Following on from recent song ‘Symmetrical’, Rozi Plain has shared new single ‘Conditions’ – one of the highlights from her new album ‘What A Boost’ (out 5th April 2019 via Memphis Industries).
‘Conditions’, recorded with Captured Tracks artist Chris Cohen (Deerhoof, Ariel Pink, Weyes Blood) is a bucolic, winter warmer, blending shuffling percussion, guitar, synth and soft sax. Rozi explains that “this song is about hunting for drafts in a well-insulated house. Searching for the rooftop without any frost on a freezing day. Wondering about the heating situation. Inside feelings. Outside feelings. We recorded the guitar and drums of this song in LA with Chris Cohen on a day off whilst on tour with This Is The Kit. And then spent the next year adding bits here and there. It was a song I tried to record before that needed a bit of a new prism applied to it. Maybe re-recording a song about minus freezing weather in the 35 degree Californian sun was just what it needed. Warm the place up a bit. Gerard Black (from Babe and François & the Atlas Mountains) added his synths in Glasgow and I added quite a bit of Jupiter (that I recently acquired) in London. Alabaster Deplumes’ saxophone appears right at the end.”
New album ‘What A Boost’ was refined during a year spent touring the world playing bass in This Is The Kit. ‘What A Boost’ nurtures its homely roots and then blooms into a record that isn’t strictly about life on road but is undoubtedly, and beautifully, shaped by it. Textural, repetitive, propulsive, the whole piece plays out like a soundtrack to the world flying by; “I feel like you do a lot of looking back, looking forward, looking at your life, and looking out of the window.” Rozi reveals.
‘What A Boost’ is also the product of the singular spaces within which it was created. First there was the Old Dentist’s Studio around the corner from Rozi’s home in Clapton, an RAF base in Suffolk and a day off in L.A recording with Chris Cohen. A week of one-off collaborative performances arranged by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner of The National opened the songs up in Berlin. Then back in London, the album really came together at The Total Refreshment Centre, a somewhat legendary fixture in the flourishing London jazz scene. Rozi’s previous album, ‘Friend’, was the first to be recorded there. “Since then the TRC became part of my life. A great community of artists and musicians getting stuff done, making proactive moves,” enthuses Plain.
Naturally she returned there again for ‘What A Boost’ and, along with co-producer Jamie Whitby Coles, enlisted a number of collaborators Sam Amidon, Rachel Horwood (Bas Jan, Trash Kit), Joel Wästberg a.k.a. sir Was, Raphael Desmarets, Yoshino Shigihara (Zun Zun Egui, Yama Warashi) and Dan Leavers from The Comet Is Coming. The album was subsequently mixed by Ash Workman (Metronomy, Christine and the Queens) at his Electric Beach studio.
Suitably then, the record is imbued throughout with a sense of freeform adventuring, small seeds that grow into something far greater thanks to repetitive jazz-like patterns of the guitars, and gently shifting tempos that rise and fall and rise again, crafting a record that is both colourful and complex.
You can catch Rozi and her band boosting around the UK on these dates below:
15th Feb 2019, Gateshead, MAPS Festival
24th April 2019, Brighton, Hope and Ruin
25th April 2019, Bristol, Southbank Club SOLD OUT
26th April 2019, Northampton, The Black Prince
27th April 2019, Reading, Are You Listening Festival
28th April 2019, Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
2nd May 2019, Manchester, YES
3rd May 2019, Glasgow, Blue Arrow
5th May 2019, Leicester, Handmade Festival
6th May 2019, Bath, Komedia
7th May 2019, London, Oslo Hackney
29 Aug – 1 Sep, Larmer Tree Gardens, End of the Road Festival
