A week FULL of very welcome returns. Guys, it is sounding great over here.
Hello, Friends.
Welcome to another set of all-singing, all-dancing Records of the Week.
The absolutely magnificent Parquet Courts return with Sympathy for Life, the dance-fuelled, new LP built largely from improvised jams. So few bands manage to sound sonically fresh and adventurous on each LP whilst undeniably like themselves. This is that. A classic P.C. album and also a new direction, a new chapter and a new set of party jams. What a band, folks!
+ Limited edition deluxe LP in tipped-on gatefold sleeve with a glued-in six page booklet
+ Indie LPs are pressed on green vinyl.
+ We shall be slipping custom tarot cards into all orders whilst stocks last. If you get a gnarly one, it’s not our fault and we are not legally responsible for any otherworldly consequence.
-io is the sixth album by vocalist and composer Haley Fohr under the name Circuit des Yeux. It’s her first album with Matador, following an impeccable set of releases with De Stijl, Thrill Jockey, and Drag City. Her vocal (a four-octave voice we should note) is just amazing, otherworldly and captivating at the forefront of a 24-piece string, brass, and wind ensemble. This sort of ambition is hardly a new revelation, but the sheer scale and complexity of this album really is something to be marvelled at.
Rebecca Lucy Taylor (formerly of Slow Club) returns as Self Esteem with the high-pop powerhouse, Prioritise Pleasure. Self described as a ‘Trojan horse’, it is stacked with maximal pop brilliance, but everything about this screams so much more. Her deliciously dark delivery is so close to the surface that you’ll catch yourself singing… Then thinking… Then realising. It’s as smart as it’s glossy.
It’s another Dinked double this week.
Clinic are one of our most-favourite bands, as you well know. These guys were breaking tempo and wearing surgical masks a good decade before it was commonplace. We’re so hyped to bring the band to Dinked in full tropical mode with Fantasy Island. Good vibes only, it bubbles along with hooks and wooze. We love them.
Barnyard is the new LP from laid-back and lo-fi Melbourne duo, Good Morning. It’s another album with great energy, funny when so much of the content is world-weary and pretty dark in tone. A great set of songs and it breezes by like the autumn sun.
Dean Blunt returns with the second Black Metal LP and it really is a mood. Foggy and ambiguous, like a half dream through genres and tones. Arguably his most accessible set to date with trippy slow jams and so many sonic ideas. Not only do we love this already, it’s clearly a grower.
Far In is Helado Negro's first album on 4AD and the seventh full-length album in his impressive catalogue. The Florida native (born Roberto Carlos Lange) makes intimate and whispery pop with loads of gestures towards the Latin heritage of his Ecuadorian parents. Another great set of songs here with dreamy vibes.
+ We’ll be giving away some really lush sets of sticker sheets and custom Tarot cards with this order. Helado made them, we don’t have a thing about Tarot all of a sudden.
La Luz return with a self-titled, Adrian Younge-produced LP (their fourth overall) and it’s killer. The songs are tightly wound and all have a great, freewheeling flow. The production is all shades of analogue, really delicious stuff and highly recommended.
+ This initial run of the LP will be pressed on an Eco-Friendly Recycled Vinyl Mystery Colour!
Scottish, multi-talented artificer Lomond Campbell releases his eagerly anticipated LŪP album on One Little Independent Records. 12 second tape loops on a custom machine, couldn't be more up our street, this!
Also this week; Orlando-based brothers Andy and Edwin White combine as Tonstartssbandht on Mexican Summer. We have the limited Model Village 7” from IDLES. A double this week from Biffy Clyro with Errors In The History Of God / Unknown Male on 10" and The Myth of The Happily Ever After, a reaction to their #1 album ‘A Celebration of Endings’. SOURCE ⧺ WE MOVE finds Nubya Garcia reinventing her Mercury Prize-nominated album, Source. Swedish singer-songwriter Joel Wästber returns as sir Was with Let The Morning Come.
Now the following releases are with us on CD but have all suffered from vinyl format delays. Out tomorrow, but we'll be talking more about all of them over the next few weeks and months when the wax lands.
Dopamine is the fourth studio album from Soccer96, and their first for the Moshi Moshi label. Propulsive electronics and vibes from Dan Leavers (a.k.a. Danalogue) and Maxwell Hallett (Betamax), who are of course two-thirds of the trailblazing The Comet Is Coming.
Deerhoof's explosive new album Actually, You Can on Joyful Noise Recordings.
One of our most-favourite of all the super, super-groups, The Surfing Magazines return with Badgers of Wymeswold.
The soundtrack to Wes Anderson’s delicious The French Dispatch is here and – naturally – is full of stunners. Connected to the release is Jarvis Cocker’s CHANSONS d’ENNUI TIP–TOP, an entire album of French material from the same period, songs originally made notable by the likes of Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsburg, Jacques Dutroc and others.
Lastly this week, we have waited and waited and we're just this-minute giving the first play to the all-new, self-titled My Morning Jacket LP on ATO. Man alive do we love this band and it already sounds like a perfect blend of their softer ballads and the rolling rock and roll jams.
What a fine set with more due, some excellent books in the building too and a pretty hefty drop of ‘not-new’ releases tomorrow too.
- Drift