Getting the outsideleft week in music together from the annual outsideleft camp. With no wifi, and no G of any desciprition. A day late, which is not all that bad after all.
RECORD OF THE WEEK
TASHA - Lake Superior (Father/Daughter)
by LamontPaul
Tasha's continues her quiet music revolution on her new single, 'Lake Superior', dedicated to her mother and grandmother. "I think this song is my way of being there for my mom and telling her I'm there for her, even if it's a few years too late." Tasha says. Her music continues to celebrate the radical political act of being exquisitely gentle with yourself. Try it, for a moment, a minute, a day, it feels life altering. Her art is not to be underestimated. "Black imagination, in a place of oppression and colonization, the ability to imagine a future, imagine magic, imagine something better, is subversive. People don't want you to be able to imagine yourself outside of the place that you've been put." Tasha writes on her website. There's Still The Moon, Kind of Love, Lullaby and the LP Alone At Last... All a rivetingly quiet delights. Tasha has the mesmerising beauty of say Ian McCulloch in 1978 riding the bus to Will Sergeant's house to start Echo and The Bunnymen. The future unfurling but still entirely unwritten. Meanwhile Lake Superior rather radically features the occasional crack on the snare drum. "Hush now, you are safely held." Tasha is totally rad.
SINGLES
UNDEROATH - Hallelijah (Fearless)
by Tim London
COURTNEY BARNETT - Before You Gotta Go (Mom + Pop)
by Spanish Pantalones
I miss Barnett's distortion guitar pedal. Let's hope we hear it a bit on the forthcoming LP this single comes from. Or maybe this is her mature second album -- we'll see in November when Things Take Time, Take Time drops.
ALEWYA - Jagna (Because London)
by Lee Paul
I can't say it better than Alewya? "Firstly, Jagna will never be able to be articulated in words. But I’ll try. Jagna is polarity. Jagna is release, Jagna is my soul, Jagna is my rage, Jagna is my lesson, my desperation, frustration, my surrender, my vulnerability, my acceptance and my existence on this planet. "Jagna" translates to Warrior/Fighter in Amharic. It is a call for those that come before me to release and charge. Jagna is who I am." Jagna is mesmeric record from Ethiopian-Egyptian Londoner, Alewya.
BLACK MIDI - Cruising (Rough Trade)
by Tim London
JAKUZI - Hic Isik Yok (CIty Slang)
by Tim London
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA - That Life (Jagjaguwar)
by Tim London
FINNEAS - A Concert Six Months From Now (Big Co)
by Tim London
ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS FEAT. CAMI - La Chica De Hoy (This Year's Girl) (UMG Recordings)
by Jay Lewis
If the first offering from Elvis Costello's Spanish reimagining of his 'This Year's Model' album seemed a little bit too safe (Juanes did his best EC impression on the hit 'Pump it Up'), this is where the project starts to make brilliant sense.
Cami (formerly Camila Gallardo), is a young Chilean superstar who won the Latin American version of The Voice. Her take on 'This Year's Girl', a swipe at the sexism and manipulation of the music industry, is magnificent, fully grasping that those hideous attitudes still exist. You won't need Spanish lessons to get behind the passion and venom of her delivery.
As with all the tracks on the forthcoming 'Spanish Model' the original music by The Attractions, remains intact. The four decades that separate the band's recording from singers cannot be felt, she is totally in sync with the band. And, my word, what a band!
'Spanish Model' is released on 10 September
THE DARKNESS - Motorheart (Cooking Vinyl)
by Spanish Pantalones
Once the members of The Darkness decides to take themselves a little more seriously and stops trying to sound like other bands, they could be interesting, but "Motorheart" is just an exercise in making more derivative metal from the mid-'80s.
TOM MORELLO FT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & EDDIE VEDDER - Highway To Hell (Mom+Pop)
by Tim London
EPs
HANNAH PEEL - Unheard Delia ()
by Jay Lewis
You'll have noticed that this year Coventry is having its turn at being the UK City of Culture. And, you'll be more than familiar with the city's musical legends (not just Lieutenant Pigeon), too. But what of the person from the city who took us on that giant leap into the future? What of the pioneering Delia Derbyshire?
Step forth Hannah Peel, whose Mercury nominated album 'Fir Wave' uses the sounds created on Derbyshire's 1972 library music record 'Electrosonic' as a base for her own musical explorations on what is being greeted as one of her finest records to date (and there are many to choose from). Now, in addition to the album, is this EP that goes further in paying homage to Derbyshire's genius.
The two 'Unheard Delia' tracks blend interviews with Derbyshire with an unimposing score by Peel. The tales told in the interview glimpse at the light and shade of her story. They deserve to be heard. The three remixes of the 'Fir Wave' tracks are by members of the Radiophonic Workshop as well the musicologist Jo Hutton (who had interviewed Delia in 2000), are subtle and thoughtful reinterpretations. They are not the standard remix fare - they are valuable additions to an ambitious project. If I was forced to single out one track then it would be Hutton's take on 'Carbon Cycle' a version that has all of the otherworldly weightlessness of Eno's 'Apollo' soundtrack. Spellbinding.
Delia would have approved.
LPs
SORROWS - Love Too Late..... the real album (Big Stir)
by John Robinson
Sorrow, Love Too Late... the real album is out now on Big Stir Records. It nearly didn't make it out at all. John Robinson has the full story here
THE KILLERS - Pressure Machine (Island)
by Spanish Pantalones
Hmmmm. I listened to this. They've had hits before. Wedding party favorites like Mr Brightside. They'll have hits again. What do they have to do with music though?
Other Materials
SCRITTI POLITTI - Cupid & Psyche 85 (Virgin / Warner Bros.)
by Spanish Pantalones
So much of this week's new music I've heard is so fucking horrible, I'm reviewing a reissue by Scritti Politti -- that'll inform you on the landscape of the current music industry, but I digress. Cupid & Psyche 85 scratches that 'sophisticated disco' itch you've had all summer long, and Green Gartside's voice still sounds fresh. Not since Tom Jones has a Welshman's voice grabbed me by the testicles and pulled me onto the dance floor as Gartside's does.
Main Image: Record of the Week, Tasha, Lake Superior record cover image.