Mears - Al' Tarba feat Bianca Casady - Mild Orange - Souza - Thallo - The Legendary Ten Seconds

Photo - Jen Squires

Mears - Second Sight.

Some memories help propel us forward while others cling to us so tightly that they bind us in place.

"Second Sight" is about someone who is grappling with a memory that holds them back – it's about a confrontation and making it out on the other side.

It seems that nothing good will keep you from me, and so I live with ghosts and second sight

This latest single is from our upcoming full-length album, which will be released on April 22nd.

Both the song and the video explore ideas around memory. We also knew this song would pair well with a dancer. Having worked with multiple choreographers and performers in the past, we had our sights on Katherine Semchuk. We gave Katherine a loose structure to work with and let her choreograph her own movement.

Another artist we are big fans of is animator/dancer Kristen-Innes Stambolic. Her work primarily involves the integration of animation with contemporary dance, so it was a perfect fit for us.

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Al' Tarba - Hush Little Bay Feat. Bianca Casady.

A little girl wakes up at the bottom of a tree. Confused, with no idea of where she is. Despite of all of this, she feels soothed by the soft light, the bright colors and the buzzing of the creatures that swirl around her. A strange, radiant, watery sphere forms and unfolds delicately before her eyes. Intrigued, she stands up and touches it with her finger...

"Hush Little Bay" is a hybrid adventure, both abyssal and stratospheric. Dark and melancholic trip-hop story, this track is also almost a lo-fi lullaby with reggae solar accents.

This story, told by the singular voice of Bianca Casady, mythical singer of the group CocoRosie, is inspired by the dreamlike universe of Lewis Carroll. A sort of "Alice in Wonderland" who would dive inside a 70's psychedelic rock vinyl cover.

Al'Tarba · Hush Little Bay feat. Bianca Casady (from CocoRosie)

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Mild Orange - F.E.A.R.

Looking For Space is the band’s most ambitious project yet, recorded in six beautiful locations across Aotearoa New Zealand over a year, and it’s also Mild Orange’s first time entering a proper studio which was a necessary part in making this record sound as intended. It’s a sonic journey about navigating life, always finding room to grow, considering outlooks and maintaining belief in oneself as we choose our paths. True to MO, it doesn’t sit on one sound and will take you up and down, while feeling like a natural progression – shown on their latest two singles.

Looking For Space will feature video collaborations from NZ to Japan, Indonesia to LA, France and beyond. Despite many hurdles, Mild Orange persisted to connect with the world on this project during this period of global lockdowns and border closures. That’s what Mild Orange have always tried to do – from NZ, for the world.

The just released album cover (see below) by frontman Josh Mehrtens was taken in Switzerland after a Mild Orange headline show at Baden in 2019, and has been tinkered with in tandem with the album so that both feel as each other look and sound. There’s a calmness yet passionate energy felt coming from the electric glow that flows.

After spending two albums carefully organising the framed photos and applying an even layer of paint, Mild Orange felt the urge to tear apart the four walls that defined their bedroom pop sound, capturing the wilderness that lay beyond. And rather than be deterred from that goal by a pandemic and lockdown that left the New Zealanders stuck on their island, Mild Orange used that time to envision a new world. “Colourise”, the first track off the quartet’s fittingly titled third album, Looking For Space (due February 11th 2022 via AWAL), feels like the gate to the land of Oz, a portal behind which hypercolour and fantasy unfolds. “Trust the waves and where you’ll go/ ‘Cause you never know what it may hold,” Josh Mehrtens sings, a snare march, lithe electric guitar, and washes of echo trailing behind. Together, frontman/producer Mehrtens, lead guitarist Josh Reid, bassist Tom Kelk, and drummer Jack Ferguson aren’t just looking for space, they’re carving out grand landscapes all their own.

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Souza - Under My Feet.

Souza are a Stoke based alternative rock band, marching to the sound of well matured electric riffs and a fresh lyrical take on the genre.

Established in 2018, the four piece bring a definitive presence to the stage. Lead vocalist Adam Rogers provides a powerful performance, whilst maintaining an interactive experience for the audience. Supported by his brother Ben and Jack Brassington on guitar, the two combine each other’s unique styles of guitar sound to generate a contemporary Britpop tone. The group are completed by drummer Harry Ball, who provides a strong foundation complimenting and driving each melody. The four together exude the chemistry they share and quickly envelop the audience in their sound.

Under My Feet combines shoegaze verses with full throttle choruses and demonstrates both the subtlety and power that Souza can so easily intertwine between. The lyrics provide a fresh view on the excitement and emotions of what relationships can bring from the beginning to the end. Written over lockdown in a unique way to us, pieced together bit by bit through sharing segments from our own homes the track came together in a way we've not written before.

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Thallo - The Water.

Welsh artist Thallo shares the visual for her emotionally charged, haunting single The Water. The visual, created by Max Toblin (Director) and Dillon Steele (Director of Photography), mirrors Thallo’s music which is at once startingly beautiful but with a melancholic undercurrent running through its gently layered jazz infused tones. It depicts two children dressed in boiler suits, playing in the long grass of empty fields to a backdrop of towering power stations which loom ominously. As Thallo expands “Their childlike, care-free pleasure is contrasted with the power station in the background, a sinister warning that their freedom is temporary. They frantically run and play whilst the daylight is running out, cherishing the time that they have until they finally come to a halt in the dark.”

The video plays on The Water’s bittersweet meaning of cherishing a moment before it is lost, inspired by a relationship destined to fail, and the heartbreak of knowing of a partner’s eventual migration.  Both the song’s title and Thallo’s vulnerable yet alluring vocal evoke the feeling of drowning, of laying down on a riverbed and giving into the sensation of the immersion. As Thallo expands “The river is not only the love that drowns me, but it is also the relationship I can’t keep hold of.”

Thallo is the work of Elin Edwards, based between her homelands of Gwynedd, North Wales and London.  In 2021 she released three singles Mêl, Pressed and Preserved and The Water to much early acclaim, to date the singles have accumulated support from Sian Eleri (Radio 1 The Chillest Show) and Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music, Radio Cymru), with Thallo recording a session for BBC Maida Vale. At press, the singles were covered by the likes of Wonderland, Noctis, God Is In The TV Zine, When The Horn Blows and many other blogs both UK and Stateside. Thallo has performed at The Great Escape and is set to play SXSW in 2023.

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The Legendary Ten Seconds - The Musical Almanac (Album).

The Legendary Ten Seconds started off as the solo music project of Ian Churchward during the time when he was the lead guitar player of The Morrisons who were featured on John Peel's radio one show back in 1987. In 2013 Lord Zarquon joined Ian's music project and since then various guest musicians and vocalists have helped out in the recording studio. The most recent musicians to join the project are Phil Swann and Martyn Hillstead.

The Legendary Ten Seconds have recorded many critically acclaimed English folk rock albums which chronicle the Wars of the Roses and the life and times of Richard III in England during the late 15th century. The albums are available on Amazon and itunes and the band have donated money to a scoliosis charity from some of the income generated from the sale of their music. The CD versions of the albums are available via the Richard III Society in the UK.

In 2018 the band recorded the Mer de Mort album which was commissioned by the Mortimer History Society to commemorate the Society's tenth anniversary. It is a historically accurate album of songs which tells the story of the significantly important Mortimer medieval family from their roots in Normandy prior to the battle of Hastings and into the 15th century. The album includes historical narratives read by the actor John Challis ( Boycie in Only Fools and Horses ) who was the patron of the Mortimer History Society.

2019 saw the release of four albums, Devon Roses, History Book Part One. Instrumental Legends and Thrilling Blunder Stories. In February 2020 the History Book Part Two album was completed and this was followed by The Acoustic Almanac, Amazing Songs and the Pageant of Torbay Part One albums. Additionally a new version of the first Richard III album was released in digital format via Circle of Spears Productions. The new version of the album features fictional narratives written by Sandra Heath Wilson. Three albums were released in 2021, the Pageant of Torbay Part Two, the Semi Acoustic Almanac and Songs About Devon albums. The atest album is called The Musical Almanac with a release date of 2022.

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Jill Lorean - Shaela Miller - Ellevator - Old Crow Medicine Show

Jill Lorean - Black Dog.

Black Dog’ is final single from Glasgow trio Jill Lorean’s upcoming debut album This Rock, and sees the band carrying a danceable freak folk energy, which adds to the timeless diversity of their singles to date. An odyssey of sorts, ‘Black Dog’ lures you in with a trance-like violin loop that remains a constant throughout, before crusading through pulsing drumbeats, haunted, gothic guitar lines and playful disco-esque basslines, alongside Jill O’Sullivan’s ethereal vocal delivery, which claws your attention in on the hood laden repetitive chorus line “how can I laugh and how can I cry”.

Jill Lorean as a living breathing thing, featuring Jill O’Sullivan (Sparrow And The Workshop, Three Queens in Mourning, Bdy_Prts) in collaboration with Andy Monaghan (Frightened Rabbit) and drummer Peter Kelly (The Kills, Ladytron), the band is a unique beast inhabiting its own world, incorporating elements of many genres from folk and lo-fi to post-punk and underground rock.

“Black Dog’ is like being on a consciousness-bending, self-seeking quest. It’s a lucid dream-like adventure where a godlike figure attempts to grant all of a persons wishes by carving them all kinds of exciting things out of the clouds. But a sad dog keeps appearing so the deity swallows the sky not understanding that the person wanted to confront the whole spectrum of their emotions, including the sad dog chasing them around.”

“I worked with Pete (Kelly) on this dance project and he would do these fills and I just wanted to dance suddenly. And I like that he did that over the ‘Black Dog’, there is this slight freak folky vibe going on. And it could go down a Fairport Convention, sort of route, but it doesn't. He brings it into this transient style. And I love it. It was not what I was expecting. I like the unexpected. I like to feel surprised, I want people listening to it to feel alive and awake.”

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Shaela Miller - Tidal Wave.

With her 2020 album Big Hair Small City, Shaela Miller proved yet again to have her hand on the pulse of “honky tonk noir.” With central themes rooted in the deep intricacies of heartache, loss, healing, and inner growth, Miller took the listener on a journey with her witty turns of phrase, strong finger pickin' and no-nonsense lyrics. 

The native of Lethbridge, Alberta is now giving her fans an added bonus with the new, standalone single “Tidal Wave,” which was recorded during the sessions for Big Hair Small City with producer Scott Franchuk at Riverdale Recorders in Edmonton. Given the meaning behind the song, Miller has chosen to release "Tidal Wave" now to mark International Women's Day 2022.

As Shaela explains, "'Tidal Wave' is an in-depth confession of realizations and struggles of the heart and how a woman can feel, inside and outside of love, like they are drowning in the staggering, multi-dimensional duties of life. It's about how the expected and demanding responsibilities women face in life through the roles of motherhood and romantic partnerships, can leave us feeling completely void of fire, passion and inspiration, yet the expectations remain and we just have to power through it all."

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Ellevator - Sacred Heart.

The Hamilton, Ontario-based trio, Ellevator have shared their new single, "Sacred Heart" – it's another thrilling installment lifted from their forthcoming debut album, The Words You Spoke Still Move Me which comes produced by ex-Death Cab for Cutie guitarist, Chris Walla (production for Pinegrove, Foxing, Tegan & Sara, etc) and is out via Arts & Crafts on May 6. The new single arrives following earlier tips from NPR, The Needle Drop, Exclaim, FLOOD, The Line of Best Fit, Under the Radar, CBC and more. The band will support the release of the new record with North American dates, including a stop at SXSW later this month.

Ellevator poses a fantastic ability to sculpt these mammoth, melodramatic post-rock and indie-rock soundscapes, somewhat inspired by the late-aughts sounds of Spoon, Metric, Interpol and Arcade Fire, as well as the stadium-ready sounds of U2, Kate Bush and Bruce Springsteen. The new single, "Sacred Heart" explores ideas surrounding young love, commitment and intimacy while blending racing guitar lines – somewhat reminiscent of Springsteen – with driving percussion and piano.

Speaking about the new single, which comes with a live visual directed by Cam Veitch, singer Nabi Sue Bersche says: "This one’s a love song about how intimacy and deep knowing can make it feel like there’s nothing left to discover, and choosing to push on anyway in search of new depths. Ty (guitar) and I got married on a cold spring morning when I was 22 and he was 19. There wasn’t much chance to sell each other on our own myths, to be the mysterious stranger from outta town: we wrote our origin story together. Learning to love each other better has been a strange journey and the great gift of my life."

When discussing the video, Nabi continues: "We shot, edited, and delivered the whole thing in less than 24 hrs. We’ve made a bunch of videos that I’m proud of but this one touches something special: we wanted to show what it feels like to play live as Ellevator, in all its sublime chaos, and I think we captured the lightning."

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Photo - Kit Wood

Old Crow Medicine Show - Honey Chile.

GRAMMY award-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show releases “Honey Chile,” the latest single from their new album Paint This Town out April 22 via ATO Records. Showcasing soaring harmonies and swooning fiddle melodies, the melancholy love song is accompanied by a live performance video featured this morning at Garden & Gun, who said “Musically, the song is something of a salvo for the whole of Paint This Town, rising out of the gates with a bold swell before settling into a traditional Americana-tinged groove.” Along with the new single, the band has announced a coast to coast spring/summer tour kicking off in April that will make stops in Philadelphia, New York, Portland, Seattle and many more. 

Bandleader Ketch Secor explains the new single: “When you mine the musical traditions of the South as we have you’re always going to run head on into the region’s most successful export: Southern Rock, and my favorite performers of this style are the Charlie Daniels Band, who Old Crow was lucky enough to open for back in the early 2000’s. We’ll miss Charlie around these parts, but he lives on in songs like ‘Honey Chile,’ a backwoods slow burn about good lovin' and other hard habits to break.”

Paint This Town showcases Old Crow Medicine Show’s long-standing ability to merge profound introspection with a rapturous string band revival sound. The album shines a light on the darker aspects of the American experience, with character-driven songs underpinned by the band’s vision for a more harmonious future. The debut single “Paint This Town” has maintained the #1 slot on the Americana Singles Radio Chart for three weeks in a row, garnering praise from press including Billboard, Rolling Stone, SPIN and more. The band’s latest single “Bombs Away” (feat. Molly Tuttle on banjo) was recently hailed by Consequence, who said it’s “brimming with the euphoria of new beginnings, a tongue-in-cheek tale of throwing caution to the wind and starting over.”

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Casii Stephan - Jo Schornikow

Casii Stephan - Already Gone.

This is the new single from singer/songwriter Casii Stephan. Entitled "Already Gone", the rock single details a woman's courage and journey into leaving her abuser. Casii confides, "I don't think mocking your abuser is ever advised and this song definitely mocks. This is more the hype song that someone can play to give them the courage to finally just leave. May it give someone the extra push they need to run. Trust your soul. Go."

Casii Stephan is a soul pop/rock artist hailing from Minnesota. Now based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the impassioned songstress evokes subtle vibrato notes and roller-coaster-like melodies, which immediately grab the listener, while her emotional lyrics share intimate stories. She has been compared to the likes of Florence Welch, Fiona Apple and Carole King, as her vocal timbre possesses a full and warm quality.

Stephan’s voice is fierce and fearless, but this was not always the case. She grew up shy and afraid of her voice until she started writing songs on the family piano in South St. Paul when she was 16. In music, she discovered something extraordinary that allowed her to transcend everyday life and find a deeper sense of self. Stephan moved to Tulsa in 2014 with the intent to give up her pursuit of a music career, however with a little encouragement from a friend, she continued her journey and started releasing music. Her songs were promptly applauded by critics and have since been racking up a number of awards, as well as garnering acclaim from media and fans across the globe.

An underlying theme throughout Stephan’s music is hope, she explains, “Its such a cliched word and yet there are so many layers to it. Hope keeps us alive. It keeps us moving. But it also feels flighty some days like a pixie that does what it wants. But it's not a pixie. It's more like the air we breathe. Some days it's presence is stronger than we realize and some days we forget in our day-to-day lives that it's there... keeping us moving forward”. Her music combines her love for the storytelling elements of Disney ballads and the bold, brilliance of The White Stripes, as well as the soul-wrenching R&B melodies of H.E.R.

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Jo Schornikow - Lose Yr Love.

Australian songwriter Jo Schornikow (now based in Nashville) has shared the second offering from her forthcoming album ALTAR, out May 20 via Keeled Scales. “Lose Yr Love” gives another glimpse into her thoughtful songcraft, recalling Warren Zevon in the way she marries an honest, almost folk-indebted approach with a more abstracted lyrical style. A subtly shifting wash of synthesizers sparkle at the edges of a layered vocal arrangement as Schornikow uses ocean imagery to reflect on her own experience of loss. The song, which follows recently released “warm, wry” (Brooklyn Vegan) “Visions,” is accompanied by a video directed by Ives Salbert that was shot in an East Nashville junkyard and in partner Matthew Houck of Phosphorescent’s studio, and features a brief cameo from Schornikow’s two children.

“'Lose Yr Love' grew from a real-life nightmare of losing someone,” Schornikow explains. “The song explores the fear before the fall-out, before finality. It's a quick and awful spiral, but also a natural counterside of love. I think we found the beauty that exists in this incredibly bleak space.

ALTAR was written between Nashville and Melbourne over a year. It was recorded in Melbourne, Australia during a blisteringly hot Australian summer week at Hard Rubbish Recorders by Selwyn Cozens, who also plays drums on the album. It was recorded on an old Harrison TV3 console that was being thrown out by a local tv station. The album was co-produced by Jo and Selwyn. The nine track album centers Jo’s songwriting, which Gorilla Vs Bear proclaimed “smouldering” and her piano playing, which Pitchfork has praised as “sensitive [and] impressionistic.” It follows 2019’s Secret Weapon, which Rolling Stone hailed as “excellent.”

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Walter Martin - Laveda - Ellen Arthur Blyth - Heavy Salad

Walter Martin - Baseball Diamond.

Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Walter Martin unveiled today two new singles titled "Baseball Diamonds" and "Hiram Hollow." The tracks are the latest to release from his forthcoming album The Bear, out later this month on March 25th through his imprint Ile Flottante Music. "Baseball Diamonds" was the first song written for The Bear, which ultimately set the tone for the rest of the album, while "Hiram Hollow" is a waltzing tune that toys with American folk traditions as it wrestles with the pain of saying goodbye to a loved one.

"I see these two songs as two different ways of telling a story about my life and my family," stated Walter. "It's a story a lot of people can probably relate to - one with a lot of love but also a lot of sadness. That story is what this whole album is really about. 'Baseball Diamonds' lives very much in reality with real life details, while 'Hiram Hollow' takes a much more allegorical approach. These weren't really conscious style decisions, the songs just came out that way."

"Hiram Hollow" and "Baseball Diamonds" follow the release of "Easter," a somber and uneasy song that Flood Magazine called "a melancholy reflection on the past." The lead single and title track "The Bear" is also out now, which tells a story about the past, the present, and the future brought to life with humor and real-life detail. It was featured by Brooklyn Vegan, Under The Radar, and Stereogum who stated "Ever since the Walkmen embarked on their hiatus, several of the band's members have had prolific solo careers. But none of them have churned out music at quite the pace as Walter Martin."

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Laveda - bb.

Born out of untamed anger and frustration at the cruel state of the world, “bb” taps into a universal mood: its downcast melodies and restless guitar lines speak to the collective sense of agitation and boredom we’ve all experienced over the past two years.

Weaving together an ansty mesh of gossamer vocals, driving ‘90s guitars and a steady drum beat, the track was first penned in September 2020 when vocalist Ali Genevich found herself increasingly restless in the face of the seemingly never-ending pandemic.

Feeling disheartened by the “depressive daily routine” of being stuck inside with no social interaction — and even less inspiration to write songs — Genevich locked herself in her bedroom with a guitar when “bb” took its first breath and stirred to life.

Speaking of the inspiration behind the track’s moody sound, Genevich says: “In the winter of 2020, every day really started to feel the same for me. The pandemic seemed to be getting just as bad as when it began back in Spring and like everyone else all I had been thinking about was the possibility for life to feel normal again. For a while I was just thankful that most of my friends and family were in good health and that we were able to keep ourselves afloat in such a crazy time, but of course that’s not all I was feeling. Both Jake and I felt like the past year had been so wasted.”

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Ellen Arthur Blyth - Nine.

Dublin-based singer songwriter Ellen Arthur Blyth is set to release the title track of her upcoming debut album ‘Nine’ this March. The cinematic pop track follows on from Ellen’s recent release ‘Young Ones’, which garnered support from acclaimed publications such as Hotpress and Nialler9. Ellen shares the meaning behind the upcoming single ‘Nine’:

“Nine is about self doubt, the ongoing internal dialogue in your head that can keep you stuck. For me it's about realising it's always there and I need to live my life alongside it. I think in doing that there's real freedom.”

The track was recorded as part of her upcoming debut album ‘Nine’ in Hell Fire Studios, Dublin and produced by Alex Borwick, head engineer at the famed Grouse Lodge studios in Ireland. The music video for the track is a Hitchcock-inspired video and was shot in The Sally Gap in Co. Wicklow on a beautiful day in February. Directed by Rob Blyth, shot by Martin Osborne and starring Alexandra Moloney and Ellen Arthur Blyth.

Born in Dublin, the youngest of nine, in a house where the one who shouted loudest ate most, Ellen learned early how to sing for her supper. Dragged out of bed, dusted down, slung into a polyester frock, her early forays into musical performance consisted of pitch perfect renditions of Any Dream Will Do to family friends. But as success followed the clan, friends turned to ambassadors, heads of state, Hollywood actors and other visiting dignitaries passing through. Aged 9, she woke her father and told him she was going to be a famous singer and would buy him a racehorse. He told her to go back to bed. At 16 she made the live finals of Ireland’s ‘You’re a Star’ but lost her voice. Her early adult life was spent serenading drunk punters in a city buried in snow, before finally, she fell through a drunken crevasse. After reaching bottom, she started to climb back out and rediscover her voice.

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Heavy Salad - Joggers From Mossley To Malibu Beach.

Heady and frolicking — and embracing the notion that life’s challenges are nothing but positive opportunities — “Joggers From Mossley To Malibu Beach” is a jovial new cut that comes just a week before Heavy Salad touchdown in Austin, Texas for an official showcase slot at SXSW. Packed with playful rhythms, carefree “sha la la”’s and a whimsical, vintage tinge, the track was produced and mixed by Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) and is plucked from the band’s forthcoming second record, ‘Long Wave,’ set for release later this year.

Brought to life when guitarist Rob Glennie noticed hoards of people out jogging as a way of coping with the initial COVID lockdown in his hometown of Mossley, frontman Lee Mann explains of the track: “The story of “Joggers…” sees our protagonist embrace jogging as a means of getting out of the house, but their world is changed through what starts as a way of coping with the lockdown that then blossoms into the realisation that there’s a whole world out there! Their journey eventually leads them to a new life in California inspired by the song’s melodic, West Coast feel.”

And, for all its sunny melodies and Californian surfer-town twinges, the track includes several nods to the band’s hometown roots in the North of England. Name-dropping everywhere from Mossley and Malibu to Tameside and the Pacific Coast Highway, Heavy Salad manage to traverse geographical borders just as neatly as they do genres. Merging 60s-inspired backing vocals with slacker-rock riffs that Pavement would be proud of, “Joggers…” uses its cheery sonic stylings to embrace a serendipitous and happy-go-lucky approach to the limitless possibilities that come with our seemingly mundane lives.

Expanding on the track’s back story, Mann adds: “The song was also partly inspired by a chance encounter with a Venice Beach bike hire shop owner who it turned out was from Rotherham and originally lived in the same part of town as my in-laws. Having travelled to Brazil for Carnival in the 70s our bike hire shop owner had travelled to California on his way home and never actually made it home! The song is about the possibilities of life, to embrace changes, to see challenges as positive things and to embrace random opportunity in the short time you are alive.”

HEAVY SALAD · Joggers From Mossley To Malibu Beach

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