Philly duo The Plastic Traps consist of brothers Andy and Gary Ellison. Don’t get bogged down in words, check out their debut album, Find a Home, here.
The 25th anniversary of Paul Simon’s classic album Graceland will be commemorated with musical and film celebrations continuing into the summer.
Following its Sundance Film Festival premiere, the Joe Berlinger-directed documentary “Under African Skies,” chronicling the creation and influence of Graceland, will have its US television premiere on A & E this spring. In May, “Under African Skies” will screen at several festivals worldwide and enjoy a limited theatrical engagement in New York and Los Angeles, beginning May 11th.
Moreover, Legacy Recordings will be offering several 25th Anniversary versions of Paul Simon’s Graceland on June 5th including a Box Set, CD/DVD, Vinyl, and more.
Good news comes with Spoon Records and Mute announcing Can – The Lost Tapes, the long awaited box set of unreleased studio, soundtrack and live material. Set for June 19th release, The Lost Tapes was curated by Irmin Schmidt and Daniel Miller, compiled by Irmin Schmidt and Jono Podmore, and edited by Jono Podmore. More background from the press release is below.
When the legendary Can studio in Weilerswist was sold to the German Rock N Pop Museum, they bought everything, including the army mattresses that covered the walls for sound protection, and relocated it to Gronau. Whilst dismantling the studio, master tapes were found and stored in the Spoon archive. With barely legible labeling, no one was sure what was on these until Irmin Schmidt and long time collaborator Jono Podmore started to go through over 30 hours of music.
What they found was years of archived material, not outtakes, but rather tracks which had been shelved for a variety of reasons – soundtracks to films that were never released and tracks that didn’t make it onto the final versions of albums due to space.
Irmin Schmidt explains “Obviously the tapes weren’t really lost, but were left in the cupboards of the studio archives for so long everybody just forgot about them. Everybody except Hildegard, who watches over Can and its work like the dragon over the gold of the Nibelungen and doesn’t allow forgetting.”
The final cut of tracks, dating from 1968-1977, features studio material recorded at Schloss Nörvenich and Can Studio, Weilerswist with the Can line up of Holger Czukay on bass, Michael Karoli on guitars, Jaki Liebezeit on drums and Irmin Schmidt on keyboards, and on most tracks, vocals from Malcolm Mooney or Damo Suzuki.
Richmond, Virginia’s Wrinkle Neck Mules have a new record by the name of Apprentice to Ghosts. The vocals and music at times bring to mind the rustic organics of Walter Salas-Humara and the Silos. See what you think with a listen to “Leaving Chattanooga” from the album.
Olivier Jarda will release his sophomore LP, Good Luck Cartel, on April 10th (May UK release). Jarda recorded the album in Halifax over the last two winters with Charles Austin at Echo Chamber.
On May 1st Shelflife Records will be releasing a new 4 song EP from Airiel titled Kid Games. This will be a limited edition release on white vinyl though a few colored versions will be available on the website.
In 1997, Jeremy Wrenn formed a shoegaze duo called Airiel. Nowadays the band includes four members and has released two singles, five EP’s (including a box set), one full length album and much more.
I’ve listened to the album Seeds from Hey Rosetta! a few times because its solid. No Dewey Decimal score here, though one might anticipate good songs with nice enough mood and movement.
Spent some of the Saturday with House of Wolves debut Fold In The Wind. Depending on your disposition this could be an appropriate destination for you. House of Wolves is the work of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Rey Villalobos. The album was produced and mixed by John Askew (The Dodos, Alela Diane) in Portland Oregon.
Very much have I enjoyed Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang’s new EP, An Letah. Here we have the Sierra Leonian singer Janka Nabay paired with a group of NY musicians he calls the Bubu Gang. The three song offering brings a vibrant colored escape that although brief, is close to perfect in its distance. Will be interesting to hear the coming LP in June.
