Mara Simpson - The Limiñanas & Laurent Garnier - Skidders - Weak Signal

Mara Simpson - Serena.

Last month, UK multi-instrumentalist and story-teller Mara Simpson announced her new album In This Place will be released on September 24th. A heady blend of alt-folk, analogue synth and classical composition, In This Place is a tale of quiet rebellion and taking back control. Today, she shares new single 'Serena'. The track, named after the apartment building in Brighton where Mara’s daughter was born, is based on the experience of becoming a mother and the responsibility of making important healthcare decisions. “How will I know how to love you” she sings over undulating synths and sparse piano chords.

Whilst the struggles of 2020 will go down in history, for Mara it was 2019 that was the tough one.  A year spent consumed by worry, whilst in and out of hospital with her one year old daughter, had left Mara feeling like she was playing a constant game of catch up with a world that wouldn’t slow down. With songs ready to be recorded for her new album, she headed into the studio to record with her producer.

“I stepped into the studio not needing my hand held, just my voice heard” explains Mara, who quickly came to the realisation that she was working in a toxic environment with a producer whose moods everyone had started to dread. “Ironically, at the end of a year spent managing my daughter’s breathing issues, I had an asthma attack induced by the studio’s hypoallergenic cat,” she laughs. “Enough was enough.”

It was whilst waiting for a train that she had the sudden realisation that the album she was recording would never see the light of day. Struck by an overwhelming feeling of failure, Mara began to ruminate on the time and money she had wasted but then something clicked. “Perhaps it’s something about train stations, the coming and the goings, that allows a stagnating frame of mind the grace and space to clear,” she says. “The funny thing is, upon realising failure, the despair I’d been feeling was now replaced with something else...Relief”.

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The Limiñanas & Laurent Garnier - Promenade oblique.

French psych-rock royalty The Limiñanas and iconic French DJ Laurent Garnier will release their collaborative album 'De Película' on 10th September through Because Music. Following first singles 'Saul' and 'Que Calor', they have today shared the new track 'Promenade Oblique'. The first instrumental single from one of the most anticipated French albums of 2021, 'Promenade Oblique' embraces all of the album's influences, creating a psychedelic momentum reminiscent of the best of Krautrock.

This is the story of a friendship that started via a ringtone and is set to make waves through a one-of-a-kind project. Back in 2017, Lionel and Marie Limiñana, the couple/duo better known as The Limiñanas, were invited by Laurent Garnier to perform at the Yeah Festival. The sound of Lionel’s ringtone, the signature riff from The Kingsmen’s ‘Louie Louie’, caught Laurent’s attention and so started a new adventure for the Perpignan natives and the Parisian artist, now settled in the Provence. Four years on and the psychedelic garage duo and French techno pioneer DJ/producer have created ‘De Película’, a record that feels like a walk on the wild side and one straight out of a film noir. 

It’s an album that tells a story, a heated road trip following Juliette and Saul, two teenage rascals straight out of a ‘60s classic movie - think ‘Breathless’ meets ‘Wild at Heart’. The location is the southern border with Spain, stifled by heat and cheap liquor. ‘De Película’ is a true concept album that’s not afraid to stray and run free, or rather “an Italian anthology film” as Lionel Limiñana puts it, a great mumbo jumbo where it takes two, humour and melancholy, to tango. Picture squalid brothels, third-rate dance clubs, ‘60s vintage caravans, smack, Roger Harth and Donald Cardwell productions, distortion and fuzz-pedal sound effects. Gilles Deleuze, Professor X and the preacher from ‘The Night of the Hunter’ are some of the characters that inhabit the world of this drama-inspired record.

The Limiñanas · The Limiñanas, Laurent Garnier - Promenade oblique

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Skidders - I Wonder (feat. Andrew James).

Skidders (aka Steve Skidmore) is back with a brand new single taken from the forthcoming studio album Friends & Family Vol.2.

I wrote the song for my wife to appear on volume 2, but rather than wait until it's release, I wanted to publish it earlier, hence the single! But as a love song, and with my vocals, I really could not to it justice - hence the addition of Andrew James' incredible vocals. Together with the bass, mixing and mastering of the amazing Paul Hogg, although a simple song, it is one I am most proud of. I thank Andrew & Paul from the bottom of my heart and I really hope you will like it as much as I do.

Andrew James: Andrew is well know in the Cotswold area of England, and kept everyone sane during the COVID pandemic with his "Stay Sane Sessions" performed live on Facebook and YouTube throughout shutdowns. I was honoured to record guitar for some songs of his songs and Andrew reciprocated with some fab keyboards on Bukechi videos. Check out our cover of Bonnie Raitt's beautiful song I can't make you love me that Andrew lit up with his piano.

Paul Hogg: Paul is an amazing musician, producer, sound engineer and most of all, a lovely friend. Not only these virtues, but he also composes and publishes several genres of music under his name and also that of 'The Ox', the latter being amazing electronica and downtempo music.

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Weak Signal - Barely A Trace.

In classic punk-fashion, but also in normal-human, I-have-no-idea-what-the-future-holds-because-it's-a-pandemic fashion, Weak Signal, led by one of New York's most sought-after guitarists Mike Bones, dropped their new album Bianca on Bandcamp out of nowhere in May of 2020 (it's since been taken down). Although it was unmastered and flew mostly under the radar, it was reviewed by a few spots, and Iggy Pop graciously featured the track "Drugs In My System" on his BBC radio show.

Now, thanks to Colonel Records, Bianca is seeing a proper digital and vinyl release on October 15th, and the band is celebrating today's announcement with the single "Barely A Trace," which comes paired with a new music video directed and edited by the band's drummer Tran. Additional exciting news includes a release show at Brooklyn venue Union Pool on October 8th, followed by a two-week run opening for beloved psych-rockers Garcia Peoples.

"Barely A Trace is about feeling lingering presences around you, swirling confusion from sudden disappearances, like when you discover someone found your stash spot," says Mike Bones. "Our drummer Tran made the video during the early days of the COVID lockdown in Vietnam, Spring 2020. The song and video are our attempts to affect an approximation of the perfect loneliness and separation present in the work of writers like Marguerite Duras or David Markson."

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Penelope Antena - Alyssa Joseph - Joe Taylor Sutkowski - Mara Simpson

Penelope Antena - Back To Stay.

Living and creating in the shadow of an esteemed family legacy, alone in the woods on a mountaintop in the Occitanie region of southern France, Penelope Antena is the heir to a musical throne of mythological stature… and one she lives up to with newfound ambition to push tradition into a 21st Century soundscape. Her 2019 self-produced LP Antelope (KowTow Records) put her otherworldly production style on full display, declaring Penelope as a visionary songwriter and creative force.

Her mother is the renowned singer Isabelle Antena (a pioneer of Electro Samba), her grandfather jazz pianist Marc Moulin (the reason Blue Note opened its EU headquarters, and who was sampled by the likes of Jay Dilla). Fast forward to today and Penelope is carving out her own genre melding path that has garnered praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, France Inter, and many others.

By integrating tradition and technology, Penelope provides a unique voice in international indie and electronic music. Her forthcoming 2021 release (via Brooklyn’s boutique label Youngbloods) exemplifies an expansion of her creative inspirations, adapting folk, Americana, and gospel sensibilities.

Recent highlights include performing at legendary venue, La Villette in Paris, touring the US in the fall of 2019, 2020 singles “20 Down” and a collaboration with Minneapolis based artist Peter M, “First PO”.

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Alyssa Joseph - leaning.

Rising indie-rock singer Alyssa Joseph releases a beautiful lyric video for her song “leaning”, which can be found on her critically acclaimed “alive” EP that dropped last month. 

“leaning” describes the period after she graduated college when she was forced to move back home with her parents in New Jersey and face judgment from the world while she longed to move to Nashville. The lyrics candidly expose the difficulties young millennials go through post-grad, as she declares “all my money goes to student loans and the god-damn government”.

The lyric video, which Joseph recorded while driving around Nashville, takes the song full circle. Showcasing the lyrics in the video allows viewers to understand the meaning behind this vulnerable song on a deeper level. When she sings, “they say it’s strange that I’m still leaning, but I’m still leaning” she is being honest that even as an adult she doesn’t have it all figured out and it’s okay to ask for help. The video showcases the understated beauty of “Music City” and offers a sense of hope that dreams can still come true. Even though Joseph was stuck in New Jersey living with her parents when the song was written, her dream of moving to Nashville materializes in the video.

Alyssa Joseph is a thriving singer-songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. She has toured through Texas and up and down the Northeast, playing at Sofar Sound shows in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Louisville. Her recent EP -- titled “alive” and released on June 4th, 2021-- received wide acclaim from the local and national press, including Guitar Girl Magazine, Music Crowns, Broadway World, and a five-out-of-five star review on Square One Magazine. She is an advocate for body positivity and creating a more diverse and inclusive space within the music industry.

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Joe Taylor Sutkowski - What Luck, Goodbye.

The New Jersey-born now Brooklyn-based artist, Joe Taylor Sutkowski is today announcing details of his debut album, Of Wisdom & Folly alongside sharing the first single, "What Luck, Goodbye." Sutkowski, who is known for his work fronting Dirt Buyer and playing under the Jotay moniker wrote the forthcoming ten-track record, which is out via LA-based artist-run label, Danger Collective Records on August 13, 2021, as a series of five different pairs of stories, each telling the tale of a different character.

While taking a run through pandemic-stricken Brooklyn in 2020, Sutkowski found himself inspired by the odd and visually appealing lyrics of Chocolate USA (a lesser-known project of Elephant 6 / Neutral Milk Hotel collaborator Julian Koster). The endearing depiction of a pretzel-headed schoolgirl named Sherry inspired a swirl of ideas and characters for Sutkowski, who wrote the first song – "Sherry Had a Pretzel Head" – for the record immediately after returning home from the run.

Sutkowski’s warm, emotive vocal delivery and fingerstyle classical guitar are the clear foundation for the album, something cemented with this first single, "What Luck, Goodbye". As a narrative, it arrives as the mirror track to the album opener, "Jordan Was a Little Bottle Rocket" and tells the story of Megan, a desperate dreamer who finds a bottle rocket named Jordan in the pocket of her jacket who she flies away with.

In addition to its precise instrumentation, Of Wisdom & Folly showcases Sutkowski’s ability to paint colorful and defined lyrical illustrations, while maintaining a creative voice and vision that keeps the album grounded. Though the album’s puzzling nature often feels like a dream, the perspectives of the characters are lively, heartbreaking, and ultimately human. “It’s supposed to be vague and make you feel strange, but also at ease,” Sutkowski says, “but I express many real feelings through the medium of characters and their stories.” The performances on the album feel connected to its content and vulnerability, with ominous outros and the inclusion of imperfect studio moments that create a tangible intimacy.

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Mara Simpson - In This Place.

UK multi-instrumentalist and story-teller Mara Simpson has announced her new album In This Place will be released on September 24th, 2021. A heady blend of alt-folk, analogue synth and classical composition, In This Place is a tale of quiet rebellion and taking back control. Fittingly, the new album marks the start of another new journey for Mara. In This Place will be the first record to be released on Downfield Records, a non-profit imprint set up by Simpson, placing artists at its centre. “I want to try and promote transparency and equality, assist other artists to get public funding and to ‘pay’ forward the time and resources I’ve benefited from,” she says. The label’s mission is to see musicians paid fairly and release records through a creative and joyous process. 

Whilst the struggles of 2020 will go down in history, for Mara it was 2019 that was the tough one.  A year spent consumed by worry, whilst in and out of hospital with her one year old daughter, had left Mara feeling like she was playing a constant game of catch up with a world that wouldn’t slow down. With songs ready to be recorded for her new album, she headed into the studio to record with her producer. 

“I stepped into the studio not needing my hand held, just my voice heard” explains Mara, who quickly came to the realisation that she was working in a toxic environment with a producer whose moods everyone had started to dread. “Ironically, at the end of a year spent managing my daughter’s breathing issues, I had an asthma attack induced by the studio’s hypoallergenic cat,” she laughs. “Enough was enough.” 

It was whilst waiting for a train that she had the sudden realisation that the album she was recording would never see the light of day. Struck by an overwhelming feeling of failure, Mara began to ruminate on the time and money she had wasted but then something clicked. “Perhaps it’s something about train stations, the coming and the goings, that allows a stagnating frame of mind the grace and space to clear,” she says. “The funny thing is, upon realising failure, the despair I’d been feeling was now replaced with something else...Relief”. 

Feeling re-energised, Mara called her dream producer Ellie Mason, of Voka Gentle, and together the pair began working on a new record. “I’ve been more hands-on with this album than I’ve ever been, taking a much more active role in production. Throughout the whole process Ellie has heard my voice, and been open to any possibility” explains Mara. “We’ve stumbled across golden moments, recording four part harmonies in Brighton’s oldest church, using every drum there is in Brighton Electric, layering New Zealand bird song with tape delayed piano, all thanks to her nurture, playfulness and kindness,” she continues. 

Title-track ‘In This Place’ is about the confrontation between mother and newborn child. The ‘sizing-up’ of one another as they embark on a new journey together. “When I left home to travel around the world and was so worried about breaking my Mum’s heart,” says Mara. “I just remember her saying that your children are never yours to keep. This is a song about the rawest of loves, and the fact that however much we love someone, they are never ours, and the beauty in that.”

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Sunglasses For Jaws - Miesha & The Spanks - Mara Simpson

Sunglasses For Jaws - What Does It Look Like.

London based outfit Sunglasses For Jaws today release their new single "What Does It Look Like" - the third track to be shared from upcoming album Everybody's Made Of Bones, out June 3rd via Pony Recordings. Widescreen, psych-rock with a penchant for the dramatic, David Bardon and Oscar Robertson along with recently recruited vocalist Oliver Huband recorded Everybody's Made Of Bones at Sean Ono Lennon's studio in upstate New York.

Produced by Lennon's partner Charlotte Kemp Muhl and mixed by Elliot Heinrich (Temples, Sorry, Parquet Courts) - the album examines the story and struggles of Huband's character 'Frank', with Huband's hushed singing and spoken word narratives impeccably delivered across the sprawling, kaleidoscopic instrumentals. A cacophony of horns, driving guitars and lilting xylophone runs, new single "What Does It Look Like" provides a cinematic insight into the band's new album.

Speaking on the new single, Huband said: "We ask questions for the purpose of getting answers, and if your question remains unanswered, you’ll just keep asking the question. Over and over. And we, humans, love to ask questions as much as we like to find answers. ‘What does it look like’ is a broad, vague, all-encompassing question that has a million different answers. Everything can be everything, anything can be anything. It’s a question that speeds into the highway eternally, picking up information and passengers and ideas and thoughts along the way. It’s everything that appears on your tv screen, on billboards, in your dreams, behind your eyes, the incessant overload of visual and psychological stimuli. It’s the coke can and the wet soil, and everything in between. Don’t try and answer this particular question. Trust me. The pursuit is a hell of a lot more fulfilling than the destination."

Sunglasses For Jaws at its core is the project of drummer and bassist Oscar Robertson and David Bardon. A rhythm section session pair, touring the world together playing for acts including Sinead O'Brien, Geowulf, Nick Waterhouse, Yak and This Is The Deep - the creative duo explain: "Sunglasses For Jaws is our vessel to experiment and make any kind of music we want to. This time we've given it a lot more intention and thought, and we wanted to create an entire little world.”

Adding more context to the full project, the trio added: "Everyone has versions of themselves – exteriors, barriers, walls, personalities, facades, fronts and so on. They separate people and make them unique. But everyone is made of blood, bone and skin. And bone is the most breakable. The hardest. The weakest. The softest. The most beautiful, smoothest component of the body, holding the entire artifice together. And whatever experience you live or embody, it’s your bones that get the beast in motion. This record is about the different experiences lived. The various forms and iterations of a person – where they place themselves, who they exist with, how they behave, how they recover. Frank does all of these things throughout the record, taking on the personage of the narrator, the protagonist, the psyche and, to some extent, all three at the same time. He doesn’t fear jumping in at the deep end and allowing himself to really feel. He feels so much that he feels in in his bones. When we get wet, we get soaked to the bone. When we feel adrenaline, we feel it in our bones. And when we write music and lyrics and throw art and romance and human complexity into the world… we do it with our bones."

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Miesha & The Spanks - Singles (E.P).

Miesha & The Spanks offer a dynamic mixture of punk, garage and hard rock embellished with straightforward lyrics, gritty production and hard hitting performances. Inspired by proto punk classics like The Runaways, MC5 and The Stooges, and 90s riot grrrl/grunge like L7 and The Gits, M&TS conjure an energy that hits you in the face, throwing you into a world of killer riffs and sweaty gig venues.

Originally a punk rock kid from the East Kootenays, front-woman Miesha Louie started this project a decade ago after moving to big city Calgary, AB. She toured and released like crazy, building momentum and a reputation for her DIY approach, with any drummer up for the challenge. Joined by Sean Hamilton five years ago, he brought big Bonham style that’s intuitive like John Freese, always creating the right feel for the song.

Recorded in Brighton UK, their 2018 release Girls Girls Girls was produced by Danny Farrant of punk legends The Buzzcocks. The album reached #1 on Earshot!’s National Loud charts, and had singles hit #7 on CBC 3’s R3-30, and #1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown. It received multiple adds on SiriusXM Canada, and was even given attention from Rodney Bingenheimer’s Sirius XM show in the US. At the YYC Music Awards, Girls Girls Girls brought home Rock Recording Of The Year and Single Of The Year (“Summer Love”), as well as securing Miesha as Female Artist Of The Year.

Girls Girls Girls saw Miesha & The Spanks on their second cover of Beatroute Magazine, and was accompanied by 30 dates across Canada, with festival appearances at Blizzard Music Fest (Rossland BC), Canadian Music Week (Toronto), Sled Island (Calgary), Rifflandia (Victoria BC), Halifax Pop Explosion (Halifax), Big Winter Classic (Calgary), The Great Escape (Brighton UK), FOCUS Wales (Wrexham UK), and Breakout West (Whitehorse YK).

Taking a brief hiatus while Miesha birthed twins, M&TS are back with their next release, Singles EP. While the Covid-19 pandemic did slow down production, the duo have put their full weight behind first singles “Unstoppable” and “Wanna Feel Good” – a juggernaut garage rock banger and a gritty fuzzed out anthem, respectively – reminding us that sometimes head first, full throttle, is the only way to get it done. Both songs received adds to SiriusXM Canada’s CBC Radio 3 and Indigenous Peoples’ Radio, with features on The Verge and Rodney Bingenheimer Show. Wanna Feel Good charted Top 10 on the Indigenous Music Countdown.

What was meant to be a mixed tape of self-serving, standalone tracks for radio and licensing, Singles EP instead became a collection of songs influenced by the immediate life-changing effects of life during lockdown. Working with Western Canadian Music Award winning artist/producer Leeroy Stagger was meant to reign in Miesha & The Spanks, to clean up the noise for crisp, polished songs – but visited from the ghost of punk rock past, Stagger instead turned it up (way up) and imbued their crunchy mono-guitar sound with extra doses of fuzz and feedback, guaranteed to get the blood pumping.

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Mara Simpson - Reason.

UK multiinstrumentalist and story-teller Mara Simpson has shared new single ‘Reason’, a heady blend of alt-folk, analogue synth and classical composition. Serving as the first taste of her third studio album, ‘Reason’ is a tale of quiet rebellion and taking back control, a theme that is central to her upcoming release.

Whilst the struggles of 2020 will go down in history, for Mara it was 2019 that was the tough one.  A year spent consumed by worry, whilst in and out of hospital with her one-year-old daughter, had left Mara feeling like she was playing a constant game of catch up with a world that wouldn’t slow down. With songs ready to be recorded for her new album, she headed into the studio to record with her producer. “I stepped into the studio not needing my hand held, just my voice heard” explains Mara, who quickly came to the realisation that she was working in a toxic environment with a producer whose moods everyone had started to dread. “Ironically, at the end of a year spent managing my daughter’s breathing issues, I had an asthma attack induced by the studio’s hypoallergenic cat” she laughs. “Enough was enough.”

It was whilst waiting for a train that she had the sudden realisation that the album she was recording would never see the light of day. Struck by an overwhelming feeling of failure, Mara began to ruminate on the time and money she had wasted but then something clicked. “Perhaps it’s something about train stations, the coming and the going that allows one’s stagnating frame of mind the grace and space to clear” she says. “The funny thing is, upon realising failure, the despair I’d been feeling was now replaced with something else...Relief”.

Feeling re-energised, Mara called her dream producer Ellie Mason, of Voka Gentle, and together the pair began working on a new record. “I’ve been more hands on with this album than I’ve ever been, taking a much more active role in production. Through the whole process Ellie has heard my voice, and been open to any possibility” explains Mara. “We’ve stumbled across golden moments, recording four-part harmonies in Brighton’s oldest church, using every drum there is in Brighton Electric, layering New Zealand bird song with tape-delayed piano, all thanks to her nurture, playfulness and grace” she continues.

With her new material, Mara Simpson hopes to promote a gentle, yet radical shift toward kindness and it’s this warmth that can be both heard and felt across her new record. ‘Reason’ is available to stream and download now, with the new album to follow in Autumn 2021.

Mara Simpson music · Reason

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