A few new releases to note

Good day fine people. Just a quick post to highlight 3 new releases which are in stock now.

Later today we will be posting about the first round of Record Store Day 2014 releases, there will be a very limited pre-order period for this, but we will give you outrageous pricing if you pre-order. Check back later for this news!

On with the show.

Lost in the Trees – Past Life – LP /CD
When Lost In The Trees set out to record Past Life, their third album, they knew they needed a break with the past. On their first two releases Picker had used an expanded six-member band to render his carefully composed, classical-inflected songs. For the new album, the band is pared to a lean electronic-rock four-piece; the arrangements are modern, spare, minimal, emphasizing groove and rhythm, blending the sonic architecture of 21st century electronic dance music, and the sensual swerve of post-Bowie 80s pop. The band made their next break with past practice by electing to work with an outside producer for the first time. Nicolas Vernhes, whose credits include breakthrough albums from Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective, endorsed the band’s new minimal aesthetic, and the question in the studio became, “How much can we strip away?” But fans that came to the band lured by the lush classicism of All Alone In An Empty House and A Church That Fits Our Needs (the Wall Street Journal’s album of the year in 2012) will not be disappointed.
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Bear Hands – Distraction – LP / CD
After releasing their debut LP Burning Bush Supper Club, Bear Hands criss-crossed America opening for the legendary GZA, Passion Pit, and AWOLNATION only to return home to Brooklyn and be distracted by the minutia of modern life and shallow urbanity. While avoiding each other for months, the band frittered away its time with help from the internet, serial monogamy, and recreational drugs. Fortunately, this distance allowed the band to approach Distraction with a revolutionary new perspective. Their minds expanding and hearts imploding, Bear Hands set about matching new songs to familiar soundscapes. From the propulsive, infectious rhythms of “Giants” and the angular, warped melodies of “Bone Digger” to the widescreen sweep of “Thought Wrong,” Distraction demands your attention – calling out for love from behind a mask of ones and zeroes, cardboard and vinyl.
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Mogwai – Rave Tapes – LP / CD
Rave Tapes is the eighth studio album by Mogwai and their second for Sub Pop. Since their formation in 1995, the Scottish quintet has established itself internationally through a prolific recorded output and a commitment to touring that few of their peers can match. With Rave Tapes, Mogwai’s mastery of sound and space is firmly at its apex. The album is a lustrous collection mined from the same quarry as its predecessors, wreathed in painterly textures underpinned by increasingly electronic beats. The haunted strains of ‘Deesh’ channel the slow-burning ecstasy of their 2006 song ‘Auto Rock’ (a key presence in the denouement of Michael Mann’s film of Miami Vice that year), while the guitars on which Mogwai built their reputation remain, if less overtly belligerent this time round, as evidenced by the somnambulant opener ‘Heard About You Last Night’ and the sonic scowl of ‘Hexon Bogon’.
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