The Fire Within The Eye

The Now Now is the upcoming sixth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz. The album will be released on 29 June 2018 via Parlophone and Warner Bros. Records. Recording began during the North American leg of the Humanz Tour in 2017, with fewer collaborators than usual. According to Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, the album was recorded quickly so that the band would have more material to play at future concerts. The album was first teased through a series of posters found at All Points East Festival, and was officially announced two days later. The posters contained phrases and a link to a website, which displayed a short teaser containing a snippet of a new song and the release date. Damon Albarn has described the album as "pretty much just me singing" and "very sort of in the world of 2-D".

Though he spent most of his formative years in the grim surroundings of 1980s Belfast, singer/songwriter Foy Vance's musical vision is the product of an entirely different sort of nervous tension - the cross-racial friction, harmony, and disharmony that gave rise to jazz, blues, and soul in the American South, where Vance, the son of a traveling church minister, spent the pivotal first five years of his life. Drawn particularly to the spiritual aspect of those music forms, Vance took his cues from the likes of Otis Redding and Nina Simone, adjusting his own guttural singing style accordingly, and his distinctive Northern Irish lilt finds an obvious point of comparison in similarly styled compatriot Van Morrison.

Willie Nile, The Bottom Line Archive 1980-2000, is two disc set, separated by a 20 year gap, and is a great example of Nile's long term staying power, and the loyalty that Bottom Line owner/curator, Allan Pepper (booker, or talent buyer does not suffice) extends to the artists that he really believes in. Exhibit a is this double-disc affair, highlighting two distinct eras in Nile's 35-year career. It is worth noting that one of the primary reasons we can enjoy the temporal contrasts contained in this collection is simply because, when Willie was ready to come back, Allan Pepper was just as ready to welcome him back to The Bottom Line. It was a second home for me, gushes Nile. Allan and the whole vibe of the club was so musician-friendly and warm. It was just the best place to play for that reason.