TEKE::TEKE HAGATA

STREET DATE: JUNE 9, 2023

From the tender-hearted “Jinzou Maria” to the rumbling and raucous “Yurei Zanmai”, the songs of Hagata bear an eerie yet somehow familiar sensation. Japanese pop tones, Serge Gainsbourg grandeur, folk whisper, and Brazilian surf rock all mix into the psychedelic stew. Blending past and present, from Canada to Japan, multiple lives lived at once, each track carries a sense of change, impact, of having been marked in an intimate way. And yet the force behind that marking is always just out of grasp, a wisp, a ghost, an energy, a spirit that compels you to keep reaching. And at the end of the day, the concrete answer of how that bite happened is far less thrilling than the bite itself. On Hagata, TEKE::TEKE move beyond the idea of walking across multiple paths, instead existing so fully in the space between that the usual constraints of creativity no longer apply.

Psychedelic rock group TEKE::TEKE are intimately familiar with duality, of splitting reality between past and present, complex melodies and hushed interludes, intense action and lingering response. After building their sound through careful assembly of countless splinters of Japanese folk, psychedelia, Brazilian surf rock, and other far-flung touchstones, the Montreal-based seven-piece indulged in and learned from stretching out in free-floating experimentation on the road. Now releasing their sophomore album, Hagata (due June 9th via Kill Rock Stars), TEKE::TEKE move fully in the space between, embracing the power of mythic pairings and identities lived at once. Matching muscly intensity with moments of cloudy meditation—like a world-class high jumper finding bliss at the apex of their leap—the group frame expressive compositions with regal flute, rich horns, ecstatic guitar, and a thumping rhythm section.

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 9, 2023

ARTIST: BROOK BENTON

TITLE: ENDLESSLY: HITS & RARITIES

CONFIGURATION: DIGI PAK / TWO CD SET

CAT #: CD-SBR-7036

UPC: 708535703624

BOX LOT: 45 UNITS

GENRE: R&B / POP

• The silky smooth baritone who ruled the R&B

• Side One contains previously unreleased demos from ’55 to ’59

• Side Two features Benton revisiting his hit catalog of 7 R&R #1 Hits / 8 Billboard Top Ten Hits

Silky smooth: that was Brook Benton’s byword from his first record to his very last.Benton crashed the top spot on the R&B charts in early 1959 with his moving “It’s Just a Matter of Time,” then rapidly encored with three more R&B chart-toppers: “Thank You Pretty Baby,” “So Many Ways,” and “Kiddio.”