Showing posts with label Big Fox. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Fox. Show all posts

Sunday, 22 March 2020

Big Fox - Emmrose - Fake Shape - The Electric Mess

Big Fox just released the new track 'Let Love In' ahead of her forthcoming album 'See How The Light Falls'. It's a lush piece with layered synth's supporting some beautiful and oh so natural vocals. === Comprising of seven wonderful songs Emmrose has just unveiled her 'Hopeless Romantics' E.P. We featured the title track last November and now we have the full collection. === Alternative Indie band Fake Shape have shared 'It's Easy' which is a combination of dream pop and subtle indie rock and quickly develops that play me again feel. === The Electric Mess wowed us earlier this month with 'Last Call' and if anything have upped the stakes even further with 'City Sun' a glorious rocker, and some!
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Big Fox - Let Love In.

Malmö, Sweden-based artist Charlotta Perers AKA Big Fox returns six years after her last album release with new full-length ‘See How the Light Falls’, produced by Tom Malmros (Alice Boman), along with focus track ‘Let Love In’.

Initially due for release in May 2018, Perers received some news which derailed the campaign. “A few weeks before the album was supposed to be released I was diagnosed with lymphoma,” she says. “It all happened very quickly and it was almost like entering a parallel world with a different time scale, rules and priorities. It felt almost like being forced on to one of those ghost trains in a theme park, going in and out of tunnels and not knowing when or how or even if I would be able to get off.”

The whole process also allowed a deeper sense of perspective to come to light for Perers. “Life suddenly became very intense, very here and now - but that amplified positive experiences too. I realized how deeply our happiness is connected to our expectations. If I didn’t expect or demand things of life I could actually be quite happy just playing Yahtzee all day. But it felt good to know that the album was waiting for me on the other side. It was a reminder of something else, the someone I was outside the hospital.”

Layered with hazy synths, string melodies, and soft effortless vocals; ‘Let Love In’ signifies the feeling of desperately longing to be more open with others, and taking new steps to change that. Fusing classic pop and melodic indie, Charlotta has cleverly created a distinctive sound that is both sophisticated and mature.

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Emmrose - Hopeless Romantics (E.P).

Alt-pop teen artist Emmrose shared her debut EP Hopeless Romantics with the world on Friday. A deeply personal collection of songs reflect on love, heartbreak, and finding your own happiness. Emmrose delivers intense, poetic lyrics and catchy pop melodies, immersing listeners into a deeply emotive world of her own.

"Don’t let bad people stay in your life," reflected Emmrose, speaking both on the content of the EP and her own experiences. "It is possible to move on and find happiness. Don’t let the pain of life over come you and take away your spirit. It’s possible to overcome it. It’s okay to be sad, but just know that this sadness isn’t really ‘you’, and your attachment to people isn’t happy and you can move on." While much of the material reflects on heartache and heartbreak, the ultimate message is one of hope, and learning how to find a way to move on.

Hopeless Romantics embraces the idea of interwoven emotions, memories, and experiences, acknowledging how they can continue to impact an individual as they try to move forward in finding their own happiness. "The song 'Takes Me Back' was written a while after I wrote 'Five Months' even though it is heard as an intro to the song," shared Emmrose. "I thought it fit well since it is the memory of what had taken place in the lyrics of 'Five Months'. It was a pretty dark time for me, and the audio effects highlight the lyrics so well. I’m really proud of that track."

Much of her lyrical and musical inspiration comes while writing alone at home. "I’ll either play chords that come to me, or a melody that’s been ringing in my head. Sometimes I write down lyrics and then set it to music," said Emmrose. Over the course of the past year, she recorded Hopeless Romantics, and a surge of new material with producer/engineer Michael Abiuso (Behind the Curtains Media). "I’ve been working with Michael  a lot more, and it’s been really exciting," said Emmrose, reflecting on her growth. "While experimenting with sounds in the studio, we often find ourselves working on individual creations until ready to share, we then combine ideas to make something really great. Mike will often suggest some crazy ideas, like having me pick up and play an accordion, or belt lyrics into the bell of a tuba as a vocal effect. We always find ourselves doing something kooky and fun in the studio." Their collaborative efforts showcases itself with intricate details on every track, further accenting her soaring vocals.

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Fake Shape - It's Easy.

Fake Shape is an Alternative-Indie band from Hamilton, Ontario that formed in September 2018.

All five musicians offer their own aesthetic, creating music that falls between funk, indie-rock, pop and ambient electronic.

They have been writing and recording at Fort Rose in Hamilton and are getting ready to release their debut EP, Night Swim.

The songs drift through contrasting mindsets and morphing textures like navigating a solitary swim through dark water.

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The Electric Mess - City Sun.

Garage-punk band The Electric Mess share a new single "City Sun" this weekend! Self-described as a dystopian proto-punk ripper, its timing is darkly appropriate, although unintended, with NYC, and the world, coming to a grinding halt over the COVID-19 virus. "City Sun" comes ahead of The Electric Mess' fifth album The Electric Mess V, due out April 17th.

" 'City Sun' is a dystopian tune I wrote about a year ago," reflected front-woman Esther Crow (vocals, rhythm guitar, percussion). "It has some surf elements but also a post-punk vibe, and then a slower, psyched out part with theremin (synth)." While the lyrics reflect darkly, they also provide a sense of hope and ability to overcome. "I think the overall feeling that most of us are experiencing under the current situation and events is what prompted me to write it," continued Crow.

"It specifically refers to the New York City sun, and the setting of the sun/entrance of "the shadow" is a metaphor for the end of the world (as we know it? or...entirely? It's your guess!). Though the song is dark, and times have gotten even darker than when I wrote it a year ago, there's a desperate clutching at HOPE and LIGHT too. The lyrics during the slow/synth part, "what more can I do, here, to keep the light on...in my mind?" reflect a yearning to dig deep inside and stay positive, even though the outside world keeps hurling challenges at us. Ultimately, defeating the darkest elements will depend on fearlessly standing up to evil, and conquering it with love and light. I believe we can do this!"

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Thursday, 23 January 2020

CIEL - haha charade - Kluster B - LEYA - Big Fox - 13//ali_fawn - Asgeir

CIEL have just released 'The Shore' and yet another Brighton (England) band comes on to our radar with some excellent dream pop, the seaside town is certainly a hotbed for musical talent these days. === Indie band haha charade share 'Forgotten Words' a refined rocker that carries a good few hooks. === From Kluster B we have 'Counterpart' a genre spanning delight where layers of instrumentation and melodic vocals work so well together. === It took me a while to get into the new LEYA song 'Wave' but it was one of those pieces I kept on going back to & I'm glad I did, it's original, atmospheric & quite creative. === We are not short of talented Scandinavian artist's at the moment and there is plenty of room for Big Fox and the dreamy and seductive song 'Beast'. === Another track that took a couple of plays or so to get, is from 13//ali_fawn who makes a second appearance here with 'Mirrorshade', there is plenty going on with what is a musical journey, the song evolving and becoming quite mesmerising. === Icelandic artist Asgeir has shared 'Pictures' along with a fine video, the song is full of simmering emotion, along with some fabulous vocals and a splendid musical backdrop.
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CIEL - The Shore.

Brighton-based newcomers CIEL share mesmeric dream pop jaunt ‘The Shore’, lead single from the band’s debut EP ‘Movement’ out this spring.

Heavily leaning on a collection of interwoven guitars, pulsing bass-lines and intriguing vocal harmonies, the trio’s first release offers a fascinating glimpse into their dreamy world of alt-pop gems, conjuring up innovative and nostalgic ideas which only add to their intrinsic mystique.

Comprising of Dutch musician Michelle Hindriks and the friends she made upon relocation to Brighton, the three-piece have quickly earned kudos for their exquisite live show, having already supported the likes of Hatchie, Sasami and Penelope Isles, as well as working with the latter’s Jack Wolter on their upcoming debut EP.

Discussing their lead single, Hinkdriks explained: “The song is about a moment where you feel stuck in your life and are waiting for it to ‘really’ begin; yet at the same time, you realise it’s just an illusion and your life has already begun, and you’re living it right now. Losing the connection with that essence can feel extremely frustrating”.

Produced by Penelope Isles’ Jack Wolter, CIEL’s ‘The Shore’ is out January 22nd and will be available via all digital platforms.

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haha charade - Forgotten Words.

Forgotten Words is about the abrupt ending to a relationship. The lyrics outline the inability to say how you’re feeling, as if there’s so much to say, you can’t say anything at all. The accompanying music is melodramatic to channel what it feels like processing grief. The climax of the song highlights the visceral explosions of internal rage, juxtaposed with the cadence of the melody, which represents outwardly shutting down because it hurts too much to think about it.

The haha charade story began from humble beginnings of playing in basements, living rooms, and garages. The band's cult following that was growing, lead to haha charade's debut show in the Philadelphia area during the summer of 2018.

haha charade’s ability to merge genres and coin their unique style is attributed to a collaborative artistic approach to everything from songwriting to artwork and performance.  haha charade consists of vocalists and guitarists, Alex Wade and Justin Lefler, bassist, Matt Bowe, and drummer, Brendan McBride. With three main songwriters in the group, each writer brings their own independent influences from Punk, Garage Rock, Folk Rock, and Hip Hop, which merges together to create the haha charade sound.

Musical stylings are influenced by a multitude of bands including The Strokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Rebelution, with a mix of cheeky and political lyrics influenced by bands such as Arctic Monkeys and State Radio.  This creates the noteworthy, psychedelic, surfy vibe that can be found on their 2020 debut self titled LP.

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Kluster B - Counterpart.

Kluster B (fka Kluster) was founded by four friends and a virtual drummer in Malmö 2014, a real life drummer joined in shortly afterwards and the gang was complete. Since, the quintet has been active on as well the Malmö indie scene as playing shows in Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, supporting acts such as Frankie Cosmos, Omni and Nicole Sabouné. Debut album 'civic' was released in 2018 and Kluster received praise from Line of Best Fit, BBC Radio 6, major Swedish music magazines and more. The band is now back with new single 'Counterpart', the first taste from their upcoming sophomore album.

Counterpart is yet another glimpse of Kluster's playful sound - a melting pot of broad influences such as pop, punk, noise, lo-fi, indie and jazz. According to the band, 'Counterpart' is a track that begs for humbleness from the counterpart, a wish for ones human shortcomings to be accepted.

The members have a history as academic jazz players, forming Kluster B after longing to find a collective process free from strict genre playbooks and narrow-minded academic rules. A process that resulted in Kluster B's captivating characteristic dynamic and turning points, alternating from melodious to dissonance, complex to simple.

Kluster B consist of Linnea Hall (vocals), Pontus Örnstrand (keyboard), Sebastian Hegedüs (guitar), Adam Jonsson (guitar) and Andreas Pollak (drums) and are available for interviews and other requests. Counterpart is out now, the band's sophomore LP will be out later this spring.

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LEYA - Wave.

LEYA, the project of Marilu Donovan (Eartheater, Aerial East, Julie Byrne) and Adam Markiewicz (PC Worship, The Dreebs), this week shared a self-directed video for "WAVE," the second single from their forthcoming sophomore album Flood Dream. "The video features our two friends," explain LEYA on their enveloping track, "disciples of 34th generation Shaolin warrior monk and activist Shi Yan Ming, founder of the luminous USA Shaolin Temple in Manhattan, where RZA, Rosie Perez, Wesley Snipes, Jim Jarmusch, and Tricky have all trained.

They are part of the wave." The song follows the album's lead single "WEIGHT," which features the operatic-pop vocalist GABI as well as LEYA's surprise-dropped collaborative EP with Eartheater, Angel Lust, released December 2019 via PAN.

On March 6th, LEYA will celebrate their album release show in New York City with Eartheater and head out on a North America tour, including dates opening for Brooklyn black metal band Liturgy. Flood Dream will be released March 6th on CD/LP/Digital and is available for pre-order via NNA Tapes.

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Big Fox - Beast.

Malmö, Sweden-based artist Charlotta Perers AKA Big Fox returns six years after her last album release with fifth single lifted from upcoming full-length “See How the Light Falls”. Initially due for release in May 2018, Charlotta received some news which derailed the campaign.

“A few weeks before the album was supposed to be released, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma,” she says. “It all happened very quickly and it was almost like entering a parallel world with a different time scale, rules and priorities.”

The process permitted a much deeper sense of perspective to come to light for Perers; “Life suddenly became very intense, very here and now - but that amplified positive experiences too. But it felt good to know that the album was waiting for me on the other side. It was a reminder of something else, the someone I was outside the hospital.”

18 months down the line, Charlotta is better and “slowly reclaiming my life back”. The period of gestation gave the finished album more gravity and significance for the songwriter. “When I listen to it now, I actually like the album even more,” she says. “I have some distance from it. When you’re in the middle of the process, it's easy to get caught up in the details and not really hear the song anymore.”

Charlotta didn’t allow “See How the Light Falls” to be rushed. Taking two and a half years to finish, and five years to release the album, Perers laboured over it, allowing it to unravel and accumulate organically.

“My experience of creativity is that I get this vague feeling of being pointed in a certain direction,” she says. “It rarely explains itself more than that. But I’ve learnt that if I give it time and attention then things slowly start to move and grow into something, like with the lyrics, I can search for the right lyrics for a long time, even give up, and then some months later it’s as if the missing words find me rather than the other way around.”

Produced by Tom Malmros (Alice Boman, This is Head), the full-length explores varying sonic avenues, showcasing instrumental eclecticism in the form of subtle brass blasts, swelling cello and scintillating synthesisers.

On her new single, ‘Beast’, Charlotta interrogates the process of using violence and fear to enforce order, and frames through a plucky-pop lens. She comments on how it’s thematically introspective, and how the track has purposely adopted pop characteristics; “I've been thinking a lot about our need for control, how we justify the use of violence to create order. And my part in that order.

“We're often so good at rationally explaining and justifying our actions that we end up convincing ourselves that we had no other choice. Maybe we didn't. But the heart never forgets the eyes of the one we have betrayed. The heart never forgets. I wasn't sure if I could write this song. Finish it. Balance it. It seemed so fragile, tipped over so easily. But it was almost as if it wanted to be written, needed to be. Sometimes maybe even the difficult subjects need their pop costume.”

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13//ali_fawn - Mirrorshade.

Detroit-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Alister Fawnwoda AKA 13//ali_fawn releases ‘Mirrorshade’, second taste of forthcoming album ‘Ruby Beach’, due Summer 2020 and mixed by Welsh powerhouse David Wrench (Caribou, FKA Twigs, Sampha, Shura, The xx, Young Fathers, +++).

Born in Motor City, Fawnwoda cultivated his musicianship through learning violin and piano from a young age. Honing his métier, he studied music, poetry and visual arts at The University of Miami and then the Tibetan Buddhist-founded Naropa University.

In 2016 he moved to LA to work under the tutelage of Hans Zimmer as an intern, and by 2019 Ali had moved back to Detroit to quench a hankering for eclectic collaborations, both as a producer and as a musician. To date, he’s worked on projects with producers Cole M. Greif-Neil (Beck, Ariel Pink), Gordon Raphael (The Strokes), Sonny DiPerri (DIIV, Animal Collective), Marta Salogni (Björk, The xx), and many more. Additionally, he’s joined forces with musicians including Alex Carapetis (Nine Inch Nails, The Voidz), Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa (Warpaint), Mauro Refosco (Talking Heads, Atoms for Peace), and Philip Peterson (Portugal. The Man).

Ali talks about his newest feat, ‘Mirrorshade’, which features; “The emotional inspiration was to make a song people could make love and babies to.

One of the conceptual ideas was to create a song form that features bursts of drum parts that evolve over time held down by a percussion phrase. The main low instrument in the percussion section is Mauro’s Surdo drum. Mirrorshade is a track featuring Alex Carapetis on drums, Mauro Refosco on percussion, Jenny Lee Lindberg on Bass, Joey Stevens on guitar and me on synthesizers and programming. It was mixed by David Wrench and mastered by John Davis.”

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Asgeir - Pictures.

Ásgeir shares another cut from his forthcoming new album ‘Bury The Moon’ – new track ‘Pictures’ arrives with an accompanying video, for which the artist immersed himself in nature in his home country, in a bid to reflect the inspiration of the track. The video illustrates the artist’s connection to his country, its roots and its music – whilst at the same time, it is a representation of inner reflection. Inspired by the Icelandic landscape and traditional Icelandic folk music, Asgeir locked himself away in a summerhouse deep in the countryside to write the new album. Revisiting his acoustic beginnings and taking things back to basics, he conjured up ‘Pictures’, the next single to be released from the highly anticipated album.

Talking about the new track, the introvert artist said: “The lyrics paint pictures of daily life, from when we wake up and go to work and how our dreams come alive in the nighttime. It also depicts the importance of not thinking more of your country than other countries / or yourself over other people, and the importance of unity between people.”

The lauded Icelandic artist makes music that penetrates a little deeper than most. A potent Icelandic songwriter, his debut album soared to success in his native land, before English language edition ‘In The Silence’ connected with an entirely new audience. An artist of rare scope, sincerity, and emotion, his next step might well be his bravest, and his most enduring.  ‘Bury The Moon’ – or ‘Sátt’, to give the record its Icelandic title – is out on 7th February on One Little Indian Records.

Asgeir continues; “The director (Einar Egilsson) came up with this idea of doing something with references to old western movies. We felt like the song was kind of split in half, the verses are melancholic and sad while the choruses are more hopeful and so the video expresses those conflicting emotions on the screen. The plot follows a man that is free for a while but is then captured by this sheriff character. The verses show the man when he has lost his freedom, but the choruses show him when he is free.”

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Saturday, 23 November 2019

Emmrose - The Pairs - The Know - Big Fox - Ben Watt - Ducks Unlimited - Brooke Bentham - Lilla Parasit

Emmrose has a new single entitled 'Hopeless Romantics'. With hints of Latin music and Emmrose's melodic and engaging vocals this is feisty and catchy affair. === The Pairs have shared 'Will And A Way' where beautiful vocals and harmonies are accompanied by a gentle acoustic backdrop on this mesmerising track. === Formed in late 2018 The Know have a new video for '143', a dreamy and atmospheric song that seemingly glides along. === Folk singer-songwriter Big Fox has just released 'All I'm Trying' the Sweden based artist's vocals are sublime on this gentle song. === We featured 'Sunlight Follows The Night' back in September and Ben Watt returns with another video, this time for 'Balanced On A Wire' that once again suggests his forthcoming album 'Storm Damage' is going to be rather special. === We first featured Ducks Unlimited back in July and they return now with 'Gleaming Spires' which is another vibrant, melodic and charming song. === It's just over a month since we shared 'All My Friends Are Drunk' by Brooke Bentham who now returns with 'Perform For You' a fabulous track, and another massive teaser for next February's album release. === Rounding off today's musical round up we have Lilla Parasit with 'Feather Soul' where the bands brand new track exudes originality, plenty of hooks and a refined indie rock feel.
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Emmrose - Hopeless Romantics.

Darkly emotive pop artist Emmrose returns with another single “Hopeless Romantics”. As the title suggests, it delves into the frustrations of modern dating and unrequited love – hoping for something more, and feeling hopeless as a result. Though just sixteen years old, NYC-native Emmrose delivers intense, self-reflective lyrics, and cleverly catchy pop melodies that keep listeners coming back for more.

“The song is about a hopeless ‘relationship’ I had last year,” shared Emmrose. “I’d wonder whether or not it was real the entire time. On some days he’d say the nicest things and then I’d hear nothing at all. I felt used, really.” The lyrics reveal the heart-break of the story, opening with a question, “Is this it? Is this all we’re gonna be?” It’s the hope of a budding relationship, that becomes crushed when the feelings and expectations of one side are raised, teased, and left unreturned; dashed against the rocks in inevitable hurt. Emmrose’s lyrical honesty cuts deep, in hurtful anger stating, “I think you knew, I was never good enough for you.” She went on to share, “When I had first written this song, the lyrics were what I was afraid of. That I ‘wasn’t good enough’ and that we were’t going to be anything more than ‘friends with benefits’ or whatever that means. Of course, all this then happened – and it took me forever to get over it.” Continuing in the vein of previous singles, her lyrics are deeply introspective and poetically written. Relatable, yet never predictable, her music explores the swells and depths of love, relationships, and emotion with stunning finesse. Emmrose never shies from being her honest self, even if that means admitting feeling like a hopeless romantic in the modern world.

“Being so connected with phones and social media can definitely get your hopes up,” mused Emmrose, reflecting on her own experiences as a high school junior. “People can text you at any time, and be in touch so much that it begins to make you think ‘wow this person must really like me’ even though in reality they might just be stringing you along.”

Sonically, the track continues Emmrose’s exploration of a dark pop palette, but also pulls in uptempo, Latin-inspired flair. “When I first began writing this song my dad mentioned that it sort of sounded like a Spanish bull-fighting song,” laughed Emmrose. “I originally wrote it on the ukulele, and kept going with that vibe because I thought it was fun and felt really natural to try something new.” Producer/engineer Michael Abiuso (Behind the Curtains Media) commented further on the development of the single. “I recall Emmrose having such fantastic melodies and lyrics floating around; at the time she was just learning new chords on ukulele. The easiest thing I could think of to play along with her on guitar was just moving one major chord back-and-forth a half step, giving a very Latin-esque feel to the track. I could see a look of excitement on her face and that she was internally cooking up some ideas! She returned to the studio within a few days with “Hopeless Romantics” fully structured with chords, melodies, and lyrics that I absolutely adored. I then showed her some Bjork tracks such as “Hunter” to get some sonic pallet influences and the rest is history.”


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The Pairs - Will And A Way.

The Pairs don’t quite fit any particular genre and they like that! With three unique songwriters at the helm, The Pairs create a diverse repertoire using their individual lives as inspiration. Employing music as a tool for sharing stories of life’s challenges, hope and hilarity, The Pairs inherently connect with their audience through their emotion-full performances. Powered by 3 classically trained vocalists and a former punk rock drummer, their unique blend of harmony and rhythm will hug your eardrums and inspire you to dance!

The album “Noise” is a collection of songs written from a place of hope, hilarity, tragedy and questioning. With lyrics, unique interpretations of rhythm, and unpredictable, sometimes haunting harmonies, this album articulates the idea that at any given moment a multitude of perspectives exist. The word “noise” is representative of the often chaotic experience of human life— whether it’s the noise of the world around us, the internal noise we try to make sense of, or simply the noise we can’t help but make as we fumble our way through our own beautiful journey.

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The Know - 143.

The Know began in late 2018 when Daniel Knowles suggested to his wife, Jennifer Farmer, that instead of traveling home for the holidays (to the UK and Texas respectively) that the LA based transplants stay put and try to create music together, just the two of them. This would be the married couple’s gift to themselves. For the next few weeks, they isolated themselves in their home studio with no real plan except a mutual love of Beach House, Julee Cruise, Ye Ye, The Jesus and Mary Chain, 60's girl groups, and the evocative storytelling lyricism of Patsy Cline and The National.

The first result was lead single '143.' Inspired by Tom Waits’ ‘(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night’, the dream pop song melds autobiographical with fantastical lyrics and unfolds as a series of conversations, images, and hazy recollections of a night out. Their love for ethereal, dreamy atmospheres is shown in ‘143’, glistening with warm melodies, thick soundscapes, and quirky spontaneous flares. Four more songs quickly followed in the wake of 143, tracks that provide an unflinching look at the couple. The EP often delves deep into the duo’s personal lives by honestly narrating stories from their relationship and life experiences against a kaleidoscopic sonic palette.

Recording together wasn’t entirely new to the couple, a few years prior they had made an album as “Ghostel” with a friend providing vocals. Knowles, previously a producer and guitarist for UK shoegaze band “Amusement Parks on Fire” and live sound engineer for bands like Cigarettes After Sex, Sharon Van Etten, and Phoebe Bridgers, recorded the project while Farmer became a co-writer and bassist for the first time. They’d later have one of their songs featured prominently in the trailer for Oscar nominated film, “Mustang.”

The debut EP which was produced, mixed, and mastered by Knowles while Farmer handled the band’s visuals further reiterates their wish to craft something wholly their own. In addition, Knowles solely played all of the instruments while Farmer, for the first time, took on lead vocals. With a strong desire but no professional training and a deep seated fear, so intense in fact that previous attempts had reduced her to tears, Farmer’s voice emerges as courageous and powerful.


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Big Fox - All I'm Trying.

Malmö, Sweden-based artist Charlotta Perers AKA Big Fox returns six years after her last album release with fourth single lifted from upcoming full-length “See How the Light Falls”. Initially due for release in May 2018, Charlotta received some news which derailed the campaign. “A few weeks before the album was supposed to be released, I was diagnosed with Lymphoma,” she says. “It all happened very quickly and it was almost like entering a parallel world with a different time scale, rules and priorities.” The process permitted a much deeper sense of perspective to come to light for Perers; “Life suddenly became very intense, very here and now - but that amplified positive experiences too. But it felt good to know that the album was waiting for me on the other side. It was a reminder of something else, the someone I was outside the hospital.”

18 months down the line, Charlotta is better and “slowly reclaiming my life back”. The period of gestation gave the finished album more gravity and significance for the songwriter. “When I listen to it now, I actually like the album even more,” she says. “I have some distance from it. When you’re in the middle of the process, it's easy to get caught up in the details and not really hear the song anymore.” Following sync placements on Charmed, You’re the Worst and MTV’s Catfish, Big Fox’s 2013 single “Shadows” has surpassed 2million+ streams on Spotify alone, while her total streaming numbers exceed 3.6million. Charlotta didn’t allow “See How the Light Falls” to be rushed. Taking two and a half years to finish, and five years to release the album, Perers laboured over it, allowing it to unravel and accumulate organically.

“My experience of creativity is that I get this vague feeling of being pointed in a certain direction,” she says. “It rarely explains itself more than that. But I’ve learnt that if I give it time and attention then things slowly start to move and grow into something, like with the lyrics, I can search for the right lyrics for a long time, even give up, and then some months later it’s as if the missing words find me rather than the other way around.” Produced by Tom Malmros (Alice Boman, This is Head), the full-length explores varying sonic avenues, showcasing instrumental eclecticism in the form of subtle brass blasts, swelling cello and scintillating synthesisers.

At times new single ‘All I’m Trying’ can feel aurally reminiscent of Cate Le Bon or a deeply deconstructed Aldous Harding. Big Fox comments that she found it difficult to pen the lo-fi feat; “Some songs are hard to write about. They just move like a slow train, as if they had no intention of causing any big fuss or drama. But they are sincere, honest. Every word is carefully selected, every synthesizer questioned. And the more time you spend with them, the more you start loving them. That’s how I feel about “All I’m Trying”.”

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Ben Watt - Balanced On A Wire.

Award-winning musician-writer-DJ Ben Watt releases a new song "Balanced On A Wire" ahead of his forthcoming new album Storm Damage (out Jan 31) together with an atmospheric performance video filmed at the legendary RAK Studios in London where the album was recorded in April earlier this year. The video and track, which BlackBook called "...one of the most visceral pieces of music he's ever recorded," gives a flavor of Watt's powerful new "future-retro trio" which will tour in support of the album. Additionally, Watt's first US dates in almost three years are also announced today. The US tour kicks off on March 31 in Washington, D.C. and will make stops in New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and more.

"My kids were teenagers leaving home for the first time when I wrote it,' says Watt of the new song. "I was moved by their mixture of anxiety and determination. It reminded me of being nineteen myself, standing on the edge of something new, how you cope, how you need to open up when the other half of you is screaming 'no'. And I realised I still felt like that now sometimes. Perhaps that feeling never really leaves you."

Recently, Watt released the single "Sunlight Follows The Night" and "Irene," featuring Low's Alan Sparhawk on electric guitar and harmony vocal. Stereogum called Sparhawk "...an ideal accompaniment for the song’s central substance, which amounts to Watt crooning with earthy singer-songwriter gravitas over a finger-picked metal resonator guitar and a synthetic tape loop." Following the release of "Irene," Flood Magazine published an in-depth and inspiring conversation between Sparhawk and Watt.

Storm Damage - a hybrid contemporary acoustic-electronic set - completes a compelling trilogy of albums since Watt's late-flowering return to solo songwriting and singing six years ago after ten years as an acclaimed DJ-remixer-label boss and seventeen in best-selling duo, Everything But The Girl with Tracey Thorn.

"My closest half-brother died unexpectedly in 2016, only four years after my half-sister," he says of events surrounding the album's origins. "I got stuck for a year, angry inside and angry at the political world casually detonating around me. I felt half powerless, half driven. When the songs finally came, some were dark, yes, but there is always room for light. Always. I just tried to put that across." Emotional and inventive, Storm Damage is released on Unmade Road through Caroline International.


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Ducks Unlimited - Gleaming Spires.

Ducks Unlimited are sharing their breezy new single, ‘Gleaming Spires’ – this is the latest to be taken from their debut EP, ‘Get Bleak’ which is due out next Friday (Nov 29) via Bobo Integral.

‘Gleaming Spires’ follows hot on the heels of last month’s ‘Anhedonia’ release, as well as the Brooklyn Vegan and Paste-tipped EP-titled track. It’s an effervescent new C86-tinged cut that rides the buoyant jangle-pop twang of Sarah Records and Postcard-signed acts – The Chills, Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens, etc. The new tracks –self-recorded and produced by the band in guitarist, Evan Lewis’s bedroom – add to previous singles (produced by Josh Korody, also Dilly Dally, Weaves) that found the quartet support Rolling Blackouts CF, The Goon Sax and Weyes Blood.

Speaking about the single that thematically addresses hometowns and the push-pull relationships we share with them, frontman Tom Mcgreevy says: "It’s about the emotional energy that gets put into hating a place. I feel like the manic intensity with which I've heard friends sometimes shit on the town they live in is often pretty transparently an exercise in the displacement of issues in other parts of their lives.”

“There's also this thing I've always found oddly charming about Toronto where, as a colonial leftover it has a bunch of streets named for various royal things, but normally in a vague way,” he continues. “‘King Street’ and ‘Queen Street’ being the major ones, but there are also some other names that either reference British history ('Victoria Street') or just have a kind of Camelot vibe (at least in my head) like 'John Street’.”


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Brooke Bentham - Perform For You.

Brooke Bentham has announced the release of her debut album Everyday Nothing on AllPoints on the 28th of February. She also shares a second single, ‘Perform For You’, a melancholy meditation on the power dynamics in toxic relationships. Inspired by novels that Brooke was reading at the time. She probes beneath the surface of a doomed romance from the get-go.  “It’s like surrendering to something, even though you know it’s never going to work, realising you’re so dependent on someone and knowing your presence in that relationship. It’s love in the worst way.” she says.

“‘Perform For You’ is probably my favourite, because it reminds me of lots of the music I love. Once we’d recorded that, I knew we were making an album. Musically it was exactly where I wanted to be.” Everyday Nothing follows two EPs of music shored up by intense reflection, which has earned the 23 year old many admirers and a rapidly growing fanbase.

Brooke writes sharp and eloquent songs about her experiences as she understands them, using words and music to resolve and record the tensions of young adulthood. Confronted with the mundanities of life and caught between two jobs in London, she finds intense lyricism in the struggle for purpose and direction. The album is, in her words, “in part an ode to the little moments in life, the frustration of being young and unaware of what you want, but getting older and realising you still don’t know. It’s an album I searched for myself in, filled with questions I asked myself."

Written entirely by Brooke, with a few contributions from producer Bill Ryder-Jones (who’s own album Yawn was showered with 4 and 5 star reviews last year), Everyday Nothing documents a fast-rising 23-year-old looking to make sense of her existence. So impressed was Ryder-Jones with Brooke’s observational lyricism that he said: "I've worked with some amazing songwriters in my career. I think Brooke at 23 is well on her way to being up there with Alex (Turner), Saint Saviour, Mick (Head) and James (Skelly). Her lyric writing will be overlooked because of her voice but it is her words that will set her apart from others.”

"Perform For You" follows "All My Friends Are Drunk" released early October which was the first taster of Everyday Nothing. A looser indie rock sound than her previous EPs pitched somewhere between Mazzy Star, Yo La Tengo, Sparklehorse and early Angel Olsen and nods to the ‘90s rock bands she was listening to leading up to the album being written, notably Low, Yo La Tengo and Broadcast.


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Lilla Parasit - Feather Soul.

Earlier this fall, Lilla Parasit signed with Stockholm label family Rama Lama Records (Chez Ali, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Julia Rakel etc.) and introduced themselves with the excellent Gaslights. Today, new single Feather Soul is released on all platforms, the second cut from the band's forthcoming, self-titled debut album which is out early 2020.

Lilla Parasit may be a new band, but the members are no strangers for fans of the Swedish psychedelic and indie scene. The band is lead by Are, who's band Melby released their debut album this spring to great acclaim, and made complete by Amanda Lindgren (Systraskap), David Svedmyr (Me and My Kites) and Jessica Klingsell.

The project started out three years ago and has since changed both names and members before finding both the perfect setting and sound. The band's grand semi-psychedelic lo-fi folk is now finally ready to reach the world's ears. Feather Soul showcases the band's softer and more melodic sides and is a beautiful piece taken from the upcoming mini album Lilla Parasit, out in March 2020.

"Feather soul is the second single from our upcoming album. The first one, Gaslights, was a mishmash of everything from the record, while this one is probably the song that stands out the most. It is much more straight-forward, both lyrically and musically. Perhaps so much so that it feels a bit off in the whole of the album, but it just had to be like that. I wrote it to my sister when she had a kind of hard time. She, and the rest of my family live in the north of Norway, almost 24 hours away by train. That was extra strange to relate to when she was unwell. So I guess that is what the song is about. "

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Dumpstaphunk - Kacimi & Mécréance - Ellen & Simona - Steven Troch Band - Bandits on the Run

Dumpstaphunk - Let's Do It. New Orleans’ modern torchbearers of funk, Dumpstaphunk returns to the fray with their new single “Let’s Do ...