Claudio Conti - Long Branch - Harry Permezel
Background - Claudio Conti presents 'Blazing Lair' is the second single off his new album 'Garnet Dusk' album, out now via Seahorse Recordings. This follows up the earlier revealed single ‘Old Clouds Fell‘-. both tracks reel in a delightful ebb and flow, while the new single beautifully embodies California dreaming.
The new accompanying video was entirely filmed last September in Los Angeles, mainly in the West Hollywood and Venice areas in September 2017, this video was filmed and directed by Claudio Conti and Frederick Byron, who also edited it. The two previously cooperated on the video for ‘Old Clouds Fell‘, shot entirely in San Francisco and California's Bodega Head Beach.
The new film portrays the shadows and lights of Los Angeles, a city that has always been blessed, cursed, crowded and infested by artists, and who shape this luminous place with their greatness, their weaknesses, their achievments and their failures.
"L.A. is ambrosia, whispers and caresses of inspiration but also the kiss of death," says Claudio Conti. "To have artistic recognition there is the greatest challenge, the city of angels (or of lost angels) seems like the most dangerous and highest mountain to climb unharmed for any artist."
Claudio Conti is an Italian songwriter whose style is rooted in the same romantic pensiveness that mark the music of Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Gene Clark. and Tim Hardin. Largely drawn to psychedelic music, folk rock and 80's indie rock, he considers Gram Parsons, The Doors, The Smiths and early R.E.M. as his main influences. FACEBOOK.
'Blazing Lair' is a fine representation of the quality and beauty that is 'Garnet Dusk' a collection of fourteen magnificent songs. Claudio Conti's influences are wide ranging both in terms of artists and musical genres, and it is quite an achievement to take some of the best of those and carve out an album that is still very much his own work and styling. Expect quality, it's packed full of it.
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Background - Toronto/Honey Harbour band Long Branch releases their debut full-length album, Found the Setting Sun, May 25, 2018 on boutique label DWR, home to Michelle McAdorey's Polaris Prize long-listed album, Into Her Future.
Long Branch recorded Found the Setting Sun at Noble Street Studios throughout 2016-17 in a series of sessions helmed by Executive Producer Gavin Brown. Co-produced by Long Branch and Shaddy Roman, the album gathers ten songs from the group's repertoire, and expands on the sound the band first introduced to audiences with their self-released 7" single, "Lucky Me/Just in Case" in 2015.
Dead leaves, bare trees, redemption, and resurrection are embodied in the fuzz-fueled guitars, violin, and vocal harmonies of Long Branch's sound. Formed in 2014, the band is stacked five-high with members from beloved Canadian combos, Adaptor 45, Chicken Milk, The Good Family, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, and Venus Cures All.
Long Branch's sound emerges from a solid guitar bedrock, with haunting violin voicings and the layered harmonies of the band's four formidable frontwomen supported by nuanced, driving rhythms. Introspective, moody, and evocative, Long Branch songs are narratives of overcoming hardship. Yet the songs are hopeful: A whisper of sadness appears one moment only to be blown away by grit and determination. BANDCAMP.
A chunky rhythm is soon joined by some melodic guitar licks on 'Ash' which make a splendid backdrop for the refined and splendid vocals and harmonies. Indie rock of sorts and catchy throughout.
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Background - Melbourne-based artist Harry Permezel recently shared his new single "Bonehead". The track is the first to be released from his upcoming new album Wax Man, out 5/4 on Muscle Beach Records.
Wax Man, the sophomore album from Melbourne, Australia native Harry Permezel, is an intimate reflection of a twenty-something’s formative era of self discovery. The ten tracks flutter from introspective observance to guided narration on the forming and failing of relationships, uncertainties of the future, suburban isolation, and a hopeful foresight. The warm production of the record allows these themes to become illuminated with haunting harmonies, head-bobbing hooks, clockwork percussion, sporadic flecks of synthesizer, and crooning ruminations.
Learning guitar at a young age and have being influenced by his older brother, Permezel began to develop his sound at his parents' house in suburban Melbourne. After unearthing a set of his dad's old speakers in the garage, Permezel began to slowly build a home studio, where he would repeatedly find himself after long, hazy nights in the city with his friends. This home studio is where he eventually recorded and produced his self-titled debut, which was released in 2016 on the Oxford, MS based label Muscle Beach Records. Over the next two years, Harry and Muscle Beach kept in close contact, building a tight friendship and creative bond - a unique and deeply personal relationship between label and artist.
Wax Man is the result of incredible determination, self assurance, a deep knowledge of solitude, and a true appreciation of company. This meditation on loneliness, lessons learned, and optimism lingers long with the listener. TWITTER.
There is something of a laid back surf vibe to 'Bonehead' as it gently carves out it's way. Collectively understated and yet solid enough to grab my attention, it's the vocals that round things off and drive in those catchy hooks.
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