Full of exclusives, here are your first set of new releases for May.
Hello, Friends.
What more can we say about Squid? The band's eagerly anticipated debut album Bright Green Field is finally out tomorrow and it's just amazing. It's a fierce and deeply weird collection of songs that change pace and tone throughout. It's just gripping and totally additive to its last moments, especially the epic album closer Pamphlets that might well be the band's finest moment yet in an immaculate young career.
Believe the hype. It's our May Record of the Month and we strongly suggest that every single one of you buy it. You will not regret it.
We have a triple set of Dinked Editions this week and we were super proud to have worked on all three.
Our Record of the Week is Seek Shelter, the belting fifth album from Danish punks Iceage. You'll all know well that we love these guys, but this really is an awesome addition to their catalogue, retaining all the snarl of their earlier LPs and, enrolling Sonic Boom (Pete Kember of Spacemen 3) to produce the record, it dives into propulsive, expansive and quite ecstatic new directions. Highly recommended.
We were honours to work with Third Man Records to bring you Mercy, the debut solo LP from Natalie Bergman, one half of brother-sister duo Wild Belle. It's a cathartic collection rooted in the hopeful values and traditions of gospel that helped her through the tragic loss of her father.
Lastly, Oíche is the debut album from both Fears and a debut from the excellent TULLE label. It was such a joy to work on this one, an imaginative and meticulously produced set with feet and timbres in pop, electronics and something all together more ethereal.
Tony Allen's posthumous There Is No End is out today after a little delay last week and it's glorious stuff. Features guest appearances from Skepta, Sampa The Great, Lava La Rue, Danny Brown, Damon Albarn and many others under his fine curation.
+ Limited indie exclusive edition with alt sleeve art.
If you, like us, like your pop shonky, then you're going to trip out for Scotland's Buffet Lunch. The Power of Rocks is off-kilter, meandering bedroom art-pop from Argyll that just never stops surprising. We very highly recommended this one.
+ Limited indie shop LP is pressed on heavyweight orange vinyl.
Easy To Build, Hard To Destroy is a compilation of tricky-to-find, obscure and unreleased material from the heady, early days of Gnod. They are such a formidable and powerful band, it's lush to hear these early first gestures winding up into full force. Very limited, very good.
Awesome Tapes from Africa release Uwami, the debut LP from South Africa's DJ Black Low. Bubbling house music and it's such a joy to hear genuinely-unheard noises... This is so inventive in its clicks and pops. A thriller.
Richmond, Virginia-based artist and rap/jazz fusionist McKinley Dixon releases the deeply personal For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her on Space Bomb Records. Guessing those guys got involved in the production too, which is super-lush.
+ LP is on Opaque Mango Color vinyl.
The Changing Wilderness is the thoughtful and meandering return of Will Stratton on Bella Union. Melancholic without ever being overly sentimental, good vibes.
+ LP is Light Blue vinyl.
Monsters is the expansive return of Sophia Kennedy on City Slang. A very modern deconstruction of club music with all sorts of woozing hues and crackling hisses. It really sounds amazing.
+ Limited indie shop version LP is pressed on yellow coloured vinyl.
Also this week, we have the long-awaited Van Weezer rock record from Weezer (we have a limited neon pink pressing). English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alfie Templeman follows up last year's Happiness in Liquid Form EP with new album Forever Isn't Long Enough. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man documents his Life By Misadventure, includes a limited indie shop pressing on Transparent Red vinyl. Manchester trio GoGo Penguin bring in the big guns for RMX, a remix album of last year's excellent self-titled album. India Jordan's Watch Out! EP drops on Ninja Tune and it really is a cracker.
Tell you what is also really good; Chicago's Fruit Bats and the new The Pet Parade LP. But, we have sold through, so keep an eye out as we'll try and get more.
Tomorrow we'll be talking about the week's ample new-not-new offerings, with reissues from; Connan Mockasin, Amy Winehouse, Angel Olsen, Peter Murphy, Michael Small, Frank Zappa and the seriously-impressive Deewee Foundations Compilation.
- Drift
