Well hello Monday, how are you? Good! Here’s some tracks of the week!! You’re very welcome.
Adult Leisure – Things You Don’t Know Yet
Why we love it?
With their awesome debut single ‘Things You Don’t know yet’ Adult Leisure make a lasting impression, bursting forth with glistening early 90s guitar figures and a thunderous percussive scamper. With a wrought vocal that teeters on the edge of wracked and devotional oscillating between Future Islands‘ Samuel T Herring and Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler but is quite his own, spiraling from frustration to a fantastic, epic chorus that’s held aloft by chanted refrains. It’s a mightly impressive debut offering!
Adult Leisure are a new act formed from the ashes of former 2010’s Bristol-based bands Moon Club, Aztecs and Towers, members Neil Scott, David Woolford, Nathan Searle and James Laing. (Bill Cummings)
Caleb Nichols – Run Rabbit Run
Why we love it: Caleb Nichols is a mainstay of the small San Luis Obispo music community in California. They signed to the iconic indie label Kill Rock Stars late last year and since then have already provided us with a single that was included in the imprint’s 30th Anniversary covers compilation Stars Rock Kill plus an EP. Now they are heralding the release of their debut solo album Ramon – a concept album that tells the tragic story of Mean Mr. Mustard as a queer icon – with the first single to be taken from it, ‘Run Rabbit Run’.
As the idea behind the forthcoming album might suggest, the new record owes a huge debt of gratitude to the music of The Beatles. Caleb Nichols confirms this when he says “every track on this record has nods to different Beatles songs and some of the Beatles solo work: even the backing harmony vocals on verse two are meant to specifically evoke Rubber Soul-era Beatles. So there’s lots there in the details, and I hope people can hear some of the more subtle references on “Rabbit” and throughout the album.”
But ‘Run Rabbit Run’ is much more than just some respectful homage to the Fab Four and their quintessential mid-60s output. Sure, it harnesses all the fluidity, inspiration and mystery of that creative period but to that, the song also adds its own singular, satirical dimension. (Simon Godley)
Joseph Lawrenson – Winter Daydreams
Why we love it: In a world that is otherwise going to Hell in a handcart, it is most comforting to find an oasis of peace and tranquillity in the form of Leeds’ musician Joseph Lawrenson’s latest offering. ‘Winter Daydreams’, the first single to be taken from his forthcoming contemporary classical album Songs for Film, affords us this time and space. Here the former member of the Leeds’ band Dancing Years joins together with a small orchestra, choral ensemble and guest vocalist Imogen in the glorious surroundings of the Britten Theatre in the Royal College of Music, South Kensington to take influence from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 Winter Daydreams and produce a piece of quite stunning sonic beauty.
Joseph Lawrenson’s debut album is described as “an inspired collection of original works, ingenious reimaginings and reworks (magpie-ing from the likes of Tchaikovsky, Ólafur Arnalds), and fresh, contemporary arrangements of classical staples (Bach, Chopin). It’s an album that defies categorisation, hovering wonderfully between a number of pigeon-holes, like the soundtrack to the greatest film never made”.
Having now heard ‘Winter Daydreams’, we await Songs For Film with great anticipation. (Simon Godley)
J B – Born Ready
Why We Love It: Because it’s the immaculate voice of Jo Bevan of Desperate Journalist but also because it’s a brilliant dark, brooding electronic pop song, that is Home DIY but with ambitious production values.
She says on her Facebook page “I wrote and recorded a pop song. Welcome to 1997. I’d like to thank the Volca Sample” and the sound is indicative of that Mezzanine era Massive Attack with Liz Fraser vocals but unmistakably Jo Bevan. She has one of the most striking, devastating and beautiful voices in music today.
Currently only posting her solo projects on Soundcloud there are a number of other tunes under her J B moniker. (Jim Auton)
https://soundcloud.com/jeannedarme/born-ready?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? – Pool
Why we love it: Finnish garage rock trio Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? have released their new single ‘Pool’ taken from their third album Maine Coon which is set for release on 3 June via VILD Records. This is the perfect end of the week fun, party music. It has an infectious hyperactive vibe and a breezy, goofy garage element to it which is exactly what we need in these times of turmoil.
Ekku Lintunen (keyboards/synths, backing vocals) further expands on the creation of ‘Pool’: “Our producer Lauri Eloranta suggested that I should step out from my comfort zone. By this, he meant composing a song based on a drum machine beat. That original Eko Pony beat is pulsing on the final recorded version of the song. For reasons unknown to me, I was also tasked with singing the first verse of the song. Lyrics in minor, song in major. Except for the chorus…”
Intriguingly Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS? opted to use keyboards instead of guitars after songwriter Lintunen and drummer Janne-Petteri Pitkälä saw the film Drive. They immediately decided to form an 80s synth-pop band as a side project to the garage-rock band they were already in. When Susse Stemma-Sihvola came in on vocals bringing her scuzzed-out bass tones with her, it ended up being garage-rock with a twist. (Julia Mason)
Ghum – Some People
Why we love it: because it is a frenetic slice of power-post-punk excellence that straddles continents, from South America across the Atlantic to Europe but their Goth tinged dark but pop-infused epic unites them. Squawling feedback and harmonics coat rampant drums and rumbling bass, which drops into a rippling hook underneath soaring vocals.
Laura Guerrero Lora, singer of Ghum, says “This song is about getting to know someone and having the fear of hurting them because love has turned a bit hopeless and unexciting. Not trusting oneself to be able to love someone after not falling in love for a long time.”
“We wanted to have a bit of fun with a video that was diverse and inclusive. Lydia has created a visual world where a fun, camp narrative plays out. Taking inspiration from 90’s pop videos, John Waters movies and the recent Spice Girls documentary series, she created a humorous, unpredictable, queer-friendly world for us to live in.”
This is the first single to come from their debut L.P, Bitter, which is due on 17th June through Everything Sucks Records. (Jim Auton)
Milly – Illuminate
Why we love it: Los Angeles band Milly have released new single ‘Illuminate’ via cult indie label Dangerbird Records. It’s a perfect summer grungy guitar track – if there is such a thing. Created during lockdown it combines scuzzy guitars with soaring vocals. The guitar reverbs and riffs throughout the track perfectly complement the dreamy expansive vocals of Brendan Dyer. ‘Illuminate’ ebbs and flows, soaring as the track progresses and then gently pulling us back in as it takes us to the end of the song.
Frontman Dyer explains more about the track: “It’s about the comfort found in self-expression and reminding yourself who you are by acts such as putting your favourite posters up on your wall or rearranging your room. It was written in a time when free time felt unlimited (2020) and I was staying up late self-reflecting. I was listening to Title Fight’s ‘Floral Green’ nonstop at this point, while also reconnecting with some records of my youth such as Hawthorne Heights’ ‘Silence in Black and White’.” (Julia Mason)
RAHH – Run the Lights
Why we love it: R&B newcomer RAHH trails her forthcoming debut EP with her powerful lead single ‘Run The Lights’.
Widescreen and fiercely explorative ‘Run The Lights’ stomping beats, illuminating keyboard notes that shift and switch on and off like strobe lights, while RAHH delivers a mighty fine vocal charting an evening where she sets off to forget everything.
Speaking about the new release, she said, “Run The Lights is about going out for all the wrong reasons – to numb the pain, to distract yourself from your own thoughts, to get over someone. Whatever it is, we all do it. The title refers to not knowing when to stop. You’re a danger and out of control but your foot is to the floor.”
“It has been incredible to be able to bring this to life through Augmented Reality and animation as we’ve been able to explore breaking down the layers of bullshit we mask our true feelings with, in order to be free.” (Bill Cummings)
Georgia Ruth – 25 Minutes
Why we love it? A bubbling and subtle bed of blips and beats and muted acoustics, like the sound of sand running through an hourglass as the clock ticks. Georgia Ruth delivers an expressive and gorgeous vocal bringing to life this subtly and evocatively drawn ode to waiting and waiting, that reminds me of some of Paul Simon‘s work or the subtle soundscapes of Julia Holter. It’s wonderful!
It’s the first new material since her 2020 album Mai. Georgia Ruth is a musician from Aberystwyth. Using folk influences to create a truly unique sound, her debut album Week of Pines won the Welsh Music Prize in 2013 and was nominated for two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. (Bill Cummings)
