Henry Gross - Release - VINYL LP

Dublin-born, thirty years an immigrant. That's the spine of henryohenry's debut, Apocrypha, not as a concept but as a condition. InchIreland is the DNA of the thing,Inch he says, Inchthe thing before every other thing.Inch He's spent three decades in the United States working in the trades, absorbing the country's mythologies and building what he calls Inchan idiosyncratic American languageInch out of them, something closer to Whitman's vision than what he found.He is, by his own account, Inchformally and informally not a musician.Inch A childhood nylon-string guitar, a few chords learned, and not much else until 2019, when his brother handed him a $6 charity-shop guitar with a repaired headstock and low strings that distorted unpredictably. All but two of the songs on Apocrypha were written on it. It doesn't appear on the record.The songs came with a kind of finality. InchI wrote them for myself,Inch he says, Inchand was certain every song was the last one.Inch It was filmmaker Rick Alverson, a longtime friend who produced the sessions, who convinced him they could stand together as something. They do.Guitarist Eamon O'Leary (his brother) and Ned Steves (his son) play most of the album, recording together for the first time, without rehearsal. Their instinct is at once precise and open, parts that feel discovered rather than placed, deepening the harmonic language without disturbing the clarity of the songs. Erik Hall mixed and contributed overdubs; Emilie Rex of Lean Year lends luminous harmonies to three songs; poet Callie Garnett appears on another. The arrangements grew in the room, the lyrics and melodies arriving intact, the music unfolding around them.The title does what ohenry likes it's slippery. Apocrypha suggests disputed texts, hidden books, stories that may or may not be true. InchIt suggests I might not be telling the truth,Inch he says, Inchbut also,

The Soft Apocalypse is a triumph in self-discovery. The debut of Henry J. Star was born of an anabolism of sincerity, intention, and a wide scope of musical and non-musical interests, ranging from but not limited to cloud rap, Japanese adventure games, and southern literature. The album was entirely written, produced, and performed by multi-instrumentalist Devin Badgett, who is no stranger to performing and writing for his previous projects (Briston Maroney/mercury/Vanosdale). The Soft Apocalypse is a story for the end of the world at the end of the world & an acknowledgement of the overwhelming beauty & unbearable violence that propels the Anthropocene onwards. A detailed account of the pessimist and optimist barreling inwards towards a cataclysmic evolution. Each song, a vibrant look inwards at a fractured psyche trying to make itself whole again under the tireless siege of a collapsing world. With a face covered in tears, lying on the worn, carpeted steps of his childhood home, a young artist set out to make sense of his Sisyphean struggle to escape himself. As his mother reached down to peel him up off the stairs he had climbed so many times before, a new journey began, & an archetypal new persona was born. Devin Javon Badgett is InchHenry J. StarInch & the author of this story.

Limited blue colored vinyl LP pressing. A guiding force behind the venerated Black Jazz catalog, bassist Henry InchThe SkipperInch Franklin has left an indelible mark as a sideman and leader, having appeared on many of the tag's most recognizable releases, as well as having recorded with Hugh Masekela, Stevie Wonder, Freddie Hubbard, Hampton Hawes, and many other luminaries. His swooping, languid style gave the bass a new emotive range, and has become a point of reference for the several generations that have followed. Now, Franklin joins Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad for the latest Jazz Is Dead , a masterful showcase of Franklin's range and lasting impact, and a continuation of the maestro's impeccable legacy for Henry Franklin JID014.