Julian Cope

Rejoice rejoice, for it is time to celebrate a grand reissue from the crossroads of the Archdrude’s long careering show-business. Droolian. Unavailable for several years now, this bizarre 1990 homespun monsterpiece is finally unleashed.

Containing 4 unreleased epics from 1993 right up to the present day, this record will send you out into the Cosmos and leave you on a park bench possibly not of your own choosing.

England Expectorates, cough splutter! A brand new album of 13 new songs from our nation’s favourite Wrong-Righter… Expectorates? “To cough or spit out phlegm,” as the dictionary defines it. Boris is gone, yet he’s not gone. We’ll be suffering his legacy for years. 13 feel-good songs for feel-bad times – this is the Archdrude at his most succinct, tripped-out, punky, blasted and beautiful. Containing his stage epic ‘Cunts Can Fuck Off’, here’s 13 keenly constructed missives to help get us through this ropey fucking situation.

Recorded Live at the Barrowlands, Glasgow, September 30, 1995. The Archdrude’s 1995 shows spilled out over three hours: scores of songs, and different every night. Here’s a fabulous extract from Cope’s uproarious Glasgow show at the legendary Barrowlands dancehall – this raging hi-fi performance was recorded directly from the sound desk, then distilled into 69 sexy minutes of Glaswegian free-for-all. Thighpaulsandra’s only tour with Cope added a colossal orchestration even to rock standards such as ‘World Shut Your Mouth’ and ‘Reynard the Fox’, his Mellotron and Moogs herein caught at their temperamental finest; his superb harmony vocals also inspiring bassist K-R Frost and guitarist Mike Mooneye to rare heights. And check out stirring versions of ‘Leli B.’, ’Sleeping Gas’, ’Don’t Take Roots’ and ‘1995’ for the sheer Krautrock drive of Rooster Cosby’s egoless drumming. Intriguing sonic revelations abound on this writhing muscular sinewy beast! Its artwork evocatively adorned in Cope’s beloved rave orange, Barrowlands captures Cope at his stretched-out 1990s finest. A hot mess!

Celebrate the arrival of this new decade with Julian Cope’s rampant new album SELF CIVIL WAR. Crammed with songs that reach deep inside you, each possessed of its own micro-worldview, SELF CIVIL WAR showcases Cope’s songwriting at its most searching since JEHOVAHKILL. Road-testing the zeitgeist with kitchen sink psycho-dramas like ‘A Dope on Drugs’, ‘Your Facebook, My Laptop’ and ‘Billy’, SELF CIVIL WAR also showcases the insightful Heroic Ballads ‘Einstein’ ‘You Will Be Mist’ and ‘The Great Raven’. In typical Cope stylee, the 13 songs of SELF CIVIL WAR brim with sound FX, enormous orchestral arrangements, timeless uprisings of Ur-folk and hefty near-Krautrock anthems. It’s the first release in Cope’s ‘Our Troubled Times’ series, and a fine temporary refuge from our daily bombardment by media luvvies and fuckhead world leaders who take us all for idiots.

Across 5 mesmerizing rhythm-laden tracks, Julian Cope brings us his masterful upbeat tribute to John Balance. All of the tracks instrumental, save for the vocal opener ‘Sandoz’, these hefty grooves shimmer and shake as Cope guides us through the various stages of the artist’s journey into legendary Valhalla. The massive motorik groove of the 15-minute title track depicts John’s journey out of the Earthly Realm, its final musical moments enacting a conversation between two air-force pilots mistaking John’s Shamanic Spectral Body for a distant UFO. Next is ‘John Valour’, an emphatic piano-led Glam Rock beast that pushes ‘Virginia Plain’ and ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ into true Lamonte Young/John Cale territory.