Tom Rogerson releases second single, ‘Chant’, from upcoming album Retreat to Bliss

23 February 2022

Tom Rogerson‘s much anticipated solo album, Retreat to Bliss, will see the light of day in just over a month. Following the poignant and sublime first single, ‘Oath’, the staggeringly talented British composer and pianist has shared a new celestial track from his forthcoming album called ‘Chant’. Speaking about the track, Rogerson remarks:

“With this song, I’d made a conscious decision to write as minimally and simply as I could, after years of making lots of loud and complicated music. This was the first song with words I wrote, in an effort to express a lot of things that had been on my mind for some time but had lain unexplored. I deliberately left myself nowhere to hide, and for that reason I didn’t expect to record it, or release it, until I started performing it live in the middle of long improvised piano sets, where it seemed to make sense.”

Listen to ‘Oath’ below.

Retreat to Bliss is out on March 25th through Western Vinyl.

Alabaster DePlume teases upcoming album with new double single ‘Mrs Calamari’ b/w ‘Who Is A Fool’

22 February 2022

Photo: Chris Almeida

February started on a high note with the release announcement of GOLD, the new double album from ingenious, thought-provoking and unpredictable spoken word artist, bandleader, composer, saxophonist and activist Alabaster DePlume. After giving a first glimpse of the album with a magnificent two-song single, ‘Don’t Forget You’re Precious’ and ‘The Sound of My Feet on this Earth is a Song To Your Spirit’, DePlume is enticing us again with another set of double singles, ‘Mrs Calamari’ and ‘Who Is A Fool’. ‘Mrs Calamari’ is offered with an accompanying video shot on 8mm film, which marks the directorial debut of Dan “Danalogue” Leavers (The Comet Is Coming / Soccer 96)). Speaking about the video, Danalogue says:

“The film explores the archetypal hero’s journey, the symbolism of circles (transformation/death/life cycles). Mrs Calamari is represented as a squid goddess, a teaching of the ‘other’. It is essentially a story about growth and being guided by love. I felt strongly about the magical, organic sound of the music, recorded live and to analogue tape. This gave me inspiration to film on Super8, an antiquated format that holds within a mystery and timelessness.”

Watch the video below and watch out for the release of GOLD on April 1st through International Anthem, Lost Map and Total Refreshment Centre.

In other related good news, Alabaster DePlume is embarking on his first ever US tour next month, with live dates in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Knoxville, Tennessee, where he will be artist in residence at Big Ears Festival. DePlume will perform with a different ensemble in each city, having invited local artists from the International Anthem family to curate his ensemble.

 

Listen to Snapped Ankles’ brand new single ‘Barbecue In Brazil’

17 February 2022

Snapped Ankles have just released a brand new track called ‘Barbecue In Brazil’. Out now through The Leaf Label, the standalone single follows last year’s spectacular third album, Forest Of Your Problems, and features honorary sixth member, Dan-a-log of The Comet Is Coming and Soccer 96. As usual, the London outfit continue to depict some of the absurdities of modern life. They comment:

“Have you ever taken a flight for a Barbecue In Brazil? This is a song sung from the nemophilic corner of our woods, railing against instaconsumerism and the globally connected luxury travel industry that surrounds it. Let’s all meet at the last ever grill!”

‘Barbecue in Brazil’ comes with an accompanying video. Watch it below.

In other related news, Snapped Ankles are embarking on a UK tour this month, which precedes several live dates in North America in March. Check all their stops here.

Listen to Binker and Moses’ third single ‘After the Machine Settle’

15 February 2022

With less than two weeks to go until the much anticipated release of Feeding The Machine, Binker and Moses have unveiled a third cut from the album called ‘After The Machine Settles’. The track follows previosuly released singles ‘Accelerometer Overdose’ and ‘Feed Infinite’ and you can listen to it below.

Feeding The Machine is out on February 25th through Gearbox Records.

Congotronics International announce new album Where’s The One?

12 February 2022

With a phenomenonal cast of musicians that includes members of Konono Nº1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, and Skeletons’ Matthew Mehlan, Congotronics International are nothing short of a mighty supergroup. April 29th will see the release of their new collaborative album, Where’s The One?, through Crammed Discs. In the works for eleven years, the album brings together 19 stellar musicians from four continents, who first recorded and played together for their 2011 Congotronics vs. Rockers tour. Featuring 21 concert recordings and studio tracks, Where’s The One? finds the multicultural ensemble explore and develop new idioms out of traditional Congolese music and experimental forms of rock and electronic music.

Ahead of the album’s release, Congotronics International are whetting our appetite with two thrilling singles, ‘Banza Banza’ and ‘Beyond The 7th Bend’. Take a listen now.


Eric Chenaux unveils video for ‘Say Laura’ off upcoming album

10 February 2022

Photo: Sylvestre Nonique-Desvergnes

Last month Eric Chenaux announced the release of his first album in four years, Say Laura, and enticed us with the beguiling title track. Now he is offering an accompanying video for the single, directed by filmmaker and longtime collaborator Eric Cadzyn. Chenaux wrote a few words about the song and the video:

“Say Laura is the sixteenth music video from Eric Cadzyn and I.
Sweet 16!
When I think about this group of work I think about the chance I get to encounter
the way a dear friend listens.
And how he modulates that listening into a problem.
A problem in the classic sense.
The problem being the form of music video.
And we both take on that form unapologetically.
I know they are a far cry from Beyoncé and Jay Z busting a move in the Louvre.
We are wondering how to encounter this form or propose an encounter with this form
where the image and the song can co-inhabit a space and a time without hierarchy.
Where the image and sound can share a space (perhaps differently) without short-circuiting the other. Where we get to see and hear without one sense exercising control over the other.
Most of the videos we have made (save for a couple) are one non-edited shot.
Say Laura takes a distinctively different approach, using photos (for the most part).

This is a performance video and maybe a sister video to Wild Moon,
which is a video of the performer listening and quietly singing along and dancing.
This is a video of the performer lip-syncing (different than quietly singing along, I don’t know how it is different but it is different. A different zone).
The performer closes its eyes when it is not singing (to listen to the guitar, I imagine, without having to engage with the camera).
In the stillness of the photos we see the gestures, the shapes that the mouth makes to make the different sounds.
A dance of skin, orifice (filter), teeth, tongue, lips, jaw and well, a lot of hair!
The slits, the orifices, the bends in the skin.
The humour of the grotesque of the mouth abstracted and often without context to the surrounding face. The video is a performance of the song and this is a performance video.
There is text coming out of the song onto the screen, out of sync and in sync.
There are pulses in the video: pulsing text, pulsing image, pulsing screen, flashing the beat of the song. And the video performs “Say Laura”.

Watch the video for ‘Say Laura’ below and watch out for the album release on February 19th through Constellation and Murailles Music.