BEEHIVE CANDY

Esther Rose - Chet Baker. Esther Rose has signed to New West Records and will release Safe to Run April 21, 2023. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe in New Orleans, LA and Placitas, NM and is the follow up to 2021’s acclaimed How Many Times. Alongside longtime collaborators Farbe and Lyle Werner, Safe to Run also features the acclaimed New Orleans based band Silver Synthetic on many songs, Cameron Snyder of The Deslondes, as well as Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track, a gorgeous duet that directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief. Safe to Run is the quiet culmination of years spent fully immersed in a developing artistry, and presents Rose’s always vividly detailed emotional scenes with new levels of clarity and control. Her songwriting transfigures the chaos and uncertainty of a life in progress, but here she introduces a newfound pop element that a...

The Faux Faux - Cold Hearted Woman. Faith Vern, lead singer of notorious Manchester punk band PINS, has shared new single ‘Cold Hearted Woman’. The single, a swaggering and smoky number, marks the launch of her new solo project, The Faux Faux, as well as the relaunch of the Drowned in Sound Singles Club. “We’ve always championed Faith’s work in the ultimate punk gang PINS” says Drowned in Sound founder Sean Adams. “We got talking a couple of years ago, when she sang with Iggy Pop at the BBC’s legendary Maida Vale studios and kept in touch.” “When I murmured that I was thinking of bringing back the label, Faith mentioned a solo project… and as I absolutely adored what she sent over, here we are, restarting the singles club that previously kicked off the careers of Kaiser Chiefs, Bat for Lashes, Martha Wainwright and more. This is track one from what will be a slowly released 10-track compilation of new artists I love, with a new track arriving each month.” With a chill in its bones and...

Bethan Lloyd - No Umbilical. Bethan Lloyd is a Welsh artist whose trance inducing vocals expand over an ocean of rave inspired production, harmonic layering and otherworldly ecstasy. Her sonic exploration has taken her from training as a classical singer, immersing herself in Berlin’s experimental music scene, to learning with magicians, masters and the ancient teachings of the natural world. In her latest single, No Umbilical, Bethan, producing alongside ‘Jet Pack Dog’ bandmate and master of noise Isaac Ray, takes her intense explorations of the spirit and emotional realms and blends them into something playful and danceable, a gritty experimental pop. No Umbilical had been through a variety of alternate versions before arriving at the one we hear today from the upcoming album, Metamorphosis. Talking of impossible hertz and becoming the feeding ghost, it has always retained the stark lyrical ambition of its predecessors, but in its final form, Bethan and co producer Isaac Ray opted f...

Charlie Fittler - Dying Breed. There is a saying that you have to live it to sell it, and if that is true, then Charlie Fittler, is the real deal. He has lived his entire 19 years on his family's fifth- generation Merino sheep property in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands outside of Armidale. This is the heartland, and country life runs in his veins. That true country experience is laid front and centre on the lead and titled track lifted from his forthcoming EP – “Dying Breed”. “I wrote this song with my older brother Tom at home in 2021”, says Charlie. “I wanted to write a song that had a different arrangement but still had that traditional country rock vibe. The song is about imperfect people that sometimes aren't always what they seem”. Both the single and EP are produced by Bill Chambers who – thanks to his traditional roots and outlaw ways - is the perfect fit as producer for the young artist. “Bill is a no-bs person, yet when he gives you advice about songwriting,...

Rogue Jones - 1,2,3 / Fflachlwch Bach (Bach). These two tracks are possibly the most crystalline and pure expression of the album’s main theme – Bethan and Ynyr’s experiences of parenthood. They’re also good pop songs – so they felt like an appropriate AA-side. 1,2,3 - Like much of the album, this song was initially composed by Bethan on the piano. It features Ynyr and Bethan on trumpets but also features Ioan Hefin, the man responsible for performing Welsh music’s greatest and most iconic trumpet solo in Eryr Wen’s Gloria Tyrd Adre. It’s a song about love and the feeling of trying to comprehend the magnitude of the love that you can feel for someone. It can relate to any form of love but in this instance it was written when their daughter turned 3 years old, with Bethan trying to articulate and comprehend the outpouring of love felt for a child and the hugeness of childbirth; the challenge, escalation, triumph, glory and the raw vulnerability of it all. Fflachlwch Bach - An ode to th...

The Rishis - Wake Up. The Rishis duo of Ranjan Avasthi and Sofie Lute hail from Athens/Atlanta, and Tacoma. They are set to release their new album, August Moon, on April 20th, 2023, via Cloud Recordings. Though the duo has been together for nearly a decade, August Moon is their long-awaited debut. The rishis are also the newest band to proudly bear the Elephant 6 logo, with many active members of the E6 collective rotating through the band's roster. Musically speaking, August Moon is an album of gentle, lush, psychedelic songs with a hint of hazy, folk-rock. It isn't hard to imagine the rishis wandering around the subcontinent playing their songs with their friends, and everyone having a grand old time high on some lovely tea. It's hard to avoid singing along to songs like "Holiday" and "Jetstream", thanks to their catchy melodies. But August Moon isn't all folk-rock; "Holi" and "Just Between You and Me" are moody rockers that g...

Güero - Streams of Light. Sacramento quartet Güero have returned a new single "Streams Of Light" this week, to announce their sophomore full-length album, Wednesdays, for an April 7 release via Dutch Records. Discussing “Streams of Light”, bassist Russell Volksen noted, "This song really has that doo-wop vibe, like Sam Cooke, The Ronnettes, etc. Russell always loved those songs, so he wrote the chord progression after listening to a lot of Black Marble and envisioned it as more of a dreamy pop song with an eight-note style bassline. Rik came up with a vocal melody and the guitar riff. The catchiness of the ‘Streams of Light’ lyric gave Shea the idea to put together a three-part harmony to sit underneath Rik's vocals on the chorus and outro. Rik's vocal melody and lyrics give you subtle references to the era while allowing it to remain modern and original. It conjures different images in your mind but isn’t specific to one thing. Through the course of playing thi...