pilole 2019 febbraio/marzo

FEBBRAIO 2019	MARZO 2019
BEIRUT "Gallipoli" "Gallipoli started, in my mind, when I finally had my old Farfisa organ shipped to New York from my parent’s home in Santa Fe, NM. I acquired the organ from my first job at the CCA; the local foreign film theater and gallery space. A traveling circus’ keyboard player (not a joke) had left it in the warehouse after certain keys and functions of the organ had broken down and stopped working. I spent the next three years writing every song I could possibly squeeze out of it." [ file under: folktronica ]		AUGUST GREENE "S/t" August Greene is the intriguing supergroup consisting of Common, Robert Glasper and Karriem Riggins. The trio produce a sound that is as much hip hop as it is jazz. Common confidently cruising over an elegant backing of Glasper's keys and Riggins' drums. Some supergroups make me wonder why this is happening to me. Augustus Green make wonder how it took so long. [ file under: hip & hop ]
COTONETE "Super-vilains" Originally starting out in the late 90s, Paris-based 8 piece, Cotonete originally gained fame for renditions of tracks from their contemporaries, the likes of: Deodato, Lalo Schiffrin and Banda Black Rio. Replicating the heavy grooves, sweaty jazz-funk with a nod to the Brazilian warmth and beach breeze. Before bowing out of the game thinking the fun was over. [ file under: jazz-funk ]		BENNY SINGS "City pop" City Pop was inspired by and written in cities all over the world, including New York, LA, Tokyo, Paris and Benny’s hometown of Amsterdam. Like the 2015 album Studio, City Pop celebrates collaboration, with Hawthorne, Cornelius, Sukimaswitch (the “Japanese Steely Dan”), Mocky and Faberyayo among the featured artists. True to the album’s name, cities from around the world play a starring role. [ file under: aor pop & soul ]
DELINES "Imperial" A Fender Rhodes kicks in and you know you’re in a safe place. It’s lush resonant tones set the scene, a lap steel slides in to introduce a laconic but oh-so dulcet tune. Crying guitars present tales of broken hearts. Smooth soulful vocals and the sweet golden tones of a brass section complete the mellowest album this year so far. [ file under: americana ]		CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA "To believe" The Cinematic Orchestra are back with a definitive new album that explores a timeless question of vital importance in 2019. Founding member Jason Swinscoe and longtime partner Dominic Smith have enlisted album contributions from collaborators old and new: Moses Sumney, Roots Manuva, Heidi Vogel, Dorian Concept and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (Flying Lotus, Anderson Paak, Thundercat). [ file under: downtempo ]
EX:RE "S/t" Elena Tonra is the singer, songwriter and guitarist for Daughter. This is her first album for the new project that she runs simultaneously alongside Daughter. The album was recorded with Fabian Prynn (4AD producer/engineer) with Josephine Stephenson on cello and inspired by a shattered relationship. [ file under: indie folk ]		COMET IS COMING "Trust in the lifeforce of the deep mystery" On Trust In The Life Force Of The Deep Mystery, the futurist jazz voyagers The Comet Is Coming are making music for these crisis times of chaos and mass meltdown. The title of the album, the band say, concerns “finding meaning in that which you cannot grasp”. It asks “What does it mean to be human? The music on the trio’s second record, out on impulse!, fluctuates between pulsating, danceable, electronic groove-centric pieces and quieter, melodic jazz-infused compositions. [ file under: futurist jazz ]
STEVE GUNN "Unseen in between" For over a decade, Steve Gunn has been one of American music’s most pivotal figures -- conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Kurt Vile and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced). [ file under: alternative indie ]		IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE "Doko mien" Fronted by London-born Nigerian singer Eno Williams, Ibibio Sound Machine is a clash of African and electronic elements inspired in equal measure by the golden era of West African funk, disco, and modern post-punk and electro. Evocative Nigerian poetic imagery set against an edgy Afro-Electro soundscape gives the band a unique space within the wave of modern Afrocentric sounds sweeping the globe. [ file under: nigeria 2019 ]
H.E.R. "S/t" H.E.R. is a compilation album by American singer H.E.R., Cd released on February 2019 by RCA Records. The album comprises songs from the singer's EPs H.E.R., Vol. 1 (2016) and H.E.R., Vol. 2 (2017, and includes six additional songs. The album won Best R&B Album and received four other nominations at the 61st Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best New Artist. [ file under: neo soul ]		JULIA JACKLIN "Crushing" The second full-length album from Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It’s an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives. [ file under: indie pop ]
JULIA KENT "Temporal" Much of the music that comprises the album was originally written to accompany theatre and dance productions. “The initial inspiration was more external than internal, in that many of these pieces began as a response to a text or a choreographic concept,” Julia explains, “but they all seemed to be coming from the same emotional world and it made sense to weave them together into a record.” [ file under: experimental ]		JAPANESE HOUSE "Good at falling" The Japanese House releasess her debut album Good at Falling via Dirty Hit. Produced by The Japanese House (aka Amber Bain), BJ Burton (Low, Bon Iver, Francis and the Lights) and The 1975’s George Daniel, Good at Falling follows four acclaimed EPs. The result is an album that draws from Bain’s life in a way her work never has before - a more personal, vulnerable and yet confident body of work. [ file under: electro pop ]
SARAH LOUISE "Nighttime birds and morning stars" Nighttime Birds and Morning Stars is Sarah Louise’s most fearless work to date. Louise broadens beyond folk forms on her latest, turning streams of raw electric guitar into entire oceans of aural texture. Her rich playing is warped beyond recognition through inventive synthesizing and digital manipulations. [ file under: experimental ]		JAYDA G "Significant changes" Jayda G will release her debut album “Significant Changes” via Ninja Tune. Musically it’s a blend of vintage drum machine funk drawing heavily on Chicago’s house blueprint - as evidenced by new single ‘Leave Room 2 Breathe’ featuring vocals by life-long friend and frequent collaborator Alexa Dash. [ file under: ninja tunes ]
MERCURY REV "Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete revisited" “Ode to Bilie Joe” Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 debut as a singer-songwriter and a Number One single for three weeks in the late Summer of Love, was the most psychedelic record of that year not from San Francisco or London, as if Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Brian Wilson had conspired to make a country-rock Pet Sounds. Gentry’s hit was a revolutionary act, a quietly thorough feminism in vision, deed and success amid the strict, paternal order of the country-music industry. [ file under: covers album ]		DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS "American love call" Durand Jones & the Indications aren’t looking backwards. Helmed by foil vocalists in Durand Jones and drummer Aaron Frazer, the Indications conjure the dynamism of Jackie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield, AND the Impressions. [ file under: contemporary r.&b. ]
PIROSHKA "Brickbat" The four band members are former Lush vocalist/guitarist (and former redhead) Miki Berenyi, former Moose guitarist KJ McKillop, Modern English bassist Mick Conroy and former Elastica drummer Justin Welch. The connections between them are a veritably tangled family tree. Before they lived together and raised a family, Miki and Moose were notable figures on the so-called shoegaze scene, while Elastica were Britpop peers. [ file under: lush sounds ]		LITTLE SIMZ "Grey area" Simbi Ajikawo, crowned Little Simz, let's her work do the talking and her prolific releases and boundary-breaking achievements clearly tell a story of a pioneering Hip Hop artist who leads the way on her own terms. Giving lauded, energetic performances, shows around the world and international tours with the likes of Gorillaz and Anderson.Paak, this visionary 24 year old woman from North London is living out her childhood dreams to heights of excellence - and inspiring her generation to do the same. [ file under: hippotronica ]
JESSICA PRATT "Quiet signs" For her third album Quiet Signs, Jessica Pratt offers up nine spare, beautiful & mysterious songs that feel like the culmination of her work to date. "Fare Thee Well" and "Poly Blue" retain glimmers of On Your Own Love Again's hazy day spells, but delicate arrangements for piano, flute, organ and strings instill a lush, chamber pop. [ file under: twilight pop ]		MAKAYA MCCRAVEN "Where we come from" “I just met these wonderful people” says Chicago’s Makaya McCraven in the opening moments of the album/mixtape, referring to the fact he is on a stage playing with some of London’s finest young Jazz musicians whilst meeting them for the first time. [ file under: mixtape ]
RUSTIN MAN "Drift code" Rustin Man aka Paul Webb has released one record under the moniker Rustin Man so far, the superb Out Of Season in 2002 - a collaboration with Beth Gibbons of Portishead. He has been working on the follow-up ever since, recording it in his home, a converted barn, in an Essex field three miles from the nearest village, an extraordinary building as much Old Curiosity Shop as modern living space. [ file under: soft machine ]		SASAMI "S/t" Sasami Ashworth has been making music in almost every way possible for the last decade, and between playing keys, bass, guitar within Cherry Glazerr and Dirt Dress; contributing vocal, string, and horn arrangements to studio albums by the likes of Vagabon, Curtis Harding, Wild Nothing, and Hand Habits; arranging for films and commercials; and even playing French horn in an orchestra - she has gained a reputation as an all-around musical badass. [ file under: stereolab(s) ]
TALLIES "S/t" “Tallies have a jangly sound that at times recalls The Smiths, The Sundays and other ’80s alt bands, but singer Sarah Cogan’s smoky vocals pull things into other territory” – BROOKLYN VEGAN [ file under: so' eighties ]		SPELLING "Mazy fly" Mazy Fly, the second full-length by the Bay Area artist Spelling, explores the tension between the thrill of exploring the unknown and the terror of imminent destruction. Chrystia Cabral spent the summer of 2018 in her Berkeley studio reflecting on the thresholds of human progress and longing for a new and better tomorrow. Despite the darkness of this reality, Mazy Fly is defiantly optimistic. It is a celestial voyage into the unknown, piloted by Cabral. [ file under: experimental soul ]
ULTRAMARINE "Signals into space" Signals Into Space is a brand new studio album by acclaimed electronic duo Ultramarine. SIS is their seventh album, having made their debut on Crepuscule with Folk (TWI 894) back in 1990. The new long player was conceived by Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond over a three year period and features four songs co-written with North American musician Anna Domino, a firm favourite of the group since her leftfield pop releases on Crepuscule and Factory in the 1980s. [ file under: electronica ]		TAMARYN "Dreaming the dark" Tamaryn Brown, known as simply Tamaryn, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter based in the United States. Since 2008, Tamaryn has released three studio albums, an EP and several singles. Her multifaceted style melds various genres such as dream pop, shoegaze, post-punk, gothic rock, synth-pop and electronic. [ file under: cocteau waves ]
ANDREW WASYLYK "The paralian" In 2018, Andrew was extended a residency invite from arts centre and historic house, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland to create new music for their restored, 19th century, Erard Grecian harp. During Wasylyk's five-month sojourn he created melodies and progressions echoing the building's unique relationship with the looming North Sea horizon. [ file under: modern classical ]		NILUFER YANYA "Miss Universe" At 18, Nilüfer – who is of Turkish-Irish-Bajan heritage – uploaded a few demos to SoundCloud. Though she’s preternaturally shy, her music – which uniquely blends elements of soul and jazz into intimate pop songs with electronic flourishes and a newly expressed grungy guitar sound – isn’t. And it didn’t take long for it to catch people’s attention. [ file under: eclectic jazzy folk-pop ]