2010s 248 Items

Jessie Baylin returns with a Deluxe Edition of Strawberry Wind, an album that delivers on a promise Baylin made with herself: to create an honest record for kids and parents alike. With three new tracks added to the vinyl release, the album delightfully expresses a childlike sensibility through tracks overflowing with an excitement for life that speaks well to children. Weaving through lyrical themes of dream life, supermoons, and summertime vibes, there are also some gentle doses of reality on Strawberry Wind. “I don't want to lie to my kids. Life can be hard sometimes, and you need to find a way to deal with it,” says Baylin. “There will always be things in life you can't control, but you can dream of a better world and make your own refuge." She continues, “I wanted it to feel magical and remind people of the child inside of all of us that is filled with a sense of wonder, pure joy, and hope.”

British trip-hop pioneers Morcheeba return with their first new album in over five years. The band have released 8 albums that have sold in excess of 10 million records in their career. 'Blaze Away', their positivity-packed ninth album, marks both a fresh start in its organic approach and a return to the joyous genre-mashing of their early days, with featured guests Roots Manuva and Benjamin Biolay. There was no template for its ten, extraordinary, future-facing songs, no self-imposed limits on style, no themes to be adhered to or rules in place to break.

Morcheeba’s global success is no surprise. Their melting pot sound has been border-hopping ever since the London-based band emerged from the mid-’90s trip hop scene that made them a household name. They’re about to embark on what’s shaping up to be their biggest world tour yet, taking in headline shows and festivals globally, and debuting new tracks from their upcoming record, as well as playing classics to the delight of their global fan base.

This release comes with and insert.

Alone in the world, we find ourselves. Inside ourselves, we find something to share with the world.

The Essential John Moods, a solo album in all senses of the word, is what Jonathan Jarzyna of Fenster found in himself during a summer spent hiking along the Iberian coast, and he now wants to share it with you. A mini-guitar on his back and a copy of GarageBand on his phone allowed Jarzyna to record songs each evening as he arrived in a new town after a long day traveling by foot. (He did, admittedly, add live drum tracks and some additional instrumentation back in Berlin.) The album preserves this peripatetic feeling, each song relating to the next as one city or village relates to its neighbor, its unique situation contrasting with the shared architectural vernacular. Blipping instrumental interludes (“Trainride,” “Pontevedra,” “Coastal Way”) even capture the disordered, delirious feeling of transit hubs and the sleep-bleared mystery of waking on an unfamiliar road.

“I just came alive completely” are the first words Jarzyna murmurs on “New Spring,” invoking the spirit of the album. He speaks not of the liveliness of manic activity, but the heightened, tender sensitivity of presence. It’s a fullness of living captured by the transition from the lush, jangling groove of “The Weight” to the spacious contemplation of “Pawns.” The dreamy echo of the 60s’ and 70s’ soft rock and folk troubadours suffuses the album, and the organ-soaked “Where In The World” even has a psychedelic tinge. But the overall effect is quite contemporary, from the back-of-the-nightbus lounge funk of “Take It Home” (featuring an amazing turn from arch-crooner Sean Nicholas Savage) to the mournful cupboard jazz of “Almost Gone.” “Dark Wall” sounds like a honkytonk ramble alongside a robot tentatively learning to play lap steel. “Leap of Love,” an early album highlight, passes over the listener in shimmering waves, a love song which remains a mystery even to its creator.

In the meditation tape coda “Relax Your Foot,” Jarzyna selects the perfect sample to encapsulate The Essential John Moods’ hopeful receptivity: the late Professor Carl Sagan reminding us that “despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness.”

All songs written and performed by FADE
Produced by FADE, Joel Ferguson, and KIP
Mixed by FADE, James Harris, and Joel Ferguson
Mastered by Clay Jones
Recorded at Planet Sunday Studios

Album Artwork by Alessandra Myers
EP Press Photos by Rachel Resterhouse

Produced by Jesse Mac Cormack & Helena Deland
Engineering and Mixing by Jesse Mac Cormack

Alexandre Larin - Guitar
Francis Ledoux - Drums

Artwork by Crystal Zapata

This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada’s private radio broadcasters.