Watch the new video for Laurence Pike’s ‘Drum Chant’

11 April 2019

We had already heard and loved ‘Drum Chant’, the lead single from Laurence Pike´s much anticipated upcoming album Holy Spring. Now the inventive percussionist and composer has unveiled a fascinating video to accompany the track, directed by Clemens Habicht. “Clemens has physically tracked the ends of my drum mallets while I perform to create what you might describe as visual music,” explained Laurence. “For me it’s in the finest tradition of the experimental films of artists such as Norman McClaren or Len Lye.”

Clemens had this to say about it:

”Watching Laurence perform I found myself focusing on the round white mallet ends as if they were objects all of their own, separated from their sticks they became bouncing balls feverishly racing over the drums in a frenzy made all the more astonishing by their impossible precision at such speed.”

Watch the video for ‘Drum Chant’ now.

Holy Spring is out on May 17th through The Leaf Label.

Ishmael Ensemble share accompanying visuals for new track ‘Full Circle’

09 April 2019

We’re less than a month away from the release of A State of Flow, the new album from Ishmael Ensemble.  After sharing the first single ‘Lapwing’, the Bristolian outfit led by producer and saxophonist Pete Cunningham is offering a new taste from the record called ‘Full Circle’ and featuring vocalist Holysseus Fly. It comes with an accompanying video by Amie Nowlan and you can watch it below.

A State of Flow is out on May 3rd through Severn Songs Records

Canal180 unveils short film about Le Guess Who? Festival

04 April 2019

For four days every November, Le Guess Who? turns the entire city of Utrecht into a marvelous melting pot of music and artistic experimentation, bringing together a plethora of incredibly diverse and cutting-edge artists spanning genres, generations and the globe. Last year, during its 12th edition, Portuguese platform Canal180 set about capturing and documenting what makes Le Guess Who? so unique. A new short film entitled Representing the Underrepresented is the fruit of it, featuring some of the artists that enriched last year´s line up, including Shabaka Hutchings, Richard Fearless, Jacco Gardner, Vashti Bunyan and Go Kurosawa, and also interviews with members of the Le Guess Who? team. As Canal180 puts it, with Representing the Underrepresented they “intended to listen to these artists, curators and organizers in order to understand their view and their willingness to change the monocultural Europe and US-focused perspective that seems to dominate our current times.”

First premiered last weekend at the MIL Festival in Lisbon, the film is now available to stream, and you can read more about it on canal180.pt. We can’t help but think that by watching it, you won´t want to miss the 13th edition of Le Guess Who? this November.

Le Guess Who? 2019 takes place from 7 – 10 November in several venues in Utrecht and 4-Day Festival Passes are available now on leguesswho.com. Save the date and grab your tickets now.

BIG|BRAVE share video for first single ‘Sibling’ off forthcoming album

04 April 2019

Photo: Rachel Cheng

Mighty Montreal trio BIG|BRAVE are releasing their fourth album A Gaze Among Them next month and they had us mouthwatering with a celestial teaser. Now they are offering the first full track, ‘Sibling’, with an accompanying video by the band’s own Mathieu Ball & Robin Wattie. Watch it below.

A Gaze Among Them is out on May 10th through Southern Lord.

Debut album from Pascal Gabriel’s new project Stubbleman out this month

01 April 2019

In a career that spans three decades and an array of musical ventures, Pascal Gabriel has become an accomplished composer and producer. Known for producing and co-writing ‘Theme from S’Express’ (S’Express) and ‘Beat Dis’ (Bomb The Bass), Pascal has also collaborated with a variety of artists, from Wire and Can to Miss Kittin, Erasure and Goldfrapp, amongst many more, in the corners of the pop landscape. Stubbleman is his latest solo project, where his electronic ambient past re-emerges, paired with lo-fi found sounds, field recordings and modular synthesiser, and also live piano.

Under the new moniker, Pascal will release his debut record Mountains and Plains on April 26th though Crammed Discs. The album is inspired by a road trip across the US, “evok[ing] the poignant delights of endless train tracks, sleepless cities, nostalgic ruins, big skies, high deserts and lost junctions”, as the press release describes, “keeping at all times an affectionate eye for the humanity which populates these diverse landscapes.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Stubbleman has shared the first taste from it, the gentle and beautiful ‘Badlands Train’. It comes with a fitting visual accompaniment and you can watch it below.