Tag Archives: Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice

29th April 2024

Leyla McCalla – Scaled To Survive

Leyla has, during the past ten years of solo releases after raising her profile as part of Carolina Chocolate Drops, released some essential albums often thematically linked, be it a tribute to the writer Langston Hughes or a deep dive into the history of Haiti’s first Kreyol-language radio station. However, for her incredible new album ‘Sun Without The Heat’ she has parked the conceptual approach and made space for her more personal singer-songwriter instincts to find a path. And because this multi-instrumentalist, who in a past life would busk Bach on a cello, is so kaleidoscopic in her natural range the resulting album is a pure delight, including this gently lilting song about motherhood…

La Luz – Strange World

Ahead of the release of new album ‘News Of The Universe’ La Luz tease this, a track that suggests the often used “always the same but always different” phrase could easily apply. Some changes are obvious for whilst Shana Cleveland remains at the core this is clearly a different line-up to the last configuration of La Luzers heard on 2021’s brilliant self titled album. Other evolutions are hazier for while that distinct surf-noir sound remains this is definitely a band looking to a more electro-friendly future; albeit a future rooted in the past as it tries to imagine the coming decades through the lens of a 1970s disco flavoured starship trooper…

The Losin’ Streaks – The Slink

This bands 2024 album ‘Last House’ is the record I have heard this year that most authentically captures that scuzzy garage band sound I love so much. If you check out the record I’d suggest going for ‘Last House On The Block’ as the must-hear modern day nugget but as I could not find a video of that online I offer instead this recent live film which deceptively weaves in sixties crowd footage but belongs very much in the hear and now…

AC Sapphire – Weed Money

From the ‘Dec 32nd’ album that I have already predicted on klofmag.com will be one of this years new releases that enjoys a shelf life way beyond 2024. It is a songwriters album that is wonderfully diverse, being neither Americana, folk, desert haze or indie pop even though it has echoes of all and much more besides. ‘Weed Money’ is one of the albums more straight-ahead acoustic troubadour numbers but be sure to go to the long player for the full cosmic road-trip experience…

Pokey LaFarge – One You One Me

Always a delight to report that Pokey has new old-time music on the way. He is a performer who cannot help but put a smile on the face of an audience and so even when he offers up a video of grainy loved-up footage from his wedding day, rather than reach for the sick bag you feel the joy too. After being in the same room as him last year and grinning like an idiot for ninety minutes, I don’t think I’ll ever try and resist the charming sounds of Pokey, now with added rhumba…

Parsnip – Turn To Love

There simply aren’t enough Australian and yet curiously Welsh sounding bands prepared to wear am-dram headwear, pull Wicker Man dance moves and detonate their song with one harmoniously trippy blast in the middle before returning to the church organ hymn-like mantra of the opening never to hit full bloom again. I mean a chorus this grand and lush deserves more than one serving so the only thing to do is go back to the start and bathe in the whole thing all over again…

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Fresh Juice

15th April 2024

Waxahatchee ft. M J Lenderman – Right Back To It

The new Waxahatchee album ‘Tiger Blood’ is out now and a must hear if some springtime alt-country promise is your bag. More than that though, this song especially flows so naturally it instantly sounds like a lolling western standard, so sweetly do the verses sail by ahead of that ear worm chorus. Is it a song of long term loving commitment or the sound of someone with too many questions about the routine of longevity? The key line seems to be “you just settle in like a song with no end, if I can keep up we’ll get right back to it” but I admit I haven’t dissected these lyrics anywhere near enough yet, the music is just too irresistible and seems to say enough anyway. Wonderful song…

Adrianne Lenker – Fool

The new solo album by Big Thief’s Adrianne is called ‘Bright Future’ and already sounds like one of the records of 2024 to me. It is clearly an act of necessity that she keeps a second outlet for her songwriting because Lenker has absolutely been boiling over with new music these last few years. Big Thief’s last long player alone was a bumper fun 20 song effort but following them as I do via live concert clips online, there is rarely any evidence in a slowing up of new ideas. Just like her songs with the band, solo Adrianne presents music that is not always immediate but still gives the listener a desire to keep on playing, allowing her songs to present their many charms over time as layer after layer slowly rises into view…

Charlie Parr – Little Sun

Superb live rendition of the title track on Charlie’s new Smithsonian Folkways released album. This is his eighteenth album and as before, his recording process has focused on capturing the raw and ready feel of live performance. Never a man for lingering studio indulgences, he has all the same admitted that for this record hanging out in the studio felt more comfortable, something which may be attributed to the presence of a producer, Tucker Martine. It is the first Charlie Parr record with such a studio focal point and it has to be said, the end results make for a rather fine singer-songwriter album in the Americana vein, well worth checking out…

Shannon & The Clams – The Moon Is In The Wrong Place

Another title track from a new album, this time a band who I have previously associated with a more retro fifties kind of sound. Here however, the textures have far more of a sixties feel. A sixties guitar band with an eager fascination for science fiction too, think of The Byrds doing ‘Mr Spaceman’, something which can especially be heard in the crackly wireless-like guitar sounds that feature heavily. Later though, the fuzz guitar plugs in and suddenly this is an out-and-out garage rocker. Shannon & The Clams are taking it to other planets…

Keith Richards – I’m Waiting For The Man

There is a new Lou Reed tribute album coming out called ‘Power Of The Heart’ featuring Lou’s music played by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Rufus Wainwright, Lucinda Williams, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Rickie Lee Jones, Mary Gauthier, Bobby Rush, Automatic, The Afghan Whigs and Rosanne Cash as well as this incredible version of a Velvet Underground classic by Keith. If ever there was a man who is a nailed on obvious choice to cover this number, they probably found him here and what a job he has done. Every sweaty palmed detail of the after hours back street deal going down in the songs lyric is lived and tasted in Richards vocal, walk it home…

Beth Gibbons – Floating On A Moment

We do not hear from Beth anywhere near enough but at least when that voice does resurface, it is with music that wholly justifies the wait. Be warned though, this song is probably not what you need to hear if you are feeling low or depressed, the message in it is heavy and the sadness in the music does feel low and helpless. But something in Beth’s voice carries it, makes it moving rather than bleak and when the “all we have is here and now” lyric is sung, rather than acutely sensing the emptiness that lies ahead, you might just want to squeeze every last drop out of the here and now and grab life with both hands. Music this good is like magic, it can pull you in opposite directions…

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Fresh Juice

8th April 2024

Hannah Frances – Vacant Intimacies

Hannah has many facets to her art and performance being simultaneously a composer, guitarist, poet, singer and movement artist. Her latest and third album ‘Keeper Of The Shepherd’, released by the Ruination Record Co., is a mesmerising set which manages to pull in influences as diverse as freak folk, progressive rock and free jazz into a set that demands repeated plays. On this new release it is the strength and conviction in that voice that really pulls you in, something definitively on display in this live performance of one of the albums outstanding numbers. All the aforementioned reference points are in evidence here, the untethered spirit of freak folk, the expansiveness and unpredictable melodic changes of prog and indeed some brass embellishments straight out of the jazz bop sound book but this is in no way a mish-mash, it is a fully contained song that rises to a pitch then recedes in a rather irresistible manner. The rest of the album is essential listening too, a strong LP release that we will still be talking about by the years end…

Sabatta – Take You There

Sabatta are a London duo who have been churning up the capitol rock scene for more than ten years now with a vital take on passionate, dirty and loud guitar music. They are Yinka Oyewole on guitar and vocals with Debbie Dee on bass and backing vocals. This track, taken from their most recent ‘How To Get Even’ album, is a firecracker of an electric instrumental with some undeniable echoes of garage rock fuelled with primal blues energy. But it sounds modern too, it is music for the here and now, music that demands to be blasted out of every electric vehicle skimming by in the 21st century city centre. Play this loud…

The Mellons – Make Me Feel

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, I think it is reasonable to say that The Mellons, who have been on the scene since 2020, have soaked up the rainy day melancholy of the UK every bit as much as they have bathed in the sun drenched warmth of their own back yard. Of course, one listen to this places and you know they are positioned firmly under the sunshine pop umbrella but there is more going on both musically and visually. It is the Beach Boys harmonising to the sound of tea and biscuits late 60s UK psychedelia. Furthermore, there is more than a hint of the Magical Mystery Tour to this play school ram raid of a video. A splendid time is guaranteed for all however because The Mellons have not neglected the most vital component, they have written a quite lovely pop song in the traditional vein…

Nadine Shah – Topless Mother

This attention grabbing first single from Nadine’s latest album ‘Filthy Underneath’ was perhaps the only track sounding connected to her earlier releases. Elsewhere on the album she does push her musical palette into newer, lusher areas but nevertheless, this is arguably the song that shouts loudest and clearest just why she remains an artist worth paying attention to. The period of personal turbulence around the making of the record inevitably looms large, but the way she can channel this raw material into songs with a keen eye for the absurd and humour in otherwise unfunny situations is very well balanced. In this song alone the experience of dark sessions with a counsellor and dead end word association tasks leads to a chorus line that sings “Sinatra; Viagra; Iguana; Sharia; Diana; Samosa; Varuca; Tequila; Banana; Alaska; Medusa; Gorilla”…

Camera Obscura – Big Love

Here are a band we are lucky to still have around for after the death of long standing keyboardist Carey Lander in 2015 they understandably went on an indefinite hiatus. Even though they never officially declared an end to Camera Obscura and have played live recently, it would have been no surprise if that had been the end but no, they are about to return with a new album entitled ‘Look To The East Look To The West’ which is set for release next month. As you can hear, none of Tracyanne Campbell’s facility for carving a bittersweet melancholic pop hook has been lost and that voice remains a thing of bruised magnificence. They seem to be making a comeback because the music is sufficiently vital to justify the reappearance, at least that is how it sounds to me, which makes this a resurrection as welcome as it is necessary…

Norah Jones – Staring At The Wall

From the new album ‘Visions’ released on the Blue Note label, which is about as close as you get to an identifiably Jazz reference point in anything Norah does these days. She is far more of an Alt-Rock, Indie-Pop shapeshifter than people often give her credit for. This track is a good example, the rolling momentum of the electric guitar rhythm chunders in and out of focus whilst a howling, whooping lyric-less chorus echoes and thunders as if descending like a cloud of thick smog. Her music probes and cross-fertilizes across the genres and the song writing back bone always remains top drawer. Just like when I talked up the new Billy Joel release a few weeks ago, I am aware that a Norah Jones recommendation steers too close to the middle-of-the-road for some but, for me, there is far more cutting edge in this than your average The Streets release or (insert similar over-praised toss) so have it…

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Fresh Juice

19th February 2024

Kitty Liv – The Sun And The Rain

This is an absolute corker of a tune from the Camden singer-songwriter probably best known as part of the vintage family trio Kitty Daisy & Lewis. When they first got deserved attention on the music scene there was perhaps too much focus on how young they were, just as later the talk would often focus on their clothes and fifties style when really we should all have just been delighting in what incredible songs they were coming up with. We can assume from her solo work that Kitty was central to this creativity, because her own tunes are similarly fuelled by a classic R&B sensibility and an ear for a irresistible melodic hook…

Lavinia Blackwall – Morning To Remember

There’s an altogether different kind of retro vibe on this bouncy new gem but it’s equally as charming and delightful. Lavinia makes a unique brand of folk-pop that appears at first to be structured in a conventional manner and yet her senses are spinning with colours and smells and her surrounding environment which has a splendidly dizzying effect on the music. Perhaps that is best illustrated in this video by some of the dancing, which looks simultaneously all over the place but also exactly in tune with the overall spirited approach…

The Zutons – Creeping On The Dancefloor

Twenty years after these groovy cosmic scousers first shook our trees, what a thrill to have them shimmying back into the spotlight like this, reminding us all what a winning way they had with a killer pop tune. There always was a sense of unfinished business with The Zutons, especially after they vanished from view after their third album release in 2009, which is why it is so great not merely to have them back again but proving right from the off that they really are one of the all time Liverpool greats la…

The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High)

Now this from another great band who began causing a stir over two decades ago and are clearly, if this recent live clip is anything to go by, still cooking today. They have a new album called ‘Ohio Players’ out in April and as always with this dynamic duo, that is cause for eager anticipation…

Katherine Priddy – First House On The Left

Katherine’s new album, ‘The Pendulum Swing’, is a lush and cohesive meditation on the loves, memories, losses and overwhelming melange of feelings that are evoked when returning to an old family or childhood home. This song specifically addresses that very thing but the album as a whole is wonderfully connected in its explorations on these themes, playing with a neatly rounded start and finish point which enriches the whole experience similar to a great book or movie…

Mitski – I’m Your Man

Last years Mitski album ‘This Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We’ was undoubtedly one of the records of the year and this haunting live video performance of one of the stand out tracks really manages to stretch every last fibre of tension out of the song. This film, complete with a wonderful element of hammer horror drama at the end, also proves that you do not always need to crank up the volume to punch hard, sometimes the silence can be just as loud…

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Fresh Juice

5th February 2024

Sarah Jarosz – Runaway Train

This is the third single release from the new Sarah Jarosz album ‘Polaroid Lovers’ on Rounder Records and it is yet another delight from the Jarosz strings headed straight for the Country radio stations in the US. Even though she is no longer a new face, it has to be said that ever since Sarah worked on the I’m With Her project alongside Sara Watkins and Aoife O’Donovan a few years ago her own solo work has really took off. She writes with the melodic ear of a vintage Country classicist and at this point her music is of a consistently high standard as can be heard definitively right here…

Muireann Bradley – Candyman

On her debut album release ‘I Kept These Old Blues’ Muireann sounds like she has been plucked straight out of time from the previous century, somewhere between 1929 and 1959. Her sound and style favourably echo the acoustic blues greats like Mississippi John Hurt and Elizabeth Cotton and most remarkable of all she is only on the first rung of the ladder, in fact she is still in school. Nevertheless, as this prime TV exposure from the new years eve Jools Holland show proves, there is nothing forced about her sound, it flows as natural as the Mississippi river and is as pure as water…

Sleater-Kinney – Say It Like You Mean It

On what sounds to these ears like their strongest set of songs since the departure of drummer Janet Weiss, Sleater-Kinney are falling back on the sweet spot angular guitar riffage they built their reputation on not to mention some of Corin Tucker’s most upfront and impassioned vocals in years. There is a horrible tragedy lurking in the background to new album ‘Little Rope’, Carrie Brownstein’s mother died after a car crash, which perhaps explains how they sound like a band working through something in this music. Unfortunately, the best art generally does rise up out of suffering and hardship…

Sukie Smith – Into The Light

Just a straight ahead Indie-Pop tune with a great hook, a lot of energy and a steam train groove that just keeps building the momentum. The track is from Sukies’ debut solo album out on 8th March 2024 ‘The Glass Dress And A Ringing Bell’ on ShillingBoy Records via Bandcamp. It turns out she is probably better known as an actress, most visibly in the long-running UK soap opera ‘Eastenders’, but this gear change re-focusing on her music should put paid to that if this song is anything to go by…

Project Gemini – Colours & Light

This is the performing name of Paul Osborne and one listen to this entrancing track is enough to explain why he has already moved on to a sophomore album release whilst catching the ears of the more eclectically inclined DJ’s on stations like 6Music. He plants his seeds in that UK psych sweet spot located somewhere between 1968-1972 but has coppiced away any unnecessary retro excess, instead basking in the self-propelled light of a classic breakbeat groove and a hazy sense that his gaze is to the future, not the past. Get on board…

Billy Joel – Turn The Lights Back On

Yes I know, I can hardly claim to be foraging in the cutting edges of new music if I am going to put a Billy Joel song up as a new music recommendation. But I would argue down anyone who tries to suggest he is not one of the great songwriters of our time and furthermore I have always had respect for the way he spotted his own endpoint as a creative pop songwriter, simply knocking that part of his work on the head as far back as 1993. So a brand new song is indeed a rarity and even with this there is a sense that Billy’s resisting a full scale return to the ring. It would appear that his collaborators on this have got his agreement to complete unfinished music from his back catalogue and I do have to say, the touchstones of his greatest music are all present here; that voice, the easy grasp of memorable melody and the classically infused piano playing. The pop world has always been a better place with Billy Joel in it…

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Fresh Juice

2nd October 2023

Quantic featuring Andreya Triana – Run

Quantic is the creative and performance identity of musician and producer Will Holland who has an incredible back catalogue with his unique melting pot of Latin, Disco, Soul, Jazz and Electro hybrid sounds which are invariably a delight to the audio senses. He first caught my attention over ten years ago on an album with Alice Russell called ‘Look Around The Corner’ which sounded for all the world like a lost Motown classic with disorientating echoes of the future. Incredible stuff and that is merely the tip of the iceberg yet still today it is more than apparent that his ear for an authentic soul voice and indelible groove remains intact thanks to this stunning tune made with Andreya Triana. Andreya herself is an artist I have kept an ear out for since her equally impressive debut from 2010 ‘Lost Where I Belong’ and today she remains one of the outstanding, authentic vocal talents in the soul world; all in all, a musical marriage that works for everyone…

Joanna Sternberg – People Are Toys To You

As we hit October I am starting to think about the albums that will make up the list of my top twenty records of the year and it is already beyond doubt that Joanna’s ‘I’ve Got Me’ LP will have a high place in the run down. They are a US singer-songwriter and visual artist who seem to have such a natural flair with the craft of melodic music composition. There is a quirkiness to Joanna’s sound which may regrettably push them to the ‘outsider’ fringes of the music scene which is wholly unjust because there is a classicists eloquence to the work way beyond the reach of most pop balladeers and two-chord strumming acoustic coffee shop poseurs. I flipping love Joanna’s album and sincerely hope it is heard and picked up by the large volumes of people it deserves, if Taylor Swift could make a record this good the critical establishment would be queueing up to call it a masterpiece…

Teleman – String Theory

In recent years Teleman have always been a dependable band for superior sounds in the indie-rock world. They released new music on the ‘Good Time / Hard Time’ album earlier this year but found there was still a lot of top-drawer material left in the tank and so a new deluxe-edition of the album is on its way. Tom from the band explains “we were aware of these extra songs that were knocking around; songs that should have/ could have made the cut but for one reason or another got left off. As well as that there was the usual big pile of demos and alternative versions that we always have when we come round to making an album. So we thought that a Deluxe version of the album was in order- all the bells and whistles- and to top it all off, we went back into the studio and recorded a brand new track called ‘String Theory’ which came out really well”. It certainly did, here it is…

Romy – Loveher

Romy Madley Croft is perhaps better known for her music as part of The XX who have won widespread acclaim and success over the past 13-14 years with their bass heavy, quite dubby variant of indie/electro pop. Here Romy is branching out on her own, albeit with XX bandmate Jamie XX listed as part of the production team, revealing a side to her work heavy influenced by the dancefloor. Far from being a blatant shot at mainstream solo riches however, this classy track has the soulful injection you would expect from a classic house 12″ and consequently is rather wonderful indeed, dig in to this one immediately…

The Coral – That’s Where She Belongs

I have been writing new music recommendations on this site for a few years now and it is possible that The Coral are my most frequently suggested band. They have just released a wonderful new album ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ from which this is taken, one of two new LPs they are spoiling us with in 2023. It is not that I have a bias towards them, I really don’t, I haven’t even seen them live since 2002 but the reason they deserve such regular shout outs is simply the quality of their work. They seem to exist in a sweet spot where they have had a deserved amount of success, but nowhere near enough for it to spoil their creativity. The Coral clearly still live and breathe through their music and as much as I’d imagine that’s a rewarding place for the band members to exist, the real winners are us, the listeners. They simply keep on giving us the most wonderfully written and recorded albums to enjoy and obsess over, please never stop…

Hania Rani ft. Duncan Bellamy – Don’t Break My Heart

I have only recently written about Hania Rani and her glacial splendour as a creator of deep, expansive and immersive instrumental mediations on the piano. Her work comes from other planets and as such you need to receive it and give it the attention it demands in order for the vibrations to work their magic. However, it seems she is increasingly moving towards songwriting with lyrics too, as heard on this new release, which given the superior quality of the work can only be a good and welcome development; do not miss out on this one…

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Fresh Juice

25th September 2023

Aja Monet – The Devil You Know

It matters little whether you regard Aja’s lyrical vocalising as a rap or poetry recital set to music, her words are what count and you cannot help but be entranced by the conviction in this delivery. Her music has a close association with Jazz and this track in particular carries a hefty dose of jazzin’ credibility when you hear the trumpet part by Christian Scott, but Monet’s ear for cultural mix and matching when added to her focus makes this a journey entirely in a field of its own. Her new album ‘When The Poems Do What They Do’ is as powerful a statement in dynamic, driven and inspirational protest music as you will find in 2023, presenting an artist who cares about the society and landscape around her and one who is ready to give all she can to solicit positive change, awareness and improvement

Semisonic – The Rope

As with any band worth making a fuss over, the music should be the thing that matters above all other attention grabbing criteria. That is absolutely the case with Semisonic, a US band who I could be sat opposite on a train and still fail to recognise. Their music on the other hand did leave an indelible impression, especially a brace of songs from around 25 years ago, ‘Secret Smile’ and ‘Closing Time’, which sounded then and remain today like a couple of late period Britpop classics being far more sonically connected to that fading UK scene than anything coming out of the US at the time. For the last few years Semisonic have dipped their toes in reunion lakes around album anniversaries and it is now a delight to report new music arriving too, especially when it is as good as this, losing none of their early deftness around a guitar pop tune…

Das Koolies – Pain Down The Drain

Back in 1973 the sound of Glam Rock probably felt like the future even though within three years it would perpetually be linked to the music of a very precise period in the past. So how is it that Das Koolies have lifted that glitter stomping effect from fifty years ago, filled up its tank with four-star fuel and continued to recycle it in a way that seems ostensibly of the future? This is the kind of rollicking, timeless mayhem the Super Furry Animals used to dazzle us with at the back end of the nineties, which is funny because it turns out Das Koolies comprise four former members of that classic band recalibrating for fresh adventures in sound. Their debut album ‘DK.01’ has just arrived…

Olivia Dean – Carmen

Wanted to give this one an entry in the Fresh Juice section mainly because it only just came to my attention via this performance on the night of the Mercury Music Prize. For me the prize on the night landed, for once, in the most deserving hands and what a delight it was to feel the joy of Ezra Collective as they celebrated their success. But the other thing that shot through the pointless flannel of the occasion is how vital the Jazz and Jazz-Soul scenes are proving to be this decade. It really is the area bringing the most consistent thrills, ideas-heavy compositions and innovations in recent times as is demonstrated by the emergence of Olivia Dean, a voice with a vintage earthly vibe singing songs she is clearly feeling with her heart, this is the way it should be done…

Spencer Cullum – Betwixt And Between

A lovely serene song from the latest Spencer Cullum album ‘Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2’ and this one features a delightful vocal contribution from Erin Rae. The video is simple and the natural analogue effect it offers suits the song rather well. I looked down the YouTube comments and noticed someone had posted “see kids this is real music” which is the kind of attitude that could put me off this track (it doesn’t, but it could). As great an era as it was, a piece of music does not have to sound like it is from 1972 to be classed as ‘real’ and neither does it have to be made on conventional instruments. None of that is Spencer Cullum’s fault however, I bet he wears his vintage clothing and collects his twentieth century ephemera like a man high on the simple pleasures of life which is a fine thing indeed. Why don’t you go and put the kettle on before enjoying our penultimate two tunes for the week…

Chip Wickham – Slow Down Look Around

No visual accompaniment to speak of on this one but when the music gently elevates you like this I see no need for anything other than glorious audio. Taken from the new ‘Love & Life’ EP, considering Chip’s background in the early 21st century Jazz scene and Trip-Hop influences this might sound a very conventional piece of music, leaning back into soft spiritual tones and playing with an expressiveness that requires a real lightness of touch. But oh boy what an impression this music leaves on you, enhancing the message of the title ten-fold. We should all ease up the pace from time to time, put down the digital distractions, the screens with their endless scrolling (you’re at the end of this weeks new music recommendations now so you’re good to go) and just breathe in the natural world around. Music this fine needs to be experienced with 100% involvement, it really is worth your time…

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Fresh Juice

18th September 2023

Blur – St Charles Square

Much of Damon Albarn’s writing of late has tended towards the melancholic, maybe with good reason if there is turbulence in his personal life. Certainly it has been evident in his solo music and even the most recent Gorillaz album had more mournfulness than earlier work. On top of that this years new Blur material had its fair share of 21st century angst and sorrow. That said, in the same way that you would not wish for the Rolling Stones to abandon their signature electric blues riffing neither do I want for Blur to abandon that stomping, Brit-grunge sound they perfected around the time of their late nineties peak. It is that very sound you hear here, alive and well on the fantastic ‘St Charles Square’. A deranged, pounding, punchy late period slab of crunchy, tasty Blur goodness that may not define the whole of ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ but for these ears, at least the Bugman still has a place and that’s good enough for now…

Ezra Furman – Gloria

The End Of The Road festival is becoming my unmissable highlight of the festival season and this year offered a phenomenal roster with far more must-see live treats than I could possibly hope to fit into the four days I was there. This is an audience filmed clip of the closing act on the second stage from the final night, Ezra Furman. The fantastically wired version of Patti Smith’s re-working of ‘Gloria’ was the penultimate number from an emotional set in which Ezra offered her own Ziggy style farewell to her audience, stating that this was the last live performance from her band and pointing to an uncertain future with no firm live plans in place. I am certain she will continue to make music but anyone witnessing her dramatic personal and musical journey for the past decade will be aware that this has been tumultuous period in which she has channelled turmoil into some essential, fully-loaded writing and performance; a real artist in the purest sense. One full-throttle run through of ‘Tell Em All To Go To Hell’ later and she was gone, come back soon please Ezra…

Adwaith – Cwympo

I will continue my End Of The Road reminiscences a little longer with my next few selections. Adwaith were unknown to me before the festival, not a name that I had pencilled in to see and indeed when they started their set I was not watching, I was queueing up for a cider or something when I heard their music coming out of the Big Top stage and instantly thought “wow they sound good” making a detour to catch them before they finished. I am still in the process of discovering them post-festival but here is a nice taster of their wonderful Welsh sound when they were playing the Focus Wales annual international showcase festival earlier this year…

Say She She – C’est Si Bon

Say She She were a band that I did schedule to see at the End Of The Road festival but wow, they certainly exceeded my already high expectations. Their sound is indeed rooted in the seventies US disco scene but it was their natural stage presence and personalities that won this crowd over wholesale. They made me think of the Sugababes or All Saints, those bands that whilst adhering to the choreographed dance moves typical of the music’s roots never lose the sense of being friends brought together by their love of the music and desire to have a laugh along the way. Nothing was too slick or polished which only served to enhance the charm tenfold; do not underestimate this trio though, they are producing music with soul, groove and a vintage / modern crossover flare that marks them down for serious good times to come…

Angeline Morrison – Cruel Mother Country

My final End Of The Road reflection for the time being is Angeline Morrison, who I went to watch at a small stage tucked away at the bottom of a steep slope in the woods. It is a stage where the comedy and spoken word elements of the festival bill often perform but as Angeline plays a purely acoustic set on very gentle, quite quiet, instruments maybe it was the right location for her. She was wonderful, intense, hushed, poised, focused as she played and sang with indelible conviction, especially on often quite hard hitting material from her rightfully acclaimed 2022 album ‘The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs Of Black British Experience)’. My only reservation was the feeling that I might have got even more from this set in an enclosed location such as that featured in the clip below. It is no fault of Angeline’s, but to start with she was up against the closing crescendo of Daniel Norgren’s electric blues bleeding into her arena then towards the end the main stage sound of Bodega’s alt-rock threatened to drown out the modest acoustic performer. How an artist holds their concentration against sonic intrusion like that I never know, but she did not appear in the least bit disturbed because perhaps sometimes power comes from within, it does not need to beat a drum…

Rolling Stones – Angry

I will end where I began (just as the Rolling Stones maybe plan to with their latest record) by celebrating the presence in 2023 of one of the greatest bands of all time. When I was listening to a lot of classic sixties bands in the nineties, it could feel at times like I was perversely indulging in the music of the past. That no longer feels the case, as much as it may not fit in with the music industry narrative, I fully believe that I have lived through the era of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Being born in the seventies, my lifetime is coinciding with the majority of the living years of these bands and their members, as time moves on that increasingly feels true. I mean only a few months ago I was at the Fleet motorway services and I recognised the band The Zombies had stopped off on their travels for a coffee. I once stood in a newsagents in Diss and looked over to see that Peter Green was stood next to me. I have interviewed Dave Davies of The Kinks and many others who are readily tied to the sixties. A little while ago my parents saw Rod Stewart having breakfast in the farm shop of their Essex village. I know people who have built their social calendars around seeing artists like Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan whenever they’re on tour, in fact one of my daughters saw Bob Dylan in Bournemouth only last year. My point is the Rolling Stones is not the music of the past, theirs and so many of their peers remains the music of our time now and to have them putting out new material in 2023 and it still sounding as good as this makes me feel alright…

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Fresh Juice

11th September 2023

Hania Rani – Dancing With Ghosts

Hania Rani is a Polish pianist who, in the 20twenties, has carved a natural patina on her instrument and presented a sound that is wholly her own. It is a glacial sound, a floating cloud of ambience, tension and release which seems to make most sense to me in the early sunrising hours of the day when the world seems so still. Equally, her beautiful music could bring calm to the most stressful of days even though there is a sharpness to its edges that evocatively expresses the eastern European industrial machinery of her homeland. This is a graceful song (a departure from the Rani instrumental pieces I have become accustomed to these past three years) taken from her forthcoming ‘Ghosts’ album released on Gondwana Records…

Esther Rose – Chet Baker

From the album ‘Safe To Run’ on NewWest Records which is a record well worth spending some time with. I admit the hint of Velvet Underground wearing cowboy hats might have been a strong factor in this tunes ability to reel me in but still, what a combination and she certainly pulls it off with some swagger. Also, this proves you don’t need a big budget to make a great video…

Susanne Sundfor – Alyosha

Susanne is a singer-songwriter artist from Norway who is perhaps best known for her ongoing appearances in electronica with Royksopp. Her own music however, reaches far and beyond the confines of one style, hers is a creative odyssey that encompasses lush orchestral pieces, minimal chamber folk, musique concrete and widescreen string laden ballads. It is the latter that features in this romantic piece with an accompanying film that cuts in personal scenes from her own wedding ceremony to powerful effect. It is taken from Sundfor’s stunning sixth album ‘Blomi’ which is a work that showcases her impressive range indubitably…

Blake Mills – There Is No Now

Blake’s own solo music is a deceptive beast, it can appear to be light as a feather and slight but do not be fooled, there is always a lot going on in those grooves. By now he has more than established himself as a go to man for his production skills; even a passing listen to the most recent albums by Fiona Apple or Bob Dylan prove that he can efficiently realise the sound that a song needs. But his own work remains a place of progression and sonic flexing, the space in which he develops those phonic ideas that mark him out as a thrilling talent. This one is from Blake’s latest album ‘Jelly Road’…

Gena Rose Bruce – Lighting Up

Adding to this weeks collective is Australian Gena Rose Bruce who has been favourably compared to the likes of Angel Olsen thanks to her brooding country sound and an outer shell that seems to have risen from the dark, dangerous underground. It is no surprise to learn that she has collaborated with Bill Callahan and you cannot argue with Bill’s taste either for Gena, seen here preforming the title song of a 2023 EP, does come across like an artist with potential ready to be tapped. She first came to my attention with 2019’s ‘The Way You Make Love’ which I would strongly recommend checking out on our monthly playlist too: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2023/08/30/september-2023-playlist/

Zoe Rahman – Roots

Rahman’s trio are captured here in a brilliant live film playing a track from her latest album ‘Colour Of Sound’, already one of my favourite Jazz releases of the year (should be in with a shout at next years Mercury’s I reckon seeing as they’ve finally remembered to actually listen to the Jazz nominations and realised they’re worthy of a gong). Zoe is an outstanding pianist whose playing never fails to delight me. There is something in her touch and the flow of her compositions that has always caught my ear in that magical, inexplicable way some music can. A while back I was on holiday watching a play at the Minack Theatre about Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel and became weirdly distracted by the piano score only to find later of course, it was written by Zoe. That sort of confirmed that there is something to her work, an extra quality that I cannot quite put my finger on but despite this, what I can do is strongly urge you to listen to her music, that is what all this waffle comes down to in the end after all…

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Fresh Juice

4th September 2023

Mitski – Bug Like An Angel

This leaves such a heavy impression on you when you first hear it, there is something in the contrast between the solemn verses and the way the heavenly choir just seems to crash into them that is simultaneously unsettling and soothing. Add to that this video depicting the older woman raging with her own demons and coping strategies and the way Mitski herself shoots her a glance and you have a spine tingling combination of tension, sound and vision. This is from the upcoming album ‘The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We’, out September 15th…

Ash Walker – Time Gets Wasted

Ash Walker is a bass player first but pretty much everything else a close second, including DJ, multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger of an alluring hybrid Jazz form that pulls in influences and collaborators from Soul, Dance, Funk, Reggae and Trip-Hop. His new album ‘Astronaut’, his fourth in the eight years since his debut, shows a real progression into a grain of sound that is uniquely his and a very satisfying and glacial vibe it has too, as heard on this tune featuring Denitia and Sly5thAve…

Buck Meek – Cyclades

Here is a track from the new album ‘Haunted Mountain’ by the Big Thief guitarist, this time a live version captured in superb quality from the front row of a recent gig in Copenhagen. Among the highlights of this typically wired performance is the crunching electric guitar solo, the camera rightfully closing in on Buck’s bandmate as he conducts showers of feedback and fuzz with the speaker positioned to his rear. This is the kind of instrumental break that would make Neil Young lunge about the stage with delight which is apt because this grungy country sound owes a lot to those old Crazy Horse records, although you cannot deny that Buck Meek puts his own individual delicate spin on every bit of music he turns his hands to…

Big Thief – Vampire Empire

And while I am thinking about Buck Meek’s other band, here they are with a clip that I already featured once this year in the Fresh Juice section of this site. However, this song was unreleased at the time and now it is available, so where a band like Big Thief are concerned that is justification enough for a little reprise of some new 2023 music which reinforces the already widely held opinion that they are one of the finest things we have in music today…

Wilco – Evicted

What are a combination of four words that are guaranteed to always bring a smile, to be excitedly welcomed and gladly received? How about “you reached your target?” Or perhaps “I’ll get this round?” Maybe, depending on the speaker, “get your kit off” works for you or on a similar sporting theme “another win for Arsenal?” Well they all have a place don’t they? Still, I have just realised there are four words that should definitely bring joyous responses from anyone with fully functioning ears and good taste and they are of course “new music from Wilco”…

Emma Rawicz – Phlox

Here is a superb loose and explorative live version of the opening track from Emma Rawicz’s new album ‘Chroma’ released on ACT Music. The saxophonist may have classical training in her background but it is her ears and appreciation of Jazz fusion artists like Chick Corea in tandem with an open minded approach, which has even seen her sitting in with a Frank Zappa tribute band, indicating her massive potential. She is fearless in her live approach, not afraid to dive into improvisational dark corners and yet her focus and natural feel for what the music requires ensures you stay locked in for the whole journey. This five-piece band situation provides her with the wide pallet her music warrants so do not miss out on this one…

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