Hello and Happy Valentine’s Day dear readers! Whether you’re spending the day with loved ones, pals, or totally on your ones, we hope you’re having a relaxing weekend nonetheless! Lockdown life can be incredibly draining and so over here at Apocalypse Music HQ, we’ve been busy creating lots of fabulous content to get you moving and grooving at home.
In honour of Val/Galentine’s, we have curated the ultimate playlist of songs that will make you dance, songs to pump up the mood; tracks that will make you smile and tracks that will make you think …. then dance some more! Featuring artists from Lizzo and Beyonce, to Joni Mitchell, The Slits, and everything in between, we gift you the music that has helped us survive break ups, lockdowns, and all those times we’ve ever been feeling blue ~ enjoy, and tag us on social media if you’re listening! x
Furthermore, Episode 7 of the Apocalypse Music Podcast, Gals, Pals and St. Val is out now on all streaming platforms! In this episode, we discuss our Galentine’s Day plans and funny anecdotes from past years, plus details of our latest TikTok challenges, our take on Russel T Davies’ acclaimed series It’s A Sin in the context of LGBTQ History Month, and a tribute to the late producer, pop visionary and trans icon, SOPHIE.
We’re honoured to be able to pay tribute to SOPHIE with a beautiful feature written by our good friend Tom Chesworth, which you can read here.
This episode also includes a brief snippet of our latest interview with Vick Bain, a campaigner, researcher and consultant specialising in aspects of diversity and inclusivity in the creative industries. Vick is the former CEO of the Ivor Academy (formerly known as the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) and more recently curated The F-List, a directory of UK female musicians. You can check out our full interview with Vick here.
This week we’ve also been incredibly blessed by an Apocalypse Session from the wonderful Blossom Caldarone, recorded especially for us live from lockdown. It’s a beautifully raw acoustic cover of her new song Blue, Me and You which will be included in an upcoming EP scheduled for release later this year! We’re so honoured to have been given an exclusive look into Blossom’s catalogue of new music, and you can check out her session plus a Q&A here.
(You can find some of Blossom’s tracks on our Galentine’s Playlist too!)
On a completely different note, this week we happened to stumble across a lovely little musical discovery reported by The Guardian:
A 17,000 year old conch shell has been discovered to be the oldest known wind instrument of its type, after lying forgotten for more than 80 years in a collection at the Museum de Toulouse in Southern France! First discovered in a richly decorated cave in the Pyrenees back in 1931, the large shell was initially overlooked by archaeologists who first assumed it was a communal “loving cup” – remarkably in keeping with our Valentine’s Day theme! French scientists have since been able to identify how the carefully drilled shape of the conch signifies the identity of a mouthpiece akin to the structural properties of a horn, and in further experiments they were able to produce three clear notes of pitches C, D and C# from the conch with the help of a horn player! You never quite know what might be lying around!
The jazz world suffered a devastating loss this week. Many musicians have paid tribute to the late jazz composer, keyboardist and genius Chick Corea, who established himself as one of the leaders of the so-called jazz fusion movement. Many of his hits have become enduring standards in the repertory, and he famously played with Miles Davies in the late 1960s.
All the jazz lovers out there are in for a treat with our next Apocalypse Session which will be going online next week … but enough spoilers! Stay tuned for more!
Words by Pia Rose Scattergood
Photo © Apocalypse Music
