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Rune Grammofon
Phaedra 'The Sea'
£13.99
Rune Grammofon
Phaedra 'The Sea'
£13.99
We are delighted to introduce you to this truly excellent debut album from Phaedra, a new voice on the Norwegian music scene. In fact, we have not been so taken by a debutant since the appearance of Susanna and her magical orchestra back in 2004.
Phaedra is Ingvild Langgård (32), singer, songwriter and artist. Educated from Oslo National Academy Of The Arts in 2006, she has also worked with film, photography, field recordings, installations and vocalbased performance, and her works have been shown in several Norwegian cities as well as in New York (Norwegian Art Now).
Co-produced by Madrugada's Frode Jacobsen, The Sea is the kind of classic, timeless music that doesn't come often these days, a mix of folk and psychedelia with a dash of blues and soul; sacred death hymns and shimmering atmospheres hand in hand with enchanting melodies and crystalline vocals all shrouded in a dark veil of mystery. Maybe the sort of record Joe Boyd would have produced some forty years ago...
The Sea is the first album in a trilogy that constitutes a lyrical and musical cycle, fragments of homegrown mythology, physical and spiritual metamorphosis, death, the other side and losing your soul.
Phaedra was among the first artists confirmed for the esteemed Øya festival 2011.
Tracklisting:
1. Death Will Come
2. Honeydewed Autumn
3. The First To Die
4. Oserian
5. Black Dog
6. Sister
7. The Darkest Hour
8. The Sea
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Black feminist punk band Big Joanie have announced their upcoming second album 'Back Home', set for release 4th November on Daydream Library Series in the UK and Kill Rock Stars in the US.Visit product page →
The brand new album 'Back Home' follows on from last month's one-off single 'Happier Still', and the release of their 2020 single ‘Cranes in the Sky’, a cover of Solange Knowles released on Jack White’s Third Man Records.
Recorded at Hermitage Works Studios in North London, 'Back Home' was produced and mixed by Margo Broom (Goat Girl, Fat White Family) and features violin courtesy of Charlotte Valentine of the experimental art rock project No Home, who recently collaborated with the LA-based artist SASAMI.
'Back Home' is a dramatic leap forward for the band; the band build on their tightly knit, lo-fi punk formula to bring forth a collage of blazing guitars, down tempo dance punk, and melancholic strings that evoke the full depth of the band’s expansive art punk vision.
The album title references a search for a place to call home, whether real or metaphysical. “We were really ruminating on the idea of a home and what it means,” explains Stephanie.
“It’s about the different ideas of home, whether that’s here in the UK, back in Africa or the Caribbean, or a place that doesn’t really exist; it’s neither here nor there."
The band worked with multidisciplinary artist Angelica Ellis to design the striking embroidered cover art, which is a depiction of Chardine’s nephew at the barbers. The artwork is a reference to the embroidered wall hangings popular in Caribbean homes post-Windrush that were a callback to the homes they left behind.
The album’s strength lies in the band’s bold and varied new sound. Album opener ‘Cactus Tree’ is an eerie, gothic folk tale that tells the story of a woman waiting for her lover while a wall of euphoric harmonies and screaming feedback roll in the background.
Lead single ‘Happier Still’ is a driving, Nirvana-influenced track that grapples with the idea of wanting to push through a depressive episode. Inspired equally by the melodic rock of Hüsker Dü and the mystical sensibilities of Stevie Nicks, closer ‘Sainted’ brings the club-ready sentiment of the 2018 single ‘Fall Asleep’ to its natural conclusion.
Tracklisting:
1. Cactus Tree
2. Taut
3. Confident Man
4. What Are You Waiting For?
5. In My Arms
6. Your Words
7. Count to Ten
8. Happier Still
9. Insecure
10. Today
11. I Will
12. In My Arms (Reprise)
13. Sainted
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Visit product page →Release date: 14/10/2022
Experimental post-punk outfit GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS are set to release the eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2020’s incendiary debut, ‘Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future’. Entitled ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ and available this coming October 14th via the band’s own label Own It/Cargo Records, its mix of fractured guitar, crushing drums and bass, intense vocals and lyrical content - create as challenging a record as you will hear this year.
Formed in 2016, GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS are John Linger (bass / vocals), Jim Cubitt (guitar / keys) and Nicole Pinto (drums). The trio’s double a-sided debut single ‘The Mound’/’Disappear’ came out in the early part of 2017, and since then they have established themselves as the most forward thinking, viscerally challenging band around with unmissable live shows that continue to excite and astound in equal measure.
Recorded last year amidst the uncertainty of continuous lockdowns as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic, ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ is far darker in content than its predecessor.
Mainly exploring internal and mental struggles as opposed to external current affairs, it focuses on the claustrophobia of emotional anguish and continues to bravely delve into previously un-ventured topics.
Featuring frequent collaborators funkcutter and Stanley Bad on horns and violin, respectively, two songs also see Eleni Poulou, ex-The Fall, on keyboards.The album was mixed by long-term collaborator Max Walker, and features stunning landscape photography by Bea Dewhurst. The album was mastered in France by Ayumu Matsuo. Sonically atramentous and less one dimensional than the band’s debut, ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ takes its cues from ‘Join Hands’ era Siouxsie & The Banshees, Brainiac and Crass’ ‘Christ The Album’, among others.
From the first crackle of electricity on the opening track, to the heart wrenching taped voice-recording on the final outro, this LP triumphantly retains every ounce of intensity and vitality that makes Girls In Synthesis the most captivating band to emerge from the UK DIY underground in recent years.
Listeners will find ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ a challenging, yet ultimately cathartic listen. Prepare yourselves for a sonic cleansing, Girls In Synthesis style.Tracklisting:
Side A
1. It’s All Beginning To Change
2. Watch With Mother
3. Total Control
4. Swallowed Pill
5. Screaming
6. My Husband
Side B
7. Cottage Industry
8. Not As I Do
9. Lacking Bite
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“The album title for us reflects the feelings that so many people have been experiencing over the last two unprecedented years of darkness.Visit product page →
We feel it is time to ‘turn the lights back on’ and shine some positivity and joyousness...” CATS in SPACE are all set to return this summer with their fifth studio album which boldly promises to musically go “where no band has gone before..” the SUN!
Kickstart the Sun, which took nine solid months to complete, and was partly recorded at the legendary RAK Studios in London, has once more raised the bar that was already set super high by their previous chart hitting albums.
The familiar team of producer/guitarist and principal songwriter Greg Hart and engineer Ian Caple sees the new album clocking in at a ‘stratospheric sixty-three minutes’ across a double album to be released in a variety of coloured formats, with an expanded limited double CD also on offer.
The album features some very special guests who help to confirm that the band are pushing their musical boundaries to the absolute maximum on this epic journey with no less than fifteen brand new songs. Joining the CATS on the fifteen-song opus is the legendary Pedal steel player B.J. Cole (the man behind Tiny Dancer, Baker Street and No Regrets by the Walker Brothers amongst a star-studded CV) who guests on several tracks. Alongside B.J. is the Australian virtuoso Ian Cooper dubbed the ‘One Man String Orchestra’ and for the first time a real brass and horn section courtesy of Jack Birchwood.
But, there is more! Guesting vocally alongside seventh cat Mick Wilson is Emily Lynne and Lara Smiles from the Australian Pink Floyd and ‘The Duchess’ Julie Maguire, who gets to sing an incredible duet with CAT frontman and co-writer Damien Edwards.
The familiar CAT line-up of Steevi Bacon on drums/co-writer, Dean Howard on guitars, Jeff Brown on bass/vocals and the ‘Mad Hatter himself’ Andy Stewart on keyboards, alongside Damien and Greg have all delivered ‘performances of giants’ according to engineer Ian Caple. Greg Hart once more picks up the story.
“After the overwhelming success of Atlantis we knew that we had to push even further with this album as very early on, it became clear that the new songs were going to be very special. Two in particular I knew had the potential to be, for me, the greatest and most emotive CATS’ songs ever.
Adding in our special guests was a logical step in helping us make the ‘cinematic’ sound we strived to achieve for the album. I assure you it is a huge sound that we believe will blow people away…we say it every album of course, but this time there’s something else, something more magical in the grooves for every listener.” Although the album centres around three epic songs including the title track, woven amongst the bombast the signature CATS’ power-pop-sound is still very much in place, with some beautiful balladry and more than a sprinkling of 70s infused pomp rock.
With Steevi and Damien contributing more to the writing, CATS seem to have discovered another level in terms of artistry. Sky-scraping vocals, drum solos, guitar battles, an army of keyboards and even orchestral sections all add up to ensure that the listener is taken on a triumphant journey that they will never want to end. There is even some serious foot stompin’ from a group of die-hard CAT Fans who visited Echo Zoo Studio and RAK Studios during the recording! The whole album climaxes on side four with ten minutes of what the band call ‘their finest hour’.
The album artwork, once again by Andy Kitson, helps to tell the cinematic story of Kickstart The Sun.
“It is a real ‘musical chocolate box’ featuring all the things that we are now known for and, although we broke the bank and beyond making this album, we knew we had to put everything on the line for it as the songs deserved it… It may well be the most expensive album we will ever make but we are confident everyone will fully appreciate its majesty. ‘Kickstart’ encapsulates everything that is CATS in SPACE and much more … we are all super proud of it.” GH.
Kickstart the Sun the album, is set for release on JULY 29th. It will be available as a limited edition double RED MARBLE vinyl with booklet, a YELLOW MARBLE vinyl with booklet and as a super deluxe double CD including a 10-track bonus disc with exclusive recordings and alternative mixes.
A host of new merchandise will also be available from the band’s Webstore to coincide with all releases. All formats will be distributed throughout the UK and Europe by CARGO RECORDS. *** The band will be making their first festival headline appearance at the CAMBRIDGE ROCK FESTIVAL on JUNE 18th and will also appear as special guests to King King at Chepstow Castle on August 20th.
*** The band then begin their 2022 headline UK tour on September 29th and the Kickstart the Sun tour looks set to be their biggest yet, with a third exclusive double A-side tour single released to accompany the dates. If that is not enough, more live shows are in discussion and they even have their sights set on America and Canada, as the band have recently made waves across the pond courtesy of some wonderful YouTube channels, radio stations and road trips to Las Vegas. So kick back and be prepared for what will be the most eagerly awaited release of 2022.
IT’S TIME TO ‘KICKSTART THE SUN’ - IT’S A WORLDWIDE MISSION’….
Tracklisting:
1. Kickstart The Sun Intro
2. King Of Stars
3. Poke The Witch
4. Teenage Millionaires
5. Goodbye To The American Dream
6. 1,000,000 Miles
7. Fifty-One Pillow Bed
8. Charlie's Ego
9. Kickstart The Sun
10. A Big Balloon
11. Smoke & Mirrors
12. Hero
13. Last Dance Saloon
14. Bootleg Bandoleros
15. Kickstart The Sun - Reprise
CD Bonus Disc:
1. Charlie's Ego (‘turbo' version)
2. 1,000,000 Miles (Duet ft. Julie 'The Duchess' Maguire)
3. King Of Stars (Rock Edit)
4. Goodbye To The American Dream (Extended)
5. Atlantis (Live at RAK)
6. I Fell Out Of Love With Rock n Roll (Live at RAK)
7. 1,000,000 Miles (Live at RAK)
8. Bootleg Bandoleros (Instrumental)
9. Last Dance Saloon (Instrumental)
10. King Of Stars (Instrumental) -
“Wattage” by The Explorers Club – A special tribute album to classic 60s radio that plays out like a show of the time and features eight cover versions along with many guest singers including Chris Price, Lannie Counts, Ryan Williams and Jeff Celentano.Visit product page →
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