Allie Crow Buckley - Anya Baghina - Clare Siobhan - The Wedding Present

Allie Crow Buckley - Utopian Fantasy (Album).

Los Angeles & London-based atmospheric folk-pop artist, Allie Crow Buckley, unveils her otherworldly sophomore album, Utopian Fantasy. Embarking on a transcendent sonic voyage, this lush record takes the listener on a psychedelic journey into the depths of Buckley's psyche, intertwining Greek Mythology, the mysterious realm of the faerie, and influences of fashion, dance, and poetry. With sonic shades and influences of Joni Mitchell and Black Sabbath, the record was recorded at the 4AD Studio in London, mastered at Abbey Road, and was written, recorded, and produced by Allie Crow Buckley and Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes) everywhere from a small cottage in the lush English countryside to the sunny mountains of Ojai, California, and several hotels in between.

Utopian Fantasy taps into Buckley's love and deep knowledge of mythology. She explains, “It is the sort of feeling of leaving your body - as one does during times of immense stress or when chaos ensues. Escapism of sorts. These themes occur throughout the record - from references to Dionysus (god of wine and chaos) to the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Resigning yourself to whatever is - a sort of submission to chaos. Like in the myth of Apollo and Dionysus. Being naked at the feast, the idea of that vulnerability of just awaiting your fate. How we all long to be carried by Zephyr, the wind, from our fate into a bed of flowers. Just as in the myth of Cupid and Psyche. But what comes next? Coming to terms with your new reality. Like being lost in the realm of the faery, and reemerging years later. Feeling as if it were all one day or one dream."

Allie Crow Buckley is excited to announce a run of headline dates to support the new record that includes stops at Schubas in Chicago, Zebulon in Los Angeles, Baby’s All Right in New York, and Songbyrd in Washington, D.C. Next week marks the start of her tour supporting Lord Huron which includes two sold-out nights at Red Rocks later this month and she will also support Declan Mckenna on his North American fall tour.

Allie Crow Buckley · Utopian Fantasy

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Anya Baghina - It's Clear To Me.

When discussing the video for "It's Clear To Me", Anya Baghina writes: "We see a romanticized version of someone falling for us, represented by a heart-shaped balloon. Ultimately, the balloon pops just as it is caught, like the idea of someone that was largely made up. Three animators worked on the video, Alesya Pavlova, Natasha Bobryakova, and Janovich, and the video was edited by Anton Imbro. The idea and direction were conceived by Aleksei Salomatin. Along the way, I was involved in editing the video as well."

"It's Clear To Me" blends contemporary indie synth-pop with grunge and garage-rock sounds seamlessly. Incorporating honest and heartfelt lyrics and raw vocals, it's a single that cuts across genre lines.

Anya Baghina recounts the inspiration behind her latest single: "In my childhood, I didn't grow up around healthy relationships, and I had to overcome a lot of baggage to get to a healthy place. Having lost my mother, I felt so alone and desperately looked for someone to lean on. When you’re excited about someone, and you really want it to work, you forget about the red flags. It shows the mindlessness of this experience while subconsciously understanding that "it's killing me".

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Clare Siobhan - Flare.

Clare Siobhan is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Truro, Nova Scotia who is making a home for herself in that cozy little intersection of folk, pop, and soul. Her layered harmonies paired with bright piano and ukulele lay the foundation for warm vocals that touch on connection, relationships, worry, and that age-old search for meaning and belonging that we feel as we grow.

After receiving some unexpected and scary news, Siobhan wrote most of the lyrics for the song “Flare” on the drive home, taking voice memos in between tears. It was a few weeks later when she finally wrote the last part of the song, the U-turn where she was able to find joy when there’s big changes happening in life.

“[When I was writing this song,] I looked out my window at the tree in my backyard and thought about the changing of the seasons… life goes on,” Siobhan explains. “There’s this inevitability to change, and such stability in its repetition, and that was a comfort to me at the time. After that, finishing the song was easy – and to be honest, so was adjusting to the new change in my own life.”

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The Wedding Present - 24 Songs (Album).

The Wedding Present are releasing 24 Songs. A triple LP w/ DVD (featuring a live show and documentary) available now in the UK (Clue Records), but due to pressing plant delays out in the USA (HHBTM Records) on June 23rd. 24 Songs covers all twelve of the Wedding Present's 7" singles club series from 2022 in one packaged triple LP release. The album actually contains 29 songs as the band added A remix by Utah Saints and four bonus tracks that didn't make the original club. You can check out the single "We Belong Together" featuring Louise Wener of Sleeper, and the bonus track and Clash cover of "White Riot" which debuted at Slicing Up Eyeballs earlier this week.

Throughout 2022, The Wedding Present's '24 Songs' series saw the legendary indie band release two new tracks a month as double A sided 7"s, ultimately creating a much-sought-after box set. David Gedge has now re-curated full-length versions of all twenty-four tracks for a new compilation album that will also comprise five bonus recordings including one featuring The Wedding Present's first guitarist, Peter Solowka.

'24 Songs' was a doff of the cap to The Wedding Present's 'Hit Parade' project of 30 years previous. That series proved to be a real milestone for the band with them becoming only the second-ever artist to achieve twelve Official UK Top 40 hits in a calendar year – at the time something that only Elvis had achieved!

David Gedge says: "When it came to compiling the '24 Songs' album, I decided not to sequence the tracks in chronological order. With six sides of vinyl, you have six 'beginnings' and six 'ends' to play with, and I felt that the opportunity to build some kind of a musical journey was too good to miss! Listening back to this collection, I have to say that I genuinely believe that, for this project, The Wedding Present have recorded some of the best tracks in our history. I loved releasing the singles, but it's satisfying to have them all rounded up together."

HHBTM Records · The Wedding Present - We Should Be Together (featuring Louise Wener of Sleeper)

HHBTM Records · The Wedding Present - White Riot (Clash Cover)

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Oslo Twins - Mazey Haze - Esther Rose - Allie Crow Buckley

Oslo Twins - Breath.

Bristol born outfit Oslo Twins release their new single "Breath" and announce their signing to Fascination Street Records - a new label founded by producer Ali Chant (Yard Act, Perfume Genius, Aldous Harding, Katy J Pearson) in partnership with Bristol's Factory Studios.

With lo-fi, dream-pop and trip-hop influences, Oslo Twins' new single "Breath" is teeming with quiet passion. Produced, mixed and engineered by Ali Chant, the track signals the release of the band's debut EP, due for release on Fascination Street Records later this year.

Held together by a sharp, addictive electronic drum beat, "Breath" hints toward insomnia and dread, but with a sense of acceptance coming from the gentle and complex rhythms of the track and the softness of the wistful call and response vocals. The track features Harry Furniss from Bingo Fury (cornet) and Tom Connolly from rising Bristol group Quade (violin), whose instruments bring the track into its progression from its intimate verses to its shimmering, heady ending.

“For us, Breath is a very nocturnal song about feeling cut off from the world,” says vocalist and songwriter Claudia Vulliamy. Speaking more on the track's lyrical inspiration, guitarist, keys player, vocalist and songwriter Eric Davies said: “Breath is an attempt to embody how unrequited love feels. I wrote it after having a panic attack, so it’s about that as well - an expression of panic in the style of a love song. There’s a sort of dry irony about it.”

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Mazey Haze - Back to the Start.

Indie-rock rising talent Mazey Haze (aka Amsterdam based musician Nadine Appeldoorn) releases her new EP 'Back to the Start' and shares the video for its title track. The EP's titular, opening track perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the project. Announcing itself like a Californian daydream, awash with synths, heavenly vocal harmonies and jangling guitars, the song's accompanying video was directed by Pasqual Amade.

The EP's title track captures a certain struggle Appeldoorn has untethering herself from the umpteenth setback. “I’m just being very honest and very real, being like, ‘I went through all this shit for a reason, but now I’m clueless again,’” she explains. “But I think that’s basically what life is: you constantly get over these really hard, big things.”

Following a string of European tour dates supporting acts Spacey Jane, Paolo Nutini and Feng Suave alongside widely praised performances at this year's edition of Eurosonic Festival ("a set of swooning dream-pop. Singing over a tapestry of guitar and synth, the songs were encapsulating, swaying in sentiment and washing through the dark room" - The Line Of Best Fit) - Mazey Haze will embark on a brief stint of European tour dates in support of the EP this month, with stops in London, Paris, Amsterdam and more.

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Esther Rose - Spider.

Esther Rose will release Safe to Run April 21, 2023 via New West Records. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe in New Orleans, LA and Placitas, NM and is the follow up to 2021’s acclaimed How Many Times. Alongside longtime collaborators Farbe and Lyle Werner, Safe to Run also features the New Orleans based band Silver Synthetic, Cameron Snyder of The Deslondes, as well as Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track.

The video for the album highlight “Spider,” which was directed by Anthony Simpkins has just been shared. Of the song, Rose says, “As I was writing this, I remember thinking ‘This. Is. My. Final. Word!!!’ My drummer Lonnie calls this one an ‘emotional dump truck.’ We tracked vocals live and tried to redo them later, but they didn’t hit as hard as the original take. There’s something kind of deranged happening in the third verse, the situational complexities, you can feel it. It’s our favorite to play live.” Anthony Simpkins said,  "When Esther approached me to make this video, she had an idea to involve a boxing match. I thought, why not film it at a real MMA event? I love the stark contrast in the on-screen action and Esther's song. It is somehow both the polar opposite and perfectly matching the journey each person is going through from the beginning of the night to the end of the fight. Love, anxiety, pain, triumph, anger, defeat... you feel everything at a fight. Esther captures the same emotions in her songs."

Safe to Run is the quiet culmination of years spent fully immersed in a developing artistry, and presents Rose’s always vividly detailed emotional scenes with new levels of clarity and control. Her songwriting transfigures the chaos and uncertainty of a life in progress, but here she introduces a newfound pop element that attaches unshakably catchy hooks to even the darkest stretches of the journey. The album’s production takes a giant step forward. Across all of the tracks, the open-air, live-in-the-room sound she tended towards in the past was exchanged for an exploration of multitracking and overdubs.

Rose previously shared the video for the album’s title track, “Safe to Run,” which features Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff. The song is a gorgeous duet that directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief.  She also previously shared the video for the album’s first single, “Chet Baker.” Of the song, she says, “Someone sent me a DM, asking ‘do you remember me.’

I was transported into a decade-old memory; a weird weekend with a crew of dangerous college preps, a car crash. What came out is this short study of my townie life in Ann Arbor. As I was writing this song, it occurred to me how lucky I was to have survived that time of willful recklessness. I wanted to empathize with my younger self, like, ‘it’s alright, you were 23. You were out of control. I got you now. You’re okay.’”

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Allie Crow Buckley - Cowboy In London.

Los Angeles & London-based indie artist Allie Crow Buckley has shared her final single, “Cowboy In London,” from her forthcoming LP, Utopian Fantasy, out May 19th. To go with the driving and playful track, Allie directed a mesmerizing video that showcases her in one of her trademark ethereal dresses, frolicking around London.

Buckley explains, “The song is a reflection on my years as a teen and being on my own in London for the first time. It was wonderful and terrifying, and I was totally enthralled. I had terrible jet lag, so I would wake up and sort of stalk the streets at five in the morning. So, I tried to set the sonic scene with this in mind.” Adding, “The video was shot traipsing around London - I wanted to capture some of the naivety, and sort of carefree sass that I feel the song evokes.”

Utopian Fantasy is the follow-up to her 2021 debut, Moonlit and Devious, and takes the listener on a psychedelic journey through the mythical world inside Buckley’s head. The album was recorded at the 4AD Studio in London, mastered at Abbey Road, and was written, recorded, and produced by Allie Crow Buckley and Jason Boesel (Rilo Kiley, Bright Eyes) between a lush cottage in the English Countryside, the sunny mountains of Ojai, California, and the hotels in-between. The album will also feature her recent singles “Dreamboat Soulmate,” “Greatest Hits,”  “Naked At The Feast,”  “Utopian Fantasy” and “Angel.”

When asked about the record, Allie explains, “It is the sort of feeling of leaving your body - as one does during times of immense stress or when chaos ensues. Escapism of sorts. These themes occur throughout the record - from references to Dionysus (god of wine and chaos) to the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Resigning yourself to whatever is - a sort of submission to chaos. Like in the myth of Apollo and Dionysus. Being naked at the feast, the idea of that vulnerability of just awaiting your fate. How we all long to be carried by Zephyr, the wind, from our fate into a bed of flowers. Just as in the myth of Cupid and Psyche. But what comes next? Coming to terms with your new reality. Like being lost in the realm of the faery, and reemerging years later. Feeling as if it were all one day or one dream."

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Siv Jakobsen - Tomten - SUEP - Allie Crow Buckley - Wookalily - Bad Pelicans

Siv Jakobsen - Gardening (Album).

Acclaimed Norwegian songwriter Siv Jakobsen today releases her highly anticipated third album Gardening. Jakobsen will embark on a European tour in support of the album this February, including a newly announced London headline at The Social on 23rd May.

The first seeds of what would become Gardening arrived in Siv Jakobsen’s mind unexpectedly – unwelcomely, even. Returning to a city she once called home, her mind and body were overcome by memories – both physical and emotional – that pulled her back into a time she had thought was long buried. As she walked through her old haunts, memories of a “destructive and difficult relationship” rose up from her past like a monstrous weed. Its roots had not been exterminated and it suddenly poked through the cracks of her consciousness, five years after the fact.

She headed back to Oslo as the pandemic took hold, lockdown allowing her even more time and space to unpack and untangle her knotted thoughts. In the verdant Norwegian capital she was able to take walks in the forest just five minutes from her home, tend to her patio garden and occasionally see friends. All the while, her mind continued to process the spectre that had reared its head, words coming out onto the page, revealing a cutting new depth to her candid writing style.

Gardening is at once Jakobsen’s most emotionally intimate and her most musically expansive record. The title comes from one of the album’s flagship moments, the “crazy jungly sounding” track “Gardening” – but is a thematic link throughout the album. “This record is me doing an intense amount of emotional gardening,” she says. “I was just raking through my mind and pulling stuff out, and then it grew back again, so I pulled it out again.”

Early highlight “Romain’s Place” sets the scene for the start of this process. Jakobsen puts us into the place where she first felt the past encroaching, staring out the window of her friend’s house at the place she once called home, envisioning her ex standing there on the sidewalk; “I swear that you look just the same / You haven’t aged at all.” Unrepressed memories of anger and being screamed at float up, unbidden but undeniable; “How am I back here again, afraid again,” she sings, speaking of a place that is both literal and mental.

Siv Jakobsen · Gardening

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Tomten - Grapefruit Sea.

"I always wanted to write a kind of nightmare music hall song of some sort, a misadventure song that is still foolish and lighthearted. I had the main acoustic part of this tune and no lyrics and we got together at the Unknown and decided on a form and recorded the whole thing almost the way it is now. All the lyrics came later, I used to sit in the bleachers of the baseball field near my apartment during the beginning of the pandemic for hours into the night and work on songs and these lyrics came from that and perhaps some wine and sleep deprivation. It's like our version of "Sloop John B" with black mold poisoning, maybe a little inspiration from Eno's "Backwater" too." -Brian Noyes

Tomten are a baroque pop quartet based out of Seattle, Washington. Brian Noyes (vocals, keys, guitar) and Lena Simon (bass, vocals) (Kairos Creature Club, formerly of La Luz) met in 2008 and began demoing each other's songs at Cornish College of The Arts.

Tomten started playing shows and rearranging their sound and lineup by 2010, after Gregg Belisle-Chi (guitar) and Jake Brady (drums) joined the band. Tomten's debut, Wednesday's Children arrived in Summer of 2012 shortly before Belisle-Chi left the band. Tomten recorded their sophomore record The Farewell Party (2014) with Jason Quever of Papercuts in San Francisco and Sacramento, CA. Dillon Sturtevant (bass) joined the band as Lena departed.

The Unknown recording studio in Anacortes, WA started by Nicholas Wilbur and Phil Elverum (Mt. Eerie) has become the go to spot for the band's more recent recordings - the lush piano driven Cremation Songs (2017), and Synth Pop informed Viva Draconia (2018). Tomten's newest album Artichoke (out April 28) is a collaborative foray into psych folk, power-pop, and glam country, a balance between songs by Noyes, Sturtevant, and two co-written with Brady. Artichoke is a warm pastoral daydream, with inspirations drawn from the Madcap folk rock of the Incredible String Band, to the syrup soul of The Delfonics, the country tinge of Happy End or Gene Clark, with the gentle guitar picking of John Martyn or Bridget St. John.

Tomten · Grapefruit Sea

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SUEP - Just A Job.

Fresh for being BBC 6 Music playlisted and announcing a UK tour for Independent Venue Week’s 10th anniversary, the London (via Brighton) indie supergroup SUEP drop fresh single ‘Just A Job’, the final track taken from their debut mini album ‘Shop' following on 27 January, Memorials of Distinction.

‘Just A Job’ is a firm fan favourite at their live shows, and the closest SUEP have come to writing an anthem.  Simultaneously evoking plodding despair and stoic acceptance, it’s described by the band as “A lament and an ode to outsiders, late-risers and lost souls and a protest song against having to do the arduous tasks that tend to pile up in life” to a backdrop of 80’s Yamaha synth and drumbeat and fronted by a playfully dour Josh Harvey with backing vocals from Georgie Stott.

SUEP is led by Georgie Stott (Porridge Radio, Garden Centre) and Josh Harvey alongside George Nicholls (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), William Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and Ollie Chapman. Together they make oddball car-boot-sale pop songs with a sprinkling of theatrical storytelling inspired by a mutual love for Paul McCartney, Jona Lewie, the B-52s, Devo and other performative freaks enjoying themselves.

‘Just A Job’ is the third single taken from SUEP’s debut album ‘Shop' following the now BBC 6 Music playlisted ‘In Good Health’ and last years’ ‘Misery’ and ‘Domesticated Dream’, both championed heavily by Steve Lamacq and Marc Riley with the latter inviting them in to record a BBC 6 Music session on 26 January, with press coverage in Independent, Fred Perry Subculture and Clash (among many others).

SUEP have built up a strong live following playing countless gigs over the last couple of years, with their first ever headline show at London’s Stag Head selling out immediately. They’ve toured with contemporaries such as Garden Centre and Ex-Void as well as performed at 2022’s The Great Escape. SUEP are now embarking on a UK-wide headline tour as part of Independent Venue Week’s 10th anniversary celebrations.

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Allie Crow Buckley - Greatest Hits.

Los Angeles indie songstress Allie Crow Buckley recently announced her new album ‘Utopian Fantasy’ will be released on May 19th via Nettwerk. She has also shared a new single and video ‘Greatest Hits.’ With her rollicking new single ‘Greatest Hits’, Allie describes the psychedelic and euphoric track as, “Riding top down through purgatory - resigning to whatever is. The feeling of leaving your body - as one does when chaos ensues. A psychedelic laugh!”.

Video director Jeanette Getrost adds, “The forest was an important setting for this video as much of Allie’s writing of this record involved being so close both in proximity and her relationship to nature. I referenced a lot of imagery from Greek myth and Czech fairy tale films, as well as some time in the English countryside where Allie and I spent one evening watching Rock and Roll Circus and Zeppelin performances.  What derived from this was essentially a narrative on inspiration and the mystery and wonder of the creative process—the result being a wild trip in the forest.” In addition to Jeanette, Buckley enlisted renowned cinematographer Micah Van Hove (Weyes Blood, Tim Heidecker) to bring their vision to life.

Allie Crow Buckley’s music is a world unto itself. A journey from deep within the forest to the coastal cliffs. She is known for her balance of ethereal, soaring melodies, strong rhythmic elements, and heavy, rooted low end. This balance, coupled with her allegorical sense of lyricism, lends itself to being both beautifully meditative and unsettling at times.

She draws inspiration from numerous sources - from Black Sabbath to Joni Mitchell, and Todd Rundgren, to painters, and poets as well as mythology and her love of classical music from her years of formal training as a dancer. Following the release of her acclaimed debut 2019 EP ‘So Romantic’, she released her debut LP ‘Moonlit and Devious’ in 2021 to praise from The New Yorker, NPR, Under The Radar, Paste and more and has opened for Jenny Lewis and Maggie Rogers on tour.

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Wookalily - Old New Mill.

With awe inspiring four part harmonies, low bowed double bass, flutes, trumpet, banjo and more, Wookalily create a masterful and sweeping sonic tapestry that will leave audiences rapt with wonder, and wanting more.

Their debut album, All The Waiting While, and the subsequent gloriously uproarious gigs, tantalised and secured lifelong fans in Ireland, the UK and beyond. Recorded on traditional analogue equipment by the award winning producer Julie McLarnon (The Vaselines, Jeffrey Lewis, Lankum, King Creosote) Wookalilys second album, Everything is NormaL Except the Little Things Inside My Head, explores the gentle nuances of cathartic melancholy whilst retaining that essential and unforgettable Wookalily sound, five women, ten instruments.

This is an ambitious folk music. Daring to dissolve musical and generic boundaries. Irreverently intertwining the disciplines of blues, rock, punk and more to create a unique and singular musical menagerie that must be witnessed to be truly experienced.

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Bad Pelicans - Dance Music.

The Bad Pelicans release a clip for ‘’DANCE MUSIC’’, second single of their upcoming début record ETERNAL LIFE NOW to be released March on Géographie Records.

Starring cult actor from the french avant-garde Walter Shnorkell, this video embodies the raging ennui that fueled the band’s inspiration for this record. Never nostalgic, but confidently timeless, and hungry for change, Walters charismatic personna allegorizes the juvenile pulse that will perpetually push this band.

Little quote from the band about the song : The Bad Pelicans new single Dance Music has a metamodern intention, encapsulating an 80s new wave tinted approach allied with urgent Post-Punk, feedback-pilled production, portraying the "blasé" apocalyptic sound that defines their new record, Eternal Life Now coming out February 24th via Géographie Recs.

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