Ever since we heard ‘Aorta’, the poignant and intense first single from Tanya Tagaq’s upcoming album Retribution, it has been one of our most anticipated records of 2016. As if we weren’t excited enough already, the ground-breaking Inuit artist shared another amazing single called ‘Centre’. On Retribution, Tagaq collaborated with several stellar artists, including Canadian rapper and hip hop artist Shad who shines on this track. Described as being a “hip-hop song about molecular biology and menstruation”, ‘Centre’ also features the sound of ravens recorded in Nunavut, trombones and Tagaq’s very own unique vocals. Everything about this song is great and we can’t take it off of repeat.
Retribution is out on October 21st in North America and November 18th in Europe via Six Shooter.
Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie’s original score for Salero out in November
Composer Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, who’s one half of the marvellous ambient project Stars Of The Lid, also has many great film scores to his name. His latest one accompanies Salero, a feature documentary directed by Mike Plunkett and set in Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni. Speaking about the film soundtrack, Wiltzie had this to say:
“I have always said that composing music is infinitely easier when you have beautiful images to be inspired by. It was a pleasure to write a score over this captivating place of endless, glimmering salt before its impending demise. I was fascinated by this mythical space and its ability to define the identities of the people who live in its vicinity, where this vast salt flat itself would be a central character”
Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie’s Salero OST will see the light of day on November 11th via Erased Tapes but we can already hear a first taste from it with the utterly beautiful “Lithium, The New Era”.
Orchestra of Spheres share ‘Trapdoors’ video
Orchestra Of Spheres have unveiled a ravishing video for ‘Trapdoors’ off their excellent album Brothers And Sisters Of The Black Lagoon released last May. The video was made by fellow Wellington based artists Georgette Brown and Dan Harris and you can watch it below.
Brothers And Sisters Of The Black Lagoon is out now via Fire Records.
Jherek Bischoff premieres video for ‘Cistern’
We have been wonderfully immersed in Cistern‘s majestic beauty and reverie ever since the album came out in July. The magnificent, poignant and contemplative title track was the first single to emerge, and as with every track in the album, Jherek Bischoff complemented it with a video. Over the course of two years, the prodigious multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer and filmmaker Jim Batt collected footage for the album documenting and filming in disparate landscapes all over the world. In Bischoff’s own words, he was subjected “to the harshest of elements in order to assemble the visual counterpoint to Cistern.”.
The video for ‘Cistern’ is a supercut edit of all the videos, featuring footage from eight different locations. Watch it below.
Cistern is out now via The Leaf Label.
Fresh Snow announce new album One, share first single ‘I Can’t Die’
There’s exciting news of a second full-length album from Fresh Snow arriving next week. Entitled One, the effort follows last year’s tremendous Won EP, which was a favourite of ours and has never really left our stereo. Promising their usual masterful and mesmeric fusion of genres like krautrock, noise, psych and rock, One also sees the quartet continuing to push their own boundaries, to craft an album that is more confrontational but also more accessible than their previous work. The album “is both structured and instinctual, made without ego or fear of alienating its listeners”, described the band. “Noise and texture is always prevalent, however minimalism is newly explored in places throughout the album, alongside electronic treatments, and English / French vocals.”
One was recorded in a barn in Ontario with Holy Fuck’s Graham Walsh and it drops on September 9th via Hand Drawn Dracula. Lead single ‘I Can’t Die’ serves as the first taste of the musical magic Fresh Snow have in store for us. The track opens intensely and explosively with krautrock-driven drums and fuzzy guitars quickly shifting into a hypnotic and serene affair, enveloped in sinister and shimmering beauty. Listen to it below. Again and again.
Aquaserge’s Guerre EP arrives next month, listen to first track ‘Les Zouzes’
With brilliant musicians that count numerous contributions and membership in other projects like Stereolab, Tame Impala, Melody’s Echo Chamber and Acid Mothers Temple, Aquaserge is a band you ought to know, if you don’t already. They create incredibly original music drawing influences from various genres, from psych pop, free jazz and noise to vintage French lm music and 60s/’70s rock. Julien Barbagallo, Julien Gasc and Benjamin Glibert, who formed the band in Toulouse in 2005, were “eager to explore the abyssal depths of the rock; kraut, noise, progressive, free … and explode the “song format” in the spirit of the late 60s in the manner of Wyatt, Gainsbourg, Coltrane, Zappa, Hendrix and the Beach Boys”, explains a press release. Their music, it adds, “tells of the strange mythology of Captain Serge wandering in the abyss aboard his submarine cigar…”.
Aquaserge’s ever evolving line-up has incorporated a number of different collaborators, with Audrey Ginestet and Manon Glibert now being a core part of the band.
The quintet are set to release a full-length album in early 2017 via Crammed Discs. Preceding the album’s release, Aquaserge will also be releasing an EP entitled Guerre EP which comes out September 16th. The EP features four songs, each a universe on its own. The wonderful and exotic opening track ‘Les Zouzes’ serves as a marvellous teaser for what is to come. And it comes with a video made by Olia Eichenbaum.
