Das Body – Boys
Luminelle Records newest signings are Oslo’s Das Body, and their debut single is an absolutely cracking shot of funky sun dappled electro pop. “When the heat comes down/And I think of boys,” bounces the insidious refrain back and forth like a bouncy ball ricochet off the walls, above a jittery dance floor ready beat, sonorous vocals wisps from young vocalist Ellie Linde whose higher register switches from wistful to joyous floor filling chorus, like MØ gyrating with Junior Senior but also not, this is a wonderful, playful, pop song infused with a rising infatuation, a soundtrack to the fading embers of summer, the parties we had the things we lost, the people we fell in and out of love with. It’s lifted from their new EP out in September, which we cannot wait to hear! (BC)
Part Time – I Could Treat You Better [feat Ariel Pink]
Part Time is the project of David Loca, whose previous releases have come on cult labels including Burger and Mexican Summer. With his new one coming on Tough Love in November, Spell #6 ranks riffling through experimental pop, lo-fi disco and post-punk and laced with undercurrents of ‘the fevered and guilt-ridden nights of life in the Hollywood Hills’. The majestic subtlety of first track ‘I Can Treat You better’s which features Ariel Pink is an exquisite palette of downtempo textures synths, saxophones and yearning soulful vocals that nestle in your bosom with an earnestness it manages to bring to mind Tears for Fears and Pet Shop Boys, in its enveloping sophisticated pop quality. The lyrical themes are those that run through the entire record: ‘romantic gestures and unrequited love, bad decisions on hot nights/hot decisions on bad nights, and unpinning it all, LA.’ (BC)
Adrianne Lenker – Cradle
A new solo record from Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker, titled Abysskiss arries October 5th via her long-term home of Saddle Creek (Big Thief, Bright Eyes, Hop Along, et al).
The news comes accompanied with the first single in the guise of the hymnal ‘Cradle’ that’s understated beauty slides its way under your skin with its gorgeous arpeggios guitars and Lenker’s evocative vocals dancing on the finger tips of an affecting, tender melody line. It sounds like a moment of clarity amongst the noise of modern living. (BC)
Artificially Yours – The Merger
From the same people who brought us Thomas Cohen and more recently Arrows of Love, not to mention the much missed and ahead of its time 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch Festival, comes an equally dark and brooding slice of space punk anarchism courtesy of their new signings Artificially Yours.
Their set up may look like Sleaford Mods, but in attitude they’re closer to the unabashed abandon of Suicide, and ‘The Merger’ captures them at absolute full pelt, as sludgy, grungy guitars slide down the song’s mountainside like red hot lava and someone cranks up Hawkwind’s special effects machinery to its total cosmonaut setting. The accompanying video should tell you a bit about their dystopian vision of the world, as riots break out, buildings, burn, Hell’s Angels take to the roads with menace and dictators parade their penis-replacement missiles. It’s not full of hope for the world, we’ll give you that, but if we’re going to go out in a hail of nuclear oblivion and/or climate disaster, let’s only hope there’s something as powerful and compelling as this playing at deafening volume when it happens. (BW)
The Vega Bodegas – A Complete History of Witchcraft
‘A Complete History of Witchcraft’ is the new single from Cardiff mischief makers The Vega Bodegas and the latest addition to Libertino’s ‘Ghost Disco’ singles club out on August 31st.
A riot of surreal, garage punk laced with chunky serrated riffs, filthy percussion and a wired stream of consciousness that harks back to Dead Kennedys or the Pixies, like some bloke with tourettes rooting through through conspiracy theories and strange occurances to an insidious shout along soundtrack, addictive and in your face, stick that in your pipe Alex Jones! According to Bodegas main vocalist Jimmy Watkins (ex-Future Of The Left and Strange News From Another Star), the bands debut album is “about aliens, love, monkeys, earthquakes and food.” (BC)
Black Belt Eagle Scout – Soft Stud
Multi-instrumentalist Katherine “KP” Paul plays under the name Black Belt Eagle Scout. ‘Soft Stud’ is an awesome sprawling, queer anthem “about the hardships of queer desire within an open relationship.” with its longing refrain of “I know that you’re taken,” – laden with a yearning amidst a glorious tapestry of sounds, from fuzzy riffs that are like scalpels making incisions and framed by twinkling synths and pounding drums, this is glorious wide-screen alt-rock song and a fearsome trip through turmoil. It sits on her album amongst songs that analyse an untypical upbringing within a Native American commune.
“Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman.” Katherine Paul (aka KP) is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and Mother of My Children is her debut album, out September 28th on Saddle Creek.
Recorded in the middle of winter near her hometown in Northwest Washington, Paul’s connection to the landscape’s eerie beauty are palpable throughout as the album traces the full spectrum of confronting buried feelings and the loss of what life was supposed to look like. Paul reflects, “I wrote this album in the fall of 2016 after two pretty big losses in my life. My mentor, Geneviève Castrée, had just died from pancreatic cancer and the relationship I had with the first woman I loved had drastically lessened and changed.” Heavy and heartbroken, Paul found respite from the weight of such loss in the creation of these songs that “are about grief and love for people, but also about being a native person in what is the United States today.” (BC)
Cosmic Strip – Heavenly
Cosmic Strip share their sprawling, wonderful new single ‘Heavenly’, the first slice taken from their debut EP out later this summer. Shifting from hushed sighs and psych tinged guitars into a full on fuzz pedal swirl of celestial melodies and swirling gaze rock it’s “a song dedicated to the addictive feeling of your first love”, the outro is a thing of majestic beauty.
Masterminded by frontwoman Camella Agabalyan and self-described as “music to watch girls by, music to move the stars.” Cosmic Strip’s Heavenly was released 2nd August. (BC)
Live Dates
24th Aug: The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
25th Aug: Night & Day Café, Manchester
27th Aug: Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds (This Must Be The Place Festival)
31st Aug: Sebright Arms, London (EP launch party)
