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THE STATE51 CONSPIRACY

Clara Mann

Rift

    One of the UK’s most exciting new singer-songwriters and multidisciplinary artists, Clara’s evocative debut album ‘Rift’ navigates the fractured environment of the in-between - those liminal spaces exposed between light and dark, growth and remorse, loss and reclamation. It is a record that makes a strong case for hope, those luminescent silver linings in the dark.

    Mann’s music reflects the people and places that have shaped and held her - physically, emotionally, and creatively. Raised in the Lot Valley in rural France before moving to the UK for her teens, these formative years provided her with a deep sense of belonging, identity, and growth. Yet, it is in motion, in placelessness, that Mann feels most at home: “Just the sun above me and my keys and my car.” Her new record is a testament to this state of in-betweenness, inviting you to step into a place that has always existed within yourself.

    After releasing her second EP ‘Stay Open’ in 2022, the time and space between then and now has culminated in ‘Rift’, Mann’s first album, which vividly gestures toward the fractures and ruptures that define our lives. Yet, it is more than just an album; it captures the journey and strength it takes to look inward and to move forwards through the pain of it all. Its first track, ‘It Only Hurts’, begins in a place of hopelessness, stemming from the loss of a relationship and, in turn, a future. It is a blank space that stretches out before you, where the landscape is torn apart like icebergs cracking and drifting. But hope remains a beacon of light throughout the album, a lighthouse guiding you across tumultuous waters.

    Influenced by artists like Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Judee Sill, and Tom Waits, Mann has a deep love and care for songwriting. Her lyrics are vivid and visceral, and her approach to songwriting is not one of purging emotions but rather of composting them—digesting life’s experiences and cultivating them into something meaningful, tangible, hopeful. She is also a talented visual artist, and this often plays an integral role in her songwriting process. Using the intricate and sweeping motion of illustrating with ink, charcoal, and sometimes watercolour, she can evoke thoughts and poetry onto the page, offering a way of making sense of things and to communicate in a way that words alone cannot.

    For Mann, the album is a tangible expression of her entire world—a snow globe raised in her palms for the world to see, in all its layers and complexities, containing all her love, relationships, memories, and experiences. It is this sheer transparency that has allowed her to relinquish and accept all parts of herself—the guilt, pain, and beauty of it all—like “swallows in the morning air, circling the dam.” Its truthfulness is its strength, not shying away from the painful experiences of life but embracing them as essential to the human experience and as part of our tapestry.

    With ‘Rift’, Clara Mann acknowledges the cracks through which both despair and hope can seep. It is a deeply personal record, yet it is universally resonant, holding the mirror up to herself and to the world around her. It is a record that reflects on embracing our fault lines, navigating the ruptures that can erupt from them and moving forwards, in motion, with a renewed sense of self and aliveness. Mann’s debut album, ‘Rift’ is all of her - her past, her present, her emotions, her experiences - and now, it is for you.


    TRACK LISTING

    Side A:
    It Only Hurts 3:14
    'Til I Come Around 3:04
    Driving Home The Long Way 2:49
    Stadiums 3:56
    Reasons 2:32

    Side B:
    Remember Me (Train Song) 3:08
    Doubled Over 2:32
    Rift 3:15
    Oranges 2:52
    The Dream 3:37

    Vanishing Twin

    Tell Me Not Here

      Vanishing Twin’s expansive and magical psychedelic epic with lyrics adapted from A.E. Housman’s 1922 poem, ‘Tell Me Not Here, It Needs Not Saying’ was initially commissioned by The Quietus before being released as part of state51's Singularity Series. Here it's presented in transparent vinyl, over two sides.

      Vanishing Twin fly deeper into their sonic universe, blending elements from an improvisational session, raw recordings of the natural world, and early 20th century poetry to create sublime, cosmic pop. This twenty-minute piece has embellishments of sparkling synth and lyrical vignettes that are reminiscent of English folk melodies. 

      TRACK LISTING

      Side A
      [Part 1] Tell Me Not Here
      Side B
      [Part 2] Tell Me Not Here 

      MEMORIALS

      Music For Film: Tramps! & Women Against The Bomb

        A seismic, cinematic double dose from two sonic veterans with previous in Wire, Electrelane, and Better Corners. MEMORIALS’ kaleidoscopic debut covers broad musical territory, encompassing protest songs, fuzz-flooded pop, searing drone, and psychedelic freakouts whilst carving out a sound that is uniquely their own.

        Both halves of this dynamic double album were originally conceived as individual film soundtracks but once the multi-instrumental duo of Verity Susan & Matthew Simms brought ‘Music For Film’ into a live space, the desire to shape it into a cohesive whole was more than they could resist. The resulting, intoxicating, musical odyssey can be viewed independently from the associated films and stands proudly as an ambitious artistic statement.

        “The music we like and admire ranges from challenging to really tuneful, and we try to bring all that together in a way that sounds natural.” - MEMORIALS

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Tramps! 03:03
        2. Feel Of Time 04:01
        3. Housewives 00:59
        4. Blue Feather Boa 05:02
        5. A Job For Derek 01:55
        6. What A Life 02:14
        7. Kind Of Beyond 05:02
        8. Sportswear Couture 04:12
        9. Typhoon 04:12
        10. Peacock Punk 02:16
        11. We Live Here 04:35
        12. Boudicaaa 02:05

        Steve Jansen

        Slope (Remastered)

          Steve Jansen, the co-founder of new wave legends Japan and bona fide collaboration multi-hyphenate, is reissuing his first two solo studio albums: Slope and Tender Extinction.

          But how to accurately parse Steve Jansen’s path through music? It’s a journey that’s taken him from 80s royalty as what The Guardian calls “a key component” of one of the UK’s premier new wave acts, releasing classic records like Tin Drum and Quiet Life, to a renowned collaborator, working with artists as diverse as Ryuchi Sakamoto, Anja Garbarek, Annie Lennox, and, most recently, Maiya Hershey. His is a career of ever-changing styles and genres, from blissed-out electronica made with YMO’s Yukihiro Takahashi, to his work with jazz-rock group Nine Horses, to the heavy atmospheres of his transcendent Exit North project, and far, far, beyond.

          Based on his consistently excellent creative output, it’s not surprising that he’s also had time to fit in a clutch of excellent solo albums. Although on first listens the music on Slope and Tender Extinction can seem austere and chilly, it certainly bears further listening. Songs that might seem impenetrable can shyly give up their secrets - a moment of tenderness, say, or soaring strings, or a wistful chord change. Slope, his debut, was described by The Observer upon its release in 2007 as “unclassifiable”, a description that goes some way to detailing the album’s crystalline synthetic peaks, dusty analogue depths, and wide experimental sweep. To hear the icy IDM of ‘Grip’ rubbing up against the drone-led modern classical in ‘Sow The Salt’, and the strange sound experiments in ‘Gap of Cloud’ juxtaposed with the fractured emotion of ‘Playground Martyrs’ is to hear an artist capable of ploughing his own unique furrow through music.


          Although nine years and another glut of projects (an ambient album called A Secret Life made with John Foxx and Steve D'Agostino, an array of instrumental pieces, Jansen and Japan bandmate Richard Barbieri’s fifth album, Lumen, and the list really does go on and on) came between Slope and second album, Tender Extinction, the same restive spirit remained that first prompted Jansen to go it alone. Tender Extinction is a more meditative affair than its predecessor, one where comet tails of synthesiser stretch across a song and fathomless sonic depths simmer and roll like an ocean. James Ginzburg’s brand new remaster will render the hiemal beauty and sumptuous arrangements of tracks such as ‘And Birds Sing All Night’, ‘Captured’, and ‘Her Distance’ even more perfectly than before.

          But why these albums and why now? Both are special pieces of work, and place the talents of an artist that often stays in the shadows front and centre. Jansen is someone whose every action is in service of The Project, shapeshifting and adapting in relation to how he can improve the music. He’s said in that past that “I remove myself from any references to other people or popular culture. I explore sound and composition without any preconceptions about the finished piece or its place in the world.” Though this is a humble approach that clearly pays dividends (as evinced by his mixing, session, and collaborative work) Slope and Tender Extinction allow for the full range of his influences, experimentation, and ideas to come to the fore. These reissues are timely and necessary, bringing particularly gorgeous high points of Steve Jansen’s sparkling oeuvre into new light.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Grip 06:42
          2. Sleepyard 05:13
          3. Cancelled Pieces 03:20
          4. December Train 04:14
          5. Sow The Salt 05:49
          6. Gap Of Cloud 02:45
          7. Playground Martyrs 03:02
          8. A Way Of Disappearing 01:57
          9. Ballad Of A Deadman 06:25
          10. Conversation Over 05:07
          11. Life Moves On 02:25
          12. Playground Martyrs (Reprise) 03:05

          Steve Jansen

          Tender Extinction (Remastered)

            Steve Jansen, the co-founder of new wave legends Japan and bona fide collaboration multi-hyphenate, is reissuing his first two solo studio albums: Slope and Tender Extinction.

            But how to accurately parse Steve Jansen’s path through music? It’s a journey that’s taken him from 80s royalty as what The Guardian calls “a key component” of one of the UK’s premier new wave acts, releasing classic records like Tin Drum and Quiet Life, to a renowned collaborator, working with artists as diverse as Ryuchi Sakamoto, Anja Garbarek, Annie Lennox, and, most recently, Maiya Hershey. His is a career of ever-changing styles and genres, from blissed-out electronica made with YMO’s Yukihiro Takahashi, to his work with jazz-rock group Nine Horses, to the heavy atmospheres of his transcendent Exit North project, and far, far, beyond.

            Based on his consistently excellent creative output, it’s not surprising that he’s also had time to fit in a clutch of excellent solo albums. Although on first listens the music on Slope and Tender Extinction can seem austere and chilly, it certainly bears further listening. Songs that might seem impenetrable can shyly give up their secrets - a moment of tenderness, say, or soaring strings, or a wistful chord change. Slope, his debut, was described by The Observer upon its release in 2007 as “unclassifiable”, a description that goes some way to detailing the album’s crystalline synthetic peaks, dusty analogue depths, and wide experimental sweep. To hear the icy IDM of ‘Grip’ rubbing up against the drone-led modern classical in ‘Sow The Salt’, and the strange sound experiments in ‘Gap of Cloud’ juxtaposed with the fractured emotion of ‘Playground Martyrs’ is to hear an artist capable of ploughing his own unique furrow through music.


            Although nine years and another glut of projects (an ambient album called A Secret Life made with John Foxx and Steve D'Agostino, an array of instrumental pieces, Jansen and Japan bandmate Richard Barbieri’s fifth album, Lumen, and the list really does go on and on) came between Slope and second album, Tender Extinction, the same restive spirit remained that first prompted Jansen to go it alone. Tender Extinction is a more meditative affair than its predecessor, one where comet tails of synthesiser stretch across a song and fathomless sonic depths simmer and roll like an ocean. James Ginzburg’s brand new remaster will render the hiemal beauty and sumptuous arrangements of tracks such as ‘And Birds Sing All Night’, ‘Captured’, and ‘Her Distance’ even more perfectly than before.

            But why these albums and why now? Both are special pieces of work, and place the talents of an artist that often stays in the shadows front and centre. Jansen is someone whose every action is in service of The Project, shapeshifting and adapting in relation to how he can improve the music. He’s said in that past that “I remove myself from any references to other people or popular culture. I explore sound and composition without any preconceptions about the finished piece or its place in the world.” Though this is a humble approach that clearly pays dividends (as evinced by his mixing, session, and collaborative work) Slope and Tender Extinction allow for the full range of his influences, experimentation, and ideas to come to the fore. These reissues are timely and necessary, bringing particularly gorgeous high points of Steve Jansen’s sparkling oeuvre into new light.

            TRACK LISTING

            1. Captured 06:08
            2. Sadness 03:52
            3. Her Distance 06:43
            4. Memory Of An Imagined Place 03:24
            5. Give Yourself A Name 06:50
            6. Diaphanous One 05:58
            7. Faced With Nothing 05:31
            8. Mending A Secret 05:03
            9. Simple Day 02:37
            10. And Birds Sing All Night 02:28


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