Will's Wonder Wax of the Week...

Cerys Matthews, Hidden Orchestra and 10 Poets -
We Come From The Sun

The album is composed by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets: MA.Moyo, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi “We are living in extraordinary times, I wanted to respond but had the urge to offer more than one voice, more than one perspective. Not an echo chamber” – Cerys Matthews. In February 2020 Abbey Road studios welcomed each of the 10 poets to record pieces from their collections. Then lock down hit…. But remotely and with the additional help of field recordists and musicians around the world, Cerys and Joe Acheson (Hidden Orchestra) created a sound journey for these poems with the theme of: Genesis: Birth, heritage, a journey about to begin.

James' Judiciary:

Poised to blow the cobwebs off life and unleash some much-needed wit and charm upon us, Sleaford Mods are back with their astonishing 6th studio album, entitled Spare Ribs.

Recorded in lockdown in a furious three-week studio blitz at JT Soar in July, the polemical Jason Williamson and dexterous producer Andrew Fearn kick against the pricks with unrivalled bite, railing against hypocrisy, inequality and apathy with their inimitable, scabrous sense of humour. And Spare Ribs, featuring Amy Taylor of Melbourne punks Amyl and the Sniffers and the British newcomer Billy Nomates, finds the duo charged with ire at the UK Government’s sense of entitlement, epitomized by its devil-may-care approach to the coronavirus crisis.

Commenting on the new album Jason says, “’Our lives are expendable under most governments, secondary under a system of monetary rule. We are stock if you like, parts on a shelf for the purposes of profit, discarded at any moment if fabricated or non-fabricated crisis threatens productivity. This is constant, obviously and notably in the current pandemic. The masses cannot be present in the minds of ill-fitting leaders, surely? Or else the realisation of their catastrophic management would cripple their minds. Much like the human body can still survive without a full set of ribs we are all ‘spare ribs’, preservation for capitalism, through ignorance and remote rule, available for parts.”

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Rob Recommends:

Apifera - Overstand

Apifera are the latest signing to Stones Throw’s growing roster of jazz innovators. The four musicians have come together for their debut album Overstand.

The group consists of Yuval Havkin aka Rejoicer (keys), Nitai Hershkovits (keys), Amir Bresler (drums) and Yonatan Albalak (bass). Rejoicer has released two albums on Stones Throw. Hershkovits has played in a trio with ECM Records musician Avishai Cohen.

Apifera create organic-sounding structures, harmonies and arrangements intended to reflect the rich variety and equilibrium of the natural world. Working intuitively, the quartet wrote and recorded Overstand mostly live in just three days, and the final album includes minimal overdubbing.

Drawing on real-life spiritual and psychedelic experiences, often intertwined with nature, as a springboard for their music, Apifera showcases a sound that is free, improvisatory, and live.

For fans of Moses Boyd, Teebs, Kamaal Williams, Sam Gendel, John Carroll Kirby, Sam Wilkes, Carlos Niño, Rejoicer

Buzzcocks - Complete UA Singles 1977 - 1980

Between November 1977 and December 1980 Buzzcocks ruled, the alternative punk pop world in the UK, releasing a run of thrilling singles which 40 years later transcend time or categorisation. All twelve of those revolutionary 45s are collected here remastered from the original tapes in the original Malcolm Garrett designed sleeves. The box also contains a 36-page booklet written by acclaimed author and punk chronicler Clinton Heylin.

Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues (Sky Blue Vinyl)

Limited Edition Sky Blue vinyl of the band’s 1983 album. Speaking in Tongues was the band’s fifth studio album and became their commercial breakthrough, featuring the track that earned them their first US top 10 hit Burning Down the House.

(THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS RED VINYL ALSO AVAILABLE HERE)

Kurt Vile - Speed, Sound, Lonely KV

Kurt Vile’s Speed, Sound, Lonely KV (ep) was recorded and mixed in sporadic sessions that spanned four years at The Butcher Shoppe studio in Nashville, TN. It includes five songs —covers of John Prine and Cowboy Jack Clement as well as two originals —and was recorded alongside a cast of local heavies like Bobby Wood, Dave Roe, and Kenny Malone with Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) and Matt Sweeney (Chavez, Superwolf) tossed into the mix as well.

Most importantly, it features what KV has called “Probably the single most special musical moment in my life” –a duet with the late John Prine on the songwriter’s well-loved tune, How Lucky. “The truth is John was my hero for a long time when he came into The Butcher Shoppe to recut one of his deepest classics with me. And, man, I was floating and flying and I couldn’t hear anything he told me while he was there till after he was gone for the night,” notes Vile in a personal statement that accompanies the record. “A couple nights later we were playing ‘How Lucky’ together again; this time onstage at the Grand Ole Opry on New Year’s Eve at the turn of 2020. Nothing like seeing John and his band of musical brothers and family and friends playing into the new decade in front of an adoring audience on that stage in Nashville, TN… and, yup, that’s just how lucky we all got that night.”

Shame - Drunk Tank Pink

There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almost have to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made 2018’s Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump Shame have made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism and twitching anxieties laid out here. The South Londoner’s blood and guts spirit, that wink and grin of devious charm, is still present, it’s just that it’s grown into something bigger, something deeper, more ambitious and unflinchingly honest.

The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how these lyrical themes dovetail with the music. Opener Alphabet dissects the premise of performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, its chorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit. Songs spin off and lurch into unexpected directions throughout here, be it March Day’s escalating aural panic attack or the shapeshifting darkness of Snow Day. There’s a Berlin era Bowie beauty to the lovelorn Human For A Minute while closer Station Wagon weaves from a downbeat mooch into a souring, soul- lifting climax in which Steen elevates himself beyond the clouds and into the heavens. Or at least that’s what it sounds like.

From the womb to the clouds (sort of), Shame are currently very much in the pink.

Pop Smoke - Shoot For the Stars Aim For the Moon

Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon is the debut studio album by American rapper Pop Smoke, and first posthumous project following his murder from a home invasion on February 19, 2020. The album contains features from Quavo, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Swae Lee, Future, Rowdy Rebel, 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch, Tyga, Karol G, and Lil Tjay, and King Combs. It was executive-produced by 50 Cent, who was one of Pop Smoke’s biggest inspirations. 50 Cent personally took it upon himself to finish the album for Smoke by calling the featured artists and taking care of the deadlines.