{"title":"Tough Love","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTough Love is a record label based in London, UK. Established in 2005, the label has become a prominent force in the music industry, representing a diverse range of talented artists and releasing groundbreaking music across various genres.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith an unwavering commitment to quality and innovation, Tough Love has earned a reputation for discovering and nurturing emerging talent. The label's extensive catalog showcases an eclectic mix of electronic, house, techno, and alternative sounds that captivate listeners worldwide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDriven by a passion for music and an entrepreneurial spirit, Tough Love continues to push boundaries and challenge conventions. With their finger on the pulse of contemporary trends and an ear for timeless melodies, they are at the forefront of shaping the future of music.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"fairweather-friend","title":"Fairweather Friend","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is going to be the indie pop album of 2024. A sheer delight from start to finish. For fans of Orange Juice, Sarah Records, early Creation, Mary Chain, C86, Lush. The Umbrellas are four renegade romantics crafting irresistible indie pop hymns. The band’s self-titled 2021 debut album became a breakout moment, winning critical praise and sparking an international tour. Follow-up LP \u003ci\u003eFairweather Friend\u003c\/i\u003e goes a step further – absorbing the sonic attack of their live shows, it balances this with studio finesse, allowing the San Francisco four-piece to become the band they’ve always aspired to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's a record overflowing with highlights. The candyfloss melodies of introductory track ‘Three Cheers!’ are matched to an impactful percussive punch; ‘Say What You Mean’ finds The Umbrellas working with total confidence, letting the song ride out to its chiming conclusion, four voices working in precision. ‘When You Find Out’ offers rotating notes of guitar punctuated by a vocal that pushes past angst to accept a world full of hope. A lean 10 track affair, it grasps towards beatific pop while fuelled by a sense of risk, and the precision that comes from long months on the road.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Umbrellas coalesced around a group of musicians who would frequent legendary San Francisco record emporium Amoeba Music. Singer and guitarist Matt Ferrera links with bassist Nick Oka, while Keith Frerichs is the powerhouse drummer. A chance encounter with Morgan Stanley singing karaoke at a Fourth of July party cemented the line-up around an avowed thirst for melody. “All of us love really earnest pop songs,” Nick points out. “I guess we got to a point in our lives where we wanted to be genuine.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePlaying shows at San Francisco’s vital DIY redoubt Hit Gallery, The Umbrellas would share line-ups with local heroes such as April Magazine and Cindy. Recording their debut album across a two-day spell at Matt’s parents’ house, the results won a devoted cult following. Yet the experience of touring bonded them tightly and allowed the volume to tick up a little higher, and higher, and higher. “I think we got tired of people saying, oh you’re so much louder than I thought you’d be!” laughs Matt. “Our early recordings are sweet and earnest… and we wanted it to be louder.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKicking off sessions in November 2022, the band used an ad hoc space Matt created in his basement, working across a four-month period. Sessions were a little more relaxed in terms of timescale than their debut, but The Umbrellas were incredibly focussed on the project. “We gave ourselves more space for this album,” says Keith. “We wanted time to sit on the songs, and really work on them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAllowing their live dynamic to bleed out on tape, The Umbrellas are at once more physical and yet also more controlled on their new album. Take opening track ‘Three Cheers!’ – the peppy, sun-soaked rush masks a barbed lyric, courtesy of Nick Oka. “It’s a pseudo-political song about power struggles that occur in a job situation, or a friend group. It’s an observational song.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Toe The Line’ has an unkempt, rollicking sense of energy, the playful relationship analogy of the lyric pushed to the speed of light by Keith’s ultra-fast punk drumming. ‘When You Find Out’ meanwhile epitomises their unified, egalitarian way of making music – with The Umbrellas, each voice counts. “It sounds different from any song we’ve ever written together,” says Morgan. “It shows how much we’ve grown. Trust helps us to build the songs. It’s definitely a team effort.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's also a record of ambition. ‘Say What You Mean’ stretches past the four-minute mark, the viola performance informed by Estonian minimalist composer Arvo Pärt. ‘Gone’ was the first song attempted for the new album, and the last they actually finished, endless re-writes transforming it into a manifesto of control and release. Taken as a whole ‘Fairweather Friend’ is a bold indie pop triumph, crafted with purpose and attention. Taking their time over each note, the four-piece have strengthened their songwriting, adding depth and assurance while unlocking their potential. Some bonds last a lifetime – The Umbrellas are ready to capture your heart.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Blue LP | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50383534850379,"sku":"2164044","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Green LP","offer_id":50383534588235,"sku":"2164043","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"Pink LP","offer_id":50383535309131,"sku":"2195332","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50383534326091,"sku":"2164042","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Umbrellas_-_Fairweather_Friend_ed921991_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726271945"},{"product_id":"the-foreign-department","title":"The Foreign Department","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Foreign Department\u003c\/i\u003e is the second album by Astrel K, the solo project helmed by Stockholm-based British ex-pat, Rhys Edwards. Those already familiar with Edwards’ work will likely know him for fronting the cultishly great Ulrika Spacek, and given he operates as the principal songwriter in both projects, much of the same hallmarks of his cathartic, elliptical songwriting are present in Astrel K. Nonetheless, \u003ci\u003eThe Foreign Department\u003c\/i\u003e feels like a rubicon moment of sorts, and the album that Edwards has unconsciously been working towards his entire creative life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs a title, \u003ci\u003eThe Foreign Department\u003c\/i\u003e offers an instructive guide for the listener, framing a life-in-transition\/artist-in-exile document that maps two impromptu moves in twelve months for its songwriter: the first from London in pursuit of a relationship, the second between homes in Stockholm as that decade long relationship then suddenly dissolved. Indeed, diffusion, dissolution and reconstitution feel like appropriate touchstones for its recurring themes. Written amidst the flux of two states, at once isolated from home and then any established emotional anchor, the resulting eleven tracks came to represent a precognitive search for shifting identity and with it forming an unwittingly biographical record. It's commendable and somewhat telling that during this shake up, Edwards somehow landed upon his most realised and original work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor all its troubled origins, \u003ci\u003eThe Foreign Department\u003c\/i\u003e is a remarkably warm sounding collection. Edwards' lyrics are typically knotty and neurotic, dancing around the poetry of quarter-life anxiety, but the music itself is often joyous and even uplifting, the combination expressing that neat duality of melancholic euphoria. Edwards sings variously of crises, \"torrid pieces of art\", of \"houses on fire\" and not \"having the guts for it\", yet these troubling sentiments are framed by seemingly incongruous swelling strings, chirping horns or motorik percussion, creating that sense of pushing forward or floating above, of wrapping your troubles in dreams, a salve for the moments when you get a bit too much for yourself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50383970107723,"sku":"2178437","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50383970238795,"sku":"2175331","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/e619991c-80b5-edd7-7ba6-fee3846803a6_4e187bd0_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726281014"},{"product_id":"pad","title":"Pad","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith his third album as Peel Dream Magazine, Joseph Stevens beckons you toward a fabulist, zig-zag world entirely of his own design. On \u003ci\u003ePad\u003c\/i\u003e, he eschews the fuzzy glories of his indie pop past – vibraphone trembles while chamber strings take center stage. The curtains lift to reveal banjo. Chimes. Farfisa. And as he lets out a moan atop the album’s title track, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary performance. A conceptual work about losing oneself when all they have is themself, Pad gestures towards an exciting new future for Stevens’ pop moniker by reimagining its own very existence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe follow-up to 2020’s breakthrough album\u003ci\u003e Agitprop Alterna, Pad\u003c\/i\u003e presents a major sonic evolution for the 34 year old songwriter, who moved to Los Angeles amid the cataclysm that same year. Seventies era drum machines and synthesizers remain here, but he’s traded his buzzing offset guitar for a nylon-string, opting for a gentle baroque pop sound steeped in Bossa, folk, and its own eerie mysticism. Alongside mid century touchstones like Burt Bacharach, Stevens draws on the cultishly-beloved tinkerings of late-1960s Beach Boys, offering a surreal melange of vintage organs and found percussion, as well as Harry Nilsson’s 1970 song tapestry The Point!.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd similar to The Point!, \u003ci\u003ePad\u003c\/i\u003e is a conceptual work reflecting on isolation and identity. The album tells a bedtime story in which Stevens’ bandmates kick him out of Peel Dream Magazine – banished and now without purpose, he sets out on a journey to rejoin the band. Misadventures ensue, such as when he joins a cult on “Self Actualization Center”, featuring friend and oft collaborator Winter. But this is also music that’s purely pleasurable in its own context, as our protagonist explores the boundaries of easy-listening with discordant textures, and bleeps and bloops that tickle. Songs like “Pictionary” chime delicately with sinister intent, evoking a palette that is outright Mod. Pad also recalls the space age bachelor stylings of Stereolab and The High Llamas, with an occult twist that borrows from Tropicalia legends Os Mutantes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere’s an unmoored frivolity to\u003ci\u003e Pad\u003c\/i\u003e, standing in stark contrast to the severe, droning motorik of Steven’s previous albums. Overwhelmed by the political upheaval of the day, he reimagines what Van Dyke Parks once referred to as musical counter-counterculturalism, blurring the line between blithe escapism and pointed subversion. “I felt like there was no other way for me to authentically react to what was happening than to make this record”. The album also draws on library music from the same era to similar effect, conjuring the likes of Basil Kirchin and Pierro Piccioni, as well as Stevens’ newfound arranging skills, honed composing advertisement scores as a day job.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile \u003ci\u003ePad\u003c\/i\u003e sounds beautiful, there’s a certain darkness to it as well. Stevens is addressing our general ambivalence toward the future of everything we know, informed partly by his time in New York at the onset of the pandemic. On “Hiding Out”, he laments: Wander past the Vernon Mall, and up to Queensboro Bridge. Made to feel I’m two feet small, but that’s no way to live. Ultimately, Stevens is embracing a first-thought-best-thought approach, leaning into the fantastical elements of his own life story. Pad is as archetypal as it is strange, blurring the very lines that it asks to be defined by. Art imitates life, but life imitates art too – and the results can sometimes be unpredictable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Whistle a tune I once sang, what a bore. Memories abound from when we’d go on tour.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50401363329355,"sku":"1162544","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50401364050251,"sku":"1162542","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3546f5b0-81eb-4dd6-9e65-2bfc400ad405_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726521413"},{"product_id":"levity","title":"Levity","description":"\u003cp\u003eSimply sensational album the Stroppies. A real gem for fans of Guided by Voices, Pavement, The Clean, XTC and Flying Nun Records. The title of The Stroppies' newest LP, \u003ci\u003eLevity,\u003c\/i\u003e serves as a creative statement of intent and an acknowledgment of the dichotomy between the music they have made and the conditions in which they were produced. For a group that started over an initial idea to \"create open ended music, quickly and haphazardly”, the logistical challenges of creating their second album in the midst of a pandemic, in a city that endured the longest lockdown in the world, created a need to redefine process.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLevity\u003c\/i\u003e, The Stroppies strongest creative statement to date, is the result of this new approach to creative process. Playful yet focused, but broader in scope and experimentation than previous efforts, the ten songs that comprise \u003ci\u003eLevity \u003c\/i\u003econtinue the band's exploration of the pop song as both foil for experimentation and conduit for personal reflection.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhereas the group's debut LP \u003ci\u003eWhoosh!\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrated their ability to craft clean, concise jangle pop,\u003ci\u003e Levity\u003c\/i\u003e takes a different route by utilizing a darker pallet of sounds to create its impressionistic whole. Fuzz and distortion are employed to add weight to songs built on tape loops and Motorik drum patterns. Warbling synthesisers and modulated keys add new moods and dimensions to The Stroppies unique brand of pop classicism. Thematically, the band continues their exploration of the personal refracted through the lens of the absurd, though this time around the music feels a few shades darker, a somewhat inevitable consequence of the collective trauma of the past 24 months. The songs still hit with the immediacy that made their debut so engaging, but there’s a creeping cynicism and wistfulness that now permeates The Stroppies sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the narrative around the 'lockdown record' is increasingly commonplace, there are unavoidable realities involved in making creative decisions under such circumstances that can't be overlooked, especially for a band that thrives on collaboration. \"The restrictions around COVID really informed the way we made the record', says Angus Lord, the band's co-founder and guitarist. \"It meant that there was a lot less opportunity to meet and build ideas collaboratively, which is how we’ve worked in the past. Instead, ideas were developed in isolation, then shared digitally, developing slowly over correspondence and only bearing fruit when we were able to be in a room together. I think this had a big effect on the songwriting and execution.” This process even extended to the studio, where The Stroppies found a kindred spirit in John Lee of Phaedra Studios, who mixed the record in isolation, somehow managing to synthesise the band's pop sensibilities with their penchant for studio experimentation. Furthermore, the addition of new member Zoe Monk, known for playing in a diverse array of Melbourne acts (Eggy, Thibault, The Opals) contributed both synthesiser experimentation and rock solid rhythm guitar, a huge addition to the band's developing sound, an infectious combination of the off-kilter 90s US underground, British artpunk ala Wire and a more than generous love of classic Pop songwriting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReflecting on the making of the record, bassist and co-vocalist Claudia Serfaty understands their shift in approach, noting that, “the world feels strange and in turn making pop music feels even stranger. A healthy dose of levity had to be employed in order to find meaning in the process.” In spite of this light hearted attitude, The Stroppies have managed to craft a record of weight and substance. Through \u003ci\u003eLevity \u003c\/i\u003ethe Stroppies have, at least temporarily, found their feet amongst the chaos..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP","offer_id":50403615506763,"sku":"1146438","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black | LP","offer_id":50403620159819,"sku":"1146437","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"White | LP","offer_id":50403620454731,"sku":"1146439","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50403618029899,"sku":"1146436","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/120b30a7-314d-4561-aab8-b425bb5eb2d2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726562294"},{"product_id":"sing-dancing-on-the-edge","title":"Dancing on the Edge","description":"\u003cp\u003eOriginally released via Ryan's own label, Sophomore Lounge, in the US late 2023, it picked up some incredible reviews: best of 2023 in both Pitchfork and Rolling Stones, 9\/10 lead review in Uncut, and a raft of other notable publications. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"At the frayed bottom-edge of Indiana – just a moderate bike ride north of Louisville, Kentucky – multi-instrumentalist, artist and songwriter Ryan Davis’’ Americana-noir soundwaves have been emanating for years in a myriad of forms. As driving force for the lauded State Champion, long-running member of Tropical Trash, administrator of the esoteric and excellent Cropped Out festival, and lone proprietor of the Sophomore Lounge label, Davis lays down his first proper ‘solo’ release with \u003ci\u003eDancing On The Edge\u003c\/i\u003e, a rich, 2LP tapestry of tunes that absolutely glows over seven expansive cuts. It’s a pure collage of modernity and heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter a period of introspection spent re-immersing himself in his drawing and painting practice, as well as his newfound delvings into instrumental music, Davis’ sea change was imminent. “I wasn't sure I would ever make another record of ‘song’ songs,” he says, “but last year I started writing again and it eventually took the shape of the record at hand. I worked painstakingly hard on the material. It felt virtually impossible to complete for a bulk of the time I spent trying to enter into it, but the process pulled me out of a strange place. I was eventually able to live inside of the songs enough to understand the world within them – to ultimately help shape them into what I understood them to be.” Indeed, there’s a load of inspiration captured in the grooves with Ryan’s unfiltered, folk-traditioned approach to poetic twists-of-tongue meeting head on with sublime instrumentation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecorded in early 2023 with help both in-studio and remotely from peers like Joan Shelley, Catherine Irwin (Freakwater), Will Lawrence (Felice Brothers, Gun Outfit, John Early), Jenny Rose (Giving Up), Christopher May (Mail the Horse), Elisabeth Fuchsia (Footings, Bonnie \"Prince\" Billy), and Aaron Rosenblum (Son of Earth, Sapat), 'Dancing on the Edge' draws backup perhaps primarily from Davis' tight-knit drinking buddies-cum-cast of collaborators in Equipment Pointed Ankh (records on Astral Editions, Bruit Direct Disques, Torn Light) – a five-headed hive-mind from which he drew impetus for his own foray into more abstract and improvisational terrain these past few years under the Roadhouse alias. The results herein are melancholic, gentle, minimal yet colorful in mood: a lilting highway accompaniment of crisp instrumentation and a relaxed, amiable approach to vocals with rhapsodic wordsmithery. Fans of the aforementioned artists as well as those of Souled American, David Berman, Kurt Vile and ‘Comes A Time’-era Neil should all easily find bounty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile bare-boned and uncluttered in presentation, many of these pieces track over 6 minutes allowing a fair amount of expansiveness. \u003ci\u003eDancing On\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Edge\u003c\/i\u003e stares down into the navel of the American Experience underbelly with a fair amount of outward reach. Besides the Kosmische-synth and violin stabs reaching into a European element, stately organ swells build a musical bridge between 1969 Southern California and Felt’s latter era smooth moves, with layers of intelligent gesture taking this well beyond the realm of its archetypal indie troubadour\/acoustic songwriter tag. Music and mint juleps never went down so well together.\"\u003cbr\u003eFor fans of Silver Jews, Bill Callahan, Lambchop, Cass McCoombs, Sparklehorse.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":50404837589323,"sku":"2174789","price":44.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"2LP - Clear","offer_id":50404840505675,"sku":"2195183","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50404838801739,"sku":"2195182","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a2834995818_65_00456afe_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726571630"},{"product_id":"unwishing-well","title":"Unwishing Well","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe cinema of the scenes as told from the heart and spirit of the omniscient narrator shines through the awe-inspiring oeuvre of Glenn Donaldson's canonical titan that is The Reds, Pinks and Purples. The storied and esoteric histories of every underserved underdog becomes immortalized in records and poignantly penned paeans that evoke the eras and underachievers that became synonymous with their own respective corresponding localized micro-movements. Donaldson channels that psychic spirit and journeyman earned wisdom to provide contemporary era rock operas that eulogize tales of infinitely influential rises and falls. Crystalizing the tragic self-celebrating kingdoms of fortunate failures, false heroes, music press deities of limitless deceit, hometown dive gods and humanity in the grips of all its romanticized wonder and woe — the latest sortie of the sensational and spectacular takes aim at the threads of hope and an untethered abandon into the intimacy and dualities of idolatry and isolation with Unwishing Well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEver since its emergence from the harried late 2010s The Reds, Pinks and Purples have become the absolute encapsulation of Donaldson's own proliferation and prestige. From a musical legacy that chronicles a long list of minor successes and major tragedies; Glenn distills the timelines of distinction from yesterday, today, tomorrow and whatever may be into a musical phenomenon that embodies something more than all of its analogous inspirations. Beyond the clamour about the retro cult pop artistic allusions and tropes that can be found in those spirit expanding kaleidoscope chord chimes; Donaldson takes you on a guided tour through the San Francisco underground movements that would have been, could have been or perhaps never were at all from the start. The Reds, Pinks and Purples’ coveted catalog inadvertently, consciously or unconsciously, offers an authorised and anonymous history of imperfect and ambitious debutantes, dilettantes, auteurs, et al. The lauded visionaries whose volition informed the big money touring stage headliners, but only enjoyed a fleeting jaunt through the glorious corporate clad carnival canopies from the touring circuit routes and tech funded festival tent tabernacles. \u003ci\u003eUnwishing Well\u003c\/i\u003e is a eulogy for the buzz bands that crashed, the wily one hit wizards, and omnipresent (and often uninspired) eternal aesthetes who work the lucrative outlets of licensing media markets.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50405427380555,"sku":"2176772","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50405425611083,"sku":"2176771","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Reds_Pinks_And_Purples_-_Unwishing_Well_4ae73204_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726577184"},{"product_id":"it-s-a-hit","title":"It's A Hit!","description":"\u003cp\u003e7\"EP on white vinyl, limited to 300 copies only.\u003ci\u003e It's A Hit!\u003c\/i\u003e brings together four songs recorded by The Stroppies at home on their Tascam 4 track in mid 2017. Permeated by dystopian imagery of machines building machines and cats driving cars, \u003ci\u003eIt's a Hit! \u003c\/i\u003eis perhaps the Stroppies most idiosyncratic release. Indeed, the title is a humorous nod to the inherent lo-fi quality of the recordings, a sound that some might not consider to be \"radio friendly\". Surley though, the songs contained herein are still unashamedly pop, albeit adorned in crackle and hiss. For reference think Alex Chilton's \u003ci\u003eLike Flies on Sherbert\u003c\/i\u003e, early Swell Maps, and a touch of \u003ci\u003eLoaded\u003c\/i\u003e-era Velvet Underground shuffle. Originally released only in Australia via Hobbies Galore as a limited edition 7\" in a hand stamped sleeve, the long sold-out EP is now being given an international release on the eve of the band's debut UK tour. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"7\"","offer_id":50421138293067,"sku":"1067708","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/97aac04f-a6a9-47ff-9261-cf7dac6017c6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726755909"},{"product_id":"under-the-bloom","title":"Under the Bloom","description":"\u003cp\u003eVacant Gardens is Glenn Donaldson (of The Reds, Pinks and Purples and a hundred others) and Jem Fanvu, collaborating on music and with the latter responsible for vocals and lyrics. The project began with the idea of combining heavy fuzz and slow-mo drum machine beats with Fanvu's gentle almost trad-folk style vocals. Almost all of Donaldson's otherworldly sounds are achieved through layers of guitar fuzz and copious delay, while Fanvu offers an ideal counterpoint, taking the listener on a celestial melancholy trip with her opaque poetry and melodies. So inspired were the duo by this blend of styles, they immediately recorded at least two albums of material, Under the Bloom and Obscene, released in quick succession in 2020 and 2021 in swiftly-disappearing micro editions on the secretive Tall Texan label. With those records close-to-impossible to find at an affordable price, Tough Love reissue both LPs, alongside a 7\" containing two previously unheard songs recorded at the same time as the albums. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Clear | LP","offer_id":50423560339787,"sku":"1150873","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/38d4a497-2915-4794-8a37-793221937b8b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726769530"},{"product_id":"empty-country-ii","title":"Empty Country II","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs the front person of celebrated indie band Cymbals Eat Guitars, guitarist and singer Joseph D’Agostino spent over a decade setting autobiographical, emotionally vivid lyrics against a backdrop of soaring and compositionally ambitious rock. After four critically acclaimed LPs that solidified D’Agostino’s reputation as a gifted songwriter, he chose to break from his long-term band and debut a new project: Empty Country. On 2020’s self-titled debut, D’Agostino’s storytelling lens shifted away from personal narrative and toward fiction; psychopaths, apparitions and deplorables populated a bleak and uncanny parallel version of American dystopia. Empty Country’s sprawling and sonically adventurous arrangements—filled out by collaborating musicians including Rachel and Zoë Browne (Field Mouse), Kyle Gillbride (Swearin’), Zena Kay (Angel Olsen), and former CEG drummer Charlotte Anne Dole - ranged from luminous jangle-pop to scorching emo-punk to narcotized Americana. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eEmpty Country II,\u003c\/i\u003e the project’s second full-length, is a thrilling expansion of that world. D’Agostino pushed himself to new places as a songwriter, crafting a collection of short stories set to music that grapple with the biggest questions now hanging over America - gun violence, the addiction epidemic, and generational hopelessness among them. In 2020, he’d moved from Philadelphia to small-town New England to be closer to family, and his new locale, coupled with the dread of lockdown, inspired him to return to the haunted world from the first LP. “It’s pretty jarring to leave a city—where you can safely assume you’re aligned with your neighbors on many political and social issues - for somewhere more rural and conservative,” says D’Agostino, noting the Trump flags and Blue Lives Matter hood wraps that dot his new dirt road residence. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough \u003ci\u003eEmpty Country II\u003c\/i\u003e is a record about the forces that drive Americans apart, it’s also imbued with empathic love and an understanding of what binds people to family and country—in spite of the darknesses we encounter. 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'Life In The Jungle' is a fever dream of imperialist wartime fantasy projection. 'Heavenly Assault' attempts a crushing density amid visions of transcendent devotion. 'Virtual Sweden' takes us ever northwards into the frosted tip of Scandinavian détente. 'Babydoll', like 'Cerulean Blue', homages a primarily imagined low-cosmopolitan world of alt-lit digi-poets, bedroom fantasists, underwater prisons for gorgeous, gorgeous girls. 'Bees Make Honey' lets more sophisticated music machines into the conversation and marks the first use of vocal tuning software on a Rat Columns album, albeit in an avant-amateurist fashion. 'Jane, I Live For You' enters the space-ballad race, dreaming of synthetic folk-rockers, leaning on sampler keybeds in the half-light. 'December' is yet another tribute to fallen Stars, mansions on the hill, winter skin in cashmere sweaters, truth in education, love, faith, (im)purity. In all these respects, it is a classic Rat Columns record. 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The relatively short amount of time between their first and second albums is testament to the band’s self-contained creative environment and the productivity it encourages. There’s a tendency to label this degree of self-reliant creativity ‘DIY’ - and the band do certainly feel emboldened by that ethos - yet to consider \u003ci\u003eModern English Decoration\u003c\/i\u003e solely in these terms is a disservice. Their craft is considered and purposeful, the means of its production reflecting the band’s overall vision rather than the value system of an often haphazard and accidental DIY culture. “We enjoy listening to music through the album format and want our records to reflect that”, says Rhys Edwards (guitars, vocals, synthesiser). Ulrika Spacek formed in Berlin in one night, when 14-year-long friends Rhys Edwards and Rhys Williams conceptualised ‘Ulrika Spacek’ and came up with The Album Paranoia as their debut album title. Moving back to London with the intention to record it, they were joined by Joseph Stone (guitars, organ, synths, violin), Ben White (bass) and Callum Brown (drums, percussion), ossifying into the five-piece they are now. The album was released soon after with little forewarning and was accompanied by a year long, near-monthly club night called Oysterland. Given the lyrics often favour abstraction and the vocals can be more impressionistic than declarative, the album title itself offers perhaps the most telling entry point to the record. With three guitarists in the band guitars were always going to be central to the music, but what is less expected is the dynamic interplay between the trio that suggests a three-headed version of the Verlaine-Lloyd axis at the heart of Television. What’s more, the absence of reverb is integral, in part attributable to the ambience of the studio, but also a conscious decision in order to add focus. 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Whereas previous albums were notable for a charming lo-fi production, \u003ci\u003eSpell #6\u003c\/i\u003e takes Part Time uptown. “I describe this album as ‘my studio album’, because it was entirely re-recorded at my drummer Walter Byer’s studio, unlike most of my past releases being bedroom experimental pop recordings.” Loca produced the record himself, impressively appropriating a classic 80s pop sound that recalls some of the more grand productions of that era - think Stephen Street’s expressive production on \u003ci\u003eLast Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me\u003c\/i\u003e, Crowded House and The Church’s widescreen interpolation of Paisley Underground jangle, and there’s even traces Gerard McMann’s grandiose \u003ci\u003eCry Little Sister\u003c\/i\u003e. 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David is an underground pop musician from Perth, Western Australia and has been in numerous interesting and more-or-less obscure acts over the decades - some include Rat Columns, Rank\/Xerox, Total Control, Lace Curtain, Liberation, Burning Sensation and Scythe. His solo works allow him free reign to follow various classic and sideways pop rainbows to their illogical conclusions. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn \u003ci\u003eJolly In The Bush\u003c\/i\u003e, he is graced by the angelic presence of stellar musicians, such as Louis Hooper from Rat Columns, Bob Jones from Eaters\/P.E, Mikey Young from Total Control\/Green Child\/Eddy Current Suppression Ring, and Richard Ingham from Taco Leg\/Mink Mussel Creek. 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A few months later, Star Party released Demo 2020 on Feel It Records, featuring two originals and covers of The Shop Assistants' \"Something to Do\" and the classic \"All I Really Wanna Do\" (in the vein of Cher's version). Over the course of 2021, Star Party wrote and recorded their debut LP, \u003ci\u003eMeadow Flower\u003c\/i\u003e, wherever and whenever they could. Employing like-minded Feel It label mate Caufield Schnug of Sweeping Promises (who also moonlights as one part of Melody Men Mastering) to mix and master the album, \u003ci\u003eMeadow Flower \u003c\/i\u003efollows a direct line from where Demo 2020 left off. Brennan's soft and clearly American vocals float over waves of feedback and drum machine racket like a delicate mist sitting just above a mountain lake. Melodies bob and weave inside an omnipresent static that fills in every nook and cranny of the recording. 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The four songs on the EP are an intentional collection of contrasts and paradoxes - beauty and repulsion, calmness and mania, anxiety and stasis - all combined to form a balanced whole.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhilst influenced in part by the writings of the late Mark Fisher and his idea that we are haunted by futures that failed to happen, that what might have been may yet be the dream that saves us, White Flowers have also found inspiration in the Brutalist architecture that adorns their hometown - futuristic yet dated buildings that serve as an appropriate visual metaphor for Fisher’s theories. Bleakly imposing yet comfortingly familiar, the monochromatic starkness of these structures has fed into the imagery for the record, as well as the sounds found within. 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For songwriting duo Joey Cobb and Katie Drew of White Flowers, one of the most exciting young bands in the UK right now, it was only on leaving London to return to their native Preston that the dark-hued dreampop of their debut album, \u003ci\u003eDay By Day,\u003c\/i\u003e began to crystalize. The pair had left Preston for London to study at art college, and it was there that they first began to explore the nascent psych scene bubbling under in the few remaining arts-orientated spaces in the east of the city. It soon inspired them to begin work on music of their own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe pair found that by using equipment they barely understood, they produced their most innovative work. 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While performing a small show as a support act, a fan in the audience, impressed by the wall of noise that would frequently extend for minutes at the end of tracks, suggested they work with a like-minded friend. Within weeks, the pair were recording at the Manchester studio of Jez Williams, erstwhile member of Doves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWilliams and Manchester immediately made sense, and it’s that industrial gothic that White Flowers were able to tap into as they built the album during on-off sessions across two years – sometimes leaving the studio for a couple of months to work on ideas, other times crafting the minutiae of details across all-night studio sessions. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe access to flexible studio time was telling, and the band were able to develop an aesthetic that, whilst indebted to the various sounds that defined their youth, also leaned heavily into Kevin Shields’ droning wall of noise guitars, the palimpsestic hauntology of early Burial, and the ghost box sampleadelia of Boards of Canada.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“We like the more alien sounds” explains Joey, “where the focus is on creating atmosphere.” This is perhaps most obvious on the album title track, one of the more sonically enticing tracks on the record with its pulsing drone and Portishead-esque rhythm, or even ‘Night Drive’, a live favourite that the pair take pride in building into a monstrous wall of sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Daylight’ pushes forward with a prettiness matched by Katie’s oblique, near-glossolalia vocal. “We don’t like it when things are clean or overproduced” explains Katie, “and there’s something interesting in the instinctive nature of the first thing you sing, because you don’t really know what you’re singing until it comes out and it makes sense.” That psychographic-style process to writing informs a collection of songs that are at once both intuitive and fully-formed. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe oldest song on the record, ‘Help Me Help Myself’, bears witness to this approach. Perhaps their most direct and perfect ‘pop’ song to date, it suggests these songs were always there within, just waiting to be divined. \"We’d just started using drum machines and there’s something of a naïve quality to it,” explains Katie, though its naivety has now been augmented by Jez Williams’ impossibly diaphanous production. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe constant upheaval of, well, everything has fed directly into \u003ci\u003eDay By Day\u003c\/i\u003e. “The songs on the album were written from when we were teenagers up to our early 20s, so it’s come of age in this weird apocalyptic time,” says Katie. “Everything’s surrounded by uncertainty” notes Joey, \"but it isn’t all doom and gloom, there are positives, rules are out the window and you can do what you want. 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A year later, he was signed to XL, touring the world and about to release his second album – all by the age of 25.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAfter self-releasing four ambient and instrumental albums, Doyle’s third full-length record – and the first under his own name – Your Wilderness Revisited arrived to ecstatic reviews in 2019: Line of Best Fit described it as “a dazzlingly beautiful triumph of intention” and Metro declared it an album not only of the year, but “of the century”. 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Close to five years since their last record, Leeds denizens Autobahn re-enter the fray with the release of their third record, \u003ci\u003eEcstasy of Ruin\u003c\/i\u003e, via Tough Love. Half a decade is both a long time and no time at all: forever changes while some things remain eternal… So it goes that Autobahn may have re-emerged with many of the hallmarks of their characteristic blend of industrial post-punk intact, but under the bonnet they’re a much leaner, more focused machine. Autobahn 3.0.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf 2017’s \u003ci\u003eThe Moral Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e was a record defined by its dramatic rhythm section, then it’s not insignificant that the 2023 incarnation of Autobahn arrives shaved to a four piece and sans their previous drummer. The change necessitates an evolution. Live drums have given way to drum-machines and sample-based percussion, and with it see the band reconfigure their typically blackened aesthetic into a hardened take on Electronic Body Music. As with their previous record, it’s an entirely self-produced collection, recorded between two self-built studios on a range of analogue equipment, the ghosts of their industrial forefathers haunting the circuits. Indeed, some of Ecstasy of Ruin was made with pieces salvaged from Martin Hannett’s legendary studio. The mark of their presence is clear and Autobahn certainly feel part of the long tradition of crepuscular music to emanate from Northern Britain, be that the transgressive activities of COUM Transmissions from Hull, Sheffield Steel City or the gothic history of their very own hometown. It’s a noble torch they carry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStill, if\u003ci\u003e Ecstasy of Ruin\u003c\/i\u003e forms part of a rich lineage, it also speaks to right now. 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It’s a relatable sentiment.    \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, PIL, EBM, Skinny Puppy, Wax Trax\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"White LP","offer_id":50466056995147,"sku":"2009730","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50466056733003,"sku":"2009728","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Ecstasy_of_Ruin_7f3de745_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727303330"},{"product_id":"the-town-that-cursed-your-name","title":"The Town That Cursed Your Name","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhereas the 2022 collection \u003ci\u003eSummer at Land’s End\u003c\/i\u003e was a softer, gauzier world, \u003ci\u003eThe Town That Cursed Your Name\u003c\/i\u003e is heavier, with fuzzed lines running through. 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Her music is simple out of necessity and introverted in delivery, but the songs contain vivid worlds and are quietly ambitious. With this latest batch, Gill pulled the process of making Cindy music even more inward. “Some of these songs were first recorded as demos alone in my basement. I think that process set the tone for the record…Maybe it set up a kind of starkness,” she says.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMoving on from the fixed quartet that performed the first three albums, Gill worked alongside original keyboardist Aaron Diko to develop the songs and they enlisted players from the ever-blossoming SF pop scene to realise her minimalist vision -- members of Flowertown, Telephone Numbers, April Magazine, Famous Mammals, and Sad Eyed Beatniks to name a few. The collective sounds fill out the record perfectly with John Cale-esque viola on ‘August’, lo-fi fairground organs, and a tasteful full-band sound that crops up throughout. ‘A Trumpet on a Hillside’ is the most triumphant Cindy has ever sounded, all ascending chords and a wedding march melody tumbling out of an old synth. Still, some of the best moments are Gill alone, as on ‘Playboy’, just naked guitar and voice, and when the forlorn whistling solo kicks in, it feels like the loneliest star is imploding in a distant galaxy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile the dream-pop tag is probably still relevant, this isn’t algorithm-fed genre ambience. 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As it turns out, though, it's not quite without precedent, since there was actually a self-released debut record from 2018, first pressed in tiny number and initially not moving much further than their immediate locale. A few years on and now trading for inflated prices on the second hand market, Tough Love are re-issuing in order to shine a little light on the band's first steps. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese ten tracks display the ruminative formation of the minimal indie-pop sound perfected on Free Advice, skeletons of the same ideas with a little less flesh on dem bones, nonetheless struck with a naive wonder, like you're afforded the opportunity to hear the band stumbling upon their own charms in real time. And that is 100% the appropriate word here - charm, a quality perfectly captured in that front cover, too. It's not possible to overstate how endearing this music is, so independent is it of outside influence and free of self-consciousness. 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Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what’s needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that’s unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill’s structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill’s voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGill’s songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and\/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can’t explain it; and there’s the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"People have told me that they can’t quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I’m connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There’s the music I’m around – April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown – that I can feel a direct line from. Then there’s music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. \"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Black 12\"","offer_id":50471008829771,"sku":"2217106","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Swan_Lake_-_EP_bba37d35_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727387859"},{"product_id":"obscene","title":"Obscene","description":"\u003cp\u003eVacant Gardens is Glenn Donaldson (of The Reds, Pinks and Purples and a hundred others) and Jem Fanvu, collaborating on music and with the latter responsible for vocals and lyrics. The project began with the idea of combining heavy fuzz and slow-mo drum machine beats with Fanvu's gentle almost trad-folk style vocals. Almost all of Donaldson's otherworldly sounds are achieved through layers of guitar fuzz and copious delay, while Fanvu offers an ideal counterpoint, taking the listener on a celestial melancholy trip with her opaque poetry and melodies. So inspired were the duo by this blend of styles, they immediately recorded at least two albums of material, \u003ci\u003eUnder the Bloom\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eObscene\u003c\/i\u003e, released in quick succession in 2020 and 2021 in swiftly-disappearing micro editions on the secretive Tall Texan label. 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Though Joan Sweeney (ex-Rose McDowall’s Band, Aggi Doom, The Royal We) is a lifer, Sebastian Ymai (Comidillo Tapes, Pissy, Anxiety) came from Chile via York, recently relocating to Berlin in 2021, and new member Gemma Fleet (The Wharves, Order of the Toad, Dancer) alongside Andrew Milk (Shopping, Pink Pound) were persuaded to leave London for the ‘second city’ after touring through with previous bands. However, Glasgow is the heart and hub of the band’s music, musical life and the place where Off the Tongue was solidified and produced.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTheir current line up formed in 2020, but the four have been circling each other for years, touring and playing with their previous bands within the close UK network of DIY music. Stalwarts of their respective scenes they finally began working together through the creation of the Spitehouse collective – a project designed to promote Queer and female-fronted music through events mainly held at Transmission Gallery and Glasgow Autonomous Space, putting on many local and international acts (Sneaks, Sacred Paws, Still House Plants and Comfort amongst others). When an opening for a new bassist arrived, Gemma was the obvious compliment, the slogan of Spitehouse being the language of Current Affairs – “Everyone’s welcome, but don’t get it twisted.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from 2019’s singles collection, \u003ci\u003eObject and Subject\u003c\/i\u003e, the wait for their debut full-length may belie the urgency of its sound. Songs that were written in pieces over a long time and distance, but fully formed in the instant of the recording room across just a few days by producer Ross McGowan at Chime Studio. Current Affairs’ song-writing process has always been collaborative. Songs are developed responsively, with each of the band’s members sending\/bringing elements or hooks to each other, but practices being the place where the songs flesh out, structure and are fully realised. These new songs feel a little brighter than their previous offerings, yet still hold true to their propulsive and caterwauling sound. Still embryonic in the most exciting way that that can be. Current Affairs’ music straddles new-wave pop and gothic post-punk in the way that you should expect a Glasgow-Berlin band to do so: with grit and panache.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten from within the world of crumbling services, broken bonds and wounded spirits, \u003ci\u003eOff the Tongue\u003c\/i\u003e rolls off an ecstatic rage, filled with hope for you, them and everyone else. It’s a rallying cry away from hopelessness, forgiving your fears and laying them to waste. 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With a title like that arriving at this point in time, it’s tempting to interpret the record solely in the context of the global events of the past few years, but the roots of these ten songs arc back much further in time, charged with their own personalised internal damage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMid 2018, approaching exhaustion and feeling increasingly fragile from the stresses of itinerant road life, the five-piece of Rhys Edwards, Rhys Williams, Joseph Stone, Syd Kemp and Callum Brown began work in earnest on the follow up to their second album, \u003ci\u003eModern English Decoration\u003c\/i\u003e. Released less than a year earlier and having promoted it constantly in the months that followed, now might have represented a fine moment for the band to take a breath. Yet Ulrika Spacek were not familiar with the concept of slowing down, conditioned by a strong work ethnic and the demands of capricious touring cycles that necessitated more content and at speed. Moving too fast, it was difficult to avoid the hazards up ahead.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe band’s previous albums had both been recorded in KEN, a studio and rehearsal space in Homerton that also doubled as their shared home. As writing for album three began, KEN suddenly became another victim to the indiscriminate violence of gentrification, rendering the project both hub- and homeless. Writing and recording at KEN was then abruptly shifted to a professional studio in Hackney, only the second time they had worked in such conditions, and tensions and logistical difficulties soon became apparent. The enforced switch to an unfamiliar locale would have been discomforting enough, but when allied with the fractures already beginning to splinter through the band, made for an especially frazzled experience. Somehow, a record began to emerge piecemeal from the gloom, though it was one obviously infected with its circumstances.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrauma, in its myriad forms, is often hard to qualify, even harder to rationalise. When something begins to go wrong, how do you gain perspective? What is a temporary roadblock, and what is unmitigated disaster? In its first phase of life, Compact Trauma was a document of a band striving to perfect an idea while the universe around them seemed to want to shut down. And then, at an impasse of sorts and with a record halfway complete, it suddenly did. If Ulrika Spacek were a band in need of the breaks applying, it was the force of a global pandemic that made it happen. As the world stood still, Compact Trauma was filed away, unfinished and unheard by the wider world, possibly to remain that way forever. And yet, there was to be a second act. If mutability is our tragedy, it's also our hope, clearer days slowly began to emerge as the bad slipped away. The wound, as the saying goes, is the place where the light enters you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe prolonged break enforced by myriad lockdowns may have separated the group but it also afforded the five time to reflect on what had already been committed to tape.. As the lights came back on and the shutters up, they found themselves drawn back towards \u003ci\u003eCompact Trauma\u003c\/i\u003e. What they rediscovered was a record that seemed to preempt the shared grief of a global pandemic. Even if the specifics were different, the themes were uncannily similar. Addressing existential freak out, displacement, substance reliance and encroaching self-doubt, these highly personalised songs suddenly took on a wider significance, speaking in part to a bigger narrative.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpening track, ‘The Sheer Drop’, begins with the line “Homerton is caving in”; ‘It Will Come Sometime’ describes a “liver like a lightbulb and swelling”; and Lounge Angst (an almost perfect description of those maddening lockdown days indoors) laments, ‘seems my friends grew up or left’. The fear and panic is palpable. The lyrics are matched to a soundtrack that oscillates between the febrile and the off-kilter, unconventional song structures and knotty arrangements either spinning the listener in unexpected directions or offering some kind of cathartic release. Take, as example, the aforementioned opener, ‘The Sheer Drop’. A wire-taut exercise in tension-and-release rendered in three parts, a whimsical synth opening giving way to characteristic chiming guitars before a nail biting coda sets its controls for the heart of the sun or the end of the world, whichever comes first. Either way, it’s a hell of a way to reintroduce yourself after a five year absence. ‘If The Wheels Are Coming Off, The Wheels Are Coming Off’ is equally instructive, a lacerating exposition of self-doubt that bursts into ecstatic release at its climax, demanding repeat listens, while ‘Stuck At The Door’ is an 11-minute Pacific North West-style epic that threatens, ‘the worst of it’s to come’. But it’s the title track that might be the true heartbeat of the record. Either addressing itself or some unknown assailant, it begins by demanding that they “take your hands and your head off the table”, while spiralling around a breathless riff fueled by an infectious anxious energy, before changing tact completely and shifting to a lullaby-like finale, concluding with the ominous thought, “compact trauma? Or full blown disaster? I'll be back in an hour (Or so i think)”. It’s a fitting encapsulation of a highly complex record. 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For fans of Girls At Our Best, Romeo Void, The Go-Gos, B-52s, Siouxsie Sioux and Shop Assistants.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Purple | LP","offer_id":50485473050955,"sku":"1073559","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/990babb3-fdba-4914-bf0a-f8f70f73513c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727600001"},{"product_id":"indexee","title":"Indexe'e","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor fans of the Dead C, Birchville Cat Motel, Skullflower, heat exhaustion, feeling of confusion and self-recrimination et al. …aka A Bunker Intimation Vol. 1. And what have they built down there? A remodel in 40 minutes at half-time, the group temporarily slimmed and tuned to a different gait, a shifting of pulses, delay, moving air; the sound of the room and the body, of the body in the room; a room fogged as emphysemic lungs where indistinct translucent ooze lines its walls, possibly of paranormal origin, possibly of nocturnal transgression alone. The reality - as it ought - is occluded from view. Not necessarily the IFWM unit you might assume, but most certainly one of the many versions they've always been. And not so much a new beginning as an alternative diversion through the abyss. Indexe'e: aka Index For Working Musik. Onwards, inwards. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50488969757003,"sku":"2057270","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Index_For_Working_Musik_-_Indexee_478ff3d3_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727634743"},{"product_id":"lose","title":"Lose","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Wanna wake up wanting to listen to records \/ But those old feelings elude me \/ I raise a toast to the rock n' roll ghost,\" sings Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D'Agostino on the hyper-adrenalized 'XR,' which sounds like a 'Tonight's the Night' outtake recorded at triple speed, with its braying harmonica and spitfire vocal delivery. It's the track that perhaps best captures the spirit of the band's third LP, 'Lose', one of coping with abject loss and grief by rediscovering what you've always loved, as difficult as it may be - the redemptive power of music. 'Jackson' kicks off the album in prototypical Cymbals fashion - all allusions to suburban ennui, drugs, and geography. Yet this is a leaner, more sinister Cymbals. The vocals are crisper, the drums more dynamic, the bass more melodic, all buttressed by a sensational see-saw guitar figure that blossoms into a lacerating yet anthemic rocker. 'Lose' is a headlong rush of regret sublimated into a grand catharsis.​LP - Pink Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50492698165579,"sku":"378760","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/56a17489-6dd6-4732-b005-21d4ffe4512b_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727693040"},{"product_id":"arms-around-a-vision","title":"Arms Around A Vision","description":"\u003cp\u003eNorthern Ireland's Girls Names return with their third full-length album, 'Arms Around a Vision'. On 'Arms Around a Vision', they're more widescreen than ever but also more direct and aggressive. The bass, drums and guitars are still there, but so are saxophones, organs, detuned broken guitars and pianos, and even sheets of metal assaulted with hammers. Conceptually, 'Arms Around a Vision' acts as a love letter to European elegance - Italian futurism, Russian constructivism, Germany's Zero Group and both Neubauten and Bowie's Berlin. Love and pain, romance and fucking. It's all in there somewhere. Grand claims, perhaps, but in an ever bleak world, why not skygaze? The album opens with 'Reticence', a song in two parts that's half metallic knockout, half midnight swagger. It sounds unlike anything they've ever done before, and is a perfect primer for an album that treads a course between Eno-era Roxy sleaze, Birthday Party dissonance and M.E.S' three R's: repetition, repetition, repetition. For fans of The Horrors, These New Puritans, The Cure, Savages, Deerhunter, Toy, Ice Age, Fire Engines, Wire etc. LP - Black Vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.LP+ - Limited Cream Coloured vinyl housed in Gatefold Sleeve with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50493081944395,"sku":"390335","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50493083648331,"sku":"390334","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6ef37e1d-1ffc-4e2d-aec6-2b56ad5d6505_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727695447"},{"product_id":"dissemble","title":"Dissemble","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing the release of two self-titled EPs over the past 12 months, Autobahn release their debut album, 'Dissemble' via Tough Love. 'Dissemble' was recorded with Matt Peel at The Nave, a hometown studio situated in the wholly appropriate setting of a disused church. The band co-produced the record with Peel over six intense weeks at the start of 2015, dedicating all of their time to the studio and taking potentially unhealthy cues from the legacy of notorious obsessive, Martin Hannett. 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For fans of Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Minor Threat, Drive Like Jehu, Bad Brains, Shellac, Black Flag and Trash Talk.LP - Black Vinyl With Download.LP+ - Limited Purple Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP.","offer_id":50493785342283,"sku":"397786","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50493784260939,"sku":"397785","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50493784621387,"sku":"397784","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d38da000-2926-4448-9347-aca41bcea557_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727700506"},{"product_id":"peace-or-love-1","title":"Peace or Love","description":"\u003cp\u003eWest currently plays in the guitar pop band Rat Columns, synth-pop project Liberation and post-punk trio Rank\/Xerox, and has been in varied acts such as Lace Curtain, Burning Sensation, Total Control and Whalehammer. 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West draws inspiration from free-thinking artists of the past and present on this polyphonic platter, from soft indie strumming and free soundscapes, to disco and soul-pop. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50494029660491,"sku":"404096","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/b62673f8-96bc-43be-8448-9a3e8af5925d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727702820"},{"product_id":"foxhole","title":"Foxhole","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Proper Ornaments are back with an album that recalls all the best bits of third LP Velvets, \u003ci\u003eDarklands\u003c\/i\u003e era Mary Chain, Real Estate, Crystal Stilts and more, but with their own unique laidback groove. Proper Ornaments is the project of James Hoare (Ultimate Painting, Veronica Falls) and Max Oscarnold (Toy, Pink Flames). On Third album \u003ci\u003eFoxhole\u003c\/i\u003e they've sliced away a whole stratum of their sound, removing some distortion and lowering the frequency of plectrum strokes to allow more nuanced, piano-led ideas to emerge. What was in evidence in two of their earliest songs - \u003ci\u003eYou Still\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eAre You Going Blind\u003c\/i\u003e - an understated, poetic play of moral sensitivity against a callous distance, of warmth and hostility, has reached its most sustained expression yet and gives their pop moments of a haunted love song quality along the lines of Del Shannon, Lesley Gore or Roy Orbison. Proper Ornaments hold the attraction of seeming to not try very hard at all and achieve something outstanding nonetheless. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited edition Translucent blue vinyl with bonus 7\". Limited to 500 Copies.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50494409507147,"sku":"1002488","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50494412849483,"sku":"1002229","price":7.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/c71a3d5f-3255-4da5-b6d0-8840cacd267e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727705189"},{"product_id":"waiting-for-the-summer","title":"Waiting for the Summer","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is a Record Store Day 2017 item. It will be available to purchase from our stores from 8am 22nd April. Remaining stock will be available to purchase from this page at 00.01 29th April.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing the release of \u003ci\u003eFoxhole\u003c\/i\u003e in January of this year, Tough Love will issue on vinyl for the first time The Proper Ornaments debut long-player, \u003ci\u003eWaiting for the Summer\u003c\/i\u003e: a compilation of their first 10 songs, originally released on CD in 2013. What they said in 2013… Is perfect pop still possible? It’s hard to imagine, but the answer is Yes, and The Proper Ornaments are here to prove it. A timeless beauty that reminds us of The Velvet Underground and The Jesus \u0026amp; Mary Chain and yet sounds classic and effortlessly original. Produced by Charlie March of NZCA Lines and featuring ten golden nuggets of pure pleasure. James Hoare and Max Claps formed The Proper Ornaments in 2010. The first line up included bassist Michael Lovett and Lets Wrestle front man Wesley Patrick Gonzalez. Micheal went on to form NZCA LINES, but Wes remained part of the tag team thanks to a nifty half nelson and the offer of a night in the corner of London's darkest stages and the theft of his organ…. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50496982057291,"sku":"1008948","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/84de38fa-1558-42a5-bdb4-4ec6a8b56fc6_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727725444"},{"product_id":"the-moral-crossing","title":"The Moral Crossing","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, Eagulls, Hookworms, PIL, The Horrors, and Iceage. A sliver of strings, a squeal of feedback, pulsing drums, sheets of steely guitar and sonorous bass, and a rough, declamatory voice - from these primary components, Leeds quintet Autobahn unfurl their second album, \u003ci\u003eThe Moral Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e, which adds more finesse, dynamic and colour to the commitment and energy shown on their 2014 debut \u003ci\u003eDissemble. \u003c\/i\u003eWhile \u003ci\u003eDissemble\u003c\/i\u003e was made by imagining what the late, great producer Martin Hannett would do, \u003ci\u003eThe Moral Crossing\u003c\/i\u003e is the sound of what Autobahn would do. To capture the new sonic details of the band, lead singer and principal songwriter Craig Johnson, guitarists Michael Pedel and Gavin Cobb, bassist Daniel Sleight and drummer Liam Hilton decided to give up their practice room that doubled as a hardcore \/ punk venue (which influenced their original sound, as did a love of The Birthday Party) and build their own studio space. Part of the shift comes from Johnson’s newly honed melodies such as \u003ci\u003eVessel \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTorment\u003c\/i\u003e, part from a greater use of electronics, such as the synthesiser underpinning a haunting \u003ci\u003eFuture\u003c\/i\u003e, evoking neon-lit rainy-nocturnal rides through a city scape, likewise the album’s title track, which is one song to benefit from the judicious addition of violin and cello. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLP - Black Vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited Red Vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP.","offer_id":50497521615179,"sku":"1017094","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50497513619787,"sku":"1017092","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50497518600523,"sku":"1017093","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/85a8b1a4-2def-4be5-9f95-2d9c8faea1d9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727728412"},{"product_id":"cherry-on-willow","title":"Cherry on Willow","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCherry On Willow\u003c\/i\u003e is his third solo record, following 2015’s \u003ci\u003eDrop Out Of Collage\u003c\/i\u003e and 2016’s \u003ci\u003ePeace Or Love\u003c\/i\u003e LP. \u003ci\u003eCherry On Willow\u003c\/i\u003e is the work of David West and Teardrops, an ensemble of friends and collaborators, including Bob Jones of Eaters, Louis Hooper of Rat Columns, Mikey Young of Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Raven Mahon of Grass Widow, dynamite drummer Griffin Harrison and other supremely talented individuals from the past and future. \u003ci\u003eCherry On Willow\u003c\/i\u003e was recorded quickly and with a 'first thought best thought' philosophy, to capture an old-school pop feeling, with rough edges intact, human movements tracked and uncut. 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It will be available to purchase from our stores from 8am 21st April. Remaining stock will be available to purchase from this page at 00.01 28th April.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePrimitive Desire\u003c\/i\u003e is an 11-track collection of the first ever studio sessions by Girls Names, recorded in 2009 in Belfast. It compiles their debut EP originally released on Captured Tracks, the eight songs that originally featured on the long-out-of print \u003ci\u003eYou Should Know By Now\u003c\/i\u003e mini-EP released on Tough Love, and a hereto-unreleased bonus track. \u003ci\u003ePrimitive Desire\u003c\/i\u003e is exactly as labeled and provides fans with a document of the band's early years as a two-piece, fuelled by a distinct nervous energy and nascent dark edge that would manifest itself much more obviously on subsequent albums. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Limited edition Green Vinyl (1000 copies) and Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50497783267659,"sku":"1030543","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d323ed64-e490-4826-b71c-d73b92742518_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727732625"},{"product_id":"stains-on-silence","title":"Stains on Silence","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt stands to reason that many vital albums come critically close to never being made. The eight-track upshot of doubt, upheaval and financial strain, \u003ci\u003eStains on Silence \u003c\/i\u003eby Girls Names is one such release. Following 2015’s blitzing \u003ci\u003eArms Around a Vision\u003c\/i\u003e, and the parting of drummer Gib Cassidy just over a year later, the Belfast band suddenly found themselves facing down a looming void. “There was a finished – and then aborted – mix of the album, which was shelved for six months,” reveals Girls Names frontman Cathal Cully. “We then took a break from all music and went back to full-time work. We chilled out from the stress of rushing the record and not being happy with it, as well as being skint with no impending touring on the cards and constantly having to worry about rent.” The stumbling blocks that proved a strain became the album’s defining breakthrough. Recorded in various locations including Belfast’s Start Together Studio with Ben McAuley, Cully’s home and the band’s practice space, spontaneous creation, cut-up techniques and self-editing took centre-stage for the first time. \"We started tearing the material apart and rebuilding, re-editing and re-recording different parts in my home in early Autumn last year,” says Cully. “When we got them to a place we were happier with we went back into Start Together Studio with Ben McAuley to finalise the mixes to what they are now.\" Where AAAV proved a brazen statement of intent, \u003ci\u003eStains on Silence\u003c\/i\u003e bounds forth as its feature-length comedown. What could have seen the band buckle became an opportunity for approaching things tabula rasa. During its two-year transmutation, Cully, bassist Claire Miskimmin and guitarist Philip Quinn had a single aim for their fourth album: to make an old-fashioned record clocking in around 30 to 35 minutes in length that made the listener reach straight for repeat. From the Bang Bang bar-summoning swoon of opener \u003ci\u003e25\u003c\/i\u003e and the submerged disco doom of \u003ci\u003eHaus Proud\u003c\/i\u003e to the rapt, dub-leaning \u003ci\u003eFragments of a Portrait\u003c\/i\u003e, Girls Names have excelled in their goal by forging an LP of synchronous nuance and defiance. Marked by the presence of drum machines and programming throughout, these eight masterfully-woven tales are once again commandeered by founder Cully, whose words, understated yet defiant, mine purpose and meaning from the mire (\"I want to bathe again, I want to swim again \/ In a pool of twisting bodies, blackened gold.\" — \u003ci\u003e25\u003c\/i\u003e). But while \u003ci\u003eStains on Silence\u003c\/i\u003e came critically close to never being made, having lived with it, reconfigured it, and guided its metamorphosis from flickers of inspiration and half-formed schemes, it’s both a statement of pure perseverance, and a head-on confrontation with ambivalence that couldn’t be more assured. For fans of The Cure, Iceage, Wire, HTRK, These New Puritans, The Fall, Berlin-era Bowie \/ Iggy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl in Cream Sleeve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited to 300 Copies. 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At just 23 and with a discography already in double figures, Holm-Silkjær is nothing if not prolific. Yet his work as Holm might prove to be his most complete. While previous projects were often collaborative, all four songs on \u003ci\u003eDappled\u003c\/i\u003e, his debut EP for Tough Love, were written, recorded, performed, and mixed by Holm-Silkjær himself in a shared rehearsal space. This resourcefulness has long been characteristic of the music he makes, defined by an overarching DIY ethos that has also seen him champion the music of others through the two record labels he runs (100 and Shordwood, the latter of which also released the first Holm recordings as a 7\") and the organisation of numerous live events in both Aarhus and Copenhagen. Those familiar with Holm-Silkjær's other music will certainly recognise Dappled as his -that unmistakable metallic vocal, brash chiming guitars, and a preternatural melodic sensibility. Where \u003ci\u003eDappled\u003c\/i\u003e differs from previous work, however, is in song structure, most obviously on \u003ci\u003eHope\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGrow\u003c\/i\u003e, the opening and closing tracks respectively. Though anchored by recurring motifs (not quite choruses!), these are sprawling and explorative songs, matched by lyrics unusually insightful and clear-sighted for someone so young. Take the neat double-meaning in the repeated coda of 'Grow' for example: \"I’m growing, growing, growing, this arrangement, it’s not in tune\". In that line there's a convenient way of understanding what Holm-Silkjær has arrived at with \u003ci\u003eDappled\u003c\/i\u003e -a relatable reflection on finding personal identity through his own ever-evolving music. 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Twangy guitars are understated but at the same time bursting at the seams with little tricky riffs, melodies and flourishes. Innocence and sadness and the feeling of losing something you’ve never had. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Rough Trade Exclusive. Limited to 200 Copies on Snow White Vinyl with an alternative 'secret 7” on Snow White Vinyl and Download. The 7\" has tracks that are exclusive to the Rough Trade Version Only!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP++ - Limited to 1000 Copies on “Behind Blue Eyes” vinyl and exclusive to Indie stores only with Download.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - Digipack.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"LP.","offer_id":50498080473419,"sku":"1049671","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498079916363,"sku":"1049670","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50498081194315,"sku":"1049673","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5c52c1a8-6662-42dc-9ded-6c09fcc8cae9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727738795"},{"product_id":"whoosh-1","title":"Whoosh","description":"\u003cp\u003eRough Trade Albums of the Month - March 2019\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the debut album from Melbourne-based former members of Primetime, Boomgates, Twerps, Possible Humans and many more!\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGus Lord, Rory Heane, Claudia Serfaty and Adam Hewitt play on vintage synths, rain sticks, bits of old doors and whatever is to hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJaunty joyous guitars, chugging plaintive dual vocals. Stripped down simple hypnotic melodies. Basic like the first time someone discovers a song or a melody. Chiming notes given plenty of space. Simple and sweet harmonies. Chining guitar jangling. Piping organ chirping joyfully.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP - Black Vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLP+ - Limited White Vinyl.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCD - Four Panel Digipack.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"White | LP","offer_id":50498130968907,"sku":"1055215","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498131067211,"sku":"1055212","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/7f0f702c-1c76-4062-8eeb-a53a74c8073c_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1727740202"},{"product_id":"1800","title":"1800","description":"\u003cp\u003eRest-of-the-World pressing of Big Supermarket's debut LP, previously released in mid 2018 in Australia only via the Hobbies Galore label. Little information about Big Supermarket exists online -no 'official' band photos, no accurate information re personnel, no social media profile -so much of what is known about the band must be earned in the old fashioned way: from listening to the music itself. That alone has been difficult enough, given that until now the record had no distribution outside of Australia and was only available by Bandcamp. In an era of information overload and endless image cultivation, it's refreshing to uncover a band -yes, a band, not producer or 'solo bedroom auteur' -who favour the shadows, who prefer to leave some things unsaid. What is present is a collection of fourteen songs recorded over a three year period in Kensington, Victoria, that trace a wobbly line through the backstreets of jangle-pop, new wave, and post-punk in a way that sees them oscilate between the melodic and the obtuse. In that sense, there's an obvious affinity with much of the early Flying Nun output, where an appreciation of the classicism of pop songwriting rubbed shoulders with a fierce DIY spirit charged on the more outre possibilities of punk autodidactism. Australia is making a habit of producing compelling, singular new guitar-led bands. In their shunning of the traditional cycles of publicity and promotion, Big Supermarket have counter-intuitvely emerged as a leading light. A secret to be passed around that doubtless won't remain a secret for much longer. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tough Love","offers":[{"title":"Green | LP","offer_id":50498252996939,"sku":"1060947","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/db732752-3c48-4a6b-acdf-2af4715e0872_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727742783"},{"product_id":"songs-of-consumption","title":"Songs Of Consumption","description":"\u003cp\u003eToy's new record, \u003ci\u003eSongs of Consumption\u003c\/i\u003e, is an eight song collection of unique interpretations of songs that have directly inspired the band, and had some influence on their most recent record, the critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eHappy in the Hollow\u003c\/i\u003e. 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