This week is a masterclass in utter maximalism from the most intimate of timbres. Oh, and Sabbath-sized riffs too!
If you wanted someone to soundtrack what January is feeling like in the UK, then Craven Faults has well and truly soundtracked what January is feeling like in the UK with the new and quite spectacular, Sidings. It is the third full-length double LP by the mysterious UK producer, following the 2020 debut Erratics & Unconformities and 2023’s Standers. There is just such a remarkable meeting point between the ancient and something much more dystopian and retro-modern; it’s like a ley line on a spectrum computer screen. Powerful and long-evolving music, this really is a fantastic listen.
+ Available on limited and exclusive double Bauxite colour vinyl.
+ Available as a very limited 4CD box set (although slightly delayed and will now be shipping from 6th February)
Tristan Perich & James McVinnie combine for Erased Tapes on Infinity Gradient, an hour-long symphony in seven movements for organ and 100 speakers in 1-bit audio. Pretty sure that we’ve described 2026 as the year of the pipe a few times, but this is where it's at and is very special stuff indeed. Sonic waves in suites that get positively spiritual. Recorded on the stage of the Royal Festival Hall, it is a duet between two musical instruments, millennia apart in conception. If you’re anything like us, that in itself is bound to open up the top of your heads.
+ Available on limited double clear vinyl.
South London trio PVA release their second album - No More Like This - and it finds them bringing new timbres into their sound. They retain the industrial beats and atmospheric synths of their debut, but it’s Ella Harris’s vocals that really create the space, something more akin to trip-hop. Really been enjoying this one, it’s got so many textures in the mix.
+ Available on exclusive Pearl Mist colour vinyl.
Michigan-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Hall releases Solo Three this week on Western Vinyl and it is bloody spectacular. Minimalism and repetition, reimagining multiple visionary composers; Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Laurie Spiegel, and a return to Steve Reich from the first two parts of the series. Manages to be utterly vast in scope but beautifully intimate too.
Death in the Business of Whaling is the new LP from Searows — aka Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter and guitarist Alec Duckart. We wired on a Dinked Edition (it sold out very quickly I am afraid), so we’ve spent a bit of time with this one on the stereo and there are some really off-kilter moments that make it stand out. Absolutely one to watch.
+ Available on exclusive Pearl Mist colour vinyl.
Automated Response is another of the week’s crackers. Captured live in one take at Abbey Road Studios with Dan Carey, it is the debut album from London psychedelic punk trio Hot Face. As they explained, it’s a raucous ode to live music, blemishes and all! Proper energy.
Also this week; World's Gone Wrong is the latest LP from the iconic Lucinda Williams. Kings of Leon aim to get back to their roots with the limited EP #2. Our mates Pale Blue Eyes have dug into the vaults for PBE Archives Vol. 1. De La Soul’s Cabin In The Sky has landed on CD (and is great), but we’ll talk about it in a couple of weeks when the delayed vinyl formats land with us.
Lastly, loudest and very much on heavy rotation is Fuzz’s Fourth Dream, a Singles, Demos And Rarities compilation from the supreme San Francisco hard rockin’ trio. The demos in particular feel like they’re just trying to get the ideas down on tape just as fast as they're pouring out of them. The musical epitome of Onomatopoeia, these are fuzzed-out riffs and they are goliaths. Man what a band!
We have some excellent reissues to chat about next week, with Dennis Bovell, Theo Parrish, Station to Station, Cat Power and Soul Jazz’s JUNGLIST! Amongst other treasures.
See ya.