This final serving is a punishingly dense and saturated wall of twee.
A cursory glance at the tracklist - NO FRIENDS, I JUST CALLED TO SAY I HATE YOU, I SHIT ON YOUR GRAVE, YOU'LL PAY - is fair warning of the brooding resentment and alienation bubbling below the sprightly melodies. And just so we're all on the same page: There is no catharsis. The magic is gone and nothing is going to get better. If 2009's WITH TRUMPETS FLARING was the coronation of Gregory Pepper, NO THANKS is his funeral march.
Gregory Pepper & His Problems have received press and praise in PopMatters, Absolute Punk, Exclaim!, FLOOD Magazine, and Brooklyn Vegan. He is a longtime Fake Four Inc. artist who is deeply embedded in the underground hip hop world and even fronted a duo with super producer Factor Chandelier called Common Grackle which has released two albums on Fake Four Inc. Gregory Pepper has collaborated with Ceschi, AWOL One, MadadaM, Noah23, and Open Mike Eagle.
Cerca:10 below
Following up on last year's acclaimed Integration 12", Robbert Heynen unlocks his incredible back catalogue for four acidic reinterpretations from Greek maestro Anatlolian Weapons.
Proceeds of the record will be donated to Legacy of Hope foundation, an Indigenous led charitable association which educates and raises awareness about the history and on-going impacts of Canada's residential school system.
In the early 1990s, a team of linguists, engineers, anthropologists, and archaeologists were tasked with constructing a type of communication that could transcend time. How might we converse with future civilizations when language may evolve or dissolve entirely? The result yielded the design of spike fields; a strange construction of granite thorns bursting from the earth to alert its viewers to the deadly uninhabitability of nuclear waste disposal sites. For Maria BC (they/them), this state of temporal focus molds the wanderings on their second full length album Spike Field. How do we connect with the weathered shadow of our experience, while envisioning the self a few steps ahead of us? While their debut album Hyaline (2022, Father/Daughter) explored grief and anxiety through a series of character-led accounts, Spike Field recognizes that the past will continue to lurk below the surface until we decide to break through the soil. Spike Field was recorded in the home of a family friend. The home featured an out-of-tune baby Steinway piano, complete with squeaky hammers and strange, sporadic sounds. The piano is sprinkled throughout the album, and features extensively on opener "Amber," showcasing Maria BC's looser, more extensive arrangements. The song flickers with electronic wonder, like a wave seeking out its station, before crashing into the angelic choral introduction of "Watcher". Strings, plucked guitar and buzzing swells accompany their classically-trained mezzo-soprano voice on "Return to Sender," a song that focuses on the frustrations and turmoil of being unable to reach a loved one--both physically and emotionally. Spike Field reminds us that despite our best efforts to bury certain aspects of ourselves, they will always lurk beneath the surface. Instead of ignoring the seeds striving to break through, we can point to these places with a curious grace, concocting a language that transcends words to converse with our previous selves. Maria BC pieces together juxtaposing sonic landscapes and oscillating vocals to represent the thread of miscommunication, or the failure of words, that weaves throughout the album, transforming it into a distinct and ever-evolving sonic tongue. If we listen, we might find something new within ourselves.
The follow-up to his acclaimed Constellation debut Third Album released in lockdown spring 2020, Markus Floats returns with Fourth Album, pushing the Montréal-based artist's distinct abstract electronic compositions into newly evocative terrain (while preserving his record-titling literalism). Faced with another couple of years spent unexpectedly, though not unfamiliarly, secluded and studio-bound, working on both paintings and music, Floats emerged by the end of 2022 with a set of tracks "about 60% finished" and a determined desire to throw off the shackles of distancing and isolation. "I had always thought about Markus Floats as a solo project but I am wrong about that. Fourth Album is about asking for help, inviting in, and making a home. It's about trust, exploration, and the effort of letting go."Sharing his in-progress recordings with a trio of close friends and collaborators from the powerhouse free music ensemble Egyptian Cotton Arkestra, each of these players then spent a day improvising to the tracks at Montréal's Hotel2Tango studio. With violin by Ari Swan, saxophone and mbira by James Goddard, and guitar and drums by Lucas Huang, Floats stitched their extemporized instruments back into his compositional process. The result is a fluid, lustrous, dynamic expansion of his sound and structure that continues to strike the ineffable balance of abstraction and soulfulness rightly highlighted and celebrated in the critical response to Third Album. Fourth Album sustains much of that previous work's enchanting equanimity, while inviting a bit more restlessness, accident and grit, with the incorporation of acoustic instruments and improvisation melding Floats' own background in Electroacoustic Studies and Jazz Performance more than ever before.Signature avant-electronic explorations of arpeggiated and timbral transformation, subtle shifts in harmonic consonance and dissonance, and a through-composed praxis that draws coterminously upon free jazz, musique concrète and modern Minimalism, all continue to shape Fourth Album to great effect. But an additional palette of sonic and gestural raw material is now also decidedly "out-of-the-box", charting a wider range of gestures, textures and temporalities. Fourth Album complexifies and intensifies across its 12 tracks, thematizing dualities and introducing new elements of play and accident, even a sort of looseness here and there, as it conjures communal expressivity within shorter, still scrupulous formal structures. Fourth Album also for the first time includes spoken word as a recorded element, previously only (and always) a feature of Markus Floats live performances. The album's final track samples the poet and activist Fred Moten, closing with these words: "What we've been trying to figure out how to get to is how we are when we get together to try to figure it out." This koan of socially-engaged process and creation/advancement of meaning through praxis and immanence reflects the unique fusion of intangible materiality and affective sensibility at work in Markus Floats music, unfolding in new depths and currents with Fourth Album.
Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album, ‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.
Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.
Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ - ‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy.
It's only just begun.’ Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each song is definitely a standstill moment.’
Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’
Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”
And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her.
She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.
While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before.
‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th
Introducing a super charged split LP featuring the talents of Cameron Stallones aka Sun Araw and Spencer Clark’s duo with Jan Andersen, Tarzana.
What originally started as an Aquapelago inspired residency in the summer of 2021 quickly developed into its own thing. Truth be told, both artists always surfed their own personal waves of musical freedom, so Aquapelagos Vol.2 album became AQUA X, a split offshoot work featuring rehashed Tarzana compositions on one side and a live presentation form Cameron’s residency in the island of Tenerife around Keroxen festival’s 13th Edition. With two artists very dear to us this split LP picks up perfectly on the aquapelagic concept and twists inside out into worlds high and below creating a further testament to both’s artists oeuvres. Here’s an extract of Professor Haywards original liner notes regarding the music:
‘’The tracks on this album reflect the geo-cultural position of Californian-based musicians, Cameron Stallones, (who records here under the Sun Araw moniker), and Spencer Clark and Jan Andersen’s (performing as Tarzana) with oceanic atmospheres and structures of feeling.
Sun Araw’s dedication to producing subtle, flowing, psychotropic compositions can be read as an attunement to the oceanic sublime. Recorded within the disused Keroxen tank in Santa Cruz harbour in Tenerife, The Canary Suite is an extended piece that features a mix of electronic pulses, short synthesizer fragments and distorted guitar bursts. The textures are relatively sparse throughout, with a linear emotional contour sustained by an ongoing melodic play within a defined band of possibilities before settling into a calmer, soothing and floating mood, like an aural floatation tank.
Tarzana’s tracks artfully blend simple synthesizer tones, vocal exhortations, and an assortment of treated instrument sounds to create a pulsing, wandering and restless music. Short rhythmic ostinato fragments push and pull against bold blown pipes and horns while subtle darker colours and shades intermittently move through the soundscape to intensify the mood. This is busy and dense music but with an orderly flow and internal sense of motion that sweeps up the listener in its wake, like a sailing ship propelled through tropical seas.’’
Roger Eno’s second solo album for Deutsche Grammophon invites listeners to reflect on the nature of sound and silence. The Skies, They Shift Like Chords… contains a dozen tracks that express nostalgia for something lost while projecting a sense of something timeless, like the renewal of the seasons or the rise and fall of the breath. The composer-pianist builds here on the soundworld of The Turning Year, his debut solo album for DG, adding layers of instrumental and electronic colours and including a song for his eldest daughter, the artist, vocalist and image maker Cecily Eno. The Skies, They Shift Like Chords… connects with universal feelings for place and home. It also reflects the particular roots of Roger Eno’s music in rural eastern England, a landscape shaped by centuries of agriculture and marked in recent decades by dwindling biodiversity and troubling ecological change.
It's a massive swell of great music from Minneapolis' Kay Bank Recordings in the '60s! From the twistin' twitcher Trashmen, stripped down Chuck Berry covers, Mancini jams cut by The Mustangs, to The Satisfactions doing their take on a Beach Boys B-side! This sonic tsunami of West Coast surf and R&B music from pasty Midwestern youth is largely tunes that floated below sea level for over 50 years but also some surf greats like The Vaqueros' cold water longing for an "80 Foot Wave." Surfs up!
PICTURE DISC[32,98 €]
Ursprünglich von der Sängerin und Multi-Instrumentalistin Cathy Lucas im Jahr 2015 gegründet, ist VANISHING TWIN nach einer Reihe von Besetzungswechseln nun das eingespielte Kollektiv aus Lucas, der Schlagzeugerin Valentina Magaletti und dem Bassisten Susumu Mukai. Mit den unterschiedlichen Hintergründen und Berührungspunkten ihrer Mitglieder - Lucas' linkes Songhandwerk, Magalettis einzigartige Herangehensweise an der Perkussion und Mukais lange Erfahrung in der Produktion elektronischer Musik - hat die Band seit 2016 auf fast einem Dutzend Veröffentlichungen einen hypnotischen Sound an der Schnittstelle von Minimalismus, Kosmischer Musik, Post-Punk und traumbeladenem, psychedelischem Pop entwickelt. "Afternoon X" zeigt VANISHING TWIN inmitten einer ausgeprägten kreativen Veränderung, in der jedes Mitglied weniger definierte Rollen übernahm und einen kollaborativen Ansatz verfolgte, der eher an die Arbeit dreier Co-Produzenten als an die einer Band erinnert. Das Album, das Ende 2022/Anfang 2023 aufgenommen wurde, ist das Ergebnis einer Reihe von Marathon-Aufnahmesitzungen, an denen das Trio in verschiedenen Konfigurationen teilnahmen. Mit einer spielerischen Balance aus Humor und Strenge, bei der jedes Mitglied die Rolle des Multiinstrumentalisten und den Prozess über das Ergebnis stellt, setzt "Afternoon X" den Weg der Erkundung fort, der ihre letzten Veröffentlichungen bestimmt hat. Metronomische, zyklische Patterns und pulsierenden Basslinien bilden nach wie vor das Herzstück ihres Sounds, aber diese verwurzelten Rhythmen ergeben nun die Grundlage für das Streben nach einer größeren klanglichen und strukturellen Bandbreite. Somit begeben sich VANISHING TWIN auf eine neue, facettenreiche Reise, die in ihrer Gesamtheit ihr bisher spannendstes Werk veröffentlichen.
Skultura is Nick Dunston’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed Spider Season, which was released in July 2022. On Spider Season, Martin Johnson of Jazz Times said “Dunston is a sonic revolutionary in many ways, not the least of which is the instrumentation of his bands.”Spider Season also received glowing reviews from Pitchfork Magazine, TheWire, and New York City Jazz Record. While Skultura is an entirely new band,(featuring Cansu Tanrıkulu on voice/effects/electronics, Mariá Portugal on drums, Liz Kosack on synthesizer, and Eldar Tsalikov on alto saxophone/clarinet), fans of Dunston will find much to admire, and hear a compositional, improvisational, and notably, production style that is becoming uniquely his own. The repertoire of original music on Skultura ranges from spontaneous electro-acoustic ensemble exchanges, to carefully sculpted tone poems that meditate on the manipulated sample-based sides of the quintet. Composition, improvisation, and performance are no longer the only elements at playin Dunston’s recorded work. On Skultura, he continuously shapes the music with various sound-manipulation techniques to create an album that is meticulous as it is visceral. To quote Jacob Garchik’s liner notes, the ‘work is made of continuous waves of inspiration and creation, strata of improvisations made permanent, each layer related to the one below, or not’. Skultura is revered in Europe and the U.S., and will be co-released on the Berlin-based record label Fun In The Church, and the American tape cassette label Tripticks Tapes. Upcoming European performances in the Fall 2023 include Wels Unlimited Festival in Austria, and the Jazz Exzess concert series in Berlin.
20 albums and 25 years into her recording career and only now does Thea Gilmore feel enough of herself to make the self-titled album that renews her vows to music - her first love. The album is released on 6th October. The album was entirely written, played and produced by Thea. Thea Gilmore is absolutely the record she wanted to make. In many ways the record she had to make. Sustained by the very public dissection of her personal life laid bare on her last full-length release, the stunningly intimate Afterlight, Thea's hard-earned reputation as one of the most distinctive, strident and bold singer songwriters of her generation propels her to reach for new ground and this new release feels like a great leap forward into tomorrow. "That's why this is my first self-titled album," she explains. "On my last album I changed by name to Afterlight and drew a line under everything I'd done up to that point. Not to invalidate it, but to put an end to the 'before'. It was a very inward-looking record that was rooted in the darkness of everything that happened to me up to 2019, whereas this album has its head up and is eyeing the world as a challenge. It's a logical forward motion - the emergence from the shadows of Afterlight into the relative lightness of Thea Gilmore - in a renewal of my vows to music; my first love. In a weird way it feels like a debut of sorts so it made sense to make it eponymous." Across 12 tracks Thea delves into the cracks between the paving slabs of life's big themes. She's exploring the understanding that comes with experience, choosing her battles and finding out who she is now. The stunning 'She Speak In Colours' is a song for love and loss written as part of BBC Radio 2's critically lauded 21st Century Folk project; while 'The Next Time You Win' with its simple piano figures and its collage of spoken and sung lines seems to both accept the way the world works while reaffirming the pledge to stand on the frontline of change. Thea is also excited to bring the album to the stage. She will play London’s Union Chapel on 12th October and then an 11-date tour around the UK in early 2024. Full dates below. Thea Gilmore has made 20 albums since the release of her first, Burning Dorothy, in 1998. The veteran of hundreds of festivals, she has sold out shows across the globe.
- 01: Dokunmayarayaparsın (Instrumental)
- 02: Ölüler Konuşamaz (Instrumental)
- 03: Kolonya (Instrumental)
- 04: Merhumun Çalıntı Gölgesi (Instrumental)
- 05: Ayaz Meyhanesi (Instrumental)
- 06: (Bir) Fotoğrafın Rüyası (Instrumental)
- 07: Bir Eve Hangi Gün Gidilmez (Instrumental)
- 08: Unutulanlar (Instrumental)
- 09: Kar (Instrumental)
- 10: Vakitsiz (Instrumental)
- 11: Sandığımdan Herkes Babam Gibi Gülecek (Instrumental)
- 12: 15 Eylül 1966 (Instrumental)
- 13: Dobro Vecer (Instrumental)
- 14: Islığı Beklerken (Instrumental)
This is the 10th year edition of the album "Hayalet Islığı (Instrumentals)" by Istanbul based Turkish producer Farazi. Originally released on September 13th 2013, the 10th year edition is remastered for the vinyl and digital release. The instrumental album is a combination of music based on classic Hip Hop rhythm and beats with samples taken from psychedelic rock to old Soviet and Balkan music. On Spotify alone, the album is streamed over 50 million times.
Here's a brand-new record of straight-ahead hairy, lairy surf, punk, garage, rock n roll party music from Sir Bald/Hipbone Slim and pals! Fun all the way!!! But beware these guys just ESCAPED FROM THE ZOO!!!! Well, it certainly sounds like it! Los Hairies are led by Hipbone Slim aka Sir Bald Diddley (more info below). In Los Hairies he is joined Galicia's foremost coffee liquor and pork fuelled rock n roll rhythm section, Jorge and Martin, the infamous Lorre brothers, of Wavy Gravies, Bo Dereks, Limboos and All Night Workers infamy! Fourteen dancing party hits to rattle your braincells and blow away the proverbial cobwebs! Everyone, a hairy dance hit! From the beach party 'Twist In The Sand' through to the 'Rock n Roll' death finale, you are invited to 'Shake Your Bacon', do the 'Diddley Conga' and 'Shake It Off' with the delectable but somewhat elusive 'Ramona'. Get down with the 'Little Green Man' and his rock n roll band! Go 'Bananas with Tarzan, duel with the 'Ratfink' and the 'Hairy Surfer! Los Hairies currently remain on the run from police, animal welfare services and a growing number of angry bar owners. Beware! They are dangerous! European tour planned for Oct/Nov 2023. Recorded on tape at Bronca Studio, Porto, Portugal by Nuno Riviera (T.T. Syndicate) More Hipbone Slim aka Sir Bald Diddley info: Hipbone Slim aka Sir Bald has released over 40 albums with his various bands including Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers, Sir Bald Diddley, The Snags and Nine Ton Peanut Smugglers. He has worked and recorded with members of Milkshakes, 5678s, Mummies, Phantom Surfers, Big Boss Man, Holly Golightly, Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm and Supergrass! Shared a stage/played shows with Dick Dale, Skatalites, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, Edwin Starr, The Trashmen, PJ Harvey, US Bonds and Richard 'Louie Louie' Berry. Championed by the likes of John Peel, Mark Lamar, Mark Radcliffe and many others he has played a number of BBC radio sessions
Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album,
‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.
Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.
Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave nd courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ -
‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she
enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy. It's only just begun.’
Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each
song is definitely a standstill moment.’
Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends,
relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’
Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”
And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always
figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her. She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.
While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the
world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before. ‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th
Jorja Smith is officially back. Further to making a recent return to the musical sphere with her singles ‘Try Me’ and ‘Little Things’, today she has confirmed the details of her highly anticipated second album, ‘falling or flying’, set for release globally on September 29th 2023 via FAMM and available to pre-order now - here.
Alongside the announcement, Jorja has also unveiled the album's poignant artwork; a stunning portrait of her, shot on film by the prestigious British photographer, Liz Johnson Artur. In addition, Jorja has also announced a series of UK live shows in September, commemorating the release of the album. Further details below.
Through her new record, Jorja has delivered an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches any gap between Jazz, Soul, R&B and Funky House. A bold, brave and courageous leap forward from her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Lost and Found’ - ‘falling or flying’ is an album that speaks to the musical and emotional era where Jorja is now, and how she got here. It isn’t so much an exploration of how she’s found herself but more a statement that she has arrived, and that her understanding of her life, her relationships, and her feelings, have deepened, matured and crystallised as she enters her twenty six year. ‘And despite it all,’ she says, ‘it's definitely a journey I've just started. That's what's crazy.
It's only just begun.’ Sonically, this album, a no-skips body of work, isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. It sits masterfully in this same space of excitement, self-exploration and self-assertion that Jorja does. Compromised of deep, thumping drums, racing basslines, irresistible hooks and distinctive beats, ‘falling or flying’ runs at the same pace that Jorja’s mind does. ‘I don't slow down enough’ she says. ‘This album is like my brain. There’s always so much going on but each song is definitely a standstill moment.’
Much of the creative energy that shaped the album emerged from studio sessions with the producer duo DAMEDAME* back in her hometown of Walsall, where, to Jorja, the heart is. The album is both a sonic and an emotional tour of where she’s been, and what she’s been about, in the two years since she dropped her latest offering, ‘Be Right Back’. ‘It touches on breakups, relationships with my friends, relationships with old friends, relationships with myself.’ She says. ‘It's definitely about a lot of relationships, but every song I write I can sing it to myself.’
Of the many British voices in music today, Jorja is among the most commanding, writing at a pitch of intensity and urgency that few can match. Over the past five and half years, since the release of her debut album ‘Lost & Found’, she has been celebrated unanimously across the world for her evocative song-writing, powerful delivery, pure emotion and unbridled talent as a young woman navigating her way through life and in 2021 was the year Jorja’s hiatus from music was broken. Enter ‘Be Right Back’, the holding space between the sensation that was ‘Lost & Found’, and ‘falling or flying’. ‘Be Right Back’ was born from playing, jamming, freestyling, and sounding out what Jorja had been on the edge of expressing all her life. It was a project entirely for her fans. “Be Right Back did exactly what I wanted it to do. It was a little waiting room so people knew I was coming back.”
And come back she has - entering a chapter of her return to music that’s certain to draw in and intoxicate Jorja’s fans and new listeners alike. And what has changed for her, in the five years since ‘Lost & Found’ dominated the charts and the soundscape? “I like this world that I've just come into. And I’m still figuring things out. Always figuring things out.” Jorja says. “This is the first time I’m putting stuff out there that I can connect with right now.” Over the last few years, it’s been a reflective and transformative step into her mid twenties for her.
She’s been able to step into herself and evolve as a songwriter and a woman despite an ever-changing musical landscape.
While she recognises that the global pandemic has been completely devastating, she acknowledges that it allowed her to stay still, to come more into herself, and to be more in control of the person she is, and of her musical output. Like some of the legendary musicians that came before her, Jorja is looking at the chaos and disorder in the world right now with resourceful, refined eyes, and she sees the glorious opportunity and enormous responsibility that affords. The net result is that while ‘falling or flying' sounds very much like Jorja Smith, it sounds like no Jorja Smith album you have ever heard before.
‘falling or flying’- released on September 29th
Sven Wunder returns with his highly anticipated fourth full-length album Late Again out September 29th on Piano Piano Records. The album compiles some of his most admired compositions to date, like the jazz ballads ”Snowdrops” and ”Asterism Waltz”, and the modal jazz pieces ”Jazz at Night”, and ”Stars Align”. As well as new compositions such as ”Sundown”, ”Pop-Jazz Structures”, and ”Take A Break” with brightly colored textures and vibrant melodies which have become Wunder’s trademark, and so forth.
The Swedish artist and composer have previously catapulted himself onto the global stage of contemporary grooves with his three critically acclaimed albums Eastern Flowers (2019), Wabi Sabi (2020), and Natura Morta (2021), along with a handful of singles such as Harmonica And.... (2023) Sun- Kissed (2022), and Mosaic (2022). His releases have appealed to psych and prog listeners, folk and jazz aficionados, hip-hop connoisseurs, bonafide tastemakers, and fans across the globe which have cemented Wunder’s position as a gifted composer and a musical force to be reckoned with.
When the sun hovers near the horizon, the rays of white sunlight are scattered out of the beam by small particles and molecules in the atmosphere that sprinkle the sky with brilliant hues indicating that the day starts to fade. As night begins to fall, tree-tops redden and begin to glow. Darkness closes in and falls like a blanket covering the sky. It is late again and all is in shadow below. It is when stars align and dreams come true.
Sven Wunder thrives at nightfall and welcomes the horizon of beginnings on Late Again, a collection of nocturnal jazz pieces that depict shooting stars and scattered beams from the setting sun, with an emphasis on gentle compositions for piano and orchestral pop-jazz arrangements for flute, brass, and strings.
His jaw- dropping, natural sounding, and unschooled skill on acoustic guitar, matched with an authentic 'Belfast Blues' voice, drew comparisons to John Martyn and Rory Gallagher, with nods to Van Morrison and Foy Vance. In addition to being an acoustic guitar star, Dom is equally adept on electric guitar, showcasing his talents with his power trio.
Dom has won a handful of European and UK Blues Music Awards. His sophomore studio album, 'A Savage Life' received rave reviews with Rock and Blues Muse declaring, "Dom Martin is the next rising star in the global roots scene.
Jump aboard now before he passes you by." Blues in Britain declared that Dom was "A rare talent of such sheer genius," and Classic Rock effused, "The Belfast guitarist is a sprawling talent."
His latest effort,' Buried in the Hail 'was co- produced by Grammy nominated producers Chris O'Brien & Graham Murphy. The album takes the listener on a very personal journey. "Unhinged" is all anger and fury, sparks and smoke and flames, from screaming amps. Taking a positive turn is "Daylight I Will Find", a song about life's challenges and how through self- love, one can find the answers. The sole cover on the album is a broken down, heartbroken version of "Crazy".
Woods are in bloom again, inviting you to disappear into a new spectrum of colors and sounds and dreams on Perennial. Formed in Brooklyn in 2004, Woods have matured into a true independent institution, above and below the root, reliably emerging every few years with new music that grows towards the latest sky. Operating the Woodsist label since 2006 and curating the beloved homespun Woodsist Festival for the musical universe they’ve built, Perennial is the sound of a band on the edge of their 20th anniversary and still finding bold new ways to sound like (and challenge) themselves. Perennial grew from a bed of guitar/keyboard/drum loops by Woods head-in-chief Jeremy Earl, a form of winter night meditation that evolved into an unexplored mode of collaborative songwriting. With Earl’s starting points, he and bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened, first at Earl’s house in New York, then at Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California, site of sessions for 2020’s Strange To Explain. With a view of the sparkling Pacific and tape rolling, they began to build, jamming over the loops, switching instruments, and developing a few dozen building blocks. The album’s resulting 11 songs, 4 of them instrumental, are in the classic Woods mode--shimmering, familiar, fractionally unsettling--but with the half-invisible infinity boxes of Earl’s loops burbling beneath each like a mysterious underground source. From source to seed to bloom, each loop unfolds into something unpredictable, from the jeweled pop of the aching “Little Black Flowers” to the ecstatic starlit freak-beat of “Another Side.” They are blossomings both far-out and comforting, like the Mellotronic cloud-hopping of “Between the Past,” or sometimes just plain comforting, like the widescreen snowglobe fantasia of the instrumental “White Winter Melody,” touched by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel. Woods have long used the studio as a place of songwriting, naming 2007’s At Rear House after their shared dwelling and recording space. But Perennial also carries with it an even longer view of Woods. Emerging from the process alongside the music was Earl’s reflection that “perennial plants and flowers are nature’s loops,” an idea rolling under the album’s lyrics like the loops themselves. It certainly applies to the band, too, who have quietly tended to a long, committed project of being a band in the weird-ass 21st century, both individually and communally. Though separated by coasts, the communal sprit carries through Earl, Taveniere, and Andrews’ collaboration, a living embodiment of the freedoms rediscovered every time a new collectively created piece of music emerges. For nearly two decades, Woods have survived subgenres, anchored in the fertile soil below hashtags like lo-fi and freak-folk and psychedelic and indie, and built a shared history that’s something to marvel at. As the flagship band for Woodsist, they’ve accumulated a striking extended family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the label one of the most dependable imprints in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. It’s a glow that’s transferred whole to the blissed-out Woodsist Fests held in Accord, New York in recent years, which have folded in a wide range of diverse sounds, from the the jazz cosmoverse of the Sun Ra Arkestra and adventurous legends Yo La Tengo, to a hard-to-even-count family tree of contemporaries, like Kevin Morby (who served a few tours of duty as Woods bassist) and Kurt Vile (who released his 2009 debut on Woodsist), a living community in sound. Perennial carries all of this, shaped by decades, but made in the moment, and here right now. The smell of the flowers doesn’t remain, but sometimes the flowers do. Jesse Jarnow Recorded and mixed by Jarvis Taveniere at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, CA with additional recording at The Ship in Los Angeles, CA and Cottekill Bird Sanctuary in Stone Ridge, NY. Produced by Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Jeremy Earl - vocals, guitars, drums, percussion, sk-5, mellotron, vibraphone, autoharp, loops Jarvis Taveniere - guitar, bass, upright bass, hammond, vocals John Andrews - piano, organs, mellotron, drums, vocals Connor Gallaher - Pedal Steel Kyle Forester - sax, wurlitzer
Woods are in bloom again, inviting you to disappear into a new spectrum of colors and sounds and dreams on Perennial. Formed in Brooklyn in 2004, Woods have matured into a true independent institution, above and below the root, reliably emerging every few years with new music that grows towards the latest sky. Operating the Woodsist label since 2006 and curating the beloved homespun Woodsist Festival for the musical universe they’ve built, Perennial is the sound of a band on the edge of their 20th anniversary and still finding bold new ways to sound like (and challenge) themselves. Perennial grew from a bed of guitar/keyboard/drum loops by Woods head-in-chief Jeremy Earl, a form of winter night meditation that evolved into an unexplored mode of collaborative songwriting. With Earl’s starting points, he and bandmates Jarvis Taveniere and John Andrews convened, first at Earl’s house in New York, then at Panoramic House studio in Stinson Beach, California, site of sessions for 2020’s Strange To Explain. With a view of the sparkling Pacific and tape rolling, they began to build, jamming over the loops, switching instruments, and developing a few dozen building blocks. The album’s resulting 11 songs, 4 of them instrumental, are in the classic Woods mode--shimmering, familiar, fractionally unsettling--but with the half-invisible infinity boxes of Earl’s loops burbling beneath each like a mysterious underground source. From source to seed to bloom, each loop unfolds into something unpredictable, from the jeweled pop of the aching “Little Black Flowers” to the ecstatic starlit freak-beat of “Another Side.” They are blossomings both far-out and comforting, like the Mellotronic cloud-hopping of “Between the Past,” or sometimes just plain comforting, like the widescreen snowglobe fantasia of the instrumental “White Winter Melody,” touched by Connor Gallaher’s pedal steel. Woods have long used the studio as a place of songwriting, naming 2007’s At Rear House after their shared dwelling and recording space. But Perennial also carries with it an even longer view of Woods. Emerging from the process alongside the music was Earl’s reflection that “perennial plants and flowers are nature’s loops,” an idea rolling under the album’s lyrics like the loops themselves. It certainly applies to the band, too, who have quietly tended to a long, committed project of being a band in the weird-ass 21st century, both individually and communally. Though separated by coasts, the communal sprit carries through Earl, Taveniere, and Andrews’ collaboration, a living embodiment of the freedoms rediscovered every time a new collectively created piece of music emerges. For nearly two decades, Woods have survived subgenres, anchored in the fertile soil below hashtags like lo-fi and freak-folk and psychedelic and indie, and built a shared history that’s something to marvel at. As the flagship band for Woodsist, they’ve accumulated a striking extended family of collaborators (and Woods alum) that have made the label one of the most dependable imprints in the kaleidoscopic low-key underground. It’s a glow that’s transferred whole to the blissed-out Woodsist Fests held in Accord, New York in recent years, which have folded in a wide range of diverse sounds, from the the jazz cosmoverse of the Sun Ra Arkestra and adventurous legends Yo La Tengo, to a hard-to-even-count family tree of contemporaries, like Kevin Morby (who served a few tours of duty as Woods bassist) and Kurt Vile (who released his 2009 debut on Woodsist), a living community in sound. Perennial carries all of this, shaped by decades, but made in the moment, and here right now. The smell of the flowers doesn’t remain, but sometimes the flowers do. Jesse Jarnow Recorded and mixed by Jarvis Taveniere at Panoramic House in Stinson Beach, CA with additional recording at The Ship in Los Angeles, CA and Cottekill Bird Sanctuary in Stone Ridge, NY. Produced by Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl. Mastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Jeremy Earl - vocals, guitars, drums, percussion, sk-5, mellotron, vibraphone, autoharp, loops Jarvis Taveniere - guitar, bass, upright bass, hammond, vocals John Andrews - piano, organs, mellotron, drums, vocals Connor Gallaher - Pedal Steel Kyle Forester - sax, wurlitzer




















