Now don’t be scared but this is a power ballad, possessing the requisite booming vocal, and gigantic tune…but it’s topic is bigger than the standard “I miss you”, or “I’m leaving this town”, you get in those kinds of things 99% of the time. It’s touching upon knowing someone in this life, and feeling like you’ve already experienced the same situations with them in another time, place, or astral plane. And feeling that what’s happening now isn’t a singular stand alone experience. And then wondering what the future holds with all that, and if there’s an ultimate resolution to the connection. Yes, pretty heavy…but know what, at the end of the day, this is one big fat tune, and singer Devin Davis tears it up vocally, and it just kicks ass, so go on and hold it to your heart.
Twin Weaver “Circular”
Twin Weaver are a 4 piece band out of Capetown, South Africa, and this song is many, many, many things. It’s post punk. It’s twee. It’s krautrock. It’s the Breeders. All of this at the same time, and all the more wonderful for it.
Suzi Wu “Teenage Witch”
This is not a song, it’s a living, breathing, sneering, sarcastic babe wandering confusedly yet confidently through the night. It’s punk ( Slits), it’s pop ( Lily Allen kinda), and just bitchin’.
Sonic “I Can Be Lonely”
Ooh, this is no joke, it’s just a beauteous, earnest, and 90’s all over R & B ballad, with a couple of watery, shaky vocal moments, that’ll completely stick to your heart. The vocal brings to mind the sensuous crooning of diva Chante Moore, while the song itself is reminiscent of Marsha ( Floetry) Ambrosius’s finest stuff. And so tonight we’re gonna cry like it’s 1993.
Weekly New Wonders Playlist !
Yes, this duckling is being used as a shameless device to get your attention so you’ll maybe read this post…anyway, here are some wonderful things, gathered neatly in playlists, all together in one place, that we’ve featured, or just discovered, to bend an ear to. This is going to be a regular thing, and we promise to compile it every month on both Spotify, and Soundcloud, just because, well, we want you to hear, and are trying to make it really easy ( and not every track is in both places dammit) ! Hope you dig…
Listen here ! :
https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/esperanza19/playlist/7aNhnt0SvZy1pWEfotYvCQ
Or here ! :
Early Humans “Verge”
Okay. This is mindless, in the best possible way. This is 1998 to the core. This is the sound of Blink 182 holding hands with Sugar in form, and function. This has one of those chorus’s that just won’t, go, away. This is to play whenever you feel like bouncing off the walls, and it is ridiculously swell.
Big Hush “Soft Eyes”
One thing is clear from the outset with this one: the guitar is driving the car. The melody is slippery, and evasive, perpetually changing direction, running into walls, and backing out again. The overall sound is not a million miles away from 90’s gazers, Curve, and it’s a truly memorable thing.
OTG featuring Little Simz “The Book”
This is the debut single from OTG, producer, and DJ for the incredible in her own right, Little Simz, who herself provides the vocal here. This beats with a mournful, and world weary pulse: it’s just lonely. And all of those qualities are accentuated by lyrical turns like “I’ve seen more than you know, I’m the bible”. Little Simz’s high notes are as delicate, and fragile as glass, and it’s all too beautiful. This will feature on OTG’s soon to be released EP, “Garden of Osiris”.
Album Review : Jlin “Black Origami”
Ed Zed, one half of apocalyptic, futuristic, brilliant, junk punk duo the Casual Sexists would follow Jlin anywhere. Here’s why…
It’s only July, and I know it already – this is going to be my number 1 album of 2017. The bone-rattling charge of Jlin’s Daedalean opus shakes me to the very core, and remains undiminished the more I listen to it – in fact it grows even stronger each time.
I wonder if it’ll soon become too much for my weathered frame (and the weathered emotions it houses) to bear? Let it.
Black Origami – what a perfect name for this collection of raw materials sculpted by Jlin with such dexterity into fresh, elaborate forms, that seem both ancient and impossibly futuristic. Her footwork roots are now but a ghost, shimmering beneath the multi-tentacled rhythms and vocal fragments that bind the album so tightly together, reminding us of how far Jlin has travelled, sonically, in such a short space of time. Seamlessly blending polyrhythmic African beats with rapid-fire, clipped electronics and occasionally unsettling samples that reflect the turmoil of our times, Black Origami plunges deep into history to make its very modern statement. It’s hard to know where the inimitable Jlin will go from here, but wherever it is I’m going right along with her. I can’t bloody wait…
Listen here:
Moon Loves Honey “Before I Crash”
This is one really handsome bit of shoegaze/dreampop. It’s extremely melodic, with some sweet, and oddly sixties style harmonizing of all things. And everything lives happily together inside a pretty fabulous arrangement. It’s a beauty.
PICKING UP ROCKS 