Body Keeps The Record

For the past decade, Spirit of the beehive have honed an aesthetic like no other. They’ve chopped up samples, chewed them up, spit them back out again, baby birded it. Across four albums and a smattering of EPs, Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin, and Rivka Ravede have fully solidified their stance as some of rock’s weirdest and best deconstructionists. 2018’s Hypnic Jerks was a study in noise punk sampledelia. It was a breakthrough for the band. Frank Ocean became a fan, spinning “fell asleep with a vision,” on Blonded Radio. 2021’s Entertainment Death, was nasty dream pop by way of K-Mart realism and hitting the channel search setting on an old TV set.

The Defiants are back with their sophomore album, "Zokusho". Comprised of Paul Laine, Bruno Ravel, and Rob Marcello, The Defiants is three fabulous musicians who, as fans in the know will immediately recognize, all have ties to popular hard rockers, Danger Danger. They are even joined on this album by special guest drummer, Steve West, also of Danger Danger.

A 2CD set from organ supremo Brian Auger that includes the 1969 album Streetnoise, produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and featuring Julie Driscoll and Trinity, plus sixties compilation The Mod Years.
The final collaboration between singer Julie Driscoll (by that time dubbed as "The Face" by the British music weeklies) and Brian Auger's Trinity was 1969's Streetnoise - it was an association that had begun in 1966 with Steampacket, a band that also featured Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. As a parting of the ways, however, it was Trinity's finest moment. A double album featuring 16 tracks, more than half with vocals by Driscoll, the rest absolutely burning instrumentals by Trinity…

Al Stewart had found his voice on Past, Present & Future and found his sound on Modern Times. He then perfected it all on 1976’s Year of the Cat, arguably his masterpiece.

The record took shape slowly but surely as the band meticulously perfected their sound. Often guarded, ‘It Leads To This’ keeps its ace in the pack up its sleeve, biding its time until all the right pieces fall in place, giving way to a beautiful, cinematic experience on every track. Conceptually the record is Soord’s efforts to better understand himself & the world around him. Opening with the coy melodies of ‘Put It Right’ before moving into the metallic groove of ‘Rubicon’, the album builds to the heart of the record with the epic title track, the cathartic ‘The Frost’, followed by an introspective ‘All That’s Left’. The ominous ‘Now It’s Yours’ and ‘Every Trace Of Us’ keep the foreboding atmosphere topped up whilst delivering The Pineapple Thief’s signature dynamism, closing the record with the haunting ‘To Forget’.