Standing on the Corner. That name rang a bell, and then I remembered that Gio Escobar and his Brooklyn collective are responsible for the 3 jazzy psych-funk interludes on the new Show Me The Body record, that also have a foot in underground hip-hop. They’re a shadowy group who last year released an album called SOTC (“II”) but only just: copies of the record were exclusively available to buy from a guy in Times Square on September 11. The format was DVD and they cost $50. XL have now signed the group of however many people making whatever post-genre music they want for a proper release of SOTC (“II”) – once again on 9/11. It’s worth shouting about a second time (or, let’s face it, first), with guest spots from Solange and Danny Brown. The vocalist on this track ‘Mr Postman, Wait’ might be Solange, although she’s not credited as that.
Thursday, 8 July, 2026. 35 degrees. London in the heat. 70 degrees, perhaps. I don’t know how they did it but all the air in the city had been pushed inside the Troxy, which is a ginormous art deco theatre in the east end with the uninterrupted sight lines of Radio City Music Hall. The worst idea was to go upstairs to the balcony, where the hottest air is stored and the heating felt like it was on, but we did that for a drink. Blistering. It wasn’t full but there were plenty of people up there. Sat down, enjoying the space, possibly dead. Life can’t survive the balcony of the Troxy in 35 degree heat. But it’ll give it a go for Kevin Morby... Continue reading
In late 2021, on the eve of releasing her sixth album Laurel Hell, Mitski gave an interview to Rolling Stone in which she explained where she’d been for the past two years. Since putting out the critically acclaimed Be the Cowboy, the singer-songwriter had quietly stepped away from music. She quit touring, deleted her social media and generally took herself off to somewhere else for a while. When asked what had led her to quietly quit, she basically pointed towards burnout: “In order for me to survive in the music industry as it exists I had to stuff a pillow over my heart and tell it to stop screaming. I had to be like, ‘Shut up, shut up, take it.’”… Continue reading
Loud And Quiet is having a bit of a summer break from today, but here’s a preview of a special series of First & Best we’ve made with our pals Chump's Comedy, which will be running on our Instagram over the next fortnight. 4 excellent comedians in the hot seat, starting with Nish Kumar next Tuesday.
Give us a follow on the evil Instagram platform, and Chump’s too, who are always booking big names in smaller than usual rooms in and around Margate. They’ve also curated the comedy at this year’s End of the Road festival.
Actress – Radical Frame (Ninja Tine, Sept 18): Experimental techno musician Darren J. Cunningham has announced a new 8-track album with this syrupy stunner called ‘Overchord’. Radical Frame will also feature the recently released ‘Live By You’ with CASISDEAD, and a track with Rainy Miller – another electronic artist incapable of being boring.
Beck – Ride Lonesome (Capitol, Sept 18): Beck got the old band together for his first album in 7 years – the band that played on Sea Change, Morning Phase and Mutations. He even got Nigel Godrich back in to producer. It makes the acoustic, sombre new track ‘In The Night’ a bit of a surprise.
Logic1000 – Confirmation! (Because, Oct 2) – Christine And The Queens, Jam City and yunè pinku are all on DJ and producer Samantha Poulter’s second album. It’s been announced with her most ethereal (and instantly likeable) track yet: ‘All In For You’.
Tineshe – Popstar (Atlantic, Sept 25): No one has quite worked out why Tineshe is 7 albums in and not a huge popstar. Maybe this record, with a manifesting title, will change all that. ‘Crash Out’ is a good start from an RnB artist who’s made standout killer singles her thing for over a decade.
Dry Cleaning have released a deluxe edition of their most recent album, Secret Love, featuring 3 bonus tracks: ‘Grass’, ‘I Have The Key’ and the recently released single ‘Sliced by a Fingernail’. The new edition is on streaming and available as a download via Bandcamp now, and will be released via Dinked on vinyl on 16 October. It’ll comes on purple and mint double LP with alternate artwork and an 8-page booklet. You can pre-order it here.
In boring stat news this week there’s something interesting happening in CD sales – they’re up 16%. Vinyl is up just over 2%, although a lot more people are still buying vinyl over CDs. What the spike does confirm though, is that younger fans are buying CDs as more affordable physical collectibles versus the current price of a new record. The report from data company Luminate also shines a light on just how big K-Pop is: 10% of the 16% hike is down to K-Pop CDs sold, from the likes of BTS.
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