Brother Son - Toby Johnson - Winter Wilson with Fairport Convention - Caracol

Brother Son have a rather distinct brand of Indie Rock partly garnered by their musical influences, however nothing can take away how they have developed some superb songs, where as mentioned in their press release, blues, soul and even jazz styles manifest themselves. As for the new album 'Goodies' I have to say, this is a very fine collection of music (streaming in full below).

From Toby Johnson we have 'Isla' the first of four songs from his forthcoming E.P. It's a fine modern folk song, the musical backdrop is restrained, the vocals just right for the genre, and the overall production exudes quality.

If you dig further back in time on Beehive Candy you will see plenty of evidence for our love of live music and also Sandy Denny. Early in 2018 we featured Winter Wilson a couple of times, and their return with a live album full of original songs from the pair, along with a gorgeous cover version of Sandy Denny's 'It'll Take a Long Time' (performed with Fairport Convention) is just fabulous. Comprised of fifteen songs, this is a must hear for folk music fans.

Finally Caracol has shared 'Flooded Field' (featuring Illa J) a refined song where electro and natural musical sounds and a reggae type rhythm back the beautifully melodic vocals.
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Brother Son - Goodies.

The story of Brother Son begins with four unlikely friends of disparate musical tastes and backgrounds uniting over a shared love of Alabama Shakes, The Strokes, Mac DeMarco, and ganj. Their music reflects this, bringing a unique blend of bluesy soul and jazzy smoothness to indie rock.

And so they began in early 2017 with their debut EP Young & Pretty, the first order of business being to play as many shows in as many midwestern cities as they could.

Rising quickly to local prominence, by the end of that year they began headlining and selling out shows at venues like El Club, The Shelter, and The Loving Touch. Now, with a tour under their belts as well, they've been gearing up to release their second LP, Goodies, with even more tucked away for a third project slated for early 2020.

With all that locked and loaded, their next move will be east and west coast tours this summer.

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Toby Johnson - Isla.

Mahogany Recordings new signing is Toby Johnson, this is the first of four tracks from Toby's forthcoming EP.

Having already performed alongside artists like Lewis Watson, Mahalia and Isaac Gracie, Toby’s debut headline show will take place in Hackney as part of ‘Mahogany Sessions Live’.

The writing process for the EP was a simplistic approach, which drew from pivotal moments and inspirations in Toby's personal life.

Toby expresses “if a song reveals every detail, then it ruins the illusion. It’s like a text message, people absorb information in different ways, a simple text can be misconstrued entirely, that's the beauty of storytelling.”

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Winter Wilson with Fairport Convention - It'll Take a Long Time.

Live & Unconventional the new album from Scots/English duo Winter Wilson, goes on general release in August. Live & Unconventional is the duo's ninth album and was recorded on tour last year with folk rock icons Fairport Convention and it features Fairport on a couple of tracks.

Unusually for Winter Wilson the album contains a cover, it's not every day you get invited to perform a Sandy Denny song (It'll take a long time) live in front of several thousand people with Fairport as your backing band. The remaining tracks are all originals, reproduced as they were on the night.

This year Winter Wilson have completed a five-week tour in Australia before heading off again around the UK, Europe and Canada.

If 2019 goes half as well as 2018 they will be delighted. 2018 started with them completing 29 gigs in 32 days around the UK with folk-rock legends Fairport Convention. This lead to them being invited to perform with Fairport in front of twenty thousand people at Cropredy Festival. Recordings from the tour and Cropredy will makeup the duo's forthcoming live album.

The latest album "Far Off on the Horizon" is their best selling to date and has been very well received by both punters and critics alike. But it is their live performance where these two really excel.

Now in their 7th year as full-time musicians, Kip Winter and Dave Wilson bring a sense of intimacy to every venue, blending superb, often hard-hitting original songs, stunning harmonies and musicianship with sometimes hilarious humour and tales of life on the road.


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Caracol - Flooded Field feat. Illa J.

Caracol is a bilingual artist who walks a singular path. Her new album “Symbolism” is the sum of all her past musical experiences: her beginnings as a percussionist and back-up singer in reggae bands, her work as a sound engineer in film music, and more recently, her presence in the songwriting community and pop music writing camps, where she collaborates with some of the best beatmakers from around the world.

Always cultivating her uniqueness, Caracol stands out with her particular vocal tone, her catchy melodies and the daring way in which she uses rhythmic vocal patterns to create original arrangements. This particular blend of electro & organic sounds has given rise to her signature sound, where indie & alternative pop meet modular synths and tribal percussion instruments. Several of her livelooping performance videos have become viral on the web, and she keeps releasing new ones regularly.

The "Symbolism" adventure begins with an encounter with producer Joey Waronker (drummer for Beck, Roger Waters) during a creative trip to Los Angeles. After he fell in love with her demos, he decided to work with her. During the recording process, Caracol reached a new height in authenticity and artistic expression. She then continued the exploration at her Studio de l’Est headquarters in Montreal, with her long time allies Seb Ruban & Toast Dawg, two of Montreal’s most talented producers.

The 1st single from her new record, ”Flooded Field” feat. Illa J had a soft-release on Spotify with immediate impact, claiming spots on Canada’s biggest Spotify playlists (New Music Friday, Indie All Stars, Indie Pop Chillout, Evening Commute, etc) and currently has over 250 000 streams. The unique-sounding indiepop track infused with reggae was written in collaboration with Detroit rapper Illa J (also the brother of the late Jay Dilla). ”Flooded Field” feat. Illa J now features a video and has been released to media world-wide.

Caracol was recently nominated at the Canadian Indie Awards in the ”Electronic Artist of the Year” category, alongside international acts such as Milk & Bone, DVBBS and Rezz. The album also caught the attention of College Radio networks, reaching position #38 on the National Top 200 Earshot Charts in Canada, and was also the #28 most added record in the USA in College Radio charts.


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mimi bay - Hanna Barakat - Corniglia

With songs as good as 'Really' it's hardly surprising that mimi bay has already gained considerable attention, her Bedroom Pop is smooth, dreamy and beautifully arranged.

Just four weeks ago we featured Hanna Barakat and the song 'Damage Done'. Swiftly following on from that we have 'Leave Your Light On' a song that really showcases the power and splendour of her vocals, ahead of August's album release entitled 'Siren'.

It's been a while since we last featured Perth, Australia's Corniglia whose music has evolved into a resplendent mixture of shoegaze, psych rock and darker dream pop, with the new song 'A Lost Forgotten Dream' also demonstrating the quality attached to all of that.
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mimi bay - Really.

Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, 18-year-old Bedroom Pop artist, Mimi Bergman is set for bigger things. From a young age, the self-taught multi-instrumentalist has been surrounded by music, showcasing it best with her deeply personal songwriting and poetic music. Influenced by many artists, mimi taught herself how to play a variety of instruments and at 14 started to write and self-record her own music in her home recording studio, then sharing it on her YouTube channel Hi I’m Mimi which has grown to near a quarter of a million subs.

With the release of ‘really’, mimi bay explores the feeling of unrequited love, the dreamy heartfelt track is set to bring back memories of a past love that you never seem to get over. mimi will send you into a musical daydream with her sweet soft-pop vocals and emotive guitar playing. To best describe her sound, think beabadobee, Girl In Red and boy pablo. mimi’s debut EP is to be released later this year.

After releasing music on YouTube, the songwriter soon started grabbing attention, gaining a huge amount of support and fans along the way. With over 3 million streams on Spotify, her singles ‘Afraid’, ‘Too Late’ and ‘in your neighbours garden’ – her ever-growing YouTube fanbase has secured her at the forefront of the bedroom-pop.

mimi says that “’really’ is about romanticizing people you see online and spending time thinking of them while they don’t know you exist”

With her keen eye for dreamy aesthetics, mimi bay takes all control of her visual output, creating artwork that fully accompanies her music, assuring a strong and cohesive narrative throughout her work.

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Hanna Barakat - Leave Your Light On.

Austin-based, hard/alternative artist, Hanna Barakat, announces her new single, “Leave Your Light On,” ahead of the upcoming album, Siren, due out August 16, 2019, produced by John Moyer (Disturbed). Born in Texas to an American mother and a Lebanese father, Barakat spent her early years traveling around the world with her family. Barakat pays homage to her roots  on the album.

The album was produced by John Moyer, bassist from famed hard rock band, Disturbed, mixed by Martin Nessi (Michael Jackson estate, Ariana Grande, Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Ricky Martin, Kelly Clarkson), and mastered by Ted Jansen of Sterling Sound (Disturbed, Evanescence, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Halestorm, Pat Metheny).

Barakat states on "Leave Your Light On:"“Society portrays love like a fairy tale, and if the relationship you’re in is not picture perfect, there’s always someone else out there to sweep you off your feet and ride off into the sunset with. Reality tells us that pairing lives with another soul is one of the hardest things two people can do on this earth. Relationships take constant care, devotion, patience, and a hell of a lot of strength. We all go through periods of depression, weakness, physical or psychological traumas, and we need help. We need people in our lives to lift us up and hold us tight while we recover. Leave Your Light On is an honest plea between two lovers to do just that - be strong for one another in tumultuous times - Be each other’s  light - their pillar of strength - and know that it is an ebb and flow - the roles will most certainly be reversed not long down the road. This is what relationships are built on.”

Barakat beautifully describes the inspiration behind the album: “I chose the title, Siren, for my debut record, after John Moyer and I produced our final song together, which happened to be “Siren.” The power of the music and the lyrics filled me with such fire. It motivated me and inspired me to take this next step in my journey with such confidence. Though the song references the mythical sirens of the sea, I loved the idea of a double meaning: an actual siren, warning call, alarm! The songs on this record were written over a span of 10 years. These songs have been my comfort and my therapy, as I’ve journeyed this world, witnessed injustices, engrossed myself in my ancestral culture, grown within myself, literally travelled the globe, loved, lost, failed, loved again, and struggled to reach the place where I am today.

I want to bring awareness to these situations, not by forcing any political agenda, but by pushing for love, understanding, and acceptance of all the other humans walking this earth together. Throughout history, there have been unnatural walls physically erected, or socially accepted and perpetuated, in order to divide people. I want to tear those walls down. All of them. Through my music, with rock guitars, heavy drums, deep rhythmic bass lines, and my intricate vocal melodic lines and punchy harmony stacks, I have chosen to forge arabic instruments like the oud, kanun, frame drum, riqq, into my sonic landscape, where I feel they so naturally and appropriately belong.”

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Corniglia - A Lost Forgotten Dream.

A Lost Forgotten Dream It's waking in a primordial land. It's waking from a dream. A dream of nature and of man - Conjoined twins long separated - both reunited and at war. It's a rolling psych song. It's dark dream pop. It's the undulating, pulsing flow of surreal lyrics over rolling drums and guitars that drive and release like the rise and fall of the ocean.

“On/Off”: Album Notes - It’s dark melodic shoegaze. Dark dream pop. Whispery, stunted psych. Surreal and introspective. Disconnection. Discontent. Fraying. A derelict Cyborg Earth. But it is technology overreaching, faltering. The Earth reclaiming power. It’s the future mirroring the distant past. It’s Man and Nature reunited and at war.

Time erodes, swallows everything. Monoliths - cultures, cities, ideas… Buildings inevitably crumble. Become irrelevant. In the face of the enormity of time - our own perceived self importance dissolves away - It’s finding a calmness and contentment in this. This microscopic-ness. This irrelevant-ness. These aren’t sombre thoughts though. These are beautiful and freeing. A freedom in anonymity.

Other possible things to take from the title “On/Off”: Living on autopilot in mindless routine like an appliance - with an on/off switch. The Earth reseting itself like an appliance (when it’s not working properly).

The album is a little different to previous stuff. Was definitely more focussed on a theme this time. The obvious difference though, Chloe not singing on the album………unfortunately. That wasn't planned. She was really busy with Uni the last 12 months, so we decided I’d be left on my own for this one. She’ll definitely be back for the next thing though. The album was recorded at my house. My brother Mitch, played most of the Drums. It was mixed and mastered at Bergerk! Studios in Perth.

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Thandii - Team Me - Julia Rakel - Grace Gillespie

Less than a month since we featured 'Honey' by Thandii they return with 'Tides' where the driving bass line and assortment of sounds blends beautifully with the gorgeous soaring vocals.

Team Me also return for a second time, back in April we shared 'The Future In Your Eyes' and now we have 'Does Anyone Know How To Get To The Heart Of This' a splendid enough song title and equally splendid indie piece the bands knack for creating rousing catchy tunes continues.

We featured Julia Rakel a couple of times back in March and now we have 'Summer Hit' another creative and melodic song where her fabulous vocals and wonderful musical arrangement work wonders.

Finally and pretty much a month to the day since we first featured her, Grace Gillespie has shared the new song 'My Love Surreal', a hook filled pop piece that is just a little off kilter making the track even more engaging.
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Thandii - Tides.

Margate based duo Thandii have released new single ‘Tides’. This will be the final single from upcoming EP ‘Serious Town’, slated for July 5th.

Having gained support for their signature blend of sultry female vocals and upbeat pulsating bass lines on previous singles ‘Company’ and ‘Honey’ Jess and Graham now return with ‘Tides’ where they explore the themes of guilt and how people deal with it. A growing cluster of rhythmic sounds and shuffles, and an ever-present increasing bass line invoke the feeling of being relentlessly chased by guilt. A tribute to Greta Thunberg, the song has a constant nod to her work in raising awareness toward climate change, and uses it as a metaphor for regret. “There’s another heatwave on….” and “I can’t ignore you,” Jess sings with her soaring vocals.

‘Serious Town’, out July 5th on the band's own label Bad Hacker, sees a departure in tonality as well as the way it was recorded from Thandii’s previous works. “For the EP we chose to spend some time in a proper studio, rather than recording at home as we have done before. One of our favourites is a place called ‘Echo Zoo’ down in Eastbourne - it’s an analogue recording haven more akin to the Southern States than the southern coast of the UK.” The duo wrote and produced the EP themselves and took inspiration from the darker side of the psyche. “Imagine if the voice in your head sang at a dystopian disco.” Featuring previous singles ‘Company’ and ‘Honey’ the EP also features 4 new tracks, including upcoming single ‘Tides’.

‘Suits’ is a delicate and floating melody over the stab of reverb bathed synths that laments the aftermath of a fight. It culminates in a distorted guitar solo that perfectly conjures the moment raw passion meets vulnerable emotion.

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Team Me - Does Anyone Know How To Get To The Heart Of This.

After their euphoric return earlier this year, Team Me present the memorable ‘Does Anyone Know How to Get to the Heart of This’, out now via Propeller Recordings (Highasakite, Dagny, Sløtface, Moddi), the third instalment of their upcoming EP.

Leading man, Marius Drogås Hagen of Team Me tells of the track, “‘DAKHTGTTHOT’ teleports us back into the post-apocalyptic world. A future where our cyborg heroes are fighting a losing battle. A battle for love, lost in a sea of flames”, continuing the harrowing and poignant narrative from it’s predecessor ‘The Future In Your Eyes’.

Capturing the anguish and romantic longing in the sonic soundscape, paired with Marius’ soft vocals, Team Me have taken a gentle and thoughtful approach on ‘Does Anyone Know How to Get to the Heart of This’. The single demonstrates the band’s capacity to create versatile sounds, showcasing their artistry while cementing Team Me’s reputation for manufacturing cinematic indie bangers in all forms.

When speaking of the band’s new chapter, Marius tells “as for the music, I really want to be more focused on documenting this time, rather than releasing an album and touring for three years on a campaign. I want the project to just be a way to let things out of my system.”

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Julia Rakel - Summer Hit.

Umeå-via-Malmö Swedish musician and producer Julia Rakel is the latest addition to Stockholm indie label Rama Lama Records' (Melby, Steve Buscemi's Dreamy Eyes, Chez Ali etc.) roster. Debut EP indie fEELz was just released in march and Julia is already back with a new single called Summer hit, out now on all platforms

Julia works at the well-known Malmö studio Tambourine and her credits include sound design and music for the award-winning short film Plankton. With her expertise as a producer she's refined her stripped-down sketches to a daydreaming beautiful soundscape that develops with every listen. This, put together with Julia's individual vocals and often ironic lyrics, create a intimate and memorable sound. A sound that has been described as “a laid-back, dreamy, DIY aesthetic provided with some wonderfully candid and vulnerable music”.

Julia Rakel's own words about the single: "Man, I’ve had such a shitty 2019 so far. So frickin’ long and dark. But then April comes along and is really warm and sunny, and I thought. YES. It’s finally going my way. So I took a longer route to work, smelled a flower, all that jazz. The day after I wrote and recorded this little jam! The lyrics are super depressive, but the song is happy! My favorite combination."

Debut EP indie fEElz is six track creation that according to Julia is a try to deal with the very different kinds of relationships we have with each other and ourselves through "a lot of irony, drum machines and way too many choirs parts". The tracks treat universal topics such as forced acquaintances, love, desperate attempts to be understood, how we feel about our egos and sad celebrations of friendships.

“Summer hit” is out now on all platforms via Stockholm independent label Rama Lama Records. Julia Rakel made her live debut in October last year and have since supported Molly Nilsson amongst others, more live dates to be expected.

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Grace Gillespie - My Love Surreal.

Grace Gillespie follows the infectious 'I'm Your Man' with the off-kilter pop track ‘My Love Surreal’, from her debut EP ‘Pretending’.

It’s South London based Grace’s exploration into solo psych-pop material after touring as part of Pixx’s live line up, supporting names such as Nilüfer Yanya, Cosmo Pyke and Trudy and The Romance.

Diverging from her previous romantic ballad, ‘My Love Surreal’ reveals the playful element of Grace’s sound, with discordant synth patterns that feel like the “cool blue light refracted” she’s singing about. Layered upon an almost-sinister plucky guitar riff and doused in her ethereal, vintage sound, the track is the epitome Grace’s individual pop vision.

Summarising the push-pull feeling of the charm of the track with the unexpectedness of dissonant chords, she describes the track as a “summer dysphoria”. With references to “blue light” and “day-glo”, “everything is vivid, patterned and bright - and yet entirely out of reach.”

Grace wrote the track in the peak of the hot concrete London summer, feeling frustrated, as “the circular synth patterns reflect little repetitive, negative patterns of thought, born out of a sense of isolation, being stuck indoors, being stuck creatively.” Anyone who lives in a big city will understand the confusing feeling of loneliness matched with endless potential.

In the end, the track comes full circle to remind Grace that her “love is real”: “It’s easy to be critical and get stuck in these relentless little cycles of negativity - I suppose the song was me trying to win myself over.”

It's yet another demonstration of Grace Gillespie’s ability to craft captivating pop songs whilst keeping listeners on their toes, a reminder to “get out of your head - it’s beautiful out there!”

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Dive Bell - The Goa Express - Honey Moon - Oh, Rose - Late TV

From Sydney, Australia we have Dive Bell and a video for the song 'Lupine', a rich and unique sounding track where somewhat ethereal vocals are joined by a disparate musical arrangement yet they work beautifully together.

The Goa Express have shared 'The Day' an energised indie rocker where the vocals are enthused and the band tight and feisty.

It's our third feature for Honey Moon as once again the London jangle pop outfit impress us, this time with 'Magic' a timeless pop piece that is rammed full of hooks.

Oh, Rose new album 'While My Father Sleep' opens with '25, Alive' accompanied with a video, the song is a loose rocker, Rose's vocals ebb and flow with charm and feeling, it's a fine teaser for what's to follow.

We have 'I Gotta Pay' from Late TV another band making their third appearance here, in fact we have two versions studio and live to checkout, both are really fine as the band take us in another direction that is nonetheless just as pleasing as their previous songs.
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Dive Bell - Lupine.

Sydney’s Dive Bell exhibit their mysterious, divergent sound with ‘Lupine’, their cut through first release of 2019.

Shaping a truly vast and cinematic soundscape with their blend of alt-rock, electronica and trip-hop, ‘Lupine’ sees haunting harmonies effervesce around brutal guitar tones and shimmering synth lines. Initially striking with its raw digital crunch, this dissolves effortlessly to reveal a lush final quarter full of bright optimistic tones. “I was inspired by a doco I watched which delved deep into the territorial nature of wolves. It raised themes around belonging and entrapment, freedom and repression - which I explore lyrically in the track,” singer/keyboardist Aleesha Dibbs explains.

Voyaging to the wolves' nomadic habitat, the music video adds to the wonder, catapulting viewers into a seemingly ethereal world. Far from civilisation and shot on location in the Snowy Mountains, the clip sees Aleesha running amongst the wild. ”It involved the most intense cold I’ve ever experienced, a substantial amount of time on the freeway and a real-life 'Man from Snowy River,'” she jokes.

Having shared the stage with the likes of as Jonti, VOWWS, Body Type, Party Dozen, Lucianblomkamp, VOWWS, 100, Exhibitionist and A Swayze & The Ghosts, four-piece DIVE BELL have captivated audiences from all across the musical spectrum. Cementing themselves in both the local and national scene, their previous singles have seen support from the likes of FBi Radio and Rage.


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The Goa Express - The Day.

The Goa Express release their urgent new single 'The Day' on Friday the  5th of July. Recorded at Champ Zone with Nathan Saoudi (Fat White Family), it rattles with an unstoppable new wave rhythm, shudders with abrasive guitars and with vocals that sneer with the spirit of seizing the day while everything is falling apart around you, their sound may rustle with the ghosts of acts like The Stooges,  Psychedelic Furs and contemporaries like Shame, but the Goa Express possesses youthful energy, northern spite and ever-evolving sound all of their own.  The band's frontman James Douglas Clarke says ‘The new tracks are about moving out to university and getting caught for doing shit whilst there and also about the fake, social media platform of our society, lick arses and how everybody wants to pretend that they’re friends.’

Teenagehood, brotherhood and a love for an array of alternative music, across the years, has closely united Burnley and Todmorden's, The Goa Express. Although the intensity of their friendship has resulted in the occasional bust-up, along the way, it is outweighed by their chemistry, which the band offers collectively both on stage and on record. Together, James Douglas Clarke (Guitar + Vocals), Joe Clarke (Keys), Joey Stein (Lead Guitar), Naham Muzaffar (Bass) and Sam Launder (Drums), each contribute to a fuzzy wall of diverse sounds that become hard to pin down with their ever-changing, experimental sound.

Since coming to Manchester, The Goa Express have enjoyed support slots with international bands like The Murlocs, Moon Duo and Mystic Braves as well as performing live with domestic indie champions such as Cabbage, YAK and The Orielles. Whilst at university, The Goa Express have played headline shows at both Manchester's Band On The Wall and The Castle Hotel, as well as slots at Liverpool Psych Festival and the Leeds based, Karma festival. Their live sets are raw, and with expressive, outspoken mindsets, the band transform the hyper- communication and speed of modern life through hard-hitting, relatable lyrics.

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Honey Moon - Magic.

London jangle-pop crooners Honey Moon reveal new single ‘Magic’ ­– perhaps their most ambitious cut to date. It’s straight from the classic songbook, replete with saturated Hollywood strings, swooning vocals and a spine tingling key change. Once again frontman Jack Slater Chandler’s vocals come to the fore, with the rest of the mooners’ model musicianship dealing a handful of expert flourishes to deliver the slow, hip-swinging ballroom bop.

To put the track out they’re once again teaming up with Manchester label Heist or Hit  (Her’s, Pizzagirl, Baywaves, Guest Singer), with whom they released last year’s acclaimed Four More From… EP, enchanting taste makers as well as BBC 6 Music and legendary crate digger Elton John.

Augmenting their trademark doo-wop sound with new textures, rhythms and instrumentation to give a more expansive sound, Honey Moon capture shadowy, wistful late-night moments. Plucked guitars, walking baselines and shuffling drums carry ‘Magic’ as it drifts through faded dreams. Slater Chandler explains the wider concept the band are aiming to express with this latest ode:

“We wanted to explore the illusionary theme, to try and make something expansive and cinematic-sounding. 'Magic' represents the soul-mate style love we see in film, literature, Honey Moon songs - everywhere! What can seem like the most mundane, everyday elements of companionship are often the most important and overlooked. This sort of souped-up version of having 'one true love' is, whilst a nice idea, pretty difficult to imagine as anything that's realistically achievable, but there's something very real in the sentiment, and that's the ‘spell’, that's the illusion.”

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Oh, Rose - 25, Alive.

While My Father Sleeps by the Olympia, Washington based band Oh, Rose tells the complex story of family, adversity, love, and friendship. In ten songs, the record bears the soul and shares the truths of the band’s front-person and creative driver, Olivia Rose, while also serving as a homage to Rose’s mother, who passed away in January of 2017. It is Rose’s life story, told under the banner of a story her mother was never able to finish.

“While My Father Sleeps is the title of the book my mother wrote throughout her life,” Rose says. “It involved her relationship with my grandfather, the way she could communicate with him through the poetry of Carl Sandburg and the writings of Truman Capote. Her storytelling always inspired me to tell my own through music. The album title and artwork serves as a bookend, the songs written between two moments. The front cover shows my mother reading to my brother and me outside the North Asheville library in the summer of 1995, the back is her headstone. Though I didn’t write these songs in a state of grief, I came to know this album while I was grieving. When my mother died, I learned a new language, the language of death. At the same time, I was continuing to build strength and love within my community; my story isn’t uncommon. I hope my music finds a home with those who speak these same languages.”

Soon after arriving in Olympia, Rose met the friends and musicians who would become her community and extended family. Formed in 2014, the band built its foundations by playing DIY house shows and contributing to Olympia’s long-standing punk and art scene. A play on Rose’s own name, Oh, Rose recorded and self-released their first EP, That Do Now See in 2014 followed by a mini album the following year titled Seven. Sticking with the tradition of their previous release, WMFS was recorded and mixed by band member Kevin Christopher in Olympia Today, the live lineup includes Rose on vocals and guitar, Liam Hindahl on drums, Sarah Redden on synthesizer, and Kevin Christopher on bass; the dynamic continues to be as supportive and collaborative as any group of people can be. Each member writes their own instrumental parts with Rose bringing the songwriting and melody. The trust the unit shares with one another is where the group’s power truly lies.

While My Father Sleeps begins with “25, Alive,” a dirge-y, distorted-guitar gem that is fueled by Rose’s lovely rise-and-fall vocals and its choppy-smooth rhythm. The album’s lone number written following her mother’s death, it is a self-appeal to release the anger Rose had been holding both during her mother’s life and after her passing. As the song opens with the lines “Am I strong enough to tell my truth/25 I am alive and I am angry,” the way is paved for the passionate soul-bearing that follows. “I was 25 when my mother died and I was angry and broken” Rose says. “This song is me saying I don’t want this anger because I know what it does to a person if they hold onto it.”


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Late TV - I Gotta Pay.

About ‘I Gotta Pay’ There’s a humbling eclecticism in Late TV’s sound when comparing ‘I Gotta Pay’ with previous singles like ‘Citizen’ and ‘Great Gulfs’. Just when you think you can pin them down, they throw a swerve ball from somewhere left-of-field. That their music still (lucidly) gets to the core of who they are with every release is a testament to their versatility as songwriters, their voraciousness as listeners, and their clarity of vision as a group.

Their latest release is a poised and effortless foray through the familiar avenues of jazz and funk, with Defunkt-style motifs of punk and new wave, (frontman Luke Novak name-checks the seminal ‘Make Them Dance’ as an influence), weaved in alongside the afrobeat-tinged rock of The Budos Band. Lyrically Novak has modern culture in his sights as he threads together a series of financial frustrations and western cultural ironies with rhyming couplets to make a dour and absurdist collage. Like all the music of Late TV, it’s a mutant assemblage of ideas that succeeds through the canniness of its juxtapositions, never setting out an ideal, but through the subtlety and force of their craft and energy alone, leaving us in no doubt as to what’s being communicated.

About Late TV Amidst the cultural detritus of television’s after hours rises a freaky new street beat played by London’s Late TV. Culling influences from jazz cats and art rockers, B-movies and trash television, via Lynch and Tarantino, Late TV are the moonlighting house band for a surreal all-night dream club where the intangible dance floor shifts and folds to become the set piece of a talk show beamed onto the farthest reaches of your channel selector. Helmed by Luke J Novak, who hails from the slabbed post-industrial backwater of Kidderminster, Late TV originates from a folk noir group formed by Luke and Richard ‘The Showman’ Bowman, a drummer whose restless search for groove quickly outgrew their genre.

Joined by Indiana’s jazz fusion obsessed Ryan Szanyi on bass, Parisian keyboard maestro Martin Coxall, tenor sax player Evesham Nicholas, and Matthew Halsall (whose bionic heart valve’s separate mic-detectable rhythms occasionally cause problems in the studio), their new outfit Late TV harks back to a time when music was all fearless fusion and intractable improvisation. 2018 saw them take major steps forward. Kickstarted with the release of their brilliant ‘Citizen’ single, the group then appeared at Standon Calling Festival that summer alongside Goldfrapp and spiritual forefather Bryan Ferry. They followed it up early this year with the wind-swept soft rock of ‘Great Gulfs’ - its louche romanticism showcasing their immense songwriting versatility. In the postmodern wastelands of pop they’re the high-brow/low-brow mutant junk dwellers, collecting the shards of our fragmented culture and building something both irresistibly dangerous and dangerously irresistible.

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