NOT long before we started planning this Jimi Hendrix cover story, I found myself playing Running The Voodoo Down! Explorations In Psychrockfunksouljazz 1967–80, a great compilation from 2017 that explored black America’s response to the volume and possibilities of psychedelic rock. Along with George Clinton, Sly Stone and Miles Davis, Hendrix casts a sizable shadow over the proceedings – either in a very overt sense, like the way the Isley Brothers segue from CSNY’s “Ohio” into Hendrix’s “Machine Gun”, or else as a galvanising force, whose questing and progressive imperative encouraged others to follow his example. We visit some of the music Hendrix made in his final creative outpouring, as part of Peter Watts’ cover story that digs into his fecund, if ultimately tragic, 1970. “He was the first person we knew who had stepped outside of the status quo,” recalls one former friend. “He was the spirit of the music.”
NOT long before we started planning this Jimi Hendrix cover story, I found myself playing Running The Voodoo Down! Explorations In Psychrockfunksouljazz 1967–80, a great compilation from 2017 that explored black America’s response to the volume and possibilities of psychedelic rock. Along with George Clinton, Sly Stone and Miles Davis, Hendrix casts a sizable shadow over the proceedings – either in a very overt sense, like the way the Isley Brothers segue from CSNY’s “Ohio” into Hendrix’s “Machine Gun”, or else as a galvanising force, whose questing and progressive imperative encouraged others to follow his example. We visit some of the music Hendrix made in his final creative outpouring, as part of Peter Watts’ cover story that digs into his fecund, if ultimately tragic, 1970. “He was the first person we knew who had stepped outside of the status quo,” recalls one former friend. “He was the spirit of the music.”
There’s more, of course. Stand by for the welcome return of some very old friends of Uncut – Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Mercury Rev – artists who have in no small way helped shape what we do here – and a tremendous piece on Chris Bell, as we mark a series of Big Star-related anniversaries in this issue. There’s newcomers Brown Horse alongside Fontaines DC, Thurston Moore, Cass McCombs, Yes, Paul Heaton, a farewell to John Mayall, David Crosby by Mike Scott and a deep dive into Neil Young’s Archives Volume III by Allan Jones. Please also check out a terrific review of Wild God and interview with Nick Cave by Alastair McKay – which are by some distance the best things I’ve read on Cave’s latest album.
After all that, you might reasonably ask, what exactly do you do for an encore? How about a 10-track Big Star CD…
Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Fontaines DC, Yes, Jack White, John Mayall, Nick Cave, Chris Bell, Thurston Moore, Mercury Rev, Cass McCombs, Lone Justice, David Crosby, Lawrence, Steve Van Zandt, Paul Heaton, Brown Horse and more all feature in Uncut‘s October 2024 issue, in UK shops from August 16 or available to buy online now.
All print copies come with a free Big Star CD featuring 10 tracks of power-pop perfection, rarities and alternate mixes!
INSIDE THIS MONTH’S UNCUT:
JIMI HENDRIX: In June 1970, the completion of JIMI HENDRIX’s own Electric Lady Studios in downtown New York unleashed a surge of unbridled creativity. Just three months later, he was gone. As a new film and box set explore Hendrix’s final sessions, friends, bandmates and studio staff consider how Electric Lady inspired everyone who entered its softly lit sanctuary. “They were free to create,” engineer Eddie Kramer tells Peter Watts. “I never saw Jimi so happy.”
GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS: After a devastating tornado strike, GILLIAN WELCH and DAVID RAWLINGS have spent four years bringing their beloved Nashville studio back to life. As a new masterpiece arrives, Uncut uncovers a tale of destruction and rebirth – and new songs to match the intensity of their near-loss.
FONTAINES DC: With their astonishing fourth album Romance, FONTAINES DC leave behind the post-punk cobblestones for apocalyptic sci-fi stadium rock. But as they prepare to take the world by storm, they explain how the Arctic Monkeys, Mickey Rourke and “dissonance” have helped usher in their imperial phase – and how they plan to avoid the pitfalls of success.
CHRIS BELL: CHRIS BELL was McCartney to Alex Chilton’s Lennon: the other #1 songwriter in BIG STAR. But conflict, disappointment and depression threatened to diminish the power-pop visionary’s brilliance and Bell died tragically young, leaving behind only one posthumously released solo album, I Am The Cosmos.
MERCURY REV: From their base in upstate New York, MERCURY REV preside over a unique environment – full of eccentric sculpture parks, vintage recording studios and the spirits of storied musical pioneers – which has nourished their creativity for over 30 years. With a new album, Born Horses, embedded in the rich topography of the region, Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper guide Uncut around their home turf.
BROWN HORSE: With their ragged harmonies, lap steel laments and fiery jams, valiant young upstarts BROWN HORSE are bringing country rock grit to the Badlands of Norfolk. But how do their Songs: Anglia hold up against the alt.standards that inspired them?
AN AUDIENCE WITH… THURSTON MOORE: The Sonic Youth soothsayer talks free jazz, feminism and Tom Verlaine’s paper-plate poetry.
THE MAKING OF “ROUNDABOUT” BY YES: Interminable touring sows the seeds of a prog rock classic.
ALBUM BY ALBUM WITH CASS McCOMBS: The enigmatic singer-songwriter looks back on a restless career.
MY LIFE IN MUSIC WITH PAUL HEATON: The Housemartins and Beautiful South singer on his happiest hours by the stereo: “It still sounds exciting now.”
REVIEWED: Nick Cave, Jack White, BASIC, Manu Chao, Willie Watson, Nala Sinephro, The The, Neil Young, Harold Budd and the Cocteau Twins, Kimbo District, Oasis, Black Artist Group, Patti Smith, Anohni and the Johnsons, Steve Van Zandt, Lawrence, The Jesus And Mary Chain and more.
PLUS: Farewell John Mayall, David Crosby by Mike Scott, Lone Justice, Plantoid and… introducing Thee Sacred Souls.
“Hashtag” is the second track to be lifted from Woodland after “Empty Trainload Of Sky”.
Woodland – which is named after their recording studio in Nashville – is released on their own Acony Records label on August 23. You can pre-order the album here.
You can read the only major UK interview with Gillian and David in the new issue of Uncut, which goes on sale Friday, August 16
To mark the 25th anniversary of his album Mule Variations, Tom Waits has shared a previously unheard version of "Get Behind The Mule". You can hear it below.
To mark the 25th anniversary of his album Mule Variations, Tom Waits has shared a previously unheard version of “Get Behind The Mule“. You can hear it below.
The original concerts – held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on August 1, 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York – were the first major music benefit of its kind, bringing together all all-star cast including Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, Billy Preston and Ravi Shankar to raise awareness about the unfolding humanitarian crisis in East Pakistan/Bangladesh.
The concert yielded a triple album boxset and feature film. This is, of course, the first time the music has been available on streaming platforms. All net proceeds (after taxes), will be donated to the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.
Tracklisting is…
1
George Harrison & Ravi Shankar
Introduction by George Harrison & Ravi Shankar
2
Ravi Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan & Ali Rakha & Kamala Chakravarti
The next volume of Joni Mitchell's archives series is coming on October 4 from Rhino. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976 - 1980) covers her run of albums including Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus and the live set, Shadows and Light.
The next volume of Joni Mitchell‘s archives series is coming on October 4 from Rhino. Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976 – 1980) covers her run of albums including Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus and the live set, Shadows and Light.
You can hear “Intro To Coyote / Coyote” recorded at The Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada, December 4 1975 below.
King Crimson are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their album Red with a 2CD / 2 Blu-ray set and a 2LP set on 200 gram vinyl released on October 11.
King Crimson are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their album Red with a 2CD / 2 Blu-ray set and a 2LP set on 200 gram vinyl released on October 11.
KCXP5017 is a 2CD & 2x Blu-Ray/boxed set in rigid slipcase.
2 x Blu-Ray discs include all new 2024 mixes in Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD MA Surround (5.1) & 24/96 or 24/192 Hi-Res stereo. Elemental mixes, session material, 3 x USA album mixes, 5 x bootleg concert recordings from 1974, instrumental mixes and more… all in Hi-Res Stereo.
2 CDs include 2024 mixes in stereo and instrumental forms, elemental mixes and session material.
KCLPX2024 is a 2LP (200 gram) vinyl set packaged in gatefold sleeve. LP1 features all new 2024 stereo mixes by Steven Wilson while LP2 has all new 2024 elemental mixes by David Singleton.
And here’s the tracklisting…
KCXP5017 Red – The 50th Anniversary Edition
Disc 1 CD 2024 mixes and Additional Material
1 Red
2 Fallen Angel
3 One More Red Nightmare
4 Providence
5 Starless
Additional Material
2024 Instrumental Mixes
6 Fallen Angel
7 One More Red Nightmare
8 Starless – Edit
Produced and Mixed by Steven Wilson
* 9 Providence – Complete Track
Produced and Mixed by Robert Fripp and David Singleton
Disc 2 CD Elemental Mixes and Session Material
Elemental Mixes
1 Red
2 Fallen Angel
3 One More Red Nightmare
4 Starless – Percussion
5 Starless
The Making of Starless
6 Starless – Mellotron
7 Starless – Three Saxophones
8 Starless – Basic Take
9 Starless – Sax Solos
10 Starless – Cornet and Guitar Solos
11 Starless – Cornet takes
Produced and Mixed by David Singleton
Disc 3 Blu-Ray
USA
I * 1 June 28th, 1974, Casino Arena, NJ
DTS-HD MA 24/192 Stereo, 2013 Mix
Mixed by Robert Fripp, David Singleton and Tony Arnold
The documentary follows the band’s 1974 sessions at Abbey Road during the recording of the live-in-studio One Hand Clapping album.
“It’s so great to look back on that period and see the little live show we did,” says McCartney. “We made a pretty good noise actually! It was a great time for the band, we started to have success with Wings, which had been a long time coming.”
The documentary screenings also boast an exclusive filmed introduction by McCartney and previously unseen Polaroid photographs from the sessions.
In addition to the One Hand Clapping documentary, screenings will feature the previously unreleased Backyard Sessions, showcasing McCartney on acoustic guitar performing tracks from his catalogue.
The album One Hand Clapping was released in June.
Tickets for Paul McCartney and Wings – One Hand Clapping will be available beginning Thursday, August 16 at 6AM PT / 9AM ET / 2PM BST from here.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
The Smile have released a new track, "Don't Get Me Started", which is their first new music since their second studio album, Wall Of Eyes, in January this year.
The Smile have released a new track, “Don’t Get Me Started“, which is their first new music since their second studio album, Wall Of Eyes, in January this year.
You can watch the video below, directed by audiovisual artist Weirdcore.
White Roses, My God, the debut album proper by Alan Sparhawk, formerly of Low, is our Album Of The Month in the September 2024 issue of Uncut. Here's an extended version of the Q&A that appears alongside the review, in which the songwriter tells us more about the record, rediscovering his voice and even his next album..."I didn't set out to be contrary..."
White Roses, My God, the debut album proper by Alan Sparhawk, formerly of Low, is our Album Of The Month in the September 2024 issue of Uncut. Here’s an extended version of the Q&A that appears alongside the review, in which the songwriter tells us more about the record, rediscovering his voice and even his next album…“I didn’t set out to be contrary…”
You’ve certainly been keeping yourself occupied, musically… Yeah, between a few different bands and local things and just people asking, ‘Hey, can you do this?’ ‘Yeah, I suppose I could do that. Let’s just get this band going…’ It’s pretty fun. It keeps me on my toes and keeps me playing, and engaged. I’m better if I have deadlines and things coming up, it helps shape my motivation, figuring out each day what I need to do.
The last couple of years since Mimi passed away can’t have been easy. It’s a wild process… There’s of course the grief, the loss, the shock of this thing that was so so real being gone, but you really do find out how deeply you are just one part of a whole, that you’re incomplete without that person that you’ve resonated with, and lived with, and experienced with your whole life. There’s a lot more subconscious interaction going on than people realise, there’s a lot of sharing of tasks and processing of life that is really subconscious but still shared. And it feels very much incomplete without the other person.
In some ways, White Roses… isn’t so different to the last few Low albums – they all had a lot of processing of instruments and voices. Yeah, a lot of processing, a lot of trying to find something new. We were really getting into a pretty deep, deep aesthetic with pushing things forward and finding new sounds and new ways to deliver songs. Even, you know, to the end, I felt like we were gaining even more confidence as singers, and I thought Mim certainly was becoming an even more poignant and masterful singer, right to the end.
This album feels very fresh, as if a lot of the songs were quite improvisatory? Yeah, it was. I had been messing around with stuff and at first thinking I was just trying to figure out the gear. But when “I Made This Beat” happened, I realised that I was starting to get some songs. That one was very much a moment. There were moments when you know you’ve found a line onto this very alive and electrical current that sort of runs throughout the universe. Once you have tasted that a few times, you can really become very acute at feeling when it’s happening, and you learn pretty quickly to not try to move in and manipulate it too much, and [just] let it come out of you, and to trust the light and trust the thread.
Were you inspired by any artists or was the technology driving things? I would sit down and start pushing buttons and moving knobs and mumbling into the microphone. It was exciting to me was because I was just capturing the moment something was being written, essentially being freestyled. My son is into hip-hop and him and his buddies will freestyle over beats. It’s pretty great to hear, and if you do it a lot, your mind gets used to that. So a lot of hip-hop he listens to inspired this, as well as other moments I’ve experienced with Low or other bands, where you’ve opened up your ear and your mind and your soul to what needs to be translated in that moment, and what needs to be made into sound. I became very aware that the key here was to capture that moment and have that be the recording, not go ‘This is a cool demo… let me write another verse and then go six months later to a studio…’ I wanted to trust that it was all there.
It’s hard not to see the vocal processing as being designed to put a distance between the listener and your emotions, which you probably needed. I don’t know. I’ve definitely pondered it. I’ve had to ask myself, like, what is this voice thing? Why do I like it? What do I like doing it? What’s going on here? Is it an escape? Is it healthy? Am I doing it out of fear? Am I doing it out of fearlessness? How I fell into it was very visceral and very unexpected, and there were things about it that really surprised me once I started doing it. The thing I’m using is like a hard pitch corrector, you can dial in and set the key and then sing. I found it interesting. Over the last handful of years, I’ve been trying to figure out, ‘Who am I? What is my voice without Mim’s?’ Part of me is tired of hearing my own voice a little bit, so I thought, ‘Why not just [process it, and] say it’s this and then see what I can do within this parameter?’ When you take pitch off the table, it really opens up possibilities of what you’re doing, especially when you’re improvising something.
What hip-hop have you been listening to? Whenever we’re driving my son will be like, ‘Hey, check this out.’ I was listening to a lot of Earl Sweatshirt, a lot of old OutKast, Kendrick Lamar… There’s something about Earl Sweatshirt that really has awoken my mind a little bit, there are some subtleties that kind of cracked open my mind a little bit. I wasn’t necessarily thinking like, ‘Oh, I wanna rap’, there’s just something about [that] style and delivery that sounds sort of lazy and effortless, but it’s actually really, really clever and really well delivered. I became really aware of how talented hip-hop artists are – a lot of hip-hop artists can just freestyle the hell out of stuff, that blows my mind. I have huge respect for that, because I’ve had just the slightest glimpse of what it takes. I’ve touched that energy, and I’ve seen that glowing horizon… I’m still listening to reggae, and Alice Coltrane’s something that keeps coming around. I’m trying to tap into the universe, I’m trying to listen, I know there’s a voice out there and I’m trying to figure out what it’s trying to say.
There’s another record coming soon, we hear, a more traditional one? I mean, at least using more traditional instruments, right. We’re finishing it up right now, and I think we’ve come to something that’s pretty unique, something that’s pushed both of the entities involved, Trampled By Turtles and myself. I’m excited. I didn’t set out to be contrary or second guess, you know, [or have] a plan going here or there and whatever, but it just kind of happened to be how things unfolded. And I ended up with some time with those guys to do some recording. They’re all friends, and it just clicked so easily. And we’ve we decided we had to follow through and make something with it.
Nobody can make a cello honk, slither, twang and gurgle like Mabe Fratti. In just a few short years, the prolific Guatemala-born, Mexico City-based musician, singer and composer has built an impressive international profile in experimental pop circles. Sentir Que No Sabes (which translates as Feel Like You Don’t Know) is her fourth album under her own name since 2020. Last year, she also released an album as half of Titanic, a jazzy avant-chanson duo project with her musical and life partner Hector Tosta (AKA I La Católica), and another with the improvisational quartet Amor Muere.
Nobody can make a cello honk, slither, twang and gurgle like Mabe Fratti. In just a few short years, the prolific Guatemala-born, Mexico City-based musician, singer and composer has built an impressive international profile in experimental pop circles. Sentir Que No Sabes (which translates as Feel Like You Don’t Know) is her fourth album under her own name since 2020. Last year, she also released an album as half of Titanic, a jazzy avant-chanson duo project with her musical and life partner Hector Tosta (AKA I La Católica), and another with the improvisational quartet Amor Muere.
The 32-year-old Fratti has also worked with a promiscuous gallery of collaborators from Berlin post-punk legend Gudrun Gut to Danish indie-rockers Efterklang, British post-folk singer Ben Howard and sometime Björk/Thurston Moore drummer Chris Corsano. Howard likens Fratti’s performance style to “watching a sunbeam” while Corsano calls her music “a continual opening of possibilities.”
Following in a rare lineage that includes Arthur Russell, Charlotte Moorman and her current personal hero, South Korea’s Okkyung Lee, Fratti uses the cello as wide-open sound laboratory as much as solo instrument, fusing acoustic chamber-pop with analogue electronics, improvisation with more composed pieces, vocal-led songs with instrumental audioscapes. Crucially, even the most obtuse music she creates with Tosta (credited here as arranger, producer, co-writer and multi-instrumentalist) mostly falls on the sweeter side of wonky, the sunny side of abrasive. This is art-pop in the tradition of Kate Bush, Björk and Julia Holter more than confrontational icons like Yoko Ono, Merzbow or Gazelle Twin. All have their own beauty, of course, but Fratti’s sonic exploration tends to be more playful than punishing.
Fratti has billed Sentir Que No Sabes as her embrace of “groovy” sounds, which makes sense up to a point. Although the album is hardly stacked with banging party anthems, she gives more prominence to shiny melodic hooks and sinewy, propulsive rhythms than on past releases. Twinkly and lustrous, “Enfrente” (“In Front”) brings electronic dance-pop signifiers to the foreground with sudden eruptions of glassy, crystalline synth and unexpected swerves into organic drum’n’bass percussion. The spectral sci-fi lullaby “Quieras O No” (“Whether You Want It Or Not”) features layered vocoder harmonies that sound almost like devotional hymns, while “Márgen Del Índice” (“Index Margin”) opens with a fragrant, airy vocal and an infectious mechanical shuffle-beat before unravelling into gnarly clatter and merciless cello abuse.
Sentir Que No Sabes features some of Fratti’s most beautiful avant-pop compositions so far. Witness the precisely sculpted jewel-box ballad “Pantalla Azul” (“Blue Screen”), with its luminous falsetto harmonies, plucked pizzicato strings and deceptively sweet lounge-jazz sparkle, which takes its author into Joni Mitchell territory. There’s also the voluptuous “Oidis” (“Ears”), whose brassy fanfares, stumbling waltz-time rhythm and warm-blooded serotonin surges invoke Zach Condon’s rapturously retro Beirut project. Fratti’s voice is sublime here, tremulous and delicate and loaded with the heightened emotional quality of duende, despite lyrics which often translate as goofy wordplay on the page. “Flee towards your ears,” she sobs, “dreams are for days / The days are days.” It sounds much more dramatic in Spanish.
Ears are something of a motif in Fratti’s opaque lyrical ruminations. “Maybe there are ears in the ceiling,” she muses on album opener “Kravitz”, “maybe someone is on the other side of the wall”. The track’s title playfully references the broad mixtape menu that Fratti and Tosta ingested during the album’s production, which included Lenny Kravitz alongside Alice In Chains and late-career Scott Walker. Needless to say, it sounds nothing like the funk-pop superstar with its stately martial backbeat, skeletal bassline and seasick brass swirls, all braided with a bluesy, breathy vocal that morphs into spine-tingling wordless abstraction.
As on Fratti’s previous albums, Sentir Que No Sabes is punctuated by shorter instrumental pieces that play like wilder digressions from the more polished, structured songs. “Elastica I” is a delicious exercise in time-warping cello-tronica, digital fuzz and artfully muffled distortion, while “Kitana” turns the cello into a bristling, rustling, scratchy bustle of noise, as if a family of mice are building a nest inside Fratti’s favoured instrument. Which frankly seems entirely possible, given her all-embracing musical credo.
Not everything on Sentir Que No Sabes is prime grade. There is a lightness to Fratti’s approach that can shade into whimsy at times, while the five-minute closing track “Angel Nuevo” never quite shakes off the feeling of an undercooked, unfocussed patchwork. That said, Fratti delivers some of her most musically and emotionally rich work to date here, her dreamy voice and impressionistic Spanish-language lyrics adding an extra layer of magical realism. That infinite possibility horizon just opened a little wider.
Wayne Shorter’s career contains virtually the entire history of the second half of 20th century jazz. He cut his teeth with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and eventually became the band’s musical director; he helped crystallise the emerging new sounds of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet and often composed for Davis; and he co-founded the pioneering jazz fusion group Weather Report. Not only was he an absolute master of the saxophone (originally on the less common soprano, then switching his focus to tenor) but he also redefined jazz composition, penned a number of pieces that have since become beloved standards, and has won numerous awards, including several Grammys. He died at the age of 89 in 2023, but his spirit lives on in the music he composed and the exploratory outlook of the many musicians he influenced.
Wayne Shorter’s career contains virtually the entire history of the second half of 20th century jazz. He cut his teeth with Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and eventually became the band’s musical director; he helped crystallise the emerging new sounds of Miles Davis’ Second Great Quintet and often composed for Davis; and he co-founded the pioneering jazz fusion group Weather Report. Not only was he an absolute master of the saxophone (originally on the less common soprano, then switching his focus to tenor) but he also redefined jazz composition, penned a number of pieces that have since become beloved standards, and has won numerous awards, including several Grammys. He died at the age of 89 in 2023, but his spirit lives on in the music he composed and the exploratory outlook of the many musicians he influenced.
This year sees the reissue of two major Shorter albums in the Blue Note catalogue: 1965’s JuJu, as part of their Classic Vinyl Series and 1971’s Odyssey Of Iska, as part of their Tone Poet Vinyl Series. JuJu, recorded in 1964, is squarely post-bop, showcasing Shorter’s facility as a bandleader and composer, exploring the edges of modal jazz with a melodic rush and a fired-up rhythm section of musicians best known for working with John Coltrane: pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones. In an interview with the writer Jim Macnie, Shorter explained that Coltrane wanted to get together because they were playing “not the same way, but in the same areas of the horn.” Shorter also described his own view of the rhythm section as the vessel; if Coltrane was the leader, Tyner would accompany him as the navigator. Together, they were the frontline. All of which is to say that Shorter was incredibly well-suited to work with Coltrane’s rhythm section – not in the same way as Trane, but perhaps in the same areas.
Tyner is navigator on JuJu too, a commanding presence with impressive solos. The ensemble’s energy is instantaneous on the title track that opens the record, Tyner’s piano and Shorter’s horn dancing with one another in agile formation while the rhythm section builds the foundation. Shorter’s post-bop work is characterised by distinctively melodic sax lines in a variety of moods, and this is evident from the jump on JuJu. He’s upbeat on the excellent “Deluge” but gets melancholy on “House Of Jade”. Then there’s “Mahjong”, another gorgeous song on an album full of stand-outs. Every musician gets their chance to shine, while Shorter’s horn channels sophistication and grace, tinged with a meditative edge. JuJu was Shorter’s fifth album as leader and second for Blue Note, but perhaps the first to really show the potential of his capability, not merely hinting but announcing further greatness.
Odyssey Of Iska is a nearly perfect bookend, not only because it was one of two final albums Shorter recorded for Blue Note (until a return in the 2010s) but also because it marks a shift in his style. The album was recorded in 1970, right around the time that Weather Report was formed by Shorter and keyboardist Joe Zawinul. The band would go on to define jazz fusion, alongside Chick Corea’s Return To Forever and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Slivers of the forthcoming fusion can be heard on Odyssey Of Iska, which consists of four moody Shorter originals and a handsomely gentle take on “Depois Do Amor, O Vazio (After Love, Emptiness)”, a bossa nova-flavoured tune by Bobby Thompson.
The album is exploratory and atmospheric, the musicians working with a dense palette as they trace impulses both spiritual and avant-garde. The personnel includes iconic bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Hart (a member of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi band), alongside a broader selection of instrumentation that includes guitar, vibraphone and marimba. Misty percussion sets the mood on “Storm”, but when Shorter’s horn enters the fray, it’s a call to arms that matches the freneticism of the guitar. Iska is a reference to Shorter’s daughter, born around the time the album was recorded, but to continue the metaphor of vessels and navigation, Iska may well be a majestic ship carrying these sonic travellers on a freely flowing journey. Taken together, the albums are a striking showcase for Shorter’s development as a bandleader and composer. From modal jazz and post-bop to fusion and the avant-garde to his orchestral explorations later in life, Shorter’s legacy is undeniably far-reaching. His contributions are forever woven into the very fabric of jazz.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
“It was a complete accident,” says filmmaker Mark Warmington, explaining how he came across the remarkable story of the Cimarons, the UK’s first indigenous reggae band. He was living and working as a cameraman in Brent when someone at the council suggested he speak to Cimarons guitarist and co-founder guitarist Locksley Gichie. “When he told me about who they’d worked with and what they’d done, it was just incredible.”
“It was a complete accident,” says filmmaker Mark Warmington, explaining how he came across the remarkable story of the Cimarons, the UK’s first indigenous reggae band. He was living and working as a cameraman in Brent when someone at the council suggested he speak to Cimarons guitarist and co-founder guitarist Locksley Gichie. “When he told me about who they’d worked with and what they’d done, it was just incredible.”
The result is Warmington’s film Harder Than The Rock, which tells how the Cimarons formed in Harlesden, took reggae around the world, worked with everyone from Bob Marley to Paul McCartney, but ultimately disappeared under the radar – something that the documentary is seeking to put right. As Gichie says, “It will mean that all our blood, sweat and tears haven’t gone to waste.”
Jamaican-born teenagers Gichie and Franklyn Dunn (bass) met in a bus shelter in 1967, subsequently being joined in rehearsals by Carl Levy (keyboards), Maurice Ellis (drums) and Carl Lewis (vocals). After playing their first gig at Harlesden cricket club to an audience who Gichie remembers “going crazy” for their live versions of rocksteady imports, the Cimarons initially made their reputation as a backing band for visiting Jamaican stars such as Desmond Dekker and Jimmy Cliff.
Uncovering photos and film from those days turned Warmington into “a detective”. Sadly, no footage survives of the Cimarons backing Bob Marley, but Gichie tells how, in 1972, the Jamaican legend-in-the-making came to London without the Wailers and was stunned to realise the Harlesden band not only knew but could play his songs. “Bob said ‘Man, I can’t believe this,’” smiles the guitarist. “‘You guys sound like The Beatles, in Jamaica.’” The Cimarons did three shows billed as the Wailers. Other achievements include becoming the first reggae band to play in places such as Africa, Spain, Japan and Ireland, appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test and even scoring a Jamaican No. 1 – still the only British reggae band to do so – with Marley’s “Talkin’ Blues”.
As Hot Rod All Stars, they were the unseen studio band on countless hits by “Dennis Brown, Errol Dunkley, Sheila Hylton, you name it…” They appeared on Top Of The Pops several times with “Everything I Own” chart-topper Ken Boothe, but despite playing on The Hotshots’ 1973 reggae hit “Snoopy Vs The Red Baron” were replaced on the show by a white band. Such frustrations meant that after new vocalist Winston Reid joined in 1973 they made seven albums of their own, including On The Rock(1976), produced in Black Ark Studios, Kingston by Lee “Scratch” Perry. “An inspiration,” says Gichie. “He’d make you laugh, so you’d want to play.”
As punk and reggae collided, they played with The Clash, The Jam and Generation X. “The mind-blowing one was a national tour with Sham 69,” grins Gichie. “We eventually had to set up our equipment at the back of the stage because all the crazy punks were spitting.” Another fan was Linda McCartney, who encouraged them to cover her husband’s material. “Paul brought his entire catalogue of songs. He just said, ‘Do whichever you want to.’” Sadly, 1981’s resulting Reggaebility flopped, but despite line-up changes the Cimarons journey hasn’t stopped. Warmington’s film poignantly captures drummer Ellis’s last studio performance in 2021, after which he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and “gone within six weeks”. Gichie and Dunn are now the only originals in the current line-up, but recognition is long overdue. As ragga MC General Levy – who grew up in Harlesden – explains in the film, “They were the spark that started a big flame.”
John Murry and Cowboy Junkies' Michael Timmins have released "What Remains", taken from a little bit of Grace and Decay, their upcoming soundtrack to the documentary, The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry.
John Murry and Cowboy Junkies‘ Michael Timmins have released “What Remains“, taken from a little bit of Grace and Decay, their upcoming soundtrack to the documentary, The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry.
The album is released on September 20 on deluxe CD as a download on TV Records, preceded by “What Remains” on September 13.
In the meantime, The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry screens on Monday, September 16 at 18:15 at Rich Mix cinema on Bethnal Green Road, London. It features a live solo performance from Murry and a Q&A with Murry and director Sarah Share.
You can watch the trailer below:
Murry will also play these acoustic shows, with more to be announced:
Lone Justice return with a new album, Viva Lone Justice, which is released on October 25 on Afar. You can hear "Jenny Jenkins" and "Teenage Kicks" below.
Lone Justice return with a new album, Viva Lone Justice, which is released on October 25 on Afar. You can hear “Jenny Jenkins” and “Teenage Kicks” below.
The band’s first album since 1986’s Shelter features original band members Maria McKee, Ryan Hedgecock, Marvin Etzioni and the late Don Heffington – who died in 2021. Guests on the album include string arranger Tammy Rogers, multi-horn player David Ralicke, Greg Leisz on steel guitar and Benmont Tench on piano.
You can pre-order Viva Lone Justice on LP, CD and digitally here and the tracklisting for the album is:
The album features Perrett’s sons Jamie (guitar / production) and Peter Jr (bass) plus members of his live band, alongside guests including Johnny Marr, Bobby Gillespie, Fontaines D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell and Dream Wife guitarist Alice Go.
Tracklisting for The Cleansing is: 1. I Wanna Go With Dignity 2. Disinfectant 3. Fountain Of You 4. Secret Taliban Wife 5. Solitary Confinement 6. Women Gone Bad 7. Survival Mode 8. Mixed Up Confucius 9. Do Not Resuscitate 10. The Cleansing 11. All That Time 12. Kill A Franco Spy 13. Set The House On Fire 14. Feast For Sore Eyes 15. There For You 16. Art Is A Disease 17. World In Chains 18. Back In The Hole 19. Less Than Nothing 20. Crystal Clear
The Cleansing is available to preorder on DomMart-exclusive red double vinyl with signed sleeve, standard double vinyl, CD and digitally.
Perrett also plays a special show on Saturday October19 at the Moth Club, London.
One day, my first grade teacher, Mrs Robertson – not Robinson! – said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna put on this record, and I want everybody to sing along.’ And she passed out lyrics to “The Sound Of Silence”. I didn’t know what the words meant, but it was heavy: “Hello darkness, my old friend…” I remember the hair standing up on my neck. We were church-going folks, but I never felt the spirit moving through me the way that I did singing along with my friends to that song. I almost see it as the moment when I was really introduced to music. I go back to that song probably at least once a year. Usually it’s a moment when I’m by myself, so I can get weepy.
THE BEATLES
Let It Be
APPLE, 1970
My uncle had given me a couple of singles, including a copy of “Help”, but this was the first full-length album that I ever bought. If I had to name one favourite all-time song, “Across The Universe” might be that song. I didn’t know what he was singing about, but I knew it was magic. There’s something childlike about that melody that hit me super-hard, and I remember playing it over and over and over again. And my mom really liked “Let It Be”, so whenever that song was playing, she’d walk in the room and listen to it with me. In my twenties, I went back and listened to Revolver and Rubber Soul> and obviously ‘The White Album’ and Abbey Road. But this record still holds a special place.
KISS
Alive!
CASABLANCA, 1975
I grew up in a little town in Montana, so the way that I found out about music, a lot of it was just seeing stuff on TV. Kiss were on Midnight Special and I’d never heard of them before. There was a little local record store called Ricky’s Records, run by this Lester Bangs character. I said, ‘Hey, have you heard of Kiss?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, they suck!’ But he ordered <Hotter Than Hell> for me. The next year Alive! came out, and I just wore that record out. I think it was being so far away from live music – there was no live music really being played in our state. It gave me a little taste of what it must have felt like being at a rock show.
RAMONES
Leave Home
SIRE, 1977
I had been reading about the Ramones in Creem magazine, and then I had a couple of copies of this magazine called Rock Scene, which was kinda about the New York scene. There’s lots of backstage pictures of Patti Smith and David Johansen and Debbie Harry, and it was the first time I’d heard about the Sex Pistols. So I’d heard of those bands, but hadn’t heard them. I was at Woolworths going through the cut-out bins, and there were all these Sire tapes for two bucks. I bought Leave Home, Rocket To Russia, Dead Boys’ Young, Loud And Snotty and Blank Generation by Richard Hell. It completely turned the corner for me. Ted Nugent and Aerosmith were totally out, and I was fixated with buying punk rock records.
DEVO
Duty Now For The Future
WARNER BROS, 1979
In summer of ’79, skateboarding was at its peak for me. I was skating in contests, so there were all these freaky, punk rock skateboarders from all over the state that would congregate. It was the first time I was around 40 or 50 kids who were all punk rockers. Devo were getting talked about a lot in a skateboarder magazine that I read, and I saw them on Saturday Night Live when they did “Satisfaction”. Playing something in 7/4 time isn’t odd for me because of listening to Devo. I think it helped me in playing with a guy like Matt Cameron [Pearl Jam drummer] who loves those odd time signatures. I saw Devo last fall on their farewell tour and it was spectacular, better than ever.
PUBLIC IMAGE LTD
Second Edition
VIRGIN/ISLAND, 1979
I bought the first PiL record and I didn’t love it because it didn’t sound like Sex Pistols. But when I saw them on American Bandstand, it made me buy the second record, and now that probably gets played more than anything I own. There’s something hypnotic about it – it’s almost like watching a movie. Jah Wobble was a huge influence on my bass-playing. He was like a non-musician with a lot of attitude, picking up an instrument and making it his own by doing something totally original with it. I love listening to how he played on that record because it’s raw, but he’s very sure of his playing. It’s the strongest part of the music.
BRIAN ENO
Discreet Music
OBSCURE, 1975
In college, there was a group of older punk rockers that were always playing Roxy Music and the Brian Eno solo records. I didn’t really get it because I was into Black Flag at the time, but shortly afterwards I really got into Music For Airports and Discreet Music. I have a huge crush on Brian Eno, so I was having a hard time picking one record… there’s also The Pearl, the Harold Budd collab which I absolutely love. In my off-time I make ambient music at home, so there’s something about all those records that really hit me hard. He has such strong melodies, and I think that’s probably why he’s such a sought-after producer – he knows how to pull that out of bands.
IDLES
Joy As An Act Of Resistance
PARTISAN, 2018
When I heard that record, it was the first time since the hardcore movement where I was like, ‘Holy shit, this has every bit of the power and the economy and the vulnerability that Black Flag had.’ Most of the punk rock stuff in between didn’t really do it for me. But I saw Idles on tour in Seattle and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. I love how they play with a sparseness – there’s almost like a Wire / Gang Of Four element, the way that they don’t play over the top of each other, there’s just a stabbing of instruments. And they’re getting better and better. There’s not very many bands where I just can’t wait for the next record, but Idles are one of those bands.
Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter is out now on Monkeywrench/Republic
Mercury Rev, MJ Lenderman, John Murry & Michael Timmins and more appear on our On The Highway compilation
Mercury Rev, MJ Lenderman, John Murry & Michael Timmins and more appear on our On The Highway compilation
All copies of the September 2024 issue of Uncut come with a free, 15-track CD – On The Highway – that showcases the wealth of great new music on offer this month, from Mercury Rev, MJ Lenderman and John Murry & Michael Timmins to Enumclaw, Harlem Gospel Travelers and Krononaut. Now dive in…
1 Enumclaw Not Just Yet This young group from Tacoma, Washington state, summon up a mighty noise to kick us off this month. Taken from their second album Home In Another Life, “Not Just Yet” careens headlong like a thrilling amalgamation of Drive-By Truckers and Nirvana.
2 MJ Lenderman She’s Leaving You Still just 25 years old, Lenderman’s reputation has been growing for years now, most notably with his 2022 album Boat Songs and his work with Wednesday. Manning Fireworks is his latest record, and full of literate, lilting indie-rock like this delight.
3 Nick Lowe Different Kind Of Blue Indoor Safari is the first Lowe album in a decade, a set of new songs and reworked demos recorded with his loyal Los Straitjackets band. Here’s a sultry, lush ballad, originally written for 2001’s The Convincer.
4 X Big Black X The LA punks are bidding farewell with their final album, Smoke & Fiction, before a goodbye tour. Naturally, the album is a victory lap rather than a late-in-the-day reinvention, and tracks such as this one find John Doe and Exene Cervenka as blood-pressure-elevating as ever.
5 Nathan Bowles Trio Gimme My Shit Nathan Bowles, Rex McMurry and Casey Toll have united as an instrumental cosmic-folk trio on Are Possible, their first album together. This highlight lopes along for a brilliant eight-and-a-half minutes, Bowles’ banjo incessant and chiming.
6 El Khat La WaLa Led by former classical cellist Eyal El Wahab, the Arab-Jewish outfit, now based in Berlin, conjure up a thrilling maelstrom of sound with homemade junkyard instruments and Middle Eastern ululations. Here’s one of the peaks of their new LP, Mute.
7 Amy Rigby Last Night’s Rainbow Hang In There With Me is the latest from this New York State-based indie-folk singer-songwriter, and another demonstration of her peerless abilities. In just two minutes, she weaves a tale of the dull ordinary world and the occasional magic that can enliven our lives.
7 Amy Rigby Last Night’s Rainbow Hang In There With Me is the latest from this New York State-based indie-folk singer-songwriter, and another demonstration of her peerless abilities. In just two minutes, she weaves a tale of the dull ordinary world and the occasional magic that can enliven our lives.
8 John Murry & Michael Timmins Silver Or Lead New documentary The Graceless Age: The Ballad Of John Murry is charmingly soundtracked by Murry himself, teaming up with Cowboy Junkie Timmins. Here’s a fragile, sparse version of his A Short History Of Decay track, with Murry in the moment in the studio.
9 Moon Diagrams Fragment Rock When he’s not drumming in Deerhunter, Moses Archuleta makes diverse, occluded music as Moon Diagrams. Cemetery Classics is his second album, co-produced by James Ford, and songs like “Fragment Rock” come enigmatically shrouded in echo and reverb.
10 Mercury Rev Ancient Love Born Horses is the first proper Rev album since 2015’s The Light In You, and it showcases a partially changed group. There are new members, Jonathan Donahue’s vocals are deeper and darker, and the music is more synth-based and new age, as the floating “Ancient Love” shows.
11 The Jesus Lizard Alexis Feels Sick Another returning group, this Texas/Chicago noise-rock outfit are back with their first album since 1998’s Blue. They haven’t changed a bit, as this slice of raging, lopsided garage suggests. Check out page 10 to hear from them.
12 Peter Cat Recording Co Suddenly New Delhi’s finest indie-rockers, this group led by Suryakent Sawhney mix colourful genres with ease on their new album Beta: on this track, as our reviewer writes, the group take “The Beach Boys to a tropical nightclub”.
13 Myles Cochran Making Something Out Of Nothing Raised in Kentucky and now resident in the UK, Cochran creates his own brand of ambient Americana on his new, second album You Are Here. It’s cinematic at times, with echoes of Brian Eno, Ry Cooder and Bruce Langhorne.
14 Harlem Gospel Travelers Somebody’s Watching You This New York trio delve through the archives of lost gospel-soul treasures, assisted by producer and mentor Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, and reshape in their own, more modern image. Rhapsody is their latest LP, the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed Look Up!.
15 Krononaut Silver Silver (Edit) Guitarist Leo Abrahams and drummer Martin France come from different worlds – in short, experimental ambient and jazz – but their second collaboration as Krononaut once again marries their skills perfectly, with the result at once propulsive, drifting and gently psychedelic.
The 13-track album will be available from Thursday, August, on limited edition vinyl at all Third Man stores with a wider vinyl release at select independent record stores, as well as a global digital release, following on Friday, August 2.
The album was recorded, produced, and mixed by White at his Third Man Studio throughout 2023 and 2024, pressed to vinyl at Third Man Pressing, and released by Third Man Records.
