Known for her contributions to the Black Arts Movement of the 1970s,
Sarah Webster Fabio published a plethora of poetry collections and
works of cultural criticism
Together to the Tune of Coltrane's "Equinox" is her fourth and final record for
Folkways, and sees her vivid language and distinctive voice becoming enmeshed
with a dynamic backdrop of exploratory jazz. Fabio pays homage to Black jazz
and blues musicians Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and John
Coltrane. Fabio's "Together" is set to the tune of Coltrane's "Equinox," in which her
words "compose the air."
Often referred to as the "mother of Black studies," Fabio is recognized for her
contributions to founding the West Coast Black Arts Movement and for helping to
establish Black Studies as an academic discipline. As a poet, performer, scholar,
educator, and cultural critic, she published countless poetry collections and
works of cultural criticism, wrote for local and national publications, including
Black World and Black Scholar, and recorded four albums with Folkways.
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
From his early days with Henry Cow, Fred Frith was seen as a brilliant instrumentalist and improviser, but what has been overlooked is what a first-rate composer he is. This recording offers both aspects. His most complex orchestral composition and two selected improvisations with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. Fred Frith, as an infusion of energy and inspiration. ''Something about this Landscape was commissioned by Ars Musica in 2018. I composed the piece during a residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, California. It's an inspiring place for a number of reasons - the silence, the light, the life, the history. The extraordinary diversity of birds during the migration season. Both other pieces are improvisations. The first one is the one we did during the concert (in public), the other one, very different, is the one we did during the dress rehearsal (on the day of the concert).'' Fred Frith.
Darrow Fletcher Personally Attended Kent's 30 Years In Business Birthday And No Track Was More Popular Than The Featured One, Backed With Richard Temple's Aimed At The Younger Converts To The Strange World Of Northern Soul
After re-signing to Nuclear Blast in early 2021, the Finnish heavy metal sextet BATTLE BEAST are once again getting ready to unleash their force upon the world in the shape of their brand new masterpiece »Circus Of Doom«. The album is set to be released on January 21st 2022 via Nuclear Blast and in true BATTLE BEAST fashion, the 10 tracks blend true heavy metal with pop and rock-vibes, paired with Noora Louhimo’s unique voice. »Circus Of Doom« was once again recorded at JKB Studios in Helsinki, Finland and produced and mixed by keyboardist Janne Björkroth, while the stunning artwork was created by Jan Yrlund (KORPIKLAANI, MANOWAR etc.), who already took care of BATTLE BEAST’s previous two album designs.
Having only formed in 2008, BATTLE BEAST first signed a record deal with the renowned German metal label Nuclear Blast in 2011. The release of their acclaimed debut »Steel« (2012), won the band a support slot for their labelmates NIGHTWISH. Frontwoman Noora Louhimo finally joined the band in 2012 and the band’s self-titled record (2013) was released shortly afterwards. BATTLE BEAST then got the opportunity to open for bands such as SONATA ARCTICA and POWERWOLF on extensive runs. Their ascent up the metal ladder was quick and the band’s 3rd studio album »Unholy Savior«, achieved remarkable chart positions all over Europe (#1 Finland, #23 UK Rock, #39 Germany etc.). This release was accompanied by another big European tour, but this time with Swedish heavy metal heroes SABATON and DELAIN. BATTLE BEAST’s very first headline run throughout the Continent rounded off their »Unholy Savior« touring cycle.
Their 4th studio album, »Bringer Of Pain« in 2017 reached even higher chart positions (a.o. #1 in Finland, #14 in Germany) and was also BATTLE BEAST’s first output without their original songwriter Anton Kabanen. In 2019, alongside the huge #1 success in the album charts of their home country, Finland, their last album »No More Hollywood Endings« reached a remarkable #11 in German album charts and proved to be their most successful piece yet.
Their latest masterpiece, »Circus Of Doom«, is overall heavier, but still as catchy as ever with bangers like “Masters Of Illusion”, “Freedom”, or the title track “Circus Of Doom”. Once again, the band stay true to their formula of “100% heavy metal - 0% bullshit!”
Miss Tiny is a brand-new musical project featuring acclaimed record producer and Speedy Wunderground label founder Dan Carey (Wet Leg, Slowthai, Fontaines D.C.) alongside Ben Romans-Hopcraft of Warmduscher / Insecure Men / Childhood fame.
A spiritually, and methodically united front, Miss Tiny’s universe is a thoroughly explored romance between heritage, rebellion, and years old friendship; a triptych of variables all gravitating towards one signalled output, with no real sense of time, or external pressures. Having spent the best part of a decade orchestrating haphazard jam-sessions, Carey and Romans-Hopcraft would eventually go on to discover a fundamental principle of their own. One which would come to define Miss Tiny, throughout her various forms and guises.
“We called it anti-recording,” continues Carey. “Only doing it for the pleasure of doing it”. When fully committing to this practice, the music meticulously follows two courses; refine, or degrade. Perfect the moment, or let it go; never to be heard, or re-lived ever again for fear that the action of pressing record, would inevitably take ownership of the occasion and lead the experimentation into a downward spiral towards something all-together tangible.
The irony of a seminal producer and critically revered musician banding together out of mutual distaste for recording, is not one that’s gone amiss. In fact, they’ll be the first to proudly call it into question- and yet still, Miss Tiny holds her own despite all peripheral associations, and would eventually go on to be documented. These aren’t ‘sit-down-and-write-a-song’ kinda songs. These spurts of spontaneity which would, in time, ultimately form the duo's debut EP ‘DEN7’, are years’ worth of trial and error. Trial and elation. A process in which strong technique and melodic-manipulation are the sole foundations required to reinvent the meaning of memory; be it guitar and drums, or flesh and blood.
Produced and recorded at Carey’s ‘Speedy Wunderground’ studio in Streatham, ‘DEN7’ is a masterful introduction to a group whose members need none. Through chopping, editing, and re-defining their improvised segments into songs which they could eventually go on to learn, Carey and Romans-Hopcraft by chance, stumbled upon gold-dust. Like Alice and her looking glass, our two protagonists effortlessly pass through all notions of engineered logic in order to see beyond the expected. The bigger picture perhaps. Or the magic in the small things that matter most.
Limited rerelease. Unavailable for years. The legendary album from 1984. Fully remastered by David Cunningham. These recordings were originally released on cassette by Touch in 1984 with the exception of 'Parts Of My Body', released on a single by Canal Records in 1979. Performed by: Steve Beresford: bass, piano, farfisa organ, prophet 5, trumpet, flugelhorn, euphonium, percussion, glockenspiel, voice, toy piano, melodica, noises, rhythm tracks, drumkit. David Toop: guitar, prepared guitar, bass, percussion, flute, alto flute, glockenspiel, voice, tapes, noises, rhythm tracks David Cunningham: tape treatments with guests: Lol Coxhill, Dawn Roberts and Maartje ten Hoorn 'The atmosphere which General Strike conjure together suits an old fashioned, cold war-ish scenario of technology. Their 'Interplanetary Music' is the space pop of George Pal and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still', of computers built like Blackpool Tower in order to struggle through simple trigonometry, of 'The Jetsons' and I.G.Y. They go no further than Expo 67, the world's last gasp of optimism. And although there are dark and disquieting moods set in this mosaic which their listeners have pieced together, it is made with a humour which is true to the spirit of adventure which those references apply. The sanitation merchants who make up most of the world's record-makers today would forbid our ears from hearing these strangely electric keyboards, earthworked textures, bizarre chattering of percussion, and voices that seem like puzzled robots. Cataloguing the sound in that way makes it all seem a bit of a joke, but it isn't: laughter is encouraged, but it's serious music, made with a great deal more serious spirit than the great and disheartening mountain of music which today implores you to hear and not listen.' (Richard Cook).
"Dance My Hurt Away" is the first single from the upcoming debut album by The Faithful Brothers from Tel Aviv/Israel. Is there a Northern Soul scene in Tel Aviv? The surprising answer is - yes, there is. If you're a soulie and in town, look for the Tel Aviv Soul Club, and you might find yourself swaying across a talcum-powder covered floor to Tel Aviv's own unique blend of classic Northern Soul 45s and early 1960s R&B sounds. Chances are that those 45s will come out of the record boxes of one of the brothers Neeman, Johnnie and Bin. Tel Aviv Soul Club, aka TASC, is the brainchild of Yashiv Cohen, a DJ who, in 2006, lured the brothers Neeman, whose massive soul collections been hitherto confined to their respective living rooms, into playing their records to the Tel Aviv public. Yashiv is also the lead singer of Men of North Country (MONC), a Tel Aviv band with a distinct sound, blending rock, British pop and soul. Since Neeman means Faithful in Hebrew, Yashiv woke up one morning with the crystallization that MONC must create a spin-off, a more puristic soul band, called the Faithful Brothers. It took a few more years, but gradually the brothers succumbed to their fate, to continue their musical progression, from collectors to DJs to musicians. Johnnie took his guitar, Bin took to the piano, and the brothers began pouring out some of their influences, creating new songs. It is finally all coming together now.
It only took fifteen minutes for Bob Gaudio to pen the lyrics to Sherry,
which was originally named Jackie Baby as a tribute to First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy. Producer Bob Crewe had suggested to Gaudio that he should write a song which exploited Valli's remarkable vocal range.
It reached Number 1 in America and stayed there for five weeks along with top-ten success in the British charts. Under his guidance, the group followed up with Big Girls Don't Cry and another Number 1 in the American charts ensued.
The Four Seasons were one of the few American acts to survive the British invasion of 1964. Indeed, they are the only act to have a US Number 1 hit before, during and after the Beatles successfully invaded the USA.
Listening back to the “I Phantom” album as a whole re-connects me to the fact that “Return of the B-Boy” really was designed to be the crown jewel of the album. I wanted to create a song that was a feat in storytelling and in verbal dexterity. The slower tempo of Part 1 of the song gave me a chance to paint a clear view of the scenario in which the protagonist is brought back to life by music to save culture of a genre. The relentless tempo of Part 2 was one of the largest challenges I had faced as an MC at that point in my career but I did not want to earn style points at the cost of clear storytelling.
I remember that night so clearly; being in El-P‘s basement studio with the album due the next day and “Return of the B-Boy pt 2” being the only part of the album that wasn’t finished. In sports what happened that night would probably be the equivalent of somebody hitting a half court shot at the buzzer to win a championship. We were all there; myself, El-P, DJ Abilities, & Nasa (El-P’s studio engineer). We all knew the song had to be completed before sunrise, we all knew the importance of the song, and we all knew we had to do our best work. This was the scene; El-P searching for the perfect drum break, Nasa mixing everything on the fly as it was recorded, DJ Abilities searching for the perfect cuts to accentuate the song, and me making sure that every single line of my verse was exactly what I wanted it to be.
I’m glad I at least remember these elements of the process clearly because the rest of it really is a blur. I’m just glad that we managed to finish the song on time & get it out into the world. I truly am honored that our efforts back then led to the creation of a piece of music that is still resonating with people today.
Aurora Records proudly presents Temporal Gardening, featuring
composer and performer Stephan Meidell and the baroque ensemble
Bergen Barokk
The new album will be available on vinyl and digital platforms on15th of
September 2023.
Temporal Gardening was originally a commission written in 2020 for Bergen
Barokk. The idea was to explore using early music instrumentation in dialogue
with new electro-acoustic technology. The unique and remarkable ecology grew
from pseudo- baroque music playfully reimagined, reinterpreted, disassembled,
remixed, and resampled.
The trio has been expanded with drums, functioning as speakers for the
electronic manipulations of the ensemble. A double-bass recorder vibrates a subwoofer speaker mounted inside a bass drum, and a live sampled harpsichord
sounds through cymbals, gongs, and a snare drum. Meidell himself part takes as
a musician in the performance, doing live sampling and electronic contributions.
Musician-composer Stephan Meidell is a musical adventurer who, in a nomadic
fashion, improvises his way through a plentitude of styles. Meidell's music exists
where genres dissolve into fragments that canbe picked apartand combined in
new ways. He frequently combines sounds from electronic, acoustic, and
electromechanical instruments and machines and then recontextualises them
with his finely tuned intuition and sense of detail. Meidell has a plentitude of
releases and commissions, including with Erlend Apneseth Trio, Strings &
Timpani, Cakewalk, and TRIGGER on labels such as Hubro, Clean Feed, Playdate,
and Ideophone.
Bergen Barokk was established in 1994 and is today one of Norway's leading
early- music ensembles. The group has concertized and appeared in radio
broadcasts in Europe, Russia and USA. Their recordings on Simax Classics, BIS,
Bergen Digital Studio and Toccata Classics include German, English, Italian and
French repertoire. Bergen Barokk has collaborated with several ensembles
through the recent years, some of them are Pratum Integrum (Moscow),
Norwegian Soloists' Choir and Barokksolistene (Norway). Bergen Barokk has
performed in festivals like Festspillene i Bergen, Bach Festival of Philadelphia,
Moscow Early Music Festival and Janacek International Music Festival (Czech
Republic).
'Dreamer Awake' is the fifth album from Rachel Sermanni, her first for
Navigator Records (Katherine Priddy, Kitty Macfarlane, Sam Kelly & The
Lost Boys, Bellowhead)
Hailing from the Scottish highlands, Sermanni is an enchanting singer-songwriter,
whose performance and lyrics draw from a deep well of mysticism, dreams,
nature and the simple-complex experience of being human; a contemporary folk
musician influenced by a wealth of genres including jazz, rock, old- time and
traditional.
'Dreamer Awake,' was recorded at Middle Farm Studios, Devon with co-producer,
Peter Miles. Recording live to tape with people that, "most of the time, are jazz
improvisers," the sessions were conducted with an almost Lynchian approach,
with Sermanni choosing "to flow through the experience like a dream". The result
is an album that captures the intimacy of the room, and the immediacy of these
songs that transform thought, memory and emotion into such wondrous light.
Channelling the metamorphic experience of becoming a mother, and processing
the demise of a long-term relationship, Sermanni dove deep into her psyche and
returned with songs that have a sharpness, an acuity of feeling, and that capture
the fluidity of our mind and the depth of our emotional experience.
Rightly described by critics as a "Folk noir gem" (MOJO), "Stately, poetic" (CLASH)
and "Folk of the Highest Order" (Time Out), Rachel Sermanni has been making
music for over a decade and has developed her artistic voice over her many
releases, each time pushing boundaries and experimenting with different musical
textures while maintaining the raw emotional connection, to herself and others,
that defines her music.
Rachel Sermanni has toured the globe, played alongside artists such as Mumford
& Sons, Fink, Ron Sexsmith, John Grant, The Staves, Karine Polwart, The Maes
and many more at venues and festivals all over, most recently playing with Charlie
Cunningham. She also runs a songwriting workshop called Cultivating A Creative
Life and her podcast, Rachel Sermanni's Finger That Points To The Moon,
similarly explores her relationship to creativity and inspiration, with the hope that
it will help point in the direction of truth for herself and those listening
A bittersweet nostalgia lies at the heart of 'Imaginary People', the new
album from indie roots duo Viv & Riley
Over ten tracks, the pair applies an indie folk sheen to newly composed pop
gems, a reworking of an ancient ballad, and even an original fiddle tune, deftly
weaving together the old and new. In contrast to the sunny, lush production from
Alex Bingham of Hiss Golden Messenger, the lyrics lean melancholic. "Kygers Hill"
and "Sauvie Island" are both wistful odes to locales where these two young
master musicians spent formative years developing a penchant for songwriting.
"Is It All Over'' lampoons the futility of the billionaire space race through a darkly
comedic vision of a future music industry, while the title track expounds on the
"imaginary" versions of our idealized selves. Viv & Riley fittingly end the album
with a droning take on the traditional Ozark tale "The Blackest Crow." Both
musicians trace their original artistic inspiration to the deep roots music they
learned in their youths on opposite sides of the country. The duo's continuing
musical expansion is in part the fruition of their investment in the music scene of
their new home of Durham, NC which is known for its cross-genre collaboration
and creatively articulated roots music. However, the tracklist is still peppered with
pedal steel and the rootsy fiddle and banjo trappings the pair employed to
acclaim on their previous two releases. As much as 'Imaginary People' looks back
to nostalgic yesteryears, it importantly marks the beginning of a new direction for
these songwriting virtuosos
Mick Flannery is one of Ireland's most acclaimed songwriters and singers
The award- winning, double- platinum selling artist has released seven studio
albums, three of which have reached No. 1 status.
On September 15th he will release his eighth studio album 'Goodtime Charlie'.
Featuring collaborations with Valerie June, Anais Mitchell and Tianna Esperanza.
Mick has partnered with US Label Oh Boy Records, which for them will be their
first non-American signing.
"Mick Flannery has a voice for the ages, a complete Master of his craft" cited by
Clash Magazine, whilst The Sunday Times said he "conjures up exquisite storytelling." His last album in 2021 consisted of a collection of duets with up and
coming Irish artist Susan O'Neill. American Songwriter called 'In The Game' a
"Sorrowful Masterpiece." The record was nominated for the Choice Music Prize,
and won the RTE Radio 1 song of the year two years in a row for tracks 'Baby Talk'
and 'Chain Reaction.' The album was the biggest selling independent record in
Ireland in 2021.
Mick Flannery's songs are fluent in expressing layered aspects of the human
condition, its flaws, triumphs, and general uncertainty. Originally a stone mason
by trade, he once described his stage presence as that of a 'Mountain goat'
however over the years that shy awkwardness of said mountain goat has started
to dissipate. His live shows are renowned for his self- deprecating humor,
audience engagement and the ability to bring people on a journey of both
heartbreak and joy, often in the same instance
With fresh energy and bright intuition, Abby Johnson's confident selftitled debut (due in late 2021) offers timeless folk songwriting teeming
with a classic Nashville golden-era sheen
Johnson draws upon genre-spanning influences and wrangles them effortlessly
into her own expression: "I want my songs to sound familiar, but tell you
something new," she says. The duality of Laurel Canyon nostalgia and indie rock
blend effortlessly in her songs, polished further by the airtight backing band of
fellow Nashvillians, Ornament (and produced by the band's drummer, Ryan
Donoho).
Raised in North Carolina on the earnest mythos of Taylor Swift, she describes her
first songs as "diary entries -- playing guitar alone in my bedroom until I was
twenty three." Moving to Nashville for college introduced her to an immersive
musical community, where she steeped in the influence of folk- and- country
stalwarts like Emmylou Harris and Bonnie Raitt in equal proportion to more
contemporary indie songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers.
In addition to music, Johnson is known and admired for her film and photography
work. Capturing the mood of a scene in a single snapshot is an ability she
translates to her vivid songwriting: bringing the subtlest details into sharp focus --
vignettes in a soft- grained atmosphere. Intimacy and longing push and pull
thematically, as well as a sense of motion: driving through the desert; penning
love letters in the mountains; and pulling up a chair to a grandmother's kitchen
table. These songs are rooted but travelling, moseying through American folk-pop
traditions and toward something altogether fresh and dreamlike
The House Of Love – guitarist and vocalist Guy Chadwick, lead guitarist
Terry Bickers, bassist Chris Groothuizen and drummer Pete Evans –
formed in London in 1986 - Chadwick had been around the music
industry for several years, but was energised seeing The Jesus And Mary
Chain, inspiring him to form the band - Signing to Creation, The House Of
Love were greeted enthusiastically by the music press and their single,
Shine On and self-titled debut album became indie disco classics - By
1989, the band were big news and had signed to Fontana, part of the
PolyGram group
The group's debut album for Fontana, also confusingly entitled The House Of
Love, was released in February 1990. Known often as 'The Butterfly Album' after
Trevor Key's distinctive artwork, much was made at the time of its protracted
birth and the weight of expectation, and the fact it was produced by five different
people. Years later, it sounds assured and confident commercial indie, bursting
with invention and melody. The re-recording of their Creation calling card, Shine
On, gave them a UK Top 20 hit and Beatles And The Stones points the way to the
gentler side of Oasis some years later.
This re-issue replicates the original 1990 Fontana UK release with printed inner
sleeve and lyric sheet and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.
The House Of Love – guitarist and vocalist Guy Chadwick, lead guitarist
Terry Bickers, bassist Chris Groothuizen and drummer Pete Evans –
formed in London in 1986 - Chadwick had been around the music
industry for several years, but was energised seeing The Jesus And Mary
Chain, inspiring him to form the band - Signing to Creation, The House Of
Love were greeted enthusiastically by the music press and their single,
Shine On and self-titled debut album became indie disco classics - By
1989, the band were big news and had signed to Fontana, part of the
PolyGram group
The touring and promotion for The House Of Love took its toll on the group with
lead guitarist Terry Bickers leaving the group to be replaced with Simon Walker.
Taking its name from a Peter Blake painting, Babe Rainbow was released in July
1992. Overseen by The The and Julian Cope producer Warne Livesey, it has a
tremendous urgency and greater unity than their previous album. Trailed by the
single The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes, Babe Rainbow also contains live favourite
Crush Me, the brooding High In Your Face and Top 50 hits Feel and You Don't
Understand. Simon Walker left the group and was replaced with Simon Mawby,
who himself was to depart by the end of 1992.
This re-issue replicates the original 1992 Fontana UK release with printed inner
sleeve and is pressed onto high quality 180g vinyl.
Critically acclaimed pianist/composer Aaron Diehl's penchant for the past
influencing the future has come full circle with his fully realised suite of
Mary Lou Williams' Zodiac Suite - the first fully-fledged professional
recording of this incredible music
Solely paying tribute to Mary Lou Williams was not the goal, as Diehl's mission is
to give honour and praise to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century
and the forgotten rich history of Black Classical Music.
Joined by the orchestral collective The Knights and special guests Evan
Christopher (clarinet), Nicole Glover (tenor sax), Brandon Lee (trumpet), and
Mikaela Bennett (soprano), Diehl breathes vibrant new life into a masterwork that
the composer herself was never able to fully realize during her lifetime.
Aaron Diehl approaches the piano with a delicately nuanced expressivity and an
exquisitely attuned touch that have garnered him acclaim at the highest levels.
From his collaborations with such jazz innovators as Wynton Marsalis, Cécile
McLorin Salvant and Benny Golson, to his exploratory work in the classical realm
with Philip Glass or the New York Philharmonic, to his own current- crossing
recordings as a leader, Diehl is singularly committed to a journey of musical
discovery regardless of genre or context
Jazz Hands is Bob James' third outing for evosound, following in the
wake of 2018's Espresso and 2022's Feel Like Makin' LIVE
Produced by the pianist with his manager Sonny Abelardo, the ten- track album
was mostly recorded during the months of the Covid pandemic and featured
James in a number of different musical settings. It also features a stellar cameo
from the ex- Gnarls Barkley singer CeeLo Green on the sensuous title track and
includes production input from the legendary hip- hop turntablist DJ Jazzy Jeff,
who rose to fame as half of the hit-making '80s/'90s rap duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the
Fresh Prince, early samplers of James' music. Blending cool jazz tropes with
funky dance floor grooves, blues- tinged ballads, cinematic mood pieces, and
sensuous slow jams, Jazz Hands is the Missouri pianist's most eclectic album of
his long career. Simultaneously classic and contemporary, it's Bob James at his
majestic, ground-breaking, and timeless best.
The album will be available on 180g Solid Blue vinyl, black vinyl LP, SACD- Hybrid
Stereo and MQA-CD on the 15th September 2023.
Jazz Hands is Bob James' third outing for evosound, following in the
wake of 2018's Espresso and 2022's Feel Like Makin' LIVE
Produced by the pianist with his manager Sonny Abelardo, the ten- track album
was mostly recorded during the months of the Covid pandemic and featured
James in a number of different musical settings. It also features a stellar cameo
from the ex- Gnarls Barkley singer CeeLo Green on the sensuous title track and
includes production input from the legendary hip- hop turntablist DJ Jazzy Jeff,
who rose to fame as half of the hit-making '80s/'90s rap duo, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the
Fresh Prince, early samplers of James' music. Blending cool jazz tropes with
funky dance floor grooves, blues- tinged ballads, cinematic mood pieces, and
sensuous slow jams, Jazz Hands is the Missouri pianist's most eclectic album of
his long career. Simultaneously classic and contemporary, it's Bob James at his
majestic, ground-breaking, and timeless best.
The album will be available on 180g Solid Blue vinyl, black vinyl LP, SACD- Hybrid
Stereo and MQA-CD on the 15th September 2023.
In February 1942, having fled persecution but lost all hope in the world,
the Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and his second wife Lotte took
their own lives in the Brazilian city Petropolis
There is a photo of both of them in bed, dead but still holding hands, that has
haunted Robert Rotifer for a long time.
This is Robert Rotifer's 11th record and his first new music since 2019. Having
since worked with Helen McCookerybook, Louis Philippe & The Night Mail, Andre
Heller, Fay Hallam, Swansea Sound and more alongside his day job as a journalist
and broadcaster, in the summer of 2022 Rotifer set to work on this new set of
songs, calling on friends and collaborators to contribute. Guests include,Ian
Button on drums, Fay Hallam on keys, Helen McCookerybook and Kenji Kitahama
on added backing vocals, plus contributions from Amelia Fletcher, and Austrian
musicians Ernst Molden and Paul Pfleger, uniting the two separate musical
worlds Rotifer has been moving in since leaving Vienna for the UK some 26 years
ago.
So begins the legendary Don Letts' liner notes for this young band's new album,
'Ladders', their first on Easy Star Records. The band hails from Washington, DC,
and features lead singer Kelly Di Filippo, who has been heard on tracks by Jon
Quan and others. Letts continues: "I don't know how this Washington, DC-based
dub reggae outfit was brought up, but for the most part, like me, they seem to
have been raised with sixties pop hitting them in one ear and seventies reggae
hitting them in the other." That just about nails it for this unique act that sounds
pretty unlike any of their contemporaries in the US and world reggae scene.
On Subsonic Eye's All Around You, the Singaporean five-piece present a
concise collection of their richly layered, quick-paced indie-pop - Over ten
songs which explore singer Nur Wahidah's upbringing, All Around You
boasts Subsonic Eye's penchant for snappy, invigorating pop-rock songs
jangling with clarity and entrancing tone
REMIXED & REMASTERED REISSUE OF THE PINEAPPLE THIEF'S 2003
STUDIO ALBUM
Kscope present 'Variations On A Dream', the third album from The Pineapple Thief
newly remixed by Bruce Soord & remastered by fellow bandmate Steve Kitch.
The Pineapple Thief are one of the leading lights of Europe's experimental rock
domain, led by post-progressive mastermind Bruce Soord, the band have built an
incredibly loyal fanbase over the past 23 years through extensive touring &
consistently lauded recordings. Founder Bruce Soord started The Pineapple Thief
as an outlet for his music back in 1999 & has since released over 15 studio
albums.
Albums like 'Someone Here Is Missing' (2010) & 'All The Wars' (2012) paved the
way to their recent releases. Multiple headline tours followed, including their
biggest headline performance in the UK at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire & their first
ever tour of North America.
'Variations On A Dream' opens with the timid beginnings of 'We Subside' as they
slowly move into the more progressive leaning 'Vapour Trails' before the delicate
strings of 'Resident Alien' position us toward the grand finale of the 16- minute
epic 'Remember Us'.
While earlier Kscope releases were many people's introduction to the band, The
Pineapple Thief spent the previous ten years building up a dedicated fan base
across the globe, selling over 25,000 records & nurturing their 'bittersweet'
progressive sound. A sound that has recently been revisited in a beautifully
packaged 'How Did We Find Our Way - 1999 - 2005' deluxe book set.
Kscope will be presenting 'Variations On A Dream' as a single black LP.
Bay Area technical death metal entity FABRICANT leverages any musical
tool for their riff and song fabrication
Speed, stillness, technicality, simplicity, consonance, dissonance... are all at play
for the express purpose of telling the stories of humanity's hubris, madness, and
frailty. FABRICANT glimpsed into this black vortex, extracted the raw materials of
inspiration, and refined the chaos into the ten fully actualized, death metal songs
on their debut album "Drudge to the Thicket".
This album was FABRICANT's obsession: a forbidden riddle to solve. From its
beginnings stretching as far back as their 2010 demo and to its ultimate end, this
album inhabited the deepest recesses of their minds as an omnipresent
consumer of thought. With the arrival of this debut, FABRICANT frees themselves
of this thicket. The battle was hard-won, but the next ones inexorably begin. From
new obsessions to delirium to the mundane, consciousness marches onwards,
screaming out at all of existence for answers, only to feebly fall on deaf ears.
Descend into the chaos with FABRICANT.
FABRICANT's debut album "Drudge To The Thicket" is unlike anything you'll hear
in the technical death metal genre all year, truly a unique and singular album of its
own kind. One that has been in the works for over a decade.
FABRICANT features members of celebrated technical death/ black metal outfit
Mefitis.
For fans of Necrophagist, early Pestilence, early Atheist, Defeated Sanity, and
Gorguts
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jogo Duro, a collaboration between Ilhan
Ersahin and some outstanding Sao Paulo musicians Guizado, Ze Nigro,
Samuel Fraga, Chicao & Tony Gordin who also happen to be great friends
These are players who will be familiar to those following the careers of Ceu, Otto,
Curumin, Tulipa Ruiz and the late, great Gal Costa. This record is the result of the
amount of time Ilhan has spent in Sao Paulo over the last decade due to putting
on the Nublu Jazz Fest there every year. With all the contacts, connections and
friendships formed over the course of making an annual music festival happen,
musical cross-pollination (usually simply referred to as "jams") was inevitable but
this time it was decided to do it in a studio with tape rolling rather than on stage,
which is certainly a more productive approach than merely talking about it over
beers at a local bar!
Everything happened fairly spontaneously over three days in the studio,
everybody brought songs, ideas and creative energy and before you know it an
album was born, which will be released in November after three singles come out
over the spring and summer.
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jogo Duro, a collaboration between Ilhan
Ersahin and some outstanding Sao Paulo musicians Guizado, Ze Nigro,
Samuel Fraga, Chicao & Tony Gordin who also happen to be great friends
These are players who will be familiar to those following the careers of Ceu, Otto,
Curumin, Tulipa Ruiz and the late, great Gal Costa. This record is the result of the
amount of time Ilhan has spent in Sao Paulo over the last decade due to putting
on the Nublu Jazz Fest there every year. With all the contacts, connections and
friendships formed over the course of making an annual music festival happen,
musical cross-pollination (usually simply referred to as "jams") was inevitable but
this time it was decided to do it in a studio with tape rolling rather than on stage,
which is certainly a more productive approach than merely talking about it over
beers at a local bar!
Everything happened fairly spontaneously over three days in the studio,
everybody brought songs, ideas and creative energy and before you know it an
album was born, which will be released in November after three singles come out
over the spring and summer.
Funky riffs and jazz arrangements written and performed by her children and their
band Don't Fight the Feeling underpin Fabio's poetry, giving her words gravity. "I
feel that these poems represent the epitome of my experimenting with the
integration of music and poetry in a Black idiom taken from the rich source of
inspiration welling from the Black experience here in America," explains Fabio in
the album's liner notes.
Often referred to as the "mother of Black studies," Fabio is recognized for her
contributions to founding the West Coast Black Arts Movement and for helping to
establish Black Studies as an academic discipline. As a poet, performer, scholar,
educator, and cultural critic, she published countless poetry collections, wrote for
local and national publications, including Black World and Black Scholar, and
recorded four albums with Folkways.
Crashing dirty carnage somewhere between Neuroot, Ripcord, and Sacrilege lands in your lap with Stingray’s debut LP. Tin Savage barks his brutish textural east London drawl on top of unrefined metal-tinged hardcore punk veering between scandi wallop, jacked up amphetamine hardcore and jaw snapping mosh lusciously and confidently. Recorded by Jonah Falco at Fuzzbrain Studios, mixed and mastered by Chris Corry in the Paincave, Fortress Britain is a ruthless and unrelenting blunt instrument.
Confidence is the NBR absolute party starter! Big big drums, live saxophone and organ, a crazy tempo and a hook we've been spotted shouting along to walking to work at 9am! Like Phill Most says “Occasionally / Its even amazing to me/ how ill I can be /when I MC”. Damn straight Phill Most! We've seen early acetates of this absolutely tear up the festival circuit last summer & consider this 45 the ultimate party 45 on the label!
Flip it over to hear the exclusive to this 45 If Ya Let 'Em (Remix). Phill Most Chill on a cautionary tale about grabbing hold of our own destiniy! This very unusual beat that emulates a band sound by progressing & switching from bar 1 to the end. Snafu & Bankrupt Euros' Craig Cloy go wild on bass, piano & cello arrangement over a tough, classic break using live instrumentation and some sample chops, trying to replicate the feel of a soul band with hip hop sensibilities. Grazzhoppa steals the show on both sides with his turntable wizardry once again blurring the lines between beat and scratches blending his scratches into the instrumentation!
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In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (DAAU) was released. The band consisted of four young, 'classically derailed' musicians who played their own compositions with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, but was performed with the energy, rebellious spirit and Sturm und Drang of a bona fide punk band. DAAU was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical.
The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.
In those early days, DAAU consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'
The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.
The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.
Almost all tracks on DAAU's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.
In 1995 the self-titled full-length debut of Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (DAAU) was released. The band consisted of four young, 'classically derailed' musicians who played their own compositions with acoustic instruments such as violin, cello, clarinet and accordion. Their work contained influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz, but was performed with the energy, rebellious spirit and Sturm und Drang of a bona fide punk band. DAAU was part of the fertile Antwerp scene, which also produced dEUS, Zita Swoon and Kiss My Jazz, and soon signed an international record deal with Sony Classical.
The group's influential first record, which has been out of print for a while, is now finally being released again and is available on vinyl for the very first time.
In those early days, DAAU consisted of four young, classically trained musicians who tackled their instrumental compositions with a true punk spirit. 'If we'd had guitars, bass or drums at that time, we would probably have been just another rock band', says accordionist Roel Van Camp, who, together with his schoolmates Buni Lenski on violin, the latter's brother Simon on cello and Han Stubbe on clarinet made up the Antwerp quartet. 'With our acoustic instruments we tried to create our own version of the music we loved listening to, from sixties rock and prog to new wave.'
The quartet, which initially played in streets and cafes, appealed to a diverse audience and sometimes joked that they were a classically trained unit that had 'gone off the rails'. 'As befits teenagers, we wanted to shake things up', Stubbe remembers, 'even though we always kept cherishing our classical backgrounds.' Van Camp: 'Our education was never supposed to feel like a straitjacket. We were free-spirited enough to ignore the laws and regulations of the music academy and to create our own sound. Our compositions were open to influences from Roma music, Eastern European folk, klezmer and jazz'. 'That eclecticism was a direct result of the zeitgeist', Han Stubbe adds. 'We loved different styles and happily mixed them together'.
The monniker Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung was derived from Steppenwolf, a novel by German writer Hermann Hesse about a character who was outside society. 'In the book, the narrator talks of a theatre', Van Camp explains. 'And at the entrance there is a warning sign sign that says: if you go in here, you are guaranteed to lose your mind. That was an apt description of the way our music worked'.
Almost all tracks on DAAU's first album were 'Drieslagstelsels' (or 'three-course rotations'). The term referred to an agricultural method of the early Middle Ages, but also to the fact that each song of the group consisted of three major movements. Van Camp: 'The titles of those pieces referred to our method of writing. We piled up a huge bunch of ideas, because we wanted to tell more than just one story. With each composition, we took the listener for a ride'.
Greece’s ecstatic ritual singer, pianist, and ambient composer Maroulita de Kol announces her debut album Anásana, a record of deeply traditional Hellenic ceremonial cultures interwoven with contemporary experimental colour.
Athens-raised, Berlin-based Maroulita de Kol creates music formed from the ancient, pre-Christian rites and practices of Greece, newly re-presented through a contemporary lens. A former student of classical piano and voice, an unbreakable bond with her homeland
yielded an extensive and ongoing dive into the mythologies, arts and storytelling of ancestral Greece. These studies eventually guided her to the debut solo works that make up Anásana.
The instrumentation and themes of Anásana borrow both from the ancient ecstatic ritual of historical Greece and meditative electronic ambient music. Flowing lines of deeply learned piano technique clothe traditional Hellenic folksong. And while its imagery was unmistakably born in Greece, its tones are inflected by de Kol’s time in Berlin and her immersion in its electronic and experimental scenes. “My music is an act of freedom and beauty,” she explains. “Hymns that aim for the restoration of Women's faith; they can heal the collective wound of the feminine.”
The EP also includes a remix of the popular single ‘SAMO’, which
spent four weeks on the BBC 6 Music playlist, accompanied by an
animated lyric video paying homage to the graffiti tag it was named
after by Al Diaz and American artist and wunderkind, Jean-Michel
Basquiat. The final track on the EP is a remix of ‘Waiting on a Train’,
presenting a new and special version of the original song, with the
presence of featuring artists Ellen Beth Abdi and Chunky remaining
strong.
Formed in 1978 with a core line-up of Jez Kerr, Martin Moscrop and
Donald Johnson, A Certain Ratio emerged from the hallowed grounds
of the late 1970s punk scene, and from that day on they’ve moved
forwards with gleeful disregard for the boundaries of style and genre,
their eye fixed firmly on constant progression.
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Black Truffle is pleased to announce Tender Membranes, the label’s first release from Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electro-acoustic composer Marja Ahti. Active for a decade in the Finnish underground music scene, in recent years Ahti has developed a distinctive approach to patiently unfolding electro-acoustic constructions, documented on a string of solo releases and collaborative projects with Judith Hamann and her husband Niko-Matti Ahti. Working with concrete and instrumental sounds, field recordings, and electronics, Ahti favours neither disjunctive collage nor monolithic consistency; rather, her work is composed of organically unfolding sequences of details and textures, which, as she says, ‘can stretch out or cut fast as long as they have a sense of inner stillness’, a sense that she connects to moments of heightened attention in everyday life. Tender Membranes consists of four lengthy pieces, partly inspired by the image of the senses and mind as membranes allowing for the passage between inner and outer spaces, sensation and its causes, creating a world. Ahti’s unhurried pacing encourages this sense of listening as an opening or surrender to sound, which can often create the impression that the listener is moving through a space zooming in on details. The opening Shrine (Aether) exemplifies this aspect of Ahti’s approach: a bell clears the air with a single long tone, followed by the ambience of outdoor spaces, crackling electronics, an archival recording of a horsefly on a windowpane. Dozens of these moments, varying in length, density, and intensity, move past the listener’s attention, momentarily brought into focus then slipping away. Like those of the masters of the French musique concrète tradition, Ahti’s sounds are not often recognisable, though they might suggest proximity or distance, open environments or closed spaces, the urban or rural, day or night. In Ahti’s work, we do not encounter spectacular metamorphoses à la Parmegiani but rather a state of ambiguity where the listener is often unsure what is organic and what is inorganic, where the careful productions of the synthesizer might end and sounds discovered in the environment begin. What Ahti calls her ‘poetic way of experiencing and organising the familiar and the unfamiliar’ is sustained throughout Tender Membranes, but each piece has its own character. On Dust / Light, human presence is more overt, as what appear to be whispers, singing, and distant speech thread between high frequencies, untraceable drips and pops, and metallic shimmers. In all this there is a melody that you can sing and to which you may dance makes more prominent use of musical instruments, gaining a sombre beauty from half-buried piano chords and organ tones. On the closing Oh Fragrant Witness, a delicate cloud of subtly bending pitches is repeatedly disrupted by a resounding, almost ominous mass of low tones, at once a strange detour from much of what has gone before and an almost classical finale. Arriving in a sleeve reproducing contemporary Finnish photographer Sini Pelkki’s fragmented visions of the everyday, Tender Membranes is a balm to reawaken tired ears.
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This concert from 2016 marks the first time Heart played at London’s famous Royal Albert Hall.
To make the sold-out night even more special, the band was accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who added further depth and an epic scale to Heart’s songs.
The set included hits, fan favourites and both new and reinterpreted tracks from their most recent album at that time: “Beautiful Broken”. The chemistry between the band and orchestra added a truly magical quality to a concert that will live long in the memory of those Heart fans lucky enough to have been present.
As one of the most triumphant and beguiling directorial debut features to emerge from the fruitful Polish New Wave, Andrzej Zulawski’s 1971 film Third Part Of The Night not only earned the thirty-year-old filmmaker a place next to other radical Polish directors such as Polanski, Skolimowski and Has, but also galvanised a creative bond with long running collaborator and composer Andrzej Korzyński, providing fans of foreign abstract/suspense cinema with a potent creative fusion to match those of Polanki/Komeda, Fellini/Rota and Argento/Goblin, amongst others.
Quite simply one of the heaviest psych rock film soundtracks of all time Andrzej Korzyński’s short and unreleased score matched the blueprint that adorned the drawing boards of conceptual French jazz orch rock composers like Jean-Claude Vannier, Francois De Roubaix and Alain Gourageur, creating a soundtrack that unknowingly begs comparison to Masahiko Satô’s Belladonna Of Sadness and Billy Green’s Stone. As one of the first progressive pop writers to come out of the vibrant (but carefully scrutinised) Polish beat scene with his bands Ricecar 64 and later Arp Life (and composing for national heroes such as Czeslaw Niemen, Niebiesko-Czarni and Test) Korzyński’s growing passion for conceptual rock and jazz music soon lead to instrumental composition and soundtrack scores.
His cinematic debuts scoring two consecutive transitional new wave films for Andrzej Wajda (in collaboration with the radical Polski pop groups Trubadurzy and Grupa ABC) also provided Korzyński with another significant cinematic muse in that of the stunning actress Malgorzata Braunek with whom they would both eventually achieve their finest performances under the direction of the ravenous first-timer Żuławski. Third Part Of The Night (1971) perhaps epitomises that triangular on-screen unison in its vibrant youth and feeds it through a hallucinogenic mangle finding astonishing beauty (within a repulsive synopsis) against a bleak and shattered backdrop and accompanied by progressive, psychedelic orchestral rock music – elements which would intensify for all three creatives with the next film, Diabel, which was banned by the Polish government the following year until 1988.
Third Part Of The Night also marks the public unison of Żuławski and Braunek whose later private romantic relationship is said to form the basis for another defining Żuławski/Korzyński defining endeavour with the 1981 film Possession exactly a decade later, encapsulating a period that bequeaths a previously unopened vault of some of the composers finest and most inspired sonic adventures.
Since his early days with Henry Cow, Fred Frith has been regarded as a brilliant instrumentalist and improviser, but what has been overlooked is that he is also a first-rate composer. This recording offers both aspects. His most complex orchestral composition and two selected improvisations with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. Fred Frith, as an infusion of energy and inspiration.
''Something about this Landscape was commissioned by Ars Musica in 2018. I composed the piece during a residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, California. It's an inspiring place for a number of reasons - the silence, the light, the life, the history. The extraordinary diversity of birds during the migration season. Both other pieces are improvisations. The first one is the one we did during the concert (in public), the other one, very different, is the one we did during the dress rehearsal (on the day of the concert).'' - Fred Frith
Musiques Nouvelles is one of the two most successful and diversified contemporary music ensemble in this country with Ictus. With, under the influence of Jean-Paul Dessy, a deeply spiritual and mutual listening aspect. This meeting with the legendary Fred Frith will remain as an important step.
Fusion's Border Town is an obscure late Sixties bluesy psychedelic record. The sound is best described as a cross between Creedence Clearwater Revival and Circus Maximus with a touch of Ry Cooder (Cooder does perform a guest role on this album). It contains some full on rural spiked blues rockers with Ry Cooder's slide guitar taking center stage. The album contains the fan-favorite tracks "Time Of The Ostrich Head", "News Of Selena" & "Erebus".
This rare psychedelic nugget is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on turquoise coloured vinyl.
