Unfortunately, it’s Monday again. When did weekends get so short?!! Never mind, there’ll be another one soon. Here are some banging tracks to smooth the way.
CLAMM – Something New
Are CLAMM your new favourite punk band? Australian punk music is on a high thanks to the likes of Amyl & The Sniffers and The Chats. Melbourne trio CLAMM are hot on their heels and have released their new track ‘Something New’. It’s taken from their second album CARE, due out on 19 August on Meat Machine. Following previous singles ‘Monday’ and ‘Bit Much’, ‘Something New’ cries of the frustration of our times. The lead vocal of Jack Summers gets increasingly frantic and frustrated as the track progresses. CLAMM uphold an ethos of anti-violence, anti-materialism, mental health awareness and a fight for social justice in the face of widespread complicity and incompetent, selfish leaders.
“Well I’m trying to find a reason,
I’m trying to find a sign.
Well I’ve been looking for the answer,
But I’ve been running out of time.”
“‘Something New’ is a song about searching or yearning,” Summers explained in a statement. “It is about impatience and time, and its title refers to the process of facing seemingly new stimuli throughout life.”
Thrown into the punk aesthetic on this track is the saxophone of Anna Gordon, and what a glorious skonking addition it is. It creates another layer to the mayhem and adds to the raw, unrelenting and increasingly raucousness of ‘Something New’. The song closes out with ear-piercing static and reverb, as uncompromising as it is uncomfortable.
CLAMM began as a side project for even more intense output from members of Gamjee and Dragoons. Over time this grew into a full-time endeavour, playing gigs and releasing their debut album Beseech Me in 2021. With a UK tour beginning in London’s Shacklewell Arms on 26 August and continuing to Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Brighton before heading to Europe, now would be a good time to see these raucous punks in intimate venues – glorious. (Julia Mason)
Flossing – Heart of Hearts
“Asking for an open relationship at the beginning of a global pandemic was the comically intense first step in figuring out I was Queer.” – Flossing
Flossing is the enigmatic and provocative New Yorker Heather Elle. Once described as “Kate Bush’s gothic darkness brought to the edge of oblivion”, they have released their new single ‘Heart of Hearts’ which is taken from the forthcoming second EP World of Mirth which is set for release on 26 August via Brace Yourself Records.
Fully aware that a key component of the artistic process is the tedious and uncomfortable excavation of self, ‘Heart of Hearts’ is an impassioned breakup song. It sees the more vulnerable side of Flossing, attempting to process a major breakup in the midst of chaos and change (the pandemic). The human condition is such that relationships can lead to great joy but also heartbreak. Here Flossing is openly exposing the difficulties of moving on from a breakup, and as such is giving us a song full of honesty and emotion, as well as demonstrating their vocal versatility.
The music video is just so clever, using the bleak industrial footage from a pasta factory cut in with highly-polished shots of pasta dishes. This is to illustrate how the cold and complex workings of a relationship can be hidden by creating an upfront image that all’s well, glossing over any potential difficulties.
For fans of this intriguing and talented creative, the news that Flossing will perform the songs from new EP World Of Mirth in the UK this Autumn is thrilling. Watch this space. (Julia Mason)
The Paranoyds – Single Origin Experience
Los Angeles garage rock quartet The Paranoyds have shared their new track ‘Single Origin Experience’, taken from their forthcoming second album, Talk Talk Talk, set for release on 9 September on Third Man Records. Here The Paranoyds playfully observe America’s deeply flawed ideals and its hyper-surveilled, hyper-marketed, absurd profit-driven reality. When lyrics present you with such startlingly truths it can take a moment to digest. It’s important we are aware of the inappropriate antics employed by the government and top corporations. If it takes music to provide such thought-provoking concepts then sobeit. Sonically ‘Single Origin Experience’ is a delicious slice of vocal harmonies with a scuzzy indie-pop vibe.
“Consumerism is facial recognition,
They tried to sell me back my appearance.”
“I see it now in 20/20.
The future is not so clean”
Explaining the meaning behind the song, guitarist and vocalist Lexi Funston says:
“Sometimes an event happens or a news report comes out or whatever and you’re just so bummed about what it means to be American. It can be so exhaustingly cringey. Companies spying on us and ‘green-washing’ their products in the hopes of selling as a ‘pure’ life, a branded experience. What the fuck right? Does single origin coffee really taste any better???”
The Paranoyds have also announced their autumn North American tour and will support Jack White for three dates on his own tour this September. The album Talk Talk Talk is described as largely a combination of sci-fi and sentimental songs penned by the group. But you can bet your bottom dollar there is no melancholy, only a continuous pursuit of good times in the midst of all the crazy. (Julia Mason)
Femmebug – I Don’t Want to do this Anymore
Why we love it: Bountiful and bittersweet this is the latest fantastic pop tune from Femmebug who deconstructs being a musician, on a brilliant new single “sold my soul to the guy at the front door” juxtaposing wistful reflection of the piano led verses with the bouncing casio keys and dancing DIY beats of a joyous chorus! Redolent of the effervescent DIY synth pop of the likes of bis and even a hint of Taylor Swift. “I wish I’d realised what’s in front of my eyes” she sings waking up to the moment. Fantastic!
From Swansea, Femmebug is stepping into the spotlight with her bedroom recorded songs. Her 2019 single, the beautiful, plaintive, bittersweet piano pop of ‘Unlearn‘ with its delicate introspective motif about trying to shrug off trauma, caught the attention of Adam Walton, who played it multiple times on his show for BBC Radio Wales. In February 2021 she released physical copies of her debut EP ‘Comfortable Place’ with SWND Records, the CDs sold out on her Bandcamp page. (Bill Cummings)
LAPÊCHE – Mermaid Blues
Why we love it: A superb new single of tuneful garage pop from the Brooklyn quartet, simmers with all the wistfulness of summer regret and seasonal depression. Oscillating somewhere between Alvvays and Sweet Nobody, it builds on the back of kick ass percussion, hook laden fuzz laden guitars and the memorable and catchy vocals of Krista Diem who’s vocal is underscored by regret and clings onto faint hope.
LAPÊCHE is singer and guitarist Krista Diem, her husband and bassist Dave Diem, guitarist Drew DeMaio and drummer Richard Salino. The band fuses purposeful melody with sonic backdrops inspired by indie-alternative aesthetics and DIY ethics. “As they’ve bloomed from a singer with a backing band to a full-blown collaboration, their songs have found the power to dive deep while shining brightly, pushing toward personal growth as we collectively stare down the void.”
LAPÊCHE is in the later stages of work on their next LP with Grammy-nominated Producer & Engineer Alex Newport (City & Colour, Death Cab For Cutie, At The Drive-In). (Bill Cummings)
TSHA- Water
Why we love it: TSHA ‘s new single is an inventive track that welds together electronic tapestries and splashes of Afro-house production featuring the infectious vocals of an icon Malian music – Oumou Sangaré – an internationally renowned and GRAMMY-winning singer, who champions women’s rights in her native Mali and throughout Africa. Intoxicating and enveloping the level of detail and melodic craft make up an enlivening new release.
Fittingly, it was the music of OumouSangaré (who featured on Beyoncé’s 2019 soundtrack album ‘The Lion King: The Gift‘) that sparked TSHA’s initial interest in Malian griot music and led to her discovering another highly respected group Trio Da Kali, who featured on “Demba” on TSHA’s 2020 EP ‘Flowers‘.
TSHA’s debut album ‘Capricorn Sun‘ is set for release on Friday 7th October 2022. (Bill Cummings)
Maija Sofia – O Theremin
Why we love it: Maija Sofia ‘s new single is a wonderful, spindly , intriguing and mysterious song cycle inspired by Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor responsible for the early electronic instrument of the same name. These vivid sketches are delivered with a wonderfully artful and intoxicating tone underscored by shuffling percussive sweeps and hammond organ motif, it’s a captivating ode to isolation and detachment inspired by spending too much time alone, and on the outer corners of the internet. Rustling with the ghosts of Kate Bush who just celebrated her birthday and Laurie Anderson, with it’s vivid melody and tumbling rhythm and weaving Theremins. Eccentric and haunting.
Sofia’s first release with a full band arrangement (Solamh Kelly on drums, Chris Barry on bass & Ruth Clinton on theremin,) she says “O Theremin was written after a prolonged period of
isolation. I was living alone all winter in a very big old house so close to the sea that at night it
felt like the waves were lapping against its walls. I think the loneliness we collectively
experienced over the last two years was exacerbated by the strangeness of life on the internet,
where everyone is simultaneously watching and being watched. The figure of Leon Theremin
intrigued me, as well as inventing the first mass-produced electronic instrument (the strange
ghostly theremin,) he also invented the first audio surveillance device, which hung on the wall
on the US Ambassador’s office in Moscow unnoticed for 7 years in plain sight. I was thinking
about haunting, and listening, and what it is to be witnessed, what it is to be invisible, how
strange it is to make sounds into an empty room, and how thrilling it can be to finally be heard.’ (Bill Cummings)
