Tracks of the Week #189

Tracks of the Week #189

Look, its Monday! How was your weekend? Sorry to hear that/Wow, great/Yeah, Glasto looked amazing/Nice and chilled, cool (Delete as appropriate). More new tracks. See them at Glastonbury 2023. Maybe. Don’t quote us on that. (That is not legally binding). But they’re great!! Check it!!

Regressive Left – The Wrong Side of History

Why We Love It: A 7minutes and 46seconds which flies by …. trust me.  Regressive Left have released their new single ‘The Wrong Side Of History’, the (near) title track to their debut EP On The Wrong Side Of History which is set for release on 15 July via Bad Vibrations.  It builds as it progresses, infectious and hypnotic, it is dancefloor perfection.  On a couple of listens almost 8minutes make total sense, it could not possibly be any shorter, I mean what could you leave out?  There is an angular electronic atmosphere created with synth basslines and a throbbing drumbeat.

The trio of Simon Tyrie (vocals, electronics), Georgia Hardy (drums, backing vocals) and Will Crosby (guitars, backing vocals) are Regressive Left and you can hear the influence of the post-punk funk of 1990’s New York.    The lyrics poke fun at a certain kind of individual in the here and now.  The trio are a staunchly political band expressing social commentary through their lyrics.  And yet the need to have fun is immersed in their music.

Simon expands on the background to the single: “I started writing it years ago.  It was more of a basic spoken word piece from a place of anger and bitterness. Over time it became more and more tongue in cheek, until it became something to dance to.

“What we wanted to highlight is that the subject of the story – your stereotypical sensationalist, controversialist white guy – is lamenting their fall from grace from a position of power – these people rule the world right now and they want us to feel sorry for them! But it’s because they know their time is running out.” 
(Julia Mason)

Thick – Loser

Why We Love It: because it is a fantastic mix of brash riot grrl punk attitude and melodic indie-pop that serves as a battering ram and communal singalong. Thick are a trio made up of vocalist Nikki Sisti, bassist Kate Black and drummer Shari Page, hailing from Brooklyn, NYC, who specialise in power pop-punk (if we must generalise a sound) with a message. There’s a wonderful dirty 90’s fuzz guitar, that deviates, via an almost angular riff, into power chord heaven over the chorus that has the heaviness under a carefree vocal that slides somewhere in between Hole and Weezer.

Thick say “Especially in music, it’s so easy to feel like a loser and a fuck-up. We want people to know that it’s okay to mess up and that everyone’s a loser sometimes. It’s really the best way to live, instead of trying to be number-one all the time”.

“This song is an anthem for everyone who feels outshined and overlooked by the people around them,” they continued. “Ultimately, it’s about using that chip on your shoulder to do better and realizing that you’re never going to be a winner if you keep using other people as your measuring stick”. (Jim Auton)

Sylvan Esso – Your Reality

Why We Love It: Sylvan Esso is an American electronic pop duo from Durham, North Carolina, formed in 2013. This is their new single, ‘Your Reality’

Band members singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn stand at the start of a new era for the band, featuring a string arrangement from Gabriel Kahane, and delicately frenetic drums by TJ Maiani, ‘Your Reality’ lightly flits around, bobbing and weaving within a paired back electronic base layer with a glorious vocal by Amelia.  She states that the single is the opening to a chapter, a reference point “for how weird we can take it.  How bare and strange something can be.” 

The percussive synth is unpredictable and delicate, with a lightness of touch, while lyrically Amelia remembers how to live. She swims in the air and walks in the sky, while asking a question that has preoccupied the post-pandemic world: “Were there rules originally, or are we learning how to be?”

The backing vocals in the far distance respond with “No rules.” Over and over.  A lesson for us all perhaps to not overthink but it live in the moment, to celebrate the present.

Your Reality’ follows previous single ‘Sunburn’ which was praised in The New York Times and Rolling Stone described as “a study in contrasts, detailing the exhilaration of pursuing pleasure and pushing the envelope”. (Julia Mason)

EFÉ – LIME

Why We Love It: 22-year-old Irish artist EFÉ releases ‘LIME’, the second single from her forthcoming EP VITAMIN – C out this July via Platoon. The project was mixed and mastered by prolific producer Ben Baptie (Moses Sumney, Rex Orange County, Little Simz), and co-produced alongside her best friend who.killed.romeo. Lime tip toes liltingly through the fields, with dreamy wistful vocals and bright popping percussion, swelling into a exuberant and defiant shout along chorus. It’s a tantalising and immensely promising piece of multicoloured pop that effortlessly blurs genres. Delightful.

‘EFÉ explains, “Lime is about people that try to convince you that you need them in order to be great, to succeed. I guess it is a song that pays homage to knowing your own self worth and knowing that you don’t need someone and you can be in charge of your own faith!!!”  (Bill Cummings)

Bonnie Trash – Teeth

Why We Love It: Bonnie Trash is the project of Canadian-Italian twin sisters Emmalia and Sarafina Bortolon-Vettor.  Teeth – a first glimpse at their debut album, which is due to be released later this year by Hand Drawn Dracula.
 
Teeth”  consumes you in its heavy atmosphere thick with regret and menace, replete with powerful vocals and the iron fist of a calvalcade of guitars, this doomy song ironically sees Bonnie Trash at their poppiest, retooling a “Be My Baby” beat (a nod to Ronnie Spector up above) the foreboding words telling of a love story that might be toxic. Imperious.

The band share the track with a self-directed video, commenting: “We created a short film to help narrate stories our Nonna Maria told us about being haunted and followed by a curse in her hometown of San Zenone degli Ezzelini in Treviso, Italy. That short eventually became the concept of our album, which is woven into our first music video, “Teeth.” Shot at the Apollo Cinema in Kitchener, Ontario, “Teeth” bridges generations of being haunted – we see ourselves watching our work without understanding that we too have conjured the curse. A malocchio follows.” (Bill Cummings)

dMh feat. Stephen Fry – After We Are Gone

Why We Love It:

“What should we think about death?”, Stephen Fry is asking the big questions on ‘After We Are Gone’. Here the celebrated English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer narrates an exploration on how we deal with the concept of dying over a soundtrack of ambient electronica created by dMh, a side project of the musician/producer Dave Hale.

The words spoken by Fry were written by Andrew Copson, the CEO of Humanists (UK), a movement at the forefront of social change and one committed to the advancement of “free thinking and freedom of choice so everyone can live in a fair and equal society.”

The song brings to mind both Stephen Fry’s spoken word contribution to the title track from Kate Bush’s 2011 album 50 Words for Snow and the Australian film director Baz Luhrmann song ‘Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’ from some 14 years earlier.

All of Stephen Fry’s royalties from this record will be donated to Humanists (UK). (Simon Godley)

Louien – NO

Why we love it: Norwegian act Louien’s recently released new single via Jansen Recordings is a masterclass in enveloping and epic songwriting. Sea sawing percussion and a Americana tinged vocal is infectious, inhabiting the anger at someone overstepping boundaries and expelling it to the heavens. With a impressive dynamic that travels through elegant percussion and fuzz laden guitars and a fantastic chorus, that takes everything down a notch into a skeletal piano motif and a sublime vocal couplet. A swelling anthem that ripples with inner power of knowing when to say no.

No’ is written alongside Preben Sælid Andersen, speaking about the song, Louien said: “This song is about boundaries! I know it’s a lame topic! But I wrote this when I was very angry at someone for not listening to me. Why does it take so much for some people to take a hint?!” (Bill Cummings)

Tracks of the Week #189

God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.