Premiere: Connor Roff tackles Jeff Buckley’s ‘Lover, You Should Have Come Over’ with grace and feeling
DIVIDING his time between the UK and Canada – describing himself on his Facebook page as a “Canadian UK sandwich” – and previously a core member of the London Contemporary Voices choir, the capital’s leading non-traditional chorale – LGBTQ+ singer-songwriter Connor Roff is premiering his new single with us today, we’re proud to say; and that single …
Track: Hear Bryan Away’s ‘Scenes From A Wedding’: Chicago’s bright new exponent of a lush, jazzy baroque pop
BRYAN AWAY is how Chicago’s Elliott Korte finally and shyly comes to the world of a music with a rather tasty take on acoustic-driven baroque pop. We fell a little bit hard for his first single, “The Lake”, at the beginning of the month, noting it as being “a dusky beauty, piano-led, graceful, the kinda …
See: The Holy Family explore the ergot journey of ‘St Anthony’s Fire’ in a pastoral drone-folk incantation
THE HOLY FAMILY – the smoke-draped, deeply psychedelic collaborative outfit on Rocket Recordings, helmed by David J. Smith of Guapo and Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, abetted in the journey furthur by fine crew members such as Cardiacs, Gong, Knifeworld and The Utopia Strong man Kavus Torabi; Emmett Elvin and Sam Warren, also of Guapo, …
Track: BC Camplight – ‘I’m Alright In The World’: Brian returns with a melodic mantra to guard against the dark and announces an extensive UK tour
HE’S BACK, with new melodies to entice, following last year’s Manchester trilogy-concluding album Shortly After Takeoff – an album embraced and drawn close by British music lovers; BC Camplight has opened his account for 2021 with the bright, loose, and melody-packed “I’m Alright In The World”, which you can watch the lyric video for, below. …
Track: Pastel Coast – ‘Distance’: summery dream pop from the Calais coasts
HAILING from the shores of Boulogne-sur-mer, on the French north coast, Pastel Coast are on land, looking out over the waves; as the Cocteau Twins once said with dreamy ecstasy, “Sea, Swallow Me”. Led by Quentin Isidore, the band have one maritime-inflected album under their belts, 2019’s Hovercraft, which is bookended by the title track …
Track: Catbells – ‘Fade – Rainy Day Demo’: a bright new talent from rural New England with a feline mask and dreampop delight
WE DON’T know who it is that figuratively and physically dons the mask of Catbells; but we do know that she is rather lovely. Born and raised in New England, we know that the singer-songwriter was introduced to the piano aged 5; and that by seventh grade she was playing the guitar and writing songs …
See: Bruno Bavota – ‘Apartment Loop #6’: a personal experience of lockdown captured in modular electronics
WE LOCKED the door; we waited. We waited, we combed the airwaves; we counted the days some more. The experience is nigh on universal, save those of you lucky enough to be reading in Taiwan, Christchurch, Auckland and elsewhere. Italy was caught by the pandemic earlier than many, and as it swept across the country, …
See: Mattia Cupelli – ‘EGERIA’: propulsive ambient darkwave goes down to the water
MATTIA CUPELLI, the Italian darkwave ambient composer, the cyclical, shadowy prayer call of whose “MONOLITH” we covered in these pages just over a week ago, has dropped another track, this time showcasing a more propulsive dark aesthetic. It’s called “EGERIA” and you can watch the video for it below. Built on the hard rock of …
News: Lottery Winners announce massive British tour; see the video for ‘Times Are Changing’
OK, OK, the timing wasn’t absolutely spot on, but lovers of anthemic pure pop were surely tickled of tastebud when The Lottery Winners released their self-titled first album right as the virus tore through. That didn’t stop ’em; vocalist and guitarist Thom Rylance, bassist and vocalist Katie Lloyd, guitarist Robert Lally and drummer Joe Singleton …
Album review: Lou Barlow – ‘Reason To Live’: a crisp Americana homecoming that reveals its beauties slowly
NOTHING less than absolute royalty of the US alt.rock scene, Lou Barlow, formerly of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and Sentridoh, The Folk Implosion, is set to grace our ears with his first solo album in six years. Good things come to he who waits. That album, Reason To Live, will be out this very Friday, May …