Upset the Rhythm prevail a bastion of goodness in the midst of the turbulent winds agitating the modern music industry. They have stuck to their guns, releasing one unforgettable gem after the other, in coloured vinyl too. Their success is a testament to what one can achieve with taste, principles, attitude, love and niceness, and sets an example of the way forward for record labels all over. Here you have glimpses of their latest exercises in awesomeness, as well as an excelent mixtape that Chris has kindly put together for us. Enjoy!

We knew from day one that Gentle Friendly were destined for greatness. Behold Lover’s Rock, included in Ride Slow, a majestic torch song cutting through the confusion of a Sunday morning with ice in the streets and no coffee in the kitchen. They stomp forward with the gusto of motown spectres, while their heavenly melodies make us think of Spiritualised before Jason Pierce floated away in his howling castle. They share with Arthur Russell that subtle and intimate psychedelic spirit which seeks to animate rather than annihilate reality. Which is what we need right now.

Gentle Friendly- Lovers Rock

Former Ghosts is the super-group that brings together Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu, Nika Roza of Zola Jesus and Freddy Rupert from This Song Is A Mess But So Am I. The Bull and the Ram, featured in ‘Fleur’, are sparkles of the bonfire where cold wave consumes in slow and painful motion. From its ashes surges into the night sky a beautiful phoenix, like that dove soaring across industrial towers with Batty’s death at the end of Bladerunner.

Think of Einsturzende Neubauten’s mechanical insects burrowing across the honey-laden corridors of Vangelis’ synthetic hive, and you will be thinking of the glorious edifice that Former Ghosts have built.

Former Ghosts- The Bull and the Ram

Upset the Rhythm Mixtape

Tracklist:

1. PLUG – Fresh Pleasures

2. BIRD NAMES – Natural Weeds

3. HARTLEY C WHITE – Welcome Back To Reality

4. KIT – Cure Light Wounds

5. US GIRLS – Red Ford Radio

6. COLD PUMAS – Peaches

7. TORO Y MOI – Fax Shadow

8. FORMER GHOSTS – Aria Of The Bell

9. NO BABIES – Tanuki (Mix 1)

10. TRASH KIT – Sun Spots

11. THE STICKS – One And The Same

12. SANDCRABS – Mumble B. Peg

13. BRILLIANT CITIES – English Cities

14. DARK MEAT – Yonderin’

15. PSYCHIC REALITY – Foxey

16. GIRLS WITH ATTITUDE – Don’t Judge Me

17. WILD NOTHING – Live In Dreams

18. LESLIE FLINT – Possessed by Oscar Wilde (Recorded in London 02.05.1957)

We are celebrating Upset The Rhytm’s US tour with a bunch of glorious exclusives from artists that shall be participating in the jaunty shindig, beautiful stuff and much much love to Chris, Claire and Brian ‘tunes’ Miller. Remember:

This Friday (3rd July): New York at Monster Island Basement

Saturday 11th July: Los Angeles at the Smell

Sunday 12th of July: San Francisco at the LAB

Check here for more info, and for Christ’s sake, DON’T MISS OUT and TAKE MUCH LOVE TO THE SHOWS.

We begin with the High Places-related The Urxed. Gardening After Dark is like listening to Technotronic while playing hide n seek across blooming forests illuminated  by Japanese lanterns, stop for a second and you will see the pale ghosts of dead children beholding your game from the distance with a smile in their thin lips. Eerie fun is where it’s at, if you don’t believe me go and ask Calvin Johnson.

The Urxed- Gardening at Night

Lucky Dragon make deceivingly intense transcendentalist gamelan music which burrows a hole under your ribcage, slides across layers of flesh, fat and muscle without rupturing a single blood vessel and reach a cowering heart they proceed to massage with delicate and slender fingers. Moments of breathless warmth ensue. Aww.

Lucky Dragons- Open Melody

Former Ghosts are people from Xiu Xiu, This Song Is A Mess But So Am I, & Zola Jesus. The term haunted balladry gets hurled around with too much abandon in modern music journalism, but these people really do own it, and then some. If you have sat in your bedroom surrounded by the machinery of a world which continues operating furiously ignorant of your suffering, and then looked up to see a crack in the clouds through which a wisp of sun shines for a second, to make everything even more painful, then you know what I mean. Cheree Cheree.

Former Ghosts-Us and Now

Oh, btw we have opened one of those Twitter things. Follow us for brief insights into the hive mind of the 20JFG massive, and perhaps some goodies too.

Future Islands operate in those same uncharted waters where unsuspecting sonic adventurers have in the past beheld the funereal profile of John Maus’ colossal Flying Dutchman slicing past the thick mist creaking and ululating. A livelier tempo in this jaunt perhaps, but the same je ne sais quoi, a feverish deja vu of beautiful detritus floating in inky & turbulent waters after a musical shipwreck of damaged grandeur, synth drones which are the good cop in Suicide’s double act, and rotund epic torch-balladry which make us think of that legend Bruce via the rather missed melancholic post-punk of the Constantines. Plain nice, get Wave Like Home kids.

Future Islands- Beach Foam

Death Sentence: Panda! dwell in a mystery valley with paths tread by ceremonious foxes, a Kurosawa dream throwback or the most haunted scene ever to drop on the pixie dust sprinkled floor of Studio Ghibli’s editing cabin, lure you in the zone with the mystery chimes of a tribal stomp prelude to an onslaught of Crass style no wave terror with enough bass to make Drop the Lime go whoah, now you know what it feels like to be chased by the Chinese version of the Evil Dead, Oni styles and a flute & drums finale that get down prog like this was the 1974. Space flexes it disturbing muscles, you never knew you could go to so many places in such little time.

Death Sentence: Panda!- Hidden Track

You can find this sharp-toothed wonder hidden at the very end of Insects Awaken.