Music Is Still The Cure

At 8.00am GMT, it's Bandcamp Friday again for 24 hours so here's another mad dash through a half dozen singles and EPs I'd recommend for your shopping trolley.

It's been a heck of a year for Tor Maries. January saw the release of brilliant album Cacti; June a despicable display of trolling after a (frankly fantastic) performance at Glastonbury. After a period of retreat and renewal, retiring the Billy Nomates name and in August, sharing the first fruits of her "scratchy demos & stuff" as Tor.

 

emily, i'll do it tonight is the seventh weekly release from Tor since and it sounds every bit as wonderful as those that have preceded it. 'Demo' is a misnomer, these are fully formed songs and stories. Available as a name your price download, all highly recommended.

 

There will be some who imagine a parallel universe where Midlake and John Grant continued to work together after Queen of Denmark, John never moved to Iceland and took a musical left-turn into electronica and the friends continued deliver songs steeped in 1970s soft-rock.

In our plane of existence, it's been a thirteen year wait but a new AA-side from Midlake and John Grant is out today on Bella Union, which released that seminal collaboration. For a couple of quid, you get three tracks: Roadrunner Blues, plus two versions of You Don't Get To; the latter comes in a 3:30 edit and a full-length version clocking in at nearly eight minutes. I've particularly loved John Grant's subsequent musical direction, but listening to these songs is like slipping on a pair of well-worn and well-loved shoes. 

 

Not that they are mere pastiche or rehashes: the opening line of "Does it seem like you're surrounded by douche bags and assholes on all sides?" is reassuring grit in the honey pot. 

 

These songs were recorded a few years ago whilst Midlake was on hiatus for a collaborative project called BNQT. That now appears to be shelved and the various songs recorded with various artists will emerge as a series of 'Midlake &...' releases. John's also indicated his desire to work with Midlake again, so it's a win-win for me.

 

 

Château Flight are French duo Gilbert Cohen and Nicolas Chaix and I first heard them in the early 2000s. I don't always go for brand new music each Bandcamp Friday and like a rummage around in the archives for stuff I may have missed first time. In September, I checked out Château Flight after one of their remixes popped up in a random shuffle. I came away with Les Antipodes Versions Speciales, an EP from 2004. Their most recent release dated from 2018 and, prior to that, 2014 so my assumption was that Château Flight were possibly dormant or even no more. I signed up to mailing list anyway, as I do for all of my Bandcamp purchases.

 

A pleasant surprise then to receive an email last week with the cryptic message,

 

It's been a while since we haven't communicate..
Get ready..some hot news very soon..
We are back at y'a.

 

Last Friday, this materialised as a new song/single, Nookoqo. A quick t'internet search reveals that Nookoqo translates from Somali as 'change' or 'change it'. A six-minute banger, reminiscent of late 1990s Slam and Secret Knowledge which is a very good thing indeed. An album, La Folie Studio, is on the way and I will be waiting with interest. 

 

 

Cee ElAssaad is from Morocco and, like Diamond Dealer from yesterday's post, an artist I discovered thanks to Connected, the record label established by Stereo MC's. In February, Cee released the Njalo EP which has been on repeated plays since, whether the vocal, dub or instrumental mixes, and is itself a highly recommended purchase. 

 

In August, Cee released a collaborative single with US artist Lee Wilson. The original 6-minute version of Music Is The Cure contains familiar elements from Njalo, with additional jazz inflections and the Wilson's own East Coast vibe. On the (virtual) flip side is an RnB mix, under three minutes and completely laid back. Niiiiiice.

 

By the time Bandcamp Friday goes live, Powder Wax Vol. 1: Little Black Dress, a perfectly tailored new EP from Jesse Fahnestock will be on the catwalk. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of the three-track single with these words from Jesse,

Got something new for you from my 10:40 alias (sort of). Going to start doing an occasional series of vocal house-ish tracks under the heading Powder Wax. This is the first attempt. The A-side is a pop/disco number - a bit out on a limb really, not sure how it will be received. The other two tracks are cosmic/dub versions that are more in my usual area. Anyway, maybe you'll find something to like.

There's no maybe about it. I can't be completely objective about this, as I've enjoyed everything that Jesse has produced in the last few years, but this delivers on several levels. If you've enjoyed Jesse's work as 10:40 and/or with Darren Bell as Jezebell then you will find much to enjoy here. If you're new, then this also serves as a great introduction/statement of intent.

There are three mixes available, the Original Fit, 10:40's Heavy Eyeliner Edit and the Undressing Dub. If forced to make a soundbite comparison, and partly because I've been listening to so much 1980s extended and dub mixes recently, I got a feel for Touched By The Hand Of God by New Order, with the 10:40 edit - intro especially - evoking Dancing On The Ceiling by Lionel Richie. I've seen the phrase 'future nostalgia' bandied around a lot but this seems a good application: music is forwarding thinking yet taps into a feeling of what has gone before.

 

All feature the vocal talents of London-based S.A.A.R.A aka Sara Belle, whose song Deliverance received the 10:40 dub treatment late last year. As usual, it's impossible for me to pick a favourite of the three mixes and why should I, when I can enjoy them all, all of the time? More please, Jesse.

Oh, and whilst the focus is on singles, a reminder that an early 2023 highlight was 10:40's Transition Theory album, released on Valentine's Day and available as a name your price download. You'd be bonkers not to.

Amadou & Mariam returned with Eclipse, their first album in three years, in December 2022 and they're back (again!) with a new song, My Sahel. Much as you'd expect, it's four and a half minutes of aural joy, with a killer bass line to boot. Now in their fifth decade of marriage and musical partnership, Amadou & Mariam continue to inspire and delight.

 

My Sahel also gives me an opportunity to once again plug the Sahel Sounds label, which celebrates each Bandcamp Friday by making their entire catalogue available as a name your price download. Lots of wonderful albums and compilations to choose from but sticking with the theme of this post, I'd also recommend the song/single Debbo by Andal Sukabe.

 

Set your reminders now!