Barry Adamson "Memento Mori (Anthology 1978-2018)"
BARRY ADAMSON has announced details of Memento Mori (Anthology 1978-2018), a 40th-anniversary release charting the artist’s writing and recording career, along with two very special live shows in October at Manchester’s RNCM Theatre and London’s Union Chapel.
Says Adamson, “I’m immensely looking forward to bringing my anthology, Memento Mori, to the stage – complete with strings and brass, flutes and whistles – along with my band, seething with excellence, chomping at the bit, to bring you the full on Barry Adamson experience. A special album release, worthy of everything I can bring to the table. From Moss Side Story to Memento Mori (before and beyond). Not to be missed.”
Memento Mori charts Adamson’s career from 1978’s Magazine track, ‘Parade’ (co-written by Adamson, from their debut album Real Life); to his work as founding member, alongside Nick Cave, of the Bad Seeds (‘From Her To Eternity’, co-written by Adamson); through his nine solo albums, from 1988’s Moss Side Story to the latest Love Sick Dick EPs, bringing everything up to date with a brand new unreleased track, ‘The Hummingbird’.
Memento Mori (Anthology 1978-2018) is out on limited edition double gold vinyl, CD and download on 26 October 2018, on Mute. The live shows follow on 29 October in Manchester and 30 October in London.
Barry Adamson has been creating all of his life. Brought up in Manchester’s Moss Side, Adamson learnt to play the bass overnight for Magazine, Manchester’s most influential band of that era. When they disbanded, five albums later in 1981, his singular style was spotted by The Birthday Party, with whom he played several times.
His establishment as a solo artist came after a three-year stint with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds with the release of his classic first solo album, Moss Side Story – the ultimate soundtrack to an “imaginary film” – which raised Adamson’s name as a composer of diverse complexity; able to tell a story with music, where the images were those supplanted in the minds of the listeners. Adamson has worked with some of the film industry’s most intriguing mavericks including Derek Jarman (The Last of England, 1987), David Lynch (The Lost Highway, 1997), Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers, 1994) and Danny Boyle (The Beach, 2000).
Having released nine studio albums, including the 1992 Mercury Music Prize nominated Soul Murder, 1996’s Oedipus Schmoedipus, which includes collaborations with Jarvis Cocker, Nick Cave and The Associates’ Billy McKenzie, and his most recent release, Know Where To Run, which was in part inspired by a recent US tour, back playing with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds after 23 years, Adamson’s talents are as much demand by new generations of artists as he was after his first solo release, with collaborations in recent years across a variety of art forms, including an Olivier Award-winning ballet performance by Sylvie Guillem and the Ballet Boyz scored by Adamson.
It was always a logical progression for Adamson to move behind the camera and once again his brooding film noir style and dark comedy has seen him write, direct and score a number of short films, including ‘The Swing The Hole and The Lie’’ (2014), as well as the recent video for They, Walk Amongst Us (2017).
Barry Adamson’s most recent releases, Love Sick Dick and Love Sick Dick Remixed – the latter featured a 6Music playlisted reworking by A Certain Ratio (featured on the Anthology) as well as remixes from Gazelle Twin and ADULT. – have seen Barry Adamson back on the road, recent shows included a unique live performance cut straight to lathe as part of an evening at the British Library examining the Soviet vinyl bootleggers.
Dates have been announced for October in London and Manchester to coincide with the release, and a 2019 performance is confirmed for Rockaway Beach festival. Before then, Barry Adamson will be DJing on 16 August at Somerset House as part of their Film4 Summer Screen series, alongside a screening of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet.
Musician, composer, writer, photographer, filmmaker. Barry Adamson is not a man to take it easy.
NIna Nastasia "Riderless Horse"
The first new album in over a decade from world-renowned singer-songwriter, Nina Nastasia.
Produced by Steve Albini.
Riderless Horse is my first solo record, and it’s the first record my former partner, Kennan Gudjonsson, didn’t produce.
I haven’t made an album since 2010. I decided to stop pursuing music several years after my sixth record, Outlaster, because of unhappiness, overwhelming chaos, mental illness, and my tragically dysfunctional relationship with Kennan. Creating music had always been a positive outlet during difficult times, but eventually it became a source of absolute misery.
Riderless Horse documents the grief, but it also marks moments of empowerment and a real happiness in discovering my own capability. Steve Albini produced this record with me, and Greg Norman assisted. It was exactly the right environment to work on this record. We all had meals together, cried, laughed, and told stories. It was perfect. It made me realize how much I love writing, playing and recording music.
Terrible things happen. These were some terrible things. So, what to do – learn something valuable, connect with people, move the fuck out of that apartment, remember the humor, find the humour, tell the truth, and make a record. I made a record.
Sam Prekop and John McEntire "Sons Of"
Sam Prekop and John McEntire are two artists, who together and as individuals, have expanded the definition of rock. Each is acclaimed for their singular musical voice and for their sonic innovations. Beyond their work together in The Sea and Cake, Prekop has garnered acclaim for his solo releases in ensemble or on modular synthesis, as well as for his visual art and photography. McEntire is one of the most celebrated engineers, composers, and drummers in forward-thinking music. With nearly three decades of experience working together, this is their first full-length collaboration as a duo. It was something they both have wanted to do for a long while, and a natural fit for two artists drawn to incorporating electronic music into rock and jazz contexts. Sons Of finds two master craftsmen working at the nexus of pristine production and skillful improvisation, forging compelling narrative arcs into glistening metropolises of infinite pulse.
Sons Of is as sonically curious as it is inviting. The elaborate array of synthesizer modules, samplers, trigger pads and effects which the duo implement all serve as potent tools in unearthing unique textures and untapped worlds of possibility. Over the album’s four pieces Prekop and McEntire apply their intrinsic understanding of pop architectures to create dynamic movements. Their sound is one of transformative fluidity, each passing beat marking a sense of familiarity while the surrounding atmospheres are in constant flux. A steady pace to the tracks allows space for new sounds to breathe and evolve. Ever-shifting tonalities and magnetic grooves propel the music with persistent momentum without feeling hurried. Throughout the album, the duo exudes a spontaneous ease, unafraid to settle into a particular cadence or veer into entirely new directions on a dime.
The duo’s collaboration first took shape across a series of shows in Europe during the fall of 2019, all entirely improvised. Prekop and McEntire set themselves basic parameters such as tempo and key center and allowed their instruments to intertwine freely, tempered by their deft instincts as improvisers and listeners. “A Ghost at Noon” is taken from one of these early performances and illuminates how immediately in-sync the two were, with Prekop’s The Republic-era hiss slipping beneath melodic twirls in tandem with the bounce of McEntire’s increasingly rhythmic complex percussion. Tracks “Crossing at The Shallow” and “Ascending By Night” move with the same inquisitive grace despite being molded through remote collaboration with Prekop and McEntire respectively sending each other the base of one track and allowing the other the space to react to the whole. The album’s most expansive piece “A Yellow Robe” began as an improvised performance at Chicago’s Constellation in late 2021. Originally intended to be presented as purely improvisational, technical issues in the recording created an opportunity for the duo to step back to refine the sonics and employ finer details while retaining the narrative flow of the live performance. The resulting epic contains multitudes, from head-nodding throb to springy glitches and moments of euphoric bliss.
Prekop and McEntire’s Sons Of is a thrillingly diverse journey and a masterclass in longform music that reveals nuance at each listen. By concentrating their considerable skills as both creators and curators, the duo have crafted an album abundantly vibrant, an intoxicating exploration of pure inspiration and intuition.
doubleVee "Treat Her Strangely (Rough Trade Publishing)"
Husband-wife duo doubleVee have announced new album Treat Her Strangely for July 15th, 2022, with singles coming up in May and June. Like many musicians who have persevered during the pandemic, their nine new songs were written and recorded while staying holed up in their home studio as much as possible.
Three guest musicians recorded parts on various songs on the album: Brent Williams handled violin and viola, Christi Wans played the trumpet and piccolo trumpet and Kevin Webb performed trombone parts.
Allan Vest and Barb [Hendrickson] Vest both had backgrounds that made for a good match in music when they started working together in 2012, including Vest’s contributions to the band Starlight Mints and TV and film placements and Hendrickson’s long stint on public radio creating a film music program. They released a concept album as their debut album in 2017, The Moonlit Fables of Jack the Rider. Their follow-up EP Songs for Birds and Bats was released in 2019.