Yesterday, Becker & Mukai gifted the world with their debut collaborative album, Time VeryNear, and we love it to bits. The super duo of French composer Jean-Gabriel Becker and London based Japanese multitalented and ultraprolific musician and producer Susumu Mukai had previously teased the record the lead single ‘The Double’. If you need any more convincing this a record you need in your life, take a listen to the opener ‘Dark Fields Of The Republic‘, a kaleidoscope of a track.
Scheduled for release in June, The Other Side is the second album from London based trio Quest Ensemble, following their highly acclaimed 2014 debut record Footfall.
Filipe Sousa (piano), Tara Franks (cello) and Preetha Narayanan (violin), who make up Quest Ensemble, are masterful musicians composing mesmeric cinematic pieces, which reflect and blend their backgrounds in western classical, Indian classical, jazz and improvisational technique. “Quest Ensemble’s compositions fuse layered melodies and rhythmic patterns to create contrapuntal webs of sound”, describes the press release. “The process involves sharing improvised ideas, building up layers of music on each instrument to create a patchwork of musical themes with a rich vein of surging Reichian rhythms underpinning each.”
For a taste of what to expect ahead of the album’s release on June 5th, take a listen to the gorgeous and poignant first single ‘Moment’.
We love Fold so news of new music from the Leeds outfit is something we’re always itching for. Earlier this week, they released a new track called ‘Concrete Things’, featuring vocal samples from groundbreaking African-American playwright, author and activist Lorraine Hansberry. Lifted from a wider concept album paying tribute to Hansberry, ‘Concrete Things’, as they explained, “exalt[s] the importance of using our cognitive gifts to steer ourselves towards the proverbial light.” Take a listen now.
In other related good news, Fold have made their entire back catalogue free to download on Bandcamp. Call it your lucky day!
Five years on from the release of the widely acclaimed Beauty PillDescribes Things As They Are, Beauty Pill have new music on the way in the form of an album. Entitled Please Advise, it is set for release on May 8th through Northern Spy. The title, and as the band’s Chad Clark explains, “was inspired by record producer Teo Macero’s famous/hilarious 1969 memo to Columbia Records about Miles Davis (“Miles just called and said he wants this album to be titled: BITCHES BREW. Please advise.”).” Clark adds:
“What I love about that memo is the insight that even in moments of majestic creative breakthrough, there is uncertainty. Abject uncertainty. Nobody really knows anything. You can only follow where your instincts lead.”
Beauty Pill are previewing the record with the mysterious and mesmerizing lead single ‘Pardon Our Dust’, and an accompanying music video featuring new member Erin Nelson. Clark offered some insight about it:
“Most Beauty Pill songs work by insinuation, but “Pardon Our Dust” is more abstract. It’s about oblivion. The dictionary says oblivion is “the state of being unaware of what is justify.” To me, oblivion seemed an idea worth interrogating in the Trump age when a lot of people feel like disappearing… To me, cumulatively the song feels like science fiction and the voice is some kind of malfunctioning artificial intelligence. What do “so few reasons left” and “willing to burn” mean? Something is happening in this song, but I can’t tell what. I’m not sure.”
Earlier this month, NYC’s Astroturf Noise released their self-titled debut album through 577. An adventurous trio, consisting of Sam Day Harmet (mandolin/fx), Sana Nagano (violin/fx), and Zach Swanson (bass), they describe themselves as “synthetic grass for synthetic times”. Their new record sees them taking American roots music in a wild new direction, merging free improvisation and bluegrass/americana. For a taster of the album, check out the three singles they had previously shared, ‘Orange Blossom Bullet Train’ ft. Billy Martin, ‘Black Berry’ ft. Sarah Bernstein and ‘Morning Zephyr Waltz’. Speaking about ‘Orange Blossom Bullet Train’, Harmet described it as “an attempt to push that concept as far as it will go with the bullet train tearing into effect-laden noise territory and strange new dissonant turns.” Talking about the second single, ‘Black Berry’, he said he likes “to think of this as an evil twin commentary on the twin fiddle tradition, prizing dissonance, texture, and individuality over pleasing harmonic movements and blend.”
‘Black Berry’ and ‘Morning Zephyr Waltz’ come with accompanying videos made by Harmet, the latter filmed a week ago in the now quiet streets of Brooklyn. Take a gander below.
Haley Fohr has embraced again her fictional alter ego Jackie Lynn, now reincarnated as a “lady of the road”, and announced a new album, Jacqueline. After sharing two exciting previews with singles, ‘Casino Queen’ and ‘Shugar Water’, and with the album now nearing release, Jackie Lynn entices us again a new single, ‘Dream St.’. The track has been paired with a video, shot by Tim Breene, who explained that “Jackie Lynn taxis through her past on the corridor of dreams. A vortex rippling on the windshield. A memory sparked in a cloud of smoke. Driven by unseen forces with an armload of flowers. This was shot on a screen and drawn on paper. Flat surfaces in deep space.”
Speaking about the track, Haley Fohr had this to say :
“I first wrote “Dream St.” as an ode to my favorite street in Chicago, Ogden Drive. It is one of the few streets in the city that runs on a diagonal. On a good day you can catch a nice steady flow and shave minutes off of your commute. It also used to be a part of Route 66. I can’t help but wonder if my very distinct attraction to the flow of Ogden isn’t correlated to the deep historic stream that has been going down on that specific stretch of land for decades.
‘In transit’ means to pass through, and often times it’s a situation where my body has no choice but to remain stationary, so my mind picks up the slack. In this moment of in-between-ness is where I am able to find my deepest imagination, my most intimate secrets, and my longest narrative. Everything about the making of ‘Dream St.’ was easy. I wrote it in a breeze, and we tracked it all live in an evening. Julie Pomerleau and Bobby Conn did a fantastic job with the strings, and the session was such a dream in itself…
Right now everything seems hard. In a time when we are all in our own cabins tucked away (yet in transit), I hope that this song can help alleviate any inner concerns one may have in isolation.”
