Private Release: 03/04/25

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

The Manhattan Love Suicides - 2025 - ST 2xCD

Next Phase : Normal Records – NPN36

Indiepop fans too young to have observed the boom/bust cycles of indiepop, this was from the mid-00s heyday of Magic Marker records while all the dummies still talked about "electroclash" and "post-rock."

This is the debut album by The Manhattan Love Suicides. Recorded with a genuinely rough n' raw approach in an attempt to capture the ramshackle nature of the handful of live gigs that the band had performed, up to that point.

Full-to-bursting with pop melodies lurking underneath the fuzz, the album was originally released in late 2006 on CD by Magic Marker Records in the U.S, and then shortly after, in early 2007, on limited edition vinyl by Squirrel Records in the UK.

Long out of print and much sought after in its vinyl edition, and not quite so easy to locate on CD these days, either...this is where Next Phase : Normal Records comes to the rescue...well, at least for the CD fans out there, anyway.

Back out on digital and limited edition double disc with several bonus tracks, this new edition also includes a very rare earlier mix of the entire album, which while not differing all that much from the final version, is definitely essential listening for fans of the band - mostly because the one and only cassette where this particular mix of the album resides was thought to be completely lost, until its recent re-discovery in the summer of 2024. The whole sonic package features fantastic fresh artwork construction by Jon Aldersea/Goldphone Creative Media and re-mastering by Pete B at The Glass Factory.

For those of you who experienced the scruffy noise-pop of The Manhattan Love Suicides' debut when it first appeared, as well as anyone who is yet to discover the sonic delights of this lo-fi 14-track fuzz-fest - it's time again to dress it in black, stick your head in the speakers and immerse yourself in the sound of this short-lived 4-piece who had a mind for the melodic and a desire for the chaotic.

Sunrot / Body Void - 2024 - Split

Riff Merchant Records – none

Sunrot - 2025 - Passages

Prosthetic Records – none

Earthen Sea - 2024 - Recollection

Kranky – KRANK244

Eyeless In Gaza - 2022 - Skeletal Framework (The Cherry Red Recordings 1981-1986) 5xCD

Cherry Red – CRCDBOX128

The second Eyeless in Gaza album, Caught in Flux was released in September 1981 to some highly positive reviews in the British music press.[19] The original pressing included a bonus five track EP (The Eyes Of Beautiful Losers).

Eyeless in Gaza would release two further EPs in 1981, Invisibility and Others. By the end of the year, they had completed their third album, Pale Hands I Loved So Well, which was released by the Norwegian label Uniton in 1982: in contrast to previous works it was (as described by Dave Henderson in Sounds) an album of "short but effective soundtracks; not for films but for everyday life." it received less pośitive reviews by other critics. Despite this productivity on record, during this period the duo would also perform numerous songs in live concerts which were never released on records.[22] In 1982, Bates would release his first full-release solo album on 10 inch vinyl, Letters Written.

1982's Drumming the Beating Heart (released, like the first two albums, on Cherry Red) saw Eyeless in Gaza refining their sound and attracting broader coverage. In a mixed critical response, one critic compared the band to "a more harrowing version of OMD". A single from the album - the electro-soul influenced "Veil Like Calm" was issued in October 1982. In the same year the band recorded The Home Produce/Country Bizarre, a split album with Lol Coxhill released on limited edition cassette via the Tago Mago label.

1983-1987: shift towards pop

By the time of the "New Risen" single (released in May 1983) and its parent album Rust Red September (July 1983), Eyeless in Gaza had become concerned that their initial uncompromising stance had "alienated a lot of people" and had begun to make concessions towards a more pop-oriented direction. Bates would begin to adopt a gentler singing style as part of this, and physical aspects of his earlier singing style was another reason for this. More of this new approach was evident on the 1984 EP Sun Bursts In, which brought comparisons to contemporary pop optimist Howard Jones (as well as an unlikely Single of the Week accolade from Joe Leeway of Thompson Twins).[citation needed]

For their 1985 single "Welcome Now" the band employed Aztec Camera's drummer Dave Ruffy: this song would in turn appear on the final album of the band's early years, 1986's Back from the Rains, for which former Sinatras/In Embrace drummer Joby Palmer was recruited, as was Bates' longtime girlfriend Elizabeth S. (who served as backing singer). In the same year, the band acquired a manager for the first time and toured with Depeche Mode., but in spite of this opportunity and the band's embracing of the option of a pop career, no major label deal emerged.

Released August 26, 2022

Gareth Davis & Merzbow - 2016 - Atsusaku LP

Moving Furniture Records ‎– 031

M.S.B. / DoseZero - 1996 - Control Remoto 2.0

Liberation & Ecstasy – XTC 00000010

Meitei - 2021 - Kofū II / 古風 II

Kitchen Label / KI-032

Meitei’s 2020 album 'Kofū' was the bold bookend to an expedition, where sounds were first navigated and then subverted in 2018’s 'Kwaidan' and 2019’s 'Komachi'.

All three albums were Meitei’s attempt at immersive storytelling, reimagining moments of Japanese history he felt were being washed away – not least by the unforgiving sands of time – through wistful compositions that stretched across ambient music, hauntology, and musique concrete.

When it came to finalizing 'Kofū', Meitei found he was left with over 60 fully realized tracks, bursting with ideas that fired in divergent, curious directions. Meitei was content with the 13 tracks he had selected. But when it came time to begin his next album, he found that it had been sitting in front of him all along. He realized his work wasn’t over yet.

Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of 'Kofū II' – a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony.

'Happyaku-yachō' is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field. “My image of this music is that it expresses the vibrant mood of Edo's merchant culture,” says Meitei, “where old Japanese dwellings were densely packed together in a vast expanse of land.” The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate 'Kaworu', a compositional piece lifted from his 'Komachi' sessions – a final requiem to his late grandmother.

The album is bursting with spectral vignettes of wandering samurais, red lanterns, ninjas, puppet theatres, poets, even a vengeful assassin ('Shurayuki hime', known to Western audiences as ‘Lady Snowblood’).

'Saryō' is as elegant and refined as you would expect. It induces stillness in its repetition, with each synth note a brushstroke. It was inspired by a Sengoku-era tea house he once visited, designed by national icon Sen no Rikyū. Meitei tied it to the reaction he felt while poring over the ink paintings in his grandmother’s house. “The decayed earthen walls and faded tatami mats gave me an emotional impression,” he says. “And the cosmic flow of time drifting in the small room. I decided to put my impression of this into music.”

In 'Akira Kurosawa', an appropriately thunderous track, Meitei finds deep resonance in his vast filmography, which drew equally from Japan’s rich heritage and troubled circumstances post-WWII.

'Kofū II' is not a leftovers album, nor is it a straightforward companion piece. In this album, Meitei has his biggest reckoning with the Japanese identity yet. Over the years, he has attempted to peel back what he believes has defined Japan and its people. After seeking answers with three full-length albums, his fourth poses more questions.

If his first three albums inspired a sense of longing – or, perhaps inevitably, fed an irreparable nostalgia doomed to history – 'Kofū II' compels us to reassess our relationship with the past. By constantly looking back, are we ever afforded a clearer present? After capturing the “lost Japanese mood”, where does that leave its country in the modern world? Meitei offers no immediate answers with 'Kofū II'. It forces you to sit with its disparate moods, to meditate amidst the textured fragments.

'Kofū II' will be released on 180g LP, CD and digital format on December 10, 2021 (LP expected to land January 28, 2022) via KITCHEN. LABEL. Both LP and CD format are presented in a debossed sleeve with obi strip and include a 16-page insert with words in Japanese and English from Meitei, printed on premium paper stock with design by KITCHEN. LABEL founder Ricks Ang, and is mastered by Chihei Hatakeyama in Tokyo, Japan.

Drekka - 2019 - No Tracks In The Snow LP

Dais Records ‎– DAIS128

"No Tracks in the Snow" is a collection of tracks from the early days of Drekka’s history; the third offering for Dais Records and an appendix between the second and third parts of the 'Tarwestraat' trilogy of LPs for the label. 

For over twenty years, Mkl Anderson has curated a vast archive of recorded material for his cinematic ritual ambient industrial project, Drekka. He works with memory not only as a subject but also as a healing process, continually delving into this personal world of sound; examining, revisiting, and repurposing recordings in an attempt to recall a past which sings from the darkness surrounding the tenuous provinces of memory and dreams - the real ghosts of time and sound.

Recorded between 1996 and 2002, the album showcases Drekka's early exploratory development across a variety of styles. And yet it is also Drekka in the present moment; culled, curated, and assembled with care. Not unlike Borges’ "A Personal Anthology" - or indeed any of Drekka’s own recent work - this recording can be understood as a cohesive narrative more than as a simple compilation. 

As Drekka moved from its Bristol UK influenced space folk beginnings, backwards towards Anderson's earlier UK industrial tape culture foundation, his predilection for reworking pieces over time was emerging; recontextualizing narratives to bring out new truths from one's own history. This process would become a cornerstone of Anderson's work for the decades to follow.

The album begins with “Strika” (1998), originally recorded for the lovesliescrushing side project, Vir (a "secret audio army" in which individual performers were not even aware of who the other participants were). The track features one of Anderson’s earliest collaborations with Mark Trecka (of Pillars And Tongues / Dark Dark Dark), who would go on to be one of his longest standing co-conspirators.

 "Christmas 1973 or 1974" (1999) is a lament for a childhood which is almost entirely forgotten and a yearning for some tangible, physical proof that this childhood existed at all. The accompanying video for the track utilizes actual home movie footage of Anderson as a very young boy, fulfilling this longing and adding heart rending weight to the song and its lyrics.

 "We Who Are Not Lonely" (2000) has become one of the most beloved works in Anderson’s early canon. A gauzy musing on the catharsis of upheaval, the piece was written and recorded initially in the months leading up to Anderson’s relocation from Chicago to Bloomington, Indiana. It is a brooding work which shows Anderson at his most self-possessed as a songwriter and is a confluence of the earliest playing-and-singing take on Drekka and the cinematic world building soundscapes to come.

 The album closes with “Tracking shot (wide)” (2000), a brief stream-of-consciousness sound piece dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky. The track most certainly points in the direction that Drekka would explore extensively over the two decades; the direction which has led Anderson to where he is now firmly positioned. 

"No Tracks in the Snow" is an exploration of the threads of continuity which bind the various modes of Anderson’s oeuvre. As he nears completion of the third album in his trilogy of LPs for Dais Records, "No Tracks in the Snow" is an introspective pause and a celebration of a life spent listening to the world around us and its sleeping potential.