Red Snapper’s Rich Thair and Ali Friend form new band Number, listen to debut single ‘Face Down in Ecstasy’

22 June 2019

Rich Thair and Ali Friend, co-founders of revered British band Red Snapper, have unveiled a new project called Number. Said to be inspired by a love of bands like A Certain Ratio and Talking Heads and also P funk and scratchy dub, the pair will release their debut album Binary on August 23rd through Sunday Best Recordings. According to the press release, Rich and Ali formed Number “as a means of rediscovering something of what they grew up with; the dirty disco bass lines, noisy drum machines, wonky percussion, leering live drums, jagged guitar melodies and uplifting soulful song of the 80’s”.

To bring the project to life, the duo have also enlisted the help of Dan Carney (Astronauts), Luisa Tunstall-Behrens and Heloise Gerstein (Landshapes), Byron Wallen (trumpet) and John Metcalfe (strings).

Ahead of the album’s release, we can already hear what they’ll be throwing at us with debut single ‘Face Down in Ecstasy’. “Face Down was inspired by our love of late 70’s and early 80’s dirty disco and funk, combined with the do-it -yourself art school approach of some new wave bands like A Certain Ratio, Magazine etc,” explained Ali. “For us it was a fresh look at those times, but very much re-appraised through a pair of 2019 vari-focals. We enjoy the clash of old ideas with new ones; old sounds with new ones.; acoustic with electronic.”
The single comes with an animated video, produced and directed by Leo Nicholson and you can watch it below.

 

Sandro Perri announces new album Soft Landing

22 June 2019

Photo: Jen Parker

Sandro Perri has released several wonderful and stylistically diverse albums for over 15 years, under his own name and other monikers, and also in collaboration with many different musicians. So news of a new Sandro Perri album is always marvelous news. Following last year’s In Another Life, Perri is ready to release Soft Landing, “this time with guitar at the calmly rambling heart” of the album tracks.

Soft Landing arrives on September 6th through Constellation but we can already hear an excerpt of the warm and sublime 16-minute opening track “Time (You Got Me)”.

Kieran Brunt’s choral group Shards set to release debut album Final Sound

21 June 2019

Kieran Brunt‘s ties with choir singing go back to his school days. The London based singer, songwriter and producer later studied music at St. John’s College in Cambridge, and since then he has collaborated with the likes of Terry Riley, Anna von Hausswolff, Michael Price, and Nils Frahm, amongst many others. He first collaborated with Frahm in 2016, when he was asked to form a choral group, Shards, who are now signed to Erased Tapes and set to release their debut album. Entitled Final Sound, the record features entirely new compositions by Brunt, melding voices, synths and percussion. “The album’s pieces are intended to be miniature sonic paintings”, explains the label, “with each adding to an overall picture of the emotional confusion of early adulthood: the uncertainty, the excitement, the terror and relief.”

We’ll have to wait until August 30th for Final Sound to drop but we can already hear the magical first single ‘Summer Sickness’, a track that “explores feeling anxious and depressed whilst everyone around you is seemingly happy and smiling”.

Ami Dang unveils video for new single ‘Love-liesse’

20 June 2019

After sharing the delicate and gorgeous single ‘Raiments´, Ami Dang is teasing her upcoming album Parted Plains with a new mesmerizing track, ‘Love-liesse’. It comes with a video accompaniment, which reflects how Dang was inspired by South Asian and Middle Eastern folktales, and featuring her own footage of a trip to India and 18th century paintings of the tragic romance of Sohni Mahiwal. The video was directed by Meredith Moore, who had this to say about it:

“This music video was directly inspired by Ami’s interest in South Asian and Middle Eastern folktales, specifically the tragic romance Sohni Mahiwal which tells the tale of forbidden love outside the rules of the caste system which ends in the lovers’ deaths.

Using footage Ami shot on her travels to India and 18th century paintings of the tragic romance Sohni Mahiwal, the video mimics Ami’s process of making music, combining traditional methods with modern digital electronic methods, by using the grey & white “transparency” grid as a sort of digital liminal space-a space from which all creation begins-to allow further rumination and where the images from the paintings are transformed and reconstituted into a vast digital landscape to create a new vision.

In this new vision, the lovers do not perish in the choppy waters, instead they are happily reunited above the waters, depicted here in the late 18th century painting “Embracing Lovers with Sparklers” which shows a loving couple during Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, which celebrates the triumph of light over darkness.”

Here´s ‘Love-liesse’.

Parted Plains is out on August 2nd through Leaving Records.

Land Of Kush return with new album Sand Enigma

19 June 2019

Sam Shalabi and his orchestral ensemble Land Of Kush have conquered us a long time ago. The composer and musician has been busy with many other projects, including his trio with Maurice Louca and Alan Bishop, The Dwarfs of East Agouza, and last year´s involvement in Jerusalem In My Heart´s album as arranger and musical director. But finally there´s a new Land of Kush album in sight, six years on from the release of The Big Mango, which was one of our 15 Album Picks of 2013. Entitled Sand Enigma, the record is “Shalabi’s most acute and accomplished big-band composition to date”, describes the press release. “with the orchestra on fire as they stir up a melting pot of Arabic tropes, avant-jazz, modern classical, freaknoise, electronics and sound art.”

“Safe Space” is the first tremendous track to emerge from Sand Enigma and we can´t wait to hear more. Listen to it below and watch out for the album release on November 8th through Constellation.