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TREMBLING BLUE STARS Fast Trains and Telegraph Wires

Two CD release, the seventh and final album from this band led by Robert Wratten, formerly of The Field Mice and Northern Picture Library. The first disc is the album Fast Trains & Telegraph Wires while the second one is a seven track EP entitled Cicely Tonight (volume one). These songs find the band more intense, organic and spirited than we’ve heard them up to now, giving us the more detailed, subtle, melancholy side of the band, one of their trademark.

ARTIST: Trembling Blue Stars
TITLE: Fast Trains & Telegraph Wires / Cicely Tonight (volume one)
LABEL: Elefant
RELEASE DATE: October 19, 2010
TIME: 71:37 min.
WEB: http://www.elefant.com/bands/trembling-blue-stars

01. My Face For the World to See [03:19]
02. All Our Tomorrows [03:40]
03. In Arrivals [04:19]
04. Frosting [04:58]
05. The Imperfection of Memory [03:40]
06. The Dark World of the Broken [06:07]
07. Cold Colours [03:46]
08. Half-Light [03:35]
09. Tropic of Capricorn [03:17]
10. The Last Four Winters of the War / Grey Silk Storm [06:27]
11. The Hidden Quarter [04:39]

01. The Floating World [00:57]
02. The Lowest Arc [04:59]
03. Radioactive Decay [05:30]
04. Not For Second Prize [03:27]
05. Outside [05:06]
06. The Floating World (reprise) [01:00]
07. No More Sad Songs [02:52]

Trembling Blue Stars – All Our Tomorrow
Trembling Blue Stars – No More Sad Songs

MEW Eggs Are Funny

Mew‘s dreamy prog rock sound is far too strange to ever result in a massive smash hit, but the group have nonetheless managed to crack the charts a few times in Scandinavia and the UK. Now, the Danish outfit are getting set to compile some of their best tracks onto a new compilation, Eggs Are Funny, due out this fall. The title comes from an early song, one of the first the band ever wrote. In addition to compiling 14 old favourites, it contains one new track, Do You Love It?.

ARTIST: Mew
TITLE: Eggs Are Funny
LABEL: Evil Office
RELEASE DATE: October 22, 2010
TIME: 66:51 min.
WEB: http://www.mewsite.com/

01. Am I Wry? No [04:55]
02. Snow Brigade [04:23]
03. Beach [02:47]
04. Introducing Palace Players [04:50]
05. Silas the Magic Car [04:06]
06. Wheels Over Me [02:38]
07. Saliva [04:11]
08. She Came Home For Christmas [03:56]
09. Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy [05:14]
10. Do You Love It? [02:57]
11. Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed [04:49]
12. 156 [04:58]
13. Special [03:25]
14. The Zookeepers Boy [04:51]
15. Comforting Sounds [08:51]

Mew - Introducing Palace Players

65DAYSOFSTATIC Heavy Sky

Everyone knows: 65daysofstatic more than prove their worth with the amount of passion they thrust whole-heartedly into their music. Their new EP, the last release from the bands Exploding Sessions, is a blend of six new tracks, along with a fresh edit of Tiger Girl. Despite not making the previous cut, the six new tracks were in the opinion of the band worthy enough to have made the album, and as a result Heavy Sky EP is almost an extension from their prior efforts.

ARTIST: 65daysofstatic
TITLE: Heavy Sky
LABEL: Hassle
RELEASE DATE: October 25, 2010
TIME: 33:26 min.
WEB: http://www.65daysofstatic.com/

01. Tiger Girl (wishful thinking edit) [03:36]
02. Sawtooth Rising [04:55]
03. The Wrong Shape [04:04]
04. PX3 [04:15]
05. Pacify [04:00]
06. Beats Like a Helix [02:09]
07. Guitar Cascades [10:27]

65daysofstatic - PX3

AA.VV.
Germs of Perfection (a tribute to bad religion)

November 2010 celebrates 30 years of the iconic label Epitaph Records, tracing its rise from a DIY imprint founded by Brett Gurewitz to a powerhouse label that sent punk to the top of the charts. Bad Religion (which included Gurewitz on guitar) were Epitaph’s marquee band, so to commemorate the label’s history, SPIN magazine rounded up top indie artists, including Tegan and Sara, Switchfoot, Ted Leo and New Politics, to record exclusive covers for a compilation album, Germs of Perfection: A Tribute to Bad Religion.

ARTIST: AA.VV.
TITLE: Germs of Perfection (a tribute to bad religion)
LABEL: Spin Magazine
RELEASE DATE: October 22, 2010
TIME: 33:36 min.
WEB: http://www.spin.com/

01. WILLIAM ELLIOTT WHITMORE – Don’t Pray On Me [03:08]
02. FRANK TURNER – My Poor Friend Me [02:52]
03. THE WEAKERTHANS – Sanity [03:16]
04. SWITCHFOOT – Sorrow [02:54]
05. TED LEO – Against the Grain [03:41]
06. CHEAP GIRLS – Kerosene [03:05]
07. NEW POLITICS – Generator [03:04]
08. COBRA SKULLS – Give You Nothing [02:09]
09. POLAR BEAR CLUB – Better Off Dead [02:40]
10. GUTTERMOUTH – Pity [02:41]
11. RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS – Heaven Is Falling [02:10]
12. TEGAN & SARA – Suffer [01:56]

Polar Bear Club – Better Off Dead

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SUUNS Zeroes QC

Montreal’s Suuns possess a rare trait in rock music: restraint. They use it like an instrument, which makes their debut full-length Zeroes QC as unsettling as it is wonderfully exasperating. It’s immediately apparent in album openinig: something starting off like a robot breaking down in a hot desert with its mechanic beat ploding like iron-shoed footsteps as the melody of a wheezing synth mirrors the crackling sound of old transistors and circuitry being cooked in the sun. It’s deceptively lulling, the tension almost unnoticeably wrenching up and up until the track unexpectedly opens into a barrage of nose-diving guitar riffs and crashing drums.

ARTIST: Suuns
TITLE: Zeroes QC
LABEL: Secretly Canadian
RELEASE DATE: October 12, 2010
TIME: 37:41 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/suuns_

01. Armed for Peace [03:37]
02. Gaze [03:57]
03. Arena [05:12]
04. Pie IX [03:16]
05. Marauder [01:50]
06. Sweet Nothing [07:03]
07. Up Past the Nursery [03:23]
08. PVC [03:40]
09. Fear [01:58]
10. Organ Blues [03:45]

Suuns - Arena

THE CHARLATANS Who We Touch

With a career that has already spanned two decades, The Charlatans (Martin Blunt – bass, Jon Brookes – drums, Tim Burgess – vocals, Mark Collins – guitar and Tony Rogers – keyboards) release their new album Who We Touch. Their eleventh studio album was produced by Youth (Paul McCartney, Primal Scream and The Verve) and was recorded at Britannia Row in London, on the desk that New Order‘s Blue Monday was recorded on. Featuring eleven tracks, the album must surely rank as their boldest to date radically broadening, in places, their aesthetic remit. It is, says Burgess, “a soulful voyage”, a journey through moods uplifting and profound, dark and delirious, ultimately concluding in blissful optimism.

ARTIST: The Charlatans
TITLE: Who We Touch
LABEL: The End
RELEASE DATE: September 14, 2010
TIME: 111:38 min.
WEB: http://www.thecharlatans.net/

01. Love Is Ending [03:49]
02. My Foolish Pride [04:09]
03. Your Pure Soul [05:40]
04. Smash the System [03:35]
05. Intimacy [05:12]
06. Sincerity [06:29]
07. Trust in Desire [05:10]
08. When I Wonder [03:39]
09. Oh! [05:57]
10. You Can Swim / On the Threshold / Sing the Body Eclectic [13:02]

01. Love Is Ending (early version) [03:29]
02. Intimacy (early version) [03:54]
03. Smash the System (early version) [03:15]
04. These Things (studio out-take) [03:11]
05. Your Pure Soul (early version) [05:02]
06. Sincerity (early instrumental) [03:54]
07. Trust in Desire (alternate take) [05:12]
08. My Foolish Pride (early version) [04:10]
09. Lips That Would (early version) [04:50]
10. Who We Don’t Touch Don’t Mind (studio out-take) [04:53]
11. Don’t Know Where or When (studio out-take) [05:18]
12. Intimacy (alternate mix) [05:16]
13. Throbbing Genesis (studio out-take) [02:32]

The Charlatans – Love Is Ending
The Charlatans – Intimacy (alternate mix)

DETACHMENTS Detachments

Sebastien Marshal (the creative force behind synth-pop troupe Detachments) has assembled quite the group of prominent followers. Former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook is a fan, having invited them to join him for live performances; so, too, is ex-DFA Records producer Tim Goldsworthy. And now Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford, renowned for his work with the likes of Klaxons and Delphic, has produced their self-titled debut album. Endorsements from such stellar names could easily lumber Detachments with the unhelpful tag of being the industry’s latest buzz band, but there’s more to them than just a few golden handshakes with dance-rock glitterati. The snatches of electro-pop brilliance are vital in ensuring Marshal’s bleakness doesn’t consume all before it, though, it’s that blackened romanticism that gives Detachments so much of its poignancy.
It’s almost a shame that the singer possesses so many famous friends, because they only serve as a distraction from the luxuriant gloom on display here.

ARTIST: Detachments
TITLE: Detachments
LABEL: Music Response
RELEASE DATE: September 27, 2010
TIME: 53:33 min.
WEB: http://detachments.co.uk/

01. Audio Video [03:45]
02. I Don’t Want to Play [03:09]
03. Art of Viewing [04:08]
04. Holyday Romance [03:51]
05. You Never Knew Me [03:50]
06. Sometimes [04:20]
07. H.A.L. [03:18]
08. Circles [04:20]
09. Tread Along [04:25]
10. Fear No Fear [06:08]
11. Words Alone [12:19]

Detachments - Sometimes

WARPAINT The Fool

Warpaint weave intricate guitar lines, hypnotic vocals and driving post punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between psychedelia and intimacy. Both live and on record, Warpaint sound like they’re channelling something truly otherworldly, mystical. The Fool is their utterly mesmeric debut full-length album roduced and mixed by Tom Biller (Liars, Jon Brion, Sean Lennon) in Los Angeles, with further mixes from Andrew Weatherall (Bjork, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream) and Adam Samuels (John Frusciante, Daniel Lanois).
Delicious.

ARTIST: Warpaint
TITLE: The Fool
LABEL: Rough Trade
RELEASE DATE: October 25, 2010
TIME: 47:17 min.
WEB: http://www.warpaintwarpaint.com/

01. Set Your Arms Down [05:05]
02. Warpaint [05:55]
03. Undertow [05:53]
04. Love We Are [05:43]
05. Trying to Make It at Home [04:58]
06. Drawing the Lines [04:36]
07. For This Life [03:55]
08. Majesty [06:36]
09. Lissie’s Heart Murmur [05:12]

Warpaint - Undertow

STEREOLAB
Not Music

Even with the band taking a break (see Laetitia Sadier solo release The Trip), Stereolab still have material from their previous recording sessions on  Chemical Chords to share. Not Music hits the world with its perfect Stereolab-style, including a remix by Atlas Sound.

ARTIST: Stereolab
TITLE: Not Music
LABEL: Chemical Chords
RELEASE DATE: November 16, 2010
TIME: 56:25 min.
WEB: http://www.stereolab.co.uk/

01. Everybody’s Weird Except Me [03:35]
02. Supah Jaianto [05:08]
03. So Is Cardboard Clouds [03:50]
04. Equivalnces [02:23]
05. Leleklato Sugar [03:05]
06. Silver Sands (emperor machine mix) [10:21]
07. Two Fingers Symphony [03:47]
08. Delugeoisie [03:42]
09. Laserblast [03:26]
10. Sun Demon [03:18]
11. Aelita [03:49]
12. Pop Molecules (molecular pop 2) [02:04]
13. Neon Beanbag (atlas sound mix) [07:57]

Stereolab - Laserblast

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MENOMENA Mines

Portland based art-rock trio Menomena is among the leaders of the new school of indie rock musically complex, melodically and lyrically riveting, and unlike anything that has come before. Their breakthrough album Friend & Foe epitomized the artistry required to balance a modern band’s storm of ideas. Now the band’s newest work comes after a period of significant upheaval that has left them with no shortage of new ideas, and Mines is as good or better than anything they’ve done to-date.

ARTIST: Menomena
TITLE: Mines
LABEL: Barsuk
RELEASE DATE: July 27, 2010
TIME: 53:29 min.
WEB: http://menomena.com/

01. Queen Black Acid [04:47]
02. TAOS [05:00]
03. Killemall [04:06]
04. Dirty Cartoons [04:53]
05. Tithe [04:53]
06. BOTE [05:52]
07. Lunchmeat [05:52]
08. Oh Pretty Boy, You’re Such a Big Boy [05:19]
09. Five Little Rooms [04:57]
10. Sleeping Beauty [05:18]
11. INTIL [05:47]

Menomena - TAOS

ERIC & MAGILL All Those I Know

In June of 2007, Ryan Weber packed his bags and his laptop and moved to the Republic of Armenia for a year to volunteer as an instructor of audio design. It was in here in this foreign post within a city recovering from an earthquake, war and an energy shortage, that in his free time Weber began sketching what would become All Those I Know.  During this period Weber started bouncing ideas off of long time friend and guitarist Eric Osterman. It was through this process of writing songs over e-mail that spawned the idea of collaborating with everyone Weber knew. This is the way and the reason why All Those I Know features collaborations with artists responsible for creating such bands as Shearwater, The Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens’ band, The Promise Ring, Vermont and so on. In addition to these musicians, Osterman and Weber created an Internet Choir comprised of over forty friends singing into their computers from around the world.
All Those I Know is a true testament to the power of technology and the strength of friendships and the shrinking planet. From its colorful and sweeping soundscapes down to its quiet whispers: it is an undeniably gorgeous record that will have you captivated from start to finish.

ARTIST: Eric & Magill
TITLE: All Those I Know
LABEL: self-released
RELEASE DATE: September 01, 2010
TIME: 29:52 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/magillmagill

01. All Those I Know [03:49]
02. You Make It So Good [03:24]
03. Should We All Wake Up [02:09]
04. Grandpa’s Pink Wine [04:00]
05. Vegetables Gardeners [01:33]
06. I Hear Trumpets [03:10]
07. Pontoon Boats [02:30]
08. Gentle, Polite [03:02]
09. Old Man Winter [02:28]
10. Birthdays Are Important [03:43]

Eric & Magill - All Those I Know

I’M NOT A GUN Solace

The fifth album from John Tejada and Takeshi Nishamoto‘s duo, I’m Not A Gun, Solace feels like a pronounced refinement of their work to date on the project. These two have been collaborating for some twelve years now, and clearly as musicians they compliment one another perfectly: there’s an easiness and fluency running through this album that doesn’t come over night, and track after track finds the collaboration reaching new heights of synergy and purpose. Solace surely captures this long-standing project at the summit of its powers.

ARTIST: I’m Not A Gun
TITLE: Solace
LABEL: City Center Offices
RELEASE DATE: September 17, 2010
TIME: 46:13 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/imnotagunofficial

01. Turbine [04:45]
02. Big Steps [04:06]
03. Equal Path [04:49]
04. Colored Sky, Colored Mind [05:11]
05. In Sepia [04:02]
06. Music for Adults [04:43]
07. Runners [06:00]
08. Cold Dreams [04:09]
09. Red or Yellow and Blue [05:15]
10. Fields of Autumn [03:18]

I’m Not a Gun - Turbine

MANIC STREET PREACHERS Postcards from a Young Man

10th studio album from the Welsh trio Manic Street Preachers. Postcards from a Young Man is the follow up to 2009′s Journal for Plague Lovers but is musically very different and more in the vein of Send Away the Tigers and Everything Must Go with unashamed soaring choruses, lots of strings and gospel choirs. It was recorded in Cardiff with producer Dave Eringa and mixed by Chris Lord Alge in the U.S.. The album features guest vocals from Ian McCulloch (Some Kind of Nothingness), John Cale on piano (Auto-Intoxication) and Duff McKeegan playing bass (A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun). Manics bassist Nicky Wire sings lead vocals on The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever alongside drummer Sean Moore on the trumpet.

ARTIST: Manic Street Preachers
TITLE: Postcards from a Young Man
LABEL: 101
RELEASE DATE: September 21, 2010
TIME: 43:56 min.
WEB: http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/

01. (it’s not the war) Just the End of Love [03:28]
02. Postcards from a Young Man [03:36]
03. Some Kind of Nothingness [03:50]
04. The Descent (pages 1&2) [03:27]
05. Hazelton Avenue [03:24]
06. Auto-Intoxication [03:48]
07. Golden Platitudes [04:24]
08. I Think I Found It [03:07]
09. A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun [03:39]
10. All We Make Is Entertainment [04:15]
11. The Future HasBeen Here 4 Ever [03:39]
12. Don’t Be Evil [03:19]

Manic Street Preachers – Some Kind of Nothingness

YOU! You!

A schizophrenic voice that calls to debauchery as romanticism: mingling with grace, dissonance, low fi beats and rowdy as the excellent first single To Disappear, You! is simply staggering. No artifice or color but an extraordinary talent, hoods and cigarettes: You! has struck a balance between language sublime melodies and rhythmic turbulence.

ARTIST: You!
TITLE: You!
LABEL: Kuskus
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2010
TIME: 35:22 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/youthemusic

01. To Disappear [02:55]
02. Battles [03:48]
03. Heart [02:17]
04. Spring Is Over [03:07]
05. Old Song [02:18]
06. I Hate You [03:25]
07. Sisters [02:09]
08. Know Your G [02:09]
09. Hello [02:30]
10. Thank You [02:44]
11. Murder in the Nightclub [02:53]
12. Never Seen A Girl [01:29]
13. Today [02:17]

You - Battles

DEERHUNTER Halcyon Digest

Halcyon Digest is Deerhunter‘s fourth album and their first to be released on 4AD worldwide. The album was recorded in at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Deerhunter‘s hometown of Athens, GA with the band self-producing and Ben Allen enlisted to mix it (he also worked on Animal Collective‘s Merriweather Post Pavillion).

ARTIST: Deerhunter
TITLE: Halcyon Digest
LABEL: 4AD
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2010
TIME: 46:03 min.
WEB: http://www.myspace.com/deerhunter

01. Earthquake [05:00]
02. Don’t Cry [02:49]
03. Revival [02:14]
04. Sailing [05:00]
05. Memory Boy [02:09]
06. Desire Lines [06:44]
07. Basement Scene [03:41]
08. Helicopter [04:58]
09. Fountain Stairs [02:38]
10. Coronado [03:19]
11. He Would Have Laughed [07:29]

Deerhunter - Helicopter

ELECTRIC SIX Zodiac

The seventh Electric Six album (and sixth for Metropolis Records) is a record designed to appeal to signs of every persuasion. Zodiac shows how Electric Six in 2010 are a far better band than they were in the past days. Front man Valentine (real name Tyler Spencer) has evolved into one of the finest pop songwriters to emerge from the Detroit area since the Motown posse. After an early revolving door policy, he seems to have settled on a group of bandmates that he’s justifiably happy with, and the recent output has been stunning. They might not be global stars anymore, but they’re still together, they’re still representing metro Detroit with pride and, most importantly, they’re still making slamming music and expressing the only stuff that can be called “punk”, today.

ARTIST: Electric Six
TITLE: Zodiac
LABEL: Metropolis
RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2010
TIME: 48:34 min.
WEB: http://www.electricsix.com/

01. After Hours [02:22]
02. American Cheese [04:20]
03. Clusterfuck! [04:37]
04. Countdown to Countdown [03:09]
05. Doom and Gloom and Doom and Gloom [05:24]
06. Jam in the Hole [03:51]
07. I Am A Song! [03:45]
08. It Ain’t Punk Rock [03:59]
09. Love Song For Myself [04:20]
10. The Rubberband Man [03:51]
11. Table and Chairs [04:36]
12. Talking Turkey [04:20]

Electric Six - It Ain’t Punk Rock