DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ONLY INCLUDE THE FIRST 2 DISCS

To celebrate their 30th anniversary, 4AD is to release the ultimate Colourbox compilation. Entitled simply Colourbox (in keeping with the band's albums), it is a 4 CD box set of all their released studio recordings and mixes which has been sequenced by Martyn Young.

Colourbox emerged from the diverse mix of musical cultures that formed the post-punk era, inevitably incorporating synthpop, indie, reggae, dub, soul and funk. They were dance pioneers in the pre-sampling era, where effects were painstakingly assembled in the studio. From 1982 to 1986 they created an eclectic body of work incorporating their influences, but imploded after the collaboration as M/A/R/R/S on 'Pump Up The Volume'  went to No.1 - subsequently making them the only number one-hit wonders that never bothered to release a follow-up recording.

CD1 is the 1985 album, Colourbox, and includes all the tracks from the free album that was included with the original 10,000 LPs. The second disc is the 7" singles and the third is the 12" mixes. The final disc has the 4 track mini-album, Colourbox, an unreleased early mix of Arena and eight tracks recorded in session for the BBC.


Tracklisting

CD 1
1. Sleepwalker
2. Just Give 'em Whiskey
3. Say You
4. The Moon Is Blue
5. Inside Informer
6. Punch
7. Suspicion
8. Manic
9. You Keep Me Hanging On
10. Arena
11. Edit The Dragon
12. Hipnition
13. We Walk Around The Streets
14. Arena II
15. Manic II
16. Fast Dump
17. Sex Gun

CD 2

1. Baby I love you so  7"
2. The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme 7"
3. Hot Doggie
4. The Moon Is Blue 7"
5. Breakdown (Version 1) 7 "
6. Tarantula (Version 1) 7"
7. Philip Glass
8. Looks Like We're Shy One Horse 7"
9. Say You 7"
10. Fast Dump 7"
11. Keep On Pushing
12. You Keep Me Hanging On 7 "
13. Breakdown (Version 2) 7"
14. Tarantula (Version 2) 7"
15. Shadows In The Room
16. Punch 7"

CD 3 (NOT ON DIGITAL DOWNLOAD)
1. Looks Like We're Shy One Horse / Shoot Out 12"
2. Baby I Love You So 12"
3. The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme 12"
4. Breakdown (Version 1) 12 "
5. Tarantula (Version 1) 12"
6. Say You 12"
7. Fast Dump 12"
8. The Moon Is Blue 12"
9. You Keep Me Hanging On 12"
10. Breakdown (Version 2) 12"
11. Tarantula (Version 2) 12"
12. Punch 12"

CD 4 (NOT ON DIGITAL DOWNLOAD)
1. Shotgun
2. Keep On Pushing
3. Nation
4. Justice
5. Arena (Extended Version)
6. Punch (BBC Session)
7. Kill It (BBC Session)
8. Bleach (BBC Session)
9. Water Up The Tap (BBC Session)
10. The Look Of Love (BBC Session)
11. You Keep Me Hanging On (BBC Session)
12. The Wanderer (BBC Session)
13. Low Rider (BBC Session)

Mass were formed from the demise of the influential 4AD group, Rema Rema. This short-lived band consisted of Gary Asquith, Mick Allen, Mark Cox, and Danny Briottet and they released the "You And I" 7" in 1980 followed by the Labour of Love LP in 1981. Asquith and Briottet went on to form Renegade Soundwave, whilst Allen and Cox formed The Wolfgang Press.

Labour of Love was reissued on CD in November 2005 with a new sleeve image by Gary Asquith - it's on a poster, so can also be re-folded to exhibit the original sleeve in case statuesque breasts and dead foxes creep you out. Always only available on mail order, we thought, for a long while, this had sold out but a stash were found in the dark recesses of the warehouse. Consequently this is the last chance to purchase from the very limited stocks.

To purchase from the UK click here http://amzn.to/TPNM91

The National formed in 1999, when five friends from Cincinnati, Ohio met again after all of them had relocated to Brooklyn, NY. They are Aaron Dessner (guitars, bass), Bryce Dessner (guitar), Scott Devendorf (guitar; bass), Bryan Devendorf (drums) and Matt Berninger (vocals). For years, the band had received critical praise but it wasn’t until 2005’s Alligator that a wider audience finally discovered them.

Written over the course of thirteen months at their homes in Brooklyn, NY, Boxer is the result of a lot of hard work and marks a new chapter in the band’s career. Mostly recorded at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT (some additional recording was done by the band and Brandon Reid in Brooklyn, NY and White Sulphur Springs, WV), it was then produced and mixed by the band and Peter Katis (Interpol, Spoon). Boxer hits as high as Alligator but is a different record – just another classic album from a band on top form.

Tracklisting
1. Fake Empire
2. Mistaken For Strangers
3. Brainy
4. Squalor Victoria
5. Green Gloves
6. Slow Show
7. Apartment Story
8. Start A War
9. Guest Room
10. Racing Like A Pro
11. Ada
12. Gospel

With Spleen and Ideal, Dead Can Dance fully took the plunge into the heady mix of musical traditions that would come to define its sound and style for the remainder of its career. The straightforward goth affectations are exchanged for a sonic palette and range of imagination. Calling it "haunting" and "atmospheric" barely scratches even the initial surface of the album's power. The common identification of the duo with a consciously medieval European sound starts here - quite understandable, when one considers the mystic titles of songs, references to Latin, choirs, and other touches that make the album sound like it was recorded in an immense cathedral.

Opening number 'De Profundis' sets this mood so thoroughly, with bells and drones and more supporting another bravura performance from Gerrard, while the immediately following 'Ascension' builds on this initial effort with further style and grace. It's limiting to think of either album or band strictly in terms of simple revivalism of old music. While the elements being drawn on are certainly of an older range, the results owe as much to the technologies of arrangement and production and a consciously cinematic feeling as much as they do antique pasts. 

On Spleen and Ideal, Brendan noted, “there are the pieces that are very much jazz-oriented/influenced an rhythm influenced, and the other pieces that tend to sort of link historically further back into baroque and medieval periods of music. They are just musical frameworks. The actually lyrical content is obviously personal to ourselves and is what makes contemporary sense of our music.”
Tracklisting
1. De Profundis (Out Of The Depths Of Sorrow)
2. Ascension
3. Circumradiant Dawn
4. The Cardinal Sin
5. Mesmerism
6. Enigma Of The Absolute
7. Advent
8. Avatar
9. Indoctrination (A Design For Living)

On the 25th anniversary of Throwing Muses debut album release, 4AD issued the first ever compilation of the bands work, simply entitled Anthology. Compiled by the band, the 21 track selection eschews most of the singles in favour of personal favourites, and enjoys a non-chronological sequence which makes for interesting juxtapositions and encouragesa reassessment of the music.

Tracklisting
CD 1
1. Garoux Des Larmes

2. Finished

3. A Feeling

4. Marriage Tree

5. Fish

6. Hate My Way

7. No Way In Hell

8. Colder

9. Tar Kissers

10. Mr. Bones

11. Limbo

12. Summer St.

13. Furious

14. Bright Yellow Gun

15. Pretty or Not

16. Flying

17. You Cage

18. Two Step

19. Vicky's Box

20. Mania

21. Cry Baby Cry

1990 marked the release of Aion, 12 songs written and produced by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard predominately recorded at their own studio in Southern Ireland. Shortly after the release of Aion, Brendan and Lisa scored their second film for Spanish Director Augustin Villaronga, La Muerte Y La Primavera. Their first film score for El Nino De La Luna, in which Lisa made her acting debut, was selected as the official Spanish entry for the Cannes Film Festival.

Their reputation growing by leaps and bounds, including a huge underground following in the U.S. - they were able to tour there even without one domestic release available, while at one point Dead Can Dance was the biggest selling band in 4AD's history - Perry and Gerrard once again did the business with Aion. Its cover taken from Bosch, Aion's medievalism was worn more openly than ever before, with songs adapted from centuries-old material. The beautiful, entrancing 'Saltarello', with lead performance by what sounds like an old wind instrument, comes from an Italian dance of the 14th century, while the mysterious moods of 'The Song of the Sibyl' derive from 16th-century Catalonia.

The standout track is 'Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book' with lyrics from a Spanish poet. The musical combination of softly plucked guitar and buried organ drone is striking enough, swathed in reverb, but when Perry steps in with his vocals, matched by more sparkling keyboards, the result is yet another high point for a band laden with them. Guest performers once again assist throughout, including Perry's brother Robert on haunting, quite non-clichéd bagpipes for 'As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins' and singer David Navarro Sust, returning again to contribute some fine backing work.

Tracklisting
1. The Arrival And The Reunion
2. Saltarello
3. Mephisto
4. The Song Of The Sibyl
5. Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book
6. As The Bell Rings The Maypole Spins
7. The End Of Words
8. Black Sun
9. Wilderness
10. The Promised Womb
11. The Garden Of Zephirus
12. Radharc

Spiritchaser, Dead Can Dance's seventh studio album, was released in June of 1996. It focused on the more percussive, tribal side of the group's music, together with the vocals of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. The album was recorded over a twelve-month period, again at Brendan's Quivvy Church studio, Ireland. It was the duo's first studio album since 1993's Into The Labryinth.

This project, sadly spotlighted their increasing tendency to work more in isolation. It might have been because Lisa worked on her first solo album, The Mirror Pool, which 4AD released in 1995, or that the pair realised how they had become separated over the 'passage of time', after the dissolution of their physical relationship. Either way, this album is a pure joy to hear, listening to the pair of them sing together again, as if two rivers had converged to form a stronger, flowing current. Their music was grounded in hybrid and fusion so it makes more sense that they followed the same aesthetic. Interestingly, overtly rock elements like Morricone-styled electric guitar appear at points amid the usual melange of various percussion instruments and arrangements. It works surprisingly well, indicating where the duo might have gone had they continued on. Spiritchaser ends on a strong note, the gentle, mysterious 'Devorzhum', a Gerrard-sung number that makes for a grand conclusion.

Tracklisting
1. Nierika
2. Song Of The Stars
3. Indus
4. Song Of The Dispossessed
5. Dedicacé Outò
6. The Snake And The Moon
7. Song Of The Nile
8. Devorzhum