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Showing posts from May 27, 2018

1099 - The Black Delta Movement - Beanpole

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1099 - Blindpassasjer (Album). Background - Formed 15 years ago, 1099 is an instrumental post-rock collective from Trondheim, Norway.   Having released two double albums, a self-titled debut in 2012 and “Young Pines” in 2015, the Norwegian five-piece group is about to issue their third album “Blindpassasjer”, which means Blind Passenger in English and is set for release on May 11th via All Good Clean Records. Featuring 12 instrumental tracks all recorded, mixed and mastered in Autumnsongs Recording Studio in Trondheim by Rhys Marsh, the new album has a quite dark and melancholic atmosphere.  With influences as diverse as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Swans and Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, 1099 combine elements of post-rock, space-rock and dark jazz to conjure a sound that is intensely engrossing and all of their own. FACEBOOK . One of the good things about an instrumental band is that language barriers are not an issue, that said in the last few years, I have found myself inc

Falcon Jane - Joshua Burnside - Melby

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Falcon Jane - The News. Background - Grief is so complicated. It fills you with unanswerable questions, fear, sadness, and incomparable emptiness – but it is also about moving on and healing. There has been a lot of loss in the Canadian news lately, nationwide, and in my own community. “The News” is about losing someone you love and trying to find them amidst the dense, emotional fog of grief. I hope it can help aid those who are grieving by reflecting some of the complicated emotions we are feeling. There have been severe floods in my community over the last year. One of the last ones swelled the Grand River, washing a little boy out of his mother’s arms. I was so deeply affected when I heard about it – my partner and I had driven through the area where it happened only hours before. There are a lot of commonalities between “The News” and this boy’s story. When the next flood hit, I couldn’t help but try to capture some of what my community and I had been collectively feeling. Wat

Joy Autumn - Cedric Warner Sparkman - Christopher Pellnat

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Joy Autumn - Go. Background - Go is singer-songwriter Joy Autumn at her most vulnerable. The sparse nature of the song allows room for its listener to breathe into Autumn’s pain, intimately feeling her internal struggle between loving someone so deeply and yet desperately needing to tell them to go. With lush strings and cinematic harmonies, Joy’s raw and breathtaking vocals float from first verse until final second. Go transports any listener back to that heartbreakingly necessary moment of convincing yourself that you can and will leave. The song is a part of Joy Autumn’s upcoming EP, Midnight, an atmospheric indie-pop record about the dark side of making it as an artist in Hollywood. “The hardest thing you can possibly do is walk away from someone that you viscerally love and feel is a part of you. In that moment,  I realized that I had to pick my own well-being, even though the distorted reality is that I perhaps loved this person even more than I did myself.” WEBSITE . Lush

NewTown - Ella Grace - Lusterlit

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NewTown - Naomi Wise. Background - Kentucky Bluegrass band NewTown is bringing new life to the “Old World” with their new single “Naomi Wise,” an old English murder ballad written in modern times. It tells the story of commoner Naomi Wise who falls in love with a man in high-standing and what happens when forbidden love takes a dark turn. Written by Donna Hughes, the haunting “Naomi Wise” serves as a cautionary tale, staying true to the English ballad style. Yet NewTown brings a fresh take with progressive arrangements that harken back to Appalachian roots. The song and accompanying video is the first release from the band’s upcoming album “Old World,” expected later this summer from Mountain Home Music Company. It sets the tone for the rest of the album, highlighting the vocals of both Kati and Jr. Williams and giving listeners a taste of what the band does best — bring tradition into the modern age. “Donna Hughes is one of the most prolific songwriters in bluegrass and acoustic

Frøkedal - Batz - AyOwA

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Frøkedal - Treehouse. Background - Oslo, Norway based Frøkedal nears closer to forthcoming second full-length album ‘How We Made It’, today releasing the album’s summer-ready lead cut ‘Treehouse’. The track is breezy, though no less brutal – as the opening line may suggest – with a visually inspired lyric that details a mischievous plot to tear down a tree-topped kingdom. “Treehouse was inspired by a six year old kid who tore his older brother’s treehouse to pieces without knowing he was being watched,” singer/songwriter Anne Lise Frøkedal explains. “Even if it seems meaningless and silly, the joyful mischief of it feels strangely familiar.” “This idea – or this way of behaving – kind of translates to everyone at some point. Sometimes it just feels better to tear stuff up. Or maybe, tearing stuff down for others feels better than building up your own,” she says. “You’re doing something and you know you’re gonna get in trouble for it but it’s better somehow – you just want to be pa