Epic and live, intimate and drowsy, propulsive pop and ROTY specials.

Recorded at the famed Parco Della Musica Ennio Morricone back in June of this year, Rome is a live recording from The National and it’s a bit special. Recorded entirely live without any overdubs, it covers moments from their storied twenty-plus year career, with new work and old work sitting beautifully together.

+ Pressed on limited double White colour vinyl.
We did mention a little earlier this week that Saint Etienne - the trio of Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs - return with The Night, and we really have been enjoying it loads. The band had a clear concept for The Night, to make the kind of music you listen to with your eyes closed – a ‘headphone album’, as Bob Stanley describes it. It really is sublime, washes of texture and ambience with birdsong and drizzle. An immersive record and a spiritually uplifting one.

+ Available on limited splatter vinyl + Drift exclusive signed postcard.

Rahim Redcar - the artist formerly known as Christine and the Queens - releases HOPECORE this week on Because and it’s pretty propulsive stuff. Redcar produced and mixed the record on his own and imo, his voice sounds better matched to these timbres than pretty much anything before them.

+ Available on Translucent Blue vinyl.

Jon Dwyer and Brigid Dawson regrouped as OCS during the holidays of 2023 and performed a set at Los Angeles' Permanent Records. Rock Is Hell Records press it up this week - on stunning-looking double Crystal Clear with ’A Little Blue and Red Vinyl’ - and man does it ever wooze!

“It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of libation and celebration. We surrounded ourselves with good friends and came up with this charming off kilter set of recordings. I think they capture the casual energy of the evening in the mood of the crowd.” - Jon Dwyer.
We have a trio of end of year editions for your considerations too, with Jane Weaver’s gorgeous Love in Constant Spectacle pressed on two very limited and impressive-looking new colourways. Kim Gordon’s gripping The Collective has a new pressing on silver vinyl that includes a bonus 7” single. We also have the ‘Knotty, loud, frightening, otherworldly and hugely addictive’ Tristwch y Fenywod LP, absolutely one of our most favourite albums of the year.

We end this dispatch in seasonal mode (it is close) with the divine Say She She and a very limited Purple Snowflakes / This Wintertime 7” on Karma Chief. Their take on the Marvin Gaye psychedelic classic on the A side, with their first original Christmas song on the B side with gorgeous tumbling pianos.