The Latest
Modern Nature returns with “Source,” a new single from their anticipated album The Heat Warps, out August 29th. The politically-charged track confronts the 2024 UK riots directed at asylum seekers, sparked by online misinformation. Frontman Jack Cooper notes that amidst the hate, he saw a desperation for community, which he turned into a strangely uplifting song.
The World Is But a Place of Survival: Begena Songs from Ethiopia is the latest compilation offering from the London-based record label Death Is Not The End, which delves into the deeply spiritual and rarely heard music of the begena, a large ten-stringed lyre intrinsic to the Amharic heritage of Ethiopia.
The Archivists (2020) is a Canadian short film directed by Igor Drljaca that explores how artistic creation is the ultimate expression of our interconnectedness. Set in a dystopian future where past art is forbidden, the film follows three musicians who discover a secret room in an abandoned home containing vinyl records and a gramophone. Selecting one of the albums to play, they are inspired to perform one of the songs.
Colombian-born, US-based artist Lucrecia Dalt has released “caes,” the third single from her forthcoming album, A Danger to Ourselves. The track, a powerful collaboration with Mexican singer and sound artist Camille Mandoki, is a stark and intense exploration of raw human emotion. The accompanying video, filmed between Dalt’s new home in the Southwestern US and Mandoki’s base in Mexico City, visually interprets the song’s theme of surrender.
The 18-year-old Palestinian oud virtuoso Samih Madhoun has released “Oud Music from Gaza Volume 2”, a profound testament to the enduring power of art in the face of unimaginable adversity. Recorded entirely in the Gaza Strip, throughout you can hear the everyday sounds of life, including ambulance sirens, rubble being moved and cleared, a reminder of the unchecked hell the Palestinians face.
This month’s edition of the Ceremonial Counties tape series from Folklore Tapes features Essex and Rutland, two counties that share strong links to Britain’s Roman history. Laurel Morgan’s contribution, The Last Stand at Ambresbury, draws lines between the mythic Boudicca and modern ideas about landscape, ecology, feminism and rebellion, while guitarist and improviser Richard Chamberlain creates seven distinct pieces, each inspired by a different phase of Rutland’s history.
Los Angeles-based songwriter Swimming Bell, the musical project of Katie Schottland, has released a surreal new music video for “95 At Night,” a standout track from her latest EP, Somnia. Directed by Christopher Good, the video is a hypnotic visual journey that draws heavily on Maya Deren’s seminal 1943 experimental film, Meshes of the Afternoon.
Decades after their conception during Thatcher’s reign, Mike Cooper re-releases “Law And Order” and “Our Emotional Style.” A stark protest titled “Requiem For The UK”, the songs use “cut-up” lyrics from Pynchon novels and improvised guitar. Cooper states that despite years of political change, “nothing has changed,” giving these sonic poems a renewed poignancy.
Grace Stewart-Skinner’s “Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie” is a remarkable debut. Its greatest strength lies in her fusion of the personal and the historical, where family heirlooms, such as poems from a beloved grandfather, become the foundation for a wider community archive. It not only preserves the Avochie dialect for future generations but also celebrates the spirit, humour, and resilience of the community that shaped it.
Listen to the latest Monday Morning Brew playlist featuring music from Grace Stewart-Skinner, Joshua Burnside & Laura Quirke, DUG, Big Thief, Anna Mieke, Cerys Hafana, Sam Amidon, Ye Vagabonds, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Afel Bocoum, Astrachan, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Brandee Younger, Hayden Pedigo, S.G. Goodman and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Tenniscoats, Alastair Galbraith, Natalia Beylis, Floating Action, Blue Lake and Dana Gavanski.