LISTEN: Mandrake Handshake - 'Monolith'

The Oxford music scene strikes again with a reaaaaaaally lovely slice of psychedelica. I was listening through some submissions recently, found myself enjoying this and took a closer look at the press release. A couple of familiar faces looked back at me and lo-and-behold, they're an Oxford psych-collective. Of course. Monolith arrives, produced by Stereolab's Andy Ramsay, alongside news of their debut EP Shake The Hand That Feeds You, due on June 18th via Nice Swan Records. It's a 7-minute long rollercoaster of a tune, and it is glorious. 

On the track, they share: "Monolith is one of our only songs with a more personal approach to the lyrics, broadly about coming of age. For us, the track represents a freedom from the restraints of childhood and simultaneously the anxiety of future independence - uncertainty is the price of being free." 

Nice Swan Records · Mandrake Handshake - Monolith

Mandrake Handshake is Row Janjuah (guitar, synth, bass, percussion), Trinity Oksana (vocals), Liv Duval (vocals), Elvis Thirlwell (tambourine, percussion), Erid Nishku (tambourine, percussion), Charlie Arrowsmith (guitar), Dany Jeffries (bass), Shan Sriharan (synth, organ), David Howard-Baker (fluter, saxophone) and Joe Bourdier (drums). 

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WATCH: Charli Adams - 'Cheer Captain'

"I cried, wiped my eyes, and then smiled. Cause they didn't know I was living a lie." 

Charli Adams is a dream, right? She's recently shared Cheer Captain and announced news of her debut album Bullseye, due on July 16th via Color Study and featuring recent singles Didn't Make It and Maybe Could Have Loved. I'm really excited to hear the record - there's a huge appetite for alt-rock at the moment through the likes of Charli's contemporaries Phoebe Bridgers, Soccer Mommy, Girl In Red, Billie Marten etc. Always relatable on the surface, the new track is pretty auto-biographical and sees Charli waving goodbye to her youth in Alabama, growing up in a deeply conservative and Christian environment. 

On the track, Charli shares: "Cheer Captain is a resentful and regretful song about struggling with a saviour complex as a serial people pleaser. I desperately wanted to be everything for everyone so I became a customizable human being that often went against everything I actually am. It's always felt like the thesis of this project as I touch on my relationship with religion, my parents, and men.

I grew up in Alabama and I was captain of the cheerleading team in my freshman year of high school and a worship leader at a church. I think it's safe to say I was struggling with my identity, in fact I really hated it all so a year later, I started school online and moved to Nashville for music." 

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WATCH: Mellah - 'Easy Breezy'

Don't get me wrong, I loved recent singles Hitchin and Habit but I *think* that Mellah might have just released my favourite track of his. Easy Breezy has been floating around in my head (it's more than welcome) since I first heard it a few days back. The track arrives as part of the upcoming Them EP - the first in a trilogy of EPs, all due for release this year and referred to collectively as 333. 

Easy Breezy appears on the surface as a colourful and catchy track, but the hooks sit atop satirical lyrics serving as a comment on society's willingness to ignore things that aren't right, to accept things that shouldn't be accepted. It's an approach which runs through much of his work, and he shares that "I often feel quite a lot of anger at society and how people seem to snub injustice as long as it's outside their picket fence. We willingly consume these sanitised shrink-wrapped little canapés of reality, casually indifferent to the blood in the kitchen. It seems crazy to me that most people aren't angry about it, don't rally to change it."

The trilogy of EPs - Them, Us and Me are releasing on Columbia Records, and Mellah describes them as "scratching a compulsive lifelong tic". Through childhood and into adolescence, Mellah had OCD which manifested as a fixation on the number 3 - "to this day I still see the world separated into 3 parts. One thing, its opposite and together the whole; the liminal space between the two extremes, the point of balance, oneness in duality. For example - future, past, now; birth, death, life; good, evil... human." 

He recently shared a documentary entitled Floorspace - a 7-minute visual biography exploring gentrification, generification, consumerism, capitalism, loneliness, mental health, grief, social media etc. It's brilliant and worth a watch here.

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WATCH: Banji - 'Dogbreath'

You all remember the brilliant tune Listen from Banji a few months back, right? (I was so read to type 'weeks' and then found that it came out waaaaaay back in November. Time is confusing.) It was a raucous call to arms, a confident debut from the Utrecht 4-piece. They're back with new track Dogbreath and it is just as brilliant... like Listen's slightly calmer but just as cool younger sibling. There's so much going on in the track... I love the comparison to the collage-like sampling of Superorganism (who you should most definitely listen to). Seriously so groovy. Video (below) was created by Pasqual Amade and it sees the members of the band going around town in animal masks on a night-out. From these first two tracks they seem really fun and quirky and I can't wait to hear more. 

On the track, vocalist Morris Brandt shares: "the chorus was inspired by stumbling across the word 'Dogbreath' in the notes app on my phone (I think my girlfriend put it there??) I recorded the hook with this word in mind, and the rest of the lyrics just fell out. I wanted to encapsulate a type of regret. One that is not rooted in truth, but in appearing truthful. Feeling guilt-ridden about your actions, and wishing it would have gone another way, but failing to accept true consequence. Coming up with excuses instead of dealing with it. Like you can't just fix your breath with a piece of gum, you can't change the situation you put yourself in that easily." 

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LISTEN: Low Island - 'If You Could Have It All Again'

It's no secret how much I adore Low Island and I am delighted to share a little write-up for their debut album. If You Could Have It All Again was released last week via the band's own label Emotional Interference. Recorded, produced and engineered by the band themselves at their makeshift studio in rural France, the record is very much a DIY project and I am so so proud of my pals for the piece of work they've each put so much into. Carlos, Jamie, Felix & Jacob are stars and I'm so excited to see the journey this record takes them on.

I've had a stream of this in my inbox for a couple of weeks and have been revelling in the joy of it on my commutes to work. Since the release on Friday I've listened to very little else. Longer album reviews in the traditional sense take up a lot of time which I don't really have at the moment - I've recently headed back to work and keeping on top of the site alongside a full time job is difficult, but consider this post a *very* strong recommendation for you to wrap your ears around the new record. (Thank me later!)

Low Island · What Do You Stand For

The release of their debut record makes me reminiscent of my first days as a fan of the band... looking back, I'm sure that I must have generally discovered their music through the Oxford scene, but a specific gig cemented my love for them. Rushing across Brighton to Patterns with team Tigmus to make sure we were front and centre for their set at The Great Escape in 2017 - it was incredible. I've somehow only managed to see them once more since, at a London headline later that year, but have been completely in love with their output since then. I can not waaaaaait to catch them live next to see just how much their live show has progressed since the oh so distant days of 2017. 

While we're all very aware that recent singles Don't Let The Light In, Feel Young Again and Who's Having The Greatest Time are absolute bops, I've enjoyed getting to know the unreleased tracks on the record. Currently, What Do You Stand For is a stand-out for me, and Momentary is easily one of my favourite tracks of the year. A perfect example, within a track, of the contrasts that exist in the band's music more generally. From a tender opening, layers of sound build into what is sure to be a dance-floor filler. The production all the way through the record is exquisite. 

Low Island · Momentary

As someone who feels a little bit like I'm stagnating in my mid-twenties (not helped by the pandemic, that's for sure) having come home after university and finding myself in a string of retail jobs, the themes through the record are all too relatable. At times painfully so, but mostly in a comforting way, as in In Your Arms, an ode to Carlos' childhood bedroom. The record 'takes stock of a twenties filled with false starts, heartbreak and cyclical conflict, and carves a path towards a better decade to come.' 

Carlos describes the album as a product of "ten years of trying to make things work - in music, but also in life, a litany of romantic disasters that have coloured the last ten years of my life." He describes the character he inhabits loosely in the record looking back and saying "have I just really fucked this up? Have I made a royal mess of the last ten years?" It's sorrowful but there is also a lot of hope - dark and light, good and bad. The record exists on contrast. It's real life. It's raw. And it's so SO damn good. 

Low Island · Spaces Closing In

You should most definitely buy/stream the record and grab tour tickets here.

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LISTEN: CJ Pandit - 'New York Time'

It's good to be surprised, right? Cj Pandit is back with a new tune (rejoice) but he's taking a slight detour from his usual brand of indie-pop for a much more stripped back affair on New York Time. Not what you might expect but as much of a treat as ever, that's for sure, and an opportunity to show off Cj's raw songwriting and vocals on this one. He was recently tipped as an 'Essential Emerging Artist for 2021' by the NME (though CMAT has been shouting about him for a little longer...) and with a year out from touring, he's been busy writing and has plenty more to share. All in good time. For now, New York Time...

On the new track, he writes: “I never understood the idea of a song being plucked out of the ether or ‘given’ to you by some kind of higher musical power until I wrote New York Time.

I was at the lowest point in my life, I couldn’t shake New York, or a person and situation there, or the weight of my own expectations for creating. I was manic, working all over the place with so many different people, but then went up to Liverpool to write some new songs. Those few days were a real blur, filled with hallucinations and something I can still never quite put my finger on. Like watching a sunset, the knowledge to describe it never quite matches the sight or the experience of it. It’s the most honest I’ve ever been. I have little recollection of that time, but it’s a period and a song I'm incredibly grateful for that means so much more than I could ever put into words.”

 

Cj Pandit · New York Time

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LISTEN: Matilda Mann - ‘Doomsday'

What a joy to have the beautiful sound of Matilda Mann back with a new tune last week. Despite the name, Doomsday is in fact a soothing tune, full of love and hope. Completely enchanting as ever. It's Matilda's first release since her 2020 EP Because I Wanted You To Know and was written during lockdown, a track celebrating the small things that make life good, and the importance of holding onto those in the darker times. 

On the track she shares: “Doomsday was written in December in lockdown. During that time, we really had to cling onto the small things in life, and sometimes it just felt like it was never going to get better. So Doomsday was written to help people feel, that during the worst times, things are going to get better. We have each other and the small things that make life good.”

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ALBUM NEWS: MarthaGunn - 'Something Good Will Happen'

Joyous news last week from my faves MarthaGunn. After around 7 years of being a band, lots of touring, many brilliant singles and EP releases, they've announced news of their long-awaited debut album (!!!!) Something Good Will Happen, due for release via Communion on September 17th. New single Giving In is out now (video below) and they're heading out on a real life tour (remember those?) later in the year. I love MarthaGunn for their gorgeous harmonies, all too relatable themes and the passion they each exude - a passion to create and to collaborate. They're a really special bunch and I'm so excited to hear the fruits of their labour. Better not wish away the summer months waiting for the record though... 

On the new track, frontwoman Abi Woodman shares: "Throughout my life, like most people, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, emotionally and mentally. This song came about after we had been away on tour for about a month. I had been quite ill and had to miss a few shows. I felt like I had left everyone down. When I got back off tour, I just felt really low. The one person I turn to when I'm feeling low, is my mum. I sometimes feel guilty for baring all my worries upon her, afraid to be a burden. This song is about trying to hide how you feel from others. I like to come across as a strong woman, and I am, so in those moments of fragility, my biggest fear is people seeing me as weak. I tend to hide away when I feel like that. I eventually told my mum how I was feeling and the feeling disappeared within a few days. It's so important to share those feelings with someone and talk about them." 

"This album is us navigating the relationships of our twenties - the failures and successes. Constantly trying to find out who you are as a person, and constantly growing. You don't always grow the same as the people you are with. Sometimes you are on the same path as someone, then suddenly you're not. The overarching theme through this is losing oneself and rebuilding oneself through doing that, you learn a lot about yourself. You're always going to face challenges in life that are going to tell you that you're not good enough and let you question yourself, and it's a constant daily reminder to look after your inner voice, and to treat yourself well by having boundaries."

"I want to connect with people. The beautiful thing about songs is that you don't have to know someone, but you can connect with them through the same song without saying something. I want this album to be able to help people in some way, and give people courage to leave a situation they know isn't right for them, or for the other person. To go after the person they love and to know no matter how bad things may seem, it's just a chapter. Things always get better." 

MarthaGunn tour the UK later this year, starting in Oxford on Sept 30th and taking in venues around the country through October, including London's Moth Club on the 5th. Tickets here.

Pre-order/pre-save the record Something Good Will Happen here.

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WATCH: Fickle Friends - 'Cosmic Coming of Age'

Happy Friday and happy Low Island album release day. So much to celebrate! Coming to you on Wednesday evening (time travel) via the wonders of pre-scheduled posts with this ace new Fickle Friends tune. They're following up recent EP Weird Years (Season 1) with Season 2 and recently shared Not In The Mood from it. Latest tune Cosmic Coming Of Age is exactly that: a certified tune. 80s vibes galore, the band are making use of the juxtaposition between the serious emotions portrayed in the lyrics and the oh-so-lively musical backdrop. A joy, as ever! 

On the track, vocalist Natti Shiner shares: "Cosmic Coming of Age is about that transitional period in life where everything seems to fall apart, a kind of quarter life crisis. One moment you have everything together, the next it feels like you have to start life from scratch. In horoscope astrology this is seen as the time of reaching full adulthood, and man does the universe make you work for it! This song is full of lyrical visuals and is best heard on your car stereo, driving into a sunset." 

Known for regularly making their own videos, this time around the band's own Jack Wilson has the director hat on here, for a video featuring Natti as she experiences a whole range of emotions, from despair through to joy. 

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LISTEN: Dizzy - 'The Bird Behind The Drapes' (ft. Luna Li)

Very excited to share this - new Dizzy (you're welcome!) The Bird Behind The Drapes with Luna Li is taken from their forthcoming EP Separate Places. It's a collection of tracks from their 2020 record The Sun and Her Scorch, reimagined and featuring collaborations with a bunch of their favourite artists. I've got a stream of the EP for an early listen and I have to say - you're going to love it. My jaw dropped a little at the list of collaborators. SO good. Born out of the inability to tour the new record and a desire to do something creative, each track brings in inspiration from the specific collaborator and their musical styles, and offers a beautiful example of finding ways to be together when you're not able to be together physically. I am fully in love with this release and can't wait to share more of it. 

On the EP, frontwoman Katie Munshaw shares "The 'Separate Places' EP has allowed songs from 'The Sun and Her Scorch' to go on tour without us. Following some of our favourite artists around the globe from Birmingham, London, New York and back to Toronto. Each song has been reimagined. 'Primrose Hill' is now fiery and tough. 'The Magician' and 'Ten' returned to a state of naive, solemn bliss. 'Beatrice' gains solace with felt piano and harmony and 'Sunflower' sounds like something out of a Super Mario Brothers video game. It's kind of a ride."     

"It felt necessary to have a friend join us on the rework for 'The Magician', a song rooted in friendship to begin with. We met Hannah at an outdoor show in 2019. She took the stage clad with sparkly cheeks and continued to deliver a massive fucking set, which I now know is the norm for her. Our relationship grew into one of cheering on each other's projects from the sidelines; one of my favourite parts of being in indie music. She ended up contributing strings to multiple tracks on TSAHS. To me, Hannah is an artist that signifies precise, skilled, gentle strength and I'm so proud to have had her turn what started out as a simple piano ballad into an anthem for platonic love performed by a million tiny fairies." 

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Follow Luna Li - Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.