Huggy Bear - book launch!

Delighted to be involved with this epic book launch, we’ve even heard rumours of a quiz and some pin badges being made for the event, woah!

Upset The Rhythm presents…

HUGGY BEAR: KILLED (OF KIDS) book launch
Thursday 28 November
New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN
7.30pm | £5 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/eaa27c1c8a63

Join us to celebrate the publication of Killed (of Kids) a book about the band Huggy Bear, written by the five members of the band. There will be readings from the book, activities, and DJ sets by members of the band.

Huggy Bear were a UK riot grrrl band that existed from 1991-1994. Outcast and outraged, they made a howling, squalling mess of punk, all the menace and freedom of flocking birds. The handful of records, zines, and memories that document this brief, bonfire lifespan sketch a blueprint for how to be in the world, for how to understand the forces of capitalism and patriarchy and capitulation and still resist. Huggy Bear were a group that let things be complicated, that considered themselves complicit, but never took that as a reason to surrender.

Killed (of Kids) is a book by the five members of Huggy Bear (published by Jabs, Jabs, Jabs and The Grass Is Green In The Fields For You). It reproduces all seven zines made by the band during their lifespan alongside photos, correspondence, flyers and ephemera from their three year existence. This archive is joined by new text drawn from two years of interviews with the band members, carefully assembled into an extensive dialogue about intention, surprise, distress, encouragement. (Photo credit - Liane Hentscher)

https://thegrassisgreeninthefieldsforyou.co.uk/
https://www.jabsjabsjabs.com/

The Smashing Times - December show announced!

 

 

Look out! This new show for December is going to be beyond GREAT!
UTR
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Upset The Rhythm presents…

THE SMASHING TIMES
SPECIAL GUESTS (TBA)
Thursday 5 December
MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU
7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/va3aba677211

THE SMASHING TIMES are a psychedelic twee freakbeat group from a Baltimore basement. Instruments played by humans, bare feet touching the ground. Wrinkled button downs, sweaters filled with holes, music audibly and sometimes visibly made by humans. Can you change the strings on your guitar? Maybe, can you buy me dinner? Lock up your Rickenbackers, Thee Jasmine Monk is coming to town, can they stay on your couch? Recent album ‘Bloom’ was released by Meritorio Records, featuring fractious, chiming riffs and Dan Treacy meets Stephen Pastel style vocals and an impressive collection of genuinely memorable tracks. The Smashing Times’ new album ‘Mrs Ladyships and the Cleanerhouse Boys’ will be coming out on K Records in November.

The Smashing Times are your new favorite MOD heart throbs. Is there REALLY a new Merseybeat Revolution? How many times can you really REALLY watch The Blow-Up alone in your room? Why don't you venture out the front door and take a bite of the real thing? The Smashing Times are a mainstay in the indie pop underground. The group mistrals the new modern life perfectly, the sharper world.

https://thesmashingtimes.bandcamp.com

 

Marisa Anderson & Jim White tomorrow, Mary Lattimore next Friday!

 

Hello everyone!   Thank you so much for coming out to see Screensaver and Jake Xerxes Fussell recently, it's your attendance that makes these events happen. We've never received any arts funding, so our events can only thrive by virtue of our wonderful audience, that's you! Huge gratitude!   Our next Upset The Rhythm event will take place tomorrow in our ancestral hometown of Shrewsbury where we'll be stretching our wings with Jim White & Marisa Anderson and Goblin Band too! Intuitive free-rock scramblers vs riotously joyful folk obsessives. What's not to like?   We'd love to see you there in the truly historic church of St Mary the Virgin. Really will be a unforgettable evening. Tickets on the door from 7.30pm, live music from 8.15pm, look out!

You can read more about our good work in the shires below, alongside full listings for our upcoming London events for Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements next Friday at Hoxton Hall and also for Parsnip, Grazia and Sassyhiya in a few weeks time at Moth Club (Oct 1st).   Since we last talked, we've also announced new concerts for Uranium Club, Tyvek, Six Organs Of Admittance and Tristwch y Fenywod. You can find details of those newly on sale shows in our full programme which concludes this message, and now boasts an additional night with Cleaners From Venus on April 24th next year, popular demand and all that, enjoy!

Some exciting Upset The Rhythm label news next!   The Green Child re-emerged this week by sharing their sublime new album Look Familiar with the world.   Released by Upset The Rhythm & Hobbies Galore on November 15th, ‘Look Familiar’ documents the Australian band now that its grown into four people. Raven Mahon (of Grass Widow) & Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current) are joined by Alex Macfarlane and Shaun Gionis on synth/guitar and drums respectively.   The Green Child still draw heavily on a refined psychedelic pop, with Raven’s hypnotic vocal often shadowing the ebb and flow, but the energy of having four people involved has made the songs more alive and mercurial. Take a listen to first single ‘Wow Factor’, a reverie of chiming guitar lines, dizzy, scurried melodies and floating centres. ‘Look Familiar’ is available to pre-order now as a 140g, black bio-vinyl LP with a fancy obi-strip.

Upset The Rhythm presents… JIM WHITE & MARISA ANDERSON DUO GOBLIN BAND Saturday 7 September St Mary the Virgin, St Mary's Pl, Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1DX 7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Oe43933996ff JIM WHITE & MARISA ANDERSON DUO is the collaboration between renowned drummer Jim White and acclaimed guitarist Marisa Anderson; it’s a natural union of two of the most intuitive players and listeners working in music. White and Anderson are each very in-demand as collaborators in no small part because of their mastery, versatility and highly expressive playing. The duo have each amassed an impressive body of work, and remain at the vanguard of their practices due to an insatiable curiosity and delight in exploration of new avenues of expression. White has honed a tumultuous, multi-toned surge and roar on his kit since playing in Australian instrumental group Dirty Three. His playing in Xylouris White presages what he does here, making a dense, nearly melodic spray of percussive energy that ebbs and crescendos in freeform patterns not too closely tied to time signature. Anderson, for her part, has made some exquisite albums that distill Appalachian folk and blues into luminous, abstract soundscapes. With this duo she plays more aggressively and is less concerned with melody, but retains a knack for eliciting radiant atmospheres from tone and overtone and dissonance. Their 2020 debut The Quickening exemplified that daring spirit as an exercise in trust: two musicians who had never performed together before committing those first moments in time to record. 2024’s Swallowtail (released this May on Thrill Jockey) is a deepening of that trust, White and Anderson completely immersed in the moment, each attuned to the other fluidly moving as wind and water. Their music is an enchanting and illuminating celebration of process as joy. https://marisaanderson.bandcamp.com/ GOBLIN BAND formed organically from intimate sessions of the same name ran out of the HobGoblin Music, a folk music instrument shop in Central London, and organised by a group of queer folk obsessive friends and shop employees. These sessions have given rise to a four-piece band which, though firmly rooted in the traditional music of the British Isles, draws widely on medieval and early music, as well as the folk musical traditions from abroad. The sound concocted employs all manner of strings, squeezeboxes, hurdy gurdy, flutes, horns, bells and whistles. The Goblins interpret folk song in relation to the political upheavals of past and present and strive to make a space for new audiences to experience traditional music in a manner which is both riotously joyful and deeply sincere. Check out their marvellous ‘Come Slack Your Horse!’ album on Broadside Hacks! https://goblinbanduk.bandcamp.com

Upset The Rhythm presents… MARY LATTIMORE WALT MCCLEMENTS Friday 13 September Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton St, London N1 6SH 7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/k586329ab4b8 MARY LATTIMORE is a harpist and composer living in Los Angeles. She experiments with her Lyon and Healy Concert Grand harp and effects. Her solo debut, The Withdrawing Room, was released in 2013 on Desire Path Recordings. Lattimore also writes harp parts for songs and recordings, performing and recording with such great artists as Meg Baird, Thurston Moore, Sharon Van Etten, Jarvis Cocker, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, Ed Askew and Fursaxa. Her debut solo record for Ghostly International, 'At The Dam', was recorded during stops along a road trip across America and released in March 2016. The next year, she compiled sounds from her past life in Philadelphia for a cassette tape titled 'Collected Pieces'. Released in May 2018 to acclaim from the likes of NPR, Pitchfork, and The New Yorker Lattimore's next album 'Hundreds of Days' presented an expression of mystified gratitude for the natural world. ‘Goodbye, Hotel Arkada’ (Ghostly International), Lattimore’s  new LP, speaks not just for its beloved namesake - a hotel in Croatia facing renovation - but for a universal loss that is shared. Six sprawling pieces shaped by change; nothing will ever be the same, and here, the artist, evolving in synthesis, celebrates and mourns the tragedy and beauty of the ephemeral, all that is lived and lost to time. Documented and edited in uncharacteristically measured sessions over the course of two years, the material remains rooted in improvisation while glistening as the most refined and robust in Lattimore’s decade-long catalog. It finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slowing down to nurture songs in new ways. The cast includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements. https://marylattimoreharpist.bandcamp.com/ WALT MCCLEMENTS is an accordionist and multi-instrumentalist living in Los Angeles. He is releasing a duo record with Mary Lattimore on Thrill Jockey this May called ‘Rain on the Road’. McClements, who tours as a member of Weyes Blood, is an acclaimed composer in his own right, sculpting glacial atmospherics. Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements debut collaboration Rain on the Road blossomed out of the time they spent on tour together, capturing the liminal existence of touring life in deeply cinematic compositions. https://waltmcclements.bandcamp.com/

Upset The Rhythm presents… PARSNIP GRAZIA SASSYHIYA Tuesday 1 October MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £11 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Rc2d78d6f59c PARSNIP are an amazing Australian group, their sophomore album 'Behold' (out now on Upset The Rhythm) is a testament to Parsnip at their most creative, catchy and collaborative. ‘Behold’ showcases the multi-talents of all four members, with spirited performances adding dazzle to the thirteen tracks. Paris Richens lets the bass playfully roam. Carolyn Hawkins tumbles feeling into the drum rumble. Stella Rennex's guitar soars alongside her saxophone work, whilst a sprightly keyboard is tenderly attended by Rebecca Liston. Everyone sings amidst this lush canopy. On 'Behold', Parsnip explore both the inner and outer realms of consciousness with quick wits and some seriously quality jangle and jolt. 'The Light' is a whip smart workout, sprouting naturally from the propulsive nature of their debut album 'When the Tree Bears Fruit' (Trouble In Mind, 2019). Drawing comparisons with Dolly Mixture, Sara Goes Pop and Look Blue Go Purple, Parsnip are an animated ensemble, full of life, emotional complexity and humour. The laughter in the dark is real, but then the sun comes up and we all must meet the day. Even the flowers turn their faces. Behold! https://parsniphq.bandcamp.com/album/behold GRAZIA just released their debut EP “In Poor Taste” (Feel It Records) - written and recorded by Heather Dunlop and Lindsay Corstorphine. Often referential - In Poor Taste pulls inspiration from the high and low brow, but mostly the low. Grazia pays homage to everything from The Fall to cheap lingerie brands in a campy pastiche of 80’s new wave and pop. In Poor Taste is all about having a lot of fun while delving into your worst, core self. https://grazia.bandcamp.com SASSYHIYA are Katherine Wright and Helen Skinner of cult South London queer band Barry. Now with added Neil and Pablo. Check out their new 7” on Skep Wax, a celebratory ode to Kristen Stewart no less. https://sassyhiya.bandcamp.com

Have a wonderful weekend, hopefully see some of you tomorrow in Shropshire! Upset The Rhythm

UPSET THE RHYTHM UPCOMING SHOWS

JIM WHITE & MARISA ANDERSON DUO GOBLIN BAND Saturday 7 September St Mary the Virgin, St Mary's Pl, Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1DX 7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Oe43933996ff   MARY LATTIMORE WALT MCCLEMENTS Friday 13 September Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton St, London N1 6SH 7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/k586329ab4b8   PROLAPSE KYLIE MONOLOGUE Thursday 26 September New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Ue62ae5014bb   PARSNIP GRAZIA SASSYHIYA Tuesday 1 October MOTH Club, Old Trades Hall, Valette St, London, E9 6NU 7.30pm | £11 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Rc2d78d6f59c   JOHN MAUS JELLYSKIN Tuesday 8 October Electric Ballroom 184 Camden High St, Camden Town, London, NW1 8QP 7pm | £21 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ya6ecfd48907   LANKUM RICHARD DAWSON Saturday 26 October Eventim Apollo, 45 Queen Caroline St, Hammersmith, London, W6 9QH (Produced by UTR and Parallel Lines) 7pm | Tickets: https://www.eventimapollo.com/events/lankum/   TYVEK GEO Wednesday 30 October New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/G309daf25a4e   SHANNON AND THE CLAMS MOCK MEDIA Tuesday 5 November Islington Assembly Hall, Upper St, London, N1 2UD 7pm | £20 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/i36cc53102af   DEAN SPUNT GUESTS M-G DYSFUNCTION Tuesday 12 November New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN 7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/E8acfa797c7d   URANIUM CLUB HYGIENE Thursday 14 November Number 90 Live, Main Yard, Wallis Road, London, E9 5LN 7.30pm | £13 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/yd631fde96ea   TARA CLERKIN TRIO ABLE NOISE Saturday 16 November EartH Theatre, 11-17 Stoke Newington Rd, London, N16 8BH 6.30pm-10.30pm | £16 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Aeb338640a1d   CHRIS COHEN LARGE PLANTS Tuesday 19 November 100 Club, 100 Oxford St, Oxford Street, W1D 1LL 7.30pm | £14 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/ob8ce6dd7dbc   XIU XIU EVICSHEN JOHN LEE BIRD & FABRIZIO MODONESE PALUMBO Tuesday 19 November Heaven, Under The Arches, Villiers Street, London, WC2N 6NG 7pm | £16 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Wbcbd06fdcd1   NIGHTSHIFT MARY CURRIE & ROBERT SOTELO ANNELIES MONSERÉ Sunday 8 December The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Rd, London, N1 9JB 7.30pm | £10 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/pcd6fe8e5f9b   TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD Friday 31 January St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, King's Cross, NW1 1UL 7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/s0e4de64285b   SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Thursday 27 March Metronome London, 41 Commercial Road, Whitechapel, London, E1 1LA 7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Gb5ecad0f987   CLEANERS FROM VENUS (Martin Newell + live band!) THE GARDENERS Wednesday 23 April - SOLD OUT Thursday 24 April - NOW ON SALE! Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherds Bush, London W12 7LJ 7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/e2db91604d19

The return of The Green Child!

The Green Child re-emerge today with news of their sublime new album ‘Look Familiar’. Released by Upset The Rhythm & Hobbies Galore on November 15th, ‘Look Familiar’ documents the Australian band now that its grown into four people. Raven Mahon & Mikey Young are joined by Alex Macfarlane and Shaun Gionis on synth/guitar and drums respectively. The Green Child still draw heavily on a refined psychedelic pop, with Raven’s hypnotic vocal often shadowing the ebb and flow, but the energy of having four people involved has made the songs more alive and mercurial. Take a listen to first single ‘Wow Factor’ (out now), a reverie of chiming guitar lines, dizzy, scurried melodies and floating centres.


‘Look Familiar’ is available to pre-order now as a 140g, black bio-vinyl LP with obi-strip.

Six Organs Of Admittance - London next March!

 

Overjoyed to be hosting one of our favourite artists next year. Six Organs Of Admittance will perform in London next March for the first time in 10 years. New solo album ‘Time is Glass’ (Drag City) and Ben Chasny’s collaboration with Shackleton have been glued to our turntable recently, so beyond excited!

Upset The Rhythm presents...

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE
Thursday 27 March
Metronome London, 41 Commercial Road, Whitechapel, London, E1 1LA
7.30pm | £18 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/Gb5ecad0f987

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE have built a prolific and diverse body of work over the last 20+ years. Ben Chasny's project is an experimental amalgam of new folk, drone music, percussion and strange textures, with Chasny delivering an outpouring of eclectic releases in the early 2000s for various small labels before finding a longstanding home on Drag City. In 2003, Chasny began an association with Comets on Fire, which led to him becoming a full-time touring and recording member of the band. After recording and touring extensively with Comets on Fire in 2004, Chasny returned to the studio and issued the moving and beautiful School of the Flower on Drag City in January of 2005. Sun Awakens and Shelter from the Ash arrived in 2006 and 2007. After touring and a break in 2008, Six Organs began what would become a prolific return to force, releasing a further 18 astonishing records up to the current time. First was the release of the sonically expansive - and very electric - Luminous Night, followed by the double-disc retrospective RTZ, both of which appeared on Drag City. Chasny also plays in 200 Years alongside Elisa Ambrogio (of Magik Markers), with Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards) in the project New Bums, and is also a member of tightly-wound improv unit Rangda, accompanied by Sir Richard Bishop and Chris Corsano.

Chasny more recently developed a card-based creative system called a Hexadic for making music and released several related albums before resuming his primary project with new work like 2021's The Veiled Sea and the 2024 Shackleton collaboration Jinxed by Being. This year Six Organs also released a fully solo album Time Is Glass, which consists of haunted, unsettled rural folk sounds. With Time is Glass, Six Organs of Admittance is captured once again in the intricate tangle of the fretboards, soaring in open skies above. Like lens flare cutting through the speakers; spider-webs cracking the windshield that holds back all the onrushing reality. Blowing the dust away, cutting a new path for cognition.

https://sixorgansofadmittance.bandcamp.com/

 

 

Tristwch y Fenywod in London next January!

 

 
Very pleased to tell you that the moon & stars have aligned over London as Tristwch y Fenywod will be playing for us at St Pancras Old Church on Jan 31st!


Upset The Rhythm presents…

TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD
Friday 31 January
St Pancras Old Church, Pancras Road, King's Cross, NW1 1UL
7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/s0e4de64285b

TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD are a Welsh-language gothic rock power-trio. Conjured from the experimental underground of darkest Leeds, the group channels songs of bog bodies, flickering landscapes and queer enchantment for dual-zither, bass and electronic drums. Tristwch y Fenywod (The Sadness of Women) are Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth (Guttersnipe, Petronn Sphene), Leila Lygad (Hawthonn) and Sidni Sarffwraig (Slaylor Moon, The Courtneys). Formed in 2022, the music sounds like it could have been excavated from a haul of mouldering reel-to-reel tapes from the early 80s – like some recently rediscovered unholy grail of edgy, atmospheric, feminist goth. The dual-zither which leads their music is Gwretsien’s innovation, giving them a unique Celtic darkwave sound, but comparisons have also been drawn with The Cure and early Virgin Prunes. Their first record will be released this Friday by Night School Records.

https://night-school.bandcamp.com/album/tristwch-y-fenywod

 

 

 

Tyvek in London this October!

Warning, warning… this is a Tyvek alert! For the first time in 12 years the Detroit noise-punk wrecking ball known as Tyvek will grace the London stage. Brilliant to have no wave oddities Geo playing this show too, all the way from Groningen. Electrifying times!
Upset The Rhythm presents…

TYVEK
GEO
Wednesday 30 October
New River Studios, 199 Eade Rd, Harringay, London, N4 1DN
7.30pm | £12 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/G309daf25a4e

TYVEK have remained a singular force. The Detroit group formed somewhere in the mid-aughts by songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and sole consistent band member Kevin Boyer, who enlisted various friends to cultivate a raw, rudimentary punk sound that manages to get back to basics while at the same time presenting abstract perspectives and weird concepts not normally explored by your everyday garage band. There have been mutations over the years as the band toured regularly and released a run of solid albums with labels like Siltbreeze and In The Red, but with every reformation, Tyvek still didn't sound quite like anyone else. Their new album, the self released Overground (Ginkgo, 2023), stays true to their reputation for delivering hit after hit of blistering punk and remains tightly wound until it unspools into the dreamlike title track, an extended post Velvets plea for human decency. Tyvek's current line-up of all-stars guarantee an intense live show: Shelley Salant (Shells, XV), Alex Glendening (Deadbeat Beat), Fred Thomas (Idle Ray), and Emily Roll (XV) channel the high-energy rock'n'roll of Detroit's past while side-stepping the cliches to push forward into an uncharted future.

https://geoband.bandcamp.com/

GEO are a no wave oddity from The Netherlands, the more mismatched the moving parts appear, the more their music starts to make sense. Since the Groningen quartet’s inception in 2019, they have built a framework of skeletal agit-funk, cartoonish chromatics and neoteric art punk vignettes – sketching negative spaces where chaos and cacophony can sound perplexingly catchy. ‘Out of Body’ – Geo’s long-awaited debut album was released on Erste Theke Tontraeger in April. Geo’s jitterbug, birdbrained post-punk spiels are in the spirit of gung-ho deconstructionists like The Contortionists, The Fall and Gang of Four. On ‘Out of Body’, they play emotions out against each other like some kind of absurdist Punch and Judy show.

https://geoband.bandcamp.com/

Cleaners From Venus - London show with live band!

Oh my!
Martin Newell will team up with a live band to bring Cleaners From Venus into technicolor life next April! The concert will take place at Bush Hall on St George’s Day no less, not bad for The Greatest Living Englishman. Tickets are now on sale… 3,2,1 go!


Upset The Rhythm presents…

CLEANERS FROM VENUS
THE GARDENERS
Wednesday 23 April
Bush Hall, 310 Uxbridge Rd, Shepherds Bush, London W12 7LJ
7.30pm | £15 | Tickets: https://link.dice.fm/i185e2c9953e


CLEANERS FROM VENUS (Martin Newell joined by a live band) will be performing next spring in London on St Georges day no less. The group will be performing some classic Cleaners songs. Martin will be on guitar and piano - and talking. The band have drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, it will be special!

Martin Newell is a purveyor of ingenious pop music. His music is refracted from late 60s rock only shot through with invention from the rough-and-ready explosion of DIY tape releases in 80s Britain. As a songwriter, he’s right up there with Syd Barrett and Ray Davies, capturing a peculiar Englishness that’s very much his own. 

UTR
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Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie - 7" announced!

Well this is a very special record to unveil! On October 4th Upset The Rhythm will be releasing a 7” EP from cosmic pop duo Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie! ‘Dream Songs’ is an archetypal meeting of minds, at once musing and magical. This 7” is the first pensive fruit to fall from the tree of their collaboration and today we’re sharing brooding single ‘Expectations’.

‘Dream Songs’ is available to pre-order from all the best shops and from our very own webstore here.






Robert Sotelo is a bedroom pop songsmith who lives in Glasgow. Sotelo has released six albums since 2017, three of which came out on Upset The Rhythm. He also performs in Order of the Toad, Dancer and Nightshift. Mary Currie is best known as half of touchstone DIY experimentalists Flaming Tunes, alongside Gareth Williams (of This Heat). Currie also performed in Officer! with Mick Hobbs.
 
Introduced via a mutual friend, Sotelo approached Currie last year about collaborating on four songs he was constructing with producer/electronic guru Joe Howe. This resulted in the ‘Dream Songs’ 7” EP (out October 4th on Upset The Rhythm). Not only does the title capture the hazy, reflective nature of the music it also expounds on the origin of tracks. Sotelo experienced several lucid dreams in the first half of 2023 that left him in a state of confusion. He recalled visiting parts of London vividly, including a disused theatre of great familiarity, yet it slowly transpired that these places and circumstances were not real, much to Sotelo's disbelief.
 
These reveries informed the lyrical narrative of the four songs from the forthcoming EP. Currie took a similar approach with her lyrics, focusing on memory and time for her passages on the record. Currie recorded her parts in London (assisted by her good friend Alison Craig) and then sent them to Howe, alongside additional location recordings to consolidate into the mixes. These four tracks flutter with a minimalist bass, drum machine and keys dynamic, allowing Sotelo and Currie’s vocals to speak deeply into the back of your mind. ‘Expectations’ is a pensive triumph of whirled moments and momentum with Currie’s final words lending much gravity “the outcome of my days is always the same, a void that must be filled, a battle against time that drags us along; mutating, spinning, ebbing, flowing. Begin again, we work to give value to time.” ‘Telegraph Hill’ boasts a glossy fluidity, as it plays with images of motorways, ancient citadels, crows, paralysis and emanations. ‘Lady Fortune’ meanwhile is a tranquil treatise on fate, imbued with finessed electronic embellishments and clarinet flourishes. You can't quite trust where these songs will take you, they feel particularly mercurial. Dreams indeed.
 
‘Dream Songs’ by Robert Sotelo & Mary Currie will be released on October 4th, followed by some live performances from the band. These will include the aforementioned EP tracks, as well as recreated cuts from the Flaming Tunes era, leaning into happenstance rather aptly.

Ed Schrader's Music Beat - 'IDKS' single released!

The Devil has all the best tunes! Ed Schrader’s Music Beat return today with vibey thrill ‘IDKS’, taken from their forthcoming album ‘Orchestra Hits’ (out Sep 20th on Upset The Rhythm). Double thumbs up to Tristan Wheeler for making such a wickedly FUN video!