RICK WAKEMAN 'The Six Wives Of Henry VIII: Live At Hampton Court' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
Rick Wakeman's 'The Six Wives Of Henry VIII' is one of the landmark albums of the seventies, a critical and commercial success that has sold in excess of 15 million copies worldwide. In May 2009, Rick Wakeman finally achieved his long held dream of performing the entire album live at Hampton Court Palace. It was the first time the whole album had ever been performed in concert & included the Henry VIII track 'Defender Of The Faith', that had to be cut from the original album for space reasons, plus new opening and closing pieces. The two spectacular sell out concerts were a never to be repeated event and this set shows why they will live long in the memory of all those fortunate enough to attend. Extended live performances of Rick Wakeman's most popular album with the English Rock Ensemble accompanied by the Orchestra Europa and the English Chamber Choir with Brian Blessed as narrator. Features additional new tracks premiered at the concert. DVD & Blu-Ray packaged in a deluxe slipcase with a reproduction of the concert programme.
2 x MINA REISSUES [Release Date 05/10/2009]
Released between 1964 and 1967, these Mina titles are now available in special papersleeve deluxe CD digipacks. Covers were obtained through high quality reproductions of the original sleeves and obviously the track listings are the same as the originals. These reissues have the aim of giving access to this discography heritage to those people keen of Mina, and have lovingly been put together paying mind to the choices made by the artist and her staff during the original releases. Thanks to this care, fans will have the opportunity of feeling the same sensations of those who bought these LP's at the first release.
WILCO 'A.M.' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
In 1994, singer-songwriter Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco with three of his band mates following the break-up of alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo. 'A.M.', Wilco's debut, represents his first step into increasingly adventurous territory. Heavyweight 180gram High-Performance Vinyl, gatefold sleeve. Includes bonus CD of the complete album. 'A.M'. Follows the September release of 'Summerteeth' Vinyl/CD edition and will be followed with Vinyl/CD edition of 'Being There' in November.
BAD LIEUTENANT 'Sink Or Swim' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
'Sink or Swim' is the debut single from Bad Lieutenant. Bad Lieutenant formed in 2007 with New Order's Bernard Sumner [guitar and vocals] alongside Phil Cunningham [guitar] and Jake Evans [guitar and vocals]. We can now confirm that they have completed their long awaited debut LP 'Never Cry Another Tear' which is set for worldwide release on 12th October 2009 on Triple Echo Records. The album features sounds that have helped make New Order such a treasured, innovative force over the past three decades, but also featured is a brand new voice from exotic Macclesfield, Jake Evans. "There is some continuity to the music I've made in the past," says Bernard. "But this is very different - because different people are playing on it. This is just how I now want to make music - it feels right to me and I hope at least a few other people feel the same." The new album centres around crisp, streamlined, 21st century guitar music - underscored by keyboards and occasional melodica. The record includes Sumner's seemingly effortless melodic invention, but now these familiar joys blend with vocals and the talented guitar work of Jake Evans. "This album is very important to me," says Bernard. "We've worked hard on it and I'm proud of it. It's also important because it gives people the chance to hear a gifted new singer and guitar player who I think is really talented." Together, the band have spent over a year writing, recording and mixing the album near Manchester, which features additional musicians including Alex James [Blur] and Stephen Morris [New Order and Joy Division] on several recordings.
FEVER RAY 'Seven' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
Following her critically acclaimed UK tour, Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of The Knife, has today announced the release of the next single 'Seven' out on October 5th as well as the release of Fever Ray - The Double Disc Edition on October 12th. Coming out through Rabid Records/Cooperative Music in the UK, Fever Ray - The Double Disc Edition will contain the CD album plus the 2 cover versions the band performed live during their tour (Vashti Bunyan's 'Here Before' and Nick Cave and Anita Lane's 'Stranger Than Kindness') and a DVD featuring all the videos from the project so far and more exclusive never seen before footage. Available on 12", 'Seven' is the fourth single to be released from the album and features remixes from the likes of Crookers, CSS, Marcel Dettmann and Martyn. The music video for the single will be directed by Johan Renck, who has done videos for Fever Ray and The Knife as well as for Beyonce, Madonna, Bat for Lashes and many more. More details on the video to come - watch this space. **No Artwork Available Yet**
[No artwork as yet]
THE LOW ANTHEM 'Charlie Darwin' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
**Strictly Limited to 400 Copies so Out Requests ONLY**
Bella Union records are pleased to introduce THE LOW ANTHEM who look set to be one of the success stories of 2009... The Low Anthem's sublime music ranges from evocative folk ballads sung in gorgeous falsettos to garage-roots rockers in a Tom Waits bar-room style... The Low Anthem began in 2006 as a collaboration between Ben Knox Miller, a folk musician, poet, and painter from NY's Hudson River Valley and Jeff Prystowsky, jazz bassist and baseball scholar from Jersey. The place was Providence, RI, a post-industrial city reborn as a college town and artistic hotbed. Attending Brown University, the two bonded as DJs on WBRU's freeform graveyard shift in rural Connecticut where their mutual interests in Americana, baseball, and morally agnostic narrative necessitated the formation of The Low Anthem. Late last year The Low Anthem began recording 'Oh My God, Charlie Darwin,' a thematic 12 song work, which illuminates the bands ability to create something that is both delicate and hugely evocative. The album was co-produced with and engineered by Jesse Lauter in the cold, bare stillness of a Block Island winter. The abandoned tourist destination was a haven of peace and quiet. The only sounds were the rush of sea wind against the panes of the cabin and the crackling hum of the woodstove. Ten sleepless days and nights. Hundreds of live takes. Many bottles of bourbon. These were the record's principle ingredients and it sounds tremendous.
BUGZ IN THE ATTIC 'Got The Bug Volume 2' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
BBE have teamed up the West London cult heroes Bugz in the Attic for the first ever full length broken beat release on the label. Sometimes musicians take themselves way too seriously. If they're not fervently musing about a utopian industry where music is the closest thing to the Aids cure, they're flogging their master plan to save ignorant consumers from the fatal nature of commercial music. It's something of a joy then, that Bugz in the Attic isn't that kind of group. Orin 'Afronaught' Walters, Paul 'Seiji' Dolby, Kaidi Tatham, Daz-I-Kue, Alex Phountzi, Cliff Scott, Mark Force and Matt Lord certainly create tunes that make an audacious statement, but behind their mighty façade is a bunch of nonchalant, occasionally chaotic musicians with a natural knack for producing quality dance music. 'Got The Bug 2' features the London based collectives remixes of heavyweights acts such as Amy Winehouse, Basement Jaxx Roisin Murphy and latin luminaries Ruben Blades and Willie Colon. 'Expression' is a track exclusive to the compilation, a tribute to Soul II Souls anthemic 'Fairplay'.
INVASION 'The Master Alchemist' [Release Date 05/10/2009]
'The Master Alchemist' is the debut album from London's soul-powered psych metal three-piece Invasion, the sort of rock band that only comes along once in a blue moon. Using only Marek Steven's three-stringed guitar, the vocal stylings of singer Chan Brown and the fierce drumming of Zel Kaute, the band have a uniquely stripped down yet grand approach. Having become disillusioned with the technical, over-produced and samey metal of the last decade the band fell upon their own brand of wizard metal. Out would go the pointless solos and fake macho posturing and in would come classic riffing and maximum heaviosity. The blueprint for Invasion was fully laid out in 2007 when Marek and Cornish drummer Zel Kaute recruited singer Chan - who provides the power soul element (think Betty Davis born on Alpha Centauri). Finding that there was no scene they fitted in within London the three-piece started to meet like minded bands and refine their music at their own Skill Wizard club at the Old Blue Last. After releasing a small EP 'Moongazer' and having been noticed by artists as varied as The Sword and Diplo - who says they are "Like the Gossip but with some balls" - the band were duly snapped up by the independent record label This Is Music Ltd. Invasion's debut album 'The Master Alchemist' was recorded with Simian Mobile Disco's Jas Shaw in just four days at London's own temple to minimalism Toerag Studios. Recorded using analogue equipment and played entirely live ("Mostly first takes and it didn't go anywhere near a computer.") The album is a synapse shredding twenty one minute assault which owes more to 'Spine Of God' era Monster Magnet and 'Masters of The Universe' era Hawkwind than anything else. In short, as Marek says "It should sound pretty good when you're stoned."
HEAVY TRASH 'Midnight Soul Serenade' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
"Wild, loose, dangerous, ridiculous and respectful..." - Pitchfork, "Pure genius...blending elements of Bo Diddley, Link Wray, Eddie Cochran and Joe Strummer." - The Independent. Third album of souped-up 21st century rock 'n' roll from the legendary Jon Spencer [Pussy Galore, Boss Hog, Blues Explosion] and trash guitar hero Matt Verta-Ray of Speedball Baby fame. Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray continue to ransack '50s, '60s, and '70s, punk, blues and rock 'n' roll on this their third album, 'Midnight Soul Serenade', already considered by most to be Jon Spencer's best work since 'Orange'. Jon Spencer is one of the last great rock'n'roll entertainers. This amazing album will be the force drives him back into the forefront. He has fronted a long line of superb live acts going back to the mid-'80s, including Pussy Galore, Boss Hog and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Guitarist, Matt Verta-Ray started out with weird indie outfit Madder Rose before ripping it up with Speedball Baby. Heavy Trash bring their fiery live heritage to Europe this autumn and early 2010 for a string of gigs in support of 'Midnight Soul Serenade'.
LUCAS RENNEY 'Strange Glory' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
Beautiful debut album from Lucas Renney of XL Recordings act The Golden Virgins, described by the NME as "rich, melodic magnificence". Lucas Renney is the singer of XL Recordings' (and Sunderland heroes) The Golden Virgins, whose album 'Songs Of Praise' was released to huge critical acclaim in 2002. The album is a glorious, romantic masterpiece produced by Cocteau Twins and Bella Union's Simon Raymonde and is reminiscent of Richard Hawley or Elvis Costello. Features members of Midlake as Lucas' backing band as well as Bella Union's Stephanie Dosen on vocals.
GONG 'Garcon Ou Fille' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
**Strictly Limited to 1000 Copies so Out Requests ONLY** Finders Keepers presents this classic early BYG recording from ex-Soft Machinist Daevid Allen and his Parisian pot-headed pixies. The self-titled 'Mystery History Of Planet Gong' is a tangled web blurred by hallucinogen induced mismemories and contradictory cross-continental record label marketing ploys, resulting in wrongly titled releases and erratic personnel changes, which naturally makes them one of the most interesting groups from the BYG era. BYG's first Daevid Allen release was 'Est-Ce Que Je Suis' [confusingly / alternatively titled 'Garcon Ou Fille'] which sounds like an anti-ye-ye Nino Ferrer spoof with interjected haywire soprano sax bursts [courtesy of Deya plucked reed instrumentalist Didier Malherbe] and Smythsonian space whisperings. Released alongside the brand new Finders Keepers compilation 'The BYG Deal', featuring early, rare, desperate and covert recordings by Vangelis, Gong, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Brigitte Fontaine, Jean-Claude Vannier and members of Soft Machine, Procol Harum, Popera Cosmic, Visitors, MAGMA, Aphrodites Child and Los Bravos.
VARIOUS ARTISTS 'The BYG Deal' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
Featuring rare tracks by the likes of Vangelis, Gong, Brigitte Fontaine, Art Ensemble Of Chicago - many of which have never appeared on any format away from their original releases. On paper a label like BYG shouldn't have worked. A collapsed business plan salvaged from the flames of a Molotov cocktail. A makeshift label built around second hand music, handshake deals, alter egos and backstabs after scratches; resulting in an unexpected explosion of positive and spiritual energy emerging from political turmoil in an unsympathetic era united and guided under a divine symbol - that was stolen as a marketing mascot from a plastic key fob. 'The BYG Deal' featuring early, rare, desperate and covert recordings by Vangelis, Gong, Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Brigitte Fontaine, Jean-Claude Vannier and members of Soft Machine, Procol Harum, Popera Cosmic, Visitors, MAGMA, Aphrodite's Child and Los Bravos. Between 1968 and 1974 the combination of B, Y and G might not have been the surefire code to financial fulfilment but the indelible contribution to experimental pop, free jazz, spiritual prog rock and total space music would continue to send positive vibrations through future generations of progressive pop.
TUBELORD 'Our First American Friends' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
**The LP is Strictly Limited to 500 Copies so Out Requests ONLY** One of the finest and most innovative bands in the UK release their debut album on Hassle Records (Rolo Tomassi, Alexisonfire, Cancerbats). The album comes on digi-pack CD with deluxe 24 page booklet detailing the concept and story behind the album and limited LP (500 copies).
KILL IT KID 'Heaven Never Seemed So Close' [Release Date 12/10/2009]
"A hook-laden riot...big things may be coming their way" - NME "Theirs is a vibrant blend of The White Stripes, barn dances and the Stephanne Grappelli - like fiddle-frenzy jazz / blues" - Q Magazine "Uncontrived, Kill It Kid are a brave, raw talent" - BBC Introducing "Thrillingly unaffected, delightful" - Music Week "Demands attention from the off... the strength and depth of their songs belie their age" - Clash Magazine. **Strictly Limited to 500 Copies so Out Requests ONLY**
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