Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

20th February 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

The Courettes – Talking About My Baby

They’re an electrifying garage rocking duo with an irresistible sixties pop sheen and style who head this way in April for a week of dates, buzzing their way down from Glasgow to Portsmouth also crashing in on London, Manchester and Newcastle. Check out this recent single released on Damaged Goods for a taster…

Jeff & Spencer Tweedy – Venus

A day after the sad passing of Television’s Tom Verlaine, Wilco’s main man and son shared this beautifully played cover of the track from the classic 1977 ‘Marquee Moon’ debut album and as Jeff testifies at the end of this clip, Verlaine “changed a lot of the way I look at writing songs and that’s a perfect song”…

Joanne Shaw Taylor – Just No Getting Over You (Dream Cruise)

By now Joanna is established as the real deal in terms of plugged in blues riffing excitement but her late 2022 album ‘Nobody’s Fool’ positively fizzed with the potential to push on to a far wider audience; happily that did not mean sacrificing two key elements, namely great songs and playing them like you mean it. For a glimpse of undiluted conviction watch this…

James Yorkston, Nina Persson & The Secondhand Orchestra – The Harmony

A track from this collective’s recent album ‘The Great White Sea Eagle’ released on Domino; it is not as if James Yorkston needed a lift, his 21st century folk music has been a dependable place to go for at least two decades that I can recall but listening to this musical pairing it does occur that Nina Persson’s voice can elevate absolutely anything she performs…

Marlon Williams – Easy Does It

Not all audience shot live clips posted on the internet are worth bothering with but occasionally you get one like this, captured with a clear picture and passable sound from the front and it gives a nice little taste of a live tour maybe you were unable to catch, in this case Marlon from late 2022 playing a tune off his latest ‘My Boy’ album…

Jonah Yano – Always

Beautiful imagery to match a gorgeous, soul soothing new Jazz tune from Jonah Yano as heard on his new album ‘Portrait Of A Dog’…

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Fresh Juice

13th February 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Macho Macho – New Inbetween

Fresh out of New Zealand, this four piece of melodically charged, fuzzy guitar rocking warriors sound like the perfect tonic for a music industry too focused on the carpet crawling, box ticking, soulless middle management wet dream that is the Brit Awards over the past week (good to read about Wet Leg winning though); forget all that poncing and posing, this is the kind of purest attitude that keeps music exciting going forward and who knows, maybe the next wave really is going to rise out of Australasia…

Kevin Morby – Like A Flower

From Morby’s new soundtrack album ‘Music From Montana Story’ is this new video to accompany the release. The film is described as “a neo-western that tells the story of two estranged siblings who return home to the family ranch they once knew and loved, confronting deep and bitter secrets in the process”. Needless to say, new music from this artist never disappoints and Kevin’s writing is predictably superb within a soundtrack context. He has also released new tour dates which include a visit to the UK in June…

Jack White – Icky Thump

2022’s two album releases, ‘Fear Of The Dawn’ and ‘Entering Heaven Alive’, were both stonking, glossy slabs of new music from White (the second of the two was my favourite, it just had a little more of that old time variety that Jack excels in) but still, as this recent live film proves, it remains a thrill whenever he rips into the White Stripes back catalogue…

Sunny War – No Reason

From Nashville and nicknamed Sunny as a child, she removed the final letter of her Ward surname and dived straight into the world of punk and outsider music before arriving at folky/Americana via her capacity for acoustic fingerpicking and a song writing facility harvested from real life, lived experience. Her fifth solo album is called ‘Anarchist Gospel’ and was written after a relationship ended as Sunny was alone in a dark place, marking time until the end of the pairs accommodation lease was expired. If you think that has resulted in a bleak album though you are way off, as heard in this recent live performance, the music composed is both soulful and rich in nuanced writing…

Sophiethehomie – Home Demo

My final pair of selections this week may stretch the term ‘new’ a bit but they fully deserve a share. This track by Florida artist Sophiethehomie has been around for a couple of years, originally available on the ‘Cabin Fever’ EP but it came to my attention last week on a radio show that said it is coming up for a re-release. Either way this is once-heard, forever hooked soul music with some intriguing little production quirks but above all, a pounding funk-drenched heartbeat of a sultry pulse that really grabs you by the ear lobes and holds on tight…

Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant To Be (LP)

It happens every year, I have a list of my albums of the year then I play a record that I missed during those twelve months and it is instantly apparent that this should also have been in the running. And it is not as if I did not know how brilliant the Ezra Collective are, their jazz based melting pot of grooves and styles has thrilled aplenty in these current glory days of London jazz excitement but there you go, there are only so many hours in the day and this week was the first time I had listened to their most recent album. On this live session for Tiny Desk they played tracks from the record and yes, the rest of it really is as equally wonderous as this mouth watering taster suggests…

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Fresh Juice

6th February 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Cvc – Sophie

Around the release of their debut LP ‘Get Real’ on CVC Recordings, this Welsh psych-rocking church village collective ham it up in their video for the infectious ‘Sophie’…

Sleaford Mods – UK Grim

Given the dire state of the times you would imagine that biting social commentary and music with a political protest edge to be bursting forth all over but as things are, it is to a band like Sleaford Mods we must turn for a devastating state of the nation address. The depressing aspect is of course, they really are telling it as it is…

Caitlin Rose – Only Lies

Caitlin Rose released a brace of stunning Americana albums to launch her career at the start of the 2010’s, the debut ‘Own Side Now’ especially was an absolute must hear. But then she disappeared from view for nearly ten years, the only clue I could detect that she was still involved in music was once spotting her as a backing singer for Margo Price. But then in late 2022 a new album ‘Cazimi’ suddenly arrived and happily Caitlin is continuing her resurrection into 2023 with numerous live dates, a very welcome return indeed…

LIUN & The Science Fiction Band – F***in Comp

A recent live track from one of the Fruit Tree Records albums of the year in 2022, you can read my full review of the album here https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/12/29/liun-the-science-fiction-band-lily-of-the-nile/

Kathryn Williams – Foyboatmen

Radio DJ Mark Radcliffe has always been a different class and a sincere champion of folk music. His Radio 2 folk show has recently embarked on a project in which artists have interacted with local people with an ambition to produce brand new folk tunes that, in the tradition of the form, sing of the lives of working folk today. The pedigree of artists working on the project was from the top drawer and predictably, Kathryn Williams (heard here performing a tune in collaboration with Chris Difford) was one of the best.

Brad Mehldau – I Am The Walrus

Brad Mehldau has always had an ear and appreciation for the music of the Beatles and whichever way he interprets their music, you can be sure he will tap into every nuance of melodic magic, uncover tones and textures of his own without ever dismantling the magic of the original composition. This clip is a taster of an albums worth of Mehldau Beatles recordings set to arrive this spring…

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Fresh Juice

30th January 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Shana Cleveland – Faces In The Firelight

This is a delightfully twilight tinged droplet of soothing psych pop from the La Luz songwriter who happily has successfully come through treatment for breast cancer in 2022. It is the first taste of her forthcoming solo album ‘Manzanita’ on the Hardly Art label.

Spoon – Wild

Still one of the best bands to come out of America this past thirty years, here is a recent TV appearance by Spoon apparently in tandem with their Grammy nomination in the best rock album category for their 2022 LP ‘Lucifer On The Sofa’

Nick Waterhouse – Hide And Seek

Nick Waterhouse is now arguably the premier exponent of that vintage, mid-century modern production sound. It is there in the spacey echoes of the recordings, the surf-like twang of the guitars or the proper production touches added like strings or sweetly sung backing vocals. In this video featuring new 2023 music from Nick he even has the period visual touches down but all of that would count for nothing if he were not writing great songs to wrap his stylings around and happily, he continues to do just that

Melissa Carper – From What I Recall

From the late 2022 album ‘Ramblin’ Soul’ released on Mae Music, this is an authentic dose of real-deal country that is so classic sounding, especially for something so new, that you have to double check it is not actually an old Hank Williams standard or such like. But this is all Melissa Carper and well worth seeking out

First Aid Kit – Out Of My Head

A recent live TV appearance following the welcome return of these singing siblings, taken from latest album ‘Palomino’. As before, they still retain that natural heavenly sound not to mention the happy knack of writing songs that take up residency in your head.

Norah Jones & Marc Rebillet – Everybody Say Goodbye

Norah Jones ‘Playing Along’ podcast involves her chatting and jamming with a musical guest. She is not the most natural conversationalist but she can communicate with pretty much anyone on a musical level. You cannot help but be on Norah’s side, she comes across as refreshingly ego-lite for someone so famous. This particular episode with Marc Rebillet took her the furthest out of her comfort zone, what with him being a master of improvisational funk, layered loops and electronic wizardry. The fascinating thing about the episode was heard in a moment where, much like Paul McCartney composing ‘Get Back’ on the spot in the Peter Jackson movie, the pair stumbled upon something that instantly, for a few golden moments at least, sounded like it had the potential to be a classic. As the jam ended Marc spotted it and seemed suitably blown away by what they had possibly just created, Norah was less interested merely asking with a touch of incredulity “do you want to finish it?” It makes you suspect this kind of thing must happen to her all the time when improvising with fellow musicians, like this is in her DNA and not an especially big deal. Anyway, the two of them quickly moved on and maybe that is where their classic co-write will remain forever? That clip has not been put up on YouTube but from the same episode we do have their slightly unhinged closing, funky jam…

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Fresh Juice

23rd January 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

The WAEVE – Kill Me Again

The WAEVE are Graham Coxon (from Blur) and Rose Elinor Dougall (previously of the Pipettes and various solo guises) together in life and in this, potentially ongoing, musical liaison. They have an eponymous debut album on the way and if this taster is anything to go by, it promises to be a corker…

Dave Rowntree – Devil’s Island

I often think I did well getting into Blur, they are indisputably one of the all time great British bands and since their splintering (although they do reconfigure occasionally, such as for live shows later this year) the solo releases and new projects frequently produce work to match the sounds they made together. And so it is that drummer Dave finally makes his singing debut in 2023 and rather delightfully, he is demonstrating far more than just superb drumming…

Fatoumata Diawara featuring Damon Albarn – Nsera

That this weeks fresh juice can offer a trio of top selections all with Blur connections proves they are still very much forward thinking, creative entities (and you can’t say that about many bands or band members 35 years into their careers). The way Damon Albarn picked up the world music baton this century reminds me of the always ground breaking work my next artist did in the previous one…

Peter Gabriel – Panopticom

It may have taken him twenty years but at least when Gabriel releases an albums worth of new music, which he is due to do in 2023 as well as undertake an arena tour, it is always something worth hearing. There is a value in taking your time although it’s hard to make a strong case for two decades, that’s barely a song a year, but then this is an artist who has always doggedly done things his own way and you have to take your hat off to those individualists, they are a rare breed…

Yazmin Lacey – Late Night People

Yazmin Lacey makes soul music with feeling and a razor sharp, adventurous cutting edge. She has a new album called ‘Voice Notes’ arriving in March and it is one that I have great expectations for, this is an artist that has been producing the goods for a while now and is worth your time and attention…

Lisa O’Neill – Silver Seed

One of the most resonant voices in folk music is releasing a new album called ‘All Of This Is Chance’ in February and it promises to be one of the must hear LP’s of 2023 if the early signs are anything to go by…

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Fresh Juice

16th January 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Quasi – Nowheresville

The first welcome return of 2023 is US melodic fuzz maestros Quasi who have a new album, ‘Breaking the Balls Of History,’ arriving on Sub Pop in February preceded in the past week by this typically crunchy taster…

Nicole Cassandra Smit – Wolves

The opening weeks of a new year are often spent soaking up those late discoveries of the previous year lacking the extensive attention they deserved due to December’s prioritising yearly retrospective lists and the like. Nicole Cassandra Smit was one such late find and although her ‘Third In Line’ LP did get immediate album of the year list status with me, it is only now that I am properly catching up with an appreciation of her superb voice, as witnessed here on a live recording from later in 2022…

Beach Bugs – Santa Olala

Why such a deliciously summery sound should be so pleasing in midst of cold wet January I cannot explain, but the sunshine pop and surf guitar echoes of Beach Bugs do indeed make you feel warmer inside, no matter what the reality outside the window…

Wilco – A Lifetime To Find

Only Wilco could tackle the subject of mortality and still manage to put a smile on the face of the listener, even this video from late 2022 has something of the feelgood factor about it. Last years ‘Cruel Country’ album stands as yet another fine release by a band who have never really gone off the boil and this time they sounded out-and-out country, a genre they have forever been associated with but rarely embraced quite so directly before as here…

Nataly Dawn – Over The Moon

Nataly Dawn operates her musical creations with the Pomplamoose duo as a seemingly thriving cottage industry of independent releases on YouTube but for me, where she really excels is on her singer-songwriter solo albums where the combination of a lush voice and her rich melodically driven writing frequently makes for essential listening. This latest offering is taken from the new album ‘Gardenview’ which I strongly recommend…

Camilla George – Journey Across The Sea

From her ‘Ibio-Ibio’ album released later in 2022, this live clip recorded at the Jazz Cafe in London on the album launch night shows just why this superb saxophonist, composer, bandleader and innovator is such an integral part of the current London jazz scene…

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Fresh Juice

9th January 2023

A half dozen weekly fresh picks of tasty new music…

Nadine Khouri – Keep On Pushing These Walls

This is the second single release from the soulful singer-songwriter’s ‘Another Life’ album. A tribute to musical artist Lhasa de Sela, there is also a recent live clip worth checking out on YouTube offering an impressively controlled performance but I have opted for the official video in my link…

Personal Trainer – Milk

They’re an Amsterdam based rock band with a changing line up and in a classic kitchen sink indie style, here they are singing about drinking milk straight from the carton, charmingly grounded and frivolous…

Margo Price – Change Of Heart

A lovely stripped back version of a late 2022 single set to appear on Margo’s forthcoming ‘Strays’ album. She remains the driving force in cosmic country music today, this is top drawer…

Benjamin Clementine – Atonement

The music of Clementine seems to have matured into the pure, direct to the heart, elemental art form that it always threatened to be with his most recent album ‘And I Have Been’. There is something of the classic in this sparse, black and white video clip. Two thirds of the way through I started to suspect it is actually a live performance, it looks like that piano is really being played then, at the conclusion, a wonderfully unrehearsed moment leaves the viewer in no doubt…

Mary Halvorson – Night Shift

Jazz guitarist Halvorson is a captivating enough player as it is but her whole ensemble, especially the vibes player, are really on it during this live performance of the opening track on her ‘Amaryllis’ album…

OSEES – Scramble Suit II / If I Had My Way

Even on a YouTube clip these gassed-up garage rockers can make your ears ring, talk about plugged in…

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Fresh Juice

Josienne Clarke

I’ll give you the bare bones of the low down on Josienne Clarke and invite you to dig deeper. She’s a singer songwriter who has risen to a respectable and acclaimed status, award winning even, as part of a traditional folk duo in which the relationship between herself and her partner turned dramatically sour and lead to an irreversible on stage parting of the ways. Her new solo album picks apart the debris of that relationship in, at times, unforgivingly graphic detail. It’s the sound of an artist finding their true voice, letting off steam, working through some challenging emotional baggage and audibly growing in confidence as we listen. The album, ‘A Small Unknowable Thing’, released on Corduroy Punk Records, is an intense and rewarding listen from the same lineage that bought us Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks’, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Here My Dear’ and John Grants ‘Queen Of Denmark’. The above film for the track ‘The Collector’ says it all visually for me, in the way that it portrays the artist looking at times fragile and diffident but resolutely determined in her preparation to fly. There doesn’t seem to be a vinyl edition available yet but this one’s going to rise to the top of the 2021 album pile all the same, I’m certain of that.

https://www.discogs.com/Josienne-Clarke-A-Small-Unknowable-Thing/release/19946713

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Fresh Juice

Nubya Garcia

It’s Proms season in England at the moment and, for all my interest in Classical music, the thing that has been a delight over the past few years is how major talent outside of the conventional Prom-like fields have been included. The pick this year has been a mesmerising set by the Jazz saxophonist Nubya Garcia, whose recognition as a vessel for musical progression not to mention her mature ear for melodic structure is wholly deserved. The much talked about ‘London Jazz Scene’ is certainly the most exciting collection of artists and sonic explorers to be found in 2021, to say they give you hope for the future is putting it modestly, this perpetually mixing and collaborating collective are tapping into the very source of everything that is magical about music. Right there at the centre of it all is Nubya Garcia, grace and poise personified, lost in music, never over playing and yet definitively bottling that ‘source’ whenever she breathes life into her instrument. 2020’s ‘Source’ album is a great place to start although Fruit Tree Records will return in the future to many more essential releases from this movement. If you want to go in for some ultra fresh juice however, why not check out the 2021 Record Store Day limited 12″ release on the Concord Jazz label here:

https://www.discogs.com/Nubya-Garcia-Source-Our-Dance-/release/19871125

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Fresh Juice

Aaron Lee Tasjan

Aaron Lee Tasjan is not a new name to Fruit Tree Records, he registered on the radar at least three years ago with his own ear catching brand of cosmic Americana. Now though, he is really showing the roots of his musical excellence, to such a degree that with latest album ‘Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!’ even high profile pop pickers like Elton John are singing his praises. That he has gone on record to state The Beatles as a primary influence will be no surprise when you listen to this, the album is bursting at the seams with Fab sounds! From the liquid George Harrison guitar solos, to the sweet sounding production that echoes so much that was good in a post-Beatle pop world; you’ll hear waves of Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, The Pretenders and the Travelling Wilburys splash into your mind. But the key thing that Aaron has taken from the pop masters is that, before the sonic delights of the production were applied, he made sure he wrote an albums worth of hook filled, ear worm worthy pop songs. It’s rather an undervalued artform you know, especially when someone like Aaron Lee Tasjan makes it sound so natural and easy. Be sure to pick up a vinyl copy of this LP:

https://www.discogs.com/Aaron-Lee-Tasjan-Tasjan-Tasjan-Tasjan-/release/16782057

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