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Fortuna POP!

  • The Proper Ornaments 'Wooden Head' - Cargo Records UK

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    The Proper Ornaments 'Wooden Head'

    £9.99

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    The Proper Ornaments 'Wooden Head'

    £9.99

    Heavyweight Vinyl LP  + MP3 Download Card.

    Mining the rich territories of The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys, their debut album proper "Wooden Head" features fourteen thrillingly taut and melodic pop songs with a deep, dark undercurrent. Comprised of Argentinian Max Claps and James Hoare (also of Veronica Falls) ' who both sing and write the songs ' and joined by Daniel Nellis (bass) and Robert Syme (drums), the band have already shared stages with the likes of Real Estate, Woods, Crystal Stilts, Toy and Metronomy. Maximo Claps arrived in London in 2008 on a one-way ticket from Buenos Aires, aided by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.

    Oldham had produced a record by Claps' Argentinian band of the time but the group had fallen apart in a mess of drugs and acrimony and Claps' family were attempting to intervene by sending him to a mental hospital. The only option seemed to be to flee the country. As Claps recalls, "The day before flying to the UK I got run over by a car and had to escape hospital in order to make it so I arrived with bandages and my head all stitched up." A few weeks later Max walked into the vintage clothes shop where James Hoare sat behind the counter reading a book on The Velvet Underground, and attempted to cause a diversion while his kleptomaniac girlfriend stole a pair of boots. She didn't steal them in the end, says Max. They weren't her size. However, the shop assistant and the would-be accomplice bonded over a mutual love of the Velvets, Love, Felt and West Coast pop and began writing together, taking their name from a song by the pioneering soft psych band The Free Design. In 2010 they released their first single, "Recalling", following it up with a five-song EP for London label No Pain in Pop.

    In 2013 Lo Recordings released all their output to date on a collection titled "Waiting for the Summer", followed by the single First Step Out in February 2014. Their new album was recorded at a studio in Hackney, as well as at home in their old flat in Whitechapel on a broken 8-track reel-to-reel bought off eBay from an angry guy who threatened to shoot them and chop off their balls when they attempted to return it - a terrifying experience for a pair of skinny indie boys.

    Taking inspiration from Berlin-era Lou Reed, Jesus and Mary Chain's Darklands, The Television Personalities and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, the songs are breezy and easy on the ear, with sublime harmonies and chiming Byrdsian guitar, but with a darker twist and a pervasive air of melancholy. Stand-out tracks include the beautiful but sad Summer's Gone (about mental illness), Magazine (an upbeat number written from the perspective of a bullet in the barrel of a gun) and You'll See (about how when you die you'll see everyone you know, all there lined up in a row).

    With "Wooden Head", The Proper Ornaments prove that it is still possible to create an album of pure pop perfection. Max's girlfriend may not have stolen the boots, but The Proper Ornaments are about to steal your heart. The joint project of James and Max, through romantic drama that borders on that of The Libertines. And when you hear The Proper Ornaments you'll see why it's all worth it.

    1. Gone
    2. Sun
    3. Ruby
    4. Now I Understand
    5. Don't You Want To Know (What you're going to be)
    6. Magazine
    7. Stereolab
    8. Step Into The Cold
    9. Tire Me Out
    10. Always There
    11. Summers Gone
    12. What Am I To Do
    13. You Shouldn't Have Gone
    14. You'll See

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  • Martha 'Courting Strong' - Cargo Records UK

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    Martha 'Courting Strong'

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    Martha 'Courting Strong'

    £9.99

    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 Misery 
    2. 1997, Passing in the Hallway 
    3. Present, Tense 
    4. Dust, Juice, Bones & Hair 
    5. Bubble in My Bloodstream 
    6. Move To Durham and Never Leave 
    7. Gin and Listerine 
    8. Sleeping Beauty 
    9. 1967, I Miss You I'm Lonely 
    10. So Sad (So Sad)
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  • Chain & The Gang 'Minimum Rock N Roll' - Cargo Records UK

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    Chain & The Gang 'Minimum Rock N Roll'

    £9.99

    Led by the remarkable Ian Svenonius, prime mover behind two of the most essential bands of our time, Nation Of Ulysses and The Make-Up, and author of two books, The Psychic Soviet and Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group, not to mention online talk show host and auteur filmmaker, Chain And the Gang deal in a new genre called CRIME ROCK that updates rock n roll, blues, and gospel music or vocal quartets from the late 50s /early 60s for the discerning few.

    A gang with a fluid and floating active core, Minimum Rock N Roll was recorded in Portland Oregon with Ian and Katie Alice on vocals, Brett playing the electric guitar, Chris on electric bass guitar, and Fiona driving the drum kit and then mixed down in DC by Brendan Canty. More minimal and more ferocious, more lean and more mean, Minimum Rock N Roll is Chain & the Gang looking for food, hungry and intent on devouring the known world, once they find its tender underbelly.

    Minimum Rock N Roll is a protest against a world where everything is available¦ the internet's engorgement of the senses has bred a world that's stupefied, self-satisfied and sedate. It's time for a diet. This record is a kind of aural austerity! Barely any words! Hardly any beats! Fewer notes! Its just EXACTLY ENOUGH.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Devitalize 
    2. Never Been Properly Loved 
    3. I'm A Choice (Not A Child) 
    4. Stuck In A Box 
    5. Got To Have It Everyday 
    6. Fairy Dust 
    7. Mum's The Word 
    8. Crime Don't Pay 
    9. What Are You In Here For? 
    10. Minimum Rock N Roll 
    11. Curtain Pull 
    12. Everything Worth Getting (Is Gone)
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  • Withered Hand 'New Gods' - Cargo Records UK

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    Withered Hand 'New Gods'

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    Withered Hand 'New Gods'

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    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

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  • Herman Dune 'Strange Moosic' - Cargo Records UK

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    Herman Dune 'Strange Moosic'

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    Herman Dune 'Strange Moosic'

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    After touring like maniacs on the run for a couple of years, Herman Dune finally took a break. In 2010, Cosmic Neman recorded and toured with his other duo Zombie Zombie, while David-Ivar took some time off to write and draw (with art exhibitions in New York, Paris and Milan).

    1. Tell Me Something I Don't Know  
    2. Ah Hears Strange Moosic 
    3. Be A Doll And Take My Heart 
    4. Where Is The Man? 
    5. Lay Your Head On My Chest 
    6. Monument Park
    7. In The Long Long Run 
    8. Your Love Is Gold 
    9. The Rock 
    10. Just Like Summer 
    11. My Joy 
    12. Magician

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  • Let's Wrestle 'Let's Wrestle' - Cargo Records UK

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    Let's Wrestle 'Let's Wrestle'

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    Let's Wrestle 'Let's Wrestle'

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    The self-titled third album from London's Let's Wrestle sees the band enter a new phase of maturity and sophistication giving frontman Wesley Patrick Gonzalez a forum to showcase his songwriting talents and love of classic pop.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Rain Ruins Revolution 
    2. I Am Fond Of You 
    3. Codeine And Marshmallows 
    4. Always A Friend 
    5. Care For You 
    6. Tied Up 
    7. Don't Want To Know Your Name 
    8. David You Know 
    9. Opium Den 
    10. Wrexham Aluminium 
    11. Pull Through For You 
    12. Irish Sea 
    13. Watching Over You

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  • The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 'Pains Of Being Pure At Heart' - Cargo Records UK

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    The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 'Pains Of Being Pure At Heart'

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    Since forming in early 2007, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have become one of the most talked about pop bands in years. Their distinctive brand of noisy pop is a tidy distillation of all the great noise-pop precedents - early MBV, House of Love, Pale Saints, Rocketship - but with that incredible exuberance and energy that the Pains bring to every song.

    They have released a handful of singles on classy labels like Slumberland, Fortuna POP!, Atomic Beat and Cloudberry, each one issued to greater anticipation and even wilder reception. Critical acclaim has come from such varied quarters as NME, The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Times, Mojo, Drowned In Sound, Indie-MP3, Clash Magazine and uncountable others.Following up the band's ace \"Everything With You\" single and whirlwind Swedish tour, we are delighted to bring you their self-titled debut album.

    The Pains of Being Pure At Heart is an instant classic, packed with brilliantly-executed pop gems that blend the rush of youthful enthusiasm with crafty arrangements, well-honed tunes and buckets of guitar racket. Drawing on the sparkling legacy of the best of 80s and 90s pop, POBPAH update the timeless noisy pop template with a thoroughly modern viewpoint and a very distinctive, playful personality.

    There is something instantly identifiable about a Pains tune, and it is the essential rightness of their records that has captured the attention of pop fans around the world and raised anticipation levels for this album to a near-fever pitch.The Pains of Being Pure At Heart delivers on this promise with perfect assurance. Smashing tunes like Come Saturday and Young Adult Friction are classic three minute masterpieces that simply beg the be played on repeat. Stay Alive and Gentle Sons show the band can slow it down and still rock it, and Hey Paul is as brash a slice of noise-blast guitar pop as you'll hear all year.

    Weighing in at a flawlessly-conceived ten songs, this is all the album that Pains fans had hoped for. Handily transcending easy pigeonholes like indie pop and indie rock, it is just a great album that shows a smart young band fulfilling their potential and crafting a very convincing statement of purpose.

    1. Contender 
    2. Come Saturday 
    3. Young Adult Friction 
    4. This Love Is Fucking Right! 
    5. The Tenure Itch 
    6. Stay Alive 
    7. Everything With You 
    8. A Teenager In Love 
    9. Hey Paul 
    10. Gentle Sons

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  • Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee - Cargo Records UK

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    Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee

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    Hayman, Watkins, Trout & Lee

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    1. Sly And The Family Stone
    2. That's Why She Left Me (Why She Came Back)
    3. Tecumseh Valley
    4. Buckdancer's Choice
    5. Fine Young Cannibals
    6. Hesitation Blues
    7. Jam-Eater Blues
    8. Napoleon Crossing The Rhine
    9. Loretta
    10. I Should Have Told Her
    11. Beulah Crossing The Marshes
    12. High Blood Pressure
    13. Dirty Tube Train
    14. Bethnal Green

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  • Club 8 'The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming' - Cargo Records UK

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    Club 8 'The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming' CD

    £9.99

    For Fans Of: The Concretes, The Cardigans, Peter, Bjorn and John, Swedish Pop

    With the current vogue in music for all things Swedish it was perhaps surprising that one of the best and most important Swedish bands of recent years, the exquisitely melancholic yet danceable Club 8, had seemingly vanished from the scene.

    Of course founder member Johan Angergård had been busy both in his role as chief of the hugely influential Swedish label Labrador and with his other bands The Legends and the Acid House Kings, but still, three years had passed without so much as a note.

    Finally, in May of this year, Club 8 returned to have a massive blog hit with the amazing Tropicalia-influenced Whatever You Want. Now, with their long-awaited sixth album The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming, Club 8 are set to take their rightful place at the top table of Swedish pop.

    Initially inspired by a love of The Smiths and Sarah Records Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and Johan Angergård (all instruments) released their debut album as Club 8, Nouvelle, on Spanish label Siesta.

    However, it was with their more dance-orientated next album The Friend I Once Had and its beguiling mix of bossa nova, glittery guitars and shiny pop melodies that they took their first big step forward, the single Missing You becoming a club and radio hit in Spain and a college radio favourite in North America.

    Constantly changing, the self-titled follow-up was both darker and slower, labelled as both trip-hop and chill-out, before the band diversified again with the semi-electronic, slightly experimental but intensely emotional Spring Came, Rain Fell (2002) and the more guitar-based Strangely Beautiful (2004).

    During this time the band's reputation spread, with live shows across Europe, USA and South East Asia where they are at least partly responsible for the thriving Indonesian music scene.

    With The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming Club 8 have evolved yet again and made a truly different and very special album that packs a heavy personal emotional punch.

    The sweet transience of life and the closeness of death come wrapped in the shape of twelve perfect pop songs in a summer dress, the mix of sunshine and melancholia as unique as it is profoundly moving. A glorious return to say the least.

    Exquisite¦ lovely vocals¦ indie pop bliss (Pitchfork).


    Tracklisting:
    1. Jesus, Walk With Me
    2. Whatever You Want
    3. Football Kids
    4. Hope And Dreams
    5. Everything Goes
    6. Heaven
    7. When I Come Around
    8. Leave The North
    9. In The Morning
    10. Sometimes
    11. Where Birds Don't Fly
    12. The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Dreaming

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  • Cocoanut Groove 'How To Build A Maze' - Cargo Records UK

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    Cocoanut Groove 'How To Build A Maze'

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    Cocoanut Groove 'How To Build A Maze'

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    Vinyl LP (Limited to 500).

    Second album from Cocoanut Groove.. Fronted by Olov Antonsson, it's their first as a full band, the debut album Madeleine Street (2008) having essentially been a solo project. Hailing from the North of Sweden, Antonsson wears his1960s baroque pop influences on his sleeve, along with traces of latter day guitar pop like The Smiths and The Clientele, and folk acts like Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake.

    The songs for How to Build a Maze were written and recorded over quite a long period of time. Bleaker and less naive than their debut it's still no great departure, with Olov continuing to strive for 60s pop perfection, attempting to write something as beautiful as "Beechwood Park" by The Zombies or "World Of You" by The Aerovons. As well, there are quite a few traditional Swedish folk melodies hidden on the album, like the ones you find on the album "Jazz på svenska" by Swedish pianist Jan Johansson.

    Recorded in various places around Olov's hometown Umeå, with no professional recording studios involved whatsoever, the album is about getting lost in different ways ' losing your way in city streets, losing friends and watching summers pass. The theme can be summed up by this simple definition from Wikipedia: "A maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route." Having taken their name from a Lovin' Spoonful/Roger Nichols song, Cocoanut Groove formed in 2007 with Olov writing and recording the song "The End Of The Summer On Bookbinder Road", which became their debut single.

    Olov writes all the songs and plays guitar, as well as bass, piano and whatever else is needed. Over the years (and on this record) he has been joined by Calle Thoor, Anton Runesson and William Andersson (drums), Josef Ringqvist (bass), Mattias Malm (guitar, keys, vocals, arrangements, percussion and whatnot), Ivar and Gunnar Lantz (strings) and Frida Danielsson (trumpet).

    Cocoanut Groove follow in a grand tradition of Swedish indiepop, with a focus on melody and beauty, tinged with melancholy. From the long, dark winters to the respite of the dreamy summers, the songs talk of escaping the city and pining for the countryside, about unemployment and having nothing to do but drink coffee and watch the birds fly.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Prelude 
    2. How To Build A Maze 
    3. On A Monday Morning 
    4. The High Coast 
    5. Fair-Weather Friend 
    6. Colours 
    7. North Country Summer 
    8. Afternoon 
    9. A Secret Tune 
    10. Night Walk 
    11. Seven Flowers

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  • September Girls 'Cursing The Sea' - Cargo Records UK

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    September Girls 'Cursing The Sea'

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    September Girls 'Cursing The Sea'

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    The LP will be on 180g black vinyl with a download code. Cursing The Sea, the debut album from Ireland's September Girls, is a dark kaleidoscope of echoey drums, buzzsaw bass, angular guitars and reverb-drenched vocals that blends garage rock and post-punk to extraordinary effect.

    Named after a Big Star song via The Bangles, September Girls are comprised of Paula (Bass/Vocals), Caoimhe (Guitar/Vocals), Lauren (Keys/Vocals), Jessie (Guitar/Vocals) and Sarah (Drums). Drawing inspiration from the likes of Phil Spector, The Velvet Underground, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus And Mary Chain, the five-piece play reverb-soaked noise-pop of the finest order, with distant layered harmonies, swirling organ and distorted guitars once described as "sounds from a transistor radio abandoned in a rural cinema."

    Formed in Dublin in 2011, the band quickly recorded some demos and began booking gigs in Ireland and the UK, before releasing a handful of well-received limited edition singles on various cassette and 7 labels around the world, most recently on the Haus of PINS cassette label run by their kindred spirits PINS, with whom the band have also toured.

    This release, for the song Ships, gave the band their biggest press to date, with a glowing review on Pitchfork. With four different songwriters and singers, each song begins with a secret life of its own, only to be unified by the distortion-drenched harmonies and hazy pop stylings of the band, songs that often seem to be of a sunny disposition taking on a darker, more sinister edge.

    First single proper Heartbeats is a tale of unrequited love and betrayal, awash with fuzzy guitars, ethereal female vocals and entrancing melodies and underpinned by a hurt that catches the back of your throat, while the remarkable pop song that is Green Eyed has the protagonist trapped in a relationship with someone untrustworthy. Elsewhere Sister deals with the thorny subject of rape and victim-blaming in society over an insistent, urgent backing.

    Title track Cursing the Sea is an ode to long distance heartache and an apt title for the album, with many of the songs dealing with distance, insecurity and inner turmoil, and alluding to an overall sense of being adrift. In keeping with this, the band chose the setting of a beach at night for the artwork, hoping to capture that same unsettled feeling.

    Whirling around in a tornado of fuzz, dazzling harmonies, disarming lyrics and dizzying excitement, Cursing the Sea is awash with enough attitude and great songs to see September Girls safely to shore.

    "Ships" takes their fuzzy garage pop and colors it several shades darker, resulting in an ominous amphetamine-fueled dirge full of screeching guitars, metronomic basslines, and cooly detached vocals. The Girls' pare down their sound to its steely core on "Ships", using angular guitar work to sharpen their sunniest melodies to a bleeding point, making this the most thrilling music they've released in their short existence. (Pitchfork) .

    Tracklisting:
    1. Cursing The Sea
    2. Another Love Song
    3. Left Behind
    4. Heartbeats
    5. Green Eyed
    6. Ships
    7. Talking
    8. Daylight
    9. Money
    10. Someone New
    11. Secret Lovers
    12. Sister

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  • Karl Smith 'Kites' - Cargo Records UK

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    Karl Smith 'Kites'

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    Karl Smith 'Kites'

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    30 years after strumming his first guitar on the steps of his childhood home in Bangladesh, Karl Smith, the voice and songwriter of Sodastream, is set to release his debut solo album, Kites.

    Recorded and mixed in Karl's basement studio while preparing for fatherhood, Kites captures the heady excitement, nervous energy and intermittent panic of the time.

    Kicking things off with lead single ¬' I Want You, a wonky little ode to love in the modern world, Karl will be showcasing songs on stages, radio stations and work computers across the country over the coming months.

    Tracklisting:
    1. After Mr Morrison 
    2. Little Lucy 
    3. I Want You 
    4. Glass Eye 
    5. Hang Our Bodies 
    6. Crochets 
    7. Slow Short Story 
    8. I Know Julia 
    9. Voices 
    10. Everything

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  • The Spook School 'Dress Up' - Cargo Records UK

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    The Spook School 'Dress Up'

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    The Spook School 'Dress Up'

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    The debut album from Edinburgh quartet The Spook School brings together 13 (mostly) very noisy guitar pop songs, the culmination of four people making a lot of noise about gender and about identity.

    Inspired by the post-punk-pop of The Buzzcocks, Lou Reed's 'Transformer' and the films of Buster Keaton, with a dash of 60s pop for good measure, The Spook School are Nye Todd on guitar with Adam Todd also on guitar and Anna Cory on bass, not forgetting Niall McCamley who plays drums, tells jokes and takes his clothes off.

    They all sing and shout and write the music together. There is no leader and no 'frontperson'. They're a band.

    1. Are You Who You Think You Are? 
    2. I'll Be Honest 
    3. You Make It Sound So Easy 
    4. I Don't Know 
    5. The Cameraman 
    6. Something 
    7. Can You Ever Trust A Man Who Think Matt Damon's Really Cool? 
    8. What A Pity 
    9. Devil of Mine 
    10. That's When I Ran Away 
    11. You Don't Know 
    12. History 
    13. Who Ya Gonna Call? Goat Buster!

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  • The Ballet 'I Blame Society' - Cargo Records UK

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    The Ballet 'I Blame Society'

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    The Ballet 'I Blame Society'

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    180g Heavyweight Vinyl LP (Limited to 500)¦.

    I Blame Society is the third album from New York trio The Ballet and their first for new label Fortuna POP! Unashamedly sissy and explicitly queer, The Ballet marry the DIY queer ethos of the Hidden Cameras with the wry poeticism of The Magnetic Fields to create literate, infectious pop gems. The band will be playing the Indietracks Festival 26-28 July, followed by a UK tour culminating with a London show at The Lexington on 1 August.

    I Blame Society is a continuation of the lyrical themes and songwriting style found in the band's two previous self-released albums (Mattachine! [2006] and Bear Life! [2009]), though with slightly pared down arrangements and a nuanced production, which highlights songwriter Greg Goldberg's strengths. Inspired by Stephin Merritt's body of work, Goldberg draws from an array of pop artists and periods, from 60's bubblegum to 80's synthpop and 90's indiepop, fusing these in sophisticated and novel ways which rewards repeat listening.

    Avoiding autobiographical or confessional modes, Goldberg nonetheless mines his own psychological constitution and intellectual interests to craft songs whose overt musical prettiness is often contrasted by a dark and complex subtext. I Blame Society addresses a number of queer themes, offering a nuanced and refreshing perspective on contemporary queer issues, subtly balancing queer melancholy with self-deprecating humour and stubborn utopianism.

    While some queer musicians shy away from articulating a connection between their sexuality and musicianship, The Ballet have often contended the opposite: that they are a bunch of queers who just happen to be in a band. Formed in 2005 by Greg Goldberg and Craig Willse (who are both professors and met whilst at graduate school) with Marina Miranda (who they met at a party), The Ballet are still going strong after eight years of pop magic, retaining their original line-up.

    That's not to say they haven't gone through some line-up changes over the years. Acquired bandmates Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Michael O'Neill left in 2007 to join JD Sampson in MEN. Indiepop luminaries such as Linton from The Aislers Set and Ramesh from Voxtrot have also made guest appearances on previous albums, as have Kaki King and Scott Matthew.

    "Recalling Holiday-era Magnetic Fields, these songs bop with heady buoyancy, yet are underpinned by complicated but universal themes: self-deception, infidelity without shame, war fatigue and finding love in a world of online hookups." Time Out New York

    Tracklisting:
    1. Alright 
    2. Cruel Path 
    3. Difficult Situations 
    4. Feelings 
    5. Meaningless 
    6. Too Much Time 
    7. Is Anybody Out There? 
    8. Turn You 
    9. Sorry 
    10. All The Way

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  • Milky Wimpshake 'Heart And Soul In The Milky Way' - Cargo Records UK

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    Milky Wimpshake 'Heart And Soul In The Milky Way'

    £9.99

    500 only LP.

    Nearly 20 years since releasing their first cassette album, Milky Wimpshake unveil their fifth 'proper' album Heart And Soul In The Milky Way, due out on Fortuna POP! in February 2013. Recorded in a single day, it consists of 15 more songs from the pop/punk chocolate assortment box which the band have raided for so many years: love songs, silly songs, songs about obsolete items of stationary and such like, all set to a basic guitar buzz and kick drum combo.

    The album bristles with spontaneous excitement due to the success of the live recording with no overdubs, giving Heart And Soul In The Milky Way a much rawer, yet fresher feel than their previous albums, with the likes of "Worthless Person" veering towards Billy Childish garage rock territory.

    Milky Wimpshake have produced the strongest set of songs of their career from the subterranean homesick opener 'Chemical Spray', with its arbitrary rhymes and taking-the-piss guitar break, the innuendo-laden 'On Top', full of maudlin indie-pop melodicism and the closing duet 'Without You' which covers the same theme as six million other songs and yet still manages to raise a smile.

    While the majority of the album features compositions by frontman Pete Dale (also head of the legendary indie label Slampt), there are two covers, including a punked-up version of 'Lah-Di-Dah', a song by Jake Thackray, a singer-songwriter who had some success in the 1960s and 70s with often-lewd lyrics which he used to croon with wonderfully tired eyes.

    There is also a version of 'Omnia Mea Mecum Porto' by North East underground group Les Cox (Sportifs). The song's title means 'everything I own goes where I go' and contains hilarious lyrics about the anxiety of an impending day's work. Milky Wimpshake isn't the kind of band which expects to sell out big venues, top the charts or get chased by screaming fans: it's simple music, with simple sentiments for folk smart enough to see that sometimes simplicity works like a charm.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Chemical Spray 
    2. On Top 
    3. You Are The Bomb 
    4. Activated 
    5. La Di Da 
    6. (I'll Be Your) Subject/Object 
    7. Motormouth 
    8. Uncool Jerk
    9. Omnia Mea Mecum Porto 
    10. The Mirror Stage 
    11. (I'm A) Worthless Person 
    12. Letraset Angle 
    13. Without You

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  • Darren Hayman And The Long Parliament 'The Violence' - Cargo Records UK

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    Darren Hayman And The Long Parliament 'The Violence'

    £14.99

    Gatefold CD With Booklet / Heavyweight 2LP Vinyl with Poster & MP3 Download.

    Over the past four years, ex-Hefner man Darren Hayman has been releasing records about lidos, dogging and Russian space dogs. He has played gigs in libraries, observatories and remote Hebridean Islands. In all that time, however, Hayman's real focus has been on this, a 20-song, double LP chronicling the 17th century Essex Witch Trials during the English Civil Wars. The record constitutes the third part of Darren's Essex trilogy, the previous two albums, Pram Town and Essex Arms, dealing with the new towns and suburbs and the lawless countryside. I have been drawn to my birthplace because it is both familiar and alien to me, says Hayman.

    Essex is so close to London yet so remote from it in many ways. I want to be both brutal and tender about the place in my songs. It's easy to become trapped by your own tropes. I write easily about modernity and pepper my lyrics with slang, brand names and colloquialisms. I wanted to write about something in Essex's past that spoke of its strangeness and also forced me to write in a language suitable for another period. Between 1644 and 1646, approximately 300 women were executed for witchcraft in the eastern counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk.

    Matthew Hopkins was the self appointed Witch Finder General who travelled East Anglia and helped small communities to rid themselves of these lonely, widowed women. The album deals with fear and isolation, the way we use our own terror in times of trouble to lash out at the weak, and how societies persecute otherness and outsiders.

    The album also concerns itself with the wider context of the English Civil Wars. Hayman sings about King Charles I's doomed love for his French bride; Parliamentarian spies; Puritan ideals and the comfort of animals. The album is epic in both concept and sound. The landscape of the Dedham Vale is bought alive by beautiful intricate woodwind scores, trembling strings and destroyed church organs.

    The Violence is an outstanding creative achievement, a truly unique and unprecedented album. It's about how violence frightens us and how fear just leads to greater violence, says Hayman.

    Tracklisting:
    1. The Violence 
    2. Impossible Times 
    3. How Long Have You Been Frightened For? 
    4. We Are Not Evil 
    5. The She-Cavaliers 
    6. Elizabeth Clarke 
    7. Vinegar Tom 
    8. Parliament Joan 
    9. The Word And The Word Alone 
    10. I Will Hide Away 
    11. When The King Enjoys His Own Again 
    12. Henrietta Maria 
    13. A Dogge Called Boye 
    14. Outsiders 
    15. Arthur Wilson's Reverie 
    16. Rebecca West 
    17. Desire Lines 
    18. Kill The King 
    19. A Coffin For King Charles, A Crown For Cromwell And A Pit For The People 
    20. The Laughing Tree

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  • Tender Trap 'Ten Songs About Girls' - Cargo Records UK

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    Tender Trap 'Ten Songs About Girls'

    £11.99

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    Fortuna POP!

    Tender Trap 'Ten Songs About Girls'

    £11.99

    Tender Trap is lead by indie legend and feminist icon Amelia Fletcher (formerly of Talulah Gosh and Heavenly), the band now also includes Emily Bennett from Betty and the Werewolves, replacing Elizabeth Morris from Allo Darlin'.

    Emily brings another dimension to the band with her ebullient rock guitar playing, fantastic singing, and endless enthusiasm, joining existing members drummer and vocalist Katrina Dixon, John Stanley on guitar and original Heavenly bass player, Robert Pursey.

    Ten Songs About Girls is Amelia & Co's most complete-sounding effort yet, filled to the brim with resounding backing vocals and glorious fuzz.

    The album's artwork comes in green, purple and white ¬' the suffragette colours, sharing the original feminists' concern for aesthetics as well as politics. With three strong female voices on the record, sometimes harmonizing, sometimes calling and responding, sometimes singing alone, Tender Trap draw on the dynamics of the original girl group songs, but aim to show what happens when those girls aren't in thrall to the male Svengali.

    Tracklisting:
    1. King's Cross Station 
    2. MBV 
    3. Could This Be The Last Time? 
    4. Leaving Christmas Day 
    5. Step One 
    6. Memorabilia 
    7. Mayday 
    8. Ode 
    9. Broken Doll 
    10. Love Is Hard Enough 

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  • Shrag 'Canines' - Cargo Records UK

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    Shrag 'Canines'

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    Fortuna POP!

    Shrag 'Canines'

    £9.99

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    Brighton's boy-girl scuzzpoppers Shrag flash back to the heyday of such personages as Prolapse or Delta 5, bringing analytical attitude to the debased trade of pop and serving it up with bulldozing portions of raw guitar noise. Uncut

    Shrag will be releasing their hotly anticipated third album Canines via WIAIWYA and Fortuna POP! in July. Recorded at Gargleblast Studios with producer Andy Miller (Life Without Buildings, Mogwai, Sons and Daughters), Canines is a visceral pop record bristling with urgency, melody, and danger, and is the sound of a band fully in their stride.

    Canines is a fiercely idiosyncratic record which stalks new territory for Shrag; in its counter-intuitive journey from the feedback-drenched fury of album opener 'Tears of a Landlord' to the bittersweet lushness of closing paean 'Jane with Dumbbells', Canines interrogates structures, of the body, the mind, and the city. Suffused with bones, skin, and inappropriate desires, the album's first single 'Tendons in the Night' is a voyeuristic ode to the estimable pursuit of gymnastic perfection, whilst the second, 'Show us your Canines', is a blood-heavy exhortation against martyrdom and for movement, distilling the urgency and compulsion which lends the tone to the record as a whole.

    The glam-rock nonchalance of sun-soaked stomper 'Devastating Bones' gives way to the claustrophobia and menace of the family curse threading its way through 'That's Static!', and the heady impulsivity and rush of 'On the Spines of Old Cathedrals' and 'You're the Shout' are offset against the elegant defiance of 'Chasing Consummations' and 'Flinching at Forever', where the band insist on a potent celebration of their own sense of awkwardness and fear. Canines follows up 2009's self-titled debut album, and 2010's Life! Death! Prizes!, both of which were mixed by legendary producer (and Morrissey drummer) Woodie Taylor, fresh from his success with Love Is All and Veronica Falls.

    Shrag's first album was met with critical acclaim from, amongst others, Uncut, Pitchfork, the Sunday Times, and Artrocker. Life! Death! Prizes! was equally as acclaimed as its predecessor, garnering wide-spread praise from many including Pitchfork (again), Drowned in Sound,  The Quietus, and All Music Guide, who praised "... the kind of songs you want to hear playing loud all day and then quietly at night, a thrillingly romantic, bleedingly emotional album for people who want some bite in their pop.

    Tracklisting:
    1. Tears Of A Landlord 
    2. Show Us Your Canines 
    3. Chasing Consummations 
    4. Tendons in the Night 
    5. On the Spines of Old Cathedrals 
    6. Devastating Bones 
    7. You're the Shout 
    8. That's Static 
    9. No More Memories 
    10. Flinching at Forever 
    11. Jane with Dumbbells

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