POSTS TAGGED : Seazoo

BarryGruff’s June 2015 Playlist

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

June was another pretty fine month for new music. We had new tunes from Girls Names, Sextile, Hibou, Velvet Morning & Hooton Tennis Club ahead of their respective, forthcoming new albums. There were excellent new singles from Hyde & Beast, Freedom Fry, Dan Amor, Slow Riot, Tomorrows, Alaska Wilson & PANKHABILLI.

Also featured on this month’s playlist are great tracks from Seazoo, The Statics, CZARFACE, Peaness, Energy Slime & Pale Honey. Yeah, so, June was good. And that’s all before mentioning the interview with Ric Rawlins about his new book, ‘Rise of the Super Furry Animals’ – read it here.

Listen to BarryGruff’s June 2015 playlist below.

 

Seazoo – ‘Martyn and Jayne’

Seazoo 2015 Martyn and Jayne

Since their inception in April 2013, North Walian five-piece Seazoo, have impressed on every occasion, indelibly planting their multifarious concoction of charming, sprightly indie-pop in our psyche.

Their music is a colourful, curious and smile inducing mix of guitar jangles, delightful noise, fuzz and smiley melodies, topped off with clever lyrics. Each Seazoo release has been one exceptional step after another and now the Wrexham outfit have Car Deborah EP, from which we have ‘Martyn and Jayne’ for our aural pleasure. Opening with crackling static it bursts into life with their recognizable jangle-pop-bounce, joined by rumbling, fuzzy bass tones, driven guitars with an added edge of muscular aggression and focused vocals delivered with conviction, adding a melancholic tone. Whilst most likely to be stuck in your head for days, with ‘Martyn and Jayne’, they have struck a perfect balance between sweet and sour, in a further evolution of their already wonderful sound.  Infectious doesn’t even cover the half of it. A band to be treasured and enjoyed, hopefully this and the EP, is but a prelude to their long-awaited and anticipated debut album.

Car Deborah is out now, via iTunes, while physical copies are only available at their live shows. You can check out ‘Martyn and Jayne’ below. Also, you can listen to Seazoo’s GruffWuff inclusion, ‘Dig (Demo Version)’ – of which you can download here for FREE.

 

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album [Out Now]

So, the day has finally arrived; ‘GruffWuff‘ is out now!

I’ve been itching to share this with everyone and I very, happy this day has finally arrived. The past five years have been very interesting and for the most part, ever so much fun. I think this is a pretty special way to mark the occasion and I really hope you all enjoy the compilation as much as I do. Initially I thought an idea such as this was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that. However, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for all her support and putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

So, to mark 5 years of BarryGruff, here is ‘GruffWuff’; a 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. There is an act by act guide after the jump, I really hope everyone enjoys this as much as we did putting it together.

It’s yours now, just ‘name your price’ – which includes zero, so technically it’s free.

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Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 Track Compilation Album

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BarryGruff is 5 years old today!

Those five years have been interesting and fun. The blog has ebbed and flowed in parallel with my own life which has moved on somewhat from where it was back in March 2010. Since my early teens spouting about music has always been part and parcel of my life but I’m very grateful to have been in a position to share those musings and whatnot with a wider audience than my mates (or whoever is willing to listen).

Blogging has become quite a big part of my life and while listening to and discovering new music etc. is something that comes rather natural, a lot of my free time is devoted to the upkeep of the blog and how much longer I can continue to do so is anyone’s guess. It might be one year or another five, who knows? So with that in mind I really wanted to do something really special to mark the occasion and I’m pretty damn chuffed with this one.

Without further a do, to celebrate 5 years of BarryGruff is ‘GruffWuff’: A 19 track compilation of new, previously unreleased and exclusive recordings from some of my very favourite acts over the past 5 years of blogging. While I initially thought it was just a pipe dream and one that would remain just that, the enthusiasm that met my initial inquiries bowled me over, I couldn’t believe how eager everyone was. It is something that’ll stay with me forever and it means an awful lot. Hopefully it will shine a light, brief as it maybe on some of the acts that have brought me the most joy over the past few years. The enjoyment music brings me can’t be overstated, be it happy times or sad times, there’s one constant; music.

Thanks to Stevie for all his assistance, Caroline for putting up with me, Peter Lee for mastering & all the artists who provided tracks for the compilation. A huge amount of credit must go to the artists involved for their eagerness and the ever so brilliant music.

‘GruffWuff’ will be released through Bandcamp on Thursday, March 19th and the tracklisting is below for your perusal. I’m really, really excited for people to finally hear what everyone’s been working away on for the past 9 months.

Celebrating 5 Years of BarryGruff with ‘GruffWuff’:

01. Fold – ‘Where Are You’

02. Oh Boland – ‘White Boy’

03. Seazoo – ‘DIG (Demo Version)’

04. Mr Huw – ‘Bai Neb Ond Fy Hun’

05. Dan Amor – ‘Can’t Sleep’

06. Oisin McCole – ‘Far From The Sea’

07. Anderson – ‘The Way The Stream Flows’

08. Knoxville Morning – ‘Bridget’

09. Nathan Conway – ‘Babycheeno’

10. Disconcerting P – ‘Treated You Rough’

11. The Expert – ‘Swapsies’

12. SertOne – ‘Seventeen’

13. Imploded View – ‘Barry’s Game’

14. Channel Swimmer – ‘Racket’

15. Monto – ‘Yeuh’

16. Open Window – ‘003 (Africa)’

17. Captain Moonlight – ‘What is Property?’

18. GEM_DOS – ‘Mag D’Allen’

19. Hippies Vs Ghosts – ‘Three Shadows’

 

Seazoo – ‘Panda Pains’

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It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything more than a peep from North Walian five-piece Seazoo. Both they and their multifarious concoction of charming, sprightly indie-pop certainly left a lasting impression and in that spirit, we are greeted by fantastic news of a new release, which thankfully brings this period of unwelcome silence to an abrupt close.

The Wrexham outfit has announced they have teamed up London-based label, Label Fandango and will release their new single ‘Panda Pains’ on January 19th. It is a bright, upbeat and colourful two and a half wonderful minutes of power-pop. Filled with a booning vitality it harness the full power from an irresistible melody, a delightful blend of chipper guitars and a surge of cheap-sounding keyboards – let’s just say infectious would be to put it mildly. A band to be treasured and enjoyed, this is mesmerizing stuff as usual from Seazoo; one of Wales’ most exciting emerging bands. Also, rumour has it that there is more to come in the new year, including an EP, and potentially an album. YES! YES! DOUBLE YES!

For the being? Well there’s is just the ‘small’ matter of ‘Panda Pains’ – you can enjoy it below.

PS – What a lovely hat that is.

Introducing: Seazoo

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In their relatively short life as a band – since April 2013 – North Walian three-piece Seazoo have certainly made a lasting impression (on me for a start).  

Seazoo and their multifarious concoction of charming, sprightly indie-pop, have impressed time and time again, at regular intervals throughout the year. Their music is a colourful, curious and smile inducing mix of guitar and keyboard noise, delightful fuzz and smiley melodies; infectious doesn’t even cover the half of it. Take for ‘Bumbler’ example, it harbors all the curious, quirky and beautiful pop goodness akin to Village Green era The Kinks, and that is not an exaggeration. ‘No Wrenching of Guts This Time’ on the other hand, while no less impressive, offers an off-kilter and heart-swelling kind of garage pop, of say Gorky’s meets Pavement. These are just utterly loveable tunes, with so much unrestrained vitality, as this Wrexham trio push their creative license to the fore. In short: Seazoo are a band to be treasured and enjoyed.

Hopefully we hear plenty more from Seazoo in 2014 but until then, there’s a few choice cuts below, for your aural pleasure.