Primitive Knot

Punk rock's poet laureate Patti Smith ranks among the most influential female rock & rollers of all time. Ambitious, unconventional, and challenging, Smith's music was hailed as the most exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan's heyday…

Keith Richards is not a man you want to be cross with you. After two decades of occasionally uneasy give and take between Richards and Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones seemed on the verge of imploding when, after making himself scarce during the recording of 1986's Dirty Work, Jagger made it clear he not only wasn't going to tour with the band, but he was going to devote his time to promoting his second solo album, 1987's Primitive Cool, including playing some shows on his own in Japan…

This is the group's rawest and most R&B-oriented album, firmly rooted in the same influences as the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things and including punk covers of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, et al., along with a few originals in the same vein. For those who don't get enough rough-and-ready British-style R&B and rock & roll from the debut albums by the Stones or Pretty Things, or find the playing by either band a little too tame and mannered, The Sect should be their next stop. Nobody on the British isles, other than maybe Brian Jones in his private moments on the guitar and harp, was more charmingly primitive than the Downliners Sect were on this album, which trades so freely in Bo Diddley riffs and the latter's signature beat that latecomers could be forgiven for thinking that this band had a hand in inventing them.

Welcome to this month’s free 15-track CD – exclusively curated for Uncut by Lankum. The band developed in Dublin’s traditional music clubs, but have long tapped into wider international networks of punk, drone, electronica and black metal. They’ve now become inspirations themselves, leading a scene pushing traditional music to the very edges and, as they discuss in their feature in this month’s issue of Uncut, they’re proud to bring new and emerging talents to attention outside of Ireland.