Jana & The Lanterns - The Room in the Wood - Rina Mushonga - Elvyn Rhud - Cape Weather
London-based singer-songwriter Jana (originally from Slovakia) - a voice reminiscent of Joni Mitchell is self-releasing her debut single ‘Birdhouse’ along with the music video on 16th November 2018. A personal folk-rock anthem of a traveller who finds freedom looking for a ‘piece of home’.
Recorded by Luke Oldfield at Tilehouse Studios, originally built for Mike Oldfield, Jana teamed up with top musicians on London jazz scene. Their versatile musicianship and exceptional craft brought special flavour to the music. Jana & The Lanterns arranged and produced 5 songs for an EP that will be released in 2019. The debut single will be accompanied by a new music video with a hint of 70’s nostalgia.
Jana is a classically trained musician with a wide spectrum of genres. In her native Slovakia she was a member of ‘Persona Grata’ – a band, that was invited to perform at ‘Progressive Nation at Sea 2014’ in Miami, organised by Mike Portnoy (Dream Theatre). In the same year, she moved to London and started writing her own songs.
‘Jana & The Lanterns’ is an eclectic musical experience. Inspiration for this project came from Sting’s music, 70’s folk-rock greats, country and classical – a mix that creates a unique ‘Lanterns’ style. They performed at London’s leading venues like The Troubadour, PizzaExpress Live and The Hospital Club (opening for Gypsyfingers). FACEBOOK.
Both the refined and sophisticated musicianship and gorgeous vocals vie for attention on 'Birdhouse' a song that is hard to put into any specific genre. Whilst the vocals have more than a hint of seventies folk style, they are more than that, and the band go from low key jazz funk through to indie rock, or pop, it's that kind of song, and yet it's coherent, catchy and above all high class.
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Liverpool-based The Room in the Wood will be releasing their 'The Mars EP' on November 23 digitally and on limited-edition CD. Lead track 'Mars (Won't Save Us)' is a riff-based psyche rocker focused on the foolishness of Elon Musk’s ideas about colonising the Red Planet. We are reminded "Mars won't save us. Mars has no air." It is accompanied by a psychedelic video composition by ex-Send No Flowers and Moongoose collaborator Mark Jordan.
"We went in the studio to record some tracks and came up with 'Mars (Won’t Save Us)', which was a riffy departure from most of our debut album. Lyrically it’s a flat statement that Mars is not a viable option for emigration," says Dave Jackson.
Released via A Turntable Friend Records, this album follows their debut album 'The Room in the Wood' and the 'Magical Thinking' EP prior to that, both of which were released earlier in 2018.
Band members Paul Cavanagh and Dave Jackson are once again working together after a huge gap since their post-punk band The Room split back in 1985. After reuniting, this past year has seen them write over 30 new songs. TWITTER.
Back in July we featured 'Greedy Stars' describing that track as "a song that straddles genres, doing so with heart and feeling." Now we can share 'Mars (Won't Save Us)' where the vocals are a delight with just a touch of the sinister about them. Backed by some feisty natural rock, this is another superb song form this talented duo.
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London-based Dutch-Zimbabwean pop innovator Rina Mushonga reveals details of her new album In A Galaxy – inspired by a year of transformation, the eagerly awaited follow-up to her debut, 2014’s The Wild, The Wilderness.
The twelve-track In A Galaxy is released on February 15th, 2019 through [PIAS] Recordings and today Rina Mushonga shares new track Hey Coach. Written from a personal perspective, this song is about responsibility and ownership and she explains; it’s about motivation, career-wise, no-one’s gonna fight for your ‘art’ as hard as you are ,nobody has invested what you have in the same way and it’s about self-reliance and getting on with it…even when the odds appear to be stacked against you.”
Having read Metamorphoses for the first time Rina Mushonga’s self-confessed year of transformation ensued drawing upon a myriad of ideas and personal experiences. Full of reflections on the cosmos and our place within it, In A Galaxy is the musical embodiment of these musings whilst Mushonga also admits there’s more than a passing nod to the opening text on Star Wars, but on the whole refers to how relative space and time are in how we interact – “Earth viewed as part of a galaxy binds us in humanity.”
In A Galaxy buzzes with an eclecticism that might be traced back to heritage and history of having moving around at various points in her life - having lived in India, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands before settling in London – her father always proudly referred to their family as “global citizens, we belonged everywhere” she explains, further adding; “I loved and identified with that, and it’s that genre- hopping that best represents me, how I see things and experience the world.”
Four years in the making, In A Galaxy is the result of Mushonga filtering out her distractions and relying/focusing on her own ability and instinct. Mushonga recorded the album in her adopted home in South London’s Peckham with producer Brett Shaw whilst having laid much of the foundations of the tracks together with musical bestie and synth whisperer Frans Verburg in his Rotterdam basement studio. The resultant cornucopia of intelligent, diverse pop that Mushonga herself describes as sounding like “Paul Simon in a sweaty, African dancehall club” is a welcome introduction to 2019. FACEBOOK.
Rina Mushonga impressed us in a big way back in September and the new song share 'Hey Coach' continues that trend. Last time around we describe her music as "a melting pot of musical styles that are given a cohesive overall sound as they musically morph around". The latest track hopefully makes a little more sense of that statement, whatever I was driving at, it's fabulous and massively addictive.
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Trippy neo-psych rockers Elvyn Rhud are the like the french equivalent to The Brian Jonestown Massacre, effortlessly channeling the dark corners of the 60's with songs drenched in jangling guitars, droning vocals, and layers of percussion.
The sepia-colored video for their new single invites the viewer into a dystopian artistic vision that compliments their trance-inducing music.
Elvyn Rhud is Cassandre Arpin and Léo Puy. "Orange Is For Love" is off a shared 7" split between Elvyn Rhud & Alpha Du Centaure, which has been released by Pyrrhic Victory Records. BANDCAMP.
'Orange Is For Love' opens with plenty of sixties psychedelic overtones, before expanding into a more modern soundscape where the overall feel is hypnotic and beautiful. The video adds to the theme and at less than three minutes duration, listening again is pretty much compulsive.
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LA-based Cape Weather follows in suit with their nostalgic pop sound on new single "Big Time". The bands first few tracks have done really well being covered by outlets such as NPR Music, The Line of Best Fit and Wonderland while also receiving a huge amount of editorial support from Spotify. Cape Weather is a collaboration between Natalie Smith and Eric Jackowitz.
They’ve both played in bands for years; Eric playing drums for Nick Waterhouse, and Natalie bouncing around the Oakland scene while silently releasing music under solo monikers before moving to Los Angeles. After both feeling like it was time to make something their own, the two best friends who attended Berklee College of Music together decided to start writing songs over the internet while Eric was on tour with Waterhouse and thus Cape Weather was born.
Their live band is a rotating cast and currently, consist of members from M83 and Ryan Adams band. Cape Weather's newest single "Big Time" which is being released via Yes Plz (a new coffee subscription-based service and weekly zine). BANDCAMP.
Dreamy and full of timeless pop sensibilities 'Big Time' is so full of hooks, it's gonna be played a good few times by myself, and I would be so bold to say - plenty of other folk as well.
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