Archive for the ‘CLASSIC ALBUMS’ Category

STEPHEN J MALKMUS – ” Traditional Techniques ” Best Albums Of 2020

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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When Stephen Malkmus first arrived on the scene in the early Nineties, as frontman and prime creative force in Pavement, the area of music with which he was associated couldn’t really have been further from the techno-rave sounds of the day. Electronic dance music, then as now, was about posthuman precision, inorganic textures, and hyper-digital clarity. Whereas the lo-fi movement in underground rock championed a messthetic of sloppiness, rough edges, and raw warmth – a hundred exquisitely subtle shades of distortion and abrasion. “Imperfect sound forever” was the rallying cry for a micro-generation of slacker-minded dreamers and misfits.

For his third record in as many years, the sometimes Pavement frontman chills out, unplugs and delivers a record of stoner folk-inspired songs that are among his most direct, affecting to date. For a guy who’s been known for 30 years primarily as a musician who is, at times, too clever for his own good, Malkmus shows real heart here.

While associated with staunch indie rock snobbery, Stephen Malkmus has long dabbled in jam band territory, all the way back to Pavement’s final album, Terror Twilight. (Before? Maybe.) So when he announced Traditional Techniques, his third album in three years, as “stoner folk” it wasn’t really as much of a stretch as Matador may have wanted you to believe. At least not in that way. It is, however, his quietest, most introspective and straight-from-the-heart record he’s ever made.

To call Stephen Malkmus’ Traditional Techniques an “acoustic record” wouldn’t be inaccurate, but it doesn’t quite capture the sonic expanse of this midcareer gem. “ACC Kirtan,” “Xian Man,” and “Brainwashed” unfurl into psychedelic sprawl, while elsewhere Malkmus takes his 12-string toward country-rock, or classic folk, or surrounds it with woodwinds, drums, and string instruments from Africa and the Middle East. Traditional Techniques revels in the gray space between frank and enigmatic, whether exploring love and friendship, or in yarns about propane smugglers or the extremely online. “May the word be spread via cracked emoji,” Malkmus sings on “Shadowbanned” — it’s unclear what exactly that may mean, but like the best, inscrutable Malkmus lines, it rings true.

Stephen presents “Juliefuckingette,” an A-side-worthy B-side off of Traditional Techniques. Additionally, he announces a rescheduled North American tour (See below for the full dates).
As with Traditional Techniques, “Juliefuckingette” is new phase folk music for new phase folks. Malkmus’ wry lyricism unwinds over his 12-string acoustic guitar: “Abolish the fanfiction set // I don’t wanna clean up the logorrhea mess // It’s the last brand standing // You know you wanna kill it but you can’t kill that quite yet.”

SON LUX – ” Prophecy “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Video of the day: Son Lux - Change Is Everything

Even for a band dedicated to surprise, Son Lux‘s new single “Prophecy“ represents a notable departure from their usual fare. Yet the song’s bright energy and lilting feel bloom like an outgrowth of their ever-expanding practice, providing the clearest evidence to date of the band’s indebtedness to the J Dilla–D’Angelo nexus. The track is from ‘Tomorrows II,’ out December 4th via City Slang, the second album in a far-reaching three-volume body of work culminating in physical editions of all three volumes to be released together in 2021.

Featured on the track is vocalist Nina Moffitt, whose upbringing in church and gospel music instilled a fascination with the timbral range of layered voices. Inspired by electronic manipulation, she employs rounded whistle tones, fraying choral hums, and more to conjure a world of sound largely unexplored by the band until now.

On ‘Tomorrows’, Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang train their sights on volatile principles: imbalance, disruption, collision, redefinition. But for all of its instability, ‘Tomorrows’ exploration of breaking points and sustained frictional places is ultimately in service of something rewarding and necessary: the act of questioning, challenging, tearing down and actively rebuilding one’s own identity. 

Arriving at a time of considerable uncertainty in the world, ‘Tomorrows’is ambitious in scope and intent. Born of an active, intentional approach to shaping sound, the music reminds us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension. 

From the start, Son Lux has operated as something akin to a sonic test kitchen. The band strives to question deeply held assumptions about how music is made and re-construct it from a molecular level. What began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott expanded in 2014, thanks to a kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia too strong to ignore. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring five recordings. A carefully cultivated musical language rooted in curiosity and balancing opposites largely eschews genre and structural conventions. And yet, the band remains audibly indebted to iconoclastic artists in soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation who themselves carved new paths forward. Distilling these varied influences, Son Lux searches for equilibrium of raw emotional intimacy and meticulous electronic constructions.

Taken from Son Lux – “Tomorrows II” – Available to stream and download December 4th via City Slang Records

The NOTWIST – ” Where You Find Me “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Notwist is returning with “Vertigo Days”, their first album in six years out January 29th on Morr Music. Markus Archer & co. has long been open-minded and exploratory, but their return marks a distinct combination of melancholy pop, clangorous electronics, hypnotic Krautrock and drift work ballads, highlighted by international musical guests like Argentinian songwriter Juana Molina, American jazz artist Angel Bat Dawid, American multi-instrumentalist Ben LaMar Gay, and Saya of Japanese pop duo Tenniscoats.

Archer offers additional insight into the new album: “we wanted to question the concept of a band by adding other voices and ideas, other languages, and also question or blur the idea of national identity.”

The Notwist has shared its experimental new single, “Where You Find Me,” a hypnotic keyboard intro sets the tone as a groovy and polished bassline pushes the song forward. Blanketed in restrained synth accompaniment, Archer croons with confident and persuasive inflection. Here, The Notwist dazzles as an indie rock architect bridging sonic qualities from indie scenes past and present mirroring Yo La Tengo to Stereolab.

Taken from “Vertigo Days” out on Morr Music January. 29th, 2021

CATHERINE DAVIES & BERNARD BUTLER – ” In Memory of My Feelings “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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With nearly five decades and a wealth of recording experience between them, talk of a collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies and Bernard Butler is a mouth watering prospect to say the least.  Indeed, their coming together didn’t just happen overnight. It’s actually been in the offing for a good 10 years now, but rather than just rush into things, they’ve taken their time and gradually honed, then built a collection of songs worthy of any great debut album. Which essentially this is, as pairings go.   

Ironically, despite being conceived in 2010 then completed in 2014, “In Memory of My Feelings” only took 15 days to make. The biggest battle facing its creators was finding someone to release it, where music journalist cum label owner Pete Paphides duly obliged in making it the first “new” release on his Needle Mythology imprint, which up until now has solely put out reissues.

In Memory of My Feelings is a very personal record, particularly for Davies, who wrote all of the lyrics. Nevertheless, the meeting of minds between two very talented individuals means the arrangements veer from sparse, such as on opener and lead single “The Breakdown,” or the exquisitely tender “I Know” and despondent penultimate number “The Patron Saint of the Lost Cause,” to the more upbeat and up-tempo, rockier pieces like “Sabotage (Looks So Easy)” and “Judas,” where Butler’s signature guitar sound rises to the fore.   

The sparse but stately opener, ‘The Breakdown’, explores the impact and aftershocks of the aggressive pursuit of wealth, reflecting on the life of a banker post-crash: “Do you make the money, or is the money making you?” Other destructive impulses, including the pressure to adhere to performative behaviours, are explored on the wonderfully energised ‘Sabotage (Looks So Easy)’. ‘The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause’ fondly evokes some of the similarly alchemical results witnessed when Davies worked with the Manics on ‘Dylan And Caitlin’ for 2018’s ‘Resistance Is Futile’.

“Sabotage (Looks So Easy)” is the second single from the album ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ which is released on September 18th, the album is the result of a one-off collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies (The Anchoress) and Bernard Butler. In contrast to the piano led end-of-days address The Breakdown, Sabotage is album’s emphatic guitar driven moment of celebratory catharsis. Of the song Catherine says, “Some people lift others up. They’re altruistic and constructive. Then there are the energy vampires who have perfected the art of destruction. It’s about toxic masculinity and I’m channelling my inner Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde here to raise a middle finger to every man who played the victim when they were called out.”

Bernard Butler “Sabotage” was written when we reconvened a few years after anxiously writing the first set of songs, by which time I think we had both been trampled on a little … as is our style, without talking about it to each other, we consequently wanted to smash the room up a little and say ‘that’s enough now thanks.’’

Elsewhere, “The Waiting Game” could be a Manic Street Preachers outtake from the Resistance Is Futile sessions (if you’ve heard Davies’ contributions to that record you’ll understand where I’m coming from), while closer “F.O.H.” could be a distant relative of “P.S. Fuck You” off Davies’ alter ego The Anchoress’ 2016 long player Confessions of a Romance Novelist.

I’d also recommend the bonus seven-inch, which comes with the vinyl edition, if only for the heartfelt cover of Madonna’s “Live to Tell” that rivals the original for delivery and execution.

‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ is released on Needle Mythology; the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides and is the very first release of brand new music on the label. Limited edition formats include 2LP +7” w/ signed lyric sheet and gatefold replica CD with signed postcard available for a limited period exclusively via the Official store.

ANDY SHAUF – ” You Slipped Away “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Andy Shauf Shares New Song "You Slipped Away"

Andy Shauf has shared a new song “You Slipped Away,” It was a demo recorded during the sessions for his 2020 album The Neon Skyline. “You Slipped Away” is a sombre song filled with Shauf’s subtle-but-stunning layered harmonies.

“You Slipped Away’ was a song that I wrote shortly after moving to Toronto, right after I’d just moved into an apartment and had acquired an 80s Yamaha CP60 stage piano,” Shauf says. “This song was an attempt to write something that sounded like an old standard, using big general metaphors and universal themes.”

Few artists are storytellers as deft and disarmingly observational as Andy Shauf. The Toronto-based, Saskatchewan-raised musician’s songs unfold like short fiction: they’re densely layered with colourful characters and a rich emotional depth. The The Neon Skyline 11 interconnected tracks follow a simple plot: the narrator goes to his neighbourhood dive, finds out his ex is back in town, and she eventually shows up. While its overarching narrative is riveting, the real thrill of the album comes from how Shauf finds the humanity and humour in a typical night out and the ashes of a past relationship. For The Neon Skyline, Shauf chose to start each composition on guitar instead of his usual piano. Happy accidents like Shauf testing out a new spring reverb pedal and experimenting with tape machines forced him to simplify how he’d arrange the tracks. Over the course of a year-and-a-half, Shauf had ended up with almost 50 songs all about the same night at the bar. 

“You Slipped Away” by Andy Shauf, available now Through Anti Records

FLYTE – ” Never Get To Heaven “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A new song for December. Just a guitar and our three voices this time. Will wrote this as a wee 14 year old boy but somehow it only made sense to release it now, at the end of this truly bizarre year.

Flyte have returned with yet another new song with “Never Get To Heaven” and no surprise, it’s another stunning listen. The track is the latest song shared from their next body of work, which we should be getting sometime early in the new year that we all want to desperately get to as soon as possible. “Never Get To Heaven” sounds like a classic song that has been with you all of your life and for frontman Will Taylor, in some ways, it has. He actually penned this track when he was just 14-years-old, replicating a chant from his stint in the scouts as an 8 year old. He reworked it again when he was 14 and then discovering its potential as an adult in today’s world, realizing its perfect use as an eulogy to the end of his adult relationship.

It’s Flyte at their most stripped down and vulnerable, with their three voices sharing the stage as a sad acoustic guitar guides them home. But it’s all they need to send the message home and they nail it, as always. Find the full quote from Taylor about the song below, along with a stream of the track as well as a great live performance that the band did in the forest at Blenheim Palace. “Funnily enough, I wrote this song aged only 14. I remember thinking it would be a very clever and grown up exercise to re-appropriate a chant from my stint in the scouts as an 8 year old. My 14 year old self, then advanced in years and wisdom, putting a post modern spin on a childish relic. Using it as a vehicle for all my pain and suffering.

Strangely, so very many years later, it had achieved it’s depth. It had become the perfect eulogy to the end of my adult relationship. An adolescent attempt at world weariness had become meaningful. For an album based entirely around a break up, it’s a god’s-eye view, nursery rhyme that closes the album with the perfect quiet defiance The post Flyte share new song “Never Get To Heaven” first appeared on We All Want Someone To Shout For music blog.

ALEX MAAS (The Black Angels) – ” Luca “

Posted: December 5, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The music of Alex Maas has always mesmerised. Now, on his soul-baring solo debut “Luca”, the Texan and The Black Angel’s singer journey is taking an equally hypnotic detour along the wild trails of his indigenous homestead. Driven by the force of nature, each phase of life is celebrated through songs of love, hope, human connection whilst navigating perils of modern society and tentatively facing the darkness. As the shamanic vocalist and bass player of The Black Angels, Alex Maas knows neo-psych-rock well; yet its menace is barely noticeable across his masterfully crafted soul-baring debut solo album. Named for Maas’ firstborn, whose name means “bringer of light,” Luca was a long time coming, with some of its songs dating back almost a decade, put together piece-by-piece over the course of a couple years. The record began its transformation from loner folk leanings to a worldlier embrace of gentle psychedelia.

It’s a record fuelled by memories of an upbringing in the strange, unique paradise of his father’s plant nursery in Seabrook, Texas by the waterfront of the Gulf of Mexico, and the Native American sounds that would drift through the garden’s hidden speakers, ricocheting off multi-coloured pottery mazes of curiosities from across the world.

Casting shades of deeply personal wide-eyed innocence and the darker realms of paranoia, Luca has its sights set on the near and distant future. Subtle psychedelic flourishes and instrumentation come from a cast of expert players in Austin but this is a deeply personal endeavour.

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 It’s been a while since the Black Angels released an album and I’m happy to hear Alex’ Voice again, Driven by the force of nature, The Black Angels singer’s solo journey takes an hypnotic detour along the wild trails of his indigenous homestead with songs of love, hope, human connection whilst navigating perils of modern society and tentatively facing the darkness.

released December 4th, 2020

BLACK HONEY – ” Written & Directed “

Posted: December 4, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Following the 2018 release of their self-title debut album, Black Honey return with this special zoetrope picture disc edition of their sophomore album ‘Written & Directed’.

The Brighton four-piece have been one of the rising stars of the UK indie-scene and this album feels like a return to their Tarrentino-inspired roots. The Brighton four-piece have travelled the world following the release of their Top 40 debut; graced the cover of the NME, become the faces and soundtrack of Roberto Cavalli’s Milan Fashion Week show; smashed Glastonbury and supported Queens of the Stone Age, all without compromising a shred of the wild, wicked vision they first set out with. ‘Written & Directed’ is Black Honey’s second album. It follows their outstanding self-titled debut released back in 2018 when the world that surrounded the Brighton fourpiece looked and felt like a very different place. Black Honey however are still the bad-ass, truly original band they have always been, they’ve just graduated from the intriguingly anomalous newcomers to becoming one of UK indie’s most singular outfits.  It’s now time for the next instalment of their story – ‘Written & Directed” – which see’s Black Honey deliver one, very singular, message – a 10 track mission statement that aims to unashamedly plant a flag in the ground for strong, world-conquering women. For fierce frontwoman and album protagonist Izzy B. Phillips – it’s the most important message she could send to inspire her cult-like fanbase and fill the female-shaped gap that she felt so acutely when she was growing up and discovering rock music for the first time.

Written throughout 2019 and recorded in fits and spurts between touring, ‘Written & Directed’ is drenched with a hedonistic, anything-goes attitude. It’s also the most full-throttle collection of music that Black Honey have ever-written – egged-on by their run of shows supporting long-term friends and collaborators Royal Blood. Exploring everything from womanhood, to identity and power, it’s an album that revels in the rich history of pop culture, throws a wink to its rock-and-roll heroes, but ultimately (and in true Black Honey fashion) it stands on its own two feet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E6FHFP0-dg With a typically hyper-visual world referencing grindhouse cinema, kitschy pulp films and a flip-reverse of female cinematic representation all primed to unfurl and explode around them, ‘Written & Directed’ is the sound of Black Honey strapping in and saddling up, of harnessing their quirks, and, as the Phillips has always hoped, riding them joyously into the sunset.

With animated zoetrope artwork from Drew Tetz, this record comes signed and hand-numbered on a first-come-first-served basis.

  • Exclusive Zoetrope Picture Disc Edition
  • Limited to 1000 copies
  • Signed by the band and hand-numbered

Blood Records is a pre-ordering platform, the expected release date of this record is 29/01/2021

CLAUD – ” Super Monster “

Posted: December 3, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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When Claud Mintz’s mother finally heard the 13 songs on her kid’s magnetic first album, Super Monster, she asked a concerned question: Just how many people had her 21-year-old dated? From beginning to end, these sparkling pop tunes capture the assorted stages of a relationship’s delight and dejection—the giddy sensation of a first kiss during the beaming “Overnight,” the heartsick longing of a pending rejection during the yearning “Jordan,” the reluctant call for a requisite breakup during the smouldering “Ana.” Claud, though, replied that these songs detailed the phases of only two or three relationships, simply written during them or at various points after they were over.

The debut release on Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records, “Super Monster” is a vertiginous but joyous coming-of-age reckoning with such young love. Claud sees relationships as games of endless wonder, intrigue, and second-guesses, a roller-coaster thrilling you even when it’s terrifying. If “Gold” turns the tension and indecision of a bad match into an undeniable bit of lithe disco, “That’s Mr. Bitch To You” uses a spurt of righteous indignation to fuse a little soul and emo into one breathless hook. Super Monster is like a compulsive compilation that Claud culled from a lifetime of musical enthusiasms—the arcing alt-rock of ’90s airwaves, the rapturous pop of ’00s chart-toppers, the diligent genre-hopping of modern online life. Claud emerges as the chameleonic mastermind of this mélange, channelling all of love’s emotions into songs so sharp they make even the hardest times feel fun.

Perhaps you are in the throes of one of these romantic moments yourself right now, resentful of a frustrating paramour like Claud during “Pepsi” or indulging in lust like “In or In Between.” Or maybe these songs recall those wild days and tough situations. Incisive, instant, and addictive Super Monster works on either level—to remind us of love’s wild ups and downs or to help us deal with them in real time. In that way, Mom, these songs are about dating, well, everyone.

Discovered through SoundCloud demos and DIY shows in Chicago, the artist formerly known as Toast is the first signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records imprint. Their tender, dreamlike melodies touch on relatable coming-of-age themes like unrequited love and the vulnerability of youth, but Claud also makes room for underrepresented snippets of life and love within the young LGBTQ+ community. Look out for Super Monster, Claud’s debut album, when it drops on. 

Claud from the album ‘Super Monster’, out February 12th 2021 on Saddest Factory Records.

PJ HARVEY – ” Is This Desire? ” Reissue

Posted: December 3, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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PJ Harvey has announced the latest installment of her ongoing reissues series. Next up is her 1998 album “Is This Desire?”, which will be re-released on vinyl on January 29th, 2021 via UMe/Island, alongside a separate demo compilation of tracks from the album, the latter of which will also be released on streaming services. Co-produced by Flood and Head the album was Harvey’s fourth studio album and the follow-up to 1995’s To Bring You My Love.

Listen to the demo of her song “Angelene” below. In August, Harvey reissued 1996’s Dance Hall at Louse Point. Her documentary film “A Dog Called Money”, which followed the creation of her 2016 album The Hope Six Demolition Project, is having online screenings next week ahead of its wider North American digital release.

Harvey commented, I’m very happy to be releasing the Is This Desire? demos for the first time. When I am writing an album the demos of the songs capture the atmosphere of the moment in a way that can never be replicated. I made this collage for Nick during the time I was writing this album, and in some ways the words of the collage went on to inform the song, Is This Desire?, and indeed the whole album. The collage is currently on display in the Nick Cave , ‘Stranger Than Kindness’ exhibition at The Black Diamond in Copenhagen.
 
The demos album comes with the same track listing as the studio album proper and features brand new artwork with previously unseen photos by Maria Mochnacz.
 

Producer, Associated Performer, Vocals, Guitar: PJ Harvey Composer Lyricist: Polly Jean Harvey

Image may contain: 2 people, text that says 'Itis Iti_ow" It not far now "We are almost there, she said. He saw stars and stars and stars in the sky. They hadnever seemed so bright. Far away he seemed to hear happy voices singing. "Even the skies seem to be happy tonight, And outside, the bright stars sho' and the happy voices sang'

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