Tag: London UK

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

East Sussex, UK-born, London, UK-based singer/songwriter Natalie Bouloudis can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood. She learned jazz clarinet and guitar as a child, began (secretly) writing her own songs when she was 7, and played in number of jazz bands. Having lived in London for the better part of the past decade, Bouloudis decided to release some of her music publicly three years ago under the moniker Aurora Harbinger. And with her first publicly released material, the East Essex-born, London, UK-based singer/songwriter began playing in a number of local venues and it allowed her to build up a fanbase that enabled her to successful crowd fund her debut EP, which was produced by Robert Strauss.

Initially derived from a short story that Bouloudis wrote while shirking her duties as an arts and culture guide copywriter, her latest single “Burning Pier” set in a fictionalized amalgamation of the burnt-out piers of Brighton, Hastings and Eastbourne and is essentially a meditation on how disasters can evoke nostalgia and make us question our post-disaster future in a new light in a way that will remind some listeners of Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Melanie Di Biasio and others — but with a slightly jazzy, folk-leaning take on pop as the East Essex, UK-born, London, UK-based effortlessly soulful and gorgeous vocals with a sinuous bass line, a twisting and turning melody based around shimmering and twinkling guitar and piano. Recorded in a live take with minimal overdubs — the only overdubs being drummer Hannah Stacey’s Rhodes piano playing — the song manages to feel both thoughtfully composed and improvised, capturing the simpatico of a bunch of musicians playing and creating a moody and pensive song.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past year or so, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts on London-based indie pop duo Ten Fe. The duo of Ben Moorhouse and Leo Duncan won the attention of the blogosphere with the release of anthemic singles “Make Me Better,” and “In The Air.”  Last month, the duo released the brooding music video for their ambient, R&B-leaning, plaintive yet restrained single “Turn,” off the duo’s forthcoming and long-awaited full-length debut Hit The Light, which is slated for a February 3, 2017 release through Some Kind of Love Records/[PIAS] Recordings.

Recorded at Kompakt Records Studios in Berlin with Ewan Pearson, who has worked with Jagwar Ma, M83 and The Rapture, Moorhouse and Duncan’s full-length debut reportedly finds the duo’s effortlessly meshing contemporary electro pop, Americana and the classic Manchester sound while thematically speaking, the material focuses on renewal and possibility.  The duo’s latest single and their full-length debut’s second official single is the album’s opening track “Overflow,” is a shimmering 80s-inspired synth pop/New Wave track, complete with a tight motoric groove that lyrically focuses on a lost love. And while naturally being a bit wistful over the past, the song possesses a profoundly optimistic bent that reminds the listener that heartbreak is a reminder that you once knew love and will have it again many more times over.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeously Mournful Yet Hopeful Sound and Visuals of Daniel Land’s “New York Boogie-Woogie”

Written and recorded in a number of locations including London, Manchester, Devon, California and New York City and featuring over 20 musicians including members of Daniel Land and The Modern Painters, the backing bands of Andrew Saks (a.k.a. ASAKS) and Gerald Hopes (a.k.a Little Nova Sound), members of Land’s current band and ambient composer Bing Satellites, who co-wrote some material, co-produced and played several instruments on the record, Land’s forthcoming sophomore full-length solo album In Love With a Ghost may arguably be one of the more complex and textured efforts he has released.

Interestingly enough, the album’s material was written right after his longest running project Daniel Land and The Modern Painters had broken up, and in a period in which he had been forced to consider giving up music about halfway during the recording of the album, when he had suffered a number of health issues including a painful and chronic inner-ear infection that left him prone to bouts of extreme dizziness and partially deaf for over a year. And as a result, among several things Land had been thinking of during tat period influenced the tone and feel of his forthcoming album’s material. As Land explains in press notes: “This is an album about cities. It is an album about reinvention, and starting your life over. It is an album about growing up, finding love, and settling down. And to a lesser degree, it is about the damage that can be done to a person, or a family, by falling in love with the wrong person. With ‘In Love With A Ghost’, I came full circle for a while by incorporating a whole bunch of influences that pre-date my love of dream-pop and shoegaze. I really wanted to make a colourful, widescreen, detailed record. When I started the album, I didn’t have a live band, and most of the tracks were written on the piano, for my own amusement, rather than for a group with three guitarists.

“Unable to make music, and living in a new city made me feel, at times, powerfully depressed. This became a crisis of confidence that went very deep and it did seem, for a while, that I would never find my way back to making music again, ” Land continues. “Finishing the album was a process that involved re-evaluating my life and overhauling my relationship to music, and coming out of the other side more healthy, more humble, and more grateful. It’s good to be back again.”

And while possessing a mournful air about what was and what can never, be the album’s first single “New York Boogie-Woogie” manages to also simultaneously possess a hopefulness towards the future — with the recognition that things constantly change, and that you better respect and cherish that. Sonically speaking, Land’s plaintive falsetto vocals are paired with dramatic piano chords, propulsive drumming, shimmering guitar chords and a gorgeous sax solo to craft a song that possesses a cinematic yet moody sweep.

The recently released music video for the song features black and white footage in and around New York that captures a sense of endless wonder and possibility and profound loneliness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Deriving their name from the computing term “soft error” — or a fault occurrence in a digital memory system that changes an instruction in a program or a data value, Soft Error is an accomplished production and DJ duo of Tim and Rupert, who have been well-regarded in electronic music scenes and composition for film, theater and TV respectively. Their full-length debut Mechanism which is slated for a January 6, 2017 through Village Green Records was recorded at Valgeir Sigurðsson’s renowned Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavik, Iceland and draws from 1907s Krautrock, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Cliff Martinez, John Carpenter and Jon Hopkins — while also dimly nodding at the likes of Kraftwerk  and contemporary acts like Collapse Under the Empire.

“You Caught Up,” the duo’s cinematic and retro-futuristic debut single and first single off their forthcoming full-length was written and recorded in Paris, arranged in London and mixed in Iceland, consists of layers of shimmering and cascading synths, a sinuous bass line and propulsive drumming and a gorgeous wind section arrangement. Interestingly, the composition reveals a painterly nature, as each note and each chord adds a bit of texture and color like a brushstroke upon a canvas — while sounding as though it should be part of a soundtrack to a futuristic thriller.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Brooding Visuals for Ten Fe’s R&B-Leaning “Turn”

Over the past year or so, I’ve written a bit about London-based indie duo Ten Fe. Comprised of comprised of Ben Moorhouse and Leo Duncan, the indie pop duo took the blogosphere by storm with the release of their critically praised single “Make Me Better,” before closing out last year with the equally anthemic and atmospheric “In The Air.” Interestingly, the duo’s latest single is a subtle but discernible expansion of the duo’s sound, as the slow-burning single gently nods at R&B and soul, as swirling, ambient electronics are paired with shimmering guitar chords and plaintive vocals that express vulnerability within a turn of a phrase, and stuttering drum programming in what may arguably be one of the duo’s most restrained single they’ve released to date. And while being a taste of what the duo’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated full-length debut, the song lyrically speaks about a relationship fraught with bitterness, uncertainties, miscommunications and deceit — both real and perceived. As a result, the relationship is filled with suspicion, with the song’s narrator openly questioning everything his lover is telling him, while wondering if there’s someone else.

The recently released music video features the duo of Moorhouse and Duncan, along with their backing band playing the song in several different locales and appropriately brooding about London.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic Imagery for Toy’s “I’m Still Believing”

As you’ll hear on “I’m Still Believing,” Clear Shot’s second and latest single, the band’s sound has began to lean more towards lush, guitar pop territory as layers of shimmering and jangling acoustic guitar chords (with gentle amounts of reverb) are paired with soaring synths, an anthemic hook and Tom Dougall’s introspective lyrics, all while nodding at Nick Drakeand Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd.

The recently released music video employs a pretty basic concept of having the extremely British looking band performing the song in a variety of strobe lights and Super 8-like filters, sequences of the individual band members broodingly hanging out, brief bursts of animation and Japanese commercials and it gives the entire proceeding a trippy vibe reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s The Wall but with a playful air.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of their 2012 self-titled debut and its follow-up 2013’s Join The Dots, London, UK-based shoegaze/indie rock quintet TOY — comprised of Tom Dougall (vocals, guitar), Dominic O’Dair (guitar), Maxim Barron (bass,   vocals), Max Claps (synths, modulations) and Charlie Salvidge (drums, vocals) — have developed a reputation as being one of the UK’s best alt rock/indie rock acts, as well as being on the forefront of a contemporary shoegaze resurgence.

The British quintet’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated, third, full-length effort Clear Shot is slated for an October 28, 2016 release through Heavenly Recordings, and the material reportedly draws from an esoteric blend of influences including Radiophonic Workshop, Comus, the film scores of Bernard Herrmann, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, COUM, Acid House, The Incredible String Band, The Langley Schools Project, The Wicker Man soundtrack and Rob Young’s Electric Eden, a book about the development of folk music in the U.K. And as you’ll hear on “I’m Still Believing,” Clear Shot‘s second and latest single, the band’s sound has began to lean more towards lush, guitar pop territory as layers of shimmering and jangling acoustic guitar chords (with gentle amounts of reverb) are paired with soaring synths, an anthemic hook and Tom Dougall’s introspective lyrics, all while nodding at Nick Drake and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd.

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Joy Room is a London, UK-based indie rock quartet, who all went to school together and bonded over their mutual love of Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Last Waltz. Their swaggering, debut single “Late at Night” manages to nod at the 90s Brit Pop/alt rock of Blur and others, as layers of power chords, thundering drumming paired with lyrics that describe the loneliness, bitterness and feelings of loss , self-flagellation and denial that come as the result of a bitter breakup.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 80s New Wave and Post-Punk Inspired Sounds and Surreal Visuals of Beach Baby’s “U R”

The London-based quartet’s latest single “U R” has the band pairing shimmering guitar chords, a propulsive, motorik-like groove, a soaring and anthemic hook that you can practically hear kids in a sweaty little club lustily singing along with, with lyrics that focus on the start and bitter ending of a relationship that has its narrator feeling ambivalent and confused. Was the relationship one of the best things that happened to this life? Or was the breakup the best thing that happened because the relationship was so wrong, so dysfunctional that he’s freed from something truly terrible? Should he even feel bitter and confused? Although open-ended, much like life itself, the song manages to be wistful and bittersweet look back at a relationship that should feel familiar — while evoking the dashed hopes and expectations of a relationship and of one’s summer.

The recently released music video follows Lily, its protagonist through the five stages of break-up grief that evokes the surreal feeling of your life being irrevocably altered and not quite knowing how to react or what to do before you finally begin moving forward with your life.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised Anna Haara Kristoferson (vocals, melodica), Joanna Curwood (guitar, vocals), Moa Papillon (guitar, vocals), Raissa Pardini (bass, vocals) and Ruth Nitkiewicz (drums), London, UK-based indie rock quintet Yassassin can trace their origins to the members of the band spent time in The History of Apple Pie and LUST, and with their first single “Social Politics,” the London-based quintet specialize in 90s alt rock inspired indie rock that sounds as though it draws from Sonic Youth, The Breeders and others as shimmering guitar chords are paired with a propulsive groove and shouted lyrics — but with a subtly political bent. As the the band notes within press notes that the song “ is about standing up to the bullies, both in personal life and in today’s society. It’s about not always fitting the norm but daring to go your own way. It’s about rebelling against the ‘zombie scene,’ which could be either a social clique where only certain people are accepted, or a society where racism is becoming more glaringly visible.” Based on how things are going, we need more songs and art that encourage people to be individuals and to go their own away.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: England’s Rude Audio Specializes in a Bold, Dub Meets Kraftwerk Electronica Sound, Paired with Trippy Visuals

Comprised of Mark Ratcliff (arrangement, production and keyboards), Amanda Greatorex (vocals and lyrics), Eucalypta LV (guest vocals), Lamis Harper (piano and keys), Tony Shea (guitar and ostrich guitar), and Owain Lloyd (mixing desk and lyrics) London-based production and DJ collective Rude Audio features members who range […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Floating Points Performing on KEXP Radio

Interestingly, as Shepherd announced his tour and the forthcoming release of Kupier, Shepherd released live footage of him and his backing band performing “Silhouettes I, II and III,” “Argente” and “Kupier” in KEXP’s studios last month. Naturally, the live footage should give you a good sense of a live Floating Points set — including as the announced joked a visual display behind the band, which included floating points; but it also should cement Shepherd’s burgeoning reputation as an sonically challenging and inventive composer, whose material also manages to be trippy, expansive and mind-altering while being approachable.

The live session includes a rather revealing interview in which Shepherd discusses the origins of Floating Points, his influences, how he met the members of his backing band and his incredible 10,000 album record collection.