I didn't get round to sharing Violet from Sea Girls when it was first released but have been loving the track, and knew I needed to get the video onto the blog as soon as I saw it was out! They've been making waves around the UK and have played to crowds at Reading, Leeds, Electric Picnic, TRNSMT, Truck and Benicàssim festivals this Summer and they're currently in the midst of a mostly sold out UK tour, having headlined London last night.
The new video, directed by Michael Holyk, was shot in a disused railway ticket station in Woolwich. Talking about the video, the band said that "we may have songs with darkness, but that doesn't mean we can't look to the light. 'Violet' is wildly optimistic and for the video we find ourselves in an abandoned building and this time we aren't feeling sorry for ourselves."
This week in 'things which have blown my mind recently'... one of my favourite humans and musicians Nick Mulvey has shared a new track. Musically it is as gorgeous as ever but what struck me immediately was the limited vinyl pressing. Already sold out, it's a project with Sharp's Brewery - the track has been pressed onto a vinyl record made from recycled plastic which has been washed up on Cornish beaches, with funds going to Surfers Against Sewage and their work to protect British coasts. Visually the records are unique and stunning - a real eye-opening repurposing of just a few of the millions of pieces of plastic which find their way into our oceans every day.
The anthropocene is defined as "the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment." The track serves as an exploration of, in short, what our freedom means to the environment, and the responsibility that we all carry. Nick expands on the themes, explaining that "my music is about knowing who - or what - we are, right at the core; aliveness itself, conscious. These times of urgent global crisis are demanding we re-examine ourselves and the world and we raise ourselves to match the Earth, this wonder-organism from which we are not, and have never been, separate." A stand-out lyric for me is "the voices of future grandchildren I hear them asking: what were you doing, what have you done?"
Utter joy to have Gengahr back with a new track, album announcement and tour news. The triple whammy. Everything & More is their first track since Atlas Please last year - a track produced by none other than Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman. The track is taken from their upcoming third album Sanctuary, due for release on 31st Jan. The track sounds fresh yet familiar, focusing around the charming falsetto of frontman Felix Bushe. I adored their last album Where Wildness Grows and can't wait to see what they've got in store for us!
You can catch Gengahr across the UK and further afield next year across February and March - UK dates below and tickets/album pre-order here.
13th Feb: Band on the Wall, Manchester
14th: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
16th: King Tuts, Glasgow
17th: The Sound House, Dublin
19th: Fleece, Bristol
20th: Patterns, Brighton
21st: EartH, London
Just a couple of weeks to go for the new Liz Lawrence album, so to whet your appetite she's released a lyric video for the absolute tune None Of My Friends. Created by Marc Corrigan, the video serves up a large slice of early 2000s nostalgia for you. As Liz wrote online - "if you remember your Mum screaming at you to get off the internet so she can use the phone then you might appreciate this lyric video for None Of My Friends."
Get your ticket for Liz's upcoming London show (29th October) and pre-order a copy of the new album Pity Party here.
Not long to wait now until Pizzagirl's debut album first timer which is due for release this Friday (11th) via Heist or Hit (pre-order here!) The track dennis has been out for almost a month now but this post is better late than never, right? I'm loving the guitars on this one which hook you in instantly - musically it's cheery and sunny in nature, making the lyrics (a spot of jealousy) feel light-hearted and a little tongue-in-cheek. Pizzagirl himself (AKA Liam Brown) describes the track as the "class clown of the album [...] a bitter, meta, foot-long sub of jealousy, sports and that 43 year old guy who just stole your girl, all wrapped up in a neat little single length grease proof wrapping!"
Even more glorious Christof van der Ven content coming your way today... I adore this guy, his music holds a really special place in my heart and the session videos that he recorded earlier in the year at RAK Studios are all proving to be a treat. With a band comprising of fellow Bear's Den live members, Matthew & The Atlas members and other talented friends, we've seen performances of 4AM and Lucky, and this time around new album opener Bravais Arc is in the spotlight and is sublime! Get watching...
If you like what you're hearing Christof is currently on tour to promote the new album You Were The Place - UK folk can catch him at Brighton's The Hope & Ruinon October 7th and London's The Lexingtonon the 8th.
It's hard not to feel completely at peace as you settle down with the new EP from Flyte - White Rosesis 11 minutes of pure bliss from the trio. With their incredibly tight harmonies and honest songwriting fans often draw comparisons to the likes of (and this is kind of huge) The Beatles (yep, them) and Simon & Garfunkel - deservedly so, I reckon. If you caught my recent interview with the band then it won't be much of a surprise to hear that I adore them and their music and I'm really excited that the new EP is out in the world. It's hard to pick a favourite but as the track which launched their return, I'm still really loving the title track White Roses, with the vocal backing of none other than The Staves. How to improve on one group with beautiful harmonies? Combine them with another, of course.
Frontman Will Taylor describes that for the new EP the band have "stepped into a much starker, more direct place emotionally [...] Our last album told other people's stories, where we were too afraid to look at ourselves. The songs on this EP seem to have predicted our futures - or it may be that things are already happening to us that we're not yet conscious of, and the music gets there way before we do. The song 'Sometimes' is the first track recorded since Sam left the band, and although it was written before he left, it is clearly about him and his reasons for going. The current album we're finishing is so much like that, it's incredibly confessional - so what better warm up than the EP."
If you happen to be in America (hi!) Flyte are currently on tour with the equally magic Jade Bird across the US through to the start of November, after which they're heading home for a sold out Village Underground (London) show on November 11th.
As I frequently say on here, while I love sharing music from artists I already love, one of the best things about the blog is getting sent so much new music from artists I've never encountered before. This track has been sitting in my folder of tracks to write about for a few weeks but I didn't want to let it slide... South African artist Julia Church,who studied in Liverpool and now lives in London,recently released her third single Crawl. What is striking about this one for me is the layers of production and Julia's gorgeous tone.
Talking about the track, Julia explains that "it's an older one that I wrote at uni, while in quite a toxic relationship. It's basically about being a rock to someone who is struggling and how it was so often at the cost of my own well-being."
Julia's next London show is at the Old Blue Last on 10th October - tickets here.
Continuing on the Oxford theme from my Sofar Sounds post yesterday, I'm loving this track from local musician Max Blansjaar - so much so that it's got the top spot on the CMAT playlist this week. Originally from Amsterdam, the 16 year old released his debut EP Spit It Out last October, via local indie label Beanie Tapes, with the limited run of 50 cassettes selling out in a day.
New track The Shame That I Wear is a bit of an indie lo-fi dream with some very very nice guitar riffs, and all the other technical stuff.It's the first single from upcoming EP Fantasy Living, due on 12th October as an official International Cassette Store Day release. Talking about the EP, Max explains that "while 'Spit It Out' was recorded over the course of four months, 'Fantasy Living' took me just a week to create; I spent entire days in Beanie Tapes Studios recording and producing everything myself. My aim was to fuse pop music - which gets an unfairly bad rep these days - with more trashy, lo-fi sounds, taking artists like Darwin Deez and Tune-Yards for inspiration."
For the three years that I studied in Oxford from 2014 to 2017 one of my favourite things to do was helping out at Sofar Sounds shows in the city. I started volunteering as a photographer at the shows a couple of months after moving there and got to see lots of brilliant artists in various intimate (and often bizarre) venues around the city - a bicycle cafe, an independent cinema, a museum and an art gallery to name a few. I had some time off work last week and headed back to Oxford for the first time in a couple of years. It was really great to be back in the city and luckily my trip coincided with a Sofar - it was a treat to be back!
China Bears
If Sofar Sounds is new to you - they're an organisation run mostly by volunteers, curating live music events in over 400 cities around the world. Originally set up to combat the issue of people talking around you and using phones etc at gigs, they create an environment for people to sit and discover new artists away from distractions. As the line-up and venue aren't announced until close to the show, there is an element of mystery and the opportunity to discover something new - it's a real joy to be part of!
Tuesday's show took place at the Rowing Club Bar & Cafe at the City of Oxford Rowing Club, overlooking the Thames. I took a beautiful walk along the river from the centre of town to get to it. It was great to be reunited with my friends on the Sofar crew, as well as to meet some of the new volunteers and we had four brilliant artists on the line-up.
Opening up the show, it was a real pleasure to catch local (ish) guys China Bears playing their first ever Oxford show. I blogged about a couple of their songs recently and I'm really enjoying their debut EP I've Never Met Anyone Like You which was released via Fierce Panda Records back in August. Giving us a stripped back set showcasing their honest songwriting and indie influences it was a really fun way to open the show, and really sweet to meet the guys after the show. They're fans of the blog so I may be a little biased towards them... here's a video of them performing the EP title track from a Sofar London show!
Next up and hailing from Vancouver were duo Momento. I'm a fan of a violin at a gig, but what's better than one violin on stage? Two violins! Though their live set is now more electric in nature, they offered us a stripped back set (because they couldn't carry all the extra kit on the train, I think) covering popular tracks. Their immense talent and stage presence was obvious immediately and they very quickly got the audience on side - it was a really typical Sofar set, something that you might not expect and might not have usually gone to see, but which everybody seemed to love. Watch a cover of The Killers' Mr Brightside below!
Having travelled down from a show in York the night before especially for the night, next up was Sofar veteran Kim Logan. She's played lots (upwards of 70, I think?) Sofar shows and helps curate Sofar Paris as she currently lives between New York and Paris. Also (do you sense a theme?!) delivering a stripped back set and promising that her usual show was a full band rock affair, Kim sang a set of country and blues infused acoustic tunes. There's a video from Sofar Long Island below, featuring live dancing. Very Sofar.
Last up and after a long day exploring the gorgeous museums that Oxford has to offer, the lively set I needed to wake me up - Oxford favourites of mine, Little Brother Eli. It was the third Sofar I've seen the guys at, and my ninth time seeing them in total. I'll never tire of the infectious energy of frontman Alex Grew and his impressively broad vocal range, while backing him up, Josh Rigal and Adam Stowe offered superb musicianship and lovely harmonies. They're a well oiled machine and a local favourite and you can catch them playing at the O2 Academy Oxford for their Christmas gig on 21st December (tickets.)
Overall it was a really lovely show and is one of my favourite ways to experience live music - a really calm and inclusive environment where you're likely to leave the show having seen something you didn't expect, and lots that you loved. Long may shows like Sofar Sounds continue - I think it is clear that fans and artists alike love these shows! Check out the Sofar website here to see if there are shows happening close to you and take a chance on an evening of music discovery - you won't regret it!
