Garage psych band Walrus have just released 'Half Smoke' where the video matches the song, and the unpretentious rock vibes are just right.
Mieko Shimizu shares a highly creative and imaginative song entitled 'Me My Ghost'. Described as avante-garde electronica, it's all of that and gently but most definitely addictive.
The Naked Sun new single 'Secret We Don't Know' exudes roots rock beauty, the band describe their music as honest rock, a definition that makes honest sense, they are also honestly talented in their craft.
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deux furieuses return with ‘My War is Your War’, the third single to be released from their forthcoming album of the same name which follows on 18 October via Xtra Mile Recordings.
deux furieuses describe ‘My War is Your War’ as “Three stories of different worlds colliding, from Gaza Beach to Ukraine to Yemen. The song was written as a way of not normalising the shocking events that stun the world and then are yesterday's news”, with the message that “we can no longer just occupy our own safe space and turn a collective blind eye” reinforced by the song's empathetic refrain of ‘Your war is my war, my war is your war.’
The wide-screen story of ‘My War is Your’ is powered by a driving loop that carries the at first sparse instrumentation to a devastating conclusion. Present are elements of the duo’s darker post-punk inspired shades (which has garnered comparisons to PJ Harvey and Savages), but layered with subtle texture. The foreboding drumming and emotive vocal oscillate between brooding menace and impassioned determination, before the song culminates in a big rock sound that runs through the veins of the new long-player from which it’s taken.
‘My War is Your War’ follows the #MeToo inspired ‘Year of Rage’ (July 2019) which premiered on John Kennedy’s Radio X show as his X-Posure Big One and was accompanied by a visual featuring art direction and a cameo from Alannah Currie (ex-Thompson Twins aka Miss Pokeno). Then more recently Instant Grat track ‘Civilians’ (August 2019) where brutalised riffs tackled our post-truth society.
deux furieuses are Scottish vocalist and guitarist Ros Cairney and London Greek drummer Vas Antoniadou. Since their beginnings in 2013 they have earned a reputation for uncompromising politically charged rock which has seen them championed by the likes of Q Magazine, Classic Rock, Louder Than War, aforementioned Radio X DJ John Kennedy and Frank Turner, with the latter inviting the duo to perform at his Lost Evenings Festival at the Roundhouse, London in 2017.
Raised on a fiery blend of Irish and Greek music, 80’s post-punk and 90’s alt rock, and bonding over a love of early PJ Harvey and Kate Bush, their music is a visceral and impassioned call to arms against the world’s inequalities and rising storms.
‘My War is Your War’ is produced by Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey) and mixed by Mark Freegard (The Breeders), it was released digitally on 13 September. deux furieuses' album My War is Your War follows on 18 October (CD, vinyl and digitally), both released via Xtra Mile Recordings.
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The Halifax, Nova Scotia-based garage-psych quartet, Walrus, are today sharing the video for their new single, ‘Half-Smoke’, the latest to be taken from their forthcoming second album ‘Cool To Who’, set for release on October 18, 2019 via Outside Music. Directed by the Prism Prize-winning Canadian musician and illustrator, Chad VanGaalen, the new clip trails festival dates alongside Dead Meadow, A Place To Bury Strangers and Orville Peck with UK dates set to follow the new album - to be confirmed shortly.
Drawing on lysergic animations which find neon-tinted aliens warping into diamonds, and goblins contorting into melting castles, the new clip seeks to visually mimic the psychedelic throb of ‘Half-Smoke’, a track that pulls on sinewy guitar lines and a propelling rhythm. Speaking about the track that lyrically documents a time the band were falling into the shambolic throes of a tour, vocalist Justin Murphy, says: “We had been robbed in San Fran after our window was smashed in the van, then after a show in San Diego we had a day and a half to make it to Chicago. We did it. Then we had to play Moline, Illinois after and we had run out of money. I had run out of money, and we had the best band blow-up to date. I was sure it was done. My clothes had been stolen, I was bumming cigarettes. But it could always have been worse.”
“The ‘Half-Smoke’ video started out as a story about life on the road,” says VanGaalen, whose previous clients include Timber Timbre and Daniel Romano. “It then quickly derailed into synchronised psychedelic abstractions. I love it when this happens.” The band adds by saying: “We have been big fans of Chad's work for a long time and had been interested in doing an animated video for a while now, so it seemed like a perfect fit. You could watch it 100 times and you'd probably see something new each time.
Formed in 2012 by two brothers, Justin (vocalist and guitarist) and Jordan (drummer) Murphy, alongside two friends in Truro, Nova Scotia, the band cut their teeth in music via the traditional route of heavy touring. Intense bouts of gigging saw the quartet earn a reputation, not only for their live shows but also for the way they treat the process - on one occasion managing to get banned from Avis Rental Car. Walrus, have been the recipients of some great tutelage along the way, they were signed to Dan Mangan’s Madic Records for their first album which garnered them some immediate attention and most recently, they supported The Sadies across their North American tour.
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With a career that has seen her as an acclaimed Japanese electronic artist and producer, a trailblazing female drum’n’bass DJ (signed to Haruomi Hosono’s personal label), a collaborator with the likes of MC RIZ (Riz Ahmed) and Mick Karn (JAPAN), and having her own residency at the Southbank, it’s safe to say that Mieko Shimizu is sui generis.
Mieko has just released 'Me My Ghost' - a brooding piece of avante-garde electronica, which opens with a sinister yet simple Koto (Japanese harp) ostinato that builds through the track, as deep electronic pops and glitches begin to take over.
‘Me my ghost was an attempt to explore ways of inhabiting the dark forest beyond my window and talk to the ghosts of the night, to understand their irrational fears, like the dread of the unknown other and so to come closer to accepting the skeletons in my own wardrobe.’
Mieko’s next project ‘I Bloom’, slated for release in early 2020, is a return to Mieko’s now signature avante-garde electronica. Amalgamating haunting melodies with challenging modular-synth-laden landscapes, the record has equal moments of sparsely instrumented beauty and musical entropy, as layers and rhythms clash and collide in polyphony.
In 1993 Mieko arrived in London with her brother (and fellow critically acclaimed musician) Yasuaki Shimizu with a singular goal in mind – to subvert all expectations of her as an artist. A statement of intent, she put out her first record on Chris Cutler (of cult avant-rock group Henry Cow)’s label. In 1998, Mieko broke into the drum’n’bass scene under the moniker of Apache 61, quickly building a name for herself in an underground scene dominated by male contemporaries. DJ Magazine, reviewing one of her shows, said that she was “deconstructing the form so much that the beginning of her set slipped into pure searing, tearing audio art territory.” This press attention saw Mieko sign to Haruomi Hosono’s (Yellow Magic Orchestra) label and led to Mieko remixing a number of YMO tracks in her career.
The turn of the century saw Mieko balance her Apache 61 work with her own brand of electronica, seeing her support the likes of Goldfrapp and in 2008, Massive Attack with Riz MC at Meltdown Festival. She has also worked extensively with dance including scores for contemporary dance company Phoenix Dance Theatre, the Ballet ‘The Red Balloon’ at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre and performing at the London Olympics in 2012.
In every aspect of her career, Mieko has refused to be restrained or placed in a box artistically, and new record I Bloom sees a continuation of that ethos.
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Philadephia's self-proclaimed "honest rock" band The Naked Sun follows up their 2018 LP War With Shadows with the moody and mysterious new single "Secret We Don't Know." They also announce a new EP titled Avec la Verite', Vous Avez le Droit d'Aimer (With the Truth you Have the Right to Love) out this October.
The Naked Sun is a 6-piece roots-rock band from Philadelphia, PA. After releasing their debut album War With Shadows with the band's most moody sonic palette to date they continue in the spirit of their self-branded style of "honest-rock."
The band will release their latest EP, Avec la Verite', Vous Avez le Droit d'Aimer (With the Truth you Have the Right to Love) - in October 2019. Throughout, they explore love’s darker side - betrayal, heartbreak, secrets, lies and the aftermath.
Songwriter Drew Harris was inspired to write these group of songs after witnessing the relationships of some of his closest friends suffer from the effects of secrets and lies. The second single, "Secret We Both Know," begs the question: What’s a secret if we both know? The EP is an authentic examination of romance and -- as the title suggests--honesty in the age of lies.
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