Earlier this year, the BBC confirmed plans for the feature-length documentary film Genesis – Together and Apart, chronicling the ups and downs of the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
On the heels of that project which featured the cooperation of Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett, Rhino and Universal released a 3-CD collection continuing the “together and apart” theme.
R-Kive present a selection of Genesis’ greatest cuts alongside solo and band tracks from each member.
If you were ever looking for one compilation with “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” alongside “Easy Lover,” this is the release for you.
R-Kive is culled from a 42-year period (1970-2012) in which the members of Genesis racked up…

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…14 No. 1 albums in the U.K. alone, and some 300 million records sold worldwide.  The chronologically-sequenced anthology is the first to combine band and solo tracks, but the third overall for the band following 1999’s Turn It on Again: The Hits (reissued and expanded in 2007) and 2004’s three-disc Platinum Collection.  (Mention should also be made of Starbucks’ career-spanning Opus Collection volume, 14 from Our Past, which arrived in 2007 to coincide with the Banks/Collins/Rutherford reunion tour.)  It surveys the band’s entire prog-to-pop journey.

In addition to 22 songs pulled from all of Genesis’ studio albums, each member is represented with three “side” tracks.  From Collins, you’ll hear the hit Philip Bailey duet “Easy Lover” plus “In the Air Tonight” and more surprisingly, “Wake Up Call” from 2002’s Testify.  Gabriel’s solo catalogue has yielded “Solsbury Hill” plus “Biko” and “Signal to Noise.”  Hackett is represented with “Ace of Wands” (1975), “Every Day” (1979) and “Nomads” (2009); Banks with “For a While” (1975), “Red Day on Blue Street” (1991) and the collection’s most recent track, “Siren” (2012); and Rutherford with three songs from Mike and the Mechanics: “Silent Running,” “The Living Years” and “Over My Shoulder.”

CD 1

1. ‘The Knife’ from Trepass (1970)
2. ‘The Musical Box’ from Nursery Cryme (1971)
3. ‘Supper’s Ready’ from Foxtrot (1972)
4. ‘The Cinema Show’ from Selling England by the Pound (1973)
5. ‘I Know What I Like’ from Selling England by the Pound (1973)
6. ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
7. ‘Back in N.Y.C.’ from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
8. ‘The Carpet Crawlers’ from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
9. ‘Ace of Wands’ from Steve Hackett‘s Voyage of the Acolyte (1975)

CD 2

1. ‘Ripples’ from A Trick of the Tail (1976)
2. ‘Afterglow’ from Wind & Wuthering (1976)
3. ‘Solsbury Hill’ from Peter Gabriel‘s first self-titled album (1977)
4. ‘Follow You Follow Me’ from And Then There Were Three (1978)
5. ‘For a While’ from Tony Banks’ A Curious Feeling (1979)
6. ‘Every Day’ from Steve Hackett’s Spectral Mornings (1979)
7. ‘Biko’ from Peter Gabriel’s third self-titled album (1980)
8. ‘Turn It On Again’ from Duke (1980)
9. ‘In the Air Tonight’ from Phil Collins’ Face Value (1981)
10. ‘Abacab’ from Abacab (1981)
11. ‘Mama’ from Genesis (1983)
12. ‘That’s All’ from Genesis (1983)
13. ‘Easy Lover’ (Phil Collins and Philip Bailey duet, originally released in 1984)
14. ‘Silent Running’ from Mike + The Mechanics’ self-titled album (1985)

CD 3

1. ‘Invisible Touch’ from Invisible Touch (1986)
2. ‘Land of Confusion’ from Invisible Touch (1986)
3. ‘Tonight Tonight Tonight’ from Invisible Touch (1986)
4. ‘The Living Years’ from Mike + The Mechanics’ Living Years (1989)
5. ‘Red Day on Blue Street’ from Tony Banks’ Still (1991)
6. ‘I Can’t Dance’ from We Can’t Dance (1991)
7. ‘No Son of Mine’ from We Can’t Dance (1991)
8. ‘Hold On My Heart’ from We Can’t Dance (1991)
9. ‘Over My Shoulder’ from Mike + The Mechanics’ Beggar on a Beach of Gold (1995)
10. ‘Calling All Stations’ from Calling All Stations (1997)
11. ‘Signal to Noise’ from Peter Gabriel’s Up (2002)
12. ‘Wake Up Call’ from Phil Collins’ Testify (2002)
13. ‘Nomads’ from Steve Hackett’s Out of the Tunnel’s Mouth (2009)
14. ‘Siren’ from Tony Banks’ Six: Pieces of Orchestra (2012)

The delicacy of a lone classical guitar belies its eminence as an instrument of extraordinary emotional power and compositional complexity. It is this that American multi-genre producer and composer Daedelus (aka Alfred Darlington, born Alfred Weisberg-Roberts) uses as the basis of The Light Brigade. He has not explored the depths to which he reaches here more fully and genuinely in his career.
The understated Sevastopol follows a simple arpeggio with a fingerpicked lead. That style is the basic blueprint for the album, and it has a slight flamenco flair. Darlington plays guitar like a ballet soloist dances through gentle adagios. He is slow, but not dull; he is to be admired for the restraint demonstrated on Baba Yaga and…

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…The Victory of the Echo Over the Voice.

From an instrumentalist whose previous albums are noted for their spotless – innocuous, even – production, The Light Brigade is strikingly unrefined. Battery Smoke features a noticeable mis-pluck about halfway through the track. The sliding of Darlington’s fingers along the fretboard are not only audible but a prime facet of many songs. The imperfections are intimate; emotions, like the humans from which they come, are not flawless, but that does not make them any less beautiful.

Until Artillery is the only track that discloses Darlington’s heritage in electronic music. It’s an ambient affair that features a gentle oscillating keyboard and indistinct background speaking. It’s based on the identically-titled poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, but that’s difficult to interpret. Belonging sounds close to Darlington’s work with his wife Laura Darlington through their long-running project The Long Lost, as does follow-up track Pre-munitions. Collaborator Young Dad‘s smooth falsetto on Onward sounds vaguely like Thom Yorke or Dallas Green, and it’s backed by an extremely beautiful organ keyboard.

Country Of Conquest is orchestral: it has little guitar or piano, with just strings. It gets a bit self-indulgent and has little in the way of climax, but is still a decent halfway interlude. However, it is an example where the relatively short track lengths of The Last Brigade stand in the way of their emotional or compositional prowess; at 11 tracks and barely 30 minutes, The Last Brigade is not a lengthy listen. Shot And Shell is, likewise, nigh-forgettable as it has little stand out amongst the stronger instrumentals of Sevastopol and Battery Smoke.

But perhaps brevity is the key instrument. Rather than stretch his compositions past their prime, Darlington ends as soon as they finish their statement. It’s maddening in the case of Shot And Sell, but extremely productive in that of Pre-munitions, where Latin rhythm and simple traveling chords need no exposition past their requisite two-and-a-half minutes.

One-third of the album’s length is in two tracks: Tsars And Hussars, and Onward. The former recalls The War On Drugs in its sublime bass, nebulous electronics, and Darlington’s poignant croon. The latter is quite possibly the most low-key track in Darlington’s catalogue. They’ll make or break the album for listeners simply due to how much runtime they take up, and they have an extremely similar vibe.

Rarely can one make out Darlington’s lyrics, but there’s no real need for that. For example, a lot of the power of Onward comes from the sheer sound of his voice rather than any actual word he’s saying. That’s an important concept with regards to appreciating The Light Brigade. Listeners who prefer a bit more distinctness to lyrics will be put off by his delivery, but those who are more melodically inclined will feel what Darlington feels. The Light Brigade demonstrates the continued relevance of the baroque pop genre, and that sweeping compositions are not necessary when a classical guitar speaks best.

Compiled by the band themselves the Levellers Greatest Hits 2CD set includes all the Levellers’ singles together on one album for the first time.
From the folk punk roots of Carry Me, through the anthemic One Way, Fifteen Years, Hope Street, and smash hit Beautiful Day, to more recent tracks such as Truth Is and Cholera Well, after more than 25 years together as band, the Levellers’ mix of scathing political comment and positive DIY attitude to life hasn’t dissipated with age.
Most exciting of all, the Greatest Hits album also features 4 brand new recordings of the Levellers collaborating with contemporary artists to rework some of their classic material. Imelda May is the queen of all time on ‘Beautiful Day’ (which will be formally released as a single). Bellowhead take…

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…on ‘Just the One’ and the legendary Billy Bragg performs ‘Hope Street’. Finally, Frank Turner breathes new life into ‘Julie’, one of his very favourite songs whilst growing up, bringing us back full circle for another generation of the disenfranchised to discover the Levellers for the first time.

1. Fifteen Years (3:10)
2. Hope Street (4:28)
3. What a Beautiful Day (4:02)
4. Dog Train (3:36)
5. Belarus (3:01)
6. The Cholera Well (2:30)
7. Last Man Alive (3:06)
8. Truth Is (3:15)
9. Fantasy (3:17)
10. Just the One (2:49)
11. Burn America Burn (2:53)
12. Before the End (3:14)
13. Celebrate (4:06)
14. Bozos (3:17)
15. Too Real (Steve Osborne Single Mix) (3:49)
16. Liberty (4:28)
17. Beautiful Day (feat. Imelda May) (3:52)
18. Julie (feat. Frank Turner) (3:33)
19. One Way (1998 Single) (3:23)
20. Make You Happy (3:45)
21. This Garden (4:00)
22. Julie (3:51)
23. Wild As Angels (3:08)
24. Come On (2:22)
25. The Devil Went Down To Georgia (3:46)
26. Far from Home (3:30)
27. Together All the Way (4:14)
28. Exodus (Live) (4:22)
29. Happy Birthday Revolution (3:29)
30. Carry Me (4:46)
31. Outside Inside (2:59)
32. World Freak Show (3:29)
33. The Recruiting Sergeant (War Child) (3:49)
34. Just the One (feat. Bellowhead) (3:36)
35. Hope St. (feat. Billy Bragg) (3:36)
36. A Life Less Ordinary (Bonus Track – Single Version) (3:12)
37. We Are All Gunmen (Bonus Track – Single Version) (4:07)
38. After the Hurricane (Bonus Track – Single Version) (4:01)
39. One Way (Bonus Track) (4:08)

During the queasy, airlocked “The Astronaut”, Jake Harms belts out, “I’m nostalgia” and “I’m alcoholic dreams of being 19, 23.” Both of these lines are indicative of What Moon Things’ preoccupation with both the allure and incapacitation of addiction.
Unsurprisingly, the trio’s debut LP is haunted by the most recognizable junkie of folklore, the vampire — just peep the inclusion of both “The Vampire” and “Vampir” on the tracklist and its cover, which would look mighty fine on the front of a high school goth’s Trapper Keeper in 1992. And they indeed have a nostalgic, youthful idea of how vampires and indie rock should interact — think “Nosferatu Man” and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, and forget Stephenie Meyer ever happened. As such, nothing about What Moon Things is sexy, cute or dashing; instead,…

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…these eight anti-romantic horror stories find a band who’s fanged, emaciated and out for blood.

What Moon Things developed their doddering, incommunicado sound in New Paltz, New York, a place that’s isolated even by the standards of the other isolated Empire State outposts that have made major contributions to indie rock in 2014—it’s about three hours from Perfect Pussy’s homebase of Syracuse, about half that from the SUNY Purchase enclave that has abetted NYC’s minor explosion of folk weirdos. You might think What Moon Things was part of the latter scene, seeing as how Harms’ voice is almost indistinguishable from that of Porches./Frankie Cosmos’ Aaron Maine; his singing is off-key but on-point, a desperate yelp from an unstable man, though the assumed squalor makes you think of a guy trapped in a well rather than a dive bar.

Cooperstown and Queens are about equidistant from New Paltz and if What Moon Things didn’t drive upstate to see the Modest Mouse and Brand New co-headlining show that took place earlier this year, I guarantee they’ll head to the city for the one in August. And I guarantee they hoped the former played nothing from after 2000 and the latter played nothing prior to 2006. What Moon Things tease out the similarities between those responsible for “Jesus Christ” and “Jesus Christ Was an Only Child”: for one thing, a protagonist who narrates with an uneasy, medicated or even kinda alien worldview. Either way, something’s just off about the guy and he functions more as a slightly removed observer of life than a participant.

The connection is also played out in Harms’ guitars; befitting his name, nothing here is strummed or caressed. He fills out the spaces of What Moon Things with palm-muted clean riffs, gnarled note clusters, and pinched harmonics flanged out to be slightly sharp. John Morisi plays with a similarly effective anti-technique; his disregard for actual timekeeping and proclivity to just hit every single piece of his kit as hard as possible would drive a drum teacher insane. Only the quasi-title track keeps the same tempo throughout its entirety and that’s only because it’s a one-minute instrumental. Abetted by the dry, stark production, every drum thwack is the sound of metal hitting bone and flesh, the lack of decay echoing the shock of seeing someone actually get injured. Harms’ vocals and odd melodic sense ensure What Moon Things sticks; Morisi ensures that you hear them differently every time.

Within the context of What Moon Things, the physical musicianship draws out an underlying potential for violence in Harms’ downcast demeanor. He sings of vampires when he’s more of a zombie, a zoned-out, single-minded half-human. “Get you” is notably spelled as “getchoo” in the lyrics sheet and that should give you an indication of where Harms often goes mentally to source the pathetic, needy nature of male heartbreak: “I’m such an adult/ With high school stuck in my head”; “I see your face on every girl”. “Staring at the Radio” is the one time he’s actually able to get out of the house and it’s only to sit in a car, waiting for the battery to die; the title itself twists a common trope to be even more fucking piteous, like he can’t even handle the visual stimuli of television.

What Moon Things describe the totality of this sound as “dreamo”, which I believe was a phrase first coined by non-descript At the Drive-In offshoot Sparta; What Moon Things sound nothing like Sparta and Sparta sounded nothing like particularly atmospheric emo. What they mean to say is that they like both shoegaze and emo, two genres which really don’t intersect as much as one would expect; both are concerned with conveying a feeling, but the former stresses sensual implication, the latter articulation. What Moon Things aren’t very “dreamo” either: their shoegaze isn’t pretty, as the gaseous, suffocating “Doesn’t Make Much Sense” and “Squirrel Girl” finds Harms’ head in an oven rather than the clouds.

While fine pieces of exhaust pipe ambience, those two songs are less intriguing than the striking minimalism of “The Vampire” and “The Astronaut”, proof that What Moon Things benefit from directness and concision. This much is evidenced in What Moon Things potentially qualifying as one of the strongest EPs of the year, but it’s a full-length that may have been forced against its will to get there. The consecutive sequencing of its two most distorted tracks, the instrumental and the near-reprise of “Vampir” verge on introducing redundancy to a very short record. Still, the rousing closer “Son, Where’s the Fire” makes a great case for What Moon Things’ promise rather than their limitations; the group chorus is the only true extroverted, urgent moment, and it gives an compelling voice to a cosmic teenage demand to take the power back: “Sun, where’s the fucking fire?” After all, What Moon Things recognize the world is a vampire, sent to drain.

Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, singer and pedal steel guitarist Maggie Bjorklund has only been active in music for just a few years. In that short time, however, she’s made some famous friends, having toured with the likes of Jack White (she also played on Lazaretto), X’s John Doe and Exene Cervenka, and Howard Gelb. In turn, she recruited some equally big names for her 2011 debut, Coming Home, namely Mark Lanegan and members of both Calexico and the Posies.
Bjorklund once again turned to her sizable Rolodex when it came to to begin work on her sophomore album, Shaken, due out October 14th via Bloodshot Records. The 11-track effort includes cameos from drummer John Convertino (Calexico), Portishead bassist Jim Barr, guitarist John Parish…

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…(a frequent PJ Harvey and Sparklehorse collaborator), and many more.

Shaken was written and recorded during a particularly turbulent time in Bjorklund’s life. “My mother died. I wrote a big part of the material while going to the hospital every day and helping her on her last road to the end. Watching a human wither and die is one of the strongest things I have witnessed. That little gap between the life before and the life after this event, happened by chance to be the exact time of this album taking shape. That moment holds some fundamental truths if we dare to explore them. I chose to stay with it and let it happen.”

According to a press release, the resulting LP is “full of potent memories and emotional outpouring, as translated into the warm but dark sonic textures. Much of the music here – whether instrumental or with vocals – flows like lucid dreams, with the listener visualizing the scenery via detailed aural talisman. Shaken takes its shape from that magic that is created when a group of musicians play together and collectively interpret a singular vision, which in this case, was mending a grieving heart.”

One of the album’s many guest stars appears on its lead single, as Lambchop frontman Kurt Wagner lends his vocal talents to “Fro Fro Heart”. Alternating lead, Bjorklund and Wagner’s distinctive croons work well together when juxtaposed; the more lithe tones Bjorklund serve as a great balance to the bass-laden and brooding notes Wagner achieves. Where they meet, though, generates a profound sense of longing and mourning, further heightened by the dusty organ and deliberate guitars waltzing in the background.

“Silence often says much more/Than trying to say what’s been said before/But that is all I want to do/To give my love to you…” Those lyrics, penned by George Harrison for his song “That is All,” could be directed to a female lover or to a higher power, but the sentiment rang true for the artist in any circumstance. Harrison’s lifetime of work was marked by its forward thinking, a trajectory that is eloquently expressed on the new box set The Apple Years 1968-1975. Over the six albums contained in this small box of wonders, the onetime “Quiet Beatle” eschewed the virtues of silence to speak volumes through his music. He also refused to “say what’s been said before,” experimenting with various sonic palettes during this creatively fertile period which saw the collapse of the most…

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…important band in music history and the birth of a solo artist who struggled to find his place “living in the material world,” and made that struggle a major part of his life in song.

This new cube-style box set, designed to complement 2004’s Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 collection, includes new, beautifully-remastered digipak editions of Harrison’s six Apple LPs beginning with 1968’s Wonderwall Music – the very first solo album by any Beatle – and continuing with the even more experimental Electronic Sound as issued on the Zapple label (1969), the acclaimed triple-LP All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974) and Harrison’s Apple swansong Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975). The all-star Concert for Bangla Desh is not included; it last saw a deluxe reissue in 2005. All of the individual CDs are also available as standalone releases, though a DVD of bonus material will remain exclusive to the box. Whether purchased individually or as one package, these discs offer a fresh perspective on Harrison’s most prolific years.

The Beatles established Apple Records with lofty goals, envisioning a kind of musical utopia for the band and for talented newcomers whom they would shepherd to success. Though the Apple story didn’t turn out quite as planned, Harrison thrived both as a solo artist and as the most prolific producer in the Fab Four. At Apple, he lent his talent to records by Badfinger, Jackie Lomax, Lon and Derrek Von Eaton, Radha Krsna Temple, Doris Troy, Billy Preston and others. As a solo artist, he inaugurated the label’s LP series with 1968’s Wonderwall Music soundtrack and nearly closed it out with the final Apple album of original material (Extra Texture).

With All Things Must Pass generally considered Harrison’s proper album debut – and perhaps the greatest solo album recorded by a Beatle – it’s inevitable that the two albums that preceded it would be considered curios. But Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound both take their place here as part of the official Harrison solo canon. The latter, the soundtrack to director Joe Massot’s trippy fantasy starring bombshell Jane Birkin as Penny Lane, is a particularly enjoyable listen as it blends Indian music (some recorded in Mumbai) with spacey mellotron, rollicking piano, sound effects, tape loops, and even rock textures (especially on “Ski-ing,” with Eric Clapton on lead electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums) into a beguiling tapestry of sound. The Remo Four, a group that had supported The Beatles and Mary Wells on their Fall 1964 tour, joined Harrison for the western-music sessions that took place at Abbey Road, further adding to the sense of an east-meets-west adventure. The playful side of Harrison is also on display via such tracks as “Cowboy Music.” But the authentic Indian music stands out most on this hypnotic and entertaining mélange. Three bonus tracks have been added to Wonderwall, including The Remo Four’s “In the First Place” (produced by George and unearthed in 1998 for a restoration of the film) and the instrumentals “Almost Shankara” and “The Inner Light.” The latter, of course, was released by The Beatles as a B-side to “Lady Madonna.” This alternate take of the Mumbai-recorded instrumental track to the song premieres here and could fairly be described as a Beatles outtake though no Beatle actually plays on the recording.

Electronic Sound indulged Harrison’s experimental streak even more than Wonderwall Music, consisting solely of two lengthy tracks – one to each side of the original LP – played on a Moog synthesizer. The 1969 album followed John and Yoko’s Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions in the avant-garde realm of Apple’s Zapple offshoot, reserved for freakier sounds. Electronic Sound bears little, if any, relation to Harrison’s other work with and without The Beatles, although the Moog played on the LP was subsequently transported to Abbey Road and can be heard on four tracks on the Fabs’ album of that name including “Here Comes the Sun.” Even today, these electronic sounds won’t be for everyone, with the Moog perhaps best utilized as one of many colors in an arrangement rather than as a solo instrument. But Harrison’s exploratory LP perfectly captures the essence of an era which anything was possible.

The next two albums in The Apple Years – the majestic All Things Must Pass and soul-searching Living in the Material World – have both previously been expanded on CD. The editions in the box set retain the bonus material from those 2001 and 2006 reissues, respectively, but – like every album in this series – have been freshly and splendidly remastered by the team of Paul Hicks, Gavin Lurssen and Reuben Cohen. The detail is such on the new ATMP that co-producer Phil Spector’s thunderous Wall of Sound is even more present on many of the songs that rank among Harrison’s most indelible: “My Sweet Lord,” “Wah-Wah,” “What is Life.” But the quieter moments like the Bob Dylan co-write “I’d Have You Anytime,” Dylan’s “If Not for You,” “Isn’t It a Pity” and the gorgeously elegiac “All Things Must Pass” all are incredibly affecting, with familiarity having dulled none of their beauty. With its seeming cast of thousands – including Badfinger, Klaus Voormann, Ringo Starr, Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Gary Brooker, Pete Drake, Eric Clapton, Dave Mason, Bobby Keys and Phil Collins – in service to its tight songs and loose jams, ATMP showcased all sides of George Harrison.

Living in the Material World, however, followed on the promise of “Awaiting on You All” and “Hear Me Lord’ in emphasizing the singer-songwriter’s spiritual side. Musically, Harrison’s stunning, distinctive slide guitar prowess that had first blossomed on ATMP continued to flourish on the relaxed, inviting “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” as well as the biting, acerbic “Sue Me, Sue You Blues.” Though the former is as perfect a pop song as “My Sweet Lord,” the album overall has a more restrained sound than its predecessor; Spector only added his grandeur to one track, “Try Some Buy Some” (which recycled a backing track created for Ronnie Spector’s single version). Thanks to songs like “That is All,” “Be Here Now” and the title track, Material World proved an earnest and intensely personal, yet wholly accessible, statement. In addition to the two non-LP singles (“Miss O’Dell” and “Deep Blue”) included in 2006, this reissue adds the single version of “Bangla Desh,” newly but faithfully remixed by Paul Hicks.

The final two albums in The Apple Years are receiving their first remasters in over two decades. Dark Horse was Harrison’s earthiest work to date, a quality reflected in the grit of the singer’s thin and hoarse voice which was stricken with vocal strain. (Listening to “Ding Dong, Ding Dong,” one wonders if Dark Horse is Harrison’s own Pussy Cats, the John Lennon-produced Harry Nilsson album from the same year of 1974 that introduced Nilsson’s famously shredded voice.) Even the best of the material here – such as the title track – is hindered to one degree or another by Harrison’s vocal state. But the musicianship throughout Dark Horse – from Harrison and his sidemen including Ringo Starr, Tom Scott, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann, Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner and Andy Newmark – is impeccable. There are many stellar moments, such as “Far East Man,” with Scott contributing his trademark jazz-rock saxophone on a deliciously fab slice of “yacht rock.” Scott’s L.A. Express also played on the upbeat instrumental “Hari’s on Tour (Express),” a bright opening to an album that would considerably darken in tone. Harrison took inspiration from Don and Phil Everly to craft his own despairing composition “So Sad” after their 1960 hit “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad).” He also penned a barbed lyrical rewrite to their classic “Bye Bye Love,” directing it at ex-Mrs. Harrison Pattie Boyd and her flame, George’s pal Eric Clapton: “There goes our lady, with a ‘you-know-who’/I hope she’s happy/And ‘old Clapper,’ too!” Of course, both Eric and Pattie are credited on the track, recorded at the Harrisons’ Friar Park home! “Simply Shady” turned George’s personal distress further inward, reflecting on his own failings.  Two bonus tracks flesh out this reissue – a compelling and raw early solo demo of “Dark Horse” and the new-to-CD B-side “I Don’t Care Anymore.”

Dark Horse shared its name with Harrison’s own record company, one for which he contractually couldn’t start recording until The Beatles’ EMI contract expired. Hence, the label on his final Apple record, Extra Texture (Read All About It), depicted the Apple logo in a chewed-up state! Extra Texture lived up to its title both lyrically and in terms of George’s voice. It arrived just nine months after Dark Horse, and although Harrison was revitalized after the conclusion of a rigorous tour, the album felt very much like a continuation of its predecessor. This time around, though, Harrison was primarily backed by three-fourths of the band Attitudes, recently signed to his Dark Horse label: session veteran drummer Jim Keltner, future A-list producer David Foster on keyboards, and Paul Stallworth on bass. (Guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar, another in-demand pro, was the fourth member, replaced for Extra Texture by Jesse Ed Davis.) Leon Russell pounded piano on a couple of tracks, with other contributions from Harrison’s longtime collaborators Klaus Voormann, Nicky Hopkins, Billy Preston and Gary Wright. Extra Texture bested Dark Horse, however, with even more top-drawer material, like the joyous, boisterous single “You” (recycled from an unreleased Ronnie Spector album to have been produced by George and Phil Spector), the Beatles sequel “This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying),” or the touching “The Answer’s at the End.” A number of songs continued the introspective style of Dark Horse (“World of Stone,” “Grey Cloudy Lies,” “Tired of Midnight Blue”) with George calling himself out for his transgressions, but other tracks happily reflected his newfound bliss with Olivia Harrison (“Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You),” “Can’t Stop Thinking About You”). The new Extra Texture adds the previously-unavailable-on-CD, suitably Beatle-esque remake of “This Guitar” for Dave Stewart and Kara DioGuardi’s Platinum Weird, with Ringo on drums.

Producers Olivia Harrison and Jonathan Clyde, and executive producer Dhani Harrison, are to be applauded for this box set that’s beautiful inside and out. All The Apple Years lacks is a comprehensive release of the many Harrisongs that remain in the vaults; hopefully such a set will follow – and will be created with the same hallmarks of care as this set and not the seemingly-stopgap release Early Takes, Volume One. (The rare U.K. mono mix of Wonderwall would have been another, well, wondrous inclusion.) The Apple Years presents George Harrison in his many contradictions, but one thing that’s crystal-clear is that the music he left behind is music to cherish.

In blunt terms, Cope was a mess. Manchester Orchestra‘s determination to play so-called “brutal” rock on that album started getting to the point of blind stubbornness when every song started following the exact same formula without deviation or respite. Nowhere was there to be found the clever lyrical confessions and vocal intimacy of Andy Hull that characterised the first two albums, nor the sonic diversity and space which allowed the following two albums to soar.
Cope was, pure and simple, a disappointment, and the ever self-aware Georgian boys appear to have acknowledged and furthermore righted their wrongs with the surprise release of Hope. In essence, the re-imaginings on Hope are entirely different beasts than their Cope counterparts.

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This is undeniably for the better as the listener is allowed to focus on the truly exceptional part of Manchester Orchestra’s sound: the stunning catharsis that Andy Hull delivers time after time, song after song. The emotional power of the songwriting is truly magnified on Hope as the majority of songs are given their due with a liberal dose of delicate instruments. Lightly plucked acoustic guitars, shivering strings, simple piano and gorgeous female harmonies invariably provide the perfect backdrop for Hull’s powerful voice, truly at its finest when he sings with his distinctive, unparalleled intimacy. Hull wisely reworks some of the lyrics, which occasionally slipped into pure nonsense on Cope, to create some fantastic lines much more akin to his first and best efforts as a wordsmith on Nobody Sings Anymore and Like a Virgin Losing a Child. In fact, with lines such as “God is watching tonight/So choose whichever side you like,” one could almost believe that Andy Hull circa 2006 has put his pen to paper once again. “It’s okay to lose a limb/when they get too heavy”, he sings on the beautifully restrained “Trees”, and it’s a line that rings true and chimes on a deeply personal level in a way that Hull has rarely accomplished since Means Everything to Nothing. “Trees” is one of the few songs on Hope to disregard guitar completely, instead relying entirely on keys and strings to create a tangible atmosphere of beauty tinged with just the slightest unease. This steadily pervasive mood is the unifying factor on every song on Hope, whether it is born entirely from the strings and piano or reinforced further on more upbeat songs such as “Top Notch” and “The Mansion” with the occasional burst of electric guitar.

On three songs in particular Manchester Orchestra truly showcase their talent and willingness to adapt, making you wonder why they even bothered releasing the originals in the first place. “Choose You” is not the best song on Hope but it presents itself as the finest act of re-imagining, as the generic, lazy, middle-of-the-road rock song that we heard on Cope is completely transformed into a stunning piece of cinematic beauty replete with all of Hope’s finest aspects. A beautifully swelling piano refrain and guitar sets the stage for the soothing vocal harmonies, allowing a chorus melody to flourish that was previously choked to death by horribly-mixed guitars. Single “Every Stone” is another example of the eschewing of guitars completely, this time in favour of a quiet piano section that gradually builds into, of all things, a superbly Antlers-esque closing section complete with horns. Finally, “See It Again” may be the most un-Manchester Orchestra song that the band have released to date, an entirely a capella piece that relies singularly on the aforementioned vocal harmonies to bring its emotional weight home with full force. The album doesn’t quite have a complete success rate – even the most gorgeous of harmonies can’t salvage that lacklustre chorus that drags “All That I Really Wanted” straight into the ground – but in every case the renditions are effortlessly superior to their counterparts on Cope.

Of all the beautiful music to be found in abundance throughout all of Hope, however, there is only one moment where Manchester Orchestra prove to their audience that they still have the capacity to make some of the best music in whatever scene you lump them into. And the Georgian boys, once again proving their ability to be extremely self-aware and cognisant of their past mistakes, cleverly allow this moment full prominence on the album. This is achieved in “Girl Harbor” when the piano, backing vocals and strings drop abruptly out of the mix leaving Hull alone with his guitar to sing directly to the listener, heart to heart, no longer a singer and an audience but just one human being talking straight to another, just like it was in the good old days. And, just like in those good old days, it’s difficult to not get a little teary-eyed as Hull’s voice cracks and wavers on the lines “And I know your faults/I know the way you write them off/I don’t want anything to do with it no more.” This exceptional moment is then wisely followed up by the return of the full band, leading to the brilliant chorus of “You waste so much time.” I’m reminded forcibly at this moment of all the dynamic shifts that Manchester Orchestra used to use to such heart-stopping effect: the explosion into gang vocals and full-band instrumentation in “La-Di-Da”, the gradual build and build and build then drop into near-silence of “I Can Feel a Hot One”, that goddamn chorus of “Simple Math”, and so many other moments that characterised the band and made them stand out so far from all their peers. While no song on Hope is quite worthy of being placed alongside any of those mentioned, it would still be a mistake to ignore these re-imaginings as the next step for Manchester Orchestra, into new and hopefully increasingly interesting musical territory. No self-respecting fan could be slighted for leaving this aptly titled record with a bit of hope for the future.

1. Top Notch
2. Choose You
3. Girl Harbor
4. The Mansion
5. The Ocean
6. Every Stone
7. All That I Really Wanted
8. Trees
9. Indentions
10. See it Again
11. Cope

What’s left to say about Weezer that hasn’t already been said? Well, probably for one, that they’ve gone and released a new album – and it’s really rather great. See, Rivers Cuomo and co have a bloody good case for being the most unfairly maligned band in history.
Back in 1996, the now seminal ‘Pinkerton’ was written off on release; “juvenile”, “aimless”, and “a bit much”, they said. Yes, that’s the same ‘Pinkerton’, that five years later, the self-titled ‘Green’ album couldn’t, apparently, hold a ‘Hash Pipe’ to, and just about everything bar the equally deified self-titled ‘Blue’ album have been benchmarked. Despite, you know, the ‘Green’ album being really very good. And ever since, that’s been the pre-written script.

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Whatever Weezer do, however great ‘Green’ and ‘Maladroit’ are, whatever flashes of genius ‘Red’, ‘Hurley’ and even ‘Make Believe’ hold within – Weezer’s new work is dismissed. “It’s not as good as…”, and so it goes.
Of course it shouldn’t go. Bar the massive mis-step of 2009’s ‘Raditude’, Weezer haven’t ever released a bad record. And ‘Everything Will Be Alright In the End’ is fucking brilliant.
In short, it sounds like Weezer. Those magic chord changes, the wiry guitar licks, Rivers Cuomo’s awkward, faltering vocals – these may be brand new songs, but they’re all so immediately familiar that, as the title may suggest, they create one almighty aural comfort blanket. There’s even a point during ‘Eulogy For A Rock Band’ that’s so immediately evocative of that moment your favourite band first made sense that it’s near-on tear-inducing.
There’s ‘Go Away’, the adorable collaboration between Cuomo and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino; ‘Da Vinci’ with its with its killer chorus line “even Da Vinci couldn’t paint you / and Stephen Hawking can’t explain you”; the heartfelt ‘Foolish Father’; the rather odd ‘Cleopatra’; the gloriously familiar tropes on which at least part of their reputation was built (‘Ain’t Got Nobody’, ‘Lonely Girl’). There’s more than a few nods to their past creative climates (“don’t want my music to be less well known than my face,” he sings on ‘I’ve Had It Up To Here’, see also ‘Back to the Shack’, and, we’re told ‘The British Are Coming’). And it all sounds definitively Weezer in the best possible way.
And then there’s the ‘Futurescope Trilogy’. Eight minutes of largely instrumental bombast isn’t the usual way to end an album brimming with stellar power-pop. But here, what could quite easily have become boring self-indulgent guitar wankery somehow makes complete sense. Because it makes no sense at all, yet forms some strange, Wyld Stallyns-esque counter-point to ‘Blue’ closer ‘Only In Dreams’. They climax in a not dissimilar way; where one is introspective, the other, ‘Return To Ithaka’, explodes in the most brilliantly batshit way.

01. Ain’t Got Nobody (3:21)
02. Back To The Shack (3:05)
03. Eulogy For A Rock Band (3:25)
04. Lonely Girl (2:50)
05. I’ve Had It Up To Here (2:49)
06. The British Are Coming (4:09)
07. Da Vinci (4:06)
08. Go Away (3:14)
09. Cleopatra (3:12)
10. Foolish Father (4:32)
11. I. The Waste Lands (1:56)
12. II. Anonymous (3:20)
13. III. Return To Ithaka (2:18)

Working under the name Sea Oleena, Montreal native Charlotte Loseth released a pair of sleepy yet beguiling mini albums that inhabited a dream world similar to artists like Julianna Barwick and Grouper back in 2010 and 2011. The strength of those two releases caused enough ripples to land her on the roster of Oregon-based indie Lefse Records, who have released her full-length debut, 2014’s Shallow. Shrouded in a mist of gentle ambience and netherworld textures, her morphine-drip paeans still rely on structure and strong melodies to get where they’re going. Produced by her brother Luke Loseth (the two siblings also have a band together called Holobody), Shallow’s gentle melancholia somehow manages to convey an inspired mix of mystery and beauty rather than outright sadness.

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This is an important distinction, as this type of slow-building, experimental pop can often become too dreary and oppressive when laid on too thick. The fact that the album’s cover is a photo of a bleeding hand is a slightly misleading red flag as the music is far more thoughtful and romantic than it is doleful. Deftly picked electric guitar and robust strings are the primary tools of Loseth’s trade, though they are tempered throughout with subtle percussion, piano, and lush synths, all supporting her lovely crystalline voice which is often stacked in heavily reverbed harmonies. Opener and lead single “If I’m,” with its spooky Portishead-inspired beat, offers the quickest pulse on this understated album which at times channels the sweet dream pop of the Cocteau Twins and the black lodge haze of Julee Cruise, minus the Lynchian kitsch. Best enjoyed as one long piece, it’s tough to pick standouts on this finely crafted album, which flows effortlessly together throughout its seven lengthy tracks. While not a seasonal record, Loseth’s affection for the waning months of autumn is apparent and fans of that deep, slow-roasted October wistfulness will want to lose themselves in this elegant collection.

The fourth album from Ólöf Arnalds sees a marked change in direction from her previous albums. It’s her most collaborative effort to date with Gunnar Örn Tynes of múm and Skúli Sverrisson (who has worked with Blonde Redhead and Laurie Anderson, amongst others) coming on board.
Despite her reservations about collaborative songwriting, it’s a process that seems to have liberated her and, possibly resulted in her best record to date. Palme also sees a move away from the acoustic approach that Arnalds has favoured on her previous releases. The result is an album that possesses a shimmering depth and rewards careful, devoted listening. These are songs that might sound delicate and fleeting, but are in they fact multi-layered and carefully…

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…created although admittedly they are at times almost dreamlike.
Turtledove for example twinkles with delicate charm as Arnalds coos beautifully over its skittering beats. Arnalds voice is as always the defining sound of the album and its idiosyncrasies can be quite dividing. Her high register and quirky delivery draws parallels with the likes of Joanna Newsom and to some degree (on Defining Gender for example) even Kate Bush at her strangest. To some, it might come across as unbearably twee and willfully eccentric, but Palme offers a perfect backdrop to squash such concerns comfortably. In the case of Defining Gender, the interjection of strings is simply gorgeous (and allude to Björk‘s Come To Me) whilst the duet provides a grounded counterpoint to Arnalds heaven bound vocals.

There is little doubt that Sverrisson’s presence brings the best out in Arnalds. The title track is a case in point. Co-written by Sverrisson, it is the sound of rustic folk at its best. Delicate guitars are swept along on a breeze of delicate percussion, whilst Arnalds provides an haunting and whilstful vocal. To say it is understated is an understatement. However it is Patience, the lead single from the album, that is most striking. With its contemplative guitar line, sliding chord progressions and skiffle drum beat, it feels as if it is shifting on a sea of uncertainty until the gorgeous and uplifting choir joins in and provides a sense of joy and uplift. Their presence is an audible motif for the album, their assistance becomes a collaborative raft for Arnalds to cling to.

As a riposte, the song that follows Patience, Half Steady was written by Arnalds in her teens. It seems unlikely however given the tumbling electronic spin that this version was how it was how she originally intended it to sound. Regardless of who wrote what, it remains one of the more fascinating moments on the album. It skips along in 8-bit mode for a little while before adopting a woozy robotic chug whilst Arnalds puts in one of her most beguiling performances on the album, switching between a low automaton whisper and expansive croon.

The closing pair of Han Grete and Soft Living find her back in more traditional surroundings. Han Grete is a more low key affair; a gentle folk waltz filled with love and longing, it is genuinely heartfelt. Soft Living expands the folk template to include strings and trumpet but is driven by a gently propulsive bass line. It is at odds with the likes of Half Steady or genuinely wonky electro-thrum of Hypnose, and serves as a reminder that folk music is always at the heart of what Arnalds does. Fortunately, the choice between electro and folk, or collaboration and staying solo is not one that has to be made. If it works, does it matter. Palme, proves that whatever the approach, Ólöf Arnalds is definitely doing something right.

01 Turtledove
02 Defining Gender
03 Hypnose
04 Palme
05 Patience
06 Half Steady
07 Han Grete
08 Soft Living

UP is the latest CD from the baddest bass player on the planet, Stanley Clarke. He considers UP to be the most energetic, fun, rhythmic and upbeat album that he has ever done and with more than forty albums under his belt, that’s saying quite a lot. Clarke’s signature bass virtuosity and amazing technical acumen is present throughout, but the enjoyment he had in making this album is also apparent. Unlike his predominant acoustic bass work on the last few albums, UP is almost equal electric and acoustic bass. Entirely produced by Clarke, he is extremely proud of the quality of digital sound achieved as well as how the album as a whole is thoughtfully paced.
“My aim here was to make a record with my friends. Every single recording session was nothing but fun.

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The environment I established allowed me to be much less bothered by outside elements,” says Clarke. “Surrounding myself with people I enjoy being with made the sessions effortless. Everyone came prepared and ready to play. All were great musicians and we played together naturally. They came to the studio to give everything they had. I can truly say it was a process that I am grateful to have experienced.”

UP’s connection with his last Grammy-winning Stanley Clarke Band album is the inclusion former bandmates Ruslan Sirota (acoustic piano/keyboards) and Ronald Bruner Jr. (drums), who toured with him for seven years and were Clarke’s co-Grammy Award winners for the 2011 Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Clarke’s current touring Stanley Clarke Band members, Beka Gochiashvili (acoustic piano) and Mike Mitchell (drums), are also represented on the album. Both are quite young, in their teens, and talented way beyond their years.

Among the other friends Clarke lets shine on UP are: Joe Walsh, Jimmy Herring and Paul Jackson, Jr., on guitar; Greg Phillinganes on keyboards; Phil Davis on synthesizer, keyboards; Chick Corea on acoustic piano; Kamami Washington, Doug Webb and Dan Higgins on saxophone; Jessica Vautor, Natasha Agrama and Patrice Quinn on vocals; Gary Grant (trumpet) and Andy Martin (trombone) on horns; Lenny Castro on percussion; Nick Mancini on marimba; and the Harlem String Quartet with Ilmar Gavilán (violin), Melissa White (violin), Jaime Amador (viola) and Matthew Zalkind (cello) on strings.

As a bassist, Clarke has a special affinity for drummers and UP is an album drummers will appreciate. In his opinion the most important musical relationship in a band for a bassist is with the drummer. In UP he brings Stewart Copeland, Gerry Brown, John Robinson, Ronald Bruner, Jr. and Mike Mitchell, some of his favorite drummers.

“I can play very easily with these drummers. We understand each other rhythmically and emotionally. That makes it very fruitful when you’re making music. Drums are a very emotional instrument and the driving force behind a band,” Clarke states.

In addition to the musicians, Clarke enlisted veteran chief engineers, Dennis MacKay (multi-Grammy winner known for working with Return to Forever, David Bowie and Jeff Beck among many) and Gerry “The Gov” Brown (over 47 Platinum and Gold Records and 15 Grammy bids), both whom he has worked with in the past. This only added to the success and comfortable mood of the sessions. Other engineers on various tracks are Yan Perchuk, Jon Hakakian, Alex Venguer, Dave Luke and Danny Johnson.

Nashville’s Trigger Hippy are a supergroup of sorts, with two strong vocalists, Joan Osborne and Jackie Greene, both of whom have prosperous solo careers of their own, and a back line that includes Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman and first-call Nashville session guitarist Tom Bukovac.
Throw in strong group songwriting, and one has a roots rock powerhouse that sounds a bit like the Black Crowes backing up Delaney & Bonnie, with a strong R&B and soul feel, all filtered through a dose of hard country and Southern rock. The group’s self-titled debut on Rounder Records opens with the delightful “Rise Up Singing,” a Greene original, and holds that same warm, soulful feel throughout the whole set, with Osborne and Greene trading off vocals and verses song to song like…

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…so much honey and smoke.
“Tennessee Mud,” “Pretty Mess” (written by the group’s bassist, Nick Govrik, another Nashville session cat), and the country-by-way-of-Stax “Dry County” are all standouts here, with sharp, warm playing and vocals to die for, all of which makes this debut stand up well against the supergroup hype that is bound to rain down on Trigger Hippy. There’s little doubt that there’s a lot of talent here, but the group’s real hurdle will be in keeping it all together in the face of the other projects and commitments its members have on their plates. That’s the problem with supergroups, but for now at least, Trigger Hippy have delivered a fine album of vintage Southern roots rock. What happens next may have as much to do with recording and touring schedules as it does with any concerns about creative chemistry, which this band has in spades.

1. Rise Up Singing (5:04)
2. Turpentine (4:32)
3. Heartache On the Line (5:49)
4. Cave Hill Cemetery (4:20)
5. Tennessee Mud (5:32)
6. Pretty Mess (3:13)
7. Pocahontas (3:47)
8. Dry County (6:37)
9. Nothing New (3:16)
10. Ain’t Persuaded Yet (5:40)
11. Adelaide (4:54)

The Alarms’ new full-length doesn’t hew to power-pop principles throughout its 10-song run – the Nashville group takes a few excursions into gratifying but innocuous pop. But Real Tough Love contains some fine examples of post-’80s power pop, and lead singer and guitarist Robert Gay even pulls off a uncannily good Zombies pastiche titled “Avalon.”
From Nashville, Gay played in a ska-punk band before forming The Alarms, and he acquits himself admirably on Real Tough’s “Famous Kids,” which explores the garage-rock side of power pop. Meanwhile, the band covers Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer’s “May My Heart Be Cast Into Stone,” a 1966 hit for the American female vocal group The Toys. “May My Heart” features guitars…

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…that chime and harmonize, and the band recasts a great, half-forgotten song. The Alarms really dig into their formalism – they may even mean it.

1. The Axe
2. Make it Better
3. Break it Easy
4. The Only One
5. The One You Can’t Replace
6. May My Heart be Cast into Stone
7. Avalon
8. Famous Kids
9. Happy Birthday
10. Real Tough Love

Adrift is the debut solo album from UK based composer & musician Steve Gibbs. It follows the release of the collaborative EP In Passing with Cyrus Reynolds in 2013, which was warmly received for its elegant and affecting fusion of modern classical and ambient and subtle electronic elements.
With Adrift, Gibbs takes us further down that path as he serves up 7 tracks that feature dampened piano and strings draped in translucent layers of electronica, some of which have been composed as scores for short films and and other special projects. The title track and ‘Patterns’ remind me the most of the work with Reynolds in In Passing, both bringing the electronic layer more to the foreground to weave a gauzy web through which the piano and strings traverse.

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The overall tone is wistful and introspective, but there is warmth and light as well, particularly in ‘Bokeh’ which features a warm acoustic guitar and bright melodic conclusion.
Among the tracks already featured in other projects are ‘Råklipp’, a lovely solo piano piece which is featured in short film of the same title by Norwegian filmmaker Håvard Fandrem, and the evocative ‘Contention’, which was used in a film about the shooting of ‘The Cabinets of Curiosity’ from the Frozen Tale series by fine art photographer Alexia Sinclair. The album concludes on a reflective note with the pensive ‘Low Light’ and ‘Evoke’, an especially moving track with its resonant swells of plaintive strings.
Adrift is a lovely gem of a record, beautiful enough to hook you on the first listen, but sophisticated and understated enough to make you want to keep it in heavy rotation.

01. Adrift [06:05]
02. Ra°klipp [03:30]
03. Patterns [04:50]
04. Contention [04:05]
05. Bokeh [04:37]
06. Low Light [03:37]
07. Evoke [05:02]

If history were to repeat itself, The Wooden Sky‘s fourth album would, like it predecessors, begin with a tender acoustic guitar and frontman Gavin Gardiner’s solemn voice. Instead, an oscillating drone, lively drum beat and string of bright guitars comprise Let’s Be Ready‘s opening moments, proving the Toronto roots rockers aren’t out to simply repeat past successes. Sure, the dreamy retro-pop of “Baby, Hold On” brings to mind “Malibu Rum” from 2012’s Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun, but the uplifting “When The Day is Fresh and the Light is New” and standout track “Our Hearts Were Young” traverse new soundscapes, assertively filling the sonic space left vacant by the late Great Bloomers.
Littered amongst the energetically raw indie-rock…

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…tunes are the quieter likes of the acoustic title track and heartbreaking “Kansas City,” on which Gardiner’s signature quiver passionately conveys troubled love and the hardships of life on the road (the same stresses that inspired the band to release the album on their own label). But Let’s Be Ready never feels overly morose, nor does it fall into the trap of iterating painfully cheerful life-affirming mantras. Instead, its subtle strength lies in its ability to brilliantly capture a wide, and oft ambiguous, spectrum of emotion: devastation, contentedness, hope and everything in between. Whatever feelings and memories they’re conjuring on Let’s Be Ready, the Wooden Sky sound confident — and with the quality of this record, they have every reason to be.

Lily & Madeleine’s goal is to release an album-a-year for three years — a rare feat when the trend among singer-songwriters is to space albums by half-decades. So far, they’re on track: Fumes, the duo’s second LP, will be released October 28, 2014, 366 days after last year’s Lily & Madeleine. The sophomore album is a leap forward for the duo, a mature sentiment of two gifted young artists who have launched from their hometown onto the world stage with speed and grace.
When Indianapolis sisters Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz first started making music together, it didn’t cross their minds that they could make a living at it. Although they now find themselves in an acclaimed full-fledged career, what got them here has nothing to do with money, and everything…

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…to do with the spirit.

“The music will always be first,” says Lily. Indeed, Lily & Madeleine’s artistic souls are obvious to anyone who has heard their recordings. From the beginning, the sisters’ calling card has been the breathtaking and intuitive union of their voices.

Belgian keyboards player Jozef Dumoulin describes his new solo album, his first solo album, as the the first solo album in the history of the electric piano, the Fender Rhodes. It is also a culmination of a long exploratory journey into the various, weird, eccentric sonic qualities of this vintage instrument, enhanced with electronic effects.
The versatile Dumoulin developed a highly personal voice on the keyboards, including the Fender Rhodes, that always flirted with experimental sounds, whether he played with mainstream jazz musicians as saxophonist Mark Turner or pianist Bill Carothers or with innovative improvisers as guitarist Marc Ducret and saxophonist Ellery Eskelin or with his own trio. Dumoulin says that he never planned consciously to research…

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…the Fender Rhodes sonic possibilities but slowly, organically studied more and more on its myriad characteristics. When he decided to record a solo album of the Fender Rhodes he insisted on four constraints—to use the Rhodes and only the Rhodes, to only record improvisations, to isolate tracks within ‘regular’ duration within these improvisations and to avoid overdubs. Dumoulin allowed himself to add any effects that may fit to each improvisation.
Dumoulin takes the Rhodes to new sonic terrains, liberating it completely from any funk, psychedelic, fusion, rock or jazz associations, and suggests evocative, often enigmatic and cinematic soundscapes. On the 16 concise improvisations recorded in his home he emphasizes the Rhodes almost infinite, resonating and vibrating possibilities while sustaining the instrument sounds, turning these mellow sounds into a meditative, drone improvisation with a series of overtones on “Observing Disorder” and atmospheric, space journey on “Sungloves”; investigates the options to distort, mutate and color its deep sounds with darker, disturbing shades as on “Warm Black” and “The Red Hill Medicine,” and structures subtle dramatic narrative as on “The Entry Point.”
Eventually Dumoulin succeeds to transform this instrument to a machine that generates experimental sounds that partially brings to mind sounds emanating from the sixties and seventies, the golden age of the Rhodes, but more as futuristic, otherworldly ones, still, all sound fresh.

1. Amber (05:44)
2. Dissolve (03:19)
3. Rapid Transportation (03:46)
4. That (03:43)
5. Warm Black (03:27)
6. Inner White (01:14)
7. The Entry Point (03:35)
8. Observing Disorder (07:28)
9. The Red Hill Medicine (04:20)
10. Sungloves (04:25)
11. Honeycomb (00:52)
12. Try Four (04:40)
13. Safety Orange (00:54)
14. Questioning the Heroic Approach (02:48)
15. And If, Remember (02:50)
16. Uncountable Small Actions (02:19)

The elegance of Death Has No Dominion’s self-titled debut is found in its simplicity. Minimal instrumentation and softly-sung vocals create gorgeous atmospheres that reflect the heart of nature. Tranquil ukulele melodies place the listener into a trance, guiding the listener as he or she embarks on an out-of-body experience through lush forests and icy plains.
The pacing of the album is slow and contemplative, allowing the listener’s mind to wander aimlessly as one song seamlessly melds into the next. Bjarke Niemann’s murmured, slightly off-key vocal delivery is by no means great, but the softness and sincerity of it fits with the ethereal nature of the music. While his poetic lyrics add to the music’s serenity, his voice shines…

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…brightest on tracks “Uproar In Heaven” and “No Return,” in which he chants and hums quietly as the ambient melodies take center stage. Death Has No Dominion is an aural journey through the imagination of two young musicians armed with ukuleles.
Although each song on Death Has No Dominion is similar in structure and rhythm, the album is by no means boring. Each track paints a similar picture, but conveys a subtly different tone from the one preceding it. The slight nuances of “Uproar In Heaven,” such as its exotic melody and heavy tribal beat, make it profoundly different than previous track “Reaching the Shore” and the rest of the album likewise. “Coming Like a Hurricane” is an easy standout, serving as the most emotional and gripping track on the entire album. The song begins in a rather somber fashion, starting off with harmonizing ukulele strumming and mournful lyrics. Yet, as the song progresses, it becomes increasingly powerful and uplifting. Ghostly melodies delicately burst and soar in the distance over the rest of the song, painting a breathtakingly vivid picture of a colorful environment alive with all sorts of life. Unfortunately, the short length of “Coming Like a Hurricane” highlights the biggest problem with the album. On average, each song spans three-to-four minutes in length, stopping dead in their tracks just as soon as the listener has become invested. While this flaw is quite disappointing and affects nearly every song, Death Has No Dominion makes up for this by having a steady, cohesive flow. In fact, the entire album feels like a thirty-four minute song.
Death Has No Dominion are as humble as they are ambitious, crafting emotional atmospheres and painting beautiful pictures with use of little more than two ukuleles and vocals that range from mumbled poetry to harmonious hums. This idea is not new, but here, its execution is so earnest that one can’t help but be intrigued.

Harvest
Monkey Island
Reaching The Shore
Uproar in Heaven
Poughkeepsie Exit
May Your House Be Safe From Tiger
Out of your Mind
No Return
Daybreak Olympics

While Then Thickens may be borne of Lancashire market town Chorley, what they manage to do so successfully on their brilliant debut album is to fully transcend their origins. This is music with the widest of gazes, delivered with the strongest of convictions, that believes it can reach every corner of the globe by simply throwing its arms wide enough and inviting everyone in to it burly embrace.
Death Cap At Anglezarke, their emphatic debut full-length, has been described as slacker-rock in some places but while there is a heavy sense of wistfulness here it’s not shaped by any desire for nonchalance of idleness, in fact it’s firmly the opposite. The record feels almost boisterously alive, made by a band that are bursting…

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…at the seems with ideas and the need to present them to a wider audience. From the reckless wander of ‘Restart Your Heart’ to the impassioned sincerity of ‘Tiny Legs’, Death Cap is the most triumphant of arrivals.

01. Heaven Won’t Wait (3:17)
02. Restart Your Heart (3:34)
03. Any Other Thing (3:26)
04. Death Cap (3:47)
05. Ritalin Love (4:54)
06. Matthew (4:44)
07. Worms (3:37)
08. Tiny Legs (4:04)
09. Run Off (4:16)
10. A Wasp In Your Mouth (5:30)
11. Any Other Thing (Reprise) (3:23)

Angel is the longtime collaboration of Ilpo Väisänen, probably still best known as a member of Pan Sonic, and Dirk Dresselhaus, AKA Schneider TM. Together, they produce stark, electro-acoustic, drone-based music. Terra Null., which was recorded in 2011, is their latest LP for Editions Mego, and it shows the duo joined by two other talented experimental artists: Hildur Guðnadóttir and Lucio Capece. Described as a statement on cultural Darwinism and greed, it’s a challenging, tightly-controlled listen, and one that gets better (and more provocative) as you dig further in.
The appearances from Guðnadóttir and Capece are essential to the flow of Terra Null., whose hour- plus runtime is spread over four expansive tracks. Guðnadóttir, a frequent contributor to Angel…

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…releases, provides cello and vocals on the album’s first three tracks. Capece, with his clarinet and saxophone, is a relative newcomer to the project, but not a stranger to this scene; his many credits include collaborations with Mika Vainio and Vladislav Delay. He gets to show his mettle on Terra Null.‘s final two pieces.

The album begins with the 26-minute epic “Naked Land.” Its first moments are probably the most civilized of the entire LP—there’s Dresselhaus’s wandering guitar lines, which wouldn’t be out of place in an old western film, and a few pensive plucks of cello strings that linger to provide a bit of rhythm. Then, suffused with Väisänen and Dresselhaus’s gloomy machinations, the piece moves through masses of guitar noise and effects-laden cello, drifting downward before rising up in a state of near bliss, then ending in an air of wilted melancholy. Among the many sustained sounds on “Monolake” are Guðnadóttir’s clear, synchronized vocal intonations—a touch of humanity that feels almost celestial in this context.

With the addition of Capece, all four artists appear on “Colonialists.” This one comes laced with descending electronic tones, but its leading feature is the combination of reeds and cellos, which make the piece sound like it’s ceaselessly deflating. Lastly, and most aggressively, is “Quake,” where Capece’s instrumentation offers an unsteady focal point for all manner of shrieking, rumbling noise. Given the stated theme of the album, its spacious build, powerful climax and brittle, strung-out ending seem to depict the inevitable and violent collapse of an unsustainable system. I’m partial to the intense catharsis of the last two tracks, but anyone with an appetite for confrontational drones should find Terra Null. more than worth their time.