Long, dark nights, alcohol served hot, steamy windows, big lists and as ever, more excellent new music. Heya, November.
Hello, Friends.
After a period of extreme emotional and physical recovery, MAGDALENE marks the return of FKA twigs, one of the most complex and avante artists working in the mainstream. She described the creative process as putting everything into the mix, onto the wall, and slowly chipping away at it like the great sculpturers. To that end it’s an album sculpted from chamber pop, glimmering RnB, opera and grinding, mechanical production. It is the work of an artist knowing that every single microscopic aspect is part of the greater composition. Our November Record of the Month, quite remarkable vision and utterly dazzling.
+ Limited indie edition is pressed on red vinyl.
+ We have an exclusive FKA twigs bundle to be won.
Thirty-five years into his career, Nick Cave releases his seventeenth album, Ghosteen, a double album meditating on life, tribulations and ultimately survival… We think, it’s complex stuff. It continues the sonic departure from the band’s more fierce and brittle sound that started with 2016’s Skeleton Tree. Ghosteen is ethereal. Cave sounds vocally rich, truly at ease with delivering melodies that are perhaps as straight forward and as sweet as anything they have ever recorded. He leads this fine album with his voice and that directness is often overwhelming. Record of the Week.
Lapalux returns on Brainfeeder for his fourth album, Amnioverse. The use of voices here is really lush and his deep and fluid production works really well with it.
+ Double LP on pink splatter vinyl housed in an 8mm spined gatefold sleeve with silver foil detail. Includes 28 page large format booklet - 30 x 30cm - with spot gloss detail on front cover - and MP3 download code.
Lucy Dacus see's out the year with a new mini release, 2019. It was recorded in here-and-there studio spurts over the last two years and is made up of original and cover songs tied to specific holidays. This week we also have a rare repress (on clear vinyl) of her excellent Historian LP.
Experimental folk artist Rachael Dadd returns with her sixth studio album, Flux. It's beautifully constructed, full of unexpected twists and turns. It was produced with Marcus Hamblett (Villagers, Laura Marling) and also features collaborators including Kate Stables and Rozi Plain of This Is The Kit.
Soundwalk Collective partner again with Patti Smith on Mummer Love, their second collaborative LP in 2019, part of a trilogy of albums. The record is inspired by the life and work of French poet Arthur Rimbaud and they traced his paths to Africa, recording this work in Ethiopia. It has quite a remarkable vibe to it.
The much hyped Giant Swan release their self-titled debut this week.
Kele, founding member and lead singer of Bloc Party, releases his new solo album 2042.
Charles Rumback and Ryley Walker collaborate on the beautiful Little Common Twist, perfectly balanced interplay, a real fresh one this.
Swedish-Iranian pianist / composer Shida Shahabi releases her new LP Shifts on 130701.
Two releases on Jonny Greenwood’s Octatonic label, with Daniel Pioro's J.S.Bach: Partita No2 In D Minor and Jonny himself splitting the Industry Water LP with Michael Gordon. Both sound incredible, a label to watch this.
Josienne Clarke releases her rather beautiful In All Weather solo LP on Rough Trade.
... We have a trio of 7-inch singles from Thurston Moore on Daydream Library.
... We have Björk, Fever Ray and The Knife combining their estimable talents on the limited Country Creatures.
... And, we have the very limited Skylark And The Scorpion Weather The Storm LP that we told you about earlier this week
Did we tell you about the Young Guv, GUV I & II LP already? It is a combination of the I and II albums, some of this years most delicious power-pop bliss... very highly recommended.
Another killer week for reissues.
The utterly beautiful and totally seminal Mark Hollis has arrived. It is really limited, so don't miss out on this evergreen essential. Can't rave about it enough.
Soul Jazz reissue Steve Reid's Rhythmatism, another pioneering work of left-field deep jazz. There were only ever 1000 pressed back in 1976, so anyone who claims they have one - until now - are probably a right fibber...
Can's iconic Ege Bamyasi gets a special green vinyl pressing. We've been asking for definitive pronunciation tips on our socials, so look out for a big answer at some point soon.
A little volley of early career Madonna reissues this week too, all on 180g clear vinyl.
Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album - Thousand Knives Of - originally released in 1978 on the sought-after Better Days label, brought back to life thanks to the WeWantSounds label. So off-the-wall, sounds like nothing then or since. The LP has been remastered from the original tapes by Seigen Ono, and features a new introduction by Paul Bowler.
Last one this week is utterly amazing. 4AD have given Gene Clark's 1974 masterpiece - No Other - the reappraisal it’s long overdue... and how! Released in 1974 on Asylum Records, a year after the Byrds short-lived reunion, Gene reached for the stars with No Other; a psychedelic rock, folk, country and soul record that famously cost a small fortune to make. This new version has been remastered from the original tapes, and the results are spectacular. The deluxe editions have been put together with fanatical level of enthusiasm of love. They really are things to treasure.
A lost classic no more, this is going to get played far and wide.
+ Locals, we have a very rare 5.1 surround sound playback of this masterpiece tonight at Totnes Cinema.
+ We have some really lush posters available in the shop.
- Drift