Katie Kim and Crash Ensemble
New Releases: Indie (November 2018)
Featured below: Katie Kim and Crash Ensemble; O Emperor; Donnacha Costello; D.F.F.; My Brightest Diamond; and Thatchers of the Acropolis.
Listen to the JM – The Journal of Music indie music playlist on Spotify: http://ow.ly/TiQd30k1B4f.
Each week The Journal of Music compiles news on new and recent releases in contemporary, classical, jazz, traditional music, indie and more. Please send details of all releases to newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com. For more information on reviews, see here.
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Katie Kim and Crash Ensemble: Salt Interventions
Independent
2 November 2018
In the Journal of Music review of the concert that spawned this new album by Katie Kim and Crash Ensemble, Anna Murray wrote that the collaboration ‘gave the listener a profoundly different experience of [Katie Kim’s] Salt’. For Interventions, composer Sean Clancy has created subtle arrangements of the singer’s songs. The arrangements highlight the beautiful gestures of her songwriting, creating an arresting album.
Visit www.crashensemble.com.
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Big Skin Records
2 November 2018
This album from Waterford-based five-piece O Emperor will be the band’s last release, feeling they had come to a ‘natural conclusion’. Jason is a pretty sophisticated and strange piece of garage-rock, full of surprises and right angles. There is an old-school organ feel to their synths and jagged guitar riffs, and a core of funk over which they have overlaid a distorted wandering vocal narrative and claustrophobic textures.
Visit www.oemperor.com.
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Donnacha Costello: one two three four five six
Independent
29 October 2018
This six-track release was created entirely on an EMS Synthi (a 70s analog synth) and ‘Directed Computer System’, and contains something of the soundworld you might expect, rendered in ways you almost certainly wouldn’t. Opening track one layers a number of cycling swells, a soundworld suspended for over 8 minutes; the whole album seems to sway gently as if itself suspended over a background radiation of warm fuzz.
Visit donnachacostello.bandcamp.com.
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D.F.F.: Pouric Songs (2018 Version)
Frisbee Records
9 November 2018
This is a re-release of a 2014 album by the same name by a seven-piece band headed by guitarist and composer Dave Flynn, and featuring artists such as cellist Vyvienne Long and guitarist and songwriter Niwel Tsumbu. Flynn decided to give the album a second life with a changed track order, and some edits of the songs. Pouric Songs is big in sound and rhythm focussed, with the feel of a group that create as a unit, pooling their musical resources.
Visit www.daveflynn.com.
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My Brightest Diamond: A Million and One
Rhyme and Reason Records
26 November 2018
The new album from composer and singer Shara Nova (also known for her work with David Lang and The National’s Bryce Dessner), is a big and brash follow-up to This is My Hand. Nova has widened her musical scope here, revelling in both her ability to create catchy dance choruses and experimental vocal textures.
Visit www.rhyme-reason.com.
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Thatchers of the Acropolis: Ceol Baile
Independent
2 November 2018
This is the second single from Irish-language group Thatchers of the Acropolis. Described as a ‘road movie’, Ceol Baile describes the journey from Dublin to Corca Dhuibhne. It’s an intense, intriguing mix of recitation, traditional singing, moody cymbals, electronics and mentions of bars, cigarettes and DJs. Interesting times for new music in Irish.
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Please send details of all new releases to newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.
