The Fat Angel Sings

Warm and wistful, unvarnished and intimate, Aerial East makes anthems for sitting in our own groundlessness and finding a specific peace within it. Her new album ‘Try Harder,’ draws from East’s teenage years in suburban Texas, resulting in a beautiful ode to those of us who feel like our edges are rough, that perhaps we don’t always quite fit in.

Through deceptively simple lyrics and a conspicuous absence of percussion, ‘Try Harder’ is a tight yet eclectic collection of songs, both sonically and emotionally. East dives into what she has known – adolescence, heartbreak, coming into a new social consciousness, and managing a perpetual feeling of unanchored-ness – in the hopes to tell stories we don’t hear often.

On album highlight “Katharine,” East offers a touching reflection on a once meaningful friendship now long faded. The string-laden “The Things We Build” is simultaneously weightless and profound, as East struggles to find a sense of belonging and ownership in both a relationship and life in general. Elsewhere, acclaimed Brooklyn-via-Norway singer Okay Kaya lends guest vocals to the delicate and cutting “Jonas Said”. East visualized ‘Try Harder’ as feeling like the desert at night, explaining: “I wanted it to be healing and calm, something you can listen to even if the world is ending. Western, but quiet and intimate. I wanted it to have gravity but didn’t want it to be heavy.”

“Try Harder” is out now on Partisan Records.

her new album, ‘Try Harder,’ out now on Partisan Records

LUMP is the product of Mike Lindsay & Laura Marling, One of our favourite collaborations – from Brit Award-winning Marling and Mercury Prize-winning Lindsay – returns with a brand new single and a brand new album. ‘Animal’ was a word Laura Marling threw into a lyric simply to meet a rhythm. But it seemed to capture the mood of the new record, and of LUMP as a whole. “There’s a little bit of a theme of hedonism on the album, of desires running wild,” she says. “And also it fed into the idea we had from the start of thinking of LUMP as a kind of representation of instincts, and the world turned upside down.” It is something childlike and grotesque and filled with possibility.

 they return with a new track from their forthcoming album “Animal” – out July 30th.

“Climb Every Wall” is from ‘Animal’, the new album out 30th July via Chrysalis and Partisan Records.

“I’d watched a film called ‘The Perverts Guide to Ideology’ about how ideology is woven into Hollywood cinema, and there was a bit about how in Communist countries they cut out the song “Climb Every Mountain” from the ‘Sound of Music’ because it’s too much of a personal, individualistic ideology, so that’s where I got the title.”

LUMP began in 2018, a collaboration between Lindsay co-founder of band Tunng, and the singer-songwriter Laura Marling. Their debut was released that summer, unveiling a world that was tangibly different to their work apart, sonically “so vivid and sort of psychedelic,” Marling says, “and the lyrics so un-thought through”.

Releases July 30th, 2021

West London punk rock outfit Chubby and the Gang have announced that their sophomore album is entitled “The Mutt’s Nuts” and will be released via Partisan Records on August 27th.

With the announcement comes the first single “Coming Up Tough.” The title is apt, as the song kicks and hits hard with a raw and tough nature that means business. The track is described as a snapshot of modern London, “part punk rager about government failure and the school-to-prison pipeline.” This is old school punk rock with no bs, it’s straight up business and it hits hard, and it hits good. If you’re thinking it sounds a bit like Fucked Up, it’s a good observation, as the album was produced by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up.

About the track, frontman and lead singer Charlie Manning Walker (aka Chubby Charles) explains:‘

“Coming Up Tough’ is about a family member of mine who ended up going to prison at very young age for over 20 years. He went in as a kid and spent most of his life in the system. Where’s the justice in that? You come out and have to prove yourself to a world that shut you away – what chance do you have? There’s no attempt at actual rehabilitation, no empathy, just a cage to be forgotten about. I wanted the song to feel like a snowball effect. The character gets thrown out of his house at first and it feels almost juvenile, but then as it progresses you realize the real trouble he’s in. And too often once you’re in trouble you can’t get out.

Enjoy the official music video for “Coming Up Tough,” which was directed by Pedro Takahashi.  ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’—out August 27th, part punk rager about government failure and the school-to-prison pipeline. 

Led by founding duo Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (formerly of Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research and Tender Trap), English quintet The Catenary Wires make indie-pop with a warming, rosy glow. On their third album “Birling Gap”, Fletcher and Pursey set their Belle & Sebastian-esque vocal harmonies to pounding keys (“Face on the Rail Line”), posh jangle-pop (“Always on My Mind”), twinkling synths (“Cinematic”), and even mandolin- and flute-accented throwback psych-rock (“Canterbury Lanes”), taking complete advantage of their full-band capabilities. They exhibit a deceptive degree of control in unifying all these elements, crafting a timeless pop melange with a restless, roving spirit.

The Catenary Wires take their name from the cables that run above trains, and their new record is littered with references to the spaces (“Liminal” or otherwise) that make up their world, imbuing their music with a sense of giddy exploration, but also heartening belonging.

Angie McMahon has released a cover of fellow Australian act Oh Pep!’s track ‘Tea, Milk & Honey’.

McMahon’s cover retains a similar tempo and feel to the original, but switches up the instrumentation with an electric guitar and piano taking the lead. McMahon’s rendition of ‘Tea, Milk & Honey’ follows her cover of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’

“Oh Pep! are one of my biggest songwriting inspirations, as well as being beautiful friends of mine,” McMahon said in a statement. Tea, Milk & Honey’ is lifted from Oh Pep’s 2016 debut album, ‘Stadium Cake’. The duo followed it up with their second album, ‘I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You…’ in 2018.

“I used to sit in the car outside my house after working long late night shifts, processing another day by listening to the magical words of ‘Tea, Milk & Honey’. This song is like medicine to me.”

The cover is part of a greater collection from record label Dualtone, the catalogue of which features albums from McMahon and Oh Pep!. The forthcoming compilation, titled “Amerikinda”’, celebrates the label’s 20th anniversary and includes contributions from The Lumineers , Gregory Alan Isakov and others.

McMahon released her latest EP, ‘Piano Salt’, in 2020, a collection of reimagined, piano-led versions of tracks from her 2019 debut album, ‘Salt’.

Around the same time, she also performed a live-streamed concert celebrating the EP’s release, where she covered ‘Tea, Milk & Honey’ on the piano.

Tea, Milk & Honey · Angie McMahon Dualtone Music Group, Inc. Released on: 2021-06-09

Michael Cantor’s indie/punk project The Goodbye Party is back for its first album since 2014’s “Silver Blues” (Salinas Records), Beautiful Motors, which comes out October 9th via Double Double Whammy Records . Michael made this one with the impressive cast of Maryn Jones (Yowler, All Dogs), Sam Cook-Parrott (Radiator Hospital), and Joey Doubek (Pinkwash), and it was produced by Kyle Gilbride of Swearin’, and as you’d expect from a line-up like that, it’s shaping up to be a very strong indie rock record.

First single “Unlucky Stars” was a dose of driving indie-punk, but second single “December Boys” was a little lighter and janglier and new single “No Reason” is even more so. It’s a gentle, breezy song that nails a balance between warm, summery melodies and autumnal melancholy — the perfect kind of song to drop on the first official day of fall.

“This song deals with a couple of themes,” Michael tells us. “One is how people you no longer keep in your life can show up in some of your favourite memories. It’s also about the experience of passing through the same place across different tours and seeing decay creep along, seeing cascading effects from hurricanes, and recognizing that slow change in yourself. My friend Emi Knight from The Strawberry Runners sings on this song. She, along with a handful of local songwriters, held monthly salons where we would demo and critique each other’s songs. Having that space helped me focus, write, and rewrite songs for this record.”

When Meskerem Mees won Sound Track in 2019 and took first prize at Humo’s Rock Rally the following year, it was written in the stars that she would make it. After all, with her debut single “Joe”,  the twentysomething won all hearts for herself. She repeated that with “Seasons Shift” and after a Dutch-language snack with Tourist LeMC on “Niemandsland“, the singer again focuses on a place among the stars.

Take that literally, because on “Astronaut” Meskerem imagines himself to be a spaceman. However, just as not much happens in space, “Astronaut” is also quite empty. Endlessly she repeats how she is ‘an astronaut, floating through space’, without much musical variation. The minimalist line-up of guitar and cello, normally Meskerem’s greatest asset, contributes little to the futile whole. Towards the end, the song just shoots into action, but then it’s actually too late. Yes, we are happy to hear the beautiful voice of Meskerem Mees again and yes, we are happy that her debut album will be released on November 5th.

Astronaut · Meskerem Mees Mayway Records Released on: 2021-06-11