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TRACK: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – ‘Where They Perform Miracles’: Alec brings the yearn and then some
ALEC OUNSWORTH’S Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are following up the double whammy of October’s twin single drop, “Thousand Oaks”/”Hesitation Nation” (which we adored here) with the beautiful and elegiac “Where They Perform Miracles”, from forthcoming new album, New Fragility. It’s intimate, has that beautiful, tremulous voice and bodes exceedingly well for the album, his first since …
TRACK: Madmess – ‘Ignition’: Portuguese psych trio sign and reissue debut EP
HASSLE RECORDS, home to such guitar assault squads as raging post-feminist outfit Petrol Girls and Belgian hardcore/mathrock band Brutus, has enticed a blurrily excellent act through its doors: the London-based Portuguese psych trio Madmess. The label begins its relationship with the trio – guitarist and vocalist Sam Paio, bassist Vasco Vasconcelos, and drummer-cum-vocalist Luis Moura …
TRACK: Tacsidermi – ‘Gwlr’: a glide of blurry Welsh psych
GWENLLIAN ANTHONY, bassist, keys wizard and more with Carmarthen’s award-winning indie outfit Adwaith has, on and off, over the past few years, been jamming and writing with Matthew Kilgariff, who’s been touring member of Gwenllian’s home band, a little creative side gig; but as 2020 stuck out its viral tongue and thumbed its nose at …
TRACK: John Paul Keith – ‘How Can You Walk Away’; a love letter to the Memphis sound
MEMPHIS’ John Paul Keith, an artist deeply embedded in the raunch and the blues of his home city, has announced the follow-up to his 2018 album Heart Shaped Shadow; it’ll be out on Wild Honey Records come February 19th and it’s entitled The Rhythm Of The City. He’s shared the album’s opening track, “How Can …
Track: EWAH and the Vision of Paradise return with single Vanishing Point
The arctic and chiming sounds of EWAH and the Vision of Paradise somehow echo and reflect the geographical landscapes of Tasmania and the southern climate – wild, unpredictable and ever so cool. The new single ‘Vanishing Point’ is delectable: mesmerising, hypnotic and crystalline with such a posed sense of style. Guitars scythe their way through …
Track: Dumb Whales release another great indie pop single ‘Communication’
Proving that their chiming single ‘The Great Divide’ (premiered by Backseat Mafia last month) was no fluke, Melbourne based indie pop maestros Dumb Whales are back in town with their new blistering single ‘Communication’. Blasting open with a Pixies-blast of guitars and a driving infective beat, this is magnificent indie fare: melodic, sparkling with a …
TRACK: Melin Melyn – ‘Rebecca’: announcing Cymru’s latest quirk-psych crackers
GORKY’S. (There’s never any escaping Gorky’s, and how great they are, let’s face it. If you were really lucky, you actually could’ve seen them at the Hacienda.) Meilyr Jones. Gulp. El Goodo. The river of brilliant and wayward Welsh quirky, psych-inflected bands floweth ever on; and rounding this bend in our canoe, we come across …
TRACKS: See the video for Femi Kuti’s ‘Pà Pá Pà’ and hear Made Kuti’s ‘Your Enemy’ ahead of February’s twin albums
AFROBEAT founding father and steely political activist Fela Kuti gifted us a wondrous back catalogue investigating jazz, funk, hiphop, rock, traditional Nigerian musics, so much more, before passing in 1997. Of course, he also gifted us his son, Femi; and in turn Femi’s gifted us his son, Made, to continue that legacy and take it …
TRACK: Azmari – ‘Azalaï’: aboard the Brussels Afro/Persian jazz sextet’s caravan
AZMARI is a sextet formed in Brussels in 2015 with a deep take on the North African groove. The name? Well, an azmari is literally “one who praises” in Amharic; an Ethiopian singer-musician, comparable to the European bard. Reportedly inspired by such leading lights as Mulatu Astatke, Cymande, Fela Kuti and The Heliocentrics, the band performed at …
TRACK: FLOCKS – ‘Grammar King’: think Tortoise tooting a line of pure Squarepusher
WHEN you think of a great line-up combination, a trio that can really pull it off is a truly great thing: think The Jimi Hendrix Experience, think The Jam, even Kitchens of Distinction. No doubt you’ll have your faves too. A great trio operating out of Cincinnatti right now are post-/outrock threesome FLOCKS, who are …