FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Let’s Go Crazy: Prince’s Ultimate Gems and Deep Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Prince at The Forum in Inlewood, California in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs via Getty Images

Let’s Go Crazy: Prince’s Ultimate Gems and Deep Cuts

_________

CLOSER to 7th June…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Richard E. Araon

I am going to put a few different Prince features. That is the date he would have turned sixty-five. I am going to release features regarding some of his best albums, his influence, in addition to the many sides of his amazing musicianship. We sadly lost the iconic musician on 21st April, 2016. To mark seven years since we lost one of the greatest and most influential musicians ever, I wanted to start with a playlist. I have compiled Prince playlists before but, as there has been posthumous material since then, I wanted to revise and tweak it a bit. I think Prince’s sixty-fifth birthday is an important event. There are albums of his that celebrate big anniversaries this year too. Included are For You (1978) and Lovesexy (1988). To honour the memory of the much missed Prince, I am going to end with a playlist of his best work and most interesting deeper cuts. Before that, here is some deep biography from AllMusic:

“No other artist of the rock & roll era compares to Prince. He was the rare combination of a visionary pop conceptualist and master musician who could capture the sounds he imagined, a quality that fueled his remarkable success in the 1980s. Ideas came to Prince so quickly, they couldn't be contained on his own records, either with or without his backing band the Revolution. He masterminded albums by the Time and Sheila E, and gave away hit songs to the Bangles and Sheena Easton, shaping the sound of popular music in the process. There wasn't an area of pop music in the '80s that didn't bear his influence: it could be heard in freaky funk and R&B slow jams, in thick electro-techno and neo-psychedelic rock, and right at the top of the pop charts. Prince's reign continued into the early '90s, a time which found him swapping the Revolution for the jazz-funk New Power Generation, but by the middle of the decade, he'd entered a cold war with his record company that contributed to a slow slide down the charts. Once he received emancipation from his contract, he seized the opportunity to release as much music as he could record, occasionally taking the time to focus his aim at the mainstream, scoring such hits as 2004's Musicology in the process. Prince produced new music at a furious pace throughout the last decade of his life, which is what made his death in 2016 such a shock: his music was ceaselessly, endlessly alive and full of possibility.

Music ran in Prince's blood. The son of a jazz pianist and singer, Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 7, 1958. Prince taught himself how to play music at an early age and his first original songs arrived not much later. Music remained a mainstay after his parent's divorce, a period where he bounced between both households. For a while, Prince stayed with his neighbors the Andersons, whose son Andre would later adopt the stage name Andre Cymone. The pair became friends and then collaborators, forming a covers band called Grand Central with Morris Day while the three attended high school together.

Prince and Cymone's first big break arrived when Pepe Willie, the husband of Prince's cousin, brought the duo into the funk band 94 East. Prince played guitar on a few tracks on a 94 East demo and co-wrote "Just Another Sucker" with Willie, a song composed in 1977. By that point, the teenage Prince had already signed to Warner Bros. on the strength of a demo he recorded with producer Chris Moon. He headed to the Record Plant in Sausalito, California to record his debut For You, which appeared in 1978. Prince played every instrument and sang every note on For You, an audacious move for a debut. The album made some inroads on R&B radio, with its first single "Soft and Wet" reaching 12. It was quickly eclipsed by "I Wanna Be Your Lover," the first single from 1979's Prince. "I Wanna Be Your Lover" reached number one R&B and nearly cracked Billboard's Top Ten, peaking at 11. "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" gave him another significant R&B hit in early 1980, reaching number 13 on the Billboard charts, but Prince guaranteed that he wouldn't be pigeonholed as a soul act by embracing rock, pop, and new wave on 1980's Dirty Mind.

Dirty Mind was Prince's first masterpiece, a one-man tour de force of sex and music; it was hard funk with catchy Beatlesque melodies, sweet soul ballads, and rocking guitar pop all at once. It didn't perform as well as Prince on the R&B charts, but "Uptown" peaked at number five on both the Billboard Dance and R&B charts. Prince doubled down on risque rock & funk on 1981's Controversy. Pop hits eluded him this time around, but "Controversy" and "Let's Work" made the Billboard R&B chart, which wasn't the only time Prince visited these particular charts in 1981. He masterminded the eponymous debut album by the Time, a Minneapolis funk band featuring his old friend Morris Day. All this buzz led the Rolling Stones to hire Prince as an opener for part of their 1981 tour, running into audiences that were unwilling to embrace his genre-bending music. He'd soon find wider acceptance for his music with 1999.

A tightly constructed double album, 1999 served as futuristic funk-pop that showcased the extent of his range. Released in October 1982, 1999 generated three massive hits: its title track topped out at 12 but it was a staple on the fledgling MTV, while "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious" were Top Ten hits, peaking at six and eight respectively. 1999 is also where Prince unveiled his backing band the Revolution, showcasing the group in the album's music videos and featuring them on the record's supporting tour; several members also played on 1999. Afterwards, guitarist Dez Dickerson departed and the Revolution's classic lineup of guitarist Wendy Melvoin, keyboardist Lisa Coleman, keyboardist Matt Fink, bassist Brown Mark, and drummer Bobby Z solidified. This incarnation of the Revolution was showcased on Purple Rain, the film Prince released in July 1984.

A mythologized version of his own back story largely shot in his home city of Minneapolis, Purple Rain made Prince a superstar. Preceded by the stark, startling funk of "When Doves Cry," Prince's first number one single, Purple Rain became a blockbuster, its theatrical success feeding the popularity of its soundtrack and vice-versa. For a brief period, Prince had the number one single, album, and film in the United States, a remarkable achievement. The album's subsequent singles almost all went Top Ten: "Let's Go Crazy" also went to number one, while "Purple Rain" peaked at two and "I Would Die 4 U" reached number eight ("Take Me with U," released at the end of the album's cycle, went no further than 25.) With fame came controversy: Tipper Gore formed the Parents Music Resource Center after discovering her 11-year-old daughter listening to "Darling Nikki," a sexually charged song from Purple Rain.

His stardom secured, Prince took an abrupt left turn in 1985 with Around the World in a Day, an excursion into psychedelic pop not too far removed from the Paisley Underground movement in Los Angeles; indeed, he'd give the Bangles, one of the bands at the core of the trend, "Manic Monday," which went to number two in 1986. Thanks to "Raspberry Beret," Around the World in a Day was also a hit, albeit one that paled in comparison to Purple Rain; it sold two million copies and generated only one other Top 40 hit in "Pop Life." Prince quickly followed it with Parade, which was the soundtrack to his second film, Under the Cherry Moon. Directed by Prince, the film flopped, but the eclectic Parade was another hit album, producing the number one smash "Kiss."

Prince disbanded the Revolution after the supporting tour for Parade, an excerpt of which was featured on Sign 'o' the Times, the sprawling double-album he released in March 1987. Assembled from the remnants of several incomplete projects, Sign 'o' the Times was hailed as one of Prince's best albums, showcasing the full scope of his talents. It also produced three Top Ten hits in "Sign 'o' the Times," "U Got the Look," and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man." Prince planned to release a collection of hard funk called The Black Album in November 1987 but he pulled the record at the last minute believing the album was too dark and immoral; it would be released in a limited run in 1994.

Prince quickly recorded Lovesexy, an album intended as a bright riposte to the darkness of the scrapped The Black Album. Lovesexy became his first album not to reach the Top Ten since Controversy and only generated one Top 40 single in "Alphabet St." Prince rebounded swiftly with Batman, an album inspired by Tim Burton's 1989 silver screen adaptation of the caped crusader. A blend of sound collage and medley, "Batdance" became Prince's first number one single since "Kiss," with "Partyman" reaching 18 later that year. Prince returned to the big screen in 1990 with Graffiti Bridge, another film he directed himself. Its accompanying album was Prince's third double-album in seven years, cobbled together from strays from the past decade and new songs, such as its lone Top Ten single "Thieves in the Temple."

With 1991's Diamonds and Pearls, Prince debuted the New Power Generation, a versatile band of professionals specializing in R&B and funk. The streamlined soul of Diamonds and Pearls gave Prince his biggest non-Batman hit since Around the World in a Day, with the slinky "Cream" becoming his last number one hit and the ballad "Diamonds and Pearls" reaching number three. The following year, Prince released his 14th album, titling it after a cryptic logo that allegedly combined the symbols for male and female. This graphic would soon be dubbed the "Love Symbol" and the album of the same name found Prince grappling with hip-hop on "My Name Is Prince" but it was the shimmering pop of "7" that gave him another Top Ten hit; fittingly, it peaked at seven on Billboard. In 1993, Prince released his first greatest-hits collection, The Hits; it was accompanied by an edition that also rounded up many of his B-sides from the 1980s.

Prince changed his name to the Love Symbol in 1993 as a protest against his label Warner Bros., who would not release new recordings from the musician as often as he desired. As the Love Symbol was unpronounceable, Prince was called "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" (or "The Artist") during this feud with Warner, which lasted until 2000, at which time his publishing contract with Warner/Chappell expired. After releasing "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" on his NPG Records in 1994 -- it became his last Top Ten hit, reaching number three -- Prince attempted to speed through his recording contract with Warner during the mid-'90s, beginning with 1994's Come. Bearing "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," The Gold Experience arrived in 1995, with the postscript Chaos and Disorder closing out the contract in the summer of 1996. Prince celebrated the end of his tenure at Warner by releasing the triple-CD set Emancipation on his own NPG in November of 1996.

Greeted by warm reviews and initially strong sales -- the triple-disc set would be certified double platinum due to its size -- Emancipation didn't generate any hit singles. Abundance soon became a calling card for Prince. Just over a year after Emancipation, he released another triple-disc set named Crystal Ball. Collecting unreleased material recorded over the years, Crystal Ball was accompanied by a bonus acoustic album called The Truth; it would receive its own independent release in 2021. Soon, the market was flooded with new Prince material. Newpower Soul, an album billed to New Power Generation but effectively a new Prince album, appeared in June 1998, Warner released a disc of outtakes called The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale in the summer of 1999, and Prince signed with Arista for Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, a star-studded wannabe blockbuster that performed modestly upon its November 1999 release.

Prince spent the first few years of the 2000s indulging in his love of jazz fusion on a series of records released on NPG, the first being 2001's The Rainbow Children, an album that referred to his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Prince returned to pop and R&B in 2004 -- and to major labels -- with Musicology, an album that brought him back into the Top Ten, while also garnering him a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance in 2005; it'd be certified double platinum by the RIAA. He consolidated his commercial comeback with 3121, which hit number one on the album charts soon after its release in March 2006. Planet Earth followed in 2007, featuring contributions from his old Revolution bandmates Wendy & Lisa. In the U.K., copies were cover-mounted on the July 15 edition of The Mail on Sunday, provoking Columbia -- the worldwide distributor for the release -- to refuse distribution throughout the U.K. In the U.S., the album was issued on July 24, debuting at number three.

LotusFlow3r, a three-disc set, arrived in 2009, featuring a trio of distinct albums: LotusFlow3r itself (a guitar showcase), MPLSound (a throwback to his '80s funk output), and Elixer (a smooth contemporary R&B album featuring the breathy vocals of Bria Valente). Despite only being available online and through one big-box retailer, the set debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. A year later, another throwback-flavored effort, 20Ten, became his second U.K. newspaper giveaway. No official online edition of the album was made available.

rom mid-2010 to the end of 2012, Prince toured throughout Europe, America, Europe again, Canada, and Australia. In 2013, he released several singles, starting with "Screwdriver" and continuing with "Breakfast Can Wait" in the summer of that year. Early in 2014, he made a cameo appearance on the Zooey Deschanel sitcom The New Girl, appearing in the episode that aired following the Super Bowl. All this activity was a prelude to the spring announcement that Prince had re-signed to Warner Bros., the label he had feuded with 20 years prior. As part of the deal, he wound up receiving ownership of his master recordings, and the label planned a reissue campaign that would begin with an expanded release of Purple Rain roughly timed to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

First came two new albums: Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum, the latter credited to 3rdEyeGirl, the all-female power trio that was his new-millennial backing band. Both records came out on the same day in September 2014. Almost a year to the day, he released HITnRUN: Phase One, with contributions from Lianne La Havas, Judith Hill, and Rita Ora. A sequel, HITnRUN: Phase Two, was released online in December 2015, with a physical release following in January 2016. Also in early 2016, Prince set out on a rare solo tour, a run of shows he called "Piano and a Microphone." The tour was cut short in April due to sickness, however, and Prince flew home to Minneapolis. On April 21, 2016, police were called to Paisley Park where they found Prince unresponsive; he died that day at the age of 57.

On June 2, 2016, Prince's death was ruled by the Anoka County's Midwest Medical Examiner's Office to be the result of an accidental overdose of fentanyl. His early death and incredible achievements prompted an outpouring of emotion from fans, friends, influences, and professional associates. On the following week's Billboard charts, he occupied four of the Top Ten album positions and four of the top singles positions. As the particulars of his estate were sorted out by the courts -- the singer didn't leave a will, which complicated matters -- his Paisley Park complex was opened to the public in the autumn of 2016. That holiday season, NPG and Warner released 4Ever, a double-disc hits collection that contained the unreleased 1982 outtake "Moonbeam Levels." Upon its November 22, 2016 release, it debuted at 35 on Billboard's Top 200. The long-promised expanded reissue of Purple Rain appeared in June of 2017, featuring a disc's worth of previously unreleased music from Prince's vaults. Anthology: 1995-2010, a double-disc compilation of highlights from Prince's latter-day recordings, appeared in August 2018 in conjunction with the digital re-release of his post-Warner catalog; it was part of a deal with Sony Legacy, which also masterminded physical reissues of these latter-day records in the subsequent years.

The archival Piano & A Microphone 1983 appeared in September 2018; it debuted at 11 in the U.S. and 12 in the U.K. The next major reissue was Originals, a collection of Prince's original versions of 15 songs he gave to other artists. Featuring his versions of "Manic Monday," "Nothing Compares 2 You," "Jungle Love," and "The Glamorous Life," Originals arrived in June of 2019; it debuted at 15 in the U.S. and 21 in the U.K. A deluxe edition of 1999 -- containing two discs of unreleased material from Prince's vault, a live show from 1982, and a disc of single variations -- appeared later that November. In May 2020, Sony reissued all of the 2002 albums released under the "One Nite Alone" moniker as the box Up All Nite with Prince: The One Nite Alone Collection. This set was overshadowed by the September release of a Super Deluxe edition of Sign 'o' the Times, which expanded the original double-album with a wealth of unreleased studio recordings and live material.

Welcome 2 America, the first completed, unreleased album culled from Prince's vaults, appeared in July 2021. The album was recorded in March 2010 prior to his Welcome 2 America Tour and featured bassist Tal Wilkenfeld and drummer Chris Coleman. It debuted at number four upon its release”.

Ahead of the anniversary of Prince’s parting, I wanted to compile a playlist featuring some of his finest work. As I said, ahead of his sixty-fifth birthday in June, I am really going to go deep with his music and legacy. So many artists around the world owe a debt to him. Below are a selection of his songs…

THAT show why.

FEATURE: First Aid Kit: Why Are There So Few Female Presenting Duos on Radio?

FEATURE:

 

 

First Aid Kit

PHOTO CREDIT: Skylar Kang/Pexels

Why Are There So Few Female Presenting Duos on Radio?

_________

I do feel radio has always had a problem…

 IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

when it came to gender equality. Many might point out that, as there are a lot of women on major stations and local radio, that there is not a big issue. Think about many of the stations where the male broadcasters outweigh women. Radio X is an example. Even Greatest Hits Radio could do with a bit more balance. BBC Radio 2 has more male presenters. Even at the weekend – where the balance tips towards the middle -, you would think that the nation’s biggest station would be more conscientious and equal! BBC Radio 1 is a lot better when it comes to equality. They have an impressive and talented array of women across the station. I will come back to them in a minute. BBC Radio 6 Music falls somewhere between BBC Radio 1 and 2 in that sense. They do need to create more balance in terms of gender, but they have made strides over the past few years. It would be nice to see some younger blood added to the roster. That being said, they have had a bit of  shake-up when it comes to their line-ups. One pleasing aspect is that, as part of the changes – which take effect from 5th June – the brilliant Deb Grant is part of the station’s line-up. Someone who has stood in for Chris Hawkins on early breakfast, she will present New Music Fix Daily, Monday-Thursdays, 7-9 p.m.

 IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

That is exciting, as she will be appearing alongside Tom Ravenscroft. That dynamic is a reason why I have written this feature. It is a positive partnership and great show, but it makes me wonder why, when it comes to pairing presenters, there are never two women. One all-male partnership that has been created and received backlash and protest from listeners is the long-term favourites Marc Riley and Gideon Coe. Each are respected and invaluable broadcasters who are responsible for bringing so much new music to people. By cutting their individual shows and reducing their overall airtime each week (they will appear together Monday-Thursday, 10 p.m.-12 a.m.). This has led to people signing a petition to get them each reinstated on their weekly shows. This article explains more:

“BBC bosses face a new battle for the “soul” of 6 Music after thousands of listeners demanded a U-turn over a schedule shake-up.

Managers are facing a backlash over a decision to slash the hours that longstanding DJs Gideon Coe and Marc Riley present on the alternative music station.

Listeners took to social media to condemn the evening schedule changes, revealed in i, with many warning that the digital station, which reaches 2.5 million people a week, was losing touch with its core audience.

Thousands of rebellious listeners have signed a Change petition calling for the BBC to reverse its move to cut Riley and Coe’s airtime from 20 hours a week to just eight, with the pair asked to share an evening slot two days a week.

Reinstate Marc Riley & Gideon Coe's BBC 6 Music shows - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/yQ7t8XyNa9 via @UKChange

— Maxine Peake (@MPeakeOfficial) April 4, 2023

 One insider said: “The 6 Music audience is very loyal and protective. Bosses have a real battle to covince listeners – and its own staff – that these changes are a natural evolution and that the soul of the station isn’t now under threat.”

Maxine Peake, the Bafta-nominated actress and music fan, who recorded a collaboration with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, was an influential voice adding her name to the petition.

Musicians who rely on 6 Music to help them reach new listeners were among the most vocal in opposing the shake-up.

American songwriter BC Camplight tweeted: “This may be biting the 6 Music hand that feeds me but I’m so saddened by this.”

Camplight objected to the BBC describing Riley and Coe as “two of our finest creators” in its official announcement.

Riley is “not a ‘curator’. He is an irreplaceable communicator, entertainer, and musical stalwart who makes many of us look forward to 7pm”, the musician wrote.

Peter Guy, editor of the leading Liverpool-based music website Getintothis, wrote: “Feels like much loved 6 Music is spiralling into the abyss. Cutting two of its best two DJ slots into one is truly rubbish.” He called it “another poor BBC decision. Hard to understand”.

There is suspicion that the changes are being introduced to make 6 Music more attractive to younger listeners”.

I like everyone involved in the new 6 Music evening line-up, but why are all BBC music radio shows two men, or a man + a woman, but never two women?

— Laura Barton (@missbarton) April 4, 2023

It is a weird decision and real travesty that two incredible broadcasters have been pushed to a very late slot and had their shows taken away. Maybe trying to shore up space for different presents and appeal to younger listeners, I do hope that the new pairings do raise an important point. Look across the all-male Gideon Coe and Marc Riley, the male-female Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant, and you will notice that there are no all-female pairings. This observation came from journalist Laura Barton. It is a good point! Even look at BBC Radio 1, and they have Sam and Danni, Saturday between 7 and 10:30 a.m. There is Matt and Mollie 1 p.m. on Saturday. Matt and Mollie are also on at 1 p.m. Sundays. The only exception of sorts happens on Sunday where Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton run down the chart at 6 p.m. It is very rare that you see an all-female pairing like this. Indeed, BBC Radio 2 doesn’t have any pairings at all. Elsewhere on BBC Radio 1, you have Dean and Vicky, Vick and Jordan, and Rickie, Melvin and Charlie. There is great diversity and equality on the station, but why the solitary female duo?! And, in fact, the chart show does not allow individual curation and a lot of chat. Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton are essentially announcing chart positions and not too much else. It is a great show, but it would be great to give them another show where they could play a range of music, conduct interviews, and have more flexibility.

 IN THIS IMAGE: Vick Hope and Katie Thistleton/IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

Looking across other stations, and the situation is broadly the same. KISS FRESH, KISS, AND KISSTORY have no all-female duos. Same goes for Heart. Radio X, shockingly, has no female partnerships. The only other exception I could see if Magic Breakfast with Kat Shoob and Nicole Appleton. Appleton seems like a temporary stand-in for Tom Price, so it is not even a permanent fixture! So, across all the most popular stations, you have one, at a push two, incidents of a female presenting duo. Compare that to the many all-male/male-female examples, and you have to wonder why this is? indeed, across every station, you could pair two women and make an incredible show. BBC Radio 1 has awesome broadcasters like Clara Amfo, Alyx Holcombe, and Sian Eleri. They could easily create a partnerships that would be very natural and popular. Their current chart show pairing would extended well beyond its limitations and confines of a Sunday. BBC Radio 2 has ample options - as does every other station I have mentioned. Taking it back to BBC Radio 6 Music and, whilst they have a couple of new pairings, you do feel that there is an opportunity for others. In new of promoting new music, what about Mary Anne Hobbs and Annie Mac (who is a temporary broadcaster on the station but should be permanent)? Emily Pilbeam has recently stood in for Chris Hawkins. She would be a wonderful half of a female duo. Eclectic shows from Jamz Supernova and Cerys Matthews could fuse and work alongside one another.

 IN THIS PHOTO: The iconic Annie Mac

I cannot get my head around why there are no (or very few) female partnerships! I titled this feature ‘First Aid Kit’, as it seems apt. There is something scarred and damaged when it comes to the current malaise and mindset. That presenting partnerships all either all-male or male-female. (First Aid Kit, by the way, are a Swedish duo of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg. The duo are often played on BBC Radio 6 Music). Like any feature relating to gender inequality, you get people coming back with excuses, cliches and untruths. The listeners are not protesting and pointing out the imbalance, so what does it matter?! It would be unnatural or ‘woke’ to put two women together, perhaps. Maybe there is a reason why you do not have female presenting duos. Are they going to go off-topic and be too chatty and not focused on the show at hand? All bollocks, of course! Yet it is the same sexist attitudes that one can see across radio, festivals, in studios, and across all areas of the industry. It would be exciting to see female pairings across the stations. A new dynamic. I suspect the male-female pairing is most popular because people think it replicates a relationship or has that range of voices. If it all-male or all-female then maybe it is homogenised or limited? It does seem very regressive that stations do not have that trust and foresight to give two incredible women airtime together. In 2023, when we have some incredible women across every major station, there should be more respect and trust. Laura Barton rightly reacted to BBC Radio 6 Music’s new shows – where Deb Grant and Tom Ravenscroft are paired; same with Marc Riley and Gideon Coe – by asking why is it the same old story. I actually think that two women presenting together would be amazing and, hopefully, start a wave of new shows. It makes me wonder why radio stations…

 PHOTO CREDIT: freepik

REFUSE to change the frequency.

FEATURE: Aerial Shots: Kate Bush’s Symphonic and Sweeping A Sky of Honey

FEATURE:

 

 

Aerial Shots

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for Aerial in 2005 

Kate Bush’s Symphonic and Sweeping A Sky of Honey

_________

I don’t think enough mind is paid…

to one of Kate Bush’s greatest musical accomplishments. This is not tied to an anniversary, but I have been thinking about Aerial. The 2005 album came twelve years after The Red Shoes. She had been suggesting a new album was coming out before that. Nobody would have known that we’d get a double album. In terms of the sounds and feel, it was very different to The Red Shoes. The first side of the album is more conventional in terms of its songs and concept. With one single released from the album, King of the Mountain, Aerial does start with one of its most immediate and accessible moments. Elsewhere on the first disc, you get Kate Bush in full Kate Bush mode. You get a paen to her then-young son Bertie (Bertie), and her reciting Pi/π (Pi). Comparisons have been made between Hounds of Love and Aerial. The 1985 album was a result of Bush recording an album following one that was quite draining and exhausting. It that case, it was 1982’s The Dreaming. She dedicated more time to family and space. She built a studio at her family home and changed her life. Similarly, Bush followed the difficult The Red Shoes – albeit after a longer gap – with Aerial. She started a family and very much came back to us having stepped away from the limelight. Both albums featured one side of more conventional songs, with a second side being conceptual and a suite. Many felt that Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave could not be equalled. That is about a women lost at sea who needs rescuing. You wonder whether she will make it and, by the final song, there are questions as to whether she actually made it. A Sky of Honey is different. That is the cycle of a single summer’s day. It starts one morning before moving through to the next one.

Maybe The Ninth Wave took place across a single day, but there are contrasts. The Ninth Wave, psychologically, seems to be about an artist who was drowning or struggling that is now free or rescued from that. A Sky of Honey is a content and happy artist who is revelling in her surroundings without there being any twist or darker edge. The nine tracks that go into A Sky of Honey are so compelling and rich. You get sounds of nature, layered vocals, scenes, and colours that just had to be brought to the stage. I was not able to see Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn in 2014. There, she brought to life The Ninth Wave and A Sky of Honey to life. That was the concept and thread of the residency. She wanted to perform both of those suites. The dramatic and stirring The Ninth Wave alongside the more serene and calming A Sky of Honey provided a challenge in terms of narrative and sets, but it was executed beautifully. I think that A Sky of Honey does not get the same credit and focus it deserves. In terms of the compositions and vocals, I think that this is Kate Bush at her peak. Her creativity and production is sublime. Some of her most powerful and beautiful vocals are on this suite. I especially love Nocturn and what she does there. When Aerial was released on 7th November, 2005, it reached number three in the U.K. I have written before whether we might get a third suite from Kate Bush.

If she does ever release a new album, a song cycle would be wonderful. I think Bush is at her most extraordinary, cinematic, and symphonic when she is composing a grand suite. I have always thought of Bush as a composer and scorer. She has this ambitious mindset that comes to life and is explored through a longer form piece. To me, it is the nature and birdsong that is most affecting. In fact, when MOJO named the best fifty Bush tracks earlier this year, they placed An Endless Sky of Honey at thirty-one. On the original 2005 release, the tracks were separated. In May 2010 when Aerial was released to iTunes for the first time, Bush put the second side as a continuous suite. Maybe suiting it better, it meant people had to listen the whole way through. When it comes to voices and sounds that inspired her most, the humble blackbird is top of the list:  

“Hello birds, hello trees, hello genius.

When veteran British songwriter Don Black met Kate Bush for the first time in 1996, he asked if she had a favourite singer. “The blackbird,” she replied. “And my second favourite is the thrush.” Birdsong was clearly an inspiration for the second half of her double masterpiece, Aerial, initially presented as a suite of distinct songs. When the album appeared on iTunes in 2010 it had become one giant 42-minute track named after its closing, euphoric instrumental passage: An Endless Sky Of Honey. And that is what we’re gazing at here. 24 hours of light, sound, love, song and landscape distilled into one heady draught. The jewel on the sundial’s gnomon is Kate herself, every aspect of her is caught during the day: lover, mother, visionary, artist, naturalist, poet. As the final instrumental section hits high noon, we’re flooded in all that refracted sunlight”.

I just wanted to pay tribute to A Sky of Honey. Even of Bush would prefer it be listened to as a single piece, there are songs from the cycle that should be played on radio. Maybe Somewhere In Between has been played before, but there is so much wonder and brilliance that has not been heard on the air. One of her greatest music achievements, fans were in for a treat in 2005 when Aerial arrived. It would be nice to think that it will get new life in the future. Bush did bring it to the stage in 2014, but I have always liked the idea of a short film that uses some of the songs. In terms of the sheer scale and sound, we go from the tender and homely to something spectacular and wide-ranging. Bush takes us inside her garden…but she also gives us something much grander. Nature and the natural world has always been part of her music. The fact that Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave and Aerial’s A Sky of Honey features them heavily in different ways. The wild waters and wind of the former turned to the calmer breeze and summer of the latter. If you can afford it and have not listened to Aerial, the vinyl copy is a real must. You get to hear A Sky of Honey on that format. It is a listening experience this remarkable suite in its full glory! I have been struck and dazzled by A Sky of Honey since 2005. Every time I play the song cycle, it is impossible not to…

GET lost in it.

FEATURE: Station to Station: Clara Amfo (BBC Radio 1)

FEATURE:

 

 

Station to Station

Clara Amfo (BBC Radio 1)

_________

I cannot remember…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Clara Amfo in the studio for Future Sounds on BBC Radio 1/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

what number I am up to (as I titled these ‘Part xx…’), so I am going to drop the number and simply focus on a broadcaster and D.J. that everyone should listen to. The point of this series is to discuss amazing and influential broadcasters, in addition to those coming through. Today, I want  to celebrate an established and hugely popular figure of radio. Clara Amfo is at the forefront of the BBC Radio 1 schedule. She hosts Radio 1’s Future Sounds from 6 p.m., which then leads to Radio 1’s Hottest Record of the Week at 7:30. That is on a Monday. The rest of the week, Future Sounds runs from 6 to 8. I would urge everyone to tune in to Clara Amfo. For a couple of reasons. You get the best new music coming through. Those artists who are going to change the scene and are delivering some of the most interesting and hottest sounds around. Also, as a broadcaster who has been in the industry a while and is one of the most endearing and talented presenters there is, you can hear the passion Amfo has! Someone determined to spotlight awesome new music, she is a broadcaster who will go on to have a decades-long career. In addition to highlighting influential and important broadcasters who make radio so exceptional and vital, I try to include interviews they have been involved with.

Clara Amfo is someone who is going to inspire a whole crop of broadcasters coming through. I will get to an interview from 2022, but there are some from 2021 that are of particular interest and relevance. Speaking with Harper's Bazaar, Amfo discussed her tips for those looking to get into radio and broadcasting. Aside from being on shows such as Strictly Come Dancing (in 2020), and Great Celebrity Bake Off (2022), she has progressed from Kiss FM, to presenting at the BAFTAs – and taking the reins of the 6 p.m. slot on BBC Radio 1 from the iconic Annie Mac. Amfo provided some tips and advice for those coming through. It makes for fascinating reading (I have selected a few parts of the interview):

“You have to love talking to people

"It sounds really obvious, but that was one of the things that got me into broadcasting. I just love talking to people, and especially about things I love: music, the arts, film. I love conversation and I love people who are passionate about what they do, particularly in these fields. You have to bring that enthusiasm to a job like this; you have to like connecting with people in that way because that's what is going to make you good at it."

Cultivate your own fearlessness

"Live TV and radio - it's never not scary! Don't get me wrong, we've all got our insecurities and fears, but when push comes to shove, you've got to be pretty fearless to do it. Whatever is happening in your head or (quite literally) in your ear, you have to be composed. What makes me achieve that composure is remembering that it is all about trust. If you were put at the front of the TV show or any kind of project, it's because the producer trusts you. If you can channel that trust, it will calm your nerves. Just keep remembering that they put you there for a reason: you can do this.

"Of course you still get everyday nerves. For that, it's a case of literally breathing in and out slowly. The most important thing that I do is also to slow everything down when I talk. Everybody has a tendency when they get nervous to speak fast. Remembering to slow my speech is actually also really good at keeping me calm in general."

Always be yourself

"When you're broadcasting, you are putting yourself out there and it needs to be an authentic you. That's what's going to make you special and unique: being you is what you have to offer. Especially as a woman - and as a Black woman - I know that I can make myself more palatable if I present my hair in a particular way or if I dress in a particular way, but I just know I would be doing a disservice to myself.

"It's the same with my work ethic; I always choose projects that are authentic to me. I never work with a product I would never use myself. That's the best advice I could give someone wanting to get into this field: do it because you love the work. It's a tough industry and it's competitive, so you have to really be in it because it is authentically your passion”.

In 2021, interviewed at a moment when the COVID-19 pandemic was in swing and many radio stations only had a skeleton crew and strict social distancing measures, it must have been strange going onto this huge radio station and keep that same upbeat and professional demeanour. Broadcasters like Clara Amfo were so crucial at a very difficult time – and she is very much as important to this day. The Guardian interviewed a radio icon, where she discussed work, relationships and race. There are a few parts of the interview that caught my eye:

“Last summer, Amfo stopped her listeners in their tracks when she told them exactly how she was feeling about race in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of American police. “I didn’t have the mental strength to face you guys yesterday,” she said, live on air, after advising that anyone with small children might not want them to hear the next part. “To ask, ‘Hi, how was your weekend?’ like I usually do, with my happy intention. Because I know that my weekend was terrible. I was sat on my sofa crying, angry, confused and also knowing,” she continued, before pausing to fight back tears.

“Stuck at the news of yet another brutalised black body. Knowing how the world enjoys blackness and seeing what happened to George. We, black people, get the feeling that people want our culture but they do not want us. In other words, you want my talent but you don’t want me,” she said, before quoting Amanda Seales. “You cannot enjoy the rhythm and ignore the blues.”

PHOTO CREDIT: David Titlow/The Observer

It was an incredibly powerful piece of broadcasting – not something I ever thought I’d hear on Radio 1. I ask if she risked her job to do it and she says she actually had overwhelming support from her employers, but that yes, she would have gone ahead anyway.

After getting a degree in media arts and professional creative writing at St Mary’s University in Twickenham (it involved learning how to write Mills & Boons novels – she has “mad respect” for romance novelists now) she interned at commercial station Kiss FM. Her professionalism was noted and promotions were rapid: from admin to stand-in presenter, to scheduled presenter, to BBC 1 Xtra, to Radio 1, to actual celebrity treatment on Strictly and Celebrity MasterChef, to being a guest on Radio 4 – “The only time my parents were truly impressed, ha,” – to the cover of magazines including Cosmopolitan, Grazia and Vogue.

Amfo is devoted to her work in a way that can leave weaker egos feeling bruised, and lockdown has made her assess what she actually wants from a future sofa buddy, or life partner.

“I don’t want to be with anyone who’s going to try to make me dim my light. I want someone who’s so secure in themselves that they don’t have a problem with me just doing me, you know? I’ve definitely been a rehab centre for a few men in the throes of a midlife crisis, and I’m just not going to do that ever again.” She is properly giggling now, says she can see those guys coming since her “detector has become crystal clear. There’s people who like the idea of you, or who just wanted to know that they could have you. I think I have entertained people like that a bit too easily, and I just don’t do that any more. It is a delight to be free of that”.

I will round up soon. An incredibly warm, relatable, and grounded broadcaster, it is small wonder there is so much interest around her! I want to come to something more recent in a bit, but there is a terrific interview with NME form last year that gives us more insight into a remarkable broadcaster. Someone who has this very special relationship with their listeners, it’s clear Clara Amfo loves her job at BBC Radio 1 and is not going anywhere else soon:

“She says Future Sounds is for “people who like a bit of everything [musically]”, which means she can play a silky-smooth tune by girl-group FLO straight after a punky Fontaines D.C. track. “One thing that has surprised me is the amount of people who text or even ‘@’ me on social media to say: ‘You played this song at this time – what is it?'” Amfo says. “I think there’s an assumption that everyone’s got streaming accounts and whatnot, but not everyone can afford them. And that’s been a really healthy but rude awakening for me.”

Amfo goes on to explain that when she hosted an early breakfast show on Kiss FM, she ended up feeling “jet-lagged” all the time. “You’ve always got to be ‘on’ [in this job], but for breakfast you’ve got to be a particular kind of ‘on’ and I don’t think I could handle it,” she says. “I’ve done weekend breakfast [shows] before and I could do that again, but every day? Nah, I know my lane.” Intriguingly, Amfo says there is one particular job in radio she’d love a crack at further down the line, but doesn’t want to mention it out of respect for the current presenter. It’s a moment that says a lot about Amfo. Yes, she’s ambitious – but she’s also classy and fundamentally kind.

 At this point, Amfo has accepted that not everyone will appreciate everything she has to say or even like her, necessarily. Astutely, she points out that the way we respond to a particular presenter – from “I can’t put my finger on why I don’t like them” to “do you know what, I absolutely love them” – depends on our unconscious biases as well as whether the presenter’s “energy and personality” meshes with our own.

“I know for a fact that some people can’t stand me and there’s a really sick part of me that wonders why,” she says. “But I don’t go delving into that to find out. Like, I know people who have their names on fucking Google Alerts but I’m not doing that. It’s none of my business.”

Amfo takes a similarly pragmatic approach to social media: she still posts on Instagram but has quietly left Twitter, a platform she used to light up. “No one was being horrible to me, but I noticed especially in lockdown that it just got so fucking toxic,” she says. “I feel so much lighter now. I had a lot of bants on Twitter [back in the day], but anything that’s really funny [on there] gets into my group chats anyway.” 

Looking to the future – which appears brighter than ever – Amfo is focusing on the positive. She wants to pick “relevant” projects that fully reflect her personality. “For me, there’s no such thing as a small job,” Amfo says. “Whether it’s being a talking head, a guest on somebody else’s show or hosting a show myself, I just want to do things I enjoy. I think people can really tell when you’re trying to be somebody that you’re not.

For Amfo, this “intersection of passion and trust” has become a guiding principle. “If those two things aren’t happening, there’s just no point,” she says. “The day I stop being passionate, I shouldn’t be doing my job.” Fortunately, there seems to be precisely zero chance of this happening any time soon. And if any TV exec wants to launch a new live music show, she should be the first person they call”.

I am going to end with an interview from December. Looking ahead to 2023, Amfo talked with Notion about her career, advice to those coming through and 'Co-Signed by Clara Amfo': Notion’s collaborative artists to watch list. It is amazing to see how much this wonderful young broadcaster has achieved so far – and realising that she is going to go so far. I can well see her having a broadcasting and television career in the U.S. someday:

“Speaking from her home office before she travels to Boston to present the The Earthshot Prize awards, it’s surreal hearing one of radio’s most loved and recognisable voices coming through laptop speakers. I want to start by reflecting on Clara’s 2022, but embarking on a summary of her recent achievements is no mean feat. In the last two months alone, Clara’s re-launched her star-studded ‘This City’ podcast, fronted a brand-new astrological dating format, hosted a live music event with her ambassador-charity Bloody Good Period, presented numerous awards, interviewed the likes of Stormzy and been interviewed herself by Lorraine Kelly.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pip Bourdillon

Perhaps best known for hosting the official chart and Live Lounge shows, as well as sitting down with world-famous musicians, Clara’s past interviewees could easily fill a Glastonbury line-up. The headliners? Billie Eilish, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Sir Elton John to name a few – Billie’s interview was recorded as an hour long special for BBC One. Currently hosting the prestigious Future Sounds show, it’s also not just the big names that Clara champions. There’s a sense that Clara’s experiences have given her a true understanding of the challenges involved in embarking on a music industry career. She often thanks those who guided her when she started out, and considers how rising talent might best be equally supported from the outset.

Curating of our ‘Co-Signed by Clara Amfo’ list feels like a natural extension of a career-long dedication to championing the best of new talent. Putting together a roster of artists from various genres, Clara is tipping these selections as set for a big 2023: FLO, DellaXOZ, MetteNarrative, Connie Constance, LF System, Finn Foxell, Dylan Fraser and Leo Kalyan. We caught up with Clara to reflect on how far she’s come, what she looks for in fresh talent, and why ultimately, you always have to back yourself.

Is there anything you’ve learned over the last decade you wish you’d known when you were starting out? Or any advice you’d give to young people in similar positions?

I’ve always had a level of self-belief. I’m only human, of course, and self-belief can waver because there are so many different components that can make you not back yourself, whether it’s race, class, or gender. It can sometimes take one comment, or one bad experience, professionally or socially to make you think, ‘oh, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this.’ I think my only regret is that I wish I’d consistently and unwaveringly backed myself.

Would that be your advice to people coming up?

Definitely, you’ve got to back yourself. But at the same time, you have to have the humility and openness to understand that you don’t know everything. There are people that are willing to take the time to properly and sincerely teach you and you have to hold on to those people. They’re going to be your lifesavers when it comes to navigating the industry. Having those people to challenge you to be your best self I think is really important.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pip Bourdillon

There’s so much pressure on artists for constant reinvention and sustained relevance…

Mentally, I just don’t think this is very healthy for artists because there’s so much pressure. You’d be hard-pressed to read an interview with an artist who doesn’t reference whether people still care or not because of this culture that has been created. I think we’re all obsessed with newness but we’ve got to respect artists’ journeys, from the start to wherever they may finish.

For people who are eager to find and support new artists, what could they be doing?

I think they should be supporting small venues where these artists are playing. This is a massive conversation that we need to keep alive. With COVID, so many amazing venues struggled and a lot shut down, but these are the spaces where artists find their fanbase and perfect their craft. Find people online, seek them out and follow them, but get back to the venues because that money from tickets goes back into their production costs. It all comes from those moments.

What are you looking forward to in 2023?

I’m looking forward to people supporting live music venues again. I think that next year, there’s going to be a renaissance. We’re living in peak times and the cost-of-living crisis is very real. I’m not trying to ignore those factors. But I think because of what we’ve been through, people will seek enjoyment, and one of the best places you’re going to get escapism is at a gig. I think we’re going to get even better albums next year and I’m excited about that, for sure”.

A wonderful broadcaster who is a jewel in the BBC Radio 1 crown, go and check out her Future Sounds. With such a varied career under her belt so far, Amfo sounds very comfortable at BBC Radio 1. She has found a perfect place where she can showcase the best new music around. Who knows what the future holds, but you know she is going to have enormous success in everything she does. London-born Clara Amfo is definitely…

ONE of the all-time great broadcasters.

FEATURE: With You With Them: Why Catherine Marks’ Production Success and Collaboration with boygenius on the record Will Inspire a Generation of Women

FEATURE:

 

 

With You With Them

IN THIS PHOTO: Catherine Marks 

Why Catherine Marks’ Production Success and Collaboration with boygenius on the record Will Inspire a Generation of Women

_________

I am not sure…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay

how often we think about a producer when we listen to an album. To be fair, a lot of albums these days have a large number of producers credited. I think that can sometimes take away an album’s focus and sense of personality – if you have various different voices working in different directions. Many artists self-produce, and I do not think they get the credit they deserve. Producing an album is very hard and take a lot of passion and time. So many decisions need to go into every take and how you mould and direct an album. Some producers will let an artist play almost live and keep things quite natural. Others might be more involved and add layers and new dynamics to the music. We all know the statistics about producers when it comes to gender. Even though things have improved slightly, there are far more male producers than female working in studios. Even if many female artists self-producer, the numbers are pretty dire. Last year, Billboard reported on a ten-year study that highlighted gender inequality across the industry. The findings are shocking when it comes to songwriting credits - and they are especially troubling when you get to the percentage of producers in studios that are women:

“The results of a 10-year study have found that women remain underrepresented in many areas of the music creation process and other areas of the industry.

Released today (March 31), this Inclusion In The Recording Studio? study is the fifth annual report on gender equality in music industry from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, of which Smith is the Founder. Funded by Spotify, this report found that over the past ten years, female representation in the recording studio — and subsequently on the charts and at the Grammys — has not significantly increased.

PHOTO CREDIT: senivpetro via freepik

The study was performed by examining the artists, songwriters, and producers credited on each of the 1,000 songs on Billboard‘s Hot 100 Year End Chart from 2012 to 2021, along with the gender and race/ethnicity of every person in those three roles. In 2021, there were 180 artists on this chart — 76.7% of them were men and 23.3% were women. (No artists identified as gender non-conforming or non-binary in 2021.) Across all ten years, 78.2% of artists were men and 21.8% were women.

Key findings include that in 2021, 23.3% of artists on the Hot 100 Year-End Chart were women. This number has been stagnant for a decade, with women representing 21.8% of artists across ten years and 1,000 songs on this chart. The study notes that these numbers are a “far cry” from the 51% of the U.S. population comprised by women.

The report also determined in 2021, only 14.4% of songwriters were women. This number has also not changed significantly over time, with women making up just 12.7% of the songwriters evaluated across the 10 years studied, resulting in a ratio of 6.8 men to every one woman songwriter. More than half of the songs on the Hot 100 Year-End Charts from 2012 to 2021 did not include any women songwriters.

The study identifies Drake as the top male songwriter over the last decade, with credits on 47 songs. By comparison the top female songwriter, Nicki Minaj, has 19 credits. (Drake is followed on this tally by Max Martin, who has 46 credits, while Minaj is followed by Taylor Swift, who has 16 credits.)

PHOTO CREDIT: karlyukav via freepik 

Furthermore, the study found that women were more likely to appear as songwriters on dance/electronic songs, with 20.5% of these songs written by women over ten years and Pop songs, coming in with 19.1% and least likely to work on Hip-Hop/Rap, with women writing just 6.4% of these songs over ten years and R&B/Soul, with women writing 9.4% of these songs.

Female producers fared even worse, with women holding just 3.9% of all producing positions across the songs on the 2021 Hot 100 Year End Chart. This number was down from a seven-year high point of 5% in 2019. From a total of 1,522 producing credits in the 10-year sample, 97.2% were men and 2.8% were women, for a ratio of 35 men to every one woman producer. Only 10 producers across the decade-spanning sample were women of color.

“For women songwriters and producers, the needle has not moved for the last decade,” Dr. Smith says in the report. “In particular, women of color are virtually shut out of producing the most popular songs each year. We know there are talented women from all backgrounds who are not getting access, opportunity, or credit for their work in this arena”.

Things have moved forward, but a report by Fix the Music has shown that there are pitifully low numbers of women and non-binary people in technical roles. Elizabeth Aubrey, writing for NME, reported the fact that women (and non-binary people) are seriously underrepresented when it comes to senior roles in studios:

“A major new report has called for an increase in the number of women in production and engineering roles in the music industry.

Fix The Mix has today (April 11) unveiled its first annual report on gender representation in audio and production engineering roles, and has called on major labels to extend their DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives to hire more women and non-binary producers and engineers behind the scenes.

With studies conducted by We Are Moving the Needle, Jaxsta, Middle Tennessee State University and Howard University, the report found that while women and non-binary people are more likely to be credited in junior roles in the technical fields, they are vastly underrepresented in senior roles across all genres.

It also noted that the credits for the top 10 streamed tracks of 2022 across five major digital service providers (DSPs) reveal a significant gender gap, with only 16 of the 240 credited producers and engineers being women and non-binary people (6.7 per cent).

Additionally, across these DSPs, the best of 2022 playlists sourced from TikTok and Spotify have the weakest representation of women and non-binary people in technical roles, with only 3.6 per cent and 3.7 per cent in key positions respectively.

Looking at credits in the top ten songs across DSPs, the report found that women and non-binary individuals are more highly concentrated within assistant roles than in key technical roles.

Metal was found to have the lowest percentage of women and non-binary people in key technical roles, while electronic music and folk and Americana had the highest representations. You can read the full report here.

Musician Brandi Carlile, who is also a soundBoard member of We Are Moving The Needle, said of the findings: “We’ve got such a long way to go to reach parity in the studio, but I know we can get there.

“This is a systemic problem in the recording industry that we cannot ignore any longer. I’m not sure everyone knows exactly where to start…but it begins with the courage to take a
chance on someone who may not be getting recognised regularly in the field. We have to start somewhere.

“It’s no one’s fault and everyone’s fault at the same time. Even me. I urge my fellow
artists and producers to make hiring decisions that work toward a more equitable future.”

Co-author of the report, Beverly Keel, Dean of Middle Tennessee State University’s College of Media and Entertainment added: “While this research notes the genres that have the best and worst gender representations, it is important to note that every genre needs improvement in representation of women and non-binary people. It is difficult to fathom that representation remains so pitifully low in 2023.

“In any other industry, these low percentages of the genres that have the best gender representation would be an embarrassment, so I hope these ‘high achievers’ are not resting on their laurels”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Brandi Carlile

I am going to come to an interview where award-winning Australian producer Catherine Marks spoke with Kerrang!. She makes some interesting points when asked about the relatively small number of women in studios. I think there is a distinction between women producing their own music and those hired professionally. It is clear that one cannot simply say that, as many women produce their own music, that there is parity and they account for the minority still. The fact is that, although many female self-produce, many of those albums also contain a lot of male producers (or a co-produce). It is wonderful female artists are producing but, for someone like Marks who is an outside producer, she is one of the trailblazers. She is going to inspire so many other women. I will come to her recent success with the U.S. trio boygenius, and their number one album, the record. I wanted to quote quite a bit from the Kerrang! Interview:

“In the last decade Catherine has become one of the most in-demand producers, mixers and engineers in the recording industry. In 2018, she won the prestigious Music Producer Guild award for Producer Of The Year, becoming the first woman to do so. The following year she triumphed at the GRAMMYs for her work as a mixer when St. Vincent’s Masseduction won Best Rock Song.

Catherine’s love affair with music stems back to her school days, and her recent successes are the result of a 20-year journey, which began with a chance meeting in 2001 with producer Flood at a Nick Cave show in Dublin. An introduction to Flood’s collaborator Alan Moulder followed later. The pair – who’d helped define modern production aesthetics from the ’80s onwards through their work, both individually and collectively, with the likes of U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey and Thirty Second To Mars – became Catherine’s mentors.

Learning her craft as an assistant engineer, Catherine worked alongside Flood on PJ Harvey’s White Chalk in 2007 and its 2011 successor Let England Shake. A slew of further engineering projects followed involving Foals and The Killers, a number of them initially at Flood and Alan’s Assault And Battery Studio in Willesden, North West London, where she was instrumental in rebuilding Studio 2.

 Since then, the Melbourne-born producer has worked at a relentless rate. Her key charges include Wolf Alice and The Big Moon alongside the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Amazons and Frank Turner – Catherine producing the latter’s 2019 concept album, No Man’s Land, which celebrated the lives of a number of women whose work was overlooked by history due to their gender. Last year Catherine produced Alanis Morissette’s first album in eight years, Some Pretty Forks In The Road, and completed work on the Manchester Orchestra’s forthcoming album, The Million Masks Of God.

As the fourth subject of our We Run The Scene series of short films – an extension of our celebration of International Women’s Day – Catherine is a gregarious and often self-deprecating individual. While she may be slow to boast about her own achievements, she comes armed with sage advice for those looking to follow in her footsteps. We begin our conversation by discussing her unlikely route into the production world…

You didn’t start out wanting to be a producer, did you?

“No, I started as an architect. Coming out of school there was no clear path to working in music and I really loved art, maths and science, so architecture seemed like a natural fit. I was into music and I’d played a lot at school, so in the back of my mind I wanted to be involved in music, but I had stage fright so it couldn’t be as a performer.

“Through my architecture degree I moved to Ireland and I worked in a firm as an intern. In my year there, I met so many wonderful musicians, producers and engineers – the kind of people I hadn’t been exposed to in Australia. I also went to see a lot of live music, which I hadn’t done living in Melbourne.

 “I felt really inspired and thought there may be a career in music for me, again without really understanding what a producer did or what area I may want to get into. I was very fortunate to meet Flood and he started to tell me a bit about what he did, which I also found exciting. But he told me to go back to Melbourne and to finish my degree. He also told me to play music, join bands, write music and try and figure out what I wanted to do with music. And I did. I joined a few bands who were kind enough to have me and I wrote a few songs.

“Then in 2005, after I’d finished my masters in architecture, Flood suggested that it was time that I got my butt over to London and started working for him. Again, I had no idea what to expect. I arrived on my first day thinking that I would be making records. I was rudely awoken by the fact that I would be making tea and hovering for the next three months!”

What is your approach to working with artists? Do you mentor or coax them?

“I think you should ask the artists that I work with about that (laughs). The first thought in my mind is always collaboration and facilitation. I want to create an environment where we are working as a team and the communication is free and open. Ultimately, though, I’m there to try and help people realise what they want, and if I have to give them a few nudges on the way then I am quite happy to do that. But I love working with artists that are the driving force. I can be the captain of the ship, but I need everyone in the room to be heading in the same direction. I wonder if some of the artists I’ve worked with think I’m a bit bossy. I’m not sure if I am."

You’ve worked frantically for the last five years and you’re still one of the few women sitting behind the desk in the studio. Why do you think that is?

“Why is there a lack of women behind the desk? I would argue that that isn’t as true as it once was. The next generation of mixers, engineers and songwriters are coming through now and a lot of them are women. I used to say that this job isn’t about gender, it’s about personalities and chemistry.

“You need different characters to make records, otherwise they would all sound the same. To me it makes sense that there should be women making records as much as men making records, and I don’t think it was ever that the guys said, ‘We don’t want women involved’ but perhaps subconsciously, culturally or socially even, there was perhaps a barrier with women feeling that this wasn’t an area they could be involved with. I really believe that that culture is changing and it would make me sad if it wasn’t.”

There is an element of change, but clearly more is needed…

“Ten years ago, when I was asked this question – 'Why do you think there aren’t more female producers?' - I would answer, ‘It’s because women are smart’ because it’s a difficult job and there are lots of sacrifices that need to be made. But I was uneducated then. I didn’t realise the real struggles that women had faced trying to get into the industry because that had never been my experience. Or at least my perspective on the situation was never that there were issues with me because I was a woman, it was more of a case of me thinking, ‘I need to get better’ or, ‘I don’t know enough’ or, ‘This is what I need to tolerate to get to the next stage.' But talking to other women and hearing their experiences of discrimination shocked me and made me want to do more to change that culture.”

What advice would you give a young woman wanting to become a producer?

“There’s still no obvious path for any job in this industry. A lot of things are built around who you know and building your reputation. Having said that, technology is changing and it is very easy now to get hold of technology where you can start making music and producing your own music. It’s like anything creative: there’s always going to be difficult moments, but if it’s something you really want to do then it’s also really rewarding so you should just do it. No matter what barriers are in the way, you should just climb over them. That’s kinda what I did but I never saw them as barriers… it was more of a little obstacle course (laughs). Little mini challenges that I needed to overcome to get to the finish line. And I still experience that. That’s what’s so great about this career: there is no end point. Every day is a constant learning experience. If it’s something you really want to do, you should just do it.”

So what needs to change in order for more women to enter in the world of making records?

“I feel there are certain elements of the industry that need to change, but I think that we’re experiencing and living through the change right now. One of the biggest things I’ve noticed – and I think is incredibly encouraging – is how women are supporting other women in the industry. When I started there was no-one I could look up to or talk to who was a woman in the world of production. There is a wonderful community of female mixers, producers and engineers who I’ve got to know recently, and I feel like we’re supporting the next generation that’s coming through, and to me that’s very exciting. I’m sure there’s a lot more that needs to change and I understand that the conversation needs to continue. But to me that is very positive”.

I will conclude by stating why Catherine Marks is such an influence for women who want to go into production. Obviously, if they are an artist, there is that option to self-produce. Two of my favourite artists who self-produce are Hannah Peel and Catherine Anne Davies (The Anchoress). They are both nominated, alongside Devonté Hynes, for a MPG Awards 2023 for Self-Producing Artist of the Year. I have adored both of their work for years now. The Anchoress’ The Art of Losing was one fo the finest albums of 2021. I adore Davies’ productions. She draws the listeners into her music, and reveals new layers when you listen back time and time again. Peel is an exceptional composer too. The soundtracks for Rogue Agent and The Midwich Cuckoos are stunning works from one of our greatest musical minds. Incredible and inspiring women, and I am definitely rooting for them ahead of the award winner announcement on 27th April. I know Peel and Davies will inspire a generation of female artists who want to self-produce.

IN THIS PHOTO: Hannah Peel

There are many others who do not want to be a musician but still want to produce. Not enough is being done to encourage that; to keep Music on the national curriculum and provide production courses. There are production courses in higher education - but how easy is it for young women who take those courses to get into studios when there is still this feeling it is male-dominated and the environment may not be that supportive to them? To positive things! Marks has produced award-winning and acclaimed albums through the years. An album that is sure to be GRAMMY-nominated and has got to number one in the U.K., boygenius’ the record is my favourite of the year so far. It is a magnificent album that she produced alongside the trio (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker). Prior to explaining why Marks is so important, I want to bring in one of the many hugely positive reviews for the record. It gained so many five-star reviews – and is already one of the best-reviewed albums of the year. CRACK had this say about the amazing the record:

“Back in January, Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, the three members of the indie rock supergroup boygenius, appeared on the front cover of Rolling Stone to announce their debut album, the record. Their deadpan poses and pinstripe suits paid homage to a photoshoot in the same publication almost three decades earlier, featuring another lightning rod American three-piece: Nirvana.

The reference, of course, was not an incidental one, the inference being that boygenius are, as Nirvana were, one of the most significant bands of their time – even if the record is an album that alternately subverts, embraces and side-eyes the canon. Leonard Cohen, on a track named after the revered artist, for example, is described as “an old man writing horny poetry”. But two songs earlier, on Not Strong Enough, the band unashamedly deal in shimmering stadium rock, showing us that even as their eyebrows are wryly raised over the deification of guitar music’s “boy geniuses”, they can also play – and beat – them at their own game.

Just as Cobain, Grohl and Novoselic captured a pervasive mood with Nevermind – that is, the restless and destructive boredom of the American teenager in the early 90s – on the record, Baker, Bridgers and Dacus do the same for the 2020s. Together, they distil the particular blend of neuroticism, romance and irony that tends to infect the brains of their young, internet-addled fanbase, in a way that feels generationally definitive. Dacus self-describes as “a winter bitch” on True Blue, while Baker’s “half my mind/ I keep the other second guessing” line on Not Strong Enough is a pin-point description of how it feels to be a young person in such an anxiety ridden time.

As such, the record lives up to the expectations that have been placed on it since boygenius released their self-titled EP in 2018, and just as before, each band member brings her own unique sensibility to the table. Baker’s winsome vocal sparkles on Cool About It, the grounded dignity of Dacus’ alto makes We’re in Love the most affecting song on the album, while Bridgers drives it home with closer Letter to an Old Poet, stirringly interpolating the standout 2018 boygenius track Me and My Dog. This new song is a sort of sequel to the earlier one, wherein Bridgers denounces its once-exalted subject. “You made me feel an equal/ But I’m better than you and you should know that by now,” she sings over piano, backed by harmonies from Dacus and Baker, as the familiar refrain lurches back in.

Thematically, there is a focus on the personal and romantic that we expect from these three songwriters, but there’s also a special dimension that we don’t hear in their solo projects: their love for each other. This is most touchingly expressed on We’re in Love, on which Dacus movingly addresses her bandmates (“If you rewrite your life/ May I still play a part?/ In the next one, will you find me?”), but it’s also there in the fun they seem to be having just playing together.

Indeed, the record’s real fireworks go off when boygenius switch on their rock star mode. Self-consciously leaning into their place in the pantheon of great guitar bands, and giving a nod to the last great heyday of US alternative music in the 90s, boygenius skewer this subculture in a loving sort of way. Satanist has a fun, MTV-era slacker riff that cosplays Mellow Gold-era Beck; $20 sees Bridgers vamping, Cobain-like, when she screams blue murder at its climax; and Not Strong Enough, with its simple but soaring chorus (“I don’t know why/ I am the way I am/ Not strong enough to be your man”) evokes Sheryl Crow’s 1993 single Strong Enough, eliciting the sort of written-for-performance anthem you’ll remember seeing live for years afterwards”.

It is true that some of the best albums of the year by women are produced/co-produced by the artist themselves. Caroline Polachek is a producer on Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Billie Marten is on Drop Cherries, boygenius obvious are on the record, and Lana Del Rey is on Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. So many major female artists also produce. Taylor Swift is a producer on Midnights. RAYE co-produced (as Rachel Keen) on My 21st Century Blues this year. It is great to see. Female artists taking ownership and showing their production brilliance. There is that other world. One where women like Catherine Marks are particularly important. In terms of production as a standalone profession, there are far fewer women than men in studios. Even if there is that great knowledge that so many female artists self-produce, you see so many other albums without women credited as producers. There is definitely a desire from women to get into the profession. I still think that studios are not flexible enough when it comes to providing a supportive environment, taking into consideration issues like childcare and maternity concerns. A report from 2012 suggested that many women aren’t interested in being a producer. That they would need a certain swagger in such an intense environment. This article from 2021 is about musician Helen Reddington’s book,  She’s at the Controls. The book not only explains how many female empowerment songs you hear on big Pop albums are produced by men. She details that, when it comes to music education, women are not as encouraged as men. Many studios are quite hostile, which means there are few visible female role models inspiring the next generation.

I think Catherine Marks’ ongoing success and the acclaim her work has received on boygenius’ the record is going to be a turning point. Not only will it encourage many female producers to produce themselves, but also hire female producers. I feel it is a sign that we need to support women who want to be producers. I don’t think it is the case that they are not interested and their focus is in other areas. I think that supposed apathy stems from a sense that they will not be supported and the studio environment is not going to be flexible and collaborative. Catherine Marks’ brilliance and continued influence is going to rub off on the next generation. Whilst we may never get to a point when there is gender equality in terms of producers in studios, Marks points out that many women are producing their own music. This too is inspiring a new generation. Marks has created her own studio space, but she has worked with so many different artists and her experiences have been largely positive. That was not always the way. Like any women wanting to produce, she has faced discrimination and barriers, but her determination and passion is clear. From here, there will be so much demand from other artists who want to work with Marks. As she has just worked with an American group, I can well see major artists like Taylor Swift calling on her services. I do feel the record’s wonderful sound and enormous quality will underline why we need to encourage more women into production. Even if boygenius themselves are producers, the input and guidance of Marks adds so much. There is no doubt that she is…

ONE of the best producers in the industry.

FEATURE: Angels and Teardrops: Massive Attack’s Mezzanine at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Angels and Teardrops

 Massive Attack’s Mezzanine at Twenty-Five

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RELEASED on 20th April, 1998…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Massive Attack in 1998/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Westenberg

I wanted to look ahead to the twenty-fifth anniversary of Massive Attack’s third studio album, Mezzanine. An album conceptualised by their lead Robert Del Naja in 1997, he wanted to create something darker than any previous album from the Bristol crew. Grant Marshall (a group member) supported this direction. Fellow member Andrew Vowles was not so sure, and the production process was tense and often near the point where Massive Attack split. Like some genius albums that were made during huge periods of tension and disagreement – such as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours -, Mezzanine is a masterpiece. Alongside 1991’s Blue Lines, it is Massive Attack’s absolute peak. It would be four years until they followed Mezzanine with 100th Window. They never hit the same highs as they did on 1998’s Mezzanine. One of the defining albums of the ‘90s, I wanted to explore it in greater detail. Still an album that sounds like nothing else, it reached number one in the U.K. upon its release. I want to get to some features before a couple of positive reviews. In fact, it is hard to find anything less than glowing praise of the 1998 work of brilliance! The first feature I want to highlight is from The Paris Review written around the twentieth anniversary of Mezzanine, Michael A. Gonzales shared his thoughts about a classic:

“Mezzanine, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary on April 20, was a departure from the gritty electronica of Massive Attack’s first two projects, Blue Lines and Protection. It incorporates more rock elements, including a newly hired band with the guitarist Angelo Bruschini, formerly of the New Wave band the Numbers, leading the charge and change. Mezzanine is an album best listened to loud, preferably on earphones, to properly hear the layers of weirdness and rhythms, a soulful sound collage that was miles away from the “Parklifes” and “Champagne Supernovas” of their Brit-pop contemporaries Blur and Oasis.

“In the beginning, the sampler was our main musical instrument,” Daddy G said in his slight West Indian accent. “When we first formed Massive Attack, basically we were DJs who went into the studio with our favorite records and created tracks. At the time, we tried to rip off the entire style of American hip-hop performers, but we realized, as artists, it’s important to be yourself. We realized it made no sense for us to talk about the South Bronx. Slowly but surely, we had to reclaim our identities as Brit artists who wanted to do something different with our music.”

Massive Attack unintentionally kicked off a new British Invasion in the nineties that was as powerful as the Beatles in the sixties, Led Zeppelin in the seventies, or Duran Duran in the eighties. Beginning with their sophisticated debut, Blue Lines, which featured the vocalist Shara Nelson on the masterful “Unfinished Sympathy” and “Safe from Harm,” there was something special about their blunted cinematic (Martin Scorsese was another hero) sound that had a paranoid artfulness. For me, having long grown bored with the stunted growth of many American rap artists during that era of “jiggy” materialism and thug tales of nineties rap, their slowed-down music (tape loops, samples, and beats) created an often dreamy, sometimes nightmarish sound that was fresh and futuristic. The author Will Self called it a “sinuous, sensual, subversive soundscape.”

Blue Lines was accessible avant-garde and comprehensible experimentation. From first listen, I could tell they were as inspired by the pioneering producers Marley Marl, Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Prince as they were by Burt Bacharach, John Barry, and Brian Eno. The trip-hop label was bestowed on the group by the Brit journalist Jonathan Taylor to describe the trippy music that was simultaneously street and psychedelic. Trip-hop was a tag that, like jazz, was often rejected by the practitioners, but it fit perfectly. A few years later, when I started contributing short fiction to the Brown Sugar erotica series, I imagined the stories as textual films, and it was Massive Attack that supplied the seductive score.

“Angel,” the third single from Mezzanine, would go on to become one of their most licensed songs, used for the opening credits of the series House as well as by the director George Miller in Mad Max: Fury Road. Over the years, Massive Attack’s music has been used in many movies (Pi, The Matrix, The Insider) and television programs (Luther, True Blood, Power). The videos for their own songs, including the four singles from Mezzanine (“Risingson,” “Teardrop,” “Angel,” and “Inertia Creeps”), were always sinister and disturbing. Massive’s hybrid music achieved pop-cult status, selling millions of copies while still being critically lauded.

Yet in 1998, at least, the group itself was still somewhat anonymous. They could walk around the city without being bothered. Mushroom and I popped out of the studio and went to a juice stand. He told me about his years living in New York, where he was the protégé of Devastating Tito from the rap group the Fearless Four. “Have you ever heard of them?” he asked shyly. When I told him my best friend Jerry Rodriguez had directed their video for “Problems of the World” in 1983, Mushroom smiled. “Finally,” he replied, “someone who knows about the old school”.

With songs like Angel, Teardrop and Inertia Creeps in the line-up, there are few albums that are as incredible. It is hard to put into the words the significance and impact of Mezzanine. Erie, dark, beautiful and sweeping at the same time, the music world was gifted something very special on 20th April, 1998. Stereogum provided their take for its twentieth anniversary back in 2018:

“Movie-soundtrack programmers figured it out almost immediately: If you want to conjure a certain vibe, you go directly to Mezzanine. The vibe in question isn’t an easy thing to define. It’s a feeling of ominous sensual mystery. It’s the feeling that something is about to happen. It could be sex or death or oblivion. You don’t know, and you’re stuck waiting. It’s the sound of anticipation.

It doesn’t just work in movies and TV shows, either. It works in actual lives. Mezzanine is an album that entered the cultural bloodstream upon arrival, and moments on it are etched so deeply into our own personal memories that just hearing the album means feeling a flood of sense-memory. I have this particular memory of hearing the beginning of “Teardrop,” over crappy Walkman headphones, while returning home from college for the first time. I was crammed into a terrifyingly tiny plane, the only kind that ever seemed to leave from the Syracuse airport, sweating and shaking, feeling like I was about to die. But as I heard that chiming harpsichord and that slow-tap drumbeat and Liz Fraser’s unearthly coo, I watched the sun setting behind the snow-lined pine trees on the border of the runway, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of the moment. “Teardrop” seemed appropriate, both for the fear and for the sudden and unexpected moment of wonder. It’s a perfect song, one that soothes anxiety even as it complements it.

Massive Attack’s music had always found space for some combination of beauty and dread, but it had never done it like this before. Blue Lines and Protection, the two albums that preceded Mezzanine, only really sound slick and expansive when you hold Mezzanine up for comparison. Those albums combined sounds in ways that nobody had ever heard. Rap and reggae and dance and R&B were all finding common ground in the UK pop music of the era, and a group like Soul II Soul were essentially working from the same aesthetic building blocks that Massive Attack were, at least in the beginning. (They also shared a producer, Nellee Hooper.) But Massive Attack’s great innovation was to turn those sounds inward, to present them in a way that was full of doubt and longing.

Mezzanine took those same feelings and blew them all the way out. All those same sounds are present on Mezzanine, and they’re heavier and deeper than they’d ever been. The three members of Massive Attack had always been big fans of dub reggae, and they’d brought the dub innovator Mad Professor in to remix their entire Protection album. Mezzanine was the moment that they truly figured out how to use those disorienting sonic textures and layers in their own music, to feed the emotional resonance that they’d always been chasing. The reggae legend Horace Andy, a longtime Massive Attack collaborator, sings three songs on Mezzanine, and they’re all altered versions of his own old songs. So those tracks almost work the way dub versions might’ve done — taking these warm, welcoming old tracks and turning them into pure nightmare fuel”.

I am going to round off with a couple of reviews. I know there was a twentieth anniversary of Mezzanine. The record was encoded into synthetic DNA (a first for an album). The project was in collaboration with TurboBeads Labs in Switzerland. This is what AllMusic said about Mezzanine when they sat down to review it:

“Increasingly ignored amidst the exploding trip-hop scene, Massive Attack finally returned in 1998 with Mezzanine, a record immediately announcing not only that the group was back, but that they'd recorded a set of songs just as singular and revelatory as on their debut, almost a decade back. It all begins with a stunning one-two-three-four punch: "Angel," "Risingson," "Teardrop," and "Inertia Creeps." Augmenting their samples and keyboards with a studio band, Massive Attack open with "Angel," a stark production featuring pointed beats and a distorted bassline that frames the vocal (by group regular Horace Andy) and a two-minute flame-out with raging guitars. "Risingson" is a dense, dark feature for Massive Attack themselves (on production as well as vocals), with a kitchen sink's worth of dubby effects and reverb. "Teardrop" introduces another genius collaboration -- with Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins -- from a production unit with a knack for recruiting gifted performers. The blend of earthy with ethereal shouldn't work at all, but Massive Attack pull it off in fine fashion. "Inertia Creeps" could well be the highlight, another feature for just the core threesome. With eerie atmospherics, fuzz-tone guitars, and a wealth of effects, the song could well be the best production from the best team of producers the electronic world had ever seen. Obviously, the rest of the album can't compete, but there's certainly no sign of the side-two slump heard on Protection, as both Andy and Fraser return for excellent, mid-tempo tracks ("Man Next Door" and "Black Milk," respectively)”.

After twenty-five years, Mezzanine remains this huge album that is considered to be one of the all-time best. Pitchfork gave Massive Attack’s third studio album 9.3 when they reviewed it in 2017. That was an upgrade of 8.1 from their original 1998 review. It shows that Mezzanine grows in stature through the years and reveals its true brilliance the more you listen:

“But Mezzanine’s defining moments come from guest vocalists who were famous long before Massive Attack even released their first album. Horace Andy was already a legend in reggae circles, but his collaborations with Massive Attack gave him a wider crossover exposure, and all three of his appearances on Mezzanine are homages or nods to songs he'd charted with in his early-’70s come-up. “Angel” is a loose rewrite of his 1973 single “You Are My Angel,” but it’s a fakeout after the first verse—originally a vision of beauty (“Come from way above/To bring me love”), transformed into an Old Testament avenger: “On the dark side/Neutralize every man in sight.” The parenthetically titled, album-closing reprise of “(Exchange)” is a ghostly invocation of Andy’s “See a Man’s Face” cleverly disguised as a comedown track. And then there’s “Man Next Door,” the John Holt standard that Andy had previously recorded as “Quiet Place”—on Mezzanine, it sounds less like an overheard argument from the next apartment over and more like a close-quarters reckoning with violence heard through thin walls ready to break. It’s Andy at his emotionally nuanced and evocative best.

The other outside vocalist was even more of a coup: Liz Fraser, the singer and songwriter of Cocteau Twins, lends her virtuoso soprano to three songs that feel like exorcisms of the personal strife accompanying her band’s breakup. Her voice serves as an ethereal counterpoint to speaker-rattling production around it. “Black Milk” contains the album’s most spiritually unnerving words (“Eat me/In the space/Within my heart/Love you for God/Love you for the Mother”), even as her lead and the elegiac beat make for some of its most beautiful sounds. She provides the wistful counterpoint to the night-shift alienation of “Group Four.” And then there's “Teardrop,” her finest moment on the album. Legend has it the song was briefly considered for Madonna; Andrew “Mushroom” Vowles sent the demo to her, but was overruled by Daddy G and 3D, who both wanted Fraser. Democracy thankfully worked this time around, as Fraser’s performance—recorded in part on the day she discovered that Jeff Buckley, who she’d had an estranged working relationship and friendship with, had drowned in Memphis’ Wolf River—was a heart-rending performance that gave Massive Attack their first (and so far only) UK Top 10 hit.

Originally set for a late ’97 release, Mezzanine got pushed back four months because Del Naja refused to stop reworking the tracks, tearing them apart and rebuilding them until they’re so polished they gleam. It sure sounds like the product of bloody-knuckled labor, all that empty-space reverb and melted-together multitrack vocals and oppressive low-end. (The first sound you hear on the album, that lead-jointed bassline on “Angel,” is to subwoofers what “Planet Earth” is to high-def television.) But it also groans with the burden of creative conflict, a working process that created rifts between Del Naja and Vowles, who left shortly after Mezzanine dropped following nearly 15 years of collaboration.

Mezzanine began the band’s relationship with producer Neil Davidge, who’d known Vowles dating back to the early ’90s and met the rest of the band after the completion of Protection. He picked a chaotic time to jump in, but Davidge and 3D forged a creative bond working through that pressure. *Mezzanine *was a document of unity, not fragmentation. Despite their rifts, they were a post-genre outfit, one that couldn’t separate dub from punk from hip-hop from R&B because the basslines all worked together and because classifications are for toe tags. All their acknowledged samples—including the joy-buzzer synths from Ultravox’s “Rockwrok” (“Inertia Creeps”), the opulent ache of Isaac Hayes’ celestial-soul take on “Our Day Will Come” (“Exchange”), Robert Smith’s nervous “tick tick tick” from the Cure’s “10:15 Saturday Night,” and the most concrete-crumbling throwdown of the Led Zep “Levee” break ever deployed (the latter two on “Man Next Door”)—were sourced from  1968 and 1978, well-traveled crate-digging territory. But what they build from that is its own beast.

Their working method never got any faster. The four-year gap between Protection and Mezzanine became a five-year gap until 2003’s 100th Window, then another seven years between that record and 2010’s Heligoland, plus another seven years and counting with no full-lengths to show for it. Not that they've been slacking: we've gotten a multimedia film/music collaboration with Adam Curtis, the respectable but underrated Ritual Spirit EP, and Del Naja’s notoriously rumored side gig as Banksy. (Hey, 3D does have a background in graffiti art.) But the ordeal of both recording and touring Mezzanine took its own toll. A late ’98 interview with Del Naja saw him optimistic about its reputation-shedding style: “I always said it was for the greater good of the fucking project because if this album was a bit different from the last two, the next one would be even freer to be whatever it wants to be.” But fatigue and restlessness rarely make for a productive mixture, and that same spark of tension which carried *Mezzanine *over the threshold proved unsustainable, not just for Massive Attack’s creativity but their continued existence.

Still, it’s hard not to feel the album’s legacy resonating elsewhere—and not just in “Teardrop” becoming the cue for millions of TV viewers to brace themselves for Hugh Laurie’s cranky-genius-doctor schtick. Graft its tense feelings of nervy isolation and late-night melancholy onto two-step, and you’re partway to the blueprint for Plastician and Burial. You can hear flashes of that mournful romantic alienation in James Blake, the graceful, bass-riddled emotional abrasion in FKA twigs, the all-absorbing post-genre rock/soul ambitions in Young Fathers or Algiers. Mezzanine stands as an album built around echoes of the ’70s, wrestled through the immediacy of its creators' tumultuous late ’90s, and fearless enough that it still sounds like it belongs in whatever timeframe you're playing it".

On 20th April, the supreme Mezzanine celebrates twenty-five years. I remember when it came out in 1998. It was an exciting year for music, and I was appreciating genres like Trip Hop and Electronica more. I don’t think there is any fault of weaknesses with Mezzanine. It is one of those flawless albums. I think it will stun, amaze, and inspire…

FOR decades more.

FEATURE: Slowly Trudging Up That Hill: If a New Kate Bush Album Dropped, Which Radio Stations Would Play It?

FEATURE:

 

 

Slowly Trudging Up That Hill

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

If a New Kate Bush Album Dropped, Which Radio Stations Would Play It?

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APOLOGIES to once more…

 PHOTO CREDIT: lookstudio via freepik

play on Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) for the title of this feature, but I think it is apt in this case! I think it is only going to be a matter of months before Kate Bush announces new music. That might be a bit of a guess or big prediction, but I feel that she will announce an autumn album by the time we are just about to get to summer. I am thinking ahead to the fact and a subject that I like to address when it comes to Bush. With every passing day, it is apparent that Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is the go-to song for stations. Radio loves to play that 1985 track. That has always been the case, but it has been amplified after it appeared on Stranger Things last year. If that Netflix show helped introduce a new generation to Kate Bush’s music, it unfortunately created this fixation with the song that sacrificed most of her other songs. Sure, you might get a few other singles played now and then but, from Greatest Hits Radio to BBC Radio 2, even to BBC Radio 6 Music, you can bet that Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is going to be played a lot more than any other song. In fact, I think the last five times I have heard Kate Bush played on the radio, it has been that Hounds of Love track.

I do feel that there needs to be greatest appreciation of her music beyond what is seen as obvious and popular. The thing is that people do not need to hear that song so much anymore. It is in the wider world and is not going to be fresh to so many people. Radio stations seem to get it into their head that, as the song exploded last year, this is what we associate with Kate Bush – a song that defines her and is going to be the most sought after. Even if something is sought after and popular, ramming it down throats assumes that people only would listen to Kate Bush because of that song. Playlists in general are very narrow; but consider their demographics and objectives. Very few radio stations are age-specific. I know BBC Radio 1 appeals to a ‘young’ reach, but they do feature artists in their mid-thirties and forties. It is rare, but why would someone as relevant as Kate Bush not feature? I suspect they play her a fair bit, but would her new music feature on the playlists, seeing as she has undoubtably resonated with a generation who listen to BBC Radio 1? I will come to that. BBC Radio 2 is quite broad in its remit, and even BBC Radio 6 Music is very narrow regarding Kate Bush plays. Unless listeners request something deeper than the obvious singles, the scope includes maybe six or seven of her tracks (and Babooshka and The Red Shoes might be in there).

For an artist who has released ten studio albums and well over a hundred songs, it is a huge disservice to her genius and variety. There are artists that are given the same sort of short shrift and lack of real appreciation. It is great that a song like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) impacted and connected with so many people, but if that is the song you lean on when it comes to Bush, what are you trying to say? This is what she is known for and synonymous with, so this is all we are going to play?! It is a little sad! There are songs and almost entire albums that are not being played. Since when did we hear anything from Lionheart that wasn’t Wow? Something from Never for Ever besides Babosohka, Army Dreamers or Breathing? Anything off of The Dreaming past Sat in Your Lap? A song on Hounds of Love from the first side that isn’t Cloudbusting, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) or Hounds of Love? What about things beyond The Sensual World’s title track and This Woman’s Work? Do you get much from The Red Shoes beyond the title track? Aerial’s King of the Mountain is played, but not much else from that double album is. If radio stations limit artists to the singles and neglect deeper cuts, then that creates a very bleak rule! Kate Bush will never be ignored or forgotten, but her legacy is being defined and reduced to only a few songs. I know people (pedants) will leap in and list occasions when deeper cuts have been played - but is a very rare occasion!

It sounds like I am picking on BBC Radio 1, but should an artist in their sixties be seen as a legacy act or irrelevant to playlists?! I know they aim to a young demographic and want music that is cutting-edge and will appeal to them, but there are no rules about featuring artists who have been in the music business for years. I wonder why, for women, there are few artists over thirty-five on the playlist. I guess even male artists have a certain time limit on that station – though it does not seen as strict when compared to female artists. If we want to discuss relevance and importance, new Kate Bush music would definitely be up there. If listeners of BBC Radio 1 hear Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) on the station because that and a couple of others are what they might easily identify with, would they ever know about her new music and buy the album?! Legends like Madonna won’t appear on certain stations, so how does a younger generation know about her albums and contemporary brilliance if they are only being fed ‘classics’? Are women over a certain age only seen as being able to connect with young listeners through their older music? Let us not forget that Bush released Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) when she was in her twenties.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Nicholas Githiri/Pexels

When a new album is announced – I am very hopeful we are not talking about 2011’s 50 Words for Snow being her final album -, the likely scenario is this regarding promotion. She will speak with BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 6 Music and maybe some international stations. Perhaps MOJO and The Guardian might get interviews. Bush might also talk to a couple of smaller music websites. That might be about it. I realise that I have not mentioned stations like BBC Radio 1, but this should not mean that no promotion with them equals no airtime. The stations who will play songs from that album are likely to only be BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music (from the main stations) and, to be fair, I think the latter may only play a single for the first time it will fade out quickly. What should happen is that a new single should be seen as a wonderful thing we all need to embrace! I have the horrible feeling that Bush’s new music will soon be replaced with her hits. I know stations can only play a single for a certain amount of time, but I don’t think they can only play singles. They can dip into an album. I think there is a reason why this is not done more. If you get into a habit of playing singles or, in this case, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), it gets harder and harder to break that cycle the more you play it. People are used to this song being played, so there is the feeling they will balk or tune out if another/album track is played.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing on stage at The Secret Policeman's Ball, in aid of Amnesty International, at the London Palladium, March 1987/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

In terms of new music, it might be more of a case of trudging up that hill for recognition and exposure. Age seems to preclude a lot of artists. It is this thing that an artist is only worthy of being in the playlist if they fit into a demographic or are cool and cutting. You will find that the listenership of stations like BBC Radio 1 is not as discerning and rigid as their playlists would suggest. They would actually embrace Kate Bush’s new music, but one feels she is not going to be on their playlists. A song that appeared on an album nearly forty years ago is seen as more significant and relevant than anything brand-new. Of course, I am making predictions. Stations may surprise us, though if history is anything to go by, Bush’s new music will be confined to a certain audience and schedule. It is a sad thing to realise! Whilst this one song is played the vast majority of the time, there is a whole body of work going un-explored and heard. I do think that 2023 is a year for new Kate Bush music. I do realise that 50 Words for Snow featured longer tracks, so they wouldn’t have been suitable for radio (even though Among Angels is perfectly doable in that sense). Look at Aerial for instance. That 2005 album is largely neglected. Bush reissued her lyrics book, How to Be Invisible, with a new foreword. Many fans were lucky enough to get a signed copy. That song (from Aerial) is almost ironic given that so many of her songs are overlooked. An artist who has inspired so many young artists coming through and has influenced so many others deserves more radioplay and a wider selection of her tracks featured. That is particularly relevant when it comes to the possibility of new music. When that great day arrives, Kate Bush shouldn’t have to be limited to a couple of radio stations. She shouldn’t have to learn…

HOW to be invisible.

FEATURE: After the Compliments, Pleasure, and First Impression… What Next for the Amazing Self Esteem?

FEATURE:

 

 

After the Compliments, Pleasure, and First Impression…

IN THIS PHOTO: Self Esteem at the 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin, February 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen White/TLMT 

What Next for the Amazing Self Esteem?

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ONE of our absolutely finest artists…

IMAGE CREDIT: Self Esteem

the past few years have been so impactful and successful for the wonderful Self Esteem. The moniker of Rebecca Lucy Taylor, the former Slow Club member is a solo artist with no peers. She occupies a space that is entirely her own. Her 2019 debut album, Compliments Please, was one that gained huge critical acclaim. She was being marked out as a unique, incredibly powerful, and personal songwriter whose music resonated and dug deep. I thought that this album should have been nominated for a Mercury Prize. Even though it lost out to Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert last year, her second studio album, Prioritise Pleasure, is considered her masterpiece. Released in October 2021, it was undeniably the best album of that year in my view. I want to predict and prophesise in a minute. I will stay with the incredible Prioritise Pleasure for a bit. I will come to a review of that album, before mentioning a soundtrack that took her talent and sound in a new direction. In August 2021, NME featured Self Esteem. It was fascinating knowing more about Rebecca Lucy Taylor and her objectives when it came to Prioritise Pleasure. The messages that go into the songs. This was someone who came from a successful duo where she may have felt held back or inauthentic at times. Now, as a solo artist releasing her second studio album, she had broken free. This sense of liberation and authenticity coming through in her songs:

“Taylor formed Slow Club in Sheffield in 2006 with fellow instrumentalist Charles Watson. After just over a decade together, the duo parted ways. Though she remains proud of the songs she and Watson wrote together – and is clear she doesn’t blame anybody for making her feel this way – Taylor began to feel suffocated by a sense of duty to the band. “The amount of songs I had that couldn’t go through the Slow Club lens – that then had to just disappear – was quite debilitating artistically,” she says.

Though Taylor doesn’t dwell on her sexuality (“my Wikipedia page says that I’m bisexual, and I’m like, ‘Wow – that’s news?”), going solo has proved freeing in certain ways. Looking back, she recognises the “inherent masculinity” and straightness of the indie scene Slow Club moved in.

PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel

“We had Amelie, Zooey Deschanel, and Bright Eyes… I mean, I fucking love Bright Eyes but there would always be the one pretty girl who would come and sing with them,” she despairs. “Now that whole aesthetic makes me ill and I just can’t bear it. Realising my sexuality wasn’t a massive deal, but it did make me feel odd about what I presented to an audience, and having to sing songs that couldn’t represent just my feelings was just very restrictive.”

She says that breaking away to do her own thing has been “the greatest joy”, adding: “Everything about that world was like, ‘Ooh – we just happen to be playing our songs quietly, don’t look at me, don’t make any sort of spectacle out of me; I’m just sort of accidentally talented. That’s something I never enjoyed about it. I want to put on a show – I want it to be too much!

“As a little girl this is what my life was like. I used to just write plays and do dances. I had this character called the Babylon Sorceress – she had this long purple dress with big sleeves and red hair. A very Florence [and The Machine] vibe actually. I told Florence about her. She was this misunderstood sorceress that was very cool, and I was very enamoured. All my female leads were very isolated and alone, and now look! My life was this Freddie Mercury fucking show. For a decade of my life, that was the worst thing about me. Now, to celebrate it is just hilarious.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Pentel

These days, channelling the singular spirit of the Babylon Sorceress, Self Esteem certainly puts on a show. As an artist she wilfully embraces the ridiculous, and also the ridiculously fun: when she’s not whirling around the stage dressed in a dress made out of Boots advantage cards, she’s paying homage to Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour by performing intricate choreo in a shoulder-padded suit and lacy lingerie.

When we speak today, Taylor is taking a break from rehearsing the “dramatic entrance” segment of her Green Man show. “For the whole of this ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ era, the Blonde Ambition tour is the blueprint,” she explains, expanding on what she’ll be bringing to the stage. “There will never be anything more perfect to me than mixing lingerie with menswear, and what that represents and makes me feel like.” Pulling together an arena-level pop show fit for a mountainous Welsh festival has been tiring, but, she says: “It pays off. People love the gigs; they’re amazing, it’s an experience. I work hard now in a way I’ve always wanted to work. I’m knackered now at the end of a gig and it feels amazing”.

And, true to its title, ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ as a whole is an album that champions putting yourself first – even if it makes certain people uncomfortable. “I’ve done years of therapy, done plenty of work on myself, and read every fucking book you can fucking read about it, and it comes back down to true self-acceptance and self-love,” Taylor says. “It’s the answer to everything, but it’s still something that you’re meant to not do. I go down this road a lot, and I get quite upset. But then I think, no – just keep in my little part of the world, my group, accepting myself, loving myself, and then make my little silly songs and do my little silly dances. And if someone can learn from that and pass it forward, at least I’m doing something?”.

There is no pressure or anything but, like Madonna, Self Esteem released a terrific debut, and then hit extraordinary heights on her second. In fact, if we want to make Madge comparisons, perhaps Compliments Please was a Like a Virgin/True Blue album where there was this promise and step up, whereas Prioritise Pleasure is a combination of Like a Prayer, Erotica and Ray of Light. It seems like there is this growing confidence. The songwriting brilliance increasing and expanding. Self Esteem’s second studio album will go down as one of the best albums of the 2020s. Even if it was scandalously overlooked when it came to awards, it is an undeniable work of genius. This is what The Line of Best Fit wrote when they gave it a perfect ten:

“It’s in this pursuit of pleasure that Taylor snatches the opportunity to embrace emotion in abundance. “Don’t be embarrassed that all you’ve had is fun” she preaches on gripping centrepiece “I Do This All The Time”, her vocals backed by a choir. The inclusion of these choral outbursts throughout the album help to reinstate Taylor’s messages of unity, with the sea of vocals welcoming washes of sonic euphoria.

The thunderous outcries of “How Can I Help You'' convey a retaliation against societal norms and the unrelenting standards that women are expected to yield to. “But I don’t know shit, do I?” she snarls, supported by tribal rhythms and a cavernous bass drum beat that simply demands you realise your own self worth. Similarly across the title track, Taylor’s rhythmic flourishes allow the powerful chorus to explode into the importance of prioritising yourself. Elsewhere, “Moody” - a highlight of the record - not only contains a funk-pop pre-chorus that’ll make Dua Lipa green with envy but also the wickedly witty line “Sexting you at the mental health talk seems counterproductive”.

In between those intense flashes of emotion though, Prioritise Pleasure also makes space for contemplation and quiet vulnerability. In “Still Reigning” for example, we see her step back from the flag-waving hedonist into a more empathic, nurturing role. “The love you need is gentle, the love you need is kind” she muses, like a warm hug from the big sister you never had. Although perhaps the most stark and goosebump inducing moment on the record is during opener “I’m Fine”. In a spoken word snippet taken from a National Youth Theatre workshop on the topic of consent, we hear an unnamed woman recount that “There is nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman who appears completely deranged” - a bleak reminder of the fear of male violence shared by countless women and the normalisation of it in our society.

Commanding, assertive, and powerful, Prioritise Pleasure is everything pop music should be. Wholly unafraid to tackle difficult subjects with ease, in Rebecca Taylor we also have the makings of a serious pop behemoth”.

Released in June of last year, the soundtrack for Prima Facie was lauded and proved just how consistent and versatile Rebecca Lucy Taylor is. Released as Self Esteem rather than Rebecca Lucy Taylor, I guess this was so that people could identify with the music more. Perhaps this was seen as a continuation and extension of Prioritise Pleasure. Prima Facie is a one-woman play written by Suzie Miller. It revolves around Tessa, a criminal defence barrister, whose view of the legal system changes after she is sexually assaulted. Nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, it saw wins for Best New Play and Best Actress for its star, Jodie Comer. A tough subject matter – where a woman who defends men accused of sexual assault is then sexually assaulted herself – that translated into an incredibly powerful play, Self Esteem’s soundtrack is remarkable. A different discipline and way of working, one is instantly intrigued by song titles. It is an album that was congratulated for its evocative nature and heartbreaking potency. This is what Northern Transmissions wrote in their review:

“On the first of many instantly relatable songs Rebecca Lucy Taylor wrote for her second album, Prioritise Pleasure, she sings: “No, not me / I won’t rein in my need to be completely free.” At the end of Prima Facie, the soundtrack for the play she composed herself, the lines are reprised in the bubbling, eventually glorious “1 in 3 (I’m Fine),” capping off yet another meaningful, well-crafted endeavor from the emotionally omnipresent Self Esteem.

Starring Jodie Comer, Prima Facie ran in London from April 15th to June 18th, before being picked up by Broadway to premiere in 2023. The one-woman show sees Comer playing Tessa, a young lawyer who eventually faces an assault by a colleague in an emotionally demanding performance. Enlisting Self Esteem, whose previous albums are filled with raw, human emotion, seemed like the only choice for the composition.

The hodge-podge (in a good way) production style present on Compliments Please is brought back here, particularly on tracks like “Cross Examination” where hand-claps reign, “Chambers,” filled with breaths, the dog-like pants on “Day Through,” or the largely a capella “The Process.” Even the pitched-down vocal effect on her debut album’s “On The Edge Of Another One” makes a reappearance on “Perfect 2 Me” and its reprise.

Some tracks rely on subtle unsettledness, whereas the bass on tracks such as “How Dare You” wobble around her voice, increasing in intensity. “The Winner,” too, starts slow and expands into a harsh wall of sound and vocal chops, similar to her previous singles “Prioritise Pleasure” and “Moody.”

Of course, because it is a soundtrack — to a play instead of a movie, no less — there isn’t much to hold onto; not many hooky melodies or insightful lyrics present on her previous albums. “Perfect 2 Me,” though, a guitar-tinged love song, features the clever lyricism she’s known for. “I am honored by these moments / When the makeup leaves no trace,” she wrote, over the welcome breezy beat surrounded by other intense songs. “To See From Here,” also, explores a lightness with its hopeful piano notes.

It’s a treat to see the emotions written about so cleverly on her studio albums translate to a soundtrack to a bigger, more dynamic performance in theater. If anything, it suggests that Taylor’s plans for how music can sound and take shape is much bigger than anything we — or many other recording artists — imagine”.

A lot has happened since the release of Prioritise Pleasure. I am sure many songs have been written for the third album. The I Tour This All The Time tour supported her album, and it was met with ecstatic crowds and impassioned reviews. Proving she is one of the finest live performers of her generation, the shows were the stuff of legend. There were extra dates added to the tour, and Self Esteem’s magnificent sets earned more than a few five-star reviews! This year sees Rebecca Lucy Taylor and crew perform at a number of U.K. festivals, including Neighbourhood Weekender, Bristol Sounds, Standon Calling, Parklife and Truck, and will support Blur at their Wembley Stadium gigs in July. If that were not enough, in February, Django Django released Complete Me, which featured vocals from Self Esteem. Taylor also contributed a cover of Black Eyed Dog for a Nick Drake covers compilation album, The Endless Coloured Way, which is due to be released in July.  That support slot for Blur will be immense. I think the most exciting dates of the summer will be at festivals like Standon Calling. It is a moment when Self Esteem is adored by the masses and, in Rebecca Lucy Taylor, this is someone influencing so many artists and women coming through. I have not quoted any of the live reviews from last year and this, but they are all so emphatically positive and full of admiration.

Apologies to compare her again to Madonna – though I am sure she will not mind! -, but this is a big year for the Queen of Pop, as she is touring the world and working on new material. I feel that there are things Madonna has done that could be something which will enter into Self Esteem’s world. A second book from Rebecca Lucy Taylor is coming. Available for pre-order, it was explore the devolution of a woman. This is a book that you will want to own! I also think there are other books and ideas in this area. A photobook would be cool. I am not suggesting something like Madonna’s 1992 book, Sex, but something that shows Rebecca Lucy Taylor at home and behind the scenes, but we also get to see the highs and whirlwind life of Self Esteem. Shots of her with the band. I can see that happening. I know there will be a third studio album, but what direction will it take? In terms of sound, I would imagine something similar to Prioritise Pleasure. Maybe more elements of Electronica and Disco. Or maybe there will be something Chill-Out or, again, Madonna-esque. Perhaps some ‘80s Pop influences alongside something grittier and Rock. It will be fascinating to discover! Lyrically, there have been changes and transitions in the last year or two.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Richardson

New success has come the way of Rebecca Lucy Taylor. Still grounded and herself, she cannot help but notice how the world has embraced her. I am not sure whether there is a partner in her life, but you feel like a third album will be as arresting, open and filled with emotion as her first two. Funny and heartbreaking at times, there will also be plenty of invention, power, and nuance coming from every song. Rebecca Lucy Taylor co-produced the Prima Facie soundtrack with Jockstrap’s Taylor Skye. I think that her third studio album, perhaps, will be a sole-produce. Rebecca Lucy Taylor taking the reigns and crafting this album completely in her vision. Maybe she will want to work with other producers, but I can also see her taking production duties herself. I have always said how Taylor would make a tremendous actor. In fact, she appeared in series two of I Hate Suzie (starring Billie Piper as the title character) in 2022. She will also be appearing in a new comedy, Smothered, to be aired later in the year. I feel like she could also get film roles. Someone with incredible performance skills, I can see Rebecca Lucy Taylor appearing in a range of flicks.

Having written the soundtrack for Prima Facie, I also see her acting in a play like that. She would be a very powerful stage actor! It would be something everyone would love to see. As Self Esteem, there are gigs and will be ne material, but I also predict some huge collaborations. It would be great to see her work properly awarded. The likes of the Mercury Prize and NME nominated Prioritise Pleasure for awards. Missing out, I know awards are not everything, but this is an album that more than deserved one! The Rotherham-born colossus and renaissance woman is going to have such a busy and successful future. Having achieved so much as Self Esteem and Rebecca Lucy Taylor, I can see so much gold ahead. It would be great for there to be a huge U.S. tour for Self Esteem. Dates in Australia and around the world. Documentaries and new interview. Perhaps a remix album of Prioritise Pleasure, and Self Esteem/Rebecca Lucy Taylor producing for other artists. When it comes to his inspiring queen, it very much seems like…

SKY’S the limit!

FEATURE: Radio Edits: A Time to Ban All Misogynistic, Sexist and Disrespectful Lyrics Towards Women

FEATURE:

 

 

Radio Edits

PHOTO CREDIT: Carolina Grabowski via Pexels

A Time to Ban All Misogynistic, Sexist and Disrespectful Lyrics Towards Women

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YOU cannot erase the past…

 PHOTO CREDIT: rawpixel.com

and stop people from hearing songs with lyrics that seem to promote misogyny and abuse against woman. Whether sexually degrading or bordering on coercive behaviour, there have been some damaging and horrific lyrics written through the years. It is not a problem confined to genres like Hip-Hop and Rap, but one tends not to hear it across, say, Jazz and Folk! Indeed, Pop music has featured more than its share of troubling and disturbing messages. It is not just a historic problem either. Last year, Olly Murs was criticised for including misogynist lyrics in his song, I Hate You When You’re Drunk. There are those who will say that female artists have shot back at men, and there are songs that attack men and can be considered threatening and sexist. This is true, although the comparative minority of these examples means it is not such a huge issue. Also, many female artists are often retaliating to male artists and actually defending themselves. Saying they will not be messed with, and that it is not okay to treat women with so little respect. In researching this feature, it is clear there have been some truly degrading and offensive songs written throughout the years! I know that Hip-Hop and Rap have always had a problem with this. Although the genre is improving and there are far few instances of outright misogyny and sexism, artists such as Drake have also recently been accused of misogyny and sending out bad messages. Whether an artist talks threateningly about women or merely considers himself to be a prize and far superior to any women out there, it is showing a real lack of respect.

I am going to go on a slight tangent before bringing it back to the subject. The reason I am writing this is because I revisited a couple of films where violence against women was severe and inexplicable. One was the recent horror film, Terrifer 2. I would not advise anybody watch this – due to its extreme gore -, but the most gruesome death was reserved for a female character. The same was true in the first film, but there was something especially horrible about the amount of pleasure the film’s killer took in slowly ending this woman’s life. I struggle to understand directors when they say it is not misogynistic and it is only fair that women are also victims in horror films. Terrifier 2 is directed by Damien Leone. Another director who has been accused or extreme violence against women in his films is Quentin Tarantino. His most recent film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), also saves the most graphic death for female characters. It is a long-running and complex debate regarding his films. Someone who has strong female leads, he also does not shy away when it comes to inflicting disturbing and frequently unnecessary violence against women. I look at film and the way there is still a thread of misogyny present. How unsettling and problematic it is to still be making film where women are demeaned and abused in such a way. If the story revolves around domestic abuse and requires realistic violence, then that is a different matter. In many cases, the violence is not necessary. It is not just violence. It is language and attitudes levelled at women.

Even if artists have creative license and there is a big argument against censorship, I think that there are areas that should not be accepted for inclusion. Homophobia and transphobia has no place in music. Neither does racism or any other form of prejudice. Misogyny and sexism are still very much alive within music, and I feel that now should be a moment when artists are truly taken to task and displayed if they violate these rules. Whilst there is not the same rampancy and proliferation as there was in decades past, one cannot look around music and now and say we are clearly in a safe zone. Indeed, there is plenty of sexism and misogyny elsewhere in music. Cases where male artists are accused of sexual misconduct and abuse. Clearing out any toxicity and Stone Age attitudes in music, I think, it is a necessary step few could object to. It is not about censoring artists and taking away their voice. If your creative freedom, voice and independence relies on you making such statements and displaying such despicable attitudes, then you really have no place in the industry! I think it is more about showing respect. If a step forward occurs when an artist apologies for an unwise lyrical choice or subject matter, there are two steps back when it happens elsewhere. Lessons are briefly learned, but how often does the message stick that women should not have to hear and see this in modern-day music?

There is nobody who has a good heart and conscience that could ever object to this ruling. The finest Rap music can still flourish and grow without lines that seem to normalise violence and abuse against women. Disrespectful and humiliating language that almost seems casual and tossed-off. If icons and queens like Dionne Warwick have truly schooled rappers and got them to change their ways when it comes to misogynistic attitudes and lyrics, we have not got rid of the issue. It is great that there has been evolution since some dark days, but it is not only the massive stuff. Whether it is a recent Olly Murs track that should not have seen the light of day or a song that features violence against a woman, it has no place in modern music. Nor do any songs that degrade or disrespect women. It is not a case of sanitising music and throwing down these extreme commandments. It is, as I said, about respect. Maybe some will say that, as Rap and Hip-Hop is more woke and conscientious and you do not hear as many cases of misogyny and abusive attitudes towards women in music that this is really not an issue. You only need to look at recent articles about misogyny in the industry to realise why artists need to ensure they are doing their part. A month ago, this article was written, that highlighted the Women in Music podcast – where inspiring women come together to talk about their experiences in music. It is clear that the industry still has a real issue with sexism, inequality and misogyny.

Think about this recent article, and how the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee is investigating misogyny in music. Whilst lyrics in older songs are being scrutinised and highlighted, it is also clear that this is not merely a historic issue. There is still a stench and poison in the industry that needs to be eradicated:

“Music Ally has covered the UK’s parliamentary inquiry into music streaming economics in great depth, but there’s another inquiry underway in Westminster that focuses on the music industry.

It’s about misogyny in music, and is being held by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee. Today saw its second evidence session, and we were watching to take notes.

The session heard from four witnesses: Vick Bain (The F-List for Music); Melinda Kelly (Safe Gigs for Women); Nadia Khan (Women in CTRL) and Vanessa Threadgold (Cactus City Studio).

It kicked off with a question about misogyny in music lyrics, and whether that’s reflective of wider trends in the industry.

“14% of musicians who are signed to UK music publishing companies as composers or songwriters are women. So with such a huge dominance of men as songwriters and as musicians, the songs they create are going to be from a male viewpoint,” said Bain.

‘Delilah’ by Tom Jones has been making headlines in the UK this month, with discussion over its lyrical content (a man murdering a woman) and Jones’s decision to keep performing it.

Bain said she’d met the writers several years ago, and that they saw it as “part of a great tradition of folk songs: around the abuse and murder of women. That’s not something that is particular to my taste!”

“We need the music industry to sign more women, to invest in more female musicians, and then we will have songs of a different nature,” she said.

‘Delilah’ was written in the 1960s, so are things getting better? Khan said not, with an eye on the wider context within which misogynistic and sexual-violence lyrics are created.

“They’re so prevalent and so widespread in popular music,” she said. “My view is that it’s actually representation of societal views and societal norms, and it’s a reflection of the misogynistic culture that’s apparent within society but also within the music industry. And the structures that women have to work with”.

If the film industry does still have issues that range from unsettling violence against women in films, to sexism and sexual abuse on sets and behind the scenes, then the #MeToo movement at least did weed out a lot of perpetrators and created this voice and space where women could share their experience and bring to justice a lot of abusive men in the industry – and yet the movement has not infiltrated the industry to the same degree it has with the film business. The BBC wrote about this last year when they highlighted how Black woman in the industry experience even worse discrimination than their counterparts:

“Wild west'

At the same inquiry, Charisse Beaumont, chief executive of the Black Lives in Music (BLiM) initiative, compared the music industry to "the wild west", saying there is no central place to report bad behaviour.

She suggested less than 5% of music producers are female and that the gender imbalance, and "male gaze", translated into a misogynistic culture.

"I think there could be more signposting, more obvious ways of showing that there will be a consequence for the perpetrator and that you're going to be protected and safe," she said.

Last year, a BLiM report found that racism in the British music industry was "serious, upfront and personal".

Beaumont stressed how black women are discriminated against twice - for their gender and race - and often feel the need to change themselves in order to be accepted.

But she noted how the success of recent Mercury Prize and Brit Award-winner Little Simz highlights how it is possible to "be your authentic self" as a black woman in the music industry.

"What I want to hammer home is the director of marketing who handles Little Simz is a black woman," she told the committee. "She knows exactly what to do with an artist like Little Simz, meaning it can be done."

During the inquiry, Beaumont announced the launch of an industry wide anti-racism code of conduct, endorsed by the Independent Standards Authority (ISA).

The move, which will come into place in spring 2023, intends to raise standards and tackle discriminatory behaviour and micro-aggressions, as well as providing support mechanisms for staff and mandatory anti-racism training.

She said it would also look into equal pay and contracts, career progression and achieving proportionate representation for artists and technical/production workers.

'Hear women's stories'

Dr Nicola Puckey, senior lecturer in English, creative writing and American studies at the University of Winchester, pointed to the rapid rise of another Mercury Prize nominated act, indie band Wet Leg, as an example of how we are "slowly" seeing more diversity in the traditionally male dominated industry.

The current state of play, however, means listeners only hear "half the story", according to Dr Rosemary Hill, senior lecturer in media and popular culture at the University of Huddersfield.

"We should be able to hear ourselves reflected in the songs that we listen to and what we want to sing along with," she noted, while giving evidence.

"We also need to acknowledge that sometimes the way that men portray women in songs is not how we would like to see ourselves portrayed so it is really important to hear women's stories and to hear the different things we have to say about the world and reflect our different experiences”.

PHOTO CREDIT: rawpixel.com via freepik

It is 2023, and so many doors have been opened and problems solved. One cannot look back fondly on past decades without addressing problems and regressive attitudes. Songs and artists that promulgated such regressive and disturbing messages. It has not completely gone away. Even something as relatively minor than insulting a woman, I think, should be eradicated. I understand that this is like taking a red marker pen to all lyrics and crossing out any that are seen as ‘wrong’! That is not the case. It is not a puritanical drive. It is about cleaning about music so that we no longer see attitudes of sexual abuse, sexism, misogyny and sheer disrespect for women continue. It is clear that there is a wider industry issue, so artists should lead from the front in combatting it. Indeed, where are the male voices and songs that demand change and call out those culpable and unwilling to change?! For all the great personal music out there, there are gaps and opportunities artists are not taking to raise bigger issues. From the environment and modern politics through to ways to change the world, I think the personal is outweighing something wider and bigger than the individual. One hardly ever hears male artists spotlighting poison attributes against women – through, if there are a lot of songs that do, I would like to know! It is another case of women in music fighting for themselves and not getting adequate support from men. That was also true of #MeToo - although there were male allies. All artists need to come together to ensure that regressive and disrespectful attitudes towards women are…

 PHOTO CREDIT: cookie_studio via freepik

A thing of the past.

FEATURE: 2023 Queens: The Best Ten Albums Made By Female Artists This Year

FEATURE:

 

 

2023 Queens

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Marten/PHOTO CREDIT: Katie Silvester 

The Best Ten Albums Made By Female Artists This Year

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I put together a similar list…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek/PHOTO CREDIT: Aidan Zamiri

not too long ago but, as the past few weeks has seen some year-best albums released by female artists, I had to come back to it. On 7th April alone, we had the stunning Ellie Goulding’s Higher Than Heaven and Billie Marten’s Drop Cherries. At the end of March, boygenius’ the record was released. These three albums instantly make their way into my top ten – with boyegnius and Marten especially high in my top five. This year, as I suspected, has been defined by albums from women. I suspect that will continue. I will do another list in a few months (and a final one in December), as I know some sensational albums are coming between now and then. To showcase the brilliant albums by female artists that have arrived so far, I have listed ten of the very best. With Feist releasing Multitudes this Friday (14th), and Jessie Ware putting out That! Feels Good! Two weeks later, there are a couple more albums that can contend for this top ten. It shows how invaluable and spectacular female artists are! Proving why the industry needs to recognise their brilliance when it comes to festival line-ups and wider recognition. These 2023 queens have released some of the…

BEST albums of the year.

__________

boygenius – The Record

Release Date: 31st March

Producers: boygenius/Catherine Marks

Label: Interscope

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/boygenius/the-record-5

Standout Tracks: Emily I’m Sorry/Not Strong Enough/Leonard Cohen

Key Cut: Without You Without Them

Review:

“The anatomy of the supergroup has a rocky past, often pulled together for commercial gain or a desperate attempt to revive a flatlining legacy. That the individual parts of boygenius are arguably better known as a trio tells a different story, one of unbreakable friendship and deep-rooted mutual respect that has rapidly become the lifeblood of the collaboration. Touching on an unavoidable cliche, they are better because of each other.

It’s no mean feat given their statuses as three of the best songwriters around. They share a powerful honesty that has encouraged a crossover of their respective fanbases, but each boast distinctive nuances that are brought effortlessly to the table. Julien Baker’s self-critical charm bleeds in, as does Lucy Dacus’ heavier tone and quick-witted wording. Phoebe Bridgers - away from boygenius, the biggest name on the line-up but here perfectly aligned - brings her dense blend of delicacy and rage. The screams that brought 2020’s ‘Punisher’ to a crashing end ring out on ‘Satanist’ and ‘$20’ – the latter one of boygenius’ punchiest tracks to date.

’the record’ never shies away from being a sum of these parts, with their love for each other’s craft helping to avoid the temptation to reinvent the wheel. There are songs that are unmistakably assigned to one of their strengths; ‘True Blue’ continues the themes from Lucy’s ‘Home Video’, ‘Anti-Curse’ elevates the full-band outing from Julien’s ‘Little Oblivions’, and closer ‘Letter To An Old Poet’ unfolds in a way only Phoebe could manage. But even in these moments, it’s clear all three are being pushed beyond their usual creative comfort zones.

Phoebe speaks of ‘Emily I’m Sorry’ being the moment boygenius was reignited, written as a solo track but in her mind destined for ‘the record’. It’s indicative of the album’s power of the combined voice, not just in the obviously beautiful harmonies, but also in the playful instrumental and lyrical nods. The words switch from sincere to funny in the blink of an eye, some such as ‘Leonard Cohen’ a self-referential in-joke that simultaneously comments on male singer-songwriter tropes. The track plays out without a chorus, something that none of boygenius’ component parts would have likely written alone.

Here, the trio sound more assured than ever, willing to sit outside of their respective norms, placing their unity first while never shying away from their shared experiences in lyrics and tone. On stand-out ‘Not Strong Enough’, the trio come together with perfect precision, landing the balance between lyrical poignancy and enacting a longstanding desire to reference Sheryl Crow. It’s a shining moment in a sound of friendship that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but comes built on an unshakable admiration for every facet of their beings” – DIY

Billie Marten – Drop Cherries

Release Date: 7th April

Producers: Billie Marten/Dom Monks

Label: Fiction Records

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/billie-marten/drop-cherries

Standout Tracks: God Above/I Can’t Get My Head Around You/I Bend to Him

Key Cut: This Is How We Move

Review:

“Yorkshire-born Billie Marten is no stranger to our ears, having released three studio albums already at the tender age of 23. Her latest record, ‘Drop Cherries’, rings true to the Billie Marten we all know and love while introducing a more mature musical style as she takes her fans on a sonic journey. On this record, Marten has truly gathered some of her best work to date.

If this record had to be summed up briefly, it would be as an ode to relationships, from the good to the bad and everything in between. ‘Drop Cherries’ is a reference to the album’s titular closing track, which is simple in its structure and lyricism to end the record on a note of how the mundane things may be what truly makes love.

Elsewhere in the record, Marten uses music to explore the complexities of love and companionship, resulting in some beautiful tracks, namely ‘Willow’ which is beautiful in its imagery-led structure, with lyrics depicting “two weeping willows throwing an arm to one another.” ‘Arrows’ is another moment which is stunning in its lyricism, this time letting the listener into the tougher side of relationships, where Marten sings ‘’I am at war with my shadow, roads dark and narrow.’’

The lyric-lacking album opener ‘New Idea’ set a tone for Marten’s new instrumental approach on her fourth record as it let the music do the talking, introducing her controlled and soothing harmonies along with strings – something I did not expect on a Billie Marten album.

The increased instrumentation on this record is a welcome addition, as the orchestral-type strings in ‘Devil Swim’, woodwind solo in ‘Willow’, and plucked strings with cymbals in ‘God Above’ make Billie Marten stand out in a crowded singer-songwriter market. Though there are moments – for example, on ‘Just Us’ – where the vocals seem drowned out by the instrumentation, the record as a whole benefits from these sonic layers, with band-led track ‘I Can’t Get My Head Around You’ being one of my favourites for its cohesive sound. After taking a more electronic synth route on previous record ‘Flora Fauna’, this is just another indicator of Marten’s growth.

A conceptual album which feels honest and authentic, ‘Drop Cherries’ showcases the best of her musical ability while being lyrically complex – it’s another strong record for Billie Marten to add to her repertoire.

8/10” – CLASH

Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

Release Date: 14th February

Producers: Caroline Polachek/Danny L Harle/Dan Nigro/Jim-E Stack/Sega Bodega/Ariel Rechtshaid

Labels: Sony Music/The Orchard/Perpetual Novice

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/caroline-polachek/desire-i-want-to-turn-into-you-2

Standout Tracks: Welcome to My Island/Blood and Butter/Billions

Key Cut: Sunset

Review:

“Rooted in 2000s indie, her time as part of Chairlift flexed her pop chorus muscles, then she moved onto experimental soundscapes with two records under the monikers Ramona Lisa and her initials CEP. The two collided on 2019’s ‘Pang’, the introduction to Caroline Polachek as we know her now – it’s a glittering orchestral affair that talked of long-distance love and crushing in the digital age. Zooming in on her second album, ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’, Caroline takes us closer.

Initially introducing the era back in 2021 with the single ‘Bunny Is A Rider’, Caroline brought forth a looser, more playful side of her persona. Taking cues from her poppiest hit at the time – the late-blooming viral ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ – and pulling them into more curious territory, ‘Bunny Is A Rider’ was less dreamy, more adventurous. And so the yearning on ‘Pang’ became a primal want: desire.

As with most of the records that have arrived since lockdowns lifted entirely, ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’ is a celebration of togetherness, both in the overarching we-can-be-together-and-dance way that sees the record often veer into proper electronica, but also in the literal physical sense of togetherness; of sweaty bodies clashing beneath sheets and walks of shame personified in opening track ‘Welcome To My Island’.

It’s the cut she used to announce the album for a reason. Although eventual closer ‘Billions’ – a glitchy, hypnotic track laced with a children’s choir that doesn’t tire out its five-minute run time – and ‘Sunset’ – the shimmering flamenco track that brings some of the record’s best lyrics – came long before (they were previewed on tour in 2021 and released as singles), it’s the desperate euphoria of ‘Welcome To My Island’ that introduces the bratty character Caroline would play on this record, and solidified that this would be her poppiest record without losing any of the quirks that put her truly in a league of her own.

‘Pretty In Possible’ employs a Massive Attack style breakbeat and meandering pop melodies but is deliberately chorusless. When those UK drum ’n’ bass beats return on ‘I Believe’, they’re amped up with vibrant synths and house piano, the patience paying off in a cathartic final chorus release. Those same beats continue into ‘Desire…’s only feature, ‘Fly To You’ with Grimes and Dido, which, on paper, sounds like it should be bonkers. In reality, Caroline acts as a bridge between the pair; Dido, a long-time idol for CP with certain vocal similarities, and Grimes, an experimental and unexpected pop crossover act.

Between the airy 2000s pop guitars of ‘Blood and Butter’ comes a bagpipe solo, and a use of the word ‘Wikipediated’ to describe her lover. Some of her most sincere tracks end up being the most nonsensical; are ‘Hopedrunk’ or ‘Everasking’ even real words? It neither matters nor stops it from being the most delicate and tender one here.

While Caroline Polachek’s music is often described as otherworldly, she still deals primarily in human emotion. On ‘Desire, I Want To Turn Into You’, she offers up hope, catharsis and real euphoria. A record of love in its initial ravenous infatuated rumblings, and occasionally when it erupts into something bigger.

5/5” - DORK

Brix Smith - Valley of the Dolls

Release Date: 24th February

Producer: Youth

Label: Grit Over Glamour

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/brix-smith/valley-of-the-dolls

Standout Tracks: Livin Thru My Despair/California Smile/Valley Girl

Key Cut: Fast Net

Review:

“During her initial rise to fame in the 1980s, Brix Smith temporarily steered then-husband Mark E. Smith in a more commercial direction with The Fall. She’s also worked with everyone from Blondie drummer Clem Burke, The Smiths’ second guitarist Craig Gannon, and auditioned for Hole after the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff.

The influence of these disparate individuals can be heard feeding into her first solo album. Co-written by ex-Killing Joke bassist and acclaimed producer Martin ‘Youth’ Glover, she describes it as ‘a cross between The Breeders and Hole.’ It certainly bears their hallmarks in its big, crunching power chords and melodic post-punk harmonies.

More than anything, it makes you wonder what Hole would have gone on to produce if she had properly joined (she sort of did, for a “whirlwind” 24 hours). Her claim to have played “the wife, the whore, the maid, the doll” on ‘California Smile’ is more than a little Courtney Love, while the ‘very dystopian California’ atmosphere on the ten tracks has echoes of Celebrity Skin.

If the threat of being upstaged by another larger-than-life musician led to Love’s veto, then Smith is a natural collaborator. The album features guest turns from Susannah Hoffs (The Bangles) and Siobhan Fahey (Shakespears Sister), and she’s put together an all-female touring band that includes Deb Googe (My Bloody Valentine).

The collaborators and colourful history would overshadow most artists, but Smith sounds very much in her element. She may have been in the industry for four decades but hook-laden tracks such as ‘Valley Girl’ and ‘Fast Net’ have the grungy energy of a newcomer, even if she carries the disillusionment of someone who begs to be taken “from this place of pain” (‘Black Butterfly’).

Lyrically influenced by her early years growing up in California, but musically looking to a future where grunge never died, the album places her firmly back in a present where she can claim her dues” – Loud and Quiet

Kelela – Raven

Release Date: 10th February

Producers: Kelela/Asmara/Yo van Lenz/LSDXOXO/Bambii/Florian TM Zeisig/Brandon Peralta/Kaytranada/Khalí Carela/AceMo/Fauzia/Paris Strother/Badsista/Mocky

Label: Warp

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/kelela/raven-2

Standout Tracks: Washed Away/On the Run/Raven

Key Cut: Happy Ending

Review:

“Take Me Apart set a new standard for progressive R&B without concessions to urban contemporary radio programming. The album's ensuing batch of remixes -- in which Kelela was intensely involved, even revoicing some songs -- pulled together contributions from the far-ranging likes of CupcakKe, serpentwithfeet, and go-go legends Rare Essence, the latter reconnecting Kelela to her birthplace of Washington, D.C. There was no telling which path the singer/songwriter and producer would take until she returned four years later with "Washed Away," the first preview of Raven. A sheer ballad functioning like an extended exhalation -- one full of exquisite melisma and scatting, that is -- "Washed Away" has a regenerative effect. Achieving splashdown as it fades out, the song suitably introduces an album presented by Kelela as "an affirmation of Black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power." The statement is confirmed strongest in the title song, where Kelela rails against thievery and ineffectuality, and proclaims her resilience and independence before losing herself on the dancefloor to itch-scratching bass frequencies. It segues into the knocking "Bruises," its air of inconquerability sensed until Kelela confirms the feeling with "I changed my fate and my girl did the same/And we came to destroy." Constant if fluid oscillations between diaphanous ballads, pulsing slow jams, and modern street soul bangers are just as suited for the greater number of songs based in relationships. The water and flotation metaphors keep flowing, too, whether Kelela is in an ecstatic state in the bedroom or on the dancefloor (the wispy "Sorbet" and heady drum'n'bass of "Contact"), or coping with a split (the plangent "Divorce"). In several other songs, Kelela is dealing with a lover who is noncommittal, elusive, and inexpressive. They're just as affecting. The deep crew of collaborators here is almost entirely different from that of Take Me Apart, retaining Asmara for much deeper production involvement, with LSDXOXO, OCA, and Bambii likewise figuring prominently. Others factoring in Kelela's vision include painter Janiva Ellis (additional lyricist on several songs), Fauzia, and We Are King's Paris Strother” – AllMusic

Lana Del Rey - Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Release Date: 24th March

Producers: Jack Antonoff/Benji/Zach Dawes/Lana Del Rey/Drew Erickson/Mike Hermosa

Labels: Interscope/Polydor

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/lana-del-rey/did-you-know-that-theres-a-tunnel-under-ocean-blvd  

Standout Tracks: Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd/Kintsugi/Margaret

Key Cut: The Grants

Review:

“‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’ begins with a mistake. As a trio of backing singers are conducted through a burst of ‘The Grants’’ central chorus line, they slip up. “I’m gonna take mind of you with me,” they sing, “mind” instead of the intended “mine”. They’re halted, coached through the correction and restart, but you can still hear an erroneous ‘d’ taking ‘e’’s place on the next two goes round.

Other artists might have scrubbed that faux pas and replaced it with something perfect and polished, but not Lana Del Rey. That error is reflective of how she portrays the world and life itself in her music – imperfect, sometimes messy. In many ways, she is a documentarian capturing angles that aren’t just bright and beautiful.

Her ninth studio album is another testament to that approach. On ‘… Ocean Blvd’, she opens up on her life now, pondering the big questions and contemplating family, home and her future. The songs cross-reference each other, looping back to earlier thoughts and feelings, making it feel like you’re with her in her day-to-day as she muses on these weighty topics.

In particular, the record faces up to the queries and doubts that loom over even the most non-traditional of women as they journey through their thirties (Del Rey is now 37) – ones society haunts you with until you have an answer. After chiding her brother to stop smoking and asking her sister if she’ll be by her side on the string-laden swoon of ‘Fingertips’, a flurry of hushed questions follows. “Will the baby be alright? / Can I have one of mine? / Can I handle it?” she asks softly. Earlier, on the gorgeous piano-led ‘Sweet’, Del Rey challenges a potential partner to talk “about stuff that’s at the very heart of things”: “Do you want children? / Do you wanna marry me? / Do you wanna run marathons in Long Beach by the sea?”

Working out what direction you want to take your life in and which of the traditional expectations the world places on us you want for yourself isn’t a linear passage. It’s one that twists and turns, spikes through peaks and troughs. “When’s it gonna be my turn?” Lana asks on the longing title track. Although it’s not clear what she’s singing about, it could easily apply to those ideas of life’s Big Things – a one true love, a family of her own. On ‘A&W’ – a track that starts off dark and folky before fizzing into an addictive, bass-y outro littered with femi-nasty, quotable lyrics – she defies that yearning feeling. “It’s not about having someone to love me anymore,” she declares. “Did you know a singer can still be / A side-piece at 33?” she murmurs, disregarding the get-married-and-settle-down agenda with a gentle but powerful force.

‘…Ocean Blvd’’s other big narrative is family – both blood and chosen. There are call-outs across the record to her siblings, father, grandparents and more. The opening song ‘The Grants’ is titled as such for her relatives, and as it goes from melancholy and maudlin to being pierced with light, Del Rey promises to take her memories – “my sister’s firstborn child”, “my grandmother’s last smile” – of those close to her “with me”. Between calls out to God for herself, ’Grandfather, please stand on the shoulders of my father while he’s deep-sea fishing’ – which features French pianist RIOPY – finds her asking her granddad to protect her dad from the other side.

‘Margaret’ – one of the record’s most beautiful and moving songs – takes the focus outside of the Grant clan to Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and actor Margaret Qualley, telling the story of their romance. “He met Margaret on a rooftop / She was wearing white and he was like / ‘I might be in trouble’ / He had flashes of the good life / He was like, ‘Shall I jump off this building now or do it on the double?’,” she sings in the opening verse, mirroring the tumbling, hurried way Antonoff often expresses himself in his own songs.

Although ‘…Ocean Blvd’ largely doesn’t answer any of its big questions, ‘Margaret’ resembles something like a solution. “When you know, you know,” Del Rey shares, returning to a sentiment from the earlier ‘Paris, Texas’. Later, in a gentle spoken word line, she adds: “So if you don’t know, don’t give up ‘cos you never know what the new day will bring.”

As she steps into new lyrical territory here, so too does Lana enter new sonic worlds. Her ninth album merges the soulful, classic, timeless sounds of a singer-songwriter from a distant time and the vocal melodies and techniques of an old Hollywood starlet (it’s not hard to imagine the likes of Audrey Hepburn singing parts on songs like ‘Sweet’) with trap beats, speaker-wobbling bass and spoken word tracks edited with a sense of Warholian spirit.

‘Judah Smith Interlude’ represents the latter, a four-and-a-half-minute presentation of one of the Churchome pastor’s sermons set to piano ripples and soft electric guitar. Occasionally, giggles and muttering from Del Rey cuts over the top, crackling like the audio of a Factory film. Another interlude led by Grammy-winning jazz and R&B auteur Jon Batiste centres around a piano line that swells and spins as a cacophony of voices is layered over it.

Elsewhere, Del Rey uses old songs from other artists and her own back catalogue to invent something new. On ‘Peppers’, she samples Tommy Genesis’ ‘Angelina’ to make a slinky, cool cut that harnesses stream-of-consciousness meandering about a relationship. Some of the lyrics are more successful at setting the mood, while others are bound to raise eyebrows: “My boyfriend tested positive for COVID, it don’t matter,” she sings at one point. “We’ve been kissing so whatever he has, I have / I can’t cry.”

Album closer ‘Taco Truck x VB’, meanwhile, boasts a twist that’s obvious when you know it’s coming but halts you in your tracks the first time you hear it. After a lilting calypso-tinged opening section, it melts into woozy instrumentation that segues into the original, unreleased take of her 2018 single ‘Venice Bitch’ – darker, grittier and even better than the version we’re familiar with.

It’s a fitting end to an album that pulls from past, present and future, both musically and from the life of its creator, echoing the back-and-forth of the rest of the record. It’s a reminder, too, that ‘…Ocean Blvd’ might deal with some major existential questions, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had and cements Del Rey’s status as one of modern music’s most intriguing songwriters” – NME

Blondshell - Blondshell

Release Date: 7th April

Producer: Yves Rothman

Label: Partisan Records

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/blondshell/blondshell

Standout Tracks: Olympus/Sepsis/Sober Together

Key Cut: Veronica Mars

Review:

“That lead single – “Olympus” – introduced the foundations of the project’s songwriting: diaristic confession, caustic lyricism, and 90s alt-rock hooks in the vein of bands like Hole. Since that first single, she’s quickly become an exciting rising star on the indie scene, releasing a series of tracks all leading up to her debut self-titled record. Those who have been listening likely know the contours of the record going in, especially since five of its nine tracks have already been released as singles. Still, it’s a testament to the songwriting on display that Teitelbaum largely delivers on the hyped promise of her debut.

The album opens in explosive fashion with the grunge-tinged edges of “Veronica Mars”, which quickly builds from a tense, thrumming opening into a searing guitar-laden finale. Those quiet-loud builds that once were a staple of alt-rock radio come out in full force throughout the record, delivering captivating bursts of angst, anger, and longing on tracks like “Kiss City” and “Tarmac”. Meanwhile, other tracks find Teitelbaum crafting tightly written pop-rock gems. “Sepsis” and “Salad” layer on the sharp hooks and biting lyrics in equal measure, while the sun-dappled sheen of “Joiner” makes for a gentler sonic detour, full of crystalline beauty.

The record feels thoroughly steeped in these 90s influences, evoking Gen X’s generational touchstones like Live Through This and Exile in Guyville. However, Teitelbaum avoids sounding like a mere imitator. She isn’t simply trying on an aesthetic but instead finding where her songwriting voice lies. Before Blondshell, Teitelbaum had been building momentum under the moniker Baum, leaning far more heavily into the indie pop zeitgeist of the pre-pandemic years. In contrast, the songs on Blondshell came together during the lockdown era, when Teitelbaum had the chance to retreat inward, reconnect with her musical roots, and make the music she truly wanted to hear.

If there is a single throughline that connects Baum and Blondshell, it is Teitelbaum’s talent for searing and brutally honest lyrics. As an album, Blondshell is relentlessly confessional, full of moments of unflinching self-examination and withering fury. Through much of the album, Teitelbaum is angry – at herself, at her partners, at patriarchy, and at men writ large. She leads the listener through a dense maze of complicated emotions, exorcising her hurt, fear, and anger in songs that feel like a glimpse into the thoughts that keep her up at night.

She sneers on “Sepsis”, “He wears a front-facing cap / The sex is almost always bad / I don’t care cause I’m in love / I don’t know him well enough / What am I projecting / He’s gonna start infecting my life / It’ll hit all at once / Like sepsis.” Elsewhere, “Sober Together” reflects on watching someone you love get pulled back into addiction, while “Kiss City” deals with the desire to be desired, finding witty poetry in Teitelbaum’s longing (“Kiss city / I think my kink is when you tell me that you think I'm pretty”). Finally, the record closes with the shimmering balladry of “Dangerous,” encapsulating the record’s themes in a final confession: “And it’s so dangerous forming an attachment to something / Now that every time I love it might pull the rug out / And I know when I leave the house / Anything can take me down.”

As Teitelbaum has described, Blondshell was written in the midst of a particularly painful and chaotic era for her. Songwriting acted as her lifeline, and years later she was left with Blondshell, the album she has said she always wanted to make. More than any sing-along chorus, that personal touch and sense of relentless honesty are what shine through most on the record. It is the sound of an artist finally getting to let loose and say the things that have stayed locked up inside for too long. In turn, Teitelbaum offers an exciting introduction to a talented songwriter and a thoroughly rewarding debut” – The Line of Best Fit

Ellie Goulding – Higher Than Heaven

Release Date: 7th April

Producers: The 23rd/Greg Kurstin/Koz/Lostboy/Happy Perez/Jesse Shatkin/watt/Andrew Wells

Label: Polydor

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/ellie-goulding/higher-than-heaven

Standout Tracks: Midnight Dreams/Let It Die/How Long

Key Cut: Like a Saviour

Review:

“For anyone who prefers Ellie Goulding on the dancefloor, Higher than Heaven is a welcome return to that space. Her fifth full-length and follow-up to 2020's Brightest Blue, this tightly packed set of synth-washed, neon bangers eschews the deep introspection and personal slant of its predecessor, barreling headlong into the club in search of healing through euphoria and release. Described by the artist as her "least personal" album to date, Heaven focuses on pure thrills and escapism like similarly reactive COVID-era energizers from Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, and Ava Max. The album's catchiest moments are produced by Koz (Dua Lipa, Lykke Li, Lights), who plucks the most addictive textures from across the decades -- disco, '80s pop, and '90s house -- for highlights such as "Midnight Dreams," "Cure for Love," the throbbing "Like a Saviour," and the shimmering title track. Meanwhile, "By the End of the Night" strikes an ideal balance between Goulding's fun and melancholy sides, delivering a yearning yet uncertain early peak. Elsewhere, both the hazy "Love Goes On" and the strutting "Easy Lover" with Big Sean benefit from warm R&B smoothness courtesy of co-writer/producer Greg Kurstin, just as the sensual "Waiting for It" dives deeper into sweaty slow jam territory. Heaven's most intense moment arrives in the second half with the standout single "Let It Die," an urgent earworm about a tragic split that finds the resolve to move on atop an infectious beat and Goulding's most impassioned, anguished performance here. One of her strongest albums to date, Higher than Heaven falls somewhere between the commercial blitz of Delirium and the fearless, electronic heart of Halcyon. While it may not cull from her deep well of personal experiences, Heaven still ends up being one of the most immediate and compulsively listenable efforts in her catalog” – AllMusic

Billy Nomates – CACTI

Release Date: 13th January

Producers: Tor Maries (Billy Nomates)/James Trevascus

Label: Invada Records

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/billy-nomates/cacti-2

Standout Tracks: black curtains in the bag/spite/vertigo

Key Cut: CACTI

Review:

“Billy Nomates’s eponymous first album (2020) and subsequent EP, Emergency Telephone (2021), introduced a singular new talent. Based in Bristol and fiercely independent, this caustic solo singer-songwriter, born Tor Maries, came at most subjects – from positivity to high heels to charity muggers – from oblique angles, her sometimes sung, often spoken delivery full of original phrasing.

Best described as a punk with a keyboard and tunes to burn, Nomates has dug even deeper for Cacti, her songwriting broadening its reach. Her deadpan takedowns remain heroic. “Don’t you act like I ain’t the fucking man,” she bristles on Spite, a song about coming to a party to spoil someone’s fun. But there’s a sadness to tracks such as Fawner that threatens to spill over into country and western, and a honky-tonk piano is the unexpected element on Same Gun.

Although they are quite different artists, Billy Nomates shares with Self Esteem – similarly undersung a couple of years ago – the ability to restate the absurdities of what we do to ourselves and each other with laser precision and a raised eyebrow. “Does it frighten you that I’m still driving?” she asks on Balance Is Gone, a snappy post-punk banger that staggers around, trying to find a foothold in the crazy paving of the past few years” – The Guardian

RAYE – My 21st Century Blues

Release Date: 3rd February

Producers: Rachel Keen/Mike Sabath/Punctual/BloodPop/Di Genius

Label: Human Re Sources

Buy: https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/raye/my-21st-century-blues

Standout Tracks: Oscar Winning Tears./The Thrill Is Gone/Worth It.

Key Cut: Black Mascara

Review:

“A problem shared is a problem halved, and it undoubtedly seems that with every outpouring of distress and hurt, RAYE emerges lighter. It is, at times, a heavy listen – ‘Black Mascara’ is a furious, dejected retelling of being misled and having your trust ruined, to a tears-on-the-dancefloor beat. ‘Ice Cream Man’ sees her distinctive vocals shine as she navigates the strength it takes to be a woman – it’s at once heart-wrenching and wrought with pain but immensely empowering.

She never hesitates to express the true depth of her feelings, and at times the album is alive with writhing, ferocious emotions. Yet, in unleashing those experiences out into the world, the intensity of them is alleviated. She’s unstoppable on her latest offering, tackling every hardship that has befallen her of late and doing so with smooth, jazz-leaning vocals and slick beats. “There is no wrath like a woman scorned,” she declares on lead single ‘Hard Out Here’, and on ‘My 21st Century Blues’ she proves exactly that – RAYE’s wrath is scalding, laying waste to all that have stood in her way until now.

4/5” – DORK

FEATURE: She Loves You (P.S. We Love You): Saluting Samira Ahmed’s Passion for The Beatles, and Her Remarkable Recent Discovery

FEATURE:

 

 

She Loves You (P.S. We Love You)

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles play a full set for lucky pupils at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire on 4th April, 1963, where a tape of that set recorded by then-pupil John Bloomfield has been brought to public attention by broadcaster, writer, campaigner, journalist, and Beatles superfan, Samira Ahmed

Saluting Samira Ahmed’s Passion for The Beatles, and Her Remarkable Recent Discovery

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THERE is a lot to unpack here…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Samira Ahmed photographed at her south-west London home for The Observer New Review in 2020/PHOTO CREDIT: Suki Dhanda/The Observer

so do bear with me! To start off, my love and respect for Samira Ahmed knows no bounds! She is a wonderful human and someone who actually helped me discover a lot about The Beatles - and I have been listening to their music for over thirty-five years. That is who we are here to talk about: both Ahmed and the legendary Liverpool group. If you have not heard the BBC Front Row from 3rd April, then do listen now, because it will not be online for long (but I hope it will transfer to Spotify where it can live on). It relates to the fact that Ahmed, for Front Row, visited Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire to mark sixty years (4th April, 1963) of The Beatles performed a gig there. Unexpectedly, Ahmed discovered that the earliest known full recording of the band performing live existed on tape! The hour-long, quarter-inch tape recording was created by John Bloomfield. He was fifteen at the time. The gig was in front of an almost all-male audience. That is interesting, as one associates the most ardent fans of The Beatles as being young women/girls. They helped bring the band to the fore and were the most ardent and passionate supporters. Ahmed and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn are the only people to have heard the full recording. Part of that historic gig was played on the Front Row special. We owe Samira Ahmed so many thanks for helping bring this to international attention. I will expand on this Midas discovery in a bit…

Before I come to that, I want to start off with a bit of background. There is no denying the fact Ahmed is one of the biggest Beatles fans in the world! I know she has a special appreciation for George Harrison, but this is someone who has a fascination with and love of the band running through her blood and encoded into her DNA. Samira Ahmed has spoken about The Beatles through the wonderful podcast, I am the EggPod. Hosted by her friend Chris Shaw, she has discussed A Hard Day’s Night, Please Please Me, George Harrison, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, The Beatles Live at the BBC, in addition to celebrating I am the EggPod’s fifth anniversary (where, interestingly, she interviewed Chris Shaw!) back in January. She also helped pay tribute to Paul McCartney at 80 last year. She is one of the special guests for the inaugural I Am the EggPod Live on Saturday, 1st July, where she will speak from the rather lovely and palatial Opera Holland Park in a very nice part of London! I do hope that Chris Shaw asks his good friend about a find that, well, frankly, is the Beatles discovery of the century! Ahmed has helped unearth and spotlight a rare discovery that has delighted Beatles fans around the globe - and quite rightly confirmed her as a legend and one of the most important Beatles fans there is. On 4th April, Ahmed posted the following to her official website:

“It was sixty years ago today….

A spread from the Stowe School archive was laid out in the Headmaster’s Gothic Library when I arrived there on March 22nd, ready for me. Copies of the letters from Brian Epstein, photos and more. Anthony Wallersteiner and old Stoic John Bloomfield had agreed to spend the morning with me and producer Julian May for a special Front Row report marking the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ most unusual gig – the time they played a private boys’ boarding school.

PHOTO CREDIT: Samira Ahmed

My fascination with the intersection of popular culture and social change is the driving force behind my journalism. My partner had taken me for a visit to the school last summer and Anthony had given us a tour and told us about the concert. Seeing a blue plaque on the school theatre building marking the event set my spidey senses tingling. Not only did I love The Beatles, I knew there was a story about what that concert represented as a pivotal moment of transformation in British society and the uniqueness of that almost all male audience. What I didn’t know until a couple days before we arrived was that John might have a tape of the whole concert.

Last night’s Front Row special in which I revealed the existence of the earliest complete live recording of the Beatles in the UK was one of the most delightful stories I’ve ever worked on.

It’s all thanks to John Bloomfield’s self confessed technical nerdery in taping the concert on his new tape player that it exists. And thanks to his generosity and trust in me, that he told me about it.

He brought along an extract that we played through the stage PA system turned up as loud as possible to match the experience he’d had back in 1963. It was emotional for all us, including two young A level music students who came along to listen. It was like time travel. The Front Row listen hopefully gives a sense of that”.

Every year sees something Beatles-related - in spite of the fact the band broke up over fifty years ago. If we do not get an album anniversary reissue – I wonder which one Giles Martin will release next? -, then it is a book, or something magnificent like Chris Shaw’s upcoming Live EggPod bonanza (where Beatles historian and leading expert Mark Lewisohn is one of the special guests). In November, 2021, Samira Ahmed spoke with Paul McCartney at London’s Southbank Centre in promotion of his lyrics book. She also spoke to Chris Shaw about that experience. (There is an unofficial video of the Ahmed/McCartney q&a). Could she have imagined that, just over a year later, she would bring us the news of this live recording of huge cultural significance?! I hope that this tape is restored and either stored in Liverpool in a museum or even kept behind glass at The British Museum in London, such is its importance! This is the earliest full set on tape from a band that would change popular culture and the world! Writing for The Observer yesterday, this is what Ahmed noted:

“What’s on the set list? Why did he only tell you about the tape now after 60 years? Two of the questions I’ve been bombarded with since I made public the existence of an almost complete concert recording of the Beatles on the cusp of their great breakout.

There’s a third question of my own: why has the news that 15-year-old John Bloomfield made and kept a tape recording of the Beatles playing at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire on 4 April 1963 gladdened our hearts quite so much? Answers to all three lie ahead.

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) mingle with pupils at Stowe before their concert on 4th April, 1963/PHOTO CREDIT: Dezo Hoffmann

I’ve long felt a bit embarrassed about the fetishisation of every tiny piece of Beatles archive footage as they have emerged, treated like religious relics. When I pitched my story reflecting on the 60th anniversary of the Beatles at Stowe to my Front Row editor, there was no suspicion of a tape.

My idea came from a chance visit last summer. I saw the blue plaque commemorating the gig on the school’s Roxburgh Hall theatre and knew there was a story in that night’s unique collision of class and an all-male teenage audience. Who knows how many young male hearts beat a little faster that night as Ringo Starr sang Boys?

We fixed on a date to go to Stowe in late March, before the Easter holidays. The headmaster, Anthony Wallersteiner, promised to round up any of the diminishing number of old boys he could. Bloomfield, the show’s stage manager, was the only one who could make it, and Wallersteiner, in a memorable email dated 3 March, introduced us, observing: “There was a rumour that one of the boys ran a wire from a microphone to a reel-to-reel tape recording under the stage. Is this a Stowe myth?”

The reply came back from John: “Guilty as charged, ’twas I. Not under the stage, but right in front of it. I will see if I can find the tape and if it is still usable.”

On 22 March, producer Julian May and I turned up to record at Stowe, not knowing if Bloomfield had managed to find the tape. He had. It turns out he’d felt embarrassed too. A self-confessed tech head, trying out his new Butoba MT5 recorder, taking a dozen D-cell batteries costing 10 old pence each, he’d regarded it merely as a poor quality amateur recording of songs better captured in official releases.

IN THIS PHOTO: Stowe School in Buckinghamshire/PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Draisey/Alamy

We played the extract he’d brought on his laptop of the start of the gig on the original stage. Bloomfield guided us to crank up the sound louder, to replicate the original bone-shaking experience and I felt my whole body vibrate with the sheer raw power of the Beatles. It was exciting, but also poignant, sharing that moment with Bloomfield, thinking of his school friends. Some are dead and some are living.

The journalist in me needed to know exactly what we were dealing with, and, a couple of days later, I suggested that Bloomfield play the entire tape to me and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn via a video call. We sat grinning, but both also making careful notes: on the banter – John Lennon’s saucy jokes and voices, on Paul McCartney’s polite thanks and apology for the fact that they were used to playing two half-hour sets. How much did the boys love Ringo, shouting out his name.

Lewisohn pointed out their improvised song order and choices because George Harrison had lost his voice. The few girls – daughters of staff members – at the back were screaming. At the point I realised the band were taking requests shouted out in cut-glass accents, as the uptight pupils threw off their inhibitions, I felt my spine tingling. This was proper time travel. And the track listing was a fascinating interweaving of the new Lennon and McCartney partnership in songs from their brand-new Please Please Me album and their old classic R&B live act, including I Just Don’t Understand and Matchbox.

John Lennon’s saucy jokes and voices, Paul McCartney’s polite thanks… How much did the boys love Ringo, shouting out his name

The tape runs out after 22 tracks, but a fragment of a set list written down from memory by a fellow Stoic suggests Sweet Little Sixteen and Long Tall Sally may have completed a tally of 24”.

I am not sure what happens next. In Ahmed’s article, she noted how The Beatles interacted with those posh boarding school pupils the same way they would have in Hamburg where they were playing the club circuit. Not to say they were swearing at kids and John Lennon was responding to heckles, as he did at The Star-Club! The Beatles played that German club in 1962, so they would have been more accustomed to crowds they got there; same with The Cavern in Liverpool. There were no heirs and graces. The lads were professional and funny. But it showed how they could transition between vastly different environments and stages and be as extraordinary and faultless as they were right up until 1966. Understandably, Samira Ahmed is immensely proud of this scoop (as she continued in that Observer article):

“So while scholars and hardcore fans may want to dive into the minutiae, there is a simpler reason that the Stowe tape is the loveliest scoop of my career. At a time when social divisions are deepening, perhaps the nostalgia we feel, whether we were alive then or not, is for that lost moment when four Liverpool boys convinced us that it might all be changing for good”.

 I am not sure what happens when it comes to that tape and its restoration. Of course, it is fragile and precious, so making sure it is restored carefully and preserved is of the utmost importance. There is going to be those asking for it to be transferred to a range of physical formats (including vinyl and cassette). Maybe a Spotify and Apple transfer. We have to also credit to John Bloomfield (who is now seventy-five). To have the foresight to have kept this all these years, knowing that it would be treasured. We are very lucky that this mind-blowing discovery will be introduced to new generations!

That is the thing. The Beatles may have started releasing albums in the 1960s, but they are still enormously popular today. Still inspiring artists and finding new listeners. I think one thing that strikes me about Samira Ahmed is how much she loves those early years of The Beatles’ career. She has talked about studio albums (on I Am the EggPod) that were released in 1963 (Please Please Me), and 1964 (A Hard Day’s Night). When covering The Beatles’ Live at the BBC album, remember that those recordings were captured between 1963 to 1965. From her discussions around Black R&B groups and their sonic and vocal influence on Please Please Me, to the female fans who helped make the band and are often written off and ignored by history, to the way she passionately and emotionally bonded with songs on that BBC live album, you can tell she has a deep fascination and adoration for that period between 1963 and 1965. It is no surprise that she was compelled to mark sixty years of The Beatles playing at a boarding school. To discover that there was a cassette of a full set and that it is in working order is something that goes down as one of the greatest bits of Beatles news ever! We owe eternal thanks to Samira Ahmed for what she has helped make widely known. I have speculated how it would be great if Ahmed wrote a book about the band. Maybe Samira Ahmed: The Beatles and Me, or I’m Happy Just to Dance with You (just spit-balling here!), she has this life-long love for them. This is a nice extra chapter that she could add! To find that tape and play some of it out is insane and wonderful at the same time. It is clear that she loves The Beatles. And, in turns…

WE love her for it!

FEATURE: Spotlight: Cloudy June

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Cloudy June

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A name that everyone should have in their minds…

Cloudy June an artist who has been making music for a little while, but it is clear she is on the rise and capturing a lot of praise and attention right now. I am going to come to some recent interviews soon. Before that, in 2020, DNü chatted with the Berlin-based musician:

“22 year-old Berlin-based singer-songwriter Cloudy June was the lead singer of a death metal band before deciding to focus on her solo career. We had the opportunity to have a conversation about her new chapter as an independent indie pop artist.

As you may already know, we love discovering new artists who create the style of music we feature here on DNü. What we also love, are artists who have an interesting story to share with potential new fans and Cloudy June’s come up is very interesting. She was the lead singer of a death metal band for three years, and if you’re not familiar with death metal, check this link and find out for yourself. Okay, yes we know it’s loud and they all look scary, and all that judgemental nonsense you’re probably thinking of but do you know how skilled as a vocalist you have to be to growl without damaging your voice? It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we totally respect Cloudy June for doing that style of music and keeping her voice in tact and as captivating as ever. As a newly independent artist who now creates indie pop with sprinkles of emo here and there, she has already secured and editorial playlist on Spotify made it to the Top 30 of the HypeMachine Charts with her single “High Waist to Hell”. And she’s back with her latest offering “Goodbye to Honeymoon”— her best release thus far. The only way is up from here and we were lucky enough to have a chat with her.

How are you doing?

Hey, thanks for having me! Doing great!

Nice! At what age were you exposed to music?

Before I was born my mother played guitar while being pregnant with me. And I think that was actually my first encounter with music. After that, I remember listening to music a lot in my childhood, especially with my dad.

That sounds so cool. So you come from a musical background?

My mother sings and plays guitar and writes songs since I can remember.

Oh yes. Who were some of the artists that inspired you growing up?

A German punk-pop band called Killerpilze. They were my idols when I was like 8 years old. Later when I was about 13 and began writing more songs, one of my biggest idols were Courtney Love and the singer-songwriter Jake Bugg.

How did you get into death metal?

I joined the band at my school after a friend pushed me to it (thank you Kerim). At that time I was already into Hard Rock and Metal Bands, like Judas Priest and AC/DC. Through our guitarist, I discovered the first real Death Metal bands who’s music I actually enjoyed. My favourite one to this day being the Swedish Prog Metal Band Opeth. I also stumbled across Arch Enemy, which was the first time that I ever heard a woman do screaming vocals. And that was the moment when I thought: Damn, I wanna do that too!

Wow, amazing stuff. How did you find the experience, you know, being the lead singer of a death metal band?

It was hella fun but it was also challenging. I had to learn a completely new vocal technique and I definitely did it wrong for the first couple of months. But as I got better and better it made me feel very powerful and it allowed me to express myself in a whole new way. Which is the part that I miss the most about it now.

What made you decide to open a new chapter?

Making music has always been my dream. And I realised that in the band we had different goals, different ambitions. I slowly started playing my first solo gigs and after thinking about it for a looong time I finally decided that it’s time to move on and focus on my solo career.

How would you describe your sound now in your own words?

Pop music, but make it a little emo”.

There is tremendous and enticing sea of new artists coming through. Whilst it is exciting to discover them, it is impossible to hear about every worthy act to watch closely. It is clear that Cloudy June is someone who captured a lot of hearts back in 2020, but she has built this reputation as someone who is going to have a very long career ahead. Real name Claudia Verdecia, everyone needs to ensure that Cloudy June is on the radar. The last couple of years have been so productive and strong from an artist who grows in stature. Her 2022 E.P., Unthinkable, has been followed by fantastic singles this year, You Problem and Love Under the Influence. The E.P. won some incredible reviews, and there are a lot of eyes trained her way now. I am going to wrap up with a couple of 2023 features/interviews. This year is one where the amazing Cloudy June has been marked out for success. The Line of Best Fit spotlighted Cloudy June back in February. The reason I am posting about here now is that she is current on her Does Your Girlfriend Tour? She plays London on Wednesday (12th). I know that there will be a lot of press interest around that gig:

“Having spent the past three years building a fanbase online with her tongue-in-cheek pop-rock bops and equally clever and assertive TikToks, Claudia Verdecia is now reconciling her online success with in-person reality. Having battled stage fright on her recent sold-out headline tour, she’s gearing up for forthcoming European dates with a healthy mix of vocal lessons and therapy sessions.

Born and raised in Berlin, Verdecia’s early inspirations spanned from Judas Priest to Rihanna to a certain British guitar-wielder. “I had a mad obsession with Jake Bugg for a long time,” she laughs. “I wanted to learn how to do a British accent, but it sounded like a German person trying to speak English, so I quit there and accepted my German accent.”

Taking guitar lessons from the age of nine, Verdecia began to write songs alongside her learning, eventually dropping the classes and teaching herself to play. “When I was thirteen, I was really convinced that I was gonna have to be a world star and make music,” she explains. “I was like, this is what I’m gonna do. There’s nothing else that makes sense to me. That’s when I started to think of it as something I really wanted to make out of myself.”

Signing with Columbia in Germany, she flew to LA with TVVINS for writing sessions. Battling with a sense of imposter syndrome, Verdecia found herself in the room with fellow artist emlyn. “She was kinda like my idol. I was nervous to meet her,” she smiles. “She actually had the idea to write a song called “You Problem”.

Out today and featuring emlyn, “You Problem” is a riptide of empowerment and observational humour wrapped in vibrant melody, both singers complementing each other with a soulful rapport. “Men are like, ‘Women don’t want to go on dates with me,’ and it’s like, maybe it’s because you’re being so fucking aggressive about it? So maybe that’s a you problem!” she laughs.

As well as giving Verdecia the opportunity to call out misogynists on TikTok by way of promo, the collaboration reinforced her goal to build a platform outside of Germany. “I’m always thinking about my music being international and I feel like there’s so many artists who want to be international and it doesn’t work out. They try and they try and then they start doing music in German and it works,” she explains. “I was always like, I don’t want to do that. I want to do something that resonates with people everywhere”.

I will round off with an interview from WONDERLAND. You can feel a lot of excitement build around Cloudy June. I am keen to see her play live very soon. If you get the chance to go and see her, then make sure that you do. This iconic artist is going to go a very long way indeed:

“At 24 years old, Cloudy June is emerging within the Berlin music scene as one to watch. Unapologetically feminist, and a queer icon – June’s musical oeuvre interrogates our heterocentric, patriarchal society, tackling issues like sexuality and equality head-on. Getting her start as the frontwoman of a death metal band, June has changed gears – on a one track journey to cultivating her own sound.

Infusing her current work with the shock value and raw energy of metal, her pop-leaning sound merely provides a new canvas for June to explore social taboos. Beginning to amass a steady online following, her independent releases have skyrocketed to over 40 million streams – and she’s got the IRL following to boot. Selling out a headline tour in Germany, and set to embark on an extensive European tour – her new single “Devil Is A Woman” is adding more fuel to the fire.

A church bell rings in the beginning of “Devil Is A Woman”, while June immediately asserts that sexuality is hers, and hers only. A dark-pop, sex-positive anthem, the track’s production prowess captivates listeners, while lyrics like “Your paradise sucks, but your hell sounds good to me” cut through like blades. Electro embellishments shimmer, while toe-tapping beats underpin June’s sultry vocal chops. Subverting religious imagery, “Devil Is A Woman” is a bold declaration against the forces that be, which set out to oppress women’s freedom.

June’s 2023 European headline tour is on the horizon, where she’ll blaze through the UK, Germany, and France – among others. Before she heads off on her whirlwind tour, we managed to sit down with June and get some more insight into what makes her, her. From religious parents, and stage fright to her metal beginnings – we’ve got all bases are covered.

Can you tell us something we couldn’t read about you anywhere else?

I have that strong urge to publish poetry or short stories one day. I might do it soon, using a fake name, who knows. And I feel like I would be a good erotic novel author – I’ve never told that to anyone before!

Your independent releases have racked up over 40 million streams. Can you talk about the growth of your real-life following and your first headlining tour of Germany?

It’s wild to me what is achievable with songs and a dream. I’ve been trying to find my audience for years, reinventing myself, and trying to find out who I am. Now it feels like I’ve finally found my place. That realness resonates with people and makes them wanna come to my shows and hear the songs live.

<center><iframe width="500" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JsLxhP_YkuM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Your new single “Devil Is A Woman” and its official video have been well-received on TikTok. Can you tell us more about the concept and message behind the song?

Devil Is A Woman is a song about breaking free from ways that people have tried to take control over your life, your beliefs, and your sexuality. If who I am does not fit in your “heaven” then I would rather be happy in hell.

As a rising feminist and queer icon, how do you hope your music and message will inspire and empower others?

When I was younger, I looked up to Courtney Love. I rewatched her old performances and her interviews. I felt like she was the definition of unapologetic, and she inspired me to pick up my guitar more and to speak up. Today I get messages of people telling me that my music helped them to feel more confident or even to come out to someone. That’s when you really feel the impact that the songs have. And it almost feels like a full circle moment, that I get to inspire people now the way people like Courtney have inspired me – and I’m really grateful for that”.

If you have not heard the amazing Cloudy June, then take some time to listen to her music and revel in the magnificent. As she is currently touring and about to play London, that will lead to a new wave of interest and support here. After a magnificent E.P. last year, many will ask when an album is coming. That cannot be too far away. Until that comes, be thankful for…

THE stunning music she has delivered so far.

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Follow Cloudy June

Official:

https://www.cloudyjune.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/cloudyjune/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@cloudyjune

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/cloudyjunemusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5sBBS3CQNPDzmuTJjYwnpa?si=WIr9zcIhRQKHzuSlfPXe2w

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@CloudyJune

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/cloudyjunemusic/

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Heaven 17 - The Luxury Gap

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AN album that people should…

check out on vinyl, I wanted to spotlight Heaven 17’s The Luxury Gap ahead of its fortieth anniversary. There is debate as to its release date. There are sources that say 25th April, 1983, whereas others date it earlier. I will take 25th April as the fortieth anniversary so, ahead of that, go and grab a copy of this classic on vinyl. The Sheffield trio of Glenn Gregory, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh delivered a hugely impressive follow-up to their acclaimed 1981 debut, Penthouse and Pavement. You can get a copy of The Luxury Gap here. It is an album that demands repeated listens. One of the finest releases of 1983, it was the middle of three terrific albums where Heaven 17 were among the coolest acts on the planet. They released How Men Are in 1984. After that, the material was mixed in terms of quality. I think that The Luxury Gap is the best album from the trio. Released by Virgin Records – which seems appropriate given the title and the album cover somehow when you consider Richard Branson today -, It is the band's best-selling studio album, as it peaked at number four on the U.K. chart. Even though Penthouse and Pavement was a terrific album, singles such as (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang struggled. That song was actually banned by the BBC, as it concerned a denunciation of fascism and racism, seeming to apply to the political regimes of Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. Perhaps the best-known single from The Luxury Gap is the epic Temptation. That reached number two in the U.K. Come Live with Me was also a big success,

Before rounding things up, I want to bring together a couple of really positive reviews for 1983’s The Luxury Gap. I am not sure whether there is a fortieth anniversary edition of the album planned. The first review that I want to come to is from AllMusic. Even if one might feel a group like Heaven 17 would not translate to U.S. audiences and critics, it did pick up some good reviews there. It reached seventy-two in the country and, in retrospective assessments, it has got a lot of love:

“After creating a marvelous electronic debut, Glenn Gregory, Ian Marsh, and Martyn Ware decided to tamper with their winning formula a bit on Heaven 17's 1983 follow-up to Penthouse and Pavement. The result, which added piano, strings, and Earth, Wind, & Fire's horn section to the band's cool synthesizer pulse, was even better, and The Luxury Gap became one of the seminal albums of the British new wave. The best-known track remains "Let Me Go," a club hit that features Gregory's moody, dramatic lead above a percolating vocal and synth arrangement. But even better is the mechanized Motown of "Temptation," a deservedly huge British smash that got a shot of genuine soul from R&B singer Carol Kenyon. Nearly every song ends up a winner, though, as the album displays undreamed-of range. If beat-heavy techno anthems like "Crushed By the Wheels of Industry" were expected of Heaven 17, the melodic sophistication of "The Best Kept Secret" and "Lady Ice and Mr. Hex" -- both of which sound almost like show tunes -- wasn't. If there's a flaw, it's that while the band's leftist messages were more subtle and humorous than most of their time, they still seem rather naïve. But the music, which showed just how warm electro-pop's usually chilly grooves could be, is another matter entirely. [Note to collectors: there were differences in the original British and American pressings of the album. The 1997 reissue by Caroline follows the order of the British pressing, adding some extended remixes.]”.

Regularly compared with another Synth-Pop group from Sheffield, The Human League, it is great that Heaven 17 released their debut in the same year (1981) as The Human League released the classic Dare. The Human League released Hysteria in 1984, but I that The Luxury Gap from the year before is a stronger album. Classic Pop reviewed the catalogue of Heaven 17 last year and had this to offer when they came to the group’s second studio album:

“After the maelstrom of creativity that birthed Penthouse And Pavement subsided, its follow-up two years later – recorded under the working title of Ashes And Diamonds – was more considered, increasingly refined, but no less passionate.

The Luxury Gap’s sonic boundaries expand upon the debut; Ware and Marsh’s production skills have clearly become more sophisticated as multiple influences are weaved into Heaven 17’s sound.

Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry is the common link between albums one and two; a tough, clanging industrial rhythm underpins the track, a call to arms to reject conformist 9-5 lifestyles (“It is time for a party/ Liberation for the nation now!”). John Wilson returns and his funky guitar provides nuance for a strong nigh-on six-minute opening statement of intent.

The Luxury Gap finds Heaven 17 beginning to lean more heavily on contemporary soul music for inspiration.

It’s clear, though, that the trio’s songwriting chops are evolving in other ways, too. This album includes two of their finest ballads – Let Me Go, which became H17’s biggest Stateside hit, and the 20-year age gap love affair tale of Come Live With Me (“Kiss the boys goodbye”).

Always conceived of as a studio-based project, Heaven 17 ploughed the money they would have spent in taking a live show out on the road on a string of ambitious videos, highlighting Gregory’s dashing blond good looks in the process: “Glenn was a bit of a big head and incredibly charismatic – perfect frontman material,” Ware once ruefully admitted when reminiscing about his first meeting with the singer at Sheffield experimental art project, Meat Whistle.

Political and ethical beliefs once more force their way to the surface on the brass-infused Key To The World, a stark warning about credit card culture that remains as pertinent now as it was almost 40 years ago (“My key to the world/ Buying items on your wish list/ It’s easier than you think”). The kicker, though, is the emotional distress it brings those of the ‘grab it now, pay later’ mindset (“Trying to fill the luxury gap has pushed me to the brink”).

Nick Plytas adds jazzy inflections to the almost Broadway showtune bounce of Lady Ice And Mr Hex – it’s a world away from the icy minimalism and harshness of Ware and Marsh’s Human League work. Equally theatrical is the dramatic closer The Best Kept Secret, conductor John Barker’s arrangement gives it an impressive orchestral swell. Who knew that Gregory could be so convincing as a torch singer?

Elevating the album to classic status is, in this writer’s eyes at least, a contender for best dance track of the 80s; the imperious, grandiose Temptation. Almost operatic in its ambition, Gregory’s duet with Carol Kenyon – this is so much more than a backing vocalist contribution – remains a rock-you-back-on-your-heels stand-out moment.

Arguably Heaven 17’s most rounded and expansive album, The Luxury Gap would be the biggest seller of their career. A Platinum success on home soil, it also made waves throughout Europe. Ware and Marsh had proved former manager Bob Last wrong, they could conjure up expansive electronic music that could slug it out with the big boys in the charts”.

If you do not own a copy of the remarkable The Luxury Gap, then do go and get a copy f it on vinyl. It is a wonderful album that you will want to listen to again and again. Starting with Crushed by the Wheels of Industry, Temptation opens the album’s second side. There is not a weak moment on Heaven 17’s…

REMARKABLE 1983 album.

FEATURE: Revisiting... Victoria Monét – JAGUAR (E.P.)

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting...

 Victoria Monét – JAGUAR (E.P.)

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RELEASED on…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Carter for PAPER

7th August, 2020, I wanted to revisit a terrific E.P. that deserves new investigation. The splendid Victoria Monét is still very much an artist bringing her incredible music to the masses. Touring and showing why she is one of the finest artists around, there will be many asking if we will get a debut album soon. I know we are getting the E.P., JAGUAR II later this year. I wanted to come to the first JAGUAR E.P. At a time when the pandemic was in full swing, there must have been this frustration when putting out an E.P. Having to promote from home and not able to tour the music, the incredible, original and intoxicating mix of R&B, Funk and Disco comes together in one of her best and most confident releases to date. I know Monét has suggested that JAGUAR will be a three-part project that that will lead to her debut album. The critical reaction to JAGUAR was hugely positive. I am not sure how many people in the U.K. know about Victoria Monét and whether they have heard JAGUAR. The Georgia-born artist has written songs for many huge artists such as Ariana Grande, and Nas. She is someone who has this phenomenal songwriting talent. I will get to a couple of reviews for the incredible JAGUAR. I want to start off with a few interviews where she promoted the E.P. The first, from PAPER explores the sound and songwriting through JAGUAR:

“Monét has also embraced the '70s through Jaguar's aesthetic: her music videos, promotional photos and outfits are tinted with warm browns and golds that match her honeyed vocals. On Zoom she's wearing a vintage style scarf over her pin-straight hair, like inspired by her grandmother's style in family photo albums. "So it's repeating what my elders did, but also trying to make it my own," she says. "I like the Black power and soul that the '70s exuded. I really wanted to capture that beauty."

Jaguar is defined by sexual power and a newfound self-assurance. "Moment," one of the EP's highlights, is a personal declaration of self-worth. "If you take the hook and make it a single phrase, I feel like it's so widely applicable. It's a moment to thrive, to change your life," Monét explains. "It's somewhat of a self-affirmation: you look in the mirror and it's like, 'Now is the time.' It brings this urgency. But also in a sexual light, it allows for a woman to treat themselves like a prize. It's like, 'Do you know what you're getting the chance to do right now?'"

PHOTO CREDIT: Erik Carter

Discussing the song triggers an unexpected rise in emotions in me. But Monét's presence is soothing, and she virtually wipes my tears as she notes the power of energy and manifestation. "When people are singing it, whether consciously or subconsciously," she assures, "you're starting to speak about what you want for your life. Be present in it and realize that this is where you belong."

With Jaguar, Monét "spent a little more time consistently writing for myself." When fans heard projects prior to Jaguar, she explains, "You would be hearing me having this writing camp for somebody else. I was trying to make a living, and my artist career wasn't as promising as being able to give yourself to someone who already has a fanbase and a label who can push the song to the masses." To invest in herself as an independent artist, "I really had to take a leap of faith."

Monét's sense of self-assurance has grown since coming out as bisexual in 2018. "Growing up being attracted to a woman, it felt like I was trained to think of it as such a sin," she says. "I tried to almost convert myself: 'Hmm, let's just pack that feeling to the back.' So being able to finally reveal that, and still feel so much support from other people who also feel the same way, meant so much to me”.

I am going to move to an interview from SPIN. For anyone who has not heard of Victoria Monét and is unfamiliar with JAGUAR, this is an artist and collection of songs that you need in your life. I wonder whether she is coming to the U.K. soon to perform. There will be a lot of anticipation ahead of JAGUAR II. I love the 2020 JAGUAR and feel that it one of the best releases from that year. I am excited to see what comes next from Monét. She did release another E.P., A JAGUAR Christmas: The Orchestral Arrangements, in December 2020:

“Despite her gentle tone during our interview, one sound pierces through her surroundings — just like the punchy horn sections on her August release, Jaguar. But the noise wasn’t musical — it was Monét’s instantaneous reaction after being compared to Off The Wall-era Quincy Jones. She squeals with excitement, as if the Grammy-winning songwriter hadn’t already been used as a critical reference point. But she should be used to it by now.

“He’s definitely been an inspiration,” Monét says of Jones. “The more that I learn, after watching his documentary, after meeting him and hearing his stories, I’m like, ‘You’re exactly the type of person and musician that I want to be.’”

Back in June 2019, before the world knew her ambitions for the soulful, ‘70s-influenced Jaguar, the 27-year-old singer met with Jones at his residence. There, she played the record’s title track for the acclaimed producer.

“He was singing another melody [over it], and I wish I could remember it,” Monét says, laughing. “I would’ve gone to the strings and asked my string player Peter Lee Johnson to do that, and just give him the production credit and be like, ‘My first Quincy collab.’”

While Jones’ name didn’t end up on Jaguar’s credits, his presence is unmistakable — especially in the aforementioned horns. She says Grande too was singing them back when she first heard the record. But that’s always been the norm for Monét.

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Ziff

“Before I was able to access horn players, I would sing the horns myself and try to make my voice sound like them,” she recalls. “I try to give them those inflections and that specific sound because I can hear it so clearly in my head. When they play it, that’s when I know it’s like, ‘OK, I had this idea and was already seeing it before, but now when you’re playing, it brings it alive.’”

As she dove into the project’s creative process, Monét had her instrumentalists and producers (including D’Mile and SG Lewis) locked down. She also had a feature from Khalid on the disco-era slapper “Experience” in her back pocket. She just had to find a way to make everything mesh, which she says wasn’t ever a problem, or even a thought. Jaguar — which is only one part of a soon-to-be-completed project — just worked.

The record’s themes are consistent. When Monét isn’t singing about her sexual freedom on “Dive,” she’s getting “wild” on the album’s dance-y centerpiece “Jaguar.” And when she isn’t preaching self-love on workout anthem “Ass Like That,” she’s reminding herself on “Moment” that this instant of time belongs to her. Jaguar is a token of self-love from an artist whose previous two-part release, 2018’s Life After Love, found her searching for just that.

“I’m not really focused on the outcome,” Monét says of her creative process. “I’m focused more on how I feel right at that moment, what would make the best out of this day, this session, this instrumentation, these notes … Then listening back is when I get to sit back and say, ‘OK, this is the overarching theme of the project, and this is how she’s feeling”.

Prior to getting to some reviews, I want to move to an interview from the New York Post. Many artists release E.P.s projects or a trilogy. It is a nice way of building this arc and narrative. I wonder whether Victoria Monét is going to put her three E.P.s into an album, or whether she will take a few tracks from the E.P.s alongside newly-written tracks. It will be intriguing to see what she comes up with. There are few artists who have the same impact and talent as Monét. The evidence runs right through JAGUAR:

“With “Jaguar,” Monèt decided to explore a sound markedly different from her previous EPs. It was her work on the soundtrack for the third season of the hit HBO show “Insecure” that became the catalyst for “Jaguar”’s music — which pulls inspiration from ’60s and ’70s soul.

She was featured on two songs on the Insecure soundtrack, which were both produced by D’Mile. She co-wrote the airy duet “A Little More Time” with Lucky Daye, who sang with her on the track. She also sang the thumping “The Glow,” which was a cover of the Willie Hutch track from the 1985 soundtrack for the classic film “The Last Dragon.”

She tapped Daye for ”A Little More Time” because his voice reminded her of Marvin Gaye, a premiere Motown act during the ‘60s and ‘70s.

“When I was writing [“A Little More Time”] with Lucky, I was like we should feel that energy when he first comes on,” she says. “And then just being able to explore with D Mile and Lucky and do a break that has us bopping and doing riffs and scales, I feel like that became the foundation of my project.”

“The Glow” had a Motown connection, as well. Though the song came out in the mid ’80s, “The Last Dragon” soundtrack it was created for was released through Motown Records. Motown founder Barry Gordy also produced the film.

It was a call from “Insecure”’s music supervisor Kier Lehman that sealed Monèt’s spot on that track. “She asked me to do a cover of [“The Glow”] that was kind of a remix and uptempo,” she says. “So doing that allowed me to open my mind up to how my voice sounds on something that’s of that era.”

By the time she returned to the studio in 2018 to write the rest of her “Jaguar” project, Monèt decided to lean fully into the Motown-inspired sound, which she feels is also representative of her own free spirit as an artist.

“What I really love about Motown and the ’60s and ’70s influences is that soulful, psychedelic energy,” she says. “I wanted that to be felt in the music.”

Tracks like “Dive” and “Ass Like That” are reminiscent sonically of songs from groups like Shalamar, Dynasty, and The Sylvers, bands that enjoyed great success in the ’70s and early ’80s. However, Monèt directly references Earth, Wind & Fire as a band from that time period she wanted to embody with her sound. And she aimed to replicate elements of their productions on “Jaguar” by building in instrumental breaks that provide moments for the songs to breath both on track and on stage.

“I’m thinking about the band feel and leaving space for music to just exist without me singing,” she says. “I’m also thinking about how that transfers to stage so I can dance in those spaces or interact with fans and people. I was trying to think about the full spectrum and what I want to represent in music.”

Her journey into ’60s and ’70s soul resulted in Monèt pushing her artistry in an unexpected way.

“It felt like a new, fresh way to go while still being true to myself and juxtaposing my top line,” she says. “Because my top line is still very rap-singy. At times, I still have those Jackson harmonies. And I’m really inspired by the distant chords and trying to do these deeper melodic choices, even with harmonies. So it’s me being explorative, mixing all the things that inspire me together to create something new.”

Beyond the musical elements, “Jaguar”’s retro-soul theme is Monèt’s nod to innovative Black artistry that came out of those eras.

“The soul of the seventies and sixties, with Black people doing rock ‘n’ roll and Black people doing R&B. What we called R&B was a little bit more broad,” she says. “I kind of want to open back up the possibilities of what an R&B song has to sound like, or what a soul song is, or what a pop song is. Back then our R&B songs or our soul songs were pop music because they were popular. So I think I’m trying to open more doors and people’s eyes to that and trying to be creative and explore my roots deeper”

Her mission to celebrate Blackness can be seen in her creative direction, as well.

Her styling for the project and color schemes for her visuals have all featured rich earth tones like dusty blues, forest greens, and a variety of shades of brown. These hues were trendy in home decor, clothing, and even automobile paint shades of the ’60s and ’70s. But more than just an obvious reference to color trends of those time periods, Monèt credits this palette as being representative of her life-long affinity for nature and the outdoors”.

I am going to round off with reviews for the stunning JAGUAR. An E.P. that nobody should miss out on, it got a load of love from critics. The Line of Best Fit awarded it out 8/10 when they sat down to review it. There was a lot of affection for the E.P. and Monét from the U.K. press. She has a loyal and growing fanbase here:

“From the swirling heavenly flurries of opener "Moment", JAGUAR is a lesson on letting style and substance exist hand in hand; where a world can be all things all at once; your cake can be had and eaten.

The right balance of indulgence and escapism, yes, the world is still full of injustice, yes, there’s still a way to go, but if we forget about the luxuries a twenty-something minute project of R&B jams made to ignite the most basic of human instinct should be able to afford us, then they win.

Monét is the epitome of good things come to those who wait, a notion that sits with this bated breath world. With her debut coming way back in 2014, the six years between then and how has seen her embark on a further EP release, collaborations and writing for a plethora of pop titans.

Letting the rhythm ride shotgun with the experience of being a human, specifically a female, in a world wholly focused on remembering to live, Monét knows where to evoke and where to let the beat do its business. Laidback R&B, even when Monét is calling to a retro sound, comes so fresh it could be straight from a packet from the freezer.

Throughout the hypnotic horns of eponymous “Jaguar”, or the body owning “Ass Like That”, comes entrenched sexuality that embarks on a journey of positivity. What can appear as a vain remark, instead covers layers of male-dominated gaze, and once the tables have turned, Monét's power is all the more.

The appearance of flavours you’ll come to find in a few Ariana Grande moments appear simply because Monét is one of the voices helping pen the meteorite pop hits. It’s easy to hear the fluidity of the ideas, but Monét sparks electricity with her own, pure brand, unaffected by any of the Grande zeitgeist.

Of all the burgeoning pop stars in this languid world, Victoria Monét is one who is both the flint and the match. She knows how to craft a line to make you blink twice ("So fuck a fantasy, this your motherfuckin' moment) and follow its path; what sounds are going to create the silky smooth atmosphere to lure and seduce with femininity and sexual prowess, with the voice to convey with the cadence and sultry power.

Put simply, JAGUAR is another step forward for a career that’s been toiling and honing. Monét's moment won't be soon before long”.

The final piece I want to include is a review from NME. Whilst many gave JAGUAR four stars, I feel that more should have given it a full five stars! It is an E.P. with no faults. I have been listening to it a bit recently. It has most definitely whetted the appetite for JAGUAR II. I am curious whether the sound palette will be the same as the first part. Time will tell all. There is no doubting the incredible gifts of Victoria Monét:

“The 27-year-old singer-songwriter has had a hand in writing colossal hit singles, including Ariana Grande’s ‘Thank U, Next’ and ‘7 Rings’ (her work with the superstar’s most recent album, also titled ‘Thank U, Next’, won her no less than four Grammy nominations last year), and has collaborated with artists as varied as Fifth Harmony and Nas since the early ‘10s. And she’s now ready to step out to the centre of the stage with her debut album, the fiercely titled and ‘70s-inspired nine-song collection ‘JAGUAR’.

The Georgia-born, California-raised musician has long enjoyed a friendship with R&B producer D’Mile and the pair are a match made in audio Heaven, Monét soaring with magnetic choruses across nostalgic soundscapes. Channeling the fearless attitude of the titular beast, she leans into her desires, expressing both lust and emotional intensity. “I just wanna make you feel big boss like 1000 dollar bills” she chants on album opener ‘Big Boss (interlude)’, evoking the spirit of Keyshia Cole’s 2007 hit ‘Trust’, another song that explores the notion of selfless love.

The ‘70s funk-influenced title track finds Monét at her most vulnerable, admitting that she “lives on instinct”, and fittingly enough she seemingly spontaneously yells “let’s get wild” as distinctive horns – employed across the record – express unbridled joy. The funky ‘Go There With You’ sees her suggest that her passion, currently being used in an argument, could be transferred into the bedroom, an example of her twinkling sense of humour. The music is the message here, too, an electric guitar solo conveying a sense of reckless abandon. The song rolls around in the same bed sheets as Childish Gambino’s herculean 2016 hit ‘Redbone’.

Across ‘JAGUAR’, Victoria Monét unpicks the blurry line between lust and love, D’Mile’s impeccable and finely arranged production offering narrative stage directions such as the suggestive aforementioned guitar solo. Their relationship resembles that of R&B great Brandy and her frequent co-conspirator Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins, who has stood with the singer throughout most of her career (though the producer was notably absent from the recently released ‘B7’).

Victoria Monét reportedly delayed the release of ‘JAGUAR’ so as not to clash with the release of Beyoncé’s ‘Black Is King’ visual album. A shrewd move, perhaps, and this record heralds her as one of the most enticing acts in R&B’s contemporary canon, near-guaranteed to become a bonafide star in her own right”.

If you have not heard JAGUAR, go and check it out now and experience something very special. Doubtless one of the best E.P.s from 2020, JAGUAR could almost be called a mini-album. It has nine tracks, so I sort of think of it as being closer to an album in length compared to an E.P. However you define and categorise JAGUAR, there is no denying that it is…

A wonderful thing.

FEATURE: Groovelines: David Bowie - The Jean Genie

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

David Bowie - The Jean Genie

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THERE is a lot of celebration happening…

around the fiftieth anniversary of David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. His sixth studio album was released on 20th April, 1973, and it is considered to be one of his classics – in a career that has boasted more than its fair share of them! There is a photography exhibition in London, and I know there will be articles written about one of the all-time best albums. I am going to start with some overview and opinion about this album, but I want to focus on perhaps the best-known song from Aladdin Sane, The Jean Genie. First, Rhino give us some background to Bowie’s work of brilliance. Recorded between Trident (London) and RCA (New York City), this was a hugely important point in his career:

“The year was 1973, and new British import David Bowie had begun to achieve star status in America. Bowie's 1972 full-length, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, was a breakthrough in the States, spinning off radio hits including "Suffragette City," "Starman" and "Ziggy Stardust." As he toured the States in support of Ziggy, the profound experience influenced his songwriting, which was happening between shows. With a dose of inspiration from the Rolling Stones (Exile on Main St. was released in May '72), Bowie was moved to rough up the sleek Ziggy sound with a harder edge for his next LP.

Hitting the recording studio between tour legs in late 1972, the first fruits of Bowie's labor came in the form of lead single, "The Jean Genie," released in November of that same year. The song's blistering guitar riffs and strutting rhythm drove it up the charts, with the track peaking at #71 on the Hot 100 for the week of December 23, 1972. The #1 song in America that week: Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones." Over in the UK, "The Jean Genie" charged all the way to #2 on the Singles Chart.

Bowie took a radical turn with the follow-up, the brilliant "Drive-In Saturday," released as a single in early April 1973. Originally written for Mott the Hoople, Ian Hunter and company turned the tune down, unable to get a handle on the song's complexity. The rejection stung the artist, who recalled on VH1's Storytellers that he drunkenly shaved his eyebrows after the song was rejected, joking "that taught them a lesson."

"It's about a future where people have forgotten how to make love, so they go back onto video-films that they have kept from this century," Bowie told the audience at Cleveland's Public Auditorium in November 1972 before one of the first live performances of the track. He allegedly also asked anyone recording the show to to leave, as he was about to play new music. "This is after a catastrophe of some kind, and some people are living on the streets and some people are living in domes, and they borrow from one another and try to learn how to pick up the pieces." While the song failed to chart in America, it peaked at #3 in the UK. In Ireland, the tune climbed as high as #14.

PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita

It was sometime in April 1973 (April 13 is the date most commonly listed, while Bowie scholars have the release date as April 19), when David Bowie released the Aladdin Sane album (that same day, the third single from the set, the Mike Garson piano-powered ballad, "Time," was also released). The album helped solidify Bowie's growing star status, selling enough copies in America to peak at #17 on the Billboard 200 for the week of June 16, 1973. The #1 album in the country that week: Paul McCartney & Wings' Red Rose Speedway.

"I wasn’t at all surprised Aladdin Sane made my career," Bowie told Cameron Crowe for Rolling Stone in 1976. "I packaged a totally credible plastic rock star – much better than any sort of Monkees fabrication. My plastic rocker was much more plastic than anybody’s."

FUN FACT: The iconic cover of Bowie's Aladdin Sane record was the most expensive ever produced at the time. Shot by Brian Duffy, an unprecedented seven-color process (four-color was the standard at the time) drove costs through the roof: ‘(Bowie's manager) Tony Defries commissioned it through [his company] MainMan Productions," remembered Duffy's studio manager, Francis Newman. "I don't think there was any budget as such. Tony just told Duffy to get on with it. Duffy told the story that Tony wanted it to be as expensive as possible to commit RCA into promoting it. Certainly it was [expensive] because the dye transfer print was incredibly expensive, about £1,000, which given that our day rate at the time was about £300 – that’s a lot of money."

FUN FACT #2: The contact sheet containing the original cover photograph as well as outtakes is currently up for auction. It's estimated to sell for anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000”.

I am keen to explore the brilliance that is The Jean Genie. The first single from Aladdin Sane, it was released on 24th November, 1972. One of Bowie’s absolute best songs, it is one that sits alongside so many other greats on Aladdin Sane. This is what AllMusic said about the classic album:

“Ziggy Stardust wrote the blueprint for David Bowie's hard-rocking glam, and Aladdin Sane essentially follows the pattern, for both better and worse. A lighter affair than Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane is actually a stranger album than its predecessor, buoyed by bizarre lounge-jazz flourishes from pianist Mick Garson and a handful of winding, vaguely experimental songs. Bowie abandons his futuristic obsessions to concentrate on the detached cool of New York and London hipsters, as on the compressed rockers "Watch That Man," "Cracked Actor," and "The Jean Genie." Bowie follows the hard stuff with the jazzy, dissonant sprawls of "Lady Grinning Soul," "Aladdin Sane," and "Time," all of which manage to be both campy and avant-garde simultaneously, while the sweepingly cinematic "Drive-In Saturday" is a soaring fusion of sci-fi doo wop and melodramatic teenage glam. He lets his paranoia slip through in the clenched rhythms of "Panic in Detroit," as well as on his oddly clueless cover of "Let's Spend the Night Together." For all the pleasures on Aladdin Sane, there's no distinctive sound or theme to make the album cohesive; it's Bowie riding the wake of Ziggy Stardust, which means there's a wealth of classic material here, but not enough focus to make the album itself a classic”.

There is some interesting discussion about the iconic The Jean Genie. It is a song that remains one of David Bowie’s most famous and loved. Because Aladdin Sane is fifty soon, I wanted to spend some time diving into one of its best moments. Rhino looked back to the release of The Jean Genie in November 1972, where they also revealed some facts about this monumental song:

“It was November 24, 1972, when David Bowie released the lead single from his sixth studio album, Aladdin Sane: "The Jean Genie." Powered by an instantly classic rock guitar riff, the song is among Bowie's most enduring and truly timeless tunes.

The single wasn't exactly a chart monster, peaking at #71 on the Hot 100 for the week of December 23, 1972. The #1 song in America that week: Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones." Here's a look back at David Bowie's 1972 hard rocking favorite, "The Jean Genie."

1. The song was inspired by Iggy Pop, Cyrinda Fox, Jean Genet and New York City

The high-energy track was the result of a whirlwind of influences borne from a 1972 trip to NYC. He was hanging out with Andy Warhol associate Cyrinda Foxe, and started writing the tune as a way to win her over. "Starting out as a lightweight riff thing I had written one evening in NY for Cyrinda's enjoyment, I developed the lyric to the otherwise wordless pumper and it ultimately turned into a bit of a smorgasbord of imagined Americana... based on an Iggy-type persona," the artist shared in book Moonage Daydream. "The title, of course, was a clumsy pun upon Jean Genet."

PHOTO CREDIT: Masayoshi Sukita

2. Another influence: the Rolling Stones

“I wanted to get the same sound as the Stones had on their first album on the harmonica,” Bowie once said, via Rolling Stone. “I didn’t get that near to it but it had a feel that I wanted – that Sixties thing.”

3. "The Jean Genie" is where the band Simple Minds got its name

Childhood friends Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill were ready to take their music careers seriously, they broke up previous band, Johnny and the Self Abusers, and looked to Bowie for guidance. Inspiration came in the form of "The Jean Genie" lyric, "He's so simple-minded, he can't drive his module." Simple Minds was born.

4. An inventive cameraman saved Bowie's Top of the Pops 1973 performance of "The Jean Genie" on "Top of the Pops"

After Bowie blew minds with the performance, the BBC promptly erased the tape for reuse as a way to save money. Thankfully, cameraman John Henshall, having utilized a homemade fish-eye lens for the moment, captured the performance onto a videotape. He held the tape in his personal stash for almost 40 years before revealing it to the world. “I just couldn’t believe that I was the only one with it,” Henshall told Rolling Stone. “I just thought you wouldn’t be mad enough to wipe a tape like that”.

Before finishing off, there is an interesting thing about the song. Whilst Bowie himself might have been influenced by a few different sources when it came to that indelible and tremendous riff, another band put out a big song not long after The Jean Genie. Many have noted clear similarities regarding that riff. Far Out Magazine explain more:

“The story goes that David Bowie once told James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, “You can’t steal from a thief, darling”. This declaration came after the New Yorker had openly informed Bowie of his love the Starman’s work and that he had stolen from him “liberally”. Whilst it says a lot about Murphy’s artistic debt to Bowie, this exchange says more about Bowie’s career-long penchant for cherrypicking from others than it does anything else.

There are many examples of Bowie “creatively borrowing” segments of work from others, but one of the most prominent is his 1972 hit ‘The Jean Genie’, the lead single from 1973’s Aladdin Sane. Boasting one of his most famous riffs, played by the late Mick Ronson, the track is inspired by a handful of other artists.

According to legend, the song originated as the impromptu jam ‘Bussin” while on the tour bus between shows in Cleveland and Memphis during ‘The Ziggy Stardust Tour’. It started when Ronson played a Bo Diddley-inspired riff on his new Les Paul. The jam became the first song Bowie penned for Aladdin Sane in the autumn of 1972, completing its creation when in New York City. During this period, Bowie spent a considerable amount of time with Andy Warhol associate Cyrinda Foxe, and he later admitted that he wrote it for her. He said: “I wrote it for her amusement in her apartment. Sexy girl”.

The swaggering R&B chug of the riff has long been likened to The Yardbirds’ style and, particularly, their cover of Bo Diddley’s classic ‘I’m a Man’, which is very similar. Elsewhere, it has also been compared to the dark blues of Jacques Dutronic’s 1966 piece ‘La Fille du Père Noël’.

With that, the song’s title is often taken as an allusion to author Jean Genet. In 2005’s Moonage Daydream, Bowie ambiguously discussed the title and riff, as he explained: “Starting out as a lightweight riff thing I had written one evening in NY for Cyrinda’s enjoyment, I developed the lyric to the otherwise wordless pumper, and it ultimately turned into a bit of a smorgasbord of imagined Americana … based on an Iggy-type persona … the title, of course, was a clumsy pun upon Jean Genet”.

Reaching number two in the U.K., it is clear there was a lot of love for The Jean Genie in 1972/’73. The penultimate song on Aladdin Sane (Lady Grinning Soul is the final track), there is so much to admire about it. If the title is a bit of a clumsy pun around author Jean Genet, and Bowie had no huge or clear lyrical inspiration, I think it is his incredible vocal and the band performance that makes it stand out. Alongside Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Mick ‘Woody’ Woodmansey, David Bowie created this song that has endured for decades and produced that incredible riff. Once heard, it is…

IMPOSSIBLE to forget.

FEATURE: Sisters in Arms: A Time for New Documentaries and Historic Representation of Women in Music That Embrace Their Significance

FEATURE:

 

 

Sisters in Arms

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé for British Vogue in July 2022/PHOTO CREDIT: Rafael Pavarotti

A Time for New Documentaries and Historic Representation of Women in Music That Embrace Their Significance

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WHILST there are…

 PHOTO CREDIT: lookdtudio via freepik

attempts to highlight women in music and their amazing contribution, there is not a tonne being done. I will come to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame soon but, although they have not done a good job at inducting and nominating as many female artist as they should, they did a #WomenWhoRock campaign for Women’s History Month a couple of years ago. There have been documentaries made about women who has inspired and changed music, and you get playlists on Spotify spotlighting amazing women and the best of various genres. That is great but, at a time when there is still massive inequality and a real lack of recognition regarding the importance of women in music, more needs to be done. I shall come to that. First, as I said I would come back to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Courtney Love Cobain reacted to the fact that women have been marginalised by them for years. Why is that the case? She wrote a piece for The Guardian last month:

“The bar is demonstrably lower for men to hop over (or slither under). The Rock Hall recognised Pearl Jam about four seconds after they became eligible – and yet Chaka Khan, eligible since 2003, languishes with seven nominations. All is not lost, though – the Rock Hall is doing a special programme for Women’s History Month on her stagewear ...

What makes Khan’s always-a-bridesmaid status especially tragic is that she was, is and always will be a primogenitor. A singular figure, she has been the Queen of Funk since she was barely out of her teens. As Rickie Lee Jones said: “There was Aretha and then there was Chaka. You heard them sing and knew no one has ever done that before.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Chaka Khan

Yet Khan changed music; when she was on stage in her feathered kit, taking Tell Me Something Good to all the places it goes, she opened up a libidinal new world. Sensuality, Blackness: she was so very free. It was godlike. And nothing was ever the same.

But for all her exceptional talent and accomplishments – and if there is one thing women in music must be, it is endlessly exceptional – Khan has not convinced the Rock Hall. Her credits, her Grammys, her longevity, her craft, her tenacity to survive being a young Black woman with a mind of her own in the 70s music business, the bridge to Close the Door – none of it merits canonisation. Or so sayeth the Rock Hall.

The Rock Hall’s canon-making doesn’t just reek of sexist gatekeeping, but also purposeful ignorance and hostility. This year, one voter told Vulture magazine that they barely knew who Bush was – in a year she had a worldwide No 1 single 38 years after she first released it. Meg White’s potential induction as one half of the White Stripes (in their first year of eligibility) has sparked openly contemptuous discourse online; you sense that if voters could get Jack White in without her, they would do it today. And still: she would be only the third female drummer in there, following the Go-Go’s Gina Shock and Mo Tucker of the Velvet Underground. Where is Sheila E – eligible since 2001?”.

IN THIS PHOTO: boygenius (Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker)/PHOTO CREDIT: Mikayla LoBasso

From legends of music through to incredible modern heroines, it is almost impossible to put into words the impact women have made. I have said it so many times, but the best and most interesting music of the past few years has been made by female artists. That is the case this year. Albums from the likes of Caroline Polachek, Lana Del Rey, and boygenius are proving that this year is no exception. It is not only established artists that are dominating. Rising artists are also adding something indispensable. Playlists and features are helpful when it comes to highlighting the strength of women in music. When festivals are still not quite gender-equal and there is a definite lack of female headliners, I hope that things will change soon. It would be good to see documentaries produced that highlight the amazing women who have changed music. From Hip-Hop pioneers to R&B legends, and Pop queens, it is time for updated and comprehensive documentaries that react to Courtney Love Cobain’s article – and show why the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame should stop putting women second! It is an industry-wide issue. There have been improvements through the years. I think that radio playlists are becoming more balanced, and there are efforts being made to ensure festival bills are equal. It is still quite slow going, and that is frustrating to see. Not only is it important to produce documentaries that acknowledge the legends and established artists who have  transformed music. As I said, there is a crop of rising female artists that are producing incredible music. Regular playlists highlight the best albums and tracks from those incredible emerging acts.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek

What would be great is a website dedicated entirely to women in music. It would be an archive. You would have playlists, documentaries, articles (such as Courtney Love Cobain’s), videos, and features. Such is the tsunami of wonderful music from women, there could be a menu that takes you to different sections. Events that celebrate women in music, the best newcomers and fresh tracks from female artists. Directories of the full scope of female artists around the world, plus classic albums from female artists. Maybe something similar exists already - but a more extensive and wide-ranging website that is constantly updated would be amazing. It is not only designed to bring about faster equality and greater recognition of women in music. It is also a worthy celebration of all they have given the industry. Pioneers and groundbreaking artists. Wonderful producers and those who have brought about change. Stunning new artists who will be future legends, and those more than capable of headlining festivals. There could be podcasts and all manner of artefacts that look to those legends of the past and the new generation. For an industry that owes women so much, there is not a lot being done to make sure they have an equal platform and get the acclaim and acknowledgement they deserve. New documentaries definitely need to come to light. Maybe a website that is a one-stop archive that is like a living and constantly updated museum, or new podcasts and series that look to those who have gone before and the wonderful female artists coming through. There is so much that can be done. I hope that amazing women in music across all genres and decades are…

 IN THIS PHOTO: American artist Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum) is among the wave of rising female artists shaping music in 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Topete

PROPERLY recognised and respected.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Special Interest

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Special Interest

_________

NOT that I am late to the party…

because I have known about the music of Special Interest for a while now. I have not got around to putting them into my Spotlight feature. That changes now. I would recommend them to anyone who has not heard them. This is a group hat have been around for a while, but they may not be as known here in the U.K. as they are in their native U.S. They have a string of great albums under their belt – 2018’s Spiralling, 2020’s The Passion Of, 2021’s Trust No Wave -, and they released their finest work, Endure, back in November. I will get to a review of Endure at the end of this feature. I will come to some interviews soon. Before that, here is some background regarding an incredible band:

“Special Interest was born out of New Orleans’ evasive DIY scene. After a demo tape (Trust No Wave) and a debut 12” (Spiraling), the group released their second LP The Passion Of in 2020. The Passion Of finds the band with a fuller realization of their sound. While Spiraling documented a band discovering their purpose, The Passion Of is both more chaotic and melodic, daring to finally live up to their notorious wall-of-sound live performances. Massive, juddering beats from an old Electribe sampler and distorted bass provide much of the rhythmic backbone. The effect is purely physical, circumnavigating the brain and heading straight to the body’s core. Crass, decolonized guitar work and haunting synth lines cut through the low end noise to serve the album’s layers of drama. It’s a cloying, intense dynamic that builds to almost unbearable fever pitch at points, threatening to overwhelm and overpower. The Passion Of is a true document of Special Interest as the intense and radical unit they are”.

Even though most of the group are not based out of New Orleans now, I think that the city is still very important to them and their music. Many of the interviews with the group are from last year. There is one from 2020 that I want to highlight. Around the release of The Passion Of, The Quietus caught up with Special Interest and asked how New Orleans has impacted them and their music:

“Members Alli Logout (vocals), Ruth Mascelli (synth and drum machine), Maria Elena (guitar), and Nathan Cassiani (bass), together manage to make their instruments and vocals sound like a fight for our existence. Logout's vocals leap from raspy gasps to full throated screams echoing socio-political angst, backed up by Cassiani's pummelling bass, Elena's cutting distorted riffs, and Mascelli's driving beat.

Both the band's first album, 2018's Spiraling, and their latest release, The Passion Of, contain an element of chaos, creativity and surprise that is hard to predict, changing genres and making swift left turns with little warning. 'Disco II' opens with a throbbing, gabber-esque beat and siren like cutting riff, while 'All Tomorrow's Carry' slows down the pace slightly and centres its energy around a pulsating beat.

The band all see New Orleans as the inspiration for their no rules approach to music making. Mascelli explains: "When I first came to New Orleans, the scene was really DIY and supportive in a way I'd never experienced anywhere else. It kind of really encouraged me to try things I wouldn't have tried otherwise."

I spoke to Special Interest about why they want to create space for punks of colour, writing punk anthems, and how they want to be defined as a band.

Since you're all from different places, what is your relationship with New Orleans? Is it somewhere you would stay forever?

Alli Logout: Once you live in New Orleans, you're really fucked because there's no place in the whole world like this city. I spend all my time here and I only travel for art stuff. I like creating art here and I have a family here.

Do you mean in terms of kind of like a community?

AL: Yeah, the community. I got drawn here by Black punks, specifically Osa Atoe who does Shotgun Seamstress.

You cover issues of gentrification and displacement in your music. Has this been influenced by New Orleans and the punk scene there?

AL: I just wanted to start having that conversation. I can barely afford to live in some of the places I do live. I'm currently staying in a place where I don't even feel safe. Housing is consistently always going to be an issue all throughout America. Just thinking about the Black diaspora migrating from different places and still being Black doesn't make you not a gentrifier, you know. I want to talk about that because I'm thinking about it a lot.

I'm thinking about the people that I'm affecting. I'm also thinking about myself and my safety. I'm trying to hold all the nuances that come with having those conversations because being an active gentrifier in a place where you didn't grow up. You do have to come to terms with your existence being violent.

Your music is incredibly energising. How do you want your music to affect people? Is that something you consider?

AL: I want people to be affected. I want to make an album like the ones that carried me through really hard times. I feel that on this album there's so many different emotions, it can really meet people where they're at and hopefully carry them through. The whole reason I've done music is so that Black kids can see me doing what I'm doing”.

As they prepared to launch Endure last year, Special Interest were doing a fair bit of press. It was an album that so many people were excited about witnessing. In a chat with The Quietus once more, Emma Garland chatted with them about radicalism, resilience and transcendence. Led by their amazing frontperson Alli Logout, their amazing voice and power is a big reason why the songs from Special Interest hit so hard and resonate. They are a group to watch very closely and sure that you add to your playlists. Endure is a truly remarkable album:

“Work on Endure began in mid-2020, when the band – composed of Logout, guitarist Maria Elena, bassist Nathan Cassiani and Ruth Mascelli on synth/drum machine – found themselves in the depths of a brutally hot New Orleans summer, during a time of exceptional anger and isolation, with very little to do besides get together and play music. They responded to their constraints by doubling down on their influences, with Funkadelic-inspired vocals and dancefloor rhythms pushing some songs into house territory while their 70s glam and post-punk side took a more brutal and theatrical turn. “We were writing much moodier, darker music as well as a lot more… I hesitate to say poppy," Cassiani reflects, "But it was working out a different response to the feelings that we were having at the time."

The result sees Special Interest operating in a more dancefloor-ready register. Mykki Blanco-featuring single ‘Midnight Legend’ is all thumping bass and synths whirling like loose hair, functioning as a "love song to all the girls leaving the club at 6AM". It’s also a sombre nod to the darkness behind the glamour, namely the void-chasing behaviour we engage in when we feel lonely or isolated, and the opioid crisis that's been ripping through at-risk communities in the States for decades. "The song is about being enabled by other people, but also by the institutions that we're able to be ourselves in a lot," Logout explains. "I feel like everybody is quite literally silently screaming all the time, and that we don't really know what to do or how to take care of each other. But I do think we're learning that every day."

Elsewhere lead single ‘(Herman’s) House’ is a raucous disco ode to Herman Wallace, one of the Angola Three Black revolutionaries who were held in solitary confinement for 41 years at Louisiana State Penitentiary. During his imprisonment, Wallace worked with the artist Jackie Sumell via hundreds of letters to create his dream house down to the last detail – from the hobby shop to a skillet placed under a fire making shrimp and oyster gravy. Logout and Elena describe it as "a battle cry for dreamers who persist in spite of and because", and in practice the song bursts at the seams before it even starts, demanding to be played so loud it risks blowing the speakers and cracking the ceiling. Rave whistles and a “ooh! ooh!” go off like a Pride float full of leather daddies behind impassioned lyrics like “we’ll all be Basquiats for five minutes or Hermans for life, so when I say build I mean dream”. In October 2013 Wallace was released from prison. He died of cancer three days later.

“The link between Basquiat and Wallace is a very American link,” Logout says. “I think that just being Black in America means being exploited. Essentially Basquiat died because of the white people in his life and the pressure to be this particular kind of person. It's two different sides of what being Black in America is. You're either fully idolised and destroyed, or you're thrown in a cage.”

Throughout the first half of Endure there is a dissonance between sound and subject. While most of Logout's lyrics are heavily weighted rallying cries (though often bitterly funny), there's an appeal to resilience through movement that sends the whole thing reeling towards transcendence. As Mascelli puts it, the music is "joyful, but still about real shit."

"[We wanted] to make people respond in a way other than just catharsis or dismay or something," they elaborate. "The last album really focused on that type of release, but joy is an important tool for gathering for the collective and for people coming together. So it felt right to make music that could facilitate that.”

The second half of the album takes a much darker turn, feeling more obviously attuned to the imminent threat of collapse that's been a theme of Special Interest's music since their 2018 debut Spiraling. In one interview around the time of Spiraling's release, Logout claims to want the “complete, total destruction of everything”. This of course was two years before the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter uprisings, the Capitol Hill riots that took place after the Presidential Election – and, more recently, Russia's war with Ukraine and the fact that leaders across Europe are advising people to prepare for a harsh winter of financial hardship and energy blackouts. Relaying that quote back to them now, they find it quite funny.

“Maybe that’s why everyone thinks that we’re nihilistic,” they suggest, before adding that we're definitely "on the same timeline" as we were when that interview took place. "I think that things are going to get intense, and resources are going to get intense in a way that we haven't seen yet."

More to the point, though, Logout – who was raised in Texas by "Christian rednecks" – has a perspective on America that's deeply informed by their experiences of extreme ideology, and of whiteness. "One of the very first things I was taught was if they ever come for our guns, or if they ever come for God and Christ and Christianity, we're going to go blazing," they say. "I know what white America is really thinking and feeling, and it's intense and it's extreme. We had this LOL insurrection, the storming of the Capitol Building by all the Trumpers, and, you know, that couldn't happen if anybody of colour was doing that. There's so much protection for those people and those things”.

There are a couple of other interviews I want to get to before the review of Endure. Loud and Quiet caught up with the band in Los Angeles over the course of a couple of days about their amazing and career-best Endure. One of the most challenging, important, and exciting groups in independent music, we get to know more about the spectacular Special Interest:

“They’re all a little like this in conversation: invariably friendly and charismatic, but honest and unsentimental at the same time. There’s little in the way of convenient myth or simple categorisation with this band.

“I moved from Pennsylvania to New Orleans in 2009,” says Ruth. “And I never really played music at all; I was in my mid 20s and I really wanted to be in a band. So I started doing a little solo project to try and attract some people, and I was a really big fan of Maria’s band at that time – like, obsessed – and I did a T-shirt design for them. And that’s how I met them, going to the same shows. Maria and Alli were the ones who really started Special Interest.”

Before New Orleans, Maria had been in Minneapolis, part of an arts collective who brought a series of underground artists to the city.

“I was part of the post-punk revival thing,” she recalls. “They were the things that I was booking in Minneapolis. There were bands coming out of Texas that were really exciting, and also in the Midwest. And there were all the British bands I booked too – like Rachel Aggs and her pre-Shopping stuff.” She already knew Alli, and they’d spoken about forming a band together before; the plan eventually came to fruition once they were both in New Orleans. Nathan was already there – “You were so established [on the scene],” Maria tells him when this comes up, “I didn’t realise you’d only been there a year” – and Ruth was recruited soon enough, his clattering drum machine and windy synth production favoured over a live drummer.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mathew Scott

“We didn’t want a real drummer,” says Alli. “One, because they’re unreliable; two, because of how much space they take up. They have so much stuff to carry around.” Although relying on a drum machine presented its own challenges. “It was like, ‘How do you play these DIY shows and get to hear it?’ We had to carry an extra PA around with us.” 

The practical choice of drum machine over drummer immediately informed the aesthetic direction of the nascent group – after all, machines are “uncompromising, so we just adapted our composition to that, creating angles. Nathan would find the groove [on bass], and it’d take a while to figure out. But we knew something was interesting.” The early shows also featured Alli ‘playing’ the power drill, the band taking ‘industrial music’ quite literally, Einstürzende Neubauten-style. The drill actually makes a welcome return on Endure track ‘LA Blues’.

“Yeah, I didn’t know how to play anything, but liked playing music and loved performing,” says Alli. “In my first band, I just sang and loved it. Then I started wanting to jam with other people but I didn’t know how really, and I wasn’t interested in, like, learning a chord. So I just took a more noisy approach. This was happening when I was in Denton, Texas, and there were a lot of really great OG noise people there. Being friends with them really encouraged me to be like, ‘Fuck it, make noise, with anything.’

PHOTO CREDIT: Mathew Scott

“That’s actually the whole reason my first band went to New Orleans – to play this festival, but our drummer got arrested and our guitarist hated the bassist, so we couldn’t go and I was hanging out with these noise girls at a bar, crying like, ‘I’ve never done anything outside of Texas!’. I hadn’t like travelled at that point in my life – I was like, 19. And they were like, ‘Fuck it, get a toy drum machine and just write a whole new set.’ And that’s what we did. And we went and played in New Orleans.”

Those early shows, in different bands across the South, clearly mean a lot to Alli. But it’s also obvious that like so many queer people of colour in contemporary America, their experiences were far from uniformly positive; they wince a little when recalling them now.

“In my first band I was really adamant about being like ‘We’re a queer band’, but it completely destroyed me. I had no idea what was going on, and I didn’t understand how my blackness was being fetishised, and it killed my soul. One day, the memoir…” Alli lets out a hollow laugh.

It’s a recurring trauma that continues to this day. At one point in our conversation, I briefly reference an interview with Special Interest from another publication, and their groans come out immediately, in perfect unison.

“The headline [which caricatured the band’s identities and politics with tabloid crudeness] was so embarrassing, it was one tiny thing Maria said at the end…” Alli is still lamenting as I try to steer the interview in another direction. But it’s clear what the issue is: quite correctly, they’re sick of being pigeonholed and caricatured by the mainly white, heterosexual gaze of the music press, and even in supposedly ‘progressive’ publications (or DIY scenes for that matter), they can’t seem to escape its othering tendencies.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mathew Scott

“Nathan hit it the other day: queerness isn’t a sound,” says Alli. “We’re just so clearly part of a queer legacy, and that is something that’s really important, but it doesn’t describe what we sound like at all, so being put under that umbrella doesn’t make sense. But we definitely see ourselves as part of that lineage, and a lot of our art is about being queer and the politics of that; but we don’t need to be lumped in with a lot of [corporate queer culture] stuff, we don’t really have anything to do with that. It goes back to branding. It’s just such bullshit.”

“As homosexuals, we love it when we find out people are gay,” says Maria. “That’s cool and it’s nice to interact with them. It is exciting when there’s a band you like and you see that they’re queer – I get it, I would be pumped on that too.”

Alli nods sympathetically. “Even the bands we played with last night, they’re queer, and we had a great time with them, but we’re not marketing our show as a queer show. I know how important that is to people, and I know how important that was to me – if I saw something labelled as queer, I knew that I could go there. It’s just really frustrating when people do that all the time, just talk about literally who we’re fucking – there’s more to everything than who we’re fucking.”

All four of the band are queer, and they’re visibly tired of their identities being commodified and fetishised in this way. Ruth even fake-protests, “We’re all straight!” as a jokey way of evading the question; yet through their own internal bond, as well as the solidarity they share with other marginalised artists and communities, it seems like they’re finding new ways of at least keeping that shit at arm’s length”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alexis Goss for NME

In an interview from February, NME helped bring the music of Special Interest to British audiences. They already have a big fanbase here, but I think the more press they do, then the more people they add to their army. I hope that they do more gigs over here. At the moment, I think the only U.K. date is Green Man Festival in August. There will be a lot of demand to see more of them, as their music is really starting to turn heads. They are a force that will continue to grow stronger and stronger. Make sure that you investigate the wonder of Special Interest and their stunning music:

“It’s fair to say that into the present, Special Interest continue to reject all things po-faced or solemn, embracing weirdness in all its forms. Instead, they’re heavily influenced by the most raucous, playful strains of punk-rock: alongside the glam-infused T-Rex, the surrealist leanings of art-punks The B-52s, and genre-blurring The Slits, Mascelli pinpoints the anarchic, kazoo-enlisting Swiss trio LiLiPUT (formerly called Kleenex, until lawyers from the tissue company came knocking) as another huge early influence.

The heavy pulse of dance music also courses through their records like a cavernous heartbeat – many of Logout’s lyrics unfold in hidden basements after dark. “Disco, disco, disco, we want disco!” they demand, early on the band’s 2018 debut record ‘Spiralling’. On its successor – 2020’s ‘The Passion Of’ – Special Interest focus even more keenly on their flaming cocktail of desolation and ecstasy, pulling from industrial techno, glam rock, art pop and pulsing four-to-the-floor dance beats. Hitting somewhere between a techno banger and a strange, distorted ripper from an early Kitsuné Music compilation, ‘A Depravity Such As This’ is one such moment that finds its home firmly on the dancefloor.

On ‘Endure’ meanwhile, these increasingly well-honed influences collide with the claustrophobia of the times in which the record was written. “[The pandemic shuttering live music] meant we couldn’t test songs for an audience,” Maria Elena says, “which is what we usually do. It was directly influenced by our emotional state at that moment.”

Despite the backdrop behind creation of ‘Endure’ – the isolation of the pandemic, coupled with Black Lives Matter protests, and the dystopian horrors of the Capitol riots – Logout reckons it’s a record that would’ve resonated whenever it was released. “I feel like this album could have come out at any time,” they say, although “it feels a little different than when we released ‘The Passion Of’, offers Mascelli. “In June 2020, during all the uprisings happening across the US… that album was born out of so many things before, but it really hit at a moment that struck a chord, in a way that feels different. Like Alli was saying, [‘Endure’] could have come out at any time, and resonated”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Allen for Flood Magazine

Get a copy of Endure if you can. I want to end up with one of the many positive reviews for the album. Pitchfork were impressed with what they heard when they sat down to tackle this work of brilliance. I do feel that Special Interest are one of these groups that you simply need in your life, regardless of your musical tastes and preferences. They are going to go a very long way, that is for sure:

“In a big enough mosh pit, the world jostles loose. You enter the pit as one person, and you leave as someone else. The late queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz described this transformation as a portal in his 2009 book Cruising Utopia. “I remember the sexually ambiguous punk clubs of my youth where horny drunk punk boys rehearsed their identities, aggressively dancing with one another and later lurching out, intoxicated, to the parking lot together,” he wrote. “For many of them, the mosh pit was not simply a closet; it was a utopian subcultural rehearsal space.” In the squall of the music, reality starts to split and curl. Through communal, friendly violence, punks build muscle memory of what it’s like to feel unhinged and cared for at the same time. The thrash of bodies clears a channel, however fleeting, into a more survivable life.

Special Interest drill down into that same molten core. Across three ferocious albums, the New Orleans band traces the line where the thirst for a new world meets the rage that torches the old one. Lit up and led by searingly charismatic singer Alli Logout, they call out the stakes of the era as they see them, excoriating gentrifiers, cops, warmongers, and trust-fund art-school kids with keenly tuned sneers. Songs about bracing for revolution brush up against songs about great sex on great drugs. Running on the tireless engine of Ruth Mascelli’s clattering drum machine, they follow in a legacy of queer perturbations from the ’80s and ’90s that include Coil, Frankie Knuckles, and the B-52’s—all of whom, in their own way, worked with the same mix of political dissatisfaction, biting humor, and erotic fantasy. On their third album, Endure, Special Interest push their sound to both its bleakest and its sweetest brinks. Pop, disco, and house all melt into their reliably raucous glam punk, and questions of communal caretaking press against a grief-riddled apocalyptic outlook. This time around, their thorns drip with honey.

Across Endure, Special Interest embellish the cornerstones they established on 2018’s Spiralling and 2020’s The Passion Of with gestures that wouldn’t sound out of place on ’90s radio. The after-dark sounds of house and techno started spilling onto commercial daytime airwaves toward the end of the last millennium, many of them drifting onto the Top 40 from overseas in the pan-flash genre called Eurodance. Logout stretches into certain vocal timbres and minor-key intervals that echo the perfect, ephemeral dance pop of a group like La Bouche, while behind their voice, delicate piano lines fringe the band’s hard-driving foundation. These shifts clear more air around Special Interest’s sound. While certain moments still feel immediate and unignorable, others seem to waft out from a club’s open back door, beckoning passersby to come take a closer look.

The album’s most compelling songs use both strategies in tandem. They invite you to wander in of your own accord, then enclose you inside a fever pitch. On the rollicking dance track “(Herman’s) House,” Special Interest forge an incandescent call to anger out of a surging hook. The song shares its name with a 2012 documentary about the imaginative collaboration between artist Jackie Sumell and activist Herman Wallace, a member of the Black Panther Party who spent 41 years in solitary confinement after serving a life sentence for a murder he denied committing. From his tiny cell, Wallace described his dream house to Sumell, who rendered it via computer graphics and as a tabletop model. In 2013, Wallace finally stepped out of prison, then died of cancer three days later. Sumell made plans to build the house he described to her as a youth community center in New Orleans, but property developers bought the proposed land out from under her.

Special Interest began writing Endure in the middle of 2020, in the wake of uprisings against police killings that stirred cities around the world. Across the insistent drumbeat spikes of “Concerning Peace,” the band bemoans the whittling down of those revolutionary impulses into a neoliberal mold of nonviolent personal enrichment: “Liberal erasure of militant uprising is a tool of corporate interest and a failure of imagination,” goes a call-out line reminiscent of the interjections on System of a Down’s “Prison Song.” Over Maria Elena’s frothing, sidelong guitar chords, the band’s voices come together for the chant-along chorus, where they collectively quote the Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael: “We are not concerned with peace/Peace is not of our concern.” Power disguises its own violence as the natural order of things; to call for violence in retaliation clarifies the terms of a smiling oppressor. “No one will ever rest in peace/When their value is less than property,” Logout seethes, pillorying commentators who expressed more concern over broken store windows than the lives of Black people killed by police.

Amid calls to destroy every kind of cage, Special Interest stay attuned to what might sprout from the ashes. The music video for “Midnight Legend,” a sweetly melodic dance track whose single version features a verse from Mykki Blanco, follows a group of clubgoers through a messy night out. They flip off a handsy bouncer, ingest a few too many drugs, argue with exasperated bartenders, and get kicked out of the bathroom in the middle of a gay threesome. This club houses little of the utopia the dancefloor can sometimes tease; all night, it plays host to low-grade, aggravating conflict. Then the dancers spill out into the morning light. As passersby hustle their way to work, three of the clubgoers sync up for an impromptu dance routine. The people who have just woken up scowl at those who have been up all night. But the dancers look at each other and beam. Their movements reassure each other that they have each other’s backs even if no one else does. Under the new sun, they practice another world inside the cracks of this one”.

Go and follow Special Interest and keep an eye on them. I discovered them last year, but I have been hooked on them ever since. I suspect that there will be more U.K. dates soon, but they are very busy and taking their music around the world. This American quartet are…

SIMPLY amazing.

___________

Follow Special Interest

Official:

https://specialinterest.band/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/specialinterest.no/

Bandcamp:

https://specialinterestno.bandcamp.com/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2CYTLJOt91YLe1JLStFu6m

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwFIV3kP_R_P7OX7c7o9N4A

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/specialinterestmusic/

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Breathing at Forty-Three: A Reason Why People Should Not Overlook Never for Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Breathing at Forty-Three

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of the Breathing music video/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

A Reason Why People Should Not Overlook Never for Ever

_________

I know that the title track…

from The Red Shoes has an anniversary before this song (it was released on 4th April, 1994), but there is not a lot of information about the single out there. I might come to that when I look at The Red Shoes album nearer its thirtieth anniversary in November. Another song that has its anniversary this month is Breathing. Taken from the mighty third studio album from Kate Bush, Never for Ever, it boasts some of her finest production (she co-produced it with Jon Kelly), songwriting and vocals. Released on 14th April 1980, this is a song I have written about a few times before. I think that this was the most accomplished and symphonic track Bush wrote to that point. One can listen to Breathing and look ahead to Hounds of Love and some of the tracks from the conceptual suite, The Ninth Wave. I have argued before why Babooshka wasn’t the lead single from Never for Ever. It is more commercial and would chart higher (five to Breathing’s sixteen), but Bush was quite deliberate I think in that choice. Criticised and almost written off in interviews before recording Never for Ever as she was not seen as political or serious, there was a conscious effort to bring politics into her music. Whilst it, luckily, did not dominate albums like Never for Ever, it continues through 1982’s The Dreaming with songs like Pull Out the Pin. Breathing was a signal that she was venturing into new territory and, for those who doubted her credentials and the fact that shows was a serious musician, this song left no minds in doubt!

I think it was journalists like Danny Baker who scoffed slightly and wrote her off as a hippy or someone who was writing weird songs with no real depth or social conscience. To be fair, Bush was writing in a hugely original way. By 1979/1980, Punk was not as potent a force as it once was, and I feel many were clinging onto it desperately and expected all artists to write political songs. Even if the nation was under Conservative rule at the time (with Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister), female artists like Bush could not be expected to fit into the old boys’ club in terms of expectation, image, and sound. Breathing was very much Bush showing that she was conscious and caring. Delivering something far more arresting and interesting than the far too boring, direct, and unsophisticated music from the Punk scene, Breathing is almost operatic and Progressive Rock. It also features one of her most startling and memorable music videos. Before continuing, this is what Bush said about Breathing and where the idea came from:

“When I wrote the song, it was from such a personal viewpoint. It was just through having heard a thing for years without it ever having got through to me. 'Til the moment it hit me, I hadn't really been moved. Then I suddenly realised the whole devastation and disgusting arrogance of it all. Trying to destroy something that we've not created - the earth. The only thing we are is a breathing mechanism: everything is breathing. Without it we're just nothing. All we've got is our lives, and I was worried that when people heard it they were going to think, 'She's exploiting commercially this terribly real thing.' I was very worried that people weren't going to take me from my emotional standpoint rather than the commercial one. But they did, which is great. I was worried that people wouldn't want to worry about it because it's so real. I was also worried that it was too negative, but I do feel that there is hope in the whole thing, just for the fact that it's a message from the future. It's not from now, it's from a spirit that may exist in the future, a non-existent spiritual embryo who sees all and who's been round time and time again so they know what the world's all about. This time they don't want to come out, because they know they're not going to live. It's almost like the mother's stomach is a big window that's like a cinema screen, and they're seeing all this terrible chaos. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980).

From my own viewpoint that's the best thing I've ever written. It's the best thing I've ever produced. I call that my little symphony, because I think every writer, whether they admit it or not, loves the idea of writing their own symphony. The song says something real for me, whereas many of the others haven't quite got to the level that I would like them to reach, though they're trying to. Often it's because the song won't allow it, and that song allowed everything that I wanted to be done to it. That track was easy to build up. Although it had to be huge, it was just speaking - saying what had to be put on it. In many ways, I think the most exciting thing was making the backing track. The session men had their lines, they understood what the song was about, but at first there was no emotion, and that track was demanding so much emotion. It wasn't until they actually played with feeling that the whole thing took off. When we went and listened, I wanted to cry, because of what they had put into it. It was so tender. It meant a lot to me that they had put in as much as they could, because it must get hard for session guys. They get paid by the hour, and so many people don't want to hear the emotion. They want clear, perfect tuning, a 'good sound'; but often the out-of-tuneness, the uncleanliness, doesn't matter as much as the emotional content that's in there. I think that's much more important than the technicalities. (Kris Needs, 'Fire In The Bush'. Zigzag (UK), 1980)”.

There are a lot of reasons why Never for Ever should not be overlooked. Breathing was a first shot of brilliance from a ten-track album with no filler. Bush was co-producing for the first time, and I feel that she was eager to show her true depth and range. The fact that singles like Breathing and Babooshka had original B-sides rather than other album tracks. Breathing has the brilliantly original The Empty Bullring as the B-side, whereas Babooshka featured the quirky and risqué Ran Tan Waltz. I have written before how there was such a great atmosphere in the studio when recording Never for Ever. As producer, Bush made sure there was plenty of fun. It was a laugh most of the time. Takes and days would often go into the night, as there was this great environment and connection between the musicians. I think it is the first album where she was truly making music with the people she wanted and thew way that suited her. If she has since said that it was not until Hounds of Love when she was fully ‘her’ and pleased with what she was recording, Never for Ever is a terrific album. Breathing is forty-four on 14th April, and I wanted to celebrate that. The first single and final track from Never for Ever, I love the fact the lead single was the album’s swansong! That does not happen often. Another political song, Army Dreamers, would be the third single (released in September 1980). It is interesting that Army Dreamers is track nine and Breathing is track ten.

I guess the epic Breathing just had to end the album, but the two more political songs are at the end. This was not to hide them away. Quite the opposite. It was ending it with a high and real potency. To ensure that the listeners was intrigued what came next. The Dreaming arrived two years later and took a lot of people by surprise with its experimental and dense sound and production. It is a real shame there are not photos from inside the studio when Never for Ever was being recorded. No real footage of that process happening. I can imagine how keen Bush was to ensure the production and process was very much to her liking. Exacting more than a perfectionist, I also feel that Never for Ever beautifully balances experimentation and accessibility. There are more commercial tracks like Babooshka and even Army Dreamers with darker tracks such as Breathing or Violin. The strangeness and beauty of The Infant Kiss alongside the propulsive Violin, gorgeous Delius (Song for Summer), The Tour of Life-connected Blow Away (For Bill) – a track written in tribute to lighting assistant Bill Duffield, who died in a tragic accident after the warm-up gig for Bush’s tour -, right through to the majestic and hugely underplayed The Wedding List.

Songs like The Wedding List and All We Ever Look for could have been successful singles. The bridge track, Night Scented Stock, is a tantalising snippet that links The Infant Kiss and Army Dreamers. So much to enjoy and revel in, I think that Never for Ever remains underrated and under-explored. If radio stations play anything from the album, it is usually Babooshka. There are at least five or six tracks from the album almost never played or extremely rarely. Only twenty-one when Never for Ever was recorded, it came into the world in September 1980. At the start of Bush’s most successful decade, she put into this world a phenomenal album that sounds so freeing and liberated. An artist truly expressing herself without other producers in the mix. Yes, there was Jon Kelly, but as they were pretty much the same age, there was more of an easy connection. Breathing is forty-four very soon, so I wanted to salute that song and also shout out to Never for Ever. It is an album that…

EVERYONE needs to hear.

FEATURE: Don’t Take It Personal: Ellie Goulding’s Higher Than Heaven, and Escapist, Joyous Pop

FEATURE:

 

 

Don’t Take It Personal

IN THIS PHOTO: Ellie Goulding/PHOTO CREDIT: Nathan Jenkins

Ellie Goulding’s Higher Than Heaven, and Escapist, Joyous Pop

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NOT that it has always been the way…

but Pop music has become more open and personal over the past few years. That might seem like a generalisation, but I do feel more depth and vulnerability has come into the scene. This is needed, but I do think that there is something important about putting out joyous, simple, and impersonal Pop. Not that this applies to all artists but, if they have a child or go through a big event, eyes are on them to release something personal and emotional. Pop music at the moment has a lot of variety, so there is no judgement and expectation now for everything to be revealing and inward-looking. When Ellie Goulding announced her fifth studio album, Higher Than Heaven, people might have expected something that was very personal. Since 2020’s Brightest Blue – an album I recently featured – was released, she has given birth and gone through a lot of life changes. The pandemic has happened too - so you might have got an album that was quite mushy, dark, emotive, and cliché. There is nothing wrong with artists documenting struggles and personal fulfilment, but it can be quite serious and loses a lot of what makes Pop special. You can have fun and escapist Pop that has personal elements and depth (I am thinking of albums like Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia and Charli XCX’s CRASH). The press have been very positive towards Higher Than Heaven. Goulding wonderfully revealed that her fifth is her least personal album. After the terror and struggle of the pandemic, she wanted to put out something that was fun and brings people together.

I am seeing a lot of well deserved four-star reviews for the album. I recently wrote how BBC Radio 1 have taken artists like Ellie Goulding off of the playlist. She is featured as a collaborator, but I do hope that she is back on the playlists as a solo artist, seeing as her latest album has a sound and vibe that is very cool and fits perfectly on BBC Radio 1 – though there is a chance that it may struggle to get into the mix. As of the date of writing this (7th April), she is not there as a solo artist, though other great female artists like Caity Baser, Lizzo and Lana Del Rey are included. I reacted to a report that artists like Ellie Goulding, and Rita Ora were being taken off of the playlist because they are seen as ‘too old’. BBC Radio 1 does feature female artists over thirty on their playlists. Lana Del Rey, and Lizzo as solo artists, and the leads of CHVRCHES, and Paramore are too. I am not saying they are ageist against all women but, if it is true that a few were seen as out of fashion or less relevant because of their age, then that is a damaging and concerning policy. In any case, Goulding warrants a place back on the playlists as a solo artist. I am going to expand more on escapist Pop. First, it is worth highlighting Higher Than Heaven. The Guardian reacted to Goulding’s declaration that Higher Than Heaven is her least personal release:

“Saying your new album is your “most personal yet” is the oldest pop cliche in the book. It’s an easy – or lazy – way to say that fans should be invested in your next record without telling them why, exactly; a tease that buying a copy of the album will get them ever-so-much-closer to the inside of their favourite star’s head. It’s a line used by the media as much as by stars themselves; a cursory Google of “most personal album yet” will bring up examples ranging from Adele to Stormzy to Post Malone. Sometimes, the descriptor is accurate – I would say that Lana Del Rey’s new album actually is her most personal yet – but often it’s what you deploy when you have nothing else interesting to say.

That’s why it was so charming when, at a Q&A earlier this week, British pop singer Ellie Goulding went on record to say that her forthcoming album Higher Than Heaven was her “least personal” album ever. “In the best possible way, this album wasn’t taken from personal experiences, and it was such a relief and really refreshing to not be sitting in the studio going through all the things that happened to me and affected me,” she said. “It’s the least personal album, but I think it’s the best album because I got to just explore other things about myself. I just really, really enjoy writing; really enjoy being a singer.”

This is a funny and knowing comment from someone who’s been through enough promotion cycles to recognise hoary pop cliches. It’s a breath of fresh air because, now more than ever, singles are treated like marketing tools for personal celebrity – commentaries that only really work in tandem with a media narrative”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Madison Phipps

I am going to come to a review for Higher Than Heaven. First, Rolling Stone interviewed Goulding to promote the album. It has been a couple of years of change and transformation for her. Higher Than Heaven is very different to 2020’s Brightest Blue. I do like the fact that, when many might have felt she would be more personal and awe-struck on her new album, there is a sense of frivolity, togetherness, abandon, and fun – almost like a return to her earliest days:

“This album process was a lot different from the last one. You mentioned before that you still didn’t know who you were with Brightest Blue. Have you finally found who Ellie Goulding truly is?

No, and I think I will never know, and I think that’s just how I am. We’re always striving to figure out who we are and figure things out through writing and through music… So no, I don’t think I do. But I’m happy in that place. I’m happy being in a place of curiosity and exploration.

I’m always searching for that. I definitely know myself a lot better now than the person I was when I was 20 years old signing a record deal and a publishing deal, suddenly thrust onto television in the UK, normalizing it. I’m meant to be doing this. But actually, my brain saying, “No you’re not. This is just mental. You can’t just go from university to suddenly just being on television, walking out my house being photographed. That’s not normal.” I didn’t ever really have a chance to process that. So the lead-up to Brightest Blue, I wandered around New York by myself for hours just thinking about everything that happened to me.

At least in that way, I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself a bit better. Maybe at some point I’ll know, but right now I don’t know what’s going on and I’m happy with that.

Finding yourself is a lifelong process. This new album just shows a very joyous and fun you though, which is very exciting.

There’s certainly something about becoming a mom that does make you explore yourself as a woman, even sexuality and all those things. I do feel like before I had Arthur — this sounds really strange, but I didn’t feel necessarily womanly. I just felt like a human that was going on stage and performing and I didn’t necessarily feel feminine or masculine. And then when you have a kid, there was something that just gets injected into you that suddenly you’re just this kind of power.

You just take this to another level of being a woman, realizing that you’ve just done this insane thing and then given birth to another human. That’s wild. Before that, I didn’t necessarily feel that kind of pull. And then on this album, I feel like there was a new kind of confidence there, in being a woman and sensuality.

Sabrina Carpenter sings, “Tell me who I am because I don’t have a choice,” referring to the tabloid headlines about her own life. I feel like that’s something that you’ve had to deal with too. Looking back at that now, how do you think you were able to grapple with that and find yourself after that?

“Tell me who I am because I don’t have a choice.” Yeah. British press likes a story. They sort of delve into your personal life. It’s like a fascination. You can sell millions of records, which I have, and they still focus on the other things that aren’t necessarily that relevant. But you know what, they have been sort of kind to me, so I can’t really complain too much. But you get really tempted to be influenced by other people’s sort of interpretation of who you are, what their perception of you is, their opinion on what you look like.

I think that the most shocking thing for me at the beginning was how much people cared about your physical appearance: your weight, your hair, your clothes, and also your opinion on things.

It was kind of a case of, “We don’t need your opinion, stick to what you’re good at kind of thing.” And at the same time, “Why haven’t you spoken up about this?” It was just like, I can’t win. I was not prepared to be scrutinized in that way. And I think the thing that has always kept me going is that I never got lost in that. I continued to, from the very beginning, play live shows, and play festivals, the things that kept me grounded. I could just escape that stuff”.

Despite the fact that Higher Than Heaven might feature more on BBC Radio 2 than 1 (or BBC Radio 6 Music) is their loss. The fact is that the album has been winning terrific reviews across the board. It is Pop music of the highest order. This is what The Line of Best Fit had to say about Ellie Goulding’s fifth studio album:

“Higher Than Heaven keeps it refreshingly simple. After 2015’s excellent but lengthy Delirium, 2020’s Brightest Blue tried to be too smart and walked away with a noticeable lack of exciting songs. Goulding’s newest effort goes in the opposite way – there’s rarely a moment to relax amidst the shimmering synths and electric vocal performances. In a bit of irony, the album’s finest moment might actually be one of its most low-key: the glossy vocal performance of “Love Goes On” and its brooding, hypnotic background instrumentation mixes to a dazzling, momentous effect.

But oh, the bops. In this category, Higher Than Heaven more than delivers. The album opens with a one-two punch – “Midnight Dreams” is a slick disco track, and “Cure For Love”’s playful and catchy chorus sings of self-preservation after a breakup: “Given too much, didn’t get enough / Sick but I’m getting started.” The bass on both “Like A Savior” and “Let It Die” is so nasty and propulsive, something that could have been pulled out of The Weeknd’s catalog, and the title track “Higher Than Heaven,” fittingly, reaches new heights vocally.

There are some times when it’s clear the songwriting wasn’t a priority, and the instrumental isn’t enough to bolster the song. The near-monotone delivery on the chorus of “By The End Of The Night” doesn’t pair well with ideas that sound plucked straight out of 2015, and album closer “How Long” introduces an unwelcome trap beat that doesn’t make sense with the rest of the album.

Ellie Goulding has successfully recalibrated and offers a fun, high-energy dance record with her latest offering. There was a rumour, now debunked, that the lyrics to the album were AI-generated; but if it were true, would it really matter? Higher Than Heaven is pure candy floss in the best way – little substance, but the sugar rush is so immaculate it ends up not mattering”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jorge Fakhouri Filho/Pexels

I am going to wrap up soon. I wanted to react to the acclaim around Ellie Goulding’s Higher Than Heaven. It does go to show how people react to Pop that doesn’t necessarily have to be deep, personal, and overly-emotive. There is definitely a place for that, but it is nice to hear an album whose objective seem to be to raise the spirits and get people dancing. Goulding brilliantly had to state that Higher Than Heaven was her least personal album, as I feel there would have been expectation for it to not be. Maybe she will return to a more personal course for her next album but, with new motherhood part of her life, why wouldn’t her new album be joyous?! There is some great and fun Pop out there, and I do hope that this continues. It is good to escape and have music that doesn’t have to be serious or revealing. At a very difficult time for all of us, we will gravitate towards music that has more of a smile and sense of urgency. Compared to past decades, Pop has lost a certain prolificacy of joy and escapism. Maybe that is good in some ways, but it does take away an element of fun and celebration. Let’s hope more artists such as Ellie Goulding refute the need to be personal all of the time and make Pop music that embraces us all. There is a distinct need for Higher Than Heaven and escapist Pop. That is pretty evident in the…

FANTASTIC reviews!

INTERVIEW: Malissa Whitehouse

INTERVIEW:

Malissa Whitehouse

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IT has been a pleasure…

speaking with an incredible British artist who is thriving in America. The amazing Malissa Whitehouse has been talking to me about her amazing and hugely captivating single, Simple, and what inspired it. I also ask whether we might get more new material later in the year, when music came into her life, and what it was like being signed at such a young age. Whitehouse tells me about some amazing opportunities and recent projects she is involved with in America, and the fact that she is working on a T.V. comedy. A truly inspiring and wonderful artist that everyone should follow and know more about, I hope that we get to see Malissa Whitehouse hitting the stage in the U.K. soon enough. I am really hooked on Simple, and I am really excited to hear what comes next. This is a major talent that needs to be…

IN your life.

____________

Hi Malissa. How are you? How has your week been?

I’m really well, thanks Sam. It’s been a fabulous week working on the promo for my third solo single, Simple. I had a worldwide launch, and I have been busy with radio and press interviews the past few days. I was fortunate to have great coverage in the U.K. and Europe, as well as a U.S. premier on WSDI Radio in Chicago, L.A., and N.Y. This then led to a feature on Sports Byline USA, one of the biggest sports channels Stateside, along with a podcast from Nashville on Story and Song with Susan Gabrielle. It has been amazing to have such great support as an English artist in the U.S.

Looking back at 2022, what would you say your personal highlights were?

I think to have my first two solo singles released, Dear Diary and Wine & Roses, was a major highlight, especially when my second single achieved over 150k views on YouTube. That was a big achievement as an independent artist growing organically with no major labels. This led to me achieving five singles of the week on national radio stations in the U.K. and Europe, and an offer of a co-host on a radio show with on-air celebrity Steve Benz for a show called OutLoud in the U.S. This show launched on 4th July (Independence Day) last year, and it has been syndicated worldwide to over forty-five stations. This has been a dream come true.

“Secondary school was a turning point for me, as I took music GCSE and started to write my first songs”.

How early did music come into your life? Which artists and albums struck you at an early age?

Music was in my life from the beginning. My house was always filled with music, as my mum loved Motown and would always have the radio on. Secondary school was a turning point for me, as I took music GCSE and started to write my first songs. That lead to me entering a competition for Songwriter of the Year, in conjunction with Capital Radio, Coca-Cola and The Evening Standard. Out of 10,000+ writers, I came second. Disappointed as I was so close to first place, but a great driver for my tenacious nature to become a successful singer-songwriter.

I know you signed your first management deal as a singer-songwriter aged sixteen. What was it like being signed at such a young age? How much flexibility did you have in terms of your career direction?

My first signing was a big learning curve as I was so young. This was short-lived, as I only stayed with the management for around a year and was talent-spotted by a famous music manager who wanted me to front a new female Indie-Pop group. That lead to great opportunities and touring around the U.K. with established top-20 acts that were in the charts. As far as direction, it started off really well, then as the group started to make progress there were more pressures with creative works and image. In honesty it wasn’t really me, hence my departure - which lead me to working with the in-house producer Tony Matthew at Soul II Soul studios in London.

Simple is your recent single. What was the inspiration behind the song?

The works of Dear Diary and Wine & Roses were very storytelling, and Simple was a progression of these singles. The simplicity of the track about finding your way in life through relationships and how the right person can gravitate towards you without you searching. The inspiration was really like a diary of emotional entries to take the audience and listener on the journey.

I really love the music video for it. Can you tell us what the shoot was like?

The video was put together over a six-month period, as I was travelling back and forth to the States. I went to Nashville and that inspired me immensely, as it’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit as a singer-songwriter. Different footage was put together over that period, and we had some amazing cinematic aerial shots of Music City. I put the whole video together and worked with an editorial video specialist to get the cut. I fell in love with the organic feel of the video and Rock edge, but the running horses and open space shots really do lend themselves to the drama and intent of the song.

I have recently written a feature that highlighted how some female artists have been taken off the BBC Radio 1 playlists because they are over thirty. Do you think there are some radio stations that are prejudiced against women when it comes to age and how ‘relevant’ they are seen as?

I haven’t experienced this personally, as the radio support I’ve had worldwide has been amazing. I feel radio stations are under immense pressure to reach big audiences, and sometime decisions are made on RAJAR results to meet demographics and listener targets. That would affect who makes the playlist. It is a concern to hear that woman over thirty are being taken off, as some of the best artists we have are in that category and above and have been making worldwide hits for decades!

“I can’t wait for that moment to reconnect with my audience”.

Just on a slight tangent, we both share a love of comedy. As I am working on comedy ideas myself, I have to ask how you got interested in it, and is there a relationship between your music and comedy?

I wrote my first T.V. comedy pilot pre-COVID and was fortunate enough to have this funded and filmed with a celebrity cast. The show has a strong connection with music, and opened a big door for me with the soundtrack, which has been great fun to write. After the impact of COVID we are only just reviewing the project again, but I hope to make developments over the coming months. It is semi-autobiographical; about my journey into music.

What does the rest of this year hold in terms of new music? Might we see an E.P. or new singles?

I have started an album of works with producer Kevin Hughes. We are very excited as the next single is already in production. As for an album or E.P., that will really depend on progression of works for the T.V. show and timings. I would love to support or get some gigs in towards the end of the year, as lots of people have reached out and want to see me live. I can’t wait for that moment to reconnect with my audience.

Finally, and for being a good sport, you can select any song (from another artist) and I will play it here.

I was always a huge fan of Kate Bush, and I had the pleasure of studying my music GCSE in London with her nephew William Bush (who was in my class). Kate came from my hometown of Eltham, London, so I would definitely say Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) from the Hounds of Love album was a firm favourite.

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