corto.alto’s debut album Bad With Names out in October; listen to new tracks ‘Bye’ & ‘Slope’

18 July 2023

Photo: Sophie Jouvenaar

Influenced as much by jazz as by hip-hop, broken beat, electronica, dub and punk, Bad With Names is the brand new album from Glaswegian prodigious multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer corto.alto. A trombone wizard and fast-rising star in the jazz industry, Liam Shortall, the man at the helm of the project, enlisted the help of outstanding musicians from the Scottish and UK Jazz scene to bring his record to life, including award-winning pianist Fergus McCreadie, drummer Graham Costello, trumpet player Johnny Woodham, and trombonist  Anoushka Nanguy, amongst others.

Following the first single ‘Bye’, corto.alto shared last week ‘Slope’, the second superb taste from his upcoming album. Speaking about the track, Shorthall had this to say:

“Slope” comes from me sitting in Queen’s Park, Glasgow watching some skateboarders skate up a hill, and how counter-intuitive it looked, but then noticing how satisfying it looked when they hit the top and went down the other side. I suppose another metaphor for endurance, resilience etc.”

Both singles confirm corto.alto’s incredible artistry and his willingness to experiment across multi-genres and styles. Check out the accompanying visuals for ‘Slopes’ below and listen to ‘Bye’ straight after.


Bad With Names is out on October 6th through New Soil x Bridge The Gap

Kamaal Williams announces fourth album, Stings, and shares lead single ‘PKKNO’

12 July 2023

Rejoice, for a new album from Kamaal Williams has been announced! Entitled Stings, the record is the follow-up to 2020’s Wu Hen and arrives on September 27th through his Black Focus Records imprint. Marking his fourth album release, Stings was conceived during the pandemic when he bought an upright piano and the South London multi-talented musician recorded it in early 2022 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. The album will feature three digital singles that see him explore electronics and vocals. These will not be included in the physical release but are deeply connected to Stings. The blistering and futuristic lead single ‘PKKNO’ is one of these tracks and it clearly shows an artist bursting with inspiration. Take a listen below.

Bex Burch signs to International Anthem for new album There is only love and fear

11 July 2023

Photo: Chris Almeida

There’s wonderful news from Bex Burch, who turned our heads back in 2015 with the outstanding debut album from her band Vula Viel. The gifted composer, percussionist, producer and instrument maker went on to work and collaborate with various artists and projects, becoming a central figure of the contemporary UK scene. She has announced the release of There is only love and fear, the first album to be penned under her own name. The album was prompted by an invitation from Chicago-based IARC for her to spend a month in the US last summer. Armed with her hand-made xylophone, Burch got involved with the label’s creative community and transposed the energy of the collaborations and environments she found herself in into what became There is only love and fear. The sessions for upcoming album took place in various spaces including a storefront in Bridgeport, Chicago and a canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, with an astonishing cast of musicians including Ben LaMar Gay, Macie Stewart, Anna Butterss, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Dan Bitney of Tortoise.

There is only love and fear is set for release on October 20th through International Anthem. Alongside the announcement today, the album’s first single, the stunningly deep and beautiful ‘Dawn blessings’, is now streaming. Burch’s recording of a cuckoo on the Baltic coastline sparked the track’s inception as she explains:

“Dawn blessings were the start of all of this. I started a 90-day practice to make a tune a day for my friend Dawn. My only job was to breathe, let go, and ask “what sounds do I like today?”. One of these days I heard a Cuckoo at dawn, this moment of listening opened up my identity from musician to listener.”

‘Dawn blessings’ comes with a gorgeous accompanying video directed by Louise Boer, who had this to say about it:

“The music video for ‘dawn blessings’ is a meditation on the joy and subtle magic that can be found during a slow and solitary walk through landscapes of sand, stones and pine trees; sometimes wild, sometimes heavily damaged and disturbed, but always full of life. It’s a hypnotic exploration of human and more-than-human entanglements in which the body dissolves into the environment and the invisible slowly becomes visible. Filmed during walks in Beerze (NL), Kennemerduinen (NL), Gaujas Ieteka Jūrā (LV).”

Watch the video below.

To tide you over until the album’s release, check out the excellent guest mixtape Bex Burch put together for us back in May 2018.

Madmadmad share last single and video ahead of album release

09 July 2023

Madmadmad‘s forthcoming third LP Behavioural Sink Delirium is coming July 21st via Bad Vibrations and this week they have debuted the final single from it along with a brilliant and bonkers video from the album. ‘Totes Amazeballs’ is an explosive and euphoric track full of rave energy. As the London post-punk electronic trio describe, it “is a relentless eruption of unspoiled joy, wrapped in a post-digital rave anthem. Its frantic tempo and disturbing, manipulated vocals emulate the rallying cry of the xenobots takeover.” Check out the video that accompanies the single below.

Matthew Halsall shares second single, ‘Calder Shapes’, from forthcoming LP

09 July 2023

Photo: Emily Dennison

Following the magical and moving lead single ‘Water Street’, Matthew Halsall is offering up a new single titled ‘Calder Shapes’. Lifted from his much anticipated album An Ever Changing View, ‘Calder Shapes’ is dedicated to American sculptor Alexander Calder. “I’ve always loved his work”, Halsall said, “and in particular how it is in harmony with nature and space.” The single comes with an accompanying video directed by Daniel Halsall. Watch it below.

An Ever Changing View is out on September 8th through Gondwana Records

Omar Ahmad’s solo debut album, Inheritance, out now

08 July 2023

Yesterday saw the release of Inheritance, the solo debut album from Palestinian-American composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ Omar Ahmad. Poignant and reflective, the album is influenced by contrasting feelings as the press release describes, such as “empathy / disconnection, loss / discovery, longing / isolation.”

On the run up to the album release, Ahmad had shared two singles, ‘Lapses’ and ‘Cygnet Song’.  ‘Lapses’ was offered with a moving video created by Ahmad, visual artist ACE and painter Singha Hon. Of the song, Ahmad said:

“‘Lapses’ is a solitary walk at night. Relinquishing control, tension, and pain as your feet trod aimlessly. Letting the visions overcome you, falling through lapses in time, lapses in judgement, lapses in focus. This track represents a catharsis for me in many ways and of all the songs on Inheritance it most adequately summarizes the emotional cascade of life at the time of its writing. A hopefulness bursts through the melancholy, and a path materializes out of the ether, pulsing and inviting you to continue on.”

The second single, ‘Cygnet Song’, is also charged with emotional force and cements Ahmad as an artist capable of striking tenderness. He had this to say abou the track:

“I lost something between early childhood and high school, and gained another. “Cygnet Song” is a gentle yet somber, cyclical tale of losing oneself and rediscovering what makes me … me, and lamenting the time with myself that I lost. The simplicity and softness of the guitar layers and unfinished textural quality are an ode to childhood, and retaining the fragile soul amid the desire to refine ourselves in the public eye.”

Check out both tracks below and be sure to listen to the whole album, you’ll encounter a platter of emotions.

Inheritance is out now through AKP Recordings.