JUNE 2016 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the June 2016 issue – OUT NOW!
Michael Kiwanuka
At the beginning of 2012 Michael Kiwanuka successfully converted a fine debut indie single, Tell Me A Tale, into a major label record contract and top 10 album chart placings across six European countries [notching a Belgian number one and a very creditable number four in the UK along the way]. Home Again not only earned the North Londoner a first gold disc, it also established his unique sound, a folky kind of late sixties/early seventies, singer-songwritery soul that at different times educed comparisons with Otis Redding, Bill Withers and, occasionally, Neil Young – all three amongst his admitted heroes. Kiwanuka’s world-weary vocal, allied to a penchant for vintage studio equipment, suggested at least a couple more decades on life’s clock than the two-and-a-half he’d at the time managed, not to mention a set of musical roots that seemed buried in the rich artistic soil of America’s southern states…
Jameszoo
As if out to create a small scene from the direction of his recent albums, Flying Lotus has, via his Brainfeeder imprint, been releasing music closely related to the directions of albums like Cosmogramma and You’re Dead! His status as a tastemaker has helped put Kamasi Washington’s name on the lips of a wider audience than anyone would expect for a three-hour spiritual jazz set. But if Washington’s suitably named The Epic sounded in tune with tradition, the Los Angeles producer’s latest signing comes from further left.
Hailing from the Netherlands, young producer Jameszoo’s Lotus-endorsed debut arrives after just a handful of previous EPs, but despite this short recording history, it finds him already out to reinvent himself…
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Ziggy Marley
When you’re the son of a global reggae icon, with all the money you could ever need and every kind of material advantage, then what’s left?
Plenty, as it happens, because Ziggy Marley has resolutely refused to be defined by his famous father or the wealth that’s showered on the Marley beneficiaries. Search the Internet and you won’t find any evidence of him bragging about what he owns or the women in his life. The reason he makes music is to get a message across and to do his bit for humanity. If that sounds unlikely, or you simply don’t believe it, then take a listen to any of the albums he’s released under his own name since disbanding The Melody Makers.
That group started when their father was still alive, and co-starred his brother Stephen and sisters Cedella and Sharon. They were signed to major labels and had a fair amount of commercial success during the band’s lifespan, but at the turn of the century – 1999, to be exact – Ziggy left Jamaica for California and embarked on the most individual and uncharacteristic album of his career…
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Ben Harper
The band reunion is arguably not as sexy as the break-up in pop lore. Nonetheless it exists, and can mean something other than a paycheck.
Right on cue, Ben Harper needs no encouragement to state that his first record with The Innocent Criminals after a nine-year hiatus had a human, rather than purely financial, incentive. Although the 47-year-old vocalist-guitarist has his name in the headline slot, he doesn’t see drummer Oliver Charles, percussionist Leon Mobley, keyboardist Jason Yates, guitarist Michael Ward and bassist Juan Nelson as just a backing band.
“It was a special moment like that, getting back with the guys because we are brothers,” Harper states. “And there’s a friendship that precedes the music, so a separation like that certainly tested it. But we’ve come through it. And we’re having a better time than where we left off.”
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