Pre-Order: The Foreign Department here
]]>Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World [BUY/INFO]
40 years in and indie rock’s quietest loud band have released one of their leanest and most concise records in years. As noisy and nostalgic, and as timely and timeless, as ever. A future classic.
Modern Nature – No Fixed Point In Space [BUY/INFO]
No Fixed Point In Space, the third full-length album by Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature, takes the palette of sound and themes that were honed on 2021’s Island Of Noise and launches them into an expansive world of openness and vivid technicolour. Certain moorings - woodwind, percussion, strings and Cooper’s lambent voice - are still present and recognisable from No Fixed Point In Space’s predecessor, but the new record marks a shift to utilising musical notation as a point of departure, from which the group explore the space around suggested notes and rhythms to create a semi-improvised, semi-composed ensemble performance.
Sven Wunder – Late Again [BUY/INFO]
Soundtrack and library aficionados, jazz connoisseurs, and the hip-hop heads with an open mind: take note. Late Again is a collection of nocturnal jazz pieces that depict shooting stars and scattered beams from the setting sun, with an emphasis on gentle compositions for piano and orchestral pop-jazz arrangements for flute, brass, and strings.
The Clientele – I Am Not There Anymore [BUY/INFO]
I Am Not There Anymore, their first LP in 6 years, incorporates elements of post-bop jazz, contemporary classical, and electronic music into their shimmering, hazy pop. With those elements in the foreground, I Am Not There Anymore reasserts The Clientele’s standing among the great stylists of pop music, deftly shifting from image to image, mood to mood, in a way that feels both new and classically them.
James Holden – Imagine This Is Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities [BUY/INFO]
Electronic explorer James Holden returns with a generically unconstrained new album of rave music for a parallel universe that seeks to reconnect with the feelings of hope, freedom and possibility that characterised the earliest days of dance music, coming to terms with his own musical past in the process.In contrast to its jazz adjacent live band predecessor The Animal Spirits, Holden's trippy fourth solo artist album is more of a continuous sound collage, artfully juxtaposing audio worlds and field recordings with an anything goes approach in the style of early nineties pastoral classics like The KLF’s Chill Out and the sprawling radioscapes of Future Sound of London.
Sam Prekop & John McEntire – Sons of [BUY/INFO]
The first full length collaboration from Sam Prekop and John McEntire (Tortoise) two artists who have expanded the field of rock through their work over the last three decades, both as individuals and in their time together in The Sea and Cake. Sons Of finds two master craftsmen working at the nexus of pristine production and skilful improvisation, forging compelling narrative arcs into glistening metropolises of infinite pulse. The resulting sound is one of transformative fluidity; each passing beat marking a sense of familiarity while the surrounding atmospheres are in constant flux. Ever-shifting tonalities and magnetic grooves propel the music with persistent momentum without feeling hurried buoyed by the steady pace, creating the framework that allows space for new sounds to breathe and evolve.
Dorothy Carter – Waillee Waillee [BUY/INFO]
Dorothy Carter was many things - a virtuoso player, storyteller, historian of Celtic and Appalachian folk music, avid lifelong busker, avant-garde musician, and itinerant troubadour, laying a framework for music that existed both within and outside of standard folk idioms - never better represented than on her 1978 masterwork, Waillee Wailee. Underscored by Bob Rutman's cavernous bowing of the steel cello, the richness of Waillee Waillee's sound produces an album unlike any other in her discography. In particular, its two side-ending pieces, "Summer Rhapsody" and "Tree of Life,'' glide with the shimmering filigree of hammered dulcimer and Dorothy Carter's ephemeral voice floating over Rutman's droning buzz of the steel cello. The elements of these two tracks suggest something akin to a transcendental appalachian raga or whirling cosmic folk music, an effortless combination that serves to add additional substance to the remaining tracks on the album.
Candi Staton - Stand By Your Man [BUY/INFO]
Recorded in 1970 at Rick Hall's FAME studios, backed by the best in the game, Stand By Your Man became one of the cornerstones of Southern soul. Includes her string-drenched hits 'He Called Me Baby' and the title track, but it's 'Too Hurt To Cry' that elevates this to an all-timer of all-timers. Essential.
John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy – Evening's at the Village Gate [BUY/INFO]
In August of 1961, the John Coltrane Quintet played an engagement at the legendary Village Gate in Greenwich Village, New York. Coltrane’s Classic Quartet was not as fully established as it would soon become and there was a meteoric fifth member of Coltrane’s group those nights— visionary multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy. Ninety minutes of never-before-heard music from this group were recently discovered at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, offering a glimpse into a powerful musical partnership that ended much too soon. In addition to some well-known Coltrane material ("My Favorite Things", "Impressions", "Greensleeves"), there is a breathtaking feature for Dolphy’s bass clarinet on "When Lights Are Low" and the only known non-studio recording of Coltrane’s composition "Africa", from the Africa/Brass album.
Robert Forster – The Candle & The Flame [BUY/INFO]
Robert Forster’s eighth solo LP, has added resonance - mid-pandemic, Forster’s partner, Karin Bäumler, was diagnosed with cancer. Forster’s songs pre-date that diagnosis, and the chemo and the surgery. But as is the way of songwriting, Forster’s songs examined healing, his love for Bäumler, and unexpected happenings. Balancing the understated, with a melodically direct approach. An intimate, and life-affirming return from the ex-Go-Between.
Eddie Chacon – Sundown [BUY/INFO]
Sundown is "low-key R&B legend" Eddie Chacon’s soulful, meditative debut for Stones Throw Records. Eddie Chacon rose to fame in the duo Charles & Eddie, whose 1992 single "Would I Lie To You" was a #1 hit around the world. Chacon returned in 2020 with the album Pleasure, Joy and Happiness, widely acclaimed by the New York Times, Guardian, and many more. On Sundown, blissful saxophones and synth bass emit an air that’s joyous and carefree alongside Chacon’s shaky vibrato, describing summer breezes and gentle rain. Moments like these encapsulate the spontaneous, paradisiacal feel of the album’s early days in Ibiza: a place where Chacon could reflect on love, loss, and the weight of the world without ever losing his groove.
Titanic – Vidrio [BUY/INFO]
Titanic's debut album Vidrio is the collaboration between composer I la Cat6Iica (Hector Tosta) and Guatemalan experimentalist Mabe Fratti. One could call Vitrio a jazz hybrid record, though once upon a time this music would have been called postmodern; an answer to pop's pre-packaged form, adopting maybe more classical structures to tell a story. In that, this record is reminiscent of Derek Jarman's "1980s contemporaries, The Blue Nile, who made widescreen post-pop that ached with longing for resolutions that seemed to be just over the horizon. And for all the deconstructions, the deliberate raucousness of the sax and the rhythms of the percussion (like waves riding up a shingle beach outside Jarman's cottage), this is still a music that can thread a line back to classical opera whilst nodding along the way to the likes of Terry Riley, or bebop.
Wilco – Cousins [BUY/INFO]
After a short detour back into their country influenced roots via last year’s Cruel Country double album, Cousin sees Wilco back in their more familiar progressive and experimental rock territory. Tweedy’s singular songwriting voice is in full evidence, with lyrics weaving across a variety of topics from the iconoclastic to the introspective.
Memorials – Music For Film [BUY/INFO]
A seismic, cinematic double dose from two veterans with previous in Wire, Electrelane, and Better Corners. Memorials’ kaleidoscopic debut covers broad musical territory, encompassing protest songs, fuzz-flooded pop, searing drone, and psychedelic freakouts whilst carving out a sound that is uniquely their own. Both halves of this dynamic double album were originally conceived as individual film soundtracks but once the multi-instrumental duo of Verity Susan & Matthew Simms brought Music For Film into a live space, the desire to shape it into a cohesive whole was more than they could resist. The resulting, intoxicating, musical odyssey can be viewed independently from the associated films and stands proudly as an ambitious artistic statement.
Cindy – Why Not Now [BUY/INFO]
Moving on from the fixed quartet that performed the first three albums, Gill worked alongside original keyboardist Aaron Diko to develop the songs and they enlisted players from the ever-blossoming SF pop scene to realise her minimalist vision -- members of Flowertown, Telephone Numbers, April Magazine, Famous Mammals, and Sad Eyed Beatniks to name a few. The collective sounds fill out the record perfectly with John Cale-esque viola on ‘August’, lo-fi fairground organs, and a tasteful full-band sound that crops up throughout. While the dream-pop tag is probably still relevant, this isn’t algorithm-fed genre ambience. Gill’s vocal/lyrical presence can be as gently momentous as Leonard Cohen or as intellectually potent as any ’79-’80 Rough Trade post-punk.
Movietone – Movietone [BUY/INFO]
Long-awaited reissue of the self-titled debut album by Bristol’s Movietone. Originally released in 1995 by Planet Records and reissued on CD in 2003 by The Pastels’ Geographic Music imprint, this is the first time Movietone has been reissued on vinyl. An expanded double-LP edition of 1000, it includes the extra tracks from the 2003 CD (their first two singles, and an unreleased demo of "Chance Is Her Opera"), and adds three more unearthed gems: demos of "Alkaline Eye" and "She Smiled Mandarine Like", and an early take of "Late July", recorded in a garden by Dave Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack) in 1993. Taken together, this is the definitive collection of music from the first phase of one of Bristol’s most remarkable groups.
Pharoah Sanders – Pharoah [BUY/INFO]
Frequently bootlegged, this is the first official version since 1977. This record’s origin story is as elusive as Pharoah was about everything Pharoah. It was born out of a misunderstanding between him and the India Navigation producer Bob Cummins and was recorded at a crossroads in his career with a group of musicians so unlikely that they were never all in the same room again. There was a guitarist who was also a spiritual guru, an organist who would go on to co-write and produce ‘The Message,’ and a classically trained pianist - his wife at the time, Bedria Sanders - who played the harmonium despite never having seen one. At times ambient and serene, at others funky and modal, Pharoah radically departed from his earlier work. It would become one of the artist’s most beloved records and one of the great works of the 20th century.
Blue Lake – Sun Arcs [BUY/INFO]
Blue Lake is the musical moniker of American born, Copenhagen based multidisciplinary artist and musician Jason Dungan. Sun Arcs follows 2022’s release Stikling, earning a nomination for Album of the Year at the Danish Music Awards plus warm praise from The Hum blog and musicians and DJs alike including Jack Rollo (Time is Away/NTS) and Carla dal Forno. A self taught player, Dungan began freely experimenting with self-built multi-string instruments, preferring to build his own hybrid 48-string zither and working in the realms of left-field ambient music, off kilter folk and improvised acoustic minimalism.
Hydroplane – Selected Songs [BUY/INFO]
Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. Hydroplane would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, Hydroplane’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.
Sparklehorse – Bird Machine [BUY/INFO]
Originally recorded with Steve Albini in 2010, and mixed by Mark Hamilton (who also worked on It's A Wonderful Life). 13 years later one of Mark Linkous’ best finally saw the light of day – shedding his sad-singer-in-a-home-studio reputation for a freewheeling garage band rock record, with some of his most direct and candid lyrics
Also great and released this year:
Acetone – reissues [BUY/INFO]
Alfie Firmin – Absentee [BUY/INFO]
Allah-Las – Zuma 85 [BUY/INFO]
Andrew Hung – Deliverance [BUY/INFO]
Arthur Russell – Picture of Bunny Rabbit [BUY/INFO]
Ash Ra Tempel – Ash Ra Tempel [BUY/INFO]
Autobahn – Ecstasy of Rain [BUY/INFO]
Better Corners – Continious Miracles vol 2 [BUY/INFO]
Bill Callahan – YTILAER [BUY/INFO]
Blonde Redhead – Sit Down For Dinner [BUY/INFO]
Bonnacons of Doom - Signs [BUY/INFO]
Bowery Electric – Bowery Electric [BUY/INFO]
Claire Rousay – A Heavenly Touch [BUY/INFO]
Count Ossie & The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari – Tales of Mozambique [BUY/INFO]
Craven Faults - Standers [BUY/INFO]
Cymande – Cymande [BUY/INFO]
Dave Evans – Elephantasia [BUY/INFO]
De La Soul – 3 Feet High & Rising [BUY/INFO]
Death & Vanilla – Flicker [BUY/INFO]
Decisive Pink – Ticket To Fame [BUY/INFO]
Dolly Mixture – Remember This [BUY/INFO]
Dorothy Ashby - The Rubaiyat of Dorothy Ashby [BUY/INFO]
Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here [BUY/INFO]
Emma Anderson – Pearlies [BUY/INFO]
Emmett Finley – Emmett Finley [BUY/INFO]
Far Out – Nihonjin [BUY/INFO]
Fela Kuti – Gentleman [BUY/INFO]
Felt – Gold Mine Trash/Bubblegum Perfume [BUY/INFO]
Fred Again & Brian Eno – Secret Life [BUY/INFO]
Fridge – Happiness [BUY/INFO]
Gabor Szabo - 1969 [BUY/INFO]
Goat - Medicine [BUY/INFO]
Guided By Voices – Sandbox [BUY/INFO]
Hey Colossus – In Blood [BUY/INFO]
Joanna Brouk – Sounds of the Sea [BUY/INFO]
Joe Harriott/Amancio D'Silva Quartet - Hum Dono [BUY/INFO]
John Cale – Mercy [BUY/INFO]
John Cale – Words for the Dying [BUY/INFO]
John Carroll Kirby - Blowout [BUY/INFO]
Cotton Jones – The River Strumming [BUY/INFO]
John McEntire – Vanishing Points/A Cappella [BUY/INFO]
John Surman, John Warren – Tales of the Algonquin [BUY/INFO]
Karen Dalton – In My Own Time [BUY/INFO]
Kate Bush – reissues [BUY/INFO]
Kate NV – Wow [BUY/INFO]
Kath Bloom – Finally [BUY/INFO]
Kelenkye Band – Moving World [BUY/INFO]
Lana Del Rey – Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd [BUY/INFO]
Little Simz – No Thank You [BUY/INFO]
Mark Fry – Dreaming of Alice [BUY/INFO]
Mercury Rev – Deserter’s Songs [BUY/INFO]
Mystic Chords of Memory – Mystic Chords of Memory [BUY/INFO]
Nucleus - reissues [BUY/INFO]
Okonski – Magnolia [BUY/INFO]
Parson Sound – Parson Sound [BUY/INFO]
Pauline Anna Strom – Trans Millennia Consort [BUY/INFO]
Lewsberg – Out and About [BUY/INFO]
Phet Phet Phet – Shimmer [BUY/INFO]
Primal Scream – Reverberations [BUY/INFO]
Prince – Diamonds and Pearls [BUY/INFO]
Shack – Here’s Tom With The Weather [BUY/INFO]
Sleep – Dopesmoker [BUY/INFO]
Sonny Sharrock – Black Woman [BUY/INFO]
Southern University Jazz Ensemble – Live At The 1971 American College Jazz Festival [BUY/INFO]
Spencer Cullum – Coin Collection 2 [BUY/INFO]
Sun Ra – Space Is The Place [BUY/INFO]
Tara Clerkin Trio – On The Turning Ground [BUY/INFO]
The American Analog Set – For Forever [BUY/INFO]
The Breeders – The Last Splash [BUY/INFO]
The Ironsides – Changing Light [BUY/INFO]
The Lemonheads – Come On Feel [BUY/INFO]
The Lyman Woodard Organization – Saturday Night Special [BUY/INFO]
The Reds, Pinks & Purples – The Town That Cursed Your Name [BUY/INFO]
The Sea Urchins – Stardust [BUY/INFO]
The Shapiros – Gone By Fall [BUY/INFO]
Ulrika Spacek – Compact Trauma [BUY/INFO]
Unrest – Imperial ffrr [BUY/INFO]
Vanishing Twin – Afternoon X [BUY/INFO]
Wilco – Cruel Country [BUY/INFO]
Woods – Perennial [BUY/INFO]
]]>One of the most underrated British songwriters to emerge from the era that encompassed shoegaze and Britpop, she has teamed up with producer James Chapman (aka Maps) for this collection that combines effervescent electronic pop with psych and folk textures with lyrics covering themes such as confronting your fears, embracing independence and moving on in life.
BUY: Pearlies
I Break Horses – I’ll Be The Death Of You
I was listening to Warnings a lot around the time I was working on Pearlies. It’s a great album. This is one of my favourite tracks on it.
Ladytron – Ace of Hz
I used to work for Ladytron’s management company and became good friends with them. Danny co-produced Lush’s Blind Spot EP back in 2016.
Goldfrapp – Stranger
The same company also used to manage Goldfrapp, who I love. I think Tales of Us is actually my favourite album of theirs. I really like its cinematic quality and the songwriting and production are incredible.
The Human League – WXJL tonight
This was always my favourite track of their earlier years when Martin Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were in the band. I love the odd rhythm of it.
Concretism – Of Frisbees and Pylons [VIDEO]
The title refers to that infamous Public Information clip from the ’70s that mentally scarred a generation of British children! James (Chapman, aka Maps, who produced Pearlies) was very grateful when I alerted him to this.
Mark Pritchard – Sad Alron
Another artist James and I spoke about. I don’t know who Alron is or why he or she is sad, but the track is haunting and moving and has a filmic quality.
Chris Harwood – When I Come Home [VIDEO]
Andy Votel’s Finders Keepers record label reissued this. There is an instrumental section in it where the chords rise and rise and it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Wonderful and worth seeking out.
Jessica Pratt – Poly Blue
She is sometimes described as folk, and some of her songs are definitely in that vein, but there is definitely a jazz influence going on too. She’s one of a kind.
Warpaint – Stevie
This track is superb – it’s got a slight groove, a brilliant melody to it but is understated and it’s also got an almost MOR/’70s feel.
Siouxsie And The Banshees – Spellbound
On my song ‘The Presence’ I said to James can you add some drums a bit like in Spellbound and it took him about 20 seconds to do exactly that.
Serge Gainsbourg – Cargo culte
L’Histoire de Melody Nelson is one of my favourite albums of all time. The choral arrangement on this has an almost religious quality; you can imagine hearing those voices in a cathedral. I asked Richard Oakes to contribute Some Serge-type guitar on ‘Bend the Round’ and he did. Very successfully, I think.
BUY: Pearlies
]]>Ahead of his in-store gig here, to celebrate the release of his new solo record Deliverance, Andrew made us a playlist of some of his favourite music. Scroll down to read his thoughts on each track.
Order Deliverance HERE
Both halves of this dynamic double album were originally conceived as individual film soundtracks but once the multi-instrumental duo of Verity Susan & Matthew Simms brought ‘Music For Film’ into a live space, the desire to shape it into a cohesive whole was more than they could resist. The resulting, intoxicating, musical odyssey can be viewed independently from the associated films and stands proudly as an ambitious artistic statement.
BUY: Music For Film: Tramps! & Women Against The Bomb HERE
Influences on album
Verity:
Anne Briggs - Sandman’s Song
Women Against The Bomb has a lot of English folk influences, bringing to life the sound of the women singing together at Greenham Common. Anne Briggs has a direct, uninhibited and unaffected way of singing that I’ve found really inspiring.
Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach
I’ve loved this song forever and it’s been very influential over the years. It had quite a specific influence on this record - I had the sound and grooviness of the keyboards in mind as something to aim for while working on the song It’s In Our Hands.
Matthew:
The Smiths - Cemetery Gates
Referencing the sound of music being made at the time, this band was one of the first that sprang to mind as their records have been some of my favourites for a long time.
Can - Mushroom
Everything is better with Can! While not an obvious reference to the death of punk, and the birth of the new romantics in the late ’70s, their DIY experimentalism was something the crossed over and leant itself nicely to our work.
Current favourites
Verity:
Catalogue: Khomeiny Twist
Not a new song but a new one to me. The sound engineer at our recent Brighton gig played it as we were setting up our equipment, and it was one of those stop you in your tracks moments - when you hear something that is right on your wavelength and feel an immediate connection.
Blur: The Narcissist
I’m a Blur fan, what can I say? And this song is up there with their best. It also reminds me of happy times on the Memorials tour we just did, as we blasted it on the car stereo driving late at night after a gig, the day it came out.
Matthew:
Horselords: May Brigade
Forward thinking, fun, groovy in a non-groovy way, noisy, melodic & excellent!
Bitchin Bajas: Amorpha
I bought this record in your shop! I loved this band around 10(?) years ago when it felt like they had a new and exciting record out all the time and nobody else knew about them and then it seemed to go quiet and all of a sudden, everyone is talking about them! But they are playing a festival alongside us in November and I can’t wait to finally see them play live.
All time favourites
Verity:
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up (Extended Version)
I never get tired of listening to this song - I love everything about it. The horn section riff is insanely catchy and I love the prominence it is given, easily as important to the song as the vocal. The arrangement is brilliant, percussion and strings are off the charts, and the musicians together create an incredible groove. Plus a sax solo at the end to top it all off! It’s also my absolute favourite song to dance to.
Dory Previn - The Lady With The Braid
This song is fascinating and so cleverly constructed, both lyrically and musically: the way she conveys her introspection and the moods she moves through in a way that is intimate and particular, and at the same time relatable and universal. It has a heartbreaking power, the sort of song that captures a feeling so well it can make you catch your breath. Stunning, even after many, many listens!
Matthew:
Kevin Ayers: Whatevershebringswesing
I don’t know how to sum up how much I love his music but lucky for me, I don’t have to, just enjoy it!
Tortoise: Speakeasy
Standards came out when I was 14 and had a huge impact on me. My dad and I were in Beano’s in Croydon and picked up the CD as a new release, I remember loving the artwork before I’d heard anything and then playing it on the drive home. I remember it all vividly. It opened my ears up to so much, the mix of styles, the production, the variation, the playing! I even managed to get my school jazz band to play Seneca, which was entertaining to discuss with John McEntire a few years back.
BUY: Music For Film: Tramps! & Women Against The Bomb HERE
]]>Pre-Order Deliverance HERE
Known for his collaborative projects with Fuck Buttons — with whom Hung performed headline slots at festivals such as Glastonbury, Green Man, and All Tomorrow’s Parties, and whose music soundtracked key moments in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony — Hung continued his collaborative streak through writing and producing with Beth Orton on her career redefining album, Kidsticks. He’s also collaborated with Aimée Osbourne on her debut album, Vacare Adamaré (released under the name ARO). In addition, Hung has worked with cult director Jim Hosking to soundtrack his films The Greasy Strangler (winning best comedy at the Empire Awards), An Evening with Beverly Luff Lin, and Hosking’s Adult Swim series Tropical Cop Tales. Following countless years of fruitful collaboration, Hung now turns his attention to delivering his own expression.
Entry will be free, but pre-order the album to guarantee entry
Pre-Order Deliverance HERE
Please email your requests to us at - southrsd23@gmail.com
As per the rules, we can't reserve anything, these will just be requests, so we can get an idea of what people want to see in stock on the day, and hopefully we'll have enough to go around.
1. Rich Ruth – I Survived It’s Over (Third Man) [BUY]
Recorded under a loft bed in the guest bedroom of his Nashville home, Michael Ruth aka Rich Ruth’s “I Survived, It’s Over” starts in a humble space. And while many contemporary music projects are produced in such an environment, “I Survived, It’s Over” sets itself apart in its transformative properties as well as its transparency. What we have here is honest sound exploration, session musician-level instrumentation, and a true love for nature run through the fingers of a dude who can channel some acute and undeniable magic. This music goes deep. "I conceived much of this record amidst the quiet and tumult of 2020 in my neighborhood that had recently been ravaged by a tornado," Ruth recalls, "I spent most of my days working on these pieces between bicycle rides - watching the beautiful Tennessee ecosystem flourish in Shelby Park, listening to Keith Jarrett’s The Koln Concert and John Coltrane’s Ascension." Underneath the swell of the strings and the shredding of the guitars, this record has hard working, rustbelt, drum-heavy roots all over it (which makes sense as Ruth hails from outside of Toledo, the album was mixed by John McEntire from Chicago band Tortoise). Many of the flutes, saxophones, pedal steel, and other instruments were recorded remotely because we live in the future, but this only adds to the collage of sampled and sample-able material that Rich Ruth has to offer. The organic relationships between the artist and other musicians on the album is evident even in the compilation style sampling that needs to occur in putting such a project together. "Working on this music is a daily meditation," says Ruth. "I constantly experiment with sound until it reflects the way I am feeling and attempt to sculpt something meaningful from it. Through years of being a touring musician, it is a constant inspiration and privilege to collaborate with the individuals that graced this record with their voices." And those relationships pay off, because “I Survived, It’s Over” is a sonic meal. It’s rich (no pun intended) with massive instrumentation that’s usually reserved for more symphonic delights. But at the same time it’s simple and leaves space to breathe–space you didn’t know you needed. In his own words; "I Survived, It’s Over is a meditation on healing, confronting trauma, surrendering, and finding peace. I wanted to encapsulate the tranquility and disarray found within this process." Ruth’s heart and the peace that his presence produces is all over this album. And despite his midwestern humility and willingness to brush off any praise, he’s put together something really special that carries its own weight. It's the kind of record that only comes around every once in a while and it's worthy of all the head-bobs, acclaim, and celebratory potlucks that Mike and the gang have coming their way. “I Survived, It’s Over” is a record you should buy for your friend, your foe, and yourself. It’ll sit perfectly on your shelf between Alice Coltrane and Hiroshi Yoshimura.
2. Peel Dream Magazine – Pad (Tough Love) [BUY]
3. Carla Dal Forno – Come Around (Kallista) [BUY}
4. Eiko Ishibashi – For McCoy (Black Truffle) [BUY]
For McCoy, a new work by Eiko Ishibashi dedicated to the widely loved character of Jack McCoy, portrayed by Sam Waterston in Law & Order. Following on from Hyakki Yagyō (BT064), For McCoy finds Ishibashi further exploring the unique space she has carved out in recent years, bringing together musique concrète techniques, ECM-inspired jazz, lush layers of synths and hints of pop into immersive and affecting structures crafted in her home studio, aided by a group of close collaborators.
5. Astrel K – Flickering i (Duophonic) [BUY]
7. Weyes Blood – And In The Darkness, Heart’s Aglow (Sub Pop) [BUY]
Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos.
8. Szun Waves – Earth Patterns (Leaf) [BUY]
9. Mark Peters – Red Sunset Dreams (Sonic Cathedral) [BUY]
10. Bitchin Bajas - Bajascillators (Drag City) [BUY]
Bajascillators arrives almost five years since their last official full- length, 2017’s Bajas Fresh. In the eight years prior to Bajas Fresh, Bitchin Bajas issued seven albums, plus cassettes, EPs, singles... wave after wave of analogue synth tones and zones extending into a stratospheric arc. Each release its own headspace, shape and timbre, each one sliding naturally into their implacable, eternal gene pool. Its expansive grooves gathering resonance and building momentum over the four sides, from genesis to re-conclusion, cascading ecstatically. The elastic magic of time at its brightest.
More 2022 favourites:
Lucrecia Dalt - ¡Ay! [BUY]
Channeling innate sensory echoes of growing up in Colombia, where traditional instrumentation encounters adventurous impulse and sci-fi meditations
Group Listening – Piano & Clarinet Selected Works Vol.2 [BUY]
A haunting, meditative and lovingly considered selection box of clarinet and piano re-works of songs by Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Robbie Basho, Laraaji, Neu!, Grand River, and more.
Movietone – Peel Sessions [BUY]
Movietone did their first John Peel Session a few weeks after the release if their debut single she smiled mandarine like in 1994. They went on to do three Peel Sessions in total between 1994-1997. These sessions do not exist online and have never previously been heard by anyone other than those who listened to the original broadcasts, making this essentially a new release from Bristol's finest
The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Summer At Land’s End [BUY]
Combining Glenn Donaldson’s rueful pop sensibility with a parallel musical universe, one composed of pictures, dreams, and feelings without words. Even if the underlying theme of this collection is one of conflict or unhappiness, the vision of the music presents an escape to a new world, always fading in and out of sight.
Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You [BUY]
A sprawling double-LP exploring the outer edges of their kaleidoscopic wigged-out folk-rock
Eric Chenaux – Say Laura [BUY]
The five wandering, wondering ballads on Say Laura bring Chenaux's semi-improvised but keenly intentional songwriting to its fullest, clearest, warmest and coolest articulation; uncompromising and generous, hyper-specific and loose, spartan and luxurious, elemental and ornate.
Caroline – Caroline [BUY]
These songs are expansive and emotive pieces, their rich palette drawing on a mixture of choral singing, Midwestern emo and Appalachian folk.
K. Freund – Hunter On The Wing [BUY]
Piano, handmade electronics, tenor sax, couple strings. Sounds you could roll around in your palm and consider different, complex, and flawed textures. Feel the weight
Modern Nature – Island Of Noise [BUY]
Island Of Noise represents an absolute career highlight, combining Cooper’s celebrated songwriting and compositional skills with a free flowing expansiveness coloured by British free music luminaries
Yasuaki Shimizu - Kiren [BUY]
Following the release of his widely regarded solo classic Kakashi, from 1982, and the otherworldly Utakata No Hibi, by Mariah in 1983, he went into the studio the following year to record a mystifying collection of experimental dance music, utilizing cutting-edge technology and studio trickery
Aldous Harding – Warm Chris [BUY]
A sparse and oblique return from the New Zealander, whose gentle psychedelic folk and beguiling free association proudly resist interpretation
Isik Kural – In February [BUY]
Across the album’s twelve songs, each composed from chance loops and cocooned within the soft container of Isik’s memorable voice and melody play, time is held on to hopefully, impossibly, eternally
Masahiro Takahashi – Flowering Tree, Distant Moon [BUY]
Following a harsh Toronto winter, Takahashi began crafting hushed, lush vignettes of color wheel electronics with an array of software synthesizers, granular samplers, plug-in FX, MIDI controllers, and a shruti box based on the seasons
BAIT – Sea Change [BUY]
A digital post-punk lockdown docu-record which watches the clock, gets the jitters, and lashes out just like the rest of us. It’s an internal monologue that accounts the anxiety, the struggles, the pressures experienced living by the sea during a global pandemic.
Pye Corner Audio – Let's Emerge! [BUY]
Bathed in sunlight and acid-bright psychedelia - "The Beach Boys, tremolo guitars, infinite drones, Spacemen 3. Let’s emerge from this darkened era and feel the Warmth Of The Sun"
Ghost Power – Ghost Power [BUY]
Ghost Power are Jeremy Novak [Dymaxion] and Timothy Gane. Closer in sound to Cavern of Anti-Matter, than Gane's day job, but no less great
The Soundcarriers – Wilds [BUY]
Eschewing fads and trends, they have instead focused on honing their own sonic world that glides between woozy psychedelia, immersive grooves, subtle pop and rich, enveloping soundscapes
Beach House – Once Twice Melody [BUY]
Panoramic, unapologetically lush, but strangely intimate eighth album from the dream-pop duo
Alison Cotton – The Portrait You Painted Of Me [BUY]
The touchstones of her immersive sound are viola, harmonium and voice, merged together to create a rich suite of songs. Haunted dolorous harmonium and viola folk for dark winter nights
Cool Maritime – Big Earth Energy [BUY]
Cool Maritime has swapped the mossy analog synth improvisations of his prior output for refined melodic arrangements dressed in sprightly dawn-of-digital textures. Spinning an impressionistic narrative world off of cultural touchstones like the PC game MYST, and the work of Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi
Steven R Smith - Spring [BUY]
Exploring small notions that shift and expand to reveal a private sort of grandeur. The restrained interplay between Smith (on guitar, piano, percussion etc.) and Davis create a warmth and intimacy akin to Mark Hollis' masterful eponymous solo LP.
Better Corners – Modern Dance Gold [BUY]
A jagged sound-scape of a remote interaction shaping up across the ether. Grouper meeting Thelonious Monk for an impromptu jam with the Incapacitants, Muslimgauze, Della Derbyshire, Stars of the Lid, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kim Gordon, The Creatures, Sunn o))), and Sun Ra
Michael Head – Dear Scott [BUY]
Finding that luck, love and letting things roll works out for him just fine, Michael Head leads his Red Elastic Band into a fresh chapter with optimism and some of the best music of his career
Horsegirl – Versions of Modern Performance [BUY]
Versions of Modern Performance offers many pathways. You can hear elements of the ‘80s and ‘90s independent music the band love so deeply and sincerely—the scuzzy melodicism of what used to be called "college rock," the cool, bubbly space-age sheen of the ‘90s vamps on lounge and noir; the warm, noisy roar of shoegaze; the economical hooks and rhythms of post-punk.
Kelly Lee Owens – LP.8 [BUY]
Recorded in Oslo, with noted noise musician Lasse Marhaug, LP.8 pairs tough, industrial sounds with ethereal Celtic mysticism, creating music that ebbs and flows between tension and release
The Utopia Strong – International Treasure [BUY]
The Utopia Strong’s formidable conflagration of psychedelic radiance and beatific harmony has evolved way beyond all or any expectations, a deeply rewarding voyage into inner space which moves into darker and still more evocative sound-worlds whilst remaining fundamentally off the map.
XAM Duo - II [BUY]
The journey begins and ends with the beat-driven songs, taking in shorter ambient jams along the way, making use of saxophone, drawn out tape chords, floating Rhodes piano and spaced-out synths, alongside very precise and intentional, sequenced and punchy synth tones
Joys Union Group – Boredom Euphoria [BUY]
Blurring the lines between new age, jazz and "New Weird America"-esque psychedelia, Joys Union Group fully feels like an organic, living entity, rather than a sequence of electronic signals; heady, deep, jammy & blissful
Flowertown – Half Yesterday [BUY]
Twangy lead guitar, high-neck bass notes, and percussion woven together in the decay of a warm reverb, tells the dreamy, temperate, story of the people in a living, thriving, city.
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Let’s Turn It Into Sound [BUY]
Though ambient and modern new age circles have embraced Smith’s catalog, Let’s Turn it Into Sound favors a more baroque and robust form of avant-pop. The music bursts with vertiginous vocal harmonies and detailed sound design, forming a truly unique sonic vision.
Kendrick Lamar – Mr Morale & The Big Steppers [BUY]
Kendrick Lamar's first album in 5 years, the sprawling and dense double Mr Morale & The Big Steppers is a cathartic, soul-baring autobiography
Makaya McCraven – In These Times [BUY]
A collection of polytemporal compositions inspired as much by broader cultural struggles as his personal experience as a product of a multinational, working class musician community. Featuring orchestral, large ensemble arrangements interwoven with the signature ‘organic beat music’ sound that’s become his signature
Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin – Ali [BUY]
Vieux, aka ‘the Hendrix of the Sahara’, pays homage to his father, Ali (‘the African John Lee Hooker’) by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original’s integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend.
Brian Eno - Foreverandevermore [BUY]
A sonically beguiling, ultimately optimistic exploration of the narrowing, precarious future of humanity and our planet. As Eno himself concludes, "Briefly, we need to fall in love again, but this time with Nature, with Civilisation and with our hopes for the future."
Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork [BUY]
Furious alt-rock anthems combine across the record with jangle pop and ambient noise, demonstrating the wealth of influences the band feed off and their deep musicality
Asylums – Signs of Life [BUY]
Drawing inspiration from a spectrum of human emotions and examining how they intersected with technology during the accelerated change of the last few years. As well as dialling their manic rock sound up to 10 this record also draws from the likes of R.E.M., The Magnetic Fields and The Beatles, who all arguably made some of their best work during a live hiatus
Molly Lewis - Mirage [BUY]
Molly Lewis’s compositions seem to float into our ears from distant shores, they’re otherworldly, drawn more from landscapes of dream than from anywhere you could find on a map. Her trademark whistle has graced recordings of everything from Schumann lieder and Brazilian jazz to Spaghetti Western ballads and noir lounge. Capacious and atmospheric, Mirage is Lewis’s most hypnotic effort yet.
Darren Hayman – You Will Not Die [BUY]
24 brooding and soulful drum machine and synth songs, that sit among the ex-Hefner mans most emotive work
Fenella – The Metallic Index [BUY]
Jane Weavers experimental ensemble in collaboration with Peter Philipson and Raz Ullah, Fenella return with an hallucinogenic excursion into ambient textures and hypnagogic drones
Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Reset [BUY]
Nine gloriously, feverishly hook-bound tracks. Loops crafter from the ornate intros of Eddie Cochran or the Everly Brothers, twisting and bending the parts like scrap metal
On Come Around, Carla Dal Forno grapples with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia in the swift pop structures of her DIY/post-punk forebearers such as Young Marble Giants, Virginia Astley and Broadcast. Come Around embodies a newfound solitude born of/in elemental pop hooks and enlightened songwriting, striking between the melodic simplicity of Anna Domino and YMG and the arrangement hooks of The Cannanes and Movietone, capturing dal Forno at her most welcoming with arms wide open.
BUY: Carla Dal Forno - Come Around
Love this album. A recent find. It’s hazy, disoriented, plaintive and haunting.
https://lowcompanyrecords.bandcamp.com/track/box-garden
Really been digging this debut from Luster. It’s beautiful and meditative. Haunting vocals, stripped back instrumentation. One to spend some time with.
https://morctapes.bandcamp.com/track/espace-ther
One from a few years back that I always come back to. Love the percussion and the repeated guitar notes. It puts me in a real trance.
https://kashual.bandcamp.com/track/a3-nar-tyreen
Just a beautiful record with lovely vocals, classical instrumentation and unexpected twists and turns
https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/track/ei-dvipa
This music sounds happy and carefree to me. It always puts me in a better mood when I have it on
https://incidental-music.bandcamp.com/track/flalorm
Love this one. I enjoy the creeping, intimate imagery created by the lyrics and the barely there instrumentation. Soft and gentle and eery.
https://horn-of-plenty.bandcamp
With the release of their new singles and rarities compilation, Library Music Volume One, we asked The Leaf Library to knock us up a Further Listening playlist - which they did in record time, the sign of true heads. This great mix takes in some of the greatest left-of-centre pop of the past 30-ish years, from Stereolab, to Flying Saucer Attack, Fridge, and Laika. Dig in below, and pick up the new record in the shop, or HERE
Library Music: Volume One is a sixteen track double LP collecting the North London drone pop band’s 7” singles, one-offs and compilation tracks spanning the first 14 years of the group’s existence. It includes synth pop, indie fuzz and moody motorik workouts, alongside pastoral folk sketches, dubby electronics and the occasional drone experiment. More immediate than their stretched out and slow-burning recent album tracks, the music here is taken from limited vinyl releases, album bonus tracks and music for compilations on labels as diverse as Bezirk Tapes, Second Language, Modern Aviation, and Concrete Tapes as well as the band’s current home, Where It’s At Is Where You Are. The compilation is a happily cohesive document of an inventive band that rarely stand still for long.
LISTEN: The Leaf Library - Further Listening HERE
BUY: The Leaf Library - Library Music Volume One HERE
Asylums have been quietly building an impressive back catalogue of albums since the release of their debut Killer Brain Waves in 2016. With three full studio albums and a stand-alone single behind them, Asylums are back with their fourth album Signs Of Life - their first since the release of 2020’s Steve Albini recorded 3rd album Genetic Cabaret.
Listen here>> Asylums Further Listening
Buy Signs of Life HERE
Everett David - Them Airs
One of the best under the radar bands out there and one of my favourite discoveries of the past few years, both albums released in 2020 are well worth checking out - Union Suit XL and Doped Runner Verse the latter of which this song is taken from.
Pop the Question - Eyedress
An artist I really admire and listen to most days, each album spans multiple genres from rap to shoegaze and the quality and rate of his content has become a real inspiration point in my life creatively. This song comes from 2020’s Let’s Skip To The Wedding and has one of my favourite videos of all time to go with it.
Zopf: From The Colonies - Penguin Cafe Orchestra
This came from one of those 3am soul searching sessions, listening to anything and everything you can find. They also have an album called Signs of Life so they were more of a mistake discovery than a deliberate one! Luke and I have really come to love their music recently and in particular this album Music From The Penguin Cafe
Wicked Puppet Dance - Chat Pile
This band are one of the heaviest around at the moment, I’ve heard they have a reputation for unpredictable and chaotic live shows so Mike and I are hoping to catch them if they tour over here at some point. For fans of Deftones/Big Black/Pantera..
Dear, Snow - Larry June
Probably the most underrated rapper in the game right now with an extensive back catalogue of consistently high quality albums, often dropping 2 or 3 in a year. I heard this song in a skate part and I’ve loved his music ever since, Smoothies in 1991 is well worth checking out as well.
Witchita Lineman - Glen Campbell
One of the best written songs of all time, the instrumentation and use of strings was a real inspiration point for our new album Signs of Life, I spent alot of time listening to this song on repeat when we made the album at Rockfield in 2021. The tremolo guitar solo gets me every time… it really inspired a solo I wrote for a song on the album called Erase The Edges which quotes the vocal melody and then extends it just like this.
City of Mirrors - BadBadNotGood
Signal from the Noise dropped whilst we were away recording Signs of Life at Rockfield Studios in Wales, I can remember hearing it for the first time at about 4am on headphones lying in a field after a lengthy, intense day of recording and being absolutely blown away… this band can do no wrong in my eyes - IV was my favourite album of 2016 and Talk Memory which this song comes from was my favourite of 2021 without a doubt.
Can We Still Be Friends? - Todd Rundgren
I was late to the party with Todd Rundgren, his music was played in my house alot growing up but I never really warmed to it until recently. I’ll never forget Kingsley from Rockfield Studios telling us a great anecdote about visiting Bob Dylan’s house with Todd Rundgren in NYC in the 70’s whilst we were recording there... Luke and I both love this song… mainly because it’s used in the ending scene in Dumb and Dumber!
It Never Entered My Mind - Miles Davis Quartet
All of us are Jazzers in the band (minus Mike probably!) and we often end up listening to Miles Davis on long journeys or tours… I love the treatment Miles gives this song, it’s become my go-to song for calming nerves before a show or just in day to day life…
Aisatsana [102] - Aphex Twin
This is probably the most perfect piece of music you’ll ever hear, I read that he wrote it for his wife Anastasia which is the title backwards. I love the sounds of birds, the piano pedals opening and closing…the way it develops but never strays from the original motif…this song brought great comfort in a time of despair and continues to every time I hear it.
Buy Signs of Life HERE
]]>Sonically, it builds on the palette of the previous record with instrumentation equally inspired by the ascendant ambient Americana movement and classic country-rock. As a result it ends up somewhere between Acetone’s peerless I Guess I Would, Diamond Head-era Phil Manzanera and the dusty instrumentals on the second disc of David Sylvian’s 1986 classic Gone To Earth.
BUY Red Sunset Dreams HERE
To celebrate the release Mark has kindly made us a Further Listening playlist, to go alongside Red Sunset Dreams. Dig in below
1) J.J Cale - Durango
From his ‘Anyway The Wind Blows’ anthology. Deserty spacerock. A classic ‘I would have never guessed it was him’ moment.
2) Emmylou Harris - Still Water
From her ‘Wrecking Ball demos and outtakes’ bootleg.
There’s a different take on the official reissue of ‘Wrecking Ball’. I prefer this one, it has nice reverse guitar effects.
3) Acetone - Juanita
An instrumental cover of The Flying Burrito Brothers track from Acetone’s ‘I Guess I Would’ mini album. I feel really strongly that this should be re-released. It’s an insanely overlooked gem.
4) Buddy Emmons - ‘La Hiver Sur La Plage’
From the ‘Suite Steel’ album on Elektra, a collection of covers by the eminent pedal steel guitarists of the day. Buddy stretches out Bill Evans’ ‘Peace Piece’ and creates something brilliant of his own.
5) Billy Swan - ‘Don’t Be Cruel’
A laid back version of the Elvis hit by the (rumoured) Graceland security guard. There’s something a bit ‘late Robert Plant - ish’ about his vocal to me.
6) Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Rene (uncut version)
A spotlight on the brilliant Red Rhodes (who also features on the Suite Steel album) from the expanded ‘Nevada Fighter’ cd. If you like it, check out his playing on Nesmith’s ‘Two Different Roads’ and Bert Jansch’s ‘L.A Turnaround’ album.
7) Floyd Cramer - Lonely Again
Floyd was an in demand session pianist, you’ll have heard his playing on Elvis and Roy Orbison hits.
8) Lloyd Green - Amazing Grace
From ’Ten Shades Of Green’, Lloyd was another session heavyweight who took the opportunity to make some solo records. He was the main steel player on The Byrds ‘Sweetheart of The Rodeo’. In amongst these albums you always find the odd soulful pearl…
9) Kitty Wells - Forever Young
A Dylan cover from her album of the same name released on the Allman Brothers Capricorn label.
Similar to late soul 60’s albums by jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald and Julie London, I find the combination of a loose country rock arrangement with Kitty’s ‘Grand Ol Opry’ style vocal very appealing.
10) Lee Underwood - Aspen Trails
From the cassette only, Steve Roach produced ‘California Sigh’ from 1988. Like Tom Verlaine or John Coltrane, I feel the former Tim Buckley collaborator is one of those players who had perfect touch and the ability to create a sublime mood with just a couple of notes.
BUY Red Sunset Dreams HERE
]]>JUNE RELEASES
Art Blakey In My Prime
Beth Orton Central Reservation
Beth Orton Trailer Park
Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited Dream Queen
Brian Tyler The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift – Original Score
Calvin Keys Full Court Press
Chet Baker feat. Ennio Morricone I Know I Will Lose You
Creedence Clearwater Revival Travelin’ Band
Fatboy Slim Praise You/ Right Here Right Now
Flash & The Dynamics The New York Sound
Fun Boy Three The Best Of
Fuzzy Haskins Radio Active
Heartbreakers LAMF Demos
Home Boy & The COL Home Boy & The COL
Howard Wales Rendezvous With The Sun
Jimmy James & The Vagabonds This Heart Of Mine / Let Love Flow On
The Kinks Waterloo Sunset
Lester Tipton & Edward Hamilton & The Arabians This Won't Change/Baby Don't You Weep
Maccabees Colour It In
Miles Davis Live In Montreal, July 7, 1983
Night Beats Valentine Sessions
Pearl Jam Live On Two Legs
Prince The Gold Experience
Pucho and his Latin Soul Brothers Super Freak
The Rationals The Rationals
Sandie Shaw Hand In Glove
Super Furry Animals Rings Around The World: B-Sides
Supergrass Moving
Virgin Prunes Pagan Lovesong
Viktor Vaughn Vaudeville Villain
The Who It's Hard
Various: Soul Jazz Records Presents 100% DYNAMITE!
Various Go Ahead Punk…Make My Day
Various: Soul Jazz Records Presents STUDIO ONE CLASSICS
Various The Wanderer - a tribute to Jackie Leven
More info here
]]>If you're planning on coming to see us on the day send your requests to us here - southrsd2022@gmail.com
Keep an eye on our Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, or sign up for newsletter here for any further updates
As another year of ups and downs stutters to an end I've been trying to wrangle some of the best music that's been released in our (near) 8 years in to a definitive order. Of course, putting an objective art form in to an order of 'best' is a fools errand, so I make no claims that one is better than another, just these are records I love.
So, here they are, in an order that currently makes sense to me (but no doubt will change the second it's published). What is definite is that these records, especially those in the top 10, have been on constant rotation
1. Badbadnotgood - Talk Memory [BUY]
We've been fans of Badbadnotgood for a few years now - from their early hip hop reconfigured as post-bop jazz albums, through their Ghostface collaboration, their work with Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator, and their previous album IV, but Talk Memory is a real step up. Taking in David Axelrod-referencing jazz-rock, Miles Davis' electric 70s records, Sun Ra's cosmic piano balladry, cinematic strings (courtesy of the great Arthur Verocai) along with appearances from Laraaji, and Terence Martin, this psychedelicized jazz wonder hasn't left the turntable all year.
2. Cindy – 1:2 [BUY]
San Francisco has been turning up a lot of our favourite bands these past few years, with the SF labels Mt St Mtn and Paisley Shirt, along with Tough Love in the UK, bringing most of them to our attention. Cindy's third record, 1:2, has been on heavy rotation here all year. Fully rounding out the minimalism of it's slow burning debut, with nods to 90s-era Low, or Galaxie 500's gently melancholic Velvets reverence. This isn’t dream-pop sunshine bliss; half-closed black drapes hang on the window where the narrator stares into the middle distance
3. William Doyle – Great Spans Of Muddy Time [BUY]
The muscular electronica from his earlier East India Youth records has been rounded out with the singular sound of British art-rock - specifically Robert Wyatt, Eno's 70s work, Robyn Hitchcock, etc - for a dizzying, maximalist, career best record.
4. Madlib – Sound Ancestor [BUY]
Madlib always makes great records, everybody knows that, but it's probably a little too easy to let them pass you by due to how prolific he is. This one, arranged by his pal Keiran Hebden (Four Tet), is like all the great collaborations - Gil Evans and Miles Davis, Holger Czukay and Can, and Jean Claude Vannier and Serge Gainsbourg. Placing this record in that lineage may be a stretch, but it's not far off, and that's better than most can hope for. A future classic.
5. Modern Nature – Island of Noise [BUY]
We're big fans of Modern Nature here, their debut, How To Live, was our 2019 album of the year. This new album is another step up - a beguiling, free-flowing, career highlight, which takes in some of British free music luminaries on its mesmerising wander, with hints of Traffic's utopian jazz-folk throughout
6. Low – HEY WHAT [BUY]
As beautiful and challenging as ever - a distorted, decaying, difficult wonder. Taking a leap on from 2018's Double Negative, HEY WHAT goes deeper in to the abstraction, further in to the noise, but still finding catharsis in the end. What a band (who've also been referenced several times already in this list...)
7. The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Uncommon Weather [BUY]
Glenn Donaldson's third album album as The Reds, Pinks & Purples in as many years (with a great double album due next year) was another winner here. Concise, jangling, mope-pop of the highest order, which can stand alongside the reverb-laced pop of Dan Treacy's 90s output, as well as The Wake, East River Pipe, The Field Mice, et al.
8. G.S. Schray – The Changing Account [BUY]
G.S. Schray is an artist whose albums - both solo and as a member of the Lemon Quartet - we push on everyone who comes in to earshot. This new record of elliptical ambient jazz gently shapeshifts throughout; like falling asleep to Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden and waking up as the final notes of Hejira fade out
9. Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow [BUY]
Having trained with Keith Tippett, and going on to study alongside Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia, Emma-Jean Thackray took the cosmic jazz of Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra and the George Clinton's P-Funk as jumping off points for her debut, a record as fully realised as Endtroducing or Geoff Barrow's work with Portishead - an all-encompassing work, from a unique talent.
10. The Weather Station - Ignorance [BUY]
The latest Weather Station album - ostensibly a 'folk' record - now sees Tamara Lindeman backed by a full band (two drummers, saxophone, synths, wind instruments, etc) and dipping in to Sensual World-era Kate Bush, along with the elegant jazz-pop of early China Crisis or Peter Gabriel. A career highlight in a career of highlights
Other records we love, but haven't put in any discernible order:
Total Hell – Total Hell [BUY]
Badge Epoque Ensemble – Future, Past & Present [BUY]
Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark [BUY]
Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The LSO - Promises [BUY]
Hannah Peel – Fir Wave [BUY]
Flowertown – Flowertown [BUY]
Joseph Shabason – The Fellowship [BUY]
Ryley Walker – Course In Fable [BUY]
Sons of Kemet – Black To The Future [BUY]
Colleen – The Tunnel And The Clearing [BUY]
Rose City Band – Earth Trip [BUY]
MG Boulter – Clifftown [BUY]
White Flowers – Day By Day [BUY]
Blue Orchids – Speed The Day [BUY]
John Carroll Kirby - Septet [BUY]
Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble - Now [BUY]
The Goon Sax – Mirror II [BUY]
Richard Norris – Hypnotic Response [BUY]
Peace Flag Ensemble – Noteland [BUY]
Durand Jones & The Indications – Private Space [BUY]
Liars – The Apple Drop [BUY]
Amyl & The Sniffers – Comfort To Me [BUY]
Deux Filles – Shadow Farming [BUY]
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Butterfly 3000 [BUY]
Dougie Stu – Familiar Future [BUY]
Ducks Ltd – Modern Fiction [BUY]
Vanishing Twin – Ookii Gekkou [BUY]
Dean Wareham – I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor of LA [BUY]
Helado Negro – Far In [BUY]
Parquet Courts – Sympathy For Life [BUY]
Celestial – I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night [BUY]
Grouper – Shade [BUY]
Richard Dawson & Circle – Henki [BUY]
Tonstartssbandht - Petunia [BUY]
Jeff Parker – Forfolks [BUY]
Michael Hurley – The Time Of The Foxgloves [BUY]
Ichiko Aoba – Windswept Adan [BUY]
Fine Place – This New Heaven [BUY]
April Magazine – If The Ceiling Were A Kite [BUY]
Irreversible Entanglements – Open The Gates [BUY]
]]>BUY: Cindy - 1:2
To follow up the Further Listening playlist Cindy's Karina Gill made us for her other band Flowertown, we have another here. As usual (these San Francisco bands all seem to have impeccable taste) there's some great stuff here. But before we get to that, the band kindly answered a few questions for us
- Tell us a little about how Cindy came together?
Cindy has a somewhat haphazard origin story. Karina started writing songs, after working out a few simple covers on a found guitar with the help of the internet. She wasn't connected to the music scene in San Francisco yet and wasn't thinking about having a band. Simon lived in the same house, overheard Karina and offered to play drums. They played a few times together, and, on one of those days, Karina was at the grocery store and Jesse was the cashier. They'd met once before briefly through friends of friends, but couldn't have told you each others' names. Jesse did the polite cashier thing of asking how Karina's day was and she said it was great because she got to play music. Jesse said he wished he'd played music that day and Karina asked if he played bass and they exchanged phone numbers. Karina met Aaron a year or so later at a party in a small beach town north of San Francisco. Karina had been wanting to find a keyboard/synth player since the band started and Aaron's joining the band felt really natural.
- Were you all in bands previously?
Simon has been playing music for a long time and has played in a number of San Francisco bands, including Curse of the Birthmark and Fuckwolf, and currently plays with other projects. Aaron was in POW! (LA) and has a project with a friend called Gravité. Jesse has had other projects, including a longstanding current project called Names. Cindy was Karina's first experience of playing music.
- What were the bands that changed it all for you growing up?
For Karina, it's not so much about a band in particular but encounters with music. Maybe most central was a series of mixtapes that a penpal made for Karina around age eleven. There were all sorts of music on these tapes, but the early punk and early post-punk tapes really made an impression.
Simon was exposed to nothing but Top 40 growing up, and didn't discover classic rock until high school. Exposure to punk rock and the rest came even later. It wasn't until first hearing the band Arab On Radar in his twenties that Simon became inspired to start making his own music.
BUY: Cindy - 1:2
https://thewind-ups.bandcamp.com/track/i-wish-you-would-call
Following the resounding success of the #loverecordstores campaign in 2020 and the subsequent Love Record Stores event, which took place last June, the campaign organisers have announced plans for a second event, which will take place on 4th September.
Now an important fixture in the music retail calendar for UK record retailers, labels and music fans alike, Love Record Stores 2021 will be an opportunity for the independent music community to come together to support record stores who, like many other businesses, have faced difficult trading conditions throughout the pandemic.
Given the UK government’s recent announcements about lifting lockdown restrictions the organisers are confident that by September 4th, Love Record Stores 2021 will see music fans able to visit and support their favourite physical stores rather than just their online websites to purchase vinyl exclusives across range of strictly limited-edition releases.
There'll be limited edition pressings from Sharon Van Etten, Oh Sees, Black Country, New Road, Flowered Up, Mogwai, Soulwax, Butthole Surfers, Dub Narcotic Sound System, Modern Studies, Sonic Youth and the Pastels, and lots more. We'll be posting our stock list online a little nearer the time on here, and on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. All releases will only be available in the shop to begin with - no pre-orders - but anything left will be online to buy from 9pm on the day.
]]>We were instantly smitten when introduced to Cindy by Stephen at Tough Love, with nods to the best bits of all the best bands. Flowertown - which is Cindy's Karina, with Mike from Tony Jay - continue in that same vein. Glenn Donaldson from Freeform Freakout/The Reds, Pinks & Purples puts it best:
“…Flowertown is indebted to the great works of post-Velvets indie: Galaxie 500’s trilogy, Cannanes A Love Affair with Nature, Low’s I Could Live in Hope, ’90-’93 Yo La Tengo, but thankfully they didn’t forget to write songs and find their own voices and charm inside that sound. If you wander the outer avenues out to Land’s End with this in your headphones, you may float away into oblivion. This feels like a band that is about to write a timeless album, and I am more than ready with my PayPal login info.”
Hello from Flowertown! Thank you for inviting us to put together some songs as companion listening to the Flowertown LP.
Flowertown has a kind of geography — both literal and imaginative. There are nooks of the city of San Francisco that figure into our songs — mostly because we enjoy them. RCP stands for Rich Cat Pocket, which is what we call a little nest of streets where many feral cats like to hang out. Icehouse 1375 is a building in Mike’s neighborhood, and it stands only feet from Garbage Hill.
Flowertown is also a geography of connection. We are lucky to be part of a community of people who make and record music. This playlist reflects a small number of those connections — April Magazine played a show in a town nicknamed Flowertown and Karina stole the name; Matt of The Umbrellas mastered the songs on the LP; Kati of Mister Baby played bass for Flowertown’s first live performance; Kevin of Sad Eyed Beatniks runs Paisley Shirt Records which releases much of the music on the list; people we’ve played with; local friends we admire.
And The Vince Guaraldi Trio? It seems that whenever Karina goes over to Mike’s to work on music, the same record is on the record player, no matter what the season — A Charlie Brown Christmas. June, September, whatever. So, you could say it’s a soundtrack. And, Vince Guaraldi is buried in a nearby town — a part of the geography himself.
Thanks so much for having Flowertown record of the week at South Records. We’re honored and hope someday to be able to visit the shop.
Sincerely,
Karina and Mike
1. Cold Beat “62 Moons”
2. Mister Baby “Cake Shop”
3. Blue Ocean “Dwell”
4. David Castillo “Health Care Suite”
5. Sad Eyed Beatniks “West Of Twin Peaks”
6. The Lice “Stagefright”
7. Vince Guaraldi Trio “Skating”
8. April Magazine “If The Ceiling Were A Kite”
9. Adam Healton “Worms”
10. Hectorine “Another Life”
11. Hits “Climbing Up”
12. The Snogs “Man Thinks Woman”
13. RE Seraphin “Streetlight”
14. Burner Herzog “Prayer Candles”
15. The Umbrellas “City Song”
BUY: Cindy - Free Advice
PRE-ORDER: Cindy - 1:2
Cat Stevens - Harold & Maude OST [INFO]. A really lovely soundrtack of folk-pop classics recorded for the best film of the 70s
Cro-Mags - The Age Of Quarrel [INFO]. The blueprint for the hardcore/thrash crossover. An absolute rager that is very tricky to track down these days
Complex - Complex [INFO]. One of the rarest British psychedelic albums around - only 99 copies of this were initially made, and a late-90s reissue goes for some cash these days too
Fear - The Record [INFO]. A classic of obnoxious US punk. Worth it for We Don't Care About You alone, but it also comes with a first ever reissue of their lovely Christmas 7" - 'F**k Christmas'
Hawkwind - Greasy Truckers Party [INFO]. A legendary live show from the Space Ritual era band at the Roundhouse in '72, which has the original recording of Silver Machine
Love - Everybody's Gotta Live [INFO]. The best band that ever was letting loose. Features 5 tracks from the deluxe reissue of Reel To Reel a few years ago, but Everybody's Gotta Live is the star here. Absolute tune
Mike Taylor Quartet - Preparation [INFO]. A recently unearthed recording of the legendary Brit jazz pianists final rehearsal before recording the fabled '65 album Pendulum.
Sun Dragon - Green Tambourine [INFO]. A pre-Deep Purple Blackmore, Lord and Paice cut this incredibly rare psych-pop wonder in '68. Containing one of the best British psych songs there is (Five White Horses)
The Dream Syndicate - Out Of The Grey [INFO]. Great, and very underrated, comeback album from the Paisley Underground legends originally released in 1986. This reissue features a load of download only bonus tracks
Sassy & Strong: Forgotten Sides From Nashville's Finest Ladies (1967-1973) [INFO]. A great compilaiton of country soul that came in the wake of Ode To Billie Joe and These Boots Are Made For Walking. Upfront and uplifting, profound, proud, reflective and questioning - some of these original 45s are extremely rare and are reissued here for the very first time
Wailing Souls - Wailing [INFO]. The gold standard team of Linval Thompson on production, the Roots Radics band and engineer Scientist. Reissued for the first time since 1981, with a load of liner notes and some extra contemporaneous 12" mixes
There's a load of others in the racks for Saturday which are equally as great, but these are ones we think should find a space in everybody's collection
]]>Andy has also given us his thoughts on each track. Scroll down to listen/read.
BUY: Andy Bell - Ever Decreasing Circles EPs
This Mortal Coil – ‘Fyt’
Ride used to come onstage to this in the early ’90s, it always makes me think big things are afoot
Pye Corner Audio – ‘Lost Ways’
The first song in the Pye Corner Audio live set which made me want to try and work with him – my favourite tune of Martin’s
Andy Bell – ‘Heat Haze On Weyland Road’
A downtempo kind of electronic-ish little number from my debut album
Spacemen 3 – ‘Big City’
Always ahead, always a reference point for me and an inspiration
Harold Grosskopf – ‘Synthesist 2048’
Fantastic tune, sounds incredible loud
Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – ‘Illusion Of Time’
Lockdown classic from last summer
Andy Bell – ‘The Commune’ (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
My favourite of the PCA remixes of my tracks
Slowdive – ‘Sugar For The Pill’ (Avalon Emerson’s Gilded Escalation)
A beautiful remix of a very lovely song
Moon Diagrams – ‘Nightmoves’
Cool track from Moses Archuleta of Deerhunter
Andy Bell – ‘I Was Alone’ (Pye Corner Audio Remix)
On this remix PCA improved on my original, in my opinion
Idjut Boys – ‘One For Kenny’
Found this on a DJ Harvey compilation, real favourite in the summer months
Andrew Weatherall – ‘Unknown Plunderer’
Hard to overstate this man’s influence and talent. The late, great Andrew Weatherall
Patrick Cowley – ‘The Runner’
A really cool tune by this master, which I discovered three minutes ago, thanks to the “recommended based on the music in your playlist” feature
The Sabres Of Paradise – ‘Ballad of Nicky McGuire’
Classic Sabres of Paradise from the ‘Haunted Dancehall’ album
Haai – ‘Be Good’
Words to live by from the excellent Haai
Erol Alkan – ‘Silver Echoes’
Erol Alkan’s finest hour in my book, totally mesmeric
Ride – ‘Catch You Dreaming’
And here is one of Erol’s stellar production jobs for Ride, this is from 2018’s ‘Tomorrow’s Shore’ EP
This Mortal Coil – ‘With Tomorrow’
Finishing where I started, with This Mortal Coil, you’ve got to love a melancholy ending
Thanks and take it easy out there
- Andy Bell
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BUY: Clifftown
Clifftown is an album about growing up and living in a seaside suburban town, the good and the bad.
I have always been drawn to songwriters who tackle issues in a fresh way or write about topics that are a little outside the norm. Okkervill River’s On Tour With Zykos and Jens Lekman’s A Postcard to Nina both have that quality and have been major inspirations for my songwriting on Clifftown. There’s also a lot of scene setting in my songs, I like someone to visualise an environment when they are listening to my music. The tracks I picked from Iron and Wine, Belle & Sebastian and Buck Meek all contain strong imagery ranging from leafy American suburbs to picturesque student flats in Glasgow’s Byres Road.
I’m an acoustic guitar player; there’s something about the immediacy of just relying on your fingers and the strings that appeals to me. I’ve never got my head around all the guitar effects (even though I love them). The minimalist acoustic arrangements of Itasca and Nick Drake I find really interesting while the more chamber folk arrangements of Van Morrison’s Slim Slow Slider and the glorious vocal harmonies of Bonnie Prince Billy’s Someone Coming Through inspire the arrangements I put on my own album in relation to double bass, vocal harmonies and use of woodwind and strings. As for The Kiss by Judee Sill, well, my jaw just drops every time I hear this song and reminds me that you don’t have to be loud to be powerful.
]]>We asked Joseph if he'd make us a Further Listening mix (following on from The Reds, Pinks & Purples from a few weeks back) and he delivered an absolute beaut, a mix of songs that have excited him in the past year. Scroll down to listen, and check out the tracklisting.
BUY: The Fellowship (limited indies-only transparent blue vinyl)
Tracklist:
Andre Ethier - Wild Goldfish
Dan Edmonds - The Morning
Paolo Conte - Sparring Partner
Hugh Marsh - Pizz Punk
Bernice - Big Mato
Caroline Polachek - Look At Me Now
Sam Gendel - Pure Imagination
Márta Sebestyén & Levente Szörényi - Tavasz, Tavasz/Spring, Spring
Dip In The Pool - I
Hiroshi Yoshimura - Rain Dance (Rain Mix)
Eyvind Kang - Binah
Buy Uncommon Weather HERE
]]>As usual, I feel it's important to state that I don't consider my opinion here to be any more valid than anybody else's, these are just the records I've loved. Hopefully you'll love them too. There's a Spotify playlist at the bottom to check them out.
So here you go, our favourite records of 2020:
1. Eddie Chacon - Pleasure, Joy And Happiness [BUY]