News
News: Mdou Moctar set to release a new album for Matador; hear ‘Tala Tannam’
MDOU MOCTAR is at last gathering momentum. Still, it’s been an epic journey since 2008 when his raw, emotional guitar music first began to spread across West Africa via the DIY network of traded SIM cards. Picked up by Chris Kirkley of Sahel Sounds, who sent Mdou a much-needed left-handed Strat, and which label then …
News: Daptone to release an album from Morocco’s Innov Gnawa; hear ‘Chorfa’
DAPTONE, the home of soul and funk, is one of those labels whose judgement you can trust; when they’re onto something you just know it’s going to deliver. News that they will be releasing Innov Gnawa’s new album, LILA, on April 30th may seem a bit leftfield given that the band are dedicated explorers of …
Track: Ryley Walker’s ‘Axis Bent’ is a baroque and complex glory; his new album’s out soon
TROUBADOUR genius touched by the hand of the Tim Buckley, collaborator on some very fine albums, sole architect of yet other records that fall very much in that same category, and one of the funniest tweeters in music, Ryley Walker has just dropped a new track, “Axis Bent”, from his early April album Course In …
NEWS: GoGo Penguin announce Blue Note remix album with a stellar cast; hear the MachineDrum remix of ‘Atomised’
THE LEFTFIELD, inventive Mancunian piano trio GoGo Penguin, who work out in the truly creative zones where dancefloor and intelligence and a jazzy feel bump into each other, decided they could be lifelong friends, have announced a remix album for Blue Note, to be entitled GGP/RMX; and boy have they lined up a mighty cast …
Track: Roddy Woomble to release a new solo album in May; hear a first single, ‘Lo Soul’; there’s tour dates, too
FORMER Idlewild man turned solo songcrafter of considerable talent, Roddy Woomble has finally turned his hand to a follow-up to 2017’s The Deluder; he’ll be releasing his new album, Lo! Soul, in May, by way of previewing which he’s just dropped a lead single, the (almost) title track “Lo Soul”. Take a listen and read …
News: Dark Horse Records Set To Release A Joe Strummer Collection Featuring Previously Unreleased Version Of Junco Partner
Punk poet, musician, composer, actor, and style icon, Joe Strummer spent his life smashing musical and cultural boundaries both as the singer of The Clash and as a solo artist. His songs sound as urgent and vital today as when they were written. Calling out social injustices and giving a voice to the struggles of …
See: the video for Masayoshi Fujita’s ‘Thunder’; a flow of sonic delight for electronica and marimba on Erased Tapes
IF YOU like your music deliciously abstract, abstractedly delicious; arranged beautifully, an absolute world of evocative sound; fell hard, for instance, for the albums Ryuichi Sakamoto made with Alva Noto, or are like a kid at Christmas while waiting for the lusciousness of Chihei Hatakeyama’s new album, then attendez-vous, s’il vous plait; for Erased Tapes …
News: New Model Army’s Justin Sullivan announces May solo set; hear the stark storytelling of ‘Amundsen’
NEWS which will delight members of the Militia worldwide: Justin Sullivan, founder of Bradford post-punk legends New Model Army, fierce social advocate and commentator, has announced he’ll be releasing only his second solo album come early May, 18 years on from the previous, Navigating By The Stars. It’s entitled Surrounded, will comprise sixteen new songs …
Track: Belgian’s Whispering Sons issue forth scything double single ‘Santantango’/ ‘Surgery’ and announce new album ‘Several Others’
The raw and visceral ‘Santango’ from Belgian post punk outfit Whispering Sons has the same sort of ominous and threatening pace of anything by The Birthday Party, with a Rowland S Howard level of scything guitar. There is an anxiety, a restless energy that is unnerving and disturbing. It’s brilliant. According to the band, …the …
NEWS: A Certain Ratio announce EP for May, ‘ACR:EPA’; hear a first track, ‘Wonderland’: the Mancunian funk hot streak continues
THEY’RE on such a hot streak these days; Mancunian fun legends A Certain Ratio have been absolutely on fire, creatively so vivacious and so irresistibly taut, since ACR Loco dropped in the final days of last summer, an album of which we commented “effortless Mancunian pop and the tautest funk remade anew.” “Yo Yo Gi” …