The Singularity - Album - '404 Not Found'

The Singularity - The Bio - Los Angeles based The Singularity ready themselves to release their self-titled debut album. Front man and multi-instrumentalist Julian Shah Tayler’s childlike fascination with science, space and the big questions that trouble the human condition has fuelled the creative output of The Singularity since the band’s inception in early 2012.

“Everything burst out of the centre of a super massive black hole,” remarks Julian, “and we are going back there one day, so let's just enjoy it.” This sentiment pretty much sums up The Singularity’s manifesto and echoes the ‘party like its 1999’ hedonistic attitude of the artist Julian has been most frequently compared to, Prince. Taking their name from the Ray Kurzweil book, The Singularity is Near, which heralds a new frontier of indistinguishable integration between man and machine, the sextet has spent the last 12 months shaping Julian’s unique songs into a captivating live experience, which has been thoroughly road-tested across the USA to a loyal and rapidly rising fan base.

Returning to the studio at the end of 2013, the band committed their tour-honed material to tape and the results are now available in an outstanding 10-track work, which features 'Talking in Your Sleep,' a rewire of the new wave power pop of The Cars and The Only Ones; 'Antigravity,' a nod to the recent Afrobeat leanings of Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend; and 'Wetter,' a modern day glam stomper described by former Creation Records head and Oasis and Primal Scream A&R guru Alan McGee as “massive” and easily capable of “[making] Julian a star”
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I have been a fan of Julian's music since I was first introduced to his work a few years back. The Singularity and this album is supported by a question and statement by the band - What if Bowie, Prince and The Cure had a baby? - 30th Century Electronic Rock'n'Roll. And within those words The Singularity defines so much about their music, it's creation, style and sheer vibrancy. This album is distinct, powerful, modern and yet with real depth and soul. I can only hope the physical release gets the attention it deserves, rather than just being a hidden gem on Bandcamp. The bands website HERE.


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Quality Not Quantity - Acoustic & Electric Delights

Great Father - Coming soon - Bicentennial Blue by Great Father out on September 25, 2015. After taking a break from song writing for more than a dozen years to work full-time as a hospice social worker and found the label Exit Stencil Recordings, Brandon Stevens delivers us a meditation on the commonplace complexities of ageing---the disappointments, losses, regrets, and inevitable changes that arise as youth fades further in the rear view and middle-age unexpectedly approaches.  

The album has a decidedly overcast aesthetic, wrapped in the warm tones of nostalgia for the '70s a la Tobias Jesso Jr., and delivered from a perspective of someone who lives with loss close at hand.  At times reminiscent of Mojave 3's dream/country/folk amalgamation; at others, an Elliot Smith / Conor Oberst-like approach to lyrics and vocalisation; and at others, just approaching things straight up like Pink Floyd and letting it breathe.

Keep Great Father in mind, the featured track is just a taster and there is so much more going on within this album. Some of the words above are sombre, however this album has so much feeling and character that it is likely to be up high amongst my favourites this year. Facebook (here).

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Rum Thief - Background - Rum Thief is solo artist Jot Green with support from his band,  based in Chorlton, Manchester. The project began when Green, after playing as a drummer in bands for over ten years, decided to record some songs of his own. Booking into Airtight studio in Chorlton, Manchester he performed the drums, guitars, vocals and backing vocals to produce his first EP 'Clouded Mind'. 

The titular lead track generated interest from media outlets across the north west and with the help of ex band mates and a new live drummer, Rum Thief secured some local gigs, festivals, support slots and airplay on local and national radio. 'Reach For The Weather Man' is Rum Thief's second EP and is characterised by Jot Green's keen ear for melody and his sharp observational lyrical content.

To me Rum Thief oozes 'Manchester attitude'. Energised, gritty, to the point, Jot Green sings what he is thinking and observing. His total involvement in the studio pays off. Rather than feature the title track I thought I would include 'Stitch In Time' as personally sound wise, I feel this meets somewhere in the middle of the EP, that said this is a mighty collection of songs. Facebook (here).

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Tim Muddiman and The Strange - Background - Tim Muddiman and The Strange releases their second single “Rolling Stones” after a global response from the debut track “Wildwood Stone.”  Extensive worldwide radio play, international blogs and buzzing fans from the UK to Australia are sure to be hyped by this new track from where its predecessor left off.

The song has been crafted underpinning a huge bass line with a sleazy blues guitar riff, wild tremolos and an instantly catchy grunge vocal melody.   Lyrically the song explains solitude and the feelings of organic change until you’re “done and gone alone”, with only music, art, yourself and your life left. “Rolling Stones”… The B-side track is darker. It’s solemn. It has powerful melody, swampy guitar and a sparse but intense feel. The story behind this is real and deeply personal. Something the artist is not afraid to pen. Tim Muddiman is a long-time member of Gary Numan’s band as well as being an established music producer, remixer and session musician to bands like Pop Will Eat Itself and many more.

As I listen 'Rolling Stones' has this 'marching' feeling to it, something along the lines of Led Zep's 'Kashmir' although sonically quite different. I am pretty certain this song will get the attention of many and am more than pleased if Beehive Candy is a small part of the buzz.

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The Sweet Lou - some words - Sweet Lou is a rock band from the northern part of Sweden, the city of Luleå. Sweet Lou came together a while back and due to band members various back grounds and influences it provides an interesting mix in the sound of Sweet Lou, having Mattias on guitar and vocals, Andreas on drums, Joakim on guitar and Simon on bass.Down the muddy road is about hope and despair. About making up your own answers, telling the oracles and know-it-alls to xxxx off and chasing whatever keeps your blood warm.

This is a belting rock track. As it's a while since we have featured something that might loosely be called classic rock, lets here your wild applause for The Sweet Lou and 'Down The Muddy Road'. This surfaced around a month ago, their Facebook (here).

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Jefferson Starship - Santa Cruz, 1992 (Internet Archive).

From the Internet Archive this is Jefferson Starship live at The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, USA, back on October 9th, 1992.  Prior to inclusion on the Internet Archive the recording circulated as a bootleg and was originally titled, "Hal's Death by Jefferson Starship #1," it included a phone message and an interview with Papa John and Gretchen Creech, which were removed to ensure there would be no conflict with anyone's permission policies.

In 1992, Kantner reestablished the group as "Jefferson Starship – The Next Generation," a nod to the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. This version of the band would, at times, include various former Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship and Starship members, to tour and perform.

After the first couple of years, the band dropped the use of "The Next Generation", and began to perform as Jefferson Starship. The revived band grew out of Paul Kantner’s decision, following the "Unplugged" trend, to hit the road in 1991 with an acoustic ensemble called Paul Kantner’s Wooden Ships, a trio that included Slick Aguilar and Tim Gorman from the KBC Band, a previous group centred on former Jefferson Airplane/Starship members.

The success of this project prompted Kantner to reinvent his electric band, and Jefferson Starship took off once again. In addition to Aguilar and Gorman, Kantner recruited former collaborators Jack Casady and blues violinist Papa John Creach; former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince; and former World Entertainment War vocalist Darby Gould.

Recording Details: Dsbd master > first-gen cassette > 24-bit Wav (WaveLab) > FLAC.

Sound Quality: Soundboard - very good.

Set List:

First set:

01. Other Side of this Life
02. Crown of Creation
03. I'm on Fire
04. Lawman
05. Shadowlands
06. First Pull Up, Then Pull Down
07. There Ain't No More Country Girls
08. Women Who Fly
09. Ride the Tiger
10. We Should Be Together

Second set:

01. Blows Against the Empire
02. Wooden Ships
03. PJ's Down Home Blues
04. Somewhere Over the Rainbow
05. Genesis Hall
06. Have You Seen the Saucers
07. Dark Ages
08. America > "Get Ready" poem
09. Volunteers
10. crowd
11. encore: Girl With the Hungry Eyes

Line Up: Paul Kantner, Darby Gould, Jack Casady, Papa John Creach, Mark "Slick" Aguilar, Tim Gorman, Charles "Prairie" Prince.

Comments: This recording is also available for streaming or download on the Internet Archive in the following formats - FLAC, MP3 and OGG VORBIS - HERE.

Band Official Website: HERE.

Stream Full Concert Below:

Sundays Expansive Alternative Take

DVN - About them - Nileskog & Anton Stjärnqvist are DVN. At just 22 & 23 years-old, DVN have been have been hard at work in their studio for three years now, and with a big with a side-dish of DJing which in the past have had them open for a few big domestic names in the form of, Sebjak, Mikael Wermeets and Alex Moreno. They now have honed their skills to a point where they are ready to release their soulful deep-house influenced first single Oblivion feat. Duncan. DVN hail from Landskrona, in the southernmost part of Sweden. A place that has shaped them musically and where they work daily in their production-lab.

Passionately sung vocals over a refreshing soundtrack take it in turns to dominate this piece, all to good effect.

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Afternoons in Stereo - Tells us - It's been ten years since my first Afternoons in Stereo release and I'm celebrating by sharing my new album 'Retrospective'. 'Retrospective' compiles 10 years of the funkier, club-driven side of the my work, featuring two new tracks. This new collection is the perfect bookend to last year's 'A Jazz Odyssey', which assembled the more jazz-oriented side of my output.

This is an outstanding selection of music, the jazz influences are there along with so much more. A couple of videos (Here) and (here) and the impressive 'Galaxina' below, if you like any of these the album is definitely worth your time.


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Royal Disco - Background - After taking almost a year long break, Tel Aviv trio Royal Disco is back and better than ever with their new EP titled Dark Energy. Beginning with their EP titled "Dark Energy", you're welcomed into a spatial, atmospheric void filled with melodic keys as you're  bombarded with sawing laser-esque synths and deep sub bass and thrown down the worm hole that is Dark Energy. As you begin to come up from said ride, you're greeted with soft horns and canorous keys as "Sensei" begins. 

Just as quick, you're smacked in the face with an aggressive hook as you nose dive into a bass laden drop filled with unsympathetic synths leaving you hyped and wanting more. Luckily, there's one last hill to climb as the final track "Welcome to the Universe" beings with an epic drum intro leading into electro keys, reminiscent of an old John Hughes flick. The harmonious vocals uplift the track, then gets torn back as you fall into merciless drop after drop.

As you can tell by their words above the enthusiasm is most definitely there and rightly so with this power house of sounds, prepare to be bombarded and treated to energy driven layers, you will not stay still!

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Ooah & M!NT - Going back one week - Over last weekend, The Glitch Mob’s Ooah and Brooklyn-based producer M!nt released an unexpected collaboration called 'If The Smoke Clears'. This atmospheric single combines house and hip hop influences, and Ooah says of its creation “We didn't over think it or over cook it, randomly we started messing around in the studio and next thing we knew we had put together this song. This moody yet dancey break beat type of song we thought would be a good addition to your late night summer feels.”

With its hypnotic house atmosphere and grooving hip hop break beats, “If The Smoke Clears” is a great example of the higher creativity that results from artists working together spontaneously.

Trying hard to avoid the 'well if this is what you can do spontaneously' route is difficult, as it does beg the question of what else this pair might achieve. Anyway all power to spontaneity and long may it continue as this piece proves the case.

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Moonlapse - The story so far - Moonlapse is the electronic, progressive rock project by 21-year-old composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Strick, who is releasing his intoxicating and transcendent nine-song debut release in May 2015.

Strick came by his love of progressive rock at age 14 via classic bands such as Genesis and King Crimson. Soon he moved on to more contemporary prog metal like Dream Theater, Opeth and Porcupine Tree. “I studied them and learned to play their music,” Strick says. “In doing so, I was introduced to a lot of strange and beautiful chord progressions, which I didn’t hear in other music. Gradually, I began to compose my own songs using a lot of those chords and scales.” Strick, who studies computer science at North western University, recorded all of his guitar tracks on a computer using MIDI and a plug in called Omnisphere.

“Omniphere is really useful because it has tons of electronic instruments that are designed to sound like the real thing, and you can manipulate the tones and frequencies in some really cool ways.” Strick says. “I could never get guitar tracks to sound the way I wanted using a real instrument, but by orchestrating them digitally, they sounded new and original.  For drums, I used Battery 4. Everything, including mixing, was done on my computer.”

This was a pleasing listen and one that I hope gets a larger audience. Ben Strick has a talent both in constructing music, but more importantly in composing highly listenable pieces, play and enjoy. Website Here.

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Loksop - Background - Loskop’s new single entitled “These Sparks (Featuring Maiya Sykes)” showcases their acutely refined deep house, techno and pop sensibilities, sharpened by spending years DJ’ing in the unique and gritty underground club scene of post-Apartheid Johannesburg. The result is a deeply satisfying, genre-bending track that is made that much more striking with the addition of the massive vocals of Maiya Sykes, who was a 2014 finalist on “The Voice.” The song was released last month on their home turf, and it’s already in Top 40 rotation on 5FM, South Africa’s biggest national radio station.

You can watch the video (here), however it was Loksop's remixes on Soundcloud that gained my interest the most and the one below is just one example and if you like that, or the latest release go have a listen to the other remixes, you are in for a nice surprise.

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BECOME X XYLO - Keeping it very short (and sweet) we are told - Please enjoy our sophomore release -- BECOME x XYLO 'Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea' -- currently making people dance everywhere!

So we will keep it short and sweet, listen up! it's a good one!

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Danny Darko ft Lulu Falemara - The words - Silent Cries is a new chilly trap revamp of Danny Darko's song "Silent Cries". Silent Cries is a meaningful song against animal cruelty conceived by Danny and performed by british singer Lulu' Falemara.

I featured Danny Darko back on May 8th, his work continues to astound. This only came my way today and is to good to miss out. Website here.

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