Native Harrow - The A.M.s - Brenda Carsey - Land Of Pure - The Darts
We are delighted to share the title track 'Old Kind of Magic', leading the way on the fifth long player from Native Harrow (their third for prestigious London based label, Loose). The album is described as "a sojourn on their passage between two lands; a luxuriant and fecund annunciation." Beehive Candy have featured them before and we were really impressed back then. Now we are blown away by the new collection of songs, both beautiful, thoughtful and wonderfully natural.
In the first days of 2021, the band known as Native Harrow landed seaside in Brighton, England. Its leaders, Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel, arrived with a few trunks worth of books, clothes, guitars, and microphones. Settling in at the very top of a crumbling regency building where the seagulls call to the sun's rise and fall each day, they thought “this is the perfect place to make a record.”
Immersing themselves in a new place filled with unfamiliar faces, sounds, and sights, the band fueled their creative voices on being strangers in a strange land and spent most of the year writing and recording the ten songs that would make up OKOM. From early mornings spent discovering the knurled hills of Albion and late nights dancing in London, to the quiet hum of building a home in the heart of the countryside, rediscovering love, letting go of things lost, taking a spiritual trip, riding the waves, and trudging through the mud to find freedom; this album spans a lifetime of lessons.
Harms and Tuel have self-produced a work that is simultaneously their most sweepingly expansive and delicately intimate album to date. It is at moments revelatory, and at others beautifully heartbreaking; a showcase of Tuel’s finest writing. Recording Old Kind of Magic themselves, they crafted an album that places itself distinctly between the two musicians and the tapestry of sounds they are regarded for.
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In 2019 on Piano Day, the 88th day of the year, Adrian happened to tune Mariko’s piano. He asked if she wanted to play together; she said maybe. Realizing she might be able to return to her long-lost passion, music, they connected and started rehearsing with the hopes of playing out. Before they ever got the chance he moved to California, and soon after COVID-19 shut everything down. But they kept playing and sending ideas. Now, with an extensive catalog of 50+ songs, they are releasing their first album, Ignite the Sky, recorded at Earwig Studio in Seattle, WA.
Ignite the Sky chronicles Mariko’s journey of finding her birth parents during COVID, while processing the events and struggles of 2020 in quarantine. The self-produced and mostly self-played collection of songs, save for their drummer, Jason Edwards, lends to the intimate nature of the album along with the acoustic instruments and vintage keys.
Using inspiration from nature, “Torn Vine” introduces others to the identity struggles of an adoptee, while “Biggest Wave” illustrates the immense weight of connecting to birth parents and discovering a love and loss so deep. The upbeat latin groove of “15,000 Days” isn’t what it seems at first–rather, it was 15,000 days that had passed until Mariko and her birth parents reunited once again. “Ignite the Sky” the title track, encompasses many themes across the band, adoption, and quarantine: distance, loss, hopelessness, separation, but ultimately faith that stars will align again for reconnection in the future.
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“Man of Mine” is the fourth and final single off of Brenda Carsey’s upcoming full-length studio album “Cognizance”. The song is a true Neo Soul/Jazz Pop song with delicious instrumentation that embodies the beauty and depth of a growing love. It begins with enticing and provocative notes of fleshy enjoyment and gives way to the kind of growing love that allows you to feel safe enough to be weak, to be seen, to be yourself and grow.
Carsey admits that she doesn’t usually write positive songs nor love songs but this song wrote itself and arose from the genuine gratitude she has for her partner. This song is for anyone and everyone who has ever experienced a deep feeling of love for someone. For your partner, your best friend, for your group, for yourself! All identities, all relationship styles – All love is beautiful! Let your love shine out into the world!
Brenda Carsey is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Her music has been described as brilliant, timeless, playful, and larger than life R&B/Soul and Progressive Pop. Carsey delivers an engaging, energetic show, with her unmistakably unique sound rooted in the classic pop diaspora. Carsey’s voice is uninhibited with a virtuosic range, mixing a syrupy sweet sound with a beautiful soulful darkness. She will stop you in your tracks with poetic lyrics, fluid melodies, engaging chord progressions, funky rhythms, and a voice filled with passion and soul. She has recently released three new singles, all from her much anticipated upcoming full-length album "Cognizance" which is set for release at the top of 2023.
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The style of the Zurich newcomer band Land of Pure could be described as alternative rock. And yet, with their instrumental diversity, they clearly go beyond the scope of this genre: in their songs you can hear jazz trumpet solos, Highlander flutes, Japanese kotos and Indian sitars and tablas. Mixed with 80s synth, the result is a very multifaceted and intense listening experience.
The Asian influences in the music are no coincidence - singer Aaron lived in Asia for over 10 years, where he worked in various aid projects and social business start-ups and processed what he experienced there as a songwriter. After a solo album in 2018, «Land of Pure» grew into a six-piece band that now has its first album on the way with «King of Nothing».
The slightly dreamy-melancholic and at the same time expressive single «Places Without Colors» raves about the colorful and chaotic cities of Asia. Anyone who has ever traveled through such big cities or even lived there knows the incredible fascination that such a city exerts. And the desire to return there again and again.
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The Darts formed in 2016 with the goal of making great all-girl garage-rock noise, seeing the world, and having a fab slumber party every night. They threw on some vintage black slips, threw off their shoes, and set out on the adventure.
In the first six months, they put out two self-produced EPs and signed with Dirty Water Records (UK). In the first year, the label put out their first full-length vinyl release, Me.Ow. They headed to Europe a bunch of times and never wanted to go home. But when they did, Dirty Water re-released the first two EPs as a second full-length vinyl, 'The Darts' and they toured all over the U.S. a bunch of times, with great bands like Australia’s The Living End and Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Longshot - and, once again, never wanted to go home. Their idols started noticing, including author Stephen King, actors Drew Carey and Fred Armisen, and punk legends Jello Biafra and Blag Dahlia, sometimes even coming to shows and getting on stage with us. Two years into the project, they were on bigger European stages like Sjockfest, Cosmic Trip, and Roots n Roses, with acts like Turbonegro, The Flaming Lips, and The Dead Kennedys.
In 2018, Jello Biafra signed the band to his label, Alternative Tentacles, and released their third full-length record, I Like You But Not Like That (2018 Alternative Tentacles Records), at a packed Punk Rock Bowling appearance in Las Vegas. They then embarked on an unforgettable coast-to-coast US tour with their heroes The Damned. They found themselves performing with bands like Rancid and L7, had songs placed on top tv shows like Peaky Blinders, got thrilling reviews in Rolling Stone, made a stop at Mexico City’s superb Hipnosis Fest, and then...the pandemic hit.
But even then, things didn’t stop. Vox hosted an Instagram Live show garnering over fifty thousand views, they played Punk Rock Bowling 2022, made their debut at Seattle’s uber-hip Freakout Fest, and recorded a new 7-inch for Adrenalin Fix Music, Dirty Water, Beluga, and Ghost Highway Recordings in Europe. By summer of 2022, we toured all over the US again, performed on the legendary KEXP Sessions, and finished recording a new full-length record (funded entirely by fans) co-produced by Jello Biafra himself. Snake Oil will be released on Alternative Tentacles in early 2023. European tours are lined up well into next year...and work is already beginning on the next record.
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