BEIRUT – ” Gallipoli “
Posted: March 15, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: 'Gallipoli', Beirut, Zach Condon
Beirut release their fifth studio LP Gallipoli via 4AD Records. The 12-track album, Gallipoli, started life in the winter of 2016, with Zach Condon returning to his old Farfisa organ, the same one used to write the first two Beirut albums (2006’s Gulag Orkestar and the following year’s The Flying Club Cup), which he inherited from a traveling circus when he was a teenager. Following recording stints in New York and Berlin (where he now calls home), Condon settled in Sudestudio, a studio complex deep in rural Puglia, southern Italy. It was here that he rediscovered the old joys of music as a visceral experience which became the founding principle for Gallipoli.
The band performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on 7th February and CBS Saturday Morning on 9th February.
“Triumphant and understated.” – NPR Music
“Gallipoli is the sound of one of our most talented musicians rediscovering his love for what he was born to do.” – The Line Of Best Fit (9/10)
“His best album in years, arguably his best yet… sumptuously romantic, restlessly inventive, emotionally generous and stylistically bold.” – Uncut (8/10)
“Impressive.” – Q ****
“Swooningly gorgeous and rich.” – Under The Radar (8/10)
“Exquisit world music experiment” – Popmatters
“A hug of a record.” – Record Collector ****
“Creates nostalgia for something lost… bound to no time or place.” – Cool Hunting
ROBYN HITCHCOCK – ” Sunday Never Comes “
Posted: March 15, 2019 in MUSICTags: Juliet Naked, Robyn Hitchcock
Sending you my best wishes from Sydney, Australia. I have been here for the past month playing shows and catching up with some of my favourite humans. Have you ever had an Aussie breakfast? I can’t recommend the combo of avocado, poached eggs, haloumi cheese and Vegemite highly enough. It’s a weight loss must. As you know, I am a lifelong follower of the rails and this photo was taken outside the Ballarat Tram Museum in Victoria.
Incidentally, it was electric traction that drew me to San Francisco to record the ‘Eye’ album, which turns 29 this week. To celebrate, we have reprinted the popular ‘Eye’ t-shirt.
Live recording of “Sunday Never Comes”, filmed by Jeremy Dylan Featured in the film “Juliet, Naked” directed by Jesse Peretz, starring Ethan Hawke & Rose Byrne
Sending many thanks to the folks who have already pre-ordered my new 7 inch vinyl release. “Sunday Never Comes” which was written for the feature film ‘Juliet Naked’ and “Take Off Your Bandages” has only previously been heard at selected live shows. The official release date for these singles is April 19th, however all mail order singles have early bird privileges and will be shipped on March 20th.
HOLLY HERNDON – ” Eternal “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: 4AD Records, Holly Herndon, Proto
Holly Herndon operates at the nexus of technological evolution and musical euphoria. Holly’s third full-length album titled “Proto” to be released 10th May 2019 isn’t about A.I., but much of it was created in collaboration with her own A.I. ‘baby’, Spawn. For the album, she assembled a contemporary ensemble of vocalists, developers and an inhuman intelligence housed in a DIY souped-up gaming PC to create a record that encompasses live vocal processing and timeless folk singing, and places an emphasis on alien song craft and new forms of communion.
Proto makes reference to what Holly refers to as the protocol era, where rapidly surfacing ideological battles over the future of A.I. protocols, centralised and decentralised internet protocols, and personal and political protocols compel us to ask ourselves who are we, what are we, what do we stand for, and what are we heading towards?
Since her arrival in 2012, Holly Herndon has successfully mined the edges of electronic and Avant Garde pop and emerged with a dynamic and disruptive canon of her own, all while studying for her soon-to-be-completed PhD at Stanford University, researching machine learning and music. Her LP Platform closed out 2015 by gracing year-end lists from Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, and The Wire. In the aftermath, Radiohead hand-picked her to open up their European tour.
Just as Platform forewarned of the manipulative personal and political impacts of prying social media platforms long before popular acceptance, PROTO is a euphoric and principled statement setting the shape of things to come.
The acclaimed performer and composer reveals new single ‘Eternal’, a ghostly transmission inspired by ideas of eternal love through mind uploading; a modern-day vampire story. Punctuated by grandiose orchestration and the voices of her Berlin-based vocal ensemble, the accompanying video was constructed from footage processed from the perspective of an intelligent machine, analysing and searching for a face, yearning for a connection.
New album “Proto” released 10th May 2019
LUCY ROSE – ” No Words Left “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Lucy Rose, No Words Left, singer songwriter
No Words Left was recorded in Brighton, produced by Tim Bidwell and mixed by Cenzo Townsend.
We last heard from Lucy Rose with the release of 2017’s “Something’s Changing”, a record that heralded a new outlook for the musician who was re-evaluating what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it.
If Something’s Changing was an artist rediscovering their voice, No Words Left is Lucy Rose using that voice to devastatingly frank effect. Lyrically and musically fearless, this record is a beautifully intense, but often unsettling listen. It’s a body of work, a fine modern example of the enduring strength of the album format.
Describing the record and its process, Lucy explains: “Releasing this record feels entirely different to every other record I’ve released. But to try and sum up my emotions is virtually impossible. “I don’t believe this the best album I’ve ever made because I don’t believe in making comparisons when it comes to music. But it’s different.
“In every way I’ve approached writing, recording and now releasing music, it’s been different. I’ve lost all consciousness in caring and it’s been liberating. It is what it is. It’s a feeling, it’s a song, it’s a sound, it’s a part of me which I can’t decipher whether it’s good or bad, but it’s sincere. I recently learnt that the word sincere is derived from the Latin sine = without, cera = wax due to dishonest sculptors in Rome or Greece covering flaws in their work with wax to deceive the viewer. So, a sculpture “without wax” would mean honesty in its perfection.
“That really struck a chord with me as sincerity really is the key to this record. It’s my truth. Sincerity is the truth of a person, not just the good but the bad: the flaws, the realness, which can never be ‘perfect’. This album reflects the reality of my life, the toughness life throws at you, and for a period of time it did become too much for me to handle alone.
“I could try to explain more about each song but in all honesty, I can’t particularly remember writing them, the feeling being too strong and too big for me to comprehend. But songs came out and through writing them and working through my thoughts I saw the truth lying in front of me and a way to move forward.
“I always hope my music would be a comfort to someone, however this record may not be the easiest listen. But it’s in its discomfort I believe a different form of comfort can be found. I’m certain of it. “
Wow, time has really flown and it’s only one week until you will be able to hear ‘No Words Left’ and what’s been in my head this last year. Today I want to share with you another song from the album, which is so important to me.
‘Treat Me Like A Woman’ was written one afternoon in Munich after a combination of events which pushed me to think about the way people interact with me purely based on my gender. I’ve often thought things like, ‘Would that have happened to me if I was a man?’ and a feeling of lack of respect at times purely because I’m a woman.
MOTT THE HOOPLE – ” Mental Train The Island Years 1969-1971 “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Brain Capers, Dale “Buffin” Griffin, Ian Hunter, Island Records, Mad Shadows, Mental Train: The Island Years 1969-1971, Mick Ralphs, Mott The Hoople, Overend Watts, Verden Allen, Wildlife
Universal Music will, in November, issue Mental Train: The Island Years 1969-1971, a new six-disc Mott The Hoople box set which delivers everything the band recorded during their time at Island Records including many bonus tracks and unreleased material.
Mental Train includes the four albums – Mott The Hoople(1969),Mad Shadows (1970), Wildlife (1970) and Brain Capers (1971) – each of which include eight or nine bonus tracks, including A-sides, B-sides, demos, rehearsals and alternate takes.
The fifth CD includes more unheard and unreleased music from the Island archive while the final disc features live material recorded at Fairfield Hall, Croydon on 13th September 1970 and a BBC Radio One In Concert from the Paris Theatre, London on 30th December 1971.
The studio albums have all been remastered from the original tapes (where available) by Andy Pearce and this set comes in what looks like the familiar Universal ‘shoebox’ package (Tears For Fears, Simple Minds etc.) with a a 50-page booklet designed by Phil Smee with sleeve notes by Kris Needs.
6CD box set • Island albums + bonus tracks • disc of unreleased outtakes
For a band lasted a little over five years, the British hard rockers Mott the Hoople managed to squeeze in two golden eras: the one everybody knows, which kicked off in the summer of 1972 when David Bowie handed them a 45 rpm lifeline with the glam-revolution anthem “All the Young Dudes”; and the one that too few people know, a fury of progressive-rock ideas, brass-knuckled application and Ian Hunter’s working-class English-Dylan vocal attack over four albums in the three struggling years covered by this box set.
Named and produced by the lunatic studio savant Guy Stevens, the original Mott guitarist Mick Ralphs, organist Verden Allen, bassist Overend Watts, drummer Dale “Buffin” Griffin and Ian Hunter, the last to join on piano and guitar made luminous trouble, arming the jump and innocence of early rock & roll with the exotic afterburn of psychedelia and the looming force of metal on the late-1969 U.K. debut Mott The Hoople and the swift 1970 followup Mad Shadows.
As the main writers, often in collaboration, Hunter and Ralphs combined brawny menace and bracing melodicism, blessed with an engine room at once taut and relentless. Some of the tracks across this span got on FM radio in America: the serial explosions of “Thunderbuck Ram” on Mad Shadows; Ralphs’ bright U.S.-tour memoir “Whiskey Women” on 1971’s Wildlife; the dark side of the hippie era that Hunter brought to the Youngbloods’ “Darkness Darkness” on ’71’s Brain Capers. The ones that didn’t get on air still astound: the brawling-Stones rush of “Walking With a Mountain” on Mad Shadows; the fast, feral glee in “The Moon Upstairs” on Brain Capers with its immortal lines, “We ain’t bleeding you/We’re feeding you/But you’re too fucking slow.” New York punks the Dictators used to cover that one live .
The two-plus hours of live and studio bonus material that enrich this telling run from the very beginning (a fragment of Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Hunter’s audition piece when he first sang for the others in 1969) to early versions of songs they carried to their Bowie-triggered resurrection — “One of the Boys”, a prototype of “Momma’s Little Jewel,” both with more formative snarl. On the eve of what Hunter assures will be the last-ever Mott tour — with the surviving members of his ’74 glam gang, guitarist Ariel Bender and pianist Morgan Fisher — it is worth taking a step back to this incisively written, brilliantly detonated mayhem. The best rock & roll stories have glorious endings. Here is one with a roaring, enduring start.
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Posted: March 14, 2019 in FESTIVALS, MUSIC
Tags: Hillsborough Park, Sheffield, Tramlines Festival
VAMPIRE WEEKEND – ” Sunflower “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Columbia Records, Ezra Koenig, Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend
Last week, Vampire Weekend continued to roll out tracks from their upcoming new album, “Father of the Bride” (due out May 3rd via Columbia Records), and today the band shared a new video for one of the new tunes, “Sunshine,” a playful track featuring The Internet’s Steve Lacy.
The video, which was directed by Jonah Hill and features some disorienting camera work, follows Lacy and frontman Ezra Koenig as they walk through Upper East Side Manhattan staples Zabar’s and Barney Greengrass, and happen to run into comedian Jerry Seinfeld at the latter establishment.
Vampire Weekend will play a run of London shows later this month
The COATHANGERS – ” The Devil You Know “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSICTags: Julia Kugel, Suicide Squeeze Records, The Coathangers, The Devil You Know
The Coathangers have been creating their special blend of garage punk for 13 years, and now after a long break in their breakneck recording and touring schedule, they will come back with a matured sound and a fresh new album, The Devil You Know. “There’s a big significance,” singer and guitarist Julia Kugel says of the band’s 13-year staying power. “I’ve been doing this for over a third of my life. We’re very lucky to be able to keep doing it.”
Since 2007, the band has kept to a fairly steady release schedule, with an album or EP release just about every other year with a baker’s dozen singles sprinkled throughout and an ambitious touring schedule to boot.
However, after releasing and touring their live album in 2018, the band took the latter half of the year off for some personal time to reflect on themselves, not only as a band but as friends. “Having time off to process,” Kugel says, “gave us some time to write and relax and just be normal — to be in one place for a little bit and not be moving. Then we came back together having reflected on life.
“You know, even with our friendship, sometimes it’s important to just be friends and not bandmates.”
That time to reflect on the band and themselves helped inspire some of the more inward-focused tracks on the new album. “It’s like, ‘Where am I in all of this?’” Kugel says of the new album’s perspective. “We’ve always been pretty honest in our lyrics, and it’s always been personal. But this one we definitely touched on all the most hurtful parts.
The Coathangers new studio album, The Devil You Know, out now on Suicide Squeeze Records.
W.H LUNG – ” Second Death Of My Face “
Posted: March 14, 2019 in MUSICTags: Incidental Music, Joseph E., Manchester, Melodic Records, Second Death Of My Face, W.H Lung
Taken from their upcoming album Incidental Music, W. H. Lung‘s new release “Second Death Of My Face” establishes them as new players in modern rock.
W. H. Lung‘s first cut “Simpatico People” was a delightful homage to the originators of Krautrock. Their new track sees them pushing beyond the confines of that genre and into synthier, shinier territory.
While still retaining their now-hallmark sense of rhythmic propulsion, “Second Death of My Face” offers a spit-polished, chrome-plated melodic element to their sound – similar to the leap NEU! made between their second record and NEU! 75. The exciting thing about this pair of W. H. Lung tracks is that they’re from the same record.
“I put down some nonsense for melody over an early draft,” says Joseph E. of the band, “and when I listened back it sounded like ‘my face, my face.’ The images that followed seemed filmic and the idea went from there. The chorus came to me as I fiddled on the piano in Central Library. It was big and unashamed and I was thinking of Bowie.
“My phone had died so I couldn’t record it as a voice note. I remember the panic of not wanting to lose the melody and of needing to try the idea out (out loud). I rushed home with my eyes half closed, singing it over and over in my head. It’s about watching your own life lived.”
This is the second single from the record for you. The bulk of Second Death Of My Face was developed on the piano of Manchester’s Central Library, and it is a five and half minute epic, with cathartic lyrics and soaring crescendos – probably their most anthemic release so far…“Second Death Of My Face” is out now and debut album Incidental Music drops 5th April on Melodic Records.
