Archive for the ‘MUSIC’ Category

CORDOVAS – ” Destiny Hotel “

Posted: October 16, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The latest full-length from Cordovas, Destiny Hotel is a work of wild poetry and wide-eyed abandon, set to a glorious collision of folk and country and groove-heavy rock-and-roll. In a major creative milestone for the Tennessee-based band – vocalist/bassist Joe Firstman, keyboardist Sevans Henderson, guitarists Lucca Soria and Toby Weaver – the album harnesses the freewheeling energy of their live show more fully than ever, all while lifting their song-writing to a whole new level of sophistication. The result is a batch of songs that ruminate and rhapsodize with equal intensity, inviting endless celebration on the way to transcendence.

Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Rick Parker (Lord Huron, Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), Destiny Hotel expands on the harmony-soaked roots rock of Cordovas’ ATO Records debut That Santa Fe Channel, a 2018 release that earned abundant praise from outlets like Rolling Stone and NPR Music.

Destiny Hotel out now on LP/CD/digital formats via ATO Records.

BLOOMFIELD COOPER STILLS – ” Supersession “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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From the “Supersession,” album in 1968 comes arguably Mike Bloomfield’s finest moment in his legendary career. The jam will send a jolt to your synapses, as Bloomfield’s inspired, fluid playing from the intro is so assured and soulful, it will make a true believer of you. With Al Kooper on organ, Harvey Brooks on bass, Barry Goldberg on electric piano, and Eddie Hoh on drums, “Albert’s Shuffle, the groups homage to Albert King, does the band and the Blues legend proud. It is an enduring masterpiece. Bloomfield’s playing with the Butterfield Blues Band on their first two albums is astonishing. He was one of the greatest players of all time. Sadly I don’t believe he received the recognition he deserved and it is us of a certain age who recall his inimitable skill. “Super Session” – the musically adventurous mid-1968 collaboration between the unlikely triumvirate of multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper, Chicago-blues ace Michael Bloomfield and Buffalo Springfield guitar player Stephen Stills – is cited as a different type of milestone: the capturing of itinerant rock musicians coming together briefly for a one-off jam, in the same way as jazz musicians had previously done. It can lay claim, almost by accident, to being the impetus for a whole branch of rock’s family tree.

The project was masterminded by well-travelled multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper, and Super Session was at least partially borne out of Kooper’s frustration that no producer had been able to properly showcase the formidable talents of his friend, blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield.Kooper and Bloomfield led parallel musical lives, both eventually playing in brass-driven bands; the former in Blood, Sweat & Tears, the latter in The Electric Flag. Both had recently left these acts at the time of Super Session; Stephen Stills, who joins the story later, was in the process of leaving Buffalo Springfield. Kooper, had taken a job as an A&R man at Columbia,

“Albert’s Shuffle” written by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield  is from the classic Columbia album, Super Session, recorded in May 1968 by guitarist Michael Bloomfield, multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper, keyboardist Barry Goldberg, and bassist Harvey Brooks.  This version is from the Sony CD reissue and features the original track before the horns were added on the final mix.

“Super Session” (1968) was conceived by Al Kooper and features the work of guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills(originally printed on the sleeve as Steve Stills). Kooper and Bloomfield had previously worked together on the sessions for the ground-breaking classic Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan. The success of this record opened the door for the “supergroup” concept of the late 1960s and 1970s.

Kooper recalled in his book Backstage Passes And Backstabbing Bastards: “[Bloomfield] commenced to play some of the most incredible guitar I’d ever heard… And he was just warming up! I was in over my head. I embarrassedly unplugged, packed up, went into the control room, and sat there pretending to be a reporter from Sing Out! magazine.” Kooper still seized his chance to be part of the recording, by playing the Hammond – the first time in his life he’d ever sat behind the instrument. The pair were in also in Dylan’s band for his electrified 1965 Newport Folk Festival set.

The album’s title – thought up after it was recorded – is almost a misnomer, since its two star guitarists didn’t actually play together during it. Instead, Side One is the result of a nine-hour Kooper-Bloomfield session; Side Two features Kooper-Stills, with both sessions backed by Electric Flag members Barry Goldberg on keys and Harvey Brooks on bass, plus consummately talented session drummer ‘Fast’ Eddie Hoh – horns and Kooper’s extra guitar parts were overdubbed later.

YO LA TENGO – ” Sleepless Night ” EP

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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yo la tengo

Yo La Tengo have already given their loyal fans a beautiful vinyl reissue of 1995’s Electr-O-Pura and a new album of ambient quar-core instrumentals (We Have Amnesia Sometimes) this year. If that’s not enough, they have this EP on the way, featuring low-key covers of the Byrds’ “Wasn’t Born to Follow,” Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry,” and the Flying Machine’s Sixties pop hit “Smile a Little Smile for Me,” plus a few others. The songs were selected by the Japanese painter Yoshitomo Nara — another artist who’s fond of working subtle variations on a repeated theme — as part of a Los Angeles County Museum of Art retrospective of his work, and now the charming results will be available for wider listening.

On October. 9th, Yo La Tengo will release Sleepless Night a new EP featuring a slew of covers, as well as a stand-alone single – “Bleeding” The project arrives after Yo La Tengo originally collaborated with Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara.

Explained YLT’s Ira Kaplan via press release: “We met Yoshitomo Nara in 2003, would see him at his art shows and our concerts…To make the catalogue of his 2020 exhibit at LACMA more personal, the idea came up to include an LP of some of Nara’s favourite songs as part of a deluxe edition. We were asked to provide one side of the LP (and that one track be a new composition), with the other side being another six songs selected by Nara, in their original versions. Here are the six songs we contributed to the LACMA record, chosen in collaboration with Nara.”

Yo La Tengo back with a new EP titled Sleepless Night, which follows their instrumental collection that dropped a few weeks ago. The EP is out now via Matador Records, and it features six tracks: five covers and one new original song titled “Bleeding.” The covers include songs by The Byrds, Bob Dylan, The Delmore Brothers, Ronnie Lane and The Flying Machine. Sleepless Night was originally released as part of artist Yoshitomo Nara’s retrospective exhibition at the LACMA. Nara also helped choose the EP’s tracklist, and made the cover art.

Don’t say they never did anything for you, lovers of mellow indie-psych drones.

Release date: October 9th, ‘Sleepless Night’ is the new EP from Yo La Tengo, out October 9th on Matador Records.

California Dreaming by Henry Diltz

Posted: October 15, 2020 in MUSIC
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California Dreaming

Limited to an edition of only 2,000 signed and numbered books, each book in the Collector Edition features 96,000 words from 48 contributors as well as two forewords by Graham Nash and Kevin Miller. Over 500 photographs are printed into the edition using fine screen lithography alongside facsimile excerpts from Henry Diltz’s journals. ‘Back from our UK Tour…and I returned to find my copy of Henry’s book! Fantastic! A great Genesis classic.’

Printed on luxurious, heavyweight art papers the book bound in rich brown goatskin leather with real denim hand-binding, finished with gold blocking and page edging. ‘Jaw-droppingly good.’ Record Collector Finally the edition is housed in a unique tie-dye slipcase, reproduced from a vintage Californian sample made by John Sebastian. Each copy includes a limited pressing of Highway 70, (an archival-grade gold CD of songs by southern Californian artists, recorded by Henry Diltz’s band The Modern Folk Quartet) then individually hand-numbered, and hand-signed by Henry Diltz

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Memories & Visions of LA 1966-75, Photographs by Henry Diltz , Graham Nash & over 45 contributors With over 500 photographs and a 96,000-word text from 48 legendary contributors, California Dreaming is not only a retrospective book of America’s pre-eminent rock photographer, Henry Diltz, it is the defining record of an era, as told by those who were at its centre. From Pete Seeger & The Kingston Trio to The Byrds, The Doors and Crosby, Stills & Nash, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, James Taylor and Neil Young, Henry Diltz knew and photographed them all.

As a result, California Dreaming recounts a golden age in the LA music scene. ‘F*cking fabulous!… If you’ve ever wanted to ‘experience’ the Sixties, this is the place to start your journey…. What a long, strange trip it was…’ Graham Nash . Narrated by the stars he photographed, Diltz’s limited edition book presents a wealth of previously unseen images alongside his most famous album cover shots. ‘Morrison said, “There it is. Stop there. We’re going inside and we’re going to shoot the Hard Rock Cafe and we’re going to have a couple of beers.”‘ Ray Manzarek ‘It didn’t matter if you had a great place to live or not because often there was a tree outside and a window to look at the sky. And that was enough.’ Jackson Browne ‘I played a little too busy for Linda Ronstadt – she’d probably laugh about it. I played a busy bass and she didn’t like it very much. She’d look over like “Grrrr”.’ Randy Meisner ‘We had the times; we had the friendship; we had the songs; we had the energy.’ Graham Nash ‘There was a rock opera idea floating around for the Desperado album. We sort of saw ourselves as living outside the law, just like the guys we were writing about.’ Glenn Frey ‘I called Neil and spoke to his Mum and she said, “Oh Neil’s broken up his band and apparently he wants to be the Bob Dylan of Canada. If you hear from him, tell him to call home.”‘ Stephen Stills ‘I first came to LA with David Crosby. He had a cassette of Magical Mystery Tour and we drove down sunset and up into the hills listening to it. For me, Laurel Canyon was like the elixir of life.’ Joni Mitchell

The Manuscript image 1 Genesis has spent over three years collecting an extensive text of more than 96,000 words from 48 contributors. It is a story told entirely by its key protagonists – the musicians, artists, label executives, friends and hangers-on – a text rich in personal anecdotes and observations, fascinating and frank first-hand accounts of the stories behind the photographs, the music, the times, the beliefs, hopes, disappointments and dreams of a generation. Above all it describes how some profound qualities of time and place nurtured a musical movement with an identifiable sound. ‘James Taylor was one of the first signings to the Apple label with Derek Taylor – I’m a huge fan.’ Gerry Beckley ‘I didn’t like Jimi setting his guitar on fire, or smashing his instruments, I was late in appreciating what he was doing.’ Michelle Phillips ‘Mama Cass had become friendly with Eric, who didn’t really know anyone in town. Being the earth-mother type she was, she said, ‘Well come over, and I’ll invite some friends round’.’ Henry Diltz ‘I think California had a huge influence on the pop music scene, all the surfing, girls and cars were so idyllic – the Beach Boys weren’t writing about some fantasy – this was real.’ Dewey Bunnell The California Dreaming story begins in 1966 as Henry Diltz discovers the wonders of the photographic image and begins a life-long love affair with his camera. As a folk musician living in Laurel Canyon and a friend to the musician elite, Henry was party to the burgeoning LA music scene and was able to capture the magic of a brief and bright moment in the history of rock music. ‘Henry Diltz always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.’ Robby Kreiger He had unprecedented access to every one of his subjects, and his photographs, which include seminal album covers such as The Doors’ Morrison Hotel and Crosby, Stills and Nash’s eponymous debut, have come to define the era.

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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN – ” Letter To You “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in MUSIC
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Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa

Lately, Bruce Springsteen has been contemplating his past. He started the previous decade by revisiting four older songs on the otherwise newly written 2012 album Wrecking Ball, which also paid tribute to E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons after his death in 2011. Two years later, Springsteen filled the entire High Hopes LP with songs he’d written, but then discarded, for other projects – some dating back to the mid ’90s. And 2019’s ’70s-soft-pop homage Western Stars contained songs that were recorded years earlier.

Then there’s the 2016 memoir Born to Run and its sorta stage version, Springsteen on Broadway, that opened a year later and ran for 14 months. Both projects were all about looking back.

On Letter to You, his 20th album, Springsteen confronts mortality, talks with ghosts and pulls out three cuts from his early-’70s songbook he never got around to releasing before. There’s no getting around it: The past lurks behind every note. But, ironically, he hasn’t sounded this alive and in-the-moment in years.

Much of that has to do with the spontaneity surrounding the record’s creation. Many of the songs were quickly composed by Springsteen and then recorded in five days with the E Street Band at his home in 2019. It’s the first time the group made this much music live in the studio since the first part of the ’80s.

It starts solemnly, though, as Springsteen whisper-sings the first line to opener “One Minute You’re Here” – “Big black train coming down the track,” evoking the traditional blues, country and folk metaphor for death. From the start, Letter to You lets you know where it’s headed, but there’s also joy in the celebration of life as an understanding, and acceptance, of what follows. The album was made pre-coronavirus, but at times it sure sounds like a product of the pandemic.

The title track recalls the re-energized and reinvigorating spirit of 2002’s The Rising, Springsteen’s heartfelt response to 9/11 and his first album with the E Street Band in nearly two decades. There are similar anthem-sized songs on Letter to You, digging up glockenspiel (“Burnin’ Train”), lyrical references (“House of a Thousand Guitars”) and even outtakes (“Janey Needs a Shooter”) from Springsteen’s past. Guitars jab and organs swell throughout, and Springsteen’s throaty rasp recalls The River’s stadium shakers more than they do the truth-telling troubadour folk found on 2005’s solo Devils & Dust and the reigned-in vocal clearness of more recent records like 2009’s Working on a Dream.

It doesn’t all work. The self-mythologizing “Last Man Standing” aims for Born to Run-style grandeur but lands flat both musically and lyrically (“Faded pictures in an old scrapbook / Faded pictures that somebody took”), despite a sax solo by Jake Clemons straight from Uncle Clarence’s playbook. The forgettable “The Power of Prayer” could be a leftover from any Springsteen album from the past 15 years.

Springsteen doesn’t get too political on Letter to You. Only the rousing “Rainmaker” makes passing references to the current climate, dropping in lines about a “house … on fire,” a “mean season” and how “sometimes folks need to believe in something so bad.” He never comes out and says “Trump,” but it’s not hard to connect the dots from the songs central character – “Says white’s black and black’s white, says night’s day and day is night” – to the divisive president.

Mostly Letter to You is about finding peace in the past, so in some ways the trilogy of ’70s castaways – “Janey Needs a Shooter,” “If I Was the Priest” and “Song for Orphans” – form the album’s center. The songs sound very much like pieces from Springsteen’s back pages, even with the updated performances and modern co-production by Ron Aniello. Biblical themes, along with Dylanesque wordplay and harmonica, and big, sweeping musical flourishes, run through the tracks, which haunt the album as much as “Ghosts,” the LP’s most personal confrontation of days gone by. They’re also the longest on the album, each clocking in at more than six minutes.

Letter to You ends as contemplatively as it begins, with the hopeful “I’ll See You in My Dreams” declaring “death is not the end.” Like the opening “One Minute You’re Here,” it serves as a melancholy bookend to Springsteen’s most reflective work. But his reconciliation with the past and, ultimately, his mortality comes down to a single line in the bustling “Ghosts”: “I’m alive!” And on this stirring band album, that breathless sentiment is both earned and deserved in the end.

A documentary on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s new album Letter to You is coming to Apple TV+ on October 23rd.

CUT WORMS – ” Nobody Lives Here Anymore “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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A modern classic with a timeless sound! Filled with hooks and great lyrics the result is a 17 track beast of superb song-writing!, The shopping malls have closed down, the dressing rooms are filled with ghosts, and the carousel is covered in cobwebs. “Nobody Lives Here Anymore”, the latest and greatest from Max Clarke as Cut Worms, is the haunted reverie of an American landscape in-and-out of Clarke’s mind. Recorded between May and November 2019 in Memphis, Tennessee, the album is a snow globe of the mid-twentieth-century’s popular music filled with chiming guitars, honky-tonk pianos, and Telstar organs.

A constant creator – be it his Cut Worms alter-ego or his day-job illustration work (designing brand logos and beer labels with madhouse technicolour pictures) – writing and making records has always been Max’s driving force. So after an extensive eighteen-months of touring in support of 2017’s Alien Sunset and 2018’s Hollow Ground, he set about sifting through the fragment pieces and sketches of tunes he’d accumulated, along with a jet-stream of new compositions, mining his life-long devotion to the lost American songbook for inspiration. By the time he flew to Memphis to work with producer Matt Ross-Spang at Sam Phillips Studio, he’d stockpiled more than thirty new songs.

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A loss of innocence lingers through this 80-minute opus as Clarke attempts to harbour love and meaning inside a world that sold itself out. He explores the wistfulness of the past in search of answers for tomorrow. And while his grand anthems overflow with timeless pop charm, his ability to dig deeper than lollipops and holding hands sets his work apart from the days of 45s and Top of the Pops.

Released October 9th, 2020

NEIL YOUNG – ” Come Along and Say You Will “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Neil Young isn’t releasing his 10-disc collection Archives Volume 2: 1972-1976 until November 22nd, but paid subscribers of The Neil Young Archives website now have access to the previously unreleased song “Come Along and Say You Will.” The tune was recorded at Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch on December 15th, 1972 with drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith.

Young’s group of musicians were known as The Stray Gators, and also played with on the faultless Harvest in 1972 and the Time Fades Away record from 1973.

‘Come Along and Say You Will’ begins with the pounding lyric “come along and say you will / be the one to change the meaning / of the writing on the wall.” Young later goes on to sing, “I’ll never understand / why walk around a sinner / with a nail through your hand.”

They were weeks away from launching an extensive North American tour where Young would debut several new songs that ultimately wound up on the 1973 live album “Time Fades Away”. “Come Along and Say You Will” didn’t make the cut for Time Fades Away, but it was played at least 11 times during the first month of the tour and live tapes have circulated for years. Nobody has ever heard the studio version prior to this. It’s one of many unheard songs that will appear on Archives Volume 2.

The package begins with material the Stray Gators cut in late 1972 and continues through the Time Fades Away tour, the Tonight’s the Night sessions and tour, the On the Beach and Zuma sessions, and songs he wrote for the Stills-Young Band LP before wrapping up with his 1976 world tour with Crazy Horse.

On November 6th, Young is releasing the live album and movie “Return to Greendale”. Also in the pipeline is a 50th-anniversary edition of After the Gold Rush, official bootlegs taped during a 1970 show at Carnegie Hall and a 1974 gig at the Bottom Line, a 1990 Crazy Horse club gig he’s calling Way Down in the Rust Bucket, and a 2019 European show with Crazy Horse he’s dubbed Noise and Flowers.

Exact dates for most of these releases have yet to be announced, but he hopes they will come at some point in 2021. Young hasn’t played to a live audience since Farm Aid on September 21st, 2019. Earlier this year, he announced plans to bring Crazy Horse to North American arenas. The pandemic forced him to indefinitely delay those plans and he’s largely been holed up at the Colorado home he shares with wife and actress Daryl Hannah. She’s filmed a series of Fireside Sessions acoustic shows on her iPad that show Young playing a series of tunes from throughout his career. The last one was released on July 1st and focused on political songs. It was later released as an EP titled The Times.

DEATH BELLS – ” New Signs of Life “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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After swapping hemispheres, Australian outfit Death Bells have found a new home in Los Angeles, emerging with a new album of fervent guitar-driven rock, stripped of gloom and punching through with a new sense of positivity. “New Signs of Life”, their debut for Dais Records, finds Death Bells using a DIY pedigree to plunder the conventions of “rock music” with a saxophone along for the mission. Rather than leaping genres or formats, New Signs of Life is refined and nuanced—a methodology built on process, craft, and perspective.

Following their 2017 debut, Standing at the Edge of the World, and follow-up single “Echoes,” Death Bells left their hometown of Sydney for the United States. Energized by impulse, extensive touring and exploration led to the formation of an ambitious six-piece band that eventually coalesced as a collaboration between founding members Will Canning and Remy Veselis. With Canning and Veselis becoming the engine, Death Bells began to employ several underground mainstay musicians to complete their live presentation, including Cortland Gibson (Dock Hellis), Colin Knight (Object of Affection), and on occasion Brian Vega (Fearing).

Revitalized and centered, Death Bells released the single “Around the Bend” in 2019, before workshopping material that would eventually comprise their second full-length effort. As much as Standing at the Edge of the World was an energized disclosure informed by fresh naiveté, New Signs of Life harnesses those initial sparks, cloaking the threads of Death Bells with authority, allowing each of the nine tracks which embody New Signs of Life to become lush streamlined vehicles.

The eponymous lead single is a grandiose statement, influenced by the theme song of HBO’s classic television program Six Feet Under. The lyrics are a shopping list of personal neuroses charged with wry optimism, dressed with jagged guitars, brass, and percussion providing a deliberate pace for Death Bell’s new chapter. As method gives way to melody, New Signs of Life exudes an urgent hope laced with drive and verve.

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The first track for New Signs of Life, “Heavenly Bodies,” signals Death Bells’ point-blank delivery of a laconic truth: “We all vanish, anyway.” Sombre and cool, it eases into hushed staccato hypnosis while still finding the tenets of guitar-driven rock. ”A Different Kind of Happy” and “Alison” push the edge of convention, speaking to the power of love in a world gone mad. A nod to their homeland and new city’s surf heritage, “Shot Down (Falling)” pivots playful to a sun-soaked beach strum, layered with shimmer before the horizon fades. As a new statement of purpose, New Signs of Life subverts the band’s moniker, offering breath during suffocation; optimism in chaos with sound over sinking.

released September 25th, 2020

CLOUD CONTROL – ” Bliss Release “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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It seemed as though there was something in the Blue Mountains water. And that Cloud Control had sole keep over its supply, judging from the magical wanderlust emanating from their debut Bliss Release. ‘Meditation Song #2’ prepares you for adventure with its soft drone and acoustic guitar which give way to the intertwining of Alister Wright and Heidi Lenffer’s voices, who gently insist, ‘make my head a pool of water now’.

The water theme continues with ‘There’s Nothing in the Water We Can’t Fight.’ Wright was inspired to write the song after a trip to India. “Yeah, I went there over Christmas” in 2010. “I was in a hotel room looking out over this alleyway and there was like a funeral procession. “They’re all just walking down the street, banging their chests and screaming out. It was such a passionate kind of celebration of someone. “I just thought it was really cool. And the lyrics aren’t really literal. Like, I’m not describing something, but I just tried to put that kind of feeling into the performance.”
There’s an eerieness playfully conveyed in ‘Ghost Story’ and a sunny bounce between Jeremy Kelshaw’s bass and Wright’s skipping guitar on ‘This Is What I Said’ and ‘My Fear #2’.

“We were all really young, it was a great time,” Wright says. “We played so many shows around bars and clubs in Sydney, we really put the songs together in venues and playing them live. “Seeing how many people resonated with it is really humbling and is a dream come true.”

The sound of Cloud Control caught the attention of Hollywood filmmakers and ‘Just For Now’ ended up on the saucy soundtrack for Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike in 2012.

Whilst it was an exciting opportunity, the experience left a bitter aftertaste for Wright, with the low fee offered for the use of the song being a trade-off for the potential for “lots of exposure”.
“It was cool to be recognised, and I wanna acknowledge we have had a privileged career, but I think we always had a bit of a shrug reaction to this one,” he says. “Artists should be paid fairly for their work. “I think people see us as a band that really made it, and in the ways that matter we did! But we always made less than minimum wage, you know, always scraping through with just enough for the next album.

“I mean, people will always find a way to express themselves. But that doesn’t mean we should exploit them, right?. “Especially now, COVID-19 is making a lot of people quit or not even start because it seems impossible. “Culture is a way of caring for the future, so this is a big loss. I think it’s like the creative version of ignoring climate change.”

Across the album’s textured songs, it’s evident that there has been a great deal of care invested into crafting Bliss Release as a wholly rewarding adventure. ‘The Rolling Stones’ brings in beautiful dappled light and treads a hypnotic rhythm that seems to turn everything in the periphery into slow motion. And there’s the album’s shining centrepiece ‘Gold Canary’, which features a multitude of layers of incredible sounds.

There’s deep chanted vocals, an inebriated tambourine, handclaps, twisted keyboards, steely guitars, ponderous bass, and Ulrich Lenffer’s fabulously steady drums earthing our senses amid the head spinning joy of it all. Bliss Release is an album that fully delivers on the promise evoked by its title. It’s lush and meditative, with touches of menace and mystery, and ultimately uplifting and deeply blissful.

Perhaps it’s a testament to their childhood bonds, or their secluded upbringing in the open spaces of the Blue Mountains, that Bliss Release feels so wonderfully realised. Especially from a group who’d only started writing songs together a few years before its release. “From writing them in the mountains at the Lenffer family home to touring the world, it was really somethin’,” Wright says of the band’s early days.

“Nowadays it seems like Bliss Release was a road trip album for a lot of people. I still love it and thinking about the fun we had at this time is wonderful.”

IDLES – ” Ultra Mono “

Posted: October 15, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Following Brutalism (2017) and Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018), two releases that garnered global critical acclaim, IDLES return with their highly anticipated third album – “Ultra Mono”. Sonically constructed to capture the feeling of a hip-hop record (including production contribution from Kenny Beats), the album doubles down on the vitriolic sneer and blunt social commentary of their past work. Not far beneath the surface of their self-admitted sloganeering lies a deeply complex and brutally relevant album that chews up clichés and spits them out as high art for the masses. This is momentary acceptance of the self. This is Ultra Mono.

Since their 2017 debut Brutalism, British punks IDLES have seemed like a band on a mission. Release a record, tour hard, write more songs, make another album, do it all again. Their new record Ultra Mono is their third in four years, which is impressive when you see the band’s immense pre-pandemic touring schedule. “We never stop writing,” says frontman Joe Talbot,

The band have a method for writing an album that goes well beyond standing in a room and playing. They are organised and focused, which ensures their records remain centred on a theme. “With every album, we start with the title – and artwork normally comes to mind – with a theme around it, and then I kind of build the idea around the album,” Talbot says. “Then we start writing the songs specifically to those ideas, with the idea that if we’ve got boundaries, we can all work within them and work together better, because we’re very different people.

“It’s important for us to understand each other moving forward, because we write democratically. We don’t want it to be some sort of autocracy. We all pitch in.m This time around, Talbot wanted to write about internal struggles. The frontman admits to struggling with certain sides of fame, notably the understanding that his work will now be noticed by more people than ever. Such a profile comes with pressure, and feelings that threaten to inhibit creativity. “I was going through a lot of self-doubt around writing,” he says. “There’s a lot of eyes and ears on us, way more than before Joy… [2018 album Joy Is An Act of Resistance] came out.

“So, I just wanted to focus on that idea of self-awareness as a way of progress and understanding what self-care really meant.” So, Ultra Mono became a record about accepting yourself for who and what you are.

KEXP.ORG presents IDLES sharing songs recorded exclusively for KEXP and talking with Kevin Cole. Recorded Thursday, October 1st, 2020.
Songs:
Model Village
Mr. Motivator
War
Grounds

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Ultra Mono will be released on 25th September 2020 on Partisan Records.

Released September 25th, 2020

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