DATE ARCHIVES : May 2021

Cow – ‘Notemakers’

Liverpool-based, Welsh exiles, COW do a fine line in ’90s inspired fuzz-filled alt-rock, and demonstrated with great potency by their cracking new single ‘Notemakers’

Having released their debut EP at the tail end of 2019, more was expected to follow in 2020 but sadly, like a lot more besides, gigging and recording ground to halt. Cow, However continued writing and rehearsing and have another EP in the works – preceded by ‘Notemakers’.

‘Notemakers’ is a potent and fuzzed-up jam with nods to Dinosaur Jr, early Nirvana and Pavement, while Merseyside hero Bill Ryder-Jones’ influence looms large too. It is a slowburing, gripping affair primed with crunchy riffs, buzzing guitar, taut drums and tempered with a perfect blend of angst and vigor. ‘Notemakers’ finds a sweet spot combining melody with crunching, grungy rock while weaving catchy pop hooks into a rock squall. With a mere few listens ‘Notemakers’ finds its way into your psyche and refuse to leave – and that is in no way a bad thing.

Take a listen below. It is a belter. Oh, and there are some live dates below……. remember them??

COW live dates:

Saturday, August 21 – Gullivers Manchester – Mai 68 Records Showcase
Saturday, September 4 – Arts Club Liverpool – w/ By The Sea
Saturday, September 11 – Live Rooms Chester – w/ By The Sea
Friday, September 24 – Smithdown Road Festival Liverpool
Saturday, September 25 – Northwich – Salty Dog
Friday, October 1 – Newport – Le Pub – w/Campfire Social
Thursday, October 21 – Late Lounge Rhyl – w/ Maines
Saturday, October 30 – The Castle Manchester – w/ Groan Room and Lossline

BURNT – ‘Shadows’ (feat. Frank Lasalona)

California-based outfit BURNT craft a soulful blend of reggae, ska, punk and hip-hop sounds with psych brushstrokes, and inspired by DIY artist subculture, they have independently produced 10 albums since forming in 2003.

Lifted from recent album Reaching for the Sun, latest single ‘Shadows’ features Frank Lasalona on vocals and provides a superb introduction to their wears in four minutes flat. It swaggers along a deep and seductive groove while the collective energy and hypnotic power of reggae vibes bathed in flourishes of bleary eyed psych and Latin flavours, making for a companion for Lasalona’s richly smooth vocals to flow. A wonderful amalgam of hip-hop and reggae with a soulful core that will leave it’s mark you and powerless to resist its magical charms.

Check ‘Shadows’ below and the album is here if that is to your liking:

Introducing: Alighted

Alighted is the moniker of Los Angeles-based producer McLean Macionis, who has introduced his solo wares with debut EP Resurfaced.

Alighted’s debut is a wonderful collection comprised from warm analog sounds, raw field recordings, and meandering ruminating atmospheric textures. Drawing inspiration from a personal battle with cancer, the EP is a powerful epic complete with moments of hardship, emotion, awe and sheer bliss.

This prowess is best demonstrated by opening and title-track; ‘Resurfaced‘. It is a dazzling jam with colourful tones, flashes of shimmering synths and dreamy melodies all woven together with a playful allure while the slick beats patter below in tandem with rumbling bass and warm arpeggiated melody. Immersive and hypnotic it majestically blurring the lines between exhilarating electro and ethereal electronica. While differing in style, An Imperfect Circle’ is equally as spectacular. It is a dazzling downtempo meander through ethereal tones, shimmering synths and glinting electronics; cosmic and cinematic, it is all draped in a smouldering sense of awe. 

‘Resurfaced’ is a magnificent introduction to a very promising talent, no question. Tune in to two choice cuts below and the EP is here.

Love Truls – ‘Trembling Hands’

Love Truls is Swedish musician and songwriter Truls Söderman Carlberg who specializes in bright and breezy bouts of lush indie-pop.

With a couple of earworms to his name last year (‘Adult’ and ‘Torn Up Dress’) Love Trulsis back with a new single ‘Trembling Hands’. Teaming up with close friend Siri Gunrup Järvinen, it is a bright and brilliant bundle of dream-pop heaven. drifting along a seductive melodic groove underpinned by soft shuffling drums, guitars shimmer and jangle amid a warm haze of lush fuzz while dueling male/female vocals cruise calmly above the irresistible hooks and joyous allure. Familiar yet fresh, ‘Trembling Hands’ is an absolute gem.

Listen to ‘Trembling Hands’ below:


Moon Rituals – ‘Painting A Bird’

Moon Rituals is the project of Melbourne pair Sarah Hardiman (Deaf Wish & Brickhead) and Mikey Young (Eddy Current, The Green Child & Total Control) and together, Hardiman and Young craft playful and melodic psych-splashed pop.

Moon Rituals’ latest venture is new 7″ single ‘Aura’ – a melodic boppy synth-pop jam with an effervescent personality – and backed by playful and meandering b-side ‘Painting A Bird’, and it is the latter that concerns us today. ‘Painting A Bird’ struts along amid a playful melodic air as we are whisked off to a world of offbeat folk with psych brushstrokes. It is brimming with stirring defiance led by Hardiman’s powerful versatile voice that cruises above warm fuzz, meandering off-beat groove as it chimes with a unique musical whimsy. ‘Painting A Bird’ palatability draws from an oddity paired with melodic sweetness – an absolute gem!

Listen to ‘Painting A Bird’ below:


English Teacher – ‘R&B’

Last year London label Nice Swan began the ‘Nice Swan Introduces’ series facilitating releases from a whole raft of new and exciting talent including Jelly Cleaver, Courting, Sprints, Hallan, Malady, Mandrake Handshake & Anorak Patch, and English Teacher’s ‘R&B’ is latest entry in the series.

Leeds quartet English Teacher trade in meaty and razor-sharp sprawling post-punk alchemy and waste no time in setting the wheels in motion on ‘R&B. Part of an inaugural compilation that is penned for release in August, ‘R&B’ is built upon a speedy bassline and Lily Fontaine’s deadpan vocals before exploding with a searing riffs, soaring guitars and crunching drums, all bathed in a wall of fuzz and distortion. A huge, epic and absolutely magnificent crunching anthem – turn it up loud.

Listen to ‘R&B’ and keep an eye out for the compilation come August:

Death Hags – ‘Chaos Magic’

Death Hags is the moniker of Los Angeles-based, French artist, Lola Jean, who carefully crafts hypnotic, dreamy and psych splashed aural escapes from the secluded hideaway hills of East LA.

An enigmatic creative force, Death Hags output over the past 18 months or so has been stellar, with a ready supply of hypnotic, futuristic and minimal electronica. Death Hags’ latest single, ‘Chaos Magic’ is a variation of this form. Just as an intoxicating, escapist and hypnotic, ‘Chaos Magic’ sees shimmering guitars replace synth as the driving force as Jean’s hushed honeyed vocals cruise calmly over a melodic patter of soft drums and haze of dreamy atmospheric tones. A beautiful, melodic and hazy jam from a reliably brilliant artist.

Listen to ‘Chaos Magic’ below: 

Fe.Arts – ‘Cassette Love’

Fe.Arts is an Italian producer/DJ with a penchant for lush, warm and woozy slices of seductive house/electronica.

New single, ‘Cassette Love’ is an utterly sublime distillation of uplifting and sunny vibes, and feels like summer incarnate. It is a lush, lavish and sunkissed affair that opens with a crackling soul sample over a lo-fi gentle tiss beat that accompanied by shimmering guitar layers becomes more and more dancey, culminating in thumping four-on-the-floor beat and lilting brass. A masterful demonstration of sound manipulation, ‘Cassette Love’ whisks us off to a world of lavish exploration through genres, styles and eras – it is one to get lost in as it forms a real sense of familiarity, oozing nostalgic feelings for hazy summer days and nights – and something that will keep you coming back for more.

Listen to ‘Cassette Love’ below now:


’59 – ‘The Forbidden Zone’

’59 is led by Ryan Ehresman, a synth-obsessed writer and producer based out of San Francisco who create exhilarating, manic and kaleidoscopic psych-splashed post-punk/krautrock sounds.

’59’s latest is called ‘The Forbidden Zone’ and it is an absolute beast. Fuelled by a relentless electronic beat, pulsing synth, repetitive guitarlines, buzzsaw riffs and sharp rhythm section, ‘The Forbidden Zone’ makes for a taut, furious and intoxicating whirlwind of somewhat frenzied sounds – with moments of melodic respite and relative calm strewn throughout. ‘The Forbidden Zone’ feels organic in its composition and exudes exhilarating energy and is brilliantly manic and unique. One of the finest tracks of 2021, ‘The Forbidden Zone’ more than hints that keeping tabs on ’59 is going to be exciting.

Listen to ‘The Forbidden Zone’ below now:

Anorak Patch – ‘Blue Jeans’

Colchester-based foursome – Effie Lawrence, Eleanor Helliwell, Oscar Ryland & Luca Ryland – Anorak Patch, are a formidable proposition who introduced us to their raucous rock sound with single ‘Irate’ earlier in the year.

Anorak Patch are back with new single ‘Blue Jeans’ – and unsurprisingly, it is back with a bang! ‘Blue Jeans’ is an exhilarating exploration of their penchant for raucous rock fueled by a relentless and furiously rhythm meted out with metronomic precession while guitars crunch and riffs burn before breaking down to a meandering pace and exploding into fiery life again. It is all topped off with uncompromising vocal delivery, threatening yet nonchalant, setting the tone for what is now their hallmark; powerful, a fierce and compelling grunge-filled indie-rock. 

Listen to ‘Blue Jeans’ below now – it doesn’t hold back.