Track: Local Nomad – ‘Young Vampires’
If you go for Animal Collective synth swathes, the MGMT rhythmic bounce and an anthemic lift of A-ha proportions then ‘Local Nomad’ will be worth checking out. New York multi-instrumentalist Michael Desmond has drawn on the polish and shine of eighties influences in this new project that marks his stepping out as a solo artist …
Track: Shirley Collins – Wondrous Love, plus album news.
Shirley Collins is living history. A pioneer who has been exploring the possibilities of folk music right from its second surging UK revival in the 1950’s. Along the way she was a key player in Davy Graham’s mid 60’s jazz folk fusions and then with her sister Dolly, injected authenticity and traditional flavours into the …
Track: Rival Consoles – Articulation, plus album news
Ryan Lee West aka ‘Rival Consoles’ and the esteemed Erased Tapes label go back a long way, the Leicester born musician was their first signing, and now thirteen years later that relationship is still going strong. The partnership have just announced details of the new Rival Consoles album ‘Articulation’ for release on 31st July and …
Track: Bo Ningen – Minimal
London based Japanese band Bo Ningen have been steadily evolving their cathartic noise rock statements into something more expansive and diverse over the last few years. In fact even at their most Melt Banana they have always injected some melodic psyche overtones and a feel for song structure into their music. Now after three LPs …
See: Teddy Thompson – New tracks, New album, new tour
Amazingly it’s been 20 years since Teddy Thompson delivered his first album. Over the past two decades he’s been carefully honing his craft from folk tinged beginnings to his more recent country style, gradually seeking three- minute pop song perfection. As he admits himself, he is trying to trace that enduring line back to the …
Track: Whitney – Country Roads/Rain
Whitney are a band whose music creeps up on you. The Chicago based group, led by guitarist Max Kakacek and vocalist/drummer Julien Ehrlrich, have always drawn lovingly from the ‘Windy City’s’ classic soul heritage but that’s only part of the Whitney thing. Ehrlich’s effortless falsetto, Kakacek’s warm fluid guitar, rich horn arrangements, a folk- rock …
See: Cut Worms release new video for Castle in the Clouds
Max Clarke, alias Cut Worms, is a musician who needs to look back to move forwards. Not that the Brooklyn based singer songwriter is any sort of revivalist. He takes ingredients from the fringes of early sixties pop, country and doo-wop before stirring them up into intriguing mixes of contemporary low-fi tunefulness. Now, following his …
Track: Oscar Jerome – Give Back What U Stole From Me
Oscar Jerome sure knows how to build up momentum. Hot on the heels of two recent singles, the glowing soulful ‘Sun for Someone’ and the politically charged ‘Your Saint’, comes a third teaser ‘Give Back What U Stole From Me’. This time around Jerome delivers some super pumped jazz funk, all clipped scat-rap, deep bass …
See: James Vincent McMorrow releases video for ‘Headlights’
After three years of hush, James Vincent McMorrow marks his return with a soul warming new track ‘Headlights’. It’s a song that builds carefully and purposefully to reach that point of uplift that he so often achieves in his music. As James says himself ‘I wanted Headlights to start in a plaintive humble place and …
Track: GoGo Penguin- Don’t Go
The genre defying instrumental trio ‘GoGo Penguin’ have released a further single ‘Don’t Go’ to preview their forthcoming self-titled album, available June 5th via the iconic Blue Note label. Described by bassist Nick Blacka as an attempt ‘to create emotion using the sonorous timbre of the double bass against the prepared piano’ the track drips …