Tessa Fleur - Julia Logan & Nina Persson - Sam Teskey - Benz

Tessa Fleur - The Hell of it All.

Twirling her way back onto the scene, Brisbane's ethereal singer/songwriter, Tessa Fleur, graces us with her new single ‘The Hell of it All’.

With a sound that has freshly floated down from the clouds, Tessa’s brand of fantastical folk provides the perfect escape from the daily mundane. Flourishing with honey-soaked harmonies and sweeping slide guitar, ‘The Hell of it All’ is a melancholy multi-layered masterpiece that encapsulates Tessa’s artful storytelling of self-exploration. Built around a striding beat and bassline, this nostalgic track exudes an essence of Fleetwood Mac that instantly transports you to a place of pure contentment.

Accompanying the single release is a mesmerising music video that is nothing short of a visual feast. Tessa’s angelic aesthetic runs wild as she whisks you to another world in a flurry of wind-whipped hair. We meet Tessa amidst an unnerving cult, dancing through fields in a flock of flowing white dresses. The video explores the concept of falling into your deepest truths and inner wisdom or, in Tessa's own words, 'indoctrinating yourself into your own cult.'

Directed by Long term collaborators Allisa Tsukimori and Oliver Marshall, this transportive video was a labour of love that took over 12-months, and the assistant of Tessa's friends, family and fellow creatives to create. Tessa invites us further into her vision by hand-picking locally sourced and hand-crafted props and costumes. “Collaborating with local businesses and creatives is something I’m heavily passionate about. More than ever, we need to support our local businesses and creative community,” explains Tessa.

After soaring onto the scene last year with her debut single ‘Sunset Melancholy’, reaching #3 on the triple j Unearthed chart, Tessa Fleur has since been persisting amidst restrictions, performing with her band and captivating local crowds. For 'The Hell of it All', Tessa collaborated with producer Alistar Richardson, whose resume glitters with the likes of Last Dinosaurs, Clea, Hallie, Sweater Curse and Nice Biscuit.

 

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Julia Logan & Nina Persson - One Mile from Heaven.

Forthcoming, Stockholm based, album debutant Julia Logan has been gaining lots of attraction this past year in Sweden. Tastemaker magazine Popmani used a fitting description when they listened to her debut single ”To Be True”: ”it’s nice to hear a voice that sound so modern and still lingers of inspiration from the past.” Since then, Logan’s been praised by high end international media such as Clash Magazine and Nothing But Hope And Passion as well as getting support from Swedish national radio and TV.

Her new track, off of her forthcoming album, is a version of cult artist Bobb Trimble’s ”One Mile From Heaven”, performed as a duet with one of Sweden’s most treasured singers - Nina Persson of The Cardigans, A Camp etc. Julia and her producer Daniel Bengtson first heard of the song when Aldous Harding mentioned it in an interview as a personal favorite of hers. After presenting the idea to Persson the duo went down to the south of Sweden, Malmö, to record her unmistakable vocals.

Julia Logan on the collaboration: ” When me and Daniel just stumbled across this song we immediately felt it would work out as duet. When Nina said yes to working with us, we were thrilled! The Cardigans’ music has been with me since childhood and I’ve always been inspired by Nina’s personal and charismatic voice. I think that we, in line with maybe Angel Olsen and Sharon Van Etten, is building a new kind of genre of female duets. ”

Nina Persson on the collaboration: ”Julia is a new acquaintance to me. I love her voice and there’s no better way to meet new people than making music together. The song is a real fine musical archeological find. I hope Bobb Trimble gets happy by us giving it new life in form of a brilliant female duet:”

On the recording we’re hearing, adding to the core team of Julia and Daniel Bengtson, the drummer Kyle Crane (Daniel Lanois, Neko Case, Conan Oberst, Kurt Vile etc), guitarist Peter Morén (Peter Bjorn and John) and Sofia Kristensen on backing vocals.

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Sam Teskey - Let The Sun Bring The Light.

Inspired by the cycles of life, Sam Teskey, guitarist of critically-acclaimed, blues-soul band The Teskey Brothers, announces his debut solo album, Cycles, a collection of music influenced by the great English psychedelic bands of the late ’60s & ’70s, out now on Decca Records. The first track on the album, Love, is a stirring, pastoral folk song that establishes the album’s own life cycle, ending with the reprise Then Love Returns.

Born out of lockdown in early 2020, with touring at a stand-still, Teskey relished in the opportunity to return to his vast back catalogue of incomplete musical musings he’d amassed whilst writing for The Teskey Brothers over the years. Painstakingly digging through old demos, spending time with the development of the songs, keen to make a record that would be enjoyed as a complete body of work. Starting where most finish, he settled on the track-listing before recording a note, thoughtfully building on the original ideas, with each track evolving to seamlessly melt together with the next.

On his debut album, Teskey says: “When on the road touring, I spend most of my time writing songs, so I have a massive collection of songs and ideas ready to go. Once I figured out that they all work together like that, it happened really organically. I love listening to albums that have progression and take you on a journey. A big point of this album is for people to create their own journey and their own story. I can say many things about the record, but I want to leave the experience up to the listener. It feels nice to put the creativity back in the listeners’ hands.”

Cycles offers a thrilling and immersive journey; the seven tracks ebb and flow like a stream of consciousness, shying away from traditional song structures and negotiating a range of genres from orchestral balladry, dissonant and ambient soundscape, all the way through to folk and heavy psych-rock. Determined to capture the music in its purest form, Teskey, enlisting the help of musician friends, live recorded the album almost exclusively live to tape at his analogue home studio in Warrandyte.

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Benz - Hometown.

Ebba Salomonsson (Benz) grew up in her stepfather's record store where she explored endless different influences and styles. Benz have now signed to Rama Lama Records (Melby, Wy, Chez Ali etc.) and is back with another collection of songs packed with her playful and diverse psych-tinged indie folk, its a sound where Benz with big confidence lets her music both be direct and breathe - creating a musical soundscape for the listener to get swept away in.

The new EP 'This Could Be The End' is out on November 5th. Second single 'Hometown', an atmospheric indie rock track about leaving the place you grew up but still feeling it's your home, is out now.

Thematically, the EP treats a broken relationship. But this is not your usual romantic sad-break-up-indie, as the lyrics tell the story about breaking up with an old friend. Ebba herself has compared the EP to "six seasons of Girls, a comedy-drama in a compressed format".

All the tracks on the EP are written by Ebba Salomonsson herself, produced by Wallentin Richardsson and recorded with Nathanel Salomonsson (drums), Simon Ström (bass), Olle Wahlström (guitar) and Alfon Keteli (keys).

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Glass Heart String Choir - Elijah Wolf - T Truman - Karen Myatt

Glass Heart String Choir - Wounds.

Friends-in-arms reveling at the intersection of classical virtuosity, existential poetics, and art-film surrealism, Seattle art-pop duo Glass Heart String Choir weaves golden lyrical threads of haute-art into their achingly beautiful orchestral tapestry.

Their latest single and video, Wounds, is a delicate folk-pop offering reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond. Set within the alluring visuals of Joshua Tree and the Coachella Valley, the video finds the duo’s violinist/composer Katie Mosehauer fighting to escape the cyclic burden of psychic wounds and emotional scars.

Directed by Katie, the video finds her attempting to escape the confines of memory, artfully moving through unforgiving landscapes, endlessly looped back to a pool that should be a reprieve from the heat, but is instead a beguiling entrapment. Katie explains, “There are so many emotional spaces that we occupy alone, carrying a burden of psychic wounds and emotional scars that we never speak of to anyone. Music is an important place to give names to those spaces and make them visible to everyone. Wounds creates a world in which anyone who has or is sitting with those lonely emotions will have a friend sitting with them to celebrate the escape, to mourn the setbacks, and to offer a 2’30” reprieve to share that space with someone who understands.”

Their previous 2021 release, California, is a lyrical tug-of-war between fond recollection, consolation, and sorrow, with vocalist Ian Williams’ sanguine delivery floating upon Mosehauer’s elegant violin melodies and choral soundscapes suggestive of contemporary soundtrack composers Yann Tiersen and Jocelyn Pook. The 100+ string-sections and near-operatic highs of their Light EP are replaced with an airy, Enya-esque choir that haunts the piano-driven bridge, and boldly carries the song forward in its latter half, bringing a soft new dimension to the traditional repertoire.

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Elijah Wolf - Yesterday, With You.

Brooklyn-based artist and songwriter Elijah Wolf has released a new single “Yesterday, With You” which features performances by Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes), Paul Spring (Holy Hive), Josh Jaeger (Angel Olsen) and Kevin Copeland (Lightning Bug). The song follows a breakthrough summer that included a Newport Folk Festival debut, his first-ever UK headline tour and a packed performance at the End of the Road Festival that ended in a roaring standing ovation. “Yesterday, With You” is his first single release following his new album Brighter Lighting that was released earlier this year via Trash Casual Records.

“After creating my last record Brighter Lighting with Sam Cohen, I had felt inspired by the idea of building an even larger musical community around my solo project. I grew up playing in bands, so the idea of multiple collaborators felt really exciting to me now,” explains Wolf.  “I had been feeling inspired by these occasional Sunday night meet ups I would have with my friends Robin Pecknold and Paul Spring, where we would just sit and talk for hours. I wanted to capture this feeling in song, so I invited them to come help create one of my new songs in the studio. Josh Jaeger, who was a big collaborator on my last record, had been telling me of a studio he had been working out of in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with Kevin Copeland. I thought this would be a great space to create in. I wrote ‘Yesterday, With You’ about longing for a feeling you just can’t quite put your finger on, or name. Feeling mostly alright, but still feeling like a piece of you is missing. After the sessions we sent it over to Sam Cohen to mix, and D. James Goodwin to master.”

Video director Dylan Kaplowitz said about the collaboration: “Each of the roads in this video are loosely based on different memories riding around the hudson valley as a kid. Initially the first road was the route I took to see my first teen love, the roads in the middle of the sequence were the same I took to school and finally in the end sequence the rider is on the route I would take home to my family. This process formed as I was going through the footage and realized wow all of these roads are the same roads I took! Often alone and deep in thought. To me, this sequence feels like we're watching the character on their own way home.”

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T Truman - Vanity Jones.

T Truman, the solo project and alter ego of the Vaccines’ keyboardist Timothy Lanham, today releases new single "Vanity Jones" alongside an extravagant accompanying video, which sees Truman cruising through a virtual San Francisco skyline in a vintage Alfa Romeo.

Speaking on the new single, T Truman said: "Vanity Jones is basically about the inner cynic who comes out uninvited and spoils a good time." Dig a little deeper, and the track appears to examine human insecurities, jealousy and egotism – all wrapped in an irresistible piano-led, 70's tinged sound that is unmistakably Truman.

"Vanity Jones", co-produced and written with frequent collaborator Geoff Roberts, stands as the first new music to be heard from T Truman following his 2020 debut EP 'Born To Be Right', which drew praise for its glitzy, retro-pop stylings from the likes of NME, DIY Magazine, Dork Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit, Clash Magazine, Gigwise, Les In Rocks, Indie88 + more. The new single also coincides with a tour supporting Walt Disco, running from 23rd October to 1st November, including dates in Manchester, Brighton and London.

T Truman pays homage to the past as much as he looks forward to the future. With sonic references to 70’s piano-pop artists such as Todd Rundgren and Elton John, there's a distinct nostalgic feeling, but one that confidently steps forward with a clear modern approach.

"Vanity Jones" is lifted from T Truman's as-yet-unannounced second EP, due for release Spring 2022. Discussing the new EP, Truman commented: "Retrospectively I think a lot of this new EP’s underlying lyrical meaning is about a search for creative purpose, and perhaps the fear of what it means if you can’t find it… also a lot about the constant obsession with keeping in vogue, though I couldn’t help but layer all this with silly made up characters who I’d probably never want to meet."

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Karen Myatt - Femoir.

Canadian songstress Karen Myatt has released the first single/video from her forthcoming album Femoir. The title track is the first in a series of singles/videos to roll-out over the coming months.

“Femoir, itself, was the very first song that I ever wrote,” shares Myatt. “It started with a single line and a simple melody and just evolved organically from there. It almost wrote itself. Given my love for literature, the song’s theme of books, diaries, letters - the written word in any form - just poured out of me.”

The new video was funded by Music Nova Scotia, directed by Drew Wilson, and features artwork and animation from Briana Corr Scott. “It was an incredible experience to collaborate on this with them,” says Myatt. “Drew and Briana each brought their own unique creative vision and vibe to the song and the result is a stunning work of visual art that sets the mood for the whole recording.”

A musical mélange of original compositions and contemporary standards, Femoir’s 14 songs are a fusion of soul, rock, jazz, worldbeat, and more. The album was tracked at The Sonic Temple Recording Studio in Halifax, NS and engineered by Darren van Niekerk. It was mixed and mastered by Christian St. Germain at Studio 360 in Montreal, QC.

Some of Canada’s most renowned musicians appear on the new recording, including Chris Mitchell (saxophone), Matt Myer (trumpet), Lisa MacDougall (keyboards), Adam Fine (bass), Geoff Arsenault (drums), Shimon Walt (cello) and Jennifer Jones (violin). Those musicians will join Myatt onstage November 12 when Femoir is officially launched with a multi-media concert at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax.

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Alice Tambourine Lover - Adam Hattaway and The Haunters - Lara Mrgic - Natalie Jane Hill

Alice Tambourine Lover - Forse Non Sei Tu.

Wandering between lazy Mazzy Star/Cowboy Junkies atmospheres and more gritty moments reminiscent of Mark Lanegan, Bologna-based duo Alice Tambourine Lover (Alice Albertazzi and Gianfranco Romanelli) are back with single 'Forse Non Sei Tu', out for heavy psych rock label Go Down Records (IT).

For the first time the tracks are sung in Italian, but the music language lingers on their cradling dream-roots idiom - somewhere between Yo La Tengo and Cranes. 

Forse Non Sei Tu features lyrics by Ligurian singer-songwriter Vittorio Carniglia, while the B-side is a cover version of 'Vorrei Incontrarti', one of the masterpieces of Alan Sorrenti's progressive production, played with a bluesy feeling that adds flavor to its cold beauty.

Alice Tambourine Lover were founded in 2011 as a side-project of psych band Alix, with five albums released among which Ground, recorded by David Lenci and Good One, recorded by Steve Albini. In 2012 they played All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, headlined by Neurosis, Shellac, Red Fang, Uzeda. They have released, all on Go Down Records, Naked Songs (2012), Star Rovers (2013), Like A Rose (2015), which features two songs by Dandy Brown (Hermano, Orquesta Del Desierto) and John Garcia (Kyuss, Unida, Hermano), and Down Below (2019).

 

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Adam Hattaway and The Haunters - Riding the River.

Adam Hattaway & The Haunters are a New Zealand band who are steeped in the sound of American classic rock from the 60s and 70s, while doing their best to update these classic motifs for a modern audience. 

You’ll definitely hear a heavy influence of Van Morrison and The Rolling Stones, but their sound blends elements of soul, country, blues, and even punk rock on their new album. 

Led by frontman Adam Hattaway on guitars, vocals, and harmonica, the band appeals to classic rock fans who still love the tried-and-true style of those legendary bands but are looking for new bands who are carrying on that mantle into the 21st century.

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Lara Mrgic - Took Your Lover.

Alternative Pop queen, Lara Mrgic, is gearing up to release her next anticipated music video for her recent single titled “Took Your Lover” on October 8th. The track is available to stream on all platforms.
Lara Mrgic has an effortless flow when sharing her beautiful music through her angelic vocals and expressive sound.

The Bay Area Native finds her sound through pain and melancholic experiences and has always turned to music her entire life as a safe haven and space. Lara knew music was going to be in her life forever after finding this passion at the young age of 3. As she grew up, she began crafting her sound and learned to love the challenges thrown her way.

Translating her interest in writing and poetry into music, Lara introduces her audience to a new way to perceive the world through her own eyes. Presenting her love for 60’s/70’s film progression, Lara also finds ways to give a modern day twist to these elements and incorporate them into her alternative pop sound.

For her upcoming single, “Took Your Lover” Lara Mrgic notes that, “I wrote a symphony...and let the strings speak for themselves.”

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Natalie Jane Hill - Solely.

"Solely”, the sophomore effort by folk guitarist/singer-songwriter Natalie Jane Hill, is a record of transition. While the Central Texas native’s stunning debut “Azalea” grew from years spent developing a textural narrative voice and idiosyncratic guitar style in the vibrant Blue Ridge Mountains, “Solely” represents a period of inward growth, and an outward push into an expanded sonic palette.

Following a move back to the Austin area in the fall of 2019, just months ahead of the pandemic, Natalie began an intensive period of reflection, and expanded her song-craft’s foundations from the broader themes of nature into the vulnerable intricacies of self-discovery. Along with this process came an openness to external creative input.

Recorded between October 2020-March 2021 to Tascam 8 track in the Lockhart Texas home of producer Jason Chronis (Voxtrot, Tele Novella), these recordings represent Hill’s first incorporation of other musicians into her arrangements, featuring performances by Mat Davidson (Twain) among several other trusted friends. There is a liberating and careful grace in these collaborations, providing strength and color to the upper branches of each song while preserving space for the health of the roots.

“Solely” is a celebration of knowing ourselves well enough to be able to accept the darkest paths of introspection, which can allow us to combine our creative influence with others to construct the experiences we want to have. Like lived experience itself, this music breathes and inhabits the space you allow for it, constantly revealing new qualities and inviting repeated reflection.

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SUEP - Nisa - Jackson Dyer

SUEP - Domesticated Dream.

The stubbornly high spirited SUEP create oddball music with a touch of theatrical storytelling. Led by SuepLord (Porridge Radio, Garden Centre, The GN Band) and Brain Wastefield (UK top model), SUEP is borne out of a near-decade of wearing silly clothes and deconstructing pop together.

After relocating from Brighton to London, the pair added GN (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Freakin' Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and T-Mr.9 (Head of Pastoral Care) to the line-up. They take turns writing songs and taking lead vocal duties but manage to create a coherent world of playful collaboration. Their songs take the listener through haunted castles, deprived encounters, days lost to the imagination in bed, and through the integral friendships that give SUEP the energy to keep dancing to their own beat.

SUEP’s infectious debut single Domesticated Dream combines a classic 70s Yamaha disco beat, deep bass, nostalgic drum machine sounds, a whole lot of cowbells, and hooky melodies. It’s about homelife, drinking too much, and making big plans that never come to fruition.

As SuepLord expands, “It’s about not having enough money or time to acquire stuff that you want because of capitalism, and about wanting someone to share your life with in a cosy and settled way.”  Sprinkled, however, with a lot of technicoloured positivity for the future of the human-race, with the chorus’ refrain, “the psychedelic 4000s,” predicting the return of a 60s-esque psychedelic Age of Aquarius in a couple of millennia time.

The kitsch 70s home video was shot in one room in Brian Wastefield’s house, an old MOT centre in Fulham, using green screen, Wastefield’s colourful wardrobe and images of odd retro rooms taken from the @estate_age archives on Instagram.

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Nisa - St. James Gate.

Early in 2021, the 22-year-old began work on a new collection of songs that would make up the forthcoming EP, Time To Plant Tears. The title takes its name from the final stanza of an Elizabeth Bishop poem called Sestina. Working together with collaborator and producer, Ronnie Di Simone, the songs were recorded between Brooklyn's Studio G and the Brick Box studio. The new EP demonstrates Nisa's penchant for intimate storytelling cast against the backdrop of glistening, cinematic soundscapes reminiscent of Angel Olsen, Indigo De Souza, Japanese Breakfast and Soccer Mommy. In describing the mood of the EP, Nisa has said that the songs are centered around “confrontation and focus; weathering internal and external changes; desire, and emotional rebirth.” Intersecting cinematic and poetic frames of reference, it lands between what is said and what is felt.

The opening track on the EP and the lead single, "St James Gate" provides a stellar introduction to the new collection. Sonically, it ebbs and flows, building from intimate guitar into a wonderful horn solo that serves to remind us of breaking free from stifled emotions.

When discussing the single, Nisa says: "I wrote “St. James Gate" after reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People and feeling deeply affected by the author’s descriptions of love in private spaces. The raging horn solo and blistering shouts over the final chorus are sobering reminders of the emotional claustrophobia of hiding."

Born to Albanian immigrants in the Bronx, Nisa learned to speak Albanian before English and grew up listening to the traditional folk music of her parent’s native country. It wasn’t long before she began venturing out into what she describes to be a “diverse and accepting arts community,” playing regularly at open mic nights in high school and joining a rock collective in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Her exploration of songwriting began when she was advised to lean into the rock stylings of the Eagles as an introduction to the guitar, from here she developed her own way of storytelling while referencing the likes of PJ Harvey, Björk and Radiohead as other key cornerstones to her approach.

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Jackson Dyer - Losing Light.

Jackson Dyer explains: "The film clip for my newest single ‘Losing Light’ was a fun video that I made with director Job Antoni Schellekens, a fellow Berlin-based artistand good friend. As the song is centered on lovely days with friends and of wanting to extend time so you can squeeze every bit of happiness out of the moment, Job shot the video on a DV handycam and a 16mm camera, which helped create a nostalgic, light-hearted atmosphere. We shot the video with a fewfriends, as well as Pascal Karier, who plays drums on the track, and our friend Elliot McKee, from Berlin duo Charity Children, also lent his expertise to the editing the clip. All in all, it was a super enjoyable process. :)"

'Losing Light’ is an upbeat, joyful track written with fellow Berlin-based musician Florian Höfer and featuring drums from Pascal Karier. The single reflects Dyer’s move to a more collaborative approach to songwriting. Particularly in recent, more isolated times, writing with others has offered Dyer a way to connect more with other musicians and approach his music in a more open and enjoyable way. This care-free approach is evident in ‘Losing Light’, an uptempo and optimistic song.

Since arriving in Berlin, Dyer has shared the stage with Hozier, Hiatus Kaiyote and Alice Phoebe Lou, as well as playing a host of festivals and touring Europe extensively in support of acts like Mighty Oaks and Dennis Lloyd. His laid-back songs are often influenced by nature and he brings a mix of soul, folk and indie to his spacious production and evocative lyricism. Dyer is set to release a new EP this year, featuring a mix of collaborations with fellow Berlin artists, further developing his distinct style.

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Matt Epp and Isaac Murdoch - Selkie - Brei Carter - Sarko Montaug

Matt Epp and Isaac Murdoch - Everything We Need.

Isaac Murdoch (Bomgiizhik) is an Anishinaabe Ojibway artist and community organizer from Serpent River First Nation – a member of the Fish Clan – where he grew up in the traditional setting of hunting and gathering on the land. A world-renowned visual artist, Murdoch is perhaps best known to his tens of thousands of followers as a engaging storyteller – recounting live and online the many tales taught to him by his Elders in an effort to reach the heart of the human spirit so that we may all reconnect with, and be stewards for, the land. He currently lives in the forest at the cultural revitalization camp called Nimkii Aazhibikoong, an Indigenous community that focuses on traditional language, art, and land-based activities.

International touring artist and award-winning songwriter Matt Epp is the quintessential troubadour of the Canadian prairies, who has won the admiration of an audience that spans the globe. A stark and confessional songwriter endowed with an infinite capacity to engage an audience, Epp’s performances encourage a sense of connection and community, where every listener leaves as a friend. He is one of the gifted forerunners defining the future landscape of Canadian music – no doubt contributing to his Grand Prize win at the International Songwriting Competition in 2017. A seasoned collaborator and activist, Matt’s music has been on regular rotation on CBC, Sirius XM, and community radio for over a decade.

You Were Chosen To Be Here kick starts a grassroots unity-seeking movement through collaborative live performances between Isaac Murdoch and Matt Epp under the name ‘Revolution of the Heart’, which will begin traveling across Canada (in person and virtually) later this year. A true weaving of community, storytelling, art, and healing. Stay tuned for tour dates.

Matt Epp · 05 Everything We Need

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Selkie - Beatroot.

Glasgow’s Berlin-based Selkie returns bewildering second single ‘Beetroot’, which sees singer/songwriter Kristina Cox experimenting with more electronic sounds to create an effortless, liquid atmosphere, that transports you to otherworldly wonder.

Following on from her dark and dreamy debut single ‘Seeking’ (September 2021), ‘Beatroot’ holds a trip hop flavour. It is representative of a place Selkie inhabited at the time of writing: calm confusion, wild curiosity, burning desire. The low-growling bassline and melting fluidity of the synths paired with haunting, layered vocals are the perfect soundtrack for moments of introspection and searching the mysterious world of the intangible.

‘Beatroot’ is a collaboration with Glasgow based Kyle Daniel Lochhead, who comes from a lyric-writing artist background, and Patrick Cairns, a producer with a passion for analog synthesisers and creating beats. Both have influences in dub and trip hop genres which ties in perfectly with Selkie’s own musical style.

Originally hailing from the west coast of Scotland and currently based in Berlin, Selkie's music takes inspiration from the natural world. Selkie describes her songs as swaying like the ebb and flow of the ocean. The lush, and often dramatic backdrop of her homeland breathes life into her shimmering blend of electronic beats and electric guitar, as well as the spaces in between. Melding crystalline vocals and haunting harmonies with her knack for relatable storytelling, Selkie's ethereal dreamscapes won't just wash over you, they will pull you under and leave you gasping for air.

“The song began with Kyle's vision to bring the three of us together to write atmospheric music that would bewitch and enrapture people. Next came a loop Patrick made with the Moog Little Phatty, which he provisionally named ‘Beatroot’ - the name stuck, with jokes that our next collaboration would be called Raddish.

 

Selkie · Beatroot

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Brei Carter - Gave Him A Girl.

Crossover country and southern pop recording artist Brei Carter is excited to release her new music video for “Gave Him a Girl,” a song which she proudly embraces her southern country roots. The song was recently heralded by journalist and country music historian Robert K. Oermann as “cute and catchy” in his weekly single review column for Music Row Magazine. The video also follows suit and hints at scenes from Brei's upbringing as a little girl, her family's influence on her, and shows the very authentic and vivacious southern persona she is building a reputation for.

“Being your best self is being an original, and that’s so much better than being an imitation of someone else,” Carter said. “Girls, live in your skin and love who you are because with you everyone gets the best of both worlds!”

The video is also set to make its network TV premiere on Monday, October 11 on The Country Network, along with forthcoming airings on Country Music Today on The Heartland Network, and will also be added to the live-streaming rotation at Nashville Country Music TV.

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Sarko Montaug - We Live in the Sky.

"We Live In The Sky" was produced and mixed by Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, Wild Nothing). In it, Elbrecht weaves together stacks of melodies sung by both members of the duo propelled forward by swells of vintage synths.

The duo confides, "We let our relationship coast for too long and were faced with the classic timeline of how all tragedies form: gradually, then suddenly." The music video was filmed in a mid-century house as well as a high rise apartment building both in the Chicago area.  "We wanted the contrast of the house, preserved in the era of its time (early 60s), and the apartment in such a modern building to reinforce the concept of the past suddenly becoming the present."

While the indie pop duo Sarko Montaug may be new to the music realm, their name is not. Paying tribute to twin pillars of the 80s NYC art/nightlife scene - DJ Anita Sarko and Doorman Haoui Montaug - the group's focus is on creativity. Haoui and Anita were instrumental in providing space for artists like Beastie Boys and Madonna to perform when they were unknowns. They had incredible taste and understood the energetic release that can only be experienced in a night club full of the right amount of friends, strangers and icons.

The group currently resides in Chicago, but as constant nomads, could be moving on again by the time you read this. "No matter where we live we'll always be displaced Philadelphians,"  say the members (married partners Cristian and Jess Mora).  While most connected to new wave and other 80s genres, the group is following their creativity towards whichever musical style calls to it. "We'll always sound indie, even when we are trying to be pop and we'll always be trying to modernize the past."

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