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In addition to Hanoi Rocks, Finnish rock legend Sami Yaffa, is known from his work with Michael Monroe’s band, Demolition 23, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts and New York Dolls. Sami released his first solo album, The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind, in autumn 2021. Praised by the music press worldwide, the album also won the Emma ( Finland’s version of Grammys) nomination for the rock album of the year. Yaffa's second solo album, the mysteriously named Satan's Helpers War Lazer Eyes and The Money Pig Circus, will be released on Friday, March 8 by Livewire/Cargo.Visit product page →
"My first solo album, The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind, was so well received that I simply decided to make another one. The recordings have taken a couple of years and took place in Finland, Sweden and Spain. In addition to myself, I have my touring band playing on this one, which includes guitarist Linde Lindström and keyboardist Burton of the band HIM, and my childhood friend, drum and percussion maestro Janne Haavisto, who also played drums on the previous album as well. Those guys became my permanent band, and with this line-up we got down to business. The songs on the album reflect the chaotic world we live in, my own personal strange experiences, and the sordid true stories of the past," says Yaffa.
The producer of the album is Yaffa himself, together with Erno Laitinen, who was also was the engineer on the debut record. Yaffa also got several familiar guests to join the recordings.
"I got some of my good old pals with me again, whose musical talents I admire enormously. I got Michael Monroe, Nasty Suicide, Dregen, Steve Conte, and Rich Jones to kick arse on the album. Rich Jones is also responsible for the album's wonderful cover art. Making this album was just as great a joy to make, as the previous one. I hope it will carry on to the listeners as well," Yaffa continues.
Tracklisting:
1. Satan’s Helpers War Lazer Eyes & The Money Pig Circus
2. Silver Or Lead
3. Hurricane Hank
4. Death Squad
5. Down Home
6. Shitshow
7. Crashing Down
8. Chemical Life
9. Far Star
10. Faster Than Time -
Sold out'3rd album from Manc indie-rockers is a twin-guitared lockdown diary tunefest'Visit product page →
Produced by Simon ‘Ding’ Archer (PJ Harvey, The Pixies, The Fall) at 6db studios in Salford, the album title seems to refer to the lockdown period in one sense, a document of that time, but as frontman Tom Long elaborates: “It also harks back to pre-lockdown, when there was actually a possibility of some change on offer. Unfortunately we’re forbidden from talking about that. There were solutions to many of the problems we face now, but that dream was crushed, never to be spoken of again”. Manchester indie-rockers Easter have built a reputation as one of the city’s best-kept secrets. Spurred along by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tom Long with a rotating cast of Manc-underground shredders, they’re a formidable live act who’ve toured the UK repeatedly and provided support for post-rock behemoths Mono, avant-rockers Ranga and Mugstar but also poppier acts such as Canadian shoe-gazers Tallies.
However, for all of Manchester’s illustrious musical history, it’s hard to bring to mind a local act that they compare or aspire to. Instead Easter’s binoculars are fixed on the fuzzy indie-rock of Dinosaur Jr , Guided By Voices and Teenage Fanclub with added twin-guitar weaving recalling the articulate jams of Television, Chris Forsyth and even Wishbone Ash. Only in Tom’s vocals are there occasional hints of their surroundings with echoes of the Mozza and a few junctions away across the M62, Dave Gedge.
They’ve found admirers in Huw Stephens and Tom Ravenscroft at 6Music and garnered praise from Uncut, Record Collector and NYC’s The Big Takeover while building a loyal fanbase across the UK.
“A welcome throwback to the wry, self-lacerating alt.rock of the early 90s” Uncut
“Astonishing” Record Collector
“Lovely bit of noise” Tom Ravenscroft BBC 6 Music
“It devilishly combines a banged acoustic with spiky electric, like Bevis Frond covering A Catholic Education by Teenage Fanclub. If this is “Hell,” give us more!” Big Takeover
Easter are:
Tom Long - Vocals/Guitar
Gavin Clarke Guitar
Paul Flieshman - Drums/Backing Vocals
Graham Blyth – Bass -
Heavee is a Queer Chicagoan DJ & producer with a long history in footwork. His 2022 'Audio Assault' EP on Hyperdub showcased synth-driven, melodic footwork, but ‘Unleash’ goes much further into audio world-building, with a fresh, spongy and citrus-y sound palette and rich, bright chord sequences.Visit product page →
It's minimal, airy, balancing light and dark, sometimes breezy and sometimes clinical. Heavee works simultaneously outside and inside the box, rebuilding footwork's framework and vibe to his own unique specification. Rhythmically, it's dance floor ready, using footwork's 160 template as a springboard for building new drum sounds to express these rhythms, and draws from R&B, rap, jazz and grime, with a sprinkling of bitter-sweet vintage Detroit techno.
‘Unleash’ takes footwork’s “eats all” approach to music and leads it in a fresh direction with a freedom of spirit. It's a strong addition to the footwork cannon and shows that experiments in dance music can be fun.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. StarSeeker
2. Unlock
3. SearchN 4 ft Babii
4. Bang Bang
5. Can U Feel It
6. Bounce Dat ft PayPal & DanTOG
Side B
7. Unleash
8. See the Sun
9. Whiplash
10. Sumthin Different
11. Heart Fragments
12. Work Me
13. Make it Work
14. Smoke Break ft Homesiick & Takuya Nakamura -
Visit product page →“But into my miserable brain, always concerned with looking for noon at two o’clock"
- Charles Baudelaire (1869)
The Foreign Department is the second album by Astrel K, the solo project helmed by Stockholm-based British ex-pat, Rhys Edwards. Those already familiar with Edwards’ work will likely know him for fronting the cultishly great Ulrika Spacek, and given he operates as the principal songwriter in both projects, much of the same hallmarks of his cathartic, elliptical songwriting are present in Astrel K. Nonetheless, The Foreign Department feels like a rubicon moment of sorts, and the album that Edwards has unconsciously been working towards his entire creative life.As a title, The Foreign Department offers an instructive guide for the listener, framing a life-in-transition/artist-in-exile document that maps two impromptu moves in twelve months for its songwriter: the first from London in pursuit of a relationship, the second between homes in Stockholm as that decade long relationship then suddenly dissolved.
Indeed, diffusion, dissolution and reconstitution feel like appropriate touchstones for its recurring themes. Written amidst the flux of two states, at once isolated from home and then any established emotional anchor, the resulting eleven tracks came to represent a precognitive search for shifting identity and with it forming an unwittingly biographical record. It's commendable and somewhat telling that during this shake up, Edwards somehow landed upon his most realised and original work.With a former life stripped away, there emerged an opportunity to reinvent a sense of self through art, now not just as a writer, but a composer also. Developing the confidence to arrange songs in ways he'd previously considered off-limits, while also taking cues from the opulent string and brass arrangements of records like Mercury Rev's Deserters' Songs and Death of A Ladies Man by Leonard Cohen, Edwards enlisted a range of performers to bring to life the mini-symphonies forming in his head. Perhaps it's inevitable that an album written while facing the consequences of being alone would eventually ossify around the process of bringing people together.
For all its troubled origins, The Foreign Department is a remarkably warm sounding collection. Edwards' lyrics are typically knotty and neurotic, dancing around the poetry of quarter-life anxiety, but the music itself is often joyous and even uplifting, the combination expressing that neat duality of melancholic euphoria.
Lead single, 'Darkness At Noon', likely captures this all best. Named for the French idiom "midi a quatorze heures", the maddening idea of attempting the impossible for the sake of some greater possibly pointless cause, it directly grapples with the opposing notions of wanting and not wanting, of being here and being there at the same time. The conflicting and impossible self. It’s something Edwards addresses in the song at perhaps his most open, opining, “I know I want to be seen, but I hate most of what comes out of me”. And yet here is, putting it all out in the open and on the line, the dialectics of his enlightenment up on show.
Edwards sings variously of crises, "torrid pieces of art", of "houses on fire" and not "having the guts for it", yet these troubling sentiments are framed by seemingly incongruous swelling strings, chirping horns or motorik percussion, creating that sense of pushing forward or floating above, of wrapping your troubles in dreams, a salve for the moments when you get a bit too much for yourself.
Tracklisting:
1. Heavy Is the Head
2. Darkness At Noon
3. By Depol
4. Brighter Spells
5. Firma
6. Birds In Vacant Lots
7. The Foreign Department
8. C Ya!
9. A Rudderless Ship
10. Daffodil
11. R U A Literal Child? -
The cinema of the scenes as told from the heart and spirit of the omniscient narrator shines through the awe-inspiring oeuvre of Glenn Donaldson's canonical titan that is The Reds, Pinks & Purples. The storied and esoteric histories of every underserved underdog becomes immortalized in records and poignantly penned paeans that evoke the eras and underachievers that became synonymous with their own respective corresponding localized micro-movements.Visit product page →
Donaldson channels that psychic spirit and journeyman earned wisdom to provide contemporary era rock operas that eulogize tales of infinitely influential rises and falls. Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — the latest sortie of the sensational and spectacular takes aim at the threads of hope and an untethered abandon into the intimacy and dualities of idolatry and isolation with Unwishing Well.
Ever since its emergence from the harried late 2010s — The Reds, Pinks & Purples have become the absolute encapsulation of Donaldson's own proliferation and prestige. From a musical legacy that chronicles a long list of minor successes and major tragedies; Glenn distills the timelines of distinction from yesterday, today, tomorrow and whatever may be into a musical phenomenon that embodies something more than all of its analogous inspirations.
Beyond the clamor about the retro cult pop artistic allusions and tropes that can be found in those spirit expanding kaleidoscope chord chimes; Donaldson takes you on a guided tour through the San Francisco underground movements that would have been, could have been or perhaps never were at all from the start. The Reds, Pinks & Purples’ coveted catalog inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously, offers an authorized and anonymous history of imperfect and ambitious debutantes, dilettantes, auteurs, et al.
The lauded visionaries whose volition informed the big money touring stage headliners, but only enjoyed a fleeting jaunt through the glorious corporate clad carnival canopies from the touring circuit routes and tech funded festival tent tabernacles. Unwishing Well is a eulogy for the buzz bands that crashed, the wily one hit wizards, and omnipresent (and often uninspired) eternal aesthetes who work the lucrative outlets of licensing media markets.
Glenn pulls no punches with the promiscuity of the pop machines and their exploited propped up brand ambassadors on the cutting "Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit" that tangles with the lumbering and inescapable creatives and careerist trajectories that trade in boardroom playbooks and verticals. Expressions and influencers break out into the collective commissaries of commerce exhibitionism on “Public Art”, to auditing the forums of fandom that pertain to developed affinities and the roads to rabid infatuation with the obsessive in earnest, “Learning to Love a Band”.
And while the Glenn spins many yarns on the under-appreciated secret histories of DIY, Unwishing Well offers cathartic hymns of modern malaise. Sighing in lamentation of regressive trends, “What’s Going on with Ordinary People'' balks with concern over contemporary states of devolution, while “Faith in Daydreaming Youth” questions what vestiges of hope and valor can be found in the new vanguards of political bodies that govern the world’s sovereign daydream nations.
The dustbins of dastardly discontinuity are imbued with desire and grief on the dramatist tragedy of “Dead Stars in Your Eyes”, to basking in the discarded ditches of the damned below in voids of obscurity on “Nothing Between the Lines at All”. The human addiction to languishing in anguish, misery and negativity tussles, tosses and turns on “We Only Hear the Bad Things People Say”, the penultimate ode to inherent human infallibility as Donaldson rides the audience out into the gilded sunset glow of “Goodbye Bobby”.
The central set piece of Unwishing Well revolves around the title track that wrestles with wellness and wishes tempered by the sobering reality of ultra pragmatic skepticism. Donaldson shows the audience where the dream falls short, an indictment on the fickleness of wants and the life/work/art balances of making it all work. It's the group that never makes it, the idea that never gets off the ground, the recognition that never arrives, the raise that is never awarded, nor the promotion to the next ladder rung that remains laughably inaccessible. Glenn has the gift of bridging the divide between the hunger artist, their adoring cult public and the common threads that connect these local and global communities through the humanist cause of collective commiseration.
As increasingly found in the continued adventures of The Reds, Pinks and Purples canon — Glenn circles the drain of surrendering to unabashed sentimentality in passions worthy of being showcased as the top headlining spot that your favorite revered then later reviled pop act never even had the chance to claim or ascend. Unwishing Well uplifts and uproots the undercurrents that carry the commonalities between the spectators and the spectacles. Donaldson pays homage in heart to everything and everyone that never got their due or to the lucky ones that made the grade, but paid an ultimate price.
The cycle of these pop vignettes depict successes and failures in the same sentences, existing within the same stanzas, where the stories of making it and breaking it operate as events that live on different sides of the same coin. Unwishing Well is a reflection of us, the icons we adore, the Adonises we worship, the false prophets that proselytize the edicts from theses cults of personality, the fallouts, the third acts and the artistic fabrics that spool these sub-sects of artful dodgers into the stuff of legend.
Tracklisting:
1. What’s Going on with Ordinary people
2. Learning to Love a Band
3. Unwishing Well
4. Faith in Daydreaming Youth
5. Your Worst Song is Your Greatest Hit
6. Dead Stars in your Eyes
7. Nothing Between the Lines at all
8. Public Art
9. We Only Hear the Bad Things People Say
10. Goodbye Bobby -
Recalibrating her singular journey in the British musical landscape with her most open-hearted, direct and intimate collection of material yet. Love In Constant Spectacle evokes spectacular imagery and distills the artists’ vision in its purest form, elevating her inimitable sound and poetic vision to new heights.Visit product page →
Recapturing the melancholy of her early work whilst propelling it forward, she sketches scenes as we watch new colours, shapes and languages emerge and fill the frame. Love In Constant Spectacle sees her take measured steps towards a vivid, dreamlike record, that offers resolve in the face of life’s inevitability.
The foundations of Weaver’s sound are still evident – lush motorik drums, pulsating bass, custom modded synths and exotic fuzz pedals - but the stream is awash with scrabble piece poetry and Letraset lullabies leading to lush escapism, the free abandon that you’d associate with free jazz and the avant-garde.
But, as determined and visionary as Weaver might be, Love In Constant Spectacle wasn’t executed without assistance. Here we find a long mooted unison with Jane’s first ever producer, John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding), who has shared Weaver’s process in the surrounds of Rockfield Studios and Geoff Barrow’s Invada studio.
Love In Constant Spectacle is otherworldly, it is both intimate yet distant, a surrealist interpretation of the foundations that make us human – the stories and landscapes it paints are habitats of their own. A voyage into undisclosed pastures, it’s a heartfelt manifesto from an artist that continues to boundlessly evolve with each chapter in her career.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Perfect Storm
2. Emotional Components
3. Love in Constant Spectacle -
4. Motif
5. The Axis and The Seed
Side B
6. Is Metal
7. Happiness in Proximity
8. Romantic Worlds
9. Univers
10. Family of the Sun -
More Than Words Can Tell is the new duets album from Victoria Liedtke and Jason Ringenberg. The project sees the duo deep dive into the early songwriting partnership of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner, cherry-picking musical gems and little heard tracks from their expansive back catalogue.Visit product page →
Coined the “Godfather of Americana” by Mojo magazine, the former Jason and The Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg was awarded a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance’ by the Americana Music Association in 2009 and was intrigued when Liedtke approached him with the project idea.
As Ringenberg states, “When Victoria contacted me about being the ‘Porter’ in this project, I was super excited. The Dolly-Porter duets are some of the finest duets ever recorded in country music history. I am a huge fan of them. Once we dove into the project, I was supremely impressed by the production ethic and creative ambition that Victoria brought to the table. She didn’t slavishly copy the originals. In fact, she and her team created entirely new interpretations of those classic songs.”
Victoria and Jason recorded the album at Vale Studios in Worcester, UK in the Summer of 2022 with a predominantly UK based band. The band features CJ Hillman on electric guitar and slide guitar (Billy Bragg/Yola), John Parker on double bass (Nizlopi), Lewis ‘Burner’ Pugh on acoustic guitar and Tim Protey-Jones on drums (First Time Flyers) as well as a plethora of guest musicians throughout.
Originally from Oklahoma, Victoria moved to the UK eight years ago and now resides in the Yorkshire Dales.
“What made this project so fun was being able to bring together these incredible UK musicians that come from the worlds of Americana, Country, Folk and Pop and inject these 50 year old classic American country songs into this musical melting pot.”
Liedtke continues "Both Jason and I don’t traditionally sit in that world either, so all of that combined has resulted in a colourful and beautiful collection of songs.”
The album was produced By Victoria Liedtke, co-produced by Elliot Vaughan and mixed by Liedtke & Vaughan.
Tracklisting:
1. Life Rides The Train
2. More Than Words Can Tell
3. Sounds of Nature
4. Carolina Moonshiner
5. The Fire That Keeps You Warm
6. Come to Me
7. The Pain of Loving You
8. The Last Thing On My Mind
9. Beneath The Sweet Magnolia Tree
10. You
11. Tomorrow is Forever -
Visit product page →EYE – the new band from Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard (MWWB) singer-songwriter/musician Jessica Ball – has announced the arrival of their eagerly awaited debut album, 'Dark Light’.
Triggered in part by the existential dread looming outside as well as the sudden ill health of her dear friend, MWWB guitarist Paul “Dave” Davies, then fighting for life after a Covid-related stroke. Ball took the opportunity to compose songs that were all her own – nuanced, lyrical, and hypnotically distinctive.
Having earned a fervent fan following with MWWB, Eye are a different proposition, though no less compelling. Traversing a diverse spectrum of dark folk, dreampop, IDM and psychedelic doom, to create sometimes heavy and foreboding drones, alongside spare but still richly textured sonics.
‘Dark Light’ is an intensely atmospheric fusion of emotionally charged songcraft and inspired sonic energy. The clue is in the album's paradoxical title. Chilling and even bleak melodies with arrangements daringly and deliberately stripped down and minimal. Revealing a kinship with sonic bed-fellows Mazzy Star, Chelsea Wolfe or even Portishead.
So, whilst not strictly speaking ‘Doom’ or ‘Metal’ fans of Jessica’s previous work with MWWB will not be disappointed. Along with producer Chris Fielding (MWWB, Conan) EYE have produced something otherworldly, which is at times heavy and epic, yet still deeply intimate and dark.
A striking debut.
Tracklisting:
1. Window
2. Dark Light
3. The Other Sees
4. In Your Night
5. In The Sun Eternally
6. Respair
7. Out Of Sight
8. Stillness
9. See Yourself
10. Rescue You -
Release Date: 10/05/2024Visit product page →
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut live double album, Fu Manchu is releasing the first ever repress of Go For It…Live!, which has been out of print since the original pressing.
The 22 song release was recorded on the band’s 2002 California Crossing World Tour, which marked the debut of drummer Scott Reeder. Fu Manchu is renowned for their live performances and this set doesn’t disappoint, with incendiary renditions of fan favorites such as: “Hell On Wheels,” “Mongoose,” “King Of The Road,” “Evil Eye” and their always requested cover of “Godzilla.”
As AllMusic.com said, “Go for It...Live! is an absolute must for those enamored by Fu Manchu's buzzy sound, and a great introduction for those curious about a band woefully ignored by radio stations and video channels.”
This limited edition vinyl run of 2000 units has one LP pressed on Neon Yellow and the other on Neon Orange vinyl and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with brand new artwork including never before seen photos of the band and flyers from the associated tour along with printed dust sleeves with additional new images.
This new pressing has been specifically remastered for vinyl by Carl Saff for optimum fidelity.
The limited edition 1000 unit CD run also features the updated art and a digital specific remaster.
Tracklisting:
LP 1
1. Hell On Wheels
2. Laserbl’ast!
3. Asphalt Risin’
4. Mongoose
5. Downtown In Dogtown
6. Boogie Van
7. Tilt
8. Ojo Rojo
9. Strato-Streak
10. King Of The Road
11. Anodizer
LP 2
1. Evil Eye
2. Hang On
3. Wurkin’
4. California Crossing
5. Over The Edge
6. Regal Begal
7. Godzilla
8. Superbird
9. Weird Beard
10. Squash That Fly
11. Saturn III -
Release Date: 24/05/2024Visit product page →
British four-piece rock band Collateral are set to release their highly anticipated sophomore album Should’ve Known Better on May 24, 2024. The album is distributed worldwide by Cargo. The album will be released on CD, red vinyl, picture disc, limited edition cassette, and digital. Friday February 9th will see the release of the lead single “Glass Sky.”.
The new single “Glass Sky” and the forthcoming album Should’ve Known Better is produced by Dan Weller (Those Damn Crows, Enter Shikari, Monster Truck, Kris Barras, Holding Absence, Bury Tomorrow).
"I love massive riffs, massive hooks and feel-good guitar music,” says Weller. “When Collateral sent me their demos, I jumped at chance to produce their new record. I’m proud of what we managed to create. It’s Collateral mk2 - ambitious, daring and refined. I can’t wait for people to hear it."
Since the band released their debut album (Top 5 UK Rock Album Chart) at the start of 2020 Collateral have spent no time standing still. Covid came only weeks after the debut album was released and forced the band to cancel their highly successful tour with Phil X (Bon Jovi) halfway through. This made the band hungry to keep the momentum. With innovative ways to produce top quality live streams, the band became special guests supporting the likes of Skid Row, H.E.A.T and Reckless Love.
The exciting and flamboyant Kent-based rock and roll band are comprised of Angelo Tristan (lead vocals, guitar), Louis Malagodi (guitar), Jack Bentley-Smith (bass) and Ben Atkinson (drums).
On October 21, 2022, Collateral independently released a re-mixed and re-mastered version of their debut album “Re-Wired” which featured Jeff Scott Soto, Phil X, Kee Marcello, Rudy Sarzo, Danny Vaughn, and Joel Hoekstra. The re-release saw the band in the Official UK Rock Charts at #12.
After the gruelling back-to-back tours with Skid Row, H.E.A.T and Reckless Love, the band ignited a spark and strengthened their already loyal fanbase leading them to win the opening slot at 2023s Stonedead Festival, leading the band to perform their biggest show.
Collateral’s hotly tipped sophomore album looks like it will take them to the next level. A lot of people don’t know what to expect from the new album, as the band have been tight-lipped about the new songs. Collateral have created a state-of-the-art rock album that will immerse listeners in their rock music universe, enabling fans to feel the blood, sweat and glory that went into the recording of every song.
“We felt that our debut album was lacking the production,” reflects Collateral’s frontman, Angelo Tristan. “For the sophomore album, I wanted to make sure that this time we left no room for error and so got one of the hottest producers in the music industry, Dan Weller, to help lift these songs into a new dimension. With Dan’s pioneering studio expertise, this album has massive production quality that enables you to get lost in each character-filled track. Dan really brought out the emotions we were trying to portray and has achieved it with his own unique style.”
“We wanted this album to express where we were in our own lives since the release of our first. So much has happened since then, I mean the world shut down for what felt like a lifetime! And it was obvious that people were going to need some sort of optimism. I hope ‘Glass Sky’ is one of those songs that gives people the belief to find themselves again.”
“Whereas, the feel-good ‘Just One Of Those Days’ is trying to find the good side of a bad day. Me being me, couldn’t help but to write a big power ballad, ‘The Long Road’, that I wrote from a very hard and deep place, in hope that it could maybe bring some peace and comfort to people who need it. I think there’s all aspects of life running though this album and what it means to us will remain in our hearts forever.”
“Should’ve Known Better” is an album that goes beyond specific music genres,” says Angelo. “It’s almost like a soundtrack to a beating heart. It’s an album that will remain timeless in years to come.”
Tracklisting:
1. Glass Sky
2. Original Criminal
3. One Of Those Days
4. Teenage Dreams
5. Elysium
6. On The Long Road
7. No Place For Love
8. Game Changer
9. Final Stand -
"To Bare the Weight of Death," the upcoming release from the UK black metal band ANDRACCA, is a deep and introspective album that delves into themes of grief, despair, and the acceptance of mortality.Visit product page →
Across six tracks, the album recounts a journey from the depths of sorrow to a reconciliation with death, both in its physical and metaphysical forms. The album is characterized by its honest and emotive expression, capturing the varying stages of grief, from intense despair to the eventual life-affirming acceptance of death. Each track reflects on the band's personal experiences and struggles with loss, offering listeners an immersive and cathartic journey.
Described as a unification of life and death, the album is a triumph of resilience and will, inviting listeners to embrace their own lives with renewed vigor. ANDRACCA's "To Bare the Weight of Death" resonates with fans of 2nd wave black metal, showcasing their dedication to the genre while exploring profound existential themes.
Tracklisting:
1. To Bear the Weight of Death
2. Rise, or be Forever Fall'n
3. Oceans of Fire
4. Antithesis of Hope
5. Lamentation of Divinity
6. Hollow Altars -
‘And Also The Trees’ compelling new album, ‘Mother-of-Pearl Moon’, was born from a series of extraordinary electric guitar improvisations created by guitarist Justin Jones in the pre- and postdawn hours during a month of solitude in 2020.Visit product page →
Each piece then developed in its own way - the guitar, often left in its raw, unaltered form, is accompanied by the voice of his brother Simon, bringing imagery and narrative, Colin Ozanne’s clarinet and piano adding poise, colour and harmony, Paul Hill’s percussion creating depth… on occasion an autoharp, a Moog… all leading the listener from the depths of the English countryside far out in all directions of the compass.
The music is often filmic, reminiscent of various film genres from the ‘50s to the ‘70s. This is most apparent in ‘This path through the meadow’, a song that explores the intertwining of human nature and nature in its animal and botanic form, and in its video where the band appear to be performing to an imaginary screening.
Elsewhere, the album title track transports the listener across the oceans to the Far East...and to its exotic gardens, still waters and the ‘Mother-of-pearl moon’.
And Also The Trees (AATT) formed during the original post-punk era in rural Worcestershire, an environment that has provided a constant inspiration to a group whose music has often explored the dark underbelly as well as the beauty of the British countryside.
They are renowned for their captivating live performances, a unique style of mandolin-like electric guitar, evocative lyrics and dark jazz rhythms - not to mention a creative independence fiercely preserved for over four decades.
Founded by singer Simon Jones and his guitarist brother Justin, AATT have maintained a continuous presence on the post-punk, alternative rock and Gothic scenes worldwide. They have released fifteen studio albums.
Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. The Whaler
3. Town Square
4. Mother-of-Pearl Moon
5. This Path Through The Meadow
6. Valdrada
7. No Mountains, No Horizon
8. Visions of a Stray
9. Field After Field
10. Ypsilon
11. Away From Me -
Phil Odgers, well known as singer/songwriter with UK folk rebels The Men They Couldn’t Hang release this epic 5 Track EP to coincide with his UK tour in April 2018.Visit product page →
The title track ‘Mist On The Water’ is taken from his award-winning Vinyl Star Records album ‘Roll To The Left’ and features a stunning string arrangement by Pete Whitfield who’s worked with the likes of Paul Heaton, Ruts D.C. and Tom Jones.
Next up are 4 previously unreleased tracks - the autobiographic skiffle-a-billy road story ‘New Song Blues’ which starts off in ‘Swill’s’ home town of Oban in Scotland then jumps in a Vauxhall Victor and drives all the way to Broadcasting House in London for the John Peel show …namechecking Elvis, Hank Williams Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, The Jam and The Clash along the way!
Phil recorded ‘The Last Bird Has Flown’ using the actual Black Martin guitar previously owned by Johnny Cash and used during the American recordings in the 90’s.
This is followed by the bouncy ‘Cajun Instrumental’ – a track destined for great things as a piece of music for radio DJ’s to talk over in excited tones. Last, but not least, is a live version of ‘Mist On The Water’ recorded at the coveted Green Note in London’s Parkway on 14th September 2017. Nice!
Tracklisting:
1. Mist On The Water
2. New Song Blues
3. The Last Bird Has Flown
4. Cajun Instrumental
5. Mist On The Water (Live at Green Note) -
Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers is well known as one half of the legendary joint vocal strike force of UK folk rebel rockers The Men They Couldn’t Hang. He is also a formidable solo artist in his own right.Visit product page →
Audiences around the world from Cairo to Reykjavik, Brisbane to Tokyo and Berlin to London have submitted to his effervescent and heartfelt vocal style in stadium, theatre, hall and after hours lock in. Since his highly acclaimed solo album The Godforsaken Voyage (2013) and between raising hell with The Men They Couldn’t Hang (and recording The Defiant in 2014), a hugely successful Pledge campaign and writing a plethora of new songs for his next album Mr Odgers has found the time to put together a side project of cover songs with a special meaning.
A Fistful of Covers! For the last few years at TMTCH gigs there is often a point midday through the set where Swill (or Cush) will remain on stage and sing a couple of songs while the rest of the gang take a break to freshen up, recharge their drinks or wipe down the sweat from the gigs excesses. “I have a growing hoard of songs that I like to pick out and play in these ‘acoustic sections’. I’ll strum my guitar and what comes out will depend on the mood of the night and is often not what I had planned when I walked on to the stage”.
This album brings together a bunch of songs that Odgers has grabbed and made his own. These are his interpretations of other peoples hangovers, heartbreak and hopelessness. He can relate to them all - he’s lived hard (The Men have a reputation to uphold).
These are songs that, at one time or another, he’s played during the ‘acoustic section’ of The Men They Couldn’t Hang shows or have been carefully placed alongside his own material during solo gigs or impromptu busking sessions. They’re in his gig bag.
Some have been strummed in Canadian Clubs or beside African lakes, some on Scottish hills or in Irish back rooms. All have been played at many gatherings and family occasions and all take on new meaning within this album.
Tracklisting:
1. Sunday Morning Coming Down
2. You Win Again
3. I'm a Lonesome Fugitive
4. Sunset Of My Tears
5. Fools
6. Christmas in Prison
7. Bottom of the World
8. Lost Highway
9. Roving Gambler
10. Big Brother John
11. The Parting Glass -
GHOSTS OF ROCK N ROLL’ is the fifth solo album from Men They Couldn’t Hang frontman Phil Odgers and is preceded by the digital single ‘The Serpent, The Maiden and The Bear’ (30th July). Beginning as a collection of ukulele led demos, ‘GHOSTS OF ROCK N ROLL’ has endured a stormy birth and its final emergence represents the triumph of resilience over adversity.Visit product page →
Originally launched as a Pledge Music crowdfunded campaign, the album was nearly strangled at birth by the collapse of Pledge Music in 2018 and the loss of the majority of fan investment. Despite this setback, all fan pledges were still fulfilled and the project relocated to Bandcamp just in time for the pandemic lockdown to prevent any further recording sessions with producer Jim Knight.
Finally, the album inched forward over the summer of 2020 only to crash into the second lockdown and then the tragic loss of fellow TMTCH frontman Stefan Cush in February 2021.
With such checkered history, ‘GHOSTS OF ROCK N ROLL’ seems an appropriate title and its combination of folky pop and melancholic twang, combined with an ethos of survival, memory and experience create a testament to a life spent sailing the sometimes treacherous waters of Rock and Roll.
The album features guest appearances by Sid Griffin and Bobby Valentino.
Tracklisting:
1. The Serpent, the Maiden and the Bear
2. Flower Lady
3. Brooklyn Bridge
4. The Last Thing on My Mind (Is Regret)
5. Ghost of Rock 'n' Roll
6. Early Morning Rain
7. The Desert Has a Thousand Eyes
8. Empty Streets and Lovers in the Rain
9. Uke Town
10. Rage Against the Machine -
Space Age Recordings are pleased to announce a 500 copy repress of Spacemen 3 live album “Threebie 3” on heavyweight yellow vinyl.Visit product page →
Originally released in 1989 and only available with a coupon contained in the Spacemen 3 classic "Playing With Fire", "Threebie 3" has become something of a collector's item.
Featuring four tracks from a live show at the Melkweg, Amsterdam from February 1988 and a studio version of "Live Intro Theme (Xtacy)". The tracks "Starship", "Revolution", "Suicide" and "Repeater" capture perfectly the spirit of the Spacemen 3 live experience.
The trademark drones and one chord barrages are tied together by a brooding sense of urgency and a near chaotic air of energy.
Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Starship (Live)
2. Revolution (Live)
3. Suicide (Live)
Side B
4. Repeater (Live)
5. Live Intro Theme (Xtacy) -
Visit product page →Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts is an American rock band from Nashville founded and fronted by former Biters leader Tuk Smith, originally from Atlanta, now living in Nashville. The band released their debut single "What Kinda Love" on January 10, 2020 and were also added as an opening act for The Stadium Tour with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe on the same day.
Then came the onset of Covid 19. “When the pandemic hit, it was like hitting the reset button on my music career” recalls Tuk, “everything got taken away…album campaign, stadium tour, record deal. The world was in lockdown, and the only way to escape was to throw myself into writing. My thoughts began exploring the past, and the inspiration for the songs just came in tidal waves.”
The new collection is a rock ‘n roll silver lining that came out of the solitude and reflection of the pandemic. Ballad Of A Misspent Youth is the new single (and subsequent album of the same name) released summer of 2022 on Tuk’s new record label MRG, through Virgin Music.
Tuk explains, “I decided to make a rock and roll record for me and what I like because there was no label, there was no committee involved…just me and my stories. I wanted to create a setting and an authentic feeling about everything. I reunited with long-time friend Dan Dixon and recorded these songs in his garage studio, and there is a purity to the work that came from all the circumstances of that time.”
Growing up as an outsider in rural Georgia, Tuk found solace in hardcore punk acts like Black Flag and The Exploited. From there, Smith branched out into exploring seventies New York bands like The Dead Boys and New York Dolls, which lead him across the sea where he embraced first-wave British acts like The Buzzcocks and the Clash. Smith wasn’t just a casual fan of these acts, he was obsessed with them and traced their lineage with fervent dedication. “I was always into the Clash growing up and Mick Jones’ favorite band was Mott The Hoople, so through the years I ended up developing a love of the first wave of British glam, power pop and things like that,” he explains.
Soon Smith was forming his own acts, touring relentlessly and building a following with his high-energy live shows, including his tour of duty as lead singer for the Biters, who he fronted for nearly a decade. He offers “Then after being on the road for years, I had a reckoning about where I was at and the future ahead. …I realized the only way to achieve something meaningful was to be a good songwriter…that clicked. I went on a musical diet where I stripped the obscure stuff away, and I really started focusing on the greats. When I started clicking that it was just about the songs, things changed. I had already put my 10,000 hours in the van to play in the dive clubs, but then I put my 10,000 hours into figuring out how to write. I also started working with other songwriters. I humbled myself… it was an education, like going to school.”
Tuk elaborates, “I wanted to kind of branch out musically and do different things, and I figured to go solo would be better. My manager actually suggested I call my new band “The Restless Hearts” and that's what he would call me all the time. It was the title of a Biters song that people loved and I’d seen a few restless hearts tattoos at our shows along the way… and so Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts was born. I was in a period where I changed everything including the way I lived my daily life. I experimented with different ways to tap into positive/creative energy…it was an evolving overall process (and still is).”
Tuk summarizes, “Things used to be about debauchery, and now they’re more about dedication. I mean, I was always driven, but I was sometimes focusing on the wrong things. Now I focus on the music and the craftsmanship of writing and producing and performing.“
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Limited edition coke bottle green vinyl comes with download code and poster. Black vinyl comes with a download code. CD is a digipak CD.Visit product page →
The sixth album from Still Corners is “Dream Talk”. Beautifully arranged, elegant and wistful, Dream Talks is a set of ten carefully crafted classic songs. From the autumnal opener "Today is the Day" to the hot summer night finale of "Turquoise Moon", Still Corners have created a sound that is focused, stylish and seductive.
Tessa Murray says, "The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember. While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on, the repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery."
Tracklisting:
1. Today is the Day
2. The Dream
3. Faded Love
4. What is Real
5. Lose More Slowly
6. Secret World
7. Let's Make Up
8. Crystal Blue
9. The Ship
10. Turquoise Moon
