Madam Back To The Sea

Limited Edition Vinyl (300 only) CD in vinyl style sleeve. Plays already from John Kennedy (Radio X) and Gideon Coe (6 Music). Trailed by ‘When I Met You's brooding menace, MADAM – aka Sukie Smith - releases her cathartic third album. "An album of refreshing, naked honesty in which its truths have been hard earned and learnt. It is a profoundly moving and spiritual experience”. Pennyblack // As one might guess from its title, ‘Back to the Sea' is thematically linked to the circle of life, beginnings and endings. "This record is an ANTI DEATH MANIFESTO” states Sukie. "It is a love letter to human nature, an acceptance, a recognition of a certain amount of bitter glory in everything.” Musically, Sukie's heart is aligned here with Cat Power, Soap and Skin, Ana Brun, Portishead and The Dirty Three. Written and produced by Sukie, her band on the record comprises Jeff Townsin (drums), Gareth Moss (bass), Sarah Gill (cello/saw) and guitarists John Robertson & Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) with additional guitar from Throw Down Bones' Frankie Frankie. That line up is bolstered by an extraordinarily diverse array of guest musicians: Charlotte Glasson ( brass girl for Nick Cave), Cuban jazz trumpeter Yelfris Valdes, composer Marc Teitler plays grand piano, David Michael Curry (Thalia Zedek) played viola and finally, sound artist Michael Begg (Forvea Hex/ Human Greed) added beautiful glass harmonica sounds and a foghorn symphony. ‘Back to the Sea's provenance begins with ‘No Ghost' - "The song that started me thinking there was another album. I had stopped writing & singing and almost functioning after my father died - no ability to do much apart from drink and get lost in London. Then I was asked to write a top line for some music a friend had composed. It kick-started me to start thinking about song writing again and then all of a sudden ‘No Ghost' had started to write itself . Here, it is coupled with ‘Murder Park', both deal directly with a death and look for a way to connect with a (departed) spirit. First single ‘Rules of Love' puts the cyclical theme into microcosm, Sukie setting herself the challenge to write the cycle of a whole relationship - beginning, middle, end - in three and a half minutes. (A feat not achieved since not achieved since the Shangri Las, with production touches a nod to Spector). The album's touchstone is its significantly upbeat title track and opener, ‘Back to the Sea' with it's ‘rise up!' chant challenging one to seize the day. It is the emotional response to ‘being in the hospital room when my father died' – understandably a pivotal moment: a klaxon call that became a manifesto and a promise ‘to make your bones count'. On a similar redemptive level is ‘I Am Your Home', "a song to myself, a reconnection with yourself after a bout of self destruction,” says Sukie. " Classically trained at Central School of Speech and Drama Sukie Smith began her acting career working with Nic Roeg (The Witches) Mike Newell (A Summer Story) and on improvised/collaborative films like Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy and with Neil Hunter & Tom Hunsinger (Lawless Heart) before moving into music with her acclaimed 2007 debut ‘In Case of Emergency' (Reveal Records).