While he can bust out barreling, loopy techno with the best of ’em behind the decks, there’s always been something a little different about the productions Anthony Parasole lays onto wax. Berghain on the streets, Mute Records in the sheets. It might have something to do with the scene he came up around, a tri-state area sprawl that blended tough techno with deep house and dub. Case in point: the ’90s rap-inspired My Block, one of the coolest EPs ever released on the now-defunct Ostgut Ton. Still, there’s something even more intriguing about HEADRUSH, Parasole’s first release as FULL EFX. It’s ’90s in a different way, taking influence from the thick, rounded textures of industrial bands like Ministry and Skinny Puppy at their commercial peak, as well as…
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After lying mostly dormant for close to two decades, in 2021 — in the middle of the global pandemic, one of the most disorienting times in our collective lives — Too Much Joy sprung a surprise album on the world. Mistakes Were Made proved to be just as brilliantly goofy as we remembered. Turns out they were just getting started. On All These Fucking Feelings, out via Propeller Sound Records, the greatest (only?) band to come out of Scarsdale, New York add another dozen, plus one, fast pop rock songs crammed with hilarious smart-ass lyrics. And true to the title, feelings — good, mostly bad, and in-between — are spilled out all over this record. The mood is obvious from the first two songs, “We Yell At 8” and “What Pricks We Were.”
Though what Ken Yates was going through while writing his fourth album, Cerulean, may have been deeply personal, he ended up capturing universal truths with pinpoint precision. Grieving the loss of his mother plus the loneliness of a global lockdown navigate Cerulean through its quiet darkness, and an eventual calm resolve. Depression, numbness, agoraphobia, and anxiety have never sounded so dreamy as through Yates’ soft, hazy lens. With harmonies from artists like Katie Pruitt and Kathleen Edwards, Yates uses the gentle brush of his vocals to build serene layers of sound, whether on his solemn, introspective tunes or his driving, melodic ones.
Yates’ steady hand in singing about the difficulties of being alive makes Cerulean a kind of…
To hear Dickie Landry tell it, he’s been in the right place at the right time for decades. Within weeks of moving to New York City in 1969, he had met Ornette Coleman, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich, forging lasting relationships with each. He was working as a plumber alongside Glass when he started photographing icons of the Downtown art scene, documenting the embryonic careers of sculptor Richard Serra and multimedia polymaths Keith Sonnier and Joan Jonas, as well as Glass’ ensemble, which he had just joined on saxophone. He bonded with Paul Simon and ended up playing sax on Graceland after introducing himself at a Carnegie Hall performance; he sat in with Bob Dylan at 2003’s New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the day after a chance meeting through…
4 A&M Records Rita Coolidge albums dating from 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1981, digitally remastered.
A versatile singer blessed with a clear, pure voice, Rita Coolidge is a capable stylist in rock, pop, R&B, country, and folk, and has been a hugely in-demand session vocalist outside of her own solo recording career. She moved to Memphis after graduation and worked singing commercial jingles, sometimes with her sister, Priscilla, and soon landed a job touring with Delaney & Bonnie as a backup vocalist. She subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, where she sang on recording sessions by the likes of Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills, Leon Russell, and Joe Cocker, among others. After returning from the supporting tour for Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen, Coolidge landed her…
Joseph Shabason and Nicholas Krgovich are ideal musical counterweights. On their second collaborative album — following 2020’s excellent trio record with guitarist Chris Harris — the Toronto saxophonist and Vancouver singer balance each other’s occasionally opposing impulses. Both artists are fascinated by the beauty of mundane moments and minuscule gestures, but Krgovich brings a Zen-like tidiness to his lyrics, while Shabason playfully messes with ambient music, art-rock, and adult contemporary. By significantly expanding the cast of contributors, At Scaramouche dances past the quiet contemplation of their debut, rediscovering the collective joys of being with other people. Yet even when their squiggly grooves lift off the ground,…
In recent years Nigerian music has become synonymous with the globalised Afrobeats of the likes of Burna Boy and Wizkid. That single additional ‘s’ brings with it a world of sonic difference from the original Afrobeat of Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and company, and it’s a joy to come across a record that unashamedly celebrates the glory days of Nigerian funk in the 1970s and ’80s with such untrammelled exuberance. Lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Adédèji Adetayo started singing in a church choir in Lagos before he was ten and recorded his debut album as a bandleader in 2012. Yoruba Odyssey is his third full-length release and the follow-up to 2017’s Afreekanism.
The album was recorded in just three days in…
Maral’s music doubles as a means of fantastic transport. Soldered together from elements of dub, industrial, and anarcho-punk, it reflects both 1970s Jamaica and 1980s London, but the Los Angeles musician’s work draws most of its spiritual sustenance from Iran. For a decade now, Maral has been assembling a library of samples of Iranian folk, classical, and pop music. Her source material has come from far and wide: specialty record stores in L.A.’s Persian Square; her parents’ cassette collections; and trips to the homeland itself. From her childhood until her early twenties, the Virginia native regularly visited Iran with her family, soaking up the language, culture, and music. In the early 2010s, DJing around L.A., she began layering those samples over blown-out…
As one of the seven members of Chicago as featured on their 1969 debut album Chicago Transit Authority, bassist-singer Peter Cetera‘s soaring tenor became an integral component of the band’s sound on such hits as “25 or 6 to 4,” “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day,” “Just You ‘n’ Me,” and “(I’ve Been) Searching So Long.” When his own composition “If You Leave Me Now” became Chicago’s first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – not to mention in international territories such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia – Cetera was recast as a highly romantic balladeer. This fact wasn’t lost on producer David Foster when he took the reins of the group for Chicago 16. With Cetera as lead or co-lead vocalist on all but one song, Chicago 16…
If Montreal’s Jessica Moss didn’t tell the listener that her new album Galaxy Heart and 2021’s excellent Phosphenes make up a single body of work, on first listen the connection might not be apparent. Although both are largely Moss writing and working by herself (“Recorded alone in the jam space, produced alone in bed”), the wordless Phosphenes features the violinist’s more post-classical, composed side, forming something between a post-rock epic and a violin suite. Moss’s violin and compositional sense are all over Galaxy Heart just as strongly, but in a much more free, exploratory way. The result is no less beautiful, but it is a thrilling reminder that beauty comes in myriad forms.
The first big change is that as the work flowed…
The multifaceted drummer Chad Taylor, who proves to be as much virtuosic as practical in his chops, returns with his bass-less trio – featuring saxophonist Brian Settles and pianist Neil Podgursky – for a sophomore album whose program is a jewel. As a sideman, the drummer has been contributing to some of the most compelling projects by the Chicago Underground Quartet, saxophonists Avram Fefer and James Brandon Lewis, and bassist Eric Revis, just to name a few.
He brings two of his own compositions into The Reel, one being the title track, a piece in five with a rubato piano-driven passage and a folk inflection that makes us think of Keith Jarrett’s excursions; and the other “Julian’s Groove”, which makes a fine turn into an Afro-Cuban rhythm so blithe…
Three albums into his career David Keenan is going it alone. The Dundalk folk musician’s latest offering may be titled Crude, but his approach to songcraft remains as finely honed as ever, apparently galvanised by his decision to release on his own label this time around. Keenan is undoubtedly a Marmite kind of artist; his bohemian fashion sense and tendency to overintellectualise have been off-putting to some who have dismissed his act as affected.
Despite the fact that he may view himself as a successor to Joyce and Beckett, Keenan’s songwriting – and more importantly, his delivery – is indubitably convincing. He excels at painting scenes, as heard on love song ‘On Michael Street’, and bringing characters to life, whether…
A triple CD taken from three labels, MCA, Warner Brothers and Epic Records, to create ‘The Definitive Rose Royce’.
A ’70s music night without Rose Royce would be unthinkable. In soul music terms, it would be like the ’60s without The Temptations, or the ’80s without The Gap Band. That’s because the Los Angeles group played an important role in spreading Disco-Funk. Rose Royce’s music defined by its blend of funky grooves and soft romantic ballads, was part of the soundtrack to those heady days, when the whole world seemed to be a big disco ball dancing through space.
This Rose Royce ‘Definitive Collection’ includes all the extended versions of the biggest hits including the ballads ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’,…
The first of two comprehensive 5CD box sets covering the recordings of the Rah Band. Messages from the Stars: The Rah Band Story Volume 1 covers the period 1977-1984 and contains expanded versions of the albums The Crunch & Beyond, ‘Rah Band’ and ‘Going Up’ plus 2CDs of additional 12” mixes, 7” mixes and remixes.
The Rah Band was formed by Richard Anthony Hewson (RAH) in 1977, and launched with ‘The Crunch’, a strange compelling instrumental which was a mixture of glam stomp, space age jazz and futuristic pop that was recorded DIY style in his bedroom.
The single reached No.6 in the UK singles chart and launched a career that has spanned 25 studio and compilation albums and over 40 singles,…
…including live and studio performances from the 50th anniversary tour. The music from the original soundtrack (and more) is spread over 4 CDs and features many previously unreleased and new to CD tracks.
Toby Amies’ film about one of rock music’s most enduring, but simultaneously elusive, bands provides a unique insight into the working process of a complex touring band, interspersed with contributions from previous band members to provide a contextual backdrop to the band’s past, as the most recent (2014-2021) line-up tours the world just before and during its 50th anniversary.
As King Crimson producer and band manager, David Singleton observed of the film: “All of life is here, not just music, and certainly not just rock.
…three disc collection offers the entire Big Beach Boutique 2002 show, as well as Big Beach Boutique 5 and a brand new DJ mix for 2022.
More than 250,000 concert goers gathered on Brighton Beach on July 13, 2002, in what was described as the “biggest event the UK has ever seen.” The crowd was more than four times the expected size and at the time, doubled Brighton’s population.
A year earlier, about 40,000 people attended the first of the Big Beach Boutique events. But in 2002, Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook, performed the second of his free open-air concerts on Brighton beach in front of a record breaking crowd. From the first-time ravers, the veterans and the dedicated superfans to the curious locals,…
The latest volume in our acclaimed Masterpieces of Modern Soul series is as strong as ever and drips with brand new, old recordings. An amazing 12 tracks are previously unheard and a further two are very different versions of already popular numbers.
Some rare-soul household names have new material featured on here. Ronnie McNeir hits a wicked dance groove with ‘Let’s Make a Move’ and Dee Ervin offers a superbly soulful ‘You Make Me Happy’ – sure to become a modern classic. The lesser-known Joe Graham’s ‘Higher Than High’ is already halfway there, thanks to advance plays in Europe from DJ Dave Thorley. It’s from an Atlanta session around 1976, in-between his Chant and later Hotlanta releases. Jean Shy is a highly-thought of artist who recorded firstly in Chicago…
Their partnership lasted barely four years and just over 50 songs – but between 1965 and 1969 Isaac Hayes and David Porter penned some of soul’s most enduring anthems of their era, many of which are still being regularly performed and recorded to this day.
Hayes and Porter wrote for almost every major act on the Stax roster, but the commercial appeal of their songs gave them appeal to artists operating outside of the perimeters of soul music. ZZ Top, Peter Frampton, the (Count) Bishops and Charlie Rich are just some of the fine turns you will find here essaying Hayes and Porter copyrights alongside Stax stalwarts such as Johnnie Taylor, Mable John, the Emotions, the Soul Children, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, and, of course,…
Sand, Silt, Flint is a fascinating ballad map of north-eastern Scotland by Scottish-Burmese singer, writer and producer Fiona Soe Paing, who has performed in all-female punk bands, released a bilingual album about heritage and identity, and experimented wildly with vocal improvisation. She recently discovered she was related through her father to Aberdeenshire bothy ballad singer John Strachan, which deepened her fascination with local songs. She then turned to electronic textures and atmospheres to conjure vivid impressions of their settings and landscapes.
The result is an album that Paing also turned into a sound-walk app, where a listener’s GPS location triggers audio, allowing them to be immersed in the environments that inspired the songs…
Swing Out Sister burst onto the scene in 1986 with “Breakout.” The first song on the group’s first album, the sleek admonition reached the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic as well as the top of the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart. With Corrine Drewery’s lead vocal soaring over a fizzy cocktail of funky bass, brash horns, bubbly synths, a sweet string arrangement, and a driving snare drum, “Breakout” bridged the gap between contemporary and retro. It launched Swing Out Sister to international fame and a discography that’s so far encompassed ten studio albums plus soundtracks, EPs, and live releases. With the 8-CD box Blue Mood, Breakout, and Beyond, Cherry Red’s Cherry Pop imprint has compiled SOS’s first three studio LPs, Live at the Jazz Café, and four discs…
