The The – Ensoulment (2xlp, Black vinyl, 32 page booklet)
David Gilmour – Luck And Strange (Black vinyl)
Jon Spencer – Sick of Being Sick (2500 Ltd edition, Clear vinyl)
Various Artists – Soul Jazz Presents, Studio One Soul 2 (2xlp, Yellow vinyl)
The The – Ensoulment
The The’s first studio album of new songs in a quarter century! The 12 songs on Ensoulment encompasses characteristic topics ranging from love and sex, war and politics, life & death – to the meaning of what it is to be human in the 21st century.
Singer-songwriter Matt Johnson is joined by long-standing The The members James Eller (bass), DC Collard (keyboards), Earl Harvin (drums), and Barrie Cadogan (lead guitar). The album also marks the return of co-producer and engineer Warne Livesey, who previously worked on landmark The The albums Infected (1986) and Mind Bomb (1989). Additional performances include Gillian Glover (backing vocals), Terry Edwards (horns), Sonya Cullingford (fiddle) and Danny Cummings (percussion).
David Gilmour – Luck And Strange
The brand-new album by David Gilmour, Luck and Strange was recorded over five months in Brighton and London and is Gilmour’s first album of new material in nine years. The record was produced by David and Charlie Andrew, best known for his work with ALT-J and Marika Hackman, with lyrics mostly written by Polly Samson, Gilmour’s co-writer for the past thirty years. The album features eight new tracks along with a beautiful reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’, which sees Romany Gilmour, who performs backing vocals across the album, on vocals and harp. Musicians contributing to the record include Guy Pratt and Tom Herbert on bass, Adam Betts, Steve Gadd and Steve DiStanislao on drums, Rob Gentry and Roger Eno on keyboards and the string and choral arrangements are by Will Gardner. The title track also features the late Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright, recorded in 2007 during a ‘Barn Jam’ at David’s house. The album’s cover image, photographed and designed by renowned artist Anton Corbijn, is inspired by lyrics written by Charlie Gilmour for the album’s final song ‘Scattered’.
Jon Spencer – Sick of Being Sick
Jon Spencer teams up with Kendall Wind and Macky Spider
Bowman – the rhythm section from Woodstock NY punk
rock wunderkind The Bobby Lees – to chew bubblegum and
kick ass.
Two years after “Spencer Gets It Lit” (Marc Riley’s BBC6
Music Album of the Year, “hugely entertaining”* MOJO, “a sonic witchdoctor who’ll blow your mind” UNCUT*)
there is still more work to be done saving rock’n’roll music.
Jon Spencer has been innovative force in the independent
music scene since the mid-80s. An acclaimed live
performer, he has toured all the continents except
Antarctica and has amassed a dizzying discography as the
leader of Pussy Galore, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion,
Heavy Trash, and Jon Spencer & the HITmakers, as well as
with Boss Hog, The Honeymoon Killers, The Gibson
Brothers, and Taxi Girls.
Various Artists – Soul Jazz Presents, Studio One Soul 2
Studio One Soul 2 takes us further into Jamaican musics fascination with american soul and funk music. Featuring a host of classic reggae artists – Horace Andy, the Heptones, Ken Boothe, Jackie Mittoo, Jacob Miller and many more covering equally classic american soul and funk tunes by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, the Five Stairsteps, Marvin Gaye, the Stylistics, Lee Dorsey, Al Green and Syl Johnson. Studio One Soul 2 will appeal as much as an introduction to classic reggae as to connoisseurs as another essential studio one release.
