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SEE: John Paul Keith – ‘How Can You Walk Away’: raunchy soul blues lament gets visuals
WE’VE taken a look at this before here at Backseat Mafia, but at that point it was visually denuded as you might say: and given it’s a bit of a raunchy simmer in terms of tuneage, we’ve more than happy to go around the block one more time for John Paul Keith’s “How Can You …
SEE: Danny Elfman – ‘Sorry’: high, scouring prog-industrial from soundtrack giant
IT WAS quite a thing when ANTI- secured the signature of globe-straddling modern soundtrack composer extraordinaire Danny Elfman last year; yep, the Sunset Boulevard-based label which brings us Andy Shauf, Yves Jarvis, M. Ward, Jolie Holland, Fleet Foxes et al, teaming up with the man behind the theme from The Simpsons and soundtracks to such …
SEE: Cassandra Jenkins – ‘Michelangelo’: subtle, haunting Americana
NEW YORK folkie Cassandra Jenkins has stepped away from the world of self-releasing on her own Cassandra Complex imprint to ink her signature for Brooklyn’s Ba Da Bing, which imprint – sometime home to Damon & Naomi and Comets On Fire, among others – hosts her second album, the detached, observational beauty of An Overview …
SEE: The Telescopes – ‘Strange Waves’: languid, dirty and all the good things
STEPHEN LAWRIE’S The Telescopes are old hands at this beautifully dirty, scuzzy psych-rock game – but don’t think for a second that means they’ve lost an ounce of potency, as illustrated by their forthcoming album Songs Of Love And Revolution, out at the beginning of February. You would be so wrong, so wrong. The band …
SEE: John Smith – ‘Friends’: honey-voiced folk salutes those dear to us
A SIMPLE name, perhaps, but far from simple tunesmithery: John Smith is coming into 2021 with positivity and a grab-bag of songs to beguile you. Essex born but raised on the Devon coast, he’s earned his crust previously as a session musician, lending his chops and precision to bigger names across the globe, such as …
SEE: Tamar Aphek – ‘Russian Winter’: power trio scorcher will thaw your January
SHE’S pretty much already Tel Aviv’s favourite guitar-wielding daughter, Tamar Aphek; and if you like your power trios full of flame and energy and neo-psych atmospheres akin to the Jimi Hendrix Experience upon arrival in London – make no mistake, Tamar, bassist Uri Ketner and drummer Yuval Garin are hellish tight – then they will …
SEE: Jon Mueller – ‘Welcome’: glorious drone textures from Wisconsin
WISCONSIN musician? Sound artist? Explorer? Curator? – all of these things, Jon Mueller is always seeking new confluences of thought and sound. He may be best known to you as part of Volcano Choir, in which he lined up alongside Justin Vernon of Bon Iver to push out the boundaries of alt.rock into weirder, treated shapes, employing …
SEE: Cathal Coughlan – ‘Song Of Co-Aklan’: Cork’s devilish genius is once more to the breach
CATHAL COUGHLAN, the devilish genius behind such acts as Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions, has always been a joyous thorn in the side of Irish alternative music; erudite, scathing, never afraid to tread his own, rockier path. He’s been away a decade – how did that happen? – yep, the last missive from Cathal-land was …
SEE: The monochrome video for The Lathums’ ‘Foolish Parley’
BE SURE: if 2020 didn’t stop ’em, it’s pretty unlikely that whatever weird curveballs 2021 has to bowl at us, this year won’t trouble the rise of Wigan’s new favourite guitar pop sons, The Lathums. They’re ready and willing in the blocks, and the crack of the starting pistol for this year is the noir …
SEE: Flux Amuck – ‘Caterpillar’: ragin’ into ’21
AS 2021 draws back the curtains, stretches, yawns – looks for a better world ahead – it’s hit full on in the face by a sudden, piercing shaft of light in the form of Nebraska’s Flux Amuck, and “The Caterpillar”, their first new blast since 2019’s album, The Alternate. If you like your guitars full …