Category: Music

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Music

Bad Flamingo – Dead Man’s Hand

I would love to tell you a little more about Bad Flamingo, but they seem pretty happy with their anonymity: their website bio reads simply “Vocals, Guitar. Bass. Banjo, the one on the left. Vocals. Banjo. Autoharp. Tambourine, the one on the right”, and aside from a 2019 interview with Tinnitist they’ve said very little publicly. So let’s just focus on the music, which is great. Dead Man’s Hand is pretty unclassifiable – alt-country? prairie-rock? – but incredibly evocative, powerfully delivered and unquestionably vital: a seething cauldron of reverberating guitars, pummelling drums and enigmatic vocals.

https://www.badflamingomusic.com

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Music

A Winged Victory For The Sullen – Desires Are Already Memories

To my shame, I only recently found out that Stars of the Lid founder Adam Wiltzie made up one half of A Winged Victory For The Sullen – the other half being L.A. composer Dustin O’Halloran – which considering how much I love SOTL, I really should have been more aware of. Desires Are Already Memories is taken from their forthcoming album Invisible Cities, which is a paired-down version of the score to Leo Warner’s acclaimed theatre production. Like much of their work it sits somewhere between hope and despair, with choral voices and aching beautiful strings combining to tremendous effect.

https://awvfts.com

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Music

LAMBERT – one x one

LAMBERT is a London based songwriter, producer and artist with a background in baroque and classical music and now creating some rather striking electronica. one x one is her latest release and pairs her granulated, ethereal vocal alongside starkly beautiful production. The track was produced while “coming to terms with the reality of losing someone close to me”, with LAMBERT aiming to make something that was both painful and beautiful to capture the feelings of that time. She’s undoubtedly succeeded.

https://soundcloud.com/grace-lambert-207283757/one-x-one-2/s-IlN9um8m0HU

https://www.instagram.com/grace.lamberrt

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Interviews Music

One Track Mind: Loma

The band’s Jonathan Mieburg celebrates the work of Soviet-Armenian composer Aram Khatchaturian.

The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!

Following the inaugural feature from Nation of Language’s Ian Devaney, we’re with another of my favourite bands for round two: Loma.

Loma released their second album, Don’t Shy Away, earlier this year: a stunningly brilliant body of work the moves from the propulsive, dream-pop of tracks like Half Silences and choral theatrics of Elliptical Days, to the ghostly, folk-like strains of the title track: undoubtedly one of the most crushingly beautiful singles of the year.

For his selection, Loma’s Jonathan Mieburg – who many will know from his work with Shearwater – has picked out an epic, haunting piece of classical music from one of the most celebrated films of all time.

Continue reading “One Track Mind: Loma”
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Music

MIYNT – A bite of papaya

It’s all been a bit serious on the blog recently – lots of moody electronic stuff which obviously has its place, but still – so here’s a big refreshing wallop of positivity for your ears courtesy of Stockholm-based-artist MIYNT that’s the result “a slow disco jam and too much fruit”, apparently. A bite of papaya is an immensely wonderful record, with the hushed, lo-fo vocals contrasting wonderfully with those big, open chords and ebullient percussion. A joyful, infectious triumph.

https://soundcloud.com/miynt/a-bite-of-papaya-1/

https://www.instagram.com/itsmiynt

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Music

Sea Oleena – Lost Song

There’s been a gap of six years between Shallow – the last Sea Oleena LP – and Weaving A Basket, which was released last month. So long in fact that I’d forgotten just how brilliant an artist she is. Weaving A Basket, though, may be a late entry for album of the year: it’s certainly one of the most beautiful, with vocals acting like ambient textures rather than narrative or rhythmic devices, often accompanied by little more than a mournfully strummed guitar. It’s honestly hard to describe just how lovely this album is, so probably best just to go and listen to it.

https://seaoleena.bandcamp.com

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Music

Craven Faults – Hard Level Force

There are only two possible musical routes for an artist name of Craven Faults coupled with artwork as starkly bleak as on Enclosures: screaming, piledriving metal and sinister, meandering electronica. Fortunately (for me at least) this is very much in the latter camp; an intricate, patient and atmospheric three track EP from an artist whose bio is as succinct and evocative as “half-remembered journeys across post-industrial Yorkshire”.

https://cravenfaults.bandcamp.com/

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Music

Il Quadro di Troisi – Sfere di Qi

A while back I posted about Raggio verde, the first track of a new project by Andrea Noce (Eva Geist) and Donato Scaramuzzi aka Donato Dozzy aka one of my very favourite electronic producers of all time. It turns out that I’m such a big fan of his that I completely missed the release of the full, self-titled album last month. Anyway, it’s brilliant, and Sfere di Qi is just one of many of the tracks that balance Dozzy’s trademark hypnotic polyrhythms with Geist’s wonderfully evocative vocals.

https://soundcloud.com/raster_artistic_platform

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Music

Rebecca Phillips – Under Me

Under Me is the latest single from London-based experimental pop artist Rebecca Phillips, who combines Arca-esque production with striking vocals that swerve between hushed background textures and screaming excess. There’s a fine balance of delicate melodics and punishing violence at play here, and it all works extremely well.

https://soundcloud.com/rebeccaphillipsxyz

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Music

Keeley Forsyth – Photograph

Seemingly not content with releasing one of the very best albums of the year, Keeley Forsyth put out a brand new EP, Photograph, last week. The title track was actually out around a month ago but I somehow missed it, and wanted to feature as it’s absolutely extraordinary. Her voice really is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, and coveys so much: angst, vulnerability and sorrow, but also a fierce defiance and resolution. The production is sparse but incredibly powerful, and the entire record strikes a heartbreaking balance between black, bleak misery and fragile optimism.

http://www.keeleyforsyth.com