WATCH: Benedict Benjamin - 'I Wish Your Lies Were Better'

At the risk of becoming a Sofar Sounds Oxford alumni fan-page (though it's testament to the fact that many of my great musical discoveries since being at university have been through helping out at Sofar), here's the new video from Benedict Benjamin for his track I Wish Your Lies Were Better, taken from his debut record Night Songs.

The record is due to be released through Sugarcoat Records later this week (25th) - I was lucky enough to buy the first copy directly from Benedict after his set at our recent Sofar show (post about the night here). At the Sofar show I was struck by the careful, controlled nature of his vocals, holding the whole audience in silence, and this certainly comes across on the record. I don't regularly compare artists but I'd say the record should appeal to fans of the likes of Fleet Foxes, though the style is pretty fresh. The above track is one of my highlights of the record among others including Thin Skin, Move On Those Tired Feet and Coward, though having listened to it 2 or 3 times in a row initially, and several times since, I can confidently write that the whole record is a beautiful debut and totally worth your time (and money!)

You can pre-order the record, Night Songs, which is released this Friday (25th March) through the Bandcamp page here, and grab tickets for Benedict's show in the intimate confines of London's The Islington on 30th March here.

ALBUM NEWS: Little Brother Eli to release debut album 'Cold Tales'

Following from my post about the new Laish album, comes another album announcement from Sofar Sounds Oxford alumni Little Brother Eli. The more I listen, the more I'm enjoying their music,   which has been compared by some to the likes of The Black Keys, all surrounding the powerful vocal range of frontman Alex. They're a superb, energetic live band, both in a full band set-up and acoustic shows, and I'm intrigued to hear how much of this comes across on the record. They'll be playing a show at The Bullingdon in Oxford (their hometown) to promote the release, more details at the bottom of the post. The album, Cold Tales, is due for release on 24th June (pre-order on iTunes here) and you can get a taster of the music through a variety of videos of the band on Youtube, including this of them performing the brilliant track 'Shake Me' at Sofar Sounds Nottingham. 

My photo of Little Brother Eli playing Sofar Sounds Oxford back in November

The track listing for Cold Tales is as follows:

Oceans
Who Do You
This Girl
Dreams
Roll Away
Gold
Hanging
Shake Me
Beautiful People
Cold Tales

Album artwork, sketches by Merlin Porter

Little Brother Eli play an album launch show on 25th June at Oxford's The Bullingdon with support from Nine Miles South and Neverlnd (I'm gutted I won't be in Oxford for the show - sounds like it'll be a great evening!) You can grab tickets here.

WATCH: Lucy Rose 'Nebraska' and King Charles 'Lady Of The River'

The Easter break is looming, and after a group presentation task tomorrow, I've got a little break from assignments (who am I kidding? They're always lurking around the corner...) Over the last few days I went to London a couple of times, first for the DICE Girls Music Day event on Saturday, with several women discussing their careers so far within the industry, and second for the last night of Letter's Live (Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Berry & co reading letters, and a couple of pretty special performances from Benjamin Clementine), and I ran a Tigmus gig at The Bullingdon in Oxford a few nights ago, making a wonderful discovery in the duo Martin Harley & Daniel Kimbro, who are touring to promote a live album they recorded together, a perfect blues-y Sunday evening! A busy few days so I'm surprised I've managed to squeeze some essay writing in - but amongst all that, a couple of new videos dropped which I'm pretty excited about and wanted to share. 

The first was for Lucy Rose's track Nebraska, and rather impressively, as Lucy wrote on her Facebook post 'Every single person who worked on this did it for free to try and make something beautiful that tells an important story.' The focus is, of course, Danny Dyer, an unexpected collaboration but a beautiful piece of work promoting freedom of expression and the breaking down of stereotypes - take a watch. 

The second new video was premiered yesterday, for King Charles' track Lady Of The River, taken from his January released record. Charles first premiered tracks from the record on a tour last February, and I was shocked to hear this track live. Having toured across America with his Mumford pals a few years previous, there are various videos on Youtube of Charles and the guys performing the track with the other support bands, so to hear it live and discover it would be on the album was exciting. Particularly fun too was seeing Charles perform it live with Marcus Mumford when he played alongside Charles' band at his Bush Hall gig last July. I'm so chuffed that the track has a video to accompany it as a single and that more people will get to hear the track - take a look at the video below! 

ALBUM NEWS: Ryan O'Reilly - 'Northern Line'

Exciting news yesterday from Ryan O'Reilly, who supported on the recent King Charles tour. His album The Northern Line is set to be released through DNA Records on 6th May. Posting the announcement on Facebook Ryan wrote "We'd like to thank you all for following us over the last weeks, months and years, it's been a long exciting road for all of us involved and we're very proud to finally have a collection of music like this."

Album artwork, source: https://www.facebook.com/ryanoreillyband

The track list is as follows, and features November (embedded below), one of the tracks that stuck with me from the two support sets I caught him playing in February:

November
Northern Lights
Sometimes Things Just Happen
The Love That You Wasted
Evil Quarter Mile
The Black & The Blue
The First Time
The Northern Line
Gypsy Tree
I Never Told Her
The Flood
The One
Tamsin
Boats Against The Current

WATCH: King Charles 'Tomorrow's Fool' acoustic

Amidst a flurry of uni deadlines and catching a cold/sore throat from a flatmate I've been feeling rubbish for a few days but something which brought a little cheer was this new acoustic video from King Charles, performing his track Tomorrow's Fool. It's one of my favourite tracks from Charles' January release Gamble For A Rose, and although the cracking guitar solo is my favourite bit, I love this stripped back version! It's also 4 years ago today since I saw Charles live for the first time back in 2012...

GIG NEWS: Stornoway at the RSC (10/7/16)

I'm usually fairly in the loop... finding it hilariously ironic that because I was busy writing a Hamlet essay for English for most of yesterday I missed the news that the fantastic Stornoway guys are playing a show at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 10th July! Here's my favourite video of them to get you in the mood... 

Stornoway and Shakespeare - my kind of night for sure! Having recently played two triumphant shows at Oxford's SJE Arts church venue on a tour promoting their Bonxie Unplucked EP (on iTunes here - I particularly love the The Only Way Is Up cover on there) and with dates at the beautiful Sheldonian Theatre under their belts too, they're no strangers to playing spectacular venues and this will certainly be a special evening! I went to the theatre back in 2013 for a school trip to see As You Like It and really hope I can get along to this show, particularly as I didn't get chance to explore Stratford itself on that day. I heartily recommend the show if you're in the area, I saw them three times last year in three totally different settings and was blown away by their performance every time.

Stornoway at St John The Evangelist back in November, photo credit: Megan Seekings

Tickets for Stornoway's show at the RSC theatre in Stratford Upon Avon on July 10th are available here.

LIVE: Sofar Sounds at The Jam Factory (6/3/16)

With a really gig heavy February, and April looking like it could be quite busy (Tigmus have a lot of Oxford shows coming up in April), March is seeming pretty empty, with just a couple of shows lined up. I almost didn't go to a gig last week.... almost! Luckily Sofar Sounds Oxford managed to squeeze me into their show at The Jam Factory last night, with artists Oceans, The Bloom Twins, Benedict Benjamin, Jali Fily Cissohko, and Moulettes. I live-tweeted the night over on the Oxford Sofar Twitter, and it was the first Sofar I've been to where I haven't been taking photos, so slightly less stress involved...

I haven't been to the venue before but it provided a really nice intimate setting perfect for a Sofar show. First up was Oceans, originally from Finland, providing us with some experimental electronic pop to wake us up and kick off the evening nicely. It was clear he was being totally genuine in his gratitude that people were sitting and listening attentively as he was shaking during the performance - some tracks are over on his Soundcloud here, listening to him while I write this and really enjoying - particularly his Jack Garratt remix.

Oceans

Carrying on the European trend... next up were Ukrainian act The Bloom Twins, fresh from arena shows supporting Duran Duran they took to the intimate confines of our Sofar Sounds show perfectly. Once I'd got over the fact that they were identical twins, I loved their harmonies, and a particular highlight of the set was a slowed down Beyoncé Crazy In Love cover (you heard right!)

The Bloom Twins

Next up, third act of the evening and the first guitar of the night... Benedict Benjamin, who played a Sofar in Oxford just over a year ago and I was glad to get to see play again. You could hear a pin drop through his performance, there's a beautiful tone and a vulnerability to his voice - someone came to speak to him after his set and described it as 'controlled', a good word choice I reckon. He played tracks from his upcoming album Night Songs, set to be released on 25th March (with a launch show at The Islington in London on 30th March - ticket and CD bundle here) - he had copies with him so I became the first person to buy a copy, just finished my first listen and loved it! Definitely watch out for it later in the month... 

Benedict Benjamin

Travelling continents, next up we had Jali Fily Cissohko, playing the Kora, an African 21-string harp. The whole crowd were mesmerised and I loved the clap-along for the last track, but spent most of the set wondering just how difficult it must be to play the kora! 

Jali Fily Cissohko

Last but by no means least and really brightening up our Sunday evening were Moulettes. Having not played a show since December they admitted to being a little rusty - I'd like to see what they're like on top form as I loved their set! Playing some new tracks for the first time, they described the concept of their latest album (quote taken from their site), "a record about the phenomenal creatures that inhabit the earth". They're playing a Tigmus gig in Oxford at The Cellar in April, tix here, that's part of a UK tour, full dates, and info about pre-ordering their fourth record is on their site here.

Moulettes

All in all - very glad I could get along to the show and excited to hear who's playing the next one which is tonight, as they've got two very intimate shows this month - I'll be in London seeing play The Maids tonight but interested to see what went down. It was also great to see Merlin Porter at the show, an artist based in Oxford, who actually has an exhibition at the venue running until today, who paints at shows. As a photographer, it's incredible to see Merlin's work coming to life so quickly during a short Sofar set. Give his Facebook page a like here to see more of his work.

Merlin Porter's artwork

LISTEN: Neverlnd - 'Where Do I Start'

Exciting news this Saturday morning... Neverlnd, the newly renamed Balloon Ascents, have just released a new track entitled Where Do I Start, which you can listen to below. The talented bunch of school friends from Oxford will be releasing a free track each month through a mailing list (sign up here), with all the tracks produced by the equally talented Ian Wallman. They've also announced a show, organised by Tigmus, at an intimate venue in Oxford at the end of April (details at the bottom of the post).

Having been introduced to the band through the fact that the Sofar Sounds Oxford organisers manage them, I've seen them a few times over the last year and they've never failed to put a smile on my face, playing fun and superb live sets in a variety of settings, from a stripped back set at Truck Store to a couple of headline shows across the road at the O2 Academy Oxford (one of which was the first show I've had a proper photo pass for back in May, see my shots from that gig here.) Seeing them play in January at an Independent Venue Week show, it struck me that they have got better and better each time I've seen them play, and I feel lucky to know them - but especially to know of their music at this exciting time in their careers.

Photo credit: IWphotographic

Tickets for their intimate Oxford show at Jacqueline du Prê Music Building on 22nd April are on sale through Tigmus here - I'd snap one up quickly as it'll likely sell pretty quickly, these guys are very well loved in Oxford!

WATCH: Laish - 'Song For Everything'

Since taking photos at some of the Sofar Sounds Oxford shows over the last year and a half I've made some fantastic musical discoveries, one of which is Laish, project of indie pop singer/songwriter Danny Green and his band. Gutted I'm missing Sofar this month as they're putting on two smaller shows and I'm busy one day and they can't fit me in for the other!

With a new album in the pipeline, Danny, as Laish, has recently launched an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the studio costs, promotion and manufacture of the album (on CD and vinyl), offering up an instant download EP as one of the incentives. A quirky video for the title track of the EP, Song For Everything, premiered online last week, take a listen/watch below. With some lovely strings and Danny's captivating vocal, the track is great and it is refreshing also to find a fun music video that I happily sat and watched from start to finish - doesn't happen a lot anymore. 

If you like what you hear and want to support the album campaign, the link is here. Incentives include signed CDs and vinyl, drawings, a cover song of your choice, a personal concert and even a song written especially for you - all sound interesting, and projects like this are in my opinion a really worthwhile use of your money, helping independent artists to share their work with the rest of the world. 

Soundcheck before Laish solo set at Art Jericho for Sofar Sounds Oxford, photo: Megan Seekings

To launch the Song For Everything EP, Laish are playing a full band headline show at London's Sebright Arms on 21st April with support from Chris Belson, tickets for that are here.

TOUR NEWS: Communion New Faces (April 2016)

Announced today, The Beach, Adam French, Rukhsana Merrise and Matt Woods play venues in Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Oxford, Brighton and Bristol in April for the latest Communion New Faces tour. 

Source: https://www.facebook.com/CommunionMusic

It feels like barely any time has passed since the last tour - but it was actually announced at the beginning of September, with Flyte, Seafret, Dan Owen and Jack Watts touring in November. Other previous line-ups have featured acts such as Frances, Pixel Fix, Amber Run and Eliza & The Bear, just a small indication of the caliber of the acts. I haven't listened to any of the four new artists before, but aside from listening to a track or two from each to embed something of theirs below, I will probably leave it until I see the show in Oxford - it's sometimes nice, especially for this kind of gig, to go along without any preconceptions, hearing the music for the first time live, letting the artists sell their music to you.

I say it a lot but I have an awful lot of trust in Communion, and often discover fantastic new artists through them. Therefore, evenings such as these, particularly with tickets a mere £8 (£2 per band!) for all the shows apart from London, are a superb showcase of four artists who are likely to have a brilliant 2016, and you'll be glad to have seen in venues of this size! Here are tracks from each of the artists...

Tickets for the shows are available now through the Communion website, through which you'll receive an EP with tracks from the artists with every purchase.