Oooooh isn’t it spooky today. Such a spooky day. All those cobwebs and plastic spiders and blow-up witches and vampires that get left out over night and punctuated by a fox and, as if by magic, they turn in to a piece of rubbish, and into the landfill it goes. Here’s some music that isn’t scary in the slightest, because bollocks to that. Tracks of the Week. Hit it!!!
GENN – Rohmeresse
ĠENN is Maltese for ‘Craziness’ and hence gives an insight into the origins of this band. The 4-piece are Brighton based and are Anglo-Maltese, with Jamaican and Portuguese roots. This mix adds a beautiful layer to their music. Their new single ‘Rohmeresse’ perfectly encapsulates their heritage with its shifting sands of music ebbing and flowing throughout. ‘Rohmeresse’ begins calmly enough but as the track progresses it gets more embroiled in the challenges of the every day, and the glorious twang of the guitar riff becomes more pronounced, indeed this track is led by the music rather than the lyrics.
Commenting on the track vocalist Leona Farrugia said: “I’ve often felt a pressure running through everyday life: a pressure to be productive whilst being true to oneself. Modern life can be very dissociative and small tasks become a real burden to uphold. I wanted to capture these thoughts through the track, whereby these emotions gradually build to a point of ecstasy.”
The track’s title nods to French new wave director Éric Rohmer, who’s characters often struggle through the morals and desires of quotidian life. The recurring gang vocal similarly echoes the constant negotiation of the everyday: “I wanna stay in all day, I wanna sleep in all day”. (Julia Mason)
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Terror’s Pillow
Why we love it: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs have been making plans. A 16-date tour of the UK has been scheduled for Spring of next year. It starts off in their native North East of England at the Sage in Gateshead on the 23rd of February and ends exactly two months later at the Hertford Corn Exchange.
The news was heralded by a video of them playing a brand new track, ‘Terror’s Pillow’, captured live at Blank Studios in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Caught in a kaleidoscope of flashing images that would not have been remotely out of place at London’s UFO club in the late ‘60s, Pigs x 7 gently beat us into submission with a relentless gut-wrenching riff over which Matthew Baty wails. A potent reminder of just how good they really are. (Simon Godley)
MEMES – Leader
Why we love it: Glasgow’s MEMES have had one heck of a year, performing at festivals from SXSW in the US, to The Great Escape, Wide Days and c/o pop in Germany, earning a reputation for their sensory blitzing shows. They have released their new single ‘Leader’ which sees them continue to create their own style of frenetic furiously infectious indie-punk. MEMES have their own tongue firmly in cheek view of the world and ‘Leader’ is no exception. It’s a particularly relevant subject matter covered in these lyrics considering the changes and turmoil of recent times.
“If I was a King for a minute,
I’d take the vote and bin it.”
However there is a definite development in their sound here. Still full of the manic energy of previous tracks, the guitars seem more prominent with the funky riffs and there is a shifting of pace between the verse and the choruses. ‘Leader’ is a perfectly timed single, and I suspect MEMES are ahead of the pack by incorporating such themes into their songs. (Julia Mason)
Hotel Lux – National Team
Why we love it: With the pandemic inevitably having repercussions throughout the music industry it is a joy to see bands who could have gone under survive. Hotel Lux are such a band with a trip to SXSW booked before the pandemic dashed many of their dreams at the time. However they now share football themed new single ‘National Team’ taken from their debut album Hands Across The Creek set for release on 27 January 2023 via The state51 Conspiracy. Just in time for the World Cup in Qatar, ‘National Team’ is an ode to aging and the beautiful game. Filmed at Haringey Borough FC, the video finds Hotel Lux and friends displaying their various ball skills, recreating the magic of Maradona and Zidane while asking the age-old question of what might have been. Whilst this single may be a slightly gentler version of Hotel Lux, I suspect that it is not an indication of a taming of their sound, more an indication of a new found confidence after a difficult couple of years.
On the new single, the band say: “The tune was conceived when I was sat watching England’s National Football Team play on the TV whilst tucking into a very sad takeaway, watching people my age and considerably younger #winning at life.” (Julia Mason)
Human Interest – Mixing Paint
Why we love it: London-based garage rockers Human Interest have released their new single ‘Mixing Paint’. What begins as a haunting atmospheric track soon shifts gear and tempo. There is almost a blues element to the vocals and vibe before slowly as the track progresses it moves up and adds a wicked guitar riff. The accompanying vocals complements the shift of pace until that glorious guitar brings the song to an abrupt end. This is the first Human Interest song to be penned by bassist Tyler Damara Kelly and she takes over from band founder and guitarist Cat Harrison on lead vocal for the first time.
Of writing the song, Kelly says: “Mixing Paint was written during a transitional phase in my life. What started off as a string of 1AM ramblings on my Notes app became the processing of deeply personal experience which happened late 2021. The whole ethos of the song is about analysing the dark crevasses of the mind and turning it into something light-hearted, almost bigger than yourself.”
Meanwhile, Harrison reflects on the overall sound: “We wanted it to sound like being in a smoky underground cabaret when all of a sudden the roof is torn off to reveal Armageddon.” (Julia Mason)
Trevor Beales – Then I’ll Take You Home
Why we love it: Songs from the attic, quite literally, the forthcoming album Fireside Stories (Hebden Bridge circa 1971-1974) – due for release on 2nd December on the Todmorden-based Basin Rock record label – features a collection of tunes that local musician Trevor Beales recorded in the roof space of the family home at Ivy Bank in Charlestown in the Calder Valley, West Yorkshire.
Trevor Beales died suddenly and unexpectedly on March 29th, 1987, aged 33. These early recordings are collected here for the first time and mark Beales’ long-overdue solo debut.
‘Then I’ll Take You Home’ is the first track to be shared from the album and in it Trevor Beales “considers the Guru Marajai, who encouraged his acolytes to give over their worldly possessions, yet who drove a Rolls Royce and lived like a playboy.”
The song will draw undoubted comparisons between Trevor Beales and other figures from the British folk scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s, including Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Davey Graham, yet Beales’ music sounds fresh more than half a century after it was first recorded and is full of what would sadly be unfulfilled promise. (Simon Godley)
Low Hummer – Panic Calls
Why we love it: Low Hummer‘s latest single ‘Panic Calls‘ produced with Matt Peel (W.H. Lung, Eagulls) is stamped with the hallmarks of their trademark sound: twitchy new wave cool of twangy guitars and dial tone keys, woven with spoken-word vocals that clamber from hushed skip to sardonic wit carrying with it an infectious singalong chorus “too much noise to stay calm/shut me up and take charge”, this crafty tune invests a serious subject of hitting your head against the wall trying to get mental health support with a simmering relatability. The Hull six-piece are building on the reputation forged from a run of releases including their album Modern Tricks for Living.
Low Hummer said: “There was a sort of conversation floating in the air that inspired the lyrics of ‘Panic Calls’. Dan and I wrote as though we were trying to ring crisis lines; the discourse of the song shifts between us trying to explain our feelings, then always being met with generic, automated responses. The intention was to sort of mirror the futility of mental health support and hopefully, show how relatable that issue is.” (Bill Cummings)
Slaney Bay – LS6
Why We love it: Slaney Bay recently shared ‘LS6’ , the final track taken from the band’s debut EP A Life Worth Living set to arrive November 11th. And it’s a luscious life affirming gem from the London trio, that looks in the rear view at your childhood and embraces newfound independence sweeping in on a wave of bittersweet vocals and soaring choruses framed in widescreen percussion, warm keys and spiraling guitars. Surfing the lines of pop and gaze pop, It’s an epic uplifting track that bursts with anthemic choruses that holds tons of promise. Stare into the future hold hands and jump off into the unknown no matter what it brings.
Speaking ahead of their single release, frontwoman Cait Whitley revealed: “‘LS6′ is a song about growing up and moving away. I moved to Leeds for University, and LS6 was my new postcode. On the drive up there, I felt this wave of nostalgia for my childhood. Suddenly, I was gaining independence, and creating a new life away from everyone that I loved back home. ‘LS6’ encapsulates the fear and doubt during these consequential changes… Will you be okay on your own? Is this the right decision”? (Bill Cummings)
Lucy McWilliams – Medication (demo)
Why We Love it: It came out earlier this year but we couldn’t ignore Irish artist Lucy McWilliams ‘s ‘Medication’ (demo), this stripped back haunting tune is layered with a enveloping piano motif houses her intimate tone and extraordinary vocals, somewhere between Billie Eilish and touches of Cat Power, this is a wonderful poignant song hangs heavy with the grief of losing someone close to her who took their own life. Songwriting as therapy, but also the perfect entry point to the work of an emerging songwriter of rare quality.
She said, “Losing someone who struggled all their life with mental health issues is a very hard thing to come to terms with, but I feel like unfortunately there are a lot of people who have gone through the same experience. Like most musicians, I write music and lyrics to help me cope with things that are happening in my life. In writing ‘Medication’, it helped me try to understand where that person might have been to make them feel like this was their only option.” (Bill Cummings)
