cleopatra-records

Produced by GONG’s Steve Hillage

From ‘60s legends the Grateful Dead to Grammy winning flautist Paul Horn, industrial band Killing Joke, and Hawkwind co-founder Nik Turner, Egypt’s Great Pyramids have been a powerful source of inspiration for many musical adventurers over the years. Some, like Turner, have even gone so far as to record their instruments inside the ancient wonders, capturing the unique resonance of these mystical spaces and blending them with modern techniques and sensibilities to create a truly innovative work of art. Shortly after his abrupt departure from Hawkwind in the late ‘70s, Turner recorded nearly a half an hour’s worth of improvised flute melodies within the Egyptian pyramids, which he then used as the basis for his incredible 1978 experimental ambient masterpiece Xitintoday. The album, which is officially credited to Nik Turner’s Sphynx, is an adventurous, groundbreaking collaboration with several alums from prog rock legends Gong including Steve Hillage (who produced the album), Miquette Giraudy, Harry Williamson, Mike Howlett, Tim Blake and more.

For Turner, the album has a more personal meaning as he explains, “Xitintoday was a very necessary source of catharsis and healing for me, not only from being fired by my former band but also from the death of my father.”

Now this superb project is being reissued in a deluxe collector’s edition on gorgeous picture disc vinyl housed in a gatefold jacket with 16-page booklet insert that meticulously recreates the distinctive artwork of graphic design icon Barney Bubbles. The package also includes the entire album on CD with a special bonus track of Turner’s raw 30-minute flute recording from deep within the pyramid.

Track List:

Vinyl:

Side A
1. The Awakening (Life On Venus)
2. The Pyramid Spell
3. The Hall Of Double Truth
4. Anubis
5. Thoth

SIDE B
1. Horus
2. Isis And Nephthys
3. Osiris
4. God Rock (The Awakening)

CD

1. The Awakening (Life On Venus)
2. The Pyramid Spell
3. The Hall Of Double Truth
4. Anubis
5. Thoth
6. Horus
7. Isis And Nephthys
8. Osiris
9. God Rock (The Awakening)
BONUS TRACK
10. Pyramidflutenik

Onyx – Coming Outside
The bombastic hip hop duo, Sticky Fingaz & Fredro Starr – collectively known as Onyx – return with what HipHopDX is calling an assertion of the group’s Hip Hop dominance. Watch for the new full-length album Onyx 4 Life featuring guest appearances by Wu-Tang member Cappadonna, Planet Asia & Mad Lion coming April 9!

Video | Album

Original God & Sidewalks and Skeletons – Cruel Angel
Here’s an unexpected but wholly satisfying team up between alt hip hop innovator, Original God, and one of the best and most prolific artists to emerge from the vaunted witch house scene, Sidewalks & Skeletons. Let’s hope these two creative minds join forces again soon!

Chmcl Str8jckt – Destroyer
Outlaw industrial rebels Chmcl Str8jckt launched a brand new album last week, Drk Prgrssn, and follow it up with a fantastic new video for the heavy and catchy track “Destroyer.” Check out the vignette that opens the video for a look at the world’s most adorable KISS fan!

Video

Sweet Sienna – Black Diamond
And speaking of KISS, hard rock revivalists Sweet Sienna, fronted by the powerful voice of Katrien Van Riel, take on the Detroit metal gods with a bold new version of the closing track from KISS’s 1974 self-titled album. We think it sounds better than the original!

The 69 Cats – She’s Hot
Just in time to make this year’s Valentine’s Day the hottest on record, the bad boys of rockabilly are back with a new single featuring the combustible talents of Finnish metal vocalist Jyrki 69 of The 69 Eyes, world-renowned guitarist Danny B. Harvey, bassist Kim Nekroman of Nekromantix and The Damned drummer Rat Scabies, “She’s Hot” kicks off the group’s brand new full-length album, Seven Year Itch, which is set for worldwide release on April 16! Don’t miss the scintillating video with burlesque performer Marie Devilreux!

Video | Album

Wolf X – Traffic
For lovers with a more adventurous kink comes a new single from the side project of keyboardist/guitarist David Wolf of the Portuguese fetish industrial outfit She Pleasures Herself. Like its forebear, this project leans heavy on dense electronic atmospheres that titillate and terrify in equal measure. Don’t forget your safe word!

Video

Trans-X – Dreams Are Made of Fantasies
The Godfather of modern electro, Pascal Languirand, mastermind behind iconic ‘80s band Trans-X (of “Living On Video” fame) just released a brand new collection of new music, remixes and rarities called Dreams Are Made Of Fantasies. The album includes special guest appearance by Apoptygma Berzerk leader Stephan Groth as well as Italo Disco producer Mirko Hirsch. The title track is a never-before-released recording that plays like an ‘80s chart-topping hit from an alternate timeline of the universe!

Invader Kaide & Steele 11 – SHGO
Another fantastic collaboration from vocalist/rapper Invader Kaide, this time teaming up with up-and-coming rap star Steele 11 for an energetic new single that’s all about being so ready to roll that you don’t even have time to say “Let’s go!

Wolf X is the new solo project of Lisbon’s based producer David Wolf, whose work as a musician can be heard in bands like She Pleasures Herself, Uni_form, When The Angels Breathe, amongst others…In these difficult pandemic times, and being locked up at home, he found that the best way to spend his time is to continue writing his own songs.NIN, Marilyn Manson, Skinny Puppy, Young Gods and Ministry are the main influences of the powerful yet catchy music of Wolf X.”Traffic” is the first single of “Wish”, an album that will be released soon, from Portugal to L.A and from L.A to the World!

Wolf X “Traffic”
https://orcd.co/wolfxtraffic

BRAIN Sessions apresenta: Bryson Cone (Portland, US)

North American musician Bryson Cone , from Portland (USA), of the brand new generation of indie, is the one who debuts Brain Sessions , a series of exclusive sessions produced by Brain Productions Booking.

Bryson Cone makes weird and contemporary alternative music – in a good way within the musical realm. It is essentially pop and flirts with synths, dreampop; it has dark surroundings and also guitar riffs that refer to the 90s indie.

In the first Brain Sessions , recorded in November 2020 in the city of São Paulo, Bryson performs alongside Brazilian Isa Georgetti, who plays the guitar. Isa is the tour manager for the iconic American indie band Built to Spill.

Read the article: popnow.com.br

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Via: auxiliarymagazine.com
By: Elizabeth Rhodes

For the Summer 2020 Issue we met with Cleopatra Records founder Brian Perera at the label’s headquarters in Los Angeles. Saryn Christina shot images of the office as well as portraits of Brian for the feature and editor Elizabeth Rhodes conducted the interview.

A tour of the Cleopatra office revealed lots of treasures, including cheetah print vinyl pressings of Danzig Sings Elvis, vintage (can we call them “vintage” now?) compilations that put Cleopatra Records on the map for many young listeners and a sprawling warehouse of vinyl. Since the pandemic began, the office has become a shipping headquarters.

On the topic of so-called “second wave” darkwave music and Cleopatra’s music compilations that captured these bands while integrating “first wave” postpunk and what would eventually be called “goth” artists, Brian told us, “I was into that stuff. Even the Hawkwind shows they were doing in the UK, they were playing with Alien Sex Fiend. So there was even a drummer from The Cure that was in Hawkwind, Andy Anderson. The whole psychedelic goth thing in the UK really intertwined in the 90s. It really wasn’t that unusual or different.”

Read more at auxiliarymagazine.com

Iza Grau is a dark wave rock band based in Modena, Italy, who recently released their music video for “Recoil” off their debut album “Vastness Hurts”.

Stream & Download “Vastness Hurts” by IZA GRAU on all platforms: https://orcd.co/izagrauvastnesshurts

by electricityclub.co.uk:

Erin Hawthorne and Ryan Hawthorne are WITCH OF THE VALE, an unsettling electronic duo from the serene shores of Loch Lomond and the remote Outer Hebridean Isles.

Signing to Cleopatra Records, a well-known North American goth industrial imprint, they reissued a number of Gary Numan albums in the US at one time and are still the only label to have succeeded in officially licencing post-‘Autobahn’ material for a KRAFTWERK best of compilation in 1992 entitled ‘The Model’.

Like a mid-to-downtempo offering to Pagan spirits, ‘Commemorate’ combines misery with beauty, evoking confused but uplifting emotions of hope in an atmosphere where all is not quite as it should be… so real life then and very fitting with many isolated from the life they have previously known.

A debut album is effectively a relaunch, an opportunity to reach a wider audience but with the kudos that the long playing format accords. To that end, WITCH OF THE VALE have included the best material from their first three EPs and supplemented those eight tracks with four new songs and bookending instrumental themes. However, most of this previously released material has undergone some sonic fine tuning, but it’s all been fulfilled without altering the spiritual essence of the originals.

From their debut EP ‘The Way This Will End’, the unsettling ritualistic overtures and drone laden backdrop of ‘Fever’ and the textural rumbles of ‘Your Voice’ are threaded by an enticing high register gothique with folk inspired stylings. The poignant ‘The Way This Will End’ title song is included also, with a beautiful music box quality complimented by pensive strings that capture a wonderful melancholic airiness. It is all very sad but never depressing.

Singer talks ambitious virtual tour and shares wacky new Christmas tune

Prior to the pandemic, Todd Rundgren had always wanted to embark on a virtual tour.
“It’s an idea that I’ve been cultivating for a long time,” he tells Rolling Stone from his home in Hawaii. “The inspiration for it was the degradation of the travel network, and a lot of that was a result of climate change. As a touring musician, I realized that it’s going to become more and more common that I can’t get to the gig, that my flights have all been canceled, or there’s a flood or a fire and you can’t even drive there. So I started toying with the idea of different ways to deliver my service.”
On February 14th, the singer will make that dream a reality, virtually performing 25 sets geofenced in different cities that he would have hit on a physical trek, from Manhattan, New York, to Phoenix, Arizona. Dubbed the Clearly Human Tour — a play on his 1989 album Nearly Human — each show will emanate from a Chicago venue through March 22nd, where the Central Time zone allows for a convenient start time for each coast.

Read more >

TODD RUNDGREN – FLAPPIE
Available Now

Todd Rundgren is proud to announce his first ever solo Christmas recording, a cover version of a wildly popular novelty song from The Netherlands written and recorded by Dutch comedian Youp van ’t Hek in 1978.

Musically, the song has the upbeat, merry bounce of a classic Christmas carol, however, the lyrics tell a harrowing tale of a young boy who discovers his pet rabbit, the titular Flappie, has gone missing on Christmas morning. As the mystery deepens, the boy begins to suspect foul play and a possible tragic end for his beloved pet…at the hands of his own parents!

SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION etched 7” vinyl, in Christmas color vinyl, hand-signed by Rundgren!

Track Listing:
SIDE A:
1. Flappie

SIDE B:
Etching

Todd Rundgren Virtual Tour Dates

February 14 — Buffalo, NY
February 16 — Albany, NY
February 17 — New York City, NY
February 19 — Virginia Beach, VA
February 20 — Pittsburgh, PA
February 22 — Cleveland, OH
February 23 — Detroit, MI
February 25 — Indianapolis IN
February 26 — Chicago, IL
February 28 — Madison/Milwaukee, WI
March 1 — Minneapolis, MN
March 3 — Kansas City, MO
March 4 — St. Louis, MO
March 6 — Nashville, TN
March 7 — Dallas, TX
March 9 — Houston, TX
March 10 — Austin, TX
March 12 — Denver, CO
March 13 — Salt Lake City, UT
March 15 — Phoenix AZ
March 16 — San Diego, CA
March 18 — Los Angeles, CA
March 19 — San Francisco, CA
March 21 — Portland OR
March 22 — Seattle WA

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Following the success of the now sold-out initial print, Bauhaus founding member and author; Kevin Haskins revisits “Bauhaus Undead” to create an Expanded Edition of his deluxe coffee table book.

With an additional 78 pages and 7 new stories, Kevin has once again drawn from his personal archive, alongside those of Andrew Brooksbank, Vincent Forrest, original Bauhaus LD and tour manager Graham Bentley and Bauhaus bassist David J.

Maintaining the original design aesthetic created by Jeff Anderson, Donny Phillips and Kaylee Carrington, Kevin worked alongside Fendi Nugroho, (in-house artist at Cleopatra) to design complimentary layouts for the additional content. Once again Kevin has created a fitting tribute and a celebration of the legacy created by this groundbreaking band.

There is one in every band; that one member who, from the inception, collects everything from early “Local Band Makes Good” articles to backstage passes, ticket stubs, original artwork, letters, setlists, posters, contracts, band sketches, fan club material, pins, tour itineraries, handwritten lyrics, home- made flyers, all the way through to comic strips and candid photographs. In this carefully curated coffee table book, Kevin Haskins will once again share his personal collection of mostly never seen before ephemera, and also offer up original stories, littered with poignant and sometimes amusing moments, reflected throughout the bands hallowed career.

The book, now boasting additional content of some 78 pages and incorporating a further seven stories, takes the spectator on a journey from the band’s inception in late 1978 through to their highly successful reformation in 1998, the legendary Coachella performance in 2005 and culminating in the band’s welcome return to the live stage in 2019.

Formed by Daniel Ash in the small industrial town of Northampton, England in the winter of 1978. Bauhaus recorded their now legendary and timeless slab of industrial dub, the nine-minute epic; “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, only five weeks after their formation. That twelve-inch single hit number one in the British Independent chart where it remained in the higher ranks of that chart for more than two years.

Three years on from “Bela” David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve watched the band perform that very song in the dramatic opening scene of Tony Scott’s stylish and sensual vampire movie, “The Hunger” of which Bowie and Deneuve stalk modern-day New York in search of new blood. Seminal and groundbreaking, the group was too busy following its own muse to chase after fly-by-night-trends. The pioneering spirit which has fueled their work established Bauhaus as one of the most important and influential bands of the past four decades.

Their eclectic influences ranged from Psychedelia to Punk, Dub Reggae to Glam, the latter surfacing most notably in their audacious cover of David Bowie’s seminal “Ziggy Stardust”, which earned them their first national chart hit in October 1982. The band went on to record four critically acclaimed albums before disbanding in 1983.

In 1998 the band reformed to play the extremely successful “Resurrection” World Tour, attracting a much larger audience than they had originally enjoyed back in the day, selling out three nights at The Palladium in Los Angeles in a record-breaking fifteen minutes! This was an accolade to the timeless quality of their music and their ever-growing fan base. Over twenty years after recording their last album and against all the odds, Bauhaus recorded and released a new studio LP “Go Away White”, toured with Nine Inch Nails, and played a now-legendary headlining performance at The Coachella Music Festival in 2005. The band returned to the live stage in winter of 2019 to play a short series of highly acclaimed performances.

One of the few groups of the post-punk era to truly achieve mythical status, Bauhaus always has, and continues to be, a pivotal link in the evolution and revolution of contemporary music.

Artists that have name-checked Bauhaus include; Radiohead, Bjork, Massive Attack, Sigur Ros, Nine Inch Nails, Tricky, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, The Horrors, Jello Biafra, Marilyn Manson, Jane’s Addiction, Tool, Jarvis Cocker, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hole, Interpol, Skinny Puppy, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana to name just a few.

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As a member of GGOOLLDD, Nicholas Schubert has helped craft some of the catchiest and most upbeat synth-pop earworms Milwaukee has heard in quite some time. Even though the keyboardist has a knack for building fun, infectious, and poppy songs with his longtime friends and band mates in that accomplished project, Schubert—who says he grew up listening to bands like HIM and New Order—also has a darker artistic side that was fighting to get out. Now that goth rock identity has a landing point in a side project called BLOOD, which will release its debut album Friday, October 31.

That album, Testamental, features 10 songs that find the multi-instrumentalist bounding into divergent and decidedly darker territory than fans of his primary project might expect. An instrumental title track sets the tone, with swelling synths and bleary production. That mood-establishing opening track is followed by “BLOODBATH” and “PINK LIGHTS”—each of which offer grandiose instrumentation reminiscent of a Goblin score and reverb-drenched utilitarian vocals from Schubert. Over the course of the self-produced (except for two songs produced by Casey Soyk) and self-recorded record, Testamental dips into “dark wave” expanses, with compositions like the driving and aptly-named “GO,” as well as the guitar-laden “CAN’T SEE IT,” and the flourishing frenzy employed in the ultra-infectious “DESTROY.”

While much of the record lives in the shadows, there are a parts of Schubert’s excellent departure that are touched by the light. “NOTHING”—with its delicate melody and touching lyrics—is a surprisingly sweet standout song for a project that’s called BLOOD, and “WAIT” is a song that’s smooth and vibrant enough to earn a spot on future GGOOLLDD setlists without any risk of audience alienation. Though BLOOD’s impressive debut is certainly a suitable soundtrack for Halloween weekend, it’s also well-orchestrated mood music for all seasons. Before it’s released digitally by Los Angeles label Cleopatra Records this Friday, you can listen to Testamental in its entirety below.

Read the full article & Stream: milwaukeerecord.com

Produced by HAWKESTREL’S ALAN DAVEY!

Los Angeles, CA – Arthur Brown is a truly groundbreaking rock music icon who pioneered a theatrical approach to musical performance that has been cited as an influence on Rock Hall of Famers Alice Cooper and KISS. Going under the memorable moniker The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Brown achieved breakthrough success with a blockbuster hit single in 1968, the colossal freakout “Fire,” which he used as a launching pad for an incredible career that continues to this day! And today he releases a superb new track, “Zombie Yelp,” just in time to get all the groovy ghoulies, young and old, in the mood for the Halloween season!

Co-written by Brown and Alan Davey, formerly of British space rock kings Hawkwind, who not only produced the track but performs on it as well, “Zombie Yelp” rides a distinctively spooky retro groove laid down by the vintage keyboards of Vanilla Fudge founder Mark Stein as well as Davey’s driving bass guitar all of which set the stage for the Brown’s unearthly vocal delivery that ranges from piercing howls to demonic growls. It’s the perfect mix of psych rock ecstasy and campy fun!

Davey shares these thoughts about working on the track, “It was great fun writing this new song with Arthur, he’s always a hoot to work with and his lyrics on this are funny as feck! I’m proud to have mixed and produced it too. Take your Zombie Yelp this Halloween and see what happens!”

Stein reflects on his own history with Brown, saying “The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Vanilla Fudge shared the stage back in the late ‘60s. Arthur is still crazy after all these years and still killin’ it! ‘Zombie Yelp’ is a wild tune with great grooves and lyrics. I had a blast playing organ on it. Just wait till you hear this track…lovin’ it!”

And Brown sums it up perfectly, in his typically enigmatic fashion, “Spirits lagging? Need some help? Dive right in to the ‘Zombie Yelp’!”

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Today is the day for the newest release from groundbreaking alt-rock / industrial music producer John Fryer – the new ‘These Mortal Covers’ album comes by way of his Black Needle Noise collaborative project.

Presenting a collection of diverse and excellent song covers, involving various (mostly female) singers, here we can also enjoy the talents of Anjela Piccard, Pinky Turzo, Beca, Magic Rebecca Coseboom, and Betty X. Tom Berger is the one male vocalists exception – bandmates from back in Fryer’s DarkDriveClinic days.

As one of the most innovative sonic architects in our age, “John Fryer has practically soundtracked your entire life” (Impose Magazine). He is also one of just two masterminds behind This Mortal Coil (along with Ivo Watts-Russell – not only producing, but also keyboards, strings and synthesizer sequencing).

John Fryer started his career in 1979 at London’s Blackwing Studios (London) and soon began working with seminal bands on 4AD, Mute, Rough Trade and Beggars Banquet, including Depeche Mode, The Wolfgang Press and Cocteau Twins. His achievement in helping develop the latter’s pioneering ethereal and ambient sound ultimately led Watts-Russell to recruit Fryer as his partner for This Mortal Coil.

A sense of expectation about his music has never left him – expectations he often exceeds from release to release, having produced many iconic artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Love and Rockets, Swans, HIM, Cradle of Filth, Clan of Xymox, Nitzer Ebb, Dead Can Dance, Yaz (Yazoo), Xmal Deutschland, Fields of the Nephilim, De/Vision, Stabbing Westward and many others. Fryer has also produced many film soundtracks, such as Seven, Clerks, Johnny Mnemonic, Mortal Kombat, Faust and Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

“The whole idea of doing cover versions started back with DarkDriveClinic. We were backstage for one of our live shows and the floor was grubby and Rebecca asked if she could put on my shoes to get something from the other side of the room and then I said, hey, let’s do a cover of “Walking In My Shoes” and so then the covers album was born back in 2011,” says John Fryer.

Read the full article at The Big Takeover.

Via: broadwayworld.com

Fans of British new wave icons Duran Duran got the treat of a lifetime when Andy Wickett, the original vocalist of the group who was eventually replaced by Simon LeBon, released Girls On Film – 1979 Demo, a collection of early recordings of the band that included keyboardist Nick Rhodes plus the rhythm section of John & Roger Taylor. And now a second collection of demos has emerged, offering an even deeper look into the early workings of what would become one of rock music’s most prestigious and productive bands from the ’80s! Dreaming Of Your Cars – 1979 Demos Part 2 will be officially released on October 30 courtesy of Cleopatra Records.
Wickett explains, “This is the second demo we did at Bob Lamb’s studio in Moseley, Birmingham. I wrote the song ‘Dreaming Of Your Cars’ with T.V. Eye before I joined the Durans. We were the Durans favourite local band. Later, when I supported Duran Duran with my band World Service on their UK tour in 1996, Nick Rhodes told me he loved that song and wanted to produce it.”

Dreaming Of Your Cars will be available on both CD and colored vinyl as well as on all digital music platforms!

Another rare gem from the early days of British new wave icons, Duran Duran!

Features vocalist Andy Wickett who fronted the band before Simon Le Bon!

Available on CD and colored vinyl!

Track Listing:
1. Dreaming of Your Cars
2. Love Story
3. X Disco
4. To The Shore

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The long awaited new album from one of the most exciting young metal acts on the scene today, Alabama’s BrokenRail!

Beautiful Chaos showcases both the strengths and diversity of this incredible band with stellar musicianship, powerful vocals, melodic ballads, and of course some of the heaviest, horns-in-the-air metal riffs you’re likely to hear all year!

Features the singles “Creatures,” “Demon In Disguise” and “California!”

Produced by Joseph McQueen (As I Lay Dying, Bad Wolves)!

Available on both CD and colored vinyl!

The band has already had their songs featured on ESPN, NBC Sports & more as well as streams in the tens of millions globally, and this new album is set to take them to a whole new level!

Track Listing:
1. Beautiful Chaos
2. Nightmare
3. California
4. Demon In Disguise
5. Creatures
6. On My Own
7. Patterns
8. Never Be The Same
9. The Haunted
10. Reignite

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Via: punknews.org

The Adolescents will release a new album on October 23 via Kung Fu/Cleopatra records. It’s an early punk and pre-prunk covers album and is called Russian Spider Dump. The release is the band’s first LP since the passing of bassist and founding member Steve Soto. Brad Logan of f-minus and Leftover Crack is now in the band on bass. The band covers Redd Kross, the Germs, The Dils, Dickies, Spirit and a lot more. You can see the track list below.

Brand new studio album from SoCal hardcore punk icons, Adolescents!

The album pays tribute to the band’s influences and peers with cover versions of Germs, Redd Kross, The Dickies, Spirit, and many more obscure gems!

This is the first Adolescents album released since the passing of founding member and bassist Steve Soto who was memorialized by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Offspring, Rancid and many more!

Available on both CD and colored vinyl!

Track Listing:
1. Fuck You
2. Lion’s Share
3. Just Say Yes
4. Class War
5. Crayon World
6. Dirty Bomb
7. Pink Piece Of Peace
8. Fast, Fucked & Furious
9. God Bless America
10. Home Is Where
11. I Like Drugs
12. I Got A Line On You
13. Not Going Back Home
14. Not With You
15. Back Door

Via: variety.com

The actor turned musical stylist says he approached his new album, “The Blues,” with reverence… except, maybe, in the extreme case of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic.

William Shatner hit upon his share of musical genres in the 2000s and 2010s, as he resumed the long-dormant musical part of his career, which began with 1968’s “The Transformed Man.” In recent years, he’s gone country and punk, done an album of famous space songs and a Jewish oratorio, and covered the Christmas beat. Now he’s found his final frontier — or at least his next final frontier — with “The Blues,” an album that unites his patented speak-singing style with shredding turns from guitarists including Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, Ritchie Blackmore, Sonny Landreth, Brad Paisley, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter and Pat Travers.

It’s the last of these joining him on “I Put a Spell on You,” Shatner’s cover of the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins classic, which finds the actor doing some vocal shredding, of sorts, in his own inimitable style. Variety has the exclusive premiere of the ribaldry funny music video for “Spell,” in which director Balázs Gróf animates Shatner as a positively crazed lush, alone with his lusty thoughts in a bar as he obsesses over a buxom and completely oblivious barmaid. Shatner spoke with Variety about coming up with the concept for the video … and why he felt emboldened to take on one of America’s great indigenous artforms.

Shatner says he approached the blues for the album with the utmost reverence — but does agree that maybe that wasn’t a necessary precondition for the already utterly irreverent “Spell.” Given that Hawkins’ spellbinding performance in 1956 would probably come in at No. 1 on any expert’s or neophyte’s list of the most histrionic lead vocals of all time, Shatner could have tried to go over the top, and then multiplied that times 10, and still come up with a rendition that would read as subtle compared to the original.

“I know! I know!” says Shatner, in a phone interview about the new song and album. “As you point out, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, you can’t go further than that; you had to go under that. But it’s a fun song, and done in this way (with the video), it’s got great humor, I think, where the guy is screaming his mind out and. of course, nobody hears. …I said to the animator, here’s what I was thinking when I was getting ready to do the song: I see this guy lusting over the barmaid in a small, smokey bar and he he’s totally nuts about her, and she never hears him, of course — it’s all in his own head. And he just did it superbly.”

That represents most of the extent to which Shatner took a comic approach to the project, however. He’s mining these mostly classic blues songs for all the drama each tortured line is worth, but (apart from “Jay”) taking that angst seriously, with gradations to his tone.

“At the other end of the spectrum is ‘The Thrill Is Gone’,” he says, noting his attempt to refrain from melodrama in lending that weeper a lighter touch. “I didn’t know (B.B. King) personally. Got to know his daughter, Shirley King. But I started to sound like a little bit of an imitation of Mr. King, and then I heard it and thought, ‘That’s not right.’ I went back to what is essential for me, which is to go to the emotion of the song. And then if you are filled with sadness over a love affair that’s over, it’s really sad, if you’re not angry about it — sad that that emotion didn’t and couldn’t last, and how low you are with it.”

Shatner took his research seriously in preparing for the album, taking counsel from a rocker who previously sat in on his Christmas album, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, who doesn’t appear on this album, and a new friend who does, Arthur Adams.

“I really researched all this,” Shatner says. “Billy Gibbons helped me with books that he lent me on the blues. He lives this part of the time here in the Valley, so we’ve gotten together a few times and I was able to partake of his wisdom. I read quite a bit of his material. And Arthur Adams, a wonderful musician who is living in Los Angeles now, and on call all the time, came into the office because I had asked talk to me about the blues. He said, ‘Well, I used to sing the blues when I was a kid, picking cotton.’ And he got up out of his chair and he started miming picking the cotton and putting it in the imagined bag, meanwhile humming and singing some of the call songs they would have used in the fields in Mississippi. And it was just a complete insight into some kid who still hadn’t yet taken up the guitar, and who tried to find his way in the world.

“In any case, I approached it with the reverence that blues musicians feel toward the genre. They’re very protective of it, and they wanted to be very sure that I wasn’t going to mock it. And I certainly didn’t, and did the best I could within my limitations of my interpretation of the blues.”

Shatner admits to non-Mississippian privilege, although he says his very, very northern background did prepare him for this, pre-Hollywood.

“I started off with a handicap of being a white guy from Montreal, Canada. But Montreal is a very musical city, and is the springboard for many musicians. Especially at university there, I was wandering around downtown a lot. There is a tradition of French Canadian music with a fiddle, maybe two fiddles. I’m picturing two French Canadian men who are traditionalists. Their music must’ve come from France, and they’re sitting in a chair beating single time with one foot and double time with the other and sawing away on a fiddle. They were making dancing music for the rest of the French Canadian friends of mine who were up at the country places when schools let out; I was up in the mountains that are, at that time, totally habitant, which is the word for the original Quebecer. And that’s where my music beginnings for the blues began. So I understood that kind of music from whence blues stemmed, and having felt the pain of living, I was in a position to kind of understand more than most people that come to it for the first time.”

The full track list for “The Blues,” which comes out October 2, 2020.

1. Sweet Home Chicago feat. Brad Paisley
2. I Can’t Quit You Baby feat. Kirk Fletcher
3. Sunshine Of Your Love feat. Sonny Landreth
4. The Thrill Is Gone feat. Ritchie Blackmore
5. Mannish Boy feat. Ronnie Earl
6. Born Under A Bad Sign feat. Tyler Bryant
7. I Put A Spell On You feat. Pat Travers
8. Crossroads feat. James Burton
9. Smokestack Lightnin’ feat. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
10. As The Years Go Passing By feat. Arthur Adams
11. Let’s Work Together feat. Harvey Mandel & Canned Heat
12. Route 66 feat. Steve Cropper
13. In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company feat. Albert Lee
14. Secrets Or Sins

Legendary star of the stage and screen, William Shatner, brings his dramatic interpretive talents to the blues music canon on this superb new album!

Features guest appearances by blues giants Sonny Landreth, Canned Heat & Tyler Bryant PLUS country superstar Brad Paisley, Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, and many more!

The album’s first single, “Let’s Work Together” featuring Canned Heat, has already been released and stirring up a mighty buzz!

Watch for a fully animated video for “I Put A Spell On You” featuring Pat Travers will be released on the same day as the album!

Available on both CD in a gorgeous digipak as well as limited edition colored vinyl!

Track Listing:
1. Sweet Home Chicago feat. Brad Paisley
2. I Can’t Quit You Baby feat. Kirk Fletcher
3. Sunshine Of Your Love feat. Sonny Landreth
4. The Thrill Is Gone feat. Ritchie Blackmore
5. Mannish Boy feat. Ronnie Earl
6. Born Under A Bad Sign feat. Tyler Bryant
7. I Put A Spell On You feat. Pat Travers
8. Crossroads feat. James Burton
9. Smokestack Lightnin’ feat. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter
10. As The Years Go Passing By feat. Arthur Adams
11. Let’s Work Together feat. Harvey Mandel & Canned Heat
12. Route 66 feat. Steve Cropper
13. In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company feat. Albert Lee
14. Secrets Or Sins

Features Hawkwind Alumni Alan Davey, Ginger Baker, Robert Calvert, Nik Turner, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Simon House, Michael Moorcock, Paul Rudolph, Mick Slattery & Bridget Wishart PLUS Todd Rundgren, Mick Taylor, L. Shankar, David Cross, Arthur Brown, Wayne Kramer, Carmine Appice & more!

Hot on the tail feathers of last year’s debut album from Hawkestrel, the project spearheaded by former Hawkwind bass player Alan Davey, comes this brand-new album from the quintessential Hawkwind supergroup! Made up of more Hawkwind alumni than any previous project, Hawkestrel is truly the next evolution of this legendary British rock legacy. The new album, Pioneers Of Space, continues the sci-fi adventures with a mix of original compositions and bold covers including the wildly adventurous version of Post Malone’s megahit “Circles” featuring some stellar guitar work from Hall Of Fame nominee Todd Rundgren. And Rundgren isn’t the only special guest here; also contributing their talents are former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, prog legend David Cross, electric violinist L. Shankar, wild man Arthur Brown, MC5’s Wayne Kramer, and lots more!

For a taste of what’s in store, the first single from the album “Day Of The Quake” is currently available on all digital platforms. The track is a complete revamp of a rare early ‘80s recording from Hawkwind’s much loved poet laureate, Robert Calvert. Davey enthuses about the track saying, “From the lyrical genius that is Bob Calvert comes ‘Day of the Quake.’ This masterclass of English poetics gets married up to some up-tempo exciting music I wrote with the one and only Mick Taylor guesting on lead guitar and the legendary Nik Turner on sax. Get ready to rumble!”

Stream the single: https://orcd.co/hawkestrel_day_of_the_quake

Pioneers Of Space will be available starting October 16 in a digipak CD and two vinyl configurations: a special double vinyl set with a bonus EP or the single LP set in RED colored vinyl!

Track List:
1. Biometrics
2. Cosmic Divide
3. Day Of The Quake
4. Glass Wolves
5. Atmospheric Window
6. Circles
7. No Doubt
8. Journey
9. Pioneers Of Space