Mark Organ

“MARK” is the new solo record from acclaimed drummer and composer Mark Guiliana: an auditory manifestation of one of the world’s most creative and innovative musical minds.

“MARK” is the new solo record from acclaimed drummer and composer Mark Guiliana: an auditory manifestation of one of the world’s most creative and innovative musical minds.

Beggars Arkive in conjunction with the Estate of Mark Lanegan, are honored to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum. On August 23rd, we will release Bubblegum XX - a set of releases that include a remastered double LP edition of the original album and a 4XLP/3XCD release containing 40 remastered tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased.

Celebrated as one of the finest Tudor composers, Thomas Weelkes served as organist and choirmaster at Winchester College and Chichester Cathedral and although famed for his madrigals, wrote more Anglican services than any other major composer of the time.

Beggars Arkive in conjunction with the Estate of Mark Lanegan, are honored to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Mark Lanegan’s acclaimed 2004 album Bubblegum. On August 23rd, we will release Bubblegum XX - a set of releases that include a remastered double LP edition of the original album and a 4XLP/3XCD release containing 40 remastered tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased.

Unlike many guitarists on today’s crowded stage, Mark Lettieri treats his fretboard as a runway. Before liftoff, he ensures every calibration, setting, and bolt is as it should be before grabbing a piece of sky. In Dragonfly, the riff-heavy opener off his latest full-length, Can I Tell You Something?, he makes good on that promise of flight. With Jason “JT” Thomas (drums), Daniel Porter (keys), Wes Stephenson (bass), and Bobby Sparks (organ) in the control tower, he has a dream team to get him off the ground without the slightest worry of a malfunction. From the moment his landing gear leaves the tarmac, he soars with the fullest confidence.

Mark Lanegan's first solo album, 1990's The Winding Sheet, was a darker, quieter, and more emotionally troubling affair than what fans were accustomed to from his work as lead singer with the Screaming Trees. The follow-up album, 1994 's Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, used The Winding Sheet's sound and style as a starting point, with Lanegan and producer/instrumentalist Mike Johnson constructing resonant but low-key instrumental backdrops for the singer's tales of heartbreak, alcohol, and dashed hopes. While The Winding Sheet often sounded inspired but tentative, like the solo project from a member of an established band, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost speaks with a quiet but steely confidence of an artist emerging with his own distinct vision. The songs are more literate and better realized than on the debut, the arrangements are subtle and supportive (often eschewing electric guitars for keyboards and acoustic instruments), and Lanegan's voice, bathed in bourbon and nicotine, transforms the deep sorrow of the country blues (a clear inspiration for this music) into something new, compelling, and entirely his own. Whiskey for the Holy Ghost made it clear that Mark Lanegan had truly arrived as a solo artist, and it ranks alongside American Music Club's Everclear as one of the best "dark night of the soul" albums of the 1990s.

Those who liked the moodier, more atmospheric material on the last Mark Lanegan Band offering, 2004's Bubblegum, will find much to enjoy on Blues Funeral – an album that has little to do with blues as a musical form. Lanegan has been a busy man since Bubblegum. In the nearly eight ensuing years, he's issued three records with Isobel Campbell, joined Greg Dulli in the Gutter Twins, guested on albums by the Twilight Singers and UNKLE, and was the lead vocalist on most of the last two Soulsavers offerings. Produced by Eleven guitarist Alain Johannes (who also fulfills that role here as well as playing bass, keyboards, and percussion), Blues Funeral finds Lanegan in a musically ambitious place.