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Shabaka Hutchings Announces Debut Solo Album Featuring André 3000, Moses Sumney, Floating Points, and More

Shabaka Hutchings has announced his debut solo LP under the mononym Shabaka. Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace, the follow-up to 2022’s Afrikan Culture EP, is due for release on April 12 via Impulse!. It finds Hutchings focusing primarily on flutes and softer woodwinds, with contributions from André 3000, Esperanza Spalding, Moses Sumney, Brandee Younger, Floating Points, Laraaji, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, Elucid, and more. To accompany the announcement, Hutchings has shared a Phoebe Boswell-directed video for lead single ‘End of Innocence’, which you can check out below.

‘End of Innocence’, and the album more broadly, “really signifies a departure for me, a departure from the bands that I’ve become known for playing in, and the arrival of the flutes in general,” Hutchkings explained. “I bring a lot of flutes to the album and explore different kind of sonic terrains, although for this track in particular, it’s not actually the flute, it’s the clarinet. It’s my first instrument, the instrument that I consider to be my primary instrument, so it’s really going back to what I feel most comfortable with.”

Opening up about the collaborative process behind the LP, Hutchings shared: “I invited a bunch of musicians I’ve met and admired over the past few years of touring throughout the United States to collaborate and everyone said yes, which I constantly find breathtaking,” he disclosed. The musicians gathered at Rudy Van Gelder’s historic studios, which “informed the sound of so many seminal jazz albums that have shaped my musical aptitude. We played with no headphones or separation in the room so we could capture the atmosphere of simply playing together in the space without a technological intermediary.”

Hutchings added: “Around the release of the Shabaka and the Ancestors album We Are Sent Here by History, I coined the term ‘sonic poems’ to express how I’m intending the listener to relate to the words associated with the sounds contained on the disc. Each title on this disc was extracted from a longer poem written specifically for the album which only achieved its full meaning in the presence of the music.”

Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Cover Artwork:

Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace Tracklist:

1. End of Innocence
2. As the Planets and the Stars Collapse
3. Insecurities
4. Managing My Breath, What Fear Had Become
5. The Wounded Need to Be Replenished
6. Body to Inhabit
7. I’ll Do Whatever You Want
8. Living
9. Breathing
10. Kiss Me Before I Forget
11. Song of the Motherland

Keeley Forsyth Announces New Album ‘The Hollow’, Shares New Single

Keeley Forsyth has announced her third album and debut for FatCat’s 130701 imprint, The Hollow. It’s out on 10 May. To mark the announcement, Fosyth has shared a video for the lead single ‘Horse’, which you can check out below.

‘Horse’ was inspired by Bela Tarr’s final film, The Turin Horse, and Forsyth reached out to its composer Mihály Vig to ask for permission to “reimagine” his soundtrack score. “With this track, I roamed, capturing vocals in different spaces, forging a connection as I sang,” Forsyth explained in a statement. “I imagined battling against an invisible force, facing down challenges, pressing on, determined to breathe in this. I chose to refuse to be shackled by the chains of language here, surrendering instead to the primal dance of my body’s urges. My mouth moves in sync with the shallow breaths of my gut, and impulse guiding my every wordless utterance.”

The Hollow, which follows 2022’s Limbs, features guest appearances from Colin Stetson and Matthew Bourne. It was produced by Keeley and Ross Downes.

“We wanted to make something slightly more expansive, continuing to reference what we love from various genres without ever belong-ing to one,” Forsyth said of the record. “It’s with this ethos that we recognise aspects of sacred music, minimalist post-classical, dark ambient, film and theatre soundtracks. Forsyth layered her vocals into chamber choirs, applied pitch shifts and other digital processing, and speaks directly with clear articulate intention one moment to mumbled numb utterances in the next.”

The Hollow Cover Artwork:

The Hollow Tracklist:

1. Answer
2. The Hollow
3. Come And See
4. Eve
5. Turning [feat. Colin Stetson]
6. A Shift
7. Slush
8. Drag Me Down
9. Do I Breathe
10. In The Corner
11. Horse
12. Creature [feat. Matthew Bourne]

Kiran Leonard Announces New Album ‘Real Home’, Shares New Song

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Kiran Leonard has announced a new album titled Real Home, sharing the song ‘My Love, Let’s Take the Stage Tonight’ along with the news. The LP is out April 17 via the London-based artist’s new label home, Memorials of Distinction. Check out the new song and find the album cover and tracklist below.

Leonard offered this context on the song:

My imitation of the great Hank Williams, in spirit if not in substance…This is one of the best efforts on Real Home at a song-as-object. Looking at it now I realise I was trying to write a song that made itself known as a song to the listener, and I wonder whether that’s crucial if you want a song to transcend its context. And that this is either accomplished through a total openness – by being inviting, by laying the tricks of the song out plain to see, as Williams and his many ghostwriters did so well – or by adopting a knowing aloofness, positioning oneself against the listener but letting it be known that that’s what it’s doing. In this song I try both, but mostly the former: as in, I wanted to write a song where every line follows on from the next.

Speaking about the album, he added: “The theme of the home obviously recurs throughout the record; the album was mostly recorded in domestic spaces with friends, and the name of the album is Real Home. I like the qualifier ‘real’, like you’re getting past the cloak of the word and towards the thing-itself…[also] nearly all the percussion in this record was recorded on items from my dad’s shed (jam jars, sandpaper, blocks of wood, etc). Real home record!”

Real Home Cover Artwork:

Real Home Tracklist:

1. Pass Between Houses
2. Theatre for Change
3. Real Home
4. Treat Me a Stranger
5. Utopia of Bog
6. Void Attentive
7. My Love, Let’s Take the Stage Tonight
8. The Kiss
9. He Had Always Led

Fred again.. Recruits Lil Yachty and Overmono for New Single ‘stayinit’

Fred again.. has joined forces with Lil Yachty and Overmono for his latest single, ‘stayinit’. The accompanying video captures the moment Yachty heard the song out of a sound system for the first time; “I’m pretty sure that before this he might have only heard it thru his phone lol,” the producer writes in the description, “And this tune is obviously builtttt for rooms and sound like this.” Check it out below.

‘stayinit’ is the latest in a series of collabroations from Fred again.., following December’s Baby Keem-assisted ‘leavemealone’, ‘ten’ with Jozzy, and ‘adore u’ featuring Obongjayar.

fanclubwallet Release New Song ‘Easy’

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fanclubwallet have dropped a new single from their upcoming EP Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines, following January’s ‘Band Like That’. Check it out below.

“‘Easy’ is all about growing pains. I had been thinking about my younger self, who was so debilitatingly shy, and wondering what she’d think about me now playing music on a stage in front of so many people,” the band’s Hannah Judge reflected in a statement. “It kind of bounces back and forth between me and the perspective of my younger self; contemplating the differences and wondering how things have changed as I’ve grown up. I think a lot of people wonder how their younger self would feel about them now. I think the chorus guitar swells on this song sound like a rusty swing set dug up from the past.”

Our Bodies Paint Traffic Lines arrives March 29 via Cool Online.

Jane Weaver Unveils Video for New Song ‘Romantic Worlds’

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Jane Weaver has released a new song, ‘Romantic Worlds’, alongside an accompanying video. The song appears on the singer-songwriter’s upcoming album Love in Constant Spectacle, which was previously previewed by the title track and ‘Perfect Storm’. Check out the Nick Farrimond-directed video below.

“I wanted to write a really over the top love song, it’s kind of tongue in cheek and about romance and brief encounters with a wonky synth,” Weaver explained in a statement. “It’s based on a ‘real life’ date after meeting online, how this changes from generation to generation and how romance is perceived now.”

Farrimond added: “Growing up watching the 80s Dungeons and Dragons, I was endlessly frustrated by the number of times the group nearly escaped back to the ‘real world’, only to be denied by that stupid unicorn. This video presented an opportunity to finally let the characters make their getaway. The ‘realm’ was one of my first forays into the world of AI. I was really happy with how it interpreted the footage and threw up some weird and wonderful results.”

TOPS’ Jane Penny Shares New Single ‘Wear You Out’

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TOPS’ Jane Penny has shared the new single ‘Wear You Out’, which will appear on her debut solo EP Surfacing. Following lead offering ‘Messages’, the track comes with a visual directed by OTIUM. Check it out below.

“I wanted to make something poppy and cute but also a bit sinister and weird, sensual and witty,” Penny explained in a statement. “Lots of wordplay, a bit dirty, I think the video represents the song well. Sometimes the greatest passion and the most intense love is slightly destructive and I wanted to explore that in a fun way.”

Surfacing arrives April 5 on Luminelle.

Rosie Tucker Releases New Song ‘Paperclip Maximizer’

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Rosie Tucker has shared a new single, ‘Paperclip Maximizer’, taken from their forthcoming album UTOPIA NOW! out March 22 via Sentimental Records. It follows earlier cuts ‘All My Exes Live in Vortexes’ and ‘Unending Bliss’. Check it out below.

Discussing the new song, Tucker said in a statement:

“Paperclip Maximizer” is a cautionary tale about watching from afar as a former loved one pursues constant growth and career accolades with totalizing, universe collapsing abandon. The song is partly inspired by watching former pals pursue outwardly impressive music careers while absolutely trashing their private relationships. When I wrote it, I felt lonely and belittled in my attempts to articulate how my interactions with the music industry often left me feeling isolated, angry, and distressed. When I started trying to channel my frustrations into art, the songs that emerged were not simply critical of the artist’s experience but of capitalism as a system.

It’s kind of impossible to explain the song without coming across as a real dork but here goes: philosopher Nick Bostrom first described the paperclip maximizer in a 2003 thought experiment meant to illustrate how artificial general intelligence could pose an existential risk to humanity. I find some of Bostrom’s thinking to be harmful and regressive (he is a proponent of longtermism, the latest garbage ideology that tech billionaires are trying to pass for moral integrity) but I really liked the metaphor, not as a statement about AI, but as a description of the destructive perils of capitalism, especially when its logic is internalized and recreated in our personal lives.

People seem to fear that new technologies will oppress and dehumanize even as we are already immiserating and exploiting one another with great efficiency. It’s like, if you think it’s scary that a machine might control you, wait til you hear about what human beings have been up to!

Best Friends Forever Festival Announces 2024 Lineup Featuring Bright Eyes, Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap’n Jazz, and More

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Best Friends Forever, a new festival taking place October 11-13 at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, has announced its inaugural lineup. Focusing on emo, indie rock, and post-hardcore, the event will feature performances by Bright Eyes, Sunny Day Real Estate, Cap’n Jazz, the Dismemberment Plan, the Jesus Lizard, Built to Spill, JawBox, the Get Up Kids, the Murder City Devils, Karate, Rainer Maria, Mannequin Pussy, Fiddlehead, La Dispute, Sweet Pill, Pool Kids, Home Is Where, Everyone Asked About You, and more. Pre-sale tickets go on sale this Wednesday, February 28, at 10 am PST, with a general on-sale to follow on Thursday, February 29, at 10 am PST. Find more details here.

Top Fortnite Players 2024 | Ultimate Showdown Begins

Best Fortnite Players: A Competitive Gaming Saga

In the ever-evolving arena of Fortnite, the quest to crown the best player of 2024 takes us through a journey of strategy, skill, and adaptability. From the legends who have continued to dominate the scene to the rising stars challenging the status quo, this article delves deep into the achievements, strategies, and dynamic nature of competitive Fortnite. Discover who stands at the pinnacle of the game this year, their path to glory, and the newcomers ready to take the throne. For a deeper dive into the skills and secrets behind their success, you may read more at our detailed review, where the saga of the best unfolds.

Leverage GameTree.me for Competitive Fortnite Team Formation

In the ever-evolving landscape of Fortnite, where adaptability and strategic mastery determine the best, finding the right teammates is a critical piece of the puzzle for climbing the competitive ranks. GameTree.me emerges as a pivotal tool in this journey, offering a specialized platform that bridges the gap between individual skill and team synergy. It’s not just about being the best player on the field; it’s also about how well you can integrate with a team to outmaneuver the competition. 

This integration with GameTree.me enriches the narrative of striving toward excellence in Fortnite, emphasizing the importance of community and collaboration. As we delve into the achievements and strategies of top players, it becomes apparent that behind many success stories is a well-coordinated team that found each other through innovative platforms like GameTree.me. Whether it’s rising stars looking to make their mark or seasoned veterans maintaining their dominance, the ability to connect with the right teammates can be the difference between a notable victory and a near miss. For players eager to forge their path in the competitive ranks of Fortnite, visiting https://gametree.me/fortnite/ can be the first step towards finding teammates who not only match their skill level but also complement their playstyle and strategic approach.

The Evolution of Fortnite’s Best Players

Fortnite’s competitive landscape has undergone a remarkable transformation since its inception in 2017. Initially, the game’s best players were those who mastered the basic mechanics of shooting and building. As the game evolved, so did the criteria for excellence. The advent of new weapons, mechanics, and play strategies has continually reshaped the battlefield, demanding players adapt or fall behind. This evolution has given rise to a more sophisticated and varied competitive scene, where mastery in strategy, building efficiency, and adaptability to the ever-changing game meta are paramount. The journey from being a good player to the best in Fortnite is a testament to not only individual skill but also the ability to evolve with the game.

The Criteria for Being the Best

To be considered the best Fortnite player in the world, several key factors come into play. Tournament victories are crucial, as they demonstrate a player’s ability to outperform others under pressure. Consistency across competitions indicates resilience and skill over time. Versatility, or the ability to adapt to game updates and changing strategies, is also paramount. Mastery in these areas distinguishes top players, making them stand out in a game that is as dynamic as Fortnite.

Top Fortnite Players of 2024

In 2024, the Fortnite scene is dominated by players who have not only demonstrated exceptional skill but have also adapted to the evolving dynamics of the game. Players like Bugha, who has continued to excel since his World Cup victory in 2019, remain at the forefront. His ability to adapt to the game’s changes while maintaining a high level of performance is exemplary.

EpicWhale, another standout player, has consistently shown why he’s considered one of the top talents in Fortnite. His strategic gameplay and innovative tactics have earned him a place among the elite.

Clix, known for his aggressive playstyle and high-level building skills, continues to impress in various tournaments. His adaptability and relentless pursuit of victory make him a formidable competitor.

Benjyfishy, hailing from the UK, has consistently been in the spotlight for his exceptional gameplay. His dedication and strategic thinking have seen him through numerous competitions, making him one of the most respected players on the scene.

Mongraal, another UK prodigy, remains a fan favorite for his fast-paced gameplay and sharp shooting skills. His ability to perform under pressure has secured him numerous accolades.

These players represent just a fraction of the talent within the Fortnite community. Their achievements and dedication to the game have set a high standard for both current and aspiring competitive players.

Notable Achievements of the Top Players

The top Fortnite players of 2024 have each carved out a legacy through their significant achievements. Bugha’s World Cup victory remains a high point, marking him as one of the game’s greatest players. EpicWhale’s consistent top finishes in major tournaments underscore his status as a top competitor.

Clix has made waves with his victories in high-stakes tournaments, showcasing his ability to dominate under pressure. Benjyfishy and Mongraal have both demonstrated their prowess across various competitions, with numerous top finishes that highlight their skill and strategic gameplay.

Rising Stars in the Fortnite Scene

The Fortnite competitive scene is continually refreshed with new talent rising to challenge the established elites. Players like Arkhram and FaZe Dubs have made significant impacts with their unique playstyles and strategic approaches to the game. These rising stars are quickly making names for themselves, bringing new strategies and perspectives to the forefront.

The Impact of Game Updates on Player Rankings

Fortnite’s ever-changing landscape, shaped by frequent updates and new content, plays a critical role in the competitive rankings. These changes often shift the meta, requiring players to adapt their strategies to maintain their top positions. The ability to quickly adjust to new game mechanics or changes in the competitive format is what separates the top players from the rest.

The Future of Fortnite and Its Players

As Fortnite continues to evolve, its competitive scene remains vibrant and unpredictable. The game’s commitment to regular updates and the introduction of new gameplay elements ensures that the title of “best player” is always up for grabs. The top players of today must continue to adapt and innovate to maintain their positions, while new talents emerge to challenge the status quo.

Conclusion: The Dynamic Nature of the Best Fortnite Player Title

The title of the best Fortnite player is dynamic, reflecting the game’s ever-changing nature. As Fortnite evolves, so too does the criteria for being considered the best. This constant evolution ensures that the competitive scene remains vibrant and challenging, offering endless opportunities for players to prove themselves. The journey to the top is a testament to skill, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.