Iconic Jamacian artist LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY who passed away in 2021,
aged 85, was a 24/7 music junk. A lot of his work isn’t even released yet,
but ready to be so.
Let’s start with this posthumous LP, titled MERCY
featuring artists/producers Peter Harris & Fritz Catlin.
It’ll land on 28 February.
Press info: “One of the most compelling and complex releases of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s
post-Black Ark canon, Mercy is the fruit of a long and complex working process that has
yielded exceptional results. Spearheaded by the maverick artist and musical outlier Peter
Harris with Fritz Catlin, the drumming co-founder of industrial funk dub act, 23 Skidoo,
Mercy’s experimental sonic occupies its own space.”
The video features animated art works by Lee “Scratch” Perry and Peter Harris
The themes in the animated drawings from the ‘Powers Bible: Genesis to Revelation’
are Perry and Harris’s Old Testament take on an updated Bible for our corrupted age.
Another previously unreleased album named INSURRECTION,
following the splendid 2021 Mutator LP, by the late great ALAN VEGA (1938-2016) is out now.
11 songs showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising
force from one of the most influential artists of all time.
Liz Lamere (Vega’s widow and collaborator): “Insurrection was created in the time
period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and
captures the intense energy of NYC in the 90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism,
racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this
album.”
Jared Artaud (fellow Vega collaborator): “Insurrection hits hard and shows the power
and intensity of Alan Vega’s visionary solo work. It feels like he was trying to break new
ground. There’s always a kind of magic that goes into working on Vega’s music. I feel like
he was tapped into some other dimension. One hand in the gutter and one hand in
the stars.”
Pitchfork: “Unearthing 11 lost recordings from the late ’90s, the Suicide co-founder’s
newest posthumous release frames him as a doomsday prophet of the information age.
Born into a brazen New York underworld, Vega spent his career taking evil, masticating
it to its sonic rudiments, and spitting it back out, often directly in people’s faces. Half of experiencing his work is allowing yourself to suffer, to be under his control.
This newest collection is an oppressive, nauseating roller-coaster ride.
Once you get off, you’ll want to do it again.”
TUTV: Uncanny percussion, ghostly vocals, other-worldly vibes, jagged jams, capricous synth loops. It’s Alan Vega allright with another lost treasure. Modern day art from last century showing once again that Vega was a musical visionary, an absorbing noise crusader, and a doom and gloom prophet.
Another previously unreleased album, following the splendid 2021 Mutator LP,
by the late greatALAN VEGA (1938-2016) raises from his archives on May 31,
named INSURRECTION.
11 songs showcase the unparalleled vision and uncompromising
force from one of the most influential artists of all time.
Liz Lamere (Vega’s widow and collaborator): “Insurrection was created in the time
period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and
captures the intense energy of NYC in the 90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism,
racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this
album.”
Jared Artaud (fellow Vega collaborator): “Insurrection hits hard and shows the power
and intensity of Alan Vega’s visionary solo work. It feels like he was trying to break new
ground. There’s always a kind of magic that goes into working on Vega’s music. I feel like
he was tapped into some other dimension. One hand in the gutter and one hand in
the stars.”
Superb track from Ride‘s new superb album Interplay
It starts with Mark Gardner‘s starry-eyed vocals glistering over a poppy mid-tempo soundscape. At the 3-minute mark, the song fades out with subtle piano touches but restarts for a psychedelic, multi-layered wall-of-orgastic sound finale.
These British indie upstarts take you on a bouncy ride with
this jagged juggernaut from their upcoming debut LP.
Enrage Engage is a roaring roller coaster ride, going forth and back, left and right,
circling around a pulsating Yard Act like groove that gets under your skin without
asking, while the song derails in different surprising, up and down directions, now
and then.
Don’t miss these young bloodthirsty dogs, they’re going places.
Another supersonic gender sucker-punch from Brighton‘s riotous feminist punk duo fury.
They slash, trash, and smash with unbridled vigour and biting zing. Not your typical girls.
7. ‘Something To Fight For’ by TYPHOID ROSIE (Brooklyn, NY)
Photo: Janier De Jesus, via Typhoid Rosie
It’s the first single off their, forthcoming 5th LP, called Last Words. It lands on June 21. More info here.
As we experienced before Typhoid Rosie always storm full steam ahead from
the kick-off until the very last rollicking riff. This punked-up, harmonious chant
with its sickly sticky refrain triggers your best zigzagging moves.
Expect 122 seconds of afire party fuel peppered with Rosie Rebel‘s
combative rawk’ n roll vocality and vociferous pizzaz.
I’m quite sure that AOA are huge fans of former Swedish glam and glitter pop duo Roxette. The bliss and blitz at play on Reckless Heart is sonically similar. Sizzling guitars, battering drums/bass grooves, sensuous vocals and a peppy chorus combine here for a power pop pearl that flames lustrously. Orchestral melodiousness, fiery 90s spirit, and musical.
10. ‘Just Like Everybody Else’ by SPIELMANN (Leeds, UK)
Photo credit: Thandiwe Zivengwa
This song will feature on his debut EP, titled ‘Fifteen Minutes With Spielmann’, and landing
on 31 May.
This is glorious, full-orchestrated pop, that transfers you in an eye/ear blink to a sonic dreamland with its affecting melodiousness, riveting chorus and warm-hearted vocals. Three minutes and twenty seconds with Spielmann sounding not like everybody else.
“The song and video have been largely informed by the unfolding events in Gaza. Body Bags looks at humanity turning in on itself. For all the beauty & harmony in the world, we are chaotic by nature – violent and cruel to our own. It explores the human condition and our ability to inflict pain and suffering upon the most vulnerable.”
Producer Owls shares his thoughts about the dramatic Gaza fiasco with
a disturbing techno twister that sounds like an ultimate alarm alert.
Get up, stand up, and fight for your right to go out, and do it with
these Boston beatniks. They make your pelvis shake and swing with
some riff-infused rock ‘n’ roll while Avril Lavigne‘s chick alter ego,
named Jennifer Tefft, as your vocal guide.
A previously unreleased album, named Insurrection by the late Brooklyn born master of minimalism ALAN VEGA (1938-2016), half
of proto-punk duo Suicide, comes out on May 31st.
Ahead of the release comes this taster, called Mercy.
Uncanny percussion, ghostly vocals, and other-worldly
vibes.
Expect a captivating bluesy and moony slice of music that grows slowly but
surely in ardency and fervency along its Springsteen-esque strumming way. Wistful
and impassioned alternating/duet vocals flow upfront and lead us, beat by beat,
into a glowing and electrical finale.
Lonely Little Kitsch do it their own Fleetwood grunge way.
Start spreading rumours about this enthralling duo and
this new notable score.
Following last month’s frolicsome song Anna Madonna, Blansjaar entertains our ears again with this topnotch tune.
It’s a folky, sickly sticking, jangly earworm with Blansjaar
laid-back vocals rollin’ all over it.
“My face looks like I spent the night with Freddie Krueger”.
From the band’s new forthcoming longplayer, titled Broken Hearted Blue, out on June 14. Pre-order info here.
Country Americana at its romantic and heavy-hearted best. Heart-and-soul vocals and easy-going, lovey-dovey vibes for the midnight hours. Wurlitzer jukeboxes were invited
to play this kind of lullaby in bars where the lonely gather for some companion.
The opening piece from this Swiss poppy shoegazers
brand new 5-track EP, titled Hide And Seek.
Crystalline vocals, soothing resonance with warm synths and glimmering guitar play.
A sWeet little, soft-hearted ballad. Think The Sundays fronted by the wonderful Harriet Wheeler
Shoegazy dream pop musing from Seadog‘s upcoming LP Internal Noise, out 15 May.
Harmonious vocals, fanciful sonority, bedazzling guitar solo, and a head-in-the-clouds chorus combine for a top effort.
No retirement for the 80-year-old JOHN CALE. He’s one of
the many musicians that will go on until their last breath.
The Welsh icon released his 17th solo longplayer,
called MERCY this month viaDouble Six/Domino.
The album features a cool club of guests. Animal Collective, Sylvan
Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress, and yes, Fat White Family too.
Press info: “Cale’s first full album in a decade, moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic torment toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; Mercy is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.”
Rolling Stone said: “Even as Mercy glares into the void, Cale demonstrates his optimism
by hanging out with younger musicians and often centering the album around contemporary rhythms, like the hip-hop he’s long considered to be a modern avant-garde.Like his Welsh brother and hero Dylan Thomas, Cale is going to fight against the dying of the light until the light is no more, but the ghosts of his past will be with him until the end.”
TUTV: No earworms, no feel good tunes, no pop hits. At 80 Cale still explores his mind and soul and he does it with shadowy introspections and chilling musings. Gloomy electronics create an obscure atmosphere and sometimes it feels like Cale is trapped in the labyrinth of his own psyche. You need several spins to get into the former VU legend’s world, but once you’re there the experience is spellbinding.
SINGLES: Night Crawling / Story Of Blood / Noise Of You
No retirement for the 80-year-old JOHN CALE. He’s one of
the many musicians that will go on until their last breath.
The Welsh icon just released his 17th solo longplayer.
It’s called MERCY and is out viaDouble Six/Domino.
The album features a cool club of guests. Animal Collective, Sylvan
Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress, and yes, Fat White Family too.
Press info: “Cale’s first full album in a decade, moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronic torment toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future with the help of some of music’s most curious young minds. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; Mercy is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.”
UNCUT: “Mercy is the most out-there work Cale has made in some time. The presence of Cale’s voice – familiar, rich and avuncular – almost disguises just how radical much of the music is.”9/10.
TUTV: No earworms, no feel good tunes, no pop hits. At 80 Cale still explores his mind and soul and he does it with shadowy introspections and chilling musings. Gloomy electronics create an obscure atmosphere and sometimes it feels like Cale is trapped in the labyrinth of his own psyche. You need several spins to get into the former VU legend’s world, but once you’re there the experience is spellbinding.
SINGLES: Night Crawling / Story Of Blood / Noise Of You
The Welsh icon just announced the release of his 17th solo longplayer. It’s called MERCY and lands on 20 January 2023 viaDouble Six/Domino.Cale already shared a taster with first single Night Crawling a few weeks ago.
The album features a cool club of guests. Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress, and yes, Fat White Family too. The news comes with a another new track named STORY OF BLOOD. A 7-and-a-half minute piano ballad featuring American songstress Weyes Blood who co-sings at times.
