New music

Dry The River have been described as 'folky gospel music played by a post-punk band.' Their second album, Alarms in the Heart, was released through Transgressive Records on Monday:

'Produced by Charlie Hugall (Florence and The Machine, Ed Sheeran), Paul Savage (Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand) and Peter Miles (We Are The Ocean, Futures, The King Blues) and with arrangements and strings from Valgeir Sigurosson (Sigur Ros, Bjork), the resulting 10-track album is bold, expansive, confident and cohesive - an undeniable step up in both diversity and volume from their critically acclaimed debut, Shallow Bed (March 2012).

The first track from the album to be unveiled, Gethsemane, uncovers the spiritual heart of the record, delivering a Buckley-esque narrative: "Excavating down you'd find the drowning and the drowned /And then there's us, babe."'

Swimmin’ Time, the new album from Shovels & Rope, came out on August 26th: 'Thrilling music rooted in old country with touches of blues and gospel, that can’t help but remind you of Jack and Meg and Johnny and June.' The first Shovels & Rope album, O’ Be Joyful, is 'a delightful combination of knee-slapping, bordering-on-gospel folk tracks and bluesy guitar-driven rock.' Husband and wife team, Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, both have solo careers, while Trent is also lead singer of The Films.

MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger says of their latest album, 'Lateness of Dancers', 'I'm interested in our thresholds, and how we convince ourselves to surpass them. Lateness is an album that continues my search for a spiritual home and a position on faith, and reckons with what our obligations are to others and to ourselves" ('Uncut', October 2014).

Ed Ochs wrote of Bob Carpenter, whose sole album Silent Passage, has been re-released: 'Bob was a prophet. His songs are meditations. Certainly he wrote his songs but they were given to him. His music came from the source, in his case a spiritual teacher who gave him a most unusual gift: the vision and the voice to express the inexpressible. He was just a regular guy until he opened his mouth and began to sing. Then, oh Lordy! There was no place to hide, nowhere to go, nothing to do but close your eyes and fly away!' Carpenter died in 1995 and 'the last decade of his life was spent in religious devotion.' 'He joined a Buddhist monastery shortly before his death.'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dry The River - Gethsemene.