Quality Not Quantity: Polyenso - Jenny Broke The Window - Old Sault

Polyenso - 17 New Years.

Background promo - Building off of 2013’s cult-acclaimed “One Big Particular Loop,” Polyenso — Alex Schultz, Brennan Taulbee, and Denny Agosto — has spent the past two years working extensively with producer Jason Pennock. Evolving their particular flavor of indie-rock to include elements of hip-hop, neo-soul, and experimental electronics, they pull influences from acts such as Flying Lotus, The Roots, Bright Eyes, and Bjork, half-jokingly referring to their medley as “urban indie progressive.”

Possessing an unrestricted vision for the musical quality in all things, the band operates like sound designers, pairing synthesisers, pianos and guitars with organic noise and everyday objects like spatulas, wooden bowls and packing peanuts. Polyenso’s visionary production is equalled by the freshly unlocked vocal dynamics of Taulbee and Schultz. Led by Taulbee’s soothing and provocative melodies, Schultz is tagged in to bring the sexy back on harmonies, occasionally leading himself.

Releasing their first new tracks in 2014, “17 New Years” and “Moona Festival” provide listeners with a taste of the depth and scope of the band's ever-expanding sound. The upcoming album, Pure In The Plastic, serves as a challenge to music as a whole, proving that there is room left for originality in the popular. Carrying forward their intrinsically spiritualistic character, from start to finish, their music captures listeners in a moment of transcendence, feeling as much a part of the future as it does the present.

The soon to be released album 'Pure In The Plastic' is an adventurous and exciting work. The band may have a core sound however they are not afraid to explore different styles and genres. '17 New Years' is the first of ten songs on the album. It provides some insight into what's to come, but with so mush richness and variety, expect to be spoilt, with a lot more.

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Jenny Broke The Window - Airport Love.

Background promo - Jenny Broke The Window deftly evoke that lump-in-your-throat feeling we all get when waving goodbye to a loved one at the gate in their new single 'Airport Love', produced by Tony Buchen (Bluejuice, The Preatures, Andy Bull).

Swelling, wistful, and atmospheric, the song's rhythm echoes the beat of a heart that's had just about enough. Hushed vocals are juxtaposed over bubbling synths, strings and cruchy guitar riffs that add just the right amount of drama. 'Airport Love' is the perfect catalyst for your moment of 20/20 hindsight clarity - just keep the tissues handy when it hits.

The Sydney quartet's forthcoming EP has two radio hits under its belt already - 'Skinny Dip' and 'Black Skeleton', the latter of which was the #43 most played track on triple j in 2015. The band themselves are no strangers to notoreity, having shared the stage with the likes of Sticky Fingers, Bluejuice, The Fratellis, Gang of Youths,  Harts and Kingswood. With a string of tour dates now announced, Jenny Broke The Window are poised to break free from the pack and straight into hearts across the country.

Sat Apr 09 - Moonshine, Manly
Fri May 06 - Newtown Social Club, Sydney
Sat May 14 - Penny Black, Melbourne.

The opening heartbeat rhythm slowly morphs into a very catchy song, with vocals leading the way and the music steadily building. It's a really well produced song allowing all the key elements to shine through, as the hooks work there way under your skin.

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Old Sault - Ghost.

Background promo - A darling display of maturity, a plea from a lonely bedroom. Debut single from Old Sault, 'Ghost', is awash with contemplation. Accompanied by an expertly shot music video (here) featuring a rabbit, a victim and his bullies, 'Ghost' is a heartbreaking reminder of how life's moments can return to the mind in an instant.

Currently a bandless band from the Gold Coast, Old Sault is more the moniker for singer, songwriter and guitarist Angie Farr. Produced by the ARIA-winning Govinda Doyle (Angus & Julia Stone), 'Ghost' is but a snippet of the work the two have been working on together, with another single just around the corner and a debut EP not far behind it. Pricking the ears of triple j and taste makers already, Old Sault is a raconteur, ready to realise her place on the national music stage.

Sometimes when I'm trying to describe a song all I really want to say is "This is a really good song" and just leave it at that. Maybe I should, but that always seem a little unfair considering the work that goes into so much of the music we feature here. Anyway, this really is a good song... oh just play it!


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Monday Double: Used Cassettes - Clare Maguire

Used Cassettes - Ducati.

Background promo - Sunburnt, half-dazed and several piers down from the fluoride tide of the Korean Wave, Used Cassettes are a stomp-and-stagger rock band based in Seoul. Rock n Rills due May 6th on Magic Strawberry Sound.

Used Cassettes' tunes are served straight up like the Stones', though maybe a bit sandier, and waterlogged by an unlikely drift of far-flung currents. The group may have met not far from Gangnam, but they hail from South Africa, Canada, and Detroit.

Over the past couple years they've broken Korea's rock Top 40, become the first gang of foreigners to ever sign with a top-tier local label, torn it up on the Asian festival circuit, and - inevitably? - starred in a comic book series read by millions. They wanted to make sure they sun-baked their sound nice and crisp before taking it back home. Listening back on their new LP Rock n Rills, they feel pretty good about that.

'Ducati' is a marvellous piece of rock music, with all the writing sensibilities of a Stones record and the loose swagger and attitude of The Black Crowes. However it's more than that. The band have a very fresh, natural sound, that in reality is cleverly refined, so that all instruments and vocals are very clear in the mix. As introductions to a band go, this one ticks all the boxes.

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Clare Maguire - Elizabeth Taylor.

Background promo - Clare Maguire listens to all sorts of artists these days; they have only one thing in common. "They are true to themselves," she says. This, more than any genre or sound or era, is all that matters to the 27-year-old singer-songwriter right now. "It's a certain attitude that I'm really drawn to," she explains, "and it really doesn't matter what music it is, and it doesn't matter who the person is. That's the inspiration for me."

This much is clear in Maguire's new music. After a moment away from the spotlight, the Brummie chanteuse is back in full force - still with that amazing, swooping, haunting voice, but with more raw, fragile vulnerability. Clare wrote the majority of this album at home on her piano, with her sausage dogs, on a diet of pizza and cups of tea, listening to everything from Rihanna to Johnny Cash, "If it sounds a bit rough around the edges, it's fine," she reasons, "because that's who I am."

She posted a series of songs online herself over the past year to high praise from the likes of Pitchfork, Fader and Rookie. These beautifully fragile tracks also caught the attention of Christopher Bailey, head designer at Burberry, who invited Clare to perform at multiple runway shows across the world, a creative relationship which continues to flourish.

Now Clare is poised and ready to release her brand new album, Stranger Things Have Happened, with brand new single, "Elizabeth Taylor", the first song to be heard from the album.

A true artist and musician, Clare wrote the entire album herself and was heavily involved with the studio recording process, drafting in modern British greats like pianist Sam Beste (best known for his work with Amy Winehouse) and producer Blue May (Kindness, Robyn, Kano and more). Stranger Things Have Happened will be released on EMI Records on May 27th.

'Elizabeth Taylor' is a sultry, beautiful song. Clare sings as if each word comes from the heart and the music almost struggles to keep up with her commitment to the song, that said - both vocals and musical soundtrack are quite stunning and really compliment each other.

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Alternative Take: A Dead Forest Index - Red Sleeping Beauty - United Sounds of Joy

A Dead Forest Index - Myth Retraced.

Background promo - A Dead Forest Index has shared the second cut from their debut album In All That Drifts From Summit Down, out April 29th on Sargent House. “Myth Retraced” features guitar contributions from Gemma Thompson of Savages, resulting in a song that is both intense and beautiful.

Landscapes both seen and felt, real and imagined, lie at the heart of In All That Drifts From Summit Down, the vast debut full-length release from nomadic duo A Dead Forest Index. Comprised of brothers Adam Sherry (vocals/guitar) and Sam Sherry (drums/piano), the group crafts ethereal and intensely intimate compositions that defy trends and labelling, instead shaping an aural experience as organic as it is unpredictable. Forsaking instrumental complexity in favour of richly dense vocals and an otherwise minimal palette, the band evokes heaviness with the atmosphere they create rather than through blunt force. Teaming-up with Sargent House on the heels of a recent European tour supporting label mate Chelsea Wolfe, A Dead Forest Index are poised to introduce their sound to a global audience in 2016.

A Dead Forest Index was initially the solo project of Adam Sherry, begun in 2008. By 2010, it had evolved into a collaboration, with Sam Sherry supplying percussive depth to his brother’s distinctively hymnal approach to vocals, itself characterised by cyclical harmonies and experiments with drone. Untethered by place (or, for that matter, era), they’ve spent the past few years developing their sound, touring extensively between 2012-2014, and issuing the EPs “Antique” and “Cast of Lines” in the process. The latter was released by Jehnny Beth of Savages’ Pop Noire label, a precursor to the collaborative Savages/A Dead Forest Index composition and performance titled “In What I’m Seeing; the Sun” for the Barbican’s Station to Station Festival in 2015.

In All That Drifts From Summit Down, their debut album, is a testimony to the sublime divinity of nature and the cold reality of time’s passage. Unfolding over 13 tracks, the album imagines natural phenomena as poetic metaphor for the human condition, the lyrics evoking stone, cold air, unyielding emptiness and erosion, while the enveloping warmth of Adam Sherry’s layered, choral vocals makes for an intriguing contrast.

We featured the band in early February, however, I just love this second song from the forthcoming album and could not resist giving them another share. The band are touring the USA from late April right through to June. Gemma Thompson's additional guitar contribution to this song adds just that little something extra, to a band who musically, already have a lot going for them.

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Red Sleeping Beauty - Mi Amor.

Background bio - 2016 is a big year for Swedish indie pop legends Red Sleeping Beauty (named after a song by 80’s Marxist band McCarthy). They’ve not only done their first live appearance in 20 years time, they will - more importantly - release their first album in 19 years time! Labrador released a first single called "Mi Amor" on March 25.

Red Sleeping Beauty formed in Stockholm in 1989 by singer Kristina Borg, singer/guitarist Niklas Angergård (Acid House Kings), guitarist Mikael Matsson (The Shermans), and bassist Carl-Johan Näsström. They made a huge impact on the international indiepop scene with two fantastic albums and a series of singles and EPs. Their first release was in 1992 with EP Pop Sounds (Marsh Marigold), followed by four 7"s all on different pop labels (Somersault, Motorway, Grimsey, and Sunday) before returning to Marsh-Marigold for the first full length Bedroom. They then signed to the legendary Siesta Records to release their fifth single Sick & Tired, their second album Soundtrack, and a compilation of singles.

Red Sleeping Beauty have always been fans of drum machines and vintage synthesiser. On ”Kristina” they’ve cultivated their love for electronic instruments and made up strict rules for the recordings: they only use analogue synthesisers and allow themselves to trim them with one acoustic guitar per song. The result is a heartfelt mix of memorable pop melodies and timeless electronica.

On ”Kristina” Red Sleeping Beauty is a duo consisting of vocalist Niklas Angergård and Mikael Matsson with help from Kristina Borg on vocals on four songs. The album title is a tribute to her.
- She’s had a tough struggle with cancer but things are looking brighter now. We expect her back as a full time member on the next album, the band states. ”Kristina” is the band’s first album in 19 year’s time. But that doesn’t mean the members have been disconnected from making music all these years. Niklas has released numerous albums with Acid House Kings on Labrador while Mikael Matsson has released several albums with both The Charade and The Shermans on Skipping Stones Records and Shelflife.

The return is by no means a temporary one. Red Sleeping Beauty is back for good. The writing and recording process has never been more inspiring and ”Kristina” is about ten times better than anything we’ve done in the past. You’ve only just seen the beginning of Red Sleeping Beauty 2.0, says singer Niklas Angergård.

'Mi Amor' has deep rich synth's that mix beautifully with the acoustic guitar and drums. Add to that the lush vocals and gentle melodies and you have a really good timeless piece of music. It bodes well for the album due out quite soon.

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United Sounds of Joy - The Sun That Hides A Darker Star.

Background promo - United Sounds of Joy is a new London, UK-based collaboration between Michael J. Sheehy and former Dream City Film Club band mate Alex Vald. Their self-titled debut album is released in North America on April 1st 2016 on Bronze Rat Records on CD/LP/digital formats, having recently been released in Europe to much critical acclaim.

Almost two decades removed from each other’s musical energies, Vald and Sheehy have reunited to craft some heart-rending, mind-bending music. Coming on like Joe Meek and Goldfrapp entangled in some ancient machinery, the first listen track 'The Sun That Hides A Darker Star' is a magnificent, shimmering sound that the BBC’s Lauren Laverne described as: “If David Cronenberg directed a spaghetti western, we reckon it would feel a little like this.”

"Don't call it a reunion" insists Michael J Sheehy "…we're not even a band in the traditional fashion". Dream City Film Club were signed to Beggars Banquet within a year of forming in 1995, released an album and recorded two Peel sessions before Vald was unceremoniously kicked out. "Alex was dismissed because he was the only decent human being in the band", says Sheehy, "we were intent on dismantling the band from the off, everyone was pulling in different directions, each with his own very particular variety of personality disorder, drug abuse or mental illness, and if all that stuff hadn't of got us then I'm sure we would have buckled beneath the weight of our very lofty pretencions."

Featuring contributions from Fiona Brice (Midlake, John Grant, Placebo) and Gemma Ray, the album is full of alluring, devious pop noir, the songs immersed in an eerie, crepuscular pool of fuzzy, warmly welcoming psychedelics. United Sounds of Joy traverse a road to a new and rewarding gothic chanson.  The beautiful cover is by Russian artist Aleksandra Laika.

The album was released in the UK a short while back, with just one sold out release show. It's a refined and absorbing collection of songs, of which the featured track gives some idea of what to expect. The songs are consistently pleasing, ideas are imaginative and everything has the feel of delicate and careful construction, with the bands hearts close to the end piece.

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Genres Mixed: Palumbo and the Funk - Broen - The Loom

Palumbo and the Funk - Get It Right.

Background words - Boasting a line up from around the world Palumbo and the Funk have been regulars on the London scene with audiences loving their Rock/Funk vibe. BBC Introducing have been early champions along with Gary Crowley who described them as "a musical powerhouse".

Palumbo and the Funk  got a kick start in with their award winning self produced EP, Rock The Funk which won the Jazz/Funk/Fusion Category at the Independent Music Awards (IMAS) in 2014.

The title of their debut album “All The Rage We Are”, is a take on the famous jazz tune “All the things you are” and encapsulates a “funk rock sound” but the genre becomes more “rock with horns” with each track. Musically, it’s groove with sonic depth and you find more hooks each time you hear the tunes.Lyrically, there’s a story to tell in each song.

“All The Rage We Are”was 2 years in the making and features 10 instruments - Drums, bass, keys, guitar, tenor sax, alto sax, trumpet, 1 X lead vocal, 2 X BVs and was produced by Dion Palumbo and Alex Fletcher with input also from the renowned Richie Stevens (Boy George, Joss Stone, Gorillaz, George Clinton).
'
I missed this band last year when they released their album 'All The Rage We Are' however it's such a great listen that giving them a belated mention only seems fair. Featured track 'Get It Right' typifies the excellent music this band generates both in the studio and in their natural live environment. This is swaggering funk rock from the  London based funk rock collective formed in 2011 by guitarist, front man and Australian singer songwriter Dion "Blindman Jumbo" Palumbo.

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Broen - No, My God.

Background promo - It’s the dark side of ladies night – the heels, the dresses and alcohol-fuelled messes. Norwegian quintet Broen glam it up on latest offering ‘No, My God’, with vocalist Marianna Røe pondering post-club frivolities: “We bumping round like a party of T-Rexes, wearing tiny little freaky dresses”.

Beneath the track’s gleaming exterior lies a somewhat existential brood: “It’s about ignoring your problems, and drinking, partying and instagramming your problems away,” Røe explains. “And then getting lost in who's right, who's wrong and all the different voices that argue Which God could or should help… ‘No, MY God’.” The track captures Broen’s genre-clashing, gloriously indeterminate charm, serving a synth-illating instalment of Britpop, hip-hop and West African rhythms. Stream/embed ‘No, My God’ below...

‘No, My God’ is taken from the band’s forthcoming debut EP ‘Yoga’, released May 6th via London-based singles club 0E0E. The four-track EP includes acclaimed singles of last year ‘Iris’ and ‘Boy’ – earning the collective praise of The Guardian, Consequence of Sound, KEXP and BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne.

'No, My God' has a quirky marching beat around which swirl both instruments, vocals and melodic harmonies. The song disappears into some kind of hip hop spell, then the craziness resumes. It's fascinating and quite addictive.

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The Loom - 01 Fire Makes.

Background bio - The Loom – a band from Brooklyn that has been called a “Next Big Thing” by the New York Times, “Best of What’s Next” by Paste Magazine, and a “World Café Next” band by WXPN – will release their second album Here in the Deadlights on April 22nd via Crossbill/Stereocilia.

However, Here in the Deadlights is not the record they set out to make upon returning from touring their debut album in mid-2012 (they made that album too, but more on that later). Instead, Deadlights both reflects and was made in the midst of the extremely difficult time that unfolded for band leader John Fanning upon their return: a life upending split from his longtime partner and best friend of fourteen years, the nearly lost mind and period of psychic and existential searching that followed, and the heavy lifting of rebuilding it all out of that collapse.

These circumstances, combined with the band’s collective and long-percolating obsessions with repetition, groove, atmosphere, and dissonance, honed across several hundred shows throughout the US and Canada and as far away as Poland, informed the shape of the new record.

Deadlights was recorded with producer Kevin McMahon (Titus Andronicus, Real Estate) at Marcata Recording in upstate New York, and finds them digging more and more heavily into these inspirations, stacking organs on top of organs and undergirding endless tangles of words with noisy guitars, set against horns run through delay pedals, all while maintaining the spirit and craft that led Daytrotter to write that The Loom “makes us believe that they’re the fathers and mothers of our cold and jagged memories, those that may or may not even be our memories for they feel so distant.”

Driven by psych-influenced guitars, songs like “I Am Not Young” and “Fire Makes” push towards connection and against the incessant passing of time, while “Ten Thousand Tiny Field Mice” is the repetitive, bracing sound of a mind unraveling (complete with manic saxophone breakdown from Phantom Family Halo’s David Lackner, who plays on “Fire Makes” as well).

There is a considerable amount to discover within the forthcoming album. Across nine tracks the band dig deep with ideas and passion, resulting in something that is clearly quite special to them, and as importantly, for the listener. Vocally superb and musically inventive, the album reflects the circumstances of John Fanning to the point where his emotions are shared, almost on a one to one basis. In the days of singles, EP's and on-line streaming, The Loom remind us that whole albums remain a musical journey of art in there own right.


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Quality Not Quantity: ARMS - The Heroic Enthusiasts - Hein Cooper

ARMS - Keep It Light.

Background promo - ARMS and Paper Garden Records have teamed up yet again to release the project's second full-length album, Patterns, which is set to be released worldwide in late May. With influences stemming from David Bowie and German rock band, Neu!, Todd Goldstein says the song 'Keep It Light' is "an open letter to the voices in my head that delight in telling me to tone it down, to rein it in, to not frighten or disturb anyone with my behaviours or feelings."

ARMS' Patterns takes the cinematic mood pieces and coy lyricism of previous ARMS records—the noisy, homespun Kids Aflame (2008) and its widescreen sequel Summer Skills (2011)—and cranks the volume: The melodies leap from the speakers, the sound is crackling and urgent. The songs on Patterns are as keenly aware of their place in the continuum of wry, melancholic songwriters (the Cohens, Merritts, Wainwrights, and Stipes that Goldstein likes to cite) as they are willing to twist those conventions into off, intriguing new shapes.

The landscape has changed dramatically since Todd’s mid-2000s stint playing guitar in New York cult heroes Harlem Shakes—guitar-forward, songwriterly indie pop has returned to its niche roots; it’s a contracting field. But rather than closing up shop, Goldstein and his now-10-year-old ARMS project respond to that revelation with their most eclectic, emotionally generous album yet. Patterns is the sound of a songwriter with nothing left to prove, displaying a hard-won lyrical compassion and a sureness of craft born from a lifetime of listening, playing and drinking deep of the music he loves.

The chunky powerful opening riffs lead into equally potent vocals. Add the soaring guitar that occasionally drops in and a relentless beat and the result is pretty special.

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The Heroic Enthusiasts - Falling of the Drop (We are One).

Biography - Back in the 16th century, the Catholic friar and astronomer/philosopher Giordano Bruno gazed up at the stars enraptured by the poetry he saw in the elliptical patterns playing out in the sky. For Bruno, math, science, art, and romance were all one and the same ­­ a perspective that resonated so much James Tabbi and Tom Ferrara that they chose to name their band after Bruno's epic work Gli Eroici Furori -- literally "On the Heroic Passion" but commonly known as "The Heroic Enthusiasts." Much as they did for Bruno, numbers for this band function as a window into matters of the heart.

Both math majors and music lovers of Sicilian descent, Ferrara and Tabbi understand that form derives its beauty from a dance between precision and an intangible quality that can't be quantified. Yes, they write songs that stick in your memory and make you want to sing them out loud. But they also add discreet touches of sophistication, leaving a note out of a chord, for example, so that your ear strains to hear it and then introducing contrast by adding the note they've been implying all along. The way their guitar lines mesh together brings to mind the approach of master weavers and designers as much as it does musicianship in the conventional sense.

Numbers and emotion may not seem related, but when you listen to the band's new EP Memory Wheel, you'll hear why the connection makes sense. Or maybe you'll just hum or dance along instead. And that's okay too. These guys wouldn't have it any other way.

The band's new EP 'Memory Wheel', comprises of four really powerful songs. It's hard to pick one out as the best, however as 'Falling of the Drop' is the only one I can share, at least that problem is easily solved. Lyrically intelligent and musically full of hooks, this really is a mathematically sound EP.

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Hein Cooper - Overflow.

Background promo - Australian singer-songwriter Hein Cooper dropped new track 'Overflow' this week ahead of debut album The Art of Escape release on April 1.  

Overflow is "a celebration of two bodies coming together in the physical world and transforming into something more spiritual rather than physical. It’s slightly non-sensical and drifts through imagery to capture the imagination rather than reality" explains Cooper.

His debut album The Art of Escape, due out April 1, 2016 via Indica Records (Phantogram, Half Moon Run) is now available for pre-order via iTunes.  The much anticipated recording was produced in Montreal by Marcus Paquin (Local Natives, Arcade Fire, The National) whom Cooper praises for his involvement: "It was a really collaborative process, he had a lot of great ideas that built the songs up in a way that got the ideas out of my head and into the record." Not afraid to mesh acoustic with electronic and equally proficient in both lush and stripped back moments, the album is an accomplished start for the young artist who embraces light and shade in equal measure. The title track "The Art and Escape" and "Rusty" are both immediately available upon purchase.

The last twelve months saw Hein Cooper collect some pretty amazing achievements:  two singles on triple j, spins on the BBC, a slot at Falls Festival, record deals across three continents, the best part of a year crossing the globe playing festivals from the UK and Europe to Canada, and opening slots with James Bay, Sophie Hunger & Half Moon Run.

There is a sparkly feel to the music as the song commences, that is well suited to Hein Coopers vocals. Bright, lively and well produced 'Overflow' is a good song that can't but raise interest in his debut album, due in a week.

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