From New Wave to the 'NOW', experience the thrill of NEW WAVE from it's beginnings in the late '70s to the modern bands so obviously influenced by it! So, if you grew up in the '80s and still enjoy discovering new sounds as well as rediscovering old favorites, then read on!
PUNK! POWER POP! SYNTH POP! NEW WAVE! POST-PUNK!
The long-awaited new album from this gothic-prog rock band.
Features an array of guests, including vocalists Lee Douglas (Anathema) and Monica Richards (Faith & the Muse), guitarists Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) and Simon Hinkler (The Mission).
The London-based Gothic/Prog Rock/Trip-Hop band The Eden Houserelease a new single and album on CD, 180g vinyl LP and download, four years after their acclaimed debut album ‘Smoke & Mirrors’.
The Eden House is a collaborative project based around the nucleus of Stephen Carey, ex-Adoration, and Tony Pettitt, the Fields of the Nephilim founder bassist who last month rejoined the band. The pair have attracted an eclectic selection of guest artists on their recordings, each adding their diverse talents to the music.
‘Half Life’ utilises six female lead vocalists, including Lee Douglas (from Anathema),Jordan Reyne, Laura Bennett and Monica Richards (of US band Faith & The Muse). Guesting musicians include guitarists Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music) and Simon Hinkler (The Mission) along with top violinist Bob Loveday.
Over the past four years the band have gigged widely across the UK and Europe, including headlining festivals in Germany, Belgium, Poland and the UK. Two maxi-EPs were issued in the interim: ‘The Looking Glass’paired with a DVD live studio performance, and the ‘Timeflows’mini-album in 2012.
A London album live launch event is scheduled for June 9that the Kings Cross Lexington and they headline the Sacrosanct Festival in Berkshire on 28th September. A new series of gigs is planned for the autumn.
Marking the 100th release on Light In The Attic Records and following the Record Store Day reissue of PiL's debut single 'Public Image', LITA are set to reissue the pioneering group's debut album First Issue, available for the first time ever in the US.
In 1976 Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols set the agenda for punk's year zero with 'Anarchy In The UK', a song that summed up the spirit, sound and attitude of the band in one shocking package. Two years later, the Sex Pistols were in tatters, but Rotten was as unsentimental as you'd hope. He reverted to his real name - John Lydon - and set about forming a band whose very identity kicked against press and media manipulation. Featuring bassist Jah Wobble, drummer Jim Walker and guitarist Keith Levene, his new group were Public Image Limited. The public image would be limited.
PiL were a very distinct prospect from the Pistols, founded with a greater thought for rhythm, and with a sound that turned the page from snarling punk to a more experimental sound fusing rock, dance, folk, ballet, pop and dub. But that's not to say Lydon's new outfit lacked vitriol. 'Public Image' hits out against the notorious British tabloid press, who never gave Lydon an easy ride, and against his own Sex Pistols public image - "You only saw me for the clothes I wore".
The debut single (and the album that followed) operated as a theme song and a manifesto: "…my entrance/My own creation/My grand finale/My goodbye," as the lyrics had it. It is, essentially, the sound of four people letting loose in a studio - and not caring what anyone else thought.
The album was never officially released in the USA back in the day, its sound considered too un-commercial by major-labels for an American release.
First Issue has been lovingly reproduced from the original UK 1978 release and this expanded reissue also comes with a clutch of post-punk era treasures. The CD edition is an expanded, two-disc set with an almost hour-long (unedited) October 1978 BBC audio interview with John Lydon, plus rare B-side "The Cowboy Song" from the period, and two stickers. The LP release includes an archive replica fold-out poster, archive replica tabloid adverts, a set of stickers, and Download Card for the album, the archival BBC interview, and 'The Cowboy Song'. All of which were approved and coordinated with John Lydon and his personal management.
Let's be honest: there is no artist out there quite like VINI REILLY, who has been recording as THE DURUTTI COLUMN since 1980. For over three decades, Vini and his cast of bandmates (drummer Bruce Mitchell is the only other constant) have created some of the most emotional music released in the last half century. What you hear on record never changes, but The Durutti Column is one of the few acts that can record music that can only be interpreted by the emotions of the listener. So, if you are feeling sad, then the songs feel quite lonely and melancholy. If you are upbeat, then those very same songs feel warm and life-affirming. Very few artists are able to achieve that sort of magic, but for Vini, it is simply natural.
Vini is an incredibly gifted guitarist and most of Durutti's recordings have been chiefly instrumental. When vocals are needed, Vini has handled the bulk of the singing but he has worked on plenty of Durutti albums that featured guest vocalists. In many cases, the vocals are merely another instrument laid upon Vini's shimmering musical landscapes. They are important because they do convey thoughts, but it is the atmosphere and melodies that draw the listener in. They are such works of beauty that each and every song by The Durutti Column is a piece of art... and Vini paints gorgeous aural pictures with his guitar!
Vini hails from Manchester, a city bursting with musical talent (including everyone from 10cc to Joy Division to Oasis). Signed to the legendary Factory Records by Vini's mentor Tony Wilson, Durutti recorded a series of albums that were sometimes labeled 'New Age' and other times 'Post Punk'. While neither of those genres are accurate, Vini's music does fall somewhere in between those styles. But trying to pin Durutti to one particular genre is useless: they are indescribable...
With many albums to choose from, sometimes it can be tough for the uninitiated to find a place to start their Durutti collection. The fact that many of them are out of print for the time being doesn't help. Luckily, there have been a series of reissues that have hit the market in the last few years that are excellent places to begin your love affair with all that is The Durutti Column. Here are a few of them...(and there's more to come so stay tuned!)
P.S. You might recognize Vini's guitar playing from Morrissey's debut solo album, Viva Hate. Vini was the main guitarist on that album. And if you manage to stop by The Durutti Column's webstie (www.thedurutticolumn.com), please wish Vini well. He is recovering from three strokes over the last few years but is on the mend...
The second Durutti Column album, LC was originally released in 1981 and has become a firm favorite amongst fans. The album's original 10 tracks are now joined by an additional 23 tracks including non album single and EP cuts, compilation tracks and demos. The album itself is a stunner, but the bonus material makes this a must-own and one of the best places to start your DC journey...
Expanded edition of Vini Reilly and DC's 1985 album Circuses & Bread featuring ten bonus tracks. One of DC's finest albums as a whole, Circuses & Bread is as beautiful as it is emotional. The bonus tracks include the rare Japanese single 'For Noriko'/'Love Fading', compilation tracks 'Verbiers' and 'The Aftermath' plus four previously unreleased tracks from the cancelled 1983 album Short Stories For Pauline. Also includes the rarely heard 1983 single 'I Get Along Without You Very Well', a Hoagy Carmichael cover sung by Lindsay Reade and dedicated to her former husband, the late Anthony H. Wilson (Factory Records founder and Durutti Column manager). The booklet restores the original cover design by 8vo.
Short Stories for Pauline is the legendary 'lost' fourth album by cult Manchester group The Durutti Column, recently issued as a limited edition vinyl album on the Factory Benelux imprint. Originally recorded by Vini Reilly in Brussels for Factory Benelux in 1983, the 14 track album features several exquisite pieces including College, A Room in Southport and (most notably) Duet. Recorded with Tuxedomoon viola player Blaine L. Reininger, this poignant instrumental proved - ironically – to be the downfall of the album, after Factory director (and Durutti manager) Tony Wilson insisted that Duet form the basis of an entire neo-classical album. As a result, Duet became Without Mercy in 1984, and Short Stories for Pauline was shelved. Although individual tracks from Short Stories for Pauline have appeared on several compilations, notably highbrow Crépuscule collection Hommage à Marguerite Duras, this is the first time the original album has appeared in its entirety. The 2012 remastered edition is a must for Vini Reilly and Factory collectors alike, and a priceless addition to the Durutti canon. The CD edition comes with a bonus disc, comprising 10 tracks recorded live in Brussels on 13 August 1981 together with a Vini Reilly radio interview.
Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of this seminal 1989 album from Manchester guitars Vini Reilly AKA The Durutti Column. Disc two was curated from a TDK tape which was found in a storage box recently. It was marked 'Sample tunes' and contained the demo's and sketches which were used by Vini during the making of the record in London. Bruce Mitchell recalls that the recording was not a particularly easy time. The artist was unwell and had to be wheeled in and out to get the material together with Stephen Street. 'I could not bring myself to even listen to the finished article until a couple of months had passed' recalls the drummer, 'but when I heard it I knew what a great record we had made'.
Darla Records is proud to offer the seventh album by iconic post-punk/new wave pop craftsmen Modern English, best known for their hit song “I Melt with You”. Their classic album After the Snow(4AD: 1982) featured what became a radio/club mega-hit and MTV staple, “I Melt with You”, which was used in the film Valley Girl, in more than one TV advertisement and became the flagship track on the popular Nouvelle Vague covers album.
Now as then, Modern English is smart, modern pop, firmly rooted in post-punk yet undeniably Beatle-esque. Described by Robbie Grey as, “Some real music for real people with real emotions”, Soundtrack marks the convincing return of a band with a solidly recognizable, signature sound and pop sensibility. The songs ranging from the uplifting, jangle-pop with infectious, sing-along chorus and dance-able beat of “It’s Ok”, the record’s obvious single, and the equally inspired “Blister” and “Up Here in the Brain”, to dark, downtempo grooves with somber keyboard washes in which Grey sings of never-far-off blackness and suicide, “Soundtrack”, “Bomb”, “The Lowdown”, are all characteristically introspective and consistent with Modern English’s best work.
Modern English now is Robbie Grey (vocals), Steven Walker (guitar), Nik Williams (bass), Matthew Shipley (keyboards) and Jon Solomon (drums). Modern English’s George Martin, Producer Hugh Jones (“I Melt With You”, After The Snow, Ricochet Days, plus Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen, That Petrol Emotion, Pale Saints, The Charlatans, etc.) produced Soundtrack. The album was recorded residential style - living, eating and sleeping music at Chapel Studios in the English countryside over a two month period, then mixed at Pete Townsend’s studio, The Barge, on the Thames in London and mastered at Metropolis Studios, London.
