Tag: Speedy Wunderground

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartworms Shares Startling and Cinematic Visual for Brooding “Retributions Of An Awful Life”

Jojo Orme is a South London-based singer/songwriter, producer and mastermind behind the rapidly rising, goth-inspired post-punk outfit Heartworms. Uniformity plays a huge role with Orme and Heartworms: the metronomic music and meticulous fashion of acts like Interpol and Kraftwerk have been a major influence on the South London-based artist. But she also cites PJ Harvey, whose dark sense of humor and lyrical dexterity permeates her own songwriting.

Orme’s Heartworms debut, “Consistent Dedication” quickly exploded across both the British and international scene: She received nods from the NME 100 and Dork Hype List for 2023, and she received critical applause from The FADER, The Quietus, Loud and Quiet, The Line of Best Fit, So Young Magazine, Clash Magazine and a lengthy list of others. The song was added to BBC Radio 6 Music‘s playlist following airplay from the station’s Chris Hawkins, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and Tom Ravenscroft. And the song received airplay from Radio X‘s John Kennedy and BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Gemma Bradley.

She has also made a name for self on the national live circuit in the past year: She played DIY Magazine and So Young Magazine showcases at The Great Escape. She opened for Lime Garden. And lastly, Sports Team invited her to play their annual Margate bus trip.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising South London-based artist’s debut EP A Comforting Notion is slated for a March 24, 2023 release through Speedy Wunderground. The EP’s latest single “Retributions Of An Awful Life” further cements an uneasy and deeply goth-inspired take on post-punk featuring ambient noise, glistening synth oscillations, skittering beats and slashing guitars paired with Orme’s defiant and swaggering delivery, which seems equally indebted to hip-hop and punk rock. The song reveals a singular artist, crafting something completely new from the familiar, while delving deep into her own psyche.

Directed by Niall Trask and Dan Matthews, the accompanying video for “Retributions Of An Awful Life” is shot in a cinematic yet intimate black and white, and stars Orme, along with Natalia Tonner, Lizzy Walsh, Lizzy Walsh, Pip Smith, Marko Andic, Tom White, Simone Reca and Jazz as a military regiment going through some brutal military training exercises. Throughout we see the members of the miserable regiment, covered in dust and mud, wincing in pain, fighting to continue through the wet and cold. Their suffering is real and difficult to watch yet compelling and symbolic: We all have to figure out some way to push through in the face of terrible suffering — whether from outside forces larger than us or from within — and in face of our own fears.

“The song itself lyrically is deeply unsettling, I wanted it to come alive in action. I had an idea of being kitted up in full militaria of no specific regiments, in black and white, putting my body through cold water and wet mud,” Orme explains. “This was stepping outside my comfort zone because I’m not a skilled swimmer; deep water frightens me immensely, especially when cold and in full military gear.”

She continues: “Not many artists/bands I know have done something this raw. I didn’t want to go for a fancy video with pretty dancers or lovely wallpaper plastered with an airbrush filter – I wanted to imbibe a new pain, bring to life punishment, fight fears while abiding relentlessness with my friends by my side. To have put my body through something I found frightening just for the art… there’s something exhilarating about it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s deep tan Shares a “Blair Witch Project”-Meets-“Island of Dr. Moreau”-like Visual For “rudy ya ya ya”

Through the release of a handful of singles and last year’s critically applauded creeping speedwells EP, London-based post punk trio deep tan — Wafah (vocals), Celeste (bass) and Lucy (drums) — quickly exploded into the national and international post punk scenes: The band was featured in outlets like NME, DIY, Clash, Loud and Quiet, The Quietus, So Young, Notion, Dork, BrooklynVegan, and countless others. 

Their music has been playlisted on BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio while receiving airplay on Apple Music Beats 1, Radio X, SiriusXM, KEXP, BBC Wales and Amazing Radio USA. And along with that, Steve Lamacq named the band his BBC 6 Music Spotlight Artist last May. Adding to a momentous year, last year the rapidly rising post-punk trio supported their debut EP with extensive touring that included an opening slot for critically applauded post- punk outfit Yard Act and the British festival circuit with stops at Dot to Dot, Live at Leads, Wide Eyed Festival, and Manchester Psych Fest. They closed out the year with the Dan Carey-produced “tamu’s riffing refuge,” which was released through Speedy Wunderground. 

Their sophomore EP diamond horsetail was released earlier this year — with a digital release preceding the physical release. They also released an extremely limited “Dinked Edition,” which featured diamond horsetail and creeping speedwells pressed together on “piss kink yellow” vinyl. (And by extremely limited, I mean it was 400 — yep, 400! — copies.)

deep tan’s sophomore EP saw the members of the British post-punk outfit further establishing their unique take on post punk in which their stripped-back, minimalist approach serves as a vehicle for songs that focus on contemporary thematic concerns, including deepfake revenge porn, surreal meme pages, furry hedonism and others.

EP single “rudy ya ya ya” is a taut, sparse and uneasy song centered around a propulsive and angular bass line and wiry guitar blasts paired with Wafah’s sultry yet ironically detached vocals. At its core, is a vicious, occasionally veiled, occasionally obvious, satirical takedown of the entirely deserving Rudy Giulliani — and old, power hungry bastards like him. The song is also a reminder of how far — and how quickly — Giulliani has fallen, becoming one of the world’s most hated, most despicable people.

Directed by Stringer, the accompanying video for “rudy ya ya ya” is a glitchy, Blair Witch Project-like visual that follows the band on a journey to a nightmarish Island of Doctor Moreau with hideous and menacing monsters in business suits.

“’rudy ya ya’ allowed me to fully realize my Island of Dr.Mareau [sic] by way of the Blair Witch fantasy and was a perfect opportunity to flex my Digital Bolex’s muscles with manic handheld movements and gritty psychedelic textures,” Stringer explains. “The end product is a haunted fever dream of a video and It’s the most fun I’ve had in the middle of nowhere at night in a long time.”

“For our rudy video we enlisted the help of stringer to direct, who caught our eye online with their excellent creeped-out gorefest references, which led to a very entertaining 12hrs in Epping Forest,” the band adds.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Lounge Society’s Sociopolitically Charged, Dance Floor Friendly Satire

The Lounge Society — Cameron Davey (vocals, bass), Archie Dewis (drums), Herbie May (guitar) and Hani Paskin-Hussain (guitar) — is a rising Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK band, whose members are roughly around the ages of 16-17. And in a remarkably short period of time, the Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire-based act have developed a sound and approach that draws from a diverse array of influences including The Fall, Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground and Fat White Family among others.

The rising British act caught the attention of Speedy Wunderground co-founders Pierre Hall, Dan Carey, and Alexis Smith, and by the time the band’s manager had contacted the label, Hall, Carey and Smith quickly recognized that they were in a now-or-never moment to work with a band that by all accounts are lining themselves up to one of the next big things from Northern England. Because of their youth, the members of the and actually needed permission to miss their exams in order to come down to Speedy Wunderground’s Streatham, Greater London headquarters and studio to record material. And they needed an adult guardian to check them into the nearby hotel they booked for for their session.

Despite their relative youth, the young rising act made quite the impression on the Speedy Wunderground folks. “They are great. Really fun to work with — and a fucking amazing band,” Dan Carey enthuses. The day that the band entered the studio, things happened quickly: after messing around a bit with the members of the band trying out different amps and guitars. As soon as they were ready, Carey set the mood of the sessions by turning the lights off and turning on the smoke machine and lasers. And as they started to play, the building’s smoke alarm went off, which according to the band and the label was the first time that had ever happened.

Earlier this year,. I wrote about The Lounge Society’s debut single, the expansive yet breakneck “Generation Game.” Clocking in at 5:30, the band self-assuredly crafts a difficult to pigeonhole sound with the single featuring elements of shoegaze, psych rock, punk and Brit Pop held together by a propulsive rhythm section. “Generation Game” manages to capture the upstarts as a runaway train of rambunctious abandon, piss and vinegar and distortion pedaled power chords.

Building upon the buzz they received from “Generation Game,” The Lounge Society’s latest single “Burn the Heather” continues their ongoing collaboration with Dan Carey while being centered around a post-punk/punk funk strut that recalls Talking Heads, Gang of Four and Echoes-era The Rapture, complete with copious cowbell. And while being a dance floor friendly jam, the song finds the band continuing to write material that’s sociopolitically charged: The song’s title is derived from the annual local ritual of rich landowners burning moor-top heather for lucrative grouse-shoots. Locals in the valley have blamed that annual local ritual for frequent flooding that has devastated them financially and emotionally. Much like its predecessor, “Burn the Heather” is the sound and voice of England’s young people — and perhaps young people everywhere: hyper aware of their local and global world, articulate, pissed off, energized and ready to grab society by the horns.

Centered around strikingly macabre lyrics, “Burn the Heather” is a deeply personal song for the upstart British act. “‘Burn the Heather’ is a song deeply rooted in where we come from,” the band explain in press notes. “The lyrics are our interpretation of some of the darker aspects of where we live, and our personal reaction to them. Musically, ‘Burn the Heather’ is intended to be an adrenaline shot to the brain. We wanted this to be the second single all along. We don’t want to be just another post-punk band, and we knew ‘Heather’ would keep people on their toes. Unlike a lot of our tracks, the guitars are quite minimal and the rhythm really carries it, and we think it works really well. We want to make people move.”

Directed by Nick Farrimond, the recently released video fittingly follows the song’s macabre lyrics with rich landowner types hunting people — in this case, young people, dressed as prisoners in orange or perhaps red?) jumpsuits. (Editor’s note: Americans will see it this way. Across the country, the orange jumpsuit typically denotes prisoner.) Clearly pointing out the inequalities of power, class and wealth, the members of the band are hunted down — and there’s ton of carnage, as well as an ironic twist.

“Born from the sense of injustice surrounding irresponsible land owners who clear heather from the moorland for grouse hunting, (resulting in increased flood risks below in the valley where we all live) we decided to portray caricatured versions of grouse hunters, dressed head to toe in tweed and showing total disregard for the landscape and devoid of any values, morals or ethics,” the video’s director Nick Farrimond explains. “The band play the parts of grouse, making their way across the moors, dressed in fetching red boiler suits and unaware of the impending danger they face. What ensues is general carnage as the grouse are hunted one by one, each meeting a grizzly, untimely end…or do they? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.”