WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

It was that Lee Hazelwood Cowboy in Sweden record.

It was learning that the Atlantic Ocean spreads by about an inch each year, pushing apart Europe and America.

It was that Iceland sits on top of that bubbling ridge and gains strange new land by its spreading.

It was the desire to drink in that otherworldly landscape and experience its effect in the music, the way different alcohols have different intoxicating effects on a body.

It was those cheap flights advertised.

It was that you had to leave home to see it for what it is, to frame it neatly: to miss a thing was to know its shape.

These songs deal with the nest that is Kentucky. There’s a saying that goes something like, “When the world comes to an end, I want to be in Kentucky where it's always 5 years behind.” The water they say is good for distilling bourbon. There is something in the water. And what it produces in its people is alternately Dionysian and Apollonian.

Woven into the melodies and rhythms of these songs are fragments of the many musical traditions that comprise what we now call Kentucky music: Irish, British, and African to name a few. The best music would be a conversation with the divine that has seen all of it, or with the oldest trees that have witnessed the whole human story. These songs are partly that conversation, at times through the lens of lovers. They are also a longing cry born of all the dividing; a call across the slowly spreading ocean. Primarily, Like the River Loves the Sea is built as a haven for overstimulated heads in uncertain times. The title (which comes from a song by Si Kahn) speaks of the inevitable and at times indifferent nature of love. Whether it be a physical place or an idea, everyone needs a place of comfort. One where we can look out again from that place of calm and see how to best act and to be in an uncertain world.

- Joan Shelley
Skylight, Ky, April 2019
  Credits
released August 30, 2019

Produced by James Elkington and Joan Shelley

James Elkington: drums, bass, percussion, guitars, piano, Wurlitzer, JX3F synth, and harmonium

Nathan Salsburg: acoustic and electric guitars

Joan Shelley: classical, resonator, and acoustic guitars

Sigrún Kristbjörg Jónsdóttir: violin and viola

Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir: cello

Albert Finnbogason: Wurlitzer (3)

Harmony vocals: Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2, 6), Cheyenne Mize (7, 8, 11), and Julia Purcell (7, 8, 11)

Recorded at Greenhouse and Iðnó in Reykjavik, Iceland by Albert Finnbogason.

Mixed by Kevin Ratterman at La La Land, Mastered by Joe Lambert.

Additional recording by James Elkington, Daniel Martin Moore, and Kevin Ratterman.

All songs written by Joan Shelley

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Tenesha The Wordsmith presents a hard-cutting, gut-wrenching, and extremely moving spoken word album produced by Khalab that brings together different lines of black music – folkloric, jazz, and electronic dance – into an afro-futurist narrative with thunderous results. ‘Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts’ lays bare difficult truths and projects the stories of hidden voices, with a warm and heartfelt delivery that envelops the soul.

The poems are dedicated to the intersection, the places where we contemplate identity, culture, trauma and love. ‘Peacocks & Other Savage Beasts’ is a place where they all meet. “I hope between these lines you find healing,” says Tenesha. “I hope your compassion for others grows. I hope you will make the decision you were afraid to make. I hope you will learn how to turn pain into power and purpose. Decide which type of beast you want to be and if you can’t make up your mind, watch the women…”

Originally from Oakland, California, “a place where revolutionaries are born,” Tenesha the Wordsmith originally began to fuse hip hop and poetry while living in Albany, New York, where she created her first collection ‘Body Of Work’. Her early influences have returned with features from beatboxers and vocalists that give the album a distinctly urban hip hop vibe.

Blending music and poetry is also a distinct nod to the unique rhythm of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she is now living. ‘It’s a place filled with art, music and romance,’ says Tenesha.
“I write about what I want to celebrate; family, community, resilience, and hope. I also write about what I want seen; poverty, racism, sexism and trauma. I want to put into words concepts that I struggle with on a personal level that are also concepts that exist on a broader human level. After hearing me perform or reading something I write, I want people to celebrate what is good but under-appreciated and I want people to think about the way they think and question what they value. It seems like I want to do a lot with just a few poems but, words are powerful...”

Produced by Khalab (R.Constantino)

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Following 2017’s Infinite Avenue and 2013’s Sleeper, Both Lines Will Be Blue is Carmen’s first full instrumental album. A 7 track collection of cosmic excursions and dubby ambient-jams, the album is written, recorded, played, produced and mixed by Carmen in her Oslo studio. The soothing atmospherics are made up of tapestries of field recordings, synths, piano, drum-programming, zither and modular sounds. Throughout, Carmen’s music is colored by experimenting with different sounds and learning new techniques or by adding new instruments to the mix.

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Over the last few years, I have been learning so much about what it means to love and be loved. With my young son and his mother, I have been experiencing the full spectrum of life's emotions - joys and sorrows alike - like never before. The profound love I feel gives me courage to face my greatest fears and continue stepping towards my best self. So clearly, I am learning how the inside universe creates the outside universe - that to truly love another, one must first and foremost love oneself.

As my marriage goes through hard times, the serenity of our home has been shaken to the core. Through the soaring heights and deepest depths of this whole experience, I am also learning a lot about peace - how it’s created and how it’s sustained. I am seeing that peace is not something declared, acquired, or set in stone. Real peace is made and remade, again and again, in each new moment.

The songs on this album are the new melodies and new words that come to my lips while working to build a home with my little family. Hopefully they reflect the continual practice of love. For Peace Process is just that, a process.


My deep appreciation & gratitude to all those who helped along the path of this record coming to light. I want to give special thanks to Elle Pierre, David Terranova, Dean McColl, Sina Taherkhani, Brendan South, EL Tsidkenu, Mario Schambon, Vandana Jain, Matan Ben-Zi, Samer Ghadry, Kqwon King, Kim Innis, Vladic Ravich, Yalda Heshmati, Marco Rojas, Kevin McLeod, Heather Seagraves, Stephen Joseph, Valeria Haedo, Miko Underwood, Francesco Soragna, Andrew Jervis, Ben Murray, Robbie Scott, Bandcamp, Falko Haus, The Wolfcastle, Casa Bellavista, and my son Ian Sims-Pierre. Love and respect to my mom Kathie Sims, my mother-in-law Joy Sterling, and my whole family for supporting me in this journey as an artist. I feel blessed to have such beautiful friends, family, and guiding spirits in my life.

I am so grateful to the deepest source of inspiration and motivation for this music - Elle Pierre and Ian Sims-Pierre. This record is for you both. I love you with all my heart.

All Songs Composed and Performed by Ian Sims, with exception of
Prayer - written by Ian Sims and EL Tsidkenu, and
We - written by Ian Sims and Elle Pierre

Recorded by Ian Sims Feb 4-8th, 2019 at Casa Bellavista in Preston-Potter Hollow, NY
Mixed by Ian Sims
Additional Mixing by Matan Ben-Zi at O'Deer Recording Studio in Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Eric Broyhill at MonsterLab Audio in Stockholm, Sweden
Produced by Ian Sims

The Wolfcastle Management & Agency

All Art Direction and Films by The Wolfcastle
Album Cover Art and Photography by David Terranova
Magazine Design and Photography by Dean McColl

Welcome to the latest radio show for the excellent Music For Dreams radio station as some conscious dub vibes kick things off before we head into the realms of spiritual jazz, dreamtronica, hypnagogic beats, ambient vibes, the percussive side of the new age of New Age, Balearic beauties, Afro vibes and a great slice of poptic cosmic disco to round things off.

Dubkasm - Eco Do Jongo feat. Ras B, Om Unit Rmx (Rastrumentals)
Bubby Lewis - All Things (Ropeadope)
Kuzich - There Is No Time (Brownswood)
Resavoir - Illusion (International Anthem)
Not Waving & Dark Matter - Persimmon Tree (Ecstatic)
Frythm - luvme (SXN)
Knopha - 一 (Self Released)
Beverly Glenn-Copeland - On The Road (Seance Centre)
Kutiman - LIne 1 (Siyal)
Lexx - Universal Prayer (Phantom Island)
Dazion - A Bridge Between Lovers (Second Circle)
ODD OKODDO - Okitwoye (Pingipung)
Bob Moses - Nothing But You, Lindstrom & Prins Thomas rmx (Domino)

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

‘Cage & Aviary’ is the much-anticipated debut album from songwriter and vocalist Bryony Jarman-Pinto. Written over the course of three years, the album ties personal reflection to wider social issues, giving an intimate insight in to what it means to come of age in today’s world. Sophisticated songwriting is brought to life with Bryony’s harmonious vocals, layered with jazz, soul and elements of folk, creating a melodic sound that has charmed many major tastemakers, including Gilles Peterson (BBC 6Music), Jamz Supernova (BBC 1Xtra), Robert Elms (BBC Radio London), John Kennedy (Radio X) and Tina Edwards (Worldwide FM).

‘Cage & Aviary’ was created with long-time friend, collaborator and Tru Thoughts label-mate Tom Leah AKA Werkha, highlighting their capacity for musical exploration. “The album is built around my contemplations on life, love and myself and tying that in with wider global issues.” Jarman-Pinto explains, “lyrically I have circled around the theme of family and securities I felt at a younger age, measured against my insecurities now and personal desires to my own femininity and personhood”. This lyrical struggle is best represented in “Emerge”, a track written at a time when Jarman-Pinto was experiencing her biggest lack of creativity and insecurity around her writing; she describes a breakthrough in writing, willing for one to come.

The LP is fronted by lead singles “As I’ve Heard” and “Saffron Yellow”, both tracks honing in on feelings of freedom, escape and anticipation. “As I’ve Heard” tells the story of the moment when elation and normality collide, walking home with a smile on your face after being out all night, whilst “Saffron Yellow” is about the battle not to give in on the things that make us anxious but to instead take a moment to discover the excitement of everything again. 

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

St. Petersburg seeker Vladimir Karpov's first ever release as X.Y.R., initially issued on a almost-private run of 30 tapes via his own Singapore Sling Tapes imprint back in 2012, is finally getting the vinyl treat it deserved, thanks to the Mixed Up label out of Italy.

“Robinson Crusoe” takes its name and sonic prerogative from the infamous novel by Daniel Defoe, and somehow anticipated of some years the New Age revival explosion which we all have witnessed in the recent times. Here X.Y.R. established the fundamentals for a signature sound he has then developed over the years with massive release for the likes of Los Angeles’s Not Not Fun and London's 12th Isle imprints, while also appearing in the unmissable Jon Hassell-inspired compilation by Optimo Music, alongside masters of ambient music such as Ariel Kalma, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and Hassell himself.

Listening to Robinson in retrospective is now refreshing experience, a different trip on its own: far from being just recollected as revival New Age music, and more comfortable with some strains of Italian Library from the ’70 (from the nautical atmosphere of Biologia Marina to the arid soundscapes of Il Deserto by Egisto Macchi) here Karpov fills both the island and the novel’s plot with a peaceful yet obscure pathos, mixing wild nature field recordings with some of the most beautiful, outspoken and bold melodies - as stated above, not just average “furniture music” for designers. The tracks sequence opens a full sensorial deprivation for the listener, who might casually finds himself caught between catchy motives and more abstract and transitional vignettes.

Using nothing more than a vintage analog Formanta-Mini synth and a couple of pedals and loop stations, X.Y.R. has created one of the most singular ambient album of the this decade, now fully remastered from tapes and issued for public consumption. Get lost. 

Credits
Synthetizer by Vladimir Karpov
Remastered from tape by Alden Tyrell
Layout by Studio 1519

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

There is an entire sub-genre of poetry devoted to rivers and their persistent, meditative flow. Emily Dickinson’s “My River Runs to Thee” compares them to the cycle of life, while Alfred Tennyson’s “The Brook” deems them eternal and Kathleen Raine’s “The River” muses on the dream-state they evoke. For transcendent folk-pop artist Shannon Lay, the river is all of the above: It’s the metaphor driving her latest album, the exquisitely uplifting August (Sub Pop Records, out August, 23rd)—which doubles as an aural baptism renewing her purpose for making music. “I always picture music as this river. Everyone’s throwing things into this river, it’s a place you can go to and feed off of that energy,” she says, “and feel nourished by the fact that so many people are feeling what you’re feeling. It’s this beautiful exchange.”

The album’s name, August, refers to the month in 2017 when Lay quit her day job and fully gave herself over to music. This was her liberation as an artist, and the album is devoted to paying that forward to her listeners. “It’s a thank you to the universe,” says the L.A. artist. The title track is a mystical, folk-psych expression that builds into a gentle gallop. “Open the doors that you cannot,” she sings with a feathery lightness. Notes Lay: “Everyone is capable of so much, but we have a tendency to stand in our own way.” The steady movement of the song captures the rapids of a river. “I was thinking about creating something with momentum,” she continues. “I started out with just the guitar and Laena Geronimo came in and added that gorgeous drone and when Nick Murray put his drum touch in there it was exactly what I never knew it would be.”

Lay may be the most chilled-out artist you’ll ever meet. Despite fronting her tranquil solo act and being a guitarist/singer in the indie-rock band Feels, she never pressures herself to overachieve. (Even though she regularly does—in a glowing review, Pitchfork anointed her last album, Living Water “captivating.”) “I learned to not beat myself up if I’m not writing all the time,” she says. “Music really does come in these waves of inspiration.” During the album’s graceful finale, “The Dream,” Lay addresses embracing uncertainty. “I’ve always felt like a lucky person, life is a dream and it is yours to manipulate. Create the world you want to live in, create your own reality, create your path. We have so much more control that we could ever imagine.”

With her life devoted to music, the artist often spends hours a day simply playing the guitar, challenging herself to become better “It just feels so good, doing something that is so much bigger than myself. I think so much of music is that, realizing that it’s coming from something beyond and you are just the messenger” says Lay, who took guitar lessons at age 13, which introduced her to Neil Young and The Beatles. After high school, she moved from Redondo Beach, Calif., to Hollywood and joined an indie-rock band. “It was an energy I needed to release,” she says. The exact type of energy may have changed, but her drive hasn’t. Her recent practice pays off transcendently in songs such as “Nowhere,” a wistful kindred spirit to “August” that evokes Nick Drake. “It’s about getting somewhere and not doing anything or meeting anyone,” Lay says, “the idea of just having a quieter journey, zero expectation.”

There are other lovely, solitary moments on August. The simple, soprano narrative “Shuffling Stoned,” for instance, serves no grander purpose than to capture a snapshot of the time Lay walked into a cool record store in New York City and watched the guy working there buy some weed off his dealer, as “this tiny, little spider crawled up on the records—it was such a cool, weird moment.” And “Sea Came to Shore,” in which Lay’s guitar finds its foil in a slightly askew violin, immediately teleports you, alone, to a breezy shore. “The ocean,” adds Lay, “is a good reminder of how small we are.”

August was mostly written in three months, during Lay’s first solo tour for Living Water. “For the most part, all of the songs were just guitar and voice,” she says. In keeping with the humbled, contemplative nature of August, most tracks clock-in at three minutes or less. She saved indulgence for the production. “Some songs as they were had this room to grow,” says Lay, who recorded the album with her longtime friend, musician Ty Segall at his home studio on the East Side. “I believe whoever you record with tends to affect the mood of music and Ty really brought this jovial sense that I hadn’t really explored yet,” she says. “Once you get rolling with him, he just throws these ideas at the wall. And you’re like, ‘I would never have thought of that!’ I couldn’t have hoped for a better guide and energy to help create this record.”

In this sense, the album’s opener, the mantra-like “Death Up Close” is also its centerpiece. “With that song, I wanted to recognize that everyone else is going through something and reflect on that. Don’t be so close-minded to think you’re the only one who’s got issues, in fact, find comfort in the thought that everyone is on their own journey” Lay explains. What starts as an Eastern-influenced song morphs into an avant-garde sound bath. “I had this idea of the violin ascending. Then Mikal Cronin came in with the saxophone and just blew me away. I love the idea of building a song like that, take people by surprise.”

“A lot of my friends who are really tough have admitted that they shed a tear when they hear my songs, and I think that really speaks to the visceral aspect of folk music,” Lay says. “It’s this ancient form of expressing yourself.” Think of August as a warm hug for your psyche. “I want to create as much music as I can,” she says, “and leave this spot by the river where people can go sit and enjoy.” 

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Released on the heels of her critically acclaimed 2018 album, With the Sun, Sunny War’s new album finds her a little bit older, a little bit more mature, but looking back on the rocky roads of her past with a surprising amount of nostalgia. Shell of a Girl, coming August 23, 2019 on Hen House Studios with vinyl released by Org Music, was written in a burst of creativity in Los Angeles, and marks a new transition period, with Sunny moving from the Venice Beach boardwalk, where she first made her name, to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Holed up in a studio apartment in an old halfway house that’s rumored to be haunted, Sunny muses “I think I’ve heard ghosts, but I’ve always heard ghosts everywhere.” These ghosts are reflected in the songs on the new album, either through the ghosts of friends who’ve passed away, from overdose or accident, or in the ghosts of who she used to be. “I feel like I’ve tricked myself into trying to be a part of the system that I swore I’d never participate in,” she says. “Now I’m worried about moving from a studio to a one-bedroom. It bums me out when the thing I’m happy about is paying the light bill. I’m never happy about something that’s real anymore.”

Growing up in Los Angeles’ punk scene, Sunny was hopping trains from a tender age, riding free on the rails and living homeless on the streets. Her music has always been raw, and she refuses to shy away from a brutally open honesty about the rougher parts of her life, but now that she’s gotten a modicum of comfort and routine, she finds herself looking back to what she remembers as the happiest time in her life. Far from her early days playing house shows with members of FIDLAR, and racing through punk sets with her band Anus Kings, Sunny insists she’s never lost touch with her punk roots, in fact she feels more punk than ever; “I’ve graduated to just hating everybody,” she says with a laugh.

Sunny War jokes that the songs on Shell of a Girl come from her attempts to write a radio-friendly single, inspired by wildly varied influences like commercial jingles that fascinated her as a kid, the cross rhythms of bossa nova guitar, even a peculiarly twisted version of circus classic “March of the Gladiators.” Recording again at Hen House Studios on Venice Beach with producer Harlan Steinberger and her musical collaborators Micah Nelson (Particle Kid) Aroyn Davis, Milo Gonzalez, Tato Melgar, Lesterfari Simbarashe, and Edith Crash rounding out the cast, Sunny moves freely between musical genres, anchored by her virtuosic, self-taught fingerstyle guitar work. Playing on a temperamental Guild acoustic guitar, that she’s named Big Baby for its tendency to squall and feedback, Sunny’s guitar work is as dazzling as ever, notes cascading out of the guitar in Art Tatum-ish flourishes.

Her songs cut deeply too, confessional at times, wounded at other times, and fiercely proud throughout. As Sunny explains the title song, “Shell,” “in relationships, people just treat somebody like shit. Then that person changes and they don’t recognize them anymore. If you keep attacking me, I’m going to morph into somebody who’s more defensive and more aggressive, so why are you surprised?” “Drugs Are Bad” attempts to reconcile Sunny’s own medicated childhood and our culture of medicating children with self-righteous parents who think that the only drug addicts are those that use street drugs. “Soul Tramp” speaks to the hobo’s urge to keep moving, to avoid routine, to keep from ever being bored. “A ‘soul tramp’ is somebody who constantly feels like they need to go somewhere all the time,” she explains. “You’re just fighting that feeling. The lyrics are inspired by train hopping. When I hopped trains, I was living off of food stamps and just drinking Night Train. Looking back now, I think that those were the happiest times of my life. Everything was so random. Something new was happening every day, it was always interesting.”

Moving further into adulthood, Sunny War feels herself pulled back to the wild days of her youth, to the adventure and freedom we all remember, though rarely with the intensity that she lived it. But that freedom came with a price. “Most of my travelling friends died from ODing or liver failure,” she admits. “The drinking was a really big part of it, but also heroin. Almost everybody I know is dead. Then I think, why did I gravitate towards these kinds of people and then I think, was I supposed to be dead?” It’s a question she asks explicitly on “Rock n Roll Heaven”, reflecting that “I wasn’t really planning to live past 27, so now I’m like, OK what happens? I feel like that old gag where two kids are standing on each other’s shoulders with a trench coat on, pretending to be an adult. I kept wondering if I’m the only one pretending or…?” Of course, she’s not the only one pretending, but few other artists ask such honest questions with such an earnest curiosity. 

released August 23, 2019

Credits:
Sunny War: acoustic guitar, bass, vocals
Milo Gonzalez: electric guitar
Tato Melgar: percussion
Harlan Steinberger: tambourine
Produced by Harlan Steinberger

WHAT THE PRESS RELEASE SAYS:

Ghost Funk Orchestra are a mystery. Plain and simple. Dirty, soulful production, verbed and fuzzed out guitars, mysterious vocals that feel like a lost score to a Quentin Tarantino film. The brainchild of one-man producer/musician/arranger Seth Applebaum, GFO is forging new territory and blurring the line between soul and psychedelic.
We are uber-proud to present their first full-length effort for our Karma Chief label imprint. This is just the tip of the iceberg for this group, already well into producing their follow up LP, this is a group we truly believe will become a prolific force in the modern psychedelic scene.

Credits
A tribute to my grandfather Paul Anish (1929 - 2010)

Written, arranged, and performed by Seth Applebaum

"A Conversation" co-written by Julian Applebaum
"Seven Eight" co-written by Bettina Warshaw

Pearl Anish - voiceover (track 14)
Julian Applebaum - bass (track 10,14)
Kyle Beach - drums (track 4)
Nelson Espinal - shaker (track 9)
Laura Gwynn - vocals (tracks 2,5,8)
Romi Hanoch - vocals (track 9)
Evan Heinze - keyboard solo (track 7)
Megan Mancini - vocals (tracks 4,12)
Adrii Muniz - vocals (track 11)
Gabriela Tessitore - vocals (track 12)
Bettina Warshaw - tambourine (track 9)

Horns/Woodwinds:
Stephen Chen - baritone sax
James Kelly - trombone
Rich Seibert - trumpet
Connell Thompson - clarinet/tenor sax

Strings:
Gökçe Erem - violin
Ally Jenkins - violin
Sam Quiggins - cello

Recorded on tape at Ghostload Sound
Mixed by Seth Applebaum
Mastered by JJ Golden
Released by Karma Chief/Colemine Records

Special Thanks:
Jon and Lynne Applebaum for their continual support
Jeff Berner for loaning me a mic
Bettina Warshaw for putting up with hearing these songs 24/7
My neighbors for not complaining about the constant ruckus
And, of course, Paul Anish for inspiring this record