Loaver - Chris Mayer & The Rockets - Ordinary Elephant - Laura Carbone

Loaver has now released her debut album 'Fern' from which we have already had the pleasure of sharing three tracks. The full collection is streaming below and has lived up to our hopes and expectations, as Linnea Hall's creative and multi genre musical exploration truly impresses. ===== From Bavaria we have Chris Mayer & The Rockets with 'Autumn Riot' a refreshingly natural and hook filled indie/pop rocker. ===== Ordinary Elephant share 'Let Me Tell You What I Think' a raw sounding and stripped back folk song that simmers with emotion. ===== Berlin-based Dreamadelica rocker Laura Carbone just released 'Who's gonna save you Live at Rockpalast' a track built upon restrained passion and building vocal power, it's one of those songs that will resonate well in a sweaty nightclub or comfortably fill a stadium. 

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Loaver - Fern (Album).

Malmö, Sweden, based singer-songwriter Linnea Hall started her solo project Loaver with a desire to be able to showcase all sides of her experiences and inspirations. This weekend, debut album 'Fern' is released via Rama Lama Records.

In 2019, she put out her self-titled debut EP on Birds Records. The music – experimental, smooth and dark pop at its finest – was written and recorded in Italy during 2017, in close collaboration with artists such as Giovanni Ferrario (PJ Harvey, John Parish etc.), who produced the tracks, and Emanuele Maniscalco. Through the six tracks we were drawn between the uttermost boundaries of emotions – love, hate, dreams, doubt, chaos and naivety. The new record is once again recorded in Italy but this time in collaboration with Emanuele Maniscalco and Carlo Poddighe.

Early 2020, Loaver returned with new single 'Drömmeri (om döden)' on Rama Lama Records (Melby, Chez Ali, Julia Rakel, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes). The single, a pendant to Debussy's Reverie, is a memoriam to Linnea's grandmother that was released on her death day. This was the first taste of the upcoming album that's packed with highly unique and instantly memorable tracks, like the slow burner 'Bloom With Me', the shapeshifting 'Forget All About' and captivating 'Apart'.

The debut LP 'Fern' sees Loaver develop her creative pop and experiments with art music, trip hop, singer-songwriter, dream pop, jazz and bedroom pop elements that together with Hall's splendid vocals and personal lyrics create a hauntingly beautiful soundscape.

Besides Loaver, Linnea Hall is the singer of Swedish experimental indie rock group Kluster B. The band have put out two records since 2018 that besides positive reviews in some of Sweden's biggest music magazines, have received international attention from Line of Best Fit, BBC Radio 6, NBHAP and more, with The Revue calling them one of the most innovative bands in the world as well as opened for Frankie Cosmos, Omni and more. 

Rama Lama Records · Loaver - Fern

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Chris Mayer & The Rockets - Autumn Riot.

Chris Mayer & the Rockets - the four guys from Bavaria identify with the sound of John Mayer or Coldplay. Right from the start they created their own style. They call it „Feelgood-Blues-Rock“, straight from the heart.

Chris Mayer was on tour before as a singer/songwriter. Amongst others he got radio airplay at one of the biggest German stations „Bayern3“ and also supported the American songwriter Nataly Dawn (Pomplamoose) at the Prinzenbar in Hamburg.

Chris and the Rockets know what makes them so special: each of them comes from another Music-Universe. Progessive Rock, Metal, Indie and Singer/Songwriter merge into „FBR“. Handmade music that gets to the heart – and stays.

Chris Mayer & The Rockets · Autumn Riot

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Ordinary Elephant - Let Me Tell You What I Think.

We didn’t sit down with an intention to write this song. It found its way out through a songwriting exercise we sometimes use called the translitic process, which is essentially a way to tap into your subconscious. You start with a piece of poetry in a language foreign to you and the first step is to “translate” it, but not in the traditional sense. You don’t try to guess what the words actually mean, instead you take it line by line and write down what first comes to mind based on how the words look and how you think they sound. 

You end up with a page of dream-like stream of consciousness nonsense when taken as a whole, but there are flecks of phrases that shine like a mirror among the mess. And as you work through the drafts, continuing to rewrite one to the next without looking back at previous versions, what’s been in the folds of your mind starts coming into focus. And this time it was the state of our country and our democracy.

The final edits only recently fell into place, and then we felt the call to share this song in a wider way, in hopes of encouraging action that can create change. So we headed to the home studio of our friend Clay Parker whose intuitive artistry and musicianship are at the foundation of his work. In an analog world that he is well-versed in, but is new to us, we tracked straight to tape. No punch-ins, no comping, just the one take that we all felt best actualizes the song. In a time when things feel hidden and pulled apart and pieced together into parallel narratives, it felt good to use such an unbroken and linear process to create something. — Crystal Hariu-Damore

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Laura Carbone - Who's gonna save you (Live at Rockpalast).

Berlin-based dreamadelica rocker Laura Carbone premieres the first single “Who’s Gonna Save You” from her forthcoming album Laura Carbone - Live at Rockpalast. The single is accompanied by an alluring video, sonically driven by its taunting, foreboding bass, as a furtive lady in red emerges from the shadows, overlooking her realm. And then the question, “Who’s gonna save you?”

When Laura Carbone and her band kick in with the “Live at Rockpalast” rendition of “Who’s Gonna Save You?” you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s just conjured up a storm that’s long held the world breathless. Switching between the B-&-W grit of her 2019 Rockpalast show and Laura’s other role in the video as the crimson-clad water nymph protecting her natural habitat, the imagery highlights the duality of the artist, as well as the voices that struggle within each of us.

The footage of Laura Carbone in the red dress was shot and directed in September 2020 at Berlin’s Märchenbrunnen, or “Fairytale Fountain,” in Volkspark Friedrichshain by visual artist and Underground Youth drummer Olya Dyer, who comments, “To have this immaculate beauty yet melancholic aftertaste blended with the energy of the live performance is incredible. It's a solitary present mixed with a crowded past.”

A fragility with a thick skin, her toughness genteel, her tenderness endless and her ferocity formidable, Laura sings, “Dear love, you better get some shelter,” and you have to ask, is it caring advice, or a veiled threat? Laura Carbone is both fairy and fury, protective of her core, her integrity, her oasis of calm in a world of spiraling chaos, where the question remains: Who’s gonna save you?

While everyone is missing the experience of attending live performances there’s no better time to witness Laura Carbone’s spellbinding talent, her arresting voice, silver-tongued lyrics, and a penchant for channeling 80s-90s dark wave pop than on her upcoming live performance album Live at Rockpalast.

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Spray - Pollens - Laura Carbone

Spray - Anthologised By Cherry Red.

Background - British synth band and self-styled indiepop chameleons Spray present their new single 'Anthologised by Cherry Red', a tongue-in-cheek anthem for today's music industry.

Founded in 2001, Spray is comprised of Ricardo Autobahn (synthesizers) and Jenny McLaren? (vocals, guitars), both formerly of the Cuban Boys, who took their chaotic technopunk to number 1 on the Festive 50 (twice), recorded one of the best Peel Sessions ever and went head-to-head with Sir Cliff Richard in a Christmas Chart Battle (but ultimately lost). Their hit single 'Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia' (a.k.a. 'The Hamster Dance Song') sold a million copies, reached number 4 in the UK single charts, landed them on Top of the Pops and, in the words of John Peel, was “the most requested song I’ve had since 'God Save The Queen'.

In a mathematically constructed list presented by RockListMusic.co.uk, the Cuban Boys registered as the 30th most popular band in the history of the John Peel Show, ranking ahead of the Inspiral Carpets (31), The Cure (34), Nirvana and The Stone Roses (=tied at 35). BBC producer Mike Engles selected the Cuban Boys' first Peel Session as one of his top 10 all-time favourites, alongside Nirvana, The Damned and Ivor Cutler.

'Anthologised by Cherry Red' came about after a chat Ricardo Autobahn had with a fellow musician. When asked what he was currently up to, he uttered the beautiful phrase “oh, I’m at that stage in my career where I’m being anthologised by Cherry Red”. A lot of Spray’s inspiration and ideas come from everyday comments and this went straight in the band notebook.

"The song is not a critique of Cherry Red as we're actually big fans of the label. It’s more a straightforward story song about a fading rock band finding success in their twilight years," says Jenny McLaren. "It’s also an observation about the state of the music industry. If the business is based on catalogue reissues, where are the catalogue reissues of the future going to come from?" BANDCAMP.

Spray are just bubbling over with catchy vibes on 'Anthologised By Cherry Red', a song that despite it's upbeat nature, does make some very relevant observations regarding today's music business. That said I reckon it will make you smile just as much as it might make you reflect on deeper matters.


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Pollens - $$$_PSA.

Background - Brooklyn based duo Pollens have recently released their latest single “$$$_PSA” via Emerging Indie Bands. The track displays offbeat, conversational delivery, dense polyrhythms, layered themes, drum machines, and dynamic arrangements that will leave you wanting more. It is through Jeff Aaron Bryant and Elizabeth “Emay” May’s brilliant lyricism, which contain ‘lists’, that has their listeners on the edge of curiosity.

We all want to know the meaning behind the song we listen to...or is there a meaning? Pollens have confirmed that their “songs aren’t about anything...that’s a promise.” For this track, “$$$_PSA”, focuses on a “few flavors of moneyed people- their entitlement, the space they’re taking up on the train, their shoes and conversations, and every so often we hear someone else making an announcement,” says Pollens. Their eccentric way of seeing the world can change our perspective on everything!

They check out all the “affluent” people on the train and are making their own announcement. Give it a listen and challenge yourself to never hear anyone over an intercom or public address system the same as you had before. Says Emerging Indie Bands, “it is only a sadness it has taken this long for me to get around to introducing their avant-garde creativity.”

Pollens belong in a world where guitars are not needed, lyrics come off as ‘lists’ to be shouted, not sung, and songs lie on a bedrock of intricate, yet visceral percussion. There are too many artists who tend to overthink things- aesthetics, sound, lyrics- but it all comes naturally to Pollens. With music originating back to 2008, Pollens has grown and been compared to notable artist such as tUne-yArDs and Animal Collective. Their music is truly avant garde. There is no norm. There are loose parameters, bursts of neurotic energy tempered by melodious breaks, but then back to it- a pulsating undercurrent layered to perfection and we find ourselves completely immersed and engaged.

If there is one thing you can learn from this duo, it’s that you don’t need a big band to make yourself heard. According to Jeff, “with a tiny band, we’re totally free to explore sparse, dumb, over committed ideas without a lot of risk or investment.” FACEBOOK.

The song title gives us a pretty good hint that '$$$_PSA' is going to be different. It's also intriguing and yes the claim of being "avant garde" is not without substance. Most of all though this is gorgeously addictive and massively refreshing and the bonus is this type of Pollen doesn't make me sneeze.

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Laura Carbone - Tangerine Tree.

Background - Berlin-based artist, Laura Carbone, takes the darker path on this shoegazy new single, "Tangerine Tree."  Her eagerly anticipated second album, Empty Sea, is set for release June 8th, 2018 on Future Shock Records in Canada and the USA. "To me, this song is like a vivid dream inviting you to dive in and float in it for a while.  It gives the comfort of a familiar feeling that keeps on visiting you once in a while in your sleep.  It's a temporary feeling -- it'll be over and that's fine." -Laura Carbone

Fresh off her recent tours with Jesus and Mary Chain, INVSN, and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and performing two consecutive years at SXSW in Austin, Berlin's dark starlight Laura Carbone is excited to unleash her sophomore follow-up to the 2016 Sirens.

Written in Los Angeles and recorded at the infamous RAMA Studios with Christian Bethge, you can hear the noisy transatlantic influences of the now Berlin-based darkstar. Listening to lots of Nick Cave while on tour with The Jesus And Mary Chain was an influence in developing the sound for the new record; but the noisy feedback and heavy reverb on tracks such as “Cellophane Skin” and “Crisis,” is balanced with more harmonious numbers on the album, among which are “Tangerine Tree” and “Lullaby.”

The album title Empty Sea comes from the Brother Grimm's fairy tale "The True Bride" in which a kidnapped princess must empty a lake with a spoon full of holes. "There were moments when I really doubted myself as I had some blocks, retreating to LA to write really gave me the courage to get the album together, the experience of overcoming doubt made me think about the girl with the spoon." WEBSITE.

'Tangerine Tree' is dreamy and has something of a lighter shoegaze feel to it, the vocals are well up in the mix however, adding melodic overtones along with some emotional pull. It's a captivating song, Laura Carbone's musical influences have added to her creativity rather than taken over, the album will be well worth checking out.  


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