Music – and so she thinks

Christmas time with The Lutras in aid of #SaveOurVenues and Shelter

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 19:46:15 +0000

Scottish rockers The Lutras end the year on a high note with the release of their charity Christmas single, Give It Up For Christmas, which will available across all major streaming and download platforms from 4 December 2020.

With a focus on community spirit – and all proceeds split between Music Venues Trust #saveourvenues campaign and Shelter – The Lutras have rallied the troops, culminating in more than 40 musicians/artists collaborating on the project including Edinburgh’s Phoenix Choir.

They said ‘Music Venue Trust are trying to help all independent venues that are on the verge of closing due to Covid, we want to play our part and try help save the venues that have gotten bands like us to where we are today, they’re our bread and butter when it comes to touring and without them bands like us wouldn’t exist. We chose Shelter because, like everyone, we don’t want to see anyone on the streets this Christmas, we want to try help people get food and somewhere to sleep safely this Christmas, nobody deserves to be spending Christmas alone.’

Recently written by the band AND remotely recorded at various venues across the country, Give It Up For Christmas has all the hallmarks of a Christmas classic; sleigh bells, horns and a positive message. Christmas singles have a reputation for being terrible but they have got their drummer’s dad playing a shaker. That’s the recipe for a belter right there…

World News – Job and Money

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 18:08:48 +0000

North London trio World News are set to release their debut EP Job and Money. Written amidst a relationship breakdown, the record explores – with tight-knit rhythms, tangled guitar passages, rigid drumming and understated vocals – the all too human experience of anxiety, self-doubt and the reckless abandonment of self regard and wellbeing. Full of indie tropes and ragged riffs, it flirts with nineties indie at the same time as bringing in flashes of seventies summer vibes. An awful lot of fun.

Juanita Stein – Snapshot

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 11:55:26 +0000

Grief is something of an enticing topic for artists, but it doesn’t always make for easy listening. Juanita Stein whoops and chimes through her new track Snapshot, taken from her new album of the same name, out on October 2^nd on NUDE Records. It starts slow, building to a shimmery and bold chorus before a finale that feels ethereal and encompassing.

‘It feels fundamental to understanding the devastation and eerie silence thrust upon us after his sudden death,’ begins the Brighton-based, Australian songwriter Juanita Stein, discussing the moment of great sadness that inspired her new record. ’It was a daunting task to sum up the life of one man such as my father. He was endlessly inspiring, charming, deeply talented and passionately spiritual. He admirably, and at times frustratingly, carried the torch for his own musical career until the very end.’

https://soundcloud.com/nuderecordlabel/snapshot-1

The Brave Faces – Lots of Nights Out

admin — Sun, 31 May 2020 07:50:28 +0000

Brighton based band The Brave Faces are releasing their next single Lots of Nights Out on Friday 29 May 2020.

It’s an energetic tune influenced by 80s post-punk, shoegaze and contemporary indie. And is that an Interpol vibe I hear there? It sounds good, regardless. On this tune competing soundlines bristle as a poppy melody line pummels along over the top. Lyrically, it’s an interesting take on the rock’n’roll lifestyle – is it really the answer? Together the contemplative lyrics and spirited sonics create something that tustles with tension as it envelopes its way around your ears. The pull back and build around three and a half minutes in makes you fizz with anticipation, before the grand crescendo at the end.

Lead vocalist Darrell says: ‘Lots of Nights Out is about getting to an age by which you’d always thought you’d have it all figured out, but you still haven’t. You’re in pain, you’re worried about getting old and you feel directionless. It explores and critiques the only ‘medication’ I had at my disposal at that time of my life: going out and getting drunk. It’s from the perspective of someone reflecting on their lifestyle, talking about the time they spend trying to escape and impress other people. This track is about taking a step back and seeing this mentality for what it was to me — fun, but ultimately exhausting and damaging. The end of the song tries to encourage anyone in a bad spot that things can and do get better.’

Girl Friday – Amber’s Knees: A Matter of Concern

admin — Thu, 21 May 2020 11:50:16 +0000

LA band Girl Friday create glitchy and propulsive pop, and never have done it as well as they have on new single Amber’s Knees: A Matter of Concern. The track is taken from debut full-length Androgynous Mary, out worldwide on Friday 21 August. It torrents along with ferocity, bounding in leaps with threads that lure the listener in, all full of dramatic guitar lines and tightly wound vocal harmonies.

The seeds of Girl Friday were first planted when guitarist Vera Ellen walked into a friend’s house at UCLA and saw Libby Hsieh playing bass on the couch. Drawn by her unique playing style, Ellen introduced herself, and the two musicians immediately bonded. After a year of playing together, they decided to grow their collaboration into a full band. Drummer Virginia Pettis and guitarist Sierra Scott caught wind of the project from friends of friends, and quickly jumped on board. The fledgling group’s chemistry was undeniable; writing and playing together felt generative and thrilling.

PENFRIEND – Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine

admin — Fri, 15 May 2020 09:54:30 +0000

Bristol-based songwriter PENFRIEND (Laura Kidd) shares timely new single Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine. Written in a working from home morning coffee break and recorded at home, it’s a barbed take on how the world has been falling down around us with covid-19, yet people still seem to be carrying on as normal. With lyrics that list off the things we can and can’t do, it’s a sugary and fuzzy pop banger that speaks to our times.

Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine by Penfriend

crush – All My Plants Are Dead

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:15:20 +0000

Emerging Manchester band crush craft a refreshing heart on its sleeve shoegaze sound that’s peppered with nods to 80s alt-pop and jazz-inspired indie. Their latest single All My Plants Are Dead is a bittersweet tune of discordant melodies and shimmering beats under and bouyant sounds. You hear the addictive and wistful vocals of Amber Warren blend with the jangle of Arthur Boyd’s carefree cartwheeling guitars. They’ve drawn comparisons to Diiv, The Cure and Alvvays, through their ambient noise, but also seem set to carve out their own space. Super jangly guitars, fizzing beats, and blinking in the light bass lines as it lingers out to the end make this one to check out.

https://soundcloud.com/user-324745120/plants-master-jan-20-crush

The Beths – I’m Not Getting Excited

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:01:51 +0000

A brilliantly rambunctious tune, I’m Not Getting Excited is the latest tune from riotously brilliant The Beths. It’s an urgent track about imposter syndrome, its frenetic pace and edgy riffs with driving guitar and a forceful melody. The official video was filmed during the first month of lockdown in New Zealand. It’s a spooky more-is-more collage of animated night terrors. The directors Sports Team ‘turned our laundry into a film studio and spent our inside time mastering the art of stop-motion animation. We animated old towels, all the cardboard in the house and The Beths themselves… frame by bloody frame. There’s a lot of scary imagery in the song that we wanted to play on. There’s a madness too, in the contradiction between what the song is about and its frenetic energy. It has defined the lockdown for us—being locked indoors but furiously busy.’ The track is taken from new album Jump Rope Gazers out 10 July 2020 on Carpark Records.

Andrea Laszlo De Simone – Immensità

admin — Mon, 04 May 2020 19:15:53 +0000

Italian singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Andrea Laszlo De Simone will release a new EP, Immensità on June 3 and it’s a gloriously filmic and expansive collection of songs that shimmers with cosmic pop noise and a kaleidoscope blur of influences. He combines film score greats and disco pleasures, at the same time as referencing Italy’s 15th century ‘Grotesque’ art period as an influence on his prog-saturated sound. Lush strings sit next to waltzing maledoies, brass playfully winks after electronic intermissions, and he describes it as ‘pocket symphony’ production which flits between the sparing and the widescreen. Electing – as has always been his preference – to create Immensità’ at homehe says ‘Since I hate conflict, I’d rather record everything at home. Plus, I like to smoke without bothering anybody.’

https://soundcloud.com/ekleroshock/sets/andrea-laszlo-de-simone/s-vYWOB

Angelo De Augustine – Santa Barbara

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 10:55:35 +0000

Angelo De Augustine’s new single Santa Barbara sees the California-based songwriter collaborating with Sufjan Stevens on this delicate and warm melody that embraces sounds of spring blossom and long evenings. It starts of sparse and gently beguiling, before breaking into shimmering vocals and lush instrumentation. Hope, pain, happiness, sadness all interlink as he explores the intersection of emotions through a musical lens. Lyrical tenderness mixes with introspection, as he asks ‘who says life’s not a risk?’ Like last yea’s studio album Tomb, there’s a sense of complexity and abandonment to the tune, but it never feels overly wallowing or naval gazing.

‘Santa Barbara touches on the uncertainties and realities of being mortal in the landscape that we view through our experience,’ says Angelo, ‘Displaying ghostly apparitions, love, death, and a famous British novelist. It was a good experience to record this song with my friend Sufjan. I look forward to sharing more soon.’