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 …
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 …
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 …
See: Conrad Clipper – ‘Heron’s Book Of Dreams’: piano pastoralism from Berlin composer hiding in pseudonymity
CONRAD CLIPPER is the pseudonymous venture of a Berlin composer and multi-instrumentalist who has a focus on prepared, programmed and played piano. He’s lauded over at BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, whose presenters have called his work “a rare and tender sonic wonder.” His debut album, 2016’s Cycle of Liminal Rites, took the form of a …
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” …
See: The video for Matt Emery’s ‘Anxiety Mist’: a samurai waiting for battle as told by solo cello
BRITISH composer Matt Emery, who calls the lovely Injazero Records home, has launched a series of recordings focusing on one instrument at a time; and for his first EP in the series has chosen to shine a light on the cello, which is starting to find a bigger appreciation as a standalone instrument through the …