SEE: Cassandra Jenkins – ‘Michelangelo’: subtle, haunting Americana
NEW YORK folkie Cassandra Jenkins has stepped away from the world of self-releasing on her own Cassandra Complex imprint to ink her signature for Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing, which imprint – sometime home to Damon & Naomi and Comets On Fire, among others – hosts her second album, the detached, observational beauty of An Overview …
SEE: The Telescopes – ‘Strange Waves’: languid, dirty and all the good things
STEPHEN LAWRIE’S The Telescopes are old hands at this beautifully dirty, scuzzy psych-rock game – but don’t think for a second that means they’ve lost an ounce of potency, as illustrated by their forthcoming album Songs Of Love And Revolution, out at the beginning of February. You would be so wrong, so wrong. The band …
TRACK: Felid – ‘Midnight Lover’: Bristol producer brings languid piano grace – his debut EP’s out now
AFTER initially making his mark as exactly half of cool electropop duo Mauwe, Bristol-based, South African-born Felid, aka Jay Rodger, struck out on his own during 2020 with a clutch of stripped back, sultry, citified tunesmithery, dropping a trio of tracks as a statement of alt.pop intent. Backseat Mafia covered his debut strikeout in his …
SEE: John Smith – ‘Friends’: honey-voiced folk salutes those dear to us
A SIMPLE name, perhaps, but far from simple tunesmithery: John Smith is coming into 2021 with positivity and a grab-bag of songs to beguile you. Essex born but raised on the Devon coast, he’s earned his crust previously as a session musician, lending his chops and precision to bigger names across the globe, such as …
TRACK: A Winged Victory For The Sullen – ‘So That The City Can Begin To Exist’
THAT delicious combination of Stars of the Lid amniotic drone wizard Adam Wiltzie, and pianist and composer Dustin O’Halloran, are poised and ready to release their new album, the music from the theatre production Invisible Cities, on February 26th; and should you need more persuasion that it’ll be a far-reaching work of aural beauty, they’ve …
SEE: Tamar Aphek – ‘Russian Winter’: power trio scorcher will thaw your January
SHE’S pretty much already Tel Aviv’s favourite guitar-wielding daughter, Tamar Aphek; and if you like your power trios full of flame and energy and neo-psych atmospheres akin to the Jimi Hendrix Experience upon arrival in London – make no mistake, Tamar, bassist Uri Ketner and drummer Yuval Garin are hellish tight – then they will …
SEE: Jon Mueller – ‘Welcome’: glorious drone textures from Wisconsin
WISCONSIN musician? Sound artist? Explorer? Curator? – all of these things, Jon Mueller is always seeking new confluences of thought and sound. He may be best known to you as part of Volcano Choir, in which he lined up alongside Justin Vernon of Bon Iver to push out the boundaries of alt.rock into weirder, treated shapes, employing …
SEE: Cathal Coughlan – ‘Song Of Co-Aklan’: Cork’s devilish genius is once more to the breach
CATHAL COUGHLAN, the devilish genius behind such acts as Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions, has always been a joyous thorn in the side of Irish alternative music; erudite, scathing, never afraid to tread his own, rockier path. He’s been away a decade – how did that happen? – yep, the last missive from Cathal-land was …
TRACK: IsoPHeX – ‘Doppelgänger’: haunting, propulsive ‘tronica from North Wales
CAE GWYN RECORDS is a little label out in Snowdonia which quietly goes about the business of releasing excellent tunes well-springing from the Welsh underground – which is what you want, really. Alongside label head honcho Dan Amor, and his beautifully blurry, chiming guitar essays, keeping that particularly Welsh psych-pop torch burning bright, Cae Gwyn …
SEE: The monochrome video for The Lathums’ ‘Foolish Parley’
BE SURE: if 2020 didn’t stop ’em, it’s pretty unlikely that whatever weird curveballs 2021 has to bowl at us, this year won’t trouble the rise of Wigan’s new favourite guitar pop sons, The Lathums. They’re ready and willing in the blocks, and the crack of the starting pistol for this year is the noir …