The Orielles – Bobbi’s Second World
The Oreilles return following the release of their debut album Silver Dollar Moment in February and sell-out shows and play festivals from Latitude to Camp Bestival and End of the Road.
Made up of sisters Sidonie B and Esmé Dee Hand Halford and their best friend Henry Carlyle Wade, having recruited a new member, Alex Stephens, on keyboards, they return with the rather ace ‘Bobbi’s Second World’ a sprightly fusion of post-punk and funk that shows off their new wider palette. It balances playful licks, elastic basslines and organs that house a slightly surreal narrative about a feline finding its way in the world interjected by yelping shots of melody.
Talking about the tacks, the band said:
‘Bobbi’s Second World, written with the addition of a new member on keys, exhibits an explosion of new sounds and ideas that came to fruition after a long summer of playing festivals and taking inspiration from music that made us dance. It centres around the story of a cat named Bobbi who, in order to become a lady, has to experience the extremities of two complex and differing realities- situated in her front and back gardens respectively. The eccentric instrumentation, influenced by northern soul, post-punk and funk music, matches the quirkiness of the lyrics to create a song that concerns a young cats maturity whilst displaying a certain maturity in the music itself.’
https://soundcloud.com/theorielles/bobbis-second-world/
Bugeye – Disco Dancer
Bugeye’s new single, ‘Disco Dancer’, coinciding with several shows across the South of the country. Today we premiere the video below. Now fleshed out as a four-piece, Bugeye have reinvented ‘Disco Dancer’, a song they have had kept in the top draw as a demo, with producer Paul Tipler (Idlewild, Placebo, Stereolab), as well a new lyric, taking in themes of idolism and the battle of the sexes. The band interweave late 1970s New York influences with sharp and bouncy guitars, with lead singer Angela Martin’s vocals juxtaposing funky disco refrains with yelping rage.
Tour Dates
29 Nov – Camden Rocks Presents @ Fest, London W/Tokyo Taboo & Thunder on the left
07 Dec – Modern Age Music present @ Sticky Mikes, Brighton
Donny Benét – Beneath The Sheets
Donny Benét just shared a new single ‘Beneath The Sheets’ a bubbling sensuous electro suite that flirtatiously riffles through lounge music, Detroit funk synths and French pop. Donny Benét will be back in the UK on the 17th and 18th of November for 2 shows in Manchester and London. After selling out Shacklewell Arms in London with his solo show in July, this time he’ll also bring his saxophone player.
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Donny first burst onto the scene in 2011 with his breakthrough album Don’t Hold Back. Hailed by critics as ‘Prince on a serious budget cut’, Benét is best described as the favourite nephew to Uncles Giorgio Moroder, Alan Vega and Michael McDonald.
Kidsmoke – Rising Sun
Kidsmoke have teamed up with Bill Ryder-Jones and Russ Hayes for their new single ‘Rising Sun’. Like a comet spinning across the night sky shimmering with guitar sounds influenced by My Bloody Valentine and an infused with spiralling infectious, brave, life-affirming. The result is a pulsating, psych-tinged gorgeous gem ‘about pushing against what other people expect of you, even if that pressure is coming from the people you are closest to.’ On this evidence, Kidsmoke are another Welsh combo with limitless potential.
Zilla With Her Eyes Shut – Cut Me Boy
Zilla With Her Eyes Shut the Parisian producer, singer-songwriter unveils the futuristic glitch slow jam ‘Cut Me Boy’ produced by Matthew Herbert its a thrilling, bricolage of samples and injected with personal narrative and fragments of melodies about diving to the depths of despair and self-harm, it’s the sound of an exciting new artist coming up for air.
“The track is inspired by a dysfunctional love where you lose yourself into complete denial after rejection. Coming to terms with betrayal and diving deep into the pain. Nearly in a sadistic way but mostly in an explorative way. Entering this whole new dimension, owning the despair, loneliness and depression. It is thanks to this act of courage that you can become who you must be in order to survive. There is beauty in learning to embrace heartache. And when it is over, you become a better person”
For ‘Cut Me Boy’ she used a Stanley knife, liquid iron, rocks, elastic bands and an eye mask. “The Stanley knife represents self-harm but also cutting whoever I used to be. Rocks are the assault, the heaviness of my heart and weight in my stomach. The eye mask is denial but also diving into the world of pain. The structure of the song is also influenced by this the theme of cutting and drowning (the lower voice sounds like I’m singing under water).”
Meadlowlark – Appetite
Bristol’s Electro-pop duo Meadowlark (Dan Broadley and Kate McGill) often surprises me. Their debut album, Postcards, released 18 months ago, had half a dozen high-quality tracks while several were quite bland and they left one of their best songs off it altogether.
Now they are back with this new track, ‘Appetite’, a stand-alone single at present, but which could be included on a projected second album.
No surprises here. It is a pretty straightforward “I’ve lost you to a rival and the bottle and I don’t want you back” end-of-romance sad ballad but what stands out, as always, are Kate’s lush, dreamy vocals (she was a top-notch cover artist before she started writing) and a smooth production.
Personally, I prefer it when they tackle more complex and difficult subjects, which they can do (how about modern-day slave labour in Pakistan for example?) but they have a cult following (they are one of few bands in their own category; I can only think off-hand of Cattle & Cane and Oh Wonder as true contemporaries), and early indications are that they love this. (DB).
Ben Osborn – Fast Awake
Ben Osborn is a British singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist based between Berlin, Germany and Bristol, UK. ‘Fast Awake’ is Ben’s debut single and it is due for release on 23rd November 2018 via Nonostar Records, the label founded by German experimental violinist and producer Alex Stolze. Fast Awake is a taster for Ben’s debut album, Letters From The Border, due for release via Nonostar in Spring 2019.
The simmering ‘Fast Awake’ evokes the minimal sound of early Patrick Wolf with instrumental textures informed by techno and a trippy ambience influenced by the Bristol scene of the ’90s. Evocative and subtle, it’s the sound of the slowly rising sun.
‘Fast Awake’ articulates Ben’s feeling of living in a world that is ever-shifting, often in an overwhelmingly rapid manner; “Everything’s changing so why can’t you change? Everything’s strange here and you are a stranger”. It juxtaposes its themes of disorientation and anxiety with musical material built of complex, shifting harmonies, polyrhythmic beats and Alex Stolze’s shimmering, haunting violin melodies. (BC)
