Listen to three unreleased tracks from Elfin Saddle, courtesy of Pinball Sessions

28 January 2014

Elfin Saddle - Pinball Session

I can’t even begin to describe my affection for the Montreal based outfit Elfin Saddle. Initially birthed as the duo of multi-instrumentalists Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie, they expanded to a trio with the addition of long-standing third member Nathan Gage on double bass and tuba. The group’s earthy, intense and heartfelt music magically fuses various genres, from folk to baroque and to classical Japanese music. Nearly two years ago now, Elfin Saddle released Devastates, a beautiful and majestic album that was one of our Picks of 2012.
Here’s some wonderful news. They have recently recorded three unreleased tracks for the Pinball Sessions, a music project where artists from different horizons record three or four song sessions “live off the floor” in a no-pressure environment. In the studio, artists are invited to “try stuff out” as they describe, and experiment with already recorded songs and unreleased ones. The result gets published twice a week and can be streamed and downloaded for free.
Lucky us, we can now listen to three magnificent new tracks from Elfin Saddle, ‘Bell’, ‘Creature’ and ‘Reed:Rise’. According to the Pinball Sessions’ folks, this session was recorded “on a picturesque summer day” in Guelph, Ontario at the Pinball Studios.
We haven’t heard of any scheduled release but these new songs could well be tied to the follow up of Devastates. We’ll keep a keen eye out. Now head over to pinballsessions.com and listen to the Elfin Saddle session.

Aram Bajakian releases new full-length album there were flowers also in hell

28 January 2014

Aram Bajakian - there were flowers also in hell

New York based guitar virtuoso Aram Bajakian has been keeping himself busy for quite a long time playing and recording with an array of stellar musicians including Lou Reed, John Zorn, Sean Lennon, Diana Krall, Yusef Lateef, Marc Ribot, Nels Cline, James Carter, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Steven Bernstein, Billy Martin, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Mat Maneriand and Malcolm Mooney, to name but a few. Bajakian also leads a number of other diverse projects, including Kef, a chamber string trio that plays arrangements of traditional Armenian Songs, an Afro Punk Ensemble called Beat Down, the improvisatory power hardcore band Pirates, the blues/RnB project Killing Floor and Brno, his Moravian folk duo with vocalist Julia Ulehla. This wide range of influences and musical backgrounds shines through Bajakian’s recently released album there were flowers also in hell. The album saw Bajakian enlist the help of Shazhad Ismaily on bass and Jerome Jennings on drums. You can grab there were flowers also in hell from his website or bandcamp. Now listen to a couple of gems off the album, ‘Orbisonian’ and ‘Medicaid Lullaby’.


Jettison Tape releases debut album Second Sleep

27 January 2014

Jettison Tape - Second Sleep

Brooklyn via Chicago via Bloomington musician and composer Dave Fischoff has been crafting and recording music for twenty years now. Two years after Fischoff debuted his solo career in 1994,  Secretly Canadian put out his first cassette and a number of recordings followed it. Fischoff also went on to rework songs from other artists and DJing under the moniker Spoolwork, and more recently he has worked as a film composer. Jettison Tape is his new solo project, named after an old habit of his. Fischoff explained it:

“When I lived in the Midwest- in Bloomington, Indiana and Chicago- I used to scour the cassette bins in thrift stores, digging for old tapes that looked homemade and might have interesting audio on them. Much of what I found were recorded bits of other people’s lives- audio letter exchanges, little kids singing…personal relics on tape that were moving to hear, but also a little eerie, since they’d been lost or thrown away. Jettison Tape, as it were.”

His debut album, Second Sleep, released earlier this month, is an instrumental affair flourishing with several different genres and influences that encapsulate Fischoff’s vast musical output to date. As Fischoff described, there’s a lot of elements from his previous musical endeavours in this album, “from my earlier lo-fi indie records, through my soundtrack work on films and the beat-oriented music I’ve explored as a remixer and DJ”.

Second Sleep is a hodgepodge of wonderful, cinematic and timeless songs that will envelope you in its many layers. Head over to Jettison Tape’s bandcamp to stream the album and download it on a pay-what-you-want basis. Here’s two magnificent cuts off it to get you enticed, ‘Ghostboxes’ and ‘Paraffin’. Enjoy.


Beck previews lead single from upcoming album Morning Phase

26 January 2014

Beck - Morning Phase

In less than a month, and nearly six years after the release of Modern Guilt, the long-awaited new studio album from Beck, Morning Phase, is finally coming out. The album drops on February 24th in the UK/Europe and a day later in North America via Capitol Records.
Beck turned us on last year with the release of three one-off summer singles, ‘Defriended’, ‘I Won’t Be Long’ and ‘Gimme’. His music is impossible to categorise, with him being one of the most versatile musicians out there, constantly exploring countless genres and sounds. The upcoming Morning Phase is reportedly reminiscent of his melancholic album Sea Change and the recently debuted lead single ‘Blue Moon’ serves as a great taste of the wonderful and lush compositions in store for us.

Bibio premieres new video for ‘Dye The Water Green’

25 January 2014

Bibio - 'Dye The Water Green''

Bibio‘s new EP, The Green E.P., is one of the releases we’ve been excitingly waiting for. There’s good reason for that, of course. The EP is the follow-up to one of our 2013 favourite albums, Silver Wilkinson, and it also features Bibio’s favourite track from the album, ‘Dye The Water Green’. This gorgeous track has now been paired with a beautiful video, directed by Bibio and Michael Robinson. Watch it below and grab The Green E.P. this Monday January 27th via Warp.