MOLLY NILSSON - 'ZENITH'

Formats

• LSSN035B2 - LP

  5060446120217

• LSSN035CD/DSA019CD - CD

  5060446120200

Details

500 PRESSING//#2 CLASSIC BLACK VINYL REPRESS OF THIS 2015 ESSENTIAL. Sweeping, cinematic, emotional change is in the air. Molly Nilsson’s sixth studio album Zenith begins with clear, wide eyes open to Earth as we would love it to be but seldom is. Recorded in her home of Berlin and whilst touring and, as ever, conceived, produced, written and recorded in solitude, Zenith is Nilsson’s big statement and consequently her most affecting work to date. It sees her reveling in big arrangements, sweeping synth strings, bigger choruses and emotions. Like the rest of us she looks within and to endless sunsets in wonder and puzzlement. That Molly Nilsson is a DIY cult figure is beyond question; she has always written directly and with wit straight down the line between the universal and the personal. The difference with Zenith, and you can hear it in the opening chords of opener The Only Planet, is that her scope is now much wider and her heart heavier than ever before: over a post-ecstatic dusk, Nilsson serenades the globe in a loving embrace. Following on, 1995 is, arguably, one of Nilsson’s finest songs to date. It’s one of those songs to learn the lyrics to, to listen to on repeat, a reason to wear the grooves down to the bone, it’s why pop music can be one of the greatest art forms we have. It’s an example of how, on this album, Molly draws the listener closer to her heart than ever before. There’s simply no escape from the line “The plans that you made / when you still had the time / I’ve saved all the things that you left behind but by now I guess I’d consider them all mine /Windows 95, is only a metaphor for what I feel inside / Although I’m older now / there’s still an emptiness that’s never letting go somehow.” Show-stopper Mountain Time is the soundtrack to being on the run, from societal conventions, from normative ideas of happiness, from your surroundings. It’s the intoxicating call of the renegade. That’s not to say that Nilsson’s light touch has been forsaken for grandiose statements. Bunny Club begins as a demo-sketch before breaking into a fast-paced tale of doomed romance with big rave synths and Bus 194 (All There Is) sees Molly joyride through a city on a happy hardcore bus. But it’s tracks like Tomorrow and another contender for best-ever-Molly moment, Happyness that the true scale of what she’s accomplished reveals itself. We’re locked in a spiraling orbit, strings and bass whirling, gazing at the spinning planet below us as we contemplate both the ultimate freedom in loneliness and the glimmer of hope in the Other. Can we ever be truly with someone? Are we ever truly alone? Over the 13 tracks here we get the impression that Nilsson may always be restless; like anyone else she has conflicting feelings of love and hate. It’s just not many other people can tell you exactly how you feel before you know it yourself. 

Tracks

1. The Only Planet
2. 1995
3. H.O.P.E.
4. Mountain Time
5. Bunny Club
6. Intermezzo: Palimpsest Galore
7. Happyness
8. Lovers Are Losers
9. Clearblue
10. My Body
11. Titanic
12. Bus 194 (All There Is)
13. Tomorrow

Press

Audio & Video

CORNERSHOP - 'ENGLAND IS A GARDEN'

Formats

• AMP129CD - CD

  5065001652356

• AMP129SV - 2xLP (COLOURED)

  5065001652349

Details

**LTD SILVER VINYL** In the latest of a series of albums that have mirrored the exceptional story of the band itself, Cornershop return with a new album ‘England Is A Garden’ on March 6th 2020 on Ample Play Records. It is an album that strides in an upbeat fashion, to deliver a full listening experience, bringing songs of experience, empire, protest and humour, steeped in the way only Tjinder Singh would come with. Listen to a first taste of the album now, ‘No Rock: Save In Roll’, that is to say that there is not one without the other, that rock, for all its focus on death is the saviour of life. The anvil here is music itself, and a celebration of Tjinder’s birth place - The Black Country, which also gave birth to heavy metal that has gone on to influence the world to dirty rock, whether the streets are lined with pylons or palm trees, the Black Country has allowed us to see things differently. So the sound here goes back to Englands’ Midlands with two thumbs up to the feeling of hearing heavy metal from the back of a stage, as we all ride on and await the female backing vocals of our song to come in.

Tracks

1. St Marie Under The Canon
2. Slingshot
3. No Rock: Save In Roll
4. Everywhere That Wog Army Roam
5. King Kongs
6. Highly Amplified
7. England Is A Garden
8. The Cash Money
9. Morning Ben
10. I'm A Wooden Soldier
11. One Uncareful Lady Owner
12. The Holy Name

Press

3 page Observer feat. 6 page Q magazine feature, **** MOJO, **** UNCUT. 5/5 Times, Metro, Sunday Times, NME, I, Telegraph, The Sun, Long Live Vinyl 6 page feat, Quietus, The Guardian, Record Collector AOM, Clash, Line of Best Fit, Loud & Quiet, Shindig 2 page feat. Louder Than War, Music OMH, Saturday Telegraph, The Independent and NME.

Audio & Video

CORNERSHOP FEAT. BUBBLEY KAUR - 'CORNERSHOP AND THE DOUBLE O GROOVE OF'

Formats

• AMP009LP - LP (COLOURED)

  5065001652394

• AMPLACD09 - CD

  5065001652035

Details

**VINYL RESTOCK NOW AVAILABLE** **Coloured Vinyl reissue: ‘Indian Wedding Sweetmeat Celebrations’ transparent Yellow vinyl.**  Ten years on from its original release, Ample Play Records will release, the ground breaking ‘Cornershop And The Double ‘O’ Groove Of’ album by Cornershop feat. Bubbley Kaur on vinyl for the first time. The LP, pressed as a stunning limited edition of 500 copies on ‘Indian Wedding Sweetmeat Celebrations’ sticky transparent Yellow vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with poster insert, will be available via mail order direct from the group via ampleplay.co.uk and in all good independent record shops from 3rd December 2021. Cut for vinyl at optimum levels by Fluid Mastering, the same clever folk who mastered both the celebrated ‘England Is A Garden’ and ‘England Is A Garden Instrumentals’ albums. It’s a vinyl release that Rough Trade Shops have petitioned us for years to action and we’re pleased to report they consider the audio results to be “topknotch, an amazingly defined cut”. After many a time in the studio, under lab conditions Cornershop originally released the album in 2011 featuring the incredible double sugar-coated vocals of Bubbley Kaur. When Tjinder and Bubbley decided to work with each other, she had not recorded a note of music. They had met very fleetingly, years ago at a cellar gathering in Preston Lancashire, where Tjinder & Benedict studied. So it was much surprise when a taxi driver friend introduced him to a lady that liked singing, worked in a local launderette, and was the same lady he had met in a northern cellar bar. They then met a good many times at Tjinder’s house where they would listen to and discuss traditional Punjabi Folk Music, and slowly Bubbley came out writing her own original lyrics, which were set to a varied range of modern musics. ‘Natch’ was the first song she recorded, followed by ‘Topknot,’ and together they became the first double ‘A’ single on Rough Trade Records. The complete recordings were made in their own good time. Tjinder explains “There was no need to quickly put the album out, but there was a need to make it top rank and evergreen, especially as I have wanted to do an album like this for 20 years.” Benedict & Tjinder set up their own label, Ample Play in 2009 to release the highly acclaimed album ‘Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast.’ The way Tjinder & Bubbley met was like a hindi movie script, and the outcome of the music is like an Asian version of The Kids From Fame – totally upbeat, giving rise to new ways of expressing yourself. Full Album Tracklisting on the next page:

Tracks

1 United Provinces Of India Full fat funk melds with the cream of Punjabi Folk, asking the question, why has such naturalness never been done before?

2 Topknot ?The band's now-classic 2004 single Topknot,? Spin magazine. A massive track for urban stations, turban stations, clubs as well as Indian weddings. So big that M.I.A. asked to do a rap on it.

3 The 911 Curry The A-team meet up for an afternoon meal ? a plan comes together, until Murdock has to flirt with country mouse.

4 Natch The other part of the double ?A? sided Topknot single, and often even more loved by the DJ for its simplicity and French Legion immediacy.

5 Double Decker Eyelashes Already being used by select USA bass clubs to get the party started, keep the party going, and ending the party. Being laidback & having the space is leading dancefloorers to improvise, and they take great joy in having the ability and scope to do it once more.

6 The Biro Pen A sharp pen in its day was prime currency, guaranteed to get you out of any tight spot. This lament lays it down heavy, even with its drum solo reprieve.

7 Supercomputed Kraftwerk meet Irene Cara in a dune buggie.

8 Once There Was A Wintertime Capturing the snow drenched wintry season with human warmth and Northern Brass.

9 Double Digit Military again, until its slow build boils over with bass funk, as if the Brontë sisters came from an Indian cowshed. This is maybe why Tjinder thinks Punjabi Folk Music was the first form of Hip-Hop, and has written a White Paper Report on it.

10 Don't Shake It Don?t play this one too loud, it will stay in your head for a week, and then move in with you after another week. All is well that ends well. So well that it has extended beats, ending an album that intends to live forever ? fame.

Press

'A genuinely beautiful take on Punjabi Folk Music' - The Observer

'Whatever sound they create, it's classic and it's Cornershop' - John Peel

Audio & Video

CARLTON MELTON - 'MICROWAVELENGTHS'

Formats

• BCR016 - LP

  810017649327

Details

**SOLD OUT. SHORT SHIP DUE TO DAMAGES** Brand new album length offering from the San Franciscan sike-shroom cloudbursters, Carlton Melton… 5 tracks of crackling doom laden psychedelic thwack and strum. Burgeoning SF underground/overground label BROKEN CLOVER gets the honour to drop this hefty slab-o-sike, a counter part / adjunct to 2020’s “Where This Leads” and 2021’s “Night Pillers” releases. The third part of a much travelled trilogy? Maybe, these are the last fruits of the laden tree of psych that blooms at the DOME in northern Cali, where the band returned to in 2017 to fire up their Magick Karpet… The four tracks on side A range from a bubbling riff driven freak out to some wild and live electrical buzz/fuzz mongering.. typical / atypical Melton mind melts… and running roughshod over some pensive almost Canterbury driven guitar musings along the way... raw, alive.. essential. But the B side.. a 19 plus minute title track that is pure psylocibian-pummel..strap yourself in…lets go for a ride.. Carlton Melton are still: Andy Duvall, Rich Millman, and Clint Golden. Flyyyyyy onnnnnnnn! its limited..500 are made, we have but 100 for the UK Market (please check w/ yr sales rep for Quantity available/.._)

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video