Tag: Albums

‘The Adventures Of You And Me’ features on David’s debut self-titled album, and is the title track for this new EP featuring three new recordings, released this February!

Blow Up Records presents ‘Last Man On Earth’ the fourth album from Big Boss Man: 15 brand new recordings from Jazz, Soul, Rhythm & Blues to Boogaloo, Funk, Psych Rock & more. Out September 1st on 180g Heavy-Weight Vinyl LP, CD & Digital (order here) and it’s sounding extra tasty! 

The British four piece return with a new set of songs and recordings that take a fresh approach to the BBM sound – their hip hybrid of Latin, Jazz, Soul, Psych Rock and ’60s/’70s drenched R&B is now expanded with the added dimension of a brass section and guest vocalists adding to the further sonic and rhythmic explorations from the band; taking us on a one heck of a brand new trip!

Includes the singleAardvark, a jazz dance floor filler, rush released fresh from the studio mix sessions back in April, that received strong radio support from BBC 6 Music and BBCRadio 2, including multiple spins by Craig Charles on his Funk & Soul Show, who declared that “I’ve been a big fan of Big Boss Man for many years. Big Boss Man ‘Aardvark’. Double Groovy!” Additional radio plays came also from Gideon Coe, Tom Ravenscroft, Cerys Matthews, Chris Hawkins and Huey Morgan at the stations.

‘MHz Invasion’ is the debut album from Sicilian experimental Avant-Pop duo Marco Barrano and Dario Sanguedolce founded in 2010, aka Daiquiri Fantomas.

They are indeed a cocktail of ideas, breathing life into the most diverse sound architectures by boldly experimenting with acoustic instruments and vintage electronics crossed over with new technologies. The whole sound has a distinctive “retro-futuristic” flavour, giving a nod both to the ’60s/70s (Prog, Sci-Fi movie soundtracks & Kosmische) and later adapters Stereolab and Broadcast.

For fans of Stereolab, Broadcast, John Barry & a whole lot more….

The Wilds is taken from the 2nd Baltic Fleet album ‘Towers’ and forms a new EP that also contains new tracks ‘Frosklia and ‘Disinclusion’. ‘Towers’ made several End of Year Polls on its release in 2012 including Vive Le Rock & Crack Magazine. 

‘TOWERS’ is the second album from BALTIC FLEET and follows the 2008 self-titled debut which was an Album of the Year (No 29) for Rough Trade Shops who described it as “A faultless piece of instrumental music that captures the spirit of Eno, NEU! all the way through to modern post-rock and chamber music”.

BALTIC FLEET is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist and DIY producer Paul Fleming. The second record signifies a departure from the travelling and diarising of life on the road (whilst touring as keyboard player for Echo & The Bunnymen), and arrives home to the industrial backdrop of North West England. The album was written and recorded in a room overlooking the industrial landscape a stone’s throw from Spike Island, the scene of another Northern band’s finest hour.

The cinematic aspect is still apparent on this second offering but is more direct. Analogue synthesisers intertwined with distant guitars roll over a backdrop of live and electronic drums. Two years in the making, the record captures varied emotions. Towers tells a story of life in between the silos of Liverpool and Manchester but with a foot in both, a cultural no-man’s land, in the shadows of industry.

Towers: Written and Produced by Paul Fleming. Additional recording at Parr St Studio, Liverpool. Mixed by Nick Terry at Malabar Studios, Oslo.

When Fay Hallam played live at Blow Up and was introduced to Blow Up’s very own recording artist, Mr Nasser Bouzida AKA ‘The Bongolian’, little did they know that they would shortly get together to create the album ‘Lost in Sound’.

Both Fay and Nasser share a serious passion for 60’s Hammond Beat and Soul. In the studio, they felt free to experiment with different sounds and rhythms, immersing themselves in the sounds they both love, including Bossa Nova, heavier 70’s grooves and a strong Northern Soul influence. During the months they worked on the recordings, Fay would bring the basic songs into the studio, and along with Nasser, flesh out the arrangements. Their choice of instruments included mainly old Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Hammond C3 keyboards and other vintage equipment, mixing things up with some cool cinematic synth. sounds. As the sessions developed, the songs kept flowing; finally resulting in the album being completed in London where it was mixed by Miles Clarke (The Who / Pete Townsend engineer), with additional mixing and mastering by Nick Bennett.

Get ready to get Lost in Sound…

Order Limited Signed CD ALBUM
exclusive to Blow Up / Alfa 9 Shop!

Released this March, Gone To Ground is the second album from Alfa 9. The self produced twelve song set was recorded in their home town of Newcastle-under-Lyme at their own Dungeon Studios, and mixed in London by Myles Clarke (The Who / Pete Townsend). Several years have gone by between the release of their debut Then We Begin and the band have remerged with Gone To Ground as a four piece.

Citing the ’60s and early ’70s folk and country-rock of The Byrds, in particular, Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers, the Paisley Underground, bands of early ’80s LA, Gone To Ground (which was recorded over six months) channels the same love of the past as such contemporaries as The See See, Tame Impala, The Quarter After, Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Beachwood Sparks. “I guess the sort of stuff we were becoming influenced by was far more subtly produced, so it was a pretty natural move,” says Leon of the album’s more spacious production, marked by rich mid-60s harmonies, ringing 12 strings and naturally overdriven and fuzztone guitars.

Gone To Ground deserves a place on the record shelf of anyone susceptible to organic jangle and fine melodies. The album will be preceded by the singles Into The Light and Seedless.

Cuff were favourites at 1997’s London Music Week, and the band’s single ‘Yellowmaddacoolivision’ for Blow Up received extensive support and airplay from MTV at the time of its release (as well have on of the most unusual of titles). Cuff had previously recorded another single on Club Spangle. Last seen: jetting off to the US after signing to Atlantic.

Impressing audiences with their groove-led exuberance, TRAP2 made a name for themselves as one of 2005’s hotly tipped new bands. A dose of Led Zeppelin, a rockier Stone Roses and a pinch of early Verve – it’s this hard to pigeon hole sound that has impressed the likes of Xfm’s John Kennedy and 2004’s big success story, Kasabian, who re-mixed Welcome To The Zoo…

The debut album from Newcastle-under-Lyme (nr Stoke) based five piece Alfa 9. The group honed their skills on the live circuit, cemented by supports slots with The Coral, Sunshine Underground, The Charlatans, and Edgar Jones, before siging to Blow Up in August 2005, and the same month walked straight into The Charlatans’ Big Mushroom studio in Cheshire with Liverpool producer Mike Cave (The Coral, Ian McNabb). They recorded the album in under two weeks, with additional production and mixing in the Autumn in Liverpool. The completed album was mastered in Devon by Simon Heyworth (co-producer of Tubular Bells), the end result being the psych masterpiece that is Then We Begin.