Recently Added Vinyl

Slightly more than one year has passed since we debuted the Cardiff-based duo Plastic Estate’s first single This Place and we all know what happened meanwhile. But if you thought the global pandemic discouraged the Welsh boys from pursuing their research for an evolution of pop music from the past, think again.

Quite on the contrary, it seems that these past months of forced isolation and necessary restrictions only empowered the ability of the band led by Nicholas James and Stanley Fouracres to compose great songs perfectly in balance between dark, melancholia and happier, brighter feelings. Or maybe their love for the best UK new wave and pop artists such as Dave Gahan, Ian McCulloch, Bryan Ferry is just too tough to die.

However that may be, Plastic Estate have masterfully used this year to write their first full-length album and we at Avant! couldn't be happier to bring it to you on 4 February 2022.

Ten new songs that shine a light on the duo's impressive skills to juggle between the heritage of lost golden era and the pressing presence of the here and now, as well as electronic dance elements and acoustic instruments, ending up sounding classic and contemporary at once. Not an easy task, if you ask me. Check out Out of Reach and its crystal-clear synth-pop radiance, or one whirlwind dancefloor filler such as There Must Be More Than This, juxtaposed with the romantic intimacy of Berlin or Divinely Impaired’s elegant sombreness.

Dive into the imaginary mémoires of a Sophisti-pop era with Antique Days and then resurface nowadays with the hypnagogic club notes of The Difference. We can even feel some Stone Roses-like vibe in the album’s last track Change Your Mind but maybe it’s just us. What’s for sure is that if you liked their 7-inch single you will love their album. If you don't know this group yet but you righteously adore the artists above, do yourself a favour and take a good listen now and you will not be disappointed. Not in the least, as it is this rare to stand in the exact spot where you have a full view of the days behind you and the complete control of the moment you are in.

RIYL: New Order, Roxy Music, The Blue Nile, Future Islands, Lust For Youth

Tracklisting:
Side A
1. Open
2. Out of Reach
3. Divinely Impaired
4. Antique Days
5 When You're Gone

Side B
6. There Must Be More Than This
7. Sins
8. The Difference
9. Berlin
10. Change Your Mind

Two years and one pandemic after his previous release, the Italian, London-based solo project M!R!M is back with a new full- length album. Inspired by the synth pop classics, as well as from cold and dark waves, multi-instrumentalist Jack Milwaukee has been releasing material on labels such as Fabrika and Manic Depression until his first record on Avant!

''The Visionary'' back in 2020. On April 22 his fourth LP ''Time Traitor'' will be released and we’re excited to say this is Milwaukee’s most personal job to date. If you are familiar with his work, you know the DIY/lo-fi approach of his first recordings was already gone with his previous LP but these new ten recordings dig even deeper, drawing the outlines of a fantasy world lost within the foggy memories of a collective childhood.

Possibly locked in his bedroom for the necessary time, Milwaukee has been able to recreate an imaginative realm of 80’s FM suggestions, scattering a number of acoustic clues from different parts of this parallel, yet so familiar dimension. It’s almost like M!R!M is sending us a message in a bottle with each of these new tracks and each message tells a different story.

Post Fight has a punchy pop-punk riff drove by solid synthwave beats, Faultless Pitch hosts a mellow, funky bass line over a solemn drum gate, Desert Love screams italo like nothing else and it was indeed composed four-handed with fellow artists Nuovo Testamento, Say Nothing features SDH singer Andrea Pérez’s backing vocals to invoke a dream-like scenario.

There is even a Turquoise Days' Grey Skies cover that is just one more perfect example of Milwaukee's ability to take a single item from the suitcase of the past and make it extremely current in a handful of minutes.

All this is adorned by semi-instrumental postcards with suggestive names such as Moody Moon, Peninsula and Goodnight Galaxie that will guide you through this journey across M!R!M sound-&-memory experience.

Black vinyl LP edition limited to 500. Comes in a printed inner sleeve with lyrics.

RIYL: Tears For Fears, Pet Shop Boys, Righeira, John Maus, Black Marble.

Cosmic space metal outfit ‘They Watch us From The Moon’ are a band with riffs as heavy as Osmium shot through with melodic lead guitar lines (think Gilmour meets Buck Dharma) as strong as spider's silk. Add in the sublime and soaring vocals vocals of TWUFTM's twin 'Space Angels' Luna Nemesis and Nova 10101001, and you have a unique proposition that lifts this record far above any genre pigeonholing.

TWUFTM are also a band that has a concept behind the groove. Sci-fi space opera, a love for 70’s glam, Bowie and Queen, brought to the fore visually, in their mashing of comic book narratives and George Clinton’s Funkadelic style alter ego’s. 

As to the music … the colossal weight of riffs on this first-contact missive are made so gloriously enjoyable by memorable hooks, honed repetition and and an agile rhythm section that can make each one of their (sometimes 10 minute) stargaze rides feel like an epic odyssey. Fellow space travellers Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, and even Spacemen 3, have been in similar orbits before, but never this heavy.

Now, alongside a trajectory charted by Monster Magnet and maintained by The Sword, Ufomammut, White Hills and Witch Mountain .... TWUFTM don't just breathe new life into cosmic tones, they take it to a different level.


Tracklisting Vinyl:
Side A
1. On The Fields Of The Moon
2. Space Angel
3. Mother of All Bastards

Side 2
1. Creeper A.D.
2. Return To Earth

Tracklisting CD:
1. On The Fields Of The Moon
2. Space Angel
3. Mother of All Bastards
4. Creeper A.D.
5. Return To Earth

Here comes something unapologetically goth. Male Tears is the dark electro group consisting of vocalist, James Edward and synthesist, Frank Shark. Hailing from Los Angeles, what began as a solo project re-established itself as a duo in 2021, simultaneously moving from the breezy sounds of the first self-titled album to darker realms with their sophomore Trauma Club.

Krypt is their third full-length recording and it shows a fully grown ensemble capable of pushing everything over the top; blending elements of darkwave, goth rock, EBM and futurepop into a sound they call Dark Rave.

Naturally drawing inspiration from the Californian goth tradition (45 Grave, Christian Death) and the Canadian post-industrial brood (Skinny Puppy, FLA), as well as the best UK synthpop (Depeche Mode, The Human League), Male Tears emphasizes the most glamourous, and at once, gruesome aspects of the whole gothic subculture, bringing everything to the next level, resulting in a contemporary and cutting edge album.

Eight new cuts that alternate rarefied synthwave (Krypt), dark eurodance (Slay) with goth techno-pop (Sleep 4Ever) and pounding electro-industrial (I Expire) to create something we may call New Romantic Body Music. It's no wonder we wanted the scene’s top studio, La Distilleria, run by Maurizio Baggio, to master this for the most bombastic outcome.

And yet Krypt is not just about the music, it’s about one up with the times attitude that can review aggressive EBM in the light of an extravagant pop sensibility and a theatrical grandeur worthy of the Blitz Kids from London circa 1979-80. 

You may think it takes quite a bit of nonchalance to do so but the L.A. duo easily succeeds at this. Akin to their aesthetics, they may seem spooky from the outside but their approach is nothing stuffy. Quite the contrary, everything regarding Male Tears is a celebration of life’s most bizzare shades, driven by some of the best dark humor you’ll find around. So Dance with me, my dear, on a dancefloor of bones and skulls / The music is our master The devil controls our souls.

Tracklisting:
1. Krypt
2. Sleep 4ever
3. Domin8
4. I Expire
5. Deal3r 
6. Never Again
7. Jaded
8. Slay

Solid green vinyl 180gm LP with printed inner disco bag. Limited to 500 copies.

Teenage Waitress returns with the new album ‘Your Cuckoo’. This album is the follow up to the critically acclaimed debut Love & Chemicals.

“Melodies and storytelling. . basically" is how Daniel J. Ash of Southampton’s Teenage Waitress describes his eagerly anticipated second album Your Cuckoo. “It’s a bunch of characters singing songs about love, youth, drugs, boredom and of course, dancing”.

‘Your Cuckoo’ is a leap forward in every way for Teenage Waitress. Ash’s trademark ‘story songs’ are set to a backdrop of irresistible melodies, colourful arrangements and impeccable production. While noticeably a more focused effort than Ash’s previous effort Love & Chemicals, this album still offers a little something for everyone.

For the recording of ‘Your Cuckoo’ Ash recruited some of his musical friends to join him in the studio, adding a rich new layer of musicianship to his latest songs. “We basically wanted to go a step ahead from where we got to last time. . and I think we’ve done that” smiles Ash “I’ve been a perfectionist in every sense and annoyed a lot of people to get to this point. I hope it was worth it!”

Tracklisting:
1. Baby Blue 
2. Maggie 
3.Grey Sky 
4. Girl, I Want You To Kill Me 
5. Bedroom Waltz 
6. I Like The Way You Fall In Love 
7. Big Smoke 
8. Back Seat
9. Too Much Of A Good Thing 
10. Hold Me In The Afternoon 
11. Salutations

“Muzik Fantastique! is another example of their hidden talents” – NME.

1993’s Muzik Fantastique! will receive its first ever vinyl issue in March.

The album finds Chris & Cosey in one of their most dynamic and melodic periods with an album that slides towards subtler grooves and textures.

Tracklisting:
Side One
1. Fantastique (Edit)
2. Sound Of Sound (Edit)
3. Masqued (Edit)
4. Apocalypso (Edit)
5. frakira

Side Two
1. Hidden Man
2. Visions Love (Edit)
3. Loves Lost Immortal (Edit)
4. Eternal (Edit)
5. Neverneverland
6. Melancholia

“… an album which shows that Carter Tutti are in a state of continuing evolution” – The Wire.

2007’s Feral Vapours of the Silver Ether will be available here for the first time on vinyl, and was the second release under the Carter Tutti name.

On it, the electronic and the acoustic are merged in a seamless, crafted album that is awash with echoes of the sea, the moon, the open road, and flatlands.

Tracklisting:
Side One
1. So Slow The Knife (Edit)
2 Lowlands (Edit)
3. Torn Window (Edit)
4. Woven Clouds (Edit)
5 It Was

Side Two
1. Breathless Endings
2. Forest Floor
3. Acid Tongue (Edit)
4. The Sun Shone That Day
5. Feral Vapours (Edit)

Featured Artists: Matty James Cassidy, Tyla J. Pallas

The Balladmongrels is a raucous new band featuring Dogs D'Amour frontman Tyla J. Pallas and Northern Irish singer-songwriter Matty James Cassidy. Their glorious mix of raw guitars, dark romantic lyrics, beautiful melodies and rousing choruses will implant themselves in your brain, heart and soul and never let go.

The Balladmongrels’ debut album ‘Trouble’ is set for release 12th May 2023.

Towards the end of the UK’s 2nd lockdown, Tyla and Matty discussed releasing a 7” single with one of their own songs on each side. After a few drinks they decided instead to write some new songs and record an entire album. After a few more drinks (red wine & Guinness if you’re interested) they further developed the idea into an all new transient band with their co-written songs at it’s core.

And so… The Balladmongrels were born...

Initially they thought about calling themselves The Balladmongers. A name taken from Tyla’s first solo album (‘The Life & Times of a Balladmonger’) to reflect both Tyla’s career – in which he has variously been described as a balladeer and street poet – and Matty treading a similar, but different musical path. Matty suggested “mongrels” might be a better fit…

Mongrel n. an individual resulting from the crossing of different breeds; a cross between types of persons or things.

Speaking about the name and concept, Tyla said,
“I loved the idea of two songwriters from different generations collaborating – taking one of my ballads and getting a younger mongrel, like Matty, to give it some bollocks”

Matty added,
“We also liked the juxtaposition of having “ballad” in the name, as most of the album is full-tilt rock n’ roll. People may have seen us playing together acoustic and expect the album to be the same… it’s not”

As an album, ‘Trouble’ has much to offer fans of The Dogs D’Amour and Tyla’s and Matty’s solo material. It presents the meeting of their distinct songwriting styles as they share and take turns on vocal duties, complementing each other while bringing in a range of their wider musical influences from Thin Lizzy to The Pogues.

Tracklisting:
1. Ballad of the Knucklemen
2. Chambers
3. Trouble
4. How the Beautiful Fall
5. Swingin’ Jack
6 Highwayman Blues
7. Warship
8. Evil Under the Moon
9. Tall Ships
10. Good Ol’ Daze

Bundle including 2x 10" Fu30 Pt. 2 / Pt. 3.
You get Pt.2 for £5.