Lots of things to tell you about today, it's been that sort of week. More of the new new.
Hello, Friends.
A busy week of Dinked releases, with Kevin Morby forthcoming Oh My God getting announced yesterday, we have something else to tell you tomorrow lunchtime and today we took stock of the utterly amazing looking Stunning Luxury from Snapped Ankles. Limited to just 600 copies worldwide, they are hand numbered, pressed on exclusive gold colour vinyl and arrive in incredible custom packaging with a gold inner sleeve, pink outer sleeve, and a gold-foiled third outer sleeve.
For all it's visual magnificence, this release is going to grab you all by the ears wherever you hear it. We've been long time fans (Snapped Ankles are of course Sea Change alumnus) and this is doubtless the band's finest hour to date, tense, frenetic and utterly thrilling. Very highly recommended indeed.
Record of the Week is Into Red, the second studio LP from FEWS. We first became aware of these guys via their Speedy Wunderground single (moment to flag up how consistently amazing SW are right!) - and they have grown ever more swaggering, in particular on this new LP of driving post-punk. Co-produced by Joakim Lindberg of Hater, FEWS really are coming into their own and this is a really lush set of songs.
+ Indies-only format is pressed on limited edition red vinyl.
Durand Jones & the Indications return with American Love Call and they sound lush. Their self-released debut (famously recorded for $452.11, including a case of beer) hinted at where they could go and they have really found a rich and full space that channels Jackie Wilson and Curtis Mayfield.
+ Limited Indie Shop version pressed on translucent orange vinyl.
Question, do you love Antipodean jangling guitar melodies?
Of course you do, you're no mug. You will 100% love The Stroppies and new LP Whoosh. We managed to get some more of their self-titled 12" actually and you'll remember we were banging on and on about how lush that is. DIY ethics with utterly feel-good jams... man these guys are lush.
+ Limited Indie Edition LP on White vinyl
Due imminently... Justin Wright - the Montreal cellist & composer hand-picked for support duties by luminaries such as Colin Stetson, Hauschka, Bing & Ruth, and the late great Jóhann Jóhannsson - is gliding calmly into the spotlight with his debut long player Music For Staying Warm on the First Terrace label. These guys put out solid gold, do check them all out.
Born into a musical family in Argentina, Sebastian Plano is a classically-trained contemporary composer and multi-instrumentalist. His new album Verve is pretty special stuff, a must have for any of you Erased Tapes heads.
White Stuff is the first album from the iconic Royal Trux in eighteen years! Funny, weird and a kind of flippant delivery to awesomely sludgy riffs. They sound unapologetically like no one else and damn right too!
+ Limited indie shop pressing is on pizza coloured vinyl.
Self Esteem is the project of Rebecca Lucy Taylor and one which began with painting, prints and video alongside her day job writing and performing as one half of the band Slow Club. Compliments Please is high pop, brilliant production too.
Also excelling in the pop world is Good at Falling, the debut album from The Japanese House on Dirty Hit.
Inferno is acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster's first solo album in four years - his second album in the last eleven years. Forster only makes records when he feels he has the songs - on Inferno, he has nine he totally believes in!
Tasmania is the brand new album from the Australian psychedelic-rock adventurers POND, a dejected meditation on planetary discord, machismo, shame, blame and responsibility, love, blood and empire, wrapped in luxurious, funky prog-pop.
Over the course of three days in London, drummer/producer Makaya McCraven
connected with first time collaborators (Theon Cross, Nubya Garcia, Joe
Armon-Jones, Soweto Kinch, Ashley Henry, Daniel Casimir and Kamaal Williams) and did two improvised performances. Makaya took all the remixes and the raw live recordings back to his home studio in Chicago, chopped everything up and re-composed the music into two continuous side suites for this CHICAGO x LONDON mixtape.
Meg Duffy grew up in a small town in Upstate New York, cutting her teeth as a session guitarist and touring member of Kevin Morby’s band. The Hand Habits project emerged after Meg moved to Los Angeles . It started as a private songwriting outlet but soon evolved into a fully-fledged band with Meg at the helm. Placeholder is really lush, gone back to this quite a bit this week.
Wasteland, Baby! is the much-anticipated new album from multi-platinum singer songwriter Hozier.
Couple of super limited bits for you...
Canadian jazz crew BADBADNOTGOOD unite with Swedish electronic band Little Dragon for beautiful and melancholic new single, Tried.
Witness Scroll is a live album - from the mighty Bodega, one of Drift's Albums of 2018 - and was recorded in May 2018 at the Poetry Club in Glasgow and the Lexington in London.
+ Limited to 1000 copies on vinyl for indie shops. 800 copies are pressed on clear vinyl and 200 copies are pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl, randomly inserted into the stock!
Flightless Records have reissued two hyper short runs of The Murlocs Young Blindness and Old Locomotive. The Murlocs are a tight-knit rhythm & blues garage outfit from Melbourne, Australia. The band has been steadily working on a new record in-between Ambrose and Cookies touring commitments with King Gizzard. These last few will fly out the door!
40 years after disbanding comes Fond Reflections, the debut album that never was from cult 4AD band Rema-Rema. Rema-Rema featured former members of The Models and Siouxsie and The Banshees, and their much-loved 'Wheel in the Roses' EP (1980) was among the first records to be released on 4AD. Their only contribution to the label’s storied history, they split-up before its release, going on to form or join bands as diverse as Renegade Soundwave, The Wolfgang Press, Mass, and Adam and the Ants.
Originally released in the space year 1982, I, Assassin is Gary Numan's sixth studio album and fourth under his own name.
+ Pressed on dark green vinyl.
Full Time Hobby reissue Jacco Gardner's most excellent Hypnophobia.
+ Pressed on yellow vinyl.
To commemorate Snow Patrol's 25th anniversary year Jeepster release their second album When It’s All Over We Still Have To Clear Up, available on vinyl for the very first time. The LP includes a bonus gold coloured 7” featuring two never before released songs.
For over 25 years, acclaimed artist and designer, Pete Fowler, has collected his thoughts, sketches, doodles, drafts and ideas in a series of sketchbooks. These have never been seen outside of a small circle of friends. Decades of Lead collects the very best of these sketchbooks into one beautiful hardback volume.
- Drift