Iaphet Elli 
A due anni dall’uscita del suo omonimo album di debutto, TORRES – alias Mackenzie Scott – ha pubblicato il 4 maggio, via Partisan Records, il suo secondo album, Sprinter. Anticipato dai singoli Strange Hellos e dalla title track, il disco è stato prodotto da Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Scott Walker). All’album hanno collaborato anche Adrian Utley, chitarrista dei Portishead, e Ian Olliver, bassista di PJ Harvey, riuniti con Ellis dopo 23 anni da ‘Dry’.
Appassionata di artisti come Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Kurt Cobain e Kate Bush, nei testi del disco Mackenzie Scott affronta temi delicati come l’abbandono, la ricerca dell’identità, le discriminazioni sessuali e l’alienazione. Alla ricerca di se stessa, Scott ha deciso di registrare Sprinter a Bridport, nel Dorset, Inghilterra, e successivamente nello studio di Adrian Utley a Bristol. “Volevo qualcosa che derivasse chiaramente dalle mie radici conservatrici del sud ma che suonasse anche futuristico.”
TORRES sarà in Italia per una sola data a settembre:
LUNEDÌ 14 SETTEMBRE
MILANO – MAGNOLIA
www.circolomagnolia.it
Via Circonvallazione Idroscalo, 41, 20090 MI
Biglietto: 15 euro + d.p.
In tour sin da adolescente, Katie Harkin è divenuta nota nella scena musicale per le sue doti di polistrumentista. Con la sua band, gli Sky Larkin, ha pubblicato tre album acclamati dalla critica: The Golden Spike del 2009, Kaleide del 2010 e Motto del 2013. Il suo talento ha attirato l’attenzione del trio Sleater-Kinney, che l’ha voluta con sé per il suo ritorno sul palcoscenico. Katie Harkin annuncia ora il suo arrivo in Italia insieme a Torres per presentare il suo nuovo lavoro solista. Registrato a New York, l’album trae ispirazione dalla sua terra natale, l’Inghilterra. Da un lato c’è la selvaggia Peak District, che ha influenzato la sua scrittura, dall’altro la scena musicale sotterranea di Sheffield e Leeds, creando un’opera insieme introspettiva e coinvolgente.
RECENSIONI
TORRES:
“There’s a sense with Torres’ songs that a whole life has been lived within them” – Los Angeles Times
“Lurching from horror-film creep into a ravaging sea of riffs and piercing electronic screams” – NME
“A blow-your-socks-off introduction that ranges from hard-hitting musings on disease to near-mutant screams, an enraged new take on Mackenzie’s delivery” – DIY
“A grunge-rock maelstrom, rippling with St. Vincent-isms and the darkness of Nick Cave, PJ Harvey or Nadine Shah. It’s complex, knotted and has the potential to be a launchpad for a very successful 2015 for Scott” – The Line of Best Fit
“With ‘Strange Hellos’, the Nashville songwriter has clung onto her rough edges and embellished them with seething resentment. The lead single from her forthcoming sophomore album, Sprinter, puts the boot to your eardrums with scorched guitar chords and crashing cymbals” – Drowned in Sound
“An electronic storm rages at the start of the title track on TORRES’ second album, but Mackenzie Scott’s pounding guitar maintains a steady defiance…a worthy peer to Sharon Van Etten” – NME
“‘Sprinter’ contemplates a pastor who preaches to his students of Zacchaeus – the hated tax collector redeemed by Jesus…such tantalising narrative glimpses nudge up against blasts of raw feeling” – Uncut
“On ‘Sprinter’, Torres creates dynamic rhythms that ascend and descend through the verses. One moment grinding, the next distorted…a narrative of escape that sounds autobiographical and introspective” – DIY
“It doesn’t screech past at 100mph, but rather coasts by at a menacing pace, allowing you to explore the nuances in the alt. country Southern Gothic and hymnal threads” – The Line of Best Fit
SPRINTER:
“This sounds like it could be the first flowering of a major talent” – The Guardian, 4/5
“Mackenzie Scott’s voice conveys raw, urgent desperation, the sort we flinch from instinctually and are attuned, on a primal level, to heed” – Pitchfork, 8.1
“It’s wrought with haunting, high-stakes emotions, but the strength of Scott’s voice means it never feels melodramatic or plainly vulnerable” – NME, 9/10
TORRES at SXSW ’15:
“It was a short but powerful performance that solidified her upcoming LP, Sprinter, as one of the year’s most anticipated indie-rock releases” – Rolling Stone (50 Best Things We Saw at SXSW)
“The earth beneath Mackenzie Scott’s feet shudders when the 24-year-old singer performs. Ragged, raw and passionate, it’s easy to imagine this Macon, Ga. native releasing a landmark album at some point in her still very young career” – NPR (Some of the Best Things We Heard at SXSW on Friday)
“[TORRES] played songs that rose from hazy guitar sounds to moody, turbulent peaks” – The New York Times