Storyteller and guitar virtuoso Glenn Jones first picked up the acoustic guitar at the age of 14. A master of American Primitive Guitar, Jones draws from the style invented by John Fahey in the late 1950s. He’s also know for making up his own tuning, hoping, in his own words, “that what you hear are not the tunings and partial capos and all that, but the music — the feeling within these pieces.”
The guitarist is ready to unveil the follow-up to his 2013’s My Garden State. Fleeting marks his sixth solo album and it drops on March 18th via Thrill Jockey.
On Fleeting, and as the label describes, the guitarist “reflects on the brevity — the fleetingness — of all things, while also looking towards the future”.
‘Flower Turned Inside-Out’ is one of the gorgeous and engaging tracks lifted from the album. Take a listen now.
We had already heard the monumental and hip-shakin’ title track from Golden Dawn Arkestra‘s upcoming debut album Stargazer. As we’re getting closer to release day, the Texas based collective of “Kosmic Funkateers” are offering another glimpse into their album with new single ‘Sama Chaka’. Listen to it below and watch out for the release of Stargazer on February 26th via Modern Imperial.
Last year, Immix Emsemble, led by Australian-born, Liverpool based composer and sax player Daniel Thorne, and Bristolian electronic composer Sebastian Gainsborough aka Vessel teamed up to create a series of recordings exploring the theme of technology and its connection to musical instruments. That collaboration continues to bear fruits and they have announced the release of Transition, a four-track EP due out on March 18th via Erased Tapes.
“Musical instruments are a somewhat technological anomaly in that they are rarely updated after their conception, often only receiving minor tweaks over the course of hundreds of years”, explained Immix and Vessel. “As such, each instrument provides us with a snapshot of the cutting edge technologies of a particular time and place – in this sense, the instrumentation used by Immix provides us with snapshots of technologies that can be traced back as far as 1500BC.”.
The sublime ‘What Hath God Wrought?’ is being offered as the album’s first taste. Take a listen now.
Bibio teased a new album due out in Spring 2016 with a beautiful new song called ‘Petals’ last November. Now he’s finally letting the cat out of the bag. Comes April 1st, A Mineral Love, his seventh album, will see the light of day via Warp Records. As is usual with his new releases, Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio wrote a few words about A Mineral Love.
“This album celebrates the sacred and precious struggles of human insecurities through many windows of familiar musical forms. It’s also a celebration of my love of the craft of record making, drawing influences from many sources across all decades from the late sixties to the present. All these referential forms have a twist, some are more full on cocktails.
The album as a whole is an unashamed expression of my fondness of, and need for, variety. The juxtapositions between tracks are well considered and I’m comfortable with them – this is how I enjoy music. This is not a purist record, it is not trying to authentically recreate a specific time or genre but rather use familiar forms as a common language to communicate new ideas and new messages. I want to sing about struggle and tragedy with warmth, sympathy and respect. I want sadness to have bittersweet hope.
The whole album was made from scratch with no samples from other records. I partly want it to sound like sampled records but by crafting every single detail myself and colouring it to have familiar textures that resonates people’s forgotten memories. I enjoy the challenge of writing songs that reference the unique qualities and colours of music from different eras. It’s all guesswork though, I have no real reliable knowledge of why certain records sound the way they do, I taught myself how to play instruments, write music and produce. This album is my personal, filtered take on those forms and qualities. Some tracks are influenced by records I listen to often and some from ghosts of memories of things I heard while growing up, like 70s/80s American TV themes or 90s dance. Sometimes a filtered and tinted memory of a period is a more exciting source of inspiration than close study and mimicry.
I feel this album is built more from those memories and an exposure to music of many styles rather than close analytical study of any particular one. I think that’s why it all sounds like me, regardless of the deliberate references and nods to artists and records of the past. It is after all just a view through my stained-glass telescope.”
Bibio is enticing us even more with ‘Feeling’, the soulful and groovy new single off the album. We are feeling it! Are you?
Scottish composer C Duncan, who last year released his Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Architect, has a new EP on the way. The effort features four previously unreleased tracks and it will hit stores on February 19th.
As the press release puts it, “the EP can be seen as a summary of the journey that the singer’s career has been so far; it brings together songs written at various points in his life and gives the listener practical insight into Christopher Duncan’s musical approach and inspirations”.
C Duncan quotes Cocteau Twins as a major influence and inspiration and as a tribute to the legendary Scottish band, the EP’s closing track is a wonderful cover of their 1984 track ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’. Take a listen now.
C Duncan has announced a number of shows throughout February and March, with several dates in the UK and France, including a show at London’s Union Chapel on February 19th.
We’ve been waiting for Anna Meredith‘s debut album to come out for a long time. Varmints arrives on March 4th via Moshi Moshi, and the electronic contemporary composer has already enticed us with two ace tracks, ‘Honeyed Words’ and ‘R-Type‘. Now she has shared another single off it, ‘Taken’, and it makes us glad that the record is just around the corner. Listen to ‘Taken’ now.
Storyteller and guitar virtuoso Glenn Jones first picked up the acoustic guitar at the age of 14. A master of American Primitive Guitar, Jones draws from the style invented by John Fahey in the late 1950s. He’s also know for making up his own tuning, hoping, in his own words, “that what you hear are not the tunings and partial capos and all that, but the music — the feeling within these pieces.”
