Rose Hotel - A Pawn Surrender - VINYL LP

Following their acclaimed 2023 album, Absolute Reality, Holiday Ghosts 5th album, Coat Of Arms captures several facets within their musical output powerful, gut-punch punky garage rock; classic jangly indie pop; songs of protest and resistance and songs that resonate emotion and introspection. With an array of support in recent years (The Guardian, The Independent, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, KEXP, DIY, Clash, So Young, The Line Of Best Fit), as well as repeated support on the BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Craig Charles, Mark Riley) and Radio X (John Kennedy), Holiday Ghosts' impeccable brand of garage rock has certainly attracted considerable attention across the board; whilst their thrilling live show has already seen them tick off slots at the likes of Latitude Festival and Left Of The Dial, in addition to supports with Black Lips, Bodega and The Bug Club.

On Chrystia Cabral's fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transformsher acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral's lyrics for Portrait of MyHeart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approachof much of her previous work for something pointed into her human heart. Thealbum's thematic forthrightness is echoed in it's arrangements, making it thesharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date. From the dark minimalism ofher earliest music to the lavishly orchestrated prog-pop of 2021's The TurningWheel to this newly energetic expression of her creative spirit, Cabral has provedagain and again that SPELLLING can be whatever she needs it to be.The title track, with it's propulsive drum groove and anthemic chorus of InchI don'tbelong here,Inch is the most potent embodiment of the album's turn toward emotional directness. Once the main melody emerged, Cabral used the song as a toolto process her anxiety as a performer and opted for a tighter, more rock-orientedcomposition. This transformation mirrors the album's broader shift toward energyand immediacy, driven by the core band of Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass), whose collaboration uncovers newcontours of the SPELLLING sound. Cabral still writes and demos in isolation, butpresenting the songs for Portrait of My Heart to her bandmates helped her discovertheir eventual lively, organic forms. So did working with a trio of producers-TheTurning Wheel mixing engineer Drew Vandenberg, SZA collaborator Rob Bisel,and Yves Tumor producer Psymun.Key guest contributions further shape the album. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) deliversSPELLLING's first duet on InchMount Analogue,Inch Turnstile guitarist Pat McCroryturns Cabral's original piano demo for InchAlibiInch into the crunchy, riff-y version thatappears on the record, while Zulu's Braxton Mar

This new trio, featuring pianist David Kikoski with the great Russian bassist Boris Kozlov and the legendary drummer Jeff InchTainInch Watts, presents a program of all Kikoski originals executed in the solo, duet, and trio . It's a beautiful album showing US the different sides of a great jazz pianist.