Los Angeles-based psychedelic synth-pop duo Sneakpeek have shared a video for their single “Green Light.” The track is featured on their long-awaited sophomore album, Scene Within A Dream, which dropped earlier this summer.
Discussing the inspiration for “Green Light”, Sneakpeek’s Dora Hiller noted, "I was reflecting on an alien experience I had where I was camping in the middle of nowhere with some friends years ago, where we all saw a bright green shining orb. It circled all around us and then flew away insanely fast through the darkness."
Sneakpeek released their self-titled debut album in 2013 on Burger Records, with the LA Times hailing it as a, “noisy nine-track album offering up heavy, druggy guitar riffs that’d make Kurt Vile (or Lou Reed) proud.” While that record combined elements of dream pop with grungy, garage-rock sludge, Scene Within A Dream finds Hiller and Aric Bohn heading in new directions.
Surrounded by walls of synthesizers and vintage drum machines in their Glassell Park studio, Dora and Aric leaned into their psychedelic abandonments, pushing their mostly analogue gear to its limits. “We love obscure electronic music from the 70s, 80s + 90s,” notes Hiller, “and wanted to experiment with a new sound that embodied those elements but with our own spin on it.”
Throughout Scene Within A Dream, Sneakpeek explores the world of dreams, the mysteries of nature, mortality, magic and manifestation; old Hollywood studios, non linear timelines, synchronicity, and paranormal experiences, leading the listener out onto a surreal, dreamy dancefloor.
The album Clusterluck by The Kind Hills features 10 warm and relaxed indie-tunes that are the perfect soundtrack for a chilled picnic in the countryside, an exhausted or hung-over moment in bed or a long, beautiful road trip.
The band call it 'music to fall asleep to' and they mean that in a positive way. Some influences are obvious (Beach House on ‘Summer’ or Ducktails on ‘Volunteer’) but on all tracks the band essentially plays their own, laid-back, dreamy indie pop. Standout tracks are 'waiting for the good times' and 'let youth take over'.
About The Kind Hills: Hailing from all corners of the globe, The Kind Hills stand as a testament to the transcendent power of music. The band, a cohort of long-standing friends who met while studying in Australia, now create captivating soundscapes from their respective homes worldwide. Their innovative approach to songwriting and recording has given rise to a deeply personal yet universally relatable body of work. The Kind Hills’ new album, Clusterluck, released on July 28, is a magnificent embodiment of this ethos.
When Amon Tobin released debut Figueroa album The World As We Know It on his Nomark label in 2020 Trebuchet magazine described it as a “landmark record” and the legendary writer Kris Needs wrote “Tobin has taken folk’s ongoing evolution and pushed it another giant step forwards.”
Now as that album celebrates its third birthday, there is a new Figueroa video being released this week as a taster of the second, as-yet-untitled album which is planned for next year.
Bristol-based alt-pop outfit Ålesund release their single 'Rode Off Into The Sun', today May 12th 2023. The second single to come from their upcoming EP, Rode Off Into The Sun is a triumphant, up tempo, galloping tune that is made for summer months.
Fronted by the ethereal vocals of British-Norwegian singer-songwriter Alba Torriset, Ålesund's sound is a fusion of dreamy pop hooks, atmospheric soundscapes and alternative rock riffs, which have drawn comparisons to the likes of Kate Bush, Florence and the Machine and London Grammar.
Lyrically, Rode Off Into The Sun reflects on the admiration held for a character who knows her worth, who picks herself despite any adversity and makes the best out of any situation.
“I was so impressed by a friend who had been dealt a rough hand and instead of wallowing and seeing the glass as half empty, she just dusted herself off and charged on with making the best out of her life. It was inspiring to witness and became the main theme of the song”, says vocalist and lyricist Alba Torriset.
‘Thank You’ is the latest release from the Cardiff-based band, My Name is Ian. The track is released today May 12th and is a tribute to the people who have supported them over the years, drug smuggling, Stephen Mulhern and falling in love.
‘Thank You’, is the first track from the band’s upcoming 8th studio album: ‘GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS GO BANANAS’. The record will be full of the trademark blend of catchy pop melodies, witty lyrics, and infectious energy. Songs about hating your life, loving your life, Norwegian families, coconut crabs, 90s television shows, feeling like a loser, not trusting the government and Peppa pig. There is something for everyone.
Creatures of Cardiff, My Name Is Ian have already built a back catalogue that would have taken The Stone Roses millennia to mirror. Since 2010 their output of has dealt with break-ups, breakdowns, mysterious lion paintings and characters from the Tom Hanks movie Big. This restless productivity has seen genres including but not restricted to lo-fi, bedroom punk, garage rock, prog and anti-folk, all filtered through the pop-oriented cranium of frontman Reginald Foxwell.
William The Conqueror - The Puppet And The Puppeteer (Live at Marshall Studios).
William The Conqueror have just unveiled their new single ‘The Puppet and the Puppeteer’. Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, out 28th July on Chrysalis Records, the track is the follow-up to last month’s single ‘Somebody Else’. Produced by the band in a playground of vintage gear and mixed by Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Sam Fender, Kasabian), the ten tracks on ‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’ marry earworm tunes with insistent, imperious, soaring rock shapes, punctuated by chorus hooks that are simultaneously nuanced and anthemic.
“’The Puppet and the Puppeteer’ could be a Jekyll and Hyde or Frankenstein's monster story—about wrestling with or losing control of your creation—who controls whom,” explains frontman Ruarri. “I definitely feel like William has the upper hand sometimes.” Harry and Nae add, “It's a favourite for us in our live shows. It deserves to be played loud, on a big sound system. You can bring the hustle, the mosh and the lighter sway to this party.”
‘Excuse Me While I Vanish’, very nearly didn’t happen. Following the imposition of lockdown restrictions, Joseph found himself cocooned at home in Cornwall, ruminating on an uncertain creative future, watching on as his wife Mandy, a valiant mental health social worker, engaged with the all-too-real dilemmas of the pandemic-riven here and now. Her example motivated Joseph to become a temporary care worker, an experience which would provide renewed focus and influence the songwriting on the new album.
“My wife was insomniac for the first six months of lockdown, which made it impossible for me to moan or grieve the fact that everything I’d been working on for the last five years had come to a standstill. It was a much-needed perspective and made me realise what a selfish undertaking William had been – navel-gazing with my head in the clouds when what people needed was boots firmly on the ground, preferably on the feet of someone like Mandy.”
Los Angeles duo Sneakpeek share their latest single, “Strawberry Reality,” a psychedelic liquid lullaby inspired by Dora Hiller’s visual artwork, which she creates collages from vintage magazines, and appears in Sneakpeek’s artwork.
“Strawberry Reality” is the third single shared from Hiller and Aric Bohn’s long awaited sophomore album, Scene Within A Dream, due out June 2, following “Serendipity,” in March, which Under the Radar called, "an intoxicating haze of pulsing rhythms and iridescent synth textures.” And “Dreams That You Discarded,” which signaled the duo’s return last November. Buzzbands LA called the single, “exhilarating and vaguely dangerous, with Hiller’s airy vocals casting sublime charms over swirling, rubbery synths.”
Sneakpeak released their self-titled debut album in 2013 on Burger Records, with the LA Times hailing it as a, “noisy nine-track album offering up heavy, druggy guitar riffs that’d make Kurt Vile (or Lou Reed) proud.” While that record combined elements of dream pop with grungy, garage-rock sludge, Scene Within A Dream finds the duo heading in new directions.
Surrounded by walls of synthesizers and vintage drum machines in their Glassell Park studio, Dora and Aric leaned into their psychedelic abandonments, pushing their mostly analogue gear to its limits. “We love obscure electronic music from the 70s, 80s + 90s,” notes Hiller, “and wanted to experiment with a new sound that embodied those elements but with our own spin on it.” Throughout Scene Within A Dream, Sneakpeek explores the world of dreams, the mysteries of nature, mortality, magic and manifestation; old Hollywood studios, non linear timelines, synchronicity, and paranormal experiences, leading the listener out onto a surreal, dreamy dancefloor.
On the back of a stand out SXSW, rising Salt Lake City based indie rock quintet Krooked Kings have released their brand new album, All Out Of Good Days.Produced by surf-rock darling Day Wave, the album is a body of work built on garage rock roots and decorated with indie-pop choruses. With 13,000 tickets sold on the west coast of North America before the album release, Krooked Kings are a DIY success story who have built a fan base on the back of a committed touring schedule, driving guitars and vibrant vocals, All Out Of Good Days promises to take Krooked Kings to the next level. Speaking on the project, they state:
‘We’re just five guys from Utah making music both for pleasure and to process our experiences of the world. This album is a scrapbook of thoughts and feelings bound to the time we wrote it. It’s about the weird time between college and the rest of your life and everything that surrounds that. About how utterly confusing, depressing, and joyful it can be.’
A grass roots band who were raised in the Mormon faith before taking the decision to walk away from the religion and embrace music, Krooked Kings are a unique band with a unique story. In 2019, a group of five college friends from the University of Utah came together to write music and play shows in backyards and basements. Over the course of the last few years, the band has proven time and again their ability to write heartfelt indie rock gems. After signing with Los Angeles based indie label Nobody Gets It Records in 2020, the band released their breakout single, “‘96 Subaru”, which has amassed over three million streams. By September 23, 2021, Krooked Kings released their debut project, The Comedown. After the release, Krooked Kings hit the road on two support tours with Goth Babe and Rare Americans, as well as three headline dates in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles.
Los Angeles duo Sneakpeek have just returned with new single “Serendipity,” to announce their long-awaited sophomore album, Scene Within A Dream, for a June 2 release..” Discussing, Sneakpeek’s Dora Hiller noted, "Inspired by the teachings of Abraham Hicks and Yogananda, ‘Serendipity' is about the magic of synchronicity and how the universe sends us messages if we are willing to notice the signs.”
Hiller and Aric Bohn reemerged last autumn with the single, “Dreams That You Discarded,” time away focusing their creative energies on other mediums. The duo had released their self-titled debut album in 2013 on Burger Records, with the LA Times hailing it as a, “noisy nine-track album offering up heavy, druggy guitar riffs that’d make Kurt Vile (or Lou Reed) proud.”
While that record combined elements of dream pop with grungy, garage-rock sludge, “Dreams That You Discarded” pointed to a new direction in the duo’s material, with one foot in abstract avant-garde and another foot firmly rooted within the sensibilities of new wave and disco embedded with strands of mutant DNA. Surrounded by walls of synthesizers and vintage drum machines in their Glassell Park home studio, Dora and Aric leaned into their psychedelic abandonments, taking them out on the dance floor.
Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose trance inducing vocals expand over an ocean of rave inspired production, harmonic layering and otherworldly ecstasy. Her sonic exploration has taken her from training as a classical singer, immersing herself in Berlin’s experimental music scene, to learning with shamans, masters and the ancient teachings of the natural world. In her latest album, Metamorphosis, Bethan, producing alongside Pre-Human bandmate and master of noise Isaac Ray, takes her intense explorations of the spirit and emotional realms and blends them into something playful and danceable, a gritty experimental pop.
Tracklisting 1.Boss Of Big Dreams 2.No Umbilical 3.Antares 4.Aria 5.Cutting Circuits 6.Parasitic Yes 7.None Of The Above 8.Whatever We Delete
Using expressive vocal layers and hypnotic acid breaks to pull the listener into an ecstatic experience, Bethan Lloyd begins this album by exploring the primal state of emptiness, a place where no thought exists and only being, acting and living remain. It is this state of emptiness and often The landscape itself which becomes the inspiration for Bethan's creativity. She is frequently journeying with her sonic tools to ancient Neolithic sites and places of awe and wonder and allowing her surroundings to inspire a unique vocal soundscape. A soundscape that stirs up a sense of the forgotten past.
The album explores the cosmos and the dark euphoria within it, the themes of mind control and diluted society ask a question about where we are headed as a collective. The music is a spell for transformation. A cry for a return to sovereignty and autonomy of mind and body. This project delves into the philosophy of animism, guiding humanity back from its abusive relationship with nature. Cutting the chords of consumerism. Cutting the circuits of control and returning to our true gifts, to the web and to the void.
The new single "Moment" from pop noir singer/songwriter and piano virtuoso Gal Musette is quite stunning.
Gal confides, "Moment was a song I wrote one verse for 7 years ago, but at some point I lost the paper with lyrics on it and over time almost completely forgot the melody. Years later when I experienced a significant personal loss, I was struggling to express my grief and fell into a crippling season of writer's block.
By a stroke of serendipity, the lyric reappeared on a folded piece of paper in my glove compartment which triggered a memory of the melody, and led full circle to my finishing the song and beginning to let go." Gal's cinematic vocals sing bittersweet melodies over intoxicatedly esoteric chamber pop soundscapes.
Sarah McQuaid - If We DUB Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous.
Ahead of a 21-show April-May UK tour that takes her from the West Country to Aberdeenshire and from Cumbria to Kent, folk singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid has joined forces with Tim Norman of 1990s acid and ambient dub duo UVX ((Ultraviolet Explorer)) for “If We DUB Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous”, a new remix of the title track from her 2018 album If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous.
“It all started with a tongue-in-cheek conversation when we were on tour in the USA to promote the album back in 2018,” explains Sarah’s longtime manager, producer and sound engineer, Martin Stansbury. “Long drives and longer days led, as they often do, to rambling chats that were occasionally intense and often frivolous in nature.”
One such conversation featured the development of a less-than-serious concept in which If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous could be reimagined as a dub album, akin to the Easy Star All-Stars’ classic Dub Side of the Moon.
The “dub remix” idea continued to pop up from time to time as a jokey reference over the ensuing years — until one day Tim Norman asked Martin to master a dub remix he’d done for a US-based singer/songwriter. This transformed into a simple labour exchange, and “If We DUB Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous” became a reality.
