The Five music thing again for whatever it might be worth. Five? Again? Already? Five more? Do we need a new editorial yet? Is there a point? Is there any point? Was there ever? What do points make? What is the point? Again and again and again (and again). Five more, same as last time (and the time before) five more musical things and yeah, we did say all this last week and the weeks before and blah blah blah while the whole world window and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding and all that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter and like we did ask last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? Cut to the chase, we could just cut ‘n paste the editorial from the last time, there’s loads of music further down the page, well five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and cut to the damn chase, who needs an editorial? Who needs any of this? Who needs it, who needs it, Cynical who? Same what every day? Here’s your five for today

Five musical things then….

1: Springtime – A new band from Australia featuring Gareth Liddiard (The Drones, Tropical Fuck Storm), Jim White (Xylouris White, Dirty Three) & Chris Abrahams (The Necks) – have just released a new single, it comes from their debut LP Springtime out in early November in the US via Joyful Noise Recordings and out in the Spring in Australia (no word on a European release) 

The lyrics for “The Viaduct Love Suicide” were written by Gareth Liddiard’s uncle, Ian Duhig, who became a full-time writer after working with homeless people for fifteen years and has since published eight books of poetry, most recently his ‘New and Selected Poems’ from Picador, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation for Winter 2021. Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once, the National Poetry Competition twice and has been shortlisted four times for the TS Eliot Prize. A Cholmondeley Award recipient and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Duhig shared the tragic origins of the poem: “I wrote this in the style of the Japanese Love Suicide genre (the first two lines quote Chikamatsu’s ‘The Sonezaki Love Suicide’) partly because it is a tradition more forgiving of this desperate act, but mainly because the events inspiring it were so heartbreaking they overwhelmed my attempts to treat it more directly. Where I was working recently an NHS employee, married to another NHS employee, was trying to raise their autistic child. Despite being at the heart of this vast care organisation, the pressures of caring destroyed their marriage, and led eventually to her jumping to her death with her child in her arms, who also died, at a beauty spot already too well-known for such sad departures. I have met many women NHS staff in danger of, or actually being on, a treadmill of caring at work and at home with their own needs crushed, sometimes with tragic results. This poem is dedicated to them, and to the memory of Helen Rogan.”

Springtime is the culmination of three renowned, multidisciplinary musicians each known for distinct styles and sounds—a new endeavor that is as much a tonal experiment as it is a meditation on modern-day absurdity. Their self-titled debut combines elements of art rock, experimental noise, poignant lyricism, free jazz and improvisation to craft austere portraits of a world paralyzed by shellshock.

Springtime will be released on CD/Digital/LP and is available to pre-order via Joyful Noise Recordings here.

2: Kills Birds, not sure we like that name much, me and the pigeons may have an issue with that name, do like everything else besides the name though, that’s vocalist Nina Ljeti up there at the top pf the page. This landed here last week while Frieze Week was distracting us, it kind of feels like the 90’s down in Camden but the not every single thing about Camden in the 90’s was bad. I guess everything comes around again, whatever did happen ot Angel Cage? This is a new track or song or whatever you wish to call it – “Cough Up Cherries” from Kills Birds, available now on Royal Mountain Records & KRO Records. Married out November 12th, 2021, the details should you feel the need to need them.

The new album was recorded at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 by invitation of the man himself, and produced by Yves Rothman. “Cough Up Cherries” arrives with an official video, directed by Brandon Somerhalder, that speaks directly to the forthcoming album, Married, as vocalist Nina Ljeti wears a wedding dress and veil. We see home movies being filmed, and a very domestic, isolated life — literally being put in a box (a TV screen) – juxtaposed with ferocious live performance scenes, where guitarist Jacob Loeb flawlessly pulls off the full-body guitar spin. 

Vocalist Nina Ljeti explains “Cough Up Cherries” and says, “There are a lot of themes to “Cough Up Cherries,” as it was written during the height of the pandemic in 2020. The song touches on feelings of loneliness, paranoia, and hopelessness that we all experienced. In addition, “Cough Up Cherries” also addresses the identity crisis we all face in the digital age. What our performative personas are vs. who we really are when we’re left alone, and if in the midst of great injustice, we are actually able to hold our own selves accountable.”

Guitarist Jacob Loeb adds, “This song’s instrumentation reflects some of the layers of confusion and chaos that were felt by so many at the height of the pandemic. It’s music that we found at the apex of isolation and outrage. This song has a deeply ominous kick drum heartbeat that drives through the unnervingly twisted and interwoven guitar and bass parts that crescendo to a chorus that feels like an authentic expression of our collective rage at that height of that chaotic time. Bosh Rothman, who drummed on the record, brought some serious fire to the drum fills that close out the song.“

Here’s more… “Rabbit, the ferocious first single and opening track on Married is a storming and immediate declaration of intent from the LA-based band, a brutal and intense account of an abusive relationship struggling with power dynamics, oscillating between quiet and loud dynamics – both beautiful and aggressive, devastating and cathartic”. I think it probably was the name that we didn;t get past last time…  

And now for a complete change of miid….

3: Aquaserge – A rather fine excerpt from “The Possibility of a New Work for Aquaserge”, the new album out in Oct 2021 on Made To Measure /Crammed Discs. More details

“The video marks the release of the group’s new album, in which Aquaserge explore the inner waters of contemporary classical music of the mid-20th century, by paying tributes to four of its great atypical figures: Giacinto Scelsi, György Ligeti, Edgard Varèse and Morton Feldman. 

Inspired in particular by the play of timbres and oscillations favoured by Scelsi, by Ligeti’s moving clusters, by Varèse’s melodic cubism and by Feldman’s graphic scores, Aquaserge invite us to free ourselves from the territorial rules of a certain scholarly music, by using a hybrid instrumentation that is half rock and half classical, and an approach which combines rigour and intuition. Ligeti compared some of his pieces to what happens when one observes the still surface of a piece of water: “one sees an image reflected, then the water wrinkles, the image fades and disappears. Very gradually the surface of the water becomes still, and then a new, different image appears.” Aquaserge was inspired by this idea for his Nuit Terrestre(To György Ligeti). Nuit Altérée, a second tribute to Ligeti, “is a vertical, ‘spectral’ approach to Nuit Terrestre”, says the band, “as if we were making cuts or freeze-frames on this body of water and unfolding them”.

The album is released as part of the Made To Measure series, Crammed Discs’ historic collection of ambient, experimental and neo-classical music, which the label is re-launching this year”.

4: NY Composer Ross Goldstein Streams “Diabolo” & Announces Third & Final LP In Solo Mellotron Trilogy, Chutes & Ladders, Due Oct 29 Via His New Label Odd Cat

5: Black Country, New Road are back with more, you might havecaught this on our Other Rock Show yesterday evening, A first taste from the album ‘Ants From Up There’, released 04 February on Ninja Tune:

Admitedly the press release did come in last week while we were occupied by Frieze and everything revolving around Frieze…..

“Black Country, New Road return today with the news that their second album, “Ants From Up There”, will land on February 4th on Ninja Tune. Following on almost exactly a year to the day from the release of their acclaimed debut “For the first time”, the band have harnessed the momentum from that record and run full pelt into their second, with “Ants From Up There” managing to strike a skilful balance between feeling like a bold stylistic overhaul of what came before, as well as a natural progression”.

Released alongside the announcement the band (Lewis Evans, May Kershaw, Charlie Wayne, Luke Mark, Isaac Wood, Tyler Hyde and Georgia Ellery) have also today shared the first single from the album, “Chaos Space Marine”, a track that has already become a live favourite with fans since its first public airings earlier this year – combining sprightly violin, rhythmic piano, and stabs of saxophone to create something infectiously fluid that builds to a rousing crescendo. It’s a track that frontman Isaac Wood calls “the best song we’ve ever written.” It’s a chaotic yet coherent creation that ricochets around unpredictably but also seamlessly. “We threw in every idea anyone had with that song,” says Wood. “So the making of it was a really fast, whimsical approach – like throwing all the shit at the wall and just letting everything stick.”

More details

Previously on these pages, it doesn’t seem that long ago that thier previous album came out – ORGAN THING: Have Black Country, New Road just hit us with what could be the best album of 2021?

Marina Organ presents an hour of music that uses unconventional structures and ‘other’ time signatures – gathered from the worldwide undergrounds of math rock, avant prog, weird electronica and strange pop. This week: music from Van Der Graaf Generator, Black Country New Road, Mr Sterile Assembly, Rascal Reporters, Sebkha-Chott, Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, Magma, and Time of Orchids.

And while we’re here, a taste of things to come, Lolina… More details

“Fast Fashion” is Lolina’s fifth album and first working with Deathbomb Arc. Digital to be released on Oct 27th with vinyl to follow in early 2022 ~ both on pre-sale now. Lolina previously released music as Inga Copeland and was a member of the band Hype Williams between 2009 — 2013.

More… Prog rock, fast cars…