Joseph Shabason announces The Anne EP, shares absorbing track ‘1517’

25 March 2019

Joseph Shabason‘s Anne, released last November, was one of our 15 Album Picks of the year and it remains a beguiling, affecting and reflective listen from start to finish, encompassing jazz and ambient. So we’re very pleased to know that the talented composer and multi-instrumentalist is following it up with a five-track companion piece, The Anne EP. As with the album, the EP features contributions from Destroyer’s Dan Bejar and Thom Gill, amongst other musicians.
The Anne EP arrives on May 10th through Western Vinyl, and we can already hear the first gentle and beautiful single, ‘1517’. “1517 is the feeling of lying in a park and watching kids play on the first real day of spring”, described Shabason. “It’s knowing that life is gonna fuck you down, but consciously giving yourself permission to get lost in an afternoon”.
Let yourself immerse in the subtle beauty of this song.

Honey Oat´s eponymous debut album out now

21 March 2019

Gabe Stout and Janak JP, who make up Honey Oat, released their eponymous debut album last week.  An album of ebulient and exciting compositions in the realms of jazz and funk, it “renders time wavering and unpredictable”, as the press release describes. “The music sits still as much as it departs in oneiric spirals. Against the current of social media and its loops of endless replayability, Honey Oat’s music sits with hyperlocal remembrance, spontaneity.”

For a taster of the record, take a listen to their lead single ‘A Stranger Spring’.

Honey Oat is out now through Astro Nautico

Daniel O’Sullivan unveils video for new single ‘Under The Knife’

18 March 2019

Following the marvellous single ‘Silhouette’, Daniel O’Sullivan has shared a new cut from his upcoming album Folly. The track is called ‘Under The Knife’ and O’Sullivan had this to say about it:

“Partly inspired by a biography of Michelangelo, partly about my son’s birth, ‘Under The Knife’ is about the violence of transformation. Just as much about texture as it is melody, each instrument was recorded one by one and I kept thinking ‘could a song feel like marble?’ Something to do with weight and density maybe, but at the same time trying to convey the lines and contours of a human hand.”

‘Under The Knife’ comes with an accompanying video by Daisy Dickinson and you can watch it below.

Folly is out on April 5th through O Genesis Recordings.

Cykada´s debut album out this week

18 March 2019

Cykada, who are one of the many bands making their mark in London’s vibrant jazz scene, are set to release their eponymous debut album later this week. Marrying a multitude of influences with raw grooves and electronics, as the press release describes, their upcoming album “engages distant poles, analogue worlds crashing with electronics, eastern influences crossing with western, harmonising nostalgic moments with dancefloor bangers.”

The collective had previously shared ‘Dimension Stepper’ and now they have shared the album’s opener ‘Creation’. Listen to both below and grab the album when it drops on Friday through Astigmatic Records.


Ishmael Ensemble share first single off upcoming debut album A State of Flow

14 March 2019

May 3rd will see the release of A State of Flow, the new album from Bristolian electronic jazz outfit Ishmael Ensemble, led by producer and saxophonist Pete Cunningham. Composed within the idiom of Jazz, as the press release describes, the album “stir[s] ambient invocations, club-ready percussive workouts, spiralling grooves, hazy psychedelic electronica and Japanese lyrics.”
Exhibiting a sense of hometown pride, State of Flow features contributions from fellow Bristol-based guests, including vocalists Holysseus Fly and Yama Warashi, as well as trumpet player and composer Yazz Ahmed.

Ahead of the album’s release through Severn Songs Records, Ishmael Ensemble have shared the first single ‘Lapwing’, a track that “evokes walking into a smoky afterhours haunt and finding a session in full, forward motion.” Stream it below.

BIG|BRAVE’s fourth album A Gaze Among Them out in May

13 March 2019

Photo: Rachel Cheng

Following 2017’s ARDOR, Montreal trio BIG|BRAVE are set to release their fourth full-length album, A Gaze Among Them, on May 10th through Southern Lord. Continuing an approach to music based on the key principles of space, volume, and raw emotion, in the realms of experimental rock, the majestic, fierce and poignant sentiments that originate from their compositions, continue to prevail on the new record. “How do we take very little and make something bigger than what we actually have?”, asked vocalist and guitarist Robin Wattie. She explains:

“The biggest challenge was to not do what is easiest. i.e. what we knew worked for the last albums or what is, for us, easy to write. With A Gaze Among Them, Mathieu and I put ourselves through the ringer – I did not want to do what seemed to me to be a ‘logical next step’ in what we could do musically. I wanted to go back to our original concepts and work from there – space, tension, minimalism and voice (finding melody and musicality in pieces that consist of one note for longer than ten minutes, for example) were the primary concentrations I wanted to push.”

A Gaze Among Them also features contributions from Thierry Amar (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt Zion) guesting on doublebass and Seth Manchester on synth overdubs.

The first taste from BIG|BRAVE’s upcoming album comes in the shape of a celestial teaser. Check it out below.