premiere
PREMIERE: Modern Hinterland – ‘California (August 16th 1998)’: some much-needed Americana sun
CHRIS HORNSBY’S Americana outfit Modern Hinterland are all set to release their new album, Diving Bell, on January 29th – almost a year to the day since their last, The Longest Part Of The Night. Chris and the band, Simon Shippey, Tim Thackray and Colin Marshall, found a new creative level, laying down the album …
PREMIERE: Farmer Dave & The Wizards of the West – ‘Right Vibration’: Beachwood Sparks man right back in the psych saddle
FARMER DAVE SCHER may be better known to you from the string of excellent bands he’s both been in and collaborated with down the years. He was a member of brilliant West Coast country-psych outfit Beachwood Sparks, who took on Sade’s “By Your Side” and completely won (and actually chaps, while we’re here, could we …
PREMIERE: Post Moves – ‘Bob’s Peace In West Texas’: exploring the distorted bliss of the pedal steel
IF YOU’RE an avid reader of these pages, you’ll have come across Sam Wenc only recently in connection with RON, the very fine textural ambient twosome he forms exactly one half of in connection with Carl Laukkanen; and whose “What Can The Feeling” we were more than a little pleased to premiere a few weeks …
PREMIERE: See the video for KJ & The Fox’s ‘Never Gone Hill’
KJ & THE FOX is the glimmering, shimmering indie project of Keith Johns Adams, who’s been releasing fun and beguiling, raw ‘n’ folksy indie tunesmithery for a while now as just himself (check out “Roughhousing”, which pitches itself at a lovely point partway between Billy Bragg and Hefner). He’s now happily ensconced with the his …
PREMIERE: Nancy Gaffield and The Drift – ‘Song Of The Shingle’: Kent’s High Weald evoked in music and poem
THERE’S been a little upswell in recent times of interesting and brilliantly evocative collaborations exploring the spoken word and the poetic, and how that plays against music. Slowly unfolding atmospheres, words chosen carefully, set to reduce to a fine and rich sauce, every syllable counting. The touchstone for me is Will Burns and Hannah Peel’s …
PREMIERE: Kazumichi Komatsu – ‘Orca’: textural dreamstate IDM
KAZUMICHI KOMATSU is a Japanese electronicist and multi-media artist who you can place quite firmly in a grand tradition of sonic playfulness and interrogation that also includes microsound artist Ryoji Ikeda (with whom he’s shared a stage – as well as The Field and Julia Holter) and the free-roaming IDM of Susumu Yokota. He’s been …
Premiere: Dumb Whales release chiming indie pop single ‘The Great Divide’
We are honoured to premiere the new single ‘The Great Divide’ from Melbourne-based indie band Dumb Whales. It’s an absolute thumping track: chiming, razor-sharp guitars carve their way over a steady and thunderous rhythm section featuring a rousing anthemic chorus and fulsome melodies. This is classic indie rock fashioned from sparkling guitars and celestial melodies. …
PREMIERE: Gefahrgeist’s ‘Graceless’ is a soaring, twinkling debut
WE LOVE new and upcoming bands here at Backseat Mafia. It keeps us going, looking for that next band or song that just stops you dead and totally rearranges both your brain chemistry and your day. Isn’t that the gift of music? Ladies and gents, please be upstanding to welcome aboard the delicious rollercoaster of …
PREMIERE: Lloyd Miller – ‘Dystopia Wind Dance’: spiritual beauty from master of Persian jazz
LLOYD MILLER is a polyglot, fluent in English, French, Persian and Dari, that being the Afghani Persian tongue; getting by in German, Swedish, and a few other languages; a multi-instrumentalist, reportedly at ease with three figures’ worth of different instruments at the last count; and a true statesman of not just jazz, but spiritual, Eastern …
Premiere: Pat Jaffe releases gorgeous video for title track ‘Eldorado’ off his debut classical album.
We are delighted to be given the opportunity to premiere the video for the title track of Australian pianist/composer Pat Jaffe‘s debut album ‘Eldorado’. Unusually for us, this is a classical piece but one of such delicacy and charm that makes it enchanting for anyone who appreciates great music. ‘Eldorado’ has an inherent enigmatic and …