VIDEO PREMIERE: White Tail Falls - 'Disintegrate'

Time for a sneaky early watch of something really rather exciting. I did the maths and it turns out that I've been listening to Irwin Sparkes' music, in its various guises, for over half of my life. Big commitment. So it's pretty wild to be asked to premiere the brand new music video for his track Disintegrate, released as part of his White Tail Falls project. The track is taken from the upcoming debut album Age Of Entitlement, due for release via Physical Education Records on 29th May - but first, the Fake News EP due next Friday!

Following in the footsteps of the Give It Up, Son, the new video is once again directed by Craig Young - the videos come together to form part of a short-film. Most exciting fact of all - it was entirely shot on an iPhone. Let that sink in. The new video was partly shot in Barcelona last year, and the footage recently added to with a chilly shoot in Berlin. As Irwin commented online "making these videos has been a sheer labour of love. Craig and Nēna have laboured and I've loved watching them. So proud of what we've (mainly "they've") done to make these #shotoniphone videos look a million rupees." I couldn't do the video justice by trying to explain - it's best if you just feast your eyes and ears, pronto. It's a gorgeous track.

A little more on the video from Irwin... "I learned a lot of things making this film: I have a low tolerance for being cold, pigeon faeces and working for free. The talented Mr Craig Young, who wrote, directed and shot it [...] pulled in a lot of favours to make this happen. This video is a testament to what you can accomplish with no budget, a little chutzpah, a lot of love and an iPhone. And a drone." 

I for one absolutely can not wait for the record - every press quote I see and every tweet that Irwin shares about the record or the process of making it just adds to the intrigue. He describes that "making this album has changed my life. It's forced me to confront what I'm made of. I still don't know how I feel about that." Elsewhere, he shared that "making music is a joy. Releasing it is another kettle of worms altogether. This record makes me feel vulnerable and even admitting that on social media is probably not advisable. I wish I could be so nonchalant as to say I don't care if you like it... but I hope it finds a home in your ears, and so do I. It's the closest I've come to documenting having come apart at the seams & being stitched back together. Some of you will know what that means. Some of you will find out." It feels such an honour to be allowed in for a listen to a record which is so clearly a deeply personal response to a difficult time. I'll treasure the record accordingly, I'm sure.

White Tail Falls head out on a UK headline tour through March and April, dates below & tickets here.

20th March: The Poetry Club, Glasgow
21st: Royal Park Cellars, Leeds
26th: St Pancras Old Church, London
27th: The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
2nd: Night People, Manchester

Follow White Tail Falls - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

LISTEN: White Tail Falls - 'Disintegrate'

Time for a premiere, kind of... this one's been out in the world all day, but if you've not had the pleasure of listening to it yet, let me introduce you. White Tail Falls is an exciting new and slightly mysterious project from one of my favourite humans. Having released debut single Give It Up, Son towards the end of 2019, he's today shared brand new track Disintegrate and it's absolutely sublime. It's a gorgeously ambient track, with Irwin's vocals sitting atop a delicate and pulsing blend of strings, guitar and piano, with drum beats and synths building throughout.

In its various guises, Irwin's music has soundtracked much of my life so a brand new project is all kinds of exciting and I genuinely can't wait to hear more - luckily, he's announced details of debut album Age Of Entitlement, which is due for release on March 6th via Physical Education Records.

With his epic songwriting skills on show with this one, talking about the track, Irwin explains that "I was thinking about bloodlines and procreation and how we think we've got power over it when the decision is ultimately out of our hands [...] over-thinking about the family I'm from and the family I hadn't started and the implications of having kids or not and remembering the love I do have in my life, to go skipping into the apocalypse with. It became a bit of an existential love song." 

What's that? You want tour dates. That's lucky - White Tail Falls head out on a UK headline tour through March and April, dates below. I hear that if you save the track on Spotify here, you'll be entered with a chance to win two tickets to a show of your choice. Who doesn't love a freebie.

19th March: Head Of Steam, Newcastle
20th: The Poetry Club, Glasgow
21st: Royal Park Cellars, Leeds
26th: St Pancras Old Church, London
27th: The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
1st April: Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
2nd: Night People, Manchester
3rd: The Bodega, Nottingham

Follow White Tail Falls - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

TRACK PREMIERE: Robin C-M - 'Sun'

It's been just over two years since I graduated and moved back home from Oxford - I'm really craving being back there, and one of the things I miss most is the lovely bunch of friends I made in the local music scene. Robin Christensen-Marriott is one of the best - known and respected across the local music scene as a brilliant producer and musician, I first met him through local Sofar Sounds shows and saw him playing in various bands (Neverlnd, Roberto y Juan, Catgod) during my time in the city.

I'm really excited to be running this premiere and sharing the news that Robin has spent the last six months working on some new music, the first to be released under his own name, Robin C-M. Sun is the first of three tracks that will come together to form an EP later in the year. Perfect for relaxed Summer evenings, the track is a dreamy acoustic number, which Robin describes as "an ode to the winter sunshine and a reminder for me to stay lazy and remember I need time to rest." Taking this reminder to heart, Robin explains that he's been working on this project "only when I have felt like it; doing the takes all in one go. It's made for a dreaming flowing sound that brings me back to home." The track is released into the world on Tuesday but I've got a sneaky early listen for you below - enjoy! 

   

Follow Robin C-M - Facebook. 

TRACK PREMIERE: Hazey Jane - 'Lay Low'

Let me introduce (or hopefully re-introduce) you to Hazey Jane. I have a bunch of lovely memories of seeing them live over the last couple of years... running the door for a fun headline Oxford gig, having them play at the Tigmus festival we organised a couple of summers ago, and two wonderful sets at The Alternative Escape in Brighton. A video premiere I did for the band remains one of my most viewed posts of all time. Taking inspiration from the likes of Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Ben Howard, their music is driven by gorgeous four-part harmonies, storytelling lyrics and pop hooks. Whether live or otherwise, you can't help but smile listening to these guys. 

It's a joy to be asked to premiere their latest single, Lay Low, which is out today. Calling for the listener to "bury your phone in the soil" and to "put yourself first, put yourself out of range" the track speaks to some modern day anxieties that a lot of us share. The band describe the track as "encouraging the listener to bury their phone and slow down, Lay Low explores ways in which to release modern-day pressures that lead to worry." Take a listen below - and on Spotify.

Hazey Jane celebrate the single release with a headline show at London's Old Blue Last on 15th May - event here.

Follow Hazey Jane online - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

VIDEO PREMIERE: The Cooling Pearls - 'Welsh Funeral'

I'm always slightly overwhelmed when an artist asks me to premiere something for them - it's an honour that any musician should want my little blog to be the first place that their fans can listen to their new music or see their new video. It's a small but growing list, so thanks to Little Brother Eli, Maiians, Hazey Jane, The Cooling Pearls and Pêtr Aleksänder for endowing me so much trust over the last couple of years - here's to more features of this kind in 2019! For now, I'm rounding off 2019 with one last premiere, as Oxford's The Cooling Pearls are back for more with the video for their new (but actually, quite old) tune Welsh Funeral, filmed and edited by friend of the band, film-maker Gem de Silva.  

The track is taken from the band's second album The Red Laugh which was released back in September, over eight years after their debut record. My favourite element of the track is that parts of the piano and violin you hear in the recording have been reversed, creating quite an eery soundscape. It's almost as if something is missing, or isn't quite right, but it's difficult to put your finger on it, which is pretty fitting for the track. The closing track and only piano-led tune of the record, it's a beautiful and incredibly personal track for vocalist and songwriter Aiden Canaday, so it feels only right to introduce the video with Aiden's own words... 

"The song is an old one that I wrote in 2007 after my Tadcu (Welsh for Grandad!) passed away. He was one of my best friends and I guess the first person close to me to die. I was brought up in South Wales surrounded by a loving, close family and since then the song has grown to reflect upon the passing of my mum and uncle. The lyrics are just how I feel about the whole situation I suppose - we are born, we all feel different emotions in between, we can see and believe what we want about it all and then we die.

Everyone grieves in different ways and I guess this song is part of the process. Playing it live every so often is part of that too and then in a way it never goes away but keeps the people involved close to me and in my thoughts. I suppose that's what I've tried to further with the video as well. Some of the lyrics - 'your clothes are on my back and your words are on my soul' - literally reflect that I have always worn some of my Tadcu's clothes (the jumper in the video for instance) and keep hold of loved one's belongings as a memento and it keeps them close to me. 

[Gem & I] both had ideas and locations in mind and tried to make something to reflect the emotions of the song without being too cheesy. We filmed the video in South Wales, initially on the beaches in Porthcawl and Port Talbot. To reflect the warped and sparse nature of the song Gem wanted it to be very bleached out in parts and so we were lucky with the weather that day. We filmed the piano parts in my mum's old front room on her piano with that portrait of her - she was a songwriter and my brother and I recorded her last ever recording right there in May 2015, so it's all linked in some way. We then went up into the hills around Ammanford where we spent a lot of time together as a family and where my mum and uncle's ashes were released - it's very bleak and beautiful up there and I always thought it would work well with imagery for Welsh Funeral.

It's all a homage to the people I love and miss - this song just keeps me thinking about them and thus they're still close in some way.

The rest of the album, although pretty melancholy, has multiple harmonies, layers of guitar, drums (our first album had no drums!), bass and many other extra musical finds which you can get lost in. People usually release tracks that capture the album, but with this I think this song has been with me so long and is very personal, it'd be nice to give it to others to delve in to."

Watch the video for Welsh Funeral below, listen to a brand new remix of the track by Message To Bears here and be sure to grab your copy of The Red Laugh on Bandcamp here.

Follow The Cooling Pearls - Facebook | Twitter.

TRACK PREMIERE: Little Brother Eli - 'Stop Pretending'

I'm really excited to share this one! My first ever track premiere on the blog comes from my friends in Little Brother Eli. They're an Oxfordshire based band who have been making a name for themselves in the county and further afield, playing at various Sofar Sounds shows, festivals and running their own Eli Nights shows in London over the last few years. They've had a busy 2018 so far in the shape of three brilliant singles; Tooth, Our Kind Of Love and Wait For You, but they're not letting up! Stop Pretending, their brand new single, is being released tomorrow and I've secured a sneak preview... take a listen below! True to form, the track is completely catchy, and sees beautifully crafted harmonies surrounding the gloriously unique falsetto vocals of lead singer Alex Grew. One of my favourite tracks from the band yet!

They'll be playing the new single at two of their biggest headline shows yet this November - they're heading to London's O2 Academy2 Islington for a show on the 22nd, before heading back to Oxford for a hometown show on the 30th. Tickets for both shows, which are to launch their single Oops, are available here. They're an incredibly talented bunch and put on brilliant shows, with endless buckets of energy flowing from the stage, enticing the crowd to get up on their feet and dance - I really recommending getting along to one of the gigs!

Follow Little Brother Eli online - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.