Wilder was the second and final album by The Teardrop Explodes, originally released in November 1981 and a radical, post-punk classic that’s ripe for reappraisal. Ambitious, colourful and catchy and with more ideas at play than most groups could conjure up in a lifetime, like so many great albums, it simply confused people in its audacity.

At the start of the year, ‘Reward’ had given the Teardrops their only Top Ten hit but amidst all the publicity that always surrounded the group, Wilder reached only a disappointing 29 in the charts. The first extracted single ‘Passionate Friend’, despite two appearances on Top of the Pops, barely scraped into the Top 30. Within a year of Wilder’s release, the group had split up.

‘Serious talent and vision’ NPR
‘Samaris specialise in gorgeous, haunting nocturnes’ Drowned In Sound
‘..unlike much else you’ll hear coming out of Iceland right now.’ The Line Of Best Fit

Icelandic teenage wunderkind Samaris’ first UK release comes in the shape of an eponymously-titled album on 29th July. Samaris compiles their two Icelandic-released EPs, Hljóma Þú (2011) and Stofnar falla (recorded at Sigur Rós’ Sundlaugin studio with Gunnar Tynes of múm, 2012) and includes 4 remixes as detailed below.

The four-piece put out a couple of tracks last year in the forms of 'Fever' and 'Slow Train', the latter recorded with Paul Savage (Franz Ferdinand, Flaming Lips) in Glasgow, and are due to release their first official single 'Calm Now' on June 3rd.

'Slow Train' and 'Fever' led to comparisons with the likes of Fleet Foxes, Alt-J and Bombay Bicycle Club', with Flying With Anna saying of 'Slow Train' "the result is really quite excellent. Dreamy, post-rock, shoe-gazing folky loveliness".

For fans of... The Dandy Warhols, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes
“...playfully knowing indie rock...” - Q Magazine

After the release of the critically acclaimed 2011 album Turn And Face Me, The Blood Arm return with their fourth album Infinite Nights on June 17th 2013 via RIP Ben Lee Records. Infinite Nights showcases a more mature sound after a short break and a move from their LA home to the cool avant-garde city of Berlin.

Further to the release of the band’s debut album, Secondhand Rapture, MS MR unveil the Chvrches remix of their single, Hurricane – already number 1 on the HypeMachine charts!

May 26th sees the release of, ‘Hurricane’ which follows up their last release, the Radio 1 playlisted ‘Fantasy’. ‘Hurricane’ contains a delicious combination of huge hooks and dark lyrics (“Welcome to the inner workings of my mind/So dark and foul I can’t disguise,”) and, after being made available via the bands Tumblr last year, was named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork, ‘Hottest Record’ by Zane Lowe, ‘Potential Superstars’ by The Guardian and reaching No1 on Hype Machine.

Buzzard Lope is an alt-pop trio from Bedford, Birmingham and Brazil, who bonded over long, rain-battered drives around Europe, crammed in an old estate car with just their manager, keyboard, drum kit and double bass to keep them lucid.

A shared affection for Tom Waits sealed the deal for the trio's earthy, layered sound. Add a dash of Dresden Dolls' combativeness to the mix and you're somewhere close. Led by singer and pianist Roger Illingworth, and underpinned by the impeccable double bass and drums of Adam Jarvis and Raphael Saib, the boys' style refuses to be defined; it dives from towering emotional cliffs into quagmires of self-deprecating humour.