International Anthem: S/D

There's a new Damon Locks/Black Monument Ensemble album coming in April: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/now

the first track is really beautiful (recorded live & outside last summer -- you can hear the cicadas)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQLGNOCb6ZM

I love that. The video is very cool as well.

The whole album is amazing. I said on Twitter that it's like a combination of SAULT, an Adam Curtis documentary, and Archie Shepp's Attica Blues.

Will be pre-ordering this for sure. A little surprised the physical edition isn't out until July though, shit must really be getting backed up.

I've only seen like 10 mins of a Curtis doc but I am intrigued by that description

Well this totally rules—deserves its own thread really, but I'm annoyingly busy today

fyi Sons of Kemet fans should get on this immediately

This = Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble? It's great. Wish there was a little less spoken parts, but I get that's an essential part of what their doing.

was a little less = were fewer, jesus

yes that's the one!

Since we have some deathly allergic-to-spoken-word jazz fans around here, I think it's fair to note that, aiui, most of the "spoken parts" are samples not slam poetry, giving the whole thing something of Madlib/sound collage quality (I assume this is what unperson meant by referencing Adam Curtis). Still might not be your cup of tea, but it's a different vibe from some of the declamatory contemporary jazz that I know rubs some the wrong way

Yeah I like the Damon Locks album a lot. The first and last tracks in particular.

Been enjoying it

Went to see Jaimie Branch & her fantastic band blow the roof off last night -- it was my first show post-pandemic and I may have been primed to enjoy it regardless but I LOVED IT. I loved everything about the performance -- the band's chemistry, the energy, the music itself, interaction with audience, guest players!, her performance style. If you have a chance to see her, don't miss it. I think the band is on tour?

Yeah, I've been getting that experience, as much as possible online, from listening to their live album:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/fly-or-die-live

I am not super familiar with Angel Bat Dawid's work, does she always use autotuned vocals so extensively, like on this?

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

She uses a lot of different vocal techniques/ways of singing and/or vocalizing -- that's just one thing she does ime. Not broadly representative of her vocal style.

thanks!

PERFORMING AT BASILICA SOUNDSCAPE 2021

“Like a blossom emerging from between the floorboards of a slaughterhouse, Moor Mother’s music is an act of transcending a violent, intolerable present.” - The Fader

Today Moor Mother – aka Camae Ayewa – is announcing her new album ‘Black Encylcopedia Of The Air’, thirteen mesmerizing tracks about memory and imprinting and the future, all of them wafting through untouched space like the ghostly cinders of a world on fire, unbound and uncharted, vast and stretching across the universe.

On the new single “Obsidian”, Moor Mother says the song is about present danger - “thinking about one's proximity to violence. Thinking about violence in the home. Violence in communities." Featuring rapper Pink Siifu, listen and watch the song’s new video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fovnxpu10EA.

from Rolling Jazz:

More Energy Fields, Current
by Carlos Niño & Friends
Tagged in label notes as 10 pristine gems of collaborative communication helmed by the Southern Californian sage, elegantly presented in his unique “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” style. And sounds like the improvisational part might feed and respond to the Space Collage: it's more jazz than set piece, like the tracks, never too long, might be scooping up something along the way, lighting in the bottle and vice-versa. Wonder if they play live, with loops, maybe? (I imme

Listening on headphones, I keep getting aerial glimpses of the Pacific Coast Highway, interspersed w more time in little caves and coves: an intimate, though airy, small group sound, always incl. Niño (percussion, sound design, editing, mixing) and I think always Jamael Dean on keys, with others sometims on drums, tenor and/or flute, synths, and voices (on one track: wordless ones, don't worry, of Laraaji and Sharada). Shabaka Hutchings, Dntel, Adam Rudolph, Aaron Shaw, a bunch of others, coming in and moving on, at least for a while, never too many at once.

First one to command my attention was "Nightswimming," then so many of the others that I gave up on linking a favorite in addition to the whole thing:
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/more-energy-fields-current

― dow, Monday, May 31, 2021 4:57 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Niño’s previous album on IA, Chicago Waves, is live if you’re curious! I think I described it as more like ambient/new age than jazz on the IA thread but I liked it a lot

― rob, Monday, May 31, 2021 5:08 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Will check, thanks! Ambient/New Age usually puts me right to sleep, but this got me more awake.
Also, this one has *kind* of a DePlume vibe, or related appeal,anyway, but maybe earlier in the day or evening, and a little more spare?
https://alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com/
- dow

also from RJ:
omg Dedicated to Saint Escrava Anastacia.
credits
released June 19, 2021

All instruments, vocalz, and synths performed, produced, recorded, arranged & mixed By Angel Bat Dawid.
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology
First encounter w this, and don't know of course if it will seem as amazing now that I know what to expect (nothing like what I did expect from several titles, which is prob the point), but so far it's immediately compelling, often beguiling, with an eerie, tranquil intensity, and some shifting surfaces and perimeters (for inst, what's happening to the vocals going around the room---"I know I should be grateful"---in " 'Goree,' or Slave - Stick"---we also get the improbably redemption of overt Auto Tune sometimes, or maybe keys, emphasizing the inflection (of male group vocals? Or herself treated?) that suggests a African-Hebraic-Isalmic chain, rattling a little (the clarinet encourages this). One of the most affecting tracks is her untreated, a capella , "Bet"--followed, in a plausible way, by a calmly killer finale trilogy. None of this is an onslaught of sounds though; each room is only as full as need be. Seems like a rec to fans of adventurously historical clarinetists John Carter and Matana Roberts (her Coin Coin series, and maybe all of his Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music, although the album from that I'm thinking of, and most familiar with, is Fields).

― dow,

^^ I'm really enjoying that one

Hush Harbor Mixtape is amazing, too bad I'm too late to pick up the tape
Quite an amazing label, starting to feel I can basically buy anything I happen to see out there

Hush Harbor is great, been listening alot (and did order the tape!). Just saw this one dropped with very little info: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/jps-myspace-beats

Not much info to go on as there's no digital release, only the 2xlp. It sounds like it's beats and tracks Jeff Parker has worked on over the years. I can't find internet documentation of much, but did find one of the tracks on his Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jeff-parker/supernat

Has anyone received their Damon Locks vinyl? I think it was supposed to ship in July but there has been a delay?

Bought it in a shop last weekend so it's out there!

IA tweeted about pressing & shipping of LP's recently:

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings...

To Whom It May Concern: an update on vinyl pre-orders (Damon Locks, jaimie branch), pressing/shipping woes, challenges, commitments, ideals and other musings... pic.twitter.com/Q1VZkF0f7y

— International Anthem (@intlanthem) July 22, 2021

(1) Damon Locks NOW LP's have been stuck customs in the US for the last couple of weeks.. So if you're waiting on this LP which we said would ship July 9th... The albums are out of jail soon. We’ll start shipping them as soon as they arrive in Chicago. Hopefully in 2-3 weeks max

They just announced a new Irreversible Entanglements album, Open the Gates, out in November.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-the-gates

Thanks, willem. I found something indicating a September 16 date so just a little longer.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

yep, that's my favorite IA release that I've heard. I have yet to buy the new Carlos Niño album but I plan to.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA

This label is just absolutely incredible, I don't know that I can pick just one favorite. The new Carlos Niño & Friends album is even better, to my ears anyway.

I think this record is just incredible, so gorgeous, almost ambient:

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/chicago-waves

I'd not heard this one. Wow, it's beautiful. First track reminds me of The Lark Ascending, somehow.

These guys have all of my money. Those ambient records are really nice, and I dig all of the projects Jaimie Branch is involved in (like the anteloper/tour beats record). But the Makaya McCraven records are still tops for me, especially Highly Rare.

xp willem or others who wanted that Angel Bat Dawid cassette: I noticed there are 25 copies in the bandcamp store as of today.

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/hush-harbor-mixtape-vol-1-doxology

Thanks cw! IA's IG account recently mentioned extra copies were to be brought to a live event and remaining copies would be sold through bandcamp. Sadly, the shipping costs to the EU are insane since there's only shipped from Chicago. Too bad. Still enjoy it through spotify though

So happy to finally get my hands on a physical copy of the Alabaster DePlume album today.

New Irreversible Entanglements out in Nov, on Don Giovanni/IA While we're waiting, the aforementioned Moor Mother alb is just out:
https://moormother.bandcamp.com/album/black-encyclopedia-of-the-air (This bandcamp also has her Brass collab w billy woods from Dec., which I just now noticed, d'oh!)

BEN LAMAR GAY ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM
OPEN ARMS TO OPEN US

OUT NOVEMBER 19 VIA
INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM / NONESUCH

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR
“SOMETIMES I FORGET HOW SUMMER LOOKS ON YOU”
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/open-arms-to-open-us

it is the best thing i listened to this week. so good!

psyyyyyched to hear the rest of this dos santos album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23rl_6gdXM

New Irreversible Entanglements is sounding pretty sick!

Waiting for my CD to get here in a couple of days, stoked to hear it. This label.

it's ridiculous how many extremely good albums from the last few years feature Luke Stewart as a bass player.

Yeah, the Irreversible Entanglements album is great, maybe my favorite IA release of the year.

Kicking myself for missing them at Big Ears. I saw Moor Mother's solo set, which was fiery, but not with the band.

Another huge thumbs up for Irreversible Entanglements.

Also stoked for the new solo guitar Jeff Parker record and the new Ben Lamar Gay, basically everything they put out is instant purchase imo.

late pass on angel bat dawid, this is liquid fire
https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/track/black-family-2

Jeff Parker's new one is a solo acoustic folky thing, by the look of it. New Ben Lamar Gay is wonderful.