The Woolly Mammoths - Chorusgirl - Rina Mushonga - Terry Emm - The Hate Club - Tania Vinokur
Background - No Confidence Man is the funky fresh track from the self-effacing young Bostonites, The Woolly Mammoths. Consummate music nerds The Woolly Mammoths create sly, idiosyncratic dance punk that falls somewhere between Parquet Courts and Animal Collective. Their high energy, cheeky vibe seems to be a direct response to their starchy childhoods on the Seacoast of New Hampshire, where they learned to escape the doldrums by indulging themselves in off-beat esoteric indie rock.
Since their inception in 2014, the quintet has cut loose with two LP’s and EP, culminating in 2017’s Resist Consumerism, Buy Our Album which received a positive shout out from Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop. Their dynamic, collaborative recordings and sweaty live show quickly created a local groundswell, culminating in praise from Greater Boston Music Publications and prodding the band to leave NH behind to pursue music in Boston proper, locking in opening slots for Diet Cig and Vacationer along the way.
The move coincided with the respective band members entering adulthood and grappling with the tribulations associated with that pivotal coming-of-age period. The resulting album, Cityzen, is their most topical release to date, with much of material dealing directly with the balancing measures one must implement to fully integrate into society. Lead-off single “No Confidence Man” tackles the first world problems of being a young-adult male, imbuing the booty-shaking groove with a refreshingly irreverent tone that has come to be The Mammoth’s signature stock-in-trade. TWITTER.
Full of charm and just a little quirky 'No Confidence Man' is a feast of rhythms, addictive vocals and just enough jangly indie sounds to complete the musical circle.
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Background - Chorusgirl are delighted to announce their brand new release Shimmer and Spin, the album that overcame the odds, due out on 16 November via Reckless Yes. Chorusgirl's second full-length chronicles a tense year, created during a period of crippling anxiety and a relentless string of bad luck and bad news. On first listen these tensions are not immediately apparent but beyond the bright sparkling melodies there are beautifully crafted yet deceptively sharp icebergs lying in wait. The band will be heading out on the road in November with a string of dates across the UK, starting on 9 November at Hackney's The Victoria and ending on 23 November at The Tin in Coventry.
Fronted by London-based, German-born songwriter Silvi Wersing, the band recently brought in Faith Taylor of Suggested Friends on lead guitar to round-out the sound, and she even wrote a couple of songs on the record. Completing the line-up is by Udo Westhoff on bass and Michael Boyle on drums.
With their sound rooted in shimmering indiepop with an undercurrent of darkness, Chorusgirl blend the sparkle of 80s bands like The Cure and the Cocteau Twins, with the close harmonies and surf-inspired indie of Dum Dum Girls and La Luz. The lyrics run from the abstract to the personal, are delicate and angry, but layered underneath a measured dose of noise and happy fizz.
The moment they had started writing the second album, an extraordinary string of bad luck happened that lasted more than a year. As Silvi explains, “There was barely a month without bad news on a personal and wider level, and at the end of that year, my anxiety started to spike badly. The album became a very important anchor. Every note and lyric were raked over and looked at twice; we were hacking and honing away at the songs for months, trying to craft some sort of sculpture of our state of mind.” WEBSITE.
'No Goodbye' is the first single from the album 'Shimmer and Spin' due in November. A sprightly indie rocker where melodic vocals and a fast paced musical backdrop soon deliver their hooks, this really is a fine first taste from the album.
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Background - Peckham, London based Rina Mushonga explores space and time with a third single ‘4qrtrs' out today, taken from her upcoming album due early next year.
The Dutch-Zimbabwean artist is pushing her unique afropop-indie-electro fusion to its outer limits – and to her new home in Peckham - with intergalactic and romantic consequences. “4qrtrs’ started in Zimbabwe and came together in London,” explains Rina, “it even references some of the local joints in Peckham. Its name comes from a video-game bar I fell in love with when I first moved here and where I've spent many nights playing Pacman and Space Invaders with friends and local strangers.”
Blending traditional African influences with modern club pop through her wildly uncompromising style, Rina takes her inspiration from Greek mythology and a love of literature, her childhood in Harare, a former life living in Amsterdam and the London locale which she now calls home. Like a love song to her own back yard, ‘4qrtrs’ returns to the faces – and voices – of Rina’s new neighbourhood. Fed through her recent coming-of-age single ‘Jungles’ and the video for ‘Ata|antA’, the track’s opening field recordings vividly capture the hubbub of activity that rose up to the window by which she wrote, whilst recovering from an injury to her Achilles heel. “I would just hear kids coming home from school, and families and traffic, and I’d just be soaking it all in,” she says.
Rina continues; “It's a little bit 'frustrated long-distance relationship' and a little bit 'Zim I really miss you and I don't know how to be with you'. It's a bit of 'I dare you to take a chance on me' with the unfolding joy of where I am now – and navigating and accepting all these different parts of one’s identity. That's probably why it materialised here in good old Peckham, so much of it reminds me of home, the sounds and vibes of Rye Lane – it unlocked something in me and allowed a new sound and perspective to take root. ‘4qrtrs’ speaks to that process and the geography of it all. It's often scary and lonely, but there's no regrets - just a growing, vivid sense of moving into something new that embraces all these different parts.”
Working with Frans Verburg who played keys in her old band and Grammy-winning producer Brett Shaw, Rina says her newest material is further refinement of a vision that’s been a long time forming; “‘4qrtrs’ has been prodded, poked and teased into existence. Parts of it belonged to my old, discarded songs, other bits and pieces I wrote more recently. It's become this weird collage or map of where I've been, emotionally and geographically.” TWITTER.
'4qrtrs' is a melting pot of musical styles that are given a cohesive overall sound as they musically morph around. The gorgeous vocals add more, giving this fabulous tune even further edge.
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Background - Acclaimed singer-songwriter Terry Emm is returning to music this September following a six year hiatus. Terry Emm’s new EP ‘Ornate’ drops on 21st Sept and he’s just unveiled the striking opening track ‘The Leaving’.
‘Ornate’, the new EP from UK singer-songwriter Terry Emm is as the title suggests, a collection of fragile elegant tracks that have a timeless feel and are crafted as if they are unique objects for mantlepiece display. Fashioned from the love of creation and to catalogue memories and thoughts, they are distinctive and embellished with astute understated beauty at every turn.
Emm’s first release in six years, the EP was a nostalgic experience for Emm with an exploration of his previously unreleased back catalogue of demos. “When I was around 12-15 years old I’d spend every night after school recording tracks on an 8-track in my bedroom. I started to revisit these sessions last year which was like re-connecting to a previous life and a certain freedom and purity. Some tracks were like old friends, some I’d completely forgotten about. I liked the young innocent feel of the tones and lyrics and picked out some previously overlooked elements of some of the tracks that I thought were particularly cool. Each of the tracks on this EP had their genesis in the old demos from these years but were then re-written slightly to enhance them” he says.
The ‘Ornate’ EP has hallmarks of the style of Emm’s previous releases but like all his works reaches into new territory with a new blend of sounds from the atmospheric subtle electronics of ‘Sophia’ a song of unrequited love to the Goddess of wisdom to the deep healing keyboards of title track ‘Ornate’. The palette is expanded also by the addition of an enigmatic female vocalist providing soaring moods to three of the tracks and also some inspired percussion and production wizardry from co-producer Jonathan McMillan at Smokehouse Studios, London.
Throughout his career Emm has developed a style that is idiosyncratic and eschews genre categorization. His most recent album ‘Starlight’ at times sounds like the Americana jams of Wilco yet also the string quartet infused ballads of Clifford T Ward. Previous albums ‘Petals Fallen Off The Sun’ and ‘White Butterflies’ and standalone single ‘Gently’ enveloped alternative folk explorations, sprawling rock epics and psychedelic indie singer-songwriter territory and much more. The emphasis on each of Emm’s songs being from the heart and what it “needs to be” expressively, giving plenty for the likes of BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music, The Guardian, MOJO, Uncut and many more to rave about. WEBSITE.
'The Leaving' softly opens with acoustic guitar and Terry Emm's impassioned vocal. A sense of earnest sincerity flows through this beautiful song, a little piano music adds some melody, but the feeling that this is from the heart is constantly apparent.
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Background - In One Mile Away main protagonist, little Alex, is participating in local talent show. Unconfident and shy he tries to put on his best performance of a song. During Alex’s performance, nobody in the audience seem to give a f*%@ and, even worse, a fight breaks out. With the show being ruined, Alex accidentally stumbles upon a mysterious tray in the bathroom and decides to give its content a try. The result surpasses all Alex’s expectations, or does it?
“The Hate Club is a place for outcasts to call home, for people to punch in the face the messed up world we live in.” This is how The Hate Club’s (THC) leader and sole member, Alex Poe, describes the mission for his music and his ‘band' overall. Poe has set out to achieve this goal through an amalgamation of the driving bass heavy practices of EDM and the spite and swagger of punk rock, clearly heard through his vocal quality and lyricism.
Growing up in an oppressive Ukrainian household, Poe eventually fled to Los Angeles where he became enamored with the electronic music scene. In 2017 THC released its debut EP, Space Born, made major waves in the underground electronic music scene, becoming a cult favorite in the US primary musical hot spots, New York and LA. Now, with the release of the second EP, Misfits, THC furthers the dark yet charming narrative created by Space Born.
While favorably compared to some Punk and EDM greats like Skrillix, Cage the Elephant, Missio, or The White Stripes, THC is truly in a class all its own. Keeping in the spirit of Punk rock, Poe is a dedicated DIY artist who not only writes all of his music but also tracks all parts, as well as mixing and mastering his songs by himself to prepare for performance with the help of his Ableton Push. This approach has allowed him to achieve the level of excitement, and overall sound, in performance comparable to a full-band. FACEBOOK.
'One Mile Away' has a fresh musical vibe as it opens, adding layers of musical sounds before the vocals give the piece some distinctive rock and roll passion. The video is fabulously crazy, the imagery working so well with the song, this is both clever and catchy.
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Tania Vinokur - Jaffa.Background - Tania Vinokur, multitalented and vibrantly unrivaled has been captivating audiences all over the globe with her inimitable fusion of musical, dance and percussive segments inspired by Oriental, Latin, Classical and Gypsy craft.
Tania’s main musical inspirations are drawn from Sephardic, Classical and Gypsy music. The subsequent sonic and movement focused creations are enhanced during her live performances by a selective 5-piece band of talented players. Live shows fully emulate Tania’s triple-threat approach to sharing her artistry with the world portraying her chameleon-like abilities to play, dance, sing and drum. Her stage presence is therefore simultaneously theatrical and magnetic, transporting audiences to her custom realm of music and movement-driven integration leaving them stunned.
Tania’s new single Jaffa is no exception to these striking facets. It is a true celebration of Tania’s shape shifting qualities, incorporating a strong violin line over a dynamic electronic track and highlighting her ability to fuse cultural musical influences into her own style and sound. The single is accompanied by a lively and fitting music video in which Tania’s iconic movement is featured following a storyline which speaks to the contrast of her artistic journey, reflecting the old classical influences versus the new blends she has brought to life.
In recent years, Tania has performed globally on European, American, Thai and Cuban stages as well at various festivals throughout. Most recently she has performed at the ADE festival in Holland and appeared on TEDx Jaffa during which she received an ovation for the most original performance at the event. This honor praised her distinct combination of dancing and violin playing which Tania states is “…the most natural thing for her to do.” TWITTER.
Dance, jig or just tap your feet, the beats on 'Jaffa' will surely demand some involuntary movement. The gorgeous musical styles, the gifted violin playing and some atmospheric Gypsy feeling makes this a very addictive tune.
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