Knightstown’s new single “Charlatan” arrives on January 12th. Knightstown, AKA Michael Aston, has been perfecting and developing his sound tirelessly over the last few years and this new cut is a reflection of that hard work. This single precedes a debut EP, due for release Spring 2018.
Within Charlatan there are overt references to Aldous Huxley’s seminal novel Brave New World. The book had a profound impact on Aston, but he is keen for the listener to reach their own conclusions as to lyrical themes.
One of the most recent songs Aston has written, Charlatan starts off in C Sharp Minor and ends in F Sharp Minor, there is also a notable key change, with the song ending unpredictably as a 4-to-the-floor dance track. The single showcases Aston’s versatility and meticulous approach to songwriting. His classical training combined with his love of pop music is evidenced throughout.
Knightstown is the solo vocal/electronic project of composer and songwriter Michael Aston. He was signed to FatCat Records in 2016, after submitting Disparity in 2014, a demo which quickly became one of the label’s most listened to tracks on the FatCat Demo site. Working closely with his cousin and producer, Thomas Aston, Knightstown honed the project over the course of a year. The end result is a series of songs that are beautiful, dark and evocative. While Knightstown is influenced by left-field downtempo and electronic contemporaries, it still inhabits the world of ‘pop’ in its broadest sense.
DIY magazine described his debut single First Cry as “sensitive and intricate, a bittersweet voyage”. The single won praise from a wide range of publications, many noting Aston’s love of Bach and how his classical education impacts his songwriting. Second single Eyes Open Wide was an abstract mediation on happiness, Gold Flake Paint noting how the “intricate arrangements reflect his compositional experience without losing the absorbing joy of pop”
The single also features a remix from Pye Corner Audio who has previously remixed the likes of Mark Lanegan and Mogwai. The Oberheim Matrix 6 provides the track with a “Tron 80 sound’ twist, while the choral vibe and Aston’s distinct vocals are left intact. The remix is out 19th January.
The Girl Who Cried Wolf is a five piece from Belgium. The band was created around a love for raw, dark and melancholic music. With a sound best described as hypnotic doompop, they try to draw people into their own universe. A universe inspired by bands like Portishead, Chelsea Wolfe, Esben & The Witch, Wovenhand,… TGWCW has built a solid live reputation with numerous shows in Belgium and The Netherlands. So far they’ve released an EP (Ohm ), an album (RUINS ) and several singles. They’re currently working on a new album, and have just released a new single/video ‘Tin Men’.
In music, one of the most transformative experiences a woman can have is also an unspoken artistic taboo: Have a baby if you must. But for goodness’ sake, don’t write songs about it. Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter AlelaDiane has a problem with that.
“This music is about motherhood,” Alela says of her highly anticipated fifth album Cusp. “Even just by saying that, it feels like people will write you off. It’s like you’ve suddenly lost the charm of being youthful and even attainable––you’ve been commoditized as available. There is not a big place in the music industry for 30-something women with kids making music.” She laughs as she pauses, then adds, “Maybe we can create that space.”
If anyone can carve out needed new territory, it’s Alela. Cusp may be a thematic departure for the Portland, Oregon-based artist, but the Argus-eyed writing and clear voice that have long-since wowed Pitchfork, NME, Paste, and other early adopters throughout Europe and elsewhere have never been stronger.
The new 11-song collection was born during Alela’s three-week artist residency at Caldera in Oregon during January 2016. The time was a revelation to Alela, who’d been consumed with her then two-year-old daughter and had found little time to create. In a small A-frame cabin deep within Caldera’s snowy woods, alone for the first time since becoming a mother, she tended to a wood stove, made soup, rediscovered how to be on her own, and wrote songs. “I was just coming back to myself and learning how to take care of me,” she says. “It was really wonderful to be able to get back in touch with my creative side and just reflect on the intensity of what I’d been going through, becoming a mom––reflecting on that from a space where I wasn’t inside of it.”
Early in her Caldera stay, Alela broke her thumbnail while shoveling snow, and her signature finger-picking guitar became a challenge. She had noticed a grand piano in the main lodge and wondered: Why not write songs there? The result is the most piano-driven album of her career, fueled by that energy that only comes with facing and falling in love with something new. “It definitely felt different,” Alela says of composing for the first time on the piano, pointing to the visibility of chords that keys allow, especially when compared to guitar. “It was pretty freeing to get out of my normal habits that I usually fall back into when I write on guitar.”
Alela recorded most of Cusp at Flora Playback and Recording while pregnant with her and her husband’s second daughter, who was born in February 2017. Produced by Peter M. Murray and mixed by Noah Georgeson, the album features contributions from heavyweights including Ryan Francesconi (Joanna Newsom), Rob Burger (Iron & Wine), Peter Broderick, Heather Woods Broderick (Sharon Van Etten), Luke Ydstie (Blind Pilot), and Daniel Hunt (Neko Case).
The February weekend that Cusp was mixed in Los Angeles, Alela planned to be there. Instead, she went into labor––five weeks early. Severe complications ensued, and in a harrowing twist, Alela almost died giving birth to her little girl. “I have never felt so grateful to be alive as I do now,” she says. “I hope that by exploring motherhood in song, I can help demand respect for the life givers we are. Talking and singing about the experience of motherhood is not something I can shy away from. It is the essence of who we are as human beings. This album is my version of women’s work.”
When Alela releases Cusp in February 2018, it will mark exactly one year since her near-death, new-life experience. “Life and death meet in a cusp,” Alela says. “The two are intrinsically linked. My second daughter was born on the cusp.”
Cusp explores the weight and beauty of creating life. Album opener “Albatross” bemoans the pain of leaving her daughter behind for a promotional tour––a heartache she’d never experienced. “The chorus is a reference to flying overseas and having to leave my kid at home, the intensity of that,” she says. Forlorn but also imbued with wonder and acceptance, the song is a perfect example of Alela’s ability to capture the nuances of an experience. Gorgeous “Move Us Blind” delves into our complicated relationship with time, while “Buoyant”––which Alela says “surprised her”––is rich with the vivid imagery her loyal listeners have come to expect.
Throughout the record, Alela refuses to stray from her perspective as a mother and woman. “These songs are about a really different moment in my life than my earlier work, which was more rooted in being young, innocent, curious––I was reflecting on the past and the magic of youth.” “Song for Sandy” was written for British singer Sandy Denny who died shortly after the birth of her daughter. Triggered by the drowned Syrian toddler who washed up on a Turkish shore, Alela penned the haunting “Emigré” in response to the international refugee crisis. Moody “Never Easy” tackles Alela’s complex relationship with her own mother, a recurring theme throughout her albums.
While her music speaks fiercely for itself, Alela also hopes it prompts discussions about what we expect from women artists. “As women, our music is sold based on our sex-appeal,” she says. “There’s a lack of spaces for women to move into that aren’t based on appearance. Those are conversations I’m interested in having.”
In the end, Cusp provokes those questions as it honors days left behind, embraces the complexity of today, and explores hope for what’s to come. “A song can start out a certain way and then grow into itself, change, and become something you didn’t expect it to be,” Alela says. So can a woman.
Punk Slime Recordings are proud to present Holiday Ghosts and their self-titled debut album, which was released on September 22nd 2017, on vinyl and digitally. Holiday Ghosts are based in Falmouth on the south coast of England and originally started out as the solo project of Sam Stacpoole of The Black Tambourines, with the rest of the line-up evolving since 2012.
Holiday Ghosts is now a full collaboration between Sam and girlfriend Katja Rackin, also featuring various members of The Red Cords, The Golden Dregs and William Weak, playing a stripped back and primitive style of rock n roll, with influences from acts such as Modern Lovers, The Clean, Violent Femmes and The Velvet Underground.
The debut LP Holiday Ghosts showcases a mix of tracks written by Sam Stacpoole, Katja Racking and CharlieMurphy (also of The Red Cords, Freak Genes, Murph & The Gazorpos). It was recorded over two years at Troubador Studio in Falmouth on 8 track quarter inch tape and also features Ben Woods on bass. The album steps away from today’s heavy, fuzzed out guitar riffs and drones, and instead shows a leaner, snappier and more playful sound.
released September 22, 2017
Katja Rackin: Vocals and Drums
Samuel Stacpoole : Vocals, Guitars, Organ, Clav, Bass and Percussion
Charlie Murphy : Guitars , Vocals
Ben Woods: plays bass on tracks 1,4,5,7,8,10,12 and sings backing vocals on tracks 1 and 5
Michael Clark: plays bass on track 9
Jake Willbourne: plays Organ on track 3
“Bumpers” was a double sampler album from Island Records, released in Europe and Australasia in 1970; there were minor variations in track listings within Europe but the Australian release was fundamentally different. The title refers to the training shoes which can be seen on the front of the album cover but there may also be a less obvious reference to the meaning “unusually large, abundant or excellent”.
The album is left to present itself; there are no sleeve notes, the gatefold interior consists of a photograph showing publicity shots of the featured acts attached to the bole of a tree, without any identification. This image is flanked by the track listings, but even there, the information given is unreliable. Unlike its predecessors You Can All Join In and Nice Enough To Eat, there are no credits for cover art (the cover art was by Tony Wright, his first sleeve for Island), photography or design. The impression is left that the album’s production was rushed, presumably to leave enough lead-time to promote the albums featured. The English version of the album came out in two pressings, one with the pink label and “i” logo, the other with the label displaying a palm motif on a white background and a pink rim, each version with some minor variations in the production of individual tracks.
In the late sixties British record labels started to release a selection of their artists’ material on records known as samplers. These were not intended as anthologies or compilations – the purpose was to allow listeners the opportunity to sample a range of acts at a reduced price, showcasing in particular those for whom there was not a conventional singles market and hence little opportunity for radio airplay in the UK. Columbia’s ‘The Rock Machine Turns You On’ and Liberty Records ‘Gutbucket’ . Island Records produced a series of gems from ‘Nice Enough to Eat’ and ‘You Can All Join In’ in 1969, to ‘Bumpers’ in 1970 and ‘El Pea’ in 1971. ‘Bumpers’ was, as it’s name would suggest, the pick of the crop, with an eclectic yet cohesive collection of music across two 33rpm vinyl discs. Priced at actually 29/11 cover price . The album came out in two pressings, one with the pink label and “i” logo, the other with the label displaying a palm motif on a white background and a pink rim.
Side One
“Every Mother’s Son” – Traffic (from John Barleycorn Must Die (ILPS 9116)) (7:06)
“Love” – Bronco (from Bronco (ILPS 9134)) (4:42)
“I Am the Walrus” – Spooky Tooth (from The Last Puff (ILPS 9117)) (6:20)
“Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gauranga” – Quintessence (Live version of track, not released elsewhere at the time, but available as ‘bonus’ track on CD version of album Quintessence (REPUK 1016) (5:15)
“Nice Enough to Eat” is a budget priced sampler album released by Island Records in 1969. Continuing the policy set by its predecessor You Can All Join In, the album presented tracks from the latest albums by their then established artists including Free, Traffic, and Jethro Tull, and introduced tasters from newer signings to the label, notably Nick Drake and King Crimson. The inclusion of the Nick Drake track, “Time Has Told Me”, has been credited with providing the first opportunity for many record buyers to hear Drake’s music.
It was priced as low as 14 shillings and 6 pence (£0.72), less than half of the standard album price at the time. The album is described as a “somewhat incoherent sampler of folk-rock, prog rock, and prog-tinged hard rock”, but with a “stellar artist lineup”
It was combined with You Can All Join In for a CD Re-release in August 1992 entitled “Nice Enough To Join In”
The cover was designed by Mike Sida, who had already provided the cover for Spooky Two, and went on to produce several further classic Island album covers including Free’s Fire and Water and Traffic’s “John Barleycorn Must Die”. The front cover’s simple motif of names of featured bands spelt out in alphabet sweets (in a combination of blue/biscuit colours alone) is subverted on the rear cover, where most of the letters have been dispersed and replaced by what seem to be brightly coloured tablets. The presence of (at least parts of) medicine capsules might make a suspicious observer suspect a reference to drugs.
“You Can All Join In” was a budget priced sampler album, released in the UK by Island Records in 1968. It was priced at 14 shillings and 6 pence (£0.72), and reached no. 18 on the UK Albums Chart that year
It was arguably instrumental in breaking world-class bands such as Free, Jethro Tull and Traffic to a wider audience. It represented one of the most unexpected marketing triumphs of the age — an (admittedly budget-priced) gathering of underground unknowns riding the label’s own reputation for keeping its finger on the pulse, and out-performing many of the era’s bona fide superstars. Wynder K. Frog, Art, Tramline, Clouds these were not names one normally expected to find hogging the number 18 slot on the chart.
Yet, place familiarity (or the lack thereof) aside, and You Can All Join In is one of those seamless compilations that simply cannot be improved upon. A dozen tracks highlight the best — and that is the best — of Island Record’s recent and forthcoming output, from much-anticipated debut albums by Jethro Tull, Free, and Spooky Tooth to the sophomore effort by Fairport Convention. There’s also a healthy taste of the label’s most-successful-so-far signing, Traffic, as a leaf from Steve Winwood’s back pages — the Spencer Davis Group’s “Somebody Helps Me” joins Tramline’s cover of “Pearly Queen” and Traffic’s own “You Can All Join In” (yes, indeed, this collection’s title track). one of those seamless compilations that simply cannot be improved upon. A dozen tracks highlight the best – and that is the best – of Island’s recent and forthcoming output, from much-anticipated debut albums .
The early ’70s were the golden age of British record-label samplers, with Island themselves following through with three, Vertigo weighing in with the legendary “Suck It and See”, and CBS’ redoubtable Fill Your Head With Rock ranking among a myriad others. None, however, echoed either the success or the resonance of You Can All Join In.
The Cover Designed by Hipgnosis and although not as imaginative as some of their later work, the front cover photograph was taken in Hyde Park and is said to feature “every single one of the Island artistes … bleary eyed after a party. The rear cover consists merely of a track listing and monochrome images of the covers of eight of the sampled albums .
Clive Bunker, 2 Neil Hubbard, 3 Gary Wright 4 Glenn Cornick 5 Bruce Rowland 6 Martin Barre 7 Mick Weaver 8 Ian Anderson 9 Patrick Campbell-Lyons 10 Ashley Hutchings 11 Alex Spyropoulos 12 Chris Wood 13 Richard Thompson 14 Ian Matthews 15 Steve Winwood 16 Ian A. Anderson 17 Jim Capaldi 18 Mike Harrison 19 Martin Lamble 20 Simon Nicol 21 Harry Hughes 22 Rebop Kwaku Baah 23 Chris Mercer 24 Simon Kirke 25 Paul Rodgers 26 Billy Ritchie 27 Andy Fraser 28 Ian Ellis 29 Sandy Denny
It was combined with the follow-up, Nice Enough To Eat for a CD Re-release in August 1992 entitled Nice Enough To Join In (Island Records IMCD 150).
Side One
“A Song For Jeffrey” Jethro Tull – (Alternative mix, original version from This Was) (ILPS 9085)
“Sunshine Help Me” Spooky Tooth – (from It’s All About Spooky Tooth) (ILPS 9080)
“I’m a Mover” Free – (from Tons of Sobs) (ILPS 9089)
“What’s That Sound” Art – (from Supernatural Fairy Tales) (ILP 967)
“I just fell in love with a song,” Björk whisper-sings about two people building a long-distance romantic relationship by sending each other mp3s. “Blissing Me”’s music mirrors that story, combining the organic swirl of attraction (a harp and multi-layered vocals) with cold technology as a foundation (seizures of synths and beats contributed by collaborator Arca). In the end, Björk isn’t sure if she loves the person, the music or the thrill of discovery: “Did I just fall in love with love?”
“Blissing Me” follows the release of Utopia’s first single, “The Gate.”
Directed by Tim Walker and Emma Dalzell and shot in one single take in Iceland, Björk is seen alone against a white backdrop, which highlights her gorgeous floral-themed hair ornaments framing her face and her light blue, gauzy dress. The setting mirrors the romanticism of the song as she emphasizes the emotions through her delicate movements.
The lush “Blissing Me” is punctuated by cascading, plucked harp melodies that buoy Björk’s story of paramours falling in love through music. She sings of “two music nerds, obsessing” and “Sending each other MP3s/ Falling in love to our song.”
“I fall in love with his songs,” she lilts before multilayered vocals build and weave dramatic tension into the song as she ponders whether the love will endure.
Utopia is the follow-up to Björk’s 2015 album, Vulnicura. Where the latter album traced the disintegration of her 13-year relationship, she’s described the new album as her “Tinder album.” “It’s about that search (for utopia) – and about being in love,” Björk said. “Spending time with a person you enjoy is when the dream becomes real.”
The addictive and swaggering Beehive is the latest powerful track to be shared from the Mark Lanegan Band’s upcoming new record Gargoyle ( released 28th April on Heavenly Recordings).
There’s a singer with a voice 50 fathoms deep and the consistency of vitrified teak, who has been known to go to extremes in search of a song. Across continents, over oceans, through multiple time zones. From West Hollywood to… Tunbridge Wells. A long way – but Mark Lanegan knows the directions.
Early in 2016, Mark was at home in Los Angeles, working on some ideas for what might turn into his next album. He wasn’t too thrilled by what he was coming up with. Then he got an email from a friend, an English musician named Rob Marshall, thanking Mark for contributing to a new project he was putting together, Humanist. The pair first met in 2008, when Marshall’s former band Exit Calm supported Soulsavers, who Mark was singing with at the time. Now Rob was offering to write Mark some music to return the favour.
“I was like, Hey man, I’m getting ready to make a record, if you’ve got anything?’” Mark recalls. “Three days later he sent me *10 things… !”
In the meantime, Mark had written Blue Blue Sea, a rippling mood piece that he thought might be a more fruitful direction for his new record, and had the idea for a song called First Day Of Winter that felt like an apt closer. “It’s almost always how my records start,” he explains. “I let the first couple of songs tell me what the next couple should sound like, and it’s really the same process when I’m writing words. Whatever my first couple of lines are tell me what the next couple should be. I’ve always built things like that, sort of like making a sculpture I guess. Start with the raw material and let that point me in the direction I want to go. So, once I was pointed in that direction, the music that came from other sources, from Rob, I just went for the ones that helped me build this narrative that I had started already.”
Within an hour, Mark had written words and vocal lines for two of the pieces Rob had cooked up at Mount Sion Studios in Kent and pinged through the virtual clouds to California. Rob’s music fitted perfectly with the direction Mark had been pondering: in essence, a more expansive progression from the moody Krautrock-influenced electronica textures of his two previous albums, Blues Funeral and Phantom Radio. Eventually, Rob Marshall would co-write six of the songs on the new Mark Lanegan Band album. “I was very thankful to become reacquainted with him,”
The remainder of the album was written, recorded and produced by Lanegan’s longtime musical amanuensis Alain Johannes at his 11 AD base in West Hollywood. Everything was done and dusted within a month, unusually fast by Lanegan’s recent standards. Both Blues Funeral and Phantom Radio unfurled at leisurely pace over several months. But this time Johannes had only a fixed window of opportunity due to his ongoing touring commitments as a member of P.J. Harvey’s band. But Mark was sufficiently happy with the material to move swiftly, a reflection of contentment with his abilities as a singer and writer, which have now produced a huge body of work spanning a period of more than 30 years: whether it be his own solo records, or collaborative recordings with others, or going back to his legendary first band, the Screaming Trees.
By his own admission, as a young man Mark Lanegan used to drive himself crazy when it came to writing songs. Then again, the younger Lanegan lived a crazy life. He grew up in the small Washington State farm town of Ellensburg, in and out of jail for various offenses– aged 20 a doctor told him he would be dead by 30 unless he addressed his alcohol intake. Lanegan would joke that his subsequent hard drugs addiction saved his life. He saw more violence in the Screaming Trees than in any correctional institution: the band he joined in 1984 whirled around a vortex of sibling strife as its songwriting brothers punched their way through a succession of progressively more engaging albums, until 1992’s Sweet Oblivion brought the Trees a modicum of commercial success to match the respect they had earned among Seattle scene peers like Nirvana.
His latest offering, titled Gargoyle. While sharing roots with its two predecessors, there’s a significant up-shift in the swaggering powerlode of such keynote songs as Nocturne and Beehive, while the lyrics’ tonal palette is more varied. Beehive, for instance, is a thrilling replicant biker anthem, riffed up and reverberant to the hilt, but you can sense Lanegan’s eyebrow arched throughout as he intones “Honey just gets me stoned”, or the priceless couplet, “Hanging down from above/Everywhere I look it’s a bummer.” The album title comes from a lyric in Blue Blue Sea – “Gargoyle perched on gothic spire” – and was chosen for its hint of self-deprecation.
“I don’t know if ‘whimsical’ is the correct term,” laughs Mark, “but it seemed fitting. I’m most proud of the songs that are atypical to stuff that I’ve done in the past. So I really like Old Swan, because it’s an expression of positivity, which is completely anti-anything I’ve done before!” He laughs. “Y’know, I haven’t played this record for too many people yet. I played it for Greg Dulli, who played on some of it, and he was like, ‘Wow, I had to listen to it twice – it sounds like he’s having a good time…’ So for that same reason I like Beehive, and Emperor…”
Emperor is more startling still: a psychedelic music hall ditty, featuring Josh Homme on backing vocals and heavily redolent of the Kinks.
“Oh, I love the Kinks,” says Mark. “I listen to the Kinks probably every three days or so. I also love that song because Josh is singing on it, and I always love singing with him. But really, I like all three of those songs because they’re… I guess ‘light-hearted’ is not the right term, but just less dark than what I’m normally doing. And there’s nothing wrong with that either, but for some reason those three came out that way and I’m more psyched about them.”
Old Swan is Gargoyle’s perfect finale: a pulsing incantation, an epic hymn to the life that’s lived – and She who provides it. The lyric feels like Lanegan’s most personal – even spiritual.
“Clean/Through the eternal/Through dead seasons/Sail to the sun/My mother and my queen/Honest and serene.”
There’s a chuckle from the author of these words as he hears them read out loud. It’s been a long journey travelled, not always easy, but in 2017, at the age of 52, he’s got the look of permanence about him. Like that gargoyle on the gothic spire.
“Clean, through the eternal…” Mark Lanegan? With his reputation?
Mark Lanegan takes the S-bahn to meet Alain Johannes, Jack Irons and Josh Homme in Iggy-ville. Channeling the former Stooge over a razor bounce, Lanegan bellows his disgust for the man at the top. If there ever was a voice that could topple giant empires, it’s this one.
Mark Lanegan is an American alternative musician and singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan began his musical career in 1984, forming the grunge band Screaming Trees. He now has a career as a solo artist.
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