Johanna and Klara Söderberg were still teenagers when they showed up fifteen years ago with their beautiful version of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” by Fleet Foxes. Not much later, the world lay at the feet of the Swedish sisters. Johanna and KlaraSöderberg both have a great voice, but when the two combine their voices, something special or even magical happens.
Columbia Records release the fifth studio album by the Swedish folk sibling duo. Released four years after their previous album “Ruins”, “Palomino” is an 11 song album and features the singles ‘Angel’ and ‘Out of My Head’. Discussing their new album in a statement, the duo said: “this is the first record we’ve recorded in Sweden since we made our debut album “The Big Black and The Blue” 12 years ago. We worked with Swedish producer Daniel Bengtson at his lovely studio Studio Rymden in Stockholm. It was such a fun experience. We really let the recording take time, we didn’t want to rush it. It’s probably our most pop sounding record yet.”
‘Palomino’ features the single ‘Angel’ which was released in June 2022 and new track ‘Out Of My Head’. It’s a reliably pretty and engaging collection that marks the Swedish folk duo’s first record since 2018’s ‘Ruins’, though they’ve released Don Henley and Leonard Cohen covers in the intervening time.
Sorry do things differently. Never ones to be tied down, these indie shapeshifters take in hip-hop, R’n’B and even electronic elements.
The band’s 2020 debut album “925” was a peek into the neon-lit corners of their London home, on which core members and guitarists Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen – alongside bassist Campbell Baum, drummer Lincoln Barrett and synth player Marco Pini – explore desire in the big city and punctuate it with everything from 1990s alt rock to bracing post-punk.
At the heart of Sorry is the dynamic between Louis and Asha, two songwriters who bring out the best in each other. Across “Anywhere But Here”, they adopt multiple guises, going from protagonists to antagonists, as the songs swing from one voice to the other.
“Because we’ve known each other for so long, it is a really hard thing to make music on that level with someone,” says Louis “We’ve been honing and practising that without really knowing for so many years. Also, I just respect Asha a lot. I think she’s an amazing musician and hopefully she’d say the same thing about me.”
New album “Anywhere But Here” is a brutally guttural break-up record. Its songs swelter like love-lorn bruises, packed with lonely moments that feel like walking home in the darkest of nights. But it’s not just emotionally intense, it also marks the band’s heaviest use of guitar to date.
“On this album, the guitars are more central to the songs because we recorded live with the band. That’s the basis of the album and everything around it is a bit more hidden this time”.
In the earliest iteration of Sorry, while in high school, Louis and Asha self-produced music in their bedrooms, which soon turned into a collection of eclectic demos that demonstrated an early willingness to evolve.
“We always want to be progressing and changing our sound, not just for the listener but also when we’re writing new songs,” says Louis. “We like to feel that we’re progressing. The idea of us doing the same album four times is boring to us. We try and keep it interesting.” The duo’s progression as guitar players can be heard throughout “Anywhere But Here”. Expansive numbers such as “Tell Me” showcase their ability to switch gears at a moment’s notice – subtle, forlorn notes morph into bolder, more expressive chord progressions before the track bows out with a hail of discordant noise, the two lead guitars clashing against each other.
“We really wanted that song to explode at the end,” says Louis. “That guitar part is super. It locks in with the drums and we wanted it to keep you on the edge. That song could have become a super-crazy rock song but we wanted it to still be interesting.”
To Sorry, it was important to find the right balance between trying new, louder ways of expressing themselves with the guitar without going into full-on rock territory. What ties the tracks on “Anywhere But Here” together is the way they match emotional intensity with the perfect tone.
The album feels concise with its projection of woefully lost romance, however no two tracks are similar. One of the main outliers is “Willow Tree“, a track that has a sense of playfulness throughout.
“We wanted that song to kind of sound like The Kinks and to be just super-simple and have this repeating motif that plays throughout. We tried to not do too much because we have a tendency to over-produce songs a bit, so we wanted to test ourselves and make it really simple.”
Another artist who spins simple melodies into gold is Sorry’s Domino labelmate Alex G. Sorry have taken inspiration from his writing and mixed it with their own. “The most admirable thing I’d say is just how much he writes, the consistency is crazy,” says Louis. “He is an amazing lyric writer and his melodies are super-potent and interesting.”
Keeping things simple has been incredibly effective in order for Sorry to feel like they’ve pushed themselves forward on their new album. Asha and Louis have always maintained a DIY approach to music, even after switching from the bedroom to the studio.
There are times where it feels as though the city itself is a background character in Sorry’s songs. “There’s so Many People That Want to be Loved” sees Asha describe the lonely people of London as if they were landmarks themselves, standing on street corners or waiting for trains in a kind of heartbroken harmony. London has been the setting to every key moment of the band’s personal and romantic lives, and that bleeds into their lyrics. On “Key to the City”, Asha describes feeling lost despite having lived in London all her life, such is the impact of someone no longer being around.
“It’s where me and Ash have grown up all our lives, all of our loved ones are from London and all of our friendships and relationships happen in London, so it feels like a backdrop to all that.”
It’s hardly surprising, then, that given the musical history of a city so steeped in the folklore of punk, grime, rock and countless other genres, Sorry have picked up a few tricks. They’re well on their way to becoming one of the UK’s most eclectic bands.
Brighton sextet Opus Kink release debut EP “‘Til The Stream Runs Dry” via Nice Swan Records (Sports Team, Pip Blom, Fur, English Teacher). Partnering up with the cult indie label for their first extended release, the enigmatic collective – comprised of Angus Rogers, Sam Abbo, Fin Abbo, Jed Morgans, Jazz Pope and Jack Banjo Courtney – lend a blend a dizzying array of influences in their ever-evolving enigmatic style, producing an experimental patchwork of explosive material that’s consistently earned widespread plaudits since bursting onto the scene.
With EP lead singles ‘I Love You, Baby’, ‘The Unrepentant Soldier’ and ‘Dog Stay Down’ attracting praise from all corners of the press landscape (NME, DIY, So Young, Dork, Clash, Gigwise), not to mention countless BBC 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Lauran Laverne) spins, the six-piece are clearly primed for a busy summer. Having already ticked off live dates alongside label-mates Malady and Mandrake Handshake, in addition to a sold-out headliner at London’s legendary 100 Club last month, the band have a slew of festival appearances lined up in the months to come, as well as shows with Feet and Bull.
Detailing their EP, Opus Kink stated: “You may begin by dipping one stained and rancid toe, but you know that once those waters have been tasted there’s only one way to go – into the stream, away down the valley like flotsam and windfall. Here lie six songs of bad love, ill winds, possession, stagnation and earthly delights”.
“Horn-fuelled filth-funk, where punk and jazz combine in grimy circumstances” (Thomas Smith, NME Magazine)
“Barnstorming, infectious” (Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music)
“One of the most enjoyable genre fusions I’ve ever seen” (Nels Hylton, BBC Radio 1)
“Always at the peril of derailing but somehow still in control – the adrenaline rush that comes from both situations is addictive” (Jamie Muir, DORK)
“A showdown to end all perception of genre… wearing their influences on their sleeves then ripping them to shreds” (Al Mills, So Young Magazine)
“Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2” sees the Nashville-based musician step further from the pedal steel and towards centre stage. Released on the evergreen Full Time Hobby label, this new collection of tracks is a kaleidoscopic collection of folk, jazz, and pop, cut though with immaculately-rendered songwriting.
Romford to Nashville is hardly the most well-trodden of paths, but for Spencer Cullum it was a way of getting to the essential heart of pedal steel, what was then and remains to this day his musical raison d’être. Growing up in the large East London town brought him early exposure to classic pub rock by way of his father such as Dr. Feelgood and Thin Lizzy, and farther-flung music by way of his mother, such as Talking Heads and Lou Reed. However, it was learning pedal steel from legendary English player B.J. Cole that set him on the path he still walks today. After touring with Nashville-based groups and hearing tales of “seasoned Nashville steel players”, the young musician upped sticks and found a “nice little crowd of weirdos” in his chosen city.
Cullum has always maintained a somewhat silent presence – even now saying “I still want to hide behind my pedal steel in fear” – but 2020 saw him release his debut solo effort, “Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection“. Despite his project with Jeremy Fetzer,Steelism, showing off more of his talents, never before had he felt the limelight so firmly on him.
Although …Coin Collection’s modus operandi was “a very quintessential English folk record, but with really good Nashville players”, Cullum says of ..“Coin Collection 2” that “I wanted to be different. I wanted to try and pull away from wearing my influences on my sleeve… I was trying to pick out ideas that were new to me. You can never escape your musical influences but I wanted them to be more hidden sub-consciously than upfront.” Though you can pick out the odd similarity to other things here and there – The Beach Boys’ Friends LP, perhaps, or The Incredible String Band, or Joni Mitchell – the thing is decidedly Cullum’s own. What’s also reassuring is that there hasn’t been some giant sonic leap from …Coin Collection, rather that the beautifully sun-kissed, English country garden, bees-buzzing-round-lager atmosphere has remained, but complicated, weirded, deepened.
Much in the same way that the album doesn’t wear its influences (Amon Duul II, Skip Spence, Ennio Morricone, Chu Kosaka, Michael Chapman) lightly but rather is steeped in them and toys with them, Cullum brought in a host of guests to turn…“Coin Collection 2” loose from being a purely solo effort. Yuma Abe provides fractured, low-register chorus vocals that accentuate the ever-so-slightly mournful air to ‘Kingdom Weather’, released today as a single, while Dana Gavanski provides beautiful harmony lines in ‘What A Waste Of An Echo’. Despite the number of collaborators and players (also including Rich Ruth, ErinRae, and Caitlin Rose) things never seem too crowded or brimming with too many ideas. Instead Cullum marshalls each moving party expertly.
Indeed, due to Cullum’s languid Romford burr (pitched somewhere between Robert Wyatt and Ray Davies), it only becomes clear when listening closely that some of the lyrics deal with weighty themes like dementia and violence. Cullum says that “I sat for a long time with the songs and wanted to find my own identity”, and …“Coin Collection 2” suggests you do the same.
In the same way that Cullum provides the pedal steel undertow of many huge artists’ music – Kesha, Lambchop, and more recently Angel Olsen – the genius in …“Coin Collection 2” is in its subtlety, in what it murmurs rather than shouts.
Carla dal Forno resurfaces with the release of her third album, “Come Around”, via her own Kallista Records. Now based in the township of Castlemaine, Central Victoria, the Australian artist returns self-assured and firmly settled within the dense eucalypt bushlands. Dal Forno grapples with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia in the swift pop structures of her DIY/post-punk forebearers such as Young Marble Giants, Virginia Astley and Broadcast. Three years since the launch of her label, Kallista Records, dal Forno finds stability in Castlemaine (pop. 6,750), her third home city in as many albums.
After nearly a decade of moving, recording and touring out of Berlin and London,“Come Around” embodies a newfound solitude born of/in elemental pop hooks and enlightened songwriting. The title track, “Come Around,” offers the best example of this confident, fresh candor. It’s an elegant invite into dal Forno’s sharp new focus beckoning old friends, relationships and audiences into her resettled home: ‘And it’s not every day that I’ll want you beside me here and I’ll say / Come over here and be around.’ This meandering pop hit strikes between the melodic simplicity of Anna Domino and YMG and the arrangement hooks of The Cannanes and Movietone, capturing dal Forno at her most welcoming with arms wide open.
Other tracks like “Mind You’re On” recalls the bass driven heft of dal Forno’s previous work but where past albums projected the pastoral idyll from the urban jungles of Berlin and London, the lyricism and production on “Come Around” embody her current lived experience in the Australian regions where space, strong bonds and solitude are in high supply. As she sings on “Side By Side:” ‘It’s been some years since I’ve seen this place / Kiss on my neck / Sending shivers it’s good to be back.’ Returning to rekindle relationships with people and places and joining in trysts amidst the foreboding badlands cuts through the whole record, as on “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” a cover of The United States of America’s 1968 track: ‘Luminous petals / Dissident Play / Dancing by night / Dying by day.’ There is joy if you look for it but, as dal Forno warns on “Caution”: ‘I sell caution word of you.’ Mistrust and doubt are not completely vanquished.
Having embarked on such a radical physical and creative journey since the last record, dal Forno lays bare the passing of time and the oscillating waves of energy and ennui that go with it. This is plain to see on “Stay Awake” and instrumentals like “Deep Sleep” and “Autumn,” which gives rise to anxiety and insomnia in her new sunburnt home: ‘Stay awake all the time in the endless heat / Find it hard to relate in amongst the weeds.’ Yet “Slumber” offers a glimmer of respite sitting within the chaotic circus of production that channels Kendra Smith, General Strike and The Flying Lizards. This track, a duet with English artist, Thomas Bush, searches for solace in the arms of another: ‘My Dear there’s so much to be done / I never finished what I start am / I’m losing / I should be rushing out the door, but you say slumber.’ Nothing is left unsaid on “Come Around”. Having finally found limitless time and space, dal Forno does well not to waste any sceric of it. Are you around? Then come around.
Carla Dal Forno releases “Come Around”, rich in dreamy haze. Carla dal Forno’s third album, “Come Around”, out on Kallista Records 04/11/22
Voids is the LP from Texas-based producer John Mark Lapham under the name Old Fire. He was a member of The Earlies (who were fantastic if you want a little bit of listening homework) and the spooky magic here is really impressive, with Bill Callahan, Emily Cross, Adam Torres and Julia Holter all adding vocals to the ambience and low tempo, baroque-pop, alt-country sounds. Some dark treasure here.
The album’s Texas-based producer John Mark Lapham was a member of Secretly Canadian band The Earlies. Voids employs the vocal talents of Bill Callahan, Emily Cross, Adam Torres, and Julia Holter across twelve genre-fluid, yet impressively cohesive tracks that span baroque dream-pop, filmic ambient, raga-like drones, avant-country, and even spiritual jazz, all imbued with poetic heft and seared by the West Texas sun. It was beneath this same sun that Lapham lost both of his parents, mourned a withering relationship, and shouldered the fallout of the pandemic, turning his life into the rusted-out scraps he then used to build Voids from the ground up.
There is no better narrator for Lapham’s story than fellow Texas resident Bill Callahan, whose iconic delivery perfectly personifies the core themes of Voids. By the time Callahan appears, he does so over a saw-blade drone that sounds like machinery echoing off the corrugated steel walls of a nearby workshop, which then breaks open into a loose yet pained confluence of violin and upright bass that recalls Joe Henderson’s 1974 spiritual jazz album The Elements. On “Dreamless” the album crystallizes into its most straight-ahead moment as Lapham trains his compositional lens on a brilliant piece of pop songwriting. Featured vocalist Adam Torres soars over John Mark’s punctual arrangement of stomping drums and rapturous string-work to anthemic, and gently psychedelic consequence.
Voidsconcludes with the pleasant clatter of “Circles” wherein Lapham throws all his ingredients into a pot of celebratory catharsis. Drum sets collide with one another gleefully, and harmonized textures scatter and roll about the floor like a dropped bucket of ornate marbles. Lapham’s collage-work, which up to this point has been smartly restrained, comes unglued as he transmutes grief into relief within a moment-of-death montage of aural imagery. Across Voids, that same awareness of tragedy and loneliness is made palatable by the album’s exciting and varied topography, which stands insubordinately against Lapham’s real-life surroundings.
The settlers who established West Texas towns like the one he calls home must have done so with a sense of hope despite the hostility of their surroundings, however inevitable the withering. Similar spirits speak through John Mark Lapham’s work, and he welcomes them as fascinating old friends. “That more than anything inspired a lot of what I try to express through Old Fire, faded memories, former glories, places lost in time,” he discloses. “Whatever I was trying to express with Old Fire wasn’t finished with the first album, like a story that was only half-read. It seemed like that was only the beginning, and there was a lot more ground to cover.” If there is ground still uncovered for Old Fire after “Voids”, it’s sure to be lush in spite of or perhaps because of the dusty soil beneath it.
From the album “Voids“, available November 4th, 2022 on Western Vinyl
Paul Weller may appear to be modelling 1984-era Left Bank clobber here but there’s nothing casual about his contribution to the latest RC. He delves deep into his solo catalogue to discuss his favourite lost tracks then takes us record shopping to his fave vinyl emporium in West London and annotates a list of the best B-sides by other artists. We send not one but two intrepid journalists to interview Robert Fripp about his solo career. Ken Scott remembers working on Bowie’s Hunky Dory. Jimmy Cliff has happy/sad memories of his reggae glory days. Jason Draper stakes a claim for Holland as The Beach Boys album for connoisseurs and cognoscenti. We meet two mad-fer-it Oasis collectors. Creem’s editor emeritus (yup) picks a dozen or so of the 70s/80s rock bible’s best front covers… And so much more. Out on Thursday this week. It’s entertainment.
My brand new single, the Elton John-inspired “Crystal Mystic”, is out to download and stream on all platforms now! It’s my first new music in two years and is a taste to come of what will be my forthcoming album.
Inspired by my friend Crystal who reads tarot cards in Montauk, the song is about calling out to the universe and being open to what comes your way. Arriving in New York City from Nottingham, England in 2017 with just a suitcase to his name and a fierce ambition to make classic pop records, singer-songwriter Tom Wardle and his brand of soulful pop/rock have already made its mark here in the States. With a voice that Rolling Stone compares to Rod Stewart, the same publication proclaimed his earnest acoustic ballad “Jacqueline” as one of their Songs You Need To Know.
Wardle is currently living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and writing songs towards his debut album, including a tune penned with revered American lyricist Van Dyke Parks, the man who Wardle credits as “Writing the lyrics that inspired me to move to this country in the first place!” He hopes to be able to record in Los Angeles again with a crack studio team whom he now feels he has a winning formula.
Horsegirl have made their cover of the Minutemen’s “History Lesson Part 2.” — previously released as the b-side to the “Billy” 7″ — available digitally for the first time today. “‘History Lesson Part 2’ has always been a punk manifesto for us,” says Horsegirl. “It was an unusual pick to cover considering the lyrics are so specific to the Minutemen, but we thought there was something appealing too about recording a”History Lesson”; that doesn’t actually give you any history on us.”
the album ‘Versions of Modern Performance’ out now:
Bnny, led by Jess Viscius alongside her twin sister Alexa Viscius return with a new single, “Breaking Up” ahead of a run of dates with Dehd in the UK/Europe as well as two headline shows in London & Paris beginning tonight. The track follows debut album ‘Everything’, which Pitchfork calls “a beautiful record from wall to wall… worth every year that went into it,”. “Yet another breakup song,” Viscius jokes. “A reflection of my past and present.”
We’d say it’s an essential listen but you don’t have to just take our word for it!
“With a smoky alto and languid delivery, Bnny’s Jess Viscius uses her cloud-vapor voice to bely the harrowing emotional content of her lyrics. Matching them with her band Bnny’s spare, country-tinged Americana makes for a compelling combination, as the group incorporates late-night haze and True Detective levels of noir cool into its arsenal.” – AV Club
“There’s a lot of beauty in Viscius’ coolly melodic psych rock, not least of all in how honestly she sketches the experience of plumbing such bewildering depths of loss.” – Bandcamp
“Fragile, tactile, tender… it’s a frequently gorgeous thing.” – DIY
“A deceptively bold debut that opts to do more with less, relying on polished rock minimalism and the raw emotion of JessViscius’ songwriting to land its knockout blows.” – Paste
“Bnny’s debut album contains multitudes.” – Uncut
A new single from Bnny out now on Fire TalkRecords.
