Go to bed Friday, wake up Monday, weekend gone in a blink of an eye. Rinse and repeat. God, life’s relentless. Here’s another Tracks of the Week to hopefully make everything not seem so shit.
Goat – Do The Dance
Why We Love It: Goat have released a second single from their forthcoming album Oh Death which will be released on 21 October via Rocket Recordings . Called ‘Do The Dance’ it does exactly what it says on the tin. An addictive track whose beat worms into your brain and then out through your limbs. The grooves are incessant and continuous with percussive beats that are punctuated by blasts of guitar. And yet the vocals come in and are accompanied by crashing percussion and sprinkles of piano. The guitar gets more and more attention as the track progresses, but that beat never leaves, and simply cannot be ignored.
The band say about the track: “After the annual feast with the Gods of Funk, Goat went to an afterparty with some of the Great Gods of Groove. Some time early in the morning, around 4am, one of the singers of Goat found herself intertwined in a hot dance with the Supreme Mastergod of hipshaking. He tried to outshake her but was way over his head, there was no way he could ever outshake a Goat banshee strungout on gods knows what! Suddenly his hip broke with a loud snap and Goat was thrown out on the street. The singers went home and wrote this profound poetry about the experience.“
Exactly what they said. Long live Goat. (Julia Mason)
Laundromat – Gloss
Why We Love It: Laundromat (AKA Toby Hayes) has shared new single ‘Gloss‘ via Brace Yourself Records (Italia 90, Panic Shack, Grandmas House). Building on his reputation for innovative and skilled songwriting, ‘Gloss’ has an upbeat punchy alt-pop vibe, full of colour, if music can have such a thing. The wavering guitar mid track followed by distorted vocals add to the fun of it all. Laundromat earned his stripes in the DIY scene and his quirky sound is infectious and pulsating. He will be supporting Future Islands next month on their lengthy European / UK tour and will also be playing his biggest London headline show to date at The Moth Club on 12 October.
Toby says of the track: “The initial idea for this tune sort of fell out of the sky and onto my lap. I was feeling it immediately, so I quickly recorded the bass part on my phone to make sure I didn’t forget it. When I listened back, it had a really cool energy so I ended up using it in the final mix. Maybe I’ll record bass with my phone from now on. I was hoping to get someone else to mix this, but ended up getting too into it, so this is another frantic DIY ‘gaffa tape mix.’ I also really love Josie’s voice, she brings something very special to the project. Lyrically, ‘Gloss’ is mostly about denial, more screen time than is healthy (seems to be a running theme at the moment), and the warped perspective that comes with that. Everyone I speak to is still very much picking up the pieces…like we’re all spectators to some fantastic shit-show…” (Julia Mason)
Willie J Healey – Dreams
Why We Love It: because it’s as funky as a pair of Kyle Falconer’s jeans that he’s been wearing for four days now. He threatened something like this on his last LP Twin Heavy but this is as if he’s gone back in time and been sat in on the sessions for Songs In The Key of Life. There’s a brilliantly understated squelchy wah-wah guitar and slurred harmonies as if this an after the pub discussion about what you’d do if you won the Euro Millions. Willie is writing some of the most feel good music at the moment without being saccharine or irritating. Music for the nuclear bunker.
Healey says “Long before making ‘Twin Heavy’, I had always listened to funk, soul and R&B, but for some reason it never translated into my own music. Really my inspiration was just the feel of things, I really enjoyed playing music that makes you feel really good.” (Jim Auton)
Declan Welsh & The Decadent West – Mercy
Why We Love It: Glasgow’s Declan Welsh & The Decadent West have released ‘Mercy’ via Frictionless Music, the first from their second album arriving in 2023. With their biggest headline show to date at Glasgow’s iconic Barrowland Ballroom just around the corner on 18 November, the single is perfect for the bigger stage. Anthemic in nature the electric guitars add a layer of vibrancy as they dominate the soundscape. The last third of ‘Mercy’ shifts up in gear, the intensity, emotion and sound continues to grow and the quality of Welsh’s vocal as it jumps around the scales is there for all to see. The quartet partnered with Grammy nominated, Mercury Prize winning Gianluca Buccellati (Arlo Parks, Easy Life, Biig Piig) on production duties, however I would say this is a much bigger sound in comparison to those artists. Detailing their newest output, Welsh stated: “It’s about how hard it is to chuck habits. Drink, cigarettes, drugs, food, social media, people, relationships – everyone’s been in a situation where they are in a bit of a loop of wanting to walk away from something and getting sucked back in. It’s what the song sounded like, not the real lows of that kinda thing but the last remnants of the high, when you are still getting something from it but you’re starting to know you’ve got to give it up sometime soon. The Id and the Superego battling it out and the Id winning for one of the last times”. Have no doubt – Barrowlands will be bouncing. (Julia Mason)
Laveda – Surprise
Why we love it: Laveda are a New York four piece founded by duo Ali Genevich (Vocals/Guitar) and Jake Brooks (Vocals/Guitar/Synths). Their recent single ‘Surprise‘ is fantastic serving of catchy dream pop that takes you by the hand and into its world, shimmering on a bed of glacial guitars and propulsive drums, vocalist Ali Genevich delivers an utterly bittersweet anthem, that encapsulates all of the hopes and fears of falling in love and getting older, the fantastic wave of guitars puts one in mind of the qualities of The Sundays or Alvvays, it’s bloody brilliant!
Laveda released their debut album in 2020. aveda’s second full-length LP. Recorded in the summer of 2021 in Los Angeles, the follow-up album features Laveda’s full live band, including Dan Carr (Bass) and Joe Taruone (Drums), and production by What Happens After collaborator Dylan Herman (Beck, Pynkie). The record is set for release on VT/NY-based label PaperCup later this year. (Bill Cummings)
Julia, Julia – Fever In My Heart
Julia Kugel of The Coathangers returns with the announcement of her debut solo LP Derealization under a new moniker, Julia, Julia. Recorded at COMA, her and her husband’s home studio in Long Beach, CA, the album was a large part of healing for Kugel, after losing her voice. The lead single “Fever In My Heart” is a mysterious and dreamy time capsule rustling with instrumental trinkets of sparse pianos and percussion. While Kugel’s entwined and enraptured vocals reside with the themes of losing yourself to the chaos and stepping out of yourself and your everyday worries. Sewn with a haunting entwined melody, it’s a ghostly offering that spirals in the air somewhere between Warpaint and Cocteau Twins. Fantastic”
It comes with an experimental visual directed by Lauryn Alvarez & Julia herself. (Bill Cummings)
pinkpirate – Can We Talk About The Past Instead?
Why we love it: pinkpirate, aka 20-year-old Bognor Regis musician and producer Caitlin Brown (she/they), new single ‘Can We Talk About The Past Instead?’ is a deft and evocative and insidious pop track that shows immense promise, residing with twitchy beats, bubbly synths and effect laden vocals that switch between wistful and hooky, somewhere between Billie Eilish and Christine and the Queens.
Where previous single ‘Daisy’ saw pinkpirate portray a positive queer narrative, focusing on the innocence and naivety in the early stages of queer relationships, ‘Can We Talk About The Past Instead?’ immortalises their anxieties around the passing of time; “I wrote Can We Talk About The Past Instead about the fear I’ve always had about growing up. I wanted it to be the fun song on the EP, inspired by Charli XCX and other more ‘avant-pop’ artists. I’ve always wanted to talk about my anxiety surrounding growing up within a song and I think the lyrics capture the ideas around the pressure to grow up and not be boring or simple, but simultaneously about how once you get to a certain age, you don’t really seem to matter to society anymore (especially on social media). The song originated as a bit of a joke as one of my friends wanted to scream on a song I wrote, so I got her to send me audio of her screaming and then wrote the first verse around that…”.
The single is the latest look at their forthcoming EP i don’t want to grow up boring, co-produced alongside Bullion (Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks, Westerman, Joviale) and due for release on October 28th via [PIAS] Recordings. (Bill Cummings)
George Riley – sacrifice
Why we love it: George Riley and producer Vegyn teamed up to produce ‘Sacrifice’ from her awesome recent album Running in Waves. Surfing elegantly through elements of r&b, trip hop and glitch music. The wonderful synths, strings and beats provide an elegant framing for Riley’s soulful vocal, that shows off her dexterity and ability to carve out earworms sewn with a regret and pain of not wanting to sacrifice yourself for someone you love. With brilliant production that takes these elements and sounds fresh it oscillates somewhere between early 00s r&b sounds of the likes of Brandi and the multilayers of Sade, this is a gorgeous song ripe with heart.
George Riley broke out last year via her debut mixtape, ‘interest rates, a tape’, as well as her vocal feature on Anz’s Ninja Tune-released single ‘You Could Be’. (Bill Cummings)
