Lilikoy Mananas - Sarah Klang - Joana Serrat

Lilikoy Mananas - IAMWHATIAM.

Background - Lilikoy Mananas​ ​​prepare the release of their debut release ‘Dangerous​ ​Calm​’ with the release of the dreamlike single “IAMWHATIAM​” in September 2017. The track delivers unashamedly pop melodies over dreamy guitar lines and melancholy tones. This is a great introduction to the band’s sound marking the beginning of what promises to be a very prolific year.

Lilikoy​ ​Mananas​ have a unique offering in the current Tel​ ​Aviv​ a contemporary musical landscape where they find themselves moving between the claustrophobic feeling of the modern world and a constant search for existential tranquility.

Combining the harmonious sound of live instruments with the electronic tools from their studio setting the band is unafraid to explore new sounds and combinations. Songwriter/ multi-instrumentalist and band leader Yonatan​ ​Marcus​ recruited his close friends to collaborate on what would become the debut single “IAMWHATIAM​”. The chemistry during those sessions was undeniable and they decided to record a collaborative full length.

The resulting debut album “Dangerous​ ​Calm​”, produced by Rotem​ ​Frimer​ and Yonatan​ ​​himself, is expected in October 201 7 and showcases a band that isn’t wasting time arguing over the definition of blues, jazz, folk and electronica but rather prefers to operate with all and any tool at their disposal. Facebook here.

The vocals & harmonies are wonderful on 'IAMWHATIAM' whilst the music has something understated and yet pretty special going on. A short & yet quite thrilling introduction to Lilikoy Mananas​ for me, with hopefully a lot more to follow.

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Sarah Klang - Left Me On Fire.

Backgrtound - With only two singles under her belt, Sarah Klang is already an artist who’s made listeners all over the world envy her melancholia. Debut single ”Sleep” was released in 2016 and early 2017 ”Strangers” hit the streaming services – praised by critics and public alike. When she played a homecoming show at the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg earlier the year Sweden’s main newspaper Dagens Nyheter left the venue all stunned. It was agreed among critics - a star was born that night.

Klang's sound is like no-one else and with her voice she encapsulates listeners into her own universe – a universe where you get images of old reel tape recordings in your head. Inspiration is found in old brides dresses, Barbra Streisand, ambient electronica, 80’s dads and plastic flowers.

”Left Me On Fire”, Sarah’s new single, is like previous releases written and produced with long time collaborator Kevin Andersson, but this time around Thom Monahan (Pernice Brothers, Devandra Banhart, Vetiver, Beachwood Sparks etc) handles the mixing process. What comes out of this is a fragile and moving soundscape. It draws you into the core of the storytelling. A great ballad from a great voice.

"Left Me On Fire" is written in the vacuum that you feel after a break-up. You continue your life but you are burned. For me the song is about moving forward with your life, while still in love with the person who broke your heart and nothing will ever be the same from that moment on.”

This fall Sarah will do shows (highlights includes a performance at Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg and a headline show in hometown Gothenburg) leading up to the release of debut album ”Love in the Milky Way” early 2018. Facebook here.

We first featured Sarah Klang back in February with 'Strangers' & are really pleased to be able to feature the new song 'Left Me On Fire'. Her vocals ooze feeling and passion, the music is superbly arranged around her melodic voice, adding to the melancholic mood. Put simply, I cannot wait to hear more.

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Joana Serrat - Trapped In The Fog.

Background - ‘Trapped In The Fog’, Joana Serrat’s new song and lead track from her forthcoming album ‘Dripping Springs’, featuring members of Israel Nash/Midlake. Joana Serrat explains the inspiration behind the track: “Trapped In The Fog is an oneiric song through which I can travel in time, no matter if it’s past or future. I wrote this song one night that I was driving back home after a solo show. Where I live there's a lot of fog in winter and suddenly that very night in the middle of the forest, the road got surrounded by shoals of fog. It was very hard to see and I had to slow down. The haze was constantly taking different shapes, it seemed to dance. It felt like a metaphor for life and I had the feeling something inside the shadows was talking to me."

For her fourth album in five years, Joana Serrat travelled from her home in Vic, Barcelona to the Texas Hill Country outside Austin. There she teamed up with Israel Nash at his Plum Creek Sound studio near the town of Dripping Springs. For the recording sessions Nash & Serrat corralled a stellar crew of musicians: Joey & Aaron McClellan, (Midlake, BNQT, John Grant, Israel Nash), Eric Swanson & Josh Fleischmann (Israel Nash), Dave Simonett (Trampled By Turtles) and Dennis Love (Futurebirds), as well as Nash himself providing additional guitar and backing vocals. Israel Nash produced the album, with Ted Young (Grammy award winner for The Rolling Stones) on engineering and mixing duties. 

It was no mean feat to gather all these creative talents and get them working together as a team, but as Israel Nash commented, “it was very easy to work with Joana because she knows where she wants to go and she leads us all there. Joana’s lyrics are brilliant. She uses images and colours to describe her songs and luckily that's the way we are used to working.” Joey McClellan adds, “her voice was our guide”. 

The resulting album - which Joana named after the local town - is unsurprisingly Joana Serrat’s most Americana album to date. Mojo described her last album Cross The Verge as “Mazzy Star guesting on an early Neil Young demo”, but with Dripping Springs she has produced a far more rounded and polished piece of work. Serrat explains, “it’s an album that deals with farewells but is filled with an optimistic melancholy that doesn’t isolate nor enclose the spirit and determination to realise our own dreams”. It was a bold move by the young Catalan to cross the Atlantic to work with a bunch of American musicians that she had admired from afar but had never met.

What she came away with is, however nothing short of magnificent and should see Serrat building on her existing achievements which have included a BBC 6Music Recommends Track Of The Week selected by Gideon Coe and Lauren Laverne the latter commenting “she’s an amazing artist an astonishing talent and I love her songwriting”. Within the last year Joana has toured with The Jayhawks, The Handsome Family & Courtney Marie Andrews played the main stage at Primavera Sound Festival showcased at SXSW and has been invited to Nashville in September to showcase at AmericanaFest 2017. Pre-order here, Facebook here.

It's been a while since we last featured Joana Serrat, an artist that has consistently impressed me. 'Trapped In The Fog' is our first glimpse of her forthcoming new album & her new musical collaboration is, based on this track, very promising. Vocals as ever are notably refined and the Americana rich music is fabulous.

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Cape Weather - Verandan - Wooden Arms - Slaughter Beach, Dog

Cape Weather - Telephono.

Background - Cape Weather's debut single "Telephono" is out tomorrow. They signed to the Future Gods label a few weeks ago. The song prematurely hit Spotify a couple weeks back and got 'Fresh Finds' immediately and has been getting spins by several KCRW DJ's at the moment. It will drop everywhere this Friday, 9/8.

The band is a collaboration between Natalie Smith and Eric Jackowitz. They’ve both played in bands for years; Eric playing drums for Nick Waterhouse, and Natalie releasing music under solo monikers. With Eric at the production helm, the record was made over the internet, with instruments being recorded and mixed in LA, Oakland, Nashville, New York, and Europe.

 Instrumental contributors to the record include Ben Alleman (keyboards; Ryan Adams), Erik Groysman (composer; Drunk History), Joe Berry (keyboards + sax; M83), with mixing and mastering done Andrew Sarlo (producer; Big Thief). The inspiration for Telephono came from Natalie and Eric wanting to create a song like “Spooky” by Dusty Springfield, but inject it with their own sensibility. 

Dreamy vocals and a musical arrangement that is vibrant and refreshingly different makes 'Telephono' a sub two minute song, massively likable!

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Verandan - Short Dream.

Background - Helsinki based indie label Soliti! are proud to announce the release date for the upcoming Verandan EP. Verandan, is led by Cats On Fire alumni Ville Hopponen. Aiding and abetting Ville on his new adventure are the magnificent players Aleksi Peltonen (Puunhalaaja), Aki Pohjankyrö (Black Twig, LOVE SPORT), Kaarlo Stauffer (Black Twig) and Sampo Seppänen (Sofa Pets, Kynnet). Verandan were formed in late 2015 around songs written by Hopponen.

Hopponen expands on the origins of Verandan: “At the time I had an office job that really made me want to focus on something else the rest of the time. Since I have played music since 1876 but never really written any songs myself it was a slow and meticulous process. The only aim was writing and recording some songs that I could hopefully tolerate even in the future. And also to do this with the best musicians I could find and whose judgement I fully trusted. They really pulled everything together and made it work, contributing all sorts of good ideas.

There was no particular musical style in mind. The point was to explore different ideas and themes – musical and otherwise – that for some reason kept appealing to me, while at the same time chasing a particular kind of elusive ”mood”. Sometimes what came out was surprisingly ”traditional”, which is fine too since it was never about being inventive just for the sake of it. It was more about conveying exactly the right feeling, whatever that is.” Facebook here.

The first of six tracks on the new EP 'Short Dream' gives a fine flavour of what to expect from the rest. There are no passengers within this collection of material, each song is as good as the featured track & from a personal perspective sometimes better.

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Wooden Arms - Lost In Your Own Home.

Background - The new Wooden Arms album "Trick of the Light" is due next month (10/6/17 release date). The first single and video "Lost in Your Own Home" was publicly released last Friday 9/1 and is now available on all major platforms.

Previously a solo writing process by Alex Carson, for their latest release Wooden Arms has evolved into a collaborative, genre-fluid writing trio between Carson and other members Jeff Smith and Alex Mackenzie to collectively draw from their alternative, classical, and trip-hop influences. A truly impressive and deep album, "Trick of the Light" shakes off the shackles of folk and chamber-pop pigeonholing to include deeper instrumentation coupled with electronic elements to become something newer, darker... more strange.

"Trick of the Light" is Wooden Arms' twelve-track sophomore album that evolves the band's sound to include more electronic and experimental elements into their original chamber pop and folk roots. Lyrically the album deals with themes of perception of reality, irrational fear, personal social accountability, and mortality. The album was produced by Wooden Arms and David Pye (Blaenavon, Wild Beasts) and recorded at the historic Monnow Valley studio in Wales (Queen, Iggy Pop). Wooden Arms is; Alex Carson – Piano, Voice, Guitar, Organ; Jeff Smith – Guitar, Voice, Piano, Trumpet; Alex Mackenzie – Drums, Voice, Bass, Guitar, Piano, Percussion; Fifi Homan – Cello, Voice; Azita Mehdinejad – Violin, Voice. Website here, Facebook here.

The forthcoming album (Trick of the Light) comprises of twelve tracks. This is a collection of material rich in musical quality and beautifully arranged. 'Lost In Your Own Home' can only give a little feel for the whole, it's a fabulous track in it's own right, however Wooden Arms, can and do move from one creative style to another.


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Slaughter Beach, Dog - Fish Fry.

Background - Slaughter Beach, Dog (Jake of Modern Baseball) has just announced their new record Birdie coming out 27th October on Big Scary Monsters and Lame-O Records.

Slaughter Beach, Dog was started as a side project for Jake Ewald, one of Modern Baseball's two singer/songwriters. Born out of a case of writers block, Jake used the project to experiment with writing from the point of view of fictional characters in the fictional town of Slaughter Beach to break off from the ultra-personal technique he'd developed in his main project.

Since Modern Baseball announced their hiatus last year, Slaughter Beach, Dog has become Jake's main vehicle, giving him a chance to go all in on developing as a songwriter. Combining writing styles and flowing free between truth and fiction, the album takes Jake's signature mouth-full writing style, adds in some new influences from bands like Wilco, The Weakerthans, Jets To Brazil and Pedro The Lion, and comes out with something completely fresh. Website here.

'Fish Fry' is a catchy song where the vocals are central to the piece and just so pleasing. The music is robust, adding more hooks, but never over powering. As a glimpse of what is to follow, Slaughter Beach, Dog are well worth keeping in mind.


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Trudy and the Romance - WellBad - Adam & Elvis - M.I.L.K.

Trudy and the Romance - Is There A Place I Can Go.

Background - Somewhere among the daydreamers and heartbreakers, beauty queens and jock teens, Trudy and the Romanceare looking to lure you into their suitably skewed, cinematic world. On new single Is There A Place I Can Go’, the trios dubbed Mutant 50s Pop takes a more contemplative turn. The single is part of their Junkyard Jazz EP, which will be released through B3SCI on November the 17th. 

From character creation to alter-ego exploration, Trudys overtly-romanticised, technicolour realm runs deep. Like David Lynch dicing and splicing Walt Disney film reels, Junkyard Jazz EP is a larger-than-life introduction to their saccharine sound, right through to the Grease-style illustrations by LA-based artist Hello Thunderpuss.

Their upcoming Junkyard Jazz EP - recorded in former vicarage, Stockports Eve studios with producer David Pye - takes its title from another genre they use to describe their seemingly hotchpotch influences. “Our stuff’s like a collage and we’re trying to jigsaw it all together, explains Olly.

“The songs on the EP are meant to be loose but compact. It ties together as a bunch of different little stories; Junkyard Jazz, a messy love.To call Trudy escapism would be too easy. As with any great pop music, location falls into irrelevance. Whilst most bands dream of a world they can leave behind, Trudy is the sound of a band with their eyes-wide and keeping every option open. Live dates are over on Beehive Candy's tour news page, website here, Facebook here.

We featured Trudy and The Romance a couple of times in 2016 and the new track 'Is There A Place I Can Go' is well worth a share. The mutant 50's pop description helps to summarise the feel of this song, the timeless nature of this piece, the loose swaggering vibe, this is just fabulous!

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WellBad - The Rotten.

Background - ’The Rotten’ is the new single by German blues rock act out now WellBad from the album ‘The Rotten' (UK release date 29.09.17 -Blue Central Records/Membran).

His raspy voice is as dry as the soil in Death Valley. His full beard is as prickly as a desert cactus. And the atmosphere in his songs is reminiscent of movie scenes shot by Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino and David Lynch. The 27-year old singer and songwriter Daniel Welbat is an engaging, passionate entertainer and, together with his excellent band WellBad, he has impressed critics and enthused audiences wherever they have performed their very own brand of modern Blues Rock. 

WellBad will release their third album, ‘The Rotten’, in September. Paired with the raw,dirty sound of his bandmates, the Hamburg-based Welbat creates an idiosyncratic blend of styles that easily transports a classic Blues vibe right into the here and now. ‘The Rotten' is a genre-defying, elegant mix of Rock, Blues and Jazz and is produced by Stephan Gade (Udo Lindenberg, Niels Frevert), who also worked on the band’s second studio album, ‘Judgement Days’, in 2015.

WellBad have not only made numerous appearances already on major German TV stations, but they also made the podium of the ‘European Blues Challenge’, held in Torrita di Siena, Italy, in April 2016. Thatsame year they also represented Germany in the world´s largest international Blues competition in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to some memorable concerts, the band had the chance to record a single in the legendary Sun Studios. Website here.

'The Rotten' has an uncomplicated blues rock soundtrack, that is just right for the gritty and menacing vocals. Hypnotic, rocking and at just under two & a half minutes duration, the song just begs to be played again.


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Adam & Elvis - She Bites Mosquitoes.

Background - New-wave experimentalists Adam & Elvis unveil the uptempo intricacies of latest release, ‘She Bites Mosquitoes’, the track is taken from the band’s album, ‘Through Snow and Small Talk’, released Sept 29th. Artfully displaying Adam & Elvis’ musical intuition, adroit syncopation and effortless manipulation of the Western scale – all set to a mesmerising surf-rock-meets-synth-pop pulse – ‘She Bites Mosquitoes’ deals with the hierarchical nature of young love and, so explains vocalist Patrick, “the desire to infiltrate tribes where you are 'Untermensch' (inferior people)”. This is something of a paradox given the superior sonics of Adam & Elvis’ new release, but then here is a band who make it their tune-filled business to defy accepted convention.

Bonded not only by blood but a taste for finding humour in the macabre, Patrick and Tom Malone are brothers whose sibling intuition extends to a penchant for songs as melodic as they are bizarre. Cut-throat guitars, dirty basslines and contorted synthesisers are their tools as the brothers pen hook-filled numbers with strange, poetic lyrics, often influenced by the stark realism in the wordplay of Patrick’s heroes Leonard Cohen and Charles Bukowski. 

This bold, thought-provoking prose is set to a musical backdrop of exhilarating wall-of-sound pop and primitive punk energy, unleashed by Patrick on guitar/vocals and Tom on bass/vocals respectively, with the aid of Steve Wraight (vocals/percussion) and Dan Robershaw (guitar). 

The Reading band have performed their adventurous, singularly intense live shows on the same bill as Fat White Family, The Zombies and The Correspondents, and garnered resounding praise for their blistering debut single, ‘Hanging Tree’, taken from their first long-player, Through Snow and Small Talk, to be released on the band’s own DIY Freak Power label in the autumn of 2017. It’s an album fizzing with ideas and energy, capturing Adam & Elvis in all their irreverent, witty and experimental glory, the sound of a group that have come of age and are proving as hard to pigeonhole as they are to ignore. Bandcamp here, Facebook here.

Musically vibrant and upbeat 'She Bites Mosquitoes' is a feast of sounds and fabulous vocals. Different and a little eccentric, just makes the whole thing even more wonderful, here's looking forward to the album.

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M.I.L.K. - If We Want To.

Background - Copenhagen based artist M.I.L.K. (real name: Emil Wilk) today releases the video for ‘If We Want To’ - the penultimate video in a line of 6 video releases, lifted from his acclaimed debut EP ‘A Memory Of A Memory Of A Postcard’. The video was co-directed by M.I.L.K. and Jonas Bang.

An intriguing concoction of tropical production, swaying percussion, and sumptuous melodies, M.I.L.K. is an artist who wants to do things a little differently. M.I.L.K. is the sound of summer and sand between your toes. In these uncertain times, we need all need a positive breath of fresh air. That's what M.I.L.K. is.

Fresh from signing to Capitol Music France and Interscope in the US - M.I.L.K.’s debut EP is a perfect introduction to his intoxicating brand of RnB-tinged yacht rock. 

Speaking on the video releases, Emil Wilk said: "I really felt a need to create something physical for the EP. It’s so unsatisfying when everything ends up as streams and links and statistics and internet, internet, internet. So I decided to create something that was more than just mp3 files, and create this video installation to give the EP a visual manifestation in a physical form. The footage is a mix of analogue 8mm shots from travels with friends during the last 6 month, and then more abstract studio shots. It's kind of a diary collage built around the themes and memories that inspired the songs on the EP.” Website here, Facebook here.

'If We Want To' is a smooth melodic song, which exudes beautifully chilled vibes throughout. Imaginative, the music is quiet blissful, the vocals simply charm the listener, this really is music that's good for the soul.


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Lachlan Vines - Glassmaps - Days Are Done - Reverend and the Makers - Helen Culver

Lachlan Vines - This Could Mean The End.

Background - Lachlan Vines combines soulful, emotive vocals with rich, colourful, modern sounds. His fusion of Rock, Soul, Pop and Electronic music provides truly original songs from the Sydney-sider.

Lachlan was born and raised in Inner-West Sydney where, as a die-hard Muse fan in high school, he started teaching himself to play piano like Matt Bellamy. Though piano was and still is his first love, as he went deeper into music and song writing he found a need to branch out to more varied means of musical expression, namely the electric guitar, which he learnt by listening to the likes of John Mayer and Stevie Ray Vaughan who taught him above all else the endless melodic and expressive potential of the guitar solo – a lesson Lachlan sure puts into practice with devotion, as can be heard in his new single, ‘This Could Mean The End.’ ‘This Could Mean The End’ was written, produced and recorded by Lachlan Vines at his residence in Glebe, Sydney, and partly in some hotel in rural NSW. 

“I started writing the song when I had just finished my uni degree and I was taking a celebratory solo road trip down to Melbourne. During that time I was in the middle of something back home, where I knew I was making some big mistakes, and I needed to get myself out of the situation. But I didn’t. Meanwhile, I had also just bought a new software synth on my computer, and I’d fumbled together this patch and just came up with this four-chord jam on it. The song came together quite naturally from the combination of the situation I was in, the music gear I was playing with, and the music I was listening to on that road trip,” says Lachlan. 

‘This Could Mean The End’ is like a joyride through some urban neighbourhood on a bright, clear day (with a brief stop off at church in the middle). It’s down-tempo but has a driving groove that keeps it moving throughout. It’s a care-free, laid back dance track. “It’s a really simple song but ironically so, because it’s about something really complicated – the self deceit of naïve oversimplification, of making a big mistake but convincing yourself it’s gonna turn out fine,” says Lachlan on the concept behind the track. Facebook here.

Some vibrant synths open up 'This Could Mean The End' accompanied by simple drum beats & some delicious guitar work along the way. Lachlan's smooth vocals add some additional feeling to the song, one that will get a good few further plays!

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Glassmaps - Hyponotised + I'm Sorry.

Background - Glassmaps is the solo project of Joel Stein, lead guitarist in the much-loved Howling Bells. After four successful albums with the band, the UK-based Australian stepped back from the global tours and high-end studios to embark on an exciting solo endeavour. ‘Strangely Addicted’, his debut album, beautifully utilises electronic and organic instruments, delivering melodic, punchy, infectious tunes coupled with psychedelic soundscapes. Autobiographical lyrics speak of universal themes of life, love and loss. 

‘Strangely Addicted’ was recorded and produced by Joel in Las Vegas, at the home studio of The Killers’ bassist Mark Stoermer, where Joel was staying while recording with Howling Bells. There, he discovered a soundproofed room filled with random instruments: tubular bells, a double bass, a three-stringed banjo, vintage guitars and an old Telefunken microphone, on which he recorded vocals for the entire album.

Stoermer himself guested on some of the tracks, including playing bass on ‘Summer Rain’, the excellent single released in May, while Howling Bells drummer Glenn Moule also featured. “I took my laptop into that soundproofed room and didn't really sleep for two weeks,” Joel recalls. “I would wake Glenn in the early hours of the morning to drum on tracks I had just finished. He’d sleepwalk his way to the kit and just nail it every time!”

The finished record, released on Lost In The Manor Records on 10 November, captures the sound of an artist spreading his creative wings. A flourishing that has been further enhanced by the assemblage of a red-hot band transforming Glassmaps into a slick live proposition, whose notable summer ’17 shows have included main-stage support to The Killers at Hyde Park and The Great Escape festival in Brighton. Website here, Facebook here.

We have two tracks to feature, 'Hyponotised' and 'I'm Sorry'. Both are good indicators of what's to follow on the impressive 'Strangely Addicted' album, where another eight songs await (and in my opinion deserve) some time & attention. There is a distinct musical style that permeates throughout the album, Joel Stein's vocals are pleasing and melodic, the music is creative and suggests that this collection of material has been something of a labour of love.


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Days Are Done - Never Let You Go.

Background - Days Are Done are singer-songwriter Emmy Kay (from Blackpool) and BAFTA winning TV & film composer Adam Lewis (from South Wales), who are both based in Kingston-upon-Thames. 

Days are Done are what could be described as a happy accident. Having both played in a series of different bands, both together and individually, they knew that they had a strong chemistry and when they finally sat down together to write as just the two of them, the flow was just natural. Realising that they had something special when they stripped their sound back to just the two of them and a guitar, they decided that this was their musical destiny. Days Are Done was born. The rest if history still in the making.

Over the last 18 months, the duo have composed a striking body of songs, mostly written in their front rooms in Kingston. Boasting an ‘old vs. new’ vibe, it is fair to say that their shared influences are married with their own distinctive sound to craft something rather timelessly magical. One of those key influences is  Nick Drake, whose song Day is Done inspired the duo’s name. Having formed the duo at what they thought was the end of a musical journey, the name fitted perfectly.

A bit of musical secret, they didn’t share the band with friends ahead of launching at a series of open mics where they road-tested material. Within a few months, they had recorded a live EP at a tiny coffee shop Hands Coffee (sadly no more) in their hometown. Armed with a laptop and microphones, they invited friends and family and recorded the whole show to release as two introductory EPs. Website here, Facebook here.

The vocal duet on 'Never Let You Go' is delivered with energy, passion and melodic clarity. A modern folk vibe is emphasised by the natural musical arrangement, that while quite energised as well, allows the vocals to rightly stand out.


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Reverend and the Makers - Auld Reekie Blues.

Background - Reverend & The Makers release a new single, ‘Auld Reekie Blues,’ taken from their new album, ‘The Death Of A King’, which is released through Cooking Vinyl on Friday 22nd September. ‘Auld Reekie Blues’ sees the Makers Ed Cosens take on lead vocal duties and is available now, along with previous singles ‘Too Tough To Die’ and ‘Juliet Knows,’ upon pre-ordering ‘The Death Of A King’ here.

‘The Death Of A King’ which was recorded at Karma Sound Studios Thailand, is the followup to the Top 20 album ‘Mirrors’, and will be available on CD, Deluxe edition CD, 12” Vinyl, limited edition 12” vinyl, cassette and digital download. McClure says of recording ‘The Death Of A King’ “As soon as we got there, the king of Thailand died. And there was a mad monsoon. Most of the town went into mourning and shut down, and all the people who worked at the studio were wearing black. There was this whole ceremony for the king, which was quite moving but it put a weird atmosphere in the air.”

The wave of love and optimism from a new generation towards Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party – whose progressive views McClure has tirelessly championed –  has found the singer fielding queries from the Al-Jazeera news-desk and appearing on Channel 4 News. Corbyn appeared on stage with Reverend and the Makers during the Labour election campaign at Wirral Live on May 20th. ‘We were playing at Tranmere with the Coral and the Libertines and I introduced him on stage and we got 20,000 people singing his name to ‘Seven Nation Army:’ “Oh, Je-re-my Cor-byn. Everywhere he went afterwards they started singing it.” Says McClure.

With five Top 20 albums already under their belts, Sheffield rock’n’roll radicals Reverend and the Makers have carved out a niche for themselves as one of the most enduring and incendiary acts on the British musical landscape. Website here.

There is something of a sixties feel to 'Auld Reekie Blues' or is that because of the flowers and dress code on the accompanying video. Melodic and very addictive, we might be fifty years on from the summer of love, however I cant help but feel, that this song references that time, even if only by coincidence.


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Helen Culver - Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Seven Year Glitch (EP).

Background from Helen - I’m Helen Culver, a singer-songwriter who creates words and noise with Liam Alexander, a producer. Together we’ve embarked on yet another sonic (not acid) filled adventure and conjured up four alternative pop songs. 

Lyrically, the theme of the EP consists of a woman who has decided to put herself first whilst refusing to humour anyone who stands in her way. 

From the industrial New Jack Swing of ‘Ctrl-Alt-Delete’, to the minimal 8-bit funk of ‘Red Light’, this EP is something you’ll want to write home to your mother about, telling her you’ve found ‘The One’. (Or ‘The One this week’ anyway, we don’t know how much of a clinger you are - your mum might just roll her eyes…) Bandcamp (releases September 8, 2017) here, Facebook here.

'Ctrl-Alt-Delete' is the first track on the new 'Seven Year Glitch' EP. The other three tracks are (to quote Helen Culver) also "alternative pop songs." I would just add, creative, hook laden & imaginative to her description.  

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