New Music 2014 - Part 5 - Arc Iris

'Singing So Sweetly' is the début single from band Arc Iris, the new project of former Low Anthem member Jocie Adams. Here it is:

The self-titled album Arc Iris will be released by Bella Union in the UK on 31 March and by Anti- Records (North America) on 1 April. Arc Iris will play in Bristol, UK, at The Louisiana on 6 May and this doesn't sound remotely like her former band. To say that it is eclectic, as some already have, is only the half of it.

The Low Anthem is also to release new music in 2014. Exciting times, yet again.

[to be continued soon]

2011 in Music - Albums - Part 2

I was planning to do the '2011 in EPs and mini-albums' section before this but that has (once again) proved more complicated.  This, which is not a second-string selection of albums, hasn't been much better and actually more difficult that the first because I have, in order to limit to a dozen, been forced to be even more ruthless.
Here it is, again in alphabetical order by act/artist and (for now) without further comment:

• Alessi's Ark - Time Travel
• Black Keys - El Camino
• Demdike Stare - Tryptych
• Eilen Jewell - Queen of the Minor Key
• Gill Sandell - Tarry Awhile
• Jackie Oates - Saturnine
• Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
• Kitty, Daisy and Lewis - Smoking In Heaven
• Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
• Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
• Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
• Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

I might attempt the aforementioned '2011 in EPs and mini-albums' this evening. I have also introduced a new rule for these lists - although I don't think that even retrospectively I have actually violated it - and that is the the same act/artist combination cannot appear in more than one list in a given year with the exception being the 'Live List', if I ever get around to posting one.