Soft Walls' 3rd album; 'Not as Bad as It Seems' was a long time coming. Rabid enthusiasm, ground down by the slog of getting through a week. Falling out of love with what you felt defined you. Losing more than you thought you could lose. It's hard to keep going when you don't know why you're doing it. Yet still, Dan Reeves, the sole proprietor of Soft Walls (also guitarist in Cold Pumas and former overseer of the Faux Discx label) kept going. Just, very slowly. The race is over, but the tortoise is still determined to get over the line. What else is there to do?
'Not as Bad...' is part self-critique, and part self-help. Our author throws his shortcomings in a pit, climbs down, and tries to figure a way out of this particular hole. The result is Soft Walls' most direct, concise, and (dare to whisper it) honest record to date. 9 tracks of self-reflective sauce, reduced down to a rich ragu.
It's the closest Reeves has got to his sonic utopia. Years of tinkering with pieces of cheap equipment, that feed his beloved 8-track cassette tape machine, finally paying off. Blown out and turned up to its master's satisfaction. The guitars are cranked. The drum machine is cranked. The tambourine is cranked. Everything is cranked. It’s all in the red, crackling and alive. Compositionally there's a little less 'vibe' and a little more action than last time around, 2014’s well-embraced ‘No Time’. Songs are chopped short, guitar lines either blaze or stick to the note, nothing is there that shouldn’t be. The drum machine sound is real nice. 'Not as Bad as it Seems' is exactly one walk to work in duration. Enough time to get lost in thought, but short and sweet enough that you wish it wasn’t over just yet.
The record rips through multiple looks in it’s short run-time. From FM motorik guitar rock, via high gain proto-punk, to looped ragas and lo-fidelity, wistful ballads. It’s all bathed in the record’s warm tape glow, resulting in a satisfyingly cohesive journey.
Tags
alternative bedroom pop indie motorik post-punk psychedelic Brighton
Brighton,UK

With their sublime second album, Palace have pulled off a rare pop trick with Life After. Songs steeped in darkness emerge into light, from bleak situations spring fresh starts. Bathed in the band’s atmospheric alt-rock, the future feels brighter and more optimistic. Life After is both an album about loss and a manual to moving on. Out 7/12 via Caroline/Fiction.

In July 2017, New Order returned to the stage at Manchester’s Old Granada Studios where Joy Division made their television debut on Tony Wilson’s So It Goes programme in 1978. For the celebrated show ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes .., New Order deconstructed, rethought and rebuilt a wealth of material from throughout their career: familiar and obscure, old and new.
Featuring tracks such as Disorder, from Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures and not played live for 30 years, up to 2015’s Plastic from New Order’s critically acclaimed Top 5 album Music Complete - this is the perfect document of those magical 5 nights.
The album was recorded live on 13th July 2017 and includes the full show and encore plus 3 additional tracks recorded over the residency to give listeners a full representation of the breadth of material performed. Released on triple vinyl, double CD and to download/stream, ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes .. is released on July 12th
This special series of intimate shows took over Stage 1 of Manchester’s iconic Old Granada Studios for five nights in July 2017. Created in collaboration with visual artist Liam Gillick, who has previously presented solo exhibitions at venues such as Tate Britain and MoMA in New York; and orchestrated by composer-arranger Joe Duddell, a fellow son of Manchester and a frequent collaborator with the band, the live show was performed by the band with a 12-strong synthesiser ensemble from the Royal Northern College of Music. This summer New Order will be performing at festivals throughout Europe and have just announced a headline tour for October playing Prague, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. “A perfect collision of old and new orders… a brilliantly theatrical mix” The i News “Outstanding… A stunning and artful setup. A highly effective marriage of synth strings and atmospheric textures that gives the songs a twist and a fresh coat of sonic paint” Louder Than War

If you'd claimed just a few years ago that Shura would make an album exploring "all that love is', few would have been as surprised as Aleksandra Denton herself (nicknamed Shura at a young age). Ever since the 2014 viral hit 'Touch' - and it's stunning video in which Shura, crucially, ended up alone - an impassioned global fanbase have awaited another record of heartbreak anthems. And when Shura started work on 'forevher', she did so at her most tired and homesick, setting up shop in Minneapolis at the close of a two- year tour cycle for her debut album, 'Nothing's Real'. Here, "religion (u can lay your hands on me)' - along with the seeds of the Minneapolis sound - eventually became a lynchpin for the rest of the album. Just as importantly, it was in Minneapolis that Shura began talking to her current girlfriend online. 'forevher,' then, is a record born from a budding romance, covering everything from the initial pull of desire, to the giddy joy of nally being together, to recognising the moment when the connection develops from lust into something scarily meaningful. Here is a classic London-to-NYC love story, but one told through the lter of dating apps and Skype chats. And whilst how to live - and love - as a queer woman has always been integral to Shura, it's remarkable to hear these stories twisted through such a gorgeous amalgam of in uences: Joni Mitchell and Minnie Riperton, Bon Iver and Frank Ocean, Prince and Ariel Pink. Through these inspirations, Shura's own modern, outlier perspective found a newer, more daring approach to sound and song. The luxurious groove of "side effects' shakes off the shackles of past love, chie y saying goodbye "to that more anxious iteration of me. I don't miss her.' "religion (u can lay your hands on me),' meanwhile, is an unabashedly queer sex-jam - free of guilt, long-term future, and faith itself. As the album progresses, so too does the relationship deepen, with the risks and rewards getting greater and greater. 'forevher' is an album that feels the fear and does it anyway: "princess leia' considers the fact real love means having so much more to lose. Elsewhere, "BKLYNLDN' looks at romantic longing through the lens of texts, anxiety-inducing silences, and what presence and absence really means in today's relationships. The record closes on the epic "skyline,' which builds to an explosive crescendo before levelling out to peace in a way that evokes some of the lusher, linear moments on Frank Ocean's 'Blonde'. For Shura, this soundtracks not only her nal relocation to New York but also a much deeper journey as an artist and young woman. 'forevher' feels the same as it's creator: a little sharper, a little wiser.

Dead Light’s sound is characterised by distant and reflective, yet intimate and emotive piano motifs coupled with a plethora of analogue artefacts ranging from loops constructed on cheap old tape machines, tape delays (via daisy chained reel to reel machines), homemade synthesisers, contact mics and hydrophones.
11 tracks in total, the Dead Light LP is an exploration of change, a sonic ethnography that contemplates a personal narrative of transition and identity.

★全英音樂獎最佳男歌手肯定、中生代獨立民謠詩人，2018年全新個人專輯登場
★往返英國與法國錄音，打造最特別的民謠聲響
★收錄"Towing the Line"、”Someone in the Doorway”等10首全新力作
具有貫穿人心與靈魂的清澈嗓音，搭配上獨立民謠的音樂鋪陳，融入些許搖滾以及環境音樂的元素，Ben Howard不僅僅是個音樂家那麼簡單，他更是一位透過樂章在揮灑詩篇的藝術家，伴隨著輕柔的吉他演奏，他用歌曲訴說著難以言喻的抽象意竟，也成就了他在當今樂壇的特殊地位。
現年31歲，本名Benjamin John Howard的Ben Howard，在2008年時正式踏入樂壇，這十年以來他靠著【Every Kingdom】、【The Burgh Island E.P.】、【I Forget Where We Were】，多次登上英國金榜，並且拿下2座全英音樂獎；Ben Howard的音樂擁有不可思議的動人力量，透過講述人與人之間的情感交流，溫柔地呈現出當代人們的焦慮、不安、騷動以及渴望。闊別了樂壇整整四年，跑遍世界各地的Ben Howard，在親眼見證許多人事物之後，心境上有了顯著的改變與昇華，他將所見所聞融入到音樂裡，再次豐富了他原本就以飽滿的創作，同時也把各種體悟幻化成一個又一個的音符，搭配上最適合的節奏，寫出一首首讓人驚艷的歌曲；等待了長達1400多個日子，在所有樂迷的殷切期盼之下，Ben Howard終於交出了全新個人專輯【Noonday Dream】。
【Noonday Dream】整張專輯從創作、譜寫、製作，全由Ben Howard一人包辦，因為他必須要確定自己的歌曲，能夠誠摯傳遞出他的情感和概念；首支主打歌曲"Towing the Line"，顯現出Ben Howard這四年以來的能量累積，透過巧妙的吉他演奏手法，讓歌曲與情感完美融合，帶出讓人驚艷的音樂火花；情感豐富、歌詞意境抽象的"A Boat to an Island on the Wall"，以長達7分10秒的大篇幅，敘述著發人省思的故事，同時也是Ben Howard音樂表現的經典手法；讓人沉浸於優美旋律的"Someone in the Doorway"，是專輯中最為動聽的歌曲之一，在情感不斷堆疊的行進中，見證了Ben Howard音樂上的昇華；除此之外，"What the Moon Does"、"The Defeat"、"There’s Your Man"、"Murmurations"等歌曲也都是Ben Howard內心最真誠的獨白，值得所有人一再細細品味。

SING AS THE CROW FLIES by Laura Cannell & Polly Wright, released 02 August 2019

SING AS THE CROW FLIES is the debut vocal album by composer/performers Laura Cannell and Polly Wright. Re-voicing the voices of the lost, forgotten and hidden people who have lived, worked and loved through the centuries, through the seasons, through the air and in the Marshlands.
Sing as the Crow Flies is a set of nine vocal tracks re-voicing the rural landscape, surrounding reed beds and marshes on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. Growing up either side of the River Yare, with a common love of the area, Laura Cannell & Polly Wright are musicians, composers and creators with deep roots in the marshes and traditions of this rural area. Both having different musical journeys, they discovered each others work in early 2019 through disparate connections and instagram. They met up to improvise, and a friendship and collaboration began. Giving themselves the criteria of using only their voices with no rules or structures. They laid themselves creatively bare and have embarked on a journey of instant composition with space for spontaneous improvisation and as a reaction to the formal training and institutions of their parallel early classical backgrounds.
Frustrated by the lack of women’s voices in the rural landscape writings of East Anglia and further afield the duo decided that if they can’t unearth the voices of the past they can take now as a starting point and add their own voices, the voices and experiences of living and working in rural surroundings in the 21st century, not always harking back but being present now.
The music is created through different means such as heterophonic improvisation akin to the Psalms from the Isles of Lewis, Hildegard von Bingen inspired call and responses and taking words from the 18th century ‘Norfolk Garland, A Collection of the Superstitious Beliefs and Practices, Proverbs, Curious Customs, Ballads and Songs, of the People of Norfolk.’ Together with their own writings and wordless inventions the album is entirely improvised in this brand new collaboration.
Sing As The Crow Flies was created as a site specific sound installation for the 2019 Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, UK. It can be seen and heard between 2nd August and 8th September 2019. The installation sits around the trunk of a 30 year old Walnut Tree in a cherry orchard where five telephone handsets hang from the tree ready to be picked up by passers-by…
“There are voices at the end of this line. They are inside Raveningham Church just over 1000 metres as the crow flies from where you stand. Inside the stone walls of the 11th century church two women are moving, singing, separately and together. Every harmonic conversation is improvised, they are moving between the stone and wood, in light and shadow, calling and responding in and out of focus.
Footsteps, birds and air can be heard. These new voices are part of the rural landscape, they are using their surroundings as inspiration along with their personal musical traditions & folklore. They are finding a common tongue, their native tongue of the marshlands, two people living, working and creating here in the 21st century. Tapping into vein-like branches, links and marshes. Private voices are woken, then laid again to rest.”

The eagerly anticipated second studio album, FIBS, due for release on 25 October via Moshi Moshi/Black Prince Fury. Arriving three and a half years on from the release of her Scottish Album of the Year Award-winning debut studio album Varmints, FIBS is 45 minutes of technicolour maximalism, almost perpetual rhythmic reinvention, and boasts a visceral richness and unparalleled accessibility.
FIBS is no “Varmints Part 2” — the retreading of old ground, or even a smooth progression from one project to another, just isn’t Meredith’s style. Instead, if anything, it’s “Varmints 2.0”, an overhauled and updated version of the composer’s soundworld, involving, in places, a literal retooling that has seen Meredith chuck out her old MIDI patches and combine her unique compositional voice with brand-new instruments, both acoustic and electronic, and a writing process that’s more intense than she’s ever known. Despite Meredith’s background and skills these tracks are no academic exercise, the world of FIBS is at both overwhelming and intimate, a journey of intense energy and joyful irreverence.
FIBS, says Meredith, are “lies — but nice friendly lies, little stories and constructions and daydreams and narratives that you make for yourself or you tell yourself”. Entirely internally generated and perfectly balanced, they can be a source of comfort and excitement, intrigue and endless entertainment. The eleven fibs contained on Anna Meredith’s second record will do all that, and more besides.

UK,Warp CD28

London sludge metal outfit SŪRYA return with their sophomore album to be released July 26th. The band’s brand of atmospheric post-metal is driven by solemn riffs and gloomy percussion. Their music is equal parts the torrential heaviness of bands like Corrupted (Jap) and Neurosis, with shades of Amebix’s desolate crust and the heart-rending atmospherics of Wolves In The Throne Room.
Unlike its instrumental predecessor Apocalypse A.D., the upcoming album Solastalgia sees SŪRYA expand on their sound, adding their own spoken word as well as sparse vocals. Today the band is finally sharing details of their new album, and reveal the cover-art and tracklist.
The band says: “Our new album Solastalgia picks up where Apocalypse AD left off. Solastalgia refers to the psychic distress that we feel in the face of environmental disaster. We wrote these songs as an outpouring of that pain we feel in the face of the destruction of our planet. As a lament for the loss of its innocent creatures. And as an expression of melancholy at the seemingly endless acts of injustice that surround us. But also in the hope that together, through solidarity, we can fight through the murk of despair and find a way out. We are hugely grateful to have worked again with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse studio on the recording. We also want to say a huge thank you to both Danni M Rudie for her incredible cover-artwork, and Birdy Artwork for her always beautiful artwork for the liner.”

Birdsong is stunning to hear, alluring even in repetition. Yet it is so commonplace that we often miss it, even when the volume is deafening. Like a netlabel curated by the natural world, it is unlimited in supply, available for free streaming and wireless capture at nearly any hour. It is impossible to silence, and therefore impossible to value.
An interesting debate took place a few years ago, best detailed by the BBC program Why Birds Sing. The science may be concluded but the impact of the question still resonates: do birds really sing? For pleasure? From an unlimited spectrum of notes? Or is birdsong strictly biological, a matter of survival, deterministic in melody and varied only from one species to another? In other words, is the verse of birds elective, or instinctive? By now we’ve all read Richard Skelton’s background and we are aware of his recording methods, and the question is sure to divide his audience neatly in half. Was Box of Birch a search for aesthetic fulfillment? Or was it exactly what it needed to be at the time?
The material that Richard Skelton releases under his given name has always seemed like his most honest. The guises — however transparent — are left aside: A Broken Consort, Clouwbeck, Heidika. This might only be the power of suggestion, as his techniques do not change from one album to the next. Of the acoustic guitar, Skelton still holds fret noise and string buzz to almost the same regard he does its acoustic resonance. Of the violin, he still values the ridges of the string nearly as much as the notes it delivers. By any fair assumption he records first and draws up the blueprints afterward, exhaustively layering and trimming bits of guitar, violin, and piano into something akin to white light. It is the process that earns him mention among other ambient artists, not the output; Verse of Birds is an acoustic collection right down to its fibers, and any electronic manipulations serve the instruments, not the reverse.
Verse of Birds is mostly familiar ground, to be sure, and its 100 minutes do not feel shorter than that. Tracks run long; not one of them is shorter than five minutes and a few exceed ten. This way an hour passes before “Little Knives,” which many of us will miss the first few times we set out. But it is the first highlight, an anxious wait under turbulent weather. The rapid boil of strings and precise thud of plectrum is mesmerizing. Writers loosely apply the term “modern classical,” and with tracks like “Little knives” it is clear why: the ambiguous breeze of violin, the profound ache of piano and guitar, the minimal arrangements, and the abandonment of big-room storytelling. It is graceful, ageless, and nourishing.
Similarly, nearly another 30 minutes pass until we glimpse the closing track, “Domain.” An 18-minute indulgence, yet downright persistent in temperament, the composition moves with adagio half-steps and subtle melody. Unlike with “Little knives,” Skelton sets aside his proprietary abstractness for a deliberate narrative path, contrasting the rich flow of violin with more muted chirps of guitar. After a quarter-hour of adagio bliss, the movement slows further, concluding with broad, sometimes industrial gusts of string, and gripping echo.
Like the vocalizations implied by its title, Verse of Birds moves us with its simplicity and caprice; it thrills us with its loops. But it differs in one way: its value to the listener is clear.