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Efficient Space

Three emotional years in the making, Be With and Efficient Space finally present Steve Hiett’s Girls In The Grass. Pressed alongside the long awaited reissue of his one-shot masterpiece Down On The Road By The Beach, these ten balearic soul instrumentals are of equal necessity; unrivalled beauty rescued from the fashion photographer-guitarist’s Paris Tapes (1986-1997).

While recordings unintended for release should often be approached with caution, this is a rare case of unheard material being assembled as an indispensable and coherent piece. Girls In The Grass is something super special. The light and shadow that defines Hiett’s music is arguably more compelling here. It speaks to us in a language that feels profound, yet entirely comforting and familiar.

Girls In The Grass reintroduces Hiett’s languid electric blues boogie, crafted on Saturday afternoons with fellow art director Simon Kentish. Kentish would cook, pour some wine and then utilise his arsenal of technology. He’d dial up a chugging rhythm, together with some ambient pads or keyboard textures, and anchor the weightless gauze of Hiett’s six-stringed touch.

Hiett’s guitar sings with the same clean, crisp tone as Down On The Road, animated by a carefree weekend groove. Unlike his defining album which was boiled under pressure, these subsequent sessions have all the time in the world. The naïve melodies chart a missing link between Vini Reilly’s ventures into electronica and Booker T, sounding like sun-warped takes on wordless, fractured non-hits from his heroes The Beach Boys.

Remastered for public pleasure by Simon Francis, these private moments are adorned with Hiett’s singular photography and feature typically idiosyncratic liner notes from Mikey IQ Jones.

STEVE HIETT - Girls In The Grass (ES011/BEWITH062LP) OUT NOW

Amanaz - Khala My Friend

Africa Reverb Mix

I Am Very Far (Reverb Mix)

Taken from Earthen Sea's LP Grass And Trees on Kranky, out June 7.

Pre-order: https://earthensea.bandcamp.com/album/grass-and-trees

@kranky
@earthzone

Grass And Trees

More exclusive music

Premiere: Earthen Sea - Window, skin, and mirror

Wilson Tanner (Andras and Eleventeen Eston) return to shore with II - a new album of floating melodies, lightly salted. The 12 min odyssey Killcord Pts I-III battens down the hatches as these sailors eye merciless waves and blinding ocean spray, channelling Berlin-school electronics and sea legs.

Wilson Tanner - Killcord Pts I-III (ES013)

Lifted - 2
Format: LP / Digital
Label: PAN
Cat.No. PAN 85
Release Date: 07 June 2019
Buy: bit.ly/2W0yIL6 / bit.ly/30OhkwC

PAN welcomes back the Lifted ensemble for a second cross-continental adventure off the grid, simply titled Lifted 2.

Lifted’s latest release expands on the expression of improvised fusion that brought about the spectrum of styles explored on their 2015 debut album for PAN. Expansion is a key theme to Lifted 2, primarily in the musicians involved; Lifted is now a core group of Future Times boss Max D, Matt Papich aka Co La, Jeremy Hyman and Motion Graphics. Expansion also relates to musical ideas Lifted explore and the studio techniques executed.

Whereas the way they approached the idea of improvisation on Lifted 1 was framed in jazz terms, the seven-tracks on this second LP step even further into the vivid unknown. Zero boundaries for the exploratory impulse. “On this record we went a lot deeper into our kind of studio technique,” Lifted say. “We tried to cultivate the sound using the studio as a primary tool, almost a member of the group in a way.”

As with the debut Lifted LP, listening to Lifted 2 is an open invitation to experience the worldwide creative framework surrounding these artists. The collaborators for each track, whether present in the studio or online, show what a fluid and freeform exercise Lifted can be.

Max D’s international crew of Future Timers play deft roles throughout Lifted 2. Jordan GCZ and Dawit Eklund both return for ‘Lifting’ alongside 1432r’s Sami, NYC’s Will DiMaggio and Sao Paulo’s Repetentes 2008. Beatrice Dillon and Bass Clef, two highly-decorated artists from the UK underground, make telling contributions which mark the latest in a long line of celebrated creative collaborations for the pair. Further input comes via Aya, vocalist and bassist for crucial Japanese experimentalists OOIOO, and Martin Kasey, a friend of Papich with a background in Baltimore theatre, summoned for Lifted duty to provide some striking saxophone blasts.

How do all these collaborations manifest on Lifted 2? It’s a sort of inverse process full of blind takes with the results more bruised than polished. “The song stays fluid until the end. We pile the ideas really high and then decimate them,” Lifted say. “We delete until the songs are crystallizing; lay a grid of silences to organize the tracks. The breathing spaces become definitive.”

These seven tracks adroitly weave through mood and vibe, demanding heads lock in with an initial blast of whip sharp percussive hits and contemporary no-wave blowouts before letting off steam with soothing ambient synthesis. “Black Pepper” acts as the album centerpiece, an unhinged mangle of SH101 basslines, freeform flute & saxophone and multiple percussive sources brought to order by Papich’s studio dubs. “Rose 31” edges closest to the kind of jazz fusion that inspired the project from the off, Lifted utilising the various classic instruments deployed by the greats of the game. Closer “Near Future” smartly foregrounds Motion Graphics’ stunning piano talents, gradually stripping away all other elements until all that is left are his swirling notes.

The album is mastered by Rashad Becker, featuring photography by Traianos Pakioufakis and artwork by Johannes Schnatmann & Bill Kouligas.

http://p-a-n.org

Lifted - Mirror In My Room (PAN 85)

Island Explorer series #004
Island of the Gods records / Indonesia

Young Marco - All These Seas

Read more: https://electrocorp.fr/2019/06/18/wilson-tanner-ii/ 

"These eight compositions pull in a by-catch of maritime folklore; of Siren and Selkie, Seagull and engine oil slick". This is how we got introduced to the new album of Wilson Tanner. 

Wilson Tanner is the mutual project of Australian artists Andras (Andrew Wilson) and Eleventeen Eston (John Tanner). Here they release "II", a follow up to their debut full-length published in 2016. 

Through the 8 tracks, Andrew and John captured Ambient and Electronica landscapes, all recorded in 3 days, on September 2017, aboard a 1950s riverboat with weatherproof instruments. 

While listening to the LP, we instantly felt in love with the whole aesthetic and the peaceful feeling that spead throughout the tracks. "All Hands Bury the Dead" is our pickup from the release with its early 70s / late 60s electronic sound that brings back a lot of music and visual memories.

Premiere: Wilson Tanner - All Hands Bury the Dead [Efficient Space]

Wilson Tanner come to shore with a new album of floating melodies, lightly salted. Throwing electroacoustic conventions overboard, Andrew Wilson (Andras) and John Tanner (Eleventeen Eston) recorded this new work aboard a 1950s riverboat with a resourceful array of weatherproof electronic instruments and a long extension lead. These eight compositions pull in a by-catch of maritime folklore; of Siren and Selkie, Seagull and engine oil slick. A change of course from their debut album 69 (Growing Bin Records, 2016), the ambient temperature drops as II casts out to sea in uncertain weather and returns to the safe harbours of Port Phillip Bay. 

The seafarers head out to My Gull’s poised optimism. The birds watch but do they listen? By the arrival of Loch and Key, the shoreline has dissolved completely, the boat floating in serene infinity as the rest of the world spins. Conditions soon take a treacherous turn on Killcord Pts I-III - a 12 minute odyssey that battens down the hatches as these sailors eye merciless waves and blinding ocean spray, jointly channelling Berlin-school electronics and sea legs. In the aftermath, the waterlogged bleeps of Idle survey the damage as our parched crew sound the distress signal and ultimately descend into delirium. 

Known for navigating individual courses as solo musicians, Wilson and Tanner’s collective storytelling is saturated in detail, buoying between tension and harmony. II modestly stands as some of both artists’ most accomplished material.

07 Wilson Tanner - Safe. Bird. 5:21 (ES013)

03 Wilson Tanner - Perishable 3:35 (ES013)

01 Wilson Tanner - My Gull 2:11 (ES013)

Three emotional years in the making, Be With and Efficient Space finally present Steve Hiett’s Girls In The Grass. Pressed alongside the long awaited reissue of his one-shot masterpiece Down On The Road By The Beach, these ten balearic soul instrumentals are of equal necessity; unrivalled beauty rescued from the fashion photographer-guitarist’s Paris Tapes (1986-1997). 

While recordings unintended for release should often be approached with caution, this is a rare case of unheard material being assembled as an indispensable and coherent piece. Girls In The Grass is something super special. The light and shadow that defines Hiett’s music is arguably more compelling here. It speaks to us in a language that feels profound, yet entirely comforting and familiar. 

Girls In The Grass reintroduces Hiett’s languid electric blues boogie, crafted on Saturday afternoons with fellow art director Simon Kentish. Kentish would cook, pour some wine and then utilise his arsenal of technology. He’d dial up a chugging rhythm, together with some ambient pads or keyboard textures, and anchor the weightless gauze of Hiett’s six-stringed touch. 

Hiett’s guitar sings with the same clean, crisp tone as Down On The Road, animated by a carefree weekend groove. Unlike his defining album which was boiled under pressure, these subsequent sessions have all the time in the world. The naïve melodies chart a missing link between Vini Reilly’s ventures into electronica and Booker T, sounding like sun-warped takes on wordless, fractured non-hits from his heroes The Beach Boys. 

Remastered for public pleasure by Simon Francis, these private moments are adorned with Hiett’s singular photography and feature typically idiosyncratic liner notes from Mikey IQ Jones.

Steve Hiett - Are These My Memories? (ES011/BEWITH062LP)

05 Steve Hiett - Dancing In July 2:44 (ES011/BEWITH062LP)

03 Steve Hiett - Summer Stroll 3:52 (ES011/BEWITH062LP)

04 Steve Hiett - It's Raining Tomorrow 3:50 (ES011/BEWITH062LP)

02 Steve Hiett - Walking Across The Field 2:05 (ES011/BEWITH062LP)

Label run by @noise-in-my-head

Distribution queries:

Australia | info@noiseinmyhead.com.au
Rest of the World | www.wordandsound.de