2017 Blog
Latest Releases Manufactured by Key Production_January Round-up
Happyness Write In black vinyl LP, [Moshi Moshi]
Happyness are a 3 piece band from South London, formed of multi-instrumentalists Ash Cooper, Benji Compston and Jonny Allan. They return with a second album of fresh-faced alternative rock, titled Write In. They still recall the high years of the US college rock scene, with just the right amount of slacker-swagger to make them charming. That, plus an increasingly bold and melodic songwriting sensibility, makes Write In a winner. “Write In” sets its stall out as an outward-looking, inventive, and thoughtful progression from their debut. Drawing on an array of influences including Roxy Music, The Beach Boys, Randy Newman, Sonic Youth, Big Star and Pierre Cavalli.
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein Stranger Things 2 (A Netflix Original Series Soundtrack) crystal clear vinyl w/ blue & white splatter' vinyl, crystal purple w/ white splatter' vinyl, double black vinyl, [Invada Records]
EMMY winners & GRAMMY nominees Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein's score to Stranger Things Season 2, housed in a deluxe heavyweight gatefold sleeve with printed insert and stunning artwork from the Netflix series.
Hotel Books Equivalency, [Hassle Records]
Hailing from Porterville, CA, Hotel Books revolves around the spoken-word poetry and lyricism of Cam Smith. Delivering intense, cathartic words over ambient musical soundscapes tinged with indie rock and post-hardcore. Smith uses his high octane vocal delivery as a platform for stories of pain, struggle, and the overall triumph he has found in faith and Love. Smith uses Hotel Books as a vessel to deliver his personal story, collaborating with stellar musicians to bring his words to musical life.
Dub Pistols Crazy Diamonds white coloured LP, [Sunday Best]
UK dub scene pioneers Dub Pistols gear up to release new dub-quaking extravaganza ‘Crazy Diamonds’.To celebrate 20 years of unhinged lunacy, the Dub Pistols return with their seventh studio album, a mix of dub, reggae, ska, punk, breaks and drum & bass.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Wrong Creatures Double LP, gatefold sleeve, printed inner sleeves [Abstract Dragon]
The widely acclaimed California-based band consists of Peter Hayes (vocal, guitar, harmonica), Robert Levon Been (vocal, bass, guitar), and Leah Shapiro (drums). They've been crafting perfectly honed, bluesy, psychedelic garage-rock since 1998 and return with their 7th studio album. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club remain firmly committed to the leather-clad rock’n’roll sonic lifestyle, standing up for their chosen ways. They have a new album, titled Wrong Creatures, that is positively overflowing with garage guitar riffs, oily basslines and raw vocal hollerings. Roll up roll up, BRMC fans. Wrong Creatures is released by Abstract Dragon.
Bruno Major A Song For Every Moon, [July Records]
12 months ago, Bruno Major set himself the lofty task of writing, recording and releasing a song every month for a year, a 'Song For Every Moon' is a collections of those songs. The culmination of a year's hard work, it stands as a soulful testament to Bruno's promise, and to his ability as a song-writer.
Henri Salvador Henri Salvador Chante Boris Vian 2 volumes CD album, [Le Chant du Monde]
Henri Salvador Dans Mon Ile CD, [Le Chant du Monde]
Dream Wife Dream Wife Gatefold Black Vinyl LP / CD / D, [Lucky Number Music]
Debut from three-piece Dream Wife. Hailing from Brighton, London and Reykjavik, the project which began as a ‘fake band’ for an art project has morphed into something much more legit. Lively, colourful indie rock with sharp vocals and spiky political lyrics. Available on standard black or jazzy indies-only ‘blood-spattered’ clear vinyl. The band are gearing up to release Dream Wife on January 26th, 2018.
Joey Alexander JOEY.MONK.LIVE! [Motéma Music]
In celebration of Thelonious Monk’s centennial, Joey Alexander performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room in June of 2017. The resulting live album, Joey.Monk.Live! captures Joey’s trio, with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Willie Jones III, exploring Monk’s music in imaginative and deeply-felt ways. In solo, duo and trio performances, Joey pays tribute to the pianist and composer who first made an impression on him and who still serves as a guiding inspiration.
Chaos 8 Cause and Effect Transparent red vinyl, [Chaos 8]
Chaos 8 are an alternative quintet from the North East of England, they were formed in 2012 from the songwriting partnership of guitarist Paul Williams and vocalist Beki Straughan. They released their debut album, Burn, in 2013 to critical acclaim, and have continued to tour relentlessly across the UK, all the while building up to the release of their sophomore album, Cause And Effect. Like their debut album, Cause And Effect is a completely DIY affair from the roots up, everything is done off their own backs and is a demonstration of their commitment to Chaos 8.
Judy Dyble & Andy Lewis Summer Dancing [Acid Jazz Records]
Once she led the Fairport Convention with her folksy vocal fanfare; now she's releasing a record with Andy Lewis who is in fact a weirdo DJ, which I assure you doesn't stop them from making a psychedelic folk record with twee odes and harmonica ragers. Summer Dancing leans into the highest gear of folk rock and goes after the enigmatic sound made in more driving Fairport tunes, with an almost cartoony vibe carrying the duo through their ode to British psychedelia.
Ben Miller Band Choke Cherry Tree [New West Records]
The Ben Miller Band has staked out an iconoclastic niche that’s established them as both a one-of-a-kind creative unit and a grass-roots fan favourite. Channelling a century’s worth of far-flung American musical influences into rousing songcraft that radiates with smarts and soul. Choke Cherry Tree introduces a retooled line-up with Miller and fellow founding member Scott Leeper joined by new additions Rachel Ammons and Smilin’ Bob Lewis. The pair’s multi-instrumental skills bring added authority to Miller’s rootsy new compositions while maintaining the high energy level that originally endeared the band to its fans.
Barbara La Belle Amour 2 volumes CD, [Le Chant Du Monde]
Alessandro Cortini Avanti double LP [The Point of Departure Recording Company]
AVANTI is rich in anomalies and irregularities – much like our memories – which Cortini let creep into his compositions by recording live on a single synthesiser, the EMS Synthi AKS, without overdubs. “Just like the films, there are errors and mistakes in the music, some of which became the theme and some which are peculiar things that happen once or twice,” he says.
Adam Taylor The Handmade's Tale, [Invada Records]
Adam Taylor’s emotional, swelling score to 8 time EMMY nominated The Handmaid’s Tale, starring Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes. Taylor is a film score composer based in Long Beach, California known for his subdued, emotional, and minimalistic scores. He has become prominent and sought-after composer in the indie film space.
HI-FI Spitfires England Screaming limited edition red vinyl, [Bullet Teeth Records]
Langham Research Centre Tape Works Vol. 1, [Nonclassical]
Gathering together over ten years worth of work, in Langham Research Centre's debut album, Tape Works Vol.1. The album stands alone as a collection of modern day electroacoustic masterpieces. Forged from rare and obsolete machinery and inspired by early electronic pioneers such as Stockhausen, Schaeffer, Varèse, Cage and Parmegiani, Tape Works Vol. 1 presents the modern face of the ground-breaking BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
Leroy Hutson Anthology: 1972 - 1984, [Acid Jazz]
A legend to soul fans, his catalogue has been increasingly sought after by collectors and producers since the last time it was widely available nearly 20 years ago.
Lomond Campbell Black River Promise, [Heavenly]
Originally hailing from the Scottish borders and a former long-time resident of Edinburgh, Campbell, eager to flee the clamour and turbulence of the city, upped sticks a couple of years ago, setting up home and studio in a leaking, decrepit, asbestos-ridden school house in the shadow of Ben Nevis. Black River Promise is very much a chronicle of this transition from the white noise of the city to the near-silence Campbell’s new highland home. Deep, rich, astonishing and lyrically engaging, the album effortlessly skips between melancholic introspection and joyful euphoria and includes a 10-piece string ensemble assembled by cellist / arranger Pete Harvey.
Mac Quayle Mr Robot Original Music: Vol. 3 double crystal clear w/ white & red splatter effect vinyl and double black vinyl, [Invada Records]
Following on from last year's Mr. Robot Volume 1 and Volume 2 it is thrilling to bring the latest installment of music from Emmy winning (and 3x nominee) composer Mac Quayle. Volume 3 improves on perfection with this synth-heavy soundtrack from the critically acclaimed hit TV series Mr. Robot season 2. Award Winning Art Director John Bergin has gone to the next level with his custom illustrated jacket concept and design with gatefold sleeve featuring 16 bit games console artwork and inside gatefold featuring a 16 bit rendering of Elliot’s “Neighborhood”, double sided 11"x 11"printed insert featuring digitized show artwork plus liner notes by composer Mac Quayle and fold-out 11"× 22" poster of 16 bit Mr Robot characters.
Mujeres Un Sentimiento Importante black vinyl LP, [Sonido Muchacho]
Raphael Imbert Music Is My Hope [Jazz Village]
Music Is My Hope, Raphael Imbert's new album at Jazz Village, is a fight of hope. After Music Is My Home in 2016, the saxophonist and composer delivers an intimate testimony as well as a flamboyant invitation to sharing. Music Is My Hope takes us to this place where music is essential and burning, and brings together in the same gesture protest, prayer, activism, love, the sacred and the profane. A music that revives the flames of our romantic, political, universal or personal expectations.A music that can, by its saving strength, put us back in motion and bring us together.
The Go! Team Semicircle [Memphis Industries]
The Brighton-based melody-obsessed team leader Ian Parton envisioned a marching band going rogue and chucking away their sheet music to blast out northern Soul stompers, Japanese indie-pop swooners and old-school hip hop jams. but his extensive sample library could only take him so far. so he made a pilgrimage to Detroit - city of Motown, the stooges, of musical (and actual) revolution - where he hooked up with the Detroit youth choir.
Serpent Power Electric Looneyland, [Skeleton Key Record]
Electric Looneyland is the second album by Liverpool duo Serpent Power. Ian Skelly, previously of The Coral, along with Paul Malloy, previously of The Zutons and The Coral, have created their own world of psych-rock, horror and weird spaciness on Electric Looneyland, all stemming from them finding some old keyboards in a skip.
Sonic Boom Six Cardiac Address 10" vinyl, [Pledge Music/Xtra Mile Recordings]
The new Sonic Boom Six eight song mini-album Cardiac Address10" vinyl.
Squeeze The Knowledge, [Love Records]
The Knowledge is Squeeze's the follow-up to 2015's Cradle to Grave, considering fans waited nearly two decades for new material following 1998's Domino. Along with the songwriters Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, drummer Simon Hanson, keyboardist Stephen Large, the new work features bass and background vocals by Yolanda Charles, who has worked with Paul Weller and Eric Clapton, and Dirty Vegas' Steve Smith on guitar, vocals and percussion.
Adamo Triple Best of Adamo 3 volumes CD, [Le Chant du Monde]
Gilbert Becaud Mes Mains, [Le Chant du Monde]
Gilbert Becaud Et Maintenant, [Le Chant du Monde]
Thomas Truax All That Heaven Allows deluxe 12" pressed on Red Splatter Vinyl with printed lyrics sleeve [SL Records]
10 new tracks of surrealistic sonic adventure featuring trains, wildlife, space, dreams, Hornmonica, special guests, more advice from Granny and some combinations of comforting and exciting sounds you have probably never heard before.
Throbbing Gristle 20 Jazz Funk Greats, [Mute]
For all their reputation as “wreckers of civilisation”, by 1979 the original industrial quartet had gotten some of the confrontation out of their system and were exploring a wider range of expression. Chris and Cosey were getting more into their electronics, evident on the pure electropop of Hot on the Heels of Love and Walkabout’s jolly sequenced synth. It wouldn’t be Throbbing Gristle if it was all “very friendly”, so Persuasion and Six Six Sixties see Genesis P-Orridge letting in various shades of creepiness. Peter Christopherson must be responsible for some of the sleaziness too.
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis War Machine (A Netflix Original Film) 2 x red coloured vinyl, white coloured vinyl and blue coloured vinyl, [Invada]
War Machine is a new Netflix film, directed by David Michôd, The new Netflix film ‘War Machine’ starring Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton has been given the full eerie synth and strings treatment, like on ‘Skeleton Tree’ or the ‘Hell Or High Water’ score. They promise dark and light in equal measure. Following on from Nick Cave & Warren Ellis' score to Wind River, War Machine to brings more soundtrack music from the pair. Housed in a deluxe heavyweight gatefold sleeve with beautiful art and stills from the film. The vinyl is cut at 45rpm for optimal audio quality!
Weaves Wide Open, [Memphis Industries]
Artful shambles Weaves released a loud and lovely debut a year ago so it seems only right they do it again: their guitar rock is bursting at the seams, barricade-tumbling wonder and they continue to dance about the limits on Wide Open, which offers a slightly poppier approach to a band who used to get in, race through and get out.
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