#Memphis Industries

[bandcampsnoop]

12/7/23.

A band I go back to time and time again is Field Music. The Brewis brothers (David and Peter) are like Old Faithful - you can count on them to regularly produce, and you're always amazed. And I mean that. From their debut S/T and "Tones of Town" to this release, "Flat White Moon" they've shown high standards and high quality.

"Flat White Moon" continues the sound they've been crafting since the mid-2000s with perhaps a bit more leaning to Yes and Genesis. They still have nods to Sparks and they still sound like a less punky Futureheads.

This was released in 2021 via longtime label Memphis Industries. If Field Music truly compares to Old Faithful, then we should be getting a new album or project at any moment.

[nofatclips]

Opening Night by NZCA LINES from the album Pure Luxury

[abductionradiation]

The Go! Team will be releasing their 7th record Get Up Sequences Part Two on February 3, 2023 via Memphis Industries. This week, the band shared their new single “Look Away, Look Away,” featuring Benin-based group Star Feminine Band. The dazzling track spans just under 4 minutes long and the spirited energy is infectious. From the psychedelia-tinted layers of instrumental to the free spirited swing of the French vocals, “Look Away, Look Away” has a timeless charm that is hypnotizing. There’s a vintage psych rock nature to the track with the thumping percussions and the trippy blends of synth - a track with some spunk that’ll have you hooked mere seconds in. 

On the track, The Go! Team’s leader Ian Parton shares:

"I had heard about a really interesting group from Benin called the Star Feminine Band. They're a group of girls between the ages of 12 and 19, and were formed by the father of two of the girls in the group who was hoping to inspire change in the way women and girls were treated in Benin. He founded a free music school for girls with the help of the local government, which is where the Star Feminine Band was born. I got in touch and a day later we were on Zoom with me in Brighton and the band in Natitingou in Benin. A month later a team travelled from the capital of Benin to their hometown with a mobile sound recording setup to record their vocals, with the lyrics written by the band in French. They gave it a charging, all-out gang vocal that I wasn’t expecting but really love."

Star Feminine Band add: “The Go! team et Star Feminine Band parlent à ceux qui sont découragés. Levez-vous! Pas de sot métier, pasde paresse” "The Go! Team and Star Feminine Band talk to those who are discouraged. Get up! No foolish trade, no laziness!"  

Connect with The Go! Team:

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

[pseudohendrix]

Painted the Room - Rozi Plain

2023

[robmoro]

Listen | Dutch Uncles release new single ‘Poppin'

Listen | Dutch Uncles release new single ‘Poppin’

Dutch Uncles have released their new single ‘Poppin’, the second track to be taken from the band’s sixth album, “True Entertainment”. Named after the original demo of the track (as is tradition for a t least one track from their albums), it is said to be partly inspired by Talking Heads’ Brian Eno-produced albums. ‘Poppin’ is a minimal take on the age-old anxieties, dread and fear we all…

[burlveneer-music]

Rachael Dadd - Kaleidoscope - inventive modern folk rock from Bristol (Memphis Industries)

On 14 October 2022 wildly creative free-form songwriter Rachael Dadd is to release her brand new studio album ‘Kaleidoscope’. The record is her second album for Memphis Industries and follows 2019’s 'Flux', which was released to much acclaim and which she was touring when the pandemic struck.

Like so many people disconnected from their communities and struggling through the lockdowns, Rachael Dadd turned inwards, seeking escape through music and connection through songwriting, and her hope is that when people listen to ‘Kaleidoscope' “they will feel held and find space to breathe, grieve and celebrate.”

“This album is a lot more honest and personal than ‘Flux'” she shares, “but I feel the songs are universal as they are largely rooted in truth and love. If I had to pick a favourite album it would be this one because of the magical rekindling of human connection when me and my band got back in a room together again. All that magic went into these songs." "Music for me usually comes from a place where I’m in a state of flow and free-child: playful and explorative and sparked by the infinite possibilities that creating it can bring,” she continues, “so kaleidoscope, a toy with infinite possibilities of shape, colour and pattern, seemed like a really good title."

Following on from taking part in the Super Cool Drawing Machine touring art exhibition which raised money for small venues during lockdown, Rachael developed the album artwork by embroidering on her sewing machine. She created colourful geometric organisms, possibly depicting the patterns of a kaleidoscope, or musical sounds spread across a huge blue sky.

"The image of the sky appears many times on the album, representing boundless freedom from the mundanity and struggles of being human", says Rachael. "Music, too, provides escapism and freedom, and I like that while both music and the sky can be boundless, they are also containers to preserve all the very best things. Here on ‘Kaleidoscope’ they are vessels for truth and love."

Having been kissed on the cheek and told to pursue music at the age of 14 by Tori Amos, who along with Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell lit up a new universe of possibility and magic for her, showing Rachael a way to translate her own inner world into words and music, she went on to discover John Cage, Steve Reich and John Tavner. Creating avant-garde feedback loop experiments at Alton College also left a big impression on her, as did WARP artists such as Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Plaid and Broadcast, and more recently Elsa Hewitt. "I love synth worlds and it's been really great to explore this more deeply on ‘Kaleidoscope'”, says Rachael, who also draws inspiration for the new record from Bristol’s contemporary jazz scene and artists like Ishmael Ensemble and Waldo's Gift.

[senorboombastic]

Listen to the fifth episode of ’60 Minutes or less’, the new podcast from Birthday Cake For Breakfast – featuring Peter Brewis of Field Music!

Words: Andy Hughes Off the back of the first four ‘60 Minutes or less‘ episodes – featuring guests Joe Casey of Protomartyr, Paul Hanley of The Fall, Philip Frobos of Omni and Jonathan Higgs of Everything Everything – it’s a trip to present our fifth episode, featuring Peter Brewis! A North East musician of note, alongside brother David, Peter is the other half of the brilliant Field Music.…

[underachievers-please-try-harder]

Track of the day // NZCA Lines - Push Reset

[sinceileftyoublog]

Rozi Plain Album Review: PRIZE

(Memphis Industries)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Take a listen to English musician Rozi Plain’s discography over the past decade and a half, and you can hear it as a precursor to a lot of today’s best jam-jazz-folk fusion. After touring her 2019 album and Memphis Industries debut What A Boost, she spent a week on the Isle of Eigg recording new music with Jamie Whitby Coles and Gerard Black; lockdown persisted, and what was supposed to be an EP became a full-fledged album’s worth of material. PRIZE, the result, is chock full of contradictory feelings, divergent instrumentation, and ambiguous wordplay, the perfect soundtrack to reemergence.

What immediately stands out on PRIZE is its qualities, namely warmth and playfulness. Lead single and opening track “Agreeing For Two” is an effective microcosm of the record as a whole. With words in reference to empathy and humility, Plain sings beneath a swaying melody, staccato guitars, panning synths, Alabaster dePlume’s buttery saxophone, Black’s springing piano, and backing vocals from This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables. “If nothing’ll do, it’s nothing we’ll do,” Plain winks, supportive and in solidarity of whoever she’s simply existing with. She knows that humans are imperfect. On “Prove Your Good”, she, Coles, Black, and banjo player Rachel Horwood gently chant, “What do we want? / Less / Do you want more? / Yes,” confident in only their confusion atop layers of disintegrating guitar that mirror their state of mind. On the off-kilter “Help”, Plain sings, “If it’s a feeling that’s going / When it goes, you won’t even know,” not quite a mantra, not quite absurdist, fitting comfortably between instruments that emulate other instruments, like Cole Pulice’s saxophone swelling like an orchestra and James Howard’s guitar processed like an accordion.

PRIZE is also forward thinking and reflective at once. Though to these ears it mostly fits within Plain’s already prescient discography, it prominently adds electronics and further percussion to the mix. Danalogue of The Comet Is Coming duels with Black on “Painted The Room”, transforming a pulsating trip hop song into a solo-laden shuffle. Synths waver around Eiichi Shimasaki’s steel drums on “Complicated”. On the retro end of the spectrum, “Sore” recalls the drama of Aughts-era Baroque indie, highlighted by Emma Smith’s weepy violin and Yoshino Shigihara’s choral harmonies, while “Spot Thirteen” is like a Hail to the Thief jazz freakout, dePlume’s honking saxophone recalling live Bon Iver-era Colin Stetson. It’s these tracks that are the most effective on PRIZE. That is, when the words coming out of your mouth are enigmas, it’s best to let your music express itself to the fullest.

[dustedmagazine]

Rachael Dadd — Kaleidoscope (Memphis Industries)

Kaleidoscope by Rachael Dadd

Rachael Dadd has been making folk-centric albums since the aughts, but her latest album Kaleidoscope hardly sounds folk at all. The single “Moon Sails” glides into view on pillow-y layers of synths, which sound more like Black Moth Super Rainbow than Pentangle. Later the song builds in slashing swathes of strings and soaring blasts of horn. The orchestration is lush, even baroque, but more than that, there’s an ambient Stereolab-ish hum behind these tunes that’s anything but homespun.

Consider, for instance, “Children of the Galaxy,” which opens the album in slapping percussion and muted, musical bass, spinning out gossamer threads of guitar, and whose melody nods in a pretty trance. Dadd’s voice is high and shorn of flourishes, cutting through the mesh of sounds with an abstract purity. But the song gathers in a dizzying, choral way as it reaches points of emphasis. There is nothing sparse about it. 

The band that Kaleidoscope reminds me of most is Olden Yolk, who also bathe their modal melodies in a shimmering humid glow, and who also splice a space-age trippiness into simple tunes. Both make music that envelopes and engulfs the ear. Both give you a euphoric contact buzz as they dip and swerve and soar. “Join the Dots” may start with a rain of folk-picked acoustic guitar notes, its fragile tune may venture hesitantly in traditional paths, but its cry of “Does that move you?” is a bittersweet revelation, trembling with glissando violins, and the only possible answer must be, “Yes, yes, it does.”  

Jennifer Kelly

[obsessedbyneon]

Memphis designs: Plaisance plateau, Pendule, Désir lamp, Glastonbury lamp and Bontemps vase

Scan

[bandcampsnoop]

4/27/23.

This will probably be my last post referencing Record Store Day for a while. I came upon The Go! Team (UK) "Proof of Youth" while looking for the Romeo Void Record Store Day release on Discogs. "Proof of Youth" was reissued for Record Store Day 2022 - and can be found for dirt cheap on Discogs.

This was the follow up to "Thunder, Lightning, Strike" that took the indie world by storm back in 2004. "Proof of Youth" uses the same formula but employs more guest vocalists (Chuck D for crying out loud). The music retains its upbeat charm without losing the cool mix of samples, vocals and instruments that made "Thunder, Lightning, Strike" so unique.

I can't help but hear The Pipettes or Still Flyin', but really The Go! Team are in a league of their own. In fact, I would say they have more bands that were clearly influenced by them; in fact, I've mentioned many in posts over the years: Spirit Bunny, Club Night or Ray Borneo and the Bystanders.

The Record Store Day version was handled by Memphis Industries.

[amethystdeceiverr]

Drunk Elf Gang Enterteiment presents...

Elph#01 "All the ligths in the wolrd go out" by Crissis, manufactura casera limitada a 5 unidades numeradas, no te quedes sin el clásico del memphis rap industrial esotérico que comenzó la leyenda,it's on in stores right now

[waevform]

wæv mix

[elvis1970s]

On April 29th, 1977, while Elvis was Duluth, Minnesota, for one night at the 7 700 seat Duluth Arena, he was probably a little surprised to find out that he was, according to one newspaper, up for sale.

The Nashville Banner, citing 'authoritative sources' in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, claimed that Colonel Parker had decided to sell Elvis' contract for 'health and financial' reasons. The story claimed that Parker needed a fast million dollars to replace money lost gambling at the Las Vegas Hilton in December 1976, when Elvis was playing what would prove to be his final Hilton residency.

Definitive Elvis biographer, Peter Guralnick, points out that the paper's alleged sources were anonymous, and the article contained factual inaccuracies, including the incorrect assertion that Elvis' Las Vegas Hilton contract had expired, leading to the reporter's conclusion that Parker would no longer be able to trade Elvis' services to pay off his debts, hence the sale. In reality, Elvis was booked to play his most significant engagement in Vegas since 1969 - the grand opening of the new 5 000 seat Hilton Pavilion showroom, scheduled for October, 1977.

Colonel Parker was in St Paul, MN, overseeing preparations for the following night's show. He spoke to rival Nashville paper, The Nashville Tennessean, describing the Banner's story as a 'complete fabrication'. "I’m here, I’m working with Elvis, I’m in good health, and I don’t have any debts—at least none that I can’t pay."

Joe Esposito also weighed in, describing the relationship between Elvis and Colonel Parker as 'cordial' and stating that neither had any plans to break their long-standing agreement that had begun with a handshake.

The 'consortium of West Coast businessmen' who were the alleged buyers never materialised, if they ever existed at all.

Having said this, Peter Guralnick concluded;

"… but it was apparent to anyone who knew anything about the recent history of their tangled relationship that the story was, in essence, true. Too many people had heard Colonel complaining that Elvis was more trouble than he was worth, that he was intractable and could no longer be effectively managed. And too many people were aware, as Elvis' Los Angeles lawyer Ed Hookstratten was inclined to put it, that Colonel was "servicing a problem of his own." Elvis had no doubt about the story in any case: he knew in his bones it was true. And while the consortium of 'West Coast businessmen' who were supposed to be buying his contract never surfaced, driven off presumably by the glare of publicity, Elvis had never felt more betrayed or more alone…"

(Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley - 1999 by Peter Guralnick.)

[theparanoid]

Mutant Joe - TOMBOLOMIXX 006

(2020 mix)

[Ghettotech, Memphis Rap, Hardcore Breaks, Baltimore Club, Jazz Rap, Industrial Techno, Southern Hip Hop, Footwork, Ghetto House]