Norwegian psych/stoner rockers Dune Sea have recently shared a new song off their third album Orbital Distortion, which is set for release on November 11th via All Good Clean Records.
Titled ‘Hubro’, this song is the first taster of what’s to expect from Orbital Distortion and sees the Norwegian trio delving further into space rock, taking off for a grand musical journey into outer space. Check it out here:
Since their self-titled debut album in 2019, Dune Sea have establish themselves as a solid part of the Norwegian psych-scene. Their psych-space rock universe has expanded for every release and with their upcoming 3rd album “Orbital Distortion” it seems like they have left the Earth for good cruising though the cosmos.
Manchester-based art-rock five-piece Sylvette have shared a spine-tingling cover of Nine Inch Nails classic, ‘Right Where It Belongs’, which appeared on 2005’s With Teeth.
The new track arrives as the band confirm a release date for their third album: ‘Single Thread’ – which will arrive on 25th November 2022.
A sprawling rendition that sees Sylvette pay homage to the Nine Inch Nails original just as easily as they do douse the track with their own allure, the band initially released an early version of “Right Where It Belongs” on YouTube back in 2020. Having amassed almost 20,000 views since, the cover gained traction with Nine Inch Nails fans who flooded the video’s comment section “proclaiming they connected to it just as much if not more than the original.”
Quietly contemplative cover that’s laced with a heart-rending sense of feeling, vocalist Charlie Sinclair explains how it finds its place on their upcoming album:
“”Right Where It Belongs” is the first cover we’ve ever played together that really felt like we made it our own. The song is about questioning your reality and how going through change and trauma can distort the way you perceive yourself. It really felt appropriate for the theme of our upcoming album ‘Single Thread’, so we made it the closing track on the record.”
Staking their place as one of the most prolific and intriguing bands on the Manchester underground scene, ‘Single Thread’ will emerge on 18 November and promises to show a completely new side to the group.
Born out of Charlie’s personal struggles whilst caring for his disabled and terminally ill father, and the subsequent loss he experienced during lockdown, the album sees Sylvette shed their fantastical and dramatic sound to make way for a deeply personal, more honest and intimate kind of songwriting.
Capturing the sound of a band becoming more emotionally in-sync than ever before, the album was recorded in guitarist Jack March’s rented shipping container-turned-studio. Working on the project only between the hours of midnight and 3am, to avoid noise spill disturbing neighbours in the unit, ‘Single Thread’ is the band’s first completely self-made record, with Jack on mixing and producing duties.
With shades of John Martyn or Nick Drake appearing in some of the album’s instrumental moments, Charlie’s haunting falsetto will evoke the spectre of Jeff Buckley. Tracks like “Borrowed Time” and “Marble Stone” have a bitter-sweetness comparable to the likes of Cocteau Twins, whereas tracks like ‘Safety in Solitude’ are gently reminiscent of the darker, stripped-down side of Nine Inch Nails.
Listen to their version of ‘Right Where It Belongs’ here:
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SYLVETTE LIVE DATES 2022
27 September – Manchester, Carlton Club
24 November – Manchester – Album Listening Event, Details TBC
Alternative music legend Chris Connelly has announced he will be releasing a long-player paying tribute to the iconic Nico. Originally planned as 10 tracks featuring Connelly’s versions of her songs, once recorded, he decided to write a parallel album of his own compositions, spanning the life of one of the most unique, tragic and misunderstood female artists in the history of music. The result is the 24-track Eulogy to Christa: A Tribute to the Music & Mystique of Nico, to be released in late autumn.
Ahead of this, the Chicago-based Scottish counter-culture artist presents the album’s first single ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’, heralded by some as Connelly’s finest vocal performance. Appearing on Nico’s 1967 album Chelsea Girl, this song was penned by the tragic Tim Hardin about the equally tragic Lenny Bruce with the lyrics slightly altered, Nico describing her sorrow and anger at Bruce’s death.
Listen to ‘Eulogy to Lenny Bruce’ here:
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Connelly once again worked with producer and long-time Connelly collaborator Chris Bruce, a band member of Meshell Ndegeocello, who has also worked with Seal, Aaron Neville, Bob Dylan, The Waterboys, My Brightest Diamond, Cheryl Crow and Sam Phillips.
Eulogy to Christa sees Connelly purposefully adopting the personas of Nico, Lou Reed and John Cale – even Andy Warhol makes a cameo!
Connelly speaks of these early influences: “I was not a stranger to her music, I had been playing The Velvet Underground & Nico to death for about a year, but knew nothing of her solo work until Cosey Fanni Tutti played me ‘Desertshore’ whilst I was visiting her in London in the summer of 1980… Nico’s output was spartan, at that age, I didn’t know why, but I was drawn in deep to the myth, as well as the myth of Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground and the concentric rings of influence in their wake, like so many musicians.”
The album was inspired by the brilliant book You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone by author Jennifer Otter Bickerdicke, who contributed to the liner notes for the album. She writes, “This is a record to be played at full blast, all the way through, as a commemoration not just to Nico the person, the musician, but to art for art’s sake, for making something because it is important and needs to be done – an idea that is as rare and precious as Nico herself.”
HAAVARD, the acoustic brainchild of mastermind and sole member Håvard Jørgensen (aka Lemarchand of early ULVER and SATYRICON fame) has released the melancholic yet optimistic track ‘Niende Mars’ ("9th of March") as the second single taken from the Norwegian’s self-titled debut full-length Haavard, which has been slated for release on November 11.
Listen here:
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HAAVARD comments: "The track ‘Niende Mars’ deals on one hand with the fear of losing what’s most important to you, and on the other with reconciliation", the guitarist and singer reveals. "It moves through the cloud of unknowing, and the painful turmoil leads to an opening – a new view, a new perspective, a new path to follow as well as ways to evolve through hopes and fears. In my eyes, the expressive dynamics and dense instrumentation of this piece are a reflection of all of those feelings. After the storm comes calm."
‘The End of Absence’ is the second single to be taken from Devotional, the new collaborative album from The Lord & Petra Haden arriving on 21st October. The track is the closer of the album, and provides a beguiling mixture of vocals and droning guitar to create a seductive atmosphere as incessant as waves beating upon a shore.
Devotional is a rapturous and heady offering of wordless vocalisations, droning guitars, and heaviness explored in unexpected and intoxicating ways. Inspirations came from deep listening to Indian classical music, as well as a fascinating look at the chaotic and unbelievable life of Ma Anand Sheela and the Rajneesh community.
Through a haze of incense, flowing robes, and secret mantras, Haden’s voice rings out over constant drones in ecstatic chants throughout this musical investigation into the myriad of ways in which worship can lure and intoxicate.
Cardiff electronic producer Conformist and gloom wave duo H O R S E S. ‘Heddiw’ ( ‘Today’ in English) collaborate for a collision of electronica and ominous post punk, on a inventive framework of crunching beats and blips, haunted synth samples and infused with the ominous vocals of duo H O R S E S, that bare more than a passing resemblance to Joy Division. A collaboration forged in the depths of lockdown, this haunting and bracing release is just a teaser of what’s to come in 2023.
Conformist says of the collaboration, it’s “a project that began by exchanging audio files between myself and H O R S E S on WhatsApp during the depths of Covid lockdown; I’m really pleased we can finally get this track out. Vocals are by H O R S E S and production is by myself. Hopefully this is just the beginning; we’re looking to follow up Heddiw in 2023 with a bunch of new ideas.”
Conformist is one of the most respected names on the Electronic music scene in Wales, with early demos immediately catching the attention of Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, John Kennedy and Eddy Temple Morris.
Subsequent Conformist albums "Paid To Fake It" (2013) and "Lifestyle Bible" (2016) earned lavish praise:
"Paid To Fake It" is the sort of record that will take your breath away…bloody brilliant" The 405
"A musically kaleidoscopic head f***…brilliant" Louder Than War
"a head-spinning deluge of audacious beats and samples…staggering" Wales Online
Conformists’ production work is distinguished and full of unique character; staying leftfield but fresh and ahead of others; meticulous, dense and layered, revealing hidden detail with every listen – taking inspiration from Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad and cut n’ paste pioneers Coldcut, Steinski and The Dust Brothers to name a few.
Purveyors of dark hearted electronic music and inventors of the Gloom Wave genre, H O R S E S are formed by two gentlemen from a southeasterly part of Wales.
Casting a longing gaze on early 70s German electronica, mournful vocals escorted gently by cold beats and balmy synths evoke a brutalist image of Berlin, as the melodies wash between the brash concrete structures of your mind.
BERRIES have unleashed a third cut from their debut album ‘How We Function’ (out 8 July 2022).
Rhythmic and rambunctious in equal measure, meticulous new track “Haze” seesaws between infectious and antsy in a beat — and evokes how unexpected the onset of intrusive thoughts and mental hurdles can be.
Just as biting as earlier tracks “We Are Machines” and “Wall of Noise”, albeit with a more measured edge, the new track showcases the band’s tight musicianship and ability to find optimism — and craft an arresting melody — in a tough time.
Of the new release, Berries explain: “”Haze” represents the barriers we often put up and how scary but also uplifting it can be when they break down. The “Haze” descends when least expected and is hard to fight through, but it’s important to recognise the strength it takes to open up and fight past the intrusive thoughts and be the best version of yourself.”
Two albums in and London’s Grave Lines, purveyors of ‘heavy gloom’ have already carved a unique niche in the myriad spheres of heavy music. Their first album Welcome To Nothing set the tone for their distinct take on doom metal, which was broadened even further with album two Fed Into The Nihilist Engine. An epic feast of hard ‘n’ heavy riffs coupled with brooding sadness interspersed with thoughtful transcendent moments of introspection.
Never a band to rely solely on trotting out those ‘doom metal’ tropes, the band began to weave in gothic and experimental elements into their music, to delve deeper into the dark shadows of the psyche.
Now with their third album Communion Grave Lines continue their exploration into the ugliness of the human condition, at the same time becoming a band that truly defies any pigeonhole.
Continuing to hone and evolve their collective vision and aided by the masterful production of Andy Hawkins at The Nave Studios, Communion sees Grave Lines creep further into the various corners of their sound.
In a nutshell Communion is a violent descent of bile-soaked intensity spiralling between filth laden swagger, and fragile mournful lament. The album delves into the internal aloneness of existence and the failings of the human connection.
Owing as much to Bauhaus and Killing Joke as it does to Black Sabbath or Neurosis, there are moments of gut wrenching doomed up heaviness and bellowing noise rock, contrasting with ambient gothic passages and a thoughtful melancholy, to a create a powerful new chapter in their ceaseless journey through the gloom. Listen to first single ‘Carcini’ now:
Norwegian technical metal quartet Insense, have recently shared the opening song of their forthcoming new EP "The Silent Epidemic B-Sides", which is set for release on May 13 via Mas-Kina Records.
The new EP features two songs from the recording sessions of their 2007 album The Silent Epidemic, and although these two tracks didn’t make the final cut they’re still representative of the band’s strong ability to write some powerful, complex and chugging riffs.
Emerging over two decades ago, Insense has grown and evolved their sound with creative hunger but an ability to ignite the senses whilst turning them inside out has been an ever-present fertility they have fuelled their invention since day one.
From their early days Insense were given comparisons to the likes of Machine Head, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Meshuggah, but the reality is that while of course being huge fans of all the aforementioned giants, their sound is simply theirs, a one of a kind sonic predation which sets the band apart from those inspirations and the rest.
Philly area punks Five Hundred Bucks have announced an April 29 release date for their debut full-length titled ‘$500.’
Featuring members of The Holy Mess, The Bella Vista Social Club and Captain, We’re Sinking, Five Hundred Bucks’ debut is the follow up to their well-received 2020 singles ‘Shit Shape Heart’ and ‘Spinal.’
Film fans may recall that frontman Jeff Riddle co-produced, acted in, and wrote the music for the 2020 cult horror-comedy Uncle Peckerhead (which, for what it’s worth, currently has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes).
The band has released ‘Animal’, a track off the album, which can streamed here:
Aural Aggravation 