Peter and David Brewis a.k.a. Field Music, are sharing their latest single, “Orion From the Street” (out now via Memphis Industries). The track is a prelude to a new studio album from the beloved UK band that is slated for release later in 2021, following on from 2020’s First World War concept record Making A New World.
LISTEN: Field Music’s “Orion From The Street” HERE
Peter says of “Orion From the Street”, “I wrote it in a daze – it’s full of accidental quotes and allusions – the first couple of lines I overheard in a Cary Grant documentary but they sum up the whole song – how intense impressions of love, hate, grief and guilt can be an almost hallucinatory experience.” Field Music have also announced a string of UK tour dates for October 2021. Full list of dates below. Tickets will go on sale on 15th January at 9am GMT. Tickets are available here.
“Orion From The Street” is out now on Memphis Industries.
Tour Dates 04 April 2021, Cardiff, Wales Goes Pop 02-04 July 2021, Swandlincote, Timber Festival 07 Aug 2021, Summerhall, Edinburgh International Festival 02-05 Sept 2021, Wiltshire, End of the Road Festival 07 Oct 2021, Aberdeen, Tunnels 08 Oct 2021, Glasgow, St Luke’s 09 Oct 2021, Leeds, Brudenell Social Club 14 Oct 2021, Birmingham, Mama Roux’s 15 Oct 2021, Bristol, The Fleece 16 Oct 2021, Nottingham, Rescue Rooms 21 Oct 2021, Brighton, Komedia 22 Oct 2021, London, Electric Ballroom 23 Oct 2021, Manchester, Gorilla
BBE Music is thrilled to announce Modern Love, a tribute album to Bowie, out May 28th. In conjunction with the announcement, BBE present We Are KING’s cosmic, open and airy cover of “Space Oddity.”
Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, L’Rain, Nia Andrews and more, Modern Love seeks to champion his lesser known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album,Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.
Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s diverse and transcendent career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical style and direction.“
We Are KING’s cover of Bowie’s surprise 1972 hit, “Space Oddity,” is a paean to this wholly singular and somewhat eccentric anthem. Smooth, subtle and assured, their version remains true to the original, while blending in just enough soul to make it their own. “There were so many amazing Bowie compositions to choose from but ‘Space Oddity’ has always been our favourite. It’s so visual; it has always felt like time travel in a song,” explain Amber and ParisStrother, who released their debut album as We Are KING in 2016 and have since worked with the likes of RobertGlasper, Corinne Bailey Rae, Bilal and The Foreign Exchange, among many others. “It tells such a vivid and imaginative story of Major Tom’s trip through space and it was such a cool experience to reimagine what it’d be like on the voyage.”
Miss Grit, moniker of Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn, releases the title track from her forthcoming Impostor EP, out February 5th. It follows the “addictive” (Consequence of Sound) lead single “Dark Side Of The Party.” Throughout Impostor, Sohn explores the titular “impostor syndrome” that so often characterizes the insecurities of the early 20s. This is clear in EP closer “Impostor”: “They’re clapping awfully loud // For no tribulations or trials // Your reward’s // Faking worth // You’re no star // Impostor.” In Sohn’s words, “‘Impostor’ is the shredder I put all of the nagging voices in my head through.” The track bursts with fuzzy chords and bright keys, and when it hits its climax, Sohn’s vocals fade into a fury of heavy, eruptive guitar. Subsequently, there’s a stretch of bliss, Sohn’s voice floating over atmospheric keyboard and acoustic guitar: “Let ‘em smile // Let me smile.”
Sohn makes relatable songs that masterfully dissect the feeling of self-doubt. Her songs can drastically shift from delicate to explosive as they show her technical prowess as a guitarist and melodist, and her evocative lyricism. On the heels of her Talk Talk EP, a “truly awe-inspiring first work” (NME), Impostor is a six song collection that’s more cathartic, resolute, and fully documents the array of talents she brings as a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer.
Impostor addresses her life-long navigation through the racial impostor syndrome she experienced as a half-Korean girl “trying to fit into the white space” of the Michigan suburbs where she grew up. Not even a move to New York City, where she studied music technology at NYU and began to dream of creating effects pedals for a living, could ease her internal conflict. Part of that uneasiness for Sohn was her initial success with Talk Talk and the feeling “she was someone who was impersonating a musician.” Her solution was producing the EP by herself at Brooklyn’s Virtue and Vice Studios so that she had complete creative control.
“I’ve gone my whole life feeling really uncomfortable defining myself,” Sohn says. “I realized that a lot of the time, I’m more comfortable with other people defining me and making up their mind about who I’m supposed to be.” Writing this EP helped her understand that futile pattern. Miss Grit is a project that allows Sohn to break through self-bias, creating a version of herself that doesn’t need to be limited. Expressing herself through her powerful, confident music while still being vulnerable about her insecurities is a dynamic that characterizes her work, with all of its pushes and pulls of emotion. Ultimately, Sohn says, the Impostor EP is about feeling self-doubt, working through it with music, and letting it all subside.
Brijean – the Oakland-based duo of Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart – shares the new single/video, “Ocean,” from their forthcoming album, Feelings, out February 26th on Ghostly International. It follows the single “Day Dreaming,” “a full-on swoon, a dazed, lovestruck reverie that captures that magical feeling of giving yourself over to someone — or something — new” (Stereogum). Murphy’s vocals on “Ocean” are reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto’s airy croon, floating atop a brushed drum pattern, sparkling Rhodes lines, and softly funky woodblock bops. “Ocean” stands out by leaning back for momentary sways of blissful introspection.
“‘Ocean’ reflects on uncertainty while maintaining curiosity,” says Brijean. “Written as an inquiry into self-reflection, the dimensions of love for another person and humanity’s capacity for health. Around the time we wrote the song, we were listening to a lot of Jobim and wanted to channel some of the serenity his music gives us.“
For the “Ocean” video, “Various methods of video feedback and modular video synthesis were utilized to manipulate the footage captured by Brijean and Doug,” remarks director flatspot ___•. “We decided on a black and white treatment of the footage, contrasting with selective coloring and unusually cropping of the clips to evoke a dreamlike sequence, bringing the ocean to the desert.” Watch “Ocean” Video
Murphy – one of indie’s most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls) – and Stuart, who share backgrounds in jazz, Latin and soul music and were both fixtures in Oakland’s diverse music scene, began collaborating in 2018. Following the duo’s first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie(released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), Brijean continued collaborating in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal, who all would end up contributing to the album. “We improvised on different feels for hours,” says Murphy. “Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage.”
The leap from 2019’s Walkie Talkie to Feelings is marked by a notable expanse in range and energy. Brijean’s signature sound — a golden-hued dream pop tropicalia of dazzling beats and honeyed vocals — elevates with the addition of live drummers, strings, and synths. The album also finds Murphy fully trusting in her strengths, not just as a percussionist, but as a songwriter and collaborator. “Valuing myself as elemental instead of an ‘aux’ percussionist, and the undoubted support and talents of Doug, encouraged me to both make this project and collaborate with many different people.”
Brijean wants you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they’ve manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call “romancing the psyche.” In nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, Feelings simply want us to feel alive. The songs radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self. Watch “Ocean” Video
Blanck Mass – the project of musician Benjamin John Power – announces his new album, In Ferneaux, out February 26th on Sacred Bones, and shares “Starstuff,” a single edit from the album. It’s the follow-up to 2019’s Animated Violence Mild, which “channels the horrors of the surveillance state and the creeping dread of everyday life into the most aggressive music of [Power’s] career” (Pitchfork). In turn, In Ferneaux explores pain in motion, building audio-spatial chambers of experience and memory.
Using an archive of field recordings from a decade of global travels, isolation gave Blanck Mass an opportunity to make connections in a moment when being together is impossible. The record is divided into two long-form journeys that gather the memories of being with now-distant others through the composition of a nostalgic travelogue. The journeys are haunted with the vestiges of voices, places, and sensations. These scenes alternate with the building up and releasing of great aural tension, intensities that emerge from the trauma of a personal grieving process which has perhaps embraced its rage moment.
An encounter with a prophetic figure on the streets of San Francisco presented the question of “how to handle the misery on the way to the blessing.” This is the quandary of the impasse we now all find ourselves in, trapped in our little caves, grappling with the unease of the self at rest – without movement, without the consumerist agenda of “new experiences.” The possibility of growth, always defined by our connections with others, held in limbo. Sartre said that “Hell is other people,” but perhaps this is the Inferno of the present: the space of sitting with the self.
A blessing is often thought of as a future reward, above and beyond the material plane. With In Ferneaux, Blanck Mass wrangles the immanent materials of the here-and-now to build a sense of transcendence. Here, the uncanny angelic hymn sits comfortably beside the dirge. The misery and blessing are one. Stream “Starstuff” (Single Edit): https://youtu.be/gF8U-dU2VWw
Bloomington, IN quartet Wenches (ex-members of Racebannon) share the first video single from their forthcoming debut album Effin’ Gnarly today via Metal Injection. Watch and share “Bad Man” video HERE.(Direct YouTube and stream the single via Bandcamp.)
Assembled from broken bits and leftover chunks of various known and unknown groups in the punk, metal and post-hardcore world, Wenches hail from Bloomington, Indiana in the heart of the Midwest. Described by No Echo as “raw, no bullshit…undiluted rock realness” and in the vein of proto-punk bands like MC5 and The Stooges, the debut album Effin’ Gnarly is slated for a February 2021 release. Tracked at Russian Recording (Built to Spill, Tortoise, of Montreal) and mastered by James Plotkin(Sunn O))), Pelican, Earth, ISIS), the band portrays the album as “high-energy screaming hard rock played the only way long-haired punk metalheads know how. “After a rotating door of bassists and drummers, the band has finally landed on what hopes to be a lasting lineup. Effin’ Gnarly follows a previously sold out 3-song “demo” cassette and precedes the release of a limited edition 7″ single entitled State Fair Hair.
Effin’ Gnarly will be available on LP and download on February 26, 2021 via Master Kontrol Audio. Limited edition cassettes will be released by Small Hand Factory. Pre-orders are available HERE.
Stockholm, Sweden based trio Spelljammer share the first single from their forthcoming album Abyssal Trip today. Hear and share “Lake” via YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify.
“The vastness of everything is something that I think about a lot,” says Spelljammer bassist/vocalist Niklas Olsson. And it certainly shows in both the expansive, sludgy sounds and contemplative lyrics of the Stockholm, Sweden based trio. Following a 5-year break between their previous album, Ancient of Days — perhaps fittingly spent pondering said vastness — Spelljammer is back with an album that perfectly bridges the band’s earlier desert rock leanings and their later massive, slow-burning riffs.
Abyssal Trip (note: carefully re-read that album title) takes its moniker from the perpetually dark, cold, oxygen-free zone at the bottom of the ocean. The 6-song, 44-minute album fittingly embodies that bleak realm with rumbling, oozing guitars intercut with dramatic melodic interludes. The songs take their time to unfurl, making them even more hypnotic. Likewise, the lyrics take a poetic approach to establishing the sonic scenery.
“The lyrical themes we address, like the ultimate doom of man, and the search and longing for new and better worlds, are still there,” Olsson says. “The concept of something undiscovered out there in vast emptiness is pretty much always present.” The recording process for Abyssal Trip differs from previous releases in that the band — guitarist Robert Sörling, drummer Jonatan Rimsbo and Olsson — opted to capture the performances while holed up in the mental bathysphere of a house in the countryside near Stockholm. “The songs benefitted from the relaxed environment of being away from everything,” Olsson explains. Indeed, the album sounds confident and meticulously arranged, afforded by the band’s isolation. Sörling mixed the album and it was mastered by Monolord drummer Esben Willems at Berserk Audio.
Album opener “Bellwether” begins dramatically with a very slow, nearly minute-long fade in of rumbling distortion setting the stage for heavily distorted bass and guitar plucking out the lugubrious riff for another minute and a half before the drums begin, and likewise equally as long before vocals gurgle to the surface. “Lake” abruptly shifts gears, opening with an unusually fast gallop before rupturing into thundering doom that soon drops into a clean-tone Middle Eastern melodic breakdown. The title track serves as the album centerpiece, opening with ominous film dialogue about blood sacrifice that launches into pummeling, detuned guitars rumbling over gut-punching drums and howling vocals hearkening to the proto-sludge of Pink Floyd’s “The Nile Song.” The dynamic relents briefly for a slow building clean guitar melody before all instruments lock into a jerking riff topped off by a trilling Iommi style lead. Throughout, Abyssal Trip is, just like its title suggests, an epic tour through desolate zones which yields much to discover.
Abyssal Trip will be available everywhere on LP, CD and download on February 26th, 2021 via RidingEasy Records.
Laying down roots at Oberlin College before officially becoming a band in Chicago last year, it has not take Moontype long to start turning heads. Despite having no music online, the three piece (composed of singer/bassist Margaret McCarthy, guitarist Ben Cruz and drummer Emerson Hunton) began playing in their adoptive city in 2019 with only a pair of Bandcamp demos to their name and quickly started appearing on bills with buzzing acts like Strange Ranger, Horsejumper of Love and Paear. This led to them capturing the attention of the rising Chicago label Born Yesterday (helmed by Deeper‘s Kevin Fairbairn and the increasingly ubiquitous engineer Greg Obis), who have recently garnered an expanding national profile with releases from DIY circuit up and comers Landowner and Cafe Racer. Today, Moontype are announcing their signing to the label with their single “Ferry” which is premiering via The FADER.
WATCH: Moontype’s “Ferry” video on YouTube // FADER
The track, described by FADER as “a gauzy Midwest fantasy,” is an arresting example of Moontype’s sound, one that is startlingly fully-realized for a band who have yet to release their first album, and of a songwriter in McCarthy with a rare ability to communicate her perspective with a relatable clarity and a transporting depth. There are suggestions of the intimate songwriterly-ness of Tomberlin or Lomelda, blended with the sweeping, technically-minded indie of Built To Spill, and even hints of the downbeat grandeur of Mazzy Star in a track that sees McCarthy relate the alienating feeling of a gradually dissipating friendship. Immediately engaging and emotionally acute, it’s the kind of sure-handed first offering that provides a tantalizing suggestion of what’s to come from an extremely promising new band.
“‘Ferry’ is a song about the loss of friendship, not when it breaks apart quickly and devastatingly but when it slowly unravels and you watch it go,” McCarthy explains to FADER. “3 or 4 of my friendships made their way into this song. I think about a friend who was about to go on a two-year long tour, and I started to drift away from him months before he actually left – a trick the mind plays to make the break less painful. Your friend leaves and afterwards you’re left with these visceral memories – running around the city at night, drinking whiskey in the alley – and in memory form those experiences gain potency, like ‘ah that was really living, and what I have now is nothing.’ And that vivid memory stands in high contrast to the way their entire personhood is slowly fading from your mind, you forget how they walk, what kind of jokes they made. And then you’re left with only yourself and you realize that you’ve defined yourself through the relationships you’ve been in, and when those people go away you feel like an empty shell (no snail inside!) and that feeling is enough to make a person say ‘I wanna take the ferry to Michigan! Get me out of this place!’”
Following the release of their album ‘The Passion Of…‘ earlier this year, New Orleans-based punk band Special Interest have announced a new 12″ release ‘Street Pulse Beat‘, which features remixes from Boy Harsher, Ruth Mascelli and DJ Haram. The record is set for release on Jan 8th via Nude Club Records and is available for pre-order and today the “Street Pulse Beat (Boy Harsher Remix)” is streaming online.
As well as the ‘Street Pulse Beat’ Maxi 12″, Special Interest will also digitally release ‘The Passion Of: Remixed‘ on Jan 8th, which is made up of 11 tracks, including the remixes on the 12″ & various other reworks by artists such as Hide & w00dy. People who purchase the Maxi 12” on Bandcamp, will receive a free download of ‘The Passion Of Remixed’ too.
All proceeds will go to House of Tulip (https://houseoftulip.org), which was co-founded and is currently co-led by 2 Black transgender women. House of Tulip provides trans and gender-nonconforming communities in New Orleans, Louisiana with economic stability and safety through zero barrier permanent housing and pathways to education, healthcare, employment, and homeownership.
“This remix of ‘Street Pulse Beat’ came from the depths of springtime lockdown. In a bleak and uncertain world, Special Interest was keeping our creative spirit alive. This remix was made entirely with the OB-6, SH-101, and the JV-1080. Trading in distorted guitars for plucky bent synths, Boy Harsher’s remix offers their signature melancholy sound. Ali Logout’ confidently controls the energy, reminding us that synthwave can still have a backbone and can hang with the punks.” – Boy Harsher
Adding to this, Special Interest vocalist Alli Logout said the track is “A ballad for lovers delusions of grandeur in the depth of the terror that is codependency.”
Since forming in 2018, Brooklyn art punks Gustaf have been the subject of an unusual amount of buzz for a band who had never released a note of recorded music. Based entirely on the back of their live shows, the band found early champions in luminaries like Beck – who saw them perform at a secret loft party he played around the release of his latest album – the New York no wave legend James Chance, and shared stages with buzzing indie acts like Omni, Tropical Fuck Storm, Dehd and Bodega, while word of mouth led to sell out shows when they played their first LA headline dates in late 2019. Last month the band released their first single, the Chris Coady (Beach House, TV on The Radio, Future Islands)-produced “Mine,” which earned immediate praise from spots like the NME, Paste, DIY, The Needle Drop and Exclaim, and today, Gustaf are sharing their second single, a track called “Design,” another slice of the band’s finely-tuned, off-kilter art-punk that sees them reunite with Coady as their producer.
Vocalist Lydia Gammill explains: “Although the title of the song is not the refrain (“desire’”, we named the track “Design” because it is a commentary on how our desires and critiques of others are a product of our design.” Gammill continues, “Like in “Mine”, the narrator addresses an invisible critic, arguing that the ills we believe to be unique to ourselves are the result of an oppressive system. However, in the end we’re just shouting at the back of someone’s head as they leave the room.”
