Tag: Single Review Void

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Cold Specks Returns with a Chilly Industrial-like New Single

Over the course of the past handful of posts, I’ve found myself focusing on new material from a series of long-time JOVM mainstays — and if you’ve been frequenting this site for a while, you’d likely be intimately familiar with the renowned, Toronto, ON-born and- based singer/songwriter  Ladan Hussein, best known as Cold Specks. Now, as you may recall, after spending the better part of 2015 and 2016 touring to support Neuroplasticity, Hussein returned to Toronto, where she began working on her third full-length album, Fools Paradise, which is slated for a September 22, 2017 release through Arts & Crafts Records, and from the album’s early batch of singles — the slow burning and atmospheric  “Wild Card,” which was inspired by the refugee experience and an act of unusual and profound kindness towards a stranger, from a familiar yet far away place; the aching and vulnerable album title track, Fool’s Paradise;” and “New Moon,” a song that conveyed the struggle to find stability and oneself after life (and love) have thrown you for a complete and total loop.

Fool’s Paradise’s fourth and latest single sonically pairs Ladan’s gorgeous and soulful vocals with shimmering yet chilly industrial beats and electronics — and while nostalgic, the song possesses a bittersweet tinge to it, influenced in some way by the fact that when Hussein grew up, she never heard much about her parents’ life in Mogadishu before fled the country; in fact, the vision of the country the song evokes seems both uncertain and mythical, all while being something (anything, really) to cling to and understand.  And although the song finds Ladan and her collaborators expanding upon the sound that first caught the attention of this site and the rest of the blogosphere, the new single may arguably be the album’s haunting, fever dream. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Antonia Sellbach (guitar, vocals), Alison Bolger (guitar, vocals), Ali McCann (guitar vocals), Gil Tucker (bass, vocals) and Karla Way (drums, vocals), the Melbourne, Australia-based psych rock quintet Beaches formed in 2007, and since their formation the band has toured extensively both across Australia and the US, developing a reputation for trancelike live shows and critically applauded recordings that found the band’s sound drawing from psych rock, shoegaze, prog rock and krautrock and others; in fact, the quintet’s 2008 self-titled debut and 2013’s sophomore effort She Beats were shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize. Their self-titled debut was included in John O’Donnell’s, Toby Creswell’s and Craig Mathieson’s 100 Best Australian Albums and received praise from internationally recognized outlets including Pitchfork, Stereogum, Gorilla Vs Bear, Spin Magazine, and others.

The band’s forthcoming full-length effort, Second of Spring is slated for a September 8, 2017 release through Chapter Records and the album is a double LP, the first double LP released by an individual artist/band in the renowned Australian label’s history.  Recorded in their hometown of Melbourne with producer/engineer John Lee, who has worked with Totally Mild and Lost Animal, mastered by David Walker and features artwork from the band’s Ali McCann and design by artist Darren Sylvester.

Reportedly, the band’s forthcoming full-length effort finds the band expanding upon the sound that won them international attention while focusing on an extensive, jam-like feel. Second of Spring‘s first single features layers of buzzing power chords paired with a forceful a motorik groove, and anthemic hook — creating a song that sounds as though it drew influence by The Breeders “Last Splash,” Liz Phair‘s “Supernova” and others but with a swirling, lysergic feel; but as the band’s Ali McCann explains to the folks at Vice Noisey “‘Void’ is a conversation between two people, who discuss a prolonged absence, a temporary disappearance into a space of emptiness. We wrote ‘Void’ in our rehearsal space in Reservoir (Melbourne) during a prolific period of songwriting. It was produced by John Lee (Phaedra Studios), who also plays synthesiser on this track. Karla and I are on vocals. There is a restrained interaction between them, tempered by the motorik drive of the instrumentation.”