Throughout his four-decade-long career, British singer-songwriter John Martyn (1948-2009) was hailed for his innovative musicianship, his emotive vocals and his genre-bending, progressive folk songs, which incorporated elements of rock, jazz and blues.
All of that can be heard in 1998’s “The Church With One Bell”, which found Martyn interpreting a diverse selection of blues tracks–from oft-covered standards like Elmore James’ “The Sky Is Crying” and Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Feel So Bad,” to more recent cuts by Portishead (“Glory Box”) and Ben Harper (“Excuse Me Mister”). Martyn also delivers a reflective rendition of Randy Newman’s “God’s Song;” a refreshing take on Dead Can Dance’s “How Fortunate the Man With None;” a haunting performance of “Strange Fruit”–as made famous by Billie Holiday; plus two rousing Bobby Charles covers (“He’s Got All The Whiskey,” and “Small Town Talk”).
Captured at Glasgow’s CaVa Sound Studios, Martyn co-produced the album with GRAMMY®-winner Norman Dayron, a veteran of the Chicago blues scene, who collaborated with the likes of Muddy Waters, James Cotton, Howlin’ Wolf and Michael Bloomfield.
This special, 180-gram pressing marks the first vinyl reissue of The Church With One Bell–which has been out of print since its original release. Limited to 4,350 units worldwide, this sought-after title was remastered from its original analog tapes and cut at half-speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios and pressed at Quality Records Pressing (QRP).
Universally recognized as being the works of a true maverick genius, the canon of recordings by the late, great Captain Beefheart aka Don Van Vliet – often ably assisted by his Magic Band – rank amongst the most important and influential rock music ever created and continue to inform and influence musicians to this day whilst also garnering a following of new, young musically adventurous rock fans along the way.
Within these works the 1974 album “Unconditionally Guaranteed” is a true hidden gem which has been rightfully elevated to cult status over the years since its first appearance.
Originally released by Virgin Records in the UK (and Mercury Records in the USA) “Unconditionally Guaranteed” represents a fascinating pivot point within Beefheart’s recordings.
Known as he was for his more oblique amalgams of delta blues, avant-garde jazz and rock on albums such as “Trout Mask Replica” and “Clear Spot”, “Unconditionally Guaranteed” captures a musical moment when Beefheart deviates from that path and embarks on an exploration of more melodic soundscapes into which he continues to contribute his uniquely poetic lyrics delivered via his instantly recognizable vocals.
The 10 tracks on “Unconditionally Guaranteed” include a bevy of elliptical yet beautiful love songs such as “This is the Day” and the wonderful “Lazy Music” which is undoubtedly one of Beefheart’s most ravishing and mesmeric recordings. By contrast the album opener “Upon The My-O-My” is a great example of Beefheart and The Magic Band delivering their trademark, earthy take on rock at its very best.
On “Unconditionally Guaranteed” Beefheart is ably assisted by a fantastic line-up of the ever-changing Magic Band that includes key alumni such as Zoot Horn Rollo, Art Tripp, Rockette Morton and Alex Saint Claire. The album is produced by Andy Di Martino.
Unavailable on vinyl for over 20 years this Record Store Day 2021 reissue of “Unconditionally Guaranteed” will return this fantastic album to the vinyl racks where it should be.
“Seanóirí Naofa” is the lead single from a forthcoming EP of the same title by Tau & And The Drones of Praise.
This is the follow up to their second album released in February 2019, which garnered widespread acclaim including a four star review in The Irish Times.
In a flash of Imbas (inspiration) Seanóirí Naofa was written and recorded by the Berlin/Ireland based ensemble in just a few hours which gives the track its raw/ archaic immediacy. Opened stringed tunings and old instruments like the hurdy gurdy contains that signature Tau drone while maintaining a confident and contemporary, folky feel.
The mountain on the cover is Queen Maeve’s Cairn at Knocknarea, Co Sligo. The photograph was taken on Spring Equinox 2020, just as the world went into lockdown. The fiery warrior spirit and sovereignty which Goddess Queen Méabh represents so inspires the band, and is a reminder of our own inner fire and our own sovereignty.
Here, frontman Shaun Mulrooney retraces his ancestors’ footsteps, as his surname originates in County Sligo which is a stone’s throw from where he currently resides. Rory Nelson Mckee’s traditional guitar playing being at the helm on “Seanóirí Naofa” gives this work Tau’s most Irish sounding feel to date.
Dance awake, dream anew – Seanóirí Naofa single is released June 5th
“Seanóirí Naofa” EP is released at midnight on Summer Solstice 21st June
An intimate and vulnerable serenade of sweet, stirring indie folk, Georgia Parker’s new EP ‘I Think I Know’ is a wondrous and radiant upheaval. An intimate and vulnerable serenade of sweet, stirring indie folk, singer/songwriter Georgia Parker’s new EP is a wondrous and radiant upheaval. A deep outpouring from the heart, “I Think I Know”comes to life with visceral emotion and soft, gently stunning sentiments. It’s a beautiful eruption of passion and purpose, love, loss, hope, and connection that brings us closer to the artist than ever before.
Anna Wondered what you were thinking When you asked me how I’d been and your dad was watching Small talk in the fishmonger shop But it’s been ten years now since I forgot about that
Anna I think I know Where I wanna go Somewhere with you down by the coast Cause Anna I think I know Yeah I know
Georgia Parker’s new EP I Think I Know, independently out this Friday, July 16th, 2021. The artist’s third EP (following 2019’s “Too Far Gone” and 2020’s “Coated Blue”) finds the Kent, based twenty-something exploring the emotional ins and outs of our shared human condition addressing, as she describes, “the complexity of human relationships and the effects that those relationships have on our personal growth and identity.” Reminiscent of indie folk artists like Adrianne Lenker, Adam Melchor, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers, “I Think I Know” resonates with poignant, moving melodies, tender harmonies, and Parker’s beautiful vocal serenades.
The first song that I wrote for this record was ‘Caroline,’” Parker tells us. “My intention with this song was to tell a story of the ending and escape of a troubled relationship. A personal account, I loved writing a detailed and intricate narrative of how I was feeling around the relationship I had with this person; it felt personal and yet freeing. I have always used writing as an outlet for personal experiences and relationships, and so I used that as a jumping off ground for this project. Each song on this record uses one person as its inspiration. It begins with the memory and questioning of a bond I had as a child (Anna), leaning into more specific realities while dating men as a young woman (‘GardenPics’).
The record continues with ‘Caroline’ and ‘I hate you but you turn me on’ which declares a couple of the more personal and heart wrenching connections I have endured with others, before ending with ‘My Inertia’ and ‘miomo’ which tie in and end the record with an exploration of the relationship I have with myself.”
“These songs were all personal accounts, and I wanted it to feel so,” she adds. “Each song was intended to feel poetic, grand and all in all tell a story that felt relatable or at least suggest sentiment. The recording and production of this record began right as the world went into isolation and so every song and instrument was recorded remotely.”
Parker rises and falls with effortless ease through seven songs that bear her soul. She chose the records title because of its suggestion of uncertainty or shyness. “For me this represents the optimistic yet gentle incline into assurance,” she says. “‘I Think I Know’ was taken from the chorus of Anna and depicts the quiet conviction in a song all about questioning.”
“I choose to believe it proves my ability as a lyricist and as a story teller. With my first self-produced single ‘miomo’ as well as tracks ‘My Inertia, ‘Caroline’ and ‘Love Is A Liar,’ I am confident that my vision as a singer-songwriter and artist has proven to be emotive and direct, as well as individual.”
Highlights abound throughout her EP, from the gorgeously stirring, show-stopping opener “Anna” through the bittersweet “Caroline” to the vibrant, breath taking self-produced finale, “miomio,” I Think I Knowglows with authenticity and charm. I hope that my listeners can relate to these stories and evoke their own introspection,” Parker shares. “The main aspect I have taken away from this process is how much I love telling a story through music, and how I feel even more inspired in the projects I have started planning for after ‘I Think I Know’. I am excited for people to hear it; it is a beautiful stepping stone that I proud to be jumping from.”
for fans of Adrianne Lenker, Adam Melchor, Phoebe Bridgers
“Geist” feels like a window – or a mirror – into possibilities of the self and beyond. Shannon Lay’s new album is tender intensity, placeless and ethereal. It exists in the chasms of the present — a world populated by shadow selves, spiritual awakenings, déjà vu, and past lives.
“Something sleeps inside us,” Lay insists on the opening track, and that’s the guiding philosophy throughout. A winding, golden, delicate thread of intuition that explores the unknown, the possibility. Its title, Geist, the German word for spirit, is rife with an otherworldly presence, the suggestion of another. The promise that you are never alone.
Lay tracked vocals and guitar at Jarvis Tavinere of Woods’s studio, then sent the songs out to multi-instrumentalists Ben Boye (Bonnie Prince Billy, Ty Segall) in Los Angeles and Devin Hoff (Sharon Van Etten, Cibo Matto) in New York; trusting their musical instincts and intuition. She then sent those recordings to Sofia Arreguin (Wand) and Aaron Otheim (Heatwarmer, Mega Bog) for additional keys, while Ty Segall contributed a guitar solo on “Shores.”
As a whole, Geist is both esoteric and accessible. Songs range from a concise, pared-back cover of Syd Barrett’s tilt-a-whirl-esque “Late Night,” to the meditative Dune-inspired “Rare to Wake,” to the mostly a-cappella “Awaken and Allow,” which channels Lay’s deep Irish roots, a moment of reflection, before a drop happens — its intensity mirroring the anticipation and anxiety that come with taking the first step to accepting change for yourself.
And the title track “Geist,” a song about the power living in all of us, is a love song to the possibility of healing, an ode to falling into the arms of what you’re becoming. It’s a glimpse into the parts of yourself you have yet to meet. But you can, if you want to.
Last year, Charlie Martin impulsively wrote“T-R-U-E L-O-V-E” in all caps across the top of what would become the title track of his and Will Taylor’s fourth Hovvdy album. The on-the-nose instinct encapsulates the LP’s elemental look at relationships – familial, romantic, friendly – and that desire to capture them in a bottle. Since the creation of their last album, both Charlie and Will have married their partners; with Will becoming a father.
A nod to their roots and a reach for more, “True Love” maturely embraces the best of the duo’s hyper-genuine, chin-up qualities developed over the past seven years. Charlie and Will first met at a baseball game while touring with other bands, both as drummers. Back home in Austin, the pair connected over shared sports-centric upbringings in Dallas and, most prominently, likeminded batches of solo song writing. The interlocking tracks would become 2016 LP Taster, introducing a comforting sonic push-and-pull continued in the innate melodies of Cranberry (2018) and the propulsive storytelling of breakthrough Heavy Lifter (2019).
Fourth album True Love follows a surprisingly folksy and beautifully determined course, just hinting at the lo-fi layers of the Austin-based project’s DIY origins. Co-produced by the genre-morphing Andrew Sarlo (Nick Hakim, Big Thief, Bon Iver), the acoustically-driven, forward-looking songwriters’ statement stamps Hovvdy’s debut with Grand Jury Music.
Arguably the most prolific group of our time, “Butterfly 3000” is the Australian collective’s first release on their own KGLW label, their second album of 2021 and there is guaranteed to be more and their 18th record overall, in under a decade. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard morphs with each release, just enough to keep things unexpected, but not so much as to entirely alienate their fans.
With Butterfly 3000, this change is marked mainly in the form of synthesizers at the forefront and the very occasional signature fuzzy guitars in the background. This gives the psych-rock sound the group is known for a decidedly Kraftwerk-esque dance-pop flavour, one with cheerful synth lines, a version of the electronic music icons before they replaced the drumming of Neu!’s Klaus Dinger with a machine. The 10 compositions of Butterfly 3000 work together as a whole, interlocking with each other through synth loops and feathery, dreamy vocals. With Butterfly, King Gizzard is less of an experimental prog-jam band standout and more in step with its synth-rock contemporaries—and they fit in just fine.
Australian psych-rockers King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have shared a new music video for the track “Blue Morpho,” off their most recent LP, Butterfly 3000.
Butterfly 3000 finds them exploring pop styles within their established psych sound. One of the highlights is “Interior People,” that might be their catchiest, most immediate song to date. The band’s Joey Walker says it’s “about the internal battle of questioning your own sanity, and the joy that comes in letting go and surrendering to the void.”
They’ve now released an eye-popping animated video for “Interior People” which was directed by Ivan Dixon and pays tribute to Hayao Miyazaki, French artist Moebius and animated film Heavy Metal. “The only direction from the band was to include butterflies, to tie in with the album name Butterfly 3000,” says Dixon. “When I listened to ‘Interior People,’ I immediately pictured something with momentum, like a wild road trip.
That’s where the idea of the protagonist riding a giant butterfly came from. The title made me think of cocoons. Maybe our hero was trying to find a cocoon to metamorphose into a butterfly herself? Little moments of affection between her and her butterfly could hint at a deeper bond between them. Were they lovers? With the cocoon I really wanted to design the kind of thing you would find in a typical Australian garden as a kid. The ones with little sticks poking out of them. I’ve never seen those particular cocoons represented anywhere before.”
“Butterfly 3000” is the band’s 18th album, and second to be released in 2021.
TheTedeschi Trucks Band’s “Layla Revisited (Live At LOCKN’)” is a one-off live recording of the seminal Derek & The Dominos album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs“, performed in its entirety with special guest Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio. Recorded on August 24th, 2019 in Virginia, Layla Revisited captures Tedeschi Trucks Band at their incendiary best, with Anastasio proving the perfect foil to the transcendent musical union of guitarist Derek Trucks and guitarist/vocalist Susan Tedeschi, and frequent collaborator Doyle Bramhall II.
No one was asking for a song by song remake of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970). It’s an album so definitive that even its originator Eric Clapton never played all of it in concert with the original band, let alone in order.
Since Layla… was initially crafted with only five players (Duane Allman famously joined Clapton’s Dominos on second lead guitar for some tunes),
The performance came as a complete surprise to fans. The artists made no mention of the set of music they diligently rehearsed and planned ahead of time. But the links between the band and the album are deeply woven into the fabric of their existence. Trucks is no stranger to the material. He was on six of the 14 tracks on Clapton’s 2007 tour, often replicating Duane Allman’s parts. And according to his liner notes, Derek was exposed to Layla’s songs at an early age by his parents. He recently also discovered it was released on his wife and co-front person Susan Tedeschi’s birthday, November 9th, 1970. The upshot of this coincidence seems unavoidable.
Propelled by two of the 20th century’s greatest guitarists, Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs was serendipitously released on November 9th,1970, the day Tedeschi was born. Later, Chris and Debbie Trucks were such fans of the album that they were inspired to name their firstborn son Derek. Decades later, Trucks would enjoy a 15-year tenure as a member of The Allman Brothers Band, and tour extensively with Clapton. Such is the depth of connection between the music and the performers that this album feels almost preordained.”
No one can match the longing and passion in Clapton’s voice as he pined for George Harrison’s wife on what was an album long love letter of sorts to her. But the always exciting Susan Tedeschi and the three other TTB singers that trade lead vocals, infuse variety and diversity, if not intensity, to these blues rock gems.
Without visuals, it’s difficult to discern which of the four guitarists are soloing. Similar to Derek & the Dominos’ lone tour, the songs are often stretched to include jamming. That lengthens the surging “Keep on Growing” (from six to twelve minutes), the mesmerizing “Anyday” featuring a tasty opening guitar dual (six to 13 minutes) and the frisky “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” (four to almost nine minutes) far beyond their studio predecessors.
As it stands, the approach is, perhaps not surprisingly, heavy on guitar duels and jams. When the horns appear, as on the cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing”’s riff, it shows what could have been accomplished if someone had spent time crafting more dominant parts for them.
Regardless, the final product both pays tribute to an album that rightfully remains on the shortlist of iconic blues rock recordings and infuses fresh blood into it with these generally stirring interpretations. Trucks was clearly inspired to play with determination while not overwhelming the material with endless jamming, something even Clapton couldn’t accomplish as evidenced by live recordings of Derek & the Domino’s which prolonged some tracks past their breaking points with seemingly endless guitar solos.
The audio fidelity is stunning, especially on the vocals and guitar, and the double disc feels like an inevitable closing of the circle for Trucks, who has been influenced by the songs and performances on Layla… for his entire life.
“Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad” is from the album, “Layla Revisited (Live at Lock’n)“
Tedeschi Trucks Band’s “Layla Revisited (Live At Lock’n)” , is a one-off live recording of the seminal Derek & The Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, performed in its entirety with special guest Trey Anastasio. Recorded on August 24th, 2019 at the Lock’n Festival in Arrington, VA,
TRACKLIST: 1. I Looked Away 2. Bell Bottom Blues 3. Keep On Growing 4. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out 5. I Am Yours 6. Anyday 7. Key To The Highway 8. Tell The Truth 9. Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad? 10. Have You Ever Loved A Woman? 11. Little Wing 12. It’s Too Late 13. Layla 14. Thorn Tree In The Garden (studio)
“Layla Revisited” captures Tedeschi Trucks Band at their incendiary best, with Anastasio proving the perfect foil to the transcendent musical union of guitarist Derek Trucks and guitarist/vocalist Susan Tedeschi, and frequent TTB collaborator Doyle Bramhall II.
The Montreal musicians that congregate around Arbutus Records often have an early morning eeriness to them. That’s usually translated through an electronic sound found most notably on Doldrums’ Lesser Evil and Grimes’ Visions and more recently on the incredible single “Malachite” by Lydia Ainsworth. But that romanticism and otherworldliness shows up in more traditional ways, too, like Sean Nicholas Savage’s sparse, lovely “Heartless” from earlier this year, and now the new single by TOPS. It’s a track filled with gently twangy guitar lines and lyrics, delivered by whispery vocalist Jane Penny, that evoke a sort of half-awake poetry: “Hold on to words/ when you are sleeping/ words you forget in the daylight/ words that you are speaking.” Forget how often the term “dream pop” gets tossed around — this band seriously earns it.
“Change Of Heart / Sleeptalker” is a 7″ record with TOPS lead single “Change Of Heart” backed with “Sleeptalker”. Both songs are featured on their new record, “Picture You Staring”, which is a lush array of timelessly crafted songs. Change Of Heart / Sleeptalker gathers strength through intimacy. Self-written, recorded and produced at Arbutus Record’s studio in Montreal, these are impeccable examples of pop craftsmanship that will reward repeat listens.
Montreal 4-piece return with this soft, sleepy number. Find it as the B-side to a 7″ out now, and later on their forthcoming LP. Both via one of our favourite labels around, Arbutus Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 