The Fat Angel Sings

Our Third album “Something New” is now available for pre-order!! Shipment from 27th May 2023. Recorded at Gizzard Recording Studios, London.
Out on Beluga Records (Sweden) and Dangerhouse Skylab (France)

Lead Vocals: Mike & Elsa Whittaker
Guitars: Mike & Elsa Whittaker
Bass: Alexandra Cools
Drums: Mole

releases May 27th, 2023

Indigo De Souza returns with the third single . “You Can Be Mean” from her upcoming album “All Of This Will End”. Speaking of the track, she says: “I wrote “You Can Be Mean” about a brief toxic experience I had with a manipulative and abusive LA model fuckboy. However brief, it had a life-long impact on my understanding of self,” De Souza explains. “Leading up to that experience, I had a history of putting myself in toxic situations and pining for validation from people who treated me poorly. I was stuck in some delusion that I could help abusive people through their trauma and teach them to love me in the way I deserved. I wrote this song when I finally realised that I could choose not to allow harmful behaviour into my life, and that there is a deep, deep importance in protecting the body and spirit. I stopped caring about validation from assholes, stopped thinking it was my responsibility to help them, and started caring for myself in a real way.”

“All Of This Will End” – which was recorded at Drop of Sun Studios with producer and engineer Alex Farrar – is the follow-up to 2021’s “Any Shape You Take”, which Farrar also worked on. The release marks a pivotal point in the artist’s career. “All of This Will End” feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says. “I was finally able to trust myself fully.”

“All Of This Will End” is out 28th April via Saddle Creek Records

“i/o” is the fourth song from and title track of the forthcoming album by Peter Gabriel. This is the Bright-Side Mix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent. Released on the full moon, 6th April 2023. Written and produced by Peter Gabriel, “i/o” was primarily recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London.

The song features Soweto Gospel Choir, who were recorded at High Seas Studios in South Africa. ‘This month the song is “i/o” and “i/o” means input / output. You see it on the back of a lot of electrical equipment and it just triggered some ideas about the stuff we put in and pull out of ourselves, in physical and non-physical ways. That was the starting point of this idea and then trying to talk about the interconnectedness of everything.

The older I get, I probably don’t get any smarter, but I have learned a few things and it makes a lot of sense to me that we are not these independent islands that we like to think we are, that we are part of a whole. If we can see ourselves as better connected, still messed up individuals, but as part of a whole, then maybe there’s something to learn?’ “i/o” as a potential album title has long-been known within fan circles, and is now the name of the current project, the album and the forthcoming tour, but as Gabriel says, ‘It’s been around for a long time as a title for this project. I always knew I was going to write a song called i/o, but the title came first.’ “i/o” sees Gabriel working again with Soweto Gospel Choir, who previously featured on the song “Down to Earth” that was recorded for the film Wall-E and who he’s also performed with twice in South Africa at events for Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu;

‘I didn’t always hear the Soweto Gospel Choir on this song, but every time I’ve worked with them it’s always been fantastic. You can just feel the energy whenever they sing on this record, and on the song I did for Wall-E, it’s just joyous. It hits you in the heart.’ Continuing the theme of working with a different artist for each song release, this month’s track is accompanied by a cover image featuring the work of Olafur Eliasson, who is someone Gabriel first met when the artist was launching his Little Sun Project. Olafur Eliasson is an extraordinary artist who, in many ways I think, is the king of light. A lot of his work is to do with light and with nature and I really felt that for this song in particular he would be absolutely perfect and I was delighted when he said, yes.

This piece is called Colour experiment no. 114, from 2022. ‘I think Olafur is a mixture between artist, scientist and magician. He always has a mission and something to say about the world and nature and light and our experience of it and that helps us to reconsider how we interact with our environment.’ Just like the previous full moon releases, “i/o” will come with differing mix approaches from Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix), released here, and Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos mix (In-Side Mix), whose versions are released later in the month.

‘This month the song is i/o and i/o means input / output. You see it on the back of a lot of electrical equipment and it just triggered some ideas about the stuff we put in and pull out of ourselves, in physical and non-physical ways. That was the starting point of this idea and then trying to talk about the interconnectedness of everything. The older I get, I probably don’t get any smarter, but I have learned a few things and it makes a lot of sense to me that we are not these independent islands that we like to think we are, that we are part of a whole. If we can see ourselves as better connected, still messed up individuals, but as part of a whole, then maybe there’s something to learn?’

released April 20th, 2023
Words and Music Peter Gabriel

The western themes of Cory Hanson’s previous “Pale Horse Rider“, made flesh in the form of an electric band, lashed with gleaming guitar strings to tracks whose gnarled, proggy path only climes to the top of the listener’s Compulsion Index. From steel to synth, from old-school ballad to nu hardcore and ambient, Hanson and band run the table of modern rocks.

There’s a hot new Cory Hanson solo album on the horizon! In 2021, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson delivered his critically acclaimed second solo album titled “Pale Horse Rider“, a combination of songs and sounds that journeyed through the bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove… Musically loose and cosmic, it was a fine country-rock offering, cut with native psych and prog strands.

For “Western Cum“, his third solo LP (June 23, 2023, from Drag City), Hanson ups the heat to molten levels, six strings at a time, driven by a rhythm trio dubbed “Slowhand”, featuring the stalwart bass of brother Casey Hanson and the drums of Evan Backer, with a few passing acoustics from Cory and the intermittent spirit moans of Tyler Nuffer’s steel guitar.

With “Western Cum“, our debauched and shameless world is redeemed in the same breath as it is repudiated. A massing of guitars, guitars, guitars and voices form post-gospel harmony, with a panoply of melodic impulses within, bright and burgeoning. The second single, “Twins”, is now among you! Establishing a peaceful easy feeling up front, it delves deep and sails high when the strings come in (guitar strings, right), rummaging through the nightmare of modern existence with the bones of prosaic wisdom left behind by our singer-songwriter fore-brethren.

For Cory Hanson’s new single ‘Twins’, taken from his highly-anticipated third solo LP (via Drag City Records), Director Amy Scott captures him in his native California environment – rambling around a ranch home. Also – Hanson has just been added to the line-up of this year’s Green Man Festival (17th-20th August).

“Western Cum”, available on LP/CS/CD/Digital on June 23rd, 2023, from Drag City Records.

Clairo has shared a new one-off charity single titled “For Now.” She released the song on her Bandcamp page yesterday (April 1), writing that all proceeds from the track will go toward For the Gworls and Everytown for Gun Safety.

For the Gworls is a Black, trans-led collective that curates parties to raise funds, which go toward Black transgender people who need assistance with rent, gender-affirming surgeries, doctor’s visits, travel assistance, and more. Everytown for Gun Safety is an organization has long worked to prevent gun violence through advocacy.

released April 1st, 2023

The Drums are back after four years without new music the indie pop band released the single “I Want It All” and announced a summer U.S. tour.

“The song emerged from the longing and the pain that stemmed from a loveless childhood,” says frontman Jonny Pierce about the new single. “It is only in the past few years that I have really begun to understand what happened to me as a boy, which has helped me start to build my own bridge towards real love.”

He adds, “The song is a declaration: That I will take what I was never given. I want the full experience of being human, which includes love and connection. I want it all.” In a signature Drums fashion, Pierce’s voice shines over a driving drumbeat and the sound of oceanside guitars as he repeats the song’s title in the chorus.

Pierce has long spoken about how difficult it was to grow up gay in a small town while being raised by Pentecostal preacher parents. “I didn’t have a happy home as a kid,” he told Yahoo Music in 2017. “It’s funny, you think you grow out of it and you move on, but you’d be surprised just how much of that sticks with you, well into adulthood.”

Along with the self-reflective new single, the alt-pop group is set to head on a U.S. tour, starting at San Diego’s House of Blues, then making their way across the country to stop in cities including Nashville, Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco.

The new single follows the release of Mommy Don’t Spank Me, the group’s 2021 LP filled with rarities from their breakthrough Portamento era. The band made its debut in 2010 with its self-titled album.

released April 3rd, 2023

Written by Jonny Pierce

On “Cowprint,” the psychedelically-tinged new single from Austin-based band Holy Wave, vocalist/guitarist Ryan Fuson conjures up a world where the tension between inner thoughts and external reality collide in a hazy daydream. The song is highlighted by evocative fragments that would fit as well in a short story as they do in this pastoral-folk rocker. One more cigarette before saying goodbye, a note left in a coat pocket.

These nearly-tangible signifiers give the track its emotional heft, imbuing the straightforward refrain of the chorus with ample meaning: “With my headphones on.” Backed by Kyle Hager on bass, Joey Cook on guitar, Julian Ruiz on drums, and Tomas Dolas on keys, Fuson ambles through a world just slightly askew from the one we know and experience every day. The way he sings, it’s unclear if this memory occurred yesterday, months ago, or strictly in the dreamstate. The instrumental recalls the rich guitar tones of Yellow House-era Grizzly Bear, while the knotty breakdowns between choruses harken back to the 70s era of gold-tinged pop on AM radio.

Tying the track’s competing arrangements together is the sturdy and buoyant bassline, a melodically-infused bolster that both anchors the track in its structure and propels the way forward. Instead of one final chorus, though, the band introduces buzzing synths that recall growing tension in the distance. Past the warm memories of a lovely time together, these ominous swells give the impression that even if things were as they initially seemed, they might not ever happen again. It makes the story of the first verses simultaneously sweet and tinged with regret. “Hope it doesn’t take so long,” Fuson sings during the end of the first chorus, suggesting that a reunion may not be as inevitable as it initially seemed. He wonders if his partner is really committed, and if she even wonders about him the way he seems to always be reminded of her. He sends a text letting her know that he’s thinking of her, but the details remain vague. This is a story of instant connections and missed opportunities, the thin line attachment that fractures when our memories and the feelings of others come in direct contact.

Written & Performed by Holy Wave Ryan Fuson – Vocals, Guitar Kyle Hager – Bass Joey Cook – Guitar Julian Ruiz – Drums Tomas Dolas – Keys