Indie Rock

North America's answer to the legendary UK C86 compilation Includes an 80+ page booklet with a comprehensive oral history of the American jangle pop scene and tons of photos and ephemera // Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987 is the first volume of Captured Tracks' new venture into compilations - Excavations. Inspired by Pebbles, Killed By Death, Soul Jazz and Numero Group compilations, Excavations is a series dedicated to compiling forgotten music from the 1970s - 1990s that has a connection to Captured Tracks' sound and aesthetic. Much like the Cleaners from Venus, the Wake, and Saäda Bonaire reissues we've put out, Excavations releases will bridge the past to our current roster and showcase the kinds of sounds that inspire us. It makes sense that the first volume of Excavations is Strum & Thrum. As an American label, we've often wondered why British, Aussie, and Kiwi indie rock from the `80s has had the most influence on modern acts and the collector's market. Granted, the music released on Creation, Sarah, Cherry Red, Postcard, Flying Nun, et al. during that era was fantastic, but a parallel to this sound existed in the US and Canada as well. Outside of bands like R.E.M., the Rain Parade, the Dream Syndicate, and a few others, most of these bands received little attention from national or international press outlets and markets - unless they opted for a "big `80s" sound and signed to a major. The acts on this compilation are the antithesis of that, with a true DiY spirit that lead many of these bands to self-record and self-release within tiny local scenes in small cities and college towns across America. Though hardcore dominated the American underground at the time, the indie scene was no less vital and operated utilizing many of the distribution channels hardcore set up. The two genres may have sounded nothing alike, but the DiY ethos and dedication to community was the same_ But this isn't the story we're used to hearing. While noted underground archivist and compilation producer Johan Kugelberg has called the `80s the "Dark Ages" of indie rock, Strum & Thrum aims to shed light on this forgotten era of jangly, melodic rock music that emerged from the ashes of post punk and helped kick start the indie rock boom of the early `90s that continues to this day. Indeed, many artists featured on Strum & Thrum went on to be part of this boom - Archer Prewitt from the Sea & Cake, Jon Ginoli from Pansy Division, Ric Menck from Velvet Crush, Brent Rademaker from Beachwood Sparks, Barbara Manning, and more went on to be in well known bands in the `90s. This compilation is an essential listen for any fan of classic `80s indie bands like the Go-Betweens, Felt, the Church, the Bats, Shop Assistants, and the like. And if you're a fan of the early records Captured Tracks released by Beach Fossils, DIIV and Wild Nothing, you'll find a lot to love here as well. Spread across two LPs, Strum & Thrum includes an 80+ page booklet with an extensive oral history of the `80s indie scene, an introduction by Captured Tracks label head Mike Sniper, and tons of archival images and ephemera. Long live the jangle underground!

Bristol's Snails return in exuberant form on their second full-length album, 'Hard-wired'. Recommended to the label by Stephen Pastel and he knows a good 'un when he hears one. Over 10 songs that unfold with an origami-like precision and attention to detail, the west country 6-piece expand their lush, outsider-pop template into new sonic and emotional territory, alchemising existential doubt into condensed elegies of often breathtaking beauty. From opener "It doesn't have to be true", Hard-wired envelops the listener in a comforting intimacy of sound and vocal harmony, overflowing with a subtlety of lyricism and generosity of spirit that led Pete Paphides to praise their debut Safe in Silence as "simply the most effortlessly charming set of songs I've heard in a long time."Recording sessions for the LP were spread across three different Bristol studios. With basic tracking completed, further elements were added in his bedroom studio, from vintage synths and drum machines, to strings, Mellotron and percussion. Arrangements and song structure in some cases went through several iterations until they rang true to songwriter Dan Weltman's ears. Dan Weltman: guitar, vocals / Anna Kissell: vocals Holly McIntosh: bass guitar, vocals / Robin Williams: electric guitar Matthew Chaney: keyboards / Steve Dixon: drums Francesca Simmons: violin, viol

LP on 180g coloured vinyl (Transparent White), 300 copies ww for record stores only. Reykjavík maverick Henrik Björnsson is due to release 'Good Sick Fun', his eleventh album under the Singapore Sling project. Inspired by goth-rock, dub and big-band jazz on top of the usual fuzzed-out rock'n'roll touchstones that are seared into Henrik's work, the latest Singapore Sling full-length is as perversely hedonistic as they come - and that's not without competition by any means. An invitation to "rejoice in doing wrong", in Henrik's own words, 'Good Sick Fun' is the latest morbid and characteristically-depraved addition to a back-catalogue spanning nearly two decades from the cult Icelandic band. Arriving off the back of the 2019 'Killer Classics' LP, Henrik says of the new album: "Old rock'n'roll is the main influence on this record, as on most of my records. When I release a record it means rock'n'roll has saved my life, my mind and my soul once again. And it does that quite frequently. Sometimes I start running astray, getting sucked into pointless garbage and thinking it actually matters. Then I realize that it's absolute garbage and that nothing matters but rock'n'roll so I go and make a record instead."

Newly reissued limited-edition clear vinyl, 500 copies only for National album day. Pere Ubu's music is a disorienting mix of midwestern groove rock, "found" sound, analog synthesizers, falling-apart song structures and careening vocals. It is a mix that has mesmerized critics, musicians, and fans for decades. 'The Tenement Year' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Pere Ubu, their first album after reuniting following their 1982 break-up. The album chronicles another crucial era for the band, an escapade that retooled our understanding of what pop music is and moves away from the abstract sounds of their earlier releases. Here the band consisted of core members David Thomas, on vocals, trombone and melodeon; Allen Ravenstine on EML synthesisers and sax; Tony Maimone on bass and Scott Krauss on drums. They were joined by Jim Jones on guitar and Henry Cow drummer Chris 'Cutlery' Cutler on second drum kit. Quotes - "A classic" NME (Edwin Pouncey - 1988) // "Astonishing" Village Voice (Robert Christgau - 1988) // "It's still a band that blithely upends all that's solid and foursquare about rock." New York Times (Jon Pareles - 1988)

LP is initially on limited 180g purple vinyl with gatefold sleeve and 16 page lyric book. Through these strange and uncertain times it is sometimes a little hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel but this is where The Moons have stepped in. This long player is an album full of colour and raw songwriting recorded live in the legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios. With cinematic string arrangements and masterclass songwriting from the pen of singer/songwriter Andy Crofts this album will be your happy escape. "Most of this album had been unintentionally sat in my pocket for quite some time. Songs that I had written and forgotten about or had just lost their way and left unfinished. So that is why I wanted the album to simply be named Pocket Melodies. I had this inner feeling to pull them all together and it turned out my favourite Moons record." Andy Crofts.. Pocket Melodies takes you on a journey of glorious melodies leading you through love, romance, nostalgia, regret and unity. "I wanted to be true to myself with this record. My best strength is writing melodic pop songs so I just let it all flow as I wanted this album to be soaked in colour and completely natural. There's no pretence, it's just straight up pop songs. I have always worn my heart on my sleeve when it comes to my feelings and I think you can hear this in the lyrics this time." Andy Crofts_ The album features singles Riding Man and Today which received high praise and championed on BBC London and Radio X and a collaboration with Paul Weller on the song Tunnel Of Time. "I wrote all of the songs on the album except Tunnel Of Time which is a collaboration between myself and Paul Weller.." Andy Crofts_

LNZNDRF's II is a mass hypnotism, somehow both thunderous and trance-inducing. Recorded in extensive, shamanistic jam sessions at Austin's Public Hi-Fi in September 2019 and later edited down to give it shape, these songs feel like Right Now, with some toes testing the waters of the future. The brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf (The National), Ben Lanz (The National, Beirut) and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear) are in headlamps and spelunking gear, descending into a somnambulant space. Album deep cut "Ringwoodite," with it's skittering, lithe and precise drums, is a summer sparkler of song _ whizzing by at such a clip it leaves you giddily following its traces. On its heels are the computer lover "Gaskiers" and comeon-slow motorik anthem "Stowaway" that, while not connected by sound, work in tandem to put LNZNDRF fully in the canon of strange and indelible krautrock. Its incantations seem to beckon the dystopia of present day as much as they beckon the Big Mystery awaiting us when we finally bust through its barrier. It won't be a utopia but it will at least be something different. As it goes on the lysergic post-punk standout "You Still Rip": "We'll live like fruitless trees towards endless breeze linked as we please, the burning bridges smolder in our wake." Red rover, red rover, send LNZNDRF over.

Good Sad Happy Bad is CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi and Raisa Khan. Previously known as the moniker Micachu and The Shapes, Good Sad Happy Bad named themselves after their last album Good Sad Happy Bad. Things have changed a bit, Raisa Khan is leading the bands vocals and songs, and they now have the addition of CJ Calderwood contributing a minimum of vocals, saxophone and recorder. Their record is called Shades. Shades is made up of 12 songs. Like the band name the songs are either good, sad, happy or bad and sometimes either slow, fast, heavy or light, and sometimes cold, hot, warm or freezing, and sometimes tasty, nasty, bland or spicy

Dons Savage is an unparalled talent, a savant of the perfect melody and lyrics which both touch and bite, a throwbook to the Carole King's and Gerry Goffin's of Brill Building pop, an instinctive penseuse besting the originators of the Riot Grrrl movement by responding to their conversations of rage and sexuality and finding a place in the world some years before the initial sparks of that particular revolution had even begun. Dead Famous People's first real album, Harry, is now being unleashed to the world. Dead Famous People first emerged in the 1980s, releasing on the likes of Flying Nun and earning praise from the likes of John Peel, who invited them in for a session. However, things didn't work out and to the dismay of many fans, they never released a proper album. Three decades later Dons was tracked down by Fire Records and given the opportunity to finally enter the studio to record. Somewhat more philosophical than her earlier work, Harry is an album that feels like the right one for a world of apocalyptic pandemic, uncertainty and quarantine. It begins with a healthy scoop of Dons' earlier humour in Looking At Girls (expertly mixed by Dave Trumfio) wherein a woman learns of her lover's car crash only to be told the cause was, well, look at the title. Goddess Of Chill is a paean to the forces of artistic inspiration in the face of 'a little worry here, a little chorus there'. Dead Bird's Eye is a parable of environmentalism through the misdeeds of a small child. Throughout these songs, Dons' power over melody and knack for profundity in a single simple line is unchanged since Dead Famous People's original incarnation. Harry is a rare record in a time of musical factionalism and a world divided into camps of wilfull obscurity and grotesque mockeries of stardom and art, a document of unadorned perfection which will make as much sense to you at sixteen as it will when you're sixty. "Bob bought a DFP single which we both really liked, we were drawn to the mystery of the band's name and the melancholy tone of Dons' voice." Pete Wiggs - Saint Etienne // "There was a sense of excitement that something special was happening." Martin Phillipps - The Chills

Ride guitarist/singer Andy Bell releases his debut solo album. The product of a gradual, four-year process and finished during lockdown, the album was entirely written and recorded by Andy, engineered by Gem Archer and mastered by Heba Kadry. Back in 2016, Andy was inspired by David Bowie's death to be more proactive about finishing his songs, more confident about sharing them and to channel all of this into finally making a solo album. He laid down some tracks in former Beady Eye and Oasis bandmate Gem's studio, but got diverted when Ride's live reunion blossomed into a full return. A run of two albums, an EP and two world tours later, it would take a pandemic to give Andy the space to complete The View From Halfway Down. "I've always wanted to make a solo album, I've always said I would do it, although I never imagined it happening like, or sounding like, this one does," explains Andy. "I'd been sitting on this pile of almost finished tracks, along with all the other hundreds of ideas that had fallen by the wayside since I've been making music. Lockdown gave me the opportunity to find a way to present it to the world. "The album is not about songwriting. There aren't many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience." From the ecstatic psych pop of 'Love Comes In Waves', to the heady loops of 'Indica' and deeply groove-led 'Skywalker', the eight tracks mix summery melodies with soundscapes and studio experimentation. The end result sits neatly between Ride's widescreen shoegaze and GLOK's textured electronics, variously inspired by The Stone Roses, Spacemen 3, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beta Band, Stereolab, Neu!, Can, John Fahey, The Kinks, The La's, The Who and the United States Of America. As for the album title, it comes from a particularly dark episode of BoJack Horseman and a poem that scriptwriter Alison Tafel wrote for the penultimate show. The spoiler-free version of the story goes like this: "The poem describes someone committing suicide by jumping to their death and the regret the protagonist experiences when he sees 'the view from halfway down'. Although, of course, it's too late to change what's going to happen. I read this poem as having a message of suicide prevention: if you could see the view from halfway down, you would never go through with anything that would end your life. I've never been suicidal, but I felt really moved by this brilliant poem when I watched the show during Ride's US tour in Autumn 2019. It's an incredible message. "There was a small kind of a parallel with me, sitting at home in London in March 2020. In the early stages of lockdown, you could feel the tension in the air, causing what felt like a global panic attack. But, in common with what I've heard from others who can experience anxiety for no reason in their everyday lives, I felt strangely calm in the midst of all of this, seeing things in my life very clearly. Such clarity allowed me to finally compile this record. In a way, to see my life flash before me and be able to curate moments of it into a 40-minute listening experience, then find a title that would fit. "My upcoming 50th brought everything more sharply into focus. If you imagine that my entire life was a freefall jump to my death, and you were feeling optimistic about me reaching 100 like my Gran did and getting a telegram from the Queen, this album would be 'the view from halfway down'." So there you have it. The near death of a cartoon anti-hero and the actual death of a music legend, feeling the calm within a global pandemic and a musical turning point halfway through life all add up to one glorious, technicolour whole.

North America's answer to the legendary UK C86 compilation Includes an 80+ page booklet with a comprehensive oral history of the American jangle pop scene and tons of photos and ephemera // Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987 is the first volume of Captured Tracks' new venture into compilations - Excavations. Inspired by Pebbles, Killed By Death, Soul Jazz and Numero Group compilations, Excavations is a series dedicated to compiling forgotten music from the 1970s - 1990s that has a connection to Captured Tracks' sound and aesthetic. Much like the Cleaners from Venus, the Wake, and Saäda Bonaire reissues we've put out, Excavations releases will bridge the past to our current roster and showcase the kinds of sounds that inspire us. It makes sense that the first volume of Excavations is Strum & Thrum. As an American label, we've often wondered why British, Aussie, and Kiwi indie rock from the `80s has had the most influence on modern acts and the collector's market. Granted, the music released on Creation, Sarah, Cherry Red, Postcard, Flying Nun, et al. during that era was fantastic, but a parallel to this sound existed in the US and Canada as well. Outside of bands like R.E.M., the Rain Parade, the Dream Syndicate, and a few others, most of these bands received little attention from national or international press outlets and markets - unless they opted for a "big `80s" sound and signed to a major. The acts on this compilation are the antithesis of that, with a true DiY spirit that lead many of these bands to self-record and self-release within tiny local scenes in small cities and college towns across America. Though hardcore dominated the American underground at the time, the indie scene was no less vital and operated utilizing many of the distribution channels hardcore set up. The two genres may have sounded nothing alike, but the DiY ethos and dedication to community was the same_ But this isn't the story we're used to hearing. While noted underground archivist and compilation producer Johan Kugelberg has called the `80s the "Dark Ages" of indie rock, Strum & Thrum aims to shed light on this forgotten era of jangly, melodic rock music that emerged from the ashes of post punk and helped kick start the indie rock boom of the early `90s that continues to this day. Indeed, many artists featured on Strum & Thrum went on to be part of this boom - Archer Prewitt from the Sea & Cake, Jon Ginoli from Pansy Division, Ric Menck from Velvet Crush, Brent Rademaker from Beachwood Sparks, Barbara Manning, and more went on to be in well known bands in the `90s. This compilation is an essential listen for any fan of classic `80s indie bands like the Go-Betweens, Felt, the Church, the Bats, Shop Assistants, and the like. And if you're a fan of the early records Captured Tracks released by Beach Fossils, DIIV and Wild Nothing, you'll find a lot to love here as well. Spread across two LPs, Strum & Thrum includes an 80+ page booklet with an extensive oral history of the `80s indie scene, an introduction by Captured Tracks label head Mike Sniper, and tons of archival images and ephemera. Long live the jangle underground!

Adventure is Twain's most recent studio album and is finally here on physical formats. Adventure was a surprise digital release in November 2019 and then the studio masters were sent off to be mastered for vinyl in the grand pure-analog tradition to create an authentic AAA vinyl experience. Mat Davidson is the songwriter in Twain, who you may recognize as the virtuoso musician in The Low Anthem, Spirit Family Reunion, Buck Meek, Langhorne Slim, and Courtney Marie Andrews' live bands. While he lends his talents on pedal steel, piano, violin, bass, and guitar to those projects, Twain is his songwriting project, joined by Peter Pezzimenti on drums and Ken Woodward on bass. Twain opened two sold-out New York shows with Big Thief last October, played Luck Reunion and Newport Folk Festival in 2018, and toured with Deer Tick last year. Twain also toured with Milk Carton Kids and Rubblebucket in 2019. Twain's breakthrough 2017 album Rare Feeling got great reviews, with Gold Flake Paint writing, "Rare Feeling already feels like a singular body of work, one that will reveal more over time, as the top layers fade in the weather, as each page is turned.

CD is a deluxe bookback style sleeve with lyric booklet and 5 bonus tracks. Through these strange and uncertain times it is sometimes a little hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel but this is where The Moons have stepped in. This long player is an album full of colour and raw songwriting recorded live in the legendary Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios. With cinematic string arrangements and masterclass songwriting from the pen of singer/songwriter Andy Crofts this album will be your happy escape. "Most of this album had been unintentionally sat in my pocket for quite some time. Songs that I had written and forgotten about or had just lost their way and left unfinished. So that is why I wanted the album to simply be named Pocket Melodies. I had this inner feeling to pull them all together and it turned out my favourite Moons record." Andy Crofts.. Pocket Melodies takes you on a journey of glorious melodies leading you through love, romance, nostalgia, regret and unity. "I wanted to be true to myself with this record. My best strength is writing melodic pop songs so I just let it all flow as I wanted this album to be soaked in colour and completely natural. There's no pretence, it's just straight up pop songs. I have always worn my heart on my sleeve when it comes to my feelings and I think you can hear this in the lyrics this time." Andy Crofts_ The album features singles Riding Man and Today which received high praise and championed on BBC London and Radio X and a collaboration with Paul Weller on the song Tunnel Of Time. "I wrote all of the songs on the album except Tunnel Of Time which is a collaboration between myself and Paul Weller.." Andy Crofts_

A collection featuring the Sheffield post-punk group's previously unreleased third album and a bonus disc comprised of a general selection, including some rarities, spanning their career, plus a booklet of sleevenotes. Arriving from a period in music when there were countless such groups up and down the UK, and around the world, who'd initially been inspired by punk but then attempted to channel the energy and attitude into sometimes very different musical shapes, The Midnight Choir began as an idea of Simon Hinkler's of Artery. Leading other members of said group mostly pseudonymously into this new guise, alongside the late Dave Loukes from Quite Unnerving on vocals, the group themselves went on to cement links with Pulp and The Mission through the comings and goings of their personnel. Much like Artery themselves, there was more to The Midnight Choir than a simple doffing of the cap to the Banshees or Joy Division or whoever else at the time had done so much of the groundwork for groups similarly inspired but wanting to break away from the trappings of punk. The group were possessed of strong abilities to hone their craft to the point they had the potential to reach a far broader audience without losing the chemistry they clearly had at the outset. Shifting easily from a ravaged monochromatic sound to one rife with different hues, The Midnight Choir operated in that space when post-punk music took on new forms as independent music came into greater dominance throughout the 1980s. Like many others, they slipped through the cracks without really deserving to. It is for this reason, as well as the music itself of course, that this collection is not only long overdue, but more than justified.

On December 26th, 2018, Emily Cross received an excited email from a friend: Brian Eno was talking about her band on BBC radio. "At first I didn't think it was real," she admits. But then she heard a recording: Eno was praising "Black Willow" from Loma's self-titled debut. He said he'd had it on repeat. At the time, a second Loma album seemed unlikely. The band began as a serendipitous collaboration between Cross, the multi-talented musician and recording engineer Dan Duszynski, and Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg, who wanted to play a supporting role after years at the microphone. They'd capped a grueling tour with a standout performance on a packed beach at Sub Pop's SPF 30 festival, in which Cross leapt into the crowd, and then into the sea, while the band carried on from the stage-an emotional peak that also felt like a natural ending. "It was the biggest audience we'd ever had," she says. "We thought, why not stop here?" Following the tour, Cross went to rural Mexico to work on visual art and a solo record, while Meiburg began a new Shearwater effort. But after a few months apart (and Eno's encouraging words), the trio changed their minds and reconvened at Duszynski's home in rural Texas, where they began to develop songs that would become Don't Shy Away. Loma writes by consensus, and though Cross is always the singer, she, Duszynski and Meiburg often trade instruments. Meiburg compares their process to using an ouija board and says the songs revealed themselves slowly, over many months. "Each of us is a very strong flavor," he says, "but in Loma, nobody wears the crown, so we have to trust each other-and we end up in places none of us would have gone on our own. I think we all wanted to experience that again." The album that emerged is gently spectacular-a vivid work whose light touch belies its timely themes of solitude, impermanence, and finding light in deep darkness. Stuck / beneath / a rock, Cross begins, as if noticing her predicament for the first time. Then she adds: I begin to see / the beauty in it. A series of guests contributed to the absorbing soundscapes of Don't Shy Away, including touring members Emily Lee (piano, violin) and Matt Schuessler (bass), Flock of Dimes/Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner, and a surprisingly bass-heavy horn section. And then there's Brian Eno. Loma invited him to participate in the mantra-like "Homing," which concludes the album and sent him stems to interact with in any way he liked. He never spoke directly with the band, but his completed mix arrived via e-mail late one night, without warning, and they gathered to listen in the converted bedroom Duszynski uses as a control room. "I was a little worried," says Cross. "What if we didn't like it?" But it was all they'd hoped for: minimal but enveloping, friendly but enigmatic, as much Loma as Eno-a perfect ending to an album about finding a new home inside an old one. I am somewhere that you know, Cross sings, above a chorus of her bandmates' blended voices. I am right behind your eyes.

Good Sad Happy Bad is CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi and Raisa Khan. Previously known as the moniker Micachu and The Shapes, Good Sad Happy Bad named themselves after their last album Good Sad Happy Bad. Things have changed a bit, Raisa Khan is leading the bands vocals and songs, and they now have the addition of CJ Calderwood contributing a minimum of vocals, saxophone and recorder. Their record is called Shades. Shades is made up of 12 songs. Like the band name the songs are either good, sad, happy or bad and sometimes either slow, fast, heavy or light, and sometimes cold, hot, warm or freezing, and sometimes tasty, nasty, bland or spicy

Dons Savage is an unparalled talent, a savant of the perfect melody and lyrics which both touch and bite, a throwbook to the Carole King's and Gerry Goffin's of Brill Building pop, an instinctive penseuse besting the originators of the Riot Grrrl movement by responding to their conversations of rage and sexuality and finding a place in the world some years before the initial sparks of that particular revolution had even begun. Dead Famous People's first real album, Harry, is now being unleashed to the world. Dead Famous People first emerged in the 1980s, releasing on the likes of Flying Nun and earning praise from the likes of John Peel, who invited them in for a session. However, things didn't work out and to the dismay of many fans, they never released a proper album. Three decades later Dons was tracked down by Fire Records and given the opportunity to finally enter the studio to record. Somewhat more philosophical than her earlier work, Harry is an album that feels like the right one for a world of apocalyptic pandemic, uncertainty and quarantine. It begins with a healthy scoop of Dons' earlier humour in Looking At Girls (expertly mixed by Dave Trumfio) wherein a woman learns of her lover's car crash only to be told the cause was, well, look at the title. Goddess Of Chill is a paean to the forces of artistic inspiration in the face of 'a little worry here, a little chorus there'. Dead Bird's Eye is a parable of environmentalism through the misdeeds of a small child. Throughout these songs, Dons' power over melody and knack for profundity in a single simple line is unchanged since Dead Famous People's original incarnation. Harry is a rare record in a time of musical factionalism and a world divided into camps of wilfull obscurity and grotesque mockeries of stardom and art, a document of unadorned perfection which will make as much sense to you at sixteen as it will when you're sixty. "Bob bought a DFP single which we both really liked, we were drawn to the mystery of the band's name and the melancholy tone of Dons' voice." Pete Wiggs - Saint Etienne // "There was a sense of excitement that something special was happening." Martin Phillipps - The Chills

Ride guitarist/singer Andy Bell releases his debut solo album. The product of a gradual, four-year process and finished during lockdown, the album was entirely written and recorded by Andy, engineered by Gem Archer and mastered by Heba Kadry. Back in 2016, Andy was inspired by David Bowie's death to be more proactive about finishing his songs, more confident about sharing them and to channel all of this into finally making a solo album. He laid down some tracks in former Beady Eye and Oasis bandmate Gem's studio, but got diverted when Ride's live reunion blossomed into a full return. A run of two albums, an EP and two world tours later, it would take a pandemic to give Andy the space to complete The View From Halfway Down. "I've always wanted to make a solo album, I've always said I would do it, although I never imagined it happening like, or sounding like, this one does," explains Andy. "I'd been sitting on this pile of almost finished tracks, along with all the other hundreds of ideas that had fallen by the wayside since I've been making music. Lockdown gave me the opportunity to find a way to present it to the world. "The album is not about songwriting. There aren't many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience." From the ecstatic psych pop of 'Love Comes In Waves', to the heady loops of 'Indica' and deeply groove-led 'Skywalker', the eight tracks mix summery melodies with soundscapes and studio experimentation. The end result sits neatly between Ride's widescreen shoegaze and GLOK's textured electronics, variously inspired by The Stone Roses, Spacemen 3, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Beta Band, Stereolab, Neu!, Can, John Fahey, The Kinks, The La's, The Who and the United States Of America. As for the album title, it comes from a particularly dark episode of BoJack Horseman and a poem that scriptwriter Alison Tafel wrote for the penultimate show. The spoiler-free version of the story goes like this: "The poem describes someone committing suicide by jumping to their death and the regret the protagonist experiences when he sees 'the view from halfway down'. Although, of course, it's too late to change what's going to happen. I read this poem as having a message of suicide prevention: if you could see the view from halfway down, you would never go through with anything that would end your life. I've never been suicidal, but I felt really moved by this brilliant poem when I watched the show during Ride's US tour in Autumn 2019. It's an incredible message. "There was a small kind of a parallel with me, sitting at home in London in March 2020. In the early stages of lockdown, you could feel the tension in the air, causing what felt like a global panic attack. But, in common with what I've heard from others who can experience anxiety for no reason in their everyday lives, I felt strangely calm in the midst of all of this, seeing things in my life very clearly. Such clarity allowed me to finally compile this record. In a way, to see my life flash before me and be able to curate moments of it into a 40-minute listening experience, then find a title that would fit. "My upcoming 50th brought everything more sharply into focus. If you imagine that my entire life was a freefall jump to my death, and you were feeling optimistic about me reaching 100 like my Gran did and getting a telegram from the Queen, this album would be 'the view from halfway down'." So there you have it. The near death of a cartoon anti-hero and the actual death of a music legend, feeling the calm within a global pandemic and a musical turning point halfway through life all add up to one glorious, technicolour whole.

Material gathered from two of Steve Jansen’s solo releases ‘The Extinct Suite’ and ‘Corridor’. Limited Edition 2 x Black 180g Vinyl (500 copies only pressed, Cargo only have 200 of those). ‘The Extinct Suite’ – The third solo album release from Steve Jansen. A reinterpretation of the more ambient and orchestral elements of ‘Tender Extinction’ (Jansen’s second solo album). Not a remix by any means, some familiar passages are woven together with additional pieces to create a suite of instrumentals lasting over 55 minutes as one single track split over Sides A & B of this 2LP album. // ‘Corridor’ – A slowly evolving instrumental piece designed for playback in a gallery space with uncontrolled acoustics and no sound insulation. Avoiding percussive and complicated bass content this audio is designed to float in a live space at low level volume allowing sonic variations to subtly stimulate the ambience. Original installation at the Cape Breton University Art Gallery, Canada to accompany a photo exhibition titled ‘Through A Quiet Window’ by Steve Jansen May 11 to July 6, 2018. Split over Sides C & D of this 2LP album. Steve Jansen – Piano, Synths, Guitar, Drums, Sampled Instruments, String Arrangements, Sound Design. The Extinct Suit Additional Contributors: Melentini Toila – Trumpet Seigen Tokuzawa – Cello, Thomas, Feiner – Background Vocals, Stelios Romaliadis – Flute, Giorgos Varoutas – Guitar Treatments, Charlie Storm – Additional Sound Recording On ‘Corridor’. All Music Composed, Performed, Produced & Mixed By Steve Jansen Artwork By Anna Malina Zemlianski Design By Carl Glover For Aleph Studio.

|

|