Quality Not Quantity - Wednesday's Fayre

What they say - Sydney based psych-rock trio The Walking Who (Rohin Brown, Jay(Bird) and Paul Mclean) announced a brand new single on Monday 'My Future Wife' alongside the news of a forthcoming UK/EU tour, which includes performing at London's Citadel Festival and a headline show for Communion Presents at The Old Blue Last on 22nd July. This will be the band's first return to Europe since their debut in 2014, which saw Maz Tuppuni of Communion/XFM proclaim it was one of his favourite gigs of the year.

What we say - A psychedelic sixties vibe with alt rock quality, well that's what came into my head, this is an enjoyable track, big thumbs up from the Beehive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And we quote - ‘Where The River Runs’ is the sumptuous second single from Malpas, due for release on Killing Moon Records on 17th June 2015.  One of the highlights from their forthcoming debut album ‘Rain River Sea’, it layers swelling synths, intricate rhythms and mandolins under falsetto vocals to create a compelling slice of folk-tinged electronica. Malpas is singer-songwriter Ali Forbes and producer Andy Savours, who has worked with The Horrors, Sigur Ros and My Bloody Valentine amongst others.

And we reckon - It was the expression 'electric folk duo' that first gained my attention. This just builds and builds, beautiful layers of sound and contrasting dynamic vocals, pretty good eh?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we go quoting again - 'Feel Alive', was released on May 15th, is feelgood anthemic pop, perfect listening in the summer sunshine and a great introduction to the music of Aleks Grey. 

Born in Volda, Norway, Aleks was introduced to music through classical piano lessons when he was just three years old, but he was soon drawn to blues, soul and rock and roll. By the age of ten he was writing his own songs and by twelve he had become an accomplished guitarist.

Beehive comments - Sparing you the rest of Alek's history, the simple summary is, he has developed into an extremely talented performer, as witnessed in the featured video, bringing a real feelgood feeling for us all!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More words from someone else - Prodigious 19-year old singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Tom Misch has given BBC 1Xtra favourite Kiko Bun's Jamaican roots-inspired single 'Where I'm From' the remix treatment, to brilliant effect. With a string of Hype Machine No. 1s to boast of, and support from Majestic Casual, BBC Radio and countless others, this latest rework further confounds and exceeds Tom's reputation.

More words from Beehive - We have featured Kiko Bun before, this remix is stunning, how many superlatives are we allowed to use, absolute talent remixes absolute talent.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final quote this time around - Follow the Lion are a Leeds based alternative rock band who formed in 2013, quickly gaining a strong following thanks to their energetic and infectious live sets. The band have played a range of venues across the north west of England and will be hitting the festival scene this summer with appearances already confirmed at Live at Leeds, Tramlines and Long Division.

Final words from us - Oh this band are talented. Swirling alt rock music and Daniel Francis has a voice that is just so right for the songs. The others deserve recognition to - Daniel Francis - Lead Vocals and Guitars, Richard Swann - Lead Guitar, Mase - Bass, Paul Smith - Keys and Vocals, Danny Jay Barnett - Drums.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matt Simons - Catch & Release (Deepend remix)

We are not exactly hot off the press with this song which was released in March, with the exception of the new official lyric video of 'Matt Simons - Catch & Release (Deepend Remix)'.



After its release back in March, the track fully exploded on line resulting in millions of views on Soundcloud, Youtube and massive support throughout the blogosphere. The track stormed the Hypem Charts (overall) resulting in one number 3 and two number 1 positions in a row. Plenty of radio airplay as well.

For no other reason than to brighten Beehive Candy up this Tuesday we unashamedly jump on the bandwagon. Better late than never with this excellent song!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2015 - Out Of Our Inbox - June - Two

Some background - Lady Low is a rock quintet comprised of Jimmy Sweet (vocals, guitar), Rachel Maxann (vocals, synth, bass), Eden Lee (vocals, drums), Kaitlin Wolfberg (violin) and Hannah Blumenfeld (violin). Sweet had always wanted to start a band that combined love’s passion and old school rock and roll. After returning to L.A. by way of London, he formed Lady Low. Maxann found her way to the City of Angels after growing restless in the Big Easy. She brought aboard her old friend Lee, and after enlisting the help of local string talents Wolfberg and Blumenfield, the world’s first romance rock group was born.

Lady Low is not the first musical expedition for these romance rock pioneers. Jimmy has been rocking for years, starting out with legendary San Francisco rock band, The Richmond Sluts. He still performs with the Goodtime Boys, a ‘70s cover band, along with members of Hot Hot Heat, Fleet Foxes, The Heavy, and Beachwood Sparks.

Lady Low are new to Beehive Candy, it's a while since we have featured any music that could perhaps be termed 'romance rock', whatever I like their music & that's a good enough reason to share.

========================================================================

Dan Latner has this to say about his new album 'No Fun Intended'.

The album really snowballed accidentally into existence. In 2012, I received a writing grant for a comedy album, and headed out to woodshed in Prince George, BC (Northern Canada), where a long term girlfriend was living. We broke up 2 days into the visit (that's funny right?) and then I moved to Sri Lanka where I wrote most of the songs. I've been bouncing around Asia and Africa ever since.

I wrote "In a Hotel" and "Girls with Glasses" in Nepal, so you could say that the album was written mainly during my travels.

You can find out more about Dan over at his website (Here),  A fiddle player and very amusing, it's also been sometime since Beehive Candy have featured something a little more light hearted. For me the music and lyrics really work, on the featured song, it's more a gentle parody of what if's. It's different and highly enjoyable.

========================================================================

The Winachi Tribe are introduced to us with the following words - The psychedelic funk of George Clinton, the brooding menace of Massive Attack, the rolling hypnotic beats of Happy Mondays and the vision and flow of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five are all essential ingredients to the sound and style of The Winachi Tribe, a sonic soul, electro funk collective who are unconstrained by boundaries or formula's, musically or culturally.

Lyrically explosive and musically diverse, the band were born from the belly of Northern D.Funk collective China White. The Winachi Tribe are an exceptional band of musicians and producers who have collaborated and toured with a range of artists from Ian Brown to Alabama 3, Keith Allen to The Furious Five. Percussion legend Inder Goldfinger was a member of Ian Brown's band for thirteen years, and vocalist Liam and keys player Antony collaborated with Keith Allen in the studio and also toured with him as vocalists in his band 'Fit Les' as part of his Olympic opera 'Will Cliff Be There?'

The bands first single 'Time for Love' is scheduled for release on the 20th July (A1M Records). Well the pedigree is most definitely there and on the strength of the featured piece below, so are all the vital ingredients.

UK Live Dates:
18th July - Single launch at Water Rats, London with 'Alabama 3' DJ set and support from Italian Band La Strange
27th August - Vinyl launch, The Ruby Lounge, supports TBC
29th August - Victorious Festival, Portsmouth, opening for Primal Scream & The Flaming Lips
5th September - Manchester Met Uni, 'The Second Coming' with Aziz Ibrahim, The Clone Roses, Cressa (DJ Set)
7th November - Shiiine On Weekender, Minehead Arena, Somerset with Happy Mondays, Stereo MCs, 808 State.


========================================================================

Abandoned Delta appear to be a no nonsense and to the point band. They are an East Nashville-based Indie Americana group whose self-titled debut record has now been released.

This is how they explain the release - The band wanted to put out a document of songs with no names or production credits attached because "Music is oft-times clouded in politics, over-branding and marketing manifestos that present stories other than the ones the songs tell. Who cares who wrote and performed on it or what label it's on? If it connects with the listener, then the job is done. There should be no other filters preventing that from happening."

This is the first track from the album, the expression or genre 'Indie Americana' is always going to be a draw with myself, however in the end, it's down to the music. Well for me the music not only matches the description, these are fine old tunes and worthy of a large amount of interest and a bigger audience to enjoy!

========================================================================

Another Sundays Alternative Take

Jade The Moon tell us - 5 6 7 8 was written in a two hour session with no preconceived ideas about where the session would go. We had a lot of fun with creating this. I started dancing around the kitchen pretending to be a ballet dancer, singing 5 6 7 8 at the top of my lungs, which eventually became the backbone of the song. The remaining lyrical content can be difficult to hear, but on closer listen you can hear that there is an honest search for something tangible and real. Whether it's a search for love, happiness or just an escape from the everyday we found it for a brief moment.

We say, looking forward to your debut EP this summer, on the strength of this, it's one to watch out for.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up we have Alma and her debut EP Dark Matter. The description goes - A self-titled experimental project with producer Virtu, the songs soar with cinematic influence. She first came to the scene with "Avalanches," co-produced by Sound Remedy & Kill Paris.

Alma has a beautiful voice that can smoothly flow across the unobtrusive and yet occasionally powerful and dreamy musical accompaniment. She can also belt out some spine chillingly high notes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so to Woodes x Elkkle. They are described as follows - their panache for painting vivid soundscapes has led them to delve deeper into their delicately lush world to create their second single, Cocoon.  With the perfect measure of tender swooning to lull you in, coupled with compellingly quirky percussion and sparse instrumentation, Cocoon dabbles in mystic realms, which will leave you with a premonition of what’s to come on their forthcoming EP.

Well that saves us from having to come up with any poetic prose. Much easier just to direct your attention to this delightful track, both the vocals and intricate sounds are pretty special, it has that 'play me again thing going'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally we have POPOF (nee Alexandre Paounov), - Featuring the handsome voice of Arno Joey, "Words Gone" is a stunning slice of electronic music with crossover appeal, giving us a taste of what is in store for the album. Cadenza boss Luciano’s remix dives into tribal percussion, while main man Jamie Jones flips into a new gear, introducing a new melody, deep pads and emotive keys.

POPOF's forthcoming album Love Somebody out on June 29. A long standing and influential name in dance music, this Jamie Jones remix has already garnered considerable attention. We would add quite rightly so, it's why non dancers like me can still enjoy a little bit of deep house (behind closed curtains of course)...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PJ Harvey - Live in New York - 2007

Reloaded - 06/June/2015 - PJ Harvey's ninth studio album recorded with a studio audience in January is eagerly awaited. Word is that the material is similar in style to the fantastic 'Let England Shake' album, however the lyrics have a more global nature. This featured and probable audience recording (excellent quality) from 2007 is another reminder of how much I simply love her music. Polly Jean has truly earned the respect she has, always surprising, fascinating and always herself.

Some artists can fall into a 'love them' or 'do not love them' category quite comfortably. PJ Harvey has plenty of people who readily claim to love her music. There are probably plenty of music fans that would also say, 'hmmm'.

However I would wage a bet that there are a lot of music lovers out there, who having heard her music wander off thinking 'interesting' and find themselves coming back again and again to hear some more. I am fascinated by PJ Harvey, there is something about some of her songs, that hits home, and yet can I put it in simple terms? Wikipedia lists her genres as - Alternative rock, indie rock, experimental rock, lo-fi, folk rock, electronica, art rock, and punk blues.

Legendary British radio DJ John Peel featured her on a number of occasions in session, on his late night radio programme, sadly he is no longer with us, to perhaps get things in context. Anyhow enough of my personal musical conundrum, this is from the Beacon Theatre show (on Broadway - upper Manhattan New York), and is from her current tour, recorded on the 10th October 2007.

Set List:

01 To bring you my love
02 Send his love to me
03 When under ether
04 The devil
05 White chalk
06 Man-size
07 Angelene/My beautiful leah
08 Nina in ecstasy
09 Electric light
10 Snake
11 Shame
12 Big exit
13 Down by the water
14 Grow grow grow
15 The mountain
16 Silence
17 Rid of me
18 Water
19 The piano
20 The desperate kingdom of love

Sound quality: Very good - the audience audio suggests this is an excellent audience recording, I could be wrong.

Website: PJ Harvey.

Reloaded - 06/June/2015 - download link in comments.