EBONY LAMB
EBONY LAMB
CD / LP / LTD LP
01. My Daughter My Sister My Son / 02. Take My Hands At Night / 03. Salt Sand Sea / 04. Midnight Is My Name / 05. Swim To Me / 06. Drive Me Around / 07. Successful Feelings / 08. Come, Put A Record On / 09. Brother Get Me Home / 10. Star Confessor
Pōneke/Wellington-based singer-songwriter Ebony Lamb announces her debut self-titled solo album, set to release on October 20th on Slow Time Records (Nadia Reid). The album was made in collaboration with two of New Zealand’s most celebrated modern musicians, Bic Runga and Kody Nielson (Opossom, Silicon, UMO), along with her long-time musical collaborator, Gram Antler. To mark the release, Ebony and her band will embark on a seven-date tour across Aotearoa starting October 27th.
A captivating work of impressionistic memories, observations and intimate confessions, Ebony wrote her debut album while coming into prominence as an in-demand portrait photographer within New Zealand’s contemporary literature and independent music scenes. The release comes five years after her alt-country band, Eb & Sparrow, amicably parted ways in 2018.
Recorded on vintage analog studio gear and mastered to tape, EBONY LAMB finds Runga and Nielson placing Ebony’s distinct, fragile-but-firm voice within a cinematic confluence of jazz, folk, psychedelia, alt-country and ambient pop. Written over the last five years while coming to terms with the realities of a changing world, themes of gratitude, loss, acceptance and aspiration run through the album like a river, especially in the nocturnal groove of ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ and ‘Brother Get Me Home’.
From the album’s opening notes, Ebony expresses herself in non-judgmental terms, singing with a raw tenderness that draws listeners into her reflections on friendship (‘Drive Me Around’), the complexity and contradictions of success (‘Successful Feelings’), and connections in seemingly hopeless moments (‘Come, Put A Record On’). Yet while her songs can feel like she’s sitting just across from you, Runga and Nielson’s production imbues them with an expansive sensibility. Spare, vivid and moving, EBONY LAMB is an album that captures a defining artistic leap from a talented artist coming into her own. Singing to herself and the listener, she implores us to continue reaching forward without losing sight of what we have and the elements of our lives that truly matter.
Available on limited red coloured vinyl.
Label: SLOW TIME
SLEAFORD MODS
MORE UK GRIM EP
12″ Vinyl
01. Under The Rules / 02. Old Nottz / 03. Big Pharma / 04. PO Crazy / 05. My 18hr Girdle / 06. Old Nottz (Alt mix)
Fresh from supporting Blur at Wembley, Sleaford Mods return with a EP of six new tracks. Emerging from the same environment that created the duo’s Top 3 album UK GRIM, the songs of More UK GRIM share the incisive lyrical vision and forward-thinking electronics that won acclaim for the LP. Tracks including Under The Rules, Old Nottz and Big Pharma not only continue Mods’ era of dancefloor dominance, but with insight and wit, outrage and compassion, they critique yet celebrate our turbulent times.
Limited edition pink coloured 12″ vinyl.
Label: ROUGH TRADE
THE NEPHILIM
THE NEPHILIM – EXPANDED EDITION
LTD 2LP
A1. Endemoniada / A2. The Watchman / A3. Phobia / A4. Moonchild / B1. Chord of Souls / B2. Shiva / B3. Celebrate / C1. Love Under Will / C2. Last Exit for the Lost / D1. Celebrate (Second Seal) / D2. Psychonaut Lib III
Beggars Arkive release a vinyl reissue of the second Fields Of The Nephilim album The Nephilim, released 35 years ago by Situation Two/Beggars Banquet in 1988, and not pressed on vinyl since then. The album is pressed on golden brown vinyl and is expanded to a double LP. The album contains their epic, legendary track “Moonchild” plus three bonus tracks.
Formed in 1984, Fields of the Nephilim is the creation of vocalist and front man Carl McCoy. Highly influential, especially in the world of goth, but also within the metal and electronic genres, their legacy endures to this day. You can hear their influence on bands like Swans, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky, Wolves in The Throne Room, Behemoth and more.
The Nephilim was recorded in a former courthouse in the Somerset countryside where defendants who were sentenced to death were hung. “Moonchild” is the band’s best known song due to it reaching #28 in the UK single charts, and LouderSound called it a classic and said that it “perfectly encapsulates this era of the band and it has some nifty guitar work, great bass lines from Tony Pettitt, Nod’s stellar drumming and McCoy’s distinctive vocals.”
In a 2013 remembrance of the album, PopMatters said “The band’s sophomore effort, regarded not only as its best work but also as one of the UK goth scene’s masterpieces, is a seamless, hour-long trek into a surreal land populated by chiming guitars, hypnotic bass, found samples, and McCoy’s storytelling.”
Label: BEGGARS
LIZ PHAIR
EXILE IN GUYVILLE (30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
LTD 2LP
A1. 6’1″ / A2. Help Me, Marry / A3. Glory / A4. Dance Of The Seven Veils / A5. Never Said / B1. Soap Star Joe / B2. Explain It To Me / B3. Canary / B4. Mesmerizing / C1. Fuck And Run / C2. Girls! Girls! Girls! / C3. Divorce Song / C4. Shatter / C5. Flower / D1. Johnny Sunshine / D2. Gunshy / D3. Stratford-On-Guy / D4. Strange Loop?
Marking the 30th anniversary of Liz Phair’s iconic debut album, Exile In Guyville, a record whose impact and resonance has only grown more profound, Matador release the album on limited-edition double purple vinyl. An 18-track double album loosely framed as a song-by-song reply to The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., Exile In Guyville was dubbed a classic upon arrival. The album’s profile has only risen in the ensuing years. It is now regarded as an iconic work and a feminist landmark, recently cracking the top ten of Pitchfork’s “Best 150 Albums of the 1990s” (#4) and the top 100 of Rolling Stone’s “Best 500 Albums of All Time” (#56).
Label: MATADOR
TORO Y MOI
SANDHILLS EP
Sandhills EP artworkLP
01. Back Then / 02. Sidelines / 03. Sandhills / 04. The View / 05. Said Goodbye to Rock n Roll
Toro y Moi’s ‘Sandhills’ is both a tender love letter to Chaz Bear’s hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, and a poignant, bittersweet acceptance that one can never really go back home. Recalling Sufjan’s ‘Seven Swans’ or Karen O’s soundtrack work for ‘Where The Wild Things Are,’ these loping folk-pop songs are themselves a sort of Saturn return, reminiscent of Bear’s first handmade CD-Rs as Toro y Moi. Bear gave them out to friends in the earliest days of the moniker, the releases stuffed in the Case
Logic visor of their cars, and each listen brings a little more of that detail to life: the mall after which ‘Sandhills’ is named; the teenaged friends spending aimless hours there, full of big ennui and bigger
dreams; the late-capitalist decline and empty big box stores of Sandhills today.
Chaz Bear, Toro y Moi, is now a globally beloved indie-pop icon. But ‘Sandhills’, with its banjo and lap steel flourishes and its wide-eyes wonder, concedes that you never quite totally rid yourself of those adolescent blues. You might just, if you’re lucky, develop better mechanisms (or delusions!) with which to handle them. ‘Sidelines’ tells the tale of aesthete putting himself through the high school football gauntlet. And the title track has subtle allusions to growing up a Black art kid in the American South: “saved again by calamine/ another bite/ this happens time to time/ i’m spotted white/ maybe it’s just where i’m from/ i always had my guard up/ but hypocrites keep strollin in/ and rubbin on my shoulder”. Even the closing novelty track “Said Goodbye To Rock n Roll” has all the makings of a Chris Stapleton hit if you just to squint a little. Clear eyes, full hearts, sweet jams, can’t lose. Lyrically deft and deceptively heartbreaking, ‘Sandhills’ may be a brief pit stop between grand statements from Bear, but it’s brimming with rust, guts, big moods and love.
Label: DEAD OCEANS
SAMPHA
LAHAI
CD / LP/ LTD LP
01. Stereo Colour Cloud (Shaman’s Dream) / 02. Spirit 2.0 / 03. Dancing Circles / 04. Suspended / 05. Satellite Business / 06. Jonathan L. Seagull / 07. Inclination Compass (Tenderness) / 08. Only / 09. Time Piece / 10. Can’t Go Back / 11. Evidence / 12. Wave Therapy / 13. What If You Hypnotise Me? / 14. Rose Tint
Sampha’s highly anticipated second album LAHAI starts how all the best projects do: “I was just dealing with a few things” he offers plainly. It’s a statement that only hints at LAHAI’s immeasurable scope and ambition. If Sampha’s debut Process was the sound of an artist figuring out his own place in the world, engulfed in the shadows of grief and loss, LAHAI opens to new life and lives in awe of what the future holds. LAHAI is an album that searches for what Sampha terms “beyond-ness”, time travelling through generations of people, sounds and places, exploring the multitude of ways we as humans try to connect to each other, and to something bigger than us.
From the very first notes on album opener “Stereo Colour Cloud (shaman’s dream)”, as high-pitched keys twinkle in a frenzied loop and broken lyrics flicker in the breaks between, it captures a snapshot of the exquisite kind of chaos that one experiences confronting the cycle of life. When the punchy breakbeat cracks the track open after a few bars, Sampha hopes, “I think we found ourselves a sacred place, a place to dream out loud.” Adding in person, “sometimes it’s necessary to be able to dream, to connect to different realms, as a method of survival or of finding the fuel.”
Much like our dreams, LAHAI defies clear categorisation – both captivatingly vivid and blurred at once, almost impressionist in nature. Spanning jazz, soul, rap, dance, jungle, and west African music, LAHAI captures the expanse of Sampha’s ever- versatile musical inspirations. Taken from his paternal grandfather’s name, which is also Sampha’s middle name, LAHAI revels in the awe and magic of our existence, examining time, science, family, love, and spirituality. It’s no wonder that throughout LAHAI there are sparkling glints of sci-fi, afrofuturism and magical realism that seamlessly coalesce, transporting the listener into the supernatural world.
Available on limited indie exclusive white coloured vinyl.
Label: YOUNG
BIG THIEF
VAMPIRE EMPIRE / BORN FOR LOVING YOU
7″
A1. Vampire Empire / B2. Born For Loving You
Big Thief present new single, ‘Vampire Empire’, maybe off a forthcoming album?! This year, the song took on a life of its own after a performance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and has become a live fan favourite.
Recorded and produced by Dom Monks at Guissona, Spain’s Teatre de cal Eril Studio during a recent tour, ‘Vampire Empire’ speaks to the beautiful complexity of gender identity and breaking destructive internal cycles. Of the song, Adrianne Lenker adds, “For me, it’s about getting out of toxic internal patterns – leaving the empire of energy drains that obscure pure essence, learning about what healthy boundaries are, and finding the power to implement them for the possibility of giving and receiving (both inwardly and outwardly) unbroken and infinite Love.”
Limited first pressing available on Eco Vinyl.
Label: 4AD
BRENDAN PERRY
EYE OF THE HUNTER / LIVE AT THE I.C.A.
2CD / 2LP
[LP1: Eye of the Hunter]: A1. Saturday’s Child / A2. Voyage of Bran / A3. Medusa / A4. Sloth / B1. I Must Have Been Blind / B2. Captive Heart / B3. Death Will Be My Bride / B4. Archangel
[LP2: Live at The I.C.A.]: C1. Alone / American Dreaming / C2. Sarabande / C3. Sloth / D1. Chase The Blues / D2. Captive Heart / D3. Happy Time / D4. Don’t Fade Away
Dead Can Dance’s Brendan Perry reissues his debut solo album, Eye of the Hunter, expanded to now include a bonus live album Live at the I.C.A., recorded during the 4AD’s 13 Year Itch residency at the storied London venue in 1993.
Limited light green and light blue transparent vinyl.
Label: 4AD
THE BLOOD BROTHERS
BURN, PIANO ISLAND, BURN LTD EDITION
LP + 7″
LP: A1. Guitarmy / A2. Fucking’s Greatest Hits / A3. Burn, Piano Island, Burn / A4. Every Breath is a Bomb / A5. Ambulance vs Ambulance / A6. USA Nails / A7. Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon / B1. Six Nightmares at the Pinball Masquerade / B2. The Salesman, Denver Max / B3. I Know Where the Canaries and the Crows Go / B4. Go Bless You, Blood Thirsty Zeppelins / B5. The Shame
7″: A1. Ambulance vs Ambulance / B1. Pink Tarantulas
Limited Collector’s Edition includes the seminal album on exclusive yellow and pink colored vinyl, “Ambulance vs. Ambulance” 7”, and expanded 32 page booklet with new liner notes and photos.
Epitaph Records has re-issued The Blood Brothers’ classic Burn, Piano Island, Burn on vinyl to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s landmark album. From 1997 to 2007, The Blood Brothers’ “molotov mixture of suburb surrealism and sonic extremity” (Alternative Press, 2003) rocked and riveted critics and fans around the world.
Formed in the suburbs of Seattle, the dueling singers Johnny Whitney and Jordan Blilie along with Cody Votolato (guitar), Morgan Henderson (bass) and Mark Gajadhar (drums) crafted a unique style of convulsive, ground breaking hardcore that was quickly embraced by critics and fans of punk, hardcore and indie rock. Over their ten years in existence the quintet released five critically acclaimed studio albums including Burn, Piano Island, Burn, “the most prolific, beautiful, and vital statement of rock since the Stooges’ Raw Power” (PopMatters, 2003).
Label: EPITAPH
THE DRUMS
JONNY
CD /2LP
01. I Want It All / 02. Isolette / 03. I’m Still Scared / 04. Better / 05. Harms / 06. Little Jonny / 07. Plastic Envelope / 08. Protect Him Always / 09. Be Gentle / 10. Dying / 11. Green Grass / 12. Obvious / 13. The Flowers / 14. Teach My Body / 15. Pool God / 16. I Used To Want To Die
On his latest album as The Drums, New York-based indie pop artist Jonny Pierce plunges into the work of healing from childhood trauma and the long shadow it casts over adulthood.
The sparkling, eponymous Jonny unfurls a love letter to a galaxy of younger selves, all hungry to be nourished, all rejoicing now that they finally get to belong. Playful, heartbreaking, raucous, and serene all in turn, Jonny embraces the mess of life in all its facets. It renders the magic that happens when you fall in love with yourself down to the marrow.
Soaring to alt-pop prestige on arrival, The Drums have released studio albums that deftly walk the line of aching melancholy and irresistible pop sensibilities, presented through a kaleidoscope of pastel guitars, reverb, modular synthesizers and drum machines. It’s a sound that’s wholly unique, and unmistakably The Drums.
Label: ANTI
