#Joan Reggae Drummer

[bigblue61]

This week a hellified cry into the dark with Lily Palmer, Liv.e, Two Shell, DIVINEANGEL, СОЮЗ (SOYUZ), David Crosby, Joan Reggae Drummer, uh, Hagan, Wu-Lu, Heartworms, Greg Surmacz, Angeline Morrison, Maciej Filipczuk and Triz.

[putssomethingwittyhere]

clone high band au

clone high band au. frida obviously lead singer (bc her voice actress is a singer!!) and probs can play loads of instruments (but i envision her playing bass).

harriet gives drummer vibes and probs writes loads of their songs. confucius is a guitarist, and abe the pianist. idk what vibe i get from them tho?? i think they'd dabble in loads of styles (reggae, punk, rock... i think they dont do pop tho lol).

jfk is a solo singer, but used to be in a boy band with confucius and abe. he and cleo r exes but on good terms (give me cleojfk friendship you cowards!). i think cleo's an actress, model (and sometimes singer: when a role she does calls for it).

topher is the pretentious band manager who the record label assign the band to: once their contract is up they're def kicking him to the curb lol

joan maybe their music video producer and helps construct their image... she probably gets annoyed that the others dont like her style of film but she's definitely talented at what she does. her n cleo used to butt heads when joan was an assistant director (i think she wanted to be a director for film, until she decided to go into music).

i think the band is going through a rough patch or something bc they haven't been able to release anything yet: and topher gets contacted by cleo's agent (probably scudworth??) who needs band experience for the next role she's gonna be in... so she sits in on studio n writing sessions.

OBVIOUSLY kahlopatra, joanrriet and uh... probably jfkabe lol

but i think kahlopatra would be the focus ofc <3

[bongaboi]

Grammy Awards 2019: The List, Part 3

Latin

Best Latin Pop Album

Sincera – Claudia Brant

Prometo – Pablo Alborán

Musas, Vol. 2 – Natalia Lafourcade

2:00 AM – Raquel Sofía

Vives – Carlos Vives

Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album

Aztlán – Zoé

Claroscura – Aterciopelados

COASTCITY – COASTCITY

Encanto Tropical – Monsieur Periné

Gourmet – Orishas

Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano)

¡México Por Siempre! – Luis Miguel

Primero Soy Mexicana – Ángela Aguilar

Mitad Y Mitad – Calibre 50

Totalmente Juan Gabriel Vol. II – Aida Cuevas

Cruzando Borders – Los Texmaniacs

Leyendas de Mi Pueblo – Mariachi Sol de Mexico

Best Tropical Latin Album

Anniversary – Spanish Harlem Orchestra

Pa' Mi Gente – Charlie Aponte

Legado – Formell y Los Van Van

Orquesta Akokán – Orquesta Akokán

Ponle Actitud �� Felipe Peláez

American Roots Music

Best American Roots Performance

"The Joke" – Brandi Carlile

"Kick Rocks" – Sean Ardoin

"St. James Infirmary Blues" – Jon Batiste

"All on My Mind" – Anderson East

"Last Man Standing" – Willie Nelson

Best American Roots Song

"The Joke"

"All the Trouble"

"Build a Bridge"

"Knockin' on Your Screen Door"

"Summer's End"

Brandi Carlile, Dave Cobb, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)

Waylon Payne, Lee Ann Womack & Adam Wright, songwriters (Lee Ann Womack)

Jeff Tweedy, songwriter (Mavis Staples)

Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Pat McLaughlin & John Prine, songwriters (John Prine)

Best Americana Album

By the Way, I Forgive You – Brandi Carlile

Things Have Changed – Bettye LaVette

The Tree of Forgiveness – John Prine

The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone – Lee Ann Womack

One Drop of Truth – The Wood Brothers

Best Bluegrass Album

The Travelin' McCourys – The Travelin' McCourys

Portraits in Fiddles – Mike Barnett

Sister Sadie II – Sister Sadie

Rivers and Roads – The Special Consensus

North of Despair – Wood & Wire

Best Traditional Blues Album

The Blues Is Alive and Well – Buddy Guy

Something Smells Funky 'Round Here – Elvis Bishop's Big Fun Trio

Benton County Relic – Cedric Burnside

No Mercy in This Land – Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite

Don't You Feel My Leg (The Naughty Bawdy Blues of Blue Lu Barker) – Maria Muldaur

Best Contemporary Blues Album

Please Don't Be Dead – Fantastic Negrito

Here in Babylon – Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps

Cry No More – Danielle Nicole

Out of the Blues – Boz Scaggs

Victor Wainwright and the Train – Victor Wainwright and the Train

Best Folk Album

All Ashore – Punch Brothers

Whistle Down the Wind – Joan Baez

Black Cowboys – Dom Flemons

Rifles & Rosary Beads – Mary Gauthier

Weed Garden – Iron & Wine

Best Regional Roots Music Album

No 'Ane'i – Kalani Pe'a

Kreole Rock and Soul – Sean Ardoin

Spyboy – Cha Wa

Aloha from Na Hoa – Na Hoa

Mewasinsational: Cree Round Dance Songs – Young Spirit

Reggae

Best Reggae Album

44/876 – Sting & Shaggy

As the World Turns – Black Uhuru

Reggae Forever – Etana

Rebellion Rises – Ziggy Marley

A Matter of Time – Protoje

World Music

Best World Music Album

Freedom – Soweto Gospel Choir

Deran – Bombino

Fenfo – Fatoumata Diawara

Black Times – Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II, various artists

Children's

Best Children's Album

All the Sounds – Lucy Kalantari & The Jazz Cats

Building Blocks – Tim Kubart

Falu's Bazaar – Falu

Giants of Science – The Pop Ups

The Nation of Imagine – Frank & Deane

Spoken Word

Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling)

Faith: A Journey for All – Jimmy Carter

Accessory to War – Courtney B. Vance

Calypso – David Sedaris

Creative Quest – Questlove

The Last Black Unicorn – Tiffany Haddish

Comedy

Best Comedy Album

Equanimity & The Bird Revelation – Dave Chappelle

Annihilation – Patton Oswalt

Noble Ape – Jim Gaffigan

Standup for Drummers – Fred Armisen

Tamborine – Chris Rock

Musical Theater

Best Musical Theater Album

The Band's Visit – Etai Benson, Adam Kantor, Katrina Lenk & Ari'el Stachel, principal soloists; Dean Sharenow & David Yazbek, producers; David Yazbek, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)

Carousel – Renée Fleming, Alexander Gemignani, Joshua Henry, Lindsay Mendez & Jessie Mueller, principal soloists; Steven Epstein, producer (Richard Rodgers, composer; Oscar Hammerstein II, lyricist) (2018 Broadway Cast)

Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert – Sara Bareilles, Alice Cooper, Ben Daniels, Brandon Victor Dixon, Erik Grönwall, Jin Ha, John Legend, Norm Lewis & Jason Tam, principal soloists; Harvey Mason Jr., producer (Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer; Tim Rice, lyricist) (Original Television Cast)

My Fair Lady – Lauren Ambrose, Norbert Leo Butz & Harry Hadden-Paton, principal soloists; Andre Bishop, Van Dean, Hattie K. Jutagir, David Lai, Adam Siegel & Ted Sperling, producers (Frederick Loewe, composer; Alan Jay Lerner, lyricist) (2018 Broadway Cast)

Once on This Island – Phillip Boykin, Merle Dandridge, Quentin Earl Darrington, Hailey Kilgore, Kenita R. Miller, Alex Newell, Isaac Powell & Lea Salonga, principal soloists; Lynn Ahrens, Hunter Arnold, Ken Davenport, Stephen Flaherty & Elliot Scheiner, producers (Stephen Flaherty, composer; Lynn Ahrens, lyricist) (New Broadway Cast)

Music for Visual Media

Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

The Greatest Showman – Hugh Jackman (& Various Artists)

Call Me by Your Name – (Various Artists)

Deadpool 2 – (Various Artists)

Lady Bird – (Various Artists)

Stranger Things – (Various Artists)

Alex Lacamoire, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul & Greg Wells, compilation producers

Luca Guadagnino, compilation producer; Robin Urdang, music supervisor

David Leitch & Ryan Reynolds, compilation producers; John Houlihan, music supervisor

Timothy J. Smith, compilation producer; Michael Hill & Brian Ross, music supervisors

Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, Timothy J. Smith, compilation producer; Nora Felder, music supervisor

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media

Black Panther – Ludwig Göransson, composer

Blade Runner 2049 – Benjamin Wallfisch & Hans Zimmer, composers

Coco – Michael Giacchino, composer

The Shape of Water – Alexandre Desplat, composer

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – John Williams, composer

Best Song Written for Visual Media

"Shallow" (from A Star Is Born)

"All the Stars" (from Black Panther)

"Mystery of Love" (from Call Me by Your Name)

"Remember Me" (from Coco)

"This Is Me" (from The Greatest Showman)

Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando & Andrew Wyatt, songwriters (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)

Kendrick Duckworth, Solána Rowe, Alexander William Shuckburgh, Mark Anthony Spears & Anthony Tiffith, songwriters (Kendrick Lamar & SZA)

Sufjan Stevens, songwriter (Sufjan Stevens)

Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez, songwriters (Miguel featuring Natalia Lafourcade)

Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, songwriters (Keala Settle & The Greatest Showman Ensemble)

Composing

Best Instrumental Composition

"Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)"

"Chrysalis"

"Infinity War"

"Mine Mission"

"The Shape of Water"

Terence Blanchard, composer (Terence Blanchard)

Jeremy Kittel, composer (Kittel & Co.)

Alan Silvestri, composer (Alan Silvestri)

John Powell & John Williams, composers (John Powell & John Williams)

Alexandre Desplat, composer (Alexandre Desplat)

Arranging

Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella

"Stars and Stripes Forever"

"Batman Theme (TV)"

"Change the World"

"Madrid Finale"

"The Shape of Water"

John Daversa, arranger (John Daversa Big Band featuring DACA Artists)

Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson, arrangers (Randy Waldman featuring Wynton Marsalis)

Mark Kibble, arranger (Take 6)

John Powell, arranger (John Powell)

Alexandre Desplat, arranger (Alexandre Desplat)

Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals

"Spiderman Theme"

"It Was a Very Good Year"

"Jolene"

"Mona Lisa"

"Niña"

Mark Kibble, Randy Waldman & Justin Wilson, arrangers (Randy Waldman featuring Take 6 & Chris Potter)

Matt Rollings & Kristin Wilkinson, arrangers (Willie Nelson)

Dan Pugach & Nicole Zuraitis, arrangers (Dan Pugach)

Vince Mendoza, arranger (Gregory Porter)

Gonzalo Grau, arranger (Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider)

Packaging

Best Recording Package

Masseduction

Be the Cowboy

Love Yourself: Tear

The Offering

Well Kept Thing

Willo Perron, art director (St. Vincent)

Mary Banas, art director (Mitski)

HuskyFox, art director (BTS)

Qing-Yang Xiao, art director (The Chairman)

Adam Moore, art director (Foxhole)

Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package

Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic

Appetite For Destruction (Locked N' Loaded Box)

I'll Be Your Girl

Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings

Too Many Bad Habits

Meghan Foley, Annie Stoll & Al Yankovic, art directors ("Weird Al" Yankovic)

Arian Buhler, Charles Dooher, Jeff Fura, Scott Sandler & Matt Taylor, art directors (Guns N' Roses)

Carson Ellis, Jeri Heiden & Glen Nakasako, art directors (The Decemberists)

Lisa Glines, Doran Tyson & Roy Henry Vickers, art directors (Grateful Dead)

Sarah Dodds & Shauna Dodds, art directors (Johnny Nicholas)

Notes

Best Album Notes

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris

Alpine Dreaming: The Helvetia Records Story, 1920-1924

4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897: Foundational Recordings of America's Iconic Instrument

The 1960 Time Sessions

The Product of Our Souls: The Sound and Sway of James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra

Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13/1979-1981 (Deluxe Edition)

David Evans, album notes writer (Various artists)

James P. Leary, album notes writer (Various artists)

Richard Martin & Ted Olson, album notes writer (Charles A. Asbury)

Ben Ratliff, album notes writer (Sonny Clark Trio)

David Gilbert, album notes writer (Various artists)

Amanda Petrusich, album notes writer (Bob Dylan)

Historical

Best Historical Album

Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris

Any Other Way

At the Louisiana Hayride Tonight...

Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War

A Rhapsody in Blue: The Extraordinary Life of Oscar Levant

William Ferris, April Ledbetter & Steven Lance Ledbetter, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Rob Bowman, Douglas McGowan, Rob Sevier & Ken Shipley, compilation producers; Jeff Lipton, mastering engineer (Jackie Shane)

Martin Hawkins, compilation producer; Christian Zwarg, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Hugo Keesing, compilation producer; Christian Zwarg, mastering engineer (Various artists)

Robert Russ, compilation producer; Andreas K. Meyer & Rebekah Wineman, mastering engineers (Oscar Levant)

Production, Non-Classical

Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical

Colors

All the Things That I Did and All the Things That I Didn't Do

Earthtones

Head Over Heels

Voicenotes

Julian Burg, Serban Ghenea, David "Elevator" Greenbaum, John Hanes, Beck Hansen, Greg Kurstin, Florian Lagatta, Cole M.G.N., Alex Pasco, Jesse Shatkin, Darrell Thorp & Cassidy Turbin, engineers; Chris Bellman, Tom Coyne, Emily Lazar & Randy Merrill, mastering engineers (Beck)

Ryan Freeland & Kenneth Pattengale, engineers; Kim Rosen, mastering engineer (The Milk Carton Kids)

Robbie Lackritz, engineer; Philip Shaw Bova, mastering engineer (Bahamas)

Nathaniel Alford, Jason Evigan, Chris Galland, Tom Gardner, Patrick "P-Thugg" Gemayel, Serban Ghenea, John Hanes, Tony Hoffer, Derek Keota, Ian Kirkpatrick, David Macklovitch, Amber Mark, Manny Marroquin, Vaughn Oliver, Chris "TEK" O'Ryan, Morgan Taylor Reid & Gian Stone, engineers; Chris Gehringer & Michelle Mancini, mastering engineers (Chromeo)

Manny Marroquin & Charlie Puth, engineers; Dave Kutch, mastering engineer (Charlie Puth)

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical

Pharrell Williams

Boi-1da

Larry Klein

Linda Perry

Kanye West

"Apeshit" (The Carters)

Man of the Woods (Justin Timberlake)

No One Ever Really Dies (N.E.R.D)

"Stir Fry" (Migos)

Sweetener (Ariana Grande)

"Be Careful" (Cardi B)

"Diplomatic Immunity" (Drake)

"Friends" (The Carters)

"God's Plan" (Drake)

"Heard About Us" (The Carters)

"Lucky You" (Eminem featuring Joyner Lucas)

"Mob Ties" (Drake)

"No Limit" (G-Eazy featuring ASAP Rocky & Cardi B)

"All These Things" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Anthem (Madeleine Peyroux)

The Book of Longing (Luciana Souza)

"Can I Have It All" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Junk (Hailey Tuck)

"Look At What We've Done" (Thomas Dybdahl)

Meaning to Tell Ya (Molly Johnson)

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (Willa Amai)

Served Like a Girl (Various artists)

28 Days in the Valley (Dorothy)

Daytona (Pusha T)

Kids See Ghosts (Kids See Ghosts)

K.T.S.E. (Teyana Taylor)

Nasir (Nas)

Ye (Kanye West)

Best Remixed Recording

"Walking Away" (Mura Masa Remix)

"Audio" (CID Remix)

"How Long" (EDX's Dubai Skyline Remix)

"Only Road" (Cosmic Gate Remix)

"Stargazing" (Kaskade Remix)

Alex Crossan, remixer (Haim)

CID, remixer (LSD)

Maurizio Colella, remixer (Charlie Puth)

Stefan Bossems & Claus Terhoeven, remixers (Gabriel & Dresden featuring Sub Teal)

Kaskade, remixer (Kygo featuring Justin Jesso)

Production, Immersive Audio

Best Immersive Audio Album

Eye in the Sky: 35th Anniversary Edition

Folketoner

Seven Words from the Cross

Sommerro: Ujamaa & The Iceberg

Symbol

Alan Parsons, surround mix engineer; Dave Donnelly, PJ Olsson & Alan Parsons, surround mastering engineers; Alan Parsons, surround producer (The Alan Parsons Project)

Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Anne Karin Sundal-Ask & Det Norske Jentekor)

Daniel Shores, surround mix engineer; Daniel Shores, surround mastering engineer; Dan Merceruio, surround producer (Matthew Guard & Skylark)

Morten Lindberg, surround mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Ingar Heine Bergby, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Choir)

Prashant Mistry & Ronald Prent, surround mix engineers; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Prashant Mistry & Ronald Prent, surround producers (Engine-Earz Experiment)

Production, Classical

Best Engineered Album, Classical

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

John Williams at the Movies

Liquid Melancholy: Clarinet Music of James M. Stephenson

Visions and Variations

Shawn Murphy & Nick Squire, engineers; Tim Martyn, mastering engineer (Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra)

Mark Donahue & Dirk Sobotka, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edwards Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers; Keith O. Johnson, mastering engineer (Jerry Junkin & Dallas Winds)

Bill Maylone & Mary Mazurek, engineers; Bill Maylone, mastering engineer (John Bruce Yeh)

Tom Caulfield, engineer; Jesse Lewis, mastering engineer (A Far Cry)

Producer of the Year, Classical

Blanton Alspaugh

David Frost

Elizabeth Ostrow

Judith Sherman

Dirk Sobotka

Arnesen: Infinity - Choral Works (Joel Rinsema & Kantorei)

Aspects of America (Carlos Kalmar & Oregon Symphony)

Chesnokov: Teach Me Thy Statutes (Vladimir Gorbik & PaTRAM Institute Male Choir)

Gordon, R.: The House Without a Christmas Tree (Bradley Moore, Elisabeth Leone, Maximillian Macias, Megan Mikailovna Samarin, Patricia Schuman, Lauren Snouffer, Heidi Stober, Daniel Belcher, Houston Gran Opera Juvenile Chorus & Houston Grand OperaOrchestra)

Haydn: The Creation (Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Betsy Cook Weber, Houston Symphony & Houston Symphony Chorus)

Heggie: Great Scott (Patrick Summers, Manuel Palazzo, Mark Hancock, Michael Mayes, Rodell Rosel, Kevin Burdette, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nathan Gunn, Frederica von Stade, Ailyn Pérez, Joyce DiDonato, Dallas Opera Chorus & Orchestra)

Music of Fauré, Buide & Zemlinsky (Trio Séléné)

Paterson: Three Way - A Trio of One-Act Operas (Dean Williamson, Daniele Pastin, Courtney Ruckman, Eliza Bonet, Melisa Bonetti, Jordan Rutter, Samuel Levine, Wes Mason, Matthew Treviño & Nashville Opera Orchestra)

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Serenade to Music; Flos Campi (Peter Oundjian & Toronto Symphony Orchestra)

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Volume 7 (Jonathan Biss)

Mirror in Mirror (Anne Akiko Meyers, Kristjan Järvi & Philharmonia Orchestra)

Mozart: Idomeneo (James Levine, Alan Opie, Matthew Polenzani, Alice Coote, Nadine Sierra, Elza van den Heever, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Presentiment (Orion Weiss)

Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkavalier (Sebastian Weigle, Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Erin Morley, Günther Groissböck, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra & Chorus)

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edwards Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

The Road Home (Joshua Habermann & Santa Fe Desert Chorale)

Beethoven Unbound (Llŷr Williams)

Black Manhattan Volume 3 (Rick Benjamin & Paragon Ragtime Orchestra)

Bolcom: Piano Music (Various Artists)

Del Tredici: March to Tonality (Mark Peskanov & Various Artists)

Love Comes in at the Eye (Timothy Jones, Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, Jeffrey Sykes, Anthony Ross, Carol Cook, Beth Rapier & Stephanie Jutt)

Meltzer: Variations on a Summer Day & Piano Quartet (Abigail Fischer, Jayce Ogren & Sequitur)

Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (Marcy Rosen & Lydia Artymiw)

New Music for Violin and Piano (Julie Rosenfeld & Peter Miyamoto)

Reich: Pulse/Quartet (Colin Currie Group & International Contemporary Ensemble)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1 (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Lippencott: Frontier Symphony (Jeff Lippencott & Ligonier Festival Orchestra)

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Thierry Fischer, Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Utah Symphony)

Music of the Americas (Andrés Orozco-Estrada & Houston Symphony)

Classical

Best Orchestral Performance

Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11

Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Strauss: Horn Concerto No. 1

Nielsen: Symphony No. 3 & Symphony No. 4

Ruggles, Stucky & Harbison: Orchestral Works

Schumann: Symphonies Nos. 1-4

Andris Nelsons, conductor (Boston Symphony Orchestra)

Manfred Honeck, conductor (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)

Thomas Dausgaard, conductor (Seattle Symphony)

David Alan Miller, conductor (National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic)

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor (San Francisco Symphony)

Best Opera Recording

Bates: The (R)evolution Of Steve Jobs

Adams: Doctor Atomic

Lully: Alceste

Strauss, R.: Der Rosenkavalier

Verdi: Rigoletto

Michael Christie, conductor; Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson & Wei Wu; Elizabeth Ostrow, producer (The Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

John Adams, conductor; Aubrey Allicock, Julia Bullock, Gerald Finley & Brindley Sherratt; Friedemann Engelbrecht, producer (The BBC Symphony Orchestra; BBC Singers)

Christophe Rousset, conductor; Edwin Crossley-Mercer, Emiliano Gonzalez Toro & Judith Van Wanroij; Maximilien Ciup, producer (Les Talens Lyriques; Choeur De Chambre De Namur)

Sebastian Weigle, conductor; Renée Fleming, Elīna Garanča, Günther Groissböck & Erin Morley; David Frost, producer (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)

Constantine Orbelian, conductor; Francesco Demuro, Dmitri Hvorostovsky & Nadine Sierra; Vilius Keras & Aleksandra Keriene, producers (Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra; Men Of The Kaunas State Choir)

Best Choral Performance

McLoskey: Zealot Canticles

Chesnokov: Teach Me Thy Statutes

Kastalsky: Memory Eternal

Rachmaninov: The Bells

Seven Words From The Cross

Donald Nally, conductor (Doris Hall-Gulati, Rebecca Harris, Arlen Hlusko, Lorenzo Raval & Mandy Wolman; The Crossing)

Vladimir Gorbik, conductor (Mikhail Davydov & Vladimir Krasov; PaTRAM Institute Male Choir)

Steven Fox, conductor (The Clarion Choir)

Mariss Jansons, conductor; Peter Dijkstra, chorus master (Oleg Dolgov, Alexey Markov & Tatiana Pavlovskaya; Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Chor Des Bayerischen Rundfunks)

Matthew Guard, conductor (Skylark)

Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance

Anderson, Laurie: Landfall – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet

Beethoven, Shostakovich & Bach – The Danish String Quartet

Blueprinting – Aizuri Quartet

Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring Concerto for Two Pianos – Leif Ove Andsnes & Marc-André Hamelin

Visions And Variations – A Far Cry

Best Classical Instrumental Solo

Kernis: Violin Concerto – James Ehnes

Bartók: Piano Concerto No. 2 – Yuja Wang

Biber: The Mystery Sonatas – Christina Day Martinson

Bruch: Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46; Violin Concerto No. 1 In G Minor, Op. 26

Glass: Three Pieces In The Shape of A Square

Ludovic Morlot, conductor (Seattle Symphony)

Simon Rattle, conductor (Berliner Philharmoniker)

Martin Pearlman, conductor (Boston Baroque)

Joshua Bell (The Academy Of St. Martin In The Fields)

Craig Morris

Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

Songs of Orpheus: Monteverdi, Caccini, d'India & Landi – Karim Sulayman

ARC – Anthony Roth Costanzo

The Handel Album – Philippe Jaroussky

Mirages – Sabine Devieilhe

Schubert: Winterreise – Randall Scarlata

Jeannette Sorrell, conductor; Apollo's Fire, ensembles

Jonathan Cohen, conductor (Les Violons Du Roy)

Artaserse, ensemble

François-Xavier Roth, conductor (Alexandre Tharaud; Marianne Crebassa & Jodie Devos; Les Siècles)

Gilbert Kalish, accompanist

Best Classical Compendium

Fuchs: Piano Concerto 'Spiritualist'; Poems Of Life; Glacier; Rush

Gold

The John Adams Edition

John Williams at the Movies

Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto; Oboe Concerto; Serenade To Music; Flos Campi

JoAnn Falletta, conductor; Tim Handley, producer

The King's Singers; Nigel Short, producer

Simon Rattle, conductor; Christoph Franke, producer

Jerry Junkin, conductor; Donald J. McKinney, producer

Peter Oundjian, conductor; Blanton Alspaugh, producer

Best Contemporary Classical Composition

Kernis: Violin Concerto

Bates: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Du Yun: Air Glow

Heggie: Great Scott

Mazzoli: Vespers for Violin

Aaron Jay Kernis, composer (James Ehnes, Ludovic Morlot & Seattle Symphony)

Mason Bates, composer; Mark Campbell, librettist (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edward Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra)

Du Yun, composer (International Contemporary Ensemble)

Jake Heggie, composer; Terrence McNally, librettist (Patrick Summers, Manuel Palazzo, Mark Hancock, Michael Mayes, Rodell Rosel, Kevin Burdette, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nathan Gunn, Frederica von Stade, Ailyn Pérez, Joyce DiDonato, Dallas Opera Chorus & Orchestra)

Missy Mazzoli, composer (Olivia De Prato)

Music Video/Film

Best Music Video

"This Is America" – Childish Gambino

"Apeshit" – The Carters

"I'm Not Racist" – Joyner Lucas

"Pynk" – Janelle Monáe

"Mumbo Jumbo" – Tierra Whack

Hiro Murai, video directors; Ibra Ake, Jason Cole & Fam Rothstein, video producers

Ricky Saiz, video director; Mélodie Buchris, Natan Schottenfels & Erinn Williams, video producers

Joyner Lucas & Ben Proulx, video directors; Joyner Lucas, video producer

Emma Westenburg, video director; Justin Benoliel & Whitney Jackson, video producers

Marco Prestini, video director; Sara Nassim, video producer

Best Music Film

Quincy – Quincy Jones

Life in 12 Bars – Eric Clapton

Whitney – (Whitney Houston)

Itzhak – Itzhak Perlman

The King – (Elvis Presley)

Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones, video directors; Paula DuPré Pesmen, video producer

Lili Fini Zanuck, video director; John Battsek, Scooter Weintraub, Larry Yelen & Lili Fini Zanuck, video producers

Kevin Macdonald, video director; Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn & Lisa Erspamer, video producers

Alison Chernick, video director; Alison Chernick, video producer

Eugene Jarecki, video director; Christopher Frierson, Georgina Hill, David Kuhn & Christopher St. John, video producers

[culturedub]

🔥🔥🔥 Joan Reggae Drummer – Dub Explosion – Un vinyle 10 pouces de Dub Roots joué Live à réveiller vos papilles de mélomane ! 🔥🔥🔥 C’est depuis sa Catalogne natale que Joan.reggaedrummer, passionné de musique jamaïquaine et batteur inconditionnel, délivre son premier vinyle 10 pouces intitulé « Dub Explosion » sur le label Two Flames Records, quatre titres originaux purement instrumentals sur lesquels le producteur s’est entouré de talentueux musiciens, mixés avec tact par Ireneu Grosset dans le studio analogique de Dr. Dubwiser, pour du Dub Roots puissant et enivrant, à découvrir les yeux fermés, à découvrir inna Culture Dub : https://culturedub.com/blog/joan-reggae-drummer-dub-explosion/ Large Up, AlexDub #dub #roots #instrumental #reggae #batterie #drummer #batteur #drums #vinyl #10inch #catalunya #catalogne #españa #espagne #music #culture #chronique #review #culturedub @joan.reggaedrummer @errahmaniness @twoflamesrecords @culturedub https://www.instagram.com/p/CkeBuQRy9nm/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[wanwisa98]

Robbie Shakespeare married funk and reggae to create a catalogue of classics David Katz

he death of the venerated Jamaican bassist Robbie Shakespeare at the age of 68 finally ends the incomparable partnership he forged with the drummer Sly Dunbar in the dingy nightclubs and hothouse recording studios of 1970s Kingston. Having backed virtually every reggae star and collaborated with an array of international A-listers that includes Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Joan Armatrading and Sinead O’Connor, as well as co-producing the career-defining hits of Grace Jones, Shakespeare was the belligerent yang to Dunbar’s yin, a brawny, chain-smoking musician whose consistently meaty bass lines belied a mercurial temperament. With his style defined by a melodiousness that referenced a love of jazz, soul, and rock’n’roll, Shakespeare leaves a vast catalogue, peppered with stone-cold classics.

[toneelectro]

Legendary bassist Robbie Shakespeare (right) – one half of reggae’s greatest rhythm section and production duo, Sly & Robbie, passed away today at only 68 years old.

Best known for their work with Grace Jones and Black Uhuru, they recorded and toured with reggae icons U-Roy, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Mighty Diamonds, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, and Augustus Pablo.

They also produced records for Bob Dylan, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Gilberto Gil, Joan Armatrading, and many others.

Shakespeare was a member of session groups, The Revolutionaries and The Aggrovators, before teaming up with drummer Sly Dunbar in the mid seventies.

[wedding-shemp]

6, 9, and 20 for the three songs ask (cause im a nosy bitch, i know)

HA HA YOU SAID 69

6. three songs you wish you could erase from history (because they’re terrible)

Firework by Katy Perry made me unspeakably angry when I first heard it when I was twelve, and I still hate it. I just hate that song so much. Everything about it is bad, it has literally no redeeming values. It’s like they took a survey to find out what people hate the most in a pop song, and took all those elements and combined them into one perfectly loathsome song. No piece of media has ever elicited the amount of pure vitriol in me that Firework did when I was a child.

And for the other two, idk probably like. That fakey reggae song Justin Bieber did a couple years back? And that Seven Years song. I haven’t listened to pop music in so long, but those are the songs that were always playing when I worked at Dunkin’ Donuts. I was not a fan.

9. three songs that get you in the Christmas Mood

Ok my top three Christmas songs are

Father Christmas by The Kinks, which is awesome

The inexplicable and oddly earnest Joan Jett version of Little Drummer Boy, which is as spectacularly uncomfortable to listen to as it sounds

and Fairytale of New York by the Pogues

20. three songs that remind you of the person who sends this one

Bottles and Flowers by Juliana Hatfield

I Feel Fine by The Beatles

Free To Decide by The Cranberries

like I’m not 100% sure what your tastes are like but I tried to choose songs that have the same kinda vibes as you

“the three songs” ask set

[avaliveradio]

Indie Rock Band This Refusers album Freedom Fighter arrives as America reaches the boiling point

This new Refusers album embodies the spirit of freedom from oppression: Freedom Fighter! Released on AWAL.

Freedom Fighter finds The Refusers – including longtime Grammy-winning drummer Brendan Hill, engaging in fiery takedowns of the government and its entrenched systems. Aligning with battling those institutional forces, The Refusers speak for the little guys (and gals) fighting racism, police brutality, a broken healthcare system, big pharma, propaganda, and the lies of the mainstream media designed to keep the sheep grazing blindly. All this with blazing rock guitar tracks designed to rock your world.

The Refusers include Michael Belkin (songs, guitar, vocals), Brendan Hill (drums), Eric Robert (Nord Keyboards), Joe Doria (Hammond Organ), and Steve Newton (bass and background vocals). 

Blasting through the establishment's twisted goals, The Refusers perform musical defiance songs. The Refusers speak today's spirit of rage and simmering revolution against the establishment. The Refusers have opened for the Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Joan Jett, X, Jane's Addiction, Black Crowes, Alabama Shakes, and The Flaming Lips.

Artist: The Refusers

New Release: My Body My Choice

Genre: Rock

Sounds like: : Nickelback, Black Keys, Kings of Leon, Joan Jett, Jane's Addiction, Black Crowes, Alabama Shakes, The Flaming Lips, Rage Against The Machine, Marley, Bobi Wine.

Located in: : Seattle WA

My Body My Choice is an anthem about freedom! Freedom from Big Government, freedom from Big Pharma, freedom from phony pseudoscience, freedom from lockdowns, freedom from masks, and freedom from political dictators of all stripes.

The music we are creating is... 

Soulful lead guitar, meaningful lyrics that inspire resistance, modern reggae/ska grooves, punk attitude.

We are always working on our voice as that speaks out against injustice. You see this in videos like 'My Body My Choice' from our latest album Freedom Fighter. More videos are coming.

LINKS: 

https://www.reverbnation.com/therefusers/song/32380017-my-body-my-choice https://open.spotify.com/track/2x6Bsxc2onw1XKwVxBjJmX https://www.facebook.com/TheRefusers/

@the_refusers

[sushigrade]

Urgh! A Music War

One of my favorite movies is Urgh! A Music War, a 1981 concert film. There’s no narration, it just cuts from song to song at concerts around the US and Europe, and the most context you get is the name of the band and where they’re playing. It’s mostly post-punk and New Wave with a smattering of reggae and spoken word pieces. There are a couple of songs/bands that aren’t my thing, but for the most part, there’s some crazy good performances in there ranging from bands you have probably heard of (The Police, Devo, Joan Jett, The Go-Gos) to bands that you probably have not heard of (The Au Pairs, The Alley Cats [punk band not doo-wop vocalists], Athletico Spizz 80) to a band that literally only ever played two gigs ever and then disbanded and no one knows who was in it because everyone wore a mask and used pseudonyms (Invisible Sex). But seriously you should watch it for stuff like

Oingo Boingo looking like they showed up dressed for very different gigs

XTC’s Andy Partridge looking the angriest I can possibly imagine him (and this is the last time they ever toured due to him having severe anxiety from the whole touring grind)

Klaus motherfucking Nomi and his pornstache lead guitarist

Gary Numan driving around a smoke-machine-fogged stage in this retrofuturistic motorized chaise/buggy thing without a hint of irony in his performance. Oh, and the control is a single joystick between his legs, so there’s that

That masked pseudonymous band I mentioned? This is them

But one of my very favorite things is how during the Cramps song, the drummer looks 100% done with Lux Interior

“I swear to god if I have to look at the top half of your ass ever again or listen to you fellating a microphone I am going to quit this goddamn band” and after they finish, he immediately stands up and walks away kicking over part of his own drum set so I feel like there’s some unresolved tension there

[ricardosousalemos]

X-Ray Spex: Germfree Adolescents

Who is Poly Styrene? On January 20, 1979, the BBC endeavored to find out. “I chose the name Poly Styrene because it’s a lightweight, disposable product,” Styrene stated, with an absurd serenity, while scrubbing her teeth on national television during a 40-minute special on her London band, X-Ray Spex. “It sounded alright. It was a send-up of being a pop star—plastic, disposable, that’s what pop stars are meant to mean, so therefore I thought I might as well send it up.” Only two months had passed since the release of X-Ray Spex’s Germfree Adolescents, a brash, vivid masterpiece of the germinal punk era. An incisive 1977 interview with the fanzine Jolt, penned by one Lucy Toothpaste, was revealing in other ways. “She’s a girl and she’s half-black,” goes Toothpaste’s introduction. “HOW OPPRESSED CAN YOU GET?” (Caps Lucy’s.) “Doesn’t seem to keep her down though,” Lucy added, before quoting a patch of Poly’s more impressionistic lyrics: “‘Yama yama yama yama yama yama.’”

Poly Styrene was born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, the daughter of a Scottish-Irish secretary and a dispossessed Somalian noble, in 1957. While UK punks were screaming about cutting ties with their pasts, Poly spoke of her fascination with her own history, her uniquely multicultural family tree; plenty of punks played Rock Against Racism gigs, but Poly was one of few active participants of color. After working in fashion in her youth, she ran away from home between the ages of 15 and 17 and spent a year touring Britain’s hippie music festivals, including the Trentishoe Earth Fayre—after the fest, she lived with fellow travelers in the countryside, where they brewed dandelion tea and bathed in streams. This wandering all stoked the ecological consciousness that would fuel her ethos in punk. Armed with her itinerant background, Poly Styrene became one of the most original pop stars in music history—trained in opera, acutely anti-authoritarian, braces cemented across her teeth—and she was indeed the sharpest punk lyricist that Britain ever saw.

She rolled her Rs over supercharged riffs with more tenacity than Johnny Rotten. She yabbered gibberish more wildly than the Ramones. She naturally did punk-reggae better than the Clash or the Slits, and she was upending the notion that “cleanliness is next to godliness” when Kurt Cobain was in elementary school. With guttural, soul-cleansing, full-body wails, Poly sang of our sanitized culture’s lethal obsession with sterile perfection long before pop culture had sniffed “Teen Spirit.” Poly Styrene’s prescient lyrics could serve as epigraphs to scholarly books about identity politics, commodified dissent, or consumer society. They are also fun.

On her 19th birthday—July 3, 1976—Poly saw the Sex Pistols at Hastings Pier and was changed. She swiftly put an ad in Melody Maker seeking “young punx who want to stick it together.” X-Ray Spex—name inspired by ads in True Detective mags, and brilliantly evoking punk’s impulse to dissect life below the surface—was managed and produced by one Falcon Stuart. Sixteen years her senior, he was also Poly’s boyfriend and produced her pre-punk reggae single “Silly Billy,” released on GTO—the UK label that put out Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love.” One of the “young punx” to reply to that ad was 16-year-old Lora Logic, a Bowie-child who wrote and performed the band’s definitive sax arrangements before getting unceremoniously chucked out (allegedly for claiming too much of its spotlight). “Poly just wanted some men that would blur into the background,” Lora once told me, and she got a formidable lot in guitarist Jak Airport, bassist Paul Dean, drummer BP Hurding, and later sax player Rudi Thompson. They released four singles before EMI put out their only album, Germfree Adolescents, in November ’78.

X-Ray Spex is what I consider capital-P Punk—meaning, of the original movement—more than lowercase-p punk—meaning, by current vernacular, an action. Though raw, strange, and legitimately subversive, the songs of Germfree Adolescents have traditional structures. There are persistent verses and choruses and swaggering solos, steady beats and percussive hip-shaking claps; there are overdubs, candy hooks, chiseled little flourishes in the form of “oh-oh”s and (on “Highly Inflammable”) even some galactic synth shimmer. Germfree Adolescents holds up, in some sense, like pop music, albeit pop that is equally scorched and joyful, liberationist, charged with intellect and insurrectionary zeal. It inspires in ways that transcends genre, which explains why an artist like FKA twigs has called Germfree Adolescents her favorite album ever. Its musicality is honed; the musicians here are obviously amazing players. Its chugging faster-harder chords accelerate by the second, like the culture Poly describes. It is steely, shit-kicking, and bright; like an unbreakable machine, its build reflects the industrialization at hand. Germfree Adolescents’ singular sax-punk sound is, to borrow a word from Poly’s lyrics, “bionic.”

Along with her hippie inklings, Poly devoted much of her teenage years to watching fringe theater groups, and so she was visually inclined. This manifested in her striking and unusual sartorial choices—such as a green tin army helmet or a lipstick-red conductor’s jacket—as much as in X-Ray Spex’s music. The riffs were tonally fluorescent, but Poly’s language also made immediate appeals to the imagination. Her images—of “warriors in Woolworths,” of her mocking desire to turn into a “dehydrated” “frozen pea”—become 3D in your head. And Poly is refreshingly funny. “I am a poseur and I don’t care!” she sneers on the galloping “I Am a Poseur”; sarcasm vivifies “I Am a Cliché”’s pogoing titular chant. On the vibrant, almost-slapstick “I Can’t Do Anything”—“I can’t read and I can’t spell/I can’t even get to hell”—Poly cheerfully fights back against a guy called Freedom who tried to “strangle” her with plastic jewelry. Each word is an embodied exclamation point: “I hit him back!/With my pet rat!”

The prevailing theme of Germfree Adolescents is the inescapable horror of daily life in consumer society. Poly’s voice and the music—always peaking, always cranked to 100%—is persistently in-your-face, just like the most garish excesses of capitalism. “There was so much junk then. The idea was to send it all up,” Poly said in England’s Dreaming. “Screaming about it, saying: ‘Look, this is what you have done to me, turned me into a piece of styrofoam, I am your product. And this is what you have created: do you like her?’” The original tracklist opened with revving drums and Poly roaring “AAARRT-I-FIIICCIAL,” a reverbed rallying cry. “I know I’m artificial/But don’t put the blame on me,” she blazes. “I was reared with appliances/In a consumer society.” There is a scene in Who Is Poly Styrene, set among the modern industrial wasteland of the supermarket aisles, where Poly is pushing a shopping cart beneath the glare of fluorescent lights, grabbing at products: Daz laundry detergent, Special K, Anadin painkillers, Comfort fabric conditioner, Sunlight lemon liquid cleaner. The Raincoats’ Ana da Silva once told me she wrote her 1979 song title “Fairytale in the Supermarket” after watching it and realizing that Poly’s songs were like “fairytales, but in a consumerist society.” In 1978, Joe Strummer was lost in the supermarket; Poly Styrene stared its offerings dead in the eye.

Anthems like the unsparing “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo” and “Plastic Bag” anticipated the anxieties of a world made of hidden cancerous chemical detritus. “Day-Glo” has an ominous gravity, but it’s catchy, sneaking into you like a sweet, hastily-torn packet of Splenda. Poly explores the toxicity of daily life in excruciating, relentless detail: our homes (“nylon curtains” and “perspex window panes”), our infrastructure (“the acrylic road”), our transport (“my Polypropylene car”), our fake food (“a rubber bun”), irradiated air (“the X-rays were penetrating through the latex breeze”). It culminates with an image of fake plastic trees years before Thom Yorke sang of a “cracked polystyrene man” (“synthetic fiber see-thru leaves fell from the rayon trees”). X-Ray Spex songs are like musical Andy Warhol soup cans; they find a spiritual predecessor in Warhol’s pivotal 1964 exhibition The American Supermarket. Look around, both whisper to you: Everything is plastic.

On “Plastic Bag,” Poly coupled her eco-critique with an incendiary indictment of advertising: “My mind is like a plastic bag/That corresponds to all those ads/It sucks up all the rubbish/That is fed through my ear/I eat Kleenex for breakfast/And I use soft hygienic Weetabix/To dry my tears.” Her sly reversal—Kleenex for eating, Weetabix for crying—underscores the interchangeability of these artificial products. Poly knew advertisements were inescapable, were rewiring brains; look out, they are coming for you right about now. But she was also genius enough to speak their mass language: “The Day the World Turned Day-Glo” was an unlikely chart hit in the UK, reaching No. 23 in April ’78.

In an age of burgeoning A.I. and rampant outsourcing, the sci-fi poetry of “Genetic Engineering” is even more prophetic, as Poly declares that “genetic engineering could create the perfect race… could exterminate/introducing worker clones/as our subordinated slave.” Her grim propositions have lost none of their daunting edge. Punks were screaming “NO FUTURE,” and fair enough, but Poly went further, deeper; her songs dared to imagine just how bad hellish normalization could be. And here we are.

Words like “disinfectant,” “Listerine,” and “sterilized” have never sounded so oddly seductive as they do on the postmodern love song “Germfree Adolescents,” the era’s greatest punk-reggae ballad. “I know you’re antiseptic/Your deodorant smells nice/I’d like to get to know you/You’re deep frozen like the ice,” Poly beams through this dubby, surreal waltz. In her futuristic tale of boy-meets-girl, purity reigns; “he’s a germfree adolescent” and “cleanliness is her obsession.” “Cleans her teeth 10 times a day,” Poly sings, “Scrub away, scrub away, scrub away/The S.R. way.” Both “deep frozen like the ice” and “the S.R. way” (sodium ricinoleate) reference a promo for Gibbs S.R. toothpaste, the very first television commercial broadcast in England in 1955. As Poly’s voice cracks out with each repeat of “10 times a day,” the desperation—the casual corner-store apocalypse of unpronounceable additives—pierces through the song’s swirling veneer. “Germfree Adolescents” became X-Ray Spex’s most successful single, reaching No. 19 on the charts in November ’78.

Somehow, Poly’s two most radically feminist statements—debut single “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” and a later B-side, “Age”—were left off the original Germfree Adolescents tracklist, only added back to the 1991 reissue. All punch and bounce, “Age” takes on ageism, body dysmorphia, and the beauty myth perpetuated by Hollywood in a fell swoop: “Age/She’s so afraid/Age/She’s not the rage.” (Check the mellow, reggae-tinged version of it on Poly’s lovely, misunderstood 1980 solo album Translucence.) The iconic “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” was, and is, like dynamite to patriarchy. It is a succession of lightning bolts, dizzied with ideas, as Poly’s profoundly unhinged voice skyrockets into the red to cap each chorus line. “Bind me, tie me, chain me to the wall/I want to be a slave to you all,” Poly seethed. It’s the ultimate punk song, and also intersectional feminist scripture: “Some people think that little girls should be seen and not heard/But I say oh bondage, up yours!”

In 2005, excerpts from Poly’s “diary of the seventies” appeared on her website. Poly muses on Superwoman, on vegetarianism, on reading about genetic modification in the glossy pages of Time. But she also reflects on Lucy Toothpaste probing her regarding “Oh Bondage! Up Yours.” “Is it about women’s liberation?” Lucy asks, and Poly replies vaguely, mentioning bondage trousers she saw at Vivienne Westwood’s SEX boutique. Then her entry continues forth, tracing the DNA of each line. She alludes to The Sexual Revolution by Wilhelm Reich, to images of “Suffragettes chained to the railings of Buckingham Palace,” to “pictures of ball-and-chained African slaves stored in my psyche.” Poly Styrene would often deny that her songwriting was autobiographical; six months before Germfree Adolescents came out, she told NME, “You have to be detached from everything in order to write. I have to observe… I can’t get too directly involved.” But you can’t escape yourself. The glimpse into Poly’s inner life shows just how innately distinct her perspective was from all around her in UK punk. Transcending time and place, though, in Shotgun Seamstress—the indispensable zine by and for black punks founded by Osa Toe in 2006—the author repeatedly dubs Poly “Captain of the Brown Underground.”

Poly did not have to try to be this different; she simply was. At the core of Germfree Adolescents is a mantra that could summarize all of popular culture in 2017: “Identity/Is the crisis can’t you see.” Just over a year ago, Wesley Morris in The New York Times Magazine declared 2015 “The Year We Obsessed Over Identity,” situating our world “in the midst of a great cultural identity migration” where “gender roles are merging” and “races are being shed,” and of course this is felt at the turn of any axis. But a migration has a destination; identity is always fluid. On “Identity,” Poly wisely presents these dilemmas of personhood as perennial question marks: “When you look in the mirror do you see yourself?/Do you see yourself on the T.V. screen?/Do you see yourself in the magazine/When you see yourself does it make you scream?” Eviscerating and empathic in equal measure, “Identity” is a most logical anthem for today.

When X-Ray Spex imploded in mid-’79, they cited creative differences, but there was a darkness churning below the gleeful surfaces, which boiled over before Germfree Adolescents was released. The wages of Poly’s exuberance had a cost; she lived, to some degree, within the extremities of the hyperactive mindset she sang from so intimately. (It was not until 1991 that she was diagnosed as bipolar.) In the mid-2000s, Poly referenced a “traumatic experience of a sexual nature” she’d endured in ’78; she had a breakdown, went to John Lydon’s flat, and shaved her head (if she ever became a sex symbol, she promised early on, she’d shave her head). On tour that summer, she claimed to have seen a UFO fly past her hotel window “like a fireball.” (“I wasn’t mad, but I went into the hospital after that,” she said.) Lydon wrote of Poly in his 2014 memoir: “They used to lock her up occasionally… She’d break out and always make a beeline for my house… She was good fun until the ambulance turned up for her.” Poly soon remembered chanting with Hare Krishnas during her teen hippie years, began reading The Bhagavad Gita, and aligned with the movement. One need only look at the muchness of what Poly writes about to understand the potential sources of her struggle. In England’s Dreaming, Poly said she wanted Germfree Adolescents to be like “a diary of 1977.” It is also a diary of survival in a world closing in on us all in ways that can go hauntingly unseen.

Elsewhere in her journal, Poly meditates on her own ascending fame with three quotes:

“We will be famous just for one day.” —David Bowie “Everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.” —Andy Warhol “I am a cliché.” —Poly Styrene

But clichés do not hold. They dissolve. Poly Styrene is solid; Poly Styrene lasts. With her inclinations towards Eastern spirituality, perhaps she would relish in how the status of Germfree Adolescents now feels sky-like. Poly Styrene is the future, and she is now.

[stillsoundsmag-blog]

Rag n Bone Man // new wicked artist alert

Photo Credit to Danny North Lores

Biography

“Heartbreak’s pretty widespread, innit?” quips the prodigiously talented Rory Graham, nascent star-in-waiting Rag‘n’Bone Man, with a mischievous grin. Graham has injected an exciting new twist into the blues music he grew up with in his parental home in East Sussex bringing it bang up to date using the beats and production methods of contemporary hip hop. Equally he resurrects age-old themes of loss and romantic pain with a voice so immediate, raw and expressive that it transfixes anyone in earshot with its sheer size and elemental power.

In person, Graham is the dictionary definition of a gentle giant. His appearance suggests one serious dude. He’s a big man, bearded and with tattoos, but instead of Hate and Love, he has the words Soul and Funk inked across his knuckles. “I could’ve had Drum and Bass,” he jokes, in his warm, softly spoken manner, “or maybe Jungle across both hands”.

When Rory sings, he connects with people on a level far from everyday banter. Onstage at his sold out Village Underground show in June ’16 his voice by turns silenced the room and brought it to fever pitch. During quieter songs, as his vast, soulful growl filled the venue, there were people literally crying. His unique delivery of often very personal songs has that effect on people, rare in today’s pop, something that can’t be taught in stage academies by vocal trainers. Rory has spent fifteen years learning to flex his considerable vocal muscles alone, using his own instincts and shaping his life experiences into stories that stretch those.

Growing up in Uckfield, 20 miles inland from Brighton, music was always the main focus of Graham’s parental home. His father played guitar, his mum sang (both recreationally), and there would otherwise always be records playing. “My dad was super into blues, and also rock crossover stuff like JJ Cale,” he recalls. “There was also lots of reggae, like Peter Tosh, which eventually got me into the soundclash stuff, and jungle”.

At the age of 15, he MC’d with a drum ‘n’ bass crew, using the handle Rag ‘N’ Bonez, inspired by watching re-runs of ’70s Brit sitcom, ‘Steptoe And Son’. With little else to do in their backwater hometown, the crew jumped the airwaves via their own pirate radio station, but Graham soon realised he’d have to move to Brighton if he was going to get anywhere with music.

After testing out his rap skills at hip hop open-mic nights there and bingeing on UK home grown Hip Hop artists like Roots Manuva, he started shuttling up to London to a night at Brixton’s Jamm venue called Slipjam B. There, he hooked up with a couple of performers, Gizmo and DJ Direct, and they formed a crew called The Rum Committee. Over the ensuing few years, they’d support old-skool hip hop luminaries Pharoahe Monch and KRS-One at Brighton’s Concorde 2, and release their own album through Bandcamp, through which Rory learnt the rudiments of recording.

Parallel to all this, in private, he worked at his potential as a singer. At 19, his dad had coaxed him up to the mic at a blues jam in a local pub. “Afterwards,” he recalls, “this old geezer came up to me and said, ‘Dude, your voice is insane, you should sing some more’. That feeling of actually getting a reaction had a big effect – ‘Oh, I like this is – this is good!’”

At the beginning, there was a rather divergent progression between his ruffian rhyming in Rum Committee, and his ‘proper’ singing, which was informed more by his dad’s old blues records. “I’d found my voice through that style of music,” he reasons, “so instantly when I started trying to write my own music, it all sounded very like Muddy Waters, because that’s the stuff I’d grown up with”. He smiles, and adds: “Blues is infectious. No-one’s ever listened to blues, and gone, ‘Nah, don’t like that’, know what I mean? Nobody’s ever listened to BB King and gone, ‘That’s shit’. They haven’t – and if you did, you’re a mug!”

Graham duly self-released an EP called ‘Blues Town’. “My voice didn’t sound that great, and it was pretty badly recorded,” he admits, “but it surprisingly got a lot of love”. Doors started opening: he landed acoustic gigs, including one supporting Joan Armatrading at Brighton Dome.

Circa 2011, he got together with UK Hip Hop label High Focus releasing a couple more EP’s where his bluesy stylings were underpinned by the label’s trademark jazzy beats. He’d do gigs solo, with just a DJ backing him, but when he started working with producer Mark Crew Rory’s song-orientated fusion of blues and hip hop really developed. At the time Crew was working on Bastille’s debut album Bad Blood, Rory had been working as a carer for Asperger’s sufferers, but could now afford to do music full-time, on the basis of just a rough demo Crew landed Graham a publishing deal with Warner Chappell.

At Crew’s studio bunker in Battersea, they slowly pieced together another EP, 2014’s ‘Wolves’, whose towering ambition was best flagged by the fact that it eventually contained nine tracks – an album, in all but name. Crew’s robust beats echoed Graham’s predilection for jazzy hip hop giants Gang Starr, and guests included rapper Vince Staples, Stig Of The Dump, and Kate Tempest, whom Graham had befriended pre-Mercury award. Within the hip hop-y sound format, the song was paramount, giving Rory free rein to explore song structures, usually with an explosive chorus showcasing his mighty tonsils.

“There’s a lot of pain in the lyrics,” he reveals, “but it’s not always necessarily mine. It’s interesting to me, what’s going on in people’s lives. One night I was getting drunk with a mate, and we were having a proper deep and meaningful conversation, and he told me that his missus had made it so he wasn’t allowed to see his daughter anymore. I was like, ‘I can’t not write a song about this. So the next day I wrote ‘No Mother’. I find myself doing that a lot – something clicks in my head, like, ‘Right, that deserves something to be said about it!’”

Graham’s many talents – versatile songwriter, powerhouse singer, conduit for and conveyor of myriad human emotions – led Columbia Records to sign him on the strength of ‘Wolves’. For the ensuing ‘Disfigured’ EP (2015), he and Crew went for a more stripped-back sound, inspired by the spaciousness Rory heard in Al Green’s music, clearing the way for That Voice, without interfering clutter. “I remember thinking, ‘I can just do what I want now, so if I just do something that sounds good, I’m not gonna worry about what genre it is. That’s why there’s one track on there that sounds like Bon Iver, one that’s proper hardcore blues-rock, and one that’s more a hip hop/soul kind of sound. There’s nothing on there that sounds exactly the same as anything else.”

Lead track ‘Bitter End’, a tear-jerking realisation of a relationship’s demise, was staunchly supported then playlisted on BBC Radio 1 Xtra, and made it onto Radio One’s ‘In New Music We Trust’ playlist. On the back of the EP, Graham put together a Rag‘n’Bone Man live band, featuring a drummer, bassist, guitarist, keyboard player and backing singer. They toured the UK with hand-picked guests under the banner ‘Rag ‘N’ Bone Man Presents’, selling out shows up and down the country. They made quite a splash across Europe’s festival circuit, too, including Glastonbury, Eurosonic and Loveboxx, bringing fields and tents to a standstill, winning new disciples wherever they went.

In summer 2016, after a decade and a half of experimenting and learning, focusing and fine-tuning, Rag‘n’Bone Man is primed to become a household name. Rory has spent the winter hatching his debut full-length, partly with Mark Crew in Battersea, but also with other fresh producers. These include Two Inch Punch, aka Ben Ash, who has worked in a co-songwriter/producer capacity for Sam Smith, Jesse Ware and Damon Albarn’s Africa Express; and Jonny Coffer, another producer-cum-tunesmith whose CV ranges from Naughty Boy’s ‘La La La’ to tracks off the recent Beyoncé album.

As the album approaches completion, early tracks are sounding simply electrifying. As a teaser, Rory soft-released the song ‘Healed’, which was overseen by Cadenza (Lily Allen, Sean Paul), aka Oliver Rodigan, whose background as son of reggae DJ David Rodigan, chimed with Rory’s own. Its brass-assisted, slo-mo R&B-gospel vibe was concocted between London and Jamaica – a cultural collision, and a heartstring-tugging but quintessentially summery anthem.

During the painstaking process of assembling his all-important debut LP, Graham’s untetherable need to perform became so out of control, he took to turning up at open-mic nights, to ‘unleash the beast’ that is his tumultuous singing equipment.

Now, finally, the album’s lead single proper is ready for release: as an expression of mortal vulnerability, set to a stark chain-gang rhythm, it is almost impossible not to be moved, stopped dead in your tracks, by ‘Human’. Here is a song which fully encapsulates Graham’s peculiar contradictions: his strength and his gentleness, his staggering vocal mastery yet intuitive soulfulness, his wisdom beyond his tender years.

In a post-millennial culture where emerging talents are schooled from an increasingly young age, breeding a certain uniformity of phrasing and technique, Rag‘n’Bone Man arrives as an impulsive antidote, connecting with people on a more direct nigh on spiritual level. Still an obsessive consumer of music, Rory’s Everyman qualities reverberate in every note he sings.

As well as Soul and Funk, Rory has Star written all over him – an exceptionally warm and engaging guy with an astonishing natural gift. The world’s going to love getting to know him!

Bio credit to Chuff Media