Saturday Seven: KingIV - Preampcity - Dolce - Strange Americans - Desert Mountain Tribe - ACES - Hundreds

KingIV - Like I'm Back.

Background - After rousing industry attention with her debut single 'No. One', Melbourne artist KingIV makes a heady return with 'Like I'm Back', and was officially released yesterday.

'Like I'm Back' heralds a more intricate approach for KingIV, whose bold previous single 'No. One' was spun on triple j's Good Nights. Intoxicating and breathless, but never falling too far into its own darkness, KingIV's latest offering delicately spins a world shaped by obsession.

Synths undulate and warp in a fitting mimicry of disorienting internal tension; testament to KingIV's innate ability to capture honest human emotion with electronic sound. Equal parts push and pull, inky and exhilarant, 'Like I'm Back' ultimately speaks from a platform of strength and self-possession. Facebook here.

The vocals provide the melody and the soundtrack adds rhythm and atmosphere making 'Like I'm Back' a very fine electro pop song, that's full of hooks.

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Preampcity - Mon Amie.

Background - Pre Amp City are a joyful and unexpected conundrum. A band that are difficult to define or pigeon-hole, much to their delight. Featuring incredibly talented artists and musicians from across Europe, their combined musical style is a venn diagram of genres and experiences, but each song contains hooks and instrumentalism that would make any pop/rock writer and producer sizzle with envy. The new single “Mon Amie” (out 22/02) is a light-hearted, sunshine pop number with ambient echoes of 80s influence in its delivery. It is melodic pop that lifts your spirits in every way and turns the corners of your mouth upwards. It only takes two listens and you are well and truly hooked.
 
Pre Amp City consists of musicians from Wales, Ireland, France, Spain, Germany and England. Their debut album “Escape” will be released in the spring, combined with the release of another single. Their debut single “No More” received critical acclaim, due to its poignant lyrics and evocative, no-holds-barred, politically influenced video. Band members include Fischer Z (John Watts), Pete Delgado, Katy Dann and John Constantine, all of which are the crème de la crème of bespoke artists and sessions musicians across the continent. This pool of talent has created a sound and production that is second to none. Facebook here.

Right from the opening moments 'Mon Amie' signals your in for some vibrant upbeat music, that is delivered with style. Vocals are enticing, the music playful and the overall feeling is wonderful.

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Dolce - Vänder Vrider.

Background - Umeå (Sweden) based Dolce has only existed as a band for about 2 years but has already been hailed in Swedish and international media, such as NME, Noisey, Festivalrykten (SWE) och Swedish radio. The Debut EP ”Gröna Höjder” (Green Heights) showed a naked, unadorned sound and Dolce hit the roads with the EP in the trunk. They toured with Amason, played SXSW in the US, Way Out West in Gothenburg, Sweden amongst many other praised concerts in Sweden. 

Next up was studio time with the producer Mattias Glavå (Dungen, Håkan Hellström i.a.) to record their debut album ”Av Liv och Grönska” (of Life and Greenery). Now, several months later, we get the first taste of a playful and incredibly beautiful album

The single ”Vänder, vrider" is the second single from the upcoming album "Av liv och grönska" Facebook here.

'Vänder Vrider' is a rich indie pop song, where the distinct and tempting vocals are supported by an increasingly expansive swirling musical soundtrack.

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Strange Americans - Big Black Car.

Background - Strange Americans release the first single from their upcoming third full length album 'Borrow You, Brother. The new track, "Big Black Car" is presented with a Bonnie & Clyde inspired video which Atwood said "captur[es] the voice of those who live for tomorrow and aspire for a better life."

"Set to a somewhat more lighthearted-but-still-rock, sometimes noisey soundscape, "Big Black Car" takes a joking-but-serious, pointed perspective on income inequality." explains singer Matt Hoffman, "A street-dwelling homeless person dreams up manufacturing a successful appearance and identity, occasionally slipping in and out of reality and the headaches of poverty."

Musically, Strange Americans’ third full-length album, 'Borrow You, Brother' remains committed to the general guitar-driven, blue-collar Americana rock element that permeates their earlier releases. This latest album, however, diverges in subtle ways : from the keys to the drums, bass and guitars, the sounds, tones and parts are more explorative. At times this means dynamic restraint, craft, control and beauty ; at others it means total freedom, chaos and noise.

Strange Americans will tour this month, with dates in Austin during SXSW, (see Beehive Candys tour page). Facebook here.

The music is slick, the vocals even slicker as 'Big Black Car' confidently strides along. Americana rock, there is enough edge to the track to give it a natural and addictive feel throughout.

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Desert Mountain Tribe - Enos In Space (Top Of The World) Youth Mix.

Background - London based psych rock trio Desert Mountain Tribe are releasing a new single. ‘Enos In Space (Top Of The World)’ has been mixed by multiple award winning producer Youth and heralds the start of a hectic release and international touring schedule for the band.

The original version of ‘Enos In Space’ was included on DMT’s debut album, ‘Either That Or The Moon’, which was released in March 2016 to excellent reviews. This new version is available digitally now, but also included on an EP, ‘Live At St Pancras Old Church’, which features live versions of four other album songs recorded at a recent show at that London venue. The EP is out digitally on 17th March, coinciding with a US tour that takes in several slots at the annual SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

Upon their return from the US, DMT will play April dates in mainland Europe. A brand new four song studio EP, ‘If You Don’t Know Can You Don’t Know Köln’, will be released digitally on 14th April and as a limited gatefold 2x12” vinyl that incorporates the live EP. Facebook here.

'Enos In Space (Top Of The World)' is a powerful psych rocker, with bags of energy and a band that have clearly refined their sound. It's also exceptionally catchy.

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ACES - Baby, I Don’t Mean To Ignore.

Background - ACES new single is “Baby, I Don’t Mean To Ignore” and her debut Stranger EP, is coming out April 21st.

ACES’ new Stranger EP follows on the heels of her critically-acclaimed series of singles from the past two years, all of which are streaming in full via Spotify. ACES is pop music on muscle relaxers… it’s the bassy backing track with sparse beats that take a back seat to Stewart’s daydreaming vocals. But to really define ACES, we need to go outside the idiom: ACES is a muted light, a French new wave film projected at half speed, a night in with a few friends and heady cocktails.

ACES, too, is defined as Alex Stewart: the Canadian born, Brooklyn artist is the voice and direction of the project, which takes its name from her initials. A globe-trotting film editor who often works alongside her filmmaker husband, Stewart borrows as much from the vocabulary and structure of that art as she does traditional songwriting. As a writer and musician, Stewart may be seen as a master of stagecraft as much as songcraft. It’s more than a technique; it’s a manifestation of the world she’s creating around her. She builds ACES for herself, but invites the rest of us in. Website here, Facebook here.

We first featured ACES last November describing her vocals then as distinct, haunting and striking. New song 'Baby, I Don’t Mean To Ignore' ensures we can add melodic to our description, as this lo-fi electro song more than capably demonstrates.

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Hundreds - Un-Unify.

Background - After releasing critically acclaimed album Wilderness last year, German electro-pop duo Hundreds are back with visuals for the stunning "Un-Unify". Deeply submerged in the electronic sound world, the Hundreds siblings replace conventional pop music structures with flowing arrangements and unusual beats.

Un-Unify is a word created by the band, embodying a call for freedom in musical form. Danceable, lightfooted, and energy laden, the video for Un-Unify was shot by Gotta Love (the production team behind Small Sessions) in the legendary Funkhaus Berlin, the former seat of the DDR (East German) state radio.

The lyrics in Un-Unify encapsulate the singer's longing to learn how to fight, and untie from her union with one man. The video maps her journey of learning to fight - from meeting the dancers, who integrate her and help her grow stronger, to them helping her shift from one place to another, where the man she is longing for is waiting. After the successful album release and sold out release tour, the band will be back on tour in March 2017. 

Siblings Eva and Philipp Milner catapulted to internet success after releasing self-titled debut album, Hundreds, in 2010. Despite having no budget or radio airplay, the pair became one of the greatest German indie pop stories in recent times. Website here, Facebook here.

'Un-Unify' is a rhythmic and addictive electro pop song combining intricately crafted music and fabulous vocals. The video adds a further artistic dimension, Hundreds have produced another imaginative and pleasing song.

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More Weekend Wonders: Hajk - Adam & Elvis - ACES - Eric Frisch - Imaginary People

Hajk - Magazine.

Background - With ‘Magazine’, Hajk have emerged with an off-beat, honest, creation that clicks into place and somehow combines the smooth and the sharp into a perfectly complete electro-pop song that casts a mischievous glance at influences such as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Dirty Projectors and ANIMA!.

This single is guided by the swirling yet magnetic vocals of Preben Sælid Andersen and Sigrid Aase, and kept tight by the tight rhythms and musicality of Preben Andersen. An infectious melody with glimpses of bands such as Phoenix, ‘Magazine’ is a song that simply won’t slip out of your head easily.

Songwriter Preben Andersen (also a member of Norwegian label mates Death By Unga Bunga) describes the track himself as “a quirky and dreamy love song about frustration and how that will ultimately lead to procrastination. There are a lot of different sounds and textures coming in and out throughout the track, and we hope that it will make people want to listen to it over and over again to try to ‘figure it out’. It’s like a simple painting that becomes something else when you are standing really close to it…" ‘Magazine’ is the first single from Hajk’s highly anticipated debut album out early spring 2017. Facebook here. Amazon Magazine  

With delightful vocals and harmonies and a crisp and lush soundtrack 'Magazine' is a dreamy electro pop song. It's also one catchy and hook laden track.

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Adam & Elvis - Hanging Tree.

Background - About ‘Hanging Tree’ The sorry tale of a young intellectual who, despite his rationalism, loses his mind over unrequited love, ‘Hanging Tree’ conforms to Adam & Elvis’s tragi-comic inclinations. Sonically, however, the song is all vivacious alt-pop, charging along a crookedly mellifluous path as the Malone brothers’ vocals veer from moody baritone to full-throttle tenor. Sawtoothed guitars sear and the rhythm section thunders while ‘Hanging Tree’ revolves around its Grandaddy-meets-Pixies chorus that provides a soaring indie-disco chant-along belying the morbid moral.

The stylish video (shot by Balla Kingston, Craig Rogers and Antonio Pineda) captures the band in ebullient mood at UK Live Sound studios in Reading, where ‘Hanging Tree’ was produced.

About Adam & Elvis. Bonded not only by blood but a taste for finding humour in the macabre, Patrick and Tom Malone are brothers whose sibling intuition extends to a penchant for songs as melodic as they are bizarre. Cut-throat guitars, dirty basslines and contorted synthesisers are their tools as the brothers pen hook-filled numbers with strange, poetic lyrics, often influenced by the stark realism in the wordplay of Patrick’s heroes Leonard Cohen and Charles Bukowski.

This thought-provoking, pull-no-punches prose is set to a musical backdrop of exhilarating wall-of-sound pop and primitive punk energy, unleashed by Patrick on guitar/vocals and Tom on bass/vocals respectively, with the aid of Juliet Styles (synths/saxophone), Steve Wraight (vocals/percussion) and Dan Robershaw (guitar). The Berkshire band have been championed by regional radio and performed their gripping live shows on the same bill as Fat White Family, The Zombies and The Correspondents, as well as numerous festivals across the south of England. Not before time, given the blistering impact of ‘Hanging Tree’, the wider world is about to get a feel for the Adam & Elvis oeuvre, culminating in a debut album release proposed for early 2017. Facebook here.

See Adam & Elvis live
Fri 25 November: Royal Oak, Bath
Sat 6 January 2017: Sebright Arms, London E2. 

The video for 'Hanging Tree' is a vibrant and lively affair, and the perfect fit for a song like this. The vocals switch gear, whilst the rhythm section thumps along and the band invite you to join in, either banging your foot or singing along or both. Wonderful stuff!

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ACES - If I Could Be Your Girl.

Background - New single “If I Could Be Your Girl” is officially out everywhere worldwide. Following on the heels of her critically-acclaimed singles, the new single conveys her cinematic tone more evocatively than anything she’s done before.

The music of ACES isn’t a collection of tracks; it’s a gateway to a worldview, one face of a meticulously defined aesthetic. When we listen to it, we find ourselves living for a few minutes with the creator, Alex Stewart, in the world she’s built for us.

ACES can be described in musical terms, of course. It’s hazy, downtempo; it’s pop music on muscle relaxers. It’s a bassy backing track and sparse beats that take a back seat to Stewart’s daydreaming vocals on a song like “If I Could Be Your Girl,” the lead single from ACES’ debut EP, Stranger. But to really define ACES, we need to go outside the idiom. ACES is a muted light. A French new wave film projected at half speed. A night in with a few friends and heady cocktails.

ACES, too, is defined as Alex: The Canadian born, Brooklyn artist is the voice and direction of the project, which takes its name from her initials. A film editor who often works alongside her filmmaker husband, Stewart borrows as much from the vocabulary and structure of that art as she does traditional songwriting. Facebook here.

The distinct and haunting vocals of ACES are striking on 'If I Could Be Your Girl'. The music is synthy and dreamy, whilst remaining quite stripped back. For me, it's late night, low light music, and that's just fine.

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Eric Frisch - The Light Ahead.

Background - Eric Frisch is an indie pop musician living in New York City. Eric’s main influences range everywhere from the Beatles and the Beach Boys to Sam Cooke and the Four Tops to Bob Dylan and Jackie Wilson. Originally from Toronto, Eric is the second of four children. Eric began learning piano at an early age and always enjoyed the task of composing on his own. He credits his parents with introducing him to the right music, playing “Here, There and Everywhere” off of Revolver for him when he was 15. Residing in New York for two years, Eric has performed at venues like Rockwood Music Hall, the Bowery Electric, the Living Room, and the Studio at Webster Hall, as well as various venues in his hometown of Toronto, including the Rivoli and Dundas Square.

Eric’s sound combines elements of 50s and 60s pop music with a more modern sound, creating a unique call to the past while still pushing forward into unchartered territory. Eric has just released his first self-produced full-length entitled Goodbye Birdcage. The album showcases his diverse range as a writer and singer, and displays his unique ability to capture the essence of his influences in his music. A talented artist and performer, Eric writes songs that are original, catchy, and memorable. Facebook here.

Need to shed a few pounds? Whilst it may not be an exercise video 'The Light Ahead' dance routine could well support a fitness programme. Musically it's a wonderful piece that could be described as surf pop and really has a timeless feel and good vibes throughout. More please!

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Imaginary People - Snapshot.

Background - Following 2014’s critically acclaimed opening volley EP, composed of espionage-themed singles, and their 2015 politically tinged full-length debut Dead Letterbox,  New York’s Imaginary People return with their second full-length release, entitled October Alice, due in March 2017. The album was again produced by Kevin McMahon (Swans, Titus Andronicus, Real Estate), reprising his role from their debut LP.

The band swings for the fences on their sophomore LP, recorded in a barn in upstate NY, via a grittier approach, with an eerie, reverb-laden wall of sound abundant throughout, cannily crafted via the use of a second drum kit inside a silo. It mirrors the morbid subject manner of the album, easily their most disarmingly personal material to date.

Mournful yet anthemic, the album resonates with a simmering intensity. Dark visions abound, of horrific events that can’t be undone—yet the sorrow is sublimated into an unsurpassable catharsis. It’s evident on the likes of the smoldering “Snapshot,” the racing-pulse rave-up “Seven Days,” and the cacophonous serpentine groove of “Fresh Kill.” But this isn’t an album of easily digestible singles. It’s best swallowed whole, as a piece, one that candidly encompasses anguish, the bleakness of humanity, but ultimately a sense of hope that music in some small way can heal the deepest of emotional wounds. Imaginary People is Dylan Von Wagner (vocals), Mark Roth (guitar), Justin Repasky (keys), Kolby Wade (drums) and Bryan Percivall (bass). Facebook here.

A nice crunchy riff opens 'Snapshot' laying the foundations for Dylan Von Wagner's vocals to pour out emotionally charged lyrics, as the band take things up a notch. This is a fabulous song that does rock'n'roll a real service, bring on the new album!!

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