Tag: alternative

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Interviews Music

Cate Le Bon – Jerome

Cate Le Bon’s new album Michelangelo Dying is a reflective, experimental pop record shaped by grief and personal change. Built from warped guitars, processed saxophones, and layered vocals, it moves away from her earlier sharp-edged sound into something softer and more abstract. The lyrics are impressionistic but emotionally direct, touching on memory, identity, and loss. It’s her most introspective album to date, balancing clarity and strangeness in equal measure.

https://catelebon.bandcamp.com/album/michelangelo-dying

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Music

Avi C. Engel – Nyx

Photo credit: Tanja-Tiziana

I’ve written about Avi C. Engel’s music a few times before on TPW and their music always stops me in my tracks. Nyx is the opening track from their latest album, Mote on the UK label Fenny Compton – an 8-track collection based around voice and acoustic guitar – and is as haunting and evocative a slice of alternative folk as you’re likely to hear this year.

https://fennycompton.bandcamp.com/album/fc8-mote

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Hydroplane – Houdini’s Dream

This is the first single from A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim, the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane. On it, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century.

https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/a-place-in-my-memory-is-all-i-have-to-claim

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Music

The Orielles – The Improvisation 001

I’m going to Simple Things Festival in a few months, so have been doing the usual things of obsessively listening to every single artist billed. This includes The Orielles; a band whose name I recognise but have never previously listened to. Taken from their 2022 album album Tableau, The Improvision 001 is utterly brilliant, almost unclassifiable and has been on constant repeat for the last few days. And yes, I appreciate this came out several years ago, but also: the past is a largely safe and friendly place that I enjoy exploring.

https://theorielles.bandcamp.com/

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Music

Buscabulla – Divino Tesoro

Se Amaba Así – which loosely translates to “The way love was” – sees Raquel Berrios and Luis Del Valle Buscabull devoting their second album to the examination of modern love and the myriad strains of Latin music to explore their struggles as both artists and a romantic couple. It’s darker in tone that their debut Regresa but no less captivating.

https://buscabulla.bandcamp.com/album/se-amaba-as

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Music

Lucy Gooch – Night Window Part One

On her debut album Desert Window, Lucy Gooch stays true to her electronic foundations, while incorporating more acoustic instrumentation and digging deeper into her folk roots through songwriting. At the heart of Lucy’s music is her rapturous, at times operatic vocal, with which she bring to the fore more than with previous releases. The result is described as “an atmospheric balance between Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins harmonies” which is risky ground with which to invite comparison; the fact that I’m not mad about it shows just how good this album is.

https://lucygooch.bandcamp.com/album/desert-window

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Music

The Vernon Spring – Known

This is taken from Under a Familiar Sun, the new album from The Vernon Spring and the solo project of British composer and producer Sam Beste. Over twelve elegant songs, Beste’s beautiful, expansive compositions centre around a graceful and deliberate approach to piano, accented by vocal collaborations, spoken word, and a gently compelling mix of electronic and acoustic instrumentation.

https://thevernonspring.bandcamp.com/album/under-a-familiar-sun

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Music

Jenny Hval – Lay Down

Jenny Hval opens her new album Iris Silver Mist with Lay Down, a track that floats in slowly, all soft synths and whispered intimacy. She sings about lying in the dark with a scythe in her hand, which sounds ominous, but lands more reflective than threatening. There’s a quiet jazziness to the arrangement, loungey and fluid, making it feel like something half-heard through a hotel wall.

https://jennyhval.bandcamp.com/album/iris-silver-mist

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Music

Maria Somerville – Stonefly

Stonefly is the third single from Maria Somerville’s upcoming album Luster, due out April 25 via 4AD . It’s a slow, minimal track built around soft synth loops and Somerville’s low-key vocal delivery. There’s not much in the way of hooks, but it’s easy to get drawn into its atmosphere after a couple of listens. The track also comes with a video directed by Daniel Swan, which fits the mood without overdoing it

https://mariasomerville.bandcamp.com/album/luster

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Music

T H R O N E – Family Reunion

An artistic couple, T H R O N E is the union of Hayatheus and YVHIKV, who together craft distinctive, alternative hip-hop from their home in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. Clocking in at a little over a minute, Family Reunion packs a hell of a lot into such a short running time, with crackling beats and a hazily looped sample providing the bed for confidently delivered, insightful lyrics about the complexity and frustrations associated with family relationships.

https://www.instagram.com/waytoothrone