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'When you are compelled to do the right thing, when you live by some internal code, and you don't shy away from standing up to and in the face of adversity or against the mob or the man no matter what that might mean to "your fame or prospects", it's doing the right thing... for some it might be taking a knee, or even a baton or bullet. That's a fire inside you, and it doesn't grow on trees. I create my own culture because it is what I need and what I feel isn't being provided. It doesn't exist unless I participate.' – Anton Newcombe

ANTON NEWCOMBE – frontman, songwriter composer, studio owner, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, force of nature – returns with the Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 19th full-length studio album Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees, which will be released on 24th June 2022 on his own label A Recordings.

It has been 30 years since the release of their first single She Made Me / Evergreen. Released in 1992, as the British music press descended on the US to anoint the next US guitar band as flavour of the month and major labels were on the hunt for the compliant hopefuls to be their latest quick fix, Anton Newcombe had an idea: say no. As leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Newcombe had already established himself as a visionary songwriter, a man to whom making music wasn't a lifestyle choice or a hipster haircut but the very fabric of existence itself, and he had observed in silent horror as his peers meekly acquiesced to everything – yes to contracts, yes to management, yes to suggestions, yes to this, yes to that, yes, yes, yes. But he was different. Anton Newcombe was going to say no to everything. "I just knew I would be more successful in a certain way by saying no, just being contrary because I figured that if people liked me they were gonna like me anyway," he says. "Or dislike me. It doesn’t matter."

Brian Jonestown Massacre's shoegazing-tinged debut album Methodrone was released in 1995 and since then numerous band members have joined Newcombe on his sonic escapades, but he has remained the sole constant, the creative mastermind at the centre of one of music's most fascinating bands. There have been a further 18 albums under the Brian Jonestown Massacre moniker since then, each embarking on their own mind-expanding adventure and exploring the outer realms of rock'n'roll; psychedelic rock, country-blues, snarling rock’n’roll, blissed-out noise-pop and more.

Along the way, Newcombe has established himself as a once-in-a-lifetime talent who saw the direction in which mainstream indie-rock was heading and opted to take the long way round. He's emerged as - revolutionary force in modern music, an underground hero. There was no other way, this was how it had to be. "My only option with everything in life has always been that you just jump into the fire," he declares. "It doesn’t matter what it is."

It's with that spirit that he’s hopped around the globe, from the West Coast to New York, from Manhattan to Iceland, and then to Berlin, where he’s lived for 14 years and has two flats, one to live in and one that's been converted into his studio. He goes there six days a week to work and write and record and produce and it's where the fantastic new BJM album Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees was made. In an era where one band bleeds into the next and production all seems to be pulling from a similarly beige-y sonic palette, here is a record that crackles with excitement and possibility, the fuzz of those 60s Ampeg amps, the exhilarating swirl of guitars and keyboards and Newcombe in the middle of it all, conducting the chaos.

Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees is the beginning of a thrilling new phase for Newcombe and his band. Joining him in the studio for this album were Ricky Maymi (guitars), Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt (keyboards), Hakon Adalsteinsson (guitar), Hallberg Daði Hallbergsson (bass), Uri Rennert (drums) and Sara Neidorf (drums).

After a hugely prolific 2010s that saw the release of eight long-players and one mini-album, Newcombe had been going through a period of writer’s block when one day he picked up his 12-string guitar in the studio and album opener and lead single The Real came out of him. Like the kraken, it was as if he’d summoned it. "All of a sudden, I just heard something," he says. "And then it just didn’t stop. We tracked a whole song every single day for 70 days in a row."

Four minutes into Fire Doesn’t Grow On Trees, there are two lines that sum up its fearless spirit. "Fight the beast until it dies, raise your sword up to the sky!", sings Newcombe as an explosion of fuzzy guitars, thrumming organs and rolling drums collide around him. As soon as Newcombe wrote it, he knew The Real had to open the new album. "That line is like fantasyland!" he laughs. "It's the little kid in me, full on St George shit. It's as much a declaration of anything that I could ever muster. A lot of the album is about affirmation by just living. Existentially, this time period has felt pretty dark so it’s about fighting the good fight. I’m singing to empower other people. First of all, I’m getting whatever I need out of it, but I can see it as something other people can identify with."

These are songs fuelled with the heady feeling of capturing a moment – from the hot-footed country sway of It's About Being Free Really to the hazy grooves of What's In A Name, from the garage stomp of Silenced to the widescreen 60s-pop of Wait A Minute (2:30 To Be Exact). Nothing was pre-written. Like The Real, everything was conjured up by where an instrument took Newcombe when he picked it up. "I could sit at the piano, the organ, any instrument, and get an idea all of a sudden. I would play for one second with the band to get a grasp of the idea, and then we would unplug the amps and put on the headphones, plug in and track it. Then I would go, 'guys leave the room', sing the words in my head and then record them. Everything's off the top of my head, just like one-take Jake. I surprised myself."

Fire Doesn't Grow On Trees is a brilliant album, but there is no such thing as a defining statement in Anton Newcombe's world anymore, just more chapters that contribute to the tale. "Nobody can stop me, I'm not asking somebody, I'm not making the rounds at Warners, saying 'please put out my record!'. It's just for me," he says. He hopes he can be an inspiration to others. "I would love to see more groups, people playing music in the UK and everywhere else because I really enjoy it. That's the only reason I need. It's the only reason to do stuff." That hits to the core of what makes Anton Newcombe and Brian Jonestown Massacre tick in 2022. He'll keep jumping in that fire. That's how he rolls. Savour it.

Tracklisting:
1. The Real
2. Ineffable Mindfuck
3. It's About Being Free Really
4. What's In A Name
5. Silenced
6. Before And After land
7. You Think I'm Joking?
8. #1 LUCKY KITTY
9. Wait A Minute (2:30 to be exact)
10. Don't Let Me Get In Your Way

Very limited vinyl pressing, 500 copies in a full colour single sleeve housing eco mix vinyl colour and effect vinyl. Exact colour and effect will be a surprise. Plus an 8 page lyric booklet with a download included.

Without doubt, they are 'the real deal'. Fierce and committed in what they believe in, as how they play. This is shit kicking UKHC full of youthful anger and shorn of vacuous posturing, which continues gaining fans with every gig. 

Now at last Shooting Daggers are ready to drop their first major brace of songs with their debut EP 'Athames'. Six tracks of visceral hardcore punk (including first single 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl') with a message, full of spit and fury, venom and hooks, and coupled with enough twists and turns to go way beyond  a straightforward heads down mosh and thrash. 

Add to that an in-your-face Riot Grrl attitude, fat grunge licks, speeding 'SST band' riffs, and the artful and political angst of DC Hardcore and you have a cracking debut EP. Three women storming the barricades, pointing the way to bigger things ahead. So what else is there to say but, dip into 'Athames' and dig the new breed.

Tracklisting:
Side A
1. No Exit
2. Liar
3. Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Side B
1. Carnage
2. We Will Live
3. You Can't Kill Us

Jawad Nawfal and Mazen El Sayed, better known by their stage names of MUNMA and EL RASS, met for the first time in Beirut, during the summer of 2011. A common friend told Jawad wonders about an MC who rapped and slammed in the classical Arabic language, as opposed to the vernacular Lebanese dialect.

The two musicians met in a small café in Beirut’s Hamra neighborhood, spoke of music, argued about politics, and decided to collaborate at once. They began working on tracks the following day. A month later, they had already produced a dozen sketches, instrumental beds and accapella vocal tracks. These demos eventually landed in the hands of Ziad Nawfal and Fadi Tabbal, who set out to bring to life the duo's first recorded album. "Kachf el Mahjoub" (the title is from a Sufi master-work penned some 900 years ago) was eventually released as a limited edition of 500 CD's, during a launch event at then-budding alternative venue Metro al Madina in Hamra, on the 22nd of February 2012.

These CDs went out of print in record time, as can be expected, and the album's mythical status became reinforced over time – El Rass & Munma collaborated sporadically during the next ten years, but never fully grasped the level of musical intensity and explosive tension attained on this first outing. It has been a longstanding dream of ours, here at Ruptured, to produce a vinyl version of this album, and we are thrilled to say this moment has finally come.

Artist ALI RAFEI's original artworks have been painstakingly reproduced, the music has been dutifully remastered for vinyl by CEDRIK FERMONT, and the records were pressed by our friends at Mother Tongue in Verona. We added bonus track "Fi Kala'at Tarablus" to this 10th anniversary reissue for good measure – recorded during the same sessions that yielded "Kachf el Mahjoub", it appears on the digital version of the album.

"Kachf el Mahjoub" is a landmark album in Lebanon’s alternative music scene, and the MENA region’s hiphop and indie scenes writ large. At the time of their collaboration, El Sayed was a prolific writer and musician, at ease with a variety of instruments, notorious for his masterful flow in the classical Arabic language, with lyrics tackling both social and political sensitive subjects; Nawfal has previously released an impressive number of albums and EPs, exploring downtempo electronica and ambient dubstep, for a number of Lebanese and international labels.

The collision of the former's brazen, slammed vocals and the latter's harsh beats works wonders on "Kachf el Mahjoub", Munma's sound-world perfectly fitting El Rass's agitated discourse, alternating between broken beats, elaborate percussion, and ambient layers of synths. At times reminiscent of mutant hiphop outfit Shabazz Palaces, at others of the collaboration between dubstep producer Kode9 and the late vocalist The SpaceApe, this album is an uncanny meeting of Arabic hip-hop and electronica, an exceptional event in the realm of contemporary Lebanese alternative music.

Tracklisting:
1. Fout 3a rassi / Enter the head
2. Tkhayal / Conceive
3. Borkan Beirut
4. Rissala / Sub-litteral
5. 3echq / Islamology
6. Sanadet / Treasury Bonds
7. Nou7 / The Noah
8. Yoga
9. 7issar / Trojan
10. Min Tha2er / Les Justes
11. Majnoun Leila / Mad is Laila
12. Tkhayal [Sary Moussa Remix]
13. Fee Qala'at Tarablus / In the Fort of Tripoli [Bonus Track]

Precious Metals are excited to announce "Chaos Butterfly", the debut album from the Vietnamese-Canadian electronic music producer, vocalist and filmmaker, x/o.

"Chaos Butterfly" is an epic tale of catharsis and self-actualization explored through metamorphosis. It is a free-falling kaleidoscopic journey into a beautiful nightmare, both cataclysmic and tender. Expanding on the themes present in their first EP "Cocoon Egg", the album builds a parallel world from a different perspective.

"Chaos Butterfly" tells a loose narrative about an anti-hero navigating trauma through whirlwinds of grief and anger; a vengeful spirit who finds true strength in inner healing and forgiveness. An allegory for transcending societal concepts of gender, "Chaos Butterfly" is a journey of self-acceptance and reflection of x/o's own path towards their non-binary identity.

Throughout the voyage, x/o pulls apart and collides masculine and feminine tropes both theoretically and musically by utilising contrasts between soft and hard, internal and external, calmness and anger, loud and quiet. This system of symbolism and influences reveal a pattern that is the overarching theme of duality.

Colliding disparate but interconnected influences, x/o references Playstation 2's Final Fantasy X world-building, Fight Club, the half-yoma warriors in the anime Claymore, as well as the real legends of the Vietnamese Trung Sisters.

Musically, "Chaos Butterfly" resists easy categorisation, playfully fusing moments of reversed breakbeat, with elements of solemn ambience, distorted metal, and trip-hop catharsis, with inspiration from artists such as Yoko Kanno, to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as well as Deftones, Massive Attack, Orbital, and Aaliyah.

The album journey begins with opener "Chrysalis Wrath", a prologue to the story, and emblematic of the metamorphosis of the album. A soft and unassuming exterior to the hard shell and bone that lies beneath. Delicately cascading melodies and disembodied vocals are torn asunder by a brooding, ominous synth, punctuated by blasts of percussion, like dark clouds forming on the horizon, the egg cracks; a foretelling of what is to come and a reference to what has been.

This is followed by "Red Alert" the first single from the release, which blends airy melancholic vocals with a flurry of drum breaks and synths plucks, an ambitious and cinematic exploration of intuition against recurring trauma. Melodies drifting and out of focus under the swirling vocal, like the blur of neon street lights reflecting in a rain-soaked cityscape. It's a liminal poem about listening to your inner voice to protect you from harm.

Duality is never more apparent than on "Promise : Armour" delicate piano melodies drift and settle like snowfall before crushing blows of hardstyle kicks blast through the ether, as their soulful, but anguished vocal harmony is overcome by a demonic refrain "Cross your heart, don’t cross me".

x/o is a founding member of s.M.i.L.e, a trail-blazing collective of like-minded artists in Vancouver pushing the boundaries of club experimentation, showcasing artists such as Actress, Hitmakerchinx, Mechatok, Nídia, and Shygirl.

This is an album that reaches dizzying heights, and in 2022 we expect x/o to do the exact same.

Tracklisting:
1. Chrysalis Wrath
2. Red Alert
3. Indigo Drop
4. Promise : Armour
5. Initiation Relic
6. Locking In
7. Fight or Flight
8. Cyclone Storm
9. Mirror Shard, Phoenix Down
10. Final Wingspan
11. Hea11ng ca11

The second installment in Fu Manchu's 30th Anniversary vinyl 10" series, Fu30, Pt.2, includes 2 new original Fu Manchu songs, as well as a cover of Surf Punks' "My Wave."

The band will be releasing 1 more edition in this 10" series, making a total of 30" of new Fu Manchu music for the Fu30 anniversary. Each release includes 2 new original compositions and a newly recorded cover. Like the band's most recent album, Clone Of The Universe, and Fu30, Pt. 1, Fu30, Pt. 2 was recorded at The Racket Room in Santa Ana, California by Jim Monroe (Adolescents, Ignite) and co-produced with Fu Manchu.

This limited edition 2,500 unit run is pressed on pink neon vinyl at 45 RPM for maximum heaviness with a package design that pays homage to the cover of Surf Punk's original single.

Tracklisting:
1. Strange Plan
2. Low Road
3. My Wave

Moongazer is the second album by the four-piece stoner rock powerhouse from Italy, TENEBRA. The band had already made waves on the scene with their debut album 'Gen Nero' before delivering 'What We Do is Sacred' their debut EP for New Heavy Sounds last year, 3 killer tracks that were but a taster of things to come.

Moongazer takes the story a stage further with nine slabs of crushing fuzzed up grooves, fuelled by 70's proto metal, hard rock, punk, psych-blues and noise, loaded with great riffs and melody and topped off by gutsy soulful vocals.

Musically, you could say that TENEBRA occupy similar musical terrain to bands such as Graveyard, Witchcraft, Kadaver and other bands of that ilk, but TENEBRA are very much their own beast. They have all the chops of course, but are musically less slavish, often adding a twist that keeps the songs fresh and now.

There's also very little reliance on Sabbath-isms (apart from one cheeky nod) and though occult rock is also part of the vibe, the music steers well clear of the cliches. In fact the band bring a clutch of left field influences into their melting pot as well, from June of 44 and Love Battery to the Misfits and the psych grunge of Screaming Trees, much of it in evidence on this new album.

Of the four members, Claudio (bass), Emilio (guitar) and Mesca (drums) came from the hardcore and post-hardcore squat scene that gathered around Bologna, whereas their formidable vocalist Silvia (the youngest of the crew) is immersed in the underground rock of the '60s and' 70s. When you hear her sing you’ll know where she’s coming from as she has one helluva rock voice, laced with whiskey, smoke, grit, late nights and a whole lotta soul.

Think Maggie Bell meets Betty Davis with a smattering of Gillan, and you'll be in the right ballpark. So what you get with 'Moongazer' is a band revelling in the spirit of 70's rock rather than recreating it. MOONGAZER is without doubt an accomplished sophomore release that deserves to be heard and appreciated, purely because, though it may appear to reside in the world of stoner, it is so much more.

Tracklisting:
1. Heavy Crusher
2. Cracked Path
3. Black Lace
4. Carry My Load
5. Winds Of Change
6. Stranded
7. Space Child
8. Dark And Distant Sky
9. Moon Maiden

'+++ Revised vinyl reissue from the original band members Eduardo Gatti and Juan Pablo Orrego +++ Debut from the experimental folk/ rock band in the revolutionary days of the late 60's in Chile. Remastered from the original pressing and authorized by the founder musicians, this edition also has the original artwork and unreleased material updated by designer Antonio Larrea.

Label's Note: Due to the original tape being destroyed during the military dictatorship, we have had to process direct music from a vinyl record in "MINT" state (never played before) from the first edition of the time. “A waterfall of music, a bouquet of mysteries”. There is a handwritten data on the cover of the long play that one of the members of Los Blops has treasured for half a century: “1st record.
Stgo - Chile. August 26, 1970”, noted there on that day by Juan Pablo Orrego's father.

In some sense it is a spontaneous birth certificate, not the starting point (Los Blops were already formed in 1964 in Santiago de Chile), but still somehow the beginning of the major chapters in their history. That LP, called Blops, is the first of the three that they recorded between 1970 and 1973 and made the band a primary reference for rock and popular song in Chile. Then it was Eduardo Gatti on voice and guitar, Julio Villalobos (uncle from DJ Ricardo Villalobos) on voice and guitar, Juan Pablo Orrego on voice and bass, Juan Contreras on transverse flute and keyboards, and Sergio Bezard on drums and percussion.

The evidence of the qualitative leap they took from playing covers to creating their own music is in that first vinyl which appeared in 1970, a year marked by social, cultural and political transformations in Chile. Released under Dicap label, a historic record label founded in 1968 by the Communist Youth Organization, the album was self-produced. As Eduardo Gatti points out: “We were the only producers. That's how that bouquet of rather strange flowers came out. In Blops there’s also a synthesis of the musical influences of the time, including rock of course.

Eduardo Gatti goes back to that point: “We had already researched the playing of (Bob) Dylan, Keith Richards, Clapton, so making an interesting weave with guitars was quite fascinating. And there came a time when we didn't play any more covers because it didn't make sense: it was time for our stuff. As we all mature, all this information that we had processed decanted in Los Blops ”. And Orrego agrees: “We had all those aspects, but a very own musical language began”. For the year following this album, the Blops were all living together in a house baptized as Manchufela in Ñuñoa borough in Santiago. There they deepened even more the intense vital and musical construction of the group, which also coincided with the bustling years of the UP (Unidad Popular, the left-wing political alliance led by President Salvador Allende from 1970 to 1973*): all experiences cut short by the Pinochet military coup in 1973 and by the terror that followed.

Gatti looks back at those previous years: “I think we were very happy. I think the fact of living in a community gave us such a different vision, like we put together a mini-society within this society that was dismantling itself, in which we continued with tremendous energy, very luminous in our case. And that made us somehow able to survive everything that came after. " And they are elements that add to the group's ultimate identity and the significance of its music, as Eduardo Gatti concludes: “It never ceases to amaze me. We were not in the Nueva Canción Chilena, in the political song. We, along with Los Jaivas and Congreso, were unclassifiable. And we were unclassifiable the entire time we recorded and played. I think that also gave a freshness to all this that people have appreciated more and more over time. And I think it is still without any classification”. –Santiago de Chile, December 11th 2020.

Tracklisting:
1. Barroquita
2. Los Momentos
3. La Muerte del Rey
4. Niebla
5. Vértigo
6. La Mañana y el Jardín
7. Santiago Oscurece el Pelo en el Agua
8. Patita
9. Atlántico
10. Maquinaria

Entrance Records & Tapes is pleased to present the resurrection of "Prayer of Death" which has been out of print and off the grid since 2016.

Released in 2006, the spiritual rock opera moved Pitchfork to hail Entrance (aka Guy Blakeslee) as "a psychedelic shaman bringing us news from other planes of existence." 

Recorded on tape in Chicago in the winter of 2005 by David Vandervelde as the followup to 2004's mostly acoustic acid-tinged country blues saga "Wandering Stranger" (Fat Possum), the self-produced and privately pressed "Prayer of Death" saw Blakeslee expanding his sound with heavy doses of electricity and eastern psychedelia,  and drawing from influences as diverse as Charley Patton, Sandy Bull, the Stooges, Sufi poetry  and the Tibetan Book of the Dead . Blakeslee's in-studio alchemy with Paz Lenchantin (now of the Pixies) and drummer Derek James would lead to the formation of The Entrance Band. 

The rebirth of this underground cult classic , originally inspired by "the daily Death Vibrations of the Modern World," could not come at a more appropriate time, given the state of our civilization. 

For Blakeslee, death is the ultimate psychedelic, erasing the mind completely instead of expanding it-- and by the closing track, he has made some sort of peace with the idea, which makes the album sound like a journey instead of a tract. His final words are "When you think about death every morning, don't you ever be afraid!" If only it were that easy. - Pitchfork

Tracklisting:
1. Grim Reaper Of Death
2. Silence On A Crowded Train
3. Requiem For Sandy Bull (R.I.P)
4. Valium Blues
5. Pretty Baby
6. Prayer Of Death
7. Lost In The Dark
8. Never Be Afraid

Celebrating 50 releases, this collection of 19 tracks from the catalog shows the variation of music we have put out since the first release in January 1998.

From the timeless, austere melancholia of Fartein Valen and the pioneering electronic music of Arne Nordheim to the magic pop diamonds of Susanna and the Magical Orchestra and the restless youth improv that is MoHa!, taking in some traditional music, free rock, jazz, ambient, contemporary experiments and various shades of electronica along the way.

Some are cornestones in the catalog, but this is not a best of collection, we want to show the different aspects of Rune Grammofon and have tried to give each of the records a common theme or base.

There are five 10" vinyl records, all in their own sleeve with an exclusive Kim Hiorthøy design, as well as a 16 page catalogue, also with special design from Kim and with an overview of the 50 first Rune Grammofon releases. All come in a very nice, solid cardboard box, also designed by Kim.

Being limited to 1000 copies, this is bound to be a collectors item in no time, not only because of the limited aspect but also because of the fantastic design work at show, quite possibly some of the finest record design work Kim has ever done. Being a treasured format by vinyl collectors, the 10" is more expensive to manufacture than the ordinary 12", meaning it isn't made that often, especially not in a box set like this.

Tracklisting:
Side A:
Fartein Valen '“ The Churchyard By The Sea

Side B:
Arne Nordheim '“ Pace

Side C:
Supersilent '“ 4.3

Side D:
1. Scorch Trio'“ Taajus
2. Moha! '“ B1

Side E:
Alog '“ Severe Punishment And Lasting Bliss

Side F:
1. Skyphone '“ In Our Time
2. Phonophani '“ Lavenderloops
1. Nils Økland '“ Månelyst

Side G:
1. Nils Økland '“ Månelyst
2. Arve Henriksen '“ Sanmon - Main Entrance
3. Food '“ Daddycation

Side H:
1. Susanna And The Magical Orchestra'“ Beliver
2. In The Country '“ Only The Birds Can See Us

Side I:
1. Svalastog '“ Feil Remix
2. Strønen / Storløkken '“ Sport'n Spice

Side J:
1. Spunk '“ Marbles
2. Jazzkammer '“ Silver Spider Morning
3. Maja Ratkje '“ Chipmunk Party
4. Deathprod '“ Twin Decks

Still only 29 years old when composing and recording this album, Kjetil Mulelid is one of the brightest talents in Norwegian jazz, and these days that really says something. Kjetil was sceptical when we first suggested a solo piano record back in early 2018, fully aware that solo piano in jazz is considered the ultimate challenge.

But the idéa slowly grew on him and when the pandemic exploded and other plans had to be scrapped, he suddenly had the time as well as the means to do it. Thus the bulk of the album was written in a hectic lockdown period and recorded on a steaming hot June day in the legendary Athletic Sound studio on their unique and characteristic Bösendorfer grand piano from 1919.

Of the piano Kjetil says the sound is one of a kind, very clear and not typically 'perfect' like most new ones. We can only wholeheartedly agree, it sounds great and is also very well recorded and mixed, giving the impression that you sit next to him, and not in a concert hall.

In turn melancholy, joyful and playful, always elegant, the album fully shows Kjetil's harmonic and melodic mastery and the influence from early introductions to classical masters like Debussy, Chopin and Beethoven.

Whether staying with the tune or taking off on improvised flights, there is an ease and assurance in his playing that betrays his young age.

Tracklisting:
1. Beginning
2. Skjong
3. Dancers
4. Point Of View
5. Le Petit
6. Love Story
7. For You I'll Do Anything
8. Sailor's Song
9. Blooming
10. Kanskje I Morgen
11. The Sun

Disc 1 - Yellow to Blue Coloured Vinyl
Disc 2 - Blue to Black Coloured Vinyl

“Sunlight to blue … Blue to blackness” - This was one of the more upbeat title suggestions for the very bare, back to basics, reflective album from The Durutti Column. Originally released in June 2008, Sunlight to Blue… was a conscious response to the previous two polished and ‘studio-based’ releases.

Here he created some sparse, simply beautiful 'sketches' as he once called them, more reminiscent of his work from the early eighties. Many of the pieces are instrumentals played on his Juan Montero flamenco guitar, and he returns to 'Without Mercy' for the last track 'Grief' whilst reinventing 'Never Known' from LC.

Now, for the first time, the LP is available remastered and re-packaged as a gatefold double 12” 180gram vinyl release.

This album also saw the debut of the then talented young pianist and singer, Poppy Morgan, who co-wrote the melancholy Ananda as a duet with what Reilly dryly called 'intrusive guitar'.

For the uninitiated, Vini was the first artist signed to Manchester’s influential Factory Records, co-wrote and played on Morrissey’s first solo album ‘Viva Hate’, and was heavily featured in the Manchester music culture film, ’24 Hour Party People’. Vini Reilly has recorded under the name The Durutti Column since 1978 and has a rich portfolio of work, releasing over twenty albums in this time.

Ever critical of Vini’s voice, but ever a fierce champion of his talent, the late Tony Wilson would surely appreciate this return of The Durutti Column.

Tracklisting:
1. Glimpse
2. Contact
3. Messages
4. Ged
5. Ananda
6. Never Known Version
7. So Many Crumbs And Monkeys!
8. Head Glue
9. Demo For Gathering Dust
10. Cup A Soup Romance
11. Grief

Only 28 years old, Kjetil Mulelid comes across as an exceptionally mature pianist and composer. His trio's debut 'Not Nearly Enough To Buy A House' (2017) received wide international acclaim, with writers most typically mentioning Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans.

All About Jazz noted their conversational style and sometime gospel feel, Textura made a point out of their melodic sense and folk-like character while The Wire noted the grooves, rich harmonies and lyrical melodies and concluded about "just how magical this album is". "What You Thought Was Home" continues in this tradition, with eight new beguiling Mulelid compositions expertly balancing energetic, often rhytmically complex and harmonically rich music with beautiful and evocative melodies.

It's not all about Mulelid though, bassist Bjørn Marius Hegge and drummer Andreas Winther effortlessly conjure additional layers, tones and textures, incorporating a sense of calm; an unhurried yet constantly unfolding sound world which can be said to be distinctively Scandinavian, most typically heard in Hegge's sole composition "Bruremarsj (Wedding March)".

Tracklisting:
1. What You Thought Was Home
2. Folk Song
3. Bruremarsj = Wedding March
4. Tales
5. Far Away
6. A Cautionary Tale Against A Repetitive Life
7. Waltz For Ima
8. When Winter Turns Into Spring
9. Homecoming