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.

Miguel Atwood Ferguson - Life On Mars

Oru Cantando

Yemaya

Canto Asoyin

Big Crown Records presents Demoitis Vol. 1

Don't Blame NY (Demo Version)

Mirror Gazer 'We Can Make It: Ordeal Erasure Remixes & Outtakes' out now: https://smarturl.it/mgwecanmakeit

Fresh Selects revisits Brooklyn multi-talent Mirror Gazer's 2020 album 'Ordeal Erasure' with a massive companion project – a full double-album collection of new remixes, previously unreleased outtakes, beat demos & an in-studio live session. 

Available to stream & buy on all DSP's and as a Name Your Price download on Bandcamp: freshselects.bandcamp.com/album/we-can-make-it-ordeal-erasure-remixes-outtakes

"We Can Make It"
Written, Performed, Produced, Mixed & Recorded by Mirror Gazer

Previously unreleased outtake from the original 'Ordeal Erasure' album sessions

Mastered by Patrick Brown at Different Fur Studios

Artwork & Design by Tawfiq Mardini 
Lettering & Inspiration by Brian Blomerth

FSX-051 © 2021 Fresh Selects.

Follow:
@mirrorgazer
@freshselects

Lyrics:

I’ve been taking the elixir, Sam 
My day to day is getting out of hand 
A good reason to let go and detach 
From getting beaten down by the man 
Blue hands, no air, got questions, don’t ask 
Kept on moving with my foot on the gas 
Making noise for the hell of it 
To be silenced again 

We can make it
Even if it hurts – we can make it outside of this 
We can make it work, even if it hurts 
We can make it outside of this 

There was something in the mission then 
A new label with an interest man 
Advanced paper with a stacked contract 
A few years later with a heart attack 
A new agent, tour circuit – hit the road so fast 
A ticking time bomb, it blew in a flash 
Never knew what to make of it 

We can make it
Even if it hurts – we can make it outside of this 
We can make it work, even if it hurts 
We can make it outside of this 

We can make it
Even if it hurts – we can make it outside of this 
We can make it work, even if it hurts 
We can make it outside of this

We Can Make It: Ordeal Erasure Remixes & Outtakes

Mirror Gazer "We Can Make It (Outside Of This)"

Never Coming Back

People Are Thinking

Nitai Hershkovits- Piano, Rhodes, Farfisa, Synths (Prophet 08, Nord, Yamaha cs-15) and Clarinet

Drums and Programming by Rejoicer 

Produced by Rejoicer & Nitai Hershkovits 

Mixed & Recorded by Rejoicer @ Firehouse Studios, TLV
Additional Mixing by Nomok 

Mastered by Asaf Shay 

Cover Photo by Gaya Saadon 

Design by Kip (Broken Fingaz) 

Executive Prdoducer - Osbourne "Ease" Green 


Vocals & Lyrics 

Track 1 + 7 by Nitai Hershkovits 
Track 3 by Georgia Anne Muldrow  
Track 10 by Shai Tsabari 

Track 3 -
Violin by Yogev Glusman 

Track 4 - 
Drum programming by Sol Monk 
Cello by Yael Shapira 
Cymbals by Daniel "Dada" Dor 
Bass by Alon Lotringer 
Guitar by Kurt Rosenwinkel
Acoustic Guitar by Yonatan Albalak 

Track 7 - 
Drums by Amir Bresler 
Bass & Percussion by Yogev Glusman 

Track 9 - 
Cymbals by Amir Bresler 
 





Once In A While

Paul & The Tall Trees

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