Montague Armstrong | 'Modern Classics' : new album of Hammond-led excursions by Sussex-based duo out 06.12.24

Montague Armstrong live and work at 15 Kings Road, St. Leonards-on-Sea, which is situated in East Sussex on the English south coast. They operate an original fine print workshop upstairs and a music lab downstairs that contains transistor Hammond organs and vintage amplifiers, including a Supersound amp that was actually made on their street in 1960.

Previously an ITN/Reuters journalist, Jude Montague has been broadcasting her weekly ‘The News Agents’ show on Resonance FM for the last decade. She is also a writer whose first poetry collection ('For The Messengers' 2011) was commended by Jon Snow of Channel 4 News, while as a musician she has made experimental albums that have included collaborations with Xqui, Wim Oudijk and Steven Ball.

Matt Armstrong plays the bass in and around London as well as nearby Hastings and is a founder member of Kenny Process Team. He is also a veteran session man with credits that include Bill Fay (‘Life Is People’), Jason McNiff and Matt Deighton.

‘Modern Classics’ is the third full-length album by the duo and a playful and mostly instrumental affair, albeit with occasional lyrics in Latvian. Both musicians enjoy Baltic heritage, with Montague having studied the folk music and mythology of the region. The final track on the album, ‘Baltaitina’, is a Latvian folk song (learned via the group Dūdalnieki) and is played with expressive drawbars on the Hammond organ that makes a feature of the crackling dust.

October 2024 saw Montague undertake her second research and writing residency at the Writers and Translators House in the Latvian port city of Ventspils, at which she performed to the British ambassador to the country.

MODERN CLASSICS TRACKLISTING

1 GENEE MARC

Named after a friend and character from King's Road, St Leonards-on-Sea and inspired by Bollywood composer and producer SD Burman

2 CODER

Inspired by sounds of giallo movies and cinema of cold war and paranoia

3 EGGA

A hymn-like calm, floating down from the heavens in a free-fall

4 OLIVE

Jude Montague is a film historian, specialising in the early decades of cinema

5 ZANNE

Deep sub-bass from Matt Armstrong and a track that rattles your speaker system

6 TURFSTAR

A nod to Scottish and lyrical roots. Armstrong's family are from Cullercoats

7 FARAMAY

We like playing with words. This track was recorded using the reel-to-reel inside the recording. It's repetitive, calming mood is a sweet, good feeling

8 EL DIABLO

A track with vocals, imagining a fantasy nightclub with angels and devils in New York. It was first published in 2023 on a 'Music for Palestine' compilation

9 BALTAITINA

A Latvian folk song about the sea and merchants going to market by boat. Mysterious and otherworldly, made more so by the fizzing of bars on the Hammond

“There's more than a nod to pub organists of yesteryear, but the melodic twists recall Kenny Process Team, another instrumental group, and perhaps the tongue in cheek pop brio of Pizzicato Five. Back in the 1980s, Mike Alway's él label would have loved this”

THE WIRE