electronic – and so she thinks

SHHE – Saint Cyrus

admin — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 12:35:46 +0000

Dreamy, laidback beats from SHHE, the alter-ego of Scottish-Portuguese artist and producer SU Shaw. The delicate soundscapes and lingering electronics in new single Saint Cryus make for a captivating tune that is both enigmatic and elegant. The varied elements tug in different directions, but create a concerted whole that feels powerful even in its gentleness. The artist’s upcoming self-titled debut album tracks a period of intense personal change, and is due for release 11th October on One Little Indian Records.

‘Saint Cyrus is named after the area that I was living in at the time – in the same house that I wrote and recorded the entire record” says SHHE. “The house backed onto a main road so recording during the day wasn’t possible. Most of the vocals were recorded during the night. The synth line which enters half way through the track was also recorded during this time, half awake, half asleep. I only recorded one take, that’s the take that you hear on the record.’

She continues: ‘The track is in constant transition. When I wrote it, I was thinking a lot about identity. How no one is ever complete. Things are added, taken away, obscured, manipulated; certain characteristics, behaviours. In the track there are parts that disintegrate, disappear, are reintroduced elsewhere. But the words stay the same. Living there (in Saint Cyrus) was the only constant when everything else was in transition at the time. I think that environment encouraged a lot of change in my life.’

NIAGARA – Escher Surfer

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 15:22:37 +0000

On Escher Surfer NIAGARA demonstrate a clear understanding of what makes pop tune and a half – electronic glitches, brooding psychedelic funk and a rousing chorus. Pulsing basslines ebb and flow underneath textured synths before building into a rave epic. The first single to taken from the Italian duo’s new album Hyperocean, to be released May 6th 2016 via Monotreme Records, it can be a wearying listen, but well worth it.

Haiku Salut Lamp Show at Westminster Reference Library

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:20:00 +0000

On a Friday evening ending one of those Indian Summer September days, Westminster Reference Library was filled with people curious about discovering something new. Not necessarily through books this time. Hushed yet with a curious hum there was a sense that something a little magical could be about to begin. Looking like the eccentric living room of a crazy great aunt, lamps of all shapes and sizes dotted the stage positioned in front of Education, just left of Travel and right of Art. Gig in a library. Gig in a bloody library. My two favourite things mixing together in perfect alchemy. Gig. In. A. Library. And not only this, but a mesmerising light show, as an orchestra of charity shop lamps flash, flicker and dance in time to the music. Because this is how Haiku Salut roll.
Heavily cinematic and authentically exploratory, Haiku Salut are enigmatic to extremes. They don’t speak once. It’s dark, so there’s no audience interaction. Dressed in black the band members passed enigmatically through the shadows to swap instruments and change position, taking second place to the music at all times. Gemma, Louise and Sophie work together and almost seem to be a mouthpiece for the music that has a sense of being authentic, basal, drifting up from the ether.
Textured and sensual. theirs is a performance that challenges the rules, mixing folk, classical and electronic influences through their own emotions and drives until it is entirely original. Tensions tustle in the music, the outcome feeling balanced, like an old fashioned call and response arrangement. Each instrument, each sound, each flash and flicker feel perfectly in place, incandescent, poignant, and at ease.
Timed to the beat, not missing even a flicker of a second, the lamps added a visual element to the rapid delicate pulsation of the band’s music. It’s another dimension to an act already dripping in them. Electronic definitely, there is something in their style that also seems old fashioned – it’s probably the only band I’ve seen where three quarters of the band played the accordion, and the glockenspiel felt by far the most central instrument to proceedings. Digital deftness mingles with folk melodies and instrumental dalliances, tinkling rhythms and deliberate beats working together in a magical mix.

It’s a beautiful, contagious and inventive show that captivates and entrances in its poetic wonder, and has grown in grandeur without losing any of its intimacy. Lights, books, music – a perfect Friday night.

Lust For Youth – Running

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:45:07 +0000

I don’t often think that a song is perfect. But Lust For Youth‘s new track Running is pushing on it. Layers of shadow and light glide over one another with relentless and heartfelt speed, sweeping along flawlessly. The Copenhagen trio have just released this video from Running, a standout track from the album International (Sacred Bones), to announce their European tour this autumn. Upon first listen it sounds like the kind of tune that would soundtrack Lost In Translation well, and then you realise that the self shot footage was filmed on location in Tokyo. Although undeniably electronic, there Norrvide, Fischer and Rahbek know the importance of a pop hook, even among such sparse production. Skeletal but certainly not emaciated, it flickers with abstract beats and the sound of esoteric wandering, a mind fallen between the cracks as the body races around trying to make sense of the world. If I have musical thing, this isn’t usually it. But I love it.
9th Aug – Pumphuset, Copenhagen DK
12th Sep – Melkweg, Amsterdam NL
19th Sep – BAM Festival, Barcelona, ES
20th Sep – Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon PT
21st Sep – Maus Hábitos, Porto PT
23rd Sep – Broadcast, Glasgow UK
24th Sep – Alfie Birds, Birmingham UK
25th Sep – Bello Bar, Dublin IR
26th Sep – The 100 Club, London UK
27th Sep – Soup Kitchen, Manchester UK
28th Sep – Point FMR, Paris FR
30th Sep – 1988 Live Club, Rennes FR
2nd Oct – L’Embobineuse, Marseille FR
3rd Oct – VillaManuella, Madrid ES
4th Oct – Café Pompier, Bordeaux FR
8th Oct – Le Sonic, Lyon FR
9th Oct – OHIBò, Milan IT
10th Oct – Circolo degli Artisti, Rome IT
11th Oct – TBA, Padova IT
14th Oct – Het Bos, Antwerp BE
15th Oct – De Kreun, Kortrijk BE

Peter Darling – Limehouse

admin — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:44:38 +0000

Peter Darling is a singer songwriter from Kent. So Peter Darling is some bloke strumming his acoustic guitar and singing yearning odes to countryside times gone by, probably with too much facial hair like the rest of them? Ha.

They say that every song has already been written, but that doesn’t stop so many artists just replaying them. On Limehouse the musical canon has been well and truly absorbed, the best of it all being seemingly seamlessly merged into striking song writing, to plug back in again to the ever evolving musical cloud.
Having a seemingly symbiotic relationship with his craft, from the opener Sunland (Intro) that quivers and quakes its way across the strings to final song Never Outstay Your Welcome, a fun and frantic acceptance of the frustrations of teenage life, this is the sound of someone coming of age, and realising that amongst the dichotomies of black and white exist shades of grey and that can be damn good fun. Honest Again is engrossing and energetic whilst Venus sounds like George Michael’s best ballad – in a wonderful way. Changer chugs along with real grit, the strong vocals adding a layer of almost menace to the melody. A rampant and random amalgamation of hooks, fuzzy electronics and striking styles abound, and startle with the conviction and ability with which each is grabbed.
The entire EP (bar a cover of Air’s Venus) was written and produced by Peter himself, and is available to download for free from his bandcamp page. Talented and generous.