See: Rowan – ‘Everybody Talks’: a big indie-rock teaser for the Cork trio’s July EP
A TRIO hailing from Cork with a bright indie-rock future hoving into view, Rowan have signed with the Los Angeles indie Beverly Martel and are gearing up for the release of their EP, Everybody Talks, on July 23rd; and they’ve dropped a video for the slow-burn melodies of the title track today. Have a gander …
Track: The Mountain Goats drop ‘The Slow Parts On Death Metal Albums’ and announce a tour Stateside
IS IT time that John Darnielle’s purveyors of the great Americana dream, The Mountain Goats, received an award for industry? In the accursed year of our Lord, 2020, when the virus came and we all suddenly became rather better acquainted with the insides of our houses and our heads than most of us could ever …
See: David Devant & His Spirit Wife – ‘Putting My Demons To Bed’: eccentric, theatrical Brighton popsters return with their fourth album in July
CASTING an eye back over the Britpop years, there was a little subset of bands which decided to forego the tracksuits, the bulldogs and the lager to explore the headier possibilities offered in the grand, beautiful, theatrical pop as framed by Pulp and The Divine Comedy, and who never quite garnered the recognition they deserved …
Track: Craig John Davidson – ‘Down At Dawn’: a baroque-indie ballad with a delicate centre from the Granite City
BASED in the Granite City, Aberdeen, Craig John Davidson is a singer-songwriter and producer who reveals a softer side to the oil-rich, quartz-heavy surrounds of the city. He’s just released a lovely, piano and fingerpicking-led baroque-pop ballad, “Down At Dawn”, which you can hear below. Plaintive and with a gentle freshness like summer dawn rain, it’s graceful …
Track: Paranoid London – ‘The State Of That’: delectably dark dancefloor banger tees up their new EP
PARANOID LONDON, the shadowy two-piece of Quinn Whalley and Gerardo Delgado, who understand all the right things about what makes dancefloor culture so righteous and necessary and addictive – it should be perfumed with sweat and shadows and melody and mantric thrum and hell, you can’t beat a little acid, and it should have space …
See: Horror in Clay – ‘Bring Out Your Dead’: a dark shoegaze grace pervades the first drop from their June cassette EP for MUZAI
IT’S SHIMMERING, it’s languorous, with a classically rousing indie glow, a clicky bass propelling it forward as guitars and keyboards combine in a glitter that’s part shoegazey, part classic-era Chills or the like. A But wait, what’s that going on lyrically, sung so sweetly; the old plague slogan, “bring out your dead?” And then it …
Album review: Sarah Neufeld – ‘Detritus’: a tour-de-force of violin catharsis that pushes out to post-rock
SUPPLYING the power of her violin to Arcade Fire from their breakthrough smash Neon Bible on; founding member of exploratory instrumental sextet Bell Orchestre, alongside Richard Parry, whose career has run contiguously with the former band; solo artist in her own right, Sarah Neufeld has her fingers in many Canadian musical pies. Initially releasing her …
Album review: ROY -‘Roy’s Garage’: a magic carpet ride around the psychedelic pop globe
ROY does nothing exactly new with Roy’s Garage, but he does everything with a deft touch and real understanding. If you love British and American psych circa 1966 to 1968, has many an album on Bam Caruso, Edsel, Sundazed, then you should embrace this record wholeheartedly; if your experience of this particular era of psych – before what scientists call the Iron Butterfly event horizon, when pop melody and brain-feeding sonic exploration sit in balance on the scales and before the freakout totally becomes the event – then this album is a great gateway drug. ROY knows. You’d be wise to let him guide you through. It’s time to make a little more room in your psychedelic pop-lovin’ heart for him.
News: The Nivens are the latest to get a loving and lovely Optic Nerve 7″ repress with ‘Yesterday’
OPTIC NERVE, the Preston label which is repressing indie 7″s with love and care in its singles series, version 3.0 of which is with us now, have just added a single by Northumberland indiepoppers The Nivens to its canon. In recent times, the label has brought us reissues of The House of Love’s “Christine”, Revolving …
Track: Gizelle Smith – ‘Better Remember’ (They’re Controlling You)’: stellar conscious soul winds us towards her album
STELLAR frontwoman of the excellent funk freestylers The Mighty Mocambos Gizelle Smith has followed up her out-there-in-orbit cover of Kate Bush’s “King Of The Mountain” with a double drop of conscious, expansive, neo-psychedelic soul, “Better Remember (They’re Controlling You)” and “Miss World (Less Is More)”; and we’ve got that digital A-side for you to listen …