Kacy & Clayton return with a second song and video ahead of their album release, this time we have 'High Holiday' another genre spanning song which for convenience sake I will describe as up skilled Americana.
'Clouds' by Maddee is a gently paced soulful song with just a hint of the blues, her vocals are strikingly good, just right for this type of music.
Jay Elle brand of pop is refreshingly uncomplicated as witnessed by 'Sickly Sweet' a catchy and unpretentious piece that veers a little towards modern folk.
With some eighties synth rock vibes Michael Blakeman has shared 'Brazier To The Lake' a solid rocker with plenty of hooks throughout.
Finally today Dominic Sen has released a video for 'Hear Me, a song that is attempting to convey a deeper message whilst remaining a rather pleasing dance pop number.
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There is a new album from New Orleans based Jazz/Blues duo “/fyo͞oɡ/” entitled “Temp'rall Sho'gazing”. The co-founders of fyo͞oɡ/ consists of Katarina Boudreaux and Sam Tepper who set out to create originals and perform music that grips the soul and imagination in the process. This release is comprised of 3 originals mixed with tastefully chosen cover tunes which are both experimental and sometimes unexpected.
Mainly falling in a more the old school Jazz and Blues tradition in song choices and original compositions, this album also touches occasionally into the funk territory and often times has a very gospel approach. Katrarina’s soulful and headstrong vocal style much like Billy Holliday or Ella Fitzgerald are nicely accompanied by Sam Tepper’s virtuoso blues/jazz playing on piano and keyboards that could be compared at times to the great Stevie Wonder.
"This is the first collaborative project I have embarked on. Sam walked in on a gig, and we've worked together ever since. The three originals are co-written, and it is the first album I have not played keys on (three previous studio albums)."
Katarina Boudreaux and Sam Tepper are the cofounders of /fyo͞oɡ/. New Orleans based, /fyo͞oɡ/ creates original music and covers music that grips the soul and imagination in the process. Katarina is a writer, dancer, teacher, and musician. Her novel "Platform Dwellers" is available from Owl Hollow Press. She is the current director of Noladancing. Sam Tepper is a genuine human being and virtuoso musician.
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Kacy & Clayton will release Carrying On via New West Records on October 4th, 2019. The 10-song set was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and recorded by Tom Schick at The Loft, Wilco’s recording studio & rehearsal space in Chicago, IL. Carrying On follows the international acclaim for their previous records Strange Country (which Q Magazine called “A beautiful album that nudges a classic past into a brave future”) and 2017’s The Siren’s Song (described by Uncut as “Ageless and beguiling. A classic record for this or any other time.”).
The Mike Trask directed video for the song “High Holiday” was released earlier this week. The song features the legendary musician Charlie McCoy on bass harmonica who is well known for his contributions to infamous recordings by Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Simon and Garfunkel, and more. McCoy is also featured on "That Sweet Orchestra Sound," Carrying On's closing track. Clayton has stated "I'd heard he was still doing sessions and got excited. One of my favorite things he's ever done was on Tom T. Hall's "In Search of a Song."
The music Kacy & Clayton make is inextricable from where they grew up. They sing about the kind of people you’d find in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan (population very few). Their sound is equal parts homespun, coming from a family and community where playing music is an ever present part of social gatherings, and the rare country, blues, and English folk rock they obsess over and collect. It’s an arresting amalgamation of psychedelic folk, English folk revival and the ancestral music of Southern Appalachia. For Carrying On, Clayton cites as influences: Bobbie Gentry’s Delta Sweete, Hoyt Axton’s My Griffin Is Gone, Cajun fiddle music, and the steel guitar of Ralph Mooney, who played on many of the records that defined the Bakersfield country music scene of the 1950s. Sixties psych has also woven its way into these new songs; Kacy enjoys telling people that they live 250km from the mental hospital that coined the term “psychedelic.”
Of Carrying On, Jeff Tweedy said "When I first heard Kacy and Clayton, I was struck by how much detail and nuance they had absorbed from what sounded like a large swath of my record collection. When I told them that they were as good as the artists they were drawing from, I’m not sure they believed me. On this record I don’t hear those influences as much as I hear them taking the things they love so intimately and telling their own story. I think they’re a truly great band.”
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Toronto-based artist, Maddee is today sharing her soulful new cut, ‘Clouds’ - listen here. Taken from the forthcoming debut six-track EP, ’Red Mind’, which is due for release this coming autumn, the new single finds the 20-year-old artist expanding on her previous sound to introduce a gripping network of jazz-indebted R&B and slap-back electronica.
Thematically, the ‘Red Mind EP’ deals with the ramifications of a negative relationship and the emotions that Maddee felt throughout that period, from love to infatuation and naivety. Speaking about ‘Clouds’, which features the co-production of Gray Rowan (Charlotte Day Wilson, The WAYO) and coasts along to the groove of off-kilter percussion and stuttering organs, Maddee says: “This song was written about getting over an unhealthy relationship. It’s about coming back to myself and my strength.”
Maddee cut her teeth initially with features on the ‘Colours EP’ from Toronto-based producer, Harrison - from here, she picked up slots opening for the likes of Lil’ Yachty, Willow Smith and Tennyson, alongside which she showcased across festivals including SXSW, NXNE and Field Trip. A pair of debut singles were released in 2017 (produced by Toronto’s Birthday Boy and Shagabond respectively), earning the buzz-building artist tips from tastemaker blogs, Majestic Casual and the attention of Red Bull Sound Select who handpicked her as one their spotlight artists.
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My name is Jay Elle. I am a singer, songwriter, and guitar player. I write pop songs, most often appearing under the label “singer-songwriter.” The songs are a bit on the mellow side for the most parts these days. Since it’s only my guitar and myself at the moment you might say that the overall sound could also fit in the urban-folk category.
I play a nylon string Ovation guitar which gives me a fairly unique sound. Think of it as a reprieve from the digital world for a moment, a vacation island for your ears.
Sometimes you meet people who truly change your life. Certainly, make an unforgettable impression. This song is a trip down memory lane. A good one. A song can take you on a journey. I hope it will get listeners dreaming and revisiting their own pleasant experiences. I love the groove. It's meant to be relaxing while carrying you to your own memories.
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‘Brazier To The Lake’ will be in digital stores on the 9th of August. The ‘Future’ EP by Micheal Blakeman will be released 23rd of August.
Future is the experimental debut EP from Michael Blakeman. The Perth musician has re-directed his progressive energy into the circuits of the analog, the lead single Brazier To The Lake a synthwave revitaliser.
After spending years on various rock and metal projects, the EP is Michael’s first foray into the sounds of the 80s. Self-produced and recorded in his home studio, Future matches revivalist gore with an emphatic melancholic energy. The lead single Brazier to the Lake a dark and brooding march of operaHc drama and retro-futuristic voguing.
Fueled by the complexity and experimentation of metal music, composition and songwriting quickly became a large part of his musical focus. Michael's second love is technology, and it wasn't long before he learned how to combine them by pursuing audio production and sound engineering.
Fast forward to 2019 and Michael has released his first solo EP effort, Future. “This release was a huge step outside of my comfort zone,” says Michael. “I’ve been involved with music for a while, but nearly all of that time was spent playing guitar in various bands. I wanted to push myself by creating something of my own from the ground up. Earlier this year I became enamored with the classic Minimoog synth sound, so I decided to take a deep dive into the sound and aesthetic of the era it inspired.”
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Lightyears clear of the cataclysm that spawned them, and the event horizon that almost unmade them, Dominic Sen, seventh and only surviving child of the supermassive black hole at the centre of “The Evil Eye Galaxy,” drifted around space in limbo ‘til they intercepted the radio waves of broadcasts from 1980’s and 1990’s Earth. Depicting a colourful and thriving pop culture, these songs of our civilisation drew Sen to the Sun like a moth to our humble intergalactic flame, and thus Sen arrived and fell in love with the meretricious myth of Earthbound stardom.
Channelling the pervasive and alienating sense of their own otherness, Sen works on our planet as an artist where they have created their debut LP. Visitor is a love story, a space opera, a thought experiment telling the tale of Tal Naata, a biologically human female coming from a distant and socially progressive civilisation to study Earth. Taking Tal Naata’s story as their prism, Sen casts our own primitive ideas of gender and social cohesion back at us in shimmering crystalline pop, a sound which hearkens back to those old transmissions which led them here.
Lead single ‘Hear Me’ documents the impasse in traditional gender dynamics on Earth between masculine desire and feminine self-definition. It is, in Sen’s words, about “the sobering reality of an experience gap between Tal Naata and her cis-male partner. It is impossible for him to fully know the hardships faced by women. He will never truly know the fear of walking home alone at night, never grasp the small ways in which his behaviour diminishes her complexity and wholeness.” As someone from a civilisation with no gender inequality, Sen attributes Tal no internalised misogyny. “It makes her acutely cognisant of the truth while still baffled that her gender alienates her from her partner more than the fact that she is a literal alien." The accompanying video represents the internal odyssey that Tal, and classical mythic heroines like her, have to undergo to assert and define themselves in environments that threaten their sense of autonomy.
‘Visitor’ will be released on Roll Call Records on October 18. It will be immediately available for pre-order, including as a limited edition LP in “Interstellar White” vinyl. Its hook-laden sounds are a thrilling homage to our recent past and their dance-inspiring concepts foretell a new transhumanist era. May Sen in their distant cosmic perfection continue to inspire and be inspired.
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