CIEL - Land of Talk - Gaygirl

CIEL make their second appearance on Beehive Candy with the new track 'Days' and once again the Brighton based band are on top form with this refreshing and dreamy indie pop/rock song. === Were playing catch up with Land of Talk and 'Weight of That Weekend' which was released a week ago but most certainly worth a share by us. === From South London we have Gaygirl and the single 'Mikkel' where the band create a powerful and stirring rocker of a song.

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CIEL - Days.

Brighton-based dreamers CIEL share whimsical new offering ‘Days’, the second single taken from the band’s debut EP ‘Movement’ out later this spring.

Delivering moody alt-pop with magnetism, merging shoegaze with post-punk, noir rock dream pop, the trio’s second release builds on the early promise shown in lead single ‘The Shore’, conjuring up innovative and nostalgic ideas and drawing comparisons to Alvvays, Cate Le Bon and Our Girl with their intrinsic mystique.

Now calling Brighton their home, the cultured quartet have quickly earned kudos for their exquisite live show, with upcoming UK/EU supports alongside Eliza Shaddad and Feng Suave following slots with the likes of Hatchie, Sasami and Penelope Isles, and accomplished sets at Eurosonic, Le Guess Who and SPOT Festival.

Detailing their upcoming release, frontwoman Hindriks explained: “‘Days’ is a track about feeling distant from other people, and describes a turning point in which I became more open as a person”. Produced by Penelope Isles’ Jack Wolter, CIEL’s ‘Days’ is out March 4th and will be available via all digital platforms.

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Land of Talk - Weight of That Weekend.

Land of Talk—the Montreal-based band led by Elizabeth Powell—today announced its new album Indistinct Conversations will be released on May 15th, 2020, via Saddle Creek. The album’s first single “Weight of That Weekend,” out now, finds Powell delivering a soulful, impassioned plea over an expansive musical terrain. “‘Weight of That Weekend’ is a recognition of having been on the receiving end of a lifetime of sexual coercion, assault, boundary violations, and subsequent gaslighting.

It all just came to light after an especially heavy weekend a few summers back,” explains Powell. “I was so sick of carrying all this weight that wasn't mine to bear. So sick of being owned by all of this. Imposed on me mostly by men. I grew so sick of suffering and being slowed-down by this weight. The song is a prayer for a lightness of being. A prayer for capital ‘L’ Love.”

All 11 songs on Indistinct Conversations were written by Powell (vocals/guitar/keys), and share the hallmarks of the Land of Talk sound: her silvery vocals; masterful, at times cacophonous guitar playing; and a stream-of-conscious lyricism—here perhaps at her most emotionally vulnerable and honest. Powell produced and arranged the tracks together with her bandmates Mark “Bucky” Wheaton (drums/keys) and Christopher McCarron (bass), and the trio recorded the album in a studio built by McCarron in Wheaton’s apartment basement.

Indistinct Conversations follows 2017’s acclaimed Life After Youth—at the time Land of Talk’s first album in seven years. The release saw praise from Pitchfork, Paste, The AV Club, and NPR Music, among others, with its singles earning additional highlights from The FADER, NPR Music's All Songs Considered, New York Magazine’s Vulture, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Bandcamp, WXPN, and more.

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Gaygirl - Mikkel.

South London band Gaygirl are today sharing a new single 'Mikkel' and announcing their debut EP Pleasurehead, due for release April 24th via Permanent Creeps. Pairing the raw, emotional grunge of PJ Harvey with the immersive, bold alt-pop moments of early Garbage, each of Gaygirl's 4 band members bring a unique set of influences to the table. As a unit, not only do they create a sound that is hard to pin down, but with every twist and turn – they make an impression that’s unshakable.

Consisting of songwriters Bex Morrison (vocals, guitar) and Lewis Clark (guitar), and completed by Louis Bradshaw (drums) and Tom Coyne (bass) – Gaygirl have earned a reputation for their hypnotic and visceral live performances; playing shows with the likes of Sorry, Automatic and Calva Louise in 2019.

Speaking on the release of new single 'Mikkel', singer Bex said: "Mikkel compares the desperate feelings of confusion at the end of a relationship with a seemingly disastrous tea party amongst bad company. The track came together as a band and we knew early on that it would be a song that doesn't achieve the resolution you would expect - the unresolved building feeling throughout mirrors the lyrical content of covering up feelings and not addressing problems."

With the release of Pleasurehead due in April, Gaygirl are ready to make their mark in 2020. "It was important to us with this EP to show a different side to the band in contrast to our earlier singles and push ourselves as musically as possible, we're all really proud of the finished product," Bex went on to say.

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Kluster B - Rhythm Express featuring Bill King - Broken Up

We have featured Kluster a few times in the past, they appear to have morphed into Kluster B however the music remains original and creative as new song 'Love Must Conquer' clearly demonstrates. === Something for all blues lovers thanks to Rhythm Express featuring Bill King and their wonderful delivery of 'Driftin' Blues'. === Italian Darkwave act Broken Up have just released 'The Cage' a brooding mixture of constant rhythm, gliding synths, and refined vocals.
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Kluster B - Love Must Conquer.

Kluster B (fka Kluster) was founded by four friends and a virtual drummer in Malmö 2014, a real life drummer joined in shortly afterwards and the gang was complete. Since then, the quintet has been active on as well the Malmö indie scene as playing shows in Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, supporting acts such as Frankie Cosmos, Omni and Nicole Sabouné. Debut album 'civic' was released in 2018 and Kluster received praise from Line of Best Fit, BBC Radio 6, major Swedish music magazines and more. The band returned earlier this year with new single 'Counterpart', the first taste from their upcoming sophomore album 'b' that will be released on April 17th. Today, another piece of the puzzle that is Kluster B's second album is released in the form of new single 'Love Must Conquer'

Love Must Conquer is yet another glimpse of Kluster's playful sound - a melting pot of broad influences such as pop, punk, noise, lo-fi, indie and jazz. Just like it's precursor 'Counterpart', Love Must Conquer is a development of the sound we got to know on their first album. The interplay and paradox between the complex and simple is still there but the quintet have this time allowed themselves more time and space to experiment with almost jamming parts that hypnotizes the listener.

According to Linnea Hall (vocals, lyrics), 'Love Must Conquer' is a track that was written in a troubled time both personally and politically just ahead of the Swedish election in 2018. There was a parallelism between different routes that took place at the same time, creating a feeling that we forgot to be open and love the unknown. The text includes a paradox, where the desire to own what we love or want for ourselves becomes a counteracting force: the streets become colder and people become less emotionally affected. Therefore, the song ends with some kind of hope that love in itself will win and not that we will conquer the love.

The members have a history as academic jazz players, forming Kluster B after longing to find a collective process free from strict genre playbooks and narrow-minded academic rules. A process that resulted in Kluster B's captivating characteristic dynamic and turning points, alternating from melodious to dissonance, complex to simple. 'Love Must Conquer' is out now, Kluster B's second album 'b' is out on April 17th via Rama Lama Records.

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Rhythm Express featuring Bill King - Driftin' Blues.

“I’ve had this song in my repertoire the past twenty years, one I discovered while searching through a variety of West Coast blues compilations.

Los Angles of the 40s’ was a hotbed for blues trios – Oscar Moore featuring pianist/vocalist Nat Cole and brother Johnny Moore showcasing the smooth delivery of pianist/singer Charles Brown at the core of the unit.

One of the first songs Brown ever penned was Driftin’ Blues while a high school teenager and also one he first sang in live performance. Driftin’ Blues is rooted in church and gospel, and that battleground been secular and religious types – that push and pull between roots church and popular music.

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Broken Up - The Cage.

Italian darkwave act Broken Up have unleashed their video for “The Cage”.
The track is taken from "Soul Victim" the debut album of Broken Up, which was released on February 28th, 2020, via Brazilian label Shades of Sound/Wave Records. The album was preceded by the digital single “Long Long Long”, played several times by Seattle's cult radio KEXP.

The group is a collaboration between the bass player of Intelligence Dept. Dedo Panzera, and guitarist Max Caselli, of Go Flamingo!

Together with singer Chiara Boldrini and Tom Lampronti on keyboards, the two veteran musicians lead a project that conjures a sonic maelstrom of dark melodies, that defy expectations.

The electro-infused track “The Cage” is inspired by the poetic work of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, known for his work A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), and as infamously as the owner of the bookstore, City Lights, where Ferlinghetti was arrested for the publishing of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl.

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Bleach Day - Sour Widows - David Clayton-Thomas

Bleach Day first appeared here just over a week ago with 'bbs in the grass' and they make a rapid return with another track entitled 'In Limbo' just ahead of this Fridays album release. The psychedelic vibes are laid back and gorgeous. ===
Sour Widows self titled E.P. is streaming in full below, it's a collection of six songs, where alt rock, slacker pop and lo-fi moments all come together and combine wonderfully. === David Clayton-Thomas has shared 'The Circus' and although he might be an award winning artist with decades of musical success, I just love the circus swirling song with all the sounds of the big top.
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Bleach Day - In Limbo.

Bleach Day—the Burlington, Vermont-based psychedelic lo-fi pop project led by Louie Kiley and Vinny Marksohn new album, is officially out worldwide this Friday March 6th on Birdwatcher Records, "it's meant to mirror a full life cycle from birth to death, fears to self-discovery".

Originally spurred from the home tape recordings of Louie Kiley and Vinny Marksohn, Bleach Day released their full-length debut, Where to Dream, in 2016. Its release was met with praise from blogs such as Earmilk and Buried Muse (now Idle House). Seven Days called the album "...an eight-song sonic tapestry of analog whirrs, screwy samples and, at its core, beautiful, sun-bleached lo-fi pop."

Since the release of Where to Dream, Bleach Day has appeared as a five-piece band for live performances—expanding to include Jon Kraus and Mitch Manacek (both of garage-punk band The Bubs) and electronic artist Amelia Devoid—at festivals such as POP Montreal and Waking Windows, and has supported artists like Phantogram, Homeshake, Crumb, and Palm. The band will play their record release show on March 6th at Burlington City Arts and will be touring North America this spring, with club and festival dates soon to be announced.

Behind the scenes, the duo has been perpetually occupied in their newly fortified analog home studio earning production, engineering, and performance credits on Wished Bone’s critically acclaimed breakout LP Cellar Belly, engineering Sparklesaurus’ self-titled LP, and tracking or performing on numerous local Vermont artists’ tracks.

Bleach Day’s sophomore LP as if always is the product of a two year studio binge, occurring in between all of these other projects. Mixing classic golden age pop sounds, cinematic progressions, and oddball tones, as if always composes a sonic language that takes the listener through a story of growth and self discovery in its most primeval form, which mirrors a full life cycle from birth to death. Through struggle you learn to confront your fears, your shadows, and your limitations to become the person you are meant to be. It’s a journey to a place that feels far away – until you realize it’s actually within yourself, and always has been.

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Sour Widows - Sour Widows (E.P).

Sour Widows are a bedroom rock group from the Bay Area, formed in 2018 by longtime friends Maia Sinaiko, Susanna Thomson and Max Edelman, and recently joined by Sam Edelman on bass.

Songs marked by driving harmonies address themes of relationship and reflection; layers of warmth, grit, and depth surface and fade in their two guitar dynamic.

Carried by Edelman’s inimitable drumming, the four draw from influences including Big Thief, Duster, Pile and Forth Wanderers to create heavy harmonic alternative rock.

The term ‘bedroom rock’ is a nod to this intimacy - it could mean sleepy, dreamy, or weepy - as it captures the emotion behind the music. Post-Trash calls their debut single ‘Tommy’ “a perfect synthesis of slacker pop and punk’s tamer edges,” and asserts the band “is slated to blow up the indie scene.” Through progressions that shift from subtle to biting, Sour Widows expose tender moments with an edge.


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David Clayton-Thomas - The Circus.

David Clayton-Thomas began his amazing journey with his 1968 debut album with Blood Sweat & Tears that sold 10 million copies worldwide.

The self-titled record topped the Billboard album chart for seven weeks, and charted for a staggering 109 weeks. It won an unprecedented five Grammy awards, including Album of The Year.

He hasn’t slowed down since then and developed into one of the most recognizable voices in music, to date selling over 40 million records. In 1996 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 his jazz/rock composition “Spinning Wheel” was enshrined in the Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame. In 2010 David received his star on Canada’s Walk Of Fame.

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Stars and Rabbit - Glass Heart String Choir - Magnus - Close Lobsters

Stars and Rabbit have just released their new album 'Rainbow Isle' which is available in full below. My personal favorite is 'Naked King' however there are plenty of other impressive songs from this duo who switch genres and moods with apparent ease. === We featured 'Stars' back in January and now  Glass Heart String Choir have released companion single 'It's Never Enough' which is another sumptuous and beautiful song from this creative pair. === From Sydney, Australia we have Magnus and the powerful rocker 'Forever and Never' that overwhelms and pleases with potent musical hooks. === Formed in the mid 1980's Close Lobsters are still creating exceptional new songs as the moody and dramatic rocker 'Godless' clearly demonstrates.
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Stars and Rabbit - Rainbow Isle (Album).

Hailing from the Indonesian island of Java, Stars and Rabbit deliver fun and unpredictable, mixing the classic quirkiness of Carole King and The Carpenters with the modern creative vibes of Sia and Little Dragon.

Spearheaded by female singer-songwriter Elda and musical director Didit, the band has quickly established themselves as a gem of the Indonesian music scene with the kind of broad appeal that smacks of crossover success. Elda founded Stars and Rabbit in 2011 as an outlet for her love of music. Didit, a veteran of the island’s rock scene, saw a spark in Elda’s innocent passion for music, and the two joined forces, releasing a debut album, a collaboration LP and 2 live albums, in quick succession. Their small and intimate gigs have already achieved a cult status in their native city of Jogja.

Their new LP, Rainbow Aisle, a full spectrum of colors, showcasing their knack for groovy electro rock as well as intimate acoustic confessions. “We usually write about meaningful relationships with life and other beings. We’re admittedly a bit obsessed with a utopian type of existence,” Elda asserts. “I guess that’s why I love music...it makes me feel like anything is possible.”

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Glass Heart String Choir - It's Never Enough.

"It's Never Enough" comes as a companion single to "Stars", which we released last month with the help of BTR Today and For Folks Sake. The band are currently wrapping up a tour of New Zealand before bringing their brand of widescreen folk to the West Coast for a performance at McMenamins White Eagle Saloon in Portland, Oregon on March 24th.

At first listen, one might assume that the intricate interplay between honeyed vocals and any variety of violin, cello, or harp of a Glass Heart String Choir song would require careful discussion between musical partners, but songs are the one thing Ian Williams and Katie Mosehauer never talk about.

Verbose when discussing the nuances of nature (especially birds) or poetry (especially Russian), Ian is a person prone to long pauses while searching for the perfect word or metaphor to describe his own inner mechanics—a listener may wait indefinitely for sentences that never finish or metaphors that remain unfound. It is songwriting that allows him ample time to plumb the more faceless emotions of life and dredge for exactly the right words to capture them. Recipient of the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award in musical theater, Williams is adept at telling others’ stories, as well as his own through song.

For Katie, music presents a wondrous, wordless reprieve. Spending much of her time crafting public policy, words are a high-stakes game with far reaching implications. “I spend a lot of time in other arenas parsing the meaning of individual words and their intention. When it come to our songs, we seem to have found our own language—Ian never needs to tell me what they mean, and I never need to ask.” Composing allows her to think only in sound and shape and color, to fill in spaces not with what must be said to make the world more just but with what could be heard to make it more beautiful.

In their first release since their project’s debut EP in late 2018, the release of singles "Stars" and "It’s Never Enough" scheduled for early 2020 move on from Light’s themes of leveling doubt to trade in absolutes. Both songs apply surging vocals over baroque musical sheets, weaving together intricate stories with cinematic soundscapes, but to different effect—"Stars" bursts toward the future with a knowing, formative, certainty while "It’s Never Enough" looks back with an equally certain sense of devastation. This paired couplet of songs is day to each other’s night, full of contrast and compliment.

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Magnus - Forever and Never.

Sydney group Magnus launch their brand new single "Forever & Never" a taste of what's to come for their upcoming LP Detachment, due out in April 2020.

Sydney band Magnus formed in 2012 to bring their urgency, fearlessness in experimentation, and healthy disregard for genres to Australian music. Their name, derived from "Magn-hus" and translating as "powerhouse" in Old Norse, is a testament to their live performances. A casual open mic at Melbourne’s world-famous Cherry Bar landed them a residency there and eventually nomination for Best live band of the year award by invite of owner James Young Himself.

Their debut album, “I”, received critical acclaim by both online and print media with The Sydney Morning Herald Stating: “The band clearly likes to tease and with terrific self-confidence, in their undoubted abilities the approach does create a lively anxiousness within their music.". In 2017 work on Detachment started with a DIY approach which resulted in recorded demos in their rehearsal space mixed at their home studio. Convinced this album needed to have an “all-or-nothing” approach, these demos were sent out around the world and sparked interest from big names such as Steve Albini, Alan Moulder & Bob Clearmountain.

In 2018 recording of the album took place under the supervision of five-time Aria award-winning producers Paul McKercher. With COG’s Lucius Borichon drums it promises an even more raw and visceral approach, yet maintaining the unexpected twists and turns Magnus has become known for. Both Paul and the legendary Bob Clearmountain (multi-Grammy winner & nominee, USA - Rolling Stones, Springsteen, The Preatures) are credited in mixing and Big Bass Brian Gardner (multi-Grammy winner & nominee known for QOTSA Songs for the Deaf and his work with Dr. Dré), for mastering the album. Detachment is set for release in April 2020.

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Close Lobsters - Godless.

Recorded between 2014 and 2019 and produced by John Rivers (producer of their 1986 debut album “Foxheads Stalk This Land.”) Post Neo Anti … finds the band in shimmering, gallus form. The cover features an original photograph from legendary photographer Brian Sweeney, inspired by the Arditi Del Popolo, a militant anti fascist group from the 1920’s. Andrew Burnett, Bob Burnett, Tom Donnelly, and Stewart McFayden formed Close Lobsters in the mid 80’s in Paisley, Scotland.

Close Lobsters first came to wider prominence with the track ‘Firestation Towers’ on the NME’s C86 compilation. They signed to Fire Records and released their debut single ‘Going To Heaven To See If It Rains’ in October 1986. They released a second single ‘Never Seen Before’ in April 1987, which strengthened their reputation as one of the leading emerging indie bands. They went on to release two albums: ‘Foxheads Stalk This Land’ was released in 1987 and ‘Headache Rhetoric’ in 1989. Rolling Stone’s review of ‘Foxheads Stalk This Land’ called it “first-rate guitar pop from a top-shelf band. Close Lobsters could have been just another jangle group, but they have a lot more going for them than just chiming Rickenbackers.”

Their popularity on United States college radio stations led to an invitation to the New York Music Seminar in 1989, which in turn led to an extensive American tour. They toured extensively in the UK, Germany and the United States of America and Canada. The band eventually took an extended break. Their singles retrospective, ‘Forever, Until Victory!’ was released on 5 October 2009 on Fire Records. The title taken from the reputed last sign-off in a letter from Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara to Fidel Castro “¡Hasta la victoria siempre!”. In March 2012, Close Lobsters reformed to play the second Madrid Popfest, Glasgow, third Popfest Berlin and the 2013 NYC Popfest.

In May 2014, Close Lobsters played the Copenhagen Popfest and released new EP, ‘Kunstwerk in Spacetime’. Lead single ‘Now Time’ received significant attention, a further single followed in 2015, before a further hiatus. The band are now back again with a new album – ‘Post Neo Anti‘ – being released by Last Night From Glasgow on February 28th 2020 along with Shelflife Records in the United States.

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