ROMAN CANDLE

18 July 2024

Baltimore pop renegades Ed Schrader’s Music Beat return today with a rollicking new single entitled ‘Roman Candle’. It’s a driving powerhouse of nervy basslines, guitar glimmer and rabble-rousing vocals, taken from the group’s forthcoming ‘Orchestra Hits’ album, out on Upset The Rhythm (Sep 20th).

‘Orchestra Hits’ is available to pre-order now now digitally or on CD and as a limited transparent-blue vinyl version too!

SCREENSAVER - NEW SINGLE + TOUR

5 July 2024

What a fine day to share this new single from SCREENSAVER with the world! ‘Permanence’ is a terse thrill of a song, drawing on pent-up frustration and chronic intensity. ‘Permanence’ is out now digitally, including as this video that’ll make you wanna wield a baguette like a sword in future. Also just saying, not enough enough cat humanoids appear in music videos in general!

SCREENSAVER are hitting the autobahn in August, touring all over this Euro-portion of the globe, go see them if you can, their live show is wild! The band’s new album ‘Decent Shapes’ is out now on Upset The Rhythm too.

ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT

17 June 2024

Oh happiest of times! We’re unveiling ‘Orchestra Hits’ by Ed Schrader’s Music Beat today! ‘Orchestra Hits’ is the band’s first album with Upset The Rhythm in ten years, what? Time flies! The ever-evolving group have packed a ton of climbing bass grooves, percolating synth arpeggios and soaring vocals into these astonishing 9 songs, their best to date! We’re sharing first single ‘Daylight Commander’ here, part exercise in absurdity, part pop Trojan horse, enjoy!

‘Orchestra Hits’ will be released on Upset The Rhythm on September 20th and is available to pre-order now. The band are also hitting the road in the US/Canada later in the month with Future Islands so go witness the brilliance near the flame itself!

LOOM NO MORE!

14 June 2024

Massive moment today! Marcel Wave’s wonder of a debut album ‘Something Looming’ has unfurled into the world. These twelve immense songs are part trades club symphony, part itchy serenade and part wistful lament. Featuring the combined powerhouse talents of Sauna Youth and Cold Pumas players with the stunning addition of Maike Hale-Jones’ West Yorkshire brogue, Marcel Wave chronicle the hopes and dreams (often dashed) of the piping hot instant.

‘Something Looming’ is out now digitally and is also available on 180g black vinyl in all the best shops, including our own humble repository here.

Come join us tonight at MOTH Club in celebration of the record as the band, joined by The Pheromoans and The Plan treat us to a proper bash of an album launch.

PEG

5 June 2024

Marcel Wave’s stunning album ‘Something Looming’ comes out on June 14th, today we’re sharing pensive new single ‘Peg’. ‘Peg’ is an elegy for 1930’s actress Peg Entwistle and it’s accompanying vid is a technicolor tribute to her voiceless memory.

Come celebrate the release of ‘Something Looming’ with us at MOTH Club on Friday 14th June. Marcel Wave, The Pheromoans and The Plan will all be performing! Record launch o’clock!

EMPIRES INTO SAND

24 May 2024

Normil Hawaiians’ astonishing new album ‘Empires Into Sand’ is released today on digital platforms. CDs and LPs have arrived too, are they look / sound exceptional!

'Empires into Sand' is the first album of new material from Normil Hawaiians in 40 years. The group first refined their sound during the early 80s, hitting on a pastoral experimentalism that drew on ambient drone, motorik impulse and post-punk pep. 'Empires into Sand' came together in the familiar manner of their original three albums, with improvisation and nuance informing the blueprint of the tracks.

This is thought-provoking, boundary-bothering music. Honest in intent, a solidarity of vision. Listen and live! ‘Empires Into Sand’ is available to order from our webshop here.

PARSNIP - THE BABBLE & TOUR DATES

22 May 2024

Wow, this is the stuff that FUN is made of! Parsnip have an astonishing (and slightly psychotic) new video to share with you today for their latest single ‘The Babble’, they’re also coming on tour to Europe this October and playing London for us straight off the bat on October 1st at MOTH Club! You’re welcome!

Epic thanks to Puschen for whipping this tour into shape! Video made by Alex McLaren and filmed on the lands of the Wurundjeri people.

EARTH BALL - IT'S YOURS NOW!

17 May 2024

The sun has come out to shine on Earth Ball, check that spot-gloss on the sleeve!

Earth Ball’s immense album ‘It’s Yours’ is released today digitally and on this very fine crystal clear LP with printed inner sleeve, download card and accompanying painted art scrap from the band.

Musically this a mercurial record of energetic sax-flecked no wave spontaneity. Drums tumble over precipices, guitars grind along fluxing vortices and Jer & Izzy’s vocals usher wisdom and derision from the outskirts. Six mind-zapping transmissions from the Canadian underground trapped in aspic.

‘It’s Yours’ is available in all the best shops now, you can also pick up a copy from our webshop here ...or even better, grab a copy from the band directly when they tour the UK with Chris Corsano over the next fortnight:

May 20 - London - Cafe OTO

May 21 - London - Cafe OTO

May 22 - Manchester - White Hotel

May 23 - Bristol - Cube Cinema

May 24 - Shrewsbury - English Bridge Workshop

May 25 - Glasgow - Flying Duck

May 26 - Newcastle - Lubber Fiend

May 27 - Leeds - Wharf Chambers

May 28 - Nottingham - The Chapel

May 29 - Lewes - Con Club

STOP/CONTINUE

8 May 2024

Marcel Wave return with effervescent bop ‘Stop/Continue’ today, a punctual new single owing much to decaying industrial backdrops to childhood. ‘Stop/Continue’ dwells on derelict mills, spooling rivers and the unfaltering sweep of the second hand. We very much like songs with a heavy dose of rumination at UTR and if they come with a trippy video of waterways, tunnels and some dancing too, then all the better!

‘Stop/Continue’ is out now digitally, it features on Marcel Wave’s debut album ‘Something Looming’ out June 14th on Upset The Rhythm. Dive in!

MOON FM

30 April 2024

Moon FM is the scorching opening track of Earth Ball's debut LP 'It's Yours', out May 17th through Upset The Rhythm. The saxophone is searing hot here, pulling us through vortex after vortex whilst the drums pin down the momentum amid gauzily warped guitars. The accompanying video was shot by John Brennan from the band and features him walking backwards over the Cambie Bridge in Vancouver at twilight, only reversed so the traffic zips oddly backwards. Revel in it!

PARSNIP - OUT NOW!

26 April 2024

Greet today with Parsnip’s shining new album ‘Behold’!

The Australian group are an spirited ensemble, full of life, emotional complexity and humour. This has all contributed in making ‘Behold’ such a joy. This is their first album in five years and it’s a riot of dazzling performances and whip-smart DIY pop. Parsnip have made a record that drinks deep with wonderment and their vision is genuinely refreshing and at times devastatingly honest. We’re overjoyed to share it with you.

‘Behold’ by Parsnip is out now digitally and on crystal-clear vinyl through Upset The Rhythm. Our great mates at Anti Fade are releasing ‘Behold’ down under too. Parsnip will touring Japan next month and are also coming to Europe this October, watch out world!

NORTH ATLANTIC

25 April 2024

We’re sharing ‘North Atlantic’ with the world today! Another gem from the jewellery box that’s Normil Hawaiians first album of new material in 40 years. ‘North Atlantic' is the meditative closer on ‘Empires into Sand’ and features reworked drum samples taken from a short track called ‘South Atlantic’ from 1984 (Normil Hawaiians - What’s Going On?). Only this time the bass refrain is reversed and the song takes on an entirely new life with an uncanny string arrangement, birdsong and lyrics about impermanence, dream states and long shadows. Drink deep!

‘Empires into Sand’ will be released by Upset the Rhythm on May 24th.

EARTH BALL & CHRIS CORSANO ON TOUR

24 April 2024

The stupendous Earth Ball are touring the UK this May in support of their forthcoming album 'It's Yours', out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm. Best news... Chris Corsano will be keeping them company too. Both acts are playing all over the landmass, roundabouts and back again. Go see them live, they are A+ spectacular!

May 20 - London - Cafe OTO

May 21 - London - Cafe OTO

May 22 - Manchester - White Hotel

May 23 - Bristol - Cube Cinema

May 24 - Shrewsbury - English Bridge Workshop

May 25 - Glasgow - Flying Duck

May 26 - Newcastle - Lubber Fiend

May 27 - Leeds - Wharf Chambers

May 28 - Nottingham - The Chapel

May 29 - Lewes - Con Club

PARSNIP - THE BABBLE

11 April 2024

It’s time to start babbling with Parsnip, their incredible new single (out today) is packed with Kinks-ian panache and deceptive wordplay, beyond great! Their full album 'Behold' will be released on April 26th through Upset The Rhythm

MARCEL WAVE - SOMETHING LOOMING

4 April 2024

June 14th, what a prodigious day!

We will be releasing Marcel Wave’s inaugural album ‘Something Looming’, packed with eulogies for tragic actresses, ancient riverbeds and concrete obscenity. Marcel Wave (featuring members of Cold Pumas & Sauna Youth) are part trades club symphony, part itchy serenade and part wistful lament. This heady concoction of ‘Meades meets Pat-E-Smith meets Kirklees Borough Council’ will be formally baptised on stage at MOTH Club that very same day (June 14th) with an album launch (featuring The Pheromoans + The Plan), now on sale.

Check out their first single ‘Barrow Boys’, a raucous ode to the death of the docklands. Out now digitally and available to study in this suitably wavy VHS promo. ‘Something Looming’ will be released on June 14th by Upset The Rhythm and Feel It Records (in the USA). It is available to pre-order now on 180g black vinyl too.

PARSNIP - TURN TO LOVE

19 March 2024

Don’t turn back! Parsnip explode into colour, costume and creativity with their incredible video for new single ‘Turn To Love’. Out today digitally and featured on their forthcoming album ‘Behold’ (out April 26th through Upset The Rhythm). Blooming marvellous effort from the Australian DIY pop quartet!

EMPIRES INTO SAND

14 March 2024

Huge day today! Normil Hawaiians’ first new album in 40 years will be coming out on Upset The Rhythm on May 3rd. Titled ‘Empires into Sand’, the record is an incredible patchwork cloak of ideas drawing on ambient drone, motorik impulse, folk idiom and a certain cosmic uncanny.

A Windswept album recorded in a windswept Scottish coastal retreat, ‘Empires into Sand’ swims with short wave radio interference and overheard satellite transmissions. These are winding rivers of song, peopled with the displaced, determined, downhearted yet hopeful. Swirling atmospheres, field recordings, tape-looped drums, rapid synth flights and soaring vocals all abound in this echo from the now.

‘Empires into Sand’ will be released on gatefold LP, CD and digitally on May 24th, it is available to pre-order now from our shop now.

Lead single ‘Exiles’ is released today, exploring the continuous movement of human beings, check out the video for more sublime signs from the firmament.

EARTH BALL START ROLLING

12 March 2024

Arise! It's time to take on Earth Ball! Earth Ball are a wild ride of an ensemble from Nanaimo (Canada); spontaneous, instinctual and eruptive inside out. When Earth Ball fire up the amps in their basement you can hear the voices of ghosts hum through the speakers.

Kellan's hued feedback, Izzy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums are expansive, restlessly inventive and truly psychedelic.

Their debut LP ‘It’s Yours’ will be coming out on May 17th via Upset The Rhythm. Take a first listen to ‘A Need To Cool Down’ and reframe your brain.

‘It’s Yours’ is available to pre-order on clear 180g vinyl w/ a hand-painted insert from the band now.

Earth Ball are also touring the UK this May in support of this release with their friend-in-sound Chris Corsano, see you at a show!

May 20 - London - Cafe OTO

May 21 - London - Cafe OTO

May 22 - Manchester - White Hotel

May 23 - Bristol - Cube Cinema

May 24 - Shrewsbury - English Bridge Workshop

May 25 - Glasgow - Flying Duck

May 26 - Newcastle - Lubber Fiend

May 27 - Leeds - Wharf Chambers

May 28 - Nottingham - The Chapel

May 29 - Lewes - Con Club

WYRD PSEARCH OUT TODAY!

1 March 2024

March comes in like a lion carrying a copy of ‘Wyrd Psearch’ by The Pheromoans! Released today, lucky album 13 from the lo-fi peddlers has been hailed by Uncut magazine as a “sleek return of droll social commentary and DIY invention”, whilst The Quietus urged “the ghost of Mark E. Smith to crown them the kings of the sprechgesang gang.” Wow!

We’re celebrating the release of the album today by sharing this video for ‘Twibbon Wife’, a track musing on the legacy of The Stone Roses, Ellis-Bextor and armchair occultists.

‘Wyrd Psearch’ is available now in all the best shops and our own webstore here.

Cafe OTO will host an official album launch next Tuesday with The Pheromoans, Apostille and Dean Rodney Jr & The Cowboys all performing, lucky us. The band will also appear on deXter Bentley’s Hello GoodBye show on Resonance FM tomorrow from noon to chat more about the release, enjoy!

BEHOLD... PARSNIP!

13 February 2024

Green shoots have burst forth from Parsnip! The Australian group have a super-catchy single out today called ‘The Light’, taken from their sophisticated sophomore album ‘Behold’.

Drawing comparisons with Dolly Mixture, Sara Goes Pop and Look Blue Go Purple, Parsnip are an animated ensemble, full of life, emotional complexity and humour. On ‘Behold’ they explore both the inner and outer realms of consciousness with quick wits and some seriously quality jangle and jolt. Take a listen to ‘The Light’, a whip smart workout if there ever was one!

Upset The Rhythm will release ‘Behold’ on April 26th. There’s a limited transparent vinyl edition, available to pre-order (drum roll please)… now.

FAITH IN THE PHEROMOANS

6 February 2024

The Pheromoans roll up their trouser and consult with the master mason today as they rebound with a second single from their glorious upcoming ‘Wyrd Psearch’ album. ‘Faith in the Future’ “cautiously tugs at a thread of certain patterns, mishearings and misinterpreted gestures” according to vocalist Russell Walker.

The song is complemented here by the visual recordings of 11-year-old Hitchin resident Rowan Walker and his keen eye for transportation. ‘Wyrd Psearch’ will be released on March 1st by Upset The Rhythm and is available to pre-order now.

WYRD PSEARCH

9 January 2024

Puzzling times are upon us! Today we're unveiling The Pheromoans new album 'Wyrd Psearch', out on March 1st via Upset The Rhythm. This is lucky album number 13 for the deadpan DIY group and sees them on vigorously sceptical form. Lead single 'Downtown' is out now as a digital single, fans of Russell Walker and of panoramic Hitchin will find much to like in its accompanying video

'Wyrd Psearch' is available to pre-order now on 180g black vinyl. Remember to always check backwards on the diagonal!

UTR 20TH ANNIVERSARY

12 December 2023

Ho, ho, woah!

Tis the season for jolly merch!

Today we added to our webshop our Upset The Rhythm ‘20th anniversary’ t-shirts and risograph posters designed by the wondrous Meg Woof. Our new pin badges and stickers are up there too, joining this year’s UTR releases by Brontez Purnell, Screensaver, Me Lost Me, Vintage Crop, Water Machine, The Toads, Terry, Es and Historically F***ed. To celebrate we’re offering everyone here a festive 20% discount, just use the code UTR20 before January and get merry!

'CONFIRMED BACHELOR' RELEASED!

10 November 2023

Time to party!

Today we’re releasing a new album from supreme multi-talent Brontez Purnell! ‘Confirmed Bachelor’ is out now on crystal-clear vinyl and digitally everywhere, go check it out! These twelve songs are of the no-time-wasted variety. Fuzzed-out pop songs, hotly delivered from the heart, often sassy, sometimes sappy, always snappy! We’re talking about jagged riffs galore, bubblegum bounce and Brontez’s vocal racing to bopsome effect.

So much to celebrate! ‘Confirmed Bachelor’ is available to order now.

FUTURE ISLANDS have been singular and instantly identifiable, even from their start. Samuel T. Herring’s life-worn croons and cries backlit by Gerrit Welmers’ melodies and charged by the rhythms of William Cashion and Michael Lowry. Future Islands have played nearly 1,500 shows – shows that have bruised bodies, frayed vocal cords, provided escapes for audiences, and healed their messengers. New album 'People Who Aren’t There Anymore' (4AD) is a major work from a band at an inflection point: they’re discovering new ways to experience the world, because the old ways weren’t working. That freedom has led to the most fully realised, most transparently honest statement in their 17 years as a band.

SCREENSAVER are finally making their way to Europe and the UK this August. The Melbourne synth-punks blend the dark and moody elements of post-punk and new wave with synth sounds both caustic and cosmic to create a sound that is tense, direct, and often undeniably danceable. Their sophomore album ‘Decent Shapes’ was released late 2023 on Upset The Rhythm to critical acclaim, with praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Post-Trash and Maximum Rock’n’Roll. With extensive US and Aussie tours already under their belt, the band are excited to make it to the UK and EU for the very first time.

ME LOST ME delights in experimenting with songwriting and storytelling, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre. Led by Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent who takes influence from folk, art pop, noise, ambient and improvised music, the project has transformed since 2017 from a solo endeavor to an expanded group; regularly collaborating with acclaimed North-East jazz musicians Faye MacCalman and John Pope. Me Lost Me’s music has been described in The Guardian as "stripping folk back to its bones while letting its future echoes bleed out", and by BBC Radio 6's Tom Robinson as a "brilliant peculiar noise". Me Lost Me’s latest album ‘RPG’ was released last summer on Upset The Rhythm.

MARCEL WAVE write eulogies for tragic actresses, ancient riverbeds and concrete obscenity. Their inaugural sonic instalment ‘Something Looming’ (Upset The Rhythm) is part trades club symphony, part itchy serenade, and part wistful lament. As their heady concoction of ‘Meades meets Pat-E-Smith meets Kirklees Borough Council’ gets prepped to be formally baptised on a dank stage near you. Formed when Lindsay Corstorphine and Christopher Murphy of Sauna Youth and brethren Oliver and Patrick Fisher of Cold Pumas were summoned by northern ink-slinger Maike Hale-Jones, Marcel Wave’s debut offering is a walk through a smoke-filled pub with yellowing wallpaper and all eyes on you. It’s a chronicle of the death of the docklands, the decline of industry, of the high street, of civic pride, of civilisations, of hopes and dreams.

SCREENSAVER are finally making their way to Europe and the UK this August. The Melbourne synth-punks blend the dark and moody elements of post-punk and new wave with synth sounds both caustic and cosmic to create a sound that is tense, direct, and often undeniably danceable. Their sophomore album ‘Decent Shapes’ was released late 2023 on Upset The Rhythm to critical acclaim, with praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Post-Trash and Maximum Rock’n’Roll. ‘Decent Shapes’ is loaded with bubbling tension, a low grade but growing fever, a rising rage. The frustration is so tangible you can taste it. Detachment and dissociation become survivalist coping mechanisms. With extensive US and Aussie tours already under their belt, the band are excited to make it to the UK and EU for the very first time.

THE REBEL was born Benedict Roger Wallers in 1971. Since 1989 BR Wallers has recorded & hand-distributed a bewildering array of impossibly hard-to-find home-made cassette-albums, under a variety of guises. Wallers is a charismatic lone wolf in a cowboy hat and a tie whose electrified howls are too idiosyncratic to be broken down into market-oriented terms. It is difficult to sketch a thumbnail summary of a musician who has amassed a vast and unwieldy discography under a variety of names and genres: the most widely acclaimed is probably the Country Teasers, but he also moonlights as the Company, the Male Nurse, the Beale, the Stallion, the Black Poodle and Skills on Ampex, across folk, country, garage, post-punk, no wave and electronic pop. In the main part The Rebel is centred around twisted Casio drones, clanging guitar and some defiantly deadpan vocals, all thrown in the pan and pressure-cooked in Wallers' mind. Wallers has amassed a near-unquantifiable discography over the past 30 years, from scores of more or less “official” LPs, EPs and 7”s to seemingly endless self-released cassettes.

JADE HAIRPINS is the pop-indie project of Mike Haliechuk and Jonah Falco of Fucked Up. Their debut LP, “Harmony Avenue” (Merge Records), is a whirlwind touch of fizzing synths, Talking Heads-Esque guitar interplay set to long melodic vocals and dancey drums. The band live the added strengths of Tamsin M. Leach (Es) and Jack Goldstein, bringing the songs to life. Check out the group’s new single “Unreliable,” a punched-up, baggy, pop-kissed barb of post-post-punk that is, according to the Hairpins’ frontman Jonah Falco, “about living up to the ideals and expectations of an ever changing brain, will, body, and world.”

JAKE XERXES FUSSELL is a singer, guitarist and folk music interpreter who has distinguished himself as one of his generation's preeminent interpreters of traditional (and not so traditional) "folk" songs, a practice which he approaches with a refreshingly unfussy lack of nostalgia. By recontextualizing ancient vernacular songs and sources of the American South, he allows them to breathe and speak for themselves and for himself; he alternately inhabits them and allows them to inhabit him. In all his work, Fussell humanizes his material with his own curatorial and interpretive gifts, unmooring stories and melodies from their specific eras and origins and setting them adrift in our own waterways.

On his latest album, When I’m Called—his first LP for Fat Possum, and his first as a parent - Fussell returns to a well of music that holds lifelong sentimental meaning, loosely contemplating the passage of time and the procession of life’s unexpected offerings. The album was produced by James Elkington and mixed by Tucker Martine. In addition to Elkington, it features the playing of Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station) and Joe Westerlund (Bon Iver, Califone). Blake Mills contributes guitars on several tracks. Joan Shelley and Robin Holcomb provide backing vocals.

SAM MOSS is a songwriter and instrumentalist based in Staunton, Virginia. Shapes (2020) is the latest full length LP in his wide ranging discography, one which has been acclaimed by publications like The Boston Globe, NPR, The Wire, and Paste. He has played hundreds of shows around the country and shared bills with Joan Shelley, Diane Cluck, Doug Paisley, and others. Moss plays violin on a duo album with guitarist Rob Noyes (Rob Noyes & Sam Moss) and can sometimes be seen accompanying songwriters like Kris Delmhorst and Jackson Emmer. This summer he released a Lagniappe Session for Aquarium Drunkard. He is also a woodworker.

JIM WHITE & MARISA ANDERSON DUO is the collaboration between renowned drummer Jim White and acclaimed guitarist Marisa Anderson; it’s a natural union of two of the most intuitive players and listeners working in music. White and Anderson are each very in-demand as collaborators in no small part because of their mastery, versatility and highly expressive playing. The duo have each amassed an impressive body of work, and remain at the vanguard of their practices due to an insatiable curiosity and delight in exploration of new avenues of expression.

White has honed a tumultuous, multi-toned surge and roar on his kit since playing in Australian instrumental group Dirty Three. His playing in Xylouris White presages what he does here, making a dense, nearly melodic spray of percussive energy that ebbs and crescendos in freeform patterns not too closely tied to time signature. Anderson, for her part, has made some exquisite albums that distill Appalachian folk and blues into luminous, abstract soundscapes. With this duo she plays more aggressively and is less concerned with melody, but retains a knack for eliciting radiant atmospheres from tone and overtone and dissonance.

Their 2020 debut The Quickening exemplified that daring spirit as an exercise in trust: two musicians who had never performed together before committing those first moments in time to record. 2024’s Swallowtail (released this May on Thrill Jockey) is a deepening of that trust, White and Anderson completely immersed in the moment, each attuned to the other fluidly moving as wind and water. Their music is an enchanting and illuminating celebration of process as joy.

GOBLIN BAND formed organically from intimate sessions of the same name ran out of the HobGoblin Music, a folk music instrument shop in Central London, and organised by a group of queer folk obsessive friends and shop employees. These sessions have given rise to a six- piece band which, though firmly rooted in the traditional music of the British Isles, draws widely on medieval and early music, as well as the folk musical traditions from abroad. The sound concocted employs all manner of strings, squeezeboxes, hurdy gurdy, flutes, horns, bells and whistles. The Goblins interpret folk song in relation to the political upheavals of past and present and strive to make a space for new audiences to experience traditional music in a manner which is both riotously joyful and deeply sincere. Check out their marvellous ‘Come Slack Your Horse!’ album on Broadside Hacks!

MARY LATTIMORE is a harpist and composer living in Los Angeles. She experiments with her Lyon and Healy Concert Grand harp and effects. Her solo debut, The Withdrawing Room, was released in 2013 on Desire Path Recordings. Lattimore also writes harp parts for songs and recordings, performing and recording with such great artists as Meg Baird, Thurston Moore, Sharon Van Etten, Jarvis Cocker, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, Ed Askew and Fursaxa. Her debut solo record for Ghostly International, 'At The Dam', was recorded during stops along a road trip across America and released in March 2016. The next year, she compiled sounds from her past life in Philadelphia for a cassette tape titled 'Collected Pieces'. Released in May 2018 to acclaim from the likes of NPR, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker Lattimore's next album 'Hundreds of Days' presented an expression of mystified gratitude for the natural world.

‘Goodbye, Hotel Arkada’ (Ghostly International), Lattimore’s new LP, speaks not just for its beloved namesake - a hotel in Croatia facing renovation - but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephemeral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore’s decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slowing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements.

WALT MCCLEMENTS is an accordionist and multi-instrumentalist living in Los Angeles. He is releasing a duo record with Mary Lattimore on Thrill Jockey this May called ‘Rain on the Road’. McClements, who tours as a member of Weyes Blood, is an acclaimed composer in his own right, sculpting glacial atmospherics. Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements debut collaboration Rain on the Road blossomed out of the time they spent on tour together, capturing the liminal existence of touring life in deeply cinematic compositions.

PROLAPSE originally formed in Leicester, UK, in the early 1990s and earned a cult following for their chaotic live sets, and tense and repetitious songs like Flex and Tina This Is Matthew Stone. They feature duelling vocalists Mick Derrick and Linda Steelyard, who play out an intense soap opera over a ferocious triple guitar assault and pummelling rhythm section.

Their releases have included numerous singles and four albums on various labels, including Cherry Red and Radar, as well as recording four sessions for BBC Radio 1 including 2 Peel sessions. The band has received critical acclaim, including singles of the week on the BBC Radio 1 evening session and in NME. They have also toured and shared bills with a diverse array of bands, including Stereolab, Sebadoh, Mogwai, Arab Strap and Sonic Youth. Prolapse have been writing new material and finishing off recording their fifth album.

Lazer Guided Melody blog: “A heady brew of hacking guitars, Krautrock references, non sequitur lyrics and caustic narrative; messy and shambolic for sure, but a self-professed mess, shaped by the theatricality of girl verses boy vocals, and a twist of sexual tension embellished with improvised, nonsensical wordplay.

The band released four albums between ’94 and ’99 (Pointless Walks To Dismal Places; backsaturday; The Italian Flag; The Ghost of Dead Aeroplanes), and each still manages to sound not only fresh and relevant, but also urgent, and very, very necessary. It has been said, however, that no Prolapse experience can be deemed complete without having seen them live, when every gig felt as if it had been scripted by a quorum involving Samuel Beckett, Hunter S Thompson, Marjorie Proops and Mark E Smith”.

KYLIE MONOLOGUE is a London-based electronic producer making hip-swayingly rhythmic music which sits somewhere in between the Radiophonic Workshop and the awkward end of 90s IDM. On stage, Jason DinDisc provides the between-song bleeps and bloops.

PARSNIP are an amazing Australian group, their sophomore album 'Behold' (out now on Upset The Rhythm) is a testament to Parsnip at their most creative, catchy and collaborative. ‘Behold’ showcases the multi-talents of all four members, with spirited performances adding dazzle to the thirteen tracks. Paris Richens lets the bass playfully roam. Carolyn Hawkins tumbles feeling into the drum rumble. Stella Rennex's guitar soars alongside her saxophone work, whilst a sprightly keyboard is tenderly attended by Rebecca Liston. Everyone sings amidst this lush canopy.

On 'Behold', Parsnip explore both the inner and outer realms of consciousness with quick wits and some seriously quality jangle and jolt. 'The Light' is a whip smart workout, sprouting naturally from the propulsive nature of their debut album 'When the Tree Bears Fruit' (Trouble In Mind, 2019). Drawing comparisons with Dolly Mixture, Sara Goes Pop and Look Blue Go Purple, Parsnip are an animated ensemble, full of life, emotional complexity and humour. The laughter in the dark is real, but then the sun comes up and we all must meet the day. Even the flowers turn their faces. Behold!

JOHN MAUS is a truly enigmatic musician. Broadly cut from the synth pop cloth, he’s fashioned the frosty minimalism of its fabric into a cloak of infinite meaning, genuine grace and absurdist humor over the course of four defining albums since 2006. His music is a highly mutable affair, whilst often described as retro-futurist on behalf of the 80’s drum machines and synth sounds employed, John’s music is more personal than the nostalgic re-tread implied. There’s a cinematic quality to his songs, with pathos conjured through propelling bass-lines, trailing arpeggios and of course his deeply resonant vocal. Moroder helped map out the territory but Maus is more interested in seeking cadence through his love of Renaissance polyphony and the experimentation behind post punk. It’s an amalgamation of musical ideas as radical as its intent.

Maus is a ‘man out of time’ trying to make sense of the inhumanity of our world through his mobilisation of the language of punk rock. His aim is true as he reaches for the seemingly impossible. It’s a want to emerge as part of greater multiplicity, to appear, to become, to connect that powers his songs and the man himself. It’s now been 12 years since the widely lauded album 'We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves' (2011) appeared like a thunderbolt of maniacal energy and turned everyone’s heads. Now regarded an experimental pop classic, Pitiless Censors was a huge breakthrough for Maus as a recognised artist and led to a vast reappraisal of his past work. 2018 saw the release of his most recent work Screen Memories and its sister release Addendum. Screen Memories unfolds like a pageant, with its variety of songs tendering sunshine and shadow throughout. Maus is currently preparing a new album.

LANKUM have gained worldwide acclaim for their engrossing albums and captivating, often euphoric live performances. Comprising brothers Ian Lynch (uillean pipes, tin whistle, vocals), Daragh Lynch (vocals, guitar) alongside Cormac Mac Diarmada (fiddle) and Radie Peat (harmonium, accordion, vocals), Lankum channel a diverse set of influences and histories to create a beautifully rare thing: a songbook from and for the people.

This October the acclaimed Irish group will play their biggest headline show to date at the legendary Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London. This will be their only remaining UK concert in 2024 outside of summer festivals. The band have consolidated their reputation as one of Ireland’s most important voices following the release of their 4th, Mercury-nominated, album False Lankum (Rough Trade), which has garnered critical praise across the board and brought their music to legions of devoted new fans.

False Lankum is conceived as a single piece of music, comprising 12 inter-connected songs unfolding across an epic 70 minute duration. Drawing on traditional songs and primitive techniques, the band have created an immersive, psychedelic listening experience incorporating experimental overtones and rumbling drones wedded with classic songwriting, close vocal harmonies and timeless narratives. The Lankum live show has evolved into a modern day powerhouse, with the band’s acoustic instrumentation and close-harmony vocals transforming into a vast, kaleidoscopic wall of sound.

RICHARD DAWSON, the celebrated Northumbrian song maker and one-of-a-kind live performer, will play a special show for us at the Barbican next May. Dawson will be playing tracks from his latest album 'The Ruby Cord' — a sonic dive into the wonders and horrors of a future world rooted in augmented reality.

'The Ruby Cord' follows on from his state-of-the-nation opus 2020, which was hailed by many as a masterpiece and Henki, a collaboration with Finnish metal group Circle. Written between 2019 and 2021, the lyrics to most of the record were conceived throughout the various Covid-19 lockdowns, as the side effects of isolation and state-imposed inwardness affected millions around the world. The resulting record is seven tracks that plunge us into a fantastic, sometimes sinister future where social mores have mutated, ethical and physical boundaries have evaporated.

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS are from Oakland, California and comprise of Shannon Shaw (vocals, bass), Cody Blanchard (vocals, guitar), and Ian Amberson (drums, vocals). Sounding like a prom band from 1964 getting dosed with acid and having the sweetest lovelorn freak out, Shannon And The Clams defy expectations. Imagine a brawling Etta James, backed up by the 13th Floor Elevators singing Shangri La's tunes. Shannon has a voice that can go from a sweet girl group croon to a bluesy ballsy growl before you realize you're headed for the (dance) floor. It's total punk rock bop, brimming with doo-wop glory delivered to your door by the Homecoming Queen and Kings of weirdo rock 'n' roll.

Shannon & The Clams’ sonics go from black and white to technicolor on their new album, The Moon Is In the Wrong Place, produced by longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Faced with the unimaginable sudden loss of Shannon’s fiancé, the project is a holistic exploration of grief and celebration of life coupled with the most expansive, exciting songs and arrangements of their celebrated catalog. The Moon Is In the Wrong Place marks Shannon & The Clams’ 7th studio album together and is out now via Easy Eye Sound.

TARA CLERKIN TRIO are Pat Benjamin, Sunny Joe Paradisos and Tara Clerkin, three musicians involved in a number of cult Bristol bands over the years before confidently settling down in triangle formation. They are inspired by and borrow from jazz, trip hop, electronica, psychedelia & minimalism, twirling the non-pretentious strands of these threads together into a trippy green winged-cloak, adorning Arthur Russell and dripping in blue jam.

Their self-titled debut LP was released in 2020 and was a sleeper hit, coming in at 35 in the Wire's top 100 albums of the year and in Bleeps top 10. Their latest EP, ‘On The Turning Ground’, was released on World of Echo in November. Whilst their inspirations might be centreless, but the trio still possess a very obvious anchor in the form of their hometown. Bristol stands as a city of multitudes, heterogenous and vibrant in such a way as to allow it to renew and remake time and again. Tara Clerkin Trio drink from that same well, duly reflecting a rich musical heritage built on fwd-facing electronic subcultures and experimental urges. As such, ‘On The Turning Ground’ finds them subject to their own subtle internal evolution, the pervasive sense that you've caught them mid-bloom, on their way to becoming but never anything but themselves.

ABLE NOISE are an experimental baritone guitar and drum duo, based between The Hague and Athens. Through the use of voice, tape and alternative methods of playing their instruments, they create a minimal and visual musical performance. Their output is primarily focused on live concerts, letting their music be shaped by the physicality of their playing, the acoustic and aesthetic properties of the space, and the dynamics formed between themselves and their audience. Their recorded work relies less on their respective instruments, and more on an assemblage of field recordings, heavily processed instrumentation, and exploratory mixing techniques. They released their recorded debut in 2020 through the Glasgow label GLARC, and their next recorded work is due to be released in late 2024 through London label World of Echo.

CHRIS COHEN was always a quiet kid. In fact, this introversion was one reason he began playing music as a toddler—to communicate without speaking to identify with others without the direct representation of words. It has worked, too, with Cohen’s terrific stint in the mighty Deerhoof and his own captivating art-rock act The Curtains, preceding production and session work for the likes of Weyes Blood, Kurt Vile, Le Ren, and Marina Allen. Somewhere along that long way, Cohen started writing lyrics. He found that, though it didn’t come naturally, the process offered a new sense of self-discovery and reckoning, a way to see himself and the world from unexpected angles. His three twilit albums of casually complicated pop during the last decade radiated these epiphanies: handling family strife, navigating advancing age, and understanding social woes.

But Cohen has never had as much to sing so directly as he does on ‘Paint a Room’, his first album in five years and his debut for Hardly Art. If Cohen’s meanings have previously lurked inside the tessellated musical layers he built alone, they are newly clear and resonant here, animated and underscored for the first time by a band playing in real time. There is the endless miasma of state violence on the subversively melodious opener “Damage,” the existential exhaustion of modernity on the horn-traced jangle “Laughing”. With ‘Paint a Room’, Cohen’s music feels like a warm spring breeze, easy to love and gentle to feel. But it’s often carrying something heavy, as if blowing in from some unseen storm cloud.

LARGE PLANTS is the hauntological fuzz-rock project of Jack Sharp, former singer guitarist from psych-folk luminaries Wolf People. In 2022 the band dropped an acid-rock cover of Madonna’s ‘La Isla Bonita’ on the Ghost Box label, followed swiftly by their debut LP ‘The Carrier’, described by Shindig as “A succinct distillation of folk-rock magnificence”. Now a formidable live act, having toured with Mudhoney and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Large Plants are currently working on their third album.

XIU XIU is the conduit for the uncompromising and unnervingly personal musical works of Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Jamie Stewart, plus a roll call of collaborators both in studio and onstage. Streaming forth a ceaseless torrent of releases, side projects, art offerings and extensive international touring since 2002, Xiu Xiu's music has veered from damaged avant-pop to artfully orchestrated rock, squalls of black-hearted noise and most bases around and between, ever served with a bruising honesty and intensity that has ripped out the hearts of a legion of obsessive listeners.

13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips (Polyvinyl Records) is the newest record from Xiu Xiu, but only on the face of it. Underneath that face, the sinews and struggles of a need that seeks to name itself over every record, and every song on every record, ever written by Xiu Xiu of course. Nine songs to seal the deal for those who will still listen to all nine songs, in order, because an album is a message that can’t be read piecemeal. Mixed by John Congleton with a band-directed dictum that he should feel free to both “go crazy” and if there was ever any doubt as to what that meant please, by all means “choose iconoclasm.”

EVICSHEN aka Victoria Shen is a sound artist, experimental music performer, and instrument-maker based in San Francisco. Shen's sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Eschewing conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme textures and gestural tones, Shen uses what she calls "chaotic sound" to oppose signal and information, eluding traditionally embedded meaning.