Looking back over the past month or so, I think the two records I’ve played most have been the mammoth Wattstax reissue and the forthcoming collaborative album from Steve Gunn & David Moore. Not sure what this says about my taste or my state of mind.
But anyway, Gunn and Moore’s album is tremendous – an intimate series of improvisatory exchanges between Gunn’s guitar, at once scholarly and free-spirited, and Moore’s slow, contemplative piano motifs.
Coincidentally, the Steve Gunn & David Moore album arrives during a commendably busy March – there are also excellent albums out this month by Jana Horn, Lonnie Holley, Trees Speak, the Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble, Lankum, Billy Valentine and Rob Mazurek, plus collaborative albums from Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily, and Sissoko Segal Parisien Peirani. The 2023 albums are really rolling in now. It must be something to do with the spring equinox on March 20, I guess.
Hey, though, it’s not just equinoxes hereabouts – you can read about other astrological conflagrations elsewhere in our new issue, too. For example, Peter Gabriel knows a thing or two about lunar cycles, which he is happy to espouse on at length in our cover story. Stand by for tales involving full moons, gabble ratchets and foxheads when Gabriel reveals all about i/o – his first album of new music for 21 years. There’s more, of course – not least some beautiful unseen shots of The Band by Elliott Landy and The Beatles by Terry O’Neill, the swaggering return of Rickie Lee Jones, the sardonic brilliance of the late David Berman and a revelatory trip to Senegal to meet the towering Baaba Maal. There’s also OMD, The Damned, Huggy Bear and Lonnie Liston Smith. Back to new music quickly and check out Melbourne’s Brown Spirits, whose psych jams are causing a significant stir in the Uncut office. And don’t forget our free CD rounds up the month’s best new music, including tracks from North Americans, Purling Hiss, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection, Fruit Bats and that Steve Gunn/ David Moore collaboration I mentioned at the top.
As ever, it’s a huge privilege to edit a magazine full of such variety. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. See you next month.