John MOuse - INHEAVEN - Phantoms VS Fire - Super Hi Fi

John MOuse - Bunkbeds and Broken.

Background -  After a successful fan funding campaign, John MOuse releases his fifth album ‘Replica Figures’ out through Keep Me In Your Heart Records on the 19th of February 2018.   For ‘Replica Figures’  John returns to work with original band member Sweet Baboo. It's been 15 years since the two worked under John's previous moniker JT Mouse and the result is a touching album with glimpses of John's black humour, which has been a signature throughout his career.

"We had talked about working together but other commitments had taken president. This is the type album I have been wanting to release for some time.” Says John of his decision to work with Steve Baboo “Steve understood straight away what I was trying to achieve and we worked really quickly on just letting the songs breath and be themselves. Nothing was over thought or overworked."

‘Replica Figures’ features Steve Black (Sweet Baboo) on piano and bass, former guitarist of early 90's indie band Hopper (who were signed to Tony Wilson’s Factory Too records), Paul Sheppard, and John's daughter Maggie Lola on backing vocals. The album circulates around the concept of memories, different memories, how they are created, the lack of memory, enforced and false memories...

"We wanted the album to have restrictions in place, a limited palette of instruments and sounds, and most importantly a vocal performance to capture emotion and the moment.” Says John about recording the album “We are so used to listening to perfect vocals and I wanted to create a snapshot, much like a memory." FACEBOOK.

'Replica Figures' is one of those rare albums that starts out well and genuinely just gets better song by song. Somewhere near the mid-point we have 'Bunkbeds and Broken' a track that gives some good flavour of the whole, an anchor point if you like, however I really do urge you to check the other songs out, even if the shared song only registers a little.


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INHEAVEN - Sweet Dreams Baby.

Background - After a year in which they fulfilled several landmark ambitions, INHEAVEN today share their brand new track ‘Sweet Dreams Baby’ – their first new material since their critically acclaimed debut album was released last summer.

‘Sweet Dreams Baby’ is an anthem for those who are hoping for better things to come in 2018. “Ever wish you were someone else? Every wish you were somewhere else?” begins frontman James Taylor, expressing desires that many will identify with. Subsequently joined on vocal harmonies by Chloe Little, the duo’s lyrics remind people not to lose sight of their aspirations.

Sonically, ‘Sweet Dreams Baby’ echoes a succession of timeless American influences – from the insistent percussion of the great 60s girl groups to Springsteen’s yearning and the widescreen hooks of Kings of Leon. The track was produced by INHEAVEN’s regular collaborator Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Pixies, The Amazons).

After selling-out London’s Scala in the autumn, INHEAVEN return to the road at the end of the month for a UK headline tour. The band will also embarking on their first North American tour alongside fellow British indie darlings Pale Waves. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.

January
31st – Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
February
1st – Portland Arms, Cambridge
2nd – Esquires, Bedford
3rd – Moles, Bath
5th – The Boileroom, Guildford
6th – The Face Bar, Reading
7th – The Forum, Tunbridge Wells
9th – Arts Centre, Norwich
10th – Mining Institute, Newcastle
12th – Deaf Institute, Manchester
13th – Arts Centre, Wolverhampton
March
19th - White Oak Music Hall - Houston, TX
20th - Dada - Dallas, TX
23rd - Rebel Lounge - Phoenix, AZ
24th - Soma Sidestage - San Diego, CA
25th - Constellation Room - Santa Ana, CA
26th - Troubadour - Los Angeles, CA
27th - The Chapel - San Francisco, CA
29th - Hawthorne Theatre - Portland, OR
30th - Biltmore Cabaret - Vancouver, BC
31st - The Crocodile - Seattle, WA
April
3rd - Larimer Lounge - Denver, CO
5th - Recordbar - Kansas City, MO
6th - Ready Room - St. Louis, MO
7th - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL
9th - Velvet Underground - Toronto, ON
10th - Skully’s Music Diner - Columbus, OH
11th - U Street Music Hall - Washington, DC
12th - The Foundry - Philadelphia, PA
13th - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
15th - Sonia - Boston, MA

We featured INHEAVEN twice last year and ahead of the bands tour we now have 'Sweet Dreams Baby'. Once again we have a mature sounding rocker, where the production and clarity of sound is retained however much the energy levels build. With plenty of hooks the song quickly develops and insists on a second listen way before the closing chords.


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Phantoms VS Fire - Starfish.

Background - Electronic music artist Phantoms vs Fire has announced a new expanded version of ‘Swim’, his debut album set for release via Hypersoma Records. This special edition, available exclusively on Bandcamp, is called ‘Deeper Swim’ and includes two additional tracks not available on the original version.

Phantoms vs Fire is the solo project of Italy-based Brazilian multi-disciplinary artist Thiago C. Desant. Both a composer and graphic artist, Desant focuses on melodies that incorporate traditional musical instruments, synthesizers and orchestral arrangements.

While Desant says that the artists who most strongly influenced his composition are Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Max Richter, Trent Reznor, and Gustavo Santaolalla, Phantoms vs Fire's output is very distinct from any one of them. Tastefully blending electronica and ambient with dreamy classical influences, this album is bound to appeal to fans of Tycho, Com Truise, Youandewan, Bonobo, Philip Glass, Japan, and Mike Oldfield.

Clearly blazing his own remarkably beautiful path, Phantoms vs Fire engulfs the listener, who journeys with each composition from introspection and relaxation to reverie and intensity in the best tradition of Philip Glass, Japan and Ryuichi Sakamoto. This is the perfect soundtrack to late night stargazing, capable of lifting you to greater sonic heights. WEBSITE, BANDCAMP.

To often we receive electronic based music that in all honesty, is not really even at the demo stage if your serious about taking it further. 'Starfish' typifies the quality to be found in Phantom VS Fire's music, and whilst we are not here to lecture anyone about their music, this album may well inspire some original ideas for others to develop.


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Super Hi Fi - Dub to the Bone (Live in The Greene Space).

Background - Brooklyn, NY's funkiest, ambassadors of dub Super Hi-Fi are back with a genre melding new LP called Blue and White. By mixing elements of reggae, rock, world music, and jazz, Super Hi-Fi have created an album that feels as vibrant, dynamic, and undefinable as the boroughs of New York City. Holding true to their reggae roots Blue and White promises plenty of low-end heaviness and the dual trombone power that has come to define Super Hi-Fi's signature sound.

Super Hi-Fi- an underground supergroup of sorts whose members have backed a diverse collection of artists ranging from Beyonce to Donovan to Bill Frisell to the Skatalites- mixes jazz-inflected trombones, the heavy rhythmic thump of Jamaican dub and touches of afrobeat, funk and rock for a mix memorably described as an ‘imaginary soundtrack from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, The Specials and Led Zeppelin.’ Led by bassist and composer Ezra Gale, whose last outfit, the San Francisco-based Aphrodesia, took their take on afrobeat all the way to Femi Kuti’s Shrine in Lagos, Nigeria, Super Hi-Fi has been making waves in the fertile New York music scene since 2010, releasing records nearly non-stop since their debut full-length album, “Dub To The Bone,” in 2012.

Deservedly acclaimed both for their prolific recorded output and their live show, Super Hi-Fi’s unique double trombone-led sound is equally at home at a raucous dance party or an intense listening session. Applying the improvisatory dub mixing approach to live performances of the band’s original compositions and inspired covers, the group has shared stages with John Brown’s Body, Rubblebucket, Beats Antique, Debo Band, Meta and the Cornerstones, Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad and many others at venues like the Brooklyn Bowl, Maxwell’s, the Mercury Lounge, the Rocks Off Concert series and elsewhere.

Super Hi-Fi’s new release, “Blue and White”, will feature original songs and will have a stunning cover design from printmaker Robert Swainston, who designed a cover that will be printed on each album individually. “Each one will be a little different but will come from the same source” explains Gale, “which echoes the aesthetics of dub music where you have different pieces made from the same song.” It’s a different perspective and more ambitious than most, but it’s clear by now that there aren’t many challenges Super Hi-Fi isn’t interested in taking on. WEBSITE, FACEBOOK.

We have a live version of 'Dub To The Bone' to share with you, it's the third of twelve tracks on the studio album and the featured version is a fine representation both of the original and also of the high calibre album as a whole. This is a band that can traverse genres whilst retaining a vibrant, uplifting and often highly energised sound. If you are going to name yourselves Super Hi-Fi then the production really ought to reflect that, and the band do, with plenty of sonic delight all round.


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Frøkedal - INHEAVEN - Knifey - Cody & Danz

Frøkedal - LTF / Cracks.

Background - Oslo, Norway based artist Frøkedal has released a new double single — ‘LTF’ / ‘Cracks’. Two captivating pieces of music, ‘LTF’ and ‘Cracks’ are similar in the sense that they both describe how feelings of love are often accompanied by an almost-physical fear. Yet, the two songs differ in their urgency, instrumentation, and overall artistic delivery.

‘LTF’ is full of twists and turns, as Anne Lise Frøkedal navigates her way around bustling drum work and complex guitar passages, hinting at a state of emotional bedlam: “Everything we aimed to be / The image stirs so easily / Too fast to follow / I don’t know what you’re doing to me”.

Speaking a little more on the tracks, Frøkedal explained: "‘LTF’ is set in an urban landscape, and inspired by the escalating chaos of daily life, whereas ‘Cracks’ gets back to basics – it’s more vulnerable, and mature in that way. ‘Cracks’ suggests that the problem lies in our nature – nothing is more scary than exposing our weaknesses and imperfections."

Instrumentally, the double release could be argued to be one of Frøkedal most diverse yet. "I wanted the arrangements in ‘LTF’ to channel the more chaotic nature of the lyric” Frøkedal says.

"The second instrumental in ‘LTF’ is like a mini-postcard from last year when I was a clueless Norwegian trying to navigate the busy and bustling streets of Beijing. I laughed a lot when I realised I had musically recreated that moment” - perhaps referencing the tumultuous instrumental finale to the track.

"‘Cracks’ is painfully honest. It was difficult writing a song like that, but I really wanted to try shortening the distance a little, lay it open. I got Familien [Frøkedal’s band] to sing a verse with me, because the theme feels universal. One of my favourite percussion instruments is the Cajun triangle, and you can hear a trace of it in the bridge of ‘Cracks’. To me, it sounds like a reminder of danger lurking around the corner.”

Despite track-by-track production, Frøkedal’s lyrical output has taken a much more thematic approach with recent single ’Stranger’, and the double single released today: “When I started writing this new material, I was picturing different ages or stages in our lives when our vision gets a little blurred. I wanted the songs (and the characters) to channel these critical moments when decisions are dominated by emotion and not necessarily by logic,” she says.

‘LTF’ and ‘Cracks' join Frøkedal’s already-impressive body of work, having previously collaborated with Robyn Hitchcock and fronted successful Norwegian outfit Harrys Gym. She remains a core member of I Was A King, who count Sufjan Stevens and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake among past collaborators. Purchase here, Facebook here.

I mentioned back in June that I hoped I might be able to share some more material from Frøkedal this year & now we have two superb new songs 'LTF' and 'Cracks'. Both have the hallmark of quality that she consistently delivers, if you like either of these two tunes I thoroughly recommend her Norwegian Grammy-nominated debut LP of 2016, ‘Hold On Dreamer’.


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INHEAVEN - Stupid Things.

Background - Now counting down the days until their self-titled debut album is released on September 1st, INHEAVEN have already received an overwhelmingly positive reaction for the collection. Now the band present a final taster for the album by sharing the new track ‘Stupid Things’.

Produced by Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Pixies), ‘Stupid Things’ captures INHEAVEN at their most anthemic and romantic. As co-vocalists James Taylor and Chloe Little share sweet vocal harmonies over the track’s pounding rhythms, ‘Stupid Things’ takes you to a different place to the rest of the INHEAVEN songbook - a place where Brit attitude, boisterous grunge and Springsteen-esque Americana live in perfect harmony.

Lyrically it’s a song that reflects a near universal youth experience. As the band explain: “‘Stupid Things’ is a song for daydreamers. It’s about a love that exists outside of reality, it’s a romanticism you’ve created in your own head - but in the real world you have never even spoken to this person you think you know so well. It’s a school crush that feels like it will last forever. And it’s our very own coming of age soundtrack.”

INHEAVEN’s debut is the sound of a band who are set to change the lives of teenagers the length and breadth of the nation, and beyond. It’s a set that sprawls across the alt.rock spectrum from feral snapfire punk to the moody melodic distortion of shoegaze and the loud/quiet/loud dynamics of grunge. The life-affirming energy of their music combined with their individualistic ethos combine to make a band worth investing in beyond simply adding a few tracks to your Spotify playlist. Facebook here.

Following on from the live song 'Vultures' that we shared at the end of May, we now have 'Stupid Things' a thunderous rock anthem that combines melody and a rich rock arrangement with vocals and harmonies adding something quite special to this fabulous track.


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Knifey - Summer Girls.

Background - The new Knifey single is another perfect encapsulation of the surf-punk's Modus Operandi; it's as much a rallying cry for a rawkus beach party, as it is a wistful look back at what could've been. 

Dripping with summer soaked nostalgia, the track is a last stand to the waning days of perpetual sun and a holiday romances. Blasting out your speakers, the song comes from their debut LP 'Beached', out this September 29th. 

Quote about the song from lead singer Max Trinz: From frantic highs to ardent lows, Summer Girls is a song about romance and passion in the deep summer.  It's about the fast kind of love you can blink and miss while speeding down lazy summer roads.  

Reflective, patient hooks rise above relentless percussion and blistering guitars.  Like all Toronto summers, the song is short and precious, and, like the coming fall, quickly slows into a dreamy, reflective outro that yearns for things not appreciated in their time. Facebook here.

It's third time this year for Knifey on Beehive Candy and this time we have 'Summer Girls' a sub three minute sparkling surf punk song. Passionate, vibrant and charged with power, it's more evidence that this band can turn out fabulous music that should be noticed.

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Cody & Danz - So Small.

Background -  Cody & Danz have shared their new video from their debut EP. The song "So Small" comes from Only The Hits, which released on July 14th via Channel 9 Records in the USA and Tugboat Records in Japan. Cool Hunting calls the song "rambunctious" and says it "carries tremendous force without disrupting the pop sensibilities and musical intelligence of the two musicians." 

On the video, Cool Hunting adds, "Directed by Derik Smith, the visuals offer a candid-like take on an ordinary hang with Crump and Danz. It's simple, fun and works in tandem with the song." Look out for a John Stamos appearance, as well. 

The two artists both have burgeoning solo projects: Cody Crump and Computer Magic. Cody lives in LA and Danz lives in NYC. Consequence of Sound says, "Though about 3,000 miles separate these two musicians, their minds meet on one project, their collaborative debut EP, Only The Hits." Website here, Facebook here. 

Whilst we are in the habit of undertaking additional features for artists in 2017, lets not miss out on Cody & Danz this time with the new music video for 'So Small'. Potent, grungy, and punk fuelled, it's both primal and magnificent!


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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - INHEAVEN - Vivienne Chi

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Isotype.

Background - Written, recorded, produced and mixed by OMD – Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – ‘Isotype’ is taken from the duo’s brilliant new album ‘The Punishment Of Luxury’; a daring collection of stylish synth pop and masterful song writing that will rank alongside their very best.  

Boasting an infectious synth line and soaring melody ‘Isotype’ sees the band address the issues of communication and technology within the 21st century.  Speaking of the track Andy said ‘"It’s about the modern world where our communication value systems are so reduced that you wonder if we’re actually getting any clear point across’.   

Having played a triumphant sold out show at the Royal Albert Hall in May last year, OMD head back out on the road again this autumn for a string of must-see shows, including a show at The Roundhouse November 13th.

The album takes its name from an 1891 painting by the Italian Giovani Segantini and contains everything from the Kraftwerkian ‘Isotype’ and ‘Robot Man’ to the blue eyed soul ballads of ‘One More Time’ and ‘The View From Here’ as well as more traditional OMD songs like ‘Kiss Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Bang’ and the synth heavy title track. Website here, Facebook here.

I am glad I have kept most of my original vinyl albums, of which OMD remain a valued member. It does not seem like thirty seven years ago that I first got so excited by the band. Their new material including the featured song 'Isotype' is just as fresh and pleasing, why say more!

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INHEAVEN - Vultures.

Background - Fresh from a set at The Great Escape that inspired The Guardian to state, “Inheaven leave Brighton's new music shindig shaking”, INHEAVEN’s growing cult of devotees looks set to expand exponentially when they release their self-titled debut album on September 1st. To coincide with the announcement, the band have also shared a new video for their recent track ‘Vultures’ which compiles footage from their adrenaline-fuelled live experience.

Produced by Tom Dalgety (Royal Blood, Pixies, The Maccabees) and recorded at Rockfield Studios, INHEAVEN’s debut is the sound of a band who are set to change the lives of teenagers the length and breadth of the nation, and beyond. The life-affirming energy of their music combined with their individualistic ethos combine to make a band worth investing in beyond simply adding a few tracks to your Spotify playlist.

The album kicks off with ‘Baby’s Alright’, in which a prominent bassline that evokes the arresting openings of bands like The Ramones and The Damned merges into a rabble-rousing melody to make for a rallying call to arms. Although INHEAVEN are best known for evoking Slowdive and My Blood Valentine by layering dreamy vocals on vast waves of distorted guitars on tracks such as ‘Regeneration’, ‘Vultures’ is a very different beast. Its doomy, metallic opening riff erupts into life before Chloe Little’s urgently enunciated vocals provoke a radical change of pace. Not to be outdone, James Taylor’s stream-of-consciousness hook is delivered in a feral rush of punk ‘n’ roll.

Having already confirmed a variety of summer festivals which include the NME / BBC Radio 1 Stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, INHEAVEN can now also announce details of an autumn headline tour in support of the album. Live dates can be found on Beehive Candy's tour page. Facebook here.

'Vultures' is a forceful and vigorous, no nonsense rocker that pretty much explains the love this band are currently receiving. Another band where rock'n'rolls legacy is in safe hands.


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Vivienne Chi - Vivienne.

Background - The powerful alt-pop debut ‘Vivienne’ hones in on lo-fi grittiness from The White Stripes while unifying her classic British influences including Massive Attack and Bat For Lashes. Fronted with a distorted, driving bassline that strikes like a marching parade. 

The melodies and lyrics are delicate yet powerful & the songs tell tales of escapism. First single 'Vivienne' is a track with a distinctly British edge. 

Vivienne Chi comments “I wrote 'Vivienne' about getting through the aftermath of a break-up and that little voice in your head that persuades you to do something stupid. It's about losing control and letting your other, less dignified self take over for a moment.”

Sculpting lyrics and melodies into a catalogue of songs touching on belonging, heartache & the darker sides of London’s excessive lifestyle. This exciting debut is the first of many works from Vivienne Chi. Website here.

There is a beautiful divide between the vocals and the powerful, yet understated musical arrangement on 'Vivienne'. Refrains rather than choruses, seem to break the song up, as debut's go this is one ear catching piece.

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