Album release: Nobody Knows Anything by Alex Highton
Release date: 8 December 2014
Label: Gare du Nord 
Listen on: official Alex Highton website 

It’s not the second album that’s difficult. Melodies, harmonies and words all come embarrassingly easy to a born songwriter like Alex Highton. It’s the life that happens in-between the songwriting and the recording that’s the hard bit. Don’t get this wrong, Alex knows he deserves little pity for leading a wonderful life with his family out there in the “wilds” of Cambridgeshire, it’s just that it’s taken a rather circuitous route to get him there.

As a kid his time was split between his native Liverpool and Florence, Italy. It was there that his musical education began, as he took in everything from Talking Heads & Penguin Cafe Orchestra to The Band & David Ackles. He lost his twenties to bad decisions and train-wreck relationships and it was only after meeting his future wife that he started to take songwriting seriously.  The songs he wrote (part therapy / part love letter his new life)  formed the basis of his debut album Woodditton Wives Club, a record replete with tales of rural S&M, mental, emotional and economic collapse, and ultimately salvation through love and family.

The debut received extensive support from BBC6 Music & BBC Introducing (amongst others) and a US tour followed, taking in New York, Austin (SXSW) and LA, with more dates in Germany, Holland & Belgium, as well as slots at Camp Bestival, Wilderness Festival, No Direction Home, Summer Sundae and more.

Having got the observational stuff off his chest, he now turns on himself. These days his ever-evolving craft as a writer approaches Steely Dan levels of effortless complexity and Paddy McAloon-like supersmart nonchalance (witness ‘It Falls Together’, the bonkers ‘Panic’, the epic ‘Mephisto’ or ‘Sunlight Burns Your Skin’ for sheer unhinged musicality) as well as a newfound taste for sharp-edged lyrical brutality.  Highton himself cites Sufjan Steven, Here We Go Magic & Joni Mitchell as big influences on this record.

“This is me trying to work out the point of it all really, to which the answer is I haven’t got a clue and nobody has.” he says, “That Richard Dawkins advert that they had on the side on the London buses ‘There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’ is probably were it’s at. I get pissed off with the certainties presented to me by religions and politicians. In fact I did record it with the loose idea that these songs were the thoughts running through someone’s head just before they die. It’s certainly structured in that way.”

What sets Nobody Knows Anything apart from its folky predecessor at the very first listen is the extended cast of players joining Highton in his sometimes almost jazzy, avant-whatever, then sometimes stripped-back arrangements. Next to his long-time cohorts double-bass-player Jonny Bridgwood (Morrissey, Kathryn Williams, The Leisure Society etc.) and drummer Howard Monk (Billy Mahonie, The Clientele etc.), producer David “Bear” Dobson, Laura J Martin, Bonnie Dobson, Jonathan “Tall Tree Six Foot Man” Czerwik, Nancy Wallace (of The Memory Band and The Owl Service), John Howard and Robert Rotifer (of Rotifer) all make appearances, next to “my wife, my kids, the dentist who lives next door and loads of others”. “It’s still the village life, then, but equipped with a magical wardrobe that opens to a wondrous world of sounds and dreams. 

Alex Highton will be playing the following upcoming live dates:

Oct 10^th @ John Peel Centre, Suffolk - For BBC Introducing to mark 10 years since JP died. With Port Isla
Nov 25^th @ Servants Jazz Quarters, Dalston - A Gare Du Nord night with Papernut Cambridge & Ralegh Long

Praise for debut Woodditton Wives Club

• “World Class” – The Guardian
• “Resotres your faith in the genre” - BBC 6 Music
• “Fantastic record” – Steve Lamacq BBC Radio 2

Album release: ‘France’ by Owlle
Label: Jive / Epic
Release date: 17 November 2014
Listen on: official Owlle website   

“Her breakout single, the sparkly synth-laden “Ticky Ticky,” tiptoes across your eardrums and practically forces you out onto the dance floor.” – Nylon

“Darkly danceable electro-pop… all tinged with sadness. You can hear the subtle influences of Bronksi Beat Madonna and the subtle hints of Frank Ocean.”  – Notion

“French electro-pop chanteuse Owlle is set to take the world by storm with her unique fusing of 80s era melody, super danceable beats and a pop-art aesthetic.” – Amelia’s

For French 20-something, Owlle, music is a way to tell stories, a way to embrace freedom and other worlds, and very much expose two sides of the same coin. In Owlle’s world, the things that initially seem quite different from one another can often reveal themselves to be quite closely interlinked. As an arts graduate, on her debut album France, she continually demonstrates that visual art can be as much an influence over recorded output as other sounds themselves can. Having experienced her own light bulb moment at one of Brian Eno’s audio-visual installations, the effects were apparently long lasting; “I’m not sure if I’d ever have dared to start a musical career if it wasn’t for the rush I got when I discovered one of Eno’s audio-visual installations at an art fair. It was called Quiet Club and the way sound and visuals interacted truly fascinated me.”

An atmosphere of contradiction within music is never far from Owlle’s mindset either (“I like mixing different or even antagonistic atmospheres”) and it’s these more mercurial traits that have earned her comparisons to others such as, Chairlift, Lykki Li, Bat For Lashes and Grimes. The signposts can be followed on tracks like Ticky Ticky, with its toe-tapping melancholia and fizzing electronics. or on forthcoming single, and album opener Fog, which somehow manages to feel both claustrophobic and free at the same time. Of the record, Owlle has said that often “there’s the notion of someone running incessantly after something”, and it’s perhaps the pace of Fog that sets this tone for the rest of the album. Whatever her motives, France bursts with ideas, leads the listener through darkened corridors, and manages to capture that most illusive of pop virtues; Style and Substance. Owlle has both to spare. 

Leading into the UK release of France, Owlle has bothered the top of Hype Machine with remixed versions of her own tracks (most notably cuts by St Pepsi and Maelstrom), while Owlle herself has remixed the likes of Sia and Depeche Mode.  Further tracks have featured on mixtapes for i-D, Under Your Sun was featured as one of Daytrotter’s Best Songs of 2013 and she has gone on to support artists like Sebastian Tellier and Phoenix on tour. 2013 saw her play at Lovebox and feature at various discovery festivals in Europe, including The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Reeperbahn and China’s own Strawberry Festival.

Tour announcement: Prawn
Countries: EU and UK
Dates: 30 November - 12 December 2014
More information and dates: on Topshelf website 

Following on from the release of their acclaimed new album ‘Kingfisher’, Prawn are now set to storm the EU/UK, supporting Gnarwolves on their biggest tour to date! The winter tour is set to start on 10 November 2014 in Belgium, with Prawn and Gnarwolves hitting the UK from 30 November – 12 December 2014 (with Public Domain joining them from the London show onwards). 

Following on from their second full-length album ‘Kingfisher’ (released 12^th August 2014 via Topshelf Records), this tour marks the New Jersey quintet’s highly anticipated third visit to the EU/UK. Prawn consistently make a huge impact on audiences wherever they play and are constantly gaining new fans by exhibiting their unique flavour of post-rock infused emo. This combined with the recent praise for ‘Kingfisher’ guarantees that this will be the bands most exiting overseas tour to date!

This tour will follow on from the forthcoming US Topshelf Records Tour (feat. A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Diamond Youth, Prawn & Field Mouse). The band have also recently finished touring the US this summer with Into It. Over It., the Hotelier, and Foxing.

Having recently opened the main stage at both Reading and Leeds, winter tour headliners Gnarwolves consistently impress crowds with their incendiary performances of their own raucous blend of punk-rock. This tour will be the longest set of dates that Gnarwolves have embarked on so far, and will follow on from their forthcoming self-titled debut, set for release on 15^th September 2014 on Tangled Talk Records/Big Scary Monsters.

Austrian skater punks Public Domain will also be joining them on the tour, having recently impressed UK crowds with their explosive set at TDON Fest 2014.

This is a serious line-up consisting of bands that are currently impressing fans at every step of the way! Make sure you catch them at one of their dates - these are all available from the Topshelf website.

EP release: The Gromble EP by The Gromble
Release date: 21 October 2014
Listen on: the Gromble website  

“If you were looking for #1 on your summer playlist, this is it. Put on your sunglasses, roll down those windows, and let The Gromble help you create the memories that will last a lifetime.” - Indie Shuffle

“A dizzying meeting of vocal hooks and harmonies, where the sunny instrumentation drives the track forward through the approaching clouds to create something both endearingly frenetic and warmly delivered.” - Gold Flake Paint

“With summery tones driven some scorching early Pumpkins riffs and dreamy psychedelia, it makes for perfect summer listening - and one hell of an earworm.” - Gigwise

“Equal parts Weezer and Real Estate…irresistible from the start.” - Guitar World Acoustic Nation

“Cute Cali boys making dreamy beach music? I’m in! (The Gromble) offer up their third release, Creepy Jr, that floats heavy and golden like a setting summer sun.” - Crack in the Road

The Gromble (who take their name from a character in Nickelodeon’s “Aaahh!!! Real Monsters”), a five piece blend of orchestral alt-folk and indie rock, are set to release their debut EP on 21st October. Having played together from a young age as well as supporting acts such as The Lemonheads the group have built their own quirky niche, being compared to the likes of Grouplove, Vampire Weekend and Miniature Tigers.

Despite their mature and intelligent songcraft the band members retain a wide eyed, child like wonderment, with an unashamed love for 90’s pop culture and a twisted sense of humour that runs beneath the surface of their songs. The record was tracked almost entirely at the drummer’s Mum’s house, while the string and horn sections were recorded in the guitarist’s games room (specifically, the basketball court). All five members also perform as part of a 90’s cover band called SEGA Genocide every Friday night. Spencer Wiles (keyboard, saxophone and arrangements) teaches piano, saxophone and clarinet and Los Rios Rock School, a school not unlike Jack Black’s School Of Rock where they put kids into bands and peform gigs as ‘recitals’. Although they are essentially big kids they are certainly no neophytes when it comes to gear. They tend to run a complex midi setups through Ableton live, and use their ingenuity to come up with all sorts of alternatives to typical touring setups.

This is music for when you’re coming of age, music to soundtrack the best years of your life. The Gromble provide something different for everyone in their refreshing refusal to settle for the status quo and as such, they’ve already been championed by such reputable names as Crack In The Road, Gold Flake Paint, VICE and Indie Shuffle.

The Gromble are:

• Spencer Askin (guitar + vocals)
• Stefan Macarewich (drums + vocals)
• Trevin Eck (bass)
• Spencer Wiles (keyboards + saxophone + arrangements)
• Steven Lindenfelser (guitar)

Album reissues: ‘Through The Looking Glass’, ‘Peepshow’, ‘Superstition’ and ‘The Rapture’ by Siouxsie and The Banshees
Release date: 13 October 2014
Label: Polydor / Universal

Siouxsie & The Banshees reissue their last 4 studio albums, all as remastered packages with bonus tracks. ‘Through The Looking Glass’, ‘Peepshow’, ‘Superstition’ and ‘The Rapture’ will be released on October 13 on Polydor / Universal Music Catalogue. These releases cover a period which saw a period of bold experimentation and musical exploration coinciding with the Banshees getting the notice they truly deserved in the USA, whilst retaining the feverish devotion of their fans at home.

You can download full information and the track listing here.

Album release: “Heal” by AxxoN N
Release date: October 13 2014
Label: Domestic Records 
Listen on: Soundcloud 

Little is known about AxxoN N apart from the fact that this debut recording has been constructed over the last 4 years in the UK, drawing on the surrounding popular culture that is the early 21st entury.

Sourced almost entirely from samples, it’s a enlightening work that is virtually impossible to categorise. Perhaps a distant bastard cousin of Autechre and the more fluid experiments of Kraftwerk around the time of Radio Activity, this music takes the listener on an unpredictable journey which appears to have no final destination. Like all great works, there are more questions than answers.

This work takes on conceptual form, each track addressing and coming to terms with states of deep depression and anxiety. 

AxxoN N music is painted out of a deep blue and grey canvas where darkness is omnipresent, but as the music unravels it becomes ever more unpredictable, bright flashes of melody jump out of the dense landscape.

Heal offers the listener a curious concoction of loops and beats which could have been dug up from a distant corner of a future David Lynch film set at a fucked up surrealist shopping channel somewhere high in the Hollywood hills.

If Heal was a planet it would be spinning on more than one axis, throwing its inhabitants out across the universe into a dark future…and is this the true music of the future? A monumental claim perhaps, but it comes very very close. 

Who needs mind altering drugs when there is “Heal” by AxxoN N?

Album reissue: ‘Apostrophe’ by Frank Zappa
Release date: 20 October 2014
Label: Universal
Listen on / more information at: official Frank Zappa website 

The Zappa Family Trust presents more freshly remastered music with the 40th Anniversary Edition of Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe (’) on audiophile quality 180-gram vinyl.  Cut directly from the original quarter-inch stereo analogue master tapes, the special edition of the iconic 1974 album will be released on 20 October 2014.

Featuring definitive Zappa cuts “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” and “Cosmik Debris” among its original nine tracks, Apostrophe (’) was Zappa’s highest-charting album, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard 200.  The Gold-certified album has been remastered for vinyl by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering and manufactured for the world at Pallas Group in Germany.

The 40th Anniversary Edition of Apostrophe (’) continues the Zappa Family Trust’s ongoing commitment to the restoration of Frank Zappa’s albums on audiophile quality vinyl.  Joe Travers, Vaultmaster, Zappa Archives, is working on the new LP releases with Bellman. 

In 2012, when the rights to the iconic composer’s masters reverted back to Zappa Records and the Zappa Family Trust – headed by Zappa’s widow Gail Zappa – the family made his entire recorded catalogue available on iTunes for the first time and began remastering the albums for reissue on vinyl. Presented with proper care and attention to detail, the releases honor the iconic legacy of the Composer, Guitarist, Bandleader, Filmmaker and Irrepressible Wit. 

Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The official biography: Frank Zappa, American composer, fl. 1940-1993.

For more information, go to www.zappa.com. 

Album release: “Bazaar” by Wampire
Release date: 27 October
Label: Polyvinyl
Listen on: Wampire official site 

Following the release of their debut album, “Curiosity”, in 2013, Wampire went from a duo most accustomed to playing house parties around their hometown of Portland to a five-piece band performing in venues all over the world with groups such as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Foxygen, and Smith Westerns.

That 12-month span saw Wampire play more shows in more cities, countries, and continents than in all their previous years together combined - a nearly non-stop barrage of new and memorable experiences that, above all else, forced the band members to become more fully immersed in music than at any other time in their lives.

As a result, when founding members and primary songwriters Rocky Tinder and Eric Phipps returned home at the tail end of the year, they immediately dove into the process of working on a new album in order to capitalize on the creative energy that had been steadily amassing during their days, weeks, and months on the road.

Says Phipps of that moment in time, “I holed up in a tiny room within a friend’s warehouse and began knocking out as many different songs as I could. I tried not to look back, just wanting to explore everything I could possibly create. I started to feel like I was becoming a Kafka-esque insomniac musical novelist at one point.”

The reference to the German writer is an apt one for a band that has always imbued its disarmingly off-kilter pop with tinges of paranoia and surrealism (both lyrically and musically), but even more fitting is the title of Wampire’s new record: Bazaar.

Like the tantalizing blend of exotic treasures and captivating sensations its namesake suggests, Bazaar continually offers listeners a variety of unexpected and alluring sonic flavors over the course of its nine tracks - ranging from raucous riffs (“Bad Attitude”) to seductive sax (“Wizard Staff”) to charmingly catchy choruses (“The Amazing Heart Attack”).

As with their previous full-length “Curiosity”, Wampire recorded “Bazaar” with trusted producer Jacob Portrait (of Unknown Mortal Orchestra), though this time around the sessions took place at The Museum, a studio in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, and were done directly to tape.

Far from home once again, Tinder and Phipps used the city to their advantage — writing lyrics on the 40-minute bus ride to and from their temporary residence in Bed-Stuy and rushing to a shop down the street to buy a guitar - one that looked and felt like it had been buried in dust for decades and had just the right analog sound - as their allotted studio time was winding down.

Another important change was the addition of touring drummer Thomas Hoganson to the recording and songwriting process. Though Tinder and Phipps had previously sought to minimize distractions in the studio by just working with each other, Hoganson’s diverse musical abilities (in addition to drums, he also plays piano and saxophone on Bazaar) made him an ideal collaborator.

And so, after a year spent in vans and on planes, in European clubs, Australian beaches, and everywhere in between, Wampire emerged with more confidence, a stronger vision, and what is undeniably their best batch of songs to date.

For evidence of this, check out the album’s first single “Wizard Staff” above now and see below for all of the band’s upcoming tour dates, including a September run with Temples. Bazaar will be available on CD, LP (Polyvinyl e-store limited edition of 300 on 180-gram clear purple, black), cassette and digitally. 

Album release: “Exploded view of Love” by S’s
Release date: 13 October 2014
Label: G@#9

Nearly 20 years into the 21st century humanity persists despite ‘reality’ programming, climate doom warnings and predictions of humanoid uprisings, not to mention corporatized war, gun control debates and general insanity as usual. But in the narcissistic age of the ‘selfie’ and social media detachment, empathy appears on the wane. Where does that leave love? Is it nearing extinction? Are we? What does the future hold for love, and for human beings?

Beyond the replicant sector of the dystopian music industry, Los Angeles-based S’s [alias JEF 700S] transcend the parameters of “Experimental Noise,” “Minimalism,” “Synth Punk,” etc. The result is the debut concept album, Exploded View of Love, an abstract soundtrack that fathoms a Post-Reality/Post-Empathy/Post-Human future. JEF 700S sings/screams while transmitting alien waveforms, broken robot percussion and ectoplasmic skronk from a device called the 3dK.

Drawing equal inspiration from primal experimental noise [The Haters alias GX Jupitter-Larsen] and synthetic new wave [The Normal alias Daniel Miller], the free vocals of Patty Waters and Black Francis, and the future noir of THX 1138, Eraserhead, and Blade Runner, S’s explore how love transforms expression and vice versa. Navigating the guise of a deconstructed ‘band’ identity, 700S calls into question assumptions about human nature. Like love itself, the experience is alternately harrowing and humorous, pretentious and profound; the result morphs black and white polarity, leaving a subliminal fluorescent gray.

S’s debut full-length contains 10 tracks that average two minutes. “Unhaunted,” the single, points its cyborg finger at hypocritical Disneyland mines lurking within its all-too-human narrator. “Sex Machines” transposes famed Kraftwerk and James Brown memes, leaving the former uncharacteristically screaming for more and the latter cold, hold the sweat. “Rip Out Wires” takes a hard future look at online sex’s last kink. “Weapons Grade Love” proffers anti-war sentiment laced with a portent of off-planet fate, while “Pome” may be the first noise torch song. “Love Life” riffs on the themes of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” building upon a single drum pad drone until it degrades into full-bore cacophony. Finally, the album’s title track abandons structural underpinnings prior to the three-minute mark then freefalls through deep space by way of a 20-minute Zen fade.

• Recorded, mixed and mastered by Matt Lynch at Mysterious Mammal in Los Angeles; November 2013 - March 2014
• Co-produced by S’s and Matt Lynch
• All sounds/songs written/performed by JEF 700S
• All noise/drum parts played by hand/not programmed

Tour announcement: Dearly Beloved, UK and Europe
Dates: Sept - Oct 2014
More information: on Dearly Beloved website  

Dearly Beloved is a monster of a band. Echoing through the snowy valleys and the jagged edges of the Great White North come the rapid, urgent bass lines of Rob Higgins and the confrontational wails of co-vocalist Niva Chow. The pair drive their music forward like an apocalyptic oil tanker from some Mad Max-ian dystopic future. Bred for the road like a rabid beast, Dearly Beloved tours non-stop, opting for frequent jumps across the pond to the UK and Europe when their home base of Canada simply becomes too small for their ferocity.

Although fully-fledged progenitors of the stoner rock tradition, their influence has as much to do with Fear and Black Flag as it does Kyuss and Black Sabbath, mixing the speed and primal energy of hardcore punk with the brooding and psychedelic atmosphere of those in the stoner camp. All you need to know about Dearly Beloved is that they create a gigantic rumble, resonating somewhere deep within the earth below you: it shakes the foundations of your soul, and it might be one of the loudest sounds you’ve ever heard.

Their latest album Enduro, available on LP worldwide via Aporia Records, was recorded in ten maniacal days at Joshua Tree’s Rancho de la Luna, overseen by Dave Catching (Eagles of Death Metal, ex-Queens of the Stone Age) with Higgins himself at the controls. The band spent another ten at Phoebe St., their own studio in Toronto, to finish tracking before the album was given a pristine mix down in Seattle by Grammy Award-winning producer, Adam Kasper (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam). Enlisting an A-grade line-up of contributors such as Chris Goss (Masters of Reality) for some trebly and frantic guitar duties and Los Angeles-area drum guru Dave Elitch (Killer Be Killed, Antemasque, ex-Mars Volta) as well as Canadian indie rock lone wolf, Eamon McGrath, the record is a document of the ballistic energy laid to wax when four Canadians leave their winter climate for a psychedelic and drug-fuelled experience deep within the heart of the High Desert.

Like the band itself, Enduro is road tested: Higgins broke the record in at full volume, blasting through the Mojave at top-speed to make sure the message was being accurately sent, right before returning home to Toronto to begin his rigid touring schedule. It’s a record built for breaking boundaries, both physical - volume, speed, strength - and musical, in the way it effortlessly mixes countless genres that all have one thing in common: that they’re as loud as fuck. 

Tour dates

Sept 12 - Hamilton, ON @ Supercrawl
Sept 16 - Berlin, DE @ CIMA Showcase
Sept 18 - Hamburg, DE @ Reeperbahn, Canadian Blast Showcase
Sept 19 - Dusseldorf, DE @ Zack  #
Sept 22 - Stuttgart, DE @Keller Club  #
Sept 23 - Munich, DE @ Atomic Cafe  #
Sept 26 - Alizejur, PT @ Atlantic Riders Surf Camp  *
Sept 27 - Lisbon, PT @ Fontoria Blues Cafe  *
Sept 28 - Madrid, SP @ Wurlitzer Ballroom  *
Sept 30 - Grenobles, FR @ L’Amperage  *
Oct 1 - Metz, FR @ La Chauoee  *
Oct 2 - Winsford- Cheshire, UK @ tbd  *
Oct 3 – London, UK @ The Queen’s Head
Oct 4 - Manchester, UK @ Dry Bar  *
Oct 5 - WTFest, Southampton, UK @ Unit
Oct 7 - Bristol, UK @ Stags and Hounds  *
Oct 8 - London, UK @ The Windmill  *
Oct 9 - Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast  ^

# - with Dark Horses
* - with Eamon McGrath
^ - with Fluorescent Hearts