Folk
News: German electronic/folk duo Milky Chance announce Australian / New Zealand tour
German folk electronic duo Milky Chance are returning to Australia and New Zealand next January 2024 in celebration of their latest album ‘Living In A Haze’ – presented by Untitled Group & XIII Touring. They will be performing to audiences across the country along with festival spots at Party in the Paddock and Vintage Vibes. …
Premiere: Layperson sifts through the wreckage of heartbreak on bruised yet triumphant second album ‘Massive Leaning’
Existing as a trans person in 2023 is itself an act of reclamation, resistance, discovery and—above all—self-acceptance, so it could be said that Portland’s Julian Morris has been well-placed to write a record like this. All these things are cornerstones of the narrative arc surrounding the release of his second album as Layperson. Massive Leaning …
Premiere: Winter Starlings alight with yearning elegance on new single ‘My Own Fairytale’.
We are overjoyed to premiere the new single ‘My Own Fairytale’ from Sydney band Winter Starlings. It’s a track with more sparkle than the sunlight on the Sydney Harbour with a yearning refrain and jangling guitars. There is a delicate air of poignancy drawn from personal experience. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Robin Fitzgerald says of …
News: Superstar South African Cellist And Singer Abel Selaocoe To Tour The UK In Autumn 2023
Hugely acclaimed South African cellist, singer and composer Abel Selaocoe, who has continued his meteoric rise to global stardom during the first half of 2023 with a string of prestigious performances and collaborations, award wins, rave reviews, accolades and honours, has announced a six-date UK tour with his Bantu Ensemble. Featuring Alan Keary (bass), Fred Thomas (piano) and …
Album Review: Bishopskin – Babble
By Mimi Nicholson Bishopskin’s debut album Babble is almost liturgical, with its invocation of religious life and manyrepeated motifs. Rooted sonically in the traditions of folk-revival and London’s post-punk music scene,its thematic wellspring includes Romanticism, medieval mysticism and the Christian Bible. Thiseclecticism carries into the band’s aesthetic; unlike the sleek sexiness you might find in …
Premiere: Will Knox Sends A Healing Balm With Stripped Back Version Of ‘Instant Coffee’
London born now Netherlands based singer songwriter Will Knox has shared a beautiful striped-back acoustic version of his latest single ‘Instant Coffee’ taken from his forthcoming debut album due for release Autumn 2024. We here at Backseat Mafia are very pleased to be premiering the video for the track. Produced by Ian Grimble (Daughter, Bear’s Den, Matt …
Album Review: It’s ‘A Beautiful Waste of Time’ for the Italian troubadour An Early Bird – a veritable triumph in ethereal majesty.
You know exactly what to expect from Italian troubadour An Early Bird – the work of auteur pop folkster Stefano Di Stefano whose career Backseat Mafia has followed with close attention since our birth when we lauded his band Pipers back in 2013 and then his solo stuff under the name. Di Stefano has shown …
Track: Jozef Van Wissem – The Call Of The Death Bird (Feat Hilary Woods)
Dutch lute player and composer Jozef Van Wissem has announced his forthcoming new album ‘The Night Dwells in the Day’, set for release on the 19th of January via Incunabulum Records. Along with the announcement Wissem has shared the video for the album’s first single ‘The Call Of The Death Bird’. He has also announced an extensive European tour …
Track: Amigo The Devil – Cannibal Within
Alternative Americana star Amigo the Devil (aka Danny Kiranos) has shared his brand new single ‘Cannibal Within’. The track is taken from his third studio album, ‘Yours Until The War Is Over’, due early next year. Self-produced and recorded in a backwoods bar-turned-studio, the banjo-driven ‘Cannibal Within’ is a song of honesty without pity and …
Album Review: Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden : a powerful and poetic jazz saga.
Jazz composer, saxophonist and visual-artist Matana Roberts powerful and profound Coin Coin album series has reached its fifth chapter with the release of harrowingly resonant ‘In the Garden’ via Montreal’s Constellation Records. The album continues Roberts’ resolute commitment to a twelve-part song cycle which began in 2011 with ‘Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur …