It’s almost impossible to believe that four years have passed since Dr. John left this world just because Mac Rebennack seemed to be immortal, yet legacy lives on, and every time one hears “Iko Iko” – no matter who’s singing the evergreen – one’s obliged to remember the good doctor. Which is why the forthcoming release, on CD and 2LPs, of “The Montreux Years” will see the late veteran’s followers rejoice for he was an adept in jazz as well as rock.
These days mark the 50th anniversary of Mike Oldfield‘s seminal debut album, and there are quite a few events and releases commemorating its release. Some of these may seem like an opportunity to cash in on the timelessness of “Tubular Bells” which carries on influencing artists even five decades down the line, two of the tied-in projects don’t belong to that category. For one simple reason: a few of the people behind two records – both scheduled to be issued on June 16th – have worked with Oldfield in the past, with their names credited on Mike’s platters for all to remember.
Formed on the crest of a punk wave, if not the top of a mohawk, Dunfermline’s own SKIDS were always much more than their genre affiliation seemed to suggest – as confirmed by the group’s founder Stuart Adamson’s progressing to BIG COUNTRY four years later to play folk-informed new wave. And while the latter ensemble haven’t released anything new for a decade now, the former collective will issue a fresh platter on June 30th.
While the times of large Greenpeace-driven projects seem to have long passed, there still are artists who care about environment and not only record music which deals with climate change and its impact on nature but also donate proceeds from these pieces to related charities. Two of those performers are British collective HATS OFF GENTLEMEN IT’S ADEQUATE and their guitar-wielding frontman Malcolm Galloway who, a few days ago, issued two new tracks – a shorter one by the band and an epic by their mastermind – and put both out on Bandcamp with all the moneys from sales until the end of 2024 to go towards the Prog The Forest fund the group helped create. The tracks – the former titled “Burn The World” and the latter named “Metazoa One” – are available now and will be on general release on June 30th. Here’s the amazing sound for the worthy case.
There have been a few lyricists who rose to poetic heights, yet Pete Brown was possibly the only verse-weaver who started out as a poet and remained a poet even when his lines would be wrapped in melodies and sometimes in tuneful growl of his own. In other words, Brown remained the poet for all of his life – the life which ended yesterday, on May 19th, with the 82-year-old Peter succumbing to cancer.
