Special Leap Day greetings with all the week’s new offerings in one place. It sounds great!
Half Divorced is the pounding new LP from Philadelphia punks, Pissed Jeans. There is a vintage weight to the production, flailing around between more experimental noise and some really sludgy riffs, too. It is hard and it is raw, but there is much humour and musings on modern-day dissatisfactions. We’ve been playing this loads, our Record of the Week.
+ Available as a ‘Loser Edition’ on Coke Bottle Green.
+ We’re going to give away a test pressing.
Philadelphia rock band Sheer Mag make their Third Man debut this week and it’s wildly good fun. A lot of the sonic influences on Playing Favourites sound like 1970’s rock and roll radio, but the way they take them off into high pop dimensions is a real trip. When they really get up to full flow, it positively shimmers.
+ Available on limited and exclusive 'Wax Drip' colour vinyl.
+ We have some slip mats that we’ll pop into the first few orders.
Squarepusher returns for his first new LP in four years with Dostrotime on Warp. There are some moments of beautiful calm (eerie almost) before all of the frenetics and adrenaline you would imagine. All of it is brilliantly texture-full misc, a lush mix of man and machine.
Underdressed at the Symphony is the fantastic new LP from Faye Webster. Without idle wallowing, this is all pretty sad. Mid-twenties crisis and soul searching, but she creates really wonderful atmospheres with slow swooners sitting perfectly right next to more brash guitar shapes and even some Country hues. It is really gorgeous stuff.
+ Available shortly on exclusive ‘Faye Blue’ colour vinyl.
A real beauty on Erased Tapes this week with Sheherazaad’s debut, Qasr. Hugely inventive sound design, it's hard to know what is making what sound against the ornate strings, primal beats and stirring vocals. It is produced by Arooj Aftab and is highly recommended.
+ Available on limited Red colour vinyl.
How To Make A Master Peace is the full debut LP from Master Peace and it really is a pounder! It is stacked with hooks, a sort of late noughties electro-popping set that sounds like a hundred things all at once. Super fun.
+ Available on limited Yellow colour vinyl.
The week’s biggest swooner is Chorus, the new studio LP from Naarm/Melbourne-based psychedelic jazz outfit Mildlife. The production is so rich that it practically drips, a retro-futuristic trip through sonic sunsets. It has such a clement vibe that it’s almost heartbreaking listening to it at the end of the British Winter.
Matthew Halsall releases a limited-edition vinyl only pressing of Bright Sparkling Light, a luminous three track EP featuring some of his most gorgeous compositions. We don’t have many!
Also this week; Nils Frahm is back at the piano this week for Day via his LEITER label, such a graceful one. Everything Everything release Mountainhead and the production is hugely impressive. Ben Frost returns on Mute for a new LP called Scope Neglect, which is quite the listen with glitching electronics and immersive ambient-industrial churns. The prolific and constantly evolving STRFKR release Parallel Realms on Polyvinyl. Focus on Nature is the big new LP from the much-loved The Bevis Frond. Liam Gallagher and John Squire have collaborated on a self titled LP that's actually pretty good fun. It’s like playing music for lads bingo.
Lastly, although we said that it was out last week, we promise that Yard Act’s new LP Where’s My Utopia? Is definitely here now and totally out tomorrow. We have a fun sticker sleeve edition that is pressed on yellow vinyl. We have some tote bags too, so shop now!
Reissues this week will focus on Karen Dalton, some excellent Jazz reissues, Eccentric Soul and Joel Gion’s riotous (signed) book about Brian Jonestown Massacre.