Listen to STUFF.’s new single, ‘Honu’, from forthcoming third album T(h)reats

23 February 2021

There’s exciting news from Belgian instrumental five-piece STUFF., who have conquered our ears with their adventurous, groovy and dance-oriented sound, embracing songwriting and improvisation, and amalgamating genres like jazz, hip-hop, funk and electronica. Following their 2017 phenomenal album, Old Dreams, New Planets, the quintet are back with their third album, T(h)reats, set for release on May 7th through Sdban Ultra. Along with album announcement STUFF. have shared ‘Honu’, which serves as the first outlandish and exhilarating single from the album. Named after the Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle, the single comes paired with a video accompaniment and the band offered some insight into it:

“The video for HONU made by volk.be, is based on the Guy Vandenbranden ‘Composition’ artwork from 1967 and combines 70-ish graphics with images of a Honu (Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle) — the inspiration behind the song’s title.

The landscape was paradisiacal, as if it were plucked straight from the front of a postcard. Not a cloud marred the sky, the only thing that stirred the surroundings was a gentle breeze that rippled gently through the crystal clear waters. It were as if you were looking through a glass floor; the vibrant colours of the sea life and seabed below bursting forth in HD. It all felt too perfect, too squeaky clean. Something ugly had to be lurking somewhere.”

Watch the video for ‘Honu’ below.

Orions Belte unveil video for new single ‘Lotus’ off upcoming album Villa Amorini

16 February 2021

Orions Belte, the outfit of Øyvind Blomstrøm, Chris Holm and Kim Åge Furuhaug, are gearing up to release their new album Villa Amorini. The Norwegian trio named the album after a Bergen restaurant which was a vibrant place for live music and long nights in the 90’s and belonged to Holm’s family. Serving as “a homage to an era of loud music, club nights, ugly shirts and long afterparties”, as the band puts, Villa Amorini, unlike their previous record, “might sound more like big city night life and chaotic afterparties.”

Villa Amorini will be released on April 9th through Jansen Records and Orions Belte have recently shared a slick, expansive and propulsive new single called ‘Lotus’. It comes with a fitting video filmed by Nikolai Grasaasen up on a mountain top in Fresvik called Mulakamben. Take a look.

AMOR’s collaborative album with LEMUR out now, watch the video for opening track ‘Unravel’

12 February 2021

The triumphant musical force that is AMOR have just released an astonishingly ecstatic and infectiously catchy new record. Entitled AMOR/LEMUR, it features Norwegian ensemble LEMUR and follows their wonderful and jubilant 2018 debut album Sinking Into A Miracle. The Glasgow quartet, made up of multi-instrumentalist and improviser Richard Youngs, Turner nominated artist Luke Fowler, drummer Paul Thomson (Franz Ferdinand) and Norwegian composer and double-bassist Michael Francis Duch (LEMUR), have now shared the opening track ‘Unravel’. If you haven’t heard it yet, we very much advise you to just drop whatever you’re doing and have a dance. The track comes with a video made by Glasgow artist Torsten Luschmann. Here it is.

AMOR/LEMUR is out now through Night School Records

Steiger share first single off upcoming album, The New Lady Llama

12 February 2021

We’ve been eagerly waiting for a full-length album from Steiger, after they took us by storm with their collaborative Brick Smoke Basement EP released last November. The Ghent trio of Gilles Vandecaveye, Kobe Boon and Simon Raman have now lifted the lid on its follow up, The New Lady Llama. Through composition and improvisation, Steiger continue to explore the outer margins of jazz as well as disparate territories and influences from contemporary music to electronica and pop, “yet remain faithful to the genre’s long-standing core principle; that of a flexible transformation”, as the press release describes.

We’ll have to wait until April 9th for The New Lady Llama to be out through Sdban Ultra but Steiger have already shared an astounding taste off it, ‘Lambda’. We’ve been playing it over and over again and if the single is anything to go by, we are in for a treat.

Watch Barra Brown’s video for second single ‘NOAH’ ft. Noah Simpson

11 February 2021

Having been busy the last few years with his acoustic jazz band, Barra Brown Quintet, and as one half of beat-making duo Korgy & Bass, Barra Brown has unleashed his long awaited debut solo album, LFT:RT. After teasing the album last month with ‘Woah Hey!’ featuring Tree Palmedo, the producer and percussionist continues to capture our attention with new single ‘NOAH’ featuring Noah Simpson on trumpet. Speaking about the track, Brown commented:

“This track took some time to form. My friend Noah Simpson came over one day to record some ideas he had: an A section and a B section. I worked on it a bit, but Noah wasn’t sold on his melody. I was! The song had potential, but we never met again to record new parts. After some production and adding a new section, the track really came to life! It’s amazing what came to be from two trumpet ideas.”

‘NOAH’ serves as yet another testament to Brown’s artistic brilliance and versatility, and is offered with a striking video directed and produced by artist collective Stranger Liquids. Watch it below.


LFT:RT is out on March 5th through Cavity Search Records.

Sarah Neufeld announces third album Detritus, shares first single ‘Stories’

10 February 2021

Sarah Neufeld has been a favourite of ours for a long time, first conquering our ears with her 2013 beguiling debut album Hero Brother. With two magnificent solo albums under her belt, and a staggering collaborative album with Colin Stetson, the extraordinary composer and violinist is ready to dazzle us again with her eagerly anticipated third full-length album arriving this May. Entitled Detritus, the album stems from a collaboration initiated in 2015 with dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker. The partnership carried on and saw Neufeld performing and composing to Baker’s choreography, and heading on tour in February 2019. Neufeld felt like this live performance music could take another form, “as a distilled set of songs, refined and developed beyond the versions performed on stage”, as the press release explains, and started working on arranging the material that summer. To help her bring the album to life, she invited her Arcade Fire bandmate Jeremy Gara, Bell Orchestre bandmate Pietro Amato and Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie. Neufeld commented on the tracks that make up Detritus:

“I was inspired by both a sense of interior aloneness, and a sense of deep intimacy. Within both, a profound questioning of identity and intention, and ultimately, a grieving over one’s former sense of self. The stories we’ve told ourselves that we can no longer believe. Nestled within deep layers of comfort, familiarity, and solace, I’m able to repeat myself again and again, never learning, never looking back. Simultaneously becoming wiser and more ignorant as the years wind on, beauty and grace exist even here, in this rift.”

Detritus will see the light of day on May 14th through Paper Bag Records in North America and One Little Independent Records in the rest of the world and ahead of it Neufeld has shared the poignant and beautiful opening track, ‘Stories’. The single comes with a visual accompaniment made by Jeremy Mimnagh.