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| Photo - Sophie le Roux |
It Draws The Same is the new single taken from South-East London’s rising alt-folk star Amy Hollinrake’s forthcoming EP Sad Lady Songs Vol. 1 which follows late 2023. Hollinrake’s work draws on women’s stories within folklore and mythology and fuses them with a contemporary sound placing her at the forefront of the new era of feminist neo-folk, with musical touchstones in Joanna Newsom Joni Mitchell and Adrienne Lenker, with touches of the emotional directness of Paris Paloma.
Amy Hollinrake has performed at Cambridge Folk Festival, and at notable shows at Cambridge Junction and Kings Place, as well as lending her soaring vocals to major label signed Don Broco’s Royal Albert Hall, London show, with her music garnering attention from the likes of BBC 6 Music Introducing and BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. The latter invited Hollinrake in to discuss the new single It Draws The Same and her aesthetic which delves deeply into the old stories of women, re-analysing and re-telling them through the lens of modern feminism.
Amy Hollinrake describes It Draws The Same as “An ode to Ophelia as well as a critique of the way women are depicted in folksong and ballads.” She expands,” The song came out of the realisation that so many stories I was reading in folk songs and ballads were about women drowning, I was looking at that famous painting of Ophelia by Millais and researching murder ballads when I came across an interesting analysis of female death in folk songs. It talked about a kind of liberation in women’s suicide, in escaping her murder, and looking at that picture of Ophelia, so serene, I felt almost a seduction for that sense of freedom, which is what ultimately inspired me to write the song.”
“When the waters too light it wears you out”
“I wish I could smudge my edges.”
– It Draws The Same
Sonically It Draws The Same features Hammond organs, soaring violins, and electric guitars amp’d through an old telephone. It’s a taster of what to expect from Hollinrake’s Sad Lady Songs Vol 1 EP which beautifully showcases the multi-instrumentalist’s high-level musical training, in its seamless blend of traditional instruments with contemporary sounds.
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| Photo - Anna Longworth |
Brooklyn composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cassie Wieland just released the second single "january" from her upcoming debut LP as Vines, titled Birthday Party, out August 18th. The single follows last month's "I don't mind," which Stereogum likened to "Imogen Heap’s “Hide And Seek,” with traces of Sigur Rós, Bon Iver, and various electronic singer-composer types a la Lydia Ainsworth and Laurel Halo."
Wieland wrote the music of Birthday Party while feeling lonely on her January birthday, and “january” gets right at the heart of that desolation. The song builds from the searing lyric “I’m having trouble making it through the year, and it’s only January,” letting delicate piano melodies grow into crashing instrumentals that swallow Wieland’s voice. It’s the most gut-punching track on the EP, but it’s also the most cathartic. When the music reaches its enveloping pinnacle, every emotion feels entwined at once, bursting at the seams and gradually returning anew.
Wieland founded Vines as a way to break out of the performer-composer hierarchy, opting for more collaboration and a closer connection to her fans. Vines has already made waves on Tiktok covering indie pop favorites using a vocoder and uniquely processed vocals. She continues this trend on Birthday Party, including a heart-wrenching, some how even more melancholic version of "The World at Large" by Modest Mouse.
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New Zealand-formed and Nashville-based Americana/Folk band, South For Winter, is excited to announce the release of single “Underneath the Blood Moon”; the second single released from their upcoming concept album, Of Sea and Sky, which is a follow-up to their critically-acclaimed debut album, Luxumbra. This album was produced by multi GRAMMY award-winner, Matt Leigh (Willie Nelson, Sister Sade).
Murder ballad "Underneath the Blood Moon" is about the use of psychiatry to silence women throughout history, especially during the 1800s-1900s. The song was written by lead singer Dani Stone, who works as a registered nurse by day and was inspired to write the ballad after learning about this dark time in history. “I stumbled across stories about this and became really upset that it wasn't more talked about," Stone states.
"Women were labeled as insane and put in asylums for so many things back then: like asking for a divorce, turning someone in for hurting them, or even just reading too many books. However, most of these women weren't actually crazy. And the problem is, when you treat people like they are crazy for long enough, you can make them go clinically insane." Using this new single, Stone brings this phenomenon to light with a chilling story about a woman who is locked up for speaking out against a man who assaulted her as a teenager; until, one night, she breaks out of the asylum and seeks her revenge.
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Cardiff’s Pigeon Wigs release their eagerly awaited mini-album ‘Rock By Numbers’. An amorphous box of tricks that shape-shifts between psych, blues and indie rock with seamless time-warping chic, the quintet are also pleased to present one of its standout moments: “Iron Dynamite”. The final track to be spotlighted from the record, “Iron Dynamite” is a whimsical, merry-go-round of 60s-indebted psychelia to rival the Electric Prunes, Strawberry Alarm Clock, or frankly anything to be heard on the seminal ‘Nuggets’ compilation.
Revolving around a guitar lick as slick as a new pair of winkle-pickers on Carnaby Street in 1967, the riff was conjured by the band’s Louis Jugessur as he tried to emulate the vintage grooves of the hit ‘Mama Told Me Not To Come’ by fellow Pontypridd legend Tom Jones. Instantly plugging-in to its psychedelic vibe, frontman Harry Franklin-Williams assembled a kaleidoscopic spiral of words at once in-tune with the track and just a little removed from reality... As Harry explains: “Iron Dynamite is probably my favourite song of the record lyrically, Louis wrote such a psychedelic riff and I wanted to build on that as much as I could. I made a Jenga tower out of 60s-inspired metaphors and muso-nerd references that still never fails to put a smile on my face. The verses are swirling psych with a portion of madness while the chorus is much more your classic 60s pop lyrics, simple and direct but with my trademark cynicism at the end, “it’s just another line”.”
“Iron Dynamite” arrives hot on the heels of recent singles including the Rolling Stones saluting “Radiation Blues” and the wormhole whirlwind that is “Hold Up!”; drawing attention from the likes of Louder Than War, The Independent, The Rodeo, and The Line of Best Fit, with the latter praising “[Pigeon Wigs are] now in full force in bringing their vision to life: a hybrid, retro/futuristic, psychedelic-shaded sound.”
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