Tag: singles

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of “Ain’t No Use,” the first single and title track off the Cornwall, UK-born, London-UK-based singer/songwriter Matt Woods‘ recently released Ain’t No Use, Woods has received both national and international acclaim with major blogs such as Pigeons and Planes describing his sound as “dramatic,” and Blah Blah Science praising his songwriting as “top class hook writing.” And adding to a growing international profile, “Ain’t No Use” topped both Spotify’s Global Viral Chart with the EP’s second song “Nothing Less” topping Hype Machine‘s chart.

Ain’t No Use‘s third and latest single “Styrofoam” will further cement the up-and-coming British singer/songwriter’s burgeoning reputation for crafting sultry, Quiet Storm-inspired R&B-leaning pop in which his soulful falsetto crooning is paired with a sparse, contemporary production featuring shuffling drum programming, swirling and subtly droning electronics and a soaring hook in a song that clearly sounds indebted to late 70s and early 80s R&B — in particular bearing a resemblance to Midnight Love-era Marvin Gaye.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of primary members, their Milwaukee, WI-born, Los Angeles, CA-based frontman and founder Austen Moret (synths and vocals),  Jace McPartland (bass) and Sab Cahrunas (drums), along with a rotating cast of guitarists including friends and long-time collaborators Anthony Francisco, Dan Beltran and Mike Aguado joining the band for live shows, the Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock act Midnight Divide has gone through several inceptions before settling on a synth-based, power chord and big drum-based sound paired with anthemic hooks inspired by TV on the Radio, Radiohead, Imagine Dragons, Vertical Horizon, Snow Patrol and others as you’ll hear on the gorgeously atmospheric, swooning and anthemic “Talking” off the band’s forthcoming sophomore EP, which features Moret’s earnest vocals throughout. At the core of the song is a plaintive plea to a lover (or friend) to work things out; that better times could be had if they can get on the same page. But just underneath the surface is an embittering realization that things may not work out as planned, that things have at time and place — and the result may be heartbreaking yet necessary.

As the band’s Moret explains press notes “‘Talking’ lived inside me for years before I could accept why it existed. But I now know that’s a good thing because it means what I wrote is truly honest. And that’s how all songs should be.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their first batch of singles “Equinox,” “Late Risers”  “Zen A” and “Anymore,” the New York-based indie rock duo Surf Rock Is Dead first started to win the attention of the blogosphere, as well as this site; in fact, I wrote about the duo last year, just as they were about to release an EP — and as I wrote about “Anymore,” the EP’s standout single, the song reminded me a little bit of The Clash‘s “Lost in the Supermarket” but with a breezier, summery feel. And since then the band has been fairly busy — especially lately as they’re in the middle of a short tour with The Jezabels (check out their tour dates below, which include a stop tomorrow night at Music Hall of Williamsburg) and the release of their latest single “In Between,” a single that has the band pairing shimmering guitar chords fed through copious amounts of hazy reverb, a sinuous bass line, fuzzy yet propulsive drumming with ethereal vocals — and without a doubt, the song will further cement the band’s reputation for crafting wistful yet anthemic indie rock that manages to evoke the last blast of summer, and the uncertain, lingering end of a relationship.

 

 

Tour Dates w/ The Jezabels:

Dec 01 @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg – Brooklyn NY
Dec 03 @ World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA
Dec 05 @ Rock & Roll Hotel – Washington, DC

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently featuring Annie Lipetz, Josh Pollock, Mark Nelson and Sonny Pearce the members of San Francisco, CA-based psych rock/indie rock act Dooms Virginia can trace their origins to two disparate events — the first being the formation of their original project Annie Girl and The Light, a nationally touring punk act, which had opened for the Against Me! and others; and the second being, frontwoman Annie Lipetz’s long held obsession and fascination with Roy Sullivan, a man, who in his lifetime had been struck by lighting more than any other person. As the story goes Roy Sullivan came to Annie in a dream and told her that he discovered that the source of lightning’s attraction to him was a strange and power energy. In the dream Sullivan put this power into a totem and offered it to Lipetz and as soon as she took hold of it, a new and very different artistic voice emerged and new material came poring out. In exchange for this inspirational and powerful totem, Lipetz promised to pay tribute to Sullivan by renaming her band’s name to the town where he had been lain to rest.

And as you’ll hear on the band’s latest single “Devour,” the band’s more punk rock sound has become increasingly frenetic and forceful sounding as though it draws equally from math rock, punk rock and garage rock — in particular I think of Cinemechanica and The Blind Shake song others but with an overpowering urgency. As the band explains of their latest single “The media is lying to the masses, and it’s time to wake up. We have to fight against racism, xenophobia, homophobia, misogyny and hate,” and may this single get you raring to fight — right now.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Giorgio Poti (vocals, guitars), Alessandro Marrosu (bass), Salvador Garza (keys) and Aurelien Bernard (drums), each member of the London-based psych rock quartet Cairobi can claim a multinational heritage, which manages to influence their songwriting approach and sound. And adding to that multicultural influence, the band’s self-produced, self-titled album was written in Berlin, where the band’s lead singer relocated, and was recorded in a series of sessions between Berlin, London, Rome and New York. Interestingly, part of the album’s writing sessions draws from Poti suffering frequent and violently incapacitating migraines. As Poti explains in press notes ““I could either stay still, in silence, eyes shut, or take the medication and hope it worked so I could move on with my day. Even when the medicine worked, it would make me extremely sleepy, so some of the music and lyrics on this record were written in a state of drowsiness. That part wasn’t particularly fun, but maybe it helped me get rid of some filters. Luckily, the headaches stopped after about a year.”

The band started to receive attention across the blogosphere with the jagged and jangling Brit Pop and dream pop-leaning “Lupo,” a single which revealed that the band employed an unusual songwriting technique while still hewing to a lengthy psych pop/psych rock tradition. The band’s latest single “Saint” is a dense, noisy and jangling track that sounds as though it draws a bit from Middle Eastern and Saharan African music with shuffling drumming, chopped up distorted vocals, electronic bleeps and bloops and other effects to create a trippy kaleidoscopic sound. And while still drawing from old school psych rock, the single manages to sound as though it’s a modern, maximalist take on a familiar and beloved sound, complete with an anthemic, arena rock-friendly hook.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Starting her career as a member of Laveer, an act that split up in 2013,  the Brighton, UK-based singer/songwriter and electro pop artist Aimee Herbert-Smith spent the past couple of years focusing on her personal life — getting married, having children and dealing with tragic loss. Naturally, those experiences inspired her to reconsider her entire creative process. “I felt the need to start writing and recording in a different way to how I had done before. Somehow, going solo at this point seemed fitting with the content of the songs – more vulnerable and anxiety driven,” Herbert-Smith explains in press notes about her new songwriting and creative approach.

Herbert-Smith’s debut single under the Mere Child moniker, “Not Good Enough” was released earlier this year and received praise from the likes of blogs such as Gigslutz, I Heart Moosiq and Bitter Sweet Symphonies and was included in Spotify Australia’s “This Week Sounds Like . . .” playlist, thanks in part to a sound that nods to Cocteau Twins, Mirage-era Fleetwood Mac, early 80s Stevie Nicks and others. Her second and latest single “Jot of Joy” will further cement her burgeoning reputation for writing anthemic pop that manages to possess a visceral earnestness with slick, radio and club-friendly, cinematic production — in this case, Herbert-Smith’s yearning vocals are paired with enormous, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, strummed guitar, layers of cascading synths and swirling electronics, and anthemic, larger-than-life hook — all while possessing a swooning Romanticism at its core.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Northampton, UK-born, London, UK-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Bruno Major who has received attention across the UK and elsewhere with the release of the first three singles off his current 12 month-long release project. And his fourth and latest single “Easily” will further cement the up-and-coming singer/songwriter’s burgeoning reputation for earnest and crafted pop that draws from the blues, jazz chord progression and contemporary songwriting techniques. Major pairs his soulful and confident vocals singing a defiant and sultry refrain “Just because it won’t come easily, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” with an atmospheric production featuring swirling, bluesy guitar chords, a sinuous bass line and hip-hop inspired drumming in a swaggering and sultry song that seems to channel Nick Hakim.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Brighton and London-based indie label Catskills Records celebrates their 20 anniversary and just like Fluff and Gravy Records, the label which can trace their origins to its first release by Sonorous Star, featuring label founders Khalid and Amr Mallassi just released a compilation of music from some of their wildly genre-spanning artists, artists who have specialized in electro pop, hip-hop, punk, country, prog rock and others titled Catskills Records: 20 Years of Victory. And along with the retrospective look of where the label has been and their overall aesthetic, the compilation includes two new tracks from label mainstays Pepe Deluxe and Husky Rescue

Finish electronic music act Husky Rescue have developed a reputation across both their native Finland and Scandinavia for a songwriting approach that focuses on restless experimentation — and for material that sonically and aesthetically walks a very careful tightrope between anxious tenseness and childlike innocence.  Now if you had been frequenting this site last year, you may recall that I wrote about two singles off the expanded Long Lost Friend album, “Deep Forest Green,” a track that sonically seemed to draw from Bjork, and Talking Heads while the album’s second single “Far From The Storm” seemed to draw from  Moonbabies fantastic Wizards on the Beach and Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android” — or in other words, cinematic dream pop with an even breezier nature and catchy hooks.

The Finnish act’s contribution to the Catskill Records compilation is the slow-burning and tense “My Shelter,” a single that pairs Ringa Manner’s aching yet powerhouse vocals with gently undulating and twinkling synths, swirling electronics and a cinematic sweep to create a sound that’s reminiscent of Kate Bush and Bjork while being a swooning, romantic ode. As the members of the electronic act explained to the folks at Clash Magazine “‘My Shelter’ is a previously unreleased track we wrote in the midst of a long hiatus. We had recently gotten to know singer Ringa Manner and felt she might have just the right voice for the song. And so she most certainly did: forceful and fragile all at once. Which is pretty much what the song is all about.”

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Although very little is currently known about them, the London-based indie rock act Le Clientele, their latest single “Strats and Precisions” as the band describes is a “Dire Straits, Ariel Pink inspired workout” and was recorded in Softhouse Studios using a Studer A827 tape recorder, which helps to give the proceedings a jangling, old-timey feel but with a subtly contemporary take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of their debut single “I Knew You,” the Newcastle, UK-based quartet Seeing Hands, comprised of Kev Curran (vocals, guitar), Nick Hodgson (lead guitar), Jon Varty (bass) and Liam Guillan (drums) have received airplay from the likes of BBC Radio 6 and XFM, as well as attention across the blogosphere for a shimmering guitar pop/dream pop sound that sounds as though it owed a debt to the 4AD Records sound and to contemporary acts like DIIV and others, complete with a gorgeous yet wistful sense of melody as you’ll hear on their latest single “It’s True.”