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SEE: XIXA – ‘Genesis Of Gaea’: desert rock groove with superstition announces Tucsonians’ second
TOTING a very fine line in dusty, Latin American/goth/soundtrack-informed desert rock and coming atcha out of Tucson, Arizona, men in black XIXA are ready to roll out the follow-up to their fine 2016 LP, Bloodline. It’s called Genesis, it’s suited and booted and ready for release on February 19th next year; but shield your eyes …
SEE: Sophie Jamieson – ‘Release’: a stunning folktronic search for feeling
FIVE YEARS away from music – but Sophie Jamieson has lost not a jot of her musical acuity. A recording session all that time ago collapsed leaving Sophie uncertain after her lauded debut EP, Where; self-doubt built upon self-doubt and she retreated. But she’s dusted herself down, going on tour with Charlie Cunningham across Europe …
ALBUM REVIEW: Yves Jarvis – ‘Sundry Rock Song Stock’: a thrilling solo quirk-psych vision
WHEN historians of future days come to write up the glowering all-round evils of 2020, they will, hopefully, take note of one glimmering shaft of light through the fog-plague; how great the sphere of quirky Canadian music has been this year. There’s been another sonically luxuriant missive from Montreal’s Braids in the shape of Shadow …
SEE: The Green Child’s ‘Fashion Light’: woozy and intelligent psych-synth melodies
RAVEN MAHON and Mikey Young began making beautiful music together after a chance encounter at a gig in her home state of California; at the time they were both in other bands, Raven in Grass Widow, who had an LP out on the koool Kill Rock Stars; Mikey as a member of Australian post-punk synthers …
SEE: the video for Kinbote’s ‘Hiemalis’: pretty, sampledelic glitch-pop teases December debut
A PRETTY, chopping, sampled sound source lays the foundation stone; a soft shuffle of percussion dovetails, and we see Matt Gibb, aka Kinbote, walking wistfully through the dunes; he’s very well turned out in trad tweed and tie “I’ll go walking in the winter, I’ll go walking in the winter / If you want I’ll …
SEE: the video for Adam Beattie’s ‘Somewhere Round The Bend’: dark songwriting for witching-hour whisky
ADAM BEATTIE is an Aberdeenshire balladeer with a dark, twangy musical beauty and an unflinching way with a starkly observed lyric. You may not know him as a solo artist, but he’s been busy in a collaborative sense if you follow the folk world; he’s one quarter of the band Pica Pica, alongside Josienne Clarke, …
See: Marveline release video for single ‘Turpentine’
Give your aural and ocular entry points a thorough cleansing with the fabulous new single ‘Turpentine’ from Sydney’s marvelous Marveline. This is a song so infectious you will need to self isolate a lot more than the mandatory fourteen days. This is off Marveline’s tremendous album ‘Savoury-toothed Tiger’ reviewed by me earlier this year, describing …
PREMIERE: See the video for Arch Garrison’s ‘Open My Eye’: warm psych-country track trails tomorrow’s LP; live stream news
ARCH GARRISON, the ‘other’ project of North Sea Radio Orchestra’s Craig Fortnam, have a rather lovely album of pastoral psych-folk, The Bitter Lay, out tomorrow on Believer’s Roast. It’s an album steeped in the landscape of the chalk downs; of spindle-whorls turned up by the plough, of seemingly endless old drove roads cresting the ridges; …
SEE: Neil Cowley’s ‘Eureka Pulse’: solo piano grace from new triptych of EPs
NEIL COWLEY is someone who has lived and breathed music his whole life. He took on a Shostakovich piano concerto at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall at the age of 10; not so many years later he developed a reputation as a go-to pianist and keyboardist in British funk, working with Zero 7, Gabrielle and The …
ALBUM REVIEW: El Ten Eleven – ‘Tautology’: ambitious, thrilling post-rock triple set from LA duo
YOU have to admire the scope and ambition of Los Angeles postrock duo El Ten Eleven, who are about to release their eighth full-length LP, Tautology, on September 18th. You certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. They’ve been releasing it bit by bit in the digital world for months now: Tautology I …