{"title":"Records of the Month","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"field-music-flat-white-moon","title":"Field Music - Flat White Moon","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 23rd April.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"We want to make people feel good about things that we feel terrible about.\" says David Brewis, who has co-led the band Field Music with his brother Peter since 2004. It's a statement which seems particularly fitting to their latest album, Flat White Moon released on 23 April via Memphis Industries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSporadic sessions for the album began in late 2019 at the pair's studio in Sunderland, slotted between rehearsals and touring. The initial recordings pushed a looser performance aspect to the fore, inspired by some of their very first musical loves; Free, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles; old tapes and LPs pilfered from their parents' shelves. But a balance between performance and construction has always been an essential part of Field Music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy March 2020, recording had already begun for most of the album's tracks and, with touring for Making A New World winding down, Peter and David were ready to plough on and finish the record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe playfulness that’s evident in much of Flat White Moon's music became a way to offset the darkness and the sadness of many of the lyrics. Much of the album is plainly about loss and grief, and also about the guilt and isolation which comes with that.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThose personal upheavals are apparent on songs like Out of the Frame, where the loss of a loved one is felt more deeply because they can't be found in photographs and compounded by the suspicion that you caused their absence, or on When You Last Heard From a Linda, which details the confusion of being unable to penetrate a best friend's loneliness in the darkest of circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome songs are more impressionistic. Orion From The Streets combines Studio Ghibli, a documentary about Cary Grant and an excess of wine to become a hallucinogenic treatise on memory and guilt.. Others, such as Not When You're In Love, are more descriptive. Here, the narrator guides us through slideprojected scenes, questioning the ideas and semantics of 'love' as well the reliability of his own memory. For the most part, the album has fewer explicitly political themes than previous records, though there is No Pressure, about a political class who feel no obligation to take responsibility if they can finagle a narrative instead. And there's I'm The One Who Wants To Be With You which skirts its way around toxic masculinity through teenage renditions of soft-rock balladry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Flat White Moon Field Music take on the challenge of representing negative emotions in a way that doesn't dilute or obscure them but which can still uplift. The result is a generous record of bounteous musical ideas, in many ways Field Music's most immediately gratifying to date\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Field Music","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":38137218433210,"sku":"MI0657CD","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":39533903806650,"sku":"MI0657LP","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Indies Transparent LP","offer_id":38137218465978,"sku":"MI0657LPX","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Dinked Edition LP - SOLD OUT","offer_id":38137218498746,"sku":"MI0657LPX2","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/field-500x500.jpg?v=1614090126"},{"product_id":"nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage","title":"Nick Cave \u0026 Warren Ellis - Carnage","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 18th June 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCarnage is a new album by Nick Cave \u0026amp; Warren Ellis, recorded over a period of weeks during lockdown.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlthough the pair have composed \u0026amp; recorded many soundtracks together, and Ellis is a long-term member of The Bad Seeds, this is the first time they have released an entire album of songs as a duo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCave describes the album as \"a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Making Carnage was an accelerated process of intense creativity,\" says Ellis, \"the eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two and a half days.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCave \u0026amp; Ellis' sonic and lyrical adventurism continues apace on Carnage, an album that emerged almost by accident out of the downtime created by the long, anxious, global emergency.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCarnage is a record for these uncertain times - one shot through with moments of distilled beauty and that resonates with an almost defiant sense of hope.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Nick Cave","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":39265855602874,"sku":"BS021CD","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":39265855635642,"sku":"BS021LP","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/Carnage.jpg?v=1614437556"},{"product_id":"william-doyle-great-spans-of-muddy-time","title":"William Doyle - Great Spans of Muddy Time","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 19th March 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s nearly a decade since William Doyle handed a CD-R demo to the Quietus co-founder John Doran at a gig, who loved it so much he set up a label to release Doyle’s debut EP (as East India Youth). Doyle’s debut album, Total Strife Forever, followed in 2014, as did a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e After self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. Just over a year later, as he turns 30, Doyle is back with Great Spans of Muddy Time.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Born from accident but driven forward by instinct, Great Spans was built from the remnants of a catastrophic hard-drive failure. With his work saved only to cassette tape, Doyle was forced to accept the recordings as they were – a sharp departure from his process on Your Wilderness Revisited, which took four long years to craft toward perfection. “Instead of feeling a loss that I could no longer craft these pieces into flawless ‘Works of Art’, I felt intensely liberated that they had been set free from my ceaseless tinkering,” Doyle says.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003e“The album this turned out to be – and that I’ve wanted to make for ages – is a kind of Englishman-gone-mad, scrambling around the verdancy of the country’s pastures looking for some sense,” \u003c\/em\u003esays Doyle.\u003cem\u003e “It has its seeds in Robert Wyatt, early Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, and Syd Barrett.”\u003c\/em\u003e Doyle credits Bowie’s ever-influential Berlin trilogy, but also highlights a much less expected muse: Monty Don, presenter of the BBC programme Gardener’s World, Doyle’s lockdown addiction.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003e“I became obsessed with Monty Don. I like his manner and there's something about him I relate to. He once described periods of depression in his life as consisting of ‘nothing but great spans of muddy time’. When I read that quote I knew it would be the title of this record,”\u003c\/em\u003e Doyle says. \u003cem\u003e“Something about the sludgy mulch of the album’s darker moments, and its feel of perpetual autumnal evening, seemed to fit so well with those words. I would also be lying if I said it didn’t chime with my mental health experiences as well.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Lead single \u003cem\u003e“And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright)”\u003c\/em\u003e is representative of the album as a whole: eclectic and unpredictable, but also playful and properly danceable. On top of the gently pulsing electronics, soothing harmonies and glowing melodies, there’s a ripping guitar solo that ricochets around the song like a pinball.\u003cem\u003e “I wanted to get back into the craft of writing individual songs rather than being concerned with overarching concepts,”\u003c\/em\u003e Doyle says. Elsewhere there’s the synth pop strut of “Nothing At All”, pulsating static on “Semi-Bionic”, incandescent synths and enveloping soundscapes in “Who Cares”, and the ambient glitch groove of “New Uncertainties”.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Great Spans of Muddy Time is a beautiful ode to the power of accident, instinct and intuition. The result, however, is far from an anomaly: this celebration of the imperfect album is one that required years of honed craft and dedicated focus to achieve, \u003cem\u003e “For the first time in my career, the distance between what I hear and what the listener hears is paper-thin,”\u003c\/em\u003e Doyle says. \u003cem\u003e“Perhaps therein reveals a deeper truth that the perfectionist brain can often dissolve.”\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"William Doyle","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":39285659304122,"sku":"TLV138CD","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Indies 'Pelican White' LP","offer_id":39285659336890,"sku":"TLV138LP","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Dinked Edition LP","offer_id":39285659369658,"sku":"TLV138LPX","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/williamdoyledinked-500x500.jpg?v=1614718070"},{"product_id":"jane-weaver-flock","title":"Jane Weaver - Flock","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 5th March.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e‘Flock’\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e is the record that \u003cstrong\u003eJane Weaver\u003c\/strong\u003e always wanted to make, the most genuine version of herself, complete with unpretentious Day-Glo pop sensibilities, wit, kindness, humour and glamour. A consciously positive vision for negative times, a brooding and ethereal creation.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The album features an untested new fusion of seemingly unrelated compounds fused into an eco-friendly hum; pop music for post-new-normal times. Created from elements that should never date, its pop music reinvented. Still prevalent are the cosmic sounds, but ‘Flock’ is a natural rebellion to the recent releases which sees her decidedly move away from conceptual roots in favour of writing pop music. Produced on a complicated diet of bygone Lebanese torch songs, 1980's Russian Aerobics records and Australian Punk.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Amongst this broadcast of glistening sounds is ‘The Revolution Of Super Visions’, an untelevised Mothership connection, with Prince floating by as he plays scratchy guitar; it also features a funky whack-a-mole bass line and synth worms.   It underlines the discordant pop vibe that permeates ‘Flock’ and concludes on ‘Solarised’, a super-catchy, totally infectious apocalypse, a radio-friendly groove for last dance lovers clinging together in an effort to save themselves before the end of the night.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e The musician’s exposure to an abundance of lost records served as a reminder that you still feel like an outsider in this world and that by overcoming fears you can achieve artistic freedom. Jane Weaver continues to metamorphise…\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003e“A mind-expanding delight, devoid of retro posturing.” \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cem\u003e“Ominous and luminous, expansively spacious and sonically imploding, scientific, ephemeral and eternal” \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eThe Quietus \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jane Weaver","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":39290272350394,"sku":"FIRECD544","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"\"Light Rose\" LP","offer_id":39492820172986,"sku":"FIRELP544","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Indies Cream LP","offer_id":39290272383162,"sku":"FIRELP544W","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/JaneWeaver.jpg?v=1614781985"},{"product_id":"ryley-walker-course-in-fable","title":"Ryley Walker - Course In Fable","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 11th June 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSK says: '\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIf the thunderous opening chords of Ryley Walker's 'Course in Fable' suggest he's made good on his long-threatened epic prog tribute to Genesis, what follows rather more bears the mark of the guitarist's other great love: Chicago's incestuous and influential post rock scene. Indeed Tortoise's John McEntire is in the producer's chair on an album which blends their jazzy minimalist patterns, the elliptical delivery of Gastr del Sol and the kind of gonzo humour familiar to followers of Walker's Twitter account, while also containing some of the punchiest songs since his freak-folk breakthrough 'Primrose Green'.'\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRyley Walker currently resides in New York City. But his latest LP is a Chicago record in spirit. The masterful Course In Fable, the songwriter’s fifth solo effort, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edraws from the deep well of that city’s fertile 1990s scene, when bands like Tortoise, The Sea and Cake and Gastr del Sol were reshaping the underground, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emixing and matching indie rock, jazz, prog and beyond.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWalker spent his formative years in Chicago, absorbing those heady sounds and finding ways to make them his own. Even though he emerged at first in folk-rock\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003etroubadour mode, it makes sense that he’s arrived at this point; each LP has grown more intricate and assured, his influences distilling into something o\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eriginal and unusual. To put it simply: Course In Fable is Walker’s best record yet, full of active imagination and endless possibilities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLast October, Ryley went straight to one of the primary architects of the Chicago sound to make the LP. John McEntire, Course In Fable’s producer\/engineer\/\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003emixer, can rightly be called a legend for his work with Tortoise, Stereolab, The Red Krayola, Jim O’Rourke and countless others over a prolific career that now\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003espans more than three decades. Seeing his name in an album’s liners is pretty much a trademark of quality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAnother Windy City exile, McEntire is based on the west coast these days, working out of the Portland, OR studio he’s dubbed Soma West. On the seven songs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehere, he delivers the signature shimmering and pristine sonics he’s become known for over the years. But McEntire was also intimately involved with Course\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Fable’s overall creative process. “I told him to take the mixes and have at it,” Walker says.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe result is a rich, immersive affair — a headphones record if ever there was one. Course In Fable’s songs are twisty, labyrinthine things, stuffed full of ideas\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e(Walker half-jokingly calls it his “prog record”). But no matter how complex it gets, the album is never overwhelmingly busy. Wiry guitars melt into gorgeous\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003estring sections (arranged by Douglas Jenkins of the Portland Cello Project). Tricky time signatures abound but feel as natural as can be. Melodies often drift in\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eunexpected directions but remain downright hummable. Like Walker’s beloved Genesis, the pop element is never too far from the surface even when shit\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003egets weird. (And speaking of weird, Ryley says that in addiction to Genesis, much of the album’s inspiration comes from “Australian extreme scooter riders on\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYouTube and balding gear heads on Craigslist.” Go figure.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo help put together these various puzzle pieces, Ryley assembled a band made up of several longtime collaborators. Bill MacKay (another Chicago mainstay)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eand Walker have made two excellent instrumental duo records of interlocking guitars and warm give-and-take — a rapport very much in evidence\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethroughout Course In Fable. The freakishly talented drummer Ryan Jewell has performed with Walker for years now in a variety of settings, from\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003estraightforward song-centric sets to blown-out improv extravaganzas. Bassist Andrew Scott Young (Tiger Hatchery, Health\u0026amp;Beauty) has logged many miles on\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003etour with Walker; he and Jewell are frequently astonishing, a buoyant-but-always-locked-in rhythm section, able to navigate sometimes dizzying turnarounds\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ewith apparent ease. Listening to the interplay between Walker and these musicians and you might be fooled into thinking they’d spent a year roadtesting\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCourse In Fable’s songs. But it all came together relatively fast, thanks to demos, rehearsals and the kind of musical empathy that comes from years of\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eplaying together.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeneath the wondrous interplay, you’ll find some of Walker’s most personal – if still typically cryptic — lyrics, hinting at some of the trials the songwriter has\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebeen dealing with in recent years. Balanced with necessary doses of dark humor and oddball poetry, Course In Fable feels most of all like a life-affirming\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003erecord, fresh air in the lungs, sun on your skin. “Fuck me, I’m alive,” Ryley sings at one point, a moment of both disbelief and pure joy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWalker has released his albums on a who’s-who of independent labels over the past decade — Tompkins Square, Dead Oceans, Thrill Jockey and Drag City\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eamong them. This time around, he’s doing it DIY-style, putting Course In Fable out on his own Husky Pants imprint. You’re in good hands. This is an album that\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003esounds great (mastered by Greg Calbi), looks great (artwork by Jenny Nelson and design by Michael Vallera). It probably even smells great. Whether you’ve\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ebeen onboard since the beginning or are new to the Ryley Walker universe, you’re in for a treat.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ryley Walker","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":39290773274810,"sku":"HPR008CD","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":39290773307578,"sku":"HPR008LP","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/Ryley.jpg?v=1614788948"},{"product_id":"hiss-golden-messenger-quietly-blowing-it","title":"Hiss Golden Messenger - Quietly Blowing It","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 25th June 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I went looking for peace,” says songwriter M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about his new album Quietly Blowing It, out March 26, 2021, on Merge Records. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world—or my world—in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life, painted in sort of impressionistic hues. Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. And I got the time required in order to do that.” He pauses and laughs ruefully. “I got way more time than I needed, actually.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuietly Blowing It was written and arranged by Taylor in his home studio—his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars—as he watched the chaotic world spin outside his window. “Writing became a daily routine,” he explains, “and that was a ballast for me. Having spent so much time on the road over the past ten years, where writing consistently with any kind of flow can be tricky, it felt refreshing. And being in my studio, which is both isolated from and totally connected to the life of my family, felt appropriate for these songs.” Between March and June, Taylor wrote and recorded upwards of two dozen songs—in most cases playing all of the instruments himself—before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to the Hiss band. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham, NC, for a week, where they recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their years together on the road. “We all needed to be making that music together,” he recalls. “We’ve all spent so many years traveling all over the world, but in that moment, it felt cathartic to be recording those particular songs with each other in our own small hometown.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor brings his keen eye to our “broken American moment”—as he first sang on Hiss Golden Messenger’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY ® - nominated Terms of Surrender—in ways that feel devastatingly intimate and human. Beginning with the wanderer’s lament of “Way Back in the Way Back,” with its rallying cry of “Up with the mountains, down with the system,” Taylor carries the listener on a musical journey that continually returns to themes of growing up, loss, obligation, and labor with piercing clarity, and his musical influences—including classic Southern soul and gospel, renegade country, and spiritual jazz—have never felt more genuine. Indeed, Quietly Blowing It is a distillation of the rolling Hiss Golden Messenger groove, from the rollicking, Allman-esque “The Great Mystifier” to the chiming falsetto soul of “It Will If We Let It,” to the smoky, shuffling title track with its bittersweet guitar assist from Nashville legend Buddy Miller. The album ends with soulful lead single “Sanctuary,” a song about trying to reconcile tragedy and joy, with references to John Prine (“Handsome Johnny had to go, child…”), economic disparity, and the redemptive quality of hope. Indeed, when he sings, “Feeling bad, feeling blue, can’t get out of my own mind; but I know how to sing about it,” it feels like the album’s spiritual thesis. Throughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor reckons with the tumultuous present in wholly personal terms, encouraging listeners to do the same. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“These songs always circle back to the things that I feel like I have a handle on and the things that I’m not proud of about myself. When I think of the phrase ‘quietly blowing it,’ I think of all the ways that I’ve misstepped, misused my gifts, miscommunicated. ‘Born on the level, quietly blowing it.’ That’s what’s on my mind there. Always fuckin’ up in little ways.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSurrounding himself with a trusted cast of collaborators that includes Miller, songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov, songwriter and Tony Award–winning playwright Anaïs Mitchell, multi-instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, Dawes’ brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, and his oldest musical confidant Scott Hirsch, Taylor has made his most audacious and hopeful work yet with Quietly Blowing It; it’s an album that speaks personal truth to this moment in which the old models of being feel broken and everything feels at stake. “I don’t know that the peace that I crave when I’m far from home exists, actually,” says Taylor. “It’s more complicated. I still don’t know what peace means for me, because I can be sitting on the couch watching a movie with my family and be completely tangled up in my head. 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I don’t think we knew where we wanted to go but we were 100% sure on it not being Incidental Music part 2.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThings soon burst to life however and a period of profound creativity, musical intuition, bold innovation and near total musical rebirth came forth. “I was in the best place of my life,” says Joe Evans. “I was like a slot machine putting in wellbeing currency and jackpotting this album. Words and melodies were coming so quick and easy. Tom was sending tunes across and I was having a lot of fun playing around with a new way of singing which was freer, more expressive, more instant and more melodic.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is a record that is direct, punchy and potent. Merging silky vocals, strutting grooves, enveloping textures, and a sparkling blend of electronic and pop music. “We thought: okay we’ve done the long sprawling introductions and instrumentals,” says Tom. “So let’s see if we can get the same intensity, energy and layers whilst getting straight to the point.” Joe echoes this. “We wanted to move away from easing people in and grab them by the heart straight away. I reflected on how we played live shows and romanticised about launching onto the stage in a bundle of energy and starting the party, no messing. The directness comes from making music more intuitively, and more from a place of fun. We were writing music that affirmed how much we missed dancing in sweaty rooms, enjoying the company of a collection of beautiful friendly strangers.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album documents a period of change for the group. They lost a member in Tom Derbyshire, moved from Manchester to Todmorden and fell in love more with dance music and the shifting sense of community and inclusivity that came with these changes. “We have moved forward from the change with a new energy,” says Joe of Tom Derbyshire’s amicable exit to focus on filmmaking. “It was a challenge shifting the dynamic but we truly found our stride and Tom Sharkett and I have an absolutely beautiful working relationship.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTom also feels this forced sense of change has brought about something fresh. “We didn’t have many spare ideas let alone spare tunes for the first album,” he recalls. “Whereas for Vanities we had loads that we binned. That needed to happen for us to get somewhere new and I think before the change in line-up we were in limbo a bit.” The album was written with a process of passing ideas back and forth, in a spirit of playfulness and exploration. The songs were then further refined in the studio of band member Chris Mulligan (guitar, bass, keys), a producer in his own right, who helped to further refine the arrangement and directness of the songs. ‘We are blessed to have brilliant musicians in W. H. Lung. It is very comforting, creatively, to know that initial ideas will always be further developed and expanded when played by Alex (drums), Chris and Hannah (keys, vocals.)’ says Joe. ‘And we got loads of magic out of (producer) Matt (Peel) for this record. He infuses all the tracks with such an infectious, wonky energy.’ \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis positivity, and incandescent dance floor giddiness that the pair espouses can be felt all over the record too. Despite being written in isolation and remoteness the album is rooted in very real physical spaces. “Manchester is a very important part of this record,” says Tom Sharkett, “The White Hotel, nights like Wet Play, seeing Gerd Janson DJ at the End of Year Riot (Electric Chair) and then discovering all the amazing stuff on his label Running Back. Then when we moved to Todmorden it was the same. Seeing Andrew Weatherall down the road from our flat at The Golden Lion - it just felt like an exciting time for us and I wanted to consume as much new music as possible.” Joe shares his bandmates’ enthusiasm for their dance floor experiences that have fed into this record. “Vanities is a musical representation of what Tom and I crave the most now that it’s been taken away from us,” he says. “In simple terms, we love to dance and have both fallen deeper in love with the music that facilitates that. Because of this voracious appetite for new music and the experiences that come with that hunger,\u003cbr\u003einfluences on the album are vast: the aforementioned Weatherall, Robyn, Todd Terje, Grauzone, Kelly Lee Owens, Helena Hauff and countless others. But the end result is something distinctly the band’s own.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Pearl in the Palm’ was the track that kicked it all off. “A transition from the old W. H. Lung to new,” says Tom. It marries pulsing synths, galloping drums and a vocal take that is both caramel smooth but also fervently intense. ‘Show Stopper’ allows the drums and bass to carry a subtle funk strut and is one of the album’s moments that highlight the band’s deft touch for layering and texture. ‘Somebody Like’ is an absolute stomper, marrying filthy electronics with a pop hook that is as irresistible as it is anthemic. ‘Gd Tym’ nicely captures the transition from a more archetypal band sound to dance floor fodder, as spiralling guitar lines intersperse with heavy lashings of electronics and deep hooks. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDespite the album’s exploration of the dizziness of dance floors and their maximalist appeal, it’s also one that plunges deep lyrically and comes from a place of profound introspection. Taking influence from the searching at the heart of the plays of Anton Chekov, as well as the novels of Shusaku Endo and Iris Murdoch, Joe also went deep into self-observation books like Red Hawk and The Fourth Way by Pyotr Ouspenskii. “It talks about stepping back from your mind and waking up to the patterns and conditionings of your thoughts,” he says. “This is like a constant meditation and so when I sat down to write lyrics, the different behaviours that I recognised in myself were really clear and poured out.” This meditative state also extended to another physical connection, this time out in the open rather than under the strobes. “A source of inspiration was getting out into nature,” he says. “We would often go out onto the tops of Todmorden and walk and swim. Sitting with and walking in the abundance of the natural world has fed into some of the playfulness and light spirit of the album.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps most remarkable thing about the album - aside from the unflinching new sonic leaps it takes - is that the band have taken a dormant year void of live experiences, sweaty clubs, or anything resembling fun times, and have made an album that makes that world feel palpable – that you can crawl inside it. “Lockdown gave me the time to pour work into myself and out came this wonderful album,” reflects Joe. “It was strange at first and I missed seeing my mates and having a laugh and dancing but this album is a direct reflection of creative flow brought on by the space given by lockdown.” \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVanities is a very rare beast of a record: a lockdown album that feels bursting with vitality and the love, promise and transcendence of shared dance floor experiences. 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A three limbed beast made up of twins Ellie and Imogen Mason, and William J. Stokes, each is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer with an imperious understanding of three dimensional sound. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp paraid=\"1784422627\" paraeid=\"{829bea7c-731e-49c4-9315-6e5b23a67ced}{17}\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe newest single \u003cstrong\u003e‘Necrofauna \/ The Garden of Eden\u003c\/strong\u003e’ - features Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips.  T\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ehe hallucinatory mix of squelching synth bass and rhythmic samples, three-tiered harmonies playing off against William’s sprechgesang, and a cutting, full-bodied drum beat is reflected in the oneiric themes. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“This song is a dream sequence about the narrator entering the Garden of Eden, the emblem of an idealised pastoral relationship with the natural world, and realising they can’t stand it and want t o consume and bring destruction to it (I see a deer pass me by and I break its neck \/ Rip off its hind leg and take a bite through fur, sinew and bone).” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003e‘Necrofauna \/ The Garden of Eden’ - recorded with neo-metal battalion Pigsx7 guitarist and producer Sam Grant - is the first release in earnest since 2019’s acclaimed debut album ‘Start Clanging Cymbals’, released via Nude Records. Having come through the dues-paying gestation period that leads up to a debut record, there’s a sense of liberation around this new phase for Voka Gentle - a subtle confidence in their craft. It’s well earned too - with high praise from the likes of UNCUT, MOJO and The Line of Best Fit at press. Support comes too from BBC 6 Music - including presenting an edition of Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone - and Radio 1. 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Both men had a big hand in the production of Taylor Swift's acclaimed 'folklore' and 'evermore' albums and the pop superstar returns the favour here, appearing on two tracks alongside an impressive roster of guests which includes Fleet Foxes, Ben Howard, Lisa Hannigan and Anais Mitchell.'\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEver since childhood, learning to play various instruments in a suburban Cincinnati basement alongside his brother Bryce, Aaron Dessner has consistently sought an emotional outlet and deep human connection through music — be it as a primary songwriter in The National, a founder and architect of beloved collaboration-driven music festivals, or collaborator on two critically acclaimed and chart-topping Taylor Swift albums recorded in complete pandemic-era isolation at his Long Pond Studio in upstate New York, among many other projects. Through it all, Dessner has brought together an unlikely community of musicians that share his impulse to connect, celebrate and, most of all, process emotion and experience through music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis generous spirit and desire to push music forward has never been more deeply felt than on Big Red Machine’s “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” the second album from Dessner’s evermorphing project with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. In 2008, while assembling material for the charity compilation “Dark Was the Night,” Dessner sent Vernon a song sketch titled “big red machine”. Vernon interpreted “big red machine” as a beating heart and finished the song accordingly — a metaphor Dessner says “still sticks with me today. This project goes to many places and is always on some level about experimentation, but it shines a light on why I make music in the first place, which is an emotional need. It’s one of my therapies and one of the ways I interrogate the past.” Released in 2018, Big Red Machine’s self-titled debut album evolved from improvisation and what Dessner calls “structured experimentalism,” with an ear toward building tracks that would work well in a live setting alongside visual elements. When Dessner and Vernon started the Eaux Claires Music Festival in 2015, they staged the original “Big Red Machine” as an improvisation-based performance piece. They later took that show to the PEOPLE collective’s Berlin residency and festival, and to Dessner’s Haven Festival in Copenhagen. “Big Red Machine started as this thing we would do for fun, and we fell in love with the feeling of it,” says Dessner.” Vernon agrees: “I remember it feeling really easy, but we never knew what would happen. It was exciting. As time went on, we just kept doing things together. And our friendship has grown strong, alongside all the collaborative stuff.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew Big Red Machine material began taking shape in spring 2019, when Vernon came to visit Dessner at Long Pond. The first week produced songs such as “Reese,” “8:22am” and eventual album opener “Latter Days,” a haunting number sung by Vernon and Anaïs Mitchell that set the emotional tenor for what was to come. “It was clear to her that the early sketch Justin and I made of Latter Days was about childhood, or loss of innocence and nostalgia for a time before you’ve grown into adulthood — before you’ve hurt people or lost people and made mistakes. Anaïs defined the whole record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen she sang that, as these same themes kept appearing again and again,” Dessner says. In the ensuing months, Vernon and Dessner would meet up when they could, and in the meantime, Dessner developed the existing material and wrote new instrumental tracks which he sent Vernon, always eager to hear what he would receive back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Justin is incredibly gifted, but he’s also disruptive in the best way,” says Dessner, pointing to the first note of the song “Birch” as a prime example. “It’s absolutely brilliant, but it was very surprising when I heard it the first time. I can’t tell you what that interval is. There are many moments working with him where your head hits the wall in amazement like that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the early stages of the pandemic, Swift approached Dessner to work with her on what would become the sister albums “folklore” and “evermore.” Dessner describes this period as a “creative blur,” during which he’d be writing material for Swift and Big Red Machine simultaneously. “I think this was an intense growing period for me, I was learning so much from Taylor and the process. Along the way, I shared all of our unfinished Big Red Machine songs with her and she really found them inspiring and gave me so much positive feedback and encouragement,” he says. “I think that helped me realize how connected this Big Red Machine music was to everything else I was doing and that I was always supposed to be chasing these ideas. I was finding new sounds and ways of working through these songs. I just hadn’t been able to finish them. So, I did.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBeyond Vernon and Swift’s encouragement, many of Dessner’s previous collaborators and friends show up for him here, continuing the reciprocal exchange of ideas that has come to define his creative community. Songs feature guest vocals and writing contributions from artist friends including Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold (“Phoenix”), Ben Howard and This Is The Kit (“June’s a River”), Naeem (“Easy to Sabotage’), Sharon Van Etten, Lisa Hannigan and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Nova (“Hutch,” a tune inspired by Dessner’s late friend, Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison) and Swift herself (“Birch” and “Renegade,” the latter an instant-classic Taylor earworm summed up by the poignant lyric “Is it insensitive for me to say \/ get your shit together so I can love you.” The song was recorded in Los Angeles at the Kitty Committee studio in March 2021, the same week when Swift and Dessner took home the GRAMMY for Album of the Year for “folklore.”)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“This is all music I generated, but it is interesting to hear how different people relate to it, or how different voices collide with it,” Dessner says. “That’s what makes it special. With everyone that’s on this record, there’s an openness, a creative generosity and an emotional quality that connects it all together.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs he continued writing prolifically on his own, Dessner noticed a theme emerging -- the idea of sitting with the uncomfortability of personal and family darkness from his childhood and reflecting on how emotional issues he dealt with growing up have reverberated through his adult life. It became clear that some of these he’d need to sing himself; songs such as “The Ghost of Cincinnati” and “Magnolia” address the disintegration of marriage and family and mental health, asking pointed questions of himself and those closest to him. “Brycie” is an ode to his aforementioned twin and National bandmate, who picked up on the musical vibes immediately when Dessner played the song for him for the first time backstage at a National show in Washington D.C.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“He picked along to it with me and it immediately sounded like Aaron and Bryce playing the guitar in the basement as kids, which was my intent,” Dessner remembers. “The words mean a lot to me. It’s about my childhood with Bryce, and how I had pretty severe depression in high school. He was the one who kept me going and took care of me until I was back on my feet. I’ve lost close friends to depression and this song is about how important it was that Bryce was there for me at that time and is still here.” In addition to being one of the more lyrically significant tracks on the album, Dessner says singing it himself felt like an important act of self-acceptance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I always sing under my breath when I write music, but I usually hand it off to [National vocalist] Matt [Berninger] or others” he says. “When you’re in a band for so long and somebody else is that person, you come to rely on it and I’ve always loved Matt’s voice and his words. But singing ‘Brycie’ myself helped rewire my brain to realize that maybe Big Red Machine is the project that not only enables me to create songs with other people, but also sometimes finish songs on my own.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecalling sessions at Sonic Ranch in Texas when Dessner recorded his vocal takes, Vernon says, “Aaron showed me ‘Brycie’ a couple years ago now. I was like, this is beautiful, and you should do more singing. Not only would it be good for the future of your songwriting, but your voice sounds really good to me. It was exciting to see him flourish in that way — to now be a part of that process and realize the hardships in that and also the victories. On this record, he’s leading the charge, wholly and completely.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMusically, “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?” features what Dessner calls maybe the “clearest distillation” of his varying songwriting and production styles. Songs like “Reese,” the Dessner-sung “Magnolia” and the elegiac “Hutch” are built on the kinds of tear-jerking piano melodies millions of fans have come to love from The National, but then move at their own pace toward unusual sonic destinations. “Aaron’s greatest gift as a collaborator is his ability to evolve and experiment with the emotional sound that is so natural to him,” Vernon says of the material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere, the dream-like “Hoping Then” sets layered vocals by Vernon, Dessner and Hannigan (“It’s the on the edge of why I can’t sleep soundly”) atop chopped and phased violin lines, programmed drums and countermelodies played on a rubber bridge guitar. His brother Bryce’s orchestration ebbs and flows throughout this song and many others. The main instrumental track of the chugging, groovy “Easy to Sabotage” was stitched together from two different live recordings and later enveloped in warm keyboard textures and the head-nodding vocals of Naeem. “It just feels alive and electric, and it just happened,” Dessner says of the song.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat sense of shared experience extended to the new album’s title, which was coined by Swift after Dessner told her he wasn’t sure what to call the new album. Intuitively summing up the themes, she suggested titling it “How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?,” a question which she pointed out could refer to multiple subjects addressed therein: “childhood, family, marriages, a depression, a losing streak, a winning streak or a creative streak. Taylor saw it all so clearly,” Dessner says. “A year ago, we’d never even worked together. It’s so cool that this community keeps extending and that everyone who contributed to this album connected so naturally to the emotions at the heart of the music.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Big Red Machine","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40002354380986,"sku":"JAG415CD","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP","offer_id":40002354413754,"sku":"JAG415LP","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Opaque Red 2LP","offer_id":40002354446522,"sku":"JAG415LP-C1","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/jag415.brm.howlong.fc.3000.jpg?v=1625232656"},{"product_id":"joan-as-police-woman-tony-allen-dave-okumu-the-solution-is-restless","title":"Joan As Police Woman \u0026 Tony Allen \u0026 Dave Okumu - The Solution Is Restless","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 5th November 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"body\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003e‘The Solution Is Restless’\u003c\/b\u003e was written and recorded by Joan As Police Woman with Dave Okumu of The Invisible and legendary drummer Tony Allen shortly before he sadly passed away.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"default0\"\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOf the album Joan Wasser says\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e: \u003ci\u003eDamon Albarn introduced me to Afrobeat legend, Tony Allen, at the March 2019 Africa Express event \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Circus” and we hit it off. Tony and I played a version of Nina Simone's \"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free\" and decided to record together. I asked my old friend and fierce musician, Dave Okumu, to join from London and that November, in a Parisian studio, we improvised all night.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"default0\"\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen the world shut down, I used those recordings to write a record entitled \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Solution Is Restless”. This first single, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTake Me To Your Leader”, is the most incendiary on the new record. I wrote it watching Jacinda Ardern, PM of New Zealand, navigate 2020. In my dreamworld, the US asks to meet her in order to learn how to better run the country. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTake me to your leader\/ \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e‘\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecause I\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003em ready to play\/ can\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003et hold my breath any longer\/ word on the street is she\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003es a healer\/ I\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003em know I\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003em down to obey\/ and don\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e’\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003et we need a break in the chaos”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"default0\"\u003eIn a year when most of the world pressed ‘pause’, Joan has been making and releasing new music. She wrote and recorded with Damon Albarn for the Gorillaz ‘Song Machine’ album,\u003cspan\u003e released her second album of covers (‘Cover Two’) and her first live album, ‘Live’. She also appeared on the Afel Bocoum album \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\" lang=\"AR-SA\"\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan dir=\"RTL\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLindé”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"IT\"\u003e(World Circuit)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"default0\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTony \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAllen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti’s band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the primary co-founders of the genre of Afrobeat. Fela once stated that, \"without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat” and he was described by Brian Eno as \"perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived\". Besides many other musical milestones and collaborations, in recent years Tony teamed up with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong to form The Good, the Bad \u0026amp; the Queen.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"default0\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDave Okumu is best known for fronting the Mercury Music Prize band The Invisible and more recently announcing the release of a solo album ‘Knopperz’ due for release in September.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Joan As Police Woman","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40066440757434,"sku":"PIASR5085CDX","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP","offer_id":40066440822970,"sku":"PIASR5085DLP","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/JAPW_TSIR_Packshot_3000x3000_4489269c-0eae-4d8b-93b9-425bcff1285b.jpg?v=1626181142"},{"product_id":"badbadnotgood-talk-memory","title":"BADBADNOTGOOD - Talk Memory","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 8th October 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMemory Catalogue issues 1-3 to give away with purchases of the album.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSK says: 'A first album from BBNG without founder member Matthew Tavares finds them moving away from the instrumental hip-hop sound of their earlier work to a European-flavoured jazz, blending ECM saxes and Portico Quartet textures. Closing track 'Talk Meaning' is a spiritual jazz epic propelled by string charts from the great Arthur Verocai.'\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBADBADNOTGOOD return with their highly anticipated new album, Talk Memory, a psychedelic jazz record that explores balance and harmony through musical improvisation. Collaborators include legendary composer Arthur Verocai and contemporary icons such as Terrace Martin, Karriem Riggins and Laraaji\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BADBADNOTGOOD","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40079508275386,"sku":"XL1176CD","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP","offer_id":40079508308154,"sku":"XL1176LP","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Indies White 2LP","offer_id":40079508340922,"sku":"XL1176LPE","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/BBNG_TM_LP.jpg?v=1626344701"},{"product_id":"the-war-on-drugs-i-dont-live-here-anymore","title":"The War On Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 29th October 2021. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSK says: \"\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIf their breakthrough 'Lost In The Dream' was a driving heartland rock epic powered by Motorik rhythms and its follow-up 'A Deeper Understanding' a complex, ruminative beast, produced in the kind of hermetic studio conditions favoured variously by My Bloody Valentine and Steely Dan, then last year's tour-documenting 'Live Drugs' hinted at an earthier, more languid direction, in between stretched out versions of their hits. It's this territory which 'I Don't Live Here Anymore' mines to addictive effect. It's a slower, sadder record than its predecessors but a snappier effort, too- no song here outstays the seven-minute mark- leaning into the 80s adult contemporary influence that has always been low in the mix among the psych instrumentals and reverb.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe War On Drugs first studio album in four years, ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’. Over the last 15 years, The War on Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll synthesists, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream, between the obtuse and the anthemic, making records that wrestle a fractured past into a unified and engrossing present. The War On Drugs have never done that as well as they do with their fifth studio album, ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’, an uncommon rock album about one of our most common but daunting processes—resilience in the face of despair.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust a month after The War On Drugs’ ‘A Deeper Understanding’ received the 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album, the core of Granduciel, bassist Dave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca retreated to upstate New York to jam and cut new demos, working outside of the predetermined roles each member plays in the live setting. These sessions proved highly productive, turning out early versions of some of the most immediate songs on ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’. It was the start of a dozen-plus session odyssey that spanned three years and seven studios, including some of rock’s greatest sonic workshops like Electric Lady in New York and Los Angeles’ Sound City. Band leader Adam Granduciel and trusted co-producer\/engineer Shawn Everett spent untold hours peeling back every piece of these songs and rebuilding them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most memorable sessions occurred in May 2019 at Electro-Vox, in which the band’s entire line-up — rounded out by keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and saxophonist Jon Natchez — convened to record the affecting album opener “Living Proof.” Typically, Granduciel assembles The War On Drugs records from reams of overdubs, like a kind of rock ‘n’ roll jigsaw puzzle. But for “Living Proof,” the track came together in real time, as the musicians drew on their chemistry as a live unit to summon some extemporaneous magic. The immediacy of the performance was appropriate for one of the most personal songs Granduciel has ever written.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe War On Drugs’ particular combination of intricacy and imagination animates the 10 songs of ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’, buttressing the feelings of Granduciel’s personal odyssey. It’s an expression of rock ’n’ roll’s power to translate our own experience into songs we can share and words that direct our gaze toward the possibility of what is to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The War On Drugs","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40099772498106,"sku":"0075678642050","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP","offer_id":40099772530874,"sku":"0075678641299","price":36.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Indies Translucent Blue 2LP","offer_id":40099772563642,"sku":"0075678641275","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/image003_907b284c-4349-4af7-b0e4-eac42982aa3e.jpg?v=1626778442"},{"product_id":"the-killers-pressure-machine","title":"The Killers - Pressure Machine","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 13th August 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSK says: \"W\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003easting no time in following up last year's exuberant 'Imploding The Mirage' and once again enlisting Shawn Everett (The War on Drugs) and Jonathan Rado (Foxygen, Alex Cameron) to produce\/co-write, the new album is an intense and personal affair which sees frontman Brandon Flowers unpack his small-town Utah upbringing- resident vox-pops bridge some of the album's songs, discussing dead-end jobs and level crossing accidents. The influence of Springsteen has long lingered over the Vegas band but this might be their most explicit homage to the downtrodden blue collar Boss of 'Nebraska' and 'The Ghost of Tom Joad'. Appearances from Nickel Creek fiddle maestro Sara Watkins and emo troubadour Phoebe Bridgers lend the album a folkier timbre, while longtime guitarist Dave Keuning returns to the band having sat out the previous record. Everett's mixing brings out the brightness of burnished acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies against the bleak lyrical portraits of working class America. The end result is a reflective and darkly compelling record whose light and shade means that when their trademark sonic bombast does kick in it really pops.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Killers return with their seventh studio album Pressure Machine.  The album is about the small town of Nephi, Utah where Brandon Flowers spent his youth.  The songs are extremely personal and cover a spectrum of emotions in connection to growing up in a rural setting.  The album will also include a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers on one track.  The Grammy-nominated band has won 3 Brit awards and an MTV Video Music Award and their classic song “Mr. Brightside” has logged over 5 years on the UK Official Singles Chart.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Killers","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40103637090490,"sku":"3829179","price":5.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":40103637156026,"sku":"3829175","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Indies Slipcase LP","offer_id":40103637221562,"sku":"3864411","price":21.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/Killers_PressureMachine_Cover_FINAL.jpg?v=1626772960"},{"product_id":"jackson-browne-downhill-from-everywhere","title":"Jackson Browne - Downhill From Everywhere","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 23rd July 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNearly five decades since his debut LP, the songs on Jackson Browne’s new album Downhill From Everywhere sustain the soulful intimacy of his first release, combined with a power and wisdom gained from a life pursuing positive change.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jackson Browne","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40122581221562,"sku":"0696751061119","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2LP","offer_id":40122581254330,"sku":"0696751061126","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/JacksonB.jpg?v=1627028599"},{"product_id":"my-morning-jacket-my-morning-jacket","title":"My Morning Jacket - My Morning Jacket","description":"\u003cp\u003eRelease 22nd October 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe band’s first new music since 2015’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated THE WATERFALL, MY MORNING JACKET reaffirms the rarefied magic that’s made My Morning Jacket so beloved, embedding every groove with moments of discovery, revelation, and ecstatic catharsis. Produced and engineered by James over two multi-week sessions at Los Angeles, CA’s 64 Sound, the album came to life after what looked like a permanent hiatus for the band. But after performing four shows in summer 2019 – beginning with two mind-blowing nights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre – My Morning Jacket was overcome with the urge to carry on. That sense of purpose can be heard throughout the thrillingly expansive MY MORNING JACKET. For all its unbridled joy, songs like “Regularly Scheduled Programming” and the otherworldly, album-closing “I Never Could Get Enough” once again reveal My Morning Jacket’s hunger for exploring the most nuanced and layered existential questions in song form while simultaneously harnessing the hypnotic intensity of their legendary live show more fully than ever before. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I hope this album brings people a lot of joy and relief, especially since we’ve all been cooped up for so long,” says James. “I know that feeling you get from driving around blasting music you love, or even lying in bed and crying to the music you love. The fact that we’re able to be a part of people’s lives in that way is so magical to us, and it feels really good that we’re still around to keep doing that.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMY MORNING JACKET will be available on CD as well as two vinyl configurations: 2xLP Clear Vinyl featuring a gatefold jacket with artwork by Robert Beatty, custom inner-sleeves with lyrics, and digital download; and 2xLP 180-Gram Deluxe Colored Vinyl featuring cloudy blue and cloudy orange colored vinyl, deluxe foil gatefold jacket with artwork by Robert Beatty, 24” x 24” circular fold-out poster, custom inner-sleeves with lyrics, and digital download.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Morning Jacket","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":40327656472762,"sku":"ATO0573CD","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Clear 2LP","offer_id":40327656505530,"sku":"ATO0573","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/MyMorningJacket-SelfTitled-300dpi.jpg?v=1629891960"},{"product_id":"marisa-anderson-william-tyler-lost-futures","title":"Marisa Anderson \u0026 William Tyler - Lost Futures","description":"\u003cp\u003eRelease 27th August 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGuitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler distil deeply rooted and varied traditions into distinctive voices all their own. Anderson and Tyler are each unyielding in their desire to extend through those traditions and the confines of ‘guitar music’ to craft music at once intimate and expansive, conversational and transcendent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe duo’s debut collaborative album tethers together their singular voices into unified narratives that glisten, drive and sway. On ‘Lost Futures’, Anderson and Tyler’s guitars dance through lush arrangements and pastoral duets serpentine and reverent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Lost Futures’ takes its name from writer Mark Fisher’s cultural theory of the loss of potential futures, the hopes and ideals which once felt inevitable but have since been interrupted. Anderson and Tyler’s use of textural drones, rhythmic repetition and harmonic shifts embody the building tensions of uncertainty created by profound loss: loss of life, experience, companionship, compassion. Across ‘Lost Futures’, Anderson and Tyler mold their instruments into breathtaking panoramas of blight and bliss. Each movement contains a dense biome of transportive sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe duo’s music together reckons with mounting pressures as well as the joy of newfound friendship and gratitude for being able to play together. In tandem, Marisa Anderson and William Tyler have composed a work of remarkable breadth, brimming with resplendent odes of solace. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMarisa Anderson and William Tyler are both prolific solo artists. Tyler has also toured with groups including Lambchop and Silver Jews and Marisa has contributed to recordings by Beth Ditto, Sharon Van Etten and Circuit Des Yeux among others.  ‘Lost Futures’ features guests Gisela Rodriguez Fernandez on violin and Patricia Vázquez Gómez playing quijada.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePackage features artwork by Sam Smith. 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The contradiction of\u003cbr\u003econfidence and vulnerability, power and delicacy, had the impact of a wrecking ball\u003cbr\u003ewhen put to tape. It was an impressive and unequivocal career-making moment for\u003cbr\u003eJordan. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Valentine, her sophomore album out November 5th on Matador, Lindsey\u003cbr\u003esolidifies and defines this trajectory in a blaze of glory. In 10 songs, written over\u003cbr\u003e2019-2020 by Jordan alone, we are taken on an adrenalizing odyssey of genuine\u003cbr\u003eoriginality in an era in which 'indie' music has been reduced to gentle, homogenous\u003cbr\u003epop composed mostly by ghost writers. Made with careful precision, Valentine shows\u003cbr\u003ean artist who has chosen to take her time. The reference points are broad and\u003cbr\u003epsychically stirring, while the lyrics build masterfully on the foundation set by\u003cbr\u003eJordan’s first record to deliver a deeper understanding of heartbreak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn “Ben Franklin”, the second single of the album, Jordan sings “Moved on,\u003cbr\u003ebut nothing feels true \/ Sometimes I hate her just for not being you \/ Post rehab I’ve\u003cbr\u003ebeen feeling so small \/ I miss your attention, I wish I could call”. It’s here that she\u003cbr\u003emourns a lost love, conceding the true nature of a fleeting romantic tie-up and\u003cbr\u003eultimately, referencing a stay in a recovery facility in Arizona. This 45-day interlude\u003cbr\u003efollowed issues stemming from a young life colliding with sudden fame and success.\u003cbr\u003eSince she was not allowed to bring her instruments or recording equipment, Jordan\u003cbr\u003ebegan tabulating the new album arrangements on paper solely out of memory and\u003cbr\u003eimagination. It was after this choice to take radical action that Valentine really took its\u003cbr\u003eunique shape. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJordan took her newfound sense of clarity and calm to Durham, North\u003cbr\u003eCarolina, along with the bones of a new album. Here she worked with Brad Cook\u003cbr\u003e(Bon Iver, Waxahatchee). For all the album’s vastness and gravity, it was in this\u003cbr\u003esmall home studio that Jordan and Cook chipped away over the winter of early 2021\u003cbr\u003eat co-producing a dynamic collection of genre-melding new songs, finishing it\u003cbr\u003etriumphantly in the spring. They were assisted by longtime bandmates Ray Brown\u003cbr\u003eand Alex Bass, as well as engineer Alex Farrar, with a live string section added later\u003cbr\u003eat Spacebomb Studios in Richmond. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLeaning more heavily into samples and synthesizers, the album hinges on a\u003cbr\u003ehandful of remarkably untraditional pop songs. The first few seconds of opener and\u003cbr\u003etitle track ‘Valentine’ see whispered voice and eerie sci-fi synth erupt into a stadium-\u003cbr\u003esized, endorphin-rush of a chorus that is an overwhelming statement of intent. “Ben\u003cbr\u003eFranklin”, “Forever (Sailing)” and “Madonna” take imaginative routes to the highest\u003cbr\u003epeaks of catchiness. Jordan has always sung with a depth of intensity and\u003cbr\u003econviction, and the climactic pop moments on Valentine are delivered with such a\u003cbr\u003etenet and a darkness and a beauty that’s noisy and guttural, taking on the singularity\u003cbr\u003ethat usually comes from a veteran artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs captivating as the synth-driven songs are, it’s the more delicate moments\u003cbr\u003elike “Light Blue”, “c.et. al.” and “Mia” that distill the albums range and depth. “Baby\u003cbr\u003eblue, I’m so behind \/ Can’t make sense of the faces in and out of my life \/ Whirling\u003cbr\u003eabove our daily routines \/ Both buried in problems, baby, honestly” Jordan sings on\u003cbr\u003e“c. et. al.” with a devastating certainty. These more ethereal, dextrously finger-picked\u003cbr\u003efolk songs peppered in throughout the album are nuanced in their vocal delivery and\u003cbr\u003econfident in their intricate arrangement. They come in like a breath of air, a moment\u003cbr\u003eto let the mind wander, but quickly drown the listener in their melodic alchemy and\u003cbr\u003elyrical punch. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe album is rounded out radiantly by guitar-driven rock songs like\u003cbr\u003e“Automate”, “Glory” and “Headlock”. Reminiscent of Lush but with a marked tonal\u003cbr\u003eshift, Jordan again shows her prowess as a guitar player with chorus-y leads and\u003cbr\u003erhythmic, wall-of-sound riffs. “Headlock” highlights this pivot with high-pitched\u003cbr\u003edissonance and celestially affected lead parts – “Can’t go out I’m tethered to \/\u003cbr\u003eAnother world where we’re together \/ Are you lost in it too?”, she sings with grit and\u003cbr\u003efatigue, building so poignantly on her sturdy foundation of out-and-out melancholy.\u003cbr\u003eOn Valentine, we are taken 100 miles deeper into the world Jordan created\u003cbr\u003ewith Lush, led through passageways and around dark corners, landing somewhere\u003cbr\u003ewe never dreamed existed. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday, in the wake of recording Valentine, Jordan is focused on trying to\u003cbr\u003econtinue healing without slowing down. The album comes in the midst of so much\u003cbr\u003egrowth, in the fertile soil of a harrowing bottom-out. On the heels of life-altering\u003cbr\u003esuccess, a painful breakup and 6 weeks in treatment, Jordan appears vibrant and\u003cbr\u003esharp. “Mia, don’t cry \/ I love you forever \/ But I gotta grow up now \/ No I can’t keep\u003cbr\u003eholding onto you anymore” she sings on the album closer “Mia”. She sings softly but\u003cbr\u003eher voice cuts through like a hacksaw. The song is lamenting a lost love, saying a\u003cbr\u003esomber goodbye, and it closes the door on a bitter cold season for Jordan. 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Following on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut “For the first time”, the band have harnessed the momentum from that record and run full pelt into their second, with “Ants From Up There” managing to strike a skilful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before, as well as a natural progression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReleased alongside the announcement the band (Lewis Evans, May Kershaw, Charlie Wayne, Luke Mark, Isaac Wood, Tyler Hyde and Georgia Ellery) have also today shared the first single from the album, ‘Chaos Space Marine’, a track that has already become a live favourite with fans since its first public airings earlier this year - combining sprightly violin, rhythmic piano, and stabs of saxophone to create something infectiously fluid that builds to a rousing crescendo. It’s a track that frontman Isaac Wood calls “the best song we’ve ever written.” It’s a chaotic yet coherent creation that ricochets around unpredictably but also seamlessly. “We threw in every idea anyone had with that song,” says Wood. “So the making of it was a really fast, whimsical approach - like throwing all the shit at the wall and just letting everything stick.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir debut “For the first time” is a certain 2021 Album of the Year, having received ecstatic reviews from critics and fans alike as well as being shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Released in February to extensive, global, critical support - perhaps best summed up by The Times who wrote in their 5\/5 review that they were \"the most exciting band of 2021\" and The Observer who called their record \"one of the best albums of the year\" - the album made a significant dent on the UK Albums Chart where it landed at #4 in its first week, a remarkable achievement for a largely experimental debut record. The album also reached #1 on Any Decent Music, #2 at Album Of The Year and sat at #1 on Rate Your Music for several weeks, remaining the record to generate the most fan reviews and site discussion there this year. Black Country, New Road were also declared Artist Of The Week and Album Of The Week by The Observer, The Line Of Best Fit and Stereogum, and saw features, including covers and reviews, from the likes of Mojo, NPR, CRACK, Uncut, The Quietus, Pitchfork, The FADER, Loud \u0026amp; Quiet, The Face, Paste, The Needle Drop, DIY, NME, CLASH, So Young, Dork and more.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith “For the first time” the band melded klezmer, post-rock, indie and an often intense spoken word delivery. On “Ants From Up There” they have expanded on this unique concoction to create a singular sonic middle ground that traverses classical minimalism, indie-folk, pop, alt rock and a distinct tone that is already unique to the band.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRecorded at Chale Abbey Studios, Isle Of Wight, across the summer with the band’s long-term live engineer Sergio Maschetzko, it’s also an album that comes loaded with a deep-rooted conviction in the end result. “We were just so hyped the whole time,” says Hyde. “It was such a pleasure to make. I've kind of accepted that this might be the best thing that I'm ever part of for the rest of my life. And that's fine.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBlack Country, New Road's live performances have already gained legendary status from fans and has seen them labelled \"one of the UK's best live bands\" by The Guardian. 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In the early months of 2020, the Brooklyn art-punk incendiaries gathered together with close friends to study the works of a wide range of philosophers. Passionate debates lasting long into the night became a regular occurrence, motivating the band to become as\u003cbr\u003eideologically unified as the weighty tomes they were reading. Broken Equipment is BODEGA’s attempt to interrogate the external factors that make them who they are, propelling existential quandaries with tongue-in-cheek humour, highly personal lyrics, and irresistible grooves. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince BODEGA’s formation in 2016, Ben and Nikki (who previously played together in the band BODEGA BAY) have experienced a rare meteoric rise. The duo double as filmmakers, earning acclaim for their 2020 erotic drama PVT Chat starring Peter Vack, Julia Fox, and other recognizable faces from the Safdie Brothers’ cinematic universe. When the pandemic forced them to hit pause, they used the opportunity to regroup with drummer\/performance artist Tai Lee, bassist\/book club leader Adam See, and lead guitarist Dan Ryan. Broken Equipment was produced by Ben himself with Bobby Lewis, BODEGA’s NYC live sound mixer. The record was mixed by Bryce Goggin, whom the band sought out for his work with Pavement, and Adam Sachs (WIVES). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album’s 12 songs are set in present day New York City, packing in references to contemporary issues of algorithmic targeting, media gentrification, and the band itself. On 'NYC (disambiguation)', they break down how the Big Apple was “founded by a corporation” and history remains alive in the present. The poetic 'Pillar on the Bridge of You' is the first love song Ben ever wrote for Nikki, while \u0026amp; 'All Past Lovers' gazes\u003cbr\u003eback to the “southern belle” and “chat room suitor” who still live inside him today.\u003cbr\u003eTo accompany the propulsive pace of 'Statuette on the Console' and its lyrics about switching perspectives, Nikki recorded alternate versions in eight different languages. “I used God in that song as this arch overlord character, but it could also be a real estate developer,” she explains. “It’s about anyone who puts their reality on your back and forces you to carry it around.” In that song, Nikki also wryly states that although she doesn’t have faith in this particular “God,” she is still “living life with (my) platitudes.” On 'Territorial Call of the Female', Nikki playfully quips that “when the man is around that’s when I’m putting you down,” highlighting how in the past she unknowingly reinforced patriarchal values by turning against other women to attract men. 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Timeless and salient, these themes echo throughout the fifth album from Midlake, their first since Antiphon in 2013. Produced to layered, loving perfection by John Congleton, For the Sake of Bethel Woods is an album of immersive warmth and mystery from a band of ardent seekers, one of our generation’s finest: a band once feared lost themselves by fans, perhaps, but here revivified with freshness and constancy of intent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the cover to the title and beyond, a longing to reconnect with that which seems lost and seek purpose in its passing sits at the record’s core. The cover star is keyboardist\/flautist Jesse Chandler’s father, who, tragically, passed away in 2018. As singer Eric Pulido explains, “He was a lovely human, and it was really heavy and sad, and he came to Jesse in a dream. I reference it in a song. He said, ‘Hey, Jesse, you need to get the band back together.’ I didn’t take that lightly. We had already had these feelings with everyone in the band of, oh, this could be a cool thing to do. But the dream was a kind of beautiful depiction of a purpose to reconvene and make music together as friends.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFeaturing Chandler’s father during John Sebastian’s set, the cover image was taken from the 1970 documentary Woodstock. In 1969, Jesse’s then-16-year-old dad had joined a friend and hitchhiked from Ridgewood, New Jersey, to the legendary festival. Raised in Woodstock after his father moved there in 1981, Jesse later paid pilgrimage to Bethel Woods with his father; there, the elder Chandler recorded an audio account of his festival experience in the museum’s public database. “So for me, the picture of that kid, my dad, forever frozen in time,” says Chandler, “encapsulates what it means to be in the throes of impressionable and fleeting youth, and all that the magic of music, peace, love and communion bring to it, whether one knows it at the time or not. (I think he knew it).”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA desire to commune with the past and connect with present, lived experience asserts itself from the opening of the album. A song that resonates with Midlake’s return and, perhaps, our lockdown era, ‘Commune’ can also be read in terms of a deeper urge to re-engage with sometimes neglected ideals and beliefs. ‘Bethel Woods’ sustains and develops that reconnection, evoking the steadfast and contemplative urgency of The Trials of Van Occupanther to back a lyric steeped in yearning for a paradisal time and place of hope and optimism. Soaring guitars and atmospheric noise effects extend a sonic scope further developed by ‘Glistening,’ where arpeggios dance like light glancing off a lake. In just three songs, Midlake reintroduce themselves and reach out into fresh territory with a richly intuitive dynamism, honouring their past as a seedbed of possibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe psychedelic space-rock and sticky guitars of ‘Exile’ shift the album to another plane, promising rich returns live, before ‘Feast of Carrion’ splices apocalyptic imagery with lustrous harmonies: darkness and light, held in rarefied balance. A deeply personal turn follows on ‘Noble,’ a song of tender innocence named after drummer McKenzie Smith’s infant son, born with a rare brain disorder called Semi-Lobar Holoprosencephaly. Pulido, who has been friends with McKenzie since they were 16 years old, kept McKenzie in mind for the lyrics. “I wrote the song from his perspective in a way, his expression to me of how he had been feeling towards his son. And then among the lament of his condition, it’s also embracing this child who has only joy. Noble doesn’t know that he has a condition, he just loves life. And smiles, and is so innocent, and perfect in so many ways.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElsewhere, the prog-enhanced funk-rock of ‘Gone’ seeks to find hope in relationships that seem fragile. The ELO-esque ‘Meanwhile…’ draws inspiration from what happened when Midlake paused after Antiphon, developing universal resonance as a song about the beautiful growths that can emerge from the cracks and gaps between things. ‘Dawning’ draws on 1970s soft-rock stylings for another song searching for hope, its keyboard line reaching out towards an uncertain future while everything seems to collapse around it; ‘The End’ reflects on the difficulties of partings. Finally, ‘Of Desire’ meditates on letting go of what you can’t control and attending to what you can during uncertain times. “It’s about finding peace in that humbling,” says Pulido. “Sometimes it’s hard to have a large effect, so it’s just about shrinking that and saying, these are the things I can do and the rest is to be seen, to be known.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMidlake began re-attending to their patch in 2019, with the bulk of the album’s work undertaken when the world shut down in 2020. The lockdown turned out to be helpful, in terms of offering an escape from grim reality and focusing the band’s energies – essential for an outfit whose members (Pulido, Chandler, Smith, Eric Nichelson and Joey McClellan) had all pursued alternative ventures following Antiphon. Also on-hand was new collaborator John Congleton, who produced, engineered and mixed the album, marking Midlake’s first record with an outside producer. “I can’t say enough just how much his influence brought our music to another sonic place than we would have,” says Pulido. “I don’t want to record without a producer again. Part of that is the health of the band, because as you get older you get more opinionated and you kind of need that person who says, ‘No, it’s going to be this way!’ It’s hard to do that with your friends.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is a powerful, warming expression of resolve and renewal for Midlake, opening up new futures for the band and honouring their storied history. Formed in the small town of Denton, with roots in the University of North Texas College of Music, Midlake delivered an auspicious debut with 2004’s Bamnan and Slivercork. For the follow-up, they looked further afield and deeper within to deliver 2006’s wondrous The Trials of Van Occupanther, a modern classic pitched between 1871, 1971 and somewhere out of time: between Henry David Thoreau and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, between 1970s Laurel Canyon thinking and a longing for something more mysterious.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConfidence bolstered by a growing fanbase and a developed sense of their own far-reaching abilities, Midlake – a band acutely attuned to seasonal shifts – then embraced change. In 2010, they visited darker psych-folk thickets for The Courage of Others and backed John Grant on his lustrously spiky breakthrough album, Queen of Denmark. When singer Tim Smith departed Midlake in 2012, Pulido stepped up to the lead vocal role for 2013’s freshly exploratory Antiphon, teasing out singular routes through vintage electric-folk pastures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince then, domestic projects have beckoned as children entered various band-members’ lives. Pulido joined Bob Dylan’s 75th birthday celebrations at Nashville’s prestigious Ryman Auditorium and launched the project BNQT with a cast of all-star guests, backed by Chandler, McClellan and Smith; Pulido and Chandler also recorded solo albums.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn reuniting, the bandmates were adamant that Midlake needed their absolute focus. The result is an album of tremendously engaged thematic and sonic reach with a warm, wise sense of intimacy at its heart: an album to break bread and commune with, honour the past and travel onwards with. In ‘Bethel Woods’, Pulido sings of gathering seeds. 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Texas-made, it is the first set of songs that the quintet has put to tape in its hometown of Austin in more than a decade. Written and recorded over the last two years – both in and out of lockdown – these songs mark a shift toward something louder, wilder, and more full-colour.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrom the detuned guitars anchoring “The Hardest Cut,” to the urgency of “Wild\", to the band’s blown-out cover of the Smog classic “Held,” Lucifer on the Sofa bottles the physical thrill of a band tearing up a packed room. It’s an album of intensity and intimacy, where the music’s harshest edges feel as vivid as the directions quietly murmured into the mic on the first-take. 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Not to downplay her nod to disorientation induced by double catastrophe — global pandemic plus climate emergency’s colliding eco-traumas resonate all too eerily. “What would be your last gesture?” she asks. But just as Vesuvius remains active, Pompeii reaches past the current crises to tap into what Le Bon calls “an economy of time warp” where life roils, bubbles, wrinkles, melts, hardens, and reconfigures unpredictably, like lava—or sound, rather. Like she says in the opener, “Dirt on the Bed,”\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSound doesn’t go away \/ In habitual silence \/ It reinvents the surface \/ Of everything you touch.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePompeii\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis sonically minimal in parts, and its lyrics jog between self-reflection and direct address. Vulnerability, although “obscured,” challenges Le Bon’s tendencies towards irony. Written primarily on bass and composed entirely alone in an “uninterrupted vacuum,” Le Bon plays every instrument (except drums and saxophones) and recorded the album largely by herself with long-term collaborator and co-producer Samur Khouja in Cardiff, Wales. Enforced time and space pushed boundaries, leading to an even more extreme version of Le Bon's studio process – as exits were sealed, she granted herself “permission to annihilate identity.” “Assumptions were destroyed, and nothing was rejected” as her punk assessments of existence emerged.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnter Le Bon’s signature aesthetic paradox: songs built for Now miraculously germinate from her interests in antiquity, philosophy, architecture, and divinity’s modalities. Unhinged opulence rests in sonic deconstruction that finds coherence in pop structures, and her narrativity favors slippage away from meaning. In “Remembering Me,” she sings:* In the classical rewrite \/ I wore the heat like \/ A hundred birthday cakes \/ Under one sun.* Reconstituted meltdowns, eloquently expressed. This mirrors what she says about the creative process: “as a changeable element, it’s sometimes the only point of control… a circuit breaker.” She’s for sure enlightened, or at least more highly evolved than the rest of us. Hear the last stanza on the album closer, “Wheel”:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eI do not think that you love yourself \/ I’d take you back to school \/ And teach you right \/ How to want a life \/ But, it takes more time than you’d tender.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eReprimanding herself or a loved one, no matter: it’s an end note about learning how to love, which takes a lifetime and is more urgent than ever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo leverage visionary control, Le Bon invented twisted types of discipline into her absurdist decision making. Primary goals in this project were to mimic the “religious” sensibility in one of Tim Presley’s paintings, which hung on the studio wall as a meditative image and was reproduced as a portrait of Le Bon for Pompeii’s cover. Fist across the heart, stalwart and saintly: how to make “music that sounds like a painting?” Cate asked herself. Enter piles of Pompeii’s signature synths made on favourites such as the Yamaha DX7, amongst others; basslines inspired by 1980s Japanese city pop, designed to bring joyfulness and abandonment; vocal arrangements that add memorable depth to the melodic fabric of each song; long-term collaborator Stella Mozgawa’s “jazz-thinking” percussion patched in from quarantined Australia; and Khouja’s encouraging presence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe songs of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePompeii\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efeel suspended in time, both of the moment and instant but reactionary and Dada-esque in their insistence to be playful, satirical, and surreal. From the spirited, strutting bass fretwork of “Moderation”, to the sax-swagger of “Running Away”; a tale exquisite in nature but ultimately doomed\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e(The fountain that empties the world \/ Too beautiful to hold)\u003c\/em\u003e, escapism lives as a foil to the outside world. Pompeii’s audacious tribute to memory, compassion, and mortal salience is here to stay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe past few years have seen Le Bon emerge as a much lauded and sought-after collaborator, producing albums for contemporaries such as Deerhunter (\u003cem\u003eWhy Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?\u003c\/em\u003e), John Grant (\u003cem\u003eBoy From Michigan\u003c\/em\u003e), and forthcoming albums from both Devendra Banhart and H. Hawkline. She’s not so much a gun for hire as a multi-faceted artist and producer who can both steer the ship and tap into a collective mindset; in 2019, she joined John Cale for a three-night live stretch in Paris, and 2021 will see a bass appearance on the track \"If I Don't Hear from You Tonight\" from Courtney Barnett's\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThings Take Time, Take Time\u003c\/em\u003e. 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'Good and Green Again' is the first of Fussell's records to feature his own compositions alongside readings of traditional obscura and they prove to be among its highlights- from the nimble, ambulatory \"In Florida\" which bears some of the sonic signature of his friend and previous collaborator William Tyler, to the striking \"Washington\" inspired by words stitched into a hooked rug bearing the image of America's first President. Fussell has again proven himself to be one of the foremost proponents of folk as a living, breathing artform.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJake Xerxes Fussell’s fourth album finds the acclaimed folksong interpreter, guitarist, and singer navigating fresh sonic and compositional landscapes on the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. Produced by James Elkington and featuring formidable players both familiar (Casey Toll, Libby Rodenbough) and new (Joe Westerlund, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), it includes Jake’s first original compositions; atmospheric arrangements with pedal steel, horns, and strings. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most striking and strangely moving moments on Jake Xerxes Fussell’s gorgeous Good and Green Again an album, his fourth and most recent, replete with such dazzling moments arrives at its very end, with the brief words to the final song “Washington.” “General Washington\/Noblest of men\/His house, his horse, his cherry tree, and him,” Fussell sings, after a hushed introductory passage in which his trademark percussively fingerpicked Telecaster converses lacily with James Elkington’s parlor piano. That’s the entire lyrical content of the song, which proceeds to float away on orchestral clouds of French horn, trumpet, and strings, until it simply stops, suddenly evaporating, vanishing with no fade or trace, no resolution to its sorrowful minor-key chord progression, just silence and stillness and stark presidential absence. It feels like the end of a film, or the cold departure of a ghost, and is unlike anything else Jake has recorded. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn all his work Jake humanizes his material with his own profound curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways. The robust burr of his voice, which periodically melts and catches at a particularly tender turn of phrase, and the swung rhythmic undertow of exquisite, seemingly effortless guitar-playing here he plays more acoustic than ever before pull new valences of meaning from ostensibly antique songs and subjects. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn Good and Green Again, Jake not only ventures beyond his established mastery of songcatching and songmaking into songwriting, but likewise navigates fresh sonic and compositional landscapes, going green with lusher, more atmospheric and ambitious arrangements. The result is the most conceptually focused, breathtakingly rendered, and enigmatically poignant record of his wondrous catalog. It’s also his most deliberately premeditated album, representing his fruitful return to a producer partnership after two self-produced projects, What in the Natural World (2017) and Out of Sight (2019) (William Tyler produced his friend’s self-titled 2015 debut.) This time James Elkington produced and played a panoply of instruments, bringing to Jake’s arcane song choices his own peerless sense of harmony and orchestration, balance and dramatic tension.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pair enlisted a group of formidable players hailing from Durham, North Carolina (where Fussell lives) and elsewhere, including regular bandmembers Casey Toll (Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles) on upright bass, Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) on strings, and Nathan Golub on pedal steel. They were joined by welcome newcomers Joe Westerlund (Megafaun, Califone) on drums, Joseph Decosimo on fiddle, Anna Jacobson on brass, and veteran collaborator and avowed Fussell fan Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who contributes additional vocals. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlbum opener “Love Farewell” (featuring some beautiful singing by Bonnie “Prince” Billy), an elliptical tale of the folly of war, set to the world’s most heartbreaking goodbye march for a lover left behind. “Carriebelle” and “Breast of Glass” each similarly concerns, in its own way, romantic love and leavings. All three songs highlight Jacobson’s diaphanous, understated brass parts, tying them together in a true lover’s knot. “Rolling Mills Are Burning Down,” with its distant keening strings and capacious sense of space, observes and mourns the loss of work and community in the wake of elemental disaster. 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As a body of work, it is astonishing: a dazzling, heart-breaking, life-affirming and mortality-facing record that reveals their growing artistry and ability to parse intense feeling into lyrics so memorable you’d scribble them on your backpack. The band has been through a lot in the last three years, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTwo Ribbons\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e is the artefact that signals some kind of progression out of distressing times; a story of loss, change, and of survival; a proof of life. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSuch was the intensity of Jenny and Rosa’s bond that when they promoted their first album, they positioned themselves as twins. Friends since early childhood, they had graduated into a teenage friendship that was unbreakable and practically telepathic. Those intense and all-consuming friendships are subject to the same ebbs and flows as any other, and as they grew older the two began to find themselves as individuals, tastes differing here, reactions jarring there. There was a time when both felt a little trapped, and needed to fight to create the space to express themselves as individuals within their relationship. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eAnd so the partnership began to fray. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eTwo Ribbons\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e can be heard as a series of letters between the two of them, taking the place of conversations as they try to make sense of the rift in their relationships. It’s a cathartic blood-letting and a devastating realisation about the fickleness of life. 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Promising to be a shimmering jewel cast by the minds and hearts of Merseyside’s finest musicians, the 12-track album is dusted with both Ryder-Jones’ artistry and the heavyweight musicianship of The Red Elastic Band, which Head found had ‘stepped up’ following almost a year apart, forcing him to dig deeper himself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOf slipping back into writing and recording in 2021, Head continues: \u003cem\u003e“After being apart for a while, I went for a walk on the beach with the band and it was beautiful, literally and personally. Rehearsals followed and it clicked into place, with one thing leading to the next. It’s very much the ethos we’re working by, keeping things simple, but keeping the momentum. I’d met Bill a few times and he’s a lovely guy. 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This may be surprising to anyone following the recent life pursuits of the Glasgow 7-piece: a trilogy of EPs; a soundtrack for the directorial debut of The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird; The Boaty Weekender – a 3000 capacity star-studded four-day music festival on a cruise liner sailing the Mediterranean; a live album showcasing the band’s present-day iteration as savvy main stage entertainers; and in 2020 a collaborative project with fans called ‘Protecting The Hive’. But in all these idiosyncratic endeavours, as intrinsic to the band’s DNA as the stage invasion at the end of each of their shows, a full-length has eluded us.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Bit Of Previous\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e was recorded in Belle and Sebastian’s hometown of Glasgow when plans to fly to Los Angeles in spring of 2020 were scrapped due to the pandemic. Says Murdoch in the liner notes: “We did it together, us and the city. This record was the first ‘full’ LP recording for B\u0026amp;S in Glasgow since \u003ci\u003eFold Your Hands Child\u003c\/i\u003e, 1999. We clocked in every morning, we played our songs, we wrote together, we tried new things, we took the proverbial lump of clay, and we threw it every day.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Bit Of Previous\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a classic Belle and Sebastian album preoccupied with songs and melodies that won’t leave your head and lyrics that can make you smile and ponder and sometimes be melancholic. The result is one the most diverse, hands-on and thrilling entries in the bands catalogue, self-produced and recorded (with contributions from Brian McNeill, Matt Wiggins, Kevin Burleigh and Shawn Everett). ‘Young And Stupid’ is a stuttering folk rock earworm that faces the passage of time with wry ennui, ‘Come On Home’ with its warm fireside piano evokes a handing over of the generational baton, while the deceptively feelgood, choir-backed ‘If They’re Shooting At You’ reads like a poignant ode to defiance and survival.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Bit of Previous\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is also scattered with big, occasionally delirious pop moments. ‘Unnecessary Drama’ rips through a cacophony of overdriven riffs and a droning harmonica that borders on the unhinged and is one of the band’s heaviest outings since, well, ever. The 140+ bpm ’Talk To Me Talk To Me’ is ablaze with euro synths and keyboard horns as the voices of Murdoch and Martin intertwine on a breathless chorus. ‘Working Boy in New York City’ exists in a parallel universe where the band did in fact make it to California – such is the escapist bliss of its sloping flute and bittersweet funk. On the other side of the spectrum are some of Belle and Sebastian’s most moving ballads. Tender finger-picked paean to a lover ‘Do It For Your Country’ and doo-wop-inflicted ‘Sea Of Sorrow’ showcase Murdoch’s tenor at its most bare and affecting, while Stevie Jackson contributes lovelorn country waltz ‘Deathbed of My Dreams’.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSo what is a \u003ci\u003eA Bit of Previous\u003c\/i\u003e? It’s a bit of everything, and a lot of what makes Belle and Sebastian so special and enduring. It’s a band tackling age and growing older with grace, irreverence, musical bravado and lyrical exactitude and emerging as an endless source of energy and reinvention.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Belle and Sebastian","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":41164409405626,"sku":"OLE1845CD","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":41164409438394,"sku":"OLE1845LP","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Indies LP+7\"","offer_id":41164409471162,"sku":"OLE1845LPE","price":24.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0535\/1453\/5098\/products\/Composite.jpg?v=1646237955"},{"product_id":"kevin-morby-this-is-a-photograph","title":"Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph","description":"\u003cp\u003eReleased 13th May 2022.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story begins with Kevin Morby absentmindedly flipping through a box of old family photos in the basement of his childhood home in Kansas City. Just hours before, at a family dinner, his father had collapsed in front of him and had to be rushed to the hospital. That night Morby still felt the shock and fear lodged in his bones. So he gazed at the images until one of the pictures jumped out at him: his father as a young man, proud and strong and filled with confidence, posing on a lawn with his shirt off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was in January of 2020. As the months went on and the world dramatically changed around him, Morby felt an eerie similarity between his feelings of that night and the atmosphere of those spring days. Fear, anxiety, hope and resilience all churning together. The themes began twisting in his mind. History, trauma and the grand fight against time. Having the courage to dream, even while knowing the tragedy that often awaits those who dare to dream.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile his father regained his strength, Morby meditated on these ideas. And then, he headed to Memphis. 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