Bassist Colin Edwin and former PT touring guitarist John Wesley will play the early Porcupine Tree stuff with their Voyage 35 project, with Alessandro Vagnoni on drums and Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari on keyboards and vocals. The merch table will have copies of their Departures CD, with their take on The Nostalgia Factory, Even Less, Signify, Dark Matter and The Nostalgia Factory (Headphone Binaural Mix). They also bring the band's original light show, Fruit Salad Lights, with them.
English twee trio The Happy Somethings set out to record a wealth of optimistic songs for their new album A Healthy Dose Of Hope. Not the naive kind, mind, or the even worse cheesy ones. So the prospect o becoming a mother soon also comes with the realisation that a drink will come in handy to keep a modicum of sanity in the middle of sleep depravity (You'll Grow Up Quick) or settling for hanging out with a friend when the love or your life has not shown up yet (Just Being With You).
With wit and sarcasm playing catch, A Healthy Dose Of Hope is a reality check that will put a smile on the listener's face. It will take off one's mind from the troubled times, replacing big worries with a peak into the band's domestic ones. They make it sound so easy, but most musicians will come up short try writing ace lo-fi songs with earworm potential. Plus they are awfully prolific too, which is a bit unfair for all those struggling artists whose wells have ran dry.
Singer-songwriter Drew Danburry wrote a deceptively upbeat song about running away from toxicity. for his folk rock band Icarus Phoenix. Choke finds him breathing freely again and the relief is almost palpable. As per usual the track is also available as a solo acoustic version, which is actually far more intense than the full band version.
Mancunian indie quartet Westside Cowboy take it easy on their new single Dobro, settling for a rollicking backbeat with a few Velvet Underground-inspired guitar licks on top. This is the kind of song that could accompany a leisurely stroll by the band members on a Friday night, looking for a bit of action and maybe even an adventure. A bit of well-executed posturing can mask insecurity pretty well.
On September 25 Live Arles 1975, the seventh installment of the official series of CAN live bootleg recordings, will be released on via Spoon Records (2LP, CD, digital) and distributed via Mute. A long time fan favourite will now be part of the official discography.
Widely regarded as one of their finest performances, even by the band members themselves, this concert took place at the Roman Théâtre Antique in Arles. The lineup consisted of the core four members: Schmidt, Michael Karoli, Jaki Liebezeit and Holger Czukay. The band played as part of a festival that included other artists such as Nico and Kevin Ayers.
