Ghum – TV
Ghum’s first music video for track ‘TV’, taken from their self-titled EP released last year this super slice of moody noise pop encapsulates all of the phases of love from obsession and infatuation to giddiness to a fevered masochism.
Jojo, the guitarist of Ghum and also director of the video, comments: “The song is about the feeling of being so infatuated with someone that you can’t stop looking at them just like a TV – but similar to binge-watching, this particular infatuation quickly developed into something masochistic. When you’re at the height of so many emotions people tend to go through the sweet phase, the anger phase and the pure dysphoria phase. We wanted to take these emotions and culminate in a scene for each phase or feeling in the best way we know: head banging, breaking things and old TVs.”
Ghum are from different corners of the world – from Spain and Brazil, to the more local climes of North and East London. (BC)
Neko Case – Hell-On
Five years after her wonderfully entitled, and equally powerful last album The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You Neko Case returns with what will be her seventh solo long player, Hell-On (out on the 1st of June via ANTI-). To herald its arrival, the American music producer, songwriter, and musician treats us to the record’s spellbinding title track. In just a little over four minutes and with one foot seemingly in the Balkans and the other somewhere off Broadway, Case shifts shapes and musical styles in what quickly becomes an advanced tutorial in how best to create simmering avant-pop. (SG)
Wreckless Eric – They Don’t Mean No Harm
If as he quite rightly says, time is always running out, Wreckless Eric is clearly hell-bent on packing as much in before it finally does. Now 63 years of age and perhaps best known for his association with Stiff Records and his 1977 single ‘Whole Wide World’, the indefatigable punk legend shows absolutely no signs of slowing down. He has just shared ‘They Don’t Mean No Harm’, the second single to be taken from his forthcoming album Construction Time & Demolition (due out on 30th March via Southern Domestic Records). Once it finds its feet, the song belts along at a fair old tilt. Helped on its melodic way by some blistering brass, fuzzy guitar and Eric’s politically charged lyrics, the song finally comes to rest in a muted swell of self-destruction. (SG)
Wreckless Eric is out on tour in the UK in May:
9 May – MANCHESTER – Gullivers
10 May – BARNOLDSWICK – Music & Arts Centre
11 May – HULL – O’Rileys
12 May – DURHAM – Old Cinema Laundrette
13 May – DUNDEE – Clarks
14 May – GLASGOW – Hug & Pint
15 May – EDINBURGH – Henry’s
17 May – WORCESTER – Marr’s Bar
18 May – BRISTOL – Thunderbolt
19 May – LEEDS – Fox & Newt
20 May – CROMER – Community Hall
21 May – CAMBRIDGE – Junction
22 May – FOLKSTONE – Lime Bar Café
23 May – BRIGHTON – Prince Albert
24 May – LONDON – 100 Club
25 May – COLCHESTER – Arts Centre
26 May – RAMSGATE – Music Hall
27 May – LEICESTER – Musician
Ryley Walker – Telluride Speed
Talking about the songs that will comprise his upcoming new album Deafman’s Glance (out on the 18th of May through Dead Oceans), the insanely talented Illinoisan music-man Ryley Walker says they “mostly come from being bummed out.” Well, if the lead single ‘Telluride Speed’ is our yardstick then being bummed out sounds like it must be a pretty cool state to be in. The song kind of just flutters along on a bucolic bed of flutes and guitar, creating a beautifully lazy heat-haze glimpse of summer before it lurches off at an unexpectedly oblique early 1970’s prog-rock tangent. (SG)
The Beat Escape – Moon In Aquarius
The Beat Escape have shared their new track ‘Moon In Aquarius’, the second single from their upcoming debut album, Life Is Short the Answer’s Long. Otherworldly and wispish this ghostly synth track is the sound of a Sci-fi B-movie soundtrack surfing the edges between Italian electro, krautrock, Japan, OMD and obscure minimal wave records of the 1980s.
“We’re drawn to the type of songs that were almost hits, but there’s something slightly off about them, so they were never discovered.” (BC)
Mark Fernyhough & Steven Horry – Nouveau
Mark Fernyhough & Steven Horry’s new single ‘Nouveau’ is released late February 2018. A track built around an elegant strutting rhythm and Fernyhough’s resonate vocals, that act as a symbol for style, mystery and European glamour, while Horry’s guitar licks lend it all a wide-screen majesty. The music video for ‘Nouveau’ was directed by Lisa Marie Lange and features a girl gang roller-skating through Berlin’s iconic cityscape.
Between them, the Berlin/London duo’s songs have been featured on Radio 1, 6Music & MTV, whilst their debut single ‘Fireworks’ has already garnered over 30k video plays on YouTube. Mark Fernyhough has opened for Suede whilst Steven Horry’s graphic novel collaboration with Art Brut’s Eddie Argos has been published to acclaim by Image Comics. (BC)
Serol Serol – K’TA
Serol Serol’s recent single ‘K’TA’ is a twinkling celestial pop delight spiralling across the sky like a comet: on the back of intertwined Cyrmru melodies and shiny synths if you are a fan of Gwenno but are looking for a gear change this is for you. Bright and sparkling yet tantalisingly promising. Serol Serol are cousins, Mali Siôn and Leusa Rhys, who work closely with composers and producers George Amor (Omaloma, Sen Segur) and Llŷr Pari (Palenco, Omaloma). The band released their first two singles ‘Cadwyni’ and ‘Aelwyd’ late 2017 and will be releasing their self-titled debut album 23rd March 2018. (BC)
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