Bram Weijters’ Crazy Men announce new album, The Return, and share lead single

01 June 2021

Captained by Antwerp based piano and keyboard player Bram Weijters, Bram Weijters’ Crazy Men features a phenomenal cast of musicians from the vibrant Belgian jazz scene, including members of STUFF, Dans Dans, Cargo Mas and Lucid Lucia (ex BRZZVLL). The ensemble first came to life following the 2015 reissue of composer, arranger, pianist, and keyboardist Koen de Bruyne’s 1974 rare record Here Comes the Crazy Man!, which sprouted the release of Bram Weijters’ Crazy Men’s debut album Here They Come in 2019. With Belgian jazz-rock and fusion from the 1970s still a core inspiration to the ensemble, they have announced the release of a new album. Entitled The Return, the upcoming album features fourteen adventurous reworkings of compositions from artists like Philip Catherine, Placebo, Palle Mikelborg ensemble, Bob Porter, Cos and Koen de Bruyne. Along with the album announcement, Bram Weijters’ Crazy Men have shared the lead single ‘Planes’. The band commented on the song:

“While the song ‘Planes’ is based on Placebo’s 1972 live performance, this ‘Planes (intro)’ is based on the studio version of the piece ‘Planes’ from Placebo’s album ‘Ball of Eyes’ (1971). We converted the original intro from that studio version to a short moody trumpet feature, somewhat with a nod to Miles Davis’ ‘Sketches of Spain’. The reason for this, as you can hear in the sample used for the intro, is that composer Marc Moulin was president of the Belgian Miles Davis fan club as well.”

Listen to ‘Planes’ below and grab the album when it drops on August 27th through via Sdban Ultra.

Kid Millions and Jan St. Werner share new single from upcoming album Imperium Droop

29 May 2021

Two of our favourite trailblazing artists, drummer extraordinaire and multi-instrumentalist and composer John Colpitts aka Kid Millions and electronic veteran musician and producer Jan St. Werner, are releasing Imperium Droop, their first album as a duo, next month. As we had previously mentioned, Imperium Droop picks up from where Millions and Werner had left off in 2016 when Werner invited Millions to perform an interpretation of his Felder album in a series of curated live dates. The pair played a unique concert at Oneida’s practice space and planned to follow it with an ongoing series of recorded collaborations, which saw them build an archive of recorded material that led to Imperium Droop.

Following the first exhilarating taste, ‘Sorrows and Compensations’, Werner and Millions have shared a new cut from the upcoming album called ‘Dark Tetrad’. Take a listen below and grab the album when it’s out on June 25th through Thrill Jockey.

Masayoshi Fujita shares video for ‘Morocco’; new album Bird Ambience out this Friday

25 May 2021

We’re only a few days away from the release of Bird Ambience, the much anticipated new album from Masayoshi Fujita. The master vibraphonist, multi-percussionist, and composer had already enticed us with three magnificent tracks from the album, ‘Thunder‘, Bird Ambience‘ and more recently ‘Morocco’, a cinematic track that gently whisks one away on a voyage of wonder and delight. Now Fujita has paired the latest single with a befittingly gorgeous and sublime video directed, shot, acted, edited and graded by himself. “The theme for this video is to visualize what I had in mind for the song, and also to visualize how I dive into the image that I get from the sound when I composed or whenever I play it,” Fujita explained. Take a look below and grab Bird Ambience when it’s out this Friday May 28th through Erased Tapes.

7K! Records announces new compilation Wind Layers

21 May 2021

Next month will see 7K! Records release a new compilation entitled Wind Layers, marking the latest edition in their compilation series Layers. Featuring twenty-one songs by twenty-one artists, this collection “focusses on wind instruments and their influence on the contemporary classical multiverse, with musical creations that delicately balance acoustic expression, electronic refractions and ambient recall”, as the label explains. The compilation includes tracks from celebrated trombone player and composer Peter Zummo, Hamburg pianist, producer and composer Niklas Paschburg, Norwegian maestro Håkon Kornstad, Sardinian sound researcher Eugenio Caria aka Saffronkeira, Hungarian jazz trumpeter and composer Barabás Lőrinc, seminal multi-reedist Doug Wieselman and many other stellar artists.
Wind Layers opens magnificently with ‘Beyond the Break’, an unreleased track written and recorded by sax super-hero Colin Stetson. He commented:

“Originally recorded as part of my last solo record, ‘All This I Do For Glory’, ‘Beyond the Brake’ is a turning of attention back towards where and what was left behind. It is that one last look before the page turns, before the next thought emerges and this one falls away. ‘All This I do for Glory’ was always intended as one side of a coin, and so I thought it fitting to share this piece now, in the time before the flip side comes to be.”

Listen to ‘Beyond the Break’ below.


Wind Layers is out on June 25th through 7K! Records

Booker Stardrum unveils new single, ‘Bend’, featuring Jaimie Branch

19 May 2021

We had already heard and loved ‘Diorama’, the first single lifted from Booker Stardrum‘s Crater, his much anticipated third album. As we get closer to the album release on July 2nd through NNA Tapes, the drumming wizard, improviser and composer has let loose another wild cut from the album called ‘Bend’, featuring Jaimie Branch. Speaking about the song, Stardrum said:

“I titled this one ‘Bend’ after my natural relationship to pulse and rhythm, an elastic flow state that I strive to achieve in my playing. I love the feeling of stretching time in and out of groove, stumbling, and snapping back into it. Playing freely is a meditation on listening and awareness, and the embodiment of flexibility. I always attempt to capture these types of moments in my recordings, then enhance them with other gestures in a similar spirit. ‘Bend’ features trumpet bending by the always inspiring Jaimie Branch.”

Listen to ‘Bend’ below.

Xiu Xiu share video for title track ‘OH NO’

17 May 2021

Photo: Julia Brokaw

Hot on the heels of their latest album release, OH NO, Xiu Xiu have shared a new video for the title track.  As with all the album tracks, ‘OH NO’, is yet another duet, this time bringing together singer and songwriter Jamie Stewart and Susanne Sachsse. Xiu Xiu directed the video for the song and Stewart had this to say about it:

“While recording bass parts for the song ‘Oh No’ (feat. the venerable Susanne Sachsse) with Greg Saunier and Jherek Bischoff they both kept making jokes about how the perfect video for it would be clips of people slipping on banana peels. Obviously this is a good idea. However, to my surprise there really are not that many. Numerous other fail videos come up instead. Do not drive your truck on a frozen lake, drink from a lake inhabited by crocodiles if you are a cheetah, do not do ANYTHING at all if you are under the age of 3.”

Watch the video for “OH NO” below.

OH NO is out now through Polyvinyl.