Chris Sawle, Author at Backseat Mafia

SEE: The Illness – ‘Phrases Redacted’: Silver Jews’ Bob lets the free association flow

THE ILLNESS are a collective of musicians who have been seeping towards our consciousness for a while. The band is drawn from musicians from the stable of York’s Sea Music…

View Post

View Post

TRACK: Jimi Tenor – ‘Sugar and Spice’: you’re shimmying in its pocket

PHILOPHON, the Berlin label with a deep and abiding mission to bring forth all things with a deep groove, has today released a “haptic” 7” by Finnish multi-dimensional artist Jimi…

View Post

View Post

TRACK: PELA’s ‘Reverie’ – a summer in four minutes

HOT on the heels of the languid sunbliss of “South Of”, celebrating their side of the Thames, PELA today release the honeyed summer melodies of “Reverie”. It’s a more uptempo…

View Post

View Post

TRACK: Sing Leaf – ‘Sunshine’: let the leftfield psych-pop rays in

CANADIAN artist David Como has a real outsider charm. No: not outsider in the sense of coming from a place of jagged, idiolectal compulsion; more an arrival in a glade…

View Post

View Post

EP REVIEW: Hanya – ‘Sea Shoes’

BRIGHTON’S small but perfectedly formed indie label Austerity Records, the brainchild of industry gentlemen and label co-owners Garry Saunders and Jamie Windless, has gone all chromium oxide on us with…

View Post

View Post

SEE: Hurts’ ‘Suffer’ in monochrome; September album

MANCHESTER’S intelligent electronic pop duo Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson, better known as Hurts, have released the sultry, monochrome brooder “Suffer” ahead of a fifth album, to be released on…

View Post

View Post

SEE: Crack Cloud up the six-stringed fury on ‘Tunnel Vision’

CRACK CLOUD come rushing forth once more from waay left of centre with new single “Tunnel Vision”, a barrelling, angular, skeletal chant to call you to arms. The Vancouver collective’s…

View Post

View Post

TRACK: The Streets are ‘Falling Down’ ahead of mixtape; ‘drive-in’ shows announced

THE STREETS, Mike Skinner’s crossover original pirate million-sellers, have shared another track ahead of the release of the mixtape None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive tomorrow,…

View Post

View Post

ALBUM REVIEW: Quest Ensemble – ‘The Other Side’

THE TRIO of pianist Filipe Sousa, cellist Tara Franks and violinist Preetha Narayanan, who record as Quest Ensemble, are far from your vanilla classical trio. Drawing on backgrounds in which…

View Post

View Post

SEE: King Charles’ plea to ‘Feel These Heavy Times’

DANDYISH London troubadour King Charles has released the video for a new lockdown song, “Feel These Heavy Times”. It’s a sweet and hushed pleas for togetherness and love in straitened…

View Post