See: The video for the slow, surreal funk jam of RAS’ ‘Lo Zaz’; an album follows in May
HAILING from Tel Aviv but these days based in Berlin, RAS are bringing their own brightly eastern Mediterranean twist on classic Seventies’ funk and soul, mixing slow jams with influences from Greek, Turkish and Arabic music for a heady and sometimes psychedelic brew. Multi-instrumentalists and producers Dekel Adin and Eden Leshem come replete with vintage …
Premiere: Watch the video for Sasha & The Shades’ theatrical folk-blues, ‘Smile’; the magician’s assistant finally has her say
SOUTH-EAST London vaudeville blues-folk quintet Sasha & The Shades have a new EP, Grin & Bare It, lined up for release not just digitally, but on that sexiest and scarcest-used of formats, the 12″, too, and that’ll be with us next Friday; but they want you to draw close, so today here at Backseat Mafia …
Track: GLOK – ‘That Time Of Night’: Andy Bell drops a surprise electro shimmer
HE’s NOTHING if not prolific these days, Andy Bell; the muse must properly be with him. Not content to announce a string of 12″, 10″ and 7″ epilogues to last year’s excellent The View From Halfway Down for Sonic Cathedral, he’s popped his GLOK guise on for a new single release that’s come totally out …
See: Paris Youth Foundation – ‘Tomorrow’: a post-heartbreak night on the tiles captured in breezy indiepop
LIVERPUDLIAN indiepoppers Paris Youth Foundation really aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves; they’ve had their hearts shattered on Bold Street more times than is strictly good for you – but from such travails comes a cracking, breezy pop song, “Tomorrow”, which is out today on Frictionless Music – and we’ve got the …
Album review: New Bums – ‘Last Time I Saw Grace’: Ben and Donovan reveal an unexpected treat
Last Time I Saw I Grace reveals more depth than the two single drops really hinted it contained; yeah sure, there’s cracking moments of that raggedy-assness, but the run of wider-screen psych-country and other tracks are deft and prettily arranged, less … excellently thrown down than you might expect. It probably isn’t the kind of album that throws you back against the wall at some party downtown for a ruby-red lipped snog; but it very much is the kind of album you end up on a spontaneous road trip with, or hanging with on a rainy Sunday, and realised you had deep feelings for all along.
Track: C. Diab’s ‘Love’ homages a discarded cassette in warm, bowed drone; the EP’s out tomorrow
HAILING from the City of Glass north of the 49th, Vancouver, bowed guitarist and sound collagist C. Diab has become something of an anchoring artist over at Injazero, the London- and Istanbul-based imprint overseen by producer and journalist Siné Buyuka. He was one of Injazero’s earliest signings, debuting for the label back in 2016 with …
Premiere: Ted Barnes feat. Kristin McClement – ‘Metal Man’: a dusky tale of yearning from Clayhill’s quiet genius
WE’VE been quietly adoring the erm, quietly very adorable work which Ted Barnes, the one-time Clayhill singer, who literally did run away and join the circus after that band broke up a decade and half ago now, has been dropping over past weeks in the run-up to the release of his first album in too …
Track: LENU – ‘Vulnerable’: an emotional synthpop rush from Come Play With Me’s singles club
COME PLAY WITH ME, the excellent grassroots label, magazine, festival organiser and all-round good eggs doing the right work in keeping the Yorkshire music scene vibrant, runs a singles club, CPWM. Its first release of the year is a split 7″ featuring Sunflower Thieves, whose side of the vinyl “Don’t Mind The Weather” we looked …
Track: Birthday Ass – ‘Sunlit Toes’: a second angular punk-funk drop teases for the April album
BIRTHDAY ASS have it fully goin’ on at 45 degrees to the rest of our heads, that’s a fact. They take their inspiration from new wave, no-wave, jazz, punk-funk, get it whisked up into a refreshing sonic smoothie. Delish and weird, refreshing the parts other music can’t reach. Only three weeks or so back we …
Track: GoGo Penguin – ‘F Major Pixie (Squarepusher Remix)’: Tom Jenkinson wreaks his inimitable magic
THE EXCELLENT Mancunian trio GoGo Penguin, whose catalogue is full of thrills of jazz with a firm focus on creativity and the dancefloor, working in the same territories as Cinematic Orchestra and Red Snapper, are all set to release a really exciting remixes album, GGP/RMX, for Blue Note in May; and boy, what an excellent …