BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.

Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.

Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical
style and direction.”

Modern Love is an interactive sonic map. Here, seventeen artists make their way into the varied regions of his sundry catalog and circle back with seventeen unique re-imaginings of both his cornerstone and lesser-known tracks. Some, in atmosphere, feel like a sly alternate take from original sessions (Khruangbin’s ethereal, funk infused version of “Right” from Young Americans); others nod at the source, then wink before diving into the deep waters of another musical stratosphere (Sessa’s sexy Tropicalia-drenched “Panic in Detroit” from Aladdin Sane). Still others take tunes down to the studs and then re-arrange the moody interiors: Meshell Ndegeocello’s pensive “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger and Tavares’ clever take on “Heroes” which is restructured into a kinetic hardbop-esque backdrop, fronted by ice-cool, held-back vocals. The bullseye these artists aim for is Bowie’s fearlessness. “Fame was an incredible bluff that worked,” he once reflected. “Very flattering. I’ll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed I quit too.”

Modern Love packs us off on a journey that balances on risk’s sharp blade. Track-to-track, it explores what happens when a musician throws out notions of should and safe and stretches beyond the known. These artists use Bowie both as a guide and a prism: A way of being and seeing. Their offerings, widely divergent, explore the inheritance from an artist who freed himself from labels, genres and, consequently, pigeonholes. While he was at it, he decimated fixed notions about territory (or terra) itself; boundaries hemmed-in his creative process, but his essence remained free to roam. He may have vanished in earthly form, yet, as he also promised in the lyrics of “Modern Love,” But I never wave bye-bye . . .” This compilation assures us that his spirit swirls around us. His force is alive to all of us and, here, it is summoned with an incantation that celebrates possibility.

Khruangbin - Right

TRUCD223 Wildcookie - Serious Drug, Cookie Dough

Wildcookie - Serious Drug

Motherland Journey

Motherland Journey (feat. Killbeatz & Fela Kuti)

All credit to KOKOROKO for this wonderful song!

KOKOROKO - Ti-De (CRAETION edit)

Out Yer Box, the leftfield sister label to Jack Said What, has unearthed a major new talent in Corserine. The prolific Scottish producer is about to unleash his debut album, which is stuffed full of melancholic dream-pop, neon nu-disco, future-retro soundscapes and sultry shoegaze. It’s the soundtrack to a science fiction film that hasn’t been made. Yet.

Indeed, Corserine main man Caro Tyle cites 1980s sci-fi films as a core thematic and sonic inspiration. “In those films, there’s always a nightclub scene set in the not-too-distant futuristic dystopia,” he says. “I’m basically making the music playing in those scenes.”

The album starts impeccably with the neon funk of debut single ‘I Know You Want Me Baby’, its dismembered pleading vox offsetting futurist synth work and little hardcore percussion fills. ‘Drunk Robot Cat’ could appear in Drive or JG Ballard’s Crash movie, while tranquil lullaby ‘As Gabriel Sleeps’ evokes an otherworldly 80s MOR hit brought right up to date. 

The album continues its journey through the woozy hip-pop of ‘Narrow End’, while ‘My Love Temptation’, ‘U Got Funk’ and ‘Long Way Home’ all amble along like long-lost Daft Punk funk pieces before winging prog guitar towards the end takes each to another level. ‘Been Drowning’ is like Underworld ‘doing’ Supertramp, while the title track ‘Better Than Paradise’ shimmers with effortless cool.

Corserine were originally a group of childhood friends from central Scotland and California, although its now the singular vision of Caro Tyle. Growing up in Scotland in the 1980s, he was surrounded by a vibrant blend of musical genres and pop culture. While his mother and sister were classically trained pianists, Caro first honed his skills as a guitarist in various rock and punk bands before expanding his influences to include Japanese city pop and rare groove.

In the same ballpark as Barry Can’t Swim, Jamie xx and new Ed Banger signings Myd, and with more than a hint of French Touch contained within, Corserine’s debut album straddles the indie/dance divide and demands to be heard by all discerning new music fans everywhere.

Better Than Paradise

As Gabriel Sleeps

Corserine - As Gabriel Sleeps

Paradise is One

real estate

04 Yaw - Where Would You Be

FSX-024:  Charlotte Dos Santos - Cleo
coming out June 21st on Fresh Selects: http://freshselects.bandcamp.com/album/cleo

Watch the music video: https://youtu.be/vGwRO3evKr0

Written & performed by Charlotte Dos Santos
Produced by Fredfades
Mastered by Kelly Hibbert for Almachrome

Follow:
@charlottedossantos
@fredfades
@freshselects

Cleo

Charlotte Dos Santos "Watching You"

Bow Feat Michael Kiwanuka

Descobrir

Descobrir (feat. Sreya)

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