This is a tenth album for Actress – and something of a new departure for Darren Cunningham, the man behind the moniker. For Cunningham has produced a purely ambient album.
Smalltown Supersound describe the new album as being “imbued with a sense of freedom. And of stillness. The kind of stillness within artistic motion that arises via the deepest states of flow. Once ‘inside’ the Statik experience, listeners may well find themselves newly calm and meditative.”
Floating Points, aka Sam Shepherd, has today shared a new single, Del Oro, which is out now via Ninja Tune.
With a busy summer of live appearances ahead, Shepherd is following up the energetic Birth4000 from last year with a single that has some of the Floating Points hallmarks. Beat driven and busy, Del Oro progresses between minimal beats and shimmering motifs, while never taking its eyes off the dancefloor.
As with Birth4000, ‘Del Oro”s artwork comes from Tokyo based artist Akiko Nakayama. In the words of Shepherd’s press release, “Nakayama brings her painting to life using vibrant, brilliant liquids that combine and wash away, meant to represent the natural growth, change and life cycle of all things on earth. Nakayama worked alongside long-time Floating Points collaborators Hamill Industries to create the “Alive Painting” to accompany the track”…which you can watch here:
Shepherd will be playing a number of dates throughout the summer including We Out Here Festival in Wimborne (16 August), London’s All Points East (23 August), Lost Village Festival in Lincoln (24 August) and Forwards Festival at Bristol (31 August)
Robert and Lyric Hood announce the release of their fourth studio album The Master’s Plan, landing on Luke Solomon’s Classic Music Company imprint on Friday 21 June. Spanning 18 crafted house and techno tracks, Robert and Lyric playfully juxtapose the light and dark of their signature sound, navigating a spectrum of genres and styles on this highly anticipated body of work.
Robert recognises the uplifting qualities of their music, saying, “In these troubled times, we are grateful to be able to share our music with the world. Especially the dance community. We hope this album will uplift and invoke you to dance.” Meanwhile daughter Lyric comments, “I want people to feel inspired and empowered, but most of all to feel the love of God and his connection in every track. This album was made for the fans that love house music as much as we do.”
The album features Detroit trio Dames Brown, Eunice Hood (Earthtone) and Lowell Pye, while Honey Dijon appears on Fake & Unholy. Feel It is the final piece of the pre-release jigsaw, with a deep beat and typically strong riff typical of Floorplan’s best – not to mention the uplifting, gospel qualities that sit at the centre of their music.
Luke Solomon, Classic’s founder, says “The combination of wonderful people and wonderful music is always the absolute top for me. Floorplan are an unstoppable force that stay in their lane and deliver dancefloor music in a way that no one else can, but beyond that they are special human beings and I am beyond grateful to be able to call them Classic family.”
Beak> have delivered a surprise release of their first album in six years today. The aptly titled >>>> is released by Invada and Temporary Residence Ltd
The band – Geoff Barrow (of Portishead), Billy Fuller (Robert Plant’s Sensational Space Shifters) and Will Young (Moon Gangs), explained the reason for their surprise delivery.
“At its core we always wanted it to be head music (music for the ‘heads’, not headphone music), listened to as an album, not as individual songs. This is why we are releasing this album with no singles or promo tracks.”
They have also spoken about the genesis of >>>>. “The recording and writing initially began in a house called Pen Y Bryn in Talsarnau, Wales in the fall out from the weirdness of the Covid days. Remote and with only ourselves and the view of Portmeirion in the distance we got to work. With the opening track, “Strawberry Line” (our tribute to our dear furry friend Alfie Barrow, who appears on the album’s cover) as the metronomic guide for the album, we then resumed recording, as before, at Invada studios in Bristol, whilst still touring around Europe and North/South America.After playing hundreds of gigs and festivals over the years we felt that touring had started to influence our writing to the point we weren’t sure who we were anymore. So we decided to go back to the origins of where we were at on our first album. With zero expectations and just playing together in a room.“
Arcana.fm 