aaamusic | On 13, Oct 2011

The latest sampler from Loose – the UK’s home for American music.

RELEASED 17 OCTOBER 2011 / CAT NO. VJCD195

 

“Loose Records might be more west London than Wild West, but in the world of Americana they’re always in the right place at the right time”

MOJO

“I was beginning to think that creativity in the country end of the American Underground was taking a breather, until I heard the latest release from the cutting–edge Loose label”

THE GUARDIAN

Loose Music are very proud to bring you their 2011 label sampler which corrals together tracks from this year’s albums from The Felice Brothers, Jim White, Dawes and Hurray For The Riff Raff, plus an exclusive track from The Handsome Family’s as yet untitled 2012 album.

 

Working from their base in Acton, West London, Loose Music have been  – since 1998 – releasing records by some of the finest names on the Americana scene – Giant Sand, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, M.Ward, Neko Case, The Handsome Family, The Felice Brothers and the next big thing, Dawes. We called the label Loose because it best summed up the music that we loved. How else would you describe Howe Gelb’s genius collective Giant Sand?

Though we say it ourselves, 2011 saw a very fine posse of records from Loose. New Orleans’ Hurray For The Riff Raff kicked off the year in fine style with their self-titled debut UK release. “Hurray For The Riff Raff have a gift for crafting songs in a country-folk style that sound fresh, personal and heartfelt” said The Times in their Album Of The Week review. The band also played the Mojo Bootleg stage at SXSW 2011 and were Mojo magazines no.2 pick of the festival.

 

In May 2011 Loose were honoured to become the UK home for the very wonderful Jim White who had previously starred on one the label’s acclaimed “New Sounds Of The Old West” compilations. His album “Sounds Of The Americans” is the musical score to a theatrical production based on the works of Sam Shepard. As Jim himself says “It’s sort of a post-modern musical spaghetti western.” Yep Jim, keep it Loose.

The same month saw the triumphant return to the Loose label of New York State’s Felice Brothers. Their album “Celebration, Florida” surprised and delighted in about the same measure. “Inventive, playful and utterly engrossing, Celebration, Florida has much to revel in” wrote UNCUT in their Americana Album Of The Month review. In the end, the brilliant genre-busting record earned enough stars to fill a prairie sky.  The band tour Europe in November/December. Their live show is not to be missed!

Recent signing Dawes complete Loose’s 2011 album release schedule with the sublime “Nothing Is Wrong”. The Los Angeles 4 piece have recently been playing as Robbie Robertson’s band and have just completed a string of dates playing with Jackson Browne (who also appears on the album). Andy Gill of The Independent made Nothing Is Wrong his Album Of The Week in a glowing 5 star review and Uncut made it their Americana Album Of The Month. Dawes will be touring the UK in early 2012.

The Handsome Family were Loose’s first signing, so there’s no more appropriate band to complete the sampler with a taste of what’s to come in 2012.

So there you have it. This Is Loose. The CDs were made in UK though the music is 100% American. The label’s head honcho Tom Bridgewater says, “It’s been a tough year for business as we lost our stock in the PIAS fire in August – but a great year for music. We’ve long been the UK’s home for Americana, it’s what we do best; so in 2011 we zipped up our boots and got back to our American roots – hope you dig the sounds”