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The impressive early 90’s wall of sound which underpins Avalyn’s new single When We Were Nothing has been given an extra authentic stamp by Ride‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the track.
The core of the band – Andy Power and Ben Croft – have been recording together for a matter of mere months, and have described how this song, just the second they wrote together, developed:
“Our guitarist Ben brought in the main riff and I could tell from the beginning it was going to be great, so I wrote a verse for it and then we wrote the lyrics together,” Power says.
The Amazons are back with their new album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? and its lead track Bloodrush.
“The verses are all about communicating with my girlfriend – I’d had enough of the monotony of waiting to see her,” Matt Thomson says.
“We finally met up in Mexico, quarantined for two weeks together, then spent two wonderful months together in LA. I came home and went straight to Jamie Hartmann’s place where we captured the rush of what I’d just been through. It’s about whatever it is you never want to live without and the joy of being given it back.”
Lykke Li’s new album Eyeye is a multimedia venture which will be released on May 20th.
Accompanying the record’s songs – of which No Hotel is the first to be shared – will be seven ‘visual loops’ directed by Theo Lindquist on 16 millimeter film, completing the presentation of a story which is described as being about, ‘the eternally returning cycles of love, addiction, relapse and obsession’.
“We wanted to capture the beauty and grandeur of a three-hour European arthouse movie, while making something native to modern media,” Lykke says.
Slaves’ Isaac Holman will release his debut album Monkey Brain under the solo moniker Baby Dave on April 22nd.
Set to be performed live during a release-day gig at his hometown Tunbridge Wells Forum, the album arrives after Holman faced mental health problems as the world went into lockdown, working through gradual recovery and the later musical support of Damon Albarn.
“Monkey Brain is collection of tunes written from shortly after a debilitating mental breakdown at the start of 2019, up until now,” he explains.
Zola Jesus has embraced a fresh spirit of collaboration on her new album Arkhon.
Producer Randall Dunn and percussionist Matt Chamberlain were brought into the creative fold as Nika Roza Danilova aka took a leap of faith and embraced whatever the outcome of this new approach would prove to be.
The first taste is Lost – reflecting, ‘lost hope, lost future, lost present, lost planet’.
RATS’ new single Jenny is streaming online as the band gear up to support Liam Gallagher at the Royal Albert Hall for Teenage Cancer Trust tonight.
“Jenny is a story about a student who is forced to go to uni by her parents, but she has bigger dreams that soon turn sour,” Joe Maddocks says.
After the TCT appearance, the band will play more UK shows next month with The K’s and are also due to back The Sherlocks at Leeds’ O2 Academy in June.
Here’s What I Need To Know, the new track from !!!’s forthcoming LP Let It Be Blue, is a song about, ‘the moment when you know a relationship is finished’, according to the band:
“Either because you’re over it, or you realise the other person is. It’s about how all the details of those moments, like an Aaliyah song on the radio or watching snow fall through a window, become imprinted in your memory as well.”
“Musically, the first half builds using arpeggiated synths, trance stabs and layers of percussion. For the second half, we sampled a small bit of the end of the chorus, the last two chords and the word ‘over’ to create a loop.”
Hatchie has premiered her new single Lights On.
Written during 2020 sessions with producer Jorge Elbrecht in Los Angeles, it’s one which grew from a drum beat inspired by Siouxsie And The Banshees’ Kiss Them For Me:
“The song is about a tumultuous, secret relationship that is coming to a crossroads,” she explains. “Feeling completely and utterly spellbound by one another, but realising it might not work out despite the fact that no one else has ever made you feel as good as they do.”
Joan As Police Woman has shared the collaboration with Damon Albarn from the recent album The Solution Is Restless which is itself a collab with Dave Okumu and the late, legendary drummer Tony Allen.
And the video for Get My Bearings brings along another notably talented name, Joan Wasser explaining how their initial meeting at first caught her unawares:
“When Matt Weiner and I met he simply told me he was a writer. I had no idea he was also the creator of MadMen and wrote half of the Sopranos! No surprise then that being directed by him was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
