Classic Voice 2020

Your eyes/ears do not deceive you: Leaves of Grass features arch American rockstar Iggy Pop reading poems from Walt Whitman’s classic collection of the same name, set to music by Robert Lippok and Bernd Jetstram’s Tarwater, accompanied by Raster-Noton co-founder Carsten Nicolai, a.k.a. Alva Noto.

The first popular jazz singer to move audiences with the intense, personal feeling of classic blues, Billie Holiday changed the art of American pop vocals forever. More than a half-century after her death, it's difficult to believe that prior to her emergence, jazz and pop singers were tied to the Tin Pan Alley tradition and rarely personalized their songs; only blues singers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey actually gave the impression they had lived through what they were singing.

Brian Eno has announced the first-ever collection of his film and television music. It’s titled, appropriately enough, Film Music 1976 – 2020. The album includes songs and themes from classic films like David Lynch’s Dune, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Jonathan Demme’s Married to the Mob, and Michael Mann’s Heat. Film Music will be released on November 13 via UMC. Eno’s work in film, television, and documentary scores and soundtracks spans five decades. He has crafted complete scores for over 20 films. Film Music includes some of Eno’s more recognizable compositions, in addition to seven previously unreleased tracks.

Paul McCartney faced the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 like he faced so many other unexpected challenges in his life: he set out to make music on his own. The title of McCartney III positions it as a direct sequel to 1970's McCartney and 1980's McCartney II, albums he made in the wake of the respective dissolutions of the Beatles and Wings, a sentiment that rings true in some ways but not in others. Certainly, the one-man-band approach unites all three albums, as does their arrival at the dawn of a new decade, yet McCartney III doesn't contain a clear undercurrent of Paul processing change in the wake of loss.

Next in the compiler hotseat for seminal mix series ‘Back to Mine’ is the legendary DJ and producer Fatboy Slim. Having sold over 10 million records and embarked on a number of sold out arena tours, the esteemed record collector and all round great selector delves deep into his weighty collection at his home to create a heady journey of funk and soul.