Parliamo - Freya Beer - YOVA - La Faute

Parliamo - You’re An Animal.

A funk-laden guitar pop anthem filled with hazy melodies that flutter and float like the last rays of sun dipping behind the horizon on a languid summer day, “You’re An Animal” arrives as the first new music from Parliamo this year.

Taking primary inspiration from the laid-back electronica-infused indie pioneered by the likes of Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals or Blur, with a healthy dose of the dazed guitar-pop rhythms reminiscent of Swim Deep or Peace also detectable amidst its sunny substance matter; “You’re An Animal” finds the band facing up to our fear of failure with a fizzing new release.

As vocalist Jack Dailly explains of the track: “The lyrics [of “You’re An Animal”] centre on projecting your own failures and insecurities onto someone else in an argument: when you really should be having a go at yourself, you deflect the blame and double down. It quickly became an effective live number, with loads of people who had seen us live asking us when it would be released.”

Initially written over two years ago, “You’re An Animal” has been finessed to perfection at live shows and their home studio ever since. The final version was recorded, mixed and produced by Jamie Holmes at Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow in 2023.

Parliamo · You're An Animal

======================================================================

Freya Beer - Fantasy / Galore.

Her first new music of 2023, the “Fantasy” // “Galore” AA-side single arrives as Freya begins to etch out the successor to her acclaimed debut album ‘Beast’. Toying with that which tempts us in both lucid fantasies and shadowy realities, these two bold, dark and exhilarating new tracks find Freya Beer delving into what drives our deepest desires and showcasing two very different sides of her artistic abilities.

“You stretched your pegs out wide, slightly confused my appetite” teases Freya on “Fantasy” as she opens up the floor to a track of rapacious sexually-charged spills and raw garage rock thrills. Told through tactile, tantalising prose and prowling proto-punk riffs, this latest cut finds Freya celebrating the uncensored version of ourselves we become in our wildest daydreams. As Freya elaborates:

“Fantasy is an unfiltered exploration of self-discovery and expressing your thoughts in a fictional world. I wanted to write a song that emotes raw emotion and tells the listener to embrace their feelings in a positive way.”

On the flipside, “Galore” is an altogether more salacious affair that explores what can happen when those fictional pursuits and carnal desires boil over into real world infatuations with uncertain consequences. As Freya explains: “Galore is about people who are infatuated with something, almost bordering on ‘obsession’. The line “I’m your galore, you don’t want anyone else babe” depicts how this obsession is becoming a feeling of escapism and creating a fictional storyline for themselves.”

======================================================================

YOVA - Feel Your Fear.

Letting loose a runaway freight train of jumpy guitar rhythms and primal percussive rumblings, the new single from the duo of Jova Radevska and Mark Vernon is one intended to heighten the senses and toy with what drives our fears and failings. As Jova explains:

“”Feel Your Fear” is about the human’s fallible nature to form addictions in order to alleviate pain. We can do this with a person too: we can believe that their company will save us from the challenges we are facing and we cling to that, when in fact we haven’t addressed the real cause of those feelings. It is often our insecurity and un-dealt trauma that makes us cling to people/substances, addictions in general.”

Citing ESG, Gang of Four, King Sunny Adé, and early Talking Heads as being amongst the subliminal influences that played into the track, “Feel Your Fear” sees YOVA deftly update their dynamic brand of alternative pop music with hints of garage rock, Afropop and funk to gripping effect.

Produced by Mark Vernon and arranged by Rob Ellis, the track was recorded between Dorset and London and also features Daniel O’Sullivan of Grumbling Fur on bass and features the legendary Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey) on saxophone. Intending to create an unshakeable feeling of restlessness, Jova Radevska’s airy vocals toe a fine line between playful and impending, while its haunting baritone sax, sinuous bass, and meticulously timed blasts of trumpet and organ all play their part in the unsettling fabric of “Feel Your Fear”. As Vernon adds: “The sonic tapestry and rapid tempo of this track is written to convey a sense of heightened urgency: the impending sense of emotional claustrophobia and resulting fear is echoed in the narrative of Jova’s lyrics. A sense of one last rushed midnight dance before emotions inexorably spiral out of control and time literally gets swallowed up before our eyes.”

======================================================================

La Faute - The Crown.

A hidden gem from the frozen heart of Toronto, Canada, art school dropout and Sony Music Publishing artist La Faute (aka Peggy Messing) is releasing her third single “The Crown” from her upcoming debut Album, “Blue Girl Nice Day”.

La Faute is Messing’s dark, dreamy solo project. A visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter originally from Winnipeg, Canada, she explores themes of surface vs. depth, longing, betrayal, mourning and desire. Using tenor electric guitar and obsolete hardware samplers, she created her captivating live show and released her debut EP just before the pandemic. She chose to pause performing live due to her health, and returned to focusing on creation, finding workarounds to the problem of isolation. She connected with fellow artists and producers in France, the UK, Canada and the US to create music during this time, most recently with LA-based Topher Mohr who produced her upcoming album.

She received unanimous praise for the first single from the album, ‘Blue Girl Nice Day’, in February 2023, an unsettling, haunting song inspired by the Milgram experiments of the 1960s. The song was accompanied by an eerie video that showed the artist making a bed in a windswept field with looming power lines in the background. Her second Single, “Watercolours” was equally highly praised, and featured a video of Messing night driving in the rain and getting drenched in a cold downpour. She has become increasingly interested in filmmaking, art-directing and shooting music videos for each song herself, inspired by French new wave and film noir aesthetics.

======================================================================

Sabrina Sekuloski - Arborist - Erny Belle - The Minks - YOVA

Sabrina Sekuloski - Red Convertible.

Rising Sydney, Australia-based singer-songwriter Sabrina Sekuloski just shared her new track “Red Convertible.” “Red Convertible” was co-written with her father Sasha Sekuloski, a singer, songwriter, and guitarist himself, and produced by renowned producers Ken Caillat (Fleetwood Mac) and Mikal Blue (Colbie Caillat, Jason Reeves, Jason Mraz, Five For Fighting and OneRepublic).

“The songwriting process for this single started back in 2018 so it’s really nice to see this song come to life,” Sabrina Sekuloski explains. “I still remember writing the chorus, it happened really naturally and quickly. The lyrics and melody came out together and the vibe was so infectious that I started dancing in my room. I wrote the Billy Joel reference in the chorus first and just kept adding them in when we started working on the song in 2022. When there’s mention of ‘the piano man’ in the bridge, you can hear a piano being introduced which I thought was a nice touch. When I brought the song to my dad in 2022, he found an old guitar riff he’d written in 2019 that we thought suited the song - which is what you hear in the verse, it formed a cool groove for the song.”

“‘Red Convertible’ came about from a longing to escape from the mundane day-to-day activities that leave one feeling uninspired and burnt out,” Sabrina Sekuloski continues. “The title of the track was taken from the last line in the chorus which is a daydream of doing things you’ve never done that make you feel alive.”

Sekuloski sketched out the original idea for “Red Convertible” on her iPhone’s Voice Memos app back in 2018. Then in 2022, during a songwriting binge that yielded over 150 songs, she rediscovered the melody for “Red Convertible” and finished writing the tune with her father, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Sasha Sekuloski. “2022 was a crazy year for songwriting, I went through some old voice memos and just felt very inspired,” Sekuloski adds.

Bri · Red Convertible

======================================================================

Arborist - Dreaming in Another Language.

Arborist, aka Belfast native Mark McCambridge, announces details of his third album An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros released 21 April 2023. Produced by Matthew E White at his Spacebomb Studios in Richmond, Virginia and bearing all the hallmarks of his sound and that of the Spacebomb Houseband, it sees Arborist merge a driven experimentation with a classicist approach to song structure and melody, with esoteric lyrical themes born out of the fugue of the last few years and evoking a dream-state. File under John Cale, with his skill of framing a beautiful melody in a song which pushes the limits of what a song can be. Other touchstones for the album include Bill Fay, Howe Gelb, Lee Hazelwood, Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born and The Go-Betweens.

First single ‘Dreaming In Another Language’ is a spiralling, looping slice of kaleidoscopic psychedelic Americana which mediates on dreams and our submission to a dreamlike state, touching on many of the album’s themes: religion, family, death, artistic life. The hypnotic nature of ‘Dreaming In Another Language,’ is perfectly accompanied by the video from director Sam O’Mahony, featuring Arborist playing a protagonist in a looping dream. “The visual reflects the song’s lyrics without representing them literally.” explains O’Mahony, “It invites the listener to disappear into their imagination and crosses the boundary between fantasy and reality”.

Arborist expands ““It taps int the song’s continuous guitar loop, there are three different versions of myself seemingly condemned to repeat the same actions over and over; from birth to death to rebirth, colliding with each other along the way.”

======================================================================

Erny Belle - Island Time.

Erny Belle has shared another insight into her cinematic universe, this time with a video for fan favourite, 'Island Time' - from her debut album, Venus Is Home. The video, directed and produced by the artist herself — and made with the support of NZ on Air — was shot by prolific film-maker Ezra Simons, and showcases some of his signature photography eccentricities on a warm bed of analogue film stock.

Of the song, Erny Belle has said, "'Island Time' is an ode to the Pacific. I picture myself and the times I spent looking out at the view from Te Arai beach, from the waters edge and my sister's porch. I spent a lot of time contemplating my creative visions and the loss and prospects of love on the horizon. The chorus is a mantra on perseverance and self belief".

"Though there's a lot behind the love story, I think really it's a love song to pacific culture and beautiful brown people, maybe I needed to give myself that back".

"My good friend Navakatoa plays The Man From The Islands. He is also the bassist for the Erny Belle band, It's special that we've been able to capture ourselves at this time, I think it's really sweet we'll be able to look back at it in years to come and be reminded of everything we were doing musically at this time. It was shot at Te Arai, which is a special place to me." - Erny Belle

======================================================================

The Minks - Creatures Of Culture.

The Minks are Nashville’s “psychedelic-blues” band, heavy on the rock and roll. We’re talking low-down, all the way, purse-lipped, eyes-shut, head-whirling kind of groove. In 2015, on a search for creative community, Nikki Barber started the band based on the idea that "if you don't create, you'll combust".

Just like a rock and roll circus, you never know what you're going to get, but you know it’ll be good. The band’s palpable sound has roots in every music fan’s top ten—from Lou to Patti to Creedence to Hank - but blends them into something totally original and current.

Mixed with raw, jangly instrumentation and soulful saccharine vocals, it’s as much a throwback as it is an answer to the often overlooked underbelly of Nashville’s rock and roll scene. Look for them, on tour forever, spreading the gospel of letting your hair down and having a good time. The Minks are here. Let's boogie.

 

======================================================================

YOVA -  Hurt Like No Hurt.

This January, experimental pop duo YOVA have returned with the compelling new track “Hurt Like No Hurt” and a digital bundle of new tracks - out now. Described by the duo as “departing from a place where Giorgio Morodor meets John Barry, to a destination where The Stooges meet The Supremes”, the track was arranged by legendary Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey, Anna Calvi).

A cathartic listen carved from visceral lyrics and pulsing electronics that build to a transcendental climax, vocalist Jova Radevska says of “Hurt Like No Hurt”:

“”Hurt Like No Hurt” is a song about relationship ghosting, the merry-go-round of breaking up and making up, and the inevitable finality of it all. An ultimate realisation that there comes a point where no matter what, there’s just no going back; when the only choice is the inevitable grief and acceptance of loss in order to emerge as a stronger person. Sometimes no further words need to be spoken, the sound of silence is enough.”

Arriving as the first glimpse of new music from YOVA since the release of their debut album ‘Nine Lives’ last year, “Hurt Like No Hurt” is filled with YOVA’s trademark experimental magnetism while utilising oscillating electronics, cinematic mandolin strums, and clarion call-like trumpets to create something otherworldly.

Featured as part of a ‘Hurt Like No Hurt’ digital bundle which is released this January, the full track-listing also includes a stripped-back rendition of the duo’s track “Rain” (previously remixed by Erasure’s Vince Clarke), alongside an instrumental version of “Hurt Like No Hurt”.

YOVA · Hurt Like No Hurt

======================================================================

Walter Martin - YOVA - The Moneygoround - Daniel James McFadyen

Photo - Melissa Martin

Walter Martin - Hunters in the Snow.

Beloved songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and Walkmen co-founder Walter Martin released his new album The Bear through his imprint Ile Flottante Music. His sixth studio album since embarking on his acclaimed solo journey just under a decade ago, The Bear is a poignant collection of autobiographical story-songs that Martin described as "the kind of album I've been building towards for my entire career."

Martin also released today the official video for "Hunters In The Snow." The album opener sets the stage for The Bear, with Martin drifting from scene to scene as if strolling past a series of paintings in a museum gallery. Of the video, Martin stated, "'Hunters In The Snow' takes place in the snowy northern landscapes of my dreams. A city boy's pastoral fantasy of hunters and horses, death and decay, getting lost in the storm, and longing for home."

Written during last year's cold, bleak winter in an old 1800s schoolhouse in upstate New York that Martin converted into a studio, The Bear is an unexpectedly warm and inviting collection, one focused on growth and family and the power of human connection. The songs are gentle and engaging, with spacious arrangements often centered around fingerpicked electric guitars and romantic piano flourishes from Oscar-nominated Minari composer Emile Mosseri. Martin's idiosyncratic vocals are similarly amiable, delivered with the loose, casual demeanor of an old friend who's pleased as punch you decided to stop by.

Like much of Martin's catalog, The Bear is chock full of delightfully vivid imagery and fueled by an infectious love of language, but this time around the lyrics leave more to the imagination, stepping away from explicit narrative forms in favor of more abstract and intuitive streams of consciousness. What ultimately emerges is a lifetime's worth of deeply personal snapshots and reflections all jumbled together, a family photo album dumped out on the floor and gathered back up into a swirl of moments and memories that manage to tell a million different stories all at once.

==========================================================================

YOVA - Make It Better.

YOVA have just released their alluring debut studio album ‘Nine Lives’ worldwide.  Released on Quartertone via Cargo, across this introspective project YOVA offer evocative vocals, textured arrangements and spellbinding storytelling.

In tandem with the release, YOVA have revealed a chilling, dystopian video for one of its most prominent tracks: “Make it Better”, created with video directors Tom Linton and Phillip Reinking. A track intended to haunt you to the very core, “Make It Better” fuses piercing viola work, drill-like repetition and disturbing visuals that couldn’t be more apposite in the current climate. Talking about the track, vocalist and songwriter Jova Radevska says:

“This song symbolises the society we live in & the culture of "following the leader" wherever that may lead to. We are told “tick that box & we'll make it better". When did we surrender to "make it better" - it repeats throughout the years, new polished promises, talk of a better tomorrow. We become so accustomed to the amniotic state we live in because it keeps the status quo.” Featuring Radevska addressing her audience in front of an “OBEY” propaganda poster, the video makes a timely and impactful statement that touches on themes of control, peer pressures and dictatorship; vividly complimenting the track’s shadowy narrative.

As Radevska adds: “When someone dares to be different & decides to fall out of line, it quickly becomes frowned upon & they're accused of wrongdoing. History teaches us that true change comes from individuals not from governments. The video has a government official doing a speech but her true colours start to show during the speech & when she becomes aware of it she quickly covers her hand so as not to be noticed. Blinded by distractions & consumerism the puppets in the video are programmed to do what everyone around them does. It takes true courage to break off the chain & escape the factory line.”

==========================================================================

Photo - Heather Doyle

The Moneygoround - Stupid Fight.

“‘Stupid Fight’ is a song about wasted time in tension with your partner,” said The Moneygoround’s Dennis Ellsworth (he/him). “It usually ends easily, but in the moment, it brings a frustrating dynamic to the day. These lyrics are very stream of consciousness and lay out the simplicity of the situation, often overlooked by the participants.”

“I see all your mistakes, slow motion as it breaks into our bitter feelings,” Ellsworth sings over a wall of warm guitars and organ drone. “By then it’s way too late, and I’m wishing I could fade off into a fog, but everybody knows it isn’t gonna solve any of your woes.”

“It’s an upbeat song, with a Rolling Stones swagger in the chorus,” he said. “The ultimate point here is to see the frivolous nature of these moments in life, and to show a lighthearted side to the inevitable in any relationship. Nothing is perfect, and that’s ok.”

“Stupid Fight” hails from the band’s debut album, Cruisin’ and Swingin’ with The Moneygoround (out today). Produced by longtime Ellsworth collaborator Joel Plaskett, the album was recorded at Fang Recording in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

"Cruisin’ and Swingin’ with The Moneygoround features twelve songs,” said Ellsworth. “The record was done live off the floor in a matter of four days at Fang. The essence of it was to perform these songs as a group, with little in the way of overdubs. The mix was quick and inspired by the idea of letting the music speak for itself.”

==========================================================================

Daniel James McFadyen - Mr. Lipless.

Nova Scotian singer-songwriter Daniel James McFadyen began his musical journey by playing at small, bustling pubs in and around the Annapolis Valley. Daniel's music began to gain popularity after the release of his single "Goin' Back (The Wolfville Song)," an ode to the small town where he began playing music professionally. Daniel now has two EPs under his belt and his most recent album, August, I'm Yours, is nominated for an East Coast Music Award.

"The song is inspired by a man I met in Guatemala while I was playing there a few years back," Daniel explains. "I was playing at a bar on Lake Atitlan in a small town called San Marcos La Laguna. While I was playing, a small man with long black hair approached the stage with a bongo drum; he seemed eager to play. I signaled for him to come on-stage and he joined me. We played for hours together only communicating through music and I found it amazing that he was able to adapt to any style he heard while having no context for this western music."

Daniel tried to communicate with the man in English and Spanish, with no luck. Later, he asked the bartender about the man and found out that the bongo player was from a small village of only a few hundred people who preserve their Ancient Mayan tongue.

"It was hard to imagine being in a situation when I could only properly communicate with a few hundred people for the rest of my life," said Daniel. "A few years later I returned to the lake and I was not able to find the man and the bar had closed down, and I did not even know his real name. It was then I came up with the name "Mr. Lipless" and decided to write a song about him."

Daniel James McFadyen · Mr. Lipless

==========================================================================

Kate Ellis - Piper Butcher - YOVA - This Coast Bias

Kate Ellis - Scars.

Scars is the new single from Americana singer-songwriter Kate Ellis, born in Louisiana, raised in New York and now based in London. The single is a dysfunctional love song about the fine line between love and hate in relationships. This quote from author Blakney Francis perfectly sums up that duality: “There are all different sorts of love.

It can even become hate… really, hate is just another kind of caring.” Scars is the fourth and final single from Kate’s much-anticipated sophomore album 'Spirals' due for release on 4th February 2022, on River Rose Records.

The songs on Spirals create a series of scenes, moments and moods, but where the previous single Wonderland constructed an emotional and ethereal space, Scars makes you feel like you've just walked into a rowdy bar where two lovers are arguing like cats and dogs, but eventually kiss and make up. “It’s a love song with attitude and I love the humour in it", Kate says. "Also, how even after the endless rinse and repeat cycles of stormy emotion, there's still love there in the end - summed up by the song’s closing line: "I guess this must be love, 'cos we can't get enough”.

The song was produced by John Reynolds who has recorded and produced some of the most iconic artists in the music world, including Sinead O'Connor, the Indigo Girls, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Belinda Carlisle, The Cranberries, and Damian Dempsey.

==========================================================================

Piper Butcher - Long Road.

Newcastle singer-songwriter, Piper Butcher, has been kicking some huge goals in the last few months.

Not only did her latest EP, “September”, chart at #1 on the iTunes Alternative Chart and at #2 on iTunes All Genres Albums chart just behind Kanye West, but she’s been playing shows with artists including Diesel, Felicity Urquhart & Josh Cunningham and Corey Legge. Piper was also recently announced to open for You Am I and as part of the 2022 Dashville Skyline Cosmic Country Weekender line up in February.

This week also marks the release of the third single lifted from her #1 EP – “Long Road”. According to Piper, the song - co-written with fellow roots act, Cassie Marie - covers the long road of heartbreak.

“The lyrics provoke sorrow and frustration but proves that leaving unhealthy people behind is a difficult but prosperous journey”.

==========================================================================

YOVA - Haunted.

Reaching for a spiritual connection with their younger selves, “Haunted” imagines what words of reassurance and guidance about the ways of life YOVA would pass-on in light of what they know now.

“Listening to the voice within takes us on the right path in life” muses Jova Radevska. “The chorus lyrics tell of that life force, powerful voice as guidance to be followed: ‘There is something inside, wild & free it reaches out’”.

From its skeletal piano-based beginnings to the resplendent, lush string sections that blossom to life over the course of its five minutes, “Haunted” is very much a song for the winter months, but one that holds the promise of brighter times soon-to-come. 

Arriving with bespoke visuals directed by Maltese/British photographer, filmmaker and author Mark Arrigo, the evocative official video for “Haunted” was shot in one-take and captures Jova Radevska in traditional dress, lost amidst the breathtaking and barren landscapes of the Lake District (Eskdale) at the height of mid-winter.

==========================================================================

This Coast Bias - Best Kind Of Trouble.

“BKOT started out as a nonsense song I was singing in the shower. I loved the first melody of the chorus so much that I just decided to dry off and immediately start working on it. From the first mix to the final one, I’ve loved it. It’s the story of a toxic relationship that both people can’t stay away from, and I’m sure we can all relate on some level.”

This Coast Bias is the indie/bedroom pop project of Clay Milford; a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based out of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After multiple stints in rock bands, Clay decided to start writing and recording music on his own, citing frustration with the hassle of, “gettin’ a group of people together.” He began releasing music as This Coast Bias in May of 2019, and has since released nineteen original songs, all of which contain a vast smorgasbord of poppy hooks, lush walls of synth, and lyrics with a penchant for calling out past girlfriends. 

“I like to call the kind of music I write breakup pop. I always seem to end up writing music about things that annoy me in relationships, but don’t most people do that?” Clay cites Prince, Tame Impala and ABBA as his influences for This Coast Bias, but says his influences in music don’t stop there. 

“I grew up on a hefty diet of disco and funk from my mom and rock from my dad. I might listen to Led Zeppelin for a week and then be sick of them and only wanna hear Donna Summer for a month straight. I don’t think you should have to pick between genres as a listener or a musician, and these days, the lines are more and more blurred by the day anyway.”

this coast bias · best kind of trouble

==========================================================================