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Sold outVisit product page →Sleaford Mods started out sometime during 2006 whilst Jason Williamson was living in Nottingham. Born out of part frustration and part accident, it quickly found its feet as an aggressive verbal onslaught on all that is contrived and connected to the day-to-day hammer of low paid employment and domestic situations arising from that trap.
After a year of working ideas out in both the studio and in live performance around Nottingham, Williamson moved south and took the cause to London for a couple of years, before returning to Nottingham in 2009.
Soon after that he that he met Andrew Fearn and the Sleaford Mods became a duo. Fearn's first work was on the production of Wank ' the Mods' fifth CDr album. Soon after he started stalking the studio and stage with Williamson. Just after the release of Wank the duo were invited to play a three day festival curated by Nottingham's Rammel Club. During that weekend they were introduced to the Harbinger Sound label.
A meeting which ' a year later ' resulted in the release of Austerity Dogs.
Tracklisting:
1. Urine Mate
2. Mcflurry
3. My Jampandy
4. Fizzy
5. Donkey
6. Ppo Kissing Behinds
7. Shitstreet Runny
8. Wage Don't Fit
9. Showboat
10. Don't Wanna Disco Or 2
11. Five Pound Sixty
12. Kill It Clean
13. Bored To Be Wild (CD only bonus track) -
Sold outVisit product page →Containing all new studio recordings Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti (Chris & Cosey / Throbbing Gristle) and Nik Colk Void (Factory Floor) expand and explore onward from their critically acclaimed 2012 debut album Transverse'.
Featuring their distinctive metallic guitar sound, distorted vocals, resounding bass lines and electro industrial rhythms this music is not for the fainthearted.
The CD and Digital editions feature six tracks.
The vinyl album has five tracks and comes with a free digital download code.
f (x) will be released worldwide by the legendary Industrial Records label (home of Throbbing Gristle since 1976) on 11th September. -
Visit product page →This LP 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. Vacuum Boots
2. Who?
3. Oh Lord
4. Caress
5. (David Bowie I Love You) Since I Was Six
6. Straight up and Down
7. Monster
8. Take It From The Man
9. B.S.A.
10. Mary
11. Monkey Puzzle
12. Fucker
13. Dawn
14. Cabin Fever
15. In My Life
16. The Be Song
17. My Man Syd
18. Straight Up And Down -
Visit product page →Redolent with the spirit of such high priests of effects and delay as Loop, Spaceman 3, and My Bloody Valentine, not to mention a fair dollop of the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Methodrone clearly is the sum of its influences.
Thankfully The Brian Jonestown Massacre does a very solid job with them throughout the album's course of over 70 minutes.
Tracklisting:
1. Evergreen
2. Wisdom
3. Crushed
4. That Girl Suicide
5. Wasted
6. Everyone Says
7. Short Wave
8. She Made Me
9. Hyperventilation
10. Records
11. I Love You
12. End of the Day
13. Outback
14. She's Gone
15. Methodrone -
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) -
Visit product page →Today the bold, post-punk, female trio, PINS announce their third full-length LP Hot Slick, out May 29 via their own Haus of Pins label. The vibrant album is filled with neon synths, loud guitars, and cheeky melodies that mirror the group's new boldly-hued imagery and create the sound of a girl gang refreshed and amplified.
Hot Slick features a trio of recently released singles: the glitchy and cathartic title track (produced by Jamie Hince of The Kills) and anthemic 'Bad Girls Forever' (produced by Rich Woodcraft) as well as the high-heeled skittering beat struts of 'Ponytail,' which the band revealed today.The 10 new original tracks found the trio of singer/guitarist Faith Vern, guitarist Lois MacDonald and bassist Kyoko Swan welcoming a rotating cast of collaborators following the departure of their original rhythm section.
Rich Woodcraft oversaw the entire project as producer and engineer, while Jamie Hince and Dean Horner contributed additional production and Nathan Saoudi of Fat White Family lent his talents on the keys. The resulting album highlights an expanded soundscape with nods to influences such as Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem, Suicide, and New Order.Since the release of Girls Like Us in 2013, PINS has exuded strength in their danceable alternative post-punk transmissions and earned the trust, endorsement, and creative blessings of rock royalty such as Iggy Pop, with whom they collaborated on 2017's The Bad Thing EP. 2015's Wild Nights earned widespread critical acclaim including an Album of the Week nod from Stereogum and profiles in Harper's Bazaar, Interview Magazine, The Guardian, DAZED, and i-D.
In recent years, PINS toured on both sides of the pond alongside everyone from Sleater-Kinney and Warpaint to Best Coast and The Subways.
Tracklisting:
1. Hot Slick
2. Bad Girls Forever
3. Ponytail
4. After Hours
5. Daisies
6. Read My Lips
7. Set Me Off
8. Love You To Death
9. Ghosting
10. Bad Habit -
Following a steady stream of ultra-limited 7' singles, that were collated together in 2019 for the Pre/Post: A Collection 2016-2018'on Louder Than War, the bands highly-anticipated debut album, by those that know, arrives with the first bitter taste of new single Pressure'; one-minute-and-fifty-four seconds of screeching feedback, tribal drums and unbridled rage that is exactly the shot in the arm and the boot up the arse this nation, if not the world, needs right now. 'In both music and lyrical content this song sets out to capture the unrelenting pressures of living in the modern world,' explains vocalist and guitarist Jim.Visit product page →
'The pressures and expectations of which 'they' force upon you - with the apparent realisation that you will never be what they want you to be. "Pressure, the twist of the gut, as one door opens another fucking shuts" Since forming in late 2016, Girls In Synthesis have quickly forged a fearsome reputation as one of the most exciting and volatile live acts in London.
In equal parts frantic, considered, ear-splitting and melodic, the group take their cues from the early DIY punk and post-punk pioneers to keep everything in-house; artwork, videos, performances and recordings are created entirely by the group and their handful of trusted collaborators, under a bedrock of heavy, bludgeoning, dark, post-punk.
Now Here's An Echo From Your Future'is their first release for fabled experimental punk label Harbinger Sound and finds the band advancing their sound, making subtle but experimental shifts in texture and tone, helping to break free from the shackled straight-jacket of punk rock that, to be fair, never really held them down in the first place.
Across the album's ten songs, Girls In Synthesis explore a wide range of sensations and sounds as the album detonates into life with opening track Arterial Movements'in a screeching flurry of over-driven guitar and hammering drums. The contrast between the slow, mesmerising look into aging and dying in Human Frailty'(The realisation that you cannot halt their impending death'), to the aggressive attack on the rise of the right-wing in They're Not Listening'(The time-old tradition of the right wing accosting desperate working class people has returned') shows a wide range of subjects and reactions aggressively tackled.
Mental health in a fast-moving, unforgiving world, media control, the divide widening between the have and the have nots, the class divide, the blaming of the poor, NHAEFYF bristles with an unforgiving frustration and temper. The recording of NHAEFYF started at Rockit Studio, Hull in April 2019 during days off on the UK tour to promote the Pre/Post'compilation album. The Hull sessions were engineered by studio owner and local musician Sean Tomlinson.
The remainder of the album was recorded and engineered by the band throughout summer 2019 in a large rehearsal room at Gun Factory studios, Homerton. Production and finishing touches were completed at GIS bassist John's S.I.C.K Studio in Hither Green.
The album was mixed by long-time band collaborator and engineer, Max Walker (currently studying at Abbey Road). The album was mastered by Brett Shaw at 123 Studios, Peckham. In their few years of existence, fans and critics alike have been stunned by the bands pure visceral and punishing wall of sound, as well as applauding the groups way of making a GIS show an all-inclusive experience; playing from within the crowd to create a unique and awe-inspiring spectacle.
Being hand-picked to support acts as diverse as Damo Suzuki, Slaves, Bad Breeding, Warmduscher and Wolf Alice has seen a widening of the groups fan base. Sold out headline shows across the UK have led to frantic and chaotic performances, and packed, sweaty venues, the word is getting out and spreading rapidly.
Catch GIS while you can and witness the rise of one of the UK's most original and unique underground bands.
Tracklisting:
1. Arterial Movements
2. Pressure
3. The Images Agree
4. Scrapped
5. Human Frailty
6. They're Not Listening
7. Cause For Concern
8. Coming Up For Air
9. Set Up To Fail
10. Tirades Of Hate and Fear
Release Date: 28/08/2020 -
Southern Californian hard-rock legends FU MANCHU have announced plans to release their 12th studio album, Clone of the Universe, on February 9th, The upcoming record will be their first in 4 years, following the 2014 release of Gigantoid. In addition to the album news, FU MANCHU has also announced a world tour in support of the record.Visit product page →
Clone Of The Universe marks a new chapter for the 'fuzz rock' pioneers as they mix the straight ahead blistering rock with the unexpected time shifts, featuring tracks like the roaring cuts 'Don't Panic' and '(I've Been) Hexed' and the dynamically complex 'Clone of the Universe' and 'Slower Than Light.' The centerpiece of the album is 'IL Mostro Atomico,' an 18 minute 8 second, side long epic featuring a special guest performance by Alex Lifeson, guitarist and songwriter of the legendary band RUSH.
Heavier than anything they've ever done and broken into 4 distinct sections, it's new ground for a band that's been pushing the boundaries of 'fuzz and wah' since its formation in 1990.The band will be playing 2 album release shows in Southern California before hitting the road in Europe in March of 2018 and returning to the US in May of 2018. Additional 2018 shows will be announced in the coming months.
'We are excited to get out and play this stuff, especially 'Il Mostro Atomico,' says founding guitarist, Scott Hill. 'We think it's some the strongest music we've ever done. We really love the overall sound of the album and having Alex (Lifeson) play on it is just incredible. It gives it that special validation for the idea that we had to try something like a side long song.'
The album was recorded and produced by FU MANCHU and Jim Monroe at The Racket Room in Santa Ana, CA with additional recording by Andrew Giacumakis at SUSSTUDIO in Simi Valley CA and will be released worldwide for streaming and on vinyl and CD on the band's own AT THE DOJO RECORDS.
FU MANCHU is Scott Hill (vocals, guitar) Bob Balch (Guitars), Brad Davis (Bass) and Scott Reeder (Drums and Percussion).
Tracklisting:
1. Intelligent Worship
2. (I've Been) Hexed
3. Don't Panic
4. Slower Than Light
5. Nowhere Left To Hide
6. Clone Of The Universe
7. IL Mostro Atomico
Release Date: 09/02/2018 -
Visit product page →This self curated collection from Wolverhampton born Carina Round, brings together, for the first time, material spanning from 2001 to 2015 taken from her first four critically acclaimed albums: ‘The First Blood Mystery’, ‘The Disconnection’, 'Slow Motion Addict’, ‘Tigermending’, as well as the EP 'Things You Should Know’, home to the included track ‘For Everything a Reason’ which featured on the TV series ’American Horror Story: Murder House’.
Complimented with two previously unreleased recordings, the bewitching ‘Gunshot’ and an alternate version of the track ‘Want More’, this collection perfectly illustrates the uniqueness of Round’s voice, barbed wire lyrics and a catalogue of haunting and beautiful songs.
As one of the UK’s most enigmatic songstresses and extraordinary performers, Round’s music has also won her fans and collaborators amongst highly regarded musicians including Maynard James Keenan, Lou Reed, Ryan Adams, Billy Corgan, Dave Stewart and Brian Eno, amongDo Yourself InDo Yourself In / Dehiscest many others.
‘Deranged to Divine’ is a retrospective not only for Carina's passionate fan base, who have avidly supported her musical output and extensive touring, celebrating her as one of Britain’s most evocative, diverse and restless artists. For Carina, now based in California and currently working on a new solo record, ‘Deranged to Divine’ also serves as the ideal introduction to her work as a solo artist to fans of Puscifer, the electro-industrial alterna-sunstrokers founded by Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, of which Round is also a member.
Puscifer are currently enjoying international success with their recent album 'Money Shot’ and it’s accompanying sold out tour. Beautifully packaged, with career spanning imagery by acclaimed photographers and a complete set of lyrics selected and compiled by Carina, 'Deranged to Divine' is a terrific addition to anyone’s record collection, and an essential one to any fan of Carina Round.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. You Will Be Loved
2. Into My Blood
3. Backseat †
4. Girl and the Ghost
Side B:
5. Elegy (US Version)
6. Gunshot*†
7. Come to You †
8. You and Me
Side C:
9. Downslow †
10. Message to Apollo
11. Slow Motion Addict †
12. Overcome †
13. Want More (Alternate Version)*†
14. How I See It
Side D:
15. For Everything a Reason †
16. Lacuna (Radio Version) †
17. Mother’s Pride
18. The Secret of Drowning
*Previously Unreleased
†Vinyl Debut -
Godzilla's/Eatin'Dust is the most popular release in Fu Manchu's 29 year recorded history. It is the combination of what were originally 2 distinct 10' releases: Godzilla (1997) and Eatin'Dust (1999).Visit product page →
Last year, Scott Hill (vocals/guitar) found the original tapes from the Godzilla recording sessions produced by Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age/Kyuss) and unearthed a secret that had been in his garage since 1996...The band had recorded 4 songs that had never been released.
These extra songs are early versions of "Grendel, Snowman," "Strolling Astronomer" and "Urethane' (whose final versions appeared on 1997's The Action Is Go) and a cover of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" (which is a different version than the one which was released on 7' in 1998).
The songs line up perfectly with the original tracklist, which includes the band's crowd pleasing cover of Blue Oyster Cult's 'Godzilla' and fan favorites 'Eatin'Dust' and 'Mongoose' (which was featured in a Super Bowl commercial for Toyota and included in the TV series 'Sons Of Anarchy' and the films 'Boondock Saints II' and 'The Hot Chick').
Tracklisting:
1. Eatin'Dust
2. Shift Kicker
3. Orbiter
4. Mongoose
5. Pigeon Toe
6. Module Overload
7. Living Legend
8. Godzilla
9. Grendel, Snowman
10. Strolling Astronomer
11. Urethane
12. Jailbreak -
Visit product page →Considered a classic and most sought after re-issues on the vinyl format, the CD was originally released in 1997.
Give It Back! is the sixth studio album and notably, is the only album that features Peter Hayes, who went on to found the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre is a psychedelic rock band originally from San Francisco, California, led by guitarist/singer Anton Newcombe. Originally Newcombe was heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones' psychedelic phase - the name comes from Stones guitarist Brian Jones combined with a reference to cult leader Jim Jones, but his work in the 2000s has expanded into aesthetic dimensions approximating the UK Shoegazing genre of the 1990s and incorporating influences from world music, especially Middle Eastern and Brazilian music.
Tracklisting:
1. Super-Sonic
2. This Is Why You Love Me
3. Satellite
4. Malela
5. Salaam
6. Whoever You Are
7. Sue
8. (You Better Love Me) Before I Am Gone
9. Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth
10. #1 Hit Jam
11. Servo
12. Devil May Care (Mom & Dad Don't)
13. Their Satanic Second Request -
Visit product page →The deluxe vinyl edition of Faithless Rituals is now sold out.
The second pressing is now available.Limited edition transparent Sea Foam Green vinyl with a free download.The Compact disc is a 4 panel digipack with lyric booklet.
Sky Valley Mistress are 4 young upstarts from Blackburn, Lancashire, full of spit and vinegar who have delivered a ferocious, two fingered hello to rest of the world with their debut album 'Faithless Rituals'.
Eight tracks of fierce passion and spirit, blistering stoner rock 'n' roll with huge riffs, buckets of fuzz and hooks guaranteed to nail you to the wall from the get go. Couple that with inciendiary playing one of the best female vocalists around ... you have one helluva debut album.
In fact, SVM could easily hold their own against the likes of Jim Jones, Rival Sons, Royal Blood, BRMC or any other rockers greasy or otherwise.
Still only in their mid 20's, you can only assume, on listening to their debut, that these young turks made that journey to those legendary crossroads and did the dirty deed with the dark one himself, such is the level of musicianship and vocal prowess on show here.
The album was recorded at the legendary Rancho De La Luna, Joshua Tree, California, and co produced by, and featuring Dave Catching (Queens Of The Stone Age, Eagles Of Death Metal and Mojave Lords amongst others) and like all great rock 'n' roll it has vibe and attitude in spades.
Sky Valley Mistress are:
Kayley 'Hell Kitten' Davies (vocals),
Sean 'Starsky'Berry (Guitar),
Russell 'Russell' Russell (Bass),
Maxwell Harvey William Newsome III (Drums/Percussion)
Tracklisting Vinyl:
Side A:
1. A Faithless Ritual
2. You Got Nothin'
3. Lost In Shock
4. Punk Song
5.It Won't Stop
Side B:
1.Skull & Pistons
2. She Is So
3. Blue Desert
4. Electric Church
Tracklisting CD:
1. A Faithless Ritual
2. You Got Nothin'
3. Lost In Shock
4. Punk Song
5.It Won't Stop
6.Skull & Pistons
7. She Is So
8. Blue Desert
9. Electric Church -
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 -
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 -
Visit product page →
Limited Cream Vinyl / Black Vinyl / CD.
Northern Ireland's Girls Names return this autumn with their third full-length album, Arms Around a Vision, due for an October 2nd release via long-term home, Tough Love Records.
'We look to Europe for inspiration. For romance. For the idea of a better life,' says the band's frontman, Cathal Cully, when discussing the album. 'For me, living in Belfast just makes you focus on your own art.'
True, Girls Names formed in Belfast, but they've long considered themselves a European band. The distinction is important - their vision of Europe is one of weird, labyrinthian histories, blackest-ever-black coffee, and long drives to dismal places. Romantic notions for those of a certain disposition, but behind the thousand-yard stares they've always been a soft-hearted lot. As the title of Arms Around a Vision would suggest, they're all set to let love in.
The band initially came together as a relatively lean two-piece back in the summer of 2010, but over the course of a handful of EPs and three very different albums, they've grown in number and ambition. Their last album, The New Life, was an unexpected underground hit in early 2013, taking the band around the world and garnering much critical praise, culminating in nominations for both the Northern Irish and Irish Music Prizes. Emboldened by the reception to that record, in March they returned with an 11-minute single that was played in full on Radio 1 and, typically, does not feature on their new album. Girls Names like to do things a little differently.
On Arms Around a Vision, they're more widescreen than ever but also more direct and aggressive. The bass, drums and guitars are still there, but so are saxophones, organs, detuned broken guitars and pianos, and even sheets of metal assaulted with hammers. Conceptually, Arms Around a Vision acts as a love letter to European elegance - Italian futurism, Russian constructivism, Germany's Zero Group and both Neubaten and Bowie's Berlin.
Love and pain, romance and fucking. It's all in there somewhere. Grand claims, perhaps, but in an ever bleak world, why not skygaze? The album opens with Reticence', a song in two parts that's half metallic knockout, half midnight swagger. It sounds unlike anything they've ever done before, and is a perfect primer for an album that treads a course between Eno-era Roxy sleaze, Birthday Party dissonance and M.E.S'three R's: repetition, repetition, repetition.
As confident as it sounds, hardship has equally played a role in shaping Arms Around a Vision. 'I'm not starving or anything, but I've practically been living hand to mouth since I was 22,' confirms Cully. 'Most guitar music now is just a playground for the rich middle classes and it's really boring and elitist. We're elitist in our own way, in that we're on our own and you can't fuck with us when we've nothing to lose'. The near-6 minute A Hunger Artist'tackles that subject full on, addressing that age old adage of suffering for one's art.
While the songs aren't narrative-driven as such - the band still generally favour abstraction and ambiguity - there is a consistent underlying message: 'We've got nothing. We've never had anything. And we don't expect to. The only person I ever wanted to impress was myself. I've never got anywhere close to succeeding in doing that until this album. I'm proud of it. I think I can start saying I'm a musician now.'
Tracklisting:
1. Reticence
2. An Artificial Spring
3. Desire Oscillations
4. (Obsession)
5. Chrome Rose
6. A Hunger Artist
7. Málaga
8. Dysmorphia
9. (Convalescence)
10. Exploit Me
11. Take Out the Hand
12. I Was You -
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 -
Visit product page →Bravery, Repetition and Noise is a dark dreamy album, rich in atmosphere, layered in waves of sound.
The album's antecedents are clear, inspired by psychedelia as they were by punk's nihilism, pulling both strands into a doom-laden, experimental sound quite distinct from anything that had come before or since.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre uses this as their touchstone, lovingly re-creating the moods and atmospheres of the past.
Tracklisting:
1. Just For Today
2. Telegram
3. Stolen
4. Open Heart Surgery
5. Nevertheless
6. Sailor
7. You Have Been Disconnected
8. Leave Nothing For Sancho
9. Let Me Stand Next To Your Flower
10. If I Love You?
11. (I Love You) Always
12. If I Love You? (New European Gold Standard Secret Babylonian Brotherhood Cinema Mix) -
‘The Harvest’ is MWWB’s fourth album, and is a record shot through with the trademark heavy MWWB sound. The chugging riffs and haunting melodies of Jessica Ball are all there, however it also sees the band adding more experimentation, a progressive approach, and going a bit more left field conceptually.Visit product page →
With ‘The Harvest’ MWWB have refined and honed their sound from their previous three records. 'The Harvest' is a carefully crafted distillation of ideas, written, conceived and sequenced to be listened to in its entirety (preferably in one sitting). MWWB have always loved film scores and this new album is in many ways, the soundtrack to a film. MWWB provides the musical narrative (the song titles also provide a pointer) and the listener's imagination does the rest.
To some extent, it shares similarities with Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’. Not only by having the mix of experimentation and melodicism as that seminal record, but also in the way that it has been engineered and constructed as a seamless piece.
Nine tracks flowing into one another. Space age riff monsters segueing into shorter musical interludes, where John Carpenter rubs shoulders with Pink Floyd and a maelstrom of moog and mellotron. There are surprises, and of course a bucketload of heavy shit.
Kudos here must go to producer Chris Fielding, who has masterminded an epic sound world, with a much more close up ‘in your face’ mix. Meticulously bringing out every nuance, from soft and atmospheric, to expansive and crushingly heavy. The band have never sounded better.
Tracklisting Vinyl:
Side A
1. Oblok Magellana
2. The Harvest
3. Interstellar Wrecking
4. Logic Bomb
5. Betrayal
Side B
1. Altamira
2. Let's Send These Bastards Whence They Came
3. Strontium
4. Moon Rise
Tracklisting CD:
1. Oblok Magellana
2. The Harvest
3. Interstellar Wrecking
4. Logic Bomb
5. Betrayal
6. Altamira
7. Let's Send These Bastards Whence They Came
8. Strontium
9. Moon Rise
