First Press Album Club is a new thing we’re starting. We’ve basically made a wee monthly cheat code for hearing new music without living on the internet.
First Press Album Club is our monthly vinyl subscription for people who want new music without doing the full time job of keeping up with it.
No bots, no algorithms, no vague “because you liked one song in 2017” nonsense. It’s just us in the shop picking one brand new release (or new reissue) a month from a lane you actually care about, and making sure it’s worth your money and your shelf space.
You choose your lane, we do the digging. Join and you’re in the gang.
A proper monthly treat that turns up like a wee surprise that you actually asked for. You’ll try stuff you would never have clicked on, and you’ll end up smug about it.
Every month you get
One brand new release (or reissue), picked by us. A genre lane you can switch if your head changes. No “we had too many in the back” catalogue clear out picks. Your copy held for you in the shop, or sent to your door. 10% off in shop any time you visit, because you’re in the club.
Album Club T-shirt
Stick with it for three months and you unlock the official Album Club T-shirt. Not for sale, only for members, it’s your wee badge that says you backed the cause and you actually listen to albums.
How it works
Pickup option is £25 per month. Postage option is £30 per month. Join or switch by the 20th of the month. Pickups start the first weekend of the month. Pause, skip or cancel before the 20th.
Small print that is actually useful
UK postage only for now. We’re doing this properly, so spaces are limited. If you’re the kind of person who says “I meant to buy that” a lot, this is how you stop doing that.
Drop us a line at [email protected] to get involved or send us a message on socials.
Big thanks to @ancie_ntcurse for the artwork, and for egging me on to actually do this instead of just talking about it forever.
#albumclub #vinylsubscription #recordsubscription #newmusicclub #monthlyvinyl
@minicrossstitching restock and once again Clare has somehow managed to fit an unreasonable amount of detail into something smaller than a half pint of lovely lovely beer.
Absolutely class wee things. Aphex, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, cryptic emotional statements. Basically everything you need.
Also someone please buy the Aphex Twin one before I convince myself I “need it for the shop” and it mysteriously disappears behind the counter.
Handmade by the incredibly talented Clare Owens and honestly way nicer in person than these photos even show. Proper tiny witchcraft.
t’s absolutely grim outside so naturally I’ve had this on pretending Belfast’s tropical.
Dr. K. Gyasi & His Noble KingsSikyi Highlife
This is unreal. Proper warm highlife from 1974 with guitars, horns and basslines that have absolutely no business being this catchy.
Whole thing just glides. Sounds like sunshine. Sounds like sitting outside with no jacket for once. Sounds like your mood improving against your will.
There’s a looseness to it I love as well. Nothing stiff. Nothing overcooked. Just ridiculously good musicians all locked in the sauce.
The bass player especially needs investigated. Proper carrying on.
Very easy record to accidentally play all the way through and suddenly realise the weather’s annoyed you less.
Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble
The Kármán Line
@ata_records
This is class.
Warm, smoky, spiritual jazz from ATA with @chipwickham on flute absolutely taking liberties.
Big grooves. Harp. Horns. Bassline doing that lovely “aye I’ll drive” thing.
Alice Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and David Axelrod all floating about in there, but it still feels fresh. Not museum jazz. Not homework jazz. Thank god.
Put it on earlier and immediately started walking round the shop like I owned better trousers.
ATA are on a ridiculous run.
Big recommendation.
@eluvium
Virga III
@tempresltd
Another one I was very excited to get in.
Huge fan of Eluvium. Proper “everyone pipe down for a minute” music.
This is beautiful. Slow, hazy, soft round the edges, but not boring ambient wallpaper for expensive candles and people called Tarquin.
It actually does something.
Piano drifting about. Drones rolling in. Wee details everywhere. Very calm. Very sad. Very class.
Limited to 1,000 as well, so don’t be doing the usual “I’ll get it next week” routine and then blaming me when it’s gone.
FFO: Stars Of The Lid, Loscil, William Basinski, Grouper, Tim Hecker, staring out the window like you’re in a BBC drama
@neurosisoakland An Undying Love For A Burning World
@neurotrecordings
Massive recommendation on this.
First new Neurosis in ten years and, aye, it’s ridiculous.
Huge, grim, slow, beautiful, horrible. All the things you want from Neurosis really. It doesn’t feel like a comeback record trying to prove a point. It just feels like Neurosis being Neurosis, which is more than enough.
Aaron Turner from Isis and Sumac is on it too, which makes complete sense. Nobody involved here is trying to make your day go swimmingly.
The clear version is already selling out everywhere, which is not surprising at all. These things never hang about, especially when the record is this good.
If you like the heavy stuff that actually has weight behind it, not just noise for the sake of it, this is the one.
FFO: Isis, Sumac, Amenra, Cult Of Luna, Swans
Brand new mint stuff first. Second hand bits are separate at the bottom before anyone starts inspecting sleeves like they’re on CSI: Ballyhackamore.
Dr. K. Gyasi & His Noble Kings
Hips need supervision.
Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble
Jazz leaves earth.
Jeff Parker ETA IVtet
Disgustingly good players.
Graham Reynolds
Cloak purchase pending.
Real Farmer
Guitars losing patience.
Modeselektor
Machines being cheeky.
Rebel Island Soul
Sunshine. In Belfast. Mental.
Hiding Places
Jangle for sad hallions.
Kevin Morby
Big field emotions.
Silver Apples
OAP bleep royalty.
The Raincoats
Wonky genius. Obviously.
Telehealth
Startup punk illness.
Dua Saleh
Genre dodging beautifully.
Discovery Zone
Laptop gets spiritual.
KaytrAminé
Good mood crime.
Calypso Diola
Jazz gets loose.
Molecule
Techno for bad weather.
Teratoma
Death metal bin fire.
Cathy Hamer
Cowgirl window staring.
Eluvium
Avoiding life beautifully.
Bill LaBounty
Yacht divorce excellence.
Neurosis
Heavy enough, cheers.
Super Furry Animals
Welsh lads malfunctioning.
Second hand bits, not all mint, check the grading before going full antique roadshow at the counter:
Rudimental, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, Kendrick, Flying Lotus, Tribe Called Quest, Boogie Times, I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME, Two Door, White Stripes, Oasis, Alice In Chains and Smoove + Turrell.
Loads of belters. Come have a nosey and ruin your budget like a grown adult.
Two records of the folk variety that are big recommendations.
Jim Ghedi
Wasteland
Big end times folk. Sounds like someone set fire to a National Trust walk.
Heavy, brooding, beautiful, very much not a wee man in a waistcoat going deedle dee.
FFO: Lankum, Richard Dawson, Shirley Collins
Styles: Dark folk, drone folk, contemporary folk
Kathryn Mohr
Carve
Tiny haunted songs from the bottom of a well.
Quiet, eerie, lo fi and absolutely not for anyone who says “this is a bit depressing” while listening to Adele in Asda.
Proper strange. Proper lovely.
FFO: Grouper, Carla dal Forno, Circuit des Yeux
Styles: Experimental folk, ambient folk, slowcore, lo fi
Oren Ambarchi
Hubris
Finally back out. About time too.
This has been out of print for ages and I’ve wanted one in the shop for a brave while.
Three tracks. All mad. All class.
Guitars doing wee locked in hypnotic loops. Bit of disco. Bit of krautrock. Bit of drone. Bit of free jazz. Bit of weird funk. Sounds like it should be a complete dose. It is not. It absolutely flies.
It is also absolutely mental and definitely not for everyone, which is usually where the good stuff lives.
Jim O’Rourke, Ricardo Villalobos, Mark Fell, Arto Lindsay, Will Guthrie and Keith Fullerton Whitman are all on it too. Just a normal wee lineup there. Nothing to see.
Remastered for its 10th birthday and sounding tasty.
A masterpiece. Sorry. Hate saying that. Makes me sound like I drink natural wine and explain films to people.
FFO: Can, Fennesz, Villalobos, David Grubbs, Weather Report
Styles: Experimental, krautrock, drone, minimal, fusion, weird funk
More bits out, and it’s a properly odd wee haul. Bit of heavier psych, garage, fuzz, doom, emo stuff, electronic bits and a few “why is this worth that much?” records, which is sadly most of the hobby now.
Loads of class stuff you may not have heard of too. The Switching Yard is Saskatoon fuzz damage. Hjortene is Danish stoner rock for people who like riffs with no indoor voice. Mr. Bison, Marijannah, Hazemaze, Ball and Blackwülf are all sitting in that lovely heavy psych/ doom/ occult rock corner where subtlety goes to die.
Then there’s Gum Takes Tooth on Rocket, which is just pure brain scramble. Sugar Candy Mountain brings the sunnier psych side before everything gets too caveman.
There’s also some pricier bits in the pile. Frnkiero at Maida Vale, Thursday’s Waiting, Aleksandir’s Contrails, the MCR 7”s and a few others are in the “aye, sorry, Discogs has ruined us all” zone. Lovely records though. Annoyingly lovely.
Also in there: Burial, Ween, Orbital, Eno, Big Thief, Mogwai, Neu!, Depeche Mode, Horace Silver, Pearl Jam, Nina Simone and a load more.
Basically, a very healthy pile of records for people with taste, problems, or both.
