Neev - Matt Corby - Surf Friends - Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra - La Ratte

Neev - Fast Patterns.

Since the release of her debut single in 2019, Glaswegian artist Neev has built a reputation for discovering beauty in the small details. Her talent for storytelling and worldbuilding has earned her early support from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Sian Eleri and BBC Radio 6 Music’s Tom Robinson, as well as a sync on BBC drama Waterloo Road.  On April 28th, the now London-based musician is set to release her debut album, Katherine, a collection of intricate indie-folk songs that pack a lyrical punch.

Today, Neev has shared her new single ‘Fast Patterns’. Written from the point of view of an imperfect friend, the song is about not knowing how to be there for someone in their darkest moments. It asks how far you should go for a friend in need and at what point you need to take a step back.

Buoyed by the experience of engineering, mixing and producing her 2021 EP Currants almost entirely alone whilst the country was in lockdown, much of Katherine was recorded at Neev’s home studio and the homes of a host of talented musician friends. “It was really important to me that the album wasn’t only a group of songs but that it would also be a learning curve for me, and it was! I learnt so much about arrangement, frequency, the range of my voice and the way I like to construct songs and write,” she says.

Katherine carries all of the trademark sounds of Neev’s previous releases. Acoustic guitars, soaring string arrangements and layered backing vocals can be found throughout, but this time they’re bigger, at times, calling to mind artists like Marika Hackman and Fenne Lily. Every song on Katherine is tied to the idea of identity.

 

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Matt Corby - Big Smoke.

Today, Matt Corby released his hallucinatory new single “Big Smoke,” the newest single from his upcoming album Everything’s Fine (out March 24th via Communion). Next month Corby will kick off a limited run of intimate shows across the US with sold-out shows in New York, Los Angeles, Austin, and Toronto.

His first album in five years, Everything’s Fine vividly captures the personal and creative growth of Matt Corby who, like many, was tipped belly side up recently. Beyond the global touring pause, on the day he was meant to start recording his new album, Corby and his family were instead rescued by a neighbor. Their home had been engulfed by the flood waters that raged through Queensland and New South Wales, Australia, in early 2022.

After nervously watching his heavily pregnant partner and young son be whisked away in a small inflatable dinghy, he got to work ferrying provisions to stranded locals and digging rotting mud out from beneath his home. With their home inundated by floodwaters, the whole family moved into Corby’s Rainbow Valley Studios during the album’s recording process. Juggling familial responsibilities with his creative pursuits was a one-of-a-kind pressure cooker circumstance that galvanized his artistic evolution.

“I'm currently rebuilding a lot of my foundational stuff,” Matt shares. “Covid changed me a lot, slowed me down. I feel like I've become aware of a lot of the stuff I need to work on, and I'm happy to start – and I have been. All of that chaos helped me not be neurotic with this album process and get to the point where I accepted things. Like, I couldn’t sit and stew over how something sounded and potentially make it worse if I was needed elsewhere."

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Surf Friends - Dreaming.

Hot off the heels of their latest single ‘Something Real’, Surf Friends release the second single, ‘Dreaming’, from their upcoming album Sonic Waves. Taking a step further into their kaleidoscopic sound whilst keeping in line with their blissful rock sensibilities, Brad Coley and Pete Westmoreland dish out even more ethereal melodies and guitar loops on ‘Dreaming’, enveloping listeners in its heavenly wash of sonics.

“This song is about how nature provides us with the environment we need to slow us down, allowing us to see more clearly the direction we want to take.” Surf Friends say of the track. “It is about that very moment we become aware and feel our potential, see the direction and take the helm.”

Along with the single, Surf Friends have announced two album release shows in March to celebrate the release of their upcoming album, Sonic Waves. Taking place in their hometown, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland as well as surf capital Whāingaroa/Raglan, Surf Friends will be joining forces with Power Nap (in Raglan), DJ The Bermuda Triangle and King Of The Sadboys (in Auckland) to put on an epic night of music, and showcase their new tunes live and in the flesh. Surf Friends will also be performing at Field Of Dreams Festival on Saturday the 18th of February, alongside Te Huhu, Arthur Ahbez, Wellness and more.

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Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra - Hilton.

Just over a month from now, Emiliana Torrini & The Colorist Orchestra will release their anticipated new album Racing The Storm on March 17th via Bella Union. Ahead of the release, and having previously shared videos for the singles “Right Here” and “Mikos”, Emiliana & TCO now share a captivating video for new single “Hilton” directed by Aarich Jespers (TCO) & Anaïs Dyckmans. Taking its inspiration from David Hockney, “Tango” by Zbigniew Rybczyński and “Here” by Richard McGuire, the video is a one-shot of Emiliana, The Colorist Orchestra and dancers together in a small living room, projected onto objects and re-shot. In the end we see a broken image of ‘one scene’. This image underlines the eclectic vibe and groove of the song and speaks the language of isolation and being together in online meetings, dreams and fantasies.

Picture this: a big storm is brewing overhead. You’re careening through the backroads of rural Iceland, trying desperately to catch your flight out of Reykjavik as the skies darken behind you. You’ve just had one of the best songwriting sessions of your life, in a farmhouse deep in the Icelandic countryside, but none of that matters now. You’ve found yourself in a race against time to get all your work to the next studio and continue working on your album—one that just might turn out to be one of the most important of your entire career.

This exact scenario is what befell Belgian duo The Colorist Orchestra and Icelandic-Italian singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini during one of the many recording sessions for their new collaborative album—and the experience was so emblematic of the entire awe-inspiring, chaotic, life-affirming process, that they ended up naming the record Racing the Storm.

The Colorist Orchestra knows a thing or two about controlled chaos. Since their inception in 2013, close friends and multi-instrumentalists Aarich Jespers and Kobe Proesmans have taken on the task of reinterpreting other artists’ discographies with their unique blend of pop, electronic and world music. In 2015, they entered into a collaboration with Emiliana, who at that time was already well into her own illustrious career, having released six studio albums, as well as the international hit “Jungle Drum”.

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La Ratte - Astray (Album).

If you like your blues dirty and rocking hard, then La Ratte and their debut album may be just the thing to get you off your chairs, put on your dancing shes and go see where your air guitar is stashed.

Astray is the album where seasoned and street savy musicians Harm van Essen (guitar/vocals) Jochem Jorrisen (drums) and Nikolas Karolewic (bass) meet in their passion for hard hittin' Swamp Blues, Roots and Rock n' Roll. It surely confirms the musicians' punky attitude towards music.

La Ratte is a three piece band formed as a well fitting misalliance. It started out with two Dutch musicians, Harm van Essen and Jochem Jorrisen, with a punk attitude towards music. Harm started to record demos that put La Ratte in a new direction. The new material needed a bass player to play the songs live, and Nikolas Karolewicz from Münster Germany was asked to join the band.

Since late 2021, La Ratte has been based around Harm’s wayward songwriting, raw vocals and fiery guitar playing, Jochem’s explosive drumming and Nikolas’ steady and old school bass groove. The combination nails a contemporary blues sound by delivering a swampy catchy roots album.

The new album, Astray, was recorded in 7 days at Studio De Krakeling, built in a former mental asylum. Each of the eleven tracks explores a different side of American Roots music, taking inspiration from the energy of Texas Blues, hypnotizing Mississippi Hill Country groove, and the catchiness of Louisiana Swamp Pop classics.

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Dearly Beloved - Red Telephone - Kristina Dervaitis - Surf Friends

Dearly Beloved - Trees Dream Of You.

Toronto barrage rock sextet Dearly Beloved have released their latest single, “Trees Dream Of You,” from their upcoming new album, Walker Park, due out this Friday via Sonic Unyon Records. Discussing “Trees Dream Of You,” songwriter/producer/bassist Rob Higgins called it a battle of ego vs. nature… “the majesty of forests, and their righteousness, to me, is inspiring. If only humanity could be more like a forest.”

The follow up to 2019’s Time Square Discount, which was written entirely while on the road and recorded in a two-week blitz with Daniel Rey at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606, Walker Park took shape while Higgins was writing and recording at home, in his Phoebe Street studio, to cope with the pandemic. While brutal for all, the lockdown provided a never before experienced freedom to work patiently and use the studio as an instrument itself, eventually mixing the album with bandmate and Slow Pineapple production partner Tyler Beans.

The sessions delivered thematic ambition, sonic verve, and evocative playing in spades, while never skimping on the scorched-earth riffs Dearly Beloved have become known for. The work and craft that went into the album conveys the deeply weird world in which it was spawned - “Listening back now, the record appears to reflect the absurdity of those times,” notes Higgins.

For the past 16 years, the Beloved’s collision and fusion of pop and hardcore sensibilities, melody and menace, has offered up unabashed stoner rock coiled like smoke around a magma core of psychedelic post-grunge. Walker Park anchors itself in the lessons learned and launches the band on an exciting new trajectory. “The songs started as super long bass and drum jams I built myself at home,” explains Higgins. “I’d play for like 15 minutes and record it all. Then I’d go looking for good bits. Once whittled into a form I’d send the song to the band to freak out on.” Of the 16 finished tracks arising from those sessions, 10 eventually coalesced as Walker Park, with songs selected to reflect the zeitgeist in a cohesive way while also communicating a narrative arc.

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Red Telephone - Waiting For Your Good Days.

Cardiff post-punk outfit 'Red Telephone' are set to release their highly anticipated debut album 'Hollowing Out' on the 31st March 2023. The only single taken from it 'Waiting For Your Good Days' is out now.

Hailing from Cardiff, Red Telephone’s richly layered alt-rock could have emanated from a club in Blade Runner's dystopian LA - combining angular guitars, Krautrock-inspired rhythms and New Wave-tinged synths with infectious pop sensibilities. Drawing on post punk and synth pop influences, the band has been catching the attention of DJs across BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, Absolute Radio and Radio X; with comparisons to the likes of MGMT, Super Furry Animals, Mitski and Berlin-era Bowie being drawn.

The band have recently appeared at BBC 6 Music Fringe Festival, Focus Wales, Swn Festival, Other Voices and Llangollen Fringe, supporting Warmduscher. With previous single releases on Welsh-based labels Libertino Records and the Popty-Ping Recording Company, the band's highly anticipated debut album is set to be released in March 2023.

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Kristina Dervaitis - Everything & Nothing.

When I released my first album, I was still in a bit of denial about my future as a musician. It still didn't seem real. I was a midlife Obstetrician/Gynecologist who had only just started songwriting and performing, and suddenly I found myself releasing music for the first time.

This time around for my sophomore album, Quickening (April 2023), things are starting to feel more real! The album was produced by Canadian singer/songwriter Matthew Barber who has worked with the likes of Noah Reid.

My new single, "Everything & Nothing," is about denial. More specifically, climate change denial. I over think, over read, over want, over need everything and nothing…

Sometimes a sign is right in front of our face, but we're too close to it to fully grasp the meaning – we look past it and tell ourselves an alternate story that's more palatable. But this can be dangerous – some signs just can't be ignored without grave consequences. Though this song may seem like an ominous warning, I hope you're able to enjoy the music and focus on the positive side of life too - Kristina Dervaitis.


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Surf Friends - Something Real.

Indie two-piece Surf Friends make their welcome return with the announcement of their first full-length project in almost four years - Sonic Waves - out digitally and on CD March 17 2023 via Flying Nun Records. Sonic Waves sees the duo of Brad Coley and Peter Westmoreland joining forces with long-time producer, Mark Howden, to take on new musical directions, whilst retaining their dreamy psych-surf energy that put them on the musical map all the way back in 2009, when they debuted their self-titled EP.

The album was mostly written and recorded between 2019-2021, and is their first full length release since their hypnotic 2019 offering, Doing Your Thing.

Surf Friends say of Sonic Waves that “the focus of the record was to keep it raw and more distorted than previous releases. Most of the tracks’ guitars had separate channels recorded via a Peavey Rage 108 distortion amp - as a side note, Jeremy Toy (She’s So Rad, Leonard Charles, Sommerset) put this together like 25 years ago for Brad when he was his guitar teacher! Mark Howden also pushed us a bit in production, which was cool.”

To celebrate the announcement of Sonic Waves, Surf Friends have revealed the album’s first sun-drenched single, ‘Something Real’. From the sound of the song’s first strums, the dynamic duo take their listeners on a visceral sonic ride that embodies the weightless, euphoric feeling of hot summer days. The song is accompanied by a self-directed music video which perfectly captures the organic, carefree sentiment that the song emits, featuring Brad’s camping adventures with his kids and a few other bits of surfing footage.

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