IT’S CCCCHHHHHRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAAS!!!
Thank you, Noddy.
Although it feels like it’s been Christmas since the August Bank Holiday, it is officially Chrimbo. That first slightly disappointing Advent Calendar chocolate has been eaten (or beer or gin or whatever other weird calendar you have) and you’re starting to very slightly panic about shopping for presents and whether Amazon will deliver in time, but really you know it’ll be fine
Just think of those Pigs In Blankets, Bread Sauce, Egg Nogg and DIE HARD.
YIPPEE Ki-YAY Mother Hubbards. It’s TOTW.
Dead Pioneers – My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal
Why we love it: because here Dead Pioneers shift minds from cultural appropriation to cultural appreciation through the medium of words and music. And ‘My Spirit Ate Your Spirit Animal’ is that conduit.
Dead Pioneers is guitarists Josh Rivera and Abe Brennan, drummer Shane Zweygardt and bassist Lee Tesche, with Gregg Deal on vocals. ‘My Spirit Ate Your Spirit Animal’ is the lead single from from their upcoming second album, PO$T AMERICAN which will be out 11th April 2025 on Hassle Records.
Speaking about the new single, Gregg Deal – an artist and activist and a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe – says: “‘My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal’ is scathing, funny, and, above all, honest. It covers ground, from the assertion that taking anything from Native culture without permission is thievery, to observing that one of our great Indigenous actors, Lily Gladstone, was robbed of the Best Actress Award at the 2024 Oscars. The sentiments throughout the song are a big middle finger to the dismissiveness of Native issues like existence, representation, and the continued thriving—and surviving!—of our living and breathing culture.”
‘My Spirit Animal Ate Your Spirit Animal’ is a breathless blast of visceral punk, made all the more powerful by the potency of its message. (Simon Godley)
Helen Ganya – Chaiyo!
Why we love it: because memories are what makes this song. ‘Chaiyo!’ is the second single to be taken from Helen Ganya’s new album Share Your Care which will be out 7th February next year via Bella Union and its origin lies in the loss three years ago of her grandmother, her last remaining grandparent. Ganya spent her childhood summers visiting her grandmother in Thailand and on her passing the Brighton-based, Scottish-Thai songwriter sought to preserve those memories by writing down every single one of them from those times.
One such memory was that of her grandfather “watching Thai boxing on the TV, shouting “chaiyo!” – which means “hooray” or “cheers.” She “used that memory to consider reincarnation and the family members I never knew.”
Helen Ganya’s deep curiosity about her own identity and heritage percolates through ‘Chaiyo!,’ magnified by the song’s use of traditional Thai instruments. The end product is a bright, wonderfully personal evocation of who she really is. (Simon Godley)
Confucius MC, Bastien Ken – Gutters
Why we love it: because the collaboration between South London rapper Confucius MC and multi-instrumentalist Bastien Keb is already bearing considerable fruit. Following hot on the heels of lead single ‘Tell Me Lies’ comes the next track to be taken from their debut album Songs For Lost Travellers which will be out on Shabaka Hutchings’ Native Rebel Recordings Label on 7th February 2025. And ‘Gutters’ is another slice of innovative sound wherein the two men seamlessly merge the textures of rap, folk, and jazz.
Confucius has been active in the London hip-hop scene for several years, garnering praise as one half of duo CoN & KwAkE alongside drummer Kwake Bass, and supporting the likes of Mos Def, Public Enemy, Slum Village, Black Milk, Jehst and Kae Tempest.
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Bastien Keb’s psychedelic fusion of jazz, soul, and funk has led him toy “one of the most exciting musicians emanating out of London” (DMY magazine).
Their sonic union is moving them into another creative world altogether, one of genre-splicing self-assurance and the arrival of a brand-new musical dawn. (Simon Godley)
Jim Ghedi – Wasteland
Why we love it: because “it is about the idea of a place once known or familiar that is now broken down and unrecognisable,” says the Sheffield musician Jim Ghedi when talking about his new album Wasteland. “It’s about exploring the process of watching someone’s surroundings and environment collapse. It also explores death, personal loss, grief, mental health and how the natural world provides solace and meaning for that loss and how these worlds blur into one another.”
The album will be released on 21st February 2025 on Basin Rock and to herald its arrival Jim Ghedi has just shared the magnificent title track. Accompanied by an equally desolate and foreboding video, the song takes an ominous look into the future whilst reflecting upon the slow decay of a present both personal and global. Yet for all of the bleakness that lies therein, ‘Wasteland’ is an imperious, deeply moving piece of music that stretches even further the parameters and understanding of what folk music is and can be. (Simon Godley)
total tommy: Amsterdam
Why we love it: Because total tommy‘s latest single ‘Amsterdam‘ is a shot of freewheeling sonic joy. The last few years for Jess Holt, the Sydney-based artist better known as total tommy, have been the kind where everything turns on its head and you come out of the other side a near-unrecognisable person. Out of this comes total tommy’s debut album, a collection of scuzzy bedroom-rock anthems appropriately titled bruises. The album, was written during a period in which she went through a breakup, moved cities, came out as queer and met her now-wife. It sees Holt’s bold, raw and witty voice on full display for the first time. Latest single ‘Amsterdam’ is buoyant, upbeat staccato, introspective, frenetic honeyed and raw. It soars with lush harmonies and guitars pounding like a jab of adrenaline.
She said, ” I wrote this song in London last year, and went straight from the airport to the studio after a massive night in Amsterdam….I almost missed the flight, and I was so scattered the entire session, but this song worked because we captured exactly what had happened the night before. I’d had a solo night in Amsterdam, got really high and walked around the city. I’d been alone for a few days at this point, and wasn’t really looking after myself because I was going through a bit of a low time.” There are a lot of different sides of total tommy on display across her latest album bruises but what ties it all together is a newfound confidence; a sense of contentment and belief in exactly who she is, the kind that only comes from seeing what’s left after everything’s uprooted. These songs were meant to be played to a crowd’ loud, fierce and with unbridled abandon. (Carmel Walsh)
Girl Next Door – If Dance Floors Were Silent
Why we love it: Girl Next Door, recentlly released her new EP ‘Darling I Saw The Way You Looked At Me Tonight’. The electronic beats, skittering samples and evocative spoken word verses of ‘If Dance Floors Were Silent’, balance a romantic longing building with a melodic pop hook of a wistful chorus, that taps into the feeling of going home after a night on the dancefloor, carrying with you the glow of a great night out. It also has a double meaning making me ponder the sadness of clubs that have been shutdown. What if Dancefloors were silent indeed?
She says:“I wrote ‘If Dance Floors Were Silent’ when I first moved to London. I was going out a lot and fell in love with London’s club scene and nightlife. Growing up in a small town, it was a really dramatic lifestyle change for me and even though I loved London I also found it really lonely. The track’s about moving to a big city when you’re young and trying to navigate it, feeling isolated and a craving for connection that’s only being satisfied by the nightlife.”
Recorded and produced with Erik Miles (acclaimed for his work with Soft Play, Baby Dave, and Kate Nash among others), and mastered by Kevin Tuffy, the new EP dances between moments of EDM influenced experimental-electronics and radiant emotionally driven melodic songwriting. Girl Next Door showcases the full depth and range of her songwriting on the new 5 track release.
The moniker of singer, songwriter, and producer Sarah Carton, Girl Next Door represents a musical rebirth for Sarah, a renaming which is her way of subverting the narrative around feminine archetypes, and releasing music and expressing herself in a way that makes her feel empowered. “I’m not going to try to please men, or fit into the man-made box that is the music industry”. With an explorative new EP, she shows much promise. (Bill Cummings)
Liv Hanna – star signs
Why we love it: New York native, Miami-based Liv Hanna is a 21-year-old emerging singer-songwriter she is ending the year with a haunting new song, ‘star signs.’ Blending elements of dream pop and indie pop, this evocative track gathers around you like the dark nights of the winter, with a twinkling backdrop. Hanna’s affecting tone reels you in with a resonant melody as she explores yearning love.
She says ‘star signs’ is about craving that all-encompassing love and wanting it to be reciprocated.” Liv Hanna continues, “In the song, she’s imploring him to stay with her and love her unconditionally, and explaining how they are meant to be.” Liv Hanna cleverly hits upon the intersection of astrology and love as a metaphor. With a melodic hook, yearning vocals and guitars that shimmer like clusters of stars, it’s a thing of wonder that intersects the sound of early Clairo, with a touch of Mazzy Star. It marks Liv Hannah out as a highly promising artist
The captivating song was produced by a pair of renowned producers, Joe Lindsay and Flex, both of whom are frequent collaborators with Liv Hanna. Her new track ‘star signs’ marks Liv Hannah out as a highly promising artist (Bill Cummings)
