German cult band Bohren & der Club of Gore release their eighth studio album via [PIAS] Recordings.

The band have built a loyal international fanbase on the back of their trademark ‘Doom Jazz’ sound and count musical icons such as Mike Patton and Stephen O’Malley among their fans.

Strictly instrumental, this band and their sound have the healing power to survive these hectic modern times.

For fans of Melanie de Biasio, Sunn O))) and the soundtracks of David Lynch.

The band played two sold out shows in London’s Round Chapel recently and will tour the UK again in 2020.

Inside this issue:

Wire: Since 1977’s Pink Flag, Wire have crushed and expanded rock at will. About to release their 17th album Mind Hive, the most stable line-up in the band’s history discuss facing the future while repurposing the past. By Dan Barrow

Katie Gately: Bereavement and ritual inform the new album from the Los Angeles based avant pop auteur. By Emily Pothast

Frank Denyer: With his unusual instrumental combinations and penchant for microtonality and extended technique, the English composer offers sanctuary from sensory overload. By Sam Richards

Invisible Jukebox: Mayo Thompson: Will The Wire’s mystery record selection trigger a “Free Form Freak-Out” for the Red Krayola founder? Tested by Alan Licht

Unlimited Editions: Recital Records

Unofficial Channels: Auctioneers

Marcela Lucatelli: The Brazilian composer and improvisor gets her shriek on. By Philip Clark

Nava & Shayna Dunkelman: Percussive siblings bond over the beat. By Kurt Gottschalk

Terry Allen: Weird country’s master storyteller returns. By George Grella

Global Ear: Malta: Creativity flourishes quietly in the shadow of turmoil. By Kurt Buttigieg

The Inner Sleeve: Freedom To Spend on Heroin

Epiphanies: Ryley Walker gives in to the temptation of Christian ska punk

Navarasa : Nine Emotions is the trio’s third record. The first fruits of their fantastic expedition entitled Everything Sacred appeared in 2016. The second, Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars, followed in 2017. Navarasa : Nine Emotions takes their journey many, many leagues on.

At the heart of YTK’s transporting new album is the subcontinent’s navarasa; the nine (nava) emotions or sentiments (rasa) of the arts. This central unifying underpinning is a centuries-old organising principle. The individual artistic emotions range from Shringara (love, beauty) through Hasya (laughter, mirth, comedy), Raudra (anger), Karuna (sorrow, compassion or mercy), Bibhatsya (disgust), Bhayanaka (horror, terror), Veera (heroism, courage), Adbutha (surprise, wonder) to Shanta (peace, tranquillity).

Each song on YTK’s new album is connected to one of these emotions, and the first track to be shared from Navarasa : Nine Emotions is “Westlin’ Winds”, paired with Adbutha.

“Westlin’ Winds” starts with the life-destroying Act I of Robert Burns’ poem ‘Now Westlin Winds, (And Slaught’ring Guns)’ and deliciously transplants its disjoined, nature-extolling and life-affirming Act II onto Indian soil with a composition “in Purbi, a specific dialect of old Hindi. I learnt the song,” says Suhail, “by listening to various qawwali [Muslim devotional song] singers singing at Hazrat Nizammuddin’s dargah [shrine] in Delhi. Its source is Hazrat Amir Khusrau.” Thus YTK unite one of the key spiritual visionaries and architects of Hindustani art music, the poet-philosopher Hazrat Amir Khusrau with the key literary visionary of Scottish and Scots-language culture, Robert Burns.

This bricolage of diverse cross-cultural elements is apparent across Navarasa : Nine Emotions and all of what YTK create. James Yorkston weaves in Scottish folk, sangster and literary strands. Jon Thorne is grounded in jazz and groove. What the New Delhi-based, eighth-generation hereditary musician Suhail Yusuf Khan brings to this feast of pulses and cycles is northern Indian classical, light classical (thumri, for example) and Sufi devotional musical and literary forms. What binds these diverse musical strands together is, in James’ phrase, “a dark happiness”.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xColoured LP Info: Limited edition double green coloured vinyl.
Features three tracks exclusive to vinyl.

2xColoured LP includes MP3 Download Code.