ØXN Remixed by DROKK

Irish doom folk band ØXN released their "CYRM" LP back in 2023.  This month, we're getting two excellent remixes of the track "Cruel Mother" from the album, mixed by the Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury project DROKK and Ben Frost.  Check out the mix of folk and electronica on the DROKK remix below and get the 12" here from Invada.  100% of the money goes to the charity War Child UK.

Beak>

Before Geoff Barrow's impending departure from the band, UK krautrock and prog indebted trio Beak> just dropped their score to the documentary film "State of Silence."  Check out the ominous, tense, and ultimately harrowing opening track "SOS 1" below and download the whole thing here.

Daily Jam - Hunter

So far this year, we've gotten two amazing albums from Portishead alumni Beth Gibbons and Geoff Barrow (with his band Beak>).  It would really be a cherry on top of all that if we could somehow get the elusive fourth album from Portishead.  It's been 16 years, and i think we all need something like that.  Anyway, here they are from 16 years ago with "Hunter," our Daily Jam.

BEAK>

I didn't know we were getting new music from BEAK> today.  This is excellent news.  The Bristol trio has been doing it for 15 years now, and i am always down for some of their particular brand of prog, krautrock, and other weirdness.  Check out "Strawberry Line" below, download the ">>>>" album here from the band, or get the LP here from Invada Records.

Daily Jam - Fitta Happier

I guess after a decade of making weirdo prog rock with BEAK>, or Judge Dredd inspired synth scores to imaginary films, or what was essentially a krautrock record with the ever dormant Portishead, band member and producer Geoff Barrow wanted to return to his sampling, scratching, trip-hop roots, and created the sprawling and epic hip-hop album Quakers. The 2012 solo self-titled effort consists of numerous appearances and collaborations, a whole slew of different rappers slinging their verses among the samples and breaks stretched out over 40 tracks. It’s quite an amazing listen, and my first taste had me instantly hooked like a millennial high schooler on his parents’ opioids.

“Fitta Happier” begins with what sounds like a distorted, warbled and decaying air raid siren before the University of Arizona marching band bellow in unison, “Fitter…Happier…More Productive,” a mantra of sorts lifted from Radiohead’s Ok Computer. The song then kicks into gear with a subdued yet grooving beat and samples of that same marching band performing sections of Radiohead’s “Optimistic” and a booming riff off “The National Anthem” from Kid A. Detroit’s Guilty Simpson handles the first verse, a kind of boasting and antagonizing screed that’s been a rapping staple since the genre’s origins. California rapper M.E.D. then comes in for verse number two with a more chilled and relaxed vibe to his couplets, though his section is just a self-aggrandizing. And then in a flash, the whole thing’s over and you’re left wanting more.

As it should be.

I’ve always been a sucker for different and interesting samples and production in the hip-hop I listen to, and Barrow’s Quakers project answered the call with zest and gusto. The whole thing is worth checking out, but let the record’s single “Fitta Happier” snag you first. And hopefully we’ll get a follow-up someday (we did), maybe after a fourth Portishead record.

Get on that shit Barrow.

Daily Jam - All Mine

It never ceases to amaze me the way that particular songs can instantly take me back in time, reviving old memories, and inducing nostalgic pangs like some sort of weird aural sixth sense. They can paint pictures of times past or reignite old feelings, a whole series of moods, tones, and colors. I’ve written about it before (multiple times), and it just serves as evidence of how powerful music can be and the effect it can have on one’s subconscious and ability to recall.

It’s kind of beautiful really.

The opening horn blasts and trip-hop spy-movie beat of Portishead’s “All Mine,” from the band’s 1997 self-titled record are so intrinsically wrapped up in my first semester of college, that it’s difficult not to think about laying around in my dorm room, or smoking cigarettes with my roommate on the dorm’s outside steps, or exploring the campus or the city, nervous energy abounding as I find myself far from home among a sea of new faces and experiences. When Beth Gibbons joins in with her throaty siren’s call, I’m a teenager again, a whole future wide open in front of me, fear and excitement and exhilaration and joy all swirling around together in one big, kind of naïve mess of an 18-year old.

All nostalgia fever aside, the song is just a real wonder in its own right, a sexy and grainy amalgamation of colliding musical forces. It’s like some alternate reality Bond theme* that we’ll never deserve to get. Or like Lalo Schifrin making magic with The Wu-Tang Clan. Or like some piece of transcendent art that could maybe, sort of exist in any era, and be appreciated by any generation, if not for some far-out, exotic sound within that pulls it back to another. It’s gorgeous, and haunting, and like so much of the band’s output, can continue to challenge and seduce me over 25 years later.

So cheers to Geoff Barrow. Cheers to Beth Gibbons. Cheers to Adrian Utley and Dave McDonald. And cheers to me feeling like a young man again.

Or a stupid kid…depending on your perspective.

*It’s a goddamn shame that Portishead have never graced us with a Bond theme. My heart swells just thinking about it.

Listen to "All Mine" below, our Daily Jam.

Daily Jam - Cowboys

I hold on to the hope that one day we'll get a fourth Portishead album.  If we're lucky.  Here's a track from their second album.  Listen to "Cowboys" below, our Daily Jam.

Beak> - Kosmik Musik

The UK prog rock trio of Geoff Barrow, Billy Fuller, and Will Young, better known as Beak> are providing sonic accompaniment to the upcoming new graphic novel by writer and filmmaker Ben Wheatley and artist Joe Currie called "Kosmik Musik."  The whole thing sounds pretty cool.  Here's what the description on Bandcamp says:

Kosmik Musik is melting pot of 2000ad, Metal Hurlant, Kirby tech, psychedelic 60s art, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Kraut Rock, Star Trek and Star Wars. A UK 70s English childhood basically.  The galaxy is a big place–but not big enough for Mick and Eve as they are chased across it by cops, inter-dimensional plunderers, rogue artificial intelligences, middle-aged assassins and a third-tier superhero team.  Come with us on a rip roaring, planet hopping adventure. Punches will be thrown, tears will be shed and music will be played on vinyl on vintage record players as Mick and Eve try to solve every sentient creature’s fundamental questions like why and what... and eh? Yes, dear reader, Kosmik Musik will unlock some of the more pressing mysteries of the universe. True Fact.

Sounds excellent.  Sign me up.  And in the meantime, listen to the full and epic proggy, synthy "score" below.  Then download it here.

Beak>

The guys in Beak> always like to keep thinks a little wild, and their latest slice of krautrock weirdness does not disappoint.  Check out the propulsive "Oh Know," and "Ah Yeah (Full Length Version)" below, download 'em here, and dig on that cheesy, '90s boy band cover art above.

Daily Jam - Fitta Happier

I will never not be amazed at how awesome it sounds to have artists rapping over a beat and sample of the University of Arizona marching band performing a Radiohead song.  Just a pure chef's kiss moment going on right here.  Listen to Quakers' "Fitta Happier" below, our Daily Jam.

Quakers Featuring Sampa The Great

I was unaware that we were getting a new Quakers album this year, much less that it's dropping next week.  That's wonderful news as any new music from Geoff Barrow should be considered, and i hope just the first of a string of wonderful news we get today.  Anyway, check out the Sampa The Great assisted "Approach With Caution" below and order the record here from Stones Throw.

Daily Jam - Humming

When i'm in the right head space, Portishead is the best band that ever existed.  Guess i'm in that head space this morning.  Here's "Humming," our Daily Jam.

Beak> - Life Goes On

Cool, the fuzzy, proggy band Beak> have a new EP heading our way in June called "Life Goes On."  Check out the grooving title track below and look for the record on Invada this summer.

BEAK> - (Merry Xmas) Face the Future

Hey, Geoff Barrow's weirdo proggy project BEAK> made a Christmas song.  Listen to "(Merry Xmas) Face the Future" below, and get it here.  All proceeds go to the National Elf Service and The Mental Elf which benefits mental health information and research.

BEAK> - Sex Music

New music is on the horizon in June from Geoff Barrow's band BEAK>  "Sex Music" is a groovy, synthy little piece of krautrock, and a hint at what may be coming on a new full length.  Listen below and get the 7" on Invada.

Anika covers Nena

I first heard Bristol by way of Berlin artist Anika a few years ago, her mix of post-punk, dub, krautrock, and noise being the perfect sounds for a dark evening.  Being a chanteuse of sorts for Portishead's Geoff Barrow, there's an almost Nico feel to everything she does...and that's a wonderful and delightful thing.  She had kind of dropped off my radar, her last LP coming out in 2010, but here she resurfaces, covering Nena's "99 Red Balloons" of all things.  Cool and detached, Anika's take on the song, featuring an assist from the Invada Allstars (whom i'm assuming is just Barrow), feels like the cold war revisited, tensions rising behind an invisible iron curtain.  Listen below, download it here, and be on the lookout for music from Anika's new band, Exploded View.

BEAK KAEB

You really can't go wrong with anything from Geoff Barrow, whether it be prog rock, krautrock, film score, hip-hop, or Portishead.  His latest comes from his proggy project BEAK, a new EP also featuring songs from alter-egos KAEB.  The whole this is a weird and wonderful mix of prog, krautrock, psych, folk, and experimental tinkerings.  Listen to KAEB's ghostly "When We Fall" below and get the album here.

UPDATED: I tried to use the full name of the bands using the proper "greater than" and "less than" symbols used, but it freaked blogger out, so we're left with what we've got.

Anika covers Chromatics

British/German chanteuse Anika continues forward on the New-York-post-punk-no-wave-as-fronted-by-Nico vibes she began on her self-titled 2011 album.  April's self-titled EP features continued production from Portishead and Beak> alum Geoff Barrow and a funky little cover of Chromatics' "In The City."  Listen below and keep an eye out for the record from Stones Throw.