BADBADNOTGOOD Are Beside April: New Song Of The Day
BADBADNOTGOOD present their latest single, Beside April, even though it is September.
Beside April is the Canadian band’s second offering from their upcoming album, Talk Memory. Here’s the blurb with details:
Canadian ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD shares a new song and video. ‘Beside April’, the second single from BADBADNOTGOOD’s highly anticipated psychedelic jazz album, was composed in conjunction with legendary Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai and features iconic drummer/producer Karriem Riggins (J Dilla, Madlib). The forthcoming album, Talk Memory, also features collaborations with Laraaji, Terrace Martin and more. Paired with the new track are visuals directed by Camille Summers-Valli, whose inspiration for the video was taken from the first-ever film footage called Horse in Motion 1878.
Speaking about creating the ‘Beside April’ visual, Summers-Valli shares – “There was really special energy around this video. The band wanted to do something with horses and equestrians. That’s where this begun. Funnily enough, I am petrified of horses. But it felt like a good way to overcome my fears. Subconsciously through a process of reading, finding references and discussing with my team, I started to piece together the puzzle of what this video could be. We shot this in Georgia; where the casting was incredible. The horse also was wonderful. So strong and majestic, we just wanted to do this beautiful creature justice. The magic aligned, so many great hard working people pulled this video together.”
Coupled with the new single, BADBADNOTGOOD shares the sheet music for ‘Beside April’ along with interpretations for the first offering from Talk Memory, ‘Signal From the Noise,‘ which lives on the band’s website on dedicated channels within their tv player here – badbadnotgood.com.
Also, the trio is set to put out the second issue of The Memory Catalogue, a series of world-building newsletters featuring exclusive content (sheet music, illustrated artwork, unseen photos, etc.) that fold out into a poster, on September 10th. Issue 2 features an illustration by Brazilian artist Guilherme Manzi as well as an interview between the trio and Arthur Verocai, allowing fans to peek behind the curtain of the BBNG universe. All three issues of The Memory Catalogue are available as a bundle with pre-orders via the XL webstore.
Talk Memory, the band’s first album with XL Recordings in partnership with Innovative Leisure, features 9 new songs and is due October 8th. The album features musical contributions from Arthur Verocai, Karriem Riggins, Terrace Martin, Laraaji and acclaimed harpist Brandee Younger, who has worked with Moses Sumney, and Thundercat. Sporting visuals from Virgil Abloh, whose design firm Alaska-Alaska™ designed the cover for Talk Memory, the album is an evolution focused on collaboration and the magic of improvised live performance. Demonstrating emotional and poetic progress, the new album is an aural odyssey and a heartfelt expression of joy for the music and community the band considers itself lucky to inhabit.
Of the album, BBNG says: “It took a year or two of just living life to get to the place where the creative process was exciting again and once we actually went in to the studio it was the most concise recording and writing process we’ve ever had. We hope that the improvised studio performances bring the listener closer to our live experience.”
Pre-order / pre-save BADBADNOTGOOD – Talk Memory: https://badbadnotgood.ffm.to/talk-memory
About BADBADNOTGOOD:
Canadian ensemble BADBADNOTGOOD made their name by crossing genre. This seamless movement between style hit hard when they took hip hop into jazz and vice versa. Their latest album – and first with XL recordings – demonstrates them going back to their instrumental beginnings. Instead of looking at the now, they reflected the history and innovation of those that influenced them. To paraphrase Lamont Dozier, this is an album about going back to their roots.
BADBADNOTGOOD formed in 2010, moving between three and four members before establishing its current line up in 2015. The band, aka Alexander Sowinski (drums), Chester Hansen (bass) and Leland Whitty (guitar and woodwinds), met on the Humber College jazz program in Toronto. At the time, instead of working with traditional jazz standards, the group sidestepped and drew from hip hop and other contemporary genres to create a unique sound rooted in Black American music, but 2021’s Talk Memory pays homage to the musicians, composers and influences that first informed their work.
One of the central driving forces behind their latest album was to capture some of the focus, energy and improvisation which is at the heart of their live shows. As they noted, a song is a living breathing thing that naturally changes and evolves as it is played in different settings. This is an album that plays with that thinking. After years of touring, the band paused, refreshed and looked at their history and experiences before starting out on their current instrumental project. A sense of reflection and renewed communication is at the heart of their current approach to making music, and the spark that led to the album’s pensive title Talk Memory. Whilst their early album recordings took place very quickly the current project completely rethought this process. It was more intentional, had a longer gestation period and was created over two years. The speed of their compositions, performance and sound has shifted in fresh ways. Instead of improvising and growing their tracks on tour, that process happened in the studio.
The band demonstrates a sense of emotional and poetic progress, not just technique and virtuosity. They consider themselves constant students, always listening and striving for new directions. Those new paths range from moments of cinematic pacing to distorted improvisation. The album is a kind of aural odyssey, with all the sense of psychedelic narrative that entails. It is about drawing on the energy of collaboration as it happens. The band recorded their latest work in analog studios, as an intentional way to stay present and experience without drawing from the internet for research or references.
There is also a shift to the collective rather than the ego. Rather than focus on credit, this is an album about collective balance and harmony. Even when it includes guests like iconic Brazilian producer and musician Arthur Verocai. Here the energy is about community and ensemble in its true sense. When New Orleans jazz emerged in the early 20th century, the concept of united syncopated rhythms playing as an ensemble group was fundamental to its sound. The birth of 20th century music was intertwined with the concept of collaboration. Here there is something utopic about collaboration, community and music as a special, perhaps even spiritual form of non-verbal communication.
Talk Memory does not exist in a vacuum. It is the first element in a multi part project, which exist as projects in their own right as well as intersect. The project is deeply cross generational, as
BADBADNOTGOOD brought attention to the lineage of artists that came before them and explored the privilege of being able to bring their experience and skill to their music. The album includes contributions from a breadth of multi-instrumentalists including Arthur Verocai, Laraaji, Terrace Martin, Brandee Younger, and Karriem Riggins, with the album mix coming from Russell Elevado.
Another element is an expanded take on a contemporary counter culture book. The direction and sense of this publication will be preempted by a series of poster zines released with each single. The book is a homage to the structure and expanded take on meaning and information in something like the 1960’s Whole Earth Catalog. A brainstorm and examination of concepts, creators, spaces, objects, teachers, terms and many other things BADBADNOTGOOD are passionate about. It was also a chance to speak and profile their collaborators in more detail. What holds everything together is, of course, music.
BADBADNOTGOOD latest album emphasizes how music as a conversation is innately collaborative and improvisational. In a way, their album is a giant take on a classic moment from live jazz or soul, where a band’s ‘leader’ would introduce each member of an ensemble and invite applause. In turn BBNG, have created an album that is a heartfelt expression of joy for the music and community they are lucky to inhabit.
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September 13, 2021 @ 1:48 pm
Niice.. You gotta get em on zoom soonish. I always liked BBNG and it’s on another level here.