Posts

Showing posts from July 17, 2016

Genre Wander: Hilary Woods - Slow Down Molasses - Ablebody - The Wolfhounds

Image
Hilary Woods - Sabbath. Background bio - Hilary Woods is a music and visual artist from Dublin, Ireland. As a teenager she recorded two double platinum selling albums on Columbia Records as bass player in Irish indie trio JJ72, touring extensively in Europe, the US and Japan. At twenty two she hung up her bass for a paint brush, left the band and welcomed the arrival of a baby girl that same year. She enrolled in fine art college just as her friends were all graduating and dropped out midst her first group critique, opting to study English Lit and Film instead. Throughout college she became increasingly restless, suffered long bouts of insomnia and was slowly drawn back to what had stuck; basic piano chords her father had taught her as a child. She started piecing together ideas for piano thru headphones as her flatmates slept and after drifting in and out of various bands around the city, she made a decision to concentrate on her own material, tentatively crafting songs and explori

Quality Not Quantity: Matt Sellors - Izzy Flynn - Ian Hunter

Image
Matt Sellors - Blinded By You. Background promo - Well-known for previously fronting Bristol-based band Yes Sir Boss, and sharing stages with multiple award winning artists Joss Stone, Cee Lo Green, Madness and Paloma Faith to name but a few. Matt Sellors has now launched a solo career and tipped heavily as one to watch from many industry insiders, including BBC Introducing. His debut single comes ahead of his much anticipated Secret Garden Party Performance. Matt’s instantly infectious and catchy Debut single, Blinded By You, is a deeply personal and emotive song married to a feel good vibe and upbeat tempo that makes it an easy world to dive into. Often vocally compared to Paulo Nutini, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)and Kings Of Leon, his distinct deep and rich voice is disarming and soulful and totally not what you would expect. Blinded By You has all the hallmarks of a hit including a hook line that you will find yourself whistling everywhere you go.     Catch Matt Performing Live: 23

Double Delights: Art d'Ecco - Darling Cora

Image
Art d'Ecco - She So Hot. Background - After a period of dark, personal turmoil, d’Ecco escaped the city life and relocated to the Gulf Islands of British Columbia to embark on a journey of much needed soul searching and personal rediscovery. He spent three years in relative seclusion on the island retooling, writing, and overcoming the obstacles of isolation and regret. “I’d fled a bad scene in Vancouver – my life was spinning out of control and I needed a refresh. I was burnt out and over playing music. The scene. The debauchery...” - Art d'Ecco With Day Fevers, d’Ecco peers through a lens of nostalgia with nods to glam rock, classic rock n roll, krautrock, spaghetti westerns, and new wave psychedelia. He sought to deliver an album that flowed like a playlist, spanning different genres with himself as the sonic rug that ties it all together. Starting with “Sunrise” and closing with “Sunset,” Day Fevers travels through themes of desire, isolation, nostalgia, and personal d

Midweek Muse: Beautiful Machines - Kinsky - Radio On - Sian Cross

Image
Beautiful Machines - Free. Background promo - Winner of the 2014 Independent Music Award for Album of the Year, Beautiful Machines released their much-anticipated second album, Bridges last month. Bridges takes the band in a new direction, deepening their exploration of live analog/electronic music. The album is purposefully arranged to take the listener on a journey, like cycling through a Tron-grid landscape to launching into a euphoric stratosphere. Thoughtful, dynamic and full of rich powerful choruses, wide lush verses and tangential bridges, this album strikes a chord and "bridges" technology and emotion. The 2nd of a trilogy and thematically bridging Disconnect : : Reconnect (2014) with its following concept album Singularity (2017), think of Bridges as an inter-dimensional gateway connecting a circuit or a thought. “Bridge symbolizes transformation and change,” describes frontman, Conrad Schuman.  “Before me was a bridge: transparent, beam of light guiding and ac

Genre Wander: Benny Mayhem - Limestone Chorus - Cowtown - Justin Llamas

Image
Benny Mayhem - Song For Absent Friends. Background promo -  Benny Mayhem has covered a lot of ground, literally and figuratively. Written in a hotel room in the Austrian Alps, his latest single 'Song For Absent Friends' is both a tribute to and a product of, the songwriter's considerable world travels. From being a guitar-strumming teenager in his bedroom at the turn of the millennium, to a decade as the shirtless-and-writhing frontman of Perth rock monsters Project Mayhem, to performing 450+ shows in nine countries worldwide... the musical journey of Benny Mayhem has its own overfilled passport. From a home base on the west coast of Australia, Benny Mayhem has toured the world in a way that few other artists have considered... as a wandering troubadour. And through this lifestyle choice, Benny has toured continental Europe twice and the UK thrice; working his way up from busking outside tube stations to the UK's festival circuit within two years. But, more important

Magnificent Monday: Don DiLego - ChrisP ft Mercy - Babaganouj

Image
Don DiLego - Drive Like Pirates (single edit). Background - Magnificent Ram A, the new album from musical troubadour Don DiLego, out last week via Velvet Elk / One Little Indian Records. Seeing  it’s roots form in Portland, OR with producer/engineer Gregg Williams (Blitzen Trapper, Dandy Warhols, The Decemberists), and wind it’s way back East to the wooded Pennsylvania retreat that is Velvet Elk Studios, DiLego has released a stunning collection of songs, laced with gorgeous melodies and haunting vocals. Many of the original sessions found their way onto his last album, 2012’s Western & Atlantic, which won an Independent Music Award for “Best Roots/Alt Country Album.” The remnants of those original sessions form the foundation of a project he’s long thought about…a collection of click-track free analog recordings that embrace their imperfections and happy accidents. On the heels of producing the recent releases from Jesse Malin (New York Before the War, Outsiders) and Hollis

Quality Not Quantity: Curse Of Lono - Black Surf - Alphabetic

Image
Curse Of Lono - Five Miles. Background - Curse Of Lono was formed in London in 2015 by singer Felix Bechtolsheimer following the breakup of British roots pioneers Hey Negrita.  The five-piece have been busy recording their debut album with producer and Boxed In front-man, Oli Bayston. What started as a casual jam with a few friends quickly yielded a stunningly cinematic record, with the dubut EP due for release this October. The band have also created 'The Doghouse Sessions' and will be releasing one each month, Felix explains: On April 10th we invited our friends form Ont’ Sofa into ‘The Doghouse’, our rehearsal room in London, to record and film us for an afternoon. We wanted to capture what our songs sound like when we’re playing them live in the room where we get together every week and where many of them were conceived, with no overdubs or studio trickery. We managed to get ten tracks down and we will be releasing one of these a month for the next ten months as ‘The D