AMOR: Paradise / In Love An Arc
Limited to 500 in disco sleeve with Download Card

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Paradise / In Love An Arc is the debut recording by AMOR, a new quartet based largely in Glasgow, consisting of Richard Youngs, Luke Fowler, Michael Francis Duch and Paul Thomson. AMOR is a master-class in blissful, searching, avant-disco fuelled by telepathic ensemble playing and an untouchable, higher joy.

Listen: https://youtu.be/nQpE8Aqb32U

Recorded predominantly at Glasgow’s Green Door and mixed by Golden Teacher/The Modern Institute-member Richard McMaster, both tracks edge the 14 minute mark, slices of ecstasy seemingly hewn from a band deep in the Zone. Mastered by Matt Colton at Alchemy Studios, the balance between hefty, bass-thick kicks and crisp percussion, an elastic double bass that lends a bounce to proceedings and floating piano chords recalls a warped take on Philadelphia International Records, a version of Can decimating the disco charts of late 70s USA. Paradisebegins with a proto-house kick drum and Paul Thomson’s inescapably funky percussion, inviting Duch’s bass into the mix. Fowler’s subtle electronic touches set up some of the most open-hearted, love-infected vocals Richard Youngs has ever set to tape. Guided through various drops and ecstatic highs by ceaselessly inventive rhythm composition, the listener is elevated to several plains, to different levels and spirits. In Love An Arc, arguably goes deeper. Jane Sayer’s guest violin scrapes us in, with formless shapes polluting the stereo field until a plaintive piano chord pattern brings us into the groove. Sounding like a lost spirit looking through the glass darkly, Youngs’ vocal is melancholic and truthful. Fowler’s synth playing evolves upward, duetting with the stringed instruments’ deep excursions into the night.

While these are only the first recordings by AMOR, the members have separate exceptional histories in modern music. Richard Youngs has a 140+ long discography covering any number of musics often invented by Youngs himself, while Luke Fowler is an award winning film-maker and visual artist, as well as an electronic musician in his own right. Paul Thomson is a drummer and percussionist with Franz Ferdinand and The Yummy Fur and Michael Francis Duch is a double bassist based in Norway with deep roots in the world of improvisation and minimalist composition. Most importantly, however, is that this is the sound of a band, as one.

We are extremely proud to announce a new venture. SCHOOL DAZE is our new imprint focusing on the past.

The first release on this imprint is the vinyl edition of RPM’s landmark 2016 compilation Sharon Signs To Cherry Red. Taking it’s name from a song by The Kamikazee Pilots, the compilation is an overview of the UK’s post-punk scene seen through the prism of its female participants. Among some well-known artists like Marine Girls, Dolly Mixture, Strawberry Switchbalade and  Vivien Goldman sits more obscure, life affirming music by the likes of Dorothy, Rexy, The Avocados, The Petticoats and many more. “Sharon Signs To Cherry Red” features rare or previously unreleased material from most of these artists.

The last copies of the red vinyl edition, limited to 300, are at Rough Trade and you can get it from them by following this link, or heading to their stores in London or Nottingam.

We’ll have a second press for you in the future.

Follow The Light is the second installment of an ongoing Molly Nilsson reissue campaign and is the first time the album has been available on vinyl.

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“The closest we’ll ever get to heaven, with a stolen six pack from 7/11, and though the city sleeps I better she never dreams, she never dreams like you and me.”
The beginning moments of Molly Nilsson’s second album Follow The Light now seem like the start of a personal mythology that was to reach further than she could have imagined. Few contemporary artists have so seeped into the underground pop psyche than the Stockholm-born songwriter. After releasing her debut These Things Take Time on hand-made CDrs, Nilsson’s follow up was a leap in scope and ambition. Of course, the personal takes on a tumultuous life in Berlin and the journeys to and from it inform the songs as before, but there’s a growing maturity in the songwriting in evidence. From the diary pages of These Things Take Time to a growing stature as a songwriter in touch with the universal, Follow The Light contains many of Nilsson’s now firm fan-favourites.

The Closest We’ll Ever Get To Heaven is classic Molly Nilsson. Over plaintive piano chords and little else, Nilsson narrates a story of doomed friends lost, the onset of an East German winter reminding the singer of a time lost, nostalgia frosting the windows to the past. Meanwhile In Berlin, perhaps a passing nod to Leonard Cohen in the melodic refrain, opens up the sonic palette, with synth strings fitting Nilsson’s delivery perfectly. Never O’Clock is a pure pop moment, with a lilting funk and percussion adding a carpe diem immediacy to the album’s flow. Last Forever, which remains a staple to live encores now, seven years later, is fist-pumping melancholy that only Molly Nilsson knows how to do. It’s over before it begins and begs eternal repeat. Truth, a synth pop song that sees Nilsson exploring the upper and lower registers of her voice, feels like a lost chart hit from the mid 80s. I Hope You Sleep At Night, a vitriolic lover’s admonishment gives way to one of Nilsson’s most popular songs: I’m Still Wearing His Jacket. It’s a sentiment that needs no real explanation: the mementos of a completed love affair remain in our wardrobes waiting to hurt us all over again. Hello Loneliness could also be an updated Leonard Cohen song, a peon to melancholy which reminds us that Nilsson has a knack for distilling the complex into sharp epithets. We end on one of Nilsson’s greatest songs. A Song They Won’t Be Playing On The Radio is so finely loaded with emotion that it’s the singer’s reserved delivery that makes it so powerful.

It’s been a great honour to work with Strawberry Switchblade on the unearthing of their original 1982 4-piece demo. We first came across these recordings on the impeccable Strawberry Switchblade fan site, and after securing the original cassette recording from Jill Bryson commissioned expert engineer Sean Pennycook to clean up and remaster the recordings for reissue. The only photographic evidence from the time was a scanned contact sheet from a photoshoot conducted by Peter McArthur, from which Manuel Fernandez designed a sleeve for the 7″ E.P.

“1982 4-Piece Demo” has been produced with the full consent and licensing from the surviving members of Strawberry Switchblade. Our eternal thanks go out to Jill Bryson, Rose McDowall, Janise Vanderflier and Carol McGowan, who sadly never got to see this release.

We have sold out of our allocation but we recommend the following outlets in the U.K.: Monorail Music, Rough Trade, and Norman. This release, like all Night School releases, will be distributed worldwide. Please check your local distributor / retailer.