Unfortunately there was a pressing flaw on Masses, so the record won’t be shipping yet.
John Coxon - Real Magic Vol 1 is out in your favourite record shops, and shipping from today!
Two new Treader LP’s announced today!
John Coxon - Real Magic Vol.1
Pre-orders up on bandcamp.
/album/real-magic-vol-1
Treader is proud to announce the first solo release from label-founder John Coxon. Best known for his work in Spring Heel Jack and Spiritualized, as well as extensive collaborative work with J. Spaceman, Evan Parker, Charles Hayward, Han Bennink and Pedro Reyes to name a few, it was perhaps inevitable that recent times allowed Coxon the space and time to experiment on his own.
Real Magic Vol. 1 is the result of a year’s worth of early morning recordings made during 2021 in Coxon’s east London studio while he played with a newly acquired tube mic and grappled with chronic tinnitus. Coxon’s playful and inquisitive approach to working with minimal instrumentation (guitar, percussion, CDJ & turntable) was by self-imposed parameters (mono recordings, limited overdubs and post-production) allowing him to focus on making the music in the moment and staying out of his own way. Loosely improvised and non-recursive although anchored to root notes and two chord blues patterns, the music inhabits its own, very personal, space and reads as both a reflection on the act of making music and an Oulipian experiment with sound. Real Magic, knowingly oxymoronic, reflects Coxon’s feeling that ‘(music is) ...an endlessly fascinating and magical thing that I still don’t understand’.
Compiled by Mikel Acosta, Real Magic Vol. 1 perfectly captures these intimate and diaristic works of a specific point in an artists’ life. Acosta’s selection and sequencing provide a foothold for the listener, transforming the sketches into a surprisingly vivid and expressive suite of perfectly unbalanced meta-music. Perhaps the Sibelius quote ‘where language ends music begins’ captures the spirit of Real Magic Vol. 1 most accurately.
Limited edition of 300 black vinyl with front laminated flipback "Manila" coloured card sleeves.
Very happy to announce two new Treader LP’s today!
Pre-orders up on bandcamp.
/album/masses
Spring Heel Jack - Masses
Masses is an utterly unexpected, and utterly gripping, collaboration between the East London duo, Spring Heel Jack, and a group of top-flight improvisers, drawn largely from New York’s ascendant free jazz network but also including Evan Parker and microtonal violinist Matt Maneri.
If there are precedents for this particular mix, in which studio-processed audio environments are played back in real time as the triggers for, and fixed components in, a series of group improvisations, they feel few and far between. George Rusell’s 1967 Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature, Bob Ostertag’s Say No More Project, and some of Evan Parker’s explorations in the realm of synergetic electroacoustics provide three possible and very different models. But as Matthew Shipp points out, Masses “creates its own space and time”.
Masses opens a tunnel on a space where matter and anti-matter can co-exist without the vernacular power of either state being compromised or diminished. It is a total triumph.
(Soundcheck, The Wire - Tony Herrington,2001)
Limited edition of 300 black vinyl with front laminated flipback "Manila" coloured card sleeves.
“The Sweetness of the Water is Spring Heel Jack's fourth contribution to Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. It is their most unabashedly beautiful album yet, showcasing the elegant phrasing of Wadada Leo Smith on trumpet and Evan Parker on Saxophone, accompanied by John Edwards' meaty and textural bass playing and the sensitive drumming of Mark Sanders.
The album clearly reveals the evolution that resulted from Spring Heel Jack's 2003 UK tour, which allowed them to realize their electroacoustic free jazz vision in a more spontaneous setting. Not only does The Sweetness of the Water sound more live and intimate, it also displays a fully developed compositional sensibility, with a muted, meditative atmosphere that results from the masterful Spring Heel Jack production touch. John Coxon's guitar figures heavily, providing a rough juxtaposition to the delicate playing of Smith and Parker. Slow, delicate chord progressions provide the backbone for focused, introspective improvisation. The Sweetness of the Water is another confident step forward for one of the most thought provoking and innovative groups working in music.”
Last few copies up on bandcamp now. Link in bio
