Music
Premiere: This Bliss reveal new video for Give Me More; see it first, here
Taken from their ‘Retroshade’ album, which dropped on March 5th, Boston electro-pop band This Bliss have returned with a new video for the track Give Me More, and we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. Built on electro pop roots with a nod towards trip-hop, GIve Me More …
Track: Gyze bring the beauty and insanity with celebration single ‘Oriental Symphony’
Japanese folk metal pioneers Gyze are celebrating their tenth anniversary with new single ‘Oriental Symphony’, out now via Out Of Line Music. Vocalist / guitarist Ryoji commented: “‘Oriental Symphony’ is 100% Gyze metal written by me! We used Gagaku instruments (ancient Japanese music), Erhu (Chinese strings) and this new song is a modern mix with a symphonic orchestra, far eastern …
Album Review: Xiu Xiu’s OH NO! is a return to form, and a celebration of everything that has made them great.
To me, Xiu Xiu has always been a project marked by its ambition; whether it’s finding new ways to express the spirit of musical heavyweights like Nina Simone or Angelo Badalamenti, or forging a new kind of visceral yet fragile sound on albums like A Promise or 2019’s Girl with Basket of Fruit. Jamie Stewart’s …
Exclusive: Trent Halliday plays Get Close live in session for Backseat Mafia
We ran into Trent Halliday so to speak in the Summer of last year, here, with his rather lovely track ‘Get Close’, a mixture of folk, English charm and just a touch of psychedelia. He went onto release an album ‘Declare’ full of such treats later in the year. Recently, he’s returned with a new …
News: Lou Barlow set for a solo album in late May; see the video for ‘Over You’
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 – and you can watch the video for the first single drop herein. That album, Reason To Live, will …
Premiere: The Beegles reveal first new single in four years, Dog; take a first listen, here
Out on April 9th on Zuccini Records in Australia and Not For Fun Records in the UK and Europe comes the new single from the Beegles – Dog, their first in four years since 2017’s Everybody Outside. It’s a slice of experimental almost performance poetry from the band, essentially the moniker of Melbourne multi-instrumentalist Ash …
Album review: Joao Selva – ‘Navegar’: Latin optimism with endless energy
WELL it looks like the summer vibes may need a little boost this year, so here’s a release that’s set to heat things up. Brazilian troubadour Joao Selva, now based in Lyon, definitely aims to shake us around with his samba infused, funk primed second album, Navegar, available on Underdog records from April 2nd. Born …
See: The video for Matt Emery’s ‘Raindrops And Blood Spurts’: the scarlet fire of battle as reimagined for solo cello
THE EXCELLENT Surrey composer Matt Emery, a leading light over at Injazero Records for four years or so now working at the more deliciously experimental edges of modern composition, is launching an EP project entitled the Spotlight Series, in which he looks to investigate and put the spotlight on an instrument in turn, really explore …
See: Rachel Sermanni – ‘Swallow Me’: graceful, spiritual and lighter than air, it’s the title track from her June EP
BRINGING new life into the world and fresh hope for a budding spring, Strathspey folkie Rachel Sermanni is all set to drop her first EP in what feels like too long, actually, too long; and she’s throwing up the windows on that forthcoming release with the bell-clear offering to the fates of “Swallow Me”, which …
Track: Portico Quartet’s gliding ‘Terrain II (edit)’ unveils a three-part suite of a new album in late May
PORTICO QUARTET, whose Jack Wyllie we last encountered in these pages at the end of last summer with his exhilarating Afro-ambient project, Paradise Cinema, reconvened at their East London base during lockdown, the events that swathe us necessarily informing the new music they began to fashion. The world we all suddenly precipitated into necessitated a …