Loud And Quiet

‘Shitty Hits’, the debut album from Brooklyn-based songwriter Katie von Schleicher wasn’t just a brilliant title, but a great record. At the time, our review described the LP as one that “tackles feelings of mediocrity, and turns them into something grand”.

This past winter, following a break from touring those songs, she returned to her native Maryland. There she recorded a pair of new tracks using the equipment she’d collected since making ‘Shitty Hits’.

“I built a fire,” she says. “I set up my gold drum kit, I saw a ton of stars and felt smushed by silence, and it was lonely, so I made these songs. ‘Glad to Be Here’ is where I find myself right now. ‘Party Dawn’ is tied to Maryland, to my friend and our adolescence. Both are a bridge toward the subject matter of my next record.”

Those two songs will appear on a new 7″, due out via Full Time Hobby on 4 May (pre-order).

Check out the captivating ‘Glad To Be Here’ below.

Having toured with Big Thief in the past, Katie von Schleicher will be returning to the UK in the next couple of months for the following headline shows.

London, The Islington – 26 April
Cheshire, St Mary’s Creative Space – 27
Leeds, Hyde Park Book Club – 28
Sheffield, Café Totem – 29
Glasgow, Hug & Pint – 30
Bristol, Louisiana – 1 May
Brighton, The Great Escape – 18

You might have noticed that workaholic London producer and musician Rory Attwell has been quiet recently. Just as I was thinking that, Rory dropped us a line with ‘Circle Of The Scythe’, and to explain himself.

Turns out he’s been touring the world as a member of Die! Die! Die! and working on film soundtracks, mostly.

He’s back in town now and has moved out of his notorious Lightship boat studio and into a new studio in South Tottenham where he’s back to producing and recording as Warm Brains.

He’s got a third album ready to go already, with a working title of ‘General Waste’, which will include this new track, ‘Circles Of The Scythe’ – something more aggressive and experimental to his last album ‘Big Wow’.

Here’s Rory banging a snare in different glamorous world locations.

We’ll admit, Caroline Rose’s debut album in 2014 ‘I Will Not Be Afraid’ wasn’t one to pass across our radar.

But the New York-based songwriter is on the cusp of releasing the follow-up, ‘Loner’, in May on Nashville label New West (Feb in the U.S.) and it’s very good.

Don’t just take our word for it. Earlier this week she shared this new track ‘Getting To Me’ (listen below). The best bit, it’s not even close to being the best track on ‘Loner’.

Here’s what Rose has to say about the time that proceeded that second album.

“I felt a bit disillusioned with my music; it didn’t sound like my personality. I hadn’t dated in years, I was going to lose health care. I felt detached from the modern world.

“I joined Tinder. I turned 25 and rented my first real apartment and painted it bright colours. I started socializing more and little by little, weeded out all my clothes that weren’t red. I embraced my queerdom. I had a girlfriend, we traveled the country, we broke up. I discussed politics, capitalism and Rihanna. For better or worse, I became a member of the modern world.

“Turns out the modern world is terrifying…”

Plus, check out the video for Rose’s previous single ‘Soul No. 5’ to get a steer on what she’s all about.

When I sat down with Nilüfer Yanya at the end of summer 2016 she’d only shared a couple of tracks online at that point – and one video, for ‘Small Crimes’. That story of a petty thief came accompanied by a clip of Yanya appearing in some gritty situations, including riding around on a stranger’s motorbike and wielding a baseball bat. I’m not sure what I was expecting but the softly-spoken artist I met near her west London family home found amusement in my suggestion that I was expecting someone with a more aggressive persona. Aggressive, no. A quiet, deeply-thoughtful, inventive thinker – absolutely.

Since then she’s made a series of brilliant visuals. Not least for this new track ‘Thanks 4 Nothing’, a sobering love song about coming to your senses and moving on. She’s calling it her most “bitter and ungrateful song yet”. There’s also a macabre humour to the video (directed by ENERGYFORCE) – not to mention some very retro furniture – where Yanya appears as part of cult, and finishes by performing in front of a room of poisoned people.

She’s also just announced a round of new UK tour dates:

Brighton, Great Escape – 18 May
Cardiff, Buffalo Bar – 19
Manchester, Deaf Institute – 20
Birmingham, Sunflower Lounge – 21
Barrow-in-Furness, Barrow Library – 22
Glasgow, Broadcast – 23
Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – 24
London, Village Underground – 29

A collaboration that never even entered into your mind turns out to be inspired.

On paper, now label mates on Transgressive, Let’s Eat Grandma and SOPHIE appear to be different artists. However, at some point somebody threw in the idea of a collaboration, and it works. The result is this new track ‘Hot Pink’ – the first new music Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth have shared since releasing their debut ‘I, Gemini’ in 2016.

No news yet on a second album, or whether that’ll also see involvement from the ex-PC Music songwriter and producer, but in the meantime this blast of industrial pop will do just nicely.

“‘Hot Pink’ is about the misconceptions of femininity and masculinity and the power of embracing both of them,” comment LEG about the song. “It’s about self-expression and appreciation for an underrated colour.”

Let’s Eat Grandma have also announced a new London show at Lightbox on 8 March.

The scenes in London, Leeds and Bristol were all out-doing themselves in 2017. It was a breakout year for the likes of Idles and Shame, but also saw the likes of LICE, Yowl and plenty others coming through.

You can add Heavy Lungs to that list, even though they formed less than a year ago, and, up until now, have played fewer than 10 shows. The four-piece, who got together in spring 2017, have already supported the likes of METZ and the aforementioned Idles.

Now, they’ve written and recorded their spiky, combative debut EP. ‘Abstract Thoughts’ will be self-released via the band’s Bandcamp on 2 February, but you can stream it ahead of that (below).

And, talk about 2-4-1, today they’re also sharing the video for brand new track ‘Stutter’, directed by Elliot Pearce. In terms of the background of ‘Stutter’ the band said: “Lyrically, it’s about the inherent feeling of detachment and the inability of committing to anything due to fear of failure.”

Heavy Lungs have a couple of shows soon, too with details of their first London gig to be announced shortly.

Bristol, Hy Brasil – 27 Jan (with Vulgarians)
Hastings, Strummerville on Sea for Independent Venue Week – 3 Feb

Photo by: Jamie Murray

In 2017, Tyneside indie label Box Records (from Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs‘ Matt Baty) gave us one of our Albums of The Year – Lower Slaughter‘s  ‘What Big Eyes’, which showed us all that it’s still ok to dig sludge riffs inspired by ‘Bleach’-era Nirvana.

Lower Slaughter are fun, but they did not distribute their debut single with branded sunglasses. Not like Shy-Talk (also happy purveyors of grungy noise), who will release ‘Warlord of The Dance’ as a digital single this Friday (Jan 26th) via Box. You’ll be able to download it from the label’s site, but also by buying a pair of the band’s shade, which will come with a download code.

Are Shy-Talk taking the piss? Probably. But they’re a lot of fun, and some musicians really do still wear sunglasses indoors, un-ironically.

While they’re announcing their existence, and a forthcoming album today (23 Jan), the story of MIEN goes back some distance.

The genesis of the band, which features The Black Angels‘ Alex Maas, The Horrors‘ Tom Furse, Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir and The Earlies’ John Mark Lapham, can be traced back as far as 2004.

Dhir met Black Angels frontman Maas while he was performing sitar with his former band The Brian Jonestown Massacre at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Later on they also shared a bill with John Mark Lapham from The Earlies and bonded over a mutual appreciation for one song in particular – ‘Wantin’ Ain’t Gettin’ by the Association. Together they had an aborted effort at covering it (a track they’d find themselves returning to).

Almost a decade on, Dhir joined The Black Angels to play bass and their paths crossed with touring comrades The Horrors who were promoting ‘Skying’ at the time. That’s where Tom Furse entered the fold.

Fitting in writing and recording sessions in between global tours for all of their primary projects – sometimes they were in a room, other times sending each other contributions online – the fruits of their collaboration are now ready to be shared. Their self-titled debut album will come out via Rocket Recordings on 6 April.

The vision as John Mark puts it was to “imagine the Black Angels as Nico in her ’80s industrial phase mixed with George Harrison and Conny Plank.”

‘Black Habit’ is the first track they’ve shared, and we’re not sure we can better John Mark’s words on what to expect.

There’s a Middle Eastern feel to tumbling sax riff on Nervous Conditions‘ new track, ‘The President’ – or at least there is on this recorded version that will appear on the band’s forthcoming debut EP.

The thing is that the 8-piece band from a village in Cambridgeshire don’t consider this the finished track, and the same goes for any of their music. They will record their songs, but that’s not the end of them being written and adapted.

This approach to making experimental post-punk was inspired by a Pere Ubu show that singer Connor Browne saw, where the band supported themselves with an improvised set. Browne watched Pere Ubu’s David Thomas conduct his band and suggest different directions mid-song, and Browne liked that. Thomas would tell his band to “play me some lounge music from mars,” and shout at them when they were getting it wrong. So when Nervous Conditions get onstage they know how ‘The President’ goes, but they also know that changing a riff in the middle is probably a good idea to keep things interesting, even if it does mean that they’ve already ditched a whole album they’ve recorded, having decided that the songs don’t really sound like that anymore.

Last year we posted their track ‘Village Mentality’. We didn’t know much about them, and we still don’t. We are starting to understand why so many people are going on about their live shows though.