songwriting, alongside his fragile and uplifting solo performances.Aided by a grant from arts council body Creative Scotland, New Gods saw Withered Hand entering a proper studio for the first time to work with legendary Scottish producer Tony Doogan (Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Mountain Goats, Teenage Fanclub), and features guest appearances from a veritable who's who of Scottish music including King Creosote, Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines, and members of Belle & Sebastian (Stevie Jackson, Chris Geddes) and Frightened Rabbit (Scott Hutchison).Across the eleven songs on New Gods, Willson deals with the big stuff: love, death, friendship, infidelity, road trips, stargazing and cough mixture abuse. First single proper, the magnificent 'Horseshoe', kicks off proceedings with its plaintive entreaty Please don't put a shadow on her lung. Love and the fear of loss is the theme here. Nobody you love will ever die, sings Dan.
It's followed by the album taster track 'Black Tambourine', the purest pop song on the album, an anti-hipster anthem that jangles in all the right places. 'King Of Hollywood' details a night in LA with Willson's friend and mentor King Creosote, Willson's keen eye for detail as hilarious as ever, while title track 'New Gods' sees him transported to Switzerland, cutting across the fields at night and staring up at the Milky Way, like a huge ribbon across the sky, infinitely beautiful and humbling.
This is widescreen pop music par excellence.The five years since Good News was recorded has seen Willson honing his craft, building his audience and gaining critical momentum. The new album is a beautifully executed collection of songs from one of Scotland's most gifted songwriters.
1. Horseshoe
2. Black Tambourine
3. Love Over Desire
4. King Of Hollywood
5. California
6. Fall Apart
7. Between True Love And Ruin
8. Life Of Doubt
9. New Gods
10. Heart Heart
11. Not Alone
