singer-songwriter
Track: Chloe Foy – ‘Left-Centred Weight’: luscious, hook-laden folk to welcome spring
AS 2021 stretches and tentatively decides to dangle an experimental leg out of bed you, like me, will be looking round for the first buds and flowers of spring; new musical talent to get excited about, to bring us fresh, bright melodies. Step forward clutching the butter yellow of early daffs please, Chloe Foy; this …
ALBUM REVIEW: Indigo Sparke – ‘echo’: a jaw-dropping country-folk debut
You can hear Indigo’s very essence shot right through echo. It’s never less, at any point, than extremely lovely; at many points its genuinely bloody stunning. You know when someone has that alchemical it, and boy: Indigo incontrovertibly does.
It’s not an album to have on in the background, because it’s far too arresting and enveloping, commanding. She’s royalty in waiting on the leftfield folk scene. Astonishing; buy
SEE: The video for Cheval Sombre’s ‘Curtain Grove’: a thrilling, delicate highlight from his new album; a song of the year?
WE’RE a way towards the release of Chris Porpora, aka Cheval Sombre’s, first album in eight years, Time Waits For No One; brighter days to come, seasonally and musically, for sure, come February 26th. It seems serendipitous that, with the ‘rona and the lockdown and all, the globe has wound down to Cheval Sombre’s pace just …
Track: Madi Diaz – Man in Me
Nashville-based singer-songwriter Madi Diaz has just been signed to ANTI- and is straight out of the blocks with her first single – ‘Man in Me’, co-produced with Andrew Sarlo (Courtney Marie Andrews, Big Thief, Bon Iver) and if this is the shape of things to come then we are definitely going to be hearing a …
TRACK: Hilma Nikolaisen -‘All In (Into The Outset)’: Sereena-Maneesh alumnus brings the psych sunshine
FORMERLY bassist with Oslo’s premiere psychedelic explorers Sereena-Maneesh, Hilma Nikolaisen has unveiled a carefree, summery tune, “All In (Into The Outset)”, as a teaser for her third solo album, Heritage, out February 12th on Fysisk Format. She’s certainly spreading her wings away from the cultish, shoegazey-psych roots of her former home with this one: it’s bright …
SEE: M. Ward drops a video for ‘Violets And Furs’ from his Billie Holiday covers set
PORTLAND’S muchly the finest, M. Ward, has just released a video for the bloody beautiful “Violets For Your Furs”, his whisper-swoonsome take on a Billie Holiday song from his recent full album of covers of the great Lady Day, Think Of Spring. “Violets For Your Furs” is a strumalong sway, taking the original to the fireside, simplicity …
EP REVIEW: Lizzie Reid – ‘Cubicle’: cathartic beauty from young Glaswegian
Lizzie Reid’s Cubicle is a properly excellent debut from the young Glaswegian, with moments of real cathartic beauty
SEE: Sophie Morgan – ‘Always’: a sweet song for the lonely
A SOLE trumpeter plays a lonely air on the riverside terrace, and is joined by a dashingly besuited fellow, stage left, maybe a little bit Gatsby; we glimpse Sophie in her party frock, sitting, where she joined by the dashing young buck – but only momentarily, as she steps away and into song. They dance …
TRACK: Sara Wolff – ‘Bad Thoughts Compilation’ – welcome to Sara’s homespun folk-pop world
SHE LEFT the big, big vistas of her native Bergen, Norway, and relocated to Liverpool in order to study; found she really liked it by the Mersey, decided to stick around, and soon found that songs were flowing. It’s been quite the journey from university to rising alt.folk talent for Sara Wolff, whose duvet-day summation …
NEWS: Chad Vangaalen announces a March album for Sub Pop; see the properly brilliant animation for ‘Samurai Sword’
HE’S SO much fun, right? Sub Pop’s favourite Albertan singer-songwriter, Chad VanGaalen – he’s made his whimsical home at the Seattle imprint since 2006’s Skelliconnection – has revealed that actually, horticulturally speaking, he’s the World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener; well, actually that would be musically too, since that’s also how his new album will be …