TAPETE RECORDS - Forced Exposure

$22.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

LP version. Since the mid-1990s, Stockholm's Last Days of April have created a succession of luminous, hook-laden LPs, earning the band's lead vocalist, guitarist, and all-around auteur, Karl Larsson, a reputation as a bonafide songwriter's songwriter. With Even The Good Days Are Bad, Larsson and co. return with their tenth long player, following 2015's Sea of Clouds (TR 316CD/LP), a shimmering collection of eight new Larsson-penned songs that show him at the apex of his craft and LDOA achieving new levels of strength, honesty, and brilliance. The album's title track is an introspective meditation that manages to be ecstatic, even anthemic. With glistening guitars, swerving synth lines, punchy drumming, burnished analog production, and Larsson's vulnerable yet resilient vocals, Even The Good Days Are Bad is at once new and old, of the moment and utterly classic, timely and timeless. Even The Good Days Are Bad began gestating in 2019, with Larsson unearthing songs dating back to the early 2000s and writing a gush of new material. The band's longtime rhythm section -- drummer Magnus Olsson and bassist Rikard Lidhamn -- joined Larsson that fall for two marathon days at Stockholm's legendary Studio Gröndahl. (LDOA have recorded several releases there, as have The Hives.) "We recorded everything in Gröndahl to tape," Larsson says of the band's preferred approach to basic tracks. "All analog and tons of outboard. Classic stuff, you know... I'm a gear nut." (Frequent collaborator Fredrik Hermansson added atmospheric mellotron to "Had Enough" and Frans Hägglund engineered.) Larsson then brought the recordings to his home studio for overdubs and general TLC, taking his time to achieve the album's rich textures. But something unexpected happened on the way to transcendent pop glory: a global pandemic. Even The Good Days Are Bad was already nearing completion, but the crisis slowed and complicated the process. More significantly, it also made the new record hauntingly, profoundly prescient. The title track now reflected the mood of the entire planet. On "Alone", Larsson channels the isolation we've all been enduring and making it better. "For lyrics," Larsson says, "I wanted them to be straightforward. No fuzz." The result is totally cathartic, just what the doctor ordered for 2021. "Let it bring whatever feelings it brings," Larsson says of Even The Good Days Are Bad, dispensing a bit of helpful advice: "It sounds best played loud."

$17.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

Since the mid-1990s, Stockholm's Last Days of April have created a succession of luminous, hook-laden LPs, earning the band's lead vocalist, guitarist, and all-around auteur, Karl Larsson, a reputation as a bonafide songwriter's songwriter. With Even The Good Days Are Bad, Larsson and co. return with their tenth long player, following 2015's Sea of Clouds (TR 316CD/LP), a shimmering collection of eight new Larsson-penned songs that show him at the apex of his craft and LDOA achieving new levels of strength, honesty, and brilliance. The album's title track is an introspective meditation that manages to be ecstatic, even anthemic. With glistening guitars, swerving synth lines, punchy drumming, burnished analog production, and Larsson's vulnerable yet resilient vocals, Even The Good Days Are Bad is at once new and old, of the moment and utterly classic, timely and timeless. Even The Good Days Are Bad began gestating in 2019, with Larsson unearthing songs dating back to the early 2000s and writing a gush of new material. The band's longtime rhythm section -- drummer Magnus Olsson and bassist Rikard Lidhamn -- joined Larsson that fall for two marathon days at Stockholm's legendary Studio Gröndahl. (LDOA have recorded several releases there, as have The Hives.) "We recorded everything in Gröndahl to tape," Larsson says of the band's preferred approach to basic tracks. "All analog and tons of outboard. Classic stuff, you know... I'm a gear nut." (Frequent collaborator Fredrik Hermansson added atmospheric mellotron to "Had Enough" and Frans Hägglund engineered.) Larsson then brought the recordings to his home studio for overdubs and general TLC, taking his time to achieve the album's rich textures. But something unexpected happened on the way to transcendent pop glory: a global pandemic. Even The Good Days Are Bad was already nearing completion, but the crisis slowed and complicated the process. More significantly, it also made the new record hauntingly, profoundly prescient. The title track now reflected the mood of the entire planet. On "Alone", Larsson channels the isolation we've all been enduring and making it better. "For lyrics," Larsson says, "I wanted them to be straightforward. No fuzz." The result is totally cathartic, just what the doctor ordered for 2021. "Let it bring whatever feelings it brings," Larsson says of Even The Good Days Are Bad, dispensing a bit of helpful advice: "It sounds best played loud."

$22.00 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. The Telescopes have been described by the British music press as "more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk"; a thread consistent throughout a body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have constantly pushed at their own boundaries to unravel new pathways of existence, coloring outside the lines of all expectation to reach beyond the realm of natural vision. With a legacy full of eureka moments, intravenously fed through a crack in the cosmic egg, The Telescopes invoke the kind of altered perceptions that time has shown not only withstand repeated listening, but reveal something new whenever one ventures into the depths of their highly influential artistry. At the core of their being, The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern, in every sense, a constant revolution of the psyche exploding endless spores of sound, carriers of warm transmissions seeped in aural innovation that spiral around ones inner receptors to induce a series of auditory illusions that completely immerse the listener in the grip of their own imagination. The most revolutionary act we can all perform is to stand by our calling, to keep doing what we do, for the reasons we are conceived to do so, no matter what. Some call it "The New Weird" but call it what you will, it is born of love. The Telescopes are one of the very few artists that are living proof that this revolutionary act is possible to evolve and sustain free from artistic corruption. Songs Of Love And Revolution is a solar burst of trance inducing rhythms gripped at the helm by a wall of throbbing bass held in place by a swarm of encircling guitars. Lashed to the mast of this whirling dervish, incantations abound to dispel what is bound. This is the 12th album by The Telescopes, music for a four-piece ensemble that will never sound the same twice in any given environment or to any set of ears.

$17.00 IN STOCK

The Telescopes have been described by the British music press as "more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk"; a thread consistent throughout a body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have constantly pushed at their own boundaries to unravel new pathways of existence, coloring outside the lines of all expectation to reach beyond the realm of natural vision. With a legacy full of eureka moments, intravenously fed through a crack in the cosmic egg, The Telescopes invoke the kind of altered perceptions that time has shown not only withstand repeated listening, but reveal something new whenever one ventures into the depths of their highly influential artistry. At the core of their being, The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern, in every sense, a constant revolution of the psyche exploding endless spores of sound, carriers of warm transmissions seeped in aural innovation that spiral around ones inner receptors to induce a series of auditory illusions that completely immerse the listener in the grip of their own imagination. The most revolutionary act we can all perform is to stand by our calling, to keep doing what we do, for the reasons we are conceived to do so, no matter what. Some call it "The New Weird" but call it what you will, it is born of love. The Telescopes are one of the very few artists that are living proof that this revolutionary act is possible to evolve and sustain free from artistic corruption. Songs Of Love And Revolution is a solar burst of trance inducing rhythms gripped at the helm by a wall of throbbing bass held in place by a swarm of encircling guitars. Lashed to the mast of this whirling dervish, incantations abound to dispel what is bound. This is the 12th album by The Telescopes, music for a four-piece ensemble that will never sound the same twice in any given environment or to any set of ears.

$165.00 IN STOCK

Lloyd Cole In New York, released on CD in 2017, will now be available as an exclusive limited edition seven-LP box set via Tapete Records. It features all four solo albums Lloyd Cole released between 1988 and 1996: Lloyd Cole (1990), Don't Get Weird On Me Babe (1991), Bad Vibes (1993), and Love Story (1995), plus Smile If You Want To, the "unreleased" fifth album (including one previously unreleased track), and Demos '89-'94, 20 recordings from home and studio made public for this release. The box will also feature a 24-page LP booklet about this most erudite of artists by John O'Connell with new interviews with Lloyd and featured musicians, producers, and collaborators and a wonderful selection of photos from the period plus a poster and postcards that feature Lloyd shot in New York by feted photographer Kevin Cummins.

Lloyd Cole first stepped into the spotlight when Lloyd Cole & The Commotions released their effortlessly hip debut album Rattlesnakes in 1984. He went on to make two further albums of cerebral pop with the Commotions. In '88, Lloyd decamped to New York a solo artist and made a home in the city that had always loomed large in his imagination and he fully embraced its bars, bohemia and beautiful losers. Lloyd Cole In New York charts this fascinating phase in Lloyd's development, which saw him experimenting with his sound and collaborating with some top-notch US musicians including guitarist Robert Quine (Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Lou Reed, Brian Eno), drummer Fred Maher (Material, Scritti Politti, Lou Reed), and Matthew "Girlfriend" Sweet. On his first solo album, Lloyd Cole, Lloyd embraced an edgier writing style with a nod to Dylan, Lou Reed and, not abandoning his UK roots completely, Marc Bolan. Don't Get Weird On Me Babe was Lloyd's concept album -- one side orchestral (a la Jimmy Webb), the other rock. Lloyd described it as his "farewell to rock". Bad Vibes, 1993's about turn into bold psych-baroque experimentalism, polarized fans and critics alike. Love Story, a favorite of fans, restored his critical and commercial reputation. Smile If You Want To was supposed to be Cole's fifth solo album. It was completed, but record company politics meant it was never released. The two LPs Demos '89-'94 offer an insight into the development of Lloyd's sound over this time, from early tentative recordings as a solo artist finding his way in his adopted home town, to demos he recorded for Love Story where he embraced a more pastoral folk sound. They also include Lloyd's previously unheard version of "The Ship Song" by Nick Cave.

$22.00 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. It has been nine years since Urlaub In Polen announced they were disbanding with the release of their fifth album Boldstriker. However, drummer Jan Philipp Janzen and multi-instrumentalist and singer Georg Brenner have always made up one of those rare and highly unlikely bands who, despite market laws to the contrary, have put the context of their own work above fads and opportunity without ever denying that they inhabit a particular historical moment. On All, their unexpected sixth album, it becomes immediately clear that the term "reunion", at least in the sense we've gotten used to, does not do this occurrence justice. All is light years away from offering a lukewarm rehashing of ancient recipes for success -- the album is highly ambitious and sounds fresh in its concentrated performance -- not unlike a debut. This is because the considerable advantages of a long-term musical relationship are at display throughout the record. Not only with regards to the tightness of performance, but also regarding a level of musical familiarity with one another; a rare feat that has always carried the band's musical explorations, and which balances the dynamics and structures of All as a whole. This interplay is accentuated by the record's production, for which Janzen (among others a founding member part of Von Spar, current drummer of Die Sterne and producer of Die Sterne, The Field, PTTRNS, Albrecht Schrader, etc.) and Brenner are also responsible. Urlaub In Polen have also always been a band that defies categorization. But what the songs on All have in common is an architecture evoking krautrock, developing sprawling synthesizer, and guitar workouts on the foundations of finely woven rhythm arrangements. The echoes of west coast pop (the harmonies and the bass), of Rhineland tech house and of early Dire Straits (the vocals and the guitar production) make All a characteristically versatile and international affair. The album shares with their previous efforts the interest and attention for sonic textures and contrasts, but showcases more constraint and focus. In place of noise, details and the enormous joy of playing between Brenner and Janzen come to the fore, equally in the stoic desert kraut hits "Impulse Response" and "THDT", the polyrhythmic "Overall", or the discoid "Proxy Music".

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Key figure of the baroque pop/chamber pop genre Louis Philippe's musical output seems to follow a spasmodic timetable. This year has already seen the release of The Devil Laughs (PICI 019CD/LP), his critically acclaimed second collaboration with Young Marble Giant Stuart Moxham, now followed by Thunderclouds, on which he is joined by The Night Mail, a three-man band made up of Robert Rotifer (guitar), former Acid Jazz artist Andy Lewis (bass), and ex-member of Thrashing Doves and Death in Vegas, Ian Button (drums). Philippe and Rotifer have been close friends for many years. At the end of the first lockdown period, Rotifer went to see Philippe at his flat to go through the endless pile of musical sketches the latter had amassed during his prolonged hiatus. In early September the whole band finally got together for two rehearsals before decamping to Rimshot Studios in rural Kent to record the backing tracks for all thirteen songs as well as overdubbing strings (played by violinist Rachel Hall from Big Big Train) and trumpet parts (by Shanti Jayasinha), followed by another session overdubbing vocals, keyboards, percussion, and some more guitars, expertly engineered by Andy Lewis at Rotifer's home studio in Canterbury. The result is an album that evokes that city's fabled brand of whimsical prog just as much as Philippe's deep roots in French song-craft and a shared love for the autumnal side of sunshine pop. "Living on Borrowed Time", a catchy, bass-driven, sounds like the theme tune to a lost Lemmy Caution movie. While the album's title track cloaks the anticipation of a coming storm in heavily jazz-tinged Wyattesque chords magically rising out of the singing noise emanating from a building site next to Louis Philippe's Shepherd's Bush home, light-footed waltzes like "Fall In A Daydream" and "Once In A Lifetime Of Lies" manage to make London feel like Paris, before the closing track "When London Burns" invites the listener onto an imaginary dance-floor where an anglophone Michel Polnareff meets disco boffin Biddu. In between all that, you traverse the eerie aural cityscapes of "Alphaville", the wide dynamic range of two song suites ("The Man Who Had It All" and "Rio Grande"), the Tropicalia/folk-flavored subtlety of "The Mighty Owl", the surprising gospel grooves of "Love Is The Only Light", the arresting stop-and-start dramatics of "No Sound", the unexpected Celtic tones of "Do I" and the equally loony and beautiful semi-instrumental "Willow".

$17.00 IN STOCK

It has been nine years since Urlaub In Polen announced they were disbanding with the release of their fifth album Boldstriker. However, drummer Jan Philipp Janzen and multi-instrumentalist and singer Georg Brenner have always made up one of those rare and highly unlikely bands who, despite market laws to the contrary, have put the context of their own work above fads and opportunity without ever denying that they inhabit a particular historical moment. On All, their unexpected sixth album, it becomes immediately clear that the term "reunion", at least in the sense we've gotten used to, does not do this occurrence justice. All is light years away from offering a lukewarm rehashing of ancient recipes for success -- the album is highly ambitious and sounds fresh in its concentrated performance -- not unlike a debut. This is because the considerable advantages of a long-term musical relationship are at display throughout the record. Not only with regards to the tightness of performance, but also regarding a level of musical familiarity with one another; a rare feat that has always carried the band's musical explorations, and which balances the dynamics and structures of All as a whole. This interplay is accentuated by the record's production, for which Janzen (among others a founding member part of Von Spar, current drummer of Die Sterne and producer of Die Sterne, The Field, PTTRNS, Albrecht Schrader, etc.) and Brenner are also responsible. Urlaub In Polen have also always been a band that defies categorization. But what the songs on All have in common is an architecture evoking krautrock, developing sprawling synthesizer, and guitar workouts on the foundations of finely woven rhythm arrangements. The echoes of west coast pop (the harmonies and the bass), of Rhineland tech house and of early Dire Straits (the vocals and the guitar production) make All a characteristically versatile and international affair. The album shares with their previous efforts the interest and attention for sonic textures and contrasts, but showcases more constraint and focus. In place of noise, details and the enormous joy of playing between Brenner and Janzen come to the fore, equally in the stoic desert kraut hits "Impulse Response" and "THDT", the polyrhythmic "Overall", or the discoid "Proxy Music".

$17.00 IN STOCK

Key figure of the baroque pop/chamber pop genre Louis Philippe's musical output seems to follow a spasmodic timetable. This year has already seen the release of The Devil Laughs (PICI 019CD/LP), his critically acclaimed second collaboration with Young Marble Giant Stuart Moxham, now followed by Thunderclouds, on which he is joined by The Night Mail, a three-man band made up of Robert Rotifer (guitar), former Acid Jazz artist Andy Lewis (bass), and ex-member of Thrashing Doves and Death in Vegas, Ian Button (drums). Philippe and Rotifer have been close friends for many years. At the end of the first lockdown period, Rotifer went to see Philippe at his flat to go through the endless pile of musical sketches the latter had amassed during his prolonged hiatus. In early September the whole band finally got together for two rehearsals before decamping to Rimshot Studios in rural Kent to record the backing tracks for all thirteen songs as well as overdubbing strings (played by violinist Rachel Hall from Big Big Train) and trumpet parts (by Shanti Jayasinha), followed by another session overdubbing vocals, keyboards, percussion, and some more guitars, expertly engineered by Andy Lewis at Rotifer's home studio in Canterbury. The result is an album that evokes that city's fabled brand of whimsical prog just as much as Philippe's deep roots in French song-craft and a shared love for the autumnal side of sunshine pop. "Living on Borrowed Time", a catchy, bass-driven, sounds like the theme tune to a lost Lemmy Caution movie. While the album's title track cloaks the anticipation of a coming storm in heavily jazz-tinged Wyattesque chords magically rising out of the singing noise emanating from a building site next to Louis Philippe's Shepherd's Bush home, light-footed waltzes like "Fall In A Daydream" and "Once In A Lifetime Of Lies" manage to make London feel like Paris, before the closing track "When London Burns" invites the listener onto an imaginary dance-floor where an anglophone Michel Polnareff meets disco boffin Biddu. In between all that, you traverse the eerie aural cityscapes of "Alphaville", the wide dynamic range of two song suites ("The Man Who Had It All" and "Rio Grande"), the Tropicalia/folk-flavored subtlety of "The Mighty Owl", the surprising gospel grooves of "Love Is The Only Light", the arresting stop-and-start dramatics of "No Sound", the unexpected Celtic tones of "Do I" and the equally loony and beautiful semi-instrumental "Willow".

$17.00 IN STOCK

Christian Kjellvander's new solo album, About Love And Loving Again, undeniably feels like a big record. The seven songs on this gently unhurried long-player are allowed to build and meander, make unexpected turns, or even pause to look over their own shoulder before moving on, four of them ending way beyond and one just shy of the seven-minute-mark. It comes as a bit of a shock then to learn that this sound that ranges from almost-silence to unbridledly expressive, widescreen hugeness was created mostly as live by a minimal three-piece line-up in a Stockholm studio basement: Per Nordmark on drums; Pelle Anderson on a Fender Rhodes, a Prophet 5, and a Korg Prologue; Christian Kjellvander on vocals, guitars and whatever came to hand, adding just a touch of bass at the end of two songs. It was May 2020 when this trio congregated, a time, of course, when all of Europe was under strict lockdown, with the famous exception of Sweden. About Love And Loving Again is the sound of Christian Kjellvander waving goodbye to the converted old chapel out in the Swedish wilderness where so much of his music of previous years was written and recorded, "Baptist Lodge" that lends its name to the opening song. The song's evocative lyrics contrast the image of an iconic American car with another stand-out line that finds the singer at the outer edges of Sweden. "Cultural Spain", probably the most tightly written and arranged song on the album, was finished following a mad dash across the old continent back to Sweden, just as borders were being closed in all the countries he passed through. Like a lot of this record, its semi-abstract lyrics are full of complex sexual politics. You don't need to be a celebrity sleuth to realize that much of About Love And Loving Again is deeply autobiographical. In fact, the goddess in the opening song is none other than his current partner, Swedish singer Frida Hyvönen, who also sings backing vocals on "Cultural Spain" and took the cover photo of Christian. Meanwhile, from "Actually Country Gentle" unmistakably alludes to the recent ending of his 13-year marriage. Crucially, Christian Kjellvander describes a world that is much bigger than his private self, and yet there is a vulnerability. As an artist who is "constantly trying to look under different stones," Christian Kjellvander has learnt to rely on instinct rather than intention.

$22.00 NOT IN STOCK

LP version. Christian Kjellvander's new solo album, About Love And Loving Again, undeniably feels like a big record. The seven songs on this gently unhurried long-player are allowed to build and meander, make unexpected turns, or even pause to look over their own shoulder before moving on, four of them ending way beyond and one just shy of the seven-minute-mark. It comes as a bit of a shock then to learn that this sound that ranges from almost-silence to unbridledly expressive, widescreen hugeness was created mostly as live by a minimal three-piece line-up in a Stockholm studio basement: Per Nordmark on drums; Pelle Anderson on a Fender Rhodes, a Prophet 5, and a Korg Prologue; Christian Kjellvander on vocals, guitars and whatever came to hand, adding just a touch of bass at the end of two songs. It was May 2020 when this trio congregated, a time, of course, when all of Europe was under strict lockdown, with the famous exception of Sweden. About Love And Loving Again is the sound of Christian Kjellvander waving goodbye to the converted old chapel out in the Swedish wilderness where so much of his music of previous years was written and recorded, "Baptist Lodge" that lends its name to the opening song. The song's evocative lyrics contrast the image of an iconic American car with another stand-out line that finds the singer at the outer edges of Sweden. "Cultural Spain", probably the most tightly written and arranged song on the album, was finished following a mad dash across the old continent back to Sweden, just as borders were being closed in all the countries he passed through. Like a lot of this record, its semi-abstract lyrics are full of complex sexual politics. You don't need to be a celebrity sleuth to realize that much of About Love And Loving Again is deeply autobiographical. In fact, the goddess in the opening song is none other than his current partner, Swedish singer Frida Hyvönen, who also sings backing vocals on "Cultural Spain" and took the cover photo of Christian. Meanwhile, from "Actually Country Gentle" unmistakably alludes to the recent ending of his 13-year marriage. Crucially, Christian Kjellvander describes a world that is much bigger than his private self, and yet there is a vulnerability. As an artist who is "constantly trying to look under different stones," Christian Kjellvander has learnt to rely on instinct rather than intention.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Arriving at their fourth album with only eight candles on the cake, unhappybirthday have always tempered youthful energy with an impressive maturity, but this is the moment when they truly come of age. Armed with deeper grooves, tighter arrangements, and unconventional hooks, the German trio have found the perfect balance between song and sound on their most irresistible work to date. The briefest trip through their back catalog unearths a wealth of artifacts from an unremembered '80s, be it the cassette tape fuzz which saturated early releases or the genuine love of the decade's underground outcasts. Recall a distant teenage memory of hours lost in an older, cooler friend's record collection; a blur of bedsit anarchists, jangling romantics and monochrome poets alive in polyphony. The result is a mirage of post-punk and Postcard, Penthouse, and Pavement, inspired by the past but impossible to pigeonhole. Ever referential but never reverential, unhappybirthday have that rare ability to distill their influences into an innovative expression far more potent than the sum of its parts. For mondchateau, their second LP on the mighty Tapete Records, unhappybirthday swap Cocteau cool for cocktails by the pool, fusing their sophisticated pop with the louche grooves and ambient beauty of Deutsche Balearic. Taking a stroll through Miko's garden, the trio find Sade under the Kalimba Tree, enjoy an I.C. spritz and savor the tristeza of the late afternoon sun. Punctuated by rhythm box exotica and Diana Kim's limber bass, the nine songs lilt and sway from T.V. Scene to Same Old Scene, the beguiling combination of optimism and melancholy yielding a yearning beauty. Equal parts brooding and ringing, Tobias Rutkowski's guitar is the embodiment of this tension, while the digital keys, glassy mallets, and moonlit chimes of Daniel Jahn's SQ1 provide a shimmering home for his seductive croon and husky introspection. Their ongoing collaboration with Berlin producer Jonas Meyer continues to lend a maturity and clarity to the unhappybirthday sound, while guest vocals from the likes of indie pop icon Andreas Dorau and label-mate Sebastian Lee Phillip (Die Wilde Jagd) add nuance and texture to their sonic palette. A resort collection for SS20, mondchateau offers horizontal dancers, beachfront dreamers, and tidal drift; an aspirational statement undercut by the inescapable feeling that the summer ends only too soon.

$22.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

LP version. Arriving at their fourth album with only eight candles on the cake, unhappybirthday have always tempered youthful energy with an impressive maturity, but this is the moment when they truly come of age. Armed with deeper grooves, tighter arrangements, and unconventional hooks, the German trio have found the perfect balance between song and sound on their most irresistible work to date. The briefest trip through their back catalog unearths a wealth of artifacts from an unremembered '80s, be it the cassette tape fuzz which saturated early releases or the genuine love of the decade's underground outcasts. Recall a distant teenage memory of hours lost in an older, cooler friend's record collection; a blur of bedsit anarchists, jangling romantics and monochrome poets alive in polyphony. The result is a mirage of post-punk and Postcard, Penthouse, and Pavement, inspired by the past but impossible to pigeonhole. Ever referential but never reverential, unhappybirthday have that rare ability to distill their influences into an innovative expression far more potent than the sum of its parts. For mondchateau, their second LP on the mighty Tapete Records, unhappybirthday swap Cocteau cool for cocktails by the pool, fusing their sophisticated pop with the louche grooves and ambient beauty of Deutsche Balearic. Taking a stroll through Miko's garden, the trio find Sade under the Kalimba Tree, enjoy an I.C. spritz and savor the tristeza of the late afternoon sun. Punctuated by rhythm box exotica and Diana Kim's limber bass, the nine songs lilt and sway from T.V. Scene to Same Old Scene, the beguiling combination of optimism and melancholy yielding a yearning beauty. Equal parts brooding and ringing, Tobias Rutkowski's guitar is the embodiment of this tension, while the digital keys, glassy mallets, and moonlit chimes of Daniel Jahn's SQ1 provide a shimmering home for his seductive croon and husky introspection. Their ongoing collaboration with Berlin producer Jonas Meyer continues to lend a maturity and clarity to the unhappybirthday sound, while guest vocals from the likes of indie pop icon Andreas Dorau and label-mate Sebastian Lee Phillip (Die Wilde Jagd) add nuance and texture to their sonic palette. A resort collection for SS20, mondchateau offers horizontal dancers, beachfront dreamers, and tidal drift; an aspirational statement undercut by the inescapable feeling that the summer ends only too soon.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The world of Scarlet's Well was conceived in 1998 by Bid, the lead singer, guitarist, and main songwriter of The Monochrome Set, after they had disbanded for a second time. Lavishly illustrated albums emerged quietly, all set in and around Mousseron, "a sickly village situated somewhere east of the Azores and only slightly north of the Styx" populated by howling wolves, seductive mermaids, and a bawdy captain with his crew of beer-swilling pirates and off-kilter animals with disturbingly human characteristics. In Bid's words, "I wanted this to be an 'atmosphere' rather than a band, and thought I'd have greater freedom using a variety of different singers, musicians and writers. The identity of the albums had to be strong enough to allow these changes, without them seeming like compilations. It's akin to an open-ended musical with a partly ever-changing cast." Between 1999 and 2010, Scarlet's Well released seven albums on Spanish-based Siesta Records. It was originally designed as a studio project, with a vague idea that a live band may follow. In the event, four albums were made where nearly all the instrumentation was performed by Bid, Orson Presence (keyboard player of the '90s Monochrome Set), and Toby Robinson (producer of most of the '90s Monochrome Set albums). Bid's voice took turns with an enchanting cast of young ladies, of whom only Alice Healey was a permanent member. Soon after the fourth album, a live band was formed, though without Orson Presence, who was now living in Canada. A slightly changing line-up then recorded three more albums, with live performances, before Scarlet's Well disbanded in 2010. The third rebirth of The Monochrome Set then followed, and is still going. Archaic and arcane, literate and witty, cinematic and surreal, the Scarlet's Well songs feature gorgeous, timeless, intoxicating melodies with wide range of rich and multi-layered instrumentation. Although there is a conceptual thread that runs through the albums, each song still stands alone, an oddly shaped trinket from a treasure trove. Lyrics leap from cryptic literary allusions to pert whimsy, and although there is a certain obscure quality there is also an air of familiarity: a morphic memory magic, bringing on a parallel universe that reveals itself to those who are open to getting lost with new acquaintances down strange cobbled streets, wooded glades, uncharted waters or the dark tunnels of the underworld.

$17.00 IN STOCK

The world of Scarlet's Well was conceived in 1998 by Bid, the lead singer, guitarist, and main songwriter of The Monochrome Set, after they had disbanded for a second time. Lavishly illustrated albums emerged quietly, all set in and around Mousseron, "a sickly village situated somewhere east of the Azores and only slightly north of the Styx" populated by howling wolves, seductive mermaids, and a bawdy captain with his crew of beer-swilling pirates and off-kilter animals with disturbingly human characteristics. In Bid's words, "I wanted this to be an 'atmosphere' rather than a band, and thought I'd have greater freedom using a variety of different singers, musicians and writers. The identity of the albums had to be strong enough to allow these changes, without them seeming like compilations. It's akin to an open-ended musical with a partly ever-changing cast." Between 1999 and 2010, Scarlet's Well released seven albums on Spanish-based Siesta Records. It was originally designed as a studio project, with a vague idea that a live band may follow. In the event, four albums were made where nearly all the instrumentation was performed by Bid, Orson Presence (keyboard player of the '90s Monochrome Set), and Toby Robinson (producer of most of the '90s Monochrome Set albums). Bid's voice took turns with an enchanting cast of young ladies, of whom only Alice Healey was a permanent member. Soon after the fourth album, a live band was formed, though without Orson Presence, who was now living in Canada. A slightly changing line-up then recorded three more albums, with live performances, before Scarlet's Well disbanded in 2010. The third rebirth of The Monochrome Set then followed, and is still going. Archaic and arcane, literate and witty, cinematic and surreal, the Scarlet's Well songs feature gorgeous, timeless, intoxicating melodies with wide range of rich and multi-layered instrumentation. Although there is a conceptual thread that runs through the albums, each song still stands alone, an oddly shaped trinket from a treasure trove. Lyrics leap from cryptic literary allusions to pert whimsy, and although there is a certain obscure quality there is also an air of familiarity: a morphic memory magic, bringing on a parallel universe that reveals itself to those who are open to getting lost with new acquaintances down strange cobbled streets, wooded glades, uncharted waters or the dark tunnels of the underworld.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Southend stalwarts Eight Rounds Rapid release their third album Love Your Work on German label Tapete Records. Rooted in the infamous Canvey Island R'n'B tradition, Eight Rounds Rapid channel the fervor of Dr Feelgood, Wire, Gang of Four, and Public Image Limited with their gritty tales of the Essex underworld. The band's debut album (2014) gained excellent reviews from the likes of Uncut, who called it "edgy, drugged-up thug punk." Mojo gave the band a 4-star review and Classic Rock said the album is a "welcome blast of no-frills, bullshit-free excitement." Eight Rounds Rapid supported Wilko Johnson on two major UK tours, and have had airplay from BBC DJs Mark Radcliffe, Gary Crowley, Gideon Coe, and Steve Lamacq. Second album Objet D'Art (2017) also received critical acclaim. Mojo praised it's "high octane rebelliousness and cheeky wit" and guitarist Simon Johnson's "trashy, thrashy guitar, a cacophonous hybrid of his dad Wilko, Johnny Thunders and early Pete Townsend". The band's songs are rooted in traditional rhythm and blues, but impulsive guitar from Simon Johnson (Wilko's son) and acerbic delivery from singer David Alexander make the act sound like John Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith fighting in a Southend bus depot. The line-up also features Jules Cooper (bass) and Lee Watkins (drums). Recorded under the specter of a global pandemic, Love Your Work reflects feelings of confusion, angst and isolation -- all delivered with singer David Alexander's trademark sneering dry wit. The customary low life and underground subjects are still the only language they know, but this album is as much a commentary on contemporary music confronting modernity as it is a collection of musical compositions. The new album grapples with the folly of nostalgia while singles "Love Don't", "Tricks", and "Eating" ramp up the energy levels. Violent low lives and losers populate the songs as usual, but David Alexander now draws himself closer into view, with "Aging Athlete", a metaphor for a musician searching for legitimacy in a dull landscape. Music as duty. Love your work.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Southend stalwarts Eight Rounds Rapid release their third album Love Your Work on German label Tapete Records. Rooted in the infamous Canvey Island R'n'B tradition, Eight Rounds Rapid channel the fervor of Dr Feelgood, Wire, Gang of Four, and Public Image Limited with their gritty tales of the Essex underworld. The band's debut album (2014) gained excellent reviews from the likes of Uncut, who called it "edgy, drugged-up thug punk." Mojo gave the band a 4-star review and Classic Rock said the album is a "welcome blast of no-frills, bullshit-free excitement." Eight Rounds Rapid supported Wilko Johnson on two major UK tours, and have had airplay from BBC DJs Mark Radcliffe, Gary Crowley, Gideon Coe, and Steve Lamacq. Second album Objet D'Art (2017) also received critical acclaim. Mojo praised it's "high octane rebelliousness and cheeky wit" and guitarist Simon Johnson's "trashy, thrashy guitar, a cacophonous hybrid of his dad Wilko, Johnny Thunders and early Pete Townsend". The band's songs are rooted in traditional rhythm and blues, but impulsive guitar from Simon Johnson (Wilko's son) and acerbic delivery from singer David Alexander make the act sound like John Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith fighting in a Southend bus depot. The line-up also features Jules Cooper (bass) and Lee Watkins (drums). Recorded under the specter of a global pandemic, Love Your Work reflects feelings of confusion, angst and isolation -- all delivered with singer David Alexander's trademark sneering dry wit. The customary low life and underground subjects are still the only language they know, but this album is as much a commentary on contemporary music confronting modernity as it is a collection of musical compositions. The new album grapples with the folly of nostalgia while singles "Love Don't", "Tricks", and "Eating" ramp up the energy levels. Violent low lives and losers populate the songs as usual, but David Alexander now draws himself closer into view, with "Aging Athlete", a metaphor for a musician searching for legitimacy in a dull landscape. Music as duty. Love your work.

$19.50 LOW STOCK LEVEL

The Düsseldorf women's punk band Östro 430 was founded in late 1979. In May 1980 they were discovered by the band Fehlfarben at a punk festival in Neuss and hired to support their German tour. In 1981 the first EP Durch Dick & Dünn followed with a total of eight songs, including their most famous title "Sexueller Notstand". Sex, outdated views (especially against women), and smugness were often topics in the songs of Östro 430. In spring 1983 the first album Weiber Wie Wir was released, no further releases were made. In May 1984 Östro 430 gave a farewell concert in Düsseldorf and disbanded. The two founders Martina Weith and Bettina Flörchinger performed together again.

$29.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. The Düsseldorf women's punk band Östro 430 was founded in late 1979. In May 1980 they were discovered by the band Fehlfarben at a punk festival in Neuss and hired to support their German tour. In 1981 the first EP Durch Dick & Dünn followed with a total of eight songs, including their most famous title "Sexueller Notstand". Sex, outdated views (especially against women), and smugness were often topics in the songs of Östro 430. In spring 1983 the first album Weiber Wie Wir was released, no further releases were made. In May 1984 Östro 430 gave a farewell concert in Düsseldorf and disbanded. The two founders Martina Weith and Bettina Flörchinger performed together again.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Drift. is the project of London based artist Nathalie Bruno. Starting in 2015, her debut EP Black Devotion was released on the Italian label Avant! Records. After playing a range of diverse shows in UK and Europe and the release of the second EP, Genderland in 2017, she locked herself in her East London studio to assimilate a new set of influences that synthesized in what became Symbiosis, her first full-length record. "The seed for Symbiosis was sewn after having picked up a book from a charity shop by chance in Finsbury Park, The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab. It really struck a chord inside and brought on a deep exploration of myself and the world I was seeing form around me. As a form of therapy, I set myself the target of finishing an album by the end of the year, I didn't know what or how but I knew I didn't want it to be compiled of 'singles' and had envisioned songs weaving together, forming a subtle message as a whole yet to not be a 'concept album' as such. I was attracted to sounds, in any form; classical music, '70s electronic pioneers like Harmonia, Cluster, Faust, New York's tape experimentalists, the avant-pop landscapes of Chris & Cosey to John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Kate Bush, and Broadcast: all resonated with me a greatly whilst I devoured any form of literature or films that came my way by suggestion or by chance and stored every word and every image in a little box somewhere up there. I let it come out in its own time by revisiting old songs I had recorded over the years, until I started molding new sounds from old ones, cut ups of synth jams done alone, field recordings from my phone to use as samples -- Eventually it was all starting to make sense. The name itself came to me from reading a book of William Burroughs. The word 'symbiosis' had never been in my vocabulary before, which is strange now as it's a word that pops up all the time. It represented a whole variety of interpretations, from the content in each song, to the process of finishing the record, to how I felt in general and towards the world. The cover-artwork which is a masterpiece in my opinion, was done by Jack Smith."

$17.00 IN STOCK

This album is a tale of two cities, or rather, two studios; one in Hayland, Norway and the other in Flatbush, Brooklyn and two brothers who came up with the idea making a record with indie rock wizard Gary Olson which now links the two locations. Gary Olson is the lead singer, main songwriter, and plays trumpet with the band Ladybug Transistor who have released five albums on Merge Records. He is also producer and engineer at Marlborough Farms studio deep in the heart of Flatbush Brooklyn. On the Norwegian side Ole Johannes Åleskjær has his studio, Tune-J in the bucolic countryside outside Oslo. He and his brother Jorn Åleskjær met Gary many years ago when their band Loch Ness Mouse crossed paths with Ladybug Transistor on tour. At one of these chance meetings Ole put forward the idea of a writing and recording collaboration between himself, his brother Jorn and Gary with the recording done both in Norway and Brooklyn. Over a period of eight years Gary would visit the Åleskjær brother's barn studio in its idyllic setting near the Swedish border and do basic tracks on whatever songs the three had written. Gary would then take the recordings back to Brooklyn where he would add vocals, horns, and strings at his studio. The recordings would then return to Norway for producer Ole to finish the tracks. By the end of 2019 this set of eleven songs had naturally blossomed into an album. With Ole producing and playing guitar and Gary doing vocals and trumpet the album personnel was rounded out by Håvard Krogedal (bass, cello) and Emil Nikolaisen (drums) both from Serena-Maneesh; Joe McGinty (string arrangements, piano, organ) from The Psychedelic Furs, Ryan Adams, and Suzanne Nienaber on backing vocals (Pale Lights). Although the initial idea was to do simple recordings Ladybug Transistor fans will no doubt be pleased to find Gary's signature exultant trumpet sound, the luscious strings, and gorgeous pop hooks so favored by that band present in plenty on this album. The melodies are at once both delicate and strongly memorable and the lustrous production gives a sheen reminiscent of the best '70s commercial radio and '80s indie pop. Fittingly the album cover photo depicts Gary on a decommissioned airfield in New York that is now a national park. There's a dreamy, overwhelming vastness on the old runway that was built in the 1920s.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Drift. is the project of London based artist Nathalie Bruno. Starting in 2015, her debut EP Black Devotion was released on the Italian label Avant! Records. After playing a range of diverse shows in UK and Europe and the release of the second EP, Genderland in 2017, she locked herself in her East London studio to assimilate a new set of influences that synthesized in what became Symbiosis, her first full-length record. "The seed for Symbiosis was sewn after having picked up a book from a charity shop by chance in Finsbury Park, The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab. It really struck a chord inside and brought on a deep exploration of myself and the world I was seeing form around me. As a form of therapy, I set myself the target of finishing an album by the end of the year, I didn't know what or how but I knew I didn't want it to be compiled of 'singles' and had envisioned songs weaving together, forming a subtle message as a whole yet to not be a 'concept album' as such. I was attracted to sounds, in any form; classical music, '70s electronic pioneers like Harmonia, Cluster, Faust, New York's tape experimentalists, the avant-pop landscapes of Chris & Cosey to John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Kate Bush, and Broadcast: all resonated with me a greatly whilst I devoured any form of literature or films that came my way by suggestion or by chance and stored every word and every image in a little box somewhere up there. I let it come out in its own time by revisiting old songs I had recorded over the years, until I started molding new sounds from old ones, cut ups of synth jams done alone, field recordings from my phone to use as samples -- Eventually it was all starting to make sense. The name itself came to me from reading a book of William Burroughs. The word 'symbiosis' had never been in my vocabulary before, which is strange now as it's a word that pops up all the time. It represented a whole variety of interpretations, from the content in each song, to the process of finishing the record, to how I felt in general and towards the world. The cover-artwork which is a masterpiece in my opinion, was done by Jack Smith."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. This album is a tale of two cities, or rather, two studios; one in Hayland, Norway and the other in Flatbush, Brooklyn and two brothers who came up with the idea making a record with indie rock wizard Gary Olson which now links the two locations. Gary Olson is the lead singer, main songwriter, and plays trumpet with the band Ladybug Transistor who have released five albums on Merge Records. He is also producer and engineer at Marlborough Farms studio deep in the heart of Flatbush Brooklyn. On the Norwegian side Ole Johannes Åleskjær has his studio, Tune-J in the bucolic countryside outside Oslo. He and his brother Jorn Åleskjær met Gary many years ago when their band Loch Ness Mouse crossed paths with Ladybug Transistor on tour. At one of these chance meetings Ole put forward the idea of a writing and recording collaboration between himself, his brother Jorn and Gary with the recording done both in Norway and Brooklyn. Over a period of eight years Gary would visit the Åleskjær brother's barn studio in its idyllic setting near the Swedish border and do basic tracks on whatever songs the three had written. Gary would then take the recordings back to Brooklyn where he would add vocals, horns, and strings at his studio. The recordings would then return to Norway for producer Ole to finish the tracks. By the end of 2019 this set of eleven songs had naturally blossomed into an album. With Ole producing and playing guitar and Gary doing vocals and trumpet the album personnel was rounded out by Håvard Krogedal (bass, cello) and Emil Nikolaisen (drums) both from Serena-Maneesh; Joe McGinty (string arrangements, piano, organ) from The Psychedelic Furs, Ryan Adams, and Suzanne Nienaber on backing vocals (Pale Lights). Although the initial idea was to do simple recordings Ladybug Transistor fans will no doubt be pleased to find Gary's signature exultant trumpet sound, the luscious strings, and gorgeous pop hooks so favored by that band present in plenty on this album. The melodies are at once both delicate and strongly memorable and the lustrous production gives a sheen reminiscent of the best '70s commercial radio and '80s indie pop. Fittingly the album cover photo depicts Gary on a decommissioned airfield in New York that is now a national park. There's a dreamy, overwhelming vastness on the old runway that was built in the 1920s.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "I read a bit of Restoration poetry and listen to Leadbelly, and it comes out like that." (Bid, The Monochrome Set)

Tapete Records present a reissue of The Monochrome Set's second album Love Zombies, originally released in 1980. The casual prose of pop history is full of backhanded compliments, and The Monochrome Set have received a few, ranging from "should have been massive" to "influential", numbering the likes of Morrissey and Marr, Blur's Graham Coxon and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos among their celebrity admirers. Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique (TR 394CD/LP), featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies.

$17.00 IN STOCK

"I read a bit of Restoration poetry and listen to Leadbelly, and it comes out like that." (Bid, The Monochrome Set)

Tapete Records present a reissue of The Monochrome Set's second album Love Zombies, originally released in 1980. The casual prose of pop history is full of backhanded compliments, and The Monochrome Set have received a few, ranging from "should have been massive" to "influential", numbering the likes of Morrissey and Marr, Blur's Graham Coxon and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos among their celebrity admirers. Released in February 1980, their first album Strange Boutique (TR 394CD/LP), featuring the band's percussion-heavy theme song (predating Adam & The Ants' "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by months) and the Johnny Marr-anticipating "Love Goes Down The Drain", caught the Monochrome Set in full flight, quickly followed by the equally taut, funny and adventurously dynamic Love Zombies.