Antonioni have just released 'Mary Bell' after signing to Lauren Records and its a slick hook filled indie rocker. === Max Fry and Lhasa Petik have already gained considerable attention for 'Take It Slow' which is hardly surprising on this wonderfully produced song === The Sea Birds latest single 'A Fine Line' is a well crafted piece that packs genuine feeling and suppressed energy. === Brendan & the Strangest Ways make their third appearance here this year with 'Turn Your Luck' and once again their striking Americana is both powerful and pleasing.
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Antonioni - Mary Bell.
Lauren Records is excited to announce that they have signed Seattle's Antonioni, and unveiled a new single from the band. “Mary Bell” was written while Sarah Pasillas from the band was processing a friend committing an unthinkably violent and inhuman act. What could cause someone to do something so evil? Could that same evil reside in me?
"Mary Bell" is a brash yet melodic song with a dark underbelly. "I wrote this song after watching a couple True Crime Youtube videos about young girls who became murderers. I was drawn to this topic in particular as one of my best friends murdered someone a couple years ago-- an incident that was so traumatizing and close to my heart that I can’t help but explore the grief time and time again through songwriting." says Pasillas of the inspiration behind Antonioni's new single.
"I felt so heart attacked" Pasillas' somber voice rises above the fuzzy clatter, reminding you of melancholy within the song.
"I also like songs that decide to take on traumatic stories (like Polly by Nirvana and John Wayne Gacy Jr. by Sufjan Stevens), as a way to discuss and ask questions like, “how close am I to evil?” No question is more pertinent, right? To face the evil inside yourself and try to recognize it in all its forms" Sarah Pasillas says of the dark subject matter of the song.
Antonioni has been steadily rising within the Seattle indie rock and DIY scene over the past four years. They’ve put out two EPs and a handful of self-produced music videos. Their work has garnered praise from outlets like KEXP and NPR who wrote that their music “sounds and feels like a fuzzy '90s flashback fever dream.”
US producer Max Fry follows up Majestic Casual released "Passage" with another poignant new offering in "Take It Slow". A collaboration with Canadian artist Lhasa Petik, the new single boasts a catchy vocal melody which floats over ukulele chords, until heavy 808s make an entry which perfectly juxtaposes the delicate plucking of the intro.
"Take It Slow" may seem like a plea to a lover upon first listen. However, it is actually a dialogue between Lhasa’s current and former self, following a whirlwind year of loving and letting go. It describes her thought process while letting go of a relationship that she struggled to move on from; “you were looking for a way out, I made you take the long route.”
“Oh I hope that you take it slow, so that if you crash, you’ll still come back home to me” is a plea to herself to ensure that she won't let herself get to that broken place again; so that she always has enough energy to get home.
Max elaborates on the creation process: After hearing Lhasa's most recent project "Outside / Dreaming", I knew I wanted to work with her. Lhasa sent over the original idea for the song - knew we had created something special after combining Lhasa's vocals and ukulele riffs with my drums, backing vocals, and electric guitar.
The latest single from The Sea Birds, A Fine Line, tosses and turns through a broken heart. Written with three contributing songwriters and vocalists, Mike and Loic, take the lead on this single. There is a deep fragility and unwavering honesty lyrically, complimented by a blossoming instrumental section.
The Sea Birds have worked from Headstone Records home base, Studio One.Be, for the past several years. Headstone founder, Dave Warner mixed the latest single and upcoming album, mastering done by Cameron Mitchell. It's an absolute pleasure to be releasing the work from some of the hardest working and most supportive musicians in Melbourne.
The Sea Birds were formed in 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. The band's sound pays homage to classic influences from rock's early 1970's singer-songwriter phase, as well as echoes of the uniquely Australian 1980's east coast music scene. The result is a contemporary take celebrating the best elements of these two great musical eras.
In 2017, The Sea Birds released their debut album "Blue or Grey", recorded at Studio One.Be and Atlantis Sound. Produced by David McCluney with contributions from Greg Arnold, Bruce Haymes, and Georgia Fields. The band has been performing live and developing their upcoming album "Problems of a Different Kind" since their last release.
The new single from Brendan & the Strangest Ways pours another round of whiskey for the broken, bruised, but never down-and-out independent musicians living with the frustration of everyday economic obstacles. “Turn Your Luck” combines a string-plucking melody with a foot-stomping backbeat to tell the dust-tinged story of a touring musician’s lament. The single is out August 10 and is off the upcoming album Are We Sure The Dawn Is Coming? out September 4.
Shea goes into his inspiration, explaining, ”This song is my evaluation of whether or not I still believed in what I was doing after years of trying and traveling a whole lot of miles to get absolutely nowhere.” Musically, the lyrics echo this uncertainty, saying “A dozen years of overhead, not sure how wisely spent / I’m busking at the baseball game to try and cover rent”. The sentiment creates an anthem for anyone who has ever hauled equipment held together with duct tape and stained with water rings to a gig, just to find you’ve spent more money getting there than you end up taking home.
More difficulty comes in the form of a relationship ending, as the later verses depict two people unlucky in love who seem to sabotage themselves by hanging onto past failures. Shea writes “All we had to do was drop our baggage at the door / But people treated poorly gonna make more of the same”. These layers of struggle, both personal and professional, leave us to wonder whether this is really the dark before the dawn, or whether the night will just keep getting darker.
Grace Turner has released her new E.P 'Half Truths' which is a collection of gorgeous contemporary folk rock songs. === NKOS return for a third time here with 'Lonely Ghost-Self' and once again they continue to carve out a powerfully distinct and irresistable musical experience. === Loaver also sings in Malmö act Kluster B who have graced our pages on more than one occasion. Loaver takes us into a more gentle and personal place with her beautiful new track 'Bloom With Me'. === Terra Lightfootwas a regular here back in 2017 and we are so pleased to have her back with 'Paper Thin Walls' where her refined yet powered up rock makes for a fine listen. === Saronde shares 'Firewood' featuring Idd Aziz. It's fair to say we have not featured much Afro Funk on Beehive Candy, songs like this might just change that! === Finally today we have Ane Brun and the brand new release 'Take Hold Of Me'. A well established artist with an eighth album on the way, I just had to share this as it's just so beautiful.
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Grace Turner - Half Truths (E.P).
Alluring, honest and thought-provoking; Grace Turner unravels a stream of consciousness in her debut EP Half Truths, an evocative narrative and deep-seated direction for the folk-Americana singer-songwriter.
A seven-track EP, Grace traverses her innermost self and broaches both the subjectivity and complexity of one's truth. Whilst diving into a fresh direction in both sound and writing, Grace remains true to folk-rock soundscapes. A work-in-progress over 3 years, the EP reveals Grace's vulnerability and newfound artistic expression. In retrospect, Grace recalls the solace she found from the process: "I was sick of trying to sound good, trying to be some version of myself I had always told myself I was. I wanted to be seen and heard. When I listen to these songs now and look back at the process they definitely are of a time of great change and renewal for me. I chose the title Half Truths as I was going through such a turbulent time and the songs felt like they were spat out of me."
A lover of storytelling, instrumentals and dissecting lyrics, Grace hopes her body of work is also an introduction to listeners' self-analysis. "Truth is a subjective thing, what we think is true one day especially in relation to ones inner emotions may be really very different the next. When you create something you put those thoughts and feelings down, but you don’t necessarily stay the same person or believe in what you said," she continues.
Written across different settings and inspired by a range of characters, each track mirror an ongoing theme: introspection. Whether it be freeing the mind while driving in opening track 'Disdain', questioning mortality in 'Crossed Your Mind', unpacking cognitive dissonance in 'Half Light', shifting internally in 'Get Your Head Straight' or ruminating on love in 'Forget About The World'. The EP also features gusty single 'Easy I Fall' and breakout track 'Dead Or Alive', both of which received extensive plays across triple j and Double J radio.
To piece the EP together, Grace worked with a number of key figures in the industry. Recording at Melbourne's infamous Sound Park Studios with the production skills of Timothy Harvey (Lisa Mitchell, Ella Hooper), mixing by Fletcher Matthews (Sweater Curse, CLEWS) and mastering by Adam Dempsey (Didirri, Courtney Barnett). Prior to this, Grace has previously played internationally at SXSW Festival, earnt a spot as a triple j Unearthed feature artist, hitting #24 in Spotify US' Viral 50 Playlist, as well as supporting an array of artists including Alex The Astronaut, Lucy Dacus (USA), Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon), City Calm Down, Kingswood, Ali Barter and more as well as making appearances at Grow Your Own Festival and Groovin The Moo.
After their debut ‘Little Miss Numb’ last year and follow up ‘BOW (Brave Old World)’ only a month ago, NKOS are now back with synth/electro gem Lonely Ghost-self, their electronic take on break up, grief, solitude and pain. Building a path that will lead to the release of their debut album in October.
Single number three is now edging towards the digital launchpad, once again co-produced by Jagz Kooner, producer and remixer, doyen of ‘electronic rock & roll’ (it’s his own genre dammit). Co-producer of debut single Little Miss Numb’, Jagz lays a trail of aural breadcrumbs as to what you can expect from ‘Lonely Ghost-Self’, a track titled as if to be a winsome Belle and Sebastian B-Side but revealing a darker, heavier, jagged and harder hitting side to NKOS that was concealed by the dreamier, albeit bruising electronica of previous numbers ‘Little Miss Numb’ and ‘BOW (Brave Old World)’.
Initially a pan-national studio-based project, NKOS has evolved into a full band, one set to thrill on stages around the world. Brought together by friendship, the internet and sometimes sheer luck, NKOS comprise four artists from very different backgrounds – and locations – who share a love of deep, edgy electronica.
NKOS are releasing their debut album ‘From Dust To Life’ on Beatbuzz Records in October. The album will be available digitally via AWAL and OML Sync and physically in a limited edition metal box cassette with the option of cassette + walkman/cassette player also available.
Loaver is one of the lastest signing to Stockholm label Rama Lama Records (Melby, Julia Rakel, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes etc.). However she's not a new face to the family as Linnea Hall, the woman behind the project, also sings in Malmö act Kluster B. New single 'Bloom With Me' is out now and is the second taste of her upcoming debut album 'Fern'.
Malmö, Sweden, based singer-songwriter Linnea Hall started her solo project Loaver with a desire to be able to showcase all sides of her experiences and inspirations. Earlier this year, Loaver released new single 'Drömmeri (om döden)' on Rama Lama Records (Melby, Chez Ali, Julia Rakel, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes). The single, a pendant to Debussy's Reverie is a memoriam to Linnea's grandmother that was released on her death day. 'Bloom With Me' is the second single of her upcoming debut album 'Fern' and another taste of her creative pop.
Linnea on the track: "Bloom With Me was written in a basement in Italy, in some kind of hopeless longing for union and development amongst all those stringy branches."
In 2019, Loaver put out her self-titled debut EP on Birds Records. The music – experimental, smooth and dark pop at its finest – was written and recorded in Italy during 2017, in close collaboration with artists such as Giovanni Ferrario (PJ Harvey, John Parish etc.), who produced the tracks, and Emanuele Maniscalco. Through the six tracks we were drawn between the uttermost boundaries of emotions – love, hate, dreams, doubt, chaos and naivety. The new record is once again recorded in Italy but this time in collaboration with Emanuele Maniscalco and Carlo Poddighe. On 'Fern', Loaver develop her creative pop and experiments with trip hop, singer-songwriter, dream pop, jazz and bedroom pop elements that together with Hall's splendid vocals and personal lyrics create a hauntingly beautiful soundscape.
Besides Loaver, Linnea Hall is the singer of Swedish experimental indie rock group Kluster B. The band have put out two records since 2018 that besides positive reviews in some of Sweden's biggest music magazines, have received international attention from Line of Best fit, BBC Radio 6, NBHAP and more, with The Revue calling them one of the most innovative bands in the world as well as opened for Frankie Cosmos, Omni and more.
Nearly three years since the release of her critically acclaimed album New Mistakes, soulful rocker Terra Lightfoot shares the new single and video for "Paper Thin Walls" off the upcoming studio album Consider the Speed (October 16th - Sonic Unyon Records).
Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee at legendary Royal Studios, the single sees Lightfoot backed by a trio of session heavyweights —drummer Steve Potts, bassist Davy Smith, and keyboardist Lester Snell —produced by Jay Newland and engineered by Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell. If the single's loping riff and easy groove suggests the makings of a summer anthem, it delivers a stinging lyric for all seasons.
"I wrote this song about overhearing someone you love sharing some harsh words,” says Lightfoot. “I’ve tried to modulate my reactions to things like that, strived to be calmer in my interactions even when I feel strongly. 'Paper Thin Walls' is about having your heart run over by someone who never really comes through.”
Alongside the single, Lightfoot releases a lyric video for the song, directed by Mat Dunlap and featuring performance footage from the tail end of the marathon New Mistakes tour.
Strong, sure-footed and soulful, Terra Lightfoot's new album Consider the Speed sees the artist finding new roots on the road, and at home in her own skin more than ever before. On this Memphis-recorded session, the acclaimed singer-songwriter-guitarist is in top form, backed by seasoned session ringers and captured by Grammy-winning producer Newland and Grammy-winning engineer Mitchell.
Saronde return with an afro funk anthem called ‘Firewood’ ft. Idd Aziz - “Nairobi today will be on fire. Finish your work. Wakariru put on your best dress we go and dance in the rain”- Translated lyrics from ‘Firewood’
Beating Heart Music label founders and dance duo Saronde (Ollie Wood and Chris Pedley) are back from a short break after having ignited airwaves (6 Music Giles Peterson, Cerys Matthews, Tom Ravenscroft) and festival stages (Glastonbury, Boomtown, Elrow) in 2019 with their unique recordings from across Africa featuring contemporary artists alongside vintage field recordings, all fused with a New Forest, UK originated musical twist.
‘Firewood’ has the hallmarks of a future classic borrowing from a 50’s Kikuyu all female acapella sung by young unmarried girls as they collect or carry back home firewood. It is an enchanting and delightful use of vocal evocative of youthful innocence and is complemented sublimely by Kenyan superstar Idd Aziz and a modern jazz funk pop disco splash of deliciously catchy jazz guitar, bass, and drums. Dare you not to stop everything and dance to this rhythm!
‘Firewood’ shows another level being reached as this real feel good track brings positivity, smiling faces and lots of energy across an unprecedented global summer.
The Beating Heart label is proud to spur a new wave of collaboration between Africa and the rest of the world, by using an untapped archive of 70-year-old field recordings housed at the International Library of African Music (ILAM) founded by ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey and The Kikuyu, (also Agĩkũyũ/Gĩkũyũ) where the sample originates from, are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019, they account for 17% of the total population of Kenya making them the largest ethnic group in Kenya.
Saronde was born of an idea in 2016, fusing ancient sounds with modern musical concepts. Now based in Nairobi, Ollie and Chris have gone deeply into this incredibly rich cultural heritage and marry ideas such as ‘Firewood’ with African musical icons like Idd Aziz, who is passionate about ethnic and cultural music and its place in African society and is a proud representative of his Mijikenda culture.
Other than being one of the most distinctive vocalists in the region, Idd Aziz is also an accomplished and dynamic percussionist having learned from his father. He also plays the guitar and flute and experiments with a variety of percussions from all across the African continent.
Ane Brun has announced details of a brand new single, ‘Take Hold Of Me‘, which has just been released by her label, Balloon Ranger Recordings. It’s the sixth taste of her as-yet-untitled eighth studio album, which will represent her first of original material since 2015’s acclaimed When I’m Free. Due in stores this autumn, it follows 2017’s exquisite collection of cover versions, Leave Me Breathless.
This song came to life during a writing session with Martin Hederos and Josefin Runsteen in Spring of 2019. I’ve hardly done any live co-writing before (that is, meeting together in a room and creating something from scratch). I mostly prefer being alone in my own bubble when I create the first few seeds of a song. It’s a very intimate and intense activity for me, almost meditative and very intuitive and it involves a lot of improvisation. But I decided to give it a chance, and even though at one point I almost blushed because I felt so vulnerable digging into my soul in front of three friends, I’m very grateful we did it because a few really good songs came out of it, and it also made me braver.
My lyrics started out with these few lines: “My existence is screaming, it’s a physical feeling, of missing out on dance and light”. I try to describe an existential complex state of mind. An abstract feeling, and something that I’ve felt come and go through the years. And in some ways, in this time of the pandemic, it’s being emphasized even more. A feeling that things are on hold, that life is not lived to its full potential, and that the bigger questions are so present right there on the surface. It is something that at least I have experienced in this very different situation we’re in right now in 2020.
I reached out to Samuel Starck to co-produce this song with us, who is one of the amazing musicians appearing on my upcoming album. He’s also a synth and production wizard, and thanks to him we created this almost clubby sense of intense growing emotions, reflecting the words of suppressed energy that get a release by the end of the track. “Take hold of me, keep this energy steady.”
Jillette Johnson is a Nashville-based singer/songwriter who has just shared 'I Shouldn't Go Anywhere' and it's a superb modern country rocker. === Blue Stragglershave two new singles 'She' and 'Late At A Festival' where their brand of garage rock is robust and defined with plenty of clarity. === Bikini Test Failure has revisited and redefined 'Are We Having A Good Time Yet?' adding depth and richness to this fabulous genre spanning rock song. === From Cordovas we have 'High Feeling' ahead of their new album 'Destiny Hotel', out 30th October on ATO Records. The bands beautifully crafted mixture of folk, country and classic rock & roll is simply wonderful.
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Jillette Johnson - I Shouldn't Go Anywhere.
Nashville-based singer/songwriter Jillette Johnson has released a stirring new track titled “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere.” Johnson spoke with American Songwriter about her first new music in three years, which showcases her irreverent, candid lyricism, wrapped in a bolder, more confident sound fueled by a rebelliously-optimistic attitude. “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere” illustrates a destructive relationship nearing its end with a lilting melody and Johnson’s classically emotive vocals.
“I wrote this song after deciding to leave a short-lived fling with someone who was emotionally unavailable,” explained Johnson. “The song is about trying to navigate the power struggle that inevitably presents itself in an unhealthy partnership, coupled with the realization that we are responsible for how safe our own hearts are. Thankfully, I found my way out of it, and shortly there-after I met my now husband. Turns out the lotus flower really does grow out of the mud.”
Since releasing her full-length debut Water in a Whale, Jillette Johnson has built a reputation on her ruminative pop/folk, piano-driven songs and powerful vocals, garnering acclaim ranging from Billboard and Paste to Marie Claire and ELLE. Her follow-up Dave Cobb-produced release All I Ever See In You Is Me, prompted Rolling Stone Country to hail Johnson as “Regina Spektor refracted through the lens of American roots music.” She has experienced a period of significant growth in the years since, while navigating a volatile, ever-changing industry and relocating from her hometown of New York City to Nashville. After taking back control of her sound and career, Johnson returns with a hard-won optimism and newfound creative energy. “I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere” is the first look at Jillette Johnson on the other side of a journey through pain and struggle to gratitude, forgiveness, and, ultimately, acceptance.
Encapsulating the Stragglers’ intention to write anthems for festivals lost and yet to come, ‘She’ and ‘Late At A Festival’ represent a one-two of utterly infectious and euphoric garage-rock.
‘She’, for all its swaggering riffage and alt-rock punch, is in many ways the perfect pop single: sub-three minutes of melodic immediacy with a verse and chorus so catchy you’ll be singing along on second listen. It also focuses on that most classic of pop themes – unrequited love. According to Stragglers’ frontman Lee Martin, ‘She’ is “A cheeky south London romp about the one who got away.” This is a track that oozes sweet menace, carried along by a hook that displays the trio’s guitar, bass and drums dexterity at its unified best.
‘Late At A Festival’ melds harmonic indie sensibilities with a fuzzed-out guitar line that the Nineties forgot to write. A paean to lost love that was written after the band spent a hazy weekend stumbling around Dorset’s End of the Road Festival, the song draws as much on the likes of Blur as it does Demob Happy or Boy Azooga. Lee’s chiming guitar line contrasts with the powerhouse intent of the rhythm section as ‘Late At A Festival’ crests from understated melodic counterpoints into crunching overdrive that hints at the song’s ferocious crescendo.
About the ‘Blue Stragglers’ EP - Comprising five heavyweight alt-rock gems that lay equal claim for A-side status, Blue Stragglers’ debut EP captures the Sussex trio at their muscular, melodic finest. Recorded and mixed by engineer and producer David Holmes in the belly of Lightship 95 at Soup Studios – a houseboat turned recording studio docked on the Thames in East London – the EP sessions were almost over before they had even begun. Recording took place during a ferocious winter storm, which turned the loading of equipment across the Lightship’s ice-covered bridge into a precarious ordeal. Thankfully, the dreaded cry of “man overboard” was never heard and Blue Stragglers laid down five songs that are unequivocally up to the task of being played “during the sunset slot at festivals”, as per the band’s stated aim.
The mastering of the EP was shared between Bill Skibbe of Jack White’s Third Man Mastering in Detroit and Oli Morgan of Fluid in London.
Bikini Test Failure - Are We Having A Good Time Yet?
Originally on my first Bikini Test Failure album, (Another Day Another Fat Pile Of Cash) this is the track that got me all the attention back in the day. Now during lockdown, it’s remultitracked, remixed, remastered and I’m really looking forward to playing it to a new audience who might have missed it the first time around.
But here’s my big story today: twenty-five years after starting Blague Records, I’ve finally made my first “pop” video! It took a month of filming on my iPhone, a week of editing and a global pandemic to make me bother!
More life-affirming, post-lockdown, pre-Second-Wave, melodious, dark, humorous, classy Prog Alt. Rock Britpop from the fevered mind of Manchester UK’s one-man-band, ego-maniac, control-freak James Hill, with all the hallmarks of a Dark-Side-Of-The-Moon Pink Floyd, fronted by the acid wit and humour of a Queen-Is-Dead Smiths.
Cordovas’ new album 'Destiny Hotel', out 30th October on ATO Records, is a work of wild poetry and wide-eyed abandon, set to a glorious collision of folk and country and groove-heavy rock-and-roll. In a major creative milestone for the Tennessee-based band—vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Joe Firstman, keyboardist Sevans Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Lucca Soria and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Toby Weaver—the album harnesses the freewheeling energy of their live show more fully than ever, all the while lifting their songwriting to a whole new level of sophistication. The result is a batch of songs that ruminate and rhapsodise with equal intensity, inviting endless celebration on the way to transcendence.
Recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Rick Parker (Lord Huron, Beck, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Firstman’s Atlantic Records-released debut solo album 'The War of Women'), Destiny Hotel expands on the harmony-soaked roots rock of 'That Santa Fe Channel', a 2018 release that earned abundant praise from outlets like Rolling Stone, Clash and NPR Music. Before heading to L.A., Cordovas spent over three months in their second homebase of Todos Santos (an artist community in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula), sketching dozens of songs partly sparked from their voracious reading of authors like mythologist Joseph Campbell, poet/novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle. And when it came time for the recording sessions—a frenetic seven-day stretch squeezed in just before stay-at-home orders took effect in response to the global pandemic—the band methodically eliminated any lyrics they deemed inconsequential.
“We wanted to strike the term ‘want’ from our music—to get rid of all the ‘Baby, baby, baby, I want this, I want that,’ and create something more useful,” says Firstman. “We needed to make sure these were songs we’d be proud to sing forever.”
Wynnm first came across our radar back in February with 'Fire On The Moon' which we described as "a gentle and melodic song with fabulous vocals above a restrained musical backdrop" and with the new song 'The Morning' it's a case of "have some more". === KEYSwere here last month and return with another fine track entitled 'Phases' which exudes some retro pop and rock vibes, something these folk are very good at. === Lady Dan shares 'Facta, Non Verba' today and its a highly addictive song, with a subtle musical arrangement that adds layers along the way supporting her gorgeous vocals.
Wynnm’s quicksilver sound is an elegant amalgamation of smooth folk and vital bass. Her music emerges from the dusty mirages of Arizona and the private mountains of Idaho and cycles to the electronic beats of her current residency in Amsterdam.
Though born amidst the sands and sunburnt rock faces of the Sonoran Desert in the Southwestern United States to an amateur harmonica player father and a first-generation Korean mother, Wynnm’s dark notes and honey-throated tones draw from experiences far beyond her landscape, circumstance, and family myths of origin. CD’s like Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Moby, The Doors, and Creedence Clearwater Revival spun in the family car on long road trips. She came of age with a love for bass beats and albums by powerful female vocalists like Annie Lennox, Portishead, and Fiona Apple.
Wynnm about her new single: "The Morning is a song of appreciation for those who make us the greatest versions of ourselves. Those who pull us from the edge. Those who free us from the heaviness of dark pasts. With driving, atmospheric drums and heavenly choral synths, ‘The Morning’ is needing, beyond wanting."
'Phases’ is the second single taken from KEYS ‘bedroom’ recorded album ‘HOME SCHOOLING: A collection of 4-track rarities’. As Matthew Evans (vocals / guitar / songwriter) explains: “Phases – When you start realising that these songs were going to be recorded somewhat intimately into a 4-track machine, it has an impact on the type of song you write. As Julian Cope says ‘The verses can lie if the chorus is pretty’. This is one of the most introspective tunes we’ve written. It’s the Lennonesque chords; they insist on a blue feeling.”
HOME SCHOOLING is proof of the importance of the spaces left between the integral notes, the spaces that let the songs breathe. The songs range from joyous early 70s Midlands pop, bucolic chamber pop, sweeping Krautrock grooves, fractured Big Star/Bad Finger songcraft to vamping 2 chord proto-punk freak-outs.
Through it all we hear the hiss of the 4-track cassette recorder turning, the sound of the endless possibilities and magic of the pop song spilling out in vivid colours . No second guessing or over thinking, only the joy of creating.”
Matthew summarises the collection of songs that make up ‘HOME SCHOOLING’ as “something to help us get through this lockdown. Hopefully you can use it too.”
The single 'Phases' is out August 8th, with the album 'HOME SCHOOLING': A Collection of 4-Track Rarities' to follow on August 21st, on Libertino Records.
Working out of Texas but with roots in Birmingham, Alabama, Lady Dan makes music which is self-described as “Melancholic cowboy sounds you can cry in front of your cat to.”
Lady Dan puts a pause on weeping pedal steel to tread new waters in fresh goth-folk single. “Facta, Non Verba” uses dead language to convey what she is feeling - but not before she paints an image with dirty drones, grimy feedback, and angsty vocals.
The subtle dissonance is an unsettling nightmare we all want to live in.
