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POINT OF DEPARTURE

Sandwell District

End Beginnings

    ‘End Beginnings’ is a majestic coming together of cinematic techno and mind-bending dancefloor dynamism; an album that marries Drexciya’s idea of techno being an act of seditionary innovation to a sense of unbridled fun, an imperative that means an awful lot to O’Connor. “Having a good time is pretty much why you get into it in the first place,” he notes wisely. “And it is fun. I think we feel a lot more fortunate now, especially with what happened with Juan. We’re grateful.”

    ‘End Beginnings’ then is also a moving requiem to a fallen soldier – Juan Mendez. At the beginning of 2024, Mendez tragically died just as things were moving in the right direction for the collective. Mendez’s stunning artwork and visuals were always a central pillar of Sandwell District; indeed, he was working on a piece of art entitled ‘End Beginnings’ that was mooted to be the album cover. That work was never finished, but O’Connor and Sumner took the title to honour their friend’s contribution. It remains a fitting tribute to the stop-start nature of this rebel alliance.

    “We were a real gang,” O’Connor reminisces. “We used to come into town, tear it up and go home. We got banned from about three airlines for fighting with each other. We used to turn up at the airport, get hammered and it would go downhill from there.” No wonder they were described as techno’s answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young by online music organ, The Quietus. O’Connor laughs when that interpretation is put to him. “That’s brilliant,” he says. “It’s probably very accurate. As long as I can be Nash.”

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Dreaming
    2. Self-Initiate
    3. Will You Be Safe?
    4. Restless
    5. Least Travelled
    6. Citrinitas Acid
    7. Hidden
    8. The Silent Servant

    Western Skies Motel

    Trails

      Western Skies Motel, the instrumental solo project of Danish René Gonzalez Schelbeck, has announced details of the release of 'Trails', his fourth album and first for The Point Of Departure Recording Company.

      The self-produced album was primarily recorded with Jakob Høyer, who shares a studio in Copenhagen with Trentemøller. Jakob also engineered and mixed the record and played  drums on a couple of tracks.

      A multi-instrumentalist, René played most of the instruments on 'Trails' - electric and acoustic guitars, some synthwork and piano here and there, and the tape manipulations - with Leaf recording artist / composer Julia Kent (who has also played with Anohni and the Johnsons, Swans) providing cello, Nils Gröndahl (Under Byen) violin drones and Jens Hein bass.

      Deeply meditative, the album’s warm, intricate textures are built around haunting guitar lines, tape loops and various drones. A profoundly immersive piece of art, 'Trails' shares the transportive characteristics of the finest film soundtracks, a record able to subtly and effortlessly evoke emotions of the listener.


      TRACK LISTING

      1. Road
      2. Stranded
      3. Psalm
      4. Lullaby
      5. Caravan
      6. Nightfall
      7. All Is Gone
      8. Windswept
      9. Fountain
      10. Fragment
      11. Black Desert
      12. Coda 

      Soulsavers

      20 - 20th Anniversary Edition

        Soulsavers announce the 20th anniversary reworking of their 2003 debut record, ‘Tough Guys Don’t Dance’.

        Remixed, remastered and with new artwork, ‘20’ is being reissued with a very special edition red vinyl pressing and is also available on streaming services for the first time.

        The record features Josh Haden of the band Spain, who was then fresh from releasing his own debut record, the ‘Blue Moods Of Spain’. Recorded between the band’s home in England and Haden’s base in Los Angeles, the record was made using all vintage electronic equipment.

        The music showcases more of the band’s love for Harmonia and Neu but is still rooted with a heavy influence of the cinematic sound of Ennio Morricone that would develop more with each record over the next two decades.

        TRACK LISTING

        1 Cabin Fever
        2 Rumblefish
        3 San Quentin Blues
        4 Down So Low
        1 Closer
        2 Love
        3 Down For The Count
        4 Precious Time
        5 Untitled #9

        Ed Harcourt

        Monochrome To Colour

          Haunting and other-worldly new record from Ed Harcourt, his ninth studio album and second release on Point Of Departure following 2018’s ‘Beyond The End’.

          Recorded at his own Wolf Cabin studio in rural Oxfordshire between January and October 2019, this beautiful 12-track album was written and produced entirely by Harcourt. It features Clive Deamer from Portishead on drums on three tracks, and Gita and Amy Langley on violin and cello respectively

          The new album is full of rapturous outreach. It was made with an interesting blend of instrumentation, ancient and modern. There’s a 1910 Hopkinson baby grand piano and also a dulcitone, a 19th-Century oddity where hammers strike an array of tuning forks.

          A much-acclaimed recording artist who released his Mercury Prize nominated debut ‘Here Be Monsters’ on Heavenly Records in 2001, in recent years Harcourt has gained acclaim for his songwriting for a variety of artists. He’s co-written songs with Marianne Faithfull, Lisa Marie Presley, Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Orbital’s Paul Hartnoll. He’s featured on albums with Mark Lanegan and alongside an intercontinental array of musicians, from Egypt and Tanzania to Argentina and Russia (this global cast featuring on the 2019 album ‘Beyond Music: Same Sky’). Moving from bands to the big screen, Ed has written for several soundtracks, including the recent superhero comedy Supervised and the 2014 drama Like Sunday, Like Rain.

          TRACK LISTING

          First Light
          Ascension
          Drowning In Dreams
          Her Blood Is Volcanic
          Only The Darkness
          Smiles For You
          Death Of The Siren
          After The Carnival
          Last Rites
          So Here’s To You, Hally
          Childhood
          King Raman
          Monochrome Into Colour

          An amorphous musical collective put together by Rich Machin and Duke Garwood, with a rolling cast of players assembled from the likes of Soulsavers, Spiritualized, Stereolab and Julian Cope. For Machin, Garwood and the other musicians (Ray Dickaty, Tim Lewis (aka Thighpaulsandra), Pete Marsh, Paul May Doggen), a sense of adventure and devil-may-care inventiveness took precedence over precise design when they started the recording process at Gabriel’s Real World studio in the autumn of 2017.

          'One of the big things I wanted to achieve with this record was breaking away from things being super planned out,' Machin explains. 'To actually just go into a studio without having everything mapped out in advance. And being comfortable enough to see what happens. It was incredibly stressful at first, but once you realize it works it’s actually a really nice way to work.'


          STAFF COMMENTS

          Barry says: Like a slo-mo distillation of Joe Henderson and Alice Coltrane, the quiet temple serve up a trundling jazzy bouquet brimming with languid psychedelic flourishes, slowly growing into a bloom otherworldly drone. Properly hypnotic and brilliantly emotive.

          TRACK LISTING

          The Last Opium Den (On Earth)
          The Bible Black
          Shades Of Gemini
          Rated
          Noah’s Theme
          Utopia & Visions

          Ed Harcourt

          Beyond The End

            A much acclaimed recording artist who released his Mercury Prize nominated debut, Here Be Monsters on Heavenly Records in 2001, in recent years his has gained acclaim for his songwriting for a variety of artists.

            The album, which follows Furnaces, his 2016 album for Polydor, sees Ed Harcourt add another new string to his multi-faceted musical bow. Something of a left-turn after its busy, big-screen, somewhat under-appreciated predecessor, it sees the supremely versatile singer, writer and all-round instrumentalist bravely eschew vocals and lyrics and create a soft-spoken yet emotionally loquacious group of piano-led instrumentals, as if sound-tracking an as yet invisible film, or responding to today’s ferocious shouting match of a planet with a mesmerizing, meditative calm. “The world that we live in, we’re exhausted by the internet, social media, the sheer barrage of news and vomit being rained down us on a daily basis. You can’t avoid it, and it’s tiring. So this record came from taking a step back – it’s something that’s trying to be beautiful. My hope is that people might choose to swim amongst this music when it all gets too much.”

            Talking about the gestation of the album, which was written and recorded at his ‘Wolf Cabin’ studio in Oxfordshire Harcourt said, “I knew I wanted to buy a new piano. Eventually I found this 1910 Hopkinson Baby Grand, which is exactly the same make and era as my grandmother’s piano which I started learning on and wrote my first three records on. I felt at home again. I needed a break from singing and lyrics so I began writing instrumental music. I grew up listening to and playing Debussy, Satie, Mozart, Grieg, as well as modern composers like Max Richter, Philip Glass, Arvo Part. I also loved Warren Ellis (with whom Harcourt worked on the new Marianne Faithfull album) and Nick Cave’s score for The Assassination Of Jesse James… 


            TRACK LISTING

            1. Diving Bell
            2. Wolves Change Rivers
            3. Duet For Ghosts
            4. Empress Of The Lake
            5. Keep Us Safe
            6. Faded Photographs
            7. For My Father
            8. For My Mother
            9. Beneath The Brine
            10. There Is Still A Fire
            11. Circling Red Kites
            12. Whiskey Held My Sleep To Ransom


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