Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Wilsen - Linaire - Brooke Annibale - Micra

Wilsen return with their new single 'Align' just ahead of the album 'Ruiner'. We have already shared a couple of tracks from the new collection and the latest again promises that we are in for a real treat. === We have to go back to October 2016 for the last time we featured Anna Atkinson, however she is back with her new project Linaire and the beautiful song 'Feeling' accompanied by her rich sounding Omnichord. === Another artist making her third appearance here is Brooke Annibale with 'I Will'. We don't feature that many cover versions but Brooke really does give this Beatles song her own stamp. === Micra have released 'Chemical Freedom' accompanied by a video, the dream pop duo really have created a gorgeous song (and it's welcome back here for a third time as well!).

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Wilsen - Align.

Today, the Brooklyn-based trio Wilsen released a new single "Align" ahead of their new album Ruiner out this Friday, February 21 via Secret City Records / Dalliance Recordings.

"'Align' is about the weight and occasional jolting effect of eye contact. That rare experience when connecting eyes throws you into a narrative," explains Tamsin Wilson. "The song was arranged with drummer Gabe Smith who helped us trim the excess and stabilize dynamics.  His involvement was crucial in our record-making process. We tracked the basics at Douglass Recordings and Johnny’s guitar overdubs at Black Lodge studio, using the original bedroom demo vocal percussion to kick off the song."

For the follow-up to their acclaimed debut I Go Missing In My Sleep, the trio comprised of Tamsin Wilson (guitar/vocals), Johnny Simon Jr. (guitar) and Drew Arndt (bass) partnered with acclaimed producer Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) and mastering engineer Sarah Register (Ariana Grande, Protomartyr, U.S. Girls).

For Tamsin Wilson, the album finds her moving towards personal self-acceptance. "I have an inherent shyness," she says. "I'm acknowledging and finding a way with it as I get older." Throughout the record, she comes to terms with her many sides, including her introversion and her inner, self-sabotaging monster to which the album title refers. On "Feeling Fancy," with her distinctively hushed vocals overpowering the track’s clamorous instrumentals, Wilson offers listeners a powerful, and celebratory, declaration that "Quiet’s not a fault to weed out."

"Making this record was somewhat of a coming of age process," Wilson explains. "We're getting older and becoming more deliberate, less precious, less measured. Overthinking less and trusting instincts more."

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Linaire - Feeling.

Linaire is the new songwriting project of Montreal-based singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Anna Atkinson. Linaire combines uncluttered electronic beats and ethereal synths with incandescent strings and poetically lucid lyrics to produce music that is at once spacious and full. Like plastic antiques, the songs feel both timeless and contemporary. Born out of Anna’s fascination with simple song forms and economic use of words, the songs explore themes of lineage, identity, time and anxiety.

In 2016, after a decade working as a freelance musician in Toronto, Anna took a break from performing and moved to Montreal. She took French lessons and spent months developing her knowledge of music production and live sound processing. She simultaneously began writing songs, examining the roots of her most debilitating emotions – anxiety, regret and depression. What emerged artistically was something very different from her previous records. Not only lyrically, but also stylistically, not least because of her use of the Omnichord in place of a piano or guitar. With its warm chords and simple beat box, the instrument pulled Anna in the direction of minimal electronic pop, a kind of crossing of Young Marble Giants and Harry Nilsson, two of her most significant sources of inspiration.

In the deep winter of 2019 Anna took ten songs and her Omnichord into a Montreal studio with co-producer and musician, Alexander MacSween (Bionic, The Nils). Three weeks later she emerged with an album that is certainly her most personally gratifying to date. From the very direct opener, Feeling, to the uplifting, Best I Can, and the darker meandering song, Oh Who, the album was made using a variety of synthesizers and drum machines and with an occasional appearance by Anna’s viola. The singing is at times nakedly intimate and at others almost anthemic, with floating layers of unison and harmony vocals. The album travels from beginning to end like a great collection of short stories.

In the last two years, Anna has performed Linaire in cities across Canada and in Japan and has been amassing a growing group of fans. She currently preforms solo and aims to add musicians to her live set as it becomes practical. Linaire’s eponymous album will be released later this year.

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Brooke Annibale - I Will.

Singer-songwriter/guitarist Brooke Annibale has this week released a rendition of The Beatles’ classic “I Will.” The new single arrives just ahead of her debut European tour date.

“I first learned this song over 10 years ago for my cousin’s wedding,” stated Brooke. “My cousin and his then fiancee each chose a song for one another. They kept the songs secret, until I played them during the ceremony as a part of their vows, one song from him to her and one song from her to him. It was a pretty special moment to be a part of. I’ve been covering the song ever since, every once in a while. I thought it would be cool to record and rearrange the song a bit, make it a little darker and dramatic, but still keep the song’s sweet and well, endearing qualities.

Her first ever European tour includes stops in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the UK. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.brookeannibale.com.

Brooke’s latest album Hold To The Light has been met with critical acclaim from Billboard, Uproxx, The Wild Honey Pie, Under The Radar, and more, featuring production by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive) and guest musicians Josh Kaufman (The National), Matt Douglas (Sylvan Esso) and Zach Hickman (Ray Lamontagne, Josh Ritter). Brooke is currently writing new material for her next album that she will debut on the upcoming tour.

Tour Dates:
04/15 - Amsterdam, NL @ Cinetol
04/16 - Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn
04/17 - Cologne, DE @ Wohngemeinschaft
04/18 - Rodenberg, DE @ House Concert
04/19 - Berlin, DE @ Auster Club
04/21 - Paris, FR @ Sofar Sounds
04/22 - Laval, FR @ Le Lardin Bavarois
04/23 - Fontenay-le-Comte, FR @ La Chopine
04/24 - St-Aubin-du-Pavail, FR @ La Grange du Pavail
04/25 - Mellionnec, FR @ House Concert
04/26 - Rennes, FR @ Bistrot Cocagne
04/29 - Winchester, UK @ Railway
04/30 - London, UK @ Slaughtered Lamb.

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Micra - Chemical Freedom.

Sydney's Micra have today released their swirling and euphoric new single, 'Chemical Freedom' via Liberation Records. 'Chemical Freedom' marks the start of an exciting chapter for the rising dreampop duo and is a spellbinding example of their ability to turn a melting pot of influences into their own hallucinatory indie pop perfection.

A technicolor journey through #NSFW chemical-fuelled erotic encounters, the theatrics of 'Chemical Freedom' is presented in a stunning music video directed by Justin Ridler. Having worked in the past with Baz Luhrmann and Iraxta Ansa, Justin perfectly captures the essence of the track using motion capture animation through psych-tinged lens distortion. The song and video arrives as music lovers around Australia continue to battle with state governments over harm minimisation approaches to chemical consumption. Speaking on video, Justin said "I was really interested in Roger Penrose's theory of the fractal universe and I think that plays into the clip. There's also a kind of paradigm shift that's occurring in the contemporary cultural landscape around drug use which I wanted to reflect in the abstract narrative that plays out."

'Chemical Freedom' was recorded at the band's own studio and mixed by Grammy-Award winning producer Ben Allen (Deerhunter, MIA, Youth Lagoon). Speaking on 'Chemical Freedom', Micra said "It's been so frustrating to see the narrow minded attitude of Australian authorities towards pill testing and drug reform. We wanted to shine a light on that and highlight the ways in which the whole issue is actually bringing young people together."

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Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Horse Lords - Jonathan Emile - Bartleby Delicate - Sour Widows - Lilly Hiatt

Horse Lords impress us with 'People's Park' an instrumental that is original, addictive and accompanied by a figure skating video that works alongside beautifully. === Jonathan Emile new album 'Spaces-In-Between' is featured in full along with a video for 'Try A Likkle More', collectively this is a wonderful mixture of reggae music with so many other genre influences enriching the piece. === Luxembourg artist Bartleby Delicate has a brand new single 'From Top To Toe' which mixes electronic music with a folk based anchor, the result is creative and original. === Described as a bedroom rock group Sour Widows obviously make good use of that particular room space with 'Open Wide' a slow paced track with fabulous harmonies and a close up and personal feel throughout. === It's only February and yet Lilly Hiatt is back with us for a third appearance this year with 'Candy Lunch' ahead of next months 'Walking Proof' album release, this time we have a more gentle and melodic country rocker to indulge upon.
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Horse Lords - People's Park.

Horse Lords have shared a music video for their single "People's Park" from their forthcoming album The Common Task (releasing March 13 via Northern Spy). The song title comes from a public park established by the Young Lords, a Latinx liberation organization. It was built both as a community-run community space and as a bulwark against development on a vacant tract of land in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, which at the time had a large Puerto Rican population who correctly feared they were being pushed out. A modest utopian project compared to some of the other points on the album's titles' map of socialist modernisms but an inspiring assertion of the public's right to occupy public space.

"The music was an experiment in testing the limits of genre--in this case, reggaeton." says Horse Lords, "The project was approached with great respect for the history, techniques and repertoire of reggaeton, trying to extrapolate from rather than impose upon. The standard drum pattern underwent a process of distillation and recombination (this we must admit was not a minimally invasive procedure), mutating into a tiling rhythmic canon. Reggaeton's links to dub were emphasized in the production, overall the hope being a balance of reverence and playfulness.

The director, Corey Hughes, explains what inspired the video: "There is something other wordly about figure skating. The movements look supernatural, like they are floating in space or a virtual environment. What I really responded to in the track and the choreography is the balance between structured repetitive elements and looser improvisatory elements. I adopted a similar approach for the cinematography of the video, combining more formal static shots with fluid, energetic, and reactionary camera movements. Like the skaters themselves, the movement of the camera fluctuates in and out of sync with the track."

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Jonathan Emile - Spaces-In-Between Album).

Spaces-In-Between features 10 original compositions and was produced by well-known Montreal musician Paul Cargnello (Wesli, Lakes Of Canada, Satellites), along with his brother Christopher.  Two 'pre-release' singles off the album have already been well received by media internationally: the energetic Savanna, and the gospel-folk influenced acoustic ballad Moses.

Now, with his third and most recent release Try A Likkle More, Jonathan’s versatility and creativity continue to shine.  In Jonathan's words, “ Try A Likkle More, is a song about how time and effort equal love. In patois, “a likkle more” or “a little more”, means “see you later” or “au revoir”. In the lyrics, I play on the idea of time and love as a participatory action rather than an emotion or a passive state. Jamaica in itself is a colour filled phenomenological experience. The roots riddim with its easy skank and swaying guitar and bass are set at the speed of rural Jamaica. You can hear the one drop against the slow crash of waves. The guitar melody opens and closes the song like a story book.”

The Try A Likkle More video is an ode to the Jamaican diaspora that explores the concept of family, love and generational memory. Like Savanna and Moses, the video for Try A Likkle More was shot in Jamaica in the parish of Westmoreland, in Savanna-la-Mar (his family’s hometown) as well as in Negril, with a Canadian-Jamaican film crew. The video explores Jamaica and it’s lush abundance of the tropical island through the directors lens with vivid colours and brightness as he captures all of its beautiful memories, having the magic of love displayed in every shot. This is what carefree Negril looks like.


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Bartleby Delicate - From Top To Toe.

Bartleby Delicate is full of contrasts - with folk music rooted in the heart and his recent love for experimental electronic music. Starting as a singer-songwriter venture, the project morphed into a blend of philosophical phrases, finger picking guitar and experimental electronics, at times reminiscent of Daniel Johnston, at times akin to Bon Iver or James Blake.

This songwriting ability and nuanced performance style has led to support slots with the likes of Rhye, Tom Odell and Aldous Harding alongside festival appearances at The Great Escape, Reeperbahn Festival and SPOT Festival to name a few. Alongside this, he has been awarded accolades such as ‘Best Upcoming Artist’ at the Luxembourg Music Awards and best act at Crossroads Festival 2019.

The Luxembourg artist’s new single ‘From Top To Toe’ is an amalgamation of his analogue and digital vision that features dream-like synths and crisp, pulsating beats thanks to production with German electronic musician Taison (Lali Puna, Portmanteau) that Goerens has been a fan of for years. After travelling 1500km to play a show in Munich in which Taison happened to be the sound engineer that night, the two bonded on both a human and creative level. The pair agreed to collaborate on future releases and to dive deeper into Bartleby’s indietronica universe.

Monochrome with a touch of colour, ‘From Top to Toe’ tackles the paradox of memories we can’t remember, the subject of irrepressible memories, and their habit of worming their way to the forefront of your brain when you least expect it, Bartleby tells us "I’ve had some disconcerting experiences the last few years. The strange thing is that I struggle somehow to remember the exact origin of them but still those memories are haunting me. I think we are all constantly trying to repress things from our past and they come back from time to time fully present in front of us: from top to toe."

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Sour Widows - Open Wide.

Sour Widows are a bedroom rock group from the Bay Area, formed in 2018 by longtime friends Maia Sinaiko, Susanna Thomson and Max Edelman, and recently joined by Sam Edelman on bass.

Songs marked by driving harmonies address themes of relationship and reflection; layers of warmth, grit, and depth surface and fade in their two guitar dynamic. Carried by Edelman’s inimitable drumming, the four draw from influences including Big Thief, Duster, Pile and Forth Wanderers to create heavy harmonic alternative rock.

The term ‘bedroom rock’ is a nod to this intimacy - it could mean sleepy, dreamy, or weepy - as it captures the emotion behind the music. Post-Trash calls their debut single ‘Tommy’ “a perfect synthesis of slacker pop and punk’s tamer edges,” and asserts the band “is slated to blow up the indie scene.”

Through progressions that shift from subtle to biting, Sour Widows expose tender moments with an edge.

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Lilly Hiatt - Candy Lunch.

Lilly Hiatt is set to release Walking Proof on March 27th via New West Records. The 11-song set was produced by former Cage The Elephant member Lincoln Parish (Lucinda Williams, Lissie) and features guest appearances by Amanda Shires, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Luke Schneider, and Lilly’s father, the legendary singer-songwriter John Hiatt. John’s appearance on “Some Kind Of Drug,” marks the first time the pair have appeared together on one of her records. Walking Proof is the anticipated follow up to Lilly’s breakthrough Trinity Lane, which appeared on many year-end “Best Of 2017” lists including NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and more. Lilly also received an “Emerging Act of the Year” nomination from the Americana Music Association.

Following a whirlwind year of touring in support of Trinity Lane, and stripped of the daily rituals and direction of life on the road, Lilly found herself alone with her thoughts for the first time in what felt like ages. “When you’re out there on the road, you’re just kind of living, and you don’t have the chance to stop and think about how everything you’re experiencing is affecting you,” Lilly says. “When I got home, I realized there was a lot I needed to catch up on.” She did what’s always come most natural to her in times of questioning and uncertainty: she picked up a guitar.

As rewarding as Trinity Lane’s success was, the collection came from an emotionally challenging place, and Lilly found herself frequently visiting the hurt and struggle that inspired it as she spoke candidly to the press about her painful breakup, her struggles with sobriety, and the overwhelming sadness of her mother’s suicide.

Rather than succumbing to the weight of it all, Lilly managed to emerge stronger and more serene from the experience, treating it as a foundation from which she could begin the essential work of re-examining her relationships and the world around her. “When I got that little gap in my schedule, it gave me the chance to appreciate some mental stillness,” Lilly says. “I can be a pretty anxious person, but I found a sense of peace by deconstructing all of these interactions and emotions I’d experienced and reconfiguring them into songs. It helped me make sense of everything and learn to relax.”

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Monday, 17 February 2020

Very Very - Sass Jordan - The Saxophones - Brendan & the Strangest Ways - Diners

Very Very shares 'Badlands' accompanied by a video, a confessional and personal song with plenty of atmosphere. === Sass Jordan moves from her rock singer mode into some passionate blues with 'Leaving Trunk' ahead of her first full blues album due in March. === A month after we first featured The Saxophones they have returned with 'Forgot My Mantra' which is another exquisite song ahead of their 'Eternity Bay' album. === Brendan & the Strangest Ways have just released 'We Can Beat Mercury' a powerful hook laden country rocker. === Today Diners have released 'Cup Of Coffee' with a beautifully matched video for what is one smooth and very catchy song.
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Very Very - Badlands.

Before being banned from the United States for 10 years, Very Very had built a life in New York City. There she found herself crossing boundaries in a relationship based on manipulation, desire and bad decisions that would eventually crumble into disillusionment.

Her debut single, "Badlands," reflects on the role she played, confessed through raw lyrics and moody instrumentation. Written, produced and arranged entirely by the artist, "Badlands" is an alternative pop anthem that speaks to the darker side of desire. This is what temptation feels like.

The video for “Badlands” follows Very Very as she reaches the final stage of a sordid relationship. Moving with focus through memories, highways, and mysterious fields, she works through the complex process of a breakup, steadily fortifying herself for the end. If she wants to leave it behind forever, she'll have to burn it all down first.

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Sass Jordan - Leaving Trunk.

Sass Jordan is one of the premiere female rock singers in history, selling over one million albums worldwide. While she has touched upon Blues over her 40-year career, this is the first time she has focused exclusively on creating an album of songs in this tradition, that showcase her talent as a Blues singer. As Jordan acknowledges: “The blues has always been a huge part of my life. It’s a big part of what I grew up with. It’s been there through my entire career.”

Her first blues album arrives in raw, earthy style on the magnificent Rebel Moon
Blues, to be released on Friday, March 13 on Stony Plain Records. Co-produced
with D#, it’s the Juno Award-winner’s ninth studio album and first release in nearly a decade.

More crucially, it’s also a watershed that charts a new course in Jordan’s musical voyage while tracing her love of the blues back to its source. The album features eight songs, freshly interpreted and given the Sass Jordan treatment with her band the Champagne Hookers: guitarists Chris Caddell and Jimmy Reid, bassist Derrick Brady and drummer Cassius Pereira, augmented by blues harp master Steve Marriner and keyboardist Jesse O’Brien.

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The Saxophones -Forgot My Mantra.

With The Saxophones' sophomore album Eternity Bay out in less than 3 weeks, the husband-and-wife duo (Alexi Erenkov on vocals, guitar, synths, woodwinds, and Alison Alderdice on drums and vocals) have shared a third and final single, "Forgot My Mantra."

The Saxophones’ band name started out as a half-joke for the songwriting project of Alexi Erenkov, who, at that time, was a disillusioned jazz student. Erenkov had recently ditched the instrument, as jazz hadn't offered the room for self-expression that he sought. His solo project became a band when his wife Alison Alderdice joined on percussion, and their debut album, Songs of the Saxophones, was released just before the birth of their first son in 2018. Written aboard the boat they lived on together (amid the incessant rain of a northern Californian winter), the record established The Saxophones’ style, drawing from fifties exotica, west coast jazz, and seventies Italian lyricism. Drama seeps into The Saxophones' deceptively simple sound, transforming dreamy surf pop into thoughtfully textured pieces, with a spaciousness at the core.

The band's forthcoming second album, Eternity Bay, began to take shape just after the arrival of their first son, who shook up Erenkov’s writing routine far more than choppy boat waters ever did. "My music has always grappled with mortality and the meaning of existence," he says, "but the birth of our first son and the imminent arrival of our second has greatly heightened my sensitivity to these themes." The forced fragmentation of his hours, writing under inky late-night skies and through the liminal glimmer of dawn, brought new qualities to the surface of his songs. "While this record was influenced by a broad range of music," he explains, "the through line seems to be conveying a strong mood or sense of place. I love music that transports listeners to another space, whether it's Jonathan Richman making you feel like you’re walking the streets of Boston in 'I Love Hot Nights' or Arthur Lyman transporting you to a Hawaiian hotel lobby in the 50s."

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Brendan & the Strangest Ways - We Can Beat Mercury.

When Brendan Shea first started out as a songwriter in the early 2000s, Buffalo was a broken-down, industrial “Rust Belt” city whose best days were behind it.

Angsty, malcontented feelings came through in his writing.  He felt an overwhelming sense in his day to day life to move somewhere else to realize his full potential. So he did… twice. And those experiences made for some pretty good songs.

Fast-forward 15 years and Buffalo has undergone a major cultural and economic renaissance. There’s an expanding creative and artistic scene, and a general buzz around town that the best is yet to come. Shea says, “I feel like that’s a pretty perfect reflection of where I’m at musically with this new album and this new band. There’s just a lot of hope and excitement about what’s ahead.”

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Diners - Cup Of Coffee.

Lauren Records has announced the new LP from Diners and unveiled the first single from “Leisure World” via the Ambar Navarro-directed (SWMRS, CUCO, Soccer Mommy, etc.) video for “Cup of Coffee.”

"Back in the day, coffee commercials were akin to a very cheesy cinematic experience, tugging at your heart strings with unfathomably dramatic tales that did little to actually highlight the coffee." says the Grey Estates of the new video, adding "On “Cup of Coffee,” the video from Diners's upcoming album Leisure World, out 4/24, director Ambar Navarro puts Diners’s Tyler Blue Broderick at the center of their own glorious java commercial." The video comes ahead of the release of the single to streaming services everywhere tomorrow,

Leisure World (out April 24th) is the latest album from singer-songwriter Tyler Blue Broderick, who performs with the project Diners. Not only is it the most eclectic and ambitious album in the songwriter’s (already muscular) catalog to date—it’s one of the catchiest, most realized indie pop records released in years.

Like all of their work, Leisure World—which Broderick scrapped and rerecorded several times before landing on an aesthetic they found satisfactory—draws on the most enduring aspects of pop’s past. Its 13 tracks bring to mind the technicolored melodies of ‘60s pop icons like the Beatles and Zombies, the
chilled-out pop proficiency of Laurel Canyon legends like Carole King, and the wry, observational story-telling of Jonathan Richman, and, to cite a more recent artist, Jens Lekman.

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Sunday, 16 February 2020

Little Misty - Kerry Hart - Henriette - Totemo - The Tristones - Pike & Sutton - Clem Snide

Little Misty have released their self titled album 'Little Misty' which is a collection of nine refined progressive folk songs that are all fabulously arranged. === Kerry Hart has already gained considerable attention, hardly surprising considering the quality of her music, as is again confirmed with the new song 'Great Water'. === German country pop vocalist Henriette shares 'Crash Like This' a song with plenty of power and just a little hint of country rock. === From Israel we have Totemo with 'See You At The Beginning' a beautiful electronic dream pop and highly engaging song. === With a smooth funky groove The Tristones share 'Camaro' a track with all the slick quality Steely Dan used to serve up. === Just four weeks since we first featured the duo, Pike & Sutton return with the new single 'Together' another superb teaser for their full-length debut album 'Heart Is A Compass'. === Clem Snide makes his return just three weeks since we shared 'Roger Ebert', this time we have 'Don't Bring No Ladder' which is another beautiful Americana ballad.
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Little Misty - Little Misty (Album).

Little Misty is a progressive folk band from Montreal. The project started from a collaboration between singer Kathryn Samman and guitarist Francois Jalbert.

Surrounding themselves with a quintet of some of the finest musicians and friends in town, Little Misty explores the limits of folk music, bluegrass and progressive rock.

Their songs explore different topics such as motherhood, travelling and mental illness, always in a short movie approach; every song is meant to bring the listener into a world of its own. Their first record was produced by Joe Grass.

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Kerry Hart - Great Water.

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Kerry Hart releases her debut album I Know A Gun. The album, which has already seen notable critical acclaim, has been met with enthusiastic fan response, with over 2M streams on Youtube, and well past half a million streams on Spotify and Apple Music. Today Hart is also spotlighting her new track "Great Water" for fans. She describes the song as "a modern hymnal, a worship song to the water, to the sky, and to the Great Spirit. It's an offering of one's burden on to the alter of Spirit, a pledge of faith to a higher power, a wider perspective. Within it, a potent lamentation, and a prayerful willingness to receive absolution."

Hart's beautiful rendition of Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden," was called "stunning" by Forbes in a recent interview, while Folk Alley has praised Hart as well, saying "Very few artists make a first impression so indelible and wondrous that you know within seconds that they are truly special. In the past few years, Courtney Marie Andrews, Anna Tivel, and Dylan LeBlanc all cleared that bar and even raised it with succeeding efforts. Now comes Kerry Hart making a play of her own to join their ranks."

Atwood Magazine also acclaimed Hart's most recent single writing, “'Screaming Quietly' showcases her in a space of complete and utter honesty. Supported by a quiet electric guitar that eventually evolves into a full background of warm harmony, Hart sings her heart out – turning her full self toward those afflicted by pain of all kinds, in mind, body, and spirit."

Hart joined up with Nick Rosen and Léo Costa, multi-instrumentalists who have worked with the likes of Pharrell Williams and Jason Mraz, to record I Know A Gun at Perfect Sound Studios in Los Angeles. The album finds Hart embedding her lyrics with pieces of hard-won insight, enveloping that wisdom in her endlessly warm delivery.  With its lavishly detailed and largely acoustic sound, the album unfolds in transportive melodies and sweeping arrangements, while bearing an edgy complexity entirely unique to Hart.

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Henriette - Crash Like This.

The German Country Pop vocalist Henriette managed to attract attention in a pretty short time with her cheerful, honest character and especially her great voice and not only to breathe new life into the Country scene.

With her self-titled debut EP, on Valentine’s Day via Dr. Music Records, she will gain many new fans. Henriette produced the five tracks together with the two producers Jay Tooke, drummer of the legendary band The Steel Woods and James Robertson, well-known guitarist for e.g. Lindi Ortega and Dragonette, in Nashville.

She already presented it live to a large audience as a support act for US Singer-Songwriter John Craigie and at the 10th International Country Music Meeting in early February. With her three singles released so far, the passionate, vivid “Crash Like This” as well as the successful, charming Indian Summer catchy tune “Dream Boy”  and the melancholic “Lighthouse”, the German Country Pop shooting star is currently on rotation on the radio.

The EP also features the two previously unreleased songs “Missing You”, which Henriette dedicated to her mother, who went through a hard time after the sudden death of her only brother, and “Fearless”, in which she processes the fears and doubts before her trip to Nashville.

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Totemo - See You At The Beginning.

Israeli producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Totemo releases her stunning new music video for single "See You at the Beginning." The track comes from her 2019 full-length 'Everything Happens Only Once.' Totemo (Rotem Or) is a producer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Tel Aviv, Israel.

As a teenager, she began honing her mesmerizing electronic dream-pop sound that melded East-Asian soundscapes with moody downtempo synths and haunting vocals. Her debut EP Heavy as My Dreams was released in 2014 while she underwent a year of treatment for cancer she eventually survived. This period was followed by the critically acclaimed Desire Path EP (2016), which received much acclaim.

In 2019, Totemo returned with her first full-length Everything Happens Only Once. Its preceding singles went on to be picked by Spotify on their official Indie-Pop and New Indie Mix playlists (800K+ & 900K+ listeners)

She will be making an appearance at SXSW Festival in Austin before heading out to tour China, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore, before returning once again to tour Europe.

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The Tristones - Camaro.

The Tristones, led by the lively and kinetic blues rocker Tristan Clark from New York, NY, today releases, “Camaro,” the third single from his upcoming album Camaro, out in April. The title track to his forthcoming album, “Camaro” is available on all streaming services and can be found here. “Camaro was a fun song to write. I wanted to have a song that had an Al Green type feel but I never felt like I was the kind of guy to sing Al Green type lyrics.

I decided to change the narrative to be about a car and give it a silly play on a love song,” explains Clark. The track came together quickly and was enhanced by the magic of the full band. “I showed it to the guys in the band, Gregory Jones on bass and Adam Jackson on drums, and they play that style so naturally it clicked right away! We recorded it in Maine and my good friend Dylan Heming overdubbed the keys in Toronto,” Clark describes. “Camaro” is a fun twist on a love story, with the object of Clark’s affection being this desirable, classic muscle car. Catch The Tristones playing their album release show on Stage Two at New York City’s venerable Rockwood Music Hall on Friday, April 3rd!

Working again with longtime friend and colleague Jared Lucow, The Tristones release a lyric video for “Camaro” alongside the audio. The third single from The Tristones’ upcoming full-length Camaro, “Camaro” was recorded in Maine. The track was engineered by Jon Roods (The Rustic Overtones), Stu Mahan (The London Souls, Eric Krasno Band) and Rick Salt. “Camaro” was mixed by Salt and mastered at Tranquality Sound.


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Pike & Sutton - Together.

Austin-based duo Pike & Sutton will release their full-length debut album Heart Is A Compass on April 3rd. Led by "hometown favorites" (Austin American-Statesman) Patrice Pike and Wayne Sutton, the band has evolved out of the longtime alternative rock band Sister 7. On Friday they released their new single "Together" which debuted on Billboard.

"The song is about creating a safe place for people to come together and transcend all the bullshit that's going on," Pike told Billboard. "But in retrospect it's kind of about Wayne and I, too. We've been in our friendship throughout the years. We've been through a lot. When people continue to make music together throughout their whole lives, something special happens. So I think those two things are in that song."

Pike & Sutton is a partnership, a creative evolution, and a promise fulfilled. Equally anchored by the powerhouse vocals of Pike and the deep textured guitars of Sutton, Heart Is A Compass is both a transformative celebration of the pair's R&B, soul, and roots influences and an exhilarating call-to-arms for the faithful. Co-produced with Grammy-winner Jim Watts (Emmylous Harris, Jenny Lewis, Kelly Clarkson), the album crackles with passion, vision, and undeniable hip-shaking rhythms.

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Clem Snide - Don't Bring No Ladder.

Clem Snide, the moniker of Eef Barzelay, shares "Don't Bring No Ladder," the new single from his first album in five years, Forever Just Beyond, out on March 27 via Ramseur Records/Thirty Tigers. Barzelay has also added new tour dates where the band will be joined by Forever Just Beyond producer Scott Avett.

"'Don't Bring No Ladder' was the first song I sent Scott in the hopes that it would entice him to make a record with me and with the extra secret hope that he would sing it," says Barzelay. "Both of those hopes were sweetly fulfilled. May we all die without resentment and regret."

"Don't Bring No Ladder" is the second single from Clem Snide's forthcoming album Forever Just Beyond. The first single "Roger Ebert" was described by Rolling Stone as "a pretty, probing ballad that contemplates the mysteries of life...Clem Snide uses Ebert’s epiphany to make something that is wildly abstract, both relatable and comforting”.

The road to Forever Just Beyond, Barzelay’s stunning new album under the Clem Snide moniker, was an unlikely one, to say the least. “About ten years ago, everything just seemed to fall apart,” he explains. “The band bottomed out, my marriage was crumbling, I lost my house, and I had to declare bankruptcy. That started this process of ego death for me, where I realized the only way to survive would be to transcend myself and to try to find some kind of deeper, spiritual relationship with life and with being. Once I committed myself to that, miraculous things started to happen.”

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Mummypowder - Sharon Eitan - Dana Maragos - YES TO ALL (D-Formation & Alex Medina)

Mummypowder - Stars In The Snow.      Stars In The Snow, the new single by singer-songwriter Janne Lehtinen ’s long-running project Mummypo...