The Prince Estate dived into the archives of the late genius’ 1987 double
masterpiece album SIGN O’ THE TIMES. The result is a gigantic super deluxe
edition including 45 studio ‘vault’ tracks varying from okay to good to very
good to brilliant. A total of 92 songs and 8 hours & 2 minutes of music.
Here’s what you get…
CD1 or LP 1- Sign O’ The Times (Remastered)
CD2 or LP 2 – Sign O’ The Times (Remastered)
CD3 or LP 3 & 4 – Singles Mixes / Edits / B-Sides (Remastered)
CD4 or LP 5 & 6 – Vault Tracks (Unreleased)
CD5 or LP 7 & 8 – Vault Tracks (Unreleased)
CD6 or LP 9 & 10 – Vault Tracks (Unreleased)
CD8 or 9 / LPs 11-13 – Live In Utrecht June 20th 1987 (Unreleased)
DVD – Live at Paisley Park December 31st 1987 (Unreleased
Sign O’ The Times show ft Miles Davis)
If you’re a fan of his Purple Highness I propose
to lock yourself down at home for an 8-hour quarantine,
with your disinfected headphones on, for an isolated
and safe ‘Sing O’ The Corona Times’ experience…
Who: Pulling influences from dream pop, garage and shoegaze, Hyla is a project
formed by Alex Hayes. They produce a swirl of fuzzed-out guitars, layered melodic
vocals, and a sound that is at once fresh and nostalgic.
Influences:My Bloody Valentine, The Verve,
The Jesus and Mary Chain, Ty Segall, BRMC…
Pick: KNOWN TO FALL – newest single from their upcoming LP
Score: Oh, this is blissful and entrancing music. Combine the ambient shoegaze
poppiness of Slowdive and the foggy amplified melodiousness of Ride and you
will catch my rapturous drift. ‘Known To Fall’ takes you on a melancholic 4-minute mixed emotions trip.
Beautifully orchestrated, stylishly multi-layered, colored with musing vocals and that ongoing guitar riff keeps ringing in your head-in-the-clouds long after this wonderful
gem came to an end. Think of a glimmering rainbow up there in the sky. You can’t stop watching its brightness, just like you can’t stop listening to this sonic magnificence.
Note 1: “Sorted for E’s and wizz’ is a phrase a girl that I met in Sheffield once told me”
said frontman/songwriter Jarvis Cocker about the inspiration for that song.
Note 2: The pre-release single had an inlay which a British tabloid/gutter journalist
of the Daily Mirror called Thornton alleged showed how to make an origami ‘wrap’ or
parcel with the intention of “offering teenage fans a DIY guide on hiding illegal drugs”.
Released: 25 September 1995 – 25 years ago today Score: #2 in the UK and Scotland and #6 in Ireland Album:Different Class
AllMusic/Andy Kellman verdict: “ACR Loco is freer in spirit and lighter in touch than their previous LP, Mind Made Up. While ACR could be forgiven for feeling the weight of a 40-year history, there’s a spring in their step… They’re as comfortable with referring to their past as they are with exhibiting old and new inspirations… it’s all put together in a way that only A Certain Ratio could possibly manage… forward motion and eternal optimism.”
Turn Up The Volume‘s first impressions: sounds like the late great sex machines Prince and James Brobn teamed up in ACR’s notorious Manchester haven, recording together in the infamous Haçienda night club with the band’s Jez Kerr in the production room.”
Last August Paris-born, London-based singer/songwriter MADAME SO spoiled
our ears with striking single You Say, a towering tune by a towering voice.
And here’s another, brand new tune called WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE?. A moody, melancholic and wondering reflection “on young hedonism“. This time her mightful
soul voice sounds moony and meditative, giving this catchy, shoe-gazy, guitar-riveting jingle a heartfelt think-about it feel.
Two things are crystal clear now, Madame So
explores different sonic directions with flair and
determination AND she’s here to stay.
Band: THE HIVES (Sweden) Active: Since 1993 Album: LIVE AT THIRD MAN RECORDS Info: 30 years after they hit the wild rock ‘n’ knock scene and set countless stages on fire these Swedish adrenalin-fueled punk clowns, fronted by big mouthpiece Howlin’ Pelle, declaring themselves Your New Favourite Band once, finally recorded a live album. It
all happened in Nashville at Jack White‘s venue ‘The Blue Room’. Released: 25 September 2020
Key line: “You do everything you weren’t allowed to do in school. Jumping up and down, screaming, annoying people, and people love you for it.” – Howlin’ Pelle
Keywords: Tick Tick Boom / Walk idiots walk / Main offenders / Blitzkrieg punk-o-rama / Stand up comedian madness / 30 red-hot minutes / Hate To Say I Told You So firework
“While singer and multi-instrumentalist Bonnie Bloomgarden and guitarist Larry Schemel knew their intention for the album before a single note was written, the actual nature and direction of the music was a mystery. The initial inspiration for the record came from the jubilant spirit of Ethiopian funk records the band had been listening to on tour, but once they began to channel the songs it seemed like the music came from somewhere not in the past but in the future.”
Singles:Hold My Hand / Under The Spell Of Joy / The Universe
Band: THE WARLOCKS (Los Angeles) Active: Since 1998 Album: THE CHAIN – 10th longplayer Key references: Grateful Dead, Spiritualized, Velvet
Underground, All Them Witches, The Black Angels, Released: 3 April 2020
Bobby Hecksher (founder/songwriter/guitarist): “It’s creamy, dreamy,
glass breaking-style storytelling.”
Cleopatra Records: This ambitious album tells a single story, of two star-crossed lovers who commit a bank heist together, over the course of 10 gorgeous, dense layered guitar tracks spiced with keyboards and reinforced with powerful bass and percussion grooves!
The Band after more than 20 years: We are still having just as much fun as when we started. A little wiser, more responsible perhaps but still the same old us in one way or another. It’s quite a feat when bands seem to break up left and right these days. Keyline: “We don’t need no money, we don’t need no soul
We don’t need anybody, as long as we got rock and roll.”
Turn Up The Volume: “Never underestimate the heart and
commitment of a caring, genuine long-time rock ‘n’ roll band.”
The Aquarian Weekly: “Compared to the Warlocks off-the-cuff, acid-soaked earlier albums, The Chain doesn’t so much represent a departure in sound as it does reflect the maturation
of Hecksher as an artist and songwriter… Partially rooted in a screenplay Hecksher had written about a bank robbery gone wrong—and the conflicting consequences which the main protagonists, Rocky and Diamond, face in the wake of the heist…
The Chain is a meditation on the criminal justice system, particularly how the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is blatantly displayed within an institution where the equity of penalty is pushed aside for those who can buy their way to freedom… The Chain resonates with vivid imagery, evoking the sense of a cinematic societal critique, set amid a soundtrack of oozing, shoegaze-infused neo-psychedelia. Blessed still are the trip-takers, for sure. Only now, The Warlocks are vibrating from the new-found theoretical value of Hecksher’s songwriting.” – Full review here.
Turn Up The Volume: “Never underestimate the heart and the
commitment of a caring, genuine, long-time rock ‘n’ roll band.”
Singles: I’m Not Good Enough / Party Like We Used To
