Izzie Walsh - Phonettes - Party Hardly - Elijah James And The Nightmares

Back in March when we first featured Izzie Walsh I described her voice as "gorgeous" and her music "vibrant and pleasing". Today's release of 'Clouded Mind' reassures me that I wasn't overstating matters, as she shares another delicious slice of Americana music.

Amsterdam based singer-songwriter and film composer Daan Hofman has shared 'First delight' under the moniker of Phonettes. The song is hard to define, it's synth pop and yet it's also somewhere between Indie folk and pop, whatever it's original and catchy - that will do!

Party Hardly return to Beehive Candy for a fourth time with 'Rats In The Kitchen' another powered up alt rocker where the band lay out their message in a potent and uncompromising manner.

Elijah James And The Nightmares round off today musical sojourn with a video for 'Movie In Your Eyes'. The Liverpool indie rock band provide a creative musical backdrop and the impassioned vocals are wonderful.
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Izzie Walsh - Clouded Mind.

Manchester singer songwriter Izzie Walsh has released her new single Clouded Mind, which is out now via Someone Great/PIAS.

Clouded Mind follows her recent single Sidelined, debut EP The Curse and successful single Take Me Back. With a unique sound that blends country, bluegrass, folk and Americana, Izzie Walsh has built an impressive organic fanbase over the last couple of years. Not only does she have two BCMA Awards and an Indie Week UK award under her belt, Izzie is also a former BBC Introducing Artist of the Week and recently performed on ITV’s Cold Feet.

With honest lyrics and a striking vocal, which are backed by an intricate and rhythmic melody, Clouded Mind is a modern Americana track which builds to an upbeat chorus. The track flits between the feelings of melancholy and hope, which matches the songs meaning of the different emotions and circumstances life can bring. Izzie says;

“This song is a message to say that, whatever your story, you have a chance to clear a ‘clouded’ mind from all the hurt, loss and hardship that life brings. Trust yourself, to know you’ll get stronger."

Izzie has been performing around the world over the last year, including a support slot with Curse of Lono, festival performances at the likes of Dot to Dot and Bluedot and her own sold out headline shows at Manchester’s Deaf Institute and London’s The Slaughtered Lamb. She also runs popular regular open-mic nights at the Bay Horse Tavern and Hatch in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

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Phonettes - First Delight.

Phonettes is the project around the songs of Amsterdam based singer-songwriter and film composer Daan Hofman.

About two years ago he started writing material from scratch with only an analog synthesizer, two guitars and a computer. He sings, plays all instruments, and wrote and produced all the tracks of the upcoming EP Algorithm Love.

The songs of Phonettes are shaped by minimalistic beats with dreamy vocal choirs, pickin’ guitars and warm analog synth sounds, even flirting with laid back techno, but preserving the song as its beating heart.

This summer Phonettes is going back in time. New single First Delight is a new-wavish synthpop song, celibrating the spark of youth. On the outer borders of childhood, where we were high on life and restless from everything that was to come.

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Party Hardly - Rats In The Kitchen.

Leeds indie outfit Party Hardly launch rousing new anthem Rats In The Kitchen, the second track lifted from forthcoming EP Modern Strife Is Snobbish, dropping later this summer.

Feverishly developing their eclectic style with aggressive punk overtones, the jangly rockers continue to impress with their politically charged output, cutting through their hometown’s fierce DIY scene with aplomb and attracting praise from all corners of the online community (The Line Of Best Fit, Clash, DIY, Dork).

“Rats In The Kitchen is a metaphor for the demonization of young people by the older generation”, states frontman Tom Barr. “Throughout history these views have seldom changed, with the irony being that our grandparents would have viewed our parents in exactly the same light. Also, we had rats in our kitchen this one time”.

Having already supported fellow indie risers The Magic Gang and Trudy and the Romance and gained BBC 6 Music airplay (Steve Lamacq), the foursome are primed to continue their ascent with a slew of live dates in the coming months.

Party Hardly’s Rats in the Kitchen is out 11th July and will be available via all digital platforms.

Live Date: 27th July – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds.

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Elijah James And The Nightmares - Movie In Your Eyes.

Elijah James And The Nightmares are an indie/rock band from Liverpool, UK. Drawing influences from Elliott Smith, Joy Division and Pixies, they burst onto the music scene in May 2017. Stepping on stage for the first time together in front of a capacity crowd to headline popular local venue, District and performing at Liverpool Sound City Festival. Since then the band have created a significant buzz around them, playing to large crowds in major cities all over the country and in September 2017 they also released their debut live EP ‘Live From Elevator Studio’.

Movie In Your Eyes is the bands sophomore single release taken from their upcoming debut double album ‘Because I’m A Giant’ which is due for release in September 2019. The single showcases an impressive sonic orchestral composition, comprising of over 15 different acoustic instruments. Combined, these instruments, along with Elijah James’s signature baritone vocal create a magnificent, intense and epic sound.

‘‘Movie In Your Eyes is a song about lost youth and gentrification. Focussing on the building on or demolishing of our favourite teenage hangouts, those places that contain our youthful ghosts and exist in our nostalgic anecdotes. It was inspired by my experiences of watching the old places I frequented as a teenager being knocked down and turned into modern, soulless, more profitable expansions. This single will be promoted alongside a cool, monochrome music video following the same themes of destruction and loss.’’- Elijah James

Movie In Your Eyes will be supported by a brand new music video. The video’s fresh concept features an overriding theme of skyscrapers and demolition. Set in monochrome, it will flick between concepts of brutalism, gentrification, and change supported by various clips of Elijah James And The Nightmares playing the single live. Like the song itself, it is frantic in parts, and smooth, slick and cinematic in others.


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Basset - Zooni - The Switch

Basset have just released 'Waterloo' and I have to say I am mightily impressed. Their acoustic musical combination of instruments ensures they have a fresh and distinct sound and the vocals add vibrancy and energy, they are ones to watch out for, I would suggest.

Art pop band Zooni have just released their new single 'Cotton Blue' a gently paced song, where the musical arrangement is well structured with plenty of clarity for each musician and just right for the heartfelt vocals.

Finally The Switch have shared 'What If' taken from their upcoming album. The band have a refined musical approach, melodic and crisp the originality is notable, this album tease suggests their fifth full-length 'Birds of Paradise' will be a splendid affair.
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Basset - Waterloo.

Basset is a young and rising all-acoustic group, consisting of vocalist Yasmine Shelton, songwriter/musician Sam Clark, and twin brothers Aaron and Noah Philipp-Muller. While they draw on folk traditions from both sides of the pond with their heavy use of fiddle, mandolin and cello, their original tunes also take inspiration from old blues music (hear Shelton’s powerful vocals), 50s and 60s rock, and their shared classical background. Their inventive style has earned comparisons to The Punch Brothers, Belle and Sebastian, and Of Monsters and Men. They recently released their debut single, “Dave and the Queen of Toronto”, and are set to release their debut EP in late June.

Basset often uses the old bluegrass method of gathering around a single microphone for their live shows, filling the room with their infectious love for each other and the music they play. There’s never a dull moment between tunes either, as audiences get a glimpse into the charming – and at times ridiculous – antics of this tight-knit group of friends.

The band was formed in Winter of 2016 while all members were studying liberal arts at Victoria College, at the University of Toronto. Sam and Aaron, both songwriters from a young age, were first year roommates and fast friends, frequenting open mics around the university with their acoustic arrangements, sometimes accompanied by Noah on the cello. Still in need of a lead singer, Sam turned to Yasmine. He had been bewitched by her a capella rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” at an open mic at the college, and they had since become good friends.

Now a quartet, the band’s first gigs involved playing background music at college functions; however, the goal was always to develop their own original music. They quickly grew out of the university scene, and now, almost three years on and having left their college years behind them, the band has played some of Toronto’s premier music venues, including the Painted Lady and Lee’s Palace, as well as regular house concerts across the city. They have appeared at the Summerfolk music festival and Heartwood Concert Hall in Owen Sound, and developed a supportive network of industry professionals who view the band as a young act brimming with promise, sharing stages with The Lifers, NEFE, and Citizen Jane.

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Zooni - Cotton Blue.

London-based art-pop newcomers Zooni have just released their new single ‘Cotton Blue’ via Square Leg Records.  Big nods to the likes of Alt J, Sufjan Stevens & Broken Bells in here >>

‘Cotton Blue’ follows the April release of their debut single ‘Pany’, which appeared on the Radio X Evening Playlist, was included on Spotify’s ‘New Music Friday’ and ‘Hot New Bands’ playlists, and was followed by a packed performance at The Great Escape Festival.

Discovered by Mercury and Brit award winning producer Charlie Andrew (Alt J, Nick Mulvey, Marika Hackman), the band - Peter Martin, George Godwin, Ben Clark, and Matt Glasbey - mix hypnotic beats with delicate piano, angular guitars, and haunting vocals.

Talking about the single, they explain "Cotton Blue is an introspective song about giving up on a broken relationship. It was written and demoed on a retreat to the Welsh countryside with the producer Jay Pocknell.”

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The Switch - What If.

Following the outfit’s previous bodies of work “We’re Fooling No-One” and the Norwegian Grammy-awarded “The Switch Album”, they return with fifth full-length “Birds of Paradise”. Lead-vocalist Thomas Sagbråten and co-author of the bulk of the album says “We tried to make a musical universe with slightly different laws of nature than real life. A bit less gravitation. The air is thicker. It’s hyper realistic, but also unreal.”

From budding seeds to the overarching themes of this viridescent volume, the septet hones something every-bit stylistically varied, surrealistically inclined and tactile, like a brightly plumaged exotic bird lost in the upper stretches of the northern hemisphere.

Second slice “What If”, from the upcoming LP pays homage to the modern man-child’s fear for getting his sh*t together. Think early-Wild Beasts with the charm of Mac DeMarco’s “Salad Days”. It vaults clichés of dream-pop and works as the perfect announcement of the album, with its enchantingly artificial birds of paradise sounds in the final quadrant of the four-minute-feat from keyboardist Arthur Kay Piene.

“The other side of the divide between me and the world might not be worth the trip”

Peter Vollset, the lyricist of the band says “The lyrics are questioning the oft-repeated notion that “proper” adult life is boring and miserable and that protesting or postponing this is just childish and selfish. At the same time, the not quite proper adult narrator isn’t exactly a beacon of self-love and sunshine themselves, so who knows you know?”

Sound technician and repeat The Switch-collaborator Christian Engfelt (Serena Maneesh, Fieh, Band of Gold etc.) decided to make this his most meticulous work with the band yet, blowing by every self-imposed deadline in a year-long on-and-off series of recording sessions which resulted in an extraordinary sounding album; coherent and tight, but with great attention to detail.

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Harry Heart - Carrie Scrimgeour - Children of the Sün

Harry Heart has released his first UK single 'Montaigne'. Within moments it's clear that Harry has a fine voice however it's the vocal delivery that sets him apart and with a fresh indie rock backdrop, this is a fabulous song.

'Bigger Than Me' from Carrie Scrimgeour is a noteworthy singer-songwriter piece, the vocals are energised and driven, supported by a simple and sturdy musical backdrop.

Children of the Sün round things off today with the gorgeous song 'Emmy' a track that exudes memories of the sixties West Coast music scene, with just enough of a modern twist.
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Harry Heart - Montaigne.

Harry Heart is one of those artists that come along very rarely in a lifetime. A dual resident and native to Sydney, Australia and East London outskirts of Walthamstow respectively. This young troubadour has come of age. Recently invited on his first ever UK headline tour, Harry captivated crowds at a total of 20 shows in just two weeks. The relentless tour-schedule proved to be worthwhile, resulting in BBC airplay and accumulating almost ​half a million streams across Spotify ​and​ Apple Music, driving the 26 year old into a creative frenzy, the fruits of which will fuel a series of upcoming Harry Heart releases in 2019.

The first single to be released since Harry Heart's foray into the UK is Montaigne.

Striking a perfect balance of confident, guitar-driven indie rock with a gentle desperation, evident in Heart's emotive vocals and powerful lyrics, fans of Heart's previous work will notice a common theme in Montaigne; brutal honesty.

“I learned a lot from [Michel de Montaigne]’s essays” Heart explains. “The concept that really resonated with me was showing all sides of yourself, good and bad. I channelled that idea in this song, honesty’s the best policy, people are over being filtered and refined”.

After releasing the 2018 EP First Endorphin, Harry toured Australia twice, and made his UK debut, while also performing at Australian Music Week and featuring on Apple's Best of the Week: Pop playlist. With the wheels now very much in motion, a new EP is on the horizon.

“Touring always helps improve the tracks before I step back into the studio. Lately the songs come in little waves, similar batches of tracks, so a new EP just made sense.”

Montaigne is the first taste of the forthcoming Hands in the Hive EP, to be released later this year. If the single is anything to go by, fans of the young East Londoner can expect a refreshing dose of sincerity driven directly from the giant voice and finesse guitar playing of Harry Heart.

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Carrie Scrimgeour - Bigger Than Me.

Carrie Scrimgeour is a singer / songwriter based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Carrie has studied at the Academy of Music and Sound and the MGA Academy of Performing Arts. Carrie and her band have had tracks featured on Jim Gellatly’s New Music Podcast as “a band that’s going places”.

She has played top Scottish venues such as the O2 Academy in Glasgow, The Glasgow ABC and the Oran Mor. She has worked with West End star Kerry Ellis, singing at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh, as well as learning from Rachel Tucker, Adam Garcia and Jonathan Reid Gealt.

Upbeat and inspiring, her energetic, feel-good songs give a distinctly Scottish twist to a playlist that might include A Great Big World, Imagine Dragons and WILD. Her writing, infectious in its optimism, has shades of country rock and folk running through its veins.

“I want to give people something to smile about, and send a positive message about believing in yourself and knowing that, ultimately, everything will be fine.”

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Children of the Sün - Emmy.

Children of the Sün releases their second single, Emmy, from their upcoming debut album. Children of the Sün brings back the best part of the vocal harmony hippie era of the 60´s and 70´s with their debut album Flowers.

The album is set for release the 26th of July on The Sign Records. Mixing blues rock with a warm feel good folk/country vibe, their sound is retro yet fresh. The band debut album holds strong influences from Janis Joplin, Free and Joe Cocker, still the band can be placed somewhere in the same atmosphere as The Allman Brother Band, Jefferson Airplane and Canned Heat. A reincarnation of the 60´s feeling of nature, soul and rock music can be found in Children of the Sün’s debut album.

Flowers holds seven songs playing for 34 minutes. Album cover is done by Maarten Donders  that previously provided artwork for bands as MaidaVale, Graveyard, Blues Pills and Chelsea Wolfe. Children of the Sün hailing from the deep woods of Värmland, Sweden brings both nature and freedom to their album.

The recording was done in ES Music in Karlstad, Sweden. Children of the Sün won the Swedish national music competition Livekarusellen in 2018. In 2019 the band was added to The Sign Records rooster, the label have among other released bands as Hällas, MaidaVale, Heavy Feather and Svartanatt.


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Touch the Buffalo - Vilde - Arkansas Dave

The second single from the forthcoming album by Touch the Buffalo is the title track 'Heart Is For', where the alt rockers deliver a sprightly and beautifully produced song.

Vilde returns for a third time this year with another notable song entitled 'Through The Fallopian', the vocals are once again a dominant focal point, however the musical backdrop adds some real depth to the track and the video takes that even further.

Arkansas Dave has just shared 'Diamonds' a song drenched in Americana vibes, the gentle pace and heartfelt vocals ensure this soulful track digs deep into our emotions.
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Touch the Buffalo - Heart Is For.

“Heart is For” is title track, and the second single to be released off of Touch the Buffalo’s upcoming album, “Heart is For”.

Band Bio: The DC-Based indie rock band, Touch the Buffalo, is a wild, heart-pounding circus of sound. Their live shows are electrifyingly fun – the raw energy of their sound and catchy melodies may cause fits of dancing.

Since their debut show in December 2016, Touch the Buffalo has released a three track EP, entitled “Ulrich”, they’ve played festivals with headliners such as Good Charlotte, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray, and Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, and they’re set to release their first full length album in the Summer of 2019.

Band Members: Jon Johnson – lead vocals, ukulele, piano, Tyler Beard – backing vocals, guitar, piano, Jonathan Ibarra – drums.

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Vilde - Through The Fallopian.

I was born and raised in Melbourne, now I live in Stockholm. I played in a lounge-pop band as a teenager for a few years in Australia. Big limitations on creativity. Pop focused. Had a good time for a few years, got airplay on national radio & won some lame awards that were apparently prestigious. Got quite boring though. So I started Kins. A 4-piece rock band, with ideally no concept other than “no more creative limitations”.

Which of course is a farce - there’s always creative limitations of some sort. In essence I’d just swapped them out for some fresh, new and fun limitations. That spent a few years morphing from a solo project into a band which we all came to hold dear. Eventually it had run its course & we moved on to other things. So I started Vilde. Still aimless of course I decided that a fun course of action would be to release one album per year.

Which brings us to the fallopian. This is single #3 of album number 3, here’s a few words I had to say about it. “From fetus to adulthood, our options expand. These days it's overwhelming just how much choice some of us have. It can be a strong catalyst for the manifestation of FOMO & apathy. I think it's important to consider that and to take an active mental step against it. 'Through the Fallopian' is emoted upon that, it's a song of optimism and love.”


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Arkansas Dave - Diamonds.

After living in Austin, Texas for over a decade now, Arkansas Dave is now finding his stride. A year after the release of his debut album, Dave finds himself writing for his sophomore record and road testing his new material. 2018 proved that this rising talent made his indelible mark in Americana and Roots rock music.

Gracing the stages of the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland to AmericanaFest in Nashville to SXSW in Austin, Arkansas Dave is looking to his future and how he plans to use the momentum he has gained since his debut.

“2018 was a good year for me. I released my debut album, toured across Europe for almost two months and gained memories & experience that has forever changed my outlook on my career. It’s given me more inspiration to write songs that really connect with my audience. After playing my record live, I feel that I need to add more originals to my set; so, I’m focused on writing new material that I can include in my live set – and towards the next record.”

In between playing shows and writing new songs, Dave has crafted his second official video from his eponymous debut album for his song, Diamonds. The video echoes the same warmth and nostalgia the song proclaims during the journey of the story. Shot on his property west of
Austin, Dave showcases his more sentimental side in this film. “We shot this video all in one day. Starting at the studio my wife and I have downtown Austin, then traveling out to our property close to Lake Travis. This is a very personal song for me, so I wanted to capture a different side of my personality; and shooting this video in my most comfortable environments really help set the tone of the film. I really enjoyed filming it.”

Arkansas Dave is back in the studio with plans on releasing individual singles while working on his next record. Cutting his first record in Muscle Shoals, Alabama at the renown FAME Recording Studios with the legendary Swampers; Dave now has the ability to record his second
album in comfort at home in Big Indie Studios in downtown Austin, Texas. With new music coming soon, you can expect good things from an invigorated, inspired songwriter looking to expand his sound and audience.

Gearing up for another set of shows in the UK next month, Dave will be in rare form performing solo in different intimate venues. Known for his high energy blues-rock shows with his band, Dave will be showcasing his songs this tour in the same way he wrote them – with only his acoustic guitar.


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