Roseau, AKA Kerry Leatham, has made the brilliant debut album she’s long promised to. As well as appearances on acclaimed records from Lapalux and DELS, an inclusion on Bonobo’s Late Night Tales, and tours with Lianne La Havas, Lucy Rose and Laura Mvula, Leatham’s music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and Adulthood. Add in her one million plus plays on YouTube and Spotify, a modelling campaign for Adidas Originals and being tipped by Shura; anticipation for her debut album as Roseau has been running high. Finally, at the end of June 2015, Big Dada is proud to announce the release of the album, Salt.

Marrying stories about modern life both rubbish and wondrous to bold, chiming, futuristic pop, Salt is a stunning record. Leatham’s talent for writing, her purposeful experiments and her mastery of several instruments as well as electronic production techniques, add up to a powerful arsenal. Leatham learned to write songs and perform uncanny harmonies long before she mastered Logic and laptops, and this finely honed ability sees her shine out from the pack.

Written and recorded in the space and quiet of the Essex countryside, Salt contains music both elemental and intimate. Its sonics were inspired by a chance exploration of a giant abandoned warehouse beside a walk Leatham loves. Finding herself in a vast space with only an old car tyre, an extinguished bonfire and some bottles and sticks, she screamed, threw bottles, sang, stomped, hit the tyre with the sticks, and made as many sounds as possible – then she came back, day after day, to record them.

These sounds form the backbone of Salt’s bewitching sonics, colouring the album with a powerful atmosphere, and providing the perfect backdrop for Leatham’s unique voice and lyrics. The album’s songs contain powerful themes; about the devastation of first heartbreak, the aftermath and numbness; about belonging, or not; and about self-confidence and its absence. Leatham’s love of stories goes back to the song-tales her grandfather sang her when she was a child. Salt is full of stories, whether about broken hearts and yearning (Salt,) troubled nights out (New Glass,) or the wired compulsion of a road trip (Florida,) Leatham enhances the natural beauty of her voice with her experimental harmonies and pitch shifts, adding texture to an album that’s casually littered with infectious hooks.

After starting work on the album at her parents’ house, she brought in Dogtanion, her friend and former Tape Club labelmate, for a fresh set of ears. The pair set about writing and recording in Red Bull’s studios, and Leatham soon roped in Jacob Welsh from The Hics and Mark Rainbow from Laurel Collective to help. After the bulk of the writing and recording was complete, she returned to her family home to tailor and tweak, putting the final production touches to her astonishing debut.

Salt is British music from the leftfield at its best: experimental but welcoming, deep but utterly addictive.

Biog:

Roseau, AKA Kerry Leatham, has songwriting in her blood. Born in Colchester in 1985 to a Dominican Father (her nom de guerre is taken from the Caribbean island’s capital) and a Northern Irish mother, her grandfather used to improvise story-songs to Leatham and her sister as toddlers. This was an experience which she recalls as crucial in forming her love of songs, lyrics, and music that tells a story. Her debut album, Salt, is full of stories, drawing the listener in to tales of love – lived, lost or remembered – and fragmentary snapshots of modern life both rubbish and wondrous. Vivid images abound of nights out, road trips, longing and regret – all related via her bold, chiming, futuristic electronic pop.

Leatham began making up her own songs as a child, roping in her sister to sing harmonies. Harmony, and what she describes as ‘vocal blending,’ has fascinated her as long for as she can remember – a fact that goes some way to explaining her glorious, defamiliarising mastery of the technique on Salt. She began practising with a basic tape recorder as a child, upgrading to a Zoom MRS-802 digital multitrack when she turned 16. It was this machine’s greater capability for layered vocals that really gave her experiments purpose.

Having abandoned her first guitar shortly after acquiring it as an eight year old, Kerry was inspired by a friend to pick it up again as a teenager. The combination of the instrument and her Zoom allowed her to begin writing demos and playing local gigs, and shortly afterwards she attracted the attention of the manager she still has today, one Kwame Kwaten (Laura Mvula, Shola Ama and formerly of D – Influence). An equally long term working relationship began soon after that, with Will Evans of Tape Club Records. He released her first music, and exposed her to the collective of artists around his label, who would go on to become friends and inspirations.

2008 saw Leatham make an important breakthrough in terms of her working method. A laptop, a copy of Logic, and many YouTube tutorials took her music widescreen, combining a new, electronic sound with the songwriting approach of her folksy, acoustic roots. That firm grounding in songwriting is what sets Roseau apart from the electronic pack: She knows how to write a song, not just make a beat.

Leatham’s startling use of vocals conjures an enveloping beauty and is often layered amongst stunning harmony and bewitching pitch bending soon got noticed. There were some early syncs in the form Greys Anatomy, Adulthood and ‘4,3,2,1’ and she also caught the attraction of up-and-comers Lapalux and DELS, whose albums she’s appeared on. Her collaborative project “Peter & Kerry” was championed by Bonobo (he included ‘One Thing’ on his Late Night Tales album), toured with Lianne La Havas, Lucy Rose and Laura Mvula and also garnered +1 million streams on both YouTube and Spotify. An Adidas Originals advert featuring Leatham modelling followed. Big Dada signed Roseau in 2013. 

Salt, like most of her music, was written in the space and quiet of the Essex countryside. Perhaps this explains its enchanting, unusual melding of the intimate and the elemental. So might her musical influences, including artists as diverse as Van Morrison, Soul II Soul, Fleetwood Mac, Grizzly Bear and Tune-Yards - names which go some way to illustrating the calibre of Roseau herself, and her incredible debut album.

Title: Salt

Tracklist:

Salt

Kids and Drunks

New Glass

See You Soon

Florida

Grab

Hot Box

Accelerate

You Don’t Know

Alright

Lunch

www.facebook.com/roseauofficial

ELOQUENCE - The Total Works is the definitive compilation of ex-Kraftwerk percussionist Wolfgang Flür’s electronic pop output from 2002 to the present day. As the ex electro-drummer of German electronic legends Kraftwerk, Flür, with his then musical partner Florian Schneider, developed the world’s first electric drum pads board in 1973 for their recordings and stage performances.

Bruno Bavota is an Italian composer who carefully works in the shaded area between classical and neoclassical. He made three full albums of which Mediterraneo (2015) was reviewed on this site.
This spring he made a tour in Japan, but seeing him at work in the north of the Alps seemed an impossible wish. But miracles happen and so you can see him ‘live’ in Flanders this autumn.

October 20: CC Hasselt (2100 hours)
October 31: Urgent FM (Ghent, 1800 hours)
November 1: Room concert in Leuven (1500 hours)
Enthusiasts of classical and neoclassical have been warned
We will keep you informed!

www.ccha.be/1516

Black says of the song: “That was my attempt to write a song like The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy”, even though the song’s lyrics, “All I want to do is play you Northern Soul records, while you’re lying next to me until late in the night”, suggest a different inspiration.

“It’s a shame really, because we first played it live in 2013 and then the film Northern Soul came out so everyone will think I’m copying that, but I’m not”, says Black. “The truth is, I’m not even a massive Northern Soul fan. My special subject on Mastermind is the complete works of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. But one night, my wife and I listened to Blowing Up My Mind by The Exciters, and I decided to write a song about it. Any references in the song, like [legendary Northern Soul mecca] Wigan Casino, are a product of Wikipedia and Google”.

The song showcases the two main sentiments of The Boombox Ballads; the first been that this is Sweet Baboo’s naked attempt to emulate his heroes and secondly, that the resulting record reads as a love letter to a loved one.

 On The Boombox Ballads, Sweet Baboo wanted to explore more what it was to be a ‘Singer’ as opposed to a ‘Singer Songwriter’, a term - that to him at least - seems to have picked up some negative connotations in recent years. With that in mind, there was a tentative channeling of Harry Nilsson and latter day Scott Walker (‘You Got Me Time Keeping’) in both his songwriting and by working with an arranger (Paul Jones) for the first time who helped him paint the most vivid accompaniments possible.

A native of the North Wales countryside, The Boombox Ballads follows Black’s Motorhome Songs EP, his 2013’s acclaimed Ships and 2010’s I’m A Dancer / Songs About Sleeping – both nominated for the Welsh Music Prize.

Sweet Baboo’s dry wit and melodic flair have seen him become a firm favourite with BBC 6Music’s Marc Riley (who has had him in session more than any other artist), and deservedly recognised as one of the country’s finest performers.

Following his spectacular show in London last month – where Stephen was joined by a string quartet and an all new band, Black has announced a full tour of the UK for autumn including London’s Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.

"Stoneground Words” was the first album in the UK to be released on her own label (Neighborhood Records) in 1972. 

Regarded by many Melanie fans as her finest album. 

The booklet includes all the photos that were part of the original album release. 

Features two bonus tracks ‘Bitter Bad’ a 1973 single that was not featured on any album and ‘Seeds’ (Long Version) that includes her recitation of the ‘Gather Me’ Poem. 

All songs were written by Melanie with the exception of ‘My Rainbow Race’ which is a Pete Seeger song. 

Singles taken from the album were ‘Together Alone’ and ‘Do You Believe’. 

UK music publication Melody Maker hailed this album as "the most sophisticated she’s made”. 

Available for the first time on CD. 

Track Listing:

1. TOGETHER ALONE 

2. BETWEEN THE ROAD SIGNS 

3. SUMMER WEAVING 

4. MY RAINBOW RACE 

5. DO YOU BELIEVE 

6. I AM NOT A POET (NIGHT SONG) 

7. STONEGROUND WORDS 

8. SONG OF THE SOUTH 

9. MAYBE I WAS (A GOLF BALL) 

10. HERE I AM 

BONUS TRACKS 

11. BITTER BAD 

12. SEEDS (INCLUDES ‘GATHER ME’ POEM) 

"Madrugada” (Portuguese for Daybreak) was a 1974 release on Neighborhood Records. 

Melanie was already known as a great songwriter and this album highlighted the fact that she was also a brilliant interpreter of other people’s songs. So along with six originals by Melanie we also have ‘Lover’s Cross’ (Jim Croce),‘Pretty Boy Floyd’ (Woody Guthrie), ‘Wild Horses’ (Jagger/Richards), ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ (Randy Newman) and ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ (Goffin/King). 

Includes the Bonus Track ‘I Am Being Guided’ which was not available on the UK release. 

Singles taken from the album were ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ a UK Top 40 Hit, ‘Love To Lose Again’ and ‘Lover’s Cross’. 

The critics raved: "Madrugada contains a flawless rendering of Jim Croce’s ‘Lover’s Cross’ and is easily her most acclaimed album to date”. 

"Melanie is at her best.. innovative and captivating”. 

"Melanie never sounded better”. 

"Superb…overwhelming powerful vocals… thoroughly enjoyable” 

Available for the first time on CD. 

Track Listing: 

1. LOVE TO LOSE AGAIN 

2. LOVER’S CROSS 

3. PRETTY BOY FLOYD 

4. WILD HORSES 

5. I THINK IT’S GOING TO RAIN TODAY 

6. WILL YOU LOVE ME TOMORROW 

7. MAYBE NOT FOR A LIFETIME 

8. HOLDING OUT 

9. THE ACTRESS 

10. PINE AND FEATHER 

BONUS TRACK 

11. I AM BEING GUIDED 

 "As I See It Now” was a 1974 release on Neighborhood Records. 

Contains 9 Melanie originals plus songs by Bob Dylan, Jesse Winchester, Gus Kahn/Walter Donaldson and Ritchie Valens. 

The bonus track ‘La Bamba’ is a rarity that was only released in Italy as a single. 

The album features a host of great backing musicians including Mike Heron and Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band. 

‘Chart Song’ was recorded live at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Singles taken from the album were ‘Sweet Misery’ and ‘You’re Not A Bad Ghost, Just An Old Song’. 

Available for the first time on CD. 

Track Listing:

1. YANKEE MAN 

2. YOU’RE NOT A BAD GHOST, JUST AN OLD 

SONG 

3. RECORD MACHINE 

4. EYES OF MAN 

5. STARS UP THERE 

6. DON’T THINK TWICE, IT’S ALL RIGHT 

7. SWEET MISERY 

8. MONONGAHELA RIVER 

9. YES SIR, THAT’S MY BABY 

10. AUTUMN LADY 

11. CHART SONG 

12. AS I SEE IT NOW 

BONUS TRACK 

13. LA BAMBA 

"Sunset And Other Beginnings” was a 1975 release on Neighborhood Records. 

Contains 8 Melanie originals plus great versions of Broadway and popular standards.

On her renditions of ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ and ‘Ol’ Man River’ rock critic Jack Kelly said "she lifts them bodily out of cliché corner with treatments so different and apt it makes you wonder why someone didn’t see the possibilities long before Melanie did”. 

The bonus track ‘Beautiful People’ was recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall, London on 6th October 1975. It was released originally as the B Side to the ‘Almost Like Being In Love’ single. 

Available for the first time on CD. 

Track Listing: 

1. PERCEIVE IT 

2. ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE 

3. LOVING MY CHILDREN 

4. YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE / MAMA SAID 

5. PEOPLE ARE JUST GETTING READY 

6. OL’ MAN RIVER 

7. I’VE GOT MY MOJO WORKING 

8. WHERE’S THE BAND 

9. DREAM SELLER (MEET ME ON THE CORNER) 

10. WHAT DO I KEEP 

11. SANDMAN 

12. THE SUN AND THE MOON 

13. AFRAID OF THE DARK 

BONUS TRACK 

14. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE (LIVE VERSION)