Click the above image for a larger 500px version (iTunes-friendly album artwork).
Welcome to the dark and beautiful, pointy but fluffy collection of musical
insights that have been brought together from the four corners of a small
circle to form the first of our Black Label releases.
Every couple of months or so we’ll send one of us out with a big musical
gun to bag us some random examples of stuff we’ve been working on, stick
’em on a disk and see if anyone is the slightest bit interested or not.
This mix is an extended snapshot of what’s going on down at the
Ballagroove, so expect a wildly varying mixture of musical styles, values,
and intentions, the only thing that the music has in common is that all
the artists featured are local and have already released material on
Ballagroove, or are in the process of doing so. Forthcoming release
details are shown below, you can contact any of the artists through this
site, and you can get advance notice of all our activities by joining our
mailing list on the Contact page.
Within these tunes you will find a mix of all things Ballagroove, some
old, some new, some finished, some far from it, album tracks, singles,
remixes, demos, or maybe just a globbet of people having a jam, and now
and again (with any luck) some stuff that simply defies explanation.
Available on Monday (23rd February) for GBP£4 from Black & Blue, Castle Street, Douglas, Isle of Man – tel: +44 (0)7624 472889, or by e-mailing us at sales@ballagroove.com.
UPDATE! – the complete compilation is now available for download: Downloads Page
… BGK01 …
1) Safetyword – Charm Bracelet
Make of them what you will, we’ve got a lotta love for these truly unique
fellows and their extraordinary music. Currently residing in Bristol,
making loud noises and some big waves, their second release on
Ballagroove, the EP Shoddy Gods was released in December and is
another gem of bittersweet darkly-lit loveliness. This track is taken from
Ten Green Bottles, their debut album.
2) Cartesian Jetstream – Let Your Make Up Do The Talking (Part One)
They told us ‘We do not play the black notes or the white notes, nor even
the blue notes. We play the notes that children pass to each other under
their desks in the classroom.’ Recorded at their debut ‘live’ performance
(in Ben’s loft) they themselves have chopped, lopped, sliced, diced,
buried, exhumed and eventually sown back together this montage of their
twisted dub funk grooves. The band should be recording and releasing their
debut material very soon.
3) The Scope – Chicken Lipz
Claiming to know nothing other than how to press buttons, pluck some
strings and warble a bit, Scope repeatedly go on to prove that whatever
they actually know, it’s more than enough to tickle the ears with furry
boxing gloves. Dreamfish, Deano and Oogie get all barnyard on us (a
recurring and appropriate Ballagroove theme). They’ll shortly be releasing
a single through us, with an album due out later on in the year. Watch
these spacers.
4) ‘ingie (featuring Nicky) – The Wheel Turns
…making bleeps, whirrs, clicks and the odd boing as it does so. Another
friend of Ballagroove’s with an eye to an album release, Ingie has remixed
SWBs ‘Traveller’ for their forthcoming album and here gets to show how
smooth he can be when left to his own devices (his devices are very
complicated with lots of flashing lights and pretty colours, by the way).
Special thanks to guest vocalist Nicky from Cocahiba.
5) Journeyman – St. Brigits Day
Taken from the album ‘Gifts are Warnings’ released later this month on
Ballagroove, with its roots firmly in the folk tradition, Journeyman’s
sincere & soulful style is assisted on this track by Simon Buttimore on
Bass guitar and Mike Seed playing drums, who also produced the album in
association with Skimpy Records.
6) Cartesian Jetstream – Let Your Make Up Do The Talking (Part Two)
7) Cocahiba – Chalking
The first Ballagroove track with a Banjo on it, hurrah. Following on from
their success with ‘Runaway’ (which was nominated as a finalist for the
BACS‘s UK Songwriting Competition) – released on Ballagroove last summer,
Kin and Nicky keep opening up the senses with their addictive riffs and
Nicky’s warm fleecy blanket of a voice. This track features Russ Cowin on the Double Bass and is taken from their forthcoming album, due for summer release.
8) Stinging With Bigness – Falling Down
The title track from their debut album, currently in final production and
due for release mid-March, their multitudinous fans should be kept happy
for a while as they work on new material for – you guessed it – another
album due out later this year. There’s not enough room here to tell the
full story, just buy the album.
9) Rhysical Pheck – Waves
All members of the Ballagroove collective, RPs first album received much
acclaim for its blend of, er, just about everything. This tune will appear
on in cut down form on their forthcoming album, etc. etc. However, it seems,
they couldn’t be bothered with pressing the stop button at the end of the
track. That’s why it goes on for 15 minutes and consequently the reason
we’ve put it at the end of this compilation. Go on, make a cup of tea,
have a bath, whatever, it should just be entering the second movement as
you come back into the room…