Ty Segall "Possession"
Ty hits the big sky trail of our good ol’ frontier empire, discovering non-stop bangers and inspired new sonics around every bend. With lyrics co-written by longtime collaborator, filmmaker Matt Yoka, Ty’s glittering rhythm arrangements move with fresh scansion, inviting in sweeps of strings and horns to further the charge righteously. You’re invited too! Don’t miss the trip – the country inspires awe from up on Ty’s high-octane ride.
Trigger "Second Round"
emptyset "Dissever"
emptyset’s sixth album builds on their ongoing exploration into the histories of electronic sound and media across the 20th century, considering the intertwined evolution of cosmic rock, minimalism and electronic music, viewed through their prospective dreams and overlapping technological ambitions. The compositions across Dissever draw threads from these pioneering production methods emerging in parallel across the late 1960’s, considering the cross talk between these fields and their radical intentions to carve out the future from differing paths, traversing the mystical and modern, while incorporating elements of the transformative, hypnotic, expansive and transcendent to define new principles within sound.
The arrangements, performed live and captured in single takes, emerged across a series of sessions at long term collaborator Mat Sampson’s recording studio in Bristol. This process revisited early hardware, spatial and multitrack recording techniques to create a dynamic body of material that could look back to these foundational musical forms and converge them through the lens of a reimagined timeline, cultivating a transmission from 1969 to the present and a sensory bridge to the past.
Dissever was first presented at Tate Modern as a live performance to accompany the exhibition Electric Dreams, a large-scale survey of the global history of art and technology, which built further on the improvisatory nature of the compositions and their evolving performative possibilities. The ideas and methods of the album were equally anchored through the duo’s parallel explorations, notably within Ginzburg’s work with the transnational multi-instrumental group Osmium, and Purgas’ research and installations uncovering the sonic histories of South Asia.
Thalia Zedek Band "The Boat Outside Your Window"
Thalia Zedek’s considerable body of work demonstrates a clarity of vision, a singular performance style, and an expansive range. Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched. Zedek has long been a melodic songwriter in a series of heavy bands. That contrast, along with her distinct blend of both direct and poetic lyrics, allows her to sing of the most difficult of life’s moments in ways that are both elevating and devastating. Out and proud her entire career, Thalia never hesitates to speak truth to power. A commanding presence, Zedek wields her band like a storm, hurling tempests and cutting through the mist with precision, the ensemble swelling and unspooling in sync with her every gesture. The Boat Outside Your Window finds Thalia Zedek contemplating absence and distance, with songs as spirited as they are profoundly moving.
Since the departure of violist Dave Curry and pianist Mel Lederman following the 2021 album Perfect Vision, the core band of Zedek (guitar and vocals), bassist Winston Braman, and drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate) have been joined by pedal steel guitarist Karen Sarkisian. On The Boat Outside Your Window, Sarkisian’s counter-melodies and oblique augmentations created with nontraditional tools like an Ebow, add an otherworldly quality to songs. The grit of Zedek’s guitar and drive of Braman and McCarthy are met with synth-like swells and more harmonic density. As Zedek guides the ensemble towards more tender passages, melodies unfold gently, with ease. The album features guests Nancy Asch (percussion) and Beth Heinberg (piano) whose subtle touches are added to “Shoes” and “Aliyah”.
Unlike the more politically-charged songs of Perfect Vision and Fighting Season (2018), the songs on The Boat Outside Your Window reflect inwards. The energetic “Tsunami” seamlessly intertwines the personal and the political; the rising wave of pedal steel surrounds the song’s core guitar figure. “Aliyah”’ (meaning rising, ascending, exalted) is a song about the ancient tower of Babel and the utter communication breakdown that humankind is currently in the midst of. “Disarm” deals with personal separation and reunification while “Circus,” looks at broader helplessness and loss of control. The downtempo, longing “Boat” gorgeously captures the beauty and pain of seeing a person one misses in one’s surroundings. The poignant “Shoes”, a song inspired by Berlin, braids haunting images of the past with an unsettling present. Throughout the album, Zedek deftly uncovers how external realities manifest in our internal worlds.
Zedek’s mastery of songwriting is on full display on The Boat Outside Your Window. Her unique musical voice remains potent and pointed. Cultivating her sound with purpose and an unflinching view of humanity, Zedek’s words and music are both invigorating, and capable of capturing the deep emotional complexities of life. The Boat Outside Your Window is Thalia Zedek reaching new heights, reinforcing her status as a peerless songwriter and voice.