Chaotic Butterfly I've only been able to listen to this track on the preorder but it's already become one of my favourite tracks of 2022. Amazing composition, rhythm, lyricality(?), and that visceral Camp Cope emotionality that makes them the awesome band they are.
"piglet's... scrappy and melodic songs try to make sense of the world" - Fader
"Swelling from plaintive beginnings to a full explosion of strings, layered vocals and background twinkles" - DIY
"Piglet’s music is a melodic translation of laying one’s cards on the table" - So Young
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piglet is the solo project of Irish songwriter and producer Charlie Loane, born and raised in Belfast and based in South London.
His third single of 2021, ‘oan’ eschews a pop structure and instead embarks on a glorious multi-melodic journey through time, memory and experience, channelled through Loane's idiosyncratic DIY production.
Toronto-based band Altameda announced their third album entitled Born Losers via Missing Piece/Pheromone Records. The album, which was recorded in Toronto by Thomas D’Arcy (Neko Case, The Sheepdogs) and mixed in Portland, OR by Tucker Martine (My Morning Jacket, Whitney, R.E.M.), is set for release on April 15. To mark the announcement, Altameda has shared a new single, “Nightmare Town.” The track mixes the exuberance of The Hold Steady and nihilism of Springsteen’s Nebraska as it captures the desperation of a narrator hoping to escape from the mundanity of their suffocating small town.
“The upbeat surf guitar, blissful washes of synths, and brilliant bursts of melody make for a decadent dream pop reverie, recalling classic influences like Cocteau Twins as well as contemporaries like Alvvays or Yumi Zouma.” - Under The Radar
In „How To Sail Your Ship (2077)“ NORÐIR travel to the the year 2077 and Viktor meets his older self in his 80s, the last chapter of his life. The lyrics in this song are what his older self is telling him.
This song was written during the 1. pandemic lockdown in Germany when Viktor was confronted with the thoughts of impermanence, aging, and also the value of gratitude and being present.
Closing-out a benchmark year for the band, the alt/folk three-piece have teamed-up with celebrated Australian director Matthew Thorne on a gripping visual narrative to accompany their latest single “Thumbs Up”.
Filmed in an ex-coal mining commuter settlement in the heart of the Rhondda Valley of South Wales, the video follows the story of a young man and his struggles with, and love affairs with, small town life.
“We shot the video over two bitterly cold countryside days. We took influence from the cinematic traditions of folkloric horror and British rural gothic, as well as respectfully referencing Carl Dreyer’s classic The Passion Of Joan Of Arc, where the concentration and focus is on the main protagonist’s face and expressions, shot in intimate close-ups. We were keen to capture the absurdist aspect of the character ignoring her predicament, and staying committed to her own ‘truth’, in spite of what society may throw at her.”
What Hippo Campus wanted with LP3 was something all five of them could agree on, the way they’d made music in the early days of the band when they were in high school. As their profile grew, amassing nearly ¾ of a billion streams and hundreds of thousands of tickets sold, they found themselves compromising on their visions, thinking about how fans would interact with their music, and plagued by an unsustainable industry ecosystem.
LP3 is their strongest and most complete work yet -- a freshly-inked portrait excavating young adulthood and identity and, more importantly, how that personal identity fits into a larger camaraderie. It looks at how growing up can just feel like something that’s always moving past you when you’re trying to grab a hold of it; it’s a push-and-pull of letting go or holding tighter -- and figuring out what matters the most. Through cinematic, sonic clarity, is a sweeping account of courage and tenacity; tender-hearted stumbling that leads you on the right path after all.
“Blissful indie rock” Rolling Stone
“Bouncy indie melodies and gigantic pop hooks” DIY
I think the biggest lesson I learned from making this record is that interpretation is creation.
These are 14 songs I love by some of my favourite artists. I wanted to see what they could teach me, and also what I could bring to them.
This whole thing feels quite personal. Even though I believe that songs are for sharing, I don’t sing a lot of covers. Often I feel strange trying to embody the sentiments of others (a voice is such a personal thing). I have lots of favourites, but the ones comprised here are some that I found myself able to sing. That is to say, they felt convincing coming from me.
Normally I write and perform my own songs, or collaborate with others on their material. The original reason I got into music was to make songs, and I never really went through a period of learning by playing the music of others. This approach has given me my own impressionistic style. There is something special about stepping back now, and applying my way of creating to the unique works of others. I wanted to know some of my favourite songs in a new way.
