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BACK CATALOGUE - D
Danielson can move from the 'proto minimalist eccentric gospel', to 'prog metal dread' to 'music hall choir' to 'indie rock one man band' in one fell swoop. The vision in his music and recordings is astounding. This two CD set covers the best of the first 10 Years Of Danielson, The Danielson Family and Br. Danielson from 1994 to 2004. It contains rare live and session recordings as well as studio performances from across the years, all within a beautiful 2CD package.
Brilliant Light, the follow-up to 2015’s award winning album ‘What Kind Of Love’, features 18 songs over two CDs/LPs. Swift Street is the first song to be shared from Brilliant Light. The song is deeply personal to Danny George Wilson who co-wrote it with Polly Paulusma and Carra Bacon. “Swift Street is the house where my mother grew up’’, Danny tells us.“The song is about 3 different photographs – one of me and my brothers playing in a billy cart in the driveway, the second is of my grandfather aged 14 standing with his mother outside his childhood home in Aberdeen – he left for Australia after the Second World War. The third is of my folks in the garden of the house in Swift Street before they left to live in London. Each photograph takes a verse. I was nervous about my mum hearing it, but she loves it.’’
TRACK LISTING
Disc: 1
1. Waiting For The Right Time
2. Bring Me To My Knees
3. It Hit Me
4. You'll Remember Me
5. Swift Street
6. Consider Me
7. Coley Point
8. It's Just A Game (That We Were Playing)
9. Never In The Moment
10. Gotta Get Things Right In My Life
Disc: 2
1. Waiting For The Wheels To Come Off
2. Don't Walk Away
3. Hey Don’t Lose Your Nerve
4. Everything We Need
5. Let The Water Wash Over You (Don't You Know)
6. Long Distance Tears
7. The Circus Made The Town
8. Flying By The Seat Of Our Pants
Bonus Album: 'Photogene' (Indies Exclusive 3CD & 3LP Editions Only):
1. Brixton Market
2. Cathedral Rocks
3. Jeffrey Street
4. Tomorrow's Another Day
5. Herne Hill
6. Sunblinded
7. Granville Arcade
8. The Effra Coffin
9. Just A Game Reprise
10. Gonna Be Alright
11. Columbia Road Market
‘Los Campeones en Vivo’ finds Danny and The Champions of the World high in the mountains of Asturias in Spain. A document of a magical night in 2018, a ragged, sweaty and emotional performance captured on tape and now available on a double CD through Loose Records. It encapsulates and celebrates the band’s ongoing mutual love affair with Spain… which has seen the band play to thousands at the famous Azkena Festival and to packed venues across the country.
“The people arrived out of nowhere and they danced and sang along all night...they blew us away. It was without doubt a night to remember, impossible to forget. It was beyond what any rock and roll band should rightfully expect"
“The people arrived out of nowhere and they danced and sang along all night...they blew us away. It was without doubt a night to remember, impossible to forget. It was beyond what any rock and roll band should rightfully expect"
TRACK LISTING
DISC 1
1. Let The Water Wash Over You (Don’t You Know)
2. Consider Me
3. Never In The Moment
4. This Is Not A Love Song
5. Stay True
6. Waiting For The Right Time
7. It’s Just A Game (That We Were Playing)
8. Coley Point
9. Brothers In The Night
10. Every Beat Of My Heart
DISC 2
1. Gotta Get Things Right In My Life
2. Remember Me
3. Clear Water
4. (Never Stop Building) That Old Space Rocket
5. Everything We Need
6. Long Distance Tears
7. Restless Feet
‘Stay True’ is the fourth album from Danny & The Champions Of The World. It's also Danny George Wilson’s eleventh album which includes six long players from the much loved Grand Drive plus a solo outing (as Danny George Wilson) entitled ‘Famous Mad Mile’. Danny has been touring the world and making critically acclaimed records for nearly 20 years now, the first Grand Drive release was on Loose back in 1997.
‘Stay True’ was recorded this year over five days at North London’s Reservoir Studios with Champs bass player Chris Clarke (ex Rockingbirds) and Danny at the helm. Danny describes the scene: “catching sleep on the control room sofa, recording deep into the night, friends and musicians dropping by, inspired by the great soul, country and rock n roll of Stax, Muscle Shoals, The Band, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, Dion DiMucci, Van Morrison…Ronnie Lane meets Ronnie Spector!”
‘Stay True’ was recorded this year over five days at North London’s Reservoir Studios with Champs bass player Chris Clarke (ex Rockingbirds) and Danny at the helm. Danny describes the scene: “catching sleep on the control room sofa, recording deep into the night, friends and musicians dropping by, inspired by the great soul, country and rock n roll of Stax, Muscle Shoals, The Band, Dan Penn & Spooner Oldham, Dion DiMucci, Van Morrison…Ronnie Lane meets Ronnie Spector!”
Five years after its completion, Munster is very proud to present the third and final full length by Danny & The Nightmares, described by Daniel Johnston as his "best album ever!"
It had been close to a year since they had gotten together to play music. The Nightmares set up in Danny's garage and pressed record. Danny had a couple of ideas for songs. After those were played through, a few more songs came forth. When the music was over and they listened to play-back, they realized they had recorded a core of songs to constitute a new album. Never knowing which end of the compass they might bend in any particular night of playing, Danny and the Nightmares recorded everything. Over the years they recorded on micro-cassettes, reel to reel, boom boxes, and a four track recorder. This time they had recorded on a digital machine. Over those years they had kept it close. They played and recorded at the Haunted House, or in Danny's garage. With snickers and grins, they knew they had a strong enough set of songs to elaborate on what they had recorded. They toted the machine to a string quartet. As they stood outside, they smiled while listening to the strings layering the songs.
Danny and the Nightmares then returned to a couple of unfinished songs that weren't sitting still in the balance when they had submitted what was to become "Freak Brain". With the capacities of the new machine, they also decided to rework a couple of songs that had already been released, and struck in the excitement, recorded a couple more new numbers. In more spells of revelry came another album, the "Death of Satan".
It has been five years since the album was completed. Daniel has mentioned it in interviews while promoting his solo career, stoking the curiosity of some his fans. The distracters claim that Danny and the Nightmares are not good for Daniel's image. Conversely, some fans have claimed that what he does with Danny and the Nightmares is like an 'alter ego' to his other work. It is tough to argue with his lyrics, "My friends really are the best in me." That is pretty much what it is, three friends that Rock 'N' Rolled when they could. If the album is good enough for them, well, they are obliged to share it. Danny and the Nightmares is "dead". The Death of Satan is their third and final full length album
It had been close to a year since they had gotten together to play music. The Nightmares set up in Danny's garage and pressed record. Danny had a couple of ideas for songs. After those were played through, a few more songs came forth. When the music was over and they listened to play-back, they realized they had recorded a core of songs to constitute a new album. Never knowing which end of the compass they might bend in any particular night of playing, Danny and the Nightmares recorded everything. Over the years they recorded on micro-cassettes, reel to reel, boom boxes, and a four track recorder. This time they had recorded on a digital machine. Over those years they had kept it close. They played and recorded at the Haunted House, or in Danny's garage. With snickers and grins, they knew they had a strong enough set of songs to elaborate on what they had recorded. They toted the machine to a string quartet. As they stood outside, they smiled while listening to the strings layering the songs.
Danny and the Nightmares then returned to a couple of unfinished songs that weren't sitting still in the balance when they had submitted what was to become "Freak Brain". With the capacities of the new machine, they also decided to rework a couple of songs that had already been released, and struck in the excitement, recorded a couple more new numbers. In more spells of revelry came another album, the "Death of Satan".
It has been five years since the album was completed. Daniel has mentioned it in interviews while promoting his solo career, stoking the curiosity of some his fans. The distracters claim that Danny and the Nightmares are not good for Daniel's image. Conversely, some fans have claimed that what he does with Danny and the Nightmares is like an 'alter ego' to his other work. It is tough to argue with his lyrics, "My friends really are the best in me." That is pretty much what it is, three friends that Rock 'N' Rolled when they could. If the album is good enough for them, well, they are obliged to share it. Danny and the Nightmares is "dead". The Death of Satan is their third and final full length album
‘You Are Not A Stranger Here,’ the long-awaited new album by Danny & the Champions of the World, is the sound of a band exploring new and surprising musical terrain. Their seventh studio release and first since 2017’s ‘Brilliant Light,’ it’s produced by Champs keyboard player Thomas Collison and features frontman Danny George Wilson’s most compelling songs to date.
TRACK LISTING
1. Talking A Good Game
2. Kicking Tyres
3. Last Exit
4. Every Door You Have Ever Opened
5. I'm In Love
6. Future Past
7. In Search Of Koji
8. The Robot Cries
9. The Poetics Of Space
10. Soon Or Later
Dans Dans are a group consisting of Bert Dockx (Flying Horseman) Fred Lyenn (bass player for Mark Lanegan, Duke Garwood, Shelley Hirsch and Petra J) and Steven Cassiers (Dez Mona) and are “bound by a mutual love for improvisation and an intuitive musical kinship”. They are a three-piece from Belgium, split between Antwerp and Brussels who have deep-planted roots in improvised free-jazz and for whom “No pre-determined arrangement is strictly respected at any time.” It’s a dichotomously regimented approach in which by setting such an unbreakable rule it actually allows the group to experiment extensively and to not be bound by genre, despite regularly moving through plenty of them in their music - be it at break-neck speed via careering psychedelic post-rock or through nocturnal ambient echoes. The very nature and fundamental essence of Dans Dans, and 3, lies in unpredictability, or as Lyenn himself says, “Arrangements are rather indications than rigid rules and boundaries. Anything is susceptible to change.”
Mystery and ambiguity were driving factors behind Dans Dans approach to 3, as Dockx points out, “Dans Dans is an organic fusion of three individuals each with their own specific musical cultures. It’s not a compromise though, rather some kind of mysterious but natural cosmic bond - without boundaries.” The resulting record is one that switches paces, moods and tempos as frequently as it does genres. Attempting to pinpoint an overall mood captured on the record is tough but Dockx tries, “The music is often dark and moody, but - for me - there's great beauty to be found in the shadows, and all art is about mood.” In their own words the end product of 3 is “Jazz without stuffiness, rock without blinkers and avant-garde without pretentiousness.”
3 is the group’s third album in two years, capturing a band in the midst of a creative flurry, some of which is down to the jazz-tinged roots of the group, as Dockx says, “Even though Dans Dans doesn't sound like a jazz band, the modus operandi of the group is still quite jazz-like and jazz musicians often release several albums per year, which is possible because of the improvisational and spontaneous nature of the music.” With Lyenn adding, “It’s that momentum of creation that we like to present, whether it’s live or on record.”
The name of the new album 3 says a lot: more than ever before, Dans Dans is about three people interweaving and connecting, creating music together, shaping their ideas into single, cohesive arrangements. Harmony is not necessarily the key though; Lyenn, Cassiers and Dockx approach each other like circling wild dogs: testing, challenging and confronting one another.
Dans Dans, aside from offering vast and varied insights into musical experimentation via the end result of 3, also offer something of a snapshot of life in Belgium and perhaps a slightly split and varied artistic culture within it, one that adds to the group’s own unique output, as Bert tells us, ”Belgium is a small country, nobody really cares what's happening here. There’s little chauvinism, especially compared to larger countries. Inside this tiny and very young country, there are two official languages, and at least two main cultures that barely understand each other. Our national identity is weird and fucked up, and full of blind spots and misunderstandings. This probably leaves its mark on the music created here.”
Mystery and ambiguity were driving factors behind Dans Dans approach to 3, as Dockx points out, “Dans Dans is an organic fusion of three individuals each with their own specific musical cultures. It’s not a compromise though, rather some kind of mysterious but natural cosmic bond - without boundaries.” The resulting record is one that switches paces, moods and tempos as frequently as it does genres. Attempting to pinpoint an overall mood captured on the record is tough but Dockx tries, “The music is often dark and moody, but - for me - there's great beauty to be found in the shadows, and all art is about mood.” In their own words the end product of 3 is “Jazz without stuffiness, rock without blinkers and avant-garde without pretentiousness.”
3 is the group’s third album in two years, capturing a band in the midst of a creative flurry, some of which is down to the jazz-tinged roots of the group, as Dockx says, “Even though Dans Dans doesn't sound like a jazz band, the modus operandi of the group is still quite jazz-like and jazz musicians often release several albums per year, which is possible because of the improvisational and spontaneous nature of the music.” With Lyenn adding, “It’s that momentum of creation that we like to present, whether it’s live or on record.”
The name of the new album 3 says a lot: more than ever before, Dans Dans is about three people interweaving and connecting, creating music together, shaping their ideas into single, cohesive arrangements. Harmony is not necessarily the key though; Lyenn, Cassiers and Dockx approach each other like circling wild dogs: testing, challenging and confronting one another.
Dans Dans, aside from offering vast and varied insights into musical experimentation via the end result of 3, also offer something of a snapshot of life in Belgium and perhaps a slightly split and varied artistic culture within it, one that adds to the group’s own unique output, as Bert tells us, ”Belgium is a small country, nobody really cares what's happening here. There’s little chauvinism, especially compared to larger countries. Inside this tiny and very young country, there are two official languages, and at least two main cultures that barely understand each other. Our national identity is weird and fucked up, and full of blind spots and misunderstandings. This probably leaves its mark on the music created here.”
TRACK LISTING
A1 Zephyr
A2 Take A Close Look
A3 Fleurette Africaine
A4 Bloed En Dromen
B1 Memento Mori
B2 Coffee Grounds
B3 Miraggio
B4 Htes To Vradi Sto Teke Mas
Super cool one-off collector’s pressing in a fold out paper sleeve and specially silk-screened ‘Punk 45’ outer sleeve.
Exact reproduction of this excellent two-sider (double B-side) ‘The Only Sound’ / ‘New Musical Express’, the debut punk single by Dansette Damage from Birmingham, originally released on the tiny Shoestring Records in early 1978.
The tracks were produced incognito by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. “Robert put all needles in the red which is why it sounds so raw! Also, we couldn’t sing and you can hear Robert’s high falsetto at the top end, trying to keep us lot in tune!” said the band.
Original copies of this record sell for over £100, so here is a chance to see and hear what all the fuss is about.
Dansette Damage’s ‘NME’ features on Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess’.
Exact reproduction of this excellent two-sider (double B-side) ‘The Only Sound’ / ‘New Musical Express’, the debut punk single by Dansette Damage from Birmingham, originally released on the tiny Shoestring Records in early 1978.
The tracks were produced incognito by Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin. “Robert put all needles in the red which is why it sounds so raw! Also, we couldn’t sing and you can hear Robert’s high falsetto at the top end, trying to keep us lot in tune!” said the band.
Original copies of this record sell for over £100, so here is a chance to see and hear what all the fuss is about.
Dansette Damage’s ‘NME’ features on Soul Jazz Records’ ‘Punk 45: I’m A Mess’.
TRACK LISTING
The Only Sound
New Musical Express
The first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings of Danzig's debut solo album since its initial release in 1988. Tracks include 'Mother' and 'Twist of Cain'.
TRACK LISTING
1. Twist Of Cain
2. Not Of This World
3. She Rides
4. Soul On Fire
5. Am I Demon
6. Mother
7. Possession
8. End Of Time
9. The Hunter
10. Evil Thing
The first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings of Danzig's second album since its initial release in 1990. Tracks include 'Her Black Wings' and 'Devil's Plaything'.
TRACK LISTING
1. Long Way Back From Hell
2. Snakes Of Christ
3. Killer Wolf
4. Tired Of Being Alive
5. I'm The One
6. Her Black Wings
7. Devil's Plaything
8. 777
9. Blood And Tears
10. Girl
11. Pain In The World
The first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings of Danzig's third album since its initial release in 1992. Tracks include 'Dirty Black Summer' and 'Left Hand Black'. LP package includes gatefold LP jacket, printed sleeves and black, standard weight vinyl.
TRACK LISTING
1. Godless
2. Anything
3. Bodies
4. How The Gods Kill
5. Dirty Black Summer
6. Left Hand Black
7. Heart Of The Devil
8. Sistinas
9. Do You Wear The Mark
10. When The Dying Calls
The first official vinyl repressing from American Recordings of Danzig's fourth album since its initial release in 1994. Tracks include 'Cantspeak' and 'I Don't Mind The Pain'. LP package includes gatefold LP jacket, printed sleeves and black, standard weight vinyl.
TRACK LISTING
1. Brand New God
2. Little Whip
3. Cantspeak
4. Going Down To Die
5. Until You Call On The Dark
6. Dominion
7. Bringer Of Death
8. Sadistikal
9. Son Of The Morning Star
10. I Don't Mind The Pain
11. Stalker Song
12. Let It Be Captured
"El sonido bastardo", the first album by the enigmatic collective Danzón El Gato, establishes a fascinating dialogue between jazz, funk and roots music. Formed in the underground hotbed of Madrid's experimental scene, its members have decided, this time, to start from the groove in order to explore tradition.
Recorded in Madrid, "El sonido bastardo" is a kaleidoscope of rhythms and landscapes: echoes of North Africa, the tropics and Latin America intertwine with a rocky rhythm section, inspired equally by 1970s library music and golden era hip hop. Each track is a sonic journey loaded with influences that sometimes dissolve, leaving the listener in a borderline and polychromatic terrain, a reflection of Madrid itself, a huge city born from the confluence of cultures in which mixture is palpable at every corner.
The creative core of Danzón El Gato is formed by Javier Adán and Santiago Rapallo, two craftsmen of sound, far from the spotlight but always at the forefront. They met at the beginning of this century in Zure Gura, an experimental jazz band that fused Basque tradition with contemporary sounds. Since then, they have shared a journey in projects such as Dead Capo or UMD (Unidad Mínima de Destrucción), as well as having composed experimental pieces for cinema and even the Prado Museum.
Unexpectedly, shortly after the recording was finished, the studio in the Suanzes neighbourhood where the album was conceived was dismantled. The space in which the studio was located, which for years was an epicenter of sound experimentation, gave way to the relentless advance of the real estate market.
"El sonido bastardo" captures the essence of a city in constant transformation, where music comes and goes, anchored in tradition but with a cosmopolitan and exuberant look.
Recorded in Madrid, "El sonido bastardo" is a kaleidoscope of rhythms and landscapes: echoes of North Africa, the tropics and Latin America intertwine with a rocky rhythm section, inspired equally by 1970s library music and golden era hip hop. Each track is a sonic journey loaded with influences that sometimes dissolve, leaving the listener in a borderline and polychromatic terrain, a reflection of Madrid itself, a huge city born from the confluence of cultures in which mixture is palpable at every corner.
The creative core of Danzón El Gato is formed by Javier Adán and Santiago Rapallo, two craftsmen of sound, far from the spotlight but always at the forefront. They met at the beginning of this century in Zure Gura, an experimental jazz band that fused Basque tradition with contemporary sounds. Since then, they have shared a journey in projects such as Dead Capo or UMD (Unidad Mínima de Destrucción), as well as having composed experimental pieces for cinema and even the Prado Museum.
Unexpectedly, shortly after the recording was finished, the studio in the Suanzes neighbourhood where the album was conceived was dismantled. The space in which the studio was located, which for years was an epicenter of sound experimentation, gave way to the relentless advance of the real estate market.
"El sonido bastardo" captures the essence of a city in constant transformation, where music comes and goes, anchored in tradition but with a cosmopolitan and exuberant look.
TRACK LISTING
1. Una Epopeya Tranquila
2. Ronda
3. La Lucha (feat. Marina Y Su Melao)
4. Chapoteo
5. Amambay
6. Fuimos Invencibles
7. Patio De Los Leones
8. Twangy Morocco
9. Soopa
10. Aktimo Tu Se
11. A Tu Sa
12. La Tarara
It's been a while since we've heard from Dan Snaith's Daphni alias. "Cherry" arrives in splendid form, showing the producer in a relaxed and creative form - one that finds him allowing the machines to take a life of their own; tamed slightly by his subtle direction and wise interventions.
There's always been a kind of cross pollination between the organic and synthesized in Dan's work; whether it’s the manipulations of some quirky vocal snatch; the live drums contrasting with buzzing synthlines; it's that pursuit of humanoid expression that's kept us coming back for more and more from this dynamic and innovative producer. Working quickly and with new equipment, tracks spontaneously took a life of their own before Daphni worked to curtail them back to his own requirements - 'getting a snake to eat its own tale' as he puts it.
The perfect balance of club musics' forward expression and the infectious pop sensibilities carried by luminaries like Four Tet and Caribou; there's a charged energy to opening tracks "Arrow" and "Cherry" before the dazzlingly future-exotica-cum-club-banger "Always There" closes off side A with Balkanesque melodies and reversed synth fractals.
A soundscape of advanced synth sequencing and emotional response follows, opening the B-side in grandiose form before a phazed and filtered hook from a well known boogie track throws us into the Daphni tumble drier - blasting us next with squelchy jack beats on "Mania" and a ramped up modern French house hybrid "Take Two".
Side C contains three certifiable club tracks, stylishly dipping into strobe-lit house and techno. Meanwhile a swirl of discordance surrounds side D's opening track "Karplus" before "Amber" stutters and jerks; Daphni's subtle yet noticeable audioprint present and correct right till the end of the album. "Fly Away Concludes" in suitably ascending and epic fashion, a rocket blast to the outer galaxies courtesy of our faithful star commander. It's one hell of a double disc ride - constantly keeping us on our toes and gleaming into the future. Another triumph from this Canadian treasure.
There's always been a kind of cross pollination between the organic and synthesized in Dan's work; whether it’s the manipulations of some quirky vocal snatch; the live drums contrasting with buzzing synthlines; it's that pursuit of humanoid expression that's kept us coming back for more and more from this dynamic and innovative producer. Working quickly and with new equipment, tracks spontaneously took a life of their own before Daphni worked to curtail them back to his own requirements - 'getting a snake to eat its own tale' as he puts it.
The perfect balance of club musics' forward expression and the infectious pop sensibilities carried by luminaries like Four Tet and Caribou; there's a charged energy to opening tracks "Arrow" and "Cherry" before the dazzlingly future-exotica-cum-club-banger "Always There" closes off side A with Balkanesque melodies and reversed synth fractals.
A soundscape of advanced synth sequencing and emotional response follows, opening the B-side in grandiose form before a phazed and filtered hook from a well known boogie track throws us into the Daphni tumble drier - blasting us next with squelchy jack beats on "Mania" and a ramped up modern French house hybrid "Take Two".
Side C contains three certifiable club tracks, stylishly dipping into strobe-lit house and techno. Meanwhile a swirl of discordance surrounds side D's opening track "Karplus" before "Amber" stutters and jerks; Daphni's subtle yet noticeable audioprint present and correct right till the end of the album. "Fly Away Concludes" in suitably ascending and epic fashion, a rocket blast to the outer galaxies courtesy of our faithful star commander. It's one hell of a double disc ride - constantly keeping us on our toes and gleaming into the future. Another triumph from this Canadian treasure.
TRACK LISTING
1/A1 Arrow 3.07
2/A2 Cherry 5.55
3/A3 Always There 3.41
4/B1 Crimson 2.54
5/B2 Arp Blocks 2.09
6/B3 Falling 1:12
7/B4 Mania 3:36
8/B5 Take Two 3:19
9/C1 Mona 2:51
10/C2 Clavicle 3:33
11/C3 Cloudy 6:51
12/D1 Karplus 1:48
13/D2 Amber 3:50
14/D3 Fly Away 2:54
At the start of this summer, following a three-year hiatus for Daphni (punctuated only by his first ever collaborative Daphni track ‘Unidos’ alongside Sofia Kourtesis), he dropped ‘Sad Piano House’. The track represented something of a continuation in the Daphni catalogue, its roots growing from 'Cherry’s ‘Cloudy’ and its subsequent Kelbin remix, something in that song’s makeup having a profound effect when played on dancefloors by Snaith and countless others. ‘Sad Piano House’ deployed more intangibly irresistible bendy piano to equally satisfying effect and continues to achieve similarly rhapsodic dancefloor saturation.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between 'Cherry' and 'Butterfly' however of course sits 'Honey', the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.
Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
'Butterfly' is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.
One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on 'Butterfly' is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between 'Cherry' and 'Butterfly' however of course sits 'Honey', the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.
Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
'Butterfly' is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.
One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on 'Butterfly' is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.
TRACK LISTING
1. Sad Piano House
2. Clap Your Hands
3. Hang
4. Lucky
5. Waiting So Long
6. Napoleon’s Rock
7. Goodnight Baby
8. Talk To Me
9. Two Maps
10. Josephine
11. Miles Smiles
12. Goldie
13. Caterpillar
14. Shifty
15. Invention
16. Eleven
Daphni's classic debut 'Jiaolong' finally gets a repress after being long deleted for several years. Here's what we had to say about it all the way back in th ol' 2012:
"Debut long player from Daphni, aka Caribou on his own Jiaolong imprint. It's a stunning collection of techno, electronica and African influences."
"Debut long player from Daphni, aka Caribou on his own Jiaolong imprint. It's a stunning collection of techno, electronica and African influences."
TRACK LISTING
1.Yes, I Know
2. Cos-Ber-Zam - Ne Noya (Daphni Mix)
3. Ye Ye
4. Light
5. Pairs
6. Ahora
7. Jiao
8. Springs
9. Long
Daphni's 'Joli Mai' finally gets a repress after being long deleted for several years. Here's what r Baz had to say about it in 2017:
"It seems to be 'A thing' that Four Tet and Dan Snaith (Daphni / Caribou) release stuff very near each-other, and this is no exception. This time we get a fascinating and satisfying jaunt through funk, borderline ambient and downright tribal club tackle, peppered with the ever-present vocal snippets. Lovely."
"It seems to be 'A thing' that Four Tet and Dan Snaith (Daphni / Caribou) release stuff very near each-other, and this is no exception. This time we get a fascinating and satisfying jaunt through funk, borderline ambient and downright tribal club tackle, peppered with the ever-present vocal snippets. Lovely."
TRACK LISTING
1. Poly
2. Face To Face
3. Carry On
4. Vulture
5. Xing Tian
6. Vikram
7. Tin
8. The Truth
9. Hey Drum
10. Medellin
11. Joli Mai
12. Life's What You Make It
"If I knew I were alive, I could do so much better. If I knew what I had, then I could use it more wisely. If only I’d known before then I’d be in a better place already. If only."
London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases new EP, following on from his debut album Whelm. Named after album track Caroline and new track If I Knew I Were Alive, it also features remixes by fellow label mate Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Houndstooth’s own electronic producer Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow.
Caroline has always been a precious track for Douglas, one of the first tracks he recorded and a story in which he imagines his grandfather is writing to a loved one during the war. As the only song on his debut album that is stripped down to just his voice and piano playing, and it being a favourite amongst fans at his concerts, it was a natural choice as a first single.
The new track If I Knew I Were Alive Douglas wrote by creating beats, looping them and recording parts live. Dancing around to the beats in his room, he started singing melodies and coming up with ideas that he wouldn’t usually have, sitting at the piano. The idea that we can do a lot more if only we appreciated our own ability and opportunity encouraged Douglas to not take the track to anyone else to re-record it, but to work with what he had created himself.
“The recording has this demo quality, which I really enjoy. I love how revealing a demo can be. It seems to expose the fundamental ideas the songwriter had and the basic quality of the recording is very revealing. One of my favourite records is PJ Harvey’s ‘4 Track Demos’, where the songs are so stripped back that you can appreciate the finest details.” – Douglas Dare
Ryan Lee West, who crafted the Rival Consoles remix of album track Swim explains, “the track existed in a minimal state for a while, and I kept thinking something was missing. There's always something missing! And then out of casual chance, I was sorting through my portable recorder files, and I came across a recording of an installation that I did, which included four motors hitting glockenspiel or xylophone notes at random. I chopped it up in a few seconds and it worked perfectly. It adds texture and movement to the remix. But what's important about these sounds is that they are not in time. I think this remix creates sense of space, subtlety and physicality.”
"The original is so well put together, and the vocal so unique that it was a hard one to approach. I set out to reflect the beauty of the vocal in the intro, so that I could build it into something darker later on. This also mirrors the meaning of the vocal. The last sections are meant to evoke feelings of being washed away by a torrent” – Ross Tones about his Throwing Snow remix of Nile.
London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases new EP, following on from his debut album Whelm. Named after album track Caroline and new track If I Knew I Were Alive, it also features remixes by fellow label mate Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles and Houndstooth’s own electronic producer Ross Tones aka Throwing Snow.
Caroline has always been a precious track for Douglas, one of the first tracks he recorded and a story in which he imagines his grandfather is writing to a loved one during the war. As the only song on his debut album that is stripped down to just his voice and piano playing, and it being a favourite amongst fans at his concerts, it was a natural choice as a first single.
The new track If I Knew I Were Alive Douglas wrote by creating beats, looping them and recording parts live. Dancing around to the beats in his room, he started singing melodies and coming up with ideas that he wouldn’t usually have, sitting at the piano. The idea that we can do a lot more if only we appreciated our own ability and opportunity encouraged Douglas to not take the track to anyone else to re-record it, but to work with what he had created himself.
“The recording has this demo quality, which I really enjoy. I love how revealing a demo can be. It seems to expose the fundamental ideas the songwriter had and the basic quality of the recording is very revealing. One of my favourite records is PJ Harvey’s ‘4 Track Demos’, where the songs are so stripped back that you can appreciate the finest details.” – Douglas Dare
Ryan Lee West, who crafted the Rival Consoles remix of album track Swim explains, “the track existed in a minimal state for a while, and I kept thinking something was missing. There's always something missing! And then out of casual chance, I was sorting through my portable recorder files, and I came across a recording of an installation that I did, which included four motors hitting glockenspiel or xylophone notes at random. I chopped it up in a few seconds and it worked perfectly. It adds texture and movement to the remix. But what's important about these sounds is that they are not in time. I think this remix creates sense of space, subtlety and physicality.”
"The original is so well put together, and the vocal so unique that it was a hard one to approach. I set out to reflect the beauty of the vocal in the intro, so that I could build it into something darker later on. This also mirrors the meaning of the vocal. The last sections are meant to evoke feelings of being washed away by a torrent” – Ross Tones about his Throwing Snow remix of Nile.
London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases debut EP Seven Hours as the newest artist on Erased Tapes.
The EP was recorded in various spaces, including drummer/producer Fabian Prynn’s home-studio in South London. The four tracks are the first recordings the musicians have made together and with all songs written by Dare and all tracks engineered, mixed and produced by Prynn, it is a true collaboration.
With the songs beginning as poems and short prose, Dare later improvises melodies and piano parts. This process was continued by Prynn with all the percussive rhythms coming from improvising to the original pieces. The performances were captured using a cassette recorder, keeping recording fresh as full takes had to be committed to at the recording stage. This process led to unexpected parts and ideas that now are integral to the sound and feel of the EP.
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
‘‘I'm incredibly proud of this EP. I feel the songs have been captured in just the right way and I hope that, if only for 15 minutes, listeners will be able to escape; if they do, then I have done my job. It's a real thrill to be working with Erased Tapes, a label whose artists have inspired me from the beginning and whose ethos I share wholeheartedly. This is an exciting time to join the family and I'm truly privileged to be a part of it.’ – Douglas Dare
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Douglas Dare is a London-based singer-songwriter, originally from the coastal town of Bridport, South West England. The son of a piano teacher, Douglas began composing instrumental music from a young age but it was not until studying popular music at University in Liverpool in 2008 that he began songwriting. Douglas’ rich and haunting vocals are combined with lyrics crafted from his own poems and short prose, a writing style that gives his intimate songs wisdom far beyond his 23 years. After supporting Ólafur Arnalds on his recent 16-date European tour, Douglas is performing at a few selected festivals and will embark on a UK tour in support of his debut release on Erased Tapes.
The EP was recorded in various spaces, including drummer/producer Fabian Prynn’s home-studio in South London. The four tracks are the first recordings the musicians have made together and with all songs written by Dare and all tracks engineered, mixed and produced by Prynn, it is a true collaboration.
With the songs beginning as poems and short prose, Dare later improvises melodies and piano parts. This process was continued by Prynn with all the percussive rhythms coming from improvising to the original pieces. The performances were captured using a cassette recorder, keeping recording fresh as full takes had to be committed to at the recording stage. This process led to unexpected parts and ideas that now are integral to the sound and feel of the EP.
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
‘‘I'm incredibly proud of this EP. I feel the songs have been captured in just the right way and I hope that, if only for 15 minutes, listeners will be able to escape; if they do, then I have done my job. It's a real thrill to be working with Erased Tapes, a label whose artists have inspired me from the beginning and whose ethos I share wholeheartedly. This is an exciting time to join the family and I'm truly privileged to be a part of it.’ – Douglas Dare
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Douglas Dare is a London-based singer-songwriter, originally from the coastal town of Bridport, South West England. The son of a piano teacher, Douglas began composing instrumental music from a young age but it was not until studying popular music at University in Liverpool in 2008 that he began songwriting. Douglas’ rich and haunting vocals are combined with lyrics crafted from his own poems and short prose, a writing style that gives his intimate songs wisdom far beyond his 23 years. After supporting Ólafur Arnalds on his recent 16-date European tour, Douglas is performing at a few selected festivals and will embark on a UK tour in support of his debut release on Erased Tapes.
London-based singer-songwriter Douglas Dare releases his debut album Whelm on Erased Tapes. With the piano at the core, Dare vocalises his short prose and poems to a backdrop of drums, electronics and brass…
It was in November last year that the duo Douglas Dare and producer/percussionist Fabian Prynn decided to record an album, and by January they were listening to it. Finding themselves out of the home-studio for the first time, the pair recorded much of the album in Flood’s studio Assault & Battery in West London. Other touches were recorded back in Fabian’s home. With the comfort of familiar songs from his live set, such as Clockwork, Caroline and London’s Rose, the session was equally driven by the excitement of creating brand new tracks like Nile, Swim and Unrest in a new environment.
The recordings began with finding the perfect piano – a grand piano, battered and bruised, but with a beautiful sound. Flood’s studio provided a treasure trove of gear, including Dare’s favourite new instrument, the Mini Moog, which inspired bass parts on tracks like Unrest. Prynn engineered, produced and mixed the record, and with just the two of them involved from start to finish, their vision for the album remained clear and unclouded.
Lyrically, Whelm is often written from other people’s perspectives, with a few of the songs stemming from historical events. London’s Rose for example came from a poem Douglas wrote about the use of underground stations as bomb shelters during WWII; whilst Whitewash addresses the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, and Clockwork was inspired by the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analogue computer found in the ocean. Despite the weight to some of these subjects, Dare has always enjoyed the use of plain language that is simple and very human. Most of his songs begin with words, as it’s the stories that inspire the music.
It was in November last year that the duo Douglas Dare and producer/percussionist Fabian Prynn decided to record an album, and by January they were listening to it. Finding themselves out of the home-studio for the first time, the pair recorded much of the album in Flood’s studio Assault & Battery in West London. Other touches were recorded back in Fabian’s home. With the comfort of familiar songs from his live set, such as Clockwork, Caroline and London’s Rose, the session was equally driven by the excitement of creating brand new tracks like Nile, Swim and Unrest in a new environment.
The recordings began with finding the perfect piano – a grand piano, battered and bruised, but with a beautiful sound. Flood’s studio provided a treasure trove of gear, including Dare’s favourite new instrument, the Mini Moog, which inspired bass parts on tracks like Unrest. Prynn engineered, produced and mixed the record, and with just the two of them involved from start to finish, their vision for the album remained clear and unclouded.
Lyrically, Whelm is often written from other people’s perspectives, with a few of the songs stemming from historical events. London’s Rose for example came from a poem Douglas wrote about the use of underground stations as bomb shelters during WWII; whilst Whitewash addresses the Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, and Clockwork was inspired by the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analogue computer found in the ocean. Despite the weight to some of these subjects, Dare has always enjoyed the use of plain language that is simple and very human. Most of his songs begin with words, as it’s the stories that inspire the music.
English songsmith Douglas Dare returns with his third and most stripped back studio album to date, "Milkteeth". Produced by Mike Lindsay - founding member of Tunng and one half of LUMP with Laura Marling - in his studio in Margate in just twelve days, "Milkteeth" sees Douglas become confident and comfortable enough with his own identity to reflect on both the joys and pains of youth. In doing so, he has established himself as a serious 21st century singer-songwriter with an enduring lyrical poise and elegant minimalist sound.
Douglas Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. 'Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,' says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup and is draped with layers of white linen, acting the part of a Greek muse. 'I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.'
Where previously he has been known as a piano player, for "Milkteeth" Dare picked up a new instrument, the autoharp, and as soon as he sat down with it, songs poured out – he wrote the album’s first single "Silly Games", in under an hour. 'Instinctual feelings about childhood and innocence were the catalyst,' he explains. 'Then with the autoharp, it all just clicked – I could see the album laid out ahead of me.'
Dare’s music speaks of his own experiences of universal themes like love, loss, and childhood. Perhaps most importantly, his music gives a voice and a sanctuary to anyone who’s ever felt unusual or out of place. Whether he’s singing of the pain of those in the Magdalene Laundries as on Whelm, describing coming out to his parents on Aforger, or processing his own childhood isolation on Milkteeth, Dare has a graceful honesty and an abiding clarity of vision in his simple and distinctive sound.
Douglas Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. 'Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,' says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup and is draped with layers of white linen, acting the part of a Greek muse. 'I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.'
Where previously he has been known as a piano player, for "Milkteeth" Dare picked up a new instrument, the autoharp, and as soon as he sat down with it, songs poured out – he wrote the album’s first single "Silly Games", in under an hour. 'Instinctual feelings about childhood and innocence were the catalyst,' he explains. 'Then with the autoharp, it all just clicked – I could see the album laid out ahead of me.'
Dare’s music speaks of his own experiences of universal themes like love, loss, and childhood. Perhaps most importantly, his music gives a voice and a sanctuary to anyone who’s ever felt unusual or out of place. Whether he’s singing of the pain of those in the Magdalene Laundries as on Whelm, describing coming out to his parents on Aforger, or processing his own childhood isolation on Milkteeth, Dare has a graceful honesty and an abiding clarity of vision in his simple and distinctive sound.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Tender ballads of loss and hope, brittle instrumentation and Dare's rich syrupy vocals combine into an atmospherically rich but instrumentally minimalistic suite of heartfelt ballads and hypnotic, swimming bliss.TRACK LISTING
1. I Am Free
2. Red Arrows
3. Heavenly Bodies
4. The Piano Room
5. Silly Games
6. The Joy In Sarah’s Eyes
7. The Stairwell
8. Whereever You Are
9. The Window
10. The Playground
11. Run
Following his acclaimed debut "Whelm", London-based singer-songwriter and pianist Douglas Dare returns to Erased Tapes with his sophomore album "Aforger". In a digital age where memories are mimicked by pixels and identity is as malleable as static, Douglas Dare’s new album "Aforger" questions the boundaries between reality and fiction. Inspired by recent events and revelations encountered in his life these songs depict Dare at his most vulnerable, whilst simultaneously reflecting our own obsession with reality and technology back at us. Aforger was produced by long-time collaborator Fabian Prynn, mixed by Paul Gregory of Lanterns On The Lake and mastered at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. In the following conversation Douglas strips back the personal journeys and realisations which preceded its recording.
In a conversation with Douglas Dare on July 11th 2016:
The album title plays with the idea of a forger – someone creating imitations or copies, and reimagines them as the creator of something that’s no longer real. Prior to writing the record, I came out to my father and came out of a long relationship, both were hugely challenging for me and questioned my idea of identity and reality. These thoughts leaked out into the record and formed the core of Aforger. I was determined not to write a break-up album or repeat what I’d done before..
I grew up on quite an isolated farm in Dorset, surrounded by fields and not much besides. My mother taught piano from home and we didn’t have a computer, or the internet or mobile phones. In fact, my family still chooses not to use these things. It’s worlds apart from my life now in London where technology seems to dominate everything I do.
After finding out my boyfriend had been leading this double-life, I became obsessed with the question of what is real and George Orwell’s 1984 felt appropriate for me to re-read. Orwell explains this idea of reality control and Doublethink, and it struck a chord with me. The idea that truth can be steered or changed, and we might be able to believe two contradictory things at once. In my case, ignorance was my protection from the truth and ignorance really is bliss, until you’re no longer ignorant.
Binary talks about the idea that technology is allowing us to live on after we’re gone. A relative of mine whose parent passed away kept a picture of them on their phone as a background image. A friend saw this and asked ‘how can you have that there to constantly remind you of your loss?’ They replied, ‘no I have to, it shows me that they’re still here’. This resonated with me and I thought ‘okay, this is just an image to me but to them it’s more than a reminder or a reassurance, it’s a reality’. At the same time, I was finding myself haunted by the digital reminder of my ex-partner and wishing they would disappear. I had to realise that it’s all just pixels on a screen.
I think New York can be thought of as this fabricated, magical place. I was there with my boyfriend after touring the U.S., but when I came back to London I discovered all these lies and began questioning everything. I even questioned whether New York actually happened or not. New York is a song that’s literally describing that very real feeling of not knowing who or what to believe any more – scary and magical at the same time.
Lyrically I wanted to be as honest as possible. The album deals with so much dishonesty, so I felt the lyrics had to be the counterbalance. I was inspired by Björk’s album Vulnicura and how everything is almost awkward in its honesty. Like my first album, Aforger started as poetry, but I consciously tried to be less poetic. For instance, Oh Father is an example of complete unambiguity. It’s certainly the most personal song I’ve put out there, and the realisation that people may hear it makes me feel very vulnerable. That’s the most real feeling of all for me right now.
In a conversation with Douglas Dare on July 11th 2016:
The album title plays with the idea of a forger – someone creating imitations or copies, and reimagines them as the creator of something that’s no longer real. Prior to writing the record, I came out to my father and came out of a long relationship, both were hugely challenging for me and questioned my idea of identity and reality. These thoughts leaked out into the record and formed the core of Aforger. I was determined not to write a break-up album or repeat what I’d done before..
I grew up on quite an isolated farm in Dorset, surrounded by fields and not much besides. My mother taught piano from home and we didn’t have a computer, or the internet or mobile phones. In fact, my family still chooses not to use these things. It’s worlds apart from my life now in London where technology seems to dominate everything I do.
After finding out my boyfriend had been leading this double-life, I became obsessed with the question of what is real and George Orwell’s 1984 felt appropriate for me to re-read. Orwell explains this idea of reality control and Doublethink, and it struck a chord with me. The idea that truth can be steered or changed, and we might be able to believe two contradictory things at once. In my case, ignorance was my protection from the truth and ignorance really is bliss, until you’re no longer ignorant.
Binary talks about the idea that technology is allowing us to live on after we’re gone. A relative of mine whose parent passed away kept a picture of them on their phone as a background image. A friend saw this and asked ‘how can you have that there to constantly remind you of your loss?’ They replied, ‘no I have to, it shows me that they’re still here’. This resonated with me and I thought ‘okay, this is just an image to me but to them it’s more than a reminder or a reassurance, it’s a reality’. At the same time, I was finding myself haunted by the digital reminder of my ex-partner and wishing they would disappear. I had to realise that it’s all just pixels on a screen.
I think New York can be thought of as this fabricated, magical place. I was there with my boyfriend after touring the U.S., but when I came back to London I discovered all these lies and began questioning everything. I even questioned whether New York actually happened or not. New York is a song that’s literally describing that very real feeling of not knowing who or what to believe any more – scary and magical at the same time.
Lyrically I wanted to be as honest as possible. The album deals with so much dishonesty, so I felt the lyrics had to be the counterbalance. I was inspired by Björk’s album Vulnicura and how everything is almost awkward in its honesty. Like my first album, Aforger started as poetry, but I consciously tried to be less poetic. For instance, Oh Father is an example of complete unambiguity. It’s certainly the most personal song I’ve put out there, and the realisation that people may hear it makes me feel very vulnerable. That’s the most real feeling of all for me right now.
TRACK LISTING
1. Doublethink
2. Greenhouse
3. Oh Father
4. New York
5. The Edge
6. Binary
7. Stranger
8. Venus
9. Thinking Of Him
10. Rex
British artist Douglas Dare announces the release of his fourth album Omni. Seen by Douglas himself as a bold rebirth and embrace of the electronic, Omni is all at once a throbbing, avant-garde, queer, dark and cinematic record imbued with a love of rave culture and sense of fearless storytelling that’s deeply evocative. Omni will be released on May 10 via Erased Tapes. To mark the announcement, Douglas today shares the first taster of the record with ‘Mouth To Mouth’, a pulsing, synth-laden track that begs to be played loud. ‘Mouth To Mouth’ sees a collaboration with label mate Daniel Brandt who appears on production duties, with beats supplied by Rival Consoles. Speaking on the track, Douglas says, “life, death, fate and orgies; this is the heartfelt club track I always wanted to write.” Since 2013, Douglas has blurred classical, chamber-pop, folk and avant-garde to dazzling effect, with a startling voice that can stop you in your tracks. It’s why he’s played with luminaries like Nils Frahm, Perfume Genius and Ólafur Arnalds, and was selected by David Lynch and The Cure’s Robert Smith for their respective cultural festivals in Manchester (MIF) and London (Meltdown). But Douglas’s fourth album, Omni, is a fresh awakening. Encouraged by Erased Tapes founder Robert Raths, he decided to step away from acoustic instruments, especially the piano he grew up playing, and swapped them for synths and drum machines. His new music has much in common with Arca and the late SOPHIE, two artists for whom self-expression meant liberation. “I got to hang out in the studio with her,” says Douglas of the latter musician, “the way she made music made a big impression on me.” And yet Omni is steeped in the kind of deft storytelling, sweeping strings, elegant contrasts and fairytale atmosphere that marks Douglas out as a crucial and singular voice. It’s not often you hear a strutting electro banger that could have been straight out of 90s Soho, with vocal loops inspired by US experimentalist Meredith Monk. For Douglas, Omni is about reconciling all those different sides of himself – the songwriter, the raver, the lover, the observer. It’s a hugely queer record: seductive, sexy, lusty, untethered from the genre binary. “It’s even got sailors on it!” laughs Douglas. “You don’t get more queer than that.
'Surprise Wish' is the sophomore album from Burlington, Vermont indie-rock project Dari Bay and the band’s first release for Double Double Whammy. Following the cult-favorite debut 'Longest Day of the Year' (2023), songwriter Zack James sharpens the project’s sound into something more immediate and visceral: scuzzy guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and conversational vocals that feel both intimate and unguarded. Raised in Brattleboro, Vermont in a musical family, James has spent years immersed in the region’s DIY scene - playing with artists like Lily Seabird and Greg Freeman, writing in the band Robber Robber, and touring as a member of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. With Surprise Wish, he distills that experience into his most focused songwriting yet. Written largely alone over the course of a year while James finished college and balanced multiple projects, the album embraces a raw, homespun approach. Rather than chasing genre aesthetics, James leaned into instinct and immediacy, building songs around ideas that arrived suddenly and refused to leave. The result is a record that blends ’90s alt-rock, indie, and slacker rock into something both familiar and newly restless. Across its nine songs, 'Surprise Wish' captures the strange emotional terrain of young adulthood - a life shaped by the internet, isolation, friendship, near-disasters, and flashes of fragile hope. Tracks like the fuzzed-out rocker 'The Joke', the spiraling character study 'Chevy', and the cathartic single 'We’re Gonna Be Okay' pair distorted guitars with lyrics that feel searching, self-aware, and quietly funny. At once scrappy and assured, Surprise Wish is a portrait of a person coming into being.
TRACK LISTING
1. Finder
2. Video
3. Chevy
4. The Joke
5. How Can You Tell
6. We’re Gonna Be Ok
7. On Your Side
8. Bet On The Feeling
9. Background
"Jealous Enemies" b/w "Mid-Session Interval" is the debut recordings from the Captains, their unique (but strangely familiar) textured sound and breathy vocal harmonies is without a doubt an indication of greater things to come. There's an avant folk feel to this record, and hints of everything from Midlake to The Beta Band to Badly Drawn Boy.
Detroit High Energy Rock in its purest essence!!!! Niagara (DESTROY ALL MONSTERS) & Ron Asheton (THE STOOGES) among other great Detroit musicians recorded this killer album back in 1996.
Now it is finally reissued on vinyl with two added tracks to the original vinyl release, remastered in order to get its purest sound, and new artwork courtesy of Mrs. Niagara Detroit and Mr. Colonel Galaxy. And guess what?
This is an extension of Destroy All Monsters with absolutely killer guitars in line with The Stooges "Funhouse" with the unique stamp and signature of Mr. Ron Asheton.
10 classic shots which need to be in your record collection right by The Stooges, Destroy All Monsters, MC5, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Radio Birdman, The New Christs, Bored!, etc.
Now it is finally reissued on vinyl with two added tracks to the original vinyl release, remastered in order to get its purest sound, and new artwork courtesy of Mrs. Niagara Detroit and Mr. Colonel Galaxy. And guess what?
This is an extension of Destroy All Monsters with absolutely killer guitars in line with The Stooges "Funhouse" with the unique stamp and signature of Mr. Ron Asheton.
10 classic shots which need to be in your record collection right by The Stooges, Destroy All Monsters, MC5, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Radio Birdman, The New Christs, Bored!, etc.
Fans of contemporaries Weyes Blood (of which DDD multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements is now a full-time member) and Angel Olsen (in whose live and studio band Invie is now a staple) will find much to love in these songs, as well as the b-side, Invie’s solo piece, “For Now” which, not unlike Invie’s 2017 solo release under the moniker IN / VIA, makes use of seamlessly interwoven piano and swelling, liquid synthesizer.
Invie sounds a bit like an alternate dimension Sharon Van Etten here and elsewhere. The three song set has the understated intensity of Nick Cave’s The Boatman’s Call and the promise of emotional liftoff that characterizes Kate Bush’s The Sensual World.
Dark Dark Dark’s rich history is punctuated by house shows and train hopping; touring as support for The National in Portugal;
playing both the National and TV on the Radio’s ATP Festivals, and years of indefatigable coast-to-coast U.S. touring. It’s a
history rich with recordings, including a pair of celebrated full-lengths produced by Tom Herbers (Low, The Cactus Blossoms),
three EPs, and a feature film score. Now, ten years later, –– surprise –– a new 10” single.
In 2013, when Dark Dark Dark released the What I Needed EP, anyone might have guessed it was a bridge between the previous year’s lauded LP Who Needs Who and the next big venture. The band had closed out 2012 as part of Australia's touring Harvest Festival, during which they stepped up to fill an unexpectedly vacant slot much later in the day, enchanting thousands of unsuspecting festival goers. Alas, after that, the band went silent.
The release of these new songs is certainly delightful and perhaps startling, as is the promise of more solo work from singer Nona Marie Invie. On the gorgeous and stately “Didn’t I Try,” Invie’s voice is elegant as ever, couched in the familiar sounds of Marshall LaCount’s distorted banjo and Mark Trecka’s rolling drums. The loping and haunted “Something Was There” follows –– a staple of Dark Dark Dark’s live sets in the last year of their touring.
Considering this band's history, their distinctive and dramatic sense of identity, this music is really and truly for fans of Dark Dark Dark.
Invie sounds a bit like an alternate dimension Sharon Van Etten here and elsewhere. The three song set has the understated intensity of Nick Cave’s The Boatman’s Call and the promise of emotional liftoff that characterizes Kate Bush’s The Sensual World.
Dark Dark Dark’s rich history is punctuated by house shows and train hopping; touring as support for The National in Portugal;
playing both the National and TV on the Radio’s ATP Festivals, and years of indefatigable coast-to-coast U.S. touring. It’s a
history rich with recordings, including a pair of celebrated full-lengths produced by Tom Herbers (Low, The Cactus Blossoms),
three EPs, and a feature film score. Now, ten years later, –– surprise –– a new 10” single.
In 2013, when Dark Dark Dark released the What I Needed EP, anyone might have guessed it was a bridge between the previous year’s lauded LP Who Needs Who and the next big venture. The band had closed out 2012 as part of Australia's touring Harvest Festival, during which they stepped up to fill an unexpectedly vacant slot much later in the day, enchanting thousands of unsuspecting festival goers. Alas, after that, the band went silent.
The release of these new songs is certainly delightful and perhaps startling, as is the promise of more solo work from singer Nona Marie Invie. On the gorgeous and stately “Didn’t I Try,” Invie’s voice is elegant as ever, couched in the familiar sounds of Marshall LaCount’s distorted banjo and Mark Trecka’s rolling drums. The loping and haunted “Something Was There” follows –– a staple of Dark Dark Dark’s live sets in the last year of their touring.
Considering this band's history, their distinctive and dramatic sense of identity, this music is really and truly for fans of Dark Dark Dark.
TRACK LISTING
A1: Didn't I Try
A2: Something Was There
B1: For Now
Like their labelmates Arson (also released this week) Dark Day Dawning are uncompromisingly heavy. Their music embodies melody, metal and mayhem. This young five piece outfit hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they have made a significant name for themselves by wreaking havoc with their reputedly intense and kinetic live performances.
Fine timeless sounding electro 4 tracker from Lisboa. Drexciyan influences, with intrinsic sound design and supremely inventive kinetics. Three nano-chips ahead of the rest of the mainframe... Limited hand stamped white label copies..TIP!
TRACK LISTING
1 You Didn't
2 X40
3 All You Need Is Trust
4 Hybrids
The ethos of psychedelia is alive and well in the new millennium, as exemplified by I Hate Rock N Roll's 12" split release between LA's Darker My Love and Denver's Moccasin. From Los Angeles and San Francisco, Darker My Love builds upon various pop influences with layers of shoegaze and psychedelia, welcoming of distortion, reverb, and noise. Their years of writing music and playing shows around Los Angeles eventually culminated in national tours and a deal with Dangerbird Records and the recent release of "2" their sophomore album. The band headed to Hyde Street Studio in San Francisco, shortly before the studio announced it's closing, where they recorded their most experimental jam exclusively for I Hate Rock N Roll, titled "Hair Decisions". On the strength of their critically acclaimed, debut EP, "Last Leaf" Moccasin found themselves opening for the likes of Black Mountain, the Raveonettes, Dead Meadow, and the Black Angels, to name a few. The more contemplative of the two bands, Moccasin build expansive soundscapes, harvested by eerie, echoed vocals and dual, fuzzed guitars. The band has recently announced their signing to Buddyhead Records, also based out of Los Angeles. While in Denver, the band recorded two songs for I Hate Rock N Roll, titled "Secret Mountain" and "The Rule of Queen Tsago" after a recording hiatus.
Hailing from Washington, DC, Darkest Hour are ready to grab the metal world by the throat with their debut for Victory Records, "Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation". A brutal mix of aggressive hardcore and conventional power metal, reminiscent of bands such as At the Gates, In Flames, Dismember and Iron Maiden. Extreme hard rock and set to become one of the biggest US metal ablbums of 2003.
As well the vinyl reissue of Endemic, we've also received CD copies of this new No Cure release. Wu Tang Clan affiliate Emcee Darkim Be Allah teams up with producer Endemic Emerald to bring the “Antediluvian King” long player. Darkim Be Allah - renowned since the late 90's for his work with the Wu Tang family - educates with the 5% teachings of the Nation of Gods & Earths, which flow seamlessly over the melodic backdrops provided by Endemic Emerald. Features come from Planet Asia, Tragedy Khadafi & Kasim Allah - “Antediluvian King” is gritty, raw, NYC hip hop at its finest - check!
TRACK LISTING
The Lockdown
BX-QB Ft. Tragedy Khadafi
God’s Wrath Ft. Kasim Allah
Doing It
Real Black
Original Light
The Black Gene
Knowledge & Wisdom
You Know The Gravity Ft. Tragedy Khadafi
God Of The Universe Ft. Planet Asia
The Darkness announce Permission To Land… Again; a special 20th Anniversary reissue collection, to be released on October 6th 2023 via Warner Music.
Permission To Land was originally released in 2003 via Atlantic Records and stormed to the top of the UK Albums chart, where it remained for four weeks, and spent 53 weeks in the Top 100. It achieved the band three BRIT Awards, including British Album Of The Year, British Group and British Rock Act, where they fended off competition from the likes of Blur, Radiohead, Sugababes, Muse, Primal Scream and more. The record has sold over 1.4 million copies to date.
Permission To Land was originally released in 2003 via Atlantic Records and stormed to the top of the UK Albums chart, where it remained for four weeks, and spent 53 weeks in the Top 100. It achieved the band three BRIT Awards, including British Album Of The Year, British Group and British Rock Act, where they fended off competition from the likes of Blur, Radiohead, Sugababes, Muse, Primal Scream and more. The record has sold over 1.4 million copies to date.
TRACK LISTING
1 LP:
PERMISSION TO LAND (2003)
SIDE A
Black Shuck [3:21]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [2:46]
Growing On Me [3:30]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [3:36]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:19]
SIDE B
Givin' Up [3:34]
Stuck In A Rut [3:18]
Friday Night [2:56]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [5:57]
Holding My Own [4:57]
2CD Edition:
CD1: PERMISSION TO LAND
Black Shuck
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Growing On Me
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Love Is Only A Feeling
Givin’ Up
Stuck In A Rut
Friday Night
Love On The Rocks With No Ice
Holding My Own
BONUS TRACKS:
DEMOS
Black Shuck (Demo)
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Demo)
Out Of My Hands (Demo)
Live ’Til I Die (Demo)
Love On The Rocks With No Ice (Demo)
Nothin’s Gonna Stop Us (Demo)
CD2: Singles, B-sides & Non-album Tracks
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2002 Version)
Love On The Rocks With No Ice (2002 Version)
Love Is Only A Feeling (2002 Version)
Get Your Hands Off My Woman (2003 Clean Version)
The Best Of Me
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Single Version)
Out Of My Hands
Makin’ Out
Physical Sex
How Dare You Call This Love?
Bareback
Planning Permission
Curse Of The Tollund Man
Get Your Hands Off My Woman...Again (2004 Explicit)
I Love You 5 Times
Get Your Hands Off My Woman...Again (2004 Clean)
Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)
5LP Box Set:
LP1: PERMISSION TO LAND (2003)
SIDE A
Black Shuck [3:21]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [2:46]
Growing On Me [3:30]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [3:36]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:19]
SIDE B
Givin' Up [3:34]
Stuck In A Rut [3:18]
Friday Night [2:56]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [5:57]
Holding My Own [4:57]
LP2: STUDIO BONUS TRACKS
SIDE C
Black Shuck (Demo) [3:56]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Demo) [3:54]
Out Of My Hands (Demo) [3:33]
Live ’Til I Die (Demo) [3:44]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice (Demo) [5:48]
SIDE D
Nothin's Gonna Stop Us (Demo) [2:55]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2002 Version) [3:38]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice (2002 Version) [6:07]
Love Is Only A Feeling (2002 Version) [4:21]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman (2003 Clean Version) [2:47]
LP3: STUDIO BONUS TRACKS
SIDE E
The Best Of Me [3:27]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Single Version) [3:39]
Out Of My Hands [3:29]
Makin Out [3:41]
Physical Sex [3:33]
How Dare You Call This Love [3:52]
SIDE F
Bareback [3:06]
Planning Permission [2:28]
Curse Of The Tollund Man [3:09]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman...Again (2004 Explicit) [2:41]
I Love You 5 Times [3:42]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman...Again (2004 Clean) [2:42]
Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) [3:31]
LP4: LIVE AT KNEBWORTH 2003
SIDE G
Growing On Me [3:30]
The Best Of Me [3:09]
Makin’ Out [6:02]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [3:38]
SIDE H
Stuck In A Rut [5:57]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [5:12]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [10:17]
LP5: LIVE AT THE ASTORIA 2003
SIDE I
Black Shuck [3:45]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:14]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [4:31]
Friday Night [4:22]
SIDE J
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [4:47]
Buffet [2:00]
Giving Up [4:04]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [10:04]
4CD+DVD:
CD1: PERMISSION TO LAND (2003)
Black Shuck [3:21]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [2:46]
Growing On Me [3:30]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [3:36]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:19]
Givin' Up [3:34]
Stuck In A Rut [3:18]
Friday Night [2:56]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [5:57]
Holding My Own [4:57]
BONUS TRACKS: DEMOS
Black Shuck (Demo) [3:56]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Demo) [3:54]
CD2: SINGLES, B-SIDES & NON-ALBUM TRACKS
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2002 Version) [3:38]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice (2002 Version) [6:07]
Love Is Only A Feeling (2002 Version) [4:21]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman (2003 Clean Version) [2:47]
The Best Of Me [3:27]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Single Version) [3:39]
Out Of My Hands [3:29]
Makin Out [3:41]
Physical Sex [3:33]
How Dare You Call This Love [3:52]
Bareback [3:06]
CD3: LIVE 2003
LIVE AT KNEBWORTH 2003 (AUDIO)
Growing On Me [3:30]
The Best Of Me [3:09]
Makin’ Out [6:02]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [3:38]
Stuck In A Rut [5:57]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [5:12]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [10:17]
LIVE AT THE ASTORIA 2003 (AUDIO)
Black Shuck [3:45]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:14]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [4:31]
Friday Night [4:22]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [4:47]
Buffet [2:00]
CD4: LIVE AT WEMBLEY 2004
Grief Hammer [3:41]
Givin’ Up [3:38]
Stuck In A Rut [4:20]
Dinner Lady Arms [4:08]
Growing On Me [4:37]
Makin' Out [3:49]
Physical Sex [4:19]
Love Is Only A Feeling [5:21]
Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time [6:06]
Buffet [3:10]
Black Shuck [4:12]
Friday Night [3:04]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [4:03]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [5:10]
Love On The Rocks With No Ice [14:22]
Do They Know It's Christmas? [1:42]
Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) [4:22]
DISC5: DVD
PROMO VIDEOS
I Believe In A Thing Called Love (2002 Version) [3:35]
Get Your Hands Off My Woman [2:59]
Growing On Me [4:26]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love [3:51]
Love Is Only A Feeling [4:30]
Friday Night [3:27]
Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End) [3:41]
DVD EXTRAS
History Of The Darkness - Warner Music UK EPK [19:53]
(DVD EXTRAS TBC)
Growing On Me - Outtakes [1:57]
Love Is Only A Feeling - Behind The Scenes [1:59]
Out Of My Hands (Audio Only) [3:30]
I Believe In A Thing Called Love - Behind The Scenes (music: Holding My Own) [2:00]
LIVE AT KNEBWORTH 2003 (VIDEO)
Growing On Me
The Best Of Me
Makin’ Out
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Stuck In A Rut
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Love On The Rocks With No Ice
LIVE AT THE ASTORIA 2003 (VIDEO)
Black Shuck
Growing On Me
Love Is Only A Feeling
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Friday Night
I Believe In A Thing Called Love
Buffet
Giving Up
Love On The Rocks With No Ice
The 'Canvas' EP. is the final piece in a trilogy of conceptually-linked EPs that the band have released post-COVID. This release sees the band steer in new directions towards a harder-edged, metal-influenced direction, and a lyrical fearlessness that has shaken up the scene, divided long-time fans and sparked urgent conversations while drawing in a new wave of listeners. The band are looking to widen their audience and traverse over to different 'alternative' scenes. The band's tracks have landed several editorial playlists, including: Today's Punk (Spotify), SkatePark Punks (Spotify), New in Rock (Apple Music) Track info: Growing up with rampant homophobia left Millennials with past behaviours to unpack and internalisations to unlearn. DARKO’s powerful single ‘Override!’ ponders what became of the kids who were bullied for being themselves. DARKO blend raw vulnerability with their trademark intensity. The result is a powerful, cathartic anthem that confronts past pain while fighting for a better future.
TRACK LISTING
Grey Havens
Dared To Dream
Canvas
Override!
Hectic
Goodbye Bastards
Aux III
‘Nothing’ is the third album from DARKSIDE: nine transmissions of negative space, telepathic seance, and spectral improvisation.
It fittingly started from scratch. On their first two reinventions, Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington entered the studio with a clutch of scattered ideas and loose melodic fragments to mould into what became the revered ‘Psychic’(2013) and ‘Spiral’ (2021). But ‘Nothing’ reflected a search for form borne out of spontaneous elliptical jams, acoustic riffing, and digital levitations. And in a fundamental shift from their first dozen years as a band, Jaar and Harrington recruited their longtime friend and collaborator, the drummer and instrument designer Tlacael Esparza, to become a full-time member.
The outcome is magnetic and hieroglyphic. This album slips through the cracks of convention with serpentine guitars, extraterrestrial static, and cavernous drums. Haunted rhythms, distorted vocals, and uncanny beauty. No band but DARKSIDE could have made ‘Nothing,’ and in no moment but now.
It fittingly started from scratch. On their first two reinventions, Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington entered the studio with a clutch of scattered ideas and loose melodic fragments to mould into what became the revered ‘Psychic’(2013) and ‘Spiral’ (2021). But ‘Nothing’ reflected a search for form borne out of spontaneous elliptical jams, acoustic riffing, and digital levitations. And in a fundamental shift from their first dozen years as a band, Jaar and Harrington recruited their longtime friend and collaborator, the drummer and instrument designer Tlacael Esparza, to become a full-time member.
The outcome is magnetic and hieroglyphic. This album slips through the cracks of convention with serpentine guitars, extraterrestrial static, and cavernous drums. Haunted rhythms, distorted vocals, and uncanny beauty. No band but DARKSIDE could have made ‘Nothing,’ and in no moment but now.
TRACK LISTING
1. SLAU
2. S.N.C
3. Are You Tired? (Keep On Singing)
4. Graucha Max
5. American References
6. Heavy Is Good For This
7. Hell Suite, Pt. I
8. Hell Suite, Pt. II
9. Sin El Sol No Hay Na
Darkside is the collaborative duo of guitarist Dave Harrington and electronic producer Nicolas Jaar. The two musicians have vastly different backgrounds, but over the course of several years of touring together they found common ground: Darkside. Dave and Nico use each other as mediums, working on primal instinct and summoning a hybrid of electronic music and psychedelic rock with the kind of artistic depth and breadth for which the term ‘progressive’ was coined.
Darkside unveil their debut full length, ‘Psychic’, to the world via Jaar’s own Other People label under license to Matador.
Nicolas Jaar came of age in New York City’s underground minimal techno scene, releasing a string of unearthly dance singles that brought the then-18-year-old producer quick renown. Lushly textured and almost subversively slow, 2010’s landmark ‘Time for Us’ EP (Wolf + Lamb) and 2011’s full length ‘Space Is Only Noise’ (Circus Company) dismantled and restructured dance music into heady new forms and garnered impressive reviews from both the electronic and rock press. He soon began weaving rock music into his own output, remixing acts like Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno, and performing with a live band.
Dave Harrington started out in New York City as a young bass player studying experimental jazz and sneaking into late night jam sessions as a teenager. He eventually moved into composition and performance art, creating commissioned works for theatre and film, directing a rendition of John Zorn’s ‘Cobra’, and integrating lap steel, guitar, keyboard, and effects into his arsenal. After joining the Nicolas Jaar live band in 2011 on guitar and electronics, Harrington began experimenting with dance music, remixing and DJing. Eventually, Harrington and Jaar started experimenting in their studio, and Darkside emerged.
Darkside’s ‘Psychic’ is a watershed moment for the duo, a quantum leap forward from their three song debut, 2011’s ‘Darkside’ EP (Clown & Sunset). ‘Psychic’ is a ritualistic song cycle, exploring rock’s cosmic outer edges through the immersive, body moving framework of 21st-century house and techno. Album opener ‘Golden Arrow’ is a microcosm of the album entire, charting an 11-minute journey from the desert to the stars: The song begins as a barren landscape where organs and static crackle on the horizon. But as ‘Golden Arrow’ builds toward its climax, guitars poke pointillistic patterns in the sky and the blackness rips open, revealing a lumbering sub-bass groove that rises out of the fissure. It’s mesmerizing and immediate, desperate and triumphant - and it sounds like nothing either has made before.
Darkside aren’t dancefloor producers taking a stab at rock music; nor are they a rock band paying homage to their new favourite techno 12”s. They’re deep listeners and creators of both who see little need for distinction between their favourite sounds. The result is ‘Psychic’, an album of uncompromising creative vision from two artists working at the peak of their powers.
Darkside unveil their debut full length, ‘Psychic’, to the world via Jaar’s own Other People label under license to Matador.
Nicolas Jaar came of age in New York City’s underground minimal techno scene, releasing a string of unearthly dance singles that brought the then-18-year-old producer quick renown. Lushly textured and almost subversively slow, 2010’s landmark ‘Time for Us’ EP (Wolf + Lamb) and 2011’s full length ‘Space Is Only Noise’ (Circus Company) dismantled and restructured dance music into heady new forms and garnered impressive reviews from both the electronic and rock press. He soon began weaving rock music into his own output, remixing acts like Grizzly Bear and Brian Eno, and performing with a live band.
Dave Harrington started out in New York City as a young bass player studying experimental jazz and sneaking into late night jam sessions as a teenager. He eventually moved into composition and performance art, creating commissioned works for theatre and film, directing a rendition of John Zorn’s ‘Cobra’, and integrating lap steel, guitar, keyboard, and effects into his arsenal. After joining the Nicolas Jaar live band in 2011 on guitar and electronics, Harrington began experimenting with dance music, remixing and DJing. Eventually, Harrington and Jaar started experimenting in their studio, and Darkside emerged.
Darkside’s ‘Psychic’ is a watershed moment for the duo, a quantum leap forward from their three song debut, 2011’s ‘Darkside’ EP (Clown & Sunset). ‘Psychic’ is a ritualistic song cycle, exploring rock’s cosmic outer edges through the immersive, body moving framework of 21st-century house and techno. Album opener ‘Golden Arrow’ is a microcosm of the album entire, charting an 11-minute journey from the desert to the stars: The song begins as a barren landscape where organs and static crackle on the horizon. But as ‘Golden Arrow’ builds toward its climax, guitars poke pointillistic patterns in the sky and the blackness rips open, revealing a lumbering sub-bass groove that rises out of the fissure. It’s mesmerizing and immediate, desperate and triumphant - and it sounds like nothing either has made before.
Darkside aren’t dancefloor producers taking a stab at rock music; nor are they a rock band paying homage to their new favourite techno 12”s. They’re deep listeners and creators of both who see little need for distinction between their favourite sounds. The result is ‘Psychic’, an album of uncompromising creative vision from two artists working at the peak of their powers.
DARKSIDE is an American rock band formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2011. The group consists of Chilean electronic musician & vocalist Nicolás Jaar and American multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. Jaar and Harrington first met while studying in Providence through their com- mon friend and saxophonist Will Epstein. In the summer of 2011, they toured Europe and Australia in support of Jaar’s breakthrough debut album Space Is Only Noise.
Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and their critically acclaimed debut album Psychic on Matador Records in October 2013. The album was met with glowing reviews, including a 9.0 from Pitchfork and The New York Times calling it “the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch sci-fi movie.”
In the summer of 2018, Harrington and Jaar rented a small house on Lenni-Lenape territory, which is present-day Flemington, New Jersey. The group spent a week there, making a song a day. While it would take another year and a half to complete their second album, six songs from the band’s new record Spiral were written and recorded during this initial session.
“From the beginning, DARKSIDE has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” says Jaar. Harrington echoes this, “It felt like it was time again,” he said. “We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. DARKSIDE is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together.”
Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and their critically acclaimed debut album Psychic on Matador Records in October 2013. The album was met with glowing reviews, including a 9.0 from Pitchfork and The New York Times calling it “the soundtrack to a lost David Lynch sci-fi movie.”
In the summer of 2018, Harrington and Jaar rented a small house on Lenni-Lenape territory, which is present-day Flemington, New Jersey. The group spent a week there, making a song a day. While it would take another year and a half to complete their second album, six songs from the band’s new record Spiral were written and recorded during this initial session.
“From the beginning, DARKSIDE has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” says Jaar. Harrington echoes this, “It felt like it was time again,” he said. “We do things in this band that we would never do on our own. DARKSIDE is the third being in the room that just kind of occurs when we make music together.”
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Jaar & Harrington's Darkside project has never quite gone with convention, and their latest outing 'Spiral' brilliantly toes the line between drone music and gothic, eastern-influenced folk with ease, via all manner of geographical pit stops. Otherworldly vocals seamlessly ride atop grooving percussion in some places and in others, eschewed entirely for a focus on shifting drone and tectonic modulation. As baffling and brilliant as ever.TRACK LISTING
Narrow Road
The Limit
The Question Is To See It All
Lawmaker
I’m The Echo
Spiral
Liberty Bell
Inside Is Out There
Only Young
Legendary indie space rockers Sterling Roswell and Pete Bassman of Spacemen 3 return as The Darkside after a 23 year hiatus with a 5CD 'Complete Studio Masters' box set of remasters, remixes and demos. One of the projects to emerge from the groundbreaking efforts of the drone-rock pioneers, The Darkside led by Pete Bain (a.k.a. Pete Bassman), who on leaving Spacemen 3 prior returned to his hometown of Rugby, would be joined by fellow alumni and multi instrumentalist Sterling Roswell. Signed soon after to Beggars Banquet due to the strength of their demo’s and live shows, The Darkside went on to unleash psychedelic gems including; “Waiting For The Angels”, “Guitar Voodoo”, “Mystic Morning”, “All That Noise” and many more.
Now, nearly 25 years on, Rosco and Pete have worked front line for both the re-mastering and artwork of this special release. Rosco aka Sterling Roswell explains: “Contained are just some of the seeds that Pete and I planted in the spring time of our youth that are now bearing fruit with the help everyone at Beggars Banquet and Cargo Records, thanks and praises... This 5 CD box set contains the complete studio masters, 55 tracks recorded between the years 1989 and 1993 and contains 4 hidden bonus unreleased tracks recorded Live on Campus Radio at Surrey University celebrating the work we did together and continue to do so...”. Jonathan Levitt of Blurt Magazine, discusses the bands first release “All That Noise”: “I can clearly remember back to 1990 when All That Noise was released and the first time I spun it on my Doctor Goth radio show.
While simultaneously listening to the sinister opening bass notes of “Guitar Voodoo” and staring at the cryptic album cover I was transfixed by a band that was thankfully outside of any contrived musical movement being pushed at the time, Madchester anyone? The album is propelled along a very clear trajectory giving a heavy nod to 60’s psych along the way. Now some 27 years on, the album remains as it did upon my first listen, a psychedelic gem existing in its own space and time, filled with a sinister, brooding and beguiling set of tracks that continue to astonish.” Track Info : Discs 1 and 2 contain the critically acclaimed debut album ‘All That Noise’ remastered plus alternate versions, mixes, instrumentals, demos, bonus unreleased live tracks and an interview recorded in 1990. Disc 3 contains the follow up to second critically acclaimed album Mellomania, remastered in full. Disc 4 contains dub remixes and remastered Mayhem To Meditate EP. Disc 5 contains the Bomp Records Lunar Surf EP, remastered Jukebox At Munster’s single, the previously unreleased lost 3rd album and demos.
Now, nearly 25 years on, Rosco and Pete have worked front line for both the re-mastering and artwork of this special release. Rosco aka Sterling Roswell explains: “Contained are just some of the seeds that Pete and I planted in the spring time of our youth that are now bearing fruit with the help everyone at Beggars Banquet and Cargo Records, thanks and praises... This 5 CD box set contains the complete studio masters, 55 tracks recorded between the years 1989 and 1993 and contains 4 hidden bonus unreleased tracks recorded Live on Campus Radio at Surrey University celebrating the work we did together and continue to do so...”. Jonathan Levitt of Blurt Magazine, discusses the bands first release “All That Noise”: “I can clearly remember back to 1990 when All That Noise was released and the first time I spun it on my Doctor Goth radio show.
While simultaneously listening to the sinister opening bass notes of “Guitar Voodoo” and staring at the cryptic album cover I was transfixed by a band that was thankfully outside of any contrived musical movement being pushed at the time, Madchester anyone? The album is propelled along a very clear trajectory giving a heavy nod to 60’s psych along the way. Now some 27 years on, the album remains as it did upon my first listen, a psychedelic gem existing in its own space and time, filled with a sinister, brooding and beguiling set of tracks that continue to astonish.” Track Info : Discs 1 and 2 contain the critically acclaimed debut album ‘All That Noise’ remastered plus alternate versions, mixes, instrumentals, demos, bonus unreleased live tracks and an interview recorded in 1990. Disc 3 contains the follow up to second critically acclaimed album Mellomania, remastered in full. Disc 4 contains dub remixes and remastered Mayhem To Meditate EP. Disc 5 contains the Bomp Records Lunar Surf EP, remastered Jukebox At Munster’s single, the previously unreleased lost 3rd album and demos.
TRACK LISTING
1 - 1 Guitar Voodoo
2 Found Love
3 She Don’t Come
4 Good For Me
5 Love In A Burning Universe
6 All That Noise
7 Spend Some Time
8 Don’t Stop The Rain
9 Soul Deep
10 Waiting For The Angels
11 Sweet Vibrations..
CD 2 - 1 Guitar Voodoo Alt Mix
2 Found Love Alt Mix
3 She Don’t Come Alt Mix
4 Good For Me Alt Mix
5 Love In A Burning Universe Instrumental
6 All That Noise Alt Mix
7 Spend Some Time Alt Mix
8 Soul Deep Instrumental
9 Waiting For The Angels Alt Mix
10 Head In The Sand Demo
11 Waiting For The Angels Demo
12 Sweet Vibrations Demo
13 Good For Me Demo
14 She Don’t Come - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
15 Blues One - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
16 Interlude On Mars - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
17 High Rise Love - Live On Surrey University Campus Radio
18 Recorded Interview 1990..
CD3 -
1 Always Pleasure
2 Feelings Flow
3 Tornado
4 Mystic Morning
5 Someday
6 Are You For Real ?
7 24 Hours
8 Cry For Me
9 Rise..
CD 4 -
1 Waiting For The Angels 12” Mix
2 This Mystic Morning
3 This Mystic Remix
4 This Mystic Remix
5 This Mystic Dub
6 Cry For Me Single Remix
7 The Straightest Shot
8 This Time Is Mine
9 The Heart Of The Sun ..
CD 5 -
1 Feel Too Real
2 Retroglide
3 SOS Bomp EP Version
4 SOS Alt Mix
5 Space Walk Bomp EP Version
6 Space Walk Alt Mix
7 When Fate Deals It’s Mortal Blow
8 SOS Agent Ugly Version
9 There’s A World Outside
10 High Time
11 Easter Everywhere
12 Ride Around
13 Frankie Teardrop
Darkstar announce their fourth album ‘Civic Jams’ for release on Warp.
On their most personal record to date, Darkstar counterbalance observations of their home with those of the community surrounding it. ‘Civic Jams’ is a photonegative of a dance record shaped by a dialogue between shoegaze atmospherics and UK bass music’s ‘hardcore continuum’. Darkstar find themselves at once looking homeward and venturing further into their own psychic hinterland with each record.
They’ve covered a lot of ground from the introspective expanse of their debut ‘North’ [2010], to utopian visions of society in ‘News From Nowhere’ [2013] and the unique dynamics of a pre-Brexit northern England on ‘Foam Island’ [2015]. On their latest offering, home is within reach.
Inspired by the intervening years, Darkstar (aka Aiden Whalley and James Young) show how the personal can be political and reveal more of themselves than they’ve ever done before. Imagine emotional realism built from spectral rave echoes, anchored in timeless songs of love and loss in the digital now and you’ve got it. Patterns of isolation are increasingly easy to fall into, especially when public spaces where people play, socialise, dance and protest are closed. ‘Civic Jams’ is about reminiscing over loss, whilst moving forward with those we love. It offers an abstract look at life’s nuances and the search to find something to hold on to and enjoy.
On their most personal record to date, Darkstar counterbalance observations of their home with those of the community surrounding it. ‘Civic Jams’ is a photonegative of a dance record shaped by a dialogue between shoegaze atmospherics and UK bass music’s ‘hardcore continuum’. Darkstar find themselves at once looking homeward and venturing further into their own psychic hinterland with each record.
They’ve covered a lot of ground from the introspective expanse of their debut ‘North’ [2010], to utopian visions of society in ‘News From Nowhere’ [2013] and the unique dynamics of a pre-Brexit northern England on ‘Foam Island’ [2015]. On their latest offering, home is within reach.
Inspired by the intervening years, Darkstar (aka Aiden Whalley and James Young) show how the personal can be political and reveal more of themselves than they’ve ever done before. Imagine emotional realism built from spectral rave echoes, anchored in timeless songs of love and loss in the digital now and you’ve got it. Patterns of isolation are increasingly easy to fall into, especially when public spaces where people play, socialise, dance and protest are closed. ‘Civic Jams’ is about reminiscing over loss, whilst moving forward with those we love. It offers an abstract look at life’s nuances and the search to find something to hold on to and enjoy.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Forest
A2. Jam
A3. 1001
A4. 30 Feat. Laura Groves
A5. Wolf
B1. Loon
B2. Tuesday
B3. Text
B4. Blurred
‘Foam Island’, the third studio album from Darkstar, is a beautiful contemporary electronic pop album that deals with powerful themes of ambition and hope against the odds in the 21st Century.
Since their early dancefloor 12”s on Hyperdub from 2008 and through two vocal-led albums in 2010 and 2013, Darkstar have been an influential force in the UK’s electronic scene.
During trips to visit family in Northern England, founder members Aiden Whalley and James Young noticed a change in the area’s social atmosphere. This climate began to increasingly influence the duo’s writing sessions and they began a three month project of documenting this by talking to local young people in nearby Huddersfield. The lyrics and the sound palette for ‘Foam Island’ were shaped by the people and emotions they encountered and their recordings of interviewees’ speech have been compellingly woven into the tracks.
For fans of Jon Hopkins, Zomby, Four Tet, Mount Kimbie, Roisín Murphy, Actress, Floating Points.
Since their early dancefloor 12”s on Hyperdub from 2008 and through two vocal-led albums in 2010 and 2013, Darkstar have been an influential force in the UK’s electronic scene.
During trips to visit family in Northern England, founder members Aiden Whalley and James Young noticed a change in the area’s social atmosphere. This climate began to increasingly influence the duo’s writing sessions and they began a three month project of documenting this by talking to local young people in nearby Huddersfield. The lyrics and the sound palette for ‘Foam Island’ were shaped by the people and emotions they encountered and their recordings of interviewees’ speech have been compellingly woven into the tracks.
For fans of Jon Hopkins, Zomby, Four Tet, Mount Kimbie, Roisín Murphy, Actress, Floating Points.
Darkstar first coalesced in the underground, electronic thrum of London’s nascent grime and dubstep sphere in the mid 2000s, growing from attending the now-fabled early FWD club nights to releasing a pair of game-changing 12” singles on Kode 9’s fledgling Hyperdub label. What followed was a fitful and productive period culminating in a discarded album’s worth of tracks, the crucial introduction of vocalist James Buttery to the fold and, finally, the release of their debut full-length ‘North’, to wide acclaim. By this time Darkstar had aptly been framed as a very intriguing proposition, one of the first proper ‘bands’ to rise from the UK’s current electronic underground.
The band decamped to a house in the West Yorkshire countryside, secluding themselves from the distractions of London and writing as a trio for the first time. Ultimately, ‘News From Nowhere’ is a reflection of the time they spent together there. Says Young, “Every place warrants a story. There are moments in people’s everyday lives, no matter how subtle, that can be documented and talked about in great detail. The instances spiral and ascend and take on their own course, altering the perception of how even the slightest change in a day can be felt deeply.”
Eventually proceedings moved from the band’s makeshift digital studio in their house to producer Richard Formby’s (Sonic Boom / Hood / Wild Beasts) dusty studio enclave, full of tape machines and analogue synthesizers. The songs that had been inspired by English prog rock and obscure techno and created as loops based on the band’s affinity for hip hop production (“literally everything from Lex Luger to Geoff Barrow”) grew into sublimely arranged works. In the end, the album arrived at an altogether singular existence, delving into the moments between moments and elevating them to epic, kaleidoscopic heights.
The band decamped to a house in the West Yorkshire countryside, secluding themselves from the distractions of London and writing as a trio for the first time. Ultimately, ‘News From Nowhere’ is a reflection of the time they spent together there. Says Young, “Every place warrants a story. There are moments in people’s everyday lives, no matter how subtle, that can be documented and talked about in great detail. The instances spiral and ascend and take on their own course, altering the perception of how even the slightest change in a day can be felt deeply.”
Eventually proceedings moved from the band’s makeshift digital studio in their house to producer Richard Formby’s (Sonic Boom / Hood / Wild Beasts) dusty studio enclave, full of tape machines and analogue synthesizers. The songs that had been inspired by English prog rock and obscure techno and created as loops based on the band’s affinity for hip hop production (“literally everything from Lex Luger to Geoff Barrow”) grew into sublimely arranged works. In the end, the album arrived at an altogether singular existence, delving into the moments between moments and elevating them to epic, kaleidoscopic heights.
TRACK LISTING
01. Light Body Clock Starter
02. Timeaway
03. Armonica
04. -
05. A Day's Pay For A Day's Work
06. Young Heart's
07. Amplified Ease
08. You Don't Need A Weatherman
09. Bed Music - North View
10. Hold Me Down
Darlene Shrugg is unabashedly a rock ’n roll band. Formed in Toronto in 2013, it’s something of a local enigma; Darlene more or less abstains from an internet presence, and its public performances are sporadic at best. Now, over two, reticent years, Darlene has completed an LP, coaxing out an imaginatively produced debut album of brash theatricality and uninhibited Rock and Roll.
Darlene represents collaborative convergence. The band was conceived initially by Maximilian Turnbull (formerly Slim Twig) and Simone TB, who played together for ten years as art-punk duo, Tropics. Seemingly having exhausted the limits of their angular, hermetic approach, they felt it time to broaden horizons. They invited Meg Remy, creative force behind the critically lauded U.S. Girls project, to compose lyrics and vocal melodies for a new band’s repertoire. It was quickly apparent that Remy should also perform in the band, at which point both Carlyn Bezic and Amanda Crist, known for their electro-pop duo, Ice Cream, also joined. An interesting dynamic developed. Turnbull & TB generated instrumentals for Remy to write to. Furnished with lyrics and melodies, the songs were then arranged by the entire group. This work and a schedule of infrequent live shows continued for a couple of years until Young Guv, of Fucked Up fame, cajoled the band into a studio with engineer-producer Steve Chahley to finally record some of the exciting new tunes.
A certain alchemy has helped to establish the unique force found on the debut album: four women, one man; four Canadians and an American; musical collaborations stretching back to nascent high school years; punk exuberance meeting studio finesse. Darlene exudes an easy confidence in combining the raw, blunt power of the band’s writing and arrangements with Turnbull & Chahley’s layered and, at times, elaborate production. The concise blast of their self-titled debut seeks to compress, absorb and invert the energy of classic rock. They profane, as much as pay tribute to a lineage of foundational bands, arguably stemming from Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper through Thin Lizzy, and on through the boy’s club fantasy of early 2000’s, ‘raw’ rock revival bands, like The Strokes or The Hives. Gauche rock moves are ransacked and transformed with the glee of an amateur cast production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. All of this unfolds in less than half an hour, leaving time for a detour into the sublime with album centrepiece, Strawberry Milk, an interstellar power ballad turned meditation on Eve, and the confrontation between sex and eternity.
With their glammed-up, high intensity live show featuring all members contributing vocals (save drummer TB), Darlene Shrugg seems not to rebut so much as disregard the notion of Rock’s diminished cultural capital. Their diverse brand of hard rock resists genre pigeon-holing. They fan out an array of stylistic threads, which they might later choose to follow up, or perhaps just as likely, skip past. They’ve laid waste to the Toronto underground. Now, they’re hungry for more.
Darlene represents collaborative convergence. The band was conceived initially by Maximilian Turnbull (formerly Slim Twig) and Simone TB, who played together for ten years as art-punk duo, Tropics. Seemingly having exhausted the limits of their angular, hermetic approach, they felt it time to broaden horizons. They invited Meg Remy, creative force behind the critically lauded U.S. Girls project, to compose lyrics and vocal melodies for a new band’s repertoire. It was quickly apparent that Remy should also perform in the band, at which point both Carlyn Bezic and Amanda Crist, known for their electro-pop duo, Ice Cream, also joined. An interesting dynamic developed. Turnbull & TB generated instrumentals for Remy to write to. Furnished with lyrics and melodies, the songs were then arranged by the entire group. This work and a schedule of infrequent live shows continued for a couple of years until Young Guv, of Fucked Up fame, cajoled the band into a studio with engineer-producer Steve Chahley to finally record some of the exciting new tunes.
A certain alchemy has helped to establish the unique force found on the debut album: four women, one man; four Canadians and an American; musical collaborations stretching back to nascent high school years; punk exuberance meeting studio finesse. Darlene exudes an easy confidence in combining the raw, blunt power of the band’s writing and arrangements with Turnbull & Chahley’s layered and, at times, elaborate production. The concise blast of their self-titled debut seeks to compress, absorb and invert the energy of classic rock. They profane, as much as pay tribute to a lineage of foundational bands, arguably stemming from Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper through Thin Lizzy, and on through the boy’s club fantasy of early 2000’s, ‘raw’ rock revival bands, like The Strokes or The Hives. Gauche rock moves are ransacked and transformed with the glee of an amateur cast production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. All of this unfolds in less than half an hour, leaving time for a detour into the sublime with album centrepiece, Strawberry Milk, an interstellar power ballad turned meditation on Eve, and the confrontation between sex and eternity.
With their glammed-up, high intensity live show featuring all members contributing vocals (save drummer TB), Darlene Shrugg seems not to rebut so much as disregard the notion of Rock’s diminished cultural capital. Their diverse brand of hard rock resists genre pigeon-holing. They fan out an array of stylistic threads, which they might later choose to follow up, or perhaps just as likely, skip past. They’ve laid waste to the Toronto underground. Now, they’re hungry for more.
TRACK LISTING
01. Inherit The Wind
02. First World Blues
03. Wah Wah
04. Strawberry Milk
05. Technicolour Surround
06. National Security
07. Pete Rose Boogie
08. Where’s Your Brother?
09. Freedom Comes In A Plastic Card
Welsh indie icons The Darling Buds return with a brand new album of melodic guitar pop, packed with catchy hooks, soaring harmonies and the band’s trademark upbeat energy.
Best known for singles such as ‘Hit The Ground’ and ‘You’ve Got To Choose’, the American hits ‘Crystal Clear’, ‘Please Yourself’, and ‘It Makes No Difference’, and the UK hit album ‘Pop Said...’, The Darling Buds remain favourites of the pre-Britpop landscape, rooted in great songwriting and powerful live performances.
Fronted by the acclaimed Andrea Lewis, the band continue to play live to a passionate fan base, and will be promoting ‘Same Sun / Same Sky’ around the UK.
For fans old and new, 'Same Sun / Same Sky' is a delightful return from a much-loved Welsh treasure.
Best known for singles such as ‘Hit The Ground’ and ‘You’ve Got To Choose’, the American hits ‘Crystal Clear’, ‘Please Yourself’, and ‘It Makes No Difference’, and the UK hit album ‘Pop Said...’, The Darling Buds remain favourites of the pre-Britpop landscape, rooted in great songwriting and powerful live performances.
Fronted by the acclaimed Andrea Lewis, the band continue to play live to a passionate fan base, and will be promoting ‘Same Sun / Same Sky’ around the UK.
For fans old and new, 'Same Sun / Same Sky' is a delightful return from a much-loved Welsh treasure.
TRACK LISTING
1. Hey Saint Jude
2. Intruder
3. Oh No You Don’t
4. Lost Time
5. Jump In
6. Giddy In A Good Way
7. Cut Me Dead
8. Cast A Stone
9. Pretenders
10. Paper Planes
11. Leaving The Scene
12. Pollyanna Says
Hot on the heels of his '#DontFreakOut' mixtape, South London producer Darq E Freaker further blazes his trademark trail through classic dance music, contemporary hip-hop and peripheral grime in a new instrumental EP for Big Dada, entitled 'ADHD'. Having first burst into international underground consciousness with Danny Brown’s ubiquitous “Blueberry (Pills & Cocaine),” the borderless, hybridized music he’s known for sounds no less fresh; other production credits (Tempa T, London Grammar, D Double E) and single releases (for Numbers. among others) are testament to a genre collagist at his technical prime.
Speaking on the release, Darq says: ”The timeliness of this music isn't so important, the main thing is that it’s RAVE music. I’m trying to fuse RAVE… with grime/hip-hop groovers, drops, drum patterns & basslines. I’ve always been listening to music, but this is actually stuff that I watched on ‘Top Of The Pops.’ What I grew up to. It was just a thing of me thinking how I’d ever make it into this sound, as I was quite young and didn't fathom making tunes. So this project is in reference to that but is also an extension of fusing different types of music together. Fusing genres into something technicolorful is something I’ve always been passionate about and pursued, both in this project and beyond. This project isn’t solely me, its me pushing some of the musical influence of my adolescence into my adulthood. It’s nostalgic in the most progressive way.”
Lead track “2C-I” exemplifies the mish-mash, serene synths falling away to a hyperactive barrage of percussion, squelches, ’80s video game motifs, and yes, bells and whistles. Each track is as white-knuckled and hedonistic as the next - this is not bedtime music - but markedly varied, even given the wide sonic palette with which he works.
Speaking on the release, Darq says: ”The timeliness of this music isn't so important, the main thing is that it’s RAVE music. I’m trying to fuse RAVE… with grime/hip-hop groovers, drops, drum patterns & basslines. I’ve always been listening to music, but this is actually stuff that I watched on ‘Top Of The Pops.’ What I grew up to. It was just a thing of me thinking how I’d ever make it into this sound, as I was quite young and didn't fathom making tunes. So this project is in reference to that but is also an extension of fusing different types of music together. Fusing genres into something technicolorful is something I’ve always been passionate about and pursued, both in this project and beyond. This project isn’t solely me, its me pushing some of the musical influence of my adolescence into my adulthood. It’s nostalgic in the most progressive way.”
Lead track “2C-I” exemplifies the mish-mash, serene synths falling away to a hyperactive barrage of percussion, squelches, ’80s video game motifs, and yes, bells and whistles. Each track is as white-knuckled and hedonistic as the next - this is not bedtime music - but markedly varied, even given the wide sonic palette with which he works.
Creating your own genre of music is not for the faint hearted and this is exactly what this album uncompromisingly sets out to do. Despite strong influences from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, it admirably keeps its feet firmly on the ground of Manchester and British Indie. Following in the footsteps of British bands Asian Dub Foundation and Transglobal Underground, the album layers exotic sounds like darbuka, saz and bouzouki over a strong, driving back beat. From electric guitar to the haunting Turkish çümbüş, each song holds small surprises from the unusual array of instruments arranged with loving attention to detail.
A mixture of Darwish's songs in English and modern rearrangements of Turkish and Kurdish songs, this album successfully fuses lyrics in English, Turkish and two Kurdish languages. Anatolian folk songs, some thought to be over 300 years old, sit comfortably next to some of the most biting English lyrics to have been written in recent times. The whole album has a meaningful weight to it but never becomes trite or pompous like so many of its world music counterparts.
The country and eastern sound is both uplifting and adventurous, never more exemplified than in the stomping cover of Dolly Parton's classic song "Jolene". Every listen reveals a new detail from the many intricate layers that go together to set this album in a world of is own. With anthemic and poetical comments on immigration and the Iraq war it is firmly set in the 21st century but the breathtakingly original mixture of languages and sounds from east and west takes you to a world where the only borders really are in your mind.
A mixture of Darwish's songs in English and modern rearrangements of Turkish and Kurdish songs, this album successfully fuses lyrics in English, Turkish and two Kurdish languages. Anatolian folk songs, some thought to be over 300 years old, sit comfortably next to some of the most biting English lyrics to have been written in recent times. The whole album has a meaningful weight to it but never becomes trite or pompous like so many of its world music counterparts.
The country and eastern sound is both uplifting and adventurous, never more exemplified than in the stomping cover of Dolly Parton's classic song "Jolene". Every listen reveals a new detail from the many intricate layers that go together to set this album in a world of is own. With anthemic and poetical comments on immigration and the Iraq war it is firmly set in the 21st century but the breathtakingly original mixture of languages and sounds from east and west takes you to a world where the only borders really are in your mind.
Euphoric ‘gospel electronica’ underpins cautionary tales from rock and roll’s breakfast buffetas Das Koolies return with news of a second album with new single, Som Bom Magnífico.Extending the melodious and mad, three-decade story of Super Furry Animals projects by adding another bombastic and beautiful chapter, Huw Bunford, Cian Ciarán, Daf Ieuan and Guto Pryce reconvene to announce the release of their second album, Pando, and four, new UK Tour dates for May 2025.
Meeting every pummelling motorway mile with the beat of their psychedelic-soul-house blend since the release of their debut, Official UK Breakers Album Chart No.1 album, DK.01, in late 2023, Das Koolies’ energetic return to festival fields, intimate venues and service station shopping has affected no distraction from their mission. Committing to more time on the road at the same time as sharing rich spoils from the studio, Das Koolies include Newport, Nottingham, London and Manchester in their live plans.
Determinedly exploring capability and ambition, the band’s continued, restorative return to wired and wonderful, man-and-machine-based music, following years of psych-folk-rockexperimentation as four Furries, hasn’t meant forgetting the past. Som Bom Magnífico’s tour story, combining wistful and weary memory, rests the band’s case.
Taking on the lead lyrical and vocal role, Daf Ieuan, says: “Hindsight and rose-tintedglasses. It’s a song about a time when it was normal to order a veggie breakfast in hotels as a concession to a healthier life style, then following up by requesting to see the ‘Breakfast Wine Menu’. As Lou Reed sang: "Wine in the morning!". Everyone should live like that for a while. Could be for a couple of days or a couple of decades. We’ve never laughed so much, but never again.”
Where the band’s debut crash-landed as a 17-track double album, a varied and visceral eruption of passions revived from forgotten studio hard-drives and both ad hoc and uninhibited late-night writing sessions, Som Bom Magnífico’s smooth, soul-pop landing suggests serene waters lie ahead, cooling concurrent, superheated electronic terrain. Condensing a flood of head stretching ideas into a single album, Pando’s release is confirmed for Fri 9 May 2025 on Strangetown Records in association with Amplify Music.
Meeting every pummelling motorway mile with the beat of their psychedelic-soul-house blend since the release of their debut, Official UK Breakers Album Chart No.1 album, DK.01, in late 2023, Das Koolies’ energetic return to festival fields, intimate venues and service station shopping has affected no distraction from their mission. Committing to more time on the road at the same time as sharing rich spoils from the studio, Das Koolies include Newport, Nottingham, London and Manchester in their live plans.
Determinedly exploring capability and ambition, the band’s continued, restorative return to wired and wonderful, man-and-machine-based music, following years of psych-folk-rockexperimentation as four Furries, hasn’t meant forgetting the past. Som Bom Magnífico’s tour story, combining wistful and weary memory, rests the band’s case.
Taking on the lead lyrical and vocal role, Daf Ieuan, says: “Hindsight and rose-tintedglasses. It’s a song about a time when it was normal to order a veggie breakfast in hotels as a concession to a healthier life style, then following up by requesting to see the ‘Breakfast Wine Menu’. As Lou Reed sang: "Wine in the morning!". Everyone should live like that for a while. Could be for a couple of days or a couple of decades. We’ve never laughed so much, but never again.”
Where the band’s debut crash-landed as a 17-track double album, a varied and visceral eruption of passions revived from forgotten studio hard-drives and both ad hoc and uninhibited late-night writing sessions, Som Bom Magnífico’s smooth, soul-pop landing suggests serene waters lie ahead, cooling concurrent, superheated electronic terrain. Condensing a flood of head stretching ideas into a single album, Pando’s release is confirmed for Fri 9 May 2025 on Strangetown Records in association with Amplify Music.
TRACK LISTING
1. Umschalter
2. Som Bom Magnifico
3. Spider City
4. Music Machine
5. Responde A La Pregunta
6. Enjoy
7. Yeah!
8. Someone Call An Ambulance
9. Ogov Gôkh
10. White Star
11. Thoughtless
12. Undegun
Bonus Dinked Edition 7”
A. Pando
B. La Tôle
After a string of well-received 7” releases on labels like Suicide Squeeze and Die Slaughterhaus, Dasher songs new and old have finally been smelted down into their debut album, ‘Sodium’.
Dasher knifes out the chop-crunch guitar of latterday post-punk with a seething screech echoing the hardest horizons of the early 90s underground.
Dasher knifes out the chop-crunch guitar of latterday post-punk with a seething screech echoing the hardest horizons of the early 90s underground.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Thrashing bouts of distortion, chugging basslines and frantic riffage open things and pretty much continue along the same uncompromising route. Brilliantly energetic post-everything punked-out rock and/or roll. Killer.TRACK LISTING
We Know So
Soviet
Resume
Teeth
Sodium
Go Rambo
Eye See
Trespass
Slugg
No Guilt
Get So Low
Following up 2016's "System", LA-based electronic musician Joseph Fraioli, aka Datach’i returns with his eighth album "Bones". Released on Venetian Snares' Timesig imprint, "Bones" features 12 tracks of mind expanding electronica, once again recorded on his custom-built Eurorack modular system. Much like its predecessor, "Bones" manages to make the most of the possibilities modular systems offer, whilst avoiding their many pitfalls that can often turn such music into little more than a dry academic exercise.
In parts playful & possessing a childlike optimisim, in others more serene, like a distant lullaby being beamed across the cosmos; there's also more tense and foreboding atmospheres that creep through. Fans of AFX, RX-101, 2K4S and our own Apta have plenty to enjoy here....
In parts playful & possessing a childlike optimisim, in others more serene, like a distant lullaby being beamed across the cosmos; there's also more tense and foreboding atmospheres that creep through. Fans of AFX, RX-101, 2K4S and our own Apta have plenty to enjoy here....
TRACK LISTING
1/Akemies
2/Rhys
3/Motion In The Living Room
4/Rockledge 3A
5/Saiph
6/Antumalal
7/Undimension
8/Drone Maze
9/Wand
10/4X1
11/Saugerties Road
12/Arrivals
"Give It Up" is the opening salvo from the forthcoming new Datarock album, "Red". It's typical Datarock - a brilliant slice of 80s-inspired disco-not-disco / punk-funk pop (complete with typically witty and surreal lyrics) that hooks you in on first listen. It's a short sharp shock that is reminiscent of the post-punk musicality of acts such as The Associates and achieves the fine balancing act of sounding both current and retro. Remixes on this 12" come from Kissy Sell Out (funky discoid electro), Fan Death (speedy indie-electrodisco collision) and Chateau Marmont (electrohouse). I copy found!
EP from the new blood of EU electro - Datawave. Miiiiles ahead of most other artists paying, ahem, 'tribute' to the old school electro genre - within bars of hearing Datawave's vibration you know you're dealing with an OG.
"Hidden Outpost" harnesses a gruff low end growl and abstract, sci-fi beats to create a slice of barren, space station electro that's as cold as Neptune's moons.
"Stellar Wind"'s drum programming is what really sets it apart as glowing pads radiate thru the highly kinetic riddims for some ratcheting, powerful electro laced with pure class.
Not much else to say, slap it ont deck at your next robo-boogie and maximum pleasure is guaranteed!
"Hidden Outpost" harnesses a gruff low end growl and abstract, sci-fi beats to create a slice of barren, space station electro that's as cold as Neptune's moons.
"Stellar Wind"'s drum programming is what really sets it apart as glowing pads radiate thru the highly kinetic riddims for some ratcheting, powerful electro laced with pure class.
Not much else to say, slap it ont deck at your next robo-boogie and maximum pleasure is guaranteed!
TRACK LISTING
A1. Hidden Outpost
B1. Stellar Wind
Six years hath passed since the last release action from NewZild's most noted crafters of classic rock. A lengthy period of quiet has been broken, with a stash of fresh riffing & renewed wailing. What change might have come to bear in a half dozen years? Is the DATSUN tribe more world weary, more savvy, more learned...? Is all this on evidence in the capturing of the newly birthed sonic heft and hooks? Have these geezers still got what it takes? The exhibit - Album No.7 - "Eye to Eye". The stylistic grasp of these 11 tunes wrap the locomotive chug of classic Ian Gillan/Ritchie Blackmore helmed Deep Purple, seasoned nicely with generous servings of Jon Lord keyboard surge, to some updated glam boogie power chord-age, in a manner not dissimilar to the production shenanigans Josh Homme (that QOTSA fella) applies to his various projects.
Has Datsun vocal main man Dolf de Borst always come across like some bastard offspring of Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper? There's some otherworldly fantastical floating folk glam vocal melodies wafting in & out of this selection of tracks. And the Cooper sneer & snarl rears its head, in those tunes of a more heart pounding nature... The guitar effects and greater keyboard dosage have peppered this clutch of new tunes with more flavours on the menu. Lest us not ferget the master of the cabin fever mongrel pedal electronic mechanics, and frequently featured lead Datsun instrumentalist, Christian Livingstone. It can be imagined the man has been labouring intently, in a wintry lock downed Northern hemisphere, fine tuning freaked fuzz frequencies, sci-fi squeal & spazz, and a host of other soaring dogfighting & dive-bombing tones, fer the instrumental breaks and beds for this album. The inherent rok dramatics and attack are the responsibilities Mr Livingstone bears.
The dynamics and tempo rest in the mitts of them other Datsun three. "Windmill" Phil Somervell gets to bring his rhythmic geetar chops & noted arm flailin', to underscore the light & shade of the riffage, knowing whens to slash or slug, pinch or punch. Ben "Poundin' Soul" Cole machine guns the rolls, and hits the timing twists & turns when required. Master de Borst locks in his bass walkin', & talkin', stuttering & strutting w/his fellow rhythm men.. An album entrenched in the past, remodelled for the future, one unknown & uncertain more than ever.
Has Datsun vocal main man Dolf de Borst always come across like some bastard offspring of Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper? There's some otherworldly fantastical floating folk glam vocal melodies wafting in & out of this selection of tracks. And the Cooper sneer & snarl rears its head, in those tunes of a more heart pounding nature... The guitar effects and greater keyboard dosage have peppered this clutch of new tunes with more flavours on the menu. Lest us not ferget the master of the cabin fever mongrel pedal electronic mechanics, and frequently featured lead Datsun instrumentalist, Christian Livingstone. It can be imagined the man has been labouring intently, in a wintry lock downed Northern hemisphere, fine tuning freaked fuzz frequencies, sci-fi squeal & spazz, and a host of other soaring dogfighting & dive-bombing tones, fer the instrumental breaks and beds for this album. The inherent rok dramatics and attack are the responsibilities Mr Livingstone bears.
The dynamics and tempo rest in the mitts of them other Datsun three. "Windmill" Phil Somervell gets to bring his rhythmic geetar chops & noted arm flailin', to underscore the light & shade of the riffage, knowing whens to slash or slug, pinch or punch. Ben "Poundin' Soul" Cole machine guns the rolls, and hits the timing twists & turns when required. Master de Borst locks in his bass walkin', & talkin', stuttering & strutting w/his fellow rhythm men.. An album entrenched in the past, remodelled for the future, one unknown & uncertain more than ever.
TRACK LISTING
1. Dehumanise
2. Warped Signals
3. White Noise Machine
4. Sweet Talk
5. Brain To Brain
6. Moongazer
7. Bite My Tongue
8. Raygun; Suspicion
9. Other People’s Eyes
10. In Record Time
Nearly three years after the release of their debut 'If You Leave', Daughter – the London-based trio of Elena Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella – will return in 2016 with a new album, entitled 'Not To Disappear'.
'Not To Disappear' is Daughter’s second album and finds the band making confident strides forward both sonically and lyrically. Elena, Igor and Remi spent a summer in New York recording 'Not To Disappear' with Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, War On Drugs, Animal Collective) at his Rare Book Room studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
'Not To Disappear' is Daughter’s second album and finds the band making confident strides forward both sonically and lyrically. Elena, Igor and Remi spent a summer in New York recording 'Not To Disappear' with Nicolas Vernhes (Deerhunter, War On Drugs, Animal Collective) at his Rare Book Room studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
STAFF COMMENTS
Millie says: An amazing album by the very talented Daughter, it’s expressive and emotional throughout. More progressive and experimental from their previous album, ‘Not to Disappear’ is filled with devotion. Absorbing and beautiful, I would recommend it to anyone.TRACK LISTING
1. New Ways
2. Numbers
3. Doing The Right Thing
4. How
5. Mothers
6. Alone / With You
7. No Care
8. To Belong
9. Fossa
10. Made Of Stone
Daughter of Swords is the solo project of North Carolina singer-songwriter Alex Sauser-Monnig (they/she), who has also released music with bands Mountain Man and The A’s. Their solo debut, 'Dawnbreaker', was a hushed folk record released in 2019; in the years since, Sauser-Monnig found a new understanding of self, personally and musically. Across the last several years, Daughter of Swords’ music has grown thornier, an unpredictable and knotty tangle of technicolor synths, heady guitar, bubbling rhythms, a sheen enveloping songs about raw human intensity writ large – crushes, desire, anger, alienation, the horrors of late-stage capitalism, the cascading paradigm shifts it seems we’re all hurtling toward.
Enter 'Alex', Daughter of Sword’s sinewy new record. Recorded at Betty’s (Sylvan Esso’s studio), 'Alex' was built out by Sauser-Monnig’s longtime friends/collaborators Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso, Mountain Man, The A’s), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak), TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry), and Caleb Wright (Hippo Campus, Samia). There’s a sharp cerebral tension between the stories at the core of these songs and the electrifying, playful buoyancy of the sound, the wink with which Sauser-Monnig can deliver a withering observation.
Reckoning with pleasure-seeking, boundary-breaking, and their place in the world, 'Alex' heralds a fresh chapter of exploration and liberation for Sauser-Monnig, yielding the truest representation of their identity via song yet. A reassessment of inner systems, and relationships of all sorts — with art and creativity, with other humans, with gender – happened in tandem with Sauser-Monnig’s interrogation of the late-capitalist culture that makes life for working artists an inequitable grind. Forced out of their habitual ways of thinking and being, Sauser-Monnig found new energy in dissolving old limitations—be they about the music business or their concept of gender—and exploring in uncharted territory. Their priority became maximizing the mood of each track, borne out in Alex’s layers of synthetic textures and unorthodox flourishes.
Enter 'Alex', Daughter of Sword’s sinewy new record. Recorded at Betty’s (Sylvan Esso’s studio), 'Alex' was built out by Sauser-Monnig’s longtime friends/collaborators Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso, Mountain Man, The A’s), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made of Oak), TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry), and Caleb Wright (Hippo Campus, Samia). There’s a sharp cerebral tension between the stories at the core of these songs and the electrifying, playful buoyancy of the sound, the wink with which Sauser-Monnig can deliver a withering observation.
Reckoning with pleasure-seeking, boundary-breaking, and their place in the world, 'Alex' heralds a fresh chapter of exploration and liberation for Sauser-Monnig, yielding the truest representation of their identity via song yet. A reassessment of inner systems, and relationships of all sorts — with art and creativity, with other humans, with gender – happened in tandem with Sauser-Monnig’s interrogation of the late-capitalist culture that makes life for working artists an inequitable grind. Forced out of their habitual ways of thinking and being, Sauser-Monnig found new energy in dissolving old limitations—be they about the music business or their concept of gender—and exploring in uncharted territory. Their priority became maximizing the mood of each track, borne out in Alex’s layers of synthetic textures and unorthodox flourishes.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Angular bursts of overdriven guitar and looped noises underpin the smoothly melodic vocals of Alex Sauser-Monnig, and result in something that's clearly influenced as much by art rock and folk as it is indie music. A hugely dynamic selection of wonderfully hummable oddities and soaring chorsues.TRACK LISTING
1. Alone Together
2. Talk To You
3. Hard On
4. Morning In Madison
5. Money Hits
6. All I Want Is You
7. Willow
8. Dance
9. Strange
10. Vacation
11. Song
12. West Of West
In 2017, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig began recording a set of songs about a breakup that had yet to happen. Her partnership had drifted into a comfortable state of indecision, stalling when it came time to make big life moves or chase new horizons. She had the sense that she needed to slip the relationship in order to pursue everything else life might have in store—more music, more adventures, a general sense of the unknown. Those feelings drifted steadily into a set of songs that lamented the inevitable loss but, more important, outlined the promise of the future. Recording the ten tracks that became her stunning solo debut, Dawnbreaker, under the new name Daughter of Swords gave Sauser-Monnig permission to go.
Dawnbreaker began as the first phase of Sauser-Monnig’s return to music after stepping to the sidelines for the better part of a decade. Her college trio, Mountain Man, rose to quick acclaim for their peerless harmonies around 2010, but the friends slowly drifted apart, following their own interests to different coasts and concerns. While working on a flower farm as a farmhand, though, Sauser-Monnig realized that she missed the emotional articulation she found in writing songs and singing them and resolved to start again. She pieced together an album just as Mountain Man—now newly gathered in the fertile Piedmont of North Carolina—began to regroup for its second LP, 2018’s aptly named Magic Ship. Working with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth. They were, after all, preemptive odes to the next phase of life.
Calling the ten tunes of Dawnbreaker breakup songs is to hamstring them with elegiac expectations, to paint them as sad-eyed surrenders to loss and grief. Sure, there is the gentle opener “Fellows,” a hushed number that explores the turmoil of being unable to reciprocate the feelings of a wild and shy, tall and fine man. And there’s the blossoming country shuffle of “Easy Is Hard,” where Sauser-Monnig stands in the yard and sees her lover leave, his taillights fading into the night sky; she can’t sleep, so she gets up to turn the lights and stereo on, to “feel my soul coming down.” Even there, amid the throes of a life convulsion, there is a wisp of hope and possibility, framed by the way “the dim light change[s] into dawn, rosy blue, pink fawn.” The very heart of Dawnbreaker is not the impending breakup that inspired many of its songs but the sense of liberation and breaking out that the breakup inspired.
Buoyed by the insistent patter of a drum machine and rich acoustic guitars,
Sauser-Monnig finds herself in search of new thrills during “Gem,” whether pondering the fleeting nature of existence at a waterfall’s edge or watching the shapes of mountains seemingly dance beneath her headlights. The muted, harmonica-lined boogie of “Sun” begins with a vulnerable confession, a revelation of loneliness; it is, however, a low-key anthem for the open road, about giving oneself over to the infinity of solitude and an endless strip of asphalt. Sauser-Monnig captures these scenes with a painter’s eye and delivers them with a novelist’s heart.
There’s no better testament than “Shining Woman,” where Sauser-Monnig portrays a ropy woman navigating her “steel steed” up and down the bends and passes of California’s fabled Highway 1. She openly marvels at that spirit and strength, wishing that for her own life. With Dawnbreaker, she has found it in some measure—the joy of something new, the excitement of risk. Though Sauser-Monnig nearly recorded these songs as barebones folk ballads, she reimagined them with Sanborn and a top-tier crew of North Carolina friends, like fellow Mountain Man singers Amelia Meath and Molly Sarlé, bandleader Phil Cook, and guitarist Ryan Gustafson. These vivid settings highlight the emotional contours of these songs, revealing the complexity that comes with knowing that, in order to live, you sometimes have to let something as strong as love go.
At the start of “Human,” the undeniable climax of Dawnbreaker, Sauser-Monnig wakes up early and finds her lover in bed. She slips out of the room, watches the sun rise alone, and has herself a long think amid nature’s frozen splendor. What does it mean to leave? What does it mean to stay? Is she wrong, and is he right? As the piano rises and her voice multiplies, coming in now from all sides, she admits something crucial to herself: “You can’t will a love to life/But you can do the loving thing: Make like a bird and fly.” It is a moment of reckoning with one’s own liberation, of realizing that sometimes a profound loss is the only way to gain something else. That is the lesson of Dawnbreaker, an intimate document of what it means to set oneself free.
Dawnbreaker began as the first phase of Sauser-Monnig’s return to music after stepping to the sidelines for the better part of a decade. Her college trio, Mountain Man, rose to quick acclaim for their peerless harmonies around 2010, but the friends slowly drifted apart, following their own interests to different coasts and concerns. While working on a flower farm as a farmhand, though, Sauser-Monnig realized that she missed the emotional articulation she found in writing songs and singing them and resolved to start again. She pieced together an album just as Mountain Man—now newly gathered in the fertile Piedmont of North Carolina—began to regroup for its second LP, 2018’s aptly named Magic Ship. Working with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth. They were, after all, preemptive odes to the next phase of life.
Calling the ten tunes of Dawnbreaker breakup songs is to hamstring them with elegiac expectations, to paint them as sad-eyed surrenders to loss and grief. Sure, there is the gentle opener “Fellows,” a hushed number that explores the turmoil of being unable to reciprocate the feelings of a wild and shy, tall and fine man. And there’s the blossoming country shuffle of “Easy Is Hard,” where Sauser-Monnig stands in the yard and sees her lover leave, his taillights fading into the night sky; she can’t sleep, so she gets up to turn the lights and stereo on, to “feel my soul coming down.” Even there, amid the throes of a life convulsion, there is a wisp of hope and possibility, framed by the way “the dim light change[s] into dawn, rosy blue, pink fawn.” The very heart of Dawnbreaker is not the impending breakup that inspired many of its songs but the sense of liberation and breaking out that the breakup inspired.
Buoyed by the insistent patter of a drum machine and rich acoustic guitars,
Sauser-Monnig finds herself in search of new thrills during “Gem,” whether pondering the fleeting nature of existence at a waterfall’s edge or watching the shapes of mountains seemingly dance beneath her headlights. The muted, harmonica-lined boogie of “Sun” begins with a vulnerable confession, a revelation of loneliness; it is, however, a low-key anthem for the open road, about giving oneself over to the infinity of solitude and an endless strip of asphalt. Sauser-Monnig captures these scenes with a painter’s eye and delivers them with a novelist’s heart.
There’s no better testament than “Shining Woman,” where Sauser-Monnig portrays a ropy woman navigating her “steel steed” up and down the bends and passes of California’s fabled Highway 1. She openly marvels at that spirit and strength, wishing that for her own life. With Dawnbreaker, she has found it in some measure—the joy of something new, the excitement of risk. Though Sauser-Monnig nearly recorded these songs as barebones folk ballads, she reimagined them with Sanborn and a top-tier crew of North Carolina friends, like fellow Mountain Man singers Amelia Meath and Molly Sarlé, bandleader Phil Cook, and guitarist Ryan Gustafson. These vivid settings highlight the emotional contours of these songs, revealing the complexity that comes with knowing that, in order to live, you sometimes have to let something as strong as love go.
At the start of “Human,” the undeniable climax of Dawnbreaker, Sauser-Monnig wakes up early and finds her lover in bed. She slips out of the room, watches the sun rise alone, and has herself a long think amid nature’s frozen splendor. What does it mean to leave? What does it mean to stay? Is she wrong, and is he right? As the piano rises and her voice multiplies, coming in now from all sides, she admits something crucial to herself: “You can’t will a love to life/But you can do the loving thing: Make like a bird and fly.” It is a moment of reckoning with one’s own liberation, of realizing that sometimes a profound loss is the only way to gain something else. That is the lesson of Dawnbreaker, an intimate document of what it means to set oneself free.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Gorgeous, softly-sung vocals, tenderly plucked guitar and understated percussive drive (is that a CR-78 I hear?), all working together to make Sauser-Monnig's gorgeous artistic vision a reality. Perfect hazy summer songs.TRACK LISTING
1 Fellows
2 Gem
3 Fields
4 Shining Woman
5 Grasses
6 Easy
7 Rising Sun
8 Long Leaf Pine
9 Human
10 Dawnbreaker
Elena Tonra isn’t a keen swimmer, but oceans pervade Stereo Mind Game. It’s a matter of distance. Daughter’s third record, the band’s first studio album for seven years, grapples with what it means to be separated, from loved ones and too from yourself.
“Oh it will likely kill me / That I must live / Without you / Because I can’t swim,” Tonra sings, whisper-like, on “Isolation”. It’s a classic Daughter song that basks elegantly in deepest despair. Yet here there’s a sense of something beyond despair too. “I’ll compose myself / I’ll get over it,” Tonra continues. On Stereo Mind Game, Daughter tend to sorrow by fixing it in time. Doing so makes it more real, like the flower – dried, pressed and remembered – on the album’s cover.
Daughter – the trio comprising Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella – formed in 2010. After releasing two studio albums, If You Leave (2013) and Not to Disappear (2016), and the video game soundtrack Music From Before the Storm (2017), they chose to take some time off. But not before jamming together in Los Angeles, in between a support tour with The National and their first headline shows in South America. It was here that a new album started to germinate.
Over the next couple of years – during which they worked on their own projects, including Tonra’s solo record as Ex:Re – Daughter met occasionally to write together in studios in London, Portland and in San Diego, where Haefeli lived for six months in 2019. The record’s central romantic figure is someone Tonra met out there when she visited from London. They shared a significant connection, but she knew the Atlantic lay between them.
It’s this that she sings about on “Be On Your Way”, a longing but resilient song about an enduring connection that is also undefinable. Where previous Daughter songs mourned old relationships, here Tonra is accepting of whatever the future brings. “A friend said to me recently: just because something ends, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t real,” she says. Haefeli likens the revelation to the pressed flower image: “It’s still there. It still exists. It grew that spring.”
Daughter began recording the album’s twelve songs in earnest in 2021. Haefeli, who lives in Bristol, met with Tonra at Middle Farm Studios in Devon. Aguilella, who is based in Portland, Oregon, recorded his drum parts in Bocce Studio in Vancouver, Washington. Haefeli produced a number of the songs, while Tonra produced “Junkmail”. They co-produced the rest.
The longing to close physical distances – a feeling that only grew during the pandemic – has seeped into many of these tracks. On “Wish I Could Cross the Sea” we hear voice notes from Tonra’s young niece and nephew, who live in Italy. “(Missed Calls)” features another voice note, in which a friend describes a dream. Fed through some modular effects, it becomes glitchy, and haunting. These messages, attempts at connection from loved ones you’re unable to see, “can pull you out of the well”, Tonra says – but only if you pick up the phone.
When you let others in, beauty can arise. Deep feeling comes from the bows of the 12 Ensemble, the London-based string orchestra, who play on many of the album’s tracks. Arranged by Haefeli and Tonra, and orchestrated by Josephine Stephenson, their parts were – fittingly – recorded at The Pool, a space in Bermondsey, south London, which is a former swimming spot. A brass quartet also brings a new sonic warmth to “Neptune” and “To Rage”.
And for the first time, Tonra’s is not a lone voice. On “Dandelion”, which glistens with Haefeli’s chime-like guitars and Aguilella’s rousing drums, Tonra plays call and response with herself. Haefeli leads some vocal lines on the exhilarating “Future Lover”, and on “Neptune”, a choir appears. These vocalists are the string players of the 12 Ensemble. “It’s one of my favourite moments of the record,” Tonra says, “when suddenly, the crowd joins. It’s a very lonely song. But even when I’ve felt the most alone, arms have reached out to me.”
In order to maintain relationships with others, we must first make peace with ourselves. “Party” recounts a significant moment: the night that made Tonra realise she wanted to give up alcohol. It’s a topic she has written about before, but she needed distance to see it clearly. Haefeli borrows her image: “This time you had climbed out of the well,” he says, “and were looking back down.” It’s the song she’s most proud of, and the one that lends its lyrics to the album title (“Some stereo mind game I play with myself”), which refers to the conflicting voices we all have in our heads.
While Daughter’s previous work found power in emotional honesty, Stereo Mind Game welcomes opposing feelings. “It’s about not working in absolutes,” Haefeli says. After more than a decade spent depicting the darkest emotions, Daughter have made their most optimistic record yet.
“Oh it will likely kill me / That I must live / Without you / Because I can’t swim,” Tonra sings, whisper-like, on “Isolation”. It’s a classic Daughter song that basks elegantly in deepest despair. Yet here there’s a sense of something beyond despair too. “I’ll compose myself / I’ll get over it,” Tonra continues. On Stereo Mind Game, Daughter tend to sorrow by fixing it in time. Doing so makes it more real, like the flower – dried, pressed and remembered – on the album’s cover.
Daughter – the trio comprising Tonra, Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilella – formed in 2010. After releasing two studio albums, If You Leave (2013) and Not to Disappear (2016), and the video game soundtrack Music From Before the Storm (2017), they chose to take some time off. But not before jamming together in Los Angeles, in between a support tour with The National and their first headline shows in South America. It was here that a new album started to germinate.
Over the next couple of years – during which they worked on their own projects, including Tonra’s solo record as Ex:Re – Daughter met occasionally to write together in studios in London, Portland and in San Diego, where Haefeli lived for six months in 2019. The record’s central romantic figure is someone Tonra met out there when she visited from London. They shared a significant connection, but she knew the Atlantic lay between them.
It’s this that she sings about on “Be On Your Way”, a longing but resilient song about an enduring connection that is also undefinable. Where previous Daughter songs mourned old relationships, here Tonra is accepting of whatever the future brings. “A friend said to me recently: just because something ends, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t real,” she says. Haefeli likens the revelation to the pressed flower image: “It’s still there. It still exists. It grew that spring.”
Daughter began recording the album’s twelve songs in earnest in 2021. Haefeli, who lives in Bristol, met with Tonra at Middle Farm Studios in Devon. Aguilella, who is based in Portland, Oregon, recorded his drum parts in Bocce Studio in Vancouver, Washington. Haefeli produced a number of the songs, while Tonra produced “Junkmail”. They co-produced the rest.
The longing to close physical distances – a feeling that only grew during the pandemic – has seeped into many of these tracks. On “Wish I Could Cross the Sea” we hear voice notes from Tonra’s young niece and nephew, who live in Italy. “(Missed Calls)” features another voice note, in which a friend describes a dream. Fed through some modular effects, it becomes glitchy, and haunting. These messages, attempts at connection from loved ones you’re unable to see, “can pull you out of the well”, Tonra says – but only if you pick up the phone.
When you let others in, beauty can arise. Deep feeling comes from the bows of the 12 Ensemble, the London-based string orchestra, who play on many of the album’s tracks. Arranged by Haefeli and Tonra, and orchestrated by Josephine Stephenson, their parts were – fittingly – recorded at The Pool, a space in Bermondsey, south London, which is a former swimming spot. A brass quartet also brings a new sonic warmth to “Neptune” and “To Rage”.
And for the first time, Tonra’s is not a lone voice. On “Dandelion”, which glistens with Haefeli’s chime-like guitars and Aguilella’s rousing drums, Tonra plays call and response with herself. Haefeli leads some vocal lines on the exhilarating “Future Lover”, and on “Neptune”, a choir appears. These vocalists are the string players of the 12 Ensemble. “It’s one of my favourite moments of the record,” Tonra says, “when suddenly, the crowd joins. It’s a very lonely song. But even when I’ve felt the most alone, arms have reached out to me.”
In order to maintain relationships with others, we must first make peace with ourselves. “Party” recounts a significant moment: the night that made Tonra realise she wanted to give up alcohol. It’s a topic she has written about before, but she needed distance to see it clearly. Haefeli borrows her image: “This time you had climbed out of the well,” he says, “and were looking back down.” It’s the song she’s most proud of, and the one that lends its lyrics to the album title (“Some stereo mind game I play with myself”), which refers to the conflicting voices we all have in our heads.
While Daughter’s previous work found power in emotional honesty, Stereo Mind Game welcomes opposing feelings. “It’s about not working in absolutes,” Haefeli says. After more than a decade spent depicting the darkest emotions, Daughter have made their most optimistic record yet.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Though the shoegaze influence has always been clear in Daughter's work, the previous two LP's (And Ex:Re, Tonra's solo project) have leant more towards post-rock than the decidedly more upbeat and sonically rich 'stereo Mind Game'. It's an assured and confident step in a new direction for Daughter.TRACK LISTING
Intro
Be On Your Way
Party
Dandelion
Neptune
Swim Back
Junkmail
Future Lover
(Missed Calls)
Isolation
To Rage
Wish I Could Cross The Sea
A new longform commissioned work released on the artist’s own Late Music label. String quartet version available as a 2LP and CD, or four different instrumental variations presented as the Long Gradus: Arrangements 4CD boxset.
TRACK LISTING
1. Long Gradus (strings): Part I
2. Long Gradus (strings): Part 2
3. Long Gradus (strings): Part 3
4. Long Gradus (strings): Part 4
The acclaimed 2017 LP, originally released in a small run of vinyl on the Cincinnati-based Students Of Decay label. Featuring a suite of extended pieces for strings, voice, organ, and piano, it is said to hover “somewhere between the conscious and the unconscious, barely there and indisputably present” - Pitchfork. Recorded at Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s analogue recording studio in Montreal, Hotel2Tango, the album sees Davachi’s Keyboards supplemented by Camille Hesketh’s soprano vocals, Jessica Holmes on cello and Jessica Mosson violin.
TRACK LISTING
1. For Strings
2. For Voice
3. Chanter
4. For Organ
5. For Piano
It was once said that listening to Antiphonals was, “like listening to a progressive rock album except it’s just the keyboard parts.” As the second full-length LP on Late Music, Davachi offers here a slow and sedate solo affair composed with the various horns and woodwinds of the mellotron alongside organs, pianos, harpsichord, and more quiet delights. All tracks composed, performed, recorded, mixed, and produced by Sarah Davachi (SOCAN), February - December 2020 Mastered by Sean McCann
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Antiphonals is a wonderful juxtaposition of gothic gloom and slowly morphing drones, somewhere along the lines of a classical, short-form Sunn0))). It's beautifully dense and immediate, experimental but deeply listenable. Impeccable.TRACK LISTING
A1 - Chorus Scene - 2:47
A2 - Magdalena - 10:19
A3 - First Cadence - 5:57
A4 - Gradual Of Image - 3:09
B1 - Border Of Mind - 5:53
B2 - Abeyant - 7:12
B3 - Rushes Recede - 6:35
B4 - Doubled Flutes - 2:19
Sarah Davachi’s 2015 debut LP. A series of extended electroacoustic solo and chamber works, performed by Davachi and a cast of players from the San Francisco Bay Area, recorded across Canada, California, and Europe. It’s all in a landscape, landscape, the location of the mind.
TRACK LISTING
1. Heliotrope
2. Guildford
3. Tiergarten
4. Wood Green
5. Ruislip
A supplement to ‘Two Sisters’, Sarah Davachi offers a series of live chamber ensemble recordings and instrumentals collected while in residence at the National Music Centre.
Featuring commissioned works ‘In The Grand Luxe Hall’ (2016) and ‘Stile Vuoto’ (2018), variations and unreleased live recordings of the ‘Harmonies’ series for organ, and solo performances with electronic instruments such as the Hammond B3 and Hammond Novachord.
Featuring commissioned works ‘In The Grand Luxe Hall’ (2016) and ‘Stile Vuoto’ (2018), variations and unreleased live recordings of the ‘Harmonies’ series for organ, and solo performances with electronic instruments such as the Hammond B3 and Hammond Novachord.
TRACK LISTING
CD1
In The Grand Luxe Hall
Stile Vuoto
Harmonies In Grey
CD2
Lower Visions I
Lower Visions II
Lower Visions III
Lower Visions IV
Harmonies In Green
Davachi’s fifth album, originally released in 2018. Number 6 in The Wire magazine Top 50 releases of that year. Comprising a collection of hours for the evening with mellotron, electric organ, piano, and synthesizer. O beautiful was the werewolf in his evil forest. Electric green and red tears.
TRACK LISTING
1. Garlands
2. Mordents
3. At Hand
4. Buhrstone
5. Hours In The Evening
A new longform commissioned work released on the artist’s own Late Music label. String quartet version available as a 2LP and CD, or four different instrumental variations presented as the Long Gradus: Arrangements 4CD boxset.
TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE Tracklist:
Long Gradus Strings
Quatuor Bozzini
1. Long Gradus (strings): Part 1
2. Long Gradus (strings): Part 2
3. Long Gradus (strings): Part 3
4. Long Gradus (strings): Part 4
DISC TWO Tracklist:
Long Gradus Woodwinds
Rebecca Lane & Samara Dunscombe
1. Long Gradus (woodwinds): Part 1
2. Long Gradus (woodwinds): Part 2
3. Long Gradus (woodwinds): Part 3
4. Long Gradus (woodwinds): Part 4
DISC THREE Tracklist:
Long Gradus Brass & Organ
Sarah Davachi & Rage Thormbones
1. Long Gradus (brass & Organ): Part 1
2. Long Gradus (brass & Organ): Part 2
3. Long Gradus (brass & Organ): Part 3
4. Long Gradus (brass & Organ): Part 4
DISC FOUR Tracklist:
Long Gradus Choir & Electronics
Sarah Davachi & Judith Berkson
1. Long Gradus (choir & Electronics): Part 1
2. Long Gradus (choir & Electronics): Part 2
3. Long Gradus (choir & Electronics): Part 3
4. Long Gradus (choir & Electronics): Part 4
Late Music and Disciples are pleased to present the first volume in an archival series of selected electronic and acoustic works by Sarah Davachi, all previously unreleased on the vinyl format.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
TRACK LISTING
Alms Vert
In The Grand Luxe Hall (Excerpt)
In The Littlefield Choir Loft (Excerpt)
Gathers IV
Late Music and Disciples are pleased to present the first and second volumes in an archival series of selected electronic and acoustic works by Sarah Davachi, all previously unreleased on the vinyl format.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
TRACK LISTING
Disc 1
Alms Vert
In The Grand Luxe Hall (Excerpt)
In The Littlefield Choir Loft (Excerpt)
Gathers IV
Disc 2
First Triad
A Woman Escapes Cue 4
Neustadt
Composition Of Flowers (Excerpt)
Olsun
Gathers VI
Late Music and Disciples are pleased to present the second volume in an archival series of selected electronic and acoustic works by Sarah Davachi, all previously unreleased on the vinyl format.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
Featuring (way) back catalogue material from various CDs, cassettes and EPs, singles and original film scores, as well as miscellaneous live and studio recordings.
TRACK LISTING
First Triad
A Woman Escapes Cue 4
Neustadt
Composition Of Flowers (Excerpt)
Olsun
Gathers VI
The compositions on this album, written between 2022 and 2024, form a conceptual suite and an observance of the mental dances that we construct to understand acts of passage; the ways that we commune and memorialize and carry symbols back into the world beyond representation. To this end, 'The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir' engages two references to the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus: Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, a collection of poems from 1922, and Monteverdi’s l’Orfeo, an early baroque opera from 1607. 'The Head as Form’d in the Crier’s Choir' follows on from the last two albums, which were attempts to begin bridging the gap between the fixed electroacoustic pieces that emerge in Davachi’s home studio and her slow paced, somewhat open-form chamber writing, in which each performance presents a new structure and in which each iteration offers the path to a new composition and deeper meaning.
Alongside Davachi, featured musicians on this album are Andrew McIntosh (viola, Los Angeles), Mattie Barbier (trombone, Los Angeles), Lisa McGee (mezzo-soprano, Los Angeles), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, Montréal), Eyvind Kang (viola d’amore, Los Angeles), and Rebecca Lane (bass flute, Berlin), Sam Dunscombe (bass clarinet, Berlin), Michiko Ogawa (bass clarinet, Berlin), M.O. Abbott (trombone, Berlin), and Weston Olencki (trombone, Berlin) of the Harmonic Space Orchestra (Winds).
Alongside Davachi, featured musicians on this album are Andrew McIntosh (viola, Los Angeles), Mattie Barbier (trombone, Los Angeles), Lisa McGee (mezzo-soprano, Los Angeles), Pierre-Yves Martel (viola da gamba, Montréal), Eyvind Kang (viola d’amore, Los Angeles), and Rebecca Lane (bass flute, Berlin), Sam Dunscombe (bass clarinet, Berlin), Michiko Ogawa (bass clarinet, Berlin), M.O. Abbott (trombone, Berlin), and Weston Olencki (trombone, Berlin) of the Harmonic Space Orchestra (Winds).
TRACK LISTING
1. Prologo
2. Possente Spirto
3. The Crier’s Choir
4. Trio For A Ground
5. Res Sub Rosa
6. Constants
7. Night Horns
'The Will of Tongues' is the new studio album by Sarah Davachi, and it is certainly her most ambitious to date, spanning over two hours, available as a triple vinyl set, or double compact disc in hardback book style packaging. The album features five new works for historical pipe organs, three choral pieces, a suite of "interludes" for various microtonal ensembles, and a longform chamber piece for strings, organ, and tape. In addition to Davachi performing on organ, the album also features an incredible group of musicians from across the US and Europe, including Whitney Johnson (viola), Eyvind Kang (viola), Lucy Railton (cello), Diapason (an experimental brass ensemble from Los Angeles), Phaedrus (a Renaissance flute consort from Switzerland), and Chamber Choir Ireland.
The album engages several different compositional methods and concepts, all rooted in the minimalist tradition from which Davachi primarily operates, but underscoring 'The Will of Tongues' as a combined body of work is a deep reverence for the act of listening. This collection of music is not easy listening, and it's not meant to be – when long durations and a reduction of materials are at play, the ear and mind are forced to confront sound itself and the significant mental spaces that it continually gives rise to. 'The Will of Tongues' is thus a celebration of iterative listening and of extreme confrontation, of intimate aural experience and its vast psychic horizons.
The album engages several different compositional methods and concepts, all rooted in the minimalist tradition from which Davachi primarily operates, but underscoring 'The Will of Tongues' as a combined body of work is a deep reverence for the act of listening. This collection of music is not easy listening, and it's not meant to be – when long durations and a reduction of materials are at play, the ear and mind are forced to confront sound itself and the significant mental spaces that it continually gives rise to. 'The Will of Tongues' is thus a celebration of iterative listening and of extreme confrontation, of intimate aural experience and its vast psychic horizons.
TRACK LISTING
1. Interlude I: Polyphonic, for Strings
2. Canto Duo
3. Songs of the Smile's Fig: I. Hours
4. Interlude V: Harmonic, for Woodwinds
5. The Second Tuning
6. The Rose Dialogues, Part I
7. The Rose Dialogues, Part II
8. Songs of the Smile's Fig: II. Salts
9. Four Narrow Forms
10. Interlude II: Unison, for Brass
11. The First Tuning
12. 6 Songs of the Smile's Fig: III. Follies
13. Canto Solo
The new album from Sarah Davachi on her own Late Music imprint is a collection of nine extended compositions for chamber ensemble and solo pipe organ. The expanded instrumentation on this album includes carillon (a keyboard instrument comprised of very large cast-iron bells), choir, string quartet, low woodwinds, and trombone quartet, alongside sine tones and electronic drones. Among the pipe organs featured on the album is an extremely rare Italian tracker organ from 1742, housed now in the Southwest desert region of the United States. Davachi is accompanied in these recordings by a formidable group of musicians and interpreters, including the Apartment House ensemble.
The carillon that sounds on the piece ‘Hall of Mirrors’ is the third largest in the world, with its heaviest bell weighing approximately twelve Imperial tons. Conceptually, there is a loose thread that runs through the compositional methods of Two Sisters, influenced by the allegory of ‘temperance’ in a minimalist aesthetic sense: “one foot on land, one foot in the water”, as it were, caught in the perpetual balance of restraint as delight and necessity. There are mirrored sonic and structural images throughout the album, also reflected in the iconography of the cover: the satyr and the subject, the shared gaze between head and body, the dialogue between cerebral and physical response, as above so below. It’s like there’s two sisters of faith and chance.
The carillon that sounds on the piece ‘Hall of Mirrors’ is the third largest in the world, with its heaviest bell weighing approximately twelve Imperial tons. Conceptually, there is a loose thread that runs through the compositional methods of Two Sisters, influenced by the allegory of ‘temperance’ in a minimalist aesthetic sense: “one foot on land, one foot in the water”, as it were, caught in the perpetual balance of restraint as delight and necessity. There are mirrored sonic and structural images throughout the album, also reflected in the iconography of the cover: the satyr and the subject, the shared gaze between head and body, the dialogue between cerebral and physical response, as above so below. It’s like there’s two sisters of faith and chance.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Hall Of Mirrors
A2. Alas, Departing
A3. Vanity Of Ages
B1. Icon Studies I
B2. Harmonies In Bronze
C1. Harmonies In Green
C2. Icon Studies II
D1. En Bas Tu Vois
D2. O World And The Clear Song
Widely regarded as the most exciting storyteller of his generation, Dave's next chapter follows the critically acclaimed No.1 albums 'Psychodrama' and 'We’re All Alone in This Together'.
'The Boy Who Played the Harp' is the first release from Dave since 2023, when self-produced Central Cee collaboration ‘Sprinter’ broke the record for the longest running #1 rap record in UK chart history, succeeding his 2022 single ‘Starlight’ which set the record for longest-running No.1 solo UK track, and the first UK No.1 by a sole writer and producer in 8 years. The record-breaking release of 'We’re All Alone In This Together' in July 2021 confirmed Dave as one of the most established artists of our time, with the biggest first week sales across all genres for 2 years at the time and the biggest UK Rap record in over a decade, achieving gold status within 3 weeks of release, and quickly becoming his second Platinum album.
'The Boy Who Played the Harp' is the first release from Dave since 2023, when self-produced Central Cee collaboration ‘Sprinter’ broke the record for the longest running #1 rap record in UK chart history, succeeding his 2022 single ‘Starlight’ which set the record for longest-running No.1 solo UK track, and the first UK No.1 by a sole writer and producer in 8 years. The record-breaking release of 'We’re All Alone In This Together' in July 2021 confirmed Dave as one of the most established artists of our time, with the biggest first week sales across all genres for 2 years at the time and the biggest UK Rap record in over a decade, achieving gold status within 3 weeks of release, and quickly becoming his second Platinum album.
TRACK LISTING
TBC
Now totally established in the musical mainstream, grime has enjoyed a sensational year in 2019. UK artists have topped the global charts with polished club tracks and gritty roadman anthems, Slowthai's dropped a debut LP inspired by punk energy, and the manlike Dave has delivered a new genre highpoint with the phenomenal "Psychodrama" LP. Swerving away from the flossy end of the spectrum, Dave serves up confessional and conscious lyricisim, opening up about mental health problems, domestic abuse and racism across eleven tracks.
Blessed with the same versatility as Kendrick, Dave can move from the deep and powerful "Black" (think a British Tupac wrapping over Jay Z's "Renegade" beat) to the romantic and sensual "Purple Heart" (a bit like Kendrick's "Pride") to the reflective "Location" in three tracks. This is not the archetypal rapper with big chains, gun chat and a love of hating women, instead his masterful album is presented as a series of discussions with his therapist, recorded over a year of treatment. It will suck you into his world with genius lyrical depth and intricacy and moving explanations of life as a young black person living in the UK. It's utterly prescient and insightful.
Blessed with the same versatility as Kendrick, Dave can move from the deep and powerful "Black" (think a British Tupac wrapping over Jay Z's "Renegade" beat) to the romantic and sensual "Purple Heart" (a bit like Kendrick's "Pride") to the reflective "Location" in three tracks. This is not the archetypal rapper with big chains, gun chat and a love of hating women, instead his masterful album is presented as a series of discussions with his therapist, recorded over a year of treatment. It will suck you into his world with genius lyrical depth and intricacy and moving explanations of life as a young black person living in the UK. It's utterly prescient and insightful.
TRACK LISTING
A1. Psycho
A2. Streatham
A3. Black
A4. Purple Heart
B1. Location (feat Burna Boy)
B2. Disaster (feat J Hus)
B3. Screwface Capital
C1. Environment
C2. Lesley (feat Ruelle)
D1. Voices
D2. Drama
Bart Davenport might be a multitude of things, depending on whom you ask. He's been a mod, a blues singer, and a softrock troubadour. He's an eclectic singer songwriter with the timeless voice of a real crooner. He lives and creates music in Los Angeles. Smooth and yet curiously pointed, his work transports us to an imagined past or present filled with romantic odes and enigmatic characters. Davenport's stories are often a reflection of now, taking place in a fantasy world but conveying personal and universal truths. Returning to acoustic guitars and 60s baroque pop tones, Davenport recently tracked twelve new songs in his home studio in Los Angeles. He takes us on an exclusive tour of colorful stories, both comic and tragic. The resulting 'Episodes' marks his eighth proper album and is scheduled for release in March 2022 on Tapete Records.
Davenport's evocative, new material provides both an escape from and an unusual commentary on turbulent times. From digital antagonists in 'Holograms' to waltzing oligarchs in 'Billionaires' to an enigmatic nudist in 'Naked Man', many offbeat characters populate the funny little world within Davenport's verses. His vocals are distinctively smooth at times, while at others, a slightly cheeky, more dramatic baritone takes over. His patented happy/sad sensibility remains along with the occasional jazz chord.
While 'Episodes' features Davenport on multiple instruments, he did not go it alone. Several guest musicians were crucial to the production. Drummer Graeme Gibson's casual feel graces several tracks, notably the Kinksy 'It's You'. The samba-tinged 'Easy Listeners' has that tropical flavor Davenport's been known to dabble in, this time aided by impeccable percussionist Andres Renteria (Jose Gonzales, Rodrigo Amarante). Meanwhile, the Turkish Psych-inspired 'Strange Animal' showcases futuristic organ riffing by Aaron M. Olson (L.A. Takedown), who produced Davenport's previous album ('Blue Motel' by Bart & The Bedazzled). Other longtime bandmates, Jessica Espeleta (bass) and Wayne Faler (lead guitar), both make appearances.
Perhaps the standout track of the album is its quietest; the Brit-folk-styled 'Alice Arrives'. Davenport's autumnal vocal and guitar are adeptly accompanied by Dina Maccabee's original string arrangement, which morphs from earnest baroque to playful modern and back again. This along with the heavier, orchestral sound of 'Billionaires' adds a touch of hi-fi to an otherwise homemade album.
Davenport's evocative, new material provides both an escape from and an unusual commentary on turbulent times. From digital antagonists in 'Holograms' to waltzing oligarchs in 'Billionaires' to an enigmatic nudist in 'Naked Man', many offbeat characters populate the funny little world within Davenport's verses. His vocals are distinctively smooth at times, while at others, a slightly cheeky, more dramatic baritone takes over. His patented happy/sad sensibility remains along with the occasional jazz chord.
While 'Episodes' features Davenport on multiple instruments, he did not go it alone. Several guest musicians were crucial to the production. Drummer Graeme Gibson's casual feel graces several tracks, notably the Kinksy 'It's You'. The samba-tinged 'Easy Listeners' has that tropical flavor Davenport's been known to dabble in, this time aided by impeccable percussionist Andres Renteria (Jose Gonzales, Rodrigo Amarante). Meanwhile, the Turkish Psych-inspired 'Strange Animal' showcases futuristic organ riffing by Aaron M. Olson (L.A. Takedown), who produced Davenport's previous album ('Blue Motel' by Bart & The Bedazzled). Other longtime bandmates, Jessica Espeleta (bass) and Wayne Faler (lead guitar), both make appearances.
Perhaps the standout track of the album is its quietest; the Brit-folk-styled 'Alice Arrives'. Davenport's autumnal vocal and guitar are adeptly accompanied by Dina Maccabee's original string arrangement, which morphs from earnest baroque to playful modern and back again. This along with the heavier, orchestral sound of 'Billionaires' adds a touch of hi-fi to an otherwise homemade album.
TRACK LISTING
1. It's You
2. Holograms
3. Alice Arrives
4. Easy Listeners
5. Billionaires
6. All Dressed In Rain
7. Naked Man
8. Strange Animal
9. Wireless Moon
10. 99 Forever
11. Creatures In Love
12. Still Life
The songs on Some Waking Woman come up like ragged wildflowers in the unnameable heel of wasteland between the end house of the terrace and the already-dated concrete and plastic of the new business park. The songs come up from the hot gap between the weird dissociative dreamscape and the phone-alarm of a slate Tuesday morningtime. They look out from the record with a gaze that's lost between doe-eyed affection and a murky voyeurism. They're made of a music caught between the battered nylon-string and a layered orchestration turning between lush and gritty.
It's between the pottery and the calcified dogshit, between the filthy rebels and the eerie loyalists, between the probable cause of an action not quite either the Frenchman's crime of passion or the English barfight. It's a record of between-ness - like, this is just between us, right It's the same gap between the ballad and the mumbled apology, the love song and the exasperated sigh. My trousers have been pulled down in the playground again. Tsk. I love you and all of love turns out to be a colossal shitshow. Tsk.
Some Waking Woman isn't an anthem nor an elegy, although it has moments of both. It isn't quite in the gutter, but it's sure as hell not looking at the stars - the album has its gaze locked on the school playground, or the overgrown tarmac country-road corner, or another identical dawn colouring in the PVC windowframes. In the hands of O. D. Davey, the ordinary surfaces of a life like the one everyone actually has are made to glimmer weirdly with the inevitable love, misery and resignation underneath them.
These are touching, intricate ballads with melodies of nursery-rhyme sweetness, as reimagined by a failed gameshow host humming his old theme-tunes as he staggers back home pissed after closing time. But they're songs of love, for all that, his daughters haven't called in months. The sense is that these narrators have more love than they know what to do with, move love than they can trust themselves to handle, more love than they can believe in. Davey handles the flaws and imperfections and fractures of day-to-day living, finds the gap and digs in. This is an attention paid to the agonising and lovely awkward corners of life that don't get talked about. This is a record as in an LP, but a record too in the sense of a setting down of something true.
It's between the pottery and the calcified dogshit, between the filthy rebels and the eerie loyalists, between the probable cause of an action not quite either the Frenchman's crime of passion or the English barfight. It's a record of between-ness - like, this is just between us, right It's the same gap between the ballad and the mumbled apology, the love song and the exasperated sigh. My trousers have been pulled down in the playground again. Tsk. I love you and all of love turns out to be a colossal shitshow. Tsk.
Some Waking Woman isn't an anthem nor an elegy, although it has moments of both. It isn't quite in the gutter, but it's sure as hell not looking at the stars - the album has its gaze locked on the school playground, or the overgrown tarmac country-road corner, or another identical dawn colouring in the PVC windowframes. In the hands of O. D. Davey, the ordinary surfaces of a life like the one everyone actually has are made to glimmer weirdly with the inevitable love, misery and resignation underneath them.
These are touching, intricate ballads with melodies of nursery-rhyme sweetness, as reimagined by a failed gameshow host humming his old theme-tunes as he staggers back home pissed after closing time. But they're songs of love, for all that, his daughters haven't called in months. The sense is that these narrators have more love than they know what to do with, move love than they can trust themselves to handle, more love than they can believe in. Davey handles the flaws and imperfections and fractures of day-to-day living, finds the gap and digs in. This is an attention paid to the agonising and lovely awkward corners of life that don't get talked about. This is a record as in an LP, but a record too in the sense of a setting down of something true.
TRACK LISTING
1: Some Waking Woman
2: Every Rebel Campaign
3: Two Fingers Flicked
4: The Way Home
5: Holy Land
6: Crash
7: The Blue Note
8: The Mustard Cloud
9: This Time
10: A Right Honorable Friend
With a wink towards the body horror auteur, David Cronenberg’s Wife (or DCW) are the house band in the biology theatre at the end of the world. They loop riffs in relentless cycles til they stop being riffs and become psychological conditions; the bass maintains the pulse; the guitars sharpen the knives; the drums suggest they’re growing extra limbs. Then, removing an eye from his microscope, the deadpan lecturer with the twinkle in his eye details narratives of the absurd and the macabre, all the while waiting for the weaker stomached of his audience to exit the room in despair. Told with devilish wit and displaying a vulnerability beneath the jagged edges, the musicians don’t so much soundtrack these stories as stalk them. The songs of DCW are unhinged to the point where the door at the dark side of the corridor falls off into the seediest underbelly of fun.
This is DCW’s 5th album. Fresh off 2 UK tours supporting Jeffrey Lewis, David Cronenberg’s Wife trace their origins back to the late 2000s/early 2010s London DIY scene, serving as a catalyst for other like-minded bands in South London to follow suit. DCW played Fat White Family’s infamous Slide In night with FWF returning the favour at the Antifolk Fest (curated by DCW leader Tom Mayne). DCW have supported The Fall and The Nightingales, amongst others, and have played numerous BBC 6 Music sessions. With influences ranging from The Birthday Party to Jonathan Richman, DCW’s songs swing between the sweet and the disturbing. Whether playing twisted acoustic lullabies or in-your-face electric hollers, the lyrics catch you off guard with their black humour, openness and off-the-wall themes.
The new LP explores themes of love, sex, heartbreak and shame, all with DCW’s trademark off-kilter lyrical approach. Album opener ‘Lot’s Daughters’ features a humorous retelling of the shocking biblical story; Side A closer ‘Mermaid’s Tale’ details the protagonist’s graphic encounter with a mermaid. Built around a driving Russian folk rhythm, ‘Chekhov’s Bordello’ spins a bawdy, yet tender tale of Anton Chekhov slipping off to visit a house of disrepute whilst on a visit to a penal colony in 1890. A man seeks redemption through bodily pleasures in ‘Deliquescent in Saltland’, but possibly takes things too far, ‘The Sea’ shares the intensity of a tumultuous love affair gone wrong, driven by a 1980s Casio beat; and album closer ‘If You Think About It’ is David Cronenberg’s Wife at their most lyrical, personal and heartfelt.
This is DCW’s 5th album. Fresh off 2 UK tours supporting Jeffrey Lewis, David Cronenberg’s Wife trace their origins back to the late 2000s/early 2010s London DIY scene, serving as a catalyst for other like-minded bands in South London to follow suit. DCW played Fat White Family’s infamous Slide In night with FWF returning the favour at the Antifolk Fest (curated by DCW leader Tom Mayne). DCW have supported The Fall and The Nightingales, amongst others, and have played numerous BBC 6 Music sessions. With influences ranging from The Birthday Party to Jonathan Richman, DCW’s songs swing between the sweet and the disturbing. Whether playing twisted acoustic lullabies or in-your-face electric hollers, the lyrics catch you off guard with their black humour, openness and off-the-wall themes.
The new LP explores themes of love, sex, heartbreak and shame, all with DCW’s trademark off-kilter lyrical approach. Album opener ‘Lot’s Daughters’ features a humorous retelling of the shocking biblical story; Side A closer ‘Mermaid’s Tale’ details the protagonist’s graphic encounter with a mermaid. Built around a driving Russian folk rhythm, ‘Chekhov’s Bordello’ spins a bawdy, yet tender tale of Anton Chekhov slipping off to visit a house of disrepute whilst on a visit to a penal colony in 1890. A man seeks redemption through bodily pleasures in ‘Deliquescent in Saltland’, but possibly takes things too far, ‘The Sea’ shares the intensity of a tumultuous love affair gone wrong, driven by a 1980s Casio beat; and album closer ‘If You Think About It’ is David Cronenberg’s Wife at their most lyrical, personal and heartfelt.
TRACK LISTING
1. Lot’s Daughters
2. Deliquescent in Saltland
3. The Sea
4. Trouble in Freeport
5. Mermaid’s Tale
6. Chekhov’s Bordello
7. The Novice
8. Mark’s Eight Tastes
9. Where is She?
10. If You Think About It
David Versace is an Australian multi-genre keyboardist, composer and producer based in Meanjin, Queensland. Growing up in a very musical household it was always important to express and embrace all types of music and sonics. His sound ranges from Jazz and Samba to ambient works and the odd dance-floor heater. David also plays in Meanjin nu-jazz dance outfit First Beige.
TRACK LISTING
1. Heart To Heart
2. Full Moon Sprint
3. With Time
4. You Really Mean It
5. Same Signals
6. Red Dirt
7. New Day
8. Capricorn
Angèle David-Guillou is best known for a brace of critically acclaimed electro-acoustic dream-pop albums under the alias Klima.
Also known for her signature contributions to cult Anglo-French ensemble Piano Magic and for cameos on albums by the likes of The Go! Team and Peter Astor.
Angèle’s debut album under her given name is a largely instrumental work, predominantly consisting of melodically opulent, emotionally compelling compositions for the grand piano.
Inspired by the direct, elemental melodies of French folk and the flamboyant arrangements of European and Latin American Baroque music, ‘Kourouma’ is hallmarked by a purity of expression.
There are other influences at play on ‘Kourouma’ - the clear, mellifluous lines of Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman’s ‘Music For Children’ (‘Schulwerk’ ) and the intertwining counterpoints and percussive patter of Moondog are consistent touchstones.
For fans of Gonzalez, Hauschka, Nils Frahm.
Also known for her signature contributions to cult Anglo-French ensemble Piano Magic and for cameos on albums by the likes of The Go! Team and Peter Astor.
Angèle’s debut album under her given name is a largely instrumental work, predominantly consisting of melodically opulent, emotionally compelling compositions for the grand piano.
Inspired by the direct, elemental melodies of French folk and the flamboyant arrangements of European and Latin American Baroque music, ‘Kourouma’ is hallmarked by a purity of expression.
There are other influences at play on ‘Kourouma’ - the clear, mellifluous lines of Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman’s ‘Music For Children’ (‘Schulwerk’ ) and the intertwining counterpoints and percussive patter of Moondog are consistent touchstones.
For fans of Gonzalez, Hauschka, Nils Frahm.
London-based French composer Angèle David-Guillou makes audacious music that explores the interaction between rhythm and melody, structure and emotion, permanence and change. Her work is one of incessant dialogue between these elements, creating hypnotic compositions whose mutable internal architecture and shifting melodic accentuations immediately draw the listener in, while constantly, almost imperceptibly, disorienting auditory perception. It’s a compositional process that is central to the eight compelling essays on the aptly titled ‘En Mouvement’, David-Guillou’s new album, the second under her given name.
Informed by a rich and eclectic tapestry of cultural stimuli, including Philip Glass’s ‘Glassworks’, the music for movement of Thomas De Hartmann and George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, Alvin Curran's compositions for the piano, French and Spanish Baroque music, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Jean Cocteau, Sufi writings, Sumerian art and contemporary dance, the pieces on ‘En Mouvement’ are the work of a reflective, intellectually engaged yet delightfully instinctive modern composer who has made the limitless mutability implied by the concept of ‘movement’ a thing of personal transformation and mesmeric musicality.
“Very early on in the process of working on the compositions for this album, the idea of ‘movement’ became my central point of focus,” David-Guillou confirms. “The word seemed to encapsulate all my obsessions. En mouvement literally means ‘in motion’, but the word in French, as in English, is extremely rich and suggests an array of ideas such as motion, gesture, dance, musical parts, clockwork, repetition, displacement, emotional confusion or excitement. In fact, I realise now that this concept has been present ever since I started listening to and making music; I just hadn’t quite understood how important it was to me.”
With her second album of modern composition, Angèle David-Guillou’s career is palpably en movement and, excitingly, it feels like the beginning of a long and thrillingly creative musical journey.
Informed by a rich and eclectic tapestry of cultural stimuli, including Philip Glass’s ‘Glassworks’, the music for movement of Thomas De Hartmann and George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, Alvin Curran's compositions for the piano, French and Spanish Baroque music, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky and Jean Cocteau, Sufi writings, Sumerian art and contemporary dance, the pieces on ‘En Mouvement’ are the work of a reflective, intellectually engaged yet delightfully instinctive modern composer who has made the limitless mutability implied by the concept of ‘movement’ a thing of personal transformation and mesmeric musicality.
“Very early on in the process of working on the compositions for this album, the idea of ‘movement’ became my central point of focus,” David-Guillou confirms. “The word seemed to encapsulate all my obsessions. En mouvement literally means ‘in motion’, but the word in French, as in English, is extremely rich and suggests an array of ideas such as motion, gesture, dance, musical parts, clockwork, repetition, displacement, emotional confusion or excitement. In fact, I realise now that this concept has been present ever since I started listening to and making music; I just hadn’t quite understood how important it was to me.”
With her second album of modern composition, Angèle David-Guillou’s career is palpably en movement and, excitingly, it feels like the beginning of a long and thrillingly creative musical journey.
Renowned US-Dutch gospel-soul powerhouse Michelle David & The True-tones mark a bold new chapter with their forthcoming album, 'Soul Woman'. Building on the critical acclaim of 2024’s 'Brothers & Sisters', a record that held a mirror to the complexities of the world, the new LP 'Soul Woman' turns inward — a deeply personal exploration of identity, healing, and spiritual resilience.
TRACK LISTING
1. Running
2. Soul Woman
3. Golden Sun
4. You’ll Never Know
5. Flow
6. Speak To Me
7. Pick Up The Pieces
8. When All Is Said And Done
9. Seasons
10. I Thank You
Michelle David is a renowned US-Dutch gospel-soul powerhouse with decades of experience: started singing at 4, Broadway credits, collaborations with legends like Diana Ross and Michael Bolton.
Together with The True-tones, she has 7 critically acclaimed retro-soul albums and extensive live performance experience, including major festivals (Pinkpop, North Sea Jazz) and global events like the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Previous albums received high accolades: Edison Award nomination for 'The Gospel Sessions', 'Truth & Soul' was Album of the Year on BBC Radio 6 Music, and 'Brothers & Sisters' (2024) was widely celebrated.
Together with The True-tones, she has 7 critically acclaimed retro-soul albums and extensive live performance experience, including major festivals (Pinkpop, North Sea Jazz) and global events like the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Previous albums received high accolades: Edison Award nomination for 'The Gospel Sessions', 'Truth & Soul' was Album of the Year on BBC Radio 6 Music, and 'Brothers & Sisters' (2024) was widely celebrated.
TRACK LISTING
1. Speak To Me
2. Running
Marie Davidson is back with a new album “Renegade Breakdown” on Ninja Tune. A new band, and a bold new sound under the banner of Marie Davidson & L'Œil Nu, it is a trio formed of old-time friends with shared roots in Montreal’s DIY scene: Marie, Pierre Guerineau (also in Essaie pas on DFA) and Asaël R. Robitaille. The record follows previous album “Working Class Woman” (2018) and is drawn to the idea of the eternal return, they deliver a forward-facing, innovative pop record that builds on the classic tenets of Marie’s music to create something that strikes out towards a broader audience. With dark humour and interpolated musical influences from Fleetwood Mac to Kraftwerk, Billie Holiday and Chet Baker.
If there’s a mood that encapsulates “Renegade Breakdown”, it’s the one found at 3AM after a long night, when it’s time to start putting on the classics.
If there’s a mood that encapsulates “Renegade Breakdown”, it’s the one found at 3AM after a long night, when it’s time to start putting on the classics.
TRACK LISTING
Renegade Breakdown
Back To Rock
Worst Comes To Worst
Center Of The World (Kotti Blues)
La Ronde
C’est Parce Que J’m’en Fous
Just In My Head
Lead Sister
My Love
Sentiment
Canadian DJ-producer Marie Davidson releases her sixth studio album 'City Of Clowns', made in collaboration with Soulwax and Pierre Guerineau (Essaie pas, L’Œil Nu, Feu St-Antoine), via Soulwax’s own Deewee label. Earlier this year, Davidson debuted on the legendary Deewee imprint with her single 'Y.A.A.M. (Your Asses Are Mine)', reuniting with the Belgian powerhouse Soulwax, who previously reworked Davidson’s acclaimed 'Work It' anthem. Her all-out blistering club cut “Contrarian” soon followed, evoking Davidson's heavier output.
'City Of Clowns', marks a return to the club – but not as you know it. The techno thump and scathing spoken-word delivery of 'Working Class Woman' resurface at points, but the pop structures and melodic sensibilities of 'Renegade Breakdown' also remain. It’s a “strange” sonic blend even by Davidson’s own standards. “It’s definitely linking back to what I was doing pre-pandemic, but with a bit of an evolution,” she says. “I didn't want to just repeat myself.” The sound and the spirit of the album are shaped, too, by the fact that Davidson has a new antagonist. This time it’s not club culture that’s coming for her sense of self, it’s Big Tech.
'City Of Clowns', marks a return to the club – but not as you know it. The techno thump and scathing spoken-word delivery of 'Working Class Woman' resurface at points, but the pop structures and melodic sensibilities of 'Renegade Breakdown' also remain. It’s a “strange” sonic blend even by Davidson’s own standards. “It’s definitely linking back to what I was doing pre-pandemic, but with a bit of an evolution,” she says. “I didn't want to just repeat myself.” The sound and the spirit of the album are shaped, too, by the fact that Davidson has a new antagonist. This time it’s not club culture that’s coming for her sense of self, it’s Big Tech.
STAFF COMMENTS
Barry says: Scattered electronic fragments melt together into a big, robotic monolith of Linn drums, glitchy vocals and melted oscillators.TRACK LISTING
1. Validations Weight
2. Demolition
3. Sexy Clown
4. Push Me Fuckhead
5. Fun Times
6. Statistical Modelling
7. Y.A.A.M.
8. Contrarian
9. Unknowing
Electronic musician Xopher Davidson drops ‘Lux Perpetua’ via Daydream Library Series. A noted protége of Maryanne Amacher, Xopher recorded these two tracks in 2020 utilizing vintage synths within the beloved music studios of Mills College in Oakland, California. Xopher builds his experiments in electronic sound from a basis in painting, photography, and film, and through an interest in electronic circuits going back to building radios and homemade circuits as a kid. He has built and explored the sound world of a homebrew modular synthesizer comprised of surplus laboratory equipment: various oscillators, pulse generators, filters and an analog computer.
He has released 4 albums as ANTIMATTER : ‘Transfixion’, ‘Antimatter Vs. Antimatter’, ‘Our Lady of the Skies’, and ‘Reset’. As an audio engineer, Davidson has worked on projects composed / performed by: the League of Automatic Composers, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Subtropic, Diamanda Galas, Kid 606, DJ Rupture, Darwin's Bitch, Once 11, Mix MasterMike, Hans Grusel, Phoenecia, Jonah Sharp, We, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Iannis Xenakis.
"Absolute Phase" is dark, non-linear; frozen in deep ice. Teeming with macrobiotic as the cogs of organic existence grind to an almost stationary halt. I guess it's title alludes to the dual stationary position of his oscillators - just guessing!
"Lux Perpetua" carries on the theme onto side B but with a little more movement and evolution of phase. Piercing tones are introduced subtly but noticeably, and sonic filters are applied to some of the frequency range to create feelings of low pass. The 'buzz', or distortion, seems to increase as we near the track's climax as well as some rather pleasing upper register harmonies, hidden fathoms deep within the wall of sound.
File under: dark drone, seismic ambient, canyonesque noise.
He has released 4 albums as ANTIMATTER : ‘Transfixion’, ‘Antimatter Vs. Antimatter’, ‘Our Lady of the Skies’, and ‘Reset’. As an audio engineer, Davidson has worked on projects composed / performed by: the League of Automatic Composers, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, Subtropic, Diamanda Galas, Kid 606, DJ Rupture, Darwin's Bitch, Once 11, Mix MasterMike, Hans Grusel, Phoenecia, Jonah Sharp, We, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Iannis Xenakis.
"Absolute Phase" is dark, non-linear; frozen in deep ice. Teeming with macrobiotic as the cogs of organic existence grind to an almost stationary halt. I guess it's title alludes to the dual stationary position of his oscillators - just guessing!
"Lux Perpetua" carries on the theme onto side B but with a little more movement and evolution of phase. Piercing tones are introduced subtly but noticeably, and sonic filters are applied to some of the frequency range to create feelings of low pass. The 'buzz', or distortion, seems to increase as we near the track's climax as well as some rather pleasing upper register harmonies, hidden fathoms deep within the wall of sound.
File under: dark drone, seismic ambient, canyonesque noise.
TRACK LISTING
Side 1
1. Absolute Phase (18:25)
Side 2
1. Lux Perpetua (16:17)
Eighteen months after releasing his first ever solo album, Ray Davies is back with what promises to be one of the best albums of his incredible career. While last year's "Other People's Lives" was a lifetime in the making, this new album happened relatively quickly. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, "Working Mans Café" features 12 stellar songs written by Ray Davies and co-produced with Ray Kennedy. They assembled a crackerjack band of top musicians who breathe life into a wonderful collection of songs. The 12 new songs are vintage Ray Davies and bear all the hallmark classic musical and lyrical insights we have come to expect from him. The album is infused with a transatlantic sound befitting Ray's close ties to the American south coupled with his well respected Englishness. From the first upbeat notes of the lead track "Vietnam Cowboys", it is clear Ray has never sung better. "Working Mans Café" is a wistful, humorous and poignant look at today, just what we have come to expect from one of Britain's greatest songwriters. Highlights are many and include the Preservation Jazz Hall sway of "Morphine Song", the painful longing of "Imaginary Man" and the haunting emotion of "One More Time".
Pre-order the album for a chance to win one of 10 test pressings and signed lyric sheets!
Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is proud to announce the very first release of brand new music on the label. ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ is the result of a one-off collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies and Bernard Butler. The album was recorded over writing and recording sessions covering a four year period, but amounting to just fifteen days in total. Prior to the creation of the record, the two had never met. There are ten songs featured in total on ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’.
Key tracks include the unearthly end-of-days address The Breakdown, the triumphant four-to-the-floor excoriations of Sabotage (Looks So Easy) and the luxuriant glam ache of No More Tears To Cry. Work on In Memory Of My Feelings was completed in 2014, but extraneous commitments forced Catherine and Bernard to postpone its release indefinitely. Of the record Butler says: “I’d got used to the idea that the record might never emerge. Occasionally, I’d listen to it on my headphones if I was on the bus, I always had the same thought, “I wish I could go to a record shop and buy this.” Davies adds: “For me, the best thing is that we still don’t know each other that well. The songs were the conversation.” Catherine is best known for her work as The Anchoress. Her debut album Confessions Of A Romance Novelist was released to widespread critical acclaim in 2016 and was named amongst the Guardian critics’ Albums of the Year, earned her the Best Newcomer prize at the PROG Awards and was also named HMV’s Welsh Album of the Year.
Since then she has played in the touring line-ups of Manic Street Preachers and Simple Minds. The second Anchoress album is scheduled for release early next year. Bernard Butler is a founding member of Suede, with whom he co-wrote and performed two era-defining albums. He then went on to enjoy top ten success with McAlmont & Butler and as a solo artist before focusing on writing and production work with artists such as Bert Jansch, The Libertines, Duffy, Teleman and Texas.
All vinyl copies of In Memory Of My Feelings come with a specially-recorded seven-inch single featuring a rearranged version of album track The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause (retitled The Patron Saint Of Harmonia) and a stunning, pared-back version of Madonna’s Live To Tell. Of the latter, Butler says, “When I was 16, Live To Tell allowed me to join the dots in songwriting between True Blue and The Queen Is Dead.” Davies adds: “I don’t know what Madonna wrote it about, but the resonances in a post-#metoo world are impossible to miss.”
The songs are also featured on the CD and download versions. The artwork for In Memory Of My Feelings was the result of a collaborative process between Catherine Anne Davies, Bernard Butler and the acclaimed Belgian photographer Eva Vermandel, whose work is featured in the collections of the V&A and National Portrait Gallery. Vermandel’s work echoes aspects of the record itself: the relatively formal manner of the duo’s collaboration and the uncertainty that surrounded the outcome of the recording sessions.
Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is proud to announce the very first release of brand new music on the label. ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’ is the result of a one-off collaboration between Catherine Anne Davies and Bernard Butler. The album was recorded over writing and recording sessions covering a four year period, but amounting to just fifteen days in total. Prior to the creation of the record, the two had never met. There are ten songs featured in total on ‘In Memory Of My Feelings’.
Key tracks include the unearthly end-of-days address The Breakdown, the triumphant four-to-the-floor excoriations of Sabotage (Looks So Easy) and the luxuriant glam ache of No More Tears To Cry. Work on In Memory Of My Feelings was completed in 2014, but extraneous commitments forced Catherine and Bernard to postpone its release indefinitely. Of the record Butler says: “I’d got used to the idea that the record might never emerge. Occasionally, I’d listen to it on my headphones if I was on the bus, I always had the same thought, “I wish I could go to a record shop and buy this.” Davies adds: “For me, the best thing is that we still don’t know each other that well. The songs were the conversation.” Catherine is best known for her work as The Anchoress. Her debut album Confessions Of A Romance Novelist was released to widespread critical acclaim in 2016 and was named amongst the Guardian critics’ Albums of the Year, earned her the Best Newcomer prize at the PROG Awards and was also named HMV’s Welsh Album of the Year.
Since then she has played in the touring line-ups of Manic Street Preachers and Simple Minds. The second Anchoress album is scheduled for release early next year. Bernard Butler is a founding member of Suede, with whom he co-wrote and performed two era-defining albums. He then went on to enjoy top ten success with McAlmont & Butler and as a solo artist before focusing on writing and production work with artists such as Bert Jansch, The Libertines, Duffy, Teleman and Texas.
All vinyl copies of In Memory Of My Feelings come with a specially-recorded seven-inch single featuring a rearranged version of album track The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause (retitled The Patron Saint Of Harmonia) and a stunning, pared-back version of Madonna’s Live To Tell. Of the latter, Butler says, “When I was 16, Live To Tell allowed me to join the dots in songwriting between True Blue and The Queen Is Dead.” Davies adds: “I don’t know what Madonna wrote it about, but the resonances in a post-#metoo world are impossible to miss.”
The songs are also featured on the CD and download versions. The artwork for In Memory Of My Feelings was the result of a collaborative process between Catherine Anne Davies, Bernard Butler and the acclaimed Belgian photographer Eva Vermandel, whose work is featured in the collections of the V&A and National Portrait Gallery. Vermandel’s work echoes aspects of the record itself: the relatively formal manner of the duo’s collaboration and the uncertainty that surrounded the outcome of the recording sessions.
TRACK LISTING
DISC 1
SIDE 1
1. The Breakdown
2. Ten Good Reasons
3. Sabotage (Looks So Easy)
4. In Memory Of My Feelings
5. I Know
SIDE 2
1. Judas
2. No More Tears To Dry
3. The Waiting Game
4. The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause
5. F.O.H.
DISC 2
SIDE A
1. Live To Tell
SIDE B
1. The Patron Saint Of The Lost Cause (Harmonium Version)
In the last decade, Daniel Davies has become a lauded composer of atmospheric, synth-heavy instrumental music—for film and TV scores, alongside John Carpenter on the director’s Lost Themes albums, and on solo releases like Signals and Spies. But in his previous musical life, Davies was a rocker, touring all over the world with heavy bands like Year Long Disaster and Karma to Burn. After setting rock music aside to focus on his soundtrack and instrumental work, the multi-instrumentalist has found himself falling back in love with loud guitars over the past couple of years.
Ghost of the Heart, the first full-length alt-rock album Davies has ever released under his own name, captures the excitement of that rediscovered love. After a decade of making music that either had to match a filmed image or create a mental one, he sounds liberated by the concrete, reliable logic of verse/chorus/ verse. The songs on Ghost of the Heart don’t fit neatly into any one subgenre: they’re moody, heavy, and a little proggy, but with a strong pop sensibility and lots of melody. The album divulges Davies’ affinity for hooky, forward-thinking bands like Radiohead and Blur, but more than anything, Ghost of the Heart feels natural, like he’s tapping back into something fundamental about himself as a musician. “My first love is writing rock songs,” Davies says. “It just felt like the right time to get back to it.”
Ghost of the Heart is a special album for Davies. It sees him returning to his origins in rock music, but it also couldn’t have been made without the lessons of his time in the film world. In the truest sense, it’s a career-defining work, one that showcases everything he’s learned in his decades as a musician. It reveals a door that, now opened, can take Davies anywhere he wants to go.
Ghost of the Heart, the first full-length alt-rock album Davies has ever released under his own name, captures the excitement of that rediscovered love. After a decade of making music that either had to match a filmed image or create a mental one, he sounds liberated by the concrete, reliable logic of verse/chorus/ verse. The songs on Ghost of the Heart don’t fit neatly into any one subgenre: they’re moody, heavy, and a little proggy, but with a strong pop sensibility and lots of melody. The album divulges Davies’ affinity for hooky, forward-thinking bands like Radiohead and Blur, but more than anything, Ghost of the Heart feels natural, like he’s tapping back into something fundamental about himself as a musician. “My first love is writing rock songs,” Davies says. “It just felt like the right time to get back to it.”
Ghost of the Heart is a special album for Davies. It sees him returning to his origins in rock music, but it also couldn’t have been made without the lessons of his time in the film world. In the truest sense, it’s a career-defining work, one that showcases everything he’s learned in his decades as a musician. It reveals a door that, now opened, can take Davies anywhere he wants to go.
TRACK LISTING
1. I Know Why
2. Presence On The Hill
3. In To You
4. It Takes A Lot
5. Ghost Of The Heart
6. Still The Servant
7. Big Crush
8. Wait
9. Those Eyes
The all new, must-read memoir by legendary Kinks guitarist Dave Davies'BOOK OF THE DAY' - Guardian'This powerful tell-all from the Kinks guitarist puts the spotlight on his own bad behaviour, dalliances with the occult and his recovery from a stroke.' - Observer'Heartfelt, hilarious, revealing, insightful and astonishingly candid. Boy, you really got me Dave. I can't wait to read it again.' - Mark Hamill Dave Davies is the co-founder and lead guitarist of epoch-defining band the Kinks, a group with fifty million record sales to their name.
In his autobiography, Davies revisits the glory days of the band that spawned so much extraordinary music, and which had such a profound influence on bands from The Clash and Van Halen to Oasis and Blur. Full of tales of the tumultuous times and the ups-and-downs of his relationship with his brother Ray, along with encounters with the likes of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, this will be a glorious read for Kinks fans and anyone who wants to read about the heyday of rock 'n' roll.
In his autobiography, Davies revisits the glory days of the band that spawned so much extraordinary music, and which had such a profound influence on bands from The Clash and Van Halen to Oasis and Blur. Full of tales of the tumultuous times and the ups-and-downs of his relationship with his brother Ray, along with encounters with the likes of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, this will be a glorious read for Kinks fans and anyone who wants to read about the heyday of rock 'n' roll.
More than sixty years old, Walkin' still remains a crucial staging post in the history of jazz. Originally recorded in 1954 and initially issued on a couple of 10 albums, it features a mix of quintet and sextet material, recorded during his spell with Prestige Records and produced by Bob Weinstock. The various tracks were gathered together, along with a previously unreleased track, and issued as a 12 album in 1957. The end result is an important album in the development of bop music, a genre Miles Davis practically owned.
TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Walkin'
2. Blue N' Boogie
Side B
1. Solar
2. You Don't Know What Love Is
3. Love Me Or Leave Me
Miles marries Betty, gets the funk and this is the end result: Along with "Kind Of Blue", but coming from a completely different angle, "Bitches Brew" is probably Davis' most celebrated work. Recorded in three days in August of 1969 and often heralded as the first shot fired in the fusion movement, "Bitches Brew" melds jazz with rock, and as an essential part of any psyche-prog head's record collection as jazz fans. Davis had already spearheaded two major jazz movements (cool and modal jazz) and was about to initiate another major change (the album's cover also sports the phrase "Directions In Music By Miles Davis" above the title). Most of the musicians (Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea ) who played on the album went on to become giants of the 1970s fusion movement, with "Bitches Brew" being the jump-of point. Artists as disparate as Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell and Radiohead cite this epic long player as an influence.
The first in a continuing series of double-LP extravaganzas released only in Japan in the early '70s, 'Live Evil' mixes four studio tracks from 1970 with four live ones taken from a Washington, DC performance in December of that year. Amidst heavy competition, the live tracks - including "What I Say," "Sivad" and "Gemini Double Image" - are the highlights, featuring some of Miles' best playing of the decade, plus aggressive work on extended solo spots by John McLaughlin on guitar, Keith Jarrett on keyboards, and Jack DeJohnette on drums.
TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. Sivad
2. Little Church
3. Medley
Gemini
Double Image
Side B
1. What I Say
2. Nem Um Talvez
Side C
1. Selim
2. Funky Tonk
Side D
1. Inamorata And Narration By Conrad Roberts
The esteemed Nick Jonah Davis, back with his 2nd album proper on the wonderful Thread Recordings (the people who brought you DBH's amazing "Mood" LP from last year and also the C Joynes / Davis split from earlier this year). Title track, "House Of Dragons" gets us underway with a purposeful five-fingered battle cry, Davis wielding his medieval sounding axe in rich open-tuning as an intriguing and highly expressive opening track rings from the gallows. Running effortlessly into the frenetic finger picked passages of "Pili Pala', you'd be forgiven to thinking you'd run into some Caravaggio scene, surrounded by chiming lutes and ancient princesses as the theme continues into "Howie Heads For The Hills". "Double Peace" stops us dead in our tracks with cerebral tickling harmonics and deep undertones, it's languid, patient and deliberate notes ringing on as if they'd existed since the dawn of time itself. The wonderfully named "Zanzibar Chai" takes the album into the eastern scales smoothly and still keeping cohesive to the full picture. "The Stansville Strut" sees Davis visit some buck stomping blues, albeit peppered with his own idiosyncratic licks and picks while "Farewell Sad Flower" begins to bring the album to a logical conclusion with its serene and melancholic sequences closing off this emotionally dramatic and stimulating story. Finally, "The Illumination Of Nelson Fortune" trails out in a blaze of glory; deep mystical didgeridoo accompanying desert fried slide guitar and an attack of choppy acoustic goodness. Sealing off a damn near perfect long player for anyone with a penchant for the acoustic guitar. If you like DBH, John Fahey, Bert Jansch or Scott Walker then this album is for you! Highly recommended.
TRACK LISTING
House Of Dragons
Pila Pala
Howie Heads For The Hills
Double Peace
Zanzibar Chai
The Peace Of Running Water
The Stansville Strut
When THe Fhish Fly And The Seas Run Dry
Farewell Sad Flower
The Illumination Of Nelson Fortune
Undeniably one of the best smaIl bands in the history of jazz, the Miles Davis Quintet of the mid-1950s featured an all-star line-up of Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax), Red Garland (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums).
This new edition of “Workin’” is release as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket.
This new edition of “Workin’” is release as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Tip-On Jacket.
TRACK LISTING
Side A
1. It Never Entered My Mind
2. Four
3. In Your Own Sweet Way
4. The Theme (Take 1)
Side B
1. Trane’s Blues (a.k.a. Vierd Blues)
2. Ahmad’s Blues
3. Half Nelson
4. The Theme (Take 2)
Expanded vinyl edition featuring gatefold jacket and 20-page booklet including rare photos, lyrics and new liner notes by Danielle Maggio interviewing Betty.
One can hardly imagine the genre-busting, culture-crossing musical magic of Outkast, Prince, Erykah Badu, Rick James, The Roots, or even the early Red Hot Chili Peppers without the influence of R&B pioneer Betty Davis. Her style of raw and revelatory punk-funk defies any notions that women can’t be visionaries in the worlds of rock and pop. In recent years, rappers from Ice Cube to Talib Kweli to Ludacris have rhymed over her intensely strong but sensual music.
There is one testimonial about Betty Davis that is universal: she was a woman ahead of her time. In our contemporary moment, this may not be as self-evident as it was thirty years ago – we live in an age that’s been profoundly changed by flamboyant flaunting of female sexuality: from Parlet to Madonna, Lil Kim to Kelis. Yet, back in 1973 when Betty Davis first showed up in her silver go-go boots, dazzling smile and towering Afro, who could you possibly have compared her to? Marva Whitney had the voice but not the independence. Labelle wouldn’t get sexy with their “Lady Marmalade” for another year while Millie Jackson wasn’t Feelin’ Bitchy until 1977. Even Tina Turner, the most obvious predecessor to Betty’s fierce style wasn’t completely out of Ike’s shadow until later in the decade.
Ms. Davis’s unique story, still sadly mostly unknown, is unlike any other in popular music. Betty wrote the song “Uptown” for the Chambers Brothers before marrying Miles Davis in the late ’60s, influencing him with psychedelic rock, and introducing him to Jimi Hendrix — personally inspiring the classic album Bitches Brew.
Her 1974 sophomore album They Say I’m Different features a worthy-of-framing futuristic cover challenging David Bowie’s science fiction funk with real rocking soul-fire, kicked off with the savagely sexual “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him” (later sampled by Ice Cube). Her follow up is full of classic cuts like “Don’t Call Her No Tramp” and the hilarious, hard, deep funk of “He Was A Big Freak.”
One can hardly imagine the genre-busting, culture-crossing musical magic of Outkast, Prince, Erykah Badu, Rick James, The Roots, or even the early Red Hot Chili Peppers without the influence of R&B pioneer Betty Davis. Her style of raw and revelatory punk-funk defies any notions that women can’t be visionaries in the worlds of rock and pop. In recent years, rappers from Ice Cube to Talib Kweli to Ludacris have rhymed over her intensely strong but sensual music.
There is one testimonial about Betty Davis that is universal: she was a woman ahead of her time. In our contemporary moment, this may not be as self-evident as it was thirty years ago – we live in an age that’s been profoundly changed by flamboyant flaunting of female sexuality: from Parlet to Madonna, Lil Kim to Kelis. Yet, back in 1973 when Betty Davis first showed up in her silver go-go boots, dazzling smile and towering Afro, who could you possibly have compared her to? Marva Whitney had the voice but not the independence. Labelle wouldn’t get sexy with their “Lady Marmalade” for another year while Millie Jackson wasn’t Feelin’ Bitchy until 1977. Even Tina Turner, the most obvious predecessor to Betty’s fierce style wasn’t completely out of Ike’s shadow until later in the decade.
Ms. Davis’s unique story, still sadly mostly unknown, is unlike any other in popular music. Betty wrote the song “Uptown” for the Chambers Brothers before marrying Miles Davis in the late ’60s, influencing him with psychedelic rock, and introducing him to Jimi Hendrix — personally inspiring the classic album Bitches Brew.
Her 1974 sophomore album They Say I’m Different features a worthy-of-framing futuristic cover challenging David Bowie’s science fiction funk with real rocking soul-fire, kicked off with the savagely sexual “Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him” (later sampled by Ice Cube). Her follow up is full of classic cuts like “Don’t Call Her No Tramp” and the hilarious, hard, deep funk of “He Was A Big Freak.”
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