Some amazing new adventures in sonic production, from your Nashville players to your savage electric hurdy-gurdy drones.
The Purple Bird is the latest studio set from HRH Bonnie “Prince” Billy and it really is sublime. The album was recorded in Nashville with David "Ferg" Ferguson (only the second time Will Oldham has worked with a producer across his illustrious BPB catalogue) and it is just so full of grace. Very much one for the Country heads, with singer John Anderson and Bluegrass legend Tim O'Brien backing him to quite amazing effect. Whisper it, but his voice might never have sounded quite so sublime.
+ Available on limited Exclusive Purple colour vinyl.
We have something pretty special (and super limited) next via International Anthem Recording Co. Chicago-based musician and educator Damon Locks has gathered together spoken and text-based work and created a really amazing listening experience with List Of Demands. It has a poetic flow, it has some really wild sonic experimentalism and it has such a rap collage aesthetic to the production. Really quite stunning stuff.
Okay okay, are you ready for the Renascence? We have the first new material in years from legendary British funk and R&B band, Cymande. It takes a lot of cues from their amazing early seventies, three-album run of Cymande, Second Time Round and Promised Heights, but guests including Soul II Soul’s Jazzie B, and a couple of ballads with guest vocalist Celeste keep it moving somewhere new. Had it on a few times already and enjoying the old tones and the new tones a lot, with the squelching ‘Chasing An Empty Dream’ really ticking the Drift boxes.
+ Available on Transparent Coral colour vinyl.
Eddie Chacon continues his second career album run with the excellent Lay Low on Stones Throw Records. His voice is so, so good, but the weirder hazy production routes (with Nick Hakim) are what makes this one stand out especially.
+ Exclusive Blue Smoke colour vinyl.
A full six years after their critically acclaimed second album Kingdoms in Colour, Hertfordshire duo Maribou State return with their third full-length album, Hallucinating Love on Ninja Tune. Some serious sundown epics, we just need a little flash of sunshine now.
+ Available on recycled colour vinyl.
Freckle is the self-titled debut from duo Ty Segall and Corey Madden. Acoustic and quite rootsy jams, up to more psychedelic bubblers. Naturally it’s very us, but as it’s so ludicrously limited, we won’t fire off the full Ty confetti cannon. Sounds new and not-new concurrently. Just get in quick!

Also this week; Decius - a maximus of a supergroup including Fat White Family and Warmduscher) release Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience) via The Leaf Label. "Sleepy” Doug Shaw (D.S) and Brian Weitz (Animal Collective’s Geologist) collaborate on the cerebral A Shaw Deal which really does float right off over the sonic frontier. New York psych-rock trio Prison return with extra guests for the mega-jam Downstate and it is a right gnarler! This is how the week started if you were wondering, a high stereo experience. Barcelona-born and South London-based producer Eterna releases Debunker and this is another quite brilliant bit of production. So much of this week literally sounds amazing.
So then, lastly this week (and to be totally honest, there ain’t nothing getting this off the stereo right now), we have Destino Scifosi from legendary hurdy-gurdy-powered kraut/psych/folk/drone band France. A good live concert captures the performance and the energy, this LP manages to capture the scale of the vibe. Amazing stuff.
Enjoy your listening!