News: New Model Army’s Justin Sullivan announces May solo set; hear the stark storytelling of ‘Amundsen’
NEWS which will delight members of the Militia worldwide: Justin Sullivan, founder of Bradford post-punk legends New Model Army, fierce social advocate and commentator, has announced he’ll be releasing only his second solo album come early May, 18 years on from the previous, Navigating By The Stars. It’s entitled Surrounded, will comprise sixteen new songs …
See: Jordan Klassen – ‘Golden Ladder’: hushed Canadian alt.folk songcraft
VANCOUVER’S self-styled fairy-folk singer-songwriter Jordan Klassen released an album, Tell Me What to Do, last May, which he hopes connects people organically, drawing upon their shared experiences lyrically and conceptually; and, he hope, making them feel less alone in a crazily paced, hyper-connected world. It explores what’s it’s like to be in a world where …
See: Conrad Clipper – ‘Heron’s Book Of Dreams’: piano pastoralism from Berlin composer hiding in pseudonymity
CONRAD CLIPPER is the pseudonymous venture of a Berlin composer and multi-instrumentalist who has a focus on prepared, programmed and played piano. He’s lauded over at BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, whose presenters have called his work “a rare and tender sonic wonder.” His debut album, 2016’s Cycle of Liminal Rites, took the form of a …
Track: Ritual Cloak – ‘White Noise’: an elegy for a friend in cooltempo electronica
CARDIFF duo Ritual Cloak is the meeting of Daniel Barnett, formerly of Samoans, and drummer and producer Andrew Sanders, in which musical space between them they find some pretty beguiling, post-rock cinemascapes. They’ve followed up the massive, brooding soundscapes of their previous single, “Opaque Crater”, with a new drop, “White Noise”, which sees them push …
Track: Panteon – ‘Nobody’: electric folk lushness from Berlin
CURRENTLY based in Berlin, singer-songwriter Yvonne Ambrée writes, records and produces all of her music under the guise of Panteon. She’s gradually unveiling her forthcoming debut album with a string of singles throughout the year; and her latest release is “Nobody”, out today across all digital streaming platforms. It’s the kind of electric alt.folk loveliness …
Premiere: Christine Ott – ‘Landscape’: haunting modern compositional pastoralism
THE FRENCH composer and multi-instrumentalist Christine Ott can never be accused of running with the pack in her compositional aesthetic; down the years since her first release, Solitude Nomade, in 2009, she’s really pushed the possibilities of modern composition, not in experimenting for the sake of it, but in trying to express and elicit a …
See: Josh Halper – ‘Honest Feeling’: Dear Life’s alt.country troubadour’s gone fishin’
FOLLOWING last year’s rather lovely album for Dear Life, Alrightnik, Nashville’s guitar essayist Josh Halper has decided to reprise the closing track visually. He’s released a brilliantly conceived and funny short film to accompany that tune, “Honest Feeling” – you can watch it below. By way of introduction and self-summation he says, an eyebrow arched: …
Track: Graywave – ‘Swallow’: a darker final drop from her forthcoming EP
WE’VE fallen pretty damn hard for Graywave, the self-styled “dreampop from the West Midz” project of Jess Webberley, on a couple of occasions in recent times; there was her previous single “Before”, from the beginning of the year, which we noted as being “full of that thrill and dusky elegance you get from the Cocteau …
NEWS: A Certain Ratio announce EP for May, ‘ACR:EPA’; hear a first track, ‘Wonderland’: the Mancunian funk hot streak continues
THEY’RE on such a hot streak these days; Mancunian fun legends A Certain Ratio have been absolutely on fire, creatively so vivacious and so irresistibly taut, since ACR Loco dropped in the final days of last summer, an album of which we commented “effortless Mancunian pop and the tautest funk remade anew.” “Yo Yo Gi” …
See: The Underground Youth – ‘Vergiss Mich Nicht’: the sweet obsession of love chronicled in folk noir
SEEDED in Manchester, reaching full, budding flower in Berlin, which seems an ideal dovetailing of cityscape and soundscape, The Underground Youth have dropped one final single from their forthcoming album, The Falling, which is out at the end of next week. “Vergiss Mich Nicht” – it translates as ‘Do not forget me’, is a scorched heart, minor …