The Marshall Suite is the 1999 album by the Fall. The album builds on the techno-influenced beats of its predecessor Levitate, while also returning to a more rockabilly-influenced sound reminiscent of earlier Fall line-ups with songs such as the catchy “Touch Sensitive” and the strange, complex, thumping jungle beats of “The Crying Marshal”.
The Marshall Suite was made immediately after an American tour during which Mark E. Smith had an onstage fight with members of the band and was arrested following ongoing altercations at the hotel at which the group were staying. While the remaining band members quit and returned to England, leaving Smith in a cell in Manhattan, Julia Nagle chose to stay in the band, helping to assemble the group’s new line-up.
During the recording of the album, this new line-up was still taking shape and the album features two different bassists. None the less it was very well-received album at the time and highly collectible by now.
Tuff Darts was an American punk rock band. They reached their greatest fame in the mid-late 1970s with such songs as “Slash”, “(Your Love Is Like) Nuclear Waste” and their biggest single, “All for the Love of Rock and Roll”, which was originally recorded by Ram Jam. The band appeared at popular New York City clubs like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB and featured Tommy Frenzy (vocals), Jeff Salen (guitar), Bobby Butani (guitar), John DeSalvo (bass), and John Morelli (drums). In 1978, the group released their debut album Tuff Darts!, on Sire Records, produced by Bob Clearmountain and Tony Bongiovi.
This NYC punk rock classic, Tuff Darts!, is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl and includes an insert.
Bedroom pop singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams is seriously on the rise. The California-born 22-year-old is the daughter of director and composer J.J. Abrams (you may have heard of his work) and Katie McGrath, a film and television producer. Produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, Good Riddance, Gracie Abrams’s highly anticipated debut album, will be released February 24 via Interscope & Polydor Records. Includes the powerful new single “Where do we go now?”
BRIT Award & Ivor Novello Award Gewinner Ben Howard veröffentlichte bereits die erste Single „Couldn’t Make It Up” aus seinem kommenden Album “Is It?”. Nun legt er mit seiner zweiten Single „Walking Backwards“ nach und bietet seinen Fans damit einen weiteren vielversprechenden Vorgeschmack auf sein bald erscheinendes Album.
„Is It?“ wird sein fünftes Studioalbum sein, welches insgesamt 10 Songs umfasst. Es entstand in der Zeit, als der Brite ganz unerwartet zwei kleine Schlaganfälle erlitt. Ben Howard selbst beschreibt diese Zeit als „verwirrend“. Diese Verwirrung schlägt sich in den unterschiedlichen Nuancen nieder, die auf dem Album zu finden sind.
Howard sagt dazu: ”Ich fand es unmöglich, nicht über die Absurdität nachzudenken, dass man mit einem winzigen Klumpen alle Fähigkeiten verlieren kann. Das hat sich wirklich in das Schreiben der Platte eingebrannt”. Der englische Singer-Songwriter kann bis heute beeindruckende 800 Millionen Streams (über alle DSPs) verzeichnen. Ben wird diesen Sommer auf mehreren Festivals in der EU und Großbritannien auftreten und hat kürzlich seine großen Shows im Londoner Alexandra Palace Park für Juli angekündigt. Im Juli dieses
Jahres wird er außerdem auch drei Shows in Berlin, Hamburg und München spielen.
BRIT Award & Ivor Novello Award Gewinner Ben Howard veröffentlichte bereits die erste Single „Couldn’t Make It Up” aus seinem kommenden Album “Is It?”. Nun legt er mit seiner zweiten Single „Walking Backwards“ nach und bietet seinen Fans damit einen weiteren vielversprechenden Vorgeschmack auf sein bald erscheinendes Album.
„Is It?“ wird sein fünftes Studioalbum sein, welches insgesamt 10 Songs umfasst. Es entstand in der Zeit, als der Brite ganz unerwartet zwei kleine Schlaganfälle erlitt. Ben Howard selbst beschreibt diese Zeit als „verwirrend“. Diese Verwirrung schlägt sich in den unterschiedlichen Nuancen nieder, die auf dem Album zu finden sind.
Howard sagt dazu: ”Ich fand es unmöglich, nicht über die Absurdität nachzudenken, dass man mit einem winzigen Klumpen alle Fähigkeiten verlieren kann. Das hat sich wirklich in das Schreiben der Platte eingebrannt”. Der englische Singer-Songwriter kann bis heute beeindruckende 800 Millionen Streams (über alle DSPs) verzeichnen. Ben wird diesen Sommer auf mehreren Festivals in der EU und Großbritannien auftreten und hat kürzlich seine großen Shows im Londoner Alexandra Palace Park für Juli angekündigt. Im Juli dieses
Jahres wird er außerdem auch drei Shows in Berlin, Hamburg und München spielen.
Das Hip-Hop Duo Rae Sremmurd veröffentlicht das neue Album „STREMM4LIFE“ auf Vinyl. Die beiden Brüder aus Atlanta erreichten ihren internationalen Durchbruch 2015 mit ihrer Hit-Single „No Type“.
Seitdem wurde das Duo mehrfach mit Platin für ihre Alben ausgezeichnet, arbeiteten mit Künstler*innen wie Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott und Future und erhielten unglaubliche 40 Single Platinauszeichnungen für ihre Songs wie „Swang“, „No Type“ oder „Black Beatels“
”Peace...Like A River”, das 12. Studioalbum der Band und der Nachfolger ihres chartstürmenden und Grammy-nominierten Blues-Albums ”Heavy Load Blues”, wird am 16. Juni 2023 über Fantasy Records veröffentlicht. Die 12 Songs umfassende Rocksammlung enthält auch Gastauftritte von Billy Bob Thornton, Celisse und Billy F. Gibbons, der mit Haynes am vergangenen Sonntagabend bei den CMT Music Awards eine unglaubliche Hommage an Lynyrd Skynyrd darbot. Zusätzlich enthält die ”Peace...Like A River” Deluxe Edition (nur auf CD erhältlich) das 12-Track-Originalalbum plus die spezielle 5-Track ”Time Of The Signs” Bonus EP, die vier brandneue, unveröffentlichte Tracks und eine alternative Version des Albumtracks ”The River Only Flows One Way” enthält, bei der Warren die Lead Vocals übernimmt.
Der Star aus den TV-Serien “Homeland”, “Band Of Brothers” und “Billions” mal anders: als SingerSongwiter mit erdigem Roots-Pop.
Der britische Schauspieler Damian Lewis ist Serienfans auch in Deutschland als Nicholas Brody aus der Serie „Homeland“ bekannt. Vor seiner erfolgreichen Laufbahn in der Schauspielerei war Lewis vor allem ein Musiker, inspiriert von den Rockbands seiner Jugend und jahrelang unterwegs als Straßenmusiker.
Jetzt kehrt Lewis zu seinen Ursprüngen zurück. Sein Debütalbum bietet eine originelle Sammlung von rootsigen, rockigen und manchmal auch etwas jazzig angehauchten Songs aus eigener Feder plus zwei großartigen Coverversionen: ”Harvest Moon” von Neil Young und ”After Midnight” von J.J. Cale.
Eindringliche Melodien durchziehen Pendant World, das mit Spannung erwartete zweite Deutsche GrammophonAlbum der texanischen Band Balmorhea. Die 13 Tracks offenbaren ein breites Spektrum an Stilen, Texturen, Rhythmen und Farben und lösen Genregrenzen auf. Gefundene Sounds, Samples, Vinylaufnahmen, Synthesizer, Blechbläser und Flöten ergänzen Balmorheas reguläre „Stimmen“ aus Klavier, Akustikgitarren und Streichern. Zusätzlich gesellen sich zu Rob Lowe und Michael A. Muller auf Pendant World auch die Geigerin/Sängerin Aisha Burns, die Cellistin Clarice Jensen sowie eine ebenso herausragende Besetzung anderer Gastkünstler: der experimentelle Jazzsaxophonist Sam Gendel, Joseph Shabason an Tenorsaxophon und Flöte, Klarinettist Jonathan Sielaff, Schlagzeuger Jason Treuting, die Sängerinnen Steph Jenkins und
Lisa Morgenstern. Produziert wird das Album vom Grammy-Gewinner und Produzenten Jonathan Low, der auch noch Synthesizer und Schlaginstrumente einarbeitet. Pendant World erscheint digital, auf CD und auf Vinyl.
Merging a dynamic curio of melodic guitars, disconcerting monologues and a rhythm section both technical and unruly, London’s Legss create a wholly unique and mesmerising sound. New EP Fester is a literary and disarmingly lyrical collection of art-rock songs laden with ideas and sun-licked beneath the bus smog of anxious skies.
Even when leaning into more melodic territory, there’s a pervasive uneasiness that underpins both the vocals and instrumentation. Just as you drift into the relaxing arpeggio flow, vocalist Ned Green’s soft soliloquy accelerates to an exasperated yelp and we’re jolted by discordant noise-rock stabs dragging us into Legss’ deliciously feverish and poetic world.
“The lyrics were written in the summer, when you’re sun-drunk and romantic, and the buses look like they’re kissing as they cross each other, and everyone’s got a cold sore. But beneath all the sunny games there’s a bittersweet desire to be someone or something else.” - Legss
Fresh from supporting the likes of Pom Poko and Hotel Lux, Legss release Fester via The State51 Conspiracy on 16th June. Pressed on 12” black vinyl in a sealed polybag liner.
Silver marble vinyl, limited to 300 copies. Handnumbered, 180g. Australian vocalist Jo Lawry has forged an impressive solo career with a global fan base, while earning deep respect as a "musician"s singer" within and beyond jazz circles. She"s also spent nearly a decade performing and recording with Sting and has worked with Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. The two albums she released as a singer/songwriter/producer, Taking Picture (2015) and The Bathtub and the Sea (2017) garnered critical acclaim. Now, more than 10 years since her last solo jazz album, Lawry presents "Acrobats", unequivocally returning to the genre alongside globally in-demand bassist Linda May Han Oh and versatile drummer Allison Miller.
Percy Sledge’s 1966 worldwide smash “When A Man Loves A Woman” did more to internationally establish southern soul than any record up to that time. The man from Leighton, Alabama subsequently became one of Atlantic’s biggest artists, charting 11 R&B/Pop hits in three years.
Nevertheless, as the 60s drew to a close, Atlantic’s interest in Percy inexplicably dwindled. Very few masters that his producer Quin Ivy sent from Sheffield, Alabama to New York saw contemporaneous release, although some eventually appeared in countries like South Africa, where Percy was revered.
The tracks on this exceptional ‘maxi single’ waited till 2010 to debut digitally. Percy’s terrific take on Aretha’s “Baby, Baby, Baby” dates from August 1969, the others from his penultimate session for Atlantic. Great songs too from Swamp Dogg and the late Gordon Lightfoot; either of which could have given Percy a hit in 1972.
We’ll never know why they weren’t issued then – but let’s be grateful to Soul4Real for making them available on vinyl now…
Long out-of-print release available digitally for the first time. Extensive notes by a local writer in English and French. Previously unpublished family photos. Urbanized traditional music at a dance-floor-friendly tempo. The very definition of an "Awesome Tape From Africa". Roger Bekono made a deep mark in the contemporary history of Cameroonian music through the four-on-the-floor, ribald intensity of bikutsi. The Ewondo-language dance-pop style that forms an undulating tapestry of interlocking triplet rhythmic interplay came to international prominence in the European "world music" scene as the 90s began. But the relentless sound of bikutsi developed in Yaoundé at the hands of Bekono and many others, as it developed from a village-based singing style performed mostly by women into a cosmopolitan music force that rivaled the popularity of established musics like Congolese rhumba, merengue and makossa. With his unique—some say suave—voice, Bekono contributed much over a period of more than 10 years as part of the evolution of this traditional rhythm-turned-urban dance movement. Bekono worked with legendary producer Mystic Jim, who had built a prolific home studio along with a crack team of musicians. They joined as part of the production of his self-titled album, which became known locally as "Jolie Poupée," the name of the album's lead single and most popular song. For "Jolie Poupée" Mystic Jim programmed the kick or bass drum, adding effects to have a heavier bass. Overall the album represented a new level of finesse and professionalism for his second release. In the middle of 1989, Jolie Poupée was released by the label Inter Diffusion System and aggressively hit the radio, discos and national television. The music video for the title track was on loop on TV. It felt like everyone was talking about it, even artists in adjacent music scenes like makossa. The album came out on vinyl and cassette and remains Bekono's best-selling recording to this day. With Jolie Poupée Bekono finally made an impact outside Cameroon as the record captured listeners in some Central African countries like Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo and Sao Tome & Principe. In these countries, we find the Fang or Mfan people (also known as Ekang), Bantu-speaking ethnic groups that are also found in Cameroon. This umbrella language group includes the language in which bikutsi is mainly sung. Most of Bekono's songs are in French, Ewondo (of which Beti is a dialect) and Pidgin. The four songs on Jolie Poupée are all considered bikutsi classics. On September 15, 2016, Bekono died of a long illness at the age of 62. In the wake of his passing the media published a wave of tributes, thanking him for what he did for Cameroonian music. He was an admired musician, songwriter and guitarist, and some of his old colleagues and some of the new generation of performers showered Bekono with vibrant tributes via social media, many of which noting something to the effect of: "The artist dies but his works remain."
Wiederveröffentlichung des Umse Albums aus dem Jahr 2008 als Vinyl! Das 2008er Konzeptalbum des Ratinger MCs ist durchweg an eine Tageszeitung angelehnt. Seinem eigenständigen und ebenso intelligenten wie humorvollen Stil ist Umse hier durchgängig treu geblieben - nicht zuletzt dadurch konnte er sich stets deutlich vom aktuellen Hip Hop-Geschehen in Deutschland abheben. Chefredakteur Umse nähert sich auf diesem 12 Song-starken Konzeptalbum sämtlichen Themen von "Politik" und "Wirtschaft" über "Kontaktanzeigen" hin zum "TV Programm", dem "Wetter" oder den "Todesanzeigen" mit einem Augenzwinkern: Als Aufhänger dienen all seine persönlichen Erlebnisse zwischen bundesweiten Liveauftritten bis hin zum Fernsehabend auf der Couch. Umses technisch versierter, leidenschaftlich kreativer und perfektionistischer Schreibstil lädt den Hörer hierbei zur akustischen Langzeitlektüre ein. Die Beats auf "Rheinisches Blatt" stammen von Deckah, Firstar, Tesk und DJ Radrum. Besonders die Verwendung zahlreicher Vokal-Schnitte aus der ersten Golden Ära Hip Hops deutscher Machart, machen "Rheinisches Blatt" zu einem Hip Hop-Album klassischer Prägung, mit welchem die Fans der ersten Stunde definitiv ihre Freude haben werden.
"Against The Grain" is screechingly released hot on the heels of the previous years punk hit `No Control" which sold so many copies, why not keep the formula untouched? The exuberance of this release is kinda tuff ta" blow off. Contains the superior original version of "21st Century Digital Boy" plus 16 more crucial cuts. A barrage of melodic, hyper-overdrive.
Die Power Metal-Szene braucht einen Einlauf - und dieses Album ist einer!
Das neue Album "Out Of The Dark" von FROZEN LAND ist Power Metal der alten Schule - Punkt.
Es ist ein feuchter Traum für alle, die in den 90er Jahren angefangen haben, Power Metal zu hören. Es gibt keine Füllstücke. Es gibt keine nicht-eingängigen Refrains. Es gibt keine langweiligen Gitarrensolos.
Nach der letzten Veröffentlichung machte die Band eine 4-jährige Pause.
Und warum? Weil sie in dieser Zeit ihre Depressionen überwanden - laut augenzwinkernder, eigener Aussage, half LSD dabei - daher auch der Name des Albums, "Out Of The Dark".
Das Album ist im Grunde ein 7 Songs umfassendes Gesamtkunstwerk im traditionellen Power Metal-Sinne.
Aber bei den letzten 2 Tracks wird spannend! Tuomas hat eine perverse Vorliebe für Eurodance der 90er Jahre, was bereits durch das Cover von E-Types "Angels Crying" auf dem Debütalbum der Band durchschimmerte.
Auf diesem Album dachten FROZEN LAND nun, sie nehmen das Hedt selbst in die Hand und mischen Eurodance mit Metal. Nehmt es nicht zu ernst... FROZEN LAND tun das auch nicht!
Die Power Metal-Szene braucht einen Einlauf - und dieses Album ist einer!
Das neue Album "Out Of The Dark" von FROZEN LAND ist Power Metal der alten Schule - Punkt.
Es ist ein feuchter Traum für alle, die in den 90er Jahren angefangen haben, Power Metal zu hören. Es gibt keine Füllstücke. Es gibt keine nicht-eingängigen Refrains. Es gibt keine langweiligen Gitarrensolos.
Nach der letzten Veröffentlichung machte die Band eine 4-jährige Pause.
Und warum? Weil sie in dieser Zeit ihre Depressionen überwanden - laut augenzwinkernder, eigener Aussage, half LSD dabei - daher auch der Name des Albums, "Out Of The Dark".
Das Album ist im Grunde ein 7 Songs umfassendes Gesamtkunstwerk im traditionellen Power Metal-Sinne.
Aber bei den letzten 2 Tracks wird spannend! Tuomas hat eine perverse Vorliebe für Eurodance der 90er Jahre, was bereits durch das Cover von E-Types "Angels Crying" auf dem Debütalbum der Band durchschimmerte.
Auf diesem Album dachten FROZEN LAND nun, sie nehmen das Hedt selbst in die Hand und mischen Eurodance mit Metal. Nehmt es nicht zu ernst... FROZEN LAND tun das auch nicht!
Frisch nach ihrem Vertrag mit From The Vaults kündigen die epischen Doom-Metaller ALTAR OF OBLIVION die Veröffentlichung der EP "Burning Memories" an. Die fünf Tracks wurden 2016 aufgenommen, kurz nach der Fertigstellung der dritten Full-Length der Band. Nun, sieben Jahre später, ist die EP endlich bereit, das Licht der Welt zu erblicken. Auf ihr beschwört die Band klassischen, zeitlosen Epic Doom Metal herauf, während sie gleichzeitig unter der düsteren Ägide dieses nordischen Kollektivs Neuland erkundet. "Epic Doom ist kein Subgenre, an dem sich viele Bands auch nur versuchen, geschweige denn darin brillieren, geschweige denn es ausbauen, daher verdient der Fünfer aus Aalborg ein großes Lob dafür, dass er diesem tiefgründigen Außenseitersound neues Leben einhaucht.
Mit der frostigen Melancholie von Candlemass, der mystischen Dramatik von Solitude Aeturnus und der barbarischen Kraft von Solstice mischen AOO neue Ebenen emotionaler Verletzlichkeit durch den Robert Smith-ähnlichen Gesang von Mik Mentor und verlieren sich nie in schleppender Düsternis, sondern bewahren die traditionellen Metal-Grundlagen mit einer starken, klaren Gesangslinie, einem kräftigen Galopp und einer packenden Melodie" Chris Shantler (Metal Hammer UK).
Paperback: 288 pages
Product Dimensions: 12.9 cm x 19.8 cm x 2.3 cm
• A global view of Discovery as a cultural phenomenon, placing the album at the centre of celebrity culture, fan clubs, video, the music business etc., while also examining its profound musical impact.
• An examination of Discovery as a flawed jewel, rather than blatant hagiography, as the album celebrates its 20th anniversary.
• An antidote to the revisionist history about Daft Punk and Discovery, from a journalist who has lived with the idea of Daft Punk for more than 20 years and interviewed the band.
Daft Punk’s Discovery is a record that looked into the future and liked what it saw; an album that predicted the electronic music explosion, YouTube and the end of privacy, while dragging soft rock back into vogue. Discovery was not only one of the best albums of the 2000s, it was one of the most prophetic, the kind of record that makes you wonder: how did they know?
You can draw lines from Discovery to Glass Swords, Kanye West, EDM, Autotune, iTunes, Beyoncé, Guilty Pleasures, social media and more. Discovery's footprints can be found all over the modern world but it also looked back to Daft Punk’s childhood, to Van Halen records, Japanese cartoons and even Johann Sebastian Bach.
Discovery was a record that confounded many fans when it was released in 2001, thanks to its blatant pop hooks and unlikely sonic bricolage. It was a record that was - and still is - widely misunderstood; Discovery’s impact has only become clear with the passing of time, as Daft Punk have been proved right time and time again.
This book is a homage to a fascinating, troubled beast of an album that casts a huge shadow over the 21st Century, as Discovery reaches its 20th anniversary.
“Incredible biography of the most colossal electronic act of our generation, by one of the best music writers of our time. Ben Cardew charts the history of Daft Punk from their humble rock band beginnings, to starting the groundbreaking and genre-defining Roulé records, to achieving stadium status as superhuman robot selectors.” Sinjin Hawke
After the success of Codeine's Frigid Stars LP, the trio of Stephen Immerwahr, John Engle, and Chris Brokaw booked time at Harold Dessau Recording in June 1992 to track an eight-song sophomore album. A few days and a couple of unexplainable high-pitched frequencies later, the record was scrapped, shelved, and forgotten about. Brokaw left the band shortly after, and these songs were re-tracked in various iterations for Codeine's final LP. On its 30th anniversary, Numero has unearthed these recordings, restoring the original White Birch to the band's exacting standards with producer Mike McMackin. A slowcore masterpiece hidden in plain sight.
Robin Lee makes his most organic disco sounds as Andromeda Orchestra and Faze Action Records have tapped him up for more sonic treasure here. His signature sound is apparent from the off with the dancefloor dub vibes of EP opener 'Bad Girl.' It's bold bass, string stabs and robust pianos are all run through with a fine Moog solo. There is then plenty of cello and vocal delight to 'Twilight Lady' and a fiery dance floor cut 'Mozambique' as well as a full vocal mix of 'Bad Girll' to close out the EP.
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The next chapter of the Natural Information Society is here. Since Time Is Gravity, credited to Natural Information Society Community Ensemble with Ari Brown, presents a newly expanded manifestation of acclaimed composer & multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams nearly 15 year, 7 albums &-counting flagship ensemble. Joining the core NIS of Abrams (guimbri & bass), Lisa Alvarado (harmonium) Mikel Patrick Avery (drums) & Jason Stein (bass clarinet) are Hamid Drake (percussion), Josh Berman & Ben Lamar Gay (cornets), Nick Mazzarella & Mai Sugimoto (alto saxophones & flute), Kara Bershad (harp) & Chicago living legend of the tenor saxophone Ari Brown. Recorded live to tape at Electrical Audio & The Graham Foundation, cover painting Vibratory Cartography: Nepantla, by Lisa Alvarado. 2xLP on Eremite USA, 2xLP & CD on Aguirre/Eremite Europe. Out 14-04.
Since first developing Natural Information Society in 2010, Joshua Abrams has been gradually expanding the group’s conceptual underpinnings, its musical references & the sheer number of the group’s members. Its music is, in a sense, an expansive form of minimalism, based in repeated & overlaid rhythmic patterns, ostinatos & modality. Its roots, its scale & its meaning become clearer in time. If time is gravity, it also allows us to carry more. Having begun as fundamentally a rhythm section with Abrams’ guimbri at its core, the version here can stretch to a tentet, including six horns.
Abrams has been expanding his minimalism gradually, but he has long understood a key to minimalism’s potential: the breadth of its roots in the late 1950s & early 1960s, ranging from the dissatisfaction of young European-stream composers with the limitations of serialism to the simultaneous dissatisfaction of jazz musicians with the dense harmonic vocabulary of bop & hard bop. The former began exploring rhythmic complexity & narrow tonal palates in place of harmonic abstraction (Steve Reich’s Drumming, Philip Glass’ Music with Changing Parts; perhaps above all Terry Riley’s In C & his late ‘60s all-night organ & loop concerts); the later reduced dense chord changes to scales (signally with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, but rapidly expanding with John Coltrane’s vast project). In the 1950s the LP record opened the world with documentation of Asian & African musics, key influences on both minimalists & jazz musicians. If John Coltrane’s soprano saxophone suggested the keening shehnai of Bismillah Khan, the instrument was rapidly taken up by two key minimalists, LaMonte Young & Riley, similarly appreciative of its flexible intonation, the same thing that kept it out of big bands.
If the guimbri, the North African hide-covered lute that Abrams plays with NIS, involves a rich tradition of hypnotic healing music associated with the Gnawa people, Abrams’ music also touches on other musics as well — other depths, memories & healings, different drones, rhythms & modes. As the group expands on Since Time Is Gravity, he has made certain jazz traditions in the same stream more explicit as well. If there is a mystical & elastic quality involved in the experience of time, both in direction & duration, you will catch it here. The parts for the choir of winds expand on the roles of Abrams’ guimbri, Mikel Patrick Avery & Hamid Drake’s percussion & Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium: at times, the winds are almost looping in the tentet version, each hitting a repeating note in turn, at once drone & distinct inflection on temporal sequence. The brilliance of the work resides in Abrams’ compositions, the NIS’ intuitive execution & in Ari Brown’s singular embodiment of the great tenor saxophone tradition, including the oracular genius of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, & Yusef Lateef. The three pieces by the expanded NIS featuring Brown —the opening “Moontide Chorus” & “Is” & the ultimate “Gravity”— have an immediate impact, & togther might be considered a kind of concerto for tenor saxophone. Here Brown presses almost indistinguishably from composed melody to improvised speech, getting so close to language that he might have a text. Everything here is a sign. Note the tap of the Rhythm Ace that links “Moontide Chorus” to “Is”, the attentive heart always present, even when signed by a machine. There’s a link here to the methodologies & meanings of dub music & the linear & vertical collage of beats, textures & tongues: treated with reverence, a sample of a beat-box can be as soulful, as hypnotic, as a mbira or a tamboura. If those pieces with Brown are heard as a suspended concerto, the three embrace & enfold the other works, like the sepals of a flower. That placement will also touch on the mysteries of our perception of time.
Particularly in “Is”, but elsewhere as well, a phenomenon of transcendence arises in which time appears to be tripartite, at once moving backwards & forwards & standing still. This is an act of technical brilliance certainly, but also an illumination of music’s ability to represent temporal consciousness through polymetrics. This particular listener has only heard it before in a few places, including the horn shouts & bowed basses of Coltrane’s Africa, in moments of Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint & the Sinner Lady, in certain pieces where tapes were literally running backwards, & earlier still in Dizzy Gillespie’s Cubana Be, Cubana Bop, in which the composer George Russell & conguero Chano Pozo found a music that spoke at once in the voices of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring & the vestigial rites, rhythms & songs of the Yoruba language & Santeria religion of inland Cuba.
In Joshua Abrams’ compositions & the realization of them by the NIS, in the time of one’s close listening & memory thereof, distinctions between the “natural” & the “social”, the “quotidian” & the “transcendent” are erased, suspended or perhaps irrelevant. Consider two of the ensemble pieces, one named for nature, the other social science. In “Murmuration” the repeated wind figures of flute & alto saxophone combine with the interlocking patterns of harp, guimbri & frame drum (tar) to create a perfect moving stillness, not an imitation but a witness to the miracle of the starlings’ astonishing collective art, a surfeit of beauty that might be the ultimate defense tactic.
“Stigmergy” takes its name & concept from the Occupy movement’s Heather Marsh, who proposes a social system based on a cooperative rather than competitive models, one in which ideas are freely contributed & developed as ideas rather than an individual’s property. In its form, Abrams’ “Stigmergy” is the closes thing to traditional jazz, a series of accompanied solos by each of the wind players. However, the composed accompaniment is a radically collectivist notion: a repeated rhythmic figure, call it ostinato or riff, in which the different winds each play only a note or two of the figure, a concept both more collectivist & individualistic in its conception than any typical unison figure. It suggests another of the underlying recognitions that propel the Natural Information Society, the group as social organism, the teleology of hypnotic anarchy, all parts in place, functioning systematically, evolving & expressing itself, its nature & society, as a transformative organism.
George Lewis has described music as “a space for reflection on the human condition”. This suggests that, rather than a “distraction”, at least some music might serve as a distraction from distraction. It’s a focus, a clarity, a awareness, an external invitation to interiority, as if music itself is a model for form & contemplation, an organism contemplating for us or as us. If that is a possibility, & I am sure I have heard such musics, than this music is among them. How many of our rhythms, melodies & harmonies (cultural, historical, biological, psychic) might such music carry, translate & transform in the particulate ecstasy of our own murmuration? (Stuart Broomer, April 2022)
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*The product of a move from South Carolina to Berkeley, CA and the subsequent extended separation from loved ones, Toro Y Moi's third full-length, Anything in Return, puts Chaz Bundick right in the middle of the producer/songwriter dichotomy that his first two albums established.
*There's a pervasive sense of peace with his tendency to dabble in both sides of the modern music-making spectrum, and he sounds comfortable engaging in intuitive pop production and putting forth the impression of unmediated id.
*The producer's hand is prominent- not least in the sampled "yeah"s and "uh"s that give the album a hip-hop-indebted confidence- and many of the songs feature the 4/4 beats and deftly employed effects usually associated with house music. Tracks like "High Living" and "Day One" show a considerably Californian influence, their languid funk redolent of a West Coast temperament, and elsewhere- not least on lead single, "So Many Details"- the record plays with darker atmospheres than we're used to hearing from Toro Y Moi. Sounding quite assured in what some may call this songwriter's return to producer-hood, Anything in Return is Bundick uninhibited by issues of genre, an album that feels like the artist's essence.
*Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Chaz Bundick has been toying with various musical projects since early adolescence. Having spent his formative years playing in punk and indie rock acts, his protean Toro Y Moi project has been his vessel for further musical exploration since 2001. During his time spent studying graphic design at the University of South Carolina, Chaz became increasingly focused on his solo work, incorporating electronics and allowing a wider range of influences- French house, Brian Wilson's pop, 80s R&B, and Stones Throw hip-hop- to show up in his music. By the time he graduated in spring 2009, Chaz had refined his sound to something all his own. Music journals across the board touted his hazy recordings as the sound of the summer, and he released his debut album, Causers of This in early 2010.
*Since then, Bundick has proven himself to be not just a prolific musician, but a diverse one as well, letting each successive release broaden the scope of the Toro Y Moi oeuvre. The funky psych-pop of 2011's Underneath the Pine evinced an artist who could create similar atmospheres even without the aid of source material and drum machines. His Freaking Out EP, a handful of singles and remixes, and a retrospective box-set plot points all along the producer/songwriter spectrum in which he's worked since his debut, and Anything In Return is another exciting offering that shows he's still not ready to settle into any one genre.
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After the acclaimed ΠΟΛΙΣ, Subheim returns with RAEON; a collection of eight new tracks for lonely evenings and long night drives. With RAEON, Subheim continues to expand into the sonic territory he has steadily been exploring since 2015’s Foray, the album that marked the project’s shift towards moodier, highly textured, lofi compositions through the use of sampling and heavy audio manipulation. While this EP feels like a natural continuation of the producer’s most recent work, it is intentionally stripped of any percussive elements, with the focus being entirely placed on space and melody.
Each composition feels like a distant, fading memory that unfolds faster than you expect it to and dissolves into an echoing nothingness before you’re able to hold on to it for more than a few seconds. Much like a long-distance train passing by or perhaps like a song you might hear in your sleep.
Every piece serves as a different chapter of the same open-ended narrative; one where stillness, grief and hope simultaneously coexist in perfect harmony. Intentionally imperfect, naturally gritty, spacious as ever, this new record balances between fragility and conviction, and once more illustrates the deeply human side of its creator.
In contrast to some of the producer’s darker work, RAEON is filled with an undertone of bittersweet hopefulness and a strong desire for new life. With the juxtaposition of nostalgic, synthesized, analog sounds and neoclassical elements, Subheim strikes the perfect balance between past and future, between melancholy and hope. And while the closing track is almost ironically called “Forget”, its ending will leave you longing for more and wondering what else is there.
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Nach einem Jahr voller schwindelerregender Verluste, persönlicher Selbstbeobachtung und bittersüßer Erinnerungen kehren die Foo Fighters mit einem neuen Album ''But Here We Are'' zurück, das am 2. Juni 2023 bei Roswell Records/RCA Records erscheint. Eine brutal ehrliche und emotional rohe Antwort auf alles, was die Foo Fighters im letzten Jahr durchgemacht haben, ''But Here We Are'' ist ein Beweis für die heilenden Kräfte von Musik, Freundschaft und Familie. Mutig, beschädigt und unerschütterlich authentisch beginnt ''But
Here We Are'' mit der neu veröffentlichten Lead-Single "Rescued", dem ersten von 10 Songs, die die emotionale Skala von Wut und Trauer bis hin zu Gelassenheit und Akzeptanz und unzähligen Punkten dazwischen abdecken. Produziert von Greg Kurstin und Foo Fighters, ist ''But Here We Are'' das 11. Foo Fighters-Album und das erste Kapitel im neuen Leben der Band. Klanglich kanalisiert sie die Naivität des Foo Fighters-Debüts von 1995, geprägt von jahrzehntelanger Reife und Tiefe, ''But Here We Are'' ist der Sound von Brüdern, die Zuflucht in der Musik finden, die sie vor 28 Jahren überhaupt erst zusammengebracht hat, ein Prozess, der ebenso therapeutisch war wie es um die Fortsetzung des Lebens ging.
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‘Y Dydd Olaf’, which is sung entirely in Welsh,
apart from one song penned in Cornish, draws
inspiration from Owain Owain’s 1976 novel of the
same name. The book is set in a dystopian future
where robots enslave the human race through the
use of medication, while Gwenno’s album covers
such themes as patriarchal society, governmentfunded media propaganda, cultural control,
technology, isolation and the importance of
minority languages.
‘Y Dydd Olaf’ was initially released by Peski
Records in October 2014, before being released
worldwide in 2015 by Heavenly Recordings.
Now available on crystal clear vinyl. Includes
digital download of ‘Y Dydd Olad’ plus nine bonus
tracks of remixes and rarities.
“This record demands what’s left of your time.” - Q
(★★★★)
“Blissful, dreamy psychedelia, full of twinkling
electronics and metronomic drums.” - Evening
Standard (★★★★)
“Language as a metaphor for political defiance…
floats beautifully over the krautrock/space-rock
soundscape, a Goldfrappian album you should
hear.” - The Sunday Times (★★★★)
The Endless Coloured Ways is a collection of songs by legendary singer/ songwriter, Nick Drake, performed and recorded by over 30 incredible artists from a range of different backgrounds, genres, age groups and audiences. From Fontaines D.C to Guy Garvey, and Aurora to Feist, each artist has offered their own incredible take on a timeless classic. - Fifth in a collection of five 7" singles - - Limited stock - - Gatefold lancing sleeve -
Boheme is the second studio album of the French duo Deep Forest. The album combines samples of Eastern European gypsy songs with electronic music. It became the duo's most successful album, selling over 4 million copies, achieving Platinum, Gold, and Silver certifications in multiple countries and winning the Grammy Award for Best World Music Album in 1996.
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