Run For Cover US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Advance Base makes is the name given to melancholic electronic story songs made by US indie label owner and musician Owen Ashworth. Ashworth can sing the phonebook and has mastered the art of cutting all the fat from his words to deliver succinct, compelling stories to lo-fi Daniel Johnston-ish music. ‘The Year I Lived In Richmond’ doesn’t colour anything in metaphor and it’s a frank tale about a woman who had stabbed a burglar and his experience living close to it. The album title is as apt as could be. Meanwhile, ‘How You Got Your Picture on the Wall’ is heartbreaking in its delivery and has a clever twist at the end. Ashworth under his moniker Advance Base is an outsider hero with a level of artistry and songwriting that's quite rare to find. Absolutely stunning.

Review: Dense, brooding riffs, macro-melodic tidal waves... Pelican's signature blend of post-metal-sludge is a piscine gulping of tsnuami-sound. Formed in the proverbially thalassic sonic expanse of Chicago, this band flocked together in 2000 at the core whim of guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec. Radically, Pelican initially described their approach to music creation as "rule-free", mirroring the perception of 1990s Chicago as a barbaric "free-for-all" in which an empty beaker of potential was confronted, and partially refilled, by the oceanic outpouring that was experimental post-rock. Long after their debut Australasia (2003) and career-migrations such as City Of Echoes and Arktika, came Flickering Resonance (2022), a record which was deemed to reflect a more "humanistic side of the band." The bleak landscapes evoked on 'Cascading Crescent' and 'Indelible' are no discourager for this band; they still maintain cavalcades of riffing stridencies and amphibious drumming.

Review: Following on from the reissue of Rival Schools' first record, Run For Cover turns its attention to the band's landmark 2011 studio LP, which took two years to be released after the original recording sessions finished and a staggering ten years after the inaugural long player, United By Fate, had landed. Rooted in emo, pop rock, and post-hardcore, the main difference between episodes one and two was the comparatively lighter moods on the second, and an absence of distortion. In many ways, a more commercially-minded outing, at the time critics lauded Pedals for its comparative maturity, with many trumpeting the return as being slicker, more self-assured and altogether more grown up. Nevertheless, the tracks still tear from the blocks with the energy of youth and there's no denying these songs are the result of musicians with a real ear for writing infectious hooks.