We have covered all the bases, this week is pure tip after tip. You are very welcome.
Man, what a week! This time of year used to be proper gash for new releases, but we are really seeing week after week of bangers well into the early winter. Good. Good stuff.
Okay, get this, Ghanaian musical royalty Ata Kak returns to the always essential Awesome Tapes from Africa label with an ALL NEW album of material called Batakari. His 1994 album Obaa Sima (that is also available this week on a nice anniversary remaster edition) ‘barely made a ripple at the time of its release’, but through blog/DJ/label/archaeologists ATFA he’d find a new global audience, wild on his electronic blazers and Twi-language hiplife… Us very much included! So, three decades after his debut album became an unexpected internet phenomenon, this new album introduces a more complex sound, with ambitious arrangements and studio-tight layered harmonies wrapping around Ata Kak’s inimitable acrobatic rap. Half a dozen plays in, we are really falling for this one. If you ever wondered what my kitchen sounds like, besides Blue Öyster Cult it’s invariably Ata Kak.
+ Available on Lily Pad colour vinyl.
+ The remastered Obaa Sima is also available on Splatter vinyl with a bonus DVD.
How You Been is the new set from SML, the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann. Man alive, it is just such ingenious music… It positively bubbles! There is a risk in creating such exuberant music that it can impress rather than affect, but this new set really is enthralling stuff, evolving insignias that had us on the hook. It’s hard to think of anyone who has made such an impact in 2025 as the International Anthem Recording Co. label.
+ Available on limited edition Plankton colour vinyl.
A Bridge To Far is the sixth studio album from the magnificent Midlake. The Denton, Texas rock band have really found some gorgeous tones here, lots of big vocals in waves and the propulsion really is them at their most dynamic. They still find time to swoon, but it’s about as rock and roll as we remember them. A proper treat, this one.
+ Available on Mint Green vinyl and we have some super nice photo booklets to include whilst stocks last too.
It’s all the Drift favs with the return of the Gunn-man! Daylight Daylight is a stripped back new set from Steve Gunn and it really is quite sublime. His guitar mastery hardly needs mentioning, but as with his excellent run on Matador, it’s the way his voice has gradually come to the fore that has most knocked us back. Produced with James Elkington, it is sombre, but never down and full of gorgeous subtlety.
We have a Dinked double in the racks with COSPLAY from North London experimentalists Sorry, and Love and Fortune from Welsh-Australian pop singer Stella Donnelly. We tend to spend quite a lot of time with any Dinked album, but both of these have had us going back for plenty of repeat plays. The last few copies are online… now!
Australian indie pop queen Hatchie releases her new LP Liquorice and not only has she signed us some art cards, she has kissed them too!
Moonflowers is the gorgeous new LP from New York band Constant Smiles. Dense and folky, featuring guest appearances from Cassandra Jenkins and Katie von Schleicher, plus P.G. Six too I think which goes over very well in these parts.
+ Available on limited Milky Clear colour vinyl.
A Jackal’s Wedding is the third LP from Westerman and there is some real subtlety going on. The production is ambitious, but also quite intimate, and his voice - a rich, powerful but understated low burr - is really commanding and proper pop-rich. We have a lot of time for this one already.
+ We have some signed prints to pair up with the LP if you’re quick.
Question. Do you like rock and roll jangle? Okay, The Gnomes eponymous debut is gonna absolutely rip you a new one. Direct from the Melbourne bayside outer suburbs, this is full of precocious ‘60s beat energy and a fast track through the last fifty years of winding riffs. Joyous stuff.
+ Available on limited Cream/White colour vinyl.
We did check, and Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan is the twenty-third studio album from John Darnielle’s The Mountain Goats. Really enthralling stuff, concerning the story of a small shipwrecked crew on a desert island, struggling with a lack of resources and apocalyptic visions… Yep!
+ Available on limited Bluewater colour vinyl.
Also this week, the iconic Mavis Staples releases a new record on ANTI- called Sad and Beautiful World, with reimaginings of Tom Waits, Gillian Welch, Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen and Frank Ocean as well as new material. We have a few limited copies of the Sleaford Mods’ Megaton 7” single. There Is Beauty, There Already is the new LP from genre-breaking drummer, producer and composer Sarathy Korwar. Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party is the first independent solo release from the Paramore frontperson, Hayley Williams. We’re throwing a little shindig tonight if you’re around, we have some nice bits to give away.
Okay, lastly for today, Magnetism is the first collaborative album from long-time friends Kali Malone & Drew McDowall and it is just absolutely massive. I honestly have no idea how they are even making the noises, but it is spiritual stuff. I did read about it a bunch and they programmed bespoke tunings on a monophonic modular synth patch and recorded performance takes without overdubs… but the nuts and bolts yo, is that this is powerful and long evolving music of the highest order. Stuck this on a few times and just lapped it up, a proper listening experience.
