Fresh - Emily Jean Flack

Fresh - Going To Bed.

London DIY punks Fresh have shared another track from their forthcoming new album, ‘Raise Hell’, out 1st July on Specialist Subject. New song 'Going to Bed’ acknowledges the uncertainty and tension of nursing a small crush but going ahead despite the fear and embracing all those ‘I don’t knows’.

“There’s a focus on self-love too, taking typical therapy clichés and self-soothing activities (trust myself more/light a candle etc) made into eerie, sacred rituals and manifesting your own safe space” says lead singer Kathryn Woods.

Fresh have been an unwavering fixture within the UK punk scene since their first record in 2017. A joy to behold live, Woods honed her craft not only fronting Fresh but as a member of several heralded indie and punk bands, including cheerbleederz and ME REX alongside Fresh bandmate Myles McCabe.

Their new album radiates with their signature mischievous British charm and flourishes of brilliant pop punk flair – though underestimate Fresh at your peril. ‘Raise Hell’ dares to dive deeper than most, delivering Woods’ darker moments and contemplative thought processes through the sharply focussed lens of upbeat indie punk.

Alongside the announcement of their new album, they shared lead single ‘Babyface’, a song written in early lockdown, “hence the ‘boredom’ refrain” says lead singer and songwriter Kathryn Woods (cheerbleederz, ME REX). “It’s a song about having a mind that’s both overstimulated and under-stimulated at the same time. The light, airy synths make it a cry for help masquerading as a pop song.” This is a sentiment that runs through much of ‘Raise Hell’ – the push and pull of conflicting emotions, wrestling with opposing personality traits, the tension between learning to self-love and yet wanting more.

specialistsubject · FRESH - Going To Bed

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Emily Jean Flack - Changing.

It’s about the collide. The light with the dark. The old with the new. Captivating audiences with her soaring voice, genre defying sound and honest words, Emily Jean Flack is an emerging artist on the Canadian music scene. “Growing up playing Celtic music gave me the fire. Listening to country and folk gave me the soul. Inspired by vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Celine Dion, Enya and Allison Krauss — I started to dream. Then I began to write and from there, things started to collide.”

Emily’s story really took off in 2016 when she moved to Limerick, Ireland. By day she was pursuing her MA in Traditional Irish Song at the Irish World Academy, part of the University of Limerick, and by night she was writing her own contemporary songs. She went on to connect with long-time friend and Belfast-based producer Pete Wallace to create what would become her debut contemporary folk EP, Throwing Shapes. The tracks feature a collection of some of Belfast’s most sought-after musicians, along with Irish traditional artists Brian Finnegan (Flook) and Marty Barry. The EP was mixed by Grammy Award-winning, legendary Canadian mixing engineer David Bottrill (Peter Gabriel). The success of Throwing Shapes brought Emily to perform at JUNOFEST 2019, along with several tours throughout Canada, France, Germany, and the USA, as both a solo and guest artist. Leading Irish music magazine, HotPress, described the project as a “modern and inventive take on Irish folk music.”

Carrying on in that same fashion, Emily has a new project on the horizon. Produced by Hamilton pop duo Family of Things , Emily is venturing further into the contemporary sphere. Listeners will hear more 80’s synth vibes, rich harmonies and guttural rhythms. Still, at the heart of her music are her Celtic roots and love for true melodies. The songs talk of love gained, love lost and a coming of age. “It was time to go a little deeper and get a little more vulnerable. This new music brought me to work with people who helped challenge me in the best of ways. People who were from my home and yet took me to places unrecognized. People who made me laugh and helped me make music that made me cry. When listening to this new collection of songs, know that I took a chance. Risked my comfort. If you find some moment of collision, I am glad. A moment where you either face familiarity or something different. Lean into it. The more I do, the more I realize that’s exactly why we’re here.”

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Mall Girl - Dana Gavanski - Autumn Hollow

Mall Girl - Close My Eyes (Live at Studio Paradiso).

Norwegian math pop four-piece Mall Girl have released their debut album Superstar via Jansen Records. To mark the release, the band has shared a brand new live video for album track 'Close My Eyes', recorded at Studio Paradiso in Oslo where they recorded the album.

Superstar represents an exciting new chapter for the buzzed-about band. The release follows a string of successful singles, including album tracks ‘Bachtap’ & ‘Bubbly Cool Drink’, which introduced them as an act to watch in the alt-pop arena. Members Iver Armand Tandsether, Hannah Veslemøy Narvesen, Eskild Myrvoll and Bethany Forseth-Reichberg were forced to get creative when the pandemic hit, sidelining best-laid plans to flesh out some songs before heading into the studio together.

"Because of COVID regulations and the four of us living in two different cities, we changed the way we worked with the songs quite radically in the months leading up to the studio recording,” Narvesen says. "We’ve always been very oriented towards the live performance of the songs, including when we compose them together in our rehearsal space. That way of working has led to some challenges when recording, as you end up listening to the songs in a different manner and might figure out you should have done everything differently."

While others put their creative endeavors on hold, Mall Girl opted to try something different. Many of the songs on Superstar were tracks that the band regularly performed, but they wanted to seize the opportunity to evolve their sound even more.

 

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Dana Gavanski - Bend Away and Fall.

Conducting each note with a light gracefulness, Dana Gavanski's fingertips appear to dance whilst aiding their owner in expressing the stories behind each of her lighter-than-air tones. Stories which, on her brand new album When It Comes, may never have been heard if not for healing 'lost' vocal cords and a lesson in taking the rough with the smooth.

In many ways this record feels like it is my first. When I could use my voice, I had to focus so there is an urgency and greater emotional trajectory than before… it's very connected to vocal presence, which extended into an existential questioning of my connection to music. It felt like a battle at times, which I frequently lost. – Dana Gavanski

The record's focus track, "Bend Away & Fall," is about the constant zigzag of closing and opening up. Learning to give chances to new experiences and how to stick around when the going gets tough. The hegemony of old habits, fears and anxieties and the attempt to overthrow the deceitful draw to comfort in favour of flexibility and deep focus.

Dana Gavanski · Bend Away and Fall

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Autumn Hollow - Meantime/Between Time.

Autumn Hollow just announced the release of their single, “Meantime/Between Time.”  It’s off the Americana EP, Throw the House, due out June 17 through Oak Honest Records. A song to listen to amongst springtime wonders, “Meantime/Between Time” centers around the necessity to exist in the moment. A lilting melody draws the listener to the present moment while Murphy sings of finding happiness within even the deepest of burdens

The lived-in joy extends to the other songs on Throw the House, a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to build and rebuild no matter how much everyday life tears you down. Murphy’s hopes and struggles come across in songs like “Si Viene Si Va.” He says, “That was the first song that I wrote when I was able to write again. Si viene si va is an Italian phrase, that means ‘comes and it goes.’ That idea was really important during that time. 

I just needed to have more energy and more happiness. Even if you’re writing something that might seem sad or depressing or whatever, you still need those things.”  “Pick up my pills and pick up my kids and hope that one won’t react with the other,” Murphy sings on “Rooting for Laundry.” The sound is often centered around the acoustic guitar and Murphy’s earnest vocal delivery triangulated somewhere between Bruce Springsteen’s bedroom records and Fleet Foxes’ rootsy rock and roll.

Boston Americana rockers Autumn Hollow return with their first new recordings since 2013. The three-song EP features a reconstituted band led by singer/songwriter Brendan Murphy and a refreshed out look on writing and performing. The band has gone through a few lineup changes since its inception in 2007. It currently features Murphy (lead vocals, acoustic guitar), Mike Burke (lead guitar, background vocals), Chuck Vath (bass, background vocals), James DeFilippo (piano, organ, keys), and Nick Campbell (drums).

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Luianna - The Ragged Roses - The Shipbuilders

Luianna - Heroin.

This week see's the release of Alt-pop Artist Luianna‘s highly anticipated debut EP 'Skia'. Sounding akin to the likes of BANKS and The xx, Luianna shares new single; ‘Heroin’ a dark, blooding slice of ambient pop that packs an emotional punch.

Talking about the single, Luianna elaborates, “this song was written about my Dad. The music was written to feel out and describe the feeling of the lyrics and the story in my life, a gentile start going into noisy chaos”.

Luianna was born in London, brought up in South Wales and has since spent the past fifteen years between Bristol and Berlin. Her upcoming EP was recorded in The Famous Gold Watch Studio in Berlin.

‘Heroin’ is taken from Luianna debut EP, ‘Skiá’, released yesterday 29th April 2022.

Luianna · Heroin

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The Ragged Roses - Do Me Right.

Now, take 2 gallons of Wanda Jackson,2 Gallons of Etta James, a spoonful of Howlin' Wolf, a shot of Dick Dale, Add some Cramps and a pint of Nick Curran, mix that all up, shake it, stir it, and light it on fire. 

The result you get: The Ragged Roses!

The Ragged Roses combine the rock & roll spirit of the 1950's with the attitude of modern roots gunslingers.

It’s a new band, female fronted by Katrien, the embodiment of wild performing art, combining stunning vocals with stunning looks, being backboned by – you can call them although their relative young age and wild raging hearts - veterans of the Belgian roots scene. Watch out for that slapping, walking, gypsy swinging upright bass and lightning bolt guitars, surfing on a wave of groovy drums !

The Ragged Roses are now releasing their debut album “Do Me Right”, containing all self-written original songs and one cover of the great Del Shannon.

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The Shipbuilders - Forest Floor.

Ahead of the release of their debut album, ‘Spring Tide’, The Shipbuilders have announced the release of their latest single, “Forest Floor” via Mai 68 Records.

An eerie, psychedelic shuffle that brings to mind the freakier sides of Love and The Coral, ‘Forest Floor’ features a bass-led groove that descends into chaos with an extended outro made up of ghostly, wordless vocals, haunting harmonica and tumbling piano, all blown about by a storm of reverb-heavy guitars and relentless motorik drums.

Speaking of the track, lead singer Matty Loughlin-Day explains: “The song sings of an impending storm, prophesised by an old sage and queries whether there is hope left in the town or whether it’s best to return to the land and find safety. Ultimately, the hero of the song is trying to find his best to way to survive on the line between the smug and the damned”

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BSÍ - Cal Folger Day - Carmody - Cherry Blaster

Photo - Julie Sjöfn Gasiglia

BSÍ - Jelly Belly.

With soft and gauzy atmospherics countered by anxiety-inducing sprawls of melodic mastery, ‘Relax, blabla’ is another paradoxical release that comes in two parts. Arriving just in time for the heady nostalgia of a sun-baked summer, the two-sided release consists of two enticing new tracks: one bristling and upbeat, and the other more supine and slowed. 

Recorded and mixed by Árni Hjörvar (The Vaccines), the first and fastest of the two new cuts, “Jelly Belly”, plays out like a heartwarming group therapy session, with past pains and trudged up traumas meeting a 157 bpm outburst of agitation and infectious joy. With a sense of urgency driven by a fast-paced guitar line that threatens to run away with itself, overflowing background chatter mixed with injections of fuzzy feedback and a lucid approach to vocal delivery, the track evokes the intense bodily sensation that is triggered by deep-rooted and unshakeable memories of toxic relationships.

With playful rhythms masking a more sombre subject matter, the track comes complete with a prismatic official music video created by Icelandic filmmaker and TV director Ugla Hauksdóttir (The Power, Hanna, Snowfall, Trapped). Touching on the numbness that comes with covering up your own feelings in shame and the heavy burden of grappling with rigid gender roles and unhealthy peer pressure, the video sees its mishmash of characters search for, find and reinvent themselves in a warped wallpaper utopia. Of the video, Ugla explains:

“The music video for “Jelly Belly” is a playful ode to childhood, celebrating the freedom of self expression. It is a reminder for us not to take ourselves too seriously and instead remember to have fun.” Also reaching to the past to touch on painful memories, the release’s second, slower cut “New Moon” is more atmospheric and airy: boasting the duo’s genre-hopping breadth as soft acoustic guitar twangs meddle with almost whispered vocals and a sparse landscape of instrumentals that seem to fade away into nothingness.

Reflecting on memories of an estranged and isolated youth — and the feeling of being “the only blue-haired person in a schoolyard full of blondes” — the track is tinted with adolescent nostalgia as its whispered melodies drift by like a lone tumbleweed in a desolate stretch of desert.

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Cal Folger Day - Act 2.

to Cal Folger Day's first single and video for "Act 2" from her upcoming LP Piece-dye out on 06.03.22. "Act 2" introduces to Irene Nally - Day's documentary subject for Piece-dye and introduces us to Day's inverted world of idiosyncratic pop and folk music.

Piece-dye is an avant-pop journey through the lens of the documentarian's attention to detail. Lyrically, everything you hear are verbatim quotes from an interview Cal conducted with Irene Nally - a distant aunt and Irish immigrant. 

The interviews chronicle her experience arriving in New York City in the post-war boom and explores the unique set of intricacies, contradictions and ground-level observations of navigating the rapidly changing cultural climate of New York City labor. Musically omnivorous, each "Act" moves from bombastic to reverent, centering the narrative thrust of Irene's recollections (paying special attention to each nuance of speech) while Day's elastic and multi-disciplinary musical directions spread out from the center.

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Carmody - Moon.

London based singer, songwriter Carmody releases new track "Moon", lifted from her upcoming debut album Imperfect Constellations - out 6th July via Young Poet. "Moon" forms part of Constellation C – 3 tracks which hone in on the subject of family – including the previously released "Hurricane" and new track "Brother". The full Imperfect Constellations album will feature collaborations with Alfa Mist, Tom Misch, Conor Albert, and Laura Misch.

Carmody has long been using music as a way to uncover her subconscious, examining the complex web of relationships that surround her. Rich in detail and emotional substance, her music evokes the timelessness of Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading while nodding to the modern alt-folk of Laura Marling and Big Thief. In the face of memory and generational grief, Imperfect Constellations is split into four main parts (or 'Constellations') and draws on her own experiences of alternative therapy, entering a world of discovery and recognition.

Co-written with Rahm Silverglade (of altopalo) and co-produced with Avi Barath (Berwyn, Priya Ragu, Pa Salieu) and Calum Duncan (Alaskalaska, Rachel Chinouriri, Jones), new track "Moon" explores Carmody's relationship to Judaism - pairing lush finger-picked guitars with atmospheric electronics and soothing percussion.

Speaking on the release of new track "Moon", Carmody said: "My dad was brought up in the Jewish faith and my mum was born into Catholicism. I always felt as if I were between religions. Although I was not recognised as Jewish, I went to Friday night prayers and celebrated the festivals throughout my life. I spent time singing songs and praying in Hebrew, with no idea of their meaning, and I was exposed to a culture I was part of, whilst also being seen as an outsider. Judaism follows a lunar calendar, so the dates change every year and I use this notion to illustrate how Judaism is part of my identity, even though I don’t follow the same calendar. It was written with my friend, and fellow Jew, Rahm Silverglade. The lyrics came very easily as they seemed to encapsulate our shared experience of living in two worlds. The spoken word excerpt is from my Great Aunty Rahma, when I was in Israel I asked her to record a message for my grandfather and I thought it was so beautiful as it encompassed the song’s spirit.

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Cherry Blaster - I don't wanna.

Toronto’s Cherry Blaster pushes intimate bedroom pop musings into curious and full sonic dreamscapes. Brainchild of Iulia Ciobanu, Cherry Blaster was born out of a laptop synth project and has morphed alongside Iulia, growing in sound, scope and members. 

Currently a three-piece, the band explores longing and uncertainty while striking the perfect balance of closeness and detachment. Playful, with aggressive edges and an eccentric approach to rhythm, Cherry Blaster hints at the vocal stylings of Mitski while recalling Metric and St. Vincent at their earliest and most compelling. 

Yet their approach is innovative and fresh, shaking up and pushing past what is expected from indie song structure. Cherry Blaster is eagerly prepping new material with which to return to Toronto’s intimate and dynamic music scene.

Nicky Egan - Personal Space

Nicky Egan - This Life.

Yesterday Nicky Egan announced her new full-length This Life, out June 3rd via Transistor Sound/Colemine Records. The announcement comes with the album’s title track — “This song, for me, represents the journey that we experience going from life on this plane to the next, and the beautiful, heartbreaking, incredible transition in between,” Egan told Jazziz. Born and raised outside of Philadelphia and currently based in Los Angeles, Egan has performed all over the country fronting her own musical projects and performing as a hired-gun for Chicano Batman, Tune-Yards, Carla Morrison, Turkuaz, among others.

After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Contemporary Writing and Production, Egan spent 7 years in Brooklyn, her early years here spent touring as part of powerhouse funk ensemble Turkua. After squeezing into old vans and sleeping on floors on DIY tours with the band, she’d then return to the city to make extra cash nannying and waiting tables. After parting ways with Turkuaz to focus on her solo career, Egan independently released three of what she dubbed “digital 45’s,” premiering an A/B side each month, with a video attached to each A side, accompanied by a release show and live screening. These digital 45’s became a 7-song EP, The 45 Homestead Project, which was released via Ropeadope Records, garnering much praise from tastemakers like American Songwriter, Okayplayer and Performer Magazine.

While at a crossroads in her own project, during a time when she’d have to re-evaluate some tough relationships, Egan received a call from the manager of Los Angeles psych-soul staple, Chicano Batman, looking for a keyboardist and vocalist to join them on their Spring tour. Egan packed a few suitcases, a hat box, and relocated to LA. What was supposed to be a spring run turned into four years of Egan playing keys and singing as a touring member with the band, performing alongside the likes of Portugal The Man, Vampire Weekend, Jack White, and Khurangbin.

In between tour stretches, Nicky Egan has been stealthily plugging away with New York based producer and Dap-Kings guitarist, Joe Crispiano. Beginning with demos written and recorded in Joe’s Staten Island apartment while his neighbor banged on the ceiling, the project came to fruition as a full-length. The album was recorded in part with their friends at the inimitable Diamond Mine Studios, and partially in Dumbo, Brooklyn at an unnamed dungeon where the two spent one too many hours drinking double espressos, margaritas, and building vocal booth forts. Driven by honest confessional songwriting and influenced by your favorite classic soul sounds, the record was recorded to 8 track tape, and features a who’s who of NY’s most sought after players including Homer Steinweiss, Victor Axelrod, Brian Wolfe & Elizabeth Pupo-Walker, to name a few.

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Personal Space - Long Live The New Flesh.

Personal Space are sharing "Long Live the New Flesh," the 2nd single from their new EP, Still Life. It follows "Enron's Trip."

The Cronenberg-inspired single, according to the band is, "basically about how technology transforms the body, how it reshapes our desires, how it can be used as a tool of control, or — maybe, potentially? — liberation...It maps on to a theme of technology in the song, specifically the cycling from enchantment to horror with social media that I think is a pretty common experience for all of us, especially during the 2020 lockdown when we were all stuck at home for so long."

Brooklyn/DC-based Personal Space are a conundrum: indie without a scene, prog disdaining complexity, a dad band without dads. Their 2021 LP, A Lifetime of Lesuire, found the band fretting over downward mobility, preoccupied with ethically sourcing their groceries, and hoping, against hope, that humanity can still find its way to a very chill, socialist utopia.

Still Life is the natural progression as Personal Space grapples with lost connections in a pandemic, tech-bro hustlers and finding the joy in our whirring 2022 realities. The band will celebrate the EP with a release show w/ P.E. and Gold Dime at the Sultan Room on June 5th.

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