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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of LA the Darkman’s Heist of the Century LP, Coalmine Records has partnered up with the Brooklyn native for a special edition vinyl reissue, marking the first time that the record’s been repressed since its original release. This album is widely regarded as one of the strongest and most underrated releases from a Wu-Tang Clan affiliate, and it’s easy to understand why once you hear its dynamic 18 tracks. The Killer Bee embodies the raw spirit of the Wu while adding his own signature gritty flavor throughout Heist of the Century. He shines whether he’s spitting solo on standouts like “Shine,” “Street Life,” and the title track, and when he’s joined by rap heavyweights like Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Havoc, and Masta Killah. Rae actually delivers two show-stopping guest performances on”Az the World Turns” and “Spring Water.” The production lineup is just as serious, which boasts credits from the likes of RZA, DJ Muggs, Havoc, 4th Disciple, as well as Carlos “Six July” Broady who produced 10 tracks among others. Whether you were there day one, only started diving into the Wu’s vast discography recently, or somewhere in between, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better representation of their sound than Heist of the Century. “Heist of the Century undeniably continues in the vein of the surrealistic, orchestral sound that branded the Wu-Tang Clan as one of the most revolutionary hip-hop groups of the decade.” MTV.
Tired Girls is the third full-length studio album by Bay Area singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Anna Hillburg. Co-produced and recorded with Jason Quever of the Papercuts, the pair created an album for lovers of finely crafted and supremely catchy chamber pop. As always, Hillburg’s voice takes center stage, but for Tired Girls she made a conscious choice to dig deeper into her trumpet skills and make more elaborate horn arrangements than her previous records. Lyrically, Hillburg dives into what it is to be a contemporary woman, and how one perseveres, finds inspiration, creates, loves, and lives. Recorded throughout 2022 at Quever’s studio, the two built dreamy soundscapes with long-time collaborators Logan Kroeber on drums (The Dodos), Josh Miller on bass (Chime School, Extra Classic), and Yea Ming Chen on keys. The entire record has a real “Ladies, trust your gut” feeling, unsurprisingly, as Hillburg says she tends to write songs about “the reality of womanhood and feminism but ya know, why not make that a little ‘dancey’?” As a collection, Tired Girls marks her arrival as an artist who has hit their stride. Each track shows her talent and progression as a songwriter and performer. As a multi-instrumentalist and classically trained trumpet player, Hillburg is a sought-after session and live musician in the vibrant Bay Area music scene, performing regularly with Shannon And The Clams, The Dodos, The Moore Brothers, The Once And Future Band, Will Sprott, Dream Date, Greg Ashley, Shannon Shaw and her All-Star Buddy Band, and more. After writing and recording with her first band, SF power-pop darlings Dream Date, Hillburg set off on her own to record and release her first album, the self-titled 2013 release, Anna Hillburg. Described as “a romantic mix of lounge-inspired rock and avant-folk melodies,” here were the foundations of Hillburg’s signature songwriting style, with elements of baroque pop, catchy hooks, trumpet lines, and whimsical humor that garnered the attention of critics and fans alike. Her second studio album, Really Real, came out in 2018, recorded with Greg Ashley (Gris Gris) and Alicia Vanden Heuvel (The Aislers Set), this pop gem gained even more praise, with writers saying “Hillburg’s writing brings heartfelt lyrics to elegant pop.”
- A1: Salamanda – Snowman Soup
- A2: Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards – Requiem For Kemistry, At Kristmas
- A3: Jaeho Hwang – New Chosun X-Mas
- A4: Xander Harris – Blackwood Yule Nog
- A5: Grohs – Winter, A Dirge
- B1: Yobkiss – Psychic Silent Night
- B2: Sdk – White Acid Christmas
- B3: Macheolvan – Euljiro Nowhere Man
- B4: The Blue Lady – Not A Creature Was Stirring (Disinfected Version)
- B5: Heejin Jang – Flocon De Neige Noir
- B6: Aadm Our Hatley – Christmas Day Tonight
Last year, South Korea’s Extra Noir asked “What links a mall Santa in Singapore with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak? Scottish bard Robert Burns and Tales from the Crypt? What connects a cry for love in the industrial heart of Seoul with Algernon Blackwood spiking a batch of eggnog?”
The answer, of course, was their Christmas charity compilation, Noël Noir. This holiday season, the label has combined some of the best selections from that release with new contributions for a limited-edition cassette. The year’s hottest stocking stuffer contains wintry atmospherics and seasonal spooks from JD Twitch’s ambient alias Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards, Salamanda (Human Pitch, Wisdom Teeth), Xander Harris (Rock Action, Not Not Fun), Jaeho Hwang (Chinabot), Heejin Jang (Doom Trip) and more.
- Edith Piaf - La Vie En Rose
- Georges Brassens - Les Amoureux Des Bancs Publics
- Jeanne Moreau - Le Tourbillon (Bof "Jules Et Jim")
- Hugues Aufray - Santiano
- Henri Salvador - Le Lion Est Mort Ce Soir
- Django Reinhardt - Minor Swing
- Luis Mariano - Mexico
- Sacha Distel - Scoubidou
- Sheila - Sheila
- Juliette Greco - Jolie Mome
- Claude Nougaro - Le Jazz Et La Java
- Mouloudji - Petite Fleur
- Charles Trenet - Douce France
- Bourvil - Salade De Fruits
- Fernandel - Félicie Aussi
- Alain Barrière - Cathy
- Dario Moreno - Si Tu Vas A Rio
- Guy Béart - L'eau Vive
- Boris Vian - Le Déserteur
- Charles Aznavour - Je M'voyais Déjà
- Johnny Hallyday - Retiens La Nuit
- Serge Gainsbourg - L'eau A La Bouche
- Barbara - Dis Quand Reviendras-Tu ?
- Line Renaud & Dean Martin - Relax-Ay-Voo
- Richard Anthony - J'entends Siffler Le Train
- Tino Rossi - Méditerranée
- Léo Ferré - Paname
- Claude Francois - Belles, Belles, Belles
- Eddy Mitchell & Les Chaussettes Noires - Daniela
- Sylvie Vartan - Tous Mes Copains
- Josephine Baker - J'ai Deux Amours
- Gilbert Bécaud - Et Maintenant
- Yves Montand - Les Feuilles Mortes
- Boby Lapointe - Aragon Et Castille
- Francoise Hardy - Le Temps De L'amour
- Brigitte Bardot - La Madrague
- Salvatore Adamo - En Blue Jeans Et Blouson De Cuir
- Maurice Chevalier - Paris Sera Toujours Paris
- Dalida - Bambino
- Enrico Macias - Adieu Mon Pays
- Jacques Brel - Ne Me Quitte Pas
From Serge Gainsbourg to Barbara, From Edith Piaf to George Brassens, all the classics of French singers are included in this very nice 3LP boxset.
- A1: Son Of A Preacher Man (Lp1 This Girls In Love With You)
- A2: Share Your Love With Me
- A3: Dark End Of The Street
- A4: Let It Be
- A5: Eleanor Rigby
- B1: This Girl's In Love With You
- B2: It Ain't Fair
- B3: The Weight
- B4: Call Me
- B5: Sit Down & Cry
- C1: Don't Play That Song (You Lied) (You Lied)
- C2: The Thrill Is Gone (From Yesterday's Kiss) (From Yesterday's Kiss)
- C3: Pullin
- C4: You & Me
- C5: Honest I Do
- C6: Spirit In The Dark
- D1: When The Battle Is Over
- D2: One Way Ticket
- D3: Try Matty's
- D4: That's All I Want From You
- D5: Oh No Not My Baby
- D6: Why I Sing The Blues
- E1: Oh Me Oh My (I'm A Fool For You Baby) (I'm A Fool For You Baby)
- E2: Day Dreaming
- E5: All The King's Horses
- E6: A Brand New Me
- F1: April Fools
- F2: I've Been Loving You Too Long
- F3: First Snow In Kokomo
- F4: The Long And Winding Road
- F5: Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time) (Blow Your Mind This Time)
- F6: Border Song (Holy Moses) (Holy Moses)
- G1: Hey Now Hey (The Other Side Of The Sky) (The Other Side Of The Sky)
- G2: Somewhere (Feat Anneke Van Giersbergen)
- G3: So Swell When You're Well
- G4: Angel
- G5: Sister From Texas
- H1: Mister Spain
- H2: That's The Way I Feel About Cha
- H3: Moody's Mood
- H4: Just Right Tonight
- I1: Let Me In Your Life (Lp5 Let Me In Your Life)
- I2: Every Natural Thing
- I3: Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing
- I4: I'm In Love
- I5: Until You Come Back To Me
- I6: The Masquerade Is Over
- J1: With Pen In Hand
- J2: Oh Baby
- J3: Eight Days On The Road
- E3: Rock Steady
- J4: If You Don't Think
- J5: A Song For You
- K1: Pledging My Love/The Clock (Lp6 Pledging My Love - Session Tracks)
- K2: You're Taking Up Another Man's Place
- K3: Are You Leaving Me
- K4: You're All I Need To Get By (Take 2)
- K5: Spanish Harlem (Aretha 3, Rough Mix, Reel 12150)
- L1: Lean On Me
- L2: Sweetest Smile & The Funkiest Style
- L3: Do You Know
- L4: At Last
- L5: Master Of Eyes (The Deepness Of Your Eyes) (The Deepness Of Your Eyes)
- L6: Til It's Over
- E4: Young Gifted & Black
FIVE CLASSIC ARETHA ALBUMS PRESENTING AN EARLY-’70S PORTRAIT OF THE QUEEN!
Also Includes A SIXTH BONUS LP of Session Alternates, Outtakes & Demos!
Original Albums Remastered From the Analog Master Tapes by Grammy® Award-Winning Engineer, Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering Produced by Grammy® Award-Winner Cheryl Pawelski with Liner Notes from Billboard’s Gail Mitchell & British Ambassador of Soul, David Nathan Includes the hit Young, Gifted, & Black, released in 1972, which hit #2 on Billboard’s R&B albums survey and #11 on the Billboard Top 200 as well as being certified GOLD.
Aretha won the 1972 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance the album ranked at number 388 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Also includes This Girl’s In Love With You which features the first commercial release of “Let It Be,” and came out 2 months ahead of The Beatles. Both this album and Spirit In The Dark feature the Muscle Shoals Rhythm section and an appearance by Duane Allman. Along with production on both from Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd & Arif Mardin.
Freestyle Records releast eine dringend benötigte und vollständig lizenzierte 12"-Reproversion von 'Front Line s/w Saving All My Love' von Midnight Energy, die 1984 ursprünglich auf Wal-Brooks Records erschien. Zwei Knallerseiten mit teurem Electro-Boogiefunk aus New Jersey, geschrieben und produziert von Tony McLachlan von der Fresh Band (bekannt durch 'Come Back Lover').
Members of Papir & Causa Sui finalise Edena Gardens trilogy. True to El Paraiso fashion, Dens concludes a trilogy of albums, aptly spelling out the last third of the group’s name. And true to form, the band turns inwards rather than outwards, drawing on deep shades of ambient, slowcore, and the ghost of Mark Hollis. While maintaining their psychedelic edge, the trio weaves the lines between genres in a way that’s becoming a signature of its own. Never in a hurry, but always moving somewhere. Causa Sui drummer Jakob Skøtt & Martin Rude’s bass and baritone guitar lay out a robust yet fleeting foundation. Papir’s Nicklas Sørensen’s glistening guitar lines never felt more free and explorative. While The Durutti Column tribute Vini’s Lament is drenched in nostalgia, a cut like Morgensol (Morning Sun in Danish) explodes in Popol Vuh-esque gloomy euphoria. Engineered by Jonas Munk & produced by Jakob Skøtt, the album culls hours of free improvisation into a coherent size. Seamless edits and studio wizardry enhance the feeling of an almost narrative nature as the album progresses. Invoking anything from a crackling campfire, rattling bones, and the singing of sand dunes. The culmination lies in the 14-minute track Sienita. A fully formed blistering improvisation, abandoning any studio trickery, besides a singly dubbed organ, rising and falling like the tide.
»In Words« is the first solo album by the Danish musician, composer, and visual artist Alexander Tillegreen. The album represents a series of varied electronic music pieces while also carrying examples of ongoing work with psychoacoustic phenomena. Composed partly of material taken from his artistic practice as an installation artist and his ongoing interdisciplinary artistic research into psychoacoustic phenomena, Tillegreen investigates subjective sonic perception and the negotiation of language. Particularly, these investigations are done through the use of the phantom word illusion, originally discovered by music psychologist Diana Deutsch. Parts of the album were conceived when Tillegreen was the first artist ever in resident at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. Triggering the brain’s tendency to interpret language-based auditory illusions as meaningful information and as words within the mind of the listener, Tillegreen’s unique sound works unfold like a kaleidoscope of phonetic mirrors which render possibilities to reflect upon the listener’s own psychological and culturally situated linguistic embeddedness. Gender-distorted voice perception, speech and language borders are all challenged and thematized throughout Tillegreen’s work. The listener’s head and bodily movement drastically affect the listening and the word interpretation. Their psychological subconsciousness, recent events, memories, and expectations as well as the listener’s motion in space all become co-creative and co- composing factors in a reactive and choreographic process of listening. The polyrhythmic seriality of spatialized syllabic structures is accompanied by elements of heavy bass drops, high-frequency tensions, undulating synth lines, and hypnotic effects. Some of the many compositional potentials of the phantom word illusions are exercised and unfolded in selected tracks throughout the album. The notion of language borders is approached from an entirely different and even more “anti-logocentric” perspective on the “eponymous” closing track »Assimilate (in Words)«, where the listener experiences the struggle and collapse of interpersonal communication through conversation. Other parts of the album represent more diverse approaches to abstract electronic music. »In Words« morphs soundscapes into glacial, spherical passages of ambient backdrops, while at other times emphasizes raw tectonic blocks of hyper-panning drones that erupt into high-velocity outlets of energetic, granular fields. Tillegreen is alternating between cyclical, minimalist, hypnotic approaches and complex, glitchy polyrhythmic melodic structures that shift and melt into evocative ambiences. The phantom words and the nature of Tillegreen’s musical visions progressively demand more of the listener’s attention and represent the artist’s ongoing artistic work and scientific research into psychoacoustics and language. While »In Words« is a highly conceptual album, the musical bandwidth is extensive.
LP reissue of Collective Calls, the first duo LP from Evan Parker and percussionist Paul Lytton. Mythically alluded to as ‘An Improvised Urban Psychodrama In Eight Parts”, Collective Calls utilises electronics, pre-records and homemade instruments to wryly in/act self investigation. Having just recorded the cliff jumping Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey, Christine Jeffrey, Hugh Davies and Jamie Muir, Parker was at the point where he was thinking, ‘what’s the next thing?’ On Collective Calls, only the 5th release to appear on the newly minted Incus label, percussionist Paul Lytton arrives with an arsenal of sound making sources to push Parker into ever new territory. Recorded in the loft of The Standard Essenco Co on Southwark Street by Bob Woolford (Topography of the Lungs, AMM The Crypt), Collective Calls has more in common with noise or music concrete than with jazz; sitting comfortably alongside Italian messrs Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza or the husband-wife duo of Anima Sound. According to Martin Davidson, it was a Folkways record that Lytton was obsessed with around the time of this release - Sounds of the Junkyard - its track titles like “Steel Saw Cutting Channel Iron in Two Places” working to give you a good idea of the atmosphere of Collective Calls. Paul Lytton had encountered the use of electronics in music in 1968 when he was invited to play drums on the recording of An Electric Storm by White Noise (along with David Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson). He had seen Hugh Davies using contact mics in the Music Improvisation Company, and soon set about assembling a Dexion frame akin to drummer John Stevens’, except that his own was armed with several single-coil electric guitar pickups, long wires and strings with connected foot-pedals to modulate pitch. Influenced as much by Stockhausen, Cage and David Tudor as he was by Max Roach and Milford Graves, Lytton’s percussion is abstract, expressionist and at times totally mutant. Sometimes rolling extremely fast, then screeching almost backwards over feedback, Lytton gives Parker room to play some of his weirdest work. Parker is listed as performing both saxophones, but also his own home made assemblages, including one dubbed the ‘Dopplerphone’ - a length of soft rubber tubing (activated by a saxophone mouthpiece and manipulated to alter the rate of airflow) attached to a longer length of clear plastic tubing (whirled around the head whilst being played) ending in a plastic funnel. Thickening the brew even more, Parker would also add a cassette recorder, on which he would play back collected sounds and previous recordings of the duo. Imagining the set up in a 70s loft, it’s an assemblage more akin to what today's free ears might see at a Sholto Dobie show, spread out on the floor of the Hundred Years Gallery, the shadow of Penultimate Press lurking in the corner. It’s a testament to Parker’s shape shifting sound - the ever present link to birdsong being at its most warped here - terrifically free and unfussy, wild and loose from any of the dogma that might come in later Brit-prov years
-Released alongside documentary about the making of the record.
-New release from former frontman of "The Starting Line".
-Vacationer's first vocal album since 2018's "Mindset".
-Mastered for vinyl by Kelly Hibbert at Almachrome (J Dilla, Madlib, Little Dragon, David Axelrod, Flying Lotus, Hiatus Kaiyote, Q-Tip, Knxwledge, MF Doom).
An enlightened Vacationer returns with a collection of radiant original tracks —10 sonic meditations on the virtues of warm devotion and ritual tenderness. "Cherish" is being released in conjunction with a documentary about the making of the record.
Berlin based producer and DJ, Fletcher, joins the roster of Anthony Georges Patrices’ Ausblick imprint this December with his ‘Blurred Lines’ EP. The past decade has seen Fletcher steadily unveiling his own distinctive twist on dub techno and micro house with a debut album on Steve O’Sullivan’s Mosaic and further material on the likes of Roger Gerressen’s Irenic, Ohm Series, his own Tact Recordings/Tactics. Here though he drops his new two tracker on the growing Ausblick label, following its recent release from label boss AGP with a remix from Playhouse legend LoSoul. Title-cut ‘Blurred Lines’ leads and see Fletcher lay down a sturdy, shuffled percussive groove at the foundation of the composition while ghostly chimes, swelling subs and modulating synths ebb and flow within its eight-minute duration. ‘What’s It All About’ follows and edges into more mind mending, minimalistic realms with oscillating bass tones, organic percussion and murky atmospherics all intertwined to create a low-slung dance floor focused tool.
The birth point of ecstasy in British music is usually credited to acid house and the second summer of love: a cemented vision of kids sweating and vibrating in clubs, fields and warehouses in 1988, united by universal empathy and mind-popping sounds. However, in 1981, a couple of young men from Leeds went to New York, discovered the drug in its infancy, fused its’ gritty synth pop to acid house’s squelchy 303 groove and recorded an album: Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. The rest, as they say, is history.
Shortly before that Soft Cell’s debut single Memorabilia was born. Originally recorded a decade before the explosion of acid house and rooted in predominantly black NYC, Chicago and Detroit gay clubs, Memorabilia is a seminal early prelude to rave culture. Merging a
strutting disco bass line with a futuristic proto acid-techno beat, Marc Almond has past described Memorabilia as “the first acid house techno record ever”.
Dave Ball remembers: “Memorabilia got to about number 99 in the charts, but the clubs picked up on it. In NME or Sounds they had a chart for the Danceteria in New York, and we were in it. Our label Phonogram saw this and thought: ‘why is this weird little duo from Leeds that no one’s heard of suddenly getting played in one of the hippest clubs in New York?’ So I think they thought: ‘we’ll give them another chance’.”
Berlin’s very own upcomers Wally Funk round off the remix package, upping the original tempo slightly, while combining elements the of original production with the later Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing version to create a new hybrid, best played extremely loud!
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the first LP documenting master khene player Sombat Simla, the label’s first collaboration with Japanese sound artist, field recordist, and researcher Yasuhiro Morinaga. Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’. Aided by a group of Thai friends, in 2018 Morinaga travelled to the Maha Sarakham province in the Isan region, arranging to meet Simla in a remote spot surrounded by rice fields. Then and there, Morinaga recorded the solo performances heard on the LP’s first side. At Morinaga’s request, Simla began with a rendition of the train song ‘Lot Fay Tay Lang’. Beginning with long tones that seem to mimic a train horn, the performance soon moves into a rapid chugging rhythm, interrupted at points by vocal exclamations and the remarkable timbre Simla produces by singing through the khene. To listeners unfamiliar with Thai music, the pentatonic scales and rhythmic chug of many of the pieces can have surprising echoes of the rawest American blues. The range of Simla’s performance is astonishing, moving from compulsive rhythmic workouts on single chords and rapid-fire runs of single notes to gentle sing-song melodies, and using a fascinating array of techniques, including a rapid tremolo that sometimes sounds almost electronic. Later the same day, Morinaga followed Simla to a cattle shed where he met percussionist Mali Moodsansee to play some molam (folk songs found in Isan and neighbouring Laos), with Pattardon Ekchatree joining in on cymbal. At times, these molam songs have a wistful, romantic character quite different from the solo pieces. Backed up by the propulsive hand drums, Simla again dazzles with his melodic fluidity, rhythmic drive, and wild displays of unorthodox technique. As Morinaga writes, ‘It felt like they had been playing together so long that their breathing was perfectly in sync, and it was like listening to the precision of James Brown’s funk’. Accompanied by extensive liner notes by Morinaga detailing the day of recording, this is a stunning document of a master musician, seamlessly integrating tradition and innovation.
2023 Repress
Neuauflage des zweiten Jose Gonzalez Albums aus 2007. Inklusive seines genialen Covers des Massive Attack-Hits "Teardrop".
Repress!
Supermercado: a mosaic, tangible, colourful to the point of saturaton, anchored in a very real present.
Behind the metaphor that gives the new album its ttle, Corridor examines modernity, takes on this transitonal transiton by looking at where it went wrong: pushed around by big data, apathy induced by oversaturaton, the speeding up of cycles, efort stripped to its bare minimum, physical detachment.
Afer giving the art-rock and jangle-pop treatment to their frst two eforts Un Magicien en toi and Le Voyage Éternel, Corridor stcks to its signature sound: upfront, dissonant guitars upheld by minimal beats and syncopated bass lines, yet also marks a new directon. Supermercado leans on repeated strong melodies, slow progressions, bolstered by two distnct voices, yielding a more hypnotc, sharper, and strangely, poppier result. Corridor recorded this new record in the hallowed halls of Montreal's Breakglass Studios, with Emmanuel Ethier (Chocolat, Bernhari, Peter Peter) assuming producton dutes.
Special remarks: 180g, Red Vinyl, Limited to 100 copies.
After the success of 2021’s Ursgal, Mongolian jazz singer Enji returns with her third album Ulaan. The line-up has grown in size with drummer Mariá Portugal and clarinettist Joana Queiroz from Brazil joining the band to create an invigorating blend of grounded Folk and brooding Jazz.
Natural Bounce Is the Joint Venture of Melbourne Underground Record Stores: Natural Selection & Bounce Audio. the Idea Behind the Label Was to Celebrate Australian Dj's and Producers While Bridging the Gap With Their European Counterparts. for Their First Release, House Groove Master Binofski Delivers 3 Tracks Cut for the Dancefloor and Got Politics of Dancing on Remix Duties! All Stars Line Up for This First, Very Promising, Ep...
Harp – das gemeinsame Projekt von Tim Smith (ehemaliger Sänger und Songwriter von Midlake) und seiner Frau Kathi Zung – kündigen ihr Debütalbum "Albion" (via Bella Union) an.
"Es ist nicht das Ziel, es ist die Reise", schrieb schon der amerikanische Philosoph Ralph Waldo Emerson. Doch bei Smith scheint das Gegenteil der Fall zu sein. Der Weg zu "Albion" mag lang und kurvenreich gewesen sein, und holprig obendrein, aber die Musik, die Harp geschaffen hat, ist voller schöner Melodien, Dramatik und Details. Die zehn Songs und zwei zur Stimmung passende Instrumentals werden umrahmt von akustischen und elektrischen Gitarren, sanften Keyboardtönen und Smiths besonderer Stimme; mit anderen Worten, die Quintessenz dessen, was die Leute in erster Linie zu seiner Arbeit mit Midlake hingezogen hat.
Auf dem neuen Album ist alles jedoch in etwas dunkleren Tönen gehalten. Es sind Lieder über den Zustand des Menschen, von verlorener und gefundener Liebe, von Angst bis Freude, von Furcht bis Akzeptanz, alles in eine sehr eigene poetischen Sprache verpackt. "Albion" wurde von Smith größtenteils allein zu Hause aufgenommen, mit Gastbeiträgen des ehemaligen Midlake-Bassisten Paul Alexander bei "Silver Wings" und "Throne Of Amber", E-Gitarren von Max Kinghorn-Mills von der Band
Temple, Bassey, MacLaine and now, Hurt; in a world of Shirleys, the name Sophia Ruby Katz has chosen for her music is perhaps prophetic as it captures her stunningly emotive vocal approach. And whilst Shirley Hurt might be the perfect nom de plume for the creative Toronto-based artist, it’s her self-titled debut album which positions her as protagonist of her own universe.
Traversing sonic landscapes, Shirley Hurt’s vocals ebb and flow like lyrical Ley lines tracking the contours of her own well-travelled map. By the age of 18, Hurt had travelled extensively, having lived in upwards of 20 different apartments and houses, as a result never really feeling “at home” anywhere. At this age was when Hurt found herself in New York, dipping her toes into various scenes and musical realms. The first and only place she ever felt at home, and a partial home-base for her, she travelled between Toronto and New York until the age of 26.When the project she was working on in New York reached a dead-end she returned West, moving in with musicians Harrison Forman (Hieronymus Harry, Zones) and Patrick Lefler (Roy, Possum). Being surrounded by their improvising at all hours, a new approach emerged. “Harrison is a virtuosic guitar player, and I hadn't picked up a guitar in any serious way since I was 16,” she says, “by osmosis I started playing again for fun.” Without agenda, the process grew organically from there.
Hurt and Forman decided to travel across the US and Canada in a trailer for half a year, with the entire album written in the final months of their trip. Hurt had been writing loose ideas here and there but felt blocked creatively. When the pair reached Berkley, they wound up house-sitting for a tuned-in friend who recommended she pray, in a very direct way, to remove the block. “I took her advice and to my surprise it worked. The album was conceptualized and finished within a couple of months.” Shapeshifting in tone and phrasing, Hurt’s music alchemizes the furthest corners of experimental indie folk, pop, and country into a singular sound with elegant unpredictability.
Whilst Shirley Hurt’s lyrical and structural ideas may have emerged on the road, the album was self-produced and recorded at Joseph Shabason (The War on Drugs)’s Aytche studio in Toronto’s West End. It was engineered by Nathan Vanderwielen and Chris Shannon (Bart), and Hurt enlisted collaborators Jason Bhattacharya, Nick Dourado, Patrick Lefler, and Harrison Forman to hone her vision. “I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with the songs until we returned to Toronto,” she recalls. “Joseph and I had been talking about working together after sending across some demos and Jason happened to recommend his studio at the exact same time, so everything came together naturally at that point.”
Whilst her most recent adventures may have seen Shirley Hurt bound for Texas as an official SXSW artist (hand-picked by Gorilla Vs Bear to perform at their own showcase), she currently resides in her native Canada, more specifically rural Ontario, close to friends and family, and is already working on her second album. The ties to lineage are interwoven in the fabric of the music. Hurt’s mother, artist Leala Hewak, instilled a lust for life and innate value of creativity in her from a young age as she explored the role of gallery owner, vintage jewellery show host, mid-century modern furniture expert, real estate agent, painter. Hurt’s father, a civil litigation lawyer and new-wave obsessed music lover with an extensive vinyl collection, introduced Hurt to a wide-range of artists at a young age such as Nina Hagen, Laurie Anderson, Tom Tom Club, and endless others.
In her video for ‘Problem Child’ Hurt’s grandmother walks her through a generationally revered pie-making process. One would be tempted to hear this, and other songs, as autobiographical. Yet, Hurt’s lyrics are rarely pulled from her relationships or personal history––at least not consciously. Rather, they arise from somewhere less tangible or defined. “Lyrics tend to come to me when I am doing non-musical things - washing dishes, brushing my dogs, walking to the grocery store. I have a lot of voice memos on my phone and half-filled notebooks and when I hear something, I have to stop what I'm doing to get the idea down. Usually it’s bits and pieces. It's rare a full song comes to me in one go, but it's great when they do, and those are often my favourites.”
Carving out a space of her own in an all-encompassing universe, Shirley Hurt is the introduction to a long artistic story, and if the journey so far is anything to go by, it will be stippled with evermore unpredictable chapters.




















