The first of this week’s hot six comes from Claudia Brücken, who first came to notice as the lead singer of Düsseldorf electronic music pioneers Propaganda and whose striking image and distinctive vocals made her one the most influential and inspiring female musicians of her generation. Night Mirror, written and recorded in London between 2023–25 with long-time collaborator John Williams, is a stunning collection of 10 brand-new songs suffused with optimism and loosely bound by themes of reflection and rebirth.
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, The Sisters of Mercy’s debut album, First and Last and Always, is being reissued on red/black marble vinyl. This 1985 classic remains unequalled in the Goth genre, permanently granted top place on a pedestal from which it cannot be toppled. From the opening claustrophobia of ‘Black Planet’ to the closing epic ‘Some Kind of Stranger’, First and Last and Always has been copied to death, but its brilliance has never been replicated.
Mercury and Brit-nominated Kae Tempest’s fifth studio album, Self Titled, features Neil Tennant, Tawiah, Connie Constance and Young Fathers and is co-produced by Fraser T Smith and Tempest.
Mercury Rev’s critically acclaimed 1991 debut is being reissued in a gatefold pack with their debut 12″ EP. The album, Yerself Is Steam, was a critical success and was quickly followed by the Car Wash Hair EP. The reaction to these releases persuaded the band to perform their very first live gigs – their third gig was on the main stage at Reading Festival and their fourth was supporting Bob Dylan – an auspicious start to their decades-long career. In spite of plaudits resulting in strong sales and regular tours, it was not until their fourth album, Deserter’s Songs, that they gained a mainstream audience.
The Country Side of Paul Carrack Volume 1 is a brand-new studio album recorded in Nashville with the help of the cream of local session musicians. The album contains a great selection of country standards delivered in Paul Carrack’s inimitable style.
Our release of the week comes from Rival Consoles, aka producer and musician born Ryan Lee West, who has been concurrently in the foreground and background of electronic music since the late-’00s, including Black Mirror soundtracks, selling out major venues and logging an expansive, wandering collection of synth-sculpted albums that explore a myriad of different styles and aesthetics – but always with human emotion as their lodestar. Ninth studio album Landscape from Memory finally blossomed following a frustrating fallow year away from the production desk.
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