Hot dog what a week! Some guys we adore releasing new music today and they are all totally in fine form.
Hello, Friends.
We have become pretty fast obsessed with Hater over the last year or so. We played the Red Blinders EP a lot at the end of last year and kept riding the waves with them even joining us in town for Sea Change last month. Their full debut drops today - Siesta - and it's really some of the most gloriously melancholic pop. It's a brilliantly balanced LP. It's optimistic and quietly euphoric, but on the surface at least, everything would seem maudlin. The vocals (especially in unison) are lush, some expert instrumental touches (synths, flashes of sax) and the baselines are utterly brilliant. Love this, will be our Autumn go to jam. Record of the Week.
+ We have limited signed flex discs whilst stocks last.
+ Indie edition pressed on Yellow Opaque Double Vinyl
Everything about Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs is utterly thrilling. The name, the AMAZING artwork on new LP King of Cowards (from Sophy Hollington) and the mere seconds it takes to rip open like chainsaws. This is hard, this is pretty serious. Monolithic riffs and howling yells with incredibly intensity... but that's not to say it is anything other than hugely exciting and really good fun. Production is utterly brilliant, it is so thick and so dense, but you can really hear the isolation on each instrument. Marvelous stuff.
+ Available on super limited "Pink With Lust" vinyl.
Lets keep it heavy for another 29 minutes, shall we? Such treats this week, GØGGS return - Ty Segall, Chris Shaw (Ex-Cult) and Charles Moothart (Fuzz) - with Pre Strike Sweep and it is frenetic, pounding garage rock. It's a real whirlwind of an album, again howling vocals and chainsaw riffs, but with the most addictively putrid pace. The tracks blur across each other with plenty of smart touches throughout, but this is adrenalin pure and simple.
+ Very very very very (100 for the UK!) limited colour vinyl pressing.
European Heartbreak is the new LP from the most excellent Amber Arcades on Heavenly Recordings and it is a real beauty. Full of gorgeous swooning sadness, the production is really maximal. Waves and waves wrapping around Annelotte's vocals. Above all the swoon, she is a writer of brilliant pop hooks and European Heartbreak - although thematically sad - is rammed full of them.
+ Limited Euro Blue vinyl pressing.
Experimental musician and composer Tim Hecker is always pretty essential listening. His work blurs the lines between computers, machines and organic recordings, a sort of surreal audio architecture. Konoyo - his first new LP with his original and long-standing label partner Kranky - is arguably the most accessible work he's produced, it is certainly the less dense. There is quite a lot of clarity in the ancient instruments he has used to create the sonic textures. Gradually becomes more ambient and strangely spiritual. Highly recommended.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds release a live EP today called Distant Sky, four tracks recorded live in Copenhagen. It is powerful stuff, moving between a tense and controlled hush to a wild and huge frenzy. The live shows have been a massive critical success... so hardly any wonder this is charged up.
London trio Doe release their new LP Grow Into It today. MJ from Hookworms produced it and Nicola Leel's vocal is superb. Really tight set of pop/punk songs.
Grunge pioneers Mudhoney release Digital Garbage today on Sub Pop. It's got great pace to it, Stooges vibes with some gnarly guitar shapes. Lyrically it's pretty charged, they are pissed off. Good.
Brixton MC Gaika releases Basic Volume today on Warp. Production right out of the Dancehall, but his vocal is strongest when cleanest. His delivery is always super impactful that said.
For My Crimes is the eighth studio LP from Marissa Nadler, out today on Bella Union. Her voice sounds amazing, tense and dense songs. Features guest approaches from Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, Kristin Contro and harpist Mary Lattimore.
+ Indie shop LP version on heavyweight, smoke coloured translucent vinyl.
ATW is the new LP from Nashville psych-rock band All Them Witches. Sounds like it was recorded some 45+ years ago but avoids pastiche. Swampy roots and blues.
+ 2LP - Double Red Transparent 140 Gram Vinyl housed in a Gatefold Sleeve.
+ 2LP - Double Limited Split Translucent Red and Blue Coloured 140 Gram Vinyl.
Chicago-based singer-songwriter Lillie West releases The Lamb today under her Lala Lala moniker. It's far from easy going, but some really great hooks, love her vocals.
Welsh trio The Joy Formidable release Aaarth. Less poppy, weirder, all the better for it says us.
+ Indie Edition LP Clear vinyl with yellow Magneta splatter
Planet Mu release Jlin's soundtrack for Autobiography, Wayne McGregor's stark, explorative ballet. Only been in on this once, but it's really powerful stuff. Amazing noises.
alt-J release the remix and reinterpretations album REDUXER today.
We utterly love Bitchin Bajas. Chances are, you will too. This is a great place to start. Rebajas is a 7-disc, 6 hour and 42 minute second trip through the Bitchin Bajas catalog to date, including all 11 of their solo releases: eight albums and the Bajas sides of three split records. CD box set.
Mush release the bitchin' Gig Economy 7" today on Dipped In Gold Recordings. We sold out, but we'll try to get more. It's right good.
Big week of reissues today.
Joe Strummer 001 is the first compilation to span Joe Strummer’s career outside of his recordings with The Clash.‘Joe Strummer 001’ features 32 tracks and includes favourites from his recordings with the 101ers, The Mescaleros, his solo albums, soundtrack work plus 12 previously unreleased songs. Pretty special release, available on Double CD, limited edition double CD in an A4 book, Quadruple heavyweight vinyl and an EPIC deluxe box set with the quadruple heavyweight vinyl, bonus 7” vinyl single, a cassette, the A4 Book, an enamel badge, an envelope containing a screen print, a high quality image of Joe, two original art prints, and a sticker sheet.
Some pretty essential This Heat LP's out today on Modern Classics Recordings. Made Available collects This Heat’s two Peel Sessions, recorded for BBC Radio 1 in April and October of 1977. These are the earliest public recordings of the band, showing even in their infancy, masterful use of live tape loops and radical song structure. Recorded from 1979 – 1980 Repeat / Metal is essentially This Heat’s third proper album, although it was released posthumously in 1993 and Live 80-81 is an essential document of This Heat’s powerful live performances.
We loved the J Jazz: Deep Modern Jazz compilation, so this is a pretty essential release. A genuine under the radar’ album known only to a handful of Japanese jazz collectors and this reissue is fully endorsed by Takeo Moriyama himself - one of Japan’s finest jazz drummers. East Plants was originally released in 1983 on the Japanese VAP label, East Plants is an unmissable album in the J Jazz canon. Very special stuff on BBE indeed.
Really hyped on the Stereolab releases today. Aluminium Tunes is a remastered edition of a compilation of Stereolab singles and rarities, first issued in 1998. Initial copies are on Triple Clear vinyl with a screen-printed gatefold sleeve. Switched On is a remastered edition of a compilation of Stereolab’s first three singles, first issued in 1992. Initial copies come on clear vinyl. Refried Ectoplasm is a remastered edition of a compilation of Stereolab singles and rarities, first issued in 1995. Initial copies are on clear vinyl. All of this pooled together on 4CD box too as Switched On Volumes 1 to 3.
Sub Pop have dropped The Rick and Morty Soundtrack today on CD and it is really really good. The Loser LP format is expected next week (5th October) and there is also a Limited Box Set that includes a special bonus track on a 7” that will be released on 23rd November.
Yesterday we spent the entire afternoon watching Alex Cameron and Roy Molloy hosting a full 24-hour #ALCAMATHON on three concurrent social networks. They sold ONE THOUSAND albums in that period and we were really feeling it. Great work.