Kamaal Williams releases new album Live At Dekmantel

03 March 2020

Two years on from the release of The Return, which was one of our 15 Album Picks of the Year, Kamaal Williams aka Henry Wu is teasing the release of new music later this year. Preceding it, Williams has shared a new live album, Live At Dekmantel, which was recorded last summer at Dekmantel Festival in Amsterdam. Mainly the fruit of an improvised set, across its nine tracks, and as the press release describes, “dramatic sonics – high octane underground funk that fuses the spiritual with the dancefloor – complete with the atmosphere, markings and space that only live performance supplies – offer an introduction to a typical Kamaal Williams show.”

Along with the news, Williams has shared new track ‘3 Yourself’ and an accompanying video featuring original footage shot in Hong Kong during last year’s protests, as well as archival footage and photography. Tom J Bennett directs. Watch it now.

Kalbells premieres video for lead single ‘Cool and Bendable’

02 March 2020

There’s a new EP on the way from Kalbells, the project of multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Kalmia Traver. Entitled Mothertime and slated for an April 10th release through NNA Tapes, the EP features four tracks and was co-produced by Jeremy Malvin aka Chrome Sparks. Ahead of its release, Kalbells has shared the exuberant lead single ‘Cool and Bendable’, a track inspired “by a dream in which she held her yet-unborn child”, explains the press release, “but as Kal finished writing the song in the studio with Jeremy, she realized it was actually about holding herself, a body, a life.” In Kal’s own words, she was also “celebrating in awe the general aliveness of our world, Earth.”

‘Cool and Bendable’ comes with a brilliant accompanying music video directed by Charles Billot. Here it is.

Capitol K set to release mini-album, Birdtrapper, shares first single ‘Temple’

02 March 2020

Following the release of Goatherder a couple of years ago, Capitol K is gifting the world with yet another wonderful and shimmering release entitled Birdtrapper. As with the previous album, recorded in his native Malta, the Mediterranean is still enlightening and inspiring the multi-instrumentalist and producer, whose album is described as “the sound of an initiation rave in a utopian hidden village”. The press release adds that the upcoming Birdtrapper “is an evocation of sonic bird callers, proto-rave abandon, ambient resonance and an ecstatic captive state, along with the previous work’s visions of hunters, temples and scrub land music.”

Capitol K has shared the first single and opening track, ‘Temple’, and we can’t stop listening to it.

Birdtrapper is out on April 10th and is available as a limited edition transparent 12″s and digitally through his Bandcamp .

Jaga Jazzist announce details of ninth album Pyramid

29 February 2020

Photo: Anthony P Huus

Norwegian iconic octet Jaga Jazzist are back with a new album following 2015’s Starfire. Entitled Pyramid, the new album, unlike the previous one, came to life in just two weeks in a woodland studio in Sweden where they secluded themselves working 12-hour days. “The most important thing is that we didn’t want to over-analyze every musical idea”, explained co-founder and drummer Martin Horntveth. “We wanted to follow the first and original idea and keep the freshness.” Pyramid is also their first self-produced album, which was “hard but felt natural”, as Martin said, “as five of us are producers and make records for a living. The result is an album that feels more collaborative than ever.”

The album arrives on April 24th through Brainfeeder but we can already hear the first sterling taste of it in the form of brand new single ‘Spiral Era’.

Dirty Projectors share brand new song ‘Overlord’

28 February 2020

With tremendous albums and releases behind them, it’s no wonder that we’re always excited to hear new music from Dirty Projectors. The outfit of David Longstreth and co have shared a warmhearted and gorgeous new song, ‘Overlord’, featuring guitarist Maia Friedman on lead vocals. “Tongue-in-cheek ode to surveillance capitalism? Critique of our primal confusion of charisma for actual leadership? Cautionary tale about blind faith in technology? Anti-fascist manifesto?”, asks the press release, adding: “Who knows, but ’Overlord’ feels like a ‘Both Sides Now’ for our brave new Amazon Prime world.”

‘Overlord’ comes with an accompanying video, directed by the band’s own Longstreth. Watch it now.

Hanging Valleys tease upcoming album with new single ‘Sleeping Sound’

27 February 2020

Photo: Max Stanely

Hanging Valleys‘ new album, Behind The Backs Of Houses, is finally out tomorrow through Pedro Y El Lobo. After enticing us with the cinematic and sublime title track, the duo of Thom Byles and Michael Phillips have shared a gentle and otherwordly new single called ‘Sleeping Sound’. Vocalist and lyricist Thom Byles exlained the inspiration behind it:

“The song is about that deep amazing sleep that only arrives after you’ve truly earned it. In an era of desk jobs and screen time it can be impossible to find. A recent mountaineering trip in the lake district reminded me of how human it feels to be using your body all day and how sweet it is to be asleep the second your head hits the pillow.”

Take a listen below.