LISTEN: King Casio - 'Big Truck'

A couple of weeks 'behind' on this one but you're getting it now... it's Big Truck, the latest single from King Casio. A new (ish) project with a few tracks under their belts, the band sees vocalist Aaron King teaming up with members of Swedish-formed, London-based Francobollo (of Hoo Ha and We're Dead Fame.... love them!) It's my first introduction to King Casio, and I'd say this is one for fans of Boy Azooga, Willie J Healey and the like. Really digging the track. Oli Barton Wood (Premium Leisure, Lizzie Reid, Declan McKenna) is on mixing duties here too!

On the track, Aaron explains: "the song came to me through the convergence of my cat getting run over and the sudden end of a romantic relationship. These two events informed the feel of the song - how it is sad to lose things but also to be happy to have had them in the first place. Happy sad." 

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WATCH: Francobollo - 'We're Dead'

Francobollo have given recent single We're Dead a pretty comical (but also fairly hard-hitting) video treatment, courtesy of animator Samuel Lewis. They're tackling the incredibly important and contemporary issue of our insane plastic usage, highlighting things such as plastic straws, coffee cups, bottles and the insane overuse of packaging in online deliveries. The band have committed to support the Plastic Soup Foundation and their #StartPlasticDiet campaign, raising awareness of how to lower our plastic use so that less ends up in our oceans. It's an issue that's become really important to me over the last year or so, and it's so encouraging to see so many people taking even small steps to reduce their personal use of plastic. Simply acknowledging the problem and trying to be a little more aware of the plastic you're using can make a difference. 

Some facts from the Plastic Soup Foundation website, (find out more here):

- Every year, about eight million tons of plastic ends up in sea.
- It's estimated that millions of animals in the sea die every year because of plastic waste. Animals such as fish, sea birds, sea turtles, dolphins and whales.
- Plastic particles in the sea attract toxic substances. These plastic particles enter the food chain because birds and fish think they are food.
- All the plastic that was ever produced in the world is still on earth in one way or another. Plastic that enters the ocean never disappears.
- Every year we produce more than 300 million tons of plastic. About half of this is used just once and is then thrown away. If we don’t do anything about it, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050!
- About one billion plastic bags are used around the world every year. This is more than one million bags every minute!

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WATCH: Francobollo - 'Hoo Ha'

Francobollo are signed to the same indie label as Sivu, Square Leg Records (run by Sivu's producer Charlie Andrew) so I've been aware of them for a little while, but hadn't got round to listening to them until I spotted their new single in my 'Release Radar' playlist last week. Hoo Ha instantly impressed (that guitar riff!) and its video is just as bonkers and brilliant as the track itself. Now I need to go back and acquaint myself with their 2017 record Long Live Life... 

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