MUSIC

Formed from the ashes of Rema-Rema and Mass in the early '80s, The Wolfgang Press were originally a trio of bassist and vocalist Michael Allen, keyboardist Mark Cox and guitarist Andrew Gray. They were one of 4AD's longest-running acts, and shifted from pitch-black, industrial-tinged post-punk in their early years to funky, hip-hop-inspired avant-dance as they stepped into the '90s. But since '94's 'Funky Little Demons' they've been relatively quiet. There was a compilation of unreleased career-spanning material mostly penned by Allen and Gray released in 2020, but 'A 2nd Shape' is the first all-new gear from the duo in almost 30 years, with Gray's brother Stephen replacing Cox on keys. It's a fitting move for Downwards too; not only do The Wolfgang Press neatly straddle the label's musical poles, but the band's '88 high point 'Bird Wood Cage' is an enduring favourite of Karl O'Connor.

 

 

'A 2nd Shape' reflects The Wolfgang Press's output up to and including that touchstone - the soulful, sampledelic mood of 'Queer' (and it's popular single 'A Girl Like You') is nowhere to be found. Allen's signature dubbed-out basslines are front and centre on 'The Garden of Eden', booming over gnarled synths and a blitzed, slo-mo drum machine - the bleakness of 'The Burden of Mules' is latent, but sliced into bits by discordant feedback and dissociated FX. The band have always been hyper aware of contemporary musical developments, and it sounds as if they're offering a corrective here in a landscape pocked by post-punk pretenders. On '21st Century', Allen snarls knowingly over menacing oscillations: "The 21st century can tell you who you are, can tell you what you're thinking." The music's not a remnant of the past, but a way for The Wolfgang Press to acknowledge their tenure while peering into tomorrow. 

 

 

'Take It Backwards' is the album's most direct post-punk stomper, it's got all the hallmarks you'd expect to find - reverberating guitars, resonant bass, ice-cold synths - but sounds as if it's been infected with modern paranoia. If the trio's early run was marked by inky depression, their new material sounds just as umbral, but far more self-assured. "The future has been set to one side," Allen deadpans on 'Rest Your Mind', slurring over horizontal drums and fuzzy clouds of electronics. They might have lost their appetite for funk, but The Wolfgang Press's claws have never sounded so razor sharp - 'A 2nd Shape' is the rarest of comeback albums, one that captures the OG magic without a shred of pastiche or a trace of repetition. 

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A key document of the late ’70s experimental music scene in Kansai, Japan, R.N.A. Organism’s R.N.A.O Meets P.O.P.O (first released by legendary Osaka label Vanity Records in 1980) is a hallucinatory trip of dubby bass, churning guitars, sputtering rhythm boxes, twisted vocals and unidentifiable sound effects. With the vinyl out of print for decades now, Mesh-Key is honored to present this deluxe, fully authorized reissue, sourced from the miraculously well-preserved, original reel-to-reel tapes. Carefully remastered by Stephan Mathieu, this album has never sounded better.

Long Gone (Are The Old Traditions) is a label out of London . A label focused on DIY electronics, post punk, dub and techno from now and before. The first release is from West London artist, singer and songwriter Tutu Ta. A mini LP of out there, dubbed up, post punk mutations meeting old sounding industrial electronics following from his highly acclaimed debut album last year. Its already seen the light of day on soundsystems across the city and further afield as well as stations like NTS, Rinse & Tom Ravenscroft's BBC 6 New Music Fix.

Fully licensed, limited to 500 copies. Frank Chickens could have been possibly forerunners for several famous alternative band, Cibo Matto, but sure had a development on their own. They began in London, early eighties as the original creation of Japanese performers Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. The band debuted with a pair of singles and a full length on Kaz Records. Backed by the likes of Steve Beresford (Alterations, The Slits, General Strike, London Improvisers Orchestra), Annie Whitehead (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Robert Wyatt), Lol Coxhill, Tony Coe, and Clive Bell, the band soon became a case in history. Now, 37 years after its original release, their second album is being reissued: Get Chickenized! The record came out in 1987 on the British label Flying Lecords and showed a different side of the project, with a major focus on the so-called synth wave counterculture, still maintaining a certain avant feel. With original conspirator Steve Beresford still on board, the band was propelled in the studio by another key figure of the London underground: journalist, composer and producer David Toop. Being John Peel's favorite for a while, the band built a cult following retaining some absurd live performances, well known for their idiosyncratic choreography. Later revamped in the year 2000, thanks to cult label Ninja Tune, the band enjoyed a second wave of success, with a remix album featuring the likes of Pizzicato 5, Fink, and Neotropic. With a cover embellished by the labor of Pere Ubu David Thomas, this second influential album is finally available for your listening pleasure.

Formed in Granada by Ani Zinc, who also recorded under the name Neo Zelanda, and Javier G Marín, Diseño Corbusier were a fascinating and unique project of avant-garde electronics. Their second LP, "El alma de la estrella" (1986), is a marvel of sound craftwork that gathers elements of industrial music, minimal techno and vocal manipulation through a dadaist and completely personal approach.

Dark Entries celebrates its 15th anniversary with legendary synth-punk deviants Crash Course in Science. Dale Feliciello, Mallory Yago, and Michael Zodorozny formed CCIS in 1979 after meeting at art school in Philadelphia. As a gesture born of equal parts punk irreverence and brute necessity, the band incorporated toy instruments and kitchen appliances into their aggressive, angular sound. Their anthems “Cardboard Lamb” and “Flying Turns” from 1981’s Signals From Pier Thirteen EP have been staples in adventurous DJ sets for over 40 years - yet some of their finest work is to be found on Near Marineland, a full-length LP recorded in 1981 but remained unreleased in its time. Near Marineland shows the band moving into more diverse and polished territory (although it’s still as abrasive as sandpaper). Tracks like “No More Hollow Doors” and “Jump Over Barrels” highlight CCIS’s singular knack for embedding infectiously monotone hooks in their stiff-yet-funky grooves. Elsewhere we see CCIS going fully unhinged, like on the searing “Someone Reads” or the demented “Pompeii Spared”, where a spray of honks is barely glued together by a frantic synthetic pulse. While this masterwork of malfunctioning analog electronics has surfaced on a few occasions - this first time stand alone remaster includes four never-before-released bonus tracks and includes a lyric sheet. Near Marineland is crucial listening for all devotees of synth-punk and minimal electronics.

Dark Entries returns to Mexico with Back Up Dos: Mexican Tecno Pop 1982-1989. Following 2021’s Back Up compilation, Back Up Dos delivers 10 more tracks of synth-pop and New Beat, 7 of which have never before appeared on vinyl. From mutant drum machine beats to irresistible synthesizer hooks, fans of the fringes of the 80s will find songs to stir their cold, dark hearts. But Back Up Dos does more than mine retro kitsch; it documents the development of a rich DIY music scene that is still underexplored. As affordable samplers and digital synths spread throughout the decade, post-punk and new wave gave way to more aggressive EBM and cyberpunk sounds. The scene also developed in opposition to the political climate of the times: the rise of the drug cartels and a reactionary turn in national politics. Using home recording techniques, these bands took cues from the electronic wizardry of the Human League and Wax Trax Records while reflecting the vibrant and chaotic Mexican cultural landscape of the era. On Back Up Dos, impeccable pop anthems from Casino Shanghai and Los Agentes Secretos sit alongside gnarled obscurities from Ford Proco and María Bonita, showcasing a decade of sly deviance and enthusiastic experimentation. This album comes housed in an 80s-inflected neon sleeve designed by Gwenael Rattke and includes a 12-page booklet with photographs, lyrics, and notes. Back Up Dos compiles synthetic music produced in Mexico at the crossroads from Tecno Pop to Post-Industrial, nourished by culture shock and stories of dystopian worlds.

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet. With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty. My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

Very pleased and grateful to announce this ‘Home Comfort’ reissue by Mark Glynne and Bart Zwier, originally self-released in 1980. Maybe a bit of an unexpected title to appear in the LSD catalog but my love for this album goes back to my late teenage years and has had an addictive effect since, like a spleen infused magnet. With this album Glynne and Zwier, based in the Netherlands and connected to the Ultra scene, drew an insular blend of intimate post-punk and chamber (bedroom) songs with surreal scenic reflections. Probably its naked singularity defying categorization has left it so unnoticed, even 43 years after the making. It also features a reciting Marlène Dumas still quite unknown at the time. With biggest gratitude to Mark Glynne who instantly felt confident with my proposal to reissue this silent witness of lasting beauty. My long time Japanese friend You Ishihara (White Heaven, The Stars) who bought the LP when it came out in 1980 still considers it as one of his all-time favourites. This is what he writes about ‘Home Comfort’:“Resignation and fear in a desolate mental landscape. This album, which exists like a shelter for those who have quietly escaped through the backdoor of the world, vividly reflects the inner depths of the devastated Amsterdam of the early 80’s. A beautiful and sad, unmistakable masterpiece.”

The follow up to their well received debut album ‘Moot!’, the record draws influences from alternative guitar music in its many forms, using electronic manipulations and sampling techniques to redefine it's context, not settling on any one style but moving through them in search of new connections. By exploring these relationships, Moin delivers another collage of the known and unknown, punctuated by words that are just out of reach.

A serendipitous conversation brought the project to life. Moot! allowed the group to re-appreciate the recording process, using a combination of live recording and studio techniques. The album spans psych, alternative rock and post-punk mixed with their signature electronics and sampling practice. The record was made as an experiment, to be enjoyed, not as spectacle.

Dub-infused post-punk treats from astonishing percussionist Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga, Moin, Holy Tongue) and Zongamin as V/Z. The basslines throughout really hit that sweet spot and the collaborations are killer; Coby Sey and Venus Ex Machina join the fun, along with Vanishing Twin's Cathy Lucas on 'Habadash' with a most appealing Seefeel flavour. Highly recommended.

Bad vibes, habits, and breath collide on this ten-song pile up on the freeway to nowhere. Melting neo-grunge, swamprock, and noise punk in a cauldron of drug-addled psychosis, 1985's You Get What You Deserve continues Australia's prison-as-country tradition of unhinged lunacy in the face of cultural isolation. Nuke nostalgia, femme fatale sharpshooters, demolition derbies, and a vacation at Hell Beach await.

Crack Cloud has always been something beyond a rock band: both profound and grand, vaporous and elusive.The first iteration of Crack Cloud was formed nearly a decade ago as a proxy-rehab outlet on the fringes of Calgary. Over time, two EPs and accompanying visual pieces were produced out of the residence known as Red Mile. By 2017, several members had relocated to Vancouver, working out of harm reduction centers and low-barrier shelters. Sobriety, self-reformation and the idealism of their work further formed an ethos for Crack Cloud. It was during these years that the band produced their astounding 2020 album Pain Olympics. At once, their vision became expansive, cinematic.Now, Red Mile is a bit of a homecoming. Members have returned to Calgary. But Calgary/home has become a liminal space, a place of flux. After a decade of personal and collective growth, what does home even mean? Red Mile is, for them, something like samsara: a return and a rebirth.Red Mile's sound breathes expansive energy into the circuitous, street bound sonics of Crack Cloud's prior material. Fizzling synths intertwine with chiming pianos. Songs layer like Russian nesting dolls; one may find a Ramones chorus set within a desolate Western prog soundtrack only to watch it erupt into a joyous anthem. Real-ass guitars — alternately lilting, scuzzy and soaring — ring out across wide sun-bleached spaces. In 2024, the cumulative effect is (in rock instrumentation terms) naturalistic. Any whiff of embalmed nostalgia is absent. Even the close of the album – a winding, alllllmost Jerry Garcia guitar noodle that leads us out of Red Mile – is delivered without sentimentality. Principal songwriter Zach Choy's lyrics are cutting but merciful, with a sharp self awareness that never slides into self-satisfaction. Crack Cloud as artists are critical — and ultimately as forgiving — of themselves as they are the melting world around them. The songs balance an easy charm and cathartic power: affirming life without denying death.Recorded predominantly between the outskirts of Joshua Tree, California, and Calgary, Alberta, this record is informed by a bittersweet mélange of old and new. The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed and sharpened, while maintaining their refusal to delve into superficiality. Through playful melodies and elliptical guitar soliloquy, they deliver a final product of exceptional depth and distinctly unprecious warmth. Crack Cloud have produced a mature, vital work that interrogates the platitudes of the rock-n-roll lifestyle, but ultimately exalts its sacredness.Red Mile's de facto thesis statement "The Medium" is itself a rock song meditation: an ode to the form and its practitioners. This genre that — typical, repeatable, corporatized as it can be — somehow still has the power to help us live through life. We see the dusty sentiment of "I love rock and roll" exhumed, taken apart, and stitched back together. It's a song guided by faith — if the medium helps us proclaim our love today, it’s worth protecting from derision tomorrow. We live in an era where music seems to love hitting its head against the wall. Crack Cloud's Red Mile is the sound — the feeling! — of the bricks giving way.

A feverish essay of transcendent drumming: Chris’ solo approach, rooted in the exploration of elements of extended technique, sought another level, via possibilities facilitated by a self-made string drum! The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]) brings his encompassing focus on free improvisation and noise into a granular fusion with acoustic experiments and hot-wired ideations of hard rock riffing and the post-punk sound.

宮沢正一率いた伝説の実験的パンク・バンド「ザ・ラビッツ」による貴重音源の数々を集めた公式LPが、ゆらゆら帝国やAunt Sally、向井千惠作品などを手がけたニューヨークの要注意レーベル〈Mesh-Key〉から登場。アンダーグラウンドなリスナーを中心にカルト的な人気を博すも、これまで公式LPがリリースされることの無かったザ・ラビッツ初のLP盤！「わ、わ、わ、」や「名犬バター犬君号伝」「Winter Song」といった貴重音源を全10曲収録。

"A brittle metronome in a delirious tension landscape, WOMEN'S HOUR are a Glasgow based experimental post-punk duo featuring Contort Yourself head honcho Murray CY and artist Jenny Wicks. Creating noise, harmony and disquiet washed in synth and repetitive guitar, rough beats and distorted vocals, WOMEN'S HOUR are constantly trying to embrace the shouting in their heads." On this, their debut release, a 12 track lp, a true to form jagged 80s post-punk affair, the two piece bring to life the day to day in the grim North through their music. One can almost feel the chill coming from the brittle window panes of the dank drafty flats, filled with asbestos paint, busted heaters, and no hot water flowing for who knows how long. Desperate, urgent, coming close to falling apart, yet pulling it together to make it through to the next song...this is as "British" as it gets (yes we know Scotland is its own thing guys, don't shoot) The sun hasn't shown its face for many months, wind blows through the deserted streets, change jingles around in your pocket, a hungry dog barks. This is the music of Women's Hour. Limited to 300 copies, one time pressing. Includes insert and art by Jenny Wicks of Women's Hour.

This is a limited edition 2x7" edition of a wildly experimental and unique gem from 1981 (originally released on Japan's Pinakotheca). Spread over two records packaged in a bubble wrap outer sleeve - , the set features unreleased full length takes and unheard material from the band's master cassettes. All transferred and mastered with the blessing of the original musicians. The release features heavy involvement from Morioka based musician, Onnyk (key member of the near mythical The Fifth Column group) , an underground behemoth who's released music on seminal labels such as Vanity Records (JP), Insane Music (BE) & Thirdmind (UK) to name a few. 2 discs. 26 minutes of incredibly forward thinking music from 43 years ago... Ships with a scan code to liner notes - the information is as intriguing as the music.

Bristol’s four-piece outfit Quade announce their debut album, ‘Nacre’, out 17th November via AD93. ‘Nacre’ is the culmination of three years of work from the band, the blueprints of their songwriting and sound firmly established in the sprawling, haunting and yet hopeful record. Traipsing between gothic expansiveness and cosmic psychedelia, the record cannot be pinned down into one recognisable place. By the album’s close, the listener may be left wondering whether it was all a memory or a dream. The recording and production of the record was collaborative, with the band drawing upon the services of Jack Ogbourne and Larry ‘Bruce’ McCarthy - two divergent pillars of Bristol’s music community - for engineering and mixing respectively.

During the mid-‘70s, Switzerland had embraced punk within its cities, informing the subsequent post-punk era of the 1980s as music splintered into freeform musical strands across the whole of the country. It was to become one of the most innovative periods in Switzerland’s modern day music history. “It was like a wild laboratory for all forms of new and strange sounds, rackets and compositional experiments,” explains writer Lurker Grand, “accompanied and inspired by cutting- edge developments in electronic musical instruments. A broad, innovative scene developed and the four different language and cultural regions of Switzerland were no longer perceived to be an obstacle. There was a curiosity for the foreign and the strange. Conflicts for freedom and free spaces took place and this was reflected in the music.” It was unfiltered creativity and this free, non-commercial approach is a common denominator for the songs on this compilation. Many artists operated in their own universe; hardly any of the acts on this album actually met each other at the time. Only Liliput from Zürich achieved notable fame, building on the success of their previous incarnation as Kleenex.

Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by New York's no wave scene, many Italian bands of the early '80s, playing far from the footlights of the world's stage, began creating compelling, and often cutting edge, hybrid sounds. This kind of experimenting soon went viral along the entire peninsula: from Southern Italy to the Alps, creating a brave new Italian take on post-punk. From the nervous white funk of Neopolitans Bisca, to the instrumental explorations of Confusional Quartet, to the "fake jazz" of the Hi-Fi Bros (who even had a track produced by Arto Lindsay), to Band Aid, this collection testifies to one of the most creative periods of the Italian underground. Also features: Eazycon, Modern Model, Die Form, Funkwagen, Nofun, Hakkah, Illogico, Rinf, and State Of Art. Includes CD; CD features the previously unreleased bonus track by La Maison, "Noise Express".

Sleaford Mods are pleased to announce the release of their cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ iconic single “West End Girls”, with all profits from the track going to the homeless charity Shelter.

The Nottingham duo created a version of the 1986 classic between tours for their latest album UK GRIM, and then sought the blessing of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe to put out the track.

Not only did Sleaford Mods’ “West End Girls” meet with the pair’s approval, but the Pet Shops Boys were inspired to remix the cover which will feature as one of the tracks on the limited edition single.

Hifi Sean has also contributed an Acid House meets Hi-NRG remix for the release, while Sleaford Mods’ own Andrew Fearn has added a heady vocoder led mix under his solo guise of Extnddntwrk.

Clearly apparent from their own minimal approach to music, the Pet Shop Boys have always been an important influence for Sleaford Mods, with Chris and Neil’s ability to merge sophisticated electronics and rich character often serving as a lodestar for the partnership between producer Andrew Fearn and front man Jason Williamson.

This esteem for the Pet Shop Boys can be clearly heard on their take on “West End Girls”, although Jason and Andrew have not flinched from creating a version of the song which is truly Sleaford Mods.

If the original is a sophisticated exposé of the heartlessness of 80s Thatcherite Britain while also paying tribute to people’s ability to shine despite living in brutal times, then Sleaford Mods’ have skillfully distressed the shimmering classic with sharp synths and scuffed-up vocals, offering a sense of the resilience now required to survive in our disconnected and dysfunctional days.

“’West End Girls’ is a song that’s very close to my heart, my coming-of-age track in so many ways.” says Andrew Fearn of the original.
Jason Williamson continues, “I’ve been listening to the Pet Shop Boys albums ‘Please’ and ‘Actually’ a lot, the music still fits this landscape so well. When Andrew suggested we cover “West End Girls”, it was important to honour the track’s brilliance. So when Neil and Chris gave the track their blessing, our tiny minds were blown, and when we received their remix… it was almost too much, it was brilliant!”

Neil/Chris added… “Sleaford Mods have brought East End boys back to the West End streets for a great cause and we love their new version.”
Sleaford Mods “West End Girls” cover will be available on a limited edition 12-inch with remixes from the Pet Shop Boys, HiFi Sean and Extnnddntwrk, which can be pre-ordered now ahead of release on 15th December. All tracks will be available to stream from 21st November.

Profits generated by the single are being donated by Sleaford Mods to the charity Shelter, details of their work can be found at www.shelter.org.uk

Flaming Tunes' sole release is perhaps the finest elegy to the '80s home recording ethos that you've never heard. Originally released in 1985 on cassette (with individually hand-colored covers), this self-titled album grew out of the collaboration between childhood friends Gareth Williams and Mary Currie.

Williams is best known as a member of English art-rock band This Heat. After leaving the group in the early '80s, he travelled to India where he studied classical Kathakali dance – an experience that would profoundly shape the music of Flaming Tunes.

In an old Victorian house in South London, the duo recorded during the day while Currie's young son attended school and Williams conducted tape treatments at night. They were joined by various guests including This Heat guitarist Charles Bullen as well as long-term collaborators Martin Harrison and Rick Wilson.

Using whatever instruments they had on hand (clarinet, piano, bells, etc.), Flaming Tunes create lo-fi melodies around simple arrangements, oblique rhythms and densely layered natural sounds. The results are a mesmeric collage of instrumental daydreams and sideways pop songs, floating into one another in a hazy confluence of late '60s Canterbury psych-folk and early Residents experimentation.

All of these beguiling elements converge in a personal manner, quietly insistent in listeners' ears like the blood pulsing in one's veins on a warm summer day.

Fresh from supporting Blur at Wembley, Sleaford Mods return with a EP of six new tracks. Emerging from the same environment that created the duo's Top 3 album UK GRIM, the songs of More UK GRIM share the incisive lyrical vision and forward-thinking electronics that won acclaim for the LP. Tracks including Under The Rules, Old Nottz and Big Pharma not only continue Mods' era of dancefloor dominance, but with insight and wit, outrage and compassion, they critique yet celebrate our turbulent times.