Scottish quartet Neon Waltz shared their second EP since their 2017 debut album Strange Hymns. In March, they released a four-track EP called “Huna”, which follows their 2018 EP Bring Me to Light. For years, Neon Waltz have released majestic, organ-led indie-folk from a small, picturesque coastal town called John O’Groats—the literal northernmost tip of the U.K. Their new Huna EP features three recent singles: “Strung Up,” “Thanks for Everything” and a live version of “All in Good Time,” plus a piano rendition of the latter track. Cuts like “All in Good Time” and “Thanks for Everything” feature those twinkling keys, reassuring vocals and moments of evocative, built-up elation we’ve come to expect from the band. But the highlight here is undoubtedly “Strung Up,” a longtime live favourite with such a spirited melancholia that those beautiful, treacherous Scottish cliffs and accompanying humbling winds become palpable.
The inevitable has happened and our UK tour dates are moving to April 2021. We are gutted to have to delay going back out on the road yet again, playing live and seeing fans truly is the best part of being in this band. Obviously safety is key though and it’ll be all the sweeter when we are finally reunited. Please note – the Kilmarnock date is also being rescheduled, there will be news on this date very soon. Head to the website for more info. Take care of yourselves and each other – NW x
A shoegazey, indie rock band residing in Portland, OR. new album “Lotus Eaters” is out now! Formed back in 2008, Phosphene are a Portland based band, built around the duo of vocalist and guitarist Rachel Frankel and drummer Matt Hemmerich. The band released their self-titled debut album back in 2014, followed by an EP, Breaker in 2016. Four years on the band have just released their brand-new album, Lotus Eaters.
The songs that comprise Lotus Eaters were written during a period of mass transition and upheaval. The writing and recording process of this album took place preceding and following the 2016 election, when extremism and bigotry prevailed across the United States and world at large.
The title Lotus Eaters is loosely derived from Greek mythology, which describes a person in a peaceful but apathetic haze from continually eating lotus fruit. A similar, escapist notion was pervasive across the U.S., and it certainly impacted each of us personally. It took a great deal of focus and fortitude to resist that inertia and move forward as a band. Song writing has always been joyful and cathartic for each of us in different aspects: a distraction from anxiety, an outlet for depression, or a unique way to express our introverted selves in a way that feels most genuine and heartfelt—and that catharsis is what carried us through.
Once we picked ourselves back up and creatively honed in, our most potent and ruminative songs began to take form. As a band, we found ourselves writing music that oscillated between dark, magnetic propulsions to dreamy, blissed-out reveries. During this period of time, Rachel was also writing and illustrating She Can Really Lay It Down, a musical anthology celebrating fifty influential women musicians from the past century, which was recently released in the fall of 2019. Some key heroines in the book such as Kim Gordon, Neko Case, and Janet Weiss absolutely made their influence known within several songs on Lotus Eaters, particularly “Incinerate” and “Incandescent Plumes.”
Although we’ve tinkered with our sound before, we really started to revamp our style and framework in more experimental ways on Lotus Eaters. From incorporating spoken word poetry and dismantling song structures to constantly swapping instruments, a newfound growth and confidence was evident in this collection of music. Lotus Eaters emanates a fervour that we want to resonate with each listener. And as turbulent as these times can be, we hope this album can be a source of comfort and inspiration for those seeking.
‘Sun Racket’ is the brand new album from legendary Boston trio Throwing Muses, consisting of Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo and Bernard Georges. The follow up to 2013’s ‘Purgatory/Paradise’ is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristen Hersh’s well-thumbed notebook of storylines.
A ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that’s at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos. When Throwing Muses wrote their last album, they were shattered. Pieces were coming and going, elements repeating and charging the whole. “It sounded beautiful jumping around like that”. Two-minute songs reappearing as twisted instrumentals or another song’s bridge.
They mimicked the effect live which kept them on their toes. Whatever was happening was already over in other words. ‘Sun Racket’ is the opposite. It refused to do anything but sit still. It says, “sit here and deal”.
“All it asked of us was to comingle two completely disparate sonic vocabularies: one heavy noise, the other delicate music box. Turns out we didn’t have to do much. Sun Racket knew what it was doing and pushed us aside, which is always best. After thirty years of playing together, we trust each other implicitly but we trust the music more” – Kristin Hersh
New album from the legendary Boston trio consisting of Kristin Hersh, David Narcizo and Bernard Georges. Sun Racket is an outpouring of modal guitars, reverbed shapes, echoey drums and driving bass set behind Kristen Hersh’s well-thumbed notebook of storylines. A ten-song opus of suitably wrought tales set against a wall of sound that’s at once calm and ethereal before building into glorious cacophonous crescendos.
This week John Jeffrey, the drummer for Moon Duo, announced his debut solo album, “Passage”, and shared its first single, the eight-minute long instrumental “Leaving Franklin.”Passage is due out October 30th via Jean Sandwich (a Portland-based label).
“Passage” consists of four lengthy jazz-influenced instrumental songs and a press release says Jeffrey was inspired by Alice Coltrane and Canadian painter Takao Tanabe. Recorded in a series of sessions at The Hive, with engineer Colin Stewart, Jeffrey drew inspiration from the jazz principles of spontaneity, dynamism, progression, and improvisation, the singular spirituality of Alice Coltrane and the mist-veiled landscapes of Canadian painter Takao Tanabe. He approached each session as an experiment in not only improvisation but also a kind of anti-composition in which he sought to remove ego from the creative process and to reimagine the self as a channel for natural processes, rendered through music. Playing to the rhythms of something unseen – a hidden partner that made itself known only in the moment of contact – Jeffrey sought to capture rather than design.
The four shimmering instrumentals that compromise the album are like a landscape unto themselves. At once grounding and expansive, molecular and infinite, they defy easy categorization. There are no linear surfaces, only elemental processes that curve and weave, disappear and reappear; a detailed interplay of atmospheric synths and meditative rhythm evokes the motion of water, the momentary ray of light through tall trees. Like a sonic rendering of one of Tanabe’s distant shorelines, there is both beauty and mystery here – a quality just out of reach, that rewards close attention but does not pursue it.
“I didn’t want to have a structure in place, in order to be guided in a specific direction,” says Jeffrey in a press release. “Everything was developed around simple rhythmic patterns.”
Thurston Moore (ex-Sonic Youth) is releasing a new album, “By the Fire”, on September 25th via Daydream Library. This week he shared a new song from it, the 12-minute long “Siren.” At first you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it’s an instrumental track, but then Moore’s vocals come in later in the song.
By the Fire also features Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine) on bass and backing vocals, Jon Leidecker (aka ‘Wobbly’ of Negativland) on electronics, James Sedwards on guitar, and Jem Doulton amd Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley alternating on drums. It is Moore’s seventh solo album and recorded in North London earlier this year, just before the COVID-19 quarantine.
Moore and Daydream Library have released this statement about the album: “By the Fire is music in flames. 2020 is our time for radical change and collective awareness and Thurston Moore has written nine songs of enlightenment, released to a world on fire. Taking a cue from Albert Ayler’s ‘music is the healing force of the universe,’ this recording offers songs as flames of rainbow energy, where the power of love becomes our call. These are love songs in a time where creativity is our dignity, our demonstration against the forces of oppression. By the Fire is a gathering, a party of peace—songs in the heat of the moment.”
Thurston Moore started Sonic Youth in 1980. Since then Thurston Moore has been at the forefront of the alternative rock scene since that particular sobriquet was first used to signify any music that challenged and defied the mainstream standard. With Sonic Youth, Moore turned on an entire generation to the value of experimentation in rock n roll.
Perhaps the most surprising return of all though came courtesy of Falkirk’s finest musical songs, Arab Strap.
The world last heard from the duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat back in 2005, when they seemingly called it a day with their sixth album, The Last Romance. Described by The Guardian as the, “grimy sonic embodiment of hedonism and hangovers”, Arab Strap formed in 1995 when the pair bonded over a shared love of the likes of Smog and Will Oldham. The band broke-up amicably in 2006 after the release of their 2005 album The Last Romance album, but reformed in 2016 for some reunion gigs.
Few bands better channelled the wild pleasure-seeking decadence of post-Thatcherite Britain than Arab Strap. With their blend of modern folk storytelling and rave culture, they sang songs of drink, drugs and (often failed) sexual encounters, with a distinctly Scottish edge.
In many ways they were the embodiment of a boom period in Scottish music. A movement of independent creativity was spearheaded by their label Chemikal Underground, who gave the world the likes of Mogwai, Bis and The Delgados. Suddenly Scotland was cool, with its blending of artsy-cool and edgy grit, and it had a soundtrack entirely of its own creation, with Arab Strap right at the heart of it all.
While the pair have never left the musical world, both releasing various solo and collaborative projects, fifteen years is a long time for any band to be away. Thankfully their return, new single, The Turning Of Our Bones, shows they haven’t lost any of their edge. A moody five-minutes, as a propulsive rhythm is punctuated by meandering guitar-lines and that spoken word style vocal delivery, that sketches out a tale of lust and decay, “the heart began to putrify and then the body bloated, as our hair and teeth fell out we did our best to be devoted”. As the band put it, they’re back from the grave and ready to rave, age has done nothing to dim their creativity or unique musical vision, if Arab Strap are having a party you’d be daft not to join them.
7″ Vinyl with exclusive B-side is out 23rd October on Rock Action Records
The late Hal Wilner’s final work is an all-star tribute to Marc Bolan and T. Rex, including Nick Cave, U2, Elton John, Todd Rundgren, Joan Jett and two Lennon brothers. It’s a mixed bag, but fitting tribute to a genius. Tribute albums always flatter to deceive. Especially when you love the tributee. There’s the initial excitement at seeing all those big names tackling your favourite songs. Then there’s the fascination of seeing edgy artists bring their own sensibilities to the music you love. And, at worst, the risk of heartbreaking disappointment when you hear a song you love being murdered.
Marc Bolan was my idol from 1970-75. I was his perfect demographic: discovering pop music for the first time as it emerged from the Beatles era, all satin and tat, glitter and make-up, lipstick and platform boots. And that was just the boys. Bolan was the first, and don’t let anyone try and tell you any different. He rode along in 1970 on his white swan, hinting at what was to come, more of a cygnet than a fully fledged water bird. Then, at the beginning of 1971 he emerged, fully feathered and face painted in his bright new plumage, with Hot Love. And that was that. Glam was born.
Bolan was not just a phenomenon. No one sounded like T.Rex. No one sang like Marc. No one looked like Marc, without a care; no square with his corkscrew hair. So how do you celebrate such an idiosyncratic performer 50 years on from his heyday (and 43 years on from his tragically early death, in that car crash)?
If you’re Hal Wilner, the American producer who specialises in lavish tribute affairs you invite a who’s who of your famous friends to sing a song each, hire another who’s who of top-class musicians so famous that they don’t mind not getting a song of their own, and overlay the whole thing with massive orchestrations.
Here he has collected another impressive cast drawn from the worlds of music, theatre and the art world and put them together in the studio with a backing band of musicians as diverse as Donald Fagen, Van Dyke Parks, Marc Ribot, Budgie from the Banshees, Bill Frisell, Pete Thomas from the Attractions and more. Wilner is, first and foremost, a Bolan fan, and it shows. He remembers first hearing Tyrannosaurus Rex and thinking the records were “very beautiful, soothing and slightly creepy”. Decades later he decided to put this tribute together “to show Bolan as a composer with our typical cast of artists from different worlds that one rarely sees in the same place”
With some great, some not-so-great, a few you rather wish hadn’t been done at all. It’s always like that with tribute albums. But the best bits make it all worthwhile. As ever with these things, the more successful efforts are those where the artist brings their own personality to the song, while staying faithful to the essence of Bolan. The least successful are those that play it straight – no one needs a Bolan tribute act (there’s already T. Rextasy for that) and simply copy the original.
The plain truth is that no one can imitate Bolan. He was unique. A one-off. Never mind the fact that his voice is almost impossible to imitate.
And here’s the thing: the covers work best when the originals are less familiar. Which may explain why a couple of the big hits (Hot Love, Telegram Sam) are missing altogether from this double album. No one needs Joan Jett trundling through a perfunctory Jeepster, a song that cries out to be reinterpreted as the blues upon which it was based – Bolan borrowed freely from Chuck Berry and Howling Wolf on those hits and it would be fun to hear a modern-day bluesman take the songs back to their roots.
But let’s not dwell on the negatives. Kesha has the right idea on the opening Children Of The Revolution, transforming it into a soulful affair with saxophones squealing, a contrast to the oh-so-familiar chunky guitar riff of the original: different enough to hold the attention (all the more so when you know you’ve got MC5’s Wayne Kramer on guitar and Bolan’s son Rolan Bolan on backing vocals).
The interpretations are varied, as becomes clear quite rapidly. Before long a pattern emerges: the female artists are best at reimagining these tunes. Perhaps because Bolan himself was such an androgynous performer; in contrast to the laddishness of the Glam rockers who followed him – Sweet, Slade, Mud, Glitter – Bolan brought a sense of femininity to his music. Even when he was overtly sexual (“I want to SUCK you!”) he didn’t sound gender specific: he was so pretty that everyone fancied him, even if they couldn’t admit it.
Beth Orton’s interpretation of Hippy Gumbo also takes it to another place, with a bar room piano and an air of impending chaos, with horror-movie scrapes and rattles in the background and some nicely distorted guitar from Marc Ribot. It’s one of the more successful numbers; as is Guatemalan Gaby Moreno, the self-styled “Spanglish folk-soul” singer coming close to Bolan’s own tremulous vibrato on a sensitive bossa nova-influenced Beltane Walk featuring Bill Frisell, Van Dyke Parks and Attractions drummer Pete Thomas.
Meanwhile, Peaches deconstructs a short, sharp Solid Gold Easy Action in the style of Prince – with his androgynous glamour, perhaps the closest parallel to Bolan in the pop firmament. Less successful, sadly, is Lucinda Williams drawling sleepily through a funereal Life’s A Gas, punctuated by a pleasingly grungy guitar solo from Ribot, or possibly Bill Frisell: both are credited, and both are part of the house band assembled by Wilner, who recorded several songs on the same day in the same studio, lending the affair rather more continuity than is often the case on these pick’n’mix affairs.
As for the rest, the clear highlight is Nick Cave’s impassioned Cosmic Dancer, plangent strings enhancing the deep melancholia he has brought to his own work since family tragedy changed him for ever. A shout-out, too, to Marc Almond, never knowingly underblown, for his extravagantly orchestrated, verging-on-overwrought, kitscher-than-your-kitchen take on the already overwrought Teenage Dream.
The decadent nightclub mood is continued by Helga Davis, a New York performance artist, whose Organ Blues features an ominous drum beat and swirls of bass clarinet, and Todd Rundgren who, with the help of Donald Fagen on piano, converts Planet Queen into a slice of sci-fi cabaret. Speaking of which, Metric front woman Emily Haines sprinkles fairy dust on Ballrooms Of Mars to close Side 1 of this double album; her ghostly vocals seeping through the weirdness of a lavishly orchestrated arrangement. It’s really quite special.
Festival favourite King Khan offers a boisterous romp through I Love To Boogie which lives up to its title, if nothing else, and invests Bolan’s final hit (from 1976, a year before his death) with rather more life than Bolan’s own pallid effort. The big-name collaboration between U2 and Elton John on Get It On (irritatingly listed under its American title of Bang A Gong) is predictably terrible: despite selling more records than everyone else on the record between them – and then some – they sound like some bunch of middle-aged men at their local pub’s karaoke night. Not only is it uninspired, it’s the one thing Bolan never was.
Other misfires – and thankfully they are fewer than the successes – include actor-director-playwright John Cameron Mitchell interpreting Diamond Meadows in a style somewhere between MOR and musical theatre, despite the novelty of Showgirls actress Gina Gershon on Jew’s harp. Father John Misty falls into the copycat trap by doing an entirely forgettable Main Man, despite the legendary Van Dyke Parks on piano, while the German singer Nena, last heard of 36 years ago singing 99 Red Balloons, sadly adds nothing of note to Metal Guru though, to be fair, it is practically perfect in its original form and would probably have been best left alone.
It all ends with a hauntingly effective medley of Ride A White Swan and She Was Born To Be My Unicorn, sung virtually a capella by an angelic Maria McKee and gravelly Gavin Friday, duetting from what sounds like beyond the grave. Which is as fitting a finale as one could hope for to a record that reflects Wilner’s overarching ambition (and celebrity connections – it’s hard to imagine many people said no to taking part), and will be remembered, despite the odd misstep, as a fitting memorial to hthe life and work of the producer – and the man to whom he’s paying tribute.
Side A:
1. Children Of The Revolution – Kesha
2. Cosmic Dancer – Nick Cave
3. Jeepster – Joan Jett
4. Scenescof – Deveandra Banhart
5. Life’s A Gas – Lucinda Williams
6. Solid Gold, Easy Action – Peaches
7. Dawn Storm – Børns
Side B:
8. Hippy Gumbo – Beth Orton
9. I Love To Boogie King Khan
10. Beltane Walk – Gaby Moreno
11. Bang A Gong (Get It On) – U2 feat. Elton John
12. Diamond Meadows – John Cameron Mitchell
13. Ballrooms Of Mars – Emily Haines
Side C:
14. Main Man – Father John Misty
15. Rock On – Perry Farrell
16. The Street and Babe Shadow – Elysian Fields
17. The Leopards – Gavin Friday
18. Metal Guru – Nena
19. Teenage Dream – Marc Almond
Side D:
20. Organ Blues – Helga Davis
21. Planet Queen – Todd Rundgren
22. Great Horse – Jessie Harris
23. Mambo Sun – Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl
24. Pilgrim’s Tale – Victoria Williams with Julian Lennon
25. Bang A Gong (Get It On) Reprise – David Johansen
26. She Was Born To Be My Unicorn / Ride A White Swan – Maria McKee
Double vinyl. Angel Headed Hipster – Various artists sing ‘The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex.’
Nick Cave’s profoundly effective and affecting solo performance from earlier this year will be coming out to have and to hold this November.
These unique reinterpretations received effusive praise from any and all who bore witness. this is so much more than a live album or a live performance – these reinterpretations change the colour, tone and feel of every song in a way that proves that Cave is the finest songwriter of his (or, perhaps, any other) generation. This summer, Nick Cave hosted a ticketed livestream of a solo piano concert in London. That special will now be released as a live album and concert film. Packaged with four unreleased performances, Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace is coming to cinemas around the world on November 5th, and the live album will follow on November 20th. Watch the recording of “Galleon Ship” below.
Idiot Prayer features music from across Cave’s career, including early Bad Seeds, Grinderman, and material from his latest album Ghosteen. The film was shot by cinematographer Robbie Ryan and edited by Nick Emerson; Dom Monks recorded the music. Read Nick Cave’s statement about Idiot Prayer below.
The film Idiot Prayer evolved from my Conversations With… events. I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage – whenever I could find the time.
Then, the pandemic came—the world went into lockdown, and fell into an eerie, self-reflective silence. It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them. We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace—a venue I have played and love—on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us.
On 19th June 2020, surrounded by Covid officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain time, but was in no way bowed by it. This is the album taken from that film. It is a prayer into the void—alone at Alexandra Palace—a souvenir from a strange and precarious moment in history. I hope you enjoy it.
An essential album for every Nick Cave fan. we’re already counting down the days…the telegraph ****
“Cave’s solo live stream could be the most the beautiful and sombre performance he’s ever given” the guardian ****
“Cave’s performance in an empty hall, with just piano and voice, seems to try and ward off the terrifying silence of the covid-19 age” evening standard ****
“gravitas echoes beautifully in the void of an empty Alexandra Palace”
“This is the album taken from that film. It is a prayer into the void – alone at Alexandra Palace – a souvenir from a strange and precarious moment in history. I hope you enjoy it.”
After its cinematic release, Idiot Prayer will be released on vinyl, CD and streaming services on November 20th.
Powderfinger have revealed they’ll be releasing a new album this year. Band members Darren Middleton and Jon Coghill have announced that the band will be sharing an album of previously unreleased tracks later this year.”We were in putting together “Odyssey Number Five” 20th anniversary release and we went back and found like 50 songs that we had never released,” said Coghill during the interview. “And we’ve got the 10 best songs, we think. “There’s gonna be a new album this year at some stage. New songs. No one’s heard any of them. And it sounds pretty good to us. It’s been put together really well.”
The pair went on to reveal that the unnamed album will include tracks recorded as far back as 1998 from the Internationalist album era and that they have worked with long-running Powderfinger producer Nick DiDia to finalise the release. The album’s first single, “Day By Day”, is due to be released on Friday 18th September.
It’s already been a big year for Powderfinger fans, with the group reforming (for the first time since their disbandment in 2010) for a one-off fundraiser for Support Act and Beyond Blue. It seems that fans shouldn’t hold their breath for another performance anytime soon though, with Middleton saying “There’s no plans to do any more live lockdown videos or record any new songs or write any new songs together”.
Powderfinger are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album Odyssey Number Five this week, with a vinyl reissue and deluxe edition CD out this Friday.
Easily one of our most requested vinyl titles over the years and previously only available in a very expensive and out-of-print box set. Finally re-issued as a stand-alone vinyl pressing, 20 years to the day of the original release!, Available as a standard LP reissue or in a deluxe 2xLP 180-gram colour edition, remastered for vinyl by Don Bartley and expanded with 10 bonus tracks including acoustic versions, covers & B-sides.
The Metre by Powderfinger taken from the album Odyssey Number 5
Making music is a lot like possession, a concept Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz took literally with her second solo release as Sad13, Haunted Painting. A horror story written with a glittery gel pen, the album traverses themes as diverse as cancel culture and comedians (“Hysterical”), isolation (“Ghost (of a Good Time”)), and a right-wing coup d’état that overthrew Argentina’s government in 1976 (“Into the Catacombs”). Dupuis, who is also a published poet, has the uncanny ability to make the sacred profane and the profane sacred; an album that could have been a spooky pastiche in a lesser writer’s hands is just as uniquely haunting as its title promises.
The title of Sad13’s (aka Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz fame) new album is Haunted Painting, and while that may recall memories of The Haunted Mansion or the animated inhabitants adorning the walls of Hogwarts castle, it was actually inspired by a real-life portrait. Dupuis was consumed by a Franz von Stuck work at the Frye Gallery in Seattle, and she was so taken with the subject’s hollow eyes and glum face she named her second solo album in its honour and plastered a similar portrait of herself on its cover. The actual contents of the record, however, are far from gloomy, as she attacks pop standards with her sharp and shiny brands of song writing and production. Outside of a drummer and, in two cases, an eight-string orchestra, Dupuis takes care of all the other instrumentation herself—glockenspiel included—but the record features guest vocal appearances from an impressive cast including Helado Negro’s Roberto Lange, Deerhoof’s SatomiMatsuzaki, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs and Pile’s Rick Maguire. It’s all quite an intriguing concept from one of indie rock’s best writers, and we can’t wait to hear what Dupuis cooks up this time.
1 per album sale in 2020 will benefit Prevention Point Philadelphia, a harm reduction organization providing free medical care, syringe exchange, shelter, overdose reversal training, and other vital social services. Learn more about them at ppponline.org.
