Jon Young Thropugh Native Eyes

Ostensibly Demdike Stare's first proper full-length collaboration, 'Sketches Of Everything' weaves dark moorland ambient blues into guitarist Jon Collin’s windswept Americana. It's a highly evocative swing between porchside strums, sludge doom and weathered dub noise somewhere between Bruce Langhorne’s soundtrack for ‘The Hired Hand’, Neil Young's 'Dead Man', Loren Mazzacane Connors at his most swoonsome and a screwed Prince Jazzbo - proper stoner vistas.

Los Angeles - From the American South, Kentucky, comes a new group of southern blues rock champions, OTIS, who will be releasing their highly anticipated second album on Purple Pyramid Records on September 15th. Executive Produced by Grammy winnning Blues/Rock guitar great Paul Nelson, who is best known for his work with the late Johnny Winter, OTIS's “Eyes Of The Sun” takes blues rock to a higher level!

Some Kent releases come together in a relatively short period of time, while others require a longer gestation period. This month, we're proud to bring you one that falls firmly into the latter category. It's been a fortnight short of two years since we first began work on a project that would attempt to tell a story-in-song of Black American participation in the Vietnam war, a project that has been in the works for the whole of that time. The original annotation plans fell through not once, but twice, both times at the last minute. Just as we thought everything was running smoothly, we had to revise our originally perceived track listing. (One of the tracks we'd licensed had suddenly become worth three times as much in its licensor's eyes as had already been agreed, due to the fact that "war sells records" - a new one on us, we must admit.) It often felt like this project was the place where catastrophe and calamity meet - but, finally, 100 weeks after it was first discussed, A SOLDIER'S SAD STORY is ready. As compiler and part-annotator, I could hardly be more pleased with the end result.

Beginning a new chapter in life can lead to unexpected opportunities. Steel pan master Victor Provost has met each new phase in his life with enthusiasm and an effort to use the momentum of change to spur his creative forces. It was while expecting his first child’s birth that he funneled his nervous excitement into composing and recording his new album, Bright Eyes.

In 1988, New Zealand composer, Jon Mark, paid tribute to his Celtic roots on The Standing Stones of Callanish. These elegant synthesizer sketches capture the mystery and the simple beauty of the British Isles.
On this release, Mark delves even deeper into his English heritage as he takes listeners on a musical tour through the Land of Merlin. Cornwall, the most westerly part of the British Isles, has from time immemorial been known as the Land of Merlin. As King Arthur's birthplace and home to his fabled Knights of the Round Table, it has inspired countless artists and storytellers through the ages. Mark is no different. Much of his childhood was spent traveling through the enchanted landscapes of Cornwall with his godparents, and the memory of these journeys continue to inspire the English-born synthesist.