Tonnon produced the album with longtime collaborator, and The Beths’ guitarist and producer, Jonathan Pearce. Tonnon wrote the bulk of the songs during an extensive period of touring after the release of Successor - a period where Tonnon performed with Nadia Reid in Europe, The Veils in the USA, and The Chills, The Phoenix Foundation and Don McGlashan in New Zealand. The pair workshopped songs between tours, often recording new parts as the live versions developed.
Tonnon and Pearce recorded between 2017 and 2020, and in that time, Tonnon’s practise evolved heavily. He incorporated new technology into his set, including the Wellington-designed Synthstrom Deluge, which allowed him to adapt his set for new performance environments;Art Galleries, Museums, even New Zealand Fashion Week. He took that technology further when he collaborated with the Otago Museum on the immersive show for Planetariums, A Synthesized Universe, which travelled to Arts Festivals around New Zealand in 2019.
Creating a music video for ‘Old Images,’ which explored a lost passenger train network, Tonnon came to the idea for a new experience-based show called Rail Land. It took audiences on railways to reach distant community halls around Aotearoa. The show saw Tonnon combine historical research and spoken word narrative, with the immersive lighting and musical technology he developed for A Synthesized Universe. In March, Rail Land finished a three-night run at Auckland Arts Festival, cementing Tonnon’s move to the concept show.
Over time, Tonnon and Pearce’s production moved further from the traditional rhythm sections that powered songs like Successor’s ‘Water Underground.’ In their place came off kilter electronic rhythms, like the beat in ‘Two Free Hands,’ and textures that blur lines between organic and synthesized sound. Guitars are set against synthesizers, and drums against drum machines in ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Peacetime Orders,’ which Tonnon also used in his soundtrack for RNZ’s 80s spy-themed podcast The Service. In ‘Leave Love Out Of This,’ a ballad starts with a piano and a string quartet, but ends in a wall of electronic sound.
The constant has been Tonnon’s lyrics. Whether singing about evolution and the future of work in ‘Two Free Hands,’ the television industry in ‘Entertainment,’ or environmental disaster and regulatory failure in ‘Mataura Paper Mill,’ Tonnon has followed a distinct approach to subject matter, description and phrasing that have seen him longlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll three times.
Tonnon’s explorations of local government and civic infrastructure in his work - an unusual preoccupation for a songwriter, have taken new meaning in his adopted home of Whanganui, where last year, he was elected by councillors as Whanganui District Council’s representative for public transport.
After Tonnon moved to Whanganui, and Pearce toured almost constantly after the success of The Beths’ first album, the pair conducted their collaboration over distance, but with key sessions at Pearce’s Karangahape Road studio, including drums and bass with long time band members Stuart Harwood and David Flyger, a string quartet led by Charmian Keay and arranged by Matthew Bodman, and additional drums with The Beths’ Tristan Deck.
As Leave Love Out Of This is released, Tonnon and Pearce find themselves in very different places to where they started, working on Auckland’s Karangahape Road, close to the venues like Wine Cellar and Whammy Bar where they regularly performed. Back in New Zealand since Covid, Pearce has had to adjust to being in one of Aotearoa’s best-known bands, while Tonnon, when not working on conceptual shows, wrestles with how to restore civic infrastructure to a post industrial city in the regions.
Created over a life-altering period of, Leave Love Out Of This is the culmination of years of experimentation and development - with new technology, new sounds, and new ways of creating, and performing music.
quête:dif
- A1: Green (Vincent’s Tune) Featuring Roomful Of Teeth
- A2: O’neill’s Cavalry March Featuring Martin Hayes
- A3: Little Birdie Featuring Sarah Jarosz
- A4: Ichichila Featuring Toumani Diabaté & Balla Kouyaté
- B1: Sadila Jana Featuring Black Sea Hotel
- B2: Shingashi Song Featuring Kaoru Watanabe
- B3: Madhoushi Featuring Shujaat Khan
- C1: Wedding Featuring Dima Orsho
- C2: Going Home Featuring Abigail Washburn
- C3: Cabaliño Featuring Roberto Comesaña, Anxo Pintos & Davide Salvado
- D1: St. James Infirmary Blues (Featuring Rhiannon
- Giddens, Michael Ward-Bergeman & Reylon Yount)
- D2: If You Shall Return... Featuring Bill Frisell
- D3: Heart And Soul Featuring Lisa Fischer & Gregory Porter
Green Vinyl[43,28 €]
American cellist prodigy Yo-Yo Ma recorded Sing Me Home with the Silk Road Ensemble, a musical collective with performers and composers from all over the world. The album features guest appearances by Grammy Award winning artists Toumani Diabaté, Gregory Porter, Lisa Fischer, Bill Frisell and many more.
Released in 2016, Sing Me Home was meant to open hearts, ears and minds during a time of tragedy and political turmoil. “All around the world, people constantly meet the unfamiliar through change,” Yo-Yo Ma said of the album. “Rapid or dramatic change can feel threatening, tempting us to build walls to defend against the unknown. At Silk Road we build bridges. In the face of change and difference, we find ways to integrate and synthesize, to forge relationships, and to create joy and meaning.”
Bringing together the cultural backgrounds of the musicians, Sing Me Home is a culturally conscious album, reflecting on modern globalisation and collaboration. From Macedonian folk to traditional music from Mali, and from Irish fiddle to Indian sitar: it all comes together wonderfully. Critics agreed, and the album went on to win the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 2017.
Acid Dad is an American alternative-rock band composed of singer-guitarists, Vaughn Hunt and Sean Fahey, and drummer, Trevor Mustoe. Vaughn first started recording the band in his Bushwick, NY basement releasing singles “Brain Body” and their first EP “Let’s Plan a Robbery.” Appearing live in the New York City rock scene in 2016, Acid Dad quickly moved to a world stage with their self-titled debut album, released by Greenway Records in 2018. During 2020, the band spent their time building a new studio space in Queens, NY, while continuing to independently produce all their own music, art and even building their own guitars. With a new space and vision, the band produced their second LP, “Take It From The Dead,” set to be co-released in June 2021 by Brooklyn’s Greenway Records and psych powerhouse LEVITATION’s label, The Reverberation Appreciation Society. “Take It From The Dead” features an array of different influences ranging from 90’s neo-psych, modern post-punk and 70’s rock-n-roll. Acid Dad has crafted a record that sounds new, yet feels nostalgic. In contrast to their earlier work, they make use of slower tempos and expand their sound to include songs that are both more intricate and more hypnotic. To accompany the new record, the band spent the last year collaborating with video artist Webb Hunt, producing psych and glitch art videos that form a visual counterpart to the dreamy distortions of their sound. Take It From The Dead is out June 11th via Greenway Records / The Reverberation Appreciation Society on Deluxe LP & CD.
“We’re proud to announce the release of our debut EP ‘Reporting
Live From The Living Room Floor’ via Nice Swan Records. A
prologue chapter within the world we call Hallan, ‘Reporting Live
From The Living Room Floor’ introduces the 21st Century to the
Gumshoe Boy. The boy is always the man for the job. He’s the man
on the inside. He’s the Agency’s number one frontman and he’s
armed with a tape provided by an anonymous source. An undercover
operative in a satirical, Orwellian world, ‘Reporting Live From The
Living Room Floor’ paints a semi-abstract but tangible image of the
new decade, holding a mirror up to not only our modern society but
our individual selves. The time is now right. From the corner of his
bleak bedroom the boy plans his plan, and from the corner of ours we
do the same.” - Hallan
The EP draws influence from everyday observation, mainstream pop
culture and laughable tabloid fiction. ‘Reporting Live From The Living
Room Floor’ paints an semi-abstract but tangible image of the new
decade, holding a mirror up to not only modern society but
individuals.
Frontman Conor speaks on the track: “Our sound changes depending
on our agenda at any time, finding a different stride with every step.
With ‘Hands Up’ we found ourselves dropped into a Western rerun
armed with a fiercely cowboyish twang on our six string shooter. We
wanted to forth a thematic, semi abstract prose, attacking
businessmen and penny pinchers in a flurry of suitably delirious
criticisms.”
While struggling to find a studio which didn’t just place Hallan in the
cogs of a much larger machine, the band found Rob Quickenden of
Ford Lane studios for their last single, ‘Modern England’. Returning to
the rural depths of Yapton, Hallan once again join forces with
Quickenden on their debut EP. In a studio setting where no ideas
were out of the question and experimentation and exploration were
the words of the day, expect ‘Reporting Live From The Living Room
Floor’ to be a no-holds-barred exploration into the minds of Hallan.
Back in the far forgotten world of live events, Hallan supported the
likes of Sports Team and Porridge Radio. Yet 2021 sees the band
carve their own path all together. Backed by Nice Swan Records
(Sports Team, Courting, Sprints) Hallan are finally ready to release
their latest imaginings to the world.
Here is the the effortless work of a band entirely confident in their own craft - the consolidation of nearly three decades of peerless songwriting and almost telepathic musicianship amongst the band's three founder members: Norman Blake, Raymond McGinley and Gerard Love. Recorded with the band’s soundman David Henderson alongside regular drummer Francis Macdonald and keyboard player Dave McGowan in three distinctly different environments (initially at Vega in rural Provence, then at Raymond’s home in Glasgow before mixing at Clouds Hill in the industrial heart of Hamburg), it’s a record that embraces maturity and experience and hugs them close.
As ever, song-wise the Fanclub present a textbook representation of democracy in action, the record offering four each by Blake, Love and McGinley. From the almighty chime of opener I’m In Love through The First Sight’s ecstatic soul-search and the paean to unerring friendship With You, Here is a a collection of twelve songs about the only things that truly matter - life and love.
Teenage Fanclub will be touring the UK extensively throughout the Autumn, including two London shows – Islington Assembly Hall and Electric Ballroom – both of which sold out within days of going on sale. Glasgow's finest will also be making an exclusive appearance at this year's End Of The Road festival in early September.
Fryars - dubbed the “mad professor of pop” by the FADER - is the musical brainchild of Benjamin Garrett, whose peerless sound has won him fans from Kanye West to Lily Allen to Depeche Mode. Following the buzz around his early work, Fryars released his debut album Dark Young Hearts in 2009, while his second studio album Power - a journey through the imagination built around a story that spans three continents and deals with all the deliciousness of life; love, greed, loss and death - arrived 5 years later through a plethora of difficulties to critical acclaim. Dazed called it “a dazzling electro-pop construct”, while The Guardian praised Fryars for “mixing regret and basic human desires to create something strangely uplifting”. Since the release of Power, Garrett has worked extensively with Lily Allen, co-writing tracks on her number one album Sheezusand 2018’s Mercury nominated No Shame, as well as writing and producing for Rae Morris’ acclaimed 2018 record Someone Out There. God Melodies will be his third album, to be released on 16th July.
Toronto’s PACKS make music that’s like leafing through a diary entry of a time without visible movement, a subtle beauty that appears only when paying close attention. The band’s debut is a collection of songs that marry the loose but incisive jangle of early Pavement with the barbed sweetness of Sebadoh and the wideeyed wonder of the first Shins LP. Written in two different settings, between the city limits of Toronto where Link was living in 2019, and the Ottawa suburbs where she was quarantined with her parents in the spring 2020, both remain complementary emblems of selfreflection and wry observation of the mundanity of daily life. Packaging: LP Printed Inner Sleeve
‘Royal’ is the long awaited second full-length album from Jesse Royal, an artist who has been helping to return Jamaica to its rightful place at the top of the worldwide reggae scene. Along with his peers and friends Protoje, Chronixx, Koffee, Kabaka Pyramid, Jah9, Lila Ike, and others, Jesse Royal has brought back many of the soulful elements of the genre, while remaining at the cutting edge of the moment. The record’s 3rd single, “Rich Forever,” a collab with dancehall superstar Vybz Kartel, perfectly illustrates this with a modern roots sound that surprises at every turn. Recent major hits, “LionOrder” (with Protoje) and “Natty Pablo,” are both included here, along with a host of new songs that are destined to become favorites in the Jamaican diaspora and well beyond. The album also features prominent guest turns by Stonebwoy, Kumar (formerly of GRAMMY winning band Raging Fyah), and rising stars Samory I, and Runkus.
- A1: The Syd Dale Orchestra - The Hell Raisers
- A2: Perez Prado - Mamma A Go-Go
- A3: Rocky Roberts & The Airedales -The Bird Is The Word
- A4: Whit Boyd - Hot Blooded Woman
- A5: Lee Dowell - Don't Make Me Mad
- A6: The Penny Arcade - The Wild Scene
- A7: The E-Types - Put The Clock Back On The Wall
- A8: Bit 'A Sweet - Is It On - Is It Off
- A9: The Jaybirds - The Right Kind
- B1: Joe Bisko / Attila Galamb - Beware Of The 4-D Witch
- B2: Alan Hawkshaw - The Action Scene
- B3: Raul And The Revelations - A Sweet Sickness
- B4: Mandarin Gate With Chris Martell - It's A Revolution Mother
- B5: Jim Hughes - Soorangi
- B6: The Group - Bummer
- B7: Various - Musical Mutiny Trailer
- B8: The Love Generation - Different Now
- C1: John Barry & His Orchestra - Swinging City (Mood Three)
- C2: Robert Farnon - Johnny's Dive
- C3: Bob Freedman And His Orchestra - Strip Blues
- C4: Johnny Hawksworth - Jane Bond Theme
- C5: John Barry & His Orchestra - Mood One
- C6: Various - A Taste Of Flesh Opening Credit Theme
- C7: The Tony Harrison Trio - Hot Blooded Woman Incidental Music
- C10: Various - Hot Thrills Warm Chills Opening Credit Theme
- D1: Betty Dickson - Shanty Tramp
- D2: The Huntington Astronauts - Yipes Stripes
- D3: Billy Lee Riley - Speed Lovers
- D4: Lee Dowell - (Be A) Black Belt
- D5: The Ladybirds - At The Blue Bunny
- D6: Tony & Et Cetra - I Want A Woman
- D7: John Gabriel - Love Cool
- D8: Neil Patrick - Love Goddess
- D9: Meg Myles - The Female Of The Species
- C8: Various - My Brother's Wife Opening Credit Theme
- C9: Armando Sciascia - Easy Macumba
New pressing, with a front punch of color! It’s the yellow belt edition!
(yellow vinyl)Take an auditory trip through a wacky world of oddball and obscure ‘classick’ exploitation cinema soundtracks from the 1960s and early 1970s, presented by one of the most beloved genre film video companies of all time’ Something Weird! Two LPs chock-full of oddities and earworms with great sets of liners and track by track factoids!
"Certain loud guitar rock records serve as brain erasers, a form of shock therapy zapping through aural inputs and (to mix metaphors) cleaning the proverbial clock. Lightning Bolt is one such thing." - LA Times Since their first moment it seems like they've been as electric as their name suggests. Lightning Bolt, their first album, captures that energy in a raw form. Famously lo-fi, this is the album that's been described as most feeling like being at one of their shows. It's difficult to listen and not want to jump with the crowd it feels like must be huddled around the amp producing an incredible wave of noise, astonishingly coming from just two musicians. You can hear the threads of their later work; use of repetition, a sense of grinding and building, noise melting to guitar solos. This album is loud, and the riffs repeated become mesmerizing as they warp slowly thru the songs. Long saught after, this record has not been available new on vinyl since it's first pressing. This edition includes songs which have never before been released on vinyl. A must have for any Lightning Bolt fan, or really anyone who loves noise.
The album is described this way by producer Ripley Johnson: "The band was aiming to capture a timeless, natural sound, not quite of the present, past, or future, but phasing in between the consciousness of now and the stoned dream-state of the eternal. Sort of a back porch jam just as the shrooms are starting to kick in. Handmade and human, but also cosmic and transcendental. The goal is to let the music speak for itself and hopefully find a weird and wonderful audience somewhere out there."That description feels right for an album which seems perfect for those soft ephemeral moments, and that softly wraps you in the feeling of walking at twilight. Mellow but upbeat the album it's easy to imagine the leaves changing colors. It's psych rock, and dificult to describe without getting poetic; dreamy and insular, it's easy to get lost in this album. Produced and recorded by Ripley Johnson (Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips), and mixed by Chris Cohen (Captured Tracks, Deerhoof), the album finds its niche in the hazy sonic landscape of private press country and psych records, and alongside artists like Relatively Clean Rivers, Jim Sullivan, Kenny Knight, and countless other explorers of the pastoral underground. New project produced by Ripley Johnson of Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo fame, fans of either are sure to love this one
One of the beautiful qualities of the Bellingham music community was the fact that many different groups of various genres could coexist and even perform comfortably throughout the half-dozen venues in this little Northwest college town in the most northwest corner of the most northwest state in the lower 48.
The original roots soulfunk juggernaut of Joel Ricci's "The Lucky Seven" known in their town as "The Leaders of the Funk Revolution," attracted a certain cadre of party goer, as did Dan Lowinger's rugged rockabilly quartet "The Foot Stompin' Trio". At Footstompin gigs, Lowinger would be found deftly chicken pickin' that honky tonk tele' and was known to impress the audience so much with his licks, they would throw buckets of beer on him as a show of their love and appreciation. It was only a matter of time before Dan and Joel were lucky enough to get the chance to perform together and toured the States for a few years together with a fiery ska/reggae/rocksteady powerhouse also out of the Bellingham area, "The Yogoman Burning Band". Dan and Joel recorded many demos together and contributed original material to the Burning Band, but the proto-rock of "Please Some", is pure Royal Dees. This tune, composed and recorded by Ricci, was actually conceived as a submission to Tramp Records and remained unfinished for many years while also suffering from the degradation of the original cassette it was recorded on. The Duo re-recorded again 4 years later when they were both living in Portland, Oregon and that version lives today as side D's "alternate take" which Ricci found in his cassette archive over the summer. This version also came with it's own set of audio issues, notwithstanding the botched ending, which we have retained here for you as the loose and roots funky vibe of the whole take justifies it's inclusion.
Finally, Joel and Dan's friend and comrade Doug Krebs, who happened to also be a well-loved member of that same Bellingham music community, especially as the go-to sound and mastering engineer, came through in spades to rescue the two pieces and prepare them for proper release on this, the one and only Royal Dees release to see the light of day on the bold and inimitable Tramp Records.
- A1: Shooter
- A2: Back Up 2021 (Feat Debby Friday & Sb The Moor)
- A3: Wriggle
- A4: Hot Fuck No Love (Feat Cakes Da Killa & Maxi Wild)
- A5: Our Time (Feat Nailah Middleton)
- B1: Wriggle (Homemade Weapons Remix)
- B2: Back Up (Dave Quam Remix)
- B3: Hot Fuck No Love (Jana Rush's Naughty Bitch Remix) (Vinyl Exclusive)
- B4: Wriggle (Cardopusher's Ebm Remix)
Loser Edition[18,45 €]
This LP finally brings a Clipping fan-favorite, 2016's Wriggle, onto vinyl in an improved, expanded version that features new art, previously unreleased remixes, and a track that's exclusive to the vinyl format. The original, digital-only Wriggle EP was six tracks that weren't finished in time to make it onto the group's 2014 Sub Pop debut, CLPPNG. For "Shooter," Clipping recorded themselves firing fifteen different guns, the sounds of which exclusively constituted the beat's drums, augmented only by a synthesized tone-row. The verses referenced the well-worn technique of "hashtag rap," but instead of using it to boast about the rapper's personal wealth and masculine prowess, Clipping put forth imagistic narratives of three violent encounters. True to much of the group's music, "Shooter" was an attempt to reframe a familiar style and test the limits of its formal capabilities. "Hot Fuck No Love" contains what might be the most explicit verse to date from Clipping's favorite New Jersey rapper Cakes Da Killa. The EP's title track, "Wriggle," was built around a sample of the influential power-electronics song "Wriggle Like a Fucking Eel" by Whitehouse, transforming William Bennett's torturous imperative into a instructional dance-floor banger. "Wriggle" and "Shooter" have become classic Clipping tracks and staples of their live show. With this vinyl edition, Clipping fans old and new - and there are many new fans thanks to their breakout 2020 album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, and Daveed Diggs' thriving acting career - get the vinyl version of Wriggle they've been clamouring for.
Etruria Beat founder Luca Agnelli unveils his long-awaited debut album, ‘Source Drops’ – presenting a ten-track journey through techno and beyond.
A name at the centre of Italy’s rich house and techno scene for over a decade, Etruria Beat head-honcho Luca Agnelli continues to showcase his talent as a leading DJ, producer and label boss on the international stage. With releases via a host of globally renowned labels, plus standout remixes including Moby’s iconic ‘Porcelain’, the Tuscany native’s reputation has seen him become of the genre’s leading artists when combining energetic, entrancing productions throughout his powerful DJ sets. Yet, the core of his work has always found a perfect home on his own Etruria Beat imprint, with July now welcoming the arrival of his highly-anticipated debut album ‘Source Drops’ – an in-depth musical story presenting growth, development, self-reflection and raw emotions via a collection of ten tracks ranging from powerful peak-time anthems through to EBM influenced cuts and slower, hypnotic productions.
“This is the journey that traces my musical evolution of the last 20 years, discovering more conceptual, deeper musical territories; taking inspiration from what influenced me in my career as a DJ and from my continuous research without musical barriers. A journey always in equilibrium, at times dark and sharp, solar and fluid, that develops a different creative vision in each track trying to convey my most intimate and strongest emotions". – Luca Agnelli
Opening via the slow-blooming builds and atmospheric and waves of ‘Black Mirror’, before diving into the heady and menacing tones of ‘Mutant Circle’, the ten-track project quickly showcases a wide-reaching range of influences and nuances central to Agnelli’s development as an artist over his career. Productions such as ‘Balance’ and ‘Oxigen’ contrast with one another whilst bringing space to proceedings, guided by breaks-influenced percussion, minimal arrangements and warping leads, whilst the driving ‘Resistance’ harnesses classic techno tendencies to provide an energetic and lively, snaking journey through rich soundscapes.
Title cut ‘Source Drops’ brings that trademark Luca Agnelli energy to the heart of the project, merging scintillating melodies, acid-tinged stabs and icy hats to unveil a high-octane ride into the peak-time, whilst ‘Raw Surface’ keeps the tempo high with sweeping leads, oscillating basslines and resonant lasers. Next, ‘Omega’ spirals into an off- kilter ride through glitchy echoed vocals, crunchy percussion and rumbling low-ends, with the epic ‘Losing Control’ welcoming an infectious lead melody at its core guided by punchy kicks and slick drum licks. To close, the package veers to an eerie yet ethereal close as hazy, celestial vocal chants meet panning sirens and swooping electronics – punctuating an expansive and diverse offering from the Italian favourite and shaping up an impressive debut LP in the process.
Banoffee Pies Records 17th Original Series release comes via a 4 track Solo EP from Gallegos, making a return after his debut EP "Mad As Hell" in 2018. Along with multiple appearances on compilations and other series on the label, this record is a nostalgic reflection of UK club culture. A "Sentiment Of Love" - the EP title and opening track is a tribute to a different time.
A positive selection of tracks, starting on the A1 with a Winehouse sample, immediately carves the path for what is always a collection of expert sampling from our longest standing label member. The A2 offering, "Put Me In", is a beating club anthem full of heavy distortion and all the acid lines you'd hope for in a moment at the back of a club. A feeling evoked. One Mitsy down.
The B1 "Together Flyin' High" continues this moment with an elevating vocal and ringing synths layered with Broken Beats and the heavily percussive drum patterns Gallegos' sound is so closely developed around. The last track on the release "Before Or Since", immediately teleporting you to the end of a night. Something inward, for a time and place, future or past. BPR x
“Montreal’s genre-defying post-rock combo BIG|BRAVE could very well be the most noteworthy recent heavy curiosity to come out of the city in recent years.” - NOISEY
“…combines elements of Björk, Neurosis and Sunn O))) into a cohesive whole; but this whole is an ever evolving and challenging sonic mass.
- THE QUIETUS
Minimalism and instinct, structure/freedom and meticulous timing form the cornerstones of their precise, rhythmical sound.
Lyrically, the album explores the weight of race and gender, endurance and navigating other people’s behaviours, observation and protest. The band further comment “this album involves what it means navigating the outside world in a racialized body and what it does to the psyche as a whole while finding individual worth within this reality.”
This time featuring the core trio Robin Wattie, Mathieu Ball and Tasy Hudson, for their most collaborative record they’ve made so far. The band elaborate “having cut our teeth in very different musical backgrounds respectively, our intuitions vary, which has an interesting effect on our individual approaches and ears.”
For this record, BIG | BRAVE once again made the trek down to Rhode Island to record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. They remark “we fully trust his instinct as an engineer and his creative output, getting to experiment with textures, concepts, layers, and with pretty much every single recorded sound, the process of making records with Seth is an absolute journey and pleasure.”
With the initial seeds planted in 2012, with no other goal than simply experimenting with the instruments in their possession, Robin Wattie and Mathieu Ball started writing subtle ambient/minimalistic folk songs together. When long time friend Louis Alexandre Beauregard joined on drums, the goal still remained to play as tranquil as possible. After an incident where Wattie’s acoustic guitar broke, and having borrowed a friend’s electric as a replacement, larger amps that Ball had in storage from previous bands started to get incorporated to the outfit. Now with amplitude as a compositional tool, BB never lost interest in the power of minimalism and fragility. It became clear that loud volume would become just as effective as the lowest possible ones and the juxtaposition of both would become something BB still uses as their main MO to this day.
After self-releasing Feral Verdure in 2014, the band had the opportunity to open for Thee Silver Mt Zion in Montreal QC. After which, Efrim Manuel Menuck found something meaningful in the members and the band and invited them to open on future shows with Mt Zion and with Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
In 2015, the band entered the studio with Menuck and recorded “Au De La”. With no home for the record, they decided to take a chance in writing to Southern Lord. As luck would have it, Greg Anderson happened upon their email among hundreds and responded. Since then, the band has had a home with Southern Lord Records. (Along with Au De La, Southern Lord has released Ardor in 2017, A Gaze Among Them in 2019 and VITAL in 2021).
After Beauregard’s departure in 2018, the band traveled down to Rhode Island with Loel Campbell on drums to make a first record with Seth Manchester at Machines with Magnets. After the album’s release, with Campbell unable to tour, Tasy Hudson joined the ranks and the band spent most of the year touring their 2019 album “A Gaze Among Them”.
In 2020, the core trio of Ball, Wattie and Hudson once again made the trek down to Machines with Magnets to record their 5th LP “VITAL”.
Since their inception, the band has had many honours and privileges of touring a number of times in North America and Europe with bands such as Sunn O))), MY DISCO, The Body, Thou, Primitive Man and Thee Silver Mt Zion.
- 1: Dearest Frederica (Opening The Proposal)
- 2: Grass Horns For The Proposal Dinner
- 3: Manufacture
- 4: Copyright Implications
- 5: Void Room And Reliquary
- 6: St. Gallen
- 7: Word Guitar
- 8: The Jeweler
- 9: Poised
- 10: Architecture Of Noise
- 11: The Nun With A Chipped Tooth
- 12: As Ever
- 13: Grass Horns For The Proposal Credits
Hand-numbered vinyl edition of 500 copies is 180gramLP in window-cut artboard jacket that frames eight different images from Magid's The Barragan Archives project, printed on four 12"x12" art card inserts including an artworked inner sleeve. The original score for the acclaimed feature-length artworld documentary by multi-disciplinary artist Jill Magid: an exploration of the contested legacy of the Mexican architect Luis Barragan and an art intervention in its own right. Griffin wrote, performed and recorded The Proposal soundtrack with an understated but wide-ranging electro-acoustic sensibility that organically compliments the film's enigmatic narrative and the discreet beauty of Barragan's architectural spaces. Various acoustic instruments combine with electronics, sampling and ambient treatments for an ever-shifting suite of musical vignettes across the album's thirteen tracks. Guest musicians include Matana Roberts, Reut Regev, Jim White (Xylouris White, The Dirty Three), Jason Ajemian (Helado Negro), and Sophie Trudeau and Timothy Herzog (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) alongside Griffin's own contributions on multiple instruments, field recordings and production. Griffin weaves an iridescent musical tapestry, threading various genres with sublime thematic and atmospheric coherence, echoing Magid's contemplative, cerebral journey. The music also works enchantingly on its own as a subtly haunted, evocative and meditative album.
- Crossfire
- Fylingdale Flyer
- Working John, Working Joe
- Black Sunday
- Protect And Survive
- Batteries Not Included
- Uniform
- 4: W D (Low Ratio)
- The Pine Marten’s Jig
- And Further On
After completing their acclaimed folk-rock trilogy in 1979, Jethro Tull returned a year later with A, an album that introduced a different sound and a new line-up. Originally intended as a solo record by the band’s founder Ian Anderson, the album’s single-letter title refers to the studio tapes, which were marked “A” for Anderson. When the album was finished, the group’s label Chrysalis insisted that it be credited to Jethro Tull, even though only two members from the band’s previous incarnation were featured: Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre. Despite that, the album and subsequent tour were well-received by fans around the world.
Back in April, Rhino released ‘A’ (A La Mode) (The 40th Anniversary Edition), a new 3CD/3DVD set to mark the album’s anniversary. Featuring on this album anniversary set, we will release the 1LP breakout of the original album ‘A’, newly mixed by Steven Wilson.
Produced by Anderson and Robin Black, A was recorded in London during the summer of 1980 at Maison Rouge Mobile and Maison Rouge Studios. Along with Anderson and Barre, the band also featured Dave Pegg (bass, mandolin) and Mark Craney (drums), along with guest performer Eddie Jobson – a Roxy Music alumnus – on keyboard, synthesizer and electric violin.
After completing their acclaimed folk-rock trilogy in 1979, Jethro Tull returned a year later with A, an album that introduced a different sound and a new line-up. Originally intended as a solo record by the band’s founder Ian Anderson, the album’s single-letter title refers to the studio tapes, which were marked “A” for Anderson. When the album was finished, the group’s label Chrysalis insisted that it be credited to Jethro Tull, even though only two members from the band’s previous incarnation were featured: Anderson and guitarist Martin Barre. Despite that, the album and subsequent tour were well-received by fans around the world.
Back in April, Rhino released ‘A’ (A La Mode) (The 40th Anniversary Edition), a new 3CD/3DVD set to mark the album’s anniversary. Featuring on this album anniversary set, we will release the 1LP breakout of the original album ‘A’, newly mixed by Steven Wilson.
Produced by Anderson and Robin Black, A was recorded in London during the summer of 1980 at Maison Rouge Mobile and Maison Rouge Studios. Along with Anderson and Barre, the band also featured Dave Pegg (bass, mandolin) and Mark Craney (drums), along with guest performer Eddie Jobson – a Roxy Music alumnus – on keyboard, synthesizer and electric violin.
Book + CD
In the year 2018 visual artist Ken Verhoeven (1991, lives and works in Antwerp) presented his Friendship Paintings, a collection best described as “deconstructed designs for friendship bracelets”, at Trampoline gallery in Antwerp.
The subject: the friendship bracelet. A wristband infused with meaningful (?) symbols. Symbols crafted thread after thread. One pulls a string, and ... friendship happens. Or ... friendship is being manipulated by symbolism. Not unlike a fetish.
Ken Verhoeven upcycled this vulgar object and brought it inside the art gallery. Where he showed not only the designs, but also the schematics for how to craft each bracelet. Like exposing the crystals of friendship.
It is a recurring storyline in Ken Verhoeven’s work. In the words of gallerist Stella Lohaus “he constantly interprets curiosities that casually present themselves in the world around him.”
Friendship Songs For this book, Ken Verhoeven structured ten works as a dramatic narrative.
He invited me to translate these works to music. To treat them as sheet music. Graphic scores. From here on, the Friendship Paintings become Friendship Songs.
On the accompanying CD, i recorded 10 arrangements of the 10 scores. Not unlike how Ken Verhoeven only used an existing DIY online generator to create the designs – i stuck to very limited tools while arranging the music. Namely one Roland Sound Canvas module for the sounds, Christian Schubart’s seminal book about the aesthetics of the tonal arts – to determine the tonality of each score, and the Spectrotone Instrumental Tone-Colour Chart for the instrumentation. The latter being a system invented a century ago in Hollywood, to apply different colours to the various instruments and registers of an orchestra.
We arrive at objective musical interpretation. However, since we are not dealing with heartless content here, the arranger does need to take subjective decisions, to bring the arrangements home. These small musics can / should (who is the manipulator now?) be played as a friendship bracelet. Thus: as endless loops. Every song repeats itself as long as you wish for. Like the symbol on the bracelet is being repeated until the circular object is finalized. Once, twice, 10, 20, 100, ?? times. Enjoy, Friend!
Lieven Martens, Deurne 28 june 2021




















