New York
News: The magnificent Bambara announce new EP ‘Love On My Mind’, new dates for US/EU tour and release the dramatic and gothic ‘Mythic Love’
Bambara‘s album ‘Stray’, released before the before the world went mad early last year was described by me as being an epic release – deeply satisfying, cathartic to audiences who can embed themselves in the wild stories being told – a stark evocation of a time and place – wrapped in twanging guitars and rumbling …
Track: The dreamy and ethereal Barrie returns with more sublime synth pop in track ‘Frankie’ and announces US and European tour
I really shouldn’t dwell on the past so much but Barrie‘s single ‘Tal Uno’, reviewed by me here back in 2018 remains one of the most outstanding and perfect slices of pure pop heaven I’ve heard over my years of writing for Backseat Mafia. Subsequent releases displayed the same acute ear for melody, laden with …
EP Premiere: Fair Visions – Modern Kids
We’ve got a midweek treat for you on the site today, in the form of New Yorker Ryan Work’s new EP. As Fair Visions, he released his debut EP A Way Out last August, and its follow-up displays impressive growth over little more than a year. Anyone who’s on board with contemporaries Nation of Language …
EP: Jhariah releases the evocative and dynamic genre-defying ‘A Beginners Guide To Faking Your Own Death’
Every so often I find myself bored with my current rotation of music and before I know it I am falling down a rabbit hole on streaming platforms trying to find something new to hold my attention. When “Needed A Change of Pace” first dropped on my desk, I remember feeling physically excited to hear …
See: koleżanka takes empathetic flight with the lush, modular indie of ‘In A Meeting’
KRISTINA MOORE it is who guises as koleżanka for her particular lusciously free, electronica- and folksily informed guitar music; and the New York-via-deepest Arizona songstress will surely be tempting her into your world via the conduit of her debut album, set for release at the end of July. Combining elements of retrotronica, a lo-fi modular …
EP Review: Yaya Bey chronicles heartbreak and self-reflection on ‘The Things I Can’t Take With Me’- out today
An impactful, cradle-to-grave reflection of self, Yaya Bey’s new EP The Things I Can’t Take With Me came together unexpectedly. Bey was set to record her next album when she found herself in the midst of a broken relationship, after which the original project changed direction. Its title refers to her journey of self-reflection, where …
Say Psych: Track Review: Alan Vega – Fist
Iconic musician, poet and visual artist Alan Vega was an uncompromising visionary. His work proved informative in the invention of industrial, synth/post punk and his rousing lyrics were always a mirror of the times over the course of his six active decades. ‘Fist’ is taken from his forthcoming lost album Mutator, out 23 April via Sacred Bones Records. It …
Track: Career Boy unleash a fierce storm in excoriating single ‘Scam Jam’
‘Scam Jam’ by New York’s Career Boy is a blistering rocket fueled by scything guitars and an insistent, ceaseless rhythm section and a kind of punk poetry visceral blast. There is an indie punk connection to the lyrically driven raw and expressive guitar sounds of bands like Fontaines D.C., Idles or The Clockworks, with an …
See: the video for the supernatural psych-folk of Nainnoh’s ‘Colors’
NEW YORK-based Nainnoh has a particularly supernatural way with psychedelic folk, perhaps casting herself in a lineage that casts back to Dr. John, Buffy Saint-Marie, Espers and others. There’s something about her vocals, precise, husky, but somwhow shadowy and speaking of other worlds, cast against a landscape of dramatic Americana; Nancy Sinatra gone fully darkside. …
Say Psych: News: Sacred Bones to release lost Alan Vega LP, Mutator & Share Video to ‘Nike Soldier’
Sacred Bones Records will release the lost album from Alan Vega, Mutator, on 23 April. Vega’s name is synonymous with unfettered creativity, from the late 1950s, through his years playing in Suicide, and all the way up until his death in 2016, Vega was constantly creating. This process naturally led to a wealth of material that didn’t see the light of day immediately when it …