Tag Archives: 2024

Glass Beach: Plastic Death

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On January 19, 2024, “Run for Cover” label released “Plastic Death”, the second Glass Beach studio album.

Personnel:

  • J McClendon – lead and gang vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer, theremin, arrangements, additional art, packaging design
  • Layne Smith – guitar, gang vocals, spoken word 
  • Jonas Newhouse – bass, keyboard, synthesizer, gang vocals
  • William White – drums, gang vocals
  • Daxe Schaeffer – gang vocals
  • Jer Hunter – trumpet, trombone
  • Tony Sanders – trumpet, trombone
  • Tommy Pedrini – marimba
  • Camille Faulkner – violin
  • Will Yip – mastering
  • Rat Castle Recordings (McClendon and Smith) – recording, mixing
  • Chioko Yamasato – additional engineering 
  • Daxe Schaeffer – album cover, additional art, packaging design

Track listing:

All tracks by J McClendon, Jonas Newhouse, Layne Smith, and William White.

  1. Coelacanth
  2. Motions
  3. Slip Under the Door
  4. Guitar Song
  5. Rare Animal
  6. Cul-de-Sac
  7. Whalefall
  8. Puppy
  9. The Killer
  10. The CIA
  11. 200
  12. Commatose
  13. Abyss Angel

Slift: Ilion

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On January 19, 2024, “Sub Pop” label released “Ilion”, the third Slift studio album. It was recorded in 2023, at “Le Manor de Leon” in Veilhes, Roubiehou, France, and was produced by Jean Fossat and Olivier Cussac.

Personnel:

  • Jean Fossat – vocals, guitar, synthesizers, mixing
  • Rémi Fossat – bass guitar, mixing
  • Canek Flores – drums, piano, vibraphone
  • Clemence Lagier – vocals
  • Etienne Jaumet – saxophone, synthesizers
  • Olivier Cussac – synthesizers, recording, mixing
  • Benoît Gibertaud – synthesizer recording
  • JJ Golden – mastering
  • Caza – artwork
  • Guthio – layout

Track listing:

All tracks by Jean Fossat, Rémi Fossat, and Canek Flores.

  1. Ilion
  2. Nimh
  3. The Words That Have Never Been Heard
  4. Confluence
  5. Weavers’ Weft
  6. Uruk
  7. The Story That Has Never Been Told
  8. Enter the Loop

Magnum: Here The Comes The Rain

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On January 12, 2024, “Steamhammer Records / SPV” label released “Here Comes the Rain”, the twenty-third and the final Magnum studio album. It was recorded in 2023, at “M2 Studios”, and was produced by Tony Clarkin.

Personnel:

  • Bob Catley – vocals
  • Tony Clarkin – guitars
  • Rick Benton – keyboards, string arrangements
  • Dennis Ward – bass, backing vocals
  • Lee Morris – drums
  • Chris “Beebe” Aldridge – brass 
  • Nick Dewhurst – brass
  • Liam Doherty – additional vocals
  • Brendon Riley – additional vocals
  • Kyle Lamley – additional vocals
  • Sheena Sear – string arrangements, engineer, mixing
  • Al Barrow – artwork, booklet
  • Rodney Matthews – front cover artwork
  • Rob Barrow – band photography

Track listing:

All tracks by Tony Clarkin.

  1. Run into the Shadows
  2. Here Comes the Rain
  3. Some Kind of Treachery
  4. After the Silence
  5. Blue Tango
  6. The Day He Lied
  7. The Seventh Darkness
  8. Broken City
  9. I Wanna Live
  10. Borderline

Shed Seven: A Matter Of Time

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On January 5, 2024, “Cooking Vinyl” label released “A Matter of Time”, the sixth Shed Seven studio album. It was recorded in 2023, at “Space Mountain” in Spain, and was produced by Youth.

Personnel:

  • Rick Witter – vocals, male harmony vocals, blossom tree photography
  • Paul Banks – male harmony vocals, guitars, piano, back sleeve photography
  • Tom Gladwin – male harmony vocals, bass
  • Maxi – male harmony vocals, drums, percussion
  • Tim Wills – keyboards, additional acoustic guitars
  • Violeta Vicci – strings
  • Mary Pearce – backing vocals
  • Beverly Skeete – backing vocals
  • Rowetta – guest vocals
  • Laura McClure – guest vocals
  • Peter Doherty – guest vocals
  • Michael Rendall – string arrangements
  • Cenzo Townshend – mixing
  • Rob Sellens – mixing assistant
  • Camden Clarke – mixing assistant
  • Elliot Verreux Debris – engineer assistant
  • Frank Arkwright – mastering
  • Tommy Evans – artwork
  • Barnaby Fairley – photography

Track listing:

  1. Let’s Go
  2. Kissing California
  3. Talk of the Town
  4. Let’s Go Dancing
  5. In Ecstasy
  6. Tripping with You
  7. Let’s Go (Again)
  8. Real Love
  9. F:K:H
  10. Starlings
  11. Ring the Changes
  12. Throwaways

Sprints: Letter To Self

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On January 5, 2024, “City Slang” label released “Letter to Self”, the debut Sprints studio album. It was recorded in March 2023, at “Black Box Studios” in Noyant-la-Gravoyère, France, and was produced by Daniel Fox.

Personnel:

  • Karla Chubb – vocals, guitar
  • Zac Stephenson – guitar
  • Sam McCann – vocals, bass
  • Jack Callan – drums

Track listing:

  1. Ticking
  2. Heavy
  3. Cathedral
  4. Shaking Their Hands
  5. Adore Adore Adore
  6. Shadow of a Doubt
  7. Can’t Get Enough of It
  8. Literary Mind
  9. A Wreck (A Mess)
  10. Up and Comer
  11. Letter to Self

Alfa Anderson

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On December 17, 2024, Alfa Anderson died aged 78. She was singer and educator, founding member (together with her husband Eruliel Barfield) of the band “Voices of Shalom”, but was best known as the lead singer of the band Chic. She recorded with many famous musicians, among them with Luther Vandross, Lou Rawls, The B-52’s, Jaheim, Roberta Flack, The Roches, Marvin Sease, Odyssey, Doc Powell, Martha Wash, Debbie Gibson, Jennifer Holliday, Ashford and Simpson, Nat Adderley, Roy Buchanan and Dionne Warwick. In 2014, Anderson received the “Global Entertainment Media Arts (G.E.M.A.) Foundation’s Golden Mic Award”, and Citation from the City of Philadelphia for her contributions to music  “Le Freak” (song by Chis) featuring Anderson on the lead vocals, was inducted into the 2015 “Grammy Hall of Fame”. In 2018, the song was added to the “National Recording Registry” by the “Library of Congress”. In 2018, Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. of Augusta, Georgia gave Anderson the Keys to the City and declared May 5 as “Alfa Anderson Day”.

Zakir Hussain

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On December 15, 2024, Ustad Zakir Hussain died aged 73. He was musician (tabla, percussion), composer, music producer and film actor, considered as one of the greatest tabla players of all time.Hussain recorded and performed with number of famous musicians, among the others with John McLaughlin, Jan Garbarek, Mickey Hart, Ravi Shankar, Bill Laswell, Shankar Lakshminarayana, Pat Martino, Shakti, John Handy, Pharaoh Sanders, Ali Akbar Khan and Charles Lloyd. For his work he was awarded the “Govt of India’s Sangeet Natak Akademi Award “, “Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship”, “Ratna Sadsya”, and the “United States National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship”. Hussain won four “Grammy Awards”.

The Smile: The Smile At The Montreux Jazz Festival July 2022

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On December 14, 2022, “XL” label released “The Smile at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022”, the first Smile (The) live and second overall album. It was recorded in July 2024, at “Montreux Jazz Festival” at “Montreux Music & Convention Centre” in Montreux, Switzerland, and was produced by

Personnel:

  • Thom Yorke – vocals, guitar, bass
  • Jonny Greenwood – guitar, bass
  • Tom Skinner – drums
  • Mikko Gordon – engineer

Track listing:

All lyrics by Thom Yorke, all music by Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Tom Skinner, and Nigel Godrich.

  1. Pana-vision
  2. Thin Thing
  3. The Opposite
  4. Speech Bubbles
  5. Free in the Knowledge / A Hairdryer
  6. The Smoke
  7. You Will Never Work in Television Again