Never mind the editorial bit at the top, same thing, different week. Another five slices of music things and however you slice it and of course it was fishy and here comes the introduction that heralds the latest Five Music Things feature thing. Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Do we need to do the editorial bit again? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying fish out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? Was there ever a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Snake foil? Everything must go and same as last time (and the time before that) five, and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading. When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this thing and like we asked last time, does anyone bother reading the editorial? Does anyone ever actually look down the rabbit hole or is it all just method acting? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we do it so you don’t have to, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery. Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, 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 cut slash and cut it, who needs an editorial or words or worms in general? What’s Wordsworth? Just facts and links and sounds then. Here you go, play the music, grab your five, eat your greens, go eat some art, go eat some dirt and don’t forget whatever it was we said last time…
1: Lana Del Rabies has a new video and single, or should it be single and video? Whichever way around, this is very good news indeed and well, “Prayers of Consequence, the second single from Lana Del Rabies’ upcoming 3rd album, is the overture of STREGA BEATA. The song moves into a layered, rhythmic warning from many voices, about the consequences of brutality and apathy, and the saga of a deity grappling with a man-made apocalypse. The video is a collaborative effort between 5 American artists residing the southwest to bring the mystical and allegorical imagery of the song to life: Louise Saafi, Adam Cooper-Terán, Abrahm Cooper, M. Dean Bridges and Lana Del Rabies (Sam An) herself. All filmed various rituals performed by Lana Del Rabies over a span of 2 years in different landscapes of Arizona.
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There’s more of the album here, the digital version can be chased down via Bandcamp or here for the vinyl
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2: Art Terry & The Black Bohemians have just released this soul-drenched footage, not quite sure why Art isn’t far bigger news that he is/ He and his band do keep coming up with these gems….
Art has a radio show, he broadcasts on London’s rather special Resonance 104.4fm, he and his band are also playlnig a benefit for the station this week as part of Club Intergral’s benefit show at Iklectic on Thursday February 23rd, Here’s what Club Integral say about Art…
“Art Terry is a conceptual Black artist from Los Angeles. His primary practice is as a composer/musician. His songs explore Black politics, sexuality and religion, through a lyrical fusion [gumbo] of African American folklore and hauntological funk. A singer and pianist, Art underpins deeply personal lyrics with dense melodic textures to create conceptual Black music. Brought up in the gospel tradition, Art evokes the sacred figure of the robed and commanding preacher alongside the profane swagger and bravado of the street-hustling savant in his live performances. Whether playing solo or with his ensemble of talented musicians, The Black Bohemians, Art’s live performances are theatrical and compelling. Art collaborates with Stew, who created the musical Passing Strange, exploring his and Art’s youthful experiences on the seamy streets of downtown Los Angeles and in Europe, living in squats and art collectives and surviving on a diet of shoplifted food, hashish and freaky music. Passing Strange was made into a film by Spike Lee. Art has been a keyboardist with Stew & the Negro Problem at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC, Redcat in Los Angeles, the Harlem Stage and many other venues. The New York Times described Art’s playing as ‘terrific’.
3: Hack-Poets Guild – more of their refined folk flavours and a new single, Hemp and Flax, ahead of the new album, Blackletter Garland that’s due out on March 10th, it is;nt quite as good as the gentle galloping brilliance of Daring Highwayman but the nthat would taske some floowing, Hemp and Falax very nearly is as good and how satisfyling is all that switching on at the start of the video
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“On March 10th One Little Independent are proud to release the high-concept debut album from the brand-new collaboration between three of UK folk’s most unique and prestigious voices; Marry Waterson, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann. ‘Blackletter Garland’ by Hack-Poets Guild boasts twelve fascinating interpretations and original compositions that tell intricate tales of birth, love, conflict and death, with all the imagination of the folklore from which they’re based.
Nathaniel Mann, a prize-winning experimental composer, performer and sound designer leads on new single ‘Hemp & Flax’. It takes its title from hemp beating, sung from the perspective of female inmates at Bridewell prison and is performed with a hemp beating brake and mallet.
He tells us; “Finding this song in the archives was a bit of “struck gold” moment, exactly the kind of thing we dream of when we go digging for old songs that no one else is singing. The lyrics are fantastically vivid and full of old 16th Century slang, “punkes and panders” etc, and it’s got a fascinating history behind it. It’s written from the perspective of the female inmates of the Bridewell prison in London, who were forced to work to pay their stay in the jail – so it’s a pretty unique insight into the past.
The big mystery was how it was sung, there is no trace of the original melody. This is a song to be sung whilst beating hemp for rope making; so it’s a “work song”, I realised that I probably needed to be doing a similar hemp-beating action to understand how the lyrics might have been sung. I managed to get access to a “Hemp-Break” – a old wooden contraption for beating tough hemp stalks down into thinner strands, and once I started beating the hemp and singing at the same time the song just came out of the physical activity, the pulse, sweat, and drive of the beating action. The backbone of the track is the clacking rhythm of the hemp being beaten, the studio was thick with hemp dust by the end of the take. Marry and Lisa’s vocals on the chorus bring the whole thing together, I’m sure that old song would have been a sing-a-long just like this one is”.
Inspired by historic broadside ballads, the trio rejuvenate and reinvent these stories, bringing them vividly to life for a new generation. Following an invite to the Bodleian Library by Sound UK Arts, the disposable song sheets (that would’ve once sold for pence, and were the forerunners of modern news media) gave a rare insight into the past whilst striking a chord with themes still relevant today. Celebrated film composer and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver helped in their exploration as a producer, and in adding fresh ideas to these past texts.
Across the LP anecdotal, descriptive yarns are spun to a backdrop of atmospheric strings, rustic instrumentation and elegant vocal harmonies used precisely to communicate the victims as easily as they do the villains. The result is a compelling and thoroughly enjoyable balance between the traditional and contemporary.
On ‘Blackletter Garland’ the acclaimed trio combine a wealth of knowledge and history, on an album that deeply conveys the passion, research, and authenticity that the writers, poets and their stories deserve.
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And and and….
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4: The Storm Bugs – Don’t ask us who the rather delightful Storm Bugs are, all we know is that the Storm Bugs are Philip Sanderson & Steven Ball, and that between 1978-81 Storm Bugs released two 7-inch records and a number of cassettes on the Snatch Tapes label. In 2002 the project continued with The Bugs Are Back EP and in 2017 the Certified Original & Vintage Fakes CDR. This week they’ve released this rather fine album, Best Before 2027, an album recorded in Hastings and New Cross, 2022, the album is yours for just a pound via Bandcamp, the sound and syntax of that is outrageously cheap, unless someone got the wrong end of the stick. Why would you have a pigeon in your pocket? Who listens to generic ambient music?
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it is a case of just letting these things gather and then when there’s five, er fire them at you…
5: Spirit of Hamlet have just emerged from somewhere ot other with their brand new single Float, a track from their new album, Northwest of Hamuretto, due out on March 17th via Broken Sound Tapes.
“Spirit of Hamlet is a long distance collaboration of four absolute history-making juggernauts: Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, The Stooges), Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple), Scotty Irving (Clang Quartet), and highly-acclaimed songwriter/producer Benjy Johnson. The result is a blend of personalized stamps while taking on its own identity entirely. A masterful fusion of psych, punk, experimental noise and free jazz. SOH is a wild ride of four well-rounded yet distinctive musicians creating something only these four could”.
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And while we’re here, how good is this/ Extraits du concert de Doppler au Ninkasi Kao le 27 mai 2004 issus d’un DVD réalisé pour le festival “Lyon rugit la nuit”
And meanwhile…
THE ORGAN 