BarryGruff January 2016 Playlist

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Your regular monthly round up all the blog action, in a nice, neat and handy playlist of tracks featured throughout the month.

January was a busy month, especially for new record announcements and whatnot. We had tunes from The Coral, Yuck, Sea Pinks, Steve Mason, exmagician, Ulrika Spacek, Coves and The Last Shadow Puppets, from their respective, new and forthcoming albums. We had introductions to Bousada, ACCU and Honey Moon, while there were excellent new singles/EPs from Seazoo, Allure, Applescal, Marta Ffion, Courtney Barnett, Shit Robot and Golden Fable. Oh, and there were two new episodes of ‘Millions Like Us’, Justin Beats & I’s new music podcast extravaganza for 604now (if you missed them, check ’em here). You can also subscribe to ‘Millions Like Us’ on iTunes & Podcast Republic or find us on Facebook & Twitter.

Well then, that’s that for another month – listen to BarryGruff’s January 2016 playlist below. Enjoy!

 

Coves Return With New Album ‘Peel’ and Share Video for ‘Stormy’

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The new album announcements are coming thick and fast, being that time of year and all. Adding their name to an ever growing list of albums set for release in 2016, is Coves.

The English duo of Rebekah Wood and John Ridgard will release new album Peel on April 1st. It is the band’s second LP and follows the pair’s much vaunted debut, Soft Friday; an atmospheric, distinctive and very enjoyable blend of spectral vocals, swirling psychedelia met with sweeping grandeur and dreamy synths. To warm us up for the main event, Coves have shared ‘Stormy’ and its visual delights, featuring visuals from lead singer Beck Wood. Apparently marked by Coves’ shift from Leamington Spa to London, the new LP is seemingly “split between fury and misery”. Saying that, latest single ‘Stormy’ picks up where the pair left off, retaining the essence that made their debut so, so good. It’s a well honed, thrilling and intoxicating three-minutes where soaring riffs and vocals mingle amid flickers of shimmering psychedelic, some rampaging guitar heroics, rhythmic grooves and plenty of swaggering confidence to boot. An emphatic indication that we may be in for quite the second album from Coves.

Peel will be out on April 1st, via the newly re-vamped 1965 Records imprint.

New cut ‘Stormy’ is online now, and it features visuals from singer Beck Wood. Check Stormy’ below now.

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BarryGruff Playlist November 2015

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Your regular monthly round up all the blog action, in a nice, neat and handy playlist of tracks featured throughout the month.

November was another busy one, with introductions to A.S. Fanning, exmagician & New Cardinals. There were excellent new singles/EPs from Avid Walker, Anderson, Public Service Broadcasting, Ulrika Spacek, Daniel Avery, CaStLeS, David Harks & Manor. And we had tunes from Globelamp, MMOTHS, Coves, Hinds & Tuff Love ahead of their respective, new and forthcoming albums.

Oh, and there were two new episodes of ‘Millions Like Us’, Justin Beats & I’s new music podcast extravaganza for 604now (if you missed them, check ’em here). You can also subscribe to ‘Millions Like Us’ on iTunes & Podcast Republic or find us on Facebook & Twitter.

Well then, that’s that for another month – listen to BarryGruff’s November 2015 playlist below. Enjoy!

 

Coves return with new single ‘Stormy’, and news of a second album for 2016

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Coves have returned with a brand new single ‘Stormy’. Released on 18th December, it is the first track taken from their forthcoming second album, penned for release in March 2016.

It follows the duo’s much vaunted debut album, Soft Friday; one of last year’s high points it was an atmospheric, distinctive and very enjoyable blend of spectral vocals, swirling psychedelia met with sweeping grandeur and dreamy synths. Coves’ new single ‘Stormy’ picks up where the pair left off, retaining the essence that made Soft Friday such a great record. It’s a well honed, thrilling and intoxicating three-minutes where soaring riffs and vocals mingle amid flickers of shimmering psychedelic, some rampaging guitar heroics, rhythmic grooves and plenty of swaggering confidence to boot. An emphatic indication to what we should expect and judging by ‘Stormy’, we’re in for quite the second album from Rebekah Wood and John Ridgard.

You can check out ‘Stormy’ below now. Coves play Servants Jazz Quarters in London on January 28th & their as-yet-untitled second album is penned for release through 1965 Records in March 2016.

BarryGruff’s Playlist February 2015

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A new monthly feature to the blog, a nice, neat and handy playlist of tracks featured during the month.

It was a pretty good month to be fair. There was the return of Joanna Gruesome, Novella, Coves and Akala, with new tracks ahead of their respective albums, and new singles from Du Blonde, Foreign/National, Freedom Fry & Rozi Plain. Not to forget the huge news of a new album from Blur and last but not least, the return of Super Furry Animals. Also featuring on the playlist are: Public Service Broadcasting, TRWBADOR, The Courtneys, SALES, The Earth & Benihana.

Listen to BarryGruff’s February 2015 playlist below. The full track listing is after the jump.

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Coves – ’Shot To The Wall’

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Coves have unveiled ‘Shot To The Wall’, the lead track from their new EP Spectrum, out on April 13th.

This, their first new material since last year’s LP, Soft Friday, picks up where the duo left off on their beautiful and thrilling debut. Elegant, atmospheric and most definitely Coves, ‘Shot To The Wall’ casts yet another beguiling and chilling spell. Laced with scorching riffs, laden with reverb, propulsive beats and glacial atmospherics, spiked with Wood’s mellifluous, chilling cooing. There are plenty of bands of Coves‘ ilk currently doing the rounds – boy-girl duo, spectral vocals, ’60s psychedelic influences, dreamy synths – but few, if any, come close to Coves’ class.

New EP Spectrum, is out on April 13th, while ‘Shot To The Wall’ is below for your listening pleasure. Also, this March, Coves head out on a headline tour of the UK – all the dates are here.

BarryGruff’s Albums of the Year 2014

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So, it’s that time of year again, yeah, it’s favourite albums of the year time. Loads of great music this year, some old faces and plenty of new ones too but for those of you who care, here are my 25 albums of 2014. Enjoy!

25. Second Storey – ‘Double Divide’

24. Beach Day – ‘Native Echoes’

23. Globelamp – ‘Star Dust’

22. Sex Hands – ‘Pleh’

21. The #1s – ‘The #1s’

20. Attaque – ‘ON LY YOU’

19. Shit Robot – ‘We Got Love’

18. Mowbird – ‘Islander’

17. Oh Boland/Me & My Dog – ‘Delphi’

16. Jamie T – ‘Carry on the Grudge’

15. Pharoahe Monch – ‘PTSD’

Following on from his 2011’s W.A.R, comes fourth solo LP, PTSD (aka Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), a loose-concept album which sees Pharoahe Monch speaking as a weary independent warrior against the industry machine and dealing with the struggle of the black male experience in America. It’s dense, raw and sometimes painfully raw, as he relives harrowing memories of his struggle with addiction, depression and suicidal thoughts. It’s all draped with his familiar top-notch storytelling, cavernous vocabulary, thought-provoking rhymes, precise delivery and thought-provoking metaphors, placing him right up top of the current hip-hop pile.

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Half Time Reflections: Albums Of The Year So Far (2014)

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With over half the year already passed, it is ripe time for some half-time reflection on the many albums that have preoccupying my attention so far in 2014. As it is well overdue there is no need to waste and more time, here they are, in all their glory!

Sleaford Mods – ‘Divide & Exit’

Lo-fi English punk duo of Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn are Sleaford Mods, who’ve been grunting through gritted teeth since ’08. With their new album, Divide & Exit, they deliver a clever, often funny, foul mouthed and angry record, overloaded with attitude as their gripes and grievances with modern Britain (and beyond) are vehemently aired. Chief rabble-rouser, Williamson is both scathing and sardonic, who airs his many gripes and grievances, with a combination of vitriolic anger and acerbic wit. An extremely clever wordsmith, his righteous and infectious rantings are as quotable as Half Man Half Biscuit. You could argue forever as to what line in the gold-standard song is the greatest. This extremely clever wordplay is strewn among grimey beats and wiry post-punk guitars from Fearn. While owing as much to hip-hop and grime as to post-punk, and could be seen to be the the modern inheritors of the brilliance of Mark E Smith, The Streets, Shaun Ryder and HMHB. While there are traces of those artists here, there is, and never has been anything quite like Sleaford Mods. Top fucking class.

The Horrors – ‘Luminous’

On their fourth LP, The Horrors continue to refine sophisticated and colourful sound. The synthesisers are more to the fore, and a noticeably greater influence from electronic and dance music but without ever quite adapting dance-music tempos. The darkness which marks much of their previous work seems to have abated, except for Faris Badwan recoginzable brooding croon, replaced by a late ’80s tingle of euphoria, mellow synth sounds and a bouncy back-beats to create pulsating, danceable psychedelia. The Horrors are light years ahead of anyone else of the ‘indie guitar music’ canon. Tune in, drift away in this bliss of colourful groove.

Gruff Rhys – ‘American Interior’

After concept albums about a wealthy Italian Trotskyite, an eccentric car designer, and a movie in search of lost Welsh tribes in Argentina, nothing should surprise us when it comes to Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys. His fourth solo album is inspired by a recent discovery that he’s a descendent of John Evans, an 18th-century explorer, who mapped the Missouri river in a vain search for a mythical, Welsh-speaking American tribe. Concept aside, this record shares certain similarities with his previous work, cooking up lush pop songs with more immersive and introspective fare, beautiful orchestral moments and even a couple of more surreal, out-there moments. From the title track, the mournfully mesmerising ‘American Interior’ and it’s expansive, slightly melancholic rock with an infectious melody at its heart, to the rumbling rockabilly of ‘100 Unread Messages’ on synth-splashed carnival tune ‘The Whether (Or Not)’ we’re treated to exemplary spectrum of his talents. American Interior reminds us how captivating a storyteller Rhys is, who wistfully spins wonderful narratives of being carried through new worlds and visions, and only adds to the particular idiosyncratic charm that this Welshman personifies.

Malachai – ‘Beyond Ugly’

Malachai‘s latest effort, Beyond Ugly serves as a closing chapter to the Bristol duo’s ‘Ugly’ triptych, an unplanned trilogy of albums and pre-dated by the excellent Ugly Side of Love (2010) and Return to the Ugly Side (2011). Beyond Ugly is enjoyable as a standalone record if you’re unfamiliar with the previous two. It’s an imaginative journey through controlled chaos which seamlessly flits between trip-hop, hip-hop, acoustic folk, ’60s psychedelia, dance-funk and XTRMNTR era Primal Scream doses of aggressive political anger within the same breath. Expect to witness lavish sonic mayhem and delicate, thought-provoking moments on love, loss, life, politics and society. Vacuous it isn’t, there’s quite a bit of substance behind the aural salvo. A fitting conclusion to this unlikely of trilogies, saying that, hopefully it isn’t the last we’ve heard from Malachai.

Coves – ‘Soft Friday’

There are plenty of bands of Coves‘ ilk about at the moment – boy-girl duo, spectral vocals, ’60s psychedelic influences, dreamy synths – but they are in a class of their own and their debut, Soft Friday, casts a chilling spell. Swirling psychedelia is met with sweeping grandeur, as Wood’s mellifluous cooing floats above as driving riffs mingle with propulsive electro beats, drones and flickers of electronics, in a gentle whirlpool of shimmering psychedelic and glacial atmospherics. Soft Friday is a fine debut. Atmospheric, distinctive and very enjoyable, and a worthy inclusion in any record collection.

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(Video) Coves – ‘Beatings’

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Having released their debut EP Cast A Shadow last year and single, ‘Last Desire’ earlier this year, you could be forgiven for thinking Coves are teasing us with this drip feeding of new material. 

Although something more substantial, like an album, would be most welcome, the sheer quality of their output to date means any new tunes are heralded as an occasion for some celebration. Coves’ new single ‘Beatings’ doesn’t drop the ball, in fact, it is the most epic proposition yet from the dual talents of Rebekah Wood and John Ridgard. Swirling psychedelia is met with sweeping grandeur as Wood’s mellifluous cooing floats on flickers of electronics, beats and guitar, in a gentle whirlpool of shimmering psychedelic dream-pop. ‘Beatings’ is ushered through this spaced-out and hazy atmosphere by driving drums and undulating bass line, propelling toward an explosive climax of heavy bursts of beats, crackling synths and noise. A wholly inspired, impressive and unmissable track, which comes with an equally striking, tripped out video.

If this is your first encounter with the wondrous world of Coves, please check out & their EP, Cast of Shadow and single ‘Last Desire‘. 

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(Video) Coves – ‘Last Desire’

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Coves announced themselves with the rather splendid Cast A Shadow EP last year, an imaginative foray through a whole host sounds and styles. 

The duo spent 2012 on tour with Echo & The Bunnymen and Eugene McGuinness and it would seem from ‘Last Desire’ at least, to be time well spent. It has added some muscle to their sound, especially the undulating bass line which propels the track through wispy guitar, flickers of electronics and mellifluous cooing from Rebekah Wood. Every single ounce of ‘Last Desire’ has been meticulously honed and expertly crafted. You don’t have to scratch far beneath the surface to be utterly charmed by the innate, melodic lustre of this one.

‘Last Desire’ will be released through 1965 Records on 18th March. Coves support Dutch Uncles on tour in February.