Category: Releases

Recorded live on the 4th April 2019 at a gig in Studiowz in rural South Wales. This album is John Blek at his live best.

10 songs performed solo with acoustic guitar and voice in a beautiful recording studio in front of an audience. 

“A missed note, a voice breaking, a phone ringing. Live music should never be perfect. It is an effort to portray one’s humanity to an audience, not one’s precision. A moment given by an artist and taken by the people to help them acknowledge their own imperfections through the words and music of an honest and flawed performance. 

Bare guitar and voice. Melody, harmony and stories of my life as heard by the audience that beautiful night and captured by  Owain Fleetwood. “

It is the first in a series Blek is calling “Digressions”. These will be limited run releases of live shows or obscure recordings of songs that never made it on to his “Official” releases.

After the fires of love, lust, life and revolution have burned out the embers are all that remain. “The Embers” the new album from John Blek consists of 9 visceral songs. Reflections and memories from a time after the affair.

It was the early summer of 2018, – “Thistle & Thorn” “Blek’s ode to nature […] his most accomplished work to date” (The Irish Times) – had just been completed, however, the Irish Singer/Songwriter just continued to write.

“I was excited by the prospect of working around a specific theme and the songs for The Embers were the next natural step. I enjoyed giving myself structure this time around. It was not about moments of inspiration but more about working on these songs and ideas until I felt they were great. More craft and less luck.“

Ever since this point in time he knew he was in the process of becoming entangled into a bigger picture. A four-album cycle began to take shape, circling around the four elements water (Catharsis Vol. I), Earth (Thistle & Thorn) fire and air. “The Embers”, a firebed of a glimmering coals, is now released exactly one year after “Thistle & Thorn”.

The topics are circling around transformation processes and often draw on Blek’s own biography, the emotional maturity of coming of age, but also the civilisational confusion and decomposition processes of our time: „I addressed emotional maturity within oneself and the bizarre decline of social and political civilisation in the UK and USA.“

“Flame” compares the longing and the passion of a love affair to flames which consume a building blazingly fast. Others associate the warmth of a firebed with a romantic relationship (“Ciara Waiting”). With “Revived” a wonderfully comforting duet with the great Irish songwriter colleague Mick Flannery finds its place.

Blek stays true to his musical principles, nevertheless, gets more and more refined. The focal point is extraordinary melodic fingerpicking on the acoustic guitar and a voice which gets warmer, wiser and paraphrases a little more precise from album to album. Blek gets inspired by Irish, British and American folk and establishes his own position somewhere in between.

While the last album was mainly made with the two Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy collaborators Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg, with this one the drums of Davie Ryan and the clarinets of Matthew Berrill come to the limelight. A warm breath runs through the songs: “Musically I wanted to use soft and warm sounds on this record to try and draw the heat of the fire into the songs. For this, I used a lot of clarinet and bass clarinet. The warm breath-like sound added a wonderful blanket for the songs to lie upon.“

John Blek was recently awarded Number One Award in Ireland by IMRO for an outstanding independent album release in 2019 and “Thistle and Thorn” was praised everywhere by BBC and RTÉ radio editors. Shortly before that, ‘Salt in the Water’ of Blek’s penultimate solo album “Catharsis Vol. I” was nominated as a Song of the Year at the International Folk Music Awards in Kansas City. It’s probably fair to say, that John Blek in his current form is not only one of the most diligent and prolific but also one of the best singer-songwriters in Europe.

Due for release on 7th February 2020 The Embers is the fifth solo long player from Cork’s John Blek. This time it was recorded in its entirety at Wavefield Recordings, Clonakilty with Brian Casey Producing/Engineering and musical contributions from Mick Flannery, Matthew Berrill (Ensemble Eriu) and Davie Ryan (Notify, Atlantic Arc Orchestra).

John Blek is much loved for his enthralling live show full of humour, pathos and his impassioned musical delivery. A master storyteller and a stunning fingerstyle guitar player. A must see act for 2020 and a true artist.

“The Embers” will see widespread release in Europe and the UK via K&F Records and Hometown Caravan and in Ireland via John’s own imprint We Are Rats Recordings (WARR). Available on digital, CD and gatefold 180gram Vinyl.

Austin Lucas & The Bold Party “No One is Immortal!” availableOct. 18! Available on vinyl or as a 2 disc CD/DVD combo pack. Featuring ten fan-favorite tracks recorded live in Bloomington, IN in 2018!

After years of touring solo, and off and on with various backing bands. Austin Lucas has finally come forward with a solidified Bold Party lineup. With the addition of Matt Romy(Keys, vox), Chuck Roldan(drums, vox), alongside BP founding member, Alex Mann (bass). Austin and band have re-emerged, stronger and tighter than ever before. ‘No One Is Immortal! Live at the Blockhouse Bar.’ Represents the end result of 5 months solid on the road, supporting the critically acclaimed 2018 album, ‘Immortal Americans.’ For one special night, fans traveled down the road, across the country and from around the world. All to be present for the recording of this live album and DVD. Their hometown, their favorite club, amongst family, friends, and some of Austin’s most esteemed songwriting peers. What was captured, was something remarkable. A live band, at their peak, doing what they do best, in a room filled with love.

Two albums of the band Wayne Graham were necessary for Germany’s most intransigent music critics to fully embosom them and their music. Wayne Graham is a folk-rock band from Whitesburg, Kentucky, and almost unknown even in their home state. They are not a band for grand gestures, they are understated, subtly cantankerous but somehow they always remain catchy and timeless. Their secret is as perfidious as it is simple. They make records which invoke the urge to listen to them again and again. Records that do not impose – that reveal their secrets little by little.

Wayne Graham is the band of two brothers, apparently bestowed with infinite creativity and talent, that still write, record and produce in the basement of their parents’ home. They still live in Whitesburg, a former mining hicksville, in one of the poorest regions of the USA. When they were kids, they backed their father, who once founded a church there and now has a small business as a repair service for electronics, on drums and bass at his church services.

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” is going to be released only eight months after their latest album “Joy!” which has marked a modest break trough of the band. This summer they play on some of the most selected festivals in Germany. Rolling Stone critiques and readers have chosen “Joy!” as one of the best records of 2018:

“The sublime Americana of the brothers […] takes a while until it enfolds its full splendor. But then you want to listen to these songs between J.J. Cale and The Band, gentle blues and smoldering folk-rock, again and again.” (Rolling Stone 1/2019)

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” forms a trilogy with “Mexico” (2016) and “Joy!” (2018). However, singer and songwriter Kenny Miles sees the upcoming album as more of a prequel to these two, because it is a collection of songs which, for various reasons, were never finalized during the recording of these albums. As their label, one shed some tears when songs like “House I’ll Never See” or “Silver Spoon” vanished from the track list at some point in the process. There are live favorites from previous tours which never got recorded (“By and By”, “Two Minutes”). And some songs that never even found their way over as demo versions. “Flower Store” for example is an almost classical Americana piece, with lyrics so perfectly writ and woven into the fabric of the music – another song that makes you wonder why Wayne Graham is not a household name in every dusty American Jukebox.

The new album is a family matter. Dedicated to their mother. The eponymous grandfathers Wayne and Graham are staring grumpily from the LP-labels. The cover shows mother Kim, lovingly glancing back over her shoulder towards her two sons on the backseat of the car. The whole album was finished in the course of mere weeks in fall 2018.

“Songs Only A Mother Could Love” is being released on the 13^th of April 2019 in the framework of the Record Store Day – strictly limited to 400 copies of bone-white vinyl with inside-out cover print, download code and lyrics sheet.

“You sewed the flag they carried to the moon / You are my favorite silver spoon.”

5 songs (almost 30min.) Paired with beautiful emotional melancholic moments, also rocking and driving parts, to that a clear and melodic voice. The music of the sympathetic boys from essen/germany is often compared to bands like TEXAS IS THE REASON or old CHAMBERLAIN, neverless very obstinate! Relief don’t have to hide behind any praised us-bands! The ingenious guitar-accented sound and the smooth but really stylish layout will motivate the last doubters to buy it.

Upbeat post hardcore music with catchy hooks and enough melodies to help you through the cold season. Soft guitars and very unique vocals, and everything is like a mix of Quicksand, Pale, Bush and Del Amitri without really sounding like any of them.
ThisRecord contains definitely the best songmaterial of the band so far, of course the best sound too. The whole thing is well-rounded with a stylish, colourful heavy gatefold cover.

After the well sold 2-song demo tape, these four Guys of FOUR WHEEL DRIVE present us their great debut 7″. Three punkrock hymns full of drive in a good sound and a solid, pretty cover. Fans of AVAIL and HOT WATER MUSIC will be impressed.

“6 sympathische Jungs aus Essen, sozusagen die deutsche Antwort auf Hot Water Music. Mensch könnte tatsächlich meinen, die Combo aus Gainesville hätte mal eben auf dem kleinen thüringer Label ‘ne 7” aufgenommen, 3 Songs voller Emotion, Spielfreude und Energie. Weiter so. “
Flight 13

Two of germanys best postrock bands at one piece of plastic. 4 fantastic, emotional and impressive rocksongs, from RELIEF. In comparison to their e.p. , the songmaterial is even more well rounded. TREADMILL’s 6 new songs are more independent and stronger, than their older stuff.

Ann Beretta is a three-piece punk rock outfit from Richmond, VA. Often compared to bands such as Rancid, The Clash, The Jam, And Swingin’ Utters, Ann Beretta take straight forward punk rock, combine it with rockabilly, a little country, and a whole lotta rock-n-roll and create cool, rocking’ and catchy tunes that have become hits with kids across the world. Ann Beretta has spent most of the last two and a half years touring, both headlining and supporting bands such as All, Avail, The Bouncing Souls, Hot Water Music and many others.

Rob / ANN BERETTA went into the studio inspired by Tom Waits “Closing Time” with nine new songs. The first tracks were acoustic guitar and vocals. The rest is history. The album contains 12 songs total. Nine original Foundation songs, two Ann Beretta acoustic renditions, and a Tom Waits cover. Foundation will not only move, and inspire you, but leave you falling in love with the simplicity of the spirit, message, and soul of what happens when you let go, reach deep inside, and find a voice that has been there all along.