The Noise Figures - Leitvox - Josh Rouse - Steph Fischer-Ivancsy - Guts Club
Background - Two and a half years after Aphelion, the Athens-based drums-guitar duo of George Nikas (vocals, drums) and Stamos Bamparis (guitar) return more frenetic than ever with their third full-length studio work entitled Telepath. It's set to arrive on March 2nd via Inner Ear Records. Check out the first two singles and the entire album below.
Inspired by the theory of spiritualism and influenced by personal experiences, Telepath is an intoxicated concept album, with intensively sobering attention to detail in every single track, revealing a different side of the band's personality and crossing all the paths the duet from Greece has traveled so far, from heavy blues to psych garage to a fuzz vertigo.
With its swinging moods of bright to dark undertones, the album sounds sharper than ever, with more energy, intensity and tuneful sensibility, capturing the band's hundreds of live performances and touring thrust. With Alex Bolpasis' stamp on production and mixing, The Noise Figures develop the artistic freedom they have cultivated over the years, while keeping their primitive spirit of raw guitar and drum sound intact.
From the opening of Lethargy the track with the massive tribal drumbeat and the loyal-to-fuzz Anatolian guitar riffage, The Noise Figures welcome us to the dreamy delirium they intensively describe in their lyric sheet and sink us into a ritual vortex of hypnotism.
"Telepath" was the first song we composed and recorded during the demo sessions of our third album. Without even knowing where these demos would lead us, we actually had the whole concept of it before the birth of it, just trying out a groove ideal for the gigs and trippy, psychic lyrics. As we were jamming it we came across "Hypnotized", a slow-burning ritual of hypnotism, and it became one track split in two parts." FACEBOOK.
The Noise Figures present us with two tracks 'Lethargy' and 'Telepath/Hypnotized'. The bands psych, rock and blues styles are merged into some powerful music, where the atmosphere is intense and the rhythms are intoxicating as their material marches ever onwards, at times in a near trance like state.
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Background - Miami based producer Leitvox is back with his new single "Black Feather", an energetic and dreamy composition featuring a danceable beat and floating vocals. "Black Feather" switches up in between genres of synthwave, house and vocal electronic, all while being one cohesive track running through a musical realm. The single is the second release of Leitvox's upcoming EP Coded Matter.
On vocals is Emma Fox, an incredibly talented vocalist that has teamed up with him before on tracks such as "Two Tribes", off his previous full length Floating Promises. "I really can hear my strongest influences on this composition, from NIN to Jean-Michel Jarre. Emma does an amazing work with such elegant vocals, they take the track into a very surreal world." - Leitvox
Leitvox is a Mexican producer and composer based in Miami. He works out of his own studio in Wynwood, and has been working on his and other peoples music since arriving 2013. FACEBOOK.
It was back in November 2016 that we last featured Leitvox, coincidentally on a track that also featuring Emma Cox. 'Black Feather' is another notable song where the vocals drift above a swirl of synths and steady beats, indeed the music is cleverly arranged with layers building and ebbing away, this is addictive.
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Background - "Salton Sea" is the third track off Rouse's new album Love in the Modern Age, out April 13, via Yep Roc Records. Similar to his work on his album 1972 where he captured the aesthetics of a specific moment in time, Josh’s new album Love in the Modern Age takes inspiration from the sound and production of early 1980's releases by The Blue Nile, The Style Council and Prefab Sprout.
Also serving as inspiration were Roxy Music’s Avalon, Leonard Cohen's Various Positions and I'm Your Man. Non-ironic touches like sax, handclaps, reverbed guitar, backing vocals and keyboards give the moody but infectious songs a New Romantic flair.
Josh Rouse has solidified his status as one of his generation's most acclaimed songwriters in both the US and Europe, where he's lived on and off since 2004. Spending the better part of a year touring behind his critically acclaimed eleventh album, The Embers of Time, Rouse was ready for a change.
"Coming off such a heavy record, I wanted to try something different," he explains. "I wanted to explore new sounds and write with a fresh backdrop." Trading in his trusty acoustic guitar for a synthesizer, Love in the Modern Age still bears Rouse's distinct fingerprints even as it pushes his limits and forges a bold new chapter more than twenty years into his celebrated career. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.
Back in January we shared 'Businessman' from Josh Rouse and now we have 'Salton Sea' also taken from his forthcoming 'Love in the Modern Age' album. It's another refined and catchy song, the vocals are classy and the music has hints of the eighties albeit with a flourish of more modern production techniques that just add so much more.
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Background - Steph Fischer-Ivancsy’s unique brand of blues is a throbbing, stomping, wailing blast cut through with a voice that will bring you to your knees. After beginning her solo career in 2015 this young singer-songwriter has secured numerous residencies, toured alongside Melbourne blues legend Shaun Kirk, and brought her powerful energy to festivals and pubs throughout Victoria and New South Wales. Warning Signs is the latest single from Steph.
Warning Signs features heavy and gritty guitars, chillingly unique vocals with booming drums and a powerful blues-rock element topped off with harmonica. Warning Signs has a few messages behind it; being cautious of getting to know people but not to listen to all the lies about a person; not dwelling on the hard times and realising mistakes are okay.
“There’s a whole bunch of things in this song. It’s all about realising it’s okay to stuff up every once in a while, but we just need to keep going and to not always believe the lies people tell. Also to be cautious because we never really know someone.” - Steph Fischer-Ivancsy
Warning Signs was recorded at Kelsonic Studios Melbourne, Australia and produced, engineered and mastered by Mark Kelson.
To hear Steph play is to listen to hard times and heartache engage with the raw energy of a young woman full of fire. She backs her incredible voice with an arsenal of guitars, played with finger-slide, and the driving beat of stomp-box and tambourine. By combining the timelessness of swampy slide-guitar with a burning youthful force Steph has carved out a sound all her own. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.
Upcoming Shows:
12th April – Hume Blues Club, Coburg
28th April – Jamieson Autumn Festival, Jamieson (Supporting Shaun Kirk)
12th May – Baby Black Café, Bacchus Marsh (Supporting Shaun Kirk).
Some gorgeous bluesy vocals make 'Warning Signs' attention grabbing from the beginning and the music has power and plenty of natural rock & roll vibes to it, this is potent and very catchy.
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Background - RIP Records has released a brand new Guts Club track, "Mustard Tears" as part of their RIP Introduces Series. This new single is the first to be heard from Guts Club's upcoming third album, which is due out sometime this summer.
Musician and visual artist Lindsey Baker self-released her solo debut album, The Arm Wrestling Tournament, in February 2015 and it caught a lot of ears. In a review from Tiny Mix Tapes they said “Baker carries a guitar the way Robert Frost carried a hatchet: as a tool through which tension and rage can be released,” and Paste said “The Brooklyn singer and songwriter behind Guts Club sings with piercing emotional intensity.”
She’s since moved from Brooklyn to New Orleans, where she recorded her second album Shit Bug, released on Moderate Fidelity Records on July 1, 2016. Baker brought along a band for Sht Bug and has since preformed with a rotating cast of musicians and friends.
While The Arm Wrestling Tournament dealt mostly with dark, obsessive love, the themes of Sht Bug further define Baker’s ongoing narrative about coming to terms with otherness and alienation via with her own brand of cosmic gloom. A third and fully electric album is just being wrapped up with a release date sometime in the spring or summer of 2018. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.
Upcoming Shows:
March 7 New Orleans, LA at Hi-Ho Lounge
March 13 Austin, TX at Marriott South (Solo Acoustic Second Play Stage Set)
March 16 Austin, TX at Voodoo Doughnut
March 17 Austin, TX at Cheer Up Charlies (Indoor Stage) Official WolfieVibes Publicity Showcase.
There is some warm roots feeling to 'Mustard Tears', a passionate and majestic song where the musicianship gently turns out layers of melody, making a perfect backdrop for the emotional and definitive vocals.
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