Category Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

7th August 2023

Spellling – Under The Sun

Back in 2021 I chanced upon the stunning third album by Spellling, the current performing identity of Chrystia Cabral, and it was a record that endured so much that year that I ended up writing about ‘The Turning Wheel’ and rating it as one of my albums of the year (you can read the full piece here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/01/07/spellling-the-turning-wheel/) The thing I loved about her music was its boundless disregard for any conventional formular, Chrystia rarely takes the obvious melodic path and yet her vocal acrobatics and natural exuberance make everything she creates sound so right and vital. What a delight it is then to point you in the direction of some new Spellling music for 2023, this is from ‘The Mystery School’ released on August 25th by Sacred Bones Records…

Cut Worms – I’ll Never Make It

The new eponymous Cut Worms album is out now on Jagjaguwar, it is the third album from New York singer-songwriter Max Clarke and as this tune clearly shows, his ear for a classic vintage sound and talent for conjuring an achingly beautiful song remain on an upward trajectory. It is a wonderful video too, packed with images of loneliness, loss, insecurity, fear and warm love within the simple storyline, this one will melt your heart…

Sierra Ferrell – Making My Way

Performing a brand new track live for the camera at Railbird Festival 2023 in Lexington, Kentucky, this Sierra Ferrell giving us the purest possible example of her mouth watering potential as a performer within the traditional Americana sphere. No wonder Rounder Records wanted to offer her a three album deal back in 2018, her grasp of the basics are nailed on and that is all too rare; she knows how to pluck a melodic structure out of the air and when she sings it is done with conviction, no fakery… sometimes that is all you need to cut through, I hope that proves to be the case here…

Rio 18 feat. Young Gun Silver Fox – She’s In LA

This is a frighteningly insistent slice of summer pop with welcome echoes of disco and soulful electro, exactly as depicted in the video this is the optimum kind of music you want pumping out when driving around a city on a summer day. It is the work of Wales maestro Carwyn Ellis who may be known to some as the main man in Colorama, it is Carwyn’s vocal that gives this synth laden track that all important human touch, the beating heart of the uplifting groove. ‘She’s In LA’ is out now on Légère Recordings…

Emma Tricca – King Blixa

Emma Tricca has been on my radar as a captivating purveyor of bohemian, explorative Folk for around fifteen years now. Her sound and overall look recall that exotic late sixties, early seventies period when acoustic songwriters allowing their freak flag to fly was almost an obligatory prerequisite. But Emma is the real deal, her music does not pose or posture, it almost feels like she found Vashti’s gypsy wagon abandoned by the roadside two decades ago and vowed to reignite its musical journey into the 21st century, caressing out some sumptuous albums along the way, of which ‘Aspirin Sun’ released earlier this year on Bella Union is surely another…

Malphino – Octopus

And finally for this week, some exotic live sounds from Malphino, playing a track that features on their brand new ‘Sueno’ EP released as a 10″ 4-track disc on Lex Records in the UK. They are described rather mysteriously as an outer-national band hailing from an imaginative island which kind of says enough really doesn’t it? Just dig into these glowing sounds that fuse Brazilian and Colombian tropical, rhythmic vibes across a vintage cinema canvass. All good for my money…

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Fresh Juice

31st July 2023

Jorja Smith – Little Things

This is a teaser track from Jorja Smith’s new album ‘Falling Or Flying’ which is set to be released in September. It is obvious she remains one of the most important voices in the current R&B, Jazz & Hip-Hop crossover zone primarily thanks to her natural melodic instincts as a pure, soulful vocalist and also because her head seems to be pleasingly un-turned by the fame landed on her doorstep these past five years; rather appropriately that doorstep is nowadays back in Walsall rather than the sleepless streets of London. Granting herself that headspace has paid off musically as Jorja Smith keeps it real in the truest sense; watch out for UK album launch shows in September and October…

Locate S,1 – Go Back To Disnee

This has such a laid back bossa kind of feeling to it, just one of many pop styles that are thrown into the tasty slow cooker in which Christina Schneider simmers her unique take on deceptively light sounding art-pop. This is the second outing for her Locate S,1 guise and new album ‘Wicked Jaw’ offers the kind of sonic forward motions on which cities are built, an irresistible soundscape of an album. So it is with ‘Go Back To Disnee’, which floats past easily as its impression lingers on…

Teenage Fanclub – Tired Of Being Alone

Now I bet they actually could do a belting cover version of the Al Green classic but this is not it. Some bands do not need reinvention because they have crafted their own niche to such a degree that all we need is for them to produce their goods as they harvest their own field. The line up may not be quite the same but doesn’t Euros Childs look and feel like he always had a place in waiting here? Such a good fit as is this new Teenage Fanclub music, from the forthcoming ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ album, out 22nd September 2023 on PeMa and Merge…

The Hives – Countdown To Shutdown

While I am toasting satisfying fresh and familiar produce from an older beloved act, here are some more near-veterans who continue to thrive doing the thing they do best. The Hives were always an exciting combination of carefully curated theatrical thrills alongside out-and-out garage rock energy and they plug straight back into that mainline on this new song and video. The latest album ‘The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons’ is out on August 11th…

Lanterns On The Lake – Thumb Of War

This is a superb live session version filmed in The Old Church, Northumberland from a band whose music exudes a kind of warm aching universal heartbeat so emblematic of their native North East. This tune is taken from their 2023 fifth studio album ‘Versions Of Us’ released on Bella Union…

The Circling Sun – Kohan

There in an unmistakable air of the Pharoah Saunders spiritual Jazz vibe to this graceful wave of essential new music. I say new but in reality this collective of musical space cadets have been boiling up a reputation as a live act, paying homage to the sounds of Afro-American Jazz, for over two decades now and so this debut album is a labour of love in a very real sense. That they have finally landed this motherlode of originals though is a cause for celebration when the sounds are as good as this; ‘Spirits’ was released in May on Soundway Records…

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Fresh Juice

24th July 2023

Kassi Valazza – Smile

From the new album ‘Knows Nothing’ released on Fluff And Gravy Records. The best country sounds always see a darkness and Kassi plugs into that mood with utter conviction. I am loving her latest release not merely for the ever present ache in the songs, but also for the way it has no time for barriers. If a song needs a guitar part that stamps on the distortion pedal and stretches out in a frenzy of fuzz then that’s what it gets, an approach resulting in an album that digs out everything these superb songs require sonically to brilliant effect…

Bella White – Break My Heart

Taken from the album ‘Among Other Things’ released on Rounder Records. About this track Bella confessed it is “probably the most explicitly about getting dumped. I wrote it with no intention of ever sharing it. I didn’t even feel any particular emotional attachment to it like I do with my other songs, because it was such an isolated experience, zooming in on one specific moment in time. That said, bringing it to life by turning a valley into a peak felt deeply cathartic. It’s a heartbreaker that I hope will at least get you moving.” That it does and much like this weeks opener, it offers further evidence that Country music in 2023 can still kick it…

The Natvral – A Glass Of Laughter

Taken from the forthcoming ‘Summer Of No Light’ album released on Dirty Bingo Records. The Natvral are the new music vehicle of Kip Berman who previously fronted The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. This is a great Folk-Rock style song wherein the lyric seems to force open the door leading to positive outcomes at that moment where a relationship loses the thrill of the new, when things that once seemed ragged and romantic now carry the weather worn sheen of the battered and perilously careless…

En Attendant Ana – Wonder

This is taken from the album ‘Principia’ which was released in February on Trouble In Mind Records. This exotic Parisian quintet are returning for a tour of the UK in October and they are taking their individualistic variant of classic French pop with tasteful nods to indie trailblazers like Stereolab in exciting, ever mature directions on their latest long player, as can be heard on this little wonder of a tune…

Katie von Schleicher – Overjoyed

Well the accompanying video may take the concept of low budget to new ‘that will do’ depths but the song itself is a joyous slice of rousing pop pulled from the pile of songs Katie has been building since 2020. She has given a direct nod to Kirsty MacColl’s ‘They Don’t Know’ as an inspiration, saying that she merely wanted ‘Overjoyed’ to recreate how that song used to make her feel. I say if you’re going to take a direct influence you might as well make it one of the best and this artist has certainly made new music that captures that essence of weathered elation. The song is out now on Sipsman…

Meshell Ndegeocello – Clear Water

This one is taken from the new album ‘The Omnichord Real Book’ released on the Blue Note label. Meshell is a ten times Grammy award nominated bass player and vocalist who has a happy knack, as heard on this song in particular, of making music that is at first instantly accessible but opens up many levels of subtle splendour with each repeated listen…

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Fresh Juice

17th July 2023

Jaime Branch – Take Over The World

You somehow know instantly when someone truly special has been taken from us too soon. I recall the same feeling hitting me when news of Jaimie Branch’s horribly young passing arrived last summer as I felt when first reading of Elliott Smith’s death on the front page of the NME. Over the preceding years Jaimie had kind of burrowed into the back of my mind as one of the essential players in the modern Jazz world and so the relatively small back catalogue she left behind will forever seem prematurely curtailed, all the available evidence I hear suggests a peak not yet reached. That said, pretty much all she did put out, whether as the lead player or as a accompanying or guest musician, is pounding with raw talent and a sonic brain absolutely overflowing with ideas and expression. This previously unreleased track is a taster from the posthumous album ‘Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))’ and as with the other albums in her ‘Fly Or Die’ series, this sounds fundamentally plugged into the turbulent, ridiculous world around us today, a dissonant soundtrack for our times…

This Is The Kit – Stuck In A Room

This is a stunning piece of live film performance from the dramatic natural open air performance setting known as the Minack Theatre, built into the coastline in the South West of England. The new This Is The Kit album ‘Careful of You Keepers’ was released in June on Rough Trade…

Jason Isbell – Cast Iron Skillet

New music from a supreme US songwriter, played live here with guitarist Sadler Vaden from Jason Isbell & 400 Unit’s latest release ‘Weathervanes’ which came out in June on the Southeastern Records label. As is so often the way with the best writers, Isbell’s songs can sound deceptively simple to start with, but the genius is in the details; the framework may be basic as that’s all it needs, lock into those lyrics and the finer brushstrokes of the playing and it is clear Jason always puts the craft into his music…

Laura Cantrell – Just Like A Rose

The anniversary referenced in this new albums title was in fact due to be the twentieth since Laura’s essential 2000 debut record ‘Not The Tremblin’ Kind’, an album that I recall John Peel getting very, understandably, excited about at the time. Well the pandemic derailed that intention but the music captured in these sessions has been well worth the wait all the same. ‘Just Like A Rose: The Anniversary Sessions’ was released in June on the Propeller Sound Recordings label and includes contributions from Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, Rosie Flores and Paul Burch…

Smoke Fairies – There Was A Hope

New music from the Smoke Fairies is always worth a listen, they are a duo that have consistently produced lush panoramic pop for more than a decade now. This tune, a beautiful ballad with the piano as lead instrument adorned with graceful strings and shadowed by sonic tensions from the still of the night, is to be found on Year Seven Records…

Durand Jones – Lord Have Mercy

The sizzling soul sound of Durand Jones really catches a fire on the brand new album ‘Wait Til I Get Over’, released on the Dead Oceans label. Get into the whole vibe with this short film, the pay off realised in the music is worth your attention for real in a gospel inspired cut that positively roars with a distorted cutting edge…

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Fresh Juice

10th July 2023

Margaret Glaspy – Act Natural

This is the first single from the New York City based singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy’s new album ‘Echo The Diamond’ which will be released on August 18th. Now into her second decade of solo music releases, Margaret has delightful echoes of the greats in her field that previously walked her home turf; especially in the sage ruminations that recall Suzanne Vega and the electricity driven streetwise edge harking back to Lou Reed; Glaspy’s excursions down the same path enchant because her eyes and ears are plugged into the core elements of the real life surrounding her, this is great stuff…

Shangri-Lass – Father’s Daughter

How about this for some superb marrying up of vintage sixties / seventies imagery with the sounds they play against? I especially like the split screen shots of what I assume to be early seventies Top Of The Pops audience dancers alongside the glam-rock stomp of the back beat. These energizing new sounds arising out off Sheffield using classic retro girl-group pop as the launch pad for an eruption of technicolour melodic sonic adventure, taken from the Shangri-Lass debut EP, ‘Over & Over’, released digitally and on pink cassette back in April of this year on Redundant Span Records…

The Studio 68! – Slow Boat To China

This one is also out now as well, as part of the ‘Back With The Boys’ EP released on Detour Records and as with the previous video clip, pulls in an imaginative use of vintage film excerpts to enhance the organ heavy mod sound of the track itself. The Studio 68! were trailblazers back in the late eighties, pioneering the authentic vintage sound that saw mod thriving into the modern era and they even won credit for tumbling down walls that opened up the UK scene for Britpop. This new release sees the original four members from the classic line up still pile-driving that irresistible sound with utter conviction…

P J Harvey – I Inside The Old I Dying

This brief and solemn, mildly disturbing, dark and gothic piece, accompanied by a suitably haunting animation directed by Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña, was released last week on an album of the same name by Partisan Records. Once again working with her long term musical companion John Parish who was joined on production duties by Flood, P J Harvey continues to make music wholly out-of-time and yet indisputably right for the moment in which it arrives…

Gregory Alan Isakov – The Fall

This is the first single from the new album, ‘Appaloosa Bones’, due to be released on August 18th and as with the previous selection it features a superb animation accompaniment, this time by Ruth Lingford. This will be Gregory’s eighth album in a career now spanning twenty years during which he has earned well deserved plaudits and indeed a Grammy nomination for his thoughtful, musically eloquent, folk-inflected Americana song writing. He seems to tap into something universal on ‘The Fall’ with a line like “we all break a little” making this gorgeous track a timely audio balm for the testing, anxious times in which we live…

Alfa Mist – Variables

This is the title track of the latest Alfa Mist album released on Anti Records. Alfa Sekitoleko comes from Newham in London and his early passions of football and hip-hop were atypical of the area. However, the sampling culture unlocked the door to jazz music which would push Alfa to developing his keyboard playing and it is the textured, tonal and soulful sounds he conjures out of the electric keys that are the backbone of his solo music, now linked indelibly to the still explosive London jazz scene. His playing never seems too showy, he is far more about the improvisation and the vibes but still somehow the Alfa Mist sound locks you in, gives the listener something firm to hang on to. On occasion loose experimental jazz can be hard work but Alfa Mist arrives in anything but a haze, his work is focused and rising out of a human beating heart, it is vital and it’s genius is clear to see and hear, this is one of the greatest music creating talents these battered, divided isles currently offer…

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Fresh Juice

3rd July 2023

Paul Simon – Seven Psalms

I believe there is are fascinating appreciations waiting to be written about artists who are loved and acclaimed for work famous in the twentieth century that have continued to create and release top-drawer music over the most recent twenty years. Top of that list would be Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney but without a doubt Paul Simon has been quietly building his catalogue with some essential, if less heralded, work in this period too. In fact, if you look at his solo releases, there were just nine albums in the twentieth century whilst this new album ‘Seven Psalms’ will be the seventh in our current century, that represents quite a significant proportion of his output. And if recent interviews are to be believed, he has no desire to stop creating either, regardless of the fact that the world touring years are now over. The most significant factor however remains the music and with this album, Simon has produced a beautiful, hymn-like meditative and continuous piece of music, like nothing he has previously played, with acoustic guitar textures as the centre point and Simon’s ethereal, subliminal thoughts and words caressing this remarkable work into existence…

Peter Gabriel – Road To Joy (Bright-Side Mix)

At the other end of the scale output wise (he admits he works at a snails pace) is Peter Gabriel although the important point again here is, the music stands up creditably alongside his older material. I reflect on my experience of seeing Gabriel live for the first time in twenty years alongside this months Fruit Tree Records playlist and here is one of the latest ‘i/o’ tracks that landed, as all others have thus far, on the occasion of a full moon…

Rick Astley & Blossoms – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

This weeks half dozen recommendations are centred around a theme of either older artists or older material. I cannot tell you what my opinion is of Rick Astley in general other than, seeing him doing this at Glastonbury 2023 as part of a set consisting entirely of Smiths songs, it is obvious he has a good deal more credibility as a performer and lead vocalist than former SAW dissing snobs (like myself regrettably) have ever acknowledged. Furthermore, I would far rather watch Rick sing these songs in 2023 than Morrissey…

Royal Blood – Figure It Out

I cannot defend Royal Blood’s petulant outburst the other week when they were sandwiched between pop acts whose fans lacked the kind of effusive rock reaction that Royal Blood seem to believe is their entitlement. As they walked on stage during the live feed of Glastonbury my expectation was that I would switch over imminently. Actually, I stayed glued to the whole set because, rather annoyingly given their slightly tarnished reputation, they are pretty damn good at what they do. ‘Figure It Out’ has always been my favourite song of theirs and as they were tearing it up the festival crowd seemed suitably ‘rocked’, so no one got a telling off this time around…. phew…

Elton John – Rocket Man

Included simply because I love Elton John and his music has been a part of my life from my earliest memory. If this is indeed his last ever performance on UK soil (and you cannot ignore the way his onstage announcement left room for a row back) he left us with the kind of set that becomes a legend most; zero filler, all killer, largest crowd I’ve ever seen at the festival, voice sounding fantastic and piano playing still consummate. Never forget, Elton may have fame that puts him on other planets, as unreachable as a royal or a world leader, but in his heart he is one of us, a music obsessive and record collector (albeit with a far more enviable budget!)…

Kieran Hebden & William Tyler – Darkness Darkness

And finally something new in the shape of a reworking by the Four Tet main man of a song written by Jesse Colin Young of the band The Youngbloods in 1969. It is available now on Psychic Hotline…

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Fresh Juice

26th June 2023

Eilen Jewell – Lethal Love

Eilen has for a couple of decades now been one of the essential artists on the country scene who remains frustratingly outside of the mainstream. That might have something to do with the uncompromising purity in her rockabilly sound, she never sounds anything other than wholly true to who she is musically and that is expressed to the full on newly released album ‘Get Behind the Wheel’ on Signature Sounds Recordings…

The Coral – Wild Bird

This band of scouse psychedelic warriors show no sign of letting up even as they enter a third decade of music making. This is taken from the band’s forthcoming album ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ released on 8th September 2023 which is a speedy follow up to the former Fruit Tree Records album of 2021 ‘Coral Island’ covered by us here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/01/03/the-coral-coral-island/

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway – Next Rodeo

Here is another artist responsible for a previous Fruit Tree Records album of the year, this time as recently as 2022 with the ‘Crooked Tree’ record which was written about here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/12/22/molly-tuttle-the-golden-highway-crooked-tree/ This new tune is from their upcoming album, ‘City of Gold,’ due July 21 on Nonesuch Records…

Picture Parlour – Norwegian Wood

First of all this is related in no way to the Beatles classic, but if a title is designed to catch your attention this certainly works. When casting your net, as I do every week, for new music to excite and stimulate you will inevitably encounter some names repeatedly getting mentioned and you suspect, because more often than not it turns out to be true, that this is hype generated by an act well connected within the industry. I had read the name Picture Parlour a few times lately and gave this clip a try out for that reason primarily (although the title had me curious too). Whilst I wouldn’t want to go overboard in my praise, the buzz around Picture Parlour is clearly based on musical merit and va-va-voom far more than it is knowing the right PR people, which is always something to celebrate, watch this four piece…

Blur – The Narcissist

This is the by now probably quite familiar lead single from the reformed Blur’s forthcoming new album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. As great as it is to have them back and playing both large and small gigs again this summer, that they remain inspired to turn a reformation into a creative process highlights the musical seed within their DNA that always elevated Blur above their closest Britpop peers in my opinion. That Damon and Graham have maintained a relevant presence in the mainstream music scene over thirty years since their bands debut album is further evidence of their justifiable stature. I am reserving critical appraisal of the new album until I get to experience it as a whole, but this song does promise a firm hold in the bands catalogue with absolutely no suggestion of covering terrains already well walked…

Melissa Aldana – Los Ojos de Chile

This is a captivating live recording from earlier this year courtesy of The Soraya at Cal State Northridge. Sometimes the visual spectacle of seeing an artist connect with their music both physically and instinctively can open up doors and I believe that to be the case here with Melissa. The moment she locks into this piece at the outset she is no longer on stage before an audience, she is sailing in another dimension. The album ’12 Stars’ was released in 2022 on the Blue Note label…

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Fresh Juice

19th June 2023

Oracle Sisters – Hail Mary

This is another Fresh Juice 2023 offering from the Oracle Sisters album ‘Hydranism’, a record that is fast becoming one of my favourites of the year thanks to its effortless deployment of pop classicism. ‘Hail Mary’ is a great example of this, essentially a piano ballad of the type that Lennon was putting out in the early seventies. The focus on the core musical elements is fine because the Oracle Sisters hooks are easy on the ear and infectious, add to that a soaring Harrison-esque guitar solo and that cool nonchalance they exude, it all flags up a winning summer pop potion here that should enrapture all that encounter it…

Buck Meek – Haunted Mountain

It seems to me that anything produced by anyone associated with the band Big Thief at this moment in time is delivered with a vitality and conviction that ensures essential music on every occasion. This is the new solo material from the bands guitarist Buck Meek; ‘Haunted Mountain’ is the title track from his forthcoming album, out 25th August on 4AD and it already sounds anything but a side project, all honkin’ no tonkin’ indeed…

Luluc – Diamonds

Luluc are a band who first caught my attention with the sublime track ‘Heist’ from their 2019 album ‘Sculptor’. They are a dream-folk songwriting duo made up of Zoe Randell and multi-instrumentalist Steve Hassett. In last weeks Fresh Juice I made a passing reference to critics making lazy comparisons to Nick Drake, I mention this because in reading up on Luluc I learned that the significant authority Lucinda Williams has called Zoe a “female Nick Drake” and whilst this is not a name that immediately jumps to mind, I would not question the opinion of Lucinda and do agree that there is a weightless, timeless, floating quality to the sound of Luluc. This is the official music video for the title track of new album ‘Diamonds’ out September 15, 2023…

PACKS – 4th Of July

This bittersweet grungy delight of a tune was from PACKS new album ‘Crispy Crunchy Nothing’ released in March 2023 on Fire Talk/Royal Mountain. I have been enthused at how many young US bands are building on the templates set out in the psychedelic rock era in tandem with the lo-fi nineties scenes, continuing to drop wonderfully rusty sounds in the modern era. If a band sounds to me like they’ve listened to Pavement just as much as they have The Beatles or Nirvana then that can only be a good thing in my book…

Mapache – People Please

Mapache are the Americana offspring of Glendale, California who have forged a deserved reputation as superior purveyors of open-eared cosmic country music with echoes of the greats a-la Simon & Garfunkel and The Byrds. New music from them is always eagerly anticipated and never disappoints so it is welcome news indeed that their new album ‘Swinging Stars’ is out 18th August on Innovative Leisure…

The Jordan – Temptation

Not exactly a new artist but a new identity, image and sound for a singer who over ten years ago I was very excited about as she reigned supreme with a stunning repertoire of soulful, swingingly vintage jazz vocal stardust as Caro Emerald. So this is a proper gear change and as new album ‘Nowhere Near The Sky’ released on Cooking Vinyl pleasingly demonstrates, none of the power and command in that voice has been sacrificed in pursuit of this new, widescreen, cinematic and pleasingly modern audio adventure…

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Fresh Juice

12th June 2023

Melenas – Bang

Scintillating new psych-pop to kick things off this week, these are Melenas who are a Spanish quartet who I first playlisted in 2020 when the track ‘Primer Tiempo’ caught my ear. They are set to release their third album in September entitled ‘Ahora’ on the Trouble In Mind label and it would seem they are definitively finding their groove. This taster announces their arrival with a thunderous clang as their individualistic merging of the fuzzy garage rock aesthetic with synthesisers locks into an irresistible groove. Oh and as a side note, this brilliant video was apparently shot in a single take…

Joy Oladokun – Taking Things For Granted

This is probably the outstanding track from Joy’s album ‘Proof of Life’ released this year on Amigo Records. It’s her fourth album release and shows an artist evolving out of the folk / acoustic roots that she initially rode in on. But that development is certainly not to be taken for granted for a song like this is the kind of joyous folk-pop that would have been a hit in the eighties in the hands of a Tracy Chapman or a Tanita Tikaram (under-rated pop masters both). Of course, none of that hit stuff really means much anymore but songs as good as this tend to endure all the same, this is quite stunning…

Edgar Jones – Torture

This guy is a musical treasure that seems to sail perpetually below the radar, a fact that in itself is a crime against musical aptitude not to mention good taste. Featured in this film the former front man from equally low key garage legends The Stairs is turning his talents towards some devastatingly authentic Northern soul sounds ahead of new album, ‘Reflections of a Soul Dimension,’ released on Steropar Records; get out on the floor right now record hunters…

Sam Burton – I Don’t Blame You

Put any reflective songwriter playing melancholic music on an acoustic guitar and marry it to an autumnal string arrangement and it is odds on the reviews will make a Nick Drake comparison. The problem with this is Nick is a legend because he was actually rather brilliant at what he did, writing songs of a higher grain than most so there was a good deal more to his legend than orchestrated folksy introspection. Too many artists are landed with that comparison and many, especially those who are wilfully seeking it, live up to the transparent influence. Write good songs first, that would seem to me to be the obvious starting point. I mention all this in the context of Sam Burton not because he is the next Nick Drake but because this song, from his new album ‘Dear Departed’ set to be released next month on Partisan Records, is indeed in that vein and on this rare occasion, it is a gorgeous piece of gently floating, wavy-gravy music worthy of the comparison. Earlier this year he supported Weyes Blood on tour and I can only assume, on this evidence, that he picked up many new followers playing to that kind of crowd; the album should be boiling over with potential…

Sultan Stevenson – Summer Was Our Holy Place

This ridiculously talented Jazz pianist is captured here with band performing a track from his ‘Faithful One’ debut album, released on Whirlwind Recordings. Easily one of the most immediately loveable Jazz records I have played this year, there appears to be little blocking Sultan from a notable future in music if this initial spiritual, almost gospel infused offering is anything to go by. Not only that but he has a self-made hat based signature look to top it all off, catch this young jazz warrior when and where you get the chance…

Bob Dylan – Forever Young

This Fruit Tree Records site loves to wave a flag for the best new music but has no issue if that happens to be from the hand of a music master rather than a relative unknown. No one knows which artists from my own lifetime will still be remembered and listened to in 200 years, but there is a general consensus that The Beatles and Bob Dylan are among the few that indisputably will. This new Dylan ‘Shadow Kingdom’ album is born out of the Covid lockdown period, when artists had to stop touring and many offered paying online gigs as a substitute. This project was Dylan’s own version of an internet concert and he played a typically individualistic hand by working on the arrangements, the setting, the cinematography and the song selection in a way very unrelated to the regular Dylan live experience. Billed as an offering of his ‘early works’ although including a song from as late as 1989, the versions presented were very much informed by the Sinatra era of covers records Bob had released whilst clearly making a connection between the thoughts and words of a young man and an octogenarian performer still finding fresh meaning in his own work. It also thoroughly trashes the largely inaccurate notion that Bob Dylan destroys his own back catalogue with his treatment of it in concert. Of course, as ever with Dylan, nothing is really revealed but ‘Shadow Kingdom’ will surely settle in the mans catalogue as an important late period example of the artist locked in his never-ending quest to find meaning, relevance and solace in his life as a performing musician, this is essential stuff…

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Fresh Juice

5th June 2023

The Nude Party – Somebody Tryin’ To Hoodoo Me

This weeks half dozen new music selections is taking a slight detour to reflect on some of the best live performances I have seen over the previous two months. In fact this weekend just gone was a highlight of the year thus far having attended the Red Rooster Festival and catching The Nude Party live for the first time and finding the supremacy I have previously raved about on vinyl also translates to the live arena, they surely are one of the best things happening in music today aren’t they? Three albums in and an absolute treasure trove of a catalogue is already building up. None of the clips I highlight today are from the actual gigs I attended (I never stand a gig with my phone held up filming I’m afraid, I get too into the music for that) but they are all good examples of the acts playing live in 2023 so here for starters are the Nude Party playing one of the many stand-outs from new New West Records album ‘Rides On’…

Fantastic Negrito – Oh Betty

This one represents another fresh-in-my-memory joyous experience from Red Rooster Festival, the Friday night main stage headliner Fantastic Negrito. Seen here with a blistering live version of an astounding song on last years Storefront Records released ‘White Jesus Black Problems’ album, he is surely ripe for a favourable comparison to Prince? It is all there in the lane swapping energy he exudes drinking from the deep well of blues, soul and spiritual music whilst firing out a sound and attitude that is wholly his own creation, what a star…

BC Camplight – The Last Rotation Of Earth

I wrote a little about my delight in catching BC Camplight live in a very intimate pub venue only a couple of weeks ago in June’s Monthly Playlist article. When I posted that there was very little I could find in the way of filmed performances of this current solo-piano tour he is playing but happily now this recent clip has emerged offering a nice taste of how favourably Brian’s songwriting gift is responding to such close, uncluttered scrutiny; truly one of the best songsmith’s on the current circuit…

Pokey LaFarge – Rotterdam

The Pokey show I caught at the start of his UK visit a few weeks back was a real throwback of the most satisfying kind. Reflecting on what was so wonderful about the show it is hard not to pull similarly vintage compliments like ‘professionalism’ and ‘musicianship’ out of the bag and there is something in that; the style he possesses, the charming panache of his presentation and the natural flair in his bands playing is not down to luck, they have worked at being this good and it shows. This is where I sometimes feel a little out of step with the conventional rock/alt music critics of the UK; yes I like punk and see how it was a welcome grenade on a seventies scene that was in danger of becoming too indulgent and bland, but I have never treated punk as the ‘Year 0’ that some do and neither do I think that being musically eloquent, proficient, knowledgeable or progressive are bad things, especially when used to make fresh sounds in the way an act like Pokey LaFarge does. Hold on too tightly to that (Lamacq endorsed) attitude and you end up believing dross like Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital are where its at and believe me, as much as I acknowledge everything has a place, I would not want to end up there! This is a far better music zone where the sounds are alive with pleasure…

Chuck Prophet – You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)

Now that I have lost the chicken-in-a-bucket yelping landfill indie readers with my previous paragraph, here is another taste of a Red Rooster Festival highlight that I was grooving to as recently as Saturday evening. I thought there was a purity to Chuck Prophet’s set, something nourishingly satisfying about an early evening performer coming to the stage offering “no bullshit, no gimmicks, no backing tapes, just simple entertainment” and making good on his promise. There was a natural confidence in his Nick Cave meets Tom Petty vibe, a seasoned patina that referenced both the electric 21st century Bob Dylan sound and the classic Springsteen rock of the past half century which simultaneously made us happy and feel something real. This is a recent live clip that only gives a glimpse to the Chuck experience but his audience slaying manner does shine bright, especially as he plays straight down the lens of what I assume to be a camera phone capturing this…

The Mock Tudors – Bin Day

Yes I have featured this exact same song once before earlier in the year but again, I am limited to the selection of recent live performance clips I can find online and this band do not have anywhere near enough (thus far). Nevertheless, I cannot miss The Mock Tudrors out of a run down on my stand-out live experiences of 2023 up to today. Yes I had enjoyed what I heard well enough back in the winter months but this band mean so much more when you see them live. Everything about their goofy and droll live show will put a smile on your face and like the other two bands I grinned inanely from ear-to-ear whilst watching this year (Half Man Half Biscuit and Shonen Knife), they have some pretty damn shit hot tunes to go with the irreverence. Catch all of these if you can…

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