T.G. Shand - Lightnode - Bazooka - Natalie Henry

T.G. Shand - WAWO.

Otautahi, New Zealand based dream pop artist, T. G. Shand is excited to present her latest single release, ‘WAWO’. Out today Friday 11 November. This is the first single off an upcoming EP due out this summer.

Delving back into her heavier Melbourne shoegaze roots, this one  feels the influences of Tamaryn and Sharon Van Etten. It's heavier than the recent tracks but has a dream pop sparkle. Self produced by Annemarie, and mastered by Bevan Smith, the track is both dynamic and ethereal.

"Most of it came together pretty quickly in a weekend, then I spent a month figuring out the bridge and how to include my precious Yamaha CP-70 piano."

T. G. Shand came to life in 2016. “After Miniatures disbanded, it’s been an outlet for music ideas and trying out guitar and bass.” Annemarie’s shoegaze roots found influences from the likes of Curve, Chapterhouse, Medicine, and equally from modern R&B/hip-hop heroes like Pip Millet and Little Simz.

T. G. Shand · T. G. Shand - WAWO

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Lightnode - To be is to be is to be/Same Time Same Place.

At the beginning of October 2022, the Swiss alternative rock band Lightnode released the album single 'Same Time Same Place', which was played on numerous radio stations throughout Europe.

Now follows the debut album entitled 'The Bright Side of The Edge'. The tracks on the album are reflective, concise and atmospheric. Roger Imboden's songs and lyrics reveal profound explorations of various topics: for example, the situation of Mediterranean refugees ("Made of Gold"), but also the view of one's own path of change and transience («Stay»), longings («Out of Range»), the comfort zone («Same Time Same Place») or dealing with low points («Back from Bottom Ground»).

In all 9 songs, a sense of hope always prevails and the realization that new worlds open up off the beaten path; if we dare to unlock the doors («Fine»). «The Bright Side Of The Edge» is a snapshot of the moment, with the unknown waiting at the edges, beckoning longingly, demanding other truths and illuminating the mysterious path to the future.

Lightnode play rock music - straightforward, real and honest. Their style is heavily influenced by 90's rock bands, sometimes recalling the energy of the Counting Crows or indie rock moments of Wilco. Occasionally, however, there are also echoes of the 60s and 70s through the distinctive organ sounds. The individual influences and musical imprints of the five musicians flow together to create their own emotional and powerful sound, sometimes softer, sometimes more powerful.

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Bazooka - Kapou Allou.

The world is falling apart but Bazooka are here with their fourth album (on October 21 via Inner Ear Records, Greece). They take us by the hand on a journey to a world above the earth, a world somewhere else. With 10 songs and their stories captured via the album artwork designed by Australian artist Montero, they transport us to the dreams and nightmares of modern life. ''Kapou Allou (Somewhere Elsewhere)'' is clearly the band's most entertaining and versatile album, their own truth. 

Bazooka’s craziness and instinctive energy are still there but accompanied by a great appetite for experimentation and situations that lead the band to an absolute letting go without any restrictions. The final result is the closest a studio album can get to the band's live performing sound, making this arguably their best album to date.

This five-piece band is originally from Volos, Greece, but relocated to Athens, comprising the core of the new underground psych-rock scene along with other bands, such as Acid Baby Jesus and Komodina 3.  Since then, they have toured Europe several times and around the United States. Their music could be described as psychedelic and very raw, like garage punk with a unique sense of youth mixed with frustration vibes.

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Natalie Henry - White Heat.

White Heat – A state of intense passion or activity. “White Heat” is the title and latest track lifted from Natalie Henry’s acclaimed album and is an obvious, yet yearning number.

Natalie leaves nothing uncovered as she hunts around her broken heart for scraps of unwanted evidence to find what caused her to love this way. Left with nothing but the music and a new lover’s sweat, she unravels it all, and winds it back together like a broken cassette.

If you haven’t discovered this impressive Australian singer-songwriter, immerse yourself in “White Heat” now. “White Heat” is written by Natalie Henry and superbly produced by Michael Moko and Catherine Britt.


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Crying Day Care Choir - Great Time - MF Tomlinson

Crying Day Care Choir - The Dreams Of Alice.

After a successful summer performing at festivals such Sziget Festival, Malmöfestivalen, Be Alternative and many more, Swedish alt-follk trio Crying Day Care Choir recently formed their own label ELZ Productions, with their first release an internationally groundbreaking EP with cover art by Damien Hirst and the art itself as source of inspiration.

CDCC’s new EP ‘Give Me Something Vol.1’, the first of three new collections released in the coming months, explores the relationship between art and music and challenges the idea of how music is created. The full album acts as a continuation of Damien Hirst's project ‘The Currency’, where he explores the concept of value through art and money. The Currency contains 10.000 unique pieces, with different titles produced by an AI generator that's been fed with some of the artist’s favourite music. The buyers of these different art pieces were left with the decision during the summer of 2022, to either keep their physical piece or to keep the NFT version of it and let the physical painting burn.

This project led to new artistic ideas for the musicians in CDCC, and the concept for the record ‘Give Me Something’ took shape. The idea is to take the titles from the burnt artworks and put them together as lyrics, thus giving them new life in a new art form -“Reborn, as songs”.

With Damien Hirst’s permission the work began in September. Damien Hirst’s artwork ‘Give Me Something’ will act as album cover for the release. The world famous artist however is no stranger to the concept of making album art with his latest involvement being in Drake’s ‘Certified Loverboy’ from 2021. CDCC is Jack, Sara and Bill Elz. A Swedish band always breaking new ground by exploring new sounds to mix with their patented brand of indie folk.

Crying Day Care Choir · The Dreams Of Alice

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Great Time - Feather - Live in Philadelphia.

Great Time doesn't want to fit in a box. Living up to their name, the band just wants to have a great time making music that they love. Tired of being advised to "pick a lane" by some of their industry peers, Great time set out to create music that celebrates their wide-ranging sound, incorporating genres from synth-pop and electronic to jazz, punk, rock and R&B.

Prior to the first single, 80z Slo Jam, on the upcoming album Live In Phildelphia, their most recent releases are a series of EPs titled “Sounds Like ____”. The band had the idea to turn the EP titles into a Mad Libs type of game "so that someone could put their own adjective or descriptor for the EP in the blank space," explains singer/multi-instrumentalist Jill Ryan. The projects explore some of the different sounds and styles that influence Great Time. “Some people thought [our 2018 debut LP] 'Great Album' was all over the place, so with the ‘Sounds Like’ series, we decided to lean even further into our multi-genre tendencies and place the option of categorizing or putting us in a box on the listener.”

True to their vision, each EP carries a different sound. On Vol. 1, Great Time create a blissed out atmosphere, with R&B and neo-soul melodies. For Vol. 2, the band zones in on its electronic and pop influences, creating a livelier soundscape that feels ripe for dancing. Whereas Vol. 3 shows a guitar-heavy, more traditionally rock-influenced side to the three-piece group, with individual tracks ranging from punk to acoustic folk.

With their "Sounds Like _____" EP series completed, Great Time's next project is a live album that features the new material, allowing existing fans and new listeners who haven't had the opportunity to see them perform yet enjoy how the band stunningly transforms their songs for live performances. Great Time are so excited to be sharing "Feather (Little Dragon Cover)" ,  the next single from this project is just out.

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MF Tomlinson - The End of the Road.

London-based, Brisbane/Meanjin-born singer-songwriter MF Tomlinson releases his new single "The End Of The Road" - the third track from his upcoming second album We Are Still Wild Horses, out 17th February 2023 via PRAH Recordings (Falle Nioke, the Umlauts, Pozi).

‘The End Of The Road’ is a magical realist hymn for the end of the world. A paean to community and culture - celebrating the hope of humanity in the face of the hopelessness of the human race.

Inspired by his memories of the Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion protests of 2019, Tomlinson’s song plays like a vivid dream in which all ‘the people like me and you’ (those who believe in justice for human beings and the rest of the natural world) convene to enjoy the apocalypse in unison – traveling from Trafalgar Square to the bucolic vista of End Of The Road festival in Dorset, one of the last transcendent communal experiences he had before the onset of the pandemic.

With ‘Last Waltz’ arrangements and luminous vocal imbuements from frequent collaborator Connie Chatwin, Tomlinson verbally paints this paradise under silvery starlight. Protesters and friends all gathered together, crooning with open hearts - at peace with the coming darkness that they know will sweep them away to whatever awaits on the other side. It’s a breathtaking vision of the human spirit, filled with love, compassion and beauty until the very last breath. In that same breath, it's an impassioned protest song - a statement of defiance from a crowd of people to those in power:

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Selfish Bodies - Dan Hatton - Womb

Selfish Bodies - Bambi Legs.

Selfish Bodies are a female lead alternative pop rock trio based in Edmonton, AB, who combine their love of writing with genre-blending, cinematic soundscapes and thoughtful lyrics. They believe music is a universal language. 

What does the band want to say? Whatever their listeners need to hear. Selfish Bodies' goal is to connect with their listeners through the creation of relatable and heartfelt content.

Cathartic new single, "Bambi Legs," was inspired by insecurity. When self consciousness rears its ugly head, it can lead to a lot of fear and second guessing. This is a lonely feeling yet we are oddly united in it as we all feel this way at least sometimes. The duality of the feelings in the lyrics through the instrumentation is magnified as the song sways back and forth between a heaviness to a more lightheartedness.

Selfish Bodies · Bambi Legs (Clean)

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Dan Hatton - Boyish Charm.

Hailing from South London, Dan Hatton is the latest independent artist to grace the Brixton boardwalk.

After a stint in the dizzying, high-rise landscape of the professional world, he dropped his calculator, quit his job, and picked up his guitar... which is why this debut single from Hatton is all the more poignant. 

This is the second offering from Hatton's debut album which is an intimate introduction to what is sure to be an exquisite body of work. Dan Hatton is a singer-songwriter from South London. He loves mint tea, synths, and writing songs about love.

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Womb - When I See You.

Womb have shared a final taste of their upcoming album Dreaming of the Future Again via brand new single, ‘When I See You’. Womb rarely fails to devastate their listeners and the slightly more accelerated ‘When I See You’ is no exception to the rule; a phenomenal teaser to their sophomore album, which is out digitally and on vinyl LP this Friday November 11th via Flying Nun Records.

“When I See You came to us in fragments; a chord progression arrived; then a verse; a driving beat; a guitar line; later, walking around at night listening to a demo of the song, the chorus finally came, the words “We could grow from here” circling round and round in my head. 

This is a song about conflict: there’s a secret conversation going on between the ¾ guitar line that comes in at the start and the 4/4 timing of the rest of the song; the timings are clashing, each wishing to be heard, but in the end they are singing the same song.” - Womb

Womb · When I See You

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Jenny Bakke - The Woolverstones - Lesley Pike

Jenny Bakke - He's Too Famous Now.

Earlier this year, Liverpool-based Norwegian musician Jenny Bakke made her musical debut under the moniker Helven, releasing her debut EP, volume 1, a collection of synth-laden bedroom pop songs. Now she’s preparing to make her return with Morild, her most personal collection yet, fittingly to be released under her own name.

Last month she shared her first single as Jenny Bakke, an experimental mixture of noise and techno called 'New Life', a bold statement of intent for an artist who is comfortable pushing her ever expanding horizons. Today she is sharing new single ‘He’s Too Famous Now’, a laid-back blend of alternative R&B and indie-pop. The track is based on the sentimental bitterness that lies behind a long-distance relationship. Musicians Bendik HK, Oscar Funden, Andrew Murray Baardsen and Oliver Fremo help lay the foundation that Bakke and her cashmere-soft voice floats upon. She sings about the contrast between expectations that aren't met and an undying hope for things to get better. It’s fragile, sentimental, and hopeful, with a psychedelic edge to it.

Jenny Bakke is 22-year-old producer, songwriter and musician from Grimstad on the southern coast of Norway who has quickly built herself a career and a reputation on Norway’s alternate music scene. She’s played live at showcase festivals such as Havstrøm, Vill Vill Vest and by:Larm. In 2022 she released her debut EP, volume 1, as Helven, and her upcoming, ambitious mixtape will serve as another debut of sorts. Due out in Spring 2023, Morild was created in collaboration with a wide selection of talented producers contributing on different songs, which results in an eclectic and varied collection.

Jansen Records · Jenny Bakke - He’s Too Famous Now

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The Woolverstones - Emerald Train.

Contemporary folk duo The Woolverstones have returned following the epic success of their debut single "A Song for Harlequins”, with a visual "Emerald Train”. The track is marked as a slight anomaly, being that it’s the only track from their new studio album (Grey Eyed Dandy) that is geographically set abroad.

The song was first conceived whilst waiting for a train in southern France in the blistering heat. Band members Chris and Lou's shoes were broken, they were thirsty, hungry and not sure when the next train was coming as nobody was around to help.

As they waited pensively for the next train to escape this lonesome place, they were suddenly overcome by a sense of freedom...the oppressive heat and lack of footwear seemed almost liberating. There was something glorious about basking in the knowledge that things surely had to improve and that this minor hardship had led to the beginning of a song. They reflected on two favourite actors Charles Hawtrey (Carry On fame), and Peter Sellers. How much laughter they provided people despite their own turbulent lives.

Pain offers some rewards it seems. Once they'd penned the lyrics, Chris started noodling and found a chord progression which struck him as having a slight Nirvana unplugged feel...happy to be on that path he chased this song down many more paths until he felt The Woolverstones' sound come through. Owing to the embryonic nature of the song, they sensed the chorus required an almost anticlimactic quality, they cracked it, and Emerald Train left the station.

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Lesley Pike - Wild.

Both Lesley Pike’s songwriting and production skills have progressed throughout the crafting of her new, two-volume album, Wild. Wild (Vol. 1) finds a new resilience for the Toronto and London, UK based Pike, who mined her own vulnerability to craft these complex songs. “What we feel deep down, we know. What we feed will grow.”

“Wild,” the album’s title track, is an organic and airy piece of folk pop which reflects on children’s sense of abandon and the freedom which Pike has found within herself. It’s a song about taking the time to reflect and really trust in oneself.

The recording artist’s fourth disc, which will be released in two volumes, is an accumulation of confidence and drive as well as an all-important focus: producing and creating music on her terms. The result of her ambitions? Fourteen stunning recordings which represent new heights in Pike’s song craft-ranging from the personal into the universal.

Lesley Pike · Wild

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H.C. McEntire - Addie Brik - Mia Baron - Quarry

Photo - Heather Evans Smith

H.C. McEntire - Dovetail.

H.C. McEntire announces her new album, Every Acre, will be released on January 27 via Merge Records. Co-produced by McEntire, Missy Thangs and Luke Norton, Every Acre features nine poignant new songs, including two tracks with backing vocals provided by S.G. Goodman and Amy Ray. Along with the announcement, McEntire shares “Dovetail,” the new single that imagistically depicts various women and their various gifts, their various traumas.

“‘Dovetail’ began as a jangly, four-on-the-floor country demo I roughly recorded at home,” McEntire explains of the song’s inception. “In the studio, the band and I leaned into the twang and outlaw attitude, recorded it, and moved on to work on other songs. But something kept calling us back to reimagine this song, to look at it from a different angle. One night after a long day of tracking, Luke started playing the ‘Dovetail’ chord progression on piano, but much more slowly. Daniel jumped behind the drums and played a simple halftime beat while I stood next to the piano and sang out into the room. We quickly recorded about a minute of the experiment onto a cell phone and went to bed. The next morning, we referenced the recording and tracked a full-band version of the song in that style—essentially, it took the form of a ballad.”

“This ‘classic’ arrangement offered space for a more nuanced vocal delivery; the slower pace allowed vocal lines to stretch and stand tall with emotion. The less-is-more approach created a vulnerability that felt right and also applied intention—to clearly speak, suspend, and spill out the narrative. Throughout verses, I posed the personalities of various women in juxtaposition—a way to both celebrate differences and individuation, as well as acknowledge the complexities of being in relation with a range of traumas, including my own. The pre-chorus and chorus lyrics nod to a problematic dynamic that can occur when presumptions are made about an Artist solely based on the social consumption and/or interpretations of their Art—romanticism versus reality.”

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Addie Brik - First Odd Prime.

They say all good things arrive in threes, and the third single to be cut from Addie’s upcoming album ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ (out 25 November, via Itza Records) is a prime example.

A song that dwells upon the laws of the ultimate numbers game, “The First Odd Prime” finds Addie reflecting on Fibonacci's revolutionary sequence, and the natural order of things. As Addie explains: “This is about compassion, as seen through the lens of Nature, The Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Numbers, with the fairy dust of the Charles Laughton film, Night of The Hunter, thrown in for colour.”

Chiming with the themes of “odd primes, the Golden Mean, rescue and homecoming” expressed in the song, the new single arrives with a mesmeric official video that finds the numerical and the natural artfully intersecting with one another. Directed by Andy Alston (Del Amitri) and co-edited with Addie Brik, the live footage was captured outside Addie’s home in  Scotland, with additional film clips provided by Glenn Lewis (Mick Harvey, Cambodian Space Project).

Featuring a stellar cast of guest players, “The First Odd Prime”’s thunderous rhythms come courtesy of Simple Minds’ Jim McDermott on Drums, with Glenn Lewis (guitars) and Nick Blythe (bass) adding to its swirling maelstrom of sounds. US star N’dea Davenport (Brand New Heavies, Malcolm McClaren) also contributes her vocals to its hypnotic chorus hooks.

 

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Mia Baron - Rebel Without A Cause.

Toronto-based pop singer-songwriter Mia Baron pens lyrics which touch on how challenging it is to figure out who you are and what you want. Baron's songs show that for her, the sky's the limit. Natural talent, swagger, and drive have played a role in this 14-year-old artist racking up close to 300,000 total Spotify streams.

Her latest release, "Rebel Without a Cause," describes teenage rebellion: an adventurous desire to do forbidden things, test the limits and go against what's expected.

Baron started singing at just nine years old and turned professional at 11. When the pandemic halted her busy schedule as a live performer, she pivoted to releasing songs every few months with the help of her production and co-writing team Matt Kahane and Quin Kiu. With a sound shaped by artists like Madison Beer, Nessa Barrett, and The Weeknd, Baron's pop tracks are frequently filled with stuttering beats and moody vibes.

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Quarry - New City Comes Along.

Milan-based singer-songwriter QUARRY is set to release his new single: “New City Comes Along”, taken from his new album ‘Positioning The Sun’ out now. Paying homage to the victims caught up in the Ukraine war, “New City Comes Along” seeks to shine a light on the stories of those citizens whose lives are completely destroyed by such conflict. As Quarry explains:

“A city devastated by bombing and reduced to rubble is one of the most heartbreaking things to see. How many stories are behind those bodies scattered along the streets, those destroyed buildings that were once warm houses to families. I wrote this song thinking of a beautiful city like Kyiv falling into ruin, but it could be any city destroyed by warfare. New cities will, eventually, come along through the skin of the razed ones.”

Agitated by injustice but laced with an optimism for a better, more peaceful future, “New City Comes Along” is a punk-razored track that finds Quarry taking inspiration from the revolutionary class of The Clash while injecting a chorus of hope into their frenzied formula. Showing a new side to the multi-faceted artist that the softer and more reflective previous singles “This Is The Story” and “Beyond Any Sense” perhaps left camouflaged, it blends clangorous drums with impassioned vocals and driving guitars that rise-up like a rallying cry for peace.

The new track was the finishing touch to Quarry’s new LP ‘Positioning The Sun’ (out now via Lowfieye Records); an album born out of the feeling of living suspended in time during the pandemic. Written and recorded in Milan between 2020 and 2022, the LP has a knack for capturing the overwhelming weight of the world’s complications.

 

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