Following last year’s Forest Of Your Problems album, and a killer standalone single, ‘Barbecue In Brazil’, released earlier this year, Snapped Ankles have cooked up the new single ‘The Fish Needs A Bike’. Rebellious and unrelentingly energetic, the track is their take on Blurt’s cult classic and was produced by Luke Abbott. The band comments:
“We focused our logs on a band that we’ve always admired for their dedication to the simplicity of groove, whilst maintaining a fierce outsider stance. Blurting out primal rhythms and absurd poetry for over forty years, Ted Milton’s Blurt has been consistently singular in their output.”
‘The Fish Needs A Bike’ is out now through The Leaf Label. Take a listen below.
There’s exciting news from Bristolian adventurous drum-and-sax duo Run Logan Run, who are set to release a fourth album, following last year’s For A Brief Moment We Could Smell The Flowers which was one of our Album Picks of the year. Entitled Nature Will Take Care Of You, their upcoming album will see the light of day on November 25th through Worm Discs.
The record sees the duo of Andrew Neil Hayes (saxophones and FX) and Matt Brown (drums and percussion) venture boldly into new territory and expand their line-up to include singer Annie Gardiner as well as a string quartet and a brass section. “This is essentially a big band album,” Hayes explained. “Our reference points were Attica Blues by Archie Shepp, Soul Zodiac by Rick Holmes and The Nat Adderley Sextet, and Enter by Fire! Orchestra.” He continues:
“Most tracks began as ideas that Matt and I had composed individually before we developed them in the rehearsal studio together. Our goal was to really open up the sound and invite input from other collaborators… We wanted to reflect our need for community through this process of presenting a larger collective of musicians.”
Alongside the album announcement, Run Logan Run have released the first single ‘Great Fools’ featuring Annie Gardiner on vocals. “The melody came first for ‘Great Fools”, Gardiner said of the track. “I responded to Andrew’s saxophone part with my voice paying homage to ‘O Superman’ by Laurie Anderson, a song I have always loved. The lyrics and vocal melody are abstract and very sound-based, but the song made me feel sad and angry about how easily I forget about the planet in my everyday life.”
‘Great Fools’ is offered with a live video directed by Daniel Broadley and you can watch it below.
Keyboardist and composer Surya Botofasina, who is also the music director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, is gearing up to release his debut album this November. Entitled Everyone’s Children, Botofasina pays homage to Alice Coltrane, who was his mentor during his upbringing in her Ashram in Los Angeles.
To bring the album to life, Botofasina assembled a terrific cast of guest contributors including his mother, the harpist Radha Botofasina, jazz singer Dwight Trible, indie folk vocalist Mia Doi Todd, guitarist Nate Mercereau, saxophonist Pablo Calogero, and drummer Efa Etoroma Jr.. Featuring on the album too is revered producer, composer, ensemble orchestrator, percussionist, DJ and mentor Carlos Niño, who has also produced the album.
Stunning and contemplative, Everyone’s Children “soothes, enriches and uplifts the soul” as the press release describes.
We’ll have to wait until November 4th for the album to be out through Spiritmuse Records but Botofasina has already unveiled two marvellous singles from it, ‘Surya Meditation’ and ‘Beloved California Temple’. The latter is an ode to the Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane’s Sai Anantam Ashram, as he explains:
“I can still hear the sounds of Swamini’s organ, along with the water flowing through the property. The Ashram to me is the main reason why I have any redeemable qualities throughout my life. I learned all of my values there. More importantly I learned what introspection feels like. I learned what meditation does for the body, and how to wait for an answer from the Divine. Every time I reach a place of music that may connect with other human beings on the planet . . . It is only because I have watched Her connect with beings both visible and invisible to common eyesight, effortlessly.”
‘Beloved California Temple’ comes with an accompanying video. Watch it below and check an excerpt of the epic ‘Surya Meditation’ straight after.
In other related good news, and to celebrate the album release, Surya Botofasina has announced a string of lives including including a show at Le Guess Who? festival on November 11th.
There’s less two months to go before Le Guess Who? takes over Utrecht. With over 150 artists set to perform, how do we make sense of such a monumental line-up? We made a list of the artists we’re most excited to see and asked them for their recommendations.
Performing Sunday 13th November (Curated by clipping. and Animal Collective)
Baltimore quartet Horse Lords have a unique music style that feels both impeccably structured and spontaneous. Combining polyrhythmic grooves and a command of microtonality through prepared instruments, the band delivers an exhilarating sound somewhere between experimental rock, math-jazz, krautrock, post-punk, electronic music and African musical traditions. Formed in 2010, the outfit of Andrew Bernstein, Max Eilbacher, Owen Gardner and Sam Haberman are releasing their fifth record this Autumn, Comradely Objects, and judging by its infectious, delirious and groovy introduction, they are firing on all cylinders. Renowned for their vibrant live performances, we wouldn’t want to miss them playing at Le Guess Who? for the world. So leading up to it, we asked them what artists they are most excited to see. Read on to find out.
Performing Friday 11th November (as part of Hidden Musics)
Photo: Eslam Abd El Salam
Le Guess Who? will take place 10-13 November. For the full line-up, tickets and more info visit leguesswho.com. And take a look at other artists we’re excited about picking their own Le Guess Who?’s Who.
Following the magnificent and immersive ‘Surreal Presence (for SH and FM)’, Christina Vantzou has shared a second single titled ‘Red Eel Dream’. Flowing with mystery, the new track is taken from her upcoming record No.5, set for release on November 11th through Kranky. ‘Red Eel Dream’ comes with a video made by Eva L’Hoest in collaboration with Vantzou and you can watch it below.
s t a r g a z e‘s upcoming One is one of the albums slated for release this year that we’re eagerly anticipating. An orchestral suite, the record was composed for the Berlin-based experimental ensemble by a phenomenal cast of musicians, Tyondai Braxton, Nik Colk Void, Greg Saunier, Arone Dyer and Aart Strootman. “We tried to think of composers who knew s t a r g a z e’s musician well from previous live interactions, who had an appreciation of classical music, and who are known as innovative, flexible producers”, explained the ensemble’s conductor André De Ridder. “We wanted those who could think of the recorded parts as something that could also be ‘processed’ afterwards and manipulated. These tracks were open to development at every step, and no two pieces followed the same method or style. The only constant was remote collaboration.”
One is set for release on November 25th through Transgressive Records and we can already hear the first cut from it, ‘Recollection Pulse #3’ , composed by NikColkVoid, who other than being one half of Factory Floor and one third of Carter Tutti Void, is also known for her work using modular systems, voice and guitar. She comments:
“Working alongside this collective of classically trained musicians brought me out of my comfort zone as a modular synth artist. I lean towards assertoric compositions built via the appreciation of chance happenings through improvisation, and the recording it was a challenge too; feeling blindfolded to the outcome, we began to naturally bend our known rules and experience a crossing which was far more reliant on emotion rather than direction.”
Clocking in at just under ten minutes, ‘Recollection Pulse #3’ is a monumental cut that summons a sense of the infinite and we can’t stop playing it.
