ROTATION ROUND-UP #4

Time is becoming increasingly precious and difficult to obtain these days but I still have a grá on me for blogging.

So, this is an attempt cover more of what I am listening to on a regular basis, with a relatively quick roundup of what has been on rotation over the past week or two.

Enjoy!

Adwaith – ‘ETO’

Welsh outfit Adwaith – Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony & Heledd Owen – will release the follow-up to their wonderful and Welsh Music Prize winning debut with new album Bato Mato on July 1st via Libertino Records. The new record is led by ‘ETO’, a soaring evocative guitar driven adventure brimming with confidence and ideas. It is shimmering, evocative, life-affirming and moving, and bursting with open-hearted soaring melody’s and lyrical vulnerability – instantly sweeping us along with this stirring anthem. This is Adwaith at their finest; you will be replaying, again and again, and again.

Many Voices Speak – ‘Within Reach’

Many Voices Speak – the project of Swedish musician Matilda Mård – has announced her return with second album Gestures, released on 29th April 2022 via Strangers Candy.

A master of misty-eyed, melancholic and hazy indie-pop, Many Voices Speak has always found its power in its ability to capture an eternity in an expression; found in abundance on her debut and lead single ‘Within Reach’. A six-minute long reflective slow burn that just brims with beauty, as Mård’s elegant, yearning dream-pop makes the world seem to slow down around it, where time stretches out, and you become totally immersed in it. ‘Within Reach’ showcases Mård’s continued growth as a songwriter, one more comfortable in her own skin.

Komla MC vs Fold – ‘Victoria Falls’

Komla MC vs Fold is the unlikely combination of two expats in Leeds, UK. Hailing from Accra and New York respectively, Rob (Komla MC) and Seth (of the band Fold) were brought together by having kids at the same school and united in their undying love of hip hop. Given that Seth’s work with Hip-Hop/Trip Hop outfit Fold has a rep for funky, groovy and cool sounds, it is no surprise that this delivers a healthy dose of all three pitted with a fun and cheeky sensibility. Hopefully there is more to come from this collab – top marks!

The AM – ‘On Joy Road’

The AM – AKA Ann-Marie Teasley – is a DJ with a penchant for Techno and Electro that started out as a classical violinist in Detroit. The AM is releasing her debut EP Black Majik on March 11, and comes fronted by ‘On Joy Road’; an Electro-influenced jam named after the long, dual-carriageway street that connects the centre of Detroit to Nankin Lake and the enclaves on the city’s west side. It is urgent and intense while simultaneously elegant as a hypnotic spell is spun by frantic up-tempo snappy beats, claps, rippling electronics and winding synths, while a warped vocal sample and woozy flourishes fade in and out of view. A mesmerising and thumping dancefloor ready banger.

Clwb Fuzz – ‘Sertraline’

Cardiff outfit Clwb Fuzz return with new single ‘Sertraline’; a magnificent blaze of fuzzed-up spiralling psychedelic-rock. Burning guitars fuzz, ominous eerie synths and swaying, pendulumic percussion, set the swirling stage for Emily Kocan’s haunting vocals, regaling vivid and sometimes far too real dreams, occurring as a side-effect of taking antidepressants. Unsettling paranoid introspection has never sounded so glorious.

Chainletter – ‘Lyric St. (K-65 Remix)’

Two aspects of Maison Fauna’s world collide on this one, as Bristol’s K-65 energetically remixes Durham-based Chainletter’s ‘Lyric St’.

Originally a full on techno adventure, K-65’s interpretation introduces an urgent, driving and pulsing electro elixir to its veins, complete with flurries of timbral rides, whirling sound effects, and teasing builds tailored for the dance-floor. Fusing elements of broken techno, breaks, dub, and electro, K-65 has crafted something compelling, nuanced and dancey, embracing experimental sound design to evoke vivid, yet subterranean imagery.

Tune in below: