Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - 1 March (2024)

With his new album Y'Y (pronounced "eey-eh, eey-eh"), Amaro Freitas steps into a new realm of musical creation. A realm rooted in magic and possibility, and tempered by a sense of stewardship for the earth's bounties. Side A serves as an expression of connection to the earth and to the ancestors, paying homage to the forest and the rivers of Northern Brazil with both the music and the album title, Y'Y, a word written in the Sateré Mawé dialect, an ancestral indigenous code that means water or river. And by bringing to life lessons he learned in the Amazon about the incandescent power of enchanted spirits who intervene on behalf of the community in times of struggle. On Side B, Y'Y shows the connections between the global Black avant-jazz community. Bringing together multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings, harpist Brandee Younger, bassist Aniel Someillan, guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, the music creates an artful conversation by weaving together jazz traditions from across the world, while staying rooted in the unique sounds and rituals found in Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultures. Freitas continues to intwine ancestral knowledge into music on Y'Y by bringing his fresh, "decolonized" interpretation of Brazilian jazz and sharing music that may well shatter our preconceived notions of what jazz can be.

In the sonic crucible of Ben Frost's Scope Neglect, music undergoes a metamorphic alchemy. From the album’s opening seconds, the familiar aural chemistry of metal is immediately untethered, isolated in the vacuum, stripped of its cultural trappings and heavy armory, and loaded into a particle accelerator. Where Scope Neglect leans sonically into metal - fuelled by progressive metal outfit Car Bomb’s guitarist Greg Kubacki and bassist Liam Andrews of fellow Australians My Disco - its true form seems to draw more upon the transcendental reveries of the West Coast minimalists. What at first appears confrontational, and ephemeral, is meditatively and methodically unfolded through time, revealing crystalline vulnerabilities.

Brittany is a gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and engineer from Seattle, WA. Brittany is blind and describes themself as a vessel of sound and experiences music in spirit and colors. Everything about Brittany represents music and everything is an instrument to them. Brit's concept is to create an "audio movie", so that listeners can "watch" the movie the way that Brit "watches" movies. The "Treadmill Memories" pieces both tie all the songs together, but also tell the story of Brit's past, struggles and internal voices. Brit's honesty is brutal and incredible.

Renowned around the world as one of the greatest and most distinctive heavy metal vocalists of all time, Bruce Dickinson will be releasing a brand new solo album in early 2024 on BMG Records. Entitled The Mandrake Project it sees him reunited with long-time musical collaborator and producer Roy Z. The Mandrake Project will be Dickinson's seventh solo album and his first since Tyranny Of Souls in 2005. Dickinson explains, "This album has been a very personal journey for me and I am extremely proud of it. Roy Z and I have been planning, writing and recording it for years, and I am very excited for people to finally hear it." The Mandrake Project is a dark, adult story of power, abuse and a struggle for identity, set against a backdrop of scientific and occult genius.

Daniel Romano returns with his first new music since the release of the massive, singular, La Luna in those long ago days of autumn 2022 (an impossibly long time in this famously prolific artist's career) - Too Hot To Sleep is simultaneously a transcendent document of the spirit, and a swaggering, street level blast of power-pop and Stone's derived rock ‘n' roll; a surprisingly direct shout down of the corrupt politicians and techno fascists that police our bodies, pollute our world, assault our connections; a reason and occasion to dance, to sweat together at one of The Outfit's legendary live shows wherein everything comes faster than the next, no breaks, no outside, there is only now, there is only all of us here together, alive. A public offering of each to each.

In another world, society has built an immense mountain To make the mountain bigger, they must make the hole they live in deeper and deeper. All of society is built around the creation of the mountain, and a mountain religion dominates all thought. At the top of the mountain is rumoured to be a huge mirror that reflects endlessly recurring images of the self, and at the bottom of the pit is a giant golden snake that is the primal fear of all believers. A "Mountainhead" is one who believes the mountain must grow no matter the cost, and no matter how terrible it is to dwell in the great pit. The taller the mountain, the deeper the hole.

Faye Webster's songs are direct lines to the human subconscious, and Underdressed at the Symphony documents what happens once you begin to build a new self from the ashes of your old routines. This rebirth isn't flashy or definitive, but is instead a series of seemingly mundane moments that, scattered across weeks and months, sneak their way toward something like healing. Yes, there's a breakup in play, but Webster is not documenting the heartbreak of a breakup so much as she's navigating the contours of heartbreak itself. Recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Texas with her longtime band, Webster is accompanied on Underdressed at the Symphony by Matt Stoessel's arcs of shimmering pedal steel, the plaintive, unhurried drums of Charles Garner, and, occasionally, additional guitarwork from Wilco's Nels Cline. The title of the album refers to Webster's post-breakup compulsion to visit the symphony on a whim, usually buying a ticket at the last possible second.

Madlib and Karriem Riggins are Jahari Massamba Unit, a collaboration between two beacons of modern music joined by an unwavering passion for pushing the boundaries of traditional music. Beginning as a genuine friendship and mutual admiration for one another's craft, Jahari Massamba Unit became a project with no rules or guidelines. The result is an extraordinary fusion of creativity, an embrace of artistic freedom, and a testament to what music can be when given the chance to roam beyond convention.

Formed in Leeds in 2000, Kaiser Chiefs are one of the leading bands of their generation. Fronted by the charismatic Ricky Wilson with Simon Rix on bass, Andrew 'Whitey' White on guitar, Nick 'Peanut' Baines on keyboards and drummer Vijay Mistry, the band have had a string of anthemic hits such as 'Oh My God', 'I Predict A Riot', 'Everyday I Love You Less and Less', 'Never Miss A Beat' and 'Hole In My Soul' On March 8 2024 they will release their 8th studio album named 'Kaiser Chiefs' Easy Eighth Album', including their hit single 'How 2 Dance'. The album is co-written and produced by Amir Amor (Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith) and Nile Rodgers (Chiq). On this album, the band delves into innovative sonic avenues while preserving the iconic 'Kaiser Chiefs' essence.

Liam and John have been friends for years but when Liam invited John to join him on stage at Knebworth in 2022 it reignited a long-running ambition of writing and recording an album together. The demos were written at John's home studio in Macclesfield and then recorded with legendary producer, Greg Kurstin and mixed by Spike Stent. Joey Waronker (Atoms for Peace, Beck, R.E.M.) plays drums on the album.

Mannequin Pussy's music feels like a resilient and galvanizing shout that demands to be heard. Across four albums, the Philadelphia rock band that consists of Colins "Bear" Regisford (bass, vocals), Kaleen Reading (drums, percussion), Maxine Steen (guitar, synths), and Marisa Dabice (guitar, vocals) has made cathartic tunes about despairing times. "There's just so much constantly going on that feels intentionally evil that trying to make something beautiful feels like a radical act," says Dabice. "The ethos of this band has always been to bring people together." Their new album, I Got Heaven, which is out March 1 via Epitaph Records, is the band's most fully realized recording yet. Over ten ambitious tracks which abruptly turn from searing punk to inviting alternative pop, the album is deeply concerned with desire, the power in being alone, and how to live in an unfeeling and unkind world. It's a document of a band doubling down on their unshakable bond to make something furious, thrilling, and wholly alive.Following the 2019 release of their critically acclaimed third album Patience, Mannequin Pussy returned in 2021 for their EP Perfect. They toured that release relentlessly and added guitarist Maxine Steen to the band's official lineup. The band changed their entire creative formula, choosing to write together in the studio in Los Angeles with producer John Congleton, over slowly crafting tracks at home. "Everyone felt empowered to speak up about their own ideas to make this thing the best it could possibly be," says Regisford.

My debut album, How To Make A Master Peace, is definitely the most alternative body of work I've created to date. I chose to experiment with sub-genres of Indie that I feel no one is currently exploring, and create a record people wouldn't expect from me - something versatile yet thorough. From a musical standpoint, I drew influences from Indie Sleaze & Indie Dance acts such as: Friendly Fires, Justice, LCD Soundsystem and early Calvin Harris. But beyond this, I also found inspiration in the soundtracks to some of my favourite shows: Skins, Misfits & even Waterloo Road. All of these shows touch on adolescence, love, regret, friendship, culture and character building; which also happen to be the main themes of the album. Even though I've nodded to these topics before, I've never approached them in such depth and with so much vulnerability. For this project, I wanted to explore all of this backed by a melancholic soundscape - evoking feelings of nightlife and partying, as these can be youthful yet transformational spaces. In terms of my creative process, I didn't use any old demos on the project - I started each track from scratch. I was confident because I knew what I wanted to achieve and my creativity was at an all-time high. The only continuity on the project is through it's production, being produced by the one and only Julian Bunetta and Matt Schwartz (who produced my latest EP, Peace of Mind). I feel really lucky to be able to work with these two as they both inherently understand the vision. Overall I'm just so proud of this project and it's ability to be simultaneously of the past and of the future.

Regimes rise and fall. Stars shine and fade. Trends come and go. Ministry lives on. The six-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum juggernaut founded and fronted by Al Jourgensen has seeped through the darkest corners of popular culture and infected the mainstream for over four decades, gleefully spewing sonic bile between the cracks of the system's facade. Born in the eighties, they survived the nineties, weathered the turn-of-the-century, and even held on through a Goddamn pandemic. However, Ministry shows no signs of stopping or slowing down-even for a breath. Instead, the band cranks out another blast of anthemic industrial metal on it's 2024 opus and sixteenth full-length LP, HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES.

Pissed Jeans has never been a band that goes halfway. They're known for their feral vocals, biting lyrics, buzz-saw guitars, and unhinged live shows, and their sixth album, Half-Divorced is no exception. These songs skewer the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood, and when viewed through front-man Matt Korvette's scowl, everything takes on a level of violent absurdity. Pissed Jeans notorious acerbic sense of humor remains sharper than ever as they dismember some of the joys that contemporary adult life has to offer, from helicopter parents to stolen catalytic converters to being $62,000 in debt. In Korvette's words, "Pissed Jeans is truly like an art project for us, which is what makes it so fun." This lack of restraint rages within the songs that unexpectedly veer into classic hardcore punk territory, often coming in at under two minutes long and erupting like the butane tank explosion Korvette sings about in "Junktime."

Sheer Mag have labored to carve out a discernibly singular position within the canon of contemporary rock: toggling with ease between the refined flourishes of a "connoisseur's band" and the ecstatic colloquialism of populist songwriting-yet displaying no strict loyalty to either camp-their sound, while oft-referenced, is unmistakably and immediately recognizable as theirs alone. On Playing Favorites, Sheer Mag's third full-length and first with Third Man Records, the band capitalize on a decade's worth of devotion to their own collective spirit-a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls-emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks, and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems. This is the record the Philadelphia rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make.

Prolific and constantly evolving, Portland, OR's STRFKR have continued to release music that consistently connects with music lovers all over the globe. The band started out in a time when a co-sign from blogs and music outlets of note were all but mandatory for new music to be heard and accepted. STRFKR bypassed the hype machine almost completely, focusing instead on making their shows more exciting and pushing their music to new places. Their work ethic both in the studio and on the road has kept them on a steady climb, consistently playing venues on the level of legendary rooms like Terminal 5, Stubb's, and the 9:30 Club while using any available downtime to work towards the next recording.On their latest full-length album, Parallel Realms, STRFKR embrace a more pop-forward approach as heard on their recent single "Running Around," while also hinting at experimentalism and the gentler textures on 2020's heralded, Future Past Life. Tracked by the band in their home studio in Portland, with additional engineering in Joshua Tree, CA, and mixed by Chris Coady (Beach House, The Drums), the new album feels exciting, cohesive, and familiar with immediate, yet diverse qualities that can only be found on STRFKR records. In addition to being streamed over 1B times around the world, STRFKR have performed at festivals including Coachella, Outside Lands, FYF Festival, Mad Decent Block Party, and others. The band has also toured consistently, playing to fans throughout North America, Europe, China, Japan, and other countries.

Where's My Utopia? is the follow-up to the Leeds band's critically acclaimed debut record, The Overload, which arrived in January 2022. The new album is a co-production between Yard Act and Gorillaz member Remi Kabaka Jr.