TAPETE RECORDS - Forced Exposure

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/19/2019

Stereo Total -- Ah! Quel Cinéma! An album title with not one, but two exclamation marks, meaning something akin to "what a palaver" as it primes the listener for songs like "Cinemascope". Themes such as personal injuries ("Ich Bin Cool"), betrayal ("Mes Copines"), personality deficiencies brought on by drug abuse ("Methedrine"), rage ("Hass-Satellit"), inflated opinions of oneself ("Brezel Says"), suicide ("Le Spleen"), grief ("Dancing With A Memory"), and souls in torment ("Elektroschocktherapie") are presented in widescreen format in and often in the most entertaining fashion. Stereo Total's penchant for wordplay is not in evidence in all of the lyrics on this record. Many tracks here echo the rather more somber, desperate songs she wrote for her first band Les Lolitas. Nevertheless, the anarchic humor which can be associated with Stereo Total resurfaces on compositions like "Keine Musik" and "Einfach". Musically, this Stereo Total disc, their twelfth, cannot be readily aligned with anything at all. If earlier albums resonated with influences from chanson, trash, or disco to punk, rock'n'roll and NDW (German New Wave), Stereo Total have now arrived in their very own musical universe which pays no heed to stylistic devices, reminiscent of "rien de tout". Brezel Göring draws on his favored array of instruments more likely to be found in the hands of children in households where a musical education is not on the agenda: plastic baby organ and dreadful mouse piano, accompanied by home-made guitars glued together by less than gifted artisans. Stereo Total continue to make electronic music with flea market Casio sounds which fly in the face of what is generally accepted to be electronic music. Each musical instrument could probably be translated into social coordinates and in this sense, the tools of Stereo Total's trade speak an unequivocal language. Stereo Total continue to play lo-fi garage rock music which makes a mockery of all the masculine clichés associated with guitars. When Françoise Cactus plays the drums, the rhythms of feminism, anti-professionalism and subversive dilettantism come to the fore. Any attempts to pigeonhole Stereo Total. The group began making music before the internet existed, before the Euro, before Germany reunited and before there were even bands or music. They will probably still be playing when all that has been consigned to the dustbin of history. When they began making music together, they made it their mission to disrupt rules, to destabilize ideas. They may not have thrown European harmonic structure or 4/4 time out of the window, but they have certainly asked questions of every other aspect of musical and lyrical techniques.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/19/2019

LP version.

$43.00 IN STOCK

Double LP version. Tapete present a reissue of Nick Garrie's The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas, originally released in 1968. The Englishman recorded his folk-pop masterpiece in France at the tender age of nineteen. The year was 1968 and Garrie felt ill at ease with the lavish arrangements accompanying his songs. Worse still, the label owner committed suicide and the record virtually disappeared without trace -- until it resurfaced in 2005. Tapete's release includes numerous bonus tracks, rare photograph, and extensive liner notes.

"... The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas feels unmistakably English, and yet never ventures near the childlike tropes of British psychedelia, never hints at prog or flirts with the pastoral folk stylings coming out of the UK in the late 1960s. One very good reason for this oddness is that this album in fact came out of Paris as the result of one heroic act of cross-Channel cultural misunderstanding . . . the story of his debut LP sounds eerily poignant in today's age of European turmoil. It is the tale of a boy who grew up on both sides of the Channel, forever too French for Britain and too British for France, with roots that went back a lot farther still . . . His father's idée fixe meant that come his 18th birthday young Nick found himself in line for two years' service in the French army. Ten years prior to that, the British side of his upbringing had condemned him to the trauma of a Norwich boarding school . . . In his youth, Garrie's 'gods' were Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Georges Moustaki. No wonder The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas sounds and feels a lot more like the Tuileries than Hyde Park, more French Riviéra than Brighton pier. In fact the beaches of Saint Tropez were the place where these songs first found an audience when a still teenage Nick Garrie lived precariously on the run from the French army. Having produced some demos in Brussels (included in this collection, alongside a non-album single and one later demo) and renounced his French citizenship, Garrie passed an audition with Lucien Morisse, boss at the then predominant Parisian record label Disc'AZ . . . None other than the eminent Eddie Vartan was employed to give the young Englishman's songs a full orchestral makeover. Having finished his recordings with some 50-odd grumpy French studio hacks in just two weeks, Garrie eagerly awaited the album's release. But on the day before Stanislas was due to appear the news broke that Lucien Morisse had committed suicide. The unexpected death of the man who had signed him also meant the death knell for Garrie's record..." --Robert Rotifer

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "A balmy autumn evening in London: I'm nestled in the crowd of a sold-out show at The Lexington to witness one of Louis Philippe's rare performances. The opening act, Friedrich Sunlight, hits the stage. Right from the first notes of the opening song, I listen spellbound. Catchy 'Ba-ba-bas' and unbelievable arrangements pull me and the others closer to the front: Who is that? I'm amazed but yet, can't understand a single word being sung: The singer, gifted with a soft, distinctive voice, sings everything in German. Later in the evening, I bump into him again. He's involved in a lively conversation with a distinguished gentleman. I step in, we introduce each other: His name is Kenji and he is telling Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens the story of his life, how he, a child of Japanese immigrants, moved from San Francisco to Germany. And finally, how he ended up in Augsburg to join like-minded musicians to make music influenced by sunshine pop of the '60s and British pop of the early '80s under the name Friedrich Sunlight . . . The following summer, I'm standing on the concrete roof of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. It's already early evening, but it's still brutally hot, and much to my surprise, I see Kenji again: Friedrich Sunlight is the opening act for The Zombies, which somehow suits the motto of this evening's event: "Goodbye UK -- and Thank You for the Music". After their two intoxicating performances, I get the chance to meet the other band members -- pianist Bernd, guitarist Florian, bassist Thomas, and drummer Marc. We talk about the recordings for their second album and about the new songs, including the Northern Soul-tinged 'Sag Es Erst Morgen', likely the first single, and 'Kleines Haus', a tune reminiscent of The Velvet Underground and a cheerfully sharp reckoning with Donald Trump . . . Months later I hear from Friedrich Sunlight, along with some sad news they send me an advance copy of their album: The energetic, string-laden opener 'Sag Es Erst Morgen' kicks off the LP of the same name, as well as eleven other highlights of contemporary pop music. The album, masterfully mixed in London by a friend of the band, Ian Button, immediately seems airier, pleasantly more accessible and more varied than the first album. Sunshine pop numbers ('Mit Dir') are followed by bossa nova-like pieces ('Fernweh') and '60s persiflages ('Radical And Chic'). The endless search for harmony, the polyphonic vocal arrangements and the band's very own lyrical world harken back to their debut. But whoever hasn't lifted off the ground by now, just listen to those horns on the second track: 'Was Will Man Noch Mehr'..." --Rikard Gustavson

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

Tapete present a reissue of Nick Garrie's The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas, originally released in 1968. The Englishman recorded his folk-pop masterpiece in France at the tender age of nineteen. The year was 1968 and Garrie felt ill at ease with the lavish arrangements accompanying his songs. Worse still, the label owner committed suicide and the record virtually disappeared without trace -- until it resurfaced in 2005. Tapete's release includes numerous bonus tracks, rare photograph, and extensive liner notes.

"... The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas feels unmistakably English, and yet never ventures near the childlike tropes of British psychedelia, never hints at prog or flirts with the pastoral folk stylings coming out of the UK in the late 1960s. One very good reason for this oddness is that this album in fact came out of Paris as the result of one heroic act of cross-Channel cultural misunderstanding . . . the story of his debut LP sounds eerily poignant in today's age of European turmoil. It is the tale of a boy who grew up on both sides of the Channel, forever too French for Britain and too British for France, with roots that went back a lot farther still . . . His father's idée fixe meant that come his 18th birthday young Nick found himself in line for two years' service in the French army. Ten years prior to that, the British side of his upbringing had condemned him to the trauma of a Norwich boarding school . . . In his youth, Garrie's 'gods' were Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Georges Moustaki. No wonder The Nightmare Of J.B. Stanislas sounds and feels a lot more like the Tuileries than Hyde Park, more French Riviéra than Brighton pier. In fact the beaches of Saint Tropez were the place where these songs first found an audience when a still teenage Nick Garrie lived precariously on the run from the French army. Having produced some demos in Brussels (included in this collection, alongside a non-album single and one later demo) and renounced his French citizenship, Garrie passed an audition with Lucien Morisse, boss at the then predominant Parisian record label Disc'AZ . . . None other than the eminent Eddie Vartan was employed to give the young Englishman's songs a full orchestral makeover. Having finished his recordings with some 50-odd grumpy French studio hacks in just two weeks, Garrie eagerly awaited the album's release. But on the day before Stanislas was due to appear the news broke that Lucien Morisse had committed suicide. The unexpected death of the man who had signed him also meant the death knell for Garrie's record..." --Robert Rotifer

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

Tapete Records present a remastered reissue of Robert Forster's album The Evangelist, originally released in 2008. Following the 1989 break-up of the Go-Betweens, the band he had formed at college in 1978 with his friend Grant McLennan, Robert Forster embarked on a solo career, releasing four albums under his own name between 1990 and 1996. In 2000, the Go-Betweens reunited and went on to record three albums. Forster and McLennan began working on the tenth Go-Betweens album and had started writing eight songs together. McLennan died of a heart attack in May 2006, and Forster began work on completing three of the songs they had started writing together, all of which are featured on The Evangelist. CD version comes in a digipak and includes a booklet.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

LP version. Tapete Records present a remastered reissue of Robert Forster's album The Evangelist, originally released in 2008. Following the 1989 break-up of the Go-Betweens, the band he had formed at college in 1978 with his friend Grant McLennan, Robert Forster embarked on a solo career, releasing four albums under his own name between 1990 and 1996. In 2000, the Go-Betweens reunited and went on to record three albums. Forster and McLennan began working on the tenth Go-Betweens album and had started writing eight songs together. McLennan died of a heart attack in May 2006, and Forster began work on completing three of the songs they had started writing together, all of which are featured on The Evangelist. CD version comes in a digipak and includes a booklet.

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

"A balmy autumn evening in London: I'm nestled in the crowd of a sold-out show at The Lexington to witness one of Louis Philippe's rare performances. The opening act, Friedrich Sunlight, hits the stage. Right from the first notes of the opening song, I listen spellbound. Catchy 'Ba-ba-bas' and unbelievable arrangements pull me and the others closer to the front: Who is that? I'm amazed but yet, can't understand a single word being sung: The singer, gifted with a soft, distinctive voice, sings everything in German. Later in the evening, I bump into him again. He's involved in a lively conversation with a distinguished gentleman. I step in, we introduce each other: His name is Kenji and he is telling Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens the story of his life, how he, a child of Japanese immigrants, moved from San Francisco to Germany. And finally, how he ended up in Augsburg to join like-minded musicians to make music influenced by sunshine pop of the '60s and British pop of the early '80s under the name Friedrich Sunlight . . . The following summer, I'm standing on the concrete roof of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. It's already early evening, but it's still brutally hot, and much to my surprise, I see Kenji again: Friedrich Sunlight is the opening act for The Zombies, which somehow suits the motto of this evening's event: "Goodbye UK -- and Thank You for the Music". After their two intoxicating performances, I get the chance to meet the other band members -- pianist Bernd, guitarist Florian, bassist Thomas, and drummer Marc. We talk about the recordings for their second album and about the new songs, including the Northern Soul-tinged 'Sag Es Erst Morgen', likely the first single, and 'Kleines Haus', a tune reminiscent of The Velvet Underground and a cheerfully sharp reckoning with Donald Trump . . . Months later I hear from Friedrich Sunlight, along with some sad news they send me an advance copy of their album: The energetic, string-laden opener 'Sag Es Erst Morgen' kicks off the LP of the same name, as well as eleven other highlights of contemporary pop music. The album, masterfully mixed in London by a friend of the band, Ian Button, immediately seems airier, pleasantly more accessible and more varied than the first album. Sunshine pop numbers ('Mit Dir') are followed by bossa nova-like pieces ('Fernweh') and '60s persiflages ('Radical And Chic'). The endless search for harmony, the polyphonic vocal arrangements and the band's very own lyrical world harken back to their debut. But whoever hasn't lifted off the ground by now, just listen to those horns on the second track: 'Was Will Man Noch Mehr'..." --Rikard Gustavson

$17.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

Andreas Dorau's love affair with pop music blossomed early. Long before he had his first top ten hit at the tender age of sixteen, before he became one of a select few German artists to sign to Mute Records and before he hit the French charts with "Girls In Love", little Andreas retreated to his bedroom with a handful of singles -- Sparks, T-Rex, Beatles, Tina Charles, or whoever else was hot in his childhood years -- and listened to these discs over and over again. There he sat, enthralled by the sounds coming out of his Dual-1224 record player. Yet, however much he loved "Sugar Baby Love", "Yellow Submarine", and "Hot Love", the youthful, slightly eccentric (even then) Dorau could not help thinking why didn't they get straight to the point? Why not skip "In the town where I was born ..." for example and launch straight into "We all live in a yellow submarine"? Nice and simple, short and sweet. If music were a sandwich, Dorau would toss the bread and just eat the filling. To the detriment of the fragile vinyl, not to mention the displeasure of his sister (they were her records, after all), he would lift the needle and drop it onto his favored grooves (the chorus). To this day, Andreas Dorau's aversion to verses is as strong as ever. Should one point out to him that his own albums actually contain more than a few verses, the artist is wont to reply: "The record company made me!" The sheer nerve of it! Fortunately, he has now arrived at Tapete Records, a label renowned for giving free rein to libertine spirits. The songs on Das Wesentliche feel all the more opulent for having left so much out. And they are wonderfully brief -- a brilliant move in this internet age of shrinking attention spans. It is a stroke of genius to remove anything and everything which may run the risk of being boring or annoying. Andreas Dorau produced Das Wesentliche together with top producer Zwanie Jonson. Bubblegum, dance, HI-NRG, leftfield electronica, junk shop glam, and yacht rock are all signposted along the way. Dorau is supported by friends like the Marinas, Carsten Erobique Meyer, and Gunther Buskies in his daring endeavors to strip away unnecessary ballast from the music. May his confrères follow his visionary example in the future.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 7/5/2019

LP version.

$17.00 IN STOCK

The Catenary Wires are Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher. They specialize in emotive indie duets, capturing the spirits of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, and releasing them into modern Britain. The resulting songs will appeal to fans of Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile or Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. On Til The Morning, they are joined by Andy Lewis (Paul Weller Group, Spearmint) on cello, mellotron, and percussion and Fay Hallam (Makin' Time, Prime Movers) on Hammond organ and backing vocals. Matthew King (a classical composer) plays piano. Nick and Claire Sermon play brass. The local Kentish countryside provides ambient noise. The album was recorded during 2018 at the Sunday School, in the middle of nowhere in Kent. It is a big step forward from their first album, Red Red Skies (2015): more complex and more beguiling, with a multi-layered sound that reflects a range of additional instruments, including harmonium, bells and an old trailer. It was produced by Andy Lewis, who has recently produced albums for Judy Dyble and French Boutik.

Matt Haynes, ex-head of Sarah Records, writes: "When a wire is hung from two fixed points, the shape it makes is a catenary. Its beauty lies in its simplicity -- so natural, so effortless. And when two people who, after starring in a quartet of legendary pop bands, have themselves become pop legends, decide to leave London's indie scene to those with fewer candles on their cakes and set up home in a distant green corner of Kent . . . The sound they make is The Catenary Wires, aka Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey, formerly of Tender Trap, Marine Research, Heavenly, and proto-riot-grrrl machismo-mocking punk-pop explosion Talulah Gosh . . . Til The Morning isn't folk music, though, fetishizing the rustic and the past with straw-headed notions of authenticity. The recordings might be home-made in an un-soundproofed room, with each sigh as clear as breath on an icy morning, and the snare an old metal trailer hit with a stick, but they're computer literate and polished to a warm sheen. And when birdsong fills the gaps, it comes with reverb. It isn't lo-fi, either, unfocussed and meandering -- why would two people who've spent their lives crafting three-minute pop gems suddenly do that? The songs are uncluttered because all that's there is what needs to be there..."

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. The Catenary Wires are Rob Pursey and Amelia Fletcher. They specialize in emotive indie duets, capturing the spirits of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot, and releasing them into modern Britain. The resulting songs will appeal to fans of Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile or Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan. On Til The Morning, they are joined by Andy Lewis (Paul Weller Group, Spearmint) on cello, mellotron, and percussion and Fay Hallam (Makin' Time, Prime Movers) on Hammond organ and backing vocals. Matthew King (a classical composer) plays piano. Nick and Claire Sermon play brass. The local Kentish countryside provides ambient noise. The album was recorded during 2018 at the Sunday School, in the middle of nowhere in Kent. It is a big step forward from their first album, Red Red Skies (2015): more complex and more beguiling, with a multi-layered sound that reflects a range of additional instruments, including harmonium, bells and an old trailer. It was produced by Andy Lewis, who has recently produced albums for Judy Dyble and French Boutik.

Matt Haynes, ex-head of Sarah Records, writes: "When a wire is hung from two fixed points, the shape it makes is a catenary. Its beauty lies in its simplicity -- so natural, so effortless. And when two people who, after starring in a quartet of legendary pop bands, have themselves become pop legends, decide to leave London's indie scene to those with fewer candles on their cakes and set up home in a distant green corner of Kent . . . The sound they make is The Catenary Wires, aka Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey, formerly of Tender Trap, Marine Research, Heavenly, and proto-riot-grrrl machismo-mocking punk-pop explosion Talulah Gosh . . . Til The Morning isn't folk music, though, fetishizing the rustic and the past with straw-headed notions of authenticity. The recordings might be home-made in an un-soundproofed room, with each sigh as clear as breath on an icy morning, and the snare an old metal trailer hit with a stick, but they're computer literate and polished to a warm sheen. And when birdsong fills the gaps, it comes with reverb. It isn't lo-fi, either, unfocussed and meandering -- why would two people who've spent their lives crafting three-minute pop gems suddenly do that? The songs are uncluttered because all that's there is what needs to be there..."

$17.00 IN STOCK

"... Everything could have stayed the same, but you can rely on Levin Stadler to break with the norm. His Levin Goes Lightly project has earned a plethora of plaudits in recent times -- a cover of Iggy Pop's 'Nightclubbing' made it all the way to the master's headphones and straight onto the aforementioned's BBC radio show. Latterly, Trentemøller was curating a compilation (HFN 085CD/LP, 2018) and put in a request to include Levin's song '1989'. Levin Goes Lightly has thus transcended the barriers which usually stand between German pop music and a wider audience. Under normal circumstances, Nackt, the fourth album, might have been expected to continue along the same stylistic path, had Levin not felt the irresistible urge to step outside his comfort zone. In a live context, he has always worked with different musicians, Max Rieger (Die Nerven) among them. Since the last album GA PS, Levin Goes Lightly has developed from a solo project into a collaborative one. The songs on Nackt were crafted with the support of Thomas Zehnle (Wolf Mountains) and Paul Schwarz (Human Abfall). Shortly after the release of GA PS in 2017, this trio began taking regular trips to France, lodging in a remote country house to work on new ideas. Inspired by the strange rural setting, their songwriting sensibilities ventured into the unknown. The most obvious change saw Levin switch to exclusively German lyrics. He did not, however, follow their innate linguistic rhythm, instead choosing to play with ambiguities and irritations. In some places, the lyrics on Nackt echo flowery American metaphor, in others they lurch into the untempered brutality of early NDW (German New Wave) bands. On 'Stroboskop', Levin ultimately expresses his desire in a deep timbre reminiscent of Gabi Delgado (D.A.F.). Heavy vocals weigh down on a weirdly dreamy pop beat with subtle, deep bass. The music on Nackt still ploughs the melodious, psychedelic furrows of beautiful pop we have come to associate with Levin Goes Lightly. But urgent dissonances break through to the surface, engendered perhaps by the morbid depths of the crucible that is Stuttgart. Take the guitar sounds winding around 'Rote Lippen', reverberating with My Bloody Valentine-esque density. Or the hypnotic synthesizer on the title track, recalling Violator period Depeche Mode . . . Tangibility, concreteness slip through our grasp nevertheless: Levin Goes Lightly remains androgynous, a fascinating phenomenon betwixt the icy coolness of a Ziggy Stardust and the comforting intimacy of a time-honored crooner." --David Hutzel

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "... Everything could have stayed the same, but you can rely on Levin Stadler to break with the norm. His Levin Goes Lightly project has earned a plethora of plaudits in recent times -- a cover of Iggy Pop's 'Nightclubbing' made it all the way to the master's headphones and straight onto the aforementioned's BBC radio show. Latterly, Trentemøller was curating a compilation (HFN 085CD/LP, 2018) and put in a request to include Levin's song '1989'. Levin Goes Lightly has thus transcended the barriers which usually stand between German pop music and a wider audience. Under normal circumstances, Nackt, the fourth album, might have been expected to continue along the same stylistic path, had Levin not felt the irresistible urge to step outside his comfort zone. In a live context, he has always worked with different musicians, Max Rieger (Die Nerven) among them. Since the last album GA PS, Levin Goes Lightly has developed from a solo project into a collaborative one. The songs on Nackt were crafted with the support of Thomas Zehnle (Wolf Mountains) and Paul Schwarz (Human Abfall). Shortly after the release of GA PS in 2017, this trio began taking regular trips to France, lodging in a remote country house to work on new ideas. Inspired by the strange rural setting, their songwriting sensibilities ventured into the unknown. The most obvious change saw Levin switch to exclusively German lyrics. He did not, however, follow their innate linguistic rhythm, instead choosing to play with ambiguities and irritations. In some places, the lyrics on Nackt echo flowery American metaphor, in others they lurch into the untempered brutality of early NDW (German New Wave) bands. On 'Stroboskop', Levin ultimately expresses his desire in a deep timbre reminiscent of Gabi Delgado (D.A.F.). Heavy vocals weigh down on a weirdly dreamy pop beat with subtle, deep bass. The music on Nackt still ploughs the melodious, psychedelic furrows of beautiful pop we have come to associate with Levin Goes Lightly. But urgent dissonances break through to the surface, engendered perhaps by the morbid depths of the crucible that is Stuttgart. Take the guitar sounds winding around 'Rote Lippen', reverberating with My Bloody Valentine-esque density. Or the hypnotic synthesizer on the title track, recalling Violator period Depeche Mode . . . Tangibility, concreteness slip through our grasp nevertheless: Levin Goes Lightly remains androgynous, a fascinating phenomenon betwixt the icy coolness of a Ziggy Stardust and the comforting intimacy of a time-honored crooner." --David Hutzel

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Elva is the new project of Allo, Darlin's Elizabeth Morris and Ola Innset, of the Norwegian bands Making Marks and Sunturns. Winter Sun was recorded in the Autumn of 2018 in an old school house in the Swedish forest, during moose hunting season. Meaning "The River" in Norwegian, Elva take their inspiration from the natural world, the beauty of the Scandinavian summer and the harshness of the winter. Several of the songs on the album are tellingly inspired by the birth of Elizabeth and Ola's daughter. Some might feel the album is sonically most similar to the Allo, Darlin' album Europe (2012), thanks in part to the lush string arrangements courtesy of long-time Allo, Darlin' collaborator Dan Mayfield on violin and cellist Ofelia Østrem Ossum. Michael Collins, who played drums in Allo, Darlin', recorded and produced the album, building on work he has done in recent years with artists like Metronomy and Girl Ray. Diego Ivars on bass and Jørgen Nordby on drums round out the band. The sonic palate of the record is detailed and delicate, with a mix of acoustic and distorted guitars, vintage keyboards, strings, and intricate vocal harmonies. Lyrically and melodically, the album showcases the depth of both Morris and Innset's songwriting. At times recalling the gentleness and screech of American indie bands like Yo La Tengo, at other times the country-tinged heartbreak of Linda Ronstadt or Laura Veirs, Winter Sun is something of its own: a rich combination of polar opposites. Summer and winter, Australia and Norway. Elizabeth says: "I really wanted to make an album that had a nice mix of really quiet and gentle songs, together with the louder feedback-y stuff. It was great to be able to share songwriting duties with Ola, as finding time to write is trickier these days with a baby in tow, so it really took the pressure off to write all the songs myself. It also gives the album another dimension, and I have always loved bands with two songwriters, like the Go-Betweens. Hopefully we bring out the best in each other's writing. But having less pressure on myself to write all the songs meant that the songs I could contribute felt worthy enough of having a place on the record."

$17.00 IN STOCK

Elva is the new project of Allo, Darlin's Elizabeth Morris and Ola Innset, of the Norwegian bands Making Marks and Sunturns. Winter Sun was recorded in the Autumn of 2018 in an old school house in the Swedish forest, during moose hunting season. Meaning "The River" in Norwegian, Elva take their inspiration from the natural world, the beauty of the Scandinavian summer and the harshness of the winter. Several of the songs on the album are tellingly inspired by the birth of Elizabeth and Ola's daughter. Some might feel the album is sonically most similar to the Allo, Darlin' album Europe (2012), thanks in part to the lush string arrangements courtesy of long-time Allo, Darlin' collaborator Dan Mayfield on violin and cellist Ofelia Østrem Ossum. Michael Collins, who played drums in Allo, Darlin', recorded and produced the album, building on work he has done in recent years with artists like Metronomy and Girl Ray. Diego Ivars on bass and Jørgen Nordby on drums round out the band. The sonic palate of the record is detailed and delicate, with a mix of acoustic and distorted guitars, vintage keyboards, strings, and intricate vocal harmonies. Lyrically and melodically, the album showcases the depth of both Morris and Innset's songwriting. At times recalling the gentleness and screech of American indie bands like Yo La Tengo, at other times the country-tinged heartbreak of Linda Ronstadt or Laura Veirs, Winter Sun is something of its own: a rich combination of polar opposites. Summer and winter, Australia and Norway. Elizabeth says: "I really wanted to make an album that had a nice mix of really quiet and gentle songs, together with the louder feedback-y stuff. It was great to be able to share songwriting duties with Ola, as finding time to write is trickier these days with a baby in tow, so it really took the pressure off to write all the songs myself. It also gives the album another dimension, and I have always loved bands with two songwriters, like the Go-Betweens. Hopefully we bring out the best in each other's writing. But having less pressure on myself to write all the songs meant that the songs I could contribute felt worthy enough of having a place on the record."

$17.00 LOW STOCK LEVEL

6 Lenins, the third album release from The Proper Ornaments, sees the band master their seemingly effortless but finely-wrought sound as their songwriting prowess refuses to plateau. Fresh from an US tour in autumn 2018, the London jangle pop group led by James Hoare (also of Ultimate Painting/Veronica Falls) and Max Claps (Toy) went into James' home studio in Finsbury Park, London and made their finest recordings to date on a newly-installed 16 track Studer machine -- joined by Danny Nellis (Charles Howl) on bass and Bobby Syme (Wesley Gonzalez) on drums. Having escaped deep, twisting tunnels of illness, divorce and drug abuse to release their second record in January 2017, it's unsurprising they sound sunnier this time around. What their supremely melodic work suggests is a nonchalance or naivety but is in fact an expensively-bought slice of coherence and clarity within a constantly shifting backdrop to their lives and landscapes. The band exists as an unassuming and resilient organism in a fiercely competitive, trashed environmental niche. Throughout their years of hard-edged music industry Darwinism, they've shown longevity and growth scuttling from the wreckage of their previous guitar bands to become one united organism. "We started writing new songs in the summer. I was in bed recovering from hepatitis and very broken and tired so couldn't do anything else apart from playing guitar," says Max, "and the songs slowly started to appear. In August we realized we had five new songs each and free time, so we decided to record them. The actual recording only took two weeks and it was considerably easier than our previous recordings." The speed with which 6 Lenins was made suggests the two songwriters managed to keep a keen focus on what they wanted to achieve, further finessing the balance of conflict and collaboration that lends their sweet, succinct tunes their nervous energy; this is well-crafted songwriting and controlled sonics despite a zealous analog sensibility. The opener "Apologies", sets out stridently and the mood and momentum, even as one weaves through some more somber moments, never dips before soaring with the Velvets-y propeller riff of live favorite "In the Garden" to end the record.

$22.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 4/12/2019

LP version. 6 Lenins, the third album release from The Proper Ornaments, sees the band master their seemingly effortless but finely-wrought sound as their songwriting prowess refuses to plateau. Fresh from an US tour in autumn 2018, the London jangle pop group led by James Hoare (also of Ultimate Painting/Veronica Falls) and Max Claps (Toy) went into James' home studio in Finsbury Park, London and made their finest recordings to date on a newly-installed 16 track Studer machine -- joined by Danny Nellis (Charles Howl) on bass and Bobby Syme (Wesley Gonzalez) on drums. Having escaped deep, twisting tunnels of illness, divorce and drug abuse to release their second record in January 2017, it's unsurprising they sound sunnier this time around. What their supremely melodic work suggests is a nonchalance or naivety but is in fact an expensively-bought slice of coherence and clarity within a constantly shifting backdrop to their lives and landscapes. The band exists as an unassuming and resilient organism in a fiercely competitive, trashed environmental niche. Throughout their years of hard-edged music industry Darwinism, they've shown longevity and growth scuttling from the wreckage of their previous guitar bands to become one united organism. "We started writing new songs in the summer. I was in bed recovering from hepatitis and very broken and tired so couldn't do anything else apart from playing guitar," says Max, "and the songs slowly started to appear. In August we realized we had five new songs each and free time, so we decided to record them. The actual recording only took two weeks and it was considerably easier than our previous recordings." The speed with which 6 Lenins was made suggests the two songwriters managed to keep a keen focus on what they wanted to achieve, further finessing the balance of conflict and collaboration that lends their sweet, succinct tunes their nervous energy; this is well-crafted songwriting and controlled sonics despite a zealous analog sensibility. The opener "Apologies", sets out stridently and the mood and momentum, even as one weaves through some more somber moments, never dips before soaring with the Velvets-y propeller riff of live favorite "In the Garden" to end the record.

$70.00 IN STOCK

The 39 Clocks are one of the most magnificent bands ever to have emerged from Germany; Diedrich Diederichsen, German pop boffin, considers them to be the nation's best band of the 1980s. The legendary duo from Hanover broke every rule in the music business, without exception. And -- above all -- with attitude. They are elusive, incapable of being categorized, unless the category is a little bit weird. Their real names have been eradicated ("never had one" -- Clocks), replaced by cryptic initials (CH-39, JG-39), less than randomly reminiscent of molecular chains like LSD-25. The weirdness is reflected in their music: sizzling irradiated, repetitive. The outrageous rumors surrounding the duo are the stuff of legend: strung-out live performances with vacuum cleaners instead of guitars, frequently facing a throng of concertgoers with a tendency to boo, flee the venue or threaten them with physical violence. The Clocks project really began to take shape in 1979 when they turned away from punk and created "psycho beat", positioning themselves as the antithesis of the emerging NDW/German New Wave movement. Their music is a futuristic, definitively urban, evolution of American garage punk from the 1960s. Their stylistic modus operandi: expressionless voice, English lyrics with an intentionally heavy German accent, dirty sound, cool monochrome image. Those lacking in imagination might identify touches of the Velvet Underground and stop right there, but many other influences were also at work: from Salvador Dali via the Troggs, Suicide, Peter Handke's Offending The Audience (1966), Antoine to Tiny Tim, Kurt Schwitters, Can, and NEU! The Clocks themselves spoke of "at least 123" sources of inspiration. In early 1980s Germany, the 39 Clocks were, at one and the same time, a panoply of discernible influences and a singular phenomenon with a clear, inimitable sonic identity. Time and again, the 39 Clocks succeeded in pushing back the borders of experimentation a little further: barely tolerable, protracted live improvisations, atonal passages, background noises, extreme lo-fi and a tinny beatbox test the listener's receptivity to the limit. And their sonic experiments popped up in various film soundtracks and on television series, like Halt and Catch Fire in the US. The Next Dimension Transfer box set, authorized by the band, provides the ultimate overview of the Clocks' output -- a phantom of the German music underground, enshrouded in myth.

Available as a five-CD box set or a five-LP box set. Includes two regular studio albums: Pain It Dark (1981) and Subnarcotic (1982); two collections of outtakes, leftovers, and rarities (one of them renamed, edited, and updated by The 39 Clocks exclusively for this box set), plus, a previously unreleased live LP from 1981. Also includes comprehensive deluxe booklet (titled "Revelations") featuring mind-blowing new trivia and secrets; Booklet included with five-CD box set is 44-pages.

$136.00 IN STOCK

Five-LP box set version. Includes 28-page booklet. The 39 Clocks are one of the most magnificent bands ever to have emerged from Germany; Diedrich Diederichsen, German pop boffin, considers them to be the nation's best band of the 1980s. The legendary duo from Hanover broke every rule in the music business, without exception. And -- above all -- with attitude. They are elusive, incapable of being categorized, unless the category is a little bit weird. Their real names have been eradicated ("never had one" -- Clocks), replaced by cryptic initials (CH-39, JG-39), less than randomly reminiscent of molecular chains like LSD-25. The weirdness is reflected in their music: sizzling irradiated, repetitive. The outrageous rumors surrounding the duo are the stuff of legend: strung-out live performances with vacuum cleaners instead of guitars, frequently facing a throng of concertgoers with a tendency to boo, flee the venue or threaten them with physical violence. The Clocks project really began to take shape in 1979 when they turned away from punk and created "psycho beat", positioning themselves as the antithesis of the emerging NDW/German New Wave movement. Their music is a futuristic, definitively urban, evolution of American garage punk from the 1960s. Their stylistic modus operandi: expressionless voice, English lyrics with an intentionally heavy German accent, dirty sound, cool monochrome image. Those lacking in imagination might identify touches of the Velvet Underground and stop right there, but many other influences were also at work: from Salvador Dali via the Troggs, Suicide, Peter Handke's Offending The Audience (1966), Antoine to Tiny Tim, Kurt Schwitters, Can, and NEU! The Clocks themselves spoke of "at least 123" sources of inspiration. In early 1980s Germany, the 39 Clocks were, at one and the same time, a panoply of discernible influences and a singular phenomenon with a clear, inimitable sonic identity. Time and again, the 39 Clocks succeeded in pushing back the borders of experimentation a little further: barely tolerable, protracted live improvisations, atonal passages, background noises, extreme lo-fi and a tinny beatbox test the listener's receptivity to the limit. And their sonic experiments popped up in various film soundtracks and on television series, like Halt and Catch Fire in the US. The Next Dimension Transfer box set, authorized by the band, provides the ultimate overview of the Clocks' output -- a phantom of the German music underground, enshrouded in myth.

Available as a five-CD box set or a five-LP box set. Includes two regular studio albums: Pain It Dark (1981) and Subnarcotic (1982); two collections of outtakes, leftovers, and rarities (one of them renamed, edited, and updated by The 39 Clocks exclusively for this box set), plus, a previously unreleased live LP from 1981. Also includes comprehensive deluxe booklet (titled "Revelations") featuring mind-blowing new trivia and secrets.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. "The jungle is coming up to the door, The birds that are calling are hard to ignore" Inferno is acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster's first solo album since 2015 -- his second album over the last eleven years. Forster only makes records when he feels he has the songs -- on Inferno, he has nine he totally believes in. They range from the exhilarating top-ten pop of "Inferno (Brisbane In Summer)", the beach shack groove of "Life Has Turned A Page", via the 1977 New York strut of "Remain", to finish in a way that this concise, brilliant, drama- and wit-filled album only can -- on the big build epic "One Bird In The Sky". Inferno was made in Berlin in 2018, during the hottest German summer in decades. Noted producer/engineer Victor Van Vugt -- Beth Orton's Trailer Park (1996), PJ Harvey's Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000) -- recorded the album; the first time he and Forster had worked together since Van Vugt engineered Forster's debut solo album classic Danger In The Past in Berlin in 1990. Inferno in its making is a perfect mix of the familiar and the new. Also working with Forster again, are Brisbane based multi-instrumentalists Scott Bromley and Karin Bãumler from Songs to Play (TR 324CD/LP, 2015), while new recruits are drummer Earl Havin (Tindersticks, Mary J. Blige) and keyboardist Michael Muhlhaus (Blumfeld, Kante). Four musicians from the corners of the world, who, with Van Vugt's bold and beautiful production, sound like a band of the ages. In front of them, Forster delivers the best vocal performances of his career over the last four years Forster has been busy. He curated the acclaimed, Domino Records released, Anthology Volume 1 1978-1984 on his old band The Go-Betweens. His memoir Grant & I was Mojo and Uncut's "Book Of The Year". He continues to publish music journalism, play concerts, and he never stops writing beautiful songs.

$17.00 IN STOCK

Some time ago... "The J.D. Salinger of pop" was how Rolling Stone France described Bill Pritchard after the release of Mother Town Hall in 2016 (TR 320CD/LP), while the editor of Rolling Stone Germany made Mother Town Hall his "Album of The Week" -- just a few of the many accolades heaped on Pritchard's last record. Then there was the reissue of the now legendary album Parce Que, originally released in 1988, which Pritchard recorded with the much-missed Daniel Darc. It too was feted by -- among others -- Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Télérama, Les Inrockuptibles, and Libération. And now... Midland Lullabies. This is the album Pritchard always wanted to make. Why?: Because he always wanted to make a mark as a "shabby suited crooner". Midland Lullabies is songs from the Midlands about continental issues bathed in a crooning, piano drenched style that Pritchard has been perfecting over two years. Complete with sumptuous, at times almost Brechtian strings. You'll visit "Iolanda", a tragic Parisian heroine who you could meet in the newsagents in Wednesbury or in a cemetery in Montmartre. "Hey Iolanda, eat your curly fries and celebrate!" On "Forever" you may ask yourself: "Are you in Shibuya, Hamburg or Birmingham or just inside Pritchard's head?" "The Last Temptation of Brussels"! Well, there is a plaque about the fight between two symbolist scribblers in Brussels. Is Pritchard recounting French poetic history or his own? Or is it all just '60s swagger? Whether Pritchard is riding "a scooter bathed in pink" or watching life changed by thoughtless intent, even if he listens as "Lucifer sings on an out of tune piano", he always keeps his dream of writing the perfect pop song alive. On "Thanks" Bill tells you about "photo shutters in black and white, an image of the door to the moon". Has he been staying in the Beat Hotel? Or rather The Waggon and Horses? Whatever! What a beautiful, plaintive, almost mystical song "Thanks" is. Produced again beautifully by Tim Bradshaw, Pritchard says that from the very outset he insisted on a stripped-down sound, utilizing Tim's brilliant, subtle and sympathetic piano interpretations of his songs. They know each other so well! All in all a case of less is more!

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Some time ago... "The J.D. Salinger of pop" was how Rolling Stone France described Bill Pritchard after the release of Mother Town Hall in 2016 (TR 320CD/LP), while the editor of Rolling Stone Germany made Mother Town Hall his "Album of The Week" -- just a few of the many accolades heaped on Pritchard's last record. Then there was the reissue of the now legendary album Parce Que, originally released in 1988, which Pritchard recorded with the much-missed Daniel Darc. It too was feted by -- among others -- Le Monde, Le Nouvel Obs, Télérama, Les Inrockuptibles, and Libération. And now... Midland Lullabies. This is the album Pritchard always wanted to make. Why?: Because he always wanted to make a mark as a "shabby suited crooner". Midland Lullabies is songs from the Midlands about continental issues bathed in a crooning, piano drenched style that Pritchard has been perfecting over two years. Complete with sumptuous, at times almost Brechtian strings. You'll visit "Iolanda", a tragic Parisian heroine who you could meet in the newsagents in Wednesbury or in a cemetery in Montmartre. "Hey Iolanda, eat your curly fries and celebrate!" On "Forever" you may ask yourself: "Are you in Shibuya, Hamburg or Birmingham or just inside Pritchard's head?" "The Last Temptation of Brussels"! Well, there is a plaque about the fight between two symbolist scribblers in Brussels. Is Pritchard recounting French poetic history or his own? Or is it all just '60s swagger? Whether Pritchard is riding "a scooter bathed in pink" or watching life changed by thoughtless intent, even if he listens as "Lucifer sings on an out of tune piano", he always keeps his dream of writing the perfect pop song alive. On "Thanks" Bill tells you about "photo shutters in black and white, an image of the door to the moon". Has he been staying in the Beat Hotel? Or rather The Waggon and Horses? Whatever! What a beautiful, plaintive, almost mystical song "Thanks" is. Produced again beautifully by Tim Bradshaw, Pritchard says that from the very outset he insisted on a stripped-down sound, utilizing Tim's brilliant, subtle and sympathetic piano interpretations of his songs. They know each other so well! All in all a case of less is more!

$17.00 IN STOCK

"The jungle is coming up to the door, The birds that are calling are hard to ignore" Inferno is acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster's first solo album since 2015 -- his second album over the last eleven years. Forster only makes records when he feels he has the songs -- on Inferno, he has nine he totally believes in. They range from the exhilarating top-ten pop of "Inferno (Brisbane In Summer)", the beach shack groove of "Life Has Turned A Page", via the 1977 New York strut of "Remain", to finish in a way that this concise, brilliant, drama- and wit-filled album only can -- on the big build epic "One Bird In The Sky". Inferno was made in Berlin in 2018, during the hottest German summer in decades. Noted producer/engineer Victor Van Vugt -- Beth Orton Trailer Park (1996), PJ Harvey's Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (2000) -- recorded the album; the first time he and Forster had worked together since Van Vugt engineered Forster's debut solo album classic Danger In The Past in Berlin in 1990. Inferno in its making is a perfect mix of the familiar and the new. Also working with Forster again, are Brisbane based multi-instrumentalists Scott Bromley and Karin Bãumler from Songs to Play (TR 324CD/LP, 2015), while new recruits are drummer Earl Havin (Tindersticks, Mary J. Blige) and keyboardist Michael Muhlhaus (Blumfeld, Kante). Four musicians from the corners of the world, who, with Van Vugt's bold and beautiful production, sound like a band of the ages. In front of them, Forster delivers the best vocal performances of his career over the last four years Forster has been busy. He curated the acclaimed, Domino Records released, Anthology Volume 1 1978-1984 on his old band The Go-Betweens. His memoir Grant & I was Mojo and Uncut's "Book Of The Year". He continues to publish music journalism, play concerts, and he never stops writing beautiful songs.

$22.00 IN STOCK

LP version. Exploding Head Syndrome is a snapping into consciousness, a synaptic charge of analog dissonance saturated through a complex undercurrent of pulsing minimalism, profound in its simplicity. A static haze of electronic distortion drifts in and out of lucidity to a sure propulsion of stone age repetition and heady bass vibrations, the momentum held on a thread of acoustic tension. As warm organs drone around the oscillating bones of enchanted melodies, an electric hive of enclosing guitars encircle Lawrie's trance induced visions, which hang suspended, fractured at the core, until completely enveloped by the gathering swarm. Welcome to the 11th studio album from The Telescopes, their third for Tapete. Consisting of eight new songs and incantations that form a series of sonic convulsions stretching the parameters of intuitive composition to the point of auditory illusion. Conceived in 1987, The Telescopes emerged as innovators in the field of melodic noise, becoming a crucial inspiration to a multitude of artists and listeners alike. The group has consisted of a revolving line-up centered around lead protagonist and founding instigator Stephen Lawrie. With the exception of "Until The End", Exploding Head Syndrome was created entirely by Lawrie himself while immersed in solitude deep in West Yorkshire. As the title suggests, this is the sound of a triggered mind reaching into the depths of his own inner turmoil on a personal quest for basic clarity. Whereas previous albums for Tapete have set a parallel course between song-based structures and freeform impressionism, Exploding Head Syndrome employs almost traditional song writing techniques to achieve a melodic swirl of simplistic refrains capable of lulling the listener into vast sonic dimensions. In the 1700s, William Herschel defined a telescope as an instrument through which a person may view "beyond the realm of natural vision". This is the mantra of The Telescopes. "Until The End" was co-written with Chris Plavidal (Stumptone) and is dedicated to the late Nevada Hill (Bludded Head). Exploding Head Syndrome is the name given by John M. S. Pearce in 1989 to a phenomena described by Robert Armstrong-Jones in 1920 as "snapping of the brain". It is a condition in which a person experiences unreal noises. The front sleeve holds an image of a blank sheet blowing in a breeze. A natural light phenomena occurring at the time the photograph was taken gives the illusion of a face.