Name: The Foreign Department
Brand: Astrel K

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

TLV171LPSIGNEDPRINT

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

[r30221282]

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

With Signed Print

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2024-03-08

Signed copies

Signed copies: Yes

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5055869550796

Total Cap

Black LP | Signed Copy

TLV171LP

Extended format: No

{"time": 1706718380758, "blocks": [], "version": "2.26.4"}

Signed copies: No

Black LP

TLV171CD

5055869550802

Artist

Astrel K

Genre GB

Krautrock

Label GB

Tough Love

Astrel K, based in Stockholm, is the solo project of [a5012035] of [a4777169].

Tough Love is a record label based in London, UK. Established in 2005, the label has become a prominent force in the music industry, representing a diverse range of talented artists and releasing groundbreaking music across various genres.
With an unwavering commitment to quality and innovation, Tough Love has earned a reputation for discovering and nurturing emerging talent. The label's extensive catalog showcases an eclectic mix of electronic, house, techno, and alternative sounds that captivate listeners worldwide.
Driven by a passion for music and an entrepreneurial spirit, Tough Love continues to push boundaries and challenge conventions. With their finger on the pulse of contemporary trends and an ear for timeless melodies, they are at the forefront of shaping the future of music.

Newest Listed Items

The Foreign Department is the second album by Astrel K, the solo project helmed by Stockholm-based British ex-pat, Rhys Edwards. Those already familiar with Edwards’ work will likely know him for fronting the cultishly great Ulrika Spacek, and given he operates as the principal songwriter in both projects, much of the same hallmarks of his cathartic, elliptical songwriting are present in Astrel K. Nonetheless, The Foreign Department feels like a rubicon moment of sorts, and the album that Edwards has unconsciously been working towards his entire creative life.

As a title, The Foreign Department offers an instructive guide for the listener, framing a life-in-transition/artist-in-exile document that maps two impromptu moves in twelve months for its songwriter: the first from London in pursuit of a relationship, the second between homes in Stockholm as that decade long relationship then suddenly dissolved. Indeed, diffusion, dissolution and reconstitution feel like appropriate touchstones for its recurring themes. Written amidst the flux of two states, at once isolated from home and then any established emotional anchor, the resulting eleven tracks came to represent a precognitive search for shifting identity and with it forming an unwittingly biographical record. It's commendable and somewhat telling that during this shake up, Edwards somehow landed upon his most realised and original work.

For all its troubled origins, The Foreign Department is a remarkably warm sounding collection. Edwards' lyrics are typically knotty and neurotic, dancing around the poetry of quarter-life anxiety, but the music itself is often joyous and even uplifting, the combination expressing that neat duality of melancholic euphoria. Edwards sings variously of crises, "torrid pieces of art", of "houses on fire" and not "having the guts for it", yet these troubling sentiments are framed by seemingly incongruous swelling strings, chirping horns or motorik percussion, creating that sense of pushing forward or floating above, of wrapping your troubles in dreams, a salve for the moments when you get a bit too much for yourself.

The Foreign Department

Music GB

Discover The Foreign Department by Astrel K. The second album by Rhys Edwards, the solo project of Ulrika Spacek's frontman. A warm and uplifting collection of cathartic, elliptical songwriting. Label: Tough Love.