To mark the fourth anniversary of Love What Survives, Mount Kimbie have unearthed two previously unreleased tracks recorded during the album’s sessions. The songs are called ‘Blue Liquid’ and ‘Black Stone’, and they’re available to download for free by subscribing to Mount Kimbie’s mailing list here (until 8am BST on August 1); a 12″ with the songs is out October 8.
‘Blue Liquid’ is also accompanied by a video directed by Peter Eason Daniels, which you can check out below. “The video is about waiting, moving and stopping,” Daniels said in a statement. “Collective moments of solitude experienced between one place and another.”
Nas has announced the sequel to his 2020 album King’s Disease. The rapper’s new LP, King’s Disease II, will be out August 6 via Mass Appeal Records. Check out its cover artwork below.
Earlier this month, Nas enlisted Cordae and Freddie Gibbs for a new version of ‘Life Is Like A Dice Game’. King’s Disease, which was produced entirely by Hit-Boy, earned Nas his first ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
Angel Olsen has shared her take on Men Without Hats’ 1982 track ‘Safety Dance’, which will appear on her forthcoming EP of ’80s covers, Aisle. Check it out below.
“I felt this song could be reinterpreted to be about this time of quarantine and the fear of being around anyone or having too much fun,” Olsen remarked in a statement. “It made me wonder, is it safe to laugh or dance or be free of it all for just a moment?”
Aisle is set to arrive on August 20 via Olsen’s new Jagjaguwar imprint somethingscosmic. Previously, Olsen shared her rendition of Laura Branigan’s ‘Gloria’.
Dusty Hill, bassist and longtime member of the Texan rock trio ZZ Top, has died at the age of 72. In a statement posted to ZZ Top’s social media channels, Hill’s surviving bandmates Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard said that Hill passed away in his sleep at his Houston home. “We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’,” they wrote. “We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.’ You will be missed greatly, amigo.”
Joseph Michael Hill was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. Along with his brother Rocky and future ZZ Top bandmate Frank Beard, Hill played in ’60s garage bands like the Warlocks, the Cellar Dwellers, and American Blues. In 1968, Rocky left the group after deciding he wanted to focus more on straight blues. Hill and Beard moved to Houston, spending a short period of time in a fake version of the Zombies – a group assembled by American promoters after the British act broke up. Teaming up with singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons, they formed ZZ Top, sharing their first single ‘Salt Lick’ in 1969; the aptly titled ZZ Top’s First Album came out two years later. The trio’s third album, 1974’s Tres Hombres, was their breakthrough, bringing them their first bit hit with ‘La Grange’.
Throughout the rest of the 1970s, ZZ Top would release several more records and scored hits like ‘Tush’ and ‘It’s Only Love’. 1979’s ‘Degüello’ introduced ZZ Top’s new image – the band dressed identically and sported massive beards – and marked a shift towards a more synth-driven sound. The following decade saw the band further incorporating modern stylings without abandoning their blues roots, which took them to a new level of commercial success. Their top-selling 1983 album Eliminator featured the songs ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’, ‘Sharp Dressed Man’, and ‘Legs’, which became smash hits on both MTV and radio, while 1985’s Afterburner reached No. 4 on the US charts. Their last record with Hill was 2012’s Rick Rubin-produced La Futura.
In 2004, ZZ Top were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the band kept touring throughout the 2000s. Just last month, they hit the road for their 50th anniversary tour after a 16-month hiatus, though Hill was forced to skip a string of US shows after sustaining a hip injury. Following the news of Hill’s death, Gibbons confirmed ZZ Top will carry on as a band and that Hill will be replaced by longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis.
Soft Cell, the English duo of Marc Almond and producer/instrumentalist David Ball, have announced their first new album in 20 years. The follow-up to 2002’s Cruelty Without Beauty is called *Happiness Not Included and it’s set for release in spring 2022 via BMG. Find the album’s cover artwork and tracklist below.
“In this album I wanted to look at us as a society: a place where we have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality and decency, food before the rights of animals, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others,” Almond said in a statement. “But in the album there is also a belief that there is a utopia if we can peel back the layers and understand what really matters.”
*Happiness Not Included Cover Artwork:
*Happiness Not Included Tracklist:
1. Happy Happy Happy
2. Polaroid
3. Bruises on My Illusions
4. Purple Zone
5. Heart Like Chernobyl
6. Light Sleepers
7. *Happiness Not Included
8. Nostalgia Machine
9. Nighthawks
10. I’m Not a Friend of God
11. Tranquiliser
12. New Eden
Sleigh Bells have announced a new album: Texis is due for release on September 10 via Lucky Number. It’s the duo’s first full-length since 2016’s Jessica Rabbit and their first new material since 2017’s Kid Kruschev EP. Today’s announcement comes with the release of the new single ‘Locust Laced’, alongside an accompanying video directed by the group’s Derek Miller and Kills Birds’ Nina Ljeti. Check it out below.
“We stopped worrying about whether or not we’re in or out of our comfort zone, or if we were being repetitive or formulaic,” Miller said of the creative process behind the new record in a press release. He added: “The thing I’m most attracted to is the juxtaposition of happy and sad, melancholy and hope. A lot of this is about trying to hold on to a shred of optimism through sheer force of will, and I hope this music can give people some joyful energy and confidence.”
Texis Cover Artwork:
Texis Tracklist:
1. SWEET75
2. An Acre Lost
3. I’m Not Down
4. Locust Laced
5. Knowing
6. Justine Go Genesis
7. Tennessee Tips
8. Rosary
9. Red Flag Flies
10. True Seekers
11. Hummingbird Bomb
Jim Jarmusch, the critically acclaimed film director and Tisch School of the Arts graduate, has been creating films since the 1980s. Over the years, Jarmusch has become known for creating mood-driven films that don’t follow clear plot progression. He chooses to transport the audience through subtle and mellow moments rather than big dramas and thus creating unique experiences that let viewers think.
To find out more about him as a filmmaker, we made this list of top five films.
Paterson (2016)
Starring Adam Driver, Paterson follows a bus driver who follows a daily routine through which he observers the city and finds out his passengers. For this film Jim Jarmusch was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes, whilst the dog Nellie who plays Marvin in the film won the prestigious Palm Dog.
It’s a stunning piece of cinema that makes you fall in love with Adam Driver just that more.
Dead Man (1995)
The film to watch for people who want a deeper understanding of Jarmusch is Dead Man; it’s a slow-moving piece that lets you contemplate life more than it explores. Jarmusch’s mellowness is transparent throughout the film and, at times, can be unbearable. It’s a deep thought session film that isn’t for your average cinema goer and certainly not a movie that anyone would put on for the family. However, it still stands as one of the better projects by Jarmusch’s for its score and acting.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
The mood of sadness reappears consistently in the films of Jarmusch, and this film has it too. Only Lovers Left Alive accompanies a depressed artist who reunites with his lover. Although they have already been in love for centuries, their romance is disrupted by her unruly younger sister.
Other than having a great cast, Only Lovers Left Alive also features a majestic score.
Night on Earth (1991)
Starring the fantastic Winona Ryder, Night on Earth follows five diverse cab drivers in five cities across the world. The film follows their remarkable fares on the same eventful and memorable night.
Jarmusch did a superb job of exploring many common themes without dragging the audience throughout the film
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Having won the Special Jury Recognition prize at Sundance and the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival, it’s hard to disagree that Stranger Than Paradise is one of the better films Jarmusch has created over his career. The film itself follows a New Yorker whose life is thrust into a tailspin when his younger cousin surprise visits him, causing a newfangled, inconstant venture.
Stranger Than Paradise is a unique experience for any film-goer and certainly stands at the top of the mountain with the rest of Jarmusch’s filmography.
It’s been over a decade since Annika Henderson released her self-titled debut album under the Anika moniker, but the lengthy time taken to release her sophomore effort thankfully hasn’t dulled her style and sophistication. Change is surprising and sexy, playful and powerful; its greatest contradiction, though, is that between hope and hopelessness, a true-to-life interplay for an album with a 2021 release date.
Sonically, the former political journalist has struck a fine balance between alluring post-punk – the Brtish ex-pat is based in Berlin after all – and lighter, more delicate art-pop. Often dramatic but mostly dry, she delivers it all with languorous panache. It’s why her voice has drawn comparisons to the legendary Nico; current post-punk acts such as Dry Cleaning and Sinead O’Brien have found critical success by using a similarly deadpan talking vocal delivery. The incessant eerie percussion of ‘Naysayer’ is innately indebted to her Berlin surroundings, as is the cleverly-titled ‘Sand Witches’, Anika sounding very much like Nico if she fronted Broadcast in the droning electronica piece.
Anika makes use of repetition to enforce her points throughout. “I’m not being silenced by anyone,” she powerfully intones in ‘Freedom’, its strength wrought from its repetitive quality. “And now you’re never coming back,” she chants again and again in ‘Never Coming Back’. Much of Change sounds nihilistic, particularly in its droning and unrelenting rhythm, but Anika’s words shroud it in contradictions. It’s never clearer than in ‘Critical’: “I always give my man the last word,” she sings, seemingly admitting to lying down to a partner, before she wryly notes that she’s also given him the little gift of cyanide; it’s a sublime lyrical twist that expertly captures the balance between power and powerlessness.
After eerie post-punk rhythmic flashes and songs named after sexual slang and interplay between nihilism and optimism, it’s a genuinely surprising touch when Anika closes the album with ‘Wait For Something’, beholden to only an acoustic guitar. It’s welcomingly tender and much-needed light relief after the seriousness of what preceded it. In its anxious atmosphere and messy sprawl of emotions, Change is challenging but worthwhile music. You only hope that it’s not another decade before Henderson is prepared to secede to the Anika project again; such power and hopefulness in the face of mordant futility is always needed.
As jazz continues its recent renaissance in the UK, Yellow, Emma-Jean Thackray’s debut album, is a force of energy that will push her right to the movement’s forefront. Originally from Yorkshire, hardly a hotbed for the genre, the London-based multi-instrumentalist and bandleader appealingly wishes to make jazz more approachable to the casual listener, and she mostly achieves this aim here.
Unity, unsurprisingly, is the main theme on Yellow: unity between the general public and jazz, unity between bandleader and bandmates, unity between everyone during these turbulent times. It’s a winning message that comes off as sincere and never sanctimonious. Even when it dips into trippy territory – the album is also meant to simulate a life-changing psychedelic experience – it never indulges too much in pretentious posturing.
And for those not inclined to mind-altering drugs, there’s plenty of power and spirituality emanating from these songs to overcome one anyway. There are dizzying left turns throughout, Thackray eager to overwhelm the senses and never let the listener settle into comfortability. So, for instance, the ominous and slightly cultish ‘May There Be Peace’ – sounding awfully like a cut from an A24 horror film – is upended immediately by the swarming instrumentation of ‘Sun’, which zips forward at a gleeful pace.
Thackray underpins the layered jazz with both solo and group singing, providing a nestling emotional hook. “To listen is to know and to know is to love,” she states as her thesis statement in the opening track ‘Mercury’, urging us to pull closer in search of connection. When the band chants together, their messages are simple but meaningful, whether celebrating the sun in the joyful ‘Sun’ (“The sun it grows us… The sun is life”) or discussing humanity’s similarities in the earnest and life-affirming ‘Our People’ (“We are all our people… We are one and the same”). Thackray’s vocals dominate on their own in the personal and intimate ‘Spectre’, her voice calm and composed, confident and assured.
It’s clear that Thackray is a student of the entirety of music, not just jazz. The sprawling instrumentation on ‘Green Funk’ and ‘Third Eye’ are indebted to funk; crossovers between jazz and hip-hop, such as Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, appear to be an influence on the atmosphere in ‘Golden Green’; the swirling trumpet sounds in ‘About That’ might be pure late-night jazz, but there’s also spiritual jazz, psychedelic, and dancefloor music flourishes elsewhere. Composed yet chaotic, cosmic yet human, Yellow stands as a profound work of passion, both for music and other forces.
“Everything I knew about love I learned from watching movies,” Molly Burch sings in ‘Games’, the second song on her new album Romantic Images, and that line is its central statement. Burch, like so many other women, grew up under the intoxicating spell of romantic movies, believing truly that Prince Charming was out there waiting for them; what happens, then, when this turns out to be far from true? This is the question at the heart of Romantic Images, a thoughtful album of reflection and change.
Burch consciously chose to work with more women collaborators than ever before on this LP, which is buoyed by a strong sense of collective unity and vision. She sounds spurred by their feminine spirit, particularly in the album’s second half, which burns with power and positivity. Before then, there are two lovelorn tracks: ‘Heart Of Gold’ is about wanting someone you just can’t have, while the title track is seriously yearning, Burch insisting “If there’s some type of cure/ Well, I want to stay sick.”
As soon as ‘New Beginning’, the fifth song, begins, Burch sounds supremely confident and ready. “This is me trying to write you a love song,” she wryly sings on ‘Took A Minute’, imbuing the atmosphere with a delightful lightness, while ‘Honeymoon Phase’ discusses her wish to remain in the warmth and comfort of the honeymoon period. “I wanna try harder/ To love myself like I would another,” she ponders on the contemplative closing track ‘Back In Time’, emphasising her journey to self-love and self-discovery.
Romantic Images is also a wonderful pop record. From the first exhilarating piercing piano notes of ‘Control’, this sonic evolution suits her well. ‘Took A Minute’ is pure campy fun electro-pop, swiftly followed by the standout track ‘Emotion’ (featuring Captured Tracks rostermates Wild Nothing); both are clearly indebted to the carefree disco of pop icons Kylie and Madonna. Burch’s vocals remain sublime, whether they’re smoky and crooning in ‘Heart Of Gold’ or light as a cloud in ‘Control’.
Burch turned 30 last year and wrote most of these songs in the months leading up to that birthday milestone; little wonder it’s such a self-reflective work. It’s also liberating for both her and the listener to imagine what’s set to unfold in this decade as she possibly moves further into pure pop territory. If Romantic Images is about finding confidence in your true self, perhaps that also goes for music too.
