TRACK: The Lost Highway Tapes – ‘Something To Say’: stripped-down funky blues with The Infadels
THE LOST Highway Tapes is the project of a serendipitous encounter for Fabyl Records’ Nick Faber, who was out on a crate-diggin’ exploration of the American South. He was in the south of Florida when he came across a weatherbeaten busker bringin’ the blues on a steel guitar, tapping straight into the main source. He …
TRACK: Surprise Chef – ‘New Ferrari’: blaxploitation funk outta Melbourne heralds new LP
SURPRISE CHEF are a Melbourne collective cookin’ up a fine spread of secret instrumental grooves and sketches, and they’re laying the table to invite you over for their second outing for Mr Bongo, Daylight Savings. It’s the follow-up to their debut set, All News Is Good News: an album initially privately pressed, the run sold …
TRACK: The Native – ‘Chasing Highs’: a soaring guitar melody debut from Devon
PLYMOUTH, the city that gave us Sir Francis Drake playing bowls before nipping off to defeat the Spanish Armada, is launching a shot at our jack in the shape of new, soaring indie five-piece The Native, who are releasing their debut single “Chasing Highs” today. Have a listen below; it’s a big-hearted indie rocker that …
SEE: Wax Machine’s ‘Truth’: Brighton deep psych travellers announce tour dates
WAX MACHINE are a name you really ought to scribe on your albums wants list if you like your guitars, pyrotechnic; your spectrum, fully rainbow; your flutes, trilling. They released their debut LP, Earthsong of Silence on Beyond Beyond is Beyond in March, and it swirls with the psych colours and neckerchiefs of a London welcoming Hendrix to …
ALBUM REVIEW: Various Artists – ‘Long Division: New Addition Vol.2’: ten of the Wakefield fest’s best
WAKEFIELD’S Long Division Festival – now that’s a lovely little (and these days, really not so little) event in the West Yorkshire musical calendar. It was founded back in 2011 by the fanzine Rhubarb Bomb; festival director Dean Freeman cashed in his NHS pension to fund a happening that celebrated the pool of musical talent …
TRACK: Cabaret Voltaire – ‘Vasto’: first album for 20 years in November
AS UNEXPECTED developments in the world of eerie electronica go, the announcement of a new album for winter 2020 by Sheffield game-changers Cabaret Voltaire has to be up there. And it’s true: with Richard H Kirk the sole remaining member, the Cabs have announced that Mute will be releasing Shadow Of Fear on November 20th. …
SEE: Eels drop surprise new cut, ‘Baby Let’s Make It Real’
FULL of surprises, Mark Everitt’s Eels have just dropped an unexpected new single entitled “Baby Let’s Make It Real”, the result of recent sessions at the band’s studio in Los Feliz, California. It’s the first new music to emerge by the band since the release of their most recent album, The Deconstruction, two years ago. …
SEE: Beth Hirsch – ‘All I Need’ (ELIOT’s Cosmic Remix): Moon Safari classic stripped back and still gorgeous
IT’S entirely conceivable, I suppose, that you won’t know Beth Hirsch by name, but if you were at any kind of laidback all-back-to-mine or small hours session or summer blissout from summer 1998 on, it’s certain you know her glorious, honeyed tones. Why so? Twas Beth that gave her vocal grace to that absolute peak …
MEET: Psych-folkster Jeremy Tuplin talks surrealism, lockdown and Italy
JEREMY TUPLIN is a London-based singer-songwriter who, after a clutch of self-released EPs, first hoved into the wider collective psychedelic-folk eye on the back of last year’s whimsical, introspective and occasionally wonderfully absurdist Pink Mirror long player. Last week he released Violet Waves, a second LP, on which he’s schemed to turn it up a …
NEWS: Doves tease track from ‘The Universal Want’ – as sheet music!
YOU have to admit, it’s pretty much a stroke of genius. Just weeks before the release of Doves’ fifth album, The Universal Want, the Manchester trio has shared the album’s closing track, “Forest House”, but have left it to fans to work out how it sounds – by leaking the sheet music and lyrics. You wanna hear it, they’re saying: …