Encore Records

Steve Mason

Boys Outside

2010 album from the British singer/songwriter, formerly with The Beta Band, King Biscuit Time and Black Affair.

Boys Outside appears under his own name, because, he says, he’s had enough of all the aliases, and because, more than ever in his life, he’s comfortable in his own skin.

Also, he’s proud of these 10 songs, whose sparse, haunting arrangements bespeak economy, maturity and focus.

Boys Outside is fully the equal of The Beta Band’s The Three EP’s, packed with inventively sculpted sounds and sublime melodies, and shot through with a rare emotional honesty.

Hot Hot Heat

Future Breeds

The fourth album from the Alt-Rockers.

Hot Hot Heat have been recording in their own studio based in Vancouver,  since their last major co-headlining tour with Editors.

The band also has a new member, Parker Bossley, replacing longtime member Dustin Hawthorne.

The La's

Callin’ All

4 CD UK box set.

Disc One collects the singles the band released.

Disc Two features the best of the many out-takes the band produced.

Discs Three and Four capture the band at London’s Town And Country Club in 1989 and at The Marquee in 1991.

Wintersleep

New Inheritors

Recorded in Montreal and mixed in Glasgow with Tony Doogan , Wintersleep’s sound is more expansive, less distorted and more cerebral.

For the first time, the band opted to work with both a brass and string arranger on some songs, but rather than overpower with swathes of violins and trumpets, they form a core part of each track rather than an awkward add-on.

The National

High Violet

High Violet, the new full-length record by the National, is a nervy, melodic, explosive and beautiful set of songs that find the band at the height of their collaborative powers.

The music is wide-ranging in its moods, by turns intimate and rough, expansive and spare, full of stark angles and atmosphere.

Berninger’s singing wild, half-broken, sly evokes a feeling of being haunted, by love, by paranoia, by something just out of reach.

High Violet may be The National’s most thematically twisted record to date but it somehow also manages to be their most infectious and immediate.

Dead Weather

Sea Of Cowards

2010 album from this band formed by White Stripes/Raconteurs mainman Jack White.

Sea Of Cowards is a robust and vigorous second act, filled with primal, bone quaking Rock rhythms and the same stellar urban Blues and throbbing sleaze as its predecessor; but this time The Dead Weather push their sound even further, brilliantly building upon their raw chemistry to create the most vital sounding album you’ll hear all year.

Keane

Night Train Ep

Following the worldwide success and three consecutive #1 albums in their native UK, the members of Keane release the Night Train EP.

Night Train features eight powerful new tracks which were written and recorded during the band’s Perfect Symmetry world tour.

The album takes its title from the band’s favorite mode of transportation during the tour, and includes Keane’s genre-busting collaborations with K’Naan, ‘Stop For A Minute’ and ‘Looking Back’.

Ocean Colour Scene

Saturday

2010 release from the British band, their ninth album overall.

The album marks the 21st anniversary of their formation.

After touring with Oasis in 1995 and chart success with Moseley Shoals, Ocean Colour Scene continued to release new material as well as a stem of successful live albums.

Saturday continues with the band’s brand of retro orientated Rock and was recorded at the iconic Rockfield Studios.

Mark E Smith and Ed Blaney

The Train

The second full length release from Fall mainman Mark E Smith and former Fall member Ed Blaney.

In 2008, Smith and Blaney embarked on what seemed like a spontaneous project recording and releasing a number of limited edition singles.

These singles were then collected together and released on an album entitled The Fall’s Mark E Smith and Ed Blaney.

Train is the second album recorded by the duo outside of the Fall activities. Recorded in October, November and December 2008, these are field recordings that have been edited in the studio.

Broken Social Scene

Forgiveness Rock Record

2010 release, the first Broken Social Scene record following the acclaimed Broken Social Scene Presents series.

As a core six-piece who had spent most of 2007 and 2008 on the road, Drew, Canning, Spearin, Whiteman, Goldberg and Peroff spent early 2009 working on new material in Toronto.

The pairing down of the band’s massive personnel list for the first time proved extremely fruitful; they created spacious songs written as a band by a band, resulting in more cohesive, melody-driven compositions than previous BSS output.

Recording both in Toronto and Chicago, and working with producer John McEntire, they found a fresh perspective on their own sound.

The album features guest turns by BSS alumni: Leslie Feist, Amy Millan and Evan Cranley of Stars, Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Jason Collett, Ohad Benchetrit of Do Make Say Think and Years, John Crossingham, Marty Kinack, Leon Kingstone and Julie Penner.