News – Page 58 – 7th Level Music

Brijean shows us “Caldwell’s Way” from their upcoming “Angelo” EP.

Brijean – the duo of percussionist/singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart – shares the new single, “Caldwell’s Way,” from their Angelo EP, out August 5th on Ghostly International. “Caldwell’s Way” is a fond farewell to their Bay Area community — “a part of my life that I knew couldn’t come back,” says Murphy. Above shimmering organ sounds, lush strings, and the birdcall of their former neighborhood, she wistfully articulates the uncertainty of moving on by remembering the characters dear to the band. There’s the wisdom of their neighbor, Santos, who refused payment when helping them move out: “I’d rather have 100 friends than 100 dollars.” And the song’s namesake, Benjamin Caldwell Brown, a friend and club night cohort for many years.

“Dougie and I wrote this song in the midst of deep life changes,” explains Murphy. “We found ourselves uprooted in the Southwest, processing both personal and geographic loss. I had never felt physical withdrawals from a place and community, until then. I missed The Bay and our friends in it – even thinking about certain buildings and streets brought me comfort and longing. This song is a loving farewell to the people and places I may never embrace again.”

Stream “Caldwell’s Way”

On Angelo, Brijean explores new moods and styles, reaching for effervescent dance tempos and technicolor backdrops, vibrant hues in contrast to their more somber human experiences. Angelo beams with positivity and creative renewal — a resourceful, collective answer to “what happens now?”

Following the sudden passing of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents, Brijean left the Bay Area in a haze of heartache to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Named after Murphy’s 1981 Toyota Celica, the Angelo EP features nine songs they crafted and carried with them through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks – along with Angelo – became their few constants. Whereas Feelings, Brijean’s acclaimed 2021 full-length Ghostly International debut, was formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo’s sessions presented the duo a chance to record at their most intimate, “to get us out of our grief and into our bodies,” says Murphy. Angelo finds Murphy and Stuart processing the impossible the only way they know how: through rhythm and movement.

In support of Angelo, Brijean will play their first headline shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, as well as an international appearance with Poolside in Mexico City. A full list of tour dates can be found below.

Stream:
“Caldwell’s Way”
“Ooo La La”
“Shy Guy”

Pre-order/pre-save Angelo EP

Brijean Tour Dates
Thu. Aug. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Sat. Aug. 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Wed. Aug. 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Rooftop
Fri. Aug. 19 – Sun. Aug. 22 – Long Pond, PA @ Elements Festival
Sat. Aug. 27 – Mexico City, MX @ Auditorio BlackBerry (with Poolside)

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Chats floor it on their new single, “6L GTR.”

Australian punks The Chats announce their new album, GET FUCKED, out August 19th on the band’s own label, Bargain Bin Records, and share a new single/video, “6L GTR.” The announcement arrives in the midst of their North American tour (tickets on sale now). Their debut full-length, High Risk Behaviour, dropped just as the pandemic struck, and The Chats have duly been through the same frustrating two years of broken dreams and shredded itineraries as every other combo. Undeterred and now stocked to overflowing with frustration and fury, they strike back with GET FUCKED, an incendiary, hyper-adrenalized blitz from punk heaven, showcasing a rockin’ new guitarist, and an electrifying all-killer-no-filler 13 tracks which perfectly capture the band’s explosive energy. It is, quite simply, another laugh-out-loud, pogo-through-the-floorboards stroke of motherfucking genius.

WATCH THE CHATS’ VIDEO FOR “6L GTR”

The Chats took lockdown as a chance to plan their next move, which is when they enlisted Josh Hardy after the departure of their last guitarist. Sometime in ’21, Eamon Sandwith, Matt Boggis and Hardy decamped to southern Queensland to write at their friend’s place, Vinny’s Dive Bar. Once they’d worked up a rollicking batch of new tunes, they had actually planned to record again near Melbourne, with Billy Gardner, who produced High Risk Behaviour, but due to pandemic border closures, they nailed it instead in six days at Brisbane’s Hunting Ground facility with Cody McWaters, who’d worked on a single for Eamon’s other band, Headlice.

“They weren’t like hardcore working days,” Eamon reveals, “we would start at 11 and finish at 4, and in the middle of that we’d go to the pub for lunch for two hours, and have a few beers. Then we’d go, ‘Oh shit, we better go back and do some recording!’ Our work etiquette wasn’t great.” Consequently, GET FUCKED, while tackling umpteen eminently relatable beefs ranging from surfer-dude racism to the usual dire impecunity, feels like a classic high-velocity punk-rock party album like they just don’t make ’em anymore – think early Ramones, think MDC’s debut, think invite your mates over and rock hard all weekend.

GET FUCKED opens with “6L GTR,” a swingeing takedown of a speed-crazed status-symbol driver – a critique piqued when Eamon spotted the titular licence plate in an airport carpark. “I don’t even know if the car itself was actually a six-liter GTR or anything,” he chuckles. “To be honest with you, I don’t even know what a car like that would look like! I can’t drive! That was the thing, we were just trying to get into this dude’s head.” The video was made by animator and illustrator Marco Imov who spent days creating the band in character form. “They hinted that it would be cool if instead of being directly about the car, it should be about the band wanting the car,” explains Marco. “From there it kind of wrote itself down.”

The more you listen to it, the more you realize that there was only one plausible title for this second Chats album. After all the incarceration and boredom, The Chats are in peak match fitness to deliver the excitement we all crave for the months ahead.

WATCH VIDEO FOR “STRUCK BY LIGHTNING”

GET FUCKED TRACKLIST
1. 6L GTR
2. Struck By Lightning
3. Boggo Road
4. Southport Superman
5. Panic Attack
6. Ticket Inspector
7. The Price of Smokes
8. Dead on Site
9. Paid Late
10. I’ve Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane
11. Out On The Street
12. Emperor of the Beach
13. Getting Better

THE CHATS TOUR DATES
Mon. Jun. 27 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
Tue. Jun. 28 – Brussels, BE @ La Botanique
Fri. Jul. 1 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter 2022
Mon. Jul. 4 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Tue. Jul. 5 – Berlin, DE @ SO36
Wed. Jul. 6 – Hamburg, DE @ Moltow Backyard
Thu. Jul. 7 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude
Fri. Jul. 22 – Adelaide, AU @ Adelaide Showground
Fri. Jul. 29 – Luxembourg, LU @ Rotondes
Sat. Oct. 8 – Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock Festival

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Arp releases title track from his upcoming “New Pleasures” album due July 15, 2022.

Today, composer/producer Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp) has announced New Pleasures, a new album slated for release on July 15th. With the record,Arp sculpts angularities into fresh, alluring shapes, expanding and contracting song form into brain-teasing sound design. The sensation the music offers is almost rubbery; it makes you feel as if you could flex, bend and squeeze your body inside out – a vivid, deconstructed take on high-definition pop, avant-garde, and dance music forms. Drawing on the promise of futurism, New Pleasures reflects the slipperiness of time, the multidirectional, non-linearity of memory; how our minds shift millisecond to millisecond from past to present to future and back again.

Lead single “New Pleasures” comes alongside a striking video directed by acclaimed filmmaker Adinah Dancyger.

“That space between idea and reality, fact and fiction—which drives ‘New Pleasures’—is so often inhabited by commerce, which conjures our fantasies for us,” Georgopoulos explains. “And there we find desire. For connection, luxury, distinction. We think we’re immune to its psychology because we’re conscious of it, but in some ways, it drives everything.”

New Pleasures is the second chapter in Arp’s ZEBRA trilogy and advances the narrative begun with 2018’s acclaimed ZEBRA; pastoral in mood, expansive in style, the record acted as a dawn on a nascent, Edenic landscape, reminiscent of a beautiful, long-lost Fourth World album. In this world, the music approximated the patient cadence of geological time – the way time suspends when you watch a river in motion. There was, nonetheless, the presence of something alien on the horizon.

Now, Arp drops us deep into the grid of the city. New Pleasures fast-forwards a few centuries, locating listeners in a post-industrial Sprawl (to borrow an expression from William Gibson’s Neuromancer) of concrete and glass, imbuing the album with the flinty glow of commerce, the sleek rhythms of industrialization, and the cool finesse of brutalism. The result is a collection of futuristic pop interiors with glinted exteriors; a prismatic inquiry into machine sentience, the economy of desire, and myriad forms of possession.

“Sometimes the most alien thing is simply seeing what we take for granted from a slightly different angle.” – Arp

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[Thanks to Mexican Summer.]

Brijean announces new EP out August 05, 2022 and premieres new single – “Shy Guy.”

Brijean announces their new Angelo EP (out August 5th on Ghostly International) with lead single “Shy Guy” and new tour dates. Angelo, named after Brijean Murphy‘s 1981 Toyota Celica, features nine songs Brijean have crafted and carried with them through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. It finds percussionist/singer Murphy and multi-instrumentalist / producer Doug Stuart processing the impossible the only way they know how: through rhythm and movement.

The months surrounding the acclaimed release of Feelings, their full-length Ghostly International debut in 2021 which celebrated tender self-reflection and new possibilities, rang bittersweet with the sudden passing of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents. In a haze of heartache, the duo left the Bay Area to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks, along with Angelo, became their few constants. Whereas Feelings formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo’s sessions presented Murphy and Stuart a chance to record at their most intimate, “to get us out of our grief and into our bodies,” says Murphy.

Like much of Angelo, lead single “Shy Guy” offers levity and movement in spite of the sorrow, and is a motivational anthem for the wallflowers among us. Murphy sets up the daydream: “We are in junior high, we’re on the dance floor, what’s going down, who is dancing, who is not, how are we gonna make them dance?” The narrator, the MC, hypes up the room as conga-driven rhythms bounce between languid synth and guitar lines. “Show me how to move…I feel something…I know you feel it too,” Murphy sings sweetly, calling back to the opening lines of Feelings, and this time the audience chants it back.

Stream “Shy Guy”

Pre-order/pre-save Angelo EP

Brijean Tour Dates
Sat. June 25 – Denver, CO @ Color Field
Thu. Aug. 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
Sat. Aug. 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Wed. Aug. 17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Rooftop
Fri. Aug. 19 – Sun. Aug. 22 – Long Pond, PA @ Elements Festival
Sat. Aug. 27 – Mexico City, MX @ Auditorio BlackBerry

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

JayWood is “Just Sayin'” on his new single.

JayWood – the moniker of Winnipeg musician & songwriter Jeremy Haywood-Smith – announces his new album, Slingshot, out July 15th on Captured Tracks, and shares its lead single/video, “Just Sayin.” Since 2015, JayWood has captured the young writer’s journey of self-discovery and heartache through unique songwriting and an ever-evolving sound. After the loss of his mother in 2019 and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for forward momentum. “The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me—hence the title, ‘Slingshot,’” Haywood-Smith explains. Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Through a year of self-reflection and reconnection with his roots, Haywood-Smith has made the biggest leap forward for JayWood by simply looking back. Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths, merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals.

The narrative for Slingshot takes place in the span of one day. From the first track to the last track, JayWood takes you on a journey that touches on themes of childhood, religion, and identity. While writing and recording the album, Haywood-Smith put together a complex “script” mapping out all of the plot points, environments, characters that make up this surreal version of his real life. Musically, Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track’s instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon and Mckinley Dixon, and fellow Manitoban musician Kayla Fernandes who fronts the doom-metal band Vagina Witchcraft. One song was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

Today’s “Just Sayin” was originally written by Haywood-Smith with the intention to be given to another artist to perform, but he pushed himself to expand his vocal range and embody the confidence that pop music requires for the track. “The song is about creating equal opportunity for people in need, and lending a helping hand if you can,” says Haywood-Smith. “It’s a super simple thought that I think could easily get overlooked, but having a catchy reminder like this might subliminally provoke some thought.”

Watch JayWood’s Video for “Slingshot”

Jeremy Haywood-Smith was born and raised in the Canadian prairies, spending most of his life in the city of Winnipeg. He taught himself how to write and record during the early days of the JayWood project, but has developed through challenging himself to never fear change. Despite the culturally homogenous nature of his hometown, Haywood-Smith takes inspiration from a wide range of Black performers and artists working in all genres and eras. For Slingshot, visionary artists like Kendrick Lamar inspired Haywood-Smith’s approach to storytelling and world-building. “I love Kendrick’s ability to pull from life experiences growing up and conveying a message that’s greater than himself,” says Haywood-Smith “This album felt like I was making something that I would want my younger self to hear.”

Pre-order Slingshot

Watch video for “God Is A Reptile” by JayWood

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Harkin is “Here Again” on her new single.

With new album ‘Honeymoon Suite‘ out June 17th via Hand Mirror, the label Harkin founded in 2019 with her wife, the poet Kate Leah Hewett, today Harkin is sharing her new single “Here Again“, featuring brass by Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes) and Aaron Roche (Lower Dens, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Flock of Dimes).

Speaking about the track, Harkin said “‘Here Again’ is a song about the timelessness and of love and loss. It’s about the dance of raw vulnerability and galvanising strength that comes with both, how each are transcendent and everyday. Everyone seems to mention how time has worked differently the last few years, and for me that really crystallised in my experiences of love and loss.

My grandad, who passed away years ago, wrote poetry and the line about dancing away references a poem he wrote about his own feelings on mortality. In some ways it feels like an ongoing conversation with him. It’s been hard over the last few years to feel like I’m remaining porous and open to life when there are so many reasons to want to shut it out. This song is a reminder to let it all in.”

Listen to “Here Again”: https://youtu.be/aSTJZBLJUQ8

‘Honeymoon Suite’ are a blend of love, grief, anxiety, resilience, danger, heartbreak and hope. Part pop record, part electronic soundscape, part interior still life, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ was recorded in a one bedroom flat in the depths of UK lockdowns

The album marks a significant shift for an artist who had previously built a career around collaboration. In addition to her own bands, Harkin has been a touring member of Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Flock of Dimes, and Kurt Vileand Courtney Barnett’s Sea Lice. She performed backing vocals for Dua Lipa on Saturday Night Live. She dueted with comedian Sarah Silverman on ‘Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight’. Her studio work includes contributions to Waxahatchee’s ‘Out In The Storm’. Outside of the music world, Harkin has composed for Turner Prize-winning artist Helen Marten and British comedian Josie Long. She even has a Saturday Night Live sketch named after her (Fred Armisen’s 2016 ‘Harkin Brothers Band’).

Where her self-titled first record is infused with the expansiveness which birthed it – written and recorded while touring the globe – ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is an entirely different affair. The album was written in the same room in which Harkin and her wife ate all their meals, held their virtual wedding reception and attended a funeral over zoom. As Harkin describes it, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is “a ship in a bottle of that time”.

The album takes its title from the couple’s affectionate nickname for the flat they found themselves living in after relocating from their then-home in Hudson, New York, where Harkin’s wife was working as a live music promoter until the pandemic was declared. When it became obvious that they would both be out of work indefinitely, they joined many others heeding the call of their home nations to repatriate. In addition to that frenzied move back to the UK, the couple’s planned wedding also took a hard left turn. They had intended to hold a wedding for 150 in September 2020. Instead, they got married in a small, outside ceremony in front of their bubbled parents and siblings. They were married in the Derbyshire village of Eyam, coincidentally famous for quarantining itself during The Bubonic Plague. The flowers in the image on the album’s back cover are their wedding bouquets. “I followed a YouTube tutorial and made our bouquets out of the wedding flowers our friends sent us. We didn’t take a honeymoon and still haven’t. Instead, the flat in Sheffield became our honeymoon suite.”

The album’s DIY ethos continued through its artwork. “Kate took the cover photo and designed the layout. She also designed our original wedding invitations so it felt apt.”

The album also marks Harkin’s first forays into self-producing, a journey she began immediately after her move back to the UK. At that time, her best friend, cinematographer Ashley Connor, asked her to create the soundtrack for an experimental short film she was making for Sam Abbas’ quarantine movie ‘Erēmīta (Anthologies)’. “I’ve worked in all manner of studios and assumed many different roles in music making. I had thousands of flight hours but I had still never been the pilot. Owning the role of producer was more of a mental block than anything else, but circumstance dissolved that intimidation. Working on Ashley’s soundtrack early in the pandemic gave me the confidence to continue producing my own solo work. I won a grant from the PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund which would cover the mixing and mastering if I could be self-sufficient in recording. It felt like the quest I needed to push me into discovering this new direction.”

In terms of instrumentation, ‘Honeymoon Suite’ is more electronic than Harkin’s previous work and this too was for largely practical reasons. “Kate took a remote call centre job when we first got back. This meant we were in the same room, her taking customer service calls and me working on the album. The flat was also above a pub, so I had to record strategically. I’d program drum machines and synths in the day, record guitars in the evenings over the din of the pub-goers, and I’d squeeze vocals into the quiet weekend mornings.”

Indeed, most of the tracks on ‘Honeymoon Suite’ emerged out of synth drones, a refuge for Harkin during the weeks at a time that she didn’t feel like bursting into song. “The album’s glitches and degrading samples reflect the limitations of the digital intimacy we were all relying on during that time as we literally phoned it in.”

Harkin freely admits that the enormity of the task was no walk in the park for the first time producer. “Being my own mirror was ego-crushing at times; I knew these songs deserved extra gusto that I had to outsource.” That’s where the brass by Nate Walcott and Aaron Roche, slide guitar by J.R. Bohannon (Torres) and backing vocals by Sophie Galpin (Soft Lad, Self Esteem) came in, sent down the wire from their respective homes. It was even mixed and mastered remotely (mixed by Jeff T Smith in Leeds and mastered by Guy Davie in London).

As Harkin puts it, “for me, this album was a rabbit hole and escape hatch. It’s a very vulnerable record. There are no performances – I made it alone. Releasing it into the world feels like an extension of the solitary process and remote collaboration which created it. I hope it travels far and wide.”

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Ultraflex invite us to party on “Rhodos.”

Ultraflex is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Farao (NO) and Special-K (IS) and today they are sharing their new single & video “Rhodos“, which showcases another glimpse of their playful disco-pop.

“Rhodos” is an ode to Northern European tourists partying in the South of Europe (Mallorca, Ibiza, Rhodes etc.) It honours pink beer bellies, Smirnoff Ice and the smell of aftersun and is inspired by Ultraflex’s own experience of getting liquor poured straight into their mouths by flexing bartenders at a time in their lives when belly rings and miss sixty jeans were of the utmost importance.

The track is accompanied by a jeggings and jewels filled music video filmed in Greece, directed by Sigurlaug Gisladottir. In the words of the band, “‘Rhodos’ was written in deep pandemic, when we were desperately craving to party. Longing after people yelling in our ears, everyone bumping into each other, stepping on our toes and the sensation of cold beer flowing down our backs. Writing Rhodos immediately transported us to a hot and sticky beach, a place we loved and loathed equally.”

Listen to & watch “Rhodos” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hPlYDuiRt4

Ultraflex released their saucy debut album Visions of Ultraflex was released in 2020 to critical and popular acclaim, winning The Icelandic Music Awards 2021 for ‘Best Electronic Album’ and Kraumur Award for ‘Best Album’, besides collecting additional international nominations. Ultraflex places equal value on sounds, lyrics and visual representation – music videos or experimental films are made to every single song.

Ultraflex’s sound is inspired by the disco, italo and funk of the 80’s, blending it with new-age sensibilities, unexpected jazz chords and melodic twists. The result is a catchy, contemporary whirlwind of dance floor weirdness, nodding to their ancestors in the historical lineage of spectacular electronic music. The duo’s material is simultaneously kitsch and conceptual, filtered through contemporary pop culture. Ultraflex creates their own brand new lotion carefully tailored to your needs.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

JayWood says “Thank You” on his dreamy new single.

JayWood – the moniker of Winnipeg musician & songwriter Jeremy Haywood-Smith – presents a new single/video, “Thank You,” from his forthcoming album, Slingshot, out July 15th on Captured Tracks. The album’s penultimate track, “Thank You” was co-produced with Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Blouse and features string arrangements by Johan Lenox. The song brings JayWood’s sound full circle, offering something reminiscent of Haywood-Smith’s earliest recordings while flaunting that “the best is yet to come.” “‘Thank You’ is a song that’s dedicated to the folks that aren’t really in my life anymore, but more importantly it’s for my mom who passed away back in 2019.” says Haywood-Smith. “I feel like this song kinda wrote itself, it felt so easy to put together because I knew the core of what I was trying to get across. The demo for this song felt super strong but after Jake and I spent some time expanding a few ideas, the song really blossomed into something I couldn’t ever imagine.”

The charming accompanying video, directed by Chantel Simpson, shows Haywood-Smith passing out flowers across Harlem.

Watch Jaywood’s Video for “Thank You”

The narrative for Slingshot takes place in the span of one day. From the first track to the last track, JayWood takes you on a journey that touches on themes of childhood, religion, and identity. While writing and recording the album, Haywood-Smith put together a complex “script” mapping out all of the plot points, environments, characters that make up this surreal version of his real life. Musically, Haywood-Smith wrote and performed a bulk of the track’s instrumentations, but the LP has notable appearances from Canadian contemporaries Ami Cheon and McKinley Dixon, and fellow Manitoban musician Kayla Fernandes who fronts the doom-metal band Vagina Witchcraft. Despite the culturally homogenous nature of his hometown, Haywood-Smith takes inspiration from a wide range of Black performers and artists working in all genres and eras. “This album felt like I was making something that I would want my younger self to hear.”

Born and raised in the Canadian prairies, JayWood has captured Haywood-Smith’s journey of self-discovery and heartache through unique songwriting since 2015. After the loss of his mother in 2019 and a global standstill with multiple social crises throughout 2020, Haywood-Smith yearned for forward momentum. “The idea of looking back to go forward became a really big thing for me—hence the title, ‘Slingshot,’” Haywood-Smith explains. Feeling disconnected from his past and ancestry after the death of a parent, Haywood-Smith made a conscious effort to better understand his identity and unique Black experience living in the predominantly white province of Manitoba. Slingshot is a self-portrait of JayWood at his surface and his depths, merging fantasy scenarios, personal anecdotes, and infectious pop and dance instrumentals.

Watch “Just Sayin” Video

Watch “God is a Reptile” Video

Pre-order Slingshot

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Johnny Kelly and Dan Lorenzo have become Patriarchs in Black.

Brooklyn native Johnny Kelly and NJ guitarist Dan Lorenzo have both played in more than a handful of bands.

Lorenzo was the founding member of both Hades and Non-Fiction and most recently Vessel Of Light and Cassius King. He even wrote the music with Bobby Blitz‘ first foray outside of Overkill in 2007 with The Cursed.

Kelly first came into prominence with Type O Negative and has also sat behind the kit for Danzig for nearly two decades. Kelly has also performed with Black Label Society, and currently Quiet Riot and Silvertomb.

Before now the two have never recorded anything together. “I honestly don’t remember how I first got in contact with Johnny“, Lorenzo stated. “I know we’ve had some email contact together for a while, and I remember originally being flattered that Johnny even knew who I was.”

Kelly stated, “I liked the riffs that Dan sent me and it’s a great opportunity to get to play with different people.” When Kelly was asked what he brings to the table for PATRIARCHS IN BLACK he came back with, ” I’m not really sure. I consider myself to be an average drummer at best. It must be my charming personality!”

The duo have named this project PATRIARCHS IN BLACK. Lorenzo wrote the music and plays guitar, Kelly is behind the kit.

PATRIARCHS IN BLACK will have multiple vocalists. Karl Agell ( Corrosion of Conformity Blind), Dewey Bragg ( Kill Devil Hill ) Jimmy Gnecco ( OURS) and John Kosco (Dropbox) have each sang a song. When pressed for a description of how the music sounds Kelly said, “All roads lead to Black Sabbath!”.

Germany’s MDD Records will release PATRIARCHS IN BLACK debut release Reach For The Scars on July 1st.

The new single “Demon of Regret” from PATRIARCHS IN BLACK is available NOW!

Stream here: https://patriarchsinblack.bandcamp.com/track/demon-of-regret

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[Thanks to Maria at Adrenaline PR.]

October and the Eyes hits hard with her new single, “When I Was Your Girl.”

Photo by Erika Denis Feble
Having recently toured with **Yves Tumor**, New Zealand-born, London-based singer & songwriter **October and the Eyes** has announced her new EP ‘Who Upset You?‘ is set for release **June 24th** via KRO Records and is sharing new single & video ***“When I Was Your Girl”***.

Speaking about the track, October said “‘When I Was Your Girl’ ruminates on my former love and life spent in our Queen Street, Auckland flat; Dancing on our dining table, playing music too loudly, filling the room with cigarette smoke and masking the scent with our favourite Curio Noir perfume ‘Tobacco Nights’. We would always host these big parties and subject everyone to The Kinks or The Rolling Stones or Jefferson Airplane with our best mate assigned as rock n roll DJ for the night. I remember feeling angry when writing this too – I felt bruised by the whole experience. But time is a great healer, and now I’m able to find peace in its nostalgia. I guess it’s a bitter sweet meditation on a love now lost but not forgotten.”

**Listen to & watch *“When I Was Your Girl”* here:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdNOwoipwI
**Listen via other streaming services here:** https://orcd.co/vey8n44

**October** is no new-comer to music, the New Zealand born musician has been involved in musical pursuits since she was a child. Heralding from a musical family, the prospect of pursuing music in one form or another was almost inescapable: A classical pianist mother, fanatic music fan father, and two older multi- instrumentalist brothers who were always holding their band practices in the family playroom. October’s childhood was that of a humble upbringing; having grown up in a small rural town in New Zealand’s wine country, she turned to songwriting as a means to stave the boredom away. She taught herself how to record and produce her own music aged 12, locking herself away in her bedroom for hours on end, and hasn’t looked back since. Claiming the internet raised her, it’s clear she had her sights set on broader horizons and bigger cities.

Having moved half way across the world to her new home in East London, October has remained true to her traditional isolated writing style by holing up in her East London flat for several months and writing a small collection of songs that can be described as dizzying, darkly kaleidoscopic, and dauntless above all. October describes her musical style as ‘collage-rock’ (not the be confused with college rock). Pulling musical inspiration from the likes of Bauhaus, Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux and Suicide, she then squeezes her influences through the gauze of modernity and electronics, thus creating something entirely of her own.

With nods to acid rock, psychobilly and post-punk, October and The Eyes’ music is equal parts nostalgia-drenched as it is future forward, employing layers of ambient synth drones to anchor the crunched guitars and jagged organ parts. Delivered with a twisted theatricality, her vocals pendulum between commanding chants and soothing coo’s, proving that not only is she a versatile songwriter and producer, but a versatile vocalist too.

October released her debut EP *Dogs and Gods* in 2020 and will release the follow up with ***‘Who Upset You?’*** on **June 24th** via KRO Records.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]