Test Dept revisit Gododdin, Lana Del Rabies and Strange Company share singles, Normal Weirds release Frown Time, and the Smashing Pumpkins prepare a five-LP reissue.

IN THIS EDITION
01 Test Dept & Brith Gof · 02 Lana Del Rabies · 03 Normal Weirds · 04 Strange Company · 05 The Smashing Pumpkins

01 / Test Dept and Brith Gof expand Gododdin for a December reissue

Industrial group Test Dept and Welsh theatre company Brith Gof’s Gododdin: 2026 Remaster is due on 4 December 2026 through Artoffact Records. The band’s announcement describes a three-CD/DVD set that adds 19 previously unavailable tracks to the original seven. There’s also a separate red-vinyl edition.

The music grew out of a performance first staged in a derelict Cardiff car factory in 1988. For the reissue, Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy have returned to early multitrack recordings and built new versions from them. The box also includes a 1989 performance recorded in a quarry in Polverigi, Italy, and a documentary made at the time. Side-Line reports that the reworked ‘Gwr a Aeth Gatraeth / Prologue’ was released on 2 October.

Ahead of the release, Chapter in Cardiff will bring the artists together for Gododdin Remembered / Cofio Gododdin on 24 October at 11am, as part of Experimentica. The two-hour event is pay-what-you-can and BSL interpreted.

02 / Lana Del Rabies releases Annihilate through Feral Crone

Producer and vocalist Lana Del Rabies has released ‘Annihilate’, out on 2 October through her Feral Crone Recordings label. Former Hissing member Zach Wise contributes bass, guitar and additional instrumentation.

Sam An, who records as Lana Del Rabies, also directed and edited the accompanying video. The single follows her 2025 releases Le Temps Viendra and Omnipotent Fuck. She’s working on a studio record with former Hissing members, planned for 2027, according to Post-Punk.com.

03 / Normal Weirds release Frown Time, with Druidess among its ten tracks

East Bay quartet Normal Weirds released their second album, Frown Time, on 2 October. ‘Druidess’ is among its ten tracks. The record is available on Bandcamp, with other streaming platforms to follow on 16 October, excluding Spotify, according to Post-Punk.com.

The band describe their approach as ‘deathrock gloom dragged through the dirt of punk.’ The album was recorded, mixed and produced by Skot Brown of Altar De Fey, with mastering by Greg Wilkinson.

04 / Strange Company kept the placeholder chorus for Waves

South Wales alternative rock band Strange Company have shared a video for ‘Waves’, following their single ‘Do You Feel Numb?’. Guitarist Owen Weston told Distorted Sound that the demo grew out of a spell listening to Citizen. Once the band worked on it together, he said, delayed guitars, swelling textures and echoed vocals took it somewhere heavier.

One thing stayed: the chorus line ‘Where are we going? Where have we been?’ Weston had intended to replace it, but the band came to feel it already said what they meant. Bassist Josef Lovett says the video uses water and submerged imagery to express the feeling of being out of your depth. It was filmed at Aberavon Beach in South Wales.

05 / The Aeroplane Flies High returns as a five-LP set

The Smashing Pumpkins will reissue The Aeroplane Flies High on 18 December 2026 through UMe. Standard and limited colour-vinyl five-LP editions mark the collection’s first vinyl release since 2013.

Originally issued in 1996, the collection expands the five singles from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness with B-sides, rarities and covers of the Cars, Blondie and the Cure. The band’s Rats In A Cage tour began on 30 September and is scheduled through November. Its two-set format pairs a Mellon Collie celebration with material from across the catalogue.

Previously: Daily Undertone No. 004 — DIIV share “Trillions” →