Archive for the ‘Recommended Streams and Videos’ Category

Watch: ‘Reason to Rush’ by Distance H

Posted: 21 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Singer Liset Alea (known for her long collaboration with Nouvelle Vague) fuses with French darkwave producer Distance H to create ‘Reason To Rush’; an impelling dream pop evocation, navigating the realms of reason and impulsiveness, luminous euphoria and its dark plunge.

Liset Alea sings her ‘Reason To Rush’ in a driving immersive atmosphere where menacing guitars weave beneath the surface.

Distance H gives birth to a musical universe that sources its array of sounds within and beyond the margins of post-punk, dark wave, cold wave, ethereal, and shoegaze, sometimes borrowing some more electronic-driven beats. For his debut EP, Intimacy, he invites an assortment of collaborative singers to express themselves by escaping into and from the vast distances of themselves and their experiences

His first single ‘Bitch 16’ made in collaboration with Ophelia from Saigon Blue Rain was released on the 29th of April 2022 and was noticed by the specialized press, by "its freshness, its mechanical and dramatic resonance".

His second single "Waters Of Woe" featuring Marita Volodina from Stridulum / Burial Fields / Blood Tears After was released on the 30th of September 2022 and was appreciated as a ‘spectacularly intoxicating track, with a captivating melody, dark and enticing’.

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Watch: ‘Throne of Rope’ by Sanzu

Posted: 13 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Seven long years following the release of their critically acclaimed debut full-length album Heavy Over The Home, Perth-based death-metal outfit Sanzu finally unleash new material in the form of a visualizer video for a new track off the band’s album Our Behaviour When Drowning.

Titled ‘Throne Of Rope’ this new song was written and recorded by Sanzu, mixed and mastered by George Lever at G1 Productions, and the video for the song was created by Leovannmusic.

Watch the video here:

Comments the band: "It’s great to finally be able to release something to our fans. People have been continuously asking us for new material for 7 years and that’s not something we’ve taken lightly or ignored. We’ve constantly had a duality of situations that have helped and hindered. We had the fundamental agreement that we still wanted to make music together and wanted to pursue it under the stylistic SANZU "idea". But, also month after month, year after year, massive personal and interpersonal changes, complex situations, changing tastes, members going, members going then coming back, health issues and evolving standards and ideas for music and life. All these factors were rapidly turning over faster than we could hope to produce music."

"So it’s at this point that we are really pleased to release a couple tracks we’re proud of and to show some different shades and tones being experimented with. We know and understand there may be real disappointment that the promised full length isn’t a reality yet. But we hope that the people who saw that announcement and our lengthy explanation of the trails leading to that point can trust us in knowing that the trails have not stopped! And yet we’re one step closer and one toe out of the door. So, easy does it!"

"Throne of Rope is from a handful of songs we have written over the last few years that have concepts around having children. This one is maybe more abstract and less literal than our other material as it loosely brings together ideas about toxic parenting, ownership and projected expectations. As well as the frustration a lot people can have with an outdated education system that seems at odds with human and childlike nature. This song has some deceptive qualities, if you surrender to its tone in the given moment it tends to pull you around and down without much consideration for where you were before. Coincidentally the structure also sets a frame for the concept of childhood and education that the lyrics address. With its free and flowing beginning, being full of potential that then descends into turbulence and militancy."

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Watch: ‘Nyx’ by Lueenas

Posted: 11 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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It is no wonder that the experimental string duo Lueenas often work with film music. In their recent collaboration with animator and video artist Jonas Bentzen, their affinity for the magic that can happen moving image and moving music is highly apparent. From the p.o.v of a solo traveler, the camera takes us hauntingly through underground tunnels and fantastical sci-fy spaces of ancient aesthetics while the violent track ‘Nyx’ is carrying us through it all. For Lueenas darkness and beauty are two beautifully intertwined sensations and this duality is a driving force in their video collaboration with Jonas Bentzen, creating an eerie yet alluring and sensual journey.

For fans of Tarkovsky’s Stalker and Mica Levi’s soundtrack to Under The Skin, this music video from Lueenas and Jonas Bentzen is one to watch. “Nyx” conjures the story of Hemera’s mother, the Goddess of Night, born from Chaos and feared by all, even Zeus. Through distorted and shrieking layers of violin, and the mammoth double bass figures, she carries at once a brutal wrath and conciliatory power. Transforming into

upward blazing howls, we are reminded that there is beauty in darkness. Nyx is part of the self-titled album by Lueenas, released November 4th, 2022.  Cinematic, strings & electronics duo, LUEENAS, announce self-titled debut album, out Nov. 4. Intuition and acceptance are at the core of the debut album from Danish electrified string duo, Lueenas. Exploring the complex spaces between typical emotional dichotomies, their language emerges brimming with imaginative uses of form and texture. Born over a year of improvised sessions, and informed by their involvement in other projects across pop, jazz, electronic, experimental and post-classical music, Maria Jagd and Ida Duelund then set out to puzzle together the luring soundscapes that make up their self-titled debut. Experimenting with the limits imposed by their stringed instruments, and pushing the boundaries between acoustic, amplified and electronic sources allowed them to draw on a much broader and expressive colour palette of sounds.

Taking inspiration from ancient sacred practices, the album encompasses millennia of storytelling from distinctly female perspectives. Lueenas’ fully-cast debut album is at once the evocative score for a lauded expressionist film yet to be made, and a sermon for the fluidity of the emotional experience across time and space. As an ode to the communicative power of strings, it tells us what would otherwise remain untold. Lueenas is an experimental string duo formed in 2019 by Ida Duelund and Maria Jagd, and based in Copenhagen, DK. With violin, double bass, effects and amplifiers, they create violent and beautiful soundscapes full of panoramic grandeur. Their cinematic aesthetic has roots in both classical minimalism and improvisational rock music.

Watch the video here (click image to play):

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Watch: ‘The Nuckelavee’ by Hellripper

Posted: 9 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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When it comes to high octane melodic black/speed metal, there’s no doing it by halves: commit to this shit or go home. James McBain’s blackened thrash outfit are all in, and ‘The Nuckelavee’ , the lead track from forthcoming third album, Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags tells you everything you need to know in just shy of six minutes. Get your lugs round it here:

Hellripper – Live

Hellripper will be supporting the release of their new album with live shows & festivals throughout 2023 – so far they have confirmed the following with more to be announced

11 February – The Flying Duck – Glasgow, Scotland (UK)

11 March – Welcome to Hell Fest – Eindhoven, Netherlands (EU)

30 June – Pitfest 2023 – Emmen, Netherlands (EU)

5 July – Obscene Extreme Festival 2023 – Trutnov, Czech Republic (EU

27 July – Goldgrube – Kassel, Germany (EU)

28 – 29 July- Burning Q Festival 2023 – Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany (EU)

21 October – Derby Alt Fest 2023 – Derby, England (UK)

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Pic: MM Photography

Watch: ‘A Void’ by Neon Funeral

Posted: 8 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Hardcore darkwave band, Neon Funeral recently unveiled their latest single and video, ‘A Void’.

The song deals with escaping a life of drugs and societal pressures; avoiding it but not wanting to talk about it. It’s about someone being tortured by their addictions and demons. The instrumentals emit an overall sound that is darker and a range that is more dynamic than on previous releases. They just flow in the direction of the layered guitars that take over during the fadeout.

The video concept was one that finds the band’s front man, Randy waking up while experiencing hallucinations of a dark cult-like figure. He joins a strange cult doing strange rituals while initiating other members unwillingly. The video opens questions of societal pressures and about not being able to escape one’s mind and the darker paths of life.

The fire pit represents passion and a rebirth of his life. At the end you see all the people wearing masks in a row essentially giving into the cult like Randy gives into his fear. But they gain strength through the darkness at the end. particularly in the last scene when Randy grabs the light bulb to essentially say that he darkens his own light.

So the themes of the song and video are fear, spirituality, rebirth, strength and passion. 

Watch the video here:

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Neon Funeral US live dates:

1.6.23 Richmond, VA @ Fallout
1.7.23 Washington DC @ The Runaway
1.8.23 Philadelphia, PA @ Century

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Watch: ‘Enter the Loop’ by Witch Ripper

Posted: 6 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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WITCH RIPPER have created a loving pastiche of the legendary pulp science fiction stories of old. The story told on their sophomore full-length The Flight after the Fall has all those tasty ingredients: a mad professor, his dying wife, cryogenic chambers, a black hole as well as themes of love, failure, loss, and acceptance.

Musically, Witch Ripper have packed The Flight After the Fall with as much aggression and barely tamed electricity as anybody knowing them would expect, but there are also fleetly intricate guitar interplay touches of subtle synth, and cosmic atmospherics as well as unshakably catchy clean vocal hooks. In short, Witch Ripper maintain their brutal roots while embracing the arena rock bombast of Queen and David Bowie, the exuberant modern prog of Coheed and Cambria, and MUSE.

Born and raised in the city of grey skies and loud music, Seattle in 2012, Washington’s WITCH RIPPER have seamlessly welded together the contemporary heaviness of such hard-hitting acts as Mastodon, GOJIRA, and Baroness with the anthemic quality of classic rock artists.

With a self-titled EP Witch Ripper (2012) and the debut full-length Homestead (2018),Witch Ripper garnered both critical acclaim and a strong buzz in the underground metal scene. Witch Ripper have performed alongside heavy rock outfits such as MONOLORD, CONAN, and RUBY THE HATCHET as well as modern metal acts including SLIPKNOT, GOJIRA, and KHEMMIS among many others.

Witch Ripper approach their music in true American fashion: big riffs, bigger hooks, and damn, that drummer! With The Flight After the Fall, this heavy Seattle outfit re-emerge boldly into the guitar-driven US metal scene.

Watch the video here for some bombastic, overblown guitar entertainment:

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Watch: ‘Spiral’ by Berries

Posted: 6 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Berries totally grabbed us with their debut album, How We Function.

Taken from said debut album,  ‘Spiral’ showcases everything we dig about them, and the new release comes ahead of a UK headline run in March 2023, plus a run of Winter shows with Skinny Lister this December.

Steeped in BERRIES’ trademark craggy, contagious rhythms and earworm choral hooks, it’s another fine example of the band’s melodic noise-driven rock in full flight. A track about concealing our innermost struggles and the escalating repercussions it can cause, vocalist Holly explains:

“’Spiral’ is about how easily we share insignificant details about ourselves but struggle to open up about serious matters through fear of seeming weak or vulnerable. And how what we do share with people is often for the satisfaction and approval of others and not for ourselves.”

Blending distinctive melodies with inner-battles we’ve all faced, ‘Spiral’ is a quintessential BERRIES cut plucked from the band’s new album How We Function (out now, via Xtra Mile Recordings); an album ostensibly about mental health struggles and how we can overcome them.

Watch the video here:

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BERRIES – UK DATES

December

08 – Manchester, Gorilla +

09 – Newcastle, University +

10 – Bristol, Thekla +

14 – Leicester, The Y Theatre +

15 – Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill +

16 – Leeds, Stylus +

17 – London, Islington Assembly Hall +

March

27 – Nottingham, Bodega

28 – Leeds, Santiago Bar

29 – Manchester, Gullivers

30 – Bristol, Mr Wolfs

31 – London, Oslo

+ w/ Skinny Lister

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Watch: ‘Mary in the Black and White Room’ by IST IST

Posted: 5 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Before we wave adieu to 2022 – IST IST – pause for reflection with the philosophical: ‘Mary In The Black And White Room’.

This new single arrives as the Manchester post/punk frontrunners also confirm a series of UK headline shows for April 2023, with dates in Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham, Birmingham, Bristol and London. Tickets will be on sale this Wednesday (7t December) at 10AM here.

A reminder of their keenly-anticipated third album ‘Protagonists’ (slated for Spring 2023 via Kind Violence Records), the track finds the band revealing one of its most cerebral, synth-driven moments.

With shades of classic OMD, The Cure and New Order, ‘Mary In The Black And White Room’ effervesces in the darkness with its potent blend of layered synthesisers, darting basslines, and labyrinthine lyrical intrigue.

“Mary…” is inspired by a thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Frank Jackson that has since become known as ‘the knowledge argument’ (or ‘Mary’s room’). Hypothesising the work of a scientist called Mary, who exists in a black and white world where she has extensive access to physical descriptions of colour, but no actual human perceptual experience of colour; Jackson’s theory wonders whether Mary will gain new knowledge if she actually experiences seeing colour.

Speaking about the track, IST IST’s  Adam Houghton says:

“Mary in the Black and White Room is about trying to figure out if experience trumps knowledge. See ‘the Knowledge Argument’ where the subject, Mary, exists in a black and white world but has extensive descriptions of colour, but you don’t know if she knows what they actually look like until exposed to it. Really interesting stuff.”

Absorbed by themes explored in Jackson’s theory of physicalism, IST IST create an unconventional love-song-of-sorts. As if reaching out from another dimension, frontman Adam Houghton delivers a cascade of cryptic couplets and non sequiturs in his rich baritone, looking to add colour to a world that could be so much more than monochrome.

The single arrives with an official lyric video created by Shaolin Pete, which elegantly reflects the themes explored in ‘Mary in the Black and White Room’. Watch it here:

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Listen: ‘Nazarite’ by The Lord † David Pajo

Posted: 4 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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2022 has been a phenomenally active year for Greg Anderson as The Lord. Having previously shared standalone track releases, he then released his debut solo album Forest Nocturne in Summer followed by a collaborative album with Petra Haden, Devotional, in October.

Now, he is heard in collaboration with David Pajo in a brand new track, "Nazarite", which sees the two musicians meet over ominous arpeggios and spoken word segments in this new track which Greg suggests is a "gateway" to more collaborations in the future.

Greg says, "I’m beyond honoured to have been able to collaborate with David Pajo for this ever evolving output as The Lord. Slint remains one of the most important bands ever to me. I composed the music for ‘Nazarite’ as a love letter to Slint that exemplifies my obsession and devotion. David’s brilliant response to my humble offering is clear proof of his genius."

David Pajo says, “In Tennessee, I played a bit of acoustic guitar on the Goatsnake song ‘Another River To Cross.’ It was then that I realized we had a perfect working dynamic. We seem to be able to push an idea from nothing into solid shape, without much effort or ego. I trust Greg’s ear and musical sense implicitly—he’s fearless.”

Listen to ‘Nazarite’ here:

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Watch: ‘Austerity’ by Katatonia

Posted: 2 December 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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With eleven full-length records under their belts, Swedish melancholic metal masters Katatonia don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Yet, it comes as no surprise that the band is about to impressively solidify their unique stance in the world of metal and beyond once more with their 12th album, the hauntingly beautiful Sky Void of Stars.

Today, Katatonia unveil the second single and Sky Void of Stars’ album opener ‘Austerity’, along with a visually palpable video. The heartfelt offering crashes through the dark with memorable, mind-bending rhythms as it shifts with elaborate guitar riffs that perfectly showcase the musical expertise and experience of the band. Topped off by the dark, conjuring voice of Jonas Renkse and mesmerizing lyricism, the gloomy mood for the album is set. The song is now available via all digital service providers worldwide.

Katatonia on ‘Austerity’: “We hereby present you our new single and the opening track of Sky Void of Stars – ‘Austerity’. Energetic and dark, stern and disenchanted. Enjoy.”

Watch the official video for ‘Austerity’ here:

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