Paris Suit Yourself - Sometimes
(Digital single) Big Dada BDDNL176, 2011-04-04

Paris Suit Yourself return with the third single from their explosive, divisive debut album, My Main Shitstain. Sometimes represents possibly the closest the quartet will ever come to a 'straight up' pop single - elements of the Kinks slam up against sixties Motown (though maybe not as straightforwardly as that might make it sound!), Luvinsky Atche drops undertstated, high, clean, beautiful vocals, while Victor Tricard rips through a viciously tuneful guitar solo. It's all over almost before it's started, leaving you wanting a little more. Before you hit rewind, there's more to come. Micachu brings her own brand of speaker-blowing madness to the original on her M.A.T.H.E.S. remix, the kind of demented electronic stomp which has established her as one of the few truly original musicians working in London. M.E.S.H. (aka James Whipple) reconfigures the original into a bass-heavy, technoid-dub workout, all phasing pads and fast dancehall rhythms. Victor Tricard, meanwhile, puts down his guitar and takes the tune straight to the nearest rave, building from ambient malice to full on four-to-the-floor freakout (and in the process proving that this is not a band who take themselves too seriously, but just seriously enough).

The Death Set - Michel Poiccard
(CD/Download) Counter Records COUNTCD036/COUNTDNL036, 2011-02-28

The Death Set's new album, Michel Poiccard, comes prefigured by tragedy. For their first record Worldwide, the core of the group had been the two Aussie ex-pats who moved together to Baltimore in the early noughties - Beau Velasco and Johnny Siera. Just as the pair were about to embark on writing a new album together, Velasco, who had struggled with drug addiction on and off throughout his life, died of an overdose. The band were shattered, so much so that Johnny still finds it almost impossible to talk about. It wouldn't have been surprising if the group had decided to call it a day. Instead, Johnny Siera, with long time band members Daniel Walker and Jahphet Landis decided to make the record a celebration of Velasco's life. Relocating to Brooklyn and enlisting long time friend and Baltimore associate XXXchange (Spank Rock, Kele, The Kills) to man the desk, they created Michel Poiccard, an album which loses none of the charm of their previous “punk spazz" work but adds considerable depth, both in terms of the punch and bottom end that XXXchange brings to the table, and in terms of a sense of desperate loss or longing, which permeates everything on the record and reaches a considerable pinnacle on “I Miss You Beau Velasco" and the closer “Is It The End Again?"...

Paris Suit Yourself - My Main Shitstain
(LP/CD/Download) Big Dada BD175/BDCD175/BDDNL175, 2011-02-14

What do you want from the ideal debut album? That it excites you, intrigues you, sometimes confuses you? That it takes risks, is hard to place in terms of the records you already know, that it's short and sharp and bursting with energy and ideas and even hooks? That it makes you laugh, or cry, or has your jaw occasionally scraping along the floor? That it sets out its stall with utter confidence and no reference to what's going on around it? That it's delivered with total conviction? That it fits into no pre-defined "trend" or "scene" and instead creates its own space by force of will? If even a few of those are what you're looking for then My Main Shitstain by Paris Suit Yourself could just be your new favourite record.

Nathan Moore - Dear Puppeteer
(CD/Download) The Royal Potato Family, 2011-02-01

A crowning achievement from one of this generation's most prolific songwriters, Dear Puppeteer is Nathan Moore's ninth studio album to date. It follows 2009's well-received EP, Folk Singer, which led Paste Magazine to write, "The sharp, introspective lyrics of Nathan Moore draw an instant connection to the great folk singers of the past". The UK's Maverick Magazine said, "Many have come and many have tried, but we may finally have a storytelling successor to Dylan, Van Zandt and Cash." Moore, who first came to national attention as a founding member of ThaMuseMeant, also currently fronts the revered American rock band Surprise Me Mr. Davis.

Spokes - Everyone I Ever Met
(CD/Download) Counter Records COUNTCD033/COUNTDNL033, 2011-01-17

Euphoric, heartfelt and utterly beautiful, Spokes present Everyone I Ever Met, their first album for Counter Records. Effortlessly blending together elements of shoegaze, folk, post-rock and much more, its bittersweet joyfulness will purge your system of cynicism for weeks. This is an album that moves from the chamber shoegaze pop of title track Everyone I Ever Met, through heartfelt acoustic folk on Sun It Never Comes, slowly building piano balladry (Give It Up To The Night), spinning revellry on Torn Up In Praise, rural-psych in Happy Needs Colour and beautifully poised pop on closer When I Was A Daisy, When I Was A Tree. More than anything else, what strikes you listening to Spokes is their complete sincerity, their lack of any sideways glance at what their contemporaries are doing. They make beautiful, sad, celebratory, delirious, worshipful music because that’s how they feel and, in doing so, that’s how they make you feel, too.

Chocolate Genius - Swansongs
(CD/Download) No Format, 2011-02-01

Chocolate Genius Inc. (A.K.A. Marc Anthony Thompson) describes the lyrical content of his music as "Gracefully embracing decay is the constant theme. Letting go. The curse of religion. The passion is the poison. That old dilemma—worship and penance; sparkle and fade; bass and trouble." The theme definitely flows through his latest album Swan Songs, the closing chapter to a trilogy that started with 1998's Black Music, followed by 2001's Godmusic and 'Black Yankee Rock' released in 2004. This is really beautiful folk-rock music which we're inviting you to discover through this 30mn mix focusing on Chocolate Genius.

The Death Set - Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap
(Download) Counter Records COUNTDNL035, 2011-01-10

The Death Set return with the first single from their new album, Michel Poiccard. The record is prefigured by tragedy, founder member and co-writer Beau Velasco having died early in the recording and writing process. You wouldn't necessarily know it to hear the first single, though. Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap is a blast of pure energy, producer XXXchange (Spank Rock, Kele Okereke) playing the Rick Rubin role to the Death Set's early Beasties screaming rap-yelp, expanding the beats and hardening the guitar lines until the whole thing snaps. Brutal, funny and undeniably exciting, it is, Johnny Siera explains, about "the handshake that all our friends do here in Brooklyn. Fun lil handshake. You'll get the idea when you see the instructional video we're making." Exclusive track Been Too Long sounds like the soundtrack to Pretty In Pink being vandalised by teen speed freaks, while the O.G Version of viral sensation Yo David Chase! You P.O.V. Shot Me In The Head ditches the slinky Diplo-funk of the original for a more traditional punk workout. Short, sharp and motherfucking loud, the Death Set are back.

Doctor L - Open Window
(Download/limited CD) Colored-Inc. COLI022, 2011-01


Doctor L's new album is once again different!
Rather than classify it simply as music, the performer use sound to express feelings he cannot put into words. He's free, free to use sound in any style he may conceive, free to avoid the obligations of any debt to the rules of standard harmony or anything that has gone before him in music. He's free to observe these rules or break them.
Open Window is a walk through the musical universe. It explores new areas, plunges into territories never before investigated, says whatever it pleases without being concerned staying in any one musical bag.
Open Window is a lifestyle, it is beyond category. The sources of its words and music span the centuries. Its concept and interpretations are timeless and boundless. If its contribution can be summarized in a phrase, 'Open Windows' is the sound of now, encompassing all the yesterdays and all the todays in the limitless cosmos of sound.


Buy digital on iTunes | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.fr | Shockhound.com | napster.com | tescoentertainment.com

The Heavy - How You Like Me Now? EP
(CD/10"/Download) Counter Records COUNTCD038/COUNT038/COUNTDNL038, 2009-11-29

The Heavy will be releasing the new How You Like Me Now? EP digitally on October 19th via Counter /+1 Records, with vinyl and CD's available on their current fall tour dates. It includes two previously unreleased songs, as well as new versions of some of their most popular songs, including the smash hit title track that features the Dap-Kings Horns (who were recent tour mates when the band opened for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings earlier this year). The Heavy recently proved that there is indeed no rest for the weary when they announced that they would return to North America in October and November for another mind-blowing run of shows, a handful of which are with Mayer Hawthorne (Stones Throw), and the rest which they will be headlining themselves. The tour is now underway, including shows at The Bowery Ballroom and The Music Hall of Williamsburg the past two nights.

That Kind Of Man (1.1) | Download MP3

Paris Suit Yourself - Lost My Girl
(Download) Big Dada BDDNL172, 2010-11-22

Paris Suit Yourself return with the second single from the forthcoming debut album, My Main Shitstain. Lost My Girl is a full-throttle, raging monster of a tune, which makes previous single Craig Machinsky seem a wilting wallflower by comparison. An exposition of all the things you can lose in life (from your girl to your soul) by being greedy and making stupid mistakes, Lost My Girl starts as spiked, icy punk, goes through a phase of sounding like the Shangri-La's on bad acid and ends up as a dark metal/gospel explosion of such intensity that the listener can only suspect possession. Paris Suit Yourself are a four piece originally from Bordeaux and Arkansas who coalesced into their current form in the squat and warehouse party scene of Berlin. They make some of the fiercest, most beautiful, angry and joyful music you'll come across right now and do it without sounding like anyone but themselves.