Music in 2016: A Personal Crystal Ball…

or Hopes and Dreams of a Music Obsessive by Killian Laher

It’s the time of year when writers like to look forward to 2016, a time of possibilities, little disappointment has been savoured just yet. Albums are still a major event as far as some of us are concerned. First out of the traps will be David Bowie with Blackstar coming out on January 8th, the singer’s 69th birthday. On the evidence of the title track it could be a very odd affair with talk of free jazz etc.

However the second track to emerge, Lazarus  is more promising, an understated gem. What is definite is that Bowie cannot be ignored.

Elsewhere, Tindersticks return after three years with their 10th album (excluding various soundtracks) The Waiting Room on January 21st. Not a band fond of reinventing the wheel, on the evidence of We Are Dreamers!

and Hey Lucinda

Stuart Staples and co will deliver a collection of tasteful, dark soul. On the other hand, Mark Kozelek’s latest wheeze is to record with Justin Broadrick of doom-metal band Jesu. Their project, Jesu/Sun Kil Moon is also out in January and promises to entertain and baffle in equal measure. Exodus will appeal to those who enjoyed his collaboration with Jimmy Lavalle.

Also confirmed is The Gloaming’s second album – The Gloaming 2 which will be released late February which if it’s anything like the first album should be one of the better Irish album’s released next year. Richmond Fontaine make a long-awaited return in March with the snappily-titled album You Can’t Go Back If There’s Nothing To Go Back To

Unlike it’s predecessor, dense song-cycle The High Country, this will probably more along the lines of a classic, country-inflected RF sound.

Beyond this, Mark Eitzel is working with Bernard Butler which could be very interesting, and we may also see albums from Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and an EP from Nite Fields. Billy Corgan was teasing an album entitled Day for Night which may surface, and RM Hubbert promises album number four ‘in the spring’. On the Mogwai front, as well as a soundtrack for the apocalyptic film Atomic, band spokesman Stuart Braithwaite is also working with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive and Justin Lockey of Editors on a project Minor Victories. With contributions from Alan Sparhawk and Mark Kozelek we could have a strong album here. Fraser McGowan of Caught In The Wake Forever is working on a triple album and you can view his progress here:

Chris Hooson from Dakota Suite claims on dakotasuite.com to working on a jonit record with Japanese band Vampillia featuring a throat singer, a collaboration with Dag Rosenqvist (aka Jasper TX) and Machinefabriek, a record with Quentin Sirjacq and a noisy Dakota Suite/Stooges type thing with David Buxton, amongst other things!

Ryan Adams promised a new album via twitter which would be like Love Is Hell on downers and Martin Donnelly and Andrew Bush are talking about a second The Savings and Loan album. Ryley Walker is listening to a lot of American Music Club, Talk Talk and Miles Davis so his new album may see a move away from pure guitar. As regards supergroups Midlake have put together one in the shape of Banquet, where they will be joined by members of Grandaddy, Band of Horses, Travis and Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand. Billed as a “poor man’s Travelling Wilburys”, their album Volume 1 should emerge in late 2016 Hell may freeze over, or we might get a new studio album by the Jesus and Mary Chain, which could be awful but, again, hard to ignore.

On the live front? Suede return to these shores in February to promote forthcoming album Night Thoughts at the Olympia, Richmond Fontaine play the Workman’s Club in April but the National Concert Hall might house a truly remarkable show with the visit of the Max Richter ensemble, Elsewhere, many fingers are crossed that The Cure and Pearl Jam might play in the latter half of the year, but nothing announced yet.

Also worthy of mention is Jim Jarmusch’s Stooges documentary due for release in March Let’s see how accurate all this is in a few months!