The Fat Angel Sings

If art is to be exhibited, then Ulrika Spacek will ensure that their art is collective; that even as the world becomes inhospitable to community, their intentions are an act of resistance.

Whether it is Oysterland, the self-curated night the band have been hosting for over 10 years to platform artists of other disciplines in live music spaces; Total Refreshment Centre, the East London studio Syd runs which connects the dots between the jazz scene and like-minded experimental artists of the capital and beyond; or their creative bleed as musicians and producers over the years with the likes of Crack Cloud, caroline, DIIV, Holy Wave and Slowdive, the band’s existence is inseparable from its community.

In a hyper-individual world, the band’s fourth album, “EXPO”, offers an antidote. It’s there, in the shared dream logic of the music: the off-kilter melodies, jagged guitars and cirrus cloud atmospherics. It’s there, in all the things that are said and unsaid between them; there in the writing, producing and mixing processes they share in. And even as each of their parts moves toward a unified vision, it’s never more keenly felt than in the bigger picture to which Ulrika Spacek belong.

“EXPO” is a symbol of collective art, and a dialectic between analogue and electronic.

Though their well-established foundations are in the art-rock world – and though they are inspired by electronic elements more than ever – Ulrika Spacek are interested in the glitch that exists between the two. Their music reckons with human warmth and digital isolation, equal parts welcoming and altogether alienating. “Our music has always been a collage – a bit patchwork, sonically – but what makes this album a landmark for us is that we went one step further and made our own sample bank,” explains singer/guitarist Rhys. They create their own doppelgängers in a world of almost-real, where the band appear as if in a hall of mirrors. Digital drums are sampled layered upon real drums, and the effect is almost like birth in reverse – pulled from the ether and returned back to the tangible world.

“There’s a lot that can be said about writing when there is no aim, there is a freedom and a purity in it which opens a door to more music, and in this case, it set a mood for a new album, one that would be colder, darker and one that would embrace electronics and new instrumentation in a new terrain” the band share. “The album’s greater theme is isolation and alienation in an online world where it seems everybody around you is constantly exhibiting themselves, living in public wanting to be seen and heard. The age of ‘individuality’ is lonely, it’s a room of concave mirrors, and with this in mind, we set upon making our most collective effort; ‘It’s back to strength in numbers, count in fives.”

Ratboys have signed to New West Records, marking the announcement with a frantically paced, sprawling track called ‘Light Night Mountains All That’. It features piano and production from Chris Walla. “My original idea was to write an ultra-high energy folk song, in the style of the Dodos’ Visiter, with somewhat spooky, mysterious, and pastoral lyrics — like what Chris Otepka of the Heligoats might conjure up on a mushroom trip,” Julia Steiner said in a statement. “This song really took shape during our initial writing session up at the Driftless Cabin in Wisconsin last March; the guys and I nearly went insane fleshing out the arrangement and its odd timings together. I wrote the lyrics during that original demoing trip, centered around the idea of a fantastic, rural vision-quest where the days and nights blend together and nothing is quite as it seems.”

This week, Chicago indie rockers Ratboys shared a new song, “Light Night Mountains All That,” and announced some new tour dates. They also announced that they have signed to a new label, New West Records. 

Ratboys is singer/guitarist Julia Steiner, guitarist Dave Sagan, drummer Marcus Nuccio, and bassist Sean Neumann. The song also features piano by its co-producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie, Tegan and Sara, Foxing).

Following a heavy touring cycle that included opening for The Decemberists, Ratboys return with “Singin’ to An Empty Chair“. The 11-track album was produced by Chris Walla, the former Death Cab for Cutie member who also produced “The Window“.

Singer and guitarist Julia Steiner wrote most of the album after attending therapy for the first time. She was working through a difficult conversation with someone she is estranged from, using a technique called “Empty Chair.” The exercise involves imagining the person sitting across from you.

“The goal is to update this person on what’s been going on in my life and to try to bridge that impasse and reach out a hand into the void,” Steiner explained.

The album includes recent singles “Light Night Mountains All That”, “Anywhere”, and “What’s Right?”. They all hint at a natural evolution, sharpening the band’s emotional clarity without losing its melodic core.

Ratboys’ last album, “The Window”, was among the Top 100 Albums of 2023

With “Future Soul”, Tedeschi Trucks Band expands their horizon without losing the roots that ground them. Produced by the genre-bending Mike Elizondo (known for his work with 21 Pilots and Turnstile), the album finds the 12-piece ensemble exploring deeper grooves and richer textures than ever before.  

The title track, “Future Soul,” hits with a muscular riff and searing vocals, proving the band can still unleash full- tilt rock whenever they choose. “I Got You” arrives as an early fan favourite from its live debut. “Crazy Cryin’” pours out emotion, weaving gospel inflections with blues-soaked grit in unmistakable TTB style. “Who Am I” turns inward, spotlighting Susan Tedeschi’s soulful presence and the lyrical touch of Derek Trucks’ guitar in a strikingly natural balance.  

Lyrically, the record looks forward as much as it looks within—grappling with identity, resilience, and hope in uncertain times. Elizondo’s production adds subtle modern touches—warm bass, layered percussion, and space for the horns and background vocals to shine—without sacrificing the organic interplay that defines the band’s live magic.  

“Future Soul”, stands as both a reinvention and a reaffirmation: a vibrant next chapter for one of America’s most formidable bands. Known for its world-class musicianship, Tedeschi Trucks Band is Susan Tedeschi (guitar, vocals), Derek Trucks (guitar), Mike Mattison (guitar, vocals), Gabe Dixon (keys, vocals), Brandon Boone (bass), Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell (drums, percussion), Isaac Eady (drums, percussion), Mark Rivers (vocals), Alecia Chakour (vocals), Kebbi Williams (saxophone), Emmanuel Echem (trumpet) and Elizabeth Lea (trombone).

Tedeschi Trucks Band Announces Sixth Studio Album ‘Future Soul’ out March 20th,  

London dream-pop/shoegaze trio Deary announced their debut album, “Birding”, and shared its lead single, “Seabird.” “Birding” is due out April via Bella Union Records.

Of the new single, Easton says: “With the whole bird theme, there was also a direct nod to religious iconography—the majesty of feeling insignificant in the wider world. ‘Seabird’ is like a fable, a story of this person pleading to a bird and asking, ‘When does it get better?’ We wanted to recreate that kind of majesty, feeling insignificant to the wider world. It is the perfect introduction to the rest of the record in that regard.”

Across 11 tracks that run the gamut from ocean-deep shoegaze riffs to cloud-light sprinkles of ethereal indie, “Birding” is the sound of a band who have definitively found their groove.

Birds are alluring, fascinating creatures. Unencumbered by earthly concepts, they soar through the skies, only briefly interacting with those of us watching them from below. It’s like they inhabit a parallel world, almost, one where the turmoil of daily life on Earth is entirely escapable. When deary, the London– based dreampop three- piece of Ben Easton, Dottie Cockram and Harry Catchpole named their debut album “Birding”, it wasn’t just as an homage to our feathered friends- they were referencing the sense of expansion, wonder, and abandon their music evokes. They chose the title to draw attention to the direct impact humans have on the world around us, whether that be nature, or ourselves. 

With “Birding”, Deary have purposely evolved their sound, opting for starker lyrics and heavier instrumentation than on their previous releases. A perfect example of this is “Smile”, the album’s opener: amid buzzsaw guitars and airy windchimes, Dottie sings of the announcement of a national epidemic of violence against women. It’s a haunting track, and the first time the band have tackled such an intense subject matter. “Seabird”, the album’s lead single, takes “Smile’s” heaviness and transmutes it into something heartening. Propelled by Harry’s Portishead– esque backbeats, the track sonically resembles a wide open sky, with layer upon layer of guitar chords echoing to the heavens. Other focus tracks include the seven-and-a-half-minute long dreampop epic “Alfie” and “Alma”, probably the album’s most pop-forward moment

Of the album as a whole, Easton says: “I was writing the record in one of the worst periods of my life. I was not in a good space at all. Our last EP, “Aurelia”, was about transition, and how it’s cool to change. And “Birding” is, ‘Oh no, I‘ve made some really disruptive life decisions.’ The album came from an isolated, almost hopeless space, and you can hear that in parts of the record. But there are also moments that are very self-loving and meditative, and a bit more uplifting.”

Easton adds: “Our last EP was us trying to be deary, and this album is us being deary.”

Deary is Rebecca “Dottie” Cockram (guitar, vocals), Ben Easton (guitar), and Harry Catchpole (drums).

Kim Gordon (formerly of Sonic Youth) announced a new solo album, “PLAY ME”, and shared its first single, “Not Today,” via a music video. “PLAY ME” is due out March 13th via Matador. Kate & Laura Mulleavy directed the “Not Today” video. Kim Gordon’s vision of art and noise has come sharper into focus just as readily as it has changed—a paradigm of possibility that, four decades on, still feels like a dare.

“Play Me” is Kim Gordon’s third solo album and follows 2024’s “The Collective” and 2019’s “No Home Record”. As with those albums, Gordon once again collaborated with producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira, Yves Tumor).

Gordon had this to say about the album in a press release: “We wanted the songs to be short. We wanted to do it really fast. It’s more focused, and maybe more confident. I always kind of work off of rhythms, and I knew I wanted it to be even more beat-oriented than the last one. Justin really gets my voice and my lyrics and he understands how I work—that came forth even more on this record.” 

Play Me is distilled and immediate, expanding Gordon’s sonic palette to include more melodic beats and the motorik drive of krautrock.

Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler and Joey McClellan. 

Released for Record Store Day 2015 . Actor Jason Lee and director Eric Noren have produced and directed a new live concert film ‘Midlake “Live in Denton, TX’ for long-time Bella Union favourites Midlake. The footage was captured at the iconic concert venue Dan’s Silverleaf in Midlake’s hometown of Denton, TX, where the band had stopped off to play a local show while on tour promoting their fourth album ‘Antiphon’.

Limited edition 4-track 12″ vinyl EP is released with the ‘Midlake: Live in Denton, TX’ DVD for Record Store Day. The 12″ includes the tracks ‘The Old And The Young’, ‘Antiphon’, ‘Roscoe’ and ‘Going Down’. Includes a download code. It was Limited to 1000 copies.

Seventeen years ago today Bella Union Records released this masterpiece. As with all classic records, it still sounds as good today as it did all that time ago. A lot of people didn’t get Midlake at the beginning but Label owner Simon Raymonde did and he did everything I could to stoke the fires around Europe with promoter friends and press colleagues. It’s never easy at the start but you just have to keep the belief and move forward. A band who despite many hardships managed to fight through the pain and remain an important band on our roster all these years later. Live, they’ve never sounded better. Let’s raise a cheer to that strange character Van Occupanther.

Suffused with a romantic yearning for the simpler life, this was a record pitched between 1871, 1971 and somewhere out of time: between Henry David Thoreau and Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush, between 1970s Laurel Canyon thinking and a longing for something more mysterious. Rich reserves of wistful melody, dreamy horns, rolling guitars and plaintive pianos reflect its elusive, idiosyncratic narratives: a couple long to be robbed by bandits so they can start anew, an outcast scientist ponders his pariah status, a woman chases a frisky deer, a river leads who knows where yet leaves you little choice but to follow

Although I do distinctly remembering falling for the bubbling charms of Bamnan and Slivercork (the debut LP from Texan five piece Midlake), nothing had us at all prepped for those first bars of “Roscoe”, the era defining lead track to the band’s utterly seminal “The Trials of Van Occupanther“.

Originally released in late July 2006, it is an album of misty nostalgia, thick analogue rock and roll riffs, layers of ghostly harmonies and generations of swooning folk and lore. It’s just perfect, beautiful and evocative songs that tell a tale and keep you hooked to every inch of the stereo from it’s driving first beats to it’s soothing final hums. An album with very few equals.

Newly remastered and back on vinyl. “The Trials of Van Occupanther” is available now on 180g Opaque Marigold vinyl.

This self released pressing features artwork true to the original 2006 layout. Experience the album Rolling Stone celebrated for one of the greatest songs of the 2000s.

Modern Woman, the London-based art-rock band, began as the solo project of songwriter Sophie Harris and has since grown into a full four-piece blending post-punk, folk, and avant-garde influences. This week they released “Dashboard Mary,” the first single from their debut album, “Johnny’s Dreamworld”, out May 1st via One Little Independent. The track unfolds like a film in miniature, as Harris explains, “This is a song that I wanted to write like a film. I wanted to confront the feeling of the ‘morning after’ and the decisions made during that time of exhilaration the night before.”

“A vital theme I’ve always wanted in Modern Woman is the idea of conflicting things, of the tender/harsh, loud/quiet and scrappy/polished. The style of everybody’s playing, drawing from a melting pot of influences, coming together to form something new,” continues Harris.

This ethos informs “Dashboard Mary” and the wider album, defining a sound that is delicate one moment, raw and untamed the next. Layers of violin and saxophone stretch across a foundation of propulsive drums and bass, creating something methodical yet volatile. Harris’ lyrics remain rooted in the female experience; “I find it interesting to explore the rawer side of femininity that is often hidden; girlhood relationships and the complexities of female fixation and obsession.”

“Johnny’s Dreamworld” gathers these ideas into a full-bodied debut, exploring the strange poetry of the everyday while navigating the contradictions of womanhood. From tender introspection to explosive release, the album cements Modern Woman as one of the UK’s most distinctive new voices. 

Singer songwriter Mitski has announced a new album, “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me“, and shared its lead single, “Where’s My Phone?,” via a music video. 

Regular Mitski collaborator Patrick Hyland produced and engineered “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me”, which was mastered by Bob Weston. Mitski wrote all the songs and performed all the vocals on the album and was backed by her touring band. She also recorded with an orchestra, at Sunset Sound and TTG Studios, arranged and conducted by Drew Erickson and engineered by Michael Harris.

Noel Paul directed the “Where’s My Phone?” video, which was based on Shirley Jackson’s 1962 novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake has done a special cartoon for the song .

Mitski has shared “I’ll Change for You,” the second single from her forthcoming album “Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” following the January 16 release of “Where’s My Phone?” Additionally, Mitski has announced that she’ll promote the new LP with residencies across the world, including six nights at The Shed in New York, five nights at Hollywood High School in LA, and four nights at the Sydney Opera House. 

“Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” is Mitski’s eighth album and follows 2023’s “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We “ 2022’s “Laurel Hell”  and “Be the Cowboy”,

“Nothing’s About to Happen to Me” is due out February 27th via Dead Oceans.