New Pink Floyd album Due in October

David Gilmour's wife Polly Samson dropped a bombshell today when she announced on Twitter that a new Pink Floyd album would be released in October.

"Endless River" will be based on material originally recorded in 1994 during the Division Bell sessions.

According to recording engineer Andy Jackson "Endless River" comes from "A bunch of jams from ‘The Division Bell” sessions that have had new overdubs done in the last year or so."

Durga McBroom-Hudson who appears on the album as a vocalist reveals "“The recording did start during "The Division Bell" sessions (and yes, it was the side project originally titled ‘The Big Spliff’ that Nick Mason spoke about),” she explained. “Which is why there are Richard Wright tracks on it. But David and Nick have gone in and done a lot more since then. It was originally to be a completely instrumental recording, but I came in last December and sang on a few tracks. David then expanded on my backing vocals and has done a lead on at least one of them."

An official announcement with more information is expected very soon.

Free Download Roundup - Kingdom of the Holy Sun, Tara King th., Shadow Folk

It's been a little while since I brought you one of these free download features, so here's another rundown of some great new releases in the psych world - all available on a free or name your price starting with $0 basis through Bandcamp.

Kingdom of the Holy Sun "Thirteen Eyes" E.P
Guido Anselmi's prolific tribal psych project Kingdom of the Holy Sun gets better with every release, and their latest E.P has the songs, arrangements and production to match any major label release head on. The title track is a re-recording of an earlier Kingdom track given some extra shine by Anselmi's increasingly confident production skills. It's a killer and the remaining tracks are easily a match too - intense, shamanistic, tribal anthems with driving percussion, waves of tremeloed guitars, vintage organs, Indian strings, all topped off with Anselmi's brooding Bauhaus / Psychedelic Furs vocals.



Tara King th. "Mostla Tara"
I was extremely taken by last year's "Hirondelle et Beretta", a deserving heir to Broadcast's highly contended crown, so it's a bit of a no brainer for me to recommend this new Tara King th. collection covering work originally released as far back as 2007 and including a track recorded with Halasan Bazar, which acts as a primer for an upcoming full length collaboration between the two bands which will be out in October. "Mostla Tara" is the best vintage space-pop / cinematic experience you'll have this year, effortlessly combining classic French pop, cinematic vibes, library breaks, psychedelia and a million other influences into the sort of unclassifiable melange we don't get the chance to hear enough of in a post-Broadcast / Stereolab world.
Your new favourite band. Someone needs to sign these guys for some vinyl reissues.



Shadow Folk "Season's End"
More excellent psychedelic pop from the thriving scene in Nova Scotia. You've heard a lot from me about these guys before (their previous E.P was briefly available on Active Listener Records), so it's no surprise that their latest three track offering is on high rotation here.
"Here at Home" is a pleasingly choogling piece of sixties pop fused with a little Stealers Wheel boogie, while "Hey Ganeymwa" delves into free form guitar chaos and treated vocal chants with a George Harrison vibe. And the title track? Well, that's a genius piece of winsome, minor key pop which fittingly conveys its message.
Another essential download from these chaps then.

Electric Citizen "Sateen"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Cincinnati's Electric Citizen have developed quite a reputation in the eleven months since I reviewed their debut E.P, culminating in a recent tour with Fu Manchu and now their debut full length on Riding Easy Records.

Recorded under the watchful eye of Brian Olive, "Sateen" is an extremely confident debut, taking the strengths and versatility of their E.P and expanding upon them exponentially.

For those just catching up, Electric Citizen combine the heavy rock of late sixties/early seventies Vertigo records, with layers of mellotrons and other vintage keyboards, as well as a shade of the heavy riffing of early NWOBHM.

Laura Dolan's vocals are still the most attention grabbing element at play here, often multi-tracked with a hazy overlap that makes it sound like looking at one of those old 3-D pictures without the blue and red glasses on. There are moments where she really lets rip and you'd swear it was a young Joan Jett. Phwoar. Guitarist Ross Dolan channels some pretty memorable influences too, particularly Tony Iommi (the intro to "Shallow Water" has the restrained pre-fuzz tones of the first Black Sabbath album) and Pentagram's Vincent McAllister.

There are a lot of bands around doing this sort of stuff, and doing it very well; Blood Ceremony, Witchcraft, Graveyard - but Electric Citizen are refreshing for their lack of over the top occult references, not something I have a problem with at all, but certainly something that lesser bands tend to use as a bit of a novelty crutch, where Electric Citizen need none.

It's definitely a heavy rock record, but the lines are blurred between genres here to the point where "Sateen" is likely to appeal to a lot of Active Listener readers that aren't usually drawn to these sorts of things. Vintage appeal aside, the reimagining of "Hawk Nightingale" is recast as one of the most deeply lysergic pieces I've heard this year, and leaves the original (itself a highlight of the E.P) for dead.

Extremely memorable.

Availabe here on vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

A Chat with the In-Between Girl, Tatiana Hammond of Daisy House

Interview by Elizabeth Klisiewicz, originally presented on The Big Takeover.

I had the great pleasure of reviewing Doug Hammond of Daisy House last year, and this time I am talking to his daughter Tatiana about her background and about the band’s beautiful new album, Beaus and Arrows. It’s a departure from their first album’s folk rock in that it introduces music hall stylings and pure pop that could have come straight from the 1960s. It is nice to see the band stretch their wings, and I wish them the best in achieving the recognition they so richly deserve.

What is your earliest musical memory? Do you have any vocal training? Because the clarity of your voice is simply superb.

First of all, thank you. It’s definitely improved on this second album. I’d never recorded anything before the first. I think the sound of my voice owes a lot to the ladies I’ve sung along with over the years , like Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny, Chrissie Hynde, Mary Hopkin, Vashti, Feisty (Leslie Feist, ha), Mama Cass, and Marianne Faithfull. All of them are truly superb singers and my Dad’s given me tips like making sure to pronounce lyrics clearly, and breath control. My most important vocal training has come out of our relationship; it’s always been my Dad’s keen ear, his funny analogies, and our shared musical references that kept me going when it was hard for me in the beginning. When I get behind the mic, we basically start speaking in hilarious code to each other.

Earliest memory? If you grow up with my Dad, music transcends memory. ;) He made a mix tape for nap time for me when I was little that had Sebadoh, Talk Talk, Nina Simone, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Clannad, and Joni Mitchell on it…all mellow stuff. So I suppose “New Grass” is my earliest memory, either that or “This Frog” by Kermit ;)

What has been your involvement in the creative process with respect to songwriting and instrumentation on this new record? I saw the video where it looks like you are playing guitar and piano.

My Dad and I have collaborated on lyrics for some of the newer songs. Lots of the songs from the second album were based on things I was experiencing at the time. He knew if he turned my anecdotes into songs, I could own them when I sang. We’ve got a new co-written song called “Battle Days” which is a sweet, “I’ll follow the sun”/Leonard Cohen/ Beatles-y ballad, with half the lyrics in French, which I’ve studied for 7 years now.

In the video for “Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter,” I sat down at that piano and accidentally blonked out that chord while the camera was rolling so Dad threw it on the album track. He writes and plays almost everything you hear, like 90% of it, and I interpret what he writes. I intend to write a bit more of my own going forward, but he’s been doing this since he was 10. It might take me a little while to catch up to him.

Have you and your Dad played out live with Chris since the first album was released?

Chris Stiles was a high school friend of my Dad’s and they hooked up after decades, and jammed a bit for old time’s sake. Chris had those opening chords for “Ready To Go”, and Dad, who’d been kicking around the idea of a freak-folk song collection, went home and finished it off in a Fairport Convention style for me to sing, which I’d never done before at that point. Chris and Daddy worked like that for about half the 1st album; a few chords from Chris, Daddy finishing it off. Pretty soon we had a whole album, but Chris wasn’t able to commit much time to it from the very beginning; he’s had a full time job and family to deal with, and since music is just a hobby for him, he basically bowed out. Dad and I have done about 17 shows “unplugged” locally and been invited to do some pretty amazing shows in the UK; like a 500 year old Royal Observatory! But until I graduate in May, touring is problematic. Once I graduate, look out!

What are your favorite tracks on the new album? What was the hardest song to record?

I like them all, but I get visibly giddy when I listen to “Time to Make Up For;” the instruments are so playful. I love the majesty of “Beaus and Arrows,” and the string arrangement my Dad came up with for it is amazing. I also love the melody and lyrics to “Why do you Dive so Deep in Beauty.” My Dad sings that one, and when I hear it my soul smiles.

Hardest to record? Probably “Woman From Walkern,” I have allergies and they always hit when I’m back home. “Woman” was sung through a handful of tissues! I also really, really like “Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenter”, which my Dad wrote when he was 21. He likes to say, “I had to wait 30 years for another 21 year old to sing it properly”.

“In Between Girl” was written in about 15 minutes while we were recording my vocals on something else. We love Sixties pop music in general; that’s a favorite and Dad wrote “Time To Make Up For” about me and my boyfriend. A sweet song.

Do you only work on Daisy House when you’re home on school vacation, or do you have ideas you communicate with Doug as they come to mind?

No, we’re always swapping song ideas and Youtube videos. My musical education never ends, and I don’t think we’ve had more than three conversations in the last few years that didn’t at least touch on music. We talk all the time about it, even when I’ve been away overseas.

What has been your biggest influence musically and artistically?

The Sixties (and the folkies, also present in the Seventies). I love the sounds of the Sixties. I love the enthusiasm and the freedom they had to be playful and innovative that I hear in things like Sandy Denny and Joni Mitchell especially, but also in Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Merry Go Round, The Association, The Left Banke etc. I like the fact that experimentation was more ubiquitous in pop culture. Creativity and “weirdness” and “music for music sake” seemed to be more encouraged back then by record labels.

I think that creativity is coming back today, though. I think there are a lot of people turning away from over-commodified music, and a renewed search for what feels more like “authentic art and expression.”

Do film and literature ever come into play as an influence? It appears so since your song “Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenter” is a J.D. Salinger title.

Definitely. “Raise High” is an old song of my Dad’s. It’s his nod to Dylan. We like to give our songs lots of richness, so if any art form inspires us, some of its mojo will go into our work. Folk tales are also a really good starting point for cool spooky things. So the Child Ballads and other old stories are inspiration for a lot of our folkier numbers (“Two Sisters,” “Why do you Dive”, “Emma”, “The Woman From Walkern”, “Beaus And Arrows”). Most of them have either a folk tale feel or were adapted. You may also notice we reference Cain and Abel in “Beaus and Arrows,” which is possibly one of my favorite songs on the album, and definitely our richest, in terms of its epic sound and story. The Bible, like folk tales, has big sin, big mystery, and big poetry in it. There’s nothing out of bounds for what we do.

Besides conquering the world, what would you like to see happen with Daisy House?

More radio. More press. More shows. More videos. When I think of Daisy House “conquering the world,” I think of our songs reaching across the world and I imagine people I’ve never met smiling the way I do when I hear these songs. I also think it would be nice to have the opportunity to inspire kids coming up, the way I’ve been inspired, to explore wit and creativity, rather than accepting conformity to a standard that tells girls they have to get breast implants and tattoos and be “transgressive” or something like that. I’d like our music to remind people that you don’t have to get things “perfect”, that the boundaries of life and self-expression are much wider than currently understood.

What can fans look forward to with upcoming musical works?

TH: I think after the first album, we had come up with a solid folk-rock template, so we developed that theme a bit further on “Beaus And Arrows”. We had a lot of fun playing with hybrid folk/pop themes, so there’s “molten-folk” as my Dad calls it on “What’s Your Time Bought?”, 60’s folk go-go on “In Between Girl”, Baroque-folk… you get the idea.

We really enjoyed making the pop stuff on B&A so I think we may be ready to drop our “El Camino”. I’d rather become the first “Daisy House”, instead of the next Mumford, and do for Folk-Rock/60’s Pop what the Black Keys did for blues-rock and the White Stripes did for mid-Sixties British invasion/Garage rock. We go to sources like they did, but it’s a slightly different vein of forgotten greatness that we mine that translates to modern kids as something fresh. Daisy House is generous music, and very old school at heart. Who knows? It might even be revolutionary.

Bozmo "Leather Umbrella"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

"Leather Umbrella" is an extremely appealing second album from Berkeley native Bo Moore, which combines a nice, lo-fi Velvet Underground vibe, with just the right amount of shaggy, sunny psychedelia to ensure that it's all about the tune rather than the drone.

Moore's tunes aren't retro just for the sake of it either - each song is appropriately attired according to its needs, whether that be the winsomely multilayered psychedelic pop of the title track, or the more Pavement-like swagger of "Wig Strut".

And while this grab bag of influences may sound a bit messy on paper, Moore has a strong enough identity of his own to never get swamped by whomever he's channeling.

Highlights are numerous - initially I was drawn to the opening one -two of "Sad Bishop" (Beatlesque tape loops and mellotrons included) and "Leather Umbrella", but I've become increasingly attached to the strong middle section with "In a Dream" (a beautiful, reverb dranched garage pop ballad that reaches back to the late fifties), the unhealthily addictive "Perry & The Vest", and particularly "Cheap Blue Memory" which is blessed with a melody that draws on my deepest reserves of melancholy, in a way that few other than Elliott Smith can do. Come to think of it, the closing stretch is pretty solid too.

If you're a Burger, Trouble in Mind or Lolipop Records disciple, you'll need this.

Digital and cassette available here:

Mark Alan Lofgren "The Past Perfect"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

It's taken founding Luck of Eden Hall member Mark Alan Lofgren twenty years to get around to putting together his first solo release, and it has something about it that suggests that it has been a labour of love.

The vintage psychedelic tendencies of the Luck of Eden Hall are dialed way back here, with more of a latent neo-psychedelic vibe that manifests as hazy, out of focus vocals and fuzzy guitars with a vaguely shoegaze / alternative edge that suggest early Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr as much as Ride and Slowdive. Lofgren's production is impeccable, with added layers of keyboards creating a warm cocoon of sound which, coupled with vocals that often sound just out of reach, results in an album with the epic peaks of the likes of "Souvlaki", but also a sense of intimacy that can only come from a solo project.

The strength of Lofgren's songcraft is the key element here that lifts this above simply being an album that sounds great. "A Life Electric" and "Never Coming Back" are direct but elusive little gems with inviting earworm hooks that go about their business without relying on a big, obvious chorus, when a subtle invitation is much more inviting. And that in a nutshell is the (considerable) appeal of "The Past Perfect" - the chorus you're expecting to arrive never does, and on the next listen you realise that the hooks you were looking for in all of the normal places were there all along, just in unfamiliar guises.

This is a habit forming, and gorgeous album that repays repeat listens exponentially. Highly recommended.

Digital download, stream, and limited edition CD available here:

"Bowie Heard Them Here First"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Expecting little more than the source material for "Pinups", with the odd extra thrown in, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is the a particularly well thought out, chronological collection, which delves deep, and does a startling job of illustrating the pool of influences (particularly early on) that once mixed and refined, would yield the classic Ziggy Stardust sound.

The title concept is occasionally treated loosely (I suspect Bowie is more likely to have first heard Scott Walker's version of "Amsterdam", before working his way back to the live Brel version included here), but the track selection is largely inspired. Notable absences such as Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Neil Young (presumably down to the expense of licensing) largely work in the collection's favour, especially when considering it as an educational tool, as well as an entertaining collection in its own right.

Stretching back as far as his days with the Manish Boys (Bobby Bland's "I Pity The Fool", early highlights are provided by Biff Rose's "Fill Your Heart",which Bowie and producer Ken Scott seem to have used as a template for the mellower, spacious production of "Hunky Dory", and The Mersey's "Sorrow", the original of which is likely to be unheard by the majority of my generation, and is surprisingly beaty and brassy compared to Bowie's approach.

After the "Pinups" material the approach becomes more eclectic (as did Bowie's approach to making music), making the second half a more disjointed listen, but with plenty of inspiration still, including a few tracks that casual listeners may not have realised weren't Bowie originals (Tom Verlaine's "Kingdom Come" and Metro's "Criminal World (with great guitar work which predicts David Gilmour's playing on "Keep Talking")), as well as the Walker Brothers' classic "Nite Flights", the Pixies, the Modern Lovers, and a potentially divisive closer in "I Took A Trip (On A Gemini Spaceship)". Originally by infamous outsider music character the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, its stoned Johnny Cash sci-fi/rockabilly drawl veers unpredictably between the ridiculous and the sublime.

All in all, a very interesting collection that highlights Bowie's skills as an accumulator as well as an innovator.

Available here.

My North Eye

Reviewed by Grey Malkin (The Hare & The Moon)

With this deceptively low key and underground release My North Eye have arguably created a stand out psych folk masterpiece. Recorded in one day in Normandy, France in 2013, each song is a perfectly crated piece of melancholy that catches the listener firmly in its emotional grip. Essentially the work of one man, Yann Lafosse, the album affects and arrests in equal measure and proclaims the arrival of a major talent to the folk and psych scene.

The album opens with a version of the gospel standard ‘Wade In The Water’, the double tracked lead vocals adding a sense of approaching dread to a backdrop of wheezing organ and gnarled distorted fuzz guitar. Sounding not unlike a demented Walkabouts, My North Eye make this track into their own apocalyptic vision. In contrast ‘Love Just Love’s harmonium and plaintive vocals are heartbreaking in their despondency and simplicity. Not a note is wasted here and the lack of over embellishment just adds to the emotional power. Similarly ‘Butterfly’ (with its repeated single drumbeat the sole backdrop to Lafosse’s vocal) is deeply engaging, reminding this listener of Black Heart Procession’s classic ‘1’ album. ‘Lullaby’s shimmering and celestial organ frames a desperate paean to the listener to ‘sleep, close your eyes’ as cosmic winds circle all around. This would have been the perfect soundtrack to the ending of Lars Von Trier's ‘Melancholia’; it is as heartrending as it is bleakly beautiful. ‘Walk’ begins with a single repeated drumbeat, a stagger of a song depicting an exhausted and worn protagonist before the defiant chorus brings a delicately picked acoustic into the frame. This is hugely affecting material and reminds one of Nick Grey’s desperate and heartworn opus ‘Thieves among Thorns’. ‘Your Pain Is like a Drone’ is an epic nine minutes of pain and sorrow; the naked harmonium emphasising the raw and stripped back emotion expressed in the song. A tense and unsettling crescendo builds as the volume grows and reverbed discordant and wracked guitar howls into the darkness. The track is physically and emotionally draining yet is utterly compulsive and mesmerizing. Fans of Michael Gira’s work with both Swans and Angels of Light will find much to like here. 'Metonimy’ follows as the calm after the storm yet is still much wrought and greatly resigned. Indeed, the whole album begins to take on the form of a song cycle or concept and it’s not hard to imagine each of these songs being sung about the same person. Handclaps, the buzz of harmonium and shimmering strings create a melancholy sing-along as the tracks ends repeating ‘you refused to see’. It’s a curiously uplifting moment and illustrates the strong emotional palette that My North Eye are working from. ‘Nothing Lasts’ strummed doomed vision is a powerful piece of Americana; effectively the finale of the album, it offers no solace or happy ending but does provide an atmospheric and cinematic conclusion with its ringing guitars, twilight chimes and hazy strings.

Make no mistake; this is a hugely accomplished album and it being the work of one man’s vision makes this all the more so. There is heartache here but also some of the most affecting and beautiful music you may ever hear. In future years this should be filed next to Peter Hammill’s ‘Over’, Smog’s ‘Red Apple Falls’ or Big Star’s ‘3rd’as one of those soundtracks to late, candlelight nights of the soul. Available now as a limited edition with splendid handmade artwork by label Reverb Worship. Essential.

CD and vinyl available here. Digital download and stream below:

Cosmic Rough Riders "Panorama"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

When it was originally released back in 2000, the Cosmic Rough Riders second album "Panorama" had the cream of the U.K music press (Uncut, Q, Mojo etc.) falling over themselves to announce its brilliance, but despite the critical adoration, the subsequent signing by Alan McGee and the obvious charms of the songs themselves, this never translated into the sales that music like this would receive in a fair and just world.

Fortunately Markus Holler (a bit of a jangly harmony pop addict himself) has given us the chance to revisit "Panorama" on vinyl for the first time (unbelievably).

A Scottish band with a convoluted personnel history (let's just say that singer / songwriter Daniel Wylie basically is the Cosmic Rough Riders), on their second album they added a whole bunch of sunny California and West Coast to their melodic Teenage Fanclub jangle, with Wylie writing the best songs of his career (although his subsequent solo career has been pretty flash too).

There's an immediate appeal to these songs that makes it easy to see why they were tagged the "next big thing", but harder to work out why they didn't stick in the public consciousness of the time. Certainly the open adoption of the vintage sixties influences on display here was unusual for the time, and may have been enough to confuse the casual punter into buying the latest Travis album instead, but tracks like "Revolution (In The Summertime)" and "You've Got Me" tick all of the right catchy and melodic boxes to be players on radio, and there's plenty of depth beyond the surface level hooks;  "Afterglow" dabbles in alt. country harmonies more effectively than anything you'll hear this side of the Jayhawks, but it's "The Gun Isn't Loaded" which packs the biggest punch with its spot on Eastern psychedelia easily recapturing and redefining "Within You Without You" for a contemporary audience.

Let's get it right this time and buy it, huh?

Limited vinyl edition available from Sugarbush Records.

Fabio Frizzi "City of the Living Dead" / Bruno Nicolai "All The Colours of The Dark"

Reviewed by Nathan Ford

Two essential Italian horror soundtrack vinyl reissues here from the two labels inarguably doing the most important work in this field: Death Waltz Recording Company and Finders Keepers.

First up is Death Waltz's marvelously garish reissue of probably the most accessible of Fabio Frizzi's three scores from Lucio Fulci's "Gates of Hell Trilogy". "City of the Living Dead" has all of the normal hallmarks of a classic Frizzi score -  great synth / bass / drums interplay and discordant synthy dread juxtaposed against gorgeous, melodic piano melodies - but what really sets it apart from Frizzi's other great scores is the fantastic use of electric guitar. Filtered through a talkbox effect that will have David Gilmour fanciers reaching for their wallets, the guitar parts on here mirror the anguished cries of the recently resurrected, and are arguably creepier than anything the director cooked up onscreen.

For me it's a toss up between this and "The Beyond" for Frizzi's best (and Fulci's for that matter), and I'd hate to have to choose between them. You need this.

The eclectic cratediggers at Finders Keepers have graced us with some very fine vinyl Bruno Nicolai reissues of late (this, this and this for instance), but cream of the crop is the fabulous score for Sergio Martino's masterpiece "All the Colors of the Dark" - a score as multifaceted and complex as the film itself (which as those who have seen the film will attest, is no mean feat).

Nicolai pulled out all the stops on this one, and deftly balances the psychedelic freakouts necessary to accompany the onscreen mayhem with some of the most exquisite melodies in his considerable catalogue.  The woodwind theme on "Magico Incontro" is particularly memorable, with a sense of melancholy underpinned by a slight unease that helps heighten the film's sense of claustrophobia.  Elsewhere, "Sabba" (recently covered here to great effect, by Orgasmo Sonore) is a terrifying prog-funker with a killer riff and a cacophonous vocal chorus that sounds like the sort of thing that Graham Bond was aiming for during his occult period on Vertigo. And did I mention the nuts sitar workouts? All of which makes this pretty damn essential too.

Pre-order "City of the Living Dead" here.

Order "All The Colours Of The Dark" here.