Set for release on 9 October 2020, ‘The Amber Road’ is the second album from Jo Bartlett’s Kodiak Island, and follows 2018’s ‘The Golden Section’ which was also released on Musical Bear. The album will be preceded by the release of ‘Simplexity’, the first track to be lifted from ‘The Amber Road’ on 28 August.
Simplexity’s accompanying video is premiered below, a kaleidoscopic mix of memories… how many of you have turned up the volume to escape lockdown and bridge the distance of those festival memories? Simplexity, uplifting and cinematic, offers a window of escape, beautifully conceived and executed.
Jo Bartlett, who also founded The Green Man Festival, talks us through Simplexity and shares her dream festival:
‘Simplexity’ was written in the folk guitar tuning of DADGAD, popularised by Davey Graham in the ‘60s. He was inspired by hearing an oud player in Morocco. I love the earthy qualities of DADGAD and always use my brown Martin guitar to play in this tuning. The sound makes me think of deep, dark brown.
Once the other members of Kodiak Island have added their colour and light to the music the whole piece becomes a psychedelic swirl of rhythm. I recorded the initial guitar part at Bark Studio in Walthamstow and the strings were arranged by Mike Siddell who has previously worked with Laura Marling and Josh T. Pearson. Mike is in the band The Leisure Society who I booked to play the Green Man a few times. That’s how we met.
The Green Man is always in August and I have been sharing a few memories on social media over the last few days. It makes me happy-sad looking at those photos. It got me thinking, that in this crazy year of no festivals, what my dream line up would be. Since it’s a dream, I can go backwards and pluck musicians from times past, along with those of today.
Headlining the cafe, revolution in the air, a young singer called Bob Dylan sings of poetry and politics. Once he has finished and you have drunk your small cup of coffee and finished talking excitedly to your friends (who you just met) at the small table you are all crowded round, you walk across a field and find 1,000s of people in front of the main stage. De La Soul have just released their album ‘Three Feet High and Rising’ and are about to play.
After their set, it’s over to the DJ tent where Andrew Weatherall is about to play a six-hour blinder. Hugging friends, old and new, you all head over to a small camper van which doubles up as a coffee and breakfast bar. Re-energised, you head over to the mellow stage, inside a beautiful walled garden and listen to Phoebe Bridgers sing and play. Lying on your back, looking at the clouds as they scud across the blue sky.
Hailing from Surrey and Hampshire, Kodiak Island rehearse in Jo’s house, and record at Richard H‘s. ‘The Amber Road’ was recorded over a number of months, either by going to Richard’s garage studio or sharing files over the internet, more of the latter during lock down! “I love this band and I love ‘The Amber Road’” says Jo, “we were listening to The Byrds, Joni Mitchell and Four Tet while we were recording.”
Having previously recorded as It’s Jo & Danny and released records as a teenager, Jo founded The Green Man Festival and has had a colourful musical life which is reflected in her blog site Indie Through The Looking Glass https://www.indiethroughthelookingglass.com.
‘I was in my first band at 14 and promoted my first gig at 17″ she says, having booked and promoted hundreds of gigs at The Buzz Club in Aldershot including The Stone Roses, Blur, The Manic Street Preachers, Suede, The Happy Mondays, Primal Scream and The Charlatans. “I was always in bands while promoting those gigs, always singing and playing guitar, and was part of the early indie C-86 movement, releasing a couple of 12″s on Dan Treacy’s Dreamworld Records”
Signed to Sony / BMG in 2000 as It’s Jo & Danny, part of the burgeoning folktronica movement that spawned Four Tet and The Beta Band, their debut album ‘Lank Haired Girl To Bearded Boy’ was rewarded with a plethora of 4 star reviews and plays on daytime Radio 1. “I had my music used for the goal round up on Match of the Day and had a Single of the Week on the Virgin Radio drive time show”, she adds.
In 2003 Jo founded The Green Man Festival in Wales which she ran until 2011, booking such artists as Robert Plant, The Flaming Lips, Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, James Blake, The National and Laura Marling.
Jo continued to be at the forefront of the Freak Folk scene before forming her psychedelic instrumental quartet, The Yellow Moon Band “As The Yellow Moon Band, I had my music used by Liam Gallagher to advertise his Pretty Green clothing label and included on the Guitar Hero computer game, alongside The Rolling Stones, White Stripes, David Bowie and Nirvana” she recalls.
Kodiak Island play live when they can (or could). Local bars, microbreweries in East London, record shops, clothes shops, parties, small festivals in the Sussex woods, and are looking forward to playing again after the crazy is over.
Kodiak Island are:
- Jo Bartlett – Vocals, Guitar, synth.
- Richard H – Guitar, vocals, synth.
- Mike Muggeridge – Bass guitar.
- Gareth Palmer – Cajon, percussion, programmed beats, vocals.
- Matthew Cocks – Synths.
https://www.facebook.com/kodiakislandmusic/ | https://www.musicalbearrecords.co.uk