As it is the anniversary of me taking over the shop week next week, the pick of the week’s releases are ones I am interested in. My shop, my rules!
My first pick is the 8th studio album from Lunatic Soul, the solo project of Riverside’s main composer and vocalist/bassist Mariusz Duda. The World Under Unsun marks the final chapter of a cohesive story across eight albums entitled ‘The Circle of Life and Death’ in which a solitary artist-traveller journeys between those two states, and features almost 90 minutes of highly diverse and profoundly atmospheric progressive rock over 14 tracks.
Hail to the Thief Live Recordings 2003-2009 re-evaluates Radiohead’s relationship with their 6th studio album, comprising recordings of performances of songs in London, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Dublin, mixed by Ben Baptie and mastered by Matt Colton. Thom Yorke says: “I heard some archive live recordings of the songs. I was shocked by the kind of energy behind the way we played. I barely recognised us. It would have been insane to keep these recordings to ourselves.”
Magic 8 Ball marks Gazpacho’s return after a five-year break, with eight new tracks built around the idea of fate: how it moves without warning and how the choices we make can slowly strip away who we thought we were. The album is structured as a series of short stories. Each song follows a different character at a breaking point: moments where something changes permanently, whether they see it coming or not.
Daniel Avery welcomes an inspiring cast of collaborators for his new album, Tremor. Each of them leaves their indelible mark, yet the record’s true power lies in the communal spirit at its core. Channelling every corner of Avery’s sound, Tremor is a bold and transportive body of work through euphoric shoegaze, submerged techno, ambient soundscape and industrial bliss. It remains unmistakably Avery, yet dramatically evolved: an immersive and deeply textured journey that unfolds like a lucid dream.
The first of our joint releases of the week is Don’t Go in the Forest, the latest masterpiece from avant-metal band Avatar, who hit you over the head with frenetic insanity while keeping it melodic like a great Iron Maiden album. With a life-long commitment to the misfit arts, Avatar has evolved to concept art. For centuries the circus would come to town. Now, for the first time in history, the gravitational pull of Avatar is so strong that the town is coming to the circus. A circus deep in the forest. A forbidden place. A taboo you are destined to break. The second is Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death – larger than life, darker than death, and the best album Creeper have ever recorded. The album’s theme takes us back to the moral hysteria that was the Satanic Panic and its impact upon the world of ’80s hard rock and heavy metal. It was a time in which the late Prince of Darkness, Ozzy Osbourne, and Judas Priest were dogged by court cases, Iron Maiden played deep into America’s heartland, while W.A.S.P. and Mötley Crüe inflamed conservative minds with outrageous theatricality and decadence.
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