The Declining Winter started out as the meanderings of Richard Vincent Adams, a musical project to keep him occupied whilst his band, Hood, was on hiatus (they’re still on prolonged hiatus, apparently). In 2008 their first 7″ The Future Sound of Hip Hop parts 1 and 2 was released, together with a bonus CD of remixes by Epic 45, Remote Viewer, Part Timer and Northstation and their first album, Goodbye, Minnesota came out on Ireland’s Rusted Rail Record. The next Declining Winter record was entitled Haunt the Upper Hallways and appeared on Home Assembly Music in 2009. In 2010 the band released their Official World Cup Theme 2010 again on Home Assembly Music and Scenes from the Back Bedroom Window, a very limited 3″ CDr release on Secret Furry Hole. In 2013 Fragment 5, a 10″ record a was released. The cassette only Lost Songs came out on the same year. 2015 was a busy year for The Declining Winter: they released Home For Lost Souls (Home Assembly), Endless Scenery (Sounds in Silence) and a split 12″ with Isnaj Dui on Rural Colours. Three years later the band released Belmont Slope. Recordings Of Weird Air, a collection of songs recorded onto iPad in late summer/autumn 2020 by Adams alone, was out in 2021, again on cassette only. Really Early ,Really Late, the first proper album since 2018, will be out March 31st and, believe us, it’s magnificent.

THE HEPBURNS were born in the Welsh city of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire county. They formed in January 1985 and have recorded 11 albums, four singles and four BBC sessions in their 32-year career. They also toured the US and Scandinavia in 2017. Born of the post-punk, indie boom of the early-80s, but with their roots in the 1960s, their sound is an amalgam of indie guitar pop with Burt Bacharach, Jake Thackray, and Jonathan Richman as references. Their first full length, The Magic Of The Hepburns came out in 1988 on Cherry Red. After that they started their own label, Magic Records, and in 1989 released the single Electrified (From Countryside To City). In 1989, they also recorded Road Movie, but adverse situations led to the album never coming out (until more recently, when it was released in digital format in 2017) and to a decade-long silence. Then in 2000, Radio Khartoum offered them the infrastructure and support that the group needed, and they released Champagne Reception. In 2003, The Last Thing I Saw Before I Said Goodbye came out and Something Worth Stealing arrived in 2007. The following year, they released Trojan Hearse, a somewhat atypical album on the Welsh label Bendigedig Records. In 2010 How The Fallen Are Mighty came out, back with Radio Khartoum. Seven more years would pass for the next album to arrive: There’s No Such Things As The Hepburns. In 2018 In The Mean Time came out; it was the last album released to date with Radio Khartoum. In 2020, they self-released an album based on stories of the people from Llanelli, the place where they were born, Electric Lliedi Land. In 2021 they released Architecture Of The Ages on Elefant Records, with the vocal collaboration of Estella Rosa (the singer for NAH and SAPHIRE & STEEL) and, again with her contribution, a new album, Only The Hours, will come out March 4th on Lavender Sweep Records. Along with their leader, songwriter and founder Matt Jones, current line up is: Estella Rosa, Mike Thomas, Les Mun and A.D. Clement.

Oceans are Thomas Lee (guitar, vocals), Michael Fox (lead guitar), Sam Black (rhythm guitar), Tom Mcmullin (bass), and Mitch Hicks (drums), a five piece shoegaze band based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. With inspirations varying from Joy Division and Slowdive to Boards of Canada and Tycho, the heart of Oceans’ sound is a dedication to experimentation and timbre, creating vast sonic landscapes inspired by ambient, new wave and 90’s shoegaze. Across Oceans’ breakthrough EP’s Come So Far, Live at Dangertone Studios and collaborative effort with UK’s self-titled Wilt, they’ve landed features from Beat Magazine, Backseat Mafia and Trouble Juice, and shows alongside the likes of Grazer and Allysha Joy. As stalwarts in the local scene with their sights firmly set on an international stage, Oceans return to deliver a hard-hitting and emotive ten track LP Dreamers in Dark Cities via Portland label Shelflife Records. Recorded and produced with legendary Australian producer Lindsay Gravina (Rowland S. Howard, Magic Dirt), the LP was written during the 2020 lockdown period, exploring the themes of living in isolation in a once vibrant city that now stands silent as one of the longest locked down cities in the world. The album, which combines lush synth pads with haunting melodies of the baritone guitar setting a moody soundscape for the emotive vocal harmonies, will be out on March 24th.