Playlists
Droppin’ Knowledge: Behind The Boards With Baltimore’s Zen Master Of Sound, Shine
And we back…nah, nah, nah… Veteran Baltimore, Maryland producer Shine recently released his new album, As The Beauty Became, a lovely and luxuriant collection of mostly instrumental hip hop that pulses and hums with an organic vitality. This contemplative set of nine tracks also includes two sterling guest cuts, one with Brooklyn’s Nappy Nina, and …
Soundtrack of Our Lives: Bo Moore of The Peacers brings the groove
SAN FRAN’S Sic Alps, living guitar legends, were one of those bands which, with the amount of the talent in its ranks, could only burn bright and, like an unstable isotope, emit members to spin off into other musical pursuits, eventually to transform itself in a musical half-life. Tim Hellman went into the ranks of …
Soundtrack of Our Lives: Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles freewheel us through great handpicked tracks
BILL MACKAY, the Chicago-based guitarist, improviser of note and all-round scion of six strings, sure loves to enter into a two-way conversation with other artists with reliably beautiful results; witness the brace of albums he’s recorded with the freewheelin’ Ryley Walker, Land Of Plenty and Spiderbeetlebee. And loving that American instrumental guitar tradition in all its iterations, from …
Soundtrack of Our Lives: breaking psych-folk troubadour E.R. Jurken takes us a for a trip through the music of his life
THEY loved what they heard so much they set up a label just for him. Yep, that’s the tale of E.R. (Ed to his friends) Jurken’s slow peregrination towards a recording contract once he’d landed in Chicago after one of those periods when life gets dismantled, leaves you tumbling in its riptides; criss-crossing the States, …
Playlist: Sarah Records – The Hundred
Here at Backseat Mafia, we’re totally cross genre. It’s how we like it. So you’re just as likely to see Deep House followed by Death Metal followed by neo-jazz or something. BUt we do have our favourites, and over the years, Sarah Records has always found its place on Backseat Mafia. Formed by Clare Wadd …
Soundtrack of Our Lives: New Bums’ Ben Chasny takes us for a musical trip
NEW BUMS is the collaborative shore of of Six Organs of Admittance’s prolific psych voyager Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn, of erstwhile Jagjaguwar psych-folk mainstays Skygreen Leopards. The duo first ventured into the world of recorded sound for Drag City six? Nope, seven years ago now, their debut album Voices In A Rented Room containing such raggedy lovelies as “Black Bough” and “Your Girlfriend …
Her Voice : A playlist for International Women’s Day 2021
Although it has it’s beginnings way back in 1911, International Women’s Day has an increasingly important role to play in our society. Every March 8th, the day is an important day to celebrate Women’s achievements, equality, gender parity and also to fundraise for female-focused charities. This year the focus of the day is #choosetochallenge – …
Feature / Playlist: Factory Records – A complete Spotify discography
FOLLOWING the success (well, relatively) of our John Peel playlist, in which we compiled all the Festive 50 tracks for every year John ran that feature all in one place (well, the ones from Spotify anyway), we’re delving into the catalogue of Manchester’s Factory Records. It’s a story that’s been well told in lots of …
Soundtracks of Our Lives: Farmer Dave Scher
FARMER DAVE SCHER may be better known to you from the string of excellent bands he’s both been in and collaborated with down the years. He was a member of the brilliant West Coast country-psych outfit Beachwood Sparks, who took on Sade’s “By Your Side” and completely won (and actually chaps, while we’re here, could …
Droppin’ Knowledge: A 10 Song Hopeful Playlist For A Time That Strains Hope
If you’re feeling a deficit of hope lately, don’t fret. You are not alone, Hope is an intrinsic human attribute that allows us to appreciate the idea that it is often darkest just before the dawn. Mental health experts advise that hope is a powerful, inspiring feeling that is necessary and vital, particularly if you …