Track / Video
See: Jade Jackson – ‘6FT Changes’: a Californian country lament for the disconnect of social distancing
JADE JACKSON, the husky-voiced country singer-songwriter who’s been making waves with her particular caress of the country form since Gilded, her 2017 debut for ANTI-, has dropped a softly haunting new tune looking at the socially distancing rules that keep us from the intimacy of touch. With a delicate hush she sings: “Six feet changes …
Album review: Christine Ott – ‘Time To Die’: French composer returns to Gizeh for a modern compositional masterclass
Without a doubt one of the most potent voices in modern composition today, Christine Ott is as happy to push right out into dark, even industrial-infused experimenta as she is to play a straight bat with absolute confidence in the deeper classical tradition and the wider avant-garde palette; she can do it all, if she chooses, and when she breathes the ondes Martenot into life; there really is no one to touch her
See: Muck Spreader drop the shadowy dub riot of ‘Take Flight’ ahead of a July EP; there’s a June tour, too
A CHAOTIC, riotously fun force of nature which – if you believe the myth – came about after lightning struck, Muck Spreader are back with a shadowy, gloriously dub-jazz didactic single, “Take Flight”, ahead of a July EP for Brace Yourself – and a tour in very fine company. The new eight-tracker, Abysmal, follows last …
Album review: Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles – ‘Keys’: pull up a pew for bluegrass instrumental delight
You know what the best thing about Keys is; for all its intimacy, the focus wholly on how the two players and their instruments mesh,a real joy in creation rings through. William Tyler, Black Twig Pickers, Jack Rose fans; please come on over and pull up a pew
Track: Glass Animals release new version of ‘Heat Waves’ ft. Iann Dior
The heat continues to rise for Glass Animals as single Heat Waves gets a dynamic rap rework from next-gen US star Iann Dior (emotions, gone girl). The original track continues to hold strong in the singles charts, still at #1 in Australia and in the Spotify Global Top 50. Spotify showed a monthly peak of …
See: Theo Alexander’s ‘Bright-Eyed Hunger’: London composer targets the dream state with his dazzling minimalism
LONDON pianist Theo Alexander likes to loop, to evoke the dreamstate, to explore the beauty of harmony and melody and repetition. He’s an album coming up on Toronto’s lovely Arts & Crafts imprint in late May that looks to seal his reputation as one of the most interesting people working in the minimalist end of …
Track: Hear Jim Stewart’s ‘Dead Sea’: the composer responds to a Paul Nash painting, taken from the forthcoming ‘Stills 01’ music and painting project
STILLS 01 is the first, beguiling three-track release from new imprint String and Tins Recordings that looks to marry the disciplines of music and fine art, insomuch as each piece of music recorded and issued in the series is a direct response to a painting in the collection of Tate Britain. The first in the …
Track: Birthday Ass – ‘Plubbage Bubbage’: flicking the Vs at punk and jazz and making them dance with abandon
PRIYA CARLBERG, singer and wayward guiding light behind the fun as hell and wonderfully weird punk-funk concoction of Birthday Ass, won’t be drawn on the meaning of the title of their latest single drop, “Plubbage Bubbage” which, if you “think it’s fun to say, roll it around your mouth now – best collocation of words …
See: the hand-animated video for Icarus Phoenix’s lovely ‘Cassie Knows, Or How A Shy Person Says I Love You’
COMIN’ atcha with a bagful of tunes that strike right at your heart in a simply lovely way – in that way the songs of Daniel Johnston or BMX Bandits do, naive, true, unaffected, from the heart – Drew Danburry, who also sometimes dons the Icarus Phoenix baseball cap for recording purposes – is the …