Color Tongue – Over The Moon
The new single from NYC quartet Color Tongue, ‘Over the Moon’, wraps up the insidious melodies of The Flaming Lips and wonderous percussive loops of early Animal Collective and ties them into this infectious yet sinister psych-tinged fairytale. Luring an unsuspecting object of its affections into its web, before descending into a caustic outro. It sounds like a soundtrack to an as yet unwritten Tim Burton film. It’s the second single taken from their upcoming EP Bealing Bells. Today, we have the premiere below, press play and hold tight.
Color Tongue have been eagerly awaiting the release of their second EP. A follow up to last year’s Us And The Bugs, a 15-minute audio/visual farmhouse opera. ‘Bealing Bells’ strikes a more serious tone. Unlike their last record, which was written and recorded in two days on a farm, this one was crafted over the course of a few months and recorded in-studio during the dreary New York City winter. It’s more examination than exploration, this record is more thoughtful. Color Tongue’s latest release is an ode to the changing of seasons, in both climate and life. (BC)
Vera Sola – The Colony
Danielle Aykroyd is Vera Sola. In her own words, she is a poet, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, all of which are beautifully showcased on ‘The Colony’, the second single to be taken from her forthcoming debut album Shades (out on the 9th of November through Spectraphonic Records).
Having spent many a year touring as part of fellow American Elvis Perkins’ touring band, Vera Sola has now emerged from the wings and found her own, unique voice. And it is revealed to some considerable effect on ‘The Colony’ a song she describes as being “loosely the story of America, sung from the perspective of the collective white colonial consciousness.”
Her deep love of language, innate spirituality, and heightened awareness of the world in which she finds herself are all evident on ‘The Colony’, Vera Sola’s ethereal voice carrying her message over the musical parts all played and arranged by herself. See and hear it for yourself on a stunning video directed by Damon James Duke and “shot it in essentially a single 101-degrees-in-the-shade day”. (SG)
Live dates:
8 – 11 Nov – Utrecht @ Le Guess Who?
13 Nov – Nottingham @ Rough Trade
14 Nov – London @ Shacklewell Arms
15 Nov – London @ Rough Trade East
Tickets are available here:
https://www.verasola.com/shows
Aurora Shields – Only You Can Make Me Blue
I am fashionably late with this one, but it’s such a stone cold cracker that I had to include it. Aurora Shields debut single ‘Only You Can Make Me Blue’ came out in May. Produced by MAXIMUM EXPOSURE‘s Young Guv and Tony Price, it’s a glittering late night Italo-disco track that marries neo-lit synths that dance like a ballerina across the stars, fantastic beats and exquisite vocals refracted with longing and a sultry sensuousness and dipped in heartbreak. Its peerless production magic dust and popping melodies refresh the ’80s dance track for today, hooking you in and won’t let go until you are busting moves inappropriately in front of your work colleagues on a Monday morning. You could throw around touch points like early Madonna and Actress but just forget that. Absolute perfection. (BC)
https://soundcloud.com/themaximumexposure/aurora-shields-only-you-can-make-me-blue
My Name Is Ian – The Point of No Return
My Name Is Ian return this September with their fourth album in five years on Bubblewrap Collective, and they’re 15th overall. Tackling a typically diverse range of lyrical subject matter, The Point Of No Return casts its net over topics including ‘the minimum wage, flowering plants, lizard people conspiracy theories, environmental destruction and the end of the world.’ Centred around the streams of consciousness of Reginald Foxwell, the ever-burgeoning contributions from James Buzzanca (bass and guitar) and Joseph Coleby (drums and programming) bring with them a greater propensity for aural experimentation.
The Point Of No Return‘s title track is trademark My Name Is Ian underscored with dark wit and references to Timmy Mallet’s one-hit wonder and carries with its motto of ‘I’m a loser but will somehow carry on anyway’. There’s a precarious life-affirming quality to their way with a tune that captures you off guard, its something they share with the likes of Eels or The Wave Pictures.
The album will be released on 14th September 2018 on vinyl and digital download. The vinyl comes in a range of colours and in keeping with the themes of the album, is recycled from plastic straws uncovered from a whale’s carcass in the Pacific Ocean.
My Name Is Ian launch the album on 21st September 2018 with a headline show in Cardiff’s iconic Clwb Ifor Bach. Their UK tour follows in late 2018. (BC)
Value Void – Teen for Him
Value Void share the third single, ‘Teen For Him’, from their debut album Sentimental, due out on 26th October via Tough Love, released on limited edition green vinyl, CD and download (pre-order link: http://smarturl.it/ValueVoidLP). They will play an album launch show at The Stag’s Head in London on 1st November.
‘Teen For Him’ is a deconstructed ditty that channels a lo-fi sensibility that recalls the word of Kimbya Dawson, infatuation is used as a distraction as the world is falling apart around you. Introspective and downbeat yet somehow infectious and brazenly brutal, it’s in the tradition of some of the finest anti-folk.
Marta Zabala from the band explains more about the song; “‘Teen for Him’ was written in Buenos Aires ages ago, probably 2015 whilst Paz and I were working as assistants in a Social Gaming Company. It’s a childish song about those moments when someone is having a personal crisis and are overcome by some weird infatuation, where the object of their desire has nothing to do with them. Like filling a gap.” (BC)
Brooke Bentham – Out of my Mind
South Shields’ lass Brooke Bentham returns with ‘Out Of My Mind’, her first new single of the year and a statement of intent from the still-just-21-year-old. The material seems to be considerably more raw and powerful than on her 2017 debut EP ‘This Rapture’, which was a collection of folk ballads and anthemic pop, and ‘The Room Swayed’, which followed it. Produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, perhaps that should be of no surprise.
The song tells the story of “what happens when you don’t communicate fully in a relationship. The lyrics are pretty tongue in cheek and I wanted it to sound as though it comes from a place of anger. I’m still in the relationship I wrote it about, so it’s just really funny to me now.”
She’s always sounded older than she is and more world-weary than she should be and this track is no exception. There’s a little of Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, and my favourite male ego destroyer Elle Mary in it. (DB)
Bentham is writing her first album. Having supported John Smith last year she now heads out in support of Soccer Mommy on tour this month:
7th: Dublin – The Grand Social
8th: Liverpool – Shipping Forecast
10th: Nottingham – Bodega
11th: Bristol – Thekla
12th: Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach
13th: London – Scala
Pom Poko – Follow the Lights
Heavily fuzzed guitar and cowbell welcome you to this, the first track from experimental Norwegian rockers Pom Poko on their new label, Bella Union, and it is the first taste of their as-yet-unannounced debut album which is expected to be released in early 2019.
As is often the case with the band, who met while studying at the genteel Trondheim Music Conservatory (which has spawned several top-class artists and bands) it is raucous, complex and unpredictable.
The group cited a range of influences on their unique sound, including “(West)-African music like Oumou Sangaré and Ali Farka Touré; indie bands like Vulfpeck, Palm and KNOWER; noisy high-energy bands such as Hella and Death Grips; and music with interesting lyrics such as Jenny Hval and Nick Drake”.
But it’s the improvisation that you’d expect from a school like Trondheim, which has a strong jazz tradition, which shines through.
Their live performances are reputed to be as rowdy as the music but regrettably, there is only one forthcoming one in the UK; in London on October 1st at Village Underground. (DB).
