Louien - Brooke Annibale - Basset

Louien - Second Best.

Norwegian indie-folk act Louien has shared new single 'Second Best', the second cut to be shared from her forthcoming EP Figure Me Out. Emerging from Nesodden, a peninsula in the Oslo fjord, Live Miranda Solberg (Louien) fuses the fiercer elements of Feist and Sharon Van Etten’s songwriting with the timelessness qualities present in the work of Carole King and Gillian Welch.

We last heard from Louien in the summer of 2021 when she shared her highly-acclaimed, liberating EP No Tomorrow. An attempt to write from a less serious perspective, it was the antidote to her 2019 debut album None of My Words which dealt with the trauma left behind by her father’s death. Out September 16th via Jansen Records, Figure Me Out is in many ways a sequel to last year’s No Tomorrow.

Thematically, the EP is about how characteristics we think of as cool, such as aloofness, are often the reverse and that it’s much cooler and, indeed, stronger to be yourself and choose vulnerability when you know it might bring pain.

“I’ve found that so many people try to stay mysterious in order to seem interesting, when in reality it’s being open and candid that’s the most attractive, at least in the long run,” explains Louien. "So many of my relationships have had this deep insecurity in their core, creating a very intense and very toxic dynamic,” she continues.

Her new single, 'Second Best', showcases Louien’s truly arresting vocal abilities. It speaks of the journey Louien has taken towards accepting her own emotions.

Of the song, Louien says “I grew up learning that some emotions are good and some bad. Later in life I’ve learned that emotions are emotions, and that they only become dangerous when we label them as such and let them scare us. This song came from my process of understanding this, and from meeting people who’d been taught that it’s safe to be emotional from a young age.”

Jansen Records · Louien - Second Best

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Photo - Shervin Lainez

Brooke Annibale - Be Around.

Indie singer/songwriter Brooke Annibale has just released her new single "Be Around." The latest peek at her forthcoming album Better By Now (out Sept. 30th through Nettwerk Music Group), "Be Around" finds Annibale leaning more into her pop sensibilities with a simpler thematic approach and a straightforward love ballad about just wanting to be in someone's company as much as possible. Under The Radar called it "an irresistible pop groove."

"On the surface, this is a simple song about falling for someone and just wanting to be around them," said Annibale. "But it's also about having the confidence to say so. I've been feeling a lot more confident in my own skin, and the way this song turned out is a reflection of that."

She continued, "I learned an Oasis song ('Champagne Supernova') and loved how the verse was all open chords and then when the chorus hits it has this big lift because of the full major chord. That's why it feels so great. I went for that feeling on this song."

"Be Around" follows the relase of the title track "Better By Now," a stark reflection that merges personal emotions with the roller coaster of current events, praised by Melodic Magazine as "intoxicating" and The Revue who called it "A terrific tune from an underrated singer-songwriter." Earlier this summer, Brooke teased the “immediately catchy” (FLOOD) lead single “What If You” and the “soaring, ethereal pop song” (Brooklyn Vegan) “5 AM” accompanied by the Genéa Gaudet-directed video. In celebration of Pride Month, Brooke also shared an inspiring op-ed via Atwood Magazine on representation, equality, authentic connection, and her journey to self-acceptance.

A fearless new collection of songs, Brooke has both emboldened her sound on Better By Now as well as entered a new phase of life after making significant strides in her mental-health journey and saying “I do” to her wife. Produced by Christian “Leggy” Langdon (Joseph, Amos Lee) and Matthew E White (Natalie Prass, Dan Croll), Better By Now features 10 blossoming indie-pop tracks that Brooke describes as a “spectrum of emotions.” In her trademark layered approach, the Pittsburgh-born, Rhode Island-based artist reflects on love, anxiety, depression, and how two seemingly opposing forces can exist at once. “The album is basically half about falling in love and half about mental health.”

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Basset - Change Of Time.

This is Sam Clark and Yasmine Shelton of the folk-duo Basset. We call Toronto home, and this gritty, massive, in-your-face, messy place is woven deep into the music we create.

After graduating from university we took a big trip to Italy. I (Sam) was coming out of the worst burnout of my life, and had made the decision not to continue with school, and pursue music instead. Yas was in a similar boat, and had decided to take some time off as well.

I couldn’t believe how much Italy looked like a movie; it was so beautiful it was almost ridiculous. While we were in Florence we got caught in the rain, and not a little shower, it was a total downpour. We were soaked in seconds, but we didn’t mind at all. We had nowhere to be, and the rain wasn’t cold, so we just stood there while the water made rivers in the streets. Later that night we took a walk, with the street lights reflecting off the canals and the wet cobblestones. It was total catharsis, and the perfect thing to mark that transition in our lives.

The water’s so warm
In this change of time

We find the closer we stand next to each other, the better we sound. Because of this, we had always wanted to record a song around a single microphone. So we set up in a barn in rural Ontario with our friend and fellow songwriter, Benjamin Dakota Rogers. It was the high heat of summer, and there was no air conditioning in the barn, no windows. We cooked and sweated our way through that session, and you can see the heat in that video. But we really captured the heart of the song in this recording.

Produced by Joshua Van Tassel (Sarah Slean, David Myles), the ten songs on our debut album, In The Clay (Sept 30), explore various themes of life in change, our travels around Northern Ontario, the Canadian and American prairies, our lives in Toronto, and the characters – from all walks of life – who have crossed our paths.

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Nervous Twitch - ACER - Rat Tally - Alison Sudol - Basset - Ashley Heath

Nervous Twitch - Forgive Yourself.

Leeds UK indierock trio Nervous Twitch debut new single "Forgive Yourself" and announce upcoming new album 'Some People Never Change' on Reckless Yes Records.

It's pretty hard to put into words but I'm gonna try, but seriously I'm way excited to be working and bringing this new album by Nervous Twitch on the awesome UK label Reckless Yes to your attention. I've been following Reckless Yes for a few years and have become a big fan of not only their roster but also the way they do business and how they treat others and create a solid inclusive community, so working with them is a big honor. 

This new album by Nervous Twitch is like a guide to UK and US indiepop and indierock with nods to Mambo Taxi, Huggy Bear, Modern Lovers, Television Personalities, the Pixies, Sleeper, Ash, Lovely Eggs, Dressy Bessy, and even a bit of Swearin'. I could go on and on, but I say just check out the first single "Forgive Yourself" which debuted earlier today at Austin Town Hall. If you want a promo copy hit me up, but you can stream or download the album below. The band are up for doing mix tapes, features, guest editor spots, you name it, and we have a few exclusive still up for grabs so seriously like reach out. ~ Mike 

Nervous Twitch—talk about a perfect band name! Listening to their fifth album, Some People Never Change, it’s hard not to notice the nervous energy of front woman Erin Hyde’s vocals. Nervous Twitch built a solid reputation for songs that bristle with punk energy, mixing a vibe that also incorporates girl group passion, post-punk angularity, and even the occasional surf guitar cool.

Reckless Yes Records · 5. Forgive Yourself

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ACER - Someone Else's Dream.

ACER is a dream pop duo made up of multi-instrumentalist Kyle Gottschalk & vocalist/art director Connory Ballantyne. Borrowing from the brooding post-punk sound of their former band House Art, Ballantyne’s vocals lend a confident and lyrical vision to the dynamically maximalist instrumentals written out of Gottschalk’s love for bedroom-pop & shoegaze.

Starting in 2019- and writing together during the past year of lockdown as housemates- the duo is set to debut their first mini-album in 2021- the 6 track self titled “ACER” – a youthful, hungry record showcasing the musical diversity & raw energy of the two producers.

Dreamy atmospheres abound (a nod to Beach House, Daniel Lanois, or Eno), the tracks sputter & glitch to life reminiscent of bedroom producers like JPEGMAFIA or the recent work of Toro Y Moi, and Ballantyne’s vocals constantly flirt between the swaggering bravado of artists like Archie Marshal’s King Krule, the effect-laden Justin Vernon or Kanye, and the soft ambience of Slowdive.

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Rat Tally - Longshot.

Singer-songwriter Rat Tally has shared a new track from her upcoming debut album. Single Longshot is an insight into the singer's anxiety and cyclical thought patterns, adorned with lush instrumentation and elevated by her unique vocal style.

Out August 12th, the debut album from one of the most exciting young singer-songwriters to emerge in recent years, 'In My Car' sees Rat Tally (aka Addy Harris) deliver on the promise of her earlier releases and her distinctive candid style both sonically and lyrically. With concise yet poignant lyrics, and guest features from Jay Som and Madeline Kenney, 'In My Car' is easily one of the most fully realised debut albums in the indie rock realm.

"This is the opening track and one of my favorites off the record. The song is a lot about anxiety and not being able to stop overthinking, so I wanted the verses to feel tense, lyrically and musically" says Harris of the song.

“Longshot and In My Car have a wall of quadrupled power chord guitars that my producer Max Grazier recorded that just absolutely smack you in the face. When I wrote it I was really obsessively listening to Fountains of Wayne, XTC, and a lot of 90s and early 2000s hits, and I wanted it to have a big stadium rock vibe. I had this hook that I hummed in the demo and thought I would eventually write words to it, but it works so much better as just a melody riding on top of the huge guitars."

Hailing from Chicago (by way of LA and Boston), Rat Tally emerged in 2019 with an impressively fully formed sound on her self-released debut EP, 'When You Wake Up'. The release quickly caught the attention of 6131 Records (Julien Baker, Joyce Manor, Katie Malco), who were eager to work with the young, yet clearly very talented musician.

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Alison Sudol - Meteor Shower.

American singer-songwriter and actress Alison Sudol unveils the hypnotic visuals for her recently released single ‘Meteor Shower’ and shares the details of her upcoming new album, ‘Still Come The Night’, due for release on September 30th via Kartel Music Group.

The video is an invitation to witness and partake in a series of self-imposed actions and rituals.  Alison presents herself to the camera in her truest form; raw, vulnerable, enduring, powerful, while using a variety of visual approaches - from  irregular depth of field, video feedback loops, erratic zooms to affected speeds - the director transports the viewer beyond this dimension, intimately navigating levels of Alison’s subconscious.

Directed by Alison’s close collaborator and Creative Director Federico Nessi, also responsible for the upcoming album’s art direction, the video concept, Nessi explains “stemmed from the song’s hypnotically repetitive beat and Alison’s stoic tone - a mystical force seducing the listener to join in on a meditative journey of self-exploration.”

Talking about the visuals, Alison adds; “Federico’s vision for ‘Meteor Shower’ matched the heartbeat of the song and leaned into it. Sitting with grief - whether noticed or not - kinetic ritual. I had never seen tapping before Fede introduced it to me but I have done it naturally at different points in my life. Energy and emotion can get trapped and settle in parts of the body. There’s a tremendous amount of power in movement and healing in touch”.

‘Meteor Shower’ serves as the upcoming album’s poetic finale, book ending the equally hypnotic opener, ‘Bone Tired’. “It’s the moment of space between one chapter ending and a new one beginning - a moment of uncertainty, the unknown... of possibility. The record begins with exhaustion and ends the same way, but with light pouring in.”

The video follows the release of recent single ‘Meteor Shower’ and the deeply personal ‘Peaches’, as well as her recent support dates with Goldfrapp at London’s Royal Festival Hall, and the UK release of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore’, in which Alison reprised her role as Queenie Goldstein. The new tracks precede the release of the full length ‘Still Come The Night’, the album Alison wrote, co-produced and recorded at Giant Wafer Studios nestled between sheep fields in the Welsh countryside with London based multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer Chris Hyson, who is also half of adventurous collective Snowpoet.

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Basset - In The Clay.

We’re Sam Clark and Yasmine Shelton. Together we are the folk-duo Basset. We call Toronto home, and this gritty, massive, in-your-face, messy place is woven deep into the music we create. Through fiddle and intricate harmonies, our voices wrap around each other and evoke the rawness of this city.

Our lead single, “In The Clay,” is from our debut full-length album and is an account of our experience living in a big city yet feeling isolated for 2 years. We came far, we still managed to grow in the dark,  but it was very heavy.

This album was conceived in isolation. We felt very tucked away underground, and we couldn’t go anywhere aside from the long, long walks we took through the west end of the city. It was easy to feel trapped in the monotony, the rhythms we repeated each day; especially underground, where the lack of sunlight was crushing. This got morbidly fascinating. Maybe to distract ourselves, we fell into some rhythms of really intense work, trying to shape ourselves into the musicians - and humans - we wanted to be, to create this album.

We practiced hard, we studied, and we pushed our bodies too. We ate less and worked out. At times, we ate too little and worked ourselves too hard. We constantly chased after light, on long walks on the coldest day of the winter, our “happy lamps” and “grow lights.” All these, perhaps, were ways of trying to make something of being trapped in that basement and the trials that everyone faced for the past few years.

This song evokes the feelings from Sam’s weeks-long canoe trips in the Canadian wilderness. The first few hours of paddling are always hard, and aches start to set in. It’s easy to wonder how you could possibly do this for days on end. But then the aches seem to settle, and your mind flows into the rhythm.

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Ashley Heath - Something To Believe.

A powerful singer and songwriter who can convey passion, confusion, strength, pleading and more sometimes all at once Asheville, North Carolina’s Ashley Heath has gained a fervent fan base with appearances at festivals like MerleFest, Bonnaroo, Shakori Hills, and Floydfest. Now, she’s signed with Organic Records and is making a head-turning debut with “Something to Believe,” the first single and title track from her forthcoming EP. 

The track opens with guitar, bass and organ serving up a twisty blues-rock figure that sets an ominous tone before Heath makes her entrance, giving soulful voice to the mood of unease:

"I spent my time getting lost in a dream
But I can’t let go of memories of the bad things I’ve seen" 

From there, the song never lets up in intensity, even as it swells and subsides in volume and complexity, underlining the insistent questions of its chorus: 

"Let me in or let me out
Give me answers show me somehow
Are we gonna end this or work it out?...
Give me, give me, something to believe" 

Accompanied by members of her touring band, Heath gives a compelling performance that is at once boldly and intimately expressive, offering a common thread of emotion that fits equally well not only with a personal interpretation of the song’s plea, but of a broader one, too, revealing the distinctive outlook and artistry that has earned Heath a growing number of fans around her western North Carolina home. 

“There have been many times in the last few years where we as a collective have felt very powerless and lacking a sense of control,” she notes. “The entire world shut down due to Covid-19 and with it crashed our livelihoods, our sense of safety in the world, and being able to be close with our family and friends. When we did see each other, our faces were behind masks. ‘Something to Believe’ was written about these angsty yet melancholy feelings that came up by trying to make sense of it all. At certain points, I was thinking, give me any sign that I can continue doing this thing that I love and have put my heart into for years. ‘Are we done with the hard times, are they over?’

Syntax Creative · Ashley Heath - "Something to Believe"

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Basset - Zooni - The Switch

Basset have just released 'Waterloo' and I have to say I am mightily impressed. Their acoustic musical combination of instruments ensures they have a fresh and distinct sound and the vocals add vibrancy and energy, they are ones to watch out for, I would suggest.

Art pop band Zooni have just released their new single 'Cotton Blue' a gently paced song, where the musical arrangement is well structured with plenty of clarity for each musician and just right for the heartfelt vocals.

Finally The Switch have shared 'What If' taken from their upcoming album. The band have a refined musical approach, melodic and crisp the originality is notable, this album tease suggests their fifth full-length 'Birds of Paradise' will be a splendid affair.
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Basset - Waterloo.

Basset is a young and rising all-acoustic group, consisting of vocalist Yasmine Shelton, songwriter/musician Sam Clark, and twin brothers Aaron and Noah Philipp-Muller. While they draw on folk traditions from both sides of the pond with their heavy use of fiddle, mandolin and cello, their original tunes also take inspiration from old blues music (hear Shelton’s powerful vocals), 50s and 60s rock, and their shared classical background. Their inventive style has earned comparisons to The Punch Brothers, Belle and Sebastian, and Of Monsters and Men. They recently released their debut single, “Dave and the Queen of Toronto”, and are set to release their debut EP in late June.

Basset often uses the old bluegrass method of gathering around a single microphone for their live shows, filling the room with their infectious love for each other and the music they play. There’s never a dull moment between tunes either, as audiences get a glimpse into the charming – and at times ridiculous – antics of this tight-knit group of friends.

The band was formed in Winter of 2016 while all members were studying liberal arts at Victoria College, at the University of Toronto. Sam and Aaron, both songwriters from a young age, were first year roommates and fast friends, frequenting open mics around the university with their acoustic arrangements, sometimes accompanied by Noah on the cello. Still in need of a lead singer, Sam turned to Yasmine. He had been bewitched by her a capella rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” at an open mic at the college, and they had since become good friends.

Now a quartet, the band’s first gigs involved playing background music at college functions; however, the goal was always to develop their own original music. They quickly grew out of the university scene, and now, almost three years on and having left their college years behind them, the band has played some of Toronto’s premier music venues, including the Painted Lady and Lee’s Palace, as well as regular house concerts across the city. They have appeared at the Summerfolk music festival and Heartwood Concert Hall in Owen Sound, and developed a supportive network of industry professionals who view the band as a young act brimming with promise, sharing stages with The Lifers, NEFE, and Citizen Jane.

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Zooni - Cotton Blue.

London-based art-pop newcomers Zooni have just released their new single ‘Cotton Blue’ via Square Leg Records.  Big nods to the likes of Alt J, Sufjan Stevens & Broken Bells in here >>

‘Cotton Blue’ follows the April release of their debut single ‘Pany’, which appeared on the Radio X Evening Playlist, was included on Spotify’s ‘New Music Friday’ and ‘Hot New Bands’ playlists, and was followed by a packed performance at The Great Escape Festival.

Discovered by Mercury and Brit award winning producer Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Nick Mulvey, Marika Hackman), the band - Peter Martin, George Godwin, Ben Clark, and Matt Glasbey - mix hypnotic beats with delicate piano, angular guitars, and haunting vocals.

Talking about the single, they explain "Cotton Blue is an introspective song about giving up on a broken relationship. It was written and demoed on a retreat to the Welsh countryside with the producer Jay Pocknell.”

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The Switch - What If.

Following the outfit’s previous bodies of work “We’re Fooling No-One” and the Norwegian Grammy-awarded “The Switch Album”, they return with fifth full-length “Birds of Paradise”. Lead-vocalist Thomas Sagbråten and co-author of the bulk of the album says “We tried to make a musical universe with slightly different laws of nature than real life. A bit less gravitation. The air is thicker. It’s hyper realistic, but also unreal.”

From budding seeds to the overarching themes of this viridescent volume, the septet hones something every-bit stylistically varied, surrealistically inclined and tactile, like a brightly plumaged exotic bird lost in the upper stretches of the northern hemisphere.

Second slice “What If”, from the upcoming LP pays homage to the modern man-child’s fear for getting his sh*t together. Think early-Wild Beasts with the charm of Mac DeMarco’s “Salad Days”. It vaults clichés of dream-pop and works as the perfect announcement of the album, with its enchantingly artificial birds of paradise sounds in the final quadrant of the four-minute-feat from keyboardist Arthur Kay Piene.

“The other side of the divide between me and the world might not be worth the trip”

Peter Vollset, the lyricist of the band says “The lyrics are questioning the oft-repeated notion that “proper” adult life is boring and miserable and that protesting or postponing this is just childish and selfish. At the same time, the not quite proper adult narrator isn’t exactly a beacon of self-love and sunshine themselves, so who knows you know?”

Sound technician and repeat The Switch-collaborator Christian Engfelt (Serena Maneesh, Fieh, Band of Gold etc.) decided to make this his most meticulous work with the band yet, blowing by every self-imposed deadline in a year-long on-and-off series of recording sessions which resulted in an extraordinary sounding album; coherent and tight, but with great attention to detail.

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