SARAH NIXEY: Former BLACK BOX RECORDER singer to release stylish new solo album

Sarah Nixey

‘Sea Fever’

Album released 6^th February

Black Lead Records

CD/Vinyl/Download

 

Formerly one third of the much-loved trio Black Box Recorder, alongside The Auteurs’ Luke Haines and Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist John Moore, the British singer-songwriter Sarah Nixey has steadily gained acclaim as a solo artist who makes savvy, sophisticated and poised pop.

 

Delivering vocals with a detached elegance over opulent tracks, any perceived nonchalance in Nixey’s luxe, cut glass voice belies her empathy, where social commentary serves as protest, both explicit and implied. Like Billy Bragg deepfaked as prime Julie Andrews, this strange but effective juxtaposition radiates soft power. Her new album ‘Sea Fever’ is set for release on the 6^th February via Black Lead Records.

 

‘Lies of the Land’ depicts a corrupt post-Brexit and Covid-19 world where inequality and division flourish. ‘England's On Fire’ delves into the nuanced concepts of patriotism and nationalism, and ‘Pleasure Bay’ narrates the story of a love affair with a deprived yet beautiful English seaside town, written after Nixey left London, drawn back to the Dorset coast.

 

More than just a political record though, Nixey was drawn to the poetic elements of living too, telling stories of life and death, love and loss, conflicts and symmetry, in an intimate and close-up way, as if whispering secrets to her listeners.

 

“Sea Fever explores the bittersweet beauty of human life amid a volatile world of changing seasons and brutal elements,” says Nixey. “These are songs of deep sorrow, remembrance, birth, and change, set against a backdrop of the sensuous natural world.”

 

‘Rolling Waves’ explores profound grief following her beloved grandmother's death, while ‘Spring Equinox’ celebrates the joy and awe of life after welcoming her first grandchild. ‘At the Edge of the Forest’ is a poignant story of someone losing their memory, and ‘On This Wide Night’ recounts the early hours return home of a teenage runaway.

 

Nixey released her debut solo album ‘Sing, Memory’ in 2007, followed by ‘Brave Tin Soldiers’ in 2011. Her 2018 album ‘Night Walks,’ received critical acclaim from media included The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Clash and Record Collector alongside airplay on BBC radio.

 

As Black Box Recorder, the trio released the critically acclaimed album ‘England Made Me’ in 1998, followed by ‘The Facts of Life’ in 2000, which included the Top 20 single of the same name, resulting in a performance on Top of the Pops. The band’s third and final studio album ‘Passionoia’ was released in 2003. The compilation album, ‘The Worst of Black Box Recorder,’ a collection of B-sides, cover versions and remixes, was released in 2001. After sojourns into solo and collaborative projects, Haines, Moore, and Nixey joined forces once more for two sold-out gigs at The Luminaire, and their final ever gig at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in 2009.

 

The BBR track ‘Child Psychology’ went viral in 2023 when Billie Eilish posted a video of herself listening to the song. To date, it has received over 25m plays. The same year, a 25^th anniversary edition of their debut album ‘England Made Me’ was released.

 

Tracklisting

 

‘Witness Tree’

‘The Sound of Falling Snow’

‘Rolling Waves’

‘Sea Fever’

‘Winter Solstice’

‘At the Edge of the Forest’

‘Lies of the Land’

‘England's On Fire’

‘On This Wide Night’

‘Pleasure Bay’

‘Mudlarks’

‘Spring Equinox’

 

Previous praise

 

“A triumph of avant pop. Nixey’s songwriting shows new depth and maturity” The Quietus

 

"The one-time member of Black Box Recorder has blossomed as a solo artist, approaching pop from daring new vantage points" Clash

 

“A tour de force, full of melody and élan” Record Collector

 

" A thing of subtle gorgeousness" The Independent

 

"Her songs are delivered in such an accessible, radio-friendly style that she could easily find a wider audience" Sunday Times

 

“Has a classic 60s Dusty-gone-electro sheen to it. Fully loaded with rich, warm synths. Nice job” Electronic Sound

 

“Nixey’s breathy vocals lure you in” Scottish Sunday Express

 

“Britain’s most elegant chanteuse” Allmusic

 

“An understated triumph” Uncut

 

"A sophisticated pop palette garnished by Nixey’s elegant balance of bittersweet spoken word narratives and evocative chorus lines" God Is In The TV

 

“Sarah Nixey happens to be the owner of one of the very, very best British female voices of all time. There is no one in pop — not one singer I can think of — who has her precise and exacting command over her instrument” Dangerous Minds

 

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Bratmobile RSD Vinyl Reissue + Surprise Digital Release out today | Share “There’s No Other Way (Blur cover) / No You Don’t”

Bratmobile The Real Janelle & The Peel Session Record Store Day Vinyl Reissue out today via Kill Rock Stars Surprise Digital Release of Reissue Available Now! The Real Janelle & The Peel Session CD purchase + digital DSP link Listen + Share: “There’s No Other Way (Blur cover) / No You Don’t” “Bratmobile was one of the most prominent voices of the early-Nineties riot grrrl movement.” – Rolling Stone "Bratmobile was one of the brightest spots in Olympia’s immense rock scene, as well as arguably the most influential musical tentpoles of the riot grrrl movement." – KEXP “They flip the idea of what girls are “supposed to do” on its head” – American Songwriter

Photo Credit: Pat Graham Feminist punk legends Bratmobile have released the limited edition The Real Janelle & The Peel Session Record Store Day reissue in participating record stores across the US today via Kill Rock Stars. As a special treat for fans, the band has also put out this release across streaming services, marking the first time The Peel Session has ever been digitally released. Celebrate this momentous occasion with the band by thrashing to The Peel Session single “There’s No Other Way (Blur cover) / No You Don’t”. Listen / Share: “There’s No Other Way (Blur cover) / No You Don’t” “Both The Real Janelle and The Peel Session were recorded within a month of each other, representing a slice of Bratmobile life in the summer of ‘93, so it makes perfect sense to rerelease them together in one package,” says frontwoman Allison Wolfe. “I’m especially psyched for The Peel Session since the recording quality is so good and it’s been nearly impossible to find (I don’t even own a copy!). We also get to kind of debut a “new” song, our cover of Blur’s “No Other Way.” Blurmobile!” Drummer Molly Meuman shares, “These records represent such a wild moment in our band’s life. From recording Janelle in our first “real” studio, to having the chance to record a Peel Session at the BBC’s historic Maida Vale studio on our first tour of the UK, it documents all of our passion for our music and our community.” Guitarist Erin Smith reminisces, “Back in the day, there was either Blur or Oasis and you could not like both, and I was definitely always solidly in the Blur camp. Their guitarist Graham Coxon has always been a keen supporter of the underground, and a huge Kill Rock Stars fan. It was the thrill of my life when Blur’s Great Escape Tour came through DC and Graham came up behind me, singing my signature one finger, E string only version of ‘There’s No Other’ way in my ear!! He had heard the Peel Session!” The Real Janelle & The Peel Session reissue brings together two key Bratmobile releases in one place. Side A, The Real Janelle, was originally released in 1994 as a 12" EP and CD. Kill Rock Stars reissued it digitally in 2023, and this is its first time back in physical format. Finally back in circulation, Side B, The Peel Session, exposes Bratmobile’s raw energy through a proper studio lens and includes rarely-heard versions of select songs (plus a cover song not otherwise available). Recorded for John Peel at the BBC in July 1993, these recordings haven’t seen the light of day since the EP’s original CD short run in 1994. Bratmobile’s Peel Session has been out of print ever since, passed around only on worn-out CDs and bootlegs until now. Bratmobile’s singular brand of pointed political prowess and infectious dance punk chops have influenced generations of artists, activists and pleasure-seekers. The band played an outrageous headline performance at Mosswood Meltdown in 2023 with the aim to create joy, community and space for more of us to use our voices. Originally formed during an extreme political climate which we find ourselves in again, the band’s songs are still just as meaningful and activating decades later.

The Real Janelle & The Peel Session reissue artwork  — Side A — The Real Janelle 1. The Real Janelle 2. Brat Girl 3. Yeah, Huh? 4. Die 5. And I Live In A Town Where The Boys Amputate Their Hearts 6, Where Eagles Dare — Side B — The Peel Session 1. There’s No Other Way / No You Don’t 2. Bitch Theme 3. Make Me Miss America 4. Panik Instagram | Bandcamp | Tik Tok | Facebook

TENDERNESS shares new single "Database Blues". Debut album 'True' out March 13th via Amorphous Sounds.

TENDERNESS - Shares new single "Database Blues" - Debut album 'True' out March 13th via Amorphous Sounds - Announces London show

Photo credit: Rachel Lipsitz "One to watch” - Lauren Laverne, BBC 6Music "‘Blends UK-centric indie pop with an Americana lilt - kind of Big Thief by way of Seven Sisters" - CLASH Today Tenderness - the solo project of Katy Beth Young (Peggy Sue, Deep Throat Choir) - shares new single "Database Blues", from upcoming debut album True, which is out March 13th via Amorphous Sounds. "Database Blues" follows previous single "We'll Always Have Paris 1919" and a recent tour with Willy Mason. On top of this, Tenderness is set to play a headline London show at St Pancras Old Church on March 18th.  On the new single, Tenderness said "'Database Blues' is a country song set in the world of streaming algorithms and re-read text messages. When I wrote it, I was thinking a lot about how technology and romance can feed and battle each other at the same time. Sending a song to a crush is obviously one of life’s purest joys but what does it mean when the algorithm plays it back to you later? Can you still call it a sign? I was an MSN Messenger teenager so there have always been screens in my romances - screens as a connector and amplifier as well as a barrier, and 'Database Blues' is me owning up to my own complicity in that."    "Database Blues" on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gqFZRmAatJc "Database Blues" on other streaming services: https://tenderness-songs.ffm.to/databaseblues A walk across the salt flats. A pixelated moon on a touchscreen. A song set on the hottest day of the year. A song set on the final day on earth. A song you can’t send to someone, because they’re no longer there. True, the debut album from Tenderness — the solo project of Katy Beth Young (Peggy Sue, Deep Throat Choir) — leads you by the hand through scenes like these, on deceptively simple songs that shimmer with electric guitars and drones and licks of pedal steel. Songs that look sideways at romance and grief and technology. Songs that break hearts with their precise and thoughtful beauty as well as their sadness. Songs that are, by turns, tender like a touch, tender like a bruise. Tenderness was born out of a tough storm of circumstances: the pandemic, a cancelled tour, a break-up, and the loss of her father. Furloughed and with too much time on her hands, Young began to write new songs in her north London living room, windows wide open to the hot summer outside. “I was having a hard old time but it was also strangely beautiful,” she says. “There’s something about that space of grief that is very tender. There was a lot of sadness, but also a sweetness and openness to the world. You feel things deeply but you’re also gentle with people.” In August 2020, during that “weird window” of the pandemic where lockdown eased up enough for a trip to the seaside, or across London, Young visited producer Euan Hinshelwood (Younghusband, Cate Le Bon) at his Greenwich studio. In two days, the pair recorded eight demos with no pressure or plan. “It was like a day trip to the land of music,” she recalls. Over the next few years, around lockdowns and tours and day jobs, those demos quietly transformed into True. Across the ten songs, Young tries to untangle the supposed boundaries between fantasy and fact, romance and the real world. “We perform love in the same way that we perform love songs. And when you sing, performing makes the emotions real again,” she says. “That’s why ‘True’ became the album title. It’s all true, I think.”  Technology is a recurring lens – screens as connector and amplifier as well as barrier. Photos of the moon, video calls, streaming algorithms, and re-read text messages all mirror modern love and grief. Initially, Young considered naming the album Touchscreen for how it evokes both an intimacy and a distancing. “I love making a playlist for someone. I think it’s no less beautiful than a mixtape,” she says. “But if you’re training something to know your romantic buttons, it all gets a bit Her.” Lyrically, the video calls and databases sit alongside tidal pools, televisions and sugar levels, keeping the songs squarely in Young’s world, even as every track flickers with the influence of country music. While the influence of classic country artists like Patsy Cline and Kris Kristofferson is felt, so is that of Big Thief, Yo La Tengo, Wye Oak and Bill Callahan. “It turns out all of my favourite bands are at least a little bit country,” Young laughs. Producer Hinshelwood helped shape each song’s sonic world. The final recordings are sparse in that country way but layered with Hinshelwood’s textures: synths, drones, rich backing vocals, and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy–style guitar solos. A key ingredient came midway through recording: pedal steel by Scottish musician Harry Bohay (Aldous Harding, Sylvie), whom Young saw performing with Erin Rae. “He was just going to play on two songs in the beginning, but it lifted the music so perfectly that we ended up having pedal steel on almost every song,” she says.       True is a solo album in name, but a communal one in spirit. Longtime collaborators appear throughout: Peggy Sue’s Clay Slade and Olly Joyce, La Luz’s Marian Li-Pino, and members of Deep Throat Choir. Backing vocals come from Berlin musicians Martha Rose, Dandy Deniz and Benjamin Gregory, and the album's finishing touches - strings and synths -- were added by producer Chloe Kraemer. Young comments “One of the most joyful things about doing a solo record has been needing and wanting and being able to invite so many different people to play on it. It feels very beautiful to me that so many of the people I’ve made music with are on the album.” The result is an album that feels both deeply personal and quietly expansive - a collection of songs born from solitude but shaped by community, rooted in heartache yet reaching toward something hopeful. True doesn’t shout to be heard; instead, it lingers and glows. See Tenderness live: March 18th - London, UK - St Pancras Old Church True artwork: True tracklist: 1. Saturday Morning 2. The Salt Flats 3. True 4. Touchscreen 5. We'll Always Have Paris 1919 (YouTube) 6. Peacetime 7. Database Blues 8. Day of Atonement 9. Heat Wave Love Song 10. Playing 'Country Roads' Links:  Instagram Website

Apparat Shares New Track "An Echo Skips A Name" || Announces New Album 'A Hum Of Maybe' Out 2/20 On Mute

APPARAT SHARES NEW TRACK  “AN ECHO SKIPS A NAME” ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM   A HUM OF MAYBE OUT 2/20 ON MUTE TOURING UK/EU IN JANUARY

Photo credit: Carsten Aermes   Today Berlin-based musician, producer and composer Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) has announced details of his sixth studio album, A Hum Of Maybe. The new album will be released on Mute on limited edition double turquoise vinyl, double vinyl, CD and digitally on February 20, 2026. A Hum Of Maybe is a complex and deeply personal album, one that carries the weight of the years that have passed since his last album, 2019’s LP5. The album took form after a long period of writer’s block, where his connection to music seemed lost, buried deep, untraceable. To break this block, he challenged himself with a radical resolution: to come up with one idea for a song every day, free from pressure, judgement and the pursuit of perfection, it didn’t matter how undeveloped or incomplete the sketches were. Gradually, this new daily routine had a therapeutic effect, helping him to regain his confidence in himself and his musical process. From the countless fragments created in over six months in 2025, the strongest songs soon emerged, taking shape as the contours of his sixth album, A Hum Of Maybe. The album launches today with the first track “An Echo Skips A Name (Alternate Take).” With its blend of warm percussion and dreamlike synth pads, the track is about how a relationship can grow distant, so gradually that the change goes almost unnoticed. Ring calls it a "gentle fade of recognition." Listen to it HERE. At its core A Hum Of Maybe is about love - for himself, his wife and his daughter - and about holding onto it, protecting it and constantly recalibrating, as it is in a constant state of flux. Working on the lyrics helped him focus on what was important to him in the midst of all the turmoil. As the album title suggests, the songs are about being stuck in between, not a clear yes or no, but A Hum Of Maybe. “It's a ‘maybe’ that is not weakness, but a space where things can grow,” explains Ring. The album embraces a state of limbo, where there are no longer any unbreakable certainties or clear answers, only a multitude of simultaneities and intermediate states. Not or, but and: Analogue and digital. One and zero. Micro and macro. Light and shadow. "The hum is that undercurrent of potential - the in-between, where life actually happens." The album was created with the help of his long-standing musical collaborators who lend the eleven tracks a warm, organic band dynamic, and who will also be performing with him at upcoming live shows: Philipp Johann Thimm (cello, piano, guitar), who also co-wrote and co-produced the album, Christoph “Mäckie” Hamann (violin, keyboard, bass), Jörg Wähner (drums), and Christian Kohlhaas (trombone). In addition, Armenian-American singer KÁRYYN features on “Tilth,” and Berlin-and Rome-based musician Jan-Philipp Lorenz (aka Bi Disc) on “Pieces, Falling.” A Hum Of Maybe is detailed, finely crafted, and wonderfully unpredictable, rich in melodies, textures, free forms, and modulations. Ring elegantly combines the perspectives of an electronic producer and a classical composer.  A new chapter.  A bold dive into the complexities of life.  A Hum Of Maybe will be released on Mute on 20 February 2026.  Pre-order it HERE.   LIVE DATES: 1/27/2025 - Munich (DE), Alte Kongresshalle 1/28/2025 – Vienna (AT), Arena Wien 1/29/2025 – Zúrich (CH), Rote Fabrik 1/30/2025 – Leipzig (DE), Werk 2 - Halle A 1/31/2025 – Berlin (DE), Huxleys 2/3/2025 – London (UK), HERE at Outernet 2/4/2025 – Paris (FR), Le Trabendo – SOLD OUT 2/5/2025 – Amsterdam (NL), Paradiso   2/6/2025 – Ghent (BE), De Vooruit – SOLD OUT 4/9/2025 – Budapest (HU), Dürer Kert 4/10/2025 – Belgrade (RS), MTS Dvorana 4/15/2025 – Milan (IT), Alcatraz Milano 4/16/2025 – Rome (IT), Sala Sinopoli, Auditorium Parco della Musica 4/18/2025 – Gdansk (PL), Stary Manez 4/19/2025 – Wrocław (PL), A2 Centrum Koncertowe 6/6/2025 – Katowice (PL), Tauron Festival 7/3/2015 -  Beuningen (NL), Down the Rabbit Hole Festival    A Hum Of Maybe album art:

Track listing: 1. Glimmerine 2. A Slow Collision 3. Gravity Test 4. Tilth Feat. KÁRYYN 5. Hum Of Maybe 6. An Echo Skips A Name 7. Enough For Me 8. Lunes 9. Williamsburg 10. Pieces, Falling - w/ Bi Disc 11. Recalibration   CONNECT WITH APPARAT: WEB | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK CONNECT WITH MUTE: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | BLUESKY | INSTAGRAM | TIK TOK | WEB