It's been a bloody good January, this last new release Friday is again stacked with sounds.
Hello, Friends.
Record of the Week for the last time in January is Mystic Familiar, the new album from Dan Deacon. His first new album work in a few years - following lots of forays into soundtrack work - is a real thriller. All of the amazing handmade electronics that he has really made his own, only somehow all the more widescreen or cinematic. Euphoric, psychedelic electronica... superb stuff.
+ Limited edition LP is on Silver vinyl
It's a double Dinked new release week with both Smoke Fairies and Squirrel Flower hitting the racks.
I Was Born Swimming is the debut album from Ella O’Connor Williams as Squirrel Flower. Really engaging stuff. It's intimate and really close, but there is quite a lot of brashness to the reverby production. Predicting this'll be a big old breakthrough, an album of quietly addictive hooks.
Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies release their seventh LP as Smoke Fairies with Darkness Brings The Wonders Home. The longer they write and record, the closer and more instinctively intertwined their vocals become. Some truly masterful moments here with lots of ghostly and dense moods.
Both Dinked Editions sold out hard and fast... but we will make the last couple of each available... now!
Deep breath, here are a dozen new things you have to check out...
POLIÇA return with When We Stay Alive, a sort of soundtrack to rehabilitation (Channy Leaneagh had a horrendous injury that left her almost motionless for months). The tense and fragile opening progressively becomes more full and more euphoric. Some brilliantly wonky pop here.
+ Indie LP is pressed on crystal clear coloured vinyl with gatefold, spotgloss sleeve and includes download.
Shlon is the fourth studio album* from Syrian wedding singer turned global dance icon Omar Souleyman. Winding, frenetic and chromatic compositions with Souleyman's unmistakable baritone taking centre stage.
* There are conservatively some 500 bootleg recordings made during weddings and local concerts.
Pang is the debut solo LP (under her own name) from Caroline Polachek, formerly of the excellent Chairlift. All centred around her voice, she is a captivating centre point and the album bubbles and fizzes around her.
+ Limited Indie version LP is pressed on clear and gold marble coloured vinyl. It is however running late, due around Valentines Day.
Storm Damage is the fourth solo LP from Ben Watt (Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn if you're trying to place the name). A really superb and understated collection of songs and vocally he sounds utterly superb, full of understatement and world weariness. Low's Alan Sparhawk adds some warmth on the album middle point Irene.
Really fantastic EP from Wild Nothing this week called Laughing Gas. Takes the work they have done and moves even further into synth-pop tones. Lush seeing them evolve in real time. Limited milky white vinyl.
Mackenzie Scott returns as Torres with the excellent Silver Tongue on Merge. Self-produced, bounding drums and reverbs against spacey synths, but it can actually be quite sparse and her vocals are never drowned out.
+ Indies only LP is half green and half silver vinyl. Includes a bonus 7"
Have We Met is the return of Destroyer, an album that's a stream of ideas and consciousness, No re-recording and no cleaning up. Idiosyncratic, off kilter pop that is pretty unflinching.
+ Limited Indie LP version is pressed on "natural with blue & yellow swirl" coloured vinyl.
After a five year hiatus that has seen him delve into a range of diverse musical projects, Squarepusher delivers the long awaited album Be Up A Hello. He decided to return to the equipment with which he started his career in the early '90s, so there is plenty that's familiar about it all, but the sound has evolved and this new collection is really good fun.
+ First run of the LP comes housed in a die-cut sleeve, bundled with four 12" art prints.
Lush country vibes with Tall Tall Trees on Joyful Noise Recordings and the A Wave of Golden Things LP. We have it on limited edition gold coloured vinyl.
Also big returns this week from Blossoms with Foolish Loving Spaces, Drive-By Truckers with The Unraveling and Isobel Campbell with There Is No Other...
Now then, the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that we listed the Das Koolies It’s All About The Dolphins 12" yesterday... it sold out in minutes. Now, we're pretty sure that we're going to get a slim pinch more, so please email us if you are needing and we'll work out some sort of waiting list.
Goes without saying, you can always email us and ask for stuff... Lee and Jenny are really nice and like to chat.
A full compliment of Happy Mondays reissues this week on London Records, with handsome looking new editions of Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), Bummed, Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches and ...Yes Please! The artwork has been lovingly replicated by original Manchester designers Central Station Design and debuts on vinyl for the first time in yonks. Includes a CD too!
Lastly this week, a 30th Anniversary edition of Neneh Cherry's Raw Like Sushi. A hell of a debut with it's mix of R&B, rap, pop, and dance music. Includes Buffalo Stance naturally, but there is so much more going on.
Well, enjoy reading through all of this lot as there is much to enjoy. ICYMI, Sea Change have just added Aldous Harding, POZI and Islet to the musical bill and announced Jeremy Deller, Cold War Steve, Sports Banger, Joe Muggs, Penny Rimbaud, Daisy Campbell and loads more for the 2020 edition.
Come and buy a ticket from us, it'll be a weekend of true enlightenment (you wait to see what they're going to announce next!!)