Some fantastic news for fans of classic 80s pop. In January 2020, Cherry Red are set to reissue Kim Wilde’s first three albums as deluxe sets. All three will also receive the coloured vinyl treatment.
Following the same set up as the 2018 Howard Jones reissues, the albums – Kim Wilde (1981), ‘Select’ (1982) and ‘Catch As Catch Can’ – are to be made available as 2CD/DVD sets, with each one hosting a whole bunch of bonus tracks and rarities.
Although only together for around eighteen months at the close of 2019, Pennsylvania’s The World Without Us have gigged intensively and already shared a stage with the mighty Soulfly. It takes some bands years to gain that kind of attention, but one listen to their ‘Incarnate’ EP is pretty much all you’ll need to be convinced that these guys are one hell of a metal band.
Taking huge swathes of metalcore, a pinch of prog-metal and a couple of other influences, this EP is a giant melting pot of riffs. Riffs big enough to take on the very best; something helped no end by a heavy production style that is streets ahead of so many bands’ first DIY releases.
The end of anything beloved is automatically sad. Wiltshire indie rockers Daydream Runaways have attempted to convey such an emotion on their current single ‘Closing The Line’.
In the nineties, melodic rock was going through an interesting phase. People with narrow musical tastes tell you the “scene had been killed by grunge” (yes, that old chestnut – how boring AOR fans can be), but the fact is, with AOR and melodic rock being driven to independent labels, between 1993 and 1999 the scene actually produced some of its best music since 1989. Labels like Now & Then released unmissable discs by Crown of Thorns, Cannata, Ten and Shotgun Symphony; Long Island gave the world the second – and best – Heartland album, and further out on the fringes, labels like Z Records, Megarock and Empire some great albums too, including releases by Mark Spiro, Snakes In Paradise and Jekyll & Hyde. Regardless of what some people might claim, the scene was far from dead…it had just migrated.
Reckless Yes is an independent label which, in their own words, sets out with a “focus on working ethically with artists”. In the past, they’ve released limited edition vinyl singles by Bivouac and Mower and their current roster includes Bluetones man Mark Morriss and relative newcomers, Fightmilk.