Sort by relevance
Your Search For Indie/Alt
Found 10,587 results
David Ramirez
My Love Is A Hurricane
Thirty Tigers artist David Ramirez new album My Love is a Hurricane is an ode to love from an exhausted heart. Written as a transformative relationship began ripping apart at the seams, The lyrics and storytelling of once heart-broken and cynical singer/songwriter David Ramirez sit upon dreamy, psychedelic landscapes that evoke genre-melding contemporaries from Michael Kiwanuka to Grizzly Bear. In facing his pain and self-doubt head on, Ramirez turned My Love is a Hurricane into a story of potential, survival, hope, and encouragement.
His first new song since 2017, “Lover, Will You Lead Me” captures the feeling of invincibility that comes with falling in love with someone new. “In past relationships,” says Ramirez. “No matter how eager I was to feel loved and to give love, there had always been a hesitation to crawl out of my old life. I no longer felt this way.”
Sweetworld
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Jason Molina
Eight Gates
Indies exclusive LP is on 'shortcake splash' (red/splash) coloured vinyl.
Sometime in 2006 or 2007, Jason Molina moved from the midwest to London. Separated from his bandmates and friends and never one for idleness, Molina explored his new home with fervor. Sometimes he’d head out on foot, often with no destination in mind. Other times, he’d pick a random tube stop and find his way back home. He’d pick up on arcane trivia about London’s rich history, and if the historical factoids weren’t available — or weren’t quite to his liking — Molina was quite comfortable conjuring his own history. His adoration of The Great American Tall Tales like John Henry and Paul Bunyan’s blue ox Babe stretched across the Atlantic, where he created his own personal Tall Tales. And when he learned of the London Wall’s seven gates (itself a misconception), Molina went ahead and called it eight, carving out a gate just for himself. The eighth gate was Molina’s way into London, a gate only passable in the mind.
Fast forward to 2008, Molina set off on an experimental solo tour through Europe. While in Northern Italy, Molina claimed to have been bitten by a rare, poisonous spider. A debilitating bout of illness ensued. “I was in the hospital here in London,” Molina wrote in a letter. “Saw six doctors and a Dr. House-type guy. They are all mystified by it, but I am allowed to be at home, where I am taking a dozen scary Hantavirus type pills a day that are all to supposedly help — but they make me feel like shit.” There is no record of a single doctor visit, not any prescription record for these medications. It is entirely plausible there was no spider and that whatever was keeping him indoors during this time was entirely self-induced. While at home, he of course wrote songs. Molina also claimed that during this time, he fed several bright green parrots that would gather in his yard. While often associated with a greyscale sensibility, Molina was oft-clad in a Hawaiian shirt and had, at least in part, selected the name Songs: Ohia for his first project as a nod to Hawaii’s ‘Ohi’a lehua flower. Which is all to say, the tropical element the parakeets brought to those sick days delighted Molina. He made short, crude field recordings of them with his trusty four-track. Only once Molina was officially on the mend and re-exploring the streets of London would he learn that those parrots had their own fabled tale. Back in the 60s, Jimi Hendrix — in a moment of psychedelic clarity — released his pair of lime green ring-necked parakeets from their cage, setting them free into the London sky. Now, their decendents are spotted regularly around certain parts of the city. Or so we’re told.
Eight Gates is the last collection of solo studio recordings Molina made before he passed from complications related to alcoholism in 2013. Recorded in London around the time of the supposed spider bite and Jimi’s supposed parakeets, some of the songs (“Whispered Away,” “Thistle Blue”) are fully-realized — dark, moody textures that call to mind his earlier work on The Lioness. Knowing what we know about those parakeets and their peppered presence on the recordings, one can’t help but think of that colorful tree of birds on Talk Talk’s classic Laughing Stock, certainly a spiritual guide for much of the set. Other songs (“She Says,” “The Crossroads and The Emptiness”) lay in a more unfinished states, acoustic takes that call to mind Molina’s Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go, and still tethered to Molina’s humorous studio banter. You remember how young Molina was, and how weighty this art was for such a young man. On the closer, “The Crossroads and The Emptiness,” Molina snaps at the engineer before tearing into a song in which he sings of his birthday (December 30), a palm reading and the great emptiness with which he always wrestled. It is a perfect closer and, in many ways, the eighth gate incarnate: mythical, passable only in the mind, built for himself and partway imaginary but shared, thankfully, with us.
Secretly Canadian
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Aidan Knight
Aidan Knight
Gotta say that I thought 2020 would be a much different world to release a new record into. Not like this, but it's been 4 years since Each Other - Streaming continues to grow in influence, bands are being asked not to simply write and perform but to curate playlists, merchandise, and do their own accounting. Dystopian fiction is selling. And yet, many things haven't dramatically changed - the climate crisis continues to elude politicians, songwriters and performers who labour to create all music still haven’t seized the means of production, and I still enjoy a bowl of cereal now and then.
I remember waking up in a tent after playing Glastonbury when Brexit happened in 2016. Loading-in at First Avenue in Minneapolis the night Prince died. Rescuing a hedgehog in Rotterdam after having a panic attack on stage. So many memories filed away at the time. I stopped drinking in 2017, stopped self-sabotaging and started recording new music in our 2 bedroom apartment. We moved in July of 2018 after 9 years there. Predictably, I panicked and thought about scrapping the entire record because I was extremely sad and couldn't tell anyone. Self improvement isn't always linear I suppose. You can falter and yet all's not lost.
I'm sure I won't be the last singer-songwriter to mine the depths of their ennui, depression and suffering for lyrics but these 12 songs are also some of the clearest and most shameful memories I have. When you feel horribly exposed but calm singing a line for the first time, you know it's right. Domestic bliss, unrelenting loneliness, death, love, taxing the rich, new life, the splendour of nature, renovating the basement, misunderstanding your parents, gender, body negativity – Y’know, stuff that sells.
In short, this is a modern record that borrows from a long history of techniques and songwriters that have inspired me. Every writer loves their newest thing, so it's redundant to say that I'm proud of these songs and think they are my best work yet. So, without further ado, I hope this music finds you healthy and ready to create a better world than it is right now.
Full Time Hobby
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Pabst
Deuce Ex Machina
Pabst is the Berlin-based trio that toured Europe with Kadavar and Bob Mould in 2019 and will enter the stage again in autumn 2020. Their 2018 debut album Chlorine was praised by The Obelisk "Pabst play a blend of noise, post-punk, heavy rock and grunge, but with the ready pop influence", KEEP IT FAST, Visions, and others. Back then the band already showcased their international potential in terms of sound and songwriting, but on DEUCE EX MACHINA, out June 19th, they are pouring their Cocktail of Fuzz, Grunge, catchy pop-hooks, and 90’s reminescences even more generously.
Ketchup Tracks
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Neil Young
Homegrown
Indies exclusive version includes a very limited inner sleeve litho of the album cover.
Neil Young has said this album is “the unheard bridge between Harvest and Comes a Time”, which perfectly describes the warm, semi-acoustic feel of these twelve songs. Originally intended to be released in 1975, the album has remained unreleased since then, and has a legendary status among Neil’s fans.
Seven of the songs are previously unreleased on any album, and different versions of the other five songs would appear on later Neil Young albums. Neil plays guitar, piano and harmonica on the album, and is accompanied by a stellar group of musicians including Levon Helm, Ben Keith, Karl T Himmel, Tim Drummond, Emmylou Harris and Robbie Robertson.
Warner Records
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Disclosure
Ecstasy
A new 12" from the ever on form Lawrence brothers, aka Disclosure, who visited Kingston for a release show not so long ago! These guys are bonafide modern house-legends, here they present 5 new tracks that follow on from the singles Moonlight and Ultimatum. Pressed on 180g 'blue' coloured vinyl. The EP's title track ‘Ecstasy' kicked off the week when the brothers played it during a live mix on the band's YouTube channel from Guys kitchen. On the track they said "This song came into existence early 2019 during a writing session at Guy's house in London. We were curiously chopping up samples from various 70s disco and soul records when suddenly, Fantasy by Aquarium Dream gave us the exact thing we were searching for. This song is made entirely to get a human being to their feet and directly to the dance floor." Next up was ‘Tondo' – which received a BBC Radio 1 play from Annie Mac on Tuesday night: "Over the past few years, we have been exploring more and more African genres of music. This specific track samples the great Cameroonian musician Eko Roosevelt. If this track is anything, it's fast, punchy & above all... fun." The brothers took to YouTube to premiere the third track ‘Expressing What Matters' on Wednesday night which saw fans tuning in to chat to Guy & Howard and hear the latest release. "This track samples the legendary song Lowdown by Boz Scaggs. We really wanted to try and focus in on those wonderful backing vocals that permeate through the original & give it such soul. They ended up becoming the focal point of the entire track... being chopped and skewed to their limit. The whole thing was one big audio science experiment for us." Zane Lowe premiered yesterday's track ‘Etran' on his Beats 1 show – which once again, explores further African flavours. "The bulk of the song samples Niger-based band Etran Finatawa. With this track we are exploring an idea... How far can we take a sound that is somewhere in the realm of house music, until it morphs into a whole new being? Colliding genres together in a mash of pulsating, repeating rhythms and tones... this is the furthest we have ever taken that idea." Following the Zane play of Etran, Disclosure later confirmed that a fifth and final track ‘Get Close' would be available at midnight GMT completing the five track ‘Ecstasy' EP. On this final offering of the week, Disclosure said "Years ago we wrote a song called Get Close that never saw the light of day. We aren't usually ones to go back to an old idea after so long, but we never got that hook out of our heads."
12"
Pre-Order
Everything Everything
RE-ANIMATOR
LP is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a 12 page booklet. The fifth full length album from the ever-excellent Everything Everything, following on from one of our favourite albums of 2017 A Fever Dream. They play a super-exciting mix of indie-electro like no other, with supercharged melodies and harmonies in front of a wall of intricate, synth-fuelled indie-rock. The band’s approach to ‘Re-Animator’ was to streamline the creative process by focusing on harmonies and melodies over synths and programming. Inspiration came thick and fast: wonderment at the wider world despite the horror of its politics; existentialism and the prolonged, if fading, youthfulness of being in a touring band; and the ominous threat of climate change. All things which contribute to a sense of one door closing while another awaits. Extensive reading shaped such ideas further, especially regarding frontman Jonathan Higgs’ fascination with the eminent psychologist Julian Jaynes’ theory of the bicameral mind. It argues that early in human evolution, the two sides of the brain were next to each other but functioned independently. In essence one side would hear the other sending instructions via a disembodied voice -a zombie-like state of pre-consciousness. “This idea of the divided self captivated me,” said Higgs. “Jaynes attributes this to the origin of gods, people ascribing deity status to this voice they could hear in their head. All this blew my mind, and I started thinking of ways I could make this a central concept. It really touched me. So across the whole record there are millions or references to this theory – to having a split brain, two selves, hearing voices.” Fittingly, the album also emerged in two stages. A year of writing and demoing was followed by two weeks recording at RAK last December with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, David Byrne). He complemented the band’s back-to-basics nature by encouraging them to record quickly and decisively. It’s a looser, less cluttered sound that heightens their focus on the fundamentals of songwriting.
AWAL
CD | LP
Pre-Order
Load more results
