Head on

Finding that luck, love and letting things roll works out for him just fine, Michael Head leads his Red Elastic Band into a fresh chapter with optimism and some of the best music of his career, with his new, Bill Ryder-Jones-produced album, Dear Scott via Modern Sky UK.

Head East went through several lineups and musical approaches before consolidating in St. Louis in the early '70s as a hard rock quintet consisting of John Schlitt (vocals), Mike Somerville (guitar), Roger Boyd (keyboards), Dan Birney (bass), and Steve Huston (drums), all alumni of the University of Illinois. They recorded their debut album, Flat as a Pancake, independently and released it on their own Pyramid Records label in early 1975…

Avril Ramona Lavigne (/ˌævrɪl ləˈviːn/ AV-ril lə-VEEN; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has released seven studio albums and has received several accolades and nominations, including eight Grammy Award nominations…

Everybody loves a good ol’ dumping on bedroom projects. Ain’t nuthin like tearin’ instrudjental solo guitarists a new one for how generic their riffs are, and repeating for the thousandth time that soloing dost not the songwriting maketh (think, djenter, think!). On the flipside though, whenever a solo artist does come out with something worthwhile, it becomes all the more impressive. Enter The Vicious Head Society, a solo project by Graham Keane. Now to call this an actual solo project may be a bit of a stretch given the plethora of session musicians featured on this, but all the writing and composing is done by Keane. This band has been on my radar for a while since they were featured on a Reddit series for underrated prog metal artists, so I was excited to finally have an excuse to listen to them as I saw that they had a new one coming up. So the perennial question is of course, does it live up to my own personal hype?

To coincide with the 30th anniversary of our seminal debut album, we have scoured the vaults to unearth some absolute gold for the legions of die-hard Head Cases out there. We have found the original unmastered demo cassette of the 1993 demo that got the band signed, and had it remastered Sterling Sound. But the jewel in the crown; a never-before-released 4-track cassette rehearsal demo with our original drummer Tony Costanza, painstakingly remixed from the original 4-track cassette bounces and also mastered at Sterling Sound. Only for the most hard-core Head Cases!

Limited Card Wallet CD Edition featuring 6 extra live tracks. 62 years of music, loves, losses, long summer days and longer, darker nights are vividly recalled by ‘our greatest living songwriter’, Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band as he plays out flickering scenes from his life on new album, Loophole, set for release on 17th May 2024 on Modern Sky. 12 evocative and autobiographical songs to be accompanied by the written word as Michael Head prepares his memoirs for release with an autobiography with Nine Eight Books. UK Tour dates announced for May and December, ending the year with a career-spanning, home city set at Liverpool Philharmonic.

Not very many reggae albums acknowledge Alan Lomax in the credits. But then, African Head Charge (a band with a constantly changing membership led by percussionist Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah) doesn't really make typical reggae albums. Although the one-drop beat (provided on this album by Lincoln "Style" Scott) influences everything and the basslines have a typical tidal undertow, the stuff that Noah layers on top of the mix has more to do with ethnomusicology than the dancehall. The song titles say it all: "Cattle Herders Chant," a field recording of call-and-response chanting overlaid with Nyahbinghi drums and highlife guitar; "My God," eerie, minor-key African-American church singing supported by a chugging reggae bassline, bare-bones drumming, and the sound of running water; "Deer Spirit Song," an unidentifiable indigenous song in 9/8 meter with a gently driving rockers beat and occasional sound effects thrown in. This is an exceptionally beautiful album, but in a deeply strange way.

African Head Charge return to On-U Sound with their first new album in twelve years. Titled A Trip To Bolgatanga, the recordings are led by founder member Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, with close friend and co-conspirator Adrian Sherwood once again at the controls. A Trip to Bolgatanga is a stunning return, bringing together the talents of two masters who, after a hiatus, have created a rich album brimming with ideas and executed with finesse.

Michael Head, former frontman of the Pale Fountains and current co-leader along with his brother John – who is also a Strand – of Brit pop outfit Shack, turns in a stellar chamber pop performance with Magical World of the Strands. Head, who is no stranger to either classy, baroque pop or neo-psychedelia, has composed an album of gorgeously illustrated songs that are lushly orchestrated by a standard rock quartet augmented by a flutist (Leslie Roberts) and a string quartet. The result is an album that, while little known, is a classic, a masterpiece of modern chamber pop.