Indie
Track: Bandicoot – ‘Dark Too Long’: bringing the glammy punk to Libertino
WHO ARE Bandicoot? Is the question on your lips, and even their own, if you judge by their social media handle across the various platforms. Their new single for Libertino, “Dark Too Long”, out on February 26th, helps reveal a little more. Out today and embedded below, they’ve certainly got the rock ‘n’ roll; guitars …
ALBUM REVIEW: Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Memphis-born Julien Baker returns with her haunting, ballad-filled 3rd studio album, that you would have to be oblivious to not be enamoured with. In her first solo album since Turn out the lights in 2017, Julien Baker is showing that she is back and better than ever before with a slowcore, self-produced album that is …
Album Review: Smith And Burrows – Only Smith And Burrows Is Good Enough
It’s been some nine years since Tom Smith and Andy Burrows delivered their bleak winter masterpiece ‘Funny Looking Angels’. Now the duo return treating us to another full length release of 10 tracks of their unique brand of songwriting. The album Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough sees both musicians writing and fulfilling instrumental duties. …
Premiere: Balcony’s Paradise release laid back cover ‘It Must Be True Love’
Balcony’s Paradise are premiering their cover of the Toots and the Maytals song ‘It Must Be True Love’ – a version so laid back it’s almost supine. There is a beautiful rawness to this track – background chattering intrude and the structure and framework are relaxed and cool. Balcony’s Paradise have bottled in sound the …
Album review: Cheval Sombre – ‘Time Waits For No One’: a luxuriant, timeless and meditative return
Time Waits For No One is not without its darknesses, its sadnesses, but they’re approached with the calm, supplicant grace that sits right in the heart of such feelings; and it is bloody beautiful. It’s an amulet, a perfect prescription; you can use it to ward off the world. Really, do
Track: Resplandor – ‘Adore’: exceptional shoegaze from the Netherlands, via Lima
IF YOU love the way shoegaze can really thrill, really transport, with that amazing combination of sweetly abrasive guitar and blurry, beautiful vocals – less the dream pop thing, for all its joys, I mean the real heartwood, that surge and the gleam that can’t help but induce ecstasy – then you really want to …
Premiere: Damien Binder follows up his indie anthem ‘Here It Is’ with a brilliant and evocative video
Damien Binder‘s anthemic track ‘Here It is’ was recently premiered by Backseat Mafia – in my review I wrote it was an extremely satisfying indie rock track with a hint of swagger and a dash of melancholic yearning. And I naturally wholeheartedly endorse those views. Binder has followed this up with a really clever and …
Premiere: Tim Kile releases the affecting indie pop of ‘My Medicine’
Out today is ‘My Medicine, the fifth single to be taken from the forthcoming debut album ‘These things are being gathered for the fire’, from former Wild Light and Arcade Fire co-founder Tim Kile, and we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. Although its a beautifully affecting slice …
Album Review: Bradford release ‘Bright Hours’: a magnificent follow-up to ‘Shouting Quietly’, 31 years on
SOME things change and some stay the same. Whereas before, with debut album Shouting Quietly, there was a car journey home from nearby Loughborough, Left-Legged Pineapple bag strewn on the floor, I pored over the lyrics typed onto the inside sleeve, studied who played what, did what, wrote what and where; anticipation building, found the …