A Couple Of Good Ones: The Plaidians - Thelma Ball

The Plaidians - Lights Out.

Background promo - ‘Lights Out for the Boy’  is a significant collaborative recording project featuring two of Melbourne’s artists of music in the form of The Plaidians. Gaz and JP have been co-writing music for many years and have established the kind of rare connection that has helped them carve out their own idiosyncratic niche. 

Following on from the success of their first single release “The Follower” in September 2015, The Plaidians are now releasing their debut album ‘Lights Out for the Boy’. 

Their album is a flavour of pop that is both unique and familiar: fully formed and thoughtful in a way that is surprising from a duo that is new to the indie scene. The Plaidians have presented ten tracks that offer a charming blend of rock and pop, even folk, with strings, guitars, vintage synths, and signature gritty vocals. 

JP said: “Much of this album was about challenging ourselves; seeing what was really possible. We wanted to create something that brought together all of our varying and often conflicting influences where we could really define ourselves. For us, this album definitely captures that feeling of self-discovery.” 

The album is being released along with the title track “Lights Out”. Initially sweet and engaging, “Lights Out” takes you down a melodic path that switches to a dark and pulsing groove with an eerie, infectious chant. The song tells the story of a mother who medicates her over-active son; reflecting on the guilt, selfishness and the side effects of psychotropic drugs on children.

We featured the first single back last September and it's great to know the new album will be released later this month on the 26th February. The title track is yet but another small taste of what is a really fine album.

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Thelma Ball - Self Help.

Background - Michael from the band contacted Beehive Candy and had this to say "I just read your review on Darla and the Blonde because we're playing with them soon".

From the bands Facebook page we also learn - Thelma Ball are a four piece from Lincolnshire/London who have put together one tasty musical BLT sandwich.

The bread and butter of Nirvana, the salty bacon of The Strokes, the crispy lettuce of Mac DeMarco and of course those Jeff Buckley influenced juice balls of tomatoes.

'Self Help' is the title song from the three track EP. I like the bands own description of themselves and as BLT's go, all I would add is that there is clearly a layer of feisty and spicy sauce. The band may have a connection to another we have featured but it's their flavoursome music that gets them on here. I finish there as a thousand other awful puns are circulating in my head.

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Good Ones: Draemhouse - Factory Brains

Draemhouse - Mr. Kerosene.

Background promo - Draemhouse began in 2014 as a bedroom recording outlet for former songwriter/guitar player, Chris Cheveyo of Rose Windows (Sub Pop).  After Rose Windows dissolved in  January of 2015,  Pat Schowe of whom also played in Rose Windows joined Draemhouse along with Emma Danner and Brock Carless.  The quartet then began rehearsing in March of that same year.  Playing renegade shows in living rooms, clothing shops, and underpasses throughout the Summer of 2015.  The band has gained a quick following for their dræmy sound and live fiber art installations by in-house visual artist/photographer Lauren Rodriguez.

The band released "Woundlicker" as a cassette single via the Blind Blind Tiger label out of Los Angeles to positive reviews in the Summer of 2015. Only Friends was recorded in Austin, Texas in 2014 at The Wonder Chamber by Justin Morris.  It was performed by Chris Cheveyo and some top notch musicians of Austin’s local scene.  It was mixed at Avast! Studios in Seattle, Wa by Justin Morris and assisted by Jon Roberts and Randall Dunn. Their new EP 'Only Friends', which is going to drop March 15th on Blind Blind Tiger.

From the four track 'Only Friends' EP, 'Kerosene' the final track can currently be downloaded free on Soundcloud, however I really do recommend checking out the other songs on what is for me, a really great selection of beautiful dream pop songs.

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Factory Brains - Down The River.

Background promo - The Stockholm based band Factory Brains has in spite of their young age already made over 100 concerts. 100 concerts that has taken the band from the youth recreation centers, via blues festivals in small city Ängelsberg, to Stockholm for a gig with Graveyard, on to Gotheburg for an evening with Daniel Norgren and finally on tour as supporting act to Rival Sons - a Rival Sons who specifically requested the band as supporting act.

Factory Brains was founded in 2010 and had on their first album (Love like hours/Universal Records) close cooperation with Peo Berghagen who passed away way too early. The band created a reputation of being one of Sweden´s up and coming and most interesting rock bands, but without Peo things didn´t go as planned and Factory Brains days at Universal were numbered before they even began. For three 17 year old guys - who thought they´d signed off on guaranteed fame and success - this could have been the beginning of the end for the band. But instead of being disheartened the band called Janne Hansson and booked a session in Atlantis Studios to be able to start working on their second album Hard Labor. 

In order to perfect the recording with something a little extra they brought in Martin Hederos (TSOOL) and Henrik Wind to play keyboards and Chips Kiesbye (The Hellacopters, Michael Monroe, Millencollin) was called to produce all vocals. After finishing the recording the task of mixing a mastering was assigned to - in that regard a somewhat odd choice - Jens Borggren (Opeth/Paradise Lost). Choosing Jens to complete this task is something the band definitely don´t regret which the audience will be aware of when listening through Hard Labor.

Factory Brains new album 'Hard Labor' from which 'Down The River' is taken is due for release on the 19th February. The collection of songs are more rock than pop, with a definite 'Americana' feel running through some tracks. Overall it's a strong collection of songs, that could well appeal to anyone who enjoys bands as diverse as Wilco through to The Rolling Stones.

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Midweek Alternative Take: Apothek - Luke Chable vs The New Division

Apothek - Waiting For The Thunder.

Background promo - “There’s a gap somewhere that used to be us” – an opening premise, and emotional wormhole that lies at the core of Apothek’s latest offering ‘Waiting For The Thunder’. As solemn as it is soaring, the track navigates space and time with pitch-bending poignancy. “It’s about distance, about travelling; the spaces and places we leave behind,” explains vocalist Morten Myklebust. The sentiment is skewed in “little glimpses of memory that warp the truth,” he says. “How absolutely everything is temporary.”

It follows Apothek’s acclaimed debut single ‘Family’ – a track earning the collective praise of The Sunday Times, The Line of Best Fit, Clash and Hillydilly; also catching the keen eye of Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1), Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie (BBC Radio 6music), Maz Tappuni (Radio X), Dani Charlton, Greg Porter (Amazing Radio) at UK radio and garnering support further afield via triple j (AUS), where the track was shortlisted for this year's Hottest 100.

Sonically speaking, ‘Waiting For The Thunder’ takes a darker turn to that of its budding predecessor. “It’s a bit icier and more distant than ‘Family’,” co-conspirator and producer Nils Martin Larsen concludes. “The first part of the track was the skating-on-ice kind of bass line that goes all over the place pitch wise, which felt kind of new. It’s also the first time we started experimenting with tuning of vocals which turned out to be a big part of the record,” he says.  

Following a UK/EU tour with pop wunderkind Susanne Sundfør, amidst their own London headline late last year, Apothek returned for a sold out show at London’s Hoxton Hall yesterday with Norwegian chart-toppers Highasakite. 

We featured Apothek a few months ago, however the new song 'Waiting For The Thunder' just grabbed my attention. It flows with great simplicity and yet there's so much going on, and the vocals just nailed it for me.

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Luke Chable vs The New Division - Opium (Original Mix).

Background promo - For many years, in the early 2000s, Luke Chable had been described as one of the best Progressive House producers around, renowned for his unmatched production skills & his ability to create massive hits while still preserving his underground roots. From his first release, “Accelerator” – which sold out of no less than four pressings – to his worldwide seminal hit “Ride” and his collaboration with Phil K as Lostep, it was a non-stop series of hugely successful releases for more than 5 years straight. Countless classic originals & remixes topped the dance charts all over the world whilst being championed by the world’s elite DJ’s: Deep Dish, Tiesto, Sasha, John Digweed, Eric Prydz, Dave Seaman, Danny Howells, and many more as being one of the hottest progressive house artists on the planet.

After years of production successes coupled with a hectic global touring schedule, Luke took a well deserved rest away from the scene for a few years...only to come back even stronger. Earlier in 2015, his return “Comet” EP (released on ToolRoom Zero Three sister label) instantly climbed into Beatport Top 5 and prompted EDM act Above & Beyond to propose him a guest mix spot on their massively famous “Group Therapy” radio show.

With his comeback EP now nearing 1 Million plays on Spotify, Luke follows up with his own take on indie pop cult classic “Opium” from The New Division, retaining the 2012 track original vocal and delivering a hypnotic and modern progressive house number.

Luke Chable's progressive house rethink of 'Opium', can only add to his standing as a top producer. Retaining the original vocals gives it a recognisable connection to the indie pop number, everything else just works so very, very well.

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Genre Wander: Natalie Lurie - The Boy From Space - Iska Dhaaf

Natalie Lurie - No Mercy in the Night.

Background promo - Nashville songwriter Natalie Lurie has released her debut single, "No Mercy In The Night." The track is available at all digital outlets and is the first single from her upcoming EP, No Mercy In The Night, due out March 25th. 

Natalie's fascination with the harp began at age 7 when she spotted the instrument in a music shop. She sat down and began strumming until the shop owner finally asked she and her family to leave because the store was closing. Natalie's harp studies have taken her across the globe. During her senior year of high school she attended the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. After that, she studied privately in France and Switzerland, before returning to the US where she completed her undergraduate work under renowned harpist Susann McDonald at Indiana University.

Though she is classically trained, Natalie has always held an interest in expanding the harp beyond its traditional classical genre. Before moving to Nashville to pursue songwriting and performing, she spent time in Muscle Shoals, AL working with original session musicians from the 1960s. After releasing No Mercy In The Night this spring, she will move to London to pursue a Master of Arts in Harp Performance at the Royal Academy of Music.

This is a joy to feature on Beehive Candy. When I first looked at the picture in the promo I thought 'oh no, not a Joanna Newsom copy' regarding the harp. How wrong I was. Yes they both play a harp and there it ends. This is a carefully crafted indie pop song where vocals and a fine assortment of instruments (including the harp) deliver us, one very pleasing track.

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The Boy From Space - I Don't Want To Go To Work (EP).

Background promo - Nub Music Release - 6th February 2016. How many people say they have woken up on Monday morning and thought, ‘I don’t want to go to work’. The life shared by 70% of the adult population of this country. Who writes songs for them, the grind, the frustration, the dreams? This classic British pop song swoons sympathetically with the mood of Blue Monday – statistically the most depressing day of the year, bringing a sparkle and humanity with it’s synth.

In the tradition of the Smiths or the Pet Shop Boys, The Boy from Space write classic pop songs about the life shared by those who didn’t go to Eton (or Rock School), and there are a lot of us. But if you think the dramas of everyday life make for dull music, listen to the melancholic synth-pop of Ugly – a riposte to Christina Aguilera’s ‘Beautiful’ (‘What if I don’t have within, enough to break out through my skin?’), or American Beauty with its amazing build up to a beautiful chorus and if there’s any doubt about the fact that these Space People can create extraordinary music listen to their floor-shaking rendition of Pink Floyd’s Lucifer Sam which quite possibly out-mads the original.

The Boy From Space fulfil the tradition of English eccentrics by the bucket load, but we’re not talking bohemian folk, staring into space, these guys Are from space, misfits caught between the mundanity of working life and the magic, wonder and awe of life in all its possibility.

There's a video for the above mentioned title track from the four song EP, that was filmed on Bournemouth beach not far from where I used to live (and still not really that far). However although that made me pay a tiny bit more attention to the music, how could you not like it anyway? They even manage to out quirk Pink Floyds 'Lucifer Sam' on this very enjoyable EP, video over on the BeeVids page.

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Iska Dhaaf - Invisible Cities.

Background promo - In 2011 Nathan Quiroga (Mad Rad, Buffalo Madonna) and Benjamin Verdoes (Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band) left their respective Seattle-based projects behind and began collaboration on Iska Dhaaf. The band was quickly embraced for their engaging live shows, and for creating the sound of a full band by way of two people. Together as songwriters they have steadily explored production, instrumentation, and an ever-expanding narrative voice.

After the release of their debut, Even the Sun Will Burn, they toured across North America, Western Europe, relocated to New York, and most recently wrote and performed in Paris and Berlin. Their upcoming album,The Wanting Creature, sees the duo emerging as producers, experimenters and genre-bending artists. The new songs show an ongoing devotion to lyrical depth and composition, and the album more fully utilizes their diverse musical backgrounds. Nearly five years in, they will surprise with their innovations-taking risks one would hope to see in a sophomore album. New album due out 27th May 2016 via Brick Lane Records.

There is something quite addictive about 'Invisible Cities'. Maybe it's the overall pace and the way the vocals glide over and along with the beat. Whatever, if it's meant to wet my appetite for the album, then it's a case of job done!

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Two Good Ones: Drew Worthley - Strange Fiction

Drew Worthley - John Proctors Lament.

Background - Drew Worthley is an East London musician who crafts a curious blend of cerebral indie-pop with a twist of lyrical Americana. His newly released sophomore record 'Crucible', recorded at Echo Zoo Studios has been praised by Louder Than War as 'one of the albums of the year without doubt.' The 'blisfully atypical' collection of songs explores memory, economics, London and literature, weaving heartfelt vocals around a smorgasbord of analogue synths, guitars, flugelhorns and battered drums.

Crucible has been receiving regular airplay on BBC 6 Music, BBC London and BBC Introducing, numerous features on Baeble Music and 'Tune of the Day' recommendations on Amazing Tunes. Drew will be touring in early spring 2016.

Yet another one of those 'ones to watch out for' artists, and some! 'John Proctors Lament' is but a toe in the water as an introduction to Drew Worthley. Plenty of buzz and notice already for Drew, and not surprising, this is fine music on a grand scale.

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Strange Fiction - Icarus' Last Night.

Background - Strange Fiction Release 'Icarus' Last Night', the second single from their debut album 'Orange'

Strange Fiction, an alternative rock band based in London/Barcelona, formed in early 2014. Carlos (vocals), Sergi (guitar), Marc (bass) and Joel (drums) released their debut album 'Orange', in June 2015 to hugely positive reviews. An inspired body of work, 'Orange' presents a compelling blend of influences and reference points from Incubus to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Carlos Palacio to Bruno Mars.

2015 saw Strange Fiction touring hard across the UK and Spain, doing more than twenty-five dates in both countries. The band's astonishing on stage energy has helped them to build a solid and loyal fan base that suggests this band have a very promising future. 

'Icarus Last Night' is a slick and catchy rock track. The band separate themselves from the pack with equally punchy and harmonised vocals, along with what I would describe as 'well oiled' musicianship.

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