Hildur Höglind has shared 'Further Apart' a beautifully crafted electronic song accompanied by her tranquil and melodic vocals. 'Something New' is a gorgeous and refined pop song that just eases into our lives, the band Babe Rainbow share their name with a song by Melanie Safka. Casii Stephan has a new video for her song 'Letters' a feisty and stomping piece that's hard to ignore!
Hildur Hoglind - Further Apart.
Growing up in a family of musicians in the small village of Johannishus, Sweden, Höglind has gone from gigging in local clubs she was too young to be in at 15, to playing some of the biggest festivals in Sweden. In her new single, her aching, melancholic vocals float over the top of a cavernous backdrop of thunderous bass synths as drum samples tremor and oscillate.
Alt-pop artist Hildur Höglind is releasing new single ‘Further Apart’, taken from upcoming EP Take Off. The record has an affecting and emotional sound, with lyrics that are unafraid to broach heavier subjects such as mental illness and existential dread.
The new track is a tale of lost love. Hildur tells us it’s the story of “two people who are falling out of love with each other but are reluctant to end the relationship because there’s nothing obviously wrong with it.” Her aching, melancholic vocals float over the top of a cavernous backdrop of thunderous bass synths as drum samples tremor and oscillate.
With a lifelong interest in language and writing, it was when she picked up a guitar that Hildur found an outlet for her words. Literature will always have a place in her creative heart however, with last year’s Poems EP featuring musical interpretations of verse by Dylan Thomas and Edgar Allan Poe.
Cosmic conduits Babe Rainbow are overjoyed to present their latest peace offering, 'Something New'.
The song uncurls with a star shiner swagger, curiously exploring the bands place in sonic space while permaculturally rooted here on planet Earth.
Lifted from the forthcoming third long player, the band have already announced tours in Australia (May), the USA (June) and Europe (August / September).
Babe Rainbow’s charming eco-pop is out of time just enough to feel totally on time for a movement in 2019
The whole video was filmed in Tulsa and it was done by Tulsans. There's so much amazing talent in Tulsa and I'm so proud to have each person be a part of this video. People in Tulsa really helped us out to make sure this video could be the best version it could and I'm so thankful for each gift.”
Stephan states, “The star dancer, Dani Davis, is one of the sweetest young women I've ever met, yet when she dances, she's so fierce. I'm so honored that she could be a part of this video. She brought her A-game to each take and faced some of her own fears in the process. "
Stephan moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2014 with the intent to give up her pursuit of a music career. However, in 2016, she released a single, “I Like The Way,” which won an Independent Music Award for “Best Love Song.” In early 2017, she was named “One of nine Oklahoma musicians to watch” by the Tulsa World Magazine. Stephan also performed at MisFEST (short for Music is She), Tulsa’s first female-driven music festival that she helped found and produce. She was recently featured in American Songwriter Magazine as one of the artists contributing to making Oklahoma “the next big music scene.”
Another single, “GhostShips,” premiered on Atwood Magazine, who raves, “an incredibly dynamic performance that captures an intimate moment of raw, untethered emotion.” She received a genre nomination in the Pop category from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards and received an Honorable Mention Award by the USA Songwriting Competition. In 2017, she did not disappoint, as her band The Midnight Sun, performed an official SXSW Showcase opening for Hanson. Stephan returned as an official artist in 2019’s SXSW, performing at the Tulsa Music Night Showcase.
We have received some fine music through the Microdose single series and 'This Time' from Mirrorball is no exception their dream pop is quite exquisite. Far Caspian return for a fifth time here, the latest song 'Astoria' is once again full of smooth hooks and a fine melodic vibe. The Silver Lake Chorus as you might expect know how to perform a chorus (and some), 'Tabu' is a splendid affair that gives indie music a unique dimension. We have a new video and a recent single from Her Crooked Heart, both are creative pieces and rather addictive. Alt rockers Strangejuice are fascinating, their music is original and just a little quirky, with the lyrics worth a little attention along the way! We finish this selection with South Australia's Corduroy Spaceship and a melodic and extremely catchy indie song 'About Everything'.
Mirrorball - This Time.
Mirrorball have shared a new video for their single "This Time"; a shimmering sinking light show with a hint of 1980s. "This Time" is part of Dangerbird's Microdose single series.
Dangerbird Records is proud to announce the latest artist to feature in their Microdose single series, Los Angeles dream pop upstarts Mirrorball.
Mirrorball is the newly-formed project of singer/songwriter Alexandra Johnstone and guitarist Scott Watson. Johnstone and Watson are both fixtures of the Los Angeles underground music scene. The roots of Johnstone’s songwriting inspiration date back to first hearing Leonard Cohen’s Songs from a Room, prompting her to “put poems to music.” She went on to front the band Monster, later known as White Dove, as a vehicle for her more minimalist, folk-woven leanings, garnering comparisons to the music of Low and Cat Power. Watson’s musical history dates back to playing in various groups in Silver Lake’s early 2000s indie rock heyday.
Johnstone and Watson’s combined efforts in Mirrorball push both musicians into new territory. The Los Angeles band’s otherworldly yet grounded sound evokes imagery of abandoned shopping malls and 1980s coming-of-age movies. Johnstone’s hauntingly memorable vocal lines are supplemented by dense beds of swelling synthesizer and strikingly bare, percussive guitar parts that fuse together into a compelling whole.
The debut A-Side single “This Time” is a more uptempo post-new wave number imbued with mystery and longing. Johnstone’s words ring out with poignancy over a sea of fluttering keyboard arpeggios, culminating with the almost cautionary phrase “never say this time.” The accompanying B-Side “Natural World” slows things down into a pulsing soup of dark Tropicália and slow motion disco. Johnstone reveals her Cohen-esque poetry influence in her plaintive uttering of the song’s opening line – “Think I’ll live the quiet life, stop living by the knife.”
Flitting between insular, emotionally engaging bedroom-pop and moments of festival-ready breathlessness across their iconic hazy sound, Leeds trio Far Caspian’s sonic formula is earning them fans at an exponential rate. New single Astoria epitomises this thrilling contradiction; calm, slowly grooving verses clear the decks for expansive choruses, replete with a timeless synth line. It’s the final preview ahead of imminent sophomore EP The Heights, out June 11th via Dance To The Radio.
Emerging last year with a collection of catchy lo-fi gems on hazy debut EP Between Days, and crafting their self-coined ‘melanjolly’ style to widespread critical praise, the trio’s newest output showcases their trademark sound with fresh commercial overtones and a very intentional 80s production sheen. Blending these two shades on a UK tour in support of the debut EP last month peaked with thrilling, sold-out debut headline shows in London and Manchester.
Discussing their forthcoming single, frontman Joel Johnston states: “’Astoria’ is the song on the EP that kind of sums up the feeling we wanted to put across, embracing the good things in your life when things aren’t so good.
Before we had started writing any of the songs I had already decided that there would be a track with this name. It's a town in Oregon where the Goonies was shot. The Goonies has been my favourite movie since I was no age, and I've always wished I lived in that neighbourhood – this is me trying to emulate what I heard in my head when I pictured the town.
Me and Alessio were lying in the living room hungover when we wrote the chorus for the song. It came from nowhere and we just went with it.”
The Silver Lake Chorus is celebrating their Los Angeles roots. Partnering with LA-based artists Van Dyke Parks and Lucius, and producer Luke Top (Fools Gold, Cass Mccombs), TSLC is putting out two new tracks that serve as a delicious follow-up to their critically-acclaimed 2015 debut, which, according to The Wall Street Journal, relied on “the beauty and expressiveness of the voices to make its mark.” The same can be said for Lucius’s “Not Not” and Van Dyke Parks’ “Tabu,” which signal a return to the group’s choral roots after their celebrated 2016 remix album, which earned producer starRo a 2017 Grammy nomination for best remixed recording for “Heavy Star Movin’.”
Upon collaborating with The Silver Lake Chorus for the documentary film Markie in Milwaukee, film composer Morgan Z. Whirledge opined, “The power of multiple human voices, there’s nothing like it. You can use software and you can layer one person over and over again, but there’s just really nothing like getting a bunch of people together in a room. It is what it is and it can’t be replicated.” The Silver Lake Chorus figured this out over nine years ago when they first formed as a Los Angeles-based choir that could also be described as an indie rock band... with twenty lead singers. Their latest recordings are even more stripped down than usual, exposing their raw musicianship and vocal talent rather than slick production value. As TSLC’s music director Mikey Wells puts it, “We wanted the recording process to capture our natural choral sound, to have as few layers between the vocals and the listeners’ ears as possible, so we popped a couple mics in a room and pressed record.” The result: two gorgeous tracks that revel in lush harmonies and playful instrumentation and lay bare the irreplicable power and pleasure of multiple human voices.
In “Not Not,” written for the the chorus by indie pop band Lucius, the chorus opted to follow the songwriters’ lead, singing in perfectly aligned unison, as Lucius’s frontwomen Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig are known to do, until the harmonies delicately split then build to a powerful and affecting crescendo. The recurrent phrase “none of this means nothing at all” swells alongside soprano Jett Kwong Kelly’s solitary and evocative guzheng accompaniment, and by the song’s end, the lyrics’ double negative implications leave us with a cleansing sense of loss and clarity.
Her Crooked Heart is the new name; the new music of Rachel Ries - multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, rock & roll choir director, sideman and singer. Her Crooked Heart’s forthcoming album, To Love To Leave To Live (out May 31st) features members of Bon Iver, Shane Leonard and string arrangements by the inimitable Rob Moose. First single Courthouse was recently released followed by the new video for single Windswept released this week.
With To Love To Leave To Live, Minneapolis-based Her Crooked Heart presents a debut record unique in form, made up of cyclical narratives and intertwining histories, each informing the next. The result is a transformative song cycle, led by a charismatic personality, wholly indifferent to expectations of genre and instrumentation. Rachel Ries, the writer, multi-instrumentalist and producer behind Her Crooked Heart, demonstrates immense vulnerability and multifaceted musical craftsmanship to deliver a personal and profound musical soliloquy on love, leaving and the life that follows after burning it all down.
To bring these songs and this record to the stage (and to the UK for the first time with a full band) Ries has enlisted a powerful group of women; women who can, in their way, take on the feminine, humanist mantle of Her Crooked Heart and make it their own: Siri Undlin (Humbird), Adelyn Strei (Adro), Hilary James (We Are The Willows, Bathtub Cig). The quartet blends classical and electric guitar; piano and vintage synths, cello, woodwinds and drum triggers. This merging of acoustic and synthetic sounds is all in service of the voice: four park vocal harmonies that shift from ether to eat elemental wail, always telling a story of transformation.
The latest full-length album from prolific underground indie rock outfit StrangeJuice entitled "Raising Cannibals", is due for independent release May 10th.
During the writing and creation of this album, nothing was sober, everything was afternoon, and there was a constant background of live chickens. The entire record was conceived and created in roughly two weeks, so nothing had long enough to be overthought, contrived, or to become stale.
Strangejuice is a prolific underground indie outfit who mix absurdist prose with conventional and unconventional musical instruments and artistic approach. With a discography of ten album releases spanning over a decade, StrangeJuice has a small cult following that keep catalogue of StrangeJuice's life's work and purpose here in the universe.
From banjo plucks, screeching birds and shuffling cards, StrangeJuice records and masters all their work in a secret studio in Perth, Western Australia overlooking the mountains where the alcohol flows as free as the natural rivers.
Emerging last month with his loveable debut single 'About Everything', multi-instrumentalist Corduroy Spaceship is now blasting off with the follow-up EP, Corduroy Spaceship & The Custard Gumboot.
Unravelling a sound which screams Summer, Corduroy Spaceship's debut EP cannonballs into a psychedelic pool of reverberated melodies, striking guitar riffs and vast, ethereal soundscapes. Across five sweeping tracks, Corduroy Spaceship & The Custard explores themes of love, life and death through the unique peephole of modern psych pop.
Anthemic yet beautifully laidback, highlight track 'Burden' aligns Corduroy Spaceship with contemporaries such as Tame Impala, Pond and Yellow Days. Driven by a choir of twangy guitar chords and a grooving bass tones, lyrically 'Burden' echos the fragile instrumentation with a introspective narrative. "I was in the friend zone for many years and I let loving this girl ruin me. The track is kinda explaining that and talking about how I'd never be her burden, even though she was mine." Corduroy Spaceship explains.
Hailing from Mount Gambier in rural South Australia, Corduroy Spaceship is the brainchild of multi-instrumentalist Torsten Gustavsson, who recorded, mixed, and mastered all instrumentation aside from drums on the EP.
From She Rides Tigers we have the debut album 'Scars' to stream in full, the trio deliver a powerful mixture of rock styles with enough pop sensibilities to ensure a mass of musical hooks along the way. Cousin Kula's 'Stacked' sees the psych pop element of the band in full flow, this is an imaginative song where their jazz influences are just nudging away in the musical arrangement. 'In The Blue' from Frankie Lee takes on the subject of ageing and loss and yet adds a tender and quite beautiful feel with this fine song. Lady Nade's fabulous vocals are a perfect fit for soul and jazz, so it's no surprise that 'Drive Home Safely' (a mixture of both genres) is simply wonderful. James Clayton sent us Avalene with a few personal comments, the song did the rest and with pleasure it's shared below. Wovoka Gentle have given us another song from their forthcoming album which includes The Kids Club Kampala Choir, it's our fifth feature for the London trio who just keep on creating great music.
She Rides Tigers - Scars (Album).
Chicago trio She Rides Tigers have released their debut LP Scars which follows their debut EP, Standing On The Edge, which was released in 2015.
The band is made up of Joe O'Leary - Guitar, Vocals - James Scott - Bass, Vocals and Ryan Birkett - Drums
She Rides Tigers’ single "Roll With It" was featured extensively in the 2015 production of Grand Concourse at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company. The band has also been featured on Fearless Radio, Voclao (via NPR), WGN Radio, New City, Radio One Chicago and Static Multimedia.
She Rides Tigers is a fuzz guitar, riff-laden power trio blurring the lines between psychedelic rock and powerpop.
Bristol based outfit Cousin Kula are sharing new single 'Stacked' - the second track to be lifted from their forthcoming second EP, due for release later this year.
Melding psych pop, jazz, and electronic pop to brilliant effect, 'Stacked' was lyrically inspired by singer Elliot's Mum going through a divorce. His band mate, Douglas said: "Although it's a song to his mum post divorce, I hear its message as being quite positive and hopeful, like: 'you've got it all stacked up against you, but I back you to come through it all on top.'"
Opening amidst a canvas of atmospheric electronics, reverb-touched synths, and stunning guitar motifs – 'Stacked' kicks into groove, with Elliot sending a message of encouragement: "It'll be alright / You'll find solutions / Yeah you got it stacked / But it's you you're choosing".
Walking into the Cousin Kula household you’re met by bundles of bicycles in the hallway, friends’ artwork on the walls and instruments everywhere. In the garden a self-made pizza oven and an array of home grown vegetables demonstrate their ambition for self-sufficiency. Cousin Kula are a band with an energy not just about the way they make music, but about their day to day life, which translates to the stage with vigour – turning audiences, into fans, up and down the country.
The 6-piece's undulating, refreshing brand of psych-pop was originally born out of Bristol’s progressive jazz music scene. Bonding over their shared love for an eclectic range of music from pop and psych through to prog, disco & afrobeat; the six members soon found themselves living together and with a rehearsal room in their basement became one of the tightest and most impressive bands on the Bristol circuit, blending these genres into something both modern and refreshing.
Frankie Lee is sharing the second single from his new album, Stillwater, with the beautifully dark rumination on aging and loss. In The Blue sees Lee taking a soft piano approach to the subject, somehow softening the stark reality that time comes for us all. Lee explains that the song “dramatises the confusion felt by the narrator as he watches the important things in life slip away.
Realising he cannot hold on to even one grain of sand, he is led to his final question whether all things are just a dream.” American Songwriter, who premiered the song, says “In The Blue finds the sweet spot between modern, soulful folk and old-school Western balladry, with Lee’s gentle vocal lending an emotional heft to the track’s understated, piano-forward arrangement.”
The video for In The Blue follows on from that of that of previous single Downtown Lights in using archival footage of Frankie Lee’s hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota from which the album takes its name. The footage was taken from the Washington County Historical Society’s John Runk collection by videographer Paul Creager.
Soulful, rootsy-jazz singer-songstress Lady Nade announces the release of new album Safe Place (digitally available from May 17th) impact date June 21st on Mintlime Records. Fresh from supporting fellow Bristolian Elles Bailey on her UK tour, Lady Nade will be embarking on a further tour supporting the 'Queen Of Country Soul' Yola in May.
Lady Nade's music has been likened to a rich fusion of musical greats, with comparisons to the soul-bearing velvet tones of Nina Simone with a heady, jazz splash of Jeff Buckley thrown in. Her songs fill your heart with nourishing words and melodies, her tender soulful voice drawing you in.
The success of her first debut album ‘Hard To Forget’ received support from BBC2 Dermot’ O Leary, Tom Robinson’s BBC6 Fresh Net show, BBC Bristol’s Introducing, France National Radio and Sam Bain (writer of Peep show and Freshman) ‘Yours Truly, Pierre Stone’ BB4 Radio Show. Hotly-tipped shows and residencies, performing in countless locations, from underground bars to festival fields and European cities, have continued to spark further interest and her increasing profile has earned her endorsements from Taylor Guitars, Sontronics and Icon Films.
Nade has collaborated with two familiar musical powerhouses on Safe Place and created with them a bright new world of sonic experiences. Dan Everett has brought his earthy, rootsy folk and Americana to enrich these sonic pastures, and mixing saucier Paul Isaac has conjured new and vibrant soundscapes to support and enhance the album. With Nade at the creative centre, these three chefs stripped down each track to its vocal base and painstakingly built up layers of melody and improvisation to release each song's full potential.
Fuelled by nostalgia, “Avalene” is a psychedelic retelling of a euphoric night shared with your best friend.
“Avalene” is formless in both it’s composition and lyrics. The song always reminds me of a time where I felt more carefree, and I hope you feel the same way while listening.
Determined to capture the essence of a live performance, “Avalene” was recorded off the floor to tape with Peter Woodford at The Bottle Garden (his studio in Montreal) - James Clayton.
London trio Wovoka Gentle have announced the release of their debut album 'Start Clanging Cymbals' on 7th June through Nude Records.
After releasing '1,000 Opera Singers Working in Starbucks', 'Peculiar Form of Sleep', 'Sin is Crouching At Your Door' and 'Tell'em, Makoto!', Wovoka Gentle have now shared a new track from their upcoming debut LP. 'Xerxes' features glitchy electronics, soaring beats and the exuberant voices of Kids Club Kampala Choir.
They add: "You could say there’s an atmosphere of celebration in Xerxes ‘19, even though it’s more or less about death. There’s an imagined ecstatic moment of submission before departing a world running election campaigns for tried and tested tyrants, where legends are equal parts seductive and dangerous. The Kids Club Kampala Choir was recorded in Uganda by a friend of ours, originally for the Kids Club Kampala charity. We wanted to create a call and response dynamic between our vocals and their vocals; the conversation flung across continents."
Wovoka Gentle are an experimental three-piece from London, comprised of William J Stokes and twins Imogen and Ellie Mason. Taking its root in folk and Americana songwriting, the Wovoka sound draws upon the psychedelic soundscapes of the late 60s as well as contemporary experimental, pop and collage music; marrying classic instrumentation with sampling, analogue synthesis and sound manipulation.
We featured Hannah Scott's album "Pieces of the Night" last summer and are really pleased to share her latest single 'Walk A Wire' a vibrant modern folk song with bags of energy. 'The Many Deaths Of Letting Go' from Illuminine and featuring Hannah Corinne on vocals is a dreamy, gentle song that soothes and pleases. Mountain Head's alt rocker 'We Stole Your Head' touches on the information overload that so often distracts us, it does so with some fine hooks and a very engaging musical arrangement. The recent E.P release from Denmark's In Caravans is worth catching up with, the four songs are infectious as the band carve out their own quite individual and attractive sounds.
Hannah Scott - Walk A Wire.
Hannah Scott presents her new single, “Walk a Wire”. Inspired by a friend with a disability who closed herself away for fear of rejection, it invites people to take a chance and open up to life. Hannah tries to follow her own advice despite living with chronic health condition Ankylosing Spondylitis; a recent example saw her speaking in Parliament to a room full of MPs about how her condition affects her life and her music career, despite being terrified of speaking in public! Her MP Rupa Huq, who was in attendance, subsequently described her as “inspirational and courageous”.
Co-written and produced with long-standing collaborator Stefano Della Casa (Ultra Music Publishing), “Walk a Wire” expertly combines organic, live elements with electronic sounds. The two artists have struck a perfect balance between Hannah’s traditional songwriting craft and Stefano’s exquisite synth-rich production.
Since releasing her well-received album, “Pieces of the Night”, through AWAL last summer, Hannah has signed a publishing deal with Chelsea Music and has opened shows for Madeleine Peyroux, as well as touring in Europe and across the UK. Previous releases have been featured on BBC Radio 2, including a live session with Dermot O’Leary, BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing, The Guardian, MOJO and Clash Magazine, to name a few. Hannah’s music can also be heard in shops and bars including Caffè Nero, Costa, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer.
Illuminine ft. Hannah Corinne - The Many Deaths Of Letting Go.
Flemish composer Kevin Imbrechts, the artist at the helm of Illuminine, deftly blends neo-classical with post-rock influences.
The new song is a follow up to his hypnotic third album, simply titled “#3”, which deals with his anxiety disorder and accepting an Asperger diagnosis. For this new release he works again with Hannah Corinne, who gave her soft voice to this track for a very intimate and deep sound.
Kevin Imbrechts about the song: “”The Many Deaths of Letting Go” was first written as a poem. Sometimes you need to write those words to cope with a very difficult time in your life in which it feels like the future is slipping through your fingers like water. You need to make peace with that feeling and the song is the result of that.”
The current influx and acceleration of information has brought on an immense amount of distraction and anxiety that separates us from feeling the presence of the current moment.
“We Stole Your Head” is a reminder to be here now, to connect with life. There are a lot of things out there looking to take your head and lead it down an endless labyrinth.
The sound conception of Mountain Head started with this song. It was one of those moments where it just hits you.
It wasn’t until we brought the song to the studio that it really started to take shape; you could say that “We Stole Your Head” and the ideas it conjured truly did steal our heads. It cleared the foundation and set up our base camp before we ascend this mountain.
Denmark's In Caravans recently released their Sunken Streets EP which is their third release of 2019, with two singles "Maybe" and "Courier" released earlier this year.
In Caravans are Lasse (drums), Sebastian (bass), Niels (guitar & synths), Søren (guitar) and Magnus (vocals). They come from the beautiful city of Aarhus, Denmark, which is home to some internationally recognised facilities and events like Tapetown Studio or SPOT Festival. And just like these two brands mentioned - In Caravans, taking inspirations from neo-psychedelia or alternative rock, create a sound that’s unique to that scene but blends right into the exciting indie rock scene of today.
On Sunken Streets EP, there are moments of reflection and ones that will leave listeners hungry for more. Some actually may find themselves thinking why there aren’t more tracks on this EP, why it’s over when they’ve only just got comfortable with this Danish band’s inviting sound. In reality, the release is teasing all indie aficionados into doing exactly that - wanting more. It invites them to be a part of the process and experience what In Caravans have yet ahead of them - and, more importantly, to experience it together; in a mysterious but powerful way.
