southern records

Alone to themselves, Bird Names has been singing a strange sweet song for four years. The song tells about the horror and wonder of truth in an acid-scrambled brogue pieced together from old pop and country music. In their singing they celebrate the honesty of the grotesque, the spirituality of ambiguity, the joy of singing. With Bird Names Sings the Browns, the group's fifth album (following a 10" EP and April 2008's Open Relationship), Bird Names has made a statement of their artistic resolve and capacity. It is a moody pop album scribbled in loose, intuitive musicianship, kissed with love and friendship, built by the power of radical unconscious play. The band produced the album themselves (as they have most Bird Names albums), engaging their 1/2" tape studio with the amateur's imagination, inspiration and crudity. Sings the Browns is folk in its frankness, privacy, melancholy; psychedelic in its conjuring the displacement of drug experience; pop in its melody, stickiness, demand of obsessive listening.

Second Base is the band's sophomore release, following on from their sold-out split album with Leopard Leg, it's an album that draws from metal and doom, but in which individual songs are stripped down even more to an icy core. Chanted vocals, sparse, jarring guitars and a drum-centric focus all lend to a compelling sense of drama and impending ruin. Songs move into and out of chaos, regimented rhythms collapsing into squally feedback like a '60s freakout taken to almost parodic extremes. And through this caterwaul, ethereal voices, invoking chants of the medieval and mystical, are barely heard.

Future Islands are a bittersweet new wave pop band, turning to synthesizers and beats rather than guitars and drums. With this brand new double A-side single the group allow us to glimpse some of the poetic grandeur and heartfelt melody that they are readying for their second album. Future Islands are masters of marrying upbeat songs with soul searching lyrical content and the Feathers & Hallways 7 inch is their best example yet. "The Happiness Of Bring Twice" is vocalist Sam Herring's impression of what true love can be when left to instinct. Sometimes the emotions you feel won't make sense in your head and this track makes this a case in point. Clasping beats and a buoyant bass and synth interplay courtesy of Gerrit Welmers and William Cashion help set up the perfect backdrop for Sam's extraordinary vocal delivery, at once tender, then joyous, then wounded. "Pinnochio" is as revelatory as it is regressive plunging into the hidden depths and memories of the protagonist in the song. It's a slow-burn track taking in a persistent bass motif and soaring keyboard line which builds to a air punching climax. With Feathers & Hallways, Future Islands prove that they guide us through our heart's darkest moments and greatest thrills forever and always.

K.I.T. has written a batch of new songs that break past song-lengths and delve into structural experiments with the ferocity of past efforts. Vice Cooler hit on the idea of having Mike Watt guest on the tracks, and while George's suggestion that we cover Jefferson Airplane's psychedelic classic "White Rabbit" with Watt on vocals was canned, we did re-visit one of Broken Voyage's tracks, "Flat Earth", a paean to the band's home town of Oakland. Three others are filled out with melodic runs by the Minutemen and Stooges legend (the bass used on this jam has sadly since been stolen by some karmically cursed Canadians) while KIT's Stove Touchstone holds down the official bass duties. Some horn overdubs with Jenna Thornhill of Silver Daggers and Mika Miko also find their way into the mix.

High Places' self-titled debut was recorded by Rob and Mary in their apartment in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighbourhood between January and May of 2008. They employed a wide variety of instruments to make this album, ranging from the more traditional: 12 string guitar, banjo, shakers and rattles, bass, bells and Kalimba, to the inventive: plastic bags, mixing bowls, wood blocks and other common household objects. The album has a contemplative and organic lyrical tone emphasised by the themes of goodness manifested in nature, hardship and wonder as necessities to human existence and growth. Additionally, the idea of maturation and development is further accented through the recurring mention of trees and their extending, enveloping branches. Rob created the High Places artwork by using photos taken by both band members. The images are drawn from nature but all have a subtle, mystical, "golden" motif, a fitting frame for the album's recurring themes.

This split release is part of a series of records from Upset The Rhythm documenting the fertile and often overlooked experimental / underground scene in the UK. CHOPS marry up their love of fidgety drum patterns, effect-drenched saxophone and synthesiser showdowns in such a way that every broken sound that swelled forth is caked in euphoria and creeped-out gravity. Helhesten's Dithyramb is a collision of energies, stretching and distorting the inherited sounds and shapes of records full of yowl and lo-fi discord with the zeal of the gutter-punk, free music underground making ecstatic noises across the globe right now. A dissonant clatter of precariously structured outer-rock pieces is bound fast by revolving guitar and viola drone, piano clonk, and crumbling tape loops. From these uncertain foundations the clarinet and vocal squall attack, build, and finally fall out completely, only for the beat up three-stringed Fender to lurch forward again for the final flare-up. Both sides were recorded by John Hannon at No Studios, a man as committed as Upset The Rhythm to helping document this new wave of talent so close to home.

Arise and awaken! All who thirst for the sweet nectar of discontent. Let the light of a thousand paper lanterns shine upon furrowed brows of the angst-ridden, the nervous and the artistically repressed and light the causeway as to venture forward towards a new nation. Hear the buzzing of animals far away through the rushes on the riverside. March forward to a great, new leap. Explode into a youthful movement not seen since the decade following the Great War, the War to End All Wars, it's chaos and decadence littering the fields and valleys with gore, emptiness and cold emotions. Against this! We are. For Death Sentence: PANDA! offers a bold statement; HARMONY, LIFE, STRENGTH and REVENGE!!!!!!! This document, recorded by the band Death Sentence: PANDA! itself in a house with many books, is finally declared!!! Mixed with Philip Manley (Trans Am, Oneida, Golden) in a clandestine location not far from the previously mentioned library. Inspired by and dedicated to Champions far and near, friends and foes alike, Insects Awaken is, in fact, the sound of a wasp's sting to the tongues rewarded with the delicious gift of coconut ice cream.

Dream Island Laughing Language is the eighteenth release by Lucky Dragons. This is world music for a world that doesn't care about "music" as we have packaged it for the last 100 years. You could call it post-noise, or post-anything you like, but we would prefer to call it pre-something. With a constantly shifting group of participants, each recording is a record of a specific time and place, and of those present and active as a community in the creation of the recording. For this recording, the time is 2007-2008, the place is California. The name of the record refers to the landfill-island in Tokyo harbour where the original lucky dragon now lives - "dream island", and to the creation of imaginary languages - "laughing language", that can be used to express things our own languages can't. As with Lucky Dragons' remarkable live performances, these recordings strive to create a space where community, memory and ritual all come together as a crystal which vibrates and shatters. The LP version of Dream Island Laughing Language is accompanied with a book of illustrations by Luke Fischbeck. The CD version also boasts five extra bonus tracks.

Try It Again is a mini-LP that nestles in the gap between Softboiled Eggies' 2007 debut full-length Egg Soldiers for Tiny Creatures / Human Ear Music and a sophomore album expected later in 2008 via Upset The Rhythm. With more time in the studio, the record sees the band flesh out their customary pop quartet setup, with bells, chimes, glasses, water and a variety of organs and pianos, lending a new sense of exploration to the music. Inspired as much by girl groups as the glassy guitars of Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine, the experimentalism of Scritti Politti, and the woozy rhythms of dub or reggae, Try It Again is a captivating piece of work. "Only Loved At Night" sees the band take on the Raincoats classic, while "Mama Don't Cry" showcases Janet's haunting and uncompromising personal lyrics, assessing the demise of the American dream from a uniquely private perspective. Try It Again is as artful and imaginative as describing a galaxy in terms of the spilt milk of the Gods, making grand gestures effortlessly and with charm.

Wave Like Home is a breathless testament to romance and grasping chances, forever enthralled to the optimism of trying again, chasing broken dreams and finding courage in a forsaken heart. From the broken elegy of woozy opener Pangea through the euphoric fun trips of Old Friend and the upbeat Seize A Shark, the album never drifts far from reflection amongst its highest highs. For every throbbing track recalling breakneck pursuits there's a soulful reminder of the quieter side of a melodramatic heart. Beach Foam is glorious, swelling synth work perfectly capturing the crashing waves that incite such hungry philosophy in the song. Wave Like Home is a worthy debut album for Future Islands - perfectly capturing their bittersweet nature. To quote the band on this matter it's an album of "bright morning-times holding hands with dreary afternoons", like finding "shark-infested waters surrounding honeymoon beaches". We are never that far from fun or despair, valiantly Future Islands are here to remind us of that.

2 tracks 7 minutes. These two Brooklyn dwellers create a unique and joyous union of world beat, dance music and underground pop. Limited to 1000 coloured vinyl only!

14 tracks 39 minutes. Successfully capturing the manic energy of their live shows with infectious melody, dance-conscious glee and intelligent composition. Hugely enjoyable

For the past two years, former Mae Shi vocalist/gunk programmer Ezra Buchla and Amps For Christ guitar-wailer Erika Anderson have brought to the American west coast a fertile marriage of eerie folk murmur and crushed, twisted electronics. With percussionist Corey Fogel, the sound conjured by Gowns is a digitally ruptured, gospel valentine to the heartlands.

John Maus' brand new album Love is Real is an apocalyptic journey through the nostalgic streets of our home towns deep into the recesses of the human heart. It is a map of self discovery, rejection and escapism captured across 14 songs of melancholic baroque pop music. Similar in style to his debut Songs from last year, the album is a mixture of exploratory synthesiser theatrics, tensely-strung bass lines and insistent drum machine clicks and pops, all set off by John’s deeply resonant reverb-drenched vocal. Love is Real is a more reflective and realised effort than Songs however, focusing its attentions on impulsive song writing and inspired musicianship, replacing the reminiscent feel of the first record with genuine poignancy.

There isn't an easy comparison for the dire poise of Now You Are This, the new record from Numbers. The songs are minimal and epic at the same time; powerful, blunt guitar riffs, insistent drumming, and tense slabs of analogue synthesizers. The futuristic propulsion of Kraftwerk, the taut structures of Wire, the strange beauty of Eno, filtered through the raw-knuckled roughness of Suicide? The most disquieting aspect of the songs is their charm; thirteen tracks of dazed and charged near-collapse that unexpectedly catch in your mind, echoing their haunted buzz for days and weeks after the record ends. Not since The Sliver Apples has a band so successfully wedded a cacophony of electronic keyboards with such a clear-voiced pop sensibility. A significant part of this catchiness lies in the traditional chord structures and vocals; Indra's floating, hypnotic singing, Dave and Eric's timeless harmonies. This weave of simple, strong vocals lends a poignant, unflinching guide to the dogged, swirling sound of the record. Amid the tumultuous, irresistible waves of sound that drive the last minutes of Now You Are This, the world seems to fall away in the face of a voice asking, "what happened to you... what happened to me?"

17 tracks 24 minutes. Crashing drums and raucous guitar melodies meet spooked lyricism and frantic spontaneity in this exciting DIY UK band face off.

'Broken Voyage' is a debut album about adventure, secrets, escape and the night. An energetic blast of innovation and fun, with songs running in unpredictable yet ever electrifying directions. “Fixed Compass” is a hyperactive call-to-arms of gang chants and gnarly guitar duelling, which builds to an explosion only to regroup with slowly unfolding carnage. “Coast Of Arms” is a queasy seasick rampage, punctuated with a frantic drum breakdown and an urgent vocal from Kristy, a barrage of punked noise which descends into spectral electronic oddness before seizing the party pulse again triumphantly.

'Summary' is a document of the body as a record, and is an intensely individual attempt to codify the emotional upheaval of a traumatic five months around the summer of 2006. The songs record the idiosyncratic nature of thought processes, with the repetitive melodies, stream of conscious lyrics, indirect speech and leaps of logic that occur within one’s head. Impassioned and articulate, it trawls the depths of relationships and explores the potential of catharsis. With 'Summary' Brendan has written an album that sounds like no other, the music is affecting, the lyrics are expressive and authentic; it is an album that speaks to everyone.

After three uninvited performances at 2006's CMJ Music Marathon in New York, No Age managed to not only captivate audiences with their 15 minutes (and under) live sets but also create a whole load of interest from press and punters alike. So far with nothing but a couple of DVD-R experiments under their belt, they're offering up 13 plus minutes of lo-fi punk tantrums. Sounding like bedroom tape-deck recordings with little or no post-production this is new musical art as seen by two boys in love with the world. Appreciate the hurt, love the hurt and embrace the hurt, 'Get Hurt'.

Brendan Fowler AKA Barr is a talking head in the truest sense. Barr is a voice and drums project that Brendan's been working on for the last three years out of Los Angeles and New York. A 26-year-old self-proclaimed "motivational speaker" for lapsed indie and punk kids. Barr's songs sound very alive, smart and funny; a lot like trying to express complicated emotions and ideas in an ecstatic vocabulary faster than a firework.

22 trks,19 mins. Silver & Black split 10" LP from two of the UK's most inventive underground acts. Collects Trencher's brutal Peel session w/ Esquilax's wild splattertronic debut.

With a pedigree drawn from such renowned SF bands as Total Shutdown, Crack: WAR and Zeek Sheck, Death Sentence: Panda! meld Ornette Coleman blasts of squalling woodwind with splenetic drum detonations, and float a fairy-ish lilting flute above this cacophony, so as to make it all spangly. With fierce, neo-environmentalist vocals bellowed or breathed in the foreground, DSP sound like absolutely nothing else in the universe (no, really). The record, a beautiful bespoke object in itself, comes on a single-sided, black-and-white panda-print 10 inch vinyl. Plush!