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Tough Love Records
Big Ups 'Eighteen Hours Of Static'
£7.99
Tough Love Records
Big Ups 'Eighteen Hours Of Static'
£7.99
Brendan Finn, Joe Galarraga, Amar Lal, and Carlos Salguero Jr. met whilst learning about specifications of Cat 5 cables in New York City. Shortly after, they formed a band.
Big Ups blend punk, post-punk, metal, and indie rock into a salty mash that gets stuck to the roof of your mouth. At their brightest, they have been likened to The Descendents, but at their sludgiest, they call to mind bands like Pissed Jeans and The Jesus Lizard, albeit with an Albini-esque metallic clang.
Their debut album, Eighteen Hours of Static, was recorded by Charles DeChants in the rock 'n' roll labyrinth known as Excello Recording in Brooklyn over three days.
The album is one characterised by aggressive mood swings. The band slows their usual frantic pace on the burner Wool ' a song about dealing with suffering. They toy with dynamics on white-knuckle grip of TMI, Little Kid, and Fresh Meat. But not to worry ' the mania is still there; first single Goes Black and Atheist Self-Help demand attention with their searing guitars and colossal drums.
Lyrically, the album is a meditation on truth, faith, and science (the record's title is a reference to Carl Sagan's Contact), but like all the best bands, Big Ups don't necessarily have all of the answers, but they'll keep asking the right questions¦
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Body Parts
2. Goes Black
3. Justice
4. Grin
5. Wool
Side B:
1. TMI
2. Little Kid
3. Atheist Self-Help
4. Disposer
5. Fresh Meat
6. Fine Line
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Visit product page →Long before the man with the fixed ‘fuck you’ stare, can of beer, e-cigarette and laptop found a home as one half of Sleaford Mods, Andrew Fearn was making music at home comprising samples, loops, frazzled electronic textures, deep bass rumbles, mutated beats, punk snarl, post-dancefloor meltdown mayhem and all manner of other abstract and disparate sounds.
Rammed home by the same DIY sensibility that drives Sleaford Mods, Andrew’s (mostly) solo works are where he cuts his teeth on new ideas, fresh sounds and music that sways heavily between that of a chemical-soaked film soundtrack and an obvious passion for all things that filter in from those less obvious edges most people prefer to keep at bay.Tracklisting:
Disc One
(Just Tracks Album)
1. Care Less
2. Dirty Soup
3.Foul Play
4.Crystal Ball
5. Boss Lies
6.Tech Lies
7.Garner
8.Funhouses
9.Breath In
10.Breath OutroDisc Two
(Random Selection)
1.Anguish of Conflict
2.Bad Penny
3.Stoop Me
4.Kraken
5.Heavy Menthol
6.Dirty Bastard
7.Sunshine E
8.Lost By (Remix)
9.Drum an Cello
10.Wolverines Violin -
Visit product page →Release Date: 25/10/2024
Two Times UK Blues Award winner Mississippi MacDonald presents his third album on APM Records. ‘I Got What You Need’ is a statement from a troubadour coming into town bearing songs of soul searching, of spiritual uplift, and of tunes to groove to. Equipped with a powerful voice and stinging guitar Mississippi MacDonald lays down his marker.
MacDonald continues to be an excellent interpreter of southern soul and two more songs from the stable of Memphis studio and publishing house Ecko in Hard Luck and Trouble and the title track prove this. So too the band’s take on the R&B classic We’re Gonna Make It which in MacDonald’s hands really swings. Sinking is an epic ballad in which to lose yourself completely. The gravelly gospel tones on If I Could Only Hear My Mother Pray Again and the imploring emotion on Your Dreams have MacDonald stretching out vocally. Two self-penned instrumentals pay tribute to the greats; 3.35AM, to one of MacDonald’s prime influences Freddie King, and Soul City One to the in-house studio sound of Stax.The album is rich in variety, vibe and soulful energy. It’s MacDonald’s Blues and a whole lot more. As guest artist with the Take Me To The River All Stars in 2024 featuring the legendary Hi Rhythm, MacDonald performed on stage at Red Rooster and was filmed in session with Eric Gales and Jools Holland.
MacDonald and band will perform at the UK Blues Challenge on October 8th and he will be a special guest of Visit Mississippi in Liverpool in October when they unveil the first ever Blues Trail Marker outside The Cavern Club alongside Clarksdale veteran Super Chikan.
MacDonald speaks quietly but makes music with real gravitas. He is a rising star since winning Traditional Blues Artist Of The Year and Acoustic Act of the Year at the 2024 UK Blues Awards.
“Mississippi MacDonald represents the next generation of great guitarists who hail from the UK….wholly authentic, he’s earned the right to claim the name”
LIVING BLUES, USA.Tracklisting:
1. I Got What You Need
2. We’re Gonna Make It
3. Stop! Think About It!
4. 3.35AM
5. Hard Luck And Trouble
6. Sinking
7. Soul City One
8. If I Could Only Hear My Mother Pray Again
9. Your Dreams -
Visit product page →Release Date: 18/10/2024
'Lost' third album from enigmatic Americana songbirds
"One day, people will wake up to the Hank Dogs, a gem from the heyday of my Hannibal Records label. It's so great that they're back!” Joe Boyd
Hank Dogs – Andy Allan, his partner Piano and Lily, Andy’s daughter from a previous relationship - started out at folk clubs in London in the early 1990s before going worldwide in 1998 when legendary producer and late 60s Folk Rock guru, Joe Boyd declared them the first British act he'd loved in 30 years.
Their debut album ‘Bareback’ saw them touring the US with Joan Baez and winning fans with their quiet, haunting sound featuring ethereal vocal harmonies, strong traces of blues and Celtic music and Allan’s fluid acoustic finger-picking recalling UK folk guitarists such as John Renbourn.
Another part of their appeal, particularly in the States, was their ‘Carter Family’ image but then, when Andy and Piano split-up in real life, so did the band. A follow up album ‘Half Smile’ appeared in 2002 but this turned out to be their swansong.
However, the story was not quite over yet.. a third unreleased album ‘Fiveways’ had been recorded before they went their separate ways and now it’s finally seeing the light of day on South London label Scratchy Records, plus the band are re-uniting for some long overdue gigs to celebrate the release.
‘Fiveways’ contains much of the Hank Dogs’ trademark English folk/US country-straddling sound. Piano’s voice bounces between early Suzanne Vega, Tracey Thorn and Mary Margaret O’Hara with occasional hints of Dolores Cranberry and Bridget St. John, while underneath the acoustic guitars run freeform tangled and Lily’s backing vocals add sky.
Stand out track ‘Logic’ with it’s pensive lyrics and haunting guitar line recalls the way Suzanne Vega (her again) could sometimes make songs stand still in their tracks but it’s the dreamy ‘Nut’ that really captures the mood “You had me when I was sweet as a nut.. Not sweet enough” sings Piano. This is the sound of two ex-lovers still able to work together but unable to hide the odd dig here and there.. like a follow up album a couple of years later on from ‘Blood On The Tracks’.
Andy sings a few songs too including the raggedy, shwashbuckling ‘Gazetteer’ revolving around a ‘Pre-CBS Maple neck Sunburst bought off The Pretty Things’ and hinting at a whole lifetime of music biz escapades from watching his dad Elkan Allan produce 60s TV show ‘Ready Steady Go’ to a stint on bass in The Professionals along with Steve Jones and Paul Cook.
Next year the story carries on with his long-running South East London ‘Easycome’ club night featuring in US TV queen Lena Dunham’s new Netflix series ‘Too Much’. Towards the end of the album an angelic setting of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ in the song ‘Nod’ recalls Christmas TOTP number ones from days gone by and captures Hank Dogs ability to transport the listener. This album is definitely one for the dreamers.
FFO Pentangle, The Innocence Mission and William Blake.
Tracklisting:
1. Arrows
2. Logic
3. Fiveways
4. Luki Icin
5. Nut
6. Dipper
7. Margaret Finch
8. Good Bits
9. Gazetteer
10. Well
11. Nod
12. Daddy
13. Buttered
14. Rosebush -
Constellation
GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR 'NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 28,340 DEAD' PRE-ORDER
£12.99
vConstellation
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Visit product page →Release Date: 04/10/2024
THE PLAIN TRUTH==
we drifted through it, arguing.
every day a new war crime, every day a flower bloom.
we sat down together and wrote it in one room,
and then sat down in a different room, recording.
NO TITLE= what gestures make sense while tiny bodies fall? what context? what broken melody?
and then a tally and a date to mark a point on the line, the negative process, the growing pile.
the sun setting above beds of ash
while we sat together, arguing.
the old world order barely pretended to care.
this new century will be crueler still.
war is coming.
don’t give up.
pick a side.
hang on.
love.
Tracklisting: (NB: ALL CAPS is intentional punctuation for all. Duration: 54:09.)
1. SUN IS A HOLE SUN IS VAPORS
2. BABYS IN A THUNDERCLOUD
3. RAINDROPS CAST IN LEAD
4. BROKEN SPIRES AT DEAD KAPITAL
5. PALE SPECTATOR TAKES PHOTOGRAPHS
6. GREY RUBBLE – GREEN SHOOTS
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