MUSIC

The expansive American experience Lonnie Holley quilts together across his astounding new album, MITH, is both multitudinous and finely detailed. Holley’s self-taught piano improvisations and stream-of-consciousness lyrical approach have only gained purpose and power since he introduced the musical side of his art in 2012 with Just Before Music, followed by 2013’s Keeping a Record of It. But whereas his previous material seemed to dwell in the Eternal-Internal, MITH lives very much in our world — the one of concrete and tears; of dirt and blood; of injustice and hope. Across these songs, in an impressionistic poetry all his own, Holley touches on Black Lives Matter (“I’m a Suspect”), Standing Rock (“Copying the Rock”) and contemporary American politics (“I Woke Up in a Fucked-Up America”). A storyteller of the highest order, he commands a personal and universal mythology in his songs of which few songwriters are capable — names like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joanna Newsom and Gil Scott-Heron come to mind. MITH was recorded over five years in locations such as Porto, Portugal; Cottage Grove, Oregon; New York City and Holley’s adopted hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. These 10 songs feature contributions from fellow cosmic musician Laraaji, jazz duo Nelson Patton, visionary producer Richard Swift, saxophonist Sam Gendel and producer/musician Shahzad Ismaily.

Holy Hive released two full length albums and one EP in the short span of 3 years and then they decided to disband. In 2019, while recording their debut album world renown harpist Mary Lattimore was in NY. They got together in the studio on a whim and wound up recording their Harping EP in a few days. They followed that up with their 2020 full length debut Float Back To You which became an instant cult classic and defined their unique “Folk Soul” sound. Frontman Paul Spring’s tender falsetto and maverick guitar playing over Homer Steinweiss’ incomparable drumming and production proved to be a match made in heaven and created a sound that piqued the ears and charmed the hearts of all those who heard it. By the time they started recording their sophomore album COVID, commitments, and life started taking their toll on the band. Spring and Steinweiss took their sound and pushed it way forward on their eponymous 2nd album keeping the anchor of their sound they established while exploring where else they could take it. Unbeknownst to the public by the time that record was released the band was done and had moved on to other things individually. While fans will undoubtedly not like this news, we will all have the timeless music they made while together, and, prolific they certainly were… Big Crown Vaults Vol. 3 : Holy Hive digs into the treasure trove of unreleased recordings and pulls some that never saw their way to vinyl and in all honesty, this is not even half of what is in there. These recordings were made during their two album sessions largely, some were recorded before they even signed to Big Crown. The compilation kicks off with the tune that started it all on the label, their smashing cover of The Invincibles “This Is My Story” that was previously only on a 7”. “Love It Is Not Love”, “Middle Of The Night”, “Celeste”, and their cover of “Kingdom Of The Sun” all feature guest vocals by Shanny of The Shacks who had started playing bass with them at their live shows and sitting in on a lot of the recording sessions. “The Shame” features Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes on bass and El Michels Affair on flute, the latter also plays on “A Perfect Space”. At one point in time the would turn the live show over to Paul Spring who would perform the Irish folk tune “Red Is The Rose” in a traditional style with just him singing and playing acoustic guitar and then launch into their rendition of the song that is on Float Back To You. That stripped down version is featured here on Vaults Vol. 3. The comp finishes poetically with “End Of Time” and it is unlikely that we will ever release the rest of what is sitting in the vault. On behalf of ourselves and all the fans we’d like to take this time to thank Holy Hive for the gorgeous music they made together. We will continue to enjoy it forever. Of course as individuals everyone involved from the core members to the people who lent their talents to certain songs continue to make music. Find them, follow them, enjoy their music.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe is often referred to as "the godmother of rock and roll" for her pioneering guitar technique, use of distortion/reverb, and a 1963 UK tour with Muddy Waters that has been cited as a huge influence by Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Jeff Beck. Though she reached more widespread notoriety across the world in the '50s and '60s thanks to the folk/blues revival and her beloved status among UK blues and rock musicians, it's her early recordings from the late '30s and early-mid '40s that are the most brilliant, visceral, and emotional of her career. This excellent collection compiles 18 of those amazing gospel and R&B sides into one place. Essential.

Stuart Howard, a.k.a. Lapalux, the UK artist from Brainfeeder who is signed by Flying Lotus, has released the long-awaited reissue of his debut album "Nostalchic" from 2013! The album, which means "refined nostalgia," beautifully blends his beloved R&B and soul with elements of house and hip-hop, and is finished with Lapalux's trademark inebriating swing and deep textures for a poignant and emotional 12-track album. The opening track, "Tape Intro," tells the story. As the opening track, "Tape Intro," tells us, Lapalux is a keen experimenter with cassette tape, looping and layering sounds in the warm format of tape to create textures that are haunting, beautiful, fragile, somehow familiar, and alien at the same time. It is possible. Finally, a masterpiece that will continue to shine brilliantly as a monumental work for the beat generation with a taste for electronica, chillwave, and ambient R&B is finally back!

Ulla returns with ‘Foam’, a surprise new album unlocking variants of ambient pop and looped jazz/dub styles coiled inside a glitched matrix that reminds us of Huerco S’ ‘Plonk’ as well as Ekkehard Ehlers fractal treatments and those incredible, smudged and disneyfied edits of Celine Dion released earlier this year by elusive outfit Romance. It’s an absorbing, quietly significant album for 3XL, on its most substantial release to date. Responsible for one of contemporary ambient’s finest breadcrumb trails in recent years, Ulla leads on from an acclaimed run of albums toward a more filigree style on ‘Foam’. Deploying fragmented morsels resembling glass-cast confectionary with a burbling vernacular, these ephemeral new works dissolve into a supine, shoe-gauzy and jazzed bliss that’s best compared with Jan Jelinek’s efforts in this dream-staged arena, the subs x piano minimalism of Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto’s revered collabs, as well as the memory-frothed echo of claire rousay and Co La’s fractal baubles. Aye, it’s a sound close to our hearts and one weft with a certain sort of magic that sparkles on the nerves and imagination with delicacy. Intending it to “feel like a keychain”, the album follows a logic that’s almost algorithmic with its haphazard mutations, but which ultimately displays a more human pulse on pieces like ‘foam angel’, weaving forlorn brass around jazz samples and Ulla’s disjointed voice murmuring unintelligibly like some cyborg liz frazer speaking into the sublime. Effusive solo keys and strings cascade like petals on ‘song’, where familiar leitmotifs become wind-dispersed like seeds. We’re snagged on the bittersweet tang of ‘popping out’, and the unexpected dance between marina’s jazz guitar lilt and the aerosoul thizz on ‘sad face’, while the tongue-tip sensitivities of ‘blush’, and ‘for your love’ sound like Rihanna produced by a Systemisch-era Oval. As tangled and complex as it is filled with improbable ohrwurms, ‘Foam’ is unlike anything we’ve heard from Ulla before, and it just might be the weirdest ambient/pop dislocation of the year so far.

trip9love…??? is the third album from Tirzah, produced by long-time musical collaborator Mica Levi.

It was written and recorded at both their homes and various corners of South East London and Kent. 

After several recording sessions over roughly a year, eventually the music suddenly came into a sound that they wanted to follow. The tracks were built using piano loops on top of one beat, distortion added, then romantic vocal toplines. Poems centre on themes of love, both real and imagined. The world the record finds space in is a lazy club fantasy zone.

Anenon returns with a highly anticipated new album ‘Moons Melt Milk Light’, bearing his most personal, expressive, and arresting works to date. Anenon is the ongoing solo studio and live project of Brian Allen Simon, whom since 2010 has released multiple albums and EPs to critical acclaim, including the highly revered ‘Tongue’ (2018) and ‘Petrol’ (2016). "I feel a kinetic and messy honesty that doesn't exist in any of the other music I've ever made. There is also a sense of being settled, of calm. There is no faking it here.” ‘Moons Melt Milk Light’ is direct, efficient, and unwavering in its immediacy. Anenon departs from the electronics of previous works, and embarks on a reductive, almost entirely acoustic approach consisting of piano, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and field recordings. All of the music was improvised with everything recorded as either a first or second take with no edits. Any layering happened fast and in the moment, and yet the sonic architecture of the whole feels both planned and refined. The opener ‘Untitled Skies’ acts as prologue with flourishing solo tenor saxophone and sustained piano lines, before dampened footsteps and bird calls from field recordings echo — a scene is set. The album's undeniably emotive and nocturnal title track follows with sharp poignancy, inspired directly from an ongoing deep connection and dialogue to his LA surroundings. “I would take evening walks in my neighborhood, and I felt in awe of what I deemed an autumnal milky quality of light at dusk. This light felt like a seemingly unending flash, and was something that I wanted to evoke in the playing and meshing of instruments.” Simon shifts focus on ‘Maine Piano’, a beguiling solo piano piece ahead of ‘Night Painting I’, which features further breathy saxophone and bass clarinet counterpoints, embellished with immersive field recordings. Brian also confronts the subject of personal loss and anguish with a deep sincerity as a solemn through-line pervades the album's 11 tracks. Notes are eloquently delivered with grace and the message is one of hope with a palpable human quality. Non-diegetic field recordings were taken in Maine (USA), London (UK), and the Auvergne (FR), and reveal evocative and personal interactions as heard in the album's centre points. ‘As it is When it Appears’ glows with the ambience of French voices resounding an evening's interplay before a spaciously muted piano overtakes. The rained in ‘Champeix’ captivates with a seductive and wild romanticism, played out by its connective saxophone and piano layers, each gliding up and down their respective scales. Swirling bass clarinet lines vigorously pour out of ‘Night Painting II’, and ‘Endings (Solo)’ hits with a virtuosic, yet tender tenor saxophone take. The album closer ‘Sightless Eyes (N16)’ brings everything full circle — after an intro of 5 AM NE London birds singing, piano, tenor saxophone, and bass clarinet coalesce in expressive tactilities; a sonic image of an intuitively robust and in the room harmony. The production of ‘Moons Melt Milk Light’ began in the autumn of 2022, and was recorded at home in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, informed in part by an acoustic collaboration with the artist Susan Cianciolo during the vernissage of her 2022 Paris exhibition, RUN 14: FIELD of existence, as well as solo performances mostly at casual non-venues such as wine bars and inns around Europe that same year. It was the combination of these experiences that led Brian to pursue this immediate approach of improvised acoustic instrumentation. Moons Melt Milk Light is a hyper-personal statement contained in a visceral beauty, a compact record of threadbare honesty and musical prowess seldom found in the musical art form. It is a search for light out of dark, for the tangible and tactile, and yet like most art of staying power, the results remain ephemeral and elusive, a beauty just out of reach. “Loss has been a constant (in my life), and I wanted to express a deep acceptance of this, but also a pervasive feeling that these kinds of sadnesses are what beauty is derived from, that it doesn't come from perfection. I find the idea of perfect beauty completely banal. Tension matters.”

Wow, it's as if you're being swallowed into another world of beauty, music that is out of this world. A Colourful Storm, a prestigious label based in Melbourne, Australia, has released an important album this year. The latest album by Maxine Funke, a female musician from New Zealand who has been introduced to us several times, and who was also a member of the legendary experimental rock band "$100 Band", is now available. From the sensual, exploratory sounds of "Fairy Baby" and "Homage" to the ghosts of American primitive folk on "Quiet Shore," it's a delicate dreamscape documenting the finest of soundscapes. Drop the needle and you'll instantly fall in love with it. This is New Zealand's most extraordinary voice. I highly recommend this album to all music lovers! Insert included.

Ship to Shore PhonoCo., in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment, is proud to present Hirokazu Tanaka & Keiichi Suzuki’s original soundtrack to the 1994 Super Famicom classic MOTHER 2: ギーグの逆襲 (MOTHER 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back!). MOTHER 2, released as EarthBound in the West, is revered as one of the most offbeat and memorable RPGs. Citing influence from artists such as Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa and John Lennon, Suzuki and Tanaka created a diverse soundscape quite unlike anything that came before it. Remastered specifically for vinyl and released outside of Japan for the first time ever, MOTHER 2 is a must have for video game music and soundtrack fans.

Chet Baker (1929 – 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter, actor and vocalist that needs little introduction. Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s but his well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety (he was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late ‘70s and ’80s). Chet’s career included collaborations with greats such as Elvis Costello, Charlie Parker and Van Morrison. Mr. Baker was the subject of many books and documentaries throughout the decades and he was even portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the 2015 film Born to Be Blue. Chet began his musical career singing in a church choir and his mother said that he had begun to memorize tunes on the radio before he was even given his first instrument. Peers called Baker a natural musician to whom playing came effortlessly. In the early 1950s, he was chosen by Charlie Parker for a series of West Coast engagements…shortly after this, his song “My Funny Valentine” became a hit and would be associated with Baker for the rest of his career. Mr. Baker (with his quartet) was a regular performer at famous Los Angeles jazz clubs such as The Haig. Chet Baker’s quartet released popular albums between 1953 and 1956 and he won reader’s polls at Metronome & Down Beat magazine, beating trumpeters Miles Davis and Clifford Brown. In 1956, Pacific Jazz Records released Chet Baker Sings, an album that seriously increased his visibility. During most of the 1960s (before heading to Europe more frequently) Chet recorded music that could be classified as ‘West Coast jazz’ From 1978 until his death in 1988, Chet Baker lived and played almost exclusively in Europe, returning to the U.S. once a year for a few performances. This was Baker’s most prolific era as a recording artist. On the album, we are presenting you today (Cool Cat) you’ll find Dutch recordings (recorded in 1986 & released in 1989). This rare gem of an album is comprised out of tracks written by some of the top jazz composers of all time (including Thelonious Monk) and played meticulously by Baker and his all-star line-up consisting out of Jon Burr (Yo-Yo Ma), Ben Riley (Sonny Rollins, Alice Coltrane, Thelonious Monk) and many others. Be prepared for six sublime tunes that bring out the more intimate and touching aspects of the Chet Baker sound, a fantastic session where the master plays his themes with an almost religious surrender. On Cool Cat the listener is treated to a mix of both instrumentals and mid-sung tunes with very moving vocals. The trumpeter’s laid-back breathy approach and perfectly placed notes in combination with his superb rhythm section provide the listener with unmistakable evidence that Baker still had considerable powers as a musician late in his career. Despite a seemingly chaotic and nomadic life, there is an unmistakable serenity emerging from the trumpeter’s sound throughout the album…a deep and touching beauty can be felt, marking this as one of Chet’s best from the period. Originally recorded in 1986 and released in 1989 on Timeless Records, the legendary Dutch jazz label run by Ria and Wim Wigt (who were patrons and friends of Chet till his sudden passing in 1988), Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first official reissue of Chet Baker’s classic Cool Cat album. The jacket also features exclusive pics shot in Amsterdam in 1986 by legendary Dutch photographer Joost Leijen (known for his work with artists such as Art Blakey and Pharoah Sanders). This North American vinyl version is limited to 500 copies on Clear Vinyl and also comes with an obi strip.

Merging the sounds of nature along with his resounding vibraphone, Arthur Lyman and producer Gordon Broad created Island Vibes, an ambient/jazz/field recording album that exhibits the pure weightlessness of Lyman’s music. A lost gem from the exotica pioneer's catalog — and his last recorded album — Island Vibes paints a meditative tropical canvas of the Hawaiian Islands’ natural beauty. A welcomed sonic transport to paradise, much needed in a (post-)pandemic world. Originally recorded with Broad Records, who’s responsible for Phase 7’s Playtime and other important 1970s and 80s-era local records. At eight years old, Arthur Lyman's music was already being played in public spaces via a toy marimba performance on the radio. While Lyman laughed about the experience, he would continue performing and ultimately debuted professionally at 14 with a jazz group. His skills earned him a place as a vibraphonist alongside exotica pioneer Martin Denny, although Lyman would leave the Denny's group soon after to pursue a solo career. Island Vibes would become Lyman’s final recorded album, an embodiment of the term of "relaxation", relying solely on Lyman’s instrumentation and the quaint lull of ocean waves to produce a picturesque atmosphere.

Smoky soul honesty from gifted Hawaiian jazz singer Maryanne Ito. Brimming with good vibes, this

“Although she’s won both a Na Hoku Hanohano Award and “Best International Pacific Artist” at New Zealand’s Pacific Music Awards for her 2014 debut, the confines of the studio never quite captured the magic that happens when soul/jazz singer Maryanne Ito performs in front of a live audience. 

Pure, honest, powerful. You can feel it regardless of the stage, the players, or the songs. We knew someone needed to make a live album with her... so we did. 

On November 1, 2017, Maryanne and her band performed all new material for friends and family at the Atherton, an intimate venue amidst the bustle of Honolulu city life. It was an experience nothing short of magical — you can hear it in the record. 

Maryanne Ito has performed throughout the globe, including New Zealand, London, and New Orleans when Gilles Peterson and his Worldwide FM crew hosted Maryanne and artists like Doug Wimbish, King Britt, Amp Fiddler, and Tank & The Bangas for the Six of Saturns music festival.”

The tragic tale of Billie Holiday involves a fractured childhood, a seemingly endless series of abusive men, and addictions to heroin and alcohol, all played out in the public eye after targeting by the FBI. Nevertheless, her huskily expressive voice is timeless and the way she brought blues phrasing into jazz was hugely influential. The 1956 release Lady Sings The Blues took its name from her shocking autobiography and the disc finds her on fine form throughout, the landmarks including the immortal "Strange Fruit," the defiant "God Bless The Child," the mournful "No Good Man" and the great title track. Classic Lady Day all the way!

As with Directstep (recorded one week previously), this album was recorded, and originally only released, in Japan. It was one of Hancock's most successful albums in Japan, perhaps because it was entirely solo piano. Hancock tackles jazz standards such as "My Funny Valentine", "On Green Dolphin Street" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come" while also performing four original compositions.

Double-LP version. The musical vortexes of Caterina Barbieri rewire time and space. Listening to the Italian composer and modular synth virtuoso has felt like traveling at light-speed and slow-motion all at once since 2017's breakthrough Patterns Of Consciousness. 2019's acclaimed Ecstatic Computation pushed even further with the lead single "Fantas". Far beyond any new age trope or modern synth trend, her music stands alone in its ecstatic intensity and cataclysmic emotional impact. Marking the debut album on her new label light-years, Barbieri now delivers her most profound work yet -- a journey through inner-space as vast as a universe and as intimate as a heartbeat. Spirit Exit is Caterina Barbieri's time machine, primarily composed with a modular synth rig she thinks of more like a mechanical fortune teller. Whereas previous releases were constructed on lengthy tours, capturing only snapshots of continually evolving works, Spirit Exit represents the producer's first album fully written and recorded in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It was during this extended isolation she found inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time, but united in their strength at cultivating vast internal worlds. St. Teresa D'Avila's foundational 16th century mystical text The Interior Castle, philosopher Rosi Braidotti's posthuman theories and the metaphysical poetry of Emily Dickinson act as thematic anchors throughout Spirit Exit. Spirit Exit crystallizes Barbieri's densely layered, blindingly bright synth arrangements while introducing stunning new elements that feel as if they've always belonged. Strings and guitar flawlessly thread into the composer's web of modular patches, while her revelatory singing voice often cuts right through them. Melodies remain Barbieri's great passion and obsession and on Spirit Exit they grow as large as planets before cracking into atoms. The sweeping "At Your Gamut" perfects the producer's dramatic, slow-burning openers, but in her first ever use of sampling, it later gets crushed, accelerated and unrecognizably transformed into the ghostly hook surging through "Terminal Clock". As the album closes on "The Landscape Listens" -- a song that approaches death with all the gentle grace of Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)".

he unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono is the auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world, putting his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as an artist, session player, songwriter, and producer. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit later in his career. Hosono made his professional debut in 1969 as a member of Apryl Fool, whose heavy psychedelia was somewhat at odds with his influences, which leaned towards the rootsy sounds of Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield. The latter was one of the main inspirations for his next group, Happy End, whose unique blend of West Coast sounds with Japanese lyrics proved to be highly influential over the course of three albums. After the band’s amicable break up in 1973, Hosono began his solo career with Hosono House, an intimate slice of Japanese Americana recorded inside a rented house with recording gear squeezed into its tiny bedroom. Hosono’s solo career would take many twists and turns from this point forward, with forays into exotica, electronic, ambient, and techno, culminating in the massive success of techno pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). Released in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India. Initially the album was to be a kind of ethnographic musical document, using found sounds and field recordings made by Hosono himself. Instead, after Yokoo introduced Hosono to the sounds of Kraftwerk and krautrock during the trip, Cochin Moon became something much stranger. Created almost entirely on synthesizers and sequencers with the help of future YMO collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hideki Matsutake, the music on the album is the perfect encapsulation of Hosono’s concept of “sightseeing music,” transporting the listener to an exotic place that may or may not exist. This highly sought-after album sees its first-ever official release outside of Japan. Admired by artists ranging from Van Dyke Parks to Mac DeMarco, Hosono continues to forge ahead as he heads into his fifth decade as a musician. With the re-release of his key albums for the first time outside of Japan, his genius will be discovered by a whole new generation of fans around the world.

Nocturne, the sophomore album by Wild Nothing, is a window into singer/songwriter Jack Tatum's "ideal world" of pop music. Written largely while living in Savannah, GA during 2011, the songs that became Nocturne speak to a new Wild Nothing where the lines between Jack's influences and personality have been further blurred. The album features some open references to past music just as his critically acclaimed debut Gemini did, but it's also an album that feels much less rooted in anything in particular and, well, more adult. Gemini was written before there were Wild Nothing fans or even a live band; Nocturne is different. With an unexpected fan base to turn to, Jack spent more time perfecting his craft. The obsessiveness of Nocturne is inherent in it's gentle harmonies, orchestrated synths, wandering voice, and songs that speak of his post-Gemini experiences as he explores new paradoxes of pop. And yet, Nocturne isn't obvious, it is a strange and distinctive musical beast, the product of an obsessive pop vision that creates its own reality.

A much requested reissue of Cashmere Cat’s classic 2014 LUCKYME® EP, prior to production for Ariana Grande, Bladee, The Kid Laroi, SOPHIE, The Weeknd, Kanye West, FKA Twigs, Travis Scott, Charli XCX, Kehlani, Juice World & many more.

Almost ten years on this record still stands the test of time, every beat and electronic contortion bursting with character. The expressive waves of autotune and electro thump of previous single 'With Me' give way to the stuttering rhythms of 'Pearls' and the feather-light drip of 'Rice Rain'. Title track 'Wedding Bells' is the standout though, sultry voices and shiny, delicate production mixing with the thick low-end of 00s hip hop for infectious results.

The Medicine Singers groundbreaking debut LP on Stone Tapes, produced by Yonatan Gat, embodies decades of musical genres influenced by Native American music, offering what Pitchfork called a "vivid new context for the sound of the powwow drum, highlighting the debt that rock music owes to Native American music." This monumental album connects experimental music and traditional powwow in previously unheard ways, acting as a guided tour de force, taking listeners through the many different musical styles with roots (still being discovered) in Native American music. From psychedelic punk to spiritual jazz, from minimalism to electronic music. Their live show is the stuff of legend – the Medicine Singers set up, often in-the-round with the audience encircling the band, and go into a trance-inducing set where the walls between band and spectator, as well as between psychedelic rock and shamanic chants, are blurred. Or in the words of Canada’s Exclaim Magazine “the border between audience and performer had all but been dissolved by the sheer power of music. By letting the audience in on the action, [Medicine Singers] evoked a type of bodily experience that transcended mere observation.” Bridging multiple dimensions of sound, on their debut LP Medicine Singers expanded into a remarkable supergroup that also includes ambient music pioneer Laraaji, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica of Swans, “No Wave” icon and former DNA drummer Ikue Mori, trumpet player jaimie branch and guitarist/producer Yonatan Gat. Half a decade after the spur-of-the-moment story of how the musicians first met and unraveled their sound on an unsuspecting audience during SXSW 2017 when Gat saw Eastern Medicine Singers play on the street and invited the band to spontaneously join his show – the collaboration between the musicians reaches a climax with this breathtaking debut album as Medicine Singers, helping pave the way to this year’s rising wave of Native contributions to experimental music – shining a spotlight on guest vocalists representing indigenous nations from outside of the Northeastern Woodland tribal area. “Where else can you get all these different native people singing together on an album?” Jamieson asked. “On this album you have east, west, north and south all coming together. That’s why we say it’s medicine.” iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 472px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3001077196/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=333333/artwork=none/transparent=true/" seamless>Medicine Singers by Medicine Singers

Kevin Morby writes (and records, and imagines) at an almost incomparable clip, and his most recent album, This Is A Photograph, studies life, time and mortality through myriad lenses. It’s a dynamic, buoyant record on big, heavy themes, so it only makes sense that Morby found he wasn’t quite done with it on its completion. More Photographs (A Continuum) finds new nooks, corners and vantage points. “If This Is A Photograph is a house that you have been living inside of,” says Morby, “then More Photographs is, perhaps, the same home just experienced differently. As if you, its inhabitant, have taken a tab of something psychedelic and now, suddenly, you've replaced your eyeglasses with kaleidoscopes.” Here, Morby returns to his landmark album's bottomless themes with new wisdom, new imagination, and the winking, looping callbacks that tie his full body of work together in uniquely special ways. “Everything you once thought was familiar,” he continues, “suddenly appears differently, shifting shapes, color and sonic landscapes.” “Five Easy Pieces Revisited” captures the same moment from Bobby’s point of view; “This Is A Photograph II” takes a similar tack, revisiting its predecessor from a different angle. “Triumph” explores more of the myths and deaths that surround Memphis, TN, this time inspired by Big Star’s Chris Bell. And “Kingdom Of Hearts” arrives as an origin story to both This Is A Photograph and its new companion. “With every collection of songs,” says Morby, “I feel I must cast them out of me before moving onto the next project, and here I knew that what I had begun with This Is A Photograph was not finished. Releasing this collection is my tying a bow on that time and place in my creative life.” With a luxurious nine tracks – three re-imaginings and six brand new songs – More Photographs (A Continuum) is prequel, sequel and primer to an already rich and generous record from one of our most luminous modern songwriters.

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens' Reflections, a studio recording of his score for the ballet by choreographer Justin Peck, performed by pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hanick. "Reflections was originally commissioned by Houston Ballet to accompany choreography by Peck and premiered March 21, 2019. Written for two pianos and eleven dancers, Reflections smarks the sixth collaboration between Stevens and Peck, following Year of the Rabbit (2012); Everywhere We Go (2014); In the Countenance of Kings (2016); The Decalogue (2017); and Principia (2019). Reflections is characteristic Stevens: dynamic, melodic, memorable, emotionally resonant and playful (one track is titled “And I Shall Come To You Like A Stormtrooper in Drag Serving Imperial Realness”). It is about “energy, light and duality,” Stevens says. “I’m constantly thinking about bodies moving through space when I’m writing for ballet — that is what has informed this music, first and foremost.” "

Have you heard of the Nurse With Wound List? If you are a fan of creative-experimental-unlikely music, certainly. You would therefore be aware that amongst the recommendations that Steven Stapleton slipped into the first album of his group Nurse With Wound, were to be found a few restless frogs: Jef Gilson, Luc Ferrari, Jacques Thollot, Urban Sax, Horde Catalytique and last… … but not least Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé. Stapleton admired their album Défense de. The two Frenchmen just had to conceive of a fabulous precursor to the channel tunnel (check out the inside of the record, you’ll see) to enable Stapleton to come to France in 1980. The Englishman was looking for contributions to a compilation to be released on his United Dairies label that he had created with John Fothergill, and he naturally called on Birgé and Gorgé, who were then playing with Bernard Vitet in ‘Un drame musical Instantané’. It was a done deal and the compilation would be named In Fractured Silence. Alongside Nurse With Wound and Un drame musical instantané, could be heard Hélène Sage (whom Birgé introduced to Stapleton) and Sema, a project from the experimental British musician Robert Haigh who had participated in key records in the Nurse With Wound discography, such as Homotopy to Marie and Spiral Insana. The curtain is raised and it is Un drame musical instantané who start the ball rolling. Mystery abounds; synthesisers lurk, percussion clatters and the sounds (creaks, whistles, vocal insertions…) fire in all directions. For the piano, it’s a debacle, the Drame won, Hélène Sage can take over. Heading up a quintette including Gorgé and Vitet, she creates a cushioned chamber music with strings and many silences. On the B side, it’s the other side of the channel. Sema’s piano first off, which dares everything, even melody, before spilling out its darkest ideas in a raucous requiem. Finally, Stapleton appears, delving into his collection of female voices to devote himself to an iconoclastic transformation and concoct a song which collapses under the assault like Marianne at Agincourt. After having listened to In Fractured Silence, you will simply have to choose sides.

'Remember A Stranger' is the debut full-length album by Singaporean shoegaze / dream pop band motifs.

The album straddles two themes of fading memories and coping with loss. The songs in this record tell a story of Elspeth's memories of growing up in Singapore.

The cover art draws parallels by capturing the nostalgia of childhood through the experimentation of colours and textures to generate a hazy vintage effect. 
The original photo was taken off an island in Kaohsiung, Taiwan by the band's guitarist JJ.

Please enjoy the record and we hope our music connects with you in its own special way.

New York's Cleopatra label gets the Numero treatment. Hailing from Tommy Falcones swarm, Beehive lead Vickie & The Van Dykes were the sound of the coming youth revolt—Vickie had rock 'n' roll in her bones and rawhide in her voice. "I Wanna To Be a Winner," and "Outcast." were songs tailored to her rebellious personality.