Buscar:man with no shadow

For over a decade, Dean Johnson’s rustic tenor and simply strummed acoustic guitar have been perking up ears around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Johnson has gradually built a devoted fan base — strictly through live performances and word of mouth — singing existential cowboy waltzes, ballads about wishing one could find a way out of heaven, honest confessionals, and other heartbreakers from a unique perspective. The phrase “hidden gem” would seem appropriate here, but it’s a misnomer when talking about Dean Johnson. He shines bright, in plain sight, and it was only a matter of time before people stopped to take a look. Dean’s gentle and passionate approach to songwriting has inspired many, and his work provides the listener the opportunity to believe once more that a song can be more than the sum of its parts. If you catch even a phrase of his melodies or the sobering tone of his voice, it waltzes its way into your heart like a letter written, signed, sealed, and delivered just for you. His debut album 'Nothing for Me, Please' (Mama Bird Recording Co.) was recorded at Mashed Potato Records in New Orleans with the help of Sam Gelband and Charlie Meyer, Dean’s bandmates in The Sons of Rainier; as well as Mashed Potato regulars Sam Doores (The Deslondes), Duff Thompson and Steph Green. The record is a hazy, relaxed daydream – anthems for those who know the sweetness and coldness of quiet moments, the power and the pain of love. Whether you’ve been waiting patiently these many for Dean to release these songs, or you’re just now coming across his work for the first time, the name Dean Johnson, much like his songs, won’t soon leave your mind.

Electro is fundamentally modern. The coldness of the machine laid bare, a human attempt to express through circuits and wiring. Despite adhering to specific codes and norms, it is a sound that refuses to be pigeonholed. It is with this in mind that Shipwrec has collected a wealth of international talent to showcase their own vision of this bracing style. Serge Geyzel incises from the needle drop, the acid blistered "Still There" is sliced and quartered by scissoring snares. Endfest changes the trajectory with the modular warmth of "La Chouffe" before the lines change and Manasyt delivers the darkened angles and punishing percussion of "Row Hammer." Andrew Red Hand maintains the shadowy synthlines of his predecessor, industrial undertones bubbling to the surface in distortion-soaked aggression. The mood shifts with Alpha Visitor. Crystalline chords are punctured by crisp drum patterns, stabbing keys and broad arcs unveil a world of sci-fi inspirations. The finale comes from Jauzas the Shining. Broad sweeps introduce "Shemale" before dripping drums are countered by samples and icy blasts. Modern machine music from six masters.

Straight Outta Caledonia is the first commercially available “Greatest Hits” of the outsider songwriter Jackie Leven, an artist
who has largely remained in obscurity in his native Scotland despite being one of the greatest wordsmiths – and singers – it ever
produced. A well-travelled musician who began making psychedelic, progressive music in the late 60s before emerging as an
epic storyteller full of pathos, humour and humanity in the 90s, Leven lived and wrote like many of the fragile, gregarious
characters of his songs; large, full of life and empathy. Leven passed away in 2011 after recording 30+ albums under different
guises or with his briefly successful New Wave band Doll by Doll. Straight Outta Caledonia is a compilation collated by Night
School Records on its Archival label School Daze that seeks to introduce Leven’s music to new generations.
In an age of isolation, alienation and loss of visceral experience, Jackie Leven’s music can be massive and welcoming. It feels
connected to some universal humanity and vibrates with vitality. His songs are often full of tragedy and comedy simultaneously,
cutting straight to the heart, often plugging directly into the nervous system of the listener. His lyrics are rich, dense with imagery
that can veer from apocalyptic to the comically banal in a sentence, with a songwriting panache that can be heavy handed to
almost bursting point before skewering the song with a clownish, warm punchline. His productions ranged from Bob Dylan’s
Rolling Thunder Revue style rock band orchestrations with strings and organ as on the epic Ancient Misty Morning or they could
be pared down to the purest form of folk song as on Poortoun: Leven on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, albeit played with a
mastery of the instrument that he often only hinted at. Musically his sound can bend traditional structures or stay completely
confined within them yet still forever push towards an ecstatic release, as on the cinematic Snow In Central Park.
The most exciting, jaw-droppingly effective tool at Leven’s disposal was his voice. A multi-octave instrument that, though
damaged during a savage assault in Fife, he used with flair; he had both a brazen disregard for the rules and a deep humility, all
of which is evidenced with every phrasing. A baritone that could flit up through the register – always touched by his gentle
Kirkcaldy accent – it’s the prime delivery method for his songs. Leven’s voice enabled him to inhabit the characters in his songs to
an uncanny degree, a skill that in turn enables the listener to empathise with them and, subsequently, the singer. It’s most evident
in stand out song The Sexual Loneliness Of Jesus Christ, a breathtaking re-telling of the life of its protagonist, not as a pure,
sinless messiah but as a sexually frustrated, solitary man condemned to an existential loneliness no one else will ever feel. In
many ways the track is the archetypal Jackie Leven song. Produced by Pere Ubu’s David Thomas, what strikes the ear first –
after the samples of unemployed workers in Glasgow following the closing of the Clyde shipyards – is the audacious, rhythmic
tremolo effect Leven employs through the verses before the production opens up to allow Leven’s vocal to lift into a soar, a
freeing glide powered both by the force of the singer’s chutzpah and the inherent, doomed destiny of the protagonist. With any
other singer such subject matter could come across as gauche or worse, pretentiously sonorous, but Jackie Leven’s genius was
such that he could be this cinematic and brazen while touching something elemental and true in the beholder. It’s a skill evident in
every song on Straight Outta Caledonia, the trademark of a songwriter who revelled and excelled in intensity with a lightness of
touch.
In his lifetime, Jackie Leven toured, wrote and recorded at a ferocious rate. He recorded under aliases to avoid record contract
restrictions, played house shows in Europe after or instead of official concerts, events which were often spoken word story telling
masterclasses as well as performances of his often bewilderingly dense songbook. His music has traditionally been catalogued
as “folk” music and has been largely banished to a small, dedicated group of international fans and apostles both private and well
known, like author Ian Rankin or Glenn Matlock. Since his passing in 2011 however, there has been a growing recognition
amongst a newer generation, with artists like James Yorkston or Molly Nilsson publicly stating the influence of the unsung
troubadour on their own craft. Jackie Leven’s fairytales for hard men are often forensic deconstructions of masculinity, sad and
ecstatic, light and shadow, always endlessly rich, a resource as bountiful as Leven himself’s human spirit undoubtedly was.

Prisoners Of Love And Hate' is an offering to community, to desires that imprison and liberate, to people in all their divinity and ugliness. Apostille - aka Night School Records’ captain Michael Kasparis - presents is third album with a bang, a bursting ball of NRG, empathy and bristling living.
Like its predecessor 'Choose Life', 'Prisoners…' was recorded at Full Ashram Celestial Garden in Glasgow with Lewis Cook (Free Love) through 2022. A nine song treatise on pop music, trauma, ecstasy and the mundanities between the extremes, Kasparis takes on classic 80s synth pop, 90s house music, 00s trance, wistful balladry, 70s power pop. The thread that runs through the album is a boundless energy, an openness to the moment, to living
the pains and joys equally, open armed.

This is a place of no judgement, of possibility, challenge and comfort. The nine songs on 'Prisoners…' can be read as separate ruminations on the feelings and desires that imprison our experience. Through it all the narrator struggles against them, transported and fooled by love and longing, peering through the bars of anguish, flailing in a cell of emotions. 'Saturday Night, Still Breathing' breaks the album open with an invigorating scream and pounds into the night with a nod to Whigfield, Kasparis’ punk roots and house music. Over a thumping 909 kick and bassline, Kasparis pens a love letter to being with people, the collective energy of hearts in a room, thrumming together, making it through together. Written as private ritual magic, manifesting community during a time of isolation, it’s as if the party is the most important thing in the world. 'Rely On Me' imagines 80s Mute synth pop, Erasure fronted by Bruce Springsteen, romance doomed and forever perfect in the mind. 'Spit Pit' completes the opening triptych of fast paced rollercoasters, an ode to childhood forged out of change and discomfort told with a bold, epic production by Lewis Cook, AFX breakbeats, 160BPM kicks and a commanding vocal performance.

On 'People Make This City', Kasparis eases off the gas, lets the mist blowing in from the Clyde River blow over his version of Glasgow. A wistful ballad about small town gossip and coming through anger to leaving it all behind, it provides some shadow to the bright light of the vibrancy of the album. 'Natural Angel' owes much to 70s and 80s power pop, guitar melodrama, Thin Lizzy and Rick Springfield through the prism of co-dependence in relationships. It’s a theme that’s picked up in slow burner 'Nothing But Perfect', a hazy synth soul-inflected song about building your own mythology, constructing a dream to hide in, to hold on to. The most surprising track of the album, 'Summer of ’03' re-imagines the trance music of early noughties Europe into a lament for an eternal summer or as a fan once put it, “Meat Loaf with a donk on it.” A recognition that all ecstasy has tragedy laced within it, it’s a theme that is sewn throughout the LP and continued on the final song 'Feel Good (You Can Make Me)'. Referencing Shalamar’s 1982 mega hit by way of N-Trance’s piano riffs, the epic closer is riddled with heartbreak, vulnerability and power. It’s a testament to the new confidence in Kasparis’s songwriting, sure, but also to the enduring power of people to come together in mutual dependence and love. If ecstasy is always laced with tragedy, then 'Prisoners of Love and Hate' can always reach out between the bars to meet in the middle, the eternal now.

Repress of the sold out Record Store Day release, this time on a different colour. Black Spiders – Those trusted and true sons of the north are back. “We knew the new album had to be special. We’ve been away for a while. The first album was a straight shot, the second on the rocks, with this new one we had to kick down the brewery doors!” Pete Spiby. Back in June of 2017, Sheffield rock beasts Black Spiders waved goodbye to an army of loyal fans with some sonically charged shows before retreating into the shadows. And then, in November of last year, with the world in the grips of the Coronavirus pandemic and after a long year of very little fun from out of the silhouettes they returned with ‘Fly In The Soup’, the first new Black Spiders music in 6 years. Exactly the feel-good shot in the arm the world needed, while we await that other vaccine. The seeds of the Black Spider return were actually planted last summer, when singer and guitarist Pete Spiby began taking to guitarist Ozzy Lister to start writing new material and before they knew it, they had amassed the best part of 40 songs in a very short period of time which they whittled down. And then the pandemic hit. “It’s certainly been a strange process, in unfamiliar territory,” explains Pete. “We started to look at how we could do it given the restrictions and not only that, but we had to replace our original drummer too. For us and probably most other bands, we would usually take a riff or song idea to a rehearsal and thrash it out ‘till we either had something or it ended up in the song graveyard! This time around we couldn’t do that, so myself, Ozzy and on occasion Adam Irwin (bass player) started to send ideas back and forth until we had something to work with in GarageBand. We got to a point where we had enough song ideas with basic structure to go into a studio. It was at this point when we had to look for a new drummer.” With former drummer ‘Tiger’ Si Atkinson unavailable to play, with a week or two of grooming, the band took a chance on Planet Rock DJ Wyatt Wendel to occupy the drum stool. “I've never joined or worked with a band in this way EVER,” laughs Wyatt. “2020 certainly made it surreal. “A Pete/Ozzy writing session at the beginning of the year had produced some promising results, but it felt like barriers were popping up everywhere,” explains bassist Adam Irwin. “We started talking about how we could use technology such as GarageBand to help, and slowly but surely the song writing gathered pace. It was time to hook up with our old producer Matt Elliss and try these new songs out in the studio. “Heading into the studio to record songs we’d written but never played together, with a drummer that we’d never met, is one of the stranger experiences I’ve had while being in a band. Thankfully, Wyatt has turned out to be an excellent addition, who despite his faults (loud, southern) has fit right into the band dynamic. Covid has made life really tough for so many of us in our industry. And yet, this new way of song writing has been liberating, this is the most consistent and prolific we’ve ever been, and I am immensely proud of this album.” Against all of the odds, Black Spiders have crafted an album that features 13 tracks of high-energy, feel-good rock n’roll contrasted by demonic doom that despite the disjointed, isolated way it was recorded. It sounds like a band, firing on all cylinders. “We had to dig down deep to pull out some gems and what would we want from Black Spiders,” questions Pete. War, vengeance, mental health, death, conservation & climate change, where are we from? Relationships, friendships, our flaws. Where are we going? Alien life and Mother Earth - some of which made the record.” Kicking off with the aforementioned ‘Fly In The Soup’ single, this 3rd ST long-player wastes no time in grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and dragging you through an album where good times, hooks and riffs are not in short supply, but the doom-drenched likes of ‘Wizard Shall Not Kill Wizard’ and the psychedelic groove of album closer ‘Crooked Black Wings’ give us an album of many moods and dynamics and a reason to be cheerful in 2021. And why does the album have no title? “It wasn’t hard picking a title for the album, as we decided that the focus should be on the band, not the album title, so we decided not to have one. Let the music do the talking....

The Debut album from Finnish band Graven Sin is a modern classic of godly, Doom-laden Heavy Metal. Veil of The Gods is etched in granite via Svart Records on November 2023 Pristine new Finnish band Graven Sin stomp proudly on the shoulders of giants with their ravishing debut album, Veil of The Gods. Immaculate Heavy Metal, expertly delivered with stunning finesse and elegant Doom perfection, Veil of The Gods is a classic in the making. Rarely has a new band sounded so timeless, serving up a godly platter of first-class Heavy Metal, that Graven Sin seem chiselled in granite to sit side by side at a table with the greats from the very get go. From the galloping charge of opening barn-stormer Morrigan, with jaw dropping solo guitars courtesy of riff master Ville Pystynen, the epic and anthemic She Who Rules Niflheim with soaring vocals from Greek vocalist Nicholas Leptos to the formidable double bass canter of Ville Markkanen’s drums on songs like Beyond Mesopotamia, Graven Sin knows the true riddle of steel. Throughout Veil of The Gods’ eleven cast-iron tracks, we can trace veins of recent Finnish greats such as Sentenced, Amorphis, Reverend Bizarre or their nordic counterparts Grand Magus from Sweden, but there is much more at play here. Graven Sin offers up heavy, doom laden orthodox Heavy Metal in the true, chugging, monumental sense of the term. The knowledge and prowess of Heavy Metal craft on display in Veil of The Gods is second to none, from the Maidenesque command of melody to the swarthy Manowar rhythms, herculean Deep Purple keys and Messiah like Candlemass-rich voice of astonishing vocalist Leptos, these are songs to be inscribed into stone tablets. Where pitch dark mythical themes and occult leanings of the lyrics bring to mind the Heavy Metal running through Black Metal bands like Dissection, the song arrangements swing from gallop to thundering, head-banging mid-sections with such magnificence, you would think you were in the hands of a band with decades of heritage behind their backs. A “where have you been all my life moment” awaits Heavy Metal fans of all shades when Graven Sin hits the speakers, delivering a sound that cuts glass and steel. A refreshing tour–de-force through everything Heavy Metal is loved for, not shrinking from the dark but embracing it with gusto and fierce bravado. Veil of The Gods shows us that real metal lives forever, if crafted with true spirit and belief. Hear the cry of the seer of doom, by heeding Morrigan’s call now: Ville Pystynen - guitar, bass Nicholas Leptos - vocals Ville Markkanen - drums

The Debut album from Finnish band Graven Sin is a modern classic of godly, Doom-laden Heavy Metal. Veil of The Gods is etched in granite via Svart Records on November 2023 Pristine new Finnish band Graven Sin stomp proudly on the shoulders of giants with their ravishing debut album, Veil of The Gods. Immaculate Heavy Metal, expertly delivered with stunning finesse and elegant Doom perfection, Veil of The Gods is a classic in the making. Rarely has a new band sounded so timeless, serving up a godly platter of first-class Heavy Metal, that Graven Sin seem chiselled in granite to sit side by side at a table with the greats from the very get go. From the galloping charge of opening barn-stormer Morrigan, with jaw dropping solo guitars courtesy of riff master Ville Pystynen, the epic and anthemic She Who Rules Niflheim with soaring vocals from Greek vocalist Nicholas Leptos to the formidable double bass canter of Ville Markkanen’s drums on songs like Beyond Mesopotamia, Graven Sin knows the true riddle of steel. Throughout Veil of The Gods’ eleven cast-iron tracks, we can trace veins of recent Finnish greats such as Sentenced, Amorphis, Reverend Bizarre or their nordic counterparts Grand Magus from Sweden, but there is much more at play here. Graven Sin offers up heavy, doom laden orthodox Heavy Metal in the true, chugging, monumental sense of the term. The knowledge and prowess of Heavy Metal craft on display in Veil of The Gods is second to none, from the Maidenesque command of melody to the swarthy Manowar rhythms, herculean Deep Purple keys and Messiah like Candlemass-rich voice of astonishing vocalist Leptos, these are songs to be inscribed into stone tablets. Where pitch dark mythical themes and occult leanings of the lyrics bring to mind the Heavy Metal running through Black Metal bands like Dissection, the song arrangements swing from gallop to thundering, head-banging mid-sections with such magnificence, you would think you were in the hands of a band with decades of heritage behind their backs. A “where have you been all my life moment” awaits Heavy Metal fans of all shades when Graven Sin hits the speakers, delivering a sound that cuts glass and steel. A refreshing tour–de-force through everything Heavy Metal is loved for, not shrinking from the dark but embracing it with gusto and fierce bravado. Veil of The Gods shows us that real metal lives forever, if crafted with true spirit and belief. Hear the cry of the seer of doom, by heeding Morrigan’s call now: Ville Pystynen - guitar, bass Nicholas Leptos - vocals Ville Markkanen - drums

EVERGREENS feiert Streisands 60-jähriges Jubiläum als Künstlerin bei Columbia Records. Das Album enthält 22 Songs - 1 Song von jedem Studioalbum, das sie veröffentlicht hat. Die Songs wurden von Barbra als einige ihrer Lieblingssongs während ihrer Karriere ausgewählt. Keiner dieser Titel ist auf früheren Streisand-Compilation-Alben erschienen. Die für EVERGREENS ausgewählten Lieder haben nichts mit Verkaufszahlen oder Auszeichnungen zu tun. Sie wurden von Barbra ausgewählt, um ihre emotionale Verbindung zu diesen Melodien und Texten zu veranschaulichen, da jeder von ihnen einen besonderen Platz in ihrem Herzen und in ihrer Erinnerung einnimmt.

Steve Overland ist eine Legende zu Lebzeiten. Gibt es überhaupt jemanden da draußen, der seinen Namen nicht kennt? Seine Geschichte reicht bis in die späten siebziger Jahre zurück, seine erste bedeutende Aufnahme erfolgte 1980 mit der Band "Wildlife". Nach
dem Ende von "Wildlife" gründete Steve die Britische-Kult Melodic-Rock-Band "FM", eine Band, die im Laufe der Jahre viele großartige Alben veröffentlichte und bis heute erfolgreich ist.

Steve hat sich ursprünglich mit Escape Music zusammengetan, um den Leadgesang für das Boston-Tribute-Album (ESM 081) zu liefern, auf dem er 'Amanda', einen der Höhepunkte des Albums, sang. Steve arbeitete auch mit Steve Morris von "Heartland"-Ruhm zusammen, um vier "Shadowman"-Alben aufzunehmen, die alle in der Rockgemeinschaft hoch geschätzt werden. Über die Jahre hinweg hat er so viele großartige Songs geschrieben, aufgenommen und gesungen.

Dieser Mann scheint einfach immer wieder atemberaubend gute Songs schenken zu können und mit großartigem Songwriting. Diese neue Veröffentlichung für 2023 trägt einfach den Titel "S.I.X" und wird sowohl auf CD als auch auf Vinyl veröffentlicht (limitierte Edition von 500 Stück, alle nummeriert in Yellow Flame) und enthält zwei Bonustracks. Spannende Neuigkeiten!

Indeed, it happened again. My vision is completely blurred and all I am able to see are vague moving shapes. Although, it seems I can hear perfectly fine. The manifestations I am seeing are moving, curiously synchronized with the sound I can hear. I wonder if those shapes are pulsating because they are hallucinations of my brain or real things dancing to the rhythm I hear. I am myself vibrating too and I cannot remember when it started. It is curiously pleasing to feel connected to these fluctuations, but suddenly the music stops and I start to feel dizzy. I can’t see anything anymore! In fact, I do not even feel my body. Did I ever have one ?

'The Moon Dance' Mark's the come back of one of Chi Towns most innovative and iconic figures to Apnea Records. Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) sound's were first released on Apnea in 2007. Now, in 2023, he's back with this double 12'' album flooded with synth jazz and cosmic acid explorations in his signature and irreverent style.

Sampha announces the full details of his highly-anticipated, sophomore album LAHAI, out October 20th on Young. Taken from his paternal grandfather’s name, which is also Sampha’s middle name, LAHAI revels in the awe and magic of our existence, synthesizing the exquisite chaos that one experiences confronting the cycle of life and the beyondness. Spanning 14-tracks, with contributions from some of Sampha’s closest friends, peers and collaborators including: Yaeji, Léa Sen, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Ibeyi, Morgan Simpson (Black Midi), Yussef Dayes, Laura Groves and Kwake Bass, LAHAI, in contrast to Process, is a communal affair seeing Sampha explore the many ways in which we as humans connect to each other, and to something bigger than ourselves. On the album’s latest single “Only,” premiering today via a new music video directed by Dexter Navy in collaboration with Sampha, which follows the recent “Spirit 2.0,” we meet a newly energized Sampha, as he spits melodically over a fragmented hip-hop hued beat with co-production from El Guincho.

Not unlike its maker, LAHAI defies clear categorization. Spanning jazz, soul, rap, dance, jungle and west African music, LAHAI sees Sampha elevating his production and vocal ambition to great new heights. A notable singer, songwriter and producer, it’s no wonder that artists like Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Travis Scott and previously, Drake, Solange, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne and Alicia Keys have all tapped the artist for his inimitable voice plus songwriting and production contributions to their music. His work expands across multiple disciplines, with previous creative partnerships including the fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, the Shy Light zine with Durimel (who also shot the LAHAI artwork) his Process film with director Kahlil Joseph, and most recently creative director Jonny Lu, with whom Sampha worked to create the LAHAI album artwork and logo.

If Process, Sampha’s 2017 Mercury-Prize-winning debut album, was an artist figuring out his own place in the world, engulfed in the shadows of grief and loss, LAHAI is an exercise in the radical acceptance and joy in the human condition, and the beauty in the journey itself. Welcome to Sampha’s next musical chapter: LAHAI.

Sampha announces the full details of his highly-anticipated, sophomore album LAHAI, out October 20th on Young. Taken from his paternal grandfather’s name, which is also Sampha’s middle name, LAHAI revels in the awe and magic of our existence, synthesizing the exquisite chaos that one experiences confronting the cycle of life and the beyondness. Spanning 14-tracks, with contributions from some of Sampha’s closest friends, peers and collaborators including: Yaeji, Léa Sen, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Ibeyi, Morgan Simpson (Black Midi), Yussef Dayes, Laura Groves and Kwake Bass, LAHAI, in contrast to Process, is a communal affair seeing Sampha explore the many ways in which we as humans connect to each other, and to something bigger than ourselves. On the album’s latest single “Only,” premiering today via a new music video directed by Dexter Navy in collaboration with Sampha, which follows the recent “Spirit 2.0,” we meet a newly energized Sampha, as he spits melodically over a fragmented hip-hop hued beat with co-production from El Guincho.

Not unlike its maker, LAHAI defies clear categorization. Spanning jazz, soul, rap, dance, jungle and west African music, LAHAI sees Sampha elevating his production and vocal ambition to great new heights. A notable singer, songwriter and producer, it’s no wonder that artists like Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Travis Scott and previously, Drake, Solange, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne and Alicia Keys have all tapped the artist for his inimitable voice plus songwriting and production contributions to their music. His work expands across multiple disciplines, with previous creative partnerships including the fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, the Shy Light zine with Durimel (who also shot the LAHAI artwork) his Process film with director Kahlil Joseph, and most recently creative director Jonny Lu, with whom Sampha worked to create the LAHAI album artwork and logo.

If Process, Sampha’s 2017 Mercury-Prize-winning debut album, was an artist figuring out his own place in the world, engulfed in the shadows of grief and loss, LAHAI is an exercise in the radical acceptance and joy in the human condition, and the beauty in the journey itself. Welcome to Sampha’s next musical chapter: LAHAI.

A live recording from 1977! First time on vinyl! Previously only available on CD as part of the Past & Future Landslide 3CD box set! LIVE AT THE QUEENS HOTEL MARGATE 1977 It was 1977 and things were progressing extremely well. We had signed to Beggars Banquet and our first single ‘Shadow’ b/w ‘Love Story’ had been released. John Peel had been playing both sides of the single most nights on his radio show, so we were getting heard by a lot of people. But we didn’t yet have a "proper" tour bus, so we all piled into a transit for the trip down to Margate with our tour manager Mike Stone in the driving seat. The Queens Hotel turned out to be a pretty good venue. There was a nice high stage which we much preferred over the low-slung platforms of some of the places we played. It meant that the crowd wasn’t totally swamping us the whole time, although there would still be a constant stream of people jumping on and off stage, bumping us, knocking equipment over and so forth. We weren’t sure if many people would turn up on a cold and windy night so close to Christmas, but it was a good turnout, and they were out for a good time too. There was none of the aggro stuff which would become a problem later on at our shows. The actual gig was typical of a Lurkers show at that time, being fairly chaotic with a lot of crowd "interaction". There is a recklessly fast version of ‘Pills’ on the recording, and I think we were playing ‘It’s Quiet Here’ for the first time live. Howard was on good form too; it would be his birthday on Christmas Day. My favourite quip from him is towards the end of the show when he says "eat your heart out Hank Marvin" after one of my more eccentric Shadows guitar intros. PETE STRIDE 2022

It's a pertinent start-point because, in many ways, God Is Luck exists firmly within that realm, many of the songs pulled directly from improvisation before being twisted into the mysterious shapes we find here on the finished record.

Recorded between the summer of 2020 and the summer of 2022, God Is Luck is an exercise in artistic freedom. The songs came quickly and easily by design, the whole point of the record and the approach to simply let go.

The third Bad History Month LP - following the Pitchfork-championed Old Blues (2020) - where aspects of the new album mirror the shape of Sprecher's previous work, its creation was an altogether different experience for the Philadelphia-viaBoston songwriter. He describes it as a collaboration with 'luck', the freeform nature of the recording resulting in a process that felt "fun and easy and fearless in a way that recording had never been."

"God is Luck means you can control reality by choosing your perspective to always see the luck, which makes you the god of your own reality," Sean Sprecher says of his latest record. With that notion at its core, Bad History Month's latest adventure finds twisted new ways to tell age-old tales. Even in its most fearless compositions, buried within dense fog, it strives for goodness; freedom from fear, love for friends, surrounding yourself with those who inspire.

The dual forces of shadow and light, despair and hope, frustration and catharsis are at play in the music of Cupid & Psyche, the Los Angeles-based indie rock duo of Michael Vidal and Juan Velasquez. First gaining recognition in the late aughts as members of the punk band Abe Vigoda, whose 2010 album Crush was named one of the "Best 50 Albums of the 2010s" by Pitchfork, the two have reunited as collaborators for the first time in a decade. Cathartic jam sessions would birth the emotionally resonant songs that appear on their debut album, Romantic Music. Though they pull from a wide array of `80s and `90s influences, Cupid & Psyche bring together these disparate moods and genres through their own esoteric lens on Romantic Music_making for a singular sound that at once feels familiar and alluringly hypnotic. Listeners will detect the gloom of post-punk and goth, the haziness of dream-pop and shoegaze, the bittersweet guitar melodies of second-wave emo, and the manic electronic rhythms of trip-hop and big beat. The immersive soundscapes on Romantic Music are sometimes agitated and driving, while other times ethereal and transcendent. This duality matches the album's lyrics of looking for a divine escape from the grim realities of existence, as well as the darkest parts of one's psyche. "The thesis of the album is trying to transcend the limits of life and the struggle therein," Vidal says. "There's a lot of lyrics about feeling trapped or frustrated, and then trying to find a way out. There's a lot of times I sing of hope and grasping towards love. But maybe in trying to escape, you take the wrong door, be it substance abuse or other vices." Now as Cupid & Psyche, Vidal and Velasquez return to a friendship that creatively feels like home_except this time, with more experience, self-knowledge, and less pressure to make anything other than the music that emerges naturally. The LP's title Romantic Music is tongue-in-cheek, since there are no love songs proper on the project, and the phrase itself can imply a kind of light listening. But it befits that deep bond that the members have, as friends who understand and empathize with each other's worst, so they're capable of bringing out each other's best.

RIYL: The Fall, Royal Trux, The Dead C, Shirley Collins, ’70s British progressive rock, Dean Blunt.
Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, the Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning this year with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre-Shadow Ring tape The Cat & Bells Club (1992), Blank Forms Editions is conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group, including a multi-year LP reissue effort and a forthcoming comprehensive CD box set and an over five hundred page book. Recorded in summer of 1994 at S.H.P studios (frontman Graham Lambkin’s parents’ home), the group’s sophomore record Put the Music In Its Coffin is a more sinister, saturnine affair than their debut City Lights. Coffin was many listeners’ introduction to the Shadow Ring, who had hitherto self-released their music, courting a steady stable of international fans through the magazine and mail-order catalog Forced Exposure. For their follow-up, the duo reached out to the ascending Philadelphia label Siltbreeze, whose eclectic roster of sneering, low-fidelity rock and noise connected disparate subterranean scenes from rust-belt America to the English Midlands, Dunedin, and beyond. As luck would have it, Siltbreeze proprietor Tom Lax was already a fan of the band’s first record and arranged to release both a 7” and their “difficult second album.” The connection proved to run deeper than vinyl within six months, Lax would pick up the pair from the airport for their spring 1995 US tour. This episode marked not only their first trip to the States but their first live performances at all, formally introducing the Shadow Ring to the American underground and solidifying the allure of the Folkestone pair. From the get-go, the record has a menacing, vile ambience. Its opening track “Horse-Meat Cakes,” inspired by an anecdote by pulp author Philip K. Dick about how he and his wife subsisted off low-grade pet food when he first arrived in San Francisco, sets the tone lyrically and sonically. Subsequent tracks are filled with Rabelaisian body horror and sinewy, haptic diction. “I try to pass out vital organs, convinced that they are waste,” intones Lambkin in “Heart, Liver & Lungs,” before a chorus of detuned guitars kicks in, nearly drowning out the speaker’s account of consuming chevaline intestines. Later songs similarly detail vernacular cooking (“Caribbean Porridge,” about a cornmeal hangover cure), bodily processes (“Nocturnal Middle Rumbles,” about nighttime defecation), and creaturely conflict (“Crystal Tears” and “Spin The Animal Dial”). The album’s makeshift percussion and teenaged rawness resembles the verve of City Lights, while its screeching strings and gnarly distorted vocals give it a sparse, miasmic atmosphere that look towards the uncompromising, otherworldly experimentation of the band’s Hold Onto I.D. (1996) and Lighthouse (1997), making this one of the Shadow Ring’s most distilled musical statements

20 albums and 25 years into her recording career and only now does Thea Gilmore feel enough of herself to make the self-titled album that renews her vows to music - her first love. The album is released on 6th October. The album was entirely written, played and produced by Thea. Thea Gilmore is absolutely the record she wanted to make. In many ways the record she had to make. Sustained by the very public dissection of her personal life laid bare on her last full-length release, the stunningly intimate Afterlight, Thea's hard-earned reputation as one of the most distinctive, strident and bold singer songwriters of her generation propels her to reach for new ground and this new release feels like a great leap forward into tomorrow. "That's why this is my first self-titled album," she explains. "On my last album I changed by name to Afterlight and drew a line under everything I'd done up to that point. Not to invalidate it, but to put an end to the 'before'. It was a very inward-looking record that was rooted in the darkness of everything that happened to me up to 2019, whereas this album has its head up and is eyeing the world as a challenge. It's a logical forward motion - the emergence from the shadows of Afterlight into the relative lightness of Thea Gilmore - in a renewal of my vows to music; my first love. In a weird way it feels like a debut of sorts so it made sense to make it eponymous." Across 12 tracks Thea delves into the cracks between the paving slabs of life's big themes. She's exploring the understanding that comes with experience, choosing her battles and finding out who she is now. The stunning 'She Speak In Colours' is a song for love and loss written as part of BBC Radio 2's critically lauded 21st Century Folk project; while 'The Next Time You Win' with its simple piano figures and its collage of spoken and sung lines seems to both accept the way the world works while reaffirming the pledge to stand on the frontline of change. Thea is also excited to bring the album to the stage. She will play London’s Union Chapel on 12th October and then an 11-date tour around the UK in early 2024. Full dates below. Thea Gilmore has made 20 albums since the release of her first, Burning Dorothy, in 1998. The veteran of hundreds of festivals, she has sold out shows across the globe.

* In 1993, Andy C & Ant Miles set out about creating a fourth release for the newly established Ram Records, now just a year old. With Hardcore still prominent in the clubs around the world, The Touch features rollercoaster bass swoops against energetic breaks flowing around the main sung vocal "c'mon and touch me".

An early sign of the precision arrangements that became synonymous of Ram's early sound that followed over for many years. Whilst going through the remaining samples in the sampler that had not been used on the A side, the pair suddenly went on a tangent with one of the drum breaks.

Experimenting with the new time stretch function in the Akai sampler, they soon had a shuffle groove layered and moving. With Ant Miles' sculpted and edited arpeggio bell line sample, a new overall sound and vibe was beginning to emerge out of their studio Atari ST computer.

Utilising an original organic analogue string pad, the haunting sinister vibe became complete. With the vocal from the BBC QED documentary 'Glimpses of Death' - "I felt, like I was in a long dark tunnel" all that remained was one of the most memorable pounding bass lines to sit underneath it all.

The result was an instant impact on the scene, heralded as one of the first anthems of the Jungle genre. Multi award winning and the track that cemented Andy & Ant and their label Ram Records within the scene.

Before the Odysee, there was the Iliad; a tale of the golden age of heroes and warriors.'

The idea behind the new Iliads series is to return to the sound of the golden age of Jungle/Drum & Bass, and more specifically the original ‘heroes’ of the Odysee label.
This second in the series pays homage to the unique sound of the Mirage releases. The influence of these releases on the SD sound that followed has often been overlooked, principally because it was assumed that the ‘Mirage’ moniker was simply another pseudonym for Source Direct, when in actual fact it was a lethal combination of the powerful engineering and arrangement skills of Jim Baker (Source Direct) and the sound selection and co-production of Odysee’s founder, Tilla Kemal (T-Mirage).

Face In The Shadows immediately opens with that slightly darker feel, with tracks like Feel My Dreams and Stonekiller in mind. The trademark SD style of break switches (aptly named ‘call & response) are immediately evident, although the Funky Mule gives the track its primary momentum. The sound selection is eerie, focusing on the 70’s Film-Noire, and deep Electro in line with Tilla’s particular preferences. The spoken word quotes are also unmistakably ‘Mirage-esque.’

Regenesis is a classic Odysee B-side track; lighter, more experimental and Jazzy in it’s feel. It showcases intricate and crisp rolling break work, and a beautifully refined selection of real stand- out musical quotes; from the sweet R&B-esque vocal ad-libs to the lush 70’s style sleaze of the Rhodes rolls. The interaction of these elements is the glue that holds this tune together.

The Darkness Within is the final track of the E.P. and it is the arrangement of samples that really emulates the ‘Mirage’ sound. Tilla & Jim were very particular about grouping sounds to work with & answer each other in each section of a tune. Samples were often sourced from obscure Film OST’s or rare electro albums which had sample diggers scratching their heads for many years! This track is dubbed out deeper, with a punching & rolling Soulpride features as the hero break and a repetitive deep chord stab forming the foundation of the tune.

Look out for the final instalment Volume III, where we will be focusing on the dystopian Jazz sound of the Hokusai releases!