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CD
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TR 577CD
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$16.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2024
The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern that began in 1987, the only constant being sole composer/instigator, Northumbrian born Stephen Lawrie. The band's line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between one and twenty members on a recording. The Telescopes were initially signed to Cheree Records then moved on to What Goes On Records where they became regulars at the top of the indie charts before gaining more mainstream success on signing to Creation Records. The Telescopes music has constantly pushed at its own boundaries; it overlaps many genres following its own course, inspiration led. Time has shown The Telescopes music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new with each listen, a thread consistent throughout a highly influential body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have been cited as an influence on many artists across genres, around the world. Halo Moon is The Telescopes 17th studio album, the sixth for Tapete Records. It came from the sky. A herald of new beginnings. A tranquil glow in the boundless universe.
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LP
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TR 577LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 9/27/2024
LP version. The Telescopes are an all-embracing concern that began in 1987, the only constant being sole composer/instigator, Northumbrian born Stephen Lawrie. The band's line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between one and twenty members on a recording. The Telescopes were initially signed to Cheree Records then moved on to What Goes On Records where they became regulars at the top of the indie charts before gaining more mainstream success on signing to Creation Records. The Telescopes music has constantly pushed at its own boundaries; it overlaps many genres following its own course, inspiration led. Time has shown The Telescopes music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new with each listen, a thread consistent throughout a highly influential body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have been cited as an influence on many artists across genres, around the world. Halo Moon is The Telescopes 17th studio album, the sixth for Tapete Records. It came from the sky. A herald of new beginnings. A tranquil glow in the boundless universe.
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LP
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TR 579LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/30/2024
LP version. US singer-songwriter legend Amy Rigby presents her new album Hang In There With Me through Tapete Records. Eleven up-to-the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couples' home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesizers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy and Erics rustic mid-century echo chamber. Like some people turn to the moon and stars for inspiration, Amy Rigby looks to creative heroes like Bob Dylan and Mike Leigh. She finds poetry in haircuts, live chat boxes; bartending and bookselling. Her music is the sound of everyday people getting by, just like the country artists she loved and learned to write songs from. The recording of Hang In There With Me was bookended by Amy performing in the round alongside Nashville compadre David Olney when he died onstage in January 2020, and the demise of Amy's dad. Along with Eric's near-fatal heart attack, it could have all made for heavy going in the studio, but Amy says: "There was nothing to hide in the few years when no one could see each other. And with my dad losing his mind and passing away, there's not much left to prove anymore. Watching key figures in our lives die just makes it clear that getting older is a gift and brings a new kind of freedom. Writing songs, making records and touring has been my life and I'm lucky I have the energy and will to keep at it. I still just want to share stories and rock out on guitar. The world is such a mess she says. Writing songs and working in the studio is a small way to make order out of the chaos. It keeps on giving me hope. Hang In There With Me looks at the impossibility of life and living it anyway, with abandon." Amy Rigby has established herself one of Americas enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hells' favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with '90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife.
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CD
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TR 579CD
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$16.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/30/2024
US singer-songwriter legend Amy Rigby presents her new album Hang In There With Me through Tapete Records. Eleven up-to-the minute songs written by Amy and recorded by Wreckless Eric at the couples' home in upstate NY, Hang In There With Me is a bracing look at life inside the vortex of the last few years. Rigby's distinctive voice bluntly traverses love, loss and DIY projects gone wrong over guitars cranked or shimmering, indelible bass lines, a raft of synthesizers, keyboards, beat boxes and the occasional drummer allowed into Amy and Erics rustic mid-century echo chamber. Like some people turn to the moon and stars for inspiration, Amy Rigby looks to creative heroes like Bob Dylan and Mike Leigh. She finds poetry in haircuts, live chat boxes; bartending and bookselling. Her music is the sound of everyday people getting by, just like the country artists she loved and learned to write songs from. The recording of Hang In There With Me was bookended by Amy performing in the round alongside Nashville compadre David Olney when he died onstage in January 2020, and the demise of Amy's dad. Along with Eric's near-fatal heart attack, it could have all made for heavy going in the studio, but Amy says: "There was nothing to hide in the few years when no one could see each other. And with my dad losing his mind and passing away, there's not much left to prove anymore. Watching key figures in our lives die just makes it clear that getting older is a gift and brings a new kind of freedom. Writing songs, making records and touring has been my life and I'm lucky I have the energy and will to keep at it. I still just want to share stories and rock out on guitar. The world is such a mess she says. Writing songs and working in the studio is a small way to make order out of the chaos. It keeps on giving me hope. Hang In There With Me looks at the impossibility of life and living it anyway, with abandon." Amy Rigby has established herself one of Americas enduring underground/cult/indie artists, combining the insight and humor of country and folk songwriting with classic rock craftsmanship and punk DIY spirit. She formed pre-Americana country band Last Roundup (Rounder) and Richard Hells' favorite girl group the Shams (Matador) in downtown NYC before launching a solo career with '90s classic album Diary Of A Mod Housewife.
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TR 539CD
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The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in three different countries over a three-year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain.
"Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here's a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns." --Stephen Lawrie, February 2024
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LP
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TR 539LP
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$26.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 5/31/2024
LP version. The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in three different countries over a three-year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain.
"Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here's a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns." --Stephen Lawrie, February 2024
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LP
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TR 558LP
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LP version. Hailing from a place of ancient mariners' secret coves and vast moors beaten by the wind and rain, Backwater Collage is James Hoare's first solo album under the name of Penny Arcade. Despite leaving London for the West country he grew up in, the Englishman is no stranger to the scene. He has been wandering around as if awakened from a long, not-so-peaceful sleep for some time now. You have most probably come across his washed-out blue eyes several times, in projects including Veronica Falls, The Proper Ornaments, and Ultimate Painting. For this dreamy, hand-stitched record, Hoare has taken his time. Maybe because he had to rescue his songs from various recording sessions tinged with a number of mishaps he amusedly admits he is accustomed to: broken multitracks, failing tape machines, rarely available drummers living in the capital. The eleven intimate and solitary songs which make up the album, delivered in the greatest home recording tradition, are nonetheless cautiously produced. James unfurls pure, uncluttered melodies in which his gentle, melancholic voice mingles with smooth, warm vocals by Nathalia Bruno. Barely saturated guitar solos sometimes disrupt the clear, unpolished musical line. Hopping onboard, longtime friend Max Claps has added keyboard parts which manage to embrace the minimal nostalgia of the tracks while preventing any teary pathos. Similar to Jack Name or Syd Barrett -- only less psychedelic -- in terms of songwriting and stripped back atmosphere, Hoare is sitting on the Velvet Underground's black-and-white sofa and gives his album a subterranean feel. At times restless but light-footed, deprived of any unnecessary effects, the record follows in the steps of a less noisy but just as raw and unadorned Jesus and Mary Chain. With Backwater Collage, alone at the helm under a stormy sky, James Hoare invites his listeners to settle in the sheltered comfort of a cup of tea.
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CD
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TR 558CD
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Hailing from a place of ancient mariners' secret coves and vast moors beaten by the wind and rain, Backwater Collage is James Hoare's first solo album under the name of Penny Arcade. Despite leaving London for the West country he grew up in, the Englishman is no stranger to the scene. He has been wandering around as if awakened from a long, not-so-peaceful sleep for some time now. You have most probably come across his washed-out blue eyes several times, in projects including Veronica Falls, The Proper Ornaments, and Ultimate Painting. For this dreamy, hand-stitched record, Hoare has taken his time. Maybe because he had to rescue his songs from various recording sessions tinged with a number of mishaps he amusedly admits he is accustomed to: broken multitracks, failing tape machines, rarely available drummers living in the capital. The eleven intimate and solitary songs which make up the album, delivered in the greatest home recording tradition, are nonetheless cautiously produced. James unfurls pure, uncluttered melodies in which his gentle, melancholic voice mingles with smooth, warm vocals by Nathalia Bruno. Barely saturated guitar solos sometimes disrupt the clear, unpolished musical line. Hopping onboard, longtime friend Max Claps has added keyboard parts which manage to embrace the minimal nostalgia of the tracks while preventing any teary pathos. Similar to Jack Name or Syd Barrett -- only less psychedelic -- in terms of songwriting and stripped back atmosphere, Hoare is sitting on the Velvet Underground's black-and-white sofa and gives his album a subterranean feel. At times restless but light-footed, deprived of any unnecessary effects, the record follows in the steps of a less noisy but just as raw and unadorned Jesus and Mary Chain. With Backwater Collage, alone at the helm under a stormy sky, James Hoare invites his listeners to settle in the sheltered comfort of a cup of tea.
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TR 513CD
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BMX Bandits are back with their twelfth studio album, their most musically ambitious so far -- Dreamers On The Run. An album dedicated to all the outsiders out there. BMX Bandits were formed in the Scottish ex industrial town of Bellshill in 1985 by Duglas T Stewart and Sean Dickson. When Sean left to concentrate on his other band The Soup Dragons so began BMX Bandits, not as a conventional band of the same four or five faces but as an ever-growing extended musical family which has included members of The Vaselines, The Pastels, The Pearlfishers, and Teenage Fanclub over the years. In 2014 Duglas formulated the idea for a new BMX Bandits album that would be called Dreamers on the Run, about living in two worlds; the world of dreams and of music while trying to survive the real world. The album was mastered by Duglas' original partner in crime Sean Dickson, now known as Hifi Sean and features guest appearances by giants of the International Pop Underground Jowe Head and Calvin Johnson. Musically there are nods to Womack and Womack, classic Motown vocal groups and Todd Rundgren. It features a classic soul-tinged pop string arrangement and a killer guitar solo. For "The Things You Threw Away" Duglas worked with New York based musician and arranger Jay Jay Lozano who leads the group Adventures in Rhythm. Duglas knew Jay Jay was a fellow fan of classic American musicals of the past and old romantic songs from the 1930s by writers like Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Noble, and Frank Churchill.
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LP + 7"
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TR 513X-LP
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LP version. Includes 7". BMX Bandits are back with their twelfth studio album, their most musically ambitious so far -- Dreamers On The Run. An album dedicated to all the outsiders out there. BMX Bandits were formed in the Scottish ex industrial town of Bellshill in 1985 by Duglas T Stewart and Sean Dickson. When Sean left to concentrate on his other band The Soup Dragons so began BMX Bandits, not as a conventional band of the same four or five faces but as an ever-growing extended musical family which has included members of The Vaselines, The Pastels, The Pearlfishers, and Teenage Fanclub over the years. In 2014 Duglas formulated the idea for a new BMX Bandits album that would be called Dreamers on the Run, about living in two worlds; the world of dreams and of music while trying to survive the real world. The album was mastered by Duglas' original partner in crime Sean Dickson, now known as Hifi Sean and features guest appearances by giants of the International Pop Underground Jowe Head and Calvin Johnson. Musically there are nods to Womack and Womack, classic Motown vocal groups and Todd Rundgren. It features a classic soul-tinged pop string arrangement and a killer guitar solo. For "The Things You Threw Away" Duglas worked with New York based musician and arranger Jay Jay Lozano who leads the group Adventures in Rhythm. Duglas knew Jay Jay was a fellow fan of classic American musicals of the past and old romantic songs from the 1930s by writers like Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Noble, and Frank Churchill.
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LP
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TR 513LP
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LP version. BMX Bandits are back with their twelfth studio album, their most musically ambitious so far -- Dreamers On The Run. An album dedicated to all the outsiders out there. BMX Bandits were formed in the Scottish ex industrial town of Bellshill in 1985 by Duglas T Stewart and Sean Dickson. When Sean left to concentrate on his other band The Soup Dragons so began BMX Bandits, not as a conventional band of the same four or five faces but as an ever-growing extended musical family which has included members of The Vaselines, The Pastels, The Pearlfishers, and Teenage Fanclub over the years. In 2014 Duglas formulated the idea for a new BMX Bandits album that would be called Dreamers on the Run, about living in two worlds; the world of dreams and of music while trying to survive the real world. The album was mastered by Duglas' original partner in crime Sean Dickson, now known as Hifi Sean and features guest appearances by giants of the International Pop Underground Jowe Head and Calvin Johnson. Musically there are nods to Womack and Womack, classic Motown vocal groups and Todd Rundgren. It features a classic soul-tinged pop string arrangement and a killer guitar solo. For "The Things You Threw Away" Duglas worked with New York based musician and arranger Jay Jay Lozano who leads the group Adventures in Rhythm. Duglas knew Jay Jay was a fellow fan of classic American musicals of the past and old romantic songs from the 1930s by writers like Hoagy Carmichael, Ray Noble, and Frank Churchill.
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CD
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TR 537CD
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The second release in Tapete's great series of radio sessions are the collected BBC recordings of Comet Gain, the rough diamond of the international pop underground, the indie punk Monkees, the noise pop collective Numero Uno! Radio Sessions BBC 1996 - 2011 contains three John Peel sessions from 1996 and 1997 as well as a Marc Riley session from 2011. One thing is for sure: a world in which such a great, anarchic, idiosyncratic band, simply perfect in its imperfection, is invited to Abbey Road Studios for radio sessions by the country's biggest broadcaster, among others, can't be that bad. All those who are already fans of Comet Gain should have this album, and everyone else too.
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LP
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TR 554LP
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LP version. 2024 marks 40 years of Pete Astor making records, a suitable anniversary point at which to take stock and double back on songs that first appeared on records by Astor-fronted combos such as Creation Records trailblazers The Loft and The Weather Prophets, and Matador recording artists The Wisdom of Harry, as well as selections from solo albums that appeared on labels such as Danceteria and Static Caravan. Astor's motivation for Tall Stories & New Religions, as his extensive notes make clear, is manifold. Some songs are effectively reexamined in the way one might linger over a resonant picture from a box of old photographs -- connecting with the essence of a younger self. Other songs are newly recast in wiser and more reflective hues, while others simply demanded exhumation from willfully opaque, lo-fi non-production. The songs chosen are not the obvious ones -- there's no "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" or "Almost Prayed" here -- but have been selected for more interesting, often esoteric, reasons. Astor is accompanied by an estimable band of co-conspirators, evolving out of many hours spent playing music together on records and at shows over the last decade. They are drummer Ian Button (Death in Vegas, Papernut Cambridge, Go Kart Mozart), bassist Andy Lewis (Paul Weller, Soho Radio, and Blow Up DJ), guitarist Wilson Neil Scott (Summerhill, Felt, Everything But the Girl), and keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Sean Read (Dexys, Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan, Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers, Beth Orton, Chrissie Hynde). Together they've revisited these lost gems of songs in a manner that has allowed Astor to balance the way that they still make sense to him now, looking both to the future and to that big and interesting new country, the past.
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TR 545CD
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Brausepöter (Martin Lück, Bernd Hanhardt and Kemper) were founded in 1978 in East Westphalia and were originally called Nordwest Germanes Eiterlager, NWE for short. Brilliant name, but Brausepöter isn't bad either! This makes them one of the first German punk bands -- punk in the true sense of the word, or as the US fanzine Maximum Rocknroll put it: "It's indie punk in the purest John Peel sense" or, as Martin Lück put it, "We always wanted to take all the rock out of our music." Brausepöter released their last regular album Nerven geschädigt in 2019. The punk magazine FAZ titled their review "The new Brausepöter record shows what punk means today." For them, Brausepöter is "a German band that was unfortunately too good to become as famous as Trio or Die Toten Hosen." Spiegel Online also liked Nerven geschädigt: "In its radical disinterest in everything that is possible and promising, Brausepöter's music seems even more consistent today than it did back then." The lost 1979 album Keiner kann uns ab is now being released. Originally the record, recorded with a cassette recorder in '79, was supposed to be released by ZickZack, but nothing came of it. Did the tape get lost in the post? Were the recordings too good? Or too radical even for ZickZack? If Keiner kann uns ab had actually been released back then, who knows, perhaps today the album would be mentioned in the same breath as Monarchie und Alltag, Amok Koma, or Slime's debut. But maybe not, because the Brausepöter sound is too unique, too ramshackle, too DIY -- closer to the TVPs, closer to The Fall or closer to the early Mekons than to all the punk rock bands. Brausepöter are simply "indie punk in the purest John Peel sense."
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TR 545LP
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LP version. Brausepöter (Martin Lück, Bernd Hanhardt and Kemper) were founded in 1978 in East Westphalia and were originally called Nordwest Germanes Eiterlager, NWE for short. Brilliant name, but Brausepöter isn't bad either! This makes them one of the first German punk bands -- punk in the true sense of the word, or as the US fanzine Maximum Rocknroll put it: "It's indie punk in the purest John Peel sense" or, as Martin Lück put it, "We always wanted to take all the rock out of our music." Brausepöter released their last regular album Nerven geschädigt in 2019. The punk magazine FAZ titled their review "The new Brausepöter record shows what punk means today." For them, Brausepöter is "a German band that was unfortunately too good to become as famous as Trio or Die Toten Hosen." Spiegel Online also liked Nerven geschädigt: "In its radical disinterest in everything that is possible and promising, Brausepöter's music seems even more consistent today than it did back then." The lost 1979 album Keiner kann uns ab is now being released. Originally the record, recorded with a cassette recorder in '79, was supposed to be released by ZickZack, but nothing came of it. Did the tape get lost in the post? Were the recordings too good? Or too radical even for ZickZack? If Keiner kann uns ab had actually been released back then, who knows, perhaps today the album would be mentioned in the same breath as Monarchie und Alltag, Amok Koma, or Slime's debut. But maybe not, because the Brausepöter sound is too unique, too ramshackle, too DIY -- closer to the TVPs, closer to The Fall or closer to the early Mekons than to all the punk rock bands. Brausepöter are simply "indie punk in the purest John Peel sense."
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CD
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TR 554CD
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2024 marks 40 years of Pete Astor making records, a suitable anniversary point at which to take stock and double back on songs that first appeared on records by Astor-fronted combos such as Creation Records trailblazers The Loft and The Weather Prophets, and Matador recording artists The Wisdom of Harry, as well as selections from solo albums that appeared on labels such as Danceteria and Static Caravan. Astor's motivation for Tall Stories & New Religions, as his extensive notes make clear, is manifold. Some songs are effectively reexamined in the way one might linger over a resonant picture from a box of old photographs -- connecting with the essence of a younger self. Other songs are newly recast in wiser and more reflective hues, while others simply demanded exhumation from willfully opaque, lo-fi non-production. The songs chosen are not the obvious ones -- there's no "Up the Hill and Down the Slope" or "Almost Prayed" here -- but have been selected for more interesting, often esoteric, reasons. Astor is accompanied by an estimable band of co-conspirators, evolving out of many hours spent playing music together on records and at shows over the last decade. They are drummer Ian Button (Death in Vegas, Papernut Cambridge, Go Kart Mozart), bassist Andy Lewis (Paul Weller, Soho Radio, and Blow Up DJ), guitarist Wilson Neil Scott (Summerhill, Felt, Everything But the Girl), and keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist/producer Sean Read (Dexys, Mark Lanegan, Dave Gahan, Iggy Pop, Manic Street Preachers, Beth Orton, Chrissie Hynde). Together they've revisited these lost gems of songs in a manner that has allowed Astor to balance the way that they still make sense to him now, looking both to the future and to that big and interesting new country, the past.
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LP
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TR 537LP
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LP version. The second release in Tapete's great series of radio sessions are the collected BBC recordings of Comet Gain, the rough diamond of the international pop underground, the indie punk Monkees, the noise pop collective Numero Uno! Radio Sessions BBC 1996 - 2011 contains three John Peel sessions from 1996 and 1997 as well as a Marc Riley session from 2011. One thing is for sure: a world in which such a great, anarchic, idiosyncratic band, simply perfect in its imperfection, is invited to Abbey Road Studios for radio sessions by the country's biggest broadcaster, among others, can't be that bad. All those who are already fans of Comet Gain should have this album, and everyone else too.
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TR 550LP
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LP version. Naked but for a soft blanket of reverb, Christian Kjellvander's tender voice invites us into his latest creation, the swooning Hold Your Love Still. His first solo album since 2020's About Love And Loving Again (TR 468CD/LP) finds the Swedish troubadour in a reflective mood, exploring the difficulties of an honest life amid the entanglement of capitalism, and imploring us to nurture that faltering hope for a better tomorrow. Though he's grappling with existential and environmental tensions, Kjellvander strides from stoicism to optimism, augmenting his trademark minor melancholy with soaring major compositions, each concise, precise and considered -- a conscious turn towards song from the freeform expressions of recent collaborations. Rich in natural imagery, understated poetry and an infectious empathy, with meaning imbued in every line, this is the work of an accomplished songwriter at his most vital.
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TR 550CD
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Naked but for a soft blanket of reverb, Christian Kjellvander's tender voice invites us into his latest creation, the swooning Hold Your Love Still. His first solo album since 2020's About Love And Loving Again (TR 468CD/LP) finds the Swedish troubadour in a reflective mood, exploring the difficulties of an honest life amid the entanglement of capitalism, and imploring us to nurture that faltering hope for a better tomorrow. Though he's grappling with existential and environmental tensions, Kjellvander strides from stoicism to optimism, augmenting his trademark minor melancholy with soaring major compositions, each concise, precise and considered -- a conscious turn towards song from the freeform expressions of recent collaborations. Rich in natural imagery, understated poetry and an infectious empathy, with meaning imbued in every line, this is the work of an accomplished songwriter at his most vital.
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LP
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TR 517LP
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LP version. VG+, Mint Mind's third album, has become a great, cross-generational indie rock album. Mint Mind are sitting in the Upper Room Studio, a separate area of Rick McPhail's small industrial loft in Hamburg-Altona. This is where VG+ was created. The album is about anger, optimism, a politician with little fingers or influencers who secretly lead a normal life. Some lyrics are funny, others serious: "Glow" is about love and appreciating good moments in difficult times. "Youth And I" deals with the question of why different generations with the same ideas on topics such as the environment, women's and LGBTQIA+ rights or even the economy do not manage to form a unity, but instead allow themselves to be disturbed by something as silly as age differences. The sound of Mint Mind combines sweet and sour, fuzzy riffs with the freedom and sentiment of '80s post-punk/indie. Synthesizers have become a more central instrument this time. From playful and strange sounds to the eerie and dark, the album is littered with textures and ear candy to discover. The album title is well chosen. VG+ is taken from the Goldmine Grading Standard for the evaluation of used vinyl records and means "Very Good +" -- background noise can occur occasionally, but not always. Older folks might certainly feel reminded of Dinosaur Jr. or The Cure, the younger ones of Diiv, Wavves, or Gurr. And for a moment, the world is Very Good + (with background noise) for everyone.
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TR 517CD
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VG+, Mint Mind's third album, has become a great, cross-generational indie rock album. Mint Mind are sitting in the Upper Room Studio, a separate area of Rick McPhail's small industrial loft in Hamburg-Altona. This is where VG+ was created. The album is about anger, optimism, a politician with little fingers or influencers who secretly lead a normal life. Some lyrics are funny, others serious: "Glow" is about love and appreciating good moments in difficult times. "Youth And I" deals with the question of why different generations with the same ideas on topics such as the environment, women's and LGBTQIA+ rights or even the economy do not manage to form a unity, but instead allow themselves to be disturbed by something as silly as age differences. The sound of Mint Mind combines sweet and sour, fuzzy riffs with the freedom and sentiment of '80s post-punk/indie. Synthesizers have become a more central instrument this time. From playful and strange sounds to the eerie and dark, the album is littered with textures and ear candy to discover. The album title is well chosen. VG+ is taken from the Goldmine Grading Standard for the evaluation of used vinyl records and means "Very Good +" -- background noise can occur occasionally, but not always. Older folks might certainly feel reminded of Dinosaur Jr. or The Cure, the younger ones of Diiv, Wavves, or Gurr. And for a moment, the world is Very Good + (with background noise) for everyone.
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TR 544LP
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LP version. As Wreckless Eric he needs little introduction -- he wrote and recorded the classic Whole Wide World (1977) and had a hit with it back in 1977. Since then, it's been a hit for countless other artists including The Monkees, Cage The Elephant, and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. Eric's version featured in the 2022 Expedia/Superbowl/Ewan MacGregor travel ad, and the Cage The Elephant version is the new theme tune for the podcast Smartless. As Eric Goulden, it's a little more complicated -- a musician, artist, writer, recording engineer and producer, he didn't like either the music business, the mechanics of fame, or the name he'd been given to hide behind, so he crawled out of the spotlight and disappeared into the underground. He went on to release twenty something albums in forty something years under various names -- The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as one half of Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, finally realizing he was stuck with the name Wreckless Eric. Eric's three most recent albums amERICa, Construction Time & Demolition, and Transience are widely praised as his best work. His albums encapsulate pop, bubblegum, garage trash, and psychedelia -- lyrical and sonic journeys, pop explosions, epic voyages, Polaroid snapshots. This new album, Leisureland, marks a return to his more ramshackle world of recording -- guitars and temperamentally unpredictable analog keyboards, beat-boxes and loops in conjunction with a real drummer, Sam Shepherd, who he met in a local coffee shop in Catskill, New York. He was delighted to find that Sam lived around the corner and could easily drop by to put drums on newly recorded tracks. The recording methodology may have been contemporary American but the subject matter is almost entirely British. It also contains more instrumentals than any of his previous albums.
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TR 544CD
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As Wreckless Eric he needs little introduction -- he wrote and recorded the classic Whole Wide World (1977) and had a hit with it back in 1977. Since then, it's been a hit for countless other artists including The Monkees, Cage The Elephant, and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. Eric's version featured in the 2022 Expedia/Superbowl/Ewan MacGregor travel ad, and the Cage The Elephant version is the new theme tune for the podcast Smartless. As Eric Goulden, it's a little more complicated -- a musician, artist, writer, recording engineer and producer, he didn't like either the music business, the mechanics of fame, or the name he'd been given to hide behind, so he crawled out of the spotlight and disappeared into the underground. He went on to release twenty something albums in forty something years under various names -- The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as one half of Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, finally realizing he was stuck with the name Wreckless Eric. Eric's three most recent albums amERICa, Construction Time & Demolition, and Transience are widely praised as his best work. His albums encapsulate pop, bubblegum, garage trash, and psychedelia -- lyrical and sonic journeys, pop explosions, epic voyages, Polaroid snapshots. This new album, Leisureland, marks a return to his more ramshackle world of recording -- guitars and temperamentally unpredictable analog keyboards, beat-boxes and loops in conjunction with a real drummer, Sam Shepherd, who he met in a local coffee shop in Catskill, New York. He was delighted to find that Sam lived around the corner and could easily drop by to put drums on newly recorded tracks. The recording methodology may have been contemporary American but the subject matter is almost entirely British. It also contains more instrumentals than any of his previous albums.
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TR 533LP
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LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1979. "The year is 2014: a sharp cry leaps out of my laptop's speakers. 'Ace!' the young punk girl yells into the microphone, 'Let's get this disco started.' She's wearing leather trousers with back to front braces as she sings about hot boys with similar dress sense. The band play fast, their sound is clear, curt, and catchy. What is this and where did it come from? Hans-A-Plast is what it is, straight out of Hanover . . . The year is 1978, fifteen years before I was born. 56 years earlier, the first self-adhesive plasters went on sale in Germany. A gang of four: two young women, two young men -- Bettina, Renate, Jens, and Micha -- form a group and name themselves after the aforementioned plasters (Hansaplast) . . . Annette takes 'Man of Stone' (one of their own) with her when she joins Hans-A-Plast, the band she meets in November 1978 at the first No Fun Festival, where Hans-A-Plast and Slime play together. Bettina asks Annette if she would like to sing for them -- yes, she would. Fast forward to the rehearsal bunker as Bettina hands Annette the lyrics to three songs: 'Lederhosentyp', 'Rock 'n' Roll Freitag' and 'Hau ab du stinkst'. The creative spark ignites and the three songs soon become 13. A few festivals follow, including the January 1979 event 'Into The Future' at the Hamburg Markthalle. In September of the same year, the band record their eponymous debut album in just four days, at the Toncooperative studio in Hanover, ably assisted by Rainer in his first encounter with punk. Emulating her idol Poly Styrene, Annette adds a wonderfully off-key alto saxophone to the mix: tracks like 'Für 'ne Frau' fizz with charisma and chutzpah, flying in the face of 'good girl' expectations, just as one might expect . . . One thousand copies represented the break-even point, but the album sold ten times that before the year was out. Although bigger labels came knocking, the group chose to set up their own record company under the name of No Fun..." --Max "Drangsal" Gruber
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TR 534LP
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LP version. Reissue, originally released in 1981. "The story so far: in the late 1970s, a new four-piece band call themselves Hans-A-Plast, named after a self-adhesive plaster with a non-stick wound pad. The group's ranks are soon bolstered by a fifth Beatle -- or should we say a fifth plaster -- Annette, allowing drummer Bettina to focus exclusively on her drum kit. 'None of the new bands can match Annette for sheer energy, she can sing you into submission,' Alfred Hilsberg announces in Sounds magazine . . . When the music industry come calling, Hans-A-Plast keep them at bay with outrageous demands. The eponymous debut album features cover art by cartoonist Uli Stein and is released in true DIY fashion on 'No Fun', the label founded by the band for this very purpose. A thousand copies would see them break even, but before the new decade begins, they sell ten times that amount. The second No Fun Festival attracts a crowd of 2,000. Things are happening so fast. A legendary gig is recorded for a Rockpalast television broadcast in 1980 . . . While tens of thousands still revel in the sound of the debut album, Hans-A-Plast have already left their 1-2-3-4 punk days behind them. The band undergoes a veritable metamorphosis. Annette throws herself wholeheartedly into her role as lyricist, finding inspiration in the likes of Sex Gang Children and hanging out in the Rote Kuh bar frequented by British soldiers stationed in Hanover -- one of whom, Chas Briggs, designs the back cover of the new LP. Recorded in November 1980 at the Toncooperative studio in Hanover (like its predecessor), the second album virtually explodes with instrumental urgency: its dissonant guitars and increasingly avant-garde arrangements are reminiscent of the New York no wave scene. A singular nervous tremor is suddenly interrupted before everything rushes ahead again, left, right, radical rhythm shifts, bass drum quarter beats encircle atonal saxophone, nursery rhymes are fed through the meat grinder -- this hectic pace is reflected in Annette's vocal melodies, alternating between a choirgirl and a caw, whooping, almost yodeling, enthusiastically singing of self-immolation or murder threats on (long since expired) actors. Drummer Bettina knits assiduously in the gaps between recording, so it's apt that the cover of the new LP (released in 1981) features a clothing pattern. By the time the next 'No Fun' tour comes around in June, Bettina is five months pregnant. The band take a break as Bettina and Micha become parents and Annette goes back to England, where she takes two A-Levels." --Max "Drangsal" Gruber
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