PIP BLOM - 'PAYCHECK'

Formats

• PNG03 - 10"

  843563103906

Details

*RESTOCKED*Pip Blom is a phenomenal young indie rock band from Amsterdam that’s been making waves in England, a BBC radio darling touring with Franz Ferdinand and The Breeders. Pip Blom is both the name of the band and its leader, a dynamic 21-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist. Paycheck, the group’s new EP, is a roaring, attitude-laden offering that maintains their playfulness and knack for melody that’s earned comparisons to Blur and Courtney Barnett. In 2017, a series of hooky singles Pip uploaded to the internet hit over a million plays, bringing a sudden burst of overseas accolades. The singles sold out quickly, and El Diablo (run by Guided By Voices / Yoko Ono manager) has pressed up just 500 copies of this 10” vinyl. The EP is something of an older sibling to Pip’s previous 7”s, doubling up on the infectiousness of those early hits but with a bigger crunch. Festival appearances and energetic, gripping live shows around the UK and Europe have solidified the band as a rising star in a new generation of indie guitar bands. 

Tracks

1. The Shed
2. Come Home
3. Pussycat
4. The Hours

Press

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STRAIGHT ARROWS - 'ON TOP'

Formats

• AGIT050 - LP

  5060446122679

• AGIT050CD - CD

  5060446122686

Details

New album from Sydney’s fuzzed out, psychedelic punk quartet STRAIGHT ARROWS. Overflowing with unbridled energy, you’d be forgiven for thinking On Top was the band’s debut album, but the third record for the Sydney quartet sounds as vital and as exciting as ever. Having spent years touring their incendiary live show around Australia and the world, Straight Arrows have honed their fresh, reverb-laden, fuzzed out, psychedelic punk sound into pointed perfection with On Top. From the frantic buzzsaw of “Nothing To Me”, to the break-beat groove of “21st Century”, to the tender outsider folk of “Dead Weight”, to the mind-melting psych-out that is “Buried Again”, this is the sound of a band that isn’t short on ideas and isn’t afraid to push the envelope of what people expect a Straight Arrows record to be. “Nothing's more boring than a bunch of the same guitar bullshit over and over again. We’ve taken the guitar bullshit, made it occasionally a little faster, and sometimes even a little slower too,” says vocalist, guitarist and chief songwriter Owen Penglis with a cheeky grin. Clearly he and his bandmates have cast a wider sonic net this time around, largely influenced by Penglis’ love of crate digging and his vast musical knowledge of the detritus of pop culture’s past. “Over the writing of this thing I was listening to a lot of 60s and 70s private press LPs from the USA, weird bubblegum, private press 45s from Australia, and a whole heap of 60s Jamaican rocksteady singles. Al (Grigg guitar/vocals) reckons 'Gun Man' sounds a little rocksteady-ish, but I think he’s wrong and it’d be embarrassing for a bunch of Australians to attempt these sounds.” Much like everything else they’ve done, On Top was completely created on their own terms. Produced and mixed by Penglis himself, the album seems to be more direct than the band’s previous efforts, bringing a clarity to their sound without losing any of the ramshackle charm that has earnt Straight Arrows a worldwide cult following. This aural evolution is something that has happened more by chance than by any conscious choice. “As a group of gifted amateurs it sometimes happens that through repetition and long tours we've improved at our craft, despite our best efforts to the contrary,” laughs Penglis. Released in the Northern Hemisphere by Agitated / Forte Distribution in November, On Top is the riveting next episode in the ongoing Straight Arrows saga.“The first album is It’s Happening, the second is Rising, so it only makes sense by this point that we'd eventually make it On Top!!” says Penglis. “Plus it’s WAY more flattering than 'Peaked'.”

Tracks

01. Nothing To Me
02. 21st Century
03. Gun Man
04. Bound To Lose
05. Out And Down
06. The One
07. I Don't
08. Headache
09. Buried Again
10. Turpentine
11. Deadweight

Press

Straight Arrows: the fuzziest, most catchiest, escapist, good-times vending, rapscallion trampoline shiners this side of the Murray River. - John Dwyer (Oh Sees/Damaged Bug)
?A new Straight Arrows record is always something to look forward to. What a great band.? ? Henry Rollins

Audio & Video

PETER BRODERICK - 'TWO BALLOONS'

Formats

• ERATP115EP - 10"

  4050486115572

Details

American-born multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Peter Broderick will release a new extended player titled Two Balloons on November 9th with Erased Tapes. Available as a limited edition 10” vinyl and digital download, it features the score for the award-winning animation of the same name, inspired by an early recording of his, plus a 9-minute electronic rework on the B-side titled Techno For Lemurs. Fairly often we see albums of “Music inspired by the film __”, but less common is a film inspired by music. Such is the case with Two Balloons. Director Mark C. Smith got the idea for his nine-minute stop frame animation film while out at sea, looking at a majestic funnel cloud in the distance. Shortly after he heard a song by Peter Broderick from one of his earliest recordings — 4 Track Songs — and the music struck a chord so strongly, he knew he wanted to make a film to fit the melody. And so began the five-year labour of love that would eventually produce this enchanting little film, currently circulating film festivals around the world and racking up countless awards and accolades including ‘Best Original Music Score’ at the New Renaissance Film Festival in Amsterdam. Even though the film was inspired by an older Broderick composition, the score for Two Balloons was recorded from scratch, revised and expanded to fit each frame. The process of stop frame animation is a labour intensive and painstaking one, but the attention to detail didn’t stop at the picture for this film. The score was an integral part of the film from the very beginning, with both the director and composer going to great lengths to experiment not only with the composition itself, but also the fidelity. The first sound heard on the score is a piano playing a waltz figure, and the sound is noticeably lo-fi, but this isn’t just some modern digital trickery. This piano was recorded on a wire recorder, a recording technology that predates magnetic tape and has been virtually forgotten about. In the process of recording the score, many different technologies were experimented with. In addition to purchasing and refurbishing several wire recorders, the director at one stage acquired several massive AM radio consoles as well as an AM radio transmitter, so that a digital recording from the computer could be broadcast through the AM radio waves and then captured through one of these nostalgic sounding old radios. A variety of these technologies from different eras were used to create a score that both sounds like it’s from several different time periods and from no specific time at all. The B-side, if you will, is more than just a remix that recycles the original recordings. In fact none of the original parts have been re-used. ‘Techno For Lemurs’ is a homage to the two main characters in the story, the ring-tailed lemurs Bernard and Elba. Serving as Broderick’s first foray into the world of techno, this playful piece reinterprets the melodic themes from the original score by adapting them with electronic instrumentation. In Peter’s own words: “Let’s pretend for nine minutes that we’re ring-tailed lemurs and get this party started!”

Tracks

A1. Two Balloons (Part 1)
A2. Two Balloons (Part 2)
A3. Two Balloons (Part 3)
A4. Two Balloons (Part 4)
A5. Two Balloons (Part 5)
B1. Techno For Lemurs

Press

Audio & Video

UT - 'EARLY LIVE LIFE'

Formats

• OUT03 - LP

  5060446122570

• OUT03CD - CD

  5060446122587

Details

OUT RECORDS and FORTE DISTRIBUTION Announce the Next UT Release in the Remastered Reissue Series of UT's back catalog: EARLY LIVE LIFE will be released November 9 , 2018 on LP Vinyl and CD. “There really was nothing like the storm and squall they summoned at their most powerful… Breathtaking and bold.” Early Live Life – No. 24 in ‘Rock’s 50 Most Extreme Albums’, Uncut, March 2018 Early Live Life is a compilation of some of UT's best live performances from 1979–1985, spanning their origins in New York City to their migration to London in late 1981. The CD also includes the addition of a 1981 gig at The Venue in London, originally released as the cassette Ut Live at The Venue in early 1982 and reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day in April 2018. The UT reissue campaign began on November 17, 2017 with the release of the UT EP and the Confidential 12", on Vinyl and CD. Upcoming reissues in 2019 include their studio albums Conviction, In Gut’s House and Griller. Remastered at Wolf Studios by Dominique Brethes, vinyl cut by Noel Summerville. The live tracks jump out of the vinyl with some verve, as visceral now as they were Live back in the 80s. This is searing no-wave power in the live setting, originally released in 1987 by BLAST FIRST records.  400 COPIES ONLY ON VINYL W/ DL CARD

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video

CIVIC - 'THOSE WHO NO'

Formats

• FC051X - 7"

Details

Shortly after their debut, Melbourne's CIVIC return with their sophomore EP “THOSE WHO NO’ - a fatalistic slab of power pop for the modern set. Recorded on a stint in Geelong, with Billy Gardner (living eyes / ausmuteants / Anti Fade) once again at the helm, ‘THOSE WHO NO’ acts as a counter point to the gutter rock classicism and urban decay romantics of ‘NEW VIETNAM’, and shifts it’s focus towards genre experimentation, bleaker insular realities and modern personal warfare. Over four tracks Jim McCullough, Lewis Hodgson, Darcy Grigg, Roland Hlavka and David Forcier dance on the knife’s edge of mythology versus the mundane - an against all odds desperation that flirts with the anthemic yet only stokes the flames. Mid 70s glam and rock n roll tropes are pummelled beyond recognition referencing the past but predominantly pointing to the future. There are forces at work here and CIVIC aren’t a band merely content to play to their strengths - they are a true sum of their parts who get their kicks testing their limitations. (Ben Hepworth)

Tracks

A1 - Flick The Station
A2 - Pleasure
B1 - Heat
B2 - Needle In The Camel's Eye

Press

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COLORAMA - 'COOKIE ZOO'

Formats

• B&L002 - LP

  8437018437030

Details

**LAST REMAINING COPIES** For the last decade, and almost secretly, Carwyn Ellis records have meant the greatest news for people who love pop with no labels, nor affiliations. People who, after a record-hunting afternoon, enthusiasticly arrives back home with findings like Françoise Hardy LPs from the Vogue era, Arthur Verocai, Broadcast reissues, an Alessandro Alessandroni soundtrack, Meic Stevens' "Outlander" and an original, mint condition, O'Jays' "Back Stabbers" LP. Ellis has proved to be plenty of tools and talent to sum up, in forty minutes, all the magic of the best pop music recorded in the last fifty years, very well absorved and excitingly mixed, and steeped by a magic and pastoral halo from his native Wales. Before Edwyn Collins decided that Carwyn had received much less attenction than what he deserved, and supported in his label AED two wonderful records like "Good Music" (2012) and "Temari" (2014), Ellis had already recorded the "Magic Lantern Show" EP (2009), the acclaimed by Shindig magazine, "Box" (2010); and this first album, "Cookie Zoo" (2008). A debut, after his thirties, where we can find all his personal universe. "Cookie Zoo" is linked to "Dere Mewn", one of the most beautiful songs recorded in the United Kingdom in the last decade. An unique flower living in a botanical garden, filled with brilliant songs of all possible colours.

Tracks

1. Sound
2. Found You Out
3. Runaround
4. Real Girl
5. The Inevitable
6. ...And Life Goes On
7. Restless
8. Turnham Green
9. Dere Mewn
10. Paddy Power & The Glory
11. Stations In The Sky
12. Oyasumi, Baby

Press

5***** Review in current Shindig.

Audio & Video