Tag: Baby’s All Right

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kiltro Shares Shimmering and Wistful “All The Time In The World”

Years ago, Chilean-American singer/songwriter and guitarist Chris Bowers Castillo moved to the Chilean port city of Valparaíso and became a walking tour guide. “I would dress up as Wally and give tours to families and kids,” he remembers with a laugh. “It was great, because I got to know the city incredibly well. I’d walk for hours, then spend the rest of the day partying and drinking, probably way too much. But I also wrote lots of new songs.” 

When he got to to Denver, Bowers Castillo searched for a moniker that reflected the evocative and subtly rebellious musical concepts he had brewing and his head, and eventually settled on Kiltro. a Chilean slang word for a stray dog or a mutt. He then teamed up with Will Parkhill (bass) and Micheal Devincenzi (drums). He then recruited Fez García (percussion) to join the band for their live shows. “I wanted to do a project mixing different styles and aesthetics,” Castillo explains. “Valparaíso is my favorite city in the world and will always influence my music. There were street dogs everywhere, and I’m a mutt myself.” 

Slated for a June 2, 2023 release, the Denver-based outfit’s forthcoming sophomore album Underbelly reportedly represents a bold, new chapter for the band, as they seamlessly fuse Latin roots music with American rock music. “When we first started the band, I was playing folk songs – focusing on my interior spaces and finding catharsis through melody,” Bowers Castillo says. “I’ve always been attracted to music that is melancholy and personal. Then we added the rhythmic component, and I realized that having a bit of noise and chaos can add emotional depth. Underbelly reflects everything that happens inside your soul when the world stops on its tracks.” “We tried a lot of new things on this record,” Kiltro’s Will Parkhill adds. “We were living through unprecedented times and coming to terms with all of it. The album is a reflection of that. At the end of the day, we wanted to create the kind of music that we didn’t hear anywhere else.”

The album’s first single “Guanaco” is built around a sinuous and propulsive groove paired with glistening guitars, Latin-influenced percussion, four-on-the-floor, Bowers Castillo’s gently cooed Spanish delivery and a sleek, almost dance floor friendly hook. Sonically, “Guanaco” sees the Denver-based outfit specializing in the sort of off-kilter funk reminiscent of Fear of Music–More Songs About Buildings and Food–Remain in Light-era Talking Heads but with a defiant, genre-defying flair. 

 “A guanaco is a South American animal that is a bit like a llama. It’s known for spitting,” Bowers Castillo explains. “In Chile, it has another meaning, and is colloquially used to refer to police vehicles that shoot water at protestors. We wrote this song in the wake of the 2019 protests for a new constitution in Chile.  The line “ya viene el guanáco” means simply “here/now comes the guanáco,” which against a driving, melancholic backdrop, had an almost fairy tale quality to it. I felt it communicated a sense of foreboding and nervous anxiety. Taken more literally, it means a beast is coming, here.  Of course, a guanaco is not a terrifying thing, but a police line in riot gear with the machinery of dispersion and violence, is. 

He continues “To be clear, the aim was never to make an explicit political point. Rather, I wanted to capture that peculiar environment of communal tension and mounting emotional energy, be it conviction or catharsis, or fear. The album had yet to take shape in those months, but I was certain the song would make an apt intro to whatever came next. I hope you enjoy it.”

“All The Time In The World,” Underbelly‘s second and latest single is a decidedly folk turn, built around simmering reverb-soaked acoustic guitar, Latin-influenced rhythms and atmospheric synths with Bowers Castillo’s plaintive delivery. And at its core, “All The Time In The World” simultaneously evokes a wistful and bittersweet nostalgia over things that are lost and can never return and a hope for a bright new future ahead.

Written during quarantine, “All The Time In The World” was a breath of fresh hair for the band while making the record in dark times. “It’s a reminder that no mater how the world may spiral, it’s important to stop and take a breath,'” the band explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Kiltro Shares Fever Dream-Like Visual for “Guanaco”

Years ago, Chilean-American singer/songwriter and guitarist Chris Bowers Castillo moved to the Chilean port city of Valparaíso and became a walking tour guide. “I would dress up as Wally and give tours to families and kids,” he remembers with a laugh. “It was great, because I got to know the city incredibly well. I’d walk for hours, then spend the rest of the day partying and drinking, probably way too much. But I also wrote lots of new songs.” 

When he got to to Denver, Bowers Castillo searched for a moniker that reflected the evocative and subtly rebellious musical concepts he had brewing and his head, and eventually settled on Kiltro. a Chilean slang word for a stray dog or a mutt. He then teamed up with Will Parkhill (bass) and Micheal Devincenzi (drums). He then recruited Fez García (percussion) to join the band for their live shows. “I wanted to do a project mixing different styles and aesthetics,” Castillo explains. “Valparaíso is my favorite city in the world and will always influence my music. There were street dogs everywhere, and I’m a mutt myself.” 

Slated for a June 2, 2023 release, the Denver-based outfit’s forthcoming sophomore album Underbelly reportedly represents a bold, new chapter for the band, as they seamlessly fuse Latin roots music with American rock music. “When we first started the band, I was playing folk songs – focusing on my interior spaces and finding catharsis through melody,” Bowers Castillo says. “I’ve always been attracted to music that is melancholy and personal. Then we added the rhythmic component, and I realized that having a bit of noise and chaos can add emotional depth. Underbelly reflects everything that happens inside your soul when the world stops on its tracks.” “We tried a lot of new things on this record,” Kiltro’s Will Parkhill adds. “We were living through unprecedented times and coming to terms with all of it. The album is a reflection of that. At the end of the day, we wanted to create the kind of music that we didn’t hear anywhere else.”

The album’s first single “Guanaco” is built around a sinuous and propulsive groove paired with glistening guitars, Latin-influenced percussion, four-on-the-floor, Bowers Castillo’s gently cooed Spanish delivery and a sleek, almost dance floor friendly hook. Sonically, “Guanaco” sees the Denver-based outfit specializing in the sort of off-kilter funk reminiscent of Fear of Music–More Songs About Buildings and Food–Remain in Light-era Talking Heads but with a defiant, genre-defying flair. 

 “A guanaco is a South American animal that is a bit like a llama. It’s known for spitting,” Bowers Castillo explains. “In Chile, it has another meaning, and is colloquially used to refer to police vehicles that shoot water at protestors. We wrote this song in the wake of the 2019 protests for a new constitution in Chile.  The line “ya viene el guanáco” means simply “here/now comes the guanáco,” which against a driving, melancholic backdrop, had an almost fairy tale quality to it. I felt it communicated a sense of foreboding and nervous anxiety. Taken more literally, it means a beast is coming, here.  Of course, a guanaco is not a terrifying thing, but a police line in riot gear with the machinery of dispersion and violence, is. 

He continues “To be clear, the aim was never to make an explicit political point. Rather, I wanted to capture that peculiar environment of communal tension and mounting emotional energy, be it conviction or catharsis, or fear. The album had yet to take shape in those months, but I was certain the song would make an apt intro to whatever came next. I hope you enjoy it.”

Created by the band’s Chris Bowers Castillo and Will Parkhill, the accompanying video for “Guanaco” is a surrealistic fever dream of found footage from old documentaries, sci-fi films and other weird shit seemingly randomly stitched together.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Just Mustard Shares Dream-like Meditation on Grief

Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland-based indie outfit Just Mustard — Katie Ball (vocals), David Noonan (guitar, vocals), Mete Kalyon (guitar), Rob Clarke (bass) and Shane Maguire (drums) — formed back in 2016. Their self-produced and self-recorded full-length debut, 2018’s Wednesday was released to critical acclaim: The album was nominated for that year’s Choice Music Prize.

The Irish quintet signed to Partisan Records, who released their sophomore album, Heart Under earlier this year. Heart Under may arguably be one of the most acclaimed and commercially successful albums of the year so far: The album landed at #1 on the Independent Album Chart in their native Ireland — and currently at #7 on the Meteoritic Best Albums of 2022 Chart with an overall score of 89.

Heart Under is an album that challenges the listener, and asks them to forget what they know at every turn — with the the Irish outfit reconfiguring and stretching the ideas and ambitions of a rock band, while turning a year of lockdown and personal struggles into a breathtaking, personal artistic statement.

The band caps off a momentous year with the release of a special deluxe edition of Heart Under that will consist of of a double LP in a gatefold jacket and obi strip, a booklet with exclusive in-studio photos, handwritten lyrics from the band’s Katie Bell and a print of English artist Graham Dean’s In The Water Waiting, the painting that comprises the album’s cover art. The deluxe edition of Heart Under is slated for a Friday release through Partisan Records. Along with that, the acclaimed Irish outfit will be embarking on their first North American headlining tour. The tour includes a November 5, 2022 stop at Baby’s All Right. Tour dates as always are below.

“Blue Chalk,” Heart Under‘s latest single is a brooding and atmospheric song centered around swirling and textured, A Storm in Heaven-like synth oscillations, thumping and propulsive heartbeat-like beats paired with Katie Ball’s ethereal and soaring vocal. The song evokes the oppressively heavy weight of grief.

Directed by the band’s Katie Ball and the help of the band’s friend Seán McMahon, the accompanying under water — and with colored flashing lights. “The song ‘Blue Chalk’ defines the heaviness that the whole of Heart Under exists beneath. The kind that comes with grief and you feel like you are trying to navigate life with the weight of the sea on your chest keeping you down. I wanted to make this video since we started writing ‘Heart Under’ and to me, it visually represents a lot of the emotion in the album. It was filmed in 4hrs in freezing cold water with the help of our friend Seán McMahon.” Just Mustard’s Katie Ball explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Working Men’s Club Share a Hook-Driven Banger

Led by frontman Syd Minksy-Sargeant, the rising British outfit Working Men’s Club exploded into the national and international scene with the release of 2020’s self-titled, full-length debut. Featuring some songs written when Minsky-Sargeant was 16, the album saw the Working Men’s Club frontman processing a teenage life in Todmorden in England’s Upper Calder Valley. “The first album was mostly a personal documentation lyrically, this is a blur between personal and a third-person perspective of what was going on,” Minsky-Sargeant explains in press notes.

Working Men’s Club highly-anticipated Ross Orton-produced sophomore album Fear Fear is slated for a July 15, 2022 release through Heavenly Recordings. Featuring songs created in the shadow of terror and loss, the album bristles, crackles and pops with defiance while exploring juxtaposition: life and death, acceptance and isolation, hope and despair, environment and humanity, the real world and the digital world. And while Fear Fear reportedly documents the past two years with all its bleakness and uncertainty, the album’s material is rooted in hope and empathy. “I like the contrast of it being happy, uplifting music and really dark lyrics. It’s not a minimal record, certainly compared to the first one,” Minsky-Sargeant says. “That’s because there’s been a lot more going on that needed to be said.”

Fear Fear‘s latest single “Ploys” has received praise internationally from BrooklynVegan, Northern Transmissions, Vanyaland, NME and a lengthy list of others. And that’s not surprising. The song is a decidedly 80s New Order inspired banger, centered around a dense layered production featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless groove and Minsky-Sargeant’s irony-drenched vocals paired with an enormous hook.

But despite the retro sound and feel, the song is rooted in a deeply modern sense of disconnection, uncertainty, crippling insecurity and anxiety; the song essentially is the theme song to a Tinder/Hinge/OKCupid date gone terribly off to the point of not being salvageable.

The accompanying video follows a determined woman in the gym as she dead lifts. But it’s shot through a grainy and glitchy VHS-like fuzz and effects that find the weights being dropped in unison with the 808s of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Say She She Shares a Mind-Bending Visual for Sultry “Blow My Mind”

Deriving their name as a silent nod to the legendary Nile Rodgers — “C’est chi-chi! It’s Chic!” — the emerging NYC-based funk and disco act Say She She features three accomplished, strong female lead vocalists: founding members Piya Malik, who has spent time in El Michels Affair, 79.5 and Chicano Batman; and Sabrina Cunningham; along with Nya Gazelle Brown, a former member of 79.5. 

Say She She can trace their origins to when Malik and Cunningham found themselves living in the studio apartments directly above and below each other. The pair would hear each other singing through the floorboards and quickly became friends. “I knew the girl below me had the most beautiful voice as I would hear her early in the morning and she would hear me late at night. Between the two of us I don’t think we got a wink of sleep. Then again I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they moved to New York City to sleep,” Malik says in press notes. 

After spending years singing in other people’s bands, Malik and Cunningham felt they were finally ready to step out into the spotlight with their own project, at first writing tongue-in-cheek songs about bad boyfriends, band breakups and bad politics.  Shortly after, they started writing much more serious and vulnerable tunes, like much-needed therapy sessions, detailing the lives of post-modern women. The result is material that touches upon love, lust, sex, heartbreak, betrayal and hope.

A few years after starting the project, the duo recruited their close friend and Malik’s former 79.5 bandmate Nya Gazelle Brown to join them. At that point, the act’s core lineup was settled. 

Sonically, Say She She’s sound nods at 70s girl groups — multi-part female harmonies paired paired with funky, disco-inspired arrangements played by a backing band featuring some of New York’s most talented and accomplished players, featuring former members of  Antibalas, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaries, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, The Shacks, Twin Shadow and others. Locally, they’ve developed a reputation as a must-see live act, playing sold out shows at Bowery Ballroom, Nublu 151, Brooklyn Bazaar, C’Mon Everybody and Baby’s All Right among others. 

Slated for release this fall through Karma Chief Records, an imprint of Colemine Records, Say She She’s self-titled, full-length debut was recorded on old tape machines in the basement studios of friends. The album features guest spots from The Dap Kings‘ Joey Crispiano and Victor Axelrod, The Shacks’ Max Shrager, Chicano Batman’s Bardo Martinez, Antibalas‘  Superhuman Happiness‘ and Low Mentality’s Nikhil Yerawadekar, Twin Shadow’s Andy Bauer and NYMPH‘s Matty McDermot. 

Last month, I wrote about “Forget Me Not,” the New York-based act’s debut single and their forthcoming debut album’s first single. Featuring a strutting bass line, glistening wah wah pedaled funk guitar, fluttering flute and dreamy three part harmonies “Forget Me Not” is one part Patrice Rushen, one part Tom Tom Club’s “Gangster of Love,” one part ESG, one part Mary Jane Girls, centered around righteous feminist lyrics. 

Building upon a growing profile, the disco and funk outfit’s latest single is the slow-burning, sultry “Blow My Mind.” Centered around the trio’s yearning and impassioned cries, shimmering Bollywood-inspired riffage and a strutting bass line, “Blow My Mind” is a song about returning to a former flame, with who you’ve managed to hold feelings for — even after some period of years. “‘Blow My Mind’ is about a love that you can’t seem to get rid of and you can’t quite get enough of,” Say She She’s Nya Gazelle Brown explains.

Directed by Spencer Bewley, best known as Reelloopy, the accompanying video for “Blow My Mind” is fittingly mind-blowing as it’s chock full of trippy imagery. Bewley predominately works in found and self-produced 16mm film footage, which he culls, reframes and radically re-contextualizes, juxtaposing as many four projected images at a time to create reckless, riddling and yet fully synthesized visual poems. “Blowing minds is a subject very close to my heart and the fact this was a rare case of me liking the song EVEN MORE after the dozens of times during editing I had to listen to it made this an absolute joy to work on,” Bewley adds.

As I mentioned, the band’s full-length is forthcoming but in the meantime, they’ll be releasing their debut 45rpm “Forget Me Not”/”Blow My Mind” through Colemine/Karma Chief on May 20, 2022.