SEE: the sweet dreaminess of Tom Joshua’s ‘Undergrowth’
TOM JOSHUA, the singer who first broke into our collective consciousness with “Meteor Showers”, has just released a teaser single, the sweet pop harmonising of “Undergrowth” ahead of an EP of the same name, which will be with us come October 9th. The new song – watch the surreal imagery of the video, which we’ve …
NEWS: The Maytals’ Toots Hibbert has died, aged 77
THERE’S sad news from the world of reggae today as it was announced that the singer and guiding light with legends Toots & The Maytals, “Toots” Hibbert, has died at the age of 77. He had, it was suspected, been suffering from the novel coronavirus. Frederick Nathaniel “Toots” Hibbert was born in May Pen, Jamaica, …
TRACK: Blue States’ latest slice of cinematic chill, ‘Archival’; 20th anniversary issue of ‘Nothing Changes …’
BLUE STATES, the gorgeous, cultish, chilled electronica pop project of Andy Dregazis, has dropped some new widescreen vibes in the shape of “Archival” – listen with us. It’s actually culled from an EP entitled Trinity Tapes, which will be an accompanying expansion of the forthcoming reissue of his acclaimed breakthrough album Nothing Changes Under The …
SEE: the bliss of Lost Horizons’ ‘I Woke Up With An Open Heart’; new LP dropping in two parts
LOST HORIZONS, the guest artist-featuring, blissful musical project of Cocteau Twins bassist and Bella Union supremo Simon Raymonde and Richie Thomas, have announced their second LP, In Quiet Moments, which will be released in two instalments, with the physical release included with the final instalment early next year. Both Simon and Richie had been away from …
NEWS: RADIDAS’ ‘The Hits’ is next up for Austerity’s C60 Club: Balearic psych-synth cool
AUSTERITY Records of Brighton have announced the second release in their cute C60 Club – for all you lovers of the chromium oxide – and that accolade falls to the trippy Balearic pop bliss of RADIDAS. We took a look at the debut club release, Hanya’s Sea Shoes, here: orange cassette, four tracks with a …
EP REVIEW: The Illness – ‘Descending’/’Phrases Redacted’: alt rock gets the tronica feels on cassette
HERE at Backseat Mafia, we’re really quite fond of The Illness. No, god, not that one – not the year-destroying one; we’re talking the Transpennine band who’ve been something of an in-house Wrecking Crew for York’s Sea Records, and who finally got their name up on their own 12”, “Descending”/”Phrases Redacted” back in July. We …
ALBUM REVIEW: King of the Slums – ‘Encrypted Contemporary Narratives’: the life we live now as we may not wish to see it
MANCHESTER: that great north-west city with, in the words of an idol very much on an unfortunate downward curve these days, so much to answer for. It’s given us some of the most amazing acts and subcultures of the popular music age. But I’ll advance a theory here, if I may; there’s very much two …
SEE: Dope Body’s ‘Jer Bang’: Baltimore noiseniks are back atcha; be glad
BALTIMORE’S knife-sharp noise outfit Dope Body, who released a trio of salvos at yr head for Drag City in the first part of the decade in the shape of Natural History, Lifer and Kunk, were a sad loss to our need for noise when they decided to call it quits in 2016. Less punchy guitar …
SEE: the rage of Stone’s ‘Stay Silent’, live from Liverpool
STONE: solid, unyielding, hard. It’s pretty much the perfect name for the Liverpudlian band that have picked up a dazzled DJ fan in the shape of Radio One’s Jack Saunders, who’s championed them all through the crawl-those-walls caging of the Covid lockdown. But they’re back or rather, they’re unleashed; they’re full-on and they’re ready to …
SEE: The video for A Certain Ratio’s ‘Berlin’: UK dates for 2021
MANCHESTER legends A Certain Ratio, whose brilliant new album ACR Loco will be with us on Mute come September 25th, have just dropped the video for the none-more-Mancunian effortless pop of “Berlin” – we’ve embedded it, below. And it really is a great record: we’ve embraced its taut, breathtaking funk and its intelligent pop and …