DATE ARCHIVES : August 2015

Ghostpoet – ‘Sorry My Love, It’s You Not Me’ (Ghost Culture Remix)

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As much as Ghostpoet’s – London-based Obaro Ejimiwe – talent and skills are without question, his style tends to lend itself to a darker, more morose tone.

Stepping in on remix duties, London producer Ghost Culture, demonstrates his wizardry, serving us with an exquisite re-framing of Ghostpoet’s enormously bittersweet current single, ‘Sorry My Love, It’s You Not Me’, from his most recent LP, Shedding Skin. It is a refreshing, upbeat synth-lead rework, with Ghost Culture injecting plenty of bounce, rhythmic energy and some serious pep-to-its-step. A sprawling six-minute plus thing of wonder, that builds and builds, through world of cool grooves with all the clinical precision, delicious crispness and burbling synthesizers that make Ghost Cuture’s self-titled debut record the treasure that it is. A marvelously smooth rework, no doubt about it.

You can listen to Ghost Culture’s remix and Ghostpoet’s original below – and/or check out Ghostpoet’s recently released third studio album Shedding Skin here and Ghost Culture’s superb self-titled debut here.

Foreign/National – ‘Pacific Cruise’

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Having released their self-titled EP and a number of sublime singles in under 12 months, Foreign/National never keep us waiting any great length of time for new jams.

Each release too, has offered a differing dimension to their casually cool sound and in keeping with this trend, the Melbourne five piece are back with a third single for the year, ‘Pacific Cruise’. Slinking and grooving with a stuttering, funky drumbeat, ‘Pacific Cruise’ takes their usual spread of wonderfully colourful, breezy, brightly imaginative and saturated fuzz-pop, fusing it with a splendid nod to Motown classics of old. The slinking bassline, those whispered vocals, the chorus and harmonies – which recall finer moments of freakbeat and British psych – make it neigh on impossible to resist its allure. Simultaneously laid-back and full of raw energy, ‘Pacific Cruise’ finds a balance that works perfectly, to form a blissful, harmonic and irresistible slice of psych-tinged nostalgia-pop. Foreign/National continue a fine run of form and deliver on their early promise, hopefully as in the past, we aren’t waiting around too long for the next installment.

Listen to ‘Pacific Cruise’ below and if it is to your liking, why not pop over here and try out some of their sublime previous releases?

Sales – ‘Big Sis’

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Florida duo Sales (Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih) have shared a new song with us, entitled ‘Big Sis’, it’s their first new material since last year’s sublime self-titled debut EP.

‘Big Sis’ is a wonderful little indie pop number. Subtly-emotive it is all languid guitars, minimal electronics and Morgan’s sweet vocals, whisked together with a mesmerizing ease and breeze that is embodiment of lazy summer mornings. Thus far, the duo have proven to possess quite a knack for eking out a space where songs can be simultaneously languid, nonchalant and passionate, that co-exist in perfect harmony – ‘Big Sis’ encapsulates everything that is so magnificently endearing about the pair’s delicate, laid-back and rather beautiful, indie-pop.

Sales have a stack of live dates on both sides of the pond over the coming months – including Dublin, in Whelan’s on October 18th – and having caught their show when they played Vancouver earlier this year, they come highly, highly recommended. Full list of live dates here.

You can listen to ‘Big Sis’ below / purchase here.

Silverbacks – ‘The Pink Tide’

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Dublin based indie/garage outfit Silverbacks have returned with a new single ‘The Pink Tide’.

This latest offering adds to what’s been a pretty productive year so far; releasing their second album, Hot Bath, back in January and Record Store Day single, ‘Through A Curtain’, in April. New track ‘The Pink Tide’ continues to plough a similar furrow; however their the slanted Pavement inspired sound does a dance with the post-punk tones of Television and a touch of Talking Heads. Cliched as it sounds, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It retains their lo-fi garage roots, honing and refining their sound with buzzing exuberance, some scintillating riffs and guitar work and when the solo kicks in at the 2:30 mark, it is sheer magic. All a rather perfect backdrop for Dan O’Kelly’s low-toned and world weary vocals, which remain an undoubted highlight. Great stuff as per usual.

You can listen to ‘The Pink Tide’ Below, and also, Silverbacks’ latest album is available here, you just gotta ‘pay what you like’.

Dog Legs – ‘Holiday’ EP

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London/Brighton duo Dog Legs have a penchant for noise. The good kind mind. You know the sort of thing; fuzzy riffs, crashing drums and general bursts of scrappy, noisy, lo-fi pop goodness.

Dog Legs, aka Moema Meade and Liam Bradbury, who first featured here back in 2013 with their Awkward EP, are back and sounding as good and NOISY as ever. The latest EP, Holiday, a 7-track rickety roller-coaster ride, is jammed with their band’s tangle of sounds – surf, punk, pop & garage rock – tethered together with sweet ramshackle charm. ‘Holiday’ brings the ruckus; a loud, brash and bratty spiral of blistering riffs, chaotic crashing drums and howling vocals. ‘Ugly’ meanwhile, is similarly scuzzy but less frantic fun blast of fuzz and imbued with a buzzing intensity and fizzy energy, and full of sing along hooks. ‘I Trusted You’ reminds of the slanted sounds of Pavement (Slanted & Enchanted era); all ramshackle distortion, fuzz and repetitive angular riffs. There is an honesty & pureness to their sound; it’s raw, imperfect and laid bare, and all the better for it. It’s good to have ’em back and sounding as noisy as ever.

Holiday is out now on a very limited run of cassettes (25 yellow / 75 blue) & ‘Holiday / Ugly’ is also released as a digital single. You can try some choice cuts below.

Introducing: Martha Ffion

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Martha Ffion is an Irish-born, Glasgow-based singer-songwriter, who has been making a bit of a name for herself.

So much so that Ffion has teamed up with the irrepressibly magnificent Lost Map Records, to follow up her 2014 debut EP, Go, with double a-side ‘No Applause/Lead Ballons’. ‘No Applause’ is a glorious and infectious slice of fuzz-pop,  combining dainty ’60s girl-group vocals, sprightly rhythms, crunchy surf-grunge guitars with rumbling bass tones and punchy percussion. Ffion has drafted in some of Glasgow’s finest – label mate Suse Bear of Tuff Love plays bass and produced the song, The Phantom Band’s Iain Stewart provides drums and Poor Things’ Craig Angus supplies lead guitar- on the new single. The retro charm of ‘No Applause’ will warm your heart,  get your toes tapping and have you smiling from ear to ear.

Martha Ffionn has a couple of live dates coming up (see here) and also supported Honeyblood & Colleen Green recently; ‘No Applause’ in particular carries a certain similarity to the latter’s finest work. You can listen to ‘No Applause’ and ‘Go’, the title track to the 2014 debut EP, below.

Guest Post: Johnny Feeney’s Albums of 2015 So Far

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The ever knowledgeable Johnny Feeney returns to the blog once again, to share an eclectic selection of his favourite records from the year so far.

Always insightful and interesting, his guest posts always add an extra flavour the blog and I for one look forward to reading them – surely I’m not alone?

A huge thanks to Johnny as always, and on that note, I’ll leave you in his very capable hands.

10. Stealing Sheep – ‘Not Real’

The second album from Liverpool’s Stealing Sheep is awash with quirky, catchy psych-folk/pop songs with a habit of having disconcerting false endings to continually keep you on your toes while listening.

09. Slaves – ‘Are You Satisfied?’

While there’s no shortage of two-piece rock bands around at the moment, Slaves’ debut album delivers enough memorable tunes with primitive, meaty hooks and thundering drums to stand out from the crowd.

08. Thee Oh Sees – ‘Mutilator Defeated At Last’

With only 9 songs and 33 minutes long, San Francisco’s ultra-prolific Thee Oh Sees’ ninth album in seven years is a brilliant, brief blast of fuzzy, distorted psych/garage rock.

07. Viet Cong – ‘Viet Cong’

The Canadian drone-rockers’ self-titled debut album is hypnotic, repetitive and bleak but absolutely compelling. Expect stuttering, industrial beats and mazing guitars.

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Anderson – ‘Things We Have In Common’ + Debut Album News

Anderson, aka Dublin musician and songwriter Daniel Anderson, has long been a firm favourite around these parts, and with good reason.

With his former band The Rags, Anderson had already marked himself out as a fine songwriter and following the demise of the band, he re-emerged with a different approach from their raspy rock’n’roll. Since unveiling his solo-project in 2012, Anderson brought things to a new level, preferring a folksy sound with irresistible, classic ‘60s/’70s pop melodies. All draped in Anderson’s intuitive song-writing and storytelling abilities, we’ve already been treated to the wonderful delights of double A-side ‘Patterns / History’ & ‘Hallowed Heart’ EP.

Now, after what seems like an eternity, Anderson has announced the brilliant news that his debut solo album, Patterns, shall be released on September 18th. With the new record on the horizon, we’ve been afforded further insight with ‘Things We Have In Common’. It is a beautiful and meticulously crafted pop classic, baring all the wonderful hallmarks of his previous solo releases. Needless to say, September 18th is a date for the diary.

You can listen to ‘Things We Have In Common’ below and download it for free, here. Patterns can be pre-ordered here.

Tracklisting: 1. The Twilight is Folding 2. Patterns 3. Things We Have In Common 4. Vincent 5. History 6. The Melody 7. The Existential Vacuum 8. Cecilia’s Sister 9. Through The Night 10. Sad Lullaby 11. About A Life 12. The Morning’s Never New

Cornershop – ‘Pinpoint (Feat. Accü)’

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There are many, many reasons to love Cornershop, aside from the endearing charm, one of the biggest has to be that you never really know what they will serve up next.

While the quality is never in question, the journey thus far has taken us to all sorts of musical destinations, everything from indie, punk, funk, electronica and disco and dub. Cornershop’s latest single ‘Pinpoint’ is no less of a musical globetrotter. “Think Chic meet St Etienne,” reads Cornershop’s description of ‘Pinpoint’, and it’s not far off. Featuring vocals from Cardiff-based Accü, aka Angharad from Trwbador, it’s a summery slice of warped funky disco. ‘Pinpoint’ is certainly a groover, driven by an effervescent ’70s funk bass and accompanied by parps of horns, an abundance of tambourine, some subtle tones and of course, Accü’s pristine vocals. Peculiar and surprising (in a good way obviously) as usual but most importantly, as delectable as ever.

You can listen to ‘Pinpoint’/‘The Titi Shaker’ below, and it’s out on July 17th, through Ample Play. Rumour has it, Cornershop are working on a new album too. Happy days indeed.