TEXAS REFLEXION
Walking tall into the unknown; Texas, a part of the States I’ve never visited apart from my dad’s obsession with westerns – but that was Hollywood, wasn’t it? Post 9-11 security contributed to my normal dread of airport transit, borne out of a hard disc which was once refused entry into my hand luggage as I didn’t have its power supply. It had to be hastily packed, unpadded, into unsecured cardboard box and placed into the aircraft’s hold. “But…” I pleaded “…it contains all my work from the last 2 months.” That time,...
read moreWHO IS THIS PK BLOKE, ANYWAY?
Between the ages of 13 & 18, Paul Kendall (or PK as he is more readily known) served his musical apprenticeship in a variety of bands where he covered every style from blues and rock through to free jazz – at one point demonstrating his prowess on bongos, recorder and vocals with the intensely named Obscenities Children. It was however during a year at university where he was supposed to be studying for a maths degree, that he became interested in electronic music. After being dismissed from his course for spending too much time in...
read moreLINTON KWESI JOHNSON
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a UK-based Jamaican-British dub poet who recites his own verse in Jamaican patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell. Johnson’s middle name, “Kwesi”, is a Ghanaian name given to boys who, like Johnson, are born on a Sunday. LKJ came to live in Brixton, London in 1963, joining his mother who had emigrated a year earlier shortly before Jamaican independence. While still at school he joined the British Black Panther Movement,...
read moreFROM THE PENMAN PRESS
Long-time Recoil collaborator Paul Kendall has completed his new Numbered Limited Edition of 100 Box Set which contains copious amounts of DNA 10 A5 copies of original pen & ink artworks, scanned and printed by the artist 1 A5 hand printed letterpress credit sheet 1 A5 sheet to assist, but not dictate, orientation and last but not least a re-imagined ‘Angleterror’ CD, mastered with an edge + an oomf by AGF (@poemproducer) available from : catwerkimprint.bigcartel.com/ CW10. Cat Werk Imprint Facebook Twitter...
read moreON LOCATION
Of all the tools that are required today in the marketing and promotion of an artist’s product, the promotional video is certainly one of the most powerful. Careers have been made and broken on the strength of them and in this age of visual as well as audio entertainment, the promo can be vital in raising and sustaining the profile of an artist. Consequently, conceiving and filming the video can prove to be one of the most stressful and demanding tasks and yet, at the same time, an extremely creative and fulfilling project for all...
read morePROMOTIONAL METHODS
For this Recoil report, it’s probably appropriate to summarize Alan’s activities immediately after the completion of ‘Unsound Methods’. The summer of 1997 was spent ‘turning the album around’ – or in other words, undertaking everything from artwork production, marketing, press and promotion through to manufacture and eventually, distribution. Although the hard work of actually writing the album is complete, this period of decision-making can be particularly active for any artist. Alan spent much of...
read morePAUL MARSHALL
Paul’s main project Lone Wolf began life in 2009 spawned from dusty rooms and tape studios around Sweden where he pulled his songs and ideas together with the assistance of Kristofer Jonson from Jeniferever. After a month of field recordings, sneaking into concert halls late at night to use the piano, setting up gear in small village churches and other random places, the basic album tracks were completed. The resulting debut album, ‘The Devil And I’, was released on Bella Union in mid-2010. A year followed with Paul sharpening his...
read moreSHARA WORDEN (NOVA)
Shara Worden was born in El Dorado, Arkansas. Her father was an accordion player and choir director, her mother an organist for their Pentecostal church and her uncle Donald Ryan, a classical and jazz pianist & arranger, taught her piano as a child. She graduated from the University of North Texas with a BA in vocal performance and, after university, took up residence in Moscow for a year where she studied Russian language while writing songs, producing a self-released limited edition EP ‘Session I’. She moved to New York City...
read moreNICOLE BLACKMAN
Nicole Blackman, a spoken-word performer from New York has been involved with a wide variety of musical projects, most notably supplying vocals on the darkly disturbing Golden Palominos album ‘Dead Inside’, in addition to recording with Bill Laswell, Scanner and KMFDM. Her edgy work straddles the uncharted territory between page and performance, leaving the audience sometimes amused and more often unsettled. “Everything I write is a bit burnt around the edges” she explains, “and I’m most intrigued by...
read moreCARLA TREVASKIS
Born in Portsmouth, Carla Trevaskis has been in and out of bands since the age of 14. Originally drafted in to provide backing vocals, she pushed her way to the front as lead singer and eventually headed to the bright lights of London to pursue a musical career. She performed live on a regular basis in the capital, sometimes with pianist and strings, sometimes with a full-on rock band and continued to hone her song-writing style, influenced by the likes of Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos and Boy George. Over the years, Carla has...
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