Search:the experience

"Amythyst Kiah is redefining the limits of roots music. Today, the mold-shattering singer/songwriter who Rolling Stone calls “one of Americana’s great up-and-coming secrets,” makes her Rounder Records debut with the release of a radically reimagined version of her song “Black Myself.”
With an unforgettable voice that’s both unfettered and exquisitely controlled, Amythyst’s ability to cross boundaries is born from struggle. Growing up a Black and LGBTQ+ woman in the Bible Belt, she experienced severe social anxiety, grief, alienation - and ultimately, the hard-won triumph of total self-acceptance."

Official OST for film The Reason I Jump. Based on the book by Naoki Higashida, this immersive film explores the experiences of non-speaking autistic people around the world.

‘Sleek, impassioned and thoroughly modern’ - Prog Magazine
French atmospheric rockers Klone have built their name on making music that
is as deeply introspective as it is sonically powerful. Known for their trademark
dark guitar tones and epic brooding soundscapes, the band signed with Kscope
in 2019 before releasing their first album with the label, ‘Le Grand Voyage’, that
same year to critical praise.
Now, for the first time in the band’s career, Klone are releasing a live album.
Recorded between two different shows at Sjiwa in Baarlo, The Netherlands in
October 2016 and at Moloco in Audincourt, France in November 2019 respectively, Alive captures the true essence of Klone and includes stunning performances of the singles ‘Yonder’ and ‘Breach’.
Engineered by the band’s live sound engineer Chris Edrich and Mastered by
Pierrick Noel, the band describe the moment as “a way to pay tribute to our
audience and the people who support us.”
As we await live music to return on a large scale, this is a timely reminder of
what a superb live band Klone are. Featuring recordings which represent the
band’s most popular material whilst giving testimony to the shows recorded
during the period between 2015’s ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and 2020’s ‘Le Grand
Voyage’.
This LP edition of ‘Alive’ features a bonus track “The Last Experience” and is
available as a gatefold double black vinyl on 11th June 2021.

"On June 11, rock legends KISS will launch their new official live bootleg series, KISS – Off The Soundboard, with Tokyo 2001, recorded by the band at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on March 13, 2001. This marks the first in a series of upcoming live releases through UMe and will be available as a 3-LP standard black vinyl set and a 2-CD set.
Tokyo has always held a special place of importance throughout the KISStory of the band and Off The Soundboard: Tokyo 2001 captures KISS giving the packed 55,000 seat venue the quintessential KISS live experience, direct from the soundboard with such classic anthems as “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” “Heaven’s On Fire,” “Rock & Roll All Night” and the #7 1976 Billboard hit “Detroit Rock City,” as well as rarities such as “I Still Love You” from 1982’s Creatures Of The Night. The 21-track concert is a celebration of the band’s musical legacy and features co-founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, with Ace Frehley on guitar and Eric Singer on drums."

A HANDPICKED COLLECTION OF HIS GREATEST MUSICAL WORKS FROM FILM & TELEVISION, FEATURING MUSIC FROM NOMADLAND, THE FATHER, INSIDIOUS, THIS IS ENGLAND & MANY MORE

"The most syncable modern composer" Synchtank

The new collection Cinema features 28 breath-taking pieces that take the listener through Ludovico's incredible musical journey working in film & television, and includes two previously unreleased tracks** (see tracklist below)
Includes music from films and series such as the Golden Globe & BAFTA Award-winning and Oscar favourite Nomadland, another BAFTA Award-winning and Oscar favourite The Father, This Is England, I'm Still Here, Insidious, Dr Foster, Sense8 & many more
"I felt like he Ludovico and the character of Fern were walking in parallel; their shared love of nature connects them, and I knew then his music would fit perfectly with our movie" Chloé Zhao on Nomadland
Award-winning scores such as Fuori Dal Mondo (Oscar nominated, Echo Klassik award) and Sotto falso nome (Avignon Film Festival) are also included
Einaudi has become the biggest streamed classical artist of all time. His beautifully evocative music lends itself so perfectly to use in films, tv & advertising and has the incredible ability to provoke and enhance emotion.
This is why for many years directors have been using it to complement their images and continue to do so.
Famous fans & collaborators include Shane Meadows (This Is England, Dead Man's Shoes), Russell Crowe (The Water Diviner, Gladiator, Les Miserables), Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Ricky Gervais (Derek), Eric Toldedano (The Intouchables), Clint Eastwood (J Edgar), Casey Affleck (I'm Still Here) & Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan).

Premieres from Data Transmission and Bolting Bits. Early support from Hospital, Huey Morgan, Rupture, Fanu, Rob Luis, Anthony Kasper (Fokuz), Red Rack'em, Bandcamp Weekly, etc.

150 copies pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Picture shows the HF021VFELT edition which comes with 'Nuthin' But a Jungle Thang' die-cut felt sleeve insert (in assorted colours), with Heard and Felt embroidered fabric tag. HF021V edition is the same 180g vinyl without the felt sleeve insert.

With music from Jonny Faith's recent Night Lights EP appearing in Grand Theft Auto and best of 2020 lists including Gilles Peterson's, you might think Jonny would continue to mine his take on hip hop and broken beat. Well, all in good time. He's been ready to enter the jungle for 20 years, and he's not waiting any longer.

Now based in Melbourne, Jonny first got involved in music in Edinburgh as a DJ and turntablist in the 90s, getting hooked on jungle, drum & bass, hip hop and the hybrids of these championed by the Mo'Wax label. Formative experiences included hearing DJ Hype spinning in Newcastle, seeing the Roni Size/Reprazent live show with two drummers and hanging out at cult Edinburgh club night Manga, where residents G-Mac and DJ Kid hosted the likes of Marky, Grooverider and J Majik.

Jonny was keen to start making his own sounds, signing up for an electronic music production course. But it wasn't quite what he was after.

'The course turned out to be more house-oriented,' Jonny recalls. 'Sampling wasn't on the curriculum, and the students weren't allowed to touch the Akai S900, the sampler used in lots of the early jungle classics.'

When Jonny did start releasing his own productions a few years later, he was starting to explore the experimental beat scene around the time Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke (another Scottish turntablist) were starting to make their mark.

Jonny continued to widen his sonic palette, adding elements of dub, jazz, funk, electronica and broken beat, and picking up fans like Radio Nova Paris, KCRW, Vice and Clash Magazine along the way. But he's never been more than one degree of separation from his jungle/D&B roots. He continued to buy and play the music, did the odd D&B remix and snuck sonic elements and techniques into his tracks at various tempos. Over the years his releases have shared labels with the likes of Peshay, Om Unit, Drumagick, Reso, Kid Drama and Danny Scrilla.

Now, more than 20 years after those early experiences in Edinburgh, Jonny unveils his first jungle/D&B EP, On Lock. And it sounds like he's been making this music the whole time. In a way, he has.

The single 'Open My Eyes' bursts out the gate, chopping not only the breaks and the soul for a tune that sounds like Amerie's '1 Thing', or some Just Blaze chipmunk soul, reimagined for the 174 BPM crew. Jonny started this one as a hip hop beat for a live routine on his MPC, but it only really came together when he reframed the groove around a D&B rhythm. Next up, Jonny tries a similar trick on his own boom bap tune 'Stay in Your Lane' from the 'Night Lights' EP. His new Step Off Mix totally recontextualises US MC Lady K's slinky soulful rap and hooks with a tough and funky junglist groove. One for fans of the old Roni Size/Bahamadia collab. 'Create' then spaces things out just a touch, with atmospheric but propulsive drumfunk. Vinyl bonus track 'Nuthin' But a Jungle Thang' layers cascading amen breaks, timestretched vocals and a massive double bass-line over the wah guitars and synth whistling of a G-funk era classic.

With early support for Jonny Faith's take on jungle/D&B coming from Hospital Records, Rupture (Rinse FM) and Fanu (Metalheadz), Jonny is ready to be welcomed (back) into the scene.


b A2: Stay in Your Lane (Jonny Faith Step Off Mix) feat. Lady K

More a family than a band, BANDA MAJE formed in a home studio in the historic district of Salerno, in Southern Italy, on the initiative of Peppe Maiellano (composer and keyboards) and Tonico Settanta (producer, rapper and DJ). The collective has an ever-changing number of members, all of whom – a bit like the lively port city they are from – exist at the crossroads between Italian melodies and imported genres like funk, soul and disco.

Released by Four Flies Records, a label specializing in vintage Italian soundtracks and brand new productions with a strong cinematic feel, Banda Maje's debut album "Ufo Bar" transports you to an imagined version of Salerno that combines local tradition and 70s pop and film culture.

Listening to the album's eight funk- and soul- infused tracks also means seeing stories unfold in the streets of this re-imagined city: from the jubilant uprising organised by the women from the Rione Fornelle neighborhood in "Fornellesse", to the cigarette smuggling story in "P' ciel, p' mar, p' terr"; from the distinctly southern Italian pucundria (bittersweet melancholy) in "Sunday Embarcadero", to the saga of provincial nightlife in "Living Disco Club".

While the LP's Side A is sunny and cheerful, its Side B is more nostalgic, almost nocturnal, with bittersweet vibes in "2010" and new wave-influenced synths in "Ago". This variety of moods reflects the emotional depth behind the music of Banda Maje: "We want to leave a trace of what we experience: the narrow little streets brimming with life; our love for Neapolitan music, for Italian soundtracks from the 70s, for B-movies and the saga of cigarette smugglers; our passion for vinyls and cassette mixtapes, not to mention second-hand love affairs and dusty afternoons spent watching third-division football."

“The term ‘Front Porch Singin’’ may actually be a metaphor for
many creative and conceptual musical ideas. But, for us, this title
has become more of an attitude than anything else. What if the
four of us were sitting on a porch together and someone begins to
sing a favorite old Gospel song, like ‘Swing Down Chariot’, or a
country and Western standard like ‘Red River Valley’, and
everyone else just joined in?
“That is what happened at RCA Studio A. But, as usual under
producer Dave Cobb’s leadership, this album turned into so much
more. The Front Porch Singin’ attitude remained prevalent
throughout, as songwriters, musicians, Dave and all four of us
kept coming to the table with terrific creative ideas to enhance our
Front Porch experience.
“This project is quite honestly one of the most heartfelt albums we
have ever recorded. Perhaps it is because we recorded these
songs in the middle of a raging pandemic that changed the face of
America and obviously took a huge toll on those of us in the music
business. It was a bit strange to social-distance from each other in
the studio, but we believe it drew us all closer and, in doing so, we
may have inadvertently recorded the perfect project for this time
period. These songs, whether new or old, reflect a certain
optimism and a deep-seated faith that God will work all of this out
as we move forward. ‘Life is beautiful’, as one song says. We must
embrace it and celebrate it with all of our being.
“Join us on The Front Porch and, if it is God’s will… Let’s keep on
SINGIN’.” - The Oak Ridge Boys
Produced by six-time Grammy award-winning producer Dave
Cobb (John Prine, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill
Simpson, Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit), who also co-wrote several
of the songs on the album.
The Oak Ridge Boys are members of the Country Music Hall of
Fame and The Grand Ole Opry. They are Grammy, ACM, CMA
and Billboard Award winners. They have had 12 gold, three
platinum and one double platinum album, more than a dozen
national Number One singles and over 30 Top Ten hits.

From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese
Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it
‘Jubilee’. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time
- a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor.
Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they
grappled with anguish; ‘Psychopomp’ was written as her mother
underwent cancer treatment, while ‘Soft Sounds From Another
Planet’ took the grief she held from her mother’s death and used it
as a conduit to explore the cosmos.
Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to
fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly
crumbling world.
‘Jubilee’ finds Michelle Zauner embracing ambition and, with it, her
boldest ideas and songs yet. Inspired by records like Bjork’s
‘Homogenic’, Zauner delivers bigness throughout - big ideas, big
textures, colours, sounds and feelings. At a time when virtually
everything feels extreme, ‘Jubilee’ sets its sights on maximal joy,
imagination and exhilaration. It is, in Michelle Zauner’s words, “a
record about fighting to feel. I wanted to re-experience the pure,
unadulterated joy of creation… The songs are about recalling the
optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood. They’re about
making difficult choices, fighting ignominious impulses and
honoring commitments, confronting the constant struggle we have
with ourselves to be better people.”
Throughout ‘Jubilee’, Zauner pours her own life into the universe
of each song to tell real stories and allowing those universes, in
turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution - these things take
real time and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it.
Available on clear with yellow swirl coloured vinyl.

Listening to Græns album ”Musique Pour L’Esprit En Expansion” is an awakening experience. This record pours new poison over rock music, a genre which the bands founder Axel (Graveyard, Big Kiss etc) has a lot of experience from and, in his own words “a love/hate relation to”. That objective and sober perspective on the genre may be the main reason for the loosely assembled set of influences, put together by Axel, Lisen Rylander Löve (Midarcondo, Union Carbide Productions, Amason etc) and Rickard “Bobban” Johansson (Den Stora Vilan, Hills etc.), three experienced and wide eared musicians with a fearless approach to their main instruments and music in general.

With song titles like “Björkarnas Sus” (Whiz of the Birch trees) and “Commodification blues”, ”Musique Pour L’Esprit En Expansion” mixes nature romanticism with raw political comments about consumption. The sound moves from Stooges La Blues-land to Swedish progg with each instrumentalists shining through in grand style! Axel describes the less song-oriented tracks as “directed improvisation” – it’s loose but not eclectic.

Whatever sense you are using to catch this music, Græns message of cosmic unity and creative freedom will carry through to you!

Phonica White is back with a special four track EP from up and coming London-based producer Keisuke titled ‘At Last’.

Hailing from Manchester, Keisuke (aka Christopher Iwatsu) has a long and varied background in music. From an early age he learned and performed orchestral percussion, touring the UK and Europe. Then, while studying in Glasgow he became immersed in the city’s fertile club scene and began to fuse his percussive experience with dancefloor production, slowly honing his craft over the past decade.

For a debut 12”, the record is therefore a refreshingly refined statement of intent. The four tracks range from uplifting rolling rhythms (‘At Last’) to serpentine melodies (‘For Petre’) and bumping introspection (‘Going Nowhere’) to lighthearted complexity (‘Hatsu’). Every piece is carefully considered and executed, primed for the floor and the mind.

Artwork as always is supplied by the talented Pedro Carvalho de Almeida.

Coinciding with the release of the Curtis Vodka EP on Mutual Intentions, Kurtiss moves from the fringes of the dance floor to the centre of the DJ booth with this lively three-track tool for the same label. The mysterious artist pays tribute to House music's origins as he takes his style of Hi-Def House music into peak time.

Shimmering hi-hats, deep basslines and staccato keys explode on "Every Woman loves Acid" where a disembodied vocal and squelching 303 go line for line in a psychedelic call and response. The obvious Larry Heard tribute, hastens the step of the Chicago classic "Can You Feel It" to accommodate an impatient dance floor, while Sadé croons over a skipping bass line for a live remix of "Never Thought."

Kurtiss homes his efforts in on the groove for this outing in a fitting selection for the whitelabel format. Alongside the official EP, this ushers in a new era for Kurtiss' music, sealing his future in wax, and bringing his music to a bigger audience through the Mutual Intentions franchise.

Kurtiss is a sporadic figure on the House music scene with eccentric habits, whose music is a rarified sonic experience for those who seek it out. Finally, this package re-constitutes the artist's presence in a physical format that will indefinitely become a future apogee on his and the label's discography.

A unique new album of poetry and music featuring Marianne Faithfull set to the music of Warren Ellis, and featuring Nick Cave, Brian Eno and Vincent Ségal
With She Walks in Beauty, Marianne Faithfull with composer and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis releases one of the most distinctive and singular albums of her long, extraordinary life and career. It was recorded just before and during the first Covid-19 lockdown – during which the singer herself became infected and almost died of the disease – with musical friends and family including not only composer Warren Ellis but Nick Cave, Brian Eno, cellist Vincent Ségal and producer-engineer Head. She Walks in Beauty fulfils Faithfull’s long-held ambition to record an album of poetry with music.
It’s a record that draws on her passion for the English Romantic poets, a passion she fostered in her A Level studies with one Mrs Simpson at St Joseph's Convent School in Reading. From there she entered the world of As Tears Go By, of Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, Top of the Pops and the left-hand path of pop and stage stardom. Sixties iconography and outrage followed, as did her subsequent battles with addiction before her 1979 return to powerful female and artistic autonomy with Broken English, an album which featured her setting to music Heathcote Williams’ poem of eviscerating rage, Why D’Ya Do It?
Drawing deep on the poetry of Shelley, Keats, Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson and Thomas Hood, Faithfull’s vocal performances set to Ellis’s subtle collages of sound draw out the heart, the quick, the vibrant living matter in all these great poems, making them fresh, renewing them with the complex, lived-in timbres of her voice, and set to a subtle palette of ambient musical settings. It’s both a radical departure and a return to her original inspirations as an artist and performer.
The greatest poetry is best heard, and Faithfull’s accounts of some of the greatest lyric poetry in our language – Keats’ Ode To A Nightingale and Ode To Autumn – are spine-tingling in their deep understanding of the poetry’s powerful currents of meaning and identification. On Nightingale, her voice opens up like an epic landscape, while in Shelley’s miniature masterpiece, To The Moon, she sounds otherworldly, as if calling down from another medium, and the atonal, otherworldly sound textures provided by Eno on Bridge of Sighs and La Belle Dame Sans Merci become a compelling foil for Faithfull’s haunting interpretations of these rich, dark poems.
“They’ve have been with her her whole life,” says Ellis. “She believes in these texts. That world, she inhabits it, embodies it, and that really comes through. There’s just something about the way she can deliver that is incredibly affecting.”
“Eventually I always end up where I was meant to be,” says Faithfull. “I’ve noticed that. It may take a long time, but I get there. I never forget these things. After all these years, I’ve drawn the strands back and they still mean something and they resonate more, actually, because I now have life experience. Life and near-death experience. Many times! Not just once.” She Walks in Beauty is scheduled for release April 30th, with artwork created for the album by British artist and lifelong friend, Colin Self, and with the full texts of the poems, and commentary, included in the liner notes. While Faithfull continues to recover from the after-effects of Covid-19, and the world around us continues to struggle with the impact of the worldwide pandemic, these are poems and performances to steady and lift the spirit.

Mit einer Karriere, die sich über drei Jahrzehnte und mehrere Generationen erstreckt, ist die fesselnde
Musik des Komponisten und Pianisten Ludovico Einaudi zu einer der bekanntesten der Welt geworden.
Um seine unglaublichen filmischen Leistungen zu feiern, veröffentlicht Decca Records, mit Cinema eine
neue handverlesene Sammlung von Einaudis unglaublichen musikalischen Werken aus Film und Fernsehen.
Cinema enthält 28 atemberaubende Tracks aus Film und Fernsehen, darunter Insidious, Sense8, This
is England und vier von Einaudis Tracks aus dem Oscar-gekrönten Film und Soundtrack Nomadland.
Die Regisseurin Chloe Zhao war kürzlich zu Gast im Podcast Experience: The Ludovico Einaudi Story
und sprach mit Moderator Joe Dempsie darüber, wie sie Einaudis Musik zum ersten Mal entdeckte:
”Ich ging online auf die Suche nach klassischer Musik, die von der Natur inspiriert ist... es führte mich
zu einem YouTube-Video von seiner Elegy for the Arctic. Dann fing ich an, Seven Days Walking zu hören
und war erstaunt, wie ich das Gefühl hatte, Ludovico würde in den Alpen wandern. Ich hatte das Gefühl,
als würden er und die Figur von Fern parallel wandern; ihre gemeinsame Liebe zur Natur verbindet sie, und
da wusste ich, dass seine Musik perfekt zu unserem Film passen würde.”

Following in the footsteps of the pathbreaking Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie music, Morr Music and Alien Transistor have again joined forces to release The Fruit Of Errata, a compilation introducing the world to the intimate DIY pop of yumbo. Led by songwriter, pianist, and occasional vocalist Koji Shibuya, the Japanese band has released four albums since forming in 1998. This compilation draws fifteen songs (eighteen on vinyl) from those albums, and some ancillary releases, to uncover a biographical narrative of yumbo, showing how Shibuya’s songwriting, and the group’s limber, sensitive playing, has developed over the decades. It also places them squarely within a tradition of home-spun but ambitious Japanese pop that takes in Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Tenniscoats, Nagisa Ni Te, Yuzo Iwata, Kazumi Nikaido and more.

yumbo is very much the vision of Shibuya, an amiable iconoclast whose songs seem informed by some of his early listening – there’s the playful seriousness of Maher Shalal Hash Baz’s Tori Kudo here, an avowed long-time hero for Shibuya, but also the flexibility of freely improvised music. You can also hear Shibuya’s fondness for Mayo Thompson and The Red Crayola in both the idiosyncracies of the writing and the egalitarian looseness of the playing. Shibuya also carries those energies into the group’s membership – there are fantastic stories of him having a conversation at a record shop, or overhearing someone speaking, and asking the person in question to join yumbo as one of their various singers. He seems open to chance as a driving force, as a way to make space for unexpected possibilities to blossom.

The great achievement of yumbo and Shibuya, though, is translating all of this into beautiful, unpredictable pop songs. There’s a gorgeous soul-inflected lilt to “A House” that makes it delightfully affecting; the swaying brass on “Storm” propels its melody to a moody, dreamlike conclusion; the nakedness of “The Sweetest Mass” is slightly reminiscent of Carla Bley’s more pop-focused writing, crossed with the classicism of the songs that spilled from the Brill Building in the ‘60s. Throughout, Shibuya renders pop a deeply personal experience; you can hear musings here on friendship, family, intimacy, the complexity of relationships, mortality, and imbalances of power. These musings are also shadowed by real-life events: the effects and impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 are captured in songs like “Umbrella People” from Onibi.

Throughout the performances on The Fruit Of Errata, Shibuya and the group play with tenderness; they also often draw on other players to flesh out the music even further, two such guests being the aforementioned Tori Kudo (on “Umbrella People”) and Olympia, Washington’s LAKE (on “The Devil Song”). Community-minded and generous in approach, the writing of Shibuya and the music of yumbo is never less than lovely, and The Fruit Of Errata is a welcome introduction to their world. Open and gentle, confident and generous, these pop songs are filled with charm and spirit.

With Bending the Golden Hour, the third album from Memphis, Tennessee’s Aquarian Blood, husband and wife team J.B. Horrell (Ex-Cult) and Laurel Horrell (formerly of the Nots) continue the gorgeously stripped-down and atmospheric direction set on their critically acclaimed previous effort A Love That Leads to War.

While Aquarian Blood has roots as a chaotic punk rock six-piece, the band shifted gears after two raucous cassette-only releases on ZAP Cassettes, a pair of seven-inches, and 2017’s Last Nite in Paradise, released on Goner Records. After drummer Bill Curry broke his arm, the Horrells redefined

Aquarian Blood, reemerging in early 2018 as the more intimate, mostly acoustic balladeers behind the staccato, fever dream sound of A Love That Leads to War. Like its immediate predecessor, Bending the Golden Hour was recorded at the Horrell's Midtown Memphis home. The band turned over 43 tracks to Goner co-owner Zac Ives, who handpicked 17 songs for the album.

The final result is shimmering and hopeful; as beautiful and sparse as a Rockwell Kent snowscape. Bending the Golden Hour begins ominously with “Channeling,” which sounds like an outtake from Paul Giovanni’s soundtrack to 1973’s pagan nightmare The Wicker Man. Then the band upshifts for “Time in the Rain,” a sweet duet set to a rigid snare beat. From there, Aquarian Blood zigs to country and zags to psychedelic folk, brooding on one song and soothing listeners with the next. And while the music, feel, and experience is different, Aquarian Blood naturally brings to mind some legendary musical partnerships: Richard and Linda Thompson, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris; not to mention similarly-bent-but-beautiful luminaries like Roy Harper, Pentangle circa 1967 -1973, and Jackson C. Frank.

There’s a big middle ground, like folk-psych, or weirder country music,” he says, reeling off names like Skip Spence and Syd Barrett as stepping stones between the genres of punk and folk.

Inspirations for Bending the Golden Hour come from myriad sources that document the milestones and minutiae in a family’s full life. Some lyrics name a time or a place; others reflect the fleeting moments that elapse unnoticed. “Come Home,” which is sung by J.B. and his daughter Ava, was written the day Ava got her driver’s license. “Ava took the car out by herself afterwards, and I wrote the song immediately—she sang her part when she got home that evening,” J.B. recalls. Whether or not the listener knows the backstory, the song rings sentimental, with subtle, supportive instrumentation that underscores guitar and vocals. The bewitching “Rope and Hair,” on the other hand, is less sketched out, with lyrics that are simply a recitation of the talismen found on a silver sabertooth charm that J.B. purchased for Laurel at a Latin strip mall in southeast Memphis. That’s all to be said. “Sometimes when you know too much about what the song is about, it takes away the magic,” says J.B. “Alabama Daughter,” says Laurel, is about a place where a childhood friend lived called Castleberry Holler. “It was really rural, just a lot of shacks without electricity—the kind of place you didn’t go to unless you were invited,” she says. “Probable Gods” is a hazy reflection on the struggle of such a strange year. “It’s been very cathartic to put all of this into words and not have it live

Liz Phair announces ‘Soberish’, her highly-anticipated new album and first collection of original
material in eleven years. Produced by Phair’s longtime collaborator Brad Wood - known for helming
Phair’s seminal albums ‘Exile In Guyville’, ‘Whip-Smart’ and ‘whitechocolatespaceegg’ - ‘Soberish’ is
released via Chrysalis Records.
Almost thirty years since her peerless debut album ‘Exile In Guyville’ was released (voted #56 in
Rolling Stone’s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest albums Of All Time), Phair returns with a new record that
will both intrigue and satisfy her long-standing fans and introduce her to a smart young audience
whose contemporary heroes have been reading from Phair’s playbook since they first picked up a
guitar.
Liz Phair has achieved the kind of status in her industry rarely bestowed on recording artists. Her
albums in the 1990s were central to the indie rock canon of the day. Her image was featured in
countless magazines, early Apple commercials and Gap ads. Her eponymous album for Capitol
Records in 2003 took Phair in a pop direction that ruffled some critics’ feathers but nonetheless went
gold, galvanizing a host of new fans, particularly among young women who fell in love with hits like
‘Why Can’t I’ and ‘Extraordinary’, tracks that were featured in several major films and TV shows,
including 13 Going On 30, Raising Helen and How To Deal. Liz has picked up two Grammy
nominations and a spot in Pitchfork’s Greatest Albums Of The 90s, with over five million record sales
to date (including three US gold albums). She sang ‘God Bless America’ at the opening game of the
Chicago White Sox World Series victory in her hometown in 2005.
‘Soberish’ is a portrait of Phair in the present tense, taking all of the facets of her melodic output over
the years and synthesizing them into a beautiful, perfect whole. She’s at the top of her game in the
recording studio, drawing upon years of experience in television composition to weave through the
songs daring and unexpected sound design. With Brad Wood’s exquisite engineering and masterful
production, the result is a wholly fresh yet satisfyingly familiar sound that challenges on the first listen
and seduces with each subsequent play through. The earworms are strong with this one.
Phair says, “I found my inspiration for ‘Soberish’ by delving into an early era of my music development,
my art school years spent listening to Art Rock and New Wave music non-stop on my Walkman. The
English Beat, The Specials, Madness, R.E.M.s Automatic for the People, Yazoo, The Psychedelic
Furs, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, Laurie Anderson, and the Cars. The city came alive for me
as a young person, the bands in my headphones lending me the courage to explore.”
None of the arrangements on Soberish are traditional songwriting standards but the hooks are so
catchy, the imagery so compelling, that the listener is drawn effortlessly along with the music. There
are the off-kilter, unexpected guitar chords listeners will recognize as her signature style, a mainstay
from her earliest work; the instantly knowable choruses of her most pop-friendly songs of the early
2000s; the frank lyricism and storytelling that has opened doors for countless women picking up
guitars and attempting to speak about their experiences.
Phair shares insight into the meaning of her title: “‘Soberish’ can be about partying. It can be about
self-delusion. It can be a about chasing that first flush of love or, in fact, any state of mind that allows
you to escape reality for a while and exist on a happier plane. It’s not self-destructive or out of control;
it’s as simple as the cycle of dreaming and waking up. That’s why I chose to symbolize ‘Soberish’ with
a crossroads, with a street sign. It’s best described as a simple pivot of perspective. When you meet
your ‘ish’ self again after a period of sobriety, there’s a deep recognition and emotional relief that
floods you, reminding you that there is more to life, more to reality and to your own soul than you are
consciously aware of. But if you reach for too much of a good thing, or starve yourself with too little,
you’ll lose that critical balance.”

Ulna’s OEA is a “bar-rock getting sober record.“ The first full length solo record of Ulna, aka Adam Schubert of Cafe Racer, OEA is an ode to reinvention. Along with the release comes a rebranding--formerly Ruins, Schubert’s new pseudonym ULNA is a reference to a pivotal moment in his childhood. At the age of 14, Schubert shattered the bone on the inside of his forearm in a skating accident, and took up the guitar. “That’s what made me serious about playing music,” says Schubert.

This name change also accompanied Schubert’s shift towards sobriety--OEA was created right as Schubert reconfigured his life without drugs or alcohol. With the exception of the final track, “Dead Friends,” the whole album was written while in a recovery program. “You have to reinvent your whole personality, you have to be a different person,” says Schubert.”Who am I if I’m not the crazy drunk dude who’s doing drugs in the bathroom?”

OEA is an intensely personal record, in subject matter but also quite literally--Schubert plays every instrument, though the record feels far from a home-demo, recorded and mastered by Robby Hanes at Strange Magic Recording in Chicago’s Logan Square. Schubert’s songs are ambling and full of picked guitar and retro harmonies, a stylistic sensibility he attributes to a love for the Beatles and “acoustic rock with a weird punk edge,” a-la Big Thief and Kurt Vile. Though instrumentally sunny, his vocals hint at something else - there’s an underlying ache. OEA is an easy listen, but with a depth of emotion that demands listeners’ attention.

OEA explores the range of emotions experienced in the transition to sobriety, from fear to backslide to self doubt. At first listen, “Turn The Record On” feels almost like a love song, with a chorus of “turn the record on/ you’re my favorite song,” but in actuality the song is the story of an empty encounter rather than romance. “It’s kind of about this sad hookup with someone else who is equal in your addiction, you’re just using each other because you don’t want to be alone in your using,” says Schubert. “We both have this problem and we can have fun in it together because we both understand. They know the score.”

While “Turn The Record On” speaks to a moment of shared addiction, other tracks examine what comes after sobriety. “And I took the pill like I should / and I stayed clean just like I said I would,” begins “Last Song,” which Schubert cites as one of the hardest tracks to write. “I got sober and I take medication and - I’m doing all this stuff now but nothing’s changed,” says Schubert. “ I think that’s pretty common in people who get sober. I did all this stuff and now what?”

The penultimate track on the album, “Last Song” fades into a noisy interlude that gives listeners the feeling of motion, like entering a tunnel and emerging into a quieter, lo-fi recording, the closing track “Dead Friends.” The only non-studio track, “Dead Friends” was recorded in Schubert’s home, and carries with it a warm intimacy. “I wanted it to sound like you’re outside somewhere, you're walking, and you step inside somewhere that feels safe,” says Schubert.

This closing track embodies the mood of OEA- warm but with a melancholy edge, like coming in from the cold but still feeling a lingering chill. It’s an album that feels comfortable and cohesive--though individual tracks stand alone, OEA works best when listened through start to finish. It’s a record to put on while cooking dinner and let sink in.

Tibor Szemző is not only a skillful and experienced Hungarian musician but also a media artist with a vast imagination. His last LP, ARBO X – Csoma Grooves, refers to his full-length film A Guest of Life released in 2006, for which he not only directed but also composed all the music. The film is inspired by the life of Alexander Csoma de Körös, a remarkable polyglot from the 19th century who set out from his native Transylvania to central Asia on foot to look for the roots of the Hungarian language. He reached Tibet, dedicated the rest of his life to study of Tibetan manuscripts and finally became the founder of tibetology. After 14 years Tibor Szemző decided to explore the theme further and composed the cinematic performance, Silverbird and the Cyclist, where he as narrator presented the story of Csoma from a different perspective.

ARBO X is the music from this performance and it is based on the soundtrack of the original movie but the material has been restructured and enhanced by new layers. There are fourteen relatively short tracks on the album and each of them has a very specific character, sometimes mysterious as the titles of the tracks themselves. Their arrangement is ingeniously composed. Szemző’s typical bass flute and voice with percussion accompaniment on the first track Axis is a very impressive introduction to the whole album. The following tracks build up a series of colorful sound parables, which are in no way descriptive. Every element, whether it’s a double bass, viola, soprano voice, vocal trio or electronics, fits perfectly within the overall sound fabric with effective timing. Listening to ARBO X one unwittingly concentrates on interweaving details without loosing the sense of the whole. It’s certainly a great benefit, as in previous recordings, that most of the musicians participating in the recording of ARBO X are very familiar with Szemző’s music and his collaboration with some of them goes back to Group 180, a new music ensemble he founded in 1978 and soon earned international acclaim. This most recent album belongs among a long line of recordings that Tibor Szemző has released during his musical career and displays great compositional complexity and a keen sense of a perfectly balanced sound spectrum.

Alexandr Krestovský

Returning with their first new music in 8 years, Stubborn Heart have announced their anticipated new album 'Made Of Static'. Luca Santucci and Ben Fitzgerald, who have spent the last few years developing the ten brooding electro-soul tracks that make up the successor to their lauded 2012 self-titled debut, have once again struck a fine balance between ominous synth-soundscapes and introspective songwriting. Balance is the key theme here. With Fitzgerald leading the production and manning the machines, the sound is rawer than on their previous album. Left-field pop with dark, icy edges, it finds a home somewhere in between r&b and cold wave. Santucci brings the heart and with it his aching, obsessive lyrics and a desire for something grittier in its presentation. The duo's talents complement each other perfectly throughout. Santucci has amassed an impressive list of writing and vocal credits in his time, with the likes of XL and Warp signee Leila Arab, Plaid, Riton and Soulwax amongst them. Fitzgerald has also been hard at work at his home studio programming various styles of music for artists and producers from around the world. As Stubborn Heart, they come armed with some serious experience and a wealth of influences. There's an honest simplicity in the way they create, with lyrics written in an immediate, direct fashion with the aim to catch a feeling rather than emulate one. On their first album Stubborn Heart garnered praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NME and the UK broadsheets. It was named album of 2012 at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Awards and Rough Trade placed it in their top 20 best albums the same year. However, it's now that we're presented with an album they feel better represents their dynamic - an album born from the duos combined creative static - as such, 'Made Of Static' is the first fruit of their reunion, aiming to step on from where they left off, and with the promise of much more to follow.