Hermitess - Mark Lofgren - Wyatt C. Louis - Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards

Hermitess has just shared 'Followers' along with a video. We have to go back to 2017 since we last crossed paths, however the new song is exquisite and a good reintroduction to the very talented musician Jennifer Crighton. === Mark Lofgren has released a new album 'Black Moon Book' which is streaming in full below, along with a video for one of the tracks 'You Are Just Not Alone' which makes for a good feel for this bedroom pop (and more) collection. === Wyatt C. Louis just released 'Dancing With Sue' and it's a beautifully flowing Americana song where soulful vibes and refined musicianship rub shoulders. === Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards were featured last month and they are back with another new song 'Typhoon' and again their mixture of roots and folk music is wonderfully crafted and just plain beautiful.
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Hermitess - Followers.

Hermitess is the solo project of songwriter, visual artist and harpist Jennifer Crighton. Dreaming simultaneously in music and images, her projects are often approached with the sensibility of curator, intent on a carefully imagined collection of collaborators, stories and set pieces. Sonically, layered orchestral textures, choral voices, and pedal driven magic conjuring a fever dream.

Delicate harp lines loop and tangle into an intricate latticework of rhythm and melody, while unfamiliar sounds and unplaceable textures enrich the arrangements. Over this sonic foundation, Crighton sings in the voice of her adopted character, the words part story and part incantation. The lyrics question and caution the listener, walking the line between dreams and nightmares.

Jennifer studied Jazz music at Vancouver Island University before finishing a degree in drawing with a focus on performative art at Alberta University of Arts. While finishing her degree she put on DIY immersive shows and hosted numerous touring bands under the guise of the Summerwood Warren, later embarking on a tour of house venues down the coast of California with orchestral indie pop band The Consonant C. She went on to perform with Deadhorse/Devonian Gardens, touring Canada and the US. In 2017 she released the self titled Hermitess LP which she wrote in an isolated cabin during a residency Northern Michigan, and recorded with John Hornak at Audities Studio in Bearspaw Alberta.

The Tower EP is the Hermitess’s follow-up to the sparse and crystalline self titled, Recorded during a residency at the National Music Center with Elisa Pangsaeng producing, it inhabits a world considerably less removed from society, sharing all the mixed emotions and misgivings of navigating an industrialized modern world.

Still apparent is the rich cast of musical collaborators featuring unique instrumentation, and a particular knack for writing songs that conjure timely cinematic parables of life.

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Mark Lofgren - Black Moon Book (Album).

Mark Lofgren's second solo effort Black Moon Book is out now and streaming at Bandcamp.

Like most musicians operating under the new normal, Mark Lofgren (The Luck of Eden Hall, The Thin Cherries) has been spending time in his home studio crafting intimate recordings.

Black Moon Book, an album of exquisite bedroom pop that touches on memory, isolation and, most explicitly, the healing power of hope and love, follows his 2014 solo debut, The Past Perfect.

Lofgren is one of the founders of psychedelic pop/rock mainstays The Luck of Eden Hall, who have toured Europe and released music on a variety of independent labels, including Headspin Records and Fruits de Mer Records.


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Wyatt C. Louis - Dancing With Sue.

Wyatt C. Louis is a Cree-Métis folk singer-songwriter, based in Moh’kinstsís (Calgary). He has made an impact on the eclectic city with songs built from soaring melodies, railroad-like finger picking and quiet, haunting vocals and lyrical phrasing.

Dark, rustic tales meld folk and soulful blues to tell tales of love, loss and the journey home. They’re beautiful, subtle creations that juxtapose emotions, striking imagery and experiences that charm and envelop listeners. The sweet and intimate EP On a Journey for the Long Run (2017), had earned him airplay on CBC, CKUA and campus radio across Canada.

Louis’ upcoming release, “Dancing With Sue,” evokes the feeling of nostalgia, and yearning for the times in our lives where we feel the happiest and most free. Captured effortlessly through warm tones and colourful song writing.

The song is dedicated to supportive friends whom he met through various music collectives. “Dancing with Sue” is the first piece of Louis’ new album coming in fall 2020, released via Canadian label, Slow Weather.

Wyatt C. Louis · Dancing with Sue

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Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards - Typhoon.

Expanding on the boundaries of what an indie-folk band can be, Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards add a lightness and pop sensibility on their upcoming album, BITTER BETTER. This week, they're premiering a video for their song "Typhoon," which was filmed during album sessions in Cortese adopted home of Ghent, Belgium.

BITTER BETTER will be released on July 17 on Compass Records, with the band joining The Mountain Goats for fall US dates. A stunning lesson in all the ways string instruments can be played – bowed, plucked, percussively – combined with lush vocal harmonies, BITTER BETTER showcases Cortese and multi-instrumentalist producer Sam Kassirer (Lula Wiles, Lake Street Dive) striving to capture the most adventurous approach to each moment. The result is an album that incorporates dance-worthy foundational grooves, synth, and loops to push the boundaries of the genre.

“Everything is so heavy in the world right now,” Cortese says, who’s been living in Belgium the past two years. “When someone comes to our show, listens to this album, or hears one of the songs, I want it to feel like relief and release.”

When it came time to record, the band and Kassirer joined forces with  percussionist and engineer D. James Goodwin; together they completely dismantled the idea of how a string band “should” sound.

“There was a lot to feel hopeless about, big political changes and taking to the streets to protest. Friends had been marching weekly since January 20th and I could see our energy and optimism waning. I wanted to remind us to take care of ourselves and reconnect with hope and joy as the longer days returned.”

While the album’s 11 tracks provide relief and release, they also encourage self-examination and personal discovery—the work that is necessary to sustain the energy needed to keep striving, to connect, and to continue to make our complicated world a better place. With BITTER BETTER, Laura Cortese & The Dance Cards throw out the rule book, creating a beautifully vivid, musically unexpected canvas from their refreshingly unconventional perspective.

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Vilde - NKOS - Tali Shear - Hannah Scott - Freak Heat Waves

Vilde have just released their new album 'Atopia' which is streaming in full below along with 'Splutter' taken from the collection, a song that makes for a fine indicator of the wonderful quality and beauty that is present throughout the album. === NKOS are carving out a very distinctive and appealing musical style which is reinforced by their new single and video for 'BOW (Brave Old World)'. === Tali Shear shares 'Fool' a song that suggests this young London singer songwriter is capable of producing both natural and intrinsically personal and gorgeous music. === Hannah Scott makes her fourth appearance on Beehive Candy with her brand new song '98' and again she easily meets indeed exceeds expectations with a beautiful and up-building song. === Finally today we have Freak Heat Waves with 'Nothing Lasts Forever' where the Canadian post-punk/electronic duo are enticing, hard to categorize yet gripping and addictive.
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Vilde - Atopia (Album).

Vilde is the musical project of Thomas Savage. Birthed in Stockholm in 2016, Thomas’ goal has been to release one album per year for the indefinite future. This began with the monthly single release campaign culminating in 12 songs comprising Study/Dance in 2017, followed by 2018’s Thud and Fidget At The Podium in 2019. On schedule, the 4th LP, entitled Atopia is due June 25th.

Thomas writes of the theme, "Without actively considering where the subject matter of this record would go, it sort of drifted predominantly towards the topic of death. It’s one of the most interesting and fascinating laws of the universe, but is universally difficult to discuss. I wonder whether the suppression of the topic in society is hindering our ability to be our most human selves. Once I’d made the record I was able to step away and evaluate the bigger picture of what it was. I feel like it sort of lulls you into a sense of comfort and safety and then quietly whispers concepts of love and death into your ear. I’d love it if this was something you could listen to in your own time and space, but then come to the show and pulse with it.”

The album was written over roughly 12 months across several countries, during a somewhat nomadic time for Thomas.

On the process Thomas writes, "I realised I’d become a bit too comfortable with my recording software. I’d open it up, then start writing parts and throwing them all in. Often I felt the songs had become a sort of frankenstein, shred and glued. I wanted to step away from that process this time. So I began to simply sing ideas into my phone. By the time it came to producing the album, I had around a hundred scraps amassed in my phone’s ‘voice recorder’. So the recording/mixing process which often takes 9 months took barely 2. From there I went in with David Pye [Wild Beasts, Dido] in Norwich for additional mixing, and sent it off to Eric James [Dame Joan Sutherland, Faithless, James Holden] for mastering.”

Vilde · Splutter

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NKOS - BOW (Brave Old World).

An international collective conceived after dark, NKOS were always set to tickle the fancy of the global synth-loving, indie-electronica community and their debut single did just that... ‘Little Miss Numb’ was much shared, streamed and even bought(!), it filled dark dance floors, was loved by reviewers, adored by new fans and blogged about like welcoming an old friend home. Not bad considering they haven’t even shared a band picture yet and they are spread around Europe with limited studio time together.

Single number 2 is the dystopian ‘BOW (Brave Old World)’. Despite the title and theme of the song, this was not recorded during the lockdown, it was instead made out of endless phone calls and file sharing between Flavio and Chris Shape, as well as recording sessions scattered over the years with the full band starting as early as 2014. The long, antsy intro sets the path for a track with a title and a set of lyrics perfectly fitting in the current climate even if produced in much ‘better days’. The video, written and directed by the talented Zidrunas Ilgauscas was shot in London last year.

NKOS are Flavio Manieri, Chris Shape, Nancy Natali and Marcus Billeri. They blend lush vocals, production savvy, old school musicianship & dj skills into a real live band. Drawn together through a love of all things 4AD and a good night out, they are where trip hop meets the dance floor, and where electronica meets indie. The end results move seamlessly “from light to dark and minimal to maximal” says Flavio. Where ‘Little Miss Numb was dark, ’BOW’ in its own way it’s probably even darker.

NKOS have just finished the final mixing and mastering of their debut album ‘From Dust To Life’ with a release date set for October on Beatbuzz Records. Very limited edition will be available for pre-order once BOW is out. More formats will be announced soon.

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Tali Shear - Fool.

From Tali - I’m Tali Shear, a young singer-songwriter from London. To be completely (and hopefully refreshingly) honest, I’m an independent musician just trying to share my music with people willing to listen and with quite limited help/budget.

I’m so excited to be releasing a new single ‘Fool’ on the 26th of June and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get in touch with some blogs I’ve come across and have taken a particularly personal interest in. Its a slow, ballad-like pop song about feeling like a fool after being mistreated by someone you fell for.

A bit about me, after the two previous releases in the last two years, I received some great feedback and a big growth in my following. I had a radio interview on Vibe 107.6 and have performed in some great venues across London. My voice and songs have also been compared to the likes of Adele on numerous occasions.

Tali Shear · Tali Shear - Fool

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Hannah Scott - 98.

London-Based independent artist Hannah Scott is fast cementing her place as one of the country’s most exciting new songwriters, with her emotive songs and striking voice. 9 8, the second single from her forthcoming album, showcases her powerful and personal storytelling.

The song recounts how at the age of 98, Hannah’s paternal Grandmother has made peace with her own mortality, not something many of us will get the chance to do. It is also a reminder that there is still pleasure to be found in the small things as long as she is alive.

Co-written and produced with long-standing creative partner Stefano Della Casa (Ultra Music Publishing), 98 expertly combines organic, live elements with electronic sounds. The two artists have struck a perfect balance between Hannah’s traditional songwriting craft and Stefano’s unique cinematic production.

Recent highlights for the pair include being awarded funding by Help Musicians UK to go towards the production of the album, opening for Madeleine Peyroux to an audience of 2000 at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre and travelling across Ireland with Paddy Casey to open shows for him in Dublin and in a tiny Irish speaking village near Galway! Their music has also been featured on BBC Radio 2 including a live session with Dermot O’Leary, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, The Guardian, MOJO and Clash Magazine.

Hannah Scott · 98

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Freak Heat Waves - Nothing Lasts Forever.

Canadian post-punk/electronic duo, Freak Heat Waves have just shared ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ a fuzzy, psychedelic cut lifted from the forthcoming record, Zap The Planet which is out September 4 on Telephone Explosion.

Zap The Planet follows 2018's Beyond XXXL that found tips at Brooklyn Vegan and FADER and also found Freak Heat Waves opening for the likes of Suuns, Preoccupations, Odonis Odonis, Mattiel and more. The duo, who now live at opposing ends of the country in Montréal and Vancouver, initially hail from the Midwestern Canadian prairies before relocating to Victoria, BC where they cut their teeth, earning acclaim for their early cassette tapes and blistering DIY performances.

New single, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ swims in warm hues of psychedelia; arresting baselines are tugged around smoggy vocals and twinkling guitar segments to find the pair once again harnessing their lysergic connotations. “The writing and recording of this track was pretty off the cuff,” says the band. “We wanted to make something that would be really light and laid back, and then also make it a bit kitschy and over the top. At its element, ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ is an offhand bedroom pop song."

When not touring, the band frequently relocated, adapted and diversified, trading instruments and forging a path-less-followed approach to writing music. As new instruments started to come into the fold, the studio process became more dynamic with the pair – never the type to rest on their laurels – adopting avant-garde recording techniques, experimental sound design and orchestrations that utilized legendary effects, drum machines and synths. Tireless curiosity fuelled the duo as they merged their original sound with discoveries and seemingly disparate influences – the distance between Montreal, QC and Victoria, BC has only helped fuel innovation too.

No Freak Heat Waves record has followed a singular path and no two are alike. Each album is an evolution in musical direction, songwriting and conceptualization. With Zap the Planet, (their second album on Tele- phone Explosion) the duo has manifested more of their intrinsically unique vision and become more pronounced in their unhinged artistic process. The follow up to 2017’s Beyond XXXL finds the Freaks taking a fearless, inventive leap to create the greatest departure from their previous work.

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Another Sky - Chris Bell - Hannah Frances - Shuffalo

Another Sky have shared 'Fell In Love With The City' and announced their debut album will be released in August, the song itself is a mixture of refined indie rock and some notable vocals from Catrin Vincent. === Chris Bell has been active in the music industry for some time and now he has shared a new song entitled 'Whispering Town' which exudes both quality and heart. === Hannah Frances is a new artist from Melbourne, Australia and her first single from a forthcoming E.P is the rather special 'Wolf' which more than hints some fine new songs on are there way. === Alt rock band Shuffalo share 'Stay On Me' which is one of those tracks that stand out in a crowded musical genre.
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Another Sky - Fell In Love With The City.

Another Sky have announced the release of their debut album I Slept On The Floor, due for release on August 7th via Missing Piece Records / Fiction. They have also released their brand new single “Fell In Love With The City,” by far their most ambitious and euphoric track to date.

On “Fell In Love With The City,” Catrin Vincent (vocalist / lyricist) had to say: "I hate breakup songs. I don't know why, it’s the most universal feeling. Maybe because the world has so many of them. Moving to London was a dramatic shift from small-town life where it didn’t even occur to me I could do music, where this vision of me as a housewife who never amounted to anything felt inescapable, in to a bigger world, of people from all over, of new ideas and a new version of myself.”

On the music video, which was directed by Vincent herself: “We asked if any of our fans had an old mini DV tape camera, and they came through (thanks so much Peter Kavanagh, Victoria Wai and Henry Kenyon). We tried to capture the excitement of being on the road for the first time, replicating the feeling of moving to London seven years ago. “Fell In Love With The City” is the second song we ever wrote as a band and we wanted to make a video that embodied the way you'd film a partner, but you're filming a city instead".

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Chris Bell - Whispering Town.

Chris Bell has been writing and recording music since the late 90’s. Born in Dunnville, ON, his introduction onto the Canadian music landscape happened via his high school, post hardcore band Chore. They released three full length albums for Sonic Unyon Records and after extensive touring and studio time with Chore, Bell began venturing out into the solo realm releasing his first independent record, Time Between Failures, in 2001.

The formation of Alive and Living after Chore disbanded in 2004, was an even further extension of this softer, more folk oriented approach and kept Bell busy writing, recording. Alive and Living released an ep called PLO in 2004 and toured extensively in Eastern Canada. More recently Bell has been touring and recording, as the bassist, with the eastern Canadian rock band Wintersleep. Appearing on the band’s last release, In The Land Of, Bell shifted his role from the bands live sound engineer and tour manager to band member. He has worked with many prominent Canadian acts as a live sound engineer; Broken Social Scene, Stars, Basia Bulat, Arkells and the aforementioned Wintersleep to name a few.

These many projects and varying roles have led Chris to his most recent project, self-produced, Division Street. The album touches on all of Bell’s previous sensibilities while offering the most immediately accessible songwriting and multi-faceted production values to be heard in his already high quality body of work. It is the culmination of his years as a budding and driven musician/producer into a finely balanced song cycle that, while bouncing between folk rock and hard rock, coheres into a listening experience that captivates, soothes and gets the toes tapping throughout the track listing.

Having the freedom to work on the album entirely independently and free of any deadlines or technical challenges means that the listener is rewarded with multiple layers of lush vocal harmony, an eclectic range of percussive elements and, as always, Bell’s trademark guitar work making these songs impossible to forget, even after just one listen.

Chris Bell · Whispering Town

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Hannah Frances - Wolf.

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Hannah Frances, is a new name on the music scene and is now inspiring major interest thanks to her beautiful and captivating music.

“Wolf” is the first single from her forthcoming EP and showcases her melodic sound that has gotten critics and fans raving. “Wolf encompasses strong feelings associated with betrayal - we all know a wolf who wears sheep’s clothes”, says Hannah.

Hannah Frances’ music has been described as ‘a sweet and dark musical terrain that traverses folk, pop and the sounds of the singer-songwriter generation of artists who trail blazed out of Greenwich Village in the 60’s’.

Having cut her teeth in open mic nights and backyard concerts around Melbourne, Hannah has now moved her career onto support performances for local and international artists. Melbourne may be a long way from the famous New York region that spawned many musical storytellers, but its echo can be heard loud and clear in Hannah’s intoxicating blend.

Hannah cites Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and Lana Del Rey as major influences on her unique music style - which is both haunting and hypnotising – and a quality that comes with the stamp of longevity.

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Shuffalo - Stay On Me.

Introduction from Shuffalo - Our new single, "Stay On Me," was inspired by the narrative of portals in iconic stories we grew up on: Chronicles of Narnia, Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

"Stay On Me" is available everywhere now, inviting you to choose your own adventure as it pulls you into another world and takes you on a journey. The song explores many important topics such as climate change, mortality salience, love, and the fight for a better tomorrow.

The mood starts off slow before it falls down the rabbit hole, two lovers (in a dangerous time) walking down a dirty alley with bursting neon and vines crawling through the cracks while nature takes back the city. The song travels with the pair as they question their past, live in the moment, and explore future challenges.

Shuffalo · Stay On Me

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Hey Elbow - Sergeant Buzfuz

Hey Elbow have released 'Nurture/Aptitude' a song that sees the Swedish Dream Pop band drift into a more powerful and deeper sound which becomes increasingly irresistible. === Sergeant Buzfuz share 'There's Idiots, Then There's Idiots With Money' accompanied with a video, the bands slick no nonsense approach mixes natural rock and cutting lyrics together, doing so with finesse.
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Hey Elbow - Nurture/Aptitude.

After returning earlier this year to release their captivating single ‘Missit’, Swedish dream-pop outfit Hey Elbow are back once again to share another wonderfully broad and ethereal offering, ‘Nurture/Aptitude’, lifted from their forthcoming full-length ‘WE THREE’.

Created around a loop the band recorded by mistake, ‘Nurture/Aptitude’ sees the group deliver a wonderfully warm and enticing return that manages to juggle deep and emotive atmosphere with a cacophonous symphony of drums and synths. Taking cues from their usually sweeping output, this newest cut sees them showcase a bright and energetic direction as they look to ready us for their highly-anticipated third album ‘WE THREE’, arriving on the 18th September via Adrian Recordings..

Speaking about the new release, the band said, "’Nurture/Aptitude’ is a somewhat catchy track coming from us. The song is based on a loop that we recorded by mistake in the rehearsal place. It was a vocal harmony that by accident was cut to a super short segment at the same time as a coffee cup crashed into a microphone. We can’t really remember but the loop disappeared and we panicked. A few months later in the studio the loop suddenly appeared and we could include it on the recording. It is a pop tune but needed a frame. We did a longer intro and an ambient outro. So it became an Hey Elbow song. For the impatient listener, we also did a convenient but lazy edit.”

Adrian Recordings · Hey Elbow - Nurture/Aptitude (Edit)

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Sergeant Buzfuz - There's Idiots, Then There's Idiots With Money.

Since writing the last Sergeant Buzfuz album, 2015's "Balloons For Thin Linda", songwriter Joe Murphy has lost both parents, got married, been a victim of a smear campaign (as a whistle blowing union rep), co-founded charity QQF (a theatre company for adults with special needs) and relocated to his native Sheffield.  Joe has also continued to co-run Blang, the DIT* label he started in 2005 (including working on the first album from ex-Fall members Brix & The Extricated) and has worked part-time in special needs schools in London and Sheffield to fund the recording of "Fox Pop" (out 3rd July).

"Balloons For Thin Linda" received positive press but life events got in the way of much live promotion. The band recruited Joss on bass, Stu on slide guitar and Polly on backing vocals and released the "Humble Pie" EP in 2017. The debut album from the new line-up is finally here. It's the seventh Buzfuz album. It's got tunes bursting out all over the place, lyrics from the head, heart and fist and is rich in variety with two-minute pop songs, ballads, post-punk, freakbeat and strands of the band's Celtic DNA.

Opening track ‘There’s Idiots, Then There’s Idiots With Money’ “is about me imagining I'm attending one of those Mansion House dinners where the Chancellor gets summoned to report to the City.” Says Joe. It’s a stomping working class anthem that quickly gets under the skin with intricately woven shuffling guitars and percussion that make way for a psychedelic flute solo. Second track ‘Theresa McKee’ is a refreshing lively blast of pop peppered with mandolin and acoustic guitar, showing off the band’s more folky roots with finesse.

Other album highlights include ‘Who Art In Seven Hills’, a clever and humorous re-work of The Lord’s Prayer replacing names and places with those of Joe’s native Sheffield (a la Ian Dury's Bus Driver's Prayer). The interlude makes way for the jollity off-kilter harmonies of quirky ‘Rare & Racy’, a busker-esque jam about a second hand record/book shop in Sheffield which had to close when the Council, having to obey new Tory Government planning laws, approved the property owner's plans to turn the building into flats.

‘Fill In The Blanks’ and ‘Rear View Mirror’ are other great moments of raw and instantly familiar catchy classic punk on this album which celebrates real lives and real musicianship through the band’s own unique lens. The album, with its Squeeze & Kinks like anti-folk chant singalongs and storytelling is a perfectly crafted antidote to chart pop, Brexit and the current state of the world. It’s fun and meaningful and a constantly surprising delight from this band who are well sewn into the fabric of the UK music scene.

Buzfuz have played three live 6 Music sessions for Marc Riley and Tom Robinson and had lots of radio support from Gideon Coe as well as press acclaim across the board including from the likes of NME who described them as ‘Universally Charming’.

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