Welcome to May... it's another of those big weeks to get us started guys, so much going on!
Hello, Friends.
The spirit of Sea Change is strong this week with our Friday night guests Flamingods releasing their new album Levitation today on Moshi Moshi, a Technicolour explosion of psych, disco, funk and soul from the hot and hypnotic corners of the globe. It's an aural patchwork of tones and influences that honestly goes off to it's own place, considering there is so much going on, it's fantastically coherent. Above all else, it's impossible not to bob about to, we can't wait to see them do this for us live in a few weeks.
Levitation is exclusive Dinked Edition No.8, and we have just a few copies left.
+ Exclusive limited edition embossed sleeve
+ Pressed on glitter gold vinyl
+ Limited to 400 editions
+ Signed 12" x 12" art print
The New York-based Big Thief return with their third LP U.F.O.F. (the first on 4AD) and it is their grandest statement yet. Everything about it is so beautifully delivered, tense, slow building songs with whispers that draw you in. It's quite brilliant. Everyone who has heard this band to date has been undeniably moved by their songs, this feels like the moment where everyone is about to hear them.
+ Available as an indie exclusive edition pressed on orange vinyl. One pressing only, don't miss out.
Patience began as bedroom synth project for songwriter Roxanne Clifford after the break up of her acclaimed indie pop band Veronica Falls. Experiments in analogue synthesizers with hugely evocative melancholy synth pop shapes, it feels strikingly new and warmly familiar, very highly recommended indeed.
+ Indies Only LP pressed on Clear vinyl
A big return from New Yorkers Vampire Weekend with their fourth studio album - Father of the Bride. It's really joyous! Ambles along at a really lovely pace doing it's own thing and is absolutely rammed with fun and vibrant hooks. Guests include Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors), Steve Lacy (The Internet), Danielle Haim, and Jenny Lewis.
+ We have a few Indies only Double Orange LPs and Green Cassette editions.
Street Worms is the debut studio album by Swedish post-punk band, Viagra Boys. Gloriously grimey stuff, brilliantly twisted punk.
+ Limited Indie version pressed on exclusive clear vinyl.
Drahla release their debut Useless Coordinates on Captured Tracks and it's a really lush and merky dive into post punk. They really have found their own space, playing this a lot.
+ Indie Edition LP is on Cardinal Red vinyl
The Basin Rock label (Julie Byrne, Nadia Reid, Jim Ghedi) release LA via New Yorker Johanna Samuels. Have A Good One is the end of ten years of refining and is a brilliant collection of songs, her voice is amazing.
+ Limited edition 500 Worldwide 10” housed in Heavyweight Die Cut Sleeve.
Tacocat return with This Mess Is A Place on Sub Pop. Big fuzzy rock songs, synths and post-grunge.
+ Indies only Loser Edition LP is on Jade vinyl
Emerald Valley is the second release from supergroup Filthy Friends, featuring Corin Tucker, Peter Buck and more.
Stuart A. Staples' (of Tindersticks) beautiful Music for Claire Denis' High Life gets a release on City Slang. Such a brilliant songwriter.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes return with End Of Suffering, a scorching set of rock and rollers (including an Indie Exclusive pressing on Green and Clear Splatter Vinyl).
LA Punks Bad Religion release Age Of Unreason (including a limited Clear vinyl edition).
Past, Present, Future features songs from Simon Bonney’s (formerly of Crime And The City Solution) last two albums, Forever (1992) and Everyman (1994), as well as six unreleased tracks, including his cover of Scott Walker’s Duchess.
Originally released on Record Store Day, PIAS release an edition of Blanck Mass' Editors rework. An gnarly and pulsating alternative version of Editors' acclaimed Top 10 album Violence, The Blank Mass Sessions casts the songs in a bold new light, offering a fascinating insight into the album’s creative process.
Couple of fantastic compilations this week. Light In The Attic's Japanese reissue series continues in fine form with the Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986album. They explain it best themselves as "choice cuts that range from silky smooth grooves to innovative techno pop bangers and everything in between". Features our main man Haruomi Hosono and is the first time much of this music has ever been released outside of Japan.
+ CD due next week, 2LP is here (looks superb!) and is pretty limited.
Following last year’s acclaimed Jazz On The Corner compilation, Martin Freeman has again teamed up with Acid Jazz’s renowned head honcho Eddie Piller to present a veritable and personal collection of tracks. Soul On The Corner is such a brilliant entrance point with some huge iconic heavy hitters and a ton of stuff we'd not heard.
Tough Love put out a Rest-of-the-World pressing of Big Supermarket's debut LP 1800, previously released in mid 2018 in Australia only via the Hobbies Galore label. The label sent us a copy a while back and it's been getting heavy rotation over here, jangle-pop through new wave and post-punk... bloody good.
+ Green vinyl pressing, limited to 300 copies
Mute and Chris Carter embark on a reissue series with some essential moments on vinyl. Disobedient, Mondo Beat, Small Moon and Archival Recordings 1973 – 1977 all getting limited colour pressings. Early studio albums, live recordings and pretty much unreleased moments from his personal archive.
Domino and Protomartyr reissue their illusive and long out of print debut No Passion All Technique. Originally released as a very short run on the Urinal Cake label, not available on streaming services, it's a bit of an enigma and an essential part of the Protomartyr story.
After years on Geffen records, Sonic Youth returned to an indie label - Matador - for their sixteenth studio album. The Eternal is a supercharged rocker, recalling aspects of the Evol-Sister-Daydream Nation holy trinity, but with cleaner, louder production and more straightforward momentum. If they are a band you're still waiting to get into... this is a good jump off point.
The Rifles' Freedom Run is available for the first time ever on limited edition Dusk Blue double heavyweight vinyl.
The start of Stereolab's seven album reissue campaign, 1993's Transient Random Noise-Bursts With Announcements and 1994's Mars Audiac Quintet, expanded and re-mastered editions on vinyl and compact disk. Each album has been re-mastered from the original 1/2" tapes by Bo Kondren at Calyx Mastering and overseen by Tim Gane. Bonus material will include alternate takes, 4 track demos and unreleased mixes. Utterly essential stuff, one of the finest.
+ The deluxe indie vinyl editions sold out in moments... sorry, we wish we could get more too.
Some killer Heavenly moments this week, with Chai's Punk album arriving on vinyl, Unlovedrelease the limited Heartbreak Remixes 12" (including reworks from Andrew Weatherall, The Limiñanas, Andy Votel & Jane Weaver) and although released on Melodic, Working Men's Clubdrop the Bad Blood / Suburban Heights 7" ahead of an album down the line on Heavenly... well worth the wait too, these guys are brilliant.
Speedy Wunderground continue the world domination plans with another gem of a 7". Tiña(pronounced ‘teen-ya’) are the enigmatic new band from South London formed around the burgeoning Brixton Windmill scene. I Feel Fine is right up there as one of our tracks of the year already. Don't sleep on it.
Looking forward to catching you all soon.
- Drift