Wyndow - Seafoam Green - Birdtalker - Ewan MacFarlane

Wyndow - All Cameras Gone.

Ahead of the release of their eponymous debut album, Wyndow (Laura J Martin and Lavinia Blackwall) return with new single 'All Cameras Gone'. The songs on Wyndow exist in the space between waking and sleeping, hazy tales that unfurl and engulf the listener in a slightly uncanny sense of familiarity. New single, ‘All Cameras Gone’, is a paean to the dust and crackles of the analogue age and the shadows of a lonely projectionist leaving the booth and memories for the final time.

The project was ignited by a love of Robert Wyatt and an off-hand idea of collaborating on a version of his song ‘Free Will and Testament’. In a time of weird interludes, the self-examination of the song’s lyrics opened the pathway to themes examined throughout the record, that of being and wanting and the battle between knowledge and knowing. Who am I and do I see myself the way others see me?

What followed was an exploration of the uncertain and the impermanent.  According to Martin, they are “tunes for whacked out worriers lifting weights in the worry gym,” where “feeling uneasy never felt so easy." Reflections flit between two pendulums as the pair wrote and recorded remotely and exchanged these dog-eared musical postcards to see each others’ responses.  Eschewing the “band in a room” aesthetic out of geographical necessity they focussed on maximising the sonic palette of each song, doing exactly what each piece demanded without thinking about who had to play each instrument.

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Seafoam Green - Maggie.

Seafoam Green’s sophomore album ‘Martin’s Garden’ was released in June to huge critical acclaim including 8/10 from Classic Rock Magazine and a glowing 4-star review from MOJO who described it as ‘a near faultless album’.

Produced by Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Tyler Greenwell, the album is a colourful melting pot of Americana, rock, folk and psychedelia with Seafoam Green’s and own musical identity, by way of their Irish & Liverpool roots, fully stamped over it. The album is available to now on CD, vinyl or download here: https://www.diggersfactory.com/vinyl/240136/seafoam-green-martins-garden

Seafoam Green’s next single from the album, is perhaps the album’s most indie-pop leaning track. Shining electric guitar chords, emotive piano and Muireann McDermott Long’s stunning vocal set out a powerful ballad as the band ponder, “What if your love is not enough?”.

On the new single, the band said, “Maggie is based around the notion that just because someone loves you, it doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your own happiness to spare their heart. It's a song about new horizons; taking control of your situation and not looking back.”

If you weren’t aware of Seafoam Green yet, now is the time to get your ears on their music. Combining the best of the old with the best of the new, they are a quality outfit, serious about continuing to make a mark on the music world. ‘Maggie’ is yet another example of the band’s top notch songwriting, superb versatility and and why ‘Martin’s Garden’ has been so highly lauded.

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Birdtalker - Taking Control.

Nashville-based indie/folk group Birdtalker released their emphatic new single "Taking Control." The song is the latest peak at their forthcoming self-titled sophomore album (out October 8th via AntiFragile Music) and follow-up to their 2018 critically acclaimed debut One. With "Taking Control," Birdtalker kindly commandeer their instincts and shed their self-consciousness with driving bass, acoustic rhythms, and playful synth flourishes.

"It's a silly lil tune about codependence - moving from a place of caring more about how I am perceived to a place where I can rediscover what motivates me and what my instincts are," the band told The Boot, who featured the track. "I love how the chorus peeks out of the co-dependent headspace by starting with 'I hope you don't mind,' but finishes with 'I'm taking control of the skin I'm swimming in.' The bridge plays with timing and it feels like it reveals a bit of hesitation behind the lyrics."

"Taking Control" follows the release of the breezy duet "Tides" and "Old Sob Story," a rollicking song full of bravado and sass that Rolling Stone called "at times evoking the dramatic flair of the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, at others the bravado (and glammy tones of Marc Bolan." Lead single "Better Days" is also out now, a tranquil yet stirring song that finds the quintet reawakening and optimistically looking forward.

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Ewan MacFarlane - Underneath Your Spell.

When Ewan MacFarlane, the charismatic former Grim Northern Social frontman and long-time member of electro maestros Apollo 440, states “Its high time I stepped out and made the music I always needed to make,” then you’d better believe it, as he boldly embraces a whole new sound.

Following debut solo single ‘Stirrin’ In The City’, which picked up BBC Radio Scotland & Amazing Radio airplay, MacFarlane returns with second single ‘Underneath Your Spell’ out 10th Sept. Both tracks are standout works from MacFarlane’s superb forthcoming full-length album ‘Always Everlong’ due out October 29th. Whilst the trademark socially insightful lyrics and biting vocals of his previous recorded output remain very much part of the DNA, it’s safe to say that stylistically speaking, MacFarlane has mellowed; for he has spent the intervening time embracing his inner melodic troubadour, en-route to an uncharted destination. Sporting more than a touch of Americana in his new material, he honours the revered rock’n’roll songbooks of his songwriting heroes Bowie, Petty, and Springsteen.

Whilst the new songs may take inspiration from some legendary songbooks though, their origin remains, very much a thing of its time. Challenging himself mid lockdown to write and upload one tune per day to Youtube, the songs mostly tell tales of tension with pledges of eternal love.

‘Underneath Your Spell’ is a classic rock belter that brilliantly expresses the euphoria that love brings being captured underneath your lover’s spell. On the track’s themes MacFarlane says, “It’s both about a lust and love for life and for each other. It’s about endless boundaries, about taking the good with the bad, the happy with the sad, the laughter and the tears, but not least it’s about kicking down the walls of constraint and living life exactly how you choose. Free to be what you want to be without judgement.”

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Gustaf - Alice Hubble - Alphanaut - stores - Family Time

Gustaf - The Motions.

Brooklyn art punks Gustaf are sharing the final single from their highly anticipated debut album Audio Drag For Ego Slobs. "The Motions" follows previous tracks "Best Behavior" and the NPR-approved "Book" and is the latest track from one of New York’s “hardest working…and most reliably fun bands” (BrooklynVegan) before their album comes out on October 1st via Royal Mountain Records.

Ahead of an extensive of touring schedule that sees them traversing the US, UK and Europe alongside IDLES, Pillow Queens, and Osees, vocalist Lydia Gammill explains, "I always envisioned "The Motions" as our ‘walking around New York City’ song. The cadence is great for trudging across a bridge or taking the subway.

The song is about snapping between the perspective of your chaotic inner narrative while following the precut path of the world around you. Like when you’re strutting down the sidewalk to a song and your headphones slip off for a second to reveal the natural soundscape you’d been ignoring, realizing the world you had been wrapped up in is not the one shared by everyone else. 

Then you see that everyone with headphones is jumping between their own personal world and the reality they’re actually living in. I’ve found that if you walk around New York City without headphones, the streets are surprisingly silent. It’s us that add the cacophony of our own personal soundtracks.

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Alice Hubble - Hexentanzplatz.

Hexentanzplatz the new album by Alice Hubble will is released today September 10th, 2021 via London-based electronic-pop label Happy Robots. Described as the work of ‘one lady at home with her enormous collection of synthesisers’, Alice Hubble mixes melancholic pop, layered vintage synths and elegant vocals, reminiscent of Ladytron, Jane Weaver and Dubstar. Her debut album Polarlichter was released in September 2019 to much critical acclaim.

The title track of the album, Hexentanzplatz is named after the German mountain steeped in magic and legend. It translates literally to mean 'Witches’ Dance Floor' in English. An apt title for an album that dances it’s way through themes of illusion, love, feminism and protest whilst maintaining glistening, 80’s synth-pop sensibilities. “Being an eternal optimist I felt the need to write something in 2020 that was full of hope and positivity,” she says. “‘Hexentanzplatz’ is in part about the mountain, but really it's an inclusive pop song about fighting the patriarchy,” she continues. “Oh what a beautiful mountain” she sings atop euphoric, glitchy electronics. ‘Hexentanzplatz’ is a celebration of the wonders of nature, inclusivity and acceptance.

Of the other tracks on the album, perhaps the most classically pop moment is ‘Projections’ an 80’s style love song for the confused. “1,2,3 and I fall in love with my projections of you / I just see what I want to see” the chorus goes, referencing the love you project onto an unobtainable person. Second single ‘My Dear Friend’ was inspired by the discovery of a collection of love letters written by Hubble’s mother to her father around the time that they first met. “My mother passed away when I was in my teens and these letters gave me a real insight into who she was as a person, her ‘newly in love’ giddiness jumping off the page,” she says.

In contrast, Hubble found herself channelling a lot of anger into ‘Power Play’. “The track is a comment on what happens in a post #metoo world, once the worst offenders have been ‘cancelled’ and the news stories are over. Has something changed?  Does society move on and go to the next issue?” she explains, “‘Power Play’ is the closest thing I’ve written to a protest song”. The album also showcases Hubble’s talent for creating immersive electronic soundscapes. Tracks like ‘Numb’ and album opener ‘West Reservoir’ are awash with twinkling synths, the latter of which invites the listener into Hubble’s carefully curated world. ‘Gleichfalls’, a blissed out five minute instrumental, close

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Alphanaut - Young, Wild And Beautiful.

We have a new single from Palm Springs music collective, Alphanaut! Coming in hot before the release of their album on October 15th, they are sharing “Young, Wild & Beautiful,” another smooth delivery from the band that showcases their flare for new wave rock laced with electro-synth sweetness. With founding member Mark Alan’s warm and inviting vocal delivery, I call it soul food for the ears.

Alphanaut is a true passion project of ringmaster Mark Alan, along with the creative contributions of family and friends. As musicians with a shared purpose and common love of Bowie, Talking Heads, and Roxy Music. 

Upcoming album “On Some Planets This Is Pop” is a rose tinted exploration of inclusivity, praising the unordinary while championing what it means to shine as your true self.

Alphanaut · Young, Wild And Beautiful

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stores - bones.

The debut single from Merseyside based stores, 'bones' has already caught the attention of the likes of Speedy Wunderground founder Dan Carey, who gave the song a spin when sitting in for Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 6 Music. The single has also found it's way on to a range of playlists including Spotify's 'Melomania', Birp FM's Indie, The So Young List and others.

The band have announced the music video for 'bones', directed by Existential Pleasures, will be released today Friday 10th September. "A story regarding the complexities and imbalances of a toxic relationship, a perpetual loop of virulent tendencies in which each consort feels like a sacrificial lamb on the altar"

The CGI animation created by Existential Pleasures Studio manifests the duo digitally in a contorted digital dreamscape. Presenting the themes of toxic relationships with the imagery of lambs for the slaughter, peace offering flowers and rabbits in the headlights.

About Existential Pleasures - Existential Pleasures are a multi-faceted creative studio formed in 2015 by Fionn de Buitlèar and Joseph Wyness. Their output of work intertwines various artistic disciplines including graphic design, 3D animation, product design and art direction. The studio looks to constantly push boundaries in its work through the use of the newest technologies to form new ways of storytelling.

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Family Time - New Positions.

Spanish duo Family Time share ‘New Positions’, their first release since 2019s experimental pop-opera album ‘The Great Abismo’  and their first with US indie label 22Twenty. They also announce an exclusive showcase with Oracle Sisters, in partnership with Primavera Sound and an extensive run of EU dates this Winter.

Trading the humid backdrop of holiday resorts that illuminated their last work for a snow-stormed makeshift studio-shelter in Berlin, they have been working on new material, of which we are now offered an opening taste. ‘New Positions’, with a certain fin-de-siècle allure and cinematic poise, is a reflection on the mathematics of intimacy. How does any relationship fare when faced with cold, rational scrutiny? What happens when we poke at love with our anxieties? And will our numbers hold, we are asked, by the time we get to morning?

Opening with gentle piano, the track is tinged with jazz inflections that underpin it’s captivating but laid back atmosphere. Dreamy saxophone lines enter and leave the musical conversation like guests at a dinner party, both fleeting but punctuated with meaning.

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Spunsugar - Reb Fountain

Spunsugar - Rodan.

Following on from the release of their highly-praised debut album ‘Drive-Thru Chapel’ last October, fast-rising Swedish trio Spunsugar return once again with their shimmering new effort ‘Rodan’.

Continuing that trend of sweet and euphoric dream-pop textures they have earned a reputation for, ‘Rodan’ sees the group return in stellar form. With its rich and soaring aesthetic married perfectly with smooth and seductive vocals, they are keeping both a tight hold over their progressive sound and pushing the boundaries of it as far as it will go.

While also a danceable-but-sad pop/shoegaze song, Rodan is of course a Kaiju, a Japanese movie monster like Godzilla. “That’s who I felt like while writing the lyrics” guitarist Cordelia says. Rodan was the first Kaiju movie made in color, and that’s a fitting symbolism to Spunsugar’s new material. With glittery guitars, synthwavey drums and Felix’s thumping railroad bass the song is equally yesterday, today and tomorrow in its sound. Elin’s vocals are clear, controlled and encourages you to listen. It solidifies a new direction for the band who feels they’ve come into their own as a unity more than ever.

Spunsugar is an alternative rock band with shoegaze influencers based in Malmö, Sweden, with roots in the small town bible belt country side. The trio has different musical backgrounds which has led media to express praise for their elaboration and new take on the dark and pulsing nature of the post-punk sound and deliver it through a completely new and diverse contemporary lens, incorporating both goth and electronic elements. After an EP and some introductory singles they 2020 released their thunderous and anthemic debut album ‘Drive-Through Chapel’. The album put them on the map as one of the most exciting bands coming out of the scene and Scandinavia with media support from Steve Lamacq at BBC 6Music, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Nothing but Hope and Passion and much more.

Adrian Recordings · Spunsugar - Rodan

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Reb Fountain - Foxbright.

The fourth single ‘Foxbright’ is shared from Reb Fountain's forthcoming album IRIS out via Flying Nun Records on October 1st, 2021. The new single serves as a mesmerizing slow-burner, brimming with delicate piano, acoustic guitar and a stunning string section that guides the listener through its tender and understated production, with Reb’s enchanting vocals complimenting the music masterfully.

'Foxbright' is a reminder that there’s love to be found even when we can’t find it in ourselves. Reb wrote 'Foxbright' on the piano in one day, but as with all songs, it’s made up of what has come before; wild fragments in total eclipse. The simple verses, the declaratory motif and extended mid-section were connected by a chorus with a repeating melody.

"When I played Foxbright to Dave Khan he said, ‘that melody is the bass line’. I love that about the chorus; it’s a subtle and hypnotic imprint fully formed.”

We’ve all had a turn at hiding of late; the burrow’s the place we head to when in headlights. Lola Fountain-Best and Reb created an unadorned video landscape in which to observe the state of play. Dressing the set like a re-imagined blanket fort they borrowed a 16mm film projector to project industrial film footage from the 1950’s onto Reb’s body. The result is a beautiful and intimate expression of our nature.

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Dahlia Sleeps - Guyville

Dahlia Sleeps - Too Good To Hide.

London based duo Dahlia Sleeps today announce their long-awaited debut album, Overflow. Two years in the making and almost 6 years since their debut single, producer/writer Luke Hester and singer/writer Lucy Hill will release Overflow in two parts – the first of which will be out on October 19th, with the B-side to follow early in 2022.

Accompanying the album announcement is new single "Too Good To Hide". The track unfurls beautifully; partnering smoky atmospherics and soaring guitars with rich live percussion and a haunting string section, "Too Good To Hide" dissects how mental ill-health can hold us back and keep us repeating the same painful patterns, as the song builds elegantly towards its stunning crescendo.

Of the new single, singer Lucy Hill said: “Too Good To Hide is a song about running towards turmoil instead of towards the light. So often it is a battle to build the life we want because trauma or mental health issues keep us where we are. This is the first song on the record that touches on mental health, a theme that features heavily in forthcoming songs. And as with all these songs, this one ends with hope, something that exists for all of us as we learn to love ourselves and overcome our pasts.”

With eclectic influences ranging from electronic acts including MOVEMENT, Autechre and Burial to the lyrically poetic works of Florence + the Machine, Radiohead and The National, Dahlia Sleeps shift seamlessly between genres; from dance to electronic to pop.

Dahlia Sleeps' new material and forthcoming full length brings a new weight sonically, depicting a new kind of freedom for the duo – from managing and coming to terms with mental health problems to experiencing love in all its forms despite them.

 

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Guyville - Nothing.

Guyville is a Los Angeles based duo comprised of its founding members, Kat Hamilton and Emily Hulslander. The pair craft songs that combine elements of 90s rock, pop and country. As their name suggests, the legacy of Liz Phair brought these two powerful women together in songwriting bliss. The duo strikes the perfect chord with Hulslander's intelligent pop approach and Hamilton’s confessional lyricism.

Guyville was formed during your usual Los Angeles writing session in the Valley. What was unusual, was the easy flow and chemistry between the two prolific writers. Within a few hours, the duo had written their first song “Should’ve Never Dated”. Emily Hulslander had already made a strong name for herself in LA songwriting circles, but was struggling to find another writer who she could relax into the process with. Kat Hamilton was newer to LA, but felt unfulfilled as a writer. On that pivotal day, Emily and Kat found common ground in their failed relationships, artistic journeys and the women of the 90s.

This connection is highlighted in their debut Guyville single, “Nothing”. The end of summer jam combines elements of indie rock and 90s girl anthems with a sprinkle of Shania Twain. “Nothing” celebrates the wonderful post- breakup feeling of absolutely nothing for your ex. In the music video, Hamilton and Hulslander frolic in rose gardens and dance along sandy beaches. The result is a bubbly, tongue in cheek ode to getting over it and moving on.

 

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