Freyja Elsy - Terry Emm - Jake Morley - Awkward Branches

Freyja Elsy - Golden Hour.

Freyja's vocals on her new song ‘Golden Hour’ are breathtaking and oh so versatile, add in a gorgeous musical arrangement and this really is a standout song. The promo is spot on telling us that the song  encapsulates the nervous joy that comes with change and seeking the strength and bravery to take a different path. Experimenting with vocal chopping alongside deep harmonies, Elsy constructs a warm sonic bath of piano, strings and synthesisers around lilting melodies and uplifting crescendos.

Previous singles ‘Lungs’ and ‘Requiem’ drew praise, coverage and radio play internationally - including BBC 6Music. On ‘Lungs’ the BBC’s Adam Walton said: “This gave me goosebumps that haven’t subsided since I first heard it … off-the-scale evocative” and for ‘Requiem’ Circuit Sweet said of Elsy: “A classic composer on all levels with an understanding of connection within their creations.”

Freyja Elsy is an independent songwriter and composer who produces layered, striking music from her home studio in Cardiff. She incorporates both pop technique and classical influence under her own momentum and direction.

Freyja Elsy · Golden Hour

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Terry Emm - November Evenings.

We continue to be impressed by Terry Emm. The new song mixes timeless folk with a twist of Americana and despite the subject matter plenty of warm vibes. OK so here's the background. Hertfordshire singer-songwriter Terry Emm returns with blistering new single ‘November Evenings’, just out on October 27th. The single is his second new track of 2022 following ‘Wish You Were Here’, which came out in April beginning a new era for the artist.

Combining a vintage live band sound with rustic Americana flavours, the track packs a punch with its jangly catchy chorus. Working again with Lukas Drinkwater (Emily Barker, Annie Howie, Jacob & Drinkwater), the track turns the heat up a few notches from ‘Wish You Were Here’, with scorching lead guitar and drums that evolve against the big repeating chorus refrain, “I can’t be this way when I love you”.

Elsewhere, lines like ‘Does it leave you so cold, the feeling of being sold everything you can ever have?’, see Emm moving into a rawer lyrical territory than the nature inspired chamber-folk he’s been mostly known for. An irresistible slice of vintage-pop, ‘November Evenings’ is sure to set the radio airwaves alight this winter.

On the track, Emm says “November Evenings is about that feeling when autumn changes into winter and we’re left reflecting on the year. It’s about jealously and a feeling of wanting more from life, when certain things are always just out of reach. It’s probably the second or third upbeat track I’ve ever released”.

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Jake Morley - Some Things Are Like Other Things (Album).

Hidden in your house is a button
For use in an emergency
You'll find it at the back of a cupboard
Or behind the washing maching
You'll know it when you see it, it's the one that says
'Everything goes back to normal'
....... from 'Everything Goes Back to Normal' written by Jake Morley

To be fair, we could probably all do with one right now.  In Jake Morley's case, couple the world and UK events of the past few years with swapping late night songs with Michael Kiwanuka, breaking Jack Garratt's amp, and having an incident in Ed Sheeran's bathroom, and you'll understand these sentiments:

A recent Covid infection has meant Jake's had to postpone a number of dates on his current UK tour.  Jake says: "Sold out rooms, magic moments, all manner of cooked breakfasts, it was all going so well…. and then I got covid. Now… I’m… feeling… quite…. tired. And postponing shows.  Two weeks on and still every day is a fresh round of covid symptom bingo. A tedious relay race of unwanted characters, from tiredness to achy bones to ooh feeling better to brain fog to Now That’s What I Call Covid 2020 classics like The Cough That Never Ends and Lungs That Are Surely The Size Of A Crisp Packet."

BUT ... his new album 'Some Things Are Like Other Things' came out yesterday Friday, 28th October and it's a thing of aural and visual beauty.

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Awkward Branches - A Frame (Not a Window).

Awkward Branches is the new project of singer, keyboardist and former Fiction frontman Mike Barrett and close collaborator and guitarist Phil Swan. Today they share their debut single ‘A Frame (Not a Window)’ via Tip Top Recordings.

After writing and performing with each-other in numerous other projects - including a 6-piece experimental collective (Holy Island Sketchbook), gothic trio (Sweet Heave) and as part of Mike’s dream-pop project (Brand New Moon) - they felt it was finally time to put a name to their own project, and thus Awkward Branches was born.

Appropriately, the pair first met standing under a much-beloved tree in the gardens of an old wedding chapel where they both worked. While waiting for ceremonies to run their course, talk would often turn to music. United by a shared appreciation for ambient soundscapes and buoyant melodies, they tentatively began recording sketches; ideas which grew over several years, without hurry, into a handful of fully formed songs.

‘A Frame (Not a Window)’ is the first single to be shared from forthcoming debut EP due out next spring. The debut single is a tranquil sun-flecked number, driven by bouncy acoustic guitar and verdant synth, with tender vocals that speak to the nature of trust, faith and dogs. The song is complemented by a charming animated video, created by Mike Barrett, that satisfyingly mirrors the colourful textures and sanguine spirit of the song itself. Barrett on the video: “The video began life as a simple zoom through abstract spaces, inspired by a craft-paper collage Phil had made as a potential EP cover. Using a blend of hand-drawn elements, original footage and AI-assisted animation techniques, it soon evolved into a somewhat labyrinthine journey across a variety of fantasy landscapes, culminating In the slightly tongue-in-cheek / slightly deadly serious ascension to heaven for the final scene. Mostly it was a chance to indulge my affection for kitsch architectural forms, potted plants, and - in a nod to the first line of the song’s lyrics - the illusive joy of dogs”



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Native Harrow - The A.M.s - Brenda Carsey - Land Of Pure - The Darts

Native Harrow - Old Kind Of Magic (New Album).

We are delighted to share the title track 'Old Kind of Magic', leading the way on the fifth long player from Native Harrow (their third for prestigious London based label, Loose). The album is described as "a sojourn on their passage between two lands; a luxuriant and fecund annunciation." Beehive Candy have featured them before and we were really impressed back then. Now we are blown away by the new collection of songs, both beautiful, thoughtful and wonderfully natural.  

In the first days of 2021, the band known as Native Harrow landed seaside in Brighton, England. Its leaders, Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel, arrived with a few trunks worth of books, clothes, guitars, and microphones. Settling in at the very top of a crumbling regency building where the seagulls call to the sun's rise and fall each day, they thought “this is the perfect place to make a record.”

Immersing themselves in a new place filled with unfamiliar faces, sounds, and sights, the band fueled their creative voices on being strangers in a strange land and spent most of the year writing and recording the ten songs that would make up OKOM. From early mornings spent discovering the knurled hills of Albion and late nights dancing in London, to the quiet hum of building a home in the heart of the countryside, rediscovering love, letting go of things lost, taking a spiritual trip, riding the waves, and trudging through the mud to find freedom; this album spans a lifetime of lessons.

Harms and Tuel have self-produced a work that is simultaneously their most sweepingly expansive and delicately intimate album to date. It is at moments revelatory, and at others beautifully heartbreaking; a showcase of Tuel’s finest writing. Recording Old Kind of Magic themselves, they crafted an album that places itself distinctly between the two musicians and the tapestry of sounds they are regarded for.

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The A.M.s - Ignite The Sky.

In 2019 on Piano Day, the 88th day of the year, Adrian happened to tune Mariko’s piano. He asked if she wanted to play together; she said maybe. Realizing she might be able to return to her long-lost passion, music, they connected and started rehearsing with the hopes of playing out. Before they ever got the chance he moved to California, and soon after COVID-19 shut everything down. But they kept playing and sending ideas. Now, with an extensive catalog of 50+ songs, they are releasing their first album, Ignite the Sky, recorded at Earwig Studio in Seattle, WA.

Ignite the Sky chronicles Mariko’s journey of finding her birth parents during COVID, while processing the events and struggles of 2020 in quarantine. The self-produced and mostly self-played collection of songs, save for their drummer, Jason Edwards, lends to the intimate nature of the album along with the acoustic instruments and vintage keys. 

Using inspiration from nature, “Torn Vine” introduces others to the identity struggles of an adoptee, while “Biggest Wave” illustrates the immense weight of connecting to birth parents and discovering a love and loss so deep.  The upbeat latin groove of “15,000 Days” isn’t what it seems at first–rather, it was 15,000 days that had passed until Mariko and her birth parents reunited once again. “Ignite the Sky” the title track, encompasses many themes across the band, adoption, and quarantine: distance, loss, hopelessness, separation, but ultimately faith that stars will align again for reconnection in the future.

The A.M.s · 12 Ignite The Sky

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Brenda Carsey - Man Of Mine.

“Man of Mine” is the fourth and final single off of Brenda Carsey’s upcoming full-length studio album “Cognizance”. The song is a true Neo Soul/Jazz Pop song with delicious instrumentation that embodies the beauty and depth of a growing love. It begins with enticing and provocative notes of fleshy enjoyment and gives way to the kind of growing love that allows you to feel safe enough to be weak, to be seen, to be yourself and grow.

Carsey admits that she doesn’t usually write positive songs nor love songs but this song wrote itself and arose from the genuine gratitude she has for her partner. This song is for anyone and everyone who has ever experienced a deep feeling of love for someone. For your partner, your best friend, for your group, for yourself! All identities, all relationship styles – All love is beautiful! Let your love shine out into the world!

Brenda Carsey is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Her music has been described as brilliant, timeless, playful, and larger than life R&B/Soul and Progressive Pop. Carsey delivers an engaging, energetic show, with her unmistakably unique sound rooted in the classic pop diaspora. Carsey’s voice is uninhibited with a virtuosic range, mixing a syrupy sweet sound with a beautiful soulful darkness. She will stop you in your tracks with poetic lyrics, fluid melodies, engaging chord progressions, funky rhythms, and a voice filled with passion and soul.  She has recently released three new singles, all from her much anticipated upcoming full-length album "Cognizance" which is set for release at the top of 2023.

Brenda Carsey · Man of Mine

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Land Of Pure - Places Without Colors.

The style of the Zurich newcomer band Land of Pure could be described as alternative rock. And yet, with their instrumental diversity, they clearly go beyond the scope of this genre: in their songs you can hear jazz trumpet solos, Highlander flutes, Japanese kotos and Indian sitars and tablas. Mixed with 80s synth, the result is a very multifaceted and intense listening experience.

The Asian influences in the music are no coincidence - singer Aaron lived in Asia for over 10 years, where he worked in various aid projects and social business start-ups and processed what he experienced there as a songwriter. After a solo album in 2018, «Land of Pure» grew into a six-piece band that now has its first album on the way with «King of Nothing».

The slightly dreamy-melancholic and at the same time expressive single «Places Without Colors» raves about the colorful and chaotic cities of Asia. Anyone who has ever traveled through such big cities or even lived there knows the incredible fascination that such a city exerts. And the desire to return there again and again. 

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The Darts - Love Tsunami.

The Darts formed in 2016 with the goal of making great all-girl garage-rock noise, seeing the world, and having a fab slumber party every night. They threw on some vintage black slips, threw off their shoes, and set out on the adventure.

In the first six months, they put out two self-produced EPs and signed with Dirty Water Records (UK). In the first year, the label put out their first full-length vinyl release, Me.Ow. They headed to Europe a bunch of times and never wanted to go home. But when they did, Dirty Water re-released the first two EPs as a second full-length vinyl, 'The Darts' and they toured all over the U.S. a bunch of times, with great bands like Australia’s The Living End and Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Longshot - and, once again, never wanted to go home. Their idols started noticing, including author Stephen King, actors Drew Carey and Fred Armisen, and punk legends Jello Biafra and Blag Dahlia, sometimes even coming to shows and getting on stage with us. Two years into the project, they were on bigger European stages like Sjockfest, Cosmic Trip, and Roots n Roses, with acts like Turbonegro, The Flaming Lips, and The Dead Kennedys.

In 2018, Jello Biafra signed the band to his label, Alternative Tentacles, and released their third full-length record, I Like You But Not Like That (2018 Alternative Tentacles Records), at a packed Punk Rock Bowling appearance in Las Vegas. They then embarked on an unforgettable coast-to-coast US tour with their heroes The Damned. They found themselves performing with bands like Rancid and L7, had songs placed on top tv shows like Peaky Blinders, got thrilling reviews in Rolling Stone, made a stop at Mexico City’s superb Hipnosis Fest, and then...the pandemic hit.

But even then, things didn’t stop. Vox hosted an Instagram Live show garnering over fifty thousand views, they played Punk Rock Bowling 2022, made their debut at Seattle’s uber-hip Freakout Fest, and recorded a new 7-inch for Adrenalin Fix Music, Dirty Water, Beluga, and Ghost Highway Recordings in Europe. By summer of 2022, we toured all over the US again, performed on the legendary KEXP Sessions, and finished recording a new full-length record (funded entirely by fans) co-produced by Jello Biafra himself. Snake Oil will be released on Alternative Tentacles in early 2023. European tours are lined up well into next year...and work is already beginning on the next record.

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Oneiros Way - Ace Of Wands - Nico Paulo

Oneiros Way - Mourning.

"'Mourning' is the lament of death, a siren that announces its sound, a round murmur, the malevolent reverberation of an end that escapes, that is beyond to come but that does not come: because rather than death what's coming is sleep, apathy, the trap of return, the eternal damnation of the present.

Mourning is inspired by Jean Cocteau's Orphèe 1950, death is a mirror that entraps, eternal return, continuous re-proposition of dream scenarios. A lament, a call and a new lament, as if death were nothing more than a new beginning. "

Hailing from Milan, Italy, electro-dreampop duo Oneiros Way deliver dark-tinted, ethereal songs, rooted in a vintage cinematic imagery. Cocteau Twins echoes on trip-hop rhythms and post-rock subtileties.

Regina (voce, pianoforte, synth e organi) and Claudio (voice, chitarre, Lunabass, drum machine / campionatore, synth) have made wide use of analog instruments like MS 20, Solina, acoustic pianos, banjos, analog drum machines and filtered drums, but also samples, pans, streams, empty bottles of Martini, reflecting on the one hand the aim to get warm, deep sounds, on the other hand their taste for sonic research.

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Ace Of Wands - Desiring You.

Some energy, some emotion and a whole load of hooks both rhythmically and vocally, this is one very impressive song. Lee Rose from Ace of Wands asks us - Have you ever wanted to be with someone you knew was no good for you?

“Desiring You” was written while I was staying alone in a cabin in northern Ontario for 2 weeks. It was my first time taking a completely solo trip. Having no one for company but my dog and my instruments, I recorded the demo, staying up late into the night writing and re-writing the lyrics and harmonies, and playing the bridge riff over and over again until it felt like a second skin. I always know when a song is going to become bigger than me when I feel it in my body.

The song was inspired by a toxic relationship and the addictive and sometimes destructive nature of desiring what is not good for me. I was trying to put music to the feeling of being completely un-seen by the person I most desired being with. The song explores the tension, the anger and my ultimate refusal to be strung along.

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Photo - Sarah Kierstead

Nico Paulo - Now Or Never.

St John's-based Portuguese artist Nico Paulo has shared a video for "Now Or Never" & announces her debut self-titled album is due out in the spring 2023 Via Forward Music Group

In an effort to fully understand how things end and why, Now or Never looks to unpack what happens when you stay empathetic through heartbreak. The lyric “kiss me now or never, hold me close or let me go,” is one of the first lines I wrote and it has stayed relevant to my experiences ever since. This line has haunted me for almost a decade and recent experiences of loss and reconstructing of the self helped me to finally transform it into a song.

Hi friends - pleased to be announcing the debut LP of Portugese songwriter Nico Paulo, who has found a second home in St John's Newfoundland and linked up with CA label Forward Music Group. Highly recommended for fans of Laura Veirs, Tim Bernardes, and any people in for a modern take on Tropicalia songwriting. Will have the full LP to share with you asap.

Nico Paulo was produced and recorded by Josh Van Tassel and Tim Baker at a cabin in Nova Scotia and at Nico's home in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador before being mastered by Heather Kirby at Dreamlands Mastering. Collaborators on the record include Tim Baker (vocals/guitar/keys/pump-organ), Steve Maloney (vocals), Adam Hogan (guitar/lap steel), Josh Van Tassel (percussion),  Clarinets by Mary Beth Waldram (clarinets), Terry Campbell (trumpets) and Kyle Cunjak (bass).

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WILDES - Beck Black

WILDES - (Run to the) Flames.

London singer/songwriter Ella Walker aka WILDES has released her new single "(Run to the) Flames", the latest taste of upcoming debut album 'Other Words Fail Me'. The new album was produced by St Francis Hotel (Michael Kiwanuka, Greentea Peng, Little Simz) and will be released on 13th January 2023 via AWAL.

While Walker’s gaze is set firmly on what is in front of her, there is still room to acknowledge where the she has come from. “(Run to the) Flames” was written in 2019, the only track brought forward to the album from that period of time. “It was a time where I felt really useless, musically,” she explains. “I was really without direction. I had a strong connection with it emotionally: it was all about running into the flames when you’re in a really dark, sad place, and deciding that you’re going to change.”

This elegiac song honours the ‘old’ WILDES sound of grand, sweeping endings, but stays true to the artist she is now with new sonic inflections. She sings: “I’ll only dream of the woman I could’ve been”, as she stands on the edge of a future where that woman is within her reach.

WILDES' music sonically falls somewhere in a Bermuda Triangle of Angel Olsen, St Vincent and Mazzy Star, embedded within an entrancing skeleton of folk songwriting, all the while lifting the listener up on a storm cloud of cinematic electronics and her sharp, honest lyricism.

Citing the influence of PJ Harvey, Patti Smith and SASAMI on her new album, WILDES notes - "They are unapologetically honest women and musicians. They gave me permission to come out of the box I'd been cowering in."

 

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Beck Black - Gotta Get Back To My Baby.

“Beck Black” the brand, is a Hollywood based band formed in 2014. One of her most note worthy releases, is a collaboration with Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr, for the song "Who's Gonna Save Rock N Roll" in 2020!

In addition to Rock n Roll, she is releasing a new solo project entitled “Electric Cowgirl” recorded in Nashville, TN and in Queens, New York City. After the release of “Don’t Call Me Darlin”, Beck Black ventured further into her Blues/Country roots as a native of the Cape Fear River region of North Carolina.

Besides making music, she has appeared in numerous independent films and TV shows as a SAG/AFTRA actress. The new single release “Gotta Get Back To My Baby” is accompanied with a video filmed in NYC directed by Ms. Black.

 

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