New Ben Watt solo album, Storm Damage, out Jan 31. Tour starts Feb 27.
Completing a compelling trilogy of albums since his late-flowering return to solo songwriting and singing six years ago, Ben Watt releases his fourth LP, ‘Storm Damage’ on 31 January 2020, and with it a new sound and fervency.
“I needed a fresh approach,” he says. “The songs came out of an intense period of personal anguish and political anger. Sometimes repeating yourself musically feels disrespectful to the sharpness of your feelings. You have to search for a new way to capture the energy.”
Sonically adventurous, lyrically detailed and engaged, the album – written and produced by Watt – is a personal journey through anxiety and change cut through with an insistent defiance. It forgoes the acclaimed twin-guitar approach of its two predecessors, and boldly shifts focus onto “a future-retro trio” of upright piano, double bass and hybrid acoustic-electronic drums, set against a half-lit backdrop of lone analogue synths, spiralling echo spins and impressionistic ‘found sounds’ adapted from online public-domain recording archives.
“I wanted a timeless-meets-modern live jam – the directness of an unadorned trio capturing the spirit and the samples, synthetics and electronic boom capturing the psychological mood,” he says.
Emotional and inventive, ‘Storm Damage’ is released on Unmade Road through Caroline International.
Out today – 2019 remastered vinyl edition of Walking Wounded
Out today. The 2019 remastered vinyl edition of Walking Wounded. Half-speed mastering for optimum fidelity cut at Abbey Road Studios. 180gm pressing. Re-assembled hi res artwork from original photos. Pitchfork 9.0. Get yours here.
Walking Wounded gets new hi fidelity vinyl re-issue on Nov 8
Everything But The Girl’s million-selling critically-acclaimed eighth studio album Walking Wounded will appear on vinyl on November 8 mastered for the first time at half-speed for optimum audio fidelity at London’s Abbey Road Studios.
The record – first released in April 1996 by UK alt-pop duo Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt – debuted at #4 on the UK Album Chart and contains four UK Top 40 singles, including the Top 10 hits Walking Wounded and Wrong, and set new a benchmark for the intersection of contemporary electronic music and smart pop songwriting.
The seeds of the album’s approach were clearly planted in the successful mix of folk-soul and electronica on the duo’s previous million-seller Amplified Heart, but it was the subsequent wild global success of Todd Terry’s remix of Amplified Heart album track Missing, and Thorn’s acclaimed contemporaneous collaboration on Protection – the second album from Bristol experimental collective, Massive Attack – that encouraged them to go further.
Watt began frequenting club nights on the burgeoning London drum ‘n’ bass scene in early 1995, and quickly saw a rhythmic connection between Everything But The Girl’s early 80s latin-pop arrangements and the high tempo syncopated breakbeats in the sets of DJs like Fabio, Doc Scott and Peshay.
‘I was immediately inspired,’ he says. ‘It was like a futuristic Brazilian sound. The mix of high-tuned propulsive drums, late-night samples and low sub bass just seemed to leave a big plangent hole in the middle, and in it I pictured Tracey’s voice. I heard the same vibe in the modern deep house and downbeat sound.’
The album was programmed and produced by Watt in 1995 largely in the basement of the duo’s north London home demo studio. ‘Just an Akai sampler, a computer, a synth and guitar, an inexpensive vocal mic, and an 8-track tape machine,’ he says of the process. ‘We were writing in reverse – mood first, then songs, learning and we went along. It just felt like a new frontier,’ adds Thorn. Producer John Coxon of the recently formed drum ‘n’ bass-inspired duo Spring Heel Jack – and with whom the Watt and Thorn had worked on Amplified Heart – was invited to provide a backing track for the album’s title song, and beats specialist Howie B worked on the groove for Flipside. The album was then mixed at The Townhouse in west London by Watt and young emerging engineer, Andy Bradfield.
Lyrically the album built on the raw unflinching stories of love and isolation that peppered the previous album, written in the aftermath of Watt’s near-death experience with a rare illness in 1992. ‘They are very much how-I-feel-right-now songs,’ says Thorn, ‘relatable, in the moment, akin to the music.’
The album was acclaimed on its release. “A career peak … raw, pure and absolutely gorgeous,” said Rolling Stone. “The new incarnation of EBTG is the best yet. It’s just going to take a while for people to catch up,” said NME. Earlier this year, twenty-three years on in a major 9.0 retrospective review Pitchfork said, “Walking Wounded draws on downtempo, drum ‘n’ bass, and trip-hop. On paper, compressing the wide open space of those then-nascent sounds into a pop format could’ve been a disaster. But words don’t do justice to the emotional multiplicity — hurt but warm, worn but rich — of Thorn’s voice, and how seamlessly she made a home for herself amid Watt’s stark sonic architecture.”
The new vinyl edition has been mastered by long-time Everything But The Girl mastering engineer, Miles Showell, now at Abbey Road Studios, who is one of only a handful of engineers specialising in half-speed mastering that uses new techniques to more faithfully reproduce the sound of original master tapes.
The original 1996 release of Walking Wounded saw Todd Terry’s remix of Wrong and Omni Trio’s remix of Walking Wounded added as bonus tracks, and an expanded deluxe double CD version including a heft of bonus material came out in 2015, but this new vinyl edition is faithful to the original nine-track album sessions and does not include additional tracks.
Walking Wounded, the half-speed master vinyl edition, is released by Buzzin’ Fly/Chrysalis as a 180gm heavyweight pressing on Nov 8. It follows the Amplified Heart 25th Anniversary vinyl edition – a Pitchfork ‘Best New ReIssue’ – released earlier this year.
Amplified Heart 25th Anniversary vinyl edition released on July 5. Pre-order now.
Everything But The Girl’s seventh studio album Amplified Heart will appear for the first time on vinyl on July 5 as a special 25th Anniversary Edition mastered at half-speed for optimum audio fidelity at London’s Abbey Road Studios. It is available to pre-order now with global shipping from Ben and Tracey’s own online shop, Unmade Road.
The record – first released in June 1994 – contains the original version of what was to become the band’s biggest hit, Missing. If Todd Terry’s famous house remix took that song onto the world’s dance floors and upper reaches of the global pop charts in 1995 (#2 on US Billboard Hot 100, #1 on US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay, #3 on the UK Top 40, and #1 in Canada, Germany and Italy), the original version also remains a timeless classic, now in heavy demand on modern streaming services, and one that perhaps better reflects the enduring appeal of the album’s modern-retro hybrid of ardent folk-soul and scratchy electronica.
Yet, the genesis of the album was anything but easy. Written in the aftermath of Ben’s harrowing near-death experience in 1992 from a rare auto-immune disease, the lyrics written alternately by Thorn and Watt are raw unflinching stories of love and isolation, that often disarm with their candour.
To capture the sound, the duo turned in part to folk-rock legends Danny Thompson(double bass), Dave Mattacks (drums), and engineer Jerry Boys (Sandy Denny, REM, Sawmills Studio) to anchor the heart of the songs but also to electronic producer, John Coxon to find the loops and dusty sounds that give the album much of its underlying atmosphere. Brief cameo roles are played by Richard Thompson electric guitar and veteran string arranger Harry Robinson (Nick Drake’s River Man).
“We’ve always been proud of Amplified Heart,” says Ben, reflecting on the new edition. “It is both close to the bone – understandable, given its background – but also gentle in its touch, and shot through with resilience. The newly mastered pressing sounds amazing – as good as the original tapes.”
“I think it’s a real rebirth record,” adds Tracey, “the moment we got our mojo back. And it’s where Missing began its story, so it’s a significant album for us.”
The new vinyl edition has been mastered by long-time Everything But The Girl mastering engineer, Miles Showell, now at Abbey Road Studios, who is one of only a handful of engineers specialising in half-speed mastering that uses new techniques to more faithfully reproduce the sound of original master tapes.
Assembling the artwork was difficult. Ben and Tracey’s own label Buzzin’ Fly Records acquired the rights to the album from Warner Music in 2017, but Warner had lost or disposed of original photography. As a result, the new front cover was sourced from the original photographer who did not have the exact frame but was able to provide the near-identical one taken a fraction of a second later. Similarly, the original back cover photo – taken from a hotel room at night in Osaka by Ben in 1992 – was nowhere to be found; instead, Ben unearthed the original negatives and selected a new photo of a Japanese bullet train taken the same night with a similar atmosphere for the new back cover. English fashion and art photographer Corinne Day’s iconic portraits of the duo that made up the centrefold of the original CD booklet were also lost; with only scans of the booklet prints to work from, the images were digitally de-noised and – unable to be enlarged further – were used for the new vinyl’s labels.
The original 1994 release of Amplified Heart saw Todd Terry’s remix of Missing added as a bonus eleventh track on later CD runs, and an expanded deluxe double CD version including a heft of bonus material came out in 2013, but this new vinyl edition is faithful to the original 1994 ten-track running order and does not include the Todd Terry remix or additional tracks.
Amplified Heart, the 25th Anniversary Vinyl Edition is released on 180gm heavyweight vinyl by Buzzin’ Fly under exclusive license to Chrysalis Records on 5th July 2019
Tracey wins Outstanding Contribution to Music at AIM Awards 2018
Tracey was given the esteemed award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at AIM Awards 2018 last night in a ceremony in central London. The award was presented by John Grant. AIM is the Association of Independent Music, a hugely important and respected UK organisation that protects and celebrates the rights and work of independent labels and artists. Other winners on the night included Jorja Smith, Nadine Shah, Ninja Tune, Sophie and Goldie.
Tracey’s new video and album out today
Today is release day for Tracey’s new solo album, Record. You can order it here. You can also watch the video for her new single, Sister, featuring Corinne Bailey Rae. Filmed in London (see pic), it features an inter-generational cast of amazing women singing alongside Tracey.
Tracey’s new solo album out on March 2
Tracey’s new solo album, Record, is out on March 2. Resplendent in Ewan Pearson’s glittering electro-pop production, it features guest appearances from Corinne Bailey Rae, Shura and Warpaint’s Jenny (bass) and Stella (drums). It’ll be released on Merge Records in North America and Unmade Road/Caroline in the Rest of The World. Pre-order it here. Check out the current singles Queen and Sister, and see the video for Queen directed by Carol Morley.
Tracey’s Top 20 of 2017
With the release of her new solo album due to be announced soon, Tracey has put together a list of her favourite songs of the year in a Spotify playlist. She says of them: “Exciting, inspiring and moving, they’ve kept me company, got me on my feet and had me singing my heart out.”
Ben Watt’s Top 50 Songs of 2017
Anyone familiar with Ben’s never-ending SpinCycle playlist on Spotify – where he regularly adds stuff he’s into – or his history as a DJ and radio broadcaster, will know he likes nothing more than unearthing inspiring music, new and old, in many genres. He has just shared his Top 50 Songs of 2017. Catch up on the best of the past twelve months. (Photo: Metro, Chicago, 1996)
Tracey wins Artists’ Artist Award at Artist and Manager Awards 2017
Tracey was honoured with the Artists’ Artist Award last night at Artist and Manager Awards 2017 in a ceremony at the Printworks in London. The award was chosen by the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and Music Managers Forum (MMF) and recognises the long-term creative and innovative musical output of an individual or group. Previous winners including Joan Armatrading, Placebo and Massive Attack. She was presented with the award by singer Sandie Shaw and arts editor of the New Statesman, Kate Mossman.
Tracey has been recognised for her work in the Marine Girls and Everything But The Girl, her continuing solo career, her many collaborations with artists including The Style Council, Massive Attack and John Grant, and her work as a writer of two acclaimed memoirs and contemporary journalism for the New Statesman magazine.
‘I am so flattered to be given this award,’ said Tracey. ‘I haven’t won anything since 1984, when City Limits magazine gave me a small garden gnome for being the Best Female Singer. So this is a sharp thrill indeed, and I thank everyone involved.’
