Malena Smith - Tent Music - The Velveteins - Motihari Brigade

Malena Smith - 18.

Released today it's Beehive Candy's absolute pleasure to feature 18 the exceptional new single from St. Louis-based artist Malena Smith.

 Malena's music is a coming of age story; her previous/recent single, "Betray Myself," was about realizing some of her habits and coping mechanisms weren't really in her best interest. Her new single, "18," is a look back over the last decade of her life, and asking the question, "If I had the chance, would I relive that decade differently?" We are pressured to figure out what to do with our lives at the age of 18, and often succumb to societal expectations to choose the "safe" options - which we can all likely relate to. The weight of the subject matter is juxtaposed by an airy atmosphere and a pop-funk groove, total ear candy.

Malena, a classically-trained singer who came up in the world of jazz, has sung in lounges from St. Louis to Tokyo and shared stages with the likes of Michael Bublé, Clark Beckham, and the St. Louis Symphony. She's a storyteller, and her music is designed to turn her journey into a shared experience that people can connect with.

She is currently writing and recording a body of work produced by her GRAMMY-winning mentor Brian Owens as a part of his St. Louis ecosystem Life Creative. The project touches on her journey through the struggles and triumphs of a young woman blazing a life and career path in a complicated world.

 

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Tent Music - Fade Away.

The first single from Tent Music the name of the project and album by Micaela Tobin (White Boy Scream) and Joshua Hill is "Fade Away" which manages to breaks from dirge into ecstatic pop song within two minutes. It's a wonderful opening salvo hinting at the depths that Tent Music offers.

Tent Music is an album and project by violinist, composer Joshua Hill and Micaela Tobin - widely known for her avant-garde opera White Boy Scream project - that boldly cracks the door open between ritual and music, blurring the line between improvisation and possession, madness and oracular communication, destruction and creation.

Recorded in one night in a tent pitched outside the home of Joshua Hill's father's home, something happened that Hill, Tobin and visual artist Garek Druss (commissioned to provide the album art and sigilization of the album via a beautifully illustrated zine / insert) are just starting to understand the fulness of. While the album is wildly experimental, there are several entry points like the first single - "Fade Away" that recall Akron / Family's ramshackle exaltations while "Closer"  reflects on Coil's ritualized noise.

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Photo - Evangeline Belzile

The Velveteins - Athene.

Soaked in the bright psychedelia of the 1960’s and dipped in the indie rock explosion of the new millennium, The Velveteins are best described as a bridge between the two. Inspired after living out of a camper van on the beaches of Australia for a year, frontman Spencer Morphy returned to Canada and started the band with co-songwriter Addison Hiller in 2014. Later joined by Dean Kheroufi, Daniel Sedmak and Cam O'Neill, the fivesome have since made a name for themselves for their incendiary live performances.

“Athene” is the third single to be released from their upcoming sophomore album. The track was inspired by the war goddess in Homer's Iliad with Morphy sharing, “I was exploring through the Iliad at the time, so the lore was fresh in my mind, but I imagined a tale about a woman sort of mirroring Athene in modern life. I drew from great women that I know, and crafted a song that explored developing a relationship with her, and falling under her influence and just being along for the ride.”

Written in the small surf town of Tofino, Canada, “Athene” emits an easy and laid-back tone with warm, effortless vocals, relaxed guitars and a steady beat, creating an overall comforting atmosphere. It’s easy to get lost in the mesmeric sounds of The Velveteins, where you’ll find yourself hitting repeat and staying along for the journey.

Garnering millions of streams for their music to date, The Velveteins have built an ever-growing, dedicated fan base across all corners of the globe. Their vigorous touring schedule has led to international festival appearances (SXSW, and The Great Escape) and opening slots for established acts including Wolf Parade, Hockey Dad and Chad Vangaalen.

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Motihari Brigade - Reality Show.

Motihari Brigade's new official short film “Reality Show” explores the struggle to perceive reality amidst the onslaught of corporate-state technological dystopian narrative control. Motihari Brigade partnered with filmmaker Jovana Tomasevic of MLADE Studio who directed and produced this creative cinematic visual story for the song. Jovana envisioned the mysterious hooded figure to represent the spirit of hope itself, encouraging people to break free from the technological filters imposed by an elite. 

For a while, they are able to open their eyes, freely perceive reality, and smile, before all being consumed once again by the system. Appropriately, the video ends with a quote from George Orwell's "1984.”  But hope springs eternal, as they say…

Motihari Brigade’s second album "Algorithm & Blues" features defibrillating electric guitar, tachycardia rhythms on bass, and drums played by an octopus on stimulants. Layered keyboard, horn, and vocal arrangements combine to produce the magic of a highly-caffeinated rock band thumping on all ventricles. Twelve original songs and one cover provide an energetic soundtrack for listeners to more happily navigate the dystopian reality show that we are all now busily sharing on our smart appendages.

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Ora Cogan - Ariana Delawari feat. Devendra Banhart

Photo - Stasia Garraway

Ora Cogan - Dyed.

Experimental singer-songwriter Ora Cogan recently announced the Aug 25 release of her new album Formless by sharing the VHS/Super 8 video for the first single “Cowgirl”,  a haunted acid trip of intense sorrow, deep solitude, and dark nights of the soul. This week, Cogan ponders awkward love with the release of the haunting "Dyed."

"I wrote 'Dyed' while I was reading Italo Calvino's Difficult Loves," says Cogan. "It's about how strange and ridiculous romance is... how ridiculous human interaction can be. You're dealing with people on the surface but also their imaginations, fears, dreams, and projections. We're just a bunch of broken funhouse mirrors sometimes and that's sort of horrifying but also kinda fun."

“Dyed” is part two of a trilogy of videos by Latro Films created for Formless. The video revolves around a singular character who carries water as a symbol for the human heart and we follow her interactions with others in her world.

Formless, finds beauty, absurdity, humor, and unlikely joy in the bleakest of times. Cogan’s smoky, psychedelic approach to gothic country and hazy folk merges with post-punk, groove, psych rock, and traditional balladry.

 

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Ariana Delawari feat. Devendra Banhart - You Can Love Again.

Ariana Delawari is an Afghan-American musician, activist and filmmaker. Her film We Came Home (2013) documents her family, her travels to and from Afghanistan over a ten year period, in which Delawari recorded her first album. That album, Lion of Panjshir, was released on David Lynch’s record label to great acclaim. The events that transpired during the recording of her new album, I Will Remember, were even more personally significant and traumatic, as Delawari’s mother and brother-in-law both passed away and she saw her home country fall to the Taliban. Delawari explains:

“I started to write about my mother, about living and dying, Earth and Heaven, Afghanistan and my life growing up in America, refugees, love of different forms, and about the social justice and environmental justice themes that my mom taught me about which shaped my own activism as well. I never could have imagined that COVID-19 would hit a few months before she died, and that I would lose her during quarantine. I’ll never forget the day I wheeled her up to a nurse in a hazmat suit at a sidewalk and couldn’t even kiss her goodbye.”

“I never could have imagined that just as I was finishing the album, a little over a year later, we Afghans would lose Afghanistan to the Taliban. Afghanistan is my whole heart, it is the cause of my entire lifetime and all of my activism. I am a very loud anti-Taliban Peace Activist, so the fall of the country was my biggest nightmare coming true.” Delawari was essentially born into her role as an activist and her mother was even friends with Malcolm X. She explains, “I was born just after the Soviets Invaded Afghanistan. I attended my very first protest in utero when my father led an anti-Soviet Invasion protest at the Federal Building in Westwood. Four decades later, I would be at that very same location at a protest I helped organize after the fall of the country to the Taliban.”

“My mom’s name was Setara which means “star," and she died literally in the middle of a Leonid Meteor shower, so there are themes of stars on the album too. She also died the same day that Prince died, who I like to imagine is one of the many magical cosmic souls who welcomed her at her celestial dance party ;) I tried to honor her as much as I could, and I wanted to connect with everyone out there who lost loved ones during Covid19. I wanted to transmute deep grief and loss into something hopeful and meaningful. I also wanted to reach the hearts of my people, and honor Afghanistan and our refugees. I wanted to transmute the losses of my mother, brother, and my motherland… finding hope as we all move forward together."

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Matilda Mann - The Garment District - Moon Sisters - Vinny Peculiar

Matilda Mann - You Look Like You Can’t Swim (EP).

The incredibly talented Londoner Matilda Mann has shared her latest EP “You Look Like You Can’t Swim” which comprises of an inimitable collection of acoustic songs that cements her as  one of  Britain’s most brilliant young talents.  Matilda has also shared a Wes Anderson-inspired video for the EP’s title track.

Speaking about the EP, Matilda explained “Over the past few years, I’ve loved progressing and experimenting with different types of genres and musical instruments and working with other musicians and producers, but Ive had such an urge to create a small group of songs that feel so simple, vulnerable, Romantic and emotional. The kind of songs I would’ve dreamed to make and release when I was 16.”

In regards the video, Matilda added “Wes Anderson’s movies have been my favorite since I can remember. There’re so many satisfying qualities in his shots. The symmetrical frames, colour pallets and the movement of the camera, makes his films so unique as a collection.  These were all the points I took into the music video planning, and I was so lucky to have such an amazing team help me bring it to life!  The title of the song is a bit jokey in itself, so I wanted to bring that element into the music video, while keeping that serious tone of “omg I have no idea how to handle anything in life”.

Matilda Mann · You Look Like You Can't Swim

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The Garment District - Left on Coast.

The Garment District return with the superb new retro-futuristic single "Left on Coast" and announce their new album 'Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World' will be released on HHBTM Records on September 22nd, 2023.

On their second full-length LP, The Garment District delivers a Kunstkabinett of sound reminiscent of the Manhattan neighborhood (and others around the globe, both existing and shuttered) with which they share a name. Just as one might wander through a Garment District shop entranced by a staggering display of fabric from seemingly every era and locale, surrounded by rows of buttons, threads and trimmings, listeners will be equally entranced by the hypnotic array of textured sounds on Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World.

The album was recorded in a friend's home studio nestled in the labyrinthian hills of Western Pennsylvania during the time warp surrounding the pandemic. For composer and arranger Jennifer Baron (who plays numerous instruments on the album), settling in at David Klug's studio atop Pittsburgh's Mount Washington allowed her to stretch and challenge herself, creating expansive arrangements. In another lifetime, just miles away within nearby hills and hamlets, Jennifer's great-grandfather arrived from Zagreb, forming a family band, a tamburitza orchestra featuring her grandfather, great-aunt and great-uncles, who performed in Monongahela Valley steel towns. Jennifer's work with her first cousin Lucy Blehar, who supplies lead vocals, continues this family music-making heritage.

Along with guitar, bass and drums, listeners will encounter a full suite of strings, horns, a variety of percussion, and finely woven keyboards and vocals. Some parts were improvised on-site, while others evolved at home, highlighting Jennifer's collection of analog keyboards before being translated into final recordings. Having the opportunity to experiment with equipment borrowed from friends, like a rare 1970s Roland Paraphonic 505 and a 1960s UMI Buzz Tone Volume Expander, shaped the exploratory process of crafting dimensional melodies and instrumentation. The result is a gilded tapestry of pop music history that is both panoramic and idiosyncratic.

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Moon Sisters - Land of Escape.

‘Land of Escape’ is the first single released by Moon Sisters. The song is about inter-connection on a deep level! People need people; to talk to, to laugh with, to cry with, to miss, to love, to depend on and to support, without bias or judgement. Moon Sisters express this as ‘a connection of hearts and minds’. The song is also about hope, which thrives on human connection - hope for wishes to come true, and for a dreamy escapeland: a better world! The song is inspired by the mutual bond that the three singers formed in a short time after meeting via the online social singing app ‘Smule’.

 Moon Sisters are an Irish-Dutch vocal group that perform old classics and original songs. They do this in their own acoustic and polyphonic way. The vocal group was born during the Covid-19 pandemic when three singers met via an online social singing app called Smule. Moon Sisters are Julieanne Black Reel from Ireland, Eva Stultjens and Ilona Dekker from the Netherlands. Through song, the girls instantly connected and formed a beautiful bond, much like sisters. 

The girls were recognised on social media by a festival organiser in Ireland. He flew Ilona and Eva over to perform a full live concert with Julieanne at the Muckno Mania Festival (Castleblayney). This was the first time that the girls met and sang together physically. They received a standing ovation, and the concert was a magical experience for them. This was just the beginning of their musical journey!

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Vinny Peculiar - Peace and Love.

Singer-songwriter Vinny Peculiar  will release his new album ‘How I Learned to Love the Freaks’ on 15 September, with recent single “Peace and Love” out now. Alan Wilkes aka Vinny Peculiar has been putting out albums for the past twenty years to considerable critical acclaim. Landing this September, ‘How I Learned to Love the Freaks’ will be his thirteenth studio release.

The record is inspired by Hippy culture, the summer of love and the socio-political awakenings of the late 1960s. In part it’s  tribute to an emerging free-thinking youth culture, the risks they took, the values they espoused, the sacrifices they made, with the failings and ultimate implosion culminating in “Death of the Counterculture”.

Over its ten tracks the new album looks at the personal impact of these cultural shifts and its impact on subsequent generations, specifically from Wilkes’ unique stand-ppoint as both disaffected youthful enquirer and seasoned older cynic. Recent single “Peace and Love” considers protest, apathy and mistrust. “Flower Power” is both a celebration and a reminder of what can be achieved and how easily it all slips away. “Going to San Francisco” tracks a young man’s awakening and pilgrimage to the Haight and beyond.

All in all, ‘How I Learned to Love the Freaks’  is a guitar-based, Grateful Dead-inspired, Jefferson Airplane-revisited, Chocolate Watchband-approved kind of record.

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Skinny Lister - Pressing Strings - Aaron Smith & The Coal Biters

Skinny Lister - Company Of The Bar.

Skinny Lister are excited to confirm details of their sixth studio LP titled ‘Shanty Punk’, for release on 20 October via Xtra Mile Recordings. The album announcement is coupled with the unveiling of its leading single, “Company of the Bar.”

A song built for the road and the endless adventures it can promise, “Company Of The Bar”, fuses three themes that have loomed large throughout Skinny Lister’s output: drinking, traveling, and the sea. Combining these into one driving, no-nonsense celebration of the virtues of hanging out down the pub with mates and loved ones; it’s a barnstorming addition to the Skinny catalogue and one that pines to be heard bellowed out at your local gig haunt. 

As Dan Heptinstall says: “It’s a simple sentiment, but one that is at the heart of the Skinny Lister philosophy. This is a song that has been built for the rugged road, and we can’t wait to hear it belted back at us on our upcoming US and UK Tours later this year!”

The track is the leading single to be cut from ‘Shanty Punk’, Skinny Lister’s sixth long-player; a concept album that’s all about, well, Skinny Lister. As Dan explains: “Shanty Punk is our concept album – and the concept is Skinny Lister. It’s a pure distillation of what makes Skinny Lister tick, and perhaps a collection of songs that leans further into our folky routes than we’ve ventured in some years. It felt to us like it was time to touch base and celebrate the essence of the band, while at the same time – giving it a fresh and dynamic feel.”

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Pressing Strings - Your Love.

Acclaimed Annapolis, Maryland-based trio Pressing Strings has released their new studio album. And I For You via Warren Haynes’ Evil Teen Records. …And I For You, the seventh full-length album from the three-piece whose influences range from folk, blues, rock, funk, soul, and reggae, includes the lead single “Your Love” and recent track release “Carousel.” Coinciding with the album release, Pressing Strings has issued the official music video for the infectious “Your Love.”

“Writing and making this record was a great experience for me personally and the band,” shares lead guitarist and vocalist Jordan Sokel. “It’s not always an easy process and we weathered a lot of stuff in the past couple of years for it to come together in the way that it did. It’s a great feeling to finally release something out to the world that you love and are proud of. We hope people dig it!”

And I For You marks the most fully realized set of songs yet from Pressing Strings and their first record to feature all members sharing the singing and helping with the harmonies. The album touches on timeless themes that resonate and find meaning at a time when turmoil and tenacity seem so predominant within a weary world. The 11-song collection, produced by Steve Wright, reminds us that gratitude, devotion, and the wisdom to recognize that even in the midst of uncertainty there are virtues that are important to cling to, which, in turn, can ultimately lead to true satisfaction.

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Aaron Smith & The Coal Biters - The Legend of Sam Davis Album).

Embark on a journey through time to the rugged and untamed landscapes of Newton County, Arkansas in the 1820s, led by the masterful storyteller and musician, Aaron Smith. Step into the world of the eccentric mountain preacher, Sam Davis, as he sets out on a quest to find his long-lost sister. Experience the heartbreak and tragedy of the Trail of Tears, and marvel at the courage of the outlaw pioneers who braved the unknown.

With Aaron‘s powerful storytelling and thoughtful musical arrangements, you'll meet unforgettable characters, such as a mother mourning her wayward sons and a midwife who traveled on horseback to deliver countless babies. These are the true stories of resilient people in tough times, filled with heartbreak, rage, longing, and love. You will feel their pain and joy, and experience the sense of community and isolation that defined their lives in a bygone era.

Banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, dobro, pump organ, clarinet, and jug band percussion provide an authentic and evocative accompaniment to the stories being told. The album includes a beautiful coffee - table compendium that reveals deeper insights into the stories with essays, family photos, maps, and original artwork for each song by Newton County artist, Dreama Phoenix.

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Oslo Twins - Jill Andrews - Charlie Kaplan - Blanco White

Oslo Twins - Back To Nothing.

Bristol born dream-pop outfit Oslo Twins have released the title track from their upcoming debut EP 'Back To Nothing'. The new EP will be released on 12" vinyl and digitally on 28th July via Fascination Street Records, a new label founded by producer Ali Chant (Yard Act, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, Katy J Pearson) in partnership with Bristol's Factory Studios.

The band's upcoming debut EP 'Back To Nothing' is subtly influenced by dance, industrial and lo-fi music of the 80s and 90s, adorned with distinctive, hooky pop melodies, all connected by a sense of distance and the tension between unity and isolation.

New single and EP title track “Back To Nothing” is lyrically suggestive of romantic loss, yet its steady rhythm and bright legato synths evoke a sense of calm acceptance. The violin courtesy of Tom Connolly (Quade) adds a melancholic folk depth, before the song arrives as its rich, euphoric climax. “I wouldn’t say it was about longing, but the stage after,” says Eric. “I wrote the lyrics by the River Avon in Bristol on a warm evening. It’s a melancholic, reflective song.”

Speaking more on its inspiration, vocalist Claudia said: "Sometimes you know that something is coming to an end, but you’re not quite there yet - you’re in the mournful, wistful transition period. There’s a sense of steady movement in both the lyrics and the music, but it’s ambiguous whether it represents progress or surrender."

Led by songwriters Claudia Vulliamy and Eric Davies, completed by Ed Lyness (keys), Will Snelling (bass/guitar) and Luke Brown (drums), over the past 18 months Oslo Twins have taken the London and Bristol live music scenes by storm, supporting acts such as Blondshell, The Comet Is Coming, The Last Dinner Party, Folly Group, English Teacher, Do Nothing and Honeyglaze.

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Jill Andrews - Better Life.

Nashville singer-songwriter Jill Andrews just unveiled her new single “Better Life” off her forthcoming album Modern Age (out August 18th on Vulture Vulture/Tone Tree). The nucleus to Modern Age and the song that inspired the record, “Better Life” finds Andrews grieving the loss of a “golden-haired beauty queen” to addiction, wishing there had been another path. The track also features guest vocals from fellow Nashville favorite Becca Mancari. Holler debuted the track and called it “a delicious slice of soft 70s country pop that brings to mind the sadder moments of Golden Hour or the luscious introspective dream pop of Weyes Blood.”

"I traveled back to my hometown in East Tennessee after hearing the news of a childhood friend who had passed away after a long battle with addiction,” stated Andrews. “While I was there, I swung by our old neighborhood. I drove by her house and walked to the bus stop where we used to stand on all of those cold, dark mornings together. I had known her since second grade. She was with me at the AMC Theater when I saw Titanic for the first time, crying into the same box of popcorn. She was with me when I smoked my first cigarette (one of her Grandmother’s Benson and Hedge’s 100’s that she had sneakily lifted from some mystery drawer). 

She was with me the day that I decided to see if the fire extinguisher worked on the school bus and promptly sprayed white foam all over my friend’s and new found enemies’ heads. It turns out it worked very well. Standing there as an adult, at the bus stop, I was struck by how close we had lived to each other. If I turned left, I could see my house, and if I turned right, I could see hers. It was startling how different our lives were, even back then. And how our paths grew further and further apart as we got older. So far apart that we really didn’t recognize each other anymore.”

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Charlie Kaplan - Talkin' French.

This week we're announcing the new Charlie Kaplan LP due on September 15 and follow up to 2020's excellent Sunday, and we're presentling "Talkin' French," a jangly, blissful ode to his wife, with a brief instrumental detour through outer space.

My wife’s first language was French, and I’ve always felt a little like the Gomez to her Morticia. When this song came together, I was incredulous it was about her: I’d never written a love song before for fear it’d fall short of my feelings. But with her as the slender verse, me as the smitten chorus, and the bridge as the life we escape to together, I finally feel like I got it. Of particular note is Winston Cook-Wilson’s gorgeous, out-of-time passage, recorded at the piano in my childhood home, where he is momentarily relieved of the song’s jangling gravity before falling back to earth and into form.

Singer-songwriter Charlie Kaplan’s releases play like tours through a musical memory palace. The Office Culture bassist’s guitar-based songs are overrun with ear-catching gestures redolent of classic rock radio hits, Americana standards, baroque pop micro-symphonies, and more-music that shaped him personally and artistically at a formative age. Ten years ago-during a time when the logistics of making an album seemed impossible-Kaplan began to catalog his acoustic phone demos around themes, feels, and personal associations. Eventually, he created a roadmap for an entire imagined discography. His new LP, Country Life in America, contains the earliest entries into this canon, painting a picture of a young man bursting with ideas, not certain where to channel his energy and not overly worried about it.

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Blanco White - Tarifa.

Blanco White has announced his new album Tarifa will be released 29th September via Nettwerk (Miya Folick, Matt Maltese), and has shared the lead single and title track. The new album release will coincide with a headline run across the US, Canada and Europe this autumn, culminating in a momentous homecoming at the Barbican in London on 21st November.

Tarifa is the second full length album from the project of Londoner Josh Edwards following his 2020 debut On the Other Side which has since seen over 130 million streams and led to tours with Jose Gonzalez and Gregory Alan Isakov as well as hugely popular world tours of his own, including a sold out night at London's famous Union Chapel. New album Tarifa was written predominantly in the town of the same name in southern Spain; the southernmost tip of Western Europe just 5 miles from Morocco. Self-producing, Josh also collaborated extensively with afro-jazz collective Nubiyan Twist’s percussionist Pilo Adami (from Cascavel a town in the southeast of Paraná a southern Brazil state below São Paulo) who co-produced most of the record.

Nathan Jenkins aka Bullion (Westerman, Nilüfer Yanya) also contributed back in London with additional production in the final stages. It was recorded between Tarifa and Blanco White's home studio in London, almost entirely on a mobile recording rig.

The album's title track and newly released single "Tarifa” was the first to surface from the album's writing sessions in Spain, following a debilitative chronic pain diagnosis. Imbued with the sunshine and restless energy of Tarifa’s famously windy climate, the song is adorned with swirling electronics and punctuated by more organic percussion elements, all tied together by Edwards' inviting vocal and his intricate, finger-picked work on the charango - a Bolivian instrument in the guitar family - made by luthier Juan Achá Campos.

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