Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 19 November 2021.
Walk Like Me is the outcome of a period of extreme personal evolution for Robert DeLong. After ending a nearly 10-year long relationship, he took the time to re-explore who he is musically, spiritually, interpersonally, and lyrically. Half of the songs were written with an array of Robert’s different musical friends, including Ashe, Lights, Sir Sly, K.Flay, Tim Pagnotta, Fast Friends, and countless others and then were produced and mixed in his home studio over the darkest days of the pandemic. The other half were almost entirely written, produced, and mixed by Robert. The result is an album detailing the journey of self-discovery.
“Arvo Pärt’s music takes us from darkness to light,” says Renaud Capuçon. “It looks relatively simple on paper, but each note needs to have its own life as it undergoes change. This music is not just relaxing – it has a depth and drama.” In 2021 Capuçon becomes Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. His first recording with the ensemble is devoted to the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and among the eight works on the album are Spiegel im Spiegel, Tabula Rasa and Silouan’s Song.
Fleeing from the group gulag after 29 years of maintaining sweet failure at all costs with his group Comet Gain, songwriter and singer David Christian (sometimes known as Feck) decided to make a solo record. The LP For Those We Met On The Way was made in the French countryside on a farm owned by Mike and Allison Targett of Heist fame. Along with old comrade and drummer Cosmic Neman (Zombie/Zombie) they cut the record while cows grazed with Mike producing and both Targetts adding vocals and piano. Then later, the group of friends known as The Pinecone Orchestra; James Horsey and Alasdair MacLean (The Clientele), Ben Phillipson (18th Day Of May/Trimdon Grange Explosion/Comet Gain), Gerry Love (Teenage Fan Club/Lightships), Anne-Laure Guillain (Comet Gain/Cinema Red And Blue) and Joe-Harvey Whyte (Hanging Stars) coloured everything in with guitars, vocals, bass and pedal steel.
Trailblazing UK jazz renegade, saxophonist Sean Khan delivers his scintillating new album Supreme Love: a Journey Through Coltrane on BBE Music. Weaving together disparate strands of the UK music scene (jazz, dance, broken beat and electronic) together onto one record, Supreme Love is presented in three parts: autobiography, homage and encyclopaedia. A pioneer of the Broken Beat movement early in the new millennium, working with Omar, Bugz in the Attic and 4hero among others, Khan enlisted the input of two old friends, Kaidi Tatham and Daz I Kue, who each contribute a future-minded yet reverential sense of originality to the album.
Mixed by Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris, ‘@0’ is a compilation featuiring new recordings from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Skee Mask, Laraaji and many more. The release also includes new compositions and remixes of music by Imogen Heap, James Heather, Specimens, Nailah Hunter, Coldcut and more. Ninja Tune will be donating their share (50% of net receipts) to three charities: CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), Mind and Black Minds Matter.
Inspired by a love of artists such as Bill Evans, Lester Young, Chet Baker and Vince Guaraldi, Dustin Payseur reimagines some of his greatest hits from the Beach Fossils catalogue alongside a group of formally trained jazz musicians. A rich and mellow mix of piano, saxophone, upright bass and brushed drums explore the contours of familiar songs, soaring Payseur’s melancholic harmonies to new heights.
Being in a band is like being in a marriage: sometimes it’s magical, sometimes it’s unbearably challenging. To reinvigorate that marriage, Deap Vally have made their third album a genre-bending experiment with new collaborators and instrumentation that push the limits of what has previously defined the duo – Marriage is their musical Rumspringa, if you will. The album sees Julie and Lindsey break free of the rigid creative constraints within which they previously existed (two members, two instruments, two voices) and invite in collaborators such as KT Tunstall, Peaches, Jennie Vee and jennylee, as well as a range of producers including Allen Salmon, Josiah Mazzaschi and Harvey Mason Jr.
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- New music round-up (for w/e 17 December 2021)
- New music round-up (for w/e 26 November 2021)
- New music round-up (for w/e 11 June 2021)
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television