Buscar:mean

Killer tracks by Draconian Steps. A project by Jeremy Rodriguez and Ron Morelli for the first of 2 - 12''s under the name ''Circus of Death''. The tracks were recorded at Devon Analogue Studio in the UK. Wrangled in from a weekend of long studio jams. Bleak overdriven analogue business from start to finish. 3 - 909 cuts crunched out and pushed way into the red. Limited edition, so don't sleep on these!!

For its 30th Anniversary, Pixies’ 1991 album ‘Trompe
Le Monde’ is reissued on marbled green vinyl.
 ‘Trompe Le Monde’ bookended a golden run of
landmark records - a mini-album followed by four
albums, released in quick succession - that cemented
Pixies as one of the best for a generation.
 Translated from French to mean ‘fool the world’,
‘Trompe Le Monde’ showed the band still restless to
push their sound forward. Recorded between Burbank,
Paris and London, with producer Gil Norton again at
the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most
playful, with Black Francis’s lyrics on UFOs and
conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power
pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on
predecessor ‘Bossanova’.
 Featuring singles ‘Planet of Sound’, ‘Alec Eiffel’, ‘Letter
to Memphis’ and a flawless cover of The Jesus and
Mary Chain’s ‘Head On’, ‘Trompe Le Monde’ goes full
throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfire 40-minute
salvo. Receiving critical praise at the time and being
supported by a huge tour that included playing
stadiums with U2, it also proved to be the end of Act
One for the band, with them taking over a decade
before returning to the stage together.

Since signing with Rhymesayers in 2015, Sa-Roc has continued to both invigorate and grow her fanbase with a string of singles, accompanied with powerful and visually enthralling music videos, including “Forever”, which is nearing 4 million views on YouTube. In that time, she has continued to cultivate and sharpen her skill sets, and now she is set to release her first album for the label.

Speaking on the meaning of the album’s title and inspiration, Sa-Roc shares, "The Sharecropper’s Daughter speaks to my father’s actual beginnings on a Virginia tobacco farm where his family sharecropped. The title is meant to signify that both my father’s and my upbringing, though so different, are linked by a shared history that informs the way I move through the world. Although his formative years were spent in the Jim Crow era of the south, where he suffered through poverty and racial oppression, and mine were shaped in the heart of DC, amidst the war on drugs and the effects of its fallout, the album finds points of connection in two very different yet tragically familiar stories of Blackness in America. It’s a sonic reflection of the things we inherit. About the emotional weight that we unknowingly bestow upon the next generation; the genetic transfer of both trauma and triumph that we, both donors and

Kamana is a multiformat release inspired by and channeling the culture and traditions of the Aeta, an indigenous group from the Zambales region in the Philippines. One of the oldest inhabitants of the region the Aetas are also some of the most fascinating and ancient nomadic and hunter gathering cultures. The release goes from the realms of the
real to the imaginary, from transcription to syncretism, from concrete to abstract. An (un)real Sonic Exorcism filled with Ancestral Frequencies, Haunted Ghosts and other animistic spirits roaming the Pinatubo forests.
The release features a series of materials released in different formats from the Field recording digital only release, an LP and CD release to a special 7inch vinyl featuring an Interview with a bat hunter.
“Kamana is a long due homage to the Aeta community that hosted me a few years back, fascinated by the endurance of these people and their connection to their land, devastated by the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in 1991, they continued to go back to their ancestral lands surviving on basic agriculture and hunting bats and wild pigs. Living with them for weeks, I managed to capture some essential field recordings and sounds that form and com- pose the basis for this release, from the more reprocessed and interpreted LP release to the pure field recording documentation of the digital release. It is meant to be accessible to all and provide a window to the livelihoods of these unique communities. For this reason, this release serves as both an archival document and a syncretic one, trying to channel memories and feelings of living in these jungles whilst listening to their stories as well as witnessing their lifestyles.”
Carlos Casas, 2021

With COVID restrictions now easing, and fresh off the back of their ongoing in-lockdown Quarantine Series, as well as EP + album releases from Calder Valley upstarts The Lounge Society and cult singer-songwriter Stephen Fretwell respectively – the studio is now re-open and Speedy are back to doing what they do best: releasing one-off 7”/digital singles.

The latest band to be welcomed into label boss Dan Carey’s Streatham HQ is the 5-piece London based alt-pop band moa moa comprised of James Ratcliffe (guitars, keys, vox), Connor James (keys, guitar), Sophie Parkes (sax, vocals), Dan Byrne (bass) and Matt Taylor (drums).

Having sent the label a collection of demos during lockdown – of mainly finished songs – the one which caught Carey’s ear was actually a 20-second snippet of just an idea really – which the band had included in what they had sent over. ‘I know it sounds mad’ says the producer – ‘but I just knew there was something in it.’ Meaning in true Speedy style the band and producer alongside engineer Alexis Smith had to build the song around the single motif from scratch on the day – having previously never met before, in what turned out to be a mammoth 13-hour recording session.

‘It was scary and exciting in equal measures going into it’ says the band, ‘but Dan and Lex create such a safe, encouraging creative space, and from that, we somehow came out with a moa track we're all happy with.’

The resulting track ‘Coltan Candy’ is 4 + minutes of hook-laden sunshine alt-pop that layers and builds, perfectly reinforcing the band’s manifesto of marrying ‘unconventional songwriting with pop-leaning sensibilities’, channelling (amongst others) Unknown Moral Orchestra, XTC and MGMT with contemporary R & B influences into something seamless and new. And it’s catchy as hell.

‘Lyrically, the tune is darker and more direct than our other stuff’ says James (Ratcliffe), ‘even if it’s offset by everything else going on in the music. The main hook of the song is the lyric "Coltan Candy" which refers to a mineral that has been mined unethically for decades in Africa for the production of electronic circuits in the West. I’m making some pretty OTT comments about corruption, technology, and the failures of institutions in the West, but also asking some questions about our own involvement and inability to do anything about it.’
Regardless of the seriousness of the content the band just feel relieved to have finished the track. ‘Even up to the night before the session we had 20 seconds of music that we were jamming into what sounded like an awful country track…so, it’s fair to say that the whole process really helped us to focus and make decisions!’
Coltan Candy. The sweet sound of the summer.

Pioneering electric bluesman Albert King not only influenced
American guitarists like Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan, with
whom he played in later years, but made an indelible mark in
Britain. Cream-era Eric Clapton, in particular, was an early devotee
before Albert ever set foot on UK soil, while Gary Moore, who
unashamedly took his cues from Clapton, later shared a stage with
King in his ‘Still Got The Blues’ period. Enjoy his earliest
recordings as all his famous fans would have discovered them –
on vinyl!

Avant-garde cosmic sounds from Senegal, Wau Wau Collectif's "Yaral Sa Doom" is a groundbreaking album spanning borders and musical scenes. Inspired from West African tradition, Sufi praise songs, spiritual jazz, and dub rhythms, the effect is a genre defying entry in outernational sound. Hypnotic percussion loops across sweeping pads, call and response chants echoes layer over electronic beats, and children's voices sing out to recordings of crashing waves. In 2018, Swedish music archeologist and leftfield musician Karl Jonas Winqvist traveled to Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, a small fishing village turned hub of Senegal's bohemian art scene. Over the next weeks, local musicians, percussionists, poets, and beat makers came together, sketching out ideas and recording free improvisation. Winqvist returned to Sweden, trading recordings back and forth over WhatsApp with Senegal based collaborator and studio engineer Arouna Kane. "Yaral Sa Doom" is a Wolof phrase that means "educate the young." Central to the album is this theme of education, with songs that directly address social issues facing contemporary Senegal, education, and immigration. "Today you must educate children with an instrument and art, when you teach them an instrument you teach them to use their spirit," says Djiby Ly. With over 20 contributing performers from Senegal and Sweden, Wau Wau Collectif's debut is layered and complex, yet maintains a central vision. "It's like diving into the sea," explains Kane. "There are all different species of fish swimming around, but together they make the ocean." Nonetheless, it's also a geographic anomaly, made possible only by exchange of the internet age. An exceptional recording on its own, "Yaral Sa Doom" is a visionary entry in the future of transglobal collaboration

Daptone Records is honored to announce the release of Innov Gnawa's full-length, Lila. Formed in NYC, this grammy-nominated group of Moroccan expats has been making waves locally and abroad with their hypnotic live shows. The group is led by Ma'alem Hassan Ben Jaffar, a master musician and spiritual elder of the ensemble who plays a three-stringed african bass known as a guembri. Ben Jaffar is accompanied by a brotherhood of musicians – (Amino Belyamani, Ahmed Jeriouda, Samir Langus and Nawfal Atiq) – all playing the qraqeb, metal castanets that represent the shackles and chains of slaves and also singing chorus responses. Gnawa music is a spiritual tradition rooted in Moroccoʼs ancient history. Often referred to as “Sufi Blues”, Gnawaʼs African influence originated from West African slaves brought to Morocco centuries ago. Not unlike blues music in the American South, Gnawa music is revered throughout Morocco as treasured indigenous soul music.

After seeing a performance at a mutual friend's party, producer and local Gnawa enthusiast, Bosco Mann, invited Innov Gnawa to come record some tracks at The Daptone House of Soul. The invitation was accepted and over a five-hour session, the group tracked an entire albumsʼ worth of material - all in one take. The session tracked that evening is what we humbly offer up to you, the beloved Daptone Family. Lila, literally meaning "night" is a traditional ceremony in which the Ma'alem and his qraqeb ensemble dedicate an evening of healing through music. This all-night rhythm fest is a spiritual ritual which cleanses the body, mind, and spirit. We invite you to immerse yourself in Lila. Experience Freedom, Liberation and the power of healing through music. The spirit of Gnawa is people. Experience the freedom, liberation, and power of healing through music. You are not alive if this music doesn't move you.

Oliver Torr is about to release his first full length solo album. The album features many moods and colours, with Oliver exploring the use of his voice and lyrics as a new form of his expression. Successfully mixing electronic avant-garde/experimental forms with pop-like harmonic structures is the main theme of the record.

The idea of recontextualisation and themes of observation are mainly inspired by the philosophical literature and ideas of John Berger, Marshall McLuhan, and many others was a driving force during the creation of the album. The lyrical and sound design content is mainly inspired by panic attacks and depression, and serves as a therapeutic tool to aid in personal psychological healing.

Tracks make use of creative sound design by utilising field recordings and various experimental instruments and sources of sound, such as the Radical Chip, designed by John Richards (one of Oliver's mentors) and Max Wainwright. Tracks like 'Deià' which create a chaotic sonic palette are the author's representation of his mind under the siege of an intense panic attack, experienced in the seaside town of the same name that is located on the island of Mallorca.

Oliver feels like the album has been writing itself for the past 5 years, and in the past few months it has decided to finally show its form. With the help of Aid Kid, who is mixing the album and providing additional production, Oliver has put together a 14-track rollercoaster record, with the help of some special guests. Guests on vocals include Chrysalism, BCAA's Bilej Kluk, and sci fi RnB newcomer LVCIFER. Other sonic collaborators include Sunnbrella (guitars on two tracks), Bastl Instruments' David Strobach (distorted samples in intro), Peter Kutin, and Radio Laude's DeSteffan and R.A. (distorted samples/vocal on one track).

The record's sonics are a combination of Oliver's conscious influences, including experimental music, classical avant-garde, shoegaze, IDM, EBM, electronica, hints of modern club music, as well as PC music influences.

Oliver Torr is known as a composer, music producer, performer and installation artist. Outside of his solo projects, he has worked with many prominent musicians and creative companies/film makers worldwide. He is the founder of XYZ project, a music label concentrating on electronic music and audiovisual art (xyzproject.bandcamp), and a member of the noise.kitchen crew (a music and synth shop run by Bastl Instruments in Prague). Oliver is also a part of the 2020 SHAPE Platform roster (shapeplatform.eu), and the 2021 Gravity Network roster (gravitynetwork).

Oliver releases the album prior to the release of his 'Trans Europe Postal Express' project (supported and arranged in collaboration with SHAPE Platform) and gallery exhibition at MeetFactory art space Prague, that will take place in March, and will further the sonic palette of the album.

The album's artwork is directed and designed by Kristyna Kulikova and photographed by Lukas Havlena (VICE, National Gallery of Prague).

The album's pre-release sees a teaser trailer shot and directed by Tereza Halamova and Filip Kettner that will be released 1st of February. A short movie music video with the same crew is scheduled a month after the album's digital release.

A remixed version with reworks from established European electronic musicians (including Peter Kutin, Fausto Mercier, Wim Dehaen, Natalie Plevakova, Evil Medved, NobodyListen, David Herzig, Ancestral Vision and Trauma), will be coming in the next few months after the release.

Eight years deep into their existence, Paris-based Mawimbi are proud to present their debut album Bubbling.
Through their own label and events, the collective have championed up and coming artists who look to fuse african music
with the modern dancefloor. They’ve released records from Lya, Onipa, Afriquoi and James Stewart and brought
established artists and fellow travellers to such as Auntie Flo, Africaine 808, Awesome Tapes From Africa and Esa to
Paris. Now it’s time for the collective to unveil their identity as producers and musicians in their own right.
“Bubbling” refers to the many ideas, encounters and projects that the collective have come into contact with over
the past years. Through their events and their work as label curators and remixers (for artists such as Oumou Sangaré,
Blick Bassy, Cerrone, Onipa), Mawimbi have become known as ambassadors for “afro-electro” - whatever that might
mean - and their debut album buzzes with the contagious energy of the music they love. If you ask Mawimbi, Afro-electro
is about global and local inspiration, from both sides of the Black Atlantic. It’s about paying tribute to the forefathers and
the brothers and sisters in arms across the world. Afrobeat, highlife, South African bubblegum pop, Malian music,
maloya… Bubbling seeks to connect geographically separate but spiritually similar club sounds.
Hence “El Caribe” (feat. Ghetto Kumbé) is half cumbia, half Carribean dancehall, while “Ngana” (feat. Fatim
Kouyaté) has some elements of dub music and “Kakraa” (feat. K.O.G) nods to disco‐infused Ghanaian productions from
the 70s. Despite the influences, this is a record designed for home-listening, a nod to our present circumstances, but also
a deliberate step away from dancefloor. A moment of patience and reflection as much as joy and celebration.`
Above all, Bubbling is a personal record, about unexpected cross-pollinations and the collective’s individual
explorations of these musical territories. Mawimbi's own history is one of coincidences and chance encounters, and so is
“Bubbling”. All the collaborations were born out of the connections made over the last 8 years. A WhatsApp chat with
Zambian artist Mufrika, a spontaneous studio jam with Ghetto Kumbé in a Parisian Basement: these are captured
moments of real, vital connections made.
Like Mawimbi itself, Bubbling is a collage of relationships and shared experiences, shaped by nascent friendships
and musical encounters. It’s a truly DIY document in that sense, the sound of the last eight years of the Mawimbi
adventure: free spirited, passionate, warm and generous.

The Suspended Kid is Sevdaliza’s debut EP, originally released in 2015 via her own record label Twisted Elegance. When asked about the meaning behind the EP’s title, Sevdaliza responded:

“The title is how people responded to me in social situations. I realized that those things that deflect me from social situations — not getting along with your coach or your boss or whatever — it made me realize I had to choose a different path.”

In just a few years time Sevdaliza established herself as an iconic, highly creative, versatile and independent artist who has landed on many celebrity moodboards. Her stunning visual for HUMAN of her debut album ISON has collected over 25 million YouTube views to date and masterpiece Shahmaran about mental slavery, won 2 UK Music Video Awards. Sevdaliza toured 35 countries in the last 5 years and amassed thousands of fans globally (Spotify
200.000, Youtube, 300.000, IG 230.000). In 2020 Sevdaliza returned with her follow up album Shabrang.

Following their critically well received debut album, Seekers, in 2017 - Our Kingdom Undone sees BEYOND GRACE refining and redefining their sound into something that’s simultaneously more intricate and more intense than ever before, combining conceptually ambitious songwriting and high octane heaviness in equal measure. Our Kingdom Undone’s gestation period took place under a pall of social unrest and political uncertainty the world over, so it’s perhaps no surprise that each of these eight songs is a cathartic scream of raw emotion and primal poetry. Full to the brim with lyrics that rage with unfettered fury and unbound frustration against the rise of isolationism, exploitation, rampant militarism, and religious indoctrination. Recorded at Stuck On A Name studio by Ian Boult and Bookhouse studio by Tom Hill, before being mixed and mastered by Charles Elliott (Tastemaker Audio / Abysmal Dawn), Our Kingdom Undone (whose stunning artwork was provided by in-demand UK artist Shindy Reehal) is both a crushing statement of intent and a vital reminder that the personal is political, that the ends do not justify the means, and that we must not let our fear divide us and drive us into an age of unreason.

THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA is back! The band that formed as an idea of friends from several well known rock/metal bands (SOILWORK, ARCH ENEMY, MEAN STREAK) back almost a decade ago and has been dropping jaws ever since. With 5 albums already under their belt, 2 nominations for the Swedish Grammies, countless live shows and praises from fans and media alike, TNFO have steadily upped their game when it comes to paying tribute to a decade that influences all sorts of people and even industries to this day - the 80s. With hits like ‘Domino’, ‘Lovers In The Rain’, ‘West Ruth Ave’, ‘Divinyls’ or ‘This Time’, the band manages to maintain a variety of vibes and emotions within every album. From hard rockers, poppy digressions to progressive epics, disco-esque songs and almost cheesy yet loveable ballads.

Enter 2020, TNFO had just released their recent record, ‘Aeromantic’, and kicked off their European tour in support of it, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Björn Strid, the AOR dictator helming this exceptional collective called NFO, recalls “We made it one week into the tour after some absolutely amazing shows and then it all went south and we had to go home. Just about everyone on the tour got sick when they came home, with varied conditions.”
The band didn’t step back and accept the situation but decided to do what they do best instead: “It was pretty clear after some months into the Covid madness, that it was here to stay and that we weren’t gonna be able to tour for quite some time. So we made the best out of it. The remedy was simply to hit the studio again as soon as everybody was well again. It ended up being an incredibly creative 1,5 years and so many amazing songs came out of it.”

That being said, the second part of the ‘Aeromantic’ saga really captures what this band is all about: being in motion and romanticizing traveling, sometimes even with a broken heart - accompanied by the good things in life. Namely with songs like ‘White Jeans’, yet another jaw dropping classic rock gem about hot young love, cramped with nostalgia, or ‘Change’, which encompasses all the vibes you know from your favorite decade: Urgency, emotion, warmth and excitement. But also groovy danceable songs like ‘Chardonnay Nights’, a groovy, dreamy, yet uplifting homage to parties and hot love, or ‘Burn For Me’, a true feel good anthem for the summer - driving people to dance in the streets, all worries aside, to a brighter future.

On the other hand there are tracks like the almost progressive ‘Amber Through A Window’. A little throwback (at least titular) to the NFO’s epic 2017 album ‘Amber Galactic’: “Amber is with us wherever we go and I think she’ll keep coming back. She’s our mascot of escapism. The song was very interesting to compose. It takes you on quite a journey with key changes and goes from minor to major when you least expect it and throws you between different set of emotions. At the same time it feels pretty direct and operates like a mini epos. Really happy with how it turned out“, cites Strid.

Besides all this, the band has also stepped up their game when it comes to music videos for their timeless anthems. “White Jeans” for instance features Swedish TV personality Fredrik Lexfors and is a sweet little homage to the LGBTQIA+ community. “Fredrik is a good friend of mine and has loads of experience in the musical/theatre world and is super creative. He created this character called ”Kantorn” (The Cantor) some years ago and became a hit on YouTube. He has a very twisted and unique way of singing and acting, which is very funny. He was a part of Sweden’s Got Talent TV Show and went really far and became a crowd favorite. Fredrik has a lot of friends in the LGBTQIA+ community and I also have quite a few. We saw it as a joyful tribute and we’ve only gotten really good response. It’s of course also humorous but has a very nice balance and a very positive message.”

The bold and jovial video for “Burn For Me” on the other hand maybe among the biggest and best productions, the NFO ever recorded for the depths of the internet: “I’ve had this idea to film a ”Dancing in the Streets” video, where curious people come out of the woodworks and join the party in the streets. It’s a very classic 80’s scenario and very common in videos back then. Sort of the video to IRENE CARA’s ”Fame”. You don’t see it very often these days. We felt that it was needed and after “Burn For Me” was done I immediately envisoned it being the perfect ”post corona dancing celebration in the streets-song”.”

Those two videos are by far not everything the band will have to offer visually, but we won’t tell any more just for now. To be continued…

With all that new greatness up their sleeves, NFO are ready to take the world by storm – again! Even though coming up with a setlist for their scheduled tour starting in September may prove to become problematic according to the AOR Dictator: “Making a setlist might end up being a nightmare haha… I would be up for doing only songs off »Aeromantic I« and »Aeromantic II« since that’s really where we’re at right now, but I think most of our the Midnight Flyers would like to hear some old stuff, too. Maybe we could get away with it as long as we play “West Ruth Ave” as the ending song and create the good old conga train?”

In the most literal sense, globally renowned whistler Molly Lewis makes her gorgeous
and curious compositions out of thin air.
New entrees into the Exotica canon; sprawling, would-be Spaghetti Western scores;
and a dash of Old Hollywood glamour - the whistle-led songs on her debut EP ‘The
Forgotten Edge’ are as complex, delicate and indelible as anything performed with
viola or piano.
“Whistling is like a human theremin,” said Lewis, an Australian native who’s spent the
last several years in LA and whose performances there and around the world are
changing any preconceived notions of whistling by the room-full.
That’s not to say Lewis is all serious and snooty about the craft. Quite the contrary.
Her sense of humour is witty, self-deprecating and zany. She’s as likely to reference
the slapstick Leslie Nielsen film series ‘Naked Gun’ for music video concepts as she
is a classic piece of noir cinema.
Look no further than the equatorial and breezy opening cut ‘Oceanic Feeling’, a
lovely walk across the flotsam-sprinkled sands in the rum-pumping vein of Les
Baxter. Meanwhile, the title track - and really, the entire collection here - is a loving,
albeit rather haunting, salute to one of Lewis’s heroes, the Italian composer and
musician Alessandro Alessandroni, whose whistle and guitar you hear on the title
theme of Ennio Morricone’s ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. Lewis and her ensemble create
classic cinema for your mind.
Her own love for the artform began when, around the age of twelve she was given
the CD ‘Steve ‘The Whistler’ Herbst Whistles Broadway’. Something contained in it
clicked. “It wasn’t that I was immediately obsessed, but I knew it was something I
could do well,” Lewis said.
The daughter of a musician mother and a documentary filmmaker father who often
focused his films on niche communities and topics, Lewis recalls watching a
television documentary with her parents about The International Whistlers
Convention in Louisburg, North Carolina. “My dad said, ‘If you ever make it into the
competition, I’ll take you there’,” Lewis said. Turns out, there was no bar to entry, just
a small fee. And so, several years later, she and her father travelled to the
convention. New to the form, Lewis didn’t take home one of the bigger prizes but they
were awarded the prize for Whistler Who Traveled The Greatest Distance. “We really
just used the trip to drive around the United States,” she said.
After studying film in Australia, Lewis moved to Los Angeles to be close to the film
industry. There, her circle of artist friends grew naturally and with providence - her
unique talent drawing more and more recognition. And over the last few years,
Lewis’s Café Molly events at LA spots like Zebulon, Non Plus Ultra and The Natural
History Museum have become fabled, elegant happenings with appearances from
guests like John C. Reilly, Karen O and Mac DeMarco.
Recorded with a crack team of friends and musicians during 2020’s quarantine, ‘The
Forgotten Edge’ is rife with incredible performances from Thomas Brenneck (Sharon
Jones & The Dap-Kings / Budos Band), Joe Harrison (Charles Bradley, Lee Fields),
Eric Hagstrom (Brainstory), Abe Rounds (Meshell Ndegeocello, Andrew Bird, Blake
Mills), Leon Michels (El Michels Affair), Gabriel Rowland and Dave Guy.

‘Concordance’ is Susan Howe’s and David Grubbs’s fifth album in the
fifteen years of their unexpected and richly satisfying collaboration. Here
they’ve pared down their materials to voice and piano, aspiring to the
hushed intensity of their live performances. What had previously resulted
from Grubbs’s recomposition of recorded materials now arrives as
unadorned duo performance.
“Howe is a poet who has spent her career reminding us that our
experiences of meaning and sound are synchronous.” - Tess Taylor, The
New York Times
‘Concordance’ is Susan Howe’s and David Grubbs’s fifth album in the
unexpected and richly satisfying collaboration that began with ‘Thiefth’
and includes ‘Souls of the Labadie Tract’, ‘Frolic Architecture’ and
‘WOODSLIPPERCOUNTERCLATTER’. Where these works feature the
fragmentation and multiplication of Howe’s recorded voice - in a style
akin to her celebrated text collages - with ‘Concordance’ they’ve pared
down their materials to voice and piano, aspiring to the hushed intensity
of their live performances. After fifteen years of working together, the
subtleties of inflection and interaction that previously resulted from
Howe’s nuanced delivery and Grubbs’s composition using recorded
materials now arrives as unadorned duo performance.
One of America's greatest living artists, Bollingen Prize-winning poet
Susan Howe’s text for ‘Concordance’ originates in a collage poem of the
same name published by Grenfell Press, which then became the title
work in her most recent book, published to acclaim by New Directions in
2020. She has continued to rework the text for this performed version,
incorporating material from her 2015 book of essays, ‘The Quarry’. Her
source material is scissored from print concordances of the poetry of
Milton, Herbert, Arnold, Browning, Dickinson and Coleridge, as well as
old field guides to birds, rocks, trees, moths and mushrooms; Howe’s
fiery commitment to placing these echoes of the past in dialogue with the
present speaks to her position as one of America’s essential artists.
David Grubbs is Professor Of Music at Brooklyn College and The
Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the author of ‘The Voice in the
Headphones’, ‘Now that the audience is assembled’ and ‘Records Ruin
the Landscape: John Cage, the Sixties, and Sound Recording’ (all
published by Duke University Press) and, with Anthony McCall,
Simultaneous Soloists (Pioneer Works Press). Grubbs has played in
Gastr del Sol, The Red Krayola and Squirrel Bait and performed with
Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros and Will Oldham, among many others.

Charlie Parr’s album, ‘Last of the Better Days Ahead’, is a collection of
powerful new songs about how one looks back on a life lived, as well as
forward on what’s still to come.
Its spare production foregrounds Parr’s poetic lyricism, his expressive, gritty
voice ringing clear over deft acoustic guitar playing that references folk and
blues motifs in Parr’s own exploratory, idiosyncratic style.
When it comes to what it all means, Parr says it best: “Last of the Better Days
Ahead is a way for me to refer to the times I’m living in. I’m getting on in years,
experiencing a shift in perspective that was once described by my mom as ‘a
time when we turn from gazing into the future to gazing back at the past, as
if we’re adrift in the current, slowly turning around.’ Some songs came from
meditations on the fact that the portion of our brain devoted to memory is also
the portion responsible for imagination, and what that entails for the collected
experiences that we refer to as our lives.
Other songs are cultivated primarily from the imagination, but also contain
memories of what may be a real landscape, or at least one inspired by vivid dreaming. The album represents one full rotation of the boat in which we
are adrift looking ahead for a last look at the better days to come, then being
turned around to see the leading edge of the past as it fades into the foggy
dreamscape of our real and imagined histories.”
“Like John Hartford jamming with St Francis of Assisi, Parr strikes a fine balance between immense generosity toward humanity and barely contained
outrage towards humanity’s tendency towards coldness and conformity.” 8/10
Uncut
“Hypnotic stories of low-key endurance and universal questions, like Raymond
Carver’s fiction set to a louch, crystal-clear soundtrack” **** Mojo

Over the past 16 years, Rebelution has had nearly everything a band could
ask for: chart-topping albums, hundreds of millions of streams, a GRAMMY
nomination, even their own festival in Jamaica.The only thing they haven’t
had, it seems, is time.
“When COVID hit, we found ourselves in uncharted territory,” says frontman
Eric Rachmany. “Suddenly we were just sitting still, which was a completely
new experience for us.”
Difficult as it was to leave the road behind, pressing pause proved to be a blessing in disguise for a band that has emerged from lockdown with their most
captivating, eclectic record to date: ‘In The Moment’. Recorded remotely in the
midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the collection is deliberate and wide-ranging, infusing the quartet’s soulful, exhilarating brand of modern reggae with
addictive pop hooks, alt-rock grit, and hip-hop grooves.
The performances here are bold and self-assured, and the production is equally ambitious, drawing on swirling reverb and trippy delay to create an immersive sonic universe that’s both futuristic and vintage all at once. Strip away the
intoxicating atmospherics, though, and what remains is a work of profound
reflection, a probing, revelatory meditation that balances joy and introspection
in equal measure as it contemplates the meaning of time and invites us to sit
back, slow down, and live ‘In The Moment’.
Includes guest appearances by Busy Signal, Kabaka Pyramid, Durand Jones, and
Keznamdi.
coverage out in reggaeville worldareggae niceup Print: Rock at
Night Magazine
Radio plays for “Old School Feeling” on BBC Radio 2 David Rodigan, The Random Reggae Show Swindon 105.5 Swindown FM and Vibes FM Reggae My
Limits

Few artists in the music profession are as unclassifiable as
Nina Simone. During her long career she tackled material from
a variety of styles, garnering an audience that included soul
devotees, folk followers, R&B lovers and even jazz buffs.
Embarking on this project, she joined a host of seriously
talented individuals: the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah
Vaughan, Billy Eckstine and Frank Sinatra, who had recorded,
and would continue to record, items from the Ellington
songbook for many years to come

The core tenets of Morgan Wright's music have long tested club music's context; the rituals and customs that define it, and how each of those genres change once removed from their traditional settings.
It's a space Morgan Wright feels at home in; one where he's constantly asking questions of the structure club music resides within, and what it means to create a new space for familiar sounds. And over the course of his debut album, Class Tourist, Morgan has found new ways to elevate those same questions - whether by way of intention, or a pandemic-induced coping mechanism.
In Class Tourist, Morgan again borrows from familiar strains of the subgenres which have come to form his musical identity. This time, he fuses sounds of post-punk, IDM and breakbeat, hopeful they converge to form a bastardised rendition of the latter, with "Australiana" at its core.
It's a sound that was made possible by a change to his songwriting approach, after pivoting from a loop-based production style - one which he has applied to a slew of other projects, for the better part of five years - to one which lends itself to a more standardised, contemporary format.

Moving through the record, Morgan toys with musical tropes of contrast with a calculated refinement unheard throughout his previous work. The coalescence of melodic optimism and bleak, mournful soundscapes feature on Class Tourist again, as you would expect. But this time, contemporary structure - with the exception of a few songs - along with the features of label-mate, Purient, and frequent collaborator, ENDL355, breathe new life, and even a new genre, into Morgan's work.

Keplar re-issues the fourth album 'Chessa' by Dan Abrams' project Shuttle358 on vinyl for the first time. The double LP edition includes 3 previously unreleased tracks from the same recording sessions back in 2004, as well as an extended artwork with unseen photographs by Dan Abrams.

While undoubtedly associated with the microsound and 'clicks & cuts' movement around the turn of the millennium, on 'Chessa' Shuttle358 left behind the classical rhythmic patterns of the genre and shifted further towards warmer territories, meandering between modern digital minimalism and the soft tones of ambient music. Counter to his microsound synthesis approach on Frame (2000), Abrams created Chessa by writing software that manipulated samples from his unreleased songs, guitar pieces, and vintage japanese films sampled from video tape. In particular, a special granulating technique was written and performed at intentionally low sample rates that gave the uniquely fragile, yet dense sound to the album. Over fourteen tracks Abrams arranges slowly evolving sonic entities of unfading elegance. Strayed and hazy melodies pulse and cascade, elongated but brittle harmonies shimmer and disappear, echoing far-off in the rounded corners of the mind. The patient and detailed way Abrams combines the broken with the beautiful in creating organic collages of sound that retain the euphonic essence of a song, makes this piece of work so powerful and timeless, sounding just as relevant today, as it did 17 years ago.

Under modern scrutiny in Abrams latest studio, he refocused the original recordings to emphasize the elements most important to the original vision. The final mastering and vinyl preparation was done in collaboration with Stephan Mathieu, vinyl was cut by LUPO.

From the original press release in 2004 by Taylor Deupree:

Without a doubt Shuttle358 has become one of the most admired artists to emerge from modern electronic music’s sea of musicians. From the humble beginnings of a demo CD in 12k’s mailbox to 4 critically acclaimed CDs, Dan Abrams is, to some, the one credited for bringing a warmth and human touch back into what has often been considered a very cold, sterile genre. It began with 1999’s Optimal.lp (12k1005), a groundbreaking debut release that immediately defined the Shuttle358 sound; a hybridization of the then-emerging “microsound” genre with Eno’s true ambient explorations. In 2000 Abrams outdid himself with Frame (12k1011) by honing his sound design and exploring production techniques at rates that made his “now” quite brief and creating what was to become one of the most sought-after CDs in the 12k catalog.

Chessa is the third release from Abrams’ Shuttle358 moniker on 12k and he continues to do what he does best: attempt to move microsound away from the world of theory and towards absolute real life. Like his photographs, Chessa is music about, and to be listened to in, unexpected places. It is a narrative, a simple slice of life that plays out through the incidental photography of the cover artwork. To achieve this Abrams fuses irregular granular sound particles, like the movements of everyday life, with a deliberate melodic base that captures emotion and simplicity.