Releases from all camps today with a huge Drift big hitter, some Sea Changers and a Dinked exclusive.
Hello, Friends.
Our Record of the Week is Holy Spring, the new solo LP from improvisational drummer Laurence Pike and it is bloody mega! Moving beautifully between it's two modes, there are spacial sections of ambience and thoughtful flourishes, there are then hypnotic beats that ebb and flow just brilliantly. Really thrilling stuff this.
+ Laurence Pike joins us TWICE at Sea Change. He'll be one Third of Szun Waves on Friday, then 100% himself on Saturday. Late night... cosmic.
+ Limited Edition LP on Transparent Blue Vinyl.
Back with a splash! The National - one of Drift's all time best selling artist - return with I Am Easy To Find. It's pretty epic stuff, up around 70 minutes with all the different facets of what makes them so special on display, plus all sorts of really quite explorative new directions. The album features vocal contributions from Sharon Van Etten, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Lisa Hannigan, Mina Tindle and more which also really gives their sound a new depth. You could listen to it back to back ten times through and still not fully take it all in. It's a big, complex and really engaging album. Don't miss out on the last few exclusives!
+ Available as a limited indie exclusive. Pressed on 140g clear vinyl and pressed just the once.
+ Available as a deluxe edition on red/grey/yellow vinyl. Limited edition, one pressing only. 140g set on opaque red / yellow / grey colours with 22 minutes of exclusive audio. Tri-fold LP jacket, 3x printed innersleeves, 24 page booklet, 24” x 24” poster folder and housed in printed plastic sleeve.
Fire In the Hole is the long-awaited follow up to Black Peaches' critically acclaimed 2016 debut 'Get Down You Dirty Rascals' and we're hyped to have it as a Dinked Edition (although we only have a pinch left!). It's a real melting pot of a record. Funk, country and tropical vibes all skillfully picked and used as new colours in the Black Peaches painting. It really takes a deft touch to move from gnarly Southern rock riffs to Latin percussion and Harry Nilsson-esque balladry... in one song! A real treat this one.
+ Pressed on Teal Vinyl
+ Numbered edition of just 350
+ Signed Art Print 11” x 11”
+ Bonus 7” with two exclusive tracks for Dinked that will never be repressed
+ Card with Download Codes
Sule Skerry is the second album by Erland Cooper in a triptych shaped by his homeland, Orkney, and in particular by the air, sea and land as it was celebrated by Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown. It really is graceful stuff with washes of strings and chorals, but there is a real smartness to the piano and drumming rhythms that keeps it surprising and really engaging throughout.
Melbourne's Alex Lahey releases her second album The Best Of Luck Club this week on Dead Oceans and it is witty, funny and really likeable stuff. Got some great hooks too!
+ First pressing on limited-edition White vinyl
Four Bibles is the twelfth studio album from the marvellous Hey Colossus. Still as menacing as always, but with even more clarity this time out in the depth. The production is utterly brilliant, it's like looking into a chasm as it all washes past you. Rather predictably, been playing this A LOT.
+ Indies only Colour LP is Transparent Green
Alt-rock icon Josephine Wiggs is best known as bassist in The Breeders. Here solo material carries the same intensity, but right at the other end of the scale. Moody, sparse and melodic. Really feeling We Fall.
Interpol return with A Fine Mess, a five song set following last years Marauder LP. A mysterious and tense little set, this is a new side to Interpol and we're really into it.
Living Theatre is the follow up to eponymous debut album from duo Olden Yolk - Shane Butler (formerly with band Quilt) and Caity Shaffer. Great set of songs and really lovely intimate production. Will be playing this plenty.
+ Indie Edition LP on green vinyl
Institute return with the Ben Greenberg produced Readjusting The Locks, loud, pummelling and messy. LUSH.
+ Indie edition on Bourbon coloured vinyl.
Mexican Summer's Anthology Recordings imprint release another fine compilation - Sad About The Times - with a set of North American 70s jammers, with a hint of West Coast jangle! One hell of a compilation this one, some real chillers.
To mark its 25th anniversary, Heavenly release a very special box set of one of Saint Etienne'smost critically-acclaimed albums, Tiger Bay. A ground-breaking blend of electronica and orchestration with traditional folk melodies, the package here really is lush.
Double David Bowie today. Following on from Spying Through A Keyhole, in early 1969 at his flat in Clareville Grove, London, David Bowie with John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson continued to demo ‘Space Oddity’ and other tracks. This live demo tape session - Clareville Grove Demos - is set for release as a 7" vinyl singles box set of six home demos, four of which are previously unreleased recordings. Also today, Boys Keep Swinging gets a 40th Anniversary limited edition, double-A side, 7” picture disc pressing with 'I Pray, Olé' on the AA side which is unreleased since the 1991 'Lodger' re-issue.
Our current favourite band in the world - black midi - release a super limited 12" today for talking heads/crows perch... but they sold out MEGA fast online. We're trying to get a few more for next weekend when... THE BAND ONLY BLOODY PLAY LIVE IN DEVON... MENTAL.
Next week's newsletter will be much shorter as we'll be just hours away from bowling the first ball at Sea Change IV. We look likely to have sold out at the shop, but there are still pockets of tickets online, so do come and join us... it's going to be warm, dry and 'kin awesome.
- Drift