Showing posts with label Mercury's Antennae. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mercury's Antennae. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 December 2025

Telemac - Evie Williams - bauhofer - Nick & June - Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Mercury's Antennae

Photo - Philippe Poulénas
Telemac - Telemac (EP).

Telemac draws its strength from the tension between new wave, garage, and psychedelic rock. Driven by a seventies-flavored synth-bass, ethereal guitars, and sharp, propulsive drumming, the quartet weaves a sound where mystery flirts with frenzy, and where every track feels like a sensory experience.

The project revolves around four complementary personalities: Mélina (drums), Vincent and Karim (guitars), and Seb (vocals). Together, they craft a universe that borrows as much from the icy atmospheres of Joy Division as from the raw energy of The Cramps, while embracing the experimental legacy of The Velvet Underground. This alchemy gives rise to a distinctive sound — dark yet radiant, visceral yet poetic — somewhere between nocturnal wandering and a yearning for escape.

Telemac’s lyrics are introspective and evocative. They explore the search for self, emotional imbalance, the weight of illusion, and the excesses of our time. At times intimate, at times critical, they open cracks where lucidity and rebellion seep through. Fireflies, fragments of blue sky, and deceptive suns appear as recurring metaphors — symbols of a generation searching for meaning.

On stage, Telemac unleashes a raw, magnetic energy capable of plunging the audience into an electric trance. The band has made its mark in iconic venues such as Le Mécanique Ondulatoire and Supersonic in Paris, Rockstore and Victoire 2 in Montpellier, and the Secret Place — where they opened for The Warlocks — as well as in Toulouse, Perpignan, Cherbourg, and beyond. Their live set evolves fluidly, occasionally welcoming guest voices: Nika (Nika Leeflang Project) and Nico (MaisonClose) have already stepped up to the mic, adding new textures and contrasts to the live experience.


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Photo - Cammie Perkoulidis

Evie Williams - Heather Court.

Meanjin/Brisbane’s Evie Williams returned with ‘Heather Court’, Friday, December 5, a hazy indie folk-rock daydream. Shaped by loose drumming, laidback overdriven guitars and Evie's dulcet vocals, she shares a story about the unsteady pulse of early adulthood. Evie Williams has peppered releases across the years since her 2019 debut, exploring sounds that move through pop, country and indie folk. Highlights so far include being named a finalist for Brisbane City Council's QUBE Effect, performing at Hidden Lanes Festival, supporting EMEREE and Tyla Jane and selling out her debut full-band show earlier this year.  

Now with ‘Heather Court’, Evie leans into a moodier palette and turns inward, reflecting on her own tension between who she hoped to become and the reality she was living, a feeling she captures with raw honesty. Speaking on the single, she shares:
 
"‘Heather Court’ is a song about self-sabotage. It is the name of an old apartment block that I had visions of living in one day, with a beautiful balcony, a cat and a romanticised life. I would drive past and wonder how I would ever make a life like that, when I was going home to a mattress on the floor and my forgotten coffee on my desk. It highlights the feeling of wasted potential, the pearls on the dresser ready to be worn, but forgotten again."

That bittersweet tension is found in the track's warm, hazy production. With a mellow swing and a dreamy, slightly frayed edge, ‘Heather Court’ moves in a slow sway of fuzzy guitar layers and warm, feather-light vocals. The track toes the line between indie folk and psych rock with its lazy drum groove and drifting riffs as Evie’s voice threads through the haze of each verse and chorus. 
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bauhofer  It's Alright.

After the last single was successfully received on various country-pop radio stations, Swiss singer-songwriter bauhofer from Wollerau (SZ) is now striking more melancholic yet powerful pop tones. 

With “It’s Alright”, the third single from the upcoming EP The River Seine (to be released in spring), bauhofer once again relies on his characteristic southern-rock blend of rock, blues, and country elements.

The new track tells the story of a painful breakup and the liberating feeling of being able to start anew—an emotional moment that bauhofer conveys impressively through his distinctive soundscape. The single was produced by Slade Templeton (Crimer, Crying Vessel) at Influx Studios in Bern.


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Photo - Luka Popp
Nick & June - New Year's Face (Album).

Berlin duo Nick & June (aka Nick Wolf and Suzie-Lou Kraft) released their new album 'New Year's Face' yesterday Friday, 5th December. Produced by Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon Van Etten) and recorded in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 'New Year's Face', which includes collaborations with Owen Pallett, The National’s Kyle Resnick and Ben Lanz, The Antlers and others, will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally. 'New Year's Face' is the duo's first release since 2023's 'Beach Baby, Baby EP', which enjoyed over 30 million streams, widespread critical praise and led to sold-out shows across Europe.

Earlier this week they shared 'You Are The Voice That's Hunting My Soul For A Show', the last single before the album release: guitar washes, synthesisers, arpeggios—everything floats, everything shimmers. Suzie leads the voices, clear, unhurried, as if speaking a message into the night sky.  The lyrics glow like fragile neon in the dark. “Hey there, pinker moon / I’ve been tired for too long / Have you heard the news / I had it on my tongue”—fatigue, longing, a conversation with a celestial body as if it were a confidant. 

The recurring choruses, the light, flickering arpeggios, Suzie carrying the words—everything moves like fog over a city at night. Fragile truths suspended. “We are the bright and the dark”—a mantra binding the duality of hope and loss, intimacy and distance.  You Are the Voice That’s Hunting My Soul for a Show may be one of the most cinematic tracks on the album. Not just music, but a picture slowly emerging, unfolding, lingering long after the last note.    
 
Suzie-Lou explains: “Sometimes we sit on a song for a long time, and this was one of those cases. We spent a lot of time talking about the theme, exchanging opinions, debating words, trying out melodies—the awkward title stayed, but not much from the original sketch. Here, the arpeggio makes an appearance again, playfully weaving in some of the thought structures that run throughout the entire album.”


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Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Woolf.

Continuing the lead up to their 7th studio album Pale Bloom, Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys are back with “Woolf” (December 5th). Opening with hesitant vocals that build into rich, layered harmonies, the third single from the Berlin based band is like two voices meeting across time. Kruger's voice multiplies into layered harmonies that feel like a dialogue between past and present, eventually soaring over driving guitars and viola with the refrain: Heaven is twisting / fraying / heaven is bending / ageing / heaven is twisting / fading / heaven / is brutal / baby.

The track moves unpredictably, with guitars and viola creating an urgent, searching sound. Kruger draws inspiration from Virginia Woolf, imagining a connection across a century between two artists wrestling with similar questions about freedom and identity. It's both a tribute and an attempt to rewrite history—offering solidarity to a voice from the past.

Kruger expands “‘Woolf’ is a twisted sort of love letter — or a summoning. Or a sentencing. To a godless void, to Virginia, to the patriarchy, to my past self. As the four distinct chapters of this not-very-long song suggest, I’m not quite sure how to thread all these selves together into a cohesive timeline or tempo. Luckily, music makes space for such a problem.” 

'Woolf' stands as the third insight into their upcoming album Pale Bloom. Unlike the Lost Boys' earlier albums, produced within a specific moment in time, Pale Bloom emerged slowly, trying to suspend a creation myth in its amber – an origin tale that is ancient and complex; full of mystery and metaphor – that seeks neither clarification nor end.

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Mercury's Antennae - The Veil Opaque v.2.

‘The Veil Opaque v.2 (single mix)’ is a newly altered remix, offering fans an elegant and atmospheric rendition of the album version from Among the Black Trees. The new single mix highlights Cindy Coulter’s driving bass line, Allen’s dream-felt voice, and Erick r Scheid’s ghostly shimmering 12-string hollow-body guitar and E-bow, with added synths and updated drum programming. 

‘Through the Veil (witchmoth mix)’, meanwhile, is a deeply layered, fully reimagined reinterpretation of the same song, created by Scheid. Drawing inspiration from the electronic genres of witch-house, dungeon synth, dark ambient and trip hop, ‘Through the Veil’ showcases his love for ritualistic ambient-electronica.

Two other exclusive tracks are also included. ‘Deer Island (a far unknown mix)’ is an acoustic reworking of the album track ‘As I Lay Hidden (Deer Island)’, and was part of a limited-edition EP giveaway in conjunction with the CD release party for Among the Black Trees. ‘O Virtus Sapientiae’ (or “Virtue of Divine Wisdom”) is a piece by Hildegard von Bingen, which Dru Allen spontaneously recorded while attending a seminar on Hildegard in a 12th-century abbey. Scheid in turn contributed the minimalist electronics, providing the perfect backdrop for the music of this remarkable visionary and composer.



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Monday, 24 February 2025

Mookie and The Bab - Mercury's Antennae - Juanita Stein

Mookie and The Bab - The Tide.

Mookie and The Bab all-acoustic indie-folk new single 'The Tide' has just been released on Kycker. Fuelled by long drives across desert landscapes taking inCalifornia, Nevada, and Texas, Bradford’s own Mookie + The Bab are an all-acoustic indie-folk group whose acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, layered vocals, and occasional trumpet capture the sound of the American Southwest – yet remainstrue to British working class roots.

Moved by climate emergency, Floods, fires, desertification, and exploring organic sounds with rousing harmonies, multi-instrumentalists Abi Otway, Marc Otway and Conor Magi’s Americana-Yorkshire folk blend is steeped in nature, emerging from their unique bond after many years making music together and travels playing festivals internationally and across the UK.

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Mercury's Antennae - The Reflecting Skin (William Faith Remix).

Currently based between Switzerland and the US, the trio comprises Dru Allen and Cindy Coulter of This Ascension, and Erick r. Scheid of The Palace of Tears. Their sound incorporates influences from shoegaze pop, ethereal darkwave, and unadorned acoustic beauty, while also drawing inspiration from ambient and modern electronica. Through the iconic Projekt label, Mercury’s Antennae released their debut album, A Waking Ghost Inside (2014); followed by The Guides EP (2015); and sophomore album, Beneath the Serene (2016).Their debut for Sett Records was 2018’s The Moon Viewing Garden EP, followed by appearances at prestigious festivals Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, Germany; and Tomorrow’s Ghosts Festival in Whitby, England. ‘The Reflecting Skin’ is the lead single from their long-waited third album, Among the Black Trees, forthcoming from Sett Records in Spring 2025.

With its driving chorus bass, serpentine swirl 12-string guitar, spacious ambient electronics and Dru Allen’s siren voice, the single release of ‘The Reflecting Skin’ is graced with a remix by the goth “all father” William Faith. His remix showcases a haunting, driving, hypnotic and atmospheric interpretation of the song: a sonic alchemy that seems to emanate from another time, another place. William says:

“Getting to remix ‘The Reflecting Skin’ was very much like going home for me. Having worked closely with Dru and my sister Cindy in This Ascension beginning some 32 years ago, this was very comfortable and familiar territory, though Erick’s sensibilities brought something new and different to work with, making for a dynamic and exciting creative endeavor. Overall, I feel like I managed to bridge the time gap with an interesting take on the song that is at once nostalgic and classic in feel, while updating the sonic depth and breadth in a way that suits the moment. It was a blast for me -- love it!”

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Juanita Stein - The Old World.

Juanita Stein warms up for her imminent solo headline tour with the release of an Orlando-Cubitt-directed video for ‘Old World’, taken from her critically acclaimed fourth solo album ‘The Weightless Hour’ (out now, Agricultural Audio). Following recent UK tours with Evan Dando and Travis, the Howling Bells frontwoman will embark on her own UK solo headline dates, which include a performance at London's Lower Third on 25th March.
 
Stein says of ‘Old World’: “This was a song that was written in one long breath, in a room, in a house, in a village in the South of France. After having taken a long walk through the woods, the light streaming through the pine trees, I found myself reflecting on what it means for me, to have ended up living and travelling in Europe, like so many of my family before me.
 
This song recalls the first time I travelled to Europe, which was with my family when I was 16. Having lived a life in Australia, a country in its infancy by comparison, I was confronted with a rich and bloodied history whose roots ran centuries underground. The generational trauma that came with learning about my own family history there, was a reckoning. We brought along my grandmother, who hadn’t returned to Czechoslovakia since she was 14, when she was forced to flee the Nazis. We visited the crumbling house she grew up in. I stood in the streets of many Jewish ghettos and burnt out synagogues that were forced to become churches. I visited Holocaust Memorial museums, I learned of the slow rise of right-wing fascism reawakening in a new Europe, all of this coupled with the acknowledgement that I had relocated to Europe myself to start a family and the conflict that causes within the body. I learned what it felt like to be the “other”, to be hated for the religion you were born into, and simultaneously, to also be hated for being perceived as a Westerner, as when someone yelled at me, “bloody American” when they looked down at my ripped jeans, or when me and my brothers were hauled into a police station in Prague for potentially spying when using our disposable cameras outside a cemetery. This was not Australia. This was The Old World.”

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Violent Vickie - The Paper Kites - Will Romeo / The 1984 Draft - Mick Clarke - Steel People

Violent Vickie - Open the Door . It's a massive welcome back to Beehive Candy for Violent Vickie who we have had the pleasure of featu...