THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...

Billy Bragg Between recording albums, Billy spends his

Depeche Mode

Classics. Rarities. Revelations.

ALL BACK TO MY PLACE

THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

The Meaning Of Soul

Motown luminary Barrett Strong left us on January 29.

Theories, rants, etc.

MOJO welcomes correspondence for publication. Write to us at: MOJO, Bauer Media Publishing, The Lantern, 75 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: mojoreaders@bauermedia.co.uk

Colophon

Head of Magazine Media Clare Chamberlain MD

Lightning Striking Itself

Television’s guitar thaumaturge Tom Verlaine left us on January 28. David Fricke says goodbye.

Hear No Evil

From clamour to swoon, and dissolution to revelation, Tom Verlaine’s adventures on record.

Rickie Lee Jones

The rock, R&B and jazz boho talks about opening up, piracy, adventure and Henry VIII.

NOEL GALLAGHER LOOKS TO THE COUNCIL SKIES. PLUS! THE CURE AND PET SHOP BOYS?

The sky’s the limit: (left) Noel Gallagher working

STEVEN WILSON’S SEVENTH IS… THE HARMONY CODEX

MOJO WORKING Harmonious notes: Steven Wilson working on

Stewart Copeland

The Police drummer recalls the awesome power of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced (Track, 1967)

MACCA’S FABS PHOTO ARCHIVE – LOST FOR 60 YEARS – IS COMING

SEEN THROUGH the back window of a car

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’S SINGER DOROTHY MOSKOWITZ RETURNS!

Join the Dot: (left) Dorothy Moskowitz seeing red

INTRODUCING KARA JACKSON, SOUTHERN FOLK’S EMERGING POET LAUREATE

Poetry in motion: Kara Jackson plunders the fault

NEW SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS JAMES BRANDON LEWIS KEEPS THE WORLD IN BALANCE

SONNY ROLLINS, now 92, is usually reserved these

MOJO PLAYLIST

Listen up! For the month’s best gothic folk, cocktail pop and brain-music.

THE MOJO INTERVIEW

How Sleaford Mods’ one-man Wu-Tang Clan and bard of Broken Britain brought belligerence back, along with himself, from the brink of bitter irrelevance. “It’s my way of getting the last word in,” says Jason Williamson.

Final Flute

With his sharp tongue and gossamer voice, huge appetites and high ideals, lent beauty and edge to every band he was in: The Byrds, CSNY, and more. We pay tribute with a celebration of 20 of his greatest songs and a fix of his mercurial spirit from a funny, scathing, poignant, recent encounter with MOJO. But first, some words from John Hulvey

The Old Deuil

In 2018, when he last sat down for an in-depth chat with MOJO, Dauid Crosby was on a roll. Writing well, singing great, and - a constant over 50-odd years of fame and (mixed) fortune -pulling no punches. “I’m not going to shut up,” he told Dave Di Hartino

MOJO PRESENTS

After decades of toiling in the shadows, ROGÊ is the artist taking classic Brazilian music into the future, and he’s bringing cratedigger’s talisman/ genius arranger Arthur Verocai with him. Prophets ignored in their own land? Maybe not for much longer. “This is just the beginning,” they tell DAVID HUTCHEON.

a mighty good road

Van Morrison has swapped Covid grumbling for freight trains rumbling, revisiting the UK skiffle boom that gave him his start. And who better to accompany him on his journey through the punk of its day than skiffle scholar Billy Bragg ? “Soon as I heard Rock Island Line I immediately identified with it,” Van tells him. “It was like Lonnie Donegan just opened this door.” Portraits by Tom Sheehan

when’s me washboard?

10 skiffle records that get the joint jumping.

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

JOE COCKER’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour was the apogee of hippy rock’s communal ethos and the coronation of its wizardly MD, LEON RUSSELL. In this extract from his deep-diving new Leon biography, BILL JANOVITZ sifts its sanctified spirit from the orgies and angel dust, and surveys its frazzled aftermath. “We honestly thought a flying saucer was going to pick us all up, and send us off to heaven.”

BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS CATCH A FIRE

Straining to break through, reggae kings-in-waiting Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone were at an impasse when they teamed up with Chris Blackwell’s Island label in 1972. Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica and finished in London, April ’73’s new album was their first international statement – but the brotherhood’s harmony was already cracking. “The Wailers did make some kind of a revolutionary move,” say those involved, “but it was quite close to a tipping point…”

YOU BETTER BELIVE

Jeff Beck made the guitar do things no-one had imagined, let alone heard before. And while other axemen of his pioneer generation were more loudly lauded, he was the one who kept moving, kept growing, in the 21st century. If that went underthe radar, then it was just too bad. “Jeff had a mystique about him,” discovers Mat Snow. “He didn’t give it all away.”

“HE LIKED TO BE HEARD!”

Ronnie Wood on the Jeff Beck he knew and was (occasionally) paid by: “He never seemed to age or change.”

A QUESTION OF TIME

Depeche Mode in albums. Consistency is their middle name, decides DANNY ECCLESTON

RECONSTRUCTION TIME AGAIN

The loss of Andy Fletcher in June 2022 robbed DEPECHE MODE of their Mr Dependable and posed big questions about their future. How would their often-rocky relationship work without him? And could it survive the intervention of another, wholly unexpected third wheel? With a fascinating 15th album poised to emerge, they tell DANNY ECCLESTON, "We had to really decide, do we carry on?"

Worse and worse things happen at sea

The Dublin folk-horror merchants tack into stormy waters on fourth album. By Jim Wirth. Illustration by Borja Bonafuente Gonzalo.

“How mental and how dark and how bonkers can we go?”

Ian and Daragh Lynch speak to Jim Wirth. 

Steve Mason

★★★★ Brothers & Sisters DOUBLE SIX. CD/DL/LP Political

The Necks

★★★★ Travel NORTHERN SPY. CD/DL/LP Album #19: four

Willie Nelson

★★★★ I Don’t Know A Thing About Love:

Ward Thomas

★★★ Music In The Madness WTW. CD/DL/LP UK’s

Van Morrison

★★★ Moving On Skiffle EXILE. CD/DL/LP ‘The Man’

Shame

★★★★ Food For Worms SECRETLY CANADIAN. CD/DL/LP South

Iris DeMent

★★★★ Workin’ On A World FLARIELLA. CD/DL/LP Fury

Maven Grace

★★★ Sleep Standing Up HELIUM. CD/DL/LP UK trio’s

Danny Arakaki

★★★★ Tumble In Shade HUSKY PANTS. CD/DL/LP Garcia

Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives

★★★★ Altitude SNAKEFARM. CD/DL/LP Umpteenth album by country

Frankie Rose

★★★ Love As Projection NIGHT SCHOOL. CD/DL/LP Fifth

James Holden

Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

Boy to men

A typically grand gesture: U2 revisit their songbook and rediscover themselves. By Tom Doyle.

Unloved

★★★★ Polychrome HEAVENLY. CD/DL/LP Hollywood dream team’s miraculous

Doug Paisley

Matthew Donaldson ★★★ Say What You Like OUTSIDE.

Mac DeMarco

★★★★ Five Easy Hot Dogs MAC’S RECORD LABEL.

Sleaford Mods

★★★★ UK Grim ROUGH TRADE. CD/DL/LP Desperate, dank:

Philip Selway

★★★ Strange Dance BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP Radiohead drummer’s

Angeline Morrison

The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs Of Black British

Baaba Maal

★★★★ Being MARATHON ARTISTS. CD/DL/LP Now in his

High wire act

Another electrifying blast of political exorcism and spiritual redemption from the American South’s septuagenarian survivor hero. By Andrew Perry.

Sam Gendel

★★★★ CookUp NONESUCH. CD/DL/LP Prolific LA ambient jazz

Rosie Brown

Detail From A Dream ★★★★ STUCK. CD/DL London

Andy Fairweather Low

★★★★ Flang Dang THE LAST MUSIC CO. CD/DL/LP

Ron Gallo

★★★★ Foreground Music KILL ROCK STARS. CD/DL/LP “What

Eric Bibb

★★★★ Ridin’ REPUTE. CD/DL Excellent follow-up to 2021’s

JAZZ

Art Ensemble Of Chicago ★★★★ The Sixth Decade:

ALSO RELEASED

Kendrick Scott ★★★★ Corridors BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP On

Refree

Refree: finding the space in-between. ★★★★ El Espacio

Death Valley Girls

Pablo de Pastors ★★★★ Islands In The Sky

Jen Cloher

★★★ I Am The River, The River Is

Lichen Slow

Rest Lurks ★★★★ ROCK ACTION. CD/DL/LP New project

Gruff Rhys

★★★ The Almond & The Seahorse ROUGH TRADE.

Fever Ray

★★★★ Radical Romantics RABID. CD/DL/LP A familiar erratic

The Lathums

★★★★ From Nothing To A Little Bit More

Magical thinking

Cardiff songwriter’s fifth solo album: inspired by grief, produced by Cate Le Bon. By James McNair.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

★★★ V JAGJAGUWAR. CD/DL/LP Heavenly New Zealand’s psychedelic

Kate NV

★★★★ WOW RVNG INTL. DL/LP Russian artist’s fifth

Purling Hiss

★★★★ Drag On Girard DRAG CITY. CD/DL/LP The

Mui Zyu

★★★ Rotten Bun For An Eggless Century FATHER/DAUGHTER.

The Blues Project

★★★★ Evolution BLUES PROJECT. CD/DL The Project co-created

Death And Vanilla

Flicker ★★★ FIRE. CD/DL/LP/MC On their fifth album,

La Féline

Tarbes ★★★ KWAÏDAN. CD/DL/LP Erudite French investigation of

Jennifer Touch

Midnight Proposals ★★★ FATCAT. DL/LP Germanic darkwave revivalism

Dougie Poole

The Rainbow Wheel Of Death ★★★ WHARF CAT.

Shana Cleveland

Manzanita Shana Cleveland: blissfully succumbing to the lure

Hollow Hand

Your Own Adventure ★★★★ CURATION. CD/DL/LP Brighton-based talent

Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra

Racing The Storm ★★★ BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP Torrini’s

Anna B Savage

★★★★ In/FLUX CITY SLANG. CD/DL/LP Intimate second album

Rogê

Curyman ★★★★ DIAMOND WEST. CD/DL/LP Funky Brazilian singersongwriter

Signe Marie Rustad

Particles Of Faith ★★★ DIE WITH YOUR BOOTS

Tungz

A Good Dream ★★★ HEIST OR HIT. CD/DL/LP

WORLD

Moonlight Benjamin ★★★★ Wayo MA CASE. CD/DL/LP Voodoo

ALSO RELEASED

King Ayisoba ★★★★ Work Hard GLITTERBEAT. CD/DL/LP More

Get down and get right

The 50th anniversary celebration of the all-day revue at LA’s Memorial Coliseum in 1972 demonstrates the breadth of Stax’s R&B purism. By David Fricke.

What do you get?

When an arranged marriage blossoms: a 4-CD box set of their entire collaborative output.

Saphron

Red Amber ★★★★ SHAGRAT/FEEDING TUBE. LP Early-’70s school

Various

This Is Flying Dutchman 1969-1975 ★★★★ BGP. CD/DL/LP

Datblygu

Terfysgiaith 1982-2022 ★★★★ ANKST. CD 3-CD monument to

Frank Black & The Catholics

Snake Oil ★★★★ DEMON. DL/LP Raucous 1998-2003 covers

William Bell

The Man In The Street: The Complete ‘Yellow’ Stax

Charles Mingus

East Coasting ★★★★ BMG/BETHLEHEM. LP Mingus delivers on

Duffy Power

Innovations (Expanded Edition) ★★★★ REPERTOIRE. CD Outstanding Brit

Farid El Atrache

Nagham Fi Hayati ★★★★ WEWANTSOUNDS. DL/LP Egyptian singer

The Soul Searchers

Salt Of The Earth ★★★★ REAL GONE MUSIC.

Harry Beckett

Flare Up ★★★★ DECCA. DL/LP Welcome British Jazz

Grupo Um

Starting Point ★★★★ FAR OUT RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP Lost

Head start for happiness

The Liverpool bard’s first great band.

Jon Hassell

Further Fictions ★★★★ NDEYA. CD/DL A re-airing of

Ali Farka Touré

Voyageur BBC ★★★★ REAL WORLD. CD/DL/LP Posthumous grab

Genesis

Beeb here now: Genesis’s BBC Broadcasts acts as

John Surman/ John Warren

Tales Of The Algonquin ★★★★★ DECCA-DERAM. DL/LP Not

Various

Do It All Night!: The Sound Of Tardam Records

Count Ossie And The Mystic Revelation Of Rastafari

Tales Of Mozambique ★★★★ SOUL JAZZ. CD/LP Afrocentric

Motörhead

Bad Magic: Seriously Bad Magic ★★★★ SILVER LINING

Neon Broadway

The bright, deluxe sound of Japan in the boom-time. 

Kate Fagan

I Don’t Wanna Be Too Cool ★★★ CAPTURED

Various

Loma Northern Soul 

The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster

Horse Of The Dog ★★★★ NO DEATH. LP

COMING NEXT MONTH...

Brix Smith, Ian Hunter, The Stranglers, Steve

RATINGS & FORMATS

Your guide to the month’s best music is

It’s Yesterday Once More

Sylvie Simmons hails a new examination of the life and art of the late Carpenters singer.

Formation

Brad Mehldau ★★★★ EQUINOX. £30 Sexual abuse and

The Creative Act

Rick Rubin ★★★ CANONGATE. £20 ‘A Way Of

Magic: A Journal Of Song

Paul Weller with Dylan Jones ★★★ GENESIS. £40

Leon Russell: The Master Of Space & Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History

Bill Janovitz ★★★★ HACHETTE. £25 Exhaustive study of

Painter men

This month’s sudden insight from rock’s subconscious – jazz-rock-poetry goes overground!

Yoko Ono

The avant-garde musical visionary

…James Brown hits London!

JB rules UK: (clockwise from main pic) James

Who did smallscreen covers?

Let us answer your nagging questions and illuminate the obscure corners of rock enquiry.

That driving beat

Win! A pair of Px8 McLaren Edition headphones from Bowers & Wilkins and McLaren Automotive.

Steve Hillage and Gong

It began with an amazing electrical connection. It ended with jazz rock and a crucial absence.