Indie
Track: Eskobar – Living in the Sky
If there is one certainty, Swedish retro-rockers Eskobar are a gift that keeps giving. ‘Living in the Sky is their fifth single release this year and while there will be few secrets left on their forthcoming album Chapter 2, the band’s prolific output has not seen any dissolution in the quality of their material. ‘Living …
SEE: the sweet dreaminess of Tom Joshua’s ‘Undergrowth’
TOM JOSHUA, the singer who first broke into our collective consciousness with “Meteor Showers”, has just released a teaser single, the sweet pop harmonising of “Undergrowth” ahead of an EP of the same name, which will be with us come October 9th. The new song – watch the surreal imagery of the video, which we’ve …
Track: Pirra – Limousine Lies
Based in Wollongong, south of Sydney, Pirra have released a driving new single ‘Limousine Lies’ that pelts along at an embracing pace with a synth spine and a haunting, melancholic vocal. There are echoes of eighties new wave and an M83 thrum throughout and even a hint of Lorde in the lyrics. Of the single, …
Album Review: Buddy Glass – Wow and Flutter
Buddy Glass is the nom-de-plume of Bruno Brayovic who plays in Sydney Peabody (a veritable institution). He has a colourful history – arriving as a refugee from fascist Chile with his family in 1983 and starting life in the infamous Villawood Migrant Hostel. This colourful past bleeds into his new album ‘Wow and Flutter’: a …
Track: Hen Ogledd release new track Crimson Star ahead of new album
Weird and wonky is how Hen Ogledd describe themselves but with the upcoming release of their fourth LP ‘Free Humans’ (released on 25th September via Weird World Records) the signs are the band are finding some focus in their otherworld. Originally the brainchild of folk experimentalist/indie anti-hero Richard Dawson and avant harpist Rhodri Davies, the …
See: Choir of Young Believers – Hollow Talk
Very new to Backseat Mafia as I am I didn’t know which section to submit this to. Eventually I selected Track/Video but could equally have requested Film (although ‘TV’ would be more appropriate) or Not Forgotten. It belongs in all of them and none of them. Aficionados of BBC4 and its Saturday night foreign drama …
Track: Djo – Keep Your Head Up
Djo, the alias of musician-actor wunderkind Joe Keery, released a spectacular debut album last September. This was put out surreptitiously, with very little promotion or fanfare, and without a label. Despite this, the album has earned upwards of 40 million streams, a testament to the music’s undoubtable wonder. Released with equal surprise, new single Keep …
EP Review: Semisonic Release Their New EP – You’re Not Alone
After 2 decades away Semisonic have returned with a five track EP entitled ‘You’re Not Alone’ via Pleasuresonic Recordings/Megaforce Records. Due September 18th, the EP was recorded on and off over the last few years at Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer Dan Wilson’s Los Angeles studio with his co-founding bandmates John Munson and Jacob Slichter. From the opening jangling …
ALBUM REVIEW: King of the Slums – ‘Encrypted Contemporary Narratives’: the life we live now as we may not wish to see it
MANCHESTER: that great north-west city with, in the words of an idol very much on an unfortunate downward curve these days, so much to answer for. It’s given us some of the most amazing acts and subcultures of the popular music age. But I’ll advance a theory here, if I may; there’s very much two …
SEE: Dope Body’s ‘Jer Bang’: Baltimore noiseniks are back atcha; be glad
BALTIMORE’S knife-sharp noise outfit Dope Body, who released a trio of salvos at yr head for Drag City in the first part of the decade in the shape of Natural History, Lifer and Kunk, were a sad loss to our need for noise when they decided to call it quits in 2016. Less punchy guitar …