Ladytron - Zoe Sky Jordan

Ladytron - Faces.

Today, Liverpool’s iconic synth quartet Ladytron release “Faces,” the third single from their highly anticipated seventh studio album ‘Time’s Arrow’.

Over an echoing disco soundscape, “Faces” with title taken from the Cassavetes film of the same name, evokes bittersweet longing and euphoric escape, with expansive synth heavy production recalling 1970s euro diva Amanda Lear.

“Faces” follows the first two singles from Time’s Arrow, “City of Angels” and “Misery Remember Me.” Both garnered media praise upon their releases, with “City of Angels'' and its accompanying music video being described by Flood as a “dynamic electronic track with rich, industrial textures and utopian, shoegaze melodies,” while Brooklyn Vegan praised the sound of “Misery Remember Me” as “an ethereal dream pop song, drifting into Cocteau Twins territory.”

“Faces” also follows Ladytron’s announcement of West Coast U.S. tour dates in Spring 2023, where the band will take the stage in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco in support of their forthcoming LP, ‘Time’s Arrow’. These will follow a run of previously-announced UK dates in March 2023 in Glasgow, Liverpool, and London.

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Zoe Sky Jordan - Just Fine (Live From The Great Hall).

Zoe Sky Jordan has just dropped two new singles from her upcoming album, "Just Fine" and "Achievement of Youth". Reminiscent of Soccer Mommy, Zoe's new music focuses on acknowledgement, forgiveness, understanding and self-acceptance.

The title track, "Selfish", kicks in with echoey, haunting piano and synths trailing a diary style confession which reveals a main plotline of Zoe Sky Jordan’s new album.  Penned during the pandemic, which saw Zoe and her husband move in with her parents for seven months, the album is reflective, introspective, investigative and dissective. In the same way that many of us gained perspective once we were forced to sit still, Zoe’s voyage home, after years out on her own living in Toronto and Nashville, gave her fresh eyes and ears to embrace a new frame of mind.

Daughter of acclaimed artist / songwriter / producer power couple Amy Sky and Marc Jordan, Zoe watched first-hand the differences afforded a successful man vs a successful woman in the music industry.  The harsh judgements cast upon her ‘not so stay at home’ mother, impacted the at the time very young Zoe.  She brings those feelings to the surface in many of the 13 tracks that comprise the full Selfish album, set for release in Spring 2023.  Acknowledgement, forgiveness, understanding and self-acceptance are the themes that abound.  This is an album that takes you through all of the emotions and plunks you at the doorstep labelled ‘Be at peace with yourself’.

Musically this album is reminiscent of Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail and Ethan Gruska. The first two singles released off the upcoming album, “Just Fine” and “Achievement of Youth”, were produced by Liam Russell, and mixed by Rob Shnapf (Kurt Vile, Elliot Smith). Stepping into a bolder and more brazen persona, "Just Fine" is a jammy and angsty track complete with sloshy guitar, bouncing drums and hypnotic, soaring vocals that proclaims “I always live up to the hype, never crack under pressure”. Zoe shares with us that the inspiration for "Achievement Of Youth" came from some very powerful words spoken by actress/writer Carrie Fisher: “Youth and beauty are not accomplishments.  They’re the temporary happy by-products of time and / or DNA.  Don’t’ hold your breath for either”.  As the years go by, you get a better understanding of who you are as an individual and you’re happy with just being you.

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Beat Awfuls - The Tearaways - Ghostbox

Beat Awfuls - Interstate Skeletons.

Beat Awfuls is the artistic vision of Boston expat and musical factotum Dave Vicini. Drawing from drugs, pop culture, and his personal experience all with a punk rock ethos, Dave dismantles his inspirations until the result is uniquely Beat Awfuls.  Like his heroes in The Breeders, The Velvet Underground, and Violent Femmes, his songs range from driving, enigmatic rockers to dark, vulnerable laments.  These songs are meant to linger, seductive like a pop hook, all while Vicini explores themes of disaffection, drug dependency and the realities of late-stage capitalism.

Beat Awfuls forthcoming album, PAWS, has the visceral and intimate quality of past releases, but finds new voice with dense distorted guitars, layered synths, and dissonance in all the right places. The title is an acronym for “Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome,” an affliction of the after-effects of substance misuse.  While the title may pinpoint Vicini’s location during the recording process, it doesn’t bind him; this album isn’t a slow, dour reflection on drug addiction and abuse; it’s an earth-clawing grasp to regain ground.

Dave started Beat Awfuls in 2005 as a 4-track bedroom recording project while living in Boston. These early recordings were released as People’s Champ: Anthology 2005-2011.  After moving to Lexington, KY, and forming a band he released two EPs: Party Slip and Hair to the Throne. In 2016, Beat Awfuls released their first full-length album, Nothing Happens on indie label Jurassic Pop. In 2019, Dave made his way back east, recording his sophomore album, Banana Appeal, before landing in Richmond, VA in 2020. In 2021, he reformed the band and then in 2022 he released a split cassette with Colleen Green. Beat Awfuls await their next full-length release, PAWS, slated for Feb. 10, 2023.

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The Tearaways - Charlie, Keith, and Ringo.

The London-based Dirty Water Records has signed the California-based rock and roll outfit The Tearaways to a 5-year deal.

The label will be releasing the Ed Stasium-produced (Ramones, Talking Heads, Smithereens) record on 1 April 2023 called “And For Our Next Trick.” The band features the dual lead singers of bassist John “Fin” Finseth and rhythm guitarist Greg Brallier, lead guitar David Hekhouse and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame drummer Clem Burke (Blondie). Also, from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench plays keyboards and Steven McCarthy (The Jayhawks, The Long Ryders) added pedal steel guitar.

The new record was recorded at the legendary Village Recorders in Los Angeles and was mastered at Sterling Sound by Greg Calbi. The first single being released to radio is “Charlie, Keith and Ringo,” as well as the award-winning video (Raindance Festival directed by Stephen David Brooks (“Flytrap”). The spring single track “Are You Effing Kidding Me” will be released when the record is launched.

Label chief Paul Manchester: “We are thrilled to have assembled an all-star team including global distributor Cargo Records UK, Wipe Out Music Publishing, and US publicity specialist Lou Mansdorf in the US to help launch this project.“

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Ghostbox - Orbit.

Ghostbox is composed of, Mike Buccino: Bass, Ted Knight: Guitar, Synth, Greg Parent: Drums & Percussion, Tim Parent: Guitar, Synth, Dermot Quigley: Vocals & Percussion, Andrew Stein: Percussion & Produced by Marc Dykeman

"Orbit" has a blues-infused psychedelic sound, which could be compared with The Record Company or The Black Keys. Other artists we appreciate include The War on Drugs, Radiohead, Bon Iver, and Lord Huron.

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Sophie Jamieson - Manuela Iwansson - IST IST

Sophie Jamieson - Boundary.

Sophie Jamieson has released her highly anticipated and already much acclaimed debut album Choosing via Bella Union. Additionally, Jamieson has shared a video for “Boundary”, one of album’s many standout tracks, about which she says: “This song comes from a kinder place than some of the others on this record. It steps back and acknowledges self-inflicted pain and the repeated effort to heal. It’s about trying and failing, knowing there is something you’re trying to grasp but that keeps slipping out of your reach. The journey isn’t smooth or pretty but it’s hopeful, and the light starts to creep in once you choose to be honest with yourself.”

Released via her new home at Bella Union, Choosing is a strikingly personal document of a journey from a painful rock bottom of self-destruction, to a safer place imbued with the faint light of hope. It’s an album that sings openly of longing and searching, of trying, failing, and trying again – and always and throughout, the strength of love in so many varying forms.

Following on from the pair of EPs she released in 2020, Choosing finds its own shape by a subtle reforming of Jamieson’s sound into something both organic and simpler. Sophie describes the songs on those two EPs as “black holes” and while Choosing covers similar ground it never takes its eye away from what lies beyond, never fully releases its grip even when everything is telling her to let go.

“The title of this album is so important,” Sophie explains. “Without it, this might sound like another record about self-destruction and pain, but at heart, it’s about hope, and finding strength. It’s about finding the light at the end of the tunnel, and crawling towards it.”

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Manuela Iwansson - Dark Tracks (Album).

Swedish new wave punkster Manuela Iwansson released her debut album ‘Dark Tracks’ a week ago through Lack of Sleep Records, a long-awaited effort that is the result of almost four years of work after unveiling her self-released EP ‘Dream Lover’ in 2018. Highlighted by the 80s-esque, gritty synth-pop anthem that is focus track ‘Strangers on a Train’, the album flaunts a musical journey that takes from the callous rock stylings of the late 70s and mixes them with the new wave evolution characteristic of the Blondie era, all serving to present an alluringly dystopian listening experience that lingers on the beauty of impermanence.

‘Dark Tracks’ is unrelentingly self-explorative. Iwansson wears her heart on her sleeve for anyone to see as she belts across the ten tracks, familiarizing listeners with a darkness stemming from unmet desire and lovers lost. The album plays like a jukebox with every song standing on its own as a vintage and vigorous tour de force. The singer and bassist seamlessly synergizes with a cast of musicians including guitarist Henrik Palm and drummer Erik Klinga, and engineer Joakim Lindberg mixes the project to a quality reminiscent of the soundscape of four decades past.

Iwansson had this to say about the fabric of the project: “The album is basically a portfolio of me. It is very much a debut album - a little rough around the edges at times, but made with a lot of heart. I put a lot of thoughts into the lyrics, and a lot of emotion into the melodies. At times I play around with words a lot, and I constantly want to improve my writing … The whole project is about 80s aesthetics with 70s punk vibes; grit, rain, cities at night, neon lights, trains, and cars, and movement; leather and lace and rock ‘n’ roll. Nothing ever looks as good as a photo booth photo in black and white.”

The Stockholm-based artist once toured the world with punk outfit Terrible Feelings but now looks at her solo career as an opportunity to make timeless new wave hits, boasting a sound inspired by influences such as Pat Benatar and Suzi Quatro yet entirely her own. With ‘Dark Tracks’, makes a point of crafting earworm hooks and choruses that work in the middle of a rowdy yet heart-wrenching punk aesthetic.

Manuela Iwansson · Dark Tracks

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IST IST - Mary in the Black and White Room

IST IST - pause for reflection with the philosophical new single: “Mary In The Black And White Room”. A reminder of their keenly-anticipated third album ‘Protagonists’ (slated for Spring 2023 via Kind Violence Records), the track finds the band revealing one of its most cerebral, synth-driven moments.
With shades of classic OMD, The Cure and New Order, “Mary In The Black And White Room” effervesces in the darkness with its potent blend of layered synthesisers, darting basslines, and labyrinthine lyrical intrigue.

“Mary…” is inspired by a thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Frank Jackson that has since become known as ‘the knowledge argument’ (or ‘Mary's room’). Hypothesising the work of a scientist called Mary, who exists in a black and white world where she has extensive access to physical descriptions of colour, but no actual human perceptual experience of colour; Jackson’s theory wonders whether Mary will gain new knowledge if she actually experiences seeing colour.

Speaking about the track, frontman Adam Houghton says: “Mary in the Black and White Room is about trying to figure out if experience trumps knowledge. See ‘the Knowledge Argument’ where the subject, Mary, exists in a black and white world but has extensive descriptions of colour, but you don’t know if she knows what they actually look like until exposed to it. Really interesting stuff.”

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H.C. McEntire - Portland - Scott Goldbaum - The Velvet Hands

H.C. McEntire - New View.

H.C. McEntire shares “New View,” the latest single from her forthcoming album Every Acre, which releases January 27 via Merge Records. Accompanied by a music video directed by Jethro Waters and performed by choreographer/dancer Maya Orchin, “New View” straddles the line between music and poetry, weaving back and forth between each realm. Citing poets “Day, Ada, and Laux, Berry, and Olds,” McEntire’s voice is at moments fierce and others tender, offering a sense of both giving and taking, releasing and claiming.

H.C. McEntire expounds on the new single: “Inspired by a late-night meditation under an October full moon, the lyrics for ‘New View’ were written from a place of possibility and promise – the feeling of falling in love, affirming its realness and rawness, committing to the openness and bravery required for it to fully emerge, being willing to let it lead. It is about leaning into the notion that what you seek is seeking you and making room for its manifestation.”

She continues, “Musically, ‘New View’ is the most collaborative composition on Every Acre, an album that rejoices in creative partnership – Luke, Casey, Daniel, Missy, and myself. In many ways, it is a song that wrote itself, while the tape was rolling – five bodies in a room together, each willing to offer an unfiltered view from where they were standing.”

 
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Portland - Stardust.

Belgian duo, Portland have released the new single, "Stardust" which marks another taste of their forthcoming album Departures – out via [PIAS] Recordings on March 17, 2022. "Stardust", written and composed by Sarah Pepels, is a true wonder of a song. Sarah’s magnificent voice tiptoeing gently through winds and melancholic organ sounds, slowly growing and gaining confidence while getting to the breathtaking chorus. It’s a song about lost love, lives turned upside down and putting the pieces of a broken heart back together.

“In January 2021, I was heartbroken, I had to leave a lot of memories and a part of my life, my love, behind,” Sarah explains, “I didn’t know where to go, but I knew, I had to write music to put those thoughts and heavy emotions into. I needed to be alone, so I went cat-sitting at my niece’s apartment. I locked myself up for four days with nothing but the warmth and company of the furry kittens. It turned out to be a very intense and cathartic journey. And so ‘Stardust, a song that means the world to me, was born.”

It’s also about healing, getting stronger and more confident. The song starts off shy and slowly, barely noticeable, but grows into a beautiful, epic and majestic celebration of once’s inner strength.

Portland is the magical & musical bond between Jente Pironet and Sarah Pepels. The two shared the same student house while studying at the PXL Music School in Hasselt and more so, they shared the same love of music with a specific soft spot for the work of Elliot Smith. Portland, a nod to the home of the late singer-songwriter, came to life. From the start it was clear the chemistry between Jente and Sarah was palpable. Their voices blend and complement each other as a perfectly mixed gin & tonic. Tangy yet soothing, addictive and intoxicating.

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Scott Goldbaum - Trigger Finger.

Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist Scott Goldbaum, whose credits include Sting, LAUV, Keith Urban, Skylar Grey, Charlotte Lawrence and Maddie Poppe, is releasing his first solo EP “Protector” this fall.

Prior to his five year hiatus from releasing music, Scott Goldbaum's speciality was in providing “transient and breathtaking guitar work” (The Deli Magazine) as well as “beautifully textured vocals” (Indie Music Filter) both on stage and in the studio fronting his former bands Forebear, Wise Cub and The Harm. With songwriting cuts regarded by Consequence of Sound “as an exhilarating testament to abilities” his brand new EP is sure to satisfy fans of the artists whose music inspired the production including Chris Isaak, Radiohead, Bombay Bicycle Club and Damien Rice.

“Protector” is his self produced folk-infused indie rock EP with lush string arrangements by Molly Rogers (Hans Zimmer, Game of Thrones), upright bass from Kaveh Rastegar (Sting, John Legend, Bruce Springstein), drums/percussion by Kiel Feher (Selena Gomez, Zella Day) and mixing from the famed ScottGordon (Alannis Morissette, Alexi Murdoch).

Thematically, the record follows a vulnerable character who’s in need of protection as he becomes the protector of others.  "Drive Too Fast" is a face first collision course into the dark corners of a speed induced lifestyle.  Whereas "Trigger Finger" takes place in a school, a grocery store, a parade, a place of worship or just about any other public gathering place in America. "Blood Knot" acknowledges the roots you grew out of and the tree limbs you wish to keep attached while others tear off in the wind.  In contrast to the beginning of the EP, "Mourning Coffee" makes a distinction between codependency and partnerships that are chosen and decisively cared for while the world is falling apart around you.  "Incremental" is a mediation to stay on the course of progress and empowerment, despite the shadows that closely follow.

 

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The Velvet Hands - Over It Now.

Rising London-via-Cornwall four-piece The Velvet Hands have dropped their last track of the year, “Over It Now”. The track arrives as a tantalising sneak-peek of the new album ‘Sucker Punch’, which lands 3 February 2023, with a special vinyl edition planned for release on Blood Records.

Blending hedonistic hooks reminiscent of The Strokes with a slacker kind of storytelling plucked straight from Pavement’s playbook, the band’s latest outing is an anti-capitalist anthem spun with an easy-going, lackadaisical charm.

As The Velvet Hands explain: “One of the more laidback songs on the album, this came from the four of us just playing around in rehearsal. Lyrically the song focuses on ‘the grind’ culture, which personally we have always found to be exploitative and somewhat ridiculous. The main message is that not everything in life is about money, and you can do things at your own pace. In a nutshell: stick to your guns.”

The band’s final release of 2022, “Over It Now” comes ahead of their second studio album ‘Sucker Punch’, which will be streaming from 3 February 2023. Delivering coming-of-age tales with slacker-rock sensibilities, the new record combines the punchy guitar licks of The Strokes or Parquet Courts with rousing punk choruses that recall The Clash or The Vaccines.

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