Jul 28, 2015

Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy (2015)

A rock opera in five acts, The Most Lamentable Tragedy is the fourth studio album by Titus Andronicus and the band’s debut for Merge Records. The central narrative of The Most Lamentable Tragedy (“a work of fiction,” claims singer/songwriter Patrick Stickles) concerns an unnamed protagonist whom we meet in deep despair. Following an encounter with his own doppelgänger (an enigmatic stranger, identical in appearance though opposite in disposition), long held secrets are revealed, sending our protagonist on a transformative odyssey, through past lives and new loves, to the shocking revelation that the very thing that sustains him may be the thing to destroy him. The Most Lamentable Tragedy was produced by frequent collaborator Kevin McMahon and Titus Andronicus lead guitarist Adam Reich.

Jul 23, 2015

Day Ravies – Liminal Zones (2015)

Liminal Zones really does pop and bop its way around, taking on different glistening, colourful, and radiant forms throughout its 33-minute runtime. It’s stimulating to the extent that I wonder if the band is tapping into some unheard sonic frequencies. Did they just break the sound barrier? ‘This Side Of The Fence’ sounds intrinsically electronic, trance like with its warbling synth hook and the psychedelic, echoing fuzz of guitar that slides into place, only to quickly retreat. Like some form of hypnosis, Day Ravies sway us into a third dimension with looping layers and alien sounds.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry – See the Fire: Albums, Singles and BBC Recordings 1982-1987 (2015)

A band that mixed the stark, stern pulse of Joy Division with a Stranglers-styled gut punch, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry’s discography has experienced an embarrassment of riches since about 2002, with one excellent compilation after another appearing. This three-disc set is another winner, and while it’s fatter than most other sets and ignores the band’s later years on RCA, the contents are still quite desirable.
Disc one features the band’s 1985 album Talk About the Weather while disc two features 1986’s Paint Your Wagon, both discs rounded out by singles and B-sides. Disc three includes the band’s sessions for BBC radio from 1983-1984, plus the physical release comes with a booklet filled with essays and reproductions of artwork…

Jul 13, 2015

Blank Realm – Illegals in Heaven (2015)

Emerging from the sweaty streets of Brisbane with a penchant for creating their own take on the cross-pollination of the garage/psych/pop daisies, Blank Realm have been setting our hearts on fire for some time now. And after their “gloriously messy” Grassed Inn release from last year, the world seems to be finally catching on.Said album will be called Illegals In Heaven and was produced by outsider music legend (and fellow Brisbane native) Lawrence English. Apart from that, just take our word for it when we say that the studio has not knocked off any rough edges or toned down the band’s intensity.
Illegals In Heaven will be released September 4 via Fire Records.

Jul 10, 2015

Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss (2015)




“Abyss is meant to have the feeling of when you’re dreaming, and you briefly wake up, but then fall back asleep into the same dream, diving quickly into your own subconscious.”

 Chelsea Wolfe returns with a new album, Abyss, on August 7th via Sargent House. The 11-track effort follows Pain is Beauty, one of 2013’s best albums of the year, and was recorded with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Swans) in Dallas, Texas.
According to a press release, the LP plays out like a “score” to a realm Wolfe describes as “the hazy afterlife … an inverted thunderstorm … the dark backward … the abyss of time,” and explores heady subjects of “human frailty, intimacy, quiet passion, anxiety, and deep longing.”

Jul 9, 2015

William D Drake – Revere Reach (2015)

For his fifth solo excursion, former Cardiacs keysmith William D Drake takes us on a serpentine path through the inner regions of Revere Reach, a part-imagined landscape composed of memory and fantasy. At once heart-felt, hearty and absurd, its heady reveries blend ancient-seeming modal folk melody with an obliquely slanted Rock thrust.

Oliver Ocean – Until I Go (2015)

The quartet hit upon their sound last January, after cultivating enough trust in the band’s chemistry to let it roam where it wanted. This lead them to release their “Through the Loop” EP over the summer, which showcased their slightly ambient indie rock guided by jazz and Motown sensibilities. It is an unusual, but wholly organic composite, and we’re excited to see where it takes them in 2015.

Jul 4, 2015

The Libertines



Gunga Din’ - taken from the new album ‘Anthems for Doomed Youth’ – released 4th Sept 2015

Jul 3, 2015

Calvin Love – Super Future (2015)

... Album of the month ...

 Pairing woozy synths and thick, sultry rhythms, Canadian singer/songwriter Calvin Love channels the sort of pastel nightclub romantica that Bryan Ferry perfected decades earlier. A dash of Phoenix’s pop sizzle and plenty of the noirish indie-psych vibes of contemporary Edmonton (where Love and pals like Mac DeMarco, Alex Calder, and Sean Nicholas Savage hail from) also make up the general tone of Super Future, Love’s sophomore album and first for esteemed Toronto indie Arts + Crafts. Stylistically, it’s an expansion of the same cool style he delivered on his meandering 2012 debut New Radar, but with an improved studio budget to help trim some of his ragged lo-fi edges.

Jul 1, 2015

The Cairo Gang – Goes Missing (2015)

Singer/songwriter Emmett Kelly and his band the Cairo Gang have spent a good part of the last decade lending their hands to vibrant and woodsy records by venerable folkies like Angel Olsen and Will Oldham. On their excellent 2013 EP Tiny Rebels, The Cairo Gang reinvented themselves as jangle poppers extraordinaire, channeling the Byrds, Love, and half the bands on the Pebbles comps to deliver some truly lovely 12-string guitar-driven lo-fi sounds. On Goes Missing, the album that followed in 2015, the Gang’s leader, Emmett Kelly, goes back to the well and brings back another serving of jingle-jangle goodness.