Squashed In The Back Of A Taxi, Wondering Where You Are

Everything Is Recorded have dropped three new songs since November, ahead of their third (or seventh*) album, Temporary, arriving on the last day of February.

Losing You features Sampha, Jah Wobble, Mary In The Junkyard, Yazz Ahmed, TIC and Laura Groves, with an infectious groove, an earworm 80s sample and a video featuring most of the cast squashed in the back of a taxi. 

Sampha leads the way vocally, but there's a lovely left turn halfway through, represented in the video by the group disembarking at a petrol station to buy some sweets and fizzy drinks from the shop. Richard Russell and Clari Freeman-Taylor share earphones whilst Laura Groves sings over the spaced out bridging section. 

It's back in the cab for the final 30 seconds or so, a blink-and-you'll-miss-him shot of Jah Wobble, now in the back seat playing bass, and providing a voice over with Sampha in the closing moments. Well worth three minutes of your time. 

Last Thursday, the third preview single dropped, the appropriately titled Swamp Dream #3. Clari Freeman-Taylor from Mary In The Junkyard trudging through the mud with a small TV set, featuring...Clari Freeman-Taylor singing. 

 

This song is reminiscent of the music Richard Russell (aka Everything Is Recorded and XL label boss) has created with Samantha Morton (who also appears on the new album): queasy, unsettling vocals atop sinister strings.

Lastly, but firstly in terms of release dates, there is Porcupine Tattoo, featuring Noah Cyrus (daughter of Billy Ray and sister of Miley) and Bill Callahan (married to Hanly Banks with two kids), 

None of this is random. In 2010, Russell produced and released Gil Scott-Heron's final studio album, I’m New Here. The album was named after and covered the Bill Callahan song of the same name. 

Russell approached Callahan about a collaboration, asking who he would like to write a song for. “Noah Cyrus” was Callahan’s reply. The end result features a duet of Callahan’s original demo vocal with Cyrus’ deep, warm tones. The minimalist sound palette includes a foot stomping bass and country twangs and it's really quite beautiful.

* Between September 2023 and May 2024, Everything Is Recorded released a series of four albums, each inspired by the annual cycle of solstice and equinox, summer to autumn to winter to spring. Hours of collaborative improvisations were edited and reshaped into 10 songs and roughly 35 minutes for each album. And they're all available as a free download on Bandcamp.

Trans Global Expression

TRANSA is the latest release from the Red Hot Organisation and it's huge: 46 songs, over 100 artists and nearly four hours in total, available as a digital download, 6 vinyl LPs or 5-track single album.

"Spotlighting the gifts of many of the most daring, imaginative trans and non-binary artists working today" (as the promo blurb), it's no faint claim and the list of collaborations is compelling.

I've only just bought it, so I'm nowhere near all the way through - come on, Andre 3000's contribution alone is over 26 minutes long! - but I have cherry picked a few songs that I was immediately drawn to, creating a more digestible 30-odd minute selection to whet your appetite.

 

An awesome undertaking that so far has delivered and then some. Take a chance.

1) Something Is Happening And I May Not Fully Understand But I'm Happy To Stand For The Understanding (Awakening) (Intro): Andre 3000

2) How Sweet I Roamed: Jeff Tweedy + Claire Rousay

3) Feel So Different: Sharon Van Etten + Ezra Furman

4) Feel Better: Adrianne Lenker

5) Deeper Understanding: Hand Habits + Bill Callahan

6) Get Me Away From Here, I'm Dying: Julien Baker + Calvin Lauber ft. SOAK & Quinn Christopherson

7) Point Of Disgust: Perfume Genius + Alan Sparhawk

8) Young Lion: Sade

9) Something Is Happening And I May Not Fully Understand But I'm Happy To Stand For The Understanding (Awakening) (Outro): Andre 3000

 

Trans Global Expression (33:05) (KF) (Mega)

All The Stars Were Aligned

KEXP is a non-commercial radio station transmitting from Seattle, Washington. It became a regular virtual music stop for me during the pandemic and I've listened to hours upon hours of their Live On KEXP sessions.

The show follows a fairly consistent format: 4 or 5 songs, 20-30 minutes, usually performed in the small KEXP studio with lengthy Q&A mid-section with the resident DJ, sitting nearby. Occasionally, they'll use another location, even head outdoors to the local park, as evidenced by this beautiful performance from Ben Watt & Bernard Butler in 2015.

Too many favourites to mention here, so here's a small, half-hour selection of seven cracking songs for your listening pleasure.

1) Camels (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 23 June 2019): Bill Callahan

2) Tokay (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 10 February 2015): Dengue Fever

3) Maybe (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 12 June 2019): SOAK

4) Is He Strange (Live @ Avast! Recording Co. for KEXP, Seattle, 18 December 2018): John Grant

5) Kicks (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 18 November 2014): FKA Twigs

6) Corsicana Lemonade (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 01 February 2014): White Denim

7) Magic Of Meghan (Live @ KEXP, Seattle, 10 March 2020): Dry Cleaning

All The Stars Were Aligned (Live On KEXP) (31:16)

As Obsessed With Evolution As Ever

My introduction to, and education in, Bill Callahan pretty much came from cover mounted CDs with music magazines. This selection has been taken from various Mojo and Uncut magazine promos but, to these ears, flows naturally, like one of Callahan's lyrical rivers.

 

Side One (22:02)

1) One Fine Morning (2011)

2) The Ballad Of The Hulk (Album Version) (2019)

3) Held (Live @ The Toff, Melbourne, Australia, 08 November 2007)

4) The Sing (2013)

Side Two (21:17)

1) Sycamore (2007)

2) Ry Cooder (2020)

3) Eid Ma Clack Shaw (2009)

4) Young Icarus (2019)

5) So Long, Marianne (Cover of Leonard Cohen) (2012) 

 

Side One (22:02)

Side Two (21:17)