Black Weekend 2021 Paquete Tranquilidad

Blue Weekend is the highly anticipated third album from Wolf Alice. Blue Weekend is the follow-up to the band’s 2017 Mercury Prize-winning album Visions of a Life. Personal storytelling is at the core of Blue Weekend, an album that sees Wolf Alice embrace a newfound boldness and vulnerability in equal measure.

A quick internet search brings up some extraordinary footage of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry producing a session at the Black Ark. Taken from the film ‘Roots, Rock, Reggae’, directed by Jeremy Marre, the sequence shows Junior Murvin collaborating with members of the Congos and the Heptones on a song improvised on the spot for the film crew. Before the vocals are recorded, the Upsetters lay down the backing track. The musical director of the session is the afro-haired bass player, Boris Gardiner; unusually, it is he who counts in the band to start each take. After a long conversation with Boris a few years back, I asked Lee about his contribution to the Black Ark sound.

It's been three years since MAGNUM brought out "The Valley Of Tears - The Ballads", a compilation that focused on the British rock act's quiet, more otherworldly and dreamy side. Three years during which the idea matured to follow this successful release (top 100 of the German album charts) with a companion piece. "Dance Of The Black Tattoo" has turned into exactly that: a collection of songs that present MAGNUM exclusively as tough-as-nails rocking and extremely vibrant musicians. What makes this album so special is the fact that MAGNUM have gone through their impressive archive, looking for rare live cuts and outstanding radio versions and have come up with spirited live recordings and edits that concentrate on the essential components of some of their most accomplished rock numbers.

Nestled within the fields and forests surrounding Oslo you’ll find Raaja Bones. There, in Raaja’s secluded studio surrounded by vintage synthesisers, modular equipment, samplers and drum machines, is where he makes music that owes as much to his personal tastes as it does his identity and upbringing. ‘Black Dreams’, released 2nd July on Snorkel Records, is where this venn diagram of influences overlap, from the shimmer of e-funk and the effortless grooves of soul to the unashamed, heartfelt honesty of 80s pop.

The world may seem like a pretty strange place right now, but if nothing else that's forced us into realizing that being human is a shared experience. That sentiment lies at the core of Earth is a Black Hole, the second full-length from the Los Angeles rock act Teenage Wrist. The album also marks the group's first release as a duo, with guitarist Marshall Gallagher stepping up as frontman, and longtime drummer Anthony Salazar Backing him up in spectacular fashion.