Public Service Broadcasting share brand track from upcoming EP

07 October 2015

The Race For Space, Public Service Broadcasting‘s second album, come out earlier this year and they continue to keep us excited. The London based duo have announced a new EP release, Sputnik/Korolev EP, slated for a November 20th release. It features the album track ‘Sputnik’ along with four remixes from Blond:ish, Petar Dundov, Eagles & Butterflies & Plugger. The EP also comes with a brand new track, ‘Korolev’, named after the legendary Russian rocket engineer who was responsible for the creation of the Soviet space program and also the lead designer of Sputnik. Take a listen to ‘Korolev’ now.

BIG|BRAVE’s second album Au De La out now, European tour starts in November

06 October 2015

Last month, Montreal based trio BIG|BRAVE released Au De La, their second full-length album, via Southern Lord. The effort was recorded with Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor/Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra) and it also features Jessica Moss (Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra) adding violin to their usual core of two guitars and a drum set.
The album “lulls and lurches between passages of rhythmic noise pollution and vocal led awe, using considered juxtapositions of force and restraint to warp the senses across the forty-five minute playing time”, notes the press release. “Remarkably quiet at times, their ambience is not one of minimalism, but of dawning, foreboding power with the need to be vented, and when the hot flushes of blighted percussion and monochromatic guitar scrapes arrive, they arrive with triumphant force.”

In support of the album, BIG|BRAVE are embarking on a European tour in November, with a show in London at Birthdays on November 25th. You can check all their other dates here.

Listen to Au De La‘s dark and profound opening track ‘On The By And By And Thereon’ to see what you’re in for.

Irmin Schmidt’s retrospective box set out next month

05 October 2015

Photo: Steve Gullick

Brace yourself for Electro Violet, a retrospective 12 CD box set from avant-garde composer and one of Can’s founding members Irmin Schmidt. Due out on November 20th via Mute / Spoon Records, Electro Violet compiles Schmidt’s solo work from 1981 to today. It includes his film soundtrack work and theatre compositions, his Gormenghast opera, collaborations with Kumo (Jono Podmore) and Duncan Fallowell and his first solo album, Toy Planet from 1981, as well as other solo albums.

Take a listen to the previously unreleased track ‘Why Not’ featuring Markus Stockhausen on trumpet. Schmidt composed it for the soundtrack of Stephan Wagner’s 2012 film Lösegeld.

Listen to Roots Manuva’s ‘Don’t Breathe Out’ from forthcoming sixth album

05 October 2015

October 30th will see the release of Bleeds, the sixth full-length album from the mighty British rapper/producer Roots Manuva. The man already got us salivating throughout the year with a series of singles, including ‘One Thing’ and ‘Facety 2.11’, which are part of the album. ‘Don’t Breathe Out’ is the latest single taken from Bleeds. Manuva said this of the track:

“Lyrical rogue values in neo spiritual rare groove, re hash bash on the edge of the funk that made the soul, but seek to refine a modern approximation of “Gospel for the out of box thinkers” Let the funk forgive us for failing to work with the basic mechanism of “clap, sing, rap celebrate in the mutated shades of ragga funk, dub funk, techno funk future timeless travel on the lay lines of soul hip hop fascination.”

Now enjoy ‘Don’t Breathe Out’.

To celebrate the release, Roots Manuva will perform in London at Islington Assembly Rooms on November 5th.

Bleeds is now available to pre-order through Big Dada.

Benoît Pioulard announces new EP and shares title track ‘Noyaux’

04 October 2015

Benoît Pioulard has been incredibly prolific this year. Back in March, he put out his celestial fifth full-length album Sonnet, and he followed it with two accompanying pieces, Stanza and Stanza II, released in April and last month. Exciting news of a follow-up have just emerged. Thomas Meluch, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind the project, has announced the release of Noyaux, which translates from the French to “seeds” or “kernels”, a core to life and growth. Featuring four tracks, the EP “sees Meluch building on his more loop-based productions, a touching blend of weightless drones and yearningly sluggish melodies”, as the press release described.
Noyaux came to life after Meluch had seen a collection of family photos. “I began remembering a lot of things and events that I hadn’t thought about in 20 years,” said Meluch. Dazzled and inspired by this recollection of the past, he crafted these four tracks, each representing a member of his family – father, mother, brother and himself.
Noyaux will see the light of day on November 6th via Morr Music. Ahead of it, we can already hear the wonderful and ethereal title track.

Sons Of Kemet drop second album Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do

03 October 2015

Following the critically acclaimed 2013 album Burn, Sons Of Kemet have just dropped their somophore album, Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do, last week. Shabaka Hutchings, the prodigious clarinettist, saxophonist and composer at the helm of this vibrant polyrhythmic quartet, conceived the album as a continuation of their debut work’s themes, describing it as ‘a meditation on the Caribbean diaspora in Britain’.
‘The realisation dawned after I’d started writing these tunes,’ explained Hutchings. ‘I was thinking of my grandmother’s generation from the Caribbean, who came here to work incredibly hard, and also what it means to be a black person in Britain now, especially a generation of youth experiencing high unemployment, and those elements of society who are not always easy to see.’

Make sure you nab a copy of Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do if you haven’t yet. And to whet your appetite, here’s two gems from the album, the opening track ‘In Memory Of Samir Awad’ and ‘In The Castle Of My Skin’. The latter comes with a fitting video featuring pantsula dancers from the Indigenous Dance Academy. The video was shot in Johannesburg and directed by Lebogang Rasethaba.

Lest We Forget What We Came Here To Do is out now via Naim Jazz Records.

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