Reaching #5 in the UK album chart, Alison Moyet's recent album the minutes was hugely well received, being called "her best in decades" by Q, "amazing" by The Quietus and "a musical resurrection" by The Huffington Post. The accompanying tour was equally lauded, with The Times dubbing it "triumphant" and the Evening Standard stating, "she's never been better". The exuberant recordings contain a selection of material from the minutes, plus highlights from Alison's earlier solo and Yaz repertoires. Alison took the minutes tour through Europe, the USA and South Africa, selling over 55,000 tickets and it culminated with a rapturous show at London's Royal Albert Hall. Alison was joined on stage by MD John Garden (keys, guitars and programming) and Sean McGhee (backing vocals, synthesiser, guitar and programming).
"Having worked live for an age with a traditional band line-up, I decided to return to my recording roots and an electronic pallet. This rapprochement begins with my 2013 album the minutes, a body of work I wrote together with its producer Guy Sigsworth, resulting in a collection of material that is entirely pleasing for me to perform live. "As the catalyst for the minutes tour, it enabled me to revisit some of my earlier work, either in the context it was originally intended, or with a new ear. Instead, reworking organic songs into a programmed format rather than the other way around and sparing me the niggling suspicion that I was in danger of inhabiting my own tribute act - which is a relevant consideration when you have been singing some of the songs for 30 something years, and wish still to be engaged." - Alison Moyet
01. Horizon Flame (Live)
02. When I Was Your Girl (Live)
03. Ordinary Girl (Live)
04. Remind Yourself (Live)
05. Is This Love? (Live)
06. Winter Kills (Live)
07. Filigree (Live)
08. Only You (Live)
09. Changeling (Live)
10. This House (Live)
11. All Signs Of Life (Live)
12. All Cried Out (Live)
13. Situation (Live)
After the dissolution of Psychomanteum, Apocryphos was slowly formed by now sole member Robert C. Kozletsky and continues further down the pathways charted by Psychomanteum. The Prisoner's Cinema is a duality in concept, exploring two separate paths that intersect each other through out. The first path revolves around sensory deprivation, isolation and the frightening, yet spiritual aspects of these experiences.
The second path is that of a personal nature, bearing a literal interpretation of the title "Prisoner's Cinema" where you play the prisoner locked away in the confines of your own conscious mind standing alone against your own darkness. This is the troubled soundtrack to a soul starving for catharsis, a release from the chains that hold us down in this uncompromising world. The Prisoner's Cinema is graced with the signature haunting imagery of Simon Heath (Atrium Carceri) and also features a special guest collaboration by Frederic Arbour (Havan / Visions…) on one track. Psychomanteum may be dead, but out of its ashes, Apocryphos has risen to expand one's soul. Listen and release...
Edition of 500 copies in 4 Panel Digipack. 8 Tracks. Running Time 1:02
9 long years after the release of the seminal album "Horizons", we are finally greeted to a new opus by Norway's most unique craftsmen of cold, desolate and deep nordic ambient. Not only is this completely new material, crafted from recordings made from 2003 up until 2014, but we are offered about 1h20 min on a double CD! Constantly tapping into the singular northern landscapes of his native Norway for inspiration, Hærleif Langås transposes his views and feelings of the great white north into intricately deep and poignant soundscapes. Northaunt's sound can best be described as landscapes transformed into aural emanations, enabling the listener to in turn be able to journey through those barren and foreign lands through the minds eye. Quoted from the linear notes is the idea behind this new album: "Once the world was alone, the landscapes had no names and there was no one to see them. An endless number of ice age dawns came and went unseen. The idea of this world, the world as it was before man, inspired me throughout the composition of these tracks. Roughly separated in two parts, one representing the light, the unburdened world before man, the other a much darker side of the same place." Be prepared to embark on a journey to the world before the world, a journey you might not want to come back from..
2CD Edition of 700 copies in 8 Panel Digipack. 8 Tracks. Running Time 1:19.
2LP Edition of 300 copies in Gatefold Sleeve. Features 1 White and 1 Black vinyl. 8 Tracks.
Running Time 1:19.
Following their triumphant return last November with second album "The Other I", sister duo 2:54 have premiered a visceral, gritty black and white promo video to accompany 'Crest', one of their rawest, punkiest, cuts to date. "We wanted to create a video that captured the energy of the song as well as our live show, and once again Charlie Robins, Chris Hugall and Daniel Castro have done an outstanding job of doing exactly that," says frontwoman Colette Thurlow. Watch it below...
The video comes just ahead of their highly-anticipated imminent UK headline dates, the band having just announced that they'll be joined for their London, Dingwalls show by special guests the Grumbling Fur, the acclaimed leftfield overlords who's debut album featured in a number of End of Year polls. After that the band will then be making their long-awaited return to the US for an extensive tour that takes them coast-to-coast alongside the much-loved Scots, Honeyblood
From the expansive, tempo-shifting opener ‘Orion’ and the pining roots of ‘The Monaco’ to the shape-shifting tour de force of ‘Raptor’, The Other I significantly widens the net beyond the achievements of 2:54’s self-titled debut. The Other I is all the stronger for Hannah and Colette’s hands-on approach to production while Colette’s lead vocals show a striking versatility. The Other I is out now on Bella Union.
"A finely crafted album that blurs the lines between shoegaze, indie pop and goth-rock, and is as assured as it is atmospheric… Like Bat For Lashes duelling with The Cure." Uncut – 8/10
"Wonderfully sparse and brooding… The Thurlow sisters add poetry to their shadowy pop on expansive second album." NME – 7/10
INVENTIONS are the collaborative sum of longtime friends Matthew Cooper of Eluvium, and Mark T. Smith of Explosions In The Sky. Their 2013 eponymous debut album introduced an ambition to create music that was both challenging and comforting. Lead track "Springworlds" can be heard below...
heir new album, Maze of Woods, opens with a vocal sample declaring, "I wanted to do something that I don't know how to do." Using this as a mission statement, Inventions have crafted a complex and exuberant album from an array of instruments, samples, found sounds, beats, chants, and raw bursts of noise, with a much greater emphasis on strong vocal accompaniment in every song.
Two albums released in the span of 10 months speaks to the drive that these two have felt since they started playing together. Much like on the first record, they again mixed the album in a house on the Oregon coastline, with final mixing and production all done by Smith and Cooper.
Inventions have stated that much of the inspiration for Maze of Woods comes from the closing paragraph of Denis Johnson's novella Train Dreams. In that paragraph, Johnson describes the non-verbal howl of a feral wolf boy, a pre-language that is yearning and instinctual; a statement of wordless distress and love. Maze of Woods is the product of two masters of their craft getting lost in the wilderness, "doing something that they don't know how to do," and emerging with something wholly unexpected and beguilingly beautiful.
Maze of Woods will be released 16th March on Bella Union.
