"varsity's music is almost ridiculously catchy. a track from the group's self-titled debut, feels like being enveloped in memories of your past. the song invokes unremembered nostalgia for an easier time, one filled with intense emotions, black-and-white narratives and the promise of the future." CT
Frankie Cosmos dropped her Fit Me In EP in November, and now, she’s prepping a brand new full-length. Next Thing, the proper follow-up to 2014’s excellent Zentropy, is due out on April 1st through Bayonet Records.
As a preview of the 15-track effort, the lo-fi singer-songwriter has shared lead single “Sinister”. Over mellow, jangling guitars, she confesses in matter-of-fact fashion, “Sometimes … I just feel sinister.” CoS
Diego Arango Every song is great melodically and lyrically.
sydney amanuel Beautiful lyrics and beautiful voice. Adrianne Lenker, wow. Gone and Butterfly are my favorites, but I listen to the whole album on repeat.
Payson A true talent and a gifted songwriter. She has managed to create beautiful Folk Music without there ever being a dull moment. Flawless vocals wrapped effortlessly around brilliant lyrics.
Resolutely heralding seemingly sporadic artists such as Bernard Parmegiani, Bill Callahan and John Fahey as stylistic icons, Woodward worked the album in between epic busking shifts across the east coast of Australia. Various tracks were recorded on a zoom h1 mic in parks, abandoned buses and urban alleyways. This improvised working style makes for a collection of resourcefully produced songs crafted out of the vagaries of his vagabond life - engines make melodies, pots and pans provide grooves. On songs such as the Beatles-esque opener, Sad Nonsense, a choir of his own hastily recorded vocal harmonies in a public disabled bathroom provides a triumphant melancholia. An unrelenting loner and stylistic enigma, Woodward proves with this latest - his ninth full length album - that his unapologetically prolific output is taking him further toward a weird and phantasmagorical frontier of his own devising.
Having grown up in the Scottish Highlands and performed in various folk bands, The Summer Isles and the folk tradition are deeply rooted in Mairearad Green’s composition. As a result, Mairearad has produced a beautiful new solo album, Summer Isles, a seamless and exciting progression from her previous work.
"Sofia Hardig doing exciting things ... beneath the surface bubbles Sonic Youth .. combine the blue-bottomed vocal rock temperament” Dagens Nyheter, National Swedish Press
"The wild wolfwomanstyle she has done well. It is wonderful grinding and darkness and thunder ... Sofia sings with aggression and drags her hair in the dirt and is a chick with raw potential.” Expressen, National Swedish Press
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In the finest tradition of deathless rock’n’roll, ‘End Of The Party’ is an electrifying mix of the grit and the glitter, built on an infectious glam-rock groove interspersed with sparks of searing guitar.
Take a room full of highly skilled but unrehearsed instrumentalists, supply them with enough musical notation to map their way through a song they’ve never heard before, then hit record and listen to the wild nervous energy that this occult ritual will raise. This is the precarious and painful process that birthed ‘On A Red Horse’ - a song which resists all the tepid and cliched formulae of today’s lukewarm folk pop to stand apart from anything else like some twisted aberration of nature.
“Teen Cult’s self-titled debut is a nearly flawless art-rock triumph that unfurls as one comprehensive piece over 11 songs. The musicianship is impressive, demonstrated by both the technical character of the individual parts and the execution of the performances. The vocal melodies often invoke Jeff Buckley (hear Daniel Velazquez on "Lint" and Ian Sutherland on "Alligator Day") even as the emotional tenor varies from the croon of a witching hour tramp (“Grady”) to the ravings of a horror movie madman (“Teenage Cult”). The drums (Brendan Smyth), guitars (Velazquez / Sutherland), and bass (Nnamdi Ogbonnaya) are tasteful, creative, and proficient. The sound as a whole is reminiscent of Cursive.
Scott Orr is a passionate Hamiltonian and a fantastic singer songwriter. Scott released his first album in 2003 and he hasn’t slowed down since. Winning Hamilton Music Awards, being featured on Degrassi (what up, Canadiana!) and crafting other music through his label Other Songs Co. Scott’s work ethic and DIY approach to music is admirable. CfS
Gavin Hellyer A group from Tasmania I really admire after their excellent debut LP from last year. They've followed up that melodic release with this excellent double A-Side single.
"Lucent" is an organic overflow of a honest creative process. With nods to traditional American and Celtic folk, it has modern textures and production that lend itself to a myriad of other genres far beyond traditional and contemporary folk. The entire album is centered around growth, and coming to terms with change, which the album artwork (done by the incomparable Marissa Quinn) lends itself to. The album title "Lucent" means glowing with or giving off light. I believe that a glow, even the softest one, can stand in all weather, and we should always grasp it as our hope for positivity and growth.
I hope these songs help you to grow and embrace your seasons of change. I create to make people feel in hopes that these projects fester in the deepest parts of your soul and to warm the smallest cockles of your heart. My sincerest thanks for taking a listen, and I truly hope you enjoy this record.
Plaza is the third album by Quilt; a name implying a meeting place, a crossroads, a coming together. In the space of ten songs, Plaza clarifies Quilt’s musical stance of a congregation, mixing folk, pop-psych, and wanderlust into a common ground where each form takes on the characteristics of one another to create something wholly satisfying, styles and sentiments hand in hand, the purest and sharpest distillation of Quilt’s group aesthetic to date.
Hospitality are a Brooklyn-based avant pop outfit featuring songwriter and vocalist Amber Papini, Nathan Michel (who, at the time of joining the band, had several solo albums out on labels like Tigerbeat 6 and Tomlab), and Brian Betancourt.
